Matos-Masei - Good Subsumes Evil

you're listening to the weekly paraa podcast recorded with hashem's never running assistance in ra Israel 5775 2015 this week's paraa is Matos and Mas we have two Paras this week and the beginning of the paraa speaks about the fact that Moser Renu was given a command Hashem commands Moshe to command yahushua Joshua who would soon be the leader of the Jewish people after the death of Moshe he's commanded to go and to get the N to get revenge against the people of midan the daughters of midan caused the Jewish people to sin through their Lous behavior and also through causing them to serve idolatry as a result of that 24,000 Jewish people passed away because of this a because of the sin because of their disconnect from God now this great sin was caused by the people of midan the daughters of midan and as a result of that Hashem says we need to get revenge we need to dest destroy the people of midan very difficult concept what is the concept of this Revenge destruction of midan what what is the idea behind this we need to examine that we need to think about that and I'd like to share with you two different MIM that that I saw in regards to this story that are very interesting difficult to understand once we get a depth in them there's a very powerful take-home that we will have there's two MIM I'm actually going to read them out of order because I want to address a point in the second M that is I think answered perhaps in the first Mish the second M says like this this is in the beginning of and it's in in regards to Joshua the verse says God said to Joshua just as I was with Moses so too shall I be with you now what does this mean what is this referring to based on the statement of God that God was with and would be with yosua just like mosha Moses lived to be 120 years old Joshua should have lived 12 120 as well in fact yua lived to be 110 years old why was his life shorter by 10 years than the life of Moshe even though Hashem said that he was going to be with him the m explains at the time that God said to Moses get revenge on behalf of the Jewish people from the midianites and then you will pass on from the world meaning this is to be your final obligation is to take care of this he knew that after he would do this he would pass away even though he had received the news of his impending death he didn't push off this matter he didn't push off instructing them to go and get this revenge against the people of midan he did it quickly right away he sent them Moses sent them yosua when it came to Joshua there was a different approach that Joshua took when it came to his Wars with the 31 different kings in the land of Canaan he said if I destroy them if I kill them right away I'm going to die just like what happened with Moses after he completed his Wars after he completed his purpose in the world he passed away Yeshua knew that his purpose in the world was to defeat the kings of Canan and so therefore he knew that he would pass away from the world immediately following that so he took his time sh as the verse says it took many days josua spent much time doing War Waging War with these Kings now listen carefully the end of the Mish is very difficult to understand and um let's focus in here hasem says to him since you did this josua instead of living 220 you're going to lose 10 years of your life King Solomon says in Proverbs a verse which gives us a hint to this idea a person has many thoughts many calculations but the idea of God is that which comes out in the end Yeshua made a calculation if I finish the if I finish the wars with the with the people of Canan so I'm going to lose my life it's going to be the end of my life my purpose is over Hashem says no I'm sorry you're mistaken actually because you didn't listen as I instructed you will lose 10 years of your life and you will die at the age of 110 instead of 120 now we look at this mes and we say Okay obviously we need to understand like what exactly is the idea here what is the mes coming to teach us was the depth of the mes but also you need to understand on a very simple level what would have happened indeed if if yahushua had completed the Wars yosua made a and he said something which was correct he based it on what happened with Moshe Moshe did indeed die after he completed this war with mid that was the end of his life yosua it seems made a he made a calculation that if he would complete the war he would also die he would complete the war with these 31 kings that would be the end of his purpose in the world just like mosha passed away he would also pass away but it's clear from the Mish that that was a mistake that if he would have completed these wars quickly he would have lived even longer he would have lived to 120 so the question becomes how could that be what would that have meant how could it be that he would have fulfilled his purpose and yet he would continue to live in the world it seems strange usually a person has a certain amount of time has a certain purpose in the world to accomplish certain things once he's completed that purpose naturally passes on from the world especially someone who's a great sadic who's a righteous individual like a Mosher like Moses like Joshua like Aaron Miriam Etc these people fulfill their purpose in life they complete their mission they they pass on from the world so what was wrong with yoshua's kin indeed what would have happened if he would have completed his mission he would have lived many many years beyond that what's the understanding how indeed would that have played itself out so I want you to on to this idea for a moment for a bit because I want to share with you the other Mish the first Mish which takes us really in seemingly a different direction but ultimately will bring us right back to where we started this is inas another explanation what is the idea that Hashem commanded Moshe to get revenge to avenge the great sin that was perpetrated on the Jewish people by causing them to sin Z this is what the verse says in EO in job 36:7 the righteous one will not be diminished in his eyes his eyes won't be diminished and the Kings to their Throne what does the verse mean what it says that the righteous won't be diminished in his eyes what does it mean his eyes won't be diminished does not prevent the righteous individual from that which his eye desires says that this comes to teach us Moses had a desire to see the Vengeance the avenging of the sin of mid before he would die he wished he asked of God to be able to see this with his eyes and about Moses there's another verse it says in Psalms 58:1 the righteous will rejoice when they see the Revenge Nikas Mion the M says this is a reference to the Revenge the Jewish people have against midan now there's another part of this m which we'll get to shortly but I just want to point out the questions here what does it mean how we to understand that it was very important mosha the his last request before he passes away is Hashem I just want to see revenge against the people of M what is the idea that he wants to see this also interesting that it points out in the mes it talks about his eyes of that the righteous will not have diminished eyes and he keeps stressing he wants to see with his eyes what is the idea of seeing with his eyes how else do you see you see with your eyes what's the Mish what's the doish why are we stressing the idea of seeing with the eyes also as we as at the beginning what is the idea of Revenge we think of Revenge as something which is negative the Torah says lo there's an an obligation not to get revenge someone does something wrong to you we don't do re we don't get revenge we let go we forgive what does it mean over here that it's so important for MAA to see this Revenge that sadik wants to see the Revenge he wants to see this finality the and the righteous sees he's going to rejoice in seeing Revenge it's it's difficult to understand especially in the context of a spiritual teaching usually we think of Revenge as something negative so what is the m referring to here what is idea of Revenge in this sense in the positive sense somehow now in the second half of the Mage it says like this the second half of the verse inum in Psalms says that the sadic will wash his feet in the blood of the evil one so who is this referring to what is it it sounds very gory but what is it referring to zeum it's a reference to bam that Moshe needed to see the N you needed to see the revenge against the people of and he also needed to see the downfall of says that Moses says to like this and to the people of the that were going out to War I know that the evil billum is there he's in midan in order to receive his reward to receive his payment for having caused the downfall of the Jewish people before the Fox gets to the Sheep make sure you spread out a trap meaning billum is the fox and you have to trap you have to get him that evil one if you see him that you see that he's using magic in order to fly up into the air of the world show him the the ti was a special headband that went across the forehead of the K G and Pinas was to lead the Jewish people out there and to wear this sits to wear this special headband and it said it says on it that Holy to God it says holy to God and the idea of that sits is the word sits actually means to to look to take a quick look means to look the power of the seats is that it has holy unto God written on it so even though billum is using his magic to fly up in the air he will then you can kill him the says they also killed the kings of they also were able to use magic fly up into the air seats and when they saw the seats on the forehead of P they saw this special headband that sat on it on his forehead holy unto God they fell down and they were killed now I'm trying to understand this the this seemingly very challenging Med so the explains something here what does it mean or what does it help that they show the headband if we want to understand how the has the power to cause them to fall through the spirit of Holiness it causes the spirit of impurity to run away when there's an exposure in the world to to Purity to Holiness to spirituality so what happens to impurity to evil is that it just disappears it's destroyed here they are using their power to fly up in the air what happens they're exposed to Purity the tis appears and they fall they lose their power and they're able to be killed now what's interesting what I what I want to focus or point out in this second section of the of the first medish is that somehow there's a power of kadus which is in the Tis the ti as we said the word tis is referring to this headband but the word tis also means to see and so somehow in the concept of seeing which is associated with the head right obviously we're able to see from where we our eyes are located in our head so we see from the head so somehow in the power of seeing is the power of kadha of Holiness which melts the power of and C cuses the downfall of the power of Tuma of impurity what is the power of seeing and how is it connected to the first part which spoke about that sadic being able to see the downfall seeing Revenge what is the concept of Nik of Revenge what is the concept of seeing how is that connected and one last question why is it that this is the final story this is the final Mitzvah that mosha that Moses has why is this the final one or what do we see or what do we learn from the fact that this is the final thing that mosh was commanded to do before he's to pass away so to begin to try to understand what's going on in the Mish what the teaching of this Mish is I'd like to focus in on the word Nik the word which we translate as Revenge sometimes indeed it means Revenge the Torah says lo see don't get revenge in in the context of this story however the idea of Revenge is different than we classically think of it the word nak L the root of that word is the word come which means to stand up another place where we have the word come which is very much connected as we'll soon see is that we find in the dream of Y of Joseph it says he that all of the brothers they were there and they had these these sheaves of wheat the sheaves made a circle around Joseph's she and then Joseph's she stands up stands up and it stands firm and then all of the she bow down to the center sheath now the idea of K alumi which is very much connected here is the idea that you know Yad he's meant to be the leader of the Jewish people he's meant to lead his brothers however as a result of their Kina of their jealousy of him Etc there's a whole story that happens but ultimately his sheath stands up and ultimately the the brothers accept him as their leader accept him as the one who will direct them in their spirituality in their service of God now the idea of Kema of standing up is that there was a Aila there was a fall there was a fall that happened and anytime there is a power that's given to R to impurity to the forces of evil there's a fall that occurs there's a fall the Jewish people are caused to sin by the daughters of midan the Jewish people fall and the 24,000 of them die now the Nik here the root of the word Nik here is not the same as the normal thought of Revenge the word Nik here means that there's a fall that has occurred and we need to stand up we need to rectify that which has been destroyed that which has fallen we need to stand up the N that we're talking about here is a tikun it's a rectification there was an evil that was perpetrated that was caused through the forces of evil through midan through Bam Bam as we spoke about previously about aik interestingly billum has three letters the and the me and the L which are the first three letters of amalik those three letters are also contained in the name of billum he also has this power of as we spoke about of of leading in a way which is wrong causing destruction causing Mayhem causing Tuma causing impurity bringing that into the world Moses he wants to see a complete picture he's about to pass on from the world and he says I have one request of you God I want to see the rectification I can't I can't go To My Grave says Moshe without having resolution the Jewish people have fallen there's been a great fall a great impurity has come into the world I need to see the resolution I need to see the n i it's not that I want to see Revenge I'm burning inside I'm angry no I want to see the whole picture the anim the eyes and the the mind the intellect have the ability to see something in a much greater way you know we see evil in the world and we think why has that evil happened why did Hashem destroy with the Holocaust million Jews why was there a Spanish Inquisition this why why why with so many questions why we don't know the answers we don't have that broad Vision which we will have when mhia when Messiah comes we will be able to understand it but at this time we don't have the broad Vision to be able to understand why evil occurs why negative things happen in the world why is there evil in the world why is there so much destruction why is there so much death why is there so much sadness so much sickness we don't know the answer to these questions we can't see it but if a person was able to be in a place of transcendence to see the whole world from a higher perspective a person would understand that a person would be able to see it if one is looking at the whole picture the idea of a n of this of the eyes is the ability to see when we look at something when we look at a picture we see we say a picture is worth a thousand words you see a picture you see many things at once you see a whole dynamic view you see a picture when we hear when it comes to to our ability to hear we hear one word and then another word and then another word and then another word and then at the end of the sentence all the word words come together and we have a sentence and we have a concept but that's peace meal when you see you see the whole picture so there's a stress on the ability to see he wants to see the destruction of midan he wants to see he wants to have he's about to pass away he's about to come to the completion of his life he wants to see the whole picture he wants to see the resolution of the destruction of mid the destruction of evil the Nik the the raising there was in a field a fall that happened to the Jewish people as a result of the sin of the Mite women as a result of the sin that was caused by billum and Moshe wants to see the destruction he wants to see The N he wants to see the standing up of the power of good the destruction of evil and the and the raising up of the power of good the standing up that's Nik now the power of evil the way that it works is with Shia with sound it works in the moment it works with pieces it says no there is don't look at the big picture look at this moment it's just what I feel like right now I want this now even though okay after I do this thing so I'm going to feel bad about myself but I want it now I'm going to have it now the way that our kazal referred to uh Russia who is having success it seems in the moment at this moment he's having success he's succeeding all things are well for him the Russia he succeeds for the moment in fact bam harasha and the and the the king of mid they're able to fly up in the air what's that it's an amazing thing that description of being able to fly up in the air that's how our kazal speak about when when the world reaches a space OFA that future world that future time it talks about the fact that they are sikim that they will grow wings and they'll fly they'll they'll be they'll fly up in the air so the the Russia says I can access that spirituality now I can access something very high and Powerful now he tries to grab it he steals it so to speak and it's not really his he doesn't really have that broader view He's Just In This Moment he is in this moment succeeding now what happens P comes with the again the is something that you look at it's it's the bigger picture that everything is about kadha everything is about Holiness everything is about sanctifying God's name with that kadha when that kadha is in the world when Pinas exposes the r the spirit of impurity to the true higher Ru that seats the overarching Transcendent view so then evil Falls because it's just really has it only has power for a moment and when you enter into that space of transcendence then you have the full view you see the fall of evil you see that evil needs to fall in order for goodness to stand upu Moses was not afraid of dying because he saw the big picture he was able to see that he had come to his completion and that by doing this final act this final Mitzvah it wouldn't take away from his completion it wouldn't take away a moment from his life yua made a mistake his mistake of course on the level of we don't understand this mistake but just to get a little bit of a taste of understanding of it yeshua's mistake was that he understood that when he completes the 31 Mal he completes the destruction of these 31 Kings of Canan that that would be the of his life he was in the moment he wasn't able to see a broader view a higher view as a result of that he lost time he didn't get that completion of 120 years that he was destined to have as Moshe had had instead he lost it because he fell into the Trap of the side of evil of focusing in on the the moment of focusing in on right now what do I have to complete and then oh that's the end of my life he made that mistake of being stuck has in the moment in the in time and thinking that if I complete this act then then my life is over in fact what would have happened if he would have indeed gone and trusted Hashem knowing that if this is his life's purpose he needs to do it quickly he needs to not think about the results just follow the instruction of Hashem when I'm overly focused on this moment on the result when I'm focused on the result and I'm thinking that I know what's going to happen I'm trying to control the result that's where I fall in and I lose the result CU Hashem says okay you you can do it yourself you don't need me if yosua had just followed the instructions of Hashem destroy the 31 Kings without thinking about it without trying to to to to wrap his mind around the result so he would have stayed in a place which was Transcendent he would have stayed in the place of kesem in the place of the sits in the place of the Transcendent just as Moshe did and if he would have stayed there Hashem would have been with him that would have meant that somehow we don't know you know when when we focus on result so then they're they're stuck with us we we we end up with a result that we think of we pull down the result to to be two-dimensional instead of threedimensional if he would have just given in he would have just done what Hashem said with Reus then it would have worked out just like you think about I'm not going to get into it because we're really at the end of our time here but think about Abu commanded to to kill his son Y how could it be this is going to be the future of the Jewish people I'm going to kill him I can't be he didn't think about it he just did it he said somehow has his plan I don't know what it is I'm going to do what Hashem says simply and through that he you enter into the Transcendent Realm by letting go of the result if yahushua had indeed listened to Hashem he would have let go of the result he would have entered into a Transcendent place and even though theoretically if he finishes that mission his life should be over somehow it would have made sense that he would live until 120 years I want to bless you and please bless me back Hashem should help us that we should be able to have this broader you to be able to have the patience to be able to accept for at face value the instructions of hasm the instructions of the T not try to overthink it and say oh I know what Hashem wants from me but to just be simple do hashem's will only good results will come hm should help us to be able to have thata that understanding of life to be able to go in that way and in so doing Hashem should help us to always be able to access that broader Vision that Transcendent realm where relationship with Hashem is possible thank you so much for listening have a wonderful shabis this podcast was made possible through the gracious donations of listeners like you for more podcasts like this please visit www.wag.com or search on iTunes Ari goldwag [Music]