Ari Goldwag - Matos-Masei - Stops on the Journey

you're listening to the weekly partial podcast recorded with hm's never ending assistance in R Israel 5776 2016 this week if you're outside of Israel You're Reading Matos and M if you're inside of Israel You're Reading just m I'd like to share with you an idea on the par par so we have something for everyone PK says like this 31:1 these are the traveling of the children of Israel when they went out of Egypt by their hosts be in the hand of Moses and Aaron the Torah goes on to give us a list of the different locations where the Jewish people stopped and different places where they encamped all of which brought them finally after many many years after 40 Years of wandering to their final destination which was that they were standing at the edge of the land of Israel about to enter into the land of Israel now the mes wants to understand what is the meaning of this why is attorney to tell us this we've already had a description we've already heard all about the traveling of the Jewish people what's the significance of the Torah reiterating MH repeating all of the different locations where they stopped so there's a few different ideas here I'd like to share with you says like this this is in 23 section three the meas tells us it's it's an analogy to a King whose son was sick he had to bring him to a certain location in order to heal him when they came back from the place where they had gone to heal him from the hospital so the king his father began to enumerate all of the different locations that they had gone they passed by and he was saying oh look this is the place oh this is where we slept this is where you got cold this is where you had a headache God says to Moses like this I want you to enumerate for them all of the places where they angered me that's why we had to go through these different locations it's a reminder of the challenges the difficulties that the Jewish people went through throughout their time in the midbar of the Wilderness how they challenged God how they angered God so we read this Mish and we need to read it carefully try to understand what is the depth of the Mish what is the medes trying to teach us in a simple understanding just looking at the analogy and trying to compare it to what it's analogous to so there's a king the king is bringing his son who's sick to a place where he's going to get cured so the Jewish people are the child we are the prince we're the child of God as it were God is the king God is bringing us to Earth Israel to the land of Israel which is where we're going to be cured of our spiritual illnesses but on the way just like the prince had different locations where on the way he slept he wasn't feeling well he got very cold he had a headache there were different locations where the difficulties the challenges were faced the sickness became clear became more out it was it was there it was very clear that it was there but afterwards the person looked back the king looks back with his son and says oh look now that you're cured we can look back and see this is the location where this negative thing happened this is the location where this thing happened but now thank God we're all well in the same way the Jewish people they've gotten to the promised land they're about to enter into the land of Israel they are cured so to speak they're about to become a nation to face off with the spiritual challenges and be able to live in a place that's built for that that's meant for that and so they're cured in a certain sense but we look back at all of the different locations where as a result of their spiritual ills as a result perhaps even of them being slaves for so many years they angered God there was that spiritual darkness that spiritual distance from Hashem so what is the understanding of this why is the m telling us this what is the significance of this what is the depth of this what is the idea that we look back at all of the things that we've done wrong because now perhaps we're in a better place but why is that necessary why is why is God encouraging Moshe to discuss to enumerate all of the places where the Jewish people angered God where they were distant from God where there were challenges where there were difficulties why is that something that we do why do we look back in that way when we get to the point where things are better now there's another Mish the next piece in the mes which I think has a very similar theme although it's not openly apparent immediately says like this another explanation it says These Are the Voyages these are the traveling why was it that all these locations merited to be mentioned in the Torah the Torah is a document that would live on for all time it's a document which is the best selling book in the entire world right so why did these places these locations have the Merit to be in the the tells us that this was a reward for something that these places had done these places received the Jewish people these locations were a place where the Israelites were able to sojourn in their time in the wilderness as a reward for that as a reward for them being bringing in a visitor so they are mentioned in the Torah now not only that says in the future time is going to give them their reward and even greater reward not just a mention in the Torah but something else ver says in Isaiah 35: 1 and 2em will cause the Wilderness the dry place to Rejoice the verse continues but it's speaking about the fact that the Wilderness is going to Rejoice it's going to be happy it's going to be caused to be happy why is it going to be caused to be happy as a result as a reward for the fact that it received the Jewish people and that they were able to find their place to rest says if we find that the Wilderness which received the Jewish people in this way reive such a reward causes it to Rejoice if a person brings in guests people who are Torah Scholars into his house certainly he will receive a great reward from has the measure says even furthermore that we find that things are going to be flipped in the future things that seem to be the opposite of what it should be are going to occur in the future that which is now a Wilderness is going to be a place where people live and the places where people live are going to end up being a Wilderness everything is going to flip inside out things are going to change how do you know that this is true that in the future the place where people live are is going to become a Wilderness vers says in Mal 1: three God says I hated as and I place I cause his mountains to become desolate so we see the place of Asa the place where he lives the yesu the place of of inhabitation will become desolate how do we know that the Wilderness is going to be a place where people are going to live they're going to inhabit sh as the verse says in Isaiah 41:18 I'm going to make the Wilderness into a place of water it's going to be a fertile place so we see that everything is going to be reversed says the you find there are no trees in the wilderness now but they will be in the future verse says also in Isaiah 41 the next verse verse 19 verse says that God says I will place in the wilderness different types of cedar trees nowadays there's no paths through the Wilderness it's all just sand in the future there's going to be a path ver says also in Isaiah 43: 19 God says I'm going to place in the wilderness a pathway the verse says also in Isaiah 35:8 there's going to be a path way it's going to be called The Holy path no impure person will pass over it it will be a place for people to walk and those who are not as familiar with the path still they won't trip they won't be led astray because the path will be very clear and they'll be able to go on this path so we see here a remarkable thing and it's something that needs understanding also we see that those places where there are inhabitants those places where there are people it's going to get destroyed it's going to become Wilderness those places that are Wilderness which wasn't fit for inhabitation in the future time it's everything is going to be reversed and we need to understand what is the meaning of that why do we need to what's the significance of it it sounds like it's a reward for the fact that the the Wilderness was a place that held the Jewish people it sounds like it was some kind of semi place of habitation and yet it wasn't it was a place of sand it was a place where it was difficult to finds to find one's way but in the future it's going to be a place where one will easily find one's way what is the Mish teaching us what is the concept here what is the depth of what it's trying to say now there's one more meish I'd like to share with you but before I do I want to point out that the concept that we're speaking about here the idea that we're seeing here this kind of role reversal is something that we see in regards to the kufa the time period that we're in right now we're in the middle of the 3 weeks which begin it's a period of morning of 3 weeks from Shas the 17th of Tam was which was about 2 weeks ago and until another week from now we have Tish the nth of which is the day of M for the Jewish people over the destruction of both temples the first temple the Temple of Solomon as well as the second B English the second temple which was destroyed about 2,000 years ago so we have this day we have this time period which is a time of sadness but the amazing thing is that zakari Zachariah the prophet tells us in chapter 8 verse 19 an amazing thing about this time period an amazing thing about these fast days these days of sadness says like this this is what God says the fast of the fourth month the fast of the fifth month these are the two fasts that we just have now is the fourth month nth of is in the fifth month the fast of the fast of Tavis the 10th of Tavis these four fasts which have to do the destruction of the Temple in the future when the Messiah arrives they going to be a time of rejoicing of of gladness and of good days of times where we're going to interact with going to come to the temple so we see a remarkable thing in this PK in this verse and that is that everything is going to be flipped around that the days of fasting the days of sadness the days of mourning over the destruction when the temple is rebuilt so we're going to be rejoicing on those very days which commemorated their destruction and the question here too is what is the understanding why is it that these days become days of rejoicing days of gladness okay they're not going to be sad days because the destruction is over but why do they become days of Joy what is the understanding why does everything get flipped around just like when it came to the Wilderness whatever was Wilderness is going going to become inhabited whatever was inhabited is going to become Wilderness why does everything have to be turned inside out why could it just be that those days won't be sad days anymore but why do they have to become days of rejoicing what is the depth of that so I'd like to share with you one more medish and this m is a little bit farther on in the par it's inid in numbers 33:52 it says the Torah tells us that the Jewish people were standing at the edge of the land of Israel about to enter into Israel to conquer the land of Israel and to send away or to destroy the Nations that were living there the M says K of this verse is teaching us something that's connected to another verse it's a verse in EO in job 35 verse 11 teach us from the animals of the Earth let us learn wisdom from the birds of the heavens what is this wisdom that we're to learn how we supposed to learn from the animals of the earth meas tells us that there's something that we can learn from the animals of the Earth which animal are we speaking about we're speaking about a specific animal and that is the cow of Elijah the prophet what's the story with Elijah the prophet so the navi tells us this is a story in MIM in First Kings it's in chapter 18 it says over there the story of Elijah the prophet he wanted to prove to the Jewish people who at the time were serving idolatry they were serving the Bal so he faced off against the N the prophets of this idolatry and he was set to prove that God was the only one that there was there was only one God and that the Jewish people should only serve God and not be involved in any idolatrous practice so but there was a Faceoff each one of them was to bring a corbon they were to bring a sacrifice the Nal the prophets of the Bal would bring their sacrifice Elijah would bring his sacrifice in the end obviously the sacrifice of the false gods was not received Elijah's sacrifice was received by Hashem and the whole crowd all the Jewish people who were standing there said Hashem who God is all there is there's only Hashem but in the sequence of events so there's something that happened previous to the is being brought before the sacrifices were brought at the time when Elijah said to the idol worshippers the ones who worship the B you choose which cow you want he said to them you have more people with you I let you go first the 450 prophets of the B gathered together another 450 prophets of a different type of idolatry came together they tried to take the cow and the cow wouldn't move he couldn't they couldn't get him to move his Fe feet from the earth the cow was not interested in taking part in being part of the idolatrous practice the sacrifice to a false god tells us look what it says over there it's in verse 18 in chapter 18 verse 23 let them give us two cows let them choose one let them cut it up let them place it on the wood but let them not place any kind of fire and Elijah said I too shall take the other cow and I won't put any fire what did Elijah do he said to them I want you to choose two identical cows that were born from the same mother that grew on the same pasture and then make a lottery on one piece of paper right that this is going to go to God and the other people piece of paper right that this is going to go to the idolatry tree and they chose one of the cows Elijah's cow immediately followed after him because that count knew that he was going to be brought in sacrificed to hasem and that would be a great T that would be an amazing rectification for him now when it came to the cow that the lottery came out that it had to go to the idolatry n like we said they all gathered together all of the the idolatrous prophets they tried to move it they couldn't move it it wouldn't move looked at this cow and said to them go go with them in front of everyone the cow responded and said that you know and I know that I and my twin we were born from the same mother we lived in the same pasture he ended up getting a chance to to be a to sanctify God's name and but I'm going to be part of I'm involved in idolatry I'm going to cause God to be angry elah said my dear cow I'll Don't Be Afraid go with them while don't find any excuses just like the one that on taking with me there's going to be a there going to be a sanctification of God's name there's going to be a sanctification of God's name through you as well because when everyone sees the Fire doesn't come down there won't be any sacrifice you don't have to worry everyone is going to see because of you that Hashem is the only God that there is so the cow said to Elijah if indeed that's what you're going to advise me I swear I won't move from here until you give me over into their hand as the verse says that the the prophets of the idolatry they took this cow that he gave to them who is he ELO It Was Elijah the prophet because Elijah himself Gave Over The Cow to assure to reassure the cow that it was going to be a ultimately it was going to be a sanctification of God's name off this piece by saying that's why the verse says that I need to learn from the animals of the earth I need to learn from this animal that recognized that it did not want to be used in a negative way in the service of the Bal in the service of an idolatry so too hasem is giving us an instruction we come into land of Israel you need to be careful there are all of these all of these idolatrous practices that are being practiced by the people of Israel by the people of that time it's called Canan of Canaan we need to watch out we need to to desire to serve Hashem so much that the opportunity to do something wrong is something which is distasteful which we won't budge which we're not interested in moving from just like that cow nothing could get him to be involved in idolatry except the reassurance and his hand being held as it were by Elijah the prophet that you are going to make a that you're going to make a sanctification of God's name now the idea that I want to bring out from this Mish that we see very clearly from this Mish is that so many times it seems like something negative is going on it seems like something is AEM it seems like something is a desecration of God's name which is certainly the case when Jewish people are serving idolatry when they're following false gods bringing sacrifices to false gods it's openly clear but the amazing thing here is is that there's a concept of Y there's a concept that R speaks about which is Y which means that God is really found everywhere even in the places where it seems that God is not God is also found there even in the places the idolatry the places that seem to have power which is separate from God Elohim we call them other powers those places also it's possible to find Hashem everywhere that's the most amazing y to say that even in the places it's it's an amazing K actually to to say that even in the places which seem to be which seem to be a desecration of God's name where it seems that God is not to say that God is there too it's the deepest most beautiful way of expressing the fact that Hashem is there Hashem is everywhere Hashem is in the deepest darkest depths of reality even in those places that seem to be that they're not good there is good there as well that's what Elijah was telling the power that's what he was telling the cow don't you worry you think that you're being taken for a great a Vera but actually and it's very clear in this case in this story actually are being taken to make a sanctification of hashem's name because everyone will see that the sacrifice of the ball the sacrifice of idolatry is a false sacrifice and that the idolatry itself has no value now let's turn back to the first maash that we quoted and we'll see that this is this is the theme the idea behind what's going on in the medish the medish tells us the analogy of a king who brought his son to be cured and on the way back after he's cured they're looking at all the places where they were sick they're looking at the places where he got cold they were looking at the places where he got a headache the Jewish people also when they get to the land of Israel they're about to enter into a true relationship with hashm they're about to be cured of their spiritual ills Hashem says look where you've come from look at all of the different places that we stopped and you caused me to become angry you distanced yourself from me but notice these are all spots along the journey in order to get to that doctor the king had to pass through all those places where his son would be sick where the prince would be sick where he would have challenges and difficulties in order to get to ell to get to the Holy Land to get to the promised land to get to that relationship with Hashem in truth it's necessary to sometimes go through places of Darkness to go through places of challenge to go through places where we lack Faith as long long as our eyes are on the goal it's a Masa it's a traveling it's a point on the way as long as it's a point on the way to get to the Final Destination which is the The Cure the hospital the place where we will become well as long as that's where we're headed so then even those things that we angered God those places where we angered God we challenged God those places are also part of our spiritual journey those places become flipped around they become reversed just like the cow it seemed like he was going to do something negative but in truth it proved that there is a God and that the ball is false so too when we get to the Final Destination we're cured so the sickness becomes clear that it's just something which is it's just a means to get us to more of a recognition of Hashem to a deeper relationship with Hashem this is the idea of Y of that reversal of the deeper sanctification of God's name through seeing that the negative is really something which brings about positive and so when we look at the question of why is it that the Wilderness needs to transform into something which is a habitation why is the habitation need to transform into Wilderness the answer is that that's a statement of the fact that the greatest kesem the greatest sanctification of God's name is when the place which is a midbar which seems to be empty of habitation which seems that it can't support life when that place place all of a sudden now supports life it's an indication of the fact that life was there all along that this was a place that would provide life that could be a place of connection to Hashem this was a place of traveling this is a place where the Jewish people interacted with God perhaps it was a negative interaction But ultimately it would become clear that even the negative interactions and it will become clear in the future when mhia when the Messiah comes that the negative experiences that we've had truly were part of our journey towards a relationship with Hashem and that's also why the negative occasions the Tish of the nth of the 17th of tamos the days that commemorate the destruction of the temple those times which seem to be representative of how we angered God we caused God to destroy his Temple we caused God to throw us out of the land of Israel those negative things that we perceive as negative when we get to the finish line so to speak when we return to Israel when our Temple is rebuilt we'll look back and see that those occasions those times they seem negative at the time but ultimately they were just points of travel they were just takot they were just stations on the way back to Israel it seemed like we were being thrown out of ell never to return but the truth is that we would return because of the fact that we left so those days the Tish of Shas third of Tish 10th of t these days which are fasts now they becomes days of rejoicing as we recognize as we see that Hashem was there not just in the in the good things and the things that seemed good but in to an even greater extent hasem was there in the days that seemed bad in the times that we seem to have lost our relationship with Hashem Hashem was there all along and that's an even deeper Joy it's an even greater rejoicing a day of a day of incredible Joy now before I close with a blessing just want to ask and remind you all that I'm trying to collect $10,000 to be able to print and publish and advertise my safare my book I've collected $1,242 14 I'm very grateful to all those who have donated so far I encourage you all to donate as well and let's get this number up let's get it to $10,000 help me spread this Torah the ideas the concepts The Inspirations that I share with you every week help me spread it to a broader audience please go on to my website www.ar gold.com go on to the contact page and hit the Donate button I want to bless you please bless me back Hashem should help us that we should be able to recognize all of the situations that we encounter both the good and both the not is good those situations are all T they're all stops on the way to our destination and that destination is the promised land which is a place of relationship with Hashem thank you so much for listening have a wonderful shabas 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]