Parshas Bo - Always Remember the Exodus

you're listening to the weekly partial podcast with Ari goldwag recorded with hm's never ending assistance in Israel 779 2019 this week's para is par Bo I'd like to share with you a thought from freedlander he quotes the ran like to share that with you as well we'll read that inside and here we go he says he lays down a foundation for us what is the concept of what are we supposed to learn from why are we always speaking about the Exodus from Egypt throughout our days shabas y everything seems to be a restatement of the fact that God took us out of Egypt what is what is what are we to learn from that what is the message behind this so he says it's a message of it's a message of Faith he starts off and tells us tells us that if we were to Define what is the most foundational concept concept of the entire Torah so we could say that the foundational idea is the concept of the righteous person lives with his faith faith and trust in God says that in the previous generations before Kaku came and said this is the foundation so there were other things or other Concepts that a person could find could could lead him toward perfection ction toward Greatness by the time came around so the hearts had become small everyone had become not as great comes and tells us that what is the Mitzvah that brings us to shus that brings us to Perfection that is the Mitzvah of amuna the concept of faith and trust in God amuna he meus say the concept of faith in God is a constant Mitzvah it's something that we have to do all the time doesn't have a specific time that one is obligated person is obligated to fulfill this Mitzvah at every single moment not only is it possible to fulfill this Mitzvah constantly day and night it's an obligation for a person to be living with this with this commandment with this concept constantly we we can it seems that if a person has an Outlook of faith of trus in God means that he he trusts in God so he it would seem that by having faith so a person can fulfill this mitzvah constantly consistently however says Freelander that seeing everything Through The Eyes of Faith seeing that everything comes from hasem that's just one aspect of am having reaching the highest levels of faith in God doesn't just mean that you have an Outlook and you see that God is with you Etc having faith means Living Faith what does that mean the entire course of a person's life is founded on the thought the constant awareness and strengthening faith belief in God has to be living in his heart and here's where he says that we have beyond the simple am beyond the simple aspect of having faith in God there's living with God living with faith and that means taking certain actions that by taking those actions it becomes clear that the person lives with this faith thees that the the concept of amuna is that it needs to be set inside of a person's heart and in his soul constantly and explains person who is not constantly involved in trying to teach himself incorporate into himself the faith that's necessary to have Anem he won't be able to know it in Truth he won't have that true ception of right we have the obligation how do we know that there's an obligation to have faith in God because God says I am your God I took you out of Egypt you have to have faith in me you have to trust me that's that's the obligation so without having this consistent and constant involvement and thought and contemplation a person will not fulfill that commandment properly so how does a person actively engage in it's not just finding you know believing in God and and even believing that stuff that's going on in one's life is from God but he says it takes it a step further which has to do with the concept of means that I am taking actions that show that prove so to speak that I believe that God is going to take care of me like writes in Proverbs 13: 26 he says I'd like to explain to you what is the concept of of trus in God it's rooted in the concept of right and are not the same thing is Faith is trust but it's it's a different aspect what's the difference here we have it it says trust in God and do good right connected is connected to action dwell in the land and be like a Shepherd in regards to in regards to faith says Freelander when a person is shepherding so to speak he's involved in auna in faith in God in whatever circumstance he finds himself even when he's involved in his physical aspects and his physical that which is involved in his physical uh continuation call it whether it's his parnasa whether it's his home whether it's his relationships all these things if it's hem in in there is Hashem involved there is does he recognize is he bringing Hashem into his life that is how a person attains a trust and a faith in God and all his actions are straight As the verse says and do good trusting God and do good and he says furthermore what is it's having a very clear belief in God strengthening the heart that hem is going to save the person and completely depending on it in Truth really depending on it like the verse says he trusted in God and he and he rested on him he leaned on God when is strong inside the heart of a person so when a person has the faith inside so it raises him up on in levels of what is the where does it come to play so he still doesn't explain it yet but he's about to sages say that in the time of the so those who were trustworthy those who were faithful they they sto being we stop having those kinds of people in the Jewish people says what what are these people who are the faithful those are the ones who believe in God because of rash explains where does this come into play where is the action where is the show where is the performance of of a Mitzvah that proves that a person has Faith he explains when a person is willing to give up his money in order to beautify a Mitzvah to give charity in order to spend money on the Sabbath and on festivals rash is explaining that it's not enough to have faith but the faith has to express itself in actions person who has true Faith so he trusts in the promises of God to the point where he's willing to take a risk when it comes to his money specifically in regards to these three things we have a promise from hem that a person will not lose out after a certain amount of money that a person spends which is a third of the value of the item if he spends it on making the item more beautiful in order to beautify the midst of the Commandment of God so pass that amount is the one who guarantees the money person will be paid back by by putting out that money showing that he has faith in God and having that desire to beautify the Mitzvah so the result will be that he'll be paid back in his lifetime when a person gives tithes when a person gives s charity so it makes a person Rich it's a spiritual principle and they learn it from the verse the verse says it's verse in in y test me in this God says test me you'll see that I will open up the windows of the heaven I will pour out on you blessings so many blessings page 16a all of the money that a person is going to have in his life so it's all set for him God has already decreed that and rash exactly how much a person is going to make except for the money that he spends on chabas and Y when it comes to spending money on the Sabbath the festivals that money is not part of the deal so a person can spend as much as he wants he'll get paid back that also says the verse tells us that the joy of God is your strength says it could beud not sure God says the people of Israel if you need to borrow money on the guarant in order that you be able to have all of your needs for Y for the festival trust me I will pay says the joy of God the The Joy the festival that you make to the extent that you make it joyous that's your strength because you're going out of your way to make it a joyous time the festivals that will help you to be able to pay back the money that you borrowed the money that you borrow for that explains to the extent that a person he's he he gives up of himself in order to takes a risk in order to be able to to serve god with joy to that extent a person merits that it's his power that's his strength and interestingly what's the the strength the strength is that a person sees that hasem is with him to the extent that a person trusts like we saw last week to the extent that a person trusts in God to that extent he's going to see that God is with him also in regards to to beautifying the Sabbath and enjoying the Sabbath verse says you're supposed to call shabas an enjoyment same thing it's not necessarily that the person has to do it themselves it's done with God as it were God is part of the equation God is part of making sure that it's paid back so here's where he gets to our topic which is the Exodus and how foundational it is to us every single day every single moment of Our Lives the concept the par the stories of with the Exodus from Egypt they are the school this is the place that we learn all about all about our faith in God like we said at the very beginning I your God I took you out of Egypt it speaks about the fact that we're to believe in God why because he took us out of Egypt why when a person recognizes all of the concepts of The Exodus from Egypt so person can get a very clear conception a very clear recognition of the fact that Hashem is our godan here's where he quotes the raan we'll see parts of it here in the in inlander and we'll see more of it together is explaining why it is that so many of the mitz they remind us we put villain on our hands and our and our head we have mza on our door inside of those inside of the box and inside of the muza it has verses that speak about speak about the Exodus from Egypt what is the concept what is the idea it speaks about this we we speak constantly about the Miracles of exodus in Egypt in order that we remember that it's Hashem who is in the land God is not like this far off being who created the world and then let it run on its own but rather hasm is intimately involved that we we see and we prove from the from the Exodus from Egypt that God is intimately involved in our lives this teaches us about God's Divine Providence God didn't just let it be you know just things flow on their own like some people think the verse tells us in order that you know that it's hem the the Earth belongs to God this teaches us that the Earth belongs to God that means that God created the world they are his because he created them from nothing tells us is to to Hashem tells us that there is no one like him the the purpose of the of the Miracles of Egypt the purpose of the Mak the plagues of Egypt it's all to teach us that Hashem is a he has the power over everything nothing can stop him the entire purpose was to prove to the Egyptians were doubtful is there a god is there a power that's higher than our magical powers everything that God did came to prove to the Egyptians and to us that God is the one who is all powerful God is the one who created everything he is the one who has power beyond any power that's created Beyond any person within the world says that we find that the rush says this as well there's an obligation to trust in God with all of your heart to believe in God's Divine and specific Providence over each individual and in this way so we will be able to fulfill in your heart the the complete which means recognizing that God is one and trusting in Him that God is able to see all that's going on in the earth hem sees the ways of each and every person and he checks their heart checks their thoughts person who does not believe that God took us out of Egypt so he's also missing something in his belief that God is one that's not a complete in order for me to be able to believe that God is one I need to be able to believe that he took me out of Egypt and he's involved in each and every aspect of my life this is what is special about the Jewish people more than all of the other nations and this is the foundation of the entire Torah like we said at the beginning that the foundation of the Torah is faith in God believing in God what is the faith of the Jewish people says that God is intimately involved in each individual person's life this is the ultimate unification of God's name it's the ultimate way that we prove that God is one there is nothing else besides for God Ran that's why the ran also says this is really the most amazing part of of this this piece which I you know this is why I'm reading it that when a person believes with full faith recognizes that God performed these Miracles these amazing awesome miracles for the Jewish people so by by recognition of the Miracles that performed so long ago for the Jewish people there's also an implicit recognition of the fact that God is involved in each and every one of our Lives performing all of the The Little Miracles for us each and every day the fact that our heart is beating the fact that our eyes are working the fact that we're breathing the fact that we're alive the fact that we have parasa that we have our livelihood the fact that we have that we have love we have joy in our lives we have relationships all of these things are also miracles from hasem says an amazing and important thing he says a person is missing or he says even more person has no portion in the Torah of God the Torah of Moses until we believe in every matter every single thing that occurs in our lives they are all miracles there's no such thing as natural there is no such thing as the way of the world whether we're talking about the general populace or we're talking about an individual is involved we are obligated to believe and if we don't believe this we're missing we don't have a not just we're missing something we have no portion in the Torah at all we we had nothing without believing this if a person doesn't believe this he doesn't have a full recognition of God's Oneness because because a person believes that there is some other power in creation there's only God before we accept upon ourselves the Yoke of heaven we ask God for help in unifying our hearts please God unify our hearts to love and to fear your name and then we ask that God please let us not be embarrassed forever because if our hearts are depending on other things other people other circumstances other things besides for God so we will be forever embarrassed for our foolishness he finishes off and says that is something which is a constant obligation to work upon we can't live with with yesterday's faith we need to continue it even today sorry about that we need to continue it even today each and every single day we need to strengthen ourselves renew our recognition of a of faith in order to Merit to get to the actual work not just believing in God and not just having faith in God but acting on our faith as we said giving charity whether it's uh being willing to spend money on the things that God promises he's going to pay us back for which is the and I'm actually I had in mind to read from the ran but really we read the main point in the ran and the just wrap it up and say that the entire point the ran says of all of the mitzvah of all of The Commandments so many of them are are connected to the idea of amuna of trust and faith in God reminding us of of The Exodus from Egypt of the fact that Hashem did these awesome miracles for us brought us out of Egypt and and freed us gave us the T all of these things all of these mitah whether it's whether it's mza whether it's shabis KES all of these things remind us to have faith in God and to remember that just like there were miracles in those times Hashem performs for each and every one of us each and every day each and every moment constant and consistent Miracles so I want to bless you and I ask you to bless me hem should help us we should be we should Merit to use the opportunities that we have every single day so many times a day of recognizing that it's Hashem Who's involved in our Lives who gives us our food who gives us our Lives who gives us the breath who gives us our health who gives us livelihood who gives us our families should help us to recognize that hm should help us to use the opportunity that are involved in the Mitzvah use the opportunities from when we reading about these amazing Miracles performed for the Jewish people in those times use the opportunity to to recognize and remember that those Miracles weren't just then those Miracles are with us every single day thank you so much for listening have a wonderful shamas 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]