Ari Goldwag - Tazria - Levels of Appreciation

You're listening to the weekly para podcast recorded with Hashem's never ending assistance in Ramapesh Israel 5776 2016. This week's parasy at the beginning of the parabos. God spoke to Moses and said speak to the children of Israel as follows. When a woman shall conceive and then give birth to a male child, she shall be impure for seven days just like the seven days of her menstrual cycle when she's impure. The verse says in verse three on the on the eth day he shall receive a circumcision etc. The verses continue. I'd like to focus in on the measure that speaks about a question tries to understand why the verse mentions something which seems unnecessary. The verse says to us that when a woman shall conceive and give birth to a male and it tells us the instructions what she's to do, she's going to be impure. There's supposed to be a circumcision on the eighth day, etc. The question is why does the Torah tell us about the fact that she conceives? Why doesn't the Torah just say a woman who gives birth to a male, etc.? Why does it have to tell us that if she conceived and gave birth to a male, what is the significance of the Torah, including the conception of this child? So, this is a question that we've discussed in previous years, but I'd like to share with you a new insight from a different medish than one that we've learned together in the past. The medish says like this. Now, listen to a beautiful, beautiful medish that has many different aspects, but we'll see that we can tie together all of them even though they seem to be disparit. The verse says like this. The metric brings us a verse in Eio in Job 36:2 and gives us a few different ideas that we take out of this verse. The verse our verse in our par which speaks about the conception of this child and doesn't just tell us doesn't go straight to the birth of the child but speaks of the conception. So there's something hinted to in this concept that we have in the verse in Eio. The verse says chapter 36:2, I will raise up my mind to the distances. I will think about something which is distant and I will give thanks. I will recognize the righteousness of my creator says this language which we translated I will raise up my intellect to something which is distant. You can translate the word in a different way as opposed to intellect. He says that it can there are two translations of this. It can either be a language of singing of song or of speaking of speech. So means I will raise up my song to something that's distant to recognize something that is distant. We'll see what the word or the concept of distance is. But I will recognize the greatness of my creator either through singing, through raising my voice in song or through speech, through raising my voice in speaking. When would I raise my voice in song to thank God? To recognize the praise of the righteous that when I see that those who are doing good deeds are being rewarded for their good deeds, I will recognize that. I will thank God for that. But it could also mean that I'm speaking about it. speaking about something when I see that those who do evil deeds, those who do negative things meet with negative results. So that's something that I'm going to speak about. I'm not going to sing about because it's not something that we sing about. We don't sing about the fact that those who have done evil, they experience a fall. It is something that we need to recognize and appreciate that those things that are evil, that evil begets evil and evil destroys itself. That's something I need to remember and recognize, but it's something I speak about, not something that I sing about. Now, the medish offers another explanation of what this appreciation is that this that we're recognizing and praising God about is the fact that there were those who were far, who were distant from Hashem and Hashem brought them close. These are the Balichuva. These are the people who were distant from God, who started off indeed as Rishim, as evil ones. And nevertheless, Hashem gave them an opportunity to do chuva to repent and now they are righteous. So that's an amazing thing to thank God for to recognize the greatness of God about Nassen says that there's something else hinted to in this verse that we need to appreciate something that has to do with the concept of being distant. So the verse is asking us to think about the name of Abraham, our forefather Abraham. He was someone who came from a distance. First of all, he was distant from God. He started off as a child of idoltors. Second of all, he was somebody who lived in a distant place. He lived far away from the land of Israel and God brought him close. But the verse itself speaks about the fact that Abraham came from afar. He found something. He sees something from afar. That's what the verse says in the Torah's account of the the test of Abraham to bring his son Isaac to bind his son offer him or be ready to offer him as a sacrifice. So it says that when they came to Mount Mariah which is where this was going to happen, Abraham saw this place from afar. So we see the word from afar is used in regards to Abraham. So this verse of le I need to bring my mind think about this concept of distance and appreciate the fact that there was someone named Abraham who came from afar who had distance and yet Hashem brought him close. Hashem brought him to the land of Israel. So I need to appreciate that. I need to recognize the goodness of God that Hashem did this. Papa says that there's some other place that we see distance that we need to appreciate. Actually, what we're trying to think about here in this verse, what the verse is telling us to appreciate is our recognition of the name of God. That we were distant from God and Hashem brought us close to him. So we have two different possibilities here. What we're supposed to appreciate either Abraham who was far and Hashem brought him close or the fact that we were farm brought us close says a different explanation of what the verse is directing us to think about to appreciate something which is distant from us. 500 years distance. It would take 500 years to get there which as the ATSV explains is the distance our kazal say our sages say between heaven and earth. 500 years. Think about this amazing distance this amazing spiritual distance that Hashem traverses as it were. All the human beings are sleeping on their beds. And God causes the wind to blow. He brings the clouds and he causes the rain to fall and he causes the shrubbery to grow and then he dries them off and Hashem gives food lifegiving food from this shrubbery. He places it as it were on the tables of each and every person. He orders the tables. He sets the tables for all the human beings. So even though it seems that God is so distant, the spiritual realms are so far away but no. Hashem traverses that distance. So we need to recognize that I need to think about this distant place where it seems like God is distance and and yet God sends me all of my needs despite that great distance. So I need to appreciate the goodness of God. Now listen to this next piece because I believe that it holds the key to the whole medish. We're going to see one more piece after this which connects us back to our puk to our verse which is speaking about a woman giving birth, conceiving and giving birth. But listen carefully to this statement. This verse the verse in Job which speaks about the fact that I need to appreciate God. I need to think about something which is very distant and appreciate the greatness of God which we've been discussing. What is that appreciation? So this is a verse if you look at the verses something that was said by Alihu. Elihu was one of the friends of Job and he was speaking with generally he spoke he had divine inspiration when he spoke. Now sometimes he spoke on his own sometimes he said his own thoughts and sometimes he spoke as a mouthpiece of God as it were. So the message tells us this verse if said it on his own. So it would be one level of praise of God because he'd be speaking about praising God at the level that we understand. But if said this verse with through divine inspiration, so that's an even deeper appreciation of God because the praise that a person gives as a result of divine inspiration, he's able to access much higher places, much deeper understandings of godliness. So that level of praise would be called praise of praises. Now this statement of the majil it down, what we're saying is there's two types of praising God. One is praising God on a level on a superficial level and one is praising God on a deeper level recognizing something even deeper. This dual level that we see here that is speaking about in the name of we will see we're going to go back to the beginning of the majish soon and we're going to see that there's this dual level in all that we've spoken about. But I want to share with you one more piece from the majish which connects this appreciation this verse which speaks about appreciating God to the concept of a woman conceiving and giving birth. Levy says three different statements in regards to the appreciation that one can have in regards to a woman giving birth in the way of the world. Let's say a person gives a bag of silver coins to someone else to his friend Ruain gives a bag of silver coins to his friend Shimon to watch for him and he does it in private nobody knows about it. Now let's say Shimon who had been watching this money decides you know what I love my friend Ruain I want to give him a gift and instead of giving him back a bag of silver coins he gives him gives him back an even greater amount of gold coins and not only does he do it but he does it with fanfare. He does it out in the open and he does it in a way which Ruvane is really blown away by this presentation. So would Ruv not appreciate such a thing? Certainly Ruv would see this amazing gift that Shim is giving to him. Nothing to do even with what Ruven had given to him in the first place. He's giving it back much more. That would be something that Ruven would certainly appreciate. So too it is with God. Amazing thing here. A human being places a drop of something which is moist which is a reference to the seed of a human being. Places it in a place and he does it in private. What does God do in return? What does God give back? God gives back a beautiful baby and the baby comes out out in the open. It's something that everyone can see. This child is something that everyone can see. Is that not something that a person would need to praise God for? That's what the verse means when it says, "I need to pay attention to place my mind on something distant. I need to see the contrast between what I put in and what God gave me back." And by doing so, by recognizing the contrast, I'll be able to to give thanks to God for the amazing kindness, the amazing righteousness that he does. So here we already see that we're starting to answer the question of why does why does it talk about the conception and then speak about the birth? Why doesn't it just go straight to the birth? This message is telling us that there's something that the Torah wants us to recognize about the conception itself. The contrast between the conception and the birth. When I contrast what I put into it, what happens at conception as opposed to what God gives me at the birth, what God gives me back as it were, I have to have an amazing amount of appreciation. Now, Levy says another thing that I need to appreciate. He says a second thing, second of three. In the way of the world, if someone is incarcerated, he's in jail. Nobody pays attention to him. He's a criminal. Let's say he's in these dark dungeons. He's incarcerated in this horrible dark place. Someone comes along, brings him a candle. Would he not appreciate the fact that this person brought him a candle? God does a similar thing with a baby. As long as the baby is in a state of conception, he's it's a fetus, so it's inside of its mother's womb. It's dark there. It's incarcerated there. In there we find that our tell us the verse tells us. So another verse inov in Job that the child has a light there. There's a candle that God brings to him. This is what says that Job says it's in chapter 29:2 actually verse three. God shines a candle upon my head. And it's clear that the verses there are speaking about the child who's inside of the mother. So there's a there's a light that's being shown for that child. It seems like the child is in complete darkness. Both physical darkness and even in intellectual darkness. Think about a child, a fetus. What does the baby know? Nevertheless, tell us that's not true. It seems like they're in utter and complete darkness. But there's actually a spiritual light. This n this candle that's being referred to here is speaking about a spiritual light that as the brings down the baby's able to see from one end of the earth to another. It's in a transcendent place. Even as it's in this place of darkness, there's tremendous spiritual light that it experiences. Another way express it is that it's being taught by a malik by an angel. All of the entire Torah, all of the Torah, all of the concepts, the spiritual concepts that it's going to encounter in the baby's lifetime are being taught to that baby inside of its mother. Is this not a great praise that despite the darkness, Hashem is shining an amazing spiritual light for this fetus? This is what the verse means when it says that I need to see the distance. I need to see the contrast, recognize the contrast between the darkness of that baby and the light, the spiritual light that it's experiencing. And by doing so, I will give praise to God says one last thing. the way the world is. If a person is incarcerated inside of jail, in a dungeon, nobody notices them. Nobody cares about them, out of sight, out of mind. If someone comes and frees him from there, helps him escape, would he not appreciate that this person remembered him? God, the child that fetus is inside of the mother's womb. God comes and enables that child to come out of there, to be born, to come into the world. No one else is going to bring that baby out. No one else has the power to do that. It's something which at the right moment is when that baby's going to come out. But Hashem is the one, as it were, who does that. Hashem doesn't forget about that child, that child who's compared to someone who's incarcerated. So, this is something also that we need to recognize. as the contrast, the appreciation, the darkness, the distance. No one cares, no one remembers, but Hashem does and Hashem helps that baby out. Now I want to go back through this whole medish from the piece that we just read all the way back to the beginning and show you that there are always two levels, two different ways, two different contrasts, two different appreciations, depths of appreciation which we are enjoined by this verse to truly have for Hashem, for God, for the great things that he does for us. As we said that when a person says something on his own, when a person is able to to recognize the goodness of God on his own, that's one level. But if Ali had said it with if he says it with divine inspiration with access to a higher realm, to a transcendent realm, so that will create an even deeper appreciation and even greater praise. So there are two levels here. If we look at these statements of Rabbi Levy, these three statements, there's two levels. If a person looks at what they put in to this child that's being born, something very little, something very simple and something very small and something that is moist and doesn't smell that good. That's that's the way to describe. That's what a person puts in. Look at the simple contrast between that and what comes out. This amazing beautiful baby, this life, this human being. amazing appreciation a person can have for Hashem. See that contrast. See the distance. That's really simple. That's something that you can see very easily. But there's another level. There's a deeper level. It's something that we don't see immediately. It's not something that we can see on the surface. That the baby's inside. It's in darkness. It's in physical and intellectual darkness. And as our khazal tell us, as the verse tells us, Hashem is shining an amazing light. There's a spiritual light. that fetus is able to see spiritual realms, see the Torah, the entire Torah. The baby's also able to see from one end of the earth to the other, meaning the the entire gamut of the spiritual realms that baby's able to see. That's not something that's so obvious. That's not something that we see on the surface. It's something that we need our kazal to tell us. It's something that we need to have a certain depth to be able to understand that that's what's going on, that that's there, that that's true. But if I can understand that, if I can appreciate that, that's a much deeper level of appreciation. That's a much deeper level of gratitude of recognizing the greatness of God. Now, let's return to the beginning of the medish. It speaks about the fact that they're singing and they're speaking. I can sing about the fact that a person who's righteous, good things happened to the righteous. And I can speak about the fact that the people who have done evil, the result was that they lost out in this world. That's something which is simple. It's a superficial thing. You can see that good begets good and evil begets evil. But there's an even deeper level of appreciation. And that is that when I see that someone who is distant from God, someone who is evil, that person, Hashem gave them a chance and now they have done chuva. They have repented and now they're going to have a relationship with God. Now they're going to be considered a righteous person. That's an even deeper level. That requires an even deeper understanding. That's not something that you can just see on the surface and understand. How did that person get from point A to point B? That person was evil. How did they become now they have a relationship with God? That's that's that's even deeper. That's that's an even greater contrast. And the fact that Hashem makes it possible for that person to do chuva to go from a place of distance and to come to a place of closeness, that's an even greater praise of God. The second thing that we spoke about was Arainu. Abraham recognize the fact that he was distant from God. That he was distant from the land of Israel and God brought him close. That's that's amazing. That's beautiful. But that's also superficial. Why? Because obviously someone has an open revelation of God. God appears to you and says, "This is what I want you to do." Okay? You do what God says. But our papa said that the greater the deeper appreciation is for us to recognize that we were far and has brought us close to him. That's not something that's so obvious. It's not always easy to see. We haven't had an open revelation of God. And yet, if we look deeply, if we look carefully, we can see that indeed we have come close to God. We have had an opportunity to have a closer relationship to spirituality, to godliness. And that's an even greater and deeper appreciation that it's possible. And if we recognize that, it's an even greater praise of Hashem that he has brought us close even though we didn't see it openly. Now it's really interesting and this is the last point here but Raiki in speaking about the appreciation speaks about the fact that while human beings are sleeping, Hashem is causing the wind to blow. He's making the clouds come. He's causing the rain to come down. He's making all of the shrubbery grow. The food is growing and it's going to be placed upon their table. Even here there are these two aspects because there's that which is distant. It's not something that I would notice right away. I'm sleeping. I'm in my bed. I don't know know what's going on outside unless there's a thunderstorm. I'm not even aware that it rained last night and when I wake up in the morning it's all dried up as the as as he says it's it's going to be dried up in the morning. It's not something that I see right away. But then he speaks about that in the end you know we come to the table my wife has prepared the meal and I have this amazing meal. It's something which I see in front of me. Do I think about all that went into it? All that my wife prepared, all of the fact that she went to the grocery store to buy these things, all of the people who brought the food to the grocery store, all the people who grew the food, the fact that Hashem caused it to grow while I was sleeping. I see two levels here as well. I see that which is something I need to think more deeply about. Something which I need to I don't know. I don't see it on the surface. I'm sleeping. I'm not aware of it. I need to think about that. I also see what's right in front of me. I need to thank Hashem for that as well. I need to thank those who have given it to me for this surface level as well. But we see that there are always two levels. There's what we can thank Hashem for and thank others for on the surface for the openly revealed. But then there's an even deeper level which is avim which is an even greater praise which is where I recognize something which wasn't as obvious and I recognize the contrast between what could have been and what is. And that's why I need to see Ishakisa Valdo. I need to hear about the fact that this woman conceived and gave birth. When the woman gives birth, it's very clear all the kindnesses. It's very clear that this amazing miracle has come into reality. But can I think about the sazria, the aspect of conception where everything is hidden, where it's not so clear, where I need to think a little bit deeper. I need to notice something that I wouldn't have noticed. It's not something that's out in the open. Can I think about that as well? That requires an even deeper level of thought of recognition and by doing that it creates an even greater shev and even even greater praise and recognition of the goodness of God. I want to bless you and please bless me that Hashem should help us to be able to access both of these levels of praise that Hashem should help us to be able to recognize the good things that those around us do for us on the surface level and on a deeper level. thinking about it even deeper, recognizing the things that are done for us behind the scenes. And Hashem should help us to recognize the surface level things that he does for us, but even the things that he does for us while we're sleeping, when we're not aware, those things that are done in a hidden way. 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.rigoldwag.com at argoldwag.com or search on iTunes Ari Goldwag. [Music]