Va'era - Surmounting Challenges

you're listening to the weekly paraa podcast recorded with hm's never- ending assistance in ra Israel 5775 2015 this week's pares pares VA we had the continuation of The Saga of the story of of the torah's description of the Jewish people's Exodus from Egypt the challenges faced by the Jewish people the challenges faced by mosha rain and by Moses and the beginning of the plagues that Hashem would bring upon the Egyptians as a result of their unwilling to allow the Jewish people to leave to serve Hashem now I'd like to read for you a piece beautiful piece from rnas which speaks about in a more like a a broader sense looking at the entire Saga looking at the entire picture of the Jewish people's challenge not only in The Exodus itself not only in in the challenge of being slaves to to parro and to Egypt but also in the broader sense of the challenges that await the Jewish people as they leave Egypt the challenges that continue throughout their travels in the wilderness and coming into the land of Israel the impending Exiles that come Etc looking at that in a broad way and also seeing how that applies to each and every single individual Jew who also every single Jew is a microcosm of the entire Jewish people so we can watch that pattern occur in the life of of an individual from not is going to speak about that he's also going to share with us an approach a way to deal with the challenges that consistently arise in our lives so so says like this all that occurred to the Jewish people in the process of The Exodus from Egypt and receiving the Torah and afterwards as well all of the wars that were involved in conquering the land of Israel all that occurred to us afterwards everything that happened to the Jewish people parallels that occurs to every single human being every single individual who is interested in meriting to have an eternal life meaning someone who wants to have a spiritual life have a real relationship with hem he has to go through these things it must be that that person is going to endure and go through many types of Wars Without End without without measure and every single time that a person wants to awaken and strengthen himself in service of God so the forces of evil strengthen themselves against him more especially the very beginning as we know our sages say the beginnings are always difficult and challenging when a person wants to start something new he wants to start a new spiritual practice he wants to have a new spiritual relationship with h so the challenges arise just as we see that it was in The Exodus immediately when Moses came to Pharaoh in order to bring the Jewish people out of Egypt so he said something which which was even more so he was he was starting up with them so to speak even more he said let the work be made even heavier because how does the other side work the side of evil when the side of evil sees that a true righteous individual is coming someone who has this aspect of Moses and that person wants to help out the Jew the Israelite person to be able to get out of the Exile of his soul so thear does whatever it can strengthens itself upon the person more and more and he makes this world all the trappings of this world heavier on a person more enticing to a person and the desires and the livelihood that a person needs to be involved in to the point where it's very difficult to leave his place to be able to return to hem to return to a way of spirituality but the way of the Israelite Nation the holy nation the Jewish people take the craft so to speak of their forefathers in their hands which is a reference to the concept of of prayer just like the Jewish people they called out to God because of the difficulty of their Exile of their of their manual labor they called out to God and said God save us so to the Jewish person when he sees that the difficulties the challenges are rising up in his life the tool that he needs to grab on to is the tool of Prayer through prayer through a sincere prayer asking God to help me through a true so a person can subdue each and every time pharaoh and all of his henchmen which parallels the side of evil and all of their forces now even if a person subdues the forces of evil nevertheless they come back and they strengthen themselves every single time to fight again time and time again so many times just like Pharaoh each and every time he had a particular plague came upon his people upon him and his people so he was a little bit more humbled he was a little bit more subdued nevertheless immediately afterwards he strengthens himself he comes back with a vengeance like the verse says his heart was strengthened and his heart became heavy Etc even after had brought upon him all of the 10 plagues he had no choice but to let the Jewish people go let them out of Egypt he saw the Jewish people had left he realized what have I done he runs after them with all of his powers with all of his Infantry his army he brings them all with him in order to try to once again bring back the Jewish people under his Dominion this is exactly what happens for every single individual in all times everyone can understand in their own life you can see this if you just look each one according to his aspect according to where he is his value his his place in life a person can see how he ups and downs many times that this is all a result of the aspect which we spoke about the aspect of the the Exile of Egypt because the concept of The Exodus from Egypt and this constant memory that we need to have we're always doing all these things to remember how hasm took us out of Egypt part of this is because Egypt is is a paradigm it's a it's a parallel for each every one of us to be able to see that this is something that occurs in our lives we each go through our Exiles we each go through our challenges and we need to remember that the way out is this way just like the Jewish people like we said the main Exile is the Exile of the soul and all Exiles are referred to with the name of Egypt because all of this is something which we see in the in first section in Simon B in 72 there are many different aspects of the evil inclination and the many powers and the aspects of the so this is the root of what happens where the it strengthens itself once again it renews itself once again and comes back to haunt a person so to speak that that's the way the person's life is a person has to face off with these challenges he has one Victory and then he has to face off again now it's interesting because you see that and this is not what says this is just my own thought that you see that the Jewish people get to a certain point they get to yamu they have the incredible Miracle they pass through the sea parro and his and his his cohorts they're all destroyed and they come down to the other side and mosha Promises them that they're never going to return to Egypt meaning the Exile of Egypt is over so there are stages within the battles where a person gets to a certain Plateau gets to a certain Victory and he can declare Victory but rnas says that even once a person has declared Victory still the forces of evil renew themselves once again and he says like this even after the Jews have received the T it's an amazing thing the Jews receive the they no longer have theara they no longer have that evil inclination they've returned to the state of to the first man before the sin and so that means that the the the the whole story has changed the the the Mah the essence of who they are is completely different we find that our sages tell us that they were free from the from the angel of death they would no longer have experienced death just like Adam before the sin they merited to have an incredibly high amount of Holiness nevertheless the the side of evil was still able to to stand up and to do something to the point where some of them were able to be tricked and to fall and to serve the idolatry of the of the golden calf say it's a wondrous thing where did this come from they had already lost the was gone upon him they merited to have a revelation they had a prophecy face to face they spoke to God they heard God speak nevertheless they fell so far after this so this is the understanding of it is that this is all based on of what we said before that there are a number of different aspects of the evil inclination and even people who are incredibly powerful rightous individuals they still have an evil inclination which as says based on is a is a Holy Angel and that's where all of the challenges come the the the tests that a person passes through that are mentioned in the we find that the Jewish people tested God as it were they they meaning the the evil inclination rose up within them even though the of the righteous is something which we can refer to as a Holy Angel it's it's only an aspect of these upper judgments that have not yet merited to have been sweetened Etc nevertheless even those who are righteous if they don't Merit to sweeten these judgments and to break this evil inclination which is a Holy Angel they could actually the the atahar the side of evil can actually strengthen itself against that person so much this greatly this great righteous individual until the point where they could be thrown down they could fall very far and they can be tricked away from God they can be steered a very negative Direction far away from hasem as we saw what happened with the agle with the golden calf if not for the fact that MOS had stood up and and done what needed to be done and he took them out and he atoned for them these types of challenges have have been faced by many great people that they were very high and very great and nevertheless they were able to fall lose that great that great exalted level this is all a result of the aspect that we spoke about now here comes the final point that wants to teach us which we mentioned briefly but this is the kicker that's why tell us a person should not trust himself until the day day of his death so how does a person face off with all these challenges how does a person succeed person can say to himself you know listen it's impossible there there's so many challenges it's the side of evil is so strong I want to have a relationship with hasm but I keep falling I keep falling down and it doesn't seem like I can ever get back up I keep getting knocked down for the count knocked down for the count knock down for the count right that's a person's experience n says don't make that mistake don't think that you can't get back up and don't think that that that what you're doing is not does not have value say a person needs to constantly call out to hem person needs to D needs to pray and he needs to throw off from himself all of his wisdom all of his intellect person thinks he understands a person sometimes thinks I I know what God wants from me person thinks he knows what God wants from him but that very belief that I know what hasem wants can sometimes confuse me the the intellect of a person the belief that I know that itself can create confusion and bring upon upon a person the the the evil exp so tells us the secret of secret which is be simple be simple just pray I think I can do it myself no I can't do anything by myself I need Hashem I need God I need a commitment to God I need a commitment to do whatever it takes but ultimately I need that recognition that I'm not doing it that it's hem who's doing it a person needs to go just in truth in simplicity then a person will not falter ever no matter what wherever a person is no matter what the challenges are that a person is facing if a person is simple person goes with truth person is honest person calls out to Hashem he has prayer he doens hm hasm help me he asks hm he supplicates he asks God that's something that always works says no matter what it's a fact and sometimes a person faces challenges a person faces Financial challenges spiritual challenges challenges in his relationships whether it's with his kids with his spouse with his friends with a person's parents With God all of these challenges what's the key what's rnas saying is saying the key is to call out to be simple to to to let go to ask Hashem for help it's been my experience that the help comes not just because I've asked for help the help comes also if I'm committed when there's a commitment on my part if I'm committed to hasem committed to my relationship with Hashem I'm willing to do whatever it takes that I shouldn't fall in a certain area willing to do whatever it takes to to take care of my family to to have a proper relationship with my spouse have a proper relationship with my kids or my parents whatever it is when I have a commitment to that I have a commitment to spirituality to being a good person it seems like the challenges will come but is telling us no matter what person can keep facing off with these challenges yes they will come that's what life is for that's what we're here for a person is born in order to toil to work to face these challenges but a person a person has the commitment to his God to to his family to himself to goodness that commitment can inspire a person to pray to call out and say God save me the Jews were in Egypt they in a certain sense they had lost their spirituality they were they were serving idolatry And yet when they called out they called out to God they called out to Hashem to the god of their forefathers so there was a commitment there was a connection that was there that remained no matter what despite having sunk to Great spiritual depths to Great spiritual lows that commitment was there that connection was there when push came to shove they called out to God and God answered them I want to bless you and please bless me Hashem should help us all to be able to connect to him to be able to use our power of to recognize to remember that the challenges that we Face they're going to happen no matter what there's no way to get out of that that we're going to face off with these challenges but those challenges make us into greater people as we rise in our levels we're going to Hashem is going to help us but we're going to face off with more difficulties and more challenges and the way the path through them the path to Victory is through prayer through commitment through true supplication and calling out to God no matter what is going on in our lives and before I thank you so much for listening I just want to tell you that I'm right now really at the final final stages of my book and in order to complete the book I need another $1,500 for the actual completion a lot of different small editing things things that need to be formatted for the for the text formatting Etc that's about $1,500 there's another $3,500 that is owed to my main editor and to the company that I'm working with to to produce the book so and then there's going to be at least 7 to $8,000 that I'm going to need in order to actually print the books and to do the advertising and getting the book out so we're talking about in the neighborhood of about $112,000 that's needed have about $1500 that I've already collected from listeners like you I'd like to encourage you if you have a significant amount of Meister that you want to donate to something to a good cause uh you know this book is going to be something that's going to inspire the Jewish people to inspire it's ERS with the same type of messages that you've been hearing here for 7 and A2 years I encourage you to go to arold wag.com to scroll down towards the bottom of the page it says there's a button there it says donate click on the Donate button give your donation right over there that the purpose for this donation is for the book whether your donation is $5 whether it's $1,000 or $10,000 whatever you can give is significant and important and will help for the book to be able to come out thank you so so much for listening have a wonderful shabus 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