Ari Goldwag - Vaera - Hosting Godliness

you're listening to the weekly paral podcast with Ari goldw recorded with hashem's never- ending assistance in Rael 5776 2016 this week's para is para and in our para we have Hashem instructing Moshe to go to par to go to pharaoh and to show him who is really the power parro sees himself as the one who's in power he sees himself as the one who is enslaving the Jewish people who is their master and Hashem consistently says over and over to Moshe go to pharaoh and show him who's the real boss who's the real master and all of the makos all of the plagues are there to show par and all of MIM all of Egypt who is the real master now it's very interesting and beautiful I'd like to share with you a medish I also want to show you the way of the medish how the medish works and it's something that we've seen and it's something that just crystallized for me today as I was working on and preparing this para podcast that says 7 verse1 God said to Moshe Lao see that I have made you to be a God in front of pharaoh what does it mean that I made you to be a God the word Elohim when not used in reference to God so it means a mighty power but we're going to see the magish is going to tell us an amazing thing that mosu is considered a God in a certain sense we need to know what that means means but it's very interesting I'm going to share with you actually the end like we did last week I'm going to share with you the end of the Mish because the the way that the medish works the setup of the Mish is that it quotes uh or or it speaks about the same idea in a different context and then we come back to our context and we see an understanding of our context based on the same idea as we see it in another context but the way that it's set up is in such a way that as you read it it becomes difficult to understand and as you continue to read it it becomes more difficult to understand but the end of the Mish actually completes our picture and helps us to understand everything that's going on just like I do in all of my partial podcasts we ask a whole bunch of questions and at the end we have a concept which explains all of the ideas until there so that's the setup of the Mish so I actually want to give you the end want to give you the answer to the question before so so this way as as we ask the question and as we see the idea that is trying to give over we we see the questions and the difficulties we'll already have inside of our minds the seeds of what's going on here so the last few lines of the God said to Moses and this is based on our verse that hasem says I have made you a god unto Pharaoh the evil pharaoh who represents the ego who represents all e all evil all ego so Pharaoh has has made himself he has claimed that he himself is a god sh ver says in Ezekiel 29:3 referring to Pharaoh that pH said the Nile is mine I made myself evil says it's made itself that it's independent entity from God it itself is God so Hashem says to to mosha to Moses therefore the purpose of what we're doing here in MIT the purpose of what's going on this confrontation between good and evil the Redemption process is about me proving that you are like a god to Pharaoh there's a big difference between mosha Renu being like God or being Godly to as opposed to pharaoh who sees himself as the all the be all the end all now hold on to that idea we're going to read through the Mish beautiful Mish parts of which don't seem to have to do with us but amazing and beautifully do back to the beginning of the the mes quoted that verse that says God is going to make Moses to be like a god so we have the following verse it says it's a verse in Psalms 24:7 the verse says that D King David was saying let the gates open up the gates of Holiness the gates of spirituality the gates of K let them open up Let the heads of the gates raise up now the brings this into a different context King Solomon he was the one who built the first temple and he wanted to bring the theis the holy Ark which represented the relationship of God with the Jewish people represented all of Holiness represented the the Holiness of the relationship the beauty of the relationship the center of the relationship it goes into the Kash to the holy of holies he wanted to bring it in very interesting that King Solomon according to this version of the M there are other versions but according to this version he made his own Aon different than Moses's original Arc he made his own arc that it was 10 tall it was 10 cubits high now when he got to the doorway of the Temple amus there was a problem he had miscalculated the doorway of the temple was exactly 10 amas high 10 cubits high now if you want to bring something which is exactly 10 cubits High through a doorway which is exactly 10 cubits high it's not going to fit it doesn't work out so like we just said the was couldn't fit into that doorway of tamos and besides that there were those who were actually carrying it from the sides and they couldn't fit in they couldn't get through how are they going to get in when he wanted to bring it in he wasn't able King Solomon got up and he was embarrassed he made a mistake he didn't know what to do he started praying in front of God but that didn't work nothing happened so what did King Solomon do he went and he brought King David's beer he went he brought the coffin of King davidar and he said forget about me forget about my honor forget about my merits open up these gates in the Merit of my father King David don't turn away from the face of the one who you anointed your Messiah your anointed one at that time King David came alive and this is something that you can actually see it's possible anyone can Dar this and see because King David says in Psalms in 30:4 God you raised up from the darkest depths of my soul you son meor you gave me life after I had gone down into the pit so you see that King King David speaks about the fact that he came back to life it's jsph explains that this doesn't mean literally that King David came alive but it means that the the Merit of King David was there it was alive in front of God and it's what's going to stand for King Solomon in his position he's in a very difficult position how's he going to get the AR in how's he going to get the ark inside of the temple him King Solomon was saying Master of the world do it in the Merit of this one sh as the verse says remember the kindness of King David your servant King Solomon sees he's not being answered in his own Merit he brings the Merit of his father King David the meas tells us that he was immediately answered what does the verse say afterwards when King Solomon finished his prayer fire came down from heaven it it consumed the sacrifices and as a result the honor of God filled the entire house filled the fill the temple and the divine inspiration called out and said actually a verse in Ecclesiastes in 4:2 I give praise to those who have already died more so than those who are alive M who are still around so we see that the mag is telling us a few things that we need to understand first of all we see that there's the idea that King Solomon he built the ark which is 10 high we have to understand the concept of 10 but we see that he built this 10 amahai box this Ark and he wanted to bring it in theim the gates of the temple we need to understand what the gates of the temple represent but he wants to bring it in he wants to bring about hash the divine presence coming into the to the temple but he's trying to get this Ark through the door which is the same size and then it's only because of the Merit of King David himself and Solomon admitting that he can't he can't have it himself he can't have those prayers answered on his own he needs the Merit of his father it's only through that that he's able to indeed open up those gates the gates open for him so we need to understand why what is what is accomplished when King Solomon asks for God to do it because of the Merit of his father what's accomplished through that why does that make the miraculous possible that now something which is really physically unable to pass through a certain area is now able to indeed pass through and bring about that the divine presence coming into the temple now the menish comes back to the original verse that we quoted and says like this King Solomon began off before he started before he got in the whole story began with the following statement the verse that we brought us at the beginning in Hill in Psalms 24 ver 7 let these Gates raise up their heads and let the entrance of the world meaning the the entrance of the temple let it open let the king of Honor come so King Solomon was making this statement asking the gates to open the gates themselves responded as it were and they said when you say that you want the king of honor to come in who are you talking about are you talking about yourself are you talking about your own honor are you talking King Solomon about the honor of even the kingship of the Jewish people King Solomon responds with the next verse the king of Honor that I'm speaking about is God the Lord of hosts he is the one it's not my honor it's the honor of God that this is about open up your Gates so that God's honor the king the king of Honor we need to understand what it means that God is the king of Honor but he he wants to come through as it were as soon as King Solomon said these words as soon as he said that it's not my honor it's God's honor so they made way and if he had not said this so the gates themselves would have tried to have King Solomon's head to try to kill him so here too we need to understand what is the meaning of the Mish why is the Mish saying that the gates thought that he meant himself that he's the king of Honor then he says no I'm not the king of honor God is the king of honor and then if he hadn't said that they were going to kill him but now that he says that so they open up for him they allow him through what is the idea and how does it parallel the fact that he's trying to get through with with this Arc which is the same science as the gates what is the idea of that how is that parallel what's being said over here mes continues and this is where we start to see what's going on as we read the next section and it's going to connect back to our paraa and it's going to connect to what's going on with moshu being called a God as it were being called a mighty powerful one in order to prove to pharaoh who believes himself to be a God that he is not a God but there's only Hashem only God himself is the god how do we see that by mosu becoming powerful like God how does that work so it says like this another explanation the verse says who is the king of Honor why in King when King David writes the verse in Psalms why does he refer to God as the king of Honor amazing thing why is God called the god of honor the king of Honor because he gives honor to those who fear Him He gives he a portions he gives a portion of his own honor to those who fear Him quad how does that work so the magish goes on to give us a number of different examples where we see that God gives his own honor to others to those who fear Him to those who are the the great righteous ones a king of Flesh and Blood no one else is allowed to ride on his horse no one else is allowed to sit on his throne we see that God placed King Solomon on his own Throne sh as the verse says in in Chronicles in 1 Chronicles 29:23 King Solomon when he became the king he sat on God's Throne as the king so we see that Elijah the prophet rode on God's horse as it were what does that mean what is God's horse it's these massive powerful winds verse says in 1:3 God goes in the way of the Winds the great powerful winds for and the clouds are like the dust of his feet and we see when it comes to Elijah went up to Heaven as it were on this very powerful wind the same s so we see that he also rode with the power of God the way that God rides as it were obviously we need to understand what what it means that God rides what it means that Elijah rode up but let's just take the pup shot here the simple understanding we see that God gives of his own his own power his own honor to those who fear Him a king of Flesh and Blood no one else is allowed to touch or use his scepter scepter is that which is used as we we see by King that he uses his scepter to pass judgment to say that who's going to live and who's going to die but we find that God gave over his scepter to Moses sh the verse says in Exodus 4:20 Moses took the staff of God into his hands it's referred to as the staff of God because there's a certain power within it and that power Hashem gives over to Moses to use that power a king of Flesh and Blood no one's allowed to wear his crown but we find that in the future God is going to give his crown to the king mhia the Messiah who's going to wear it what is or how is the crown of God describedas pure gold sh ver says in sh in Song of Songs 5:1 on God's head as it were there's a gold Crown the verse says it's in Psalms 21:4 that it's going to be placed upon his head a crown of pure gold a king of Flesh and Blood no one else is allowed to wear his clothing the people of Israel verse tells us that they wear the clothing of God as it were what's called the clothing of God it's power strength sh says that God God is enclothed in power also a verse in Psalms 93:1 when a son of Israel we find that God gives that power to the Jewish people the verse says Psalms 2911 God gives power to his Nation God will bless his Nation with peace a king of Flesh and Blood no one else is allowed to use his title his title is Caesar aus if someone would try to steal that title someone would call himself Caesar Augustus they would kill him he would be considered he' be considered someone who's rebelling against the king we find that God himself calls Moses by his very own name as the verse says see that I've made you to be as a God or as a powerful one in regards to Pharaoh so here too we need to understand what is the idea that God gives over his own power his own OES his own clothing his own horse his own K his own Throne what is going on here what is the idea and also how does one acquire that how does one get that how does it how is it that mosha Moses is able to be to have the Merit that he gets the title he's called Caesar Augustus he himself is called president the Prime Minister how does he get that title how does he acquire that he himself gets the name as it were of God and how does it show to Pharaoh or what is why is this a response to Pharaoh when Pharaoh says I am God I am I have made myself I've created myself I have created the Nile how is the response to Pharaoh oh you're not a god Moses has the power of God what is that idea or Moses is called a god what is that idea what is the teaching here so I was thinking about the statement of the Mish the med says that a regular King doesn't let anybody else wear his clothes doesn't let anyone else ride on his horse but it's very interesting because we see that there are two instances in tanak there are two instances in the Torah where people have had that opportunity people have worn the clothing of the king one instance is morai in the story of Esther and the story of porm indeed he was able to ride on the horse of the king he was able to wear the clothing of the king we need to understand that but i' like to actually focus on a different place which is ysic Joseph he was given the Ring of the king he became second in command to pharaoh and he indeed had all of the Power of pharaoh and Pharaoh himself said only I shall be above you only I shall be higher than you and as we read the story we can't help but be confronted by a question which is that Pharaoh has this Jew standing in front of him this Hebrew who came out of jail he'd been in jail for 12 years he was a criminal as far as Pharaoh was concerned okay maybe he was wise maybe he was able to interpret dreams but how could parro take yose and make him all of a sudden into the highest power in his whole land how did parro have the confidence in this convict to place him to take him and make him to be the second in command to have the most power of any individual besides for Pharaoh himself what was the understanding and I believe the explanation is because when ysep comes in and far par says to him Pharaoh says to him I've heard about you that you have the ability to interpret dreams Yosef doesn't answer as anyone would answer even the most humble person would say oh it's true uh you know let me let me see what I can do but he doesn't answer that way he says no B it's not me it's all God he immediately shows Pharaoh clearly very clearly very openly and it's not an act it's all real that he recognizes where his power comes from he recognizes that it's all about God it's not about him even though he has it together but he recognizes that the reason that he has it together is not because of his own power it's all because of God and Pharaoh says if this is somebody who has it together who is able to have all of these talents is able to have this intuition and this amazing understanding and he recognizes that the power doesn't come from him he acknowledges he has the humility to recognize that it comes from someone higher than him then I don't have to be worried about giving him my ring I don't have to be worried about giving him all the power because he will always remember that the power comes from me so Yosef is this person who has all the power of parro he has all the power of the Pharaoh and Mori is the same thing and we need to understand how that works in that story I'm not going to get into it but there too and here as well by ysf both of them take and get all of the Power because they are completely humble they completely are able to recognize where their power comes from and not take it for themselves but only use it for the good of those around them to be of service all of these examples that the mes gives us of Hashem giving over power it's C God is called the king of honor and that means that he is like he parallels the pharaoh who gives his power to Yosef because Yosef is worthy the Jewish people are worthy they are able to wear the clothes of God and it's because of their humility it's because of their recognition that their power ultimately stems completely from God that they're able to wear that power and wear it appropriately when they lose that when they forget that they're in trouble mashiach the Messiah also he is somebody who's able to completely nullify himself to God he's a human being he is an amazing sadic a righteous person but he is the ultimate humble human being who recognizes that all of the Power belongs to God so God says here's my crown God says here's my power you are going to bring that power into the world mosu has that ability as well he's also this aspect of Messiah of that generation of the Messiah of the generation of of the G of The Exodus and King Solomon also has that ability he also sits on the throne Throne of God he's the one who has access because he has the humility and and that's really what's going on in the original story the first story is that we look at King Solomon he's coming in and when we say that he's coming in with the ark which is 10 high it's Joseph explains that the 10 Amos the number 10 always represents the 10 sphos the spos really represent the idea of the way the way God interacts with the world so it's the spiritual it's a spiritual framework through which all reality Shalom King Solomon says I understand reality I understand all of spirituality properly and it was true he was the wisest of all men but there was a little bit something missing when he built that M when he built that Ark in order to bring it into the temple in order to bring down the in order to bring down the divine presence into the temple so that God should be he should place his divine presence on the temple and onto the world and onto the Jewish people he couldn't get it through the door what the m is really saying is that there was something lacking there was something that was a little bit too big it wasn't the ultimate level of humility which was required of King Solon of the person who he himself was the Messiah of his generation he was the one who was the anointed one of his generation so there was required an even deeper level of humility in order for him to be able to bring that Arc to bring down the sh to bring down the divine presence into the B mdos into the temple so by him recognizing that it wasn't his own Merit it's the Merit of his father there was a level of humility which he was able to attain which allowed the gates to open and that's also the that's also the understanding of the second aspect or angle of the story where the where the gates say to him who which king of Honor are you speaking about are you speaking about yourself you're the king of Honor you want to come in we're not going to let you through but when he says no it's not about me it's about the real king of Honor Hashem God the Lord of hosts he is the one who needs to come in very interesting cuz he says hasem the god the Lord of hosts the idea of the God lord of hosts means that God places himself within hosts we all all of the humankind all of reality is a place where God rides where God places himself within to shine through into the world but it's only God only places himself on those who have that humility on those who don't take the honor for themselves so as soon as King Solomon says it's not about me it's about God and God is riding through me God is the m he's the god of Honor he gives honor to all those who fear Him that's when the that's when the gates open up and he's able to bring about the he's able to get through there with the ark he's able to bring about the divine presence resting upon the temple now when Pharaoh says who is this God that I should honor him who is this God of the Hebrews that that I should let my slaves out he's really saying it's about me it's all about me I'm I am myself I am my own I created myself that's Pharaoh's mistake that's the mistake of the ego that it's just me that it's all about my honor it's all about my power and of course Pharaoh had real power he was the most powerful human being at the time he was the the leader of M of Egypt which was the most powerful Kingdom at that time so he had real power but what he didn't recognize was that that power came from God he was being taught here and all of the Jewish people had to learn this lesson as well and all of all of humankind at that time need us to learn the lesson that it's a mosh raain who has the real power it's Moses who's called Godly why because he is the ultimate honor he's the ultimate humble human being who has the ability to allow God into the world not cuz he's taking that honor from himself all the way around because he's trying to bring honor to God he's trying to bring honor to the Jewish people he is only serving as a conduit he is serving as a host for the greatness of God which is going to be manifest within him and through him and so that's how he receives that honor and that's how he receives the MIM that's how he receives the the scepter of God which is the means through which he's able to accomplish all of the amazing Miracles and bring the Jewish people out of Egypt I'd like to bless you and please bless me back Hashem should help us to develop that humility the different ways of doing it recognize these different ways give the honor to our parents give the honor to to God give the honor away and then we receive it then God manifests through it through us usem should help us to be able to have this humility to be able to become a vehicle for the light that God wishes to bring into the world thank you so much for listening have a wonderful chabas 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]