Ari Goldwag - Vayakhel - Names of Godliness

you're listening to the weekly paral podcast recorded with hashem's NeverEnding assistance in Rael 5776 2016 this week's paraa is par vak and we have a continuation of the description of the building of the mishkon all the different parts of the mishkon all the different the vessels of the mishkon and the structure of the mishkon and the Torah tells us this is in Chapter 35: 30 that there was an amazing human being in individual who is who is responsible for the craftsmanship that was involved in the creating of these beautiful vessels of the Mish Moses said to the children of Israel behold God has called out in the name of B benri to a certain individual his name was B he was a son of URI who was the son ofur and he was a member of the tribe of Judah verse 31 God filled him with a spirit of godliness with different types of understandings and wisdoms and the ability to create craftsmanship I'd like to share with you two different M which point out and speak about the fact that Hashem is pointing out the name of B this individual this amazingly talented individual but it's pointing at his name there are two aspects here one is the fact that hm is calling out in his name giving us his name telling us who this person was but also the fact that it's giving us not just his name but the name of his father and the name of his grandfather and the name of his tribe what is the significance or the depth of the idea of giving us his name his father's name his grandfather's name and his tribe so the first thing I'd like to share with you is the that says like this this is in the second teaching see that Hashem has called out in the name what is what is the concept here so as is its way begins with a it's a verse in Isaiah 40:25 the verse tells us that God says who can you compare me to so the mag explains what is going on here bu of if you have a human being if he's going along in the Darkness and someone would come along and help him out and turn on a light for him does he not need to show appreciation for that so in some similar way Hashem is saying that there's something that I am doing to benefit the people of the world so they also need to show me appreciation the Creations are sleeping and what do I do I cause the sun to rise do they not need need to show [Music] appreciation so that's the the meaning of the verse the verse is telling us that hasem is saying I do the most amazing favors for the people of the world I cause the sun to rise every morning I give that life-giving sustenance it's light it's warmth all that comes along with that I'm the one who does that so they need to show the world needs to show appreciation to me says God because I am the one who does it I the one who gives them life and that would seem to be the continuation of the verse as the continues and says who can you compare me to of for all the favors that I do and therefore that's why y people speak of the Praises of God and say that God is Holy the verse continues raise up your eyes to the heavens and see who has created these so there's two merits that are needed one is for the world to be created and one is for the world to continue to have its existence now what is the Merit in whose Merit was the World created and in whose Merit does it continue to exist so the word a it says what was what was it what was the Merit that caused God to create it was a what's a the word a means these so we find says that the word a is used in reference to two things Israel the verse in at the very beginning of Exodus the first verse speaks of these names of the children of Israel so it was in their Merit that the world was created in the first place and in whose Merit does the world continue to exist in the in the Merit of these statutes these ordinances these laws by keeping the T by fulfilling the prescription for life life that God gives us it's in that Merit that the world continues to exist so I just want to point out over here that the the P the simple understanding of the verse is that the Torah is telling us Isaiah the prophet is telling us to look up at the heavens and see that God created the world that it's you know Gods it belongs to God now mes is taking it a little bit out of the pat taking it a little bit out of the simple understanding and telling us that it's not just God's will that the world come into existence but rather that the world has a reason for coming into existence there's a there's a merit there's something that human beings have done or the fact that there are going to be human beings that causes the world to have its ability to come into existence and that's the Jewish people and that's the Torah itself the keeping of the laws that God gives us that's what causes the world to have its Kum to have its continued existence so we need to understand because it's a very fine point but is it true that the world exists just because of God's grace just because God wants it to because his of his infinite love or is there something that we do to earn it is it because of a certain Nation who is spiritual let's say who who fulfills the Torah who does what they're supposed to do is that why the world has existence which way is it how are we to understand this now the M continues with another perplexing issue the verse tells us the continuation of the verse in speaking of the stars and the the celestial beings and also in speaking of the spiritual hosts of the heavens meaning the Angels themselves God takes out all of these amazing numbers of items you see there are millions and billions trillions of stars takes them all out and he gives each one a name every single star has a name so this verse refers to the fact that God gives them all one name Basham shame is singular that they all have one name because but there's another verse it's a verse in Psalms in chapter 147:4 it refers to the fact that gives them all names plural God has many names there are many names for all of the different Stars each star has a name and not only that but each of his Celestial hosts all of the Heavenly beings all the Angels they each have names how are we to understand these two verses they seem to be a contradiction do they all have one name or do they all have individual names the continues when God wants to call them all as one he calls them all with a single name when he wants to he can call them each by its individual name each one has its own special name this Angel is called Michael this one's called Gabriel and that's why the verse in Psalms refers to the fact that there are many names that God gives as opposed to the verse here in Isaiah refers to the fact that sometimes there's a single name that they're all given we need to understand this what is the meaning here what does it mean that there's one name for all of the celestial hosts for all of the Angels they all have one name and at the same time there are many different names what is the meaning what is the Mish trying to teach us here with this idea with this concept and now the Mish finishes off with an amazing statement this is not just true above how do I know that it's even true below how do I know that it's not just the celestial hosts the Spiritual Beings the Angels but how do I know how do I know this is even true for human beings see behold we have the verse our verse itself that says that God has called out in the name of Balo bsal this human being God says I have called his name and we see that just like the Spiritual Beings have a name which really means that they express something individual some special power some special outstanding spiritual power each one of those Spiritual Beings has an outstanding spiritual power that expresses itself in the world so to every human being the men is teaching us every single human being has a name has a special purpose expresses also a special spiritual power that only that person has and yet even though the Mish doesn't say this explicitly but it's clear that just like it is above so it is below in the upper spiritual Realms all of the angels have their own unique name they all Express a certain spiritual aspect but at the same time they all can be called with one name and notice that each and every Angel has in his name the name of God Mikel Gabriel the last two letters of the name is also how we refer to God and notice also B his name also ends with hashem's name meaning there's a one there's a single unifying name which expresses the fact that we are all all the human beings in the world all the Spiritual Beings in the world we are all an expression of God we can all be called by one name by God's name and at the same time we each have a unique expression of Hashem in the world Bal is the artist he's the one who uses that unique manifestation of wisdom of of understanding of intuition to express godliness in the world to create a mishon to create a tabernacle into which hashem's divine presence will come into to the world in the most manifest way it's not anywhere in the world that you can see openly godliness in the world only in the Mish only in the Tabernacle and that's something that's going to be expressed by a human being AAL who has godliness in his name and who has his own special and unique talent that he is given that he expressed that he manifests in the world that he shows godliness that godliness reflects through him now there's one last point in this Maes I don't want to read the whole thing I just want to read one aspect of this point it says like this you see that the verse refers to the fact that his name is gives us his whole Liney gives us his whole genealogy gives us his whole background why does it do that so in this Mish and we're going to see another Mish that explains it even more this Mish says we mention him we talk about the praise of the fact that he is manifesting godliness in the world it's a praise for him it's a praise for his father it's a praise for his family and it's a praise for the entire tribe that he has come from so it gives us his genealogy in order to say that this is not something that happens in a vacuum the fact that b is somebody who manifests godliness in the world it's not just because of him it's because he has a father named URI and URI the fact that he was able to have a child who would manifest godliness in the world it also didn't happen in a vacuum is because he has a father father named and the fact that did that it's not it's also not an Evac it's because he's part of a shave he's part of a tribe of people who are focused on manifesting godliness and his tribe's name is Judah and that tribe also is there to manifest godliness in the world and if we think about it a little bit deeply we can see that when the Torah is giving us his Liney is saying go back go back and go back further because if you start to go back you go back to the father you go back to the grandfather you go back to the great great great great grandfather eventually are going to be able to come back to the true source of it all which is Hashem himself who is the one who created man and who originally created the possibility for a manifestation of godliness in the world so we can say that it's not really a stero we asked before it seems to be a contradiction is God creating the world because of his own because he feels like it as it were because he wants to manifest himself in the world or is God creating it for is for the people of Israel because of the the fact that there's going to be a Jewish people in the world is it because of the fact that God wants there to be Torah observance in the world is that why which one is it and the answer is yes answer is both are true because whenever we have Torah observance in the world when we have people who are focused on living a spiritual life we have people who are focus and that's who the Jewish people are and that's the message of the Jewish people to the world when that's the focus so we remember the Ben Isel it's amazing it's in the names itself the children of Israel it's the these are the names of the children of Israel we don't forget who we come from we know we have the we have the tribes and it goes back to the people of Israel Israel was our great-grandfather and he was a child of Jacob and he was a child of Abraham and it goes back and it goes back and it goes back ultimately to the source of all of life which is Hashem himself and the Torah instructs us Isaiah the prophet yesah instructs us look up look back see what's the root what is the the root of what's created all of these who created all of these because as we look at these as we look at the children of Israel as we look at those who fulfill the Torah we are automatically drawn back our eyes are raised back to God and we are able to recognize who's the one that causes the sun to rise every single morning we're able to have that that recognition of the fact that Hashem created the world and it's for that very recognition that Hashem created the world so that we should be able to come into a relationship with him and niiz and call God by name now I want to share with you one more piece in the Mish and the next piece in the Mish gimmel that really teaches us the depth of what does it mean how can I create how can I create this ability this kind of situation where my children indeed are those who are going to to to express God in the world like the Balo benri like the verse tells us as we mentioned it didn't happen in a vacuum says that look Hashem has called the name of B the son of UR the son of why was it necessary to mention here why why are we mentioning his grandfather right clearly if we're mentioning the grandfather there must be something in B the fact that he's manifesting God in this way must be because there was something there from his grandfather there it's an amazing story that happened with his grandfather in whose Merit he merited to have an amazing grandson who would make it possible for God to be revealed in this world in this way the Jewish people were about to serve this idolatry in last week's para of the serving the idolatry of the golden calf what did he do got up was bal's grandfather he got up and he wanted to stop it he said Jewish people don't do this amazing sin don't sin to God this way don't create this idolatry what happened he got in the way they got up and they killed him I'm God said to him I swear I'm going to pay you back this will not go unrewarded it's comparable it's an analogy to a King that his Legions rebelled against him so his main officer got up the the leader of his battalions got up and he tried to stop them and he said to them you're you're rebelling against the king they got up and they killed him they killed this officer this great officer the king says if he had given me money if he had lent me money would I not need to pay him back if someone has died I said have to pay him back have to pay back his kids what did he do he gave me his very Soul he gave up his life for me what can I do for him all children that he has any children that he may have I'm going to make sure that they become great officers great people in My Kingdom in a similar way the people of Israel were rebelling against God they were creating a golden calf got up and he gave up his life for God so says I swear to you any children that you have I'm going to raise them up with a beautiful name in the world they're going to have they're going to be famous and that's why the verse says that God has called out in the name of the son of URI the son of teaching us this idea that God is giving him Fame but really giving him recognition of the fact that he is manifesting God in the world so what I want to say what I want to draw out from this me we see the depth of the mes I believe is that there was something special Bal grew up in a home his grandfather was somebody who sacrificed for God he was willing to give up his life for what's right he wanted to manifest in a very powerful way godliness in the world and as a result of that as a result of him giving up his life for what was right he merited to have someone else who would manifest in an intense way a place for the divine presence to come into the world and it's not a coincidence that the very act that was trying to prevent which the Jews did indeed sin with would live on through his child URI who would live on through his child Balo and would indeed through his grandson provide an opportunity for the Jewish people to have a kapara to have an atonement for the sin that they did because the mishan as we know the mishkon would provide an opportunity for the Jewish people to atone would they would bring Corban it itself the whole concept of the mishkan was to reconnect to God despite the fact that they had fallen from that connection with Hashem with God and I think that the depth of what's going on here of what this teaching is is that when we sacrifice when we show our strong willingness to do hashem's will to stand up for what's right there is no greater statement to our children and our grandchildren of what's important to us of what it's really all about and there's no greater bringing of hashem's light into the world it's like every Star you know it shines the light into the world there are groups of stars the in in cabala in the it speaks about the the zodiac signs and and and the power that hasem gives to them and they're an expression of Hashem in the world they they're a light in the world just like the sun rising gives life to all of humankind to all of the world so too the the different Stars also have certain powers and the measures is expressed ing the fact that when we are willing to sacrifice to to do what's really right we are also turning on a light we are also being that star we are also expressing and manifesting godliness in the world I want to bless you and please bless me that Hashem should help us to be able to be willing to make the sacrifices to do what's right to be that example for our children for our grandchildren Hashem should help us to be a manifestation of his greatness in the world of his light in the world AEM should be mizak us give us the Merit to be amongst those who bring that light into the world who manifest through the beauty of Torah through the beauty of our names through the beauty of our families through the beauty of our children and through the beauty of Art and music or whatever it is whatever it is that Hashem has given us the talents that Hashem has given us should help us to indeed be able to manifest his greatness in the world and always be a manifestation of spiritual and godliness thank you 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