Vayikra - Calling From Love

you're listening to the weekly partial podcast with ari goldwag recorded with hashem's never earning assistance in rama bishop michigan 57 81 2021. this week's parsha is practically at the beginning of a brand new save for a new book of the torah we're going to talk about the carboni cinar parsa we're going to continue on throughout the safer speaking about the avodah the special service of the kohanim in the bay samek dash in the mishkan the tabernacle but mainly whenever we are at the beginning of something we see the beginning always defines what is going to follow it defines the essence of what the concept is what is the mishkan about we've spoken about it already a number of times what is the concept of the mishkan what is the the service in the mishkan so the torah tells us and lays down for us with the first pasuk hashem called out to mashiva hashem he loved me almighty more and he spoke to him from this tent of meeting and he said to him as follows and the posix so can go on to describe the carbonis the sacrifices which were commanded to moshe to speak about to the jewish people what do we see what is the foundation here it's easy to miss this because it's it seems to be just like an introductory puzzle to get us to the rest which is talking about the carbonus but i would like to pause it before we get into the madrish i'd like to posit that this is the center of why there's a mishkan the purpose of the mishkan is vayikra vayikra that god calls out to the leader of the jewish people he calls out and really he tells him lay more to say meaning the essence of the mishkan is the place where hashem meets am israel where he speaks to the leader of israel in order to communicate with the jewish people so the mishkan the tabernacle is a place of communication of revelation yes of course how does that revelation occur as we've spoken about over the last few weeks that occurs because of our avoid of our service of our creating a vessel through which hashem will speak in our lives through our learning of the torah through our commitment and willingness to serve hashem in the way that he wants but what is the result the result is that hashem calls out to moshe and then turn to the jewish people and he reveals his will to moshe and to the jewish people it's an important introduction to understand the measures because the message is going to we're going to see is speaking about the the new the special prophecy of moshe albanu and the special new the special prophecy of the prophets of the jewish people in contrast to hashem's revelation that he does give to the umass to the nations of the world but it's a different type of revelation it's important to understand that this is you know we've we've been working up to the creation of the mishkan the creation of our own personal mission our own personal tabernacle our own personal place where god will speak to us but this is it this is hashem speaking to us and he speaks to us in a certain way a very powerful way and it's different for the jewish people than it is for the nations of the world and it's important to understand it it's important to understand the special hebrew the special love that god has for the jewish people and here it is it starts with the mishkan says actually there was a semblance of naval of prophecy the nations of the world could access before shall speak about through a certain through certain meditations through his budget as being alone being alone in one's mind by the sichlies person could merit to have a revelation of hashem now that was possible for the nations of the world only before the mishkan misha mishka nastaka name once the mishkan came so the nations of the world no longer had access to this village says in shirashiram in the song of psalms chapter 3 verse 4 i have held on to him i will not let him go that once there's a connection which is made between god and the jewish people that connection is exclusive no one else can have the same type of relationship with hashem as the jewish people the nations of the world can indeed access god as well but only through us they have to copy our torah you know look at christianity in islam their access to hashem is through an imitation of yiddishkai but still it's not a direct it's still not not a direct relationship um okay so the measure says akasha what i mean there's no access the game also had they had a bilum bilam also had revelations majestic explains no bilaam's revelations were for the purpose of claus israel even when a non-jew has a revelation the revelation is for our purpose it's for us it's for him to say praise of the jewish people for him to speak about the future what's going to happen to the jewish people or even the nations of the world in so far as their relationship with us okay that's the first part of the majority first is establishing that with the building of the mishkan this established our relationship with hashem such that only the jewish people are the ones who receive revelation and direction clearly from god let's see more ma ben nivea is what is the difference between the prophets of the jewish people versus the prophets of the nations of the world these sages had their opinions as follows when hashem speaks to the nations of the world to the prophets of the nations of the world so he speaks to them in half speech he doesn't say things clearly it's not spelled out clearly all right what does ar-pasic say our pastor says hashem spoke to my surabinu you love right we just read this like of what's the difference a car is a half word it's missing the full conjugation of the word it also means in this shot it also means to call out hashem called out and and offered a navor prophecy to bilum but he didn't say it fully vaikar right he didn't say it all the way vayikra like he says to mushroom it's not as clear it's not as explicit god speaks to us in a clearer way how does how do the nations of the world get it they get it from us like like like they like like we said before you know they took like a diluted version of our torah and that's what they do that's what the nations of the world do the christians and the muslims okay so that's the first shot obviously when god speaks to the prophets of the jewish people it's very clear complete words he called out that's the first problem this second sage says as follows this is their reward he says which it says by bilum is a different type of language than vayikra which it says by masher abbeynu and hear this because this is the essence of who we are as jewish people what is our relationship with hashem what is unique about our relationship with hashem va yikar is a different kind of language doesn't just mean to call it means says he says it's a language of impurity value come it's a language of impurity impurity has to do with something that happens by itself mikraela there's an impurity that a man may experience if he said improper thoughts during the day so he'll have an omission at night it's referred to as a microlila carry so that's something that happened and it's toma it's impurity okay so the way that hashem interacts with navier umasalam hear this understand this is there's an aspect of impurity there's an absolute aspect of it just happened it just happened right there are certain things that just happen that's called a mikre in hebrew and muforsham explain what is the idea because the navi the navi of the prophet of the nations of the world doesn't know when it's going to happen bilaam thought when he speaks to them when he speaks to the people who had come to him to ask him for for uh to curse the jewish people and he speaks to bilaam i'm sorry when he speaks to balak the king who hires him to try to curse the jewish people he says it may happen hashem may come and maybe hashem will come and he will and they'll say something they'll give me a prophecy but it's not something that you know doesn't happen automatically it's not something that he knows for sure and it's not something that really the the this person this bilum or russia we refer to him as such a person he's unable to really receive it he doesn't really deserve it it happens but it's not something that he can sustain he might be able to get up to that level for a moment but it's just it happened not so with the jewish people of olivia you sure abolishing kedusha the jewish people it uses the language of holiness in tahara of purity blush and borrow a clear language the language that the that the angels used in order to praise god come at the time of the karazawa they call out to each other and they say kardashian they refer to the fact that god is holy but how do they do it they call out to each other hashem calls out to moshe it's not just happenstance it's not just you're not really on that level mashraf it's vayikra just like by the malachim they call out to each other they say come let's let's join together come let's let's praise god together that's what holiness is holiness is where there's a calling out there's a seeking connection there's it's not just me trying to get what i want like by billum he's like trying to squeeze god to get a uh to get a curse for the jewish people doesn't let him but but it's he's he's like uh he's trying to get something from god vayikra it's hashem calling to us to ask us to do something for him we want to hear what god wants us to do that's what kedusha is it's a relationship what's our prophecy our prophecy is about trying to understand what it is that god wants from us not trying to convince god to bring a curse onto someone heaven forbid other way around we want to have a relationship by crow just like the malachim the angels call each other because of their love for hashem for god and for each other they all love each other they're all there's a clarity there there's a clarity they know each and every one of them knows their job there's no jealousy they're all working together for what to praise god that relationship with god to do god's will that's vayikra sham calls to us hashem from the mishkan which is all about service of god this place that we've created this this rubric through which we are going to serve god we're going to have a relationship with god hashem calls to us through that there's a calling it's not just happenstance god doesn't just happen into our lives rather it's a calling someone calls to us and we respond to that call it's a real relationship let's hear them the message the verse tells us in proverbs chapter 15 verse 29 god is distant from the wicked. and the verse also says that god will listen to the prayers of the righteous they are referred to as the wicked the prophets of the nations of the world hashem is very distant from them but but the the relationship hashem has with the prophets of the jewish people and in turn with the jewish people it's important to understand as we said out from the beginning the relationship that we have with him is when god desires our prayers god wants our prayers because it's not just about us like we said interesting listen to this we find the verse tells us refers to the fact that when someone comes from a far away land they came whenever it talks about hashem speaking to bilaam to the wicked prophet right this wicked prophet hashem came to him hashem he loved joseph says by loving came to him at night it says by the nations of the world when they had a prophecy hashem comes from far away it's it's a distant relationship it's a moment it's he happens to come but it's not love it's not it's not reciprocal it's not the the the this prophet is trying to understand what god's will is for himself and for his people like we said it's him trying to convince god to do something possible says by abraham of enough says by abraham god revealed himself to him it says by by our passage by mushroom he calls out to him he's not coming from anywhere he's not far away he's close it's a deep loving relationship a unique relationship that the jewish people has and other nations do not have that's what the mishkan is about representing this unbelievable idea as we've spoken about that's what the tire is about it represents our relationship and our willingness to serve god to the best of our ability and this is the message says the amazing difference between us and them so to speak he he and his and his beloved one were in some kind of hall and there was a curtain between them right why does the king have a curtain because he's beyond he's he's someone who can't be seen he's someone who is perhaps he's busy and he's involved in matters of state he's involved in the matters of the country and taking care of his people that's one aspect perhaps there's also an aspect of you can't see the king because you shouldn't think that he's the same as me now you can't see the king can't access the king the king well i saw a picture of the queen of england she looks like everybody else she looks very stately very royal she wears a crown that's she's just a person don't make that mistake there's a villain there's a block and only certain types of people are allowed to see in there who's allowed to see in there and that's essential essential to understand when he's talking to his beloved one he knows he can trust his beloved one the one who has a real relationship with not to make such a mistake not to think oh the king is regular the king is not regular so this king he allows his beloved one to see him he takes down the partition the prophet of the nations of the world his axis is through a partition hashem doesn't allow himself to be seen completely he doesn't want to be understood completely he doesn't want the mistakes to be made again by someone whose relationship with him is not pure is not loving is not two ways two two directions it's just one direction what can i get if that's the relationship hashem says i can't trust you you can't look at me you can't see things as they really are because you won't be able to handle it because all you are is selfish all you care about is yourself but our unique relationship with hashem and hear this our unique relationship with hashem is one of relationship of love we're willing to do your will hashem we're ready here we are we're ready to serve you we're ready to jump up when you say bring gold and silver we're ready to bring our hearts and hashem says oh this is what i'm looking for you're ready to serve me i will call out to you i will call out to you and i want to share with you that you know it's been my experience it's been my experience over this whole uh time of corona that we have all we have all had an experience that hashem has come by hashem has come suddenly crap what is going on china did it this one did it what happened scientists creating no bats the whole thing it's all like sudden like knocked us over car but i want to share with you that there's another way in swayi kuro hashem calls out to us not knocking us over and revealing himself to us and making us think and making us more aware making us more appreciative of what we have what we do have there's another way it's called where hashem calls to us and he says my children i want you to have a relationship with me i want you to talk to me i want you to ask me for stuff i want you to try to serve me and i'm going to i'm going to direct you i'm going to show you what i want you to do my experience was that bar before corona began before this pandemic knocked us over my experience was hashem guided me in a number of others to talk about bittorrent about faith in god to talk about how can i bring god into my life how can i make a space for god i was talking about that already if you've been following since two years ago two years ago we started speaking much more abitaken of faith in god trusting god bringing god into our lives we've talked about it before many occasions but it became more of a central focus and it was a full year before we were that by yika we were knocked over by this revelation of hashem in the world where people have started thinking about god more and i think that each and every one of us can ask ourselves the question what does our relationship look like with hashem is it vayikra have we demonstrated our willingness to serve him have we developed our awareness of what it is that hashem wants what it says in his torah what a relationship with him really looks like we're coming to him saying we want to serve you and therefore vayikra hashem is calling out to us and showing us this is how i want you to serve me or does our relationship look like the um hashem knocks us over we're not really there i had a discussion recently with a with a someone else in the cola where i learned about you know this is a shakeup this was a shake over people going to just go back to where they were or are they going to you know when things settle down everyone's just going to go back to where they were are they going to really take something out of this and my thought was well it really depends if you've been thinking about this from before and all along so then you'll take something out of this it will change you but if a person never thought about it and never was interested in change the chances of the the whole pandemic having had an effect on us are much more limited it's so easy to just go back to the way it was so easy to just keep going on with our lives without too much thought that's called vayikar it just happens just you know god showed himself in the world showed his divine justice in the world and what did i get from it or i'm a kind of person this is this is what we are you know we have to strive for i'm the kind of person who is looking to serve hashem i'm the kind of person who is looking to see what it is that god wants i'm the kind of person who's striving to be godly that's the difference between the the relationship of the jewish prophet of the jewish people and the relationship of the umasa islam the nations of the world with god is it something that we're striving for is it something that maybe once in a while we'll think about if it knocks us over the head i want to bless you and ask you to bless me should help us to be amongst those people who are striving who are building our mishkan who are building a tabernacle a sanctuary within which is going to rest within us we're looking for god's will so that the relationship that we have with him should be one of of love of purity of clarity thank you so much for listening have a wonderful shabbos this podcast was made possible through the gracious donations of listeners like you for more podcasts like this please visit www.ariegoldwag.com or search on itunes ari goldwag