Ari Goldwag - Vzos Habracha-Succos - Receiving Blessings

you're listening to the weekly partial podcast recorded with a showman's never-ending assistance in Rome impatient wishes real 5777 2016 this week is partial visit Abraha we're going to complete the Torah we're gonna read the last parsha of the Torah on Simchat Torah the last day of the holiday of circus and I'd like to share with you a thought about the parsha and about the concept of circus the core essence of what circus is about this holiday when we come out of our homes we sit in a temporary dwelling place we cover ourselves with the sky with a divine presence we remind ourselves Shem covered the Jewish people with his clouds of glory during their sojourn in the wilderness 3,300 years ago and in commemoration of this fact I'm actually recording this podcast in my suka I'm sitting here under the scoff which reminds me of the wings of the screen of the wings of the Divine Presence and so if you hear some birds chirping more loudly than usual you hear some children playing outside that's because I'm sitting outside but the idea I'd like to share with you is really at the beginning of this week's parsha the beginning of his own Sbrocco moshe rabbeinu Moses gives the blessings to the Jewish people and he tells them about all the different special characteristics that each of the tribes have and it's very clear that the the blessings of Moshe man of Moses parallel and and are a continuation in a sense of the blessings of Yaakov Aveeno of Jacob when Jacob gave those blessings to the tribes the original progenitors of the tribes themselves Reuben Shimon La Vie etc so the blessings here parallel those blessings I'd like to share with you the measure at the very beginning of the parsha that speaks about the continuity between the blessings of Abraham Isaac and Jacob Moshe and interestingly there's a continuation somehow we'll need to understand us as well to the tehilim of mm Allah King David's Psalms are somehow connected to the blessings of Abraham Isaac Jacob and Moses now to illustrate this idea our sages chose in the measures as we've seen a few times speak about a concept of a halakhah something that's due to do a Jewish law and through that concept in Halawa through that idea that we see in Jewish law it can come to teach us something that's connected to our parsha so our sages and speaking about the blessings of moshe rabbeinu and speaking about the blessings of moses wanted to give us a connection to our blessings to the blessings that we make every single day three times a day we say the 18 fold prayer which is actually 19 blessings we refer to as the Amidah the standing prayer that we say three times a day chakra is min Komarov and those 19 blessings that we see every day there's an interesting concept in Jewish law we have the idea that we say quietly to ourselves it's called the stylish montes for the kawatche montessori we say quality to ourselves and when we're in synagogue so the Amidah is repeated these 19 blessings are repeated by the schliersee were by the one who represents the entire congregation now this practice heralds back to a time when many many people were unfortunately illiterate could not read or didn't know the prayers themselves and therefore they needed someone to say those prayers on their behalf and the Cantor initially oxi bore the one who represents the congregation would indeed say those prayers on the behalf of the entire congregation now the question is let's say in the middle they didn't have prayer books at those times let's say in the middle of saying the prayer repeating the schwa yesterday the show hasn't got stuck let's see forgot the blessings in the middle of saying a blessing and he forgets what to do we forget to the next lines and for whatever reason no one can help him out no one can remind them you just can't pull it together so what's the hollow huh what is one do in such a case so the matrix tells us it's actually a Mac locust but we're gonna just we're gonna look at the second sheet of the second understanding measures says like is how I really at a velvet are someone who is in front of the table in front of the Ark and he's representing the congregation makes a mistake yeah varaha tov tov' someone else should come and take his place I mean I who muscle not a person who's starting in his place where should he begin from where should he start from should continue from the place that the the person before me left off meticulous a bruschetta so this explanation over here sir that you continue from the same blessing that the person made a mistake you don't go back to the beginning of the shamone as you don't go back to the beginning of the prayer rather you continue from where the person left off I mean he's an alum do where did we learn this idea from may of asylum we actually learned that when it comes to blessings we always continue from the point where the last blessing left off we don't go back as it were to the beginning how do we see this we're learning this house out from the patriarchs Lama how do we know she'll Ohio Moscow le mock-up was a kuvira we find that each one when they would say a blessing when Abraham said his blessing when ye it's continued the blessing so to speak when he gave it over to the next generation he just continued from the place where Abraham left off and Jacob did the same Kate saw how do we see the sovereign bureaucracies how we see that Abraham gave a blessing to Isaac midnight indexof we see a reference to the blessing in Genesis chapter 25 verse 5 ie 10 Avram is colossal early it's hook Abraham gave all that was his to Isaac so it uses the lushing uses the language of I eaten which means to give he gave man awesomely Buda ribbon ham yup so there is a difference of opinion as to what it was that was given over what was he giving armor behind us and I rebus says that he was giving him the firstborn rights I mean a cameo hemming says Brock ah nothing like he was giving him a blessing which it's interesting obviously that the the word Braja and bahara had the same exact letters the concept of the firstborn the the rights of the firstborn that double portion of spirituality that involvement in bringing the car bonuses sacrifices etc which are connected to the firstborn they're obviously connected to the concept of blessings perhaps we'll see more about that but Raveena hi Mia says the point here is that Abraham was giving blessings to Isaac that's what he was giving to him Keenan shanem are like we find that the word giving is using the concept of blessings we eat a la hoja la Kim that the blessing that was given by Isaac to Jacob had the word V eat and in it had the word to give God should give to you all of the different blessings so we see that the idea that Abraham was giving over the the giving that he was giving blessings ammonia variks Yaakov now Isaac gets up he wants to get the blessings to Jacob all my army Malcolm Shabazz rock album in Shawnee Mossville the place where my father left off is where I'm going to begin Abba hip Sigma V attained my father the last thing I did it was he did of I eaten out giving gave the blessings upon a masculine value 10 I'm also going to begin with V attained a giving me 9 should never buy eternal heart like him that's why that is the very reason why Isaac started off the blessing of Isaac to Jacob with the word value 10 he shall give the idea of giving is very much connected to the concept of blessings and it's important to point out as the Atheist have explains the same Madras is brought down in the end of braces and the ACS have explains their the concept is that each one was showing respect for the previous ones blessings if I'm gonna give you a blessing but you already received blessings from someone who's greater than me so I'm going to acknowledge that the person before me who is greater than me who gave you blessings that his blessings are greater man I'm just picking up so to speak from where he left off I'm not you know gonna give you something greater than then the greater person gave to you I'm just gonna pick up where he left off so there's a tremendous humility in the obvious as we go through them and we see that they're continuing as so to speak from where the other person left off I'm an awesome eun-suk the matter continues and says how did you suck finish off his blessings but Korea he called out SHINee Marvin you critical Yaakov ever closer Isaac called out to Jacob and He blessed him so there was a calling out mama de aquila work has a schwa Tim when Jacob got up to give blessings to the tribes to all of his twelve sons Armour any possession of a Korea I also want to start off by calling out shanem are you krokov Alban of jacob calls out to his sons so it's very interesting because there's two different things really going on we need to understand it that there is the actual blessing itself the wording of the blessing itself there's also the way that the blessing is given there's a viet in a giving over and there is a calling and so we're going to see the word of is ice which denotes a very specific this is the blessing like our partial start services Abraha this is the blessing my Mac awesome so the magic continues and says how does Jacob finish off his blessing biz ice with the words ice which means this jan mr vistas I assured ibrahim avium and this is what jacob spoke to them this is what he said to them so there's a demarcation a clear denoting a statement this is what he said this was the blessing that he gave that same word viz ice we find at the beginning of our partial oh my mention of our 'this is wrong when moses got up to give a blessing to people of israel i'm are any Pacifica's ice i'm gonna start off with the same way that jacob left off with the words ice this mean I'm a magic Kareem about universe abraha how do we know this from that which it says in our parsha visit Abraha and this is the blessing we need to understand what is the concept of and this have to do with blessings but the measure shear doesn't doesn't give us the conclusion of the measures which we find elsewhere but they see as it brings it that we find that moshe also finished off with a math course aisha how does moshe finish off his blessings he says a shrek is well he speaks about the fact that praiseworthy are you people of israel I'm like Shaba shem you are saved by God God is your protector the AFT of it now it's very interesting Dov it also even though he's not saying a blessing he's saying praises cause she won't blame our tehila when he comes to say praises when he comes to seek tehilim when it comes to say the praises of God which are embodied in the Psalms your Malcolm chapeau sack mushroom is from his Hill the place that Moses left off Moses left off saying Ashraf is rel praiseworthy are you O people of Israel that's where dove it picks it up a Sheree Howie she says praiseworthy is the one a shreya Ayesha Sharla holla but Sasha Sean he hasn't gone on the ways of the evil ones the wicked ones goes on to speak the praises of a person who goes in the way of God who keeps the mitzvahs he's focused on learning Torah but we see very interesting that somehow there's a connection as we mentioned at the very beginning that somehow there's a connection between the Perez's of the hilum of Psalms and the concept of brockless of blessings we need to understand what is the idea of blessings what is the idea of the Broca's that that Avram is a Yaakov the patriarchs are giving that moshe is giving and how does it connect to the t he lays the Psalms of David King David singing those praises of God throughout all of the events of his life what is the connection between these two concepts and also what is the idea that when someone gives a blessing he picks up from the place where the the previous one left off what is the idea of that what is the what is the idea of the continuity between the different blessings despite the distance in time from Abraham to Isaac giving the blessing from Isaac to Jacob giving the blessings and certainly from Jacob to Moshe I've been to Moses there was a great period of time between them and from Moshe obeying all the way to King David also a great amount of time between them what is the idea that the message is telling us that there's somehow a continuity between these different blessings now to begin to understand it's like to share with you first a thought that's to do the idea of soukous like I said before I'm sitting inside of my suka I'm enjoying the stock the shade that's being provided for me reminding me of the shade of the divine wings so to speak though the divine presence is wings protecting me protecting the Jewish people throughout history and specifically in a time that they were protected in the wilderness so on suckers we have two mitzvahs two main Commandments that the Torah obligates us and one of one of them is to build this booth this sucker up which we sit in like we described and we're surrounded on all sides we're completely inside of the Mitzvah it's it's one of the only places one of really two places that we see that a person is completely surrounded by the mitzvot completely is engulfed by the mitzvot the other Mitzvah that we have is the Mitzvah of the arm Amina we take these four species the Myrtle branch the willow branch the palm branch and the citron the etrog we take these four species together different amounts of each one and we wave them in all the six different directions so we move them back and forth between our heart area and the six different directions to the right to left forward up down back but it always comes back to the center to the heart to the person himself and it's very interesting there's a halacha that the best way to performance Mitzvah one is supposed to do it at the first time that person doesn't let say in the daytime is to take the lulav and to do this action the waving of the lulav inside of the sucker and what is represented by this idea that one takes these two different mitzvahs and combines them the two different mixes of suckers and I think that the concept is that the the suka surrounds us the sucker reminds us of the divine presence of the fact that Hashem is completely surrounding us completely surrounding the world not just on a on a national level not just on a worldwide level but on a personal level God is there surrounding each and every Jew God is is all-knowing omniscient and God sees everything from the outside so to speak but when we take the lulav in the s rig it represents the fact that we take the midst of a Shem the commandments of God and we realized that it's something that's very close to us like we spoke about previously in regards to Rosh Hashanah Carvelli had ever made me feel the vocal as I say it's very it's very close to us at Torah God's commandments God's the connection to God our relationship with God is something which is already inside of us which is in our hearts and we represent that by budget by showing that by taking this this lula venus s ERG which represents all the different aspects so the esther presents the heart etc each singer has a different representation but the ideas we move it back and forth out away from us back towards us to represent the fact that our relationship with God is personal that God is personally in our lives God is personally taking care of us he's not just this transcendent God or doesn't care about things and it's only you know created the world heaven forbid just lets it flow on a settlement rather he is a personal God God is involved in our lives God is inside of our hearts God is alive inside of us and we have an opportunity through the mitzvahs through the commandments to have a personal relationship with God to manifest God in the world now one of the things that we do on circus one of the the Holocaust the laws the the concepts the mitzvahs the commandment that we fulfill on circuses is that we are mock FSM is baya the times of the temple times the base hammock - they would go around them is bath but Walter go-around with the lulav they would go around with our office there were different monogamy different things that were done today we fulfill this by going around the center of our but Tecna says the center of our synagogues and there's someone who stands in the middle holding a safer Torah and we surround and we go around and we make a big circle sometimes the circle can take up the entire base can assess the entire shul and we go around him with our little bit s Turk and by doing this whenever we have something in the center that we go around it represents the fact that this is the center of our lives this is the center of who we are this is the center of what we want to be so the Torah which represents the the commandments of a Shem the relationship that Hashem expects of us that wants us to do in our relationship with him that contract between the Jewish people on him that is the center of our lives that's what we focus on that's that's that's what we go around that's what we surround that's the center of what we focus on so now we have this idea that we see the the the tour itself the myths is the commandments the IRA meaning they are within us there was in our hearts the the Esther gate suffer presents the heart and we surround ourselves at the same time with this with the divine presence we realize that Hashem is outside of us completely surrounding us completely beyond us transcendent at the same time inside of us inside our hearts inside of our mouths inside of the essence of who we are and who we want to be and I think that if we think about it deeply think about the concept of blessings we think about the concept of broca's and we think about the concept of - he lies the Psalms of David we can realize it that this this is really this exact same concept a bra what's a blessing a blessing as a statement that I want to bring down from the heavens we eat in the high like a meat al-sham I'm I want God to give down to me all of my my physical needs but I recognize that they come from a place which is transcendent I recognize they come from a place which is the heavens I recognize it to come from something which is outside of me which is God so I see that there is this transcend aspect it's the sukkah it's that which surrounds me in Scotts divine presence the Annamayya covered that the clouds of God's God's glory there in the heavens they're surrounding me that's one aspect of the blessings and that's what Avram is so can yakko to bring down but there's another aspect of blessings and that's represented by King David himself by the Psalms of King David and that's a recognition of the good things that we already have in our lives it's that which is already inside of us it's the lulav it's the Esther gets the it's the heart the heart which is beating inside of us that since we were born until today never stopped really from before we were born from from only a few weeks after conception our hearts been beating everything inside of us is working in an unbelievable concert in a symphony unbelievable Hashem is inside of us running every aspect of ourselves personally in on a personal level on a national level on a world level you know when we think about you know the blessings of Avram it's okay Yahoo the blessings that they're giving don't really seem to have so much to do with the blessings that we speak about in the Shmona srei we talk about you know Hashem give me give me wisdom Hashem give me partners I give me livelihood a Shem give me this give me that there's all these different things we ask a Shem for they don't seem to be connected it's more of a request then than it is you know Avram it's okay not bequeathing something they're giving something over to their children the blessings that we speak of Anna Schwartz you don't seem to be the same idea but I think based on what we're saying it really explains it beautifully because the blessings really are a recognition they really are a recognition of the fact that God surrounds me that that goodness surrounds me that God is everywhere God is transcendent all good things come from God from around beyond me and at the same time somehow all the blessings I already have everything is inside of me already all that I need is really I already have everything that I need and it's amazing because these two things seem to be a contradiction if if I already have what I need them what do I need to ask for anything and if everything is coming from outside of me from the heavens from some faraway place then how could I believe that it's that it's something that I can find within me but somehow it's not as theorists somehow it's not a contradiction somehow both of these aspects are true and that's why when when da family says Psalms when he begins the Psalms he continues from the place of Moshe I mean he continues from those blessings to teach us that the blessings of the Psalms that the recognition the praises of God the fact that we already have what we need and and don't forget King David lived very difficult life and for him to say that I have everything that I need despite all the challenges and the travails that he went through is a tremendous statement it means that I have everything that I need somehow it comes from outside of me somehow it comes from a higher place but somehow is already inside of me that's the King David is teaching us when he continues from the blessings of emotion Rubino and I think that this also explains what does it mean that they continued even though there was a span of time between them they continued from the place where the other person left off maybe hundreds of years before him and I think that the idea is that there's a transcendent place which is beyond time which is where the blessings come from and there's a place where we are which is right here and right now and it seems like that they're not connected it seems like there's a disjoint it's disjointed there's a disconnect between this moment and let's say 400 years ago but somehow just like that which seems like is outside of me is not connected to that which is inside of me or the the point where I am the time where I am this mentor is teaching us that know that through blessings somehow that which is transcendent that which is beyond time somehow connects right here to this time and really connects all of the times all the times that ever existed and ever will exist all of those times are connected such that there's a true continuity between something that happened hundreds of years ago and this very moment the blessings continue the blessings are here and now even though it seems like they were then no they continue until now and there's not really any space between them and I think I'll get Marshall for it a good analogy for it is you know sometimes you meet a friend a person who had a beautiful relationship you were so connected with and you haven't seen him in a very long time and you just pick up from where you left off it's like it hasn't been any time since you last saw them and it's a beautiful example of this idea that when a person is really connected the connection transcends time the connection the blessings the the connectedness that we have we see between us is the truth of what there is is the truth of reality we really are connected even though it seems that we're far apart even though it seems that we might we might be far apart in our in our ship in time as well I'd like to bless you and I ask you to bless me a shrimp should help us that we should be able to recognize how his divine presence indeed surrounds us and it's also inside of a session should help us to experience these blessings able to recognize that they come from a place which is beyond us but at the same time they're truly found within us we should be able to say the Psalms we should be able to say the the praises of God and recognize how all these amazing blessings are already in our lives thank you so much for listening have a wonderful Shabbos and a wonderful end of your holiday this podcast was made possible through the gracious donations of listeners like you for more podcasts like this please visit WWE I don't lack you