Yisro - Israel Receives the Torah

you're listening to the weekly paral podcast with Ari goldwag recorded with hm's never ending assistance in Rat Israel 5784 2024 this week's para is para yro and our para contains the most impactful moment in human history the moment when the Jewish people received the Torah from God and all of history was changed forever more from that point on and one million people strong received an open revelation of God's word your God and the Ten Commandments they received and mosenu would then go up onto Mount Si in order to receive the rest of the Torah all 613 Commandments from Hashem and the PK tells us i' like to share with you a beautiful Mish says it's in chapter 19:3 Moshe went up up to Hashem now what does it mean that mosha went up to Hashem the Maru points out in explaining the medish and what we're trying to understand here that we find that God came down onto the mountain the PK says God came down onto the mountain God came down to speak to the Jewish people so what does it mean that Moshe went up we think of Moshe raenu and and rightfully so because we have descriptions as we of mosha actually going up to heaven which we have to understand what that means but the question is why does it why would we describe him as going up to heaven if Hashem came down from heaven as it were in order to give the Torah so the measure says like this says in in Psalms King David tells us chapter 68: 19 you went up to the heavens you went up to the above and you and you took from there a captive what's this you went up to above what is the captive we're going to see what this refers to M Alisa what does it mean you went up Alisa you were raised up you were picked up you are able to get to a place to a to a spiritual level of the malim of the angels and we're going to see that there's a conversation and this is a famous idea we're going to see something new about this that you may never heard I don't remember hearing there's a conversation and a and a a back and forth a m of sorts a battle between Mosher and and the and the angels over the Torah mosha is going to take captive take the Torah captive take it away from its rightful place it's a spiritual document that belongs in heaven but mosha is going to say no I'm going to take it down to earth and how is he going to accomplish that we're going to discover but the point is here that he had to go up to sh you had to go up to heaven and there's a few different aspects of this first of all is the aspect of the fact that he became like he he fought he battled with an with angels and the an says that what is this battle with angels just like we find by yobu Jacob yob battled with the with the Malik of asov he battled with the saton and he won the battle right they were battling all night long as yako was about to return back back to the land of Israel with his with his wives with his children moshu also battled with the angels I would have said I'm not a mafish but I would have said it's talking about this very battle that he battles with them over whether or not he's able to receive the Torah but the points out that when mosu went back to Egypt in order to redeem the Jewish people at hashem's command he also as the gar says in Adar he also had a battle with angels which had to do with the fact that he had not yet given a bris circumcision to his son but nevertheless mosenu his wife Tor was involved in the battle there was a battle between him and the angels and he subdued them and so the fact that he was able to subdue them meant that when he comes to shamim when he comes to heaven or when he comes to he has an experience let's say is an experence erience of Heaven of the of the Angels says actually God and all of his angels came down to earth in order to give the Torah so he has this experience this battle to grab the tah it's one which he's already prepared for he's already had an experience with him he he can he can win this battle says the another explanation [Music] there there was nobody else there says the M when mosenu spoke to God it was face to face I want to read to what says went up what does it mean he went up it means that he had a revelation of God he spoke to God upon Him face to face like the says which of course is an analogy because God doesn't have a face God is Not physical but he spoke to him as it were face to face the says sorry the the mes is about to say we'll read it together that that the lcos the tablets the stone tablets which had on them the Ten Commandments and the entire Torah were handed directly from Hashem to mosha I want to read it inside says the tablets were six hand breaths tall as it were God held onto two of those hand breaths and held the bottom let's say the two Hand breaths and there were two between the hands and the idea as the AC explains is that there was a direct contact it wasn't like uh it wasn't indirect it wasn't through any medium it wasn't through any excuse EXC meim and it wasn't through any Angels it was direct Hashem direct to Moshe to receive the Torah nothing else okay so that's the second aspect of he went up to Sham as it were he went up he rose up can you imagine this this is incredible I'm thinking about it a human being was on such a great level that in his physical body he could rise up he could become so great that he could speak directly to Hashem and hear God's voice directly and receive directly from God the Torah itself it's huge okay D oh I just want to the end of the here it caught my eye as I was about to move on he says here after explaining that it was given over without any anybody in between it means that you MOS were able to rise up and get to the place where God is where he sits in the Heavenly sphere since mosu developed his intellect he developed his spirituality to the point where he was on a tremendously purified level so he was merited that hem should call him up to the mountain personally he's has a personal invitation from God to give to to receive the Torah incredible let's go on okay so so we have here a third aspect the me says look at this amazing PK it says that he took captive he took something captive referring to taking the Torah he went up to heaven and he took the Torah captive generally speaking if you want to go into a country and you want to take something captive you want to get some boost so the way to do it is to to to steal something that nobody's really looking at walk into the into the art museum that doesn't have proper guards on it and there's no video cameras and steal the expensive art but see here's the thing went up to he went up to heaven and he took the Tyra which everyone had their eyes on everyone was staring at all the video cameras all of the guards were there and he just walked right in and took the T it's very interesting it's very interesting right he's able to take something clearly there's only clearly there's only one way to do that it's only if the one to whom it belongs is interested in it being taken right but all of the Guard guards are all around it the the Angels they're protecting it but they can't they can't protect it because wants to give it right that's kind of connected to what we saw right before where Hashem himself gave it right he walks through all of the guards and the guards are fighting him there's more of a description not in this medish we'll see a new description it's new for me in a moment but the the gamar talks about how MH tried to go up to and he tried to fight with the angels and Hashem says to him you need to respond to them the Angels say this is a spiritual document what are human beings doing with it they're they're not so spiritual and moshin responds and says well do you guys have parents that you need to beab that you need to honor that the Torah says honor your parents do you guys have a desire to kill that we need that you need to hear the words don't kill right so he fights with them and that's what has wants but ultimately the guards are not guards they can't guard something that the one to whom it belongs wants to give away so Hashem wants to give it but there's an aspect of it being taken away from its rightful place the Torah is a spiritual document and human beings are a mixture of physical and spiritual we could say says the you might think that the fact that mosu took it captive right he took the spoils he took it down he captured something from Heaven maybe it means he didn't pay for it he didn't he didn't go through any he didn't invest he just ran in took it and ran back down so the the P continues and says you took gifts listen to this P because we're going to actually each of these three words contains a huge lesson you took Gifts of a man okay so first is you took the word you took it was given to him as a purchase he had to he had to buy it in a certain sense what does it mean that he had to buy it for explain that he didn't he he didn't just get it with with no effort he was up there for 40 days and 40 nights he didn't eat he didn't drink he didn't sleep he was M the way to acquire the T incredible deep lesson you can't acquire the to without full effort you have to invest your your heart into the T you have to spend hours trying to understand a medish you have to you have to you have to give it your guts M was there he gave it his all maybe he'll have to pay maybe we have to bring some money up to Sham when he goes to get the Tyra maybe he has or when he goes up on the mountain Maybe he has to he has to bring money with him in order to acquire to pay for the Ty you got to pay for it it costs money the was given to him as a gift did not did not have to pay for it he didn't have to pay money for it he had to pay for it with his guts but he didn't have to pay for it with money and the explain because it's given to him in this way that's how it has to be given over right you're not supposed to pay for Tyra there's a concept of of ofb which means that a rebi because he's teaching your child Torah so he's not able to earn a paros he's not able to earn a livelihood so you have to give him the money that he would have earned had you not been teaching your child but you don't pay for the teaching you don't pay the rebi because he's a teacher you pay him because he he could be doing something else and he's got to support his family but the T is something which you have to work to receive and it's something that's given as a gift you don't pay for Tyra you don't pay to be taught now hear this this is this is the coolest thing ever I'm saying can you imagine this when listen to this at that time the Angels wanted to they wanted to stop him they wanted to grab him they wanted to to stop mosha from taking the Torah he's slipping in he's like a robber slipping in to take the Torah says an amazing [Music] thing his face transformed Hashem changed his face that he should look like Abraham Hashem turns to the angels and says aren't you embarrassed look who's here you remember this do you recognize this person so mosha didn't look like mosha anymore now he looked like abam like Abraham and Hashem says to the Mal do you not recognize him of course have to understand that there's a lesson there's a depth huge depth do you not recognize him aren't you embarrassed makes mosha look like Abraham and then he says to the angels you guys went to his house you guys he he he brought out food for you he he served you he took care of you he did for you he did kindness for you aren't you embarrassed to try to stop him from doing what he's here to do what is the message of it the M says explicitly what's the me message of the fact that hasem changes M's face that he looks likeah do you know why you are receiving the T mhu it's in the Merit of Abraham don't think it's because of you don't think it's because the Jewish people went through all of their challenges and difficulties and they did of course course and certainly they had merits but you should know the main Merit the main reason that you are receiving the tah now is in the Merit of ab Abraham the last of those three words is B which means for a man uh because of a man who is theam who is the man that were talking about why did the Jewish people receive the gift of the tah a gift the gift of the relationship with Hashem with God that we've had for 3,300 years how did we get it we got it in the Merit of Abraham of Abraham the kindness the the incredible human being that he was says in yahushua in Joshua 14:15 the the great man the man who is great amongst the Giants AB the greatest the greatest human being perhaps who ever lived the greatest B the greatest doer of kindness the great who sto stood tall tallest amongst the Giants this is what it means in the PK that Moshe went up to Hashem what does it mean he went up to hasem how is he able to rise how is he able to what was the wind that was under the wings of M as he flew so to speak up to heaven the wind was the the Merit of Abraham the finishes off and says Harley more says God called him from the mountain what does it mean God Called to him from the mountain in the Merit of the mountain who are the mountains the mountains are the the says hero mountains the fight of God mosha went up to God he went up in a cloud he came down in a cloud he was like Rising and coming back down what was blowing what was the wind as I said under the wings of M under the cloud that he flew up on as it were it was the the Merit of the a of the of the Abraham is and Jakob of the of the great ones of Jewish history it's an incredible thing mosu didn't have any on his own Moshe Moses didn't have a merit on his own the Jewish people had no merits of their own but the depth is that who we are where we come from it's all interconnected it's it's so important it's so deep it's so it's so essential we are nothing on our own we are only great in so far as we are continuation of those who came before us the great people who came before us we are rooted we have a foundation we're something only because we continue in the great ways of those before us mosh raenu had his own face looked like himself until they started fighting with him and they said who are you the angel said who are you how did you get through how did you get in here how did you make it into the to the center of the of the special security spot with the most precious item in our entire possession and Hashem makes his face turn into a and says this is how he got in this is where the comes from and I want to read to you one more Mish which was referenced by the Maro and speaks of it speaks of what was the Merit that the Jewish people had in order to be able to get out of Egypt in the first place which is the same really the purpose of leaving Egypt was to get the Torah to enter into a relationship with God the P says in shim the songs song of songs that Hashem as it were I think it's referring to God uh jumps over the mountains he skips between the mountains the mountains as we saw refers to the the great [Music] forefathers if I look at the actions of the Jewish people themselves they'll never be redeemed why we had gone so far we become so entrenched in the culture of Egypt we didn't deserve to leave I look back to their forefathers to the har to the mountains I am redeeming them in the Merit of their forefathers so first of all you have the OB what does it mean I'm saying if we don't deserve we don't deserve it what does it help us obvious I'm saying they lived they lived hundreds of years before what does that help me thousands of years before how does that help me so Mish goes on to say I'm not going to read it inside I've run out of time the mes goes on to say that it's also the Merit of the zum the Elders of the Jewish people and it's also the Merit of M Ain the leaders of the Jewish people the specific greatest leaders of the Jewish people but what we see is that as long as we have leaders who represent the original great people who we come from Hashem says look there's there's hope for you there's hope for you the Jewish people you are so far but there's what there there is something for you to latch on to to become great again it's possible for the Jewish people to return to their previous Glory their Glory was there and their Glory can return why because they have a Moser Renu they have someone to look at and and want to be like and mosu his face turns into an Aram he looks like Abraham and and the angels they're embarrassed they have to be embarrassed because a human being can reach Such Great Heights ofid of kindness of of scholarship ship of of intellectual spiritual greatness they look at Misha they look at Abraham and they see you know a human being can become that great the Torah does have a does have a a possibility of being con of of being connected to of of manifesting through a Human Being Human Being is physical human being has uh tyus has desires has physical desires but human being also can be great can be spiritual and they look at the the greatness of an abam and they're embarrassed because the human being can reach a higher level than an angel can be greater than an angel despite the physical aspect of himself the human being can become somebody great and how do we become great and how do we put on the face of Abraham ainu how do we have our face transformed form that we should look like Abraham we should look like Abraham and we should be able to to receive the Torah and and the angels shouldn't stop us we Merit that when we strive when we are M when we work hard like mosh worked hard to receive the Torah we receive it then as a gift and the gift comes the person right why is AB called Adam what is an Adam Adam is the first human being the the God created this human being he was completely spiritual you looked at him and you didn't even see his physical body you just saw his his Nish he was shining aru merited to to be an Adam to be like the first human being and every single one of us has this yusha we have this inheritance we come from Abraham we come from Abraham we have the ability to connect to our spiritual DNA we can be great we can be superum each and every one of us all we need to do is grab on to the toyra and when we hold on to the L when we hold on to the T to the to the tablets we have we have two like Moshe we have two hands bre and Hashem is holding on to the other side and we are in an eternal connection I I the word in my mind was tug of war but it's not a tug of war it's a tug of love we are in Eternal connection withes and we become like that original human being like an Adam become a human through our connection with the Torah I want to bless you ask you to bless me should help us that we should be able to indeed grab onto the tah to be able to pull it down into our lives to connect to the people who came before us the great human beings the S Rifka ra Leia these incredible human beings who lived before us we should Merit to be like them and to become great as great as we can be thank you so much for listening have a wonderful shabas 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