Behar-Bechukosai - Activating Hashem's Kindness

You're listening to the weekly partial podcast with Ari Goldwag. Recording with Hashem's divine assistance in Ramat Beit Shemesh, Israel, 5786-2026. This week's parsha is Behar Bechukotai, wrapping up Sefer Vayikra. And I'd like to share with you a medrash. It's on the pasuk that says "Uchi amuch achicha imach." Pasuk says in perek kuf hey pasuk lamed tet that sometimes a person is poor, sometimes a Jewish person, our brothers, becomes poor for whatever reason. "Uchi amuch achicha imach" the pasuk says. That he's poor with you. The Torah describes how this person doesn't have the money to pay back his debts. He ends up selling himself as a slave in order to be able to pay back his debts. And the And the psukim tell us that when you have such a slave, a Jewish brother, who has fallen on hard times, so take care of the guy. Treat him not like a slave, treat him like a worker, treat him like an equal. But the pasuk says "Imach" which means that he is with you. "Uchi amuch achicha imach." And the medrash brings a pasuk in Tehillim that I'd like to share with you. We'd like to study with you the the pasuk itself, the psukim inside of Tehillim perek mem aleph pasuk bet, that speaks about "Ashrei maskil el dal." "Ashrei maskil el dal" which means "Praiseworthy is the one who is wise in regards to the poor man." The poor man in the in the pashut shat and we'll see that there's other psukim, different depths of it, but in the pashut shat you have to be wise with a poor man. You see somebody who's down and out. You're going to help him out. You got to help him out. And the pasuk says "Imach." Right? That poor man is a poor man with you. You got to recognize that he's with you. There's something that you will stand to gain as it Yeshua says in the madrish, there's something that you stand to gain when you take care of another person. We'll see what that means exactly. I'd like to read with you first what it says in Tehillim. Study together a little bit of Tehillim beautiful chapter 41 in Tehillim. Lamenatzeach Mizmor L'David. To the conductor. A a song of King David. Ashrei Maskil L'Dal. Praiseworthy is the one who is wise in regards to the poor. Which I again in in the pashut p'shat means we'll see other deeper p'shatim, but it means that you see a poor person and you take care of the guy. You're wise. You you help somebody out. B'Yom Ra'ah Y'Maltei'hu Hashem. The person who does this, he himself in that uh activates when I take care of another person, another person who's down and out, when I help them out, I activate that feature of reality. When I do kindness for somebody else, Hashem as it were does kindness with me, but the mechanism is that I have activated kindness in the world. We the keneged middah our our sages referred to, measure for measure, Hashem takes care of me. Ashrei Maskil L'Dal B'Yom Ra'ah Y'Maltei'hu Hashem. The one who is wise in regards to the poor man, on the difficult day, Hashem will save him. Pas- P'sukim continue. Hashem Yishm'reihu V'Chayeihu. You took care of that guy, you protected that guy, Hashem will take care of you. Hashem will give you life. Y'ushar Ba'Aretz. There's going to be joy for you in the land. You You made that person happy, that poor guy happy. Sham will make you happy. Whenever Sham does good. Sham will allow the person who's done good to fall into the hands of his enemies. And as the measure points out, a dull, you're taking care of a poor person. There's lots of different kinds of poor people. Dull means someone who's got it thin. Things are thin in his life. Might be his health. Take care of somebody who's who's sick. You go over and you visit the guy. Sham says, you go and you and you visit someone Sham is going to visit that person who has helped out when that person is sick. Again, there's like an activation in my life. When I do a kind thing with somebody else, it activates it for me. All of his sicknesses Sham will flip over. Everyone The The person is going to be healthy. King David says, I asked Sham. I said, "God, please. Sham, please. Khoneni. Sham is called a Rakhum v'Khanun. The word Khanun comes from the word Khain, which comes from the word Khinun. Khoneni means give me a free gift. Sham, I don't deserve it. Sham, I don't deserve it. Rif'a nafshi ki khata'si lakh. Cure my soul for I've sinned. Right? Cuz I can deactivate the good in my life through doing wrong, through activating evil. Right? But I ask Sham. David HaMelech asked Sham. We ask Sham. Don't look at my sins. Give me a free gift. Okay, that's the beginning of Perek Mem Aleph of Tehillim, beautiful perek. We're seeing the whole thing, But I just wanted to focus on the beginning because that's the part that our magister is going to speak about. Okay, so the magister basically says Posuk says, "The poor person is a poor man with you." What does it mean, "with you?" As the Sfas Emes explains, as we said before, when I take care of the poor, when I take care of the person who needs help, Hashem takes care of me. He's with me. Hashem takes care of me. Now we are both, I and the poor man, are in the same boat. We're both being taken care of. I've activated Hashem's shmira, his protection, his taking care. Abba bar Yirmiya says another pshat in the psukim. We'll see a few. I would like to focus on this one. It's very important one. Rabbi Rabbi Abba bar Yirmiya says in the name of Rabbi Meir, "Zeh shnei malachim tov v'yetzer hara." A person has two inclinations inside of himself, two aspects of his personality. Every single person has. We have something called the yetzer tov and yetzer hara. A good inclination, that soft voice that pleasant voice inside of our minds that encourages us to do good, our conscience. We have a yetzer hara. We have an evil inclination. We have a part of ourselves that wants us to that encourages us to be selfish, to grab, so that if I don't grab, I'm not going to have. To push aside others, to not care about others, to not feel a connection between ourselves and others. Our yetzer hara. The grabby part of ourselves. Says Abba bar Yirmiya, "Our posuk asher mashehu of David, which says, "Be wise in regards to the poor man." You know who the poor man is? And we're going to see it's also mentioned in Koheles, I'd like to read to you. The poor man is your yetzer tov. We'll see why it's called a poor man. But, be wise in regards to the poor man. Make your yetzer tov, who's a poor man, right? He doesn't speak as loudly, he's not as he's not as strong as the yetzer hara. Yetzer hara speaks very loudly. We hear the voices of yetzer hara all over. The ones that that make the most noise. Yetzer tov speaks softly. He's not so loud. But, if you're wise, you listen to the soft voice, you listen to the voice of your conscience. Your mamlacht yetzer tov al yetzer hara. You make the yetzer tov your king as opposed to the yetzer hara, as opposed to the evil inclination. Yishai says in Zera Shimshon, uh Prutei d'Lo Ani, Yishai says the first shot, which was that being wise in regards to the poor man is giving giving a giving a shekel, giving a quarter, giving a dollar to a poor man. When I give to somebody else, should I give to me? Right? Okay, so let's let's come let's come back to that. We'll we'll talk again about the poor man. But, first I want to read to you the psukim in Koheles that speak about the poor man, the poor king. The poor man, I'm sorry, the great king and the poor king. Possuk says like this, "Listen up. Ir ketana v'anashim bah me'atim There's a small city, a little city, and has a few people there. Not so many people. Vayalech melech gadol. A great king came to the city. Vayisovev aleha vayiven aleha matzor gadol. Vayimtzah bah ish misken v'chacham hu umilah hu et ha'ir great watchtowers, great a great siege. Okay? Little city, not so many people, but a great king came to conquer that city. Vayimtzah vah ish misken v'chacham Inside of the city, there was one particular wise individual who was a misken, which in modern Hebrew means pathetic. But, meaning he wasn't a uh he wasn't a strong guy. He wasn't like a powerful person. But, he was wise. And that wise person, umilad hu et ha'ir b'chachmato, he was able to save the city with his wisdom. So, this great king is coming to conquer the city. The wise man inside of the city, not so strong, not so mighty, but he has great wisdom and he's able to save the city. And v'al odos ha'ish misken hu but afterwards people forgot about this wise man, this wise not so strong man who had saved the city. U'martiyani King Solomon says, HaMelech says, tov chachma migvurah. Chachma, potentially wisdom, intellect, has a greater sway than physical strength. Right? Think about it, cuz we're going to speak about it in the context of the Yetzer Tov and the Yetzer Hara. Yetzer Hara is very loud, very powerful, very convincing. Do this action, you'll get what you want. Yetzer Tov is very quiet and says, you know, you're going to feel guilty if you do that." says that wisdom, that quiet wisdom is actually better than all the power of the Yetzer Hara. >> [snorts] >> And the wisdom of this weak part of ourselves is something that most for the most part, most people don't listen to their conscience. But the Koheles Rabbah of the wise are listened to quietly." More so than the screaming of the of the uh the power the power-hungry guy over the fools. Okay, so wisdom, quiet wisdom has in a certain sense much greater power. So, I'd like to read to you the Medrash in Koheles which brings our pasuk of Asher Maschil l'Dal and relate it back to how it connects to us. How it connects to thinking about the poor man. And here's what the Medrash says in Koheles. Ir K'tanah Zeh HaGuf Little city, what's the little city in the analogy? It's the physical body. The human being is a little city. Each one of us is a little city. >> [sighs] >> v'Anashim ba m'at There are just a few people in the city. Eilu eivarav, these are the limbs of a person. Right? We have different parts of ourselves. We have our hands, we have our feet. We have our eyes, etc. u'va elav melech gadol Now, who's going to control the city? Who's going to control this little city called the human being? So, a great king comes. A powerful king comes. Zayas has a magic. This is the evil inclination. The part of the human being that has a desire to maybe survive. Believes it's separate. I have to fight for my I have to fight for my life. Why does King Solomon refer to the Yets Hara, the evil inclination as a powerful being, strong being, a big being? Magic points out that the Yets Hara, the evil inclination, it predates our Yets Hara by 13 years. When does a person's conscience come in? Watch little kids. They're they're uh natural state is give me. Grab. No, why are you playing with my toy? I want my toy. Right? That's the natural state of a child until the age of 13. Until the age of Bar about mitzvah, 12 for a girl. So, the natural state is and of course each person has different levels of Yets Hara, but the natural state of a human being is very selfish. Yets Hara has been there for 13 years of a person's life. What happens at the age of 13? The age of 13 the Yets Hara type comes in. Person's conscience starts to get developed. Of course, it's our jobs as parents to help our children develop their conscience maybe before. Or maybe to serve as the conscience of our of our children. So, the Yets Hara is there from the beginning. He's got power. He's great. He's strong. He's a mighty king. So, the Hara We're kind of accustomed to his wiles, to his craftiness, to his tricks. We've been You know, 13 years going, there was no Yitzhara There was not that quiet voice that says, "Okay, here's the right thing to do. Here's Here's our conscience." For For a long time, all we had was the tricks and the wiles of the Yitzhara, evil inclination. Okay? So, you have this Yitzhara, little city, human being different parts of the body which express Right? With my hands, I can grab or I can give, right? >> [sighs] >> So, they have different capacities, but for a large part of the person's life, he was in a mode of grabbing and not yet knowing how to give. So, at at a certain point So, the Yitzhara comes into the human being. The good inclination comes in. Why is he called a miskain? Miskain is like kind of a weak person, a pathetic person. To tell you a a fact of life, says the Medrish. Not everybody listens to their conscience. It's kind of weak. Many people don't have a conscience or if they do, they don't listen to it. Right? Listening to our conscience is a is a developed skill. It requires skill. It's easier to ignore my conscience. I'm going to end up with guilty feelings afterwards, but I It's easier to ignore my conscience. But You know, as I listen to my Yitzhara, my evil inclination, so things pile up, and it's it's this I'm trapped. I can become trapped by my itz hara. But if I start listening to my conscience to my itz tiv I get untrapped. I get released. >> [snorts] >> This is a secret of life, friends. When I listen to my answer tov, listen to my good inclination, listen to my conscience, listen to that voice of Hashem, the quiet voice I I'm released. I'm released from the guilt. I'm released from from the uh the bad party. King David said it's good for those who do listen. >> [snorts] >> He says that's our pasuk which we read in perek mem aleph. It says "Ashrei maskil al dal." Praiseworthy is the one who's wise in regards to the poor. It means to say be smart. Listen to your yetzer tov. Your conscience who is not so strong, not so loud. Listen to that part of yourself. Be wise. What happens? We listen to our conscience. We feel better. We get saved. We escape from the bad party. Now we're in a good place. But it's so easily we lose it, right? We lose that sensitivity. That that maybe we don't hear it anymore the conscience or maybe we just ignore it sometimes. We forget. Hashem says as I want you to know you might not remember you might forget. You might stop listening to your yetzer hara, you might build up a wall around your heart. But I want you to know that in the end I will remind you. As the possuk says in Yechezkel the sadeh lachem lev basar. When Mashiach comes, the Messianic age, Hashem is going to remove the stone, the stone wall that we've created around our hearts. Hashem is going to remove that. The yetzer hara which creates this darkness, the separation. Right, what does it mean to have a a heart of stone? It means that nothing gets in. I'm I'm trying to protect myself. I won't allow my heart to be broken. So I'm protecting myself. I don't want to connect to you. I don't want to be vulnerable. But it's going to come a time when that yetzer hara will be removed. When the heart of stone will be removed, all the walls will come tumbling down. And it won't be so hard to be vulnerable. Won't be so hard to hear the voice of the conscience. Hashem is going to remind us and bring us back to our conscience, bring us back to that melech dal that weak king that that weak wise person who saves the city. It's going to become less difficult, I would say, to to do that, to listen to it to the yetzer tov. Okay, so >> [sighs and gasps] >> another pshat in last three mesukal dal Praiseworthy is the one who is wise in regards to the weak one. The the poor man. The poor man is the yetzer tov. Listen to your yetzer tov. Be wise. If you listen to the yetzer tov, ultimately, ultimately, Hashem is going to remove the yetzer tov Hashem. Ultimately, there will come a time when Hashem is going to remove the yetzer hara. Yetzer hara is going to be removed, and we're going to be we're going to be good. It's going to be good for us. We're going to be in that space. Okay? So, again, we have two pshatim, two ideas, two concepts that we have here. U'v'chayom imach. Poor man with you. Take care of the poor man. And you activate. When you take care of somebody else, Hashem takes care of you. When you listen to your yetzer tov, second shot, when you listen to your yetzer tov, when you listen to your conscience, you're recognizing the poor man inside of you. You're recognizing that weak that that soft I would rather say that soft voice that that quiet voice inside of the conscience. You activate that, Hashem helps you more. I'd like to read a little bit more in the Medrash. Um We're going on the pasuk maskil l'David imalel Hashem. Praise worthy is the one who is wise with the poor man. Right? The poor man, there could be lots of different poor men as we've we said before. And here the Medrash goes through them. Yachin al zecher mitzvah. There's nobody that's more pathetic and more in need of help than a meis mitzvah, someone who passed away, someone who got killed along the way, nobody even knows who the person is. Zalacha, you're walking along on the on the path between cities and you find person who died, it's an obligation to bury him. Even a coin or a priest is obligated he's not ordinarily allowed to become tummy. So you come impure with contact with the dead. But he is allowed and obligated to bury this person. There's no one to take care of him. When you take care of somebody who has no one to take care of him, Hashem will take care of you. The rabbis say there's a few different shot on what what this means, but I'll tell you two different ones that uh resonated for me. One shot is that um you help somebody. You see that somebody is the government is chasing him down. The government is after him. His enemies are after him, and you protect him. You take care of him. You protect him. Or another shot is um and that makes the most sense really with the ashrei mashkil. Although this is a person who is weak, right? He doesn't He can't stand up for himself. He has How do you protect yourself from a government that's attacking you? Right? So if you stand up for that person, so Hashem's going to stand up and take care of you as well. Another shot is "She may vary atzmi min areitzim" means I don't need to hang out with all the wealthy people, right? Do I need to make myself Oh, I'm great. I'm uh mechubad. I'm a dignitary, and I only hang out with dignitaries. "May vary atzmi min areitzim." One shot is I need to be careful to uh distance myself from over-obsession with my dignified status. Okay? That's another shot. Ravuna says visit someone who's sick. Person who's sick, so they're also in a state of miskenut. They're dull. They're They're weak. They're poor. They're weak of strength. Take care of them. So we'll take care of you. Interestingly, the principle you visit someone who's sick, you actually physically benefit them. 1/60 of their sickness is removed. A fellow who came the other day came to my house. He asked "Hold on a second, you're telling me that if a person goes and visits a sick person, takes away a 60th of his sickness. So let 60 people go and visit him. And then he'll get up, he'll be he'll be well. Right? We know that that's not what happens. So the measure says interesting thing. All the 60 who love him like his own soul. In order for it to work, you have to love this guy like yourself. You have to come in there with a certain sincerity and love for the person who's sick. Then you take away a 60th of his sickness. So if you can find 60 people who love a sick person as much as themselves, they can indeed cure the guy. It's interesting, worth thinking about conceptually. But I will be says the measure. You should know that even if a person comes in there to visit the sick and he doesn't you know love him as much as himself, doesn't feel connected to this person in such a deep way, but still it does help him. Might not take away a 60th of his sickness, but there's no question and I've seen you I'm sure you've seen you visit someone who's not well, they light up. They light up from being visited. So, the measure continues and goes through how we see from the came that each one of these different things is hinted to in the because in the reciprocity of it, in the way that sham responds to the person who's masculine adult. What does he do? He protects him in the days of difficulty. So, the talk about it as we read at the beginning how this person now is protected. If he's sick, how this person is you know, go it goes through in the things that are the blessings that come upon a person who's masculine adult. But, each of those things that gets better is because as the measure explains, I'm not going to read it inside, but it's because you did that. You watched over the sick. Watches over you when you're sick. You helped somebody escape from his problems. Sham helps you escape from your problems. You activated this meter in the world. And by activating this meter in the world, it it manifests for you as well. And I think that the the foundation here is how do I get out of selfishness? Right? Because like what is my selfishness really? It's really a a a grab for what I need, right? It's really a grab for help me. I I need money. I need to pay my bills. Uh I need love. Uh I need you know, whatever basic human needs are. Right? So, that's what the selfishness is as a grab. But, that's the because this creates all of these loud needs and then it ends up in in self-destruction. The trick is the secret is a conscience, the the recognition that I can actually get everything that I need paradoxically by giving it to somebody else. I want life and protection. I got to give life and protection to others. And that's the quiet voice. That's the masculine doll. One who's wise and listens to the yetzer tov. Listens to their conscience. One who's wise and sees the need of another person. Ends up bringing that upon themselves. I want to bless you and ask you to bless me. Hashem should help us that we should indeed be able to listen to that quiet voice. We should be able to hear and recognize that all the things that we need can come by us giving others exactly what we want. 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.arigoldweg.com [music] or search on iTunes Ari Goldwag.