Does It Affect You? | Rabbi Ari Enkin

this week's torah portion is vayakel and you know we read how moses gathered the people to speak to them about keeping shabbat and the construction of the mishkan the portable synagogue the torah tells us that after the talk was over the verse says and the people left from moses's presence the question is asked why does the torah have to tell us that when the talk was over the people departed the people left from moses's presence we knew they were in moses's presence already because that's how the torah reading opens up and moses gathered the people what's going on over here why the repetition so to speak that the people left the presence of moses we knew they were there already and it's explained the torah wasn't really telling us for facts sake that the people left the presence of moses well the torah is telling us that when the people left you could see they were in the presence of moses you can see that these people were leaving from a gathering of holiness a gathering of spirituality they looked different they felt different they were inspired they were moved and this is an important lesson for us who we hang around with has an effect on who we will be our environment influences us when we're in good environments it's going to reflect on our behavior people will notice it and we're in bad environments the opposite will be true we have to make sure we choose our influences our people inspirations and our environments wisely [Music] you