Ekev - Parallel Spiritual Levels

you're listening to the weekly partial podcast recorded with hm's never ending assistance in Israel 5776 2016 this week's para is Torah tells us to the very beginning of the par this is in chapter 7 verse2 and it will be if you listen to these statutes to these laws and you keep them and you do them God will keep his Covenant with you and the kindness that God swore that God made an oath to your great grandparents to and yob to Abraham Isaac and Jacob God will love you he will bless you he will cause you to become great and God will bless the fruit of the womb and the fruit of your land all the different types of crops that you may have your cattle your sheep on the earth that God swore to your great grandparents that he would give to you and one final verse I want to share with you you shall be blessed from all of the Nations you will not have anyone not amongst you and not amongst your animals who is unable to bear fruit who's unable to have children both you all of the members of the Jewish people and all of the animals that are that you own all of them will be able to have children there won't be any infertility amongst you and amongst your animals now I'd like to share with you a few MIM and teach you a beautiful depth adding on to the ideas we've been speaking about in last weeks and the previous week's parti of podcasts giving an even greater depth to the idea that we spoke about says like this we said in verse 13 that God is going to love you he's going to bless you and he's going to make you great and the verse refer to three different levels at which this blessing will be manifest first is in yourself in your children the second is in the fruits of the Earth itself and the third is in the animals that you own the me says like this why is it placing the fruit of the womb right next to the fruit of the earth God says like this and this is a slightly different version than the standard version of the but it says that just like when it comes to the fruits of the land I'm going to bless you that there not be any kind of fruits that aren't good that have any negative qualities so too when it comes to the fruit of your womb there won't be any negative qualities amongst your children as well and here this sounds like it's the first level it's the level of the physical aspect that the fruits will there won't be any rotten fruits perhaps there won't be any fruits that have any kind of blemishes or problems so to on a physical level your children will not be blemished me says a different aspect a different level a different concept very interesting just like the fruits of your Earth have no sins they haven't done anything wrong so too the fruit of your womb your children will not have any kind of sins I'm skipping one Short Line and I'm going to the next part of the why is it that the PK is placing the verse is placing the concept of the fruit of the womb next to the fruit of the earth there will be an amazing ability for the fruit of the earth to create a kapar to create an atonement for the fruit of your womb meaning there it's possible to do something wrong it's possible for there to be an AA for there to be a sin and it can be NCAP can be atoned for by doing the mitz the the Commandments which are connected to the Earth how do I know it's true this is what the verse says it says in in Deuteronomy 32:43 the Earth shall atone for his Nation so it's very interesting as we read this m we need to understand what's going on here but we see on a simple level on the surface level that there's different aspects there's the aspect of the physical manifestation God is saying that when you do the Mitzvah when you fulfill the Commandments when you have a proper relationship with with me I will bless you and you will see that blessing manifest at all levels you'll see it manifest at the level of your children you'll see it manifest at the level of your animals and you'll see it manifest at the level of the Earth the fruit of the earth as well and you'll also see that that's true on a physical level and it's true on a spiritual level you'll see that the fruits don't have sin so to speak which means perhaps according to what's going on if we we follow with the flow of the Mish it means that you will fulfill the Commandments that are connected to the fruit the Commandments the the the ties that are given from the fruits of the land of Israel that will manifest also in the very human beings themselves the people themselves will not have sin and and as we see at the end that there's going to be a kapar even if a person does sin it's possible to remove the stain of the sin by doing certain Mitzvah by doing certain Commandments and thereby removing that stain it's very interesting we need to understand how does that work how is it that I can do a certain Mitzvah I can tithe my fruits I can give charity Etc and by doing that it can remove the stain of an AA a different AA a different sin that I've committed how does that work what is the concept here so let's hold on for a moment to this idea to this concept that we' spoken about let's move on to the next piece in the Mish which talks about the next verse the verse says the Jewish people will be will be blessed from all of the Nations we need to understand what does that mean from all of the the Nations does it mean we will be blessed beyond all of the Nations or perhaps it means we will be blessed by all of the Nations but the end of the vers is you will not have anyone amongst you who's not able to Bear children and all your animals there won't be any infertile animals amongst them so now let's see what's the explanation of this verse according to if you want to hear the true Praises of a queen you want to hear the true Praises of a princess so the praise is not the same when it comes from her relatives from those who know her and love her as it is when it comes when the when she's being praised by her co-wives if let's say you have a queen and she has many other there are other queens that the King has King is married to a number of women if she is praised by The Other Women by the other queens the other princess is that's a much greater praise than if she is praised by somebody who's her friend by who knows her but they're not in competition with her so the Mish is saying that what does it mean is saying that there's going to be a blessing that's going to come from the Nations the Nations see themselves as in competition with Israel the Jewish people the Torah you know lays out very clearly that the Jewish people is the chosen people of God so the nations of the world are in competition maybe this this group of people people has taken over the chosen status maybe a different group has taken over the chosen status right you know that's that's a theme that's gone on throughout history now the moment that the nations of the world say no this is the chosen nation of God they admit they acknowledge the fact that the Jewish people are the outstanding beloved nation of God that's a manifestation of this blessing when we are doing what we're supposed to be doing when the Jewish people have that proper relationship with God when we are keeping the Mitzvah we're keeping the Commandments doing what we're supposed to be doing then the nations of the world will bless us they will acknowledge that we are the chosen nation of God we'll be blessed from all of the Nations the Nations themselves will acknowledge that we are the special Queen so to speak of God yes God has a relationship with all of the Nations but somehow the relationship between God and the Jewish people is a more special relationship and that's something that can be acknowledged by the Nations very interesting statement of the mes now let's go on and and as we're reading the next section we need to start thinking about how is it connected the first part and the second part of the mes because it doesn't seem like they are but it says like this the second half of the verse says you will not have any people who are infer who are unable to give birth the me says they're referring to people who don't have the physical ability to have children that's not going to be part of the Jewish people those won't exist when we do what we're supposed to do so that won't happen there won't be such people now the me says I only know that that's true regards the people how do we know that it's going to be true in regards to the animals that they also won't have any infertile animals the verse says that it it says it explicitly that in your animals as well there won't be any infertile animals how do I know that not only is it going to be true about the people and the animals but it's also going to be true about the Earth itself that there won't be a time or a year where there's not proper crops that the Earth itself is always going to produce what it's meant to produce there won't be any infertility in the in the land itself the says the verse refers to the concept that there won't be any infertility in your land so even though the literal meaning of the verse is that there won't be any person who is infertile in the land of Israel amongst you but we're saying it means we're saying that it doesn't just mean the people themselves or the animals it even means the Earth itself will not be infertile so the first part of the meure here speaks about the fact that the nations of the world when we do what we're supposed to do they're going to praise us they're going to say that we are the chosen nation of God the second part of the measure speaks about the fact that there won't be any infertile human beings animals and even the Earth itself is going to be fertile when we fulfill the will of God now let's move on to the next section also very interesting of the another explanation there won't be anyone who is an which literally means infertile says God says what does it mean that you won't be infertile it means that your prayers won't be infertile what does that mean whenever you pray the is saying that the meaning of the verse is that whenever you pray your your prayers will bear fruits you will see success from your prayers as well as long as we have that relationship with God God will answer our prayers one more explanation there won't be someone who is infertile what does it mean infertile according to it means there won't be anyone who's unable to answer the questions of an apor somebody who wants to deny God or deny the Torah they won't be anyone who's unable to answer everyone will be able to answer the questions of somebody who doesn't believe in God or somebody who denies the truth of the Torah so here we see that the mes is saying that we have another level that there needs to be fertility the other level is when it comes to our prayers and another level is when it comes to our ability to maintain our spiritual commitment to God we need to be able to continue that our lives should be fulfilled that we should have that spiritual connection and that our children's Liv should be fulfilled and that they should also have that spiritual connection that's only going to be possible if we have the blessings and if we're committed to our relationship with hasem now I want to share with you the rest of the mes which is just a cute story that's connected to this idea of having the answers so to speak there was a story with he was walking past this area this this mountain which was harim harim even till today there there's small group of people who are connected to these kites to the Samaritans who deny the authenticity of the oral law of the oral tradition which we have which goes back to Hari which goes back to Mount Si so they believe that the Holy Mountain that the Torah refers to was not haroria the Temple Mount which we know today is the place of the temples but rather they believed that it was harim which was a particular Mountain which you can actually visit today which is in the area of sh so they came they passed by this particular Mountain was riding on his donkey and he had this animal driver that was with him a particular joined their company as they're walking along they passed or they they reached this particular Mountain Mount griim so this says what do you think about this amazing holy Mountain says what are you talking about this is not a Holy Mountain what makes it holy so the said what makes it holy is that this mountain when the when the flood came in the times of Noah this mountain wasn't affected by the flood what are you talking about how do you know that that that this mountain wasn't affected by the flood so he says to him this is the verse in Ezekiel 22: 23 the verse refers to a particular location which didn't have that rain and the day of anger so he was saying this cat was saying that that verse is referring to the mountain of G says in if you're correct if indeed that this was the mountain this mountain wasn't affected instead of God telling Noah to go into an ark God should have said him come to mount gima he didn't need to make an arc so the said to him no he just did that because he wanted to test him he wanted to give him a challenge he was quiet he didn't really have a continuation for this conversation at that moment the animal driver who had been with him all along he spoke up he said to please give me permission to say something said go ahead the animal driver says to this this mountain is not under the heavens so the said to him what do you mean like what is it beyond the heavens it's got to be according to you because the verse says in gracious in in Genesis 7:20 it's talking about the flood that the water got strong it it went up 15 15 cubits above it covered all of the high mountains which are under all the heavens so now according to you this mountain is not under the heavens the verse seems to be saying that all of the mountains under the heavens indeed were covered by the flood so this was the response that he had he proved from the verse that this cite was wrong immediately off the finishes off and says that this is the meaning of the verse that you won't have anyone who is unable to who doesn't have that spiritual fertility so to speak what's it referring to when it says and your animals that even your animal drivers they will know the answers to the questions that are posed by those who would wish to deny the truth the veracity of the Torah now in trying to understand and reconcile the different points in this medish trying to understand how they're related and how they're connected it became clear to me that the idea that we've spoken about we spoke about the fact that you have a soul and you have a body you have the soul of the land of Israel you have the Mitzvah the Commandments that apply in the land so they're the soul the land itself is the physical outer aspect but this magish seems to be saying that there's not just an inner and an outer aspect but that there are other levels as well in other words you can have the relationship that we have with God we have the Mitzvah we have the Commandments we have a relationship with Hashem we are so to speak the female aspect God is so to speak the male aspect God is the soul of the Jewish people when we fulfill the Commandments we become an outer manifestation of godliness in the world and then there's another level we in are the soul of the nations of the world when we do what we're supposed to do it also becomes manifest in the nations of the world they do what they're supposed to do not only that this is also true on on a certain level on ourselves we when we're doing what we're supposed to be doing we see it in our children our children are born there's a there's an amazing thing that everything is fine everything is well there's no such thing as someone who is infertile but not only that even our animals which are the outer aspects of our elves it's our possessions they also manifest that relationship and we're doing what we're supposed to do with Hashem it manifests in our animals and further it manifests in the Physical Realm around us in the Earth itself so it's remarkable that you have the inner aspect have an outer aspect and then the outer aspect itself is the inner aspect of something else which is its outer aspect so everything is about relationships and everything is about relative relationships and what's amazing is that there are parallels just like we saw that when it came to the land of Israel mosu knew Moses knew that the land of Israel is beautiful how did he know because he knew that there were special Commandments mitv that were dependent on the land and it must be that the physical aspect of the land reflects something in its spiritual aspect if there's a spiritual command there it must be that there's something beautiful in its physical aspect now that's also true at every level we see that there are parallels at every level and all of the levels are interconnected and affect each other that's why if I am doing what I'm supposed to be doing in my relationship with Hashem it will manifest at my physical level at the level of my children it will also manifest not just at a physical level that there aren't any blemishes but as the measure says it will manifest in the fact that there won't be any sins and the the very land itself the produce of the land won't have any sins and we can learn out from the fact that there's prodest of the land that doesn't have sins children also won't have any sins as the medish does learn out not only that but it will be possible through the mid the Commandments that are connected to the earth I can use those to remove the stain of AA of a different sin that I've done how does that work the answer is because everything is at parallels there are parallels you have the Physical Realm you have the Earth itself you have the human being you have the relationship between the human being and God so now I can do a mitzvah I can fulfill a commandment in regards to the Earth and that can atone for something that I've done wrong in my relationship with God in some other area and that's because everything parallels now that's all the first Mes in the second mes you see the same thing because you see that we speak about the fact that there's going to be a continuity there's going to be a blessing that there's going to be continuity you're going to have children and your children are going to have children there's not going to be anyone who's infertile not only is that true in regards to the person himself the human being himself it's also true in regards to the animals that's a reflection of it and it's also true in regards to the Earth itself that the Earth also will produce but now beautifully the measure says it's not just true on the physical level it's also manifest on the spiritual level when it comes to the prayers there's going to be because I have a relationship with God there's going to be more of an efficacy to my prayers myus will be answered because not only is everything proper and therefore producing fruits on a physical level it's also going to manifest on the upper levels which is the spiritual level and it's also going to manifest in my ability to maintain my spiritual level and that my children should be able to maintain it as well because if I can answer those questions that are posed by a herotic by someone who wants to destroy spiritual by someone who wants to destroy the M the tradition of the Jewish people so if I can answer those questions so then I'll be able to give it over to my children and it will continue until today it will continue the the M the Traditions that we have will be able to continue on the blessings will be manifest my relationship with God will manifest not just with me but it will continue in my children and my grandchildren what's amazing is this also explains what this whole thing with the blessings why you know what do we need the nations of the world to be blessing us what does that have to do with what we're talking about and the answer is that when I have a proper relationship with God when I am manifesting God in the world when I am a reflection of God in the world world that means that I have a relationship with Hashem now Hashem is as it were the soul of the Jewish people the Jewish people is the OU aspect the manifestation of God in the world so what happens is it reflects in the next level which is the um which is the nations of the world because if let's say you have a relationship between a man and a woman the man says I'm married to this woman the woman says I don't know this guy I'm not married to this guy that's not a relationship they're not going to have any children they're not going to have any relationship at all right it's only when the the female it's only when the woman the outer aspect when she acknowledges the inner aspect the the male aspect of the relationship that's when they have a relationship that's when they're able to have children that's where the blessings will come in so when the Jewish people acknowledge that they are just the the female aspect of God so to speak when we acknowledge that when we manifest God in the world so it will also reflect in the nations of the world acknowledgement that they are the outer aspect of us that we the Jewish people are the spiritual light which is meant to shine into them and manifest into the world at a further level so we need these blessings from the nations of the world because when the nations of the world bless the Jewish people and say the Jewish people are blessed it's really a statement that the Jewish people are manifesting godliness in the world and that the nations of the world are willing to manifested as well the reflection of that godliness through the Jewish people into them this last idea really explains something very powerful that has to do with our times and that is that we look and we see that constantly the Jewish people especially in Israel are looking for the nations of the world to accept us to be MAA that we have a right to be here to admit that we you know this is where we belong and we're doing all these different things to try to get that Hask to try to get the acquiescence on the part of the nations of the world and the truth is that we need that as we're speaking about but it doesn't come about the way these politicians are doing it the real way that it comes about is when we do what we're supposed to do when we have that true relationship with Hashem when we are fulfilling the mes when we are fulfilling the Commandments learning the Torah doing what we're supposed to do in Israel manifesting godliness in is in the land of Israel whether the different Commandments that are dependent upon the land of Israel like ties the sabatical year Etc or whether it's all of the MIT any of The Commandments that are in the Torah when they're performed in the land of Israel they raised up the land self and there's no arguing there can't be any argument when the Jewish people are doing what we're supposed to do in Israel the nations of the world automatically bless us and say you Jewish people belong there that's an automatic result that's what the mes is telling us that when we do what we're supposed to do they will bless us I want to bless you please bless me back that we should Merit to see the manifestation of these blessings in our lives we should Merit to see that there's blessings in all of our physical and all of our spiritual at every level and not only in our personal lives but hasem should bless the Jewish people kulum the entire Jewish nation that we should Merit to hear from the nations of the world that we are blessed because we are doing the will of Hashem 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.old wag.com or search on iTunes Ari 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