Tomer Devorah with Rabbi Avigdor Miller 25 Ch 10 Titen Emet LeYakov He Gives Truth to Yakov Tre

Shalom. Today is an exciting class. We are starting a new chapter of Tom Devora chapter 10. The new trait of mercy of Hashem called titen em leakov. He gives truth to Yakov. Emtt truth means Hashem's loyalty. As Rabbi Miller often mentions, the word em comes from the word amuna. They have the same basic root alf or amuna which means amuna means someone is trustworthy which means loyal and therefore emmet also means hashem's loyalty the permanence of his promise Hashem is going going to give truth to Yakov. What does it mean? Not only the Jewish people, we fight for truth, we love truth, we search for truth, but it also means Hashem gives us truth, the truth of his promise, the loyalty of God and the permanence of our um relationship. We ask that Hashem bestow that upon Yakov as he promised. Hashem promised to Abraham. He promised to and he promised to Yakov. And we are the recipients of this promise. When he promised to Abraham, Abraham believed. He relied on Hashem, but he didn't get that promise. Abraham was u doing the right thing but in his lifetime he did not see the fulfillment of his of the promise. The only part that he did see is that he had a sonak. It's after three and a half thousand years that we the last generation before Mashiach we can look back and say yes Hashem actually fulfilled his promise and uh what for Abraham was belief that I believe Hashem one day will fulfill it for us it's already knowledge we know that Hashem did deliver on his promise. So the prophet says, "May Hashem show his loyalty to the Jewish people." Em also means dealing strictly with a person as he deserves. Uh this is also the idea of judgment that we people and human judges are supposed to judge um honestly. What does it mean? A human judge is not allowed to um have favorites. A human judge is not allowed to accept a bribe. Emit truth means that you have to [clears throat] follow strict justice. You have to deal with a person in a strict way. [snorts] So that's difficult. The first one we understand. Hashem, please fulfill your promise to the Jewish people. what you promised to their forefathers of hako. Please give the Jewish people all the blessings that you promised um to our forefathers. But how why should we ask Hashem to deal strictly with us? Deal with the Jewish people according to the letter of the law truth. Why would why should we ask for them? Means going beyond what someone deserves. But a means dealing strictly with a person as he deserves to be dealt with. The verse says you will give truth to Yakov, kindness to Abraham. The if we read the full verse that we are quoting Abraham give strict justice to Jacob. However, give kindness to Abraham. It doesn't say give truth to Israel. Israel is another name for Yakov. Yakov is considered the name that we the Jewish people carry in our beginning state when we are growing and Israel is aristocratic name. This is the name of victory. This is the um the name that is reserved for the end of times when we will achieve uh success and greatness that even the nations will recognize right now even though there is a country by the name of Israel but we are not yet Israel and that's why that country is not yet at peace not yet successful Because we're not holding there yet. We're still in our working state, work clothes. We are still overcoming the challenges. We are still Yakov. There are two kinds of people. Yakov people and Abraham people. The verse says, "Hashem give truth to Yakov and kindness to Abraham." So now he says there are two kinds of people. When dealing with Yakov people, that means not bigim or scholars, just decent people, normal Jewish people. You should deal with them with emit. Even though they're not necessarily important, deal with them properly. Oh, and then there are Araham kind of people. For Abraham people, you have to go beyond the line of duty and show a special affection. What does what does it mean? Abraham kind of people. Hashem gives special honor for people who are more loyal to the service of Hashem or more loyal in their duties toward the Jewish people. And let's study these two traits. Now, what is this mida of leak? Now the next uh character trait of Hashem that we're going to study is called Abraham. But right now we are studying give strict jud just justice to a person who is like being Israel is a higher level a Jew with a certain importance. Um, Yakov is a standard ordinary Jew who is share mitzvot, which is very important. Today, Jews who keep the mitzvot are an exception. Unfortunately for every Jew that keeps Shabbat, there are five Jews that do not keep Shabbat. Hashem may we see more and more Jewish people who keep Shabbat. However, today if you see a Jew who keeps Shabbat, he is in the top 20% of the Jewish people. And that means he's in a top tenth of percent of the the world. Being a a Jew who keeps Shabbat nowadays is like being a prince. You don't find too many of those. Today, Jews who keep the mitzvot are an exception. In the olden days, everybody kept mitzvot. And therefore, it could be that in our times, these distinctions are going to be different. In the olden times, you had the entire nation of the Jews who kept mitzvot, who knew the basics of Torah. And then you had higher level of Jews who achieved um much more through their learning and through their devotion. Nowadays it could be that a standard Orthodox Jew is already considered on top. So, Rabbi Cord continues, "Those typical Jews who do not know how to behave beyond the barest lines of duty." Again, it could be that we don't have such a Jew now. Any Jew now who is committed to Orthodox Judaism is already considered like a Talmid Kaham used to be because um most Jews nowadays, most Orthodox Jews nowadays went through 12 years of yeshiva and therefore they have a certain um basic knowledge that could be didn't exist before. They have a certain commitment because there's a structure social structure of going to synagogue for minyanim three times a day putting on in the olden times there was great poverty and Jews often lived in remote villages and they didn't have minion in every village and therefore it could be that standard Jew back then prayed without a minion for most of his life. If he was lucky, few times a year he would get a minion. Many Jews could be didn't have means or ability to put on or shake lu especially Jews of Europe atroim didn't grow there as well as the other species. And it could be that most Jews um throughout history in Europe did not have a chance to fulfill the mitsah of lulrog uh sit in the suka because it was too cold over there. There was a danger of persecution. So even the lighting of kanuka candles was diminished and brought indoors. We live in at a time when we can perform mitzvot to the best uh standard in the olden times we find old teilin and uh other objects of mitzvot and uh compared to what we have now they are bare minimum what we have now is like rolls compared to the ancient tilene. Um so our standard of performance of mitzvot of prayer with a minan with a sidur with understanding with translation knowing what you're saying with inspirational classes our soul is on fire. So that's something that perhaps they didn't have. And what we're trying to do now is to find benefit um in our outlook on on the Jewish people nowadays and look at them from a good perspective. Um and Jews nowadays have a lot of tests and that increases their merit um thousandfold. So again what we are learning now may not apply to our common Jews nowadays. Nowadays every Jew is like a king. [sighs] In the olden times the masses of ordinary Jews kept everything. They followed the traditional ways of Jews. Some were not so idealistic but they did what they had to do as Jews. They are called Yakov because they conduct themselves only according to the right ways, the traditional ways of the Jews. For them, Hashem has equality of emit, which means he treats them right, which is a manner of justice and righteousness. And those who conduct themselves in this world with a certain amount of uprightness, although they are not especially pious or outstanding people, Hashem treats them with a met too. He is compassionate upon them in a manner of righteousness and justice. Yakov in the Torah is called ish which can be translated as a simple man, not a scholar, not a fancy um person, a simple normal person. And therefore um ordinary plain Jews that behave like decent people are compared to Yakov is and therefore Hashem may not go out of the way to do big things for them. Hashem treats them in a moderate way. He protects them and has mercy on them in a moderate way. So how does that apply to us? Likewise, a man must conduct himself with his fellow man in a way of righteousness and emit not to twist his fellow man's rights in any way. Which means we should not expect our spouses and our children and our friends to be perfect. We should not expect not ourselves and not anyone in our life to be top to be excellent because then we will be harsh towards people. Then we will treat people with uh without the benefit of the doubt. If they make a mistake, we will judge them harshly. We're not saying Hashem judges us harshly. We're saying he judges us according to the strict letter of the law. Harsh judgment means below the letter of the law. Judging a person less than he deserves. Why? because of our expectation that he has to be here and he is only here. Therefore, we think that he's missing. But really, he's not missing. He is exactly where he's supposed to be. And therefore, we're supposed to judge him with 100% of um compassion, of honesty, of respect and we think that we can get away by treating him with only 50%. Because to us, he is only doing 50% for me. I expect him to be on a much higher level of service to me and he's not doing it. So we have to lower our expectation of people and if we see that people are normal mediocre we already have to treat them with 100% of respect and care. And anyone who goes a little bit beyond the norm and uh compared to the norm, anything is already better because what is the norm? Norm means according to all the people I meet on the street. They don't even look at me. As long as they don't hurt me, that's already normal. And therefore those that are close to me in my life, I will look at them that they are already [cough] [clears throat] more than normal. They are already doing so much more for me. My spouse, for example, is doing so much for me, so much more than a regular person on the street. So already my spouse is supposed to be treated by me as if they are fulfilling much more than they're supposed to because they're so much better than a standard person on the street. That's how Hashem treats regular Jews because he compares them to the nations of the world and they are so much better. Next time we will speak about the Abraham kind of a Jew which means the best among the Jews themselves. That's another story. But even though people that we are dealing with might not be so important and not outstanding, they're just ordinary observant Jews. We must respect them for that and treat them decently, not to twist our fellow men's rights in any way. Just because we didn't like a little bit about them, how they look, how they dress, how they behave, their accomplishments. So what if we don't like them? They are already better than 90% of the world. And therefore we have to treat them with respect to have genuine pity on them like Hashem has pity on ordinary people with his quality of a to benefit them. The author is speaking about religious Jews of several hundred years ago. Back then even thieves were religious. Even the thieves and highway men were religious. This is what we mentioned on Rosh Shana when we eat the pomegranate that uh even an ordinary Jew is full of mitzvot like a pomegranate. An ordinary Jew may refer even to a thief. But he keeps hundreds of various mitzvot throughout the day. Yes, he may have a weakness, but overall he is full of good qualities. But today, any family, any Jewish family that behaves according to the law of Torah is already an exceptional family. Keeping the Torah today is never just living according to the letter of the law because everybody who keeps the Torah today has to oppose the environment. In the olden times, if you were born in a small Jewish village, you interacted with decent people like yourself, the milkman and the the shepherd and the blacksmith. There was no indecency. There was no uh TV, advertisement, internet, theaters. It was a simple nature life with animals, with uh trees, sun and the moon, and you connected to Hashem. It was easy. Nowadays, we are not born in a small Jewish village and we are exposed to so much dirt that we have to constantly clean our mind and our body. And therefore, anyone who has enough clarity to recognize God and to accept upon himself mitzvot is already exceptional. Anybody who keeps the Torah today, even if he does so in a minimal way, even if he doesn't come to learn, he may not come to morning min. But he prays by himself. He puts on he keeps a kosher home, minimally kosher. He keeps family purity is already a sadik a righteous man. Therefore all religious Jews all orthodox Jews nowadays are sadiki and we have to act toward them as described in the next paragraph which means this is the minimum. We have to treat every Jew with the respect of an ordinary human being. That's the minimum. But nowadays any orthodox Jew that is minimally religious we have to treat him as a perfect sadik as we're going to learn next time in the character of Hashem called kindness to Abraham. Therefore, this mid of doesn't even apply today. But unfortunately for us it still applies because as I mentioned we look at faults of people and we respect them even less than they deserve, even less than we should treat a man on the street. a a a man on the street, you pass by, you don't um rebuke him, you don't criticize him, you don't blame him, you don't curse at him, you don't argue with him. So then why do you argue with your spouse? Is your spouse any worse than a a a stranger on the street? a stranger on the street you're polite to and you say, "Please, may I pass? Thank you for opening the door. I apologize. I'm sorry if if you inconvenience them for a millisecond." And then why do we find it so easy to hurt, disparage, embarrass, put down our spouse? Why do we find it so easy to um fight with our siblings, our parents, our children and our spouse? Um we just finished chapter 10 of Tom Devor and Bazat Hashem. Next week we will start chapter 11. In the meantime, we should all work on showing decency, proper respect to people who are close to us and treating them at least with the respect that we treat a stranger on a subway, a stranger on the street. not to scream at them, not to criticize them, to show basic uh etiquette to people that are close to us. And uh next week we will learn how to actually treat people who are close to us. Thank you for joining. Have a great day and Shabbat shalom.