Tomer Devorah with Rabbi Avigdor Miller's Commentary 1 Introduction of Rabbi Avigdor Miller

Shalom. We are starting a new series learning to devour with Rabbi Victor Miller's commentary. We're using this book. If you have, you can follow inside. The classic sepher Tom De'vora was composed 500 years ago by the cabalist Rabbi Mosha Cordava. also known as Ramak. Rabbi Mosha Cordovo was the teacher of the great Arizal. So the teacher of Arizal wrote this book. Um we are first going to read the introduction of Rabbi Vic Miller to Tomer Devora. I first learned Tom Devora in Slabodka. Rabbi Miller spent uh a few years in Europe in Slabodka in 1930s. He went there from America as a single man. He learned there for many years and he got married there and then right before the war in 1939 he came back to America. So he first learned to devor in Slabodka. The yeshiva had chosen to study certain musim ethical works holy books that deal with ethical instructions and certain others they didn't have. For instance, the book Ma Maalas, which is an excellent sephr wasn't on their list, but this little sepher, Tom Devora, was on the list, and it had a powerful influence at the time. Tom Devor is a small book relatively, but it focuses on how we regular people uh can and should emulate Hashem and and uh be as good as God himself. How is that possible? So he continues, "Generations of Ben Torah of uh Torah scholars, those dedicated to Torah learning grew up with this seph. It may be less famous as Mati Sharim or for example, but it is as great." They didn't merely go through it once just like with any other muspher, any other ethical work or for that matter anything that you want to have an effect on your life. We don't just read it once. We study it. We read it. We learn it. We read it again and again and again. So too sharim. They said the words over and over again and it left a lasting impression. Just like our previous series of misladim, those of us who went from the beginning till the end should not stop at the end. It should create a forever cycle where we go back to the beginning and start reading it again and thinking about it. It's not about the speed. It's not about finishing. It's about living with it. Making it part of your daily life. If those individuals who cannot remain in yeshiva all their lives make it a practice to always continue in this study, it will be a tremendous benefit. And unfortunately, that is a common practice that people learn in yeshiva 12 grades. Then if they're lucky, they can go post high school studies bait midrash for a year or two. Then they get a job or get married and that's it. Those that are even more lucky can spend another year after they're married learning in a colo some for two or five. And uh what happens afterwards? Eventually most people go to work. And what happens then? Unfortunately for majority of of people they stop learning at that moment and then they slowly start forgetting the information and the inspiration depletes. However, the smart ones, those that say, "Okay, I might not be able to learn for eight hours a day, and I might not be able to learn Talmud in depth and halak in depth, but at least let me review what I already learned." Review is much easier than breaking your head over the new material. And therefore it's the smart ones that go back and review the same book that they learned in yeshiva whether it is Talmud whether it is um Mishna Halaka Musar and they receive tremendous benefit. If you continue to review it you will transform your life. We said the same for Misad Sharim, the same forot and the same for Tom Devor. There is no question that this sepher will have a revolutionary effect on your nishama on your soul. The principle of this sephr of this book is to study the midot character traits that the Torah attributes to Hashem and specifically those enumerated by the Na'vi prophet Mika and he quotes from the prophet Mika. This is the verse and I'm going to translate it that this verse is the foundation and the entirety of this book. But when we read these words, whether you're studying the prophet or before um actually on the day of Rosh Shah we go to a body of water and we do tashik and in tashik we say this verse and through this verse we try to awaken God's attribute of mercy. And additionally, because it mentions that we throw our sins in the sea, we mention it by tashlik where we symbolically throw our sins into the water to that it should be washed away, carried away. It's not ours anymore. But as we read this verse, who knows what it means? Who is a God like you? who pardons iniquity and passes over the transgressions of the remnants of his heritage, meaning the Jewish people. He does not retain his anger forever, for he desires kindness. He will again have compassion upon us. He will conceal our iniquities. He will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. Hashem, you will give truth and faithfulness to Yakov. said Abraham, mercy to Abraham, as you swore to our forefathers madam from the days of old. Beautiful words. But what does it mean? Each uh idea that we mention in the in in in in this verse. What is the deeper meaning? And the book Tom Devor is written to explain what are the qualities of mercy. We know Hashem has 13 attributes of mercy. We only know one mercy even that we're not sure. What's the difference between mercy and kindness and compassion? What are all these terms? How do I become more merciful, more compassionate, more sensitive, more forgiving? Very difficult concepts to grasp and to practice. So many times people hurt us and we know we better forgive them for our own good, but we find it so difficult to forgive, to accept. How do we do it? How does God do it? And this is what this book is about. One of the most important abilities in this world is the ability to forgive, ability to continue being patient, being compassionate, being merciful, being kind with everyone around you. It's so easy to give up and say, "I'm going to be just like everyone else." Everyone is cruel. Everyone is careless. Everyone is harsh and selfish. And I'm going to be like that because doesn't pay. It's too difficult to be compassionate. And Hashem tells us, "No, I have been patient with this world and with these people for the last 5,884 years and I am still patient with them and I'm still kind to them. Learn from me. It's worth it." We know Hashem is too sublime to be characterized by qualities of character like midot. However, the fact that his midot are expressed in such terms is for the purpose that we should try to emulate him. For us, it has a practical value. Hashem is described w with virtues that suit humans. Very great exalted humans will follow the way of Hashem. But ultimately they are only human characteristics and don't actually apply to Hashem at all. Hashem is outside of time, outside of space, outside of this universe. He's not affected by anything that is going on. He doesn't have any needs and therefore he doesn't have any intrinsic qualities. So when we describe Hashem, it is only the way we observe his actions in this world. We observe that Hashem is kind because we look at the world and we see the world is built on kindness to do kindness to people and animals. We see that Hashem is just. He is righteous because we see that evil people get punished like it happened recently with the um timely death of the president of Iran Bar Hashem. And we see that the righteous are rewarded. They rewarded with good life, with long life, with good families, good children, with with uh uh good friends and ultimately with Allah Aba. So we see that Hashem is just, there is justice in the world. So we describe Hashem as such. But that's only our description. Hashem does not have any attribute that we can understand on an intrinsic level. All the names of Hashem that we use are only ways to describe him from our perspective. But until we leave our body and we leave this physical world, we will not be able to actually understand who Hashem is. The Torah uses certain expressions in order to make them accessible and understandable so that we can emulate God. The Torah says that uh a human being is created in the image of God. And we need to know how are we similar to God. And this book is is is going to teach us how can we make ourselves more like God, closer to God. Eventually we will start behaving the same way we observe God behaving. This safer is based on the principle of he do that a man must attempt to emulate the ways of Hashem. The author emphasizes that the Torah tells us that man was created balem Elohim in the image of Hashem. This teaches us two important things. It teaches us many important things but the two most important things are number one we should consider every man as very important. One of the reasons we cannot commit murder is because a human being is made in the image of God. There is a value to every human being independent of his achievements, independent of his behavior. Every human being, be it a Jew, a non-Jew, a righteous man or a sinner, young or old, every human being is created in the image of God and therefore has greatness, holiness, and we cannot take it away from them. Every person's face reminds us of Hashem. When you speak to someone, you should have in mind that Hashem wants you to think that he is looking at you through that man's eyes. Hashem is looking at me through every person that is looking at me. I have to be as good, as nice as possible towards everyone because I'm not interacting with a person. I'm interacting with the image of God, which means God is watching me through that person. In addition, it's a challenge for you. Since you are elohim, you are the image of God. You have greatness in you. So the first idea is there's greatness in every person. We have to treat everyone with great respect. The second idea is that I have greatness. Therefore, it's your duty to try and bring forth the greatness that you have in potential. You have greatness. You have infinite potential. You have to bring it out as much as possible by attempting to act the way Hashem acts as described in our sources and as we see his character traits manifest in the world. How do I bring out my potential? By using the part of God that is in me. By using my soul. My body is great but it's limited. My soul is unlimited. I can bring out the potential of my body and many have done it. We have many athletes. We have many bodybuilders. We have a lot of people who are capable of using their body in a wonderful way. But we also have to use our soul. And not too many people became masters of soul building, athletes of their nishama, of their character traits. Of course, we cannot be like Hashem totally, but we have the potential to become very great through the function of emulating him. When the author speaks about 13 midot, he means the 13 forms of power by which Hashem conducts the world. It's a certain system of conduct that Hashem uses. The author explains that by means of our emulating these midot they begin to work more powerfully and favorably for us. So there are so far two benefits. Number one, we become like Hashem if we emulate him. Number two, when we use the character traits of kindness, mercy, compassion, we awaken the same behavior from above towards us. When we use our kindness towards people, God will use his kindness towards us. By means of our emulating these midot they begin to work more powerfully and favorably for us. Like it says in the way that a man measures so it is measured for him. which um basically means if you come to a marketplace and you want to buy um apples and one guy sells a basket of apples for $10 and the other guy also sells a basket of apples for $10. So who you going to go to? You're going to go to the one who has the bigger basket. the one who has a bigger basket for the same price, it shows that he is more kind. So it means that if a person uses a big measure, he gives a lot, he shares a lot, he cares a lot. The same measure will be used for him by God. Hashem is going to give him a lot of blessing. Basket full of blessings. But it also on a deeper level means the word mo comes from the word mida. Mida is a character trait. It's a measure and a character trait. Because a character trait must be measured. We need to know how much of each character trait to use. People who are not in control of their character traits, they may use too much of negative character traits and too little of positive character traits. Our goal is to use a lot of positive character traits and just a little bit of negative character traits wherever necessary. Like you put a little bit of pepper, a little bit of salt on your food, but the majority of your food has to be nutritious um and delicious food. So too with our character traits, we have to use kindness, mercy, compassion, patience for the most part, humility. And once in a while we need strict justice. Once in a while we need u toughness a little bit. We need on the surface anger a little bit. once in a while. Jealousy, however, it should be sprinkled um little bit at a time, but majority of our measures, our midot, our character traits have to be positive. So it says in the way the person measures, so it is measured to him. And now according to our explanation, the way a person uses his character traits, those same character traits are used towards him from heaven. When a person exerts himself to emulate one of the midot of Hashem, that mida begins to function more powerfully within him. It reveals itself through certain things that happen in his life as a result of the mida that he activated through his own de deeds. So if you want your world to be good, you have to give out good to others. If you want your world to be merciful, you have to be merciful towards others. We build our own world. He continues, the 13 midot described in this sephir are midot of hashem demonstrated specifically toward his chosen people. Yes, Hashem is kind towards everyone. But this verse is spoken specifically about the Jewish people. As it says, "Who is God like you who pardons iniquity and passes over the transgressions of the remnants of his heritage?" The remnant of his heritage means the Jewish people. Now, after so many years of exile and persecution, whatever is left of the Jewish people is the remnant. But we're still his heritage. And further it says, "You, God, will give truth and faithfulness to Yakov, mercy to Abraham, as you swore to our forefathers from the days of old." So these character traits that we're going to learn specifically refer to the Jewish people. Yes, in some measure it refers to other nations as well, but for the most part this is how Hashem deals with the Jewish people. Other nations have what's called guardian angels. Every nation has assar, a ministering angel, the mala, the angel that guides that nation. But the Jewish people are guided directly by Hashem. They do not have and they do not need an intermediary. Even though we say that Jewish people also have a malik who is called Mael but really that name is a translation of who is like God. So, MKel is really very transparent. All he says, I'm nothing. Hashem is working through me. I'm nothing. Who is like God? I cannot compare to God. So, Hashem is guiding us directly uh without an intermediary. Now it says the verse in Mika from which we learn these character traits is only talking about the people of Hashem to whom he swore as it says as you swore to our forefathers. He swore to our forefathers and he didn't swear to the forefathers of other nations. Why? Because our forefathers committed themselves to God, connected themselves to God, emulated God, and therefore he made a covenant with them. He connected to them. He um became our God as opposed to other nations. Sometimes they acknowledge God, sometimes not. Sometimes they follow God, sometimes not. they are not 100% committed to God and therefore Hashem says I behave towards you like you behave towards me and therefore I'll take care of you but it's not going to be a strong bond. It's not going to be a connection 100% like I have with the Jewish people. The oath to our forefathers is one of the powerful reasons why Hashem loves us. It states openly in the Torah that Hashem loves us because he loves our fathers and he swore to them. Every Jew is precious and every Jew can develop his own relationship with Hashem. But ultimately we are the children, the descendants of our forefathers. All the powers, all the talents that we have are those that we inherited from our forefathers. And therefore, anything good that we have, our forefathers also had it to a much greater degree. God loves our fathers and he swore to them. Then it adds that he also loves us as on this day. So there are two reasons why Hashem loves us. Because of his love for our fathers and because he loves the Jewish people intrinsically. Every Jew is precious in God's eyes and we are also precious because we are the descendants of Abraham Hakov. This concludes the introduction of Rabbi Vikda Miller for Tom Devora and Bezat Hashem. Tomorrow we will start the introduction of the author himself, Rabbi um Moshe Cardo. Um we will we started and we will finish this seafer with God's help. Um, thank you all for joining and may we all um have good health and have the ability to continue through the sephr and to absorb the lessons of the sephr and become like God himself. Thank you for listening. Have a great day.