Tomer Devorah with Rabbi Avigdor Miller's Commentary 18 Chapter 8 Yichbosh Avonoteinu God Will C

Shalom. We are learning Miss Tom Devor with Rabbi Vic Miller's commentary. We in chapter 8, he will conceal our iniquities. We said last time that even though a person does mitzvot, they will not atone for his sins. Since a mitzvah is much greater than um a because the reward for mitzvah is eternal and the punishment for a sin is temporary. Therefore, it would not be proper to use the reward for mitzvah as atonement for a sin. It would just not be fair. And Rabbi Cordov continues, for example, Hashem will not say that if a man did 40 mitzvot and 10 aot then 30 mitzvot remain after subtracting 10. He did 40 mitzvot minus 10 a. So you're left with just 30 minutes. What? Go straight to Ganedan and enjoy. No, a person has to first go to to Ginam and to atone for everything that he did wrong and then he will go to Ganedin, Garden of Eden, and enjoy everything that he did correctly. The bad things will not cancel out the good. Let 10 mitzvot be erased in exchange for the 10 aot. God forbid. We would not want to escape ginam for a few months by sacrificing eternity. Rather, even if he was a perfect sadik who did only one transgression, Hashem compares him as if he had burned up the entire seafrer Torah, something that is perfect and is burnt entirely. So to a transgression, Hashem says, "I want you to do this." And we don't. And that one time that we go against Hashem's will, that's considered like burning the Torah. It's a rebellion against God. We we and and and mercy of Hashem is that that cannot be canceled out by mitzvot. Otherwise you can be struggling your whole life doing mitzvot and once in a while you stumble and you do a by the time you come to heaven they tell you you have an empty account and you ask them what do you mean I did so many mitzvot and they tell you oh we subtracted all your mitzvot for all the mistakes you did and now you're left with nothing all your 90 years of productive of life are wasted because of the mistakes that you made. We won't want we would not want to live in such a world. I live and I work and I do and I work on myself and I don't know if I'm going to be rewarded for it. No such thing. Says the one who hired you, Hashem, is trustworthy that he will pay you for your work. He's not going to tell you, "Oh, you broke over there, you missed over there, and therefore I'll take it out from your salary." No, you're going to get full salary. the mistakes we'll deal with separately. There is no way of atoning for a transgression merely by saying I'll pay for the a with one of my mitzvot. He has to pay off his debt by proper to wipe out the a and then he will get full reward for all his mitzvot. And this is a great kindliness that Hashem does with the sadikim that he does not deduct from their mitzvot. their mitzvot remain always and it makes sense because Hashem gave us something called teshu and therefore I don't have to pay for my mistakes with my mitzvot instead all I can do is just do touva as we explained in the in the last class how tshuva works >> [snorts] >> And therefore, I wouldn't want to use my precious mitzvot to pay for something that I can easily fix myself through tishuva through my own process of going back in time and fixing the mistake in my mind and having a feeling of regret and taking upon myself not to do anymore. That is a much easier, cheaper way to atone for things than paying for it with um very high currency of mitzvah. And at the same time, it's an mercy of Hashem for us. Because if we would know that mitzvot can cancel out sins, we would be in big trouble because then we would not be afraid of sins. It would be like bribery. Uh we we would say and many people think like that mistakenly. Oh, it's okay if I make mistakes once in a while. It's okay if I enjoy myself once in a while. Why? Because I can afford it. I have plenty of merits. I have plenty of mitzvot. It's okay. I'll pay for those sins with some of my mitzvot. I'll be okay. No. Hashem says, "Whatever mistake you made, you cannot bribe me with your mitzvot. You will have to answer for those sins." And therefore, even someone who is rich in terms of his merits will still have to be careful and not transgress. I would say just say that the most dangerous time for a person, the time when the attacks him the most is after he performed mitzvot for various reasons, but one of the reasons is because people think that since I did mitzvot, I am now safe. I'm invincible because I have protection of mitzvot. And even if I do some sins, it's okay. I have a buffer of um mitzvot. And that's why the is pushing you at that moment because it knows how you're thinking. It knows that you're saying to yourself, "Oh, I'm such a good boy or I'm such a good girl. Um, it's okay. I can take it easy." No. We cannot take it easy. We cannot relax because mitzvot are separate. We're going to get great reward for them and a are separate. And therefore, even the greatest people have to be always on guard to make sure they don't do anything inappropriate because their mitzvot will not be able to cancel out their sins. Now, Rabbi Miller explains, "The author wants to show us how important this principle is. Mosher Rabenu did so many good things, and it seems at least superficially from the Torah that he only did one wrong thing. But because of that one wrong thing, he was excluded from entering the land of Israel." This is a a good example that he brings. Moshe himself who did so many good things. Okay, he made one mistake. He struck the rock instead of speaking to it. And Hashem says, "You cannot go into the land of Israel. You have to die here." So Moshe said, "But Hashem, I brought the Torah to the Jewish people." And Hashem says, "Doesn't matter. You have to pay for your mistake." He says, "Yes, but Hashem, I brought the Jewish people out of Egypt." And Hashem says, "Doesn't matter. You have to pay for your mistake. But Hashem, I led the Jewish people for 40 years and I took care of them." And Hashem says, "Doesn't matter. You have to pay for your mistakes." This comes to teach us that one wrong thing cannot be wiped out even by an endless number of good things. Not because mitzvot are not strong enough to cancel out sins, but the opposite. mitzvot are so great that it would be unfair for a person if Hashem would charge us one mitzvah for a sin. Like we explained at the beginning, there's a limited punishment for a sin up to 12 months in purgatory gam. But the reward for a mitzvah is infinite. And therefore I cannot charge infinite amount for something finite. In a in a small um mashal as an example, if a child goes to a ice cream shop and he brings a diamond, he found a diamond on the street in Africa and he gives the diamond to ice cream owner and he says, "Can you please give me an ice cream?" And the ice cream owner on the side is also a diamond deal dealer. And he looks at it and he says, "Wow, this is such a beautiful diamond. I can grade it myself. It's the best diamond I've ever seen. This diamond is a million dollar diamond." And he says to the kid, "You want an ice cream for $5? I don't have enough change in the whole store to give you um back the money um for change. And the king says, "It's okay. Just give me one ice cream and give me a coupon so next time I come, I'll get another ice cream." And the store owner says, "You don't understand. I can give you a coupon, but that wouldn't be fair. I would be tricking you and lying to you. I would be taking a million dollars from you and instead giving you a coupon for another $5 ice cream. I cannot. And the child says, "No, please. I want ice cream." And the store owner says, "I'm not being cruel to you. I'm not giving you ice cream not because I'm greedy. I'm not giving you ice cream because I'm generous. I don't want to take a million dollars from you for one ice cream." The same thing, Hashem. He says, "I don't want to take away a mitzvah from you because mitzvah is infinite. I would rather punish you a little bit for the sin and keep your mitzvah intact. A mitzvah is too great to be canceled out by a sin." Now, Rab Cord continues because the mitzvot are extremely important they rise all the way up [snorts] to Hashem's presence and therefore how can mitzvot be deducted because of a now a mortal king who promised his uh subject a reward and then that subject disrespected the king a regular king might say, "That's it. I'm cancelling the reward." And um that's it. Go home empty-handed. Hashem doesn't do that. Hashem says, "Whatever reward I promised you, you will get it. But I'll give you opportunity to apologize and to fix your ways." As we have explained, Rab Miller says there is no reward in this world for a mitzvah because a mitzvah is too big to be rewarded in this world. And the only uh explanation of all the good things we get in life is that Hashem is helping us to do more mitzvot. It's not a reward for doing mitzvot. Rather, it is a a gift, an opportunity to do more mitzvah. As we explained, a business owner will provide his workers with lunch, not as a payment for their work, but rather as an incentive so that they should do better work. So too, if we keep Shabbat, Hashem is giving us peace, prosperity, health, good children. Is that a reward for Shabbat? No. It's so that you have health to do more mitzvot. You have children to educate them on the right path so that they can also do mitzvot. You have money so that you can do more mitzvot. Long life so that you can do more mitzvot. Because Hashem sees that you're using your time wisely. And Hashem says, "I'm going to give you more time and more resources so that you use it well for me. It's a good investment. I see that you're trustworthy. I give you $100 and you get back for me. I'm going to give you a,000. I'm going to give you 10,000. I'm going to give you a million. Why? It's worth it for me. The more I give you, the more you give me back. Infinite mitzvot. [snorts] It would be and Rabilia gives a very similar example. It would be like a person trying to cash a million dollar check in a small store and um the store says, "I'm sorry. I can't give it to you. Not because I don't want, I just can't. Anything I give you would not be enough for your million dollar check. Hashem gives opportunities to do more and that is not a reward for the previous mitzvot. As says, one mitzvah pulls to it another mitzvah. A reward for a mitzvah is another mitzvah. It's not a reward. The real reward is waiting. But if you do one mitzvah, Hashem will give you a gift of another mitzvah. When the Torah promises us blessings such as peace, livelihood, and so on, it means that Hashem will provide those good things in order to help us continue to perform mitzvot. Rabbi continues, "Rather the punishment for transgression is by means of ginam, not buying it with mitzvot, not cancelelling out with mitzvot, but rather Hashem charges us very little. Uh, go through yipur, fast for one day and I'm going to erase your sins. Do very easy and I'll erase your sins." In the worst case, when you die, go to geam for a little bit. Hashem himself doesn't like guein and he tries to limit our time there. He gives us many opportunities to get out of gam. But ginam is a welcome invention because gehinam preserves our mitzvot mitzvot belong to the great honorable reward of enjoying the splendor of the rabb explains sometimes ginam cannot be avoided but hashem does not prize or value that which comes from the side of ginam. Hashem does not enjoy punishing people. He would rather reward them, encourage them in a positive way. Sadikim inabah enjoy the splendor of the of divine presence. Uh that's the highest kind of happiness there and mitzvot belong only in that world. Once you do a mitzvah, it right away is brought to Hashem and right away put into your Garden of Eden account, never to be lost. And uh those mitzvot are not accessible to pay for sins. So how can these be deducted against these? You cannot deduct mitzvot in order to cancel out of your own. They are two entirely different sizes, different currencies, unexchangeable. A mitzvah is so great that it is able to come up before Hashem as sin. Even the worst sin is never as big as one mitzvah. love is always greater than um anger and hate. And the Talmud says that Hashem's reward for a mitzvah is always 500 times more [snorts] than the reward for a and that's in this world. In this world, the benefit that you get from mitzvah, like we explained, more opportunities, good life so that you can do more mitzvot is 500 times more than the punishment in this world for sin. And that's in the physical limited world. In the next world, the difference between a sin and a mitzvah is infinite. Even the worst sin is never as big as one mitzvah. Rather, Hashem collects the debt incurred by the sins by suffering punishment gam and then he pays the reward for all the mitzvot and nothing is deducted because an a cannot take place of a mitzvah. Now, Rabbi Cord continues and that is what is called he suppresses our sins. The root kesh can mean two things, to suppress or to hide. Because often you hide things by suppressing them into the sand, into the ground or under the blankets. If a mitzvah is always so superior that it cannot be exchanged for a sin, then why does it say in the gamar a man should never stand in a place of danger and say a miracle will be done for him? Because maybe no miracle will be performed for him and if a miracle is performed for him, his merits are thereby reduced. So we see that it is possible to reduce your merits. How does the sin of risking one's life extinguish any of his mitzvot? A good question that Rabbi Viller presents and he answers if it's just an ordinary sin then a sin is never exchanged for a mitzvah. But risking your life is not an ordinary sin. This is a very important point that we're learning here. Risking your life is one of the worst sins. Not taking care of your health or doing dangerous activities, taking risks like speeding, racing and so on, drinking and driving, smoking. All these things are much worse because they are potentially a murder. And why is murder so bad? It is risking the opportunity to live and continue doing mitzvot. The greatest blessing Raber says to give someone is you should have long life. Because long life means not only more enjoyment, more children, more grandchildren. But mainly longer life means more mitzvot. And damaging your health means less mitzvot. And each mitzvah is precious, infinite. And therefore, not taking care of your health or risking your life [clears throat] is very dangerous. And by Hashem saving you from death and performing a miracle and giving back your life so that you can do more mitzvot. If Hashem didn't do the miracle for you, your life would be finished and there would be no more mitzvot and it would be your fault and you would be punished for all those potential mitzvot that you could have done. And Hashem is merciful and he gives back the opportunity to do mitzvah and therefore he has to subtract some. It's only with life that you can achieve the most important accomplishments. That's why if you intentionally did something risky and Hashem in his kindness gave you your life back then he will deduct mitzvot because you were ready to give away mitzvot because you were ready to risk your life. Suppose a person risk his life by crossing the street when it was unsafe and he was nearly hit by a car. He was willing to risk losing so many mitzvot for the rest of his life. Even if Hashem intervened and saved his life, Hashem could deduct mitzvot because of that. If a person was engaged in a mitzvah such as collecting money for but while he was doing so he spoke that sin will not be atoned by losing mitzvah. He gets mitzvah for raising money for poor people and he gets a punishment for speaking badly about another Jew. He has to suffer for that sin. And if he will not do toua, he will have to visit Gehin until he is cleansed of that sin. Then he will be granted entry to Ganed and he will find that all of his mitzvot are intact because Rabbi Cord continues because sins don't rise up and become so obvious to Hashem as mitzvot do the mitzvot are always before Hashem's eyes. However, sins God suppresses so that they should not go up and enter before him. And that's good for us because that gives us opportunity to fix ourselves without being punished. Although it is true that Hashem observes the ways of man, the good and the bad, Hashem notices everything. Nothing is uh hidden from him. Hashem knows everything. None. Nevertheless, in his knowledge of the good, nothing is repressed, which means the bad, Hashem willingly hides temporarily. But the good, Hashem never hides. The good comes up before him. The good blossoms and grows higher and higher until it comes in his abode. Whereas a sin is not allowed to enter before him. And because mitzvot go up high, when one mitzvah meets another mitzvah, they are interwoven and from that is created an honorable edifice or a garment. Just like a textile is composed of different threads woven together in various ways, so to mitzvot weave themselves in various ways into a fabric creating a garment that the person will dawn in the future in Amaban, a colorful beautiful garment. However, sins don't have that characteristic and therefore people don't wear a garment of sins. Each sin is cast aside separately. Hashem suppresses them and doesn't allow them to come up before him so that they should not have that success of becoming part of a person's garment and they will not be able to enter inside. Sins Rab explains are different. They are meant to be avoided as much as possible. Yet when a sin is committed, it does not have any share in the man's garment. A sin cannot enter inside in front of Hashem. When a man does a sin, he has to suffer for it. If that means going to geam, then he has to go to gam. If it means he needs to have suffering in this world, he will have suffering in this world until he's purged of his sin. However, that a no matter how great it is, is never allowed to enter inside where Hashem is in Hashem's chamber. Only mitzvot can enter. Only happiness can enter. If you want to be in front of Hashem, you have to be happy. Someone who is not happy departs. Divine presence departs from a person who is sad. Barashem, we finished today's lesson. Next time we will continue chapter eight and hopefully finish it. Um, in the meantime, everyone should have shab. Have a great day. All the best.