G-d Will Guard For You The Covenant And The Kindness That He Swore with Rabbi Aaron Dovid Poston

Heat. Heat. [Music] Shalom everybody. Welcome back to the midash. Welcome home to Torah. A warm welcome home to Torah. And we use the clea car. Actually, we're using another safer by the clea car. the same author. It's called Gibborim. It's new to us. It's obviously close to 500 years old, but it's new to us. And it's basically based on midrash. He's taking the midrash and explaining fundamentals in Judaism. And that is going to be the um the outline for our discussion is this week's para in the burim. We're in Pares Akev. Just for those who are interested in receiving the English source sheets down below, there are uh there's a link in the description box if you want to sign up for our hello. If you want to sign up for our English source sheets, then send me an email. Um also there are previous recordings in the link below as well, which I do encourage you to hear the other Shirim. So as I mentioned we're always dealing with fundamentals and uh the first thing in our parha chapter 7 verse12 is and it will be because according to kabad.org or the kabad website they're translating the word av because and it's true it means that even when God chose Abraham it's because you followed my Torah that I chose you the word av is used but it also means and there's multi-dimensional uh meanings really to every word and in this case it also means reward now the reward by the way is what we find and this is going to be the main lesson for tonight is what we find at the end. So the word akev is the end of the body. It's to heal and the reward will be at the end. Av. Um now so we're going to translate it either as reward or because of but the clear actually discusses this in in um in a different place. If you look at the last verse of the previous portion, it says, "You shall observe the commandment and the decrees and the ordinance that I command you today to perform them in Hebrew." That God wants us to take seriously theim just like the and the just like theim. Well, let's put it like this. The mishbatim we generally take seriously or more seriously because they make sense. on the other hand we may take lightly because they're not based on logic. Um, basically the miss if we were lost on an island, not lost on an island, you know, Gilligans Island, we were lost and we were on an island and we would say, "What kind of rules are we going to set?" Most people would come up with the same mishbatim, you know, stop at a stop sign, don't run a red light, right? Don't steal, don't murder, right? We take them seriously because they make sense. But the hookim on the other hand are a little bit of a religious of nature and don't necessar they're not grounded in reason and people take them lightly. That's what Rashi says right away. What does it mean by avail source number one? If you heed the minor commandments now what's minor? So minor could mean if I say to you light mitzvah you may say okay look at the punishment. Mitzvah are violation of a mitzvah. If it's a big punishment, so that's a strict one. That's a heavy one. And if it's a light punishment, I might think that's a light mitzvah. There's different ways. It could be the effort or the money that you put into it. Maybe that's a light mitzvah and or a heavy mitzvah, right? If I put in no effort or no money, what's the big deal? It must be a light mitzvah. So, there's different ways, but one of the ways is to look at it as if it makes sense. And even King David says, "I'm not worried about the big mitzvah. I'm worried about the small ones because I would take them lightly." Even King David admitted, I mean, this is human nature. He's the the paradigm example of man, right? King David. And he would consider to be afraid of taking advantage of these light mitzvah, of treading on them with his heel. Okay. With that in mind, we will Oh, I did I mentioned so in that verse 11, so he's basically saying two things. One is when you do theim, you should do them with the passion and fervor of the mishbatim, but the mishim, even though they make sense, you still have to do them because God commanded. In other words, it's a symbiotic relationship between the two. Do the mishbatim like theim and do the hookim like the mishbatim. Now if you look at our verse it's almost word for word except the word hookim is missing the very fact the word hookim is missing but it's replaced with the word av and then you feel you you can feel the verse telling you that if you listen to the hookim there's great reward there's great reward waiting for you right um that hashem is going to guard for you the bris the covenant and the and the kindness that he swore to your forefathers okay We're going to talk about the reward that comes at the end. So the word Avs also is referring to the heal. The heal is called I mean it's referred to as the end of the body. So this is the reward that will come at the end of time. The end of time meaning after 120 years. So let's look at the clear card itself. He brings down a medish. That's the verse we just read. Uh chapter 7:12. And it will be if you listen or you get a reward if you listen or you get a reward at the end if you listen to these mishbatim just like the hookim just like the mishbatim in the mid. So basically it's ina it's gimmel olive the Jews had a conversation with God and they said master of the universe and believe me the Jews know a lot about blessings and consuming them in this world. We are very blessed throughout all of history. Even in the worst of times, we see the blessings. I mean, just to stop for a moment, just to say the miracles, even though there's anti-semitism galore. I know somebody doesn't like that word, but there's anti-semitism galore. And yet, we're in the midst of it. And we are, at least here in Israel, I don't see why you can't see it in in wherever you are, the miracles, the kindness. I mean to you need like there's podcast of people who know the details and they talk about the miracles that have been happening not just since October 7 but since the foundation of 1948 of the state or even before our whole history the hashka practice and I'm not going to go into that I try to stay apolitical but the facts are the facts right you just can't get around it So, we're talking to God and we're saying, you know, all of these benefits we're these uh we're eating in this world. We're consuming. We're benefiting in this world. We're saying to God, it's right. There's reward and punishment. One of the 13 principles of our faith is that there is a judge and there's going to be reward and there's going to be punishment. And we're saying, you know, we're eating in this world the basically rules say the fruits we're eating. We're consuming the reward. You know what Hashem says? No, it ain't so. It ain't so. God is telling the Jewish people, all that you're consuming, all these, all these good things. By the way, the Gomorrah says all the are mentioned, all these blessings mentioned in the Torah and the rest of Nak, it's all about all it's all about the world to come because the Karen, the prime, how do you say it? The the real reward is waiting for us in the world to come. But there are these fruits, there is some produce, there is some benefit that we do get. By the way, Rabbi Daniel Glassian explains there's 20 I think he got it from Raf Sajik, but there are other people that list what you can do to to have the fruits. When I say fruit, it's like the crumbs. The real reward is waiting for you in the world to come. But you can have a taste. You can have a taste of the world to come. And there's 20 there's a list of 26 things you can do. An example, the more effort you make to do the mitzvah, you'll get rewarded in this world. You spend more money, you make more effort. There's a whole bunch of there's a whole list. One of them is simp. The more simp you have doing a mitzvah, Hashem rewards you in this world. It doesn't take anything away from the world to come. But here we're saying, okay, we're getting all these benefits. It must be that we're benefiting from our mitzvah in this world. And Hashem says, "No, all that you're consuming and benefiting from in this world, you're only benefiting from, you know, the the whipped cream and the cherry on top. You're not you're not eating and consuming what I'm holding off for you in the world to come." As we saw in the verse, the the latter part of verse 12, right? God will keep the covenant and the kindness that he swore to your forefathers and it all began with in the end. In the end, he's guarding it for you. You're not, Even though you're benefiting and you're blessed in this world, it is not being deducted from the the main bank account that's waiting for you for all eternity. And wait till you hear. So God says right all you're eating in you're eating see the word it means here at the end right the fruit of the mitzvah the the extra taste that you're benefiting from that is what you're eating from not from the mitzvah itself not from the karin itself but the prime the primacy the prime the kerin the the main bank account is not being deducted at all and you will benefit from it in the world to come. Now later on the medish brings a u an mash an analogy. So it explains what we just said. What exactly is this lesson? How can you make it like understandable for us, right? What does it compare to to a to a particular imagine a particular orphan? He gets like adopted by somebody who's very kind. Not just very kind, very kind. And what does he do? He's going to uh go through a stage. He's going to go through an internship. He's the man is going to teach him a trade. Like he adopted like his own son, right? One of the mitzvah that you have to do for your children is teach them teach them a trade so they don't become uh robbers or thieves or, you know, have a a clean trade. So he adopted him as a son and so he taught him a trade. Now what do you do when you normally go to a school to learn a trade? You pay to to learn, right? And if you're really working, you should get something in return. So maybe you're even Steven, maybe. Well, this kid is growing up in this house. He gets food. He gets clothing. He gets shelter. And so he feels I owe So he's basically saying, look, you you the B you think you owe me because I'm doing all this work, but really I'm already eating my due. So at the end either we're even Steven or I'm going to owe you. That's how the child feels or should feel. He's getting so much and what is he giving in return? Well, listen to what he says. So the the yat the orphan says to himself he says to the but in the media actually he says he's saying to himself all that I'm eating I'm basically taking from my wages that you're going to pay me in the future right I'm going to come out either even or owe you so the balabay is responding back just imagine we're We're the orphan and God is the balabay. The balabay says, "Listen, you've been in my house, but every time my sistern was low or my barrel was low, you went and you filled it for me. You worked beyond, you know, beyond what was request required of you. Ali and the the wood that you chopped for me, right? There's cold nights. Who's going to go out and get the the wood? Whatever you you you brought in the wood or you chopped the wood for me. All that I'm guarding. I'm holding on to that money for you. I'm guarding you. You're going to get that reward. And there's a PK. The PK we we just saw, right? God's going to show God is so kind. He's going to not deduct. He's going to give us the payros and not deduct it from the car. That's the analogy if it makes sense. So the clear card continues. The Torah everything could be divided into two, right? Like there's two kinds of people in the world. There's Jews and there's non-Jews, right? There's anything you can divide up into two. Well, guess what? The Torah itself has two different ways. There's called, which is using, and I'm going to use I'm not going to translate it as listening. I'm going to translate it as understanding. There's something going on between the two ears. There's a shut you're you're not just listening, but you're comprehending. There's something registers inside the head. And then there's masot. There's physical actions. There's Torah is a instruction manual telling me what to do. So there's two there's two aspects within Torah. You have the understanding and you have the actions. Two separate ways. Move our actions that we do are pretty much self-explanatory in the text. Take a lav a fence around your roof. Uh blow the chauffeur or listen to the chauffeur. Whatever it is, right? Put on the titus. But it's fill in simple instructions. Obviously, it's not so simple, but there's an oral to that explains all the details. But whatever the simple explanation is, that's what you do. But then there's a thing called and that's and that would be and I'm going to try to translate it the best way I can. That's more like the secrets that could be the mystical aspects that are within the secrets of the Torah. Okay? That's going to that's going to take place inside your noggin. Torah. This is learning. When you learn Torah, it's it's requires. So when you're just learning, okay, I'm going to just pick up the lulaf. Okay, that's called simple. But to really, and by the way, this is called makshava. When you read like the Maharal, you're reading the kakar, you're learning, it's called makshava. That's what the discipline is called. It's thought. It's deep thought. That's what we do here. We're trying to think deeply. So learning Torah requires effort and a lot of effort. And the clear card says these two in the Torah, these two different paths in the Torah. So one is going to benefit even though he used the words need it's for the needs of the body and the other is for the needs of the uh the nephesh. Okay, we are an a spiritual being having a physical experience or we're a physical being having a spiritual experience. But we are we really have two parts. We're we're spiritual beings and we're also physical beings. So the makov the shia is benefiting or it's for the needs of the soul and the physical mitzvah that we're doing theim is somehow benefiting the goof. By the way just to understand this because it's going to get a little complicated. Well actually you know what I'll read it and then I'll explain it. So the action is is actually the action we do the physical actions we do is fixing our body. It's perfecting our body. I know this may sound mystical and for those who are familiar I know you guys are that the mitzvah are compared to right we have 613 each mitzvah is connected parallel to some part of our body whether it's organs or bones or senus right the Mishna brewer or the kayim in his introduction to hil shabas explains something absolutely fascinating he says that in the resurrection of the dead a different limb. It's going to be um it's going to rise because of the tal tora. The Torah that you learned or the mitzvah you did is going to basically inject life. We're doing it now. As we do mitzvah, it's some kind of life force that's entering it, but that life force will only be activated well in in a certain sense when the resurrection takes place. So he says, "Look, if you don't do a mitzvah properly, we could we could be resurrected and we will be resurrected with mumim with blemishes in those mitzvah that we didn't perfect or we didn't fix." So he gives an examples. You're running to do the wrong thing in the resurrection of the dead. You might have a limp or a broken leg or something, you know, wrong with your leg. If you didn't put on to filling correctly, you'll have an arm that's twisted. If you're looking at things you shouldn't be looking at, you might be missing an eye. Uh he says, "Look, you can you can be resurrected without a pinky. You can be resurrected without an arm, a foot, a toe, but you can't be resurrected without the heart." He says, "Shabas is the heart." This is his introduction. He wants you to learn the laws of Shabas because he's trying to scare you. You should take it to heart. If each mitzvah is connected something, Shabas is the heart. It's the heart, the pumping. It's the the Jewish people. And so the best thing because we know that Shabas has a lot of just set aside time to do review. As long as you're doing review, you're in good. You're in good company. You're in good shape because there's a lot of mitzvah. Okay. So over here we're talking about why is it good for the goof? The masa is latic. He doesn't say what I just said, but I think that could be an aspect of how it's good for the goof. This could be quite controversial. I think I hold that it's not but and wait till you hear what I think. So the actions you do is good for the goof because most of the mitzvah in the Torah are to preserve or guard the health of the body like drum roll is mlob like the kosher laws what's kosher what's not kosher right things that are forbidden claims are bad for the body why would it be controversial because the modern mind the the liberal modern mind would say, "Hey, now we have refrigeration. Now we have antibiotics. Why can't we eat pork?" Right? So whether science says it's healthy or not, I have no idea. But people would think it's not healthy, but now now it could be. I think it's something else. So we we discussed the idea of reincarnation, health, benefits for the body in that way. I want to discuss this other idea. It's off it's a little bit off the topic, but it's related. The Ramban says that the one of the re even though it's a Ramosa Feinstein holds it and should not non-Jews should not try to keep kosher. That's what he claims. I'm a little bit I'm not going to argue with Ramosa but I think there's an aspect the Ramban speaks about. You are what you eat. Okay. I don't know if you So there are animals that are the animals of prey and they don't have such great meidos. Whereas doicile animals, you know, cows and sheep and goats and I don't know, chickens are doicile, but whatever. They But you know, so the kosher animals are not they're not tearing apart other animals. They're basically eating herbs or things that grow from the ground basically. So the Ramban holds that part of the kosher laws is to instill in us good midos or at least prevent us from having bad midos by not eating. So I think I think that's what he's kind of referring to here that the masot most of the mitzvah of the Torah and he uses example of eating non-cooser food could be uh detrimental to the health but I don't mean health in physical way I mean health in spiritual working on your character right it takes you away from a healthy relationships and I think that's what he actually says here he says kamo Just like the mitzvah that do make sense, right? The ones that are reasonable that they by the way. So the the Ron holds that there's not seven laws. There are seven principles for the the non-Jews to keep. But any mitzvah that is logical or ethical, a non-Jew is obligated to keep. So they don't have just seven laws. They have seven principles, but they have a lot of laws and and they're they're uh anything that's as it says here. In other words, logic dictates that it should be done. What's the Medina mean here? Diplomacy, interpersonal society, interpersonal relationships. So, it makes sense what I'm saying. Anyway, I didn't make it up. I heard it somewhere and it made sense. It resonated and I keep pushing the agenda. So that's for the goof. What about the nistar? Nistarra is those either mystical or ethereal aspects of the Torah. And that's that's going to benefit the the soul aspect. Again, when we talked about the um the hookim, the hookim do not have a benefit that's obvious, right? Stopping at a stop sign or a red light is obvious benefits me now and society. But not wearing shness or whatever any you know eating matzah and pesaf certain things that are of religious nature let's say according to raosha even the laws of kash you don't really see the toelis that is nicker that is obvious the benefit that's obvious in this world it's only about that means the reason we keep the those decrees that don't necessarily based on logic is because there is some kind of benefit that's going to benefit benefit us in the world to come but not here. Now there's a concept that I'm going to try to describe. God is holding a nare a candle. That candle that he's holding is our soul and our body. In other words, life itself. You know people they don't wake up in the morning. I mean, we thank God every morning, right, that we're we're alive. It's he's in absolute control of life and death, of our existence. So, we'll call it the soul and the body. And that's the candle that he holds. What are we holding? We're holding a candle. That's his Torah. Torah and mitzvah. And I'm going to describe it right now. So, it comes out, it's the bottom two lines on the right side. It comes out that in the hand of man are two candles near mitzvah the Torah or based on proverbs 6:23 right for the commandment is a candle and the Torah light so there's a candle in our hand God gave us the Torah that's the candle in our hand and um the clear card continues on the top line on the in spite of this right or addition to this Obviously, God does not have a hand. We're talking uh in an amp, how's the word go? An amphorphic >> anthropomorphic way. Uh that God has I'm going to read. God is holding these two candles that man has. So we're holding Torah mitzvah and he's holding the gofishes and tell us in another medish it's a beautiful medish God actually says to the Jewish people remember we're discussing this idea that he's guarding our our reward right he's guarding our reward so relating to that says to the Jewish people My candle is in your hand. I gave you my Torah. So my candle God is saying is in your hand and your candle is in my hand. In my hand, meaning your soul. Now the way it works, this is just the reality. We have to be humble and be submissive that if we fail, if we don't do our side, we're not guarding his Torah. He says, "I'm not going to guard your soul. You're looking at me. There's reward and punishment. There's consequences to your actions. We have a covenant and he's guarding the promise." Let's just see what he says. So, how is this lesson explained in analogy that we can understand? [Music] Each log gal. So the galo, by the way, it's up north above Samaria, right? The Shimon. It's the Gomorrah says back in the day, in the time of the Talmud, it was very difficult for transportation. Today we have route six and 90 and who knows what, right? You go in between. It was very difficult. It was like two different medas. And we we understand also there was a split. But this is when during the second temple there was no split, right? You it was just the terrain was difficult to traverse. It was hard to communicate. Okay. So you have a guy who let's say he's originally from the Galil and he owns a piece of property there but he's living in Yehuda and you have Yehuda meaning down where we live in Jerusalem area. And you have another guy who who is from Yehuda. He owns a a karum but he's living in the gal. So each one has to go whether it's weekly, monthly, couple months a year quite a few times a year to their karum to their vineyard that's in the that's far away. So they made a deal. Hey, you have to have a lot of trust. But they made a a pact. Listen, you're closer to my carum and I'm closer to your carum. I'll take care of yours. You'll take care of mine. And it looks like a match made in heaven. It looks like a good deal, right? It's a pretty good reasonable thing. So I'll read it. And so one says to the other you guard my vineyard that's in the galhuda and I'll guard your uh field your your vineyard that's in Yehuda. So too is saying about this idea that I have uh my candle is in your hand. Remember my candle, God's candle's in the Jewish people's hands, as it says in Proverbs 20 6:23 mitzvah, right? That the u that the mitzvah is a candle and the Torah is light and that's in our hands. And it also says in Proverbs 20 verse 27, you see that number five on the source sheet, man's soul is the Lord's lamp which searches out all the innermost parts. So our soul is in God's hand which basically means shamva or god wants us to guard to observe. It's al guard and observe are the same word but to to do to keep the theorah the mitzvah. And I God says so I'm going to guard your soul. There's some relationship here and it's written in Deuteronomy 11:22. Um, now it says in Hebrew, you wouldn't see it in the English shamish. There's a double language of guarding in English for if you keep all my commandments. I would translate it as if you surely keep all these commandments. There's like an emphasis. Whenever there's a double language, there's an emphasis, but nevertheless, it's still a double language. And um the clearar is explaining this to mean there's a double guarding just like I'm guarding the Torah in the mitzvah. God is guarding my soul. There's a relationship. That's why the language is is used twice. This analogy will be discussed as we have just discussed. As we discussed, the Torah has these two ideas, two concepts. One is deep thinking in you know listening and the other is action which is parallel to the physical body and the soul and that is as Kazal mentioned. Now this is a puss and we say it every morning when we wrap our tofillin in um Hosiah Hosea chapter 2 verse 21. Now it's a little bit I don't want to read the whole measures because of time but we're saying that I betrothed you to me right God and us are betrod to each other and God is betroing us through Mishbot and now they're going to be like these two things. We keep the sedic and the mishbat and God keeps the rahim. So the mishbah is representing of the Torah and the mitzvah and the raim is going to be Hashem's kindness and returning our soul like we say every morning and keeping our um reward in the world to come. I'll explain it like this. So there's an analogy. How do we understand this idea of this relationship of this marriage? There is an analogy to a king who marries a mitrona miterona which means a noble woman. He wants to marry her and zim. So it's she establishes these two gems. There's they're particular uh like emeralds of some sort and she's bringing that into the marriage. It's not a dowy, but it's something that belongs to her that she's basically putting on the table. Okay? And Hashem is doing or let's say the king is also putting up two of two precious stones as well. Now, what happens is over time she loses one of these stones and the king, he wants to teach her a lesson. So he removes also one of these two stones. So even though they made it in display, you walk into the palace under the as soon as you walk in under display you have these four stones. Two she brought to the marriage to he brought to the marriage she was playing with it. Whatever she lost it and he's not so happy. So he he removes his stone. That's how the analogy seems to work at the time. Israelim. So too, Hashem established, he brought to the table and that was um that was parallel to the two stones. In other words, we brought to the table two stones and God brought to the table two stones. So God brought the we brought Mishbot. Now Israel had mishpot if the Jewish people which we did by this thego by the sin of the golden calf. We failed. We fell short. We weren't doing mishpot which is righteousness and judgment. So what does Hashem do? He takes away his. And there's actually a puss in Jeremiah chapter 16 verse 5. find it. Um, number 12. Remember Jeremiah is giving us rebuke. He's a prophet. So, for so said the Lord, it's Jeremiah 16:5. Do not go into a house of mourning, neither go to lament, nor bemoan them. For I have gathered in my peace from this people, says the Lord, the the love and kindness and the mercy. God took it away. He did, right? Sorry, skip. I removed my peace, says Hashem, from this people. So, we see that that that did happen and that's the result of us losing this gemish. So ah just like this materon found she she got the message and she found she went out of her way and she found that rock or the gem and put it back. So too Hashem so too the Jewish people they made the tikun as well. The truth is the way the analogy works was what the king did was after she found that stone he made a special crown with the four stones and he made a crown out of the four stones and put on her head forever like right so too that's going to happen that's what happens to the Jewish people when we come back and and we make the tik and the mishpah we keep the Torah properly Hashem is making this crown for us as well and that's And that's what we're saying when we're wrapping our finger with the Now he asked two questions which he's not really going to answer. This is like eight pages and we're only going through one. But the questions he asked now and he'll answer later. There is to think consider contemplate in the mashall why is it specifically mentioned these these rocks these rocks aireim is very related to the word betrodal that's one idea to think about even though it's it's literally the name of the rock so too right we saw the analogy of one Jew who had uh his um vineyard in a different municipality, different location in specifically in Yehuda. the other one had in the gal. But why a karum? Specifically a karum. He'll answer it later, but he does get into the idea the Jewish people are God's vineyard. So, so the clear continues. Therefore, it seems we can explain the following. Right? We did ask the question, why was vineyard specifically used in the midrash? the Jewish people are compared to a we'll call a a grape plant, right? The the whole the whole plant itself. Now what he's going to do, he's going to describe the leaves as the protectors, the kma, the wisdom, and the grapes, the produce, the fruit itself as the goof, the uh the ma. The truth is a page later, he switches the whole thing. And if you read the gamorrah, it seems that the gammor is saying the opposite as well. But he tries to prove his point and we're going to stick just with this point for now. Just know there's another way to explain it and explaining it in the total opposite way. But if you look at Mish for example, chapter 9:2, well, if you look at verse one, it's number 14 on the source sheet, it's talking about wisdom. By the way, if you want to know why the Torah starts with a bet, this is a great way to investigate and understand that wisdom was built with a a bet, right? The the the world was created through God's wisdom. So, wisdom has built her house. She has huned her seven pillars. Why? How many books of the Torah do we have? Everyone usually says five, but it's actually seven. And listen to this. Seven. How do you get seven? It's all five books. You have these two inverted nuns in the middle of uh the beginning of the Bidbar. That's we learn there are three books in Bidbar. Before the nun, between the two nuns and after the last after that inverted nun there actually seven books and Khazal tell us there's seven books and it's based on this she has heuned her seven pillars. But the main point here she prepared her meat. She mingled with her wine. That's going to be the comparison to the karum. But going back to this idea that when we went up from Egypt, we went up, it says one fifth or armed, right? Armed, right? If you go into a, I don't know, a hospital in Israel, you go into a store, certain stores, they want to know if you're armed. They ask you if you're kamush kamush give how would you translate in English at the ammunition hill. The kakar says we went up armed. We went up with five books of our Torah. Meaning we were we were willing to accept it when we left Egypt. We were willing to accept it. So we went up armed. That is our armament. And the kakar says I'm sorry. Rashi says on that spot what is kamushim? He says clelesion. Clay what? What does that mean? Literally armaments. The word Zion means armaments. Now if Rash is going to interpret as armed and the word for armed is basically the number seven. You can follow Zion is seven. Zion also means armed. Rash is interpreting is clay Zion with armaments. The Torah itself is our armament. That is our shield. Okay? So you're not only talking about five, but on another level, you're talking about seven. Okay? So the clear says the following. He bases it on this verse. So the the the pouring or the mixing of the wine has something to do with wisdom. Okay. that just like you have I mean we have to use our imagination many of us never even saw unless you live in Gusettion you know certain but you see a vineyard you see a escolote a cluster of grapes there are leaves that are covering those leaves are protecting from the sun and maybe from the weather from the other elements the leaves are protecting the fruit as it says in Gmoren. Again, this seems to be the other way around, but if you look at number 15, the last two lines of 15, let the clusters of grapes pray for the leaves because if it was not for the leaves, the clusters of grapes would not survive. Somehow or another, the leaves are protecting the grapes. So, in the Aramaic, Alia alia aliyah misumalia. Basically you need to request mercy on the well the cluster needs to request mercy on the leaves that they should survive because if it was not for the leaves the cluster would not survive. So the clear card says so the cluster is basically the the body of the fruit which is a remis to the mass at least in this version. So the the actions okay but the actions are even though it's an action it's done for the sake of Torah as it says in like um Proverbs 11 verse 30 the fruit of a righteous man is the tree of life and the wise man acquires souls. By the way when it says Why? What did it mean to acquire souls? Where did we hear that before? By Abraham making converts. Now, what kind of converts? They were con converted to monotheism or benoak, right? They didn't become Jews or if they did, they didn't continue on. Uh but anyway, the idea is to spread I'm going to just say it to spread the gospel to spread the good news. Right? That's what we Jews are supposed to be doing. We're supposed to be letting people know that God loves us. He gave us an instruction manual and it's to our benefit, right? If you create, if you help other people become more righteous, it's a big it's a bigoot. So the clear quotes this is which we just said and fine. And now he says basically the leaves are a hint to wisdom. I mean they just took away the trees on that micro five but trees right where's the power of the shade coming from the leaves and it's sail is not just shade it's refuge it's u protection so the leaves are protecting the the power of the leaves gives um is the it's known we're talking about wisdom that it's known known that the the shade of the tree is coming from the power or potential of the leaves. So too, so too wisdom. It actually is a PK in Ecclesiastes 7:12. Look at number 17 on the sheet. For whoever is in the shade of wisdom, if you read the rest, you got to understand, hey, Jews will be Jews, right? Is in the shade of money. And the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom gives life to its possessor. You know why the Jews are so successful as a people? Because they keep the Torah. They have wisdom, right? We create things. We somehow we're blessed. So, but it's based on wisdom. It says the shade of wisdom. And he says, it says in Psalms 1:3, listen to these words. He shall be as a tree planted beside rivlets of water, which bring forth its fruit in its season. But it's alle wither. Just keep that in mind because we're going to discuss this for the next few few lines. This idea keep okay. So he explains the pre are the mitzvah. The pre the fruit the main thing is doing the mitzvah and they are pretorini. You're doing them because of spiritual reasons. That's that's the pre. But the ol those leaves are a hinting a re again those leaves are protecting the fruit. It's the leaves themselves that's the shade of wisdom. There's a major makus in kamur kaducian. It seems like there's a mak there's no real makus but you have rabbitar you have raika and then you have the sages. Rabi Tarfin says the misa is the mitzvah the msa is more important doing the mitzvah is more important than learning. Rabbi ka says no learning is greater and then everyone got together and they all said learning is greater because it brings you to doing. So then which one's really greater? You would think where eventually brings you to. So we're going to discuss that a little bit. Um the gammor is none. So the bottom line was they all got together. All the sages agreed in the end that learning now learning and really teaching are synonymous with each other. I'll just stop and tell you why. We all think no no doubt that learning is such a great mitzvah. Such a great mitzvah. No doubt. But what's the source? What's the source? So you ask people, they say, "Okay, it's a Joshua, right? You should meditate on day and night. That's the mitzvah." But it can't be. Why can't it be? Because every mitzvah has to be in the five books, not in the prophets, right? We say it every day. And you shall teach your children. You shall teach your sons. One time I just asked what's the source for learning and you're telling me it says to teach. Well, you can't teach. You have a professor here, right? You can't teach unless you learn. In other words, you have to learn first. Then you have but learning is more like a prerequisite. The main thing is teaching. Like I said, our obligation is to teach to make other people righteous. You have to be you have to find value and want to give it away, right? something so valuable you cherish it but it's like the candle what happens when you light a candle and from another candle doesn't take anything away right some people are afraid I'm going to give something away I'm going to have less when it comes to wisdom it doesn't work like that to doesn't work like that so they all agreed that the talmud is greater because it brings you to action that's why it said that if it was not for the leaves than the eshkalot Then the fruit itself would not exist had it not been for the shade of wisdom that hints to in the leaves. So if it was not for this wisdom, the shade of the wisdom which is hinted to in the tree in the in the leaves, how could you ever come to have a cluster which we said is hinted to by the actions, right? The leaves are the the and the fruit is the action. Just like we learn there's two parts of the Torah. I knew Tammud, which is learning or teaching or something that's going inside the mind and the soul and the misa which is the actions which we said is compared to the goof nim it's so that's going to be compared to the vineyard which has two things. The vineyard has the cluster the eshko and the olin and the leaves that protect it. So too, the goof and the nama, both the body and the soul, they're also compared to a karum. And we see in Isaiah 5:7, for the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel. God is calling us his vineyard Israel. The Jewish people are God's vineyard. So that's including the both the body and the soul. And tell us inosim the Jewish people are called. You would think that word is for all mankind. It's not. The word that means mankind. That includes Jews and non-Jews. But the specific word Adam means only those who are Jews or converts, right? Anybody who's a Jew. It says here but not non-Jews. Actually, you know what? I'm going to make a little tweak. It does say in in one version, but if it says idol worshippers, I would exclude people who are ben mamish truly righteous that they're not in the same category. They're somewhere in between. They're closer to Adam as opposed to but that's a little bit of a stretch. I just want to be kind. So we find out the Jews are called and they're compared to this vineyard which is the goof the goof the body which is nima pre which we already said is compared to the cluster of the fruit and then the shama to the to the um to the leaves. Now there's a puss in the first chapter of Psalms um I think we just read it uh verse three right so let's look at it again when it says which brings forth its fruit in its season so the fruit in its season the words the kar the way he wants to understand it means there's a season it's limited it's katsu means there's a budget it's a limited so there's that's this worldm the actions are in this world and you only have a limited time after we die we're called nifar means you're you're exempt from mitzvah you there's no opportunity to do mitzvah in the world to come it's in this season so the the fruits are being brought forth in this world but the leaves do not wither that we already said the leaves are compared to wisdom that wisdom will last forever okay now have to see what that means also So and the wisdom that it acquired that's what you're that's what you're going to take with you uh forever. So the Pik says right the fruits will be given in its season and the leaves will not wither the fruit given in its season that's the body it's making it's producing things in a limited time period call it 120 years. Um, that's what this road is. It's a limited time and we saw last week, but quoting Arvin again on page 22A. The Pik says today to do them. God wants you to do the mitzvah today. Don't put it off. Don't procrastinate. It means but it doesn't just mean that. It means that you can only do mitzvah now in this world. in the world to come there's no opportunity for to do more mitzvah it's finished. So the the when it says the fruit in its time it's talking about this world the reason it says in its time the body itself is limited 120 years it's the time to produce the fruit that's what the fruit means to produce in this world but what about the soul The nephasit, the thinking soul, the the intelligent spirit that we have. By the way, the Rambam translates the word as intelligence. The Mahar, which the kar is a student of translates the word as spirit. So I like to put them both together and call it an intelligent spirit. Just to review the idea, the Rambam says the purpose of life is to reach that stage of the navua where you have perfected your your sacral your intelligent spirit where everything is clear. Everyone else everyone else almost everyone else you know the the villagon and and all the coalists you have to work on your you have to work on your character. It's all about character development with spheros whatever it is you have to work on your character. The truth is the Rambam is saying the same thing because he says you cannot reach that level unless you perfect your character. So I don't think there's a machus there just it's a matter of semantics. Okay my opinion continue on. So he says and this is where I think we'll earn anyone. Now the way it's translated the Gmorra is anyone who's teaching Torah. The the translation here would be anybody who's involved in Torah, who's busy, I would say, learning. But no, it actually says teaching. Anyone who's teaching Torah in this world, he'll merit and he'll teach in the world to come. Now, when I was first becoming religious and maybe it was just for the guiltters, they said, "Listen, you got to go through the whole shear. You got to go to the shar if you don't understand what they're saying because when you get through what to come, you're going to understand it. So if you don't go to the shear at all your your gehenn is going to be sitting in a shir in the future in the world to come forever and not understand it but at least as you go to the class and it goes in one ear and out the other when you go to you'll understand it and I think this is this the the shot here whether you read it as if anyone who's involved in learning Torah in this world he'll learn it in the world to come it'll become clear to him or anyone who's involved in teaching he'll be um he'll be involved in teaching Torah in the world to come. And it's based on this verse in Proverbs 11:25. It's somewhere here where here number 24. A generous person will become rich. Isn't that nice? And then the last words, don't read it as Marv, read it as a teacher. Gamu. So the teacher will also learn in the future. This is about uh the the the future. Now before we end, I just want to say something very interesting that I read uh two ideas in Gore Kaducin. number one that when we say that learning is greater imagine being in the desert for 40 years and we're learning all about the mitzvah that are going to be done once we get into well we're learning the limud this was already after we were already decreed 40 years in the desert we were given many mitzvah so the learning is greater than the doing because the learning itself first of all it says it brings brings you to Misa. So it says if you have the learning, you can have both. You can have the learning and the action. If all you have is the action, you may not even have it right, but all you have is the action. So at least if you do the learning and it brings you to action, you have in your hand two things as opposed to just the action, you only have one thing. Another idea as I mentioned that we were learning for all those years about the mitzvah and then we get into the land and we do it. It's so important that those 40 years it's that learning that gave us the land. In other words, we were merited the to come into the land because of the learning. Okay. But once we get into the land and do the mitzvah, then we get the fruits, meaning the land will produce. Just keep in mind because there's a big I'm going to call it a makus, a big difference of opinion. Going to the army, not going to the army. Is it important for people to be learning? Obviously, those who are not learning, that's a whole another story. There's no excuse. But the idea is that it's so necessary. The acquisition of the land came because of the learning we were learning in the desert and we end up za that we do the actions that we do in Israel that is what gives the braha and the fruit you need both you need right I just thought about this today and I don't mean god forbid anybody should take the wrong way but you see signs everywhere bring them home who who's who do you think god is talking to I hope all the Jews all over the world understand we're all praying bring them home. What about us? Are we home? Maybe they should like touch a spark. We're we're feeling for somebody who's in a dungeon. Uh can't even think to you know what pain they're going through. But we also we're also not home, right? They're all over the world. There's more Jews outside the land of Israel. We should also come home. So bizmatem are Jewish brethren. We we we're we're praying every day for the incoming gathering of the exiles. H I think I think there's one there is an idea. You know, I actually spoke to Rabbi Kessan last night about it. We are shinishba. We are actually captured. We are hostages. We are being kept hostage by the non-Jewish ideas. Right? You can see Jews on campus. They join with the cathas and they're saying some kind of words like uh from the river to the sea. Right? There we are. Whether it's the universities, whether it's the general society, the word shishba captured by the Gentiles is not always physically held hostage. It also is emotionally and spiritually and you know all the psychologically. Uh and so my prayer at this moment is that we should all come home. Not at least the hostages physically and sometimes when they come back they're still there mentally, right? But for the Jews all over the world come home at least start emotionally and religiously and psychologically to come home. And uh I think with your will, you want to be here, Hashem will bring you on eagle's wings, right? More people are making aliyah now. I mean, I don't want to talk about the anti-semitism. Don't wait till you can't sell your house. Don't wait till you're you're running out. You should come here out of love and we will welcome you with open arms. And with that, I want to wish everyone a good Shabbat. Shabbat shalom and a great life. And we'll see you next week. Heat. Heat. [Music] my [Music] shing. [Music]