Can a Past Life Explain What Happens to You Today? Parshat Ha'azinu - Rabbi Dovid Kaplan

We're page 1100. So had said at the end of last week's para, I'm going to call the heavens and earth to witness. I'm going to call the heavens and earth to witness uh uh uh and they are going to be the ones who are going to uh carry out the the the the reward and the punishment. So if you take a look at Rashi, Rashi says, First Rashi, listen heavens, I'm warning the Jewish people, you're going to be the witnesses. Right column top, you're the witnesses. I said to the Jewish people, I told the Jewish people, you're going to be the witnesses. And Mosher Rabenu says that Rashi brings down that the heavens and the earth are the witnesses and they're going to carry out the reward and the punishment. All the witnesses could do it. Page 1100. So uh now what does Boschenu say? And you notice that Hazenu is called it's Shiru. It's a song. It's a poem. It's even written in in a safer Torah. You see that it's written the way it appears in our over here. It's not written regular lines. It looks like it's written in uh some sort of poetic structure. Then he says like this, my teaching should come down like rain. My words should drip like dew. Likeim is a is a is a strong wind on the grass and is he calls it raindrops. Okay, that's that's that's uh fairly accurate. I mean that is accurate. But the the so Mosh Rabena talks about the word that that he's going to talk to the Jewish people is going to come down like rain and it's going to come down like dew. Now the commentaries all say over here first of all this is clearly an illusion to Torah itself. What Mosha is saying my word my teaching is which what teaching are we talking about? We're talking about the Torah. So is saying to the to the judge the teaching is going to come down like rain and it's going to come down like dew. So what is the how is Torah comparable to rain and dew? Now the first thing is there used to be the drink mountain dew. >> Right. Yahoo. Mountain Dew. Highest caffeine of any drink now. Right. That was good. >> That was that was good. Right. Right. Right. That was the the old the the poor man's energy drink. But the uh so why why is the rain Torah is compared to the rain? So we all know that Torah is compared to water right off the bat. This is a standard comparison. So Torah is compared to various liquids. Torah is compared to to wine. Torah is compared to to milk. I compare Torah to beer. Uh because when when you learn Torah, when you learn Torah, you know, when you drink beer the first time, beer is not very good. Let's face it, the beer is an acquired taste, right? You got to develop a taste for it. Torah to a certain extent when you first start, especially Gomorrah, especially Gomorra, it's hard. It's challenging and you got to develop a taste for it. But once you develop the taste, you get a buzz just like the beer. So the the the the Torah is compared to various liquids. One of the liquids is compared to is water. Most commonly Torah mayo Torah. When it says water, water is Torah. Why? very easily. We talk about the sea. We talk about it's called the sea the the sea of the Talmud. You dive into the Talmud. It's an ocean. It's a it's it it's a massive body of water because no matter how much you learn, it goes deeper and it's deeper and they discover things like they do in the ocean. They're constantly discovering new forms of life in the ocean. They've only experiment. They've only I think they've only uh uh um discovered or they only know about it like 8% or 10% of the ocean. >> They're still they're busy running around in outer space. They don't even know what they got in their backyard over here till they till they find just the Altalina, which was the Israeli ship that they ref they found recently where it had sunk was only 500 meters down till they finally found where it was. It's not 500 meters in the grand scheme of things. It's not doesn't sound like a whole and until they finally got the technology to say the ocean that's what to compare to water. There's a documented incident. I once saw a woman in England devel she gave birth and she developed an allergy to water. I actually know about this because I actually I had actually I was going through a period of allergies and the doctor was the doctor I'm allergic to work and uh but I was going through a period of allergies. I kept getting the doctor tried this medication that medication all sorts of stuff. Finally I said to the doctor one time he's a good friend of mine. I said to him what happens if somebody becomes allergic to water? So he looked at me kind of rolled he said they're in trouble. Okay. A few years later I read about this guy. This woman actually developed an allergy to water and she was in England which is a bad place to be allergic to water and uh uh uh she could she was able to like there you know one of these you know there are 17 cases in medical history of this sort of thing. She could only dab water on herself once a week and she couldn't touch her baby. She couldn't because the baby was mo she's allergic to water. Yeah. Because when gives birth her body goes hey where heyware. So, the first guy obviously said, "What did she drink?" Now, I'm I I don't know why. I'm only telling you what it said in the in in the report was the only thing she could drink is diet RC, which it just tells you that diet RC has no liquid in it. It is pure freshly squeezed chemical juice. So, I don't know why Diet RC, but the woman said, the woman said about her, she said, "This is not a life. I'm not alive. This is not called living." which is exactly what we feel that somebody with the devoid of Torah is not living. Somebody who's without Torah is not living. So Torah is called water. Water is the most basic. You could go without food for a long time. You could go without food for for for close to for a couple of months. Those guys in Ireland who protested when Margaret Thatcher let them let them die. They were on a hunger fast. Those guys, Bobby Sans and these other guys, I think I I was tracking it when I was much younger and I was tracking it. I wanted to see who set the record. And one of the guys that they got past two months of no food just a liquid diet just being on liquid water without water probably three days water without three days of person but but but so so the Torah is the most basic s water is the most basic source of life and the Torah is the most basic source of life number one. Number two the uh uh the idea of the rain and the dew. Why are there two analogies? Why does the Torah choose two different ideas to communicate that Mosher Rabbena is speaking Torah is going to communicate Torah to the Jewish people? Why rain and why do? >> Uh we have to pray for rain. So there's an involvement on our part do comes without. >> Interesting. Even though we make mention of it, we say moral davin for rain because because at the end of the day, the rain is what makes it grow, right? We need we need the rain. That's interesting. But why is the Torah Why is the Torah compared to it? What do you say, Lenny? >> Because you can't stop raining and you can't stop from >> which how does that compare to Torah? Can't stop. You can't stop ourselves from Torah, right? It's like chocolate. It just can't stop ourselves. The starting center >> is eternal. >> Torah is eternal. It's never going to stop. Good. Good. Good. Good. Very good. Very good. Very interesting. Very interesting. It's never It's never going to stop. Rain is never going to stop. You're not not far off. One of the ideas is where does rain come from? Where does the dew come from? Rain comes down, goo comes from from from down here. So it's actually probably uh the the uh >> right that that's no no the the air the the condensation but but it's down here. We we sense it down here because you only find the dew down below on you don't feel it coming down. Whereas rain symbolically is coming down. That means there are two parts of Torah. There's Torah. There's the written Torah and there's the oral Torah. Where did the written Torah come from? Mosher Rabba went up to bring it down to the Jewish people. What about the oral Torah? The oral Torah, we're meant to innovate. When we learn Torah, we're meant to innovate and come up with our own novel ideas, provided they obey a certain framework, so to speak, that it's coming from we produce it. We produce the oral Torah. Now obviously Mosha Boenu knew the entire oral Torah as well but it was well left to us to try to draw out the interpretations based on the 13 the 13 principles of of what's called the her the of Rabile that we say in the sitter every morning those 13 principles of interpretation where we it leaves it for us to contribute coming from down here that we we actually produce so to speak we produce Torah down here whereas the written Torah the written Torah comes from above and comes down. Number three, the order over here, which is more common, rain or do is there every day, you know, it pays he pays his dues. The uh uh rain only comes down. Rain comes down sometimes comes out. What we had rain in Israel last week or the in rain in August is almost unheard of in Israel. It's virtually unheard of that we had rain was a shock. We had it twice this month and it was virtually unheard of. Do was much more common. So then why does the Torah put the rain first? Puts the rain before the do. I'll I'll set down the Torah like rain and then in the Pik the Pik says why why is the rain put before the do if the do is more common. So So you could argue that the do should be written in the Pik first. So why is the rain written first? What do you say? >> Is it because it's more physically heavy? So when it comes down, you know, it pour like, you know what I say? When it rains, it pours. >> It could be. It could be because rain again, we're we're more dependent on the rain for for for exactly what you're saying. It could be we're more dependent. Number one. Number two, when you say it's heavy, it comes down. Do you enjoy getting caught in the rain? >> Not typically. Not meaning no. Meaning, no, we don't we don't enjoy getting caught in the rain. When there's a a down to in summer, it's not so bad, but in winter it's in winter, we'd rather not get caught in the rain, especially when you have an umbrella and your umbrella then gets crippled in the wind and you're left there, you know, you thought you had it all worked out and then you your umbrella got stripped by the rain and next thing you know, you're exposed. So, the the rain could could the rain it could be unpleasant. Whereas the dew is just kind of like, you know, if you're one of those morning people who happens to be up when the grass is still moist, You know, one of those people. By the way, if you're a morning person, you probably don't have a whole lot of friends. But yeah, nobody likes a gum snapper at 5:30 a.m. Hi everybody. You know, but but if you're if you are normally do is pleasant when you learn Torah, this goes back to the original idea. When you first start learning Torah, it's a challenge. I got again, especially Gomorrah, especially I got to work on a vocabulary over here. And it's not only it's Hebrew, it's Aramaic. And once I worked out the translation, I got to work out the logic over here. And once I've worked out the logic, then somebody shows me that my logic is not logical and I got to try it again. Gomorrah in the beginning is very very very it's an ordeal in the beginning. Yet when a person gets in, you see why there are so many thousands of people who get into it because eventually it becomes something like beer that you develop that taste for. And therefore the rain is put first because this is the order of how we develop in Torah. We develop with rain like in the beginning it's like but then it turns into do it becomes something very very pleasant something a person feels they can't live without. Number three, the uh the uh when rain comes down do and rain but rain especially rain falls on the crops. How quickly do you see the effect? Not too quickly. You don't see the effect, do you? Rain falls down, you don't see the effect. When do you see the effect? with the course of time when you water your lawn and the rain comes down with the over the course of time then you see there's an effect now when you look at a town like Ben Brock when you look at Ben Brock I don't know if you guys ever been to Ben Brock have you been there okay the uh in a place like Ben Brock at one point Ben had 100,000 citizens and no police department [clears throat] at one point could you imagine a town 100,000 people and not one police department in Benabra eventually they had put because there were there were burglaries in Bayra with people coming from the outside >> but there beneath there's no violence in Ben what what there's no there's no anything I don't say none whatsoever but there's no violence there's no drug abuse there no teen pregnancies there's no uh uh unless the girl get married you know they get married kind of young in the firm world but there's they they're not they're not it's it's a place with with with control it's self there's a lot of self-control there How do you have a city like that? Where where did that how did that happen? Can you imagine any city in the world like that? 100,000 people no police department place will be be anarchy. So how does that happen? It's a result of a community that's involved in Torah. And when the Torah has an effect, it doesn't start automatically. you look at my grandchildren, you know, when like they, you know, they're they're they're little kids, but with the course of time, little from kids who spend time in yeshiva and they become big from kids and then it has an effect over the course of time. That's what the rain is. the rain. You won't see the effect of Torah on a person right away. But I've seen this hundreds of times at Arsame where guys come in here and they come in completely different value system and they study Torah and they're here for a year or two or 17 and then the next thing you know they're they're a completely different person. Their behavior is different. Their self-control is different. Everything is different. That's what the ctor is compared to rain. You don't see the effect. And by the way, it's a mistake to check. We all want to do better. We all want to grow. We all want to improve. It's a mistake to check ourselves every day because you can't see the difference in growth from day to day. But when you look back where you were two months ago compared to where you are now, and you look back six months ago compared to where you were now, you'll see that there has been a vast change in all areas of life. How we speak, how we eat, how we think, what we look at, what we what what we're interested in, the change takes place. But it takes it gradually like rain watering the crops. That's why moba makes a comparison to rain. The only other difference is the only other uh the only uh uh uh we put just one limitation on this. Even when rain comes down, the farmer still has to work the crops. You have to work your fields. You can't just let it rain. It rains, but you still got to plow and you still got to do all the work that is involved in agriculture. That means the Torah gives us the framework to grow, but we still have to work on the growth. The growth doesn't happen by itself. We have to we have to work on the growth. We have to we have to ourselves put in invest in working and trying to improve our character in trying to understand even learning Torah. You know, some you like to read it and you like it to go smoothly. Sometimes if you learn Gomorrah, those of you who you know you learn Gomorrah, you got to read it over once, twice, three times, four times, five times until the till till the picture starts coming clear till it gets in comes in focus because it's hard. It took it it takes work. But the rain is there to create the framework for us so that we could grow as people. That's the idea. Okay. Now take a look at a gimmel and I'm going to ask you a question. And I call out the name of hemu loco. How does the arts go translated? Ascribe greatness to our God. From this puk, we learn in the Gomorrah that we make a braha before we learn Torah. In the morning, we make two brahas before you learn Torah. And just like you make a braha on food, you make a braha on on onh food, you make a braha on anything that's pleasurable, we make a braha before we learn Torah. So the commentary they ask and how come there's no after braha why when we finish learning at night you finish learn going to sleep why don't we make an after braha on learning Torah >> you never finished learning Torah >> if you're going to sleep in order to learn Torah the next day >> so you've never finished learning Torah that is correct that means our attitude is there's no there's no official end no official end to learning Torah we're supposed to be learning Torah we're supposed to be immersed in Torah day and night. Each person obviously according to his according to his level, but there's no end. I was at camp once. I was at a at a uh Kabad camp when I was 10 years old in Flint, Michigan. You ever heard of Flint, Michigan? Neither did I. >> You ever hear of Michigan? What's that? >> It's been taken over. >> Flint is like one of the >> Oh. Oh, you mean with with by the way this >> it's called I don't know whatever it was at those days. because it was only taken over by Kabad. It was a Kabad camp, right? So it was in Flint, Michigan and we went it was camp Israel. So there was was first time I went to overnight camp. So the way the camps are structured is in the morning it starts out with the learning session and after the learning session they come to activities. So the way they end the learning session they do this in other camps too. The guy after you know we go to this Mishnayas or whatever would be learning and then they have the announcement over the loudspeaker. Time for learning never ends. Time for learning never ends. First activity in 10 minutes. That's how they would end it. They and they do this in all the camp. Time for learning never ends. And that's why when we learn Torah, we make a braha. And you're not allowed to learn Torah till you make there's even an opinion. You can't even think Torah when you get up in the morning without without making a braha. You could, but there is such an opinion. And and there are certain times where a person is not allowed to not allow to think Torah. Where can't you think Torah? in a bathroom in a bathroom and now the thing Torah show an interesting piece of Gumarra the Gumar says that they asked Rabbi Zera oh well they they asked Reba uh the same rebra we had the Gumar over here they asked Reber to what he ascribes as long life shal Tom as Rebezer to what do you ascribe your long life I mean the standard answer is to the fact that I haven't died that that [clears throat] that certainly not dying adds to is one of the main ingredients in having a long life but they asked him to what do you describe your long life you said well I'll tell you I never got upset in my house. Could you imagine? Could you imagine? Your nine-year-old kid comes over to you and says, "Daddy, my glasses broke. How did they break?" Well, I wanted to see how far they could bend. It's not [laughter] It's not as far as I thought. And you just like, "Oh, okay. No, no getting upset, right?" or or or you know, maybe your spouse uh spent more than you've actually have in the bank >> and you say to her, you know, by the way, uh we're we're overdrawn. And she looks at you, she goes, "No, you're just under deposited, right?" And then and and you la dah. So he said, "I never got upset at home and I never walked ahead of somebody greater than me." if there was a rabbi around or I never walked I always made sure to fall in behind it and I never thought Torah in unappropriate places what calls moo that means you're walking down an alley that smells terrible from either garbage or or excrement or something not allowed to think Torah there around excrement especially and think about Europe think about Europe where they had where where where the the uh the the the the the excrement was flowing through the streets. You know, nowadays we think we're like where does this apply? But just think about imagine that. >> And I never went for Amos without Torah and fillin. He never walked for Amos at six feet. He never went six feet without his lips reciting Torah and have wearing fillin. Now you're thinking about, hey, how do you get long life? You know, you thought he was going to say took vitamins, you know. Okay. And I never slept in the base medish and I never rejoiced when one of my friends messed up. And I never called anybody by a nickname. So he goes through a whole list of these. He goes through a whole list of these. Uh so they asked of Keny Zatsal. Which one do you feel is was the hardest for you? I mean for me the first one on the list I never got upset at home. Ah, I come on blew that one a long time ago and many times over. Said the hardest one for him was not thinking Torah in inappropriate places. When your mind is filled with Torah, you're just everywhere he goes and all a sudden he's got to turn it off. Turn it off. He can't think Torah over here for said that was the hardest thing for him. Upset. He never got upset. He never got upset with anybody ever. Ever. >> He worked to fill in all day like you night. >> Look the not at night. Not at night. The it's good, good question. The hal is that we're meant by the letter of the law. We're meant to be wearing fillin all day. Fin is a mitzah all day. There there are big rabbis that wear fillin all day. Night time. No, we take it off before night time. We're talking about when he No one saw him without fill in when he should have been wearing fillain. How you you have to take it off to go to the bathroom and so on and so forth. But really, we're supposed to wear fillain all day. What we do is we put a limitation on it because fillain requires both a clean mind and a clean body. And since we are at a level where to make it through the day with a clean mind or to and and to make it through the day with even with a clean body is a challenge. So what we do is we wear the fill in while we dive in. And if a person gets to a high enough level then they could uh uh uh they've established that they are at a level where they could wear fill in for longer stretches. For somebody who's not at that level, you don't do it because then it looks like hottiness like I am holy. Look at me. I'm wearing fill. I am so holy. The same guy who then goes to eat in an all $20 all you can eat restaurant because I am so holy. Then you're not you. We're not at that level. This is one of the reasons why women don't you know women have why can't women wear till? Why can't women wear tin? So besides the the letter of the hala, you know, if a guy does ever volunteer do volunteer work in a hospital, right? So a guy goes to the hospital to do volunteer work and he says, "Hi, where's the uh where's the operating theater for brain surgery?" Why do you want to know? Well, I want to volunteer. I want to do some brain surgery. You want to do brain surgery? Pick up a mopping, mop the floors. That's what you need volunteers for. Give out candy. What do you What volunteer? Yeah, but I want to do brain surgery. Hey buddy, I got news for you. Even people who are qualified, we put limitations on them. Not everybody could do brain surgery. Only qualified people could do it. And even then with limited with all sorts of rules and restrictions. So when a woman wants to put on fillin, which she's not obligated to do, our response is even those of us who have to do it have a limitation on it, a severe limitation. So we're certainly not going to take volunteers. This is we're not playing games over here. That idea that's that's the idea. So by the letter of law we should be wearing filling all day. By the letter of law we should wear all day. We don't because we realize that we're not on a high enough level. Okay, let's go on. Very good. So we don't make a br after after after learning because essentially we're never finished learning. We never really finished learning. There's always more learning to do. Okay. Now, hashem is called the rock. His actions are perfect. All of his ways are just a god of faith. There is no uh distortion. Now, let's this is the post I want to get to today. So, the Torah says the Hashem is perfect. So, I'm going to tell you a medish. There's a medish I I heard from my father many years ago and I seen the medish inside is a a remarkable medish. The medish says like this. You know there probably the most common question people have is what? What's the most common philosophical question people have? >> What's the meaning of life? >> What is the meaning of life? Uh that's many people ask that but that's very that's very general. >> God is all evil. >> Yeah. How do why do the R I mean there is a lot of people ask what is the meaning of life? People do people do answer but the answers are very interesting but some people think it's sushi but that's a that's not it's not correct by any stretch of the imagination. The uh uh the the the there are there's the question of how could free choice versus predetermination, right? How could God know what we're how can we have free choice if God knows what we're going to do? That's a question many people ask. I have a very simple answer for that because I could do it. If I could do it, Hashem could do it. Because if I take a big lollipop that they sell in airports, an overpriced oversized lollipop, everything with a lot of different colors, you know, it's it's big. And you go up to a three-year-old or a fouryear-old and you say to him, "Would you like this lollipop?" Does he have free choice? >> Does he have free choice >> to a certain extent? >> Not to a certain extent. He's got free choice. Do you know what he's going to choose? [laughter] Yeah. So, if we could do it, Hashem could do it. That's not a problem. That's the Kaplan response. There are other responses, you know, somewhat more sophisticated responses. But if, for example, a cobra would come crawling towards me, do I have free choice to remain in my seat? >> Do you think I would? >> No. >> No, you don't not think I would. You know I wouldn't right so so there's free choice but you know exactly what I'm going to choose that's one of the question there's another question which is why do the righteous suffer the wicked prosper sadik vero why do the righteous suffer wicked and not only that this was the goar says mosher asked hashem this question he said why is it sadic verb so hashem said to now listen to the cryptic answer hashem g we'll try to understand this said to moenu sadic Viralo sadic sorry there there's atadic who has things going good for him is at sadic benadic is it sadic the son of a sadic sadic viral is it sadic the son of a Russia Russia vtovlo somebody's a Russia and things are going well he's a Russia the son of a sadic Russia viral is a Russia the son of a Russia That was the answer Hashem gave Mosher. Now what's the problem with that answer? Because that doesn't really answer the question because at the end of the day if he's a sadic whose father was a Russia, so why should he suffer because of his side? That also isn't just Hashem just told him the framework of how the game played. He just told him how the game is played. He didn't say why the game is played that way. He didn't explain that. He just said, "Well, if if you see a Sadic who's got things are going well, that means his father was a Sadic." Oh, and if it's not Golsad was a Russia. Uhhuh. So why why should I mean to the contrary I could argue then things would certainly go well for him. He pulled himself away from a Russia to become doesn't answer the why. It just tells you the what just gives you a bit more elaborate what the rules of the game are. Doesn't explain why. So the villagon says that what Mosher Rabeno was being told by was the concept of reincarnation. Its sadic benadic means that he was at sadic in a previous life and he's at sadic in this life. He's at sadic the son of sadadic. He himself was at sadic in a previous life. He was brought back to this world perhaps to fix up one or two things. Maybe once one time he was talking in schul and he missed saying raba doesn't have a whole lot to fix up and therefore he's atic benadic. Atadic bin Russia means that in the previous life he was no good. In this life, he started working better, but now he's got to be accountable. He has to pay the price for having been a Russian in a previous life. So, he gets the punishment here. So, he won't lose the punishment in the world to come. He won't lose out in the world to come. So, he's at Sadic been Russia. And the same thing applies to a Russia, the son of a sadic. In a previous life, he was a sadic. Now, he's a Russia. He's cooked, but we got to reward him for what he did good he did in the previous life. And then there's a Russia, Bened Russia. He was no good then and he was no good now. In the previous life, he was a White Sox fan and this life is a White Sox fan, right? There's no hope for him. Yeah. >> What would make someone become a sad in the previous life in a Russian? >> Only only a good question. Only free choice. How he choose how what he chose based on life circumstances. Sometimes Ro makes the choices a little easier, a little harder. But in one life, he was very good, had a comeback, and in this life he messed up. That could happen. Uh, by the way, people think that when it comes to reincarnation that we don't know a whole lot about it. We only know we only know that you don't we don't remember our previous incarnations. Number one, we don't remember our previous incarnations. And if you think you do, there's something called deja vu. And people think, oh, déja vu, it must be re it's like reincarnation. I'm sensing I did this right. That you know dja vu is. It's not. may just be that you're either extremely overt tired or it's drug flashback but it has nothing to do with reincarnation though it does say this is a this is a dooer oh you're going to love this there's a the benishai I think I said the benishai says is the garra says isha matana a good wife is a precious gift to her husband that's the expression the garra says the garra says is tova a good wife matana tova she's precious gift to her husband. So the banish is why is a woman called a gift? Why is she called a gift to her husband? You say a wife she's a tremendous benefit for her husband. She's a gift. By the way, there could be that's why you know the the the the the gift is the gift is a you know the bride dresses up very elaborate like gift wrapped you know but she's a gift to the husband. Why a gift? Beneskai says it could very well be this couple was married in a previous incarnation and the husband messed up. The wife got it right. The husband messed up. The husband had to come back in this gilgul. He had to come back in this life. The wife doesn't have to be here. She was brought back again just to help him get it right. Therefore, she's a gift to him. She doesn't she she doesn't really have to be here. But she is here. [laughter] So I always tell I always tell the ladies, make sure make sure you're tactful. In other words, it's never when you have an argument with your husband, you never say, listen, I don't really have to be here. It's only because of you. But I do contend that's why some of these conversation we spoke about this already once, didn't we? You know, it could be in a previous life. You know, we were we were already talking about this. So at the end of the day, at the end of the day, the the concept of incarnate reincarnation exists. By the way, if a person's really bad, he could come back as an animal. >> Person could come back. If the person's extremely immoral, let's say come back as a dog, >> right? So, I always say, you know, when you see a dog, when you see a dog, don't if nobody's looking like, come on, what'd you do? You know, you know, we're talking about conceptually conceptually, but the only the only I'll get you one second. The only difference is the only this is a bad one. The only difference is that when you come back, person's brought back as as an animal, they do remember their pre-increcarnation as a human being. >> No, that's rough. >> That is rough. Ruff ruff. And when and when the uh and so you could be, you know, you're the dog running around under the table, everybody's talking and you'd like to say something. It all comes out as a bark. Now you want me to really Now you want me to really give you the heebie-jebies. Imagine a guy who comes back as a dog. You know, let's back up for a second. If I'm going to ruin your day, I may as well ruin it good. [laughter] Could you imagine a guy who gets a guy gets rich and he dies and he leaves all of his money to What's the worst possible thing that could happen? Leaves all his money. I know some people say leave children. No, you always leave money to children. >> The IRS. >> The IRS is pretty bad. >> Wife gets remarried. >> Correct. You leave all your money to your wife's next husband and then one day they go shopping for a pet >> and they buy you. >> Can you Can you Yeah. How do you like that, Joe? Yeah. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine that? There they are sitting at the table and you're their dog. Then this guy keeps wondering why you bit him so hard and there they are and and there and you're the dog here and you'd like to say something. all that's all that comes out. >> So the lesson is obviously be good. That's the lesson. And what were we going to ask? >> What was the story that I give you? >> That's a I'd call it an urban legend. I call it's an urban leg. Generally I call it an urban an urban nonsense. But the way it goes is that this guy is followed by this dog. Every day you've got there's this dog follows this guy around. Every day can't get rid of the dog. Just follows him. follows him, follows him. I think the dog with the cat, whatever it is. Finally, he goes to the rabbi and the rabbi says, "Okay, the dog's probably a reincarnation who you who wronged you in a previous life. Now you have to tell him you forgive him." So the dog So the way the story goes is that the guy turns the dog says, "I forgive you." And after that, the dog just runs off and he gets hit by a truck and the dog dies. I don't forgive you. You know, I don't know exactly. You know, listen, I'm only telling you concepts. Only telling you concepts. We do not put this when you want to buy a dog, go buy a dog. And don't don't think to yourself, well, listen, I'll do you a favor. I'll help you get your I'll help you get your tikun in this world. We don't we don't do that. We we don't do that. The just just know that there are con these concepts exist, but we never look at the one dog and say, "Oh, yeah. My wife was my wife was convinced that her dog had a Jewish nishama. Because every time we came in from Shul Friday night, so the dog is a French poodle, his name was Pierre. Every time we came in from Shaw Friday night, he would just go berserk and he would run at the door and then run towards the dining room table. I want to make kiddish. So they were convinced he had a Jewish temp. I was convinced he was hungry. >> That that was that was the difference. That was the difference between us. So that doesn't you know we don't do anything based on that. The point is the point is that we understand that that sadic veral that there is a method to hashem's hashem's running of the world. Now I want to tell you a medish very quickly. Medus says like this you have to stay with the start to finish. There's a remarkable medish. The medish says that when hashem went up when Mosher Raenu went up to get the Torah. So he asked Hashem, "My moment of grace, I want you to reveal to me where is your justice in the world. I want to see justice, how your justice works." So Hashem says to Mosha, "Look, you're limited. You can't possibly understand it, but I'll give you I'll show you the tip of the iceberg. But this is only the tip of the iceberg." And Hashem shows Mosher Rabenu a vision. And in the vision, you know this or how do you know it? >> Midash says, >> "Oh, does he go the med goes through the whole thing?" >> The well and the dropping the purse. >> Yes. >> The med he brings it down and I want to see it afterwards. The medish says there was a the there was a a soldier is riding his horse and it's a very hot day. And the soldier gets to a water hole and he gets off his horse to bend down to take a drink. And as he takes a drink at the water hole, he's got a money pouch in his shirt. The money pouch stuffed with gold coins and it falls alongside the water hole. A short time later, young boy comes by. Soldier gets on his horse and he rides away. Short time later, 12-year-old boy comes by, goes over to the water, take a drink. He drinking. He sees this pouch, picks up the pouch, opens it up. Gold coins. Wonderful. Goes running off, scampering off ampily. A short time later, a little old man comes by, bends down to take a drink, and he lies down, take a nap. In the meantime, the soldier is riding on his horse, and he checks his pockets, and all of a sudden, you know that panicky feeling when you can't find your wallet, you touch, "Oh, where where could it be? Where's my" And he thinks to himself, "It must be at the water hole." So, he rides back to the water hole. He gets to the water hole. He sees there's a little old man there. She says the little old man, he kicks him, give him a good hard kick. He wakes him up. He says, "Okay, where's my money? Give me my money very quickly. I'm in a hurry." The old man says, "I don't know what you're talking about." He says, "If you don't give me my money, I'm going to kill you." Says, "I really don't know what you're talking about." Soldier pulls out a sword, kills the old man, searches his pockets, and of course, there's nothing there. Gets on his horse, and he rides away. The vision fades, and God says to Mosha, "You see, there's perfect justice in my world." Mosher is baffled. So, I don't see any justice here at all. So Hashem says, "Okay, I'm going to show you another vision." And he shows Mosha a forest. And in the forest, there's a clearing. And in this clearing, in the middle of the forest, he sees a father is walking around with his 2-year-old toddler son. They're walking through the forest. While they're walking in the thickness of the forest, is a soldier sitting on a horse, and he's got a perfect view of this clearing, and he's watching them as they walk past. And then from the other side of the forest, a bandit suddenly jumps out, starts wrestling around with the father. The soldier sees this, doesn't get involved, probably from New York. He doesn't get involved. The bandit is rolling around on the ground with the father. Eventually pulls out a dagger and he stabs the father to death. He searches his pockets and he finds a pouch stuffed with gold coins. He grabs, the bandit, grabs the pouch and he starts running off. He's in such a hurry to get away. He carelessly drops the pouch. The soldier who's been watching this entire scene unfold, he sees the pouch fall. He comes riding in, picks up the pouch, and he rides off and the vision fades. And God says to Mash, he said, "There's perfect justice in the world." Says, "I don't see any justice." So, Hashem said, "Like I said, it's the tip of the iceberg, and I'll explain to you where the justice is, but don't think you've got it worked out. This is just a little inkling of how my justice works in the world. Says the visions both took place. Those are real incidents that took place except the incident in the forest which I showed you second actually took place first. It took place 10 years before the incident at the water hole. The soldier at the water hole who lost the pouch 10 years earlier. He was in the forest and he found the pouch when it fell from the bandit who was running away. The 12-year-old boy who found the money at the water hole 10 years older earlier was a 2-year-old toddler whose father was brutally murdered. He should have inherited the money then. It took 10 years and after 10 years he finally caught that money at the water hole. That was the money that was rightfully his. The little old man who was brutally murdered at the water hole 10 years earlier was a young bandit in the forest. The soldier who didn't intervene in the forest and he should have eventually caught him at the water hole and he killed him at the water hole. It comes out the mushroom. You see when you see the whole picture every single piece fits the p puzzle perfectly. Why did the father deserve to die? A different question but there's a reason for that too. When my wife when I told this to my wife the first time her first question was how did the little boy get home from the forest also probably you know I think that some lady came by and said hi kid come with me at the end of the day at the end of the day there we we don't understand we don't see the entire story we only see a chunk of the story by the way do you know why there are there more poor people in the world or more rich people >> more people far far more poor poor people than rich people in the world. You know why? One of the sources says because the poor man when he's before he's born his nishama is seen the nama up in shmayim is seeing the punishments and consequences of many people and he sees that poor pe that rich people are suffering up in the eternal punishment are suffering a lot more than poor people. So he says, "Please make me poor." Problem is when he gets down to here, he's forgotten what he what he asked for. So when he's down here, he tries to get rich, but he chose to be poor. He chose to be poor. That's why it says polo. Each one of our nishas was given options. We were shown our life circumstances and we were shown other people's life circumstances and we said, "No, no, no. That's the one that I want. I want those life with the challenges with the orals." That's what our own nishem has chosen. All right. To be continued. Basmology.