The Hidden Value of Every Mitzvah You Do - Parshat Nitzavim - Rabbi Dovid Kaplan

You are standing here today before your God is the heads of your tribes, your elders, your enforcers, all all of you are standing here before God. Now this is Mosher Abenu speaking to the Jewish people. And last week if you remember in paras kisovo we read on chabas. You got it going on? Thank you. We got in paras kisovo. [snorts] So we took them. There was a there was if you notice there was that one long aliyah which the the the balor dropped his voice for the uh for the various uh predicted calamities if the Jewish people are not obedient to Torah and mitzvah. It's called the to the rebuke the the and so you know there are all sorts of uh the prediction of all sorts of potential calamities that could happen to the Jewish people and if you hear something like that you get nervous and we can imagine if you imagine you're standing there he says and if you're not this then you're you're going to your enemies are going to what they're going to be all sorts of illnesses and all sorts of hi guys all sorts of illnesses and all sorts of calamities and You're gonna eat the flesh of your children and you're gonna starve and you know the terrible things. Take kumcha guys there on this shelf over here, right? Help yourselves to kumacha. So, so if you hear such a thing, you know, I could get your your knees could go weak when you're when you hear when you hear kind of kind of a bad negative potential negative report like that. So, Mosha starts off over here. I need some go listen, you're standing firm today. You know, you've been through pro you've been through stuff yet you're still here. Don't worry about it. Don't worry. I'm just telling you what could happen, but don't worry about it. You're standing firm today and you have the potential to stand firm. Just be good. Just don't don't mess up and you'll and you'll you'll stand firm. But that's where he's coming from. He's talking to the entire Jewish people who had just heard all of the all of the various possible calamities. So, it starts out. you're standing here today. You're standing firm and just try to make sure that you're that you're going to remain firm. Now, the commentaries, many commentaries talk about the idea that what is the day we stand before Hashem? When is the day coming up? You kipper is a day that we try to get atonement. You're right. Well, I'm ke but what is the day what we can consider the day we're standing before hashem is rashash shana the day the day of rash which is really the coronation of the king and we're and we're examined on yum kipper on rashash shana rashash shana is where where the decree for the coming year comes and so on and so forth yum kipper is when we say okay I'm sorry you know you know we beat our chest or we beat somebody else's chest uh and by the way the goal isn't to beat the chest I've been in Schulz where you hear a guy hit in his chest there's like an echo across the room, you know. No, don't do that. I could trigger off a coronary, you know. It's not how hard you do it, you know. Boom. You could even do like this if you want. You can point with your finger if you want, right? All we're doing is we're taking blame a little bit. That's my heart. I got to improve a little bit. The goal isn't to punch ourselves. The goal is to just to just, you know, a little bit symbolically. It's not an idea of, you know, give it a good kop. That'll knock some of your out. It'll knock some sin out. That's not the idea. That's when you punch somebody else. I want to knock some sin out of you. No, no, no. When we do it to ourselves, that's not that's not the goal. Okay. So, the day that we're standing is the day on Roshashana. We stand before and that's why this para comes. It always comes at this point of the year when we're right in the in close proximity to rash. Another week till Rashashana, a week and a half rash. Now, what does the word means? can mean all of you or as they say as they say in the south y'all. It could be it could be y'all. It could be all of you. Plural all of you. All of you. And kohim could also be all of you the individual. All of you. All parts of you the individual are standing in front of God. And what that means is that we go per page 108 1086. What that means is that when we go to shan Rashana, if I would ask you, can you please tell me all the mitzvah you did this last year? Tell me all the good deeds you did this last year. Can you possibly remember? Remember included in all the deeds you did is all the ch that you ate because that's a mitzvah meaning ch. That's right. That's the one we're good at. How many times did you eat chult? How many times did you put on sillin in the last year? Do you remember every time you put on something? You remember every Do you remember every every time you threw a shekele into a pushka? every shekel when you were uh in shul and you dropped the pushka shekel into the pushka or you dropped five shekel into the pushka or you went to the you were you were walking through man is and you paid the mal is tax you know where every few meters there's somebody to to help relieve you of your low of your burden and you pay do you remember every every nickel you put into sucker every check that you wrote out every time do you remember every time you smiled at somebody and greeted somebody and made his day complimented your wife your daughter your somebody your mother. Do you remember every time you did that mitzvah? You don't possibly remember that. Cool. You're all standing in front. Hashem remembers all of you. Hashem knows the whole account that he sees the entire year. That's the good news. The the the the less good news is he remembers all of the misdeeds. Do you remember all your mist? Oh yeah. No. No, we don't. Do you remember everybody you insulted this year? Do you remember everybody you were impatient with this year? Do you remember every time you missed Phil? Do you remember that? Okay. So that's that's what it means. All of the package is standing in front of God which obviously only God could do it. Only God can can account for the entire package and and uh on the on rashashana on rashana. So there is that judgment where we stand in front of the god and and really to you know there's this again there's that that Christian idea there's the Christian idea of you know the devil with the pitchfork getting toasted and Juda it's you know you know there's a time to it's time we mature past that you got to you got to mature past that the the the accounting on Russia shana when hasham says have a good year a bad year what this kind of year that kind of year a lot of it is and put it in the perspective of you're a worker and you're coming to the boss and the boss is making an assessment of your production at your performance from the last year based on production and performance is what he's going to give you for the next year. You know, I was giving you a uh you know, you had a company car, but you didn't produce. We're taking the company car away from you. We're taking a car. We don't you don't need the company car anymore. It's a punishment. Not punishment. said why what do you you are actually getting a private plane because you were really good last year that was just traveling traveling by you're getting a private plane I need you you're good so you're going to get a private plane at your service for the coming year you were good giving you gave out a lot of stucka I need somebody to distribute money for me I need somebody working on the stuck on the money hand you're going to make a lot of money this year because you're a good distributor and so on and so forth it's a it's to a certain extent that's number one number two Rashashana is the day of the inauguration of the king. We're inaugurating God as the king, so to speak. And that's why when the suda when you go to eat on rashashana at the meal, you've been invited to the inaugural ball. When you go to eat at the meal onash, the rash, that's the inaugural ball. We've inaugurated and therefore a person has to keep that. That's what it means. Even more than that. Even more than that. You're not even aware of, for example, yesterday you dropped five shuckles into the pushka. You know, there was another guy watching. He went and said, "Oh, right. I didn't give sodaka today." And he gave sodaka. You know, you share in that. You have a share in his mitzvah. And there's another guy who was about to tell you something and he said, "Listen, I think that might be lush and heart. Maybe we shouldn't talk lush heart." There's another guy watching who said, "Wow, if he doesn't talk lo, I shouldn't talk either." So now every time he avoids it, you share in that credit. And what that means is, you know, there was an in I'll tell you an incident, documented incident took place in United States. Guy walks into an automobile dealership late Friday afternoon. He buys a brand new car for $50,000. Gets into the car. He drives straight over to a used car dealership. Brand new car, $50,000. What can you get for the Lexus? I don't know what goes for 50 grand today. Gets into the car, drives straight over to the used car dealer. He says, "Listen, I just bought this car for $50,000. I'll sell it to you for $20,000." I say, "Why would you want to do that?" He says, "Don't ask questions. You make 30,000 bucks." I don't know. Let me think about it. He walks out of the office. He called the cops. Says, "You better get somebody down here quick." A cop comes over. He says, "Why do you want to uh why do you want to sell a $50,000 car for $20,000?" Guy smiles sweetly at the cops. It's none of your business. Cops don't like that, by the way. Trust me. Says, "None of your business." The cop says, "Oh yeah, I'm going to make it my business. Let's see your credit card." Takes a credit card, calls the company, but comes late Friday afternoon. Company's closed for the weekend. Guy says, "Sir, I'm going to lock you up. Monday morning, we'll see what it's doing." Locks him up over the weekend. Monday morning, he calls the company. Sure enough, he's got a credit line. Everything's in order. No problem. Cop comes back to the prison and say, "You're free to go." Gives him back his credit card. The guy smiles sweetly at the cop again, saying, "Thank you very much." He goes straight to an attorney's office. He files a lawsuit against the police department for false arrest. Planned the entire escapade, start to finish, to do something that looks questionable. Sell a $50,000 car for he thought. I mean, legally, you could give it away if you want. He knew he did it late Friday afternoon where he knew the credit card company would be closed. So he would get locked up over the weekend and then in court he could plead emotional trauma and distress for two days in prison and he got a settlement of $3 and a half million dollars documented. So you like that, huh? Oh that that he likes. Yeah. Yeah. There you go. What's your name? >> Solomon. Yeah. I don't want to read about you tomorrow, you know, doing something. You know, next next thing you know it's like Hanukkah time. You know, you take some of that powdered sugar, you know, from the from the sufani as you drive past the cop and snort it, you know, get yourself arrested, you know, false arrest. So, at the end of the day, at the end, yeah, I take no responsibility for what happens to you if you snort powdered sugar. But at the end of the day, at the what? So, so that's an actually documented documented incident. What's the what's the lesson? The lesson here is if somebody would when I told my wife the years ago I told my wife this story the first time she said to me who would think of something like that I said millionaires that's who and that's why we're not because we didn't think of it but at the end of the day at the end of the day if somebody would ask you how much was the car worth is the car worth $50,000 car worth $20,000 the car is worth three and a half million dollars obviously you can't do it you can't do it that's a deception at the end of the Hey, it's a classic example of a hidden value. You don't even know how much it's worth. Every time we do a mitzvah, we don't know the value of the mitzvah because we don't know who watched us. We don't know the effect of it. We don't know what's going to happen generations later as a result of that mitzvah. So the mitzvah that we're doing all the value which is completely beyond us. That's the eyes of number one. Number two, I've had a bra before. Number two is who in this room is worth the most? Which one of us Jews is worth the most in the eyes of Hashem? The answer is we don't know. We have no idea. Because part of what we're doing in life takes into consideration our life circumstances, our talents, our abilities, the challenges we've gone through. You know, if you got a guy who's seventh generation, seventh generation Benabra or mayor who the worst thing that he's ever done in his life is he said ashar yats are too fast and you take somebody from Pittsburgh who was raised without knowing an iota about Judaism and at the age of 27 he first started finding out about it and he becomes a balcha and he starts before I miss. How can you compare the two? How can you compare the two? He's not it certainly not his fault that he was that he was not or a religious and it's certainly not his fault that he was born in Pittsburgh. You know, if it was Cleveland, then we could blame him, you know, but if it was certainly not his fault. So, he's born he he was born in in May or in Ben. So, he you know, at the end of the day, you're all standing in front of God, every Jew, and we don't know who's worth more. And what's the proof? The proof is that the Gomorrah says a guy came to Rava. He said the anti-semitic governor of the town or the prophet whatever it was he told me to kill another Jew. Ruvane comes to Raa said Ruvane said the guy told me to kill Shimon. Am I allowed to kill him? What did Rava say? No. Why? How do you know that your blood is redder than his? Maybe his blood is redder than yours. What does that mean? Maybe maybe Shimon was a massive who learned Shast 20 times and Ruven was just an ignoramist. Doesn't matter. In the eyes of God, we don't know who's got more value. Maybe the Shimon who learned Shast 20 times was born with a greater capability. The grade that we get is based on effort and fulfilling percentage of our potential. Therefore, the Torah says you're standing before Hashem. You don't know who you don't know who's bigger. You don't know who's greater. Now there's an interesting thing that you know the Gomorrah says if you look at the word MS what does MS mean >> truth >> what does sheare mean >> falsehood so I once showed you I once showed you I think David follow me up on the screen over here I want to show you if you look at a uh the way it's written I feel like the weatherman on TV you ever see those guys. And we got a cold front coming in from over here, you know, with the humidity na 97%. You know, who cares? Just tell me if I can make my picnic tomorrow or not. [laughter] You know, tell me if it's going to rain or it's not going to rain. So, you have the word MS. Sorry, wrong wrong uh wrong print. You have the word MS like this. Al if that's a me that's a tough okay that's MS that's some memo over there I'll tell you the [laughter] you know if you ever studied handwriting so that probably indicates you know genius level uh there's there's MS okay now here's the word sheer was how you make the shin in a safer Torah it comes to a point sheer this false falsehood. So the Gomorrah says the Gomorrah says that first of all there's a unique the letters are interesting. If you look at the word sheer you get kuf re shin they follow right in order and the alphabase kuf they're not in the order in the word but it's a kuf then you have the ra and the shin. So the letters of Sheckcher are really very are bunched together in the alf bay giml sheer are very close to each other. MS you can't get three word letters that are farther apart because you get an alf and a tough are the end and m is the one of the middle letters of the 22. So the goar says you know why that is because lies come in bunches and truth is few and far between. That's what the garra says number one. But what's interesting is that MS each letter has a firm base. The olive has two feet. The mem has a flat line. This has two feet. One of them long, right? The M is the tough. It has a firm each letter has sheer. The shin comes to a point. Nothing is a firm base in the word sheer. So the Gomorrah says the lesson is that truth endures. Falsehood falsehood doesn't last long. Falsehood eventually topples over. Communism falls. Eventually every ism in the world falls. Torah endures. Torah is ems. So when you take a look look at the first word in the puk in 1086 atm is an alf, a tough and a me. If you rec if you rearrange the letters of ATM, what do you get? >> MS. What's the next word? Nits is standing firm. MS stands firm. MS stands firm. Sheckcher is going to falsehood is always going to topple over. Falsehood is always going to get lost. It's going to fall over. MS eventually MS stands firm. The same Torah that we had 2,000 years ago is the Torah that we have today. MS stands firm. Sheer sheer always. Sheer has no leg to stand on. Okay. Next. Who's standing here? Your children your water drawers. Everybody is here. And for what? to bring you through to impose upon you the covenant of Hashem your God to impose you the covenant and the potential consequences which hashem is the covenant Hashem is making for you today. Now what covenant are we talking about? We already have had so many covenants in the Torah. There's so many we already made a briset si what is this covenant that the day before Mosher Rabenu dies he's making another covenant with the Jewish people so the commentary say that this is Rashi points out this is the covenant of responsibility for each other we are responsible for in other words up until this point I only know I got to take care of myself you take care of yourself you take care of yourself you take care of yourself and everybody will be happy now the Torah is saying you one second you I'm responsible for you you're responsible for him we're all respons responsible for each other. Obviously limited by how re how how realistic that responsibility is. In other words, you're only responsible for those you could be responsible for. And that's as far as the let if I could prevent you from sinning or you could prevent me from sinning and I sin so then you're responsible also. To what degree? To what degree? So that is already a different question because life experience shows that when you try to correct people uh it doesn't generally work so well if you make a career of correcting people. I just heard about a girl somebody wrote a story my wife was telling me she read in one of these Jewish Jewish magazines somebody wrote in like a fictional story about a girl who made her commitment for the Lol a high school girl who you know lol people make various commitments and that sort of thing. Her commitment was to correct all the girls in her class and you know and tell them what their flaws are, [laughter] you know, you know, which is which is about as which is about about as the chance of success. All that's going to do is it's going to make you a lonely person. And therefore, it's not a good idea to make a career of correcting people. In anyway, the the the Gomorrah says that nowadays we don't even know how to correct people because if you walk up to somebody, people we don't do it right and people don't accept it right. It's a very difficult thing. Nobody likes to be criticized. Nobody likes their flaws pointed out. Everybody wants to present themselves as a as a perfectly successful person with absolutely flawless and and and and the Gomorrah says that everybody sees everybody else's flaws except their own. We all know, we all say, "If you give me a piece of paper and tell me, okay, now write out the flaws of everybody in Schul. Okay, I'd run out of ink, you know, every what about my own flaws?" Well, you know, I think maybe seven years ago, I might have I might have said I might have benched too fast. You know, that's about all I could come up with. So, you know, you know, don't but if you have the ability and generally the best way to correct people is by showing an example. And if we live properly, other people will see us. people notice other people. But if you're a person of authority and you have the ability to correct other people, so then you have the Torah say that's what's called Bris Arvus. Arvous means responsibility for each other. And if if if if the if the community sees something is happening, the rabbi of the community sees something happening and he has the ability to correct and so then he's going to carry responsibility for it. That's the covenant over here. Now it's the covenant of also the commitment obviously to Torah and mitzvah in general. Now if you take a look take a look at okay let's go on another couple of in [clears throat] order to establish you today as a nation. We're on the sixth line as he spoke to you. God chose us. And he swore to your forefathers. And here comes a very puzzling here comes a very puzzling concept. I'm not only making this covenant of Torah with you. Rather, I'm making this with those who stand here today. and those who are not here today. Mosherenu is making a covenant with people who are not even present. And take a look at Raji's right column left sorry left column uh look at the left column of Rashi. Eight lines from the top. How do you you're making a covenant with people who are not present. Who's not present? Cedum Leos future generations. So you know that begs a that begs an interesting argument. You know somebody comes along and says comes along nowadays and says I'm not religious. Why you have to be? Why do I have to be? Because they made a covenant at Hari. They they they agreed a thousand a couple thousand years ago. They agreed both at Sai and before Mosher Rabenu died. He committed everybody including future generations. Hey, you know, I wasn't in on that one. What it got to do with me? They made a commitment. What's it got to do with me? The answer is The answer is what? Anybody got an idea? What do you say? No. I thought I rais anybody got idea. How could they make a commitment for us? The answer is we see it all the time. We see this all the time in our day and age. If a government signs a a a an agreement with another government, you could elect another government, you're expected to agree. You're expected to do that. That means if there was some treaty was was signed by by by the president from from from uh four administrations ago, the United States is bound by that commitment unless they decide not to depending how strong they are. But as far as international agreements work, I don't care if you personally didn't sign. I didn't sign that. Yeah, but the other president signed it. You made a NATO NATO agreement or whatever it is. You can't just go breaking agreements. You know what happens when you break agreements? >> Well, that's that's when two people break agree. When they when countries break agreements, it's called war. And if it's Putin, you don't need to break an agreement. just need him having a bad day, you know, then then you have a war. But that's how wars begin. That's how wars begin. A broken treaty. That's how war that's how World War II began. A broken treaty. So you but but we're expected to keep it. The commitment works for the entire gener entire nation. That's just I'm just giving an example. I'm just giving an example. There's a concept that the nishabas were there of all of Israel. But the commitment now we're committed. There's no choice. That's why the Vishna says inos you're born against your will, you know, when you're when before a baby's born, I told you he's he's got free womb and board, right? And and so, you know, it's good in there. You know, you're he's fed, it's warm, he's comfortable. There's no no complaining in there. Yeah. No bills, no midterms, right? It's like living on kibuts. Yeah. It's great. Then he's born. I go, "Yeah, you're going." And you live against your will. Oh, and then you're going to give. It's like, "Deal me out. I'm not in on this hand." Oh, yes, you are. You were. There was a commitment. You're Jewish, you either born Jewish, converted to Judaism, you're in. Once you're in, you're committed. That's it. You have no choice. And this commitment was made then. That's what the Torah is telling you. Nowhere then says a puzzling thing 15. He says like this, you know that we dwelt in Egypt and we passed through these other nations. amgiluleam. These are various descriptions of idols, but the word shekeets really means like they're reptiles. They're their their idols were gross like reptiles. That's how we view the idol worship. Vzgilu gal means a piece of dung. That's how we view that's our our relationship to it. Evan, wood and stones, gold and silver which they had. You've seen all their idols. Now there are two problems over here. Problem number one is that Mosher Rabenu says if you look at now be pay attention carefully focus on the words he says in the in 15 we dwelled in Egypt. He's including himself was with them in Egypt. In the next Pik he changes from the wei to the u. He sikam you plural saw the saw the idols. Why isn't that we saw the idols number one and number two he then says this is all an introduction to and just in case there's anybody who still got vestigages of this and is still interested in idol worship. So remember idol worship was the big idol worship was the biggest drive the biggest draw something that we can't relate to because in men at a great assembly they weakened the drive for idol worship they it was such an addiction it was so difficult to get away from it the only thing we could compare it to today is telephone smartphones the addiction that a person can't get can't get away there there's even there was somebody was giving a shear here once somebody was giving a shear one of the guys was on the table was subconsciously doing like this as the she just just on the table you can't get away from it just scratching so I whatever it is idol worship was even more it was such a powerful spiritual drive that the men of the great assemblies had to say to God we don't want it we don't want the reward because we don't want the punishment we're taking too many casualties so the drive for idol worship was removed but at this point it wasn't and [clears throat] Mosher Ba says well maybe there's somebody who's still got some vestigages of interest because we saw it in Egypt. You you saw it in Egypt. We were there and you saw it. So first of all, why does Mosu change from we to you? Why is it we were there but you saw it? This is a life lesson because he doesn't have a drive for idol worship. >> Why? Yes. Yes. And and why doesn't he have the drive or why wasn't he didn't see it? And what comes first? What come first? Which comes first? the chicken or the drive and others what how does it work when do you see something in life sometimes you you see what you're interested in and you don't see what you're not interested some people are always seeing the wrong things that means somebody deep down inside they want to see the wrong things there are other people you don't remember Mosha Feinstein that's all was once asked he lived about a mile or a mile and a half from his yeshiva and he had to walk back and forth in the lower east side and it wasn't the most sneous area in the And somebody once said to Ramosa Feinstein, how are you able to do this walk with so many you know women who seem to have clothing allergies uh hanging around? You know how doesn't it affect you? Andifi just said really I never noticed in 25 years walking back I never noticed I never noticed there a problem. Why? Because when he walked he walked with his eyes focused downwards. He had filled his mind with thinking about Torah. He wasn't interested in seeing it. So you didn't see it. There's some people who are interested what you're interested in seeing to Mosher B is saying sure you saw it. Those of you who were really in were looking for it. You managed somehow you managed to find it. That's that's when you're looking for trouble in life. Sometimes people looking for trouble find the trouble. So that's why he switches from the Wii to the U. He switches from the Wii to the Okay, that's a technical point. But think about this. This is right before Mosher B is about to die. is going to leave the Jewish people. They've been in the desert for 40 years. How long has it been since they've been in Egypt? 40 years. 40 years later, after being in the desert, receiving the Torah, eating mun, being led around by the clouds, you're still worried about something that that happened 40 years ago. What's the answer? Yeah. The answer is yeah because there everything that we see we don't know what the effect is on us and you could see something you could be involved in something and the effect is so powerful it can still be there 40 years later that's one of the reasons why you know you ever did you ever hear the the idea called subliminal advertising >> okay it's illegal it's illegal in the United States they used to do it in movies you know this I don't I don't know if They they in the movie. What's that? >> And right co a lot of companies did it. You'd be in a movie theater and there's the they put in one frame milk duds and it's moving so fast you don't even know you saw it. You don't even know that you saw it. Yet 20 minutes later there's a line of people buying milk duds out in the movie theater in the lobby. You know they have those those double size those weird boxes that only the movie theaters used to have. twice the buy, twice the size, four times the price, something like that. And and all a sudden people, everybody's out there buying milk duds. What happened? And it's such it has such a powerful effect on a person, the sub, you don't even know you saw it because moving in part of the screen, you don't even know you saw it. It has such a powerful effect on the subconscious. They made it's illegal. They made illegal. So the consumer is at a disadvantage. I don't say that they don't do it. I don't say they don't do it. I don't know if there's some guy who's checking every screen. Let's see over here. They probably paid a guy off or whatever to give him some free milks. But whatever it is, you know, your supply of milk duds here, Jack, just get out of the way. Let us run our let us run our projector. At the end of the day, at the end of the day, there's something's happening to when you put on tillin, do you feel an effect from the tilin? Most people don't feel an effect unless you put it on too tight. Your arm turns blue. Most people don't that effect from the from the tillin. It's obviously having an effect on our nishama. And every time we dab and you feel I don't know if I had such great covenant and dabbing. It's having an effect on you at some point in some at a level. Every time you keep shabas it's having an effect on you don't need much proof. All you got to do is look at any Jewish community. How come how come you feel you walk you're safe walking the streets of Benet Brock. you're not worried and and you know as well as I do that if you were ever stuck in Lakewood in London in Golders Green in in in any sh in any from community anywhere if you were stuck if your car broke down 20 minutes before Shabas you could virtually knock on any door and you're going to be invited in for a Shabas meal. Now what made Jews like that? What how did they get like that? Is it genetic? Is that just genetics? It has to do with there's something that's affecting their nishama. That's the remarkable thing is you could get invited to any shabas meal and you basically know the menu. Isn't it amazing? You go to any any any house you knock on a Friday night. I can basically predict the menu. I know one thing is there's not going to be any octopus on the menu. That's for sure. That's only in Thailand, right? Any Jewish and if you go to the Kabad House in Thailand, then I can tell you the menu there too, right? There's gonna be some sort of fish, some sort of chicken soup, and there's gonna be basically roast chicken. You know that that that's how it that's how it's gonna work. What? So, what makes it's because everything we're doing is having effect on even if we don't feel it. Everything we see has an effect on our nishama. Every single thing, don't they do in Aren't there people like they do in in hypnosis where they could all of a sudden remember things that happened when they were two years old because it's all it's all registered there? or some what what are the stories about some guy who who who all of a sudden you know he he starts talking Italian because when he was four years old there was some Italian conversation in the background which he doesn't even know they'd heard but somebody they have these stories like that some of them are stories and some of them are true but they that it's happening that's what the Torah is telling Mosha Rabenu says hey you know what you were there you were there 40 years ago but maybe there's still a little bit of it in you because that's how powerful our experience experiences in life are life experience are so powerful it stays there somewhere therefore the more that a person loads his own children himself the more positive toic experiences we have the the the better chance we have of of not having it's very difficult I had a guy here once who told me he wanted to push a delete button he wishes he had a delete button on some of the things that he's done in his life okay none of us are perfect none of us are perfect that's why we do chuva if a person does chuva properly then all the improper things that we did they turn into merits for us. If a person does chuva properly, chuva maya, all the things that we did, anything that we consumed or we did, we shouldn't have done all of those things become a merit for us if we do it properly. Okay, one more point very quickly. Um Mosher Abeda comes along, he says, okay, we're concerned about this stuff. Now if you notice he says now pay attention carefully because it's very precise in the words. You saw their various how does the arts go translated uh you saw their abominations and detestable idols. You saw their idols wood and stone of gold and silver aim which was with them. Now this could be broken. Rashi breaks it up according to the bedricorn too. You saw the wood and the stone. The silver and the gold that was with them. You know the the precious idols they kept with them so they wouldn't get stolen. Which makes you, you know, wonder well that's some god. And hey, somebody kidnapped my god. Where is he? Do you see my god anywhere? My my golden idol. So they weren't taking any chances. The silver and the gold they kept with them. They kept hidden with them. But the uh the Maporam say that what the temptation is is if you take a look and you see there's a bunch of idol worshippers and they're doing pretty well with silver and gold that could create an interest. Why are these guys doing so good? They got they got idols. They're white idol worshippers and they're prospering. Well, that's a temptation for nothing else to get rich, right? So, why why is that? They got they got silver, they got gold, you know, doesn't look so bad. And that's the temptation. And then the question becomes, and this is a this is a fundamental question. We'll have to leave the answer for tomorrow, but it's a fundamental question. I don't understand if a guy's worshiping idols, does it have an effect or it doesn't have an effect? Why is it that he's worshiping idols? He's getting rich. And you know, sometimes to say nothing of the fact that people who are very good in doing the right things don't get rich. But this guy see there seems to be a cause and effect over here. And if there's a cause and effect over here, a is there or is it a deception? And if there is a cause and effect, why is it a cause and effect? What is happening over here with the idols that somehow they're doing it and yet it's having this this positive effect on them? That's the question. Okay, that we're going to have to answer tomorrow in your session. Okay, I did that on purpose. What? What? What? What? What's your name?