Are You Chasing Your Tail In Life? - Ki Setzei - The Parshah On Fire

[Music] if you were to rank the Mitzvah of the Tyra in order of most dramatic and seemingly inexplicable the Mitzvah of the Ben the wayward son would certainly be at the top of your list the Tyra commands parents to drag their overly gluttonous son to bezden into the Jewish court at which point he is warned to stop his gluttony and he's lashed for not doing so and if the son refuses to change his ways the entire town convenes and Stones the boy to death now this Mitzvah is strange for a lot of reasons all the son did wrong was overindulge he stole some cash from his father to maintain his habit of excessive eating and true he's not exactly squeaky clean this guy and he probably won't end up Mar in the local rabbi's daughter but how does this warrant his death doesn't stoning a 13-year-old boy who likes to sit around all day and eat seem a little harsh isn't that what teenagers do they sit around and eat doesn't the rule book of teenagers consists of basically three rules stay out of trouble survive puberty and eat so this boy got a little carried away and he'll be obese like the rest of the world okay so what's the great spiritual sin secondly why does the Ty go out of its way to say that the entire town should be there watching his death when as we know the tyor doesn't require such communal involvement in almost any other punishment if the Tyra wants the whole town to watch a sinner get punished with the hopes that the onlookers will be inspired why does it require it here more than any other place and thirdly the tah according to the gamor and sanedrin da Al Al requires the parents of the Ben to be exactly the same height and have exactly the same voice these are conditions that are not physically possible why does the T require this why require something that is not possible and fourthly the gar says that this food crazed little boy doesn't actually deserve the death sentence but since we see in the future he will lead an inqu iniquitous life we kill him now while he is still innocent we put him to death under the pretext that better he should die now merely as an overly gluttonous person rather than later as something far worse now let's take a step back for a second since when does the Tyra command us to play God and determine who is beyond repair and who is not what happened to chuva what happened to repentance what happened to the concept of people changing their ways the law of than C only applies to 13year olds the last time I checked most people don't act the same same way when they're 13 as they do when they're 35 why are we killing a gluttonous 30 13-year-old for the sins he might one day commit when it's far more likely that he's merely demonstrating teenage immaturity and he one day grow up and smooth himself out but the cherry on top of this surprising Mitzvah is The Bold and puzzling statement in that same gamar and San hedrin it makes the entire subject scream for a deeper explan a it states that a real Ben serer never was and never will be the criteria required to put a wayward son to death are an impossibility and the tah merely wrote the mitzvah for us to learn and receive reward for learning it it's an it's an impossibility it's only there purely for us to learn conceptually and receive reward for learning it huh does that make any sense what is that supposed to mean the Tyra wrote mitzvos that are impossible to fulfill just to give us something to learn don't we have enough things to learn does that mean the Tyra for the same token could have written a recipe for pumpkin pie merely for us to learn and get reward obviously not there is clearly something embedded in the Mitzvah of Ben s that despite being a practical impossibility contains a practical lesson of great importance so great that it is one of the only places in the entire Tyra that the entire Community is charged with taking notice the question is what is that lesson so there's a passage in this Zar which changes our perspective of the Ben entirely the says that when the tah talks about the Wayward Son it is actually a parable for the Jewish people as a nation falling away from Hashem it is Hashem giving us a loud and clear and dramatic warning that if we fall too far into gluttonous and indulgent Behavior he will see fit that we are removed from the midst of the Jewish people Hashem is the parent and we are the Wayward Son the the Z is basically saying that Hashem is warning the entire Jewish community of the dangers of overindulgence and the catastrophes it could bring the T doesn't mean that there will be a 13-year-old boy who has identical parents who have the same voice and the same height who drag him off according have been killed for overindulgence no no no it means that we as a nation should be extremely cautious to avoid excessive boorishness and overindulgence and we should take note that it is something that Hashem from early on in our lives wants us to have no Parton now the question that becomes is what in fact is so terribly bad about food Obsession and Indulgence there is no overt sin that one does by engaging in such Behavior okay okay so I eat a lot so I'm very into food you could still be fulfilling all 613 Mitzvah why is this the one sin that the tus singles out as the pitfall the entire Community needs to avoid aren't there other sins which are far worse like murder and idolatry and adultery or other character flaws which are more pricu like anger and laziness and lust so perhaps the answer is this idea when thinking about our lifelong battles with the Yara the evil inclination we often conjure up thoughts of getting tempted to say something we shouldn't or look at something we shouldn't or close our goras or badmouth our competitors and so on but rarely do we think of the tactic that is perhaps used by the ad Sahara far more often with far more success the vast majority of Torah Jews do not struggle whatsoever withholding themselves back from murdering someone the same is true with bank robbery or idol worship the Yater Hara doesn't waste his time exerting energy trying to claw us away from Hashem by tempting us with those sins the Yahara uses a far more successful tactic to claw us away from Hashem it's called The Power of distraction the average toru has a pretty solid defense mechanism against sin but few of us have won against distraction the Y Zahara exploits this greatly he makes us so focused on anything and everything that we design Our Lives leaving little time left for Hashem sinning is not the opposite of getting closer to Hashem not getting closer to Hashem is the opposite of getting closer to Hashem the way to have a great relationship with hasem is not by merely living life sin-free the way to have a great relation of Hashem is having a great relation with Hashem by thinking about him by talking to him by crying to him by learning his wisdom much like the opposite of a great and loving marriage is not a scandalous marriage riddled with abuse and leading to a messy divorce the opposite of a great marriage is a distracted marriage where each spouse is distracted by all the glittery things in life that relegates one spouse to Second fiddle there are several ways to distance oneself from Hashem sinning is one of them but Chief among them is giving up our mental space to anything but Hashem taking the precious real estate in our minds and giving it out to the buzz and the glitter and the glamour of the world the majority of us are good people some of us are great people but we also like food most of us love food we also love our homes we love remodeling them talking about the renovations and then remodeling them yet again we love sports so we talk about it and we listen to talk show host that talk about it and then we listen to talk show host that talk about the talk show host that talk about it and then we listen to the game we love swimming and working out we love clothing we love keeping up with the music we love the seemingly NeverEnding stream of increasingly fascinating news all of these things are inherently harmless and can actually be used at times as great Outlets refreshing ourselves to remain energetic in our service of Hashem but sadly they can also become huge distractors in our spiritual climb often hindering our growth without of us even realizing it the dangers of obsessive Indulgence is that it masquerades itself as innocent permissible activities it is precisely the permissibility that makes it so dangerous for far too often the obset becomes an addictive monster that chokes a person's godliness right out of him not that it makes us have a bad relationship with Hashem it just makes us not have one at all one can make a good argument that more than the dangers and the Damage Done to the Jewish people by overt sin is the Damage Done by well-meaning people letting life get in the way of life and allowing the indulgences of the world to pull them down from the spiritual Mountain that they could have have been on the idea is so hugely Central that it is literally ingrained into our very bodies a primary Covenant which exists between us and Hashem is forged through the Brisa or circumcision you ever wonder how we know where to perform the brism nowhere in the entire Tyra does it say where the Brisa the circumcision should be performed maybe it should be our pinky maybe we should circumcise our left earlobe maybe we should cut off the tip of our nose so the ra the ran in cites the Rak who says that the reason why a bris is performed in its true location is because hasm wants us to take the place on the human body that is most associated with Indulgence and pleasures and make a covenant between ourselves and him specifically there we are establishing for the duration of Our Lives the preeminence of spiritual Pursuits and to this end we circumcised our greatest symbol of pleasure why is the act of taming our thirst for Indulgence the greatest representation of the Covenant between us and Hashem why precisely is that what's first and foremost in the life of a Jew eight days in and immediately we must enforce and drive home the need to tame our quest for Indulgence why the answer is that the desire for pleasure gets in the way of our Dynamic relationship with Hashem more than sin gets in the way we get so caught up in the pleasures of this world that Hashem becomes second fiddle of course we show up to Davin and we learn and we give to ducka and we shake the Lula and we light the manura but we often get far more excited about the schs kiddish and the Kaneka donuts and the summer pool party and the midwinter vacation and getting a new couch and getting an even newer couch Hashem wants our relationship to be about taking this awesome exciting wondrous world that he created for us and filling it with him uplift it all not to shy away from enjoying the world but doing so as a means to develop a relationship with Hashem to be focused on spirituality to the point where one finds it wherever he goes it should occupy one's mind the most allowing worldly Indulgence to creep in can sink the ship entirely a wealthy businessman was once driving his new Ferrari down the street when an old dilapitated Pontiac sped along and crashed right into him the impact was so great that the doors of the Ferrari literally blew right off and the businessman Furious he scrambled out of the car and he angrily screamed at the other driver you idiot look what you did to my car the driver of the Pontiac looks at the wealthy man with a sh a face of shock sir sir we can worry about your car later your entire left arm has been ripped off the businessman look down to see blood dripping from his elbow and gazes at where his left arm used to be he then lets out a heart-wrenching cry no my Rolex my Rolex is gone the mitv of the Ben reminds us to put spirituality back into spirituality to place Hashem at the Forefront to take pm and Kana and pesak and Elevate them from being days of hin and donuts and brisket to days of bonding with Hashem to take shabas and ensure that our relationship with Hashem is what's dominant and not the craze search for another piece of potato C when we internalize the lesson of the Ben serer We Begin rethinking our priorities perhaps we don't spend enough time on spirituality Perhaps Perhaps our Quest For Pleasure and adventure takes up too much mental space when we rethink our priorities we can change we can become more wholesome people we can then realize how foolish most of our worldly Pursuits are and how much more meaningful the pursuit of hasem is ever since my youth I had a desire to try real glacier water water that didn't have to travel through any pipes and water that didn't need any filtering water in its most pristine form so one year I took a trip to Alaska and with with unparalleled magnificence and natural wonders the likes of which are found nowhere else it is truly one of the most beautiful places on planet Earth and I encourage all to go see it so on one day of my trip I finally got to do what I dreamed about and I hiked on a glacier the Matanuska Glacier wearing special shoes I ascended this bohemuth mountain of ice and it was in utter awe of its sheer Beauty and uniqueness and then the Moment of Truth occurred the tour guide brought me to a little hole in the glacier that was shooting out a small stream of water and the tour guide looked at me and said you see that water over there that is pre-industrial Revolution water that is water never affected by the oone layer that is water which people from all over the world come to try would you like to try it you better believe I want to try it I told him so I bent down and I cut my hand and I lifted to my mouth and I made a br and I took a drink and do you know what that water tasted like do you know what this water water that I dreamed about since I was young water that I was told was the greatest tasting water on Earth water that people from all over the world come to taste you know what it tasted like like the water that comes out of the tap in every Kitchen in America all of us have a choice we can either spend our lives chasing Pleasures that dominate our every move or we can stop and drink from the Fountain of God that is Flowing all around us [Music]