Godly Goodness- Ekev- The Parshah On Fire

[Music] in there's a very peculiar statement from one of them he declares that nobody ever commits a sin unless a spirit of senselessness enters them now this assertion seems to be saying that only when a wave of irrational thinking floods one's brain and sort of cloaks him with utter foolishness does one go ahead and commit a sin and what's strange about this declaration is that in real life we don't seem this to be the case what compels most people to sin is a desire they're faced with and despite knowing the repercussions they consciously choose to follow the path of sin since it appears to offer more instantaneous pleasure we wouldn't label one who gossips about a competitor as foolish we might call them cruel or mean or selfish but we wouldn't think they warrant the title foolish the same applies someone who looks at something they shouldn't look at or eats something shouldn't eat we wouldn't label them as stupid we would say they're lustful or they're gluttonous so how do we reconcile these facts with the above declaration why are we calling people who sin senseless and stupid so this para gives us a clue in the middle of moshe's final speech to the Jewish people as he tells them about the spirits and the morals and the ideals that they will experience in Arro he inserts a seemingly bizarre comment Misha addressed the Jewish people and he says the following all asks for you is to fear Him it isn't complicated all he wants is a little fear is that too difficult mosha ask asks the entire Jewish people now what kind of question is that of course it's difficult of course it's difficult to watch every word that comes out of our mouths every second of the day of course it's difficult to watch where our eyes go of course it's hard to turn down a job opportunity that conflicts with Shamus of course it's difficult to fast on Tish fearing Hashem dictates what we say and when we say it what we wear and how we wear it what we eat and how we eat it what we think and how we think it why do M should make it sound like it's easy what is exactly deosha mean when he proclaims that all hasm asks of us is to fear Him isn't that a huge mountain to climb so the following foundational explanation given by the can completely alter the way one looks at MIT explains that in hashem's infinite desire to bestow goodness upon man he created a road map promising that all those who follow it will be led to unadulterated goodness every single one of the Mitzvah on that map is another nugget of goodness and if followed properly envelops the follower with peace and tranquility and Harmony and Holiness some Mitzvah prevent us from being hurtful people some Mitzvah make us more benevolent some more patient others are there to give us opportunities to build a relationship with Hashem the Mitzvah are the instruction manual of how to leave a loving home or raise proper kids or how to ensure Society is safe and they teach us how to cope with sadness and how to properly chanter Channel Joy there's no scenario that's not addressed there's no circumstance that's ignored they inject them all with goodness the Mitzvah infused life with meaning the common denominator that runs through all the 613 mitzvas is that they are all here for our own benefit not a single human being in the entire history of humanity ever benefited one aota from deviating from hashem's path so following this logic says the mosha turned to the Jewish people and emphatically declared that these Commandments that Hashem lovingly taught me and then I taught you all these years all 613 of them are purely for them to attain goodness Hashem isn't asking anybody to do something detrimental to their pursuit of goodness for these Commandments are the very definition of the pursuit of goodness it is for this reason that Misha finished off his declaration by saying all Hashem asks of us is to follow the map and it will lead us to his treasure chest of goodness it's all good for you but there's another layer to this not only did Hashem give us the tah the road mapap to goodness he also gave us un unfathomable spiritual reward in the next World for following it think about that for a moment Hashem rewards us for following the guide book that is solely here to give us the greatest life on planet Earth we get rewarded for living a life of goodness is there any other deal on Earth as good as this one when we realize that every single one of the Mitzvahs are here for our own benefit Suddenly It's not nearly as hard to follow them suddenly it's not overly difficult to refrain from doing something we ought not to do because when we Viv internalized that refraining from saying something we shouldn't say or thinking something we shouldn't think or doing something we shouldn't do is purely for our own personal benefit it becomes significantly easier to follow suit and similarly when we realize that fulfilling the Mitzvah brings the best form of goodness into our lives as well as unfathomable spiritual reward in the next World it becomes drastically easier to fulfill them so therefore the gumar in sight declares that nobody sins unless a spirit of stupidity overcomes them because how foolish must one be to deviate from the tot which is purely in place for our own benefit how foolish is it to neglect the map leading us to a life of supreme contentment imagine imagine you're going to Disney World for the first time and you only had six hours to spend there and being that time is precious and there's a lot to see you would need a plan to ensure that you got the most out of your short visit to the park now imagine if the day before you arrive you got a letter in the mail from the owner of Disney World and he's he personally Drew out a map of the places you should go and the places you should avoid and the bridges you should circumvent and the rides that have two long lines and he tells you go behind this and this go go over there and don't go over there and the shows that you must see in the pathways that get too crowded imagine the owner writing it all out for you would you take one look at it and say n look at how many places he tells me not to go look at all the rides and attraction he tells me to avoid I'm not listening to this and you throw it in the garbage how foolish how dumb well we we're basically the same why how foolish we are to fall to the glitter and the glow of the sins that we commit how foolish it is to abandon the god stamped map of a utopian life in exchange for our convoluted version of pleasure the name of the paraa is akv that's because the very first PUK in the para describes how telling us that if we are careful to fulfill all the Mitzvah even the seemingly insignificant ones that people step on with their AA their heel of their foot we will be granted a life of bliss merly showing up a few times a year to perform the big grandio mitz while neglecting the hundreds of other seemingly less glamorous ones is demonstrative to Hashem that we don't view is Tyra as a road map to goodness but rather a roadblock getting the the way of our personal hike to happiness it is precisely the daytoday grind of following each and every one of the 613 Mitzvah even the small ones that reflects our firm realization that all Hashem wants for us is goodness and in his kindness and in his grace he showed us exactly how to get there how foolish it would be for us to miss out even one Mitzvah the only person in the entire tanak who is referred to by tanak as aad a righteous man is why is that weren't there other righteous men who filled the holy pages of the Tyra so perhaps it's because it says in a righteous man is one who has the ability to pick himself up despite falling seven times and for 120 years n went outside and worked on the T while the naysayers mocked him and he didn't give up and he didn't budge he showed up rain or shine he tried to inspire them to changeed their ways they called him crazy they called him insane yet he stood there day in day out year in year out decade in decade out never flinching once because he knew that the best life on Earth was a life following Hashem and no amount of mockery and Scorn would convince him otherwise in AEV is a heel the human heel can absorb more pain than any other part of the body you can stick needles into a heel you can walk with it on coals the terorist specifically uses this term to tell us that we must show up as a soldier in hashem's Army day in and day out not only for the big parties and the Gatherings but for the early morning drills and the late night missions and the grinding It Out In the Heat of the day a soldier is there no matter the circumstances and he takes the pain for he knows there is nothing more rewarding than that than serving the king so too we show up rain or shine to follow hashem's Tyra with the conviction that there is nothing more rewarding after the destruction in the first place of Mikes and the subsequent Exile into B and the episode with h on Pim the Jewish people enjoyed relative tranquility and prosperity in the country of Persia life was good and one day out of the blue King Cyrus the king of the Persian Empire at the time decided to grant the Jews permission to move back to Yim and rebuild B mikdash and he instructed madas the Royal treasur he instructed him to go into the Royal Vault and remove the CM The Vessel stolen from the B mikdash and thousands upon thousands of vessels were brought out so Ezra the leader of the Jewish people at the time excitedly ran into the Town Square and he broke the news to the Jewish people the king is letting us go back the king is letting us rebuild mikdash and so with the PM story still fresh in their minds and the threat of complete Slaughter of the entire Jewish people still at the Forefront of their minds one would have thought there would have been a national outpour of excitement to go back to Y there should have been ecstatic there should have been a stampede to begin the pilgrimage back but no not even close out of the millions of Jews that were living at the times at that time in Persia shockingly only 42360 people picked up and marched with Ezra back Yim 42360 out of millions and millions and millions after almost being annihilated by humm after going through the pain of getting exiled and watching the basic this burn we were finally given an opportunity to go back and yet 95% of us didn't we liked our life in Persia of course we wanted to rebuild the Bas of M but conceptually not actually we didn't yearn to actually go out there and build it in the act of such devotion by these four 42360 people picking themselves up without missing a beat to go serve Hashem with alacrity was so praiseworthy in the eyes of Hashem that he did something almost never done in Tanakh he listed each and every family that accompanied Ezra by name the poraj family the azgad family the Bei family the benai family the bethl family the Nebo family the shaba family the Zab family the bakbuk family the soai family the Ami family the live family the paruda family Etc these previously unnoteworthy individuals realize the tremendous opportunity they had in front of them the opportunity to move back toim and rebuild the mikash the opportunity to be one with Hashem and his Mitzvah they were soldiers in hashem's Army from the big Commandments to the small from the Glamorous to the technical it made no difference they were marching in lockstep with Ezra and therefore in reward their names got codified for eternity and the most important book in the history of humanity I once found myself in the office building of BP print group a printing company in Lakewood New Jersey being a large company with well more than a minion they built a sh inside of their building and what's unique about this minion is that in addition to the graphic designers and printers and editors and writers that dve in there there is often a large number of Mim from Yim as part of the minion and they come there to the company to print out their letters of recommendations to attest that they are in need of and what took place during Kazar absolutely amazed me a man got up with a pushka a charity box in his hand and began walking up and down the aisles collecting sedak and like in most strs only a handful of people actually put something in the bushka that is until the man got to the Mish and without missing a beat each and every one of them reached into their pockets and placed some money in the pushka this impressed me so much because they were actually taking from the very money that they themselves collected by standing out in the rain going door too embarrassing themselves this was the very money they needed desperately to pay for their wife's chemo treatment the infertility treatment the bank that was about to foreclose on their house they placed some of that money into the push gun not a single one of them didn't because these people are attracted to a currency of a different kind a Mitzvah that comes walking by is too attractive to pass up they couldn't hold themselves back even after a tear filled Min begging hasem to save them from their plight they grabed the Mitzvah Saka with a smile on their face before it walked them by because for them it was simply too precious not to when we realize how each and every Mitzvah contains a precious ingredient for a life of goodness we realize I how foolish it is to overlook any of them suddenly each and every Mitzvah is prized each one is too cherish to step on and none of them are insignificant like puzzle pieces each one make up the ultimate life of goodness stamped with the approval of Hashem summed it up best in keepers of Mitzvah will know no evil when we realize how fortunate we are to be privy to these these Mitzvah we will do whatever it takes to properly fulfill them and when we do aside for living life to its fullest our names get etched in hashem's Heavenly record books for eternity how fortunate are we that we merited this we are the luckiest people on the face of the Earth and it's not even close [Music]