The Non Obvious Obvious - Yisro On Fire

[Music] imagine the following a sweet 99-year-old orphan who has been living at an orphanage his entire life waiting earnestly year after year for someone to adopt him finally he's word that his biological parents decided to take him back they decided to take him in again and raise him he waits the day when he will go to their house to meet him the day finally arrives and he takes a bath Don his finest clothing and walks up to the door before he even knocks smoke begins billowing out of from underneath the door lightning begins bolting out of the windows the door viciously opens and his father is standing there in a dark robe looking down at him the first utterance he says in a deep dark scary voice is I am your father who brought you into this world you will not be able to open the fridge by yourself to take food you will be served and must eat what is served your bedtime will be tightly enforced punishable by death you must honor me and you must do as I say imagine such a greeting the little boy would be scared out of his wits he would run away as fast as his feet could carry him it is not exactly the hello he was expecting well it would seem that Hashem greeted us that very same way why was hashem's Icebreaker with the Jewish people a scary meeting at top of mountain with fire and thunder and lightning why can we have a more pleasant welcome to his home why not a nice cup of coffee near a calm Brook on a sunny day with the birds pleasantly chirping in the background and when a finally does speak what he says seems puzzling he starts off by famously declaring I am your God meaning to say we should believe in him the question is that if we do in fact believe in God then we don't need a commandment to believe in him and if we don't believe in God then what good is his commandment to believe in him what is a commandment if we don't believe in the commander of the Commandment RAB wasman the author of The saer harus writes in the back of his sea for a truly fascinating understanding of all this Begins by asking the following question how is it expected of a 12-year-old boss Mitzvah girl and a 13-year-old Bar Mitzvah boy to attain a belief that philosophers and astrologers have debated for Millennia how was a teenager expected to come to the intellectual conclusion that there is a God when Minds such as Aristotle with the rmom called one degree lower than a prophet couldn't come to that conclusion how is it expected of a simple child to climb philosophical mountains when men far smarter than he couldn't climb them explained that belief in Hashem requires no degree in theology belief in God requires zero philosophical mountain climbing merely looking out into the dazzling World should direct one to Hashem merely seeing the Miracles of nature should lead one to the unequivocal conclusion that this world has a Creator m clearly seeing the wonders of the planet should Propel one to sing the Praises of God to think that it could all come about randomly to think it could all be happen chance say ranan is preposterous according to Professor Robert Shapiro the mathematical probability of the world coming into into existence by evolving from spontaneous generation is 1 over 10 one to the power of 1.25 trillion in in simple terms that is the same probability as rolling a double six with dice 100 trillion times in a row so the question now becomes reversed how could gigantic philosophers some of the smartest men to ever walk this planet possibly think this world is random how could they possibly take such a stance when there are oceans and mountains of reason to think otherwise ran explains based on the following there is Hala that states that a presiding judge is not allowed to accept a bribe even of the smallest amount for we are afraid the bribe will sway his reasoning and he will judge inaccurately this means that if even Mosher rabenu whom we know to be indisputably righteous and fair would take even a penny as a bribe from a defendant in his courtroom he would be disqualified from judging the Torah is laying down an ironclad rule in human psychology we we are all swayed by money we are swayed by material Pursuits the desire to live in materialistic Comfort will blur the reasoning of even the greatest Minds no mind is too great no degree of materialism is too insignificant it is fundamental human nature recognizing a God in this world continues ran would bring along with it much responsibility it would require humbling oneself to the will of the Creator it would potentially bring with it laws that would prevent the pursuit of materialistic Bliss hence Minds were swayed great minds were bought with a penny the overwhelming evidence the world offers in support of hashem's existence was not accepted by men who viewed that reality as a hindrance to the conveniences of their lifestyle the extreme desire to do whatever one wants in life will literally blind even the greatest philosophers from seeing what any 13 year old boy should see with ease a non-jewish philosopher once approached R the and asked him the following he said if your Torah says that you should always follow the majority why do you believe in your God when the majority of the world thinks otherwise the responded the Torah commands us to go with the majority only if both opinions are viable lack of belief in God is an opinion so outlandish and so biz barar it doesn't even make it to the debate floor continues when hasm commands Us in the first of the to believe in him the Commandment is not to venture out on a philosophical exploration in search of God it is a commandment to remove those things in life that prevent us from seeing the obvious it is a commandment to make room in our hearts for spirituality to live to prevent the gross physicality of the world from blinding us of what is laughably evident to live a life pursuing Holiness instead of one chasing the mundane when Hashem spoke to us from Atari this was not his Icebreaker this wasn't his first greeting Hashem has been saying hello to us every time the sun comes up in the morning we have to we have known Hashem ever since we saw an oak tree come out of an acorn we saw a sham in every raindrop and every earthworm we didn't e any ice breakers har was not introducing us to hasem it was introducing us to his Torah it was introducing us to our Safeguard it was introducing us to our mission to our life's work to our goals in life that had to come with seriousness that had to be done with awe the Torah must be respected with every fiber of our being the most significant book to ever grace our Earth cannot be handed over while sipping coffee we once had a fruit F problem in our house after numerous attempts to remove them I went to a hardware store and asked for a trap The Man Behind the Counter gave me a trap which was a small bowl with a clear cover on top of it with little holes in the cover I was to fill the bowl with fruit juice and place the cover on top I assure you the man said the fruit flies will fly right in no problem I asked him well the same way the fruit flies can fly right in through the holes why can't they fly right out through the holes he said good question no you see fruit flies have bad Vision when following the smell of fruit juice they are blindly led directly through the holes to what they're looking for but once they're satisfied they look up and they can't find the hole to get out I thought to myself how we are often the very same way we allow the smell of Earthly physical Pursuits to lead us along the path in life often blinding us from seeing the truth we know that Aram rode to the aada on a donkey the meure says that mosha rode from midan to Egypt to save the Jews on that very same donkey and we are told that mssiah will one day arrive on that same donkey now in our contemporary World Messiah arriving on a donkey seems a little outdated we would have anticipated such a significant arrival to be heralded in the latest model car or a limousine with an Entourage of Black Cadillacs preceding it why is mashiah going to show up riding on a donkey I want heard the following enlightening answer from R Min MH in the ISA of Staten Island he said the Hebrew word for donkey is karamar is a derivative of the word which means materialism the donkey more than any other animal symbolizes brute physicality it excels at lifting and carrying heavy burdens to and fro mashiach's arrival a top a donkey is signifying that we only got to that point by remaining on top of materialism we lived life mind over matter we were able to lift ourselves above the NeverEnding quest for heightened physical pleasure we were able to carve out room in our hearts for Hashem to exist that says RAB Min is what will lead us to mhia Hashem is truly all around us we just need to open up our hearts to see him and once we do his presence becomes remarkably obvious [Music]