How Do You Find Out What Your Tikkun Is? - Jeremy Gimpel: The Land of Israel Fellowship

the Torah that I wanted to share with you today has really been a Guiding Light for me for many many years and we look at Moses who in this week's Parsha this was almost his downfall and you gotta love the Torah that our heroes are not perfect Our Heroes Have struggles Our Heroes Have ups and Our Heroes Have downs and these heroes are there as life lessons for us to continue to study them because the struggle of man and woman three thousand years ago not much has changed just the context has changed just the technologies have changed but our souls are the same souls and this world is the same world and people haven't changed much the world really hasn't fundamentally changed much there are still bad guys that are trying to control us and they're good guys that are fighting for freedom and Israel is this Beacon of light surrounded by dictatorships and who knows what's going on in Europe which is of course always at our throats and there's just this eternal battle between light and darkness and the Torah gives us so much guidance of how to navigate this world and so we don't know that much about Moses so what we do learn we should pay close attention to the first thing we know about Moses is his good traits we know that he's the humble of all men most humble of all men that's he's not the wisest he's not the strongest he's not the smartest he's the most humble and the most humble allowed him to channel the Torah without ego not wasn't his opinion he was a direct conduit to give over the Ten Commandments to give over the ways of God in the world and his humility it didn't mean that he thought um low of himself he just wasn't thinking about himself at all his life was just dedicated to Israel and to God and that's what it is to be humble it is not to think um less of yourself but to think about yourself less and he never thought about himself he was just committed as a servant of God to the people of Israel to bring that light into the world so that was sort of a gift that he was given I don't think that Moses had to work on that he was just given a gift to be humble and there's some people that are given gifts and they're very intelligent they have high IQs there's some people that have a gift and they're very courageous that's just in their nature and they have you know everyone has their own gifts and everyone has their people that are loving people giving and at the same time we have gifts and at the same time we have what we have what we call articun we have what we have to fix in this world and we are given that as well and you can follow the tikkun that Moshe rabeno has really from the beginning of the story Moses encounters the burning bush in chapter three and in chapter four he reveals to God his weakness and in chapter four if we can get it up on the screen so we can read it together something marvelous happens and Moses said unto the Lord my Lord I'm not a man of words neither yesterday or the day before even now you have spoken unto your servant I am heavy of speech and heavy of tongue and so from here don't keep the screen up please so from here we see Moses is like listen you're asking me to be the spokesman to go to pharaoh to go to the nation I have a heavy speech now it's unclear what that word means some the Majora says maybe he had a list a speech impediment but maybe he just meant like he doesn't have the right words he's not a man of words he's not good at speaking he's just I remember there was one time where a good friend of mine in my old community in Nevada his wife was suffering from cancer and eventually it was such a long painful story his wife passed away and then it was the shiv of the seven days where you go and you you comfort the people and I went oh Jeremy you're not telling the story are you I'm telling this story because I feel like it's a little bit of a weakness that I have I'm not good with words in important situations and it's okay and um he's like I mean he's not Ari but he's a dear friend of mine and I wanted to go after the Shiva of course I went during the Shiva but after the Shiva I feel like it's a special time because the house is now alone and they're just kind of like with their own grief so it's good to go visit them especially after the first seven days and I knew that he loved tehila's meatballs he would always come over for Shabbat and go deal your meatballs are the best meatballs we love your meatballs Tila does make very good meatballs for Shabbos and so I said Taylor here's what we should do you should make him your favorite his favorite meatballs and I'll bring it over and then I'll like he won't have to make dinner for him and his kids we'll just bring over meatballs for them and so I got there and it was I the day after the shiver a couple of days after the ship I don't exactly remember but I know I was the only one there he opens the door and I see my friend and I I freeze and I my eyes start to water up because I see that he's in a lot of pain still and I'm very like sensitive guy in that way and I didn't know what to say but he sees that I'm like I love him and I say at least you have meatballs I actually said that I said at least you have meatballs that is the least comforting dumbest thing I don't know why I said that I went home to tequila and I'm like tequila he opened the door and I said at least you have meatballs like what kind of comfort is that that is the dumbest thing I've ever said I'm just not good with words in those kind of situations I'm like Moses I just like oh it doesn't come out and the guy happens to be in the media he works in the media he was so touched by me saying at least you have meatballs he wrote an entire article called at least you have meatballs and it he said how much to touch his heart that even dumb friends like me who had such good intentions but didn't exactly know what to say but it was like from my heart we just wanted to comfort him and love him and like Moses like I just you know what can I do I'm not a man of words so I don't know what that meant by Moses that he had a heavy speech but what he's telling us clearly is speech is not his gift it's it's like his tikkun and he's like God I'm speaking to you right now and it's not like you fixed me you'd think a direct encounter with the god of Israel I would be speaking like an orator of the highest order I'm talking to you right now God and I'm still with this problem with my speech it would bothering me yesterday it bothered me before and as I'm talking to you it still bothers me and then if we could put the slide up God has a beautiful answer to Moses and God says to Moses Moses and the Lord said unto him who has made man's mouth pray tell he gave you that speech impediment Moses I made your mouth I know exactly your strengths no exactly your weaknesses I made you this way and I'm telling you with your weakness I want you to be the spokesman I want you to rally the troops I want you to go and speak before Pharaoh I know your strengths and I know your weaknesses I made your speech impediment and now go and here we are now years later we're in the desert and Moses once again is commanded I want you Moses to use your mouth and I want you to speak to the Rock Moses doesn't speak to the Rock he's heavy of speech this problem that he has comes back later on in the story and it they say it was that thing that happened around that rock and his lack of speech that did not allow him to go into the land of Israel now there are many understandings of what he said was what he said to Israel is what he said to the rock it was a lack of speech Yes speech no speech but speech was the downfall there he was commanded to speak to the Rock and he doesn't speak to the rook and then God says up well with that we know that Moses did not enter into the land of Israel and then we see that like okay well he's struggling with this tikkun and then at the end of his life although he doesn't go into the land of Israel Moses gives the greatest speech ever known in human history and it's called The Book of Deuteronomy it's called The Book of davari the book of Words the book of his speech and it is the greatest most powerful speech the most impactful speech in world history he stood before the nation and he gave over the book of devarim as his last act before he died and there's something very beautiful about that that Moses started off his journey heavy of speech he ends off his journey giving the greatest speech in human history but in the middle you see that he still does not that was his that was his weakness and he he fell and he was punished and he never makes it into Israel and so what is all of that teaching us today so it's good to know your strengths because all of us have been given all of us have gifts God gave us all gifts has a gift she makes great meatballs I that was just given to her she makes the best meatballs but she also has things that are like need to be fixed all of us do and so one of the most important Works in our lives is twofold one to really know what are the gifts God has given us most people know that God has given them many gifts but if you ask them on the spot what's your gift they won't necessarily know how to answer that that's something that you really need Clarity on what are your gifts that God gave you to help build the kingdom that's really what it's there for what did gifts did he bring to make this world better to make yourself better to bring a new light into the world what are the gifts and the second arguably more important is what is your tea crew what is the thing that God brought into your life that's there and it it's not just a one-time Struggle No no no the tikkun is something that comes back and comes back and comes back again just like with Moses the story of Moses is teaching us about ourselves that all of us have gifts and all of us have tikernim and so you need to do a little bit of soul searching and think what is the thing that I keep on stumbling upon what is that thing that's like this baggage that I keep carrying with me that is not allowing my soul to fully be expressed in the world that's not allowing my light to come along that I keep on sabotaging myself or that thing is sabotaging me what is my tikkun and the way to find that is exactly that it's literally to sit at the edge of your bed and ask God what is the thing that I'm doing that is hindering my progress what is the thing that I need to fix what is the thing that I need to fix what is it and if you ask and you wait and you think and you meditate and you you really like go through a soul searching a soul calculation you will arrive at an answer now it really could be that the answer may not be the ultimate answer it doesn't matter start working with the light that's been given to you start fixing that and then you know it could be you'll reveal a deeper level of tikku that you couldn't have known without going through the first stages and so Moses sees like okay I I had the speech impediment I have this problem with my speech and ultimately even though Moses doesn't go into Israel he lives out a wonderful example of someone that was struggling with his speech ultimately even after his downfall still stood up and gave the greatest speech in human history and so may we all be blessed to know our gifts to know our tikkun and then to take the steps to slowly etch away at chisel away chisel away to like fix that within us to really bring our light into the world and so may you all be blessed with that at finding your gifts and finding your Tycoon and then taking it to the next level amen