I Will Guard You Wherever You Go with Rabbi Aaron Dovid Poston

[Music] Shalom Alim everybody welcome I'm going to say welcome welcome back how can I say welcome back to the Yan a bate M this is our very first time recording in our new center we are not open yet we are going to open on Hanukkah but we have a very nice crowd here and uh as you know we are raising funds to keep this uh not just to keep going first of all to for the renovation so down below there is a link to make contributions but more than that what I really want you to do is take go down into the link and you'll you'll find the Hebrew Source sheets a link and I want you to follow along and we always deal with fundamentals fundamental concepts in yut in Judaism and we're starting in we par V we're going to deal with chapter 28 verse I'm not mistaken verse 20 okay so I'll read it in English and in Hebrew I'm going to point certain things out things that the CLE car will be let's say bothered by it says in chapter 28 of Genesis verse 20 and Jacob uttered a vow right saying IM if God will be with me now this then he will guard me on this way he is he having a existential um Faith issue what do you mean God already promised him God already promised him I'm gonna be with you so where does this come from where he asked this question if God will be with me and he will guard me on the way then he says right God's going to guard me on the way everywhere I go wherever I go God's going to guard me that God should give me bread to eat beged little and clothing to wear okay the cleart is not happy why does it just say to give me bread and clothing what do you think I'm going to eat the clothing and I'm going to wear the bread of so without getting too far ahead of ourselves see we said we're in verse 20 if you go to verse 15 it's just five verses before God actually says behold I am with you right and I'm going to guard you wherever you go everywhere you go I'm going to guard you so where is it five verses later he's asking this question if God will be with me so this is what we're going to deal with fundamentals of faith and wait till you hear this in verse 20 verse 15 God says I'm going to bring you back to the land I will restore you to the land in Hebrew I'm going to bring you back to where Isel to the land of Israel well to this land right I'm not going to forsake you I'm not going to abandon you until I have accomplished and finished everything that I spoke to you about already now it is interesting if you look in all right let's not get ahead of ourselves let's go to the CLE car the clear says these words right we're in the middle of the page that's 138 this is the PK if God will be with me this is Yakov speaking and right away the clear says right God forbid there's no way that yov had any doubts right God forbid yov had any doubts in his faith that Hashem would fulfill his promises of course he would because already in verse 15 which we saw God says I'm going to be with you I'm going to be everywhere you go I'm going to be with you so what is really going on the clear is saying this is what's happening ready usually I say drum roll please this time but we're not yet there let's see in a second I know it's hard to see because we did see those words about bread to eat and clothing to wear but according to the CLE that's not the shot here right now we're dealing with a concept that Yakov is not asking for any Earthly physical U bodily guarding because God already promised him in verse 15 I'm going to take care of you what was Yakov asking then what was he requesting now what was he seeking now yov wanted God to guard him or he wanted assistance from God to guard him to guard his soul to guard his neish from sin now the clear says as either proof testimony regarding this idea see already in verse 15 God said I will guard you I will protect you wherever you go and yakob responds that was verse 15 Yakov responds in verse 20 now we all know Hebrew and most of us don't speak Hebrew properly but you don't need to say a or it's good enough to say as he says it could have just been said the word is equivalent to and God is actually by the way very um he's very concerned and has pity on Jewish people's money yeah he doesn't want us to waste money and believe it or not safer Torah is a very expensive item and the ink is expensive so wherever you can shorten it and make it even grammatically correct certainly would so it could have said as a clear points out that he could have said and you will guard me everywhere that I goare that is a few letters shorter a few quite a few but the word is in there okay he says is not only that right you don't even know the word you don't even need the word all you needed to have said was like he said so what did God say back to him actually in verse 25 he originally said to him I'm going to bring you back to this land to the land now there's going to be a I'm going to make this point When God Says in verse 15 I'm going to bring you to the land this concept of returning to the land that's hashem's doing God says I'm going to be the one who returns you but Yakov says also in verse 21 Shalom Eli I want to return in peace now this idea of Peace if we look at Rashi real quick in number Source through number three Rashi says what does it mean I'm going to return in peace I'm going to return perfect from sin in other words sinless if I did any sins I will have done chuva I will have found atonement I will be sh I will be complete without sin that's what it means according to what let's see according to thear jakob's response was he's telling us this is that it's yak's response Yo's returning his chuva is on him in other words we all believe in Free Will right free will the greatest gift that God gave us that's what separates us from even the angels from the from the animals from all of existence it's so important that we're going to discuss it a little bit right now so the go there's going to be these two I think major shifts one is the return to the land that's like a chuva believe it or not how many people come back and do Tru automatically from just smelling the stones of Y of various isra right just smelling it just walking on it you feel the electricity go up through your spine right and so that's up to us I'm sorry just the return that's going to be hashem's doing but there's trva there's working on our character there's doing Torah Mitzvah which we will see that is your that's going to be entirely up to you and we're going to see this within dialogue that that Hashem has with yakob that y God is saying I'm going to return you to the land and yakob is saying I'm going to return to my father's house which is going to be symbolic as we see just take one more look at Rashi on verse 28:21 it says and if I return in peace to my father's house Rashi says as God said to me I'll restore you to the land just as God says I'm going to bring you to the land in peace that's what yakob is saying I'm gonna be in I'm gonna come back to the my father's house perfect from sin now there is another caveat here that he will not learn the ways of lvan he won't learn the ways of the r that's why it's very important to choose your friends choose your friends wisely so Yakov responds in verse 21 which is this idea of personal chuva this is about returning to your own father's house and what didem say to him I'm going to bring you back to the land the land vako says right so God's saying I'm going to bring you back to the land but yakob says elb AI to my father's house now we have different anomalies we have different changes between the back and forth he says because of the different changes in the in the conversation the different an ales you can actually learn that what as mayor was explaining that what that if that's not spiritual what is to guard yourself against sin not to Sul your n Yakov actually we're going to learn from all these different changes that yakob was not going to be asking for anything physical I know we read he wants make sure he's going to have bread to eat and clothing to wear we're going to discuss that but here he's making the point that whatever yakob was asking was strictly about his soul staying clean from [Music] sin this is the greatest gift that we have which is Free Will and it's the only right what's everything is in the hands of Heaven except except so this is the Free [Music] Will that all we're discussing here when it comes to Free Will anything that is it's all dependent on the Free Will of man to stay away from sin now the truth is theor Kad says there's no way that a human being can actually there's no way that a human being can actually overcome his Y without the help of Hashem I don't know if anybody knows about the 12ep programs and Alcoholic Anonymous Narcotics Anonymous but one of their principles is there's no way to get help from some of the deepest hurts and addictions ex except through the help of God well guess where they got it from they got it from us the gor kadan says there's no way out in fact what you think you're so strong people are in prison you know they always get help someone sends a cake with cake with a little file right you need help from the outside what about those old westerns the guy comes on a horse in a chain and he pulls the whole wall down by attaching it to uh the the what do you Sim on the outside you always need help from the outside you need help from hasem don't be so arrogant to think you can overcome the without a out even in 119 where is it on the sheet uh number four uh 11937 do amik praise to God turn away my eyes from seeing vanity with your way sustain me this is Vanity I need your help to guide me to make sure that I'm looking at the right things paying attention to the right things okay so that was D's prayer help from he heaven now there is a statement that is mentioning regarding well let's just put it like this if we're talking about vanities that is on a certain level guarding against phys IAL stuff so in verse 15 where God where God tells him I will guard you everywhere you go what's the word co co means everywhere when you go even if you go whatever street you want to go Tel Aviv there's nothing talk about but everywhere you go there's Mish I'm not sure how to exactly explain this could mean his way you know anybody human's way is to go there's so many opportunities Left Right Center up down so many ways so when you're going it's it's dangerous because there's so many opportunities but when it comes to choosing the right path when it comes to doing right there's only one path and what path is that in verse 20 where he's got in this is Yakov speaking actually right Yakov took this vow that if God will be with me he's going to guard me on the way he will guard me on the way when it says H A lot of times in the Torah the word h means like you're pointing with a finger the h means this this like specific it's as if there's like he's showing him with a finger pointing with a finger which unique special way that he's talking about and what is that it's the way of God of the way you heard of tnm TM they call transcend transcendental meditation it's not it's not Transcendental Meditation it's Torah Mitzvah okay TM it already says in verse 16 in our when Yakov woke up look in number five it's 28:16 Yakov awaken from his sleep and he knew he says indeed the Lord is in this place I'm going to surprise you with something Mount Mariah is only a kilometer from here whatever give or take a few feet Mount Sinai is where we receive the Torah that's where the Torah came in yeah that's what I want to say that there is an opinion that we were transported at Mount Si to mount Mariah in fact Mount Si has many names and one of those names is Mount Mariah so when we hear these words K T we're talking about Jerusalem right so of course it's Jerusalem Z but anyway it says as if he's pointing Al and he would that's where he was when he woke up from his dream he's right there where he fell asleep on Mount Mariah as if he pointed with a finger in front of him that this is BAS Elohim Bas Al so basically this is not just the house of God but from it there will be people who will tread in a like a paved easy way to Traverse uh the ways of God God gave us an instruction manual right it's not that hard might be complicated but it's not that hard okay remember where it says that God gave the Y but he created the the toing he created The Cure before he always creates the Cure before he creates the problem the problem is a test but he already creates the solution the solution was the Torah was created before the world before the world came into being we had the Torah then he created the world that call that the problem whatever you want to call it but basically we're talking about the Free Will of man that the way of going in the Torah path is all dependent on you choosing it okay nobody can force it to you you have to choose it remember we said what the word he was just say I will go as opposed to so where it says that's me there's nothing bigger me than Ani right Ani means me it's all about me that this whole thing this whole thing is dependent on a combination a partnership that we have with God we cannot do it without God but it's dependent on us in verse 21 yov himself said so if I return in peace that was sh that means he's complete and um already Chua complete chuva from sin or he's sinless that's totally dependent on him with his Free Will as the cleur says now what about the idea of verse 15 God says he's going to bring us back to the land physically we're sitting here this is like the biggest how can you not believe in God I don't understand I honestly don't understand like in front of our very eyes God made promises and he fulfills them and he says he's going to bring us back and look at us many of us I can't speak for all of us many of us we're not as religious as we are today some of us may not have been religious at all and look at us we're all sitting in the land where God had promised to bring us back and this is a fulfillment of the promise God's eye this is the pupil of God's eyes he's constantly involved with he's observing and he's involved constantly with the land of Israel therefore by the way if God forbid you have to leave unless it's a Mitzvah then you need extra guarding when you go outside the land as we have experienced recently we really do have and feel the unfortunately many people have gotten hurt running to a mikah some people have gotten hurt from the shrapnel and let's just leave it at that there's Miracles upon Miracles that we are witnessing with our very own eyes so in Israel there's a special sh and in inside the land l so you need extra there and that's where Yakov was on his way out of the land so what was he wanting a promise he was looking towards he needed more assurance that he would return to the land of Israel lra cuz he knew when he got back back to here back to the land of Israel that the sh would come back like automatically it would Auto it's like a default it's just when he's outside the land he really felt he needed that extra sh but when it comes to who's who's you expect God I will tell you a little secret though but in the time when it comes to sh guarding from sin laan he he wanted to make sure that he didn't learn from evil people like people like Lavan laan not only Lavan Shere a hakani even the Canaanites the Philistines or the Palestinians whatever you want to call them they were y they they dwelt in the land they didn't treat Yo's family well already back then maybe called the longest hatred I don't know not only that that they Yo's family should not learn from the amorites who were here therefore it says he wanted to return back to his father's house this is more of a spiritual yearning of clinging to the tradition of your fathers and not to learn from the ways of the evil people so this last piece really made a difference between hashem's talking to Yakov I'm going to return you physically to the land that's true but also Yakov request to come back to his father's house in peace which means in peace M shal shal with his soul he's going to return to back to Israel true physically as God promised but he wants to um be guarded against sin and it's very important not to learn from evil people so this is part of the protection what he was praying for now the next piece is now the way I understand it is towards the end of verse 20 and the beginning of verse 21 there's something stuck in between and those words are right that he's asking to God to give him bread to eat and a garment to wear so if you just look at verse 20 and then 21 you see those few words are kind of strange in 20 God is asking he's making a vow if God be with me he's going to guard me on the way which I'm going let's just skip the next few words for a second and behold I'm sorry and and if I return in peace to my father's home this is all part of some kind of conversation NE but we're going to stick these words in that's what literally when it says tonai he's sticking in this condition in the middle of two things that really should be together the Ving and those words are that God should give me the bread to eat and the garments to wear so the clear says remember his whole thesis is this is all about yov praying not to be a sinner and to be sh nothing to do with any physical but just for a soul spiritual idea that he says that this guarding from sin yeah that he he wanted to be guarded from guarded from sin that he shouldn't learn from these evil people around him that's one idea there's another way to look at it so I think they say it says in our on on the government money in America in God we trust so that's like a reminder you know stay on the right path but he says that it's very easy to get involved in arguments and calamities because of wealth right I mean I've seen people go crazy over money right getting invol arguments money money money whatever it is so this is like the worst thing money and he says it blinds the people that own you know this wealth and it actually prevents people from doing the right thing it was not for nothing that King Solomon the wisest man of all times and Proverbs 30:8 the first part it says distance falsehood and the lying word from me but this is the important part he says King Solomon says give me neither poverty nor wealth well what am I if I'm not rich I'm not poor I guess I'm just a b provide me with my allotted bread right give me my give me neither poverty nor wealth II provide me with my lotted bread alak therefore what was yob also saying not just King David King David obviously got it from yakob but King yakob is also saying that you should prevent me from having an abundant amount of gold or a lot of um expensive gems stones but rather what should God give him simply bread like his allotted bread bread in order to eat and clothing in order to wear now what are these things called the word means Necessities things that you need to to live and mot are excessive luxuries so he says obviously bread and clothing is a necessity King solom yov they did not they were not looking for luxuries just what they needed so according to thear now we're actually going to understand why it says give me bread to eat and clothing to wear we didn't need to say that just just say give me bread and clothing what could have just said just give me bread and clothing what it might have come upon your man this is like this is like the most rhetorical question right it might have you think it might have come upon your someone's mind that they're actually going to wear bread they're going to eat their clothing of course not that the PK has to go out of its way to tell you the bread is for and the cloth is for wearing you don't need that again right it's unnecessary but rather what did God want he wanted to limit this and therefore also Yakov and King David that he shouldn't give him more bread than he needs to eat in a day why what's the what what do I need to what's the word um a m a whole bunch of bread for or what do I need more clothing that I'm going to wear remember we said money is what causes a lot of problem therefore if I only need what I right all he wanted was enough to save himself from sin meaning a modest amount not an excessive amount that's why it says right away in verse 21 that I want to go back I want to return to my father's house in peace remember shalom it's only on this condition that I'm not too rich not too poor just very modest then I will be able to return in peace meaning sin free shal just like Rashi explained and that brought the whole thing together I hope and we understand it so look there are Jews hasem with plenty of money and I know many are very modest and they really you know they live a modest lifestyle and they give a lot of Saka and I think that's very praiseworthy on the other hand we do know probably like anybody else any other peoples we have Sinners you know amongst us should I say and that um I don't know too many I honestly do not know too many Jews I know they're out there I have a feeling but I don't know too many Jews who are not modest who who are extremely wealthy and give a lot of and so for you I'm talking you know think about Y and they see the dedication list right um so look this was an opportunity to really delve into what we call the uh the foundations of Judaism how we live our lives with a Muna right and we're not excessive we use our resources we're happy to re use our resources for Mitzvah andem we have a community here and um every Tuesday every Thursday night we're going to be here and for you keep coming back right it works if you work it as they say now seriously that U we'll be here next Thursday nightm and Hanukah time we will have a Hanukkah party and uh celebration it's coming up around the corner so we wish everyone not just a good Shabbat shabbat shalom but a happy life and a meaningful life and we'll see you next week [Music] oh