I Will Walk Among You and Be Your G-d with Rabbi Aaron Dovid Poston

[Music] Shalom Alim everybody Welcome Home to Torah a warm welcome we are in the ER mid uh yes the the midash has been relocated and we're very grateful to our hosts we have people here while they're listening to this year making tias for theem and to help protect our soldiers we we are praying right we're in a Content state of prayer we also have people online who are listening as well on Skype anybody who wants to listen live can email me and we'll send you the link number one number two we do encourage you to learn the original Hebrew this is very text Heavy heavily text oriented we do try to learn Hebrew so in the link below you could um find another link to uh to the original Hebrew sheets and we're in we always deal with fundamentally spiritual Concepts in Judaism and we also use the CLE car as the basis for the discussion so those who are not familiar that's the way it goes now there are also links to earlier shim classes that I have given so we're starting somewhere like I'm going to say in the middle it's not really in the middle but uh in other words we're not dealing with the first verses so what I do encourage you to do is to look down below as well there are links to previous classes and what I'm going to try to do is give a two and a half minute summary um I do still encourage you to listen to the whole class we're going to be dealing tonight with the whole concept of the blessing and curses the blessings and the curses so in bot it begins in chapter 26:3 and I will just tell you that what the Clear Car explains is that first verse is divided into three categories if you uh even to translate it is is not going to do it any justice but basically if you follow my statutes and my Mitzvah you guard and you perform them he divides into three categories the first one is a category called as Rashi says AIS Bor you have taken upon yourself the I don't like the word burden but you've taken upon yourself the responsibility and the effort to learn Torah the the is to establish set times to to learn Torah as a as a statute that you will not break the second statement is regarding performing or let's say guarding the low the don'ts that we call them the negative Mitzvah and then performing them doing the positive Mitzvah really quickly the clear explains that each one of these three categories is parallel to one of the nattis God says I'm going to place something in your midst that's a blessing uh that is parallel to these three so the idea of setting times for learning Torah is going to parallel in verse four that God will Pro provide rains in their time by providing providing RS in their time then we will have an abundance of of food so we're going to call it the three PS PPP and it's not has nothing to do with any kind of covid um Grant but it's it's parnasa God's going to provide then in verse six God will provide peace in the land that's as a result of guarding the Mitzvah of don'ts God will also guard us against our enemies and then in verse 11 God says I will place my Sanctuary among you so the three PS would be to provide parasa the second is to provide provide peace and the third one is to provide his presence amongst us by placing the sanctuary amongst us and his spir spirit will not reject us um so we're going to be dealing with that verse 11 and verse 12 really truly it's on verse 12 I will walk among you I will be God unto you and you will be a people unto me so I don't know if I I mentioned the par of the third one is that there's a there's a there's a verse that refers to God's hands you know kav making the sanctuary so too when we do positive Mitzvah it's something that is done with our hands meaning actively done so again just to review that number one if we are if we follow in his ways which is setting times to learn Torah God will provide the Reigns in the right time which will cause an abundance and then that would cause peace because when you have uh your chicken in your pot and your two cars in your garage everything's sweet right and God will provide peace as a result of what guarding his Mitzvah uh and then by actively doing the Mitzvah God would actively involve himself in our lives with the sanctuary okay so let's begin the clear in verse 12 I I gave out sheets and I just have to turn myself to the correct place here we are it's on uh page 555 that's the two two words in the verse God says I will walk amongst you what's going on here we're talking about blessings and curses God is telling us he's going to walk amongst us most of these blessings certainly seem to be physical blessings is that considered a physical blessing if God's going to walk amongst us well look at rashi rashi says this number one The Source sheet number one page One Source One what is Rashi say that God promises a blessing of special spiritual quality he's going to walk amongst us involving intimate knowledge of him and therefore the quote is I will stroll with you in the Garden of Eden as if I were one of you I just want to stop there a second so this is not a physical uh blessing that is going to happen in this world when we refer to the Garden of Eden we are talking about a different sphere of existence perhaps it's another word for the world to come it's another world for for for Paradise it's it's when I say the world to come I'm talking about not this physical existence but something purely spiritual and God would be with us intimately and then the Rashi continues and you will not be terrified of me now one second why would you we need to be told that now you might think that you will not fear me because you have such a familiarity with hasem he's so familiar with you he's walking with you therefore you think well I want have any fear guess again the end of that verse says and be your God okay and I will be your God okay okay so it's not so simple that we are just going to be chummy chummy right with the creator of the universe in this existence we will still have to have or of Hashem even in that next sphere of existence which we will refer to as the world to come the big dilemma the clear wants to resolve at this point is I would say drum roll please but there's no tables here all these blessings that we find throughout the Torah all these I'm going to use the word rewards are all physical throughout the entire Torah and yet Rashi here is telling us and introducing us to this idea when God says I will walk among you it's it's not talking about this world it's talking about the world to come it's talking about after you die it's the future world okay it's another existence so the real dilemma that the Clear Car wants to resolve and I'm going to have to rephrase it a few times because there's so many levels to the Dilemma number one why are all the blessings in the Torah seemingly physical don't we believe in the afterlife is a purely spiritual experience so why does the Torah use physical blessings for what purpose again I'm not so sure I'm not so confident that I can express at this moment what is really bothering Rashi over the cleak car but the clear is making this claim as you will read now in the Top Line Parish Rashi the that's a quote from Rashi I'm going to Journey with you I'm going to walk amongst you in a place called The Garden of Eden and clear says that rash is actually coming to remove from anybody who's making this claim we're going to talk about this claim on our holy Torah what is their Claim by saying the person who's making the claim is going to claim or complain by saying the following thing this is it I would underline these words may after the very fact that the Torah itself never mentions and it doesn't point out the ultimate re reward for our soul and if that's the case that the Torah doesn't so the person making this complaint what would be his following thought that what's the point in doing Mitzvah there's no power there's no benefit to doing these Mitzvah in order to Beque upon or to inherit through their actions any kind of re reward of a spiritual level for the soul in the world to come and the person would continue to say and obviously the purpose for doing them must be that the whole purpose of doing the Mitzvah is only in order to receive reward in this world so what what is the clear saying that Rashi is actually coming to answer someone who's going to complain listen we don't see anywhere in the Torah about all of the the heavens and what's waiting for us all we see is the Earthly um promises and benefits by doing the Mitzvah the only benefit to doing the Mitzvah is must be something of this world and that would be a big claim number one and he has this little phrase that I always translate as misery loves company people who have their head in the sand people who are missing the mark people who are just miserable with life okay people who are negative they they want they don't want to be alone in this negativity so they're going to share and guess what many other people you know begin to doubt maybe they're right maybe this is all the this is the all there is to the world there is no uh pleasure or reward in the world to come maybe these people have a point and this doubt has spread amongst many people so Rashi this is the way the clear is explaining it that Rashi needs to address this issue because we all know we have a misora now we don't have anybody that went to the next World and came back and told it what it was like okay we do have people who have near-death experiences okay we're not even going to deal with that but I'm talking about already going into the world to come and then letting us know all the details and everything about it we have the Torah we have the oral Torah we have a m our rabbis all the way back to mosha Renu we understand what the Torah is trying to tell us and believe it or not that's what we're going to discuss tonight and the Clear goes on and he says and in order to resolve or to release or to um I think resolve is the best in order to resolve and to release any doubt we're going to bring he's going to bring seven opinions now it's not that it's his seven opinions these are of the greatest rabbis that ever Liv he's going to bring like and these are not necessarily countering each other there are levels seven different levels perhaps of understanding and that's not a coincidence because we know there are seven Heavens but he's not going there he's mentioning he has these seven opinions major opinions and not only that theel actually mentions them theel wrote them in his book and he theel went very long he went at length to describe all of these seven levels seven ideas but the clear says that I'm going to summarize all with all of my abilities and organize them here and that's this that's what this class is going to be about and I don't know how to say this politely but I'll try in order to shut up in order to close the mouths of those who try to undermine our holy Torah with untruths with falsehoods the very first of these seven opinions the clear will bring is my what's the means to designate we're going to use the word promise we'll translate as promise those things were designated the the promises so what whatever is written in the Torah as a promise as what you would think some kind of reward that's nothing compared to what we're going to get and I just want to I I I mentioned here on the source sheet number 18 the very last Source there's a famous gamar in Bros who gets more reward a about trua or a completely righteous person someone who sinned and repent repented or someone who never sinned at all believe it or not that's actually an argument I'm not going to get into it here obviously it's very simple to explain that somebody who never sinned must have really worked hard at doing that and therefore he should be get the greater reward whereas the person who sinned obviously made mistakes andem has recovered and gotten back on on the path however there's another way to look at it and perhaps the one who sinned has tasted did Sin and it was delicious and therefore when they come back there's always this nuding desire or they they just the fact that they know what it tastes like and they're staying on the straight and narrow from here on in perhaps that's a greater level the the gamor actually does not resolve it but what it does say is whoever's on the greater level that's who receives the reward that's Indescribable un describable which word is more appropriate Indescribable so all the promises that are talked about in the Torah are always on the lower level of whatever discussion whatever is taking place in the in the arguments in this particular case the argument was who's greater the balver or the righteous person so completely righteous person so basically this pusk in Isaiah 643 no eye has ever seen the prophets themselves were not able to describe the the um the reward of the highest level because no eye has ever seen okay that's just a side point going back into uh the Clear Car we left off where the clear is mentioning the day rishona the first opinion is the rambam and all of these promises all of the designated promises that's not the main reward the har and all of the we call them curses all of the negative things that might happen Vos and all of the Bros and the positive things that might happen that are mentioned in this para okay this is a very deep concept it's only referring to right what is a Braha it's referring to ideas the concept is of removing obstacles or anything that challenges your ability to serve Hashem properly so someone who wants to be an evid hasem they want to serve Hashem properly and they're doing what they're supposed to do which is the Torah learning Torah in its time setting time doing the positive Mitzvah keeping from doing the negative Mitzvah if you're doing all this what hasem would do as a br as a blessing he's removing all the obst obstacles that are in the way of you serving hasem properly that's called AA the curse is just allowing those obstacles to remain sounds crazy but this is what the ramam is saying meaning to say so now we'll say it in other words that if you guard my Mitzvah which we referred to in according to the clear as um holding back from murder from eating for right keeping the negative Mitzvah then God would if you refrain God will refrain he'll he'll remove from you anything that is going to keep you back any kind of obstacle anything that is keeping you know refraining you from being a proper em and like what the the the types of things that are listed in the paraa such as War he'll prevent War he'll prevent sickness he'll prevent hunger the are gone and he will also prevent all kinds of grief or any negative consequences from happening in order that you would be able to serve Hashem without any obstacles without anything that's preventing you from serving him properly that's the blessings we also have a a concept we know that if you do a Mitzvah what's the reward for a Mitzvah another Mitzvah Mitzvah Mitzvah right the Mitzvah is a Mitzvah what does that mean what does the word Mitzvah mean the actual word it's like think of the the root which means to connect and we're going to see that later so the mitv itself is an opportunity to connect to hasem and the me like M causitive it's Mitzvah by doing this and Performing this particular act it's giving you an opportunity to cling to have more hem so the reward for doing a Mitzvah is the removal according to the CLE car is the removal from any obstacle that would prevent you from continuing in that path keep in mind there is no mention of the reward of the world to come that's how we started the whole class how come we do believe in heaven we believe right one of the 13 principles of our faith is there are consequences for our actions so it's not at all mentioned in the Torah in order that one should serve Hashem lishma what is lishma for its sake for just to serve Hashem what do we also say in Perot do not serve your master in order to receive a reward but rather serve your master in order not to receive a reward that's lishma but not on account of this reward or even just to avoid being punished now the truth is we have like levels of fear it starts off with like in other words it's not such a bad way to start you have to start on the lowest level like a ladder and you're Onish fear of punishment many of us were children once in our lives right we weren't all born at the age as we are so fear of punishment sometimes is exactly what a child needs to hear because that's the easiest concept for a child to understand and then later on they come to love and then above love is RO ramus Mish to understand the the awesomeness and greatness of Hashem obviously that would be the point of serving Hashem so as children we grow up and we develop its Pro process of our understanding of Hashem and we're not interested anymore in just the reward the physical reward or God forbid the physical removal of the reward which would be like the Onish perhaps anyway he says this is all in in the um R cha now this is a little bit long and I want to try to sum it up because I think it's worthwhile in number four on the sore sheet um this is from the rambam chapter 91 I I I kind of have to read from the beginning but the best stuff's in the middle so the question arises as explained the reward for the Mitzvah and the good which we will Merit if we observe the path as God described or prescribed in the Torah is the world to come it's says in Deuteronomy 2:7 so that good will be granted you and you will live long obviously it's a hint to the world to come doesn't say this is heaven but God is granting us goodness and a long life also the retribution so not only is there positive things promised they're also the negative things such as um a wicked person who abandons the path of righteousness is going to receive a thing called KET there are only 36 only 36 negative commands that carry with it the actually some of them one of them two of them are positive but anyway you have uh only 36 times that KET is used different types of sins in numbers 15:31 this Soul shall surely be cut off and sin shall remain upon him we're actually going to focus on this idea and let me me let me like spoon feed you now if the Torah doesn't really mention anything about eternity in terms of bliss and heaven but does say that a soul will be cut off if he's sinning cut off from what obviously there's already a hint to something that is much higher and eternal and spiritual so keep that in mind when we get to it so if so what is the meaning of the statements made throughout the entire Torah and this is really the Dilemma if you Ober observe the torah's laws you will acquire such and such and you know what if you don't observe the Torah laws then such and such will happen to you right the curses so all of the benefits and difficulties that are promised are matters of the material world we have to admit that what we see in the Torah are seemingly allegedly material blessings or God forbid the opposite for example plenty versus Famine War versus peace sovereignty over other nations a humble National standing the settlement of the land or Exile success in one's Deeds or loss and all the other points mentioned in the Covenant now in order to resolve this it must be stated that all those statements are true meaning even the physical ones are true and guess what they've been realized in the past and will be realized in the future that what when we fulfill all all the Mitzvah in the Torah we will acquire all the benefits of this world and God forbid the other way around when we transgress the evils written the Torah will occur I just want to stop here a second I know the yonatan is on board I don't know what safer he sent me but it's an interesting it mentions here in that by the way so the the BR they begin with an alive right as we have in our verse our our verse right if in my statutes you walk and the the blessings end with the word in Chapter 26: 13 so that last letter is a tough so the BR start with Al and end with tough because it's all inclusive it's um as it says here I I'll just read it if all of clly Israel studied the Torah diligently and uphold its laws the most wonderful blessing Bings are in store for our people these blessings Encompass every type of bliss from alif to tough therefore the blessings begin with the AL of IM in verse three and end with the letter in in verse 13 they are rewarded to our nation measure for measure for fulfilling the Torah which includes all 22 letters Al to T now what we the reason I'm bringing this up is cuz we just said there are actually physical manifestations of the blessings and the curses so for an example we don't have to go through the curses but look at look at the blessings the generation of the Wilderness they were immersed in Torah study they had everything right from let's just say a Cloud of Glory protecting them and you know when they walked everything was made smooth for them they didn't even have to go to the bathroom they had they had man they ate the it was bread from heaven that was totally absorbed in their body and there was no pus there was nothing to waste there was no need to go to the bathroom they had water coming out of a rock their shoes did not they didn't have to change their socks or their shoes it says that their their shoes never wore out and their socks never split and they never had sores on their feet they didn't have to change their clothes it grew with them um everything was taken care of the weather was perfect right there was no heat waves there was no snow there was also Joshua's generation they engaged themselves in Torah study D and schlomo during their Generations people studyed Torah and there was a great amount of uh physical blessing and during the times of King right he enforced he actually enforced Nationwide study Torah and uh we know all the Miracles that happened then so there is this concept we've seen it with our own eyes we know that it's true um I'll just leave that for you for now okay so going back to the rambam we left off with this idea nevertheless those benefits are not the ultimate reward for the Mitzvah it's not about the physical reward nor or those evils the ultimate retribution there's something else waiting for you guys no I'm kidding uh anyway the ultimate retribution to be exacted from someone who transgresses all the Mitzvah but rather this is the answer and I we pretty much it up already but the resolution of the matter is as follows according to the rambam in h tra God gave us this Torah which is a tree of life and whoever fills what is written within it and comprehends it with a complete and proper knowledge will inherit the life of the world to come a person merits a portion of the world to come according to the magnitude of his deeds and the extent of his knowledge just going to play a very important role because we're going to do some comparative religion as in Christianity all you got to do is believe Deeds don't matter in fact if you rely on Deeds you're you're like a person who lacks faith in their their Idol and what about the the Muslims listen I'm going to go on everyone's case today all you have to say is you know there's only one God Allah and only one prophet and you're in like Flynn you got the habah and you know what you know what I mean I don't have to go into what what they promise you um but we have deeds and I I remember when I was learning with a bunch of my good friends from Washington State we thought of doing a bumper sticker I think it was when black lives matter came out we said you know all Deeds matter all Deeds matter they all make a difference okay so in addition I'm going to continue reading and then just a few more lines and we'll get back into the CLE car we are promised by the Torah that if we fulfill it with joy and good spirit and meditate on its wisdom at all times God will remove all the obstacles which prevent us from fulfilling it for example sickness War famine and the like similarly he will grant us all the good which will reinforce our performance of the Torah such as plenty peace and abundance of silver and gold in order that we would not be involved throughout all our days in matters required by the body but rather we will sit unburdened and thus have the opportunity to study wisdom and perform mitzvot in order that we Merit the life in the world to come okay so we finished the first of seven opinions the second opinion according to the clear do harav IB Ezra in and this is the language this is the language of thez according to what I think according to my opinion the Torah was actually given to everyone not just to one person not to a particular individual now this is a very strange statement when it comes to these ideas such as discussion of the world to come even one in a thousand will not understand it meaning it's hard to find even one in a thousand why because it's a very deep concept that is as far as the izra writes according to the clear VI now the clear is going to explain because it's very difficult it's extremely difficult to illustrate or describe what that reward is like and we discussed this already from if I'm not mistaken it was in Isaiah was the last Source I gave you um Isaiah 643 no I had ever seen so how can anybody describe it it's very few people can really understand it and why is that we are physical beings we have a brain but it's still matter they call it gray matter for a reason right hopefully it's gray so because we are physical it's very difficult to grasp or comprehend spiritual matters therefore the Torah itself hid this very deep concept from the masses who have limited comprehension this is the shortest of the Seven Answers but we will see other ideas that are all similar okay according to the third opinion that's the opinion re okay so the uh Raya actually quotes the Izar which was the previous statement and he leans in that direction and also the ramban leans to this idea and that is that all of these promises all of these designated promises that were given are called miraculous they're above nature it's right what does it mean above nature let me just say it outside if you do mitzvas it's going to rain in it's time you're going to have peace and once you stop learning Torin doing Mitzvah what's going to happen all of a sudden it's going to stop raining and all of a sudden the enemies are going to want to go through your land it's called un natural it's you're talking spiritual here Shane said this is not a natural thing that all of a sudden you're doing Mitzvah and it starts pouring rain and then it's going to stop raining when you stop doing the will of God therefore now just think about this he he made his argument now he's going to continue the same thought however our souls they will go back up to the very place in which they were hun from h e WN which is of God himself so to speak okay so our our souls are spiritual and it's part of God there's a Godly Soul within us he breathed into us our soul and it's going to go back into him so to speak at least when it comes to the soul that's considered very natural just imagine in this world which is physical and you're doing these spiritual things guess what it fluctuates the rain well that's already difficult to understand but when the soul which is purely spiritual of course it's going to go back to hasem this is not considered out of the ordinary and after we find within the Torah itself such a punishment called exision Kate we discussed this there's 36 serious um violations of in the Torah that are the person's soul is excised excised from what from returning back to where it was HED from it's the exision is the punishment for the sinful Spirit the sinful Soul again it's referring to those 36 that you didn't do chuva for if you did chuva there's ways to uh and you died of course there's ways to do TR there's ways to repent and be atoned for this whole idea of being punished with K means that you're cut off from the place from which you were HED from meaning God himself from here you learn the following that if you did not sin then what happens to the soul it's going to actually return to its lodging place to the place where it resides to the place from which it again the word like a tent which it was residing to begin with and I do have a very interesting uh verse here regarding Abraham look at number seven uh in Genesis 13:3 when it's speaking about Abram he went on his journeys from the south until beel the house of God until the place where his tent had been previously in Hebrew ad Adam from the very place that his residence his tent had been from the very beginning hits to this idea and we are in the like in the middle of the third reason just have to find my place where we are okay it's like right in the middle venir so the clear continues and he's quoting um Psalms 36 7 I'm sorry it's yeah I messed up it is 3734 not 1734 H it's hope to the Lord and keep his way he will exalt you to inherit the land but at the end but you will witness the destruction of the wicked this is also a hint to the world to come he will exalt you to inherit the land so this is in Hebrew he's going to raise you up so high we're talking about our soul lits what kind of land is there that lasts for eternity what kind of inheritance inherit a land forever come on it's talking about erim in fact in here here in Israel many of the cemeteries that's what they call them erim they have the name that that's gen generic name but there are cemeteries called ER we that's the reference to the L it's the land of the living it's so funny of course it's the land of that's where life begins of course it's the land of the living so God will exalt you to inherit the land so that is the last thing well it's not the last thing that mentions but he says what does that verse mean from the very fact that there is such a punishment as being cut off from the place you were heed from and not going back to the real life that is you understand that there is reward and of course punishment for the soul in this case we're talking about reward that God would raise you up would exalt you to inherit the land of the living which of course is the afterlife that you will Ascend your soul will Ascend to the very place from which it was H from which you understand from there and he says it's you must conclude it's necessary to understand that there's a cutting off of the soul of the evil people from that very place and that's what it means by K okay the fourth opinion in the clear Le in those days previous to our century and we're talking about a long time ago a majority of the world were in a state of denial that Hashem had Providence had interaction in the world now you can go back way back even to the time of you know Enoch and whatnot that uh basically what happened was they knew that Adam was created by God they knew that God was cre the creator of the world they even believed in God but they thought they were so small and God was so big that there was no way to really interact with him and they created this concept of intermediaries and that was maybe or maybe not so healthy but what ended up happening was they ended up serving these intermediaries I mean there is a truth that there are intermediaries question is do you serve them or do you serve only the master so that that's where Ida worship began through these misconstrued ideas of intermediaries but they basically said God has he's too big and he really doesn't get involved in this world and perhaps many other religions or or philosophies have kept this idea alive and the clear is explaining according to this opinion how you they basically would make this POS this this claim that I'm about to say that everything that happens in this world it's all happening based on fate or natural forces I think they call it uh the uh theory of evolution according to Darwin and this is written 400 years ago this is like he's talking about even before that thousands of years ago that people believed in what we call fate or the the survival of the fittest however you want we're going to call it Natural Forces they believed in natural forces and not in God's Will and and God knows this because he created us human beings that you have people with bad bad philosophies spreading them in this world so I God I am going to certify I'm going to prove that I'm in charge that all these promises will come true and your own eyes will see we gave a whole list there was some really golden times you know Golden Ages in in Jewish history and everyone will see all eyes can see that all who do the will of Hashem um Hashem will then provide positive and we will receive goodness that Hashem provides okay and by the way one of the biggest proofs that the je the Jews Reed the Torah and these promises and the curses are true is because we live those curses I I don't know if you follow what I'm saying we have been in exile for 2,000 years that's not a proof that there is no God that's the biggest proof that there is a God because he says you are Eternal and you will always exist even though and I'm going to just say over here when he says I will never um um I will never reject you we saw that verse and then somewhere else God actually says I will reject you but that's only if you don't listen and you don't learn and through our history we have been re you know see seemingly rejected and at the same time we're still here God says I will not reject you to totally destroy you right so through our Exile from the land that would be a proof as long as we still exist that these curses are true and not only that the promise is all that we would come back and ever since we did start trickling back we're still trickling back by the way we're we're not all here when I say all majority of us are not here uh the land has reacted in such a magnificent and miraculous way I won't have to describe you can look on any you know History Channel of the last you know 250 years what has happened uh to ER Israel since uh the alah first Aliah second Aliah several alos have happened I mean even back for the Raman that was in the 1200s but certainly in the 1700 and the 1800s the ulous Rebirth of the land of Israel okay so what happens the if if the reward would have been written in the Torah strictly as a spiritual reward never mentioned any physical reward only spiritual reward you know what would have happened then people would remain deniers in the Torah you know anybody that wants to deny or lie all you have to do is get rid of the witnesses remove the testimony remove the proofs and I'm not going to mention like the the court cases they're going now especially in New York with an ex-president I'm not going to mention any of those details of course but if you want to get rid of proof just get rid of the witnesses don't allow them to testify you know what I'm saying okay anyway one of the Prime opinions here is the ran we're going to see soon as well as the K and I actually brought down I think it's in the back of your your Hebrew sheets there's a few different parts of the Keri but I will mention them here quickly so the kuseri is a king a non-jewish king who has a I'm going to call it a spiritual or a moral dilemma he believes in one God he believes that Deeds matter but he doesn't know which Deeds there's a lot of religions to choose from which one and he basically interviews uh Greek philosopher Christian Islam he wants to know and finally the last person he expects to hear anything from so Mo majority of the book is his conversation with the rabbi it's it's actually written by the rabbi it had this conversation the end of the story basically is not only does the king convert but his whole nation converts um some say it's just a story some but some say it's true it's irrelevant we have the book in front of us and paragraph 104 the kuseri said meaning the king said to the rabbi I see that the guarantees of an afterlife made by other religions are richer and Bountiful than yours I mean we already described what Christianity all you have to do is believe Muslim right all you have to do is say and I'll just quote this phrase there is no God other than Allah and Muhammad is his prophet and you're in like Flynn that's it like it doesn't matter what your Deeds are at all so you get 70 goats anyway paragraph 5 105 the rabbi said however all their reward purportedly come to fruition only after death there is no real description in Christianity or in Islam and I guarantee you that's why the Jews hold 20% of the Nobel Peace prizes and are extremely creative in the field of medicine and the field of Law and all kinds of research research in order to make this world a better place because we believe that this is the only thing that really matters right now I know the world comes is coming it's right means it's coming but where am I now my all Deeds matter all Deeds matter but anyway so right now they're only thinking about what's going to come after death and there's really no benefit during one's lifetime nor is there any indication in the this lifetime of a future reward okay so the kuzari then adds in I best I I when I read it's like in um um in agreement with the rabbi and I have never seen any believer in these other rewards wishing I'm I have a feeling that maybe uh the extremist of the Islamic faith the ones who are man maniacally suicidal may not agree with this but I'm I'm I'm sure that 99% of Islam does agree with this idea that um that even though they're waiting 70 goats nevertheless I'll read again and I have never seen any believer in these other rewards wishing that the arrival of these rewards would come sooner if one of these people had the ability to delay these rewards for a thousand years so that he could extend his sojourn among the living he would do so despite the burdens and miseries of this world okay so now let's go back into the clear I hope I'm I'm correct about that I hope it's only 1% of maniacal uh Islamic jihadists um I hope that the rest of the Islamic world does not succumb to that uh silk sickness okay so the kar had just mentioned V this is basically the root of the book The kuzari and he mentions it's in chapters or paragraphs 104 to 106 and I'm going to skip the Hebrew because I already read to you the English and um basically we are and two lines up from the bottom of that paragraph basically this is the truthful answer let me just get this uh other translation now this answer which he just gave is the truthful answer um and it's actually the best explanation and um what the Torah is actually promising is something what a person really wants everyone knows you want a good life in this world and a good life in the world to come it's not about suffering in order to get to the world to come which I have to tell you it's my only problem with Jordan Peters I don't know if you're hearing this um but brashem he has grown a lot I mean I've witnessed what he's grown and who am I to say that about him but there is one little issue and that he still believes in a suffering God and listen we do know that God suffers but God does not want to suffer God wants to be out of galut and when we leave galut he will leave with us he went down with us and he will go up with us but it's Jordan Peterson is suffering because he believes in a suffering God in other words all other religions are have man-made gods they created a God in their image we are created in God's image that's what Judaism teaches the world and God is Holy and pure and for sure he's a Zionist and joyful okay but when we're in gullis he feels our pain but that's not the state that we should be in nor that he should be in but as a Christian for some reason they believe in a you know a suffering God and uh they believe that they're created in his In His Image and therefore they were created to suffer let's just push that idea away and hopefully Jordan pet Peterson will also throw that suffering uh God away and he will then no longer suffer as well that's my blessing to you Jordan you don't deserve the suffering you've helped so many people and I pray for your health spiritually and physically okay the fifth opinion is the following that before we we know we were Idol worshippers while we were in Egypt so before the Torah was given people worshiped idols I might have mentioned already about the Mexican hat dance or maybe it was like a rain dance by the Indians but basically much of the service of people who worship idols is surrounding doing something that would Grant success to a particular you know whether it was the grains or whatever it is um that you were hoping to receive a blessing for and if it was the rains was for the grains be you would hope that the that they your deity your God would bring Reigns in its proper time and all kinds of other physical successes tah but when God gave us the and he prevented us he he made it prohibited to continue doing this idol worship it required them for then for him to to promise us something that by guarding the Torah by observing the Torah that we would end up with the same promises that we thought we were getting from the fake Gods we're going to get from the real God but you know he's going to fill their place so to speak with the promises but for the very fact that we were no longer serving these idols we might lose out so in the physical world you have to really worry about this but the world to come also doesn't according to the cleard doesn't really require promises because you still have rituals and even though we do these rituals God wanted to make a disconnect not necessarily through the risk rituals will you uh automatically get those promises and that is at least according to the r in the and according to the the r in the I would say that would probably be one of the most difficult paragraphs to explain but that's how it reads now the last two I think are quite important the sixth opinion sh after the very fact that we already read the verse I will walk in your midst and God already said in the previous verse um I'm going to place my presence amongst you what is that I'm sorry think about the God says I'm going to put my temple in your presence I'm going to put my presence in your amongst you he's saying there's this connection debuk means an intimate connection between God and Israel even in this world where the is we are physical beings but we have a soul or are we a soul with a physical shell I'd rather go with the second but it uses this concept that we are both physical and and spiritual and they're entangled they're meshed right they're they're entangled together and if that's true on the physical level meaning in a physical world we're going to experience theem imagine after we die our soul is disconnected entirely from the physical and we're purely spiritual of course we're going to connect with the spiritual it's a cal Homer logic dictates that once you remove the soul from the body of course it's going to cling back to the the Hashem where we came from okay guys you got to be sitting down for this all the promises that the fake religions M forgeries what they claim you're going to get after death our Torah tells us you're going to get it now in this world as well they don't they only claim it's to the world to come our Torah promises Us in this world and we have prophecy now the truth is we don't exactly have the level of Prophecy that we used to have there are many levels of Prophecy by the way there's like an English a sear a Visionary right h a Seer that's exactly the word um there's differentes Bas there's many levels of Prophecy but the highest level of Prophecy that there's the Tanaka is written on that we don't have but we still have the fruition it's still coming about as we as we look around the world so that's an amazing thing that we have they don't have that Z this is the answer this is the opinion that was brought down also to the rabbi in the book called The Keri at the end of the first uh chapter K and now I just want to show you actually you don't have it I have it in the in the so I'm going to read it to you real quickly he mentions about the whole idea and he says for this reason all of the torah's assurances of blessings in compensation for observing the Commandments are in physical matters for when these blessings are perceived openly by the senses as a result of keeping God's Commandments it is confirmed in the minds of people this fundamental conviction that the body is dependent upon the soul but the soul is not dependent on the body that's one idea but on the other hand the Torah would actually assume sorry assure the Jewish people only spiritual reward that the soul will attain after its separation from the body following the body's death people might be in doubt about the matter whether the soul is dependent upon the body or ver vice versa therefore what does the Torah do it chooses this path of spelling out physical rewards so that it would be clearly obvious to them that there are that their Affairs are not directed according to the Natural order again it's above nature but rather they have something that is greater than nature namely a soul which is not subject to the ordinary laws of nature by the very fact that God created in this world the blessings and the curses shows us there's something spiritual there's something above nature that is not reactionary but causing the reaction and I think that's a very fundamental idea um just one of the side notes here if you want to know he says see the ramban on Exodus chapter chter 6:3 also Leviticus the ramban on Leviticus 18:29 for an alternative explanation of why the Torah does not describe the reward of the souls in the world to come and for an expanded discussion see the the number one um it's called Insight the world to comes absence from the Torah there's a whole essay why is the reward in the world to come absent from the Torah okay next we're now in where are [Applause] we we're now in number seven okay this is very important what it's about to say all the promises that are mentioned in the Torah are not on individual level it's on the nation in other words as a community because the world is always judged according to the majority therefore the promise of rain and a plenty of grains and having peace anything like that will be for all Jews together but but when it comes to individual judgment in the world to come for eternity that's not included in the uh the nation's judgment but rather each individual will be judged he will be judged she will be judged according to his or her actions Deeds all Deeds matter just an example the particular Mitzvah of honoring your parents and the sending away the mother bird if you want to look real quickly I have them listed in number 14 and 15 right Deuteronomy 5 5:16 honor your father and mother as the Lord your God commanded you in order that your days will be lengthened by the way it is in singular and down below sh away the motherb bird and you may take the young for yourself in order it should be good for you again it's also in singular we're going to see this shortly why it makes a difference so this is talking to each Jew Kim and the the rambam I'm sorry and the ramban in pares AEV specifically on the verse um 11113 in in um in Deuteronomy and this I want to show you because I have the ramban I don't have it for you but I have it for me to read I know I have it here somewhere it's very important what he says and I might actually have it in the English for you I do have it in the English for you somewhere look at number 16 in fact maybe I'll read this you know what I'll read [Applause] mine so there's two paragraphs in the shma believe it or not one is singular and one is plural so it says so in Deuteronomy it's plural it's with all your heart with your is plural so the the the the the ramban says but doesn't scripture already say in chapter I think it's 6 verse 5 doesn't it say with all your soul I'm sorry with all your heart with all your soul but it's singular so the so the Raman is going to say you're right it's not a problem the above passage is written in singular and it's an admonition it's to to the individual but our passage in in Deuteronomy uh 11:13 is plural it's an admonition to the community it's the same words right you have to serve God with all your heart and with all your soul but one is to the individual and one is to the community there's you're you're being judged differently so an explanation of the matter is that there's a distinction between the individual's righteousness and the community's righteousness and is as follows God blessed be he does not perform clear Miracles described in this chapter continually to provide r rain in the land at all times the early and the late Reigns and to add to the grain the wine the oil and to multiply also the grass of the field and the cattle in the case of punishment to restrain the heavens that they dry up except in response to the behavior of the majority of the nation but in so far as individuals go if he is righteous he will live long on account of his own Merit and if he is wicked he will die on account of his own sin but open Miracles will not necessarily be performed be performed for him now there is a little bit of a note here and I'll just say that the ramban earlier on says that the entire country for an entire country to constantly enjoy rain at the optimum time so that its crops Prosper year after year without exception and W for its allegiance to the Commandments or to constantly suffer drought so that its crops fail year after year without exception as a result of its neglect of The Commandments is an open display of divine reward or punishment whose miraculousness cannot fail to be recognized by everyone such an open Miracle the Raman explains here is performed o performed only on the national level and is dependent on the behavior of the majority of the people so the the ramban continues now God says here that they the community or majority of the nation if they perform all the Commandments out of complete love he will perform all these miracles for the good and he says further that if they worship strange Gods he will perform for them a sign for bad and you should know that open miracles for told In this passage whether for good or for bad are performed only for the completely righteous who serve God with all their hearts or souls or be completely Wicked and serve idols and he ends with these words average people however who serve God but not with their whole hearts and souls or who are wicked but not to the extent that they worship idols are dealt with according to the natural law The Way of the World the Natural Way of the World whether for good or for bad in accordance with the way of their deeds I just want to mention the last comment here our particular elucidation of the ramban has followed the understanding of the majority of commentators the mrai however appears to have understood the ramban to be saying that the purpose of the two separate admonitions remember one was for individuals one was for the nation is that the Torah is that had the Torah written only the admonition for the community what would I have thought I would have thought that the miraculous Rewards or punishments mentioned in our passage can never ever befall the individual the the to therefore states that the ad an admonition for the individual is to teach that even an individual can be subject to such miraculous reward and Punishment if and only if you arise to the extreme level of either serving God out of complete love or God forbid you descend to the extreme level of worshiping Idols now the last paragraph in the clear is the next page correct yeah the last paragraph now these seven opinions these seven different ways of explaining they were all an attempt to uproot to uproot those who were trying to uproot the Torah in other words to dismiss the complaints made by those who we're trying to uproot our Torah but we ourselves saw we see it through the Torah we see it through history how Hashem we saw with our own eyes how much love God had for Abraham Isaac and Jacob V do you think that the the success of of Abraham Isaac and Jacob was just in this world that was the whole point just so they could have what do you know Nimrod was the king of the world and he had all the golden riches and what did Aram have you know a few tents and moved around like a nomad after serving God that's all he ended up with right Not only was he a nomad but he went from one tent to another migoo from one nation to another so to we have no idea what kind of because it's not written what kind of reward they got what whatever reward was given to their children that's the end of the reward what kind of profit and benefit would be there to the Masters you know Abraham Isaac and Jacob after their death that their kids inherited this piece of land and they end up dying they're they're out of this world and they they got nothing for all their efforts even for the Jewish people who do end up inheriting this piece of land what kind of prophet in this physical world even if there would be peace what kind of prophet is that I'll call just think about all the kings of the world I mean look at how rich and prosperous the the the monarchy is in England I think they're like they not I don't know what where on the list of you know uh the richest people in the world but they're they're up there I'm sure they own a lot of stuff you know a lot of stuff um what would you know to compare Abraham and Abra Le a little bit I mean you're going to compare us to that even to Nimrod and all the kings you know what the truth is you know the only reward they're going to get is the great goodness that is hidden for the righteous which is AOS this is what we the the children of Abraham Isaac and Jacob we're going to just get like them we're going to get a portion that is eternity uman as the CLE as the cleard answers at the end it's all one Torah everybody's in this together and what Abraham Isaac and Jacob got was really unbelievable you cannot me it's l logical you cannot compare what these Kings got and while we suffered and we were like gim we were Wanderers um Hashem promised them really ER the the land of of life and I just want to read in English the last few State statements the answer the ultimate answer that the klear gives it's in number 17 only that a great hidden goodness that reward is going to come to the righteous which is their portion and The Inheritance that is shared with our Patriarchs Abraham Isaac and Jacob cu you cannot compare what they got with Nimrod and all them and all their descendants since there is only one Torah one law one Torah one instruction manual and batem we will all be following it till the end of our days and will only strengthen and grow in spirituality and what else can I say I think this was a fundamental idea now somebody brought up to me and asked me a question I'm just going to throw the answer out because we're still live and he wanted to know he's reading these um these books that are external and they describe different ideas about angels and fallen angels and the emesis there's no such thing as any angels that have free will or that are rebellious bottom line his question to me was what were all the Simon during the second temple period when I say Simon in the signs when Shimon sadik was let's say in the towards the beginning of the second temple period when he as a Coen would reach in and you had two goats one was going to go to Hashem and one was going to go to aaz one was going to remember we spoke about this last week um to the cliffs to be thrown off so shimik he was part of the Ana the earlier U great assembly uh like a St hedrin so it was a mixture between sages and Prophets he was the co gutle and when he was alive all of the all of the um whenever he reached his right hand in it was always to the one to Hashem and the one on the left hand the goat was to like lots the lot always went to Azazel okay so that's one on the left after he died it moves every other year who knew what it was by luck it was the right or the left but the last generation by sadak coin the last and he he he already knew we already knew 40 years before the destruction of the second temple and every year during those 40 years when he put his hands into the lot the lot it was always his left hand that went to hasem and the right hand that went to zazel and this was what I would call miraculous it was a sign from hasem that you better do Chua the end is near right you hear those uh crazy people walking around the street saying n you know the the end is near well 40 years before this person was trying to somehow connect the JC man to this 40-year uh since he died I it's just really crazy talk if you ask me but anyway this is the answer he was asking me for an answer why did all this happen just like this happens when the negative things happen that's not the tless it's not the goal it's God's way of letting his loving children know that they are on the wrong path that they should do chuva and things will improve okay this is the beauty of yish kite of our relation with God his State of Mind is not to punish us right he's a loving father and as a loving father who sees his child not doing the right thing he has to speak to him he has to get this message across and the message is what we're going to call the curses right you need to know this is what you're doing wrong in order to improve it if nobody tells you you're doing something wrong you ain't going to improve it that's why I I promote marriage you want to you want the the uh this the curriculum for spiritual growth get a partner I'm going to tell you right now that when you wake up every day as a single person you are God's gift to Mankind and there's nothing you need to improve but when you married and you wake up and you know that you're not perfect cuz the other person tells you so so then you have what to work on as long as you're by yourself you're in your own head and we we we're all in a state of denial to some extent and BR that some of us are quite Advanced spiritually and growth-wise and we're open to says in per you should love rebuke you should love rebuke so for those you're on a spiritual journey part of your spiritual journey is to look pray find your your soulmate and only through loving to like God is your right okay it happen when you're a kid and your parents hopefully you were not in a dysfunctional family hopefully hopefully right and at least we can learn how to be a functional parents for our kids that's the goal but to to be married is the first step towards tikun hamidos trust me on this without finding your partner it's almost impossible and as the villon says the purpose of this world is to fix our character all Deeds matter I'll end with that and I want to wish everybody I really want to wish everybody a great week a good shabas coming up we're and we have sh coming up and for those who are interested who are in Jerusalem Yan is having a sh program yes we're having cheesecake and for those who are having fic meal we'll have something par but everyone should have a great cabal and um by accepting the Torah that's already the first step in spiritual growth and we hope to see you next week and have a great life [Music] oh