Ki Savo - Choosing Torah

You're listening to the weekly para podcast with Ari Goldwag recorded with never running assistance in Israel at the 785 2025. This week's part is partiso and two shabases before every year we read the we also do it two shabases before time of din. We're coming into a time of judgment and it's a time of re-evaluation recognition of what happens when we do what's wrong and what happens when we do what's right. When we do what's right, we get all the blessings in the world. When we do what's wrong, heaven forbid, the result is the opposite. And right after the Torah gives us all of the negative repercussions for not following Hashem's will, for losing our relationship with him. So the Torah finishes off and says, "These are the words of the covenant that God commanded Moses to create this covenant with the children of Israel in the land of Moab. They're about to enter the land of Israel besides for the covenant that Hashem made with them at Hari at Mount Si." Okay. So we have at the beginning of the 40 years we have a covenant Israel enters in at Hari. We receive the Tyra. We have a we make a deal with God an everlasting deal. We become Hashem's bride. And as we're about to enter into the land of Israel, there's another call it reassessment or call it recommmitment to our relationship with Hashem. a new covenant is formed and we enter into Israel. And so these two points in time are very much connected and we're going to learn together a medish which really goes on the next p. The next says I'll read it for you. This is in chapter 29:1 Israel Moshe calls to the children of Israel all of the children of Israel and he says to them you saw all that Hashem did in front of your very eyes in the land of Egypt. Now let's remember we had a whole generation that passed away but anyone who was under 20 40 years later was still alive. Anyone who was under 20 at the time of Hamagim was still alive. So, so you have here people many of whom had seen the exodus from Egypt. They had seen all the miracles. They had seen you saw everything that was done to them. Okay? So, there's a connection again between the past 40 years before and the current moment about to step into Israel. Don't forget what happened in the past. You saw incredible miracles with your own eyes. The signs and the wonders, the great signs and wonders. This is very interesting. We're going to try to understand this. Listen carefully. Hashem did not give you a heart to understand. Eyes to see and ears to hear until today. Something happened on this day. >> Something unfolds in the Jewish people's history right as they're about to enter the land of Israel. A new understanding, a new wisdom came into their heart this very day. Okay, I'm not going to keep reading. Hashem accompanied us, pushed us along the path for 40 years in the wilderness. Now we had a covenant at Sai. We received the Tyra at Hari and there's a renewal of that covenant as we're entering into we're again going to receive the Tyra Menu is is giving us a recap of the Mishna. We're hearing it again. Excuse me. says the medish. This is what the PK means in Mish Mishel. King Solomon says in the second chapter, the very first my son, my beloved son, excuse me, if you will take my words and you will hide, you will incorporate into yourself, hide inside of yourself, so to speak, not literally hide, but bring into the mitzvos into self. Now the medish points out that the word there's a funny word in this puzz because at the end of the verse says if you will do this usually it follows up and says then something will happen but it doesn't. It just says, "My son, if you will learn the Torah, if you will keep the mitzvah, he could have said could have instructed us, my son, learn the Torah, keep the mitzvah." But he doesn't say it that way. He says, "If you will." So M wants to understand why does he say if? What's this? What is it dependent on? What's the what's the here? What's the condition? Why is it supposed to say if you will take my words? says in the name of God says the people of Israel might say don't think Hashem says to this is what the means to say there's a condition in receiving the Torah you got to have the right condition in the way that you approach receiving the Tyra don't think that the Tyra is something that Hashem is ku desperate to get rid of like an old maid, a woman, her father has been waiting for her to get married for decades. She's 50 years old already. Whoever whoever will come and marry her, I I wish someone would come and marry her. The father says, don't don't think that the is something that Hashem is desperate to get rid of and whoever will come and and take it, he's like, okay, just take it. There's there's a condition for receiving the Torah. There's a condition for taking my words, Hashem says. And that condition is if you have the merit. And what the merit means is if you have the proper approach to the Tyra and you understand that it's something that's precious. It's not an old maid. The Tyra, it's not something Hashem is desperate to get rid of. It's something that everybody wants. Everybody's trying to grab it. You gotta You gotta come first, like they say in in Israel. Run. Hurry. Hurry. Hurry to the store and get it before the before the supplies are gone while supplies last. If you have the the merit, which means the right attitude about the Tyra, how important it is, how how desired it is, then you'll receive the The angels of of the ministering angels of Hashem, they wanted the Tyra comes up to to to Shim to heaven and he wants to grab the Tyra, bring it down to the earth. And the the angel's like, "Hey, what's going on here? What is this yudisha? What is this human being trying to do to take the tire, bring down this spiritual treasure down to earth?" They didn't want to let it go. They wanted it. Hashem says, "But I didn't let them have it." Everybody wanted It's a young girl, a young maiden, a beautiful young maiden. The Tyra is Everybody's trying to get grab her hand in marriage. The Tyra is is is something that it's so precious and so desired. Everyone is trying to get it. All the malim are trying to hold on to it, not let it go. Hashem said, "It's not for the for you." Which is interesting. thing the measure takes us out of context. It's actually talking about the kings of the nations who were in the land of Israel when we came in. And that could apply back 3,300 years ago. It could apply right now. They they scattered when the Jewish people came in. They scattered. They were afraid. They saw the power of the Jewish people which is really the power of Hashem manifesting in this world. But the measure understands it to mean that the malice, the angels of of the hosts of Hashem, they were scattered. They were moved out of the way. They were trying desperately to to hold on just like the Arabs are trying desperately to hold on to the land of Israel because they know what it means. They know this is the place of the chosen ones of God. So they're trying to hold on to it desperately and and Amra has to kick them out and and bop them to the side and say, "This is our land. And this is our it's precious because it's our spiritual heritage. And the is the same the were trying to hold on to it not allow it to be brought down to earth and comes in and moves them out of the way. Shoves them aside and grabs the is something so precious, so desirable. Everybody wants it. Everybody wants it. Everyone wants the land of Israel. Same thing. It's so precious, so valuable, so powerful. That's Don't think you can just take the Tyra. Don't think you could just take the word of Hashem and just do the mitzvah. It's something that you got to realize there's a condition for it in if you will take it. It's conditional. What does it depend on? It depends on your recognition of how important it is, how valuable it is, how spiritual it is, what an impact it will have on your life. The says which means that Hashem takes the precious thing of his house, his precious daughter, which is the he gives it out as spoils. What does it mean? The angel said, "What are you doing? this this amazing thing, this pleasurable thing, the Tyra, you're you're giving it away. You're taking away from the spiritual realm and you're giving it down to the physical realm. They complained. Got to realize this is it. This is it. When you learn the Tyra, when you do the mitzvah, when you have a relationship with this is this is the real deal. This is the this is the treasure. That's what it means. It means if you have the merit, if you have that recognition of how powerful the Tyra is, so then the then you can take the end of the P says it's the P. I believe it's the Puss and Mish. Yes. My You're supposed to internalize. You're supposed to hide within you the Tyra. That means in a certain sense there's a there's a a a there's a there's a modesty that's needed when you when you keep the when you do a mitzvah, you do someone a favor, you don't need to announce it. You learn you don't need to announce it. You listen to a para podcast share the word but you don't need to announce it. It's it should be saf it should be hidden. It's something that you that you that the word safhone means piled up. It's saf means to the word saf means to to float. So you have things piling one on top of the other. the the mitzvah the the when we fulfill the Tyra when we develop our relationship with it piles up it adds up it gets it it it it's something that gets set aside in a treasure house and Hashem sets aside corresponding to that the reward in the world to come says how great is the good that you have set aside for those who fear you. Okay. So, so concept-wise, what do we have here? We have value the Tyra also value it in such a way because real spiritual things, right? The all the spiritual things that exist in the world are the opposite of the physical. In the physical realm, I want grandeur. I want greatness. My ego says, "Fill me up. Let me give sodak." So, they'll write my name on a building. Okay. It's good. It's good to do it even for the wrong reasons, right? Is needs the money for the buildings. We need people who are wealthy to give that money. But ideally, give the money and don't write your name on the building. I just heard from Ra. He said that he said uh that you see that covet honor is more powerful is is has a greater value than money, right? Because a person gives up their money in order to have the covet. the honor of having the name on the building, right? So, you see that honor is is is of greater value. And of course, we should all seek if we're going to seek honor, so we should seek honor for doing mitzvah. That's, you know, we don't shouldn't seek honor for things that are inconsequential. But ideally, we should not be seeking honor. Ideally, we should be seeking Hashem's honor. Doing it for the glory of hemishma. That's the highest level. So, so we're looking at a spiritual acquisition here. It's something that when we do it right, so it gets stored away for the future. It gets stored away. And then the sky is waiting for us in the future. You might not see it here. The measure says another concept, another explanation. All right. If you will take my words, the word, which means if which seems out of place here, we can say that the means to say like this, you are my son. Hashem is saying, you want to be a treasured child of mine. I love all my children, but you want to be a treasured special child of mine. Take my word. Develop your relationship with me. see what it means to have a real relationship with. That's what we're after. So, you will be my treasured son if you take my words and if you hide the mitzvah inside of you, you fill yourself up with it and nobody knows about it. says, "What is this comparable to?" In the olden days, person could be a prince, not be recognizable. They didn't have newspapers and social media in those times. We didn't know what the prince looked like. You could live in a you can live in a kingdom and not know what the the king looks like for that matter. But usually the king went through the kingdom and was seen. But the prince wants to be recognized. He said, "Father, I want I want to go out. I want people to know that I'm your son. So give me some kind of signs, some kind of uh indication people can know that I'm your son. So his father says to him, you want everyone to know that you're my son. Wear my my purple robes, my royal robes, and take my crown and put it on your head. If you do that, no one else is allowed to wear a royal robes in the times of of royalty. So they had the special purple that they made from the mirrunculus snail, the the purple dye and the the royal blue dye. Royal purple, royal blue. And it was illegal, which is why we we lost the knowledge of what is. it was illegal for anyone else to use that dye and to to dye garments with the purples and the blues. So what happens? So only one person is allowed to wear those colors and that's the king. So if the prince wants everyone to know that he's the prince, just put on the guil garments, put on the royal crown. What are those two items? You want people to know that you are my children, that you are godly, that you represent me in the world. Here's what you need to do. You get two things. Take my words. Learn the Tyra and take the mitzvah and fill yourself up with the mitzvah. Fill yourself up with the commandments. The more you do that, the more of a relationship you have with me. The more that you fill yourself up with that, the more you know, the more the more you're interested in a relationship with me, the more it's it becomes see you see the royal garments on a person who is learning the Tyra on a person who is seeking to do the mitzvah of Hashem. Beautiful idea. Okay. So, it's when is it clear that you are my son? Not just you are my beloved son. with you. When is it clear that you are Hashem's child, that you are the prince? When you're learning the Tyra, when what's coming out of your mouth is all about godliness, when the when the mitzvah adorning you, when you have that crown, when you have the beautiful purple garment, you're wearing your tits, everyone sees the titus. This is this is the sign that shows that I am the prince. Now I want to share with you before actually I read further in the mish I want to share with you something amazing because really like it's it's like how do I how do I get this value? We said that in the first we said what's the what's the prerequisite in you got to there's a condition to be able to take the Tyra to to to receive the Tyra to learn the Tyra to do the mitzvah there's a condition what's the condition that you have this you have this you recognize the power of it it's a spiritual thing the angels didn't want to let go of it there's a rashi here on these which when I when I tripped over it I I understood the medush And it says, as we quoted earlier, the Jewish people had received the Tyra 40 years before. They had experienced incredible things. We're going to talk about it shortly in the med and and they were entering in renewing the covenant with today. There was something that they didn't get until now. What was new today that they got? So Rashi says here I heard on that day there had been a a an interesting circumstance occurred. The children of Ley got a gift from Moshe. Moshe wrote for them a safer Torah, a special safer just for the children of Ley. because he says that he gave the Torah to the kohan to the priests, the children of Ley. So I don't know what it looked like exactly. Maybe there was some kind of for I don't know exactly but they got it. There was some kind of ceremony. The children of labor received the Jewish people got upset. They said, "Maenu, you're giving only the children of Ley, your tribesmen. You're giving them the Tyra. We were there at Hari. We received the Tyra, too. We were in that covenant. Why are you giving it only to them?" You're giving them the power over the Jewish people complained and they said, "You're giving the Tyra to the to the Levites. Tomorrow they're going to say that the Tyra was only given to them and not to us. That's not right. It's not fair. We want you to give us a safer Tyra. We wanted to be clear that the Tyra is not just for the Levites, not just for the con, not just for an elite. The Tyra is for the entire Jewish people. We want it too. Give it to us too. They demanded was so excited. He said yes. Yes. When when they said we want the two says, now you got it. Now you got it. Now I see, says, "Now I see that you guys are interested in being connected to Hashem." Okay. A child walking along in the midbar. Everything is given to them on a silver platter. Everything is good. But who says you appreciate it? Who says you're interested in it? Do you really? You've never had seen anything else. Maybe you vaguely remember what happened in Egypt. Now says, "I see that you actually care about this. You became this is the day. This is the big day. You didn't get it until today and now you got it. Let's go back to the when was in the in the wilderness." So the the cloud of glory was walking in front of them. fire were coming up. Unbelievable miracles. You want to know the power of the Jewish people? Listen to this. It's their hashem. For that fire was shooting out from from the holy of holies from between the staves of the of the aron of the of the ark. And the the fire would go out and burn all of the snakes and scorpions and everything that would stand in their way. The nations of the world saw this incredible miracle that was going on and they said these these are gods lowerase G. These Jews are are powerful. They're they're coming in with with with fire with fireballs, right? They're they're coming through here. They're destroying with beepers and and airplanes and destructive forces. You know where the power comes from? That we have firepower. What's the real firepower of the Jewish people? What's the what's the mania? What's the engine that runs the airplanes of Tahal? What's the power of it? It's it's the Tyra. It's so we received at Sai, right? It's from between the B. The fire comes out from between the staves of the ark. What's inside of the ark is the Tyra. That's the fire. That's the power. It's our commitment to it's the benyra that are sitting and learning defying army orders because we the army won't work without the fire of the imbuing them with that power. That's the if you will take the words of the Tyra that's the power of the Tyra. It gives you the power over your enemies, over all of the that which would try to stop you and and and hurt you. So that's why Mush is giving us this whole we read this at the beginning. Mh is giving us a whole speech over here. This is the day that you become a nation. But what did they see? We saw all the miracles that Hashem did for you in Egypt. You saw it. What was the power of it? Where did the power come from that all of those miracles happened? The incredible miracles that your eyes saw, where did it come from? The power came from the fact that you're about to receive the Tyra. The the it actually worked retroactively. The fact that they receive they receive the Torah gives them power to to to have miraculous p uh miraculous dominion. That's the word I'm looking for. Dominion over their enemies. Masus means miracles, but it also means to squash. The the the makos were squashing the Egyptians. What are the signs show? The the bodies of the Egyptians were left with all kinds of scars from the from the excuse me from the blood and the and the frogs and the lice. The Egyptians were fooled, right? There was psychological damage and there was physical damage to them. But again, where did the power come from? Where did the power come from? And Mosha Rabenu was saying this to them as they're about to enter into the land of Israel. You want to know what gives you the power to overcome and to have success against your enemies in the land of Israel. It's the the power is the power of the Tyra. It's the Tyra that gives you the power. It's the Tyra that that from there the fire shoots out. It's the the Benet are sitting and learning. It's us who we are studying together these amazing words of a medish. This is it. This is it. This is the thing you got to we so we have here really three foundational concepts. Number one, in order to approach the Tyra, you have to approach it with a with it's conditional. You have to get that in order to get the Tyra, you got to appreciate the Tyra. You have to appreciate the want. The want it is to want it. And the second point is that when you have the Tyra, it becomes clear that you are a child of Hashem. You are a prince. It changes you. It changes the everyone can see it on you. Your face is shining. You're a prince. You look different. You're a different human being. You're not so focused on yourself. You're not so egotistical. You're you've changed. You've become you care about others. You love other people just like a who loves us. You're forgiving. You're tolerant of others. And then the last point is that those who have the Torah have the power. They have the power. Nothing gets in our way cuz is in our lives. The power of being a prince. Think about a prince. Wherever he goes, he has that sign on his on his forehead. He has the crown on his head. Everyone makes way. Make way for the prince. Whatever he wants. Yes, your majesty. What would you like? How can I serve you, your majesty? The light of the king is shining on the face, on the crown of his head, on the on the purple garment that he enclosed himself in. Each and every one of us has that ability to grab on to the Tyra to recognize the power of the Torah to have that. I want to bless you. I ask you to bless me should help us that we should see and understand the incredible merit the incredible opportunity that we have to learn the incredible chance that we have to have a relationship with and draw him into our lives to recognize every moment that we are princes that Hashem is the king and Hashem should help us that we should be able to overcome all of our enemies we should recognize the power of this very that we're learning in this moment that it is that which gives power to all of the all of the systems are getting powered by our Tory. Thank you so much for listening. Have a wonderful Shabas. This podcast was made possible through the gracious donations of listeners like you. For more podcasts like this, please visit www.argoldwag.com or search on iTunes Ari Goldwag. [Music]