Rabbi Benjamin Yudin Discusses Parshas Beshalach on JM in the AM (5786)

Good morning. Good shabas everybody. Tomorrow we have the privilege of reading paras according to the there is but one mitzvah in paras and that is a restriction and it happens to be mitzvah the 24th mitzvah in the Torah which is we are not to go on shabas beyond the beyond the boundary be it boundary of a city in which a person lives. Technical of what Shabas is all about. But the idea behind it is as the explains to remember that created the world and how do we demonstrate that by our inability to travel on shabas I can't go be it by horse by foot beyond a certain point on shamas I am limited which basically reminds us of man's limitation which is the theme of Shabis that we are called upon here comes a nice word for everybody to testify we stand for because and after on Friday night in the Bakess we say together standing as aim as witnesses we are called to be a witness I just want everybody to realize next time you go to a wedding and they call up the two ad kaducim the two witnesses to stand under the to watch as the puts the ring on the kala's finger. So there are so many regarding who is qualified, who is not qualified to be an aid, a witness under the and usually a RV is honored with this position because whoa, the two witnesses are the ones that are literally making the wedding. Yes, the is putting the ring on her finger, but the the witnesses are the ones that are witnessing the transition between her being in her father's domain, her own domain or now into the so they are playing a very important role when they say mikes that literally she's now been transferred to witnesses and you can only imagine how important these two witnesses feel [snorts] as they are being called up. These two were selected among everybody to be those special witnesses. Each and every one of us tonight, this Friday night and every other Friday night when we recite the kdush, realize how important you are. That Hashem chose you and me. He chose us that we should be witnesses to the fact that he created the world in six days. Okay, let's go into paras bashah. What an incredibly exciting parasha. And it even has a name to it. Shabashira. Most weekends, most shabas don't have a special name to the particular shabas. Shabashira because this is the para in which am the Jewish people cross the red sea and o Yes Moshe. Then Moshe and the Jewish people sang Hashira Zos Hashem this song of thanksgiving of gratitude to Hashem. And we recite this Shira, this song every single morning, weekday and Shabis to conclude the suk zimra, the verses of praise prior to the and its braos. Right before we say the bra of every day we recite this sh. Now I believe that this past week was a special week for all of Cli. I am privileged that a grandson of mine took place in this uh special mission of retrieving the body of Ron Gavili, a 24year-old Israeli policeman who while he had and was recovering from a shoulder injury Y when he heard what happened on October 7th, he went on October 8th and unfortunately [music] he did to the best of his ability killed as many terrorists as he could but he was killed on that day. So, interestingly, he was one of the first to be killed in the war and he was the last to be retrieved from the war in Gaza. Now I can only tell you that the name of this mission was called Le Amitz which means brave heart which shows me Israel who was like the Jewish people that we're talking about up to a thousand up to excuse me 300 soldiers and at least 20 dentists working with them to check the dental records. But listen carefully. On October 8th, we killed more than a thousand kamas terrorists. These terrorists were buried by kamas in a mass grave on October 8th. Approximately a few months ago, Israeli intelligence found out that there is a chance, they didn't know for sure, but there was a chance that Ran Gilei was buried among the hundreds of terrorists that were buried in Shajia in Aza in Gaza. [snorts] And as a result, whereas other missions had turned to be empty-handed, this one after going through 250 bodies, imagine first of all, as I saw a picture of the site, the excavation site, meaning that they used bulldozers to remove the bodies out of the found and then our Jewish soldiers painfully went through each one. They were fortunate that after about 250 bodies, they found Ron Gavili in his police uniform and the dental work confirmed his identity. Now there's no question but that this um filled all of Clay Israel with relief, with gratitude, with thanksgiving. It was a kind of healing, a kind of one aspect of closing of one tragic chapter in this story. And the idea is very clearly that Cloud Israel could not take a step forward until each and everyone was accounted for. Whoa. So first of all, it reminds us of Israel zeb all Israel is responsible one for another in a very literal sense. But more than that, the rai m ruptitz the rebi understood krail araven that one Jew and each one sweetens another. There's no question that there is this common uh joy and relief that all of kai Israel felt this past week. My grandson was there when the name of the commander of the Israel southern Kame his name is Yaniv Assur a from commander said to the people the boys on Monday afternoon fellas do you realize what we read this morning in the Torah the Yseph that Moshe took the bones of Yoseph with him as Yoseph had directed and comm made the Jewish people swear that they would take his bones. Ami Israel took it. So the Torah is not simply a history book, but it's a living Torah. It came true in our day. Now let's take that further. How many extra words in the Torah? The answer is none. Moshe Moshe took the remains of Yoseph with him. What do you mean with him? So the Gmorrah learns out from here that a someone who has come in contact with the dead body can come into this that they can come into the camp of the Levites. Okay. But now beyond that what does the word emo mean? So the clea says beautifully that the Gmoran learns on this that the of chapter 10vos the one who is especially smart and intelligent he does mitzvos and what does that continues the gamorrah that all Israel were busy with the mitzvah of bizui mitzim meaning to um take the wealth of Egypt because the rabbis tell us that the Egyptians be decked their chariots and horses with jewelry. Hashem promised Afterwards when they leave Egypt they'll leave with great wealth. So this is exactly what happened. We leave with great wealth because we had the golden silver. But the rabbis tell us that who is the real who is the real intelligent smart one that did a mitzvah and that is while everybody else was doing a mitzvah which is a relatively easy mitzvah to take gold and silver Moshe had a much more difficult mitzvah and that is the mitzvah of getting the bones of Yoseph and Moshe does this because it's emo some things you take with you forever And other things you leave behind the kitchen sink with the new kitchen and the new car and the new everything else you leave behind. But one thing you don't leave behind are the m to emo. This is for Clai Israel. A week of emo that we have 300 soldiers that are looking for one Jewish body. Teaching the entire especially Jewish world how precious Kev Israel is. Teaching how important it is for the Jew to be buried in a Jewish cemetery. Because too many people might say, "What's the difference? Once you're dead, you're dead. And once you're buried, you're buried. The answer is no. To be buried in a Jewish cemetery, we learned from Veravino, is an incredible. And therefore, keep your antennas up because lower, we live in a world today that people make decisions. Ah, I don't want to be a burden to my children. It's cheaper if the if the body is cremated. They don't have to stand out in the cold or in the heat at my grave. Whatever kind of foolish rationale that people have, it is wrong. And it's important that we spread the word to make sure that we have kera. And let me just say one more thing. Note, everybody has to wash on shabas. You don't have to necessarily wash during the week. You don't have to say bas has three brahos from [snorts] the Torah and one braha from the rabbis. The one braha from the rabbis is the last and fourth final brahiv which means that the dead of betar approximately 1900 years ago were given to be buried for two and a half years the Romans Yak Shimam would not allow the Jewish people to bury their dead and the minimum number is hold on to your hats 100,000 or more. Wow. A 100,000 or more were given to be buried. And the rabbis said this was such an important point that we have a in the zone every day to commemorate as the teaches us that does miracles for us even in our exile. My friends, this past week, we were privileged to see. We were privileged to see Hashem's goodness. I want you to know I went to sh Tuesday morning and the inherit Israel and the regular Jeweming in Besh when we came to the five of ms a blessing of and a prayer of thanksgiving to right. So what do we say in posive three? You should know everybody that hashem hashem who elimu he is the one who made us anu. Now how is the word vamid either olive or vavv? And the answer is both. It's a creaniv. It is written with an olive. He made us and not ourselves. It's not we that do everything. It is he that enables us to do it. It is he that it is done through us. This is the Shira. The Shira is 19. The last puzz is karus parro. When parro and his army came, they were drowned. The Jewish people walk through the water and whoa that's the whole shir. Why do we need the first sukim? Says the balei. The first teams are our way of saying thank you to hashem that through us he was glorified. May we be privileged to keep glorifying hashem's name throughout the world. We are good. Unfortunately, forgive me for saying this, for disagreeing with one another. I don't like the word fighting, but we're disagreeing with one another. But we're all so good when we work together. One Jew sweetens for another. Wow, what a week. What a shabas of Shira. Shabbat shalom to all.