Elul & Shoftim | Rabbi Baruch Taub | September 4th 2025

Okay. So, um, welcome back para shaft. I want to talk a little bit about koresh. Um, and then we'll get into, uh, a few pieces from the para. I think of all the months of the year, the one that's usually that's highlighted is the month of el, right? We don't think of tisha, we think of rashashana, think of pes. Okay, it's this but the highlight highlighted month is is LOL. Um and uh I don't know what what let's say subconsciously but um we get nervous around LOL right we get we get a little nervous right um sometimes the reaction is to just put it out of your mind right or we get a little down right doesn't want us to get down he doesn't want us to put it out of mind he wants us to to deal with the issue but uh he makes it easy for us because it might be surprising ing to you. L is not about chuva. The raon brings us into this period slowly. Chuva begins with chuva begins with rash the uh but ll is is not chuva. L you know there's an acronym for L that everybody's familiar with from a shirim Anila doi vidi that the bonam says to Anila doi bonam loves us and he wants us to reciprocate vidi so l is really about love now it's very interesting because the the name ll is not from the Torah the the names that we have now are Persian names the the real name of each month is the first month. We count from Nissen, the first month, the second month, the third month, right? Of course, the the strange uh strangeness is that Rashan is on the seventh month, right? So um but but we had we took these names and in when we were in Babel and we kept the names and if the names if the names have been kept by Cla Israel there's a certain kaduca to them and there's a certain um a certain relevance to them uh and that's why the an the acronym can work although acronyms are very strange thing you know it's it's it's gamatria it's like the mathematical gamatria So there's word gimatria like word jumbo taking the letters of each of each you know you take the the the letters of the interesting thing is it's the only month of the year where you have all these acronyms there are close to 30 close to 30 acronyms that were given to us by kadmonim by by earlier rabbis you have from uh this one from from the balaturator and from the arizal and the cleer brings from the V Negone. So, um there they're there it's serious stuff because you can play around with it, right? You can you can make make up your own you know your own acronym, right? Why is that? Because we say that there's four ways to learn Torah. We call it parardis. Parardes means a field, an orchard. So the pay stands for that's the textual approach to learning Torah. looking we're going to see a piece today from from um from Raviaka Kaminski where he just brings something out of the shot the text then you have the ra is rez and that's like gimatria like the ll anil doi and the numbers that you make with you make up numbers with gamatria and then you have drush which is homaly the drussia right and uh which most of by the way comes from drush and then you have the s is for for sod for secret for cabala cabala the mystical Torah right every one of those the three of them have a misuro we have a specific way to learn shot dash and and so remis there's no we have no misuro we have no tradition in gimatria that's why you can do whatever you want you know you'll go to a bar mitzvah and uncle mo will get up at uh at Pinas's bar mitzvah And he'll say he asked to speak and he'll say that the gimatria of uh PK's mother is this and his father is this and their first license plate was this number and their address is this and the date of the bar mitzvah is this and all of that together says simits right so you can do what you want with it that's that's the danger of it but but we have very serious acronyms with the month of L and they they mean something. So this one that we all know of really is kind of to give us a sign of instead of to bristle when when l comes to sort of breathe deeply and give us a chance to know that he loves us. This whole process of truth is because he loves us. He he understands that we're human. He understands we made mistakes and and he wants us to know that. That's really what L is all about, right? And slowly but surely we get into the into the chuva mode through that love. We realize he loves us. We have to return the favor. We have to show him we appreciate it and we have to get back into the Torah that perhaps we've neglected a little bit. Okay. So that in a nutshell is uh is okay. Let's go. I'm going to save one to the end if we have time. Let's go to number two. This is the shamish. We've seen many times the uh Reba the son of the Nazer. We many times go to him go to great kasidic master and he quotes a puk uh in the medish rabba uh a very really difficult puk to to translate um roughly speaking we're talking about that if you you do the math you you it's impossible to count it's impossible to make a a ma mathematical calculation and if you do you're you won't understand it right so what's it what what is this strange referring to so the medish makes it very simple for us what does this mean you know don't don't start making a calculation God says to us don't start to sit down and calculate the mitzvah of the Torah, you know, don't like the mission says in Pyavas, don't weigh a a difficult mitzvah against a light mitzvah because we don't know, we really at the end of the day don't know which is an important mitzvah and which is not an important mitzvah. So that's what that's what he says here. Hu mitzvah zoo, you know, this this is an important mitzvah, right? Anosa, right? I'll do it. God didn't reveal the the reward for mitzvah. Only two mitzvah in the Torah are given with an a reward. The most difficult mitzvah to perform and the easiest mitzvah to perform honoring parents. Not an easy mitzvah. Not an easy mitzvah. We think it's but we know it's not. Especially as parents get older, right? It's a challenge for children. I just want to interject. I'm sorry. We're learning today for Rafu Schlma for Barl Benfga and he should have a rafu. So and he has wonderful children and grandchildren to take care of grandchildren >> and great grandchildren. So right. So is the most difficult and um and which is in the para you know shoeing away the mother bird if you want to take the the chicks or the eggs that's a very easy mitzvah right soak so now what's the what's the reward the Torah says long life if you do these mitzvah you get long life right so now we're going to ask three questions on this is going to basically present three three three questions on this why why is the there are level playing field why is the thear really equal doesn't make sense because we have another rule in the gorin right according to the the the pain is the reward or as we say in English no pain no gain Right? That's what the mission is saying. So what are you talking about? That's I can understand should have more than what's the big deal about. Right? So that's his his first question. So there has to be something more to this. There's a level playing field of what does that mean? Right? We have to understand it. Veneer Lamar I want to say something else. He says I have another question. The rabbis tell us the reward for mitzvah is not in this world. Right. The reward when we say the rabbis explained this is for the world that is good. The world of the world that is all good. The world of truth. The eternal world that we will all go into someday after 120 years. The world to come. So All of nobody has seen all of except right nobody has come back to give us a report of what what's going on at all. It's it's impossible to describe that we who are living in this finite world what is Roman writes actually a little very poetically you you can't describe the colors of the rainbow to a blind person um someone who's born blind Um uh you you know you you can't um understand music to explain the be no you can't get a a deaf person to appreciate the beauty of music right so how do we really know we've never what do you mean the scar is equal right we don't know what the scar is and yet and also we see the no pain no gain. So it seems that it's not true it's not true. So what's going on here right above so where we go oh here is um on the sheet I'm continuing the sheet and I lost my place. Um okay so the final paragraph here on this page I want to say one other thing um It's a hidden world. It's hidden. It's hidden from us. It's not revealed to us. What what we see from these two mitzvah that are called the easiest mitzvah and the most difficult mitzvah and yet they're given on paper the same reward. It's not telling us that they get the maximum over all the other mitzvah. No, no, it's telling us something else. We get we get the reward in that eternal world. We don't know what it is. the words different. What in other words, let me put it in my words. When he says the only mitzvah that we have are the the most difficult and the lightest mitzvah and the scar is the same, that means that the potential for scar is in every single mitzvah from the lightest to the most difficult. It's about how we apply ourselves to the mitzvah. Whatever mitzvah you take, whether it's Shiloh or whether it's or whether it's Shabas or whether it's Kash or whether it's or whether it's whatever it is you know that how you do the mitzvah that's what we're being told here otherwise it doesn't make sense right here. So he he'll flesh it out now. Vafilu over the page. Turn the page. Whoops. Over the page. Shitzvah the the in other words it's a hidden world the scar of the the scar of the mitzvah is a hidden scar everything about all is hidden right what writes about this great safer a holy safer that's what the mission says according to the pain is the gain right no pain no gain so That's what we're being told here, right? Don't start measuring mitzvah. It's impossible. You don't know this one's important, this one. No, no, no. It doesn't work that way. Look, the most important mitzvah and the least important to our our way of thinking are are the same in the Torah, long life in the world to come. That tells us that every single mitzvah, you can't they're all they're all a level playing field. You can't compare what in your mind what you think is more important. No, no. Whatever. It's how you do the mitzvah. That's what he says. The the reward in the world to come. This length of days, it's a level playing field, right? It's every mitzvah, every mitzvah. Everybody goes in the same gate and everyone is told you go to this, you go to the penthouse, you know, you go to the basement, you know, you go to parking, you got to work your way up now, right? He tells the car that we're going to get, right? the actual itself is hidden to us in this world. Here things are revealed. That's not revealed. You cannot sit here and say this mitzvah is better. That mitzvah is better because it's all hidden. But the smallest mitzvah in the world, right? If you do it with passion and enthusiasm, take I have this great mitzvah. I bumped into it. That's really the mitzvah. You know that you you find it. You find it right. Then your zoha to greatar how you do that little mitzvah right you could do the greatest mitzvah you know shabas but just go through the motions or dvening just go through the motions you're going to get more scar for the scar will come from shoeing away that mother bird more than saying like we say here we just said taking a great mitzvah right which is given done with a little lack of enthusiasm and really just almost by rope. Right? So that that's that's the mystery of the reward that we should not sit and try to do the math that's important. There is no math. There's no math. Pick your mitzvah. Pick your mitzvah. Pick your mitzvah. Whatever you do, it's how you do it. And that that's why we say that we don't know the the difference in a mitzvah, a roar of a mitzvah because there is no difference. There is no difference. Okay. Next piece here is from Abwab and he presents a very important um say theological point in Makshava in Jewish thought and we're going to develop from the para ami hashem an ammonite and a moite is not welcome to intermar against intermarriage with the and these particularly these people right um when we were leaving Egypt, we were in we went to the Ammonites to the Ammon and they wouldn't give us food. We all we don't want to bother you. Just give us bread and water. They refused. They refused. So that that's enough that we want to have nothing to do with such people. The the spiritual the spiritual energy from that so negative we don't want that in our in our genes. Right. at Bam and Moab. Who hired Bam, right? To to curse you, right? So to curse you and and destroy. So these nations are off limits for us, right? So says we have to understand all the misses in the Torah were given to Moshe and everything the whole Torah was given. In other words, not to marry Ammon and not to marry Moab was already given, right? So this is at the end of 40 years later, right? the end of at the end of after receiving the Torah, right? That mitzvah was also given and so how come the reason is given there's a historical reason that's given now for this miss. So the missile was given first. Mitsu was first given to us and then this historical thing took place later, right? Or is he going to he's going to eventually say the first seder we had in Mitim, right? The night before we left. So how does that work exactly? We say that we sit at the seder, we eat the matzah. Because we didn't have time, we had to rush out and make the matzah. We had to go quickly, right? What's what's going on here? You have the mitzvah first and then the story right you didn't give they didn't give us bread and water and they hired bill to to curse us shamebar these m took place at the end of the period in the desert and the Torah was given for how do we understand that what's going on here roy mis I said he's going to present a very important rule for us to understand to understand how Torah operates. The reason the historical reason is not the reason for the mitzvah. The historical moment is not the reason for the mitzvah. In other words, let me put it in my words and then we'll see the text. Right? Akesh Boru wanted to create a world which giving principles of life how to live a meaningful life and of course it means and he had to put it into a system. The system is Torah the learning of Torah the living of Torah and the 613 mitzvah that we do that that will create a meaningful life for every individual and for Ami Israel and for the rest of the world. But he had it put it into a historical context. Right? So the historical context is to play out. It's like a play like a passion play really. We're playing out at Pes time a relationship with aeshu that he loves us and he even though we were very bad in mit spiritually we're in the lowest level he loves us and he took us out. Right? You have to prove that's that this idea that God loves us that this Lol idea the L moment anil doi. So there has to be a play there has to be an a play acting to show that to demonstrate to us that we understand it right we understand it much better by having this experience this historical experience. In other words Torah is madesh history. Torah creates history. History does not create Torah, right? History does not create Torah. Torah creates history. Torah came first and then the history. So now let's see his words. Okay. The second paragraph the history is not the reason for the mitzvah. The mitzvah are are laws mysterious laws. All the mitzvah have a sense of of mis mystery to them right to bring certain principles into the world and commanded stay away from ammon and stay away from moav you know I'll explain to you why but the way I'm going to explain it to you is through a story and then you'll understand what I'm talking about but you have to stay away from negative energy negative energy that is against and that wants to destroy you as a people, you know, I'm going to show it to you so you'll understand it, right? Even the historical moment didn't happen yet. That they didn't give him bread and water and throw at they didn't hire bum yet. The principle has to be there. Right. Right. Okay. Moshe. Now that Moshe gives the reason the way the shalom runs the world because of the power of the mitzvah that is the essence of the world. God turns around nature. There's nature is built upon the mitzvah. Right? If the mitzvah was not don't have anything to do with Ammon, then the natural process would not have a story of Ammon not giving us bread and water. Right? You hear what what he's saying. Say sending away the mother bird. You're not supposed to say, right? Sending away the mother bird is not specifically to show that we have to have mercy on animals, right? What's it there for? It's a decree, right? But the ram tells us he gives it away. Mercy is not the reason for the mitzvah. That being said, It teaches us the idea of that a person should be a aim to human beings to be merciful. Right? In other words, let me say that the mitzvah of Shilakan is the first expression of animal experimentation in the world. That's what it is. It's an animal experimentation. You see what happens here? Man is with a bird. He becomes more of a morim person. Right? All right. There is a concept of we can't harm animals. Right? Uh so but but the the end game is to make us into a to make us into a merciful persona. Right? So here you have the first example of animal experimentation right in the Torah. But the idea is that the idea of being a aim, a aim, a a merciful person, a kind giving person came before the mitzvah of Shiloh is to to draw it out from us. Right? Okay. I mitzvah says this was in presenting the mitzvah. same thing with not because they're so bad. So therefore who made these mitzvah the historical the historical moment in order to bring home to drive home to us the the Torah which was already given before. And then he he concludes with what we we threw in a few moments ago about PES mitzvah. You see this with all mitzvah, right? Is the mitzvah of PES was given before the historical moment of the Exodus from Egypt which we say because we let rights. know that au the avo kept all the mitzvah of the Torah even before we got went out of Egypt even before we received the Torah arseni right he kept all the mitzvah because that all of this was in the the spiritual makeup of the world right at a certain point it was potential but the historical moment brings it out into reality for us shalom nitna before they it was even given pesl including Corbin, right? She made two codes, right, for for one was for just to enjoy, right? There's no PES yet, but she made a PES, right? Take take now take the we were told to take a lamb. Now you're going to do the definitive article. Now this is the is about the real the right. You're going to bring it out. Now we the one the one that I've been talking about the one that's that has kept right now you're going to do it even though I didn't know the reason for the name right the name came afterwards right historically right but it was already pes before the story of pes right so again to just to sum up the mitzvah the mitzvah history. Um, the mitzvah does not create history. History The mitzvah creates history. History does not create the mitzvah. That's the bottom line here. Okay. Uh, we have a few minutes. Let's go back to one. Now, I mentioned to you that uh four four ways of learning Torah. One of them is textual. So, here is a perfect example. This is not an exciting piece, but it it shows you how how we understand the words of the Torah. So, um a similar pok in in the in the para don't um don't uh put down let's say don't put down the Edomite. He's your brother, right? We're related. Adam, right? We're distant cousins, right? Um and and don't put down the Egyptian, right? Don't make them suffer because you were a stranger in his land, right? It's an amazing thing. We, you know, we we survived there, but how he treated us is something else, but we at least we came out alive, right? So, you have first uh Adam in the Puk and then Mitri. talk about Edom and Mitri. Don't put down the Edomite. Don't put down the Egyptian right now. But in in the Mishna, there's a Mishna which talks about um marriage, intermarriage. And there the Torah says you cannot marry the the Mitz and you cannot marry the Edomite. It's only after three generations, right? They can come into they can come into claw Israel if they really mean it, right? But there byon by marriage mitri comes first the Egyptian comes first and the Edomite comes second. Here right by how you treat them the edomite the adomi comes first and the mitri comes second. So that's what he's going to say. So here that's the pose the puk second line the order of the puki mitri. The adumi is mentioned before the mitrialishna but the way the rabbis in the Mishna set it up they put the mitri before the adumi kimosha sha of he's quoting now the gammorra the mishn actually right in mitumi assurim the mitzvah the mitri and the adumi is not user to join Israel ado Right? Three generations. Okay. So now why is it reversed? Why is it reversed? Just just how do we understand in the P? You look at the P you have adi and in the Mishna it's the other way around right whether it's the puk adomi comes first or a mishna the mitri comes first loo azu there's a principle and it's it's just a principle in in the way we we operate we say loosu Not only this, but you know, um I I need to live. I need to be comfortable. So, I need a room to sleep in and to eat in. And of course, I need a house loo. Right. That's how you Right. So, so the easiest thing to do is right. Um I'm I'm going to I'm going to put down the mitz. I'm going to make the the mitri suffer a little bit doing more than right at Ben is the Egyptians they they made us slaves for hundreds of years. Right? So I'm going to be more critical of my treatment to the Egyptian. So of course I'm going to treat the Egyptian badly. Right? Zoru Benam Leor they threw our children into the sea. the men, the boys were thrown into the into the sea. And we know the rashy, we know this. So therefore, when when we're talking about how we treat them, right? Don't treat them ill, right? The challenge of not treating them ill, right? Right. Of course, you you don't don't treat the Egyptian the dumi so bad. All right. He's related to you a little bit. You want to treat him, he's not such a nice guy, but lo, don't don't mistreat him, right? He's after all, he's your distant cousin. but even the Egyptian right who you would think don't put down because you know what you were you were a stranger in his land and he he you he allowed you to live there right so no not of course don't put down your relative but don't even put down don't even put down the the Egyptian of the Mishna there the Mishna is talking about marriage the forbidden marriage. It's the opposite. Not only is it to marry an Egyptian, of course, an Egyptian, right? Who terrible Egyptians, you don't you have to at least wait till the third generation, right? But even your cousin, right? Even your cousin might come as a surprise to you, right? Afal also leads you cannot get married to him right lu of course this right the mitri I understand not to marry but I will tell you don't it's even your cousin lu so in marriage the mitri comes first right but in treating poorly right the adumi comes first right and then the mitri right so there's a formula here So because of that formula this not only this but even that because of not only even this even that not only this even that he says he saw this he saw this in the on the on that particular uh Mishna. Okay.