Introduction to Pirkei Avot (Part 2) by Rabbi Moshe Snow

we're on the second uh time that we're doing the introduction to the regular study of peros and last week we spent some time uh discussing uh the reason behind perova is being learned and we mentioned that there were two particular reasons that the rambam gave and one of them was to know the order of the m that the introduction but so we know that there's a direct line tradition passing down from one to the other that the M tells us that the Torah that we have today is the same Torah that was given at that time and through all the generations you can follow that line down that's one reason the other reason is because it's not only to tell us that the law has its over all the centuries but even the MOs even the ethical values are just as important and those ethical values are also given from har we introduced the idea that peos always on the weeks that it's learned begins with the introduction to the chapter in sanen called where it says all the Jewish people have a share in the world to come now the truth of the matter is if you take a look grammatically at the way that phrase is set up it says call Isel all the Jewish people have a share a portion in the world to come but grammatically speaking it should say because we're not there now it should say all the Jewish people they will get a share in the world to come because when they're alive here on this Earth they're not it's not like we have it here we're living here in and so to say the terminology is not the proper gramar but there will be a share for each Jew in the world to come and not only that but it shouldn't say it should say what why does it use such a terminology to the world to come what why do we have this unusual grammatical formulation that all of is they have not and but not there are a number of different approaches to this and we're GNA we're going to try to go through some of them today where we we know that uh you know the achieving of the achievement of getting to the world to come seems to imply that there's a purpose in our being here in this world it's not that this world in and of itself is the purpose but that this world has a purpose to get us to get to a certain place that's why it says it's not but and you might think and argue and say look why is it that only the Jewish people have a share Inaba what what's what's the concept of implies when we even for the Jewish people we say that your purpose in this world is not the ultimate goal of living there's something that goes beyond this because otherwise if there's nothing Beyond this and there are people who claim that there's nothing Beyond this then there's no difference between an ant and a human being between a dog and a cat and a human being there's no difference between a tree and a rock and a human being because there is no ultimate purpose for a rock there is no ultimate purpose for a tree there's no free will for Animals because animals act by Instinct if a cat is or dog is walking down a street and the cat decides to turn to the right instead of the left why is the cat turning to the right instead of the left guaranteed that there's either danger to the left and the Cat knows that the only thing that its purpose in life is to preserve the here and the now or there's food to the right they're not going to go to the left or to the right just because you know I think it's a shortcut or maybe I'll meet one of my friends down over here or there's an interesting Library down the road I can go pick up something to learn over there a cat dog doesn't do that a cat or a dog or a lion or a ox or a or a cow or anything doesn't go anywhere unless it's a matter of physical self-preservation while a human being makes decisions not just on physical pres preservation human beings actually can decide to take very important decisions in life even though that decision will not necessarily give them more preservation right here and now a human being can decide not to eat today because there's a spiritual reason why I'm not going to eat today it's Tinus Esther it's youngor I am not going to act in accordance with my own phys physical self-preservation but I am going to act in a way that's going to guarantee me a Beyond physical self-preservation within the confines of the which tell us that if your fasting is going to cause you P it's going to cause that your physical self will not be preserved then you don't fast we have the laws of shabas and when the laws of chabas come it says you not but if there's a question of self-preservation and P you absolutely must do you must do a certain thing because we're interested in not only the hear and the now but we're interested also in the so the nations of the World At Large if they wanted to get a share so to speak if they wanted some altruistic motive if they wanted to plug into the idea that there's more to life than just the here and the now is there a way in which the non-jewish world the non- Torah Community would say that I'm acting altruistically what would be the motivation for their acting altruistically and who would it be among the nations of the world that would act in such a way that would go beyond the here and the now so if you take a look at the society at large and you'll think about the philosophers who proposed that there's a purpose in life and that we're talking not here about a Torah purpose we're not talking about religious purpose we're talking if they would say that there is a purpose in life they would come along and say something along the lines of contemplating something beyond the here and the now Philo philosophizing about some better future philosophizing about what the whole purpose of human existence is and who would it be that would have this ability to propose that there's more than just the here and the now among the nations of the world so if you take a look at it you're going to find that the ones that propose that are mostly philosophers scientists people who are extremely well-versed in all of the disciplines that exist in this world whether it be a Top Flight musician who believes that the purpose in life is to make the most beautiful music and to share it with others because it gives them something that's a dimension beyond the physical and the here and the now when you get an orchestra that's going to be playing Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and they're going to be making a performance that hits every note 100% And the audience is there to hear all of this unique conglomeration of musicians coming together with all their instruments to produce a sound that's otherworldly it's got to be only the top flight musicians it's got to be only the very best philosophers only the most brilliant doctors only the most genius mathematicians but what about the nature of the honam the overwhelming majority of humanity that's mostly pretty plebian Mo most of the world is very simple they're not Scholars and they don't have the Insight of a Socrates of a Plato they don't have the the talent of a Mozart how is it that these people are going to ever achieve something otherworldly the answer is the majority of the world is not going to achieve something worldly the majority of the of humanity that's not on the very highest level of producing either music or philosophy or mathematics or science or building a robot or whatever it may be the majority are not in that category so they're not going to have a in or what by their own standards but you know what happens to the Jewish people we don't say that the only ones who get are the scholars we don't say that are only the people who get to every Jew has a share in the world to come and you don't have to be a and you don't have to be a rabbi you don't have to be a leader just an ordinary Jew who says just a Jew who keeps shabas you light the candles on chabas and you make KES on chabas you are playing with the concepts that give you and you don't have to be the chief Rabbi in order to get to in fact just because you a chief Rabbi doesn't guarantee you you're going to get to it depends on whether or not you tow the line like everyone else has to tow the line and marom is not something that's the province of only the greatest but it's the province of every single Jew and the modom of the Jew is not giving up your life but living your life so we start with Concept number one call is they have it now not yeah not that you will get the but you have it right this minute because Isel all of Israel has that share due to the fact that all they have to do is keep the 6113 Mitzvah that we list in terms of all the paros and so on and so forth we'll get to that a little bit further on as we go so the first thing is that it's not that it will be for you that there'll be a my Bo you've already got it and when we say you've already got it that's a tremendously positive statement because if you say you know if you are good and you do a b CDE e f g up till 613 then you're going to get it that means what what if I don't get all 613 well and and and and there's no there's no Jew that can get all 613 by the way there is not one Jew alive that can do each and every one of the 633 Mitzvah it's impossible because some Mitzvah are applicable only to Kahan some are only applicable to leim some are only applicable to men and some are only applicable to women and some are only applicable if you own land and some are only applicable if you the ownown land it's amazing no Jew can complete all 63 m in his lifetime but you know what we can do call Israel when we join together when a Coen and a Le in Israel when a land owner when someone who's rich when someone who's poor when someone who's a when someone who's not a when an adult when a child above the age of 13 when a when a person who is well when a person who is sick when a person who has money when a person who doesn't have money when you get all the Jews together call Israel when you have all the Jewish people together then you can then you can get that you have all 63 mitzvas and means you have the portion out if we told people that you can get a share in the world to come we'd have to be spending all day every day figuring out how many more points do I need in order to qualify to get all but when it says they have a it means it's yours the only thing you could do possibly is throw it away you could throw away just by just by virtue of ignoring all the responsibilities that a Jewish person has but we'll get to that in a minute in terms of whether or not it's so easy to throw it all away which we're going to learn it's absolutely not so easy to throw it away okay so so the first thing we want to do is explain that applies to every Jew on no matter what level they are whether you're on the highest level of the T study or mitvah awareness and so on or you're just like they say in a plain simple Jew every single one of us has that share in the world to come you know what's amazing sometimes when you're giving a she so I'm giving a she but Along Comes the para of the week and and it sheds some light on some of the things that we're discussing I'm going to bring down one particular example we spoke about the 613 Commandments right okay so there are 613 how do we know there were 613 how do we get to the number 613 T now the truth of the matter is there are do Commandments a say and there are Lo and we know that the numbers which do air up to 613 that there 248 positive Commandments 365 negative Commandments and you add those two together and you're going to get 613 in this week sedra when it talks about the making of the the that the co God will wore and by the way it's the second time the second time inos that it talks about the making of the cloak of the kohen god you know I often I often tell people that when you start with Braes so you have bra and the stories of creation then you have Noah then you have God Appears to right and then you have you have to and and so forth very exciting and then you come toos and it's the Jewish people in and The Exodus very very very exciting unbelievable unbelievable standing at and so for and all of a sudden now they rested the boring s what what are we going to say purple Will blue will this come on have to know how big the boards are how wide they are the oron how it's made but it's it's boring right it's not boring at all all you got to do is search a little bit I'm going to give you one example we're talking about the making of the cloak right and I'm bringing it up because of the fact that we discussed about the 613 commandments so the p in in Tava introduces the cloak and it says as following it says that on the cloak that the cing god wore right [Music] so you should make on the bottom of the cloak pomegranates of blue and purple wool and red wool all around and there should be bells of gold bells of gold all around that's what it say says but if you take a look at this week's Ed when it talks about the it says the following it says they made on the bottom of the cloak the same colors and so on but then it says they put the bells in the midst of the pomeg they put the bells in the midst of the pomegranat there's something added here it didn't say that in in here it says all around the cloak on the bottom in the middle of the pomr again on the bottom of them ill all around so you have pants and you have Bells all right what's what what's the purpose of the Bells what's the purpose of the Bells on the on the co God's cloak so Rashi brings down and he says that when you're about to come in to The KES kashim have to announce your presence you have to announce your presence the co is about to come in to The KES kadash he has to announce his presence wait a minute wait a minute wait a minute there's nobody in there what do you mean announce your presence who's inside The KES kashim who's inside the holy of holies there's nobody in there only one that's there is the of and he he knows you're coming so what's this business I have to announce my presence by ringing Bells when I'm walking along I'm jangling so I'm making noise and therefore hashem's going to know you're coming in he's going to know you're coming in if you don't make any noise what what's this thing about Bells when you're coming in it's a good question now what's this with the pomegranates on the bottom what are we know about a pomegranate there a seed how many seeds are there in a pomegranate they about but I never count who who was the one who was the one who said that there were 613 pomeg grants in the seeds who was the one who said that um I don't know who said that it was first introduced in writing only about 200 years ago by theam S he says it was well known even though it's not mentioned anywhere in the medish in a she that theam recorded in he mentions that it's well known that a pomeg grant has 613 seeds now you you you Google when you go home you get a chance you Google you say how many seeds are there in a pomeg grant you're going to see that they're going to say well according to some uh uh mythical Jewish tradition there were 613 seeds but the truth of the matter is a small little pomegranate can have as little as 200 seeds while a very very large one can have have as many as 2,000 seeds wow so so where do where do you get 613 they said the average pag Grant has somewhere between 6 and 800 between 600 and 800 okay theam s said that there was 613 seeds in a pomegranate in the Yeshiva it was arbian was a rebi in the Yesa of Elizabeth in the Jewish Educational Center of Elizabeth for over 50 years and one of our rebies one of our senior rebies was giving a sheer in his class and he brought up this concept that there are 613 seeds in a pomegranate so the seniors in his class said come on how do you know that he said well said that there was 63 seats he said rebi I want permission to go outside I'm going to shop right I'm going to buy a pag grand and I'm going to count the seats do you give me permission to do that he said yep you can you have my permission and I'll give you a p you can spend the whole day counting see what you can figure out how many seeds there are so I know the guy who did it I know the the student who did it he was in my class too and uh he was missing that day and next day I said you know you missed sh yesterday what Happ he says well he tells me the story that he went out and he bought the bought a pomeg Granton shop right and him and his friend took the pomeg grant apart and counted how many seeds there were in this average size pomegranate and you're not going to believe this M won't believe it you know how many seeds they counted want take a guess 63 612 so what they got the 612 he said we must have made a mistake no they didn't make a mistake but there were 612 seats in the in the power what's the concept what's the concept the concept is as a medish I'll read you to medish is very interesting the medish is over here about the fact that you know the cohain on the on the cloak that he wor representing the Jewish people so you know it's it's the Jewish people that have 613 so the medish says as follows I'll read you the it's from aod braus it's inic p and it's like this is talking about the fact that the names of theim and all the Jewish people wereing Eng rved on the jewels that were part of the's garments why is it that the names of all the tribes were placed on the stones because all the Jewish people are called we are we have a name that we how do we know because it says and you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation so the Jewish people are Kahan the word cohain comes from the word K which means Direction and a Coen his job is to set a direction for the Jewish people so the Jewish people aahan it means that we're supposed to set a direction for the World At Large I guess you can make an analogy that saying the cohain is to the Israel what the Israel is to the rest of the world the kahim are the ones who set a standard of Purity for clel and the Jewish people are the people of the Kahan of the world that set a standard for the World At Large the med goes on to say is it possible that because all the Jewish people are going to go bring caros on the but it means that all the names will be on the Kosen that the co carried Into The KES right so it turns out that the names of the Jewish people are around the garments of the coing God because they are the ones who are going to be represented representing the rest of the world okay so now the co is coming in to the Kesh kashim and he has to announce that he's coming there and it can't be that he has to announce to Hashem because Hashem knows he's coming so who are the bells ringing for I guess you could say for whom the bells tow right who who are the who who are the bells ringing for who are they ringing for they're not ringing for the re because he knows they're coming in nobody outside can hear it because they're outside the so who's it ringing for it's ringing for the Coen he has to know the Coen has to know I'm about to come in to The KES kashim I have to come in with a full observance of mitzvos my bells are ringing and in between all the bells ringing are pomegranat which represent all the Mitzvah that the Jewish people have and as they're ringing I have to recognize that I'm coming into the K it's for me it's it's making noise for me not making noise for anybody else it's making noise because I have to know that I'm coming in thear tells that many times there were tan and that before they came into a house they would knock on a door or they'd Make Some Noise K ABA they would call out at the doorway why not for anybody only inside but also for themselves I have to know I'm coming into my house my house is like The KES kashim I'm a Coen I got to bring only good things into the house and I got to come with what in between all the announcements and all the bells and all the whistles I've got to have pomeg grants I've got to have 613 accompany me and I can't have 16 613 accompany me unless we're all United as the Jewish people you know when you see these signs now in our day together we will be victorious yes that's the because it's all the Jewish people when we unite together then we can do 613 then we then we have the possibility of bringing about that there's going to be a future for CLA and consequently peros which teaches us the ethical values of all the Jewish people uniting and is because the are in between the bells so that you should know that when you're making noise as a Jew and you're coming along and you're making life in this world you have to accompany it with 613 now of course it's metaphorical in terms terms of the exact number shouldn't go nuts over this could be in the s's time his pomeg grant that he went through okay the average was 613 so he made that statement he wasn't making an empirical statement that it's got to be that way all the all the way but with the lesson is there for us especially when it comes to the big dayun so when we start out with the concept of it's telling us that these things that we're coming to with is because we're doing the best we can to put together the 613 Commandments that will give us the concept of coming to Rabbi I'll try I'll try to give some time at the end to to see if we can take some comments if you don't mind we could wait wait till then we'll try to we'll try to put that all together together okay sometimes sometimes a person feels that I'm not worthy we know that we we know that there's no such thing as a a Jew a human being who who doesn't have faults who doesn't transgress at some times even minor Commandments and we and we and we feel sometimes that we're not completely worthy of the promises of the future and when it comes to ethical values especially and moral dilemas because the nature of a human being is that there's always this dichotomy between what we want to do all the time and sometimes what we end up doing because of whatever reason a simple thing like a you know getting going to sh to D with a minion you know so uh or or getting on time for the saying of kashma in the morning so if we are sometimes laxing it so uh we might think to ourselves well we're really not where we should be we're not we're not worthy so the Torah wants to introduce want to introduce the concept of values and the way we deal with them that we should never say to ourselves we're not worthy a Jew should never say I'm not worthy a Jew should say a Jew should always say I have a share in the world to come Hashem gave that to me as my Heritage he gave it to me by virtue that I chosen to be a good Jew even if I fall short at times but because we're human beings and we have a tendency to sometimes think that we may not be worthy of therefore when it comes to of us we begin by saying all the Jewish people have a share in the world to come and as I mentioned before that particular concept is brought out ever more so by virtue of the unity of CLA Israel when a person uh realizes that we're not perfect and we have a propensity at times to fall short of the goals we set for ourselves there's a problem that sometimes a person will actually give up hope they'll say there's no hope there's no future it's not possible we mentioned last week the time of the Von was not able to bring Messiah the time ofam s was not able to bring Messiah at the time of the of the of the and going all the way back weren't able to be Messiah a person could easily say to themselves uh if they didn't do it I can't possibly do it but because we're never allowed to think like that we have to say call all of has a share in the world to come there was a there was a great rinic Authority known as the yut Yehuda the yut Yehuda was written by Yehuda Ginsburg zat who lived from n 18 uh 1888 until he lived in Denver Denver Colorado can you imagine people here in y think Denver is the name of a famous steak house but that's it but but but Denver Denver was was on the map in terms of Jewish life the Y Yehuda wrote over 18 different spum which are excellent today and we have them and the Yad Yehuda made a very interesting made a very interesting comment he said that when it says that he says because when it comes to the and I'll give you his terminology because these deal with the praise of those who are involved with the Torah the there could come a real negative thing out of this idea that it's possible that if you go around thinking that everything is dependent upon the leaders of those who teach the Torah they may come and disparage what we call the a simple Jew who not necessarily is there and we have to give to the simplest Jew because the simplest Jew is mean MIT as we spoke in such detail before because they are our partners in because they have as much and as much right to all as we do and they're partners with us and they're partners because it's called says Nation all of them are righteous we mentioned at the beginning of the sheer what do you mean all the Jewish people are righteous not every Jew is righteous no but it's impossible for any one Jew to do 613 Mitzvah every Jew can only do some of them but when you take and you put them all together you've got 613 Mitzvah so call you all the Jewish people brings that out so beautifully and he said and they are equal to us because they are our partners when it comes to so we started this introduction to with the statement of we' tried try to explain that the that they have is because it's given to them and the only the only possibility that we may have is that it could be at times it will be given away but it takes an awful lot to do that because a and here's the statement from the medish a even the empty ones amongst the Jewish people they have a concept of Malayan mitz they are filled with Mitzvah just like the pomeg Grant and we went through that discussion a few moments ago okay we'll take a few minutes if there are any uh questions over here you had something you wanted to ask me for yes can I ask for I just wondered if for the last statement that you said about about they everybody has a piece of OA uh you and but it can be given you can lose it but it's not so easy uh I wonder if it it has any relationship whether you're willing to give away ER trial that was given to as as a as a and if you in his in his is maybe you automatically lose your at the same time well there are there are statements by kazal of the fact that a person can lose his in there are various methods by which a person could throw it away by acts that he does here in this world uh the question you're asking is if someone despises ER Isel itself is that a way to lose we have to take a look at and and if that is included of course if somebody acts against claudel's wishes and hopes to possess erel and he does something that will cause harm to other Jews that that in of itself is a l of so I I don't want to I don't want to politicize uh the statement of and how you can lose it because there are many statements of that say you can lose your we don't we wouldn't want anyone to go and do any of those things that will disparage any Mitzvah to the point where we say it's not it's not included in the Torah it's not necessary and that would include the the responsibility to have AAS Israel and AAS Isel we have a Torah and the Torah tells us uh the responsibilities that acre to each and every Jew as we explained there's no one Jew that can do everything all at once but when it comes to a difficult time what is the one thing our kazal tell us is capable of bringing about a Salvation for the Jewish people we're coming up to purum so what what is it that brings about a Salvation that put us into great difficulty to begin with what happened in PM what happened important was that there were people who said when in Persia do as the Persians do and there are those Jews who over the centuries have said when in Persia do as the Persians do and Russia do as the Russians do and Germany do as the Germans do and the people in the Germany that said let's do as the Germans do and chipped away at any semblance of their Judaism any semblance of the yish kite they were obviously in for a very rude awakening and many of them were totally perplexed like the P says in M the city of shushan was perplexed here they went to A's party they participated and did everything that the non-jewish world goes and does and you expect yet that this should not react on you in a negative way that's why it says the whole city was all perplexed wh what's Happening Here how could this be we were so good with with the Persians so in response to your question the the the thing that is always stood out for Claudel to be able to bring some kind of salvation for the nation has always been some measure of awareness and Improvement of our situation you'll see that today there are people saying look our soldiers are fighting on the front lines we're adding ainu Malu to the daving we're saying L we're adding to heal him because every act that we do helps somehow we don't know exactly how that helps there are stories of people who can almost pinpoint and say this is the way it helps we don't know that but we do know that every Mitzvah we do every BR we say every kindness we extend to another we do know that this unites the Jewish people together so if you're asking me what is my each individual asking what is my responsibility how do I go about straightening that out I think that every one of us has to figure that out for him or herself to to to take on uh the performance of negligible or neglected behaviors uh to be a little kinder to say good morning to to be aware that all the Jewish people have a share in the world to come and not to look down on others take the advice of which introduces but to tell every individual you do this and that's going to happen you do this that's going to happen I don't think anybody has the handle on that I think it's a general rule that clel has to make improvements of some sort and Torah learning is number one amongst those improvements and and and reacting to our fellow Jews in a positive manner and always trying to make peace amongst CLA Israel is certainly valuable and and till and brus and so on all those things are of some value all right thank you next week we'll continue with the beginning of peras wish everyone a wonderful good week