Ki Tavo: Averting Eviction | Rabbi Ari Kahn | September 11th 202525

things. One is I don't want to contradict him but if you want to keep your phones on it's good because it wakes it wakes people up every 10 12 minutes or no we don't like that okay fine so so no so but do with your phones what you need to do second those of you who don't know what the sources which I generally prepare very very late um so there is a list that we have that uh I send them out so you can ask how to ask someone else how to join it ask me how to join it and with that we could begin. So this week is parhatavo. So we like parat kitavo. Yes. >> No weary >> only the first. >> So when we were in uh in America for a couple days last week we were there kit. So, and then we ca and then we left kit and we came back here at Kavo which is the 41st anniversary of the same dynamic when uh we made aliyah. So, we did that our last Shabbat there was kit and our first Shabbat here was Kitavo. The the only difference was is that we had Shvraot that week and this week we didn't have Shvraot. I'm sure we made some braot but it was it was not not the same. So we liked Kavo just for that reason. Kavo. So let let let's let's start to have a chance to understand all of this. And and those of you who said right away, no, I don't like this parish. Of course not. It has a terrible toa in it. Terrible rebuke. So let's put the rebuke on aside for a moment and we'll try to get a little bit more context. So, one, we uh we seem to in our lengthy bay hazim, we seem to have missed the vast majority of uh the book of Dvarim. So, you probably don't know what we're up to. On the other hand, you know, we we talk about these things with with very broad strokes. Dvarum is some kind of a repetition. The reality we've noted over the years is that it's far more repetition of narrative than it is repetition of laws. And now as we're getting towards the end, there is some kind of an important shift. But even without the shift, I do want to isolate and identify what we do have in this week's para because there's three things prior to the toa and that we need to note and and they're certainly connected. So that that's part of what we need to see when we moved in the last couple of weeks going from certain I would even say from RA which is a focus on the beta mikdashem and then we move on to chaftim which are national institutions and we move on then to issues of of war which we already had also in shaftim which means the mitzvah that we're having it's not simply a repetition of other things the mitzvah that we're having are mitzvah which express a new reality. And that reality is one which let's be honest we haven't lived for the most part of the last 2,000 years. And that is the reality of having a national identity and not just living as Jews. You know, one of the things that we'll get to is we'll hopefully believe we'll get to Yakov who keeping all the 613 mitzvah mitzvot, right? Yakov kept love guaranteed mitzvot. So any Jew today who's going to say no, we we we live by Torah. Well, no, you live by a small fraction of Torah. And then we can just start with dealing with the whole agriculture. But it's more than the agriculture. It's also the national institutions and the challenges of having a national life in Israel is one which uh again it it just can't even be imitated in certain places. So let's begin beginning of and we'll pay attention to certain things and I'm deliberately stopping before I should stop because I could say when you come to land which God gives you but you realize that that's the wrong place to stop because what's the next word? What does mean? >> It's an inheritance which means right away And okay, just to strengthen the point the rest of the Pashta and again I know I have two more words. So it's an inheritance and inherited which means that our right to this land is predicated on a certain introduction. And what's that introduction? So I'll I'll say it simply that introduction is safe. You can't you can't read this without say for bracation. I gave a class a number of years ago which I sent to you and that was I liked it as well and uh he's not being paid for the endorsement by the way and now okay it was so so it it was showing how kate is a commentary on safer bation and for that matter the last third of bation seeing that whole undertone but over here you can't read these words without realizing something and I know that this is something which certain scholars are obsessed about what exactly is known by the quote unquote Deuteronomist and well Mosher learns Torah from Kuresh Baraku so I assume he knows quite a lot over here the land of Israel is ours to inherit but inherit means we got it from someone it means there's a background it means there's a backstory it means there's a history it also may tell us a lot more but just realize that our orient orientation to this land is it's a Therefore, and therefore, anybody who chooses not to live here is actually turning their back on their inheritance. They're turning their back on something which God has commanded us to do. So, let's pause. I I'll I'll try for the Zionist messages not to be overwhelming. We don't, you know, there are people in listening to this. I think they do it on double speed and they like they and and and they skip this part. Okay, what I'm going to say now is is probably very far from shot. So I like that. I like ratit. Raet reminds me of besid and it reminds me of that there's again this backstory. Also the first is very important and this is something we've discussed on a different theological level and that is I would say that one can't miss that the mi first mitzvah here of the first fruits of pikurim is most likely some kind of a tikun for that first fruit that we were supposed to not eat in the garden of Eden. And here we give this whole background in terms of everything coming from God and there we took something which God told us not to take. So there is this real interesting backstory which I hope you realize that we can develop more but we won't. The Aramaic is right. You know the word sal, you'll put it in a salenu, right? We'll put it in a by the way. That's very word and concept. The central place that we're going to go to, right? The central place of worship. There is a holy place which is great. There's a holy land. There's a holy place within the land. And you're going to come to this coin in those days and you're going to say so again this land which God had promised to our ancestors to the patriarchs the matriarchs if you want that means again the same backstory which I you know kind of teased out of the word nalah is here it's it's said in such an obvious way. So let us now set what I want to get to as the major issue today. I mean sometimes it takes you you know a week to figure out. So what was that major issue that I was talking about? It's this duality and the relationship between the rights to the land that we have and rights and responsibilities and the rights to the land which we inherited which means inheriting which means we are in the place of somebody else. Which means what exactly is the orientation of the avote to the land and what is exactly is the orientation of the banim to the land. Avote versus banim is really the tension what I want to try to understand. But I am already noting that in our first couple of verses over here. Both of these things should be jumping out at you. Now you did not necessarily anticipate that I'm going to talk about responsibilities and go a bit further and the nature of the relationship. Okay, that's why I had to tell you where I'm going. And it goes on to say over here and you take the cell and you go to the and we go back and we talk about the past and we talk about the ancestors and we talk about where we came from. So again, I'm going to say I hope you don't miss this, but we're going to have here in the beginning of the para three rituals. I could ask you the obvious question, are these just random rituals? I mean, essentially, you can imagine that Mosha's got a big bag of mitzvot that he has to kind of share with us and therefore the bag is getting empty because every week he uses more and more up. And now these at the bottom of the bag, he pulls out this one. Or is there something much more specific about this one and the next one and the next one which are coming up over here? The the the third one is going to be the easiest and the one that we most likely would have related to. But over here again I'm I'm just pointing out that this is yes a we are more familiar with ironically with pes are withim which is somewhat bizarre and it's interesting that that also becomes the major text whereby we springboard our pes and it's as much their as it is the formal text by the bikurim we say a formal text we don't add the shab and when we say this text we give context now of course there's this great discussion question. Who exactly is this? Who is the or who are we talking about? And I'm I'm going to leave that. So that verse itself should link us between the avote and between the talking about where the avote come from and we're talking about how the banim got to be in this place. And we screamed out to God and God heard our voices. Again, that's talking about the new generation. I know there's a newer generation. You don't have to tell me. And God took us out with all these miracles and wonders. Again, it goes back to this point of the place, the holy place. So, there is a tension. We don't know it yet, but there is attention. We'll continue a little bit. I've done the ritual. I've done that which I was told to do. But of course, this is a fascinating mitzvah because it doesn't only it's not just performative in the sense that I do an action. It's also there's a level of cognition and there's a level of I need to articulate and therefore I need to internalize. And it's just so wonderful that what I need to do is actually I need to develop my historical consciousness to understand how I got here, why I got here and have thanks for getting here, which really it's a link between the present and the past. So that that that's what I wanted to uh to focus on. And as we continue, there's another last thing I want to get to. And we thank God and then which is maybe the most difficult mitzvah for this generation. And that's to be happy. Sherika and and that's interesting because when I break all of this down, yes, I bring the first fruits as I said that's I put I put it in the basket. I carry it up to Jerusalem. I make the declaration and then okay, now you better be happy whether you like it or not. And not just be happy. The happy has the happy has to spill over and affect the others and and affect the ley and affect the stranger and affect the stranger. And what I want to stress about that because you're not going to get there without me. You you do need me still. There is something even though you don't realize this yet. There's something very Araham like within that quality. Do I have to explain that now or it's enough that I said that? >> Abraham like because Araham the one is the one who spreads the joy. Avim who spreads what God gave him. Ara is the one who reaches out to the stranger. A the one a the one Araim is the one who shares to the stranger. So that I find really interesting because if we're again thinking about this linkage linkage between the present and the past and we're thinking about how what is it that is going to allow us to deserve this land that we have. Isn't it interesting that we have a ritual over here which forces us to have this link to the past to think about and to say it to go back to how we got here to label what we're doing as an what we have as a and what we have is a is a yusha and then to act very Abraham like and if by the way if that wasn't good enough we then continue right afterwards and it talks about in the third year bringing the bringing right. Do I have to stress that again? That that is also very very Abrahamike and taking care of the disenfranchised and taking care of of those who are in need. Take them in, should I say, take it them into your tents which are opened in all four corners. and and and and I know I know that you're going to you didn't see this by yourselves and I don't know if any of the commentaries point this out and and all of that makes no difference to me because we we'll we'll we'll see as we move on that this should be understood and then the lands given to us and that same twist. So again, just pay attention to that duality. Yes, it's our land. Why is it our land? Because God promised it in the past to the avot. So this tension between the and I'm going to call it again the avote and the bananim is what I think is a subtext going all the way through here. And therefore in order to to identify a vote type behavior is uh is interesting. If we continue and we look in the Ramban, the Ramban is on perv. Let's read the we spoke last year was only on that p. And that's really interesting. What does it mean to go in God's ways and God's paths? So I would love to know what each one of those words mean or each part of those phrases mean. What does it mean? What does it mean? What's on top of all that? So you you do realize that it would be beneficial if we actually understood again not using just the words that we would literally translate but what each one of those things mean. Take a look at the Ramban in source number two. So what does it mean to go in God's paths? And do you know what all of that means to me? To be Abrahamike. Because what didn't it say to us? It didn't say to us, you know, make sure you do all it didn't say to us to get involved in every single one of the rituals. It says no, be decent, be moral, be good, be charitable. That's mitzvah already. But just notice the breakup between those two parts of the verse is what I would call a vote behavior to do the others and so on and so forth. That's very much oriented. Sh should I explain this a little bit more? Yes, we know that. Maybe we'll see some of the sources. We know Aram kept the entire Torah. Yes. Yes or no? Maybe. I hope you realize that's at least a little problematic. >> First of all, and or we'll pick on Yakov. Yakov kept all the mitzvah. Tyreek Mitzvot. Yakov could not keep old tarag mitzvot unless he was I was going to go no much more than that in in unless he was a coin Israel and a ley unless he was a man and a woman unless he had two brothers who died and one he did uh yum and one he did khalita >> right I'm just saying I can I unless he gave a get to one of his wives and again I I can keep on knowing if you want of of the various taragnitzvote and I I I just I just don't believe that that's what kazal mean when they say it. What what I I I'm not going to tell you not to. You can believe what you want. You'll tell me that I have to get yushel. It's okay. What I'm saying is that it doesn't say that that Aam performed this. rather he was mim which means I shouldn't think that because I put on mit I put on film this morning which I may have thought about not thought about or may have really had a high spiritual experience or not that aim and were all and bum zila by the way were all at a higher spiritual level than I am even though I can say yeah but I put on fill in today because whatever spiritual accomplishment I got to or I I I performed by doing this. They somehow got to that same spiritual level. They were now obviously what I'm saying is very dangerous. Why is it dangerous? Because it's potentially antinomian. So if you want, I'll say that in English. It's potentially dangerous because somebody's there is going to say, "Yeah, I kind of want to be like the avote. I don't need all of these uh specifics, right? I I can eat shellfish and be like a Minou because I'm because I'm kind, which means I can get rid of all of the ritual. Of course, I can't do that. I can get rid of all the ritual and say, but I'm a good person. And and that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying how have I only then that's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is you you know, you know what's interesting? I don't know how many of you are in uh are in LOL mode. Rabbis have to be in L mode now and part of el mode is we're starting to prepare all these I'm giving two chuva shirum next week and I have to start looking at the ram huba do you know where the hero of the rambom is in huba so leave that you know who the hero of the raom is in all safe for mada which is interesting the hero is au because what's mada it's about knowing god who knew god better than anyone aim now you could say no maybe mob you could no Just go through the whole book at the end of the 10th and again when you get to the 10th chapter of Chuva you may be surprised because the 10th chapter does not say one word about Chuva. The 10th chapter is about relating to God out of love. And you know who his hero is? Abraham which means whatever level I can imagine getting to through my performance of mitzvot Ara accomplished that which really then leads to a different point and that point is so then why at sai didn't God just say to us guys be like Abraham that that's all you need to do be like Ara and what apparently is the answer is that we can't >> we can't be like Abraham we could try but we're going to fall short. But what does God do instead? He says, "Okay, you guys can't be like Ara. Let me fill up your day and your nights and your weeks and your months and your years and give you lots and lots of things to do to keep you out of trouble." By the way, the Katsky once said that, not what I just said. He said, "I want I want followers." I don't know if he liked his followers, by the way. He locked himself in a room for at least eight years and didn't want to talk to them. Right? I can understand. He um he said, "I want but they're too busy doing good. They don't have time to do things that are bad." That's what God did. I mean, the is right. That's what God did. Fill up your day, be busy, do all these things or do all good all the time. But why do we need that? because we're not capable of sitting around and contemplating the cosmos and then leading to a conclusion that we have to be moral and ethical and treat all people with love and respect. Arabina was able to uh to do that. We we would have a harder time doing this and therefore we our lives are full of mitzvot. I'm going to say this again. It's fascinating that when you're going to come to the land, do this ritual and then think about what the avote like and have some a type qualities as you're doing this and that we see as a common denominator in both of these commandments. So therefore, I hope that you're getting this that there is this wonderful tension between our postsI existence and by the way, what is it that Abraham has more than anything? Knowledge of God. What is it that we completely mess up at Sinai? Knowledge of God and build a golden calf. I mean, I hope you realize how profoundly bad that is. So, before any of you can tell me, "Oh, no. I think I can do the Aram thing." Well, Claol kind of messed that up right away. We messed up that first uh that first test as it were. >> But rabbit, we all followed him. We were all here. >> God is very God is very kind. We're even on the road that he took on the way from Cabon to the real nearest. >> Yeah, it's and and I'll say it again. God is very kind and it wasn't simple. It wasn't simple. But let's let's continue. Source number three takes us to Now, now I'm going to emphasize it. You guys need to do the mitzvot, right? You you again, we want and now we get to our third ritual. Now, admittedly, this is a one-time ritual. This is going to be a right of passage as we get to the land of Israel. These are going to do. And again, every time it's your land, right? You're going to put up these stones and Again, that wonderful tension between us getting it, but the god of your fathers. So, that other element is there staring at us again all the time. You're going to put up these these stones and then it's going to say that you're going to bring olot and slamm. didn't bring any sources about that. But the first thing that you should ask yourself is where do you find a cluster of alot and schlam in terms of a procedure in terms of offerings what are the procedures what are the times that alotim abroad I'm not going to answer you can look at chat ch in order to get your uh your answer and then pray that it's right but it's it's very much a consecration it's very much something which takes place by and and uh when buildings are built and so on. So let's continue and then the Torah which will be explained right you're here today and then it gives us a list. Now of course those of us who again were not focused this is harim haral and we are going to have if you want I would call it a reacceptance of Torah and if we're going to reacceptance of Torah if I didn't know the content what would be the most logical suggestion to be here the answer is a deepro the only problem is we already kind of did that earlier in but that really would be the right that I I would have put that here enter the land let's too. Now there's a problem. The problem is is that what exactly is the relation between and all the other mitzvot because you know then we have and then we have the rest of we have all of we have which means there's lots of other mitzvot. So essentially we have choices now because again write the Torah and keep those mitzvot. So again, if I imagine that Moshe has a bag of mitzvot, so theoretically he can now pull out any of those 613. He could pull out all 613. He can go through and let you know, kind of like uh haka, let's read through, let's read through mitzvot. Let's accept all of them. Entering the land, I'm Israel entering the land. Let's accept the mitzvot. And I'm going again I'm going to point out that there is this wonderful tension between the reality of the avot and the reality of the banim and what exactly we're being called upon. So let's I'm only interested in content now. Okay content what is it which is said at this point after our so we are in which right so that should be everything. The person who Now, what do you do with that? Well, that's a good one. We like this one. By the way, go back to our legends about Abraham. Abraham, our favorite. What word do you want to use? >> Iconoclast was the correct word. Excellent. You should go into writing. He's our favorite icon iconoclast. Abraham breaks the idol. So, this is great. This is absolutely great over here that we need idol for don't worship idols. Now you can have a little bit of an echo of actually you have three echoes. You want the most obvious one as dro you want the next one the unfortunate experience that we may have had in terms of the ael and what's the third one which really was the first one you should have thought of. I'll hold on to it and you'll tell me momentarily. And then we get to and it says somebody who curses their parents. By the way, that takes you straight to the serro and that should be should be easy. So I guess we're still on a serro. We just went from the right side to the left side which is really interesting because we went to a vik formulation and by the way these these are classic Adamos that's not really English or Hebrew. So here are mitzvot of of theft from your friend and mis giving misguiding your friend. I hope that you're realizing that there's a commonality. So we had a cluster of mitzvot and what does where did that cluster take us? So it should have taken us to a couple of different possibilities. One should be the chevit which it included over here justice. It included over here sexual sins. It included over here stealing. It in now the thing that maybe honoring parents is the one that we're not sure about how that snuck in. Notice what's not here. What's not here? Any ritual is not here. If you want to compare it to let me let me let me ask the question first and then you'll give the answer. If I want if I want to compare it to what's missing Shabbat's missing. So that also is interesting which means we kind of um also also I'm sorry stopping in mid-sentence also we kind of get this echo of uh Gilead over here which means you kind of so maybe we wonder why are those three so important and the other thing which we should be thinking about is of course a mino he's the one who demands of God the judge of all the earth will not act with justice which means the idea of acting with justice over here is one which Abraham fully understands and is incorporated in his life but he even feels that he can question God about it and and again I'll suggest that that's interesting but this cluster of laws which are here are ones of again what we have over here are laws of rejection of idolatry we have laws of sexual behavior or misbehavior we have over here treating other people also the g the alman over here and uh and one of having proper justice and now the question is how hard I want to work then claim that all of these are perhaps themes with within Abraham's life the the the sexual issues are the one where he or Sor both become the victims of but this is something which Aram does preach about I mean this is part of his discussion with Avi Melik or and and and therefore the rejection of idolatry and and having sexual mores is interesting because if I go back and think about Abraham's life and maybe I'll restate this when all of all 613 commandments I have at again I don't want to say that I I don't want to make this pretty and tie it with the bow and therefore say it's perfect but I want to say that I feel a very strong Abraham presence over here to the extent that I would almost say when you enter the land yes keep all of the mitzvot but what are the ones that we have to make a vow about and swear about and and and take upon ourselves is that the decency of a vainu which again is is expressed by various laws is something that we have to take upon ourselves so that's what I would note on the other hand this emphasis in terms of the sexual mores we already saw it back in vikra where it says in Source number four. This is and so on. And then it goes on to the whole list of the essentially saying don't do the behaviors of Egypt which again remember Sarah gets there and then she's attacked immediately. Yoseph gets there and he's attacked immediately. Don't follow that type of a society and don't follow the type of society which is in Kanan. These people were kicked out and then we have the list and then later on when you get to the to as well we're told the land or generally we're told the land vomits out this kind of behavior. So just to put this together with bat on the one hand vayikra on the other hand we should not be as surprised to find that that's where the cluster of commandments are when we move over to the to and that's back in source number five again continuing in kavo we find the same kind of things again over here it's if you follow all these things you will be blessed and then so but if you don't find them follow these things then you're going to be cursed which seems to be that this ritual done by Hagisim and her eval is the introduction. It creates a covenant. Once this covenant is created, now there's two tied to the covenant. You keep it. These are the implications. Everything will be good. You'll be deserving to live here. You don't keep the covenant. So, this is what's going to happen. And I said the the the words are all over here. And I'm going to leave it. I'm not going to go that much uh further. I do want to note the Ramban the Ramban over here is let's read the right you will follow these things you become a holy people it's same kind of tension right keep the mitzvot that's one part of it and once again we are, you know, we wonder what does that mean? Keep the mit and then walk in his paths. The writes that all this is going back to the covenant. And then he says, "Oh, so the right there did what I wanted all the commentaries to do and to know that there is this dual relationship which is taking place. There is this covenant with Abraham and then there is this covenant with Amish, which by the way, I don't know if you know this, this was this these dual covenants is one of Rabbi Salvatri's favorite uh themes. Just about any student, old-time student of Rabbi Salvich, if he went to a Brit and was asked to speak about to speak, he would always speak about the two covenants, the Brit of Abraham and the Briti, because that was like the that was the go-to of at least one maybe two generations of rabbis. It's not exactly what the Ramban is saying over here. And it's not it's it's the way the Salvatic developed it is not exactly in line here, but as I said, it's at the court. The real background for everything that I've been saying was by a para that we skipped. Why do we skip it? Because you guys wanted vacation, right? It was after tishov bay manu. Can't learn bay manu spelled. So in source number eight it's this is back in par actually actually I take that back I wrote it's it's the end of and then leads into you realize we have the same themes now that you're going to inherit right and we're going to chase out all of the inhabitants Don't make a covenant with them. Don't serve their gods. And God God chose you as a special nation. Again, all this we just now saw again where we enter the land. We need to acknowledge all of this. And then it says something which is really depressing. God didn't choose you because you're so numerous. You're not you're not so many of you. That the love that God has for us goes back to keeping the vow that he has with the patriarchs. That's why God took us out. God will keep his side of the covenant and pay off the future generations and you should follow the I'm going to say it again that this is the same tension the we're not told what exactly they did but we need to follow the we then go into but because you keep the these. It's only by you keeping the commandments that God will keep this covenant that he made with the patriarchs. Right? And then you become great in number. Continuing init. If you want to deserve the land, you need to keep again the same pension which God promised the ancestors. Next chapter still in a peric Ted and we're going to skip a little bit. Don't say because of their evil and our righteousness, you did not receive the land because you are so good. because they're so bad. God chased them out and therefore to keep this vow which they kept with the and don't think you're getting because you're so good you're not where does it constantly come up that term it's always connected as far as I can tell with the sin of the golden calf. You're not so good. You're not so much better than them. They're worse. But it all comes down to one point. What's that one point? Let's just say this a little bit broader than I said it till now. Although I hinted at all of this. The avote were promised the land because of their decency. The descendants were promised the land because we're their descendants. For us to deserve the land, for us to deserve the land, we need to be decent. We proved our indecency with the Ael. So right there, we're undeserving. We have lots and lots of mitzvah to do, which is essentially what what do you do when somebody look what do you do when somebody right away, right, you rent them an apartment and right away the first day before they even move in, they do all kinds of damage. So what do you do? But you can't kick him out because you were very good friends with the grandparents. So what do you do? You write a contract. You write a contract which is going to be so detailed and is going to have so many you know no requirements that it'll be very easy afterwards for you then to litigate and say listen you didn't stand up to your uh to your love at all. Source number 11 goes back to Abraham. And but just if you want to finish this up in sorry the last verse you were so bad at that God wanted to destroy you. Okay. He didn't. He forgave you and we have a relationship. But we go we we've inherited this land. Yes. Because of the avote. Our whole deserve in this land because of the avote. And now what what is it? Can we say it again clearly? What is it that aim does have? >> Okay. A is decency. What is it that aim does have? He believes in God. Total belief in God. What is it that have chosen or or shown that they don't necessarily believe in God the way that they should? In source number 11, Which means what Abraham gives us is this basic is is this going with God knowledge of God and this basic decency. And by the way, now go back to the couple of rituals that we have in the very very beginning of the parisha. Go back to the the third thing. and go back to Har Grem and Harel and how much it does reflect this kind of apostle even though yes we say generally that we accept all of the Torah but it's all the Torah on top of the decency of Abraham and and again I hope that's clear source number 13 we're skipping 12 we'll see if we can come back to it al this is what we alluded to for so I believe is a spiritual description and not a historical description fulfilled the entire Torah. I don't think it necessarily means that he did every single one of these mitzvot. And by the way, I won't actually read the source here because it's funny in our minds. There's a takeaway from this because we remember the end and we don't necessarily remember that there are two opinions. You know, also I'll give you another parallel. We have a says David, right? Call me. That's one of the opinions. There's another opinion that says, but for some reason we take the other one's nicer. If you look over here, 13 Rav says I want a definition. What is Don't answer me. That sounds like it's only talking about the because what Torah did have by that point. The only Torah that there was a mitzvot. So then it says no, it can't be the mitzvah. Why? Because then also so all that this is really saying that a did eight mitzvot. That's all that it's saying. Then there's another opinion over here and it says another opinion. No, he kept everything even great. But notice there are two opinions and notice the difference between the two. One is he kept and one is that he kept the entire the entire corpus that we can't imagine that were better Jews than Avaram. But but again note that there were two different opinions over there. And yes, am I correct that all of us only really focused on the second one and kind of ignored the first one that says yeah of kept the entire Torah. But by the way, there are many sources, many sources that when it talks about Torah prior, it always refers to as and it doesn't mean I I know you could tell me they're all within leave it by um source 14 I I I was with loved on and that's why I was delayed. Actually, there should be a dot dot dot here in 15. So, can I tell you a couple things about this? First of all, I downloaded two different articles about this one is an article which explains how Yakov kept all of these things. What does it mean? Did he learn Mishnaote? Maybe a second article was showing that this phrase in Rashi was not quoted by anybody until the 16th century and it's not there in any earlier versions of Rashi and uh most likely it was from a different midrash or late midash and somebody uh pinned it on afterwards and again you know what you can look at source 16 it's is a late collection of that's what he says to sorry that's what he says to I also didn't have kids then I had kids by the way and that's why it's interesting right and then the whole discussion what shamar may mean. So let's see how much time we have and see how much more we can uh >> of all the >> by explains it. >> That's your homework. very very nice explanation and and and you'll accept it. Essentially an is because he may have more guests coming. So Abraham is always anticipating more guests. So Afra has to keep on cooking because more guests are coming. So therefore there therefore specifically that's specifically but when on what day >> on what day he kept pes everybody knows he kept pes and you know what else happened when he kept pes people came people came so but right he made ugot I know you're going to tell me ugot or or okay let let's look Let let me try to put this together and we're going to ignore the we're going to ignore this long run and the other long horn ban and and let and let me try to put this together because I want to go back to the of course the Antonyomian aspect the the one who dances around this a bit and I didn't bring you any of the sources and I couldn't bring you into the sources for multiple reasons but but that is the ishbitzer. The first reason I couldn't bring the ishitzer is because I always make fun of uh teachers, rabbis, women who uh quote the miak. >> Yeah, it's terrible. It's terrible. The I mean I always you have to suspect them of uh of being followers of cha and I'm probably understating this right now. the the the ishitzer is so interesting but the isbbitzer is also extremely challenging extremely dangerous and and I do want to stress the was at sadik and his followers with sadikim and his son was at sadik and those who you know follow in the path it's just that he says some really really challenging things you know the most famous one and the most disturbing one in my mind is when he says something like uh pinas was wrong and Zimri was right right I don't know how you say such such a thing, you know, with a straight face. So, as I said, if you're a follower of Shit's fe, so then you so then you so then you uh you need then to follow you need then to break every single, you know, rule in the Torah. So, why not? But but he does talk about the higher level of observance of those who just have the belief in God without all the clutter of all the mitzvot to do. The mitzvot kind of get in the way of real service of God. Now if you want we can find R of Cook saying things like this but again I have to take everything out of context and in order to find and to locate this and and as I said I found a number of teachings of the ishvitzer that say this so I I am the one who quotes the ishitzer and say you know be really really careful but I but I but I nonetheless want to go back to this because it's not a question of the reality that mitzvot are bad for us. It's quite the opposite. It's that mitzvah in the time of the avot were unnecessary. I mean that look the big problem with Yakov is to say Yakov kept mitzvot. It's a little hard to say that when you marry two sisters. Okay. I I I don't want to have to work any harder than that. To to say that to say to say that Yakov kept all ty mitzvot is not easy. The ramban's going to say and by the way it's not just the ramban. The ramban that's why I wanted to show you. It's the Ramban and it's the Ibanzra and it's the Balatosphot. It's funny that the Ramban gets all the credit for it. In source 17, it says he said, "No, no, it's that the land of Israel can't tolerate the sexual sins. So therefore, Rael had to die, right? So therefore, Yakov kept this in the land of Israel." I mean, again, it's not such the would say this, the Ramban says this, it's that Israel needs this. Okay, let's let's stop that for a second and and let me try again. What interests me is source number 12 and a legend and how strong this is, I don't know. Source number 12 is a description of the messianic age and so on. The wonderful description of the messianic age is one of justice and one of knowledge of God and it's not one of keeping. I'm saying that that's interesting because the description of the messianic age is one of knowledge of God. And do you realize that there's something now very avo much much broader perspective and say that the avote existed on this so much of a higher level of not they walked with God and they followed God and they loved God and they did what God wanted and they did not have the clutter of all of the mitzvot and I apologize for the word clutter. I apologize for that. But but again, that's what the ishitzer said, the clutter. That that that that's that's really that's really the the phrase that he uses. On the other hand, we need this. We need this because we need God consciousness. And and you know, I'll go even further. What is it more than anything else that gives us God that gives us God consciousness? And that's not a Torah mitzvah. It's not a Torah mitzvah. It's a rabbitic mitzvah. What is it? to say I eat before I eat something before I eat a fruit to say which means God is saying make a say thank you thank you have god consciousness everything so why do we need the rabban made this up but what did it give us that gave us god consciousness what is it obviously what what the were saying okay I know these people they need god conscious they need this in their lives it's not enough just to dab three times a day then you say maybe maybe marav you don't even need it's not enough. We need more of this. We need throughout the day to be able to be thinking about God. So, you know who didn't need that? A didn't need that. You know why? Because Aam was thinking about God all the time. And Aram then translated thinking about God all the time into if God is kind to me and God gives me and God created a world of kindness, I need to be kind to other people. I need to be godlike. and his all of his and his whole mind and heart are consumed with God, being like God, helping others, decency, morality, again, knowledge of God. So, it's fascinating that we can't do that. We mess up. And when we mess up, God says, "Listen, you know, you're inheriting and I'm friends with your grandfather and I'll let you rent the place, but there's lots and lots of details over here, and if you don't keep it, you're going to be kicked out. And you need to do all of these mitzvot. You need to do all of these details. And the land itself is not going to tolerate certain things. There's rules over here. There's rules of things that you can do in in this apartment, and there's rules that you can't do in this apartment. Why? Because it's my apartment. I don't want certain things being done over here. That's just the way that it is. Someplace else to go go do what you want. And that is really what's emerging. So I'm going to say it's fascinating when we go look back again and look at para kavo. We yes we have this long to which says you know this and this and this and this and this is going to happen to you if you don't follow this. Realize there's no promises over here. There's no guarantees over here. You you can and you will break this lease. I may let you rent it again afterwards, but you this is not necessarily going to be a happy ending. But then I go back and I look at the three different rituals, right? I look at coming to land, taking those first fruits and remembering the avot and then giving it out and being like the avote and taking care of the disenfranchised. I look at the other mitzvah in terms of the ma and what am I told right to share with others on top of all this this impossible level to be happy also and make other people happy. I imagine a was a very happy person. I do I imagine that Aram was somebody who's full of so much love and cheer and goodness and decency and deserves to be the Rambam's hero. Absolutely deserves to be that person. And then I think about the end of days. Yes, we need to come in the end of days. We need to get back to again I'm not talking about will there be mitzvot or will there not be mitzvot in a messianic age. I hope you all realize that's a very interesting discussion and there are various uh opinions on this. You know the famous idea that uh maybe you've heard that one day pigs will become kosher. I wrote about this. I have an article called when pigs fly. The idea about the pigs being kosher is not so much about us being able to eat pigs. Maybe it's about evolution. They'll develop, right, the the various qualities. Maybe it's about really as who's compared to the pig and it's it's saying a much larger thing that Asov is going to become kosher that as going to develop some kind of a instead of just on outwardly but inwardly also develop a decency whether or not there you know there will be mitzvah at Latid Lavo that doesn't concern me. What concerns me is is that instead of mitzvot being just performative that mitzvot be performative but impactful and as a whole cluster of behaviors instead of getting the way of servicing God they bring us to the service of God in a true way and bring us to this God consciousness until we get to this point that knowledge of God spreads out throughout the universe. It spreads out all over the place and that's really what we're seeing over here in so what I'm saying is that it's interesting to again just to chart what the aot were like what happens at sci what gets messed up by sci what were being warned about before into the land what the rituals that we have in this week's para what are they focusing on and what's this underlying issue and the other underlying issue is this dual relation of the land of Israel it is yes we are entering the land it's ours we've inherited it but the word inherit it itself is a weighty term because the word inherit means you inherited because you had this other relative who actually was the rightful owner. And if you want to be the one the heir, you need to show that you're the rightful heir. And it could be that certain behaviors you do, then you're going to break this inheritance and it's not going to work. And I'm saying that dual statement which keeps coming up again and again. I'm giving you the land which I promised to them. I'm giving it to you. Then I had a covenant with them. So now what we need to do is that we need now to create a covenant. But it really was interesting that the things which were stressed by Haruism and Haral really came down to decency came down much more to the chevitzvo maybe you can argue that seratro but it came down to things of decency on the one hand and things which the lands can't tolerate on the other hand and saying okay you want to live here and we all do we want to be deserving of this and thankfully that god thankfully god gave us all these mitzvot because it absolutely keeps us out of trouble Shabbat shalom. >> Shabbat.