Parshat Bechukotai 5784 By Rabbi Baruch Taub

good evening everybody can you hear me okay good okay I don't know what the weather is where you are where you are but we had uh what you say in American 92 degree weather today so I've de deed myself at least I took my tie off so it's a start okay um I want to start with um a piece from R Mor who was a great mug in y I think I've mentioned him before I think his father was many years the many many decades the Rob of ravia anyway um on the first on the first P of the par he has a a discussion about uh we'll see we'll see how it fits in and why why it fits in interesting ofon here so if you you keep my mitv you do the mitz okay so in other words this is there are preconditions here we have to do certain things if we do the MIT properly we do our Torah properly and as Rashi points out it's talking about aor um and and um we do all of these things then we'll get a br we'll get a br if not we'll have the antira which takes up the majority of the paraa um and I wanted to now let let's see what what he writes here so he from this he goes into banim which is for a very good reason so the title is the exception the exceptional BR that CL received which is outside of the conditional is is a freeb if we get then it's it's unconditional unlike everything else so let's see what that's all about okay I think I lost you let me see if I can get back to this Zoom you're fine but I don't see anybody so we can see you you can see me all right um okay I'm looking at a black screen but I'll just I guess I'll have to do that once there you are okay um right was a a cmon and uh the discusses going back to the after the Reon him listen listen carefully from from the beginning of the from until the word right at the end of the bras the end of the bras all the way that's the most of the most of the sedra right the end of of the and the rest is just a few so you have you have you have every single letter of the B except a s does not appear in the par of the now so he says the says you understand the was a big among other things all the other bras were given on condition if we keep the except for the 60 letters in so so that's why the is not there is representative of the 60 letters of which is unconditional no matter what with if we hear we receive blesses us one either way an amazing statement from the that there is no condition it's an unconditional we don't keep the Mitzvah right we don't keep any Mitzvah but if we go to right could be why you people particularly people are very M I have to get there for duing I must get there for duing you hear all the time the women say I have to get it I have to be there for du there's always been this and I and I really think that somehow it's a it's a a residue from this idea of the but let's see it's not it's not did not go unchallenged the says otherwise we are blessed with the that we have in the BR we're blessed people in the city people in the right in the field all the in the Torah depends we have to we have to we have to call we have to listen to what the Torah tells us right just can't get a right brings in that the has a purish on the right means to say necessarily anyone who only someone who listens to the voice of hasem who he is the one that gets the and this is not like the but the brings the Z is on the who's the Z ran by the way it's the M of R right so let's see the next paragraph writes he titles this paragraph what what's something special about that we receive a unconditionally so he writes here brings the and writes he also had a onim called says clearly that you have to go according to the Torah he doesn't understand what's going on what what is accomplishing since all the BR has come to call is for keeping the Torah there's no conditions and that's what the are adding below right um and this is in other words the the M seems to be going along with against so let's see the next paragraph there's a between the and in what the is saying when is this going to fall if you listen to the word of no that's going on the other or is it also going on no exceptions to the rule here you have to do Torah right you have to do but the and the way the is learning this this is very powerful because the is a very important POS for us in the in the per of of the sh you know um I saw an article some not long not long ago actually in a Torah Journal that um the the balat the ra the first B who wrote a safer called which by the way every Po in the world looks into the he was an extraordinary POS and he during the first part of his life when he wrote the everything was based on the and at the end he had and he went through in many areas changing his Pak because he for some reason disagreed with the m you see the a very important person in terms of for us right uh so now he asked something else before he answers the question he's gonna answer this but you know according to a very good question how could the and the say that it's is unconditional unconditional BR actually in it says will favor you but it says you're not allowed to favor nobody is favored doesn't favor anybody what's in the in the that is gonna favor you right there's no no favoritism and one of the answers the says no when is when is give you you know his his gives you his good face that's when you listen to him when there's no you don't listen to him right that's the that's the Bel it it is not it is not an unconditional according to according to the right so what's the explanation this is where comes in how is it possible that works even if you don't do the Mitzvah so he says like this how can that be if Char he wants to bring up aor M and based on thisor he's going to build up a an approach Ain lifted up his hands and blessed the People by and he came down and he did the he did a now you should know this was the first in the Torah not the that we have in where the are given but the first time that AR was with a Corb with a sin offering right he raised his hands and he did the proper place for is after a is after doing the divine for us is but for after the after doing theik a question why do we say it why do we say it after right in in our we say it after you have you have and then you have and then you have why it should be right after the right right after it say answers the says you give covered with me by saying thank you right after after serving hasem comes thank you why this bases it on this why don't you use the that he he we just quoted the in the the M that he said he said the after the not why so why why there's some kind of a symbiotic relationship between aod and thank and Thanksgiving between offering a Corbin thanking Hashem approaching Hashem thanking him reaching out to him and saying thank you to him right but in any case what you see here is that after and after Thanksgiving there is a a surrender a subservience to I I I surrender to him that I'm coming you are everything is in your hands I'm coming to D to you I'm I'm doing something he that's the CLE that gives him the right to receive now what is he saying here what is he saying here he's saying that all the other bras in the Torah we have to do all the Mitzvah right we have to earn them but there's a certain level of our commitment that it's enough almost enough to say to try to serve to do something to the Ron and to say thank you to the Ron that that opens up a a world of from in other words why is why is why is by the way why is in the in the right at all why is it there and and and since it should be after the aboda right it's it's part of aod it was given by Ain as part of the aod right but it's it's after H so again the gor he he brings this this relationship between aod and and thanks you do aod you say thank you the ronam rewards us with a br I mean look at Hal right Hal is all about thanking the Rabon raising the raon right all of a sudden what do we do because when you thank the it opens up the opportunity for us to ask for something and that he'll he gives us a br and and what's the BR that he gives us Sim Shalom now what is s Shalom doing here in the bras of Thanksgiving remember these last bras in Thanksgiving seem Shalom to give has more than any other in the middle 12 13 bras seem Etc ET ET there are more requests in seem Shalom than any other in the middle of the so what does it mean right so so the answer is that saying s Shalom is is H it is H it's it's expressing the fact that I understand I read there's a recognition there's a recognition that everything is up to you raon everything is up to you and I and I submit to you and that opens a door for bro that H saying thank you opens the door for a blessing and we know that we know that in life in interpersonal relationships you say thank you to someone right it opens up a door to to uh to a relationship after thank you comes a br and this BR is is kind of unconditional so that's what that's what that is what the RO is saying says listen of course you have to do all the Mitzvah of course you have to learn to right but listen I cut you slack you're humans make an effort you make an effort you come to me the BR is yours I give you bras just for making an effort right of course we have to go further but that is the that is the beautiful nature according to and the of very powerful now go to page three because there there there's something else there's something else let me just there's something else here about this right we're not finished with this remember then the and he started out by saying this is all about the 60 words of the 60 of of um right representing that's the Su that's missing right that that that was missing in inosi so that's the that's the bras that it's unconditional right there's another time in the Torah where the word is not mentioned if you look in the first peric of baresi by by the creation of the world right the entire first peric of basus basus olive creation of man the creation of the world has every single letter of the olive base including the end letters right the sopit letters right 27 letters they're all there the exception of one letter Su there's no right also another thing to point out there only two letters in Torah that's two twoim in Torah that begin with the letter Su why is that what what are those two Su him first of all one is a in Bidar right where say pleads that to to to forgive the Jewish people right that's a that's that's one p with a the other one is the other one is s my hair sue my hair sue my hair right by what when again when Moshe is pleading by the ago for forgiveness right so the word s is related to sin it just is related to sin not because sin starts with a in English right so what's what's what's the problem with the letter so I once heard from I saw actually in a from Shapiro where he discusses the letter letters of the AL letter Su the letter s is a circle right everything in our physical world the main main components of the cosmos are circles the Earth is a circle the sun is a circle the Moon is a circle everything is a circle right in the physical world everything is a circle right now what does that mean what is what is a circle a circle is you know I don't know maybe I'm I'm I'm uh dating myself but there was a very famous musician by the name of Harry chapen I don't know if anyone knows who he was he was a gifted musici famous pardon I can remember him Harry chap for sure okay good so he wrote at one of his F he was killed in a car accident going to do a a a concert for Soka he was a very big uh charitable charitable person all of his money went to charity was not Jewish but he was in many ways he was a gifted gifted songwriter and one of his songs was um was a circle you know my whole Life's a Circle sunrise to sunset and basically the idea of is this it we get up in the morning you know we take care of our physical needs we eat we sleep we do this we do that we go through M mum you know we're not thinking that's what the circle represents there's no beginning there's no end we're just life is just a big circle right somebody I once heard from somebody said why are the hand mutz is made in a circle and he gave some sort of a I don't know I don't know where he got it from but I don't know if there's any any I think the square mutes have much more meaning right the four corners of the earth and there's a center whatever I don't want to go there but that's but that's what a circle represents right a circle is like the circle of life which is that's not the way we're supposed to live the life running around in a circle running around in a circle that's what we're running away from with the Su and let me just do number three on the third page go to the third page because it kind of dovet tales into this piece it's it's a short piece from RAB and um on a PK in the part of the the that we will we'll do ch right that the missteps of our parents but you're going to go with me B what does it mean to go B happen stance we just go through the motions right go through the motions that's how I'm gonna deal with you barer you know how you're going to really do TR when I respond met for connected met you go with me according to car you know going in circles I'll deal with you the same way right so he has a very good Kasha they did chuva what do you want from the Jewish people everybody asks here they did Chua for themselves and for past Generations you know what I'm gonna deal with you also happen stance Carri is like like happen stance you know matter of fact you know why didn't accept that trab says kind of a bristling comment he says I want to suggest it's mentioned numerous times in the in the the biggest a of the Jewish people was carrye was was happen stance was just not really really plugging in I always say the purpose of this world is to have a person to have develop a personal relationship with of course based on Torah and mitz but to have a personal relationship with you can't have that if you're just everything has happened St you know you just go through life without a right Circle but they also went even though they did it was like a PS you know they did cha for everything they did and PS they also did Chu car right it was a it's a kind of a side thing right that's but that's not the just just the opposite it's the essence of of our misstep in in having a relationship with he demanded this is what you got to do you got to understand this is the essence right get out of that Circle jump out of the circle to see that the travesty the sadness the the danger the unfortunate you know you're going nowhere this is the Shor of every sin and finally quotes from from he said that's the if we're going sometimes once in a while you know some sometimes they'll fall into they'll do with a little bit of kav right we make a with a little bit of kav we'll give a little St until it hurts right whatever it is that's what is doing to us he's busy giving world good to the entire world but sometimes sometimes he throws a bone to us also right also you want to deal with Meer I'm gonna deal with you B right now I'm not making any applications here um to our situation today but one thing is for sure those people people in our world in the faith community in the Torah world that are throwing stones at Kim for all the it's all because theim are not involved in Torah and they built a country and they're not emphasizing the Torah i i i i bristle when I hear it because really I think a lot of the direction should be coming in in our Direction because we're not doing enough but I'm not I'm not a Novi I'm far from it I'm not a I'm far from it I'm not going to go there but I think the emphasis the has to go on on our our process ourself based on this idea of the missing at the beginning of the par and the missing in and the of of that even though we don't deserve it gives us the and how fortunate those of us who live in is are that we have every day so get a minion every day okay let's go to page two um this is a piece it's a much longer piece but it comes from the latest safer that was put out from ronas and David I I've done things in the past from from Yodas and David was the one and only son-in-law of Ru hutner okay who we many times learn Rutter's Torah Ron is a very very special special he's AA r hutner at the age of 70 came to a Israel when most people start to think about retirement and he built a Yeshiva here in and Ronis is the rashash of that Yeshiva his reiton reiton David who passed away a year ago was the the dean of BJJ Bak of which is really the Harvard of bakov seminars um riton David was the only child over of hutner she was an incredible person um she had a doctorate from Hunter College from Columbia he the word Colombia today Hunter College and um very special very special people very special people so here in the latest this is this safer is on from PES until sh it's on so I took out a piece here a little bit of a piece on he asks a few questions at the beginning and comes out with some answers let's see where he goes with this he quotes AOS on SP first all from dor we just had we had the Mitzvah of a few weeks ago right you you count seven weeks when from where when we begin the the the crop of the standing the comma is the standing grain when the crop is standing the beginning that's when we start counting right from p until right when we have the standing grain right on right the when we begin to put the sickle the is a sickle on the standing grain now this is a rush he's gonna quote here a rush and the tour brings us the tour when you sayah you're supposed to stand right we stand we know that when we do Mitzvah we always stand right where does that come from right right you don't say but standing grain say standing you have to make the BR when you stand the r the end of and it's the also brings this in actually he brings it okay um um we have to get a handle on this number one uh uh I can't read what it seems to be out of here what does it say um what is the know what's the Nexus between the this the DHA by bringing the OM SP of om bringing the Corb om and standing for br why is Da here right why here why is the this idea this great Noble idea that we stand for why is that brought by the bringing of the right in the counting of the more than that the well first what's the why here listen this is this question why is there a concept to learn out the you have to stand there a famous DHA you have to stand for the BR of the mitah why not why not a a li why we don't stand it for the Mitzvah itself right so two kasas why why are we learning it from here what what's the connection between between the SP and the OM and why the BR of the right okay so he where's a by the way where does it come from says that until the everybody made their own BR there was no text you didn't have a text of bras you didn't go to the section in the cter after Shak to check out the various bras that we're not that familiar with right everybody said their own BR right but something happened during the period of the what happened during the period of Rome happened right so it was a very period terrible time for us sh the Greeks began with the Greeks they were very busy with period with science rism rationalism that's what they were involved in K the r in writes he's talking about Aristotle he actually quotes Aristotle um in Greece Rome it's all together the ran quotes he dealt with only things that he that in his world in his world that he could confront right anything they didn't understand anything that was not did not have physical reality who it's not true truth is in the physical world he was a rationalist a rationalist to the N degree right rationalism was the enemy of Torah right now tell me that Ram was a rationalist so there's a way with ar there's a way to to synthesize the two we're not going there tonight but this is the the the purity of R pure rationalism is the enemy of Torah right so this had a tremendous impact a terrible impact on CL Israel this period of Greek and Roman the period of the anek because of this they began to say this this they would say to as an blessed is God from world to World from this world to the world to the there is not much more to this world to this Cosmos to God's world that's not just this world it's his world there's a spirituality Beyond rationalism from this world below to the world of Truth above and this was contr the the Sadducees who said there's no such thing as okay now that gets us to bras the men of the great assembly when they saw who the ones who wrote our right these they were n right Mor was amongst them right so they they saw what was happening and that the there was a tremendous power to science and to rationalism without going into of course that we science plays a very big part a very big role in Torah we we understand that physics you can't we're going to learn physics in in believe me we're going to learn physics and but they didn't see it that way right so there was tremendous uh um kir and aorus and uh and uh heretic ISM moving away from from Divinity from Torah so establish AB for each of the mitvah that we perform became very important is a key by making a you're attaching right and recognizing that the act that we're doing the act of remember we said the essence of this world is to develop personal relationship not with the acts that we do but with Theon right so by saying a by pausing and saying those words Etc we we we we attach ourselves and we become aware it's not just a dry physical activity but when we do a Mitzvah it impacts in all the worlds above this world as well when a person wraps on his hand when a person takes or like shabas candles right the whole world all the worlds of the univer God's Universe shake a Mitzvah Mitzvah has reverberations throughout the Universe when a Jew does a Mitzvah and it gives it energizes with Holiness into the into the entire Creation in all the spiritual world all of this in the power of ab of saying abraa right you know I'm just going to interrupt very quickly the Von was thrown into the into the jail for a very brief time every all know that laab was in jail that balatan was in jail and there a tremendous AUM to the day got out and so on people don't realize that that the vill was also in jail right not in the same jail not at the same time but when he was in jail for a short time they threw him in and he was in there with with the the worst kind of people so he was in jail and he threw in a pale of water and there was a yid there right sitting with the villon and he went to get the water and he took the thing and he's about to drink and the vill go says listen make a br make a br he says rebba if you only knew what I've done in my life I'm gonna make a br he said listen to me listen to me that after 120 years R is GNA ask you many things but he's also going to ask you why didn't you make a on that glass of water or why didn't you have when you made the is key right okay I'm just throwing that in when we make a we are attaching that act that we're about to do with the entire universe with the entire K isra we're we're we're demonstrating that that br will have significance in the in the entire world it's not just a dry physical act that's the next call the moral he quotes AAL here now we're done with BR let's get to right what's the essence of bringing the may he brings a word from the it is appreciation to the for all of nation for mother nature we accept Mother Nature we accept science we accept the world that he's given us but we understand that it come where it comes from and we thank him we thank that's what the OM is all about is bringing that Corb right the farmer sleeps at night brings clouds brings the W and and and the rains come and the T grows the farmer wakes up you think this is the way it works this is Mother Nature happens by itself carry happen stance right that's our theme tonight comes along to tell you nothing is happen stance nothing is carry everything is run by the we have to for everything that happens in this world even the working of gravity nature right he does everything Sprouts in the ground tall that's where he's getting at when we cut it off we take the standing grain right the bro is that standing just like a person stands up in the morning just like that the is standing Standing Tall he yes why do we have a name for Theon what's the name of Theon amid why is it called amid well first of all it's 19 bras and we now know we have to stand for every broa but I think there's something much more to that the emphasis here is on it's bringing out what the 19 bras of Theon are all about it's amid it's standing up when a person is standing he is in in a physical sense is is as high as he can be from his own personal physical effort can't get any higher than standing up with his head on top and his physical body below right when the sickle hits the hits the standing grain is the awareness everything comes from that's what we stand up to recognize here here by by the OM that's what the OM is all about right to recognize the standing to recognize the source right and to plug into the source here the whole of BR standing for br comes when a person stands up he he exercises and activates that man is f two two parts physical body that's life physical life the superiority of man right his head his mind which is looking upwards right which is to the upper worlds from standing up straight like a person has to stand when he says the right right from here we learn our standing finally it's about the it's not about doing the mitvah itself the the key is the it's this the key of awareness it's not just a simple word you know I urge you to take a slow go slow with there's so much there so much Torah there the source of the word bar is we bend the knee B also there a fountain I'm not going to go into it we speak to God at we speak to him you he can we can be personal with him and then we step back we say Al we speak to him in the third there's so much there take your time the MIT that we do that's physical that's phys whatever Mitzvah we're doing take that lul and whatever Mitzvah we're doing right and making kidish it's all physical reality right of that physical mitz for that physical exercise and and Mitzvah that we're doing is really bring out the spirituality of it that's in the everything we do has the potential to spiral upwards to this is the essence of om that's what om is all about when the sickle hits the standing grain the bras that we have to say and we have to say them standing we learn here from the standing grade okay thank you all for sharing these beautiful thoughts together share them you went your shabas table or before or even after um the Haka on Wednesday uh what were we doing on on Wednesday yes yes yes Friendly Fire um toad right Friendly Fire which we've seen so much of um does does a soldier have to do chuva does he have to get a kapar for killing by accident in in a war that's what we're we talk about the