Parshat Ki Tavo 5784 by Rabbi Baruch Taub

okay good evening everybody I have three very interesting pieces on Paras kavo and also one piece on rashash Sha and uh some of this we have done in the past from a different perspective but I'm going to actually not really repeat them but I'm going to do them and uh some of it might sound familiar to you but it's worth worth going over again okay let's start with number one this is um an idea from R salic it's actually in um RAB shar's saer um neav which where he brings pieces from his rebi Rik and it relates you know in Paras kavo we have a covenantal relationship with Ben Israel there's actually two covenants that are made two Bri brot two bristen that are made between the Ron and cl Isel one at har and the other now in arot moev the two parts of this bris are number one at har AEL and harim when the tribes were divided on each six on one and six on the other and the bras and the claas were given and the BR the bris continued is part of the TOA the actual curses the anti bras in this week's paraa are are part of the are part of the bris okay so RAB Sal going to talk about the utility of two bris and why do we have two two covenantal relationships so we said in our in our this is actually at the end these are the words of the God commanded to to have a covenant in aside from aside from the bris that made with us at in other words the two times in the Torah we have the to the anti bras the terrible terrible anti bras that happen to us if we don't keep the Torah right um the bras in the CL the first time in you have the and the second one is in the first bris in the first place where the the claws were given the broas and the claw these are the laws and legislations and the which he gave on Mount Si through Moshe in other words so the first BR was in har when the Torah was given Kar that's that's it and the language that used in our this was said the statement that he's giving us a bris was said concerning this bris in Moab now why why two brisen what's the distinction between bris one and bris two so he's going to point two um dramatic differences between the brism and uh he's going to explain our second bris the one that we're dealing with in our para the reason why was the ne necessity for a second Covenant with it says in in this is in I'm G to give you the of I'm not just giving this to you this BR is not just for those who are standing here with me right now but therefore for d for every generation of Cl Israel for for for time in Memorial sh Rashi and Rashi says there in his p on the Torah he brings a gor this second Covenant this obligat obligates future Generations Like Us in this Covenant whereas the first PR was only given at Hari for the people at Hari as he's going to explain this was only for those Jews who left Egypt in other words only the people who actually participated in that moment of giving the brid this bris was only given to individuals were there at9 ma but not not this brid the second Covenant in our par which is 40 years after the receiving of the Torah at and all of these all of these individuals who received the first BR no longer were alive no longer alive this bris is given to as a people in the right I make you into an a people now what's what's the origin of the word IM right what's loan the word IM IM means with together that's the word in Hebrew loan kodish means with I go with you so IM the is the unification of the Jewish people that's where the word I'm comes from because there is a connectedness and a connection between for every between every individual to become one unit of is is he points in something he makes a parenthetical comment let's say for example in in the world of Nations if one nation makes a deal with another Nation it also obligat future generations to keep that that covenantal relationship because they're all considered an extension of that country that Nation right the second Covenant it was also for the future Generations that came in CL is they're part of the even if they're not even alive yet they're part of the that all came into the Covenant that's the word from the word IM the second Brit includes all generations of K Israel the first bris only the who died after har this 40 years but that was their bris now what's what's another distinction of this Covenant that we have in our par so therefore because of that that this BR is for everybody all of CLA Israel there's another dramatic distinction between the bris of harini and the bris that is given now in our par in this R is the din of arv which did not exist in the previous what's AR call is AR that every Jew is AR is responsible for every other Jew this did not exist in the previous breit in har this was an addendum to the bris given now because of the bris is for the um for all of us the last here in in in our the the says the hidden things are to that which is revealed is for us and our children afterwards we have to do it we have to do this AR this this inter action active responsibility um in other words he says understood to do we are forced to do we are obligated to do it AR is a responsibility built into the second Covenant that K is AR has built into to this this Covenant right he says how does how does AR work right so the idea of Y that in other words let's say I've given this example many times people sit together at KES Friday night there's a Mitzvah to be mades Shabbat to sanctify Shabbat one person makes the Kish on behalf of everyone else right and everyone else is y because the person making the Kish is obligated himself so that's a rule that's the rule that he says here he says time the it again lift this is something that's very obviously part of our life Rashi explains in the gamor the time of the reason why someone who who let's say someone has already fulfilled the Mitzvah can he still fulfill the mitzvah for me let's say you come late to KES right and someone already made KES he was he fulfilled the mitz of Kes right can he make The KES again yes that's that's called y Mo even if he himself is yot he's fulfilled the mitzah he can make the Kish again for another person why so what does that mean this is a powerful statement in other words every Jew is responsible to the other means that even if someone made Kish already for himself he saidil MIT but if there's another Jew in the world who did not perform that Mitzvah and I can do that Mitzvah on his behalf then I have not really completely fulfilled my Mitzvah my Mitzvah is only fulfilled by helping that other Jew who has not done the Mitzvah do the Mitzvah powerful statement that's he's still obligated the if that wasn't the case we would say someone who FF the he can't make the Kish for everybody else right but that's not true it's none the because normally generally speaking if someone is not obligated let's say a cutton someone under Bar Mitzvah he can't Lan in sh for us because he is not obligated to do the mitv yet right someone who's not obligated cannot do the mitzah for somebody else so for all other Mitzvah in the Torah that's the way it goes but with regards to AR even if someone has fulfilled the Mitzvah so he's not obligated in the Mitzvah himself but if there's someone who didn't do the Mitzvah he's obligated to do it this is the exception that proves the world theu the rule this is a a Nuance of this concept of this only began when CL Isel crossed over the Jordan River our para receive the blessings and the curses at Mount ail and mount gim that's part of the bris sh this is the conclusion of the Brit the second breit right mosu in other words Moshe was no longer alive it was done in Isel by yua butes who wanted mosha to be involved in both brisen in the bris of Hari and in this bris right so because he wanted it to be under M the the master of all prophets therefore on the other side of the coin since they became Jews when they came into Israel right now just skip over the parenthesis um say since this is now being done with the people as a people as an right and also um another L word for nation um with an olive and also means with right so not as individuals so therefore it had to be extended and stalled until we got into was not allowed to go into how could he do it it should be established by but the bris was established after B is came into Isel when the real IM and the and the IM iron took place he was commanded to begin the bre student yes completed it they were not a separate breed it's a continuation an extension of the bris that Moshe gave us in Aros MOA okay that's the distinction between the two brisen and dramatically principally is that the concept this great concept of was not part of the first breed it's part of the second breed okay the second piece is from saer um and this is one of the great um ofan in the 20th century um and he says like this he quotes a p this is the mitvah of bringing the first fruits to to the mikdash the farmers remember and call Israel was principally a an Agricultural Society and PR main Mitzvah in the Torah is bringing one's first fruits to The Bash giving them to the cohain after he he dedicates them and um and making the statement which makes up the major uh the the central motif of the ha all those God took me you know we suffered then he took me out of Egypt and he brought me into the land of AR Israel those are the the vers of the statement of of Bim of bringing the boring thanking Theon for everything he gave us and I want to just point out to you that according to the rambam there's a misn people make a mistake they say that they think the Mitzvah is bringing the first fruits that's not the Mitzvah the Mitzvah is thanking the Rabon for what he does for us and the Avenue of doing that is bringing the first fruits this is the exact language of the in the says it very clearly it's a Mitzvah to thank the raon right and by bringing the fruits the first fruits this is our bring our first right this is a way we we really say thank you in the best manner okay now based on this P he's GNA say over AA based on a gamor there's a gamor in chabas a story about the cow that belonged to rebelar bazaria sh B re I heard from the great rebi mville now if you haven't heard of R mville it might be you have heard of him there's a a very old cemetery near the knesset near the Israel Museum in that section A small old cemeter in where this VBA is buried and there's a great for shim of going to the Kev of the rebi mville in that cemeter and literally thousands of people go and there are amazing miraculous stories about shim that have been made by virtue of going and doing that the of the rebi should help in the in the in any case that's not what he's he's talking about but he heard from the RAB mville Al concerning the story of the chabas the Miss chabas talks about certain things that even an animal cannot carry if there's no a it's considered a burden now putting a strap between the horns of a bull let's say cow is considered excuse me aasu it's considered a burden and one is not one and one there's a Mitzvah of the Mitzvah shabas doesn't just apply to us it applies to our animals also our animals have to rest on Shabbat also so if my animal goes out with a um a strap between its horns then I'm responsible that my animal carried on Shabbat right and this was against his the the pur of the cow of of um of um rear vazar went out with this strap right that's what the gorah says now the gorar was a gazillionaire he had one cow what do you mean the cow ofar yehud the rabbis report trar Al Meer rebelar benar k v every year the Meer the Meer means the oneth the oneth of his his cattle right every year one tenth of of his cattle was uh was thousands of was tracar AOL was 12,000 12,000 uh 12,000 cows Cavs right that was the Meer what does he say what does it mean the cow what do they mean he had millions of cows this cow not belong to him it belonged to a neighbor of his but he did not stop the person he did not go over and talk to the person and say you can't do this but that right so the cow is considered his cow he was the rabbi he was the Rob he wasar his neighbor his next door neighbor did this and he didn't say anything this is his cow not the millions of cows that he had the other million he had tens of thousands of cows every year they were born in his 120,000 cows were born a year in his cattle right one cow goes out with a strap between its horns didn't really belong to him belonged to his neighbor that notwithstanding in the the mishna refers to it as the cow of rebelar benar how do we how do we get how do we get our heads around this whoever learns this Mish below without the this is his par right so why should he get such a punishment but of course we saw the gor now especially Jalem so one time one time one time this cow went out like that and the rest of his life his teeth were black from fasting that one time shalom because he didn't didn't tell the person to do chuva so he was now doing Chua all his life he did he fasted so many days he would fast all his life that his teeth were not white anymore right why is it the Torah insist the miss insists on calling it his para when in fact it was his neighbors he did Chua all his life for doing this even though he had hundreds of thousands of his own right so he says it like this it's it's a darar so the rebi said if you think about all the millions of cattle that re aarya had larum after 120 years nothing was left it doesn't belong to him when he leaves this world that one upon which he did chuva CH out of love he this was his Merit he went to not with a million cows he went to with one cow the cow upon which he did Chua Shar this is a fitting gor for as we approach in the month of we approach the right that when one does Chua from love his even his Z even the purposeful of erors that he does on purpose become their Merit become merits right not accidental but they become merits that's why it's called the cow ofar this is the one Cowal which really belonged to him and belong to him forever forever and ever okay let's go to the final piece from to a beautiful Mak from r hutner on rashash on a very well-known gamorra that we're all familiar with it and he's going to start with it and he's going to um bring out something very special this is not the whole piece I've cut it down so we'll we'll be okay here's the thing we know this there are three that are opened up on R right purely righteous people are on yipper to long life thoroughly evil people Al the death the people in the middle they they stand in the balance they hang in the balance from R to yipper right Z if they Merit they are sealed for life if they do not Merit they are sealed for death that's the gorah the r curiously when he brings this gor for he changes ever so slightly he changes the language of the gamor the B the man in the middle if he merits right he signed for sealed for Life the ra changes it he says that the B is me right he's half and half right right if he does he's sealed for Life instead of saying he merits right he he makes it more specific if this man in the middle of this B does Chua he gets sealed for life not if he merits it right now he brings a question from Maran g r Blaser petur this is what R Blaser was known as pger because he was the chief Rabbi of St Petersburg i' mentioned in the past he was one of the three major students of rev salant and it's interesting when he became the rabbi of St Petersburg no today it's not called it's called Leningrad right Leningrad is St Petersburg I believe so but it used to be called St Petersburg so he was known as rabit pburg so they came um to to make him the rabbi in St Petersburg he wasn't living there and uh he his wife had a little store a grocery store he sat in the back learning Torah writing Torah writing K and they came to see him and they came to ask him to be the r of St Petersburg you know what his answer was I might have told some of you this years ago his answer was I can't be the rabbi why not I'm afraid to pasin shilas so they said to him what you're hired we don't want someone who very glibly oh that that's M oh that that's user we want someone who takesaka very seriously and he became RIT pedg okay but he has a question on this Ram he doesn't understand why the ram has to change the language what do you mean what do you mean the man in the middle right he's 5050 right he has 50% aerys and 50% misus right she says yes like this to here's my question his his his deeds are are half they're equal there's no good is not over evil right it's therefore the Merit that he has whatever it is take take one mitvah and put it on top from 50 to 50 make it 51 to you know let it be let him have a majority of merits of to be Z Right add one more Mitzvah and you've gone over the H over the top right what do you what's his business with Chua it's a mathematical thing it's a quantitative thing he's half and half so change the math take one more make do one more Mitzvah right so you are now more you're 51 to 49 you win what what's this business of chuva okay that's his question so is going to answer the question by saying that this whole idea of what his his whole approach is really not accurate of what 50 what the man in the middle really means right it's not simply somebody who's 50% one way and 50% the other way this question that he asks is an excuse for us for to properly explain what it means that he has an overabundance of sins versus an overabundance of or vice versa superficially we conclude at we think of it as a quantitative thing right superficially it's it's quantitative right since there are other things that play here right it's not just the mathematics it's not just the quantity as we've spoken about we spoke about last week there's a certain quality to certain kinds of mitvah right one Mitzvah might be worth 10 Merit points right so it's not all mathematics but but you can't discount excuse me the expression the P you cannot discount the the mathematics of the quantification of mes and AAS right there's certain mitzvas that are worth more than many than you know one Mitzvah can be worth 10 of the other way around so let's say it switches around right says shall we mentioned this last week that who makes the in the end who's the bigger sadic right the makes the because you could be a Jew living in in y doing every single Mitzvah and a Jew living in witchar Kansas who only keeps kosher but he has goes to get that meat to him right so he's going to be better so it's not just mathematics right so it it is also not only it's not only um quantitative it's also qualitative right mik but at the end of the day there's a calculation of how many mitzvas and how many AAS he has okay so some misses might be much worth much more so he goes up his mathematics go up right but it's it's basically isn't it basically a mathematical thing right that is The Superficial way of understanding it now what's wrong with that now here I'm going to fill in the blanks this is not on the sheet the last paragraph is just going to be the conclusion but what's wrong if if you if it's quantitatively just add another scoot right or add add another scoot that's worth that's worth 10 right but it's still mathematical right what's wrong with that right a person is changing constantly right I do a Mitzvah today I did another a a Mitzvah a Mitzvah it's a graph it's constantly changing so when do you stop the clock does it really mean that by but but NE at yipper Theon stops the clock okay where are you right like some kind of a game show on television right he stops the clock and he counts up how many misses you have and how many you have are you equal are you more are you less is that that's what does that make sense obviously not it can make sense right so it's it's much more it's something else it's something it's about the person it's about who he is it's not about what he does right like for example even if someone let's say someone is aad he a sadic right he's tadic and he doesn't have error right uh and a Russia does the same a the a is much worse when the Russia does it because the is still sadic he did an a he's going to do Chua right there's a certain quality to the AA that he does even if it's the same AA that that the Russia does right right um let's see the final thing he'll it'll come up beautifully now does rubub whether a person has a majority of sins or majority of of Merit points or a majority of demerit points whether he's in the middle right whether is it r in the middle it's not mathematical it's about who he is it's about who he is it's about how he sees himself now I'm gonna answer's question is not a question it's not about adding one Mitzvah right said no since he's 50/50 one Merit point at the time of the signing he said he's good he's no longer a mer guy he's no longer a middle guy anymore he becomes he says no so why does the ra say no he has do CH here's here's what he says now we see it shall the the this question is not a good it's not a question right the way we were explaining it a person has more merits than Dem merits that's a that's a statement of who he is who he is who he wants to be even if at that moment he has more demerits than merits but he is a person who wants to be a person with more merits and he'll do right it's right again that's what I want to be I want to be a Russ I just want to do all the bad things right therefore the man in the middle is a the man in the middle not that he's 5050 he he's the he doesn't have a he has no identity he doesn't have his de he doesn't know who he is that's the ban I don't know if I want to go this way or I want to go that way right I that sadic is a person who knows which way he wants to go even if at that moment he's more Aus than mitzvas he's still at sadic because he's going that's why the says if he does cha and that's what this man in the middle has to do he has to discover himself right but this man he hasn't have he has no identity with either way the the definition of the man in the middle is a guy with no no identity he doesn't know where he was going to go so even if he adds a couple of mitzvas but he's still a man in the hasn't decided okay I'll do this okay maybe I'll do this I won't even if he goes over the top he's still a man in the middle and as long as his identity has not not been has not been discerned he hasn't you know there can't be person has to make a decision I'm going to be about I'm gonna make a I'm gonna do CH I'm human I'm gonna do the best I can right that's why the ra changes the language it's not about merits right he repaired his personality he's no longer the man in the middle he's determined he's going in One Direction it's only Chua that's going to get him out of this rut this incorrect view of himself and become a sadic right and he will be Merit life eternal life so this is a beautiful understanding of why the ram changed one little word in this very famous Gora that we're all familiar with Okay so we've got our work cut out for ourselves okay next week uh we're going to do the paraa or maybe not next week I want to focus on yum Kipper uh this is this is an unusual year it's um Yer Shabbat y Kipper comes out on chabas and I want to talk about that is that just a calendar um happening or is there something very special about something additional about chabas that comes out on the chabas of shabos on yum Kipper that's what we're going to discuss next week okay thank you very much have a wonderful evening have a wonderful week okay and hopefully we'll see some of you on Wednesday we're going to talk on Wednesday about M between the talm and the the PO and the Zohar between Caba there was mysticism and reveal Torah how do we pusin that's what we're going to talk about on Wednesday okay thank you all take care