Shaping Judaism's Eternal Balance | Rabbi Shmuel Goldin | June 3rd 2025

more general. In other words, it covers a lot of areas and it begins on Moshe's final day in Dvarim. Take a look for a moment if you will at the first section on your sheet. Mosher Rabenu is standing before Ben Israel and we have to when you read Safer Dvarin when you get there you really have to remember the drama that is unfolding in each of the parote Mosher Rabenu is basically saying farewell he's basically standing in front of Ben Israel and Safer Devarim consists entirely of Moshe's farewell speeches to ben Israel saying goodbye and one of the most dramatic moments is defi is described at the very beginning of paratim. Take a look for a moment at that section and recognize first of all the tremendous drama and poetry that exists within it. Moshe says you are standing here today all of you before Hashem your God all all of you those who are regular citizens those who are are soul those who are judges those who are uh soldiers or or shim uh guards Everyone, your children, your wives, your husband, everyone, everyone to contract the covenant that God is or to participate in the covenant that Hashem is creating today. What is this covenant? You are going to be his nation. He's going to be your God. It's a reciprocal agreement. And then the powerful sentence, those who are standing here today before God and those who are not with us, future generations are all going to be bound by what we're we're we're agreeing to today. So, it's a a dramatic poetic moment, but it's also technically a legal moment according to Khazah because what Moshe is saying is that God is contracting with Ben Israel a covenant, a breit and a covenant is a a technical document or a technical uh uh agreement. Basically, we are saying Moshe is saying God is creating an agreement with you today. You're signing on the dotted line, not only for yourselves, but for everyone who is about to come. And God is contracting a bris with you today. He's contracting today on my last day, he's contracting a bris, a covenant with you that he will be your God and you will be his nation. And Kazal, by the way, we're not going to talk about these technicalities. Kazal take a look at this bris and raise a number of issues. They say number one, can you contract a brisk with someone who's not there? How how can that be done? How how can Moshe obligate oreshu obligate generations to come if they're not present at the time of the bridge, at the time of the covenant? Other technicalities are are raised, but we're going to raise a a a technicality that's much deeper. one that is raised by Rab Salvik Satsal. He says go back to Hari. Go back for a moment to har and we also experience dramatic moments, the thunder, the lightning, the the voice of the chauffeur. But also there's a technical bris that takes place at Harai. If you take a look at the paragraph below, this paragraph is found after the declarations that they're not sarased are not ten commandments. They are it would have been habit if it was ten commandments. It's wrote right the ten declarations the 10 statements. And there are a variety of different positions as to why these particular declarations out ofund know 613 mitzvot are proclaimed at this moment. But one way or the other we are at the moment where we've already heard the 10 declarations and Moshe is about to go up hari and be there for 40 days and he'll come back etc. And the plan is he's going to bring down the the and he turns to Israel and look at what he says and look what happens. Bottom of the page Moshe offers sacrifices, takes the blood, sprinkles it on the maker habit. Second line, bottom of the page, he takes the seabit, the book of the covenant, and reads it aloud to B Israel. Now, what the book of the covenant is at this point is unclear. Is it the Torah up until this moment? Is it? But whatever it may be, he reads something and they said, and this is the famous response of Ben Israel. Why is that so unusual? Because what they're saying is they're going to they're willing to take the leap before they understand, right? Nah said we're going to do it and we'll listen to it. In other words, we're willing to go ahead even though we don't know the details. He takes some of the blood of the sacrifice and he throws it on the nation. This is the blood of the covenant that Hashem is contracting with you today at Hari. Wait a minute. Why do I need two covenants? If there is a covenant, if there is a bris that is contracted, and let's remember, I'm talking in legalistic terms about something that's poetic and dramatic, but it's legal as well. If God contracts a bris with Ben Israel at Hareni, which he does, why does he need to contract a second brit on Mosha's last day? It seems to be superfluous, not necessary. And if it and if it is necessary, what does that say about the first priest? That it that it was temporal, that it didn't last that what happened? So Rav Salvage Zatsal comes up with a a fascinating answer which we will trace through the calendar. If you turn to page two, the RV suggests that there are actually two breto that God contracts with Ben Israel. There are two covenants. One covenant is known as Brit aote or kaducat avote. Basically this is the brit of the literally the brit of the forefathers of the of the ancestors. And then there is the brit atmid the kaduca atmid the individual covenant. What are these two covenants? Says the RA. The first one is a covenant that comes to you simply through affiliation. You are part of cloud Israel or the term that the RV use is Knesset Israel. Knesset Israel is this entity that will exist across time. And if you declare your allegiance to that particular entity then by definition you are a part of the bris simply by belonging simply by being and that's the covenant that's created at harenai that's the covenant that exists when we become a nation when we create kessa Israel and that covenant is is is again is um added to your to your life basically through affiliation with Knesset Israel. Period. Finished. No devotion. What affiliation means is a very good question. All right. In other words, affiliation is devotion, but it's it's affiliation. In other words, I want to be part of this nation. I want to be part of this o eternal group that marches through history. Yes. environment and the state is going to be there. Thank you. Okay. Very good point. Very good point. That these this we'll see it's mirrored elsewhere as well. But it's but that precedes the brito in other words. So there's there's already a sense you're saying that there are two going to be two paths. Yes. At what point exactly do we become people? Is it mentioned? At what point do we become a a people? We become a people at harve. [Music] Right. Agreed. He's taking you to him as a nation. In other words, there's a Well, we'll see. We'll see in a moment that what that means. So, and basically, you're right. The language is is kind of um misleading at that moment, but we'll look at take a look at the language again. Right. The second bris, the one that is contracted on our vote mo in the plains of Moav on the last day of a of Moshe's life. That's the brit atmat. That's a covenant that God makes with each one of us individually, personally. He makes a covenant with us that if we will obey his laws and if we will be Jewish in terms of what we our lives and dedicate our lives to his to him and to the devotion to the law, then he is making a covenant with each of us that he is going to be a personal God with us. And therefore what the RA is saying is that there is a need for both of these covenants that that there is a fundamental need that courses through Jewish history we will see and that courses through Jewish practice that mirrors this dual this dual bris. Yes, I don't know the scope of this, but um it's a statement on hari. It's the blood. Why? Okay, good. There's a there could be a number of answers to that. I'll give you one answer. The question he asked was the two brito. Why are they so different in terms of their ritual? In the case of the of Hareni, it's the dam of the of the the blood of the carbon. In the case of Moshe's last day, it's simply the declaration. I'm not sure. It may tie into something that we've said before, and that is that we're dealing with two very different generations, right? In other words, we're dealing at Hareni with the generation of of that left Egypt and that only understands strength and ritual. And we're dealing in now with the second the next generation that needs to be spoken to. And that's we tied that into Moshe hitting the rock instead of speaking to the rock if you remember. And that therefore that was a failure of recognizing the transition between the two generations. All right. So let's understand what we're really saying here. What we're basically saying is there is a balance between Yahid and Cibur. Isn't that really what these two brito are? There's a balance in Jewish life and Jewish thought in Jewish experience between the individual and the community, between the collective and the personal. And we we have spoken about this before. We can trace this balance or the need for this balance back way before the institution of Jewish people. If you remember, we spoke about it's wild. If you don't remember, it's okay. It's been a while. There are two failed civilizations. We said at the dawn of human history. There is the civilization, the society, the dormabul, which is the generation of the flood, and there is the generation of dispersion, the dha. We suggested based upon kazal that each of these generations fail in the balance between y and sib at the opposite extremes and we also suggest that the definition of every society entails that balance. What kind of society we live in is determined by the balance of yak and cibor. If you lived in communist Russia, there was only a concern about the tibor, only a concern about the community. Individual rights were were were ignored or or not important. And if you live in America, there's a argument that maybe we're going too far to personal rights. And we're, you know, the uh the the whole question of how we deal with individuals who are not behaving the way they should within society. Should they be in prison? Should they all sorts of different arguments. Now those two societies I say sinned at the extremes. The society of the doram the rabbis portray it as the Torah says it's kamas. Their sin was theft. The rabbis portray it as, if you'll remember, somebody with a bushel of grapes starts at one end of the path, walks through the crowd, and everybody what? Takes one grape. So that by the time he reaches the end of the path, they he ain't got no grapes left. But he cannot turn to any one individual and say, "You stole my grapes." Every individual said, "I stole this in the pros. That's nothing. I just took a grape at osherad. Right. Um I just took a grape. So if if I just took a grape, it's really not stealing, right? So therefore therefore what is happening in that society is really you are mocking societal rules. You're saying I'm going to do an end run around the societal rules. It's I can't steal so I won't steal. I'll do something else that it'll have the same effect at individual greed and that society has to be destroyed entirely because it's the individuals that are the problem. When it comes to the doraflaga, the generation of dispersion, the rabbis have a different view. What do they say? They say, if you'll remember, there are steps leading to the top of the tower that's being built. There's steps going down. They say if a brick if falls well start the other way. If a person falls off the tower, nobody pays attention. If a brick falls off the tower, everybody goes into mourning. What does that mean? What what what's the concept of that midrash? The concept of midrash is that their sin in some ways was founded in a belief in the society at the expense of the individual. All that matters is the bricks. All that matters is a tower. Really, you this the fact that individuals have rights, forget that. It's not important. The fact that individuals have value, not important. So that society where the sin is societal as opposed to individual. What what has to happen? Just the society has to be destroyed. And that's why God does not destroy them like the dorham totally but just disperses them so that their society can continue. So what we're suggesting is at the dawn of human history already we're being told this is the balance that has to be created in society between individual and community and the two of them will be at odds at times. The famous statement about human rights in in America is can you can you call fire in a crowded theater? And if you can't, then it's then you're limiting my free speech. Right? What's going on there now with anti-semitism? The free speech of the people on the college campus have to be able to say what they want to say, right? But not if everybody not if you cause a group to feel so frightened that they're hiding in a library and you're trying to break down the door. Right? So, but but that's the tension. That's the tension. What what my individual rights versus the need of the collective. Now what I want to do is I want to show how this balance courses through our year. How it courses through the holidays and our experiences during the year and really defines much of Judaism. If for example before we even get to to the to the examples I have think for a moment about the way we pray right is it better to pray alone or to pray in a crowd? Better to pray, right? It's better to come and have a minan and have a a banet. But the most important prayer we say is what? The amido, right? How are you supposed to say that to yourself? Basically, you're you're supposed to say it only loud enough for you to hear. Nobody should hear it. Why? Because you are at that moment. You're having your personal conversation with the and everybody else is having their personal conversation and then what happens after I have my personal conversation? Well, then we do it out loud. So, it gets communal again. And by personal conversation, by the way, every single one of those is in the plural, right? Give us wisdom. I don't say, "God, this is my personal moment. Give me wisdom." I say, "Give us wisdom." So, I'm jockeying back and forth in in the jocking back and forth between individual and community and and recognizing the tension and and covering both. Now, let's take a look, as I said, at the cycle of the year. Take a look at page two. And we're turning first to the Yamim no and particularly to Yom Kipur. And what we're going to talk about actually serves as the basis for the the RV's comment that RV's observation that we spoke about. And there's a section in the Rambam that underscores the problem that he's addressing. And that sound on page number two at the bottom. And I remember being in class where he dealt with this particular Ramba. The RV used to have two books open on his desk. He would have the Gammorra and the Rambam. Those were the two. And he because he felt, you know, the Rambam took the and turned it into written law. And how the Rambam worded, what he said, it amazing the the the insights that were given in that class. I told somebody the other day that I was I was very nervous about going into the ruv shear. Uh first of all because he was very tough. He was tough. If you if you were reading and you couldn't read well, he'd let you have it. You know, he So I figured that there were poles in the room. I was going to sit behind the pole. But the problem was that I found out that the real estate behind the pole was very dear. There were a lot of other people s already sitting behind the pole. So I couldn't sit behind the pole. The other thing I was worried about which was really much deeper is I was afraid that I would go to the sheer and not find it to be what everybody said it was. Maybe it won't affect maybe I won't be affect. I was so wrong. I walked into a room. There were about a hundred students. The RV is speaking and explaining and everyone is talking. Why are they talking? Because they're trying to figure out and what's what's the rub saying and is is he saying this? Is he saying this? And keeping on and then every once in a while the rub would go shut up. All right. And and basically we have it got quiet for a while and then started up again. In order to understand him, you had to be and he was tremendously honest. He was tremendously honest. There would be moments in the shure where he was going through something and he would basically say someone would ask a question and he said, you know, you just destroy this this edifice that we're building. Just destroy close the book end of the year. I have to go think about it. I'll come back tomorrow. He was willing to admit that what he that his initial understanding of something was not right. It's not correct. How many professors are willing to admit that in front of a class, right? That's not done right. So this that I what I said to my community when RV passed away was other teachers told us to think like they think. The RV told us to think, comma, like he thought. Meaning, think for yourselves. Think, think. Don't don't just don't spit back what I'm telling you. Use it, apply it, and and somehow come to your own conclusions. And that that's really very critical. He taught us to think. And he and he demanded that we think. That's why he was so tough. If you just spit back what he said and you didn't understand it, you were just he would get kind of angry. You had to you had to be take it in and you had to it had to be personal and you had to be thinking for yourself. All right. Anyway, that's an aside. Now we're talking about this section in the Ramom which is dealing with one of the one of the most difficult um and mysterious rituals in Jewish law and that's the laipper the the goat which is sent out carrying the sins of Ben Israel to the death to its death in the in the wilderness. Right? So take a look at what the Rambam says. Also since the this scent goat is an atonement for all of Israel Coen God. The Coen God is the one who does the vidy on it etc etc. And then next underlined section I'll call this this this goat atones for all sins. Those which are difficult, big sins, great sins, and those which are minor. And the definition of major and this is going to become important for us in a moment is those sins which carry the punishment of kate or mis sham those sins which carry heavenly decree of excision from the community or or death at god's hands those are the those are the kabur so the saleak atones for both the and wrote but then next underlined section but that's only if you do chuva if you don't do chuva what would I expect then that it doesn't work right look at what it says serves to atone for what the minor minor sins What what is this magic? I you know poof. Uh and there's another statement on concerning Yom Kipper by one of the great scholars in the Talmud. Hal is not like him who says that the day of Yom Kipper itself can give atonement even if you don't do Chuva, even if you don't repent. So what's going on? So the Reb says it's brilliant. There are two breto. There is one bre which is the brit aod and that breit is represented by the raishtal for atonement. What do I mean? The sirishtale it's kapor I'll call Israel says the raam. It's atonement for the collective. And how do I gain atonement through this la zoazelle? simply through affiliation with that collective. But it will only atone automatically for certain sins. For sins which carry the punishment of or excision it won't atone for those. Why? Because they are sins that take you out of the community. Right? That's the point. Those kamur wrote are sins which by definition you've you've removed yourself from the collective. That's why you're being punished with ostracism from the community according to the the hands of heaven. Once you declare you're not part of the collective then will work for you at all. So it works for you for some sins because it's a collective. So there are two atonements says the rough. There are two atonements or two paths towards atonement on yogipur. There is the collective path and there is the personal path. You only completely atone if you follow both paths but partial atonement comes to you even if you only follow one path. Now we see this mirrored in the makur in the braha. We say onipur. Take a look at page three. O Israel. Blessed is God who atones for our sins and for the sins of his nation is wait a minute. If it's our our nation Israel, right? So it says atoning for my sins. By definition, he's atoning for the sins of nation Israel. No. What is it saying? He atones for our sins through the personal path of Brits. And he atones for the sins that are atoned in a collective fashion by the zel for those who affiliate. And therefore the braha is not a repetition. The brah is saying who God we're praying to God who gives us two paths essential to atonement. The path of affiliation and the path of my own observance. We're going to talk more about what this really means in in in just a while. But I want to show you how it's mirrored in every yontove that we have. Next sukkot. There are two sets of laws on sukkot, right? One is the arbaim and the other is the suka. If I'm in shul and I didn't bring on the first day of y which is the diorisa day and I forgot my lul and esro at home can I turn to my neighbor and say can I borrow yours? No, can't do it. He has to give it to me as a mat. Even if it's legally a mat, which is I'm giving it to you as a gift on the condition that after you get it, you're going to bring it back to me. It's going to belong to me. You must own the aram that first day of yont. You can't you can't fulfill it with anyone else's. What about the suka? Can I go into someone else's suka? says the it would be appropriate or good for one to to contain Israel everybody in one big suka their image of that is the community the collective. So what the two major sets of laws on sukkot create the balance. Next take a look at pesak. interesting that coming in person each is representing a different Okay. So very good. Okay. She says that that the the one that talks about the personal it is representing different people within the community. So two comments number one that may be true. In other words, khazal say that these representations exist, but the Torah doesn't say it, right? So, these are medashik in their Yeah, they're beautiful and it's certainly true. Is that is that what this is meant to represent? I don't know cuz it's coke. God God tell me. Right. So, that's number one. Number two, even if I accept that, what am I saying? I'm saying that all of those people are individuals who are becoming part of the community. Each I'm dividing them into sets and I'm saying that creates a collective. We're bringing them together. But the underscoring is the individuality, right? In other words, we're not all the same. So, no, that's correct. No, you're correct. We have to bring them to aud but nonetheless it's a taking together of the collective based upon your individuality. I my my schol in Anglewood New Jersey we had numerous minyanim and among them Ashkanazim and and I put as the sign or the puk they asked me what do I want to put in the hallway where everybody congregated. Right. So the answer is I respected the I respected the Ashkanazim. They each had their own ways of doing things but they're also part of the collective. So any anyway it's a way it's the way you view it I guess. All right. Next let's go to Pak. Now Pak is fascinating when we think about it. All right. We've said this before but again underscoring it. We are about put go back to the night before Pesak. We are about to become a nation where the first step in our national journey is going to take place. There are two we've said there are two foundational experiences that create the Jewish nation. One is its misim and one is uh matantora. How do I How does God tell me to mark the creation of the collective the night before? Do I come together in town square and have declarations of independence? Do I uh do I draw up a constitution? Go home. Go home and what? Have a family meal. have a that's really what the pesak sacrifice was. It was a family meal. Imagine we're sitting down and having a family meal. Well, maybe that sets the stage for our uh for how much we enjoy food periodically. But nonetheless, here we are about to become a nation. And what's God saying? It's going to depend on you. It's going to depend on each family. Each family is important. Each family is individual. And and by the way, even the structure of the pesak, what does it say? It says, "Take enough for everyone to eat that according to your misha." That's the first element in the kabura that you're creating, your misha. Then it says, if you can't find enough, if there aren't enough people in your nuclear family, what should you do? Extended family, what should you do? Invite someone. Right? That's moving out to the community. But then it says you can't escape your own personal responsibility because the community is being created. Every individual has to be counted and each person has to eat their full. In other words, everyone has to be involved. Yes. First you had the individual risk. He had two simulations for for the individual and then after we had the all right very good very good again it doesn't emerge totally from the from the text but it it does perhaps in a way because that pesak is one of those things where an or else someone who doesn't have a brisma cannot participate in the pesak sacrifice. So you're suggesting that we went through different experiences again mirroring community and individual. Fine. Good. Next. Shàuote. This is a little harder, right? Shaveote. Because shaveote doesn't have a real clear identity of its own other than its association with matantoro which is not found in the text by the way. uh it it's determined by the rabbis based upon calendaric computation. But when the Torah describes our receiving the Torah at Hari, there are two dramas taking place. One drama is the collective, the people at the foot of the mountain, and our acceptance as a collective of the law and our acceptance of being a nation under God. The second drama takes place on the summit of Mount Si where Moshe Rabenu struggles with his own individual relationship with Akadesh Bar. not only not only prays for the nation, but says toes, "Show me your ways. I I I don't know. You haven't reeled yourself." And and the the the Torah is so so powerful. In one sentence, it says that Moshe is the only one who saw Hashem Panim El Ponyim. And then face to face. And then in almost in the next sentence, what does it say? Hey, Moshe says, "I don't understand you. Show me. Show me your ways." So clearly what we're being told is that that is Mosha's personal struggle. And that's unfolding on the mountain while we're down below. So it's a personal and individual story and something that we have to recognize. When we think of it, we shouldn't just think of the people at the bottom of the mountain. We should recognize what's happening on on the summit. Mosher Raenu struggling to understand Hashem and on Shàuote there's something else that happens and really we we could have done we didn't a whole session on shàuote and and its identity but there's a mystery about shaveot because there are a lot of things that are left out the Torah doesn't tell you that this is the time of matan tora the Torah doesn't call it that right the Torah doesn't give a date to shaveote. Nowhere does every other holiday has a date. This is only the culmination of the omare, right? Doesn't have a date. And this sentence that's down below, look at this. on the third month of the exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt bay haz bu midbari on this day they came to the midbari so it that's chronically our arrival to the wilderness where our seni is found right what's missing in that sentence what's missing in that sentence What day? Right. What day? Doesn't tell me. It says on the third month on this day. Right. What what day? So the rabbis say, "Well, because it says haz here and it says hes it was roesh, right? But why isn't the Torah telling me?" Sashi says something beautiful which gives us the the key to the answer and it's really the key to understanding the whole holiday of Shvot and that is there's another um strange aspect to this pup and that is normally when the Torah says on that day what language does it use by ha who right by and that means that day on that day they came what does what is vom on this day say that says Rashi that's because we are supposed to see the Torah a new every single day right so what are we saying and that's why I believe by the way that the Torah doesn't give a date for shuot then leaves things out why because the Torah does not want to have it be seen as a historical event but rather as an unfolding event in our lives over and over again. Every time we learn together, we're at revelation. Every time we open a gumar, every time we open a kumsh, every time you learn with your children, every time you learn together, whatever or alone, every that is unfolding revelation that's happening si is happening now. So that's personal, right? That's uh that recognition that this communal gift that's given to the nation is something that I have to acquire personally. as well and you're balancing and it's very important. Turn to the next page, please. All right. This next one is very is very uh simple um simple just in terms of language. We've noted that there are two countings that are similar in at this time of the year. One of them is spirata, right? which is the counting of days and one of them is hashim the counting of years to Schmita and Yo right now what's what's interesting here is we always read about that second counting during the so it's almost like our tradition is saying take a look that how similar these are 7 * 7 to 50 yov is the 50th shvith is the 50th all right so so basically we're We're we're saying that these are two parallel countings, but there's a difference in the way the Torah says them. When it talks about the omare, it says when it says you should count to it's for in the singular in the plural in the singular. Why? Because omare is personal. Each one of you has to count, right? You're not going to fulfill it with someone else's counting. But the counting towards Yoval was done by Bezden. It was not by beten. It was done by the court. It was not done by individuals. Why? The mitzvah was for the court to count because society is counting that count. And the truth is we spoke we said there are two two words for freedom in in Jewish thought, right? There's drawer which is liberty and which is freedom. Draw is the removal of the negative impediments. Is the acquisition of the meaning of the of the purpose. The removal of impediments is represented by the society and Yovale is a societal rule. What happens on Yovale? The Hebrew slaves go out, right? We're let draw. We're removing the impediments. You get your land back. We're removing the impediments. We're we're giving you a new chance. We're giving you a new opportunity. That's societal. That's being done by the society following the Torah's law. When it comes to Omare, each one of us has to count because that's different. That's not a societal counting. That's a personal counting. And that leads to not but to which doesn't appear in the Torah again. But according to it says that God's word is inscribed on the don't read it. Read it. It's the same word meaning to be truly free to be truly free from the things that might enslave me in the world I have to be a mitzvot. I have to be someone who's following God's law. All right. So what we're saying is that every one of the holidays that we experience, the one we didn't talk about is which is its own individual holiday, but uh we we're going to run out of time because that's fascinating. But the balance between Yid and Seabore doesn't just emerge ritually and the holidays. It emerges in rabbitic thought and Jewish thought over and again. Think for a moment about what we've said about conversion. Right? So we've said that when someone comes to convert, what's the first thing you're supposed to say to them? Why would you want to be part of this nation that is pushed from pillar to post? Right? And only when they then say any I'm not worthy even of being part of this nation then you start teaching them the mitzvot. What's happening there? Affiliation and individual. I have to first be willing to what? Be part of the nation before I learn the mitzvot to become Jewish. And that by the way mirrors our own journeys mitzim and matan tora. What was its mitzim? It was a challenge. I had to affiliate with a nation that wasn't even created yet. I had to follow a person out into the wilderness who I really didn't know. That's why kazal say that the vast majority of Israelites never left Egypt. Why? Cuz it was hard. It wasn't, you know, again, we fantasize. We think of these in in children's terms. Oh, Exodus, Moshe comes, everybody goes, we're all, well, where am I going? What what's this all about? I have to be willing to have the faith in God and in Moshe to go before I can get to Arseni. That's that's the first step towards conversion. That was our first step towards our national conversion. Then we get to hari where we get the mitzvot just like the convert is then taught the mitzvot after right so you have the britote and the brit you have to be part of the nation you have to affiliate it's not complete if you say to me I want to become Jewish and I will obey every single law but I don't care what happens to the state of Israel you can't become Jewish at least from the co point of They don't ask what they don't ask but what they do ask is are you willing to affiliate with the people right how how you define that may be different in different communities but but that's that's that is affiliation is essential okay and it also finally last point before I get to the close we see it in the unfolding of Jewish history itself What is the first generation of Jewish history? The first generations are the patriarchs and matriarchs. That is the era of the Yahid. That is the era of the individuals. when the sum total of Jewish experience is summed up in the lives of particular individuals and their families and only once we succeed and it's not easy the patriarchal families had had some problems didn't they um was difficult was difficult because the whole world was different and you were take first people that were training your kids in your family as opposed tribe finally when we get to the point where all of Yakov's children are surrounding him at his deathbed and they are all part of the story. There's no in them. There's no asov in them. They're all going to be part once we've completed the personal journey. Then we can go to the national journey. Same thing with conversion. Start with affiliation and then go to observance. And finally, I'd like to end with a with an interesting thought. I think uh let me just Yep. Yep. We're about about time. Almost the time. All right. And that is the following. If you look at safer midbar, which we're reading now, the Torah leaves something out. It does not tell us the structure of the Jewish camp during travel. It only describes the structure of the camp when it's stationary. So I don't remember if I told you this, but the rabbis argue the rabbis argue and they two different positions. One is that we traveled cakora. We traveled like a beam. One is what what does that mean? We lined up in single file. You know, we didn't. And the proof of that the position that takes this is it says don was the kept up the rear you have a rear you have to have a line you can't have it's not right there's no no end and then there's someone who says no we travel kavo we travel like a we travel like a a box the box that we were when we were settled we simply stand up that's what the encampment was like and we walk in same fashion because it says according to this position so that in other words as they encamped so did they travel so I I I'd like to suggest the following and this mirrors I think what we've been talking about today as we travel through history we travel in two ways we travel like a beam what do I mean By that we're moving in a straight line. There's a beginning and an end. Quoting the RV again, what did the RV say? Jew Judaism introduces to the understanding of history the concept of a destinydriven history. What does that mean? We're going somewhere. We're traveling. That we know we we're right. That's that's a beam. But in every generation we create our table. In every generation we create our box that defines who we are, what we believe as a people. And and there's all sorts of things happening at the edges of ends of the boxes. A lot of turmoil because we're determining who's in and who's out, who belongs, who can't belong, what and inside we're defining it by the Torah. But our box is different from the box of the previous generation. And the next box will be different from ours. And that's the job is to travel Kakora. But to recognize that we're creating that box, that society. And that society will impress itself upon Jewish experience and make its contribution to Jewish experience just like we as individuals will as well. So we've traveled many ways. Okay. I I I'll take questions but if anybody has to go. Yeah. At what point did it become uh extremely important that somebody would say yes I believe in God. When when did it become important? I would say it became important during its mitz and matan tora. during the foundational experiences not before earlier in the time of well Aram said it a first I mean when in Mitrai when did it become this I I think it it happened as part of the process that was happening the 10 plagues the parting of the Red Sea we were seeing God's hand right So yeah, sorry. Louder, please. The individual each and say that the foundation and the vit reflected the way each sh carried the up to burial. It also very good very nice lend itself more to the I think although I guess you could say either one correct it's both. It's both. It's both. Yes. It doesn't say of your slaves. Doesn't mention. Wow. And I think that's because if you look further on the is done by the right can redeem the slave, right? But as a slave, you cannot have personal cannot become part of the That's correct. Well said. Well, very nice. Right. Until you are until those shackles are removed, you can't take the personal trip. Well done. Why did you lose money one day? Okay. So the answer to that is it's not the only holiday that's one day is its own unique what should call him buteras is a separate holiday the rabbis say and each one of so so shauvote is the what do they call shauvot in the call iterot is the ater pes and and the medish says that originally it was supposed to be This teras was supposed to be as distant as shuas is from pesak to sukkot but god had mercy on us and didn't have our barrel and didn't make us come back during the winter. So what's happening is th those one-day festivals are one day connected to the multi-days and then you have to figure out why and how that's it's parallel. Okay everybody, thank you very much. We'll see you please God next week.