The Hidden Names of the Torah by Rabbi Aschi Dick

thank you everybody for joining us with the very help of Hashem thank you Kan for getting us set up it was really a pleasure and thank you Sam and the whole team at the OU this week we are beginning the safe of the story of the ex the story of the Exile in Egypt the suffering of the Jewish people and their subsequent Redemption so in the beginning of this week's parach there's a famous balim the botur was the son of the rush the rush was living in France he was a student of the marami renberg after his rebi had been thrown in the dungeon so the rush knew that he was next so he ran to Spain and he became a leading rabic Authority in Spain everybody's heard of the rash re aser he had a son the tour ROV so he's famous for having put together the ARB which is the comp upon which the is based and he also wrote a commentary on the the B so the b in the beginning of this week's par as he often does he finds Illusions in the words of the says these are the names of the Jewish people that came to Egypt says the that the first letters of this of these words allude to that every Jew should read okay the word is in the word is the me is mro you should read every week the read every twice and then read each of the read together with each of the the the the the Aramaic translation of the okay we have a according to the gim it's preferable to always read the Aramaic because the Aramaic is not just a translation ofish the Aramaic written byus is also a commentary of the Kish unus was a g he was a convert to Judaism one of the first famous converts as we know Ru was the first famous convert and Unos was also a famous convert that became Jewish he was a a roban he belonged to Roman nobility he was a nephew of Titus he went to his uncle and his uncle advised him against becoming Jewish but he became Jewish anyways and he made the great contribution of unus I just make a note that there are other famous converts in Judaism like Shaya andalan the RAB of H the entire M the entire tradition of Torah goes through these gum through these converts to Judaism if it wasn't for converts like Shay and of talion we would have lost the entire tradition of Torah so the entire Torah that we have is thanks to converts like shalan reab AKA also he was the son of a convert yose and as we know that the entire M the entire tradition of Torah went through rabi AKA who was a decendant of converts so you see the importance of converts in fact the tells us in that the reason why the Jewish people went into Exile was to expose the non-jews to Torah because they had lots of GM to collect okay so can you imagine that the entire purpose or one of the primary purposes of the Jewish people going into Exile and suffering the way they did was just so that they could collect GM so that they could collect converts the Torah warns us 48 times to be sensitive to the convert uh it's very very challenging for the convert the convert has often left his family he's a newcomer there are great challenges challenges about being a newcomer so that's the T warns us repeatedly to be extra sensitive to the convert a person has to be sensitive to every Jew a person has to be sensitive to every human being but because the converts are vulnerable so the Torah makes it extra important that we go beyond what we would go you take an extra step extra measures to be extra sensitive to the gear and especially considering that much of the often times the entire tradition of the Torah was dependent on the G as I mentioned withalan and also with Unos so getting back to our discussion the enclos is not just a translation of the Torah the Enos is also commentary of the T often adds key points anybody who gets used to reading unclos we'll pick that up it's worthwhile to learn AR just so that a person could read the enclos today um deu has put out aish that has a translation of the enus which is very beneficial it helps us understand the enus so the Mitzvah is to read each in twice and to also look at theose some commentaries maintain that if you do not understand unas it's better to read the English or French or whatever language that you understand because the intent of this Mitzvah the intent of this obligation is that a person should gain a familiarity with the Torah so therefore person has to understand the meaning of theim the Mish prefers the opinion of the that says it's better to read but ideally if a person has the time and the ability a person should make points of reading unus and if he does not understand Unos to also read an English translation so one of the one of the obligations about Jewish Torah learning is to read each twice to read the and also a translation that you understand getting a familiarity with is one of the foundations of Judaism it's very important it teaches us all the basic ethics of Judaism it teaches us the Outlook of Torah so also the poim say that if a person has very limited amount of time to to learn tah a person has only 10 or 15 minutes a day let's say to learn Torah because he's busy feeding his family so the first obligation should be reading the Torah that obligation takes precedent over every other form of Torah learning so I'd like to now focus on a point it says as the B pointed out is an abbreviation each letter is the first letter of the words it's written there in the word the names of the Jewish people now it always bothered me what is the connection between and the names of the Jewish people the question that I asked myself was could the Torah not have found any other place where to allude to this Mitzvah of why specifically is it with the words that the tah has chosen to allude to theah so I'd like to read a beautiful piece from the in we have a there that says talks about the galut it talks about the Exile it talks about the suffering says the Torah describes how the Jewish people will be Spread spread over the entire world like Corners Jews will get to all the corners of the world a at some point now this is a very difficult point to deal with it needs an entire tretis unto itself that there was even a point in time with the Jewish people fell spiritually and there was a thought as it were that their memory will be totally forgotten by the way as we mentioned many times in the format of the she we mentioned from the iids that the greatest Miracle of history is the survival of the Jewish people Mark Twain I once read an essay that he wrote he took note of this that the greatest mystery the Enigma the survival of the Jewish people 2,000 years without a Homeland not only did they survive but they thrived and they made the greatest contributions to humankind and then they came back in the aftermath of a holocaust to resettle the land of er Israel that's something that's Supernatural it's exactly what the Torah predicted in the latter part ofarim and there are many ways to prove Judaism but one of the simplest ways to prove the authenticity of Judaism is by looking at Jewish history by observing how the Jewish people survived Against All Odds and the way they came back to ER is and I know that I mentioned this point repeatedly but it has to be said again and again because it's really a true Marvel but there is a postic there Inu that says that there was a point in time where there was a risk if you'd like that the Jewish people or it seemed that way that the Jewish people would be eradicated that their memory would be lost in fact that was the evil ambition of Hitler he wanted to completely erase the memory of the Jewish people just as many anti-semites had done throughout the history now I'm going to read what the sh comments on this of the third letters we call from every single word are the words of a now there was a story of the ramban the greates not the rambam whose yard said was today but the ramban also great Spanish scholar you all familiar with him so he had a student whose name was air and anner became an apostate he left the fold of Judaism he decided to embrace Christianity and he became a great problem for the Jewish people and then air once came to the ramban his Rabbi his former teacher and he said to him rabi you taught to us that every single Jew is alluded to in the Torah you I and every single Jew in fact every single occurrence in history if you go even deeper is alluded to somewhere in the Torah she said said to his rabi where am I alluded to in the Torah so the ran immediately answered him and he said if you take the third letters of all those words you get the words of says the shame it seems to me this was actually a good Tiding for the Jewish people even the worst [Music] Jew even the worst Jew like a became an apostate he caused trouble for the Jewish people even a Jew like a still has the privilege if you'd like of being alluded to in the tah every single Jew will find himself in the Torah okay so that's an idea that no matter how far low we fall no matter how low we fall materialistically physically spiritually every Jew individually the Jewish people certainly collectively their story the individual Story the collective story of the Jewish people it's all alluded to in the Torah like we explained in the when your children say we say that in the p on the night of the Seder your children will say what's this service for you we tell them how the Jewish people bowed when they heard the great Tiding that they're going to be redeemed does it make sense who said who said and who asked what is this service to you what's the wicked son and we said right in the context of speaking to the wicked son we talk about the basur we talk about the Tiding of the Jewish people coming out of the Exile so explains the med seems explains the shamm that theam says that you might think that if somebody a Jew has lost his path perhaps if we see children we see grandchildren that aren't following the path of Judaism that aren't behaving as Jews should behave maybe it's better that we should never have had children so therefore says the sh is it says no that even when you speak to the Ben rasher even when you speak to the wicked son the child that's not behaving as he should the Tara still wants to put in the context that there's going to be a Redemption that not only is there going to be a physical Redemption for the Jewish people but there's also going to be a spiritual Redemption for for the Jewish people every Jew will find his way back okay that's what the gar says that the Jewish people are promised that in the future and finally every single Jew will do chuva it's a promise it's written in the gamorra it's part of the M it's part of the tradition that we have that every Jew will find his way back to his father in Heaven so that's why when there's a discussion in the Torah that maybe the memory of the Jewish people will be eradicated as there were thoughts the anti seites thought at some point that they would be able to eradicate the memory of the Jewish people Hitler had that ambition and it even seemed at times where our situation was so hopeless we thought that maybe indeed the memory of the Jewish people will be eradicated so in that you had an illusion to the Jew that fell to the lowest level that a Jew could follow to that anner that student of the ramban because specifically in that POS we want wanted to say that no it won't happen the memory of the Jewish people collectively and individually every single individual Jew will find his way back at some point in some way and therefore the name of anner was alluded to in those this idea that every single Jew is alluded to in the PK is not just discussed by the ranes it's also elaborated upon by the gr the famous rabo of Vila the student of the in it says God says to will not listen to you so that I should have the opportunity to increase my wonders in the land of Egypt so I'm going to read from this P this is the the author auth of the one of the primary Disciples of Theo these are the words the had such a deep comprehension of tah that he knew how to reveal where every single one of the or every single one of the great sages of the Jewish people were alluded to encoded in the Torah they once asked the grow Where is the Ram alluded to in the tah I mention this because today we're marking the yard side the day that the ramban passed away so said the immediately means to increase my wonders in the land of Egypt the rash the first letters of every single one of those words are the r r the first letters of because the r really was a Wonder he was living in Egypt it wasn't this was after some very difficult times and you had a Jew that became a doctor for the king of Egypt that had written the entire mishna Torah had codified the entire Torah the rahan really was one of the great wonders of the Jewish people the philosophical achievements of the ram was really exceptional so in the P that God says I'm going to increase my wonders in the land of Egypt there you have an illusion to the rambam now the gro knew where every single one of the great sages of the Jewish people are alluded to in the Torah but that doesn't mean that only the great Jewish sages of the Jewish people are alluded to in the Torah every Jew is alluded to in the Torah even a who fell to a very low spiritual level he too is alluded to in the Torah the gro didn't know where every single Jew is alluded to in the Torah the gro got to a level of comprehension where he was able to identify where the sages of the Jewish people are identified in the Torah but in real it even though the gr didn't know it but the gr wasn't able to tell say this about every single Jew but we still have that M we still have that tradition as we saw in the sh and as the ran said that every single Jew is alluded to in the Torah every single Jew has a in t every single Jew has a connection to the Tor so I believe that this is why specifically when we read in the Torah we say these are the names of the Jewish people that's where the Torah wishes to elude the Mitzvah of that every single Jew should go through the par because every single Jew will find himself in the Torah every single Jew will find his story in the Torah so part of the Mitzvah of reading through the par every single week is because you I and every Jew has his story there he's alluded in the Torah somehow even if you can't see it this is a very deep idea if you look at the ran in his introduction to the Torah it's a very important piece I highly encourage every single person every single Jew to read the the introduction to the Torah I consider it one of the great philosophical essays that really delates a lot of the basic philosophies of Judaism if you look at the Ran's introduction he says that the specifically is really a it's an encryption he says you could be reading that seem to be telling us insignificant facts like a you know genealogy that seems to be outdated things that don't seem to have any relevance I mean in the end of the T lists the different Kings of Edom I mean who really cares which K who was the king of Adam so why does the Torah seem to take so much effort to tell us what would appear to be useless information so says the ran no the entire T is an encryption everything is an encryption in fact it's an encryption for the names of Hashem it's an encryption for the entire history of the Jewish people and in fact the deeper you get the greater the encryption becomes to the point that if a person will be able to penetrate the encryption deep enough he would be able to see every single detail of History encoded in the Torah again this is based on the ramban and the rans points out he says I have aabal shal he says I'm not making this up he says I received it from my teachers received it from their teachers he says I have a cabal sh it's a tradition that I have received from my teachers or received from their teachers is something that is known amongst the amongst the sages of the Jewish people that the entire from the beginning to the end is an encryption an encryption as we said for the names of Hashem and also for all the intricacies of History all the intricacies of creation of Science of everything okay if you look at the introduction to the not the there was a more recent work he says that the ran received this tradition from two teachers one was name was RAB Ezra one his name was reab Israel and reab Ezra and rebie Israel were students of reab Sagar it was a blind Sage his name was RAB who was the son of the rad Great Sage The ravad Who Lived in Provincia which is today in southern France who had a tradition that leads to was the leading Authority in B and They Carried this tradition from generation to generation thear and says that this tradition of the CIT the encryptions of the Torah was Kept Secret the G in tells us that ran wants to reveal the encryptions and the secrets of the T to his student Razer andaz said I'm not ready for it because the idea was that this the secrets of the T thear tells us in was a highly kept secret it was a hard highly guarded secret that Ral who was unanimously accept Ed by the sages of the generations that followed him especially today including the G of Vila and all the other leading sages they accept the cabala they accept the cabalistic secrets of the Aral to have been that secret that was passed on from generation to generation and the AR told his student that when we get close to the Mia there's going to be an interest is going to be a renewed interest in revealing the secrets of the Torah going to be more accessible than it had been in the past what had been in the past the more safely guarded secret the C Torah will become less secret as they get closer to the mhia that's something that we see happening but the idea of the sitra also includes the idea that the entire as the raan tells us as I mentioned he said I have a tradition from my teachers that the entire tar is an encryption it's an encryption that holds the entire history of the universe all the science all the happenings but the grow in certain Generations were able to see a certain level of that encryption as we mentioned the ran knew where his student Abner was alluded to the gr knew where the ran was alluded to in the in the introduction to P the students asked the girl where are you alluded to in the Torah so the girl says in the end of par hean is an Al begins with an Al which isah was the name of the girl Ben the the letters that follows a b and which is Ben the son of scho his father's name was schlomo in the to save for Kar that was assumed to be written by reab Hill MAV or parts of it were certainly written byab Hill MAV he says that the gr considered it his his life mission to number one hasten the mesiah by sending his students to S many of the early pioneers of the old Yu that drained the swamps that build the first neighborhoods outside of the old city like M Moshe May a lot of the neighborhoods that were built outside of the old city was built by RAB rivlin who was a descendant of the schav family okay so the students of the grow get a lot of credit for having brought have been the early Pioneers that preceded the modern day resettling of ER and that's why as soon as the right after the name of the gr alluded to with Evan what immediately follows in the beginning of when you're G to come into the land so in the in the introduction to kalar the gr is reported to have said that the reason why his name was alluded to and was IM because that was his life mission his life mission was to send his students to resettle ER okay so that's the idea right we've been given a bit of a bit of a peak a bit of an insight to Illusions in the Torah and that's why I said specifically the in the words of these are the names of the Jewish people meaning to say that every single Jewish people has a part in the Torah that's why we need to go through the there's a sa for one of the B the lived approximately 800 years ago in the B lived in Germany and in France so the the famous in about three or four different places in his work says when you learn the Torah you don't understand the encryptions that are uded to in the Torah when we read theim most of us even the greatest sages of the Jewish people didn't understand or weren't able to penetrate all the secrets of the Torah so what's the point to learning the Torah if I don't really appreciate if I am unable to see the different secrets of the Torah so says the in three different places or four different places and this is one of his themes that just as the Torah is multi-layered and just as there's endless layers in the Torah endless endless Illusions in the Torah end endless secrets in the Torah it's the same thing with the Jewish Nish the Jewish Nish the Jewish Soul has endless levels if anybody is familiar with the basic teachings of the B basic teachings ofal right there's the Nar which is the nees the nees is the emotions the lowest part of the the parts that we experience the parts of the Nish that we feel but above the is the ru Spirit the determination that's the way the gro explains it then you also have the Nish which is one letter one level above and then there's the okay the is exist is a higher level of than okay is like the peace of God within you but that's just a basic outline of the sh but really the N is extremely multifaceted and just as the Torah has endless levels so so do the Nish has endless levels and the part of the Nish that we interact is the most external part of the Nish that's what the balatan teaches us this is very much the bread and butter of the cabalistic teachings that the part of the Nish that we can feel and that we can detect and that's part of our active Consciousness is the lowest level of the so when we learn the Torah the most basic level of the Torah the external element of the Torah is interacting with the external element of ourish but says the that the deeper elements of the Nish also interact with the deeper elements of the Torah so if you want to go all the way up to the top the deepest part of the that is also interacting with the Living God that exists in the Torah and the same goes with the endless levels of the Torah okay so there's a multi-level interaction going on so therefore when you read thees even if you don't feel any inspiration even if you don't feel that you could appreciate what's the talking about what's the meaning of why should I do theah why should I read through the par every week if I don't really appreciate the depth and the profoundness of the Torah the answer is you should still do it because there are many parts of the Torah that you could appreciate that teach us ethics that teach us morals that te Teach Us the basic fundamentals Judaism that's extremely beneficial for the conscious part of the Nish the part of the Nish that we currently interact with in this physical Corporal Corporal world but it's still important because there are other parts of your Nish the deeper parts of the that all interact with the deeper elements of the Torah said the shame the name which really manifests or expresses the essence of the person right that's found in the Torah and that's why in the we talk about the of according to the we mentioned previously the idea based on the shame that even the lowest Jew like a the student of the ramban who became an apostate who became a Troublesome person for the Jewish people had fell Fallen to a very low spiritual level as the sh said that that's a that's a good Tiding for the Jewish people that even the Jews even the lowest Jew is still part of the Torah he hasn't been cut off from the Torah that's when we talk to the evil son okay we still talk about the basur we still put him in the context of the future Tiding that every single Jew will find his way back it's a guarantee as the gamar says that the Jewish people will do TR in the future collectively and individually there's amazing G in inan 44A the gar Sanhedrin 44A describes the sin of aan aan had fallen to a very low level he had stolen from the property of uro after there was a ban made by Yeshua against taking any property from E he took it so the Jewish people fell at eye and then Yeshua was informed by God that is that the Jewish people sined is theor points out why do we say I'm reading the even if a Jews we still called the is aan had fallen to the lowest level he had witnessed open Miracles and he couldn't hold himself back from stealing some valuables fromo and the gorah goes on to say thatan had fallen to the lowest level imaginable did everything wrong that a Jew could do he had violated all the commands of the which means to say he reached the highest level of wickedness the gor is saying that even a Jew like aan who had violated everything in the everything in the entire he's still a Jew there's a rash in is quoted by the B Ys in Sim 55 in also quoted by other where there's a discussion which Jew could count for a minion so there are many opinions of the what the is consult with your Authority I don't want to get into that in this format about which Jew can be part of Minion I'm not getting into the gritty about that but I am going to present the opinion of Rashi and other we him that quoted Rashi says Rashi that the that the purpose purp of having 10 Jews together for for prayer is because the there's a greater manifestation of hashem's presence between 10 Jews in fact the Mitzvah the Mitzvah of sanctifying the name of Hashem is primarily in the presence of 10 Jews says Rashi based on this in San that even a Jew like could still partake in a minion because hasem will bring his down even if the 10th man is even if the 10th is somebody like that violated all the commands of the so according to the opinion of Rasha even if somebody's exceedingly Wicked he could still complete a minion he's still a Jew and as we said that even a Jew like that eventually will find his way back even a Jew like that has his part in the Torah so therefore it's highly recommendable considers it an obligation for every person to go through the par every week get a familiarity with the par I know of couples husbands and wives that sit together and they learn the par together I highly recommend it it's a very meaningful and spiritual way for a husband and wife to bond it's my recommendation to sit with your spouse or if those of you who don't have that opportunity you can take a friend to learn the paraa with get read the PK twice which means to say don't settle for first glance look at the PK but reexamine the P try to find the deeper meaning of every P every single person will find another message learning the par is a personal experience every person will see something that talks to them something that's unique to them and the deeper elements of your according to each respective level will appreciate another deeper level of the Torah the sa says that whatever Torah you learn in the when you get up there and you're able to access the deeper parts of your you'll also be able to uncover the deeper as aspects of the Torah the deeper levels of the Torah that you learned in your lifetime okay so what we've said today number of important ideas fundamental Jewish Ideas there's the Mitzvah of every Jew to go through the parha to find the parha in his own personal way because the fundamentals the basics is there in the Torah you should be reading the enclos if you have that ability to understand the tarum or to see a commentary of the tum also if you don't understand Theus read it in English read it in the language that you understand so you can get an appreciation of the T and the idea is that every single Jew is part of the nation every Jew will find his way back eventually and that's the great promise the sh says the greatest Tiding for the Jewish people the best news that we could possibly ever hear is that eventually the Jewish people will come back the Jewish people will find their way and that's really the story of the story of Falling Into the Depths and finding our way back so this should be a source with the help of Hashem a source of encouragement in these difficult times first of all as we mentioned many times all of those that lost loved ones all the people that died tragically the resurrection of the Dead is our greatest our greatest consolation and that even throughout the downfalls the spiritual downfalls of the people even that will be corrected even that people will find their way back and everybody still has a connection to the Torah no matter where you find yourself so with that I wish everyone a wonderful night and hasem hasem should bring back the hostages Hashem should protect the soldiers Hashem should protect all the people living in hasem should protect all the Jewish people living outside of Israel hm should bring them back to Israel where we all belong and hopefully we'll be able to soon Rejoice with the B mikdash all the sorrow and all the suffering will be washed away will compensate us for all the suffering that we experienced I remember RAB P RAB prom the great r i remember listening to a lecture of his when I was a young teenager and he was crying and crying and crying and he was saying Hashem want so badly to console the Jewish people we've suffered so much is our loving father and it his great desire to console us so we just need to push a little harder we need to be a bit more careful about Lara some of you I'm sure have already gotten past that hurdle but for others right we'll strengthen ourselves those that need to strength themselves lash is really the most important thing strengthening Jewish Unity right try to avoid the slander don't say anything negative about other Jews Focus only on the positive of other Jews that is the greatest way in the spiritual realm to bring that Redemption so so we can enable what Hashem wants most is to wash away our pain to wash away the suffering of the Jewish people and to Rejoice with us that we can renew our connection together with all the people that died all the loved ones will come back all the people that lost their way spiritually will find their way back that's the great ambition that's the great dream that's waiting to unfold before the Jewish people so our prayer and our wishes that that should manifest itself that should finally come to fruition and with that I think everyone and wish everyone a wonderful night