Parsha Perspectives for Today (Ha'azinu, 5781) - The Song of Our Lives

our show this week we do have a parsha the shabbos azinu we don't get to study it together that often because of the way the calendar usually falls so grateful to have the opportunity to study it together this morning i want to thank our generous sponsors for the parish series for the year becky navi cats and family in memory of becky's father david grossman leilo and nishmas david ahmanish thank you so much to the katsas deeply appreciate their generosity this morning's class is also sponsored by jory epstein so grateful to jury thank you for that sponsorship thank you for listening she sponsored uh for in honor of our shul for offering so many meaningful classes during covet and we're grateful to your generosity and to listen i also want to mention that this morning shear is part of a global learnathon there's a beautiful effort across the globe to provide 24-hour learning in anticipation of yum kippur all to benefit a group of hesed organizations and i'm proud to be part of it and grateful to those who've organized that to be able to join as well so parshas is a song if you actually look at the way it's even laid out in the arts it's on page 1100 1100 and if you look at the way it's laid out you see that it's two columns it actually appears as poetry it's a song the text reads very unusual different than what we're used to ordinarily reading in the parasha in the torah it reads like poetry it reads like a song it should be put to music very very poetic words the um the the text itself really jumps off the page it's very significant to us now it's very interesting the gemaran rosh hashanah entertain something that we don't do we hear azinu once a year one shabbos a year we read azinu we actually hear maybe more often than other partios because not only do we read it the monday and thursday before but depending on the way that rosh hashanah falls you could read it several mondays or thursdays are shabbos depending on how the calendar is is arranged but in the time of the gemara the gemara records and again the gemara entertains the possibility that hazina was not only read one shabbos every year but was in fact read every shabbos why the gemara there delineates the sheer shoyom the songs that would accompany different carbanas different sacrifices tells us the power of song you know the as many people have stuff suffered and struggled in this pandemic the thought that we would have to entertain rosh hashanah yom kippur without being able to sing sing is what opens up the heart so it opens up the soul song is what moves us transports us uplifts us enriches us sing as a song as a tremendous capacity we talked about this several weeks ago when the torah tells us the 613th the last and final minutes of the torah is to write a safer torah every jew is obligated to write a safe torah is it every jew and how do you fulfill that mitzvah and how do you fulfill it today all not for now but if you recall we saw the beautiful and brilliant insight of rabbi salavechuk that torah is likened to a song because the song one immerses themselves in you can hear a song in the year 2020 and all of a sudden you're back in in your summer camp in 1982. you're back on your college in the 1970s you're back in your childhood even far beyond song transports you're immersed in it it moves you it has the ability to impact you more than what you read more than more than simply words or prose and torah is therefore likened to a song because we immerse ourselves torah doesn't speak just to the head it speaks to the heart just like music doesn't just speak to the head you don't analyze music in your brain but rather you feel music in your kishkas you ever ever see there's a song that comes on in the old days when people weren't so nervous and on edge if you were in the supermarket or the store and a song with a great beat came on you'd see people almost against their will dancing in the aisle you'd see someone tapping their foot you'd see someone moving to the beat song has the ability to to move us in ways as if almost we don't have the ability to fight it and that's what torah should penetrate into our soul it should move us we are immersed in it so shayam the carbanas the word karban means karov we come close to hashem and one of the mechanisms or means one of the instruments to be able to come close to hashem is to be accompanied by song the levian were given were tasked with this great responsibility with this very holy responsibility that as the carbon was offered as we were drawing close karov the song the sheer was being offered so they come out there and rosh hashanah talks about what was said what was the text of the song what was the liturgy that was offered with each of the carbonus quotes in the name of the first day of the week rishon what did they say what did they say what was the yom for shabbos kodish now we know the shisha yom is mushu yamashabas which is peculiar because the rest of the paragraph doesn't mention jabbas whatsoever why is that the shir shayom of shabbas not for a partial class on haazinu but well worth investigating the shir shyam of shabbas doesn't have anything to do with shabbos it says miss murshill yamashabas and that's the only mention of shabbos why was that chosen but the mustaf had an additional song there was the shishayam of the talmud the regular daily offering but there was an additional song that would accompany the additional sacrifice of the quran muslim and there the governor quotes who said in the name of rav what was the song it was if loch is a reference to how zeno can be divided into six sections it's a poem that can be divided into six units or six sections and the acronym for those six sections is hazeev so the gemara therefore says igmarus says entertains the possibility that the leviathan song for the mustaf was hazinu i share that with you to introduce our study of hazina to tell you how xeno is so significant so beautiful so moving so exciting that it wasn't only read once a year but the gemara entertains the possibility that was read each and every week each and every shabbos now again we don't we don't ask it like that and we don't incorporate it and read it that way but it should nevertheless impress us just how significant and how important how meaningful is and its connection to shabbos so what connection if you look at rashi rashid describes the beginning of azinu and he tells us that hazinu draws from the past and the present and the future it's a peculiar song it's a peculiar song because unlike most songs whose lyrics inspire unlike most songs whose lyrics not only are you moved by the melody but the words themselves can open up your heart hazina's lyrics are harsh they criticize they even condem so who would want to sing a song whose lyrics include this is from hazinu sahab you sure in the jewish people you grew fat and you kicked you grew fat and gross and coarse you forsook hashem you spurned you violated the rock the ramban writes the ramban writes here that is called shira hazino is called song because jews have to practice to read this text regularly a song the rambam not only the gemara entertained it to be read each and every shabbos but the rambam in the seventh chapter of the rambam mentions a practice of saying hazinu every day we have parts of torah we say every day we say shema every day some read the story of the al-qaeda every day says some of the practice of reading hazing every day so again i ask you who would want to read a song which criticizes which condemns a song that is so harsh why would we want to read a song or sing a song that tells us how dull and witless we are how fat and coarse we grew how gross we are to god these are the lyrics that should inspire and move us why would we read it every day or every shabbos or even want to read it let alone each and every year the sephora the majestic free praises rashi quotes because it presents the past the present and the future the time continuum it puts the jew in a context of history there imbalance that all of jewish history is encapsulated and incorporated it is captured in part in parashat when you read hazino you are commemorating the past it is inspiring and informing the present and it is opening up the future begins on a positive note it describes our special relationship with hashem and it ends on a positive note about achieving peace in the world a longing for the eschatological era of the time when everything will make sense when we'll be able to put together the pieces we'll be able to just get along when the jewish people will not have to spend energy time and resources defending and protecting ourselves but we can dedicate all of our time energy and resources exclusively the service of hashem to appearing the world in his image and to make the world a bigger and a better and a lighter place so true in the middle couched in between the positive note at the beginning and the vision for the peace in the future at the end in the middle there's negative but here's the message of hazino this is the first point i want to share with you this morning and it's a point relevant not only to ha'azinu but to this time in which we find ourselves couched between our shana and yom kippur these are the days to prove our worth to prove that we are essential staff essential personnel essential to the almighty essential to the people around us essential to ourselves then maybe the message of hazinu is whose life doesn't have positive maybe the beginning in the end but whose life in the middle doesn't have some negative doesn't have some challenging moments and challenging times hazina tells us don't be focused in a narrow way on that challenging time don't let the pandemic don't let the quarantine or solitude don't let the particular crisis maybe in your life in an individual's life become the sum total of the way life is remembered the way life is memorialized it's not the sum total of our existence hazina tells us zoom out the lens focus on the big picture on the whole story see things in a context and it's part of a continuum of history and when you do you'll dig deep and you'll find what's worth singing about you're right that moment it's challenging it's harsh it's crisis it's difficult collectively we're all going through a difficult time and individually people are going through very difficult times related to this pandemic or unrelated and if you focus on it it becomes the sum total of your thinking but you kind of zoom out the lens and look at life look at how we got here where we are and please god where we are going to go afterwards that is our vision and that is our mission and that is our role we spoke about this in parishes kisawa the farmer who brings the bikurim the farmer doesn't just say here you go god here's my first fig take it here's my first pomegranate take it no the farmer says you know my forefather in egypt was almost vanquished was almost just decimated and yet we were taken out of egypt and we wanted to the desert and this farmer reviews jewish history to get to this point because to be grateful means you're not zoomed in narrowly to be grateful you have to see context continuum you have to focus out and say you know what what a privilege what an honor how grateful we are to be here you're right this moment's challenging you're right this moment is difficult you know you could look at shula and rosh hashanah kipper and you could see what was missing or you could focus on what's there you could say i can't believe the people who can't qualify to be here the two vulnerable are fragile it's too dangerous you could look at the shoe and say six feet seven feet eight foot separations look how many chairs are missing our main sanctuary normally holds over 700 and we're barely at 200 less than a third of our capacity we don't hear the resounding singing the walls are not reverberating we're wearing masks we can't even see or smile at one another or you could say thank god what a miracle it is that we're here how many times over the last few months did we say i can't even picture being together rosh hashanah i don't know how that could possibly happen the choice is up to us what we look at and this is not the classic half full or half empty it's are we zoomed in or zoomed out are you narrowly defining and clouding all of your judgment are you filtering all of your perception through what that one moment or the capacity to zoom out that lens and to see the bigger picture to see the bigger picture of the miracle of being here and to be able to therefore have the courage and the tenacity and the faith to take us to where we're going that's the message perhaps of hazinu this positive in the beginning and there's positive and a vision of the end and the middle there's negativity the middle is harsh the middle is critical and the middle has crisis but whose life doesn't have both matzah and marour whose life doesn't have that combination and that mixture in it it has both and it's all a question of what we focus on that's what mushroom was telling us at the end of his life choose life choose to focus on the big picture the good choose life all together the zoar calls the suka that's the shadow of faith when sitting in the sukkot we're to feel that we are in the shade of divine providence if you're in florida you're lucky if you have an air-conditioned sukkah or if you're sitting in the shade it still has a feeling of over 100 degrees i understand from family in new york that it was in the 40s on rosh hashanah it's amazing how we had diametrically opposed experiences those who dive into outdoors in florida and those who dive into outdoors up north but what does it mean celebrity so that's and i know i'm jumping ahead we have to get through yom kippur first but i know sukis is described by the zoar the shadow the shade of faith the frame free land of the great masjid ponovich and assisted writes that we can achieve this by thinking of hashem's hand in history when you sit in that sukkah if you narrowly focus on that moment either i am i'm suffering from the heat i'm it's tire from the from the oppressive heat or if you're up north in my memories of my childhood how many jackets and how many blankets can you bundle in maybe i'm struggling and suffering and shivering from the cold so where do you feel that you're in the shadow or shade of faith of hashem says rakhine friedlander on sukkah is the mission to zoom out the lens as you sit in that sukkah think not only about that moment as you sit in that sukkah think about what it took to get here do you have parents or grandparents who are survivors how many didn't make it to sit in a sukkah how many would give anything to be a little cold or a little hot how many would give anything to be in shul in a mask distance from others rosh hashanah or yom kippur don't look at the moment look at the context of history and see hashem's guiding hand hashem guided everything in the past and he's guiding our present and he is planning and orchestrating he's choreographing and curating our future when we sit in that sukkah under the protection of hashem the tale of nusa we reflect not only on that moment but we reflect on our lives and we consider where our camp family came from and where we are going that's every jewish holiday the show is regarding the word regel like the word hair gill it comes to break up the hair girl how girl means to habit the rote we become this momentum that we fall into and our lives just are this runaway train and we don't differentiate yesterday from today from tomorrow and all we think about is the crisis or the discomfort of right now and the the rego the regular come and they break the hair go they interrupt that momentum and they say stop stop and reflect and think about the miracle that is you and what your family endured and what your story and family narrative are how you got here where you are and where you're going and that's shabbos hazinu that is the parasha of hazinu that is a serious shiva part of the process of personal growth and introspection part of the process of association is to embrace the hazinu of life that there's positive but there's also some negative mixed in begins and it ends wonderfully but there's some challenging times in crisis and when a person can do that you can sing xeno is a song that moves you when your life is a song when you hear the music no matter what's going on no matter what's going on the bashamtv described the moon is like that said the people who have a muna it's like they hear the music and they're dancing to it and sometimes there are people what are you dancing about this is dead quiet in here what are you dancing to you look like a fool say no no you just don't hear the music i hear the music you know there's um there's a new fed there was at simchos when we still went to them please god it will come again baron bass mitzvahs and so on they have uh silent djs i think they're called silent djs you're all giving me blank looks you have no idea what i'm talking about what's a silent dj again who would ever think of this certainly i didn't you know what a silent dj is it's that the kids on the dance floor wear headphones and the dj is playing different music through different headphones and it's fun for the kids because they look like fools this one's dancing to fast music and this one's dancing to slow jewish music and they're dancing at different rates and different rhythms and they're having a lot of fun because they all look hilarious to one another and the best part is that the adults sitting on the side don't have hearing loss when it's over because the kids are listening to all that music on headphones and you get to enjoy so if you walk into that room and you look at that dance floor you also burst out with laughter the silent dj the kids are all dancing and you're saying what are they dancing about where's the music it's silence but they hear the music said that's amuna when you see hashem's guiding hand in our lives when you see hashem's guiding history when you understand there's no random enchants it's all from above then you hear the music they sing the shira hazinu then you're dancing through life because you see you're able to connect those dots you're able to step back and see the big picture not just focus on the little dots it's not a blur it comes into focus when it comes into focus you can't help but sing we sing in bashar parshas we sing shabba sheerah and we sing in hazinu the song of the song of shirah also talks about the significance of hazinu this is all by way of introduction by the way we're going to get to the sheer momentarily i still have a shabba shubhadra should i prepare kosher sauce he writes nick bob all of haazino appears in one paragraph the song of appears in one paragraph the whole song the shira of hazin it was in perak lamid bays which is not a coincidence because paraklaman bays alludes to and is a hint to the totality of the whole torah the torah begins with the letter base what's the first word of the torah voracious torah begins with the letter base um the torah ends with the letter lament what's what are the last words of torah lai nei cole israel we're going to make a c montora soon just like the heart keeps the body alive we're our very definitions locus how do you define death brain death or the cessation of automated respiratory how you define death is of course a tremendously hilarically complicated and controversial topic not for now but one opinion is that halacha defines life and death by heartbeat if your heart is beating can beat spontaneously then you are alive if your heart can no longer beat on its own then you are dead the heart is the definition of life the blood flow through the veins that is pumped by the heart hadama nephesh that is the definition of life so just like the leave just like a person is only as healthy as their heart the heart defines the health of the body so to torah defines the health of the neshama and what is the heart of torah hazinu so the rebbe says in paraklama days laive because shiro sahazinu the song of hazinu is the heart it is the health of the whole torah and of the whole of the homa shama okay very good let's start now so parakalama bays we just said the whole thing is empirical days possible the we're not going to spend time on this but why the shift from the word give ear to vitishma and listen like the ozen i am here and tishma shamaya to listen why the shift what's the difference between the words one is harsh and one is soft why do we use one word to talk about shamayim and in other words describes there's countless commentary on each of these psuken but on that but speak to the heavens give your heavens and i will speak and may the earth hear the words of my mouth so the rebels say do you know how are its arts represents the physical body the goof here we are on earth distracted by all the earthly things that's what we're doing true before what these assassins are all about we are reflecting on our lives this battle that rages in us am i the godly soul am i the animal instinct and impulse do i give in to my urge and appetite to look at the wrong thing eat the right the wrong thing go to the wrong place be lazy and procrastinate or am i disciplined and dignified do i reign supreme and sovereign over my life am i in charge am i in control that is the battle within man generic man the battle within us of heaven and earth heaven is the brain heaven is the head heaven is the shama heaven is the yearning the spirituality what we reach for and the earth the earthlyness is what we're drawn to shared many times but it's worth sharing again the human being is the only that stands on two feet why the animal walks on all four because the animal faces the earth because the animal is defined by the here and now behema what you see is what you get the animals the here and now the animal is drawn to the earth the animal has an appetite an impulse in animal instinct the animal does what it wants with whom it wants where it wants when it wants and so on the human being we don't face the earth we are not defined as a behemoth we are in adam in adam we have the capacity to grow we are a rich soil that's all about growth so what is the human being we stand on two feet why because we face the heavens we reach for the heavens we stretch for the heavens we're trying to grow we're trying to be bigger better greater we're trying to be our best selves not by what you see is what you get but adam we're constantly on this journey this path towards growing we're not standing still we're halacha we're constantly in movement we're growing we're go doing we're trying to be better so we have to speak to the neshama in us we have to speak to the shamayim in us we have to listen to those who speak like moshe weinberger who speak to the shamayim in us not just the arats and us don't just listen to that which talks to the earthlings in us that talks of the here and now the physical in us but stretch and reach and strive for the shamayim for the heavenly for the spiritual in us it says on these words he says why does moshe vote heaven and earth to witness the covenant he made with the jewish people here moshe's reminding the people there's a promise there's a pledge there's a covenant there's a responsibility there's a contract and who are the witnesses to this contract you didn't call in two witnesses you didn't have to get notaries who are the witnesses none other says the posix says moshe then heaven and earth why does moshe invoke heaven and earth so roshi cites the magistrates explains that the heavens asked the jewish people have you ever seen the sun rising in the west and setting in the east have you ever planted wheat and reaped corn what's the message what's rashi saying nature abides strictly by the laws that were implanted in it by following the laws of physics chemistry and biology the world follows god's laws no one dares violate the dynamics of the cosmos as represented by the heaven and earth his primordial will created and regulates all of creation both organic and inorganic manner in intelligent beings as well as the beast nature behaves in accordance with regulated patterns a behavior which attests to his absolute sovereignty yet yet as far as the moral law is concerned hashem's sovereignty is not universally accepted man tries to divine his own moral code and decide on his own what is good and evil the vision of the malcolm sexual original liturgy expresses our belief that man will ultimately accept his moral law in the same way that he now accepts acknowledges the natural law the the description the liturgy of both rosh hashanah and yom kippur mathias in particular it depicts and describes a time where it's not only science which becomes immutable it's not only physics biology and chemistry which are non-debatable nobody today is going to debate that the earth is round or that gravity is a pull those are immutable they're facts nature has facts they are simply uh rules with which the world operates and that's shamayim arts heaven and earth are the symbol of nature and just like nature is immutable it's not debatable nature is entirely obedient and compliant whatever god programmed and designed into nature nature now does so too we are supposed to be like nature you know we say in kirishvana shalom we look up at that moon and we celebrate the rebirth the renewal of the moon and we think about the moon and the sun the stars the constellation the cosmos and we acknowledge and we say we're not god forbid worshiping the moon in fact many have the custom to turn around and have their back to the moon when we say the brach of kirishvana in order to ensure that no one will have the misimpression that we're worshiping the moon so why do we say kirsh lavana in the text of the brock of kirish say the moon the sun it never changes it does what it's supposed to do when it's supposed to do it we have a monthly sunrise beach we've not yet resumed it soon monthly we go to the beach if we take palmetto park road all the way east you get to the end there's a gazebo we meet at the gazebo we have a beautiful beautiful minion literally overlooking the ocean and whatever time it's set on the calendar whatever it said on the cover of the newspaper on maismadam.com whatever time it says the sun is supposed to ride pumped right then it's amazing say the israel silence comes over the gazebo you look out over the ocean and there it is the top of the sun pokes through it's magnificent to see it's really really amazing it's beautiful beautiful beautiful and there it is and every time that we have our monthly sunrise minion our nate's minion hannah's minion at the beach i'm always amazed shalom yeshanus tafkidam i can look at what time sunrise is in a thousand years from now and you know what the sun by then won't say i was lazy i needed a day off i needed to sleep in i was my cat my whole schedule was thrown off there was a pandemic whatever time it says the sun is supposed to rise pumped there it is no excuses no cop out no rationalizations no justifications no blame there it is it does what it's meant to do says the rav why is moshe invoking the image of heaven and earth in order to be the witnesses testifying to this covenant this promise because we are to uphold our moral promise to hashem we the jewish people collectively individually are supposed to be role models and examples to the world of what it means to live a moral and ethical life and you know just like science nature chemistry biology and physics they don't make excuses punks whatever they're supposed to do they do there are rules they're immutable they behave they're not debatable they don't change so to the moral and ethical laws of hashem shalom they should be non-negotiable we can't change them we can't deviate from them we should we should fulfill them the exact way that they were they were dictated just as nature and science fulfills exactly what it was meant to do as well okay next passing phase is again timing wise it rarely falls out that we can study it together in the parish class but most people i think it's a pretty busy time of the year hopefully you do isn't it but unlike the narrative sections of torah hamish which are exciting hazin is very tough as i said the hebrew and the poetry it's unusual it's a departure from what we're used to in terms of the style yaroff may my teaching drop like rain tizal my utterance flow like do like tal kisirim ali dasa dasha like storm winds on vegetation alai asif and like raindrops on blades of grass what does this mean what is this telling us why is torah likened torah and teachings are likened to reign and to do why what does that mean he says when rain or or do fall on a garden so you don't see the impact right away i mentioned recently that this summer at the end of the summer one of my daughters and i planted a garden we've been talking about it for a long time and again one of the beauties of the pandemic gives us opportunity and windows into time and things that we heretofore have not done so we went to home depot and we said talk to us like we have no idea what we're doing and they did because we have no idea what we're doing and we got tomatoes cherry tomatoes and we got red peppers and we got basil and we got peppermint and we got i don't remember what else and we dug up the grass and we spread out the soil and we planted and we're having an enormously fun time every day we go out there and it's an amazing thing if you look daily you can't see any growth first of all the best gardener in the world who is our partner is of course hashem who makes it rain every day and waters our garden without which it would probably dry up because we're not that good so hashem is a great partner deserves acknowledgement so here's the amazing thing that she's learning that i'm learning if you look every day you don't see the tomato vines growing you can't see any growth but what she's having fun doing is she takes pictures and if you compare the picture from 10 days ago to the picture today side by side all of a sudden you say wow it grew significantly it's budding it's on its way we're going to eat tomatoes one day from these vines in mirza shem says that why is the torah likening the teaching of torah to vegetation like rain on the garden like uh dew on the vegetables why we likening the same way the teaching of torah you can't necessarily measure the growth in real time you don't see within your children or your students or even within ourselves you don't necessarily see the results in real time but the same way when you water a garden you can't see it in real time but if you look over time it's undeniable the growth the same is true with the impact of torah if you allow torah the image of a bikiva the drip if you allow torah to drip drip drip if you allow torah to fall like rain to rest like to rest like do then over time undeniably you will see that breakthrough you will see that growth you will see that impact it happens over it happens over time revolver has another insight out to this pasak so again ya raf kamata lakhim may torah drip like rain revolver quotes is rabbit rabbit review why are we comparing torah to rain and he has a different insight different than than the tadakrav simcha he says the following rain dampens the soil and it creates fertile ground the rain is helpful you would have hard earth the rain dampens makes moist it makes the soil more available to place seeds in order for them to grow but the growth of the plant or of the vegetable of the vegetation comes not from the rain you need the rain but where does it come from if you want to eat that tomato if you want to eat that red pepper if you want to put that basil in your soup how is it going to grow where does it come from it comes from inside the seed itself so although torah prepares and cultivates a person to grow torah is like rain it waters us it cultivates us it prepares us and nourishes us and nurtures us but the growth has to be like a seed the growth has to come says from inside ourselves such an important insight because people wonder and they wait say i don't understand that person learns torah these children get that jewish education why why aren't they mentioned why don't they behave why aren't they moral why aren't they ethical it's very disturbing it's very frustrating and it's caused many people to go off the darach the people who learn torah but don't live torah why is there that break why is there that barrier sort of is explaining torah is likened to rain rain and dew they nurture and they nourish they can make it fertile for growth but they can't produce the fruit only what's inside that seed has to come out and the same is true with us we have an ashama inside ourselves we have potential we have the life that we're capable of we have the impact we have the mission that we're meant to live and torah is like the rain the turtle nourishes and it nurtures the torah makes us fertile soil for growth but like the seed it has to come from inside ourselves and shari chuva in parikh bays ravenna yonah writes quote if a person does not arouse himself what will muslim help rabindiana says muslims beautiful muslims like rain torah is like rain but if you don't wake yourself up if you don't get yourself going if you don't decide in your own heart that you're ready to finally break through that you're going to start changing your life you're going to become more patient and less envious and jealous and slower to anger you're going to learn more davin better you're going to make brachas you're going to be more grateful more appreciative more honest have more integrity if you don't decide to wake up and change your life you could have the greatest rabbi the greatest friends you can listen to the best classes you're going to attend the best seminar you can hire the best trainer the best chef the best coach the best manager you can take care of all the things outside yourself you could even sit and study total all day long like rain all those things can help but it has to come from inside ourselves says rabena yona if you don't wake yourself up then musa cannot help and revolva quotes us and revolve elaborates and he says you can listen to endless muslims but if you don't decide at the end that you want to grow and you want to break through then no change that nothing is measurable is going to happen and says revolve we could take the same observation about sukis sukas is the potential to be one of the most spiritually uplifting times of the year are we going to sit there covered and i'm giving some we've got to get through yom success first we could sit through the ananya kavod surrounded by hashem's rejoicing in forgiveness amid hashem that we're going to earn on yom kippur sukkas and the rest of the abnormal end with simcha's torah with the joy and what we say is torah you are the rain you nourish and you nurture us but we celebrate that we broke through from within from within ourselves so two different insights into why into why yaroff why is the study of torah likened to the falling of rain or dew or who says because you don't see the growth in real time it takes time but over time if you measure side by side you'll see that there's enormous growth and enormous breakthrough that's a very powerful lesson for parents for teachers for educators excuse me for us to be patient be patient you won't see it right now but it'll happen it'll happen i always admire my colleagues my dear friends educators who have a child in their class and they don't necessarily see the breakthrough because that child it doesn't grow or break through until years later they don't get the nachas immediately but it's over time is the famous kotskar we say in shema alava we put the torah what do you mean we should put it in your heart why is it the very thing that's katskari says because our job is to put the torah on top of the heart just leave it there and you never know when the heart will break when the heart will open up and it'll seep in leave it there put it there teach model communicate inspire place the torah there and you never know when the shell of the of the torah will dissolve you never know when the heart will get a crack you never know when the heart will open up and the alava the torah will seep in for ourselves keep putting it there keep putting it there you never know when you're going to break open or for our children or for others we never know when that breakthrough will happen next pasta katsura tell me the deeds of hashem now hashem is likened here to a rock a mighty rock tamim the deeds of the rock are perfect hashem is pure justice he is the god a faithful god ain't there's no injustice sadiq he is righteous and he is upright it's a very important passage we say this pasuk allah forms the core it's the basis it's the first part of siddhika din at a funeral lo alaino at the end of the funeral either the mourners themselves or the the rabbi who's officiating on behalf of the mourners recites what's called siddha kadin is the acceptance of divine judgment divine justice meaning just like when a person hears that there's a loved one that's lost they say blessed is the the true judge that's a very succinct articulation of accepting hashem that it comes from him even when it's difficult to accept the longer version is to the kaden it's a long long paragraph and it starts with these words we call hashem here a rock it's very interesting earlier in the whole torah the word sewer barely appears we don't call got it sure and here in this section alone sewer appears five times five times and then we go on we call them sure no less than five times what is the significance of calling god a rock what is the significance of the reference to calling god a rock so rebecca has two interpretations which are very interesting however you pronounce his name the great spanish commentator says the following he says number one moshe abbayno at the end of his life you have to understand for moshe albano he's not he's 120 but he's not on his death bed looking back and saying i lived a good life in a peaceful life and i realized all my dreams and i fulfilled everything i wanted all of my hopes and wishes mushroom is escorting the people they are on the cusp of entering the land they the people are about to fulfill his dream and he is going to meet his ends it's very frustrating very difficult very painful for him to accept that he got so close and yet he can't get in and yet here he calls hashem hatsuwa says rabbin that should not be lost on you that he's giving him the name for hashem of hatsura the rock why is that significant because why is it that moshe can't go into israel it's brilliant why is it that moshe can't go into israel the punishment the consequence for may marifa the punishment and the consequence for the fact that moshe hit the rock instead of speaking to the rock so within his own acknowledgement at the end of his life within his own praise of hashem he is invoking the image of his own mistake when he's describing that god he's tamim he's pure mishpat he's just a novel there's no injustice he is basically saying to the people in a in a hinted way he's alluding to the people but derek remisa in a very nuanced way he's saying you know god is just there's no injustice i so badly want to go in but he's right hatsure he the rock is just in punishing me because i hit the rock instead of speaking to the iraq isn't that kashmak you should all be smiling you should all be enjoying that much much better let's get schmuck not corona just a sneeze it's an incredible insight hatsure at the end of his life when he should be resentful bitter i saw some of you like moving away from the camera don't worry it can't go through zoom doesn't come through youtube to sneeze and it's not it's not corona it's just a sneeze just lack of sleep and fasting and a lot of speaking hatsu at the end of moshe's life he is hatsur he's praising hashem it's not a lukewarm praise it's not a bittersweet praise it is a wholehearted full-fledged sneeze praise to hashem it is a full praise hatsura hashem you in the very statement in the very affirmation that hashem stands for justice he recognizes hashem he is in fact invoking his own failure he's invoking his own shortcoming when he's referencing that hashem is kulo just he's entirely just there is no injustice that's number one number two he is invoking hashem as hashem as the creator hashem you are the creator and you mold and shape the world and everything is from you how is he invoking that in the word sure says the word sur includes like yatsar hashem created hashem created and she says there's no rock like god to which hazal understand not in sura no but there is no artist like god in surcha volcano in sayaka volcano what a beautiful insight when i had the great honor and privilege to go to montana to glacier national park and i went to the swiss alps in both of those places all i could think about was that ghazal in circular canada there's no rock like god ain't saying okay no give man all the time in the world you can't create glacier national park all the technology in the world you can't create the swiss alps he there's no greater artist he is the greatest artist of all time ain't say lokeno and our lives the tapestry upon which he paints our lives he is the artist who is painting our lives and that's moshe rabbeinu's acknowledgement to hashem that hashem you created you you were yotseyar yotzerham ashayatsar you are the yotser you are the sewer you are the rock steadfast reliable dependable predictable you are the rock and you are also the yotseir the tsayar you are the artist and you are the creator and mushroom is invoking all of that over here i want to quote an insight from rav rook or if you saw mayor druk rodriguez says the following oh yes a question the passage says hashem you're only just i would say with you by you they would say by you but that's not english by you hashem with you hashem in reference to you hashem ainavel there is no injustice what are you bringing up so rashidar says enabel aflar shah mishams even with the wicked he is giving them their reward in this world he is saving their punishment for the future world says the possibility one of the ways we're praising hashem one of the ways that moshe is praising hashem is there is no injustice how bizarre how strange what praises it to tell god there's no injustice says the same thing [Music] you remember it from our dhawaning friday night to tell that hashem is yashari straight suri he's my rock this is play on words of moshe rabbenu has the same words sure and velo of los about what kind of praises it for hashem to say and hashem you're not corrupt you're not on the take there's no bribing you there's no injustice with you that's a praise for the almighty the omnipotent the infinite god that there's no injustice with you it's a bizarre type of a praise bizarre praise sarah quotes the guru some say in the name of israel solanter the following he gives the following metaphor if a person avarah came of national somebody was accused of a crime and they're brought before the judge for sentencing for ruling for justice so what's going to happen the judge is going to listen and the judge is going to have a hearing and join and the judge is going to um is going to rule based on the merits of the person who comes before him tomorrow night in mohanda bhima we're having a federal judge judge al hellerstein very excited to hear his take about supreme court justice and what it's like to be a judge how his judaism impacts his justice and give us some good hints how to come before the judge of judges as a judge himself so when a person comes before a judge the judge is listening on the merits of that person on the merits of that person themselves whether they're guilty whether they're innocent whether they have virtue or whether they in fact deserve to have the book thrown at them so what is the lawyer for that accused do they say no no listen listen to the family of the accused and the family come and they say this person is so essential to me and i love them and what they've done for me and how they transformed me and you cannot punish them because if you punish them you're punishing me you're punishing me and then the rabbi comes and the recipients of the taka come and the friends come and the organizations come and come and says judge you keep this person in jail because he does the best taharis he gives them ostaka he's the god dominion he's the one who cleans up the sudden the mushroom he's the one who puts out the food for shallow shoulders if you punish him you're punishing all of us one by one the way you appeal to the judge is by saying you're not just going to punish the person you're going to punish all of us so what happens what happens it would turn out that punishing the person is in fact punishing others who are undeserving of punishment undeserving of punishment that's a complicating factor for a judge who has to determine what the right thing is to do hashem is different hashem is able to punish the person who deserves to be punished his justice and his punishment his punitive system he's able to hone in and punish just the person who deserves it without a residual or without any other collateral damage to anyone who's undeserving and that's what we say that's the shot says all of hashem is no injustice it's not that to do justice for a becomes an injustice for be hashem is able to work it all out and coordinate it all for him there is pure justice and there is no injustice when it comes to anybody else says based on this maybe we understand the mission of if you have a lot of good friends if you have a lot of people who rely on you if you become essential personnel not non-essential personnel the whole world today is talking about essential versus non-essential we've been talking about it forever the jewish people the world is catching up essential versus non-essential if you make and position yourself to be essential you matter you make a difference to others then the judge of judges will have to rule in your favor because if he would eliminate you he'd be punishing not only you but other people kanela the more khadiram you have therefore the more you matter in this world therefore the more hashem will have to rule favorably if you saw solanter said he doesn't quote this here revolving quotes it not ashore that we should position ourselves to be somebody ish that the answer the secret to persevering to succeeding on yomadinya maya din and roshana and um kipper to walk out on your kipper and to be sealed for a year of goodness is to be a person him straight from though don't be egotistical narcissistic self-centered don't be in it for yourself be a person shaharabam srikham don't just be a person who makes shabbos for yourself don't make him kipper for yourself well my backyard my minion my kiddush my i don't want to wear a mask i this be a community member be a community player care about the people volunteer and show up be a gabai be about fila give a little extra stucco to help the people who can't afford all again in a safe way not talking about asking anyone to do anything that's unsafe all in a safe way but be a person shahrab and srikhamla because rabistra solante says when yamaden comes when yom kippur comes if you're in it for yourself your comfort your convenience yourself hashem says bring me his file bring me her file let me look at them as themselves are they worthy but if you're a person srikham if you're if you're a person who's positioned yourself that others rely on you you're essential hashem doesn't just look at your file he looks at all the letters that came in from all over that say don't punish this person we need them we rely on them don't ever don't compromise them don't limit them we need them we need them don't hold them back whatsoever we need them and he goes on he has a much more beautiful insight into this uh rook okay next posix says remember the days of old reflect upon the years of other generations ask your father and he will tell you your elders and they will inform you this is the source of the value of jewish history we have i want to give a whole shirt about studying jewish history we don't make a birkha torah on studying jewish history it's not that studying jewish history has the value of torah but there is a significant jewish value to studying history to knowing where we come from zachary to remember our history to know where we come from so we're not doomed to repeat it so we could learn the lessons of it and so on salvation rights here on this recognition of our show's presence and absence at certain moments leads to a proper interpretation of events both in the lives of individuals and in the life of community to read history properly and to interpret in the light of hashem's absence or presence is the prime duty of the jew it's implied by the ramban's doctrine of massa abuse the events involving the fathers are signs for the descendants when we study hamish what is it what is tanakh not the study of history so our our reflections on the past don't end when tanakh closes we become collective students of history because there is no history you know rabbi sacks chief rabbi lord sacks on uh zagada has an essay where he talks about other study history history is his story we have memory memory starts with me we're not studying someone else's story history his story for us it's all part of our active memory myself similar is my memory me my ancestors we went through it man must have an excellent year in order to hear the footsteps of hashem who walks in the garden of human history we must beware of the danger that like mankind will purposefully try to escape reality and hide upon hearing the footsteps of hashem otherwise men will descend to the level of obama's contemporaries who could not hear the call who could not even recognize could not even recognize hashem in this passage is the value of studying history as a religious experience not memorizing a bunch of facts names places and dates we study history as a religious experience on the mission to uncover and discover hashem's guiding hand through that history because then it transforms it from history to memory his to me it informs my present and it guides my very future paragliding base pasta your base moving right along flying up to shelishi almost up to shilishi moshe says hashem badade hashem guided them alone and there was no alien deity with him anymore no foreign god hashem badad you can imagine this word jumped off the page to me this year particularly what's it called in israel if you are in quarantine you are in bidud badad we spoke about this on tishb of night where we said it's not normal this isn't normal it's not normal that is exactly what the navi was bemoaning this isn't normal and what we're still going through is not normal and we should never become adjusted we have to remain maladjusted this can never become normal so that word badad which means quarantine alone loneliness was the lamenting history lamentation and here hashem hashem guided them alone whichever guided them alone so here they [Music] if you try to worship hashem alone by yourself you're not going to connect with friends you're not part of community you are badad my backyard my minion myself my kiddush i make shabbos for myself i don't care about the greater world you cannot come to the level of hashem if you're trying to serve and worship hashem and experience your judaism badad by yourself alone isolated from others withdrawn distracted below dibakaverum you can't achieve it i am a pair submission if you serve hashem in loneliness distanced by choice as i might hear me the zoo the emo el nichar the only level that you can reach if you try to serve god by yourself is animo el nicha you won't be a pagan you won't be an idolater you won't worship a false god that's the only level you can get to surmira a val yar ki veyo abbam say aaret's vyoko right the next passage keep going the archive he made them right upon the high places of earth they would eat the produce of the field which are russia tables it's an acronym for yi didim with friends not badad but with yadidin yiddis then you'll eat from the good from the pleasant from the fruit from the succulent delicious fruit of this world so that says in this passage is the contrast badad are you going to serve hashem you'll only get to the level of that you're not going to have a false god but if you want to be able to achieve the level of eating from the delicious fruit of this world then you have with others connected community caring being part of something so much bigger so much bigger than ourselves okay last thought last thought based passive that you're going to go on to they say and you'll be gathered to your people just like aaron died and he was gathered to his people first of all this is so cruel so cruel there's one question why would god why would god do this cruelty moshe go climb the mountain and give a kick give a look you're not going in instead you see that mountain over there i want you to go up there and drop dead hashem tells moshe literally go drop dead since when can you command someone to drop dead that's the question of the ishtamid of rav druk um go die on that mountain how could you command someone to die suicide is prohibited is of course not god forbid telling moshe go commit suicide what does he mean go die so ibn ezra says it doesn't mean go die it means go prepare yourself for death go prepare to meet your maker go and save go and do all that's necessary to prepare for the jewish way to die rabbin says we in fact because you cannot instruct somebody to do it this is an illusion to know this is not in your power you can't delay it you're not in charge of it you can't make it happen it is something that exclusively belongs in the realm of hashem hashem alone is the one who who controls it is the one who controls it the swarner says he says umus means know that this is going to be your final kapara this is what's going to be what transforms you this is going to be what elevates you but i want to leave it with a question for you and these very parshiots in which moshe is describing the process and the power of chuva why does he not have chuva why does hashem tell us in the very parshios in which moshe is describing our ability to repair to come back to correct to fix everyone has a second chance except moshe instead hashem says go on that mountain and die and go on that mountain and die it's chuva possible for everyone is shubha denied to moshe what is going on i leave that to you as a question of cliffhanger for you to think about and i invite you and encourage you to join us tomorrow morning for messiest of sherman day 15 living with muna 845 behind the bema tomorrow evening at 9pm pm special guest judge al hellerstein alvin helstein and uh look forward wishing everyone gamaka simatova should be a good goodbyes year good health happiness look forward to continuing with the parshashir following sukis so stay tuned for when the next partial show will begin again following sukis and take care