Parsha Perspectives for Today (Ki Savo)

good morning boca tov it is great to be together again to study the parsha parasha perspectives for today and this week we have the privilege of learning together parashes kisawa i want to thank our generous sponsors for the year my dear friends becky navi katz and family and loving memory of becky's father david grossman are learning thank you for your generosity a reminder the series is sponsored but you can still sponsor individual classes please be in touch with our shula office before we begin our learning today i want to um i want to ask a request i'm curious if anybody takes notes on our parsha class or amunoshi or any of the other shirim if you do i would be grateful to be able to have a copy of those notes i'm looking to be able to record in writing some of the things that we share and if anyone is doing it already it would be an enormous help to me reg at brsonline.org if you could email me at reg at brsonline.org would be deeply appreciative to you okay let's get started our partial begins on page one thousand and sixty eight in the art crosstalk and the parasha has an enormous amount begins with bikuran makes its way all the way through the tokugawa obviously we're limited in our time so we'll see how far we get and how much we're able to learn together on this on this fine morning begins by telling us what will happen when you enter the land remember moshe is still delivering his monologue his soliloquy moshe is charging the jewish people they are on the precipice of entering the land after 40 years this incorrigible people 40 years of moshe's extraordinary patience leading them and now they're about to fulfill their dream they're about to realize the purpose of their mission and moshe is giving them an instruction he says when you enter that land and you inherit and you acquire and you take up residence you're going to take gracious copri adama the first of your fruit bikuram the mitzvah is characterized as racist as the first the jewish people are racists are first torah is racist bikuram is given a great position of prominence of significance among all of the mitzvos it is a very very special mitzvah that the farmer takes the very first fruit and brings it to you and brings it to the coin there's a parade pomp and circumstance to celebrate this first little fig the first little date the first little fruit a little nothing and yet there's enormous pomp and circumstance an enormous party we've discussed this previously because of what it represents the beginning the first not knowing what else is coming and yet a willingness to acknowledge and to give and to gift it to us again the torah is ambiguous bring it all come to a place the torah doesn't give us the gps coordinates it doesn't tell us exactly where that is people are supposed to find it on their own we discussed this several weeks ago where kurdish barack who says you have to be a dourish you have to spiritually be a seeker and a searcher you have to look uh you take this first fruit to the cohen and the kawaii does a ceremony with this first fruit and so on and so forth the mitzvah of we begin with an insight from from ravi solmer druk the wonderful ishtami we've been going through this beautiful beautiful safer and he says the following you take from your first fruit you bring it to you shallayim rashi says mere she's from your first the local resist but not all of your first it's not all first fruit that are obligated it's only the seven species of eretz israel that the farmer has to monitor carefully the farmer has to um tie a ribbon or mark off the first of those seven species and that is what's brought to the co deduces from the use of the word eretz the parallel that it's only the seven species of eretz israel that are obligated in bikram when you go fruit in its it's not obligated in bikurim even in israel it's not all fruit it is specifically the seven fruit of the land the shiva's haminam the shema arizona why is bikram so significant it's called gracious it's equated with the jewish people and with torah so we'll see several reasons one of which is gratitude bikram is an expression and exercise and saying thank you so fundamental to who we are so defining to how we live but the arizona says that the mitzvah of bikurim is a tikkun it comes to repair it comes to fix the khetamaraglam the episode of maragman can i get mashed pizza with teres israel go to diba sarah where'd the moragan go wrong the naga went wrong that they slandered the land of israel they said there are giants and we can't inherit it and it's not a blessed land then we can't go the miragum had negative report they had didn't have faith in hashem they were meant to go and they were meant to investigate the land and they were meant to come back and of course to identify what they'd need to do but with a sense of confidence instead they came back and they incited fear within the people panic they cried the entire night we can't go we can't go up it'll never work out we'll never have a easy transition we can't make aliyah and they incited this fear this panic which became instituted within our calendar each and every year tisha b'av the ninth of the catamaran they came back with a negative report they slandered the land so says the ariza the mitzvah of bikuram is the antidote the mitzvah bikuram so specifically to take that first fruit the very fruit that the miraguan came back with this enormous gigantic or what my children would say ginormous fruit and they said you see the size of this fruit they're giants who live there we can never succeed we can never conquer it'll never work out the fruit was the symbol of the insurrection the fruit was the symbol of their doubt and uncertainty the fruit was the symbol of their lack of faith so says the arizona the great capitalist says they are izao therefore the fruit is also the symbol of our restored faith of our renewed competence and calm that in fact hashem is gifting us the land so the mitzvah is not random it's not just any fruit the mitzvah of bikram is specifically the fruit of the land of israel a person goes into their field and they notice a fig that's ripened a grapes that have ripened the pomegranate that's ripened kosher beginning so the farmer has to tie it you tie a little ribbon around that little first fruit you see it's begun to bud and you declare ah these are bikuram these are bikram about three weeks ago we came back in the summer and one of my daughters my daughter este and i planted a garden in our backyard very excited red peppers and cherry tomatoes and jalapenos and and basil and uh a delicious garden so just yesterday she came home from school she examined the garden she got so excited she sent texted me a picture that the cherry tomatoes there's a tiny little beginning of maybe a flowering of episode tiny tomato on top abba it's common look it's here so cherry tomatoes are not from the shiva salminam and we are in khutsalats and there's no mitzvah bikuram in our little garden please god but this is the excitement of the farmer you see that first fruit you see that first fig and instead of saying it's for me we've already planned our party esther and i that we're gonna make some delicious salad out of our vegetables when they grow we're going to bring it to our shabbos table what a party we're going to have what is simcha it's going to be so this first farmer the farmer who's tying off that first fruit instead of making a similar party for himself and his family in his own home takes that first fruit and gives it and dedicates it to hashem and the mission here in bikram describes that process he goes down he sees examines all the vegeta the fruit says oh look a sprouted ties little ribbon around the first one so no ukraine why'd is mishna give these examples if the bikuram applies to the seven species of israel so why not quote any of the seven species of israel why does the mishna in parakeet why does it specifically give the examples of the te na three of the fruit of of the seven what happened to the other four why specifically give the examples of these three listen to the inside of ramanachan's demba um it's not a coincidence that when the mission has to give a dukman example of how you perform the mitzvah bikurim it doesn't choose from the other four of the seven species it specifically chooses these three and why specifically these three because go back to the story of the spies and you will see that when the miragum come back and report that there are ginormous fruit and will never succeed in conquering the land which three fruit do they point to which three fruit do they sample and bring back which three fruit do they hold up as the example of the inability to conquer the land specifically the same free three fruit the mishna quotes namely uh figs grapes and pomegranates why says ranacham zamba because of the inside of the ari because bikuram is a tikkun bikuram is the repair the correction for the mistake of the was a lack of faith in the land was kapha tov was a failure to appreciate the gifts of hashem a failure to have confidence that hashem will bring us and the fruit was the symbol of that failure then the fruit becomes the symbol of our success appreciation and gratitude and faith and therefore it's the same shiva meaning and not only the same chaves i mean but when the mishnah has to bring an example it brings an example of the three that were used specifically in the context of of bikum what a great great insight continuing the passion so let's go with this story we're going to spend a lot of time at the beginning of the pasture today so the farmer brings us first fruit we started to be cool in the past we're not reviewing the parts that we've talked about in previous parshas urum as tempting as they are because they're great insights in divrei torah i refer you to listen to them again if i had notes that someone typed i would say i'll email you the notes of last year's parshashir and we would all do better so anyway you bring it to the ubase and the and there's a declaration the coming takes the tenant takes the basket and puts it from the miz and now there is a recitation chapter 26 5. hey page 1068 in the arts crosstalk you the farmer will answer and declare around she says bakuram it's got to be out loud you got to do it with excitement enthusiasm passion and what's this declaration where is it look after you declare before hashem all of a sudden this farmer who has a little fig a little pomegranate a little cluster of grapes a gournished the farmer is not coming with a 18-wheeler tractor-trailer truck to deliver to hashem the farmer's coming with mamish a little gurnish fig a figure that's it and yet he makes this whole declaration here i am in front of the basement and i have a whole declaration to make arami ravi i want to tell you all about my history i want to tell you about my history here it is the history of the world according to the farmer around me of the in aramian tried to destroy my father by aaron mitchum i went down to egypt and we live there few in number and while we were in egypt population explosion boy did we multiply by area was on our nitro nunu and the egyptians they mistreated us they oppressed us they persecuted us they afflicted us and they put great work great labor when it's a la shmoop okay i was saying we called out cried out to us he heard our crime we saw are suffering he took as a car with a outstretched hand it was around the two you have a motor guard also there was your sound and light show you likes of which you've never seen before 10 plagues it was outrageous by vienna he took us to this place as though he gave us his land there a land flowing with milk and honey and now and now it's a punchline it's like you say to somebody tell me about yourself tell you about myself well my great great great great grandparents migrated to russia in 1703 and then my parents and then this and then we came here and then we survived and then we came and then i went just give me the punchline i'm just curious like where you went to college who's your rebbe what your shivers you go to so the farmer brings a little fig and instead of just saying hashem thanks for the first fig first one's yours i'm going to go back to my form and enjoy the rest of them thank you very much made my way here thank you writer back to my farm no he reviews the totality of jewish history first there was an arab me and tried to destroy my father and we were in egypt and we suffered 210 years but then hashem took us out it was the sound of the light show it was incredible and then we wanted the desert and then we came to this land though inherited and i planted my farm just get to the punch line you planted your farm you got the fig here you are skip to this part you know basis racist prior to money i'm here with the first of my fruit hashem the goddess and i'm so excited i'm so happy with all the good why is the farmer starting from the history of the world six days of creation and the seventh day hashem rested and adam and what's the whole history in the world why is he going back all the way to the very beginning moreover my dear friends i'll ask you another question you all perked up when we started reading this section arami obi-davi and why did you perk up because it's familiar to you and why is it familiar to you because you're such experts in parshas kisavo of course you are but in addition you're familiar with this passage because you don't only hear it once a year parshas kisavo when else do you hear about the story of the arame avi when else do you hear the story about the aramian who wanted to kill my father i'm gonna don't break out in hives we are six months away from the next pesach but pesach we sit at the seder and we declare to say ulamad mabikesh lovan go and learn what did love and want to do to my father yaakov para la gaza el azharam para only wanted to kill the males the love on bk but love shh lovin was so nefarious so evil so wicked love another plan not only to eliminate the male firstborn love and wanted to take us all out love and try to destroy the totality of the jewish people so there's so many questions and this is normally on the haggadah again you could take out your pen and paper or if someone shares the notes with all of us you'll have advartora for the seder next year which please god you'll be back to being with your entire family and a lot of devery torah to make up for so listen carefully asks everyone at the seder love on bk what love was worse than paro para was a genocidal dictator maniac power performed a genocide he killed a million jews in egypt it's outrageous next to the holocaust the egyptian genocide ranks among one of the top jewish tragedies of all time and yet we're saying that love unwanted to do even worse what exactly did love and want to do okay love on worked yaakov pretty hard you haven't tricked him and fooled him love and chased him and wanted to get him back when do we ever find that love and wanted to kill yaakov let alone lac or esakol let alone when do we ever find that love on wanted to destroy all the jewish people when did it happen where is it where is it in our torah where is it in our jewish history it's absent what is the baal haggadah talking about next how do we know shannon mar the haggadah continues we now quote arab sukkah from kisavo how do you know that arami abu dhabi is talking about lava how do you know it's talking about love and aramian wanted to destroy my father maybe it's not talking about lafan at all moreover the third question if the haggadah has to quote any section if the god is going to darshen up any sukim okay it's time for the excellence the core of the haggadah this is not the fun part there's no food there's no props this is the biblical exegesis part it's the part that the family goes through quickly someone says come on read this part quickly so we can get to the fun stuff so what is the biblical exegesis what is the part that we're going to focus on we're going to unravel we're going to examine and analyze if you would have asked me what parsha should we study together seder knight what is the most essential pasha satyr night i would have to go back to say for shemos go back to bo bashala go back to the story of of leaving egypt why are we studying from kisavo we all of a sudden have this declaration this formula that the farmer takes the first fruit to the base of my dash and comes to the coin and the farmer has this entire formula this entire recitation oh that's what we'll study seder night so three questions three questions what did love and want to do worse than paro who says the arami over avi this arab mean is even loved to begin with and why in the world are we reading from parishes excuse me from our pasha on saturday night rather than reading the essential story or source of leaving of leaving mitzrayim so it's a beautiful haggadah from reverie moment of yosef sirimon the rover of allah and the russia shiva of mahon lev a great talmud and a great mahabharata and is a beautiful beautiful hakkada that appears both in hebrew shira miriam and that's been translated into english by masadaraf cook it's a really beautiful haggadah and in here he addresses all of these questions which normally we'd be studying on arab pesach but of course this all relates to our parsha as as well relates to our parsha why do we take it from from here so first of all he says the editor of the gaga chose these for sukham kisavo which tells the story of the exodus in a much shorter form had he wanted to use the sukkam of the ish of shamos it would have made the haggadah much longer and we might have been obliged to skip certain sukkim so therefore these four they're succinct they capture the whole story and that's why they're chosen it's a very practical or pragmatic reason number one he offers number two another reason for choosing this sukken is they're part of the commandment of bringing first fruit every person is required to bring first fruit and tell the story of this mistrian it's a description of the past and the demonstration of how to properly tell over the years in other words the farmer we'll talk about in a moment why but part of the exercise of offering the first fruit is reviewing everything that happened until that point is going through the story of jewish history so in that context of reviewing the story of jewish history we have a model we have an example of how to properly capture and articulate yetis mission so say for most is the unfolding of the story in real time that's not the text we used what's the text that we use not the unfolding of the story in real time the text we use is later when we have a example when we have a precedent of somebody who's telling the story after all what is sader night if not the obligation to tell the story so we now use and draw from a precedent to someone telling the story namely the farmer one can add another reason says reverimo the mitzvah bring the first fruit expresses the attribute of gratitude bikuram the essence the core of the mitzvah bikurim is gratitude this farmer is so grateful it's not pasha you go to home depot and you buy the little feed and hashem helps water the garden every afternoon in florida conveniently in august in the beginning of september he is a partner in that garden he waters it even when you or your daughter are neglected yet it's not a given that anything is going to grow it's a miracle that something grows so when the farmer sees evidence of the first growth the farmer even before they know how much more will grow the farmer goes to say thank you the farmer goes to say thank you because thank you for us is a core essential value in our mind body soul challenge of the boca raton synagogue if you go to brsonline.org you can still sign up we're only a third of the way through the 30-day challenge mind-body soul nine different challenges beginner intermediate advanced for the mind body soul so one of my three groups i have a mind a body and a soul what's app groups we're doing a challenge again we're only a third through it's not too late to join one of them is keeping a gratitude journal for 30 straight days writing down three things you're grateful for each day because that's the essence of what it means to be a jew we're called yehudim from because we are a nation and a people who express gratitude where express rafner's famous vote modeling in every expression of gratitude is a mission i needed you i grew from you i gained from you i wouldn't be the same without you arrogant people who are unable and unwilling to admit they needed another struggle to say thank you and humble people who have no problem saying you enriched me have no problem being able to say thank you thank you is not for the recipient of the thank you thank you is for the one who offers it it's for the one who offers it we spoke last week i think it was in the pressure share i quoted my great uncle uh rabbi lu numero bishon naman right i think it was last week's pasha shir who had the yiddish expression and talked about why is it called hakara satov not tashblem tov you're not paying off the good you're recognizing the good because gratitude is not a debt that you ever fully pay it is a acknowledgement that you carry and that's what the farmer is doing reinforcing this expression of gratitude a person goes down to the field and looks at the crop and knows that everything's from hashem so you know what's included in real gratitude this is reverend moon's insight and i want to share it with you such an important important insight when the farmer goes down to the field and sees that first pomegranate that first fig that first grape the farmer doesn't see only what's in front of them in that moment the farmer doesn't just see the grape the figure the pomegranate what does the farmer see everything that led until that moment pharma says you know wow my parents are survivors my grandparents are survivors it's not possible it's not a given that i'm even here today who says i should even be alive my grandparents were survivors it's a miracle they're here and you know they struggled and it's a miracle i have this house and it's a miracle i got that job and it's a miracle this woman agreed to marry me and it's a miracle i have these children it's a miracle i afforded this farm and it's a miracle that i planted things and they're growing it's a miracle that there's no pestilence that wiped it out and it's a miracle that the sun is shined and the air is here and the water is it's a miracle so the farmer doesn't just see what's in front of the farmer sees the totality of everything that led up to it and that's why this farmer who should just be saying saying for the fig doesn't just say succinctly for the fig the farmer says you know what this fig represents do you know everything that led up to this fig it goes back to plymouth rock and the mayflower it goes back to how i got here it goes back to the other side being survivors or escaping after christina do you know what goes into this fig there's nothing partial about this fig so i'm saying thank you enough for the fig i'm saying thank you my parents and my grandparents and my great-grandparents from my spouse my children and my grandchildren i'm saying thank you for my health and well-being i'm saying thank you for my shelter i'm saying thank you for so much more this is the meaning of the bracha we say shahakal you drink a cup of coffee a glass of water you make a bracha called varel everything else is specific you say priya adam every other bracha is specific this is generic what's the broccoli you should say abraca coffee is like medicine we take every morning you know when you realize that on the fast day when you can't have that coffee and you break out into withdrawal you have to spend two weeks before weaning yourself off of that off of that addiction that substance called coffee coffee is the greatest gift there should be a specific bracha we should say on coffee like uh hagomel you know it saves our life each and every day and yet it's a shahakal why are you saying because when you say shahakal on a cup of coffee what you're saying is hashem i'm not just grateful for this cup of caffeine what i'm saying is something called the coffee bean there's a farmer who bothered to grow it there's the person who broke their back harvesting it and there's the person who packaged it and the person who ground it into little coffee and the person who put it in the pod and the person who invented my catering machine is charcoal everything the whole environment the whole atmosphere the whole ambiance all the people all the everything that went into it so when this farmer's saying thank you it's a model for all of us and how you say thank you when you say thank you you don't just say thank you for the moment for the specific thing you're saying a thank you for everything that went into this everything in this background right so every moment in this section there's one major operative verb it's repeated time and again nun tough nun gives you hashem gives you hashem gave you hashem gives you ash it's over and over and over again how many times he elaborates here it is no less than ten times in this pair dwarf no less than 10 times do we have this verb god gives we have no when you come into the land you take the first of the fruit with hashem no saying he gives and you come to the cohen and you declare that hashem gave this to our forefathers to give us and the egyptians treated us cruelly and by it knew they gave us hard labor and he brought us to the place and lighting he gave us this land flowing with zavas and now behold i brought you the first from this land which i brought you me that he gave me sorry 11 times in the eleventh time and then rejoice with all the good that your god has nassan given you and your household and the lady and the stranger among you no less than 11 times in this short passage the beginning of this paragraph within 12 of 11 times we have this verb because to remind us that hashem gives and gives and gives and the gratitude we should have it's not a gift and a giving that happened way back when and once it's a gift that keeps on giving that it gives us over and over so you see this messiah is only an example of how hashem helped us historically throughout the generation and we thank them on saturday night for all that help so cesaro ramon why are we invoking this passage instead of the other he offers three reasons number one it's succinct and the beginning of the story is too much too long it would take forever if you think the seder is long enough you'd never get to the afikoman by khatsos number two reason he says is because we're not repeating the story the way it happened in real time we're repeating the story the way that we were taught how to tell the story when do we have an example of somebody telling the story that's why that's the section that we invoke and number three because what's the seder if not an exercise in gratitude say tonight is all about thank you hashem thank you hashem yam we're thanking hashem let's say tonight so therefore we use the section which is all about gratitude the the model of gratitude the lesson plan of gratitude which is called the mitzvah of bikuram rev points out there's an anomaly 11 times it says in order to reinforce and remind us that hashem gives he gives and he gives and he gives and we take and we take and we tank and therefore we must thank and we must thank and we must thank there's one very peculiar he gives here and what is the peculiar he gives it says the egyptians treated us cruelly they afflicted us they gave us it's not a peculiar verb they gave us backbreaking labor they should have said they uh i don't know they imposed upon us they broke us they tortured us what do you mean by knew they gave us so raf rimon offers a very interesting suggestion he says maybe hashem's giving us his continual divine providence over the nations of israel both in good times and in times of distress and sorrow even in the servitude of mitzrayim it was part of the divine plan was part of hashem's promise to avram when has she told us in the brisbane of psalm that he would enslave them for 400 years of course the nation of israel would like to be redeemed in a happy and easy way but we know that hashem loves his nation and that troubles in distress are part of his greater plan these are also stages in israel's redemptive process the egyptians thought that they were beating the children of israel however it was really all part of the divine plan the giving of hard labor to klaus israel was part of hashem's giving in the overall screen in the end everything stems from the good giving of hashem to the nation of israel but the good things that we receive easily and difficult things we do not understand so if ramon suggests that this anomaly in the 11 times the verb is used that the egyptians gave us hard labor is that that gift was also from hashem even though the egyptians thought that they were giving us something which would break us which would compromise us which would corrupt us that giving was also part of hashem's master plan that also was for a reason that also benefited us we see and we thank hashem not only in the good times and not only when it all works out and not only when we can understand but even when it feels we're being broken and beaten down even when it feels we're being persecuted and oppressed that too is given in fact is a gift from hashem even if we don't understand it when it happens even if we may never understand it but we see it in the context of all coming from hashem but let's get back to the second section itself arabian was my father to which the concludes that's love on and what he wanted to do was even worse even worse than paro where in the world does that come from who is this aramian so let's take a look rashi says who is the aramian rashi says i don't understand that we asked what did lovin actually do in the end how could rashi say that it was lovan lovan wanted to destroy yaakov so the ebenezer jumps on rashi rev avraham even israel and even ezra disagrees for two reasons first he says that even ezra shall we look at it inside let's look at it inside grammatically he disagrees with rashi first even ezra says it should have said implying the arabian wanted to destroy my father instead it says second says so it says he chased my father yaakov down to mitral i want to destroy him do we have any evidence is there in the story in the narrative anywhere that love on chased yakov down to messiah so therefore the ebenezer concludes that arami ovaidavi is not talking about lovan who is the aramaian and arami says the even ezra hakarov he says the pasuk is talking about yaakov you hear that the banezra says arami o vadavi the arami the aramean is not lovan the arami is yaakov my father yaakov was ovaid was in distress when when he was in aram he was poor he was helpless he was in distress when he was in aram that's how the ibanezer understands a third interpretation the rashbam rash's grandson says who is the arami who is the arab mean says the rashfam it's referring to avraham avinu who was in who was lost in an exile he was an aramian he was in arameen the swarner also weighs in this foreign says it was it was yaakov so all of them are first from here on the partial way in a rame how do you understand that rashi says the aramis lavan who tried to destroy yaakov the ebenezer doesn't like it is yaakov what does it mean ovaid he was the victim the target of destruction the rashform says no go back even further in jewish history it's not talking about yaakov he's not talking about love and it's talking about none other than avraham avinu a three-way the editor of the haggadah explains the passage the way rashi understood that we're talking about lavan and then what lava wanted to do was worse the maharao the maharal in two places both in his hashem dalit is super commentary on rashi on the torah the maharao defends rashi against ibn ezra you remember that even ezra asked two questions on rashi said number one if the arami was loved on it should have said [Music] and number two we never see love i'm trying to go down to egypt says the maharao why does the passage refer to love on why does it say obey rather than explains lovan always wanted to destroy yaakov and that's why it says oh vade in the present tense it wasn't a one moment it wasn't one time he always wanted to the verb oveid indicates an ongoing practice instead of a one-time fleeting desire in every generation there's a love on who wants to destroy us and this is why in the haggadah this leads to the isha amdalaba no in every generation there's a love on we're not talking about lavan because he deserves to be remembered we're talking about lovam because he is the arch he's the archetype he is the model of a paradigm of an enemy who is obeyed in the present tense it's not anti-semitism existed once back in history it's ongoing it's continuous and contiguous and that's why we say in the present tense of ovad lastly and then we'll move on we asked was love un really worse than yak than paro the baalhagada learned up our parasha kisavo bikurim that the arami o vedivi who's the sarami is lovan and that love is worse than paro how is love on worse than paro the shiboli the answer is as follows you know why love one's worse because para was a physical enemy para was physically threatened by the presence of the jewish people paro did a demographic study para did a census and he said this jewish people if they rebel and revolt they could take over this country and therefore i need to eliminate them it was a physical political um conflict but love on love and wasn't physical love one didn't just try to destroy the males the power base love on it this was a spiritual battle love on it tried to assimilate the jewish people he wanted to destroy everything the very existence the very identity of the nation of the jewish people he wanted to eliminate the children of abu mitzhak and and that is the greatest danger a greater danger than even our physical annihilation although that obviously is a grave danger but even a greater danger is the power of assimilation love unwanted he wanted leia and rachel and he wanted yaakov and he wanted their whole family to assimilate into his view into his ideology into his way of being so says rav ramon on saturday night the night of freedom we proclaimed jews watch out watch out don't only watch out for the anti-semites who try to destroy you with anger watch out for the anti-semites who try to destroy you with love who welcome you who try to swallow you up who try to integrate you and assimilate you and welcome you love on bk schlacher what an important message for satyr knight what an important message for this farmer what an important message for us that not only do we have to worry about and we do in our day in our time rise up and confront anti-semites but we also have to worry about the danger and the threat which in fact statistically is much greater than uh than anti-semitism which is the danger of inter-marriage and assimilation the danger of those who are giving up our very identity and that's the message of that is the message of satyr knight you see this as well in the words these words vaya osama mitsurum the great santa cruz of kashnits kashmir sareb says the following what does it mean and then we'll get on with the parish i promise we'll do a little bit more vayareo sono amit what does that mean he says the word vayare has two meanings can come from the word raya means a friend a hover is friendship and it could also mean from the word roa like ra evil wickedness bad vayareo mitzra means the myths from the egyptians they confronted us they challenged us in both ways veyarreyou they challenged us by welcoming us in by giving us safe harbor by letting us integrate and assimilate by enabling and entitling us to in to marry vaereo they said be my reya feel free to be our friend have an equal part of our world and our culture and that too is a great great danger via rayo they're double dangers jews face and we have to have our eyes open to be alert to see the danger and threat of both vallareo the veyareo of ra of when they come to kill but the vallareo of rhea the vallareo also of the danger of the friendship the danger of being too welcoming and too inviting and where that can lead to where that could lead to as well okay now the farmer in the declaration says or the end of the declaration i should say page 1068 after the declaration the torah says be happy and be grateful as we said that is the essence of bikuram and it's why we invoke it say tonight and it's what kisawa was meant to remind us and inspire us that we have to be happy and we have to be grateful listen to the listen to the great division be happy with all the good writes the vishnutser in yodimsha coltov so the uh vishnu turban in says how can you find happiness who doesn't want happiness we're all in as the american declaration entitles us or allows us we're all pursuing happiness who doesn't want to be happy who doesn't want to be happy don't worry be happy as the great poet said who doesn't want to be happy everybody just wants to be happy how can you be happy how can you be happy when you realize that everything that happens in life everything is from hashem everything is for the good everything is for a reason everything is by design the answer the formula of of simha is visa you know how you find happiness and then cryptically he alludes to a story the reber of zeus it's like the story of the rebel of zusha that doesn't tell you what story but i'm going to tell you the story the story of the rebel abzusha that the immigration is cryptically alluding to is the following immense once came a man once came to dove bear the famous maggot of nezrit with the question he says you know the mishnah says in brachos that a person is supposed to blow us hashem for the bed shames from the malatov you have to be willing to give a bracha to hashem for the bed as much as the good how is it possible he asked the maggot of mezrich how is it possible how could you accept even the bitter the painful the difficult how can you accept it the same way as you accept the joy the happiness the good news how can a human being react to what you experience in the bed in exactly the same way shame shame you have to bless hashem and see it coming from hashem and acknowledge it from hashem the same way that you experience the good how is it even possible sort of dove bear the maggot said to find an answer you got to go see my great huss and my disciple my talmud you have to go see the rebel of zusha the rabbit of zusavanapoli only he can help you sir received the guest warmly he made his way to the rebel of zusha and the visitor decided that before challenging the rabbit position with this question he would observe her obsession's conduct so before long he concluded that his host really exemplified exactly this gemara the kashem because he saw that no matter what happened in the rebel of zush's life no matter the challenges he endured no matter the suffering he overcame nevertheless he was always so happy and in fact he couldn't think of anyone who suffered more hardship than her besides she was a poor man and he never had enough to eat and his family had all kinds of illnesses and suffering and loss and yet the rabbit obsession always had a smile on his face and a positive disposition and a good and a kind word and joy and gratitude to hashem but what was the secret so this class of the visitor who was sent there by obey by the mighty message finally one day turned to the rebel of zusha and decided the moment the time was right he would challenge rabzusha and so he said i'm here i went to the maggi the arabic and he had this quote i had this question how is it possible shame to the same degree to the same extent to thank hashem for the bed as much as the good how is it possible he repeated the question the rebel observer looked at him and said you raise a good question it's taco a good point it's a good question but why did why did the rebel why did the maggot and mezer send you to me how would i know i've never had a day of suffering in my life i've never had ra in a moment in my life how would i know the answer to the question it's a miradic it's a paladika story of the rebel of zusha the answer was if you view everything happening in your life as good visa you're not trying to figure out or reconcile how you could be happy with the bed there is no bed the whole hotel if we change our mentality if we filter everything through the prism that everything is good it's all told then the result is feeling a sense of sincha so the remember said that's a great question but i don't know why he sent you to me i've never suffered so how would i know the answer he never suffered he lived his life thinking and feeling he never suffered and because he had that attitude he never suffered therefore therefore he was basingha all the time offers another explanation is ben it means continuity children offspring you know the symbol comes from ain't over torah visamata dako hatov when you see the next generation living torah when you successfully transmit and inspire torah to the next generation then visamasta that's the biggest symbol there is it's not the bigger house or the bigger car or the bigger retirement fund the visa the biggest is bachol having a ben tove to whom you've transmitted and successfully given torah the governor started believing and the posix says and you also i gave to the to the levy and to the gayer lover and i didn't violate your mitzvos torah goes on the farmer declares my sir i didn't violate anything so says the vision is you might say the farmer look i gave out the trumas and my source i distributed it properly i gave to the lady i gave to the gear i gave it all out to where it went where it was supposed to go so i give a lot of stucco and i buy my way out of alveros i can do what i want look at what i want say what i want cut corners in business why because i give a lot of stakka that's what toro saying giving stukka is not an excuse giving stock is not a cop-out giving stucco doesn't cover you for the average that you do giving stuck is supposed to complement the aspiration for the mitzvahs that we for the mitzvahs that we do okay that is the imrae the man also has an insight he says he says that a person needs to be grateful he says the word for crying is an acronym it means to sing out to hashem even with tears even when you're moved to tears by something sad to channel that and use that to uplift you in a connection and a love of of hashem next the farmer here oh one more of us my dear friend rabbi ari mirzoff shared with me a beautiful insight from the rebbe of kodanov who says the following he says it is be grateful with all the good that hashem has given you he says how do you read this not be grateful all the good hashem give you all the good hash and gave me figs and pomegranates and hashem gave me grapes and hashem gave me no it's not that i'm grateful for all the fruit that hashem gave me what am i grateful i'm grateful that i've been given hashem i'm grateful that i have a relationship with my father i'm grateful that i have a relationship with my creator i'm grateful that i have a relationship with the men of mohammed with the ribbon i have access and i have an audience with the king of kings i am grateful be grateful for the good and what's that ove who eloka wow that's not just there's a hashem but he is my god. when you want to feel grateful when you want to feel gratitude say you know what i'm not wandering this world i'm not searching for happiness i'm not looking for meaning i have the torah i have the code i've got the secret manual and i have a relationship with the almighty who's not proud when they have a relationship with someone in a powerful position people love to name drop or post pictures on social media of themselves with famous people do you know who i know do you know who i'm connected to do you know however my rolodex do you even know what a rolodex is if you're over under a certain age do you know who i'm connected with people love to name drop well every one of us can name drop you know who i have access to you know who's on my speed dial you know who's on my favorites the rebona shalom whenever i want i can talk to him he's there for me he answers me this you know it should bring you a sense of simcha that you know who's on your favorites who's on your speed dial hashem that he gave us that hashem is that he is our god and that should be a source of tremendous joy tremendous happiness and tremendous uh tremendous success in our life okay uh what should we do next so much more to talk about let's move on from the video let's go invite we're turning the page page 1070 in the earthquake chapter 26 tesla so at the end of the farmer fulfilling the mitzvah bikuram at the end of the farmer bringing the first fruit and fulfilling the mitzvah bikurim now the farmer says turns to hashem and says please look down like the word what's your fault what's your outlook on life you hashem hashifa gaze down look down on from your holy abode and at the end of mitsubi kurum is a plea please bless your nation please bless this land this land that earth is the sal some of you studied sharon with me but filo with me we did it on wednesday mornings for several years all the recordings can be found out by from goldberg.org nyutorah.org if you want to learn through that safe for 10 minutes at a time with me it's one of my favorites farm in the world i first learned about it from my rebbe by david miller and griscollo and i discussed of learning it with him and it's a magnificent safer the yakut shimoni says that there are 13 synonyms for the words fila tfilo arena zakat so and so forth we have 13 synonyms for the word to pray that's because not all prayer is the same prayer at the deathbed is different than prayer at the labor bed the birthing bed prayer at a moment of great news is different than prayer in a moment of tragedy not all prayer is the same and so he goes through a chapter for each of the synonyms each of the names are words of prayer and teaches us all about prayer so insha'allah on the paragraph the type of that's called ravpinkus says the following listen carefully hashem everything everything is from you the cup the drink it's all from you the omer dersho hashem behemoth now not all times are created equal for davening not all times are created equal for davening there are what we call i'm accused of this being one of my favorite words there are auspicious times for davening there are times that are more auspicious if someone could give me a better word than auspicious i'm happy to ditch auspicious and use it but it's such a good word there are auspicious times for davening not all times for dominic are created equal we know that for example we are in one of those auspicious periods now the passage says dear shu hashem bihi matsuo search out hashem behematsa when he can be found karuba so karov call out to him when he is close so one understanding of this positive is elusive one interpretation is these are the 10 days between rashad and yom kippur but we have another tradition that these are the days of ello all month of elul artfila you know normally we're on dial-up now we're on super speed normally you're on 3g now we're on 4g or 5g whatever the metaphor is artsvilla we can always dive in and talk to him but sometimes we are on a higher speed than others dear hashem bhima to hashem when he's close sorry pinkis is pointing out there are times that are called the asurazone there are times that are more auspicious propitious to be able to reach out to hashem dearshowashambi matsau there are times that he's found more readily mismanaged one of the times where it's most or more appropriate to turn a diamond to hashem is right after you do a mitzvah in the merit of having done the mitzvah the gates of heaven are wide open when you do a mitzvah you fulfill the will of hashem the gates of heaven are wide open and when they're wide open quickly get your tefila straight through the carvakage borja cabot is more readily willing able eager to receive and accept artifila just after a mitzvah that we've done come over batara's mythos video and where does he get this formula of thinkus he gets it from our parsha video when the farmer finishes the mitzvah of bikurim when the farmer concludes distributing his shrimas and maestros what does he do he's maevaksam uvarekas adam the farmer finishes this mitzvah by turning to hashem and saying look down and i'm asking you now i'm offering it feel i'm asking you to give a bracha i'm asking you for a bracha when do we ask for a bracha when do we offer that fila just at the conclusion of a mitzvah bittosefta myself so we see that there's idea of offering it fila just after you've done a mitzvah it is a more auspicious time it's a time that i feel is more readily received and more likely to be answered don't waste it you just had a mitzvah in this house in the mirror of that mitzvah offer its fila offered fila and her in order to open the gates so that his trilo would be accepted you introduced the tfilo with a mitzvah and many have the custom of giving stakka before davening giving staka during the other and giving sucker before davening why because the dhawaning then comes on the heels of a mitzvah do a mitzvah and by doing the mitzvah you open the gates of heaven and you follow the gates of heaven being opened with your trilla inserting it is when you do a mitzvah you create an acerat zone and then take advantage of that azeratzon by offering its fila another example women light the candles friday night and what do they do right after the mitzvot light in the candles they darven for children grandchildren for neighbors friends for themselves you do the mitzvah lighting the candles and follow it with davening so you see this this notion that you create the asrezone with the mitzvah and you follow it up with its fila comes from our very our very passion okay we have time for one last insight let's skip all the way we have the token pearson once in the singular once in the plural it applies to both a beautiful ramban we don't have time to go through all of this literally the very end of the parsha page 1084 1084 where perek chapter 28 verses and here the torah tells us the following at the end of the touhou and your life will hang in the balance and you will be frightened you'll be frightened night and day and you will not be sure of your livelihood part of the part of what the torah predicts is that if you misbehave if you are disobedient if you don't listen and align your values your lifestyle with that of what hashem wants from us then we will suffer the terrible tokuga and the tokugawa describes to us that your life will hang in the balance and you will be afraid night and day rav salavichik writes about this the following you'll be afraid at night and day slaves live in fear the ebenezer asks why can't 600 thousand israelite men at the red sea were afraid when they saw they were being pursued by six hundred thousand chariots beneath throat were so desperate they began to complain to moshe why'd you take us out bring us back and even ezra wonders why the despair steven ezra answers the jews were downtrodden and fearful a slave is afraid even when his fears are justified fear is a mental illness fear is a plague fear is anxiety and a slave is filled with such fear even when it is unjustified even when it's unwarranted writes the rav he's afraid not only of those who are stronger than he or of those who have jurisdiction over him the slave is afraid of contradicting anyone of antagonizing even a stranger the fear might be unjustified but it's a motivating force in his life indeed many former inmates in extermination and concentration camps in europe have told me rights thereof that they were afraid not only of the commander of the camp but of anyone even a child such neurotic fear unjustified or nonsensical is described powerfully here in the torah the passage does not describe a disease but an imagined fear phobias with no foundation in reality any testimony given before a court may involve contradicting and antagonizing somebody one who's afraid to antagonize or contradict disqualified from giving testimony this is why the sages introduced i say by leaning on one's left side is a symbol of freedom his savior symbolizes complete relaxation manifesting relief from the abatement of tension and anxiety is symbolizes the throwing off of the mental shackles depriving man of the freedom of movement the same is the reverse of an erect posture which demonstrates obedience and submissiveness soldiers standing iraq symbolize the readiness to obey the sabia is indicative of disobedience of a courageous stand of refusing to take orders fear is good in small doses rights thereof in large doses it's harmful to german gender a little is good because it manifests the normal vigilance of life too much is harmful because it exaggerates what pointless leads to a total insanity fear is the ultimate source of all neurosis and psychotic anomalies in man not for nothing the torah make us make use of the punishment of fear so fear is a punishment rights thereof fear is a punishment fear is not healthy fear is unhealthy i posted this morning in our amuno whatsapp group you can join if you want for several times a week to offer inspiring thoughts people misquote you know the song oh the entire world is a very narrow bridge and the main thing is the main thing is don't have any fear but that's not the truth you know where that song comes from the words come from like and there abnachmann writes i think it's maybe writes not um he says the whole world is like a narrow bridge the icker and the main thing is he doesn't say lola he doesn't say don't be afraid he says lol don't make yourself afraid don't work yourself up in fear don't live with anxiety over what you can't control the real message is not not to be afraid it's not to make yourself afraid don't turn yourself into a sense of fear mark twain once said i've known a great many troubles most of them never happened people worked themselves up into a frenzy over that which they can't control i've known great many troubles but most never happened stay calm but your trust in hashem and know everything is for a reason don't get worked up and don't get upset this is the theme in the essence of the beginning and the end of the parasha two bookends when you realize bacholatov that it's all good with then you'll be filled filled with a sense of joy and if you fear if you fear that's a punishment that's the tohoka having fear lol don't work yourself up into a frenzy don't work yourself up into a ball of fear submit to hashem and express your gratitude to him it's a lot more to talk about but we'll have to end here again if you took any notes i'd appreciate if you share them with me if you're willing to take notes going forward i'd appreciate if you'd let me know i'd love to share written up some of these tour that we're offering once we offer them i'd love to disseminate them in other ways reg brsonline.org please join us tomorrow morning for the seals to show them at 8 15. living with a moon at 8 45 and going behind the bema tomorrow night at nine o'clock stay happy stay healthy stay holy have a great day