Parsha Perspectives for Today (Nitzavim, 5781) - Not Just To Hashem, But Unto Hashem

good morning boca to welcome back to parsha perspectives for today our weekly study analysis of the powershell with an emphasis trying to draw contemporary lessons and ideas to inspire our lives in a very real way i want to thank our generous serious sponsors for the year our dear friends becky navi cats and family and loving memory of becky's father david grossman our learning should be leading us also this morning is sponsored by avigris in honor of his loving and amazing wife tamar and their beautiful children aliyana pesha and rafi on the occasion of their seventh anniversary very happy anniversary and by the big eliza and families of bigalison the twentieth yurt site of his murder in the 9 11 attacks i believe this is the 20th euro site this is the hebrew date of the nine eleven attacks in the shama shravan aliyah together with all those who were murdered on that terrible day and lastly by naomi belazar memory of her father shmuel mander for his your sight thank you to mrs belzon thank you to all of our sponsors if you'd like to sponsor a future share you can go to brsonline.org sponsor brsonline.org sponsored that we begin parshas nitzaven page 1086 in the art school stone hummish 1086. we are in the home stretch of it israel you are standing here today all of you before hashem your god and then the torah delineates who are all of you who are these people rosham the heads of your tribes your elders your officers khali shisrel everyone you are all together you are all standing there it's a very very interesting opening position first of all hayom i many already have said describes hayom is a reference to rosh hashanah we always read this parasha right before rosh hashanah and there are many reasons which are given we've shared and explored some of them together in the past but it's interesting that we begin who is standing before moshe moshe is addressing all collectively a community everybody together and then we spell it out each one distinctly and then we come back we return to kohl ish israel so we start with the whole united kuchem we then divide out the individual we then come back to koh ishi israel everybody together and i think the significance i think it's a very powerful message and really in many ways it's the mission statement of the jewish people how we are to see ourselves on the one hand we are we are united we are a community on the one hand we are a whole we are a people on the other being a whole being united unity is not uniformity being united being together being whole does not mean erasing our differences so we are able to be rash israel were able to be separate and apart distinct and different and at the same time see ourselves as they're not contradiction the ability to maintain our individuality and yet simultaneously blend and integrate into a community is not a contradiction attempt when are we upright when are we standing when can we endure and persevere when we find that blend of kulchem and kolishi israel we're not asked that's the motto of the boca raton synagogue our shul valuing diversity celebrating unity on the one hand we value that diversity we don't just tolerate it you tolerate slow wi-fi you tolerate a bad rash you don't tolerate a fellow jew that diversity the one who's different than you is not just something tolerated we value it valuing diversity of goes on and it delineates these differences these distinctions because they matter they're important we're not all asked to be uniform we're not asked to blend our attitude in our politics and our policies and our perspective we have different personalities we're different people and we respect and we recognize we value that diversity we're richer and we're better for it but we value diversity we celebrate unity the diversity to be unity united to be unified to be whole not to be uniform not to be uniform but to be united so when are we at when are we nitsavim when do we stand strong when can we stand and withstand any wind that comes our way when we have that blend of kulchem and then coalition on the one and we're united and on the other hand we see our differences we value our diversity but we very much must celebrate our unity simultaneously very interesting i mentioned was a reference to rosh hashanah but more than that the villain the girl makes a famous comment famous because i happen to know it the villain the go on the ground makes a comment here on this opening pasek there are five days on the jewish calendar where we are nits of him we stand before god in judgment five days on our calendar that are designated that we re reflect introspect we see ourselves as standing before him being evaluated and we prepare and we make the argument for our worthiness what are they the two days of rosh hashanah yom kippur's three hoshanah rabbah which has a din aspect the khazen wears the keto and we add up suke the zimmer of shabbas yantif and we use the nusa we use the tunes of the yama narayan and shemini teres when we dive in geshem these five days said the vilnigon says the gra these five days are alluded they're hinted to atem you are standing in judgment hayom hey yom five days two days of rosh hashanah one day of yom kippur hashanah rabbah shemini at saras add up those five days and ha yom hey yom five days we are temi tavim five days we are standing before hashem in judgement and how do we survive how do we persevere with actus when we see ourselves as kulkhem when we are united we have our differences in brs we have many many many others most shulls do we have different nasa we have different men hug him we have different expectations we have different pace different lengths of dominion different khazanam different monogam and yet when are we needs when can we stand upright when can we endure and persevere when can we succeed in triumph and din in judgment when we are and when we are callish israel when we succeed in finding and meeting that blend between the two that is the opening of the parsha nitzavim we've studied in the past we'll not review the contrast of our parsha and next week's partial we don't read it together as a double partial this week but nitsavim and vailach the tsovem is to stand vallej is to go moshrabenu in next week's parasha we'll get to that maybe next week he's still moving the last day of his life retired it's over he's hung them up and yet he continues to be on the move but nitsavim doesn't mean omdim the malachim the angels are described as omdim but of gifter describes as gifters says the word nitsavim does not mean um it doesn't mean standing still to be nitsavim is i i picture you know i remember literally growing up playing baseball when the little league coach would tell you you know you're standing there at shortstop you're standing in center field if you let yourself go and if you're just standing there like a big lump if the balls hit to you you're not going to be able to react nitzavim means you got to crouch you got to be in the poised position you got to be ready to react you got to be ready to jump you got to be ready to move so you could be standing and both individuals the person who's standing whose muscles are all relaxed who's tuned out who's checked out is a big lazy lump is standing and the person who is poised whose muscles are engaged who's crouched down who's ready to move is similarly standing neither of them are moving both are stationary but there's two different ways that you can be stationary you could be om dim or you could be nitsavim om dim are like um stand still we the jewish people are called upon says of gifter not to be on them to be nits of him we got to be ready we got to be ready for whatever is going to be thrown our way that's been our history for 2000 years the jewish people cannot afford to tune out to check out for our minds to wander there have been people after us the world is a complicated place for us to navigate we never know what's coming our way we are nitsavim we are standing poised and ready to serve hashem ready when we get the next call for our mission and the difference we're meant to make we are nitsavim we are poised and ready to be able to react continuing tells us we are a people children of progeny of administration not just us hashem is not just making this covenant this promise this deal with us alone yes those who are standing there that day and those who are not standing there that day and we've discussed this in the past we won't get into this now either but what kind of a contract what kind of a covenant is this how could our ancestors have obligated us we weren't standing there how can they bind us how can they obligate us we weren't alive we weren't in existence what right how are they entitled to do that on our behalf how did that work you were familiar you were there in egypt so this is a warning now the torah shifts moshe pivots to warn us you're going into the land momentarily the last day of moshe's life the end of safevaram the end of as we know it you're about to go into the land of israel now do you know because you lived in egypt you know you've seen you've experienced you were in that land that culture saturated with idolatry with corruption with moral depravity i shall have because we lived among them we saw those billboards on i-95 we witnessed we watched the temptation of desire we saw the corruption bhatiro as she could say him you saw their abominations you saw the detestable idols eighth va evan zahava sheri mahem their idols were made of wooden stone of silver and gold paneer that was you you saw that you lived among them maybe you assimilated maybe you changed your values you absorbed the attitude of the host country maybe among it is a man or a woman a family a tribe whose heart is turning away from hashem going to serve other gods maybe among you there's a root flourishing with goal and warm word we'll see what that means in a moment but first what does it mean because we lived among the egyptians and because we witnessed and saw their idols all of a sudden now we have this harsh harsh warning moshe is speaking very harshly very intensely very strongly let's finish us so maybe that individual who's drawn to who's assimilated who is connected with that idolatry maybe when they hear the words of this curse they'll bless themselves and they'll say peace be with me though i walk as my heart sees fit i do what i want i do what i want you know judaism doesn't speak to me torah not from me i do i pick and i choose and i do what i want thereby adding the water upon the thirsty hashem will not be willing to forgive such an individual because hashem's anger and jealousy will smoke against that individual and this curse will fall upon them hashem will erase their name what is going on here this section that warns us don't fall prey to idolatry don't assimilate and integrate and mix into that host country into their corrupt values and their moral and their moral compromise why because you lived in egypt you saw it and you witnessed it and therefore you were vulnerable to it rashi here says the egyptians were repulsive like shikatsu they were disgusting they were low lives they were repulsive like some they were opposed like shikatsu somebody just told me about it sadiq who lived a couple decades ago in brooklyn a great great sadiq a great hustle a great rebbe who wrote and he said the moral depravity that we're living far far outweighs what they went through in egypt what we see what we witness i've spoken about this the average person who goes on the highway what you see on the billboard what you see in advertisements what you see in the subway station what you see in any newspaper we've seen any attempt to remain briefed on the news you cannot help what we see in our world today the moral corruption the moral compromise the moral depravity that surrounds us it's challenging it's repulsive it's degrading it's as disgusting as waste the griz the velvet salad the brisker of wondered and he said the following so what is the fact that we lived among the egyptians why does that mean we'd walk like an egyptian the fact that we saw the way they were behaving we were witness to their moral compromising corruption why does that mean that we were going to follow suit why do we need to be warned so intensely till the torah tells us that you're going to be wiped out you're going to be cursed your name will be erased if in fact they're so disgusting they're so repulsive they're so degrading if in fact they're so terrible wouldn't the person who sees them if they were repulsed wouldn't they be pushed away wouldn't they draw back away from them so why do we need to be warned so the grizzly brisker of said a phenomenal and fantastic and critically important insight he said we can learn from here a yasod awesome we see a critical core foundational the way that we are comprised the psyche of the human being the way hashem designed and programmed us is that what we see leaves an indelible impression upon us what we witness what we observe what we see that image embeds itself in our consciousness we cannot underestimate the impact the fantasy the thoughts the distraction the desire even if we would never follow in that way even if we would never emulate that individual but now that we know it's possible now that it's part of our active imagination now that it's part of our act of consciousness because we've seen it we've witnessed it we're familiar with it we've been exposed to it we know it now it leaves an impression on our heart it contaminates our soul so much that something needs to be done so you're right just because we lived in egypt and we witnessed their moral depravity means we're vulnerable to it what are you talking about it's moose it's disgusting it's degrading it's repulsive we would be repulsed by it the answer is even if you're repulsed by it it nevertheless now becomes part of your mind part of your memory part of your consciousness it now becomes a fixture in our contaminating our soul so much so that something needs to be done in this case moshe making a harsh statement about what the consequence would be that's the inside of the brisker of wonder if drook expands and the brisker ravi points out a famous insight shared by many others the torah and pasha's noso has a smiles parchios right after the story of the sota the wayward woman the woman who has infidelity or is accused of it against her husband she's brought to the base of mitch in front of the coin her hair is uncovered she drinks from this concoction this recipe this mixture and if in fact she was guilty then she explodes she dies a horrific graphic death so does the bow so does the man with whom she had the infidelity by the way he's not present with her but when she drinks he suffers the same consequence as her and the torah tells us right afterwards we have and precious no so the laws of the nazir the individual takes a vow of abstinence not to drink wine so why do we have the parsha of nazi right next to sota why are they adjacent why they juxtaposed to one another in the parasha so igmar tells us in sotadaf based famously because if you knew that woman and you heard about the accusation and you read you learned someone told you that in fact she died because she had violated her husband's trust now you need to yaziri you need to react you need to do something now that you know that you need to do something to remove that stain to uh to erase that contamination to elevate yourself from the impact of that knowledge the question is why you didn't cheat you're not the one who violated the trust of your spouse so why do you need to do something so radical as yazid asmam and ayan and the answer is because even when you're not following in those footsteps even if you're not going to cross that boundary of that line the very fact that you know that you saw that you've learned that you've been exposed that it's part of your consciousness your mindset your mentality that you know that someone who did it who's capable of it that needs to be addressed one needs to lift themselves from it and he continues that inside the brisker of anar parsha this pasuk about even though we were exposed but nevertheless you need to take an act distance yourself and similarly the nazir has to do something radical something significant to overcome the urge the instinct to overcome the consciousness the image of the sota similarly in the past tells us we have to give rebuke when you love a fellow person you give them rebuke rebuke is a very biblical word i had a friend who came from the ussr in high school my dear friend lev who now lives near me in south florida i love love when he came from the ussr he learned english by reading the bible he would open a russian bible and he would read hebrew english and with english and he learned english so he would say to us it wasn't a very popular language to use in high school he would say why do you rebuke me it was very funny no other teenagers were using the word rebuke is a biblical word we only use the word rebuke as a translation for we have enough responsibility and obligation when we love the people in our lives and we know they're doing something which could be improved could be corrected so don't keep it to yourself share it with them don't carry a hate so what does that mean why the double language then so joke says something fantastic he says because when you see someone's done something wrong first you have to react yourself first you have to make a change in your life you've witnessed you've observed you've seen you've absorbed into you the possibility of what you know is wrong in them they skip chakras you know maybe it wouldn't be so bad they spoke lashinara expecianara someone else you learned watches looks at things gazes at things they shouldn't okay so now maybe it's in the realm of possibility for you whereas beforehand you thought it wasn't so first first you have to do something for yourself then only first when we've reacted for ourselves then then we are in the position to now be able to do it for others the tosept says if you saw mitzvah you have to look but if you saw in avera there's a reason that you two are connected to that mistake if you learn or you're drawn to you witness you observe something that someone's done wrong it means that that possibility that that capacity that that temptation is inside you too and therefore if you were entirely disconnected from that mistake you wouldn't have seen it the fact that you saw it meant you're tempted by it something needs to be done about it a person has to extract themselves react to it just like the nazir has to vow to abstain from wine once they saw the sota and just like once we witnessed the egyptians and we lived in egypt in our parasha we lived in egypt we saw their avodah zarah we now need to do something strong to remove ourselves and similarly if you saw someone doing it first react pledge promise take upon a kabbalah to offset the impact of that contamination of that image of having seen that and then only then can we react to someone to someone else okay moving right along moving right along so that is the warning against idolatry uh keep going yorkas when you hear the words of this allah of this warning when you hear the words of this curse so this individual who's flippant this individual is tempted by idolatry the individual who has a casual relationship with hashem and a casual relationship with his torah and a casual relationship with the jewish people will in their own heart his barrack bill volemor they're going to say in their own heart shalom i'm at peace with it i'm good with it i pick and i choose i'm off to there my own derek i have a casual relationship with the yiddish kite shalom yeli i'm okay i'm at peace with it i walk as my heart sees fit i do what i want thereby adding the watered upon the thirsty so hashem's not going to forgive that individual they will be the target of this curse their name will be their name will be erased to whom are these words addressed i want to share with you a beautiful inside of the question the it sounds like the torah is talking to whom torah's talking to a wicked person a person who has a flippant casual relationship with hashem and his torah that's whom the torah is addressing bim kain ma'am in bashem why does this person care what does the torah say that this individual with the casual relationship who says i'm good with it i'm at peace with it i'll do it my heart sees fit lo yo hashem lo hashem will not be forgiving will not be willing to forgive the person one does the cloisonne booger be sal why does this russia care if god will forgive him i thought the whole idea here the person is a russia the one hashem is addressing is a wicked person so if they're a wicked person if they have a casual relationship with hashem why do you care if you're forgiven from hashem so the question said russia so really the kosovo gureba made a suggestion how to re-read this passage the torah is not addressing the individual with the casual relationship torah is not addressing the russia but rather that satik torah is talking to the sadiq the righteous person so that saddak here's the torah's harsh warning to the one who misbehaves the torah's harsh warning to the one who's not obedient and he says to himself shalom yali and he wrote allah we're not addressing the russia the wicked we're addressing that sadiq the righteous and the torah is saying the righteous person might say you know what that curse that reaction that punishment that consequence that's reserved for the wicked but i the righteous i'm going to focus on my heart i'm going to focus on my rookiness i'm going to focus on my life and my spiritual growth why do i have to worry about others let that div let that curse befall the wicked why is that my business i'm at peace i'm going to work only on myself about such an individual the torah says that's what the torah is talking about so again the klosenberger's question was if the individual has thrown off the yoke of torah if this individual is dismissive about hashem's expectations then why does he care why does he care if god is forgiving of him the answer is we're not talking about the wicked we're talking about the righteous and the righteous does care if god is forgiving so the torah is telling us if you say bishop if you say shalom yali the individual who says what do i care what do i care about the unaffiliated what do i care about the assimilated what do i care about the intermarried what do i care about the kid who grew up religious but is off the dark the individual around me who's struggling what do i care shalom yeli i'm good i'm at peace i'm on fire bishop bishop i'll worry about my rukhnias i'll worry about my life that's whom the torah is addressing said the closing magareba that's what the torah is saying god will not forgive you if that's your attitude and then he got up and he stood up and he screamed this was an uh in er tough shin nun tess he got up and he screamed it couldn't have been an er but it was precious and it saved him that year and the closing bagara got up and he screamed mulyona yehudam nissif six million jews were burnt in auschwitz in the holocaust they went up in flames master guffa ma kida shashem they sacrificed they paid the ultimate sacrifice they gave their lives he re-read this pasuk that the pasuk is not addressing the russia the passage is addressing the tsadik and the posik is telling that sadiq you're not entitled you don't have the luxury of saying you're only going to focus on yourself that hashem will not forgive you if you say you're only going to focus on yourself we lost 6 million jews already they went up in the flames of europe we cannot lose another millions more to assimilation into marriage and the kosovo saw this passage this directive of the torah as a mission statement hashem will be unforgiving of us if we say shalom ye ali i'm at peace because bishop all i care about is myself we have to go out and we have to care we have to reach out and we have to connect with those who are unaffiliated who are uninspired who are turned off we're disaffected we have to lift them up we saw this in last week we mentioned last week cursed is the one who does not uplift the torah you interact you overlap with someone you could have inspired you could have made your energy contagious you could have shared excitement for torah and you didn't you're not neutral you're not parav you're cursed hashem will not forgive you says the closest in our time in our generation the threat and the challenge of assimilation of intermarriage surpass whatever danger there is from anti-semitism from corona combined outside the orthodox a 70 intermarriage rate within our own community those who are leaving who are turned off were disconnected or disaffected hashem will be unforgiving to us if we dismiss them if we simply let them go we have a responsibility we have an obligation to do all we can peric lamid next parrot turn the page apparently page 1090 pasuk and this is actually maybe we'll come back to that the last pasta compare test top of page 1090 one of my favorites in the torah i don't know if you're allowed to have favorite sukim if you are this is one of mine okay now the hidden things are for hashem the revealed things are for us and our children lassos to do is all the words of the story there are dots over the words why are there dots what are the hidden and what are the revealed why are some for hashem and some for us and our children what does this mean maybe we'll come back to it one of my favorites but let's move along pasik days chapter 30 verse 2. toriyama tells us that when you come and all these words the brachial i gave you put them on your heart take them to heart among all the nations when hashem has dispersed you when we will be in exile when we are dispersed among the nations when we are exposed to and vulnerable to the values of our host country and those who surround us it is critically important to put these ideas in our heart and if or when we do the torah tells us a promise is the word shuva we read this parasha always before rosh hashanah this is the theme the essence is what we're meant to be working on right now you will return until hashem you'll listen to his voice you'll do what he says and then hashem will bring you back bring back your captivity and have mercy upon us he will return and gather us from those people he will bring us back so when we are dispersed and when we're out and about then the shafta we have an obligation to return to him ad how far do we have to go how far do we have to return what does it mean to return to him ad hashem the rambam says the rambam writes the following paragraph the person who made a mistake person who had an indiscretion that individual what is often translated as the sinner i hate the word sinner it's not a jewish word it's a catholic word the sinner has to return from their sin we prefer to translate the one who's made a mistake has to return from their mistake has to remove it from their mind by the way that shrimps that works perfectly with what we said earlier that the person who sees the so test the kama nazir the person who lived in egypt and witnessed their moral degradation has to pledge and promise to be holy okay the person who saw someone make a mistake first has to themselves then similarly here the rambam writes because the longer that an image remains in our mind the longer we have a fantasy a temptation a desire then we're likely to act on it it has to be erased it has to be addressed we have to do something to purge it and to eliminate it the igmore believer writes the rambam person has to conclude in their heart yeah od that they're not going to do it anymore and so on and the right person has to have regret remorse for what they do and let the one who knows secrets who knows secrets what we just read to whom the one who knows the secrets is hashem the people around us we can fool we can project an image we can craft and curate an online profile we can let people believe whatever we want about ourselves but who knows what's really in our heart the one who knows the real us the daya talumas the rambam describes hashem here not just as hashem eloquenu not as the reborn islam we have so many names in appellations for hashem but the rambam describes him here as yodaya ta'alumus the one who knows the secrets the one who knows what really resides in our heart the one who has access to the real us let him let hashem let him testify shalom so how far does chuba go the rambam writes in the second chapter of suva chuva must go the measure of true for the sheer how do you know if you fulfilled chuva chuva must go so far that we have regret and remorse for what we did we have so conclusively we are determined to never repeat it again that god the one who has access to our heart could testify about us he's so that's how confident he is in our conclusion that we would never do it again that he could testify about us we would never do it again that's the rambam writes from our pasuk a hint to the rambam why our pasik says vishafta that we have to return where how far the shafta return add hashem don't read it read it aid witness where'd the rambam know that from the rabbi writes what's shiva shuva is you have such remorse and regret and you have so conclusively determined you'll never do it again that god himself will testify about you that you're pure that you're clean that you're good to go that you're not going to do it again where'd the rambam get that from that that is the shear of the measure of juva says he got it from our parsha he got it from our passage the shafta we have to return how far ad hashem until god don't read it odd read it aid until hashem would be a witness that's how far we have to that's how far we have to we have to go but look at the shafted along the same lines i told you this i got microscopes i want to thank the editor and publisher again for sharing and sending me a a copy thank you so much to aron for your generosity this beautiful new across godolas as i mentioned last week has teachings of the bashant of the magic of mesut and like the breast love and the gra and the zoar it is a all new microscopy in addition to the classic commentators it has some many new ones as well the best and our apostles in this new cross writes the following how far do we have to go back we have to return the root of the word is to return we have to go back to the purity of our soul we have to go back to the way we were created we have to go back to the clean and fresh slate that we started with we can go back so far that syrizaka maybe if you walk into a dark room and you light a candle the light dispels the darkness there is no hint or illusion there's no remnant of the darkness at all when you light a candle in a dark room you only have light it's not that you have light illuminating the darkness there is no longer any darkness all you have is the light and therefore it says the basham shaft that's how far back we can go we could illuminate we can light such a bright light there is no more dark we are and then continues the individual has fallen and who got back up and we know that you're not a really attack until you've fallen seven times and gotten back up so that's who fell seven times and got back up there about shiva and in the place that about stands that's the person who struggles the person who confronts temptation the person who battles with himself who's lost and won and lost in one but keeps getting up and doesn't allow themselves to get knocked over and knocked down that sadiq that sadiq who has been there who has been on the ground that saddak who has faced and confronted temptation to desire the failure they are in a place that said that it saw the gomer that the individual has never struggled who's never been tempted who's never had that conflict they have no access to what does it mean that where the balchuva where the individual who fell down and got back up stands that saddam gomer has no right doesn't stand what it means the following the person who fell down they know what it means to live with fire with passion with desire with drive they know because whatever it was for whatever knocked him over whether it was licentiousness lewdness promiscuity whether it was alcohol drugs whether it was the temptation of money of power whether it was the desire the temptation to gossip to slander whatever knocked them down when a person is in the throes of temptation they know what passion looks like they know what drive is all about they know the power they know the power of that addiction so that individual that individual says the vashem dove has the ability to take that drive that passion that desire and to channel it for the good for torah and for mitzvos see the time the gummer person who never struggled the person who never stumbled the person who never fell they don't know what it means to be addicted they don't know what it means to have that passion that desire they don't know what it means to be so driven but the individual who's been there who's been knocked over they know now they also know how to bottle it capture it channel it and redirect it towards torah and mitzvot therefore they're at a higher level we are a body and we are a soul and the more we identify as the body the more we get rid of we dispel the soul the more that we return and restore the soul to our body then the more we are returning to hashem and that's why the language is the shafta where are you going back to what are you putting back in what are you replacing it is the godliness the spirit inside us literally that we are taking back and putting back that we are restoring the soul back into our body but salvation also comments on these words the shaft that we have to return and where do we return and how far do we return ad hashem and says the following records the following conversation i'll read it to you in the english israel said before bona shalom master of the universe if we repent who testifies for us so hashem said i'll testify for you as it says return on to add the lord your god the lord is your witness brings a different homily based on the same passage great is true it reaches the ki sayakaw because it says where's the source of the idea where the gamma and you may get this from there's a significant difference between the words and el salvador very astutely points out i would have thought the passage should say the shafta return el hashem to whom to where to god the shaft will return el hashem but it doesn't say el it says ad the word l2 means i'm going in a specific direction i've not yet reached my goal well the word ad means i've already reached that goal that my hands can reach out and to say even touch the throne of glory itself when the rama speaks of the repentant cinder it says we are we are to have devacus we cling onto the shrine one was repented cleaves and is united with the presence of god but a connection with the skin is brought about in one way only through the enactment of a covenant without enacting a covenant it's impossible to achieve the unique state of the characterizes the relationship between hashem and man epitomized in the passage of this is the significance of the rav kahana how may you achieve this state of being so again not el we're not just going in the direction the trajectory towards hashem but we have the ability to go not just l but that we can cling we can cleave we can connect we could reach out and touch and be touched by hashem is it possible for any human being to really cleave onto the shrine a union of the sword can only be achieved by renewal of the covenant with hashem and this can be accomplished through the act of perfect shuva which brings man not only to god but unto god el hashem is to god hashem is unto god so chuva has the capacity chuva has the ability to not only set us in the direction to el but unto adi so writes from salvation judaism yadas yiddish rests on three attributes of the individual signified by the head the hand and the heart the head involves the intellectual discipline inherent in judaism and ignoramus cannot be a good jew again an ignoramus cannot be a good jew the ideal of talmud involves the highest levels of logic the ability to think abstractly analytically and conceptually the rigor of total learning is equivalent to and perhaps surpasses the modern most modern and philosophical methods learning of torah is therefore nothing less than the sanctification the mind through intellectual struggle the hand involves mitzvah performance in this respect many biological excel being vigilant to keep those mythos that are difficult as well as those that are easy all with precision through such performance a person's hands are sanctified however writers of saliva although one can find the first two attributes in abundance today it is the third aspect which is wanting among contemporary american jews the heart involves experiencing hashem emotionally tomorrow says what does hashem want he wants our heart one must feel the emotional pull of the ribonucleon as william james put it the presence of the unseen can a jew genuinely feel his presence based on my own personal experience as the rav the encounter with hashem is eminently possible man not only must believe in god he must feel god's hand supporting his head during times of emotional turmoil potential bali chuba pine for the sublime sense of hearing hashem's whisper the experience of hashem involves the very real perception of contact communication and dialogue this sensation is expressed in the talmudic passage that great is chuva it reaches without my feeling the presence of hashem in 1967 when i suffered the loss of my mother brother and my wife all in the same year i would not have been able to maintain my emotional equilibrium the perception of hashem's proximity was particularly strong during the study of torah while pouring over the opinions of abaya and rava i sensed his presence in the room this passage bite of saliva is so powerful it's so beautiful the shafta not el hashem that when we return to hashem when we turn to him we lean into him we're not just leaning towards him we're not just leaning to him we're leaning on to him to him means he's far away we're heading in the direction to lean on to him means that we're connected with him he is our support system we're leaning on him we're leaning on to him so therefore hashem it's not el it's and the rav here so poignantly writes the head intellectually academically cognitively torah we're learning torah analyzing torah academic torah we have torah at the highest levels and the hands the actions the stock of the mitzvos that we're doing vigilance with precision with khumras beautiful but what about the heart rahman alibaba hashem wants this time of elul in this countdown to rosh hashanah it's not just being more careful and more scrupulous with the mitzvos we do it's not just more learning torah in our head in our mind but what about our heart are we connected do we have a relationship are we talking with him are we odd or are we only l and here he describes you know when the rav it's not here in the passage in the humish but he talks about in the boston the the bakram of yeshiva would go up to boston to learn with the rav in the summers and every summer they would decide what they were going to learn together the rove the great sign of the brisker methodology the great brisker so the rev of course is his torah his lundus was arguably unparalleled in his lifetime but he would ask what they'd want to learn and one summer the rav said you know what i want to learn tanya he taught the tanya the rav grew up in haslovich he knew tanya back and forward he wanted to learn tanya but a few days later the bakron rebelled and now they wanted to go back to the gemara they wanted to go back to brisker alumnus and the rav later bemoaned he said my talmidim they're only interested what's in my head they're not interested in what's in my heart they're only interested in what's in my head they're not interested in what's in my heart hashem wants what's in our heart rahman alibaba it's not just our head it's our heart and how to our heart hashem it's with our heart that we lean on god it's with our heart that we don't just go to god but we fall unto god and we cleave with god and that shuba could take us so far i'll give a shameless plug that the four episodes of behind the bema the interviews that we've had yosef mendelovich who four weeks ago talked about what it was like to be on a hunger strike in a siberian prison for 56 days and how he leaned on hashem in that time the hunger strike was really a thomas a fast for god and then we had mariano rivera a non-jew who cannot say a sentence without mentioning god's name talks about god in the winning and the law says hall of fame pitcher who you have to listen to that interview and then last week with moshe weinberger the great murder of arabia or moshe weinberger fire about what it means to live a life connected and then lastly tomorrow night we're interviewing sheryl sandberg the ceo of facebook who talks to us about the fact that she doesn't know if she really believed in god until her husband dropped dead out of nowhere until she lost her husband a blessed memory and that's when she leaned in and leaned on god on to add hashem you want to grow you want to be makhazik all four of these interviews you really want to listen to excuse the shameless plug the shaft hashem such a beautiful beautiful passage of rav salavichik moving right along hashem your god will circumcise your heart and the heart of your children to love hashem with all of your heart with all of your soul so that you may live he's going to circumcise our heart so the balaturum says here says the balaturum es la vagra the eslava he will circumcise our heart and the heart of our children says the baturan therefore the minute is to wake up early to say slichos in the month of elul because the russia tables because l is an acronym for esther the aslava therefore we wake up early in order to say slichos in the morning excuse me what's the therefore cute es le vache knows elo is an acronym for anilla it's an acronym for islam it's an acronym i saw last week's parasha i think it's the hidal and last week pashu says it's an acronym for an acronym for many many different things so cute palatable is an acronym for elo what's the lakah therefore wake up early to say salikos in the morning what is the therefore so sephiroth called as that question he gives the following answer he says the torah is connecting where is the place of the sahara it's in the heart the itahar is in the heart in fact lava here in our partial we have that word lavaka so many times we've just read the word hashimoto to sitter snippets boy are we shamelessly plugging this morning then you know that in shema we're up to the half day of the love hashem because the gemara asked that question why not with your one heart why because here in our passion it's of him over and over and over again because it says your two hearts why not your one heart the answer is we have a yetzeratov we have two hearts we're not anatomically not physically biologically spiritually we have two hearts we have the hatov the drive for good and the itahara the drive for not so good so where is the itsahara found it's found in the heart it's in the heart esl you need to mull circumcise peel off the layer remove the atahara that can be found in the heart what is one of the biggest itaras that we have he writes we have a yuji tsahara to stay in bed to sleep to blow off sleepo's people blow off sleepless for lots of reasons some because they're helping to carpool some because they're helping do surgery some because they've scheduled their day to have their habusa at that time people blow it off because uh they're helping the widow the orphan the poor person they're doing it because they think they need their sleep and to be healthy there are a lot of reasons excuses rationalizations we have to blow off waking up early for sleepless instead of scheduling our day and ensuring we get enough sleep and getting it all in because this is the crunch time high intensity time they blow it off so where is the yatahara that tries to convince us to blow off it's in our heart esl what's the answer the antidote elul as wake up early wake up early that's the lakaki says within the balaturam it's not just a cute acronym but it's also therefore the antidote the answer is to wake up early and to make a difference the great kotzkuraba the menachem envelope cuts in our new sephirah emma's the helicopter says um doesn't it say in passion already doesn't say that hashem is the one who's going to do it so first hashem commanded us and now it says who's the one who's going to circumcise our hearts is god going to circumcise our hearts or are we obligated to circumcise our hearts is it um or is it um which is it asks so he says our heart has a covering our heart has a hard shell we have to remove the covering we have to remove that hard shell we have to expose our soft heart we have to remove the or allah we remove the covering and then hashem we remove the covering of our heart and then hashem helps purify the heart itself we have to take that first step we have to initiate we have to show our interest in our desire and then hashem does the rest from there hashem takes it from there turo then tells us that this mitzvah of shuffle zos this great mitzvah that we think is so far away is so inaccessible is so distant it's not in the heavens intentionally leaves that ambiguous mysterious what mitzvah are we talking about which mitzvah the ramban says we're talking about the middle of cuba how do you know because it's what mitzvah is in our mouth and our heart the midst of chuba because that's confession admission it's in our heart and it's in our mouth it must be the midst of the mitzvah of vidoe that's what feels like it's so far away and so difficult but it's doable it is accessible we have it we can take care of it so the qatar says lo basham he listen to this the torah is not for those people who have their head in their clouds torah is not for those people who are arrogant who have inflated egos who think they're so great lubasha miami the torah is not found among those who think they're so great that their heads are in the heavens their heads are in the clouds where is it so says the qatar on these words i love this katsuka too before it's important you got to talk a big game talk torah talk talk to vegas talk to very torah it's important talk about it you have to have a good heart kind of sensitive heart caring heart faithful heart but you know what the mouth and the heart have to do but it's just lip service and it's just inside your heart unless says the katsuka is somewhat cynically it's not enough to be belka befika it's not just in your mouth you can't just talk of the game and you can't just talk about what's in your heart there are people who tell me rabbi you don't know me but in my heart i'm not i'm the firmest person you know i'm the most observant person you know in my heart i have the most the moon of anyone you know that's lovely i'm sure your heart will go to shaman what about the rest of you your heart's a good place it's a good start it's a good beginning but it can't just be before says the katsuka it can't just be lip service it can't just be befika and it can't just be built it can't just be in our heart in the end of the day it has to be something that drives us to do to achieve to accomplish all right there's a lot more to share but we are going to stop here because there's a lot to prepare hashem and more join us tomorrow morning for 10 minutes of messily sushama day 15 then 8 45 we go to living with emunah tomorrow night at 9pm we're going behind the bema with the ceo of facebook cheryl sandberg if you would like to be notified in real time when we go live please if you have not yet take a moment subscribe on youtube just hit the subscribe button you will be subscribed you'll be notified every time we go live to be able to learn and grow together thank you again to all of our sponsors you'd like to sponsor a future episode of future share all you have to do is click brsonline.org sponsor brsonline.org sponsor also as i've been sharing if you'd like to see a pdf notes of the parsha perspective sheer if you want to be able to print out beautifully laid out by my dear friend matthew miller if you want to be able to share at your shabbos table and have the notes prepared then subscribe to our newsletter at rabbiafngoby.org.org you'll get a newsletter every thursday morning early in the morning with a pdf of the notes of the parsha you can print it out bring it to your shabbos table it is a beautiful compliment to listening or watching to the partial sheer until next time stay happy stay healthy and stay holy