Parsha Perspectives for Today (Yisro)

good morning good morning in boca tov from boca raton florida where it is frigid cold you should all have tremendous sympathy for us for this uh terrible cold front coming through it's about 50 degrees and a biting wind outside now in all seriousness we're thinking about those who are buried under snow and wishing you safety and health and warmth and only good good things i want to thank our sponsors first of all uh for the day of learning ronan and talk to sid conan and under the breath of their granddaughters have a kaplan daughter alyssa enoch kaplan big mazel tov on her birth you should have a lot of naka summer and thank you for sponsoring the learning for the entire day i also want to thank our partial sponsor for the year our dear friends becky and avi katz and family and loving memory of becky's father david grossman david berman manish the learning should be eloy nishma and this morning's partial class finally is also sponsored by judith rosen in memory of her beloved husband rabbi marvin rosen whom i remember very well from my childhood growing up in tina carravalli malek barack mancion on his yurt site and sponsored by harry goldman in memory of her beloved husband hilton goldman hilleb and gershom in his ear sight and her fool shalema for herself hindi bas pessi nishmas those for whom it's dedicated or for shleima for those whom it's dedicated and if you'd like to sponsor a class going forward please email lee l-e-e at brsonline.org l-e-e at brsonline.org okay we've got an action-packed parsha class for you this morning i'm really excited for the divrei torah that we have so i'm really excited very beautiful insights as always we glean parsha perspectives for today our goal is not just to analyze the parsha theoretically or in the abstract but to rather extract from the lessons that inform and inspire our living today pasha's israel can be found in the arts course on page 394. the priest who happens to be the shiver the father-in-law of moshe heard all that god had done for moshe and for the jewish people and what is it referring to what is all that he had done what is that a reference to all that he had done meaning that he took moshe and the jewish people out of egypt rashid nevertheless asks mashmo shamma uba what is it that is so heard that made him come which is a peculiar question we're not going to get into this we've discussed this many times in the past it's among my favorite divre torah because the pastor itself tells us what he heard so what do i need what do i need rashi to ask what did he hear and then give us three answers now rashi don't blame rashi rashi is simply according to him and the government's quotes these three opinions the three possibilities of what he heard did he hear about the splitting of the sea did he hear about the battle with a molecule did he hear about the giving of the torah but why is the quran even debating what he heard about why does russia even have to raise that question after all the torah itself testifies the torah itself tells us what did he hear kyota you heard that god liberated emancipated took the people out of egypt so what's the guesswork why the debate number one number two what do you mean you heard about me shouldn't it say hear it about the victory with amalek why the war with amalek and the answer to that is very simple if you look back at the end of last week's parashat and bashar you will see that in fact the jewish people were not victorious nowhere does it say in last week's parasha that the jewish people defeated amalek it simply says we battled them well if we didn't beat them we didn't defeat them then what was impressive about it what did israel here that excited him what did he assume here that drew him why did israel come simply because of it so the famous answer that's given rav druka has the opening essay and this week's passion we're not going to look at it inside because we have so many other insights from rav druk and others to share but if your quotes what many others do which is that rashi was not asking what did he hear yes or heard the same thing as the whole world anyone with an internet connection anyone who got the newspaper delivered anyone who turned on the radio they all heard the same thing the miracles of yudhis mitsuram of the exodus rash's question was more specific which is what did yisro hear that made him come what did he show here that made him leave where he was mid young he was a high priest israel miguel was a dignitary an aristocrat yes so had prominence and honor and he leaves that all to go back to the beginning to start in kindergarten he's got a phd and he goes all the way back to first grade when he joins the jewish people and that's what rashi wants to know what did he hear uba then moved him to get up and change his life everyone else took another sip of coffee and turned the page of the newspaper ha interesting wow ten plagues wow splitting of the sea isn't that fascinating anyway could you pass me the sports section yisro didn't keep reading didn't keep sipping his coffee he got up and he left he moved he transformed his life radically that's what kind of listener he was by ishmael we've discussed this many times in the past and we won't get into it again now but i believe this entire powershell is all about the power of listening the importance of listening that's why though there's a debate did israel come before or after the torah was given and one of the things we're going to look at momentarily is if you assume that israel really came after the torah was given then why does the torah presented as if he came before why does the torah put out of order and there's a famous debate among the commentaries is is the torah written chronologically is it a history book recording accurately in the timeline it happened or is the torah written thematically is it telling us themes and lessons and morals and therefore the order is less important than the juxtaposition of the transitions which are meant to communicate and articulate messages to us and that's a famous question but if you believe the torah has to be written or is generally written in order and this is moved out of order in order to communicate a theme what theme is it communicating why leave the chronology why leave the order what theme is it communicating and i think part of the answer at least is it's communicating the power of listening i think those are the opening words of the parasha of ishmael israel israel listened and when he joins the jewish people by the way what's his first observation he says hey moshe there's no way you could be a good listener there are two to three million people lining up in order to talk to you and with that kind of pressure and that kind of responsibility you simply cannot be a good listener without delegating so therefore we need to know that before we receive the torah we have to learn to be good listeners and the words of stephen covey first seek to understand before being understood covey writes that most people listen listening is just when they're taking a break in between their turn to talk listening is when they're formulating what they're going to say next but that's not really listening that's not active listening there's a reason that one of the 48 ways that torah's acquired the mission of perique elvis tells us is listening so yisrael is introducing us we haven't yet learned the lesson if you've been around jewish people we're still trying to learn how to be decent listeners and let other people speak but yisro is teaching us that if you want to be able to absorb if you want to take in if you want to take the lessons of torah you have to first learn to be a good listener so even though even if it's out of order it's nevertheless such an important lesson to teach us the power of listening even before we receive the torah the divrei the great rebbe the divre has a different interpretation he says why didn't he come immediately when we left egypt why didn't israel hear the news wow there were 10 plagues wow after 210 years of oppression and servitude they were liberated from the bondage of egypt wow i got to find out more about this why didn't yesterday come then or why didn't he come when he heard about the splitting of the sea what was it about the battle with amalek especially if you consider the fact that we didn't defeat amalek as we asked we simply battled with them what's impressive about battling amalek the chinese and moreover why did he have to come at all why couldn't he from his hometown from mid young from his church or from wherever he had his prominent position why couldn't he simply adopt the seven nawahid laws or even convert to judaism but yet remain in midyard expand the jewish the jewish influence why did he have to stop and move and drop everything he had and join the jewish people that's the question of diversity and he says the following had to come and check out for himself when he had to come and examine what he couldn't make sense of and listen carefully because i never heard this before this never occurred to me well israel was bothered by and he had to come check out was it was a steroid obey was a contradiction i don't understand on the one hand this is a people for whom the sea split this is a nation the jewish people that god suspends the rules of nature intervenes in this world and splits a sea and yet an amalek could wage a war against them how is it possible that the whole world was rattled the whole world was shaken pundits were all trying to examine and understand exactly what happened here who are these jewish people what happened to the rules of nature what happened to the way we expect things everybody was moved so this people for whom the rules of nature were suspended how could malik take them on how could umali come to fight them these are people who their very definition their very definition who was it who said that in israel if you don't believe in miracles you don't believe in nature i just totally butchered that quote i forgot the quote but the jewish people were characterized were defined our entire history is replete with miracle after miracle after miracle our very existence is a testimony to the possibility of miracles the modern state of israel is it not a series of miracle after miracle after a miracle despite our best effort to undermine it four elections in two years despite the jewish encourageable people who are somehow responsible for it nevertheless god the whole story of the mountain state of israel is miracle after miracle after miracle and you could ask the same thing about hamas and hezbollah and iran and the anti-semites and the bds movement and those who call for the destruction of israel you could ask and those who accuse us of having having our our uh laser in in heaven you could ask the same question how could anyone study the modern state of israel how can anyone look at 67 and 73 and look at all the wars that no scud missile landed and killed anybody war after war after war and not say you know what i'm gonna find another people to pick on i'm gonna find someone else on the playground to steal their lunch because this people there's something special there's something going on they came back to this land skeletons holocaust victims and they merited miracle after miracle after miracle did you not see the film um steven spielberg's sister did about the first israel air force where the planes were made of spare car parts and the people who flew those planes it's just it's a miracle so if you're if you're objectively looking at the story of the modern state of israel you say you know what i'm going to find someone else in the middle east or somewhere else in the world that's what i'm going to pick on because these people there's something magical there's something special there's something miraculous going on and yet and yet against all odds and against all logic there are enemies even today absurd and that's what is simply repeating history from earlier so israel looks and he says one second on the front page on top of the fold i'm reading about the story of a splitting of a sea inexplicable a sea splits it closes up on the enemy and drowns them for the jewish people it's open and they're able to walk across and then beneath the fold i find that there's a nation that chose to attack that very people who just merited to experience that miracle it doesn't make sense i gotta check out who these people are alkene um you know why israel dropped everything and came he said i gotta check this out maybe the headlines were an exaggeration maybe it was an exaggeration splitting of a sea impossible it had to be an exaggeration that's what rasheed was asking not it was what did he israel here yes or heard what the entire world heard that's what we say yashir the whole world heard about the miracles but israel was bothered by something that most others didn't even notice which was the contradiction how could it be alzheimer's that's what he came to see he says the diversity he wanted to see what's going on here was which one is an exaggeration the fact that amalek attacked or the fact that this is c split that there were miracles something's being exaggerated here because the combination of the two is an absolute impossibility and so he had to come and see for himself and that was rash's question i have a different suggestion and my suggestion is that perhaps the reason that yisr was so moved by the story of the attack of amalek even though we didn't defeat a malik all we did was survive the attack of amalek we walked away but we didn't win we didn't triumph so what impressed him and i think perhaps this divre answers that question even though he doesn't spell it out maybe what impresses israel is he says to himself amalek are the epitome of evil amalek are everything that's wrong amalek are cynical skeptical wicked evil nefarious amalek represent everything they don't value life they don't value certainly an afterlife they don't value spirituality amalek are the epitome of evil the paradigm of the paradigm of evil and yet there's one nation they're obsessed with there's one nation that evil can't leave alone even though it makes no sense and even though it's self-destructive for them to go down that road so i've got to go check out who that people are it wasn't the fact that we defeated them like that impressed israel because we didn't defeat them perhaps what impressed israel was not that we defeated him malik but that amali chose to pick on us and i would say that it's in this way a sort of i don't know if it's comforting or silver lining because we'd rather they all leave us alone but if the un disproportionately condemns one nation and the um is a bastion of darkness and wickedness and evil and they're obsessed with one people there's something really good about that people that people represent the threat of goodness and light and blessing so sometimes when you can see evil and then you could find who is evil targeting now you know what's good because if that's what evil feels so threatened by if that's what evil is working so hard to eliminate that must be the source of good in this world and perhaps that's what impresses israel and that's what makes them join oh that's point number one point number two i want to share with you insights from nevin sash leader of nevin sal the great talmud however should live and be well is the rava rashi of the iratica he's the chief rabbi the old city of yerushalayim a great sadhaka great he's got magnificent volumes on our parsha rev nevensal has a beautiful beautiful insight in discussion pasha's isro this was written up very beautifully in an article called derek's karma torah part of banish ginsburg of michelala very grateful he's taught many of my daughters teaching my third daughter there this year so thank you for writing this up and for expanding upon it but if nevin sullivan is safer says the following if in fact israel comes after matantora why does he appear why is he presented before what we began with if you believe the torah generally follows chronology but at times deviates from the chronology in order to communicate a theme what is the theme that's being communicated here what is the theme that's being communicated here and from native aria true rabbi nativaria i apologize so if neven saw says the following he suggests that um what's being communicated is the juxtaposition of the placement of the arrival of israel after the war of amalek and before the receiving of the torah and it's teaching us a lesson not the lessons that we just mentioned from the div but teaching us a different lesson and he says the following the torah is teaching us about moshe rabbenu's medos mosher abbaynu's humility moshe benu's modesty that moshe rabbenu did not let any of this go to his head moshe's prominence moshe's authority moshe's uniqueness in all of mankind could have easily put him in a position that he felt greater superior better than anybody else but he never let it get to them to his head and where do we see that this is the moshe rabbenu who's going to ascend har sinai the only one uniquely he's going to go on top of the mountain and speak directly to god he's going to live without food and water because he's going to be angelic during that time he's going to have this hosta merit to bring down the torah and he's going to be the person closer to god than any human being in all of history moshe is the only person who one of the 13 principles of faith of the rambam is to believe that moshe is the av the father of prophets that moshe is unique categorically different than all others now you can imagine if you have the pedigree that i just described if that's what's on your resume if one of the 13 principles of faith what it means to be a believing jew is to believe that you are better superior different than every other human being you can imagine that that go to your head and yet it doesn't at the end of last week's pasha when moshe turns to yeshua and he says we need to recruit soldiers we've got to fight on malik they're attacking us we've got to take them on and defend our people he says choose for us fighters and the key word there is lanu choose for us and rashid quotes from the madrish that moshe when he is conscripting people into the army he doesn't say choose from me i'm the general i'm the commander-in-chief i'm the man i'm god's assistant choose from me he says choose for us what's the significance of lano he's showing honor to yehoshua he's showing honor to the people he makes it not about i but he makes it about we lincoln's gettyberg address which is one of the famous most famous speeches in all of history once read an article the gettysburg address is famous we we think of the gettysburg address because everybody knows the name we think it must be as long as a shabba-shubha shabbat sagada russia right it was a few minutes long it was several hundred words it was a very very short address there's a big lesson in that i have yet to learn it but there's a big lesson in that but i think even more i read an article that showed that what lincoln did in that address which was very different than many of his predecessors and sadly has been different than many of his successors is that in that address lincoln did not talk about i i i me me me my my my i i he talked about we and he talked about us and he won over the american people because when he involved us and included us and with humility made it about the people and not him the we instead of the eye and that's what moshe rabbenu here does even the moshe the commander in chief moshe the categorically different unique human being had every right to say aye aye aye and choose for me he does and he says bihar la nu he speaks with humility to yoshua number one number two jewish people are fighting and moshe is darling and they're holding up his hands iron and horn when he gets tired he sits on a rock why does he sit in a rock have you ever seen a rubbish a chair you ever been to a tish a rubbish a chair is thick padding arms ornate ostentatious beautiful why doesn't he sit in a nice chair i've had the privilege i'll give a little flex i've had the privilege to be at several meetings in the roosevelt room of the west wing of the white house and it's fascinating around the conference table of the roosevelt room of the west wing of the white house all the chairs are the same but one the one chair that's different looks like the other chairs but the back of that chair is taller than the other chairs and i'll give you a hint it ain't the vice president who sits there the president has a chair which is a little bit taller than all the other chairs i'm not criticizing that it's the position of the president i have to honor the position of the president i got it but moshe abenu he's the president the prime minister the commander-in-chief and when he needs to rest in that war he says i'm going to sit in a rock because if my people are fighting and they're uncomfortable then i'm going to be noticeable i'm going to feel their pain and i'm going to sit on a rock i'm not going to sit in some high position next we get to this week's parsha cesar of nevinsel now again let's understand that chronologically israel arrives after the receiving of the torah so the torah has been given moshe ascends the mountain the one person and he goes up and he speaks directly to god and he receives the luchos and he is empowered and he is charged to come down and to be the ambassador the transmitter of torah to not only the jewish people then but in perpetuity and forever he's moshe abenu he remains our teacher and for our children our grandchildren our great grandchildren and forever moshe is the teacher of the jewish people he comes down from that mountain and then they say to him moshe is busy teaching he's been named the russia shiva of the largest yeshiva the only yeshiva in the world yeshiva and he's giving shears given the sheer qualities the russia shiva and they say russia shiva i know you're giving shi right now to like 2 million people but your father-in-law is coming and what does he do does he say you know give him a cold drink and a newspaper and tell him i'll be there in a few minutes when i'm done does he say tell him to pull up a chair take some pride in his aid them and his son-in-law i'm giving shirley take a look you know what moshe does he gets up and he goes out to greet his father-in-law and what happens after moshe interrupts the sheer what happens when moshe gets up and goes to interrupt his father-in-law rashid tells us what happened he interrupts and then everybody follows him everybody follows him aaron follows him the zucchini and follow him the whole people follow him and whether it means literally they follow him they accompany him physically to greet his father-in-law or it means they follow him they watch and they listen and they learn and they follow his way the derek it's kadmala torah that you know what receiving the torah is important but so is derek and that's what mushroom was displaying and that says rav nevan sal is why it appears out of order the lesson that we have derek our rabbis tell us that there are interpersonal relationships the way we treat one another being a mensch it precedes torah it is the prerequisite to living a life of torah if you have torah but you're not a mensch then you're not really living authentic torah the prerequisite to torah is to be a mensch and where does it say it how did they know that where'd they see that and the answer is from the fact that the arrival of israel is placed between the battle with amalek and receiving the torah is teaching us the lessons that moshe rabbenu himself transmitted not with his words but with his modeling with his actions that what he shows humility and he says to yahshua we instead of i he sits on a rock instead of on a throne he gets up and he interrupts the shir he's giving to millions of people in order to go out and to greet his father-in-law and everybody follows because why is quotes a fourth shot in the name of his father or nevinson quotes the name of his own father yes he comes to motion and tells him he's making big mistakes in the judicial system now again israel comes i'm like a good father-in-law and i can make this joke now because i am a father-in-law twice over israel comes i'm in the club and he gives unsolicited advice to his son-in-law moshe now i'm a son-in-law and a father-in-law as a father-in-law you don't understand why your advice is not warmly received after all you're so smart and you live life longer but as a son-in-law sometimes you wonder why is he giving me advice i didn't ask for it i don't need it doesn't he know who i am so what does mosher abbay know mosher abbaynu again the avanaviyam the greatest human being to ever live the father of prophecy the one who was on the mountain and spoke directly to god moshe who was hand-picked by god and all of a sudden his father comes to the scene and he's not there 20 minutes and he's already giving unsolicited advice if i'm moshe i say listen listen whatever he called him abba tati father-in-law i have no idea what he called them but listen and yisra had seven names so you might as well throw on a few more whatever he called them i can understand moshe's saying to him listen i appreciate it it's very thoughtful you're very accomplished man in mid young but you know i've got this relationship with god god's mentoring me and and i think i'm good i think i'm good god didn't talk to me about setting up systems and courts and just i think i'm good if god had something to tell me he would have told me he didn't tell me so i think i'm good but moshe abandoned doesn't do that in this fourth story what does moshe albania do he says to israel that's fantastic advice thank you for sharing it there's such wisdom i'm going to accept that i'm going to pursue that moshe displays that he's low made me call adam that part of darachar malator a part of the mensch part of what it means to be a good person is the willingness to learn from anyone and everyone there's wisdom in everyone around us even our father-in-law again i'm a father-in-law even a father-in-law there's wisdom so moshe doesn't say thanks but no thanks i don't need you i've got god as a mentor and a rebbe he says that's very good advice that's brilliant absolutely i'm going to do it and sort of never saw shows that their character is in the hummish itself and maybe that's why it's out of order you could read more and rev even sounds wonderful where he describes it very very beautifully revenge ginsburg when he quotes this in his sheer he related it to a great talmud out of israel gust monster who was a god on the previous generation a member that based in a vilna when he was only in his 20s he survived the holocaust spent several years running from the nazis made his way to eretz israel lived in rehabilia and there are incredible stories of gusman i wish if we had more time i would share some of them with you but one of them that's uh relevant here is that rav gusman was once caught cleaning the floors of his yeshiva and arab shabbos and people said rebbe this is beneath your covet you're the russia shiva like you're used to what are you washing the floor for so he said let me tell you a story i once arrived late to the base in a ville now when i walked in stood up for me when the was visiting since i stood up and once stood up the rest of the basement stood up and said of gusman that moment when i was so embarrassed that was enough covered to last an entire lifetime so it's perfectly okay for me to clean the floors or do anything because in that moment i got more than enough covered for an entire lifetime of ginsburg says that always reminds me of this story that when israel arrives moshe goes out because moshe goes out aaron goes out because aaron goes out the elders of the kingdom go out because they go out the rest of the jewish people all go out as well and that is uh and that is the story of derek's quad mother torah the that's shown he quotes here as well one one of the story of rav gusman that you know um ravlichenstein zaczal when he made aliyah and he wanted to volunteer to fight in a war shortly after his arrival the yom kippur war but they didn't need him his age so there was a shortage of milkman delivering milk though so the least he could do was deliver the milk to try to help out so he was delivering the milk in the caviar where he lived and he delivered it to the home of gusman and when he delivered the milk to of gusman of guzman and he started to get in a conversation and they ended up speaking for a long time and they talked in learning they talked to suggest and when he left rav gusman apparently commented to his wife this is why we moved to eretz israel because even the milkman are enormous hamid it's a great story both about gusman and about rav liptenstein so that is all derek's quad motor may be why it is out of order moving right along isro arrives he's greeted warmly so so what happens moshe tells him all about what had happened moshe with excitement with such joy tells him all about the story about everything that had happened and yes he got goosebumps rashes says he was so excited he was so moved moshe's enthusiasm was so contagious that after vayissa pair the way that moshe told them because he told him with such excitement it was contagious in fact that's what the imrakhim writes because of the enthusiasm with which moshe told the story moshe said you're not going to believe what happened and god revealed his hand and hashem was amazing and hashem loves us so what happened because moshe told the story with enthusiasm joy and vigor so therefore israel it was contagious yes or also said wow that's amazing that what a story you're right barak hashem and in fact we'll speak in a moment he was the very first to say barack hashem to use the word barak in association with god but what precipitated israel's reaction was moshe's enthusiasm and i think it's a very powerful lesson from this if we want our children to be on fire we have to be on fire if we want the people around us to be excited about the hand of hashem in our lives then we have to be excited about the hand of hashem in our lives the degree and the way in which we tell that story is the way in which the people around us will react so israel reacts if he gets in fact he gets goosebumps and how does he react possibly on page 396. hashem god saves you from the hands of egypt the hands of power he saved the nation from under the hands of the of the egyptians this expression of baruch hashem let's take a look at our first and our first ishtar our first rook of the day so first he goes to command sanhedrin the quran tells us israel's reaction was in fact an indictment both of moshe and of the jewish people shalom yes they praised god they thanked god but they never said barak and khloe saw the jewish people they saw god they talked to god they were grateful to god but they never said barach who said barak the very first to say barak blessed is yisro this non-jew the spectator this observer to their history he is the first one to say this is the one who introduces us to the word and the notion of motion six hundred thousand didn't say until israel came so why didn't they say it wonders of druk it's a great question word boroch is arguably the most common word in our liturgy think about our dhavaling think about the blessings that we say you have a cup of coffee you have to say barack obama you go to the bathroom after the cup of coffee asha yatsar you say fifteen blessings birka we start the day by saying god i take nothing for granted wow i can see and i can hear and i'm alive and i have a roof over my head barach barak barak barak why didn't they say the indictment the criticism both of moshe and the six hundred thousand why didn't they say barak and what led yisro to takaseba israel comes after the splitting of the sea motion the jewish people they sang shira if they were so moved by the splitting of the sea in order to sing a song and the song is incorporated into our dominant it's how powerful it is if they were so moved to sing a song why weren't they so moved to say barack blessed why didn't they use the word blessed is god blessed are you god blessed is god so what's going on with this word barach so first he quotes his father rav joe quotes his father the mordechai of murder and he says the following until now the jewish people were grateful they were singing and they were praising god for the miracles they experienced but whenever the jewish people thanked god you know what they thanked him for the things that they received the benefits that they got directly their gratitude was limited to the things that they experienced isro is the very first person who says you know what i want to see and express gratitude and acknowledge and recognize god not for anything he did for me but for something he did for another to see god as a third party as a spectator he was the first to point a finger and say barak hashem even though he wasn't the beneficiary he was a spectator to those who were ubisoft goosebumps when he heard the story why did he get goosebumps i understand if a miracle just happened to you you had a near escape from a car accident from corona you came back after being in a ventilator shalom for a month and you came back and you survived somebody's visiting our shul who apparently was on the brink of death three times from corona and barak hashem thank god they are better so i understand that you recover from a terminal situation and you say barak hashem blessed are you god i got it but israel got goosebumps and the answer is that's her power of what israel saw and how he felt so yisrael what he introduced to the world is that yes throws the very first as an outsider and as a spectator who's able to say hashem that is the inside of the jerash mordechai to expand on it the the gris revel whose last living son passed away of david salaveczak the world is still in mourning for him revelation of explains allah in so in the code of jerusalem tells us that you're allowed to be yote birkha if a person survives a life-threatening situation which could mean an illness but also could mean air travel or traveling across the ocean you come back from a cruise or you land from an overseas flight according to many then you recite the bracha albir gomel god thank you my life was potentially threatened and i survived and i want to thank you so the shaykh says that one person can fulfill this bracha for another can have them in mind sometimes you wish that people would observe this we ever had a minion where a whole group of people just came back from israel one after another after another after another they all think they have to bench gomo let one person bench go on behalf of everybody else and the rama writes there the bishop is on an enormous rama adds on an enormous novel idea he says do you know that a person can say the blessing and fulfill it for another even if the person reciting the blessing themselves is not obligated you didn't just cross the sea you didn't just come through an ocean you didn't just get out of jail you didn't just recover from a terminal illness a life-threatening car accident but you could still say the blessing for somebody else how's that possible so listen to what the brisker rav says the brisker of says you know why that's possible because like israel it depends if you really don't care that the other person survived you're not moved you're not impressed you're not inspired you're not wowed then you can't say the blessing and bemote them but if their survival if their story and their experience gives you goosebumps if you hear how they came back and you hear the miracle of their recovery and you hear the miracle of their near escape and you hear the miracle of their safety and you are so moved you have goosebumps you can't help but say barak hashem then the ta's qualifies this raman says then you're allowed to the ta says you have to have simcha only if you have sims if you have joy from the miracle of the other can you say the birha sagoma for them and be motive them and that says the briskarov is is exactly what's going on over here that yisro is the very first one to feel the boroh hashem he's the first one to say barach because he's a third party he's a spectator he's not the beneficiary he didn't directly benefit and the brisk world continues that's why vayichad israel means goosebumps israel had goosebumps he had this incredible joy but also means unity unified connection when you feel united unified connected to another so much so that their experience inspires you that you are able to connect with them vicariously it's as if you survived so much so that you're moved to bless god then you're allowed to say the bracha even though you yourself are not obligated you could say the blessing for them what a beautiful insight about us as third party as spectators but seeing hashem's hand in others how often do you read a biography or you read stories of small miracles and you just wow after wow after wow what a story and you're moved by it you get goosebumps you shed a tear you you you shiver so you say baruch hashem yisra that was the barak that he introduced us to that was the barak of the of the barak hashem but ravdruk offers a different explanation not that of his father and not that of the brisker of he uh asked some questions on his own father's interpretation therefore he rejects him but he offers another and he says how in the world can we bless god all together god is malachal arts god fills the whole world god is the source of all blessing what is the idea that one sees a miracle and points and says barak hashem blessed are you god we are in a position to bless god god's the one who gives the blessings not us so how could we possibly saying barak hashem so the never shaking says uh that god sometimes has storehouses of blessing that he wants to descend to this world but he needs us to recognize the key to opening the sword house the key to the flow of blessing is for us to recognize it comes from him and that's when we point what we're saying is god you are the makor you are the source it comes it derives it flows from you the word bracha comes from the word which is a stream everything that flows all the blessing that we value it all flows and it all comes down from you it's all coming from you that's baruch not blessed are you god that we're giving him the blessing you god are the source of all blessing and that's how israel was reacting he wasn't giving god a blessing but he was acknowledging he was pointing and he was recognizing that god is the source of all the blessing in the world and continues he says we see this in our benching in the paragraph the allah and be satisfied and bless god what do you mean eat and satisfied it's based on apostles you're passionate eat and be satisfied and bless god how do you bless god what it means is whatever you've just eaten whatever you've just enjoyed whatever you've just had in your life recognize point and say he's the makor bracha it all comes from god is the source of it all it is all from god let's keep going torah continues and it says that israel brought all kinds of sacrifices and the elders all came to break bread with moshe moshe doesn't even know the name he's called moshe they came to break bread with moshe's father-in-law elohim before god so listen to the mayor of apta of mayor of apta not yeshua not the abdullah but the great sadduce he says homolytically he says look at the passage our own and all the elders they came to eat bread with moshe's father-in-law lefnay elokim do you know what you have to do before you can connect with god he writes the following we learn a very important principle lef you need a panasonic is karma torah the other interpretation of derek's neventales is their heritage means a livelihood you need a livelihood you need to be involved in society in the world you need to be working and productive you need to earn a livelihood with pride earning a living is a mitzvah in the torah work is not a concession it's a value god worked six days before he rested the seventh we work before we rest and so therefore mayor of abdah says that's the shot aaron and the elders come to break bread before left elo came before you can connect with god you need a parnassa because you know if you're if you're scrambling if you're knocking on the doors if you're collecting from others if you can't make ends meet and you can't put food on your table then how much are you going to learn and how can you daven and what good can your religious life be so therefore first you've got to take care of your parnassus first you got to take care of your livelihood your income you've got to make sure you're stable and only then can you turn two can you turn to a life of life elo kim salavechik has a little bit of a different slant on this as you might have guessed he would and by salvation says the following he says who was the host of that gathering there's a great barbecue going on israel offered swahili offered sacrifices and now aaron and zika straul all come to break bread so who's the host of it is it isro after all he's the bala carbon he's the one who brought the sacrifice is it our own he's the elder statesman who is it so right so by salvation rashi comments the mosha served everyone the food at the surpassed moshe was the one who served one would have expected israel to be the one to serve the guests it would say you offered the sacrifice however israel recognized that he was not in fact the true host since god owns everything he in reality is the host moshe was there for the most appropriate person to serve food since moshe was god's plenty potentiary fancy word for saying he was moshe's representative in an analogous way when hashem visited avraham avram jumped up from a seat to receive the divine presence hashem in effect said you're making a mistake avraham you consider yourself the host i'm the guest but the opposite's true i'm the host and you're the guest i'm receiving you not in your tent but it's my tent this is my tent because nothing on earth is truly yours everything is mine so remain seated and that says the rav is what's going on in the words life yes they had a meal and who was the host of the meal was it israel who brought the sacrifice what is it our own is the elder statesman is it moshe the answer is god is the host of every meal because this whole world and everything in it really belongs to god but then emotion then the rough continues and he says dining before god let's how strange this phrase would have sounded to the greeks of old thinking before or rather with god was a truism in late greek philosophy particularly among the stoa who considered the finite human intellect an infinitesimal component of the infinite divine logos and who regarded thinking as a reflex of the divine noetic gesture whenever man engages in cognition he submerges and god because only through him is acquisition of knowledge possible to converse to god to unite with him through such an unrefined carnal activity as eating would simply evoke ridicule so in the greek way of thinking about god and religion you would never talk about eating kim you'd never talk about eating being before god what you do before god is think or philosophize what you do before god is meditate or conceptualize but the notion of a carnal act of eating a mundane material based physical act of eating to describe that as being before god how is that before god yet says there be salvation all religious conscience felt differently one eats with god in his presence how by sacrificial action which converts the food of man into the bread of god judaism developed a new institution this uda it is neither an ordinary meal nor a feast it is more than that it is the crucible in which the bread of man is transposed into the bread of god expressing the fellowship between god and man participating of god in all human pursuits and activities the realization of the idea of sudah can occur only when man eats differently from the animal when he displays uniqueness with regard to the physiological processes which are required to satisfy the demands of his body from this positive derives the maxim that whoever enjoys a meal in which a scholar is involved it is as if he enjoyed the radiance of the shrine arashi quotes this rashi writes if you eat a meal with righteous people it's as if you've enjoyed the radiance of the shrine the word shadow is derived from a phrase that appears in regard to a nazir who is prohibited from partaking in great products according to the bamidbar he must also not partake of mishra's anova the gemara says refers to bread soaked in wine just as bread absorbs wine the divine presence permeates the meal through the participation of the scholar i love this insight of the rav in fact it's the basis of a lot of hasidus and hasidic thinking the idea of the shirayam of the rebbe that when the rebbe brings the right attitude to his eating he transforms the food from a base animal act to an act of holiness and sanctity and if you can imbibe part of his leftovers then you are making contact with transformed food which has become a vehicle and an instrument of holiness so in other words we don't bifurcate our lives it's not that religious activity for us happens in the shul or in the study hall and then when you eat oh we stuff our face and we fresh we like animals we eat like pigs no in the eating we reveal everything about who we are we transform the act of eating to be lift him think about this verse we're eating bread but so the way we eat and the quantity we eat and the style we eat and what we eat and with whom we eat and and what we talk about while we eat all of it is able to transform something which is a carnal base physical act of eating to transform it to become left neha elokim something that in fact is happening in front of and before god now tells us so much more i want to cover and so much time we're running out of it was the next day and moshe came to judge the people and as we said moshe comes and he offers us unsolicited advice what precipitated it because he sees he sees these crazy lines and there was no fast pass actually roshi says there was a fast pass people had a hierarchy in the order in the lines we gave a series of shirum earlier in the year about pratechia rules of lines the halachic rules of lines but anyway so there's an enormous line and israel says it's not right you need to delegate because there's no way you could be a good listener the question is when did this all take place so rashi tells us the word when did it take place it took place the day after whenever you see the words mimacharas the day after it's a reference says rashi the day after what it's the day after yom kippur the day after yom kippur so the mephirsham asks the following this is in a safer called this was pointed out to my friend avi tashman my old roommate from smitha and he says the following the tapu khayim written by rebraim alter of carlsberg and he says the following hiksham aforesam is picture the scene for a moment moshe albano has a line out his tent through the whole camp thousands of people are waiting to speak to him what do they want to speak to him about they're not asking about a milking fork in the fleshy dishwasher what are they asking him about what they're asking him about is what they're asking about is to adjudicate fights there are conflicts there are disputes taking place between people and they come to moshe in order to resolve them so the mufashin these commentators wonder one second there are thousands of people waiting in line for moshe to resolve disputes and conflicts they're having and when was this the morning after yom kippur like yom kippur wasn't enough to make everyone let everything go kipper didn't re-prioritize everybody why are there all these disputes and conflicts to have to resolve mimakaras the day after yom kippur the day after getting the tablets so you're talking about this is after harshinai the greatest moment of divine revelation the ultimate in the illa comes it's to be moved you're talking about the day after yom kippur and there's still so many conflicts that need to be resolved so the safer answer is based on insight of the katsuko reba the famous insight of the cutscore the katsuka says in in our parsha yisra tells moshe you need to delegate and in order to delegate you need to choose qualified judges what is the definition what are the criteria of a qualified judge what are the criteria of a qualified judge so yesterday gives him a list of criteria he's got to be wealthy so that he can't be swayed or brought up by money he's got to be yesterday gives us a list of criteria one of them is not people of peace and the kotzko was bothered why wasn't anshei shalom included in the list that israel was about to give him israel tells him that the people have to be god fearing they have to despise money they have to have their own money so that they can't be bought off why didn't he tell them they also have to be on sha shalom they have to be people of peace that was the question that bothered the katsuka so the qatar says why because once we already said that they have to be hashem and ancie ms so then we know they're going to be ancho shalom yes if you're people of truth and you're god fearing then you're not going to have conflict conflict arrives because of ego so if you've subjugated and sublimated your ego if you're god-fearing if you have all of god and your people of truth then you're not going to have the conflict the goal of shalom you know through lies and false flattery through manipulation you could live peacefully with anybody but that's not a real peace a real peaceful so when moshe was resolving the conflicts between people it wasn't financial disputes and it wasn't personal ego driven conflict it was that people said i want to know the right hash kaffa we're having a debate right now should rabbis endorse candidates should we give land for peace should we there's two legitimate points of view and they came to moshe to try to resolve it because that's the real shalom a real shalom is when you're trying to resolve the truth not when you have a shalom a peace that's based on on false flattery and lies you know we have um we have a federation that magnificently convenes all the rabbis several times a year reform conservative orthodox khabad they categorize khabar in its own category not me and we get together and we have an amazing unity in fact our community won the unity prize in yerushalayim representatives our community flew to the president's omar rivlin's home president riven's home and receive the unity price of the unity that we have but unity is easy when you do a joint perm carnival unity is easy when you have a joint rally to stand up for israel or against anti-semitism can you have unity where you're debating where you're debating very significant and real things that's the real question of unity so a unity that's based on on either superficial connection or a unity that's based on manipulation and false flatteries and easily unity but a unity says the qatar that's based on the ability to have legitimate real disagreements the ability to connect to people even though you disagree vociferously and vehemently that's a real unity and that could only happen the day afternoon kippur that could only happen after receiving the luchos that is his his suggestion okay they stand underneath the mountain they stand underneath the mountain it's time for kabbalah and we know three days they prepare so much to say in this parasha three days they prepare and then hashem holds a mountain over their head and he threatens them that if you receive it good if not sham take for us then you're going to be buried there kapha mahakagikas god held the mountain over our over our head first of all i want to tell you an amazing azula an amazing comment of the khida gershon is dummy says you know that we have a we have a expression a convert who converts as if they're born again they're born anew and the truth is this has a major halachic implication the convert after the conversion is no longer halachically related even to their immediate biological relatives they're known that technically they can marry their own sister because they're not related to her why because garrosh and his guy no dummy the convert who converted is as if they're born again born anew can have a 90 year old convert and they are exactly one day old on the day of their conversion so listen to this and for my holy convert friends out there i have the privilege of being the manager of a basement for conversion here in south florida i did three conversions a couple weeks ago we meet regularly and we have the privilege of welcoming new jews into the tribe all qualified worthy all that we would be proud and are proud to have as as members who work hard and who earn their their place so listen to this this is dedicated to them he says he says um why doesn't it say gosh in this guy here it really the expression should be a non-jew who converted what do you mean a convert who converted did it ever bother you it has struck me before that it's a very clumsy expression it should be goesh and his gair a non-jewish gentile who converted why do we say a convert who converted listen to what he says because maybe they just converted when they emerged from the mikvah today but do you know their soul has been jewish since harsinai they were at har sinai we have a tradition we have a madrish that tells us that every convert who ultimately converted their soul was present at har sinai as well i saw a comment from rebecca ager igor had a tradition he says that when god went nation to nation and offered the torah and the other nations rejected it means that the wholesale nation rejected but there were individuals among those nations who said i would accept it i'd love this i embrace it i want to be part of it but they were afraid to speak up for fear of the leaders of their nation who were rejecting it those individuals they are the future converts who join our people and so because at that time already they were already their souls were ready to to accept it it means the soul of every ultimate convert was really present harsinai and that's why we have this expression not goes in this guy not a non-jew converted but a gershwin is gaier the convert who converted because they've been a convert not only once they emerged from the mikvah they were a convert since harcina their soul was always destined to convert they've been a member of our people since we became a people it was just the technicality that they had to undergo this process but their soul actually has been part of our people since we became a people since we stood side by side with them at harsinai an amazing amazing rav druk has a beautiful comment on this notion that we stood under the mountain and we don't have time for me to tell you because we're running out of time so i'm going to save that one for next year it's an amazing cufflink he explains a line in dayenu in the haggadah eloquer van loaf near sinai god if you only brought us before har sinai and everybody knows the question what do you mean what would be the point of being brought before arsenal if we never got the torah so the usual answer everyone gives is because we had this tremendous unity so if we experienced unity and community even if we didn't get the torah dayenu that would have been enough that's the classic answer everybody says at the seder but has a different answer he says note it says doesn't say allah it says it doesn't say if you only joined us to get the torah it says if you only brought us to the point that happened before the giving of the torah what happened before the giving of the torah god held the mountain over our head and threatened us and that is what the haggadah is referring to there was something special about that moment the experience of us holding the mountain over our head was impactful was transformational there was something so significant about it that we say dayenu that and enough would be enough for us to be grateful for even if we didn't afterwards get the torah what is it that was so special about that moment that you'll have to tune in to partial destroy next year because we're running out of time for this year in order to be able to say it they'll have to come back to next year so let me just end with another message another insight of the great rabbena bacha rebecca and towards the end of our parsha towards the end of our passion there was so much more to talk about breaks my heart if you would stay here i'd speak for two hours the three hours because each pasha it's just it's a disservice to the parsha anyway towards the very end of the parsha now that we've received the torah we start to examine the laws page 412 in the earthquake speak to the jewish people and tell them you saw that i god spoke to you directly in unprecedented revelation i spoke to you elohei god says you saw me you experienced me you've tasted the real deal the genuine thing so therefore do not make an image of what is me gods of silver and gods of gold do not make for yourselves god says now that you could touch the real thing now that you experienced the real thing don't make images of gold don't make images of silver rabbena bachaya rebecca however you pronounce his name has an amazing comment it's and he says the following yes lafaresh lo sasuni t don't do to me alex when you're supposed to be with me when is it where with god of course it's every moment of every day but when are we with god when we're davening so when you're supposed to be with me don't think about gold and silver when you're supposed to be with me don't be obsessed with money and your portfolio in the stock market don't think about what kind of car you drove to shul that day or the house that you want to buy lo sassoon eti when you're with me don't be thinking about material physical things because if you do then you've made alohe you've turned the gold and silver into gods there was arav who once went to a wealthy individual to solicit a donation to support his communal efforts but the wealthy person refused to give and rather than react with disappointment the rabbi simply led the wealthy person to the window and asked him to describe what he saw so the man said i see people walking in the street and i see children playing in a playground so the rabbi led the man in the home to a mirror and he said okay tell me now what do you see so the man said now i see myself so the rabbi said the following he said the window in the mirror they're both made of glass when you look through the clear window you saw other people but when you look through the glass that was coated with silver all you could see was yourself that's the difference between the window and the miller so this amazing revenant bachaya bene becha says lo sa suni t when you're supposed to be with me don't be obsessed and consumed with physical material things because then you've turned those physical material things into a god and you have abandoned me thank you again to our sponsors if you'd like to sponsor a future edition again lee at brsonline.org next week we're running a big campaign brs plus brs global if you're listening and you're not a member of brs but you want to be part of the brs global community then watch and listen for that opportunity and we thank you in advance for your participation looking forward to continuing to learn tomorrow morning 10 minutes of meeting 8 15. living in the moon at 8 45 tomorrow night we go behind the bema with congressman ted deutsch and his wife jill that's at 9 pm tomorrow night until next time stay happy stay healthy and stay holy