Parshas Bo: The 10 Steps To Recreate The World - Yeshiva Aish Hatorah

this Torah class is brought to you by Torah anytime.com thank you so much for the warm introduction I want to thank uh R Poston for making arrangements to host me I want to thank my host repol or for making this trip possible and which means that when you speak somewhere you need to uh share with the audience the accolades of the location that you're speaking for me to be here today it's a tremendous hash it's almost inexplicable what am I doing some guy from Brooklyn who went to uh traditional yeshivas here I'm in the old city and I'm teaching in Yesa isor it's amazing thing how old is this building by the way N9 how about the Old Dan building how thousands of years so in uh basically in prehistoric times now I don't know what it was about 20 years ago uh when they were building the Dan building my my father who is not a student of isor father went to Philadelphia Yesa he uh was drafted by Rak to give the discovery seminar in fact my father spoke in uh literally hundreds of college campuses around the United States of America as a volunteer on behalf of aatar Discovery together with uh a lot of the founders of this organiz ation and at a certain point in the time really liked my father my father was a dynamic speaker he was a trial attorney and uh he he knew how to present a very powerful presentation to various audiences and at one point in time the was looking to build a new building and my father was drafted together with a few other people to actually travel to Canada and they went to Mr Leslie Dan and my father was part of the team that built this building and uh this goes back I remember Leslie gave them seven million for the first building and then more for the second building and now I have this it's no wonder that I have the privilege to be able to teach here you know what they say what goes around comes around and uh I'll tell you another thing you know my father spoke for Kira for many many years I used to travel with him the length and breadth of the United States of America and he was Mar of many people hundreds of people thousands of people I remember walking down the street and then somebody looking at Rabbi glassy and saying to my father I heard you here I heard you and people converted from hearing my father give the discovery Le but I'll tell you the truth possibly my father's greatest success story and greatest act of Kira was me because uh watching him really gave me the enthusiasm and the fire and the interest and the the drive to be able to uh to want to share Tyro with clais so with that brief introduction let us begin okay so uh rabai fasten your seat bels I'd like to present to you a very Innovative and fundamental understanding of the makos we know the primary subject of the paros that we're reading uh these weeks par that we just read this we speak about the and the exorts US tells us you know never rely on your first Elementary understanding of any subject because if you're going to rely on the way you understood something the first time then you're going to remain with a very basic almost childish understanding of a subject and you're never going to f further develop that and this is so important especially when it comes to the makos and the reason being because we we learn the maos sometimes when we're children and we think of it as some kind of like circus or Carnival like this hashem's toying and playing with the Egyptians what is God trying to accomplish by bringing the 10 plagues he wants to punish parro there are many ways to knock off the Egyptians he has to have frogs coming out of parro's ears is it really necessary to have like uh by the way the during the Maka of arov how the wild animals get into the home so the Met says that uh you know so just stay indoors what's the what's the big danger so met says very simply there there are certain animals that have like these suction cups like an octopus would come suck out the lock and then the polar beer would you know knock on the door and uh gently enter and mle everyone in the house but it sounds it sounds like Disneyland coming to Egypt what was the purpose of the Maus what was hasm trying to accomplish and we have such we look at the coloring books and Theos but we never really deepen our understanding and appreciation what is hakes trying to accomplish so let's begin with the following question we're aware that the of Berlin wrot wrote a classic commentary on called and in his introduction to the points out that we are familiar that the five books of thees have names that we're all familiar with B shid those are the classic names for the book of books of the however says some have different names for them for example the ramban refers to the book of basus aser the book of creation he refers to sh as the book of redemption that's a good name after all the purpose of a name is to capture the essence of the subject that you're speaking about but lo and behold one of the great Rim the name of this is the B the has quite a unique name for specifically the second book of the so I'm going to tell you the four names of the other names first so basus he called calls bous okay no change there he calls well there's a traditional name for called he refers to as the book of numbers that's the English name for it after all the main subject of Bidar is the counting of the Jewish peopleim Mish okay drum roll please what does the bahag call saer sh the bahag call sh book two wow what a what a brilliant name how did how did he ever come up with book two you know how did he ever come up with that name he must have thought so long and hard before he came up with that name mean what's the bahag doing did he run out of names for either be consistent call them 1 2 3 4 5 or give a name to Sham call it sh Call Ita call it a call it something but why book two to that's the question and the truth is this is not the invention of the bahag the gamar already refers to the second book of the as book two on your Source sheets it's number two the says not the way it's divided in the Book of Numbers Shen but rather the way it's divided in book two so this topic but this this name book two is already written and found in tal in the gamar what's the meaning of it why would the gar refer to sh as book two let's point out another interesting thing if you look at the order of the makos and the way the makos are transcribed in the it's Relentless there's no break in between the Met says the Mak lasted about a month three weeks Ma one week hius one week break in between but even during that break the writes you know there's an expression Inya God's arm was outstretched what does that mean God's arm was outstretched of what significance is it that hashem's arm is outstretched Mali it's like this it's like that what does it mean hashem's arm is outstretched so then NES when we say hashem's arm is out stretched it means that there was no Lull in the action there was no downtime even during the week that the Mak was not acting Hashem was basically using a a sword to assassinate key Egyptian officials so it was Hashem was relentlessly punishing the Egyptians Bam Bam Bam with no break and if you look in the nothing is written other than until we get to come to we just read it yesterday as an introduction to the 10th plague what does the Torah say this month is for you the month of Nissan is the first month of the year while until now the first month of the year was TSH we are now about to change the motion of time it used to be Tish was the first Monthan and so on and so forth from now on we're making a redirection we're changing the movement of time from now on time begins in Nissan Nissan is the first month of the year that's wonderful what's that got to do with the that's about to happen why is this message why is this switch of time why is this Mitzvah written at this interval at this juncture it should continue with the same system and if you want to change time you want to change the movement of time so write it after why is Hashem injecting inserting the removement of time as an introduction to so now is where we begin to revolutionize and appreciate what was trying what was transpiring during the makos there's a is one of the M the says number four it's a it says as follows for each play God brought on the on the Egyptians only followed orders now listen carefully let the 10 statements that will visit the 10 plagues on the Egyptians come and pay backro and the Egyptians that one wanted to enslave the Jewish people that on their account the world was created with 10 statements so the medish is drawing an analogy between the 10 statements with which God created the world and the 10 plagues somehow because parro did not accept and wanted to subjugate the Jewish people for whom the world was created with 10 statements parro deserves to be punished with 10 plagues what is the connection between the 10 statements with which the world was created and the 10 plagues visited on the mitam let's take a brief break for a moment what are the 10 statements with which God created the world so let's count because we know that there are how many days of creation six days of creation so let's count what five and a five and a half what are they what are the 10 statements with which God created the world on day one by R that's the first on day two let there be a firmament on day three we know God created two things the dry land appear and a second statement on day three it says let the Earth Sprout so that's two on day three day four The Luminaries day five right we're up to six day six the animals so as you could all see very clearly these are the 10 statements with which God created the world one on day one two on day one on day two two on day three one on day four one on day five one and two on day six and anybody who has graduated Beyond Elementary School math could easily add up that these are the 10 statements with which Hashem created the world so the gamarra asked the question take a look at number six the gamarra asks 10 statements with which God created the world what are they de T they're only nine says the gar don't worry bous the word bous was also a statement with which God created the world so luckily we found the one missing statement so we used to have nine and now we have 10 and now we're good to go we have 10 statements with which Hashem created the world what's the 10th statement bous in the beginning what's the statement says into with the word of God God created the heavens so ask the Mal asks so why doesn't it say he bous why is that statement just alluded to why doesn't it say it explicitly why why do we have to say bous and rely on the fact that bous is also a statement says the malum a very important thing there's a difference between a debor and an Amir Amir is one person talking to someone else conversation Ru speaks to sh debor is someone's talking doesn't mean anyone's listening like when a rabbi speaks it could be debor it doesn't necessarily mean Amir just the talk right Every Act of Creation was Amir who was God talking to he was talking to the original man be light be firmament be dry land be animals be fish so on and so forth but the first statement of creation Hashem was not talking to anybody or anything why because it's what is called creation X nio it's it's creation out of nothing therefore the word is not appropriate it just says bous and we infer bous that's why it says with the speech of God but not with the Amir so be it as it may we're we successfully have found all 10 statements with which God created the world again two on day one one on day two two on day three three one on day four one on day five and two on day six so we're up to the obvious question and that is we're still missing one of the 10 statements with which Hashem created the world now I'll just tell you and I don't plan on getting into this the maim offer various interpretations as to what exactly is the 10th statement that nobody discusses we're going to be working today with the opinion of the maral and the V and I believe it's number 20 n on your sheets in the vill's commentary to per in the's commentary to per the writes the 10th statement with which Hashem created the world is basically dinner is served I'm serving you food the creation of food in the world of the v in the world of the maral the 10th statement with which Hashem created the world is the creation of food food is considered the most intricate and sophisticated of all of creation it's the most complex uh process the greatest act of we say what is the grand finale the greatest act of of the most sophisticated complex form of God's kindness is food the 10th and final statement with which Hashem created the world is supper dinner is served so that's the final statement okay so coming back to the ranch there's a very interesting saer the name of the saer isamar thear was written by RAB AB saah R sabba was one of the G Safar one of the great who was exiled from Spain in 1492 he lived a very tragic life uh he wrote A Commentary ones and on the M called on it's called and basically King Emmanuel of Portugal made a decree that all of his manuscripts were to be confiscated and all of his manuscripts were confiscated and destroyed then King Emmanuel made another decree that every child below the age of 18 would be taken from their parents and forcibly baptized every single child in the country of Portugal was taken from their parents including the children of RAB AB Sabah and he never saw them again re Saab rewrote his commentary ones from memory and this is what we have over here number seven R Sabah Begins the the kernel of the idea that we're going to bring out today and that is RA Sab says as follows when we make kidos Friday night we say the following two sentences we say and we say now I know people are tired on Friday night but that's pretty quick temporary amnesia mean you said that I'm making Kos to remember the creation of the world how do you 3 seconds later say which one is it you know it's in memory of which one of these events so says the incredible idea and that is parro denied you know the joke you know how do we know parro uh didn't believe why didn't parro believe in Hashem he was in denial you know so yeah okay so anyway yeah I know it's almost lunchtime okay but so parro was a heretic parro did not accept the 10 statements with which hasem created the world he believed he created himself he said the river is mine I made myself par did not believe in God's creation of Heaven in God's creation of Earth the wind the ma all matter parro denied hashem's Mastery of every aspect of creation so Hashem turns to parro and he said parro you forgot that I created the world I am going to Red demonstrate authenticate and verify to you and to the whole world that I indeed created the water created the air created the skies created the animals the plants and human beings if you need a reminder here it is what was was basically creation take two let's try this over again you don't believe I created the water well watch this look what's going to happen to the water you don't believe I created the Earth we know that yob aino did not want to be buried in Egypt because he didn't want his Earth his dirt to turn into Kim parro you don't believe I created the dirt look what's going to happen to the dirt now you don't believe I created the animals you don't believe I created man well look what's going to happen to man when the clock strikes 12 basically the purpose of the makos was authenticating and verifying parro you weren't there when I did it last time this time you're going to be present you're going to be privy you're going to be a witness to creation of the world so it's not a contradiction to say and they are in fact the same thing was merely creation take to that's all the gives us he doesn't get into more detail the Mah in theal gets into more specific detail watch this says maral that it's not Hashem was recreating the world through the 10 makos but actually each ma corresponds perfectly to one of the 10 statements with which Hashem created the world but it works in a very interesting system the way it works is as follows it almost Works backwards says maral so for example the last statement who remembers okay for the uh Hoover vacuum cleaner who remembers what was the 10th statement with which Hashem created the world food now what happens when you eat food very good you'll come to me later right what happens when when when Hashem created food the process of food is you ingest the food you digest the food you recompose the food into what into blood red blood cells white blood cells into your Dam into your being parro you don't believe in the system of food you don't believe I have Mastery over the blood of human beings check out the Nile check out your showers check out my mastery over blood so basically the 10th statement with which hasm created the world was verified and authenticated with the first ma the maral says let's go backward now what's the last Mak the last Mak isos oh parro you don't believe in racist you don't believe in the beginning that I created the beginning you don't believe I have Mastery over Bim check this out parl watch my Mastery over the first I'm gonna knock off every firstborn in MIM you're GNA have firstborn five firstborn in the same house from this mother from that mother and I know exactly who's number one I'm going to knock them off the last MAA confirming the first statement with which Hashem created the world what's the second statement with which hasm created The World God said let there be light parro you don't believe I turned the lights on okay watch this and Hashem just flicked the switch so this is not a carnival or some kind of zoo going on in Egypt Hashem is merely one by one authenticating the 10 statements with which he created the world through recreating the world through the ten makos but the the progression is backward now the truth is if you look carefully in the moral it doesn't it's not consistently backward it's only the first Mak corresponds to the 10th statement the second to last corresponds to the second statement with which cre the world and the final Mak corresponds to the first statement the others are sort of halfhazard and I sent a question to r k k is one of the the rash of Kon today if you're not familiar he's probably upand cominging is soon to be one day you'll see it's one of the great B of our time you're in if you don't get a chance to meet really one of one of the already put in as put him on the he put him right next toonman a young man actually were coming from harav K's father was r k k you ever see the of Frank mes on the bottom their footnotes written by the father of okay we were just at his cover be it as it may sent that if the maral is saying that the first maam corresponds to the final statement with which Hashem created the world food and the second to last corresponds to the second Mak of the second statement with which the World by he are and the final Mak first so then the system is determined by the book ends despite the fact that in the middle they're not consistently backward now why it would be in a backward system just very briefly very simple as Hashem is creating the world he's revealing more and more his Mastery over creation so he reveals to a certain extent when he says bous and he reveals a little bit more when he says are and he reveals more and more and more and slowly the world began to forget about each aspect of God's Mastery so they first forgot about God's control over food then they forgot about God's control over man so Hashem is progressively reminding them of that which was most recently forgotten that's the way it operates I'll share with you another mid mid here it's what was the function of the Locust one time I said Grasshoppers and somebody came over to me what are you are you a rabbi you know anything it's not grass ARB it's Locust so I'm not going to say grass Locus what was the MAA of ARA what was the MAA of of the Locust what was that trying to accomplish so the maral says incredibly what do locust do they consume produce they consume growth they consume vegetation it corresponds to the statement of T parro you don't believe I created herbage grass vegetation I'll show you what happens when the Locust take control now watch this if you look carefully you know says we beg the open up our eyes so we could see wonders from the T let me show you a Wonder just look at the take a look at number 10 the says the grasshop the Locust will cover the light of the land you will not be able to see the land they will consume whatever remains from whatever survived look carefully they will eat what every tree they'll eat the trees does it say they'll eat the fruits it don't say that it says they will eat the trees now let's see what the Locust did look in number 11 what did they do they cover the light of the land the Earth was dark by the way so my friend sa showed me from one of the of the one of the this is already we're not but this is like a like a a flavor of of events to come it's like the beginning already of anyway call it ate theage the ace call preh and they ate and they consumed every fruit stupid Locust that's not what God told you to do God told you to eat the eights why you eating the priha eights why are they not listening to God what's going on this is Locust gone Haywire I mean if God is trying to recreate the world he's not getting it right he's not doing a good job cuz he told I mean remember some you can't get Locust to listen to you why are the Locust not listening to God says this is not creation gwire this is creation take to what was the purpose of the AR was merely to authenticate and verify which statement the statement of t let the Earth produce vegetation well let's look what happened when God created created the vegetation take a look at number 12 God said let the Earth Sprout with vegetation AC grass ma what should the Earth do eats P fruit trees o PR producing fruit meaning what does Hashem want the trees to do not only to produce fruit but at Puri who remembers what at Puri means what does Rashi say God wants the the trees not only to produce fruit but the tree should taste like fruit by the way there's only one tree that listen to Hashem what is that the esrog right it's called um pre and what pin but it's not a fruit right good it's a gamar in B right how do you know that Suka not pin a different it's a different um it's a different it's called something else but you're right it's in Suka very good so the the I was learning Suka recently and I realized I was a but it's not it's not an a it's a it's a it's a vegetation okay but good point Hashem wanted the fruit to the tree to taste like the fruit did the tree taste like the fruit no look at number 12 It produced vegetation trees producing fruit so listen to what's going on here Hashem said pre PR and the trees didn't listen what did the trees do they were eight o PR say what do you expect the Locust to do all the Locust are doing are replaying the initial creation of the world in the initial creation of the world the trees didn't listen to God so it's the locusts have already been programmed it's already in the DNA of creation that for reasons that we're not going to get into now when it comes to vegetation they're not going to listen to hasem so it's not you know Locus gone Haywire it's merely a process of mistakes always repeat themselves so the program was set up this way that is why the Locust don't listen to hasem let's add an amazing point and this is also the then I'm going to share with you two novel ideas and we'll wrap it up let me ask you a question what is the first statement with which Hashem created the world Bim in the beginning God created which is the creation of the original matter creation if I were to ask you just one simple question don't if I were to ask you you know what does it mean you could say RAB I'm not up to there yet if I were to ask you say Rabbi I'm not up to there yet if I were to ask you Rabbi I'm not up to if I were to ask you but just three words I want to know what do the words mean bous elim how's that you get up to that yet bous elim literally in the beginning God created but everybody knows that is dead wrong there is no one and not even their third cousin who says that the words bous barim mean in the beginning God created and there's a simple reason why it doesn't mean that you know why it doesn't mean that because God did not create Heaven and Earth in the beginning CU Rashi point points out the word shay means that means before sh came so you can't say in the beginning God created heaven he didn't so now the question is so what does it mean in the beginning God created so Rashi says you have to say it means in the beginning of the creation of Heaven and Earth when the Earth was desolate God said let there be light what is the simple meaning of bous bar elim it would be nice let's say to walk out of Yesa let's say you're here 10 years 5 years one year 100 years it would be nice at the end to at least know the meaning of the first three words in thees how's that what did you learn uh you know I said yes you've been here for I learned in Yesa I'm I'm I'm still there I try to be there every day U I'm there 20 years it would be nice you know after 20 years at least to know the the meaning of the first three words in the what do these words mean so the V and the Mal they say the simple meaning of the words is as follows we say blessed is the creator of bous that makes absolutely zero sense blessed is the creator ofous in the beginning it should sayous but not barious bous is a word which is supposed to be connected to something else but what does it mean or we say that that don't make sense says the says the Mal listen carefully for there to be a world there needs to be a framework for the world there needs to be somewhere to place the world what is the the framework of all of creation let's try to understand hashem's primary name is sh he was is will be means he existed before the world was created he will exist after the world no longer exists God is beyond time so there the question you know how could Hashem know what what's going to be in the future very simple because he exists out of the framework of Time how can something exists out of the framework of time because if that entity created time they are not bound by time the entire world exists in the following framework time bous Beginnings Time bar like him God created you want to know what the First Act of Creation was before God created light Darkness firmament Heaven and Earth the very first Act of Creation was a creation of time really I never heard that before good so I'm telling this is the opinion the in many and the Mal the first writes this as well the First Act of Creation is time so I have a question for you if the purpose of the Mak is to recreate the world and bous was not only the creation of beginning but the creation of time and which ma corresponds to [Music] bous so then Mak has to demonstrate not only God Mastery over Beginnings but God's Mastery and creation of time so what do you think God will do as an introduction to time is being recreated until now time moved excuse me but now I'm recreating the world and when I'm recreating the world I'm upholding an authentic the first statement of creation bous so hasem is not interrupting the Mak for some side that Nissan Begins the year no Hashem is verifying the first statement with which he created the world the first statement is bous the creation of time Hashem now recreates time through the statement of now time is being recreated now let me show with you an amazing thing the opening this is unbelievable is a gift hasem gave me what's the first Rashi in Rashi says I don't understand God the T should begin this is not a history book it's a book of Jewish observance why is the Torah beginning with so the way I like to say it is hashem's looking down from shamai says Rashi that's such a good question if I would ever do it again I'll give it to you if I would ever recreate the world again you're right the Torah should begin and in fact that's what Hashem did when Hashem recreated the world with the the 10th re verifying how does begin or there's a better nicer way to say it and that is rash I have a question for you you're giving God advice you're telling God how he should begin the T Rashi is talking Rashi is saying really the T should only begin with Hashem should say what do you Rashi you don't think I think I know how to write a t I think I I'm doing a good job no rash saying no this is not my idea Hashem this was your idea this is how you began the tah the Second Time Around in Mad in the second edition so why doesn't the ti begin that way in the first edition so rash gives a beautiful answer one more idea and then we're going to wrap it up everything I told you so far is a system of the maral where the makos correspond to the 10 statements with which hasm created the world backward there's another way of looking at it and this is a system of who's Rak he is called the pesi the third mouth he's a student of a student of the V and he learns that the 10 Mak correspond to the 10 St with which hm created the world in order Dam corresponds to corresponds TOA and so on and so forth and the 10th statement with which Hashem created the world in the world of is creation of man and that was verified and authenticated with you don't think I created man check it out look what I could do so I want to use this to answer a very important question and then we're going to wrap it up this time for real so there's a big question on who performed Mak who did it because after all we say in what does the on that meaning in the God goes out of his way about 70 times to say I did it and nobody else really it's the only that it says I'm not going to let the Mas the demon get you I'm not going to let the bad guy get you it's the only Mak that makes mention of another Power involved in the Mak so what's going on Hashem makes a very emphasizes the fact that he's the only one in charge when it comes to this Mak and it's the only Mak that Hashem says I'm not going to let the other guy interfere by the way there's a medish the medish says that by says and God SM says the med whenever it says vashem it means Hashem and his be well wait a second but I thought it's only Hashem an an an an I want to say simple answer what's the purpose of what's it verifying the creation of man when hasem created man what does a PK say let us make man so rashi's bothered what's going on here is there more than one God so rash says no it's just a lesson in humility and that when a person has to make a decision and do something even if he's the superior you should always ask the advice of people inferior to you as a token gesture gesture of respect and humility not that the Angels contributed to making man or had anything to do with it it's just a token gesture and the proof is because ultimately when God created man it says God did it by himself well if is merely verifying authenticating the creation of man then of course God did it himself oh so what's this business about hm's bz and the Mas they had nothing to do with it it's the same token gesture of humility and thereat with which God created man in the first place he makes reference to it in the recreation of man of Nas Adam so at this time I think it should become self-evident that if you were coming up with a nomenclature and a name for the second book of The KES I would say the perfect name for the book of shemay is it really is nothing more than creation take two and that's exactly how the saer bah terms the book of sh because sh is not an independent work it's Hashem you missed it the first time you weren't there when I created the world here it goes again take two that's the book of shamise book two and this is really a verye at and very inspiring and sophisticated understanding of what's taking place with the basically the recreation of the world that whenever we do a Mitzvah and we say sometimes not a contradiction or a different idea than but it's merely a testimony to the creation of the world thank you so much everyone for listening for coming I wish you all tremendous you've just experienced another Torah class brought to you by Torah anytime.com