Parshas Re'eh: Life Is Good

this Torah class is brought to you by Torah anytime.com okay good morning RAB welcome everyone so we're going to try something new today okay we don't have sheets today but we're going to begin with the and that Fe B so uh this shabas already is and um so begins CH as we know the stands for the times of Chua are are approaching yeah the camera is not straight it's not straight you're good in the view I'm good okay so stands for the times of CHA are slowly approaching and stands for coming and of course we know is the month of chva there many RM for and we know that on it's already codified in is we say that the actions we do have a certain mystical port in other words we we eat the head of an animal and with as if to say we want to be and we eat various Foods as uh symbolic of what our new year has in store for us says if the person wants to know if he's going to live out the year or not so how do you determine if you're going to be able to live out the year she light a candle during the 10 days between in a house where the wind does blow so you light a candle and house where the wind doesn't blow if the candle burns you know you'll live out the air interesting the gar doesn't say and if the candle doesn't burn you won't live out the a but the says if the candle burns you'll live out the year somebody who's about to go on a business venture he wants to know will I be successful or not says he should raise a chicken in other words fatten the chicken you bring the chicken potato C kishka all kinds of food that they serve at a Kos says if the chicken gets fat then you'll be successful in the business deal someone who going on the road am I going to make it back taking a trip I want to know if I'm going to return now this is an interesting expression most people misinterpret it they say oh I should stand I should stand in my friend's house no the doesn't mean my friend in a dark house you could see The Shadow of Your Shadow you'll make it back meaning if you see The Shadow of Your Shadow by the way every shadow has a shadow right now I'm going like this and I see the Shadow and then the light is shining on the shadow so the shadow produces a second Shadow that's the reality of uh this world every shadow has a shadow so if you go in a dark house and if you see The Shadow of Your Shadow you're going to make it back and says the gar these are all very nice things don't do them you'll have anxiety you know people get very nervous people are very worried these days and a person might be scared oh maybe the candle went out too early maybe the chicken is not fat enough maybe I'm not really sitting seeing the shadow of my shadow and if you're worried your masle will be weakened up but apparently these work now that we said that the have a certain um compelling nature a person should always be accustomed in the beginning of the year to see all of these symbolic fruits that's the and has a very important question here that this uh these mysterious practices of of um see looking at the candle and seeing if the chicken fattens and seeing the Shadow of Your Shadow this should fall under the category of of divination we know that one of the LA in the t is so how could the say that one should do this this falls under the category of says now the first question wants to know is the gamar says if you want to know if you're going to make it back or not the gamar says you should light a candle if you're going to live out the air if the candle burns then you'll live out the year the gumar doesn't say on the flip side and if the CLE doesn't burn you won't live out the air the wants to know when it actually is practiced the only says the first differentiation and it doesn't say that if the candle doesn't burn and likewise about if if you want to know if you'll be successful it doesn't say and if the chicken is not fat you won't be successful andar doesn't say that if you don't see the Shadow the shadow you won't return furthermore ask all these practices are divination why would these things be more permitted than we know if somebody says my bread fell out in my mouth so I'm not going to uh go into this business venture I'm not going to take advantage of this opportunity or right if somebody's let's say somebody's going to a store and a black hat passes their way and they say you know what the black hat passed my way I'm not going to go into the store I was going to go buy a lottery ticket which I don't recommend but somebody's on the way to and the black cat pass you know what I'm not going to win anyway it's a la in the it's a la in the you have to now you have to buy the lottery ticket why you're not how to be superstitious you know people say don't open up an umbrella in the house they only if you want to why why not why can't you open a house it's a dumb thing to do but it's not it's not you can't be superstitious about it you're not to walk under a ladder yeah that's it's not a smart thing to do but to say you're not allowed to K it's a a bad omen or something that you're not how to do that you know now you got to go under the lad now you got to risk your life to go under the ladder so the mar wants to know if you're not allowed to Divine why you allowed to do these things so let's see what par has to say about this particular issue the beginning of the par says like this see that I have given you today blessing and curse so the P says like this the blessing says and then the next so it's interesting the that when it comes to it says the word s and when it comes to it doesn't say the word s it says says by the says s a language of inclusion nothing has fallen by the wayside from all the good things hasem promised us in other words when it comes to blessing there's a lot of it there's a lot of blessing in this world there's tremendous there's tremendous Bounty that is on us however when it comes to yes not everything in this world is is Rosy but whatever is difficult and uh hard is limited in other words we're we're annunciating the following principle and that is in this world most most things overwhelming majority of things are now why is that the case why are most things in this world LA and we're going to learn from the r the the rim this something Miller would say over very often that the Rama makes a very powerful observation about the nature of this world now there's a in got it from on high it does not emanate the Bad and the good so if this p is translated literally it's heretical from on high it does not emanate the Bad and the good so I thought God runs the world I thought everything emanates from Hashem hasem what does the mean what does mean so there's a commentary on called the written by the and says something incredible says the truth is there are a lot of things that don't emanate from God number one if a person doesn't have era say a person doesn't have era person speaks Lara person wears shess person Talks by daving so the they God didn't do itam did it the person made the bad choice to sin did not compel him the not encourage him the left him in his own domain and gave him the flexibility to make a choice so the evil did not emanate from God it emanated from the person himself on the other hand if a person does a Mitzvah let's say a person refrained from speaking lashara refrain from wearing shinness refrain from talking my daving God didn't do that either the person mustered up the inner discipline and he was attentive to the and he decided to make the right choice if somebody came to to Shar this morning nobody forced you unless your wife kicked you out of the house of course but at least you were smart enough to marry her and so you made the right choice right but when a person does a Mitzvah it is solely their decision it is solely in the domain of their free choice so the truth is so why by the does it say and by the it doesn't say it doesn't say says a very important says that there's a difference between punishment and reward God does not punish God never punished anybody nothing bad in this world comes from God the concept is like this when a person does an AA the AA itself punishes meaning when a person does an AA he creates a angel he he creates an Mal which is a destructive Malik this Malik has sharp teeth in the front that are that look like he's a shark and he looks like he's a demon and the Malik has some kind of weapon and the Mal comes the a itself comes back to haunt the person and to punish the person that's why punishment is finite because punishment doesn't come from the almighty punishment comes from the sin the sin itself creates the punishment and therefore punishment is finite because the sin is finite it's only it's conducted and performed byv the reward is infinite why is the reward infinite because it's not that the Mitzvah itself rewards you God rewards you and God is infinite so the Mitzvah is infinite the gamar says in aravin there's no reward in this world you know often a person thinks I'm going to do a Mitzvah and I'm going to be successful in this world no no promises there's no reward in this world there might be side benefits perks Insurance you know extra days off but there you you get side you get there's no reward in this world those are the last words of why is there no reward in this world cuz the reward is infinite cuz reward comes from the almighty so there's nothing in this world there's no currency in this world that's great enough to be used as reward so what's the fun function from God uh God's function is to reward you to reward you well he doesn't do nothing he doesn't so he doesn't do your a and he doesn't do your Frankenstein creates his own monster exactly what he said that's what I said so what did God do he sits there and and in what and he watches you choose your path that's how we read in I placed it all in front of you you choose your own path you choose okay so listen listen so thek means like this says from on high it does not emanate the evils not the A and not the not the punishment it doesn't emanate from God the Mitzvah but the reward it does emanate from God the reward is infinite so it comes out there are three things that don't come fromes two of them are the A and the punishment for and the is the but the reward for aah does come from the in fact the V writes in Mish on the the fright and the dread of a person to will come back to him meaning when a person does an a it's not the person goes a and then the Reish punishes bam never punishes bam never punished in fact nothing evil ever emanated from the a itself has the capacity to come back the a is the living is an entity when you do the a now the a is there it creates a Mal and the Mal punishes that's why the is finite because the a is finite but says the reward does not come from any Mal reward comes from himself and therefore reward is infinite this is the meaning when it comes to the it's there's a lot of in this world why is that because all comes directly from a is infinite and therefore the BR is infinite as opposed to the CLA CLA doesn't come from see so where does the CLA come from so let's take a look at this Mar it's amazing what does it say so we're going to see in what does it mean it means as follows he's not the of the he's the the says like this I'm going to offer my interpretation as well good comes from so where does bad Come From Evil does not descend from heaven so where does evil Come From Evil doesn't come from hem evil creates a between us and the re once we're detached from God then we have no source of and we're sort of doomed we've doomed ourselves Rod does not come from hem like the P says in yes from does not come from now listen to this if we were to put on our spiritual glasses and we were to see what is emanating from from God now let's say what's emanating good is let's say the color green and let's say bad would be the color red and we would put on our glasses and try to see what is emanating from God is it green is it red is it both how much green at what pace if we would put on our glasses we would see green emanating from ceaselessly non-stop in tremendous capacity all God offers um his Creations are only good good is constantly and unendingly and unceasingly emanating from even if God has to bring punishment it's not absolute because it could change therefore says like this you know what the difference here you know why you're allowed to light a candle and if it burns you're going to confirm that you're going to live and yet if you're walking on the road and a black hat passes your cross cross and you refrain your over the answer is you're not allowed to predict but you're allowed to confirm meaning we have the following principle you know why we're going to live through the year it's not because the candle's burning we're going to live through the year cuz Ream's our father and he's being native to us and our symbol of having lighting the fire is not prediction it's confirmation it's confirmation you're not allowed to say that if the candle burns I'm going to live and the candle doesn't burn I won't live you're allowed to say if the candle burns I'm going to live you know why cuz when you light a candle guess what happens to that candle it always Burns why wouldn't it burn so you allow to do a simple act and say that I'm going to light the candle and the candle's going to burn and that will confirm that I will live you know why because inherently I will live because reun is only M Li you're allowed to confirm but you're not to predict either good or bad once you don't have this principle once you're doubtful I don't know if I'm going to be successful what do you mean you're stuffing the chicken with kishka what do you think's going to happen to this kitchen chicken the chicken's going to become very fat when was the last time you stuffed a chicken with kishka and the K and the chicken didn't turn fat so I'm allowed to say like this I'm allowed to say I'm going up for a business deal and I will be successful and by me stuffing the chicken with kishka that's merely confirming that I'm going to be successful but if I say and if the chicken is skinny I won't be successful that's divination says the if somebody gives himself a it's not divination but if a person says I don't know if I'm going to be successful I'm going to flip a coin and if it's heads I'm going to live and if it's Tails I'm not if it's heads I'm going to come back and if it Tails I'm not if it's heads I'm going to be tail not that's n but if a person says I'm going on a business deal if its heads or tails I'll be successful and if it lands on its side all bet s off that you're allowed to do that cuz you're merely confirming you're not predicting cuz you're allowed to assume in this world things will be good the the positive the right that the foundation of what's I don't understand I'm lying in bed and night I don't know what's going to be tomorrow I'm worried what's going to be tomorrow no the foundation of is God uh God usually comes through things usually work out in this world in fact used to quote the rambam and I'm sorry I don't have it for you if you mind next week I'll try to give you the sheet the ramb writes in theim that the ramam says most things in this world are good I'll give you an example for a person to wake up in the morning and not to have a splitting headache how many things had to have gone correctly not hundreds not thousands billions if one cell in the body was you know was off kilter then a person would have a splitting headache that means of all the organs and processes in the body billions of them are going right for a person to wake up in the morning without a splitting headache what how many things have to go right not to have throbbing pain in one of your joints billions how how many things have to go right not to have throbbing pain in one of the millions of places in the body so the answer is most of the time when a person wakes up in the morning they actually are able to get out of bed eventually without feeling tremendous pain which means that 99.9999999% of the billions of processes are being fine-tuned perfectly and even if let's say somebody does wake up with a splitting headache but another billion things could have gone wrong the majority the vast majority of things in this world are laa so so what but now now I'm a little bit older and now I talk have a Ackle pain in one of my joints yeah but for last 60 70 years things were going smoothly and even what once a person does get some difficulties the vast majority of things in their life have been good and even right now R Miller writes based on the rambam that there was never a person in this world even experiencing the greatest uh difficulties that the overwhelming vast majorities of their things in the their life at that moment were not overwhelmingly La nobody ever existed like that even even the people with the greatest tragedy that's that's when it comes to it's when it comes to is therefore the continues if a person is saying well I don't know if the Simmon works out the way I want then I'm going to take it as a good sign and if the Simon doesn't work out the way I want I'm going to take it as a bad sign that you're not do that's however a person is allowed to take a simple act which is usually works out most of the time when you light a candle in indoors it burns why why in the world wouldn't it burn most of the time when you stuff a chicken with potato Cal it's going to become fat most of the time when you look at your hand you're going to have a shadow of a shadow so you're allowed to say if I have a shadow of a shadow it's like saying if I flick on the light switch and the light goes on I'm going to have a good day you're allowed to say that you know why cuz you're going to have a good day anyway he's confirming why I'll give you an example um the the the there's a concept that when so the ran says in the beginning of that tells yeah that b will drown so take a stone throw it into the sea what do you mean if God says bubble is going to drown it's going to drown so the there's a concept that when you do AA the Misa brings concretizes and allows to materialize the Gaz what do you mean but God said it's going to happen I need to make God's decree come to fruition there's such a concept that the the the cree of God is up in the shim it's very ous and nebulous so to allow it to materialize down here in this world when you do a it allows it to come to fruition so the same thing in the green waves are coming down to this world that you're going to have a good day and you're going to do well in business and you're going to be healthy and you're going to have um Good Children everything that you hope for there it's coming down we just need confirmation says the meaning as follows a person wants to know he doesn't mean that if the candle doesn't burn he won't live out the year what he means to say if the candle doesn't burn he doesn't have confirmation that all about the earth mean if a person says if the black hatat pass my going to be unsuccessful that's a person says the black hat has my my path then I don't have confirmation that I will be successful that is permitted says the in other words if a person says if my Simon does not come to fruition then I have no confirmation it says if I didn't do anything then you're not then that is um permitted because goodness comes anyway and therefore the G doesn't say does have it could be if the candle doesn't burn you'll still live out the year evil never comes from God God doesn't punish God doesn't bring God doesn't bring any difficulties all difficulties are through a person's and they could change since all difficulties come from a hav between us and Hashem if we remove the so then the challenge could be removed let's say the guy wants to know if he'll be successful he knows he's going to be successful the means meaning if the chicken doesn't get fat then I don't have confirmation I could be a anyway okay you know we come to this period of the year the we have um we see this very apparent we have how many weeks of panas we have three weeks of right we have but when it comes to we have we have the we have seven weeks of and three weeks of panus what does that indicate that when it comes to Panos you have more than double the than you have of the parus I saw an amazing thing in the you if you add up all the of you have 144 what's the significance of 144 if you count up all the of in the in in you have 143 what does that show says first of all that shows that all the is to console for the rebuke but you have one more why do you have one more to indicate the to is always better than the pan the good always out ways the evil there's always more in this world there's more bra in this world than there is than there is pan it's it's also a very important idea you know you would have expected there's this concept you think about we know is going to be a y right so you have Tish will be on the 9th the 10th 11th the 12th the 13th the 14th the 15th how many days of yam is T going to be it's going to be a seven day yam like any other like so is going to be like says so here Tish is it's a time of ultimately and we have all the all this going into uh the month of a you ever think about the fact that how much do we actually need I understand the week after TSH 2 weeks after tshav maybe until we send our kids back to school and they're still home we need but now El Starts Now El starts guess what we're going to be reading this week actually this week is so the interesting what do we read this week because we've said that there's a concept that the sh are the most important Haas of the year because all the other are not legislated you can L any we any any you want but the says comes from the which is a so there's a but this week is so you would have thought the are the most important Afters of the year and say that but we this week we l why so the T says because we could kill two birds with one stone first of all we get and has in it we say um and we say right this week's also has the so we have and we have the in it but think about it so in in this week we're going to lay in and we're going to L and we're going to and and it's going to be it's going to be a rashash and you would have expected what should we lay in rashash something relevant to rashash no we're still being for the a very important idea apparently that for a person to be able to do chuva so long as a person feels beat down and knock down from the it's almost impossible to lift yourself up and repent cuz think about it why did Hashem punish us he's trying to get us to do chuva so you would have expected we should go from no you can't do it you have to go and only then there's a we say it all the time but let's think about it for a moment you forgive us so that we could fear you does that make sense with you is atonement why so that we could fear you isn't it just the opposite wouldn't you have expected if God would not forgive us then we would certainly be more afraid of him imagine if there was no forgiveness and no atonement it should say despite the fact that you forgive us we were still afraid of you no because you forgive us therefore we could fear you so the say thees that had God not forgiven us we would not be able to fear him it would be we would be so bogged down we would be so psychologically the feelings of fear and and Dread and impending punishment would be so overwhelming the only way to deal with it would have to be cognitive dissidence we would have to block it out of our heads we would not be able even to believe in a KES what allows us to believe inem is you forgive us so now we're able to forgive you we're able to fear you apparently in order to go through the rash and order to go through the it is critical that a person is the that the majority of this world is and despite the fact we have three weeks of punishment we need to have seven weeks of consolation and despite the fact that there 143 of we need 144 of that for a person to be able to repent it has to be we have to feel the we have to feel the of and then and only then are we able to do chuva and amazingly if you look in the cha how does the cha begin how does begin his he says from among the Ben benefits and the kindnesses that did to was he gave us the opportunity to do CH that's the first principle annunciated in the sh Chua as if to say that the first step to chuva is to realize there's not something you have to do there's not something was forcing you to do it's an opportunity it's a gift it's it's AA it's a and if we take advantage of recognizing then this world it's the Maj majority of things are good the that gives us is gives us is even though you're now to be you're allowed to make a Simon cuz making a Simmon is not prediction it's merely confirmation says no evil emanates from God only the emanates from God and I'll add one more thing you know the um the writes in the episode of the maragam so the maragam comment is and they see these big bad people and they're like you know 100t tall and uh they they know that even nuclear missiles won't be able to knock down these Giants and they say what's going on over here we'll never be able to get in there's no way in meaning what were the mam saying saying I I understand that you have the capability of defeating these Giants but in order for us to be for you to uh do a miracle for us we have to be on a very very high level maybe we won't be on such a high level what words does tell the these four words are the that we're learning today there was a very basic between the and M you know what the mum said of course God could do anything God has the capability to do anything but he'll only do it if we're if we're absolutely righteous otherwise we're not authorized to trust in him CU maybe we don't deserve God to perform these great miracles for us comes M and he says you're making a big mistake God gives tremendous God is always bestowing goodness God his default mode is onlyf TOA all you need to do is just don't Rebel meaning very often theara comes to a person say how could you trust in God that things will be good you're not a sad so what do you say back no I am a sad no you say you're right I'm not a sadak but so long as I'm not a mo I have the right to be this is what emanates from God is all the and yes created the but he it doesn't come from him he allows it to get you when you are between you and the it doesn't come directly from God and therefore this is a very important site as we enter the that we have the right to be that things will be good for us and of course it's still we're fearful of the because nobody could say that they're Z but thear wants us to feel uncomfortable and uneasy in the sense that uh we feel far from Hashem but a person should feel that he's being and whatever we do are merely confirmation that will do as he always does and that is he will provide for us and take care of us for a happy good year for thank you thank you you've just experienced another Torah class brought to you by Torah anytime.com