Parshat Yitro 5784 (2024) by Rabbi Baruch Taub

the uh the sheer tonight is being dedicated by some Anonymous friends um for a speedy recovery Rua for Yak Moshe Ben Braha uh Dr Yak Dr Ed fineberg uh one of the most respected members of the Jewish Community here in N very very special Jew who is usually with us at all the shum as well um the last week or two have been a roller coaster and a miraculous um intervention by aesu and some very special doctors and a special wife uh Dr fineberg is resting bem and recuperating in in K in and we wish him a the she is being dedicated for ra for him and our learning should help bring about that Ru amen amen okay the um I have two pieces here the first is from rakov kineski in the EMS leov U and this is parro course yro comes on the scene jro's moshe's father-in-law takes a very big part in the development of the Jewish people but Central Motif in the par is the giving of the Torah the the 10 commandments are in in this week's paraa and uh just before that moment a few days before uh on the second day actually just in preparation of of the month of civan preparation for this say please go I want you to go now and talk to the Jewish people and men women and children Bel Rashi that's the Rashi actually says here in the exact words that I'm gonna you're going to hear and um in the exact order that I'm giving you don't deviate and furthermore says the Torah says these are the words I want you to say to B Isel talking about the Torah giving the Torah and Rashi there says not less and not more tremendous emphasis here on the pre Precision not leaving anything out not any adding anything so this is rak's question that he's posing for us and he's going to answer explain we have to explain understand why was the what was the what was the how do we understand this exactitude the rabbis teach us in in um this is the famous gor in chabas and P that discusses the events of the Revelation and the the the Jewish people gathered at the bottom of the mountain literally means under the mountain that actually put the mountain over B is like a like a barrel right he put them you know they say over a barrel put them over a barrel put them under a barel toas in other words he said you have to you know accept the Torah if not sham if you don't accept the Torah this is going to be the end of you so there were it was four there were Torah was forced on them right that's what the medish says who said you have either you accept it and and yes or no if you don't you're you're off on other picture so a Tellus one of the tus in the the commentary in the gar she asked a question what's going on har the Jewish people me have already said we will do it uh we will do it and and then we'll we'll learn it that was love what do you want from them what was the necessity to a force maure what was the necessity of forcing the Jewish people to take the they already said they're going to take it they they want they want to take the Torah unseen so he points he starts to explain perhaps there'll be and this is actually what TOA says the commentary there might be some people who will be who will panic and run away you'll read in theim this is at the end of the beginning of in the paraa there was a a tremendous sound and light experience at midar there was fire and tremendous fire and perhaps they'll be afraid and they'll run away what's what's he what is that all about so so therefore you got to stay okay uh let me explain this in a little bit of a deeper mode I mean you tell a child there's fire he's going to run away don't run away you have to stay here that's not so simple right so let me explain what's going on here based on don't be the Jewish people are are exhorted in in per in peric not to be like servants to Theon Ser like a worker works just to get his paycheck but you should be doing it because you're not interested in the paycheck you then then that's a mighty lesson tremendous lesson right but that's not the end of the P the end of the P curiously ends and let the fear of Heaven be upon you so what was that what's what's being added by that right says first of all he says you shouldn't be like servants who serve their m their their boss for the money they should you know the fear they should do it out of love basically right and then let the fear of God be in front of you so is pointing he himself discussed this in his commentary truth be told the Jewish fulfillment the the development of a of a Jew and a relationship to a which is our ultimate goal to have a a meaningful intimate relationship with a is twofold there's two Dimensions it requires two things love we have to relate to him and have a relationship of love and a sense of fear a sense of awe we want to we Embrace him but yet we are in of him we stand back a little bit right I've often pointed out that that that's something that R hutner actually wrote in said in his his eulogy forit talking about love and fear that love when you love someone or you love something you move towards that person right that's why all the positive Mitzvah the headline Mitzvah all the positive Mitzvah is the Mitzvah of loving God because love you naturally move towards a person when you're fearful like a fire you you rep you're repelled you move backwards that's the the headline Mitzvah to fear God of the negative Mitzvah don't do this and don't do that right but you need you need both elements to be a a a Jew who's committed to Jewish life with right you need you need service of love and service of fear sometimes sometimes love's not enough right sometimes love's Not Enough and sometimes the the fear is is kind of weak you need both therefore I mean you can to put it maybe in different terms in a relationship in marriage right there's a need for love there's a need for respect there to call year respect for a minute to stand back to respect the other person is a sense of sense of awe and and respect for that person right put it in those in those simple human terms right that's what we're talking about here right so therefore not withstanding the fact that the Jewish people accepted the Torah out of love they said nma we'll do it and then we'll learn we accept it s onene that being said they were not tested in fear and that that is the hint of the fire that you'll see in the in the the Torah describes the great fire that in you have actual that talks about it you'll hear the voice of God coming from Heaven to warn you that and the great fire of that was at the Torah is explaining we should be have a little bit of fear for for punishment there there there should be such a sense let's sayov says if God would have gone we know the medish says he went to all of the nations of the world and they asked what's written in it they weren't interested but if God would have they so no one they came to B Israel right so um ble if if he say he's suggesting you know IL B is if let's say he went with to as into is by with the the barrel you know Force maure they would have accepted the Torah you know do or die you don't accept you're gonna die right here the gamor actually says this Plum and that that was the Tiner of the nations of the world right Plum ALU you never tested us with the with the barrel you never put the mountain over us and it forc us to accept we would have accepted it yeah we would have accepted it we would have accepted it that way out of fear that would have been a relationship out of fear not out of love that's not a true relationship with God right one doesn't serve God merely because he's afraid of punishment one doesn't relate to parents because they're afraid of punishment that that that's all the relationship is about right but the Jewish people first they accepted out of love there was an Embrace of the forcing of the mountain upon them that was to tell them that they they had to test them they had to accept it out of fear it wouldn't be enough love is not enough right love is not enough it's not enough there has to be a sense of Ura as we said in example in a marriage relationship love and respect same idea love is not enough not going to sustain a meaningful relationship with there has to be this sense of the sense of a right if the Jewish people would not accept it not have said we do it out of love he wouldn't have given us the Torah wouldn't have just he wouldn't have just come with the barrel and for that it would have been meaningless what comes out here it's because of this now he's gonna answer his question why said when he told MOS to tell them you're going to get a Torah and you got to do this Torah and not one word less not one word more precisely Precision there was a suspicion mosha was afraid that maybe you know God was afraid that maybe the people are going to accept the Torah from Moshe for some external reason right because of the power of m not because of the inner depth of what Torah is and he has a footnote here which he refers to something we spoke about a few weeks ago we spoke about why mosha stuttered why he had a speech impediment how strange that was the only way to communicate the Torah was through speech right from from parent to child from from rebi to tman right so how do you how do you impair his speech so the run in his chuvas has a fascinating answer he says that one of the reasons why we might expect this to that God did this is because if Mosher rabena would have been this great charismatic speaker so the next generation of children would say ah listen you you just accepted it because he was so so charismatic and such an engaging uh leader and speaker so that's why you accepted it so that's why duffka he he stuttered according to the run a very interesting approach we of course presented another approach a few weeks we're not going to go into it but maybe the Jewish people will accept it you know for for some other reason right I don't want that I want them to accept it because this this is the Torah the whole Torah nothing the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth right and M was also tested his faithfulness to that he's gonna give over the Torah Faithfully clearly mosu right clearly he wanted the Jewish people to accept the Torah he wanted them to accept it right so if not for his faithfulness to the it would make sense we could understand he'll throw in a few other things you know he'll throw in some candies he'll throw in some sweets he'll throw in something extra to encourage us right but if M would have done that then he was not the man to give the Torah over to all Israel how many times do the rabbi speak about you cannot add one letter to the Torah if Moshe would have changed just a little bit in this is a tremendous test for mosha he had a tremendous love for the Jewish people he had a tremendous deep understanding of what AES wants and what this Torah is going to be and the test was would he would he give in right and would he add something or subtract something take out a mitz maybe right because of this idea now can understand let me add a PS he says so that's why that's why we see Rashi tells us twice right in this order in this this language don't change a word right not less and not more now he says let me give you an example now we understand why mosha that the what mosha sin was at the at the at the by hitting the Rock why was he punished so severely he couldn't enter a Israel right because he a little bit deviated from who's commandment now there are many many explanations of what he did wrong right he was told to speak to the Rock he hit the rock but he felt in the past had asked him to use that that Mata that staff so the all the are very busy trying to understand what moshe's misstep was according to what we've written here that this sin was unique to M he was the one and only receiver of the Torah from the one to give over the tradition to the Jewish people every word that came out of his mouth had had a the perimeter of God's words God speaking the Torah says later they'll believe in you forever in therefore said it the whole trust in mosenu was based that he would give over the words of hem with Precision the way he was told to him without changing anything the rabbis tell us spoke and mosha wrote he was the Secretary of he dictated here if he would add something or subtract something he would demonstrate he's not it's a little bit of moshe's Torah Right add just a little bit from himself it would have been total Destruction that was the sin the misstep of mosenu at the Maya with the hitting the hitting of the Rock right he put the entire revelation of Torah in Jeopardy at that moment right just over the page the end of it because now the the the the trustworthiness of Mosher Renu was put into question therefore to punish him in such a severe way that he could not be participate with us in the end game of our journey into everyone knew everyone knew this knew what happened and every other part of the Tor never did such a thing so that's how he that's his PS to this idea okay now number two is really the puking for number three which goes over to the to the third page and this is a classic presentation from r hutner on one of theer that are in the par the MIT shabas one of the Ten Commandments and it is a classic understanding of shabas I think there are things in here that are going to be very much news to us and will will be something that we'll we'll be able to to cherish in our own observance and under have a deeper understanding the Mitzvah the great mitz Shas so here's theuk in number two how's the mitzah is presented six days you will work you'll do all you'll do all your work right shabas the seventh day is shabas no you don't do any work children everybody so really the question that he's going to deal with is just get to the point right what's this introduction of six days and then shabas right next for six days he did Heaven and Earth he made the and everything in it but on the seventh day he rested so therefore he blessed he he blessed the day of shabas and he made it holy okay so you see in a certain sense where he might be going let's see what he says now this is a much longer piece you see from the chapters that I've taken out I have z b but we're missing a lot of things but I think I I took out enough that we're going to really appreciate what his his thesis is VAB there are two things that the the existence of chabas represents two Dimensions the the physical creation the the action the create action of the creation of the world shabas was the last thing created right in terms of the creation the physical creation of the world shabas was the last right but as we say in right the end of the the physical creation is what you person is building a a a house he's building something special right so what what his first his the last thing he does the last nail he puts into that house that was really his Mak from the very at the beginning so you have was at the beginning what he really wanted to accomplish was that house right it was the last thing that came when you put that last nail in so the thing that was done last in is really the first in and that's what we say in right in terms of the the the purpose the design of God's created world it was the beginning it was number one he created this world for Shabbat it was the last it was the house that was completed the last nail hammered in right it was really before everything else but it was the last thing created necessarily because it was number one in in thought in in theme in essence he he it necessarily was the last thing that was physically created like everything that a person does everything that is first in the order in terms of the the creation the finished product you know you know my mother used to tell me you love the bone of your rip steak so much why do you save it till the end when it's going to be cold right it's really it's the one thing you really want right but you want to save it till the end that's what it's all about right you get to that point okay now listen to this this is at the the heart of the two counts of shabas in the week the first is Shabbat chabas came first and then for us we were created on right on the sixth day right shabas came first and afterwards the six days of creation met right this is really the way God wanted the world to be created that chabas was number one so Adam and when Adam came into this world chabus was he was presented with the with the finished house he was finished with shabas and then the six days afterwards okay now here's the thing next paragraph you so what you have in God's world this this is the problem because in our world shabas comes first in God's world when he created the world there was the six days of and then shabas came at the end right okay M more or less but there's two Dimensions here there's God 's creation which was six days and then chabas and then there's our chabas which is chabas and then the six days so mik from all of this so far let me explain let me bring something out here from the raan something very special he says he the saysat remember the shabas day and the is thean says you have to remember shabas every single day explains there's a reason why there's no special names for the days of the week right the names that we have are are borrowed from our our culture that we've lived in right Sunday Monday Tuesday Etc but really the classical names for the days of the week are right so why is that Etc why is that this is established so that we should remember shabas listen carefully every day we count how many days are left until Shabbat right he says that's only half the picture continues that's not only what the account there's a two count per thing here is not completely fulfilling the the challenge of the counting there has to be a double intention here you count one two three when you say it's also not only to the coming Shabbat but it's of the first day that's beginning so we say Y for the shabas that passed Right shabas started it and now it's for the new week that's coming it's for the new week that's coming the first week that's coming before shabas and it's also Shabbat and it's also the first day following Shabbat so you have a week before shabas right that's that's man's chabas so to speak and then God's chabas was the the the week following chabas right so it says that's the second one we just passed shabas because shabas has two Dimensions God shabas our shabas right the shabas of the shabas of creation right right first the the the the days the six days of creation preceded shabas which is m so this is the the counting of right of creation and the other Isa right that shabas comes before the six days that's how Adam was created that's how we were created right that the the the purpose was given to us before the days of creation these two ideas says in yish you have to you have to hear this very well when you say every morning when you say it has two Dimensions right it's that from we that we just had and Y for the week that's coming ahead that is how you fulfill the Mitzvah of to remember shabas to make it holy is a double dimension of remembrance it's the first day of the sh that's coming and it's the first day it's also the first day of the shabas that passed okay beautiful no let's see get get better shabas over the page page three Chu when we keep shabas when we rest on shabas so we we we have to we have to imitate God God kept shabas we keep shabas that's part of the Mitzvah the Torah tells us six days you work God for six days he created the world he why why why six days of the week we work and on the seventh day we that's what God did so our shabas really is a mirror of God shabas it's part of the midst of chabas because God kept shabas God kept shabas after six days of work after he created the world so our shabas has to have that Dimension right we we have a problem Houston we have a problem how is that possible God's shabas came after he worked six days the shabas ofish of mankind of humanity it came before the six days his six days of [Applause] work from the perspective of of they rested shabas came immediately shabas immediately and then they count in six days so we're losing out on one of the one of the most powerful deep dimensions of chabas chabas comes before that the the purpose the end game comes before the creation what's hidden here this is hidden in this idea and it's we we do have it right but hidden in this idea is the chabas preparation a of chabas no some we look at a of shabas preparation and next week in our we're going to talk about the Mitzvah it's a Mitzvah shabas is part of chabas it's very it's a it's a very particular it's it's not a simple matter of going shopping and buying your kala and buying what you want to you know what you want to make and cook and so on right om the depth of what shabas is for us since we have a problem Houston we don't have those six days we have to imitate God we have to create a sense of six days before our shabas even though chabas came first for him right shabas preparing for chabas the midst of preparing for chabas here's the explanation we have to put into one day into one day Friday right men should it's y it's the day of man right Friday is is man's day that's when we were created on the sixth day we have to put into that day that's the day we're created we have to put as many acts of creation into that one day to create six days of creation in order to come to our shabas the whole idea of H shabas of of making preparations for chabas is to make a full weekday of extra activity coming into chabas the the the the power of you know I heard from two great gum I heard from R salic and I heard heard from ra and they both said in a certain each one in a certain they wrote in a certain place that what what we Jews today are lacking is what Arab sh shabas we have shabas we have shabas what we're missing is Arab shabas you have to know what Arab shabas was for in for our parents our grandparents our grand in Europe what Arab shabas was the the excitement of that the the the the MIT is a is a a makeup it is a creation of the Six Days Of Mice doing everything possible all the malas that we're allowed to do before shabas we can do all those things we can do all those Creations create this make this bake this purchase this clean this do that all the M of shabas is like almost like a a miniature six days coming in other words that one day of shabas is like the entire six days of creation we're creating the purpose which is so that our shabas will have both dimensions it'll be not only not only the shabas before for the next six days but it'll be the shabas following the first six days we'll make those six days in one day shabas preparation for chabas on Friday is making it into God's day of shabas through this so our shabas will be like the Heavenly shabas of the Ron where his six days came first greater this idea of working hard on you got to get moving it's not simply you know as we would say in Hebrew superficially the idea of Z just got to be pun you gotta be quick gotta be fast you gotta move chabas right it's you have to bring what it's about the the right to teach us this there's that something about it's very holy H like the ham the man was not was given twice on on shab's already started in a certain sense on Friday because two portions were given right this is an amazing thing do you ever wonder how do what do you start saying by Kish y what is that all about the sixth day and God rested on the seventh day what what is that all about says therefore therefore you start before right so he you know what is it doesn't make sense to put in the of sh that's what we're talking about we want to to include we're including the six days of creation into shabas to the extent by the way I want to tell you we're going to discuss this next week but on on Wednesday I used to feel guilty there's a certain that I like to get I get in in kid sons and they don't have a lot of that particular th so yeah I have to get there early so I go to an early minion and I go there and I get you know but sometimes I have to go to the late minion if I go to a later minion that's 7:30 I'm going to miss the Kal so a few times I I had a lot of guilt about it I used to go get my Kal first before I went to Davin not supposed to do any business before you and say k then I saw an amazing thing the the Mish they all bring fromon that you are even allowed to shop for shabas before ding before you sayma right so was a sigh of relief for me but it makes sense you have to get everything in all six days have to get into that one day okay beautiful idea now two more final paragraphs now let's talk about right what's the right the ra says right you sanctify chabas when you bring it in that's kiddish and you sanctify chabas when you when you escort it out right so listen to what he says this this is kind this is difficult this doesn't make sense he have doar the obligation you have to remember shabas when it comes in and when it goes out when it comes in right what does that mean how does you sanctify something you're sanctifying something that is coming I now am sanctifying being madesh something I'm sanctifying something and making it all it come it's before it happens right Tes for example K the ISA marriage right the marriage C is called K you're entering into marriage so to be mades is is an introduction into something holy right what does it mean I'm making finish when I exit shabas when I send shabas out Al it doesn't make sense why are we making kidish is we going to the weekday ah but based on what we've said this is final paragraph let's answer this question but I'll show it to you if you look at the words of you know the main we all know now it'll give us the secret of what on the cup is what do we say begin for us the day the week days that are coming the days that are coming for peace we're we are being mes something we're being enage those six days that come before the next Shas the introduction is to the week that is coming the week that is coming the six days and the ofas from the six days of creation during you could do it during Kish of we do it we do it before as we come in from chabas from the weekdays to the chabas and as we go from chabas to the weekday to emphasize the two Dimensions the double Dimensions the two shabas that we keep right the shabas before the day the days of creation which is man's and the shabas of God which we have to imitate so we have both okay lot to upon lot to think about I think this is just a masterful masterful presentation of shabas and a lot of new things for all of us okay thank you for your patience Wednesday night is haa we're going to be talking about can you change a person's name say for or for other reasons can a name be changed and that's what we're going to talk about uh welcome everybody I see um I see the Reese family is back for a long after a long I assume you were out of the country so welcome back okay everybody thank you for coming and have a wonderful