Purim Message from Rabbi Aaron Poston: Matanot Le'Evyonim Shushan Purim Parsha Ki Tisa

[Music] good evening everyone and a friend of the poor form Symantec parshat ki Tisa I think this is very relevant because important is upon us just like we know that hummin wanted to destroy our bodies and the Greeks wanted to destroy ourselves so it's very relevant that ki Tisa is a partial that begins by telling us when we take a census we do it through the metathesis checkout through the half shepard coins we don't count the Jews Hashem doesn't want us counted but there is a way to come up with the sum to do a census we give a half shekel I mean this is the custom before pour it we give the half shekel because it's in the month of Adar during the month of Adar we collect the head tax so that all the cubanos all the offerings throughout the year are are collected during the month of arthur so that we can begin the new year in Nisan the new financial or fiscal year for the offerings of the temple and that everybody's portion will be included in the communal offering and we are all atoned for through the through the communal offerings that are given throughout the year which begins in Nisan which is a few weeks away so we'll start with the first verse it says in chapter 30 of exodus verse 12 when you shall take the sum of the children of Israel meaning we take a census according to their numbers let each one give to the Lord an atonement for a soul when they're counted then there will be no plague among them when they are counted so the clea car explains that every time that the word Messiah thorough SH is used in connection to accounting something very extraordinary taking place the concept is that through the counting of the Jewish people of Israel we are being elevated we were being menacing be yet test a tile color almost I'll skip to a certain verse that reminds me of what this is talking about if you go to Deuteronomy chapter 26 it's really 18 but 18 and 19 and the Lord has selected you this day to be his treasured people as he spoke to you so that you shall observe all his Commandments and you and to make you supreme above all the nations that he made so that you will have praise a distinguished name and glory and so that you will be holy people to the Lord your God as he spoke so Shem says gosh and I'm York Ohio Leo glow-up Sabula to be a non-singular Kashar DiBella malysh more clothes without Latika Eliana color going God is going to place a supreme amongst all the going amongst the nation's so the clean car begins it begins by telling us that whatever were counted we are made not exactly supreme that's not the word he's using but it sounds like it's men who seem beget to say tile color most there's something treasured and beloved and elevated by this counting that when you count each person what is it reflect it reflects the idea there's an attribute there's some kind of advantage an attribute of being placed above I'll tell you what the word in Hebrew key comb is spark Nora al Hamal aha pratik Shh look Oh issue ish there's an advantage there's a virtue by counting each and every person and again we're talking about through the coins and eventually to come to a census because why because anything that is important is counted if it's not important it's not counted and the clea car explains we have hay or straw is not something that's very flesh ooh it's not something that is important so you don't really count it you don't think of it in terms of its kashi foods in terms in terms of its importance but Israel is compared to wheat so there's a mesh in the yogurt Simoni that discusses is very fact that Israel is compared to meat and what is it about meat so I'll preface it by also letting you know there's an opinion about the tree of knowledge of good and evil that it was the wheat plant that was the original fruit that was eaten and weeds called the tree of knowledge also the idea that a child once a child is weaned from breastfeeding and he begins to eat wheat so there's something that happens to his body and he becomes he it's like knowledge is now entering his system his brain is developing differently that it was once he discontinued the milk and even the feces what's in his diaper is no longer considered pure but it has a stench and is something you cannot no longer learn Torah around or or pray around and you must clean and clean the child or remove him from the room or you step out of the room but there's a change that takes place with wheat in the stomach and that's what we're going to discuss a little bit so and she Reshiram a song of songs and I'm going to read the article translation as the Earth's very center this is a song of songs' chapter 7 verse 3 as the Earth's very center your Sanhedrin site is a crescent basin for ceaseless flowing teaching so we're talking about the Hara by it we're talking about the navel of the world and there's a flowing teaching your National Center is an indispensable heap of nourishing knowledge hedged of with roses bit make a Ramos PT that your stomach is a pile of wheat sugar pishoosh I mean hedged about with roses this is a little bit cryptic and not so clearly understood what he's talking about but the idea that weed is mentioned here in your stomach is a positive thing and there are pilots Andrew mos so he says then each pile of wheat is considered something important by itself as we would know that a farmer who collects some type of product that's very important he counts his piles so it is important as opposed to which we mentioned earlier about hay or straw it's spread all of them all over the place it's not necessarily stacked into piles and he would say well I have so much piles so too with your stomach each and every Jewish stomach is very important it's not just ads as our classic says when you count the heads and and the clear carnations for a beginning whenever we talk about the CS rush the lifting of the head so to speak in respect to counting something is going on but he wants you to know that this whole mattress is brought in the idea of the vendors saying that Israel is compared to piles of wheat or wheat in general it's because this is something you should not say don't even think for a moment that it's only from the aspect of the head that the Jewish people are separate or a supernal above the nations right say okay the Jews are very smart they have a lot of wisdom the doctors and lawyers are inventors and accountants because okay the name of God is called upon their hands maybe you would say mistakenly that it's only upon their heads basket specifically but when it comes to the bactin gonna come stomach know everybody's the same we eat the same we have the same things in mind don't think like this and continues his thought but not to think that everyone uses food in the same way kekulé amidst option Qatar can move fish oven that all the usages of the body are the same but now guess what there is something unique about the Jewish Nanak okay the feel of the bit nod yes side kedusha there's a holiness not just a man don't be mistaken I think it's just the Jewish head every everybody say get a shake up no even in the stomach this holiness and what did I say earlier we started this this class that did not cease that a male that humming they wanted to wipe us out physically guess what there's something very physically different about us why can a nut oiling team LPI torah the torah we eat according to the Torah the Torah tells us what is forbidden to eat how to eat what kinds of mixtures of food we can or cannot eat kosher laws now there's a verse in mislay that would be proverbs 20 to 18 and it says like this incline your ear and hearken to the words of the wise this is actually proverb 17 also 18 incline your ear and hearken to the words of the wives and put your heart to my knowledge for it is pleasant that you guard them in your stomach you guard them in your innards what do you garden you're guarding the Torah and gods and knowledge they will be established together on your lips we're obviously talking about even the oral torah but we're talk about the torah which would be on your lips what we're trying to establish here is there is something unique about the stomach that the Torah is not just in the head the Torah is in the entire body especially in the stomach how pleasant it is that we guarded in our star and also in Psalms to Hillen 40 verse 8 9 then I said behold I have come with the scroll of a book written for me O God I desire to do your will and to have your law within my innards okay this idea of having the law and the will of God in our stomach what is this all about this is just to hit home the idea that the Torah is not just in the head but it's in the GU fits it throughout the body because you are what you eat and then we see like this continue the thought but not to say she saw a lamb uterine came inside arose don't say that the only advantage that Jews have is the fact that they have a Yiddish a cup that they use their brains differently that they're smarter don't say that why would you have said that because that's obviously the place where wisdom the custom of the wisdom is in the brain as we do know that we are complimented by the nation's for this you can't deny it and Deuteronomy chapter 4 verse 6 through 8 and you shall keep them and do them this is the mitzvah that for that for that is your wisdom and your understanding and the eyes of the peoples meaning keeping the Torah learning the tour and keeping the Misses who will hear all these statues and you know what they're gonna say it says the guard you're gonna say only this great nation is a wise and understanding people for what great nation is there on and on and on all the attributes of the Jewish people so you see for a certain from a certain sense yes it's true there is wisdom and understanding but guess what of the meats I touched his top shoes being in that booth the people would mistakenly say when it comes to eating and the body it's all the same a hokey dark abettin we just follow our stomach just like all the other nations father stomach and but no don't say that but rather their stomachs the Jewish people's stomachs are like piles of weeds we didn't stomach why as we mentioned that other verse we started with this idea of Song of Songs chapter 7 verse 3 that this place which is really the navel of the earth and the navel means your stomach that's where the navel is located so not only when we go back and look at the verse that the Earth's very center you're saying Hendren site does a crescent base and for ceaseless flow and teaching this could talk about the different organs that we have in our stomach that filter different ideas and thoughts and and council your National Center that now is the stomach as the pus it says bidness a rain most heating the National Center is an indispensable heap of what he translates it as nourishing knowledge but it's it doesn't say that native group it says weeds this is the heap of weeds knowledge and wheats are strongly connected and then the next part it says hedged about with roses so there's a little bit of play on words here that the that how do we eat we eat with hedges we eat we eat with fences it's we don't just eat whatever we want and whenever we want and in any manner that we want there are laws of how we eat as we say in Hebrew peace see out of the gather through fences and restrictions a shag of Larry showed him the earliest rabbis from Moses on down shinichi Lucia shunning these sages and righteous leaders of the Jewish people are compared to roses we'd says hedged about with roses that they added additional restrictions and warnings and and and limitations shows shock listen to this word Shoshanna rose's Shoshone Mahalo house Helios Ola they taught these laws they were the transmission of the Torah they teach these laws as Helios : as we turn past that's why our Metris mentions the betting to add this idea that it's not just a head that is understood here but the entire goof the entire body is elevated whenever the census is taken meaning that the Jewish people are raised above and supernal of both the nations as we mentioned the diverse and Deuteronomy chapter 26 look at that verse up again and I just wanted to conclude here to tell you a poem some math we should elevate the physical world through our drinking and our eating and by giving gifts to the poor and giving Michelle off my note presents to our friends and the truth be told to people who we may have had problems with through the years or recently to make up with people so that we spread the love because not only doing intellectually or spiritually understanding with the love every Jew but we have to act on that and bring it to a greater to action in this world and send gifts so I wish of all a friend of the poor him and Pete Esau is no coincidence that it falls out on the week that forum does as well all the best till the next time [Music]