Rabbi Benjamin Yudin Discusses Parshas Ki Savo on JM in the AM (5786)

Good morning, nachum. Good to have shabbos everybody. Tomorrow we have the privilege of reading parshas ki savo. Parshas ki savo, according to the chinuch, contains six mitzvahs, three positive mitzvahs, and three restrictions. And I just want to note that the last of the mitzvahs in parshas ki savo is 6:11. And that is halacha to bidracha. Which means that we are to walk in the ways of hashem. The talmud in sota asks, "How's that possible? He is, after all, aish ochla, literally consuming fire." But what does it mean? It means that as he, hakadosh baruch hu, is rachum, chanun, merciful, kind, so are we to be. But you should know that this goes way beyond that. There's a beautiful essay in rav schechter's sefer nefesh harav, whereby he quotes rav soloveitchik, who points out that there's a midrash at the very beginning of the torah, at the conclusion of the first paragraph, where the torah says, "Vayehi erev, vayehi voker." And it was evening, and what's the and? So the midrash says that hakadosh baruch hu was borei olamos umachrivan. Hakadosh baruch hu created worlds and destroyed them. This world that we are living in is not the first world that hashem created. So wait a minute. That it took Thomas Edison many, many hundreds of tries until he got the light bulb to work. That's understandable. But Kodesh Baruchu, he gets it right on the first time. So, why does he have to create worlds and destroy them? Rabbi Soloveitchik gave a beautiful answer, namely to teach us that Kodesh Baruchu built into the world the ability not just to create, but the ability to recreate. Rachmana litzlan, if somebody loses a close relative, Rachmana litzlan, somebody loses a business that they've been involved with all their life, and they say, "Oh my goodness, it's all over. I cannot continue." Wrong. Kodesh Baruchu built into nature that just as he, "V'halachta b'drachav", just as Kodesh Baruchu creates, he recreates, and just as man creates, and we saw this with our own eyes after the Shoah, how many had the incredible ability to recreate. And I really believe that what we have, Baruch Hashem, Medinat Yisrael, so much was built on this concept of recreating, the ability of that, "V'halachta b'drachav". Let's understand, 2 weeks from tonight is Rosh Hashanah. And therefore, I really believe that the parashah speaks not only for the immediate lesson on the surface, but there's a deeper lesson for us as well, as I will try to show. Bikurim, which is the mitzvah regarding the first fruits of the Jewish farmer in the land of Israel, constitutes two out of the 613 mitzvahs. Number one, we are taught in Mishpatim in chapter 23, pasuk 19, reishit bikurei adamah lo tavi beish Hashem Elohecha. There is a mitzvah to bring the choicest first fruit of your land to the house of Hashem, to the Beit Hamikdash. Just bringing the first fruits, instead of taking them and putting them on your dining room table with your family and children and neighbors, and you're so excited about your produce, your fruits, you come and you say thank you Hashem at the Beit Hamikdash. But the thank you part comes in this week's parsha. The bringing is found in Mishpatim. So in this week's parsha, what are we told? You bring after you brought the basket of bikurim, there is a recitation, and you recite a summary of Jewish history, beginning with Arami oved avi, how Yaakov's father-in-law, Lavan, tried to destroy Judaism, Yaakov, what he stood for, his integrity, his way of life, Hakadosh Baruchu provided him with the miracle of survival. And then we go on to say further the summary of Jewish history of what happened in Egypt. Namely, that "Vayareu osanu Hamitzrim." Mitzrayim. What does that mean? That the Egyptians mistreated us from the word "rah," they were bad to us. "Vayanunu," they afflicted us. "Vayitanu alenu avodah kashah," they imposed heavy work upon us. And we go on to say, "We cried out and Hashem took us out of Egypt and vayivienu el hamakom hazeh." And he brought us to this place. Firstly, we are familiar with these verses because they constitute the essence of the Maggid section on the night of the Pesach Seder. We explain each and every phrase of these pesukim. But I want everyone to note that the way the Jew connects to his historical past is literally by putting himself in that situation. Namely, "B'chol dor," as we say in the Pesach Seder, "Chayav adam lirot et atzmo." You are to look upon yourself that as if you left Egypt. It doesn't say that "Vayareu osam Hamitzrim," that the Egyptians were bad to them. No, for you oh son no, they were bad to us. He puts himself as if he himself were persecuted in Egypt. For you would see ain't new. Hashem took us out. It doesn't say by you would see ain't. He could have been born 300 years after the Jewish people came out of Egypt into Eretz Israel. But he includes himself by you would see ain't new. Hashem took us. He's living that experience each and every year of leaving Egypt. And by you would see ain't new, even though he never saw Yehoshua bin Nun because it was 300 years earlier in his life. No, he includes as if I just came to the land of Israel. There's a hiskashrus. There's an excitement here. But most important, he is including himself within the cloud. Now, note the very first Rashi of Parshas Ki Savo. The Torah says, when you come into the land, vi you rishto, and you will possess it, and vi you ashavtah bah. Yurishto is you're going to conquer and you're going to settle. And Rashi quotes the Gemara in Kidushin that lo nischayavim bikurim, we were not obligated in the mitzvah of bikurim ad she kibshuha et ha'aretz, until we conquered v'chiluha, and each tribe had their particular possession. Not until 14 years after we entered the land did this mitzvah go into effect. What's the essence of what Rashi is teaching us? Take a step back everybody and realize that it's man the Mekadesh. The mitzvah came into effect when we were settled in the land. We, the Jewish people, brought Kedusha to the land. The Kedusha of Eretz Yisrael, as the Rambam explains in chapter six of Beit Hamikdasha, the Rambam writes, the Kedusha of Yehoshua and the Jewish people, Joshua, when we came into the land, was through the kibush, through the conquering of the land. And when unfortunately the land was taken away by the Babylonians, 70 years later when Ezra and the Jewish people came back, it was the chazaka, their living in the land, our possessing the land, the Jew brings Kedusha. And this is what I am trying to say is a very important lesson for us two weeks before Rosh Hashanah, namely that you are to be part of the cloud, part of the Jewish people. Why? Because the Torah promises us that the Jewish people will always be at the end of next week's parsha of Vayeilech, the Torah has the beautiful promise regarding Torah, ki lo sishakach miphi zar'o, chapter 31, next week, pasuk 21, the Torah promises us the Torah will never be forgotten by the Jewish people. Pinch yourselves, everybody. We are living that. We see it. But we, each and every one of us, has to be a part of the community. Of course, if I doubt at home, Hashem hears our prayers. No question. But it's so much better to doubt him with a minyan. And once you try three times a day, morning before you go to work, Mincha to find the time at work that there's a minyan around you. Maariv, different times, nighttime. Be a cloud person. Attach yourself to the cloud. Why? Because you are attaching yourself to eternity. The more you or are, the more your family is a part of cloud Israel, of the Jewish nation. Therefore, each and every one has talents that they were given. Talents, be it a person who is {quote} proficient in numbers, wonderful. The accountant, let him take his skill and bring it to the local base of messes, the local Yeshiva, help out with their books as a treasurer and along those lines. This is what Parshas Ki Savo in the first mitzvah of the recitation of Bikurim is calling to each and every one of us. I just want to close with a passage that we add at the end of the Shmoneh Esrei only on Yom Kippur. But let's start thinking about it now. We say at the end of our Shmoneh Esrei, Elokai, we make an admission to God. Ad sh'lo notzarti eini kedai. Until I was born, I was not worthy. What does that mean? Unlike so many people who think, "Oh, if only I would live in a earlier time, in the time of the Vilna Gaon, in the time No, no, no, no, no. You were not You were born when you were supposed to be born. You were born at a time when only you can make your unique contribution. Because nobody else has your fingerprints. Nobody else has your EKG. You are unique, but you have to take your unique talents, and as Hillel said, "Im ein ani li, mi li?" Yes, if I am not for myself to develop my talents, then mi ani? Who am I? But, "Uch'shani li atzmi, if I am alone, if I don't contribute these talents to the tzibur, to the klal, then ma ani? What am I?" And therefore, this beautiful charge, most of us are not farmers. All of us will hear the Krias Shema Torah. All of us have to realize that the beautiful nusach that was re- said then, that we will say again when we have the third Beis Hamikdash, is all in putting yourself in the historical past, and thereby putting yourself today in our historical present, and im yirtzeh Hashem, our very precious historical future. Shabbat Shalom to all.