Eikev: The Infinite Explosion of Mitzvos {Sefer Tomer Devorah "Yichbosh Avonoseinu"}

Okay, good evening friends. We're continuing safer at Dvra. We're up to the seventh mida, the seventh mida. So our weekly recap of the mid of the devo who begins that a person it's appropriate to be comparable to the creator and in his pu not only in the way his body is the first mid is a supernatural patience of hashem that hashem endows us with life force and we use it against him and Hashem tolerates that. Not only does he tolerate that, he beers the sin, meaning he feeds the monster that we create with our aes. [Applause] Hashem himself cleans the mess that we make. Hashem treats us like flesh and blood. He feels our pain. So too, just like Hashem considers us part of him, we should consider each Jew a part of us. Even the fifth mida, even when it's appropriate that Hashem continue to get angry, at a certain point, Hashem says, even though there's no reason for me to lessen the anger or stop the anger, I'll do it anyway. who even if a person just has one redeeming quality that he does, Hashem will hone in on that and that's what Hashem sees. He doesn't so to speak see the bad. We're up to the seventh mida. The seventh mida is no. I'm sorry. Okay, just testing. The seventh mida is that when Hashem takes us back and we do chuva, he brings us back even to a higher level than we started. That's Hashem brings us back to even greater level than had we not sinned to begin with. we're up to this week like we of course the eighth Hashem squaltches the sin and this is a very appropriate topic for this week's para paras because the para begins so far like almost every week we've been able to tie it into the para this way you know uh people are interested they want to hear what we're talking about it says And it will be Rashi says if you observe the mitzvah that people trample on this will be the reward or the tagum says on the word um reward. So that implies that you get rewarded for mitzvah. Do you get rewarded for mitzvah in this world? If a person does a mitzvah, if you wear if you come to the the are you going to get rewarded in this world or is there no world reward in this world? The arav says there's no reward in this world. So, so what does the mean and here is the reward if you listen to the mitzvah? The bigger problem is does anybody know the last in right before the says that you're going to get reward for the last is which is the dash today you do the mitzvah and tomorrow you can get reward. So the last p of last week's para says you ain't getting paid back in this world and the first p in this week's para says by the way the reward for the mitzvah will be so that's a very important topic do you get reward for mitzvah in this world and says no so what does it mean so and others say even though you're not going to get a reward from mitzvah in this world whatever That's the divine command itself. That's the mitzvah itself without any additions from man. But whatever additions man puts in, for example, if you do the mitzvah bisos, so that's your input. Or if you do the mitzvah with simka, that's your input that you could be rewarded for this world. So let's explain that. Why for the basic mitzvah do you not get paid back in this world? You only get paid back for human input. This is a very important idea and this is what the Ramak is going to discuss today and that is what is the mitzvah? The mitzvah is the word of Hashem. What is the word of Hashem? What is Hashem? Hashem is infinite. So his word is infinite and therefore his reward is infinite. And therefore there cannot be reward. What's he going to give you? A hot dog? Oh, you did the mitzvah. Here's a hot dog with mustard. That's that's you. Yeah. I did I did an infinite act. I did a divine command. So I I need to be rewarded on your currency which is infinite. What what do you want him to give you? A Tesla. What what exactly? It's that you're getting jipped out of reward. You did an infinite activity. You you need to the only thing he could give you is infinity. The eternal uh world. What's he going to give you? A million dollars. What what are you going to do with it? I know you could think of a thing or two to do with it, but at the end of the day, you're being jipped out. It's like um you know, let's say let's say like I don't know you work today. >> I'm going to pick on you. Sure. How many hours you put in? >> Couple of hours. >> Couple hours. Let's give you a freeze pop. Is that that going to cut it? >> Flavor flavor. >> Orange. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> A winky. Is that going to do it? >> No, >> that's not going to do it. >> No pez. >> Let's say at the end of the week you got a winky. It's like that's not going to cut it. No. Let's got a pretzel. The end of the Yeah. You know there there. So there's there cannot be reward in this world. The currency doesn't fit the act because the the act was infinite. You did you fulfilled the divine command. How could you be rewarded anything less than eternity? However, human input that's your human input that you're rewarded for in this world. So the way you read the is in this world you do the mitzvah you don't get rewarded but say for the you put in to do a mitzvah of that you could be rewarded for. Okay. Now, we're going to get a another explanation for why you can't be rewarded for mitzvah in this world. The first explanation we gave because a mitzvah is the divine command and therefore it's eternal. The reward has to be eternal. We're going to see. By the way, on the other hand, you could get punished for a in this world. Why? There's a very interesting teaching in it says remember that from the one above it will not emanate the evils and the good. Got it? Evils plural and good. What does that mean? There are two types of goodness and there are two types of evils. One type of goodness is mitzvo and the other type is reward. There are two types of bad ace and punishment. Now does God do a when we sin? Is it Hashem making us sin? No. We have free choice. Fine. And when we do an ara and we get punished, is Hashem punishing us? No. God doesn't punish. God, there's no such thing as Hashem never brings punishment. The a vera itself punishes. There's an idea that the niva brings in his parish on so we could find it that when a person does an aa the ara is now it creates a monster that the monster punishes it. God does not punish because God no evil emanates from God. If you were to put on your God glasses there special kind of glasses you could get them I can't say where you put them on. If you would look at Hashem coming from Hashem is only nothing evil comes from Hashem. See what do you mean? But there's evil in this world. Yeah. Cuz man made it. Man does an a which man may man could do a God doesn't do a and that a creates a mash that creates punishment. I I want to read to you the words of the Nivan. [Music] We're in the eighth mida. Let's see if we can find this. Yeah. The evil the sin itself does. Because by doing an a you create an angel, a mash that causes damage. So plural, not the a and not the punishment. And it also doesn't emanate from singular. What's the singular? The mitzvah. He doesn't do the mitzvah, but he does give the reward. And since he gives the reward, it has to be his currency, which is eternal. But but punishment is not from him. Punishment is from us. So we created the sin, we create the punishment. So the punishment will be in this world. Okay. But now we're going to learn another another uh reason why there's no reward in this world. And we're going to give a very important mashall. See when I was a kid, let me explain to you how the shabas meal went. So after you sang and you made kdesh and you washed, then gilt fish was brought to the table and that's it. May and um maybe a little a little and if you and maybe a little fish juice I don't know if you remember that's before you were born fish juice you know fish juices you cook the gapilta fish in that water that's the dip there's no no dip that you go to the store for $7.99 for like a little thing which is mayonnaise with like a little coloring in it there's no such thing as dips they didn't invent dips this is this is before George Washington Before Benjamin Franklin, before electricity, they didn't have dips on Friday night. But nowadays in Babar, no, I like I happen to like dips and I could give you they have dips. It's a whole thing. Fish and you have now with so many dips, what are you going to put in the dip? So the answer is kala. It's not good enough anymore. Now you have to have pet kala. What's petala? Sourdough. They invented sourdough where you spend the whole month petting it, making nice to it, watering it, talking to it, giving it therapy, and then now when they bring out all the dips, you have something to dip it in. Okay, fine. What does that have to do with anything? It's very relevant. You know, if you if you don't know how to control your sour though, it could rise. It could rise. It could go, you know. So, let's talk about a mitzvah. Look in the Hashem accords himself with the Jewish people with this. This is the secret and the essence of squaltching sin. A mitzvah is like a flower that's blossoming and rising up in its petals. You know, you know these, you know, sometimes they have like time lapse where even though you would have to sit there for about a million years until you see how the tree grows, but if you if they have this, what is it called? >> Time. Time. Now it's setting on the camera where all of a sudden you see the the tree sprouting up. Really it took 30 years but because the camera was parked there for 30 years. Fine. If you would if you would see a mitzvah, you don't need time lapse. You put on fill in it rises. It blossoms. It blossoms. It blossom. It goes all the way up to the every mitzvah you do. It's rising. Look at this. It like cracks through all the worlds and it goes up to no end to enter before. It's It's constantly rising. It's cracking through the heavens. It cracks through all the barriers. It just grows and grows and grows. Why? First of all, because it's it's a fulfillment of a divine command and it's in and a divine command is infinite and therefore the mitzvah has no boundaries. It just it just it just explodes higher and higher and higher. What about a n a doesn't go anywhere. Hashem said, "I don't I don't want it here. Get get lost." So, Hashem takes, you ever see they have these um they have this um product that if something catches on fire, so it used to be back in my time, you know, you had fire extinguishers. Everyone had a fire extinguisher even though nobody knows where exactly it is, what nobody ever knows what cabinet it's in. Then when you open it up, you can't even find. But now there's a new product. The product is like this towel. You know about this? You just throw it over the fire and it squatchches the fire. You learned something in this here, right? When it comes to the a don't rise up squelches it so it doesn't it doesn't uh enter. It's like Hashem takes the a takes like a pot cover and he like he covers it and the a is trying to break through it. No, no. Says stay there. Don't go anywhere. Hashem squatchches it. You know why Hashem doesn't let it rise up? Cuz he doesn't want to see it. He doesn't like it. Like it says into it does not dwell with you evil. It does not say it. You do not does not dwell in your neighborhood any evil. The does not enter in the realm of Hashem. That's the reason why there's no reward in this world. You know why there's no reward in this world? Because the mitzvah is not in this world. The mitzvah was a rocket ship. It's standing in front of Hashem in his world. So what he's going to do, the mitzvah is all the way upstairs. So Hashem's going to say, "Okay, let me send down the reward." The mitzvah is not in this world in world. It's upstairs. Look at these words. The mitzvah are before God. How could Hashem give to you from what is in front of him? So in other words, Hashem is now seeing the mitzvah in his world. So Hashem, what's he going to say? He's going to say, "Let me give you some of the spiritual reward." He's going to send it down to this physical world. No, there there is no there's no way to receive spiritual reward in this physical world. So you say, "Why not? Why can't Hashem give us some of that in this world?" The answer is if you would put together all the pizza in the world, if you take the best slice from Braavos, it's not going to mean anything. He says the whole world is not worthy to pay back even one mitzvah for the good pleasure that Hashem has available. Hashem has so much reward in store that there's nothing in this. Hashem could give you a Porsche, a Lamborghini, a Tesla, the nicest house in the five towns, and it doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of what the possibilities are for reward for one mitzvah. Cuz the mitzvah is up there. So mitzvah is up there. He has to give you that currency. Yeah. But in this world, they don't have this currency. like you know um you know you go to South Africa you know so here in America $100 is worth $100 there 100 what is it rand is worth like three cents right so imagine yeah if if um you yeah you want a good job you can make a 100,000 a year 100,000 what 100,000 grains of salt so what's that going to do for you. So if you do a mitzvah, you want to get paid back in this world. This world is like South Africa, you know. >> Sorry my South African friends there, but >> that's why we say the things that you get paid for. >> Ah, so now what do what does it mean in Alovara? So first of all, that's payrise. That's like sidekicks. That's like perks. That's not the reward. It's not the it's not the Karen Karen. Yeah. In this world you get health insurance and bonuses and raises. No, I mean that as a mush. Whatever success we have in this world is not the reward. It's only the pay of the mitzvah. Okay. Now for this reason say God does not take bribery of mitzv which means like this. Let's say a guy did 100 mitzvah and five a. So the so we would say great let's let's call it a day at 95. You know, take five my mitzvah, cancel out five of and I'll be 95 to zero. I don't want to be 105. We would say it's worth it, you know, to get to get to go scot-free not to have to deal with a no bad move. It it's not. That's why for this reason, Hashem does not take a bribe of a mitzvah. The analogy is like this. God doesn't say the guy did 40 mitzvah and 10 sins. So let's call it a day at 30. He's left with 30 mitzv and let 10 cancel out with 10. We would have thought that's a good it's a good move for us. It's a bad move because the currency of punishment is lower than the currency of reward. See the currency of reward is so much greater than the currency of punishment. Now this is a very big and important petberg points out that even if the currency in other words currency of pun of reward is infinite the currency of punishment is finite. But this see the human nature is that to avoid pain people are willing to pay a lot of money. In other words, somebody's suffering terribly, they would pay a couple they would pay millions of dollars not to suffer. So maybe it's still worth it. Even if the currency of reward is so much greater than the currency of punishment, maybe it's still better at, you know, start cancelelling out for. No, the currency of reward is so infinitely greater that nobody would ever make that deal. It's not worth it. Do you understand what I'm saying? In other words, you know, if somebody could avoid terrible pain, they might give up a lot of good. It's almost impossible to fathom how much good could there be, how good could it really be that it's not worth minimizing the good to cancel out the bad. We don't we don't even have the faculty. We won't even have the ability to assess or to imagine or to fathom how good it could be. But even a completely righteous person who did one sin, it is it is like to Hashem as if this person burnt the Torah. Meaning it is irrelevant how many mitzvah they did. a a mitzvah of someone who did mitzvah their whole life and slipped up and only did one a there's not we're not going to use his mitzvah to to pro protect him from being accountable for sin because it's not worth it for him. He has to atone for his guilt and then he could receive reward for all his mitzv. By the way, from here we see that until a person gains atonement, so to speak, his reward is pending. that you need to you need to you need to be able to so to speak receive uh justice for even a small sin and then you could get reward for all your mitzv now it sounds harsh it sounds severe but it's really the of because Hashem does not want to minimize such great reward this is a great kindness that Hashem does to the righteous Hem does not deduct to repay for the mitzv are very significant and they rise up before hashem. So what's hashem going to do? He's going to you know he's going to start cancelelling out 107 mitzvah 43 a so let's call it a day at you know 60. No, the mitzvah is so much more valuable because it rises up before him. How could you deduct because of [Music] think about it the payment for a sin that is from the lowly section of but the reward comes from the honorable eternity. the how would you be able to deduct what does he pays back for the sin [Music] and then he repays all the mitzvah basically you know what this is called where hashem takes sin and he squats in other words mitzvah they rise up like uh you know jack and the beanto And a hashem is always like you know putting the pot cover on it you know putting it to bay keeping it down keeping it down keeping not letting it rise not letting it rise. So we'll develop this more next week but the bottom line is in terms of how we look at other people is if let's say a guy he did some good things to us and some bad things to us. How do we look at them? Uh there you know he's on my good list he's on my bad list and he's like you know my mediocre list. I don't know, you know, he's quasi quasi. No, the good things that he did should loom large and the bad things we like put out of our mind. Is that not similar to >> it's it's similar to right >> is Hashem identifies if let's say a person did many wrong things and he did Hashem said oh he did or we said or even if he did one good thing Hashem >> you see in a certain sense is specific for Hashem so to speak has has eyes for and then we pointed out or anything good but now not only is you see is this person has a repertoire of many things they did good and bad it's not just Hashem has eyes only for the good and he so to speak is not focused on the bad here hashem actively is like downplaying the bad so it's it's it's very similar But it's it's slightly different in that it's not that Hashem is just focused on the good and not focused on that. Not only he's not focused on the bad, he's squatchching the bad so it doesn't even rise up in front of him while the good is like exploding in front of him. >> So what do you need the other mid for? This is just a better more active version. Why do you need the of [Music] you see look if is specific to then we need this for other good deeds. Okay, good question. We'll we'll try to think about that over until next time. Have a good ch everyone. Just go out.