Semuchim M'yad - Connecting Parshas Vayeilech to the End of Nitzavim

Welcome back to your friends, Smuchimiana on Parshas Vayeilech. As you know, Yom Noraim are approaching. And a great way to go into the new year is taking a look at our presentations that are coming up. First of all, last night we released part two. Um Birkos Hashachar an amazing visual cinematic presentation of how Birkos Hashachar corresponds to entering the Beis Hamikdash. And uh certainly if uh you view that and you think about it, it will upgrade our tefillah. It's an opportunity to de- dedicate oneself to greater concentration and in that vein, I encourage everyone to join our program B'Yamino of committing not to bring your phone into the Beis Medrash. Um it will change your life. Uh many people have told me they didn't really see what's the big deal. It's not it's on vibrate or it's even off. It's a game changer. It will change your life. Having a phone on you is distracting, whether it's on, whether it's off, whether it's on vibrate, whether it's on loud. You cannot devote your full attention to what you're engaged in with it on. Okay, Parshas Vayeilech. We're now explaining the juxtaposition of Vayeilech to the end of Nitzavim. Here we go. Let us Let me make sure. Ah. Here we go. Tell me if you could see the Mar'eh Makomos. Okay, the Baal Haturim says Vayeilech Moshe. What does the Parshas Nitzavim end with? L'Avraham, L'Yitzchak, U'L'Yaakov. And juxtaposed to that is Vayeilech Where did Moshe go? Moshe went to Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov to tell them Hashem fulfilled his promise and he brought Klal Yisrael to Eretz Yisrael. The Medrash says, from here we [clears throat] see the Meisim speak to each other. So, when it says Vayelech Moshe, everybody asks, "Where did Moshe go?" Where did he go? Answer is he went to Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov to say, "God promised to bring us into the Holy Land. Done. Delivered. It It took place." And I would humbly suggest >> [clears throat] >> another approach to this question. This is one of my favorite ideas in the whole Torah. The There's a big question. Vayelech Moshe, where did Moshe go? He went. What do you mean he went? Every time it says he spoke to the Jewish people, it says he went. It never, ever says before he spoke to the Jewish people, he went. What does it mean Vayelech Moshe? Parshas Nitzavim ends Uvacharta Bachayim, you should choose life. What does that mean to choose life? Who wouldn't choose life? Would somebody choose the opposite? Do you need God to tell you to choose life? Here Here are two choices, death or life. Here's my personal recommendation. I would personally recommend that you choose life. Oh, thank you so much, you know. I I I'll really give that some strong consideration. What exactly is God telling us choose life? Is it a mitzvah? The Rambam says no, there's no mitzvah. It's a concept that a person has free choice in this world. Nobody's compelled to make any uh to take any path. However, Rabbeinu Yonah in Shaarei Avodah writes that bechira is a mitzvah. Not only is it a mitzvah, it's one of the central mitzvahs of the Torah. Rabbeinu Yona writes in the Shaarei Teshuva, "What [snorts] is the mitzvah of bechira? The mitzvah of bechira is always to aspire and to yearn and to desire higher levels." >> [snorts] >> When you wake up in the morning, a person should think, "I want to be a tzaddik like Reb Moshe Feinstein. I want to know Torah like Rebbi Akiva Eiger. I want to be a baal chesed like Avraham Avinu. A person should always desire and aspire to greater and greater levels. It's a mitzvah of bechira. What do you do? It's not about what you do, it's about what you want to do. It's a mitzvah of bechira. Lichsof velachmod to higher and higher levels. So, you say, "Come on. What could I accomplish already? I'm a basar vedam. I'm flesh and blood. I'm a maybe a little forgetful, a little clumsy. I'm maybe I wasn't the smartest guy in my class. I wasn't the most talented. What already could I accomplish in this world?" No. Do you know what you could accomplish in this world? The pasuk continues, "How yudisi bachem hayom es hashamayim ve'es ha'aretz." Moshe Rabbeinu says, "I call to testimony today heaven and earth." Rashi says that Hakadosh Baruch Hu says to Klal Yisrael, "Look at the heaven that I created. Did the heaven ever change its nature? Did the earth ever change its nature? Did the sun ever go on strike? Did the sun ever say, 'That's it, I'm not coming to work today. I'm taking it easy. I'm a I'm I'm [clears throat] I'm not going to shine today.'" No, the sun and the moon, they work like clockwork. Every day they get up bright and early. No laziness, no sluggishness. So, Hashem says, "Just like the sun and the moon follow my bidding, you should also." The obvious question is that's the most uncompelling argument you could possibly give. Imagine you're trying to get a kid out of bed, and you say to the kid, "Yingele, get up, get up. The bus is coming, you're going to miss shacharis." Huh? >> [snorts] >> Huh? Huh? You know, all kinds of they don't hear you, they they didn't sleep well, they went to sleep so late. Say, "What do you mean? The sun got up in the morning." You think that's a good You think that's going to work? That's a compelling argument, the sun? The obvious difference is the sun is programmed that way. The sun doesn't have free choice. We have free choice. What is this idea that Hashem is saying, "I call to testimony heaven and earth." And by the way, we find this throughout chazal, where it says, "Heavy as a mirror, the cow connection." Be bold like a leopard, be light like an eagle. The opening of the Torah, you carry. Lama burger. Wake up like a lion. Imagine you tell a kid, "I don't understand why you're not getting up. Be strong like a lion." Uh excuse me, I'm not a lion. What do you mean being strong like a lion? So, there's a beautiful idea which we discussed in the past at length. It's based on [clears throat] the Zohar on parshas Bereishis. It's actually in parshas Yisro on the pasuk in Bereishis. Nasa Adam. What does it mean that God said, "Let us make man." Who's us? Didn't God create man on his own? The Zohar Hakadosh says, when God said "Nasa Adam", he basically turned to all of creation, and he says to all of creation, "We're now going to create a composite of the entire briah. So, lion, donate your strength. Eagle, donate your lightness. Deer, donate your swiftness. Sun and the moon, donate your consistency. And we're going to create what is known as the oil in my cotton, the small miniature microcosm of the universe named known as man. So God says, "I don't understand you, man. Why are you not serving me? I call to testimony heaven and earth. The heaven and earth always fulfills my bidding. Why don't you? You have the power and the consistency of heaven and earth in you." So therefore, that is the flow of the possuk. You should choose life. Choose life means aspire for higher and higher and higher levels. Say what? Aspire for higher and higher levels? What can I accomplish already? So Hashem says, "What can you accomplish? Don't you know you're a microcosm of the whole universe? Every force, every power, every talent, every ability, every capability All forces are within you. You just need to access the dormant latent power that that lays within you. Therefore, we could suggest when Hashem says to man to cloud you so, you have the heaven and earth in you. Therefore, you need to constantly aspire for higher levels, higher levels. The next possuk is Moshe Moshe went. Where did he go? No, it is not a description of his destination. It's an It's an adjective of Moshe Rabbeinu. It's not a verb. He always went. He was always going from one level to the next level to the next level. He was always rising. He was always raising himself. He was always going my higher al higher. This follows what we just learned that man is a microcosm of all the forces in the universe and therefore he has a mitzvah to always choose life and ascend and aspire higher and higher. And indeed that is what we read in the beginning of Vayelech. Vayelech Moshe, Moshe continuously raised himself higher and higher and higher. And with that we conclude Smooch Mayad, but don't go anywhere. >> Recording off.