Parsha Perspectives for Today (Ki Sisa, 5782) - Silence Is Not Neutrality

good morning boker tov and a frey-looking purim cotton to everyone literally uh shuklanar says we don't need a good excuse to party together we spoke about last week the carbon tommen narama who begins and ends his commentary in with tamil shivisi hashem nagdi summit and ends with purim khattan so i hope everyone's having a sudo today last night my daughter in new york sent me a picture of herself having kreplach like 11 o'clock at night i said i never had one knockouts from any of my kids in my life kreplach i didn't even have to remind her few uh housekeeping notes and then we'll thank our sponsors and get started first of all next week there is no shear because we have our annual brs base measures fly into new york we're going with 25 guys to new york packing in two days russia yeshiva rabbanim making our way around all of new york we're going to exhaust them until they wave the white flag and beg for mercy we fly up early monday morning back late tuesday night and we're gonna see countless incredible people i can't wait to share their inspiration and insight with you so there is no sheer next tuesday morning also please note that our brs global campaign is going to kick off again february 24th so we haven't started yet but this is the precursor of the announcement get your wallets your checkbooks your venmo your zell your wiring instructions ready february 24 those who are not brs members you're a brs member you do your part to keep the lights on and to pay my salary to teach the parsha class if you're not a brs member but you enjoy our shirum and our classes and our articles and our programs and our panels then it's appropriate to do your part to enable us to continue to share and spread our torah so as we spoke about parshas truma nasa venetian was nice but the truman all the compliments rabbi i love the parshashi rabbi thank you for the parshashir i can't make my way through the grove or out to dinner with my family rabbi i love the parsha shear imagine if every time you came over to thank me i said here's what it costs i'd have a lot more peace and quiet just joking i love it that you come over thank you for coming over thank you even more for your support please look for february 24th when we kick it off okay our passion series is sponsored by becky and abby council family in memory of becky's father david grossman is david also i want to wish tyler you should video this i want to wish a very happy birthday 50th birthday i'm in trouble for announcing that maybe but becky katz our sponsor for the year very very happy birthday on her 50th birthday she continued to have strength and a lot of knockouts from her family and a lot of simcha and a lot of joy if you'd like to know what becky katz wanted for her birthday i don't know if it's what she wanted but what her husband got her was divreitora on every parsha put together a book for her for her birthday her favorite rabbi speakers people she learns with and gave her a book of her favorite devetora for her birthday what a great testament to who she is this morning is also sponsored anonymously akarsatov for brs taking uh someone to uncomfortable positive active steps in their voters hashem by faking jay in loving memory of her mother figamos of rum florence feigenbaum and her 13-year site by the rosemont's trying families maxine sullivan is today unfortunately portugal upcoming 51st anniversary of his bar mitzvah and her fortune for yosev and as well carmilla benreza that's what happens when you don't have shear next week you've got a lot of sponsors for this week okay we're ready to page 484 in the earthquake stone that's our signal let's go god spoke to moshe of the jewish people according to their numbers how do you take a census of the jewish people well in america they knock on doors they send a link and you fill out a survey you take a census the most efficient productive way by counting people but that is not a jewish census the jewish census is make a contribution now interestingly unlike my little appeal just now for the global campaign or my big appeal for our capital campus campaign this was a small appeal a half shackle and not only was it a small appeal but they do collaborate don't give less everyone give the exact same thing it's a funny appeal we don't run appeals like that we have levels and layers and names availabilities like yaakov the gold silver platinum uh the shvatim different holy cities in israel committees sit deep into the night debating what name should we call the different levels so we get people to up their level and wear the lanyard and get private access to the vip event but not the sheco there are no levels there are no names there are no layers there are no lanyards there is no vip event hashir yaga you're poor you're impoverished you're indigent too bad you can't give less than half shekel you're rich you're wealthy you want the world to know you want your name all over too bad they can't give more everybody gave the exact same thing for this for this census you collect it and it goes to albodas omoid it all goes to the carbonus tibor the public sacrifices the funds necessary to provide to support the public sacrifices the sacrifices on behalf of the community all came and that's why everybody was equal when it came to them so it's interesting that we count people we don't count people we don't count people how do we count people by their contribution it's not an interesting insight the jewish people we number of weinfeld who i like to quote weinfeld says you know the total jewish population on the globe is a rounding error in the population of china the total population of the jewish people across the globe are a rounding error of the population of china and yet we're counted by what we contribute to the world not by our number we're counted by our contribution not by our number and look around the world at our contribution to technology and medicine into the difference we make in the world look at how many nobel prizes look how many breakthroughs look how much advancement like how much progress look how much ethics and morality we are meant to when we succeeded in contributing to the world we introduced to the world to the greatest truth of monotheism of ethical monotheism so the beginning of our parish is a reminder that we're counted not by our number but we're counted by the contribution that we make by the contribution that we make it's a very very important lesson a very very important message but i want to take a look at it by salvation to get us started where salvation says the following but each one give to hashem an atonement for his soul what we were meant to give kisa when you lift when you count somebody by the way when you acknowledge they exist you lift their spirits a person feels invisible a person feels they don't count a person feels they don't matter is rosh when you acknowledge someone exists you lift their spirits you lift their head the nasty person has to give each kofir nafsho what did you contribute the mahdi shekhar represented a co-fair naf show an atonement for your soul it's a funny kind of a sentence could you imagine someone knocks on the door and they say would you like to think would you like to participate in the 2022 american census the florida senses the book its own census and you say well i don't know i don't really have time and i can't really get involved right now and i'm not really interested in they said whoa whoa you have to do it for ko for a nap show it's an atonement for your soul you slam that door as quickly as it would shut atonement for your soul what are you talking about trying to count on many people there are so many chick explains the following he says hashem requires that each person redeems himself to buy himself back from god what is a redemption what is a ko for naf show to redeem your soul is to buy yourself back from god the entire world is consecrated it's hectic the only legal means by which we're allowed to use haktish is through redemption the halaq means to redeem an object as a trade you can exchange the hectic item with a non-active item the non-consecrated item takes on the consecrated status of the item while the hectic item takes on the secular nature of the non-consecrated item so myself the farmer the farmer we have an amazing farmer spoke here a few weeks ago and she's our guest on behind the bema tomorrow night if you weren't in boca raton synagogue to hear her a farmer observing shemitah you you'll want to tune into this episode which is incredible so the farmer wherever they lived in israel separated their maester cheney and it had to be brought to you shalom but it wouldn't necessarily make it there so you'd be potent you would redeem it onto something else and you'd bring the coin and you purchased something there so you were able to remove the sanctity the consecrated status from the food and put it on the coin the coin became consecrated and the food stuff became mundane so a person can redeem the sacred or consecrated status from something sort of say liberate it allow it to simply be mundane one's body wants close one's children the entire universe requires redemption to allow us to make use of them yet what can man possibly offer in trade that could affect such redemption the entire world belongs to god so salvation says you know we live in a world that's all the hectic it's all sanctified it's all consecrated all belongs to him if we're lucky it's on loan to us if we're lucky we borrow it but really it's his it's not ours so what right do we have to use it what right do we have to enjoy it what right do we have to collect it upon reflection on this paradox in a moment of resignation proclaimed a man cannot redeem himself he cannot give on to hashem his redemption payment passage memphis yet many jews have tradition of reciting khaparas on arabium kippur where we quote a different passage in which hashem says redeem him from descending to the pit i have found ransom possible when hashem's attribute of judgment is evident versus operative while when his attribute of mercy prevails the pastor from eo pertains redemption is indeed possible what makes this payment says thereof in three ways you ready so these innocuous words at the beginning of our passion each go for a nap show that when you give that contribution when we count and make ourselves counted we are redeeming our soul how do we redeem our soul in other words how do we have license to live and operate and derive pleasure in this world maybe every single moment of every single day should exclusively be dedicated to sacred and holy activity what right do we have to do mundane things like eat and enjoy and interact with the physical world around us how do we redeem it how do we redeem ourselves he says three ways number one hashem the infinite enzo contracted himself to allow the existence of the world to make it possible for a finite world to co-exist with the infinite in keeping with the imperative of the man must also engage in symptoms hashem is everything he existed before us he will exist after us he doesn't take up the whole universe he is outside the universe we can't even describe what he is because it's outside our experience so how does hashem create a world and allow us to have a relationship with him in it so the kabbalists the mekobalam explains through a process called simpson hashem contracts himself he contracts in order to be able to fit into this world though he's infinite and has no boundaries he contracts himself so that he could operate in this world many harbor illusions of greatness thinking his abilities are limitless that he can attain infinity first redemption coin that god exacts from us is our own contraction just as hashem himself engages in symptoms so must we man expresses symptoms first and foremost by observing the precepts of fealty to jewish law is unenforceable no police no executive branch or government no jails no punishment by following allah despite the lack of external enforcement we engage in symptoms so the first way we do symptom is i want to eat anywhere anything but i don't when i electively voluntarily live a restrictive life i'm being with something myself i want to look at i want to say i want to eat i want to go i want to do but i create a set of boundaries and i live within those boundaries i'm emulating god i'm imitating god i'm practicing simpson i'm living within the boundaries that i set forth we don't have police and jails so why and in fact without that you see the world today the levels of assimilation levels of intermarriage levels of walking away the levels of people who have a casual attitude towards halacha to jewish life and living because there is no enforcement system there is no there are law enforcement so when we voluntarily electively do it we are imitating god's symptom hashem you contracted you constricted yourself and so do we even though the world is out there now there were many periods of jewish history centuries and millennia where others created simpson for us they stuffed us in a ghetto and they said you can't go to this university you can't go to that graduate school you can't hold this job you can't enter our restaurant and whether the jew wanted to be mid samsem or not they had no choice there's goldman medina this great country in which we live that gives us such freedom and democracy and liberty for which we must be incredibly grateful and proud also creates challenge and has spun us into a crisis because it says come there is no simpson there are no boundaries come join erase whatever differences be who you want who you feel you are participate and partake of whatever you want to be in so when we have to nevertheless be medsante ourselves this is a challenge of our generation we have kids not only kids adults they said boeing but i want to live like everybody else but i want to live that lifestyle but i want to partake but i want to go but i want to wear but i want to say but i want to eat but i want to do what do you mean i can't what do you mean i have boundaries what do you mean i'm different we imitate hashem through simpson through simpson the next attribute of hashem that we must imitate the second redemption coined to redeem our worldly life is hester or nellam the attribute of obscurity the ribonuclear not only contracts himself he obscures himself he does not act damage demonstrably nor does he seek recognition hashem is a kel mistake he's a hidden god he's hidden he controls the universe but behind the curtain he doesn't reveal himself to us he's comfortable and he prefers to be in the shadows and that's what he wants from us man is naturally inclined to strive for recognition for honor he wishes his efforts and actions to be appreciated by as many of his peers with as much fanfare as possible not everybody but there is a natural inclination and instinct part of the human psyche to love honor to love attention yet the greatest individuals and jewish is to reflect precisely the opposite tendency a predisposition towards obscurity take for as an example an august institution from thousands of years ago the ancient sagadola the men of the great assembly this group of rabbis preserved the remnant of israel through the first golis instituted the form of contemporary prayer as well as the standard formula for brachus laws of muktsa and the abundance of shabbos their impact on everyday life is immeasurable who were the representatives of this noble body how many of its names do we know we don't have time now but if i asked everybody shout out how many members of the unshakeness psychedelic can we name ezra everybody knows that's why he knew all those languages that's what we know the gemara states they were prophets among this group who were they we don't know why they not include their names why in the transmission of our torah shabbat do we not know their names because they walked in the way of hashem in the members of the kadisha there's no plaque we don't list their names next to the pillar society the people who participate in this holiest most sacred mitzvah the can't be repaid it's an obscurity it's in the shadows it's quiet it's humble it's modest it's the second redemption that we pay so to say of our souls is to do what's right without recognition or attention unless you're giving a large donation then we are happy to put your name up and lights the rashba has achieved it's an exception it motivates other people to do it but generally speaking we operate in the shadows in the background and finally the third redemption coin in order to make use of this world is elaine voiceless mute passive acceptance reveals himself in a dramatic faction hashem of glory thunders more often he is mute and passive this tendencies towards silence is also included in his slowness to anger a jew regularly decides to break up on eating and satisfying his hunger all as well he's healthy in the possession of his faculties one can readily sense the presence of hashem in cruel contrast upon the tragic death of a mother father-son daughter's spouse we tear clothing we say bart and emma's a person prepares the body for burial places in the ground shows her at the top of the casket everything that means anything to him lies lifeless before in the grave he recites the bracha where's the atta where's god's presence at that moment he's most tormented by the question he responds with kaddish affirming that the world is god's everything that takes place in it is a reflection of his will unanswerable unexplained tragedies have accompanied the jew in his long history when faced with death when a jew is confronted with the ultimate taku an unanswerable question he recites the brahms emotional sublimation is the greatest act of redemption that you can pay the holy one so thereof i think very beautifully there's a lot more to say but not right now really beautifully describes these three coins the coin doesn't mean a physical material monetary payment of redemption the coin is the symbol of making a payment we pay god we redeem ourselves through through experiences of simpson i want to eat everywhere i want saturdays at the beach i want to dress like look like act like everybody else but something ourselves there are barriers there are boundaries i want the spotlight i want the fanfare i want the i want the ego the honor yourself do what's right promote what's right be the catalyst for what's right but like hashem in the background and lastly i want to understand that we see later in our passion show me your face why do bad things happen to good people the question of theodicy that's never been answered before a horrible horrible question it's not a horrible question it's a horrible question because there is no answer why do bad things happen to good people whether it's one good person a child whether it's six million why do bad things happen to good people if we protest hashem if we object hashem if we want to and crave to understand to comprehend that don't feel bad or guilty because none other than mushroom the one who was closest with hashem than anyone ever was bothered by this very same question hashem show me your face let me understand and hashem says you can only see the back of my head nobody can see my face back of my head means only in retrospect only after the fact can you sometimes put the pieces of the puzzle together but as it's happening in real time you will never understand because with the admission with the concession that there's a god is the admission and concession that we are not god and therefore by definition there's so much that we can't and won't understand we don't and that is the third act of symptom that is the third pinya nephesh the third coin that we pay is hashem to live in your world the cost of living in your world the cost of the privilege of living in your world is to surrender that we will not understand everything we won't understand so what do we do the first famously said don't ask lama but lima don't ask why why do bad things happen to good people you could get stuck and there are i think heretics will try to give you the answer they make lots of videos they try to get lots of followers and they're very um sensationalistic so they get a big audience this is why hashem did this is why the holocaust happened insane people make videos today telling us exactly why the holocaust happened and this is why women get this type of cancer and this is why men suffer this illness and this is why this is happening there are people and they have followers who say and pretend that they are god and they can tell us why things so moshe rabbanu didn't get to know but hashem gave a direct message to them it's heresy it's absolute heresy it's a failure to pay this third and final pidonefish sesham i don't know why and i'm not going to get stuck on lama i'm not going to get stuck on why because that is a question that has no answer instead i will ask lima for what how can i be better how can i grow how can i improve how can i change because this is the reason it happened so that's what i need to change who knows when we get upstairs we'll find out but it's a good idea to change nonetheless whether that was the reason or not so don't listen to anyone who tells you they know because they're competing with hashem and hashem no interest he doesn't need to compete back with them hashir lawyer bell we said let's move right along the rich person cannot add more the rich person cannot add more why is it specifically half a shekel wonders of the rest of us a much more efficient way to do a census is everybody gives a whole shekel why a half shackle and why is everyone equal what is this communism socialism everybody gives the exact same thing i went to russia twice i went to moldova kishnev my cousin was running yeshiva there i went wants to help on success i went from israel i was in my second year of israel flew on moldovia airlines so when they went around up and down the aisle the cart for drinks put down the tray which barely stayed so they were handing out cups of seltzer to everybody i said you have coke and i'll never forget her russian accent the woman said everybody gets the same thing and i thought to myself wow communism is not quite yet fully over so everybody gives the same thing half shackle why is everybody given the same thing wouldn't we want to encourage the person who could give a million checkout give a billion check out a trillion check out half shackle same um nope can't take more i understand the honey you know you have a minimum threshold trying to tell everybody there's a minimum beg borrow steal do what you got to do everybody's got to give the minimum but a maximum threshold why would we tell the poor the rich person stop can't give more says you give a half shackle you think have shackles of garnished this is a nothing i'm contributing next to nothing inconsequential invisible makes no difference negligible what's a half shackle what's a half dollar it's nothing and this is exactly the point that toro wanted to communicate lola is by isla says don't hesitate don't pause don't be ashamed or feel guilty for giving small things to hashem this world is built on small things what seems negligible what looks inconsequential what seems invisible is what changes the world it's what means everything to hashem it is the backbone the foundation of relationships marriages aren't made or broken by flowers and chocolates they're made and broken by whether the socks made it in the hamper or whether the toilet seat was put down or not you're laughing i'm not joking i'm not choking come to a mysterious i get and ask where did this marriage fall apart and it didn't fall apart by major ideological differences fell apart because the small seemingly negligible things you don't mean my needs you don't respond you don't communicate you don't acknowledge my bid for connection and the relationship with hashem is no different of course it's the big moments of course it's rise to the occasion but it's the seemingly small did you make a little bracha did you say thank you the bid for connection do we acknowledge its existence do we connect do we answer the call they need a tenth for the shiva minion it's inconvenient you already started to take out your filling you got to put it back in and get in your car and find the address and get there small insignificant inconsequential negligible who cares did you make the tenth of the to the person saying shiva it's not small to the ribonus shalom it's not small the world is built on these seemingly small things the things that look unimportant the things that look inconsequential sometimes what seems small and inconsequential is us we think what difference do we make we're small we're inconsequential we're fallible we're frail we make mistakes does hashem really care about us little small me who even notices if i don't make it to shul who even would notice if i disappeared tomorrow what difference do i make sure so we think you know my little shimano s frame my little bracha my little dollar there's somebody in our community a very very holy person a very precious holy person who moved in recently and that stalker box sadly only passes the man's section every day she comes to davao and shakur's milk with the minions very holy i'm embarrassing that person right now i apologize it comes to diamond every day but the stucco docks doesn't make it around the edges nation so she puts a dollar every day in the little slot in my door where other shilohs are left and checks are deposited there's a dollar it's just a dollar bill every day i take it in every dollar i think wow she thinks it's so small it's a little dollar you know what that dollar is she could say that stock a box they don't care enough to pass the stock a box around there is ezra's nostril they don't get my stucco a little dollar every day in that box what it does for my day every day to start my day a dollar a little darling says the torah says every year every jew i don't care if you're a billionaire trillionaire you're on tom everyone has a half a dollar and everyone gives the same and everyone needs to know the little small things they seem insignificant inconsequential they mean the world to me says hashem they make all the difference in the world who shall person thinks hashem only cares about the shema estrella in the bracha hashem only cares about the daphyomi or the capital of the tsadic of that sadekis i was asking my we're doing this uh global campaign in a few weeks so i said to my kids at dinner last night who should we have on behind the bema that week we have to get a large audience so the global campaign to help us to sure so my nine-year-old son says i have an idea i said who he said you should get refrain so i don't think he's doing podcasts these days he's like he's the biggest he's the biggest guggle i love that he knows that and thinks that it's incredible it's incredible i love that he's so cute that he thinks that we could get on behind the bhima but we think that sadiq gadolin oh he is learning his bracha his talent he's holding the door for someone his dollar in the pushka that's what matters but me i'mma cut that i'm what's the point of the few pages i learned that if you tell them i don't even understand that i say the fact that i made it to shul the dollar i put in the rabbis for limited iraq nothing you know we always find ourselves the mistakes that we make we beat ourselves up and we sit and we marinate in shame when we come up short but do we find and do we celebrate the success do we identify the little victories do we recognize the nikudo satovas those small little things that are good every jew no matter how distant no matter how full they've far they've fallen every jew is positive do we emphasize do we celebrate do we pause and identify you know what it means to hashem we spoke about several weeks ago to give what that means to give us we know how good it feels to give our parents our boss our spouse someone we admire our mentor to give them see how good it feels to know we give hashem the little things give him the greatest and that's the mahi sasha shirley misho usher of mitsubishi if you're wealthy in total in mitzvos you finished shah 17 times and you made billion dollar donations to the community lola his goes don't get arrogant or proud don't feel so proud because you have so much the dao and if you have so little low yamit don't see yourself as small everyone just give your mahathi sasha everybody show up and everybody do your part and everybody contribute what looks and feels to be so small everybody do your thing and that dear friends is also the theme of this program caught on today when we have two adars a leap year such as today seven times every nineteen years or something like that we have a purim katana lipier and adar shami so purim is really in the second aadhaar so it's adjacent to nissan smith we create the redemption next to the redemption other shami and nissan but today's purim khattan you can't let the 15th of other go by 14 divided go by in a small fashion so there's a purim we call it small but the swarmakadosham say it's even greater and bigger you know why when it comes to the real purim you need a sticker you need to put on a costume in order to really lose yourself and surrender to experience a bittle to really get the das the highest knowledge you can have is to know how little you know the greatest das is to be mavato yodas sounds paradoxical right the greatest das the highest level of knowledge is to know that i know nothing what do you mean if i know nothing how's that the highest level because that's the highest level the people who think they know are on the low level of knowledge but the people you know daniel kahaneman the nobel prize winning economist cousin of the panavicious russia shiva he was asked what does he think is the most dangerous thing if there were one thing he could change in the world what would it be and his answer was overconfidence wars have been launched relationships have been broken people have died because of overconfidence doctors of themselves if you could change anything it's overconfidence so the greatest knowledge the highest dos is when you have no dust the highest knowledge is when you know you know nothing so we dress in costumes and we get inebriated and we actually carry ourselves we look around the world that people are in costumes i don't recognize i don't know i don't comprehend i can't see it's a it's a venus who the world is upside down i don't know the difference between mordechai i have no das and that's the highest so we need all those other physical stimuli to do it on purim but on today we get to that level of das without those things so it's even higher it's even holier it's an israzom they're people we have to dive in for there are things we have to dive in for don't let today go by without leaning into it and davening don't let today go by without realizing that we have to fight the amalek in our own lives amalek is that voice of that nothing's worthy of awe or versus e to be a yield is all shem you're everywhere this world you're awesome to be among is nothing is worthy of allah nothing is significant nothing is impressive everything is coincidence and random and chance and cynical and sarcastic and there's that voice inside us and today we squash it we extinguish it we silence it instead we express our voice not of but of awe wow hashem you're everywhere and you're in every one and you're in everything and that gives me the chills that gives me goosebumps that fills me with awe and defeat the amalek in us it's a day of ace ratsong esther went i showed lokidas she went she wasn't invited to the mall but she barged in and she made her demands if it meets the king's if the king is willing please so today we go in we're not invited the tour says where those evil friends come they come from esther she says we come in we say hashem i'm not worthy i'm not worthy you didn't invite me i don't deserve to be in here if you decapitate me at this moment you're in the right however however if it pleases you could you give a refusal to esther to ila carmel shy ben reza and everyone else who needs one i'm not invited i don't belong i'm not worthy but on this eighth zone could you help those who want to be married find their spouse those who want to be pregnant have their baby and let those babies come out healthy and well mama martov so you got to take advantage of the small things the mahathi sasheko of nachman says you are in torah in mitzvos on this purim we're nothing i don't care poor you think you are hadalo yamit you think you're unworthy you have nothing you can still barge into the king and ask for what you need this purim khatta is a special day don't let it go by paragulam turn the page turn a few pages page 488. i'm skipping a few sections of our parsha they're worth talking about we have in the past you can listen next week when we don't have shear there are many years of parsha shirum online by yakel you could hear online you can find them so we have the kior which again the question begs itself this is one of the vessels of the mishkan why wasn't it back in parshish truma i we have the basaman marjor mordechai we have the incense we talked about last shabbos the torahs if you see minna greet it from the cloth i'm sorry for my little rant the taurus the significance of the guitarist and that brings us the pair glamour of pasagala by dabberish he said i have called you by name but sal the son of the son of horror of the tribe of yehudah and amaleo kim i have filled you with the godly spirit put a special pinch in your hat you're the first this is where it comes from what is the philosophy of the balatanya what is the definition of certainly i am inadequate to tell you for another time we can explore it together but that's what hashem is telling us telling betsalo that he filled with salah with those things so has a fantastic insight as soon as i find it i will tell it to you there it is ramosa he's an artist and he's a craftsman he's a designer he's a builder i filled him with all these qualities and all these talents ray c karasie i previously called him maisha asked for moshe where when what are we talking about first of all how old is betsal here it's a bar mitzvah he's a bar mitzvah and he's already the architect of the mishka don't dismiss the kids but why the word see so listen to what moshe says listen to what moshe says i'm going to baltimore the shabbos i'm speaking in bolton when i'm trying to figure out what to say in the past i hope the people of baltimore don't listen to the posh class i don't know what i'm saying there yet so if you're from baltimore forget everything so emotions has the following is a goof where do we find that god called out him and said you have these talents and skills and the answer is because he had those talents and skills says ramosa when a person thinks about their life when a person looks into themselves and says what am i good at why am i here what am i programmed to contribute to this world what are my talents what are my skills what are the gifts that i was given that's hashem calling you he doesn't have to actually knock on our door send us an email kris barco doesn't call our cell phone course barcode doesn't speak to us he speaks to us through the gifts he gave us so if we look in ourselves and we say you know what i'm good at this that or the other thing and i'm not good at it only for myself those talents those skills those gifts are not just so i can have more money and more things and more experiences although there's nothing wrong with enjoying that but those were given to me to make a difference to contribute and to better and to improve the world around me that's why i have them that's my responsibility with them it's the beginning of myself the foundation of foundations and the root of serving hashem is for a person to ask themselves what is my duty and obligation what is my responsibility in the world well how do i know i didn't get the memo how do i know i didn't get a fedex package i didn't get an email i didn't get the file where does hashem tell me what i meant to do to the world how do i know the answer is you have to sit down and ask yourself we have to sit and ask ourselves so moshe says this is also the shot that hashem said to avraham sovereign says what do you mean how am i supposed to give a bracha what do you mean how am i meant to be look at your life and ask yourself what talents what skills with gifts what difference are you meant to make we don't live this world for ourselves we are here to serve we are here to make a difference and i have to tell you if you want pleasure and happiness and you like yourself there is nothing you can do more for yourself than be a difference for others there's just nothing better that feels better in the world so maybe it's ego maybe it's narcissistic maybe it's self-serving but it happens to be that he programmed us that when we make that difference that feeling that i've actually contributed at a positive outcome in the world there's no better feeling that's why my job is no better job on the entire world than my job i wouldn't trade it for anything there's no better job in the world than what i get to do i have the privilege and the gift to do is to try to everyday help and to try to make a difference and you can do it too and you do do it too you don't have to be professional that's the strike against me when i get upstairs well that was your job you got paid to it that was your career when you run the khadra kadisha or the hassel or you volunteer to give the shire you're the gabba in the minion you call the person you visit the person and you're the it's not your career it's not your profession it's not how you get it paid it's not what you how you made a living and you far surpass any rabbi but to be a difference to make a difference to others says of moshe where did hashem call bitsala where do we see that where's the evidence of it you know what the answer is it's all had those talents and skills whatever talents and skills we have means it is our calling it is our calling that's what we're supposed to make our our avocation our vocation our location our advocation our calling is what we do a job or is it a calling if you're lucky in life it's both for some who are less lucky but they need to pay the bills nonetheless they have a job and then they have a calling for some they are separate and if you're fortunate they overlap but we look at our life and we say what am i meant to do and that is hashem hashem says hey i called out to you and i told you i gave you these skills you're a great communicator you're incredibly and highly organized you're a leader who can get people to follow you're a foot soldier who gets things done who are you what's your talent what's your skill what are you artistic are you creative what difference do you make hashem by giving you that talent and skill was calling upon you to use it don't ignore him pericle on the days plus aleph we're skipping shabbos the parsha is so rich and filled and we're skipping all these sections i guess because we'll speak about them in baltimore apparently saitishmore it doesn't say shabbasi observe my shabbos it says observe my shabba sis why this weekend next week well why stop at two and every shabbos you're really keeping two shabboses what are the two shabboses you're keeping every shabbos come to baltimore the shabbos like that now we've spoken about in the past like mecklenburg has a fantastic insight but moving right along we get to the vayaram ki boshesh moshe paraglam it based pasagalif oh the people saw if you don't correct when you start to read this where it all begins to go wrong so beautiful he took us out ten plagues splitting of the sea miracles falling of the month it's been incredible building of a mishkan a love affair a rendezvous point and this is where it all goes wrong if you don't cracks when you read this and say oh i hate this part i wish they didn't i wish i could warn them don't do it the people saw that moshe had delayed coming down the mountain where'd they go wrong they didn't realize that the day follows the night so they miscalculated in the timing and he said 40 days when the 40 days were meant to begin versus when they began and therefore they panicked elohim they panic they gather around our own rise up make for us gods that will go before us for this man moshe brought us the land of egypt we don't know what became of him where is he he's not back he's gone he climbed the mountain he's never coming down so we don't know what to do so new what do we do so our own says take your jewelry bring it to me they fashion aaron aaron is the spokesperson iron is calling for the building of the ego how do we understand all of this so before we get to that aruba in feinstein beautiful safer that was given to me nah shalom rav rubin feinstein i checked by the way when he quotes the russia shiva is talking about his father of moshe ramirez says this possible begins the sequence of events that led to the terrible sin of the ego moshe was late and returning they panicked they thought he was dead they come down on the demand did he make a replacement they felt their emissary was missing they needed a new vehicle to continue their relationship with hashem every year we explained the kusari or vidalia i find the most compelling explanation they were not in fact they were not in fact disloyal to hashem they were not worshiping an idol they wanted to serve hashem they had just become accustomed to serve him through a physical tangible means we are physical people we operate through our five senses and therefore we believe the truth of what our five senses can perceive so when moshe could speak to him and moshe could hold their hands and moshe was a presence in their lives through moshe they connected to hashem and they panicked without moshe what do we do we're all on our own we can't do this so the idea was to build an ego we'll build a physical manifestation which will take the place or at least buy us time question is ask for really feinstein a great question why when motion does not come back i never thought of this question before i've learned precious question a few times in my life never thought of this question when they panic there are a lot of alternatives of what they could have done in their state of panic give me an option what could they have done in their state of panic was there an alternative to moshe other than a golden inanimate calf good arum never occurred to me that question why didn't they say moshe aron holy arun brother arun your brother motion's gone he's not coming back i guess you need to take over continuity you are the successor arun i know you're older than moshe euros number two but slide over see you just became number one you just became number one he's not coming back i was recently uh talking about i love talking too but i was talking about my good friend of a jonathan morgan in scarsdale and the horrific horrific story that happened in that community there's a terrible fire one shot this morning the beloved rabbi and rebecca of the community passed away in a fire friday night and he went from a young assistant rabbi not necessarily on the trajectory of the rabbinate for his whole life and he like the community came to show that morning to find that room passed away and his rabbit sin the whole community came to shabbos wanted to find out that they were gone and young assistant inexperienced rabbi you're not only now not not now only the senior rabbi of the community you need to comfort and usher the community through this horrific loss it's unimaginable i have such awe of him so the people could have turned to aaron and said some loss is a tragedy we don't know where moshe went he's not coming back we're grieving we're mourning we're in a state of loss but you know what you're taking over why build an ego instead of simply passing the mantle on to aaron it's a good question it's a good question i never thought of that question says rubin says reuben why did chrysler need to look elsewhere for the new mushrooms they knew that well why wasn't it the obvious choice why wasn't it the obvious choice the answer is the old saying goes i never heard it but the old saying goes better a calf from the street than our own our own when it comes to appointing a leader over people it's important that their impression of it be one of honor and dignity in this way he'll be looked at with the proper respect and will be able to lead the nation when a person grows up among the people like our our own did the childish behaviors and immaturities of his youth make an impression on people that sticks with him even when he grows older because of this it's very difficult for people to completely accept one of their own with complete hispanics they remember him as a child before he earned the greatness he now possesses the nation gave no thought to making around the new emissary but they knew him as one of their own moshe only motion could reign over them in other words says reuben feinstein where did aaron grow up among the people they saw him make noise in the middle of shule they saw him throwing candies and collecting and scurrying at a bar mitzvah they saw him leave his plate after kennedy put it they knew little arun loud aaron they saw him grow up like every child where did moshe grow up moshe grew up in the palace moshe grew up among royalty that's why hashem arranged it that way swarno says even ezra say moshe grew up among royalty first of all he would have the confidence of royalty to confront royalty but also you'd have the respect of the people who would say oh he's not one of us so our own was different now that moshe was gone klaus saw a calf from the street to take his place rather than the great aaron who grew up in front of them and my grandfather allah shalom's funeral in elizabeth new jersey my grandfather san diego so revelates gave hespit and he said about my grandfather my great-grandpa my grandparents were elizabeth before the titus the press but my grandfather knew rabbi tyson young rabbi tites from when he was born so in his husband he said about my grandfather that from the day that he took over for his father he became a rav of jc and elizabeth my grandfather never called him by his first name he called them the rav he called them rabbi tights part of the hess that he gave about my grandfather was that despite his having grown up and been in his class and interacted with him and having seen him as a little boy he treated him as his rev with awe and respect because even though he was much as younger that was the relationship he had with him so that's a hard thing to achieve not everybody can achieve that says reuben feinstein and so much so that the people didn't achieve it and they saw aaron as great as much as they loved him as accessible as he was and as warm as he was and as much of a peacemaker as he was and as much as they loved him he was still a little around so they had trouble connecting and loving him in that way loving him in that way so what happens they build the ego hashem says hashem says oh boy moshe i know that we're having a yom yoon up here i know there's a great yakikawa going up on here i know we're having a great convention up here but while the cat's away the mice are playing while you and i are stagging up here at the agora conference at the rca the ou whatever conference it is let's hope it was a all above all the above conference you need to go down le time to go home you know why your people that i brought out of the land of egypt they are corrupt they've lost their way now if i'm moshe what do i say right now which word in that puzzle bothers you you know it's like if your heavens out my kids are older now when they were little kids closet you need to come home because your kids are not behaving and your kids are out of control and your kids are not doing their homework and your kids are not going to bed and your kids are not doing anything and you need to come home right now because your kids hashem says to motion you need to go home right now because your kids are not behaving so your heaven says to me what i would think moshe albania would say to hashem my kids they're not your kids moshe says that my kids all of a sudden you're not the omnipotent infinite creator source of the universe they're my kids your kids what's going on over here what's going on over here climb down from your greatness climb down from your position of distinction because you only have it on behalf in the merit of the jewish people and now that your people have become corrupt now that you people have made such a critical mistake what do i need you for so i'm taking your status i'm taking your title left right go down down and out so asks the megiddo yosef astro of seratzkin tamuahadhava i don't understand mushroom hashem testifies about moshe how much he loves moshe and cherishes moshe and all of a sudden moshe is using moshe ah you're people they're corrupt i lost the people what what good are you to me what good are you to me that's the gemara what do i need you for what good are you to me i'm just using moshe and moshe doesn't have a status this greatness on his own what in the world is going on here okay he lost the people the people lost their way they became corrupt they made a terrible mistake but moshe's still moshe moshe is still humble emotions you why do i need you anymore why do i need you anymore so he says the following amazing is so he says i want to get to a few more divi taurus i won't read it to you inside he brings a lot of my murakazaw but he says with what we're teaching us what this pasta what the torah is teaching us here is when you're privileged to be in a position of leadership never ever think it's your own worthiness never think it's your merit never think that you've captured and you own that title it's this ghost of the civil war it's in the merit of the community that you serve and when they come when you've lost the community then you've also lost that position of distinction know that it's the merit of the community you serve last week i'm behind the bhima we had rabbi ali mansour who's a great orator great time a great speaker if you haven't watched it yet you should i always plug again i don't make any money that's not my career but hashem is not my future my life wouldn't change if it stopped tomorrow but we have such incredible guests and you hear their message their inspiration forget me it's worth it to listen to them so when matsura said i asked them how do you get it all done he has five websites that are updated daily daily gemara daily this day and he runs a large safari synagogue in brooklyn and india how do you get it all done so he answered is this is that comes when you are leader of a community it's this course of the community he said just like the torah tells us there's a concept called to get from point a to point b should take this amount of time but when you're doing it for the purpose of a mitzvah it takes a fraction of that time and eliezer went to go find a way for rifka he married a frieza sandera so so too when you're preparing shiron when you're working on behalf of the seaboard in their merit you get more done than should be technically you should be able to get done he said he knows that because when he leaves his tibor to go speak somewhere else he leaves the seaboard to go on vacation and say hey would you mind speaking it takes him 10 times longer to prepare than when he's in his own seaboard but he doesn't have the merit of the seaboard he doesn't have the efficiency the productivity he can't get done everything that he gets done and that's the message over here torah wanted to tell us if you lost at sebor you lost your merit moshe is still the same moshe and moshe's greatness is still appreciated and beloved by hashem but the doula of moshe the stature of moshe is on behalf of the merit of the people leaders lose that they sometimes think that the people are lucky to have them instead of realizing they're lucky to have the people it's the people of the seaboard that they serve they serve the zebra that sibo doesn't serve them and if the seaboard loses their merit they lose their merit do i think that any invitations i've ever had to the white house or to go meatballs because because of me you think it's from goldberg the charm or the good lucks it's because palm beach county our votes matter they make a difference it's because we decide and we determine presidential elections in palm beach county you think i'm foolish that if i were in new york or california i would never be invited because everybody already knows which way it's going to go you have to know who you represent in that merit and the moment you forget that and you lose that then you are lost and that's what the torah was telling us here and that's what the torah even tells us he brings a lot of rays but here's an example of one when moshe gives the shilt on yeshua it says says that the wellsprings of wisdom were closed up why mushroom the wellsprings of wisdom were closed up all because he passed the mantle to yeshua why the answer is that that high speed connection came in the merit of the people he was serving now that he became the emeritus moshe rabbenu emeritus had said on the stationary now they became the emeritus he lost the host of the seaboard so nistatmu a leader needs to never forget and never lose sight that their gifts and their opportunities is just the blessing and the merit the leader serves the community the community does not serve the leader i vasmir we did not get a criticism of time here let's see one or two last ones let's throw in okay i'll tell you which one i want to do do one more i'm excited to tell you 11 stream on this pasta we'll do one more and i have my whole purchase here for next year prepared yay we were bothered hashem says to moshe go down you have it come home your kids are misbehaving so the shrabba says hashem my kids are not yours my people not your people my community not your my membership not your membership so the medrash answers that you know who it was who was misbehaving it was the erev i so if it was the heir of wrath if the whole catalyst the whole manufacturers of this ego were the aravrov they were the i don't even know how to translate iraf they were the uh the riff raff that's a good translation thank you it's a group effort here they were the riff raff so if the whole troublemakers were the riffraff why were the rest of the jewish people punished if they didn't actually contribute they didn't run they didn't do that in worship why were they punished says the following apostle you know the people were quiet they didn't protested and objected and say anything even as they watched the riffraff among them wreak havoc and yet they're held accountable and that wasn't an easy thing to do to intervene or interfere to say something was not easy the rashi brings to sha allah moshe said i'm coming back at the end of 40 days the 40th day was in shavasana the sultan came down and confused the whole world and it looked like darkness and cloud and they said moshe died the kakba is it must be there's such a cloud over the world there's such a darkness that is descended on the world it must be because moshe died and moshe died he's not coming back and that's what led everything so rashford says come in they saw as if moshe was being carried up above he died and he was ascending on high so you see levenshtein if you were there if you heard moshe was coming back if you got caught up in this the day he was supposed to come back instead of his reappearing what is there darkness and cloud and confusion descends to the world i am loyal would you two not be filled with doubt would you two not be confused would you two not consider that maybe this riff raft maybe they're right maybe they're on to something it's very very easy to fall and pray to this confusion to get caught up to get confused to remain silent and to not protest the only ones who do are lazy let me step out let you stand up and they make a difference it's a big finish of this magician is that the ego this monumental hate which we continue to suffer from until today like the marathon and other this was not actually actively building the ego but was the silence to protest so i'll close by telling you i just wrote i don't know when it's coming out magazine has a new feature where they'll have a statement and then they have three people agree or disagree and why so they had a statement something like i forgot the exact statement which was that uh if there are people who look like me and dress like me and they're acting in an inappropriate behavior it's never okay to be silent agree or disagree i forgot exactly the statement so i wrote my opinion and i'll share it with you a little preview to this little column in closing based on this insight of the ego your nation failed they became corrupt and what was the corruption corruption is not only when you actively perpetrate silence is a form of corruption i wrote the question like almost all others does not have an absolute answer some extremists are already marginalized and irrelevant to publicly condemn them would give them the attention they seek however most often it's critically important to confront the denouncers of the outrageous anti-torah behavior particularly those who dress are affiliate like you it's more natural to condemn the other we have a greater responsibility and have a more powerful impact when we decry the behavior of those who identify with us either religiously or politically failure to help particularly within a community which you have a say makes you an accomplice to it the ignorant chavez stuff tells us anyone who had the capability to protest the sinful conduct of the members of his household or the people of his town or the whole world that didn't is liable for the sins of the members of his household or his town of the whole world and is punished says you shall would not have been destroyed had it not been for the people's failure to protest or prevent each other from sinning we find in these moments that we're most accountable not for what's perpetrated but the silence indifference apathy complacency of those who are there come on soto yura says paro asked three advisers what to do with the jews everyone knows this good morning billam counseled paro he said throw all the jewish boys in the nile eof quiet he was silent and israel in the sign of protests ran away so much says hashem punished yo and hashem punished billam eo was punished billam was punished and yesterday was rewarded that he ran away in protest fracked the brisker briskarov asks the brisker of i understand bilum's punished because he advised paro heinous advice i understand yesterday's reward he ran away in protest eo don't reward him don't punish me just move on switzerland he's uh sweden he's uh neutral neutrality why are you punished for neutrality ask the brisker of so he has such an important insight he says that firstly when someone's in an influential position they remain silent they're an accomplice you're punished for silence because silence is not neutrality silence always benefits the perpetrator never the victim always but more than that he says eo of silence in the face of power's terrible question actually emboldened billam it gave him the confidence he needed to suggest its plan of annihilation when a good respected person like eof is quiet so bilham said okay he tested the waters here's my plan here's what i would do eof anything to say no billam says if a good respected person is going to be quiet now i know there's no opposition i can go forward with my plan silence is not neutrality not wanting to get involved is getting involved because our silence and indifference embolden and benefit the evil do where it never protects the victim and it never advances justice martin luther king jr said this could be the first time he's quoted in a magazine if it makes it in he said in the end maybe not i shouldn't have said that maybe not anyway he said in the end we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends one day the rabona hashom himself will call to account those who perpetrated wrongly doing against him and against others but there's no doubt he will also remember those who remain silent when they could have and they should have spoken and i'll tell you i've experienced this i'm sure you have but there are there are crazy people and they're radicalizing others and when they're not called out for their craziness and for radicalizing innocent people when they're not called out for inciting people they're not called out for what they're doing when the world doesn't want to get involved and doesn't want to interfere and doesn't want to stand up and wants to remain silent you're going to hold people accountable like he did eos because silence is an accomplice and silence always benefits the perpetrator occasionally people say to me rabbi there's so much courage you stood up about the aguna whatever i'm telling you i honestly don't know what they're talking about when there's something obvious and right to do i don't think it takes courage it's right to do but sadly you look around the world and you see so many people people in leadership positions who are of the privilege and the blessing and are living off of the skus of the cbor and they don't use that microphone that megaphone they don't use that platform to stand up and to call out to confront the silence is deafening and that's what hashem says to moshe it's only the rabble rousers it's only the riff ref we're causing the problems hashem doesn't say to moshe you got to get down there the riffraff are acting out you got to get down there there's two crazies making insane videos online hashem says you got to get down there because there's people making crazy videos online and nobody's saying anything where are the jewish organizations where the jewish spokespeople where's the jewish leadership where are they to marginalize where are they to call out where are they to confront where are they to de-platform we become corrupt we're silent and indifferent and we're quiet and we're not willing to confront the people who need to be silenced have a fantastic week everybody in a freelance stay happy stay healthy stay holy