Parsha Perspectives for Today (Re'eh, 5781) - Jew Needs Fins and Scales

good morning bogarto welcome back to partial perspectives for today we have the privilege this week of reading and learning parshas together a is found in the arts crosstown hamish page 998. i want to thank our generous sponsors first of all becky navi cats who generously sponsored the partial sheer for the year in memory of becca's father david grossman aliyah thank you so much to our dear friends the casters also this morning shir is sponsored by sharon and david carpella memory of her beloved father herman rockhoff heim shmuel ben mushulem favish on his your site his name is thank you so much to the carpels if you'd like to sponsor a future parshashir or any of our shiram we've made it easier than ever go to brsonline.org sponsor brsonline.org sponsor in the one spot you can choose the date write the language make the payment easier than ever pastries rabbenu is continuing his monologue his soliloquy his charge and mission to the jewish people he will not be joining them but they will be entering the land of israel and he wants to make sure that they've learned the lessons of the desert they've learned the lessons of all that they've been through he wants to make sure that they're going to go into israel the very best versions of themselves or at least the very best versions possible so he begins see behold today i placed before you a blessing and a curse essa bracha what is the bra you will lead a blessed life you will lead a beautiful life a good life if what if you if you listen to the mitzvos of hashem baklala and the curses if you don't listen in the midst of hashem if you stray if you abandon the path if you are distracted if you give into temptation athletes influencers the mighty dollar money politics politicians natural order the natural world you're going to subscribe to other sources of power of influence in this world you will abandon god and think it's that's a life of klala that's a life of chasing your tail it's a life of disappointment it's a life of emptiness it is a great and grave mistake so what does this mean says behold i've placed before you today blessing and curse what does that mean did he literally put them before them what does it mean he's put so we've analyzed this you can listen to past pasha shirum and you will see that we've spoken about this and we've spoken about it often but i want to share some new insights and new perspectives on the question of what it means so we begin the katskarab i mentioned last week i think a new wonderful saver that came out em as the amuna a beautiful collection of the teachings of the katsukareb mendel of kotsk he writes min when this great sadiq once sat at the table of the katsukareba charlotte he wondered out loud to the great khatsuka what's going on in this opening pasuk it seems incongruous the grammar shifts the grammar is off mashapasaka s it begins in the singular sea in the singular addressing the individual the himself and then it continues in the plural in the plural so why the shift rey in the singular look see the blessing and curse i've placed before you in the plural lift of an answered the katsuka ap has an observation when it comes to israel yes or the great convert it's a debate if he converted but yesterday the great father-in-law of moshe abenu who comes and he joins the journey of the jewish people and there too vaishma yisro says the zoar isro did not hear something that was not broadcast to everyone israel watched the same newscast he read the same headlines he got the same email notification and alert he saw the same events as the rest of the world the difference is he heard he listened in a penetrative way he listened not only superficially he listened not only audibly he listened with his heart he listened to this soul that's why rashid at the beginning of pasha's yes what did yisro hear that made him stop get up and go so the same broadcast went out to the entire world universally all of humanity heard the same news about what god had done in egypt and the miracles that he had performed israel however integrated them he heard them in an altogether different way the same is true here god presents us the blueprint for creation god gives all of us equally the instruction manual for life lift we all have access to the torah and we all have access to and we all have access to jewish thought and jewish inspiration but the way that we absorb the way that we integrate the way they receive and the way we react is different for every one of us because a person only sees the world through the filter of our own personality we see and we absorb and we analyze the world through the filter of our own personality our own personal history our own narrative yeshua move on so said that's why the shift in the grammar we begin ray in the singular lift and the plural was presented in front of everyone is presented equally the torah was given to us as a blueprint as a manual the torah was given to us as a gps a navigation device to make our way through this world but how we use the torah to interpret the world how we interact and engage the world every one of us is different every one of us is distinct every one of us is unique and therefore a in the singular it was given we take out we extract we experience from torah what we put in so we all have the same torah but is that torah enriched does it elevate does it inspire or is the torah a burden is the torah a list a series of check marks that we place it's up to us that's what is a shift says the qatar all of us have access to the same torah but the what we see how we see it how we receive it every one of us is different that's number one number two says the qatar ode parish shahide shannon saying furthermore that which you presented to the masses even the individual is able to perceive even individual is able to see through the connection with somebody greater so sometimes we can't perceive on our own but when there's a sibor when there's a cloud when there's a group when there's a community it enables us so ray the singular is able to see why because it's place left me on my own limited vision i may not have good vision proper vision but when i combine when i collaborate when i'm complemented by the seabor now i can see much further now i can see much deeper now i can see much better that's why r a hawaii is the individual c is based on lift based on what is placed lift all of that is the katsukoreba katsukura shot number one and kaskareb shot number two what about so raja wise has another mother of rabbi rashford wise the milk sausage has another interpretation why the shift we go from the singular to the plural what is it meant to teach us so ravager quotes the gemaran conduction the gemara conducion and of the base has the following a person should always live life and live in this world as if we ourselves are half worthy and half unworthy half we deserve and half were undeserving and then on the scale the scale is exactly equal the scale is exactly in balance the scale is exactly even what happens if we do one mitzvah we tilt the scale in our own favor of us and we make one more mistake one more miscalculation one more misstep oylo then the scale is tipped in the other direction our whole fate our whole fortune is determined by that one other mistake we made that compounded our other mistakes and tilted the scale against our favor has a different understanding he says the whole world is judged the fate and future of the whole world is determined by the majority of the citizens of the inhabitants of the world and the individual is judged by the majority of our deeds so if we do one more mitzvah we tilt the scale not only in our favor but it tilts the scale for the entire world because if the world is in balance all of people we should see ourselves as the one that yeah maybe i don't feel like getting up off the couch maybe i don't want to wake it up early and make it to minion maybe i don't want to download kavanaugh maybe i don't want to answer in the whatsapp group the request for to drive someone to their doctor's appointment or make a meal for someone who needs it maybe i don't feel like it and i'm entitled not to but i should think about it that my next act if i take advantage of the invitation and opportunity to do that mitsubishi will not only tilt the scale from me it could tilt the scale for the entire world and the opposite is also true i'm about to look at that image on the internet about to watch the thing i should watch i'm about to share the lash nara i shouldn't share i'm about to be hyper critical of someone not only will it negatively impact the scale against my favor but it will negatively impact the entire world as well so therefore hashem rewards on a scale far greater than that which he punishes the reward for bringing merit to the community says revasher is greater than the punishment for bringing guilt we find an example of rewarded hashem give the midwives the return for saving the jewish people going back to the beginning of shemos we go back to miriam he granted them an opportunity to perform a mitzvah with infinite reward as the nation multiplied they became great the reward of the midwives increased they were credited for the birth of all future generations they had a residual income they just saved the babies they delivered but all the progeny and offspring of the babies they saved and delivered were also part of their merit they tell us that a wise person is someone who can see roa no we see the outcome of what we do not just the immediate and present outcome but the longer term impact and outcome so we have to consider every action to determine how it's going to influence the entire community and says the minister of russia that's what it means rey you the individual feel like staying in bed you feel like omitting the bracha you feel like letting someone else do the khaseed you feel like holding back and being stingy with it's taka you feel like not being scrupulous or careful with the kashus let someone else realize that this choice this moment of truth this what seems like an easy or a negligible or a big inconsequential act not only will determine and influence you your fortune tilt your scale it can impact the entire humanity the entire universe so rey you the individual know that the outcome and impact of what you do is going to affect not just you is going to affect much more broadly and be mindful be conscientious be thoughtful be motivated by the idea that it's not just because you'll say i can live with the punishment i'll live with the scale being tilted against me but is it fair to do that to humanity i think there's a lot of relevance to this opening process because we're seeing the spike in south florida in particular we are struggling with enormous spike mostly among unvaccinated we're making health choices but the health choices we make don't only impact us choosing to be vaccinated unvaccinated the impact of a medical system overwhelmed by unvaccinated who are predominantly the ones who are the ones who the medical system the hospitalized use need rey we the individual don't live in isolation we don't live alone our choices not elaborating people our right to make their own choices but as we're making our choices they're not only medical choices they're moral choices they're moral choices because they're a they're for us the individual but lift the consequence of the individual choice we make will have an impact not only for us but for the entire seaboard so we saw the kat scored the two interpretations we saw of asha weissen interpretation and now we see from rabjuk ishtamin he says the following but pasha zu yeshnam we have several questions we're trying to invoke the senses not census like taking a sense is the senses of the jewish people so moshe says rey look chevra look look i'm putting before you abraham is that the sense that you would invoke if you're trying to inspire trying to motivate you're trying to give feedback would you say hey look or might you say listen listen listen you know orators will use the word listen in russia in a speech in a sermon if they want to get your attention back if they've lost it or even if you're paying attention they want to heighten that attention they'll say listen carefully i want to quote an amazing listen carefully what the heim says they don't say look carefully what the aurichim says they say listen carefully of pesach listen to an amazing interpretation of this varna listen they don't say look so why here's moshe albania say ray look i've put before you broken he should say listen the audience the assembled are hearing what's being presented to them they're not seeing so why do we say look we should say more accurately listen kyoto is a passion we also find in a few weeks time moshe will continue his speeches charge and he will say again look i've placed before you life and good or death and evil cain sham yeshua and question equally applies there moshe is speaking he is presenting so why does he say look he should say listen simile we found in shemos friday the double portion look god gave you shabbos can you see shabbos can you see shabbos if you listen to turn friday and to air of shabbos and you get to turn friday into shabbos what's up group then you can see shabbas coming but do we see shabba sabbashah as a metaphysical spiritual thing there too they were hearing what moshe was saying about shabbos and about the man why do we invoke the verb to see rather than to listen otzarbir moreover why do we mention twice the word i am placing before you today that i command you today did we forget who's talking to us the humblest of all men why does he have to keep saying see what i placed before you that i commanded you see what i've placed before you today the mitzvah and the opposite before you today we know it's today also wise sort of jerk asks a series of questions number one why a why listen instead of here not only in our place but nitsavim and shamos in three places three times moshe says ray look when he should have said listen question number two is why is anoki twice we know you're the one speaking and question number three is why hyom we know it's today question number four why do we shift from the singular to the plural these are objects four questions ishtamid page rish khof dalid if you are following at home and rabjuk says the following he says we can answer with an insight of the balaturum the balaturum the rosh had a son or biakov commentary on the torah the balaturum and he says the following you hear the word what should the word play word association you hear the word anohi what do you think of immediately what you should think of immediately the word anohi says dibalaturam is asera but the ten commandments contained within them they are super categories of all 613 mitzvos you can subsume and categorize you can catalogue all tarayag all 613 under these overarching ten and all ten can fit into the first one and all the first one can fit into the word anno whenever we see whenever we hear the word the association should be with the ten commandments asera sadibros so be radhvaram says ravdruk but kabal anokhi should remind us of harsinai and what was the sense that was engaged that was heightened at harshinai even though there was a sound and a light show there were thunder there was unbelievable was going on nevertheless the puzzle describes in shemos we heard the sounds we've discussed in the past on that parasha pasha's islam spot what does it mean they heard the sounds you i'm sorry what does it mean they saw the sounds you hear sounds you don't see sounds so russia there brings them they saw that which is ordinarily heard kolas raknishman the way the world is programmed is designed is that sound waves go into our ear and we hear sound we don't see it we see images we hear sounds here was mixed up which there is a there is a uh people sometimes suffer where the senses get mixed up but is that what happened collectively all the jewish people so the answer is they didn't just hear the ten commandments when they were given and delivered they saw they saw it came alive what it means is that the image the sounds what was being described was so vivid was so dynamic was so powerful that they saw it in their mind's eye it wasn't just that shabbos was being given and described shabbos was being described so clearly and so powerfully they pictured they envisioned they saw shabbos and that's true for all the asera sadibros that's why we tell somebody do you see what i'm saying when i tell you something i don't say do you hear what i'm saying do you see what i'm saying see what i'm saying c means do you see do you fully embrace do you fully accept are you fully connected with what i'm telling you are you only hearing the words or can you picture it are you attached to it do you envision it it says in passions you have been shown to know you can see and have knowledge that there is god no one like him and rashid writes when god gave the torah he opened up the seven heavens you were shown to know the knowledge comes from seeing seeing they didn't just hear the torah being given they saw god they experienced in a way that we could say you saw aina dumashmi you cannot compare the sense of hearing with the sense of seeing sense of seeing is the most genuine the most authentic the most convincing the most persuasive that's why we tell someone do you see what i'm saying so therefore with this insight of the bilateral that the word should immediately for us be an association it should invoke the aseras means we didn't just hear words those words were so descriptive those words were so palpable that we saw what was being described that's what moshe is saying says twice because rey because i want you not just barack oble to hear words this isn't just intellectually this isn't a yomi yuan we're not having a study session a conference a convention on what does it mean a life of observance is it a blessing is it a curse it needs to be an emotional connection it needs to be a connection of all the senses this is a perpetual everlasting obligation to always look to see the assertion not just to hear the words of torah but the words of torah to penetrate into us so deep that it in fact causes us to see to causes us to see with the sense of sight now we understand is just like the ten commandments was written in the singular so to re you and the singular see see the way you saw it harsinai let's go back to our sinai for a moment in the same way at harsina i was so dynamic so descriptive you saw the sounds i want you to see the sounds i'm telling you says moshe rabbenu now as well and therefore we understand why is the word haiyom repeated twice because what moshe is impressing upon them was asera sadibros was not a one-time event it was not an isolated experience in history there wasn't only one time when god gave torah that you can see the sounds every time you open torah every time we learn torah every time we commit to torah hayom today as if we receive the torah anew the torah is not an ancient outdated antiquated document the torah is a vibrant living torah and today hayom reye if we like if we see the sounds we'll see the brach and the klola and i think that's in fact what happens look around at this world read torah learn torah be excited by torah study the parashat study makshava study gemara study but study in a way that you're not memorizing facts places people dates laws we're not memorizing it doesn't just enter us intellectually it enters us emotionally we're able to see a view an image of what my shabbos table could look like i could see what a life of a muna could look like i see what it means to transmit torah please god we should all be blessed to our children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren and beyond to not just hear sounds but to see that image and to pass it and to pay it and to pay it forward so another interpretation so we saw what does it mean why the shift singular to plural we saw two interpretations of the cutscore one of robuster usher weiss and the beautiful insight of rav druk we've shared in the past one of my favorites is what god put in front of them what moshe put in front of them see behold you know what i put in front of you hayom the concept of hayom the right here and now bracha the notion of haiyom can be a blessing or a curse the notion of our mortality the motion of our vulnerability and fragility it can be a blessing or it can be a curse have we not all just lived that for the last year and a half are we not confronting for some segments of the community mortality yet again when we think about hayyom how transient life is and how mortal we are that could be a barack or a on the one hand it's a klala if you say let's party because i don't know how long i'm going to live then it's a clueless it's a curse but if you say if you say i have to take advantage of every moment i have to live every day to its fullest because i don't know how many days i have left then the concept then confronting our mortality becomes abraham so says moshe notice i've put before you the concept of hayyom today life is short we are mere mortals none of us know our future that can be a bracha or klola some say well then i might as well smoke drink and party because live life and party because i could die tomorrow others say no think about yoma misa and that will inspire chuva if i don't know how many days i have left i have to live today to its fullest that's another interpretation torah then goes on and past the paraguay bay's passage dalit moving along next parak sanctity of the land talks a lot about the conquest of the land the sanctity of the land we're going to get to shemitah how we engage and treat the land the land that god has given us when we enter the land we have to be sure to destroy all the places places that the idolaters worshiped their idols their gods are on page one thousand now that we are our inheriting search the width and breadth of the land seek out and find their idols eliminate them purge them because if we allow them to remain they will reproduce they will metastasize they will contaminate ultimately they will bring us down when he taps them so therefore break apart their altars smash their pillars their trees that they worship burn with fire elohim and they're carved images you have to cut down obliterate their names from that place have we not seen this have we not seen the pernicious impact the evil wicked impact how it spreads how it contaminates when there are ideas and values foreign to our own how even the observant community can become assimilated in some ways we have to not show mercy now to be clear the torah doesn't say to harm those who are different than us the torah says anyone's welcome to remain and live in israel they simply have to abandon their idolatry and embrace the torah's prescription for jews and non-jews alike that don't have to become jewish non-jews can remain in israel tosh of him they can live in israel they have to keep the seven nawahid laws and they have to abandon any form of idolatry so when we entered that land our land promised to us by the creator of the universe with the very first rash he tells us that all the book of mauritius is telling us and reminding us that not only should ben and jerry's be served in israel proper ben and jerry should be served the with and breath of israel because they have to learn those two jews the opening rashi they have to remember that the whole land was given to us it is ours it is ours bequeathed from the one who created who owns that land from its inception anyone we're happy to host we're very hospitable you want to remain jew or non-jew non-jew you just have to abandon idolatry and obey the seven noah had laws and live with us in peace and we're happy to host you but idolatry we have to purge we have to remove we have to confront we have to get rid of because it remains it's not pluralism if idolatry's in the land of israel it's not pluralism it will negatively impact it will bring us down it will corrupt it will compromise who we are and says the torah concluding this paragraph los a this list of s that you have to do to the idols burn the tree and dismantle the altar and knock down the pillar all those things alosa don't do that to god don't do that to god this is the torah prohibition of what we call shamus you're not allowed to erase god's name we erase the names of the idolaters we do not erase god's name lo sun cain la lo quechem the laws of sheamus what does that mean today we have mass produce publications reproductions of publications and therefore we have shameless questions galore what goes in shameless what doesn't go in shameless the weekly bulletin the torah you printed out homework the test that you took the safer that's worn out the sitter what has to go in sheamus and what does and it comes from the sun kane we erase the idolaters we don't erase god's name but we turn here back to the katsuka ms pasek dalit omar bizel the as he always does lo sa soon cain la simple understanding is what we just were told to do to the idols don't do that to god says the katsuka read it a little bit differently what is it you shouldn't do to god lo soon what should you not do kane don't do kane what is kane kane is azoy azoy good enough don't stumble into the mitzvah you're doing don't do the mitzvah out of habit don't do the mitzvah out of rote do the mitzvah with mindfulness to the midst with intention to the mitzvah with presence of mind do the mitzva in a way that transforms you to the mitzvah in a way that brings you closer to hashem don't give god a cane cain means check cain means good enough cain means don azoy azai good enough don't do good enough good is the obstacle to great don't give god a yes don't give god a good enough don't give god uh i mailed it in i got it done that's all i'm doing second cutscore of the day paraguay-based position moving right along to the next page the prohibition of private alters when are we allowed to have private altars in our backyard when do we have to cancel our public private altars and instead all revolve around the public altar that is on page one thousand page one thousand and two pericured base passage based permission to eat the redeemed offerings in all of our souls desires you can eat and slaughter meat according to the blessing of hashem not all jewish history will be allowed to eat flesh for parts of jewish history we were not allowed to be flesh felix was associated really with the carbonus it was a hetero to eat the sacrifice and then it was allowed everywhere through the mitzvah of shrita rakhadam lost you're not allowed to eat the blood we have to pour it out we have to get rid of the blood why because the blood is the life source we don't eat the blood you're not allowed to eat in your cities i'm on because 12 verse 17 page 1000 and two in the article stone hummish in your cities you cannot eat tithe of your grain your wine your oil first born of your cattle your flock all the vowel offerings that you vow the free will offerings and what you raise up with your hand lo suh now lo suh literally means the translation of the words loshal is you're not allowed let's look at rashi says rashi it's a very strange formulation torah had said lo you're not allowed los balos doesn't mean not allowed what does los mean you can't you're not capable you're not competent so rashi reinterprets lo sukha means you are you're capable you can you're just not allowed it's like when you're corrected when you were a kid when you said can i have a chocolate bar can you or me you right so here too can can you you can eat the micer and so on but you're not allowed you may not say yes is coming to teach us how we should connect the torah how do we connect to the torah's laws how do we connect to the torah's prohibition what we need to think the way we need to think is that that which the torah forbids is something we're not capable of it's not just that we're not allowed we're not capable we should become so attuned so connected to the idea that lo we should habituate ourselves we should train ourselves we should re we should condition ourselves that not only inherits not only that we're not allowed lo we're not capable of we see this also at the end of parish after we built the mishkan it says moshe was not allowed to enter the because the cloud was on top of it and the cloud reflected represented that he wasn't allowed to that he wasn't allowed to enter um was moshe afraid of the clower cloud is that what we think the emotion lived in fear of the cloud why didn't he go in ella malama made chai naan nifkas low what it's teaching us is that the cloud was nifka mahalik until god invited him till the cloud lifted it didn't mean his feet didn't work it didn't mean that he couldn't get through the area what it meant was moshe couldn't bring himself to do something that wasn't allowed moshe his body didn't respond to something that was forbidden we need to train ourselves that the torah's rules don't become optional torah's rules are not things that we even consider the torah says no then my body is incapable of doing it if my torah says yes then my body is trained and conditioned to do it that's what value yahoo means that's what it means there that's what it means here we see this also i think it's imperative it says tells the jewish people when we're traveling through the desert and into israel we're not allowed to cross certain boundaries including ammon because the boundary of ammon was strong it's fortified it's strong rashi there says what makes it fortified what makes it strong why is so rashi says because god said don't go there because god said don't go there that was a powerful and strong boundary so what do you see from there my brother rabbi dr judah goldberg pointed out to me years ago from that rashi kia's for the jewish people we were given that message not in a way that we have to struggle or consider or decide if the torah says no then our body is simply incapable if the torah says yes then my body is incapable of not doing it and that's the meaning here lo not only loreshay not only are you not allowed to eat in your gates because you're not allowed you're also not capable i've shared before but you picture the muscle you ever had a supermarket at the cash register the checkout strategically they have a wall of candy a wall of chocolate and while your kid at the end of the day who's over tired in the in the uh carriage your child starts to cry i want a candy bar i want to treat i want chocolate i want chips and you don't want to buy it for them they haven't eaten dinner yet it's not healthy for them they've eaten too much already that day whatever reason you don't want to buy it and they throw a tantrum but i wonder you don't love me and the whole supermarket's watching in the whole line of the cash register is watching and you don't know what to do because it's humiliating it's embarrassing and then hopefully because it's true you can't lie but you tell the child that candy bar that chocolate bar it's not kosher the same child who a moment ago was throwing the tantrum when you say the words it's not kosher they say oh okay i can't have it then i guess i can't have it how come when the negotiation was over having it because the cavities in their teeth were negotiating over the fat in their belly negotiating over whether it was bedtime or dinner time then they thought it's negotiable if only i hold out long enough if only i cry if only i throw a loud enough tantrum my parent i can wear them out they'll give in but the second you say the words not kosher lo such all of a sudden the child stops crying because they know it's a non-negotiable and that's what the torah here is telling us as ravjak lo suhal does not mean aino rashai losh doesn't just mean you're not allowed it means it's non-negotiable are the torah's rules and laws for us non-negotiables are they non-negotiables or are we regularly trying to negotiate them are we trying to make them conform to the lifestyle we want to lead or are we conforming our life to what torah wants for us they're non-negotiables is the way it is and we should condition our body to respond in that way moving around along parakeet gimmo skipping to page one thousand and six paragray torah tells us about a false prophet we have false prophets charismatic individuals they get up and they preach and they promise and they show you a sign [Music] and they stand up this dreamer and they produce a sign or a wonder and the sign of the wonder comes about elohim and of which he spoke to you saying let us follow gods of others that you did not know and will worship them so someone says watch this trick watch what i'm going to predict watch what i'm going to produce and then they do and they say you see leave judaism forget god we've got a whole new god whole new god holy god it's called power money celebrity the internet social media watch this trick watch what i could do abandon god and worship it don't listen to this no matter how charismatic no matter how persuasive no matter how energized or exciting don't listen god's testing you god is sending something enticing he's dangling a temptation don't listen because through this god is testing how faithful are you how much fidelity do you have how loyal will you be to god or will you abandon and travel for the next hundred years what a pasak acharya in contrast to following the charismatic false prophet false promises don't get behind somebody who's corrupt in contrast instead of follow and walk after god this is this is uh imitatio day latin imitate god we have an obligation responsibility to imitate god vio so and to live with a sense of awe of god and to observe his missiles to listen to his voice to work worship him serve him and to cling to him to connect to him stick with god stick with gods for thick and thin stick with god in good times and bad times stick with god through happiness and health sickness and health ubosit glue stick with god hashem some modern scholars claim that judaism is no binding dogmas it's concerned solely with deeds some people think says thereof that judaism the torah doesn't care about what you believe and what you think all it cares about is what you do they regard yourself as a purely rational and this worldly faith which is unencumbered by a complex theology is primarily humanistic in its purpose this understanding is simplistic and erroneous we do have the principles of jewish faith which are implicit in the torah and have been formulated and codified in the talmud and later scholars in addition the deeds prescribed by our faith are both ritualistic and humanistic the lifestyle of the religious jew is based on certain underlying theological assumptions about god and his role in history clearly the belief that he's the creator and sustainer of the universe who revealed his law to jewish people at har sinai has profound practical implications for the jew in humanity that man is accountable to hashem for his deeds that he is expected to realize a spiritual purpose in his life transforms him from a highly developed animal into a transcendental being most certainly then judaism does affirm basic faith principles we are not content however to have faith confessions remain theoretical instead they become moral challenges and exhortations to man they express themselves through norms of human behavior and endow with practical significance stimulating us either to do or to abstain to engage or withdraw a faith conviction may be theologically or philosophically significant but what is primarily is the moral principle and practice that emerges from it beyond the clearly prescribed legal precepts of the torah there are vast areas in which one's moral duty is not precisely defined here the basic guide of the torah is to emulate hashem his damos lakhel imitate god his da muslim hell be doma be similar imitate it's the finest form of flattery matata day thomas says why does it say the gemara asks what is it can you walk after god can you imitate god i have a brother-in-law does fantastic imitations it's hilarious it's entertaining there are people who are great at doing imitations you can imitate another person they have an accent they have a mannerism they have a way of speaking but how do you imitate the infant being how do you imitate the omnipotent how do you imitate god is it really possible to walk after and imitate god rather right because it says allah if you try to come too close to god you'll be consumed by a fire can't come too close but you're going to try to imitate so it means imitate his attributes just as a god him just as he closes the clothes naked so should you just as he's mad the sick so should you just as he is the morning so should you we have to he's buries the dead so should we come on so to you imitate god just like he does these things we should our conception of god is thus translated says rebecca into a code of human behavior the ramban clearly illustrates this point he writes in it is a fundamental principle of our faith to accept that hashem does speak to man through prophecy and he immediately converts this article of faith into a moral challenge it is the ultimate duty of man to make himself worthy of prophecy for god will not communicate with trees and stones and the rambam writes based on our absolute here the ideal of prophecy is even further developed by describing the qualities which invite hashem's prophetic communication the rama sets forth a human ideal and model towards which all should aspire thus an article of faith becomes a moral exhortation we don't only believe in a judaism of philosophy it's not just about feeling it's not just about being a good person it is about action it's about conduct about behavior about mitzvos but we also don't believe it's about empty mitzvos the reason that we do the mitzvos it is the way we imitate imitate and emulate the ribbon of shalom we've shared before that revasculistic sasha wonders why do i have two gemaras on the one in the hand it says walk after god visit the sick clothe the naked comfort the mourner bury the dead on the other hand it says so be like god so why do i need two times to learn it so rashawi says so beautifully is imitation it doesn't say anything about who you are your character your heart you're doing an imitation if my brother-in-law does a great imitation of someone else it doesn't make him that someone else it doesn't even make him necessarily like the other person all it means is he can mimic he can imitate the other person says imitate god be like god zake levan vayu an evahu means not only should you do what god does but feel what god feels transform yourself into a bachasad into a ba'rachamim into a person of justice not only externally on the outside do the acts but internally generate the feeling and the motivation and be like god in that way be like god in that way uh how much time do we have how much more do we want to do we have a little bit more to do perique you download passive test caches we move into laws of caches we are children of god losses go to do because we are children of god we're not allowed to engrave ourselves in an act of mourning or grieving we've studied that in the past i encourage you to listen to the past shirum of the parsha we've studied that at length and some beautiful insights and what that means that we are hashem's children hashem are we as bachor are we his first born or are we his only children how do we answer that what's its connection to this laws of mourning what does one thing have to do with the other how does losses go to do connect to the laws of mourning i'm not having differing practices within one community we've talked about that take a look check it out we then move on to los sochal coto eva don't eat any abomination keeping kosher non-kosher is an abomination and here we have the torah giving us delivering us the laws of kasras and in the laws of kashus we have tests among the laws of kasras are the longs of conscious as they relate to as they relate to fish 14 chapter 14 verse 9. torah tells us this you can eat of everything in the water in other words animals we know have to chew their cut up split hooves and birds come from a tradition we have to have a masoda that's why some are back of kaminetsky others don't eat turkey turkey is a new world bird and we don't have a missouri others say it's so similar to other birds we do have a masora we do eat turkey we do eat turkey so what about fish what about fish so here the torah tells us that of the things in the water anything that has fins and scales you can eat and anything that doesn't have fins and skills you cannot eat it is tame it is unclean that's the luck of the of the fish torah tells us that the jewish people retain their kadusa by not eating unkosher things the torah here uses the word kadosh holy and unholy impure and pure that we are what we eat we are big believers we are what we eat not only like we are what we eat because we absorb it on the hips but we are what we means the quality and character of those animals we absorb their qualities we absorb their character so the ramban writes the birds outside of our masora are birds of prey they are birds that are aggressive we don't want to observe those character traits that's what ramban writes here and he writes it earlier the ibarbanel explains similarly that non-kosher food puts bad meat dose in a person our whole mission is to repair our medos to refine ourselves to live our best selves so we have to do that not only from a physically healthy perspective by putting the right foods in our body but spiritually as well the kumar khun dasamaglav quotes the mission of the sixth peric of nida that teaches that any fish that has scales has fins any fish that has scales automatically has fins but not all fish that have fins have scales so now that leads to a peculiar question if that's true if that's true that every fish that is fins and that scales has fins so wonders the gemara why did the torah need to tell me that in order to qualify as a kosher fish it has to have things and scales just tell me scales and i know that every fish with scales has fins there are almost two million species of fish in the sea and by the way the torah promises any fish with finns has with scales has finns and it's been accurate how could the torah know that two million if the torah were written by man how would they make that promise wouldn't the entire authenticity of that religious document be undermined compromised if in fact the first time you find a fish that has fins and no scales but we've not found such a fish all fish that have finns have scales just like the gemara just like the torah promises so the gemara wonders if it's true that every fish with fins has scales the opposite every fish with scales has fins so why in the torah just tell me if a fish has scales it's kosher that's the gemara's question and the gemara answers let torah be growth we'll learn torah by giving us that extra condition that extra criteria somehow we are expanding we are promoting torah what in the world does that mean is a beautiful insight the jewish people are similar to fish in water where the jewish people are the fish and the torah is the water just like a fish can't live outside of water that was rabiq his response why he was risking his life to teach torah against the roman persecution because just like a fish can't live out of water a jew can't live outside of the environment of torah which is our water so based on the bombardment say the jewish people are like fish and each one of us have to embrace our fins and our scales what does that mean fins and scales so it says the reba there's an age-old argument and we see it in yosef and his brothers and we see it throughout tanach and we see it throughout our torah should the jew retreat and live in isolation should the jew build a wall of fortress around himself herself and shut out the entire world around us or should the jew embrace the world integrate into the world contribute to the world all of course with boundaries and with filters to make sure not to assimilate into the world but nevertheless to engage the world said the babachireba the scales and finns represent the two sides of this argument the two approaches to life the scales protect the fish from the outside world the scales are like retreating into a fortress the scales are like living in isolation they make sure that nothing penetrates nothing gets in the scales represent a protective barrier an iron barrier the fins the fins let us swim the fins make us mobile the finns let us explore the fins let us integrate so the torah is telling us that a kosher fish to be a kosher jew you need both aspects in life a jew who only embraces his fins who only tries to integrate but doesn't have scales is not kosher you cannot try to swim and integrate and explore the world without having healthy boundaries without being a strong fortress without having a torah identity but similarly a jewish scales who only looks inward who only retreats who doesn't serve and integrate and explore the world is also not fully serving hashem and said the rebbe that's what it means yak del toro if you want to be magdal torah if you want to grow and enhance and expand torah you need both fins and scales you need the right balance between the two you need to know when to create the protective barrier when to swim with the fins and go explore and do the two when review saul may allow heard this idea of the babachiraba he added i heard from ravel goldberg he added rabbi lao that brought this exact attitude and identity to the mission of the baptist to the to all of us of on the one hand having a very strong identity as years of the hashem bennet but on the other hand having healthy fins being able to swim to go out to explore the idlerov to spread like the fish all throughout the land i just want to add ahara on this in sight one more to complement the idea here of the laboratory is the fins also give you the ability to do one other thing scales protect scales allow you to live and retreat but the finns do something else that you also need not only to integrate into the world sometimes even to retreat sometimes even to protect our values you're going to have to do something called you're gonna have to swim upstream we shared an insight about the upside down nunen around sara and the jewish people being likened to the upside down nun nun is the aramaic for fish and the idea that the fish sometimes has to swim upstream salmon swim upstream go on youtube you could watch a video of salmon swimming upstream it's actually pretty remarkable to be able to watch to be able to see so perhaps the other significance and the other reason the other purpose of the finns is the scales can only protect you so far sometimes you have to be willing to live in a world and face a culture you have to be willing to swim upstream it won't be convenient and it may not be comfortable but you have to be willing to swim upstream okay we have time for one more idea shemitah i wanted to share so many more peric test base perito is now the world of shemitah shemitah the world of shemitah suffered the cancellation of loans mike this is the matter of shemitah every creditor has to remit forgive authority over what he lent don't press your fellow or brother because we proclaim that we forgive some ask is the loan forgiven even if the even if the um lender didn't proclaim maybe from the pusluck you have to actually proclaim it out loud maybe that's what you have to do so the shemitah stuff and then our passion tells us to absolve the debts of anyone who borrowed money during the previous seven years the lender declares that he's not going to press why why do we have this mitzvah there's a lot more to explore in the future we'll get into it we don't have time now i'll just briefly tell you this foreign people were given shabbos that is a day for us to dive into to explore to reinforce our spiritual identity and pursuits shabbos is the day we retreat from the pursuit of the material and we focus on the experience of the spiritual to emphasize that malacha the whole reason that we are working the whole reason that we succeed the whole reason that we amass and accumulate is to pursue the rochnias not the opposite the mikhail points out that the jewish people were already keeping shabbos when they received the torah we were given shabbas at mara we were already keeping shabbos so therefore we were already prepared to accept the many mitzvos that demand you to forego material pursuits for spiritual ones and those mitzvahs include the laws of business ethics and monetary dealings and how we view our material assets that which we possess that the purpose punishment is is to help develop an attitude of generosity of kindness to be forgiving and foregoing to recognize that we can help the people around us to absolve the loans we enable and empower the people who needed that loan to be able to have another chance to be able to start again now it happens to be in the first century hillel institute the prince bowl which we're not going to get into right now proves buli ubuti an advantage to the rich and the poor because due to the laws of schmidt's suffering people were not lending because they feared they wouldn't be repaid they weren't going to lend particularly in the years four five six five six seven you're not going to lend if you know you're not going to be paid back so they instituted particularly in a time in which schmidt is only the rabona schmidt's suffering so the prince bowl was a legal loophole to be able to continue to lend but i want to share with you an amazing insight of refursh the first notes on this pasak periktas vav pasig bayes you're not a lot of press you can't pressure if you lend money to somebody you can't put pleasure pressure and how are we describing what words are we using to describe the recipient of the loan the borrower yigosh the reason you can't press them is because you're supposed to see them and feel them connect to them as your neighbor and your friend uraya your friend your brother your friend and your brother who presses their friend and their brother so the simple understanding here is that it is the lender that's being kind to the borrower hirsch has another interpretation a fascinating interpretation and the first suggests you can read it inside one have time at the end of mishnah the mishnah tells us that it is virtuous for the borrower to repay the loan anyway even though the lender has to forego even though the lender forgives even though the lender publicly declares or privately declares that they have forgiven the loan there's a virtue a nobility it's a nice thing for the borrower to pay it back anyway so it says first you know what's happened here now you take the individuals repaying the loan out of a sense of debt out of a sense of obligation out of a sense of no choice and now they can repay it on their own they can choose to why because the person who lent them money is their brother is their neighbor is their friend refuse flips it on its head not just from an act of kindness from the lender to the borrower but when the borrower now every seven years we have the chance to repay loans not from an economic standpoint a financial standpoint an obligatory standpoint from a voluntary standpoint and that changes the whole equation it changes our whole attitude it changes our whole philosophy of materialism a lot more to saying it we'll have to save for next time tomorrow morning 8 15 10 minutes of meeting this is tomorrow morning 8 45 living with emunah just a reminder if you want to sponsor beerusonline.org sponsor you could find all of our shiram throughout the week special shirum on our youtube channel youtube.com rabbi from goldberg you can find it at rabbi from galbraith.org and you can find it even on a app which was made to listen to all the shirum in one convenient place thank you for learning with me and honor any privilege until next time stay happy stay healthy and stay holy