Parsha Perspectives - Ha’azinu

Good morning. Good morning and wishing everyone a sweet, happy, healthy year filled with merit. Hopefully, hopefully our will be answered for good news in the hostages home and our soldiers safe. Our para series is generously sponsored by Becky Cats and family in memory of David Gman. Very grateful to their continued generosity. And this morning she also sponsored a memory of my wonderful aunt my aunt Mali Lazar Esther Malabas Yanta is Arav Kipper very special woman a big influence on all of our lives our family and her should have an aliyah okay I know it's already we're having a tomorrow morning what else is there to do on kipper than learn Torah and collect as manyos and merits as we can. So if you have a better thing to do, I don't know what it is. You can't claim you're cooking for yam kipper. So you know, you might as well come and learn Torah. So uh glad that you're here this morning learning with us. It shouldn't be a neglected para should be an orphan para neglected para because it's between yumiper and sukus. So haz is on page 1,100 of the north girl stone be chapter 32 alf. And we begin from the beginning. Before we even get into the par itself, I want to begin with Rabbi Sax's introduction. I believe the I got the pre published edition I think is out now. Anyone buy it? It's available. Fantastic. It is wonderful as you've seen and I'm honored and proud and grateful to be able to promote it. Soak says in the introduction to parasu you'll notice the layout of hazenu is different than the rest of Torah. The rest of Torah is written in columns and this is written separately. It's written as a poem. Not a complete column but a broken column. Two columns side by side. And it's called the song Shiras Hazu. The song of Hazenu which itself is a question. It has many peculiar aspects, negative themes that wouldn't necessarily characterize it. We wouldn't necessarily qualify it as a song. And yet, that is how our rabbis taught. So, Rabbi Sax writes in his introduction the following. For a month, Moshe has taught the people. He's told them their history and destiny and the laws that will make theirs a unique society of people bound in covenant and with one another and with God. He has renewed the covenant and then handed the leadership on to his successor and disciple, Yahushua. His final act will be blessing the people tribe by tribe. But before doing that, there's one more thing that he must do. He must sum up his prophetic message in a way the people will always remember and be inspired by. He knows that the best way of doing so is in music. So the last thing Moshe does before giving the people his deathbed blessing is to teach them a song. Now the image is very powerful. Mosha is the last day of his life. And most people don't know when or which will be the last day of their life. Moshe for good or bad does. And he doesn't use the last day of his life for the last meal. What does he want to eat? What's going to be the last food? He doesn't use it to go tour. Where does he want to go? Where did he always want to see? He doesn't use it to retreat to his last round of golf or last game of poker, last game of bridge, last bottle of wine. Mosher Abenu, of course, Mosher Abenu instead uses it to be a blessing, to offer a blessing, to give a braha tribe by tribe. His enduring legacy, the way he wants to go out is the way he lived his life, which is to be a source of influence, of inspiration, a resource for everyone else to give a blessing. But he does sax points out before he leaves this world with a braha. He first teaches a song. Jewish history is not so much read as sung. Every day in Judaism, we preface our morning prayers with zimra. The first section of our ding are technically are set at home. We begin ding at some of you are looking at me funny because you're not necessarily there that early. There's something in sh we begin every day called but but it could be said at home the technical beginning of ding at shul isukra the verses of song with their magnificent crescendo which is tollumn in which instruments and the human voice combine to sing God's praises. Mystics go further and speak of the song of the universe. What Poragus called the music of the spheres. This is what Timutas means when it says, "The heavens tell the glory of God. There's no speech. There are no words. Their voices not heard yet. Their music carries across the land. Their words to the end of the earth. Beneath the silence, audible only to the inner ear. Creation sings to its creator." If we were able to actually disconnect and turn down the noise, always having AirPods in our ears, always being connected, scrolling, typing to some device, always in conversation, music, a podcast, news. But if you could turn down the noise, you'll hear the universe is singing the song of its creator. Who hears this song? So the prophet, the Cohen thinks in terms of universal rules that are eternally valid. The Nvi is attuned to the particularities of a given situation and the relationship between those involved. The prophet is emotional intelligence. He or she hears the silent cry of the oppressed, the incipient anger of heaven. The vehicle of biblical prophecy is not pros but poetry. Language that engages the senses and the unconscious memory through its music. This is what Rabbi Salvich described as the Torah of his mother. From his mother, he said, this was Salvich describing his mother. I learned that Judaism expresses itself not only in formal compliance with the law, but in a living experience. She taught me there's flavor, a scent, a warmth to mitzvos. I learned from her the most important thing in life, to feel the presence of the Almighty and the gentle pressure of his hand resting upon my frail shoulders. Without her teachings, which quite often were transmitted to me in silence, I would have grown up a soulless being, dry and insensitive. This was in the tribute to the ton the rabbit son of Tna is Makanista he spoke about his mother and though the majority of Torah learning he was already didactic he didn't go to yeshiva his father pulled him out early from his kabad mhammed who was teaching him a lot of Tanya but not a lot of Mishna and Gomorrah so his father pulled him out and taught him at home and though his father taught him the majority of his education formal education came from his father he describes that without her without his mother, he would have grown up a soulless being, dry and insensitive. The very end of his life, the greatest of all the prophets turned to the emotional intelligence, to the spirituality of song, knowing that unless he does so, his teachings might enter the minds of Jewish people, but not their hearts, their passions, their emotional DNA. It is feeling that moves us to act, gives us the energy to aspire and fuel our ability to hand on our commitments to those who come after. So as Robert Frost said concludes Rabbi Sachs, poetry is what is lost in translation and faith is poetry not pros. So Hazenu is a song. It's Shira. Faith is a song. It's poetry not pros. This is a song. And Mosher Rabenu says before I leave this world I want I need to teach you a song. And that song is Shirinu. And we just read this this past Shabas as well because the last mitzvah in the Torah, the 613th mitzvah in the Torah is the mitzvah of the Hashira. And now write this song. The mitzvah to either write or commission the writing of a s Torah is formulated as write a song. Hashira. Why is Torah called the song? So all the reasons Rabbi Sax just described of what it does to us emotionally, how it moves us, it transports us, it connects us, it opens us up. Rabbi Salvich also describes it. He said, you know, if two people are speaking at once, you have static. You can't hear. They're conflicting. But if two people are singing, you have harmony. If two people are singing, it's beautiful music. Torah is not when there are two voices that you have conflict or static. The Torah is as such that when you have two perspectives and two opinions, two interpretations, two voices of Torah, it's a beautiful symphony. It's beautiful harmony. That's what Torah does. That's how Torah works. And therefore, it's the mitzvah is formulated as writing a song. Torah is called the song is a song before he leaves this world wants to teach us a song. So he begins this song. Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak and may the earth hear the words of my mouth. And we go back to unfinished and he says the following. It's very poetic. It's very beautiful. hear heavens and I'll speak and listen earth to what comes out of my mouth. But why use two different verbs? Two synonymous two synonyms two verbs that both describe listening or hearing. Is there a difference between them? One is directed to the heavens and the other is directed to the to the earth and that's the why is there a difference? Is there a difference between them? tactic. What's the difference says there is a fundamental difference is an external hearing ish you know the person who's doing something while you're talking to them. Uhhuh. Yeah. Uhhuh. It's sort of penetrating. Yeah. And they say, "You're not listening to me." I am listening to you. You went to the mall. You found the sale and you can't believe you ran into Okay. You repeat back exactly what I said, but you weren't listening to me. You weren't hearing me. Is a listening that actually becomes action is transformed into action. They enter through the ear and it penetrates into the person so that they're moved is it just stays at the surface is superficial. It's hearing and understanding. Sometimes you hear something superficially and sometimes you listen to something so closely. You listen in such a way that it transforms, changes you, your action, your behavior, your life, your lifestyle. So the higher level listening is used for the righteous. Shayim are the disciplined. Shamay are the people who live highly regulated lives. They're sovereign over themselves. Shmayam are the people we look up to. So why do we look up to them? What makes them exceptional? What elevates them is their capacity for hazu. They don't just listen, but they listen. They listen in a way that moves them. They listen in a way that changes them. So, the is the land, the lowly, the physical. So, the lowly people, they sort of listen half an ear. They're listening while doing something else. They're listening but it applies to their neighbor doesn't change them. So they are it's good that they're listening but it's a low level listening. So that's how of number one distinguishes between the two levels of listening and it depends are you a person of or are you a person of we've quoted this before understands a little bit differently represents the spirituality in us the soul in us the shim the heaven in usu pay attention the best part of you the spiritually attuned part of you the antenna listen up pick up the signal and then if you are nourishing your soul then your body will follow but if you're neglecting your soul you're not speaking to your soul your soul is not listening it's not attuned your soul is not picking up the frequency then your whole body and your whole being won't hear and won't follow either has a second interpretation he quotes the You know says the what makes this great? You know what it makes it? Why is it called the Shira? What is such a song about this about this para says the you know what makes it great? Because this song references three different dimensions past present and future. This world and the world to come. Some say the whole mitzvah is the mitzvah I referenced of last week's para mitzvah number 613 to write the song is really to write. The whole reason there's a mitzvah to write the whole Torah is to write. And why is it important to write? Because a year a Jew has to remember the past, the present, and the future. Without the past, there is no present. And without the future, there's no present. And the present is ought to build and lead and keep an eye towards our responsibility for the future. A Jew lives in all three dimensions at once simultaneously. We're not stuck or lost in the past. And we're not worried and waiting for the future. Of course, we fully embrace and live in the present. But we do so it is a present that draws from the past and a present that anticipates a future. And that's what makes this sh says this a free gdola. It makes a mitzvah for all of us to write and pay attention and listen and learn. And that's why we have the para class. It's not terribly convenient. There's a lot going on, a lot of preparation for yam kipper. But this song, it deserves to be front and center, not neglected because this is all about our past, our present, and our future. What this song is singing to us is don't think when was Judaism and Torah relevant. That's in the past. Oh, that's part of the past. But the present, it's not relevant. It's relevant. It speaks to us. It's contemporary. It's meaningful today. You don't think it's relevant and meaningful today? There are so many parts of yesterday's press conference. But how about when the president insisted on calling it the Abraham Accords? He got close. And then BB took him all the way there, the Ibraham Accords and the Abraham Accords. Now about the prime minister who ends with Garva. It's amazing. The Torah was relevant not only then, it is today. It's what molds us and defines us. It's who we are. It's what our lives are about. And we only have a future when we're committed to live it and take it with us into tomorrow. Into tomorrow. So, an article this morning, my brother-in-law's father is a federal judge in New York. Apparently, Nebuch sentenced some woman in a high-profile case to several years in prison. But the article opens, it was on abcnews.com. And apparently, he began his sentence by saying that the Bible records the obligation of honest weights and measures, and your weights and measures were not honest. They were not calibrated. And therefore, even though you're a good person who made a mistake, I have no choice but to sentence you. And if you know him, it's not surprising. But you got to love the Bible. He's he's offering his sentence by invoking the Bible. The Torah says Torah is not about yesterday. Honest weights and measures aren't about the past. That's the driver of justice today. The driver of justice today. What calibrates our just our compass of justice today is still our sacred Torah. So it says of the cphree is calling gdola shiru this song is so great because it has elements of past present and future and we need to know that it's relevant and not only relevant it informs it inspires it binds us no matter where or when the Torah is Hashem's mouthpiece through it he's talking to us wherever we live I don't care where you are in the world. It wasn't only relevant when we were in with the Ba Mikdash. Even Nebak and diaspora scattered around the world. The Torah remains as relevant, more relevant than ever. Maybe arguably the only way in fact to survive and navigate that gullus. It was a beautiful sim this past Sunday night. Our amazing fuy program. It's a group of men who get together once a week. The daffi does a whole daff every day. They do an um once a week. So you'll say how much ground are you going to cover? This is the sixth sem that they've made six mas some never opened a gamarra before mazdalin and all those who were there that night. So I had the privilege to offer some braha and I said on last week's para we didn't have a para here last week. Some last week's para we were all otherwise occupied with hearing the chauffeur. Last Tuesday was rash. So last week's para this mitzvah comes immediately after a what's the right before says I'm going to hide my face I'm going to hide my face there's going to be you won't see me you're going to suffer the consequence you're going to feel that there's no divine protection oh now you go write a Torah wondered what in the world is the paras what's the connection between God hiding his face hester upon him and go write a safer Torah said such a beautiful insight he said when you go into gullus and you're navigating the harshness of gullus know that the only way to illuminate the road the only way to know the der to beak is the learning of Torah Torah is what does it and he describes if you're in the darkness and you need to get out you could have a sword, a knife, a gun, it's not going to help you cut the darkness. You can't see. You won't get to the other side. You can't shoot or slice or stab your way out of the darkness. The only way to get out of the darkness is to introduce a little light and a little bit of light dispels a whole lot of darkness. So when I hide my face no the only way to navigate the darkness of that gulus is illuminate the world with Torah Torah. Torah is light and it is a light that lets us navigate that lets us navigate the world. So that's the role and the goal of Torah and that's why it's called the gdola shiru this great song of hazenu past present and future. It travels and it comes with us wherever we are, whenever we live. It informs, it inspires and it lifts us. The Almighty is speaking from the heavens and the whole earth is his mouthpiece. The whole world is telling his story. The rain, the dew, even the humidity, even the iguanas. We need a little cold spell to neutralize some of these iguanas. It's like the 11th plague of the rustle of the leaves, the breeze, everything that's going on in the world. Soon in other parts of the country and world, the leaves will change color. It's all singing the song of Hashem. But we're too busy looking down and scrolling and typing, and you don't even notice that there's a magnificent symphony and orchestra and harmony and song being sung. the whole world all around us. So that's what you got to pay attention to be able to listen to be able to hear is speaking the heavens are speaking. Just listen to the listen to the the earth. It's all being proclaimed from the earth. Okay, moving right along. May my teachings drop like rain. May my utterance flow like the dew, like stormwinds upon vegetation, and like raindrops upon blades of grass. Again, beautiful poetry. But what does it mean? What is it saying? So here we turn to the still making our way through this magnificent Torah. He quotes This is a metaphor. Rain, the de is a metaphor for Torah. The Torah I teach you is eternal and immortal. It lasts forever like rain. Just like the rain is the rain and its impact precipitates growth that lasts forever. So to Torah is forever. And what exactly is this metaphor of rain to T to T to T to T to T to T to T to T to T to T to Torah? We've spoken about this in the past when we learned the par as well. We shared previously some beautiful interpretations. You can go back and find them. But I want to share with you. Why is Torah like and terrain? There are other things that air the air. There's always air. There's oxygen. Without it, the world wouldn't exist. We couldn't breathe. We wouldn't be here. So why not liken Torah to air? Why is Torah likened to rain? When it comes to the rain, it doesn't fall on a schedule. Unless you're in Florida in the summer and then every single afternoon, the sky will turn pitch black. The high bands will open and it will pour and then it'll turn blue again. But it's not predictable and it's not schedule and it's not consistent. The rain comes and goes and the rain we don't necessarily know for how long or where or when. You know why Torah is likened to rain? Listen to this beautiful insight. Because even though rain is unpredictable and you can't control it, you can't make it start, you can't make it stop, and you don't when it will come and you don't know when it will leave. But even when it stops raining, the rain is continuing to have his impact. Why? Because the earth, the soil observes the absorbs the rain that fell. And now by watering the ground it stimulates it is a catalyst. It begins a process of growth. The construction going on outside. If someone's building a building only while they're building is the expansion taking place. Only when they're doing construction is there construction. The moment they stop building, the building ceases. Expansion ceases. It becomes stagnant, stationary. When you stop building and expanding, it stays the way it was. But that's not true. When it comes to watering, when it comes to rain, even when the rain stops falling, there's still stuff going on underground. There's the beginning of sprouting, of blossoming, of growth, of adding to greater growth. Torah says the Brooklyn similarly someone who learns Torah when you learn Torah the Torah is absorbed in you like the rain or the water in the earth. So you'll say I went to the I went to the dafomi I went to the living with amuna but then I went to work then I went to the gym then I went to the supermarket. So then I wasn't learning anymore. No, just like even after the rain stops, it's continuing to work underground. Even when you left the shear, the Torah is bubbling up inside you. The Torah is causing that growth inside you. The Torah is moving things. There's there's it's stimulating. There's blossoming. There's growth. Now, when you can eat differently and when you sleep, you sleep differently. And your conversations are different conversations. How are Torah scholars increase peace in the world? Because when you take the principles and values of Torah to the world, to the marketplace, you now bring the lessons and the values of peace and harmony and love. That's why our rabbis say even the casual conversation of a Torah scholar deserves to be learned because for the Torah scholar there is no casual conversation. What sounds like casual conversation is also informed and inspired by Torah. It's a Toric conversation. And that's why man in we read man is likened to a tree. So man is likened to a tree. We need to be watered and we need to be protected and we need some sunlight and we need oxygen. All the elements that the tree needs to grow we also need. But like the tree even when the rain or the watering stops the growth is still taking place. Sometimes it's just beginning. So that's the comparison beautiful the connection the comparison of Torah to rain is even after the rain stops falling we continue to grow we continue to grow and that's why he goes on in this essay he describes he describes further okay but we're going to go vis also has a comment here we are invited to Think of the Torah as being like the rain that waters the ground. So it brings forth produce. The cphree puts it thus. May my teaching pour down like rain. Just as the rain is one thing, yet it falls on trees enabling each to produce tasty fruit according to the kind of tree it is. The vine in its way, the olive tree in its way, the date pal in its way. So the Torah is one. Yet its words yield Torah, Mishna, halaka, and agata. Like showers upon the grasses just as showers fall upon plants and make them grow. some green, some red, some black, some white. So too, the words of Torah produce teachers, worthy individuals, sages, the righteous and the pious. There is only one Torah, yet it has multiple effects. It gives rise to different kinds of teaching, different sorts of virtue. Torah is sometimes seen by its critics as overly prescriptive, as it sought to make everyone the same. The Medish argues otherwise. The Torah is compared to rain precisely to emphasize that its most important effect is to make each of us grow into what we could become. As the Mishna puts it, when a human being makes many coins from the same mint, they're all the same. God makes everyone in the same image, his image. Yet none is the same as another. There is no single role model of the religious hero or heroine. In Tanakh, the most each had their own unmistakable character. The kings and the kohan and the pre prophets had different roles to play. Even among the prophets, no two prophecy in the same style. Say kazal sonjim alo was zealous. Alisha gentle. Hosa speaks of love. Amos speaks of justice. Yesh's visions are less opaque than those of yazel. The same applies to the revelation at each individual heard in the same words a different inflection. Judaism in short says out of the one many. The miracle of creation is that unity in heaven produces diversity on earth. Torah is the rain that feeds this diversity, allowing each of us to become what only we can be. Beautiful. Now, why is Torah likened to rain? Because the rain falls equally everywhere. It's the same drops, same precipitation, same water, same rain. And yet, what the rain waters is diverse and different. Some flowers are red and some flowers are green, some are black, and some are white. olives and wheat and dates and pomegranates. The same rain, our same Torah is nurturing. It's creating growth from very diverse. I love this because this is the motto of our shul valuing diversity, celebrating unity. That one Torah, the singular Torah, Sim Torah, we're going to celebrate Hashem soon dancing with that Torah and the joy of the gift and the blessing and the privilege of Torah. We all learn that one Torah. But there are so many interpretations and so many perspectives and it nurtures each of us in our own way. So Torah doesn't demand uniformity but expects unity. Torah recognizes and values diversity. It doesn't want divisiveness. So it's one singular Torah but a Torah that that yields unity not uniformity. Okay, moving along. the rock. His work is whole and all his ways are just he's a god of faith who does no wrong. He is up and and upright. What does that mean that he's a god of faith? That doesn't sound right. Who has faith in whom? How does faith work? Who has faith in whom? You're all looking at me. It's not a trick question. We have faith in God. God doesn't have faith. God is perfect, omnipotent, omnipotent. He is the creator, the source of all existence. We have faith in him. He doesn't have faith in us. Or does he? He does have faith in us. That's what the Torah wants us to know. He does have faith in us. He believes in us. He created us. He is us. He put a piece of himself in us. We saw in Shabashu, we learned from the same way a Jew has to have amuna that there's God, aid has to have amuna has to have faith in themselves. Because if you think that God is God, but I am worthless, insignificant, inconsequential, I don't mean or add anything, I don't believe in myself, I have no self-esteem, no self-worth, then you're denying God because God put a piece of himself in every human being. To disrespect, to dishonor, to disregard a human is to disrespect, dishonor, disregard the Almighty. There is a peace, a prominent peace, a powerful peace of Hashem in each and every one of us. He is us theim in us. So we have faith in him and he obligates us to not only believe and have faith in him but to believe and have faith as an extension of him in us in ourselves and he believes in us. We say this every morning. God your faith is great. God your faith is great. Isn't Modi about our faith in him? Yes. but also a reminder. If I woke up this morning, he believes in me. If I woke up this morning, I'm not done. I'm not finished yet. So, Rabbi Saxs writes here, "The rabbis of the first centuries of the common era communicated profound truths in a deceptively simple way, commenting on this phrase, kale amuna, a god of faith, simply understood to mean he's faithful to his promises." Right? The simple understanding of kamuna is he's faithful to his promises. If he promises to redeem us, he'll redeem us. If he promises to punish us, he'll punish us. He's reliable and trustworthy and he follows through. He's faithful. He's But they said in the means the God who had faith in the world he was about to create. In that sentence lies an extraordinary suggestion of the risk God took when he made mankind. Biblical faith with its emphasis on free will and responsibility constantly holds before us the paradox of human history. There are times when we scale the heights of goodness, but there are others when we descend to the depths of evil. Modern thought is focused on the wrong question. It is asked how God could have created nature. The rabbis posed a question altogether more profound. How could God have created man? It's one thing to believe that God and his goodness made the universe. It's another to believe that God and his goodness made a form of life, homo sapiens, capable of inflicting untold cruelty and suffering on its own members. The Torah says before the flood, contemplating the violence that filled the world, Hashem regretted. He regretted that he had made man on earth and that his heart was touched with sorrow. After Ashvitz, that verse echoes with almost unbearable pathos. That verse echoes unbearably that God regretted what he had done by making man on earth. After Ashwitz, after October 7th, the rabbis gave a remarkable answer. Creation testifies not merely to God's power but also as it were to his belief in mankind. At the heart of religion is not just the faith we have in God. No less significant is the faith God has in us. That faith is surely often tested. It is tested when we turn our back on God. It is tested no less when we commit evil in his name. Yet he does not lose faith that one day we'll learn this. The God lover of people has given us many universes of faith but only one world in which to live together. The grant of freedom to humanity was an immense act of self-limitation on the part of God. What the Luran Kabala costum Hashem is faith in man. That faith is often abused not to say betrayed. Yet God still infinite patience through human being inflict suffering on one another. Hashem does not give up on his creation. However corrupt we are he does not relinquish the faith that we will change. However lost, he does not cease to believe that one day we will find our way back. More than we search for God, God searches for us, asking us as he did to Adam Ayeka, where are you? Saf's comment is profound. Creation, even God's creation when it involved endowing a creature with the capacity to act in freedom, involves risk and therefore faith. Kale amuna, God of faith means who had faith in the universe and created it. I know of no lovelier account of the how often unloly human condition. Talk about poetry. Rabbi Sax's commentary is poetry. But what a beautiful description. Kel amuna means by constantly renewing the contract of creation. The fact that the world is still here and ongoing and that we are in it is itself an expression of Hashem's faith in humanity. that we are worthy and we are worth continuing this experiment called existence and yes we have setbacks. We violate that faith. There is infidelity but we can come back. And it's so powerful that we read this and we're learning this now on the precipice of yum kipper. He has faith in us and he gives us the reset button called yumipper and he says maybe you were unfaithful this year but I have faith that you can come back. How many times can we violate or neglect in a human relationship? How much infidelity, unfaithfulness, literally, figuratively, emotionally, monetarily, in so many different ways, friendship, and in marriage. How many times will someone welcome the other back? But Hashem, every year of your life, there's no point at which he says, "Yeah, that's enough. I've given you too many chances." You can be celebrating your 105th kipper and he says, "Let's do it again. I have faith. This is your year." Ah, 104 times you proved unfaithful. No, no, no. I still have faith in you. I still have faith in you. Isn't that powerful? Isn't that empowering to know going into Kipper? He has faith in us. So, we should have faith in ourselves. He is a he maintains and he still has that faith. corruption is not his blemish is his children. A perverse and twisted generation. Now you understand why I said why is this called a song? It's a pretty harsh song. The whole blemish is his children's a perverse and twisted generation which might be a very accurate name or description of our generation but anyway back to the back to sojuk says quotes the blemish is his children's says a wondrous thing. You see the responsibility of a parent to model for a child because if the parent is lacks or lenient or casual even of something small then the child will go off the path and neglect something much bigger and that's low low again read side Lo corruption is not his. The blemish is his children's. He's reading low. If he neglects even a small thing, you won't register on the richtor scale. But mum when he sees in his children more when he sees in his children more I once um a man not connected to ours goes back many many years I was assistant rabbi at the time asked to meet with me because his child was dating a non-Jew and of course he was terribly disappointed upset livid tried everything he could to intervene to intercede and he couldn't convince the child excuse me he asked me as a last touch effort to meet with the child, which I did. I met with the two of them, and he described his dismay. And she described why she fell in love with this boy who'd make a wonderful husband and a great father, and that her own father wasn't particularly observant himself. So why should she make such a supreme sacrifice? It's my turn to speak. And I turned to the father and I said, you know, I hear her. I don't blame her. You're not willing to give up your Saturdays or a cheeseburger, but she should give up the love of her life. She grew up watching and witnessing. She grew up observing that you, I'm not talking about somebody who wasn't educated, didn't know better, didn't know more, didn't have role models. You did, and you've chosen to be casual, lenient, lax, to dismiss, to view halak as a list of suggestions rather than obligations. you've ordered from the Torah like a buffet off its menu. And she grew up in that atmosphere. So, is it surprising for her that if her father's not willing to give up relatively small sacrifices? She should give up a supreme one. I hear her. You're to blame. You're angry at her. Here's a mirror. Here's a mirror. Then I turned to her. I said, "Well, you're not off the hook." And then we talked about a link in the chain and the Jewish people and why our story matters. We talked about this a few weeks ago, formulating an answer to that question of why be Jewish. And we had that conversation. I didn't do it to beat the father up or fill him with guilt and shame a little bit. But I did it because I said to the two of them, "Why don't you go on a journey together? Why don't you consider father demonstrating you're willing to make sacrifices small and large before you turn to your daughter and ask her to reconsider making a big one? And why don't you become an educated consumer? Why don't you live and learn and observe and practice before you decide? And that's what this p that's taiching is explaining this p low low. It won't destroy you if you're casual and lax about little things that not this father who wasn't doing anything. Okay. So, you didn't uh whatever the case is, but but mum but it'll show in the children. The blemish will show up in the children. And we see it in our time. It used to be that we could rely on social pressure for Jews to remain observant. You'll never marry out and you'll still keep Shabas because there's a societal social pressure. But those days are over. The days are over. The world is welcoming and filled with opportunity and invitation. And there's no longer inhibition. There's no longer shame. And it's so easy to drop out. And there are some of the most passionate, practicing, incredible parents and their children don't stay with the program. And there are parents who are terribly casual and lax and their children are on fire. So I say this not for anyone to beat themselves up. I say this not because we can directly correlate or blame. I just say it because if you want to know what's going to give you the best odds for having children who are on fire is to be on fire yourself. What statistically will give you the greatest probability and likelihood of having children who are part of the program is to be the most practicing the most passionate that you could be because low low maybe a few I go to Shabas not during the week I come late not on time I talk a little bit I'm not quiet I eat kosher I don't remember to make braos this is kosher enough that symbol I think is pretty good I didn't really check out the pes program we're going to if you lax it won't necessarily show up in you but in and the children and grandchildren who see an atmosphere where it's not worth making sacrifices for then mum it's going to show up in a much more directed way goes on and on and describes this he quotes the he has much longer but I want to move on to other ideas we're gonna turn the page but not yet is it to Hashem that you do Oh vile and unwise people. He's your father. He is your master. He has not has he not created you and firmed you. So again this is a shir. What kind of a song is this? So far we've been called a perverse and twisted generation. Oh vile and unwise people. Sam song. Huh? Sam song. But is he not your father and your master? Didn't he create you? Didn't he mold you? And didn't he shape you? So here we turn to another another says, "Isn't he your father? How could you do this? Isn't he a Isn't he your father? What do you see from here?" says the biggest biggest claim you did something wrong. You made a mistake. You violated transgression. Did you even think about your father when you did that thing? Did you even consider or think about how it would impact and disappoint your father? The daughter of a coen who's promiscuous. The Torah says she gets the strictest of the capital punishments. She gets instead of because the Torah says this Basco, this royalty, this princess, this young lady of distinction and prominence who was a bosen, she should walk around. If you're a coin, you should raise your daughters to know they're a Bos Coin. You know who I am? I'm a Bos Coin. And she went ahead and carried and dressed and acted and was promiscuous. She violated her father's honor and dignity. Rashid says they say about her father. They turned to the Cohen. They said this is your daughter. Hey Cohen, this is your daughter. There was a syndrome called the rabbi's daughter syndrome. Won't get into this right now. Lo alenu. I have tremendous nas for my daughters lo there is a syndrome rabbis children a lot of rabbis children give them amazing nas and they are superstars and a lot of rabbis a lot of famous and prominent and great rabbis have children not so posit because it's complicated to grow up with that sense of responsibility with that title with that status it ain't easy it ain't easy I don't know I tell my children that this is one way. I was once a kid. I could relate to them being a kid. I was never a rabbi's kid. I have absolutely no idea what it's like to be a rabbi's kid. And I have tremendous sympathy and empathy because it's not so simple. One of my children was describing to me recently, you know, in school when the teacher asked a question, if you raise your hand and you knew the answer, so for the other kids, you're supposed to. You're the rabbi's kid. If you didn't know the answer you're called on, how could you not know the answer? You're the rabbi's kid. It isn't easy. It isn't easy. So, but the Torah says we're all Hashem's child. If a person is tempted considering to sin, they should think this is one of the strategies to overcome it. Are you gonna do this to your father? Do you know what it would do to your father? There are people that it's very powerful. They're ready to dress a certain way, conduct themselves a certain way, make certain life decisions, and they say, "I couldn't do that to my parents." You know what? It doesn't speak to me. I'm not internally motivated, but I can't do that to my parents. We should all feel we can't do that to our father. Hashem says, "After everything I do for you like a father, and I love you as a father, you're going to violate just like and therefore the Torah says he's your father. Before you do that thing, before you bring him shame, before you make that mistake, before you act out in that way, ask yourself, what is that going to do to your father? How could you bring that shame? How could you give that pain to your very father? The opposite is also true. If you act with great honor and distinction, you bring a great you bring great honor to Hashem's name. As the famously says, if you're if you learn and you grow and you represent Hashem and you go out and you're kind and you're courteous and you're thoughtful and you're honest, people say, "Wow, look at Torah. Torah." And if you're the opposite, you wear that yarmaka on your head, you're visibly Jewish, and now you're discourteous, you're rude, you're dishonest, you don't have those honest weights and measures, people say the Torah. So people associate our behavior with our father, with our teacher. We don't just carry the responsibility of our own reputation. Every one of us carry the responsibility of the reputation of our parents and our grandparents. Is that fair or unfair? It doesn't matter. It's true. It's a reality. So, one of the ways to inspire and motivate ourselves is to remember that we bear the responsibility for the reputation not only of ourselves but of our parents. And among those parents, namely as well, fly now. We're skipping pages all the way to 11:06. says, "The Torah, mine is vengeance and retribution at the time their foot will falter. The day their catastrophe is near and future events are rushing at them, but Hashem will judge his people." And here it goes on and says this in several ways, right? Beginning with that word means revenge. Go to means revenge. should be familiar to us. Oh nations, sing the praise of his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants. He'll bring retribution upon his enemies. He'll appease his land and his people. Over and over and over again, we see a reference to Hashem taking revenge. A vengeful God. A vengeful God. So Rabbi Sax, this is our last Rabbi Sax of the day. Rabbi Sax says, "What's going on over here? We're describing over and over again. God takes revenge all of a we say shabas morning written for the martyrs of the crusade. We've not omitted it the last two years even when we ordinarily would like benching has said we should continue to say it because they're continued nebak to be martyrs of this war. So written for the martyrs of the crusade relevant to the martyrs of the war of the last two years. And in it we say over and over and over again Hashem, revenge, kamas, houthis, Qatar, France, England, South Africa, Australia. There's not enough room left in our sitter. How many we have to add to the list of who Hashem should take revenge against? Who he has to take revenge against? So, what's with all this revenge? Doesn't the Torah say lo? Doesn't the Torah forbid? Isn't one of the 613 commandments that you're not allowed to take revenge? We've given a whole year on this. It's a topic. There's many sources. Is God take revenge? Not revenge. Are we for revenge? Not for revenge. You know, in yesterday's announcement about this potential please God deal. So, one of the things favorable for kamas, it's hard to believe is the immunity. Anyone who wants to leave Gaza will be allowed. Will we like the Munich massacre many years from now hunt them down wherever they are? I don't know. I hope because there is an element of we want to. And here the Torah is describing God at revenge over and over again. But it says lovax weighs in. Hashem commands forgiveness as Yoshi forgave his brothers and as we on Judaism's holiest day ask him to forgive us and kipper. To quote Rambam, as long as one nurses a grievance, he keeps it in mind. one may come to take revenge. Torah therefore emphatically warns us not to bear a grudge so that the impression of the wrong shall be wholly obliterated and no longer remembered. This is the right principle. It alone makes a society and human interaction possible. Note Ramba means in a general rule for humanity not limited to Jews. Yet this para contains lines such as he'll avenge his servants blood difficult to reconcile with an ethic of non-revenge. So which is it? I think of the Jews of the Middle Ages who saw their fellow Jews accused of killing Christian children to drink their blood, of poisoning wells, of desecrating the host and spreading the plague, and then murdered on mass in the name of the God of love. We can still hear their response. They're recorded for us in many of the kinos. We say on the 9th of A, yes, they appeal to God's vengeance, which is to say to God's justice. But Jews did not seek to take vengeance. That is something you leave to God. There's a justice we will not see this side of the end of days. In the meantime, it is sufficient to live in a firm life and seek no more than the right to be true to your faith without fear. No more than to right to live and defend that self-same right for your children. Yet we seek justice and we fight for justice. But the search for the perfect justice is not for us here and now. It is, as Moshe taught the Jewish people in the great song he sang at the end of his life, something that faith demands we leave to God, who alone knows the human heart, who alone knows what is just in the world of conflicting claims, and who will establish and perfect justice at a time and in a way of his choosing, but not ours. So revenge, vengeance is forbidden for us. But we call upon it for him because that's a reminder. Maybe a harsh one, maybe a difficult one to swallow, maybe a painful one, but it's a reminder that we deserve to fight and defend ourselves. We deserve to live in safety and security. But revenge, we leave that to Hashem. Does it feel unfair? Terribly. Terribly. But that's how the Torah prescribes it. And I read that to this morning and it gave me solace after yesterday because it is a bitter bitter pill to swallow to not be able to take revenge to eliminate the horrific horrific evil wicked terrorists who perpetrated this atrocity to release some of those who previously had. It's unbearably painful and unfair and unjust. So it's a reminder. It's a reminder that ultimately is the orbiter of justice and revenge. And we call upon him to take it. Let them all die of natural deaths. Let them all suffer from rockets blowing up in their faces. If he wants, he can. And we call upon him to do it. And even when we have to stop short of doing it ourselves, even when we have to agree to an unfair and unjust deal, that's part of the way the Torah prescribed and prophesized what is going to be. I'll just raise for you something fascinating. The Torah here at the very end, Moshe spoke all the song in the ears of the people and included among them the bin. What happened? What are we calling him again? Hoshu. He lost the Yud. Hosa became Yahosua when he was going to spy with the Moragim and he got demoted. He lost the Yud. He became Hosa. What happened over here? Rashi tells us what happened. says, "Torah wants us to know that we've watched Yeshua go from a young lad, an apprentice, the assistant rabbi, and he's about to become the senior rabbi." And you should know that Moshe is retiring and passing the mantle. And his assistant rabbi is about to become the rabbi. That senior rabbi is still the same as he was when he was the rabbitic intern. It never went to his head. Even though he went from the colo guy to the intern to the assistant to the associate to the rabbi, we call him hosa at the end. So that you know that he never stopped being the original person he was. He remained modest and humble. But the cleer has another interpretation. Listen to this cleer. Why was he called Yeshua? Because let he not fall prey to the persuasion of the moragim. So he gave the name Yud, which is the name of Hashem, so he'd have extra confidence. Don't be affected, says the cleer. That was not a permanent name change. It was temporary. Only while there was anyone alive from the generation of the spies did Yeshua still need the Yud at the beginning of his name. But now at the end of Mosha's life, that entire generation has died. There's nobody left who was alive at the time of the episode of the spies. And therefore, he no longer needs the Yud in his name. And he reverts back to his original name. He's now Hosa. It's a wild cleer but if learns from this you see the power I don't understand they they overcame okay the episode of the spies they cried at night they didn't have to bother crying they cried when they didn't have to for 40 years he kept dvening for the yud was the beginning of his name means that for 40 years Moshe didn't stop dvening let not beed Ed, you see the power of peer pressure. You see how easy it is to fall prey so much. So, never stop worrying about your children. Don't say, "Well, they're out of middle school. Ah, they're out of high school. Ah, they got through yeshiva. Ah, they're an adult. Ah, they're living in a community." The power of peer pressure, the vulnerability of still being persuaded can never stop dvening. Moshe didn't stop dabbing all 40 years. Only when the last of the ones who could have negatively impacted Yeshua. Only when the last one wasn't near. Only then could he let go of the Y and he went back to but until then Mosha continued to din. You see that power wishing everyone good. We are off next week. Take a break for sukus and we are back after sukus but tomorrow we are on Tanya and amuna as usual Wednesday morning. So join us for learning. Good. By the time we're back, all the hostages will be home and our soldiers will be safe and sound. We'll be on our way to the historic peace that we hope and pray is to come.