Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz: First Fruits an Expression of Joy with No Jealousy Nor Shame

my baby [Music] okay hi everybody thank you thank you all for coming and the shirt tonight is a dedicated a refuge Lima foreign in addition as I've mentioned before in the middle of an annual fundraising campaign for the young and tobim to distribute food and Necessities for those who need help and Barack Hashem they have already reached the 50 Mark only halfway and uh but now hopes that to reach 100 and it's important to know that 100 of the funds go directly to the recipients there is no overhead that is withheld and they link to the campaign can be found on the website and in the YouTube description box on the YouTube channel so again this is the time of year where we remembered repentance and prayer and charity maverines they can take away they can mitigate the severity of even an evil negative decree so stucca is important the whole year but it's a particularly important uh in the young and rhyme before Rosh Hashanah and during the series you may uh you may chuva so Versace should reach its uh 100 Financial goal well we're approaching the end of the year and as I've talked about a lot and has been discussed over and over again by many many people the whole period of is a bit of a confusing period in some ways because there are different conflicting and contradictory emotional states that we emphasize during this time uh one aspect of him in the rhyme is you know uh you are scared you know out of your pants so to speak meaning to say it is frightening this is the time of who will live and who will die and God is deciding and we're up on trial and imagine you know imagine if you would be facing a judge and possibly a person could get the electric chair capital punishment or life without parole be a very scary frightening thing and one should Envision on one level Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur as days of judgment the gemara itself says that we don't recite Halal even though Rosh Hashanah is a holiday Yom Kippur is a holiday we do not recite Hollow and the gemara says the books of who will live and who will die or open up before God that's not appropriate the kind of joy of Halal is not appropriate for that type of solemnity and yet and yet we have specific proofs from the um itself that these are supposed to be joyous days one of the very first rosh hashanahs that we celebrated when we returned to Eric Israel after the 70 years of the Babylonian exile is actually recorded in the book of nechemiah are very fascinating corners of Tanakh that are very rarely explored not too many people like learned the book of Muhammad so to speak but very very interesting stuff there and it discusses the idea that after the 70 years the Jewish actually not everybody a small percentage of the Jewish people came back most remained in Indigo left and they didn't even really have a base I make this yet and the first Rosh Hashanah they gathered together the few people that came back four around 40 000 people and they started sobbing they started crying they looked at the fact that they didn't really have a basement yet the land was desolate the population was poverty stricken they were surrounded by enemies that wanted to destroy them wild animals Pirates Marauders and they didn't really see a great deal of Hope in their situation and they thought that God even though God allowed them to come back but God is still rejecting them and they spontaneously were sobbing and weeping and the great leader Ezra and the political leader circulated among the people and he said this is not a time to cry this is not a time to grieve this is a holy day this is a joyous day you should eat good food and good drink and be sure to share it with those who cannot afford their own and it says Hashem this is Hashem he is so let's translate that those four words literally means the joy of God is your strength Hashem what is the joy of God because in Hebrew these expressions are always ambiguous does it mean the joy you have in God or does it mean the joy of God in you and what is God's joy or your joy in God the truth is both interpretations are possible and both interpretations are true it is the joy you have in serving God that will give you strength when there's simcha in mayavotes Hashem then I have courage to face difficulties and then I have courage to do chuva doing chuva takes courage as well in which I'm willing to look at myself and see areas where I could improve that's not a simple thing it's much easier just to uh you know inertia so when you have joy then you have the energy to change and you also have to remember by the way the reshine and bring a Raya the reshine and bring a proof from this narrative in Nehemiah that you're not allowed to fast on Rosh Hashanah that and that's the Halal Rosh Hashanah is a yomtov and just like any yamta if you're not allowed to fast now it's interesting that the goonim the goonim the authorities in Babylonia after the talmud actually felt it was proper to fasten Rosh Hashanah and they encouraged a two-day fast uh it's very difficult to understand how they could do so in light of the possible that specifically says that they shouldn't fast right or they should eat they should eat okay that's a Kasha underground but nevertheless that you're not allowed to fasten which means on one end Rosh Hashanah Yom Kippur trepidation fear on the other hand a sense of joy in the loving relationship we have with God even shuffleboard what is your emotion when you blow chauffeur right so one idea of chauffeur is there are many ideas and I'll talk about it probably maybe next week or closer to Rosh Hashanah one idea is you're being summoned to judgment right it's like when the jury deliberates so when the jury comes back they ring a bell a buzzer chauffeur is the buzzer God is about to judge you now and therefore the feeling is but the villagan says no shofar is the joyous coronation of God as king it is a coronation ceremony now you may think those are opposite feelings one is the a Montreal for my life the other is coronation and yet if you look at the verses we recite verses before chauffeur blowing you will actually see in those verses both ideas there is are from the desperation I call out to God meaning I'm in a desperate place and then it says I Rejoice over your words as if I found the treasure living in contradictions we live in contradictions we embrace the joy and we embrace the trepidation but it's very very important to have both not just to have one at the expense of the other because the trepidation without the joy is going to destroy you and it will indeed make it yamim in the colloquial definition of Nara what an awful day but you know but that's not what that means right now means days of awe days of reverence but there has to be the simcha that's involved there very very very important so sometimes we don't emphasize that aspect and it's important to to talk about it so tonight I I want to talk about something from the Parsha that indirectly is going to be connected to Young and the run but but it's directly connected to the Parsha the beginning of this remember the whole book of devorem is the last month of March robina's life to the seventh brother a month and a week and not sure if I know Shem is giving us a Mitzvah a lot of Mitzvahs as well as going over the history and the Mitzvah that he's giving us in the beginning of the Parsha is a Mitzvah called bikorium that when you come to the land that God promises you you shall take the first of your fruits and you shall bring it to the base the place that God will choose and you will recite certain verses which is a an encapsulated history of the Jewish people in four verses and you will then put down the basket and the kohanim will eat the bikuru now just to make some obvious points even though we call it B kurim the first fruits you understand it is not limited to fruits the Mitzvah bicorim are the seven species of Eric Israel so that includes Wheats and barley and grapes and fig and pomegranates and olives and then the last one is the Vash honey and you know that the honey of course is the honey of dates not the honey of bees so therefore if I have any one of these seven species I don't have I don't have to have all seven but if I have any one of these seven growing then as soon as something ripens I go into my field and I tie a string around the first dates that ripens are the first fruit that ripens and later I will take it to the base a mikdash and I will declare the story and of course the actual verses that we recite should be very very very familiar to you because it is actually the basis of the pesach it begins our Rami ovied Avi my father yaakov was a Wandering Syrian a Wandering a remian and he came down to mitzrayim by yogarships and he dwelt there with a very small number and eventually his seed became a great nation and the three of them did bad things to us and they enslaved us and God took us out with a strong hand and an outstretched arm you see what that God is doing these are only four verses does is it takes each of those verses and then darshans then expounds upon them by elaborating right so it's interesting that the whole declaration that a Jew would recite when he brought bikorim is the fundamental foundation of the pesach and it's a little unfortunate because that tends to be the part of the pesach that people tune out for people love the four Sons well again and we're not talking about patience now if you look at the parts of the Hagar that people are most excited about those are actually introductions that the four Sons is not really part of the Mitzvah of narrating The Exodus the four Sons is an introduction by telling you you have to gear your story to each of uh each type of child the actual Narrative of The Exodus are the verses from bikurim that I got to explain so it's interesting that we kind of very enthusiastic maybe because we haven't had two cups of wine yet we're very enthusiastic about the introductory material and less so for the actual story of The Exodus okay vikorim is not a Corban because you don't sacrifice it on the altar it is brought to the base of mikdash it is laid down next to the altar but bikorm are then given to the kohanim who don't have to eat it in the basement make this they could eat it anywhere in in Jerusalem right this is a Mitzvah of bicorium vicorum unlike truma and Maser and shmita only applies when there's a base to make this that's why bismar has said there is no mitzvah to separate before okay now there's a whole tractate of mishnais called my second speaker the track date of bikorm there is no Babylonian talmud on it simply because there's generally no Babylonian talmud at all on the tractates dealing with agriculture but there is a tamaju xiaomi and masato's because you saw me is that Sailors arrived and the mishna discusses the pageantry of the bicorum ceremony now again I want to correct another popular misconception many people we know that one of the names for the holiday of shavuos is called the season of the first fruits so yes most people why is shavua's corals so people say well because I guess you're supposed to bring your bikorim on shavuas that is actually incorrect you do not bring because type of offering it's called khaga bikorium for another reason that the grain offering of shavuos is from the new wheat and that's called the Tulips which is not the Mitzvah Biko reminding individual this is a communal offering it is true however that starting after shibbous is the beginning of the bikurim season and that goes all the way to chanukkah you can bring your recurring from us to Hanukkah okay so it describes that at different times cities would get together or people from towns would get together and they would travel like everybody from svath would decide to go on a certain day with their big room everybody from benebra whatever and they would come and whenever they would come it was a very festive event The Artisans of yerushalayim the blacksmiths the tailors they would see the people from spot coming they would stand up and they would say welcome to the holy city welcome to the B Corey by the way we have salvation used to say you know there's a recent Mythic it's not an old minute it kind of started relatively recently that people stand up walks down the aisle people stand up you see it now in Europe they didn't do this simply because nobody ever sat down people were standing up anyway but once we had seats people started standing up so what's the mockers so people give the answer well it says but he's not married yet the guy is single right the cousin walking down the aisle is not a Hassan yet we don't necessarily find doesn't apply either Sarah salaveich said like this or savachik said the muckler for standing up for is that the anshay yerushalayim would stand up for people bringing before him which means when somebody is going to do a mitzvah it is proper to honor them by standing up the Hassan and the color are going to do the Mitzvah of getting married at least for the question that's a positive Mitzvah so we stand up now I have to confess I don't fully understand this idea that when somebody's going to do a Mitzi stand up I mean if I'm in showing chakras and somebody comes in to put up their filling I mean I mean we don't we certainly don't stand up every time somebody is doing a Mitzvah so I'm not sure what the getter is but of Salvation was madayak from that mishnah that that is the marker of standing up okay now it then mentions that some people rich people right there be corium to the base on mikdash in baskets of gold and silver and the kohanim would take the fruits and give them back the baskets people brought there because in wicker baskets and they were too embarrassed to ask for the basket back so they lost the basket the Gomorrah notes from here we see from here Anya ASLA on the USA which basically means the poor get poorer meaning you're so poor that you bring a wicker basket you lose your basket the rich guy gets his basket back the poor guy doesn't okay the great commentator on the missioner asks an interesting question the gemara says in moetan that originally when people would die people would be buried in accordance with their means if you were a rich wealthy person you would wear beautiful beautiful expensive garments and fancy coffins and poor people like buried in a simple box but what happened was that poor people felt their families felt very humiliated and therefore the great Robin gamliel who is the Nazi the head of the Sanhedrin who was very very wealthy as well he directed his family that when he died he wanted to be buried in a simple wooden box with plain linen garments not to embarrass Misha England now it's interesting he didn't make this a rule for everybody this was a private thing but later the talmud codified it as a standard practice shalomayesh me shame now of course what's interesting is that even a plain Pine Box Orthodox funeral outside of Erica throughout where we took Lou me can cover some of it uh costs a lot of money meaning a plain box can also be you know seven thousand to ten thousand dollars so funerals are not cheap which lets sarraine is one of the tragic reasons why Cremations have become very very popular among less Orthodox Jews because cremations are much much cheaper and it's really a Shanda it's a haval that a kosher elevated burial should be beyond the ability of many people to pay but okay but be this in May there was an unscrupulous Funeral Home years ago and again this was absolutely dishonest and unscrupulous but I have to admire the width behind it in which they were trying to encourage Jewish people to get fancy expensive coffins and they said we are restoring the original custom of the Jewish people those people who do the plain Pine Box are the reformers who are changing the question reformer is Robin you're right if you go it reminds me a little bit of a story and somebody wants to answer this and said uh you know uh why you people why are you people so old-fashioned why don't you change with the times why don't you adapt ation said you guys are the real old-fashioned ones like the hagada says we originally were Idol worshipers so you're gone you're going back to the old the old way of being Jewish okay so we do have this Exquisite sensitivity to not allowing income differentials to humiliate people that the morale and other people May takanos that even weddings you should not go beyond a certain number of guests in order not to embarrass people who can't afford it so fracture why buy bikurim do we allow income disparities to still remain meaning rich people brought gold baskets poor people brought wicker baskets why didn't the hakama make a rule that says rich and poor have to be the same everybody brings a wicker basket we don't want rich people to stand out we don't want them to embarrass people who are just not as well off why isn't there a concern shalola leviath Misha Enloe by bikori so the toast yamchev himself gives an answer that since this is a ritual that adds glory to the base of mikdish so when it comes to beautifying the base that overrides sensitivities for the glorification of the house of God we want people to bring their best to do their best and even if that means that some people will look bad because they're not able to go with that standard everything is worthwhile that is the answer of the toces but there's another answer that some sperm give that I want to share with you I think is actually very very relevant even to this time of year the last mission in bracos in the ninth paragraphs after discussing all the different Broncos that you make on everything the mishna says foreign that means what a person is obligated to bless God for the bad things the same way they bless God for the good things in life now that's what the mission says the gemara explains we certainly don't mean you make the same brother for good things right we have shariano thank you God for letting me be alive or I told our native God is good God does good for tragedies like bereavements we say dayano MS God is the true judge so the mission certainly does not mean you make the same brother for ra and Tova but thikamari says what the mishna means is you have to have the same attitude for ra and Tova you must accept both with simcha with equanimity with joy now even that needs explanation the gemara certainly does not mean that the same way you know I might dance at the table when I get married or or whatever some very good fortune happened to me so God forbid a person loses a parent they're supposed to sing and dance of course that's not the case I mean one of the most important aspects of Judaism is Judaism recognizes the reality of grief Judaism recognizes the existence of sadness there are laws of mourning there are times for grieving so the word Joy is a more complicated word than simply being happy simcha refers to kind of an inner serenity an inner calmness that says yeah this is tough and yeah this is sad but I know you know Hashem runs the world and I know that on some way that I may not understand it's for the good it's the inner conviction of the Moon and Hashem of in Hashem that gives a person strength even in difficult times and that's what's called that's also that's simcha is not only when you're singing and you're dancing simcha refers to the inner state of saying yeah it is hard but I know I know it's good one way or the other I know it's good in fact this actually can explain but otherwise be very very perplexing the talmud says in more than one place that no person can be a navi navua cannot come on a person unless they are in a state of simcha that's why when it was another show was enough he got depressed they needed of it needed to play the harp to put him in a better mood so he could receive ruach so here's a big problem that means every person who's getting into Villa has to be in a state of simcha now how many of our neighbors are full of tragic predictions this is going to happen and this is going to mcgillah when you're me oh God the technically may not be in the world but the ruach hakodes the divine inspiration in which he wrote the words of era he must have been the same was happy when he wrote so Avada he was not happy in the singing and dancing mode but happy and a much more quieter way of saying this is hard but I know it's for the good I know there's a purpose what if I can quote Nietzsche Niche is not a he's certainly not a source for Judaism in any way Nichi has two famous quotes that people use often in Torah talks one is that which doesn't destroy me makes me stronger that's quote one the other is when a person has a why he can live with any what I can live with what a what something that's hard in life if I have a wife if I understand there's a purpose if I understand there's a reason if I understand that it's not random it's not just something that happens but it's part of something and then I can live with a hard what when there's a why when I have a sense so that's that's kind of similar okay so this is the biggest ocean and of course uh you know everyone knows the famous story with the major Market he was the belchemtov successor of doveberry in which they tell me they asked him as a rich or not dead I don't understand the idea of how can I bless God with the same joy for good and for evil so the rebbe said go ask my students Rev zusha who will explain to you exactly the meaning of the the more or the mishnah so he goes he looks rev zusher of zusha is poverty-stricken he lives in a house that's full of leaks from the roof and the kids don't are wearing rags and there's no food in the house and whatever it is Everything is Everything is not good and he says zusha the rabbi said I have to ask you the question of uh how do you think how do you bless God for the bad like you've blessed God for the good he said you would give me the answer and revzusha looked very confused he says you know I have no idea why the rebbe sent you to me nothing bad ever happened to me because that was the that was the answer that was the answer exactly that type of that type of perspective okay so now let's go further so that's the mission right that's the mission in browse tomorrow then goes on and brings a Bryce up which has a statement of Robbie Mayer know this what is the biblical reference that says what's the reference oh baby Mayer says because the terrorist says you shall rejoice in all of the good foreign that Hashem your God has given you Hashem is the youth kevke that's the name of God that connotes the media of Elohim that connotes the Misa of din so what does the plastic saying sometimes God deals with me through the shame which is and sometimes he deals with me through the shame Elohim which is then But whichever way it goes is I should rejoice in all of the good so it's perfect mayor says where do you see and to be macabell both of them with simra this is pretty good proof no where is that pasok found where does the terrorist says it actually is in this partial it is the conclusion of the mitzvah bikurim that after Hashem describes the Mitzvah because it ends with some in other words the Parsha of bicorim is where the terror teaches me you gotta you gotta bless God for the difficult just like the good so one might ask a very simple question why should be kurim be the Parsha that teaches me that idea after all bikorm is a very happy festive occasion that's where the Torah says be grateful even for the bad things in life because they're not truly bad decorum would not be the appropriate maybe when Aaron lost his two children rather than a view so make some reference there that you have to be Macabre and with silence right so the answer is this the answer is that the Quorum itself the mitza bikurim even though it's a joyous happy occasion the farmer finally sees the beginning of his crown in a very subtle Gentle Way reminds a person that life involves sacrifices and you got to be joyous even in that struggle how is that so the gemara says in bhava mitzia wrote Adam shallow yo sir mitisha coven a that simply means a person would rather have one small measure that he worked for the nine measures that somebody gave to him there's a certain satisfaction in benefiting from what my own efforts produced that's why people will often frame if they have a business the first dollar they earned during the first whatever it is the first 10 shekel thing or whatever it would be because something I worked for is very very precious to me Rashi says so now let's put ourselves a little bit in the shoes of the farmer now for the urbanized Jew it's not easy although if any of you are gardeners you may have some of said of that you know uh farming is very very difficult work you know number one physically it's very very hard number two you're really at the mercy of the elements in such a way you know the rain the Sun the wind the cold and there are weeks and weeks where you don't really know what's going to be again today maybe it's a little less so because we have more control over the I mean it all comes to my Hashem but we have control over the environment and irrigation and everything else but certainly in the olden days when the Torah was given a farmer was so so dependent on all sorts of factors outside of his control now the secret is all of us are dependent on factors outside of birth control but we live under the illusion that you know I have a salary job and I do my work and everything else the farmer does not live under illusion the farmer knows that without God he's lost that is why by the way you know each order of the mishnah has a nickname in rabbinic literature and the Order of which is agriculture is called Seder amuna the order of faith in Hashem because the farmer lives a life of emuna maybe much more so than other jobs as they say everything depends on Hashem but as they say in other jobs we can live under certain illusions that a farmer cannot live under those illusions at least in the olden days that's why that's how he's famous famous safer which is a commentary on the laws of Agriculture and the rambam is called Derek emuna that's why he chose it because the order of Zariah is the Seder and Muna so finally after weeks after months of uncertainty he finally sees that first precious little fig that's right that's the Fig he wants to keep for himself that's the first little realization of those efforts what does God say that's what you have to take yerushalayim and give away now in the overall context that's still the joyous thing but it's a little bit of reminder sometimes life makes you give up that which you love most for a higher purpose that life does involve it's a very gentle way of doing it because the truth of the matter is when we're really suffering it may be difficult for us to absorb messages so what you do is you communicate messages when you're in a good place and then you can carry it over when you're in a hard place that's why a lot of mustard these are get-togethers where people discuss working on medos they only they actually have a rule we only discuss minor issues so for example they're not going to discuss major major life crises they'll discuss small crisis because the theory behind it is you build up your qualities of resilience of Anger Management in learning how to deal with small issues like your children you know spilled milk or broke a glass and by training yourself in those easier areas you'll be stronger when you've got to confront the major area my psychology of learning right work on the small stuff in fact uh Giuliani who used to in a prior life used to be a great great upholder of Law and Order again in recent years unfortunately there were maybe changes uh to the worst but when he was mayor of New York so Giuliani had a zero tolerance for a very minor crimes no graffiti you know if you did anything and people were thought he was crazy I thought he was fascist number one and they said listen New York City is full of murder drug addiction rape you're focusing on graffiti you're wasting your time and small insignificant little crimes his argument is if we create an environment where everything has to be kept the big stuff is going to go down as well you work on the small stuff because it was a different environment a different type of society it was not a society where everything went and as a result the zero tolerance policy actually resulted in making New York for a number of years I'm not sure if it's still the case now a much safer City he reduced the murder rate significantly the rape drug addiction all of those different things because he worked on the small stuff and that had a ripple effect in moisture and me those it's very much the same you work with confronting relatively easier challenges that don't challenge you so much and then you develop certain mindsets certain virtues certain qualities so before him in that sense is an educator because hey you're really really happy you have that first date that first fig but no sometimes you have to give up the things that you treasure in order to serve God and therefore be Korean teaches me I have to bless God even for the difficulties just as I bless them for the good things because before him too in a minor Gentle Way is a paradigm sacrifice it trains us it trains us to understand that our life is not all about us there are concerns in life that go beyond us as individuals and we have to accept it with joy and equanimity if in a subtle Gentle Way because reminds me to have faith in God even if I'm not getting everything I wanted this may be a beautiful answer to the ptosis is youngest question again what words that tells us you have this question if we are so concerned not to embarrass poor people then why be Korean we ought to abolish the gold basket versus the wicker basket so poor people wouldn't be embarrassed but wait a second if one of the lessons of bicorn is to accept the life that God gives you even if it's difficult then by definition the poor person is not supposed to be embarrassed that they're poor and the rich person shouldn't be embarrassed that he's rich each person has challenges each person was given their mission each person must find simcha in that mission if pikorum is this how can we tell the rich guy oh pretend that you're poor so this guy won't feel bad that he's poor what do you mean feel bad this is about them accept the life you have rejoice in the life that you have the rich person has opportunities to serve God by giving stucca that a poor person might not have a poor person has opportunities to develop greater beta Muna each person is given opportunities each person is given gifts the gifts take different forms in fact they tell the story The riskarab used to tell the story you know his father was the rub and brisk before the brisker up because he was the last rough we have the Eastern safe salvation but was the great predecessor and the briskarov said that his family was poor but that didn't bother them they understood to live in poverty that was not a big deal but the risborough said there was only one time he had Akasha and I cut his work because he said there was a man in brisk who was phenomenally wealthy for the time and the man in brisk was exceedingly righteous he was at sadik he gave stucca he supported every cause he learned Torah he kept mitzvahs he used his wealth exactly the way Hashem would want him to do it and one day like the blink of an eye he lost everything he lost his wealth he was homeless he was living in the street now the man himself was the thought the man himself didn't complain but the Brisco Rob said I couldn't understand him I went to my father he said I went to my father and I said to my father how could this be how could it be a man who was so good with so good so righteous Hashem takes everything away from him why of course the story of the book of Eve and if I am gave him an example it's an interesting example because your crime was very much against the university learning but but he gave an example from from the University he says imagine a person you know Masters a certain field in the university and he knows everything to know about law or about medicine but he still wants to learn but there's nothing more in that field that he can learn do we need to go to another school right just so he finishes medical school he goes to law school in fact that was a famous dunesbury cartoon I think back in the 70s about a guy who never wanted to leave school so he went through every single graduate program that existed law of Medicine Science everything philosophy and he was coming to the end so things haven't end there was literally no other academic program for him to go into and he was out of panic that he would have to start a job whatever so sometimes when a person has learned everything he knows about a field he needs to go to another field to be educated further said in life the great educators are wealth and poverty well it's a big big challenge are you going to use your money in the right way are you going to be humble are you going to serve Hashem are you going to avoid arrogance it's a whole school because I am sad what happens when you have a man who totally mastered he totally mastered that field of study so Hashem says you mastered this now I'm going to give you this semester because I believe in you I trust in you you mastered the nisayon of wealth and now you will Master the Nissan of poverty that sort of crime told the president God is God wants him to be well-rounded in all areas so to speak to master all of the conditions of life if this person was a person who was capable of that remember the person himself was not complaining so as a result if bikorm's message is be happy with the life that Hashem gave me then we're not going to cover up who you are we're not going to make the rich guy look poor or make the poor guy look rich or whatever it is you are what you are and you'll be proud of what you are because you have a mission you have a purpose you have a destiny you have a role and that's why by be Quorum there's no cover-ups now I just want to add I think an interesting point though we actually do find by bikurim a certain cover-up and that is the following I mentioned when you bring decorum and you put your basket down in front of the altar you then recite that little history my father was a Wandering a remian and we went down to mitralium and God brought us to the land right the basic then goes on and says and he brought us to the lands uh giving of giving us a land of milk and honey so originally it was said that if you knew how to read you said it yourself if you didn't know how to read you were illiterate a coin would say the words and you would repeat after the coming but then it says in order not to embarrass those who were illiterate enacted that the coin always reads it for everybody even those who know how to read now there's originally if you could read you read it if you couldn't read the Cohen would say the words and you would repeat they then said we don't want to embarrass the illiterate person Cohen reads it for everybody I mean you repeat after the going now you may ask a question on what I just said if indeed decorum is about no cover-ups accepting your life not being ashamed then if you're illiterate so what well you're illiterate the answer is some things you ought to be ashamed about now now this is a beautiful thing because I mean this is so psychologically sophisticated we want to communicate that the person ought to be ashamed but we want to do it without making him ashamed meaning like this we don't want to embarrass him if we wanted to embarrass him we would make him say I don't know how to read we don't want to embarrass him but we want him to know that it's embarrassing meaning to say by creating a mechanism like you know he's going to say well why is the coin reading it for everybody well the answer is we don't want to embarrass people who don't know what to read so the guy's going to scratch his head you mean there's something wrong with not knowing how to read maybe I ought to get myself a habrusa or whatever in other words Rich poor nothing to be ashamed about nothing to be ashamed about but not connecting to Torah not investing enough not caring enough to have some basic Jewish literacy that is something to be a little embarrassed about but it's so ingenious because we don't want to embarrass him but by creating a ritual where we don't embarrass him he realizes that he should be embarrassed and therefore he might do something about it it reminds me a little bit of a story I think I mentioned the story a few weeks ago I'll repeat this quickly rev Steinman uh was gone and it's Sadiq and someone who's extremely sensitive to people's feelings he would not embarrass somebody so and he lived in extreme poverty it was an amazing thing he lived in poverty his apartment he and his reputation was ramshackled uh and people would come to him with all sorts of economic issues and they would be a little embarrassed like should I get a new car should I get a new refrigerator you know they're coming to him but he would answer them he would say he would tell them what they needed to do Etc he did not make them feel self-conscious when they would ask like gosh me it's material questions so a businessman in benebra came to him and said he feels he has to buy a new car a new car because he deals with wealthy people and if he has an old car they look down at him so he needs to have a new car so he'll be respected among his peers sir if Steinman said okay well do what you want what are you asking me he says well but I'm worried I live in Monet Brock if I have a new car the neighbors most of them don't even have any car but they certainly have old cars they'll be an eye in horror they'll be jealous of me and I and harvest can be bad it brings down Divine scrutiny and divine wrath so I'm a little worried should I get a new car it will be garmayanhara so if Diamond said this is a great he said yeah it's a problem people jealous of you it's a very very big problem when people are jealous of you let me ask you some questions just to clarify he says have you finished us he said well no he says uh do you learn every day he says well no so Simon said so why would people be jealous of you what are you worried about he says nothing to worry about what what is there to be jealous of you see the mustard there right he says I'm going to be jealous because you have a new car what's what's that you know so this is the idea that some things you are supposed to be feel bad about but we don't want to embarrass you in that process you know to learn to learn Torah to know basic Torah to invest enough to be able to uh in fact even discusses that there were people that were illiterate I mean himself was illiterate until he was 40. and sometimes there were people where the wife and the children were more alerted than the father and they would recite kiddish and make bracos for the husbands and the gamara has very strong language says cursed is the person who needs his wife and his children to make breakfast for him meaning you have a responsibility I don't mean if he's sick I don't mean that but if you know if he simply didn't bother to learn have a responsibility to to learn in that way right so that's kind of the overall lesson of decorum so what's relevant for us as we approach yamam the rhyme is really the following idea you know Percival says Isaiah Usher who is a wealthy person he who rejoices you're happy in your life you're happy with what you have so here's the question does that apply only to gosh mios or even meaning like this when it comes to material wealth for sure I shouldn't Aspire necessarily I have to have more money more about that yeah a person should want to make a comfortable living for his family that is a noble objective I'm not putting that down I'm not saying anybody should deliberately live in poverty but once you have a comfortable living for your family you don't have to want more and more and more and more and more right I read that uh Jay Leno famous comedian that's whatever it is 30 35 cars how many I mean how many cars do you need you know talk about you know a new one new car so so certainly applies in the material Realm I think we can agree on that but does it apply in the spiritual now so one answer would be it certainly does not when it comes to spirituality I should always want to grow I should do more I should want to learn more I should want to do more Mitzvahs I shouldn't just say you know I do a little low no that's great so many people learn many more questions physicality material and yeah and that is true but on another level that's also not true because a person should always want to grow the person should always want to become better but there has to be a basic Joy in the talents and the structure and the environment that God put you in meaning you can't look at other people and say oh why can't they be as smart as them or this and that you have to be Miss America in Who You Are you then try to make yourself the best person you can be but what does it start with what is the saying uh you know a tomato should try to be the best tomato it shouldn't try to be an orange whatever it is it's a special education saying but that's kind of the idea my goal is not to try to be somebody else my goal is to try to be me now Within Me within all of us there's a lot of room for improvement we can certainly make ourselves better knees in all sorts of ways but it's still me and in the me I have to be samayak okay I have to have a sense of joy in the life that I had I can't look around um there's again this is also the special education this is not a Jewish story but they tell the story it's a famous speech that a mother who had a Down syndrome child made and it was really beautiful speech I can't do the whole thing justice but she was describing having a special needs child as um a person who all of their life they were hoping to take a trip to Italy and they were saving money money for Italy Italy Italy Italy and they finally got a boat trip and somehow they wound up in Holland and howlands can also be very very beautiful but it wasn't what they expected so they never enjoyed Holland because they were so bitter that they didn't get Italy and she said that in that particular example that was kind of her situation you know a person expects a certain type of child a certain type of life sometimes we don't get that but in what we get there could be a lot of beauty but we don't see it because we're so focused on what we didn't get and I think that's very true in that particular example but it's true in many many aspects of our life we don't always get the life that we wished we have what does it say if you don't get the life that you want the life that you have that's a good one want the life that you have and I'll end here in this commentary on this Parsha actually says that before anishama goes into a body before you're born Hashem shows you the life you're going to have and you agree that it's the best thing for you you agree then hashama actually agreed I'm not sure if Minnesota could have disagreed I'm not sure about how that works but the nishama was masking to what Hashem laid out for you quite amazing so even though on a conscious level we often are very dissatisfied with things but in point of fact we agree to it we actually took on that this was the best thing for us uh you know I I obviously I teach in our summer so a lot of our students are Bali chuva and it's an interesting point because we often have this this issue about uh I always use Iowa as an example you know you're born in Iowa good Midwest place but no connection to Torah no connection to Yiddish guys for 20 years 25 years like why did God put you there like why are you there you know good you can do children the rest of your life can be so holy but those years are empty years the answer is they're not empty ears God put you in Iowa for 20 years because there's stuff that you needed to get from Iowa that you wouldn't have gotten in Maya Sharma and that's why when you do chuva you don't amputate that past you reclaim that past that past is part of you because if it's simply a wasted a wasted time number one it will be unjust of God why did God put me in this again where 20 years are worthless and and number two you would you would you wouldn't be the person you need to be you need to have that all right so that's an important point that shuva is not about amputating your past it's about reclaiming your past be proud in the life that you have the life that you have worth and whatever context it manifested itself you can reclaim it in positive ways so again I want to wish everybody again a excuse mativa and a good good year and I guess we have one more session before okay [Music]