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Mysterious Jewish prayer explained.

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Rabbi YY Jacobson avatar
Rabbi YY Jacobson

Transcript

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It's one of the most mysterious [music] prayers and poems that we recite on Yom Kippur. When the angels see some of the greatest Jewish sages [music] and leaders being executed by the Romans, they come to God and they cry out, "This is the reward [music] for people who are studying and teaching your wisdom, your Torah?" And God says, "If you say another word, I'm going [music] to destroy the world and revert it back to the primordial chaos and nothingness." Come on, what a response [music] is this? God, you don't want to give them an answer, don't give them an answer. Why are you threatening them with destroying the world? Here's a profound parable from the Vilna Gaon. There was a brilliant, talented tailor [music] summoned by the king and asked to take this most expensive silk fabric and weave it into an exquisite cloak for His Majesty. [music] The tailor came back after a few months, but somebody who really did not like him tells the king, "I suspect that this Jewish tailor stole a little bit of the fabric." Sure enough, they measure it and some is missing. The tailor's thrown into prison and then sentenced to death for treason. The king says, "What's your final wish?" He says, "Bring me the cloak and the scissor." He takes a scissor and he starts cutting. The king says, "What are you doing?" And he says, "I have not stolen even a centimeter of His Majesty's [music] fabric. But to prove it to you, I need to be able to undo the entire [music] garment, bring it back to the way it was in the beginning, and then you can see that every [music] thread can be accounted for." And the Vilna Gaon said, "Our vision of the universe, of reality, [music] of justice, of history, of goodness is so limited. We each live within our 50 to 100 years, and we only watch a few minutes of the video. We don't know the beginning, we don't know the [music] middle, we don't know the end. We have finite, limited minds that were created by God. How are they going to creation even begin to fathom the infinite creator? I don't even understand a single cell or atom or the sun or the moon. I understand the one who created the sun." So God tells [music] the angels, "If you want an answer to this question, we have to revert the world back to nothingness. [music] We have to go back all the way to the beginning, and then you'll see that every threat can be accounted for.