The Tension between Selfhood and Selflessness - Parsha Vayikra - By Rabbi YY Jacobson

[Music] I think and welcome to all one of the most adventurous and fascinating elements in the study of Torah is the fact that every verse episode story law and idea and Torah contains countless layers of interpretation and perspective it's known for example that every single verse and concept in the Torah can be understood from at least four perspectives known as paradise which is an acronym for four words shot remiz douche and sight shot is the literal concrete interpretation Ramez is the symbolic or homolytically level of interpretation douche is the interconnected level of interpretation in which you see the entire body of turin judaism as a single organism and many ideas are deeply interconnected and integrated and then there is soit the mystical the esoteric dimension of every aspect of Torah there's also a fifth level which we'll get to later in the class and this evening I want to take one verse from the portion of iiquor what seems like a simple commandment a simple law and explore it from these four diverse vantage points and then a fifth level and then see how they can all be integrated and understood with a new depth based on the fifth level let's not jump ahead of ourselves open up source number one please in your curriculum below the PDF let me just give a very brief introduction so you can understand the context via Kiera is the portion that deals with sacrifices now there were different types of sacrifices brought to the sanctuary or later to the Temple in Jerusalem one was sacrifice of animals bulls or sheep or goats cows certain types of birds but then there was another type of offering no an asthma novice Monaco's were meal offerings they were offerings that were brought from grain so the man or the woman would bring flour usually wheat flour sometimes barley flour the flour was mixed with oil sometimes it was baked before was offered sometimes it was not but a part of the flour was then placed on the altar where it was consumed by the flames of the old train offered as a sacrifice to God sometimes the entire meal offering was burnt on the altar sometimes their remainder of it part of it was burnt on the altar and the rest of it would be baked and eaten now let us see the commandment in vyek are concerning these offerings please open up your curriculum to source number 1 the Torah says this column in kasha takarov are my sales comets all of the meal offerings that you will offer to God should never be made comets should never become leavened you have to make sure that the flour that is offered as a sacrifice to God does not become comets it does not become leavened if you bake it you have to make sure that it remains matzah it remains on leavened bread and the Torah continues keyhole soil the cold wash while sakti Roma menu in Russia you should never sacrifice a sacrifice to God from any east or any honey yeast of course causes dough to become comets to become leaven to rise to be inflated you cannot use any east in an offering to God nor can you use any honey and advice you know sometimes people bake Allah so they of course have flour and water and sometimes they'll mix honey into it to make it sweet now of course put yeast to it so that the caller can rise no yeast and no honey is permitted in any offering used and as all of the commentators and authorities explain what this means is you cannot put any honey into the flour into the dough you cannot put any East into it nor can you use honey and any other offering that's brought no honey is permitted nor can you offer yeast and honey independently as an offering to God they can't be mixed with anything else nor can they be used independently and then the Torah continues and gives us an exception Carbon further and they continue in the first source Carbon racist a clever boy some washa as a first offering you may offer them to God yeast and honey but Valhalla's Bayer law yeah Lhuillier ethnic ayah but they cannot make their way up to the altar as an aroma as a fragrance forgot what does this mean take a look in Rashi in the first source Rashi says first of all were called wash honeycomb masuka's precariat wash honey here doesn't only include bee honey it includes any sweetness that comes from any fruit so it would include of course date honey and it would it will include any sweetness that you extract from any fruit is considered honey which cannot be mixed in and used in any meal offering or any offering offered to God and the parts of the offering that are then eaten by the priests but there is an exception next Rashi Carbon race is tocqueville the first offering you could use eastern honey what does this mean so Rashi says my Ashla who love him in a serum in advance what may you bring from Easter honey carbonaceous stay Hawaii shallots serozha by him in a soil Shanna Muhammad's the Afeni there was one exception on the holiday of SH Lewis they would bring an offering in the temple stay challah ham two breads this bread was baked Hammad's dick it was leavened bread in which yeast was used this was the only exception usually every bread offering every meal offering only matzah unleavened besides the two breads of schmooze but they were not burned on the altar they were brought to the temple they were lifted up together with sheep that were offered on the altar the bread was not offered was not burnt on the altar the next will be curry minute Vajra she says can we be curry - ænima tomorrow beginning from slowest when the new fruits became ripe in the farms and the orchards there was a mitzvah known as Baku him every farmer would fill up a basket with good delicious ripe fruits and bring it to Jerusalem and offer it as a gift to the Kohen in the temple in the holy temple what would you bring in this basket you would bring figs you'd bring dates of course sweet fruits so here - for this new offering the first fruit offering you used honey used sweet substances just like for the slowest offering which is called first because that allowed that allowed every Jew to offer new offerings from the new crop of flour in order to bring any offering from the crop of flowers only after they brought the opening offering of the two breads on Shores from the new crop this can be from yeast and from honey but again this is not used on the altar to go up in the flames as a divine aroma this is the fact this is the statement in viagra now Jews always adhere to this law they kept it and in fact we find the very interesting reference to it in a very tragic story in later generations in the Tanakh in the book of Judges chapter 9 we have the story of a man named G don't get on was a great warrior and leader of the Jewish people during the time of the judges Gidon had many wives and 70 children he Don dies who will now take over the kingship the leadership one of the sons who was a half a brother to the other brother's name was a V Miller a V Mela gathered around him lowly despicable people from the city of Shem and he murdered his seventy brothers every one of his brothers he executed only one remained the youngest his name was Yosa m-- and he escaped on the top of Mount grism which faces the city of scam today the Arabs call it Nablus yo some speaks to the people of sham who helped avi Mela perform this coup mortar murder his whole family so that he can become the king over Israel and yes some presents one of those unique eloquent metaphors in the Hebrew Bible in the Tanakh and I want you to look inside take a look at source number two and your curriculum right under the video they argue dualism by Yale accommodation are Greeson by ye Sequoia vehicular Mohammed Ali and shimmer Li ballet skirmish male family Kim Yosef is a mound grism and he talks to the people of scum he says listen to me and he tells the following story wholly ho ho ate some l'm so uh Haleh amela the trees needed a king so the trees went to look for a leader for our ruler for him rule is a small colony they told the olive tree rule over us why your mother has a is the olive tree told them head out Tia's dish near should be a habit of the Kim ban on stream velocity Lenoir lights and do you want me to give up my fat through which God and people are honored and I should go sway among the trees if I am ruined what to Anil is he at multi Elena so the trees rejected by the olive tree went to the fig tree and they asked the fig tree rule over us part-timer la mattina and the fig tree responded as adult es musky vest neva siete eval act Illinois lightsome do you want me to forget and give up my sweetness and my good fruits and ghosts way among the trees my hemorrhoids him the Geffen looking at molecule and as the trees came to the vine and they said become our king by time Earl ahem again and the vine said LTS TV I'm Sam a hillock in Bon Marche and well a still annihilates do you want me to give up my wine which brings joy to God and to human beings and goes way among the trees and he continues um to say so they all came to the bramble they all came to the etat which is a thorny a thorny shrub a thorny bush and they said become our King and the thorny bush who lacks fragrance and lacks our oh man lacks taste and lacks personality and lacks character said of course and started to make deals with them and of course Jason was bringing out how sometimes political power goes to the most impoverished of spirits to the lowliest of characters now I love the fig and the vine rejected it the uttered the bramble the thorny bush embraced it the end of the story it's a long story of a molasses killed by a Jewish woman who throws a rock on him and yet embarrassed from his legacy being remembered as the man who was killed by a woman he asks a servant to stab him to death this was years later I want you to focus on one thing the difference between the verbiage of the olive tree the fig tree and the vine the olive tree talks about itself should I give up my fat which honors God and people the vine similarly says sir I give up my wine which brings joy to God in people the thick shree does not mention God and people the fig tree says should I just give up my sweetness and my good fruits you see why because the olive tree which produced oil brought honor to God oil was constantly used in the meal offerings every meal offering the flower was mixed with oil wine was constantly used to bring joy in a God so to speak because every offering came with a wine libation but figs are sweet they're honey they are included in the prohibition of do not use honey in any offering so figs we're never brought as an offering so when the fig tree responds to those who want to coronate it the fig says I have a life I'm not going to give up my sweetness and my good fruits but it does not mention its service as a sacrifice to God now here don't you took a bar Bunnell finance minister of Spain at one point who left Spain together with his brethren in 1492 on Tisha both the great Spanish and then Italian commentator of the Bible then you took a very banal asks a great question he says why does the Torah have to tell us don't offer yeast and honey does the Torah say for example don't bring a chicken as a sacrifice or a duck as a sacrifice no the Torah just tells us which animals may be brought and we understand that it excludes everything else why when it comes to this Syria the Torah doesn't say don't bring apples and oranges or sacrifices these two substances leaven and honey are uniquely and explicitly described why the needs don't say you could bring honey and yeast them well no you don't bring them this is his question obviously the Torah is trying to indicate something specifically you may think that you should bring east you may think that you should bring honey and therefore the Torah is excluding them but why there are so many perspectives to explain this and to explain the reason why does God care if the dough is leavened why does God care if the dough is sweetened with honey why does God care if you offer honey or East independently why what is the reason for this let's begin with perspective number one perspective number one is presented by Maimonides de rambha ma baina moisture Ben Maimon 12th century the Rambam has a book known as Mariner Vulcan the guide for the perplexed and if you'll open up source number three we have here quoted around them it's a long piece of my manatees you could take a look at it source number three let me present a synopsis of what he's saying the Rambam believes that just as many other offerings and sacrifices that the Torah commands the Jewish people to bring to God this too was meant to disprove and D legitimized D legitimize the pagan cult of idolatry and worship one of the pagan practices for example was they would give sanctity they conferred sanctity upon Bulls upon cows upon sheep and therefore my man that he says the Torah says give your offerings from these species of animals because what the idol worshipers described as an abomination and something that will drive you away from God and from truth the Torah is saying through this you will come close to God this helped the Jewish people and the world eradicate itself from the pagan idolatrous notions that were so pervasive in human society and Maimonides continues that the idol worshipers used to offer and never bread they also made sure that every sacrifice was covered and decorated with honey to make it sweet they also never used salt and therefore the Torah comes to revolt against this notion and says you have to use salt for every offering every offering was covered with salt do not use honey with any offering and do not use yeast use bread flour water oil that's unleavened what's interesting is that ROM Bannon Nahum an ADIZ robbing amoeba Nachman who usually when it comes to sacrifices and offerings he has some very serious disagreements with the Ramban with Maimonides in this particular law now commanded is rom ban agrees to the rambo and i'm going to read that inside source number for open up source number for the RAM ban says the Thomas I ever had vast the reason for the prohibition against using yeast and honey he talked initially DVR album I ran over him it may be that the rabbi and the guide of the perplexed Maimonides is correct Oh Marcia matzo Bischoff rayon the Rambam says that he found in their books shall mimic how you live they have a desire hackery of coleman has some comets although irof had vast butthole carbon and volcanoes from Liguria it was died out which was custom to mix in leaven into all of the meal offerings and to mix honey into them and therefore God prohibits at the Torah prohibits it this is not how you're going to worship God Maimonides perspective agreed by Rob on our barber now himself gives another perspective what does he say he says something cute he says if the priests are gonna use honey so when you have your hand honey on your hands you come lick it you know people lick the honey and that's forbidden it's part of a sacrifice there's only a prescribed part at a certain time that you can eat and they might lick the honey so therefore the Torah says no honey now Barbara now says what about yeast he says when you use yeast of course you have to wait for dough to rise so it may take much longer and it may be delayed until after the time they're allowed to eat it every offering had a prescribed time when the Kohanim or the people the Jews are allowed to eat it and if you're using yeast it may delay the process I'm giving different interpretations all on the level of shots the literal explanation for this prohibition against using yeast and honey we discussed Maimonides and humanities and now I told you that Barbara now there are other interpretations for example source number five the scanner mobile ayatollahs there's the 13th century the great authors of the Tosa foes in the France leafy summer occurred his motorcar called carbonic attackers melis while Halloween macabre and malice God says in this week's portion right after this every offering must have salt and these two substances don't accept salt they don't absorb salt honey they'll make salt with honey nor do you mix salt with yeast another very literal explanation there are more ribbon off Tully ch3 you hood the Berlin source number six and his commentary how make Dover this is already much later now we're dealing with the 19th century the Russia Shiva of the valar Geneva Lithuania gives another interpretation and source number six which you can read but because of time constraints I'm not going to go into all over them but now I want to shift levels we discussed a few literal concrete interpretations on the level of shot as I said every Mitzvah mandatory could be understood literally shot now let's go to the next level ramus Ramez is this symbolic level of interpretation the homolytic 11 of interpretation the first is source number seven safer Akeno safer a hint of The Book of Education which is a brilliant brief encyclopedia of all of the 613 mitzvot of the Torah giving a summation of the mitzvot its reasoning and its laws the safer - oh we don't even know who the author is it was authored in the ten hundred to the eleven hundred assumed to be a man named rabbi Aaron Haleiwa but it's a very basic text for understanding the body of Judaism and the safer action it has a very long peace source number seven which you can read I just want to give you a brief synopsis of the words of the safer of Inanna he says this he says this mitzvah is a secret the reason for this mitzvah is very concealed I don't even know how to find a small hint to understand what is the reason you can't use honey in the offering to God and what is the reason you cannot use yeast in an offering to God but I will reveal or explain one symbolic idea so that when people are starting to learn Judaism they should realize that there is meaning to every law and every mitzvot so don't come with complaints to me he says if you have questions because this is just some insight so people can be able to understand some meaning but I'm not claiming that this is it and this exhaust the meaning of it and he says it's basically symbolic every offering and was meant to evoke within the person a certain sensitivity yeast delays the process the Torah is trying to teach us do not use yeast don't delay things in life don't be heavy sluggish lethargic be Swift be alert don't delay honey is of course very sweet he says people especially young people instead of focusing on eating what is healthy they focus on eating what tastes good I think this is enough this is good the safe Regina says that the Torah is trying to say don't delay things and don't pursue honey focus on your health focus on your longevity don't be so gluttonous that if it looks sweet and good like honey run after it this is why the Torah says don't offer honey it's trying to inspire a certain perspective it's trying to create a certain sensitivity within the human mind within the human heart the safe Rehema concludes with another symbolism at the end of source number seven and says yeast of course causes the dough to be inflated to rise which represents pompous nests are against self inflation and honey to when you cook it it bubbles very high and very heavily representing again on a symbolic level a sense of pompous nests which the Torah wants us to avoid in our lives here we just discovered the level of remiz the symbolism behind this prohibition let's go to the next level the level of Jewish level of Jewish the interconnected dimension is in source number eight Rubino bahía remain a Baha'i a great biblical commentator mystic kabalists fourteenth century Spain available hyah says this oh there a cop shot source number eight how carbon was hampered by khaliv and si no voluma Mesa svami dear shui eight Sahara La Hoya autumn kite follow a eternal carbon clown Vasari vide wash painting eight Sahara application wash on Rossellini in hamid summits of a baseline Rubino bhai a links this prohibition against using yeast in an offering to the prohibition towards every jew against owning or consuming comets leavened bread on Pesach on a holiday face and he says that yeast and leaven represents the negative inclination and honey as well and therefore I'm Passover yeast and leaven is prohibited Villa hey he continues at the end of number eight source number eight her across our Eve I'd wash my carbon clay talkin Sneha flippin Isaiah hunt and therefore when it comes to an offering to God you can't bring yeast or honey because the offering is who atone for our sins and the yeast and the honey represents the source of our sins the reason why we're sinning so how are you going to bring into an offering which is trying to atone for your sins through what you're trying to atone these two factors which are the causes force in the negative inclination the eighths are a variety of names of a table of a Sharon's be other what is world it's like you're going to the mikveh to a spiritual bath to cleanse yourself and you're holding on to a insect that that insect which brings you contamination while you are in the bath to purify yourself when you're bringing an offering you can't hold on to the yeast and the honey what does he mean as many commentators explain yeast a sour it's aroma is also sour and therefore it represents the negative inclination which makes a person sour and his or her behavior sour how about honey dibala turin interesting leader by new Yaakov ballot Orem explains that sometimes the negative inclination comes with an appearance of sweetness temptation seems so sweet and delicious and therefore it's also a symbol for the negative inclination and therefore you cannot use these as an offering the clay yakaar takes this theme and develops it at length in his interesting commentary on this Mitzvah as well clay akka one of the great biblical commentators also following this perspective of - the interconnected level which associates it with comets on Passover and the clay akka elaborates on this as well we now go to the mystical level the mystical level is presented in source number nine by Rubino me not him recon T one of the great cabbalistic and mystical commentators of Torah and the rekon T actually quotes here on interpretation by Robin Obadiah but this is another interpretation the mystical cabbalistic esoteric interpretation and let's look what the rekon T says in number nine Bioshock carbon is boil erupts in Lachey MA especially milena kilometers alkane lower volume in hardware mashallah Hema yada kazakh Kamiya sorry her name is luminous Edina kamut sabaha Cuccia the offerings come to create a favor in the eyes of God and to complete all of our attributes and faculties and therefore we do not use things that are extreme that are fanatically inclined to one side like yeast which represents me desaad in the attribute of sternness and judgments judgment which is hard which is sour gamma lower volume an advert my Masuka Maga Marika my advice nor will you use that which is so sweet like honey recommended varam ha Mizzou gyum we use things which have an equilibrium a balance Kamisha everybody asylum should dismiss harassing witness are then as the Midrash says about the creation God combined the attribute of compassion with the attribute of judgment so what theory Conte is saying is something very interesting yeast and honey represent extremes yeast represents the extreme of judgment and sourness and honey represents the extreme of sweetness and in life we must have balance between hasan angora between compassion empathy kindness grace and judgment and discipline between being sour and being sweet there's a welna there's a story that the fourth Lubavitch Rebbe Rabbi Shmuel of Lubavitch was talking to his son who at the age of 12 finished studying the entire missioner by heart all six parts of the mission shisha Sidra Mishnah and his father told him that day he said cold saw a river called wash lee secretary of minutia wash them there are people that walk around their whole life with a sour face like east day and night Shabbos in yom tov weekdays and holy days they're always sour and then there are people to walk around all day with honey like honey they're always sweet Oh a sweet sweet sweet and he says both things are not good somebody who's always sours always in a bad mood it's not good but somebody who's is always sweet he says that's also not good as an offering to God there's a need for balance as a need for an equilibrium that's based on their account his idea now source number 10 let's look at that reseller by Isaac Luria but it's her Gloria sixteenth-century great kabbalist from safar Chara mitzvahs Larissa Tom Easter dr. awesome who came Britain as color denim Dukakis regardless the result says the problem with East and honey is they represent din which is judgment severity Kotnis on a small level and on a great level yeast represents a small level of din of judgment honey represents a great level of din of judgment and therefore they're not used as an offering because they represent too much strictness sternness restraint judgment holding back and therefore we don't use them as an offering now you should ask the question we just read from the Recon tea and Rabinovitch ayah that honey represents too much sweetness and yet diarrheal says it's din its din the godless it's actually a greater element of judgment and severity than yeast the answer for this contradiction is presented by the fifth phlebology Rebbe Rabbi Shammai bear shnayerson and his magnum opus ham shut off which I am base three volumes of Hasidic discourses that I presented over three years beginning in 1912 for the next three years and in the third section there he has a whole discussion on this and he says something very powerful he says what is the difference between dinda kotnis and in the godless there is sometimes I'm angry at you and therefore our relationship is affected and I hold back and I give you a negative attitude or I even penalize you that's called Endicott knows what's din the godless she says it's exact opposite you give somebody so much but they can't contain it they can't deal with it and therefore it's also a judgment it's also a distance because ultimately it overwhelms them it shatters them and destroys them and he says that's honey honey is sweet you can eat too much honey you eat so you need too much honey Savannah Maxima sugar it's just not good for the system and you won't feel good it's just too much sweetness it's too much I said that becomes din the godless and therefore can be used as an offering it's interesting because there's a Talmud the Talmud says source number 11 famous Tomica Giga you download I'm at base a Giga 14 B are born in Ursula Paradis for people entered into the orchard of cabal of mysticism ben azzai Benzema after area Kiba vanassa hits hits of amazed Ben as I gazed at the orchard and he died look at the next paragraph Ben Zoma hits in significant Ben Zoma gazed at the orchard only went insane well love her costs of armor on him the verse says in Proverbs and Mitch lay the vast matzo shall die a spent aspanu vahik a say when you're eating honey eat the right amount because if you eat too much of it you will vomit and then affricates it's been a tea is rebuked even yotsuba shala after was the third sage he became a heretic rebbi akiva was the only one who went in peace and came out of peace from the orchard and the reason explains how the word saw earlier and the vash east and honey represent Deen represent judgment one is a small level of judgment one is a large level of judgment in the countless did the godless and therefore you don't use it now each one of these explanations as interesting and as diverse as they are requires more explanation requires more insight let's begin with the shot with a literal de rambha Maimonides there's still something that we have to understand if this is what the pagans used to do then why on service can we use yeast and honey and also does it really make sense that this entire Mitzvah has meaning and significance only because of the idol worshipers there's no real objective value what about if we live in a society where there is no paganism anymore where there's no practices of idolatry do these mitzvahs become irrelevant the insect of the dice gained him that you need salt and honey and yeast are not salt absorbers also requires explanation because that itself begs for the question why is it so important to have salt and again why Chevis can you use yeast and for bickering for the first fruits can you use honey that bar burnell's explanation they may lick their fingers also requires explanation how about discipline tell the priest there now that'll lick their fingers there were so many laws and details that were very intricate and rigid but suddenly here the Torah has to prohibit honey all the way and again why she was yeah why shrew was can we bring yeast can we bring comets it should always be prohibited if you're scared that the time will be delayed what about the next layer ms symbolic level of interpretation diffuse level great he says that what that yeast represents being heavy and slow when you have to do things with swiftness and and Vash honey represents the pursuit after after sweet things that are unhealthy so why does the tour ever permit it so the shineth says that on shrewish it's a public offering it's not a private offering and since it's not an individual offering it's a public offering the sinner says it's fine because with the public you're not so scared that people will delay things because they will remind one another grant it fine so you found some rationale but why the need that the Torah says I'm slowest you really have to bring leaven it has to be Commons why does it have to be Levin according to the cynics explanation Robina by Shia associates it with the negative inclination but just because yeast is sour does it really turn it into the negative inclination I mean there are other things in the world that are not very delicious but it's yeast that is defined as the negative inclination why and how about honey wise honey the negative inclination just because it's sweet and the evil inclination could sometimes appear as sweetness there could be good things that are sweet as well the mystical explanation also needs more inside there it can tease explanation there reasons explanation how about salt and blood they also represent din they also represent guevara strength discipline severity in the Kabbalah and yet they are used in every offering blood was a major feature in the temple they sprinkled the blood on the altar and of course every offering at have salt there is a fifth level of Torah interpretation in addition to shot the literal RAM is the HOH melodical the symbolic brush the integrated level interconnected level and sewed the mystical level and this is the fifth level no one has acidic acid ISM 300 years ago Rabbi yeastrol Baal Shem Tov Israel Baal Shem Tov was born in the year 1690 8 he revealed what is known as the teachings of a siddhis Hasid this does not lend itself to an easy definition as the literal interpretation the symbolic interpretation the interconnected level or the mystical level it's rather a fifth level and the fifth level is known as Heda as the Exim as the essence which means this every person has four layers to their personality and our four layers the four layers of our identity correspond to the four layers of Torah interpretation the literal level of Torah interpretation mirrors our layer of nefesh our concrete physical identity the second layer of Torah interpretation symbolism remiz relates to our second layer of identity known as Rua which are our emotional our emotions our emotional identity because emotions usually work as symbolisms they're metaphors usually every emotion is a metaphor it's a symbol for what's happening in your subconscious the third layer of taller interpretation the interconnected level drush relates to our layer of neshama which is the cognitive intellectual self the fourth layer of Torah interpretation the mystical soed relates to our fourth layer of haya no one as the transcendental or spiritual part of the human being who are you are you a physical being are you an emotional creature are you an intellectual creature are you a transcendental creature of course you're all of them then there's a fifth level the fifth level is known as Yoshida this is the undefined core of human identity it's not defined by physical or by emotional or by intellectual or even by spiritual it's the core of the self the deepest level of self which does not contradict any other layer on the contrary it constitutes the very essence and core of all the layers of human identity it's the essence of the I which is your feeder which is one with the essence of reality and one with the essence of truth and this level articulated in the fifth level of tolerant or predation has said this which is the reader the essence and the core of every concept midst reverse and law and Torah and therefore it never competes with the other four layers of interpretation just like your very eyes incompletely layer of self manifestation on the contrary when you get in touch with your very essence it gives a new depth and richness and vitality and dignity to all other aspects of your personality your emotions are enriched your intellect is enriched your spirituality is enriched and your physical body is enriched so when we discover the fifth layer of Torah interpretation the layer of cussedness we can then go back and re study all of the four layers and all of the four interpretations and all of the four perspectives but only with more depth and only with more richness and only with more energy because we get in touch with their own very essence so if I said this is not another layer another level it's rather the essence of every level of interpretation so an interpretation with cussedness and without cussedness is you have the interpretation but it could be somewhat shallow it's missing its very core it's very essence and with her cities you really get to suck the marrow out of that layer in Torah study this issue as well we have the explanation in the teachings of cussedness by the Baal Shem Tov the Baal Shem Tov has a book Kassar Shem Tov and veer he presents his interpretation to this verse to this mitzvah one of his great students Rabbi Yaakov Yosef of Pune the rabbi of Pune has a book told those Yaakov Yosef and in the portion of my year he also represents an interpretation the Altair ever ever say is Owlman of li adi the founder of Habad in a discourse on Purim presents also an elaborate explanation to this kernel idea presented by the baal shem tov and based on all of these sources and many more sources which you have in the curriculum i wrote there all the sources I want to present the Hasidic perspective albeit briefly but first we have to observe a strange piece of Talmud source number 12 the Talmud says in tractate site over here but Ashley oh my Rav rabbi hereby ask she said in the name of rafts source number 12 Talmud hokum sorry actually a by a Kurdish militia Bushman is a Torah scholar must have arrogance Shmona Bushman is a third mission minor Bushman is an eighth of an eighth which means a very little portion of arrogance a very little element portion of ego not big on eighth of an eighth American urban AWA sure I'm gonna said in the name of rebel Yeshua my actor like he's so silly she bailed on this little sense of ego and arrogance should decorate him like the husk of a kernel on my ruther Bassam to the east baby sham to the lez be a Torah scholar who has arrogant should be excommunicated but if he has no sense of self he should also be excommunicated unwearable African by Yitzhak Rebecca my youths cook says join me naval a mixer see nothing not 1/8 of an eighth I want nothing I want to understand I can understand when he says a Torah scholar has to have a little bit self what do we want to call it I don't know if arrogance is the good word but a little bit of where he cares about himself about his ego not a lot an eighth of an eighth an eighth of an eighth which is actually a 64th a 64th part fine a little tiny little arrogance a little ego but what does rabbi huna says say mean when he says he has to decorate himself with this little ego like the Kurd like the husk covers the kernel what's the meaning of this metaphor what is he adding what is he trying to explain comes her citizen says that in this metaphor the kernel and its relationship to the husk this metaphor captures and conveys the true depth of the message being communicated an explanation is this you see religion has a major tension it's a tension between two polarities and two forces the notion of selflessness and yet the notion of selfishness all system is really a philosophy and all systems of politics and all systems of psychology struggle with this tension on one hand we see selfishness and altruism as noble and endearing and we are moved by it and inspired by it and sometimes yearn for it ourselves and on the other hand we feel the need for self actualization and for the ego and for self-expression and to protect and maintain myself and my interests and my needs in religion especially this tension is very powerful and in Judaism as well because on one hand Judaism teachers especially in Kabbalah annika citizen that ain't ID malvada that the only true reality is God because we all exist within devar within the divine and every existence every physical and spiritual existence essentially on its deepest level is an expression of divine energy and divine reality so the only true reality is God and yet on the other hand you and I exist and we want to exist and we want to take care of our existence how do we balance between the two it's also a question about self confidence versus humility and believing in yourself and trusting yourself versus surrendering to something higher than yourself and it's this metaphor in the town would in tractate cite to page 5 according to the Altair ever urban areas almonds poram discourse that gives us a perspective to grow and develop a kernel requires sunlight and rain but sunlight and rain are also the greatest threat to its survival if the kernel were to be completely exposed to its sources of nourishment to the sunlight and to the rain it would be scorched by the heat of the Sun and would be rotted by the moisture of the rain falling upon it hence for the kernel to survive it must have a husk a hard tough shell in cases the kernel which encases the fruit and it beers the brunt of the sun's rays and it deflects the drops of water falling from above the husk shields the kernel from the Sun and the rain while absorbing enough energy and moisture to sustain it and fuel its growth then comes the day of harvest the grain has ripened the fruit has matured now it's fit to fill its function as food as fodder a seed the husk is now longer an asset now the husk is an impediment now you break open the husk you peel off the husk you discard the husk this is the depth of the metaphor in the Talmud the Torah scholar needs an eagle but he must decorate himself with this ego like the husk to the kernel until the fruit is mature until the grain is mature you must have the husk afterwards you have to know how to dispose of it what does this mean this means that in the beginning of the process of one's spiritual mental and emotional growth he needs to have that husk which we call the ego he has to be able or she has to be able to feel that this journey means something to me that I could find myself express myself and actualize myself through this journey in the beginning of man's relationship and service to God one must be able to feel that this is making me happy this is pleasurable I can see how this can build me up and give me a meaning that I need a depth that I want and a joy and a sense of fulfillment in life that's important if in the beginning the first thought that's introduced to a person is you don't really exist there's nothing but the truth of God just allow yourself to melt away in the all-pervasive reality of God what will happen then is one of two things either the self will RIBA and the self will feel the need to run away and escape because it's self-destructive or something else will happen yourself will become crushed AB negate it you will lose your personality you'll lose your sense of self and therefore in the beginning of one's process one must begin with the husk around the kernel if one is exposed completely to the Rays of God's Sun or to the moisture of God's array and representing the heat the passion from above from the Sun or the moisture from the rain if someone is exposed to too much of it what happens the grain the kernel will that be burnt it will be destroyed or it will rot and there won't be anything left of you after however you matured now comes the point where yourself is ready to transcend itself and become really one with oneness let me give an example of relationships everybody understands that the ultimate in a relationship is when there are moments some moments or or often frequent moments or constant that you don't think about yourself you really care for the other human being you're completely dedicated to the other person but can you begin this way can I tell somebody would you tell your child would you tell your friend you know what relationships is completely not about you remember it's all about giving and giving and giving if that's how you begin then the person can marry a car forgive me the person can marry anybody then there's no person involved there the person will be either completely destroyed in the relationship first you have to begin with feeling this self in the relationship you have to appreciate it on a personal level you have to appreciate our this relationship will enrich your life and will enhance your life and will make you the happiest and best person you're capable of being and will meet your needs you have to be able to find yourself in the relationship in order for you to be able to lose yourself in the relationship and then when you're mature and when you secure in this relationship can you really transcend that and then go beyond your own ego and beyond your own needs and truly become one and dedicate yourself to somebody else and the same is true in our relationship with God if you want to be able to lose yourself in God you first have to find yourself and God because if you lose yourself before you find yourself there will be nobody who was lost any longer or that little self will revolt and slip you down big time if I can give a very simple example and maybe maybe on a very simple level very concrete level take a rabbi gets up in a synagogue where there are many Jews who are not observant and they come Sabbath they come on Saturday they come on Shabbos at the synagogue an Arab man wants to talk about Shabbos and he gets up and he says my dear friends I see that some people parked outside now you know God does not want you to drive on Shabbos the Torah does not want you to drive on Shabbos and God is true and God creates you every moment and therefore I'm going to ask you all to leave your keys here and walk home because the truth of life is God and the truth of reality is God and God does not want you to drive on Shabbos so surrender your schedule and your needs and your perspective this is the will of God well this rabbi said may be true but how many people do you think will show up next Travis and his synagogue or his Habad house or is Outreach Center how many people do you think I think zero maybe one instead the rabbi gets up and says you know my dear friends I want to tell you something we live in a society where there's such a gap of generations and such a breakdown in relationships and a family relationships I think one night out of the week you should have a dinner with your family and shut all the cellphones and shut the television and no movies and no ballets and those sports and nobody was running anywhere no internet and no computer you sit around the table you schmooze you're argue bye lit candles and you beautiful songs and eat gefilte fish what did this person do he spoke about Shabbos in a way that they felt that there's something in it from me where I am then they can grow learn more discover more including the truth that we're here completely to serve God it's so true in education you start off with education telling the child you don't exist you'll break the child before you built them up first after explain to him how precious he is how beautiful he is how great she or he is how rich a life they can read we live and that's what God wants then the kernel can mature and dispose of the husk ah now let's see the Hasidic explanation to this verse source number 13 Kester Shem Tov the Zepa dish Cole server called Marshall a secretary carbonaceous vellum is basically a low her Emma's mr. Irvin vastly gavel same artist invited my accomplishment be elevado yeast causes the dough to rise to be inflated tremendously which represents a sense of arrogance of pompous nosov self aggrandizement honey the told the shock of Yosef says represents sweetness my sense of pleasure and the light verrucosa LASIK Tito momento de la Shimla Verdi they gave us you cannot bring an offering to God worshiping him through arrogance that carbonaceous it sign Le Mars gracious ice carvers large that means Boris motor Lea's big of us but the first offering for this you bring honey and yeast when you're starting when you're beginning your relationship when you want to start getting close now bring yeast and honey now the colonel needs a husk now you have to feel a sense of self and you have to feel a sense of sweetness how delicious it is I have to be able to find myself in the experience of Judaism after Mabel to find myself in God find myself and terrifying myself amidst us Avel after column Ismael in the yellow lorry as Messiah cluster damn Shana hysterical of one of his bonus mikawa Scott special but still remember if you want to go on the alter and become a true offering a divine aroma then there you don't bring the yeast and you don't bring the honey there's two stages one stage is where there is a sense of of self a great sense of self a great sense of yeast a great sense of honey that's carbon gracious and that's why in source number 14 the Gomorrah says ingot in Mebane a bond of Shalom on lambda Toyota by neighbor Bnei Brak from the descendants of Haman there were Jews who learnt or M Binet Brock Harmon the family of a Malik represents unbridled arrogance and sometimes from arrogance can come tora sometimes arrogance can fuel torah not in an unhealthy and destructive way but the sense that i want to make my life into something i want to live a good life I want to live a meaningful life I want to live a deep life I want to celebrate my life it's a notion of jamon but from that could compare it's the kernel to the house once you're ripe once you're mature now you can go to the next level on the Walter there comes a moment we have to be able to transcend yourself and to be able to say it's not about me a part of God I'm here to serve God there's a truth that transcends me that's the next stage that's the next level and that's why this offering that was brought from yeast and honey was slowest time slowest is when the Jews became a people they just started their journey and that's why it doesn't look at the terror the Torah was given on a mountain which mountains Sinai why Sinai so the Midrash says because it was lower than the other mountains to represent humility but if it was humility that we were trying to teach why a mountain why not a flatland and the answer is a mountain you must be but the mountain must be directed towards humility until the time when the person can completely transcend their mountain and become one with God this now finally allows us to come back to all of the four levels and layers of interpretation and see how this explanation of cussedness gives a depth and an enrichment to all of the four layers and very briefly the Rambam the ram bond when their album says it's against idolatry it's not just pagan idolatry on a deeper level it's also the idolatry within our self worship and yet on schwas you need a little bit of self worship in the beginning of your service carbonaceous this explains the diced gain and most so you need salt salt corrodes substances you know the debt cedar of salt is called dead it kills substances and yet it allows food to endure to be preserved that represents real bittle real humility you think it's self-destructive humility Bittle selflessness but really that's what allows you to endure and become larger than yourself and become eternal because you're not trapped by your ego so it's the soul that's necessary and therefore we don't want the honey and the yeast besides in the beginning of your life the barber now says they can we don't want them to lick the honey that represents licking the honey is taking it for yourself it represents again a certain self-centeredness and again with the yeast you may delay the time because you're not completely loyal to the prescription of the law because there is self involved this explains also according to the henna huh why aren't you asleep the yeast and the honey he says its arrogance but this arrogance you sometimes need it explains according to their available higher why yeast is the 8th Sahara why honey is the 8th Sahara and why sometimes we want it it's not just a destructive component it's the kernel of the husk which allows you to find yourself in God and finally it explains according to the kabalists why it's this type of judgment why this type of DIN which fuels the self that was usually not used as an offering that could become one with God besides on carbon ratios so therefore in conclusion we realize that the Torah says in the beginning of one's relationship and the beginning exists on many stages there's many beginnings you have to be able to use the yeast to be able to appreciate the honey but you also have to know to go onto the altar to become one with one here the person has to be able to have the courage to transcend themselves and leave the trappings of their ego and become one with their own truest core which is Hashem himself God himself have a wonderful night [Music]