South Africa Torah Tuesdays : Re'eh - Life Is Good

this torah class is brought to you by torahanytime.com to be sharing torah tuesdays with you and with our cahillas and uh great to see my dear friend rabbi saxton who's put so much effort into these entire tuesdays and it's definitely you know people are saying what are the things we should continue to have and what have we learned from these lockdown as you say we still don't know where we're holding but one thing that definitely i want to continue story tuesday so rabbi saxton that's uh given and wonderful to be with rabbi gilbert and aj and i think this is our first my first favorite tutor with rabbi in san francisco so uh that makes it even more exciting for me so that's fantastic the first time i heard of robert gladstein um i was actually in new york for kosher fest and it was very interesting because i was happy to be in one of the kosher stores in manhattan and someone from my own community who i didn't even know was traveling to new york happened to be there it was like friday morning and he happened to be there with like a rucksack and i said what are you doing in new york he says i've got spent shoppers with rabbit labs this must be about five years ago or so and uh i just remember thinking then wow yes someone has traveled across the world to go near about trouble for them and there must be something very very special and then of course we had the beautiful opportunity of listening to your torah that you so prolifically share on on on time and when i was about a year ago two years ago i know the time is all gone a bit crazy at the time at the moment [Music] so inspiring and it's uh it's so allowed it's a real tourist time it's a limited torah that every moment of it we get something exciting out of and uh and therefore thank you so much for joining us and thank you for the other rabbanim and other organizations that we share in total tuesdays for and please god long may they continue thank you thank you robert goldstein much appreciated um are you hearing me yes i think so um thank you so much and uh as you said torah tuesdays is uh one of the positive things that's not on lockdown and uh since the almost the beginning of lockdown we've been trying to offer world-class international speakers on the turret users every second tuesday night and rabbi gladstein was the speaker that launched our webinar zoom programs and this is the first time that we are repeating speakers and for good reason that israel glass didn't because his torah as rav agustin said is rich and he's deep and is powerful and he has a big following not only in the united states in new york where he is but throughout the world he's one of the most popular speakers on torah any time and it's a great honor and privilege to have him with us once again we're very grateful to him and we're only a week away from illinois it's a bit frightening isn't it um a week tomorrow night is going to be rosh harish ellu and rabbi gladst inappropriately speaking on ello and living a happy life um and the sheer tamar the talk tonight is the ilo nishmas moshe bin yaakov before i hand over to robert gladstein um of course i want to thank rabbi akiva and gilbert for their hosting the webinar and for their hesed in always hosting our webinars gilbert of oje we're very grateful to both of you yasha thank you and tonight we thrilled to have santan fuel with us the rabbi our dear friend rabbi shaw from saints and shul is now also part of our program and it's great to have him and his kahila with us so rabbi shaw is going to share with us some short words and then he'll hand over to rabbit team sure it's all yours hello good evening everybody i'm so excited to have my community there based on samsung joining you all we've been actually we have joined on a few and it's just been wonderful to uh to have the experience with grandma sexting and there about goldstein and robert gilbert just lovely to be with all of you robert let's be and i have to tell you that i don't i've never met you but i read your book makita rakia which which was given to me by jonathan and you know from there when it came out and it really launched us into place and it launched us into the lockdown and it was beautiful to sit and learn of our son your book is unbelievable i really feel i have to tell you that i've listened to spores of your sharing in fact i feel like you're a community member of mine because every night i get like whatsapp's in the middle of the night the most beautiful beautiful torah you gave a share of the spars and the number of the spas which actually so i think you were subbing out you know to get new ideas for me is beautiful and i actually feel like i'm a fall need of yours um and i'm very grateful to be able to uh to hand over to you now welcome into our hearts into our minds and into our souls thank you everybody have a wonderful time i know you will enjoy your share we enjoy all of your sharing so god bless you and thank you again okay thank you so much for the really warm uh introductions from all the respective rabonim uh thank you rabbi gilbert again for hosting thank you rabbi short for that warm introduction thank you rabbi saxton robbie goldstein and i don't even feel i need to be welcomed to the south african community as i have so many dear friends um the shabbat sim that many of you spent with me are are really highlights of the year for me and i'm not seeing all the khabirim i only see the rabbanum right now but uh i feel a very deep and profound connection to the south african community and i'm very grateful to be able to have the opportunity to share tarot with you today and so um johnny ilan neal and oh my god there again i like to say hello even though i don't see you but may we have many opportunities to learn torah together so as the rabbanam have mentioned we're coming up on khodesh ello so just before we begin i want to share with you some some of my personal history i have a great grandfather who was the last rav the last rabbi of the city of sachachov in poland now sakhachav is a famous city in poland because it was graced by some of the all-time great rabbanim most notably the avne nezer who was one of the great paiskim of the 19th century the shaymi shmuel whose work are classics in jewish thought but my great-grandfather was the last rabbi of the city of sakhachav and he studied in the world-class institution known as yeshiva lublin and in this great torah academy he had a chavrusa and this chavrusa would later his study partner would later go on to become a somewhat of a renowned mikubal a renowned kabbalist who would later move on to eretz israel and he lived in the city of ranana and he would be known as the tsadik of ranana now this particular tsadik was very poor and he never merited to have children um however he wrote a three volume work on hamish and i know this is really not proper middle of a shear but i'm going to show you the safer i'm just going to get up for one second i'm coming right back and sorry about that but we're friends right so the name of the safer is ben la ushri and he has a few volumes and he writes something quite remarkable in the introduction of these books he says because he never merited having children these books are his only legacy and whoever shares them he vouchsafes that he will pray for that person in heaven whoever can disseminate his torah so i feel like i'm doing uh this sadik some kind we're doing him a great service he never merited to have children so let me share with you a thought that he has on this week's power shot by way of introduction to today's shirt and that is this great sadiq teaches us that although we're sort of trained to think that when the month of ello begins that's when we embark on our program of doing chuva preparing for rosh hashanah getting our lives in order for the upcoming day of judgment but this great saddik says don't wait for rosh ello don't start only 30 days before and he comments on apostolic in this week's parashah leshir which literally means seek out the temple and come there however homolytically this great rabbi explains to the neighbor what does that refer to to the neighbor of the month that you're supposed to do chuva namely the month of eloh the neighbor of that month which is the month of aav that we're in now sidrashu begin to seek out god and then you will get to your desired destination on the on the day of judgment in other words don't beat the rash don't start only 30 days before but already begin to seek out god early in the neighbor of khodasha that is the month of avant therefore what a great opportunity it is today while we still have almost about an entire week before we begin the month of ello to initiate and start our program of teshuva we all know that on rosh hashanah we have this mysterious practice that we take out various food items let's say an apple or a pomegranate and we recite various prayers we say may it be your will god that you bless us with a good sweet year and we pick up this red juicy apple we say god you see this juicy apple it's so sweet it's so luscious please god bless me with a sweet year like this apple now what in the world are we doing do you really think your year will have a different outcome because you bid into a sweet apple i mean god is judging us based on our merits and demerits based on our mitzvos and aveiros based on our good deeds bad deeds what does the apple have to do with anything why why would the consumption of an apple in any way affect sorry is that why would the consumption [Music] why would the consumption of an apple in any way affect the outcome of our year it's a very interesting gemara there's a very interesting talmudic passage at the end of massachusetts the gemara tells us you have a guy he's a little bit uneasy he doesn't know what will the new year have in store or he's about to embark on a business venture and he doesn't know will he be successful will he not be successful or you have somebody he wants to know what will be the outcome of tov shin pai alef so the gemara recommends that he perform the following practice the gemara says omar rabi ami rabbi ami said somebody wants to know imasek shah say elai whether he will live out the year or not nisli shraga he should light a candle bias between the 10 days between rosh hashanah and yom kippur and he should where should he light this candle the yoyma in the desa in the house the loyno shiv zika where there's no wind i mean so the question would be what do you mean in a house where there's no wind what kind of houses have wind blowing through it but that's what the gemara says light a candle in a home that has no wind and the gemara says if the candle burns neda the mustache then you could be certain your year will you'll live out the year the gemara continues the gemara says somebody wants to start a venture he wants to invest in a new stock a new mutual fund and he wants to know will i be successful will i not be successful so it says the gemara do the following take a chicken lear beethoven raise the chicken fat in a chicken give the chicken i don't know what give it some challent some kogol some kishka really stuff the chicken says the gemara isham in the shot there matslach if the chicken gets fat you could take it to the bank your venture will be successful then the gemara says somebody wants to go on a trip and he doesn't know will he return from the trip or will he not make it back says gemara if you want to determine are you going to come back or not do the following go into a dark house and if in the dark house you could see the shadow of your shadow will return from your trip you ever notice you know if you lift up your hand and the light sort of casts a shadow on your hand very often or always the shadow itself casts another shadow so says the gemara if you want to know if you're going on a trip will you come back or not go into a dark house and see if you could see the shadow of your shadow if you can you will make it back from the trip and then the gemara concludes you know what don't do any of these things because you might get nervous and it's just going to produce anxiety and we know how how sensitive people are these days and how soft people's nerves are so it's not worth doing these uh procedures and then based on this teaching the gemara says that is why on rosh hashanah we do what is called simanim we eat a sweet apple or we eat a pomegranate because says the gemara simana milsa signs omens actually have power they're actually meaningful so this is a very difficult gemara because the gemara seems to be recommending for the for those who could have the backbone to handle it the gemara seems to be recommending that if you really want to know whether you're going to live out the year or not you should light a candle in your house and if the candle burns that is a sign that you'll live out the year or if you want to know whether you'll be successful in a business venture stuff a chicken and if the chicken gets fat you will be successful and the marsha has a very fundamental question on this gemara the marshall says this procedure that is being recommended by the gemara seems to be a prohibition in the torah we know that one of the negative prohibitions in the torah is one may not divine one may not give credibility and significance to omens the gemara says if let's say you're going somewhere and you see a black hat and you say oh no i'm not going that's a bad sign no you must go you're not allowed to refrain from doing something because you saw a black hat or because you know there's a ladder there and you're not a walk under a ladder the gemara says we don't believe in divination it is it is a prohibition you're not allowed to refrain from something because you see something that in your mind is a bad omen this is a love this is a negative prohibition entirely so how could the gemara give us advice that contravenes one of the fundamental prohibitions in the torah the gemara is saying for real if you want to know if you're going to live through the year you should light a candle how could we pay attention to something like this why would the talmud recommend something that seems to fly in the fla the face of basic prohibitions in the torah so we're going to present today a very important perspective on how a jew should view life and god especially in these trying times this week's parasha opens up with the words says god i place before you today blessing and curse and then the verses go on to explain what is the blessing and what is the curse es the blessing will come if you listen to the commandments of god and then the verse says and the curse will fall if you don't listen to the mitzvot of god now one of the early commentators on humish is the baal hathuram the balaturum was written by rabbyakov the son of the rash the rash was one of the great ashkenazic re-shinum we know that the the main code of jewish law written by rabbi yosef karo is based on the uh perspectives of three rishanim the rambam who was svardi the rif who was svardi and the rash who is ashkenazi that is why the shulhanar usually is followed by the safaridim because they the the procedure of is to follow the views of those three rishonim the majority of which were spar them the ramah who ashkenazim follow on the other hand takes into account the viewpoints of the balay hatosvas who are mostly ashkenazi but putting that aside the rush had a son called ravyakov rabbyakov is the author of the tour the tour classified all of halakhan to four main groups of law but what's interesting is the tour also wrote a commentary on hamish where he makes note of various ramasim and illusions and hints and secrets that are alluded to in the in the verses and the balaturim comments on the opening of this week's parasha he wants to know why is it that when the torah talks about blessing it says the word s is an article it doesn't even have a specific meaning s is just the word the torah uses sometimes for stylistic purposes and there's a there's great discussion in the talmud does the word s have meaning does it not have meaning but what the tour is troubled with is why when it talks about blessing does it say es habracha the blessing and when it talks about the curse it's just it doesn't say the word s and the tour says the following and that is the tour reveals to us that even though often people just by living in this world they start developing an attitude that this world ah this is a tough place this is a world of hardship this is a world of soros right jews sometimes like to say there's so many soros in this world but that's not really a proper perspective and a proper attitude because there is much more good in this world and much more blessing in this world and much more happiness in this world and must much more bounty in this world than there is difficulty the blessing far outweighs the bad therefore when it comes to blessing the torah adds the word s s is always an inclusive word when there is blessing there's a lot of goodness in this world there's a lot of blessing in this world there's a lot of bounty and hatava and happiness and there is hardship there is klola but it's limited it's finite and this is an idea that i want to uh elaborate on a little bit there is a verse in icha lamentations say is let me translate mipi aliyan from on high loy said say it does not emanate evils and good from on high it does not emanate evils plural and good singular now this is a very difficult verse a very difficult passage how can we say that anything doesn't emanate from on high doesn't everything come from god doesn't every occurrence and every event and everything that transpires isn't god orchestrating everything and here we have a verse that no from on high it does not emanate evils plural and good and yet we know there are two very important things that do not emanate from god i remember i was once giving a class i give a class in the young israel of kew garden hills and as well as in other places and somebody once came into a class and an elderly gentleman this was years ago and i said who here believes that what whatever we do god makes us do i remember an old man raised their hand they said of course rabbi god makes us do everything i said with all due respect that's christianity that's not judaism god does not make us do anything god does not make us do the mitzvos we do the good deeds we do the good thoughts we have and god does not make us sin in any way not only does he not make us do good good deeds or sin god does not influence us to do good deeds or to sin not only does not god influence us he will not even put an idea in our mind to sin or vice versa an idea in our mind to do a mitzvah that is totally up to us in other words god so to speak created the world but there is one area that god does not interfere with and that is our free will it is totally up to us either to do good or to do evil so now we understand the pasta con michele from on high it does not emanate evils and good god does not make does not make us do bad and he doesn't make us do good but what does the verse mean from on high it does not emanate evils what's the plural evils and why by good does it say good in the singular so there's a classic commentary on mcgill called pal gamayam the pal gamayam was written by the author of nasiva is hamishbat so in the in the great torah academies of the world and the great yeshivas of the world they spend many years the young men spend many years delving into monetary law dna mamma nice because monetary law is considered the the most uh exacting in terms of analytical argument arguments this is the body of torah where you can really sharpen your analytical skills and there are two great commentators on on monetary law in the talmud and that is the kutsoy and then the voice these are like the classic uh most comprehensive and in-depth commentary on torah monetary law and the author of nisiva samisbat he wrote a commentary on lamentations on icha and he says as follows not only does god not influence us to do good or to do evil but there is a fundamental difference between punishment and reward reward for doing a mitzvah is eternal reward and the reason why when we do a mitzvah the reward god will give us is eternal is because that reward comes from god himself and anything that emanates from god is eternal but punishment does not emanate from god because god does not punish god doesn't punish don't we believe in reward and punishment yes we believe when we do a mitzvah god rewards us but when we sin god does not punish us so who punishes us the sin itself punishes us god will never punish what happens is when we commit a sin that is a havdallah that is a separation we create a barrier between us and god and once that barrier exists we are not connected anymore to the source of blessing and so to speak we ruin the channels of goodness and blessing so it's not that god punishes it's just that when a person sins he creates a blockage between him and the evangel between him and the creator and he's not able to enjoy the benefits of life anymore but god never sends punishment so from god it does not emanate evils not the sin and not the punishment and from god it does not emanate good the good deeds we do but it does come from god the reward that we get in other words if we were to able to put on spiritual glasses now help me out here i i don't have mine available right now but if you would take off your glasses and put on your your superman your 3d glasses where you could see so to speak the divine if you would want to know what is radiating out of god for at all time is it that god is sending this righteous man reward and this righteous woman reward and he's he's bestowing goodness on all the good people and at the same time there is a sinner here or somebody who did a misdeed over here and god is sending them punishment do is that how we view god that he is simultaneously sending out goodness to those who deserve it and punishment to those who deserve it well that is not a correct perspective that is not a true perspective that's not an accurate perspective if we were to put on our divine glasses and get a glimpse of god and try to see what is he radiating to the world what is he radiating to mankind what is he radiating to planet earth all we would see is sunshine happiness health blessing goodness good will smile god radiates gives bestows only only only good so why is there sometimes bad in this world that's not his doing god has set up a world that when we don't follow his program for success we create interference so the wi-fi and the connection to god is interrupted and now you're getting you know a disconnected in other words god is radiating goodness on everybody it's that sometimes we set up blockages and we don't allow it to reach us and we don't allow ourselves to connect with the goodness that god is showering upon us you know it's very interesting the rambam and i heard when i was a bakr when i was a teenager so i had the privilege to live about a 45-minute walk from one of the great sadhikam of the last hundred years rabbi avigdor miller zakat the bracha and i think when i was about 20 years old it finally dawned on me you know what how could it be i'm living in the same city as as this great sadik so what it's a 45 minute walk so at least i had a good sense for about three years to uh walk over to rabbi victor miller and i i had the great merit to hear from him for about three years of time and he would always say you know people say this is such a tough life in such a difficult world and there's so many soros in this world and he would always quote the rambam in the morin of him we know the rambam wrote a book called the guide to the perplexed and the rama writes openly a very interesting phenomenon the rambam says that the majority of things in this world are very very good the rambam says look what what does it take in the morning for us to wake up and not be not to be an excruciating pain how many things have to go right for us to wake up in the morning and not being it not be in agony billions and billions of phenomenon have to be fine-tuned they're working perfectly for a person to walk wake up pain-free and most of the time most people in the world wake up and they get out of bed and they're not in agony that means god most things to most people are actually very excellent think about in life how many times have we eaten breakfast have we ever missed a breakfast have we ever missed a lunch have we ever missed a dinner honestly i don't know anybody who you know i didn't have a dinner the other day because uh i know no food to put on the somehow almost everyone we know they put it together the rambam writes most people the vast majority of people the vast majority of things in their life are very very very good and then maybe when a person gets older and things are not working as well they could look back and say you know for the vast majority of my life and the vast majority of the days of my life things were very very good in my life yes not everything in life is perfect but if you were to write down and make a list the good in every single person's life far far far outweighs the challenges the rambam says he's not aware of anybody even someone undergoing the greatest suffering that even at that very time the majority of things in their life are not litive this is what we read in this week's parasha es habracha the blessings in this world are much greater are much more are much more vast than the difficulties and the challenges you know it's interesting we're during we're in a very specific period of the year now the period of the year that we're traversing is called the shiva dinah the seven weeks of consolation you ever realize that we have seven weeks of consolation what are we being consoled for well because we had three weeks of punishment the three weeks between shiva a-s and tish above but think about that in the jewish calendar there are three weeks of punishment there's more than double the consolation it's interesting i saw an amazing thing in the seifer hattoda of rebellio that if you count up all the verses of the seven haftaras of the shiva dinah there are a hundred and forty four psukim in the seven haf torahs of the shivatinakamta do you know what the significance of 144 is because if you count up all the punishment and the torah all the verses of rebuke whether it's in parashat's behold whether it's in pasha's kisaway or hazinu there are 143 sukim of punishment in the torah but there are 144 absukam of consolation in the prophets again whatever punishment there is in life god always gives us consolation but he always gives us more there's always more consolation than there is punishment you know i always like to think about the prophecy the the prophets tell us the navi ushaya tells us the navi isaiah tells us that all the difficulty in life you know what god categorizes that is it at it's called the chatsev all the difficulties all the challenges of life god calls a split second that in the scheme of the great consolation that is in store for us and the great happiness that god will give us and does give us all the difficulty is called the rega a split moment but the kindness and the goodness and the happiness is called rakhim gaduilam it's called great mercy eternal kindness comes the marsha now you have to know whenever you learn gemara and you come to an aggardic portion of gemara the most important commentary on the agathic portion of gemara is the marsha and going back to the gemara that we began with here you have a guy he doesn't know am i going to make it through this year or not so we tell him light a candle if the candle burns you'll make it through the year or for instance you have somebody who's about to go on a business venture and we tell them oh you want to know if you're going to be successful fat in a chicken and then marshall asks how are you allowed to do that we don't believe in omens we don't believe in signs we don't believe in superstition why would the gemara be recommending superstitious practice so the marsha says there's a difference between prediction and confirmation a jew may not predict but a jew may confirm what what this means is as follows if you light a candle in a house that has no wind in it friends that candle is gonna burn there is no chance the candle will be extinguished what what could possibly extinguish it if you take a chicken and you feed it chillant and kogel and kishka i don't know they have that in south africa when i was there i think they it came to south africa right guess what's going to happen to the chicken the chicken's going to get fat that's what happens to people on shabbos that's what's going to happen to the chicken so what's the guy doing says the marshall a very important principle in life it is a mistake to think you know very often a person says you know i would like to have faith in god i would like to have trust in god but i'm nervous i'm scared i'm worried will hashem be good to me will hashem grant me goodness maybe i won't deserve it maybe i'm not fit maybe i'm not doing everything right that's a very big mistake god showers us with goodness goodness goodness and if our plan is not to predict what's in the future but just to confirm i know hashem is my loving father i know he's going to help me out i know he's going to bail me out i know he's going to lead me in the right direction i know he's going to bring me success so you know what i'm going to do i'm going to light a candle and there's no wind in this house and i know the candle is going to burn so what i'm doing is i'm merely confirming my faith and my trust and my loving father that he's gonna give me life and he's gonna give me a livelihood i'm permitted to do that because i'm merely stating my confirmation i'm confirming that god will come through for me because i trust in him if i'm really nervous about it and i'm trying to predict well i don't know what the future has in store oh i saw a black cat so i better not go no you know how to do that a jew cannot predict the future a jew could confirm the future that is why the martial says if you look carefully in the talmud the gemara doesn't say that if the candle burns you'll live in it and if the candle doesn't burn you won't live no because what you're doing is you're just confirming what's in the future and even if the candle doesn't burn you'll still live and even if the chicken doesn't get fat you'll still be successful a jew has the right to live their life and to say look i'm doing the best i can but as long as we're trying to fulfill the mitzvos and the torah we have a right to put our faith in hashem that the upcoming year will be a wondrous year will be a year of success will be a year of health god's going to take us out of this temporary tight spot with the cobit 19. and we're going to get back to our shows and we're going to get back to our businesses and our family life is going to return to normalcy that we are allowed to have a confirmation in the goodness of hashem this is not superstition this is not divination this is merely emphatically articulating declaring our faith in our loving father but we don't predict because prediction seems to indicate you know we're not sure what hashem is going to bring for us the month of eloh is famously alluded to in the words ani lady vidyali i am for my beloved and my beloved is for me which is very curious why all of a sudden when it comes to the month of ello do we call god d my beloved we know god has many names why do why don't we uh say ani la shem vashem li ani let's waka i mean why is it that when it comes to the month of elol the way we refer to god is my beloved and one of the reasons is is because for a person to want to do juva for a person to be motivated to do chuba for a person to have the desire and the the inner drive to return to hakadosh baruch it has to come from love it has to come from feelings of i'm not returning to a judge and i'm not returning just to my creator or i'm not just returning to the one who orchestrates the whole world i'm returning to my beloved father and the month of elol inspires us and reminds us and certainly the practices of rosh hashanah remind us that the chuva and the repentance that we're aiming for that we're yearning for is a chuva that emanates from our love of akadesh baruch and on the most basic level that comes from the recognition that hashem is the loving father of the jewish people and we try not to get sidetracked you know you read the news you look outside it seems like a tough life uh seems like there are a lot of challenges but let's set our focus on track that the ezra's hashem the love that god has for us will very soon be even more manifest and whatever we're traversing should only be what we call rega a split moment a split second of what we call god hiding his face from us and very soon we hope to see hashem show us his full glory and his full love and uh may we uh in the merit of getting together to learn torah this tuesday and all the tuesdays may hashem give us heavenly assistance as we continue on our journey of chuva thank you uh respective rabbanim for giving me the opportunity to join you this afternoon and uh let me be the first to wish you the the safaram teach us so ready from the 15th day of we begin to wish each other a kasivah simatova so please everyone have a happy healthy upcoming year for you and all of your families thank you so much for listening and have a terrific evening thank you so much it is very interesting i was privileged to have this wonderful book over here with the mystery and the majesty and when i first started learning and going through it the one topic that you begin talking about sugar is the power of the 40 days that we have between uh and you mentioned the non 960 login which are the 960 hours that are made up which is really connected to the footy um which go into kosher midfield and that's something which resonates with me we've discussed the topic of the power 40 days together and i just wanted to thank you for giving us inspiration for giving us the keys to be able to open up our hearts and to see what it is to really be able to connect hashem during this time period and just to thank all the rabbonim and that have been involved whoever sexting rabbi shaw robert goldstein and and rabbi gladstein for really giving up your time this evening we really appreciate it and we wish you and your mishpochah a civil estimate over and to your wonderful kehillah killers israel thank you for giving us the opportunity to share in your torah and thank you everyone for a wonderful evening and all the very best have a good day you've just experienced another torah 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