Spiritual Insights How to Cause the Downfall and Defeat of Our Enemies with Rabbi Aaron Dovid Poston

[Music] Shalom Alim everybody Welcome to the Y Community Center we are not yet open hopefully on Hanukkah we'll have a grand opening but we um we welcome everybody a warm welcome home to Torah for those who are not familiar what we do here we use the clear as the basis of our discussion of course we deal with fundamentals really fundamental concepts in Judaism in Yad and I encourage you to use the original Hebrew sheets which you can find down below link to in the in the YouTube description box that's like number one number two we're actually going to talk about Sedaka charity to a certain extent how important it is and I just want people to know that on our website you can actually make a dedication to this new center whether it's a buying a bookcase which every bookcase is full of books will be full of books as you see with your donations it will go very far and you'll see the list I mean you can put put your name on the building or you can put your name on the bay madash there's so many things you could do but supporting Torah you'll see giving Sedaka for worthy cause because what we do here at yanet is we give out a lot of Charity and we help so many people in so many different ways so through tonight's learning which is just I randomly picked something I haven't seen or done before in the CLE car which is always exciting for me uh of course review you have to do review you have to go over the lessons you've already learned and embed them right bring them into your heart and hopefully that will change your life or make your life more meaningful and better so what we are discussing here tonight is the children who are born these twins that are born from that relationship where where Yehuda goes out and he is involved with Tamar not knowing it was Tamar about to put her to death where you know she puts up the Sone and he admits that she's more righteous than him and these are the CH children who are born from this Union of Yehuda and Tamar who end up one of them ends up being in direct lineage for kingship and one of them does not and we're about to find out why that is so we're dealing in pares v shave it's in chapter 38 of Genesis verse 29 okay now we're dealing with the birth the birth of parot and peris and zerak who comes from who right Yehuda is going to descend from Paris and zerak we'll see who descends from zerak but the PK we're looking at is in verse 29 where it says in English verse and it came about as he was drawing back his hand behold his brother emerged and she said the mother what with what strength ha you have strengthened yourself and he Yehuda named him Perez right parrots now what was actually happening the first one to reach out his hand from the womb right so to speak from the womb was the hand of zarak and there was a Simmon placed a crimson piece of string placed on his hand and he withdrew his hand he brought his hand back in I mean this you have to have a good imagination I don't know if this ever happened in history but it happened and he put his hand back in and then parrots came out first so who really was born first let's leave that up for now for your imagination but the actual baby that came out first was parot even though zerak put his hand out and then withdrew his hand and I'm just we're going to focus on these words as he was drawing back his hand in Hebrew okay that's going to be the the words we're going to be using to explain everything now the first thing the clear points out is arba four times the word hand is said now I will read the English just so you should see how and we'll count them together so if we go back to verse 27 and it came to pass at the time she gave birth that behold there were twins in her womb and it happened 28 that as she gave birth one put out a hand first time hand is used a midwife took a Crimson thread and tied it on his hand saying that's the second time hand is used this one emerged first oh one second and it was as he drew back his hand this is our verse that behold his brother emerged and then she said with what strength you asserted yourself and he called that's Yehuda called his name parot afterwards his brother on Whose hand so where we at is this the third time or the fourth time was the Crimson thread came out and he called his name zerak I want to go back and read again so we have all four times it happened that as she gave birth one put out a hand his the Midwife took the Crimson thread and tied it on his hand this one emerged first and it was he drew back his hand third time that behold his brother emerged and she said with what strength you assert yourself and he called his name parrots afterwards his brother on Whose hand four times hand is used was the Crimson thread that one came out and Yehuda called him zerak okay so the clear points out in case we didn't realize that the word hand is used four times four times the the word hand is used here now he says so a in Joshua he committed a crime of he he took things that were sacred and he us he took them actually he stole and you should be familiar with what happens over there he's put to death who did he come from he descended from zeru as it says in St hedrin 43a I mean the gamorra is actually bringing down a verse itself if you read Joshua 7: 24 and 25 it says that Yeshua took aan the son of zerak the silver the mantle the wedge of gold and his sons and his daughters and his ox and his asses and his sheep and his tent and all that he had and all of Israel with him and it continues and all of Israel stoned him with stones they burn them with fire and stone them with stones we're not going to deal with the crime of aan tonight but apparently according to the gorah actually was a little bit confusing to me because there's one opinion that he violated three serious crimes another opinion he violated five serious crimes where the CLE car got that he violated for I don't know but maybe it's a compromise I don't know but we'll go with the flow that the word y yav his hands are written four times that's clear that's for sure we went through it twice and the clear is explaining based on this Gora that he violated um he transgressed using holy items four different ways so the clear says ra the reason there is a hint to this idea of the connection between hands and violations is to teach us loros on account of the fact that aan descended from him came from him Zer did not Merit to succeed to become a king nor any of his children only through the line of Yehuda okay and why is that the clear card brings down a verse in Mish in Proverbs 294 it's number three in the it saysit that only if a king is Stern and establishes Justice then the the the country will exist right here he translates a king establishes the country with Justice or through justice but what about an isot right har a Hy man will destroy the country in in in the Rashi says if an honest judge remember King Solomon he was a king King David was a king they were judges they sat in judgment so if if he's an honest judge he establishes a country whereas Rashi continues to say what about a h man he does not take he does not care to take time in judgment either he's too quick or he's not as diligent the rabbis in cbis mentioned that if a judge is like a king who does not who does not have to acquire friends and accept bribes so now we're talking about a judge himself if he's acting like a king a proper King should be very wealthy and he doesn't have to acquire friends right there's a mission in perote to acquire friends well he doesn't have to acquire friends because he has I don't know the power of life and death you're like automatically the king's friend and he certainly doesn't have to accept any bribes and through that he's able to bring right True Justice to the to the country and he establishes the country but if he's like a priest so there's a difference between the kingdom the kingship which is um let's say domestic law as opposed to a priest which is religious law and if the priest asks for trumo in the threshing floor if he's asking first of all you as the one giving have the right to choose which priest you give it to so the priest who's trying to get the truma he's tearing it down meaning if the king is acting like a priest so there's an idea of separation between what we call and in English in America they call it separation between church and state so in our Judaism there's really a SE there's no separation there really is no on a certain level there's no separation however we have to imagine a separation right so so the king should not act like a priest and demand things but rather be um quite confident and self-sufficient and whatnot okay so the clear continues after this verse he's after we got this idea that zerak was not going to be mat with kingship because of his well we're going to see and find out the only right if only if you um basically chase after greed if greed is your motivating factor that's going to be a problem and therefore then you're going to accept bribes this is what we see happening in many countries I don't want to mention any names but we basically have people who um run for office who are poor when they run and then 30 years later or 40 years later they're multi-millionaires it's better to have someone who's wealthy to start off who's not going to accept bribes you get the hint therefore he withdrew his hand he had no place this person called zerak had no place as being a king so he would drew his hand because he really wasn't fit Nei neither for to be the first born nor to be in line of Kings it's very strange CU we're getting an introduction to this idea that he withdrew his hand that's literally the words we're dealing with and the cleard is giving some insight into the type of person who you want as a leader and unfortunately even zerak had progyny who was you know talking about aan here uh committed a grave crime of thievery I wouldn't call it extortion but it was it was definitely thievery and he violated uh the sanctity and the holy things that were captured in war and that was in Jericho and was not to be used at all by anybody who collected what we call the schl The Spoils of War that was dedicated to Hashem and to be totally uh destroyed and burnt and he stole and he stole and you know what happened as a result 36 soldiers died in the next war of I and I think it's going to be very um pertinent to talk about as we go further so the clear is now going to try to explain the the fact that it had four times the word hand in the the few sentences that we read there's some kind of a hint regarding there's a hint regarding someone who desires has a such a desire for money that he does not he does not pass from this world with even half of his desires fulfilled right as it says if someone has 100 he's going to want 200 you have 100 you want 200 whatever you have well guess what that doesn't have to be it doesn't have to be it's not a good thing to be in this constant state of Desiring more and more more and more wealth of whatever it is he call Adam every human being well again this a general rule D every be every human being has two hands okay we know exceptions but and what does he do with those two hands that he has in this lifetime he's going to make effort and work in order to receive to reach handfuls with his own power and his own might according to whatever ever effort he made right that's what we do we have two hands not four wait till you see this if that's true right anything that he achieves um obtains it's because of the work of his two hands if for some reason that person is not satisfied in what Hashem granted him by filling His Hands by having full you know a handful so then he desires more I just want to stop here for a second and mention peros tells us who is a who's wealthy who is wealthy someone who is someone who is happy with his life L that's rich that's wealth right that's true happiness the person who cannot stand the fact that someone else has more than him I think they call that in in in America they call it uh keeping up with the Joneses in our circles we say keeping up with the schwarzes but you get the idea that the grass is always greener on the other side or you're not you're never satisfied you're not completely satisfied that I get but you want more as we said he's Desiring more uh that his hand should be full the word m here is outcome in order that the outcome would be enough for four hands two hands are not enough Four Hands is what he wants this in essence is the measure of someone who owns one but wants two or has a 100 and wants 200 or has 1 million and one's two million you can do the math meaning double of what he's already achieved he still wants more than just his two hands the this is where we get to the idea that anybody who has this deep desire for money I'm not going to call greed although we started with that idea but he has this desire for money he's unlikely okay David he's unlikely therefore as we were saying anybody who is Desiring money cannot be a true Giver he's not going to be a real Giver because he wants to hold on to his money and hold on to his money in order to just make more money which I understand but we'll find out that the one who really wants to make an impression on the world and get we're going to call a place in and get true reward we understand what whatever he was given is not even his right it's a gift from God God graced you with this and you would likely to give Saka is opposed to someone who thinks that they earned it and it belongs to them and they're going to use that money just to make more money but the point here he says that's why Z for times y right four times his hand is used and we had we saw that he gave you know progenies to aan he is not likely to be successful to be in a position of power kingship or judge judgment as K tell us in gamorra Stan hedin 49a when he did Mish you know what he did he made sure that everybody walked out happy right that the guy who was being judged right let's say wrong you know he did a wrong and he was giving Justice David was a bason right was a bason but he was one of the he was on the S hedin and um he made sure in his court that the person who was guilty that was mishpat there was true judgment and at the same timea true uh see even the word SED means judgment and and righteousness but it's sedu it's charity he made sure that everybody walked out feeling that mishpat was done and Sedaka was done and he says ready for this because did both yav was his General was and we're going to see the gamor now why David was successful in war and we're going to see that the enemies will fall if you do what if you give Sedaka okay so for those people I can't believe for last year and almost a half the Jewish people have been doing so much Seda so much for the war effort so much for the widows so much for the women whose husband or milim so much for the soldiers it's like impossible to describe in a short period of time the amount and we have here people were making tius was facilitating 90 pairs of to filling for soldiers that want in we made thousands and thousands I have no idea how many just our group alone made sites for theim underneath the raban of the of the army and um we had given tens of thousands of shekele in the beginning anyway towards um the MU andem so many organizations have been there for each other we're all here for each other and that's true s and this is where we're going to win the war you understand that wait till you hear more okay if you look at The Source number four St hedrin 49a I I think it's worth reading to understand David's judgment and the Sedaka part that really brought about y's ability to uh for the Army to be um successful so it says the gamor notes and those so the previous part of the gamorra described yav in a very negative uh negative light but not everyone agrees with this so those who view yav in a negative light disagree with the previous right the previous opinion of Rabbi ABA barana as RAB ABA barana says if it wasn't for David who studied the Torah yoav would not have been able to wage worse successfully we're going to see two things Torah and Sedaka and were not for the military Acumen of yav then David would not have been able to study Torah it's so interesting you have the Army and you have the Yeshiva if it wasn't for one you wouldn't have had success you needed the army so that the Yeshiva guys can study you need the Yeshiva guys to study so that the Army could succeed why does everything have to be black and white what do they call it binary one way or the other both this and that the way of uh the words of God it says in 2 Samuel 8:15 that David exacted judgment and Justice the verse says about mishpat and Seda to all his people and yav Son of zarua was over the army that is what made success both like they just said by D he did Mish and what's the reason that D EX Ed judgment and justice to all his people how did he do both mishpat and and S he was able to do so because yav was over the Army assisting him and fighting his battles what is the reason that yoav the son of was over the Army he was able to do so because D did originally both SED and Mish and mbat and that's the gamor let's go on in the clear Al nuda regarding Yehuda in the BR of Moshe Renu to the tribe of Yehuda look in chapter 33:7 of Deuteronomy 337 we find that in number five may this also be for Yehuda and he Moses said oh hearken oh Lord hearken to yehuda's voice and bring him to his people now hear these words may his hands do battle for him the hands that can either give Saka or refrain from giving Sedaka may his hands do battle for him and may you Hashem be a help against his who against his enemies okay look in the Hebrew it says y now the word RAV it's very it's a very interesting word because it can mean so many different things it can be a m a raav it could be a lot could be many here it means enough it means enough well we'll see here is being translated as battle battle let's see the clear he says yud 33:7 of Deuteronomy y again we are translating it as battle because you're talking about of the enemies the clear says Yul means that his hands what they should do battle it should have been plural the word ra if it means battle since the hands are plural the word battle should be plural of course y implies two hands it's plural the the word ra is something doesn't mat up something does does it make sense that what is it trying to teach us there is a lesson here sh the lesson is do not one should not desire uh money or you know physical wealth more than two hands worth more right more than you can handle D two hands is enough the word raav means enough it's another way to look at it's enough for you in fact that's how it's translated if you like the verse said ah one second in in Deuteronomy 3: 26 okay but the Lord was angry with me Moses is speaking because of you he didn't listen to me he did not listen to me the Lord said to me it is enough for you look at the Hebrew ra right it's enough for you but it actually says more now in English you wouldn't see it says speak to me no more regarding this matter so in the Hebrew is El Al to don't speak anym about this matter but if you read it like this it's enough for you don't add you don't need anymore just another way of reading those same words so back in the clear we got the idea that ra l means enough for him and we said it's a language and that's the verse he just brought down chapter 3: 26 Al and what is this h that's enough God gave you two hands and what you do with them that's enough what do you need four hands for what do you need L don't request more than what your two hands can can do and what did it say at the end of Deuteronomy 337 wait till you hear this so you go back to 337 this was number five right may his hands do battle for him and may you help Hashem may you help against his enemies so how does God when will God do that when you feel you have enough and then you're a giver you're you know that you have enough remember if you feel you feel like you don't have enough you're unlikely to give okay but when you feel rich right you are you know that you have enough and you're willing to give more to others so that's what the clear is saying based on the end of that verse right may you help him against his enemies is a meter of feeling that you have enough right you have enough Supply satisfaction with what you have that's the reason to give because you really feel you have enough and because of this the Merit right if you feel this then in the Merit of that your enemies will fall before you yav mean right we just saw that from yav just like it says also in Psalms at 112 chapter 112 of toim of Psalms verses 5-8 now I didn't copy the whole thing here on the sheet but if you read it on your own you'll see this is amazing person good is the man who is gracious and lends to and what will happen if you are gracious right that's what it means you're an you're not just an you're you money you give then and you also conduct all your Affairs Mish properly and it's beautiful you can read all the verses in between verse 8 says his heart is steadfast he will not fear until he sees in his adversaries that word your enemies your adversaries they will fall before you oh okay now the cleard ends after those verses the meaning ends this paragraph so too it's also quoted in babama in in page 17A it says over there someone who someone who's involved in giving charity basically you're enemies will fall before you as corpses the gamor is amazing I think it's worthwh looking at and let's do it now it's on page three number eight it's like a third of the way down where it becomes bolded large RAB yokan says in the name of RAB shimai what is exactly the meaning it says in Isaiah chapter 3220 happy are you that so besides all Waters we're going to focus on the word Waters that send forth the feet of the ox we're going to focus on the word ox and the donkey maybe I'll give you like a little bit of an Insight Waters is referring to Torah ax is somehow referring to Joseph and Donkey is referring to yakar yakar let's see how he goes it teaches that whoever engages in the study of Torah and in the performance of Acts of Kindness merits reward equal to the portion of the two tribes ysep and Yar the gor explains how is this derived from the verse well it does say Happ you that so sewing what it's referring to sewing acts of Charity because we know in a hosiah chapter 10:12 it says seow for yourselves for charity reap according to the kindness so we see a connection right there and what about the water water always refers to the study of Tor as it says in Isaiah 55:1 ho all who are thirsty go to the water and we know that's referring to the the water of Torah and the fact that he merits reward equal to the portion of these two tribes is is derived as follows the reference of the ox is an illusion to yoseph as it says in Deuteronomy 33:17 and what about right and one's reward is that he merits to receive a canopy of Honor as ysep did okay it says ysep is a fruitful Vine a fruitful Vine by a fountain its branches run over the wall the idea of branches running over a wall is compared to a canopy what about the reference of the donkey that is talking about yakar okay who is described as a donkey not like an ass in a bad way but as in a donkey in a certain way um it says in Genesis 49:14 yakar is a large bone donkey now we got that straight now are those who can make this comparison in a totally different manner remember the statement was his enemies will fall will fall before him is like in the blessing given by Moses to the tribe of yoseph and it says over there Deuteronomy 33:17 by the way the blessing is bestowed by Moses to the tribe of ysep it says and I want you to remember this quote when you see what's going on in the world whether it's in Syria whether it's in Lebanon whether it's in the Gaza whether it happened with all the seven countries that came against us in the past or today with the houis in Yemen or maybe tomorrow with Iran who knows it says his horns are the horns of a wild ox with them he shall Gore the Nations even to the ends of the Earth and what about the merits then he merits and he will Merit the understanding of yakar yakar was being they understand they understood how astronomy Works they understood the time you know the the time schedules about everything and they were the ones that learned the T and zul was the one that supported them it says over in 1 Chronicles 12:33 and of the children of yakar men that had understanding of the times to know what Israel ought to do they had clarity about the times and when to act and when not to act okay so the last thing we read in the clear was that your enemies will fall before you and now we know she r l that his hands were enough for him we use the word Ra was enough for himal okay that means that with the Amal that his efforts would be enough from what he received from his two hands worth of work and he was satisfied the and he did not seek extra uh luxuries right he was satisfied then that person will be a true Giver of Charity and therefore what hasem does was he will be a help against your adversaries now the cleard ends with the last five lines everything we just said about being a BAL Sedaka giving giving giving and the enemies would fall before you comes from Yehuda who descended from parrots zerak however when it came to zerak what did he do he retracted his hand for some reason he didn't feel that what he got from his two hands was enough his hands were not enough but he didn't seek just two hands he wanted four hands and that's exactly what we've been talking about for the last half hour and those four hands are mentioned in these couple verses he actually desired things that were not fit for him we're not Royo like it says by aan aan in chapter 7:21 7 verse 21 of Joshua look at number nine on the sore sheet where I bolded it he admitted this was his confession I coveted them and I took them he stole but listen to the the English and then we'll see the Hebrew and this is what his confession was when I saw the spoils of a goodly b babylonish garment and 200 shekels of silver and a wedge of gold a 50 shekels weight then I coveted them and took them the Hebrew is I covered them and I took them them and behold they're hidden the Earth he told them exactly where they were where he hid it okay so the C car ends remember this is a descendant of Zer y therefore what he did was he retracted his hand he turned his hand back says his right hand um like someone who returns their hand retracted their hand of because it wasn't within his personality it wasn't that he would have these character traits of proper mishpat and nor the therefore was held withheld from him the firstborn he was not the firstborn he stuck his hand out and then he pulled it back and Paris was the firstborn so he didn't get the firstborn and he didn't Merit to be the ruler the king through his descendants but parents did because it's a necessity that every King at least our Kings should be victorious over enemies he's the one leading you know whether it's the decision what they call in America the chief chief of what what is see president he's like the commander and chief what is he called Commander whatever no but this is the the actual president of the United States has a certain title commanderin-chief the if you're in the army or Marines or Navy or whatever Air Force you're I think I could be wrong you're under the you're you're ultimately under the president of the United States's command that seems to be what it implies and he says this is what the clear says zerak didn't have it and therefore he couldn't be it he didn't have these character traits Kore as we said so we said a lot of things to tonight and it's just for those who are unfamiliar becoming familiar what we do here we take one verse or maybe certain words of a verse and we go into what we call the clear's interpretation see when I say interpretation we're talking about what he heard and learned from his great reban who go all the way back to Haren itself to Moses who is the clear RV it was none other than maral of Prague and goes all the way back to mosenu and on the other side he had another R the SCH KES a very big cabalist and so we do trust that his insights are genuine and I'll even say lifechanging he's not going to steer you wrong but we should all learn one thing that when we read an A Commentary it's not it's like this commentary is correct and everyone else is wrong that's not the case there are levels there are levels of understanding everything and they go deeper and deeper and I invite you to come back and um escort us on this journey for truth and transformation and we're doing it using thees of course and the oral Torah which is goes hand in hand as we've been talking about tonight and hopefully we can all become more uh with the character trait of his being satisfied with what we have and through that we'll be bigger givers or let's say more often doesn't mean we have more money to give but we can divide it up and give a lot as the rambam says sometimes it's better to give a $100 doar to $1 to 100 different people than $100 to one person because it creates within you a giving spirit of course if the $100 going to make a difference in life and death there's no question you give $100 to one person but a lot of times it's better for you to give 100 different people a dollar just to become a giver more often I know it sounds strange many things in Torah are counterintuitive you know why the Torah is our instruction manual for life and in order to you know if everything was intuitive we wouldn't need instructions so it usually is counterintuitive so some of the things we learned tonight maybe it resonates with you maybe it doesn't but the Torah for the most part I find counterintuitive and that's what's so exhilarating because then you're learning something andem we learned a little bit of Hebrew we learned a little bit about the backstory and specifically why four times yav is used a little bit about zerak and that doesn't mean that everyone today whose name is zerak is like this just to get that straight but this is about the historical personality of zerak and aan came from him whereas from Yehuda came from parrots and the Kings come from him and bat will all Merit to give more Sak this year and with that I wish everyone a shabbat shalom and a great life and happy life and we'll see you here next week [Music] de [Music]