The 13 Principles of Jewish Faith - Principle #6-7: Transcending the Physical - Rabbi Akiva Fox

[Music] continuing with the sixth and the seventh of the yoga motley crew of the 13 principles of faith we are discussing prophecy lebua and specifically navazesh arabe no Oliver Shawn been aboard that Moshe that Moses had obviously at heart Cena and Mount Sinai but also throughout his life which was a different level a completely different degree of prophecy that no one else has ever had his Naboo his prophecy was greater than any other prophecy that ever was or ever will be so before we get into that let's let's get down to the basics for a second what does it mean prophecy prophecy sounds very exciting it sounds like you could know which numbers will get you the lottery or which horse to bet on in the races and therefore being a prophet is a very conducive to your financial stability it might be a worthwhile venue to look into if you could get a degree in prophecy could check it out online prophecy org but in truth prophecy is very far away from the typical understanding of what we believe it is well what people assume that prophecy is so let's let's focus on something that will give us a certain path to understand exactly what prophecy is we've discussed previously how the ROM cow and this is also others forum described the prophecy as the ultimate connection to Hashem the complete perfect is the Vegas clinging connecting attaching oneself to God in other words prophecy is not a type of knowledge it's not something that you can achieve a smarter or more clear awareness or clarity in what's going on prophecy in its essence is when a person connects himself completely to Hashem meaning the people who wanted to be prophets we're not doing it for a profit excuse the corny line they did not they were not trying to get something out of it for their personal gain the only thing that they wanted with the level of prophecy was the ability to connect completely to Hashem to connect completely to God now what this required there were many requirements one of them was obviously being able to control your inner desires your inner temptation because if a person is controlled by other forces meaning his mind his heart is emotions his mental capacity is very much weighed down by other things or outer influences then he cannot he will not be able to allow himself to connect completely to Russia so in order to connect with heart and soul to a sham one must first silence all other influences that exist or that compel him to follow them so that includes obviously all temptations all desires and the yetzer hara the evil inclination this is something that the prophet or someone who was attempting to learn how to be a prophet he had to achieve another thing that he had to achieve obviously was a certain level in Torah and growth in spirituality this was not something that could be weighed down by the impurities of living a shallow superficial life that's another thing that was a complete requirement the other requirements interestingly the rambam maimonides says that one had to reach a certain level of simcoe one at the reach a certain level of happiness in order to achieve prophecy and this is something that perhaps we'll discuss in a future segment but the main things were that he had to be able to control his temptations he had to be miss Cobra to be stronger than his wake tomorrow he had to develop obviously a certain level in spirituality and this is not something that could be achieved in his physical Shallow state meaning all the prophets throughout history had to accept from OSHA Bane who had to fall asleep because in order to connect completely with Hashem on I with the divine one can't be in his physical state he can't be limited to his physical state because God is infinite and he is completely finite so in order to achieve true prophecy which in essence means true connection he had to transcend the physical and in essence become completely spiritual and only then was he able was a person able to be completely connected with Hashem which is the level of prophecy that they wanted to achieve and so once again what their desire what they wanted out of prophecy was not winning the lottery on the contrary the closer it was the physical existence or to their own benefit as far as their bodily needs were concerned that took them away from prophecy all they wanted was complete Draco's complete connection and being attached and clinging to a Shem which is in essence infinite and therefore they had to silence all finite influences that they had therefore their body had to go to sleep their mind and essence had to be under complete control over any outer influences and of course they had to develop a certain spiritual level in order to reach there now this obviously shed light on what it was that a prophet was seeking and once again he wasn't looking for the ins on which stocks to invest in he did not care about the stock market or Wall Street or any of the other financially beneficial things in the world that was not his concern he didn't want to know people's futures he didn't want to know about other people of what was gone on in their minds he did not want to become a mind reader all the Navi wanted was complete the bakers in Hashem and in order to achieve that there were certain levels he had to reach and of course he needed somebody they were called the Binet on the vm literally it means the children of the vm but the rambam explains they were tell me then they were students of a Navi who could guide them in their advisor in their service in their requirements in order to achieve but ultimately it was something that only God could give to them they could not achieve it on their own meaning that you could in essence develop where you could achieve all these things and have grown and progressed to a certain level that are required but ultimately if God did not want to allow you into you know the ultimate connection you would not achieve it this was true for all prophets except for moisture a bain-marie obey no Moses he was able to have prophecy he was able to achieve that connection eat in a sense on his own meaning it wasn't something that he had to await it wasn't something that he had to hope to be allowed in this was something that he could initiate it was as if a conversation between him and a sham as if they were speaking face to face as the Torah describes it and this was something that he could initiate on his own at any given moment throughout today also he was not required to go to sleep this was something that he could do with his physical body this was something that he was able to achieve in his finite existence the reason that many books describe why Moshe a bangin was able to achieve that level is because he was the UNAC elohim he was the humblest of men humbleness means that he had no self not just that he had no ego that he represented to himself absolutely nothing but pure being able to give over an absolute pristine pure Word of God he was nothing else than a messenger of a Shem in the world meaning he had no inclination he had no temptations or thoughts of his own he had no desire to see it too or to perceive anything in his own life this was all he was like a clear glass and that was able to shine through the light of a Shem towards the people of their Israel and also to generations to come as be bearer of the Torah what that means is that his finite existence in essence was nothing he didn't have a real finite existence he was a body he was a human but he had brought himself to the level of being completely egoless completely nothingness he was a clear pane of glass that was able to shine the light of a Shem to the world through him with nothing in the way this is in essence what is called in the Florham aspic lariam Akira as McCleary Amira means absolutely clear without any pinkness attainted it's not painted as unadulterated it's not dirty clear pristine glass but let's hash em like shine through as opposed to other prophets whose bodies whose physical finite existence did in a certain way get in the way in a certain in a certain sense they were sort of a barrier there was painted mist or there was the excuse me I'm not good at the words but there was a certain of adulteration the glass was not that clear so it didn't go through completely as it did with moshe rabbeinu so Moshe Albania's vision his prophecy was absolutely clear because his body did not get in the way this is also what is explained by the rambam as a na'vi who is connected to the cycle hapoel meaningless a shall be intelligence the higher divine intelligence as opposed to the same column if 0 which is a lower form of intelligence I'm going to try to give this over in mundane very shallow terms and perhaps it's inappropriate to speak in such terms when relating to something as great as see which is the Holy of Holies but I hope that it will give a little bit more clarity perhaps we could with an analogy this could be explained as the difference between a computer technician and a computer programmer a computer technician is somebody who knows how to fix certain problems because he has clarity in certain parts of the computer the way it runs and the way things are supposed to happen a computer programmer is somebody who knows everything about the computer because he created it so it's not just that he's able to take care of certain things he created it everything in essence is a higher intelligence of what's going on so therefore every aspect of every facet of the computer is in his hands so when a person will have bill when a person connect to the higher intelligence meaning to the divine the great decree of a xem which created the world the intelligence which runs the world which comes through complete connection to assume with the vacants that is something by achieving that level of connection to that seiko to that greater intelligence number one a person in his and his limited ability but moshe obey know for sure with that connection is able to be aware of what should happen number one number two is that he is able to warn people or to guide people in the way of God because he is connected to that higher intelligence and number three is that this comes only through silencing any of his personal wants and desires and through completely connecting being dove 'ok and clinging to a shaman's self which is the essence of prophecy which is the essence of Naboo you [Music]