The Hidden Power of the Jewish Soul - Rabbi Dovid Kaplan

Vishu these are the names of the Benes coming to Egypt with Yakov. The word ace means with. Sometimes in in stores in Israel, you'll see like uh um um two names, you know, co at less co with ley at could it could be the the untransated just it's kind of there or s as could means with. So in this context it says these are the ben Israel that were coming with Jacob of each man in his home. They came to me. Now we're starting a new book over here, the book of Schmos. And this is going to be up until now we had the development where the Jewish people came from and now we have them as a nation. Now now we now we have them. They're no longer the individuals. They're now a nation and they're in Egypt and there are 70 of them coming. They they came down come down to Mitraim. And uh the first thing you see over here is that they're connected to Yakov. Now these are all married men with families. And yet they come down with Yakov Aino which is what Judaism is based on. Judaism is based on a tradition a misora the tradition uh that we go from you know goes father to son and we we we we uh and in spite of being great people on their own right they uh they're they're connected to they're connected to to to the previous generation. So I think I told you Rabbi uh Rabbi Gman uh Rabbi Rabbi You ever heard of the disco rabbi? >> Yeah. >> Yes. So Rabbi Rabbi Gman was the disco rabbi. So he at a certain point they offered him to become the chief rabbi of Israel. This is a man who at the time was probably in his 50s and they offered him because he was very uh you know very accomplished very uh a real doer and uh he was very popular in the country popular you know here you talk about a a guy with a beard pis and a and a striml you know and he's popular among the secular you know and they just felt he would be the good a good to be the Ashkanazi chief rabbi and uh he turned it down and they said to him why did you turn it down he said because I asked my father his father was a massive massive massive scout. He said, I asked my father and my father said it it's not for you, so I'm not going to do it. So they said to him, why did your father say it's not for you? He said, I don't know. So what do you mean you don't know? He said, I don't know. I He said, well, then you ask him. He said, no. Said why'd you ask him? My father said, no. Why should I ask him? If my father said, that's good enough for me. about where we come from, we don't ask our parents. Father says, "No, it's no." He got many, many, many uh uh letters, emails, whatever it was at the time. There was letters at the time from secular people saying, "We wish our kids would that was more important than anything. Wish our kids would see that lesson and absorb that lesson that you don't that you don't you don't challenge that you accept something parents have to say instead of cursing them out, which is what happens now, and talking back." Your father said it. That's what you do. I mean there's a certain faith we have in the previous generation. There's a certain faith when when when uh when uh a person uh understands that there's a chain dating all all the way back you know when you give a when when a couple gets married so the guy gives the wife a ring. Now it doesn't have to be a ring. It only has to be the value of a pruda. Theoretically under the football you could pull out a pen and say mudes. Don't by the way don't. There will be very unpopular move. But theoretically you could do that. You give a pen. So why do where's a ring? So rings had all sorts of symbolism. One of the ideas of a ring. A ring is a link in a chain. Chains are made of made of of link. And which means that this couple is becoming a new link in a chain that dates all the way back to harinai. And so we believe that the previous generation has something we don't have, which is that they're one step closer to the giving of the Torah at Sai. The previous generation has something. That's why there's something called we we subse by the by the secular world since they come from gorillas or believe they come from gorillas. So each secular each each generation looks at the previous generations, you're a generation closer to being a gorilla. We're better than you. We're more advanced than you. Whereas the whereas the uh the what do you call the the uh the secular the secular world you know it's it's we believe the world advancing by us we believe the world's deteriorating spiritually spiritual previous generation is a higher spiritual level so that's you have the Jewish people come down to and ishu ishu they come down to mit put put away the the in front of ash you don't the the yeah yeah even in front of ash especially in front of ashish the unless we show the kish on film the video. Yeah, you don't one doesn't eat when one's studying Torah the uh the uh um the uh so the the connection to Yakov the connection to Yakovu is the connection to the previous generation number one. Remember to there's a problem here the for point out what does the word haboim what does the word haboim translate to >> in Hebrew habim they were >> they were coming to mitim as opposed to they >> they came to mitim or they went to mit past tense in other words it's present tense instead of past tense why is it present tense why should why is it present tense so the theor say that The present tense represents the idea that each day be when the when the uh uh the the the uh the torment began when the be when the Egyptians began tormenting the Jewish people. So it was as if they you know when somebody new arrives you new kid be arrives in class everybody beats them up or something you know welcome to the class. So it was as if they had arrived as if we never met you before. Each day that the Jews that the Jews were suffering, it was as if we've never met you before. We didn't know who you were. We we and it's they are now arriving again. Anytime you arrive new, like when you arrive in yeshiva, so it's difficult. The first day is difficult. The first the first we get to arrive in school when you arrive the first time you arrive is difficult. Here was it's if they're arriving every day. There's a difficulty of arriving every day once the the the the shibboot begins. The sheibboot means a sub subjugation to the Egyptians. Once that begins, by the way, if you go to the just a reminder, I forgot I didn't forget the uh if you go to the uh the website, don't forget to visit our website, the uh David Bcaplan.com. So, there is a review sheet on paras. Now, it's available already for the Shabas table. I deal questions with answers from various commentaries to promote discussion around the shabas table and to promote income for me. But nobody feel uh what do you call dude? I told you don't feel no pressure to buy and hopefully I'll find some other way to support my family. So the uh the uh what do you call it? So the uh the uh I'm Jewish. So the uh now if you take a look at Rashi Rashi take a look at Rashi very first Rashi on the page. It's the right column. Right column even though they were counted in their lifetime by name. We just had them in the previous para. It told in the name. So again it it it enumerates goes by name when when they die. This is to let you know how beloved they are. The Jewish people are compared to stars. brings them out. Everybody's got each star has a name. Each star has a job. So what is the comparison? Why are Jewish people compared to stars? You know, we're compared to stars. We're compared to sand and we're compared to dirt. Each one has a different a different uh idea behind it. What's the comparison to stars? Why does the to compares the Jewish people to stars? There several several explanations are given. What do you say? >> Rrook is spiritual. Stars, we look up and the stars look they look spiritual even though they're very physical. They're very physical. They got they have a light shining. So, one of the ideas is they but you know, how big is the nearest how close is the nearest star? About 3 million light years away or something like that. >> Now, when you when you when you look at a star, the star looks kind of small. >> What? >> The sun's the nearest star. >> The sun's the nearest star. And how how near is it? >> 93 million. >> Oh, is that it? >> Oh, all right. Remind me next Sunday. I got nothing to do. I'll take I'll take a trip. Oh, 93. Oh, that's good. Okay. I thought it was like 96. Forget it. I was going I'll change my plans. I, you know, I was going to cancel. So, the uh So, it's 93 million miles away. Then there's what they talk about light years, this, that, and the other. Okay. One of the ideas is that we take a look at a star. The star looks it looks like a you know, looks like this little dot of light. And theoretically, the closer you'd get to a star, the bigger it would become, become enormous. Some of the stars are bigger than the Earth. The closer you get to the star, the bigger it becomes. So when it's like a map, I was looking at a map the other day and I think I s I saw the the map they were showing the map of Chile. Yeah. It looked like you could, you know, stretch your hands and reach both sides of Chile. But once you're in Chile, it's a little wider than all that. But it it looks like it on a map. The map is like 1.5 millionth of the, you know, on the scale of of the thing. A star looks like a little dot. The closer you get to the star, the bigger it becomes. a Jew. You know, you see a Jew and they sitting next to you, you know, guys what we call an ordinary Jew. There's no such thing as an ordinary Jew. There are two types of Jews. There are Jews who are growing and Jews who are not growing. A Jew who's growing is never an ordinary Jew. And it's unfortunate, but we usually find this out when somebody dies. Then you go to the house that you hear the eulogy or something. Oh, do you know that he learned dafomi every day for the last 40 years? Wow, I didn't know that. You know, do you know that there were 12 families in the neighborhood that he was supporting poor families that nobody knew that he he's gave them food every shabas? I didn't know that. You find out about a Jew. You find out unfortunately you find out a lot of things about him. The guy was sitting next to Schul. Then you find out, you know, this guy's a lot bigger than I thought he was. He just looked like a he looked like a person. Do you know this guy has put on fill in every day for this baritza? Do you know that this guy's treated his wife nicely almost every day since they got married? You know, and they only got married a week ago. You know that this guy, do you know this guy that this guy's what he he what you know he does? You know with you know I didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't know. Sure you didn't know. Because all you see is the person in front of you. The closer you get to a Jew, the more you find out about him, the bigger he becomes. That's it compared to the stars. If you would be able to spend a day with Rabbi Mosha Feinstein or Rabbi Kim Ky or the by the end of the day you'd be you you'd be you'd be absolutely absolutely shocked at what you see the the behavior a human being could behave in such a manner that is such a high level and we read the books and we hear about these people till you actually live with them and you actually spend time with them they become enormous. So the Jewish people are compared to stars number one because the stars we look at them as opposed to and I told you I think I've mentioned this in the past you know there's a statement in the the Gomorrah that parro who was the king of Egypt was one tall you know how much an amma is about 18 in >> parro was one tall I mean he could walk under this table without bending his knees right not only that there's another statement in the medish that kingar who destroyed the B of the most powerful ruler. The Gomorrah says they even when he get into when when the Vadetser went to Gehenn the dwellers of Gehennham got nervous. Oh no, here comes the Vadetser to torment us. They said when the Vadetser was alive, he was such a nasty cusp. People were petrified of the Vkadetser. And so King Nuadetszer, it says he was cut. He was the size of a jug. >> What? >> Yeah, that's what it says. Mike, hold that up for a second. Hold up the thermos for a second. There's the mukkahar right there. There's king size of a jug. Now, how do you like that? Let's put this into proper perspective. You got you got parro is a size of an ammo and is the size of a jug. They must have great one-on- ones, I'll tell you. But at the end of the day, they probably only played Nerf. But at the end of the day, the two most powerful the two most powerful monarchs in the ancient world that they were both tiny. What's the what's the I didn't understand what's the medish telling you? What does that mean? So I understood this when I heard somebody who had became a Baltu. He had been a he had been involved in uh show business and he had been rubbing elbows with world famous people, celebrities and very world famous people uh that you've heard of from the secular entertainment world. And when he got married, I remember him saying that, you know, you hear about these people, you read about these people, you think of their very big people. He says when you get to know them up close, they're very small people. And when he said that, that's when the coin dropped. I understood what the medish was saying. You could be the biggest monarch in the world. You could be the ruler of Egypt. You could be the ruler of and at the end of the day, you know, you're a really small, you're a puny person. You have zero control over yourself. You could be the president of the United States and you're totally and utterly out of control. Any similarities to to to to current events are purely intentional, but the the the what do you call the you can be you're totally out of control. So, a Jew is compared to a star. Number one. Number two, as Rashi says, every star, God didn't create them by accident. That means in the constellations and however the mazos work and ever the it's all every single star has a function and a purpose. That means every single Jew has a function and a purpose. The first mitzvah in the Torah is to be fruitful and multiply. Why is that? What do you need so many people for? I heard once about a story these Bali chuvas couple got married. They became baluvas. Parents were not on board. They became balchas. The couple got married and after after a couple years they had a you know they they were married for about you know they had six kids and wife's expecting the seventh and you know they're only married about eight years you know and the secular mother comes to visit and she sees her daughter's pregnant and she just looks at her daughter she sees she's in her sixth month she looks what you need another one so the daughter says mom you're absolutely right she calls out the kids lines up the grandchildren says mom you're right which one shouldn't we have had after that she never heard a word from her mother God the mother never said a word. when do you but the question is what do you I mean you guys have noticed religious families uh you know the in religious in in Israel if you look at religious families a family with 8 n 10 kids doesn't even turn a neck you know nobody even gives it a second glance when you get up to 12 13 then you know you know it's a it's a large family you know you get to 161 17 you know that your major leagues you know you're you know you're what so you need so many the answer is that the first mitzvah of the Torah is to have children, as many as you can have because each individual person, there are no two people that serve Hashem the same way. Each person, whatever your life situation is, whatever your challenges, abilities, talents, your whole life circumstance, however you're serving God, no one else in the world serves God that way. You are yourself an individual keshashem. You you you sanctify God's name different than anybody else can. The same way that every star has a function. Every star has a has a job. You have a job. God created you with your circumstances, created us with our circumstance. Each one of us has a specific job. Just like that. That's the comparison to the stars. There was used to be a jingle on TV. I don't know if any none of you probably heard of it. I think it was for for mutual life insurance. There's no one else in the whole human race with your kind of style and your kind of grace. You never nobody else exactly like you. Nobody else like you. Jew, right? That's my own little So, so the the at the end of the day, there's nobody else like you. You're you're individual and every individual has a job and a role. Sometimes, you know, you wonder what's my contribution? How much could I possibly contribute? Because I put on fillin because I because I learned I learned the mishna. But everybody puts on fill. Everybody learns the mishna. The answer is yeah, but not everybody is you. You putting on fill is not the same as you putting on is not the same as me putting on fillin. Everybody's putting on a different it's a different form of serving at Kosh because we're all different people and we come from different places and therefore that's a comparison. The third comparative the stars is this is I think a beautiful idea. I've mentioned this in the past that this when did the stars get created >> in the sec third day. >> Why were they created? >> To separate light from darkness. >> They light from darkness was before the stars. >> No, >> remember the medish. Why were the stars created? The God created that says the God says the there were the two great lights. >> There were the two great lights. That means that the sun and the moon were created equal. And the measure says the moon came to Hashem and said, "You can't have two kings with one crown." So God said to the moon, you're absolutely right. Go reduce yourself. I remember I thinking the moon must at that point think like that wasn't where I was going with this. You know, just imagine the moon's reaction. That wasn't quite. So Hashem said, "Go reduce yourself." And so because the moon was depressed, God created the stars so that the moon should be able to rule over the stars. You know, don't feel so bad. He says you're army, you're in charge of this army, right? That that that the moon, that's where the that's what the medric says. That's when the stars were created. So we see that the purpose of the stars, the reason the stars were created was in order to bring relief and make the moon feel better. which means that it's a job of a Jew to go through life that the people around us our job is to make sure that everybody around us feels better. Our job in life is to bring relief to people who are sad and to anybody who we could make feel better to feel better. That's our opposed to putting people down. Our job is to build people up and that's the comparison to stars. So it's a difficult thing for men especially. Women are generally different. You know women are always talking complimenting. Oh, you look so good tonight. Oh, it's so nice to see you. Mm- you know that there's always there's a lot of adjectives there in women conversation by men it's yo what's up you know that that's basically the whole conversation you know and men are constantly you know digging at each other and get but you know you might have to also you know compliment the guy build a guy up to the guy why you asked a good question in class you're looking good today that sort of thing in today's world you can't even say that but whatever it is whatever it is that you're on a nice sweater you know nice sweater you know I you know that what nice car whatever ever it is the job in life of a Jew is to make sure and it's important thing to always ask yourself after any interaction with another person it's a good role to remember and when you have an interaction with somebody else whether it's a phone call or a personal interaction ask yourself did this person walk away happier or was he just happy to walk away right that's important question to ask yourself and our job in life is to make sure that people walk away from us happier sometimes we wanted them to walk away but to walk away happier. That's our job in life. That's a comparison to stars. Okay. Now, the Torah goes on and then it says invas Yoseph dies. And by the way, he predescases his brothers. Yseph predes his brothers so that no one will say the brothers died first as a punishment for having sold Yoseph. Yoseph dies before any of the brothers. >> He chose to. >> He didn't. Most people don't choose to die. They uh you know, unless they're committed suicidal, most people don't choose to die. But he did die. Hashem chose that he died. Hashem's in charge of that. That's Hashem's department. And uh so so mo most people tried to try to stay alive as long as possible. Statistically, that's what we find. The uh so and all of his brothers die. The Jewish people increase very much. or the land becomes filled with them. There's a medish that says Yakov when he died he had 600,000 descendants. Wow. >> That fast. >> That fast. It was fast. They they've done studies. They've done studies based on what's it called when they study population growth. I think studies of population growth. And they uh they've what's it called? >> Demographics. >> Demographics. And they said according to the according by 70 people to reach the numbers of 600,000 doesn't work based on and we have a we know there's a source that says that they were women were having six children at a time. They were giving birth to six children based on their six words in the public that describes their growth. They were having six children at a time. That means a small family had 18 children. If you only give birth three times, you know, the Goldstein's down the block, you know, they had 60. You know, it's it it's so they're having six children at a time. They're having six children at a time. And if you guys think uh you know, you have one child is overwhelming. >> You one child is over absolutely overwhelming with two parents taking care of and one child is overwhelming. Now, I have two sets of granddaughter twins. All right. Two sets of granddaughters from from two different two different daughters. And and twins is just you're you're when they're little, you're you're you know, there's always somebody in the house crying. You know, one of the babies is crying. If not, one of the adults is crying. But somebody somebody's always crying. It's over. Now you got six kids. Six kids. You need an automatic, you know, these automatic bread makers. You put in the dough at one end and out comes. You probably need an automatic diaper changer for six kids. Yeah. Put the baby in at one end, just come out come out changed at the other end. There's actually I I think three from families. I know at least two. I think there's a third one from family that had uh quintuplets. Quint. Yeah, quint. I think the world record now I think the world record for surviving is someone from Pakistan or India or something. I think they had either eight or nine. Yeah. I think I think they were eight or nine. Uh from uh I think they were that was from where were they from? Like one of the where >> time cuz there was like the octo mom is very well known. >> The what? >> The octo mom. >> Octo mom. >> Yeah. She had eight kids. >> I figured I never was that is that like a what? Like a superhero like superman. Octo mom. Guru. Come on kids. Stay on my arm. >> A reality show or something. >> Okay. So So I think it's eight or nine. That's that actually survived from uh for a Hey, we're on to something. We'll talk afterwards. We may be on we'll market this one. The uh so so they're having they're having all these kids or and the land becomes full with them. Now the land become fulling of Jews is not a good thing because this triggers off the the the reaction of the Egyptians. And what does it mean? You know the the Medish says that the that theaters and circuses were full filled with Jews. you know, every time every time you went to the theater, you know, you couldn't find a seat because all the Jews got the good seats, you know, all the Jews got the parking lots, you know, for all. You know, the Jews were all over the place. They're in the theaters and the circuses. They're filling up and and it's uh it's annoying for the Egyptians and they're they're multiplying. Everywhere you go, you see a Jew and they they can't they they can't uh they can't see an octo. So, they they're just they're just they're just So, what happens as a result? And by the way, this is a reminder to us. Keep a low profile. Our job while we're in exile is to keep a low profile. Try to be as inconspicuous about when Jews go and build big houses. That's not a good thing. The go see that. They say, "Why did the Jews have all How come the Jews got all the money? And why is the Jews the owner of the sports team? And why are they the ones bringing about, you know, they're ruining our they're ruining our thing? Because now they're all going to go on strike, you know, because the Jewish owners and the Jewish commissioner are messing us over. And the Jews own this department stores. The Jews got a lawyer who's suing me. And the Jew is the guy who cut me off in traffic. And they we we keep a low profile. Don't just say we're supposed to keep a low profile. We're not supposed to be we're not supposed to be prominent. Jewish politicians. Not a good thing for us. Not a good thing for us to have Jews who are governors and vice presidents and that sort of thing. We don't want that because then there's always a negative going to be a negative backlash here. are much better off doing things behind the curtain, behind the scenes, having doing things out and being loud and being talking and then and and tucking on Tucker Carlson, you know, you're not going to gain anything from that. There's not Tucker Carlson could be, you know, let him talk. Nothing nothing good's going to happen by by by by debating him. And that's all it is is there's another loudmouth Jew who's debating him. maybe he's the anti-semite, but people are looking at the Jew and we want to be looked at as little as possible. Nothing good. And that's exactly what happens if a new king arises in Egypt who didn't know Yseph. And Rashi says there are two opinions here. There there's one opinion that he was he was actually a new king. Literally a new king. Another opinion is he pretended not to know Yseph and he was an ingrate. The king was an ingrate. If he was a new king, he was an ingrate. Yoseph saved his economy. If this was the king that was around at the time of Yoseph, so Yoseph saved him, saved his throne, saved his economy. And if he's the new king, so if he's the same king and he's just with a new attitude, so he got a complete switch, which is also a lesson to us that even when they're friendly, it can switch overnight. And everybody, the president said this, the president said it's not the president. And it's not coming from the president. It's coming from our behavior. And if our behavior is good, the president will be good. It has to do with running the world, not the president running the world. And it's not them, it's us. And if we deserve better, we'll get better. And if it's not good, it's because of us. And we have to stop being deceived by all the news and the media, the politics, and the anti-semitism, this, that, and the other. If it's there, it's because of us. And there's no way to put a stop to it. And the best thing we could do is just try to be as stay under the radar as much as possible. That's our job. Stay under the radar. So it says, now according to the What it means they didn't know Yoseph is if this guy made a big boo boo. This guy made a big boo boo. If he would have studied Yoseph's life, what he would have realized is that the more Yoseph whenever Yoseph was oppressed, what happened? >> He flourished. >> He flourished. Exactly correct. The brothers tried to oppress, tried to sell him, ends up being a Potifar throws him in jail. Comes out pushing him down. Pop goes the weasel. You know he's you push him down. He's going to pop up higher. So Yseph if parro would app. So what are you going to do? You're going to try to oppress the ban. It's going to work. He's going to boomerang against you. So parro Asher loy's life well enough to realize what was going to happen to the Jewish people. So they says, "Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa. We got a problem over here because the Jewish people are increasing and they're going to toss us out of the land." So they start putting they put them to hard labor paid 294. I'm tell you a life rule over here of surim according to some sur means they put unreasonable taxes on them which they couldn't a special Jew tax uh you can't pay to got that size nose you're going to have to pay more and the uh lean no in order to in order to what do you call it in order to torment them so there's a special Jew tax which they couldn't pay Even or miskinos le parro is pis they build these cities for parro or miskinos different opinions what that means according to some that they put from the word sakona they endanger those who are building there are midrashim that say that they purposely made the Jews do things that they were not qualified for. weaker people were given heavier loads and stronger people were given lighter loads and they purposely made people do jobs. It was hot and it was it was and and and and it was a way of tormenting the Jewish people. Now one of the hap one of the things that happens here according to one media whatever they built built was I think there are some that speculate that they built the pyramids or whatever I don't know if that's been confirmed or not. Whatever they were building was sinking into the earth. Say you're building and it sinks. You're building and it sinks. You're building it sinks. And one of the reasons to do that, A, it keeps you busy. B, it breaks the spirit because even somebody who's doing so, let's say you get a guy, you know, one of these road crews, you know, they're building they're towering the highway or they're or they're building a bridge. At the end of the day, they may be getting, you know, minimum wage, but at the end of the day, you walk home and you feel you did something. And a human being needs to feel that he did something. You need to feel that you accomplished. And here you're building it and it's futile. The next day you start building again and it's an exercise of futility and they're not happy about it and it's a way of breaking the spirit of the Jewish people. Now one of the pe one of the opinions here it says it says in take a look at p um the more they oppressed them the more the Jews increased and then in you four lines from the top the Egyptians put the Jews to work at hard labor for is hard labor that's a remarkable word this word for first of all it's it's breaks into two Hebrew words perh means a soft mouth There should be an extra kumsh pass maybe pass the kage down pass the kage over there we're on page 294 if you just joined us they you could go to David Kaplan Davidbap.com where there is a review sheet on para shimos available questions on the para with answers from various before ideal for the shabas table even though money is muk shabas the means Perak perak means a soft mouth. That means the Egyptians first they showed that they were friendly. They spoke with a soft mouth and they conned the Jewish people in until they got them to a point they were involved in slavery. Number one. Number two, there's an opinion in the Gomorrah that was role reversal. Role reversal means that they had the men doing the women's job and the women doing the men's job. One of the most frustrating things in life is when you're assigned to do something which you feel total inadequacy at. If you take a woman and put a woman to hard labor build go build go build buildings, she feels inadequate. She's not made for that. You're just this is not is not something I'm good at. If you would put me down in front of a physics book and tell me to start figuring out physics problems, it's I'd be frustrated. I mean it's it's not it's frustrating. It's not even a challenge. It's beyond challenge. It's frustration when you're doing something that you feel you're inadequate at. Now, one of the things have women doing men's work that that they're going to feel inadequate. That's going to be very frustrating. Very very frustrating for a man to do women's work is also very very frustrating. A husband who has to take care of babies in the house and makes you love them to pieces. Right. The problem is that number one, for most of the time, you don't even know what's at what what, you know, what does this kid eat? You know, how often what time does he go to sleep? You don't even know what they're supposed to wear. I listen, I've done it. I've done it when, you know, when I've when I've taken over the house, when my wife has gone off to give birth or something like that, and I had to stay home and take care of the other kids, you know, it's it's it's it could it could it could drive you nuts because we're not we're not equipped. We're not built for that. A woman, do you know that women do not have to keep the time bound mitzvah? Are you aware of that? Women do not have you know why that is. Women don't have the same internal clock as men. They're not timeconscious because you can't be time conscious if you're going to be an efficient mother because there are a lot of things that take a lot of time. Time is standing still. You're just rocking a baby who's cranky and nothing's happening. And you got to nurture and develop them and talk to them and everything else. Listen, if I talk I could take care of a kid. If I would if I had the kid and I could talk to the kid for an hour and after an hour, you know, the two-year-old would would be fluent and he learn a Mishna, you know, okay, something's been accomplished over here. But it takes a few years to get a kid to talk. I remember taking care of the kids, you know, I'm home with the kids. So, first you break up a fight, change a diaper, put something in the oven, change another diaper, break up another fight, do the laundry, you move back. That was the first 10 minutes. You could go absolutely baddy. you go absolutely bad. You're inadequate because we're time and I'm thinking to myself, boy, I got to get dominion. I got I got deadlines. So, so men are not equipped for that. And that's the way of breaking the spirit to say nothing of nursing the baby of of of of feeding the kids. So, you're totally and that's exactly what the Egyptians had in do had in mind was to break the spirit of the Jewish people to break their spirits. Okay. So they they put them to work and then the commentaries say like this. Have you ever heard the expression kos anything that you begin new is always difficult. If you begin a new job it's difficult when you got to get adjusted. What's the office? What does the boss want that you begin a new school you begin any co a marriage is difficult in the beginning. That means only the first 40 years right after that it's a after that it's a breeze but at the beginning stages it's very challenging raising children is difficult to be getting used to what it is to raise a child to get up in the middle of the night is a rule from the garra all beginnings are challenging what they purposely did take a look at the next 14 they embited their lives with hard labor with mortar, with bricks, work in the fields. And the commentary say they constantly switched people's jobs that every day it should feel that it's a new job to increase the difficulty. Yesterday you were building with bricks. Tomorrow you're going to be cutting the cutting the straw in the field. You're going to be harvesting the field. the next day you're going to be go out out out doing something else with the mortar and constantly shifting them around to make it even more difficult that every single day every single day it's going to be a new difficulty >> that adds to torment the Jewish people >> just for that >> just for that to torment the whole point here is to okay so the word parak aodas perak in the b mikdash there was a curtain that separated what was that curtain called >> a paro That was the par that separated the two sections in the B mikdash. The word perak is related the root of the word perak is related to the word paras. What's the connection? What's the connection between perodas perak and peroas? The answer is that the Egyptians have had enough with the fed up with the Jewish people dominating the society. And what they want to do is they want to create a separation, a curtain, a separation between the two worlds, between the two societies. There's the Egyptians and there's the Jewish people. The easiest and most efficient way to get your own people on board the to put the other nation into a different grouping is by making the other nation a slave class. Once you make them secondass citizens, a famous picture from the Holocaust of I think the Jews in Austria, they're scrubbing the streets and you have a bunch of Austrians are standing around jeering at them and laughing at them while the Jews are scrubbing the streets with brushes. The the purpose of that is you get everybody on board. They're the losers. They're the secondass citizens and everybody else jumps on board. So you get all the Egyptians rallying because now we've decided this is going to be that's the curtain. That's a parochas. It's a separation between the two between the two cultures that they were going to make a separation and it's a lesson to us as well. You know they say if Jews don't make kdish the make havdullah you know when Jews stop making kdish then the make the havdullah which is separation right so we lose either way because that's called a decree of that's the decree of exile exile is not something the fact that we're in exile did that and the fact that there's anti-semitism I look around the world you know can you you know what do you call they got you got people killing hordes who's who's going at it over there in In Africa, a couple of countries are going at it. Uh uh >> Somalia. >> Yeah. Somalia. You against the who? Somebody against somebody, you know, find it on a map, you know, and they're, you know, there and they pro. Where's everybody focused? On Israel. Uhoh. Somebody built a balcony on the West Bank. Uh oh. It's like a time first a front page on Time magazine. You know, some Jew built a balcony out in the West Bank. you know some some Jew uh what do you call somebody did the Jews had so much focus on us and everywhere you look at the world anti-semitism increasing it's not decreasing everywhere you go England France America New York everywhere you go is anti what there's nothing we can do about it nothing we could do there well we you know we'll we'll we'll we'll uh what they call haz will try to communicate to them what's it called dialogue all the dialogue does is get them more upset because ah some smart Jews got all the answers that just gets more anti-semitism. So what do we do? We have to be loyal to Torah. And the more loyal we are to Torah, the less anti-semitism there. That's the only cure. There is no cure for it. It's like it's like finding a cure for work. You know, since Adam was cursed, you will eat by the sweat of your brow. Since then, man has had to work. How would you like to not, you know, a world where nobody make money without working? doesn't happen. It doesn't happen. Why? Because that's the way the world works. The world works and there's death. They still have not found a cure for death. You were asking about that, Alicia, about did he choose? No, he didn't choose it. Nobody chooses it. And they haven't found a cure for it. Why? Because it was decreed. So God decreed you're going to die. God decreed you're going to work. The same God decreed there's going to be anti-semitism. And therefore, there's no cure for it other So what's our job? Our job is to daven that there shouldn't be. And our job is to behave as good Jews. That's what God wants from us. So, there's a curtain over here that's going to separate. They're going to make that separation all the time. They're always going to separate from us. Somebody once said, you know, you can you can you can uh when Jews try to blend into the society, they always sniff out the Jews. You could change your name, you could change your name, change your identity, everything. And they always figure out who the Jew is. Like Rabbi Weinbach once said, "You could change your noses, but you can't change your noses, right? They'll always they'll always find us." You know, it's like they're in the office. The boss comes in one day and he's he's handing out donuts and he he's walks around and the Jew looks the guy who's trying to not Nobody should know his office. He goes, "What? They're free." Here's the Jew right there. Everybody, you know the story. this guy dies. So his three f the friends go to the cemetery. So the first guy goes, "Bill, we're going to miss you." And he puts a $20 bill on the on the tombstone. And the second guy goes, "Bill, we're going to miss you." Puts a $20 bill on. The Jew goes, "Bill, we're going to miss you." Writes a $60 check and he takes the takes the cash. You know, you know, the Jews always they'll find us. Everywhere we go, they're going to find us. You know, the the I bought my once bought a a new freezer. I think I bought a new freezer. I thought it cost me about 3,000 shekels. It came with a free pen. My wife was all excited about their free pen. I got a free pen. She Jewish. Hey lady, I just spent three I just clear cleaned with three 3,000 shackles for you. Yeah, but the pen was free. They'll always find us. We actually once got off a plane and my wife said to the lady, "Could I have that uneaten kosher meal?" I said, "I don't know her. I don't know. Never met her before in my life." Okay. Now, now starts the things start getting more intense. The king says to the Jewish midwives which we are told this is Miriam and her this is YV and her daughter Miriam who's going to become Mosher Rabenu's mother and one is called Shiffra. Shifra means because when the babies were born she was missed them. She straightened them out. Sometimes babies are born they got to be some of the limbs got to be straightened out. Impua means she soothed the baby. She she she she made sure the baby tried to help that the baby shouldn't cry. So they are the parro the midwives. Now they're not the only midwife. According to the commentaries, they're not the only midwives in the Jewish people. They're they're the superintendants of all the midwives. They're not two wi women taking care of a bunch of women are having six at a time. These are the superintendants of all the Jewish midwives. So parro calls them in and he says to them, listen, when you have a uh when when you go in to birth the children, so he says, you check on the on the on the birth stool. If it's a son, put him to death. If it's a daughter, leave her alive. Parro thinking, listen, the girls, we'll take the girls. What do we care? But the boys are into trouble. The is the problem over here. Then it says you have to understand what they did. They have feared God. They didn't do what the king did. They kept the kids alive. Not only they didn't kill them, they did everything they could to go in the opposite direction. Now you got to understand it took a lot of guts over here because you talk about the Egyptian king. You know, this isn't this isn't the America where you get a trial and a parole and this that this isn't a monarch who could put people to death for dropping a stone in his bread as the but as the baker got executed. You see what happens and a man could get thrown into prison for 10 years without even a trial. So over here over here parro you know they're bucking they're bucking parro. What was it that allowed them to do so? And the commentaries say that you see they were god-fearing. The Torah says they feared God. That means in life it's not enough for a person to have good uh what's it called? Midos good to exhibit um good manners in behavior because we see that the Germans the gimmutite Germans you see what they were capable of. Why? because externally it looked like they were all very polite and and and and controlled everything else. But they didn't fear God. If you don't fear God, you're capable of anything regardless of what your artificial behavior is. So the key over here is they feared God. Oh, you fear God. When you fear God, you're capable of standing up to even parro. Okay, we'll see tomorrow where where this goes. And don't forget anybody who's interest is it on? >> Yeah. >> If you're on it uh uh what's our what's our what do you call it? Davidbcaplan.com is the website where you could get the partial question review with answers to the commentary which is great for the Shabas table. So you could get even disgruntled teenagers involved in your Shabas conversation at the table be like >> B is B as in >> baseball basketball mitten busted bridges in Baltimore. See you.