The Prophecy of Moses Changed History Forever: The 7th & 8th Principles of Faith - Rabbi Lazer Brody

Amuna my lord it's from you my lord it's all good my lord oh lord >> so with hashem's loving grace we begin today's lesson with principle seven the prophecy of Moses and our seventh The 13 principles says, "I believe with complete belief that the prophecy of Moses may rest in peace, was real and that he was the foremost of all the prophets, the ones before him and the ones after him." Now, we believe that the five books of Moses, this is the Torah, five books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Deuter, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Okay? These were given to Moses from Hashem at top mount si that every single word is absolute truth. Whereas prophecy was Hashem's way of speaking to the prophets. We believe that Hashem spoke to Moses directly. And our Torah tells us this at two different occasions. Shem spoke directly to Moses. And in chapter 12 of the book of numbers, the Torah tells how Aaron and Miriam, both prophets on their own, right? Aaron, the high priest, he was Moses's older brother. Miriam was Moses's older sister. And they were both are prophets. They're one of our 48 prophets. Each one is one of our 48 prophets. and Miriam, one of our seven female prophets, prophetesses, uh they were talking about their brother Moses innocently. And he had discontinued marital intimacy with his wife. Why? Because Moses had to be ready to speak to Hashem every single moment. And there's a matter of after marital relationship person has to go through purification progress, go to the to the mikvah and process. But uh Moses had to be prepared all the time. So they said to why why is Moses doing separate from his wife? Uh is Hashem only spoken to Moses? He speaks to us too. And Hashem heard that and they were punished for that. Now Aaron and Miriam, they thought that they were on an equal spiritual footing with their younger brother Moses. After all, they were prophets too. And despite the fact that they meant no harm, their beloved brother, uh they love their brother very much. Hashem nonetheless chastised them. Hashem summons Aaron and Miriam to the holy tent of meeting. And after Hashem's uh rebukes them and it remarks that the Torah says that Moses was the most humble man to ever walk the face of the earth. All right? It says Moses he he wasn't angry at anybody for talking about him. But Hashem Hashem was was very upset with them. And Hashem said them, "Heed my words. If there will be a prophet among you, I Hashem shall reveal myself to him in a vision. I shall speak with him in a dream. That's what he says uh uh in over there in the book of Numbers. But Moses is different. Hashem's own words. My servant Moses is trusted in all my house. With him I shall speak mouthto mouth manifest and not in riddles. For he beholds the image of Hashem. Moses on a spiritual level that if Hashem would have revealed the light, the divine light to anyone else, it would have killed him. But Moses was on high such a high spiritual level that he had this spiritual capacity to accept such divine light. Well, these above passages highlight the difference between Moses and all the other prophets because their prophecies came to them in a dream and when prophet uh received prophecy was immobilized. It was if he had uh an attack of epilepsy. He was lying in semic-consciousness and shuddering. And in stark contrast, Moses was standing on to fully awake and standing on his feet when Hashem spoke to him. And the Torah bears witness. Torah in Exodus chapter 34 says, "And when Moses would come before Hashem so that he could speak with him, he removed his veil when he came out." So what's what? Moses had a veil because when he came down the first time from Mount Si, he it illuminates such divine light that it blinded people. So he had to cover himself with a veil. But when he went in to the tent of meeting to the holy of holies and to speak to Hashem, then he would open up this veil. So what's more, the upper prophets, they would come out delirious and and and tremble as if they're having a seizure and they're about to die. Whenever the spiritual the spirit of prophecy came to them was not easy. Moses on the other hand would talk to Hashem like someone would speak to their rabbi to a very close friend. But the other prophets was telling the difference between Moses and the other prophets. Uh the other prophets lacked the ability to prophesize whenever they wished. The prophecy had to come to them. But since Moses maintained such a high spiritual level and he was ready to speak to Hashem spiritually maintained such purity uh inner outer purity and inner purity that the power of prophecy was continuously at his disposal. Moses could turn around and ask Hashem a question. Hashem, what do I do in a situation like this? And they get an answer. Well, this too is documented on several occasions. once with the pbearers of Joseph's coffins and the daughters of Slafhood when Moses first had to consult Hashem before he answered their question. Did they answer a question? He didn't know the answer. He says, "Wait, I'm going to ask Hashem." He asked Hashem and Hashem readily provided the answer from Moses and it's documented in our Torah. So, let's talk about the validity of Moses as a leader and as prophet. Although Moses performed many miracles, remarkable miracles, he split the Red Sea and he elicited water from a rock, he did so out of necessity, not because he wanted to prove his supernatural powers to pour sight and light sounded light shows and impress the people. Not at all. He didn't need to validate his status as a prophet. But uh did this was this was something that needed to be. When Moses brought down the mana, the heaven sentent bread, he did so because the nation needed food. When he made water come out of the rock, he did so because they were in the desert. They needed water. When he sweetened the bitter waters, he did so because the people were thirsty and the water hole they came to. It was all bitter and salty water. So the miracles he performed were not were not the reason that the nation of Israel accepted him as their valid leader and Hashem's prophet. Moses revelation to the Jewish people on Mount Si. This is what established his status beyond a doubt for posterity. When Moses told all the leaders told everybody what everybody stayed on the mountain, only Moses will come up to me. Only Moses goes up the mountain. So where all the other religions look let's see the difference between uh Judaism and our 13 principles of muna and all the other religions especially pro in in when we're talking about our belief in uh the prophecy of Moses the truth of it all the other religions believe in a revelation of some assumed prophet or holy man that reveals some message that nobody else had or maybe had a select group of his disciples and he gave them the secret He saw and he saw the light not with us. The Torah documents that there were 600,000 men and together more than two million of the Jewish people and 600,000 men alone above the age of 20 that saw and heard the Almighty reveal himself on Mount Si. So together with their wives and children and there were more than 2 million witnesses and probably many more than that looking very conservative estimate. Okay. Before his death, when Moses implores the Jewish people to observe and to uphold the Torah, he says, "Hashem did not make the covenant with our fathers, but with us, with all of us, all of us here alive today." This in Deuteronomy 5:3 and again, Moses makes this declaration in front of the whole populace with no one protesting. Shocking said, "So what? Wait a second. What somebody did?" Not a single person came up and say, "Well, what are you talking about? That was all a mirage on Mount Si. No, they all said they heard that. He said, "We all saw. We were all there." Okay, we all see everybody. This goes down in this for posterity. So the entire nation knew that this was a factual account, our account of receiving the Torah which is in the book of Exodus and it's also appears again in the book of Deuteronomy that we read last week in partan. So the entire nation knew that this was a factual account and this has come down to us from parent to teacher and from from teacher to to student from parent to child for the last uh time since the year 22 2448 and we're now in 2776. So that is uh 3,00 uh 3,3 and and 40 let's see from 33 38 340 to make a very quick calculation 38 and another two 3340 years since Mount Si we take a average generations 30 years we're only my generation is only 110 generations from Mount Si it's not long my children 111 my grandchildren 112 my great-grandid 113 113 it's not so long we know generation after generation we have this documented from rabbi to teacher because it's not always parent to child because of diaspora and everything that our our nation's been through but we have an unbroken chain we have an unbroken chain of Torah that was passed down generation to generation and for this you can see ethics of the fathers and the mission the first chapter ethics of fathers gives a list of generation to generation now in hal Hala is Jewish law. The criteria for acceptable witnesses are very very severe. Not anybody can be a witness in a religious court. For example, if a person has a criminal record, can't be a witness. If a person doesn't keep the ten commandments, can't be a witness. If a person is a proven uh a proven uh denier that he denies even one letter of of of Torah, he can't be a witness. Okay. So we have the very severe criterion for witnesses and the testimony of two uncontested and improved witnesses according to Jewish law is sufficient to an established fact. We have that fact if two people come and they say something this accept by established fact. Now if in order to to oppose them we need two witnesses that come in to say the exact opposite. But we don't accept the testimony of one witness in religious law. Except the testimony of two witnesses. Two witnesses are very strong. In other words, if there are two people that they're fighting out some case in in in a religious court and one of the sides brings two witnesses to say that the facts are like the way he says them and the second side does not have two witnesses, two upright witnesses to counter that, then it's a big problem. Now in the case of Mount Si, case of Moses, we have 600,000 witnesses. Not two, not three, but 600,000. And not a single individual in the generation protested or contested the fact that Hashem revealed himself to Moses on Mount Si. This was an earshot of the high of the entire nation. Hashem says to Moses as recorded in the Torah in Exodus chapter 19, "Behold, I come to you in the midst of a cloud so that the people may hear when I speak to you and they shall believe in you forever." So, we see from this that an amazing passage that Hashem himself is dictating our seventh principle of Abuna. This right out of Hashem's mouth and our belief in our teacher Moses and his leadership and in his prophecy. This is something this unprecedented the principles of Muna. Here we have Hashem is dictating the principle of Amuna. Our belief in the prophet Moses. So since the entire people of Israel heard Hashem reveal himself to Moses at Si, Moses does not need any further proof of his status. Were it not for Mount Si, one might doubt the veracity of Moses' prophecy based on miracles alone. This is what if he did miracles there all to people that try to disprove miracles and give some type of explanations in nature. The agnostics and other skeptics would try to attribute the wonders and miracles that Moses performed as natural coincidence. In other words, the the atheists and the agnostics, they try to prove that the Red Sea was at the exact time of high tide and low tide. And this is the fifth in the middle the middle of the Jewish month. What they can't deny that it was in the middle of the new month of the middle of the month of Easter is when the full moon and a full moon that didn't have the high tides and the low tides even at even then we're talking about tide and ocean tide. We're not talking about a a sea. There's there's no great big tides in in the sea. We're talking about tide. We're not Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean, Mediterranean, but not here in the Red Sea. That the tides, they don't go out that much. If anybody ever been to the Red Sea, you can see the outgoing tide maybe 50 feet and go. It's not like when you go to the Atlantic or the Pacific and you could go half a mile and on low tide and on high tide it comes in really on way up high in the beach. Okay. So were it not for Mount Si, the agnostics and the atheists, they might have something to say, but uh there's no natural coincidence and there's no witchcraft. But the revelation on Mount Si and hundreds of thousands of people that render witness that they make the claims of the agnostics null and void. Okay. So what's the stress the importance of the seventh principle that miracles and magic are not the tests of the true prophet. Oh you he walked on the water he did this he did that all all types of things. True prophecy is the word of Hashem and the Torah is Hashem's law given to Moses. Therefore, if any selfappointed prophet performs miracles and a sound and light show on the horizon, yet he contradicts any of the commandments of the Torah in the slightest, he's an utter impostor. Now, somebody comes along and walks on the water, but then says that they don't have to observe the Sabbath. Come on, get out of here. right there, you know, from from from the the first minute that somebody apost somebody comes along and and says, "Uh, no, it wasn't uh it wasn't Isaac that was sacrificed in the ADA at the stake. It was Ishmael. Come on, go, man. Keep on going. Keep on going." And that's why uh Muhammad kills all the Jews in Saudi Arabia because they didn't accept him. They right away knew he was an impostor and this angered him. this anger. He wanted to establish a caliphate. He wanted he wanted the Jews to accept him. They said we're not going to accept you. They become the seventh principle. So what they did is the Jews of South in the seventh century when Muhammad came to power and he he slaughtered all this is the Kyber wars that they the Arab they honor they they take honor in this and they slaughter all the Jews. Why? Because they wouldn't accept Muhammad. Of course not accept Muhammad. That goes against that seventh principle of amuna. They say, "Oh, but Muhammad says I, you know, I believe in I believe in God, too. That's why we we can we're allowed we're allowed to these are sons of Ishmael. We're allowed to pray and if we don't have a synagogue around, we can pray in a mosque. Pray in a mosque because they they pray to Hashem. They they pray to one God, but they're they're prophet. They're all ideal prophet." And what they do, they put the Torah aside, they take the Quran that no that no. Okay. So uh the hallmark of the seventh principle is its emphasis on the firm foundation of Moses prophecy witnessed by all our ancestors in that generation. So in the court of religious law once again talk to witnesses witness can't come off the sidewalk and strike down the recorded testimony of two two witnesses. Suppose uh somebody is being two witnesses testifying against this person. There's a a plaintiff and the defendant and the religious court brings in two witnesses. So the plaintiff calls up one of his buddies say, "Come come quick to the religious court. Come quick." So he comes in off the street by himself. But you can't you can't do it's got to be two people and they're going to they're going to be grilled. He's going to be grilled about the truth. So in that matter, the assumed prophet, one person coming off the street and knocking down the testimony of thousands, hundreds of thousands of witnesses that saw and heard Hashem's revelation to Moses and Al Si doesn't work. Doesn't work. Okay. So we're going to send a lot of false prophets home. And it said we're going to send them all home. You know, bye bye-bye Buddha and bye-bye this and bye-bye that and bye-bye Hari Krishna and bye-bye all you see the light and the guru or top the kilamanju or the top the Himalayas no come on we don't buy that we don't buy that uh as we mean it's not only the basis of the validity of Torah but it's a base of validity of prophecy that we have the the witnesses 600,000 witnesses so such miracles marvels in all sorts of apparent revelations. They can't be true if they contradict Hashem's commandments in the slightest. So the litmus test of adherence to Hashem's commandments as the prerequisite for true prophecy, it's been effective throughout the ages in exposing false prophets. There was a time and a time right before the Balmto where there was a false prophet who gained tremendous tremendous uh popularity especially in the Balkans. His name was Shapitzvi. He was popular in Turkey and then and then Bulgaria and then Greece and then Italy. Very tremendous popularity. So this was the time of the Taz. The Taz is one of the melat's great-grandfather Rabbi Devi de Levy. He is one of the great commentators of uh the code of Jewish law. And the Taz sent his two sons to examine to to go and go meet him. Go meet this guy. See if this guy is the real deal. What did he examine him? Speak to him in Torah. Speak to him in about Gomorrah. Speak to him in Kabala. Speak about religious law. And see how pedantic he is in observing religious law. Well, they went and they saw and he was Taza's two sons were ushered into him and here is Sha Titi sitting on his bed and getting out the honorable Chopi who was calling himself Messiah and he's lying on his back. He's lying on his back. That's all. They didn't need to say a single thing. They did not see a single thing. So they said, "Thank you very much." They went home and they told their father one one was this T's son and his son-in-law the brother and the the brother-in-law they came and Tasa said, "What did you see?" They said, "Father, he's not the real thing." Why? He was lying on his back. What's the problem lying on his back? The Gomorrah tells us that uh a Jewish man, he should lie on his side. We're not allowed to lie neither on our stomach or on our back. Why? because a person could have uh lewd thoughts, lwd dreams in that particular position and it's better to this is what is the directive of the Gmorrah and it's not just advice it's so if we see someone lying on his back they're not paying attention to religious law this is we the Torah tell us how we're supposed to eat how we're supposed to sleep how we're supposed to speak about the laws of of wholesome speech we have to sleep in the proper manner where to have proper a whole set of laws about the proper way to go to the bathroom before and after and washing our hands and make our blessing. There's nothing no stone unturned that the Torah is the blueprint, the manufacturers's blueprint for living our lives properly and getting the best out of our life. So this right away they could see this is the litmus test of whether someone is the real deal. So Korak, Korak was Moses' first cousin and according to the Rebi of Alexander, the Ibra Manakim, Korak was at Sadic and he was a righteous individual and he doubted the veracity of Moses' prophecy and he let a revolt against Moses authority. Why? Because he let his ego get into the way. He wanted to be boss man. He could have been He had the potential of greatness. He had the potential. He had the same lineage as Moses. He was a from the Levite family. He was also a great grandson of of Levi. He was he was he had the potential also for prophecy. Now to be called a sadic, a person must have unblenmished amuna. This is also prerequisite is a person's observance of Torah and unblenmished amuna. Mut note person get prophecy. If he has the slightest doubt in hem, prophecy comes to Hashem, it's light of Hashem. But this is to be called a sadic person has to be a perfect in his amuna. So kavakok the prophet teaches us that sadic shall live by his amuna. This tells what a sadic is. A sadic has amuna. They can't be called a sadic. Can't be called a righteous person in Judaism if he doesn't have amuna. So since our seventh principle is the belief in the absolute veracity of Moses prophecy and it's one of our 13 principles of Amuna and it's important part of Amuna. Once Korak denied this, he lost his status as a sadic because it says his amuna was blemished. He believed he didn't believe in the prophecy of Moses. Bye-bye Korak. You're you're down too. And then Moses answered Korak's rebellion saying listen. He says hereby in numbers chapter 16 when it talks about Korak's revolt hereby you shall know that Hashem has sent me to do all these deeds he did but Korak accused Moses of uh of power grabbing for and his brother Aaron heaven forbid heaven forbid and looking for his own advantage and he says I didn't want Moses we see in the first chapter of Exodus Moses didn't want anything he didn't want this he want to just live and be want to be do as he do by the mountain be a shepherd leave me alone. Look, Hashem wanted to send him. And Moses argued with Hashem. He was so so humble. He didn't want anything. And here Korak and his cronies are accusing Moses. What are they accusing him? They're accusing him of their own uh terrible character traits. Accusing him of their own vested interests. Okay. So followed by the subsequent proof that if Korak and his cronies die a natural death, Moses said, "If you die a natural death and Hashem didn't send me." So then and there the ground opened up miraculously it swallowed Korak his fellow rebels and their families alive and that is that's the power of principle seven. So once again principles seven and eight are closely related. So with that we're now going to go on to principle eight. Principle eight is I believe with complete belief that the entire Torah we have in our possession today is the one given to Moses. May rest in peace. So pre seven is that the prophecy of Moses is true. Now that we accept that and we know that the Torah we have in our hands today say this to Moses hasn't been any changes. I think it's like some something sometime that uh uh heaven forbid the change movements the conservative and reform. I say man-made Tobra and man-made commentary. They don't know what they're talking about. They have no idea what they're talking about. These are it's it's all divine wisdom. You could read the book of proverbs and everything what King Solomon is a divine wisdom. Their wisdom of our sages, it's all divine. It's all all from Hashem. It's all from Hashem. And the all what nobody changes the Torah. They just elaborate on the Torah and explain the Torah. Okay. So this is the belief our chap our principle number eight is belief in the divine origin of our Torah. for the Torah we read and learn today is the same exact Torah that Hashem gave to Moses on Mount Si. Now the Rambam he emphasizes two salient points in this principle. First the entire Torah we have in our possession today and second the one given to Moses. Pay attention to what's in in the the eighth principle. The entire Torah we have in our possession today and the one given to Moses. So principle eight is a continuation of principle seven where we learn that Moses prophecy is true and directly from the source of truth which is the creator. The creator gave the entire Torah to Moses. The skeptics ask how can this be that the oral Torah but even the prophets and scripture writing they all came after Moses. Well the answer is very simple because the truth is simple. When you have truth the answer is simple. All right. So, this is they think they're smart. They're asking a question. How can the Torah come from Moses when a prophet that lived a couple hundred years after Moses or when a commentary of Torah religious law makes a several hundred years, a thousand years, 2,000 years after Moses, how how could this be? Okay, listen this carefully. Talk about the written and the oral Torah. Get this in perspective. Hashem dictated the pentatuk, the five books of Moses. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Hashem dictated this word for word to Moses, and Moses wrote this down. This is called the written Torah, and it's also called the five books of Moses. And if anyone doubts the veracity of this, you should see uh the combination and the numerical equipments and of the acronyms first. It's mindboggling. It's mindboggling just to to take a look inside that word by word and for uh it used to be in my younger years as a rabbi I was a a a sofam a rabbitical scribe and an examiner of rabbitical scribes would check safer toas would check toas and muzas and fillin and write them and said gave the opportunity several occasions to write to every time I wrote a safer Torah. New new just secrets would pop out of the parchment. Just pop out of the parchment. You you could see uh and there's so many don't begin to say when give you one little taste, one little taste of what's inside the Torah. Moses asked Hashem, he says, "Hashem, tell me your name." This first time Moses was he was he was a shepherd and he was near Harorev which is is Sinai and he saw the burning bush and Hashem revealed himself said take out your shoes this is holy ground so he took off his shoes and was speaking to Hashem he says I need to know your name says you can't know my name he says wellm what is it I need to know something I can't go hey you or who you say I am that I am in Torah it says Eyia asher eia. If we take the numerical equivalent of the holy Hebrew letters, this is the letters of Torah. The only language in the world that has numerical equivalents that that work together because it's the divine language, divine language Torah. Ekia is 21. Hashem says I am that I am. That I am is also asher. It's also read from multiplication. I am that I am could turn into a mathematical equation. 21 * 21. If we take 21 * 21, Hashem tells us that this is his name. 21 * 21 is 441. The Hebrew word for truth is emit. Alf is a one. Me is a 40. Taf is a 400. 441. And this what Gomorrah tells us that Hashem is true and his name is true. And as signate ring is truth. Why is signate ring truth? Because the militarb always explains 99.9% truth is 100% lie. The moment you make the slightest change in Hashem's word, they lie. In other words, if someone would make a change of one letter in Torah, that's why if a ceremonial scribe, a sofa makes one mistake and letter, the whole Torah is rendered uncosher about 600,000 letters you talk. It's amazing why this is why because it's all divine. It's all from Hashem. the exact order and you could see the beginning of certain sections and you could see Hashem's name and Hashem's name at the end of the section Hashem's name and and secret thing that you could see uh uh the rabbis that work on on computers that till this day they're finding secrets all types of secrets all of history buried in the Torah and that they use uh uh Robbie Almanson I mean uses they use the computers to to discover all these secrets of Torah is mind-boggling simply amazing. So you can't change one one little iota and this Hashem dictated word for word and exact not word for word letter for letter uh because sometimes we write something with an illogical spelling and why the illogical spelling well we see because it's connected all the letters are connected the Gmorrah tells us and the Zora says the same thing that the whole Torah is one big series of divine names that divine names when they're filtered down to this world, they become manifest in this world as different things. But everything in this world has its origin, divine names. So the Torah is more accurately known, the entire Torah as Tanakh, which is an acronym for Torah Nim and this is the Torah of the prophets and the scriptural writings. Hashem showed these to Moses as well. Hashem showed all this to Moses. And Hashem showed that they were written down by the prophets who followed Moses. And the written Torah ends with the book of Esther. That's where the book of where the the McGill Esther, the book of Esther. After that, nothing could be added. So in the five books of Moses, Hashem gives us the 613 commandments or mitzvot and he gives them to Moses. Yet these commandments are presented in telegraphic form. For example, uh the ten commandments says remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. Okay, remember Sabbath. So what are you supposed to do that? How you supposed to to to do that? That tell me about the kosher slaughter is in two words. And you shall hereby slaughter. How? Why? We This is what Moses went on the second time to Mount Si for 40 days and 40 nights. The third time Mount S 40 nights. And on the second occasion and the third occasion they spent 40 days and 40 nights with Hashem. It was learning the oral Torah. without the oral Torah. We learn in the okay uh five words were commanded for to put a muza on the door. How do you put a muza? How do you make a muza? There's 4,533 laws in the making a muza. That's not that simple. Not anyone can make a muza. You have to get that to an ordained certified ceremony scribe get a proper kosher muza and rabish had the proper way to put on the door and this 4,533 but the to say is five words nobody can know how to do that from from the Torah. The Torah is written in staccato form, in telegraphic form. For that, we need the oral Torah to explain to us how to prepare kosher food, to explain to us how to write a safer Torah, how to write a muza, uh how to make a proper marital ceremony. All these are are the oral Torah. And if we're not for the old Torah, we would know the right or left. And so said the same thing for our our our kosher laws. Okay? Were it not for the oral Torah, nobody would know what to do. And that's why we see that there is a a group called the Kites. The Carites, they're literal Torah. The Kerites is like a uh I don't know if it's a group, a cult, whatever you want to call, they only accept the written Torah. Okay? So, you could see them walking the street. They have a a group that live outside of Tel Aviv in Batyam. And they have these boxes that they paste to their foreheads and they they tape them right between the eyes. Okay. But oh, the Torah says you put them between the eyes, but they're not with straps and not made out of leather. They put the cardboard boxes. They put they walk around with cardboard boxes. They look like, you know, Martian, you know, this is my, you know, they're their communication system, whatnot. But there all types of weird things. People do all types of weird things just by looking at the written Torah. And this is what uh Christianity did. Christianity though did the written Torah and they stop right there. So they don't have the laws you take what's upright speech. They don't know about that. They don't know about that about the the laws of they they go one by one. One by one. So if we want to see Hashem's explanations to Moses, we have to refer to the oral Torah which includes the details of fulfilling each mitzvah. So the oral first the oral Torah, this is called the Mishna. This was not all about to be written down. But in the time of Rebia at the Barba revolt that the Jews were so downtrodd by the Romans and the rabbis were getting killed right and left. So uh the occupation the Roman occupation land of Israel and the persecution was so terrible that the oral Torah was in danger of being forgotten. So Rebeeka he codified it. Rebeeka he learned from King David. King David says in Psalm 119 verse 126 that sometimes a person has to break Hashem's law in order to preserve Hashem's Torah. And that's a so what that's exactly what he did. So there was a law that we're not allowed to write down the oral law in order to teach it from generation to generate. Teach from generation generation was written down made people put on the shelf and then say we don't need to learn Torah anymore. No. Okay. But since there was being danger forgotten rebi Aka codified it. This the Mishna and uh he assembled six main categories. the agriculture laws, special occasions, laws pertaining marriage and women, civil law and Jewish prudence and temple rituals and these became the six orders of the Mishna. Now after the Romans persecuted and murdered Rabbi Aka his student Rebi Mayor Polish language the Mishna and Rebi Mayor Balines Reb mayor student Rabbi Judah the prince who we call Rebe he prepared the final codification of the mitzvah of the Mishna Rebea the prince he's the last of the Mishnik sages we're talking about this takes us some 150 years after destruction of the holy temple this was in the time rebel live the time of Anthony and Cleopatra Anthony and Anthony was very close rebby rebut was very close with uh Antonius Caesar and so the oral to written to inseparable and the generations after that even the Mishna couldn't be understood so the sages the amoric sages they elaborated on the Mishna and from that came the Gammorraha the elaboration of the Mishna from the Mishna and the Gomorrah this was filtered down and further comment became the code of Jewish law. Okay. Now in time uh the rationalists of all times they protest and they claim that the rabbis of the old Torah invented nuances of their own initiative. Now once again Msora proves them wrong. Msoryas are an unbroken chain. Proves them utterly wrong. Change nothing. Change nothing. And this is one time someone asked me uh what does it mean to be a meerid? What does it mean to what? What does the Bellator Rebi stand for? And I said two things, no change. What he didn't get from his father and his great-grandfather and his great great grandfather, he's descended from from the Balmtov and and from the Taz and the great rabbis. What he didn't get from previous generations and all goes back to descended of King David. Okay, what he didn't get, he doesn't change doesn't change anything. In other words, if his father and his grandfather didn't do something, he won't do it either. And if his father and grandfather ate a certain way, dressed didn't do it either. People say, "Well, that that's oldfashioned." Oldfashioned. That's the oldfashioned wisdom. We see the wisdom decreases as we get away from Mount Si. So, one thing we have a we have a joke and we have it's a little story that once uh a rabbi and a leader of the labor union, famous rabbi, this a true story. I don't want to mention the names, but the rabbi and leader lab labored union. They were on an LL plane from Tel Aviv to New York and the rabbi was sitting next to the Liber labor union who was a leftist and atheist and they were in first class and all during the flight the rabbi's son and his grandson they came and father grandfather going to bring you your slippers or bring you something to drink and this and that. So the labor union head, he says to the rabbi in the middle of the flight, he says, "Rabbi, I am very far from you ideologically, but I can't help from being so impressed by the esteem, the honor that your son and your grandson give you?" And so the rabbi asked him, "Well, don't your son and grandchildren honor you?" He says, "First of all, I don't have grandchildren. I have one son and he's 28 and he sits in front of the TV. He doesn't he's not married yet." Okay. the rabbi. Meanwhile, I know the meliter he's got already hundreds of grandchildren, the great grandchildren. Forget about it. He's already married off a great grandchild. So, he got a great great grandchildren. Okay. Bashem, thank you, Hashem. So, the rabbi says to him, "Well, your son doesn't honor you." He says, "No, I I come home." He says, "I'm a very I'm one of the most powerful people in all of Israel. I run the entire labor unions. Uh Israel is pretty much a socialistic country. labor unions are very strong and he says uh my son doesn't get up from the sofa and says he sits there with his dirty undershirt doesn't get up doesn't say hello it's in the middle of a TV program and he'll say don't bother me first of all the rabbi doesn't have a TV nothing but Gamores and so the rabbi thought for a moment he said you know the difference between us and you he says you teach your kids in school Darwin's theory and Darwin's theory they learn in school that they are the grandchildren of the gorilla, the ape and the orangutang. And so every generation in back is a generation closer to the ape, the gorilla, and the amaran. We don't teach that to our children. We teach our children that every generation is closer to Mount Si. So every generation is closer to Moses, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca. Right? So, so this is why we honor our parents want to get closer to this oil and closer to this wisdom. That is basically the difference. And we could see this I know when my own sister my own sister she came and she visit Israel and it took her to one of my kids' houses and this and that she saw she saw the way the kids sit that they wouldn't touch a thing on the table until the adults sat down and before they took food for themselves they went around especially the guests she had uh a dozen great nephews and nieces ask her a Sheila what can we bring you what can we do she couldn't believe it. She couldn't believe it. She says with us the kids, they sit down, they grab what do the old people it's a different different society because this is the product of generation after generation from Mount Si. This is this is so this is this proves the rationalist wrong and this is our broken chain from Mount Si. Uh the Rambam lists the unbroken chain from teacher to pupil documented in each generation. This is you'll find this not only in uh the first chapter in the Mishna of Ous what we call ethics of the fathers you'll find this in the Rambam's introduction of the Mishna he gives the entire it starts with Mount Si and says here it is right to himself the Rambam was in the 12th century okay and we know generation after generation from the Ramb so Moses received the Torah both oral and written and from the Almighty taught it to his prime student Joshua Joshua taught it to elders. The elders taught the prophets. The prophet Eli taught Samuel. Samuel taught David. David told taught Ael Shilon. And Ailon taught Elijah. And last of the prophets, Ezra, Nhema, and Daniel, they were the men of the great assembly. This was the last generation of the prophets. And the last of them was the high priest Shimon Sadic, Shimon the just who passed the Torah on to Antiggonus of Soho. And Tigus so passed it down to the Tanaic sages sage of the Mishna. The Tic sages to the sages of the Gomorrah. The Gomorrah then to the seavorim and then to the Goonim. The Goonim to the Rishim to which brings us right today right here right on our plate one generation after generation. So the pseudo enlightened and the bigwig intelligence, the undaunted and unwilling to accept such truth because it goes against their logic and it obligates them to protest and they say why should we accept man-made laws again man-made laws. That's like saying Moses's man-made laws. The Torah in our hands today is by no set a means of man-made laws. Just as we explain the unbroken chain of teacher to pupil, we see the unbroken chain of the Torah's law from the word of Hashem given to Moses all the way down to the rabbi of your community today. And as previously mentioned, since the oral law was in danger of being forgotten, it was written down and codified in the Mishna. Yet the Mishna is written in very telegraphic form because that way they could remember it. But the Gomorrah clarifies the Mishna and the Gomorrah is in much greater detail and it terms that the Gomorrah terms the applicable law. So the seavorim the sever we're talking about sixth fifth 6th 7th century they explained the Torah even further and they got to the gonim which is the uh 8th 9th and 10th centuries and the gumar came to the rishim the rishim which on the sparti side the classic threearti rishonim that they are the granddads of the code of Jewish law that was codified by rabbi yospher who was also a sparty these are the ram My man the reef and roeno aasher reef was uh raasi and these are three classicardi rishim from them comes and later the ashkanazi but actually according to theardim they have a cleaner msar if ashkanazim is not if he doesn't admit that they not the truth the spardim have a cleaner tradition than the ashkanazim do and it's because of all the Crusades and the the Sparty men that were they were in the oriental countries were in the the Middle East and North Africa. They suffered less than the Ashkanazim that they suffered from the crusades and the burning of the Talmud and everything. They really really suffered because the uh the Spart lived better with the Muslims than the Ashkanaz did with the Christians who non-stop persecuted them. Non-stop persecution. Okay. So therefore later after Rabbi Ysef Caro codified the code of Jewish law came Rabbi Mosa is the Ram and the Rama knew that there were certain because of the latter Ashkanazi uh Piski that there were certain customs in the Ashkanazi countries that if they would see this is hal they would have they would have they wouldn't have accepted it. So he had to make certain exceptions that this is the way this yeah the main clause was called iardin the main laws like the rama like the moran rabbi Joseph Caro but in par parenthetically it's about that in the Ashkenazi countries they do this they do that they go by the rashi and the baltos that who are these are rashi and the baltos they are the ashkanazi rishim they're theazi po came from the 10th, 11th, 11th, 12th and 13th gener generations. Okay. So seeing that the toll of poverty and persecution they took out. Now when the spartium really began to suffer was at the Spanish Inquisition but when the spartium began to suffer the code of Jewish law was oh well on the way there. And so Rabbi Joseph Caro he had to leave Spain and he took the teachings of the Rambam la and the ro boiled them down into the single quote of Jewish law and once again one of the Ashkadazi and Rabbi Mosha is he brought the highlights of Ashkanazi custom and as a commentary to this day our scholars continue to elaborate on to this very day and they apply the amount of modern day situations and technology that our answers didn't have to deal with. Our answers didn't have to deal with a a Shabbat clock. Our answers didn't have to deal with uh what do you do? Are you allowed to take a blood thinner on yum kipper or a beta blocker? All types of things. They didn't they didn't have those medicine. They didn't have medications to deal with all types of nuances, the technology, uh using a Shabbat clock, doing things automatically. And for this, what we do is not changed. It's merely we take the and we take modernday situations and find how to adapt. And this is what our rabbitical PO scheme our rabbitical lawgivers today do. They apply the Mosaic. They the same Mosaic law. In other words, the same principle of not letting your donkey work on Shabbat is not letting your tractor work on Shabbat. It's the same principle. Okay? Because the the Torah is eternal. So Torah is always applicable. Give you another example of the power of of Torah that no one can deny the Rambam. My man who codified our 13 principles. He brought down the whole glean the whole Mishna and the Gomorrah and brought down the 13 principles. That's why we said principle seven. We say right in the Torah said that directly in Torah. Didn't have to glean that. It's right there in front of us. The Rambam took all of and in his wisdom, divine wisdom said in light of all this, we need to make a set of laws of eating properly, staying healthy, so we can maximize the health in our bodies that Hashem gives us. So, Rambam made a set of laws of nutrition. Laws of nutrition. These laws of nutrition today, if you have, if you ask any nutritionist, depends what school he belongs to. There's one school of nutrition that says eat like an Eskimo. Eat blubber, eat fat. Just don't eat sugar. Eat all the meat you want. And your cholesterol can be in the sky. As long as your HDL is higher than your LDL, then you're going to be fine. Okay. Comes along, another school says, "No way. only plant-based and nothing does and no meat and no milk and no dairy and natural. You see there's all these extremes here and there. The Rambam there's no extremes. The Rambam tells us not only what to eat but the Rambam says something that nutritionists you don't you don't see this in nutrition they say what to eat. The Rambam says how to eat. The Rambam says how to activate saliva in the mouth in order to activate digestion begins in the mouth. Rob says, "First thing you do, you chew something 20 times." And by chewing something 20 times, you're not supposed to drink with your meal unless you drink red wine. But water and coke, you're not you're not supposed to drink with the meal because it dilutes the the the food and makes digestion more difficult. This makes the the chewing makes it into a paste that it's easier to swallow. and the paste what that comes from the saliva because there's dig there's digestive enzymes inside that saliva where begins in the mouth. So that's why when a person eats properly and eats slowly then it's easier for the stomach the stomach doesn't need so much hydrochloric acid to break down the food. Not only that, when a person chews longer, it's gonna eat slower. The mind has a mechanism when after 20 minutes, the mind feels satiated. Okay? So, if a person gobbles down food, gobbles down eight McDonald's cheeseburgers in 20 minutes, he's in probably he's not going to feel satiated, but he's going to be bloated and he's going to have all types of uh uh heartburn and whatever. Everybody comes with it. But the Rambam tell us to this day no one has disproved the Rambam to this day. This is classic age old knowledge and this is uh people have been cured from from terminal diseases just by changing their mode of food by the Rambam. This is example this example of the eternality of Torah. Want to mention a few things about the opposing schools uh of Moses and Korak within Torah. uh the brisker of Rabitzkabik he writes that Korak denied two principles of Abuna what we're learning tonight the seventh and the eighth principle he couldn't accept that Moses prophecy was true and he didn't believe that the Torah came straight from Hashem he saw that Moses did some kind of detour from Mount Si Korak's agnosticism and his obstinacy cost him his life as we said earlier in the the letter in today's lesson uh so taking a closer look at the opposing schools of Moses Korak. This is self is testimony of Torah's timelines. But the episode of Korak's rebellion against Moses, which is none other than rebellion against Hashem and his Torah, not rebellion against Moses. Moses says, "I'm nothing. It's just I'm Hashem's representative. You're rebelling against Hashem." It's still with us today that the main differences characterize the difference between Moses and Kora. So, what's the difference? And what's still with understand today? Number one, self-interest. Moses was devoid of self-interest. He had no agenda. To the extent that he testifies to Hashem, I have not taken a single donkey from the populace. Neither have I've heard any of them. Moses did not take a gift worth two cents. Nothing. Korak on the other hand was motivated by his desire for money and power and he became wanted to become the leader. And Korak was the richest person when people Moses was worrying about taking uh taking the body of Joseph out of Egypt and left Egypt. Korak he was garing spoils. Korak had 13 donkeys full of gold and diamonds. And there's a difference that Moses was the humblest person ever. And Korak, he clothed himself in arrogance. That was difference number one, the self-interest. Number two is logic. Moses cast all logic aside because he nullified himself to Hashem. Korak refused to accept anything that countered his own rationale and logic. Korak was the classic highbrow, the granddaddy of all the highbrows. And for that example, Korak would say, "Who needs a muza with two paragraphs of Torah written on it on the doorpost of my house? I have a wall full of Torah books at home." Well, that's very demagogic. That sounds true to someone who's ignoramis. But Korak forgets one thing that Moses that the muza is a one of Hashem's commandments and it's not based on any rationale or logic Mr. Korak. So consequently denying the mitzvah he denies Hashem and he denies the Torah. The third difference is nature. Moses paid no attention to nature and its limitations. Moses didn't care about the Red Sea. Moses didn't care about anything. His amun in hashem was characterized by his incessant prayers. It's governed by thought, speech and deeds. Korak constantly he tried to accomplish his goals by natural means, greed, lobbying, rebelling and and tail. This violating Hashem's commandments. So example of the contemporary Korak in our generation. The contemporary Korak, give you an example. The prohibition of pork. The Torah says you're not allowed to eat pork. So the school of Korak, which they want to uh have parking lots and synagogues on Shabbat, they want to eat pork. They want to have ham sandwiches and bake whatever they want. Okay. They say they say like they say in the time of Moses, there was no sanitary means of slaughter and pork suffered from trigonosis. Tchinosis around worm and so pork had to be outlawed for health reasons. But today we have USDA, we have modern means of processing and there's no more trigonosis and no need to protest pork. They are wrong on two counts. Put mud in their mouths. They're wrong on two counts. First, there still is trigonosis. Yes, but that's not the reason we don't eat pork. Hashem didn't sell Moses because of roundorm because of trigonosis. We're not allowed to eat worms. That's a different commandment. Uh Hashem said to refrain from eating pork self-interest, logically has nothing to do with it. If you open up Kabala and open up the Arizal's writings and Arizal's writings says that the food we ingest and the Arizal talks about the soul which is in that food when we ingest food we ingest the soul that's in that food. So someone that eats pork gets the characteristic is mishama becomes like swine acts like like an animal and that's that it's not because of logic it's because Hashem didn't want us to act that way. Hashem wants us to to eat properly. So we don't look for logic at Hashem's commandments and we don't base our observance on logic and the zor and the and the gmorrah they both gzor and kabala they give us the underlying spiritual rational of following a mitzvah. Hashem is creator of the human soul. Hashem knows what's best for the human soul. The zora says that one who eats the flesh of a swine and closes his or her soul in the impure spirit of that animal. And you know what that does? that blocks divine light. So, where's Hashem? Where's amuna? Where's he hashem? Where's amuna? Person says, where's hashem? Where's amuna? Stop and let it him or her take stock of themselves and see what commandments they violated that they're having a blockage of divine light and they can't have light of holiness. So in other words, uh, keeping the commandments keeps us an open avenue to Hashem and that's getting close to Hashem. That's what we're here for. So in concluding principle 8, the Rambam explains that every word of the Torah has deep secrets for those who understand them. Many of these secrets are revealed in gamatria as we mentioned numerical numerical equivalents of each letter and the given word or phrase acronyms different ways and first letters final letters and examining sometimes skipping a letter every other letter. Give you one small example. Uh one small example. Secret of creation. I love this. The Yushami Talman in chapter 3 of tract of devora casually mentions that the word is round and the word this 20 2,300 years ago. So here uh Rebiona, one of the sages back then in the time of the men of great assembly, Alexander the Great came to the land of Israel. And Alexander the Great told him we had a a a dream. Nobody could interpret the dream. And they asked he asked Shimon the wise, Shimon the high. They met Alexander the Great. And she says, "Yeah, he says, "Any one of my my my rabbis here, they're all capable interpreting dreams. They're all in a high level in the holy temple." So he says, he go, "Rabbion, I did." So he says, "Rabbi, yes, your majesty, tell me your dream." He said, "I dream that I was holding a ball." Oh, he says, "Your majesty, your death sent for greatness that you're going to be emperor of the entire world." He said, "What do you mean the world is flat? the plate. I didn't hold a plate. I was holding a ball. No, you're going to tell the whole world. Our sages, they knew the Gomorrah doesn't come until the world is round. It's not like Columbus. Columbus 1600 years later thought that the world was flat. And together with his silly king and queen of Spain, Ferdinand, what our sages knew back then, Gabor says, by the way, the Gamor is not trying to come and explain something. There's something else. This is one of my favorites. What is the secret to the world? And the very beginning of Kaboola, we learn that there is nothing square in creation only round. Only round. What's Hashem's name? Shem's name of creation. Hashem created the day by the world by constricting himself. By stricting himself had to make room in his universe for the for the for the world for the physical world. So constricted himself. And this name is Shin Dalyud. S H A D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D A I If we look at Gumatria, Shin is 300, Yud is 10, dollar is for 314. That name at that number ring a bell. 3.14 is pi. Pi is the secret of the circle. Pi is the square root of 10. Okay, pi * pi gives 10. And this is the perfection. What's perfection? Where do you get 10? Oh, where's 10? Oh, 10 spheres. uses tense fears. It's mindboggling right here in Torah. Right here in Tor just look at it. People don't look at people that want what why do they see the Gomorra track take says how come people don't want to keep all of Torah? They keep all of Torah because a person first decides what he wants and then he makes a law according to what he wants. For example, the ten commandments say don't commit adultery. Oh no, but he wants the next door neighbor's wife. So he says, "Well, he can't accept the ten commandments because of his own physical appetites." So he says the Torah is not true. And then uh when he sees that the next door neighbor's husband goes on a business trip, uh he's off on off and running. This is you can see can't understand that the nations of the world, all these scandals, people spending their whole lives and getting to the pinnacle of of power, the pinnacle of responsibility, and they throw it all away. He saw this in the White House. He saw in Europe all the time, in the UK, in France. What are you talking about? Because without the Torah, they're nothing but animals. Without the Torah, this is the Torah. This is the universe of Torah. This is our seventh and eighth principles. Cherish, brothers, sisters. Next week, we continue on to principle nine that the Torah won't never be changed. and Shamid will have a wonderful week and all your hearts wishes for the very