The Rock Gets It; Why Don't I?

the yeshiva.net [Music] let me begin with a uh an anecdote somebody sent me some time ago that sometimes captures an interesting truth in life basically david was working at a company for six months you can hear me yeah and after six months it was time for david's evaluation so he walks into the board room and you have three very elegantly dressed people sitting there all wearing designed suits they're sitting at behind the mahogany desk extremely proper sophisticated well-to-do the one on the left scans the file of david he looks up at him very accusingly and he says i see that not once did you report to work at 9 00 a.m during this entire period six months i haven't seen you come here even once at nine in the morning when all the employees are supposed to show up the woman in the middle shakes her head and she says listen this is not a place for schleppers this is a fortune company and instead of coming in with a jacket and a tie the report says that you come in with working genes it's inappropriate and then there's the man on the right and he's staring at the papers in his hand at david's file and he says our survey our surveillance cameras show that you spend less than 10 percent of your working hours at your desk the rest of the time you're basically strolling around the building i don't think this company is made for you and one of them looks at him and says david do you have anything to say for yourself to defend yourself and with confidence he says yes i was hired as the night watchman that's the story now this brings us in to the theme that we want to explore which is basically one of the most perplexing and enigmatic stories in the whole of humish we know that it's perplexing right when we read it but we also see from the fact that every single one of the commentators throughout the generations developed such a different perspective on the story means that the secret of it the enigma of it is quite palpable and one struggles to make sense of it this is one of the most also disturbing enigmatic episodes in the entire territory when moishe after 40 years is denied the privilege of entering into the holy land let's remember the context miriam passed away this has been a long journey four decades in the wilderness and the three shepherds of the jewish people the tanakh calls them the three shepherds the maurya says in tightness it refers to miriam aaron and moshe they were the three shepherds who shepherded the jewish people during these 40 years miriam passed away miriam passed away we know on the 10th of nissan even though the terror doesn't give a specific date and afterwards there's a crisis there's no water that's when of course the jewish people find out that for 40 years they had water in the merit of myria but there is no water so the people come crying to my shirabenu we need water we are going to die our children are going to die our families will die all our cattle will die in the desert without water hashem tells moisha to speak to the rock and it will give water moisture does not speak to the iraq instead he strikes the rock he hits the rock and in a very strange aftermath to that story the reborn of shalom god tells moshe that because of this he can't enter the land that's the story in a nutshell but it seems like a very trivial misdeed to be penalized in such a harsh way maishrabenu has been yearning for this moment all his life the last 40 years this was his his burning desire trying to bring the people to the land crisis after crisis he remained a fearless leader full of empathy and love and conviction and finally brought them to the gates very close to the gates of eretz israel what happened hashems if i could say i don't want to say favorite person i guess there's no favorites but certainly the person who's described in the third as the greatest prophet in history for i come navi be israel commercials there was never a prophet like moshe hashem knew face to face terror describes him in baalois he is trusted he is he is the most trusted in my entire home in my entire world the greatest prophet of all time who led the jews loyally for forty years and the one thing that really mattered to him to enter interest israel he is now denied of that privilege of that opportunity where is the justice where is the justice in this as i said interpretations are so many and yet it seems that the question always remains a little stronger maybe a lot stronger than the answer but today i want to learn with you one perspective and it's the one actually that rashi the great commentator on hummus this is the one that rashi chooses it's not rashi's original commentary as many arashi it's taken from a madrish known as madrish but this is one interpretation that rashi gives us and this is what i want to focus on people read this rashi every year people learn this rashi when they're growing up and throughout their life like many arashi you read it through and one often doesn't stop and reflect what do these words actually mean before we learn the rashi inside let me summarize what's the message that rashi seems to be trying to tell us moshe was barred from entering into the holy land rashi will say because there was a crucial lesson that moshe needed to teach the jewish people at this particular time in history not earlier at this time it was a lesson that can only be conveyed if he would speak to the rock not if he would strike the rock and by hitting the rock instead of speaking to the iraq he lost the ability to teach the jewish people this particular unique lesson one asks what is this lesson what is so powerful this lesson must be so powerful so significant so earth-shattering that devoid of this lesson it's not just okay you didn't do a ls you know what happens in school the teacher good curriculum you have to cover this day this lesson next day another lesson this week this month and if you don't cover it okay they didn't get this less but here somehow by not communicating this lesson to the jewish people the lesson was so important that something very dramatic results from this and that is he can't take them into the land what is this lesson so let's listen up to rashi's words so let's take a look first at the kim there's a source sheet if you want one page pair this is numbers chapter 20 verse eight hashem tells maisha after the people are crying for water kathy samata of the hakulas take the staff gather the people you and iron speak to the rock in front of their eyes and it will give its water the nasa name of it will give it will unleash its water and you will extract from it water from the rak vishki so you'll irrigate the entire congregation and all of their animals all of their livestock by your emotions lifts up his hands he strikes the rock with his staff twice and lots of water abundant of water mayam robin comes out and the entire community drinks not only they but all of their animals so the men the women the children of course but all the cattle everyone has irrigated everybody's thirst has been quenched mazel tov you would think wow i think it's a pretty big miracle you take a stick you take a stick in the wilderness when three million people are asking for that's talking about 10 people you're talking about a few million people we don't know the exact number but it's lots and lots of people hundreds of thousands between 20 and 60 males but then you have females you have people younger than 20 people older than 60 etc they all have to drink and there is all the cattle the jews had a lot a lot of cattle all types of animals domesticated animals and everybody got to drink it's pretty impressive you didn't believe in me to sanctify me before the eyes of the children of israel you won't bring this congregation to the land you won't bring this entire community this people to the land that i have given them one wonders where did they not believe where did they not sanctify me you did not believe in me to sanctify me surashi says lahakti shaini there was an opportunity if you would have only listened and spoken to the rock and it would have unleashed the water i would have become sanctified before the eyes of the entire nation if you would have listened and spoken to the iraq something special would have happened they would somehow see something about me that they did not here is what they would have said look at this rock if even this rock that doesn't talk it doesn't listen it's a rock it doesn't even need parnosa doesn't need anything a rock has no needs it doesn't need partners it doesn't need livelihood it doesn't need health it doesn't need sustenance and nonetheless it fulfills hashem's words it follows and obeys hashem's commandments calverheimer certainly anu we should and now this lesson has been lost let's analyze the words of rash rashid says that this lesson is what we know as a kaal of khaimer what does kal of khaimer mean every morning we say before davening right before haidu or before barak sharma fidav rabbi ishmael aymer brishlois rabbi small says there's 13 ways through which we expound toyota thirteen methods of interpretation the first is calverheimer what does calvochemin cal means light crimer means heavy color is a lightweight climber is a heavy what is this method what is this principle of learning turtle through calvertheimer a coverheimer is basically a unique kind of an argument and it's used frequently throughout gemara throughout the talmud and throughout the madrish just like rashi brings it here again kalvachem we even have ten times kalvachemer is in the tanakh itself it's essentially an from the light to the heavy from the cow to the chimer what does this mean or from the chemer to the cow i should say you'll say as follows if i can bench press 450 pounds you think i can bench press 50 pounds yes if you can run 20 miles you think you could run one mile yes it's logical 20 miles is much harder takes more time and more energy than running one mile that seems like a very logical argument if you could do 20 miles for sure you could do one mile that's called kal vekheimer so here is the argument of calvary if iraq responds when hashem says give it water you speak to the rack and you tell the rock hashem wants you to give water and the rock responds even though the rock doesn't speak the rag doesn't listen the rock doesn't have to make a living the rock has no needs still when hashem speaks to it it gives water if a rock does that then for sure if god asks you to do something you should respond it's like a no-brainer it's partial if the rock does it in other words it would say if if you could run 25 miles really 25 miles wow so now one mile you're gonna complain about one mile the rack does it that's like wow the rack doesn't speak the rack doesn't do the right thing for sure you should do it anybody's following the logic here how logical is this doesn't it doesn't work exactly the other way around isn't it easier for iraq than it is for me it's a very it's a very interesting argument we read the rashi and we're like okay let me try to get this lesson let me try to get this lesson straight the rock does it for sure you should do it but one second a rock is a rock if i'm not mistaken iraq has no free choice iraq doesn't get into bad moods iraq does not suffer from depression i believe iraq doesn't have a yatzah iraq doesn't have a complicated personality iraq doesn't get exhausted iraq doesn't get sick i mean things can happen to the rock to the rack but iraq doesn't have resistance it's a rock so if god tells the rock to do something and he's the creator of the world and the rock somehow is in tune with that so the rack does it yes it doesn't talk it doesn't listen that's exactly why it does it it doesn't need anything that's the point it's just a rock so if hashem wants it to do something it will obey but a person person is much more complicated we have conflicting drives we have trauma we have resistance we have issues not all of us do all of us have issues i can speak for myself i won't talk about anybody else some of us have issues we have cravings we need to survive we are often driven to make the wrong choices not every choice every person makes is always the most productive beneficial choice a person is a a complex creature our hearts and brains often conflict on so many different levels things are much more complex with people so the lesson from the rock doesn't seem so logical i mean for the rack there's no period there's no choice let me let me just give you an illustration it's not my own but i think it's a very good illustration to describe what we find difficult about this rashi and let me articulate it okay imagine a guy who works with computers all day you know anybody like that a guy works literally with computers all day these those are his best friends computers okay he comes home he's exhausted and he wants a few minutes of peace and quiet he wants to sit on the couch he wants to read the newspaper wants to sip iced coffee latte cup glass of wine whatever it is his children thank god are jumping all over the place so he tells the kids as follows kids i really don't understand you you know all day i work with computers all day and the computer just listens to me the computer does whatever i want if i put it on it goes on and if i shut it off it shuts off doesn't scream doesn't jump on my head doesn't start making sounds that i'm not interested in doesn't demand attention doesn't need validation doesn't want me to play with them doesn't cry doesn't nudge doesn't fetch doesn't even have emotional needs it's a pleasure can't you learn from the computer mother's a computer that doesn't speak and doesn't listen and doesn't need parnosa you don't have to feed the computer it doesn't need livelihood and still it listens to me for sure you kinda like when i say give me peace and quiet and go play in another room you should listen to me how would this person's children respond i think they would say daddy has been spending too much time in the office he's been spending too much time with computers we're not computers we're people we're real people in theory some people would like if the people around them were computers but that's not the reality or if somebody tells their child or somebody tells their spouse why can't you take a lesson from the air conditioner how is that for him from the ac it always listens to me why can't you why do you have to argue with me why do you have a different opinion again this person has been spending too much time with air conditions this is senseless an ac is dead you are lively and alive what is this the rock listens yes boris i'm very happy for sure you should listen there's a clue in the story there's always a clue and the terror every story has clues and the clues always allow you just like la havdel in a game you know there's a clue there's even a game called clue the clue is this is not the first time it's happening it's not the first time jews are thirsty it's not the first time jews want water 40 years earlier they also had no water shortly after they came out of mitsuram pasha's bashar al-aqs shortly after they crossed the red sea the jews did not have water they came crying to moshe moshe came to hashem and hashem tells moshe to take his stick and strike the rock to produce water i want you to read that and we'll compare the contrast partisans bashar al-assad possible exodus chapter 17 verse 6 god says i will stand in front of you on the rock in khairavi kisabatsu strike the rock the yatsumi menu and water shall come out of it and the nation will drink vayaske israel moshe did just that before the elders of the jewish people he did just that and everything worked out perfectly the jewish people had water in this impossible wilderness and desert which was barren and infertile no rain no natural wells no natural springs or ponds lakes seas rivers they have their water and actually the rock accompanies them for 40 years we even give it a name it's called the irish myriam the well of myria and of course that's the connection when miriam passes away according to rashi and that rock stops flowing the water which is why we have a new crisis this makes the story much more perplexing then it was fine to strike the rock now it became a cardinal sin how bad can it be to strike iraq when hashem himself forty years ago told moshe to strike it vehicular and he did just that forty years later he says speak to the rock and now the fact that he strikes the rock repeating what he himself did just four decades ago it becomes something that causes him not to enter into the land how are we supposed to understand this if you recall a few years ago we had a class on this we have a few classes on this we had a women's class on this one of the tuesdays i think it's be right by the year be probably before corona we discuss different perspectives different interpretations one very powerful interpretation which i'm not going to get in today i'm just mentioning this in passing because it's always a it's a very very moving and deep interpretation and that is 40 years earlier the jewish people have just come out of egypt they were slaves 40 years later most of the people who were lived as adults in egypt and were beaten slaves have passed away this was a new generation of jews born in freedom striking the rock and speaking to the rock is not just about the physical water it's two models of leadership slaves sadly are beaten and i don't just mean physically beaten that was also true tragically but also emotionally the definition of the slave is i don't want to be here the gemara has an expression in gittin slave says i want to be out of here what causes the slave to be here and to serve you and the answer is he has no choice he's forced yes slaves were physically beaten sometimes horrendously in the american south and in other places we do with slavery to lincoln emancipated them but it's not just the physical it's the whole attitude it's the stick it's my way or the highway what of the slaves says i'm not in the mood i want to sleep in today the slave had no choice if he wanted to survive if she wanted to survive if they wanted their food if they wanted to come out alive remember owners felt that they were the absolute masters of the sl of slaves tragically but that's the mo of the slave whether the person calls himself the person is physically a slave or not the jewish people who were decades or decades slaves in egypt that was the model with which they lived they were slaves slaves are beaten into obedience the greatest mistake one of the great mistakes people can do is they don't realize that what sometimes works worked successfully in a different situation with a different person in a different climate spells disaster even if my intentions may be well maybe excellent there was a time when you could strike the rock god says to maisha this is a new era you have to speak to the rock a free person you can't beat if somebody comes to me and starts beating me what am i going to do yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah you have my soul you have my body unless i'm nebach if i don't have an identity which is true sometimes a person has no identity and they acquiesce they submit to abuse but a person who is grew up in freedom what's my response if you take a stick and hit it over my head i'll take a stick and hit it over your head or i'll call 9-1-1 or i'll call jave or simon oh i'll run what about emotionally again i'm not talking about the physical stick the attitude you have to speak to me you need to inspire me you need to persuade me you got to speak to my soul to my heart and if i get frustrated the stick is not working why don't you just listen because i'm a free person it's a very very profound existential shift in pedagogy in education there's a lot to say about this that's why i gave a whole class on it you could look it up on the yeshiva.net and how that connects with motion or it is swell under two generations and moisture and yeshua and the two names over there it's called sur here it's called sella two different types of rocks but today i want to follow the trajectory that rashi is taking us on the calvary we want to understand what this covergirl with the rock is how my kids are supposed to behave better than the computers [Laughter] because the computers don't talk and they don't talk back to me and my kids do talk and they have opinions [Laughter] one day but even when computers speak back to us we program them right i could program my computer to say hey i love you i can even program it to say hey i really don't like you get out of the room but i turn it off i turn it on i can undo the program you're saying one day when artificial intelligence is going to prevail over us and they're going to take over the world right [Laughter] don't worry it's going to be good there's certain things that even uh no no even even some things that artificial intelligence don't get so the following explanation is based on the maharal of prague one of the greatest seminal thinkers in jewish history he lived in the 16th century his name was rabbi yohoda liva of prague he was the chief rabbi of prague today czechoslovakia he wrote many many numerous works on makshava and jewish thought he has a safer called gurus hashem and i think it's in chapter 7 where he elaborates on this his language is very difficult to understand and cryptic but it's based on his thoughts but i want to especially thank my dear colleague rabbi david david forman from the five towns alpha beta alpha beta who really i think brought it down and illustrated very beautifully in a sheer and based on some other safari man ideas and sources that serve as the nucleus of our following explanation by hashem you see for 40 years the jewish people were living a life of miracles in the desert everything was a miracle you couldn't survive without a miracle the food that they had was miraculous manna from heaven the water that they had was miraculous from the rock the rolling the aerial miriam the rolling stone of miriam the clouds of glory that protected them their relationship with moshe and iron direct relationship with hashem in the mishkan the sanctuary the holy of holies the miracles was not something unique it was part of the daily fabric of jewish life wherever you turned the man was a type of food the gemara says a person didn't have to evacuate anything because it had no nope soilus it had no parts that the body would reject everything was a value of nutrition of of had nutrients that were beneficial for the body etc etc the way the clothes developed with them the entire experience was one that super it was supernatural now they're poised to enter into the holy land and the laws of nature are going to dictate their daily lives the posix says six years you should plant your fields six years you should sow on the seventh year you have shmita that's why the spies the miragulum one of the explanations why didn't the spies want to enter into the land because they would give up a life of miracles for an environment that's controlled by nature the balatanya says that the spies were not just evil rabble-rousers they actually felt something very profound leaving the desert would be leaving paradise no sometimes you have to be foolish to leave paradise literally eretz israel living in the land would require a completely different lifestyle that's based on the laws of nature it was at this point and precisely at this point that the jewish people needed a particular lesson they needed to hear a lesson that would define their entire future and the lesson would be gleaned from one moment moisha speaking to the rock rather than striking it why what's the difference between nature and miracles in hebrew we call nature teva and a miracle we call a nace what's the difference when iraq gives water because of a miracle there's a miracle well milam anateva it's above nature essentially it's a defiance of its own nature rocks don't give water if i could use this expression the rock is beaten the rock is beaten into obedience the rock conceptually speaking is beaten to go against its own grain its own rockiness i don't know if i just made up a word to go again it's against its own nature iraq doesn't like giving water true rocks don't like giving water you know what racks like to do they like to sit around in the desert for hundreds and thousands of years and just relax in the sun anybody can relate [Laughter] a lot a lot of a lot of vitamin d they just like to sit in one place forever if you don't move them they don't move and they're pretty content it's pretty cool sometimes to watch some of those rocks have been there i don't know since when since other mauritians times iraq is not a spring so the creator comes and says now you have to produce 1 million gallons of water or 2 million gallons of water okay the rock will do it the rock has a boss the rack has a master but that's called hitting the rock forcing it to defy its chemistry it's not what rocks do rocks have a chemistry there's a nature of something called a rock just like there's something called a spring a well an ocean rain but you're the boss so you can beat the rock into obedience that's what a miracle is the rock defies its own nature and chemistry and it unleashes three million gallons of water gevaldek that world of miracles was slowly slipping away at this point as the jews after 40 years in the desert are going to leave the paradise of the desert and they're going to go into a civilized land and build a fragment of heaven on earth within the laws of nature that old world was slowly fading away and when the jews are going to enter the land they're going to be completely leaving the world of miracles behind them they're going to go into a different world a non-a non-miraculous world a natural world now it's not anymore we can't any longer continue to hit the rock the rock before they enter the land has one last lesson to teach the people what's the last lesson this rock has been giving water for 40 years because it was struck complete miracle but before you go before you leave me before you go into the land i'm going to teach you one more lesson and it's very moving how this rock this very same rock is going to teach the lesson and what's the lesson the lesson is rocks don't just respond when they're struck rocks can also respond when they're spoken to when the creator speaks to them the rock can listen even if it's not hit in other words nature can respond to the reborn of shalayla nature can respond to hashem and not because it's forced but because it wants to the language of the pasta care is profoundly instructive and i want you to see one contrast and that will add to the clue 40 years ago when moshe was commanded to strike the rock take a look at the fourth source bashar al-assad hashem said the yatsumi menu you hear the language strike the rock and what's going to happen water will come out of it the rack rock is passive moisture is active moisture is drawing water out of the rock what's the rock doing nothing i have nothing to say here masha comes the hiki sabatsura strike the iraq viator and the water will come out now 40 years later hashem changes the language i would expect the same language look at the first source he should have said with him allah speak to the rock and what would happen it doesn't say that instead of iyatsu the first line the first line of the source sheet the last two words instead of yatsu what's the word venasan and instead of do you see the difference what's the difference of a yatsu and venasana the yatsu means the water will come out it will come out of you vinasan you will give he will give you see the difference vinasan the iraq will give and another another difference the first time around it's water will come out this time it's vanassan may move he's going to give his water his wall really his water he owns the water his water what's the difference what happened why there it's you strike the iraq water will come out and this time you'll speak to the rock and the rock will give the rock is not passive the iraq is active he is actually the giver he is the giver and you know what he's going to give you he's going to give you maine love he's not going to give you water he's going to give you his water it's going to give you its water if you want to use the word it's we're talking about a rock it's almost as if the rock is deciding to give the water vinasan it's like when you give tzedakah you give you decide to give you speak to the iraq you didn't hit the rock you spoke it's not just again it's not just the physical difference hitting or speaking it's what the two models represent it's deciding to give water and its own water not just water why why because the creator asked it and iraq wants to respond my creator asked me to give water and i want to respond i would like to give you the water so the rack will give its water why would the iraq want to respond why didn't we just say that rocks love sitting around in the desert relaxing and doing nothing they're not into giving water that's not what rocks do you could look at them and the answer is because it's natural for nature to respond it's natural for nature to respond let's go here on a short journey but one that really defines everything inside of us and around us one of the most perplexing questions in science is why is there such a thing as the laws of nature if any of you remember the chemistry brook books you grew up with the science books or physics books if you ever still read these stuff in books or on the internet or whatever they'll say why is this so and the logical explanation will be it's the laws of nature but that's not an explanation it's very convenient to stop the conversation why is there such a thing as the laws of nature who creates them why am i obligated to follow this law of nature i could create a law a law for my home for my community for my state for my country for the world how many people are going to follow it even i don't follow my own laws right i made a law for myself i shouldn't eat a certain food the next day i broke it why does none of nature decide ever who decided all these laws what what what is it why are there such thing as laws and the laws of nature by the way they're all synchronized with each other it's not one law you're talking about a number of laws that are numbers of laws that are mind staggering and they all have to work in perfect synchronization why should rocks why should rocks why should any object feel compelled to follow the incredibly nuanced laws of gravity why because it's gravity it's the law of nature why why should adams behave in a way that the laws of chemistry dictate well if they wouldn't there would be no matter i get it so who told us to the atoms who told them to behave so well and what if they want to take a little vacation in fact it would have been a lot simpler for everything to be just chaotic all of the time and through to something called in science the enthropy principle and it basically dictates that if you leave something to its own devices it doesn't become more organized becomes more chaotic if you don't believe me look at your teenager's room if you tell your teenager you know you don't have to clean up the room because after a month it will become more organized after two months it'll be even more organized and after a year of not touching anything every part in the room will be in its perfect space you're all laughing you just leave it untouched for three days and it's a corbin you think neyak's flood has descended into the room it's called the entropy principle naturally things tend to become less organized not more organized if you leave an event to happen on its own what's going to happen it's going to become more organized yet with nature it's the exact opposite and it was a big bang 15.3 billion years and then everything became so organized to the point that it is so fine-tuned to completely defy mathematical statistics it's incredible how does that happen and the answer is that nature is not dead and the laws of nature are not dead nature has a soul it possesses a desire nature has conviction that results says that even iraq has a soul what does that mean nature has a hunger it's a hunger to fulfill the expectations of its creator to do what its creator wants that's what we mean when we say nature has an ashama nature as a soul when iraq is iraq when iraq follows the laws of physics it's doing its creator's will joyously cause i'll speak about the fact that the orbit of the galaxies the orbit of the planets are basically a dance today we know atoms this swift orbit of the electrons it's incredible every atom has the nucleus and then you have the electrons that are revolving around an incredible speed from the causal and kabbalistic perspective it's essentially a dance like the bee dance when the bee finds out where the food is where the nectar is the bee starts dancing and then all the other bees know where to get the food that's why after this one bee in your garden 20 minutes later the 60 bees the bee has a dance the orbits of the atoms are a form of a dance it's a joyous expression of i'm fulfilling the desire of my creator when the penguin marches hundreds of miles to jump into the water and pluck out food in order to bring to its young chicks when a grizzly beer plucks the salmon out of the river it's following its instinct and doing god's will doing the creator's will when a bee pollinates a flower so that it can procreate and create a new generation of flowers it's following its soul what do i mean it's soul it's instinct to fulfill the divine plan for creation that is being facilitated through this bee or through this butterfly when the winds scatter the clouds what's happening he says the laws of nature winds come and scatter the clouds they're following their soul their innate desire to fulfill the grand plan that the rain shouldn't fall right back into the sea if there was no wind what would happen the clouds would uh vaporize suction the water and then it would rain and come right back into the ocean and the rest of earth would remain infertile the winds scatter the clouds so when the water comes down it doesn't go back into the place where it came from the oceans rather it quenches the thirst of arid soil and creates produce and vegetation so we can all be alive it distributes the rain all over the earth so the planet can survive we can eat then we could live nature always does hashem's will that's what it means laws of nature and they have a desire to do hashem's will so when hashem wants a rock to do something it doesn't have to be forced you don't have to force the rock you don't have to beat the rock into obedience you don't have to have the rock defy its chemistry it doesn't have to be beaten you could speak to it and iraq will listen because iraq every moment is doing exactly what god wants it to do just like every other force every other component in nature every moment is doing exactly what the reborn islam wants it to do comes hashem and he says it's at this point that human beings can take a cue from nature and this becomes the calvary because essentially what is he saying i'm also iraq you're also a rock what do i mean i'm a rock i don't sit in one place forever in the sun sometimes you like for a few hours but it means a rock is a creature i'm a creature you're a creature it's just i'm a creature i'm a person so i have a mind a rock is inanimate a rack is called diamond it's an inanimate being but essentially i and iraq are both creatures we're conceived we're designed by our creator so if iraq that doesn't speak and doesn't listen doesn't have an intelligence doesn't have the human brain doesn't have the 80 trillion cells that make up the human organism doesn't have the nine systems that make up our biological systems doesn't have to make a living and yet it listens when hashem asks something of it certainly shouldn't human beings so you say well we have choices we have desires some of us even have addictions we have bad habits we have difficult challenges we sometimes live in different types of prisons some of us may have mood disorders personality disorders some people may even have very physical or emotional serious psychological challenges and i have to make a living that's true but fundamentally in one sense we're like iraq shouldn't you listen when god speaks to you what does this mean i want to explain what this means why do we bother doing the will of hashem why do we bother fulfilling even asking what does god want from me if you're a jew and you were given terror a mitzvas why i get this question around 50 times a day in different emails especially from the youth why should i fulfill mitzvos why it's unbelievable you can have a 25 year old young man married learning in kylo and he sends an email across the atlantic ocean to somebody living not far from here a few blocks away because i'm 25 years old i've been in yeshiva for 20 years could you tell me why should i do any of the mitzvahs is it because we do multiple choice so that your father-in-law doesn't stop paying the wage and says get out of my daughter's life is it because your neighbors shouldn't have a bad opinion about you and who knows what they're gonna say if you abandon it is it because of your mother what's your mother gonna say what's your father gonna say what's your grandmother gonna say what are your uncles gonna say what are your siblings going to say but what if we strip all that away what if we strip all that away is it maybe you're afraid that god is going to throw you into purgatory he's going to throw you into gahannam into the abyss what if we strip that away too maybe there are other ulterior motives maybe it's a fine way to live doesn't bother me too much i like this i like that there's a lot of advantages there's community this family there's holidays somebody once said he says you know i used to be an atheist but i quit and why he says they don't have any holidays you know there's no pesos no there's no there's not even thanksgiving who you thanking thanksgiving to who to joe biden who are you giving thanks to he wants holidays so here's the question if i wasn't forced i wasn't compelled i wasn't threatened no ulterior mothers would i still do any of the mitzvas if we cannot answer this question we have a serious challenge if the jews were going to enter the land and continue to serve god continue to serve hashem without miracles without stunning miracles they would need to discover an internal motivation that's what the kawawkheimer is about the calvary is about the rock is going to help you find out who you are the rock is going to help you discover your internal motivation the rock listens the butterfly listens the turtle listens the salmon listens even the herring and the carp and the heck no pun intended and the chilean sea bass listen the sun listens the moon listens the cells listen the electrons listen the water molecules listen and even the turtles they're slow but they listen shouldn't i listen to shouldn't you listen to in a way a miracle is a force that forces you what's a miracle saying i don't care about nature and i want to hear shift things of how we usually sometimes we have to make a little shift we usually look enviously at the world of miracles you know i often get letters from people if only i would experience the miracles that they talk about in the holy books i would also be an inspired jew you remember i mean we all feel that way you know you read tanakh or you read stories about this person and that person if only we had been there to see the miracles ah we would all be on fire but now it's just you know sos same old sushi same old spaghetti life is boring is god really here is god really listening but the truth is that balatanya writes in lakota and terraria that is the other way around because and take this with a grain of salt of course in many ways miracles represent a remedy for an immature world and an immature person basically external stimuli propels me to do the will of god and that's what hitting the rock means in the non-miraculous world it's completely internal it's the real thing and that's what the stick means the stick means i don't care about your chemistry it's not coming from you i can force you to be something that you're not see me i'll take get out water the world of non-miracles it's about the rack itself it's completely internal it's authentic it's the deepest relationship it's the deepest vegas in that world it's all about the question do you have it in yourself to rise to the desire of your creator do you have it in yourself to see who you really are you're a manifestation of the divine symphony that vibrates through the world a chestnut tree does not have to see miracles to perform photosynthesis and another million things to produce chestnuts why why does it do what it does is the chestnut trying to impress its neighbors trying to get a shidduch trying to get his daughter into seminary afraid of what the bubba is going to say it wants this it's afraid of ghanam because it wants to do what god wants that's its nature so why does it need a miracle so we talk about the yate sahara let's define what that is the atari the evil inclination we talk about the y certain the good inclination what does this mean we say the eights of tovers inside of me the yetzahara's inside of me what does it mean it means as follows the yetzer tov it's not just some strange inclination basically what it is it's the deepest part of who i am when i strip everything away external stimuli the recognition that i'm not a valueless random mistake i'm not an infinitesimal blimp on the surface of infinity i am not valueless and inconsequential i'm a living creature part of the organic story of creation and i want to be part of that story i want to be part of nature i want to be part of the glorious symphony of creation doing the will of its creator like every single other element of nature the eight zertov is the inner voice that allows me to see myself as part of the great cosmic symphony of nature there is a very delicate ecosystem each of us has something to contribute no bee and butterfly in the world thinks that the purpose of life is only to take and take and take and take and take everyone is a mashpie and a macabre every atom knows this every neuron knows this every cell knows this every ant knows this every ant knows we're all givers just like we're all takers and you're an indispensable part of this divine cosmic symphony and each one is dependent on the other we spoke a few weeks ago and i have my light to shine you have your light to shine and it's so delicate because there's a food chain and there's a food web and there's an ecosystem there's the physical ecosystem and there's the emotional ecosystem and there's the spiritual ecosystem i have a weakness i like watching animals maybe it's not a weakness so something i part of my some things i like doing i like watching animals i love going to zoos i went to kruger national park in south africa and i had a field day i love safaris i like documentaries on animals my kids think i'm a little crazy they're like at the shabbos table are you gonna start talking about bees again you're gonna start talking about penguins again okay so so forgive my uh my illustration here if you don't relate to it i respect it did you ever watch a family of gorillas jumping around on each other playing with each other grooming each other and you had this deep desire to jump in with them and become part of their family now i also don't do it they're bigger than me they're stronger than me and they did not invite rabbi why why to give them a lecture they're not interested they won't even let me hang out there for free i don't do it but but you know that feeling it's like i'm so curious what does it feel like to be in that family they're so innocent there's no sugar crisis no community issues i don't know maybe they have identity crises i don't know if they have therapists there psychologists psychiatrists but like you have this feeling like like i i want to be part of you just for a few minutes would you give me an honorary on honorary uh uh would you allow me an honorary visitor did you ever observe a bunch of trees swaying together in the spring breeze and you had this desire to listen to their symphonic conversations you know you can almost hear the gomorrah calls it si hast call them sichas ilonais the trees have conversations i want to hear it i'm curious you ever watched the birds going back to their nests here in muncie at sunset and they're singing and they're schmoozing you think people know how to have conversations four o'clock in the morning they wake up they start singing and for a moment i wanna i wanna know what are you guys talking about could i come in with you to the nest and be a bird for a few moments the madrid says that hashem told me she can't go untied moisture said i won't go in as a person allow me to go in as a bird i'll chirp over the land of her to so that's how much he wanted to go in during corona we weren't going to shul unfortunately so shop this morning early in the morning i would learn together with my wife we would learn so once the sheer went for a long time and you know the sun has already risen a while ago and this bird came and landed it was on the back porch by our house and this bird came and landed and was just non-stop so one of my kids said the bird is telling you said sites again davanan it's very nice you're having a good time it's time to go daven and you know what i can't swear that that's what the bird was saying but somehow it resonated and if you ever read perik shira i don't know if you ever read perry that's exactly what it's about i don't know if any of you ever walked through a real desert like real deserts they're like there's a silence there that is deafening you hear this utter silence and and i have this desire i want to experience the soul of the mute rocks like what's what's what's inside these rocks does anybody uh relate to uh my strange desires here did you ever see the march of the penguins to the water they jump in together to the water they bring each other they go hundreds of miles through grueling grueling weather grueling antarctica and they're socializing and singing and forbidding with each other playfully and joyfully and i want to i want to jump into the water with them and be part of their symphony because when you see nature rejoicing in its creator it's really rejoicing in its creator we say to ourselves how can i not be part of this what am i an isolated detached creature you know the oh one of the ultimate definitions i think of trauma at least according to best of underculk is the isolation of it i become truly an isolated person that's why attachment is so critical without attachment there's no life the first thing hashem says is not good loy taiv first thing in the title is for a person to feel lonely and it's not physical loneliness as much as it is deep deep emotional loneliness you lack that connection that attachment everything is connected everything is one everything is part of organic oneness a night mulvade every creature is manifesting is an indispensable note that it plays its unique melody its unique ballad that's why sometimes being in nature could be a very spiritual experience some people are more sensitive to it than other people sometimes you know you go hiking in a particular park or up a particular mountain and you feel like you're part of of literally it's like a negan rab nachman of breslau writes in like every single creature sings a song he says every every blade of grass every shrub every bush every tree it's singing a song and you feel like you're part of it you're looking to hillem david malach captures this best we say it every morning in absolute zimbra remember over there in the hallelujahs hallelujah they praise god from the earth you know we read it in hebrew so we often don't even realize what he's saying but listen to the words that he's saying you know praise hashem from the earth the sea monsters all the deep fire hail snow vapor storming winds performing his word the mountains the hills fruit trees cedars beasts cattle creeping things and winged foul and nobles nationalities young men young women elderly people the eld and the young yeah hallelujah and that's what parikshire is peri is an ancient jewish text and it basically teaches that every element of our ecosystem has its own song there's the song of the sky and the song of the seas the song of the sun and the moon the song of the fig tree and the song of the pomegranate tree the song of the wolf and the song of the hyena the song of the lion and the song of the beer the song of the spider and the song of the duck even the spider sings its song you don't want to get caught in that song or in its web but to rooster not only the songbird they all sing their song even the mouse and the fox and the elephant they all sing their song and when you see that when i see that i tell myself how can i not be part of it i'm an essential part of this symphony how can i be the only one that doesn't respond they all know what to do the only one who doesn't know what to do is the person who am i who am i not be am i happy am i not happy how can i not respond the balsamic said the word what's an acronym what does that mean let the whole earth sing to hashem what's the connection ta'alaka essentially is this you see nobody tells the bee what to do the bee doesn't come to a shear why the elephant never came to ashir even the spider the mice sometimes come but they don't listen they're looking for cheese over here not barakasha talking back in brooklyn why because for them the symphony is part of the genetics for the person there could be confusion we have consciousness we have choice we have to discover ourselves so everyone knows exactly what to do no tree wakes up in the morning saying who am i who am i not i think i need to go to therapy do i like myself don't i like myself of course you love yourself as a mimer i once taught it he says to understand the reason that every creature is always happy besides people so he says every animal every creature is happy and he says the moment you wake up you're also happy but then you start thinking now thinking doesn't have to make me miserable it depends how i think and it depends what i think because here is the key i'm not just part of the symphony you and i are the directors of the symphony that's very different you ever went to a symphony there is the people who are part of the symphony it's incredible but there's the director is the choir master the director of the symphony i am the one creature you are the creature who can be conscious of the symphony of its creator the reason consciousness was given to me was not to become depressed and live in self-doubt and fear the reason consciousness was given to me is because i am the one who can align the entire cosmos with its creator i am the one who literally conducts the symphony bringing all the musicians together bringing all the notes together you ever watch that conductor he doesn't say a word about schwitz and schmitz schmitz jumps around that's the human being the adam is at the vortex of creation the interlacing link between heaven and earth now the question is how can i sleep on the job how can i lose my enthusiasm ghazal and the gemara advocate for a person waking up early in the morning to recite shema before sunrise around six minutes before sunrise and then starch main estra at sunrise this is known as vasikin thrillers the sikken we have a minion every morning they do schmidt six minutes before sunrise when astra at sunrise it's packed did you ever pray to hashem at the moment of sunrise you ever experienced it literally you feel like you're joining the symphony of creation you're not just an isolated person saying words that's what halacha is the missing link to connect the person to the entire symphony because we're the conductors so the sun rises and the jew becomes part of that song the sun sets and the jew becomes part of that song this shop is disjunctive there's there's sunday there's monday there's tuesday as the jew bows down to hashem you feel the whole planet bowing down with you says the rivers clap their hands together with you yacht with the mountains sing i was once visiting a yeshua of a little town in ma'on it's in samaria surrounded by a lot of hamas villages and i went there a bunch of farmers they have a lot of farms and the goats are up early in the morning and it was basically around i think four in the morning and they all wake up and they come out they go to the sheep they start davoning chakras it was like surreal as the sun was rising hariola shem color are it is about synchronizing the symphony of the entire world being in tuned with that music i want to show you here an interesting story the last source here from bass iron about the balsham tiff i'll say it i'll say it outside but you can read it inside because i want to i want to complete here the idea he says about the balsamic that once he went to do kabbalah shambas outside on the field the basham devi used to go out full of like that reason they would go out to the field to welcome the shabbos queen so he went out to the field and there were a bunch of sheep and goats there that were there posturing at the field and they saw that all the goats lifted up their four legs as the balshemptiv was davening imagine all the goats lifted up their four legs standing like people would stand you ever saw how the beers you know the beers they lift up those four legs and they're standing on two the goats lifted up and they stood there literally during the darkening like that and the question is what happened so the base aharen says something so powerful and i want to read you the last three lines of my of says he lifted up the world to its source he aligned all of creation with creator azam emmela gamkala bruyum show you guys so all these goats even though they're goats but the presence the mindfulness the energy the balsamic unleashed the energy of the goats is divine energy their instincts are divine their genetics are divine their brains are divine it's divine energy manifested in them usually they're just being a goat but as the energy of the cosmos was elevated their energy was elevated so physically what did they do they physically lifted themselves up it was just a physical manifestation of a spiritual transformation this type of motivation of nature is not external nobody forced iraq nobody forced to be true they don't have choice but it's it's just who they are this is who they are they're created by hashem and they're completely happy to do just that fulfill their mission in this grand experience and you know sometimes a conductor knows every musician is indispensable one musician doesn't show up and it changes everything i may say who cares but for the conductor and for the composer everyone is extremely valuable and thus we come back to what hashem was telling moshe rabbenu there was a calverheimer that needed to be learned at this point before they're going in territory israel as long as you're living in a miracle land you don't need this kalvahima god is displaying his might everywhere and anywhere where the jewish people are the foes were defeated miraculously including the miracles that happened to penalize those who were out of the system cardiff didn't want to be in the system you couldn't survive it's like a leaf saying i want to be free cut me off the tree you ever tried doing that pluck the leaf off the tree what do you think is going to happen to it says i don't want the brain controlling me get my brain out of here get rid of the brain what do you think is going to happen to the organist in the mid borough was very obvious that's what it means about sure but now you're going to entirety israel the power of the miracle to say i don't care about the rock i'm bigger than you i'm stronger than you the chemistry of the rack doesn't matter that reality is going to be concealed now you have to talk to the rock now you have to talk to yourself now i need internal motivation eternal motivation is the deepest motivation because it never sees us it's me it's who i am it's not my neighbor it's not even my grandmother it's not even my mother i respect my mother i love my mother but my mother is not me my father is not me my grandfather is not me you say just respect your parents and do what they want father once told me i don't care what my son does in the privacy of his home in front of us he puts on a strimmer i say that's how much little faith you have in your son to be inspired huh it sounds beautiful tradition but essentially what you're saying is i have nothing to tell you that's going to speak to your heart i have nothing to tell you that's going to speak to you but now it's time to go to a much deeper place in some ways it's more mundane but it's also deeper in this sense of course we love miracles but teva has something that's deeper than us says hanukkampurim the miracles will conceal the nature purim didn't look like a miracle esther was in the right place at the right time and she was a smart jewish lady who played the cards right and she killed home and then got rid of the xera it looks like nature but it was all a miracle manifested in nature and in that sense it sends us even greater than other holidays because it worked through teva it worked through the system the fact that it works through the system means it's one with you it's part of my system it's part of my biology it's who i am not just on a glorious unbelievable day this is who i am that kal of khaimer they could learn from the rock why does the rock listen what do you mean it has no prayer it's nature it does what its creator wants it dances towards what it's created one so just because i have a mind just because i have consciousness just because i can recognize the truth i shouldn't true i have true i need to make a living true i speak that's why our muscle with the computers and the ac is completely irrelevant here the fact that i have consciousness therefore i should detach myself from the symphony when i am not only part of the symphony but the conductor of the symphony this was a profound lesson the jewish people had to learn at that moment and remember that key word am i getting water from the rock or vanasan may move or is the rock giving me its water you see and this is so important when it comes to work and when it comes to education and when it comes to marriage you can get the water or you can get his water you know the difference you can get the job done you can get the water you'll get it you have a big stick you're powerful i'm afraid of you i'll give you the water i'll never give you my water you'll never get my water you see if i strike the rock i'm going to get water i'll even get a lot of water moisture got a lot of water mayam robin but not its own water when i speak to the rock the water is its own what's the difference what's the difference the difference is as follows if i use power if i use coercion even if i use a miracle if i could but it's something outside of you it's external stimuli maybe a carrot maybe a stick maybe a cotton candy maybe punishment maybe a paycheck performance reviews the way they try to motivate employees and companies you will get their time you will get their effort you will get them working they all need paychecks everybody needs a paycheck you won't get their water if you want their heart if you want their creativity if you want their neshama if you want their soul if you want their talent if you want them to develop according to their own strengths with loyalty and commitment i have to lead them inspire them fire them up rather than manage them and control them if i want to set the world on fire if i want to set my students on fire if i want to set my disciples on fire if i want to set my children on fire i want to set myself on fire it starts with me by the way i can't just pick up a stick to me we do it to ourselves we take a stick and we beat ourselves over their head anybody knows what i'm talking about as good jews you know that right never mind mothers in the shamans we take a stick and we beat ourselves and sometimes we think that's exactly what god wants and if he doesn't work beat higher my didn't hit once he hit twice he didn't hit hard enough hit large and you know what the water came out wow but territorial i won't be able to go in the transformation the real transformation i won't be able to create you talk about children education you talk about students you talk about family friends there's moments when we compel there's moments when we use a stick i don't think physically today but conceptually but if i want to help you truly grow and transform yourself from just a reservoir to a wellspring and i want your water i want your light i want your soul you're unique the difference will be vastly dramatic hit them and you get water no different from any other water speak to them and you get them to show you the water that is their signature brand truly their own and we now come to the last point if this is the case that maybe moshe was not being punished rather he fulfilled his mission for his time because on one level moshe is eternal maisha rabbenu moshe is our teacher forever we never had another teacher like maisha because everyone else was teaching what moshe gave us and that remains so but then there is moisha's physical presence as the leader of that nation that says in madrid that the reason he couldn't go in territory like the message gives us a whole other reason he said imagine there was a shepherd who was given flock and somebody came and kidnapped and abducted all the flock and the shepherd comes back to the king and the king says where are your flock he says oh they were abducted he says people are going to say that you took them why are you here he says go back with them and come back together so hashem told moisha you're going to go into this well and your whole generation stayed in the desert you stay with them and you'll all come together when it's time to come in what does this bring out this brings out how deeply moisture was connected to his generation his people that he fought for that he turned from slaves into free people he molded them into a nation he overthrew paris regime regime took them to high senate turned them into god's people and led them for 40 years through the wilderness the fact is moshe was a man of miracles maisha lived in the world of divine infinity in kabbalah and exodus it's called the higher level of unity where there's nothing outside of hashem's oneness nature so to speak has no say nature is not the reality god is the only exclusive reality and it's felt in moshe's heart and merchant soul all he could see is hashem he knew how to strike rocks what does it mean strike rocks rocks means to represent the truth that there's nothing outside of the will of the creator but it's above nature so the world conforms to the divine will by force it has no existence outside of russia in that way moshe remains so lofty and sublime but then there's something called a lower level of oneness the last lesson the jewish people needed before going into a world where there is nature where there is a world of nature there is a world of teva so they needed that person who will teach them how to make a transition from a miraculous existence to a non-miraculous existence in which there is nature there are rocks there are grizzly bears there are penguins there are butterflies there are turtles and there are people and they all want to follow the blueprint of hashem thousands of years later after the story as we also live in a world that is both miraculous and non-miraculous because i'll say that so many miracles aimed by hanes mac benissa one doesn't even recognize it we live in a world that's so natural in so many ways even though we call it a meshugganavelt because nature itself is so complex and so nuanced and often not predictable but if we listen carefully we may also be able to hear the rock whispering its message sweetly into our ears and that is that each and every single one of us is part of that extraordinary symphony and the most organic authentic deepest thing i can be doing at any moment is elevating seeing in myself how aligned i am with the cosmic oneness and being a facilitator of that divine music through my unique soul and your unique light have a wonderful week i'm just going to announce again for those who weren't here in the beginning that we're going to be taking a break for three weeks and then we're going to resume tuesday mornings 9 30 a.m not 12 45 9 30 a.m and it's going to be 18 for shade downstairs that's not an attempt it's in a regular building right here outside 18 for shay nine fair please tell your friends or relatives um so that's going to happen by azer hashem and once again i'm going to invite all of you to my birthday party thursday night and it would be an honor to have you and your husbands and i wish you all if you didn't get the information through internet or whatsapp you can ask mrs klein or you can email info at the yeshiva.net that's thursday night with motherhood ben david avraham lefreed lippa schmelzer and again this week we're doing a fundraiser for the work that we're involved in raiseathon.com yy razothon r a i s e t h o n dot com slash yy it would be i would be truly grateful for anybody to participate especially to make a team and send to friends or relatives or acquaintances thank you very much have a beautiful beautiful week in which you can hear every moment or at least some moments the symphony of nature without the nature within thank you for coming and agazunta zumer a healthy summer to you and your families and uh we should hear only pipsurastovas but this class is brought to you by the yeshiva.net please help us continue the classes make even a small contribution at www.theyoshiva.net donate