The Ten Commandments and Shabbat - Part 1 - Rabbi Dr. David Gottlieb

[Music] [Applause] ashame descended and cloud stood lifted their Moses he called out with the name shim-sham passed before I'm proclaimed a sham sham God compassion and gracious slow to anger by the Chinese in truth preserve of kindness four thousand generations but give her a nickel teva little sin ever cleanses it does not cleanse completely call an iniquity of parents upon children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generations and here the modern reader is very upset children grandchildren have to pay for the sins of their ancestors it's unjust it's unfair it's the primitive it's superstitious it's and if he's loaded on anthropology he has another ten adjectives you can add to the fire now i'm using this as an example of how you can read something superficially in two senses first of all you don't pay attention to what's written carefully and number two you don't have enough information about the book as a whole and when you could those two errors then you and II can work yourself into a tizzy but if you correct those two errors then I think that the file is going on page 50 50 9 verse 5 so first of all let's try to understand what's written here particular verse 7 these are God's attributes of mercy except for the end preserver of kindness for thousands of generations what could that mean preserver of kindness thousands of generations well what I understand it and it definitely fits the words is that the other generation that is good and earns god's kindness the kind supplies not only to them but to the future up to thousands of generations which should be at least 2,000 ok now let's keep going at the end and does not cleanse completely recalling the iniquity of parents upon children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generations now let's try try to work this out with logic that suppose generation one is outstandingly good so the verse says God they earn God's kindness was not just for that generation that kindness that's earned applies for two thousand generations okay now generation 2 is bad terribly bad Nick with T let's go out no generation 3 so they have to generation 3 well preserving the kinds of generation 1 means generation through you ought to get tightness visiting the iniquity of the parents of all the children oughta mean that charging three gets iniquity so it gets kindness and Nick we i know sundays tuesdays and thursdays kindness monday wednesday friday equity chavez take a rest and it something funny's going on here just try to make sense out of what's written i'm stressing it because it's something which is rarely ever tried people read and then their minds explode with all sorts of prejudices and then they don't order a cheeseburger but something funny is going on here on the surface it doesn't make a lot of sense as a matter of fact this phrase we call a the parents of children grandchildren occurs four times in the top so the first thing one might have thought of is let's look up other places where it occurs and see if we can get any help now go back to 409 you shall not prostrate yourself to them worship them I'm sure me God I jealous cover that means not going to go into that who visits the sin of the father's upon the children to the third fourth generations for my enemies that willy nilly it's that that a generation one worships idols then two three and four get sin automatically know it's only if generations two three and four qualify as God's enemies only then is a sinner generation one visit upon them who and who shows kindness for thousands of generations to those who love me and reserve my commandments that also is not willy-nilly the kindness that's stored up from a good generation doesn't go to every subsequent generation down to 2,000 it depends upon whether they themselves love God and observe his commandments so first of all we solved the problem about generation three generations people get according to its own record if they themselves qualify as God's enemies then they will get sin from Reverend generation one if they themselves qualify as those who love God and service preserve answer performance Commandments table a kindness from generation generation one generation to write it depends what your own record is so there's no contradiction back in 50 a night and it doesn't now sound as morally up to as a silent before what you get depends upon your own record furthermore there's an obvious bias here what's the obvious vice kindness is preserved for two thousand generations send iniquity are preserved before that's a very lopsided bias on the side of kindness as the talmud remarks its ratio of 500 to 1 so to anything there's a gigantic bias on the side of kindness here as against two against preserving iniquity this very very greatly softens the text and it very very greatly reduces the kind of moral outrage that you typically hear from people who read 509 alone still doesn't completely solve the problem why should anything that happens to me depend upon my ancestors when it's bad when it's good all bets are off there's no moral complaint that God will give to someone something he didn't deserve generosity kindness where you get something you didn't deserve is a positive moral trait no one's going to complain against God well they didn't earn your kindness so it's not right to give it to them those going to raise that complaint that's that's a silly fad silly but why should it be in the case of sin and iniquity that if generation one is sinful and generations 234 continue the sin that they should impart be burdened with a punishment for generation one why shouldn't each generation turns a punishment be judged that's all that's the remaining question and there are number answer to that question one is that routinely reincarnation occurs for four generations anything incarnation to account it means that the people in generations 23 for our reincarnation of generation one so that the same people another time around so it isn't because of what your ancestors did because what you did that's one way yeah another way out is this the first generation that deteriorates may not be fully aware of the consequences of so doing they may not realize the terrible crimes they're committing because they don't have personal experience of it but generation 2 which sees generation 1 sees what they're doing and observes the consequences if they continue as a bath the more guilty the more guilty because they continuing a path which is already on record and it should have known better so that be in case it could be that generation two three and four get taxed with some responsibility because of a generation one because since there was a generation before them their crime is more is more severe in any case I think you could see that once you add 40 9 25 09 and add a little logic the problems that seem to arise in five or nine are not genuine Bob's okay remember the Sabbath theta sanctified six days shalt you work and accomplish all your work seventh day is the Sabbath to wash em your God shall let do any work work work work you would be forgiven if you thought that in Hebrew it was the same word three times but it isn't it isn't there are two words in Hebrew in this passage one is a Buddha ever done he's work sweat aching muscles need for relaxation the other word is malaha my heart carries no such association not a getting tired out of straining malaha means some kind of creative performance but it might be stitching a garment or as we'll see as I'll describe it in a moment so first of all if they ask what does the text say well the text says six days shall you Avada work sweat muscles and accomplish all your melaka all the creative tasks that you have in front of you and the seventh day is a Shem is a Sabbath you save you I think your God you shall not do any mwahaha shall I do any malaha avatar Padma la ha why is this important because there's a scenario that played itself out the United States maybe tens of thousands of times from the 1880s through the 1930s 40s where it was a mass of immigration from Europe to the United States of Jews and they very quickly assimilated and the jewel says to his local rabbi g rabbi I know that in the seventh day we're supposed to rest but surely rabbi they can't mean not to strike matches trachomatis doesn't work is that hard I don't sweat my muscles don't ache surely that's not work so rabbi when that Bible says don't do work can't mean not to like the night fires with matches and now what I just told you about this if a Hebrew words becomes very important if the Torah said don't do a load on they be right striking a match is not a Buddha but their gardens and say that the terraces don't do my baja what is my aha a rough description of malacca is this maliheh is something that you do intentionally the loop accident skillfully it's creative and its physical it's some kind of physical change intentional skillful creative physical change now let's try out striking matches when you strike Magister you do intentionally yeah you don't do back Senate when you're not getting attention and it's skillful children do need some time to experiment before they ignite fires and I don't know if they've ever yet be able to train a chimpanzee strike a match and it's creative it creates heat and light fire and it's a physical change it's definitely mwahaha it's not even questionable that's all haha so the tortoises don't do a la ha it clearly includes not striking matches but the poor English reader doesn't get that because he beats work work work and he knows what work is and there's no way in English to striking a match could be work so I sympathize with English reader but it isn't an objection against the original text which of course is a Hebrew text I would go so far okay now does anybody yeah but it sucked doesn't say just says 16 you should do our data with the seventh Asian not doing multi but it doesn't like explicitly say don't do that's correct that is correct and indeed as far as the biblical text is concerned if a person will spend shoplifting barbells it will not be a biblical prohibition it will not be a biblical prohibition that's not what's belated what if you get paid for all without even being paid is only a penny Lutz hungry but that's right it's not one of the 39 forbidden categories of Malacca the reason why you came to get something gets any pay because being paid for a job usually rides involves writing writing down the record signing that you got you received your payment or whatever it is and the writing is a biblical as a biblical malaha so the working for money is because of the possibility of writing that's not a biblical get aid I'm shabbos no am I saying that what I'm saying is to do a job on Chavez just on Chavez for the sake of money this is forbidden by the rabbi's if you work for a whole week and one of them is included one of the days it's included a chef that's okay it was only if you're going to be paid specifically for only what you do on shop baby I paid on friday and sunday would matter because normal payment involves writing and who knows when it's going to happen to too much too many to detail to to be observed correctly so if you work like Saturday and Sunday and you got paid on that Sunday and you pay for the two days that's fine that's fine so we hate mean people work as waiters in hotels on shabbos and they pay for that yes quite man that vice new working chef as they said to the Conservative rabbi rabbi we understand why we could drive to the synagogue I houses we're drive worth worked on work we're driving to to say God to pray but you r ever you're driving to work so you can't drive you know you should walk I didn't carry much weight was to logic yeah it's just actually been mola ha and Malcolm yes there is a connection between aha I'm a la king very good and the correct translation of Malcolm is a Jesus agent we treasure angel angel of course means nothing I guess it's a Greek word or something but instead of and sometimes they translate my malakas messenger that's completely wrong my locking to lots of other things besides carry messages and by the word by the way the word matlock applies to people also there's nothing to do we think is particularly that's why when I read mwahaha Shem I was translated as agent of a Shem and then you couldn't have a Malcolm of a king let's say Kingston can send people as his agents to do something rare that's right my lockers agent because come it's a word for doing something for a performance very good ok so now I want to see something else shabbos shabbos is the word here Sabbath there's a word shabbos have a meaning the hebrew language okay how about seven nope that's not right sure bothers me rust nope it does not mean that slot nope sit nope does not he said all the common this suggestions nope doesn't mean any of those nope the word I'm not worth it was over refers to now talk about its meaning no doesn't mean separation doesn't mean to return I shot mr. chair no shabbat was not me to return shabbat means to cease to stop doing something needs to stop doing something it matter Hebrew a strike when workers called strike is called ashrita which carries the assumption that before that time they were working which might not really be true but okay that's the idea chavita is a cessation the word leesville shabbos mean cessation no does not mean to rest in fact in the creation story it said about the guys shabbos via no fuch show us means he ceased creating but you know if I she means roughly he recovered rested we covered that sort of thing but it does not mean to rest which most does not mean to rest it needs to stop doing something now do you understand why shabbos has to be at the end of the week could you imagine shabbos being at the beginning of the week how can you start a week by stopping why are you stopping now can you understand why there's some question about the Christian calendar what's the first day of the week in the Christian Council no isn't it you can listen in your in the app on your phone there's usually in structure where you can choose the first day of the week if you want to start the week with the business week that will default calendar start with something yeah quick shot is everyone gonna be a week naturally sorry yeah but that's not true it's not true you can make up you can make out of you like but it isn't true and I asked I shall wait who is a absolutely wonderful person scholar he was a Methodist minister and he went to Germany to get his doctorate in Methodist theology and he met some gear heceta and that was that maybe he makea tetek and he's a care of horses matter of fact and he was here in shall I him and he's a psychotherapist that he is wonderful wonderful person he explained to me that when Christianity started out they had two holy days a week one day was shabbos which is Saturday of course and suddenly because according to their tradition the founder of Christianity was resurrected on Sunday when Constantine made the Roman Empire Christian he said to the Christian elders ok we're going to all become Christian by the way he didn't he remained a pagan this was the unify the Empire because there were too many different fighting subgroups but he said you're not getting two days a week pick one so they pick sunday because was distinctive Christianity and they moved shabbos to something they just pooped it i think is a good indication of how Christianity works how its decisions are made how you know how what its foundations are but that's why to this very day christian gal they start with sunday the default calendars and they're in the Western we'll start with Sunday because that's the first day of the week from time immemorial and shabbos for them the biblical Sabbath is on Sunday even though its first day of the week because because they just put it that's all at any rate understand why it's got to be the end of the week because the very name shabbos means cessation and it carries the implication of ceasing from it from what what you did before I'll just give you one more little implication suppose the person says this job is the holiest day of the year comes once a week it's a foundation of Jewish existence is here in the temperate acid as a sign I now other people need to work I understand I happen to be very wealthy you know I am where Bill Gates was before he started giving money away and I'm just gonna make my whole life Travis that's wrong that's wrong the creator of the universe set up the parameters and he said one seventh of your time shabbos is the right proportion and that's why the Torah introduces it with seven days shall you work not because there's a mitzvah to work no one can claim that he goes to the wall street because the Torah says he has to work that's not true but shabbos has to be in contrast to what comes before it so that those days have to be work days you might not have to work but you can't declare them as chaves days chavez has to stand in contrast to what came before those are days which our work days it you might choose not to work but you can sanctify them again I love it if I can't eat shabba stick they can't have shabbos the shop is identity ok now let's go on it says the seventh eighth shabbos ish am your guide shall I do any muhaha now comes a list and we are going to spend some time on this list you your son your daughter your male slave your female slave your animal and your convert within your gates you your son your daughter your male slave female slave animal and your convert within your gates does that list raise some questions in your mind some some things that would appreciate to have clarified to understand what it's getting at some of these which may appear to be perhaps even questionable you know something you'll be worth an objection course we have any ninjutsu so the slaves and they make themselves oh I see if they're if they're Nigel I see we should be certainly did okay so but so well you can put the animal you could ask better right animals aren't even human it's keeping shabbos applied to animals then keeping before you it suggests answers let's just get the question of the table so what the reference to animal here has to be explained it's very funny for you this man okay i said before we suggest answers let's let's get the questions on the table like yeah that's right what else is bothersome here yeah where's your wife how about the wife Wow the wife is missing oh man what are we gonna do with that it's a good question but maybe in a few minutes you'll regret okay okay what else how about the order boys and girls do you really want to put the animal before the convert you really want to do that you know that just that just doesn't sound right that doesn't sound right well I know that's brutal Congress would be first of course ok so now I'm going to tell you arashi and on the basis of that rashi I want you to figure out the answers to the questions we raised Raji says when it says you your son and daughter is referring to minor children sons before the 13th birthday and daughters before the 12th birthday that's what it's referring to so taking Rashi in hand I want you to fill in the following phrase this is a list of you and what oh you're under possessions possessions won't work for the convert your entire firm irresponsible oh that's the key word you and those for whom you are responsible those you have responsible for it I'll come to the cupboard right we'll have to explain that bit start with your children you have primary sponsor these children then your slaves you have responsibility for them then your animal for whom you have responsibility because your possession and then as you will see there's some responsibility for conference as well but of course the convert is another another adult human being and he's independent so you have responsibilities day but far less responsibility and you have even to your own animal which is your possession it's directly responsible responsible for okay now let's come back to his question think carefully try to answer this in the most correct way what then is the answer the question why your wife is missing stop meaning say say it out meaning but I get head i'm so so sick of my crap my with my question my question was why is she missing from the list what's the answer she's not missing from the list the you includes all adult Jews why did you think the woman was missing hey a little misogynist leftovers there don't associate it with us then the neutral you in Hebrew refers to men and women equally unless something in the context distinguishes it that's what rashi is implying by saying that the son and daughter are minors but every adult Jew has an equal responsibility for shabbos the woman has exact same responsibilities as a man whether she's married and I married there's no difference between them whatsoever the woman's ringing she would have thought we're in say guys probably not because most women are sure that the text is misogyny and they don't have to be there are needy propaganda expecting that it's per minute not but but any rate you know either way you certainly be in trouble now let's go back to animal what's the animal doing there animal does not have to keep shabbos for example detaching something that grows from a source of growth is a biblical prohibition must my animal not greysun Chavez must I pre-cut all of its food so it doesn't have to bite the grass and and cut it off from its source of nourishment certainly not the prohibition here is that the animals shouldn't do anything for you my wife and I were here in 1967 right after the war one of these you did we took a trip to the Golan Heights which in those days was serious and we saw people farmers threshing wheat the way it describes it in the Mishnah from 1900 years ago you have a pile of of weed on the ground you have a pole on the center you have an animal with a rope around its neck and the other end of the Rope is tied at a loop around the pole and the animal walks round and round it steps on the grain to Thresh the grey that's how they were thrashing the great mission had come to life nineteen hundred years later right that animal is doing work for you threshing grain is something which is forbidden for Jews to do on jobs and you can't have the animal do it for you either that's a prohibition against about the mention of the word animal here not that it should itself perform one of the 39 category is it relevant is that animal now what comes to convert there's a split because the word that's translated in english as convert gear in hebrew has two meanings to applications one is a personal converts to Judaism as a full-fledged shoe the other is a person word gear garen hebrew means to dwell in a place but not necessarily to be a full-fledged citizen necessarily could be but could not be there are other words which indicate Fletch citizenship like Ezra or you shop in your shop at a place usually indicates full-fledged citizenship but Garrett does not could be either way and the other meaning of Garrett's what's called a garret o Shah fakir tozhe as a person who's not Jewish who pledges legion pledges allegiance to the tourist laws for non-jews gives up idol worship and other pledges allegiance to keep the tourists Louis for non-jews but does not convert to Judaism and he's perfectly welcome he's welcome to a little among us and to retain his non-jewish status and he then comes under the same prohibition as the animal so it's July sixteenth and there's a drought and I mama we have to shoo and because of the drought my petunias of my front yard are wilting and withering and my non Jewish neighbor gareth Rocha is out there watering his petunias it says oh my dear Jewish neighbor your petunias are wilting I know you can't water there by Chavez but how about me just spring it up with my home's i'll be happy to do that for you have to tell no no I can't accept him to do for me something which is forbidden for me now there are parameters and ups and downs and they're abundant there I said all sorts of other but that's the general that's the general idea so that is why if the gear here is a garret Oh shove can we understand what it's what he's doing on the list what about against headache someone who is a complete fabric to Judaism here the ROM bond expresses a very I think very important and not very well an idea a convert is responsible for all 613 commandments he's a full-fledged you still certain commandments that Jews have towards each other the throw goes out of its way to double them with respect to a convert so for example you have the aftershock omocha which is a command to love all Jews turn qualifications but all Jews all Jews there's another but another verse items are geared that you should love the comfort but he's already included in the first since i'm on yes that's right he's included in first but for a convert you double it up because we want you to pay special attention to a convert you want to give a convert special care because of what he's sacrificed to become a jew cut himself off so it's doubled up a loss unleashes Sophie you shouldn't cause pain to another Jew with your words and loss on us again don't cause pain to it to a convert with your words the first one includes the convert buffer convert it's doubled because the Torah wants it has special concerned Troy Congress so here when you're talking about a person converse and talk about his responsibility to keep shabbos when a person is in the process of conversion he's allowed not as he allowed but a certain late-stage he's encouraged required to go through all the commandments I know fellow will became like here tetek in Boston many years ago and when I was there and he came to show any warts it's us and daven did he make kiddush Friday night and and and kept kosher and everything except Chavez a non-jew is not allowed to keep shops you must violate every shabbos at least once so when it becomes a full-fledged care full-fledged convert the first time he's going to be responsible to keep shabbos the Torah says have special concern for the showers of a gear that's what it's doing there if you take it to mean and it isn't as if it's one's right ones wrong the commentators some cars take only the other way but both are correct that it's both the gear social again sir so that's the reason for the list now it says don't do it off why not 11 for in six days chef made the heavens the earth the seals in them and he I think this is correct to yes he rested that's not the spouses vienna on the seventh day today for a sham plus the science ab day and sanctified it you shouldn't do any malaha and Chavez because God created the heavens of the earth in six days and the seventh he rested I'll explain rested in it I would suggest to you that the decoys here is not obvious so happy said all the infinite creator of the universe the P Q R therefore i should do picky where does that happy said whoa if we had a principle of Judaism whatever God does don't do because you're not God with all nod our heads to oh of course obviously I mean he's God what you can't do that you're just a finite creature half of you is this physical of course you can't do what God does we'd all nod our heads of course so then we should stop and think what because God did it we should do something analogous why should we do that and then you may recall the rest in Genesis that says we are made bits elemental keep we are made sharing some qualities of gods and then we may be able to understand that this is possible this is the first place that as far as I know where the tourists is explicitly that you should do what he does we have it as one of the 613 commandments we are bound to develop godlike character traits mahua fateh just as he is so shall you be but that's that obvious and here's the first place where the Torah is expressing this because he did it therefore you do it okay now let me explain the concept of rest here you have to you have to distinguish the strict definition of rest from the associations that you make naturally make no associations your mind [Music] the golfer had a phenomenal round on his third stroke the ball reached the green and came to rest three inches from the couplet I don't think that the ball was relaxing regaining its strength you know really seeing the tensions of the day as I was wrong the word rest means stop moving stop acting stop performing that's all it means of course when a person stops moving he's usually regaining a strength he's not exerting himself it's not making is not under any strain so he loaded again a strict but the word rest doesn't mean regain strength it means stop moving or stop performing so that's what it refers to hear when says God rested it means the activity that he was engaged in up until then stopped there are other connotations but that's that's all the strict meaning of the word carries and that's all therefore we should be responsible okay now it says that he blessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it and this now becomes a gigantic gigantic literature I just mentioned one element to you the word blessing in Hebrew always refers to increasing something making something expand grow we're blessing never refers to creating something out of nothing there are many references to this in the 10 act on bond states this as a principle if you look at the manner as it fell for the Jews in the wilderness you'll see the wave fell is this a portion fell on each day sunday monday tuesday wednesday thursday and on friday at double portion felt and a shabbos none fell so the Czar asks how can you tell me that shabbos is blessed when it gets less than every other day I'm a contrary it's deprived you're talking about blessing shabbos you mean it should get an increase every other day with friday gets one portion friday gets two portions shabbos gets nothing says the zohar what the litter means here is that God made shabbos into the source of blessing now they didn't receive the blessing but it became a blessing and the Tsar explains as follows you'll do all your physical creative activity during the week preparation for shabbos come into showers and there are certain ways that you are supposed to celebrate shabbos one of them is feasting well feasting isn't the experience of a gourmand feasting means you are celebrating the fact that you're close to God if you use the food that you have on shabbos to celebrate your closeness to God that will be a source of blessing for the coming week that you should be able to provide food for the next jobs and if not not Chavez is a time of testing are you going to treat the physical bounty that God gives you in a spiritual way if you are then it will be a source of blessing for the next week that this physical bounty should be increased if not not and that's what this verse means that's the Tsar explains we have we proceed him maybe some stardom also poor Ashkenazi and don't do these things there's a certain section of the Zohar that we say before kids friday night and it starts with this very I would say almost Talmudic attitude you know the verse says this in the actual performance in the in the wilderness was this it don't fit so high gonna answer it and and it gives any kids you know argument and then draws conclusions and applications yeah if you if you associate the Czar with unintelligible mysticism not all of those like that this piece is pretty straightforward ok this is introduction to some of the elements in the temp pronounced with the signing [Music] you [Music] you