Achieving Greatness | Rabbi Dzialowski

so I'd like to share with you one or two thoughts on par of course in par sh who takes Central stage obviously it's m and we all know the famous POS that M says about himself when asks him to go and speak to par he says but I can't I can't wasn't able to speak I remember I once heard a sh from barel wine and he said our great leader was unable to speak which is a tradition which has remained with rabbis until today but either wayu says about himself that he's aad he's aad and he's unable to talk so how can he be the representative to par now what does that mean exactly that he's the and he's thead so some explain some the rasham and others that it doesn't mean that he had something wrong with his speech rather it means that he didn't know the language he could talk perfectly but he was unable to talk the language of the because he says it's true I was born here but I left at this story was 80 years old so he says I've been out of MIT for so long that I no longer remember the language of MIT and that's what it means not that there's anything wrong with my speech I Have a language problem but we know that most disagree and of course Rashi alamak says that he was m game mam game means he had a stammer he started he had a speech impediment in fact Ru B says if you notice carefully the POS had two is the mouth is the tongue we know that some of the AL Bas some of the letters we use the teeth Z shin and sin and says was unable to pronounce those letters that's what it means but there are other letters that you use more the tongue like Dad and Tess and L so those letters were included in so either wayu had a speech impediment now where did this speech impediment come from so the ezar says he was born with it he was born with it thear banel said he had some strange growth in his mouth and that's why he said what does mean like just like when a child is born he has Oro extra skin he had some extra skin in his mouth but we all know the famous story in the med that seems to suggest otherwise that M was taken as a very young child as we all know to the Palace he's sitting on parry's lap and he grabs the crown of pari's head and Par is very perturbed by this and he sees that maybe this is a sign of things to come does this mean it's going to come the day thatu is going to challenge his malus which of course was true so he wanted to put him to death but yro was there to save the day and Y said no he's just a baby he's just a child put in front of him gold and put in front of him coal burning coal and we'll see if he goes for the gold well then you're right seems to be that already at this young age he has an appreciation for something expensive but if he goes for the burning coal then you see that he's just a young baby he has no idea and anything that's bright and sparkling he'll go for they do this experiment which renu's hand goes towards the gold the Mal Gabriel pushes it and he grabs hold of the coal it was burning it was hot he puts it in his mouth in order to cool down his fingers and because of that he burned his mouth or his tongue and from them on he was a Kad peir and a Kad l so either way we definitely have different interpretations of what does this mean but as mentioned most opinions explain that it doesn't mean that he had a language problem but rather he had a speech problem so the big question that needs to be asked is everything of course that happens to us sh even more so anything that happens to a leader of Cl is all it's all divinely orchestrated so the big question is why is it thatu the leader of Cl had to have a speech impediment so what will we say well he had the story he grabbed the coal but that's also it must be that wanted that to happen so even if wanted it to happen we need to ask the question why did he want it to happen so the ran says an incredible thing thatu it it was very hard for him to speak he doesn't explain why wanted this to happen but he just says it was very hard for him to speak but actually he was quite happy about it because he thought that that would be his excuse not to have to go to par so he never daved for a ra shal and because he never DAV for didn't heal him the implication is had he only DED he would been but I'd like to share with you what it says in the run the run is one of the great Rim the run as a safer and the Run says the following very important principle why is it that M raenu our great leader was unable really to speak properly so the ran says an incredible y which actually is a frightening usate and he says if MOA raenu would have been able to speak properly and would have been a great orator then maybe there would PE people who would come along and say he smooth talked clly thr into believing in Hashem he smooth talked CL into accepting the T he had a way of words he was a magnificent orator he had tremendous skills so somehow he managed to brainwash people with his tremendous skills that he had in public speech public speeches so who organized that no who is our great leader who is the emiss of to transmit the T to us to the country could not speak properly so that nobody would ever say Well it must be that he just just poetically and neatly smooth talk dust into believing in Hashem sounds like certain politicians today absolutely as they say how do you know when a politician is lying when he moves his lips when he talks simple as that so it's actually quite frightening I've seen and I'm sure maybe others have seen as well a video clip of Hitler yak also everything is was according to some the greatest public speaker in the last century it was a phenomenal speaker there's various footage video clips of him addressing rallies of tens or hundreds of thousands of Nazis and he manages to whip them up into a frenzy with his K and just to prove how dangerous a is we all know historically what was the whole Nazi propaganda the Nazi propaganda was there's something called the Aryan race what is the Aran race it's the perfect utopian ideal human being look at the German handsome blonde fairhead very goodlooking that's the perfect being and all others need to just be consumed so what is the painful irony that he himself was not that in fact he wasn't German it was actually from Vienna born in Austria neither was he handsome nor was he Fair haired nor was he blonde nor was he tall talker but he was a talker he's giving this public rally to 100,000 people not one person stood up and says excuse me I have a Casher somebody doesn't something doesn't add up something doesn't make sense over here why that's the that's the somebody who is gifted and he was a gift it was wasn't a mistake somebody who's gifted with a can smooth talk thousands and hundreds of thousands of people into believing anything you want so says the run so that nobody should ever say nobody should ever say that had a away with words he was a gifted orator and he just smooth talked clly stroll into believing whatever he wanted to them to believe arranged that actually he was unable to speak properly at all so nobody could accuse him of that another frightening historical fact again those who know a little bit of history about the second world war the Nazis had a propaganda machine PR public relations the head of it was one of their top men and his name was geres this GBL had a theory and again just look how dangerous public speak it could be never tell a small lie only tell a big lie because if you tell a small lie people will say oh I think you're exaggerating in a bit who says it was quite like that but if you tell a lie which is so big what will people say he can't be exaggerating I mean it's so fantastic if I would tell you do you know unbelievable I just came out of a cab and I saw this pink elephant dancing around nobody's going to say I'm exaggerating if I told you you know I saw 10 dogs you say who says it was 10 maybe it was seven if I say it was a pink elephant nobody's going to say no it wasn't a pink elephant actually was a small cat nobody makes such a big mistake that was his theory tell the big lie and that's what they did they told lies and that's what they spread around the world and they told such big lies that they succeeded in convincing people that's the that's the look what goes on goes on today so look what happens today it's all in what you say and Photoshop and record as Mark TW once said us I think Mark Twain once said when all else fails try the truth try the truth all else fails but there are many like we've just quoted who don't try the truth and rather with this Talent with this gift of speech anybody could be convinced to believe anything so so that should never happen in our history therefore was unable to really be a public speaker he couldn't speak properly and that way everybody could be convinced that if people believed it was authentic if people believed it was the MS nobody smooth talked us into anything but there is one other interpretation that I'd like to share with you also very important and this is is the interpretation of the malbim we just quoted the Run hundreds of years later the malim in Germany explained the following a different explanation but also very fundamental M Abu is the most critical the most important person in the history of the Jewish Nation why not just because he was the biggest sadic not just because he was the biggest because our whole M the whole transmission of from to comes about through if one person would ever get up and query that who says M relayed the T in an accurate way what would do what would that do to alus finished it's all over if it's not accurate if it's 1% incorrect then that becomes two and three and8 and 20 and then maybe it's all forged said had the which spoke through his throat he couldn't speak at all says the Mal that was the reason why the reason why was because M had to have the of speech taken away from him because otherwise what will people say similar to what the ran was saying not that he smooth talked people into it like the ran says but similar rather who says he said it accurately maybe told him one thing but then he relayed it slightly differently so AR that he couldn't relay it differently because actually spoke through his throat so whatever you heard from you were actually hearing from you are actually hearing directly from and that way when we learn a then that's translated accurately every word that we learn in the until today are the exact words that told how do you know maybe he misunderstood maybe he added maybe he deviated he couldn't he couldn't speak at all in fact in the par ofro of course parro is the par of mat and it says these are the words and Rashi says there what does it mean not more and not less there's another this is what you should tell to says this this S no additions no deviations because if there would be the smallest tiniest deviation tells and then tells then then our whole M cannot be anymore claimed to be authentic so we see R in one in our par seems to be just an innocent innocuous maybe interesting was unable to speak but look how many tremendous lessons that we learn from this PUK the ran the ran taught us in order thatu should never be accused of just convincing people with his as the malim Tells Us in order to make sure that the transmission of T is absolutely [Music] authentic I'd like to share with you if I may another idea in this week's paraa also of course about M imagine you opened your mailbox today and you see you received a wedding invitation very exciting who's getting married you open it up and it says we'd like to invite you to the wedding of a boy who's marrying a girl rather Anonymous looking wedding invitation isn't that what happens in this week's Parish a man went from the house of Ley and he married a daughter of Ley we know who they are it's amam the leader of Cl at the time who's marrying y the daughter of Ley so what's the big secret what's the big secret why is this Anonymous invitation a Ley went and he married a daughter of Ley no names so one interpretation May well be I just troubling if a cup of cold water yeah sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry so one interpretation might be the following and this is very very important if it would have written in the T that's what we expected it to say okay imagine if that's would have been written and then it would have carried on they got married they had three children Aon Miriam and Misha what would we all have said what would you all have said we all would have said of course if you have the leader of we would have all said ah of course if marries your so of course who do you end up with you end up with children like it was all as they say a dumb deal if you have parents the then you have children are and we would have read that and we would all said to ourselves so what about little me my father's not the God so if that's the case finished I'm doomed there's no chance apparently you can only become great if you have great parents so the toy deliberately conceals the names of's parents all very vague all very Anonymous in order that you should know do you know how became because he became there is no such thing as well I'm born to a great family I'm born to great parents that's it as they say in that's it everything is just fine and dandy for me no in order to become great one has to earn one has to work hard to become great how is that he's a child of of uh he is indeed a child of am what the toyra is doing by concealing the names is telling you don't think he became great as a result of his very illustrious lineage you know when I got married almost 25 years ago our family are descendant of the and of the and of so the night before I got married the night before I got married I was in London and I get a phone call from one of the rash of gates which is where I learned his name is Rosen and he says he was also his a very proud descendant of Etc and he calls me and he says I apologize I will be able to attend the wedding and he gave me a and obviously he told me in the name of the and then he said the following something that I've never forgotten he said you know you cannot go through your whole life saying you know the my great great great grandfather you have to behave in a way that theam saer looks at you and says Ah that's my great great great great grandson but just to say oh have a very big Z it's true had very illustrious parents that's not why he became great I got a call this week from a particular in town who are inquiring about a certain family that applied to this school and they heard good things about the family I said fine so what's the problem so take the kid yeah but we've heard that the grandparents the parents of the person who wants to the kid you know maybe they're a bit shaky I said if that's the case you probably wouldn't have taken a into either his father also wasn't exactly the most he was an idol worshipper so it's a good family and the child is good and the parents so I'll tell you a little secret this week's paraa paraa shim is actually my bit paraa and 33 years ago happy birthday thank youy 33 years ago and myz I assume people are not so good at math here you know I had a great cousin a very very big Tom here in this country he was nter a few years ago his name was gski is a huge absolute genius amongst as many other attributes was he was extremely humble incredibly humble incredibly incredibly humble somebody once asked me I don't understand you're so humble but the gamor says that can have an eighth of an eighth of GAA you can have one in 64 of GAA he said yeah I was never good at maths I was never good at that so either way a number of years ago Alon him Mitzvah I remember my father said that we all know the POS in this week's Parish that shifra and pu saved the lives of the Jewish boys and what was their reward the ter says literally translated who made houses for them so Rashi says what does it mean and laia great homes royalty Kahuna and laia so my father asked how did Rashi know that's what it means B Homes so presumably it means great homes okay we can assume that but how does Rashi know it means Mal K Maybe means B of maybe it means of maybe it means B of and he answered a very simple answer because there's no such thing if you're born into a home of a Coen then you are automatically a Coen that's your home it's automatic you don't have to do anything to achieve to become a Cen if your father's a Cen you're a Cen if your father's a Ley you're a Ley if your father's a m you're a m that's a bias tomorrow and daving we're all going to say how does it carry on one second B is B [Applause] bem Why didn't it say bem The House of and the answer is because there's no such thing you could be B is if you're born into a Jewish home if your mother's a Jew then you're a Jew if your father's a Coen then you're a Coen if your father's a Ley your father's a m that's a bias but there's no such thing that's how Rashi knew there's no such thing as a oh my father's very great I'm guaranteed no if you'll excuse me I am from the UK as some of you are we said you're allowed to quote a go that tell us sometimes we have to learn from a go what to do and sometimes we have to learn what not to do so there was a very famous prime minister in England called Winston Churchill Winston Churchill once said the following some people are born great some achieve greatness and others have greatness thrust upon them again three parts of that sentence some people are born great some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them what the is teaching us that's not true some people achieve greatness and that's it nobody's born great and nobody has greatness thrust upon us if somebody's born into the home of aen it's true he's aen doesn't mean he's a greater person there's you have to be the there's of Kad but he doesn't get any G because he happens to be aen he's not a greater person he might be a more important person because he has a role of working in the B mikdash but some people are born great there's no such thing some people have greatness thrust upon them no such thing greatness has to be achieved and that's why the Torah is concealing the names of M's parents and AR's parents and Mir man of it's true they were great but don't think that it's because of that that automatically automatically they're three great children [Music] no not only that it's true on the one hand if somebody has great parents it's no guarantee that he will be great and on the other hand if indeed irrespective irrespective of whether one's parents or grandparents are indeed great or not each person is expected and is able to achieve greatness doesn't the r say that everybody could be like everyone that's the the ra doesn't say call in parenthesis on condition you have great parents doesn't say that now there is a very interesting if you open up the you will see a very interesting the Remar says that a young baby or any child should not nurse from a non-jewish woman he says quite clearly the milk is kosher and it's permissible but it's not advisable that's exactly what he says it spiritually pollutes the Le now what does that mean the raar just told you that the milk is actually kosher so why is it how do you know so what's the source obviously so the V over there sends you to a medish the source of this is a famous medish from this week's Parish they bring the Egyptian woman for him to nurse and he doesn't nurse why not so the med says because he was the mouth that's going to talk with the mouth that's going to talk with cannot nurse from an Egyptian woman and that's why there are Mo his writing so a child should not nurse an Egyptian woman asks rakov ketki one second something doesn't make sense over here the med says there was something very unique about M because he is the mouth that is destined to speak to the so what's that got to do with me why is that written in this is not for it's for me and clearly says Rak kamki this is a tremendous lesson do you know how you have to educate your child with every hope with every plan with every filler that he could beo as well you can't say yeah he couldn't drink the milk but me my child ah what can become of him I'm not such a great person doesn't matter you have to your child that your child could be great do you know this week somebody in raar giml I live in raag giml made a bris had a baby boy so I know him I called him up he's not necessarily maybe somebody who's a Ben and I called him up and I wished him and then I said to him you should be he should be a God be and his reaction caused me a lot of pain I wished him he should come a God will be his stroll you know his reaction was he burst out laughing as if to say come on what my child wish me that should be wish me should be God will be thr come on little old meat and it was very painful CU if you don't believe that it can happen then and it certainly won't happen like we said there's no guarantees who's one of the heads of parrots one of the heads of the BBC at the moment is a Woman by the name of Mrs Jenny abramsky Mrs Jenny abramsky is a total totally irreligious secular Jew she's a granddaughter of one of the GSK only had one son he had a daughter one son is quite a modern Jew all his children were off to D in fact they changed their name because they were embarrassed to be called Shak so there's no guarantees one can have the most illustrious parents and there's no guarantee but the other way around is also true that even if one does not have illustrious parents one can and one is expected to achieve greatness and this therefore this therefore is and I say this very delicately is maybe the problem sometimes when we read biographies of great people in clis because sometimes the way they're written is you knowski he knew all of the T by the age of seven he was learning 12 hours a day and he knew all of mishas and by the age of 10 he knew sh the age of 15 you knew all of Zoya by the age of 20 he was making a and I'm reading this book and I think to myself one of the two either there's no hope for me I wasn't doing any of this the age of 7 and 10 and or it's just irrelevant so either depresses me or it just becomes irrelevant you know why because there's a few chapters that are not written in that book kesi wasn't born great he had a very illustrious his father his father was the stier his father-in-law was rashev that's not why he was great do you know what the chapters that are not written in that book would would read what about all his struggles what about the mid that maybe he wasn't so perfect as a child and he had to work on but those for whatever reason are not described to us so we get the mistaken impressioni he's born to his father the sty Play Married the daughter of so what do you want from me but if we would only know Ki struggled every God will be stroll struggled but they overcame it and they worked hard on themselves and that's why they became great there's a beautiful story with aiv the has his famous commentary to the I'm sure you have it here in the B the and he wrote a number of others for him as well his most magnificent work was a SAA called the h shs h h the H sh is a three volume work it's a commentary to What's called the shter and when he completed this work after many years he made a big party a big Suda and he stood up and he said you might be wondering why am I making such a big party it's true very proud achievement she said I'll tell you because when I was a young boy I wasn't very studious and I was not really putting in my effort into Li I was misbehaving and I overheard my parents speaking in the kitchen I was standing outside they didn't know that I was listening and I overheard my mother say she said in yish Vos gate Z what's going to be with our little na what's going to be with him we know he has potential but he's not applying himself he's not putting in his we know he could be a big person and what's going to come of him he's become a simple shoe maker and I was so moved by the tears of my mother that I decided to turn things around and I started putting in and I've now finished writing the H so why the sud because he says after 120 and I come upstairs to the bz Malo imagine had I just been a simple shoe maker and they would have asked me very nice shoes but where's your ham sh and I wouldn't have known what they were talking about hame what yeah it's a great three volume magnificent work that you could have written me little old me I'm a shoe maker I don't know any toyra I don't know anything and then they'll show him the video not of the life that he lived but of the life that he could have lived and they would have asked me well why didn't you live that life you could have become great and I wouldn't have had an answer so I'm making a suda today to celebrate the fact that I won't have to answer that question that's an important story why because we're told that here one of the G is struggled as a child and let's not make a mistake everybody to become a God will be a Str when I wish this young person this week I hope your son becomes a God will be thr I didn't necessarily mean they have a Long White Beard and and everybody running after him what I meant was he'd fulfill his potential in becoming an evid hasem and in that respect every person can and must become a God be yes we may not have our names splashed upon the front room front page of the newspaper that's not the definition of a God will be we may not have our photographs plastered all over that's not the definition of a god of be nobody will get extra ganaden because they had their photograph around because they're famous they'll get extra ganen if they become a God be Isel not born to Greatness but achieving greatness becoming a god becoming a God and if we don't believe that our children can become gim can fulfill their potential potential become great people then it won't happen like we said there's no guarantees it's all very Anonymous don't think that became great because he had great parents no he became great because he became great so we have to help our children believe that they can become great of course we have responsibilities of our children our grandchildren let me just finish with one very beautiful story as we said before you're allowed to quote from the I just want to read to you one paragraph maybe some of you have heard this before but it's very moving and it's very beautiful Thomas Edison was a great inventor they claimed that he invented the light bulb although some disagree but he was definitely one of the greatest inventors in recent history so I'd like to just read one small paragraph one day Thomas Edison came home as a young child and he gave a piece of paper to his mother and he told her my teacher gave me this paper and told me to only give it to my mother I don't know what it says but you have to read it his mother's eyes were tearful as she read the letter out to her child and she said Thomas this is what it says your son is a genius and this school is too small for him and doesn't have enough good teachers for training him please teach him yourself after many many years after Edison's mother died Edison was one of the greatest inventors of the century and one day he was looking through old family items and suddenly he saw a folded paper in the corner of a drawer in a desk it was this note from all those years back and he took it up and he opened it and on the paper was written your son is mentally ill we won't let him come to school anymore that in fact was what was written on the note and not what his mother had read out Edison cried for hours and then wrote in his diary Thomas Edison was a mentally ill child but by a hero mother became the genius of the century it's a very beautiful story but the limit for us is that we have to believe in our children we have to believe that every one of them has a tkid and every one of them is destined to become great and as we said before greatness doesn't mean becoming all famous and have your picture on the front page of every newspaper and they sing for you when you come into a room that's not the definition of greatness when we come upstairs to the bed in Shalo nobody will ask them well how many times that they sing when you enter the nobody gets gunen for that but they'll ask him did you fulfill your potential and we as parents and as grandparents have that role to believe in our children to invest them with this amuno to D for them they can become great and like we said it's a double-edged sword on the one hand even if the parents are indeed great nobody should ever think that because am married and they were so obviously they had and as children no it was not obvious they became great and could be everybody could be like if we don't believe it can happen then it will never happen so MIT we should all have that to fulfill our own potential to be great people and to see our children also fulfilling theirs go