Va'era - Seeing the Whole Picture

you're listening to the weekly partial podcast with ari goldwag recorded with hashem's neverending assistance in roma bishop israel 57 82 2021. this week's parish is part of era and the end of last week's party says you sent me you sent me to redeem the people and what has gone on what has happened paro just made it much more difficult for the jewish people and instead of them receiving the straw that they need in order to create the bricks they're meant to to create they have to create the same amount of bricks and they do not receive destroy they have to go searching for the straw life has only gotten worse for them why did you send me why did you send me if it would just bring about a much worse situation for the jewish people and hashem respond to the beginning of our parents god speaks to moshe and lush and deborah resolution a tough way of speaking and elokim is the name of hashem which refers to his judgment but he responds it starts off with judgment as we'll see in the madrish and it ends off with him he says i am god yudkevke represents god's attribute of mercy what is the concept here why does the pasuk switch from god speaking to him in a tough way vaidabair el kim both of these both of these words indicating certain judgment why does it switch to vayomir which is a softest type of speech and hashem uk do that so in order to understand this teaches us an incredible incredibly important idea and it gives us two examples one is king solomon and one is moshe and it says as follows this is what it says in the verse tells us in the simple understanding of the verse that king solomon he turned his gaze he he looked around and he wanted to see what's wise what's foolish he says look i'm on the king that's what shalom says i'm the king and whatever i experience you don't have to bother with getting the experience yourself because if the king has already tasted it and says this doesn't taste good you know you're in good hands you don't have to taste all of the different possibilities you can trust the king that's the part of the puzzle however the madrish tells us there's a deeper shot in this passage in caheles chapter chapter 2 verse 12 in ecclesiastes this verse in the in the midrashic sense is a reference to moshe rabino and both of them in a certain sense there was something there's something that the king and in the drastic means the king is god god does things god understands the big picture of things and the human being with his finite mind sometimes believes that they that we get the whole picture but of course so many times we do not get the whole picture and it's so important to understand and that's what the message points out to us we have two instances in regards to king solomon how is this israel when god gave the torah to the jewish people so he gave positive commandments he gave negative commandments [Music] mitzvos there are certain commandments that are given to the king can't have too many too many horses because of his own you can't have too much uh gold and silver liability notion and shouldn't have too many wives such that he shouldn't his heart shouldn't be turned away if a person gets too involved he's the king he's he's the he's the greatest of the of the country so he should be able to have all of the excesses that he wishes the says he shouldn't have too much you should be careful watch out he shouldn't have his heart led astray it's too it's too dangerous for a person who has so much power to wield that power in a way of excess says his heart shouldn't turn away so he got up and he felt like he was smarter as it were than the decree of god um king solomon the verse tells us had a thousand wives the torah limits the amount of wise the king may have it was vastly the number was vastly more than was permitted why did he do that this was his cashman he said he says look why does the torah say that a person shouldn't have so many wives so that a person's heart not turn astray i know myself say king solomon i know that even if i have a thousand wives i will not be drawn after my wives i will not be drawn after their negative behavior so our sages tell us an amazing thing such a beautiful beautiful idea different explanations of this idea whether it's literal whether it's it's a an analogy i'm what i was saying about isis the letter yut that little letter yud of the word loya bella no she shouldn't have too many he shouldn't have too many that little letter yud said it came in front of god and he said and said ribana did you not say this or master of the world ain't islam that no letter of the torah can ever be nullified forever the torah is written the torah was given to moses at mount sinai given over to the jewish people 3 300 years ago every single letter every single pronunciation that we have any letter that's missing everything is exactly as it was we know we have documents from two thousand years ago we know that our torah is accurate and it goes back another 1300 years 3 300 years ago it can't be that any letters are insignificant king solomon he's saying that i'll do what i want but the verse says this is one of the explanations of this mantra the verse says no one will lo yarbe villa yasir a person will never succeed the verse is saying the person will never succeed in having so many wives and also succeeding in staying upon the correct path hamelech is trying to say that he can do it it can't be harish he said the letter you tashem king solomon is is nullifying me starting today is doing one letter the letter you would on a different day it's going to be something else it'll be something else and it'll come to nullify the entire torah says who god says to this little letter don't you worry he's not going to be he's not going to nullify not one little speck of you the letter you'd will remain himself will be nullified and a thousand like him but never a letter not even a a smidgen of a letter in the torah will be nullified what does the verse say about king solomon because he tried to nullify a letter from the torah maksib divrei ogur ben yoke on what happened to him there's a verse it's in mishlai also it's in proverbs the very words of king solomon himself tell us that gathered so much wisdom so many words of torah and what happened in the end he spit them out he threw them up why um these words the words of the man who said that god is with me that i'm going to succeed even though i'm defying the word of god king solomon hashem says i'm sorry maksiv the verse tells us in first kings chapter 11 verse 4 that it was when he was in his elderly years his wives indeed turned his heart away from god so king solomon and so bringing it back the thing that the king says right if the torah says something if the king the master of the world says something in his torah he says a king can't do this he's going to end up going off the proper path didn't have he thought in himself that he that he had the ability to to overcome this this messiah this challenge but the verse testifies that no one will have that ability and shalom muhammad and a thousand like him could throw themselves against this prohibition believing that they could overcome it but they won't overcome it the broad vision the broad vision the terror hakalis who god himself sees everything from far beyond what we mortal people see and even the greatest mind of all time the wisest of all men even shalom could make a mistake because his vision is not great enough is not big enough and indeed in the end of his his life he fell as a result of his mistake that was now we come back the majority comes back and it says like this i'm sorry before mushrooms shallow says this that i thought that i was more wise than the words of the torah and i acted as if i understand the deepest understanding of what the torah means he admits that nobody can defy god's word nobody if god says it's going to be a certain way you can't define me who can really go to the depths of what god says and say that i'm going to i understand what god means and i know in myself that it doesn't apply to me no one has the right to say that that which is hewn in front of god god when he writes his torah he tells us facts he tells us the facts of life nothing can change whatever the title says is precisely true you can't play with it you can't mess with it and there's deeper things than what the torah reveals on the surface that's really an important idea that before shouldn't say we see the terror says okay this is the reason don't don't marry so many wives you might end up being pulled off you think you won't be pulled off you don't understand how things work you don't understand the deepest depths even the wisest of all men can't see in the broad way that god sees she called david similar it's very interesting thing the major says again before we get to mushroom we'll be there soon every single thing that god decreed upon the world first he asks the family of he asks all the angels that surround him and as a fortune point out what are we talking about these are angels that god sends down as it were into the world and they understand the ways of the human being and they understand how things run in this world as it were of course god knows everything god is much higher but god has a a a um a vision so to speak for the way it should things should be things ought to be however he discusses it with his with his so to speak a hands-on experience of the world and he says is this how things will play out god looks at how it's going to play out based on the world that he created based on the the way that human beings work so before god makes a decree he says what do you guys think what do you angels say let's see how's it going to play out so if god indeed gave that decree he gave that mitzvah we can be assured that it's something that is absolutely true it's absolutely absolutely true there's an agreement on the part of the angels who understand so to speak all that goes on in this world [Music] so the verse tells us the verses tell us that every single word of god is is purified to the ultimate degree is checked out and it's made sure that it's true and it's always going to be true nothing that we find in the torah can ever be changed and that's why he fell that's why he was niksho he tripped over his own two feet in regards to this matter he didn't have the broad vision god sees things from every perspective he sees it down this this idea of him asking the angels is really an analogy for us to understand that god looks at the entire scenario sees all of the pieces sees all the entire picture down to its finest details and off to its broadest you know he sees it from a bird's eye view and he sees it from an aunt's eye view kisa now we come back to mushroom and we see in regards to moshe as well moshe also made a mistake which was he looked at things from his narrow view he looked at things from from very close up he didn't see things in a broad way but akash boroku sees everything in a broad way number one he sees it broadly where things are headed but also he looks at moshe and that's the beauty of this major so powerful hashem looks at moshe obama and he also sees moshe in his in a very broad way let's see who's getting all upset he's saying what's going on power made things much worse for the jewish people previously at least they had straw for the bricks now they have to find the strong they have to make the bricks said make it much worse for them make it harder for them near him that that powers heart is going to be hardened that power is not going to let them out so easily the verse says in exodus last exposure i know says god he gave him he gave him a preview of what's going to happen power is not going to let them out he's going to i'm going to harden his heart um moshe didn't take this information and and and keep it in his mind allah he thinks he's smarter than god and he starts off and he says why did you do bad to them why did you why did you bring about a bad effect moshe didn't want to be part of he thought he's part of the the gula process the redemption process why is it that something negative is happening here he's on the front of so moshe started to to to judge in front of god allah so this verse which we quoted in in cohes which refers to the foolishness of thinking that you understand god that's a reference to moshe i'm in the approach that he had saying saying that hey how could you be doing something bad to them because as the verse says how can a person understand the king we don't understand god's ways we don't understand what he's doing is saying something negative to god saying god why are you causing them evil why are you why is that have things gotten worse but he already explained this to you already was it was made revealed to him already that this is what's going to happen exactly this he's going to harden his sabbath he's going to harden his heart he's not going to let them out and therefore he's going to have a tremendous challenge and difficulty is going to come about the aside marcus the 10 plagues and that's what this is going to be the middle kingdom the punishment for having caused the jewish people to be enslaved for so long while in such a hard way because moshe rabbenu didn't look at things broadly but rather challenged god in this way forgot didn't keep in his heart what hashem had said to him previously so as a result of that so the medin which is represented by the name elokim which we mentioned at the beginning god speaks to him tough god speaks in the name of kim which denotes god's divine justice so moshe is about to be struck by divine justice that's what it of course means everything in two ways he sees it from his high and high and mighty throne he sees it the way it should be but he also sees it from down to the besides the bird's eye view he sees it the aunt's eye view he sees it from close up and he sees moshe rabino that way as well why did moshe speak this way moshe only spoke this way not because he was coming at hashem as it were with anger with upset but he spoke that way because he felt the pain of his brothers he felt the pain of the jewish people look how difficult it is for them look what a terrible time they are having look how hard it is for them they're being beaten up for nothing who changed the way that he was speaking to moshe hashem so after the angry s response that kashmir has as it were so to speak hashem speaks to him softly with rahm ani hashem i'm the one on the one who has mercy so hashem was looking at moshe i mean even though moshe albania was looking at it from a very small perspective not seeing the whole picture hakusho who looks at moshe in response and says i see the whole picture i see the whole picture of you i'm not going to get upset at you i could get upset at you for the way that you're speaking to me for the way that you're you're judging the situation incorrectly but i won't i won't get upset i'm going to show you rocklin because i see the compassion that you have for the jewish people i see that you are in pain for their pain and because you are in pain for their pain i have rachma on you i rock them on you i see the whole picture of what's going on in your heart of hearts who says so that's the beautiful beautiful madrish explains the plaque but it teaches us an amazing lesson a few amazing lessons you know the jewish people have gone through so many challenges through all of history the jewish people are currently going through incredible challenges world is going through some pretty heavy challenges right now and we all have challenges in our personal lives and it's so easy to turn to god and say lama isa so easy to say hashem why is this terrible thing happening why is this terrible situation that we can't grasp we can't wrap our mind around why does this happen why does it happen that there are threats against the jewish people in israel there are threats against the jewish people everywhere that there is such hatred of the jewish people why does it happen lama reissa so easy to ask that question but the message is teaching us that that question number one is a legitimate question right i'm the god of mercy hashem sees when it comes out of our pain he sees when we're asking that question it's so important to ask the question right ask it out of pain is is legitimate but also the message teaches us that we don't see the whole picture just like hamel king solomon he thought he saw the whole picture but he didn't see the whole picture only akadejibar who has that that vision from above that outside complete objective the ability to see everything objectively we don't have that natural ability we are challenged because we live in this moment we don't see the whole picture and the message is teaching us who does see the whole picture and of course we know where the story goes we know that ultimately the difficulty of the jewish people that they experienced at that moment was the worst of the difficulty that they would experience and they were about to be relieved of the slavery they were about to be redeemed and the esr makes them incredible miracles would come we know that the rest of the story is one a great story a story of redemption but most rabbino in this moment didn't didn't see that didn't know that but he spoke out of pain and it's legitimate again as we said it's legitimate to speak out of pain when we're in pain but we need to know that there's a bigger picture a much bigger picture that we don't see we don't know we will see one day we will know but in this moment we may not see it and it's so important to know this that's the idea of being done the cubs judging people favorably because we don't know the whole picture we don't know all the details we can't possibly fathom another person do we know do we know what happened do we know what they meant what they said what they meant all the things that went into that decision that they made that we're judging them negatively for we don't know what we do know is that we don't know that's what the message is teaching us i want to bless you i ask you to bless me hashem should help us that we should be able to have the humility the humility to recognize that we don't know and when we have a question when we have a challenge for god as it were we should have the humility to have that challenge to speak up to speak about that challenge with out of tsar out of pain and not out of anger hashem should help us to be able to have the right approach to be able to have the right understanding to be able to understand that we really don't know thank you so much for listening have a wonderful shop miss this podcast was made possible through the gracious donations of listeners like you for more podcasts like this please visit www.ariegoldwag.com or search on itunes ari goldwag [Music]