Va’eschanan - 2nd Portion

Join me as we learnish for Monday paras to reading chapter 4 verse 5. Yesterday Moshe reminds the Jewish people about that he had to ask and pray to God to go into the land of Israel. His requests were refused. He was not forgiven though the Jewish people themselves were forgiven. However, that is contingent on their following the commandments. Yesterday he started telling them about not to add or subtract from the commandments given and to connect to God and avoid idolatry. Today he continues to tell them about the importance and reminding them about when they accepted the Torah by Mount Si as well as reminding them of the importance of and the entrance into the land of Israel. Staying in the land of Israel is contingent on their relationship with God and avoiding idolatry. Verse five, behold, I have I have taught you the different laws and statutes like God has taught it to me to do so amongst the land to the land that you're going to possess. Verse six, you must safeguard the rules and make sure you do them because that is your wisdom and your understanding. In the eyes of the people that they will hear about all these rules and say and they will say only this great nation is such a wise and understanding people and that's why they were given all these rules. What is it you will guard and you will do that is to learn the laws to know what to do. The only way you can do them appropriately is if you uh learned them to know what to do. The way you're really going to be smart, the way you will stand out amongst the nations of the world. When you're going to be smart and intelligent amongst the nations of the world is when you follow what the commandments are. You do what you're told and you do them according to these conditions. Verse seven. For what great nation is there that has a God near them God our God that whenever we call upon him he listens. Verse eight. And what kind of great nation that they have these rules and ordinances as just as relevant as the entire Torah that I give them to you today. that what kind of gradation that has these rules meaning laws that make sense that are right and they are fit and they are sit appropriately within the individual. Verse N. But be very weary and guard yourself and guard your soul. May it very much so. May you less forget the things that your eyes have witnessed. You may try to remove it from your heart all the days of your life. And remember, make sure to impart these ideas, what you've seen and what you've experienced to your children. and to your grandchildren. He says when you this way with meaning he's continuing what he said before when you follow the rules then you'll make sure you don't forget them you'll do them appropriately then you're going to be considered wise and smart but if you're going to mess them up and you're not going to remember them because you forgot them you'll be considered as fools. Verse 10. You will remember the day that you stood before God. When God said to me, "Gather for me the nation will let them know my words that they will learn to rever me all the days that they live on the life that they live their life on this world and they will make sure to teach it to their children as well. This is going back to what he mentioned before that you saw when did you see this was the day when you stood by the mount si revelation that you then saw the big sound effects the fires and the thunder and the lightning that everything that was happening by the mount si to turn to teach you'll learn yourself and you'll also teach others to teach others. Verse 11, and you all approached and you stood at the beneath the mountain and the and the mountain was consumed, burned on fire, and the fire went up to the midst of the heaven. [snorts] It was darkness, a regular cloud plus a very thick cloud. Verse 12. God spoke to you from in from the between the fire. You heard the sound of words. But the image you have not seen. All you heard was God's voice. Verse 13. But God told you about his covenant that he commanded you to do. the ten commandments that that he told you at the time and he inscribed it on two stone tablets. Verse 14. And at that time God commanded me the rules and his ordinances earth that means in this world to the land which you will be crossing to possess. Rashi says that besides the written law that God gave that he wrote and inscribed the ten commandments and with that the entire Torah he commanded me the oral law as well. Therefore you must safeguard guard yourselves very carefully because you did not see any image of God the day that God spoke to you by mount from the midst of the fire. Verse 16. lest you become degenerate and you're going to try to make a sculptured image for yourselves whether it's a representation of any type of form the likeness of a male or of a female means an image verse 17 whether it's an image the likeness of a of an animal that's on the earth or whether it's an image of a bird that's flies with wings that flies into heaven. Verse 18, whether it's an image, the likeness of something that crawls on the ground, whether it's the likeness of a fish that's in the water, it's beneath the ground. Verse 19, And lest you lift your eyes towards the heaven, you'll see the sun and the moon and the stars and all the galaxies of the of the entire heaven and all the hosts of the heaven. And then you will uh and you'll be lured to bow down to them and you'll serve them to which God has you'll worship them and under the entire heaven and you'll think that this is something which is something to serve to serve that God gave to all the nations of the world and you think this is something that you should be serving to look at something blessed. And you'll give your mind to it to make a mistake and think that this is something for you. God shared it with us to give us light. Or another explanation is that the very fact that God allowed others to make a mistake and serve them doesn't mean that you should. He allows them to be mistaken and slipping in their mistakes and their nonsense so that they should not be able to have anything in this world. It says that the evil incarnation causes people to slip and slide that they should be able to doing something bad. God finds their sin for a reason to hate them. Verse 20, but you God has taken brought you out of the iron the iron uh the iron fist of of Egypt. to be for you as a nation today. As a nation that of his heritage as you are today who clean the word is an iron that is used to be able to clean uh gold. So this quer bar was like a talks about like a iron difficult place very uh very hot or very um a tool that was used to be able to make the gold and shape it. So that's what he refers to this allegory about what the Jewish people suffering going through that they were like this tool that we use in Egypt. and God became angry with me because of you that I will not be able to cross the Jordan River that I will not be able to come to the good land that God is giving to you as an inheritance says became angry at me because of you because of what you've done and of the way you behaved. Verse 22. I'm going to be dying in this land. I'm not going to be crossing the Jordan River. However, you will be crossing over. You'll be able to inherit that good land. If he's going to die, how is he going to cross over? So, what is he saying? Not only am I not going to go over alive, but I'm not even going to be buried in the land of Israel as well. Verse 23. Therefore, be careful. As he continues to tell them, you must be very careful and be aware, do not forget the covenant that God made with you that he made this covenant with you because if you forget what's going to happen, you're then going to make a idol. You're going to make a sculptured image, the likeness of anything which God your God has forbidden you to do. is called the image of anything is that God told you not to do though the words doesn't say that but that's what it's referring to verse 24 because God your god is metaphorically like a consuming fire is a zealous god who does not tolerate infidelity and going to another god and serving idols is considered infidelity Verse when you will have children and children's children and you'll be long established in the land however you will become corrupt will make these sculptured images Image of anything you're going to do bad in God's eyes to get him angry I'm sorry in the previous verse takes revenge of those who go against them and he gets upset to those who and takes revenge of those who serve idolatry. Verse 25, he over here hinted to the fact that they are going to be exiled from the land of Israel. After 852 years, the numeric value of the word venant is 852. after 852 years of the Jewish people being in the land of Israel that is from when they enter with Yeshua until after the destruction of the first temple that they will be exiled for who and he however God prefaced and exiled them already at the end of 850 years which that's when the first temple was destroyed that was two years earlier than the word for [snorts] over here. If you look at the words that the Torah tells us that if you're going to stand in if you're go that moment you'll be exiled you may be totally lost. So what did God do? He prefaced that means he they allowed us to go to exile two years earlier this way the other half of the verse or the other part of the curse that we will then be lost. I mean that it continues in 26 that we'll be destroyed should not happen. This is what the prophet Daniel says in Daniel that God did righteousness with us that he brought us earlier to exile this way two years before its uh time. There this way we will be atoned by the destruction of the temple and not to be totally eradicated. Verse 26. I invoke today the heaven and earth as witnesses that you will speedily and utterly perish quickly. May Allah is from the land that from the land that you cross over to the Jordan there. You will not have a long life there. You not have prolong your days there because you will be utterly destroyed. What what Mosha is saying is as Rashi explains, I invite the heaven and earth to be witnesses that I am warning you about this today. Verse and God will then scatter you the nations and you will remain only few in number nations in the place where God will lead you there. Verse 28. And there you will serve. You'll be worshiping deities which are the man's handiwork made out of earth made out of wood and stone that they cannot see, they cannot hear. They cannot eat and they cannot smell like the explains because you are serving the people who serve those idols as if you're serving the idols yourself. Meaning once you're in exile and you're going to be subdued to the people who are in charge of the exile, which is the nations of the world who serve those idolatries will be as if you're serving idolatry. Verse 29. And you will be and you will ask and you will request, you will seek from there your God, and you will find that you will find him only when you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul. Verse 30, when you're distressed and all things that happen to you, all these events at the end of days and you will return to God your God and you will obey his voice. Verse 31, God for your God is a merciful God. He will not loosen his hold on you and nor will he destroy you. God forbid altogether. And he will not forget the covenant that he made with your forefathers that he swore to them. The word means meaning holding on to you. He will never loosen that grip that he has. He will never allow you to assimilate altogether. He will not happen. He will not make it loose. He will allow you to separate himself from you. the arenu like it says in I held on to him and I did not let him to go looseenu the word for the here for the vowel is with a sele um if it would be with a sele then it would mean to here is telling us about the grammar of how the word means that we know there are different ways of different terminologies of each word can be in different eight different ways and there eight different stanzas. So it can be either before active prefix and you which one it may be. So therefore over here the word comes to tell us which is an effect and how it happens for example allow her to be loose which is an active term mean like we're going to say let let go of me and don't hold on to me. So each one of them has a different terminology. There are eight different terms of how they can used. And therefore he tells us over here the word that God will not allow you to become loose. Verse 32. For please inquire about the early days that were before you until the day from the until the day about when God created humanity on the earth and ask everyone in earth from one end to the heaven to the other end of the heaven. Has there ever been anything like this? This kind of phenomena or was anything like this I've heard of? Rashi says ask about those early days. Ask any of the creations of from edge to edge from end to end. That's a simple interpretation. The medi gives a different interpretation. It says as follows. It's telling us over here actually about the first human. It says that from the time of humanity, Adam, how tall was he? He was so tall that he was from heaven to earth. This is the actual measurement of how how tall he was. And he's telling us that even in the first day when the first human was created, that he was as tall as from earth to heaven. Still in all, never such a phenomena was. And what is the great thing that he says has there ever been such a phenomena? which is the following verse. Did a nation ever hear God speak to them? Verse 33, did ever a people hear God's voice speaking from amongst the from the midst of the fire like you guys heard and they lived afterwards to say to tell the tale? Verse 34. Or has any god miraculously taken to come take for himself a nation from amidst another nation with trials with signs with marvels with war with a mighty hand with outstretched arm and with great and awesome presence like everything that God has done to you in Egypt that you yourself experience before your eyes. Has any other master, any other god that you've seen or experienced come and take a nation from amongst the nation? All the hes that we're going to experience that we going talk about in the next few verses, they're all question marks meaning have you ever experienced. Therefore the with challenges through the challenges through the test God showed us how great he is and we are like we find during the time like you think you're smarter than me you think you can be able to overcome this one you think I am able to accomplish this and this is the challenge that God tested the Jewish people and with this he was able to show them the great miraculous events with signs to believe that he is the messenger of God like what's this that was one of the signs miraculous wonders that he brought the amazing 10 plagues the war which was in the sea that said that God was waging war for them verse and you you were shown in order that you You were shown to know that God is the God, the only God. There's nothing other besides him. You were shown, you were proven. When God gave him the Torah, gave the Jewish people the Torah, all seven heavens were opened and they were able to see straight through. In the same way, God opened up all the heavens above. So too they were able to see everything below. They saw that God is the only existence in the entire universe. Therefore it says not you seen it. God has shown you. You have shown to see because it wasn't on their own that they saw it. It was only because God has shown it to them. Verse 36. From the heaven I let you hear my hear his voice. So he should instruct you and on the earth he showed you the great fire and the words you heard amidst the fire. it was only because God loved your forefathers and he chose their children and he took you brought you out of straight great strength from Egypt. 37. All this happened only because he loved your forefathers. Like a person who leads his son before as it says as we learned this previously and Rashi mentioned this earlier that God put the angel that was going before the Jewish people and he went behind him. Another explanation what this means is before his forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. [snorts] It says before cause of his forefathers he did this wonder in Egypt. So then why does he use it in a singular term? Why doesn't he say um plural fathers meaning the forefathers? Because this is also later on um we also find this in Tahillim that he ch or he says also says and he chose his children after him doesn't say plural children after them and therefore he also uses the whole entire terminology and the verse is using a singular term not a plural term why did he do this as we see in order to drive out the nations before you who are and who and they're great and they're stronger than you. But we have to drive them out before to bring you to bring them and to give them your landl inheritance like this day. Says you have to change it around. You have to read the word the verse backwards. Meaning that the reason why God that God got rid of those enemies that are stronger from you to give you their land Like you see the day so clearly. So do you see this is what happened. These people were wiped out. They already experienced this because you see how the nations of were destroyed and God gave you their land. And you will know today and you will bring it to your heart and you will consider it in your heart that God is your God from heaven in heaven both in heaven above and in earth below. There's no other existence besides him. Verse 40. In order to achieve this awareness of God and to recognize that God is the only existence in the world, what you need to do is you have to observe the rules and the commandments that I command you today. It will make it good for you and for your children after you. This way you also be able to prolong your days upon the land. that God will give you all these days forever. This concludes the second Torah reading of