(Way# 26) KNOWING YOUR PLACE: 48 Ways with Rabbi Aaron Dovid Poston

[Music] hey good day everybody welcome back to beyond the seven live from jerusalem with rabbi uh aaron david poston who's been sharing with us the 48 ways to wisdom and this week we bring to you part 26 last week's lesson was so relevant and i i told the uh people sitting in my book of job class to to watch it so i know a lot of people have appreciated uh everything that rabbi poston has been sharing with him and i so appreciate him staying up late with us uh in jerusalem we know it's uh it's going near midnight there so well let's just jump right in see rabbi poston how are you doing today and the class is yours sir thank you dan and thank you for all those people are watching now and later shabu tov to those who have already uh exited made abdullah from shabbos well i'm really happy to be back with you and i'm so glad to see the expansion going on hearing about it with uh no hi world center and everything you're doing call it kavod to you and all the other teachers and whoever is in the background your wife and who knows who else hashem so today we're dealing with number 26 of the 48 ways to wisdom and this is a little bit i mean i'm not going to say controversial but it certainly can be it could sound even arrogant because the title is knowing your place now knowing your place can have the upsides and the downsides you know the upside you may have a a certain characteristic a certain um um quality power that other people don't have that sometimes it means you have to step up to the plate and that may be uncomfortable for some people and express themselves you know or they're they're not gun shy but let's say uh shy to go in front of the camera or to write you know or just to put their hand up in in a you know let's say uh a community meeting hall where you're expressing something they're shy we'll talk about it knowing your play sometimes and now i'm going to call i want i don't really mean the downside but it sounds like the downside in other words knowing your place when you know that you do not have the abilities it could mean to what zip your mouth or make sure you don't stand your yeah so knowing your place is quite complicated it takes a very um you know an honest and thorough thorough um knowing your strengths and your weaknesses knowing your place is going to be the title so the renault weinberg he started off i'll just tell you what it is in hebrew means to recognize to evaluate to come to this recognition of your place so this idea actually requires you to realistically evaluate your strengths and weaknesses skill set sure oh where you are in relation to others um there's really so much to discuss and i have a lot of source materials material as well um so basically it's like this you know how do we even begin and so learning how to make this assessment this proper assessment will actually help you and deter help you determine enable you to determine when you are going to be the best person suited for any particular task [Music] now if you are you have to make sure that you're not holding yourself back by what we call false um false modesty false humility and you know you may have an obligation to step forward and take the lead and we're going to discuss moshe romano who was the humblest man of all you know when he struck the egyptian dead right personally did it with using the name of god okay by the way if those are interested in knowing how to use the name of god properly to strike your enemy you can look at uh i well i know the date it was last thursday today is the uh june 26th so that would make it uh the 24th look at june 24th the title i think if i'm not mistaken is uh hashem is our sword in order to put our enemy it's using the uk above k anyway yeah it's only given a youtube channel and it was in parashat balak anyway um it has to do with prayer right using god's name properly okay so there is an idea maybe we'll go right to that verse i know i have a lot of source material i like to use at the end but maybe we'll do it now um if you go to exodus yeah after 2 verses it's really 12 but go to and 12. 11 says now it came to pass in those days that moses grew up and went out to his brothers and looked at their burdens and he saw an egyptian man striking a hebrew man of his brothers he turned this way and that way and he saw that there was no man so he struck the egyptian and hid him in the sand now on what we call shot level very simple reading that means and rashi would say that he looked around and there was nobody watching him right that would be and he was able to uh you know come to the defense we all know that there were people who saw him there were and he was uh ratted out so to speak there was my stream so bird of the air yeah did he look this way in that way is the truth is that um how does rashi say it over here all right that's very complicated i want to go through the rashes but i don't want to get off the main point the main pull it up the shot is that he looked this way in that way and there was no ish there was no man so that's the simple shot that there was nobody watching but on a very let's say a deeper level practical level that no other person who was there came to the defense of this person being assaulted he was being lashed and driven it's rashi says now the cop would say that again uh he was being uh he was being lashed the hebrew person was being lashed and drop and driven by the uh egyptian yeah no just some back like a donkey for a ben noah any uh jew anybody who wants to know what the torah is actually talking about it talks about this was an egyptian man right he saw an egyptian man striking a hebrew man now we did say that there were four things that the jewish people did that israel did while they were in egypt that merited for them to be released to be um redeemed and one of them is that we did not intermarry um now or we were let's say we were modest on relationships we didn't intermarry however if you go later on to leviticus chapter 24 [Music] verse uh i guess it's 10 and 11. this is by the blasphemer if anybody didn't notice it right verse 10 what 10 and 11 in leviticus 24 yeah just read 10 first and then we'll talk about the next one verse 10 now the son of an israelite woman and he was the son of an egyptian man went out among the children of israel and they quarreled in the camp this son of the israelite woman and an israelite man okay so what is actually happening we see that there is a person he's the son of will say a jewish woman an israelite woman but he was the son of an egyptian man how can that be if if there was no intermarriage in egypt i mean anybody any of the khazal that mentioned that that we didn't intermarry how can it be what's going on here so um the truth is this is them this boy this now he's a man the son he's adult and his mother was jewish in israelite but his father was an egyptian so how can that be and he's the one who comes to blaspheme is anybody bothered by this how can how can the rabbis tell us they didn't intermarry so our our understanding is this particular task master the one that moses strikes what he did was he woke up the man in from his bed and he sent him out to work that's what the house masters do and then he proceeded i'll use the word rape i mean he proceeded to disguise himself as the woman's jewish husband and cohabit with her so she was it was basically was against her will in other words khazal's right we didn't intermarry we were pure and we did not she was a in it a court in this innocent victim uh nevertheless she did have a child from this uh this relationship so basically the person that moshe saw was the father of this boy in chapter 24 of leviticus that was the uh the man that he struck okay look at rashi on number 10 it says the son of an egyptian man the egyptian whom moses had slain how did he slay using the divine name so uh when this man heard we're talking about now the the um the son of this egyptian man he arose and began blaspheming against the divine name because that's what we're dealing with in chapter 24 in verse you'll see in verse 11 right as verse 11 says go ahead verse 11 uh you want me to read where what when in rashi no just read the verse we didn't we didn't read 11 we'd only read 10. and the son of the israelite woman pronounced the divine name cursed so they brought him to moses his mother's name was uh sheila moth myth the daughter of debris of the tribe of dan okay i just wanted to make sure we were on the same page here we're talking about somebody that came from an intermarriage even though his mother was jewish his father was an egyptian and he felt slighted because he didn't have the same tribal rights that other uh let's say naturalized jews who have both parents he's also as rabbi cloth was mentioning hollatically speaking he is a jew right but he doesn't have the full i don't know whether it's you know on a personal level he knows that he doesn't have a tribe per se and there's a bit of an issue and that he took a great offense to so unfortunately even though yes a jewish woman who marries a or i mean the word marry is appropriate but let's just say cohabitates cohabitates with a a non-jewish man and has what we call a jewish child and that jewish child has a stigma as an issue and it could lead and as this case shows that um well the blasphemy part right it led to um no the father's death when moses kills the father through using the name that was a defense of an assault that was taking place this is the real i want to go back now so moses saw there was no man obviously because he was tattled on there were people around you can't say there was nobody there although that's what seems from shot um so there are a few things that he did see um in other words he go i'm going back to rocky in texas god bless you uh rash in exodus chapter 2 verses 11 and 12 where it says he turned this way and that way so rashi says he's god bless you he saw what the egyptian had done to him meaning the hebrew in the house and what he had done to him in the field so in the house meaning that he um caught rape he raped the guy's wife and then he um abused the man but according to its simple meaning it has to be interpreted and it has to be it is to be interpreted according to its apparent meaning he looked and he looked in all direction and he saw that no one saw that he slayed the egyptian but that's the simple shot and he saw there was no man he saw that there was no man destined to be descended from him the egyptian remember he killed the egyptian who would later become a proselyte it's so interesting because even king david right king david comes from ruth so this is um where am i going with this very very important idea that king david only in his generation wipes out right and the moabites and the alamites right because this was a directive for the jewish people not to do so because there was destined to be ruth ruth came as a righteous convert but once that seed was laid to bear so to speak and david was already in existence then dovid himself can take the proper i don't know what you want to call it the comma vengeance um you know it was much delayed until you know 400 years i'd say you know so a lot of these ideas and this one particularly when moses saw there was no man on a deeper level he saw that in the future for this particular egyptian that there wouldn't be uh converts meaning that in many places throughout our tradition that there are people holy people you know i shouldn't say holy all kinds of people holy and not holy that our sages saw or the prophet saw that somebody was destined to come from that person here even in last week in in parshas balof that isro it was discussed in the midrash and whatnot gistro had many children who later became um what's the word um sitting on the sitting on the sanhedrin so he merited that i mean that's partly because of his response to pharaoh as an advisor that he ran away right so that we see korok by the way karoff also had some children who uh converted i shouldn't think they were jews who did chuva so even that in other words whether you do chuva even if you're evil and yet you can do chuvas so perhaps hashem will keep you around to have children so too by non-jew that if you're very very evil but there are destined to be converts uh sometimes you get a little bit of uh what he called uh some mercy from heaven okay so let's go back knowing your place that is the topic for tonight so we've discussed this idea that moses um looked around there was no man so he took it upon himself so this is he was very humble you know you could expect somebody like that perhaps to have a false sense of humility but not not moses moses humility was true and he knew his place meaning he knew the positives and negatives now i just want to i i you know that sometimes i bring up the 12-step program as examples because they got everything they got everything they got is from we'll call the the hebrew bible so knowing your place i will tell you in i'm gonna read for you steps one four five six seven and ten and you'll see if somebody let me just stop one second before i go into the twelve steps of alcohol synonymous remember to knowing your place keep in mind we're trying to unravel how this will help you or assist anybody in in gaining wisdom in acquiring wisdom if it's one of the 48 ways which is number 48 ways to acquire wisdom knowing your place that's going to help you acquire wisdom sure sure will so before we get into the 12 steps keep in mind there's a concept we'll call arrogance right arrogance is go is a major barrier to attaining wisdom because arrogance doesn't know its place yeah you you basically if you realize if you do realize how little you actually know and understand you actually open yourself up to to others to wisdom of others and i do want to quote in its chapter five of perculvo chapter five and i think it depends which one you're looking at i think it's number seven you know it could be not no i think it's seven there are seven things you want to read or you want me to read it i'm sorry which verse no it's perky i vote it's chapter five mishna seven i'm sorry i don't have that uh up anywhere there are seven things that characterize a boar is an ignoramus which is simply the opposite of a wise person correct and there are seven characteristics of a wise person so it's the first one but i want to read all seven because i think they're they're all important a wise man does not speak or one who is greater than him in wisdom or age i mean you have to understand we're going to talk about maybe i'll bring it up now i just have so many there's some famous quotes and i i tried to look them up to see who actually said so i'll tell you i always thought the quote was like this and maybe you can put my name on it but i don't i didn't say it i thought i heard it but i looked it up i couldn't find it i found similar statements there's no better clarity than the night before a hanging meaning if you're god forbid someone's going to be helen that's how you pronounce say the word i mean the nephesh what goes through their head you know how the mistakes they made okay kind of clarity about life itself right so actually i'll attribute it to samuel johnson he said depend upon it depend upon it sir when a man knows that he's to be hanged in a fortnight it concentrates his mind wonderfully i would say that's pretty whatever i came up was pretty close but okay there's a man by the name of morris switzer ah so this is another idea like if you open if you know you're not how smart are you you open your mouth you know you show everybody how foolish you are it's better to remain silent at the risk of being thought a fool than to talk and remo remove all doubt of it you want to prove yourself a fool just open your mouth right mouth disease that's a good one brandon sanderson i don't know who he is but he said i don't know if he was talking to somebody specifically he said you should try not to talk so much friend you'll sound far less stupid that way now that on the other hand albert einstein knew quite a lot and he felt that if he didn't say something that would be um pretty bad so he wrote if i were to remain silent i'd be guilty of complicity so look a wise man does not speak before one who is greater than him in wisdom or age you have to know when to open your mouth when not to open your mouth another idea it's a perkier vote he does not interrupt his fellow's words three he doesn't hasten to answer i mean you can think about it four his questions are on the subject and his answers are to the point number five he responds to first things first and to later things later six concerning what he did not hear he says i did not hear and number seven is he concedes to the truth and the mission of the ends by with the board the reverse of all these are the exact same case okay so i think these are you know we could take this seriously right you wanna you want wisdom you have to know when to open your mouth when not to open your mouth and perky elbows now i want to go into the 10 these um the 12 steps but i only want to quote a few of them just to realize that you have to make you have to be brutally honest with yourself do you want to change you want to get out of an addiction let's just say a simple bad habit right right so admit that you have a problem that you're powerless over something meaning you need external number four is that you actually make a searching and fearless moral inventory of yourself now that includes the positives and the negatives it's not all negative okay it's a fearless moral inventory you know your strengths and your weaknesses now five six and seven i would say mainly um focus on the negative so number five is you actually admit it to god that's to watch one admission to yourself which is important now it mentions you should talk to another human being so i'm assuming knowing the program you're talking about a sponsor someone who you can confide in someone who experienced many of the same things you did and has uh you know extricated themselves from this um for feedback you gotta be able to see your reflection clear our confession doesn't this is not confession this is just an admission um the exact nature of your wrongs so you can get like you said uh some feedback some guidance and number six you actually are entirely ready to have god remove these defects of character and number seven is you actually you humbly ask him to remove them because you do need external help now skipping all the way to number 10 is that you actually continue to take this personal inventory and when you were wrong promptly admitted it so you're talking about brutally real yeah yeah yeah yeah um i'm looking to see what else um so if you do you do have the what's the word the the the abilities and um you are the man to step up to the plate don't be reticent reticent i looked it up it means to hold yourself back not revealing them sure a lot of wisdom and maybe you need advice okay now sometimes silence is golden the talmud teaches us and we just read that that a um that a learned person does not speak in the presence of someone who's greater in wisdom or in years and others don't jump in and throw in your two cents know your place before you begin talking stop and think is this a time to step forward and assert myself where's the time to step back now we all know there's a lot of fake news and you have to know how to analyze what is um what is being um said are you being manipulated right disinformation misinformation don't fall into this idea of becoming a puppet in your society so you have to where you stand right take responsibility for your convictions your attitudes and your actions take charge of your life both internal and external behavior right clarify what you believe into what degree of certainty identify areas of knowledge you're missing and seek to learn them and understand them don't why are you yeah he's a pro he's an expert well you have experts on both sides and uh you know you have to take a lot of responsibility and pro be proactive with your decisions um you have to make the appropriate effort to think through your decisions and understand what you're basing them on now this is very important to all human beings who are listening to this not just the jews each human being has a specific role to play in this world and possesses a unique combination of personality talents timing and circumstances remember this is one thing we're taught in yeshiva right and you can you can learn this everywhere no human being has exactly the same thumbprint right the same fingerprints no human being i mean there are people that are close in similar you know looks uh people could pass for identical twins but you know when you do a real proper facial recognition with ai it's obviously a different person right it'll come up a different person um this is a reason not every snowflake right every snowflake has its own unique i don't know we'll call it a fingerprint right it's a pattern right this is there's a reason amazing because we all have uh our own role right our roles dependent on many factors not only our innate talents but also the needs of the time so this is essential this is essential in discovering who you are an essential part of knowing ourselves is to discover the contribution that is uniquely ours to make and to strive for that contribution now just because we're also talking about this partial bala we talk about bilaam it's just just know that every non-jew has an opportunity for a place in the world to come the mission in saint henry actually says that every jew has a place in the world to come and he uses proofs from isaiah and what not that god himself through the prophets explained now some of that may require a lot of suffering in shuva but a jew basically i shouldn't say it's that easy it's not that easy in fact it's a problem maybe it's even harder but either way every jew has a path through the torah so two every non-jew also has a path so i know that the concept the word noah or ben noah is quite a vague term and i've said this many times and i just want to be very clear about this not every jew hat not every non-jew has a place in the world to come there has to be an effort to find out if the torah is true i know it sounds strange that if you keep the seven no laws and keep him like religiously it doesn't guarantee you a place in the world to come you have to know that there's a god in this world and that he spoke at mount sinai and that he commanded what we call you know the hebrew text the hebrew bible and there's a special a special role for the ones he's directing his uh his commandments to being the israelite nation um i know that may be a very hard pill to swallow for many people so i'm assuming those who are watching this channel are interested in being righteous no it's not just a because everyone is whether you like it or not card carrying member you want to be the real deal ben noah that's not the term used you're all children of nach but not exotic not every human being is going to what we call the world to come it's based on what i just said now how do we know that interesting our mission tells us that every jew has a every israelite has a place in the world to come and then it lists concepts or principles that one has to believe one of them is to know that the torah is from heaven okay the torah is from god and uh i am of the opinion that applies to non-jews as well okay i mean that's basically what the rambam says so but i think it's from the mishnah okay number one number two then it means it lists certain kings and certain um let's say common folk who have lost their place in the world to come now you would have thought that every one of these people on the list are jewish because it says all jews have a place in the world to come except for those who violate these principles or are these people which on my understanding is that these people are also representing principle based on who they were how they behaved people who follow in their footsteps would be excluded from the world to come and bilaam is mentioned no bilaam is not jewish it's clear he's not jewish okay there are opinions that he is but we're not going to talk about them right now um so why would bilum why would a non-jew be mentioned in the mishnah as someone who doesn't have a share in the world to come so many of the commentators explain this is proof this explains the proof that non-jews are also included in the list that have of share in the world to come because you wouldn't have an exception of a non-jew here's a principle so anybody that follows in bilum's footsteps would not have a place in the world to come and clearly stated yeah doesn't wrestling principles or doesn't follow or follow you know it takes example of these other evil people kings or evil people that didn't that basically forfeited their place in the world to come and basically the next concept is evaluating the source which is not easy you know we have going to somebody else who's more wise knowing your place evaluating the sources could lose a lot if you're not going to evaluate the source to avoid costly misjudgment learn how to evaluate other people's opinions i mean there's so much fake news you really have to activate your brain and be a thinking person and if you're let's just say you're weak in that department then at least critical thinking yeah let's say you're not as a critical thing as others then find people that are and somewhat rely on their their their final conclusion but have an open dialogue with them ask them how they came to that conclusion you may not know all the intricate parts of let's say the science you know what i mean but they could try to dumb it down for you you can ask them to at least you know but anyway it's the best you can do right um just because someone's holding with all these letters at the end of their name right doesn't make them actually you know wise right we often assume that someone is wise because he's older or more experienced or because he occupies a prestigious position it's not necessarily true just because someone is successful in business does not mean that he is happily married or can explain to you and give you advice on marriage okay so when someone expresses a viewpoint try to put it into perspective just try to really does this person even know what he's talking about or he's just and know it all um so i'm just begging people to ask advice that's called bringing a certain amount of humility humility now even if you think you know the answer it still doesn't hurt to ask people what they think right you may just expand your knowledge right when your knowledge is insufficient don't let your ego get in the way never be too proud to turn to others for advice find people who know more than you in any specific area whether they're friends parents rabbis or professional seek their wisdom he gives an example if you're contemplating marriage find the wise person ask here's just a list of questions how should i prepare myself for marriage what character traits should i be looking for in a spouse how will i know if i found the right one okay the next part the next paragraph deals with adjusting your relationships look we all have tapes in our head right we review these things and we react unfortunately the same way we reacted whether it's to our parents or siblings aunts uncles just even people from work working for them working with them for a long time we should reevaluate our relationships assume that they have grown and hopefully we also have grown um filling the vacuum okay so it deals with the verses we already dealt with of moses growing up and he went out um he mentions like this i think he sums up what i said moses was checking we're talking about when it says he looked this way in that way and found no man he was looking to see if someone was already on the scene taking responsibility someone who is better qualified for him on the job this is something that you i i think a lot of people who's in charge around here yeah they're looking they're looking for and i'm putting myself in the same boat here um you have an opportunity to make money so you're put in a position now i'm talking there may be someone else more qualified why wouldn't you bring them up you may get points you might not get the job but um you know whether it's in the community whether it's a real job whatever it is you know sometimes there's more qualified people and we should know what it is see if someone else is already on the scene taking responsibility someone who is better qualified to do the job had that been the case moses would have taken a back seat he wouldn't have done it because his leadership would not have been required however moshe did take action only because the situation demanded it he was not driven by ego moses was as we know the humblest man who ever lived he recognized his place and responded to the needs of the people with humility and decisiveness now there is a mission in percyavote written by hillel and that is a chapter two mission of five i think this also relates to what rabbi kaufman was speaking about if you want me to read it in percyavo chapter 2 mishna 5 hilo would say aboor which means an ignoramus cannot be a hasid cannot be a he cannot be uh you're nor can it be so he can't be sin fearing and he can an ignoramus cannot be pious a bashful person cannot learn why because he's afraid to ask questions a short-tempered person cannot teach nor does anyone who does much business grow wide because he's so involved in trying to make money perhaps in a place this is the last statement of that mission of chapter two mission five in a place where there is there are no men strive to be a man so in hebrew [Music] in a place there are no people men [Music] make every effort to be that person what is required in there in that situation sure now i just want to go to psalms 39 13. psalm 39 yeah verse 13 reads hear my prayer oh lord and hearken to my cry be not silent to my tears for i am a stranger with you a dweller as all my forefathers now the main point i want to mention obviously someone who feels broken hear my prayer hashem hear my cry you know don't ignore don't be mute to my tears but the fact that he says i am a sojourner with you a settler like all my like all my forefathers so in hebrew the word sojourner i think that you're familiar with the word ger and sojourner is a toshan right that we should be like aguero vittoshav aguere is a stranger and what it really means is that you should feel this world is temporal that it's temporary that we're passing through that we don't have forever to live a toshov has like a sense of permanence a sense of belonging to a community so now he mentions that that's more like my forefathers abraham isaac and jacob they were gerim it was very important to know that so they were gerim like them in the fact while they were in this world so many of the comments here i'm just going to focus on one of them actually two of them so when it says for i must sojourner with you man wanders the earth like a stranger from a foreign land who wanders from place to place lacking permanence the psalmist meaning king david adds the word with you meaning hashem i'm with you to stress that only god decides whether someone will settle per settle peacefully in one place the rama rama mithano says that when david refers to himself as literally convert literally he's alluding to his descent from ruth the moab by tess but when it says toshov i am a settler like all my forefathers despite the temporary nature of his stay on earth man deludes himself that he is a settler in other words aguero's real true gear feels and knows they're a stranger they're hopefully you know brutally honest about that and no there's always this could be friction could be you know they don't really fit in and that that's a real shame but they have to know their children will be there's an acceptance citizens they're going to fit in um there's a lot of hurdles to get over there's no no shying around about that but that we jews have to know we were converts at mount sinai we all converted as well so let's go on with this idea that we have to know that we're only temporarily here on this word on this earth a man deludes himself that he's a settler because he follows in the footsteps of his forefathers but they too were only transitory migrants in comparison with god's eternal existence and if someone considers himself to be an alien in this world ready for this every person jew non-jew i think is my opinion if someone considers himself to be an alien in this world he will join the patriarchs but he will join abraham isaac and jacob and be permanently settled in the bliss in the world to come and that's my message for tonight for those people you and andrew all right okay and we know the word gear can apply in many different ways right okay so i think that was important to think about knowing your place knowing your place every jew should feel like again we we should you know really look up to those who have uh forfeited so much and given up so much and know that they are a bit you know not just strange but temporary in this world um there's one more statement that really fits in well with last week's sheer which we said was um accepting pain but i don't know why it was brought up in my notes but i'll read it anyway it's in leviticus 26 41. i think this pretty much i i think it fits him with this idea of being a gear to a certain extent leviticus 26 verse 1 41 41 reads then i too will treat them as happenstance and bring them back while in the land of their enemies if then their clogged heart becomes humbled then their sufferings will gain appeasement for their iniquity and i think there's some yeah answer there for sure now the rashi over there explains that even though god will bring them back right in other words we were exiled will eventually be brought back and while we're experiencing these hardships we have to remember that we have to um circumcise our hearts right talk about urla but talk about humbling your uncircumcised heart your clogged heart becomes humble keep in mind you're talking about really working on your character then your sufferings will gain appeasement for your iniquity so rashi says yes it's true i myself will bring them back this is a good thing for israel so that they should not say since we have been exiled among the nations we may as well behave like them so god answers back no i'm not going to allow you to do that you cannot marry them you cannot associate with them in the same way you associate with your family but i'm gonna set up profits and they're gonna give rebuke of course and i'm gonna bring them back under they're gonna come back to me under my very wings as it says now this is in ezekiel chapter 20 verses 32-33 but what enters your mind shall not come about what you say let us be like the nations like the families of the land serving wood and stone you should know that it's no coincidence that already back two thousand five hundred two thousand eight hundred years ago that the prophets speak about people serving wood and stone whether it was prophetic or they were already doing it you know like rebuke for that time as well as rebuke for the future because the two they call them sister religions i call them daughter religions um estranged daughter religions um christianity they worship wood meaning i don't know where they go i guess that's from the the what do you call it whatever the cross and stone who worships the stone as we know that the kaaba whatever they do in mecca very strange anyway i'm not really mocking the stone the prophets here as i live says the lord god surely with a strong hand with an outstretched arm and with poured out fury will i reign over you so whatever happens to us in the exile is as that prophecy so clearly says that the suffering itself is atonement here it says appeasement yirtsu as of nam it's actually appeasing look at the last part of rashi there then their sufferings will gain appeasement for their iniquity this means they will gain atonement for their iniquity through their suffering now the point of suffering i mean obviously it's coming from hashem for a good reason which is to not just to atone but to get us to circumcise our hearts so knowing your place i think there's a good way to end this idea knowing your place it takes takes moments of brutal honesty breaking your heart right that's what god says over i want a broken heart i want i want you to come to me honestly that was one of the first things we said about i don't have it here do i um excellent verse there and uh yeah it was one of the verses we talked about crying out to hashem oh yeah that was uh over here in psalms i think that was uh let's go back to psalms where was it yeah 39 13 hear my prayer oh lord and hearken to my cry silence of my tears this was 39 13. for i am a stranger with you to know your place everybody should feel there ager right a bit of an alien right in what way that's for each person to determine on their own right everyone has to be brutally honest with themselves they're not gonna live forever and um you need to know your weaknesses when what are you trying to get you know attention you wanna everyone to talk about you trust me you don't want anybody talking about you it's probably not going to be good right don't worry about it right you can see what happens to politicians you enter politics you're the talk of the town and you don't need it you don't want it go from hero to zero real fast yeah anyway so that is uh i you know i to end off once again with uh samuel johnson's you know idea that no oh i guess that is there was a piece um i think i skipped it go to perkiamo's chapter three mishna one akavia the son of michal would say reflect upon three things and you will not come to the hands of transgression in other words it will help you not sin note from where you came we'll talk about in a second and where you're going remember knowing your place where did i come from where am i going and before him you're destined to give judgment accounting now where did you come from whether you like it or not male or female you came from a future drop that's where you came from where you're going i think we all know a place of dust maggots and worms and to know whom your desire you're destined to give judgment to for your accounting so you might as well get your counting right now before the supreme king of kings the holy one blessed be so keeping that in mind as samuel johnson right and i don't know if there's other people maybe people want to put into the comments i'm telling you i thought it was ben franklin who said this that there's no better clarity than the night before the hanging i looked up please if anybody knows a similar uh quote from the famous personality i'd love to see but the only thing i could find was samuel johnson i don't even know who he is but he writes depend upon it sir when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight he concentrates his mind wonderfully so what you were talking about clarity we're talking about clarity the night before the hanging and if we know as we i think we also spoke about it in the last week's um maybe it's in the show i spoke about the sharks i give a shark share people can go to the yemen website or the we have been a youtube channel and go through that as well um knowing that we're not going to live forever right this the the the suffering we spoke about last week also this will help us do truva to accept the suffering in a good way and uh that's on one side on the other hand albert einstein he felt he could change the world if he remained silent who knows maybe japan or germany would have been uh ruling america today right i mean whether you believe in the use of nuclear weapons or not whether it was the correct decision is irrelevant um albert einstein has um given so much to the world in terms of insights into science and the way the world works on assign you know whatever however science is judged no yeah if i were re were to remain silent i'd be guilty of complicity he's a pretty wise man we understand what he means so you have to know when to when to speak up when to not speak up right as maurice schweitzer would say listen if you're not a smart guy then you look smarter keeping your mouth shut right it's better to remain silent at the risk of being thought a fool than to talk and remove all doubt about it all right wow yeah you know if you have any questions or anybody made any comments online actually very quiet out there in the youtube chat and on uh on facebook i mean we've got you know usual suspects visiting which is always nice to see the regular regulars coming to enjoy your class uh but nobody's putting forth some real questions but all i can say is you know even in this class when we started doing beyond the seven if you notice i talked a lot more but then i realized it's not my place and um it's been just a joy to learn with everything you want to teach but this is a real profound lesson you can't go wrong staying in your wheelhouse knowing your place you if you over stretch a muscle you're going to tear something right and cause harm and it's no different with your life if you over stretch your position um you're gonna come across uh you're gonna damage you know relationships in the process and and have to deal with some repercussion you'd rather not uh just like pulling a muscle um but then not speaking i appreciate you bringing that out most most of all people that are unwilling to step forward i've always been one to be probably more impetuous than than not and um it's got its strengths and weaknesses but knowing when to when to put it forward is is definitely takes a degree of wisdom if not you know you you jump out too soon you're going to get run over often and um i would like to see those that are are more on the shy side being bold and step forward and rabbi goldberg always says that to me often in a lot of his emails always have that joshua quote to be courageous be bold you know and uh keep going forward and it to me it's just you know winning the sales and uh i think your message today uh gives clarity and it should add wind into anybody's sails to get to where they're going and i like you sharing that uh pirkei of oats you know know where you come from and where you're going because that's so true you know we all come from a putrid drop and we're all heading to you know uh uh the grave and um yeah look i will share one more idea that ravenclaw said you know look if you know something about like you know and everybody should know something about about what they say yeah now insanity is contagious there's so much chaos and fake news and just pure insanity out there that if you know something of the truth find a way to share it i mean you can have a fun way you can uh you know something creative something that's not too demeaning to other people around you try to jumpstart them thinking uh there are there are ways there are ways to share this wisdom if you really truly believe this is wise whatever it is whatever part of torah you can do it kind of right do it in a creative kind way uh find a way yeah shine light that's what uh was full of well not just passion but creativity you know when people come to his office you want to be wise you know go to a wise man right so you know if you have a piece of wisdom share it anyway so that will end it now and uh since there are more questions who are there anyway no nothing on youtube rabbi and then you're a wise man and you uh thank you sir that means a lot coming from you but you know just trying to do do my role and i think uh uh you know i i trying to encourage others to especially benefit to work on their areas and influence their communities uh just being real with themselves uh goes goes such a long way if you're if you if you're real with yourselves people notice that and um you know it's not about getting noticed as much as it is impacting uh the world and making it a better place and if you are capable i like how you said today you could very well be complicit if you do nothing and uh you know if that's not enough to motivate you um to to you know you imagine somebody getting harmed because you didn't do you know i heard one rabbi say you know it's always best to pick a side and and stick with it because if you don't pick any side you're complicit with the with the antagonists and um if you you know there's a lot of people that don't make a decision because they're afraid uh to be on the wrong side but the reality is if they don't make a decision they're actually on the side of of the antagonists because there are aggressive people out there that just don't back off back down they don't stop and if you don't make a decision and stand up to that you allow them to forward their footsteps and their agendas and uh i would i would agree with you i would agree let me just i would agree with you if one of the sides was right and one of the sides was wrong but i'll tell you the truth i've seen where both sides are wrong and i would not want to um step up to take one side yeah um unfortunately sometimes it's based on personalities and it's not based on facts or or real true principles that need to be um i mean obviously the principles need to be clarified but they got sidetracked you know there's some issues that come up that can sidetrack them and then you don't want to get involved i hear that but again if it's principle-based i do hear what you're saying well i love how you shared some beautiful uh torah with us today uh that was just dynamite out of leviticus uh leviticus chapter 26 41 i mean that's profound i'll be diving into that this week a little bit more just to grip and grasp but i think there's so much there thank you for sharing uh the sources with us and uh it means a lot so um hashem willing are we uh are we tentatively on for next week if your schedule allows for part 27 tentative sure i'm looking forward all right so folks there you have it right from the rabbi himself hashem willing will be back the same time next week with part 27 of the 48 ways to wisdom in beyond the seven live from jerusalem with rabbi aaron david poston such a joy and have a wonderful wonderful week folks [Music] is