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If we want to have and take God's Torah
and and and learn it and and apply it
and internalize it. So there's an idea
of being prepared for that. The the
analogy a beautiful analogy brought for
that is if you have the finest wine,
right? I don't know what fine wine is. I
grew up on slurpies and Coca-Cola. But
if you if you did appreciate fine wine
and you had the finest wine, which might
be what $1,000 could be bottled, I'm
sure. Good bottle of rashi. Okay. Okay.
Well, whatever. What? What's Let's Let's
be rich. It's where it's just It's a
fake bottle of wine. So, let's make it
$2,000. No one I'm not paying for it.
So, you have this $2,000 bottle of wine.
And you take that wonderful wine and you
pour it into a disgusting, dirty,
tarnished, rusty, rotten cup. What did
you do to that $2,000 wine? You ruined
it. You didn't help it, right? Maybe you
gave it character, right? Can we say you
gave it character? No, you ruined it.
So, we are a vessel. We are vessels and
we are about to receive God's Torah in
in in schwas. And if we don't prepare
ourselves to take that Torah and
internalize it within us in order to
express it through us and from us
properly, then all we're doing is is
giving God's Torah a unique character.
And I don't know if that's that's that's
not what the world needs. Doesn't need
my character, you know, spread it. It
needs us to be able to objectively
internalize God's truth and express it
as that truth, not to pervert it into my
truth. my cult, which would be a cult of
uh fiction, sounds like a movie. My own
truth is is called being delusional.
It's it's called lying to oneself. And
if I take my truths that are wrong and
spread them to the world, so then I'm
not helping or building Hashem's world.
I'm destroying Hashem's world. You know,
it's interesting. Uh one way to describe
mankind, humanity, I'm going to
overgeneralize. I love doing that
because it it annoys people that hate
that. So, I'm going to
overeneneralize in one sentence. I'm
going to define the majority of the
world and what they've essentially
accomplished in the past almost 6,000
years. And again, if you're some
scientist, maybe maybe 25 billion years
or whatever it is. So, here's what
they've done. They've said, so to speak,
to Hashem, Hashem, thank you for a
wonderful world you created now, we'll
take it, but can you please leave?
Because the way we want to live in this
world doesn't fit with what what you had
in mind. So, you you go away and we'll
enjoy your world the way we want to
enjoy it. We'll pervert it. and
essentially steal Hashem's world from
him and kick him out of it some way.
It's it's hard how we can kick Hashem
out of his world, but he created a
system where we can actually do that.
I'm not a heretic, you know, at least
according to most opinions. But yes, we
can actually steal Hashem's world from
him and and send him unfortunately away
with our negative actions. And that's
what the world has done as a whole. This
world is taking 6,000 years to grow up
and they're not even reached adolescence
age. They're not even ready for
kindergarten in this world. Imagine this
beautiful picture of a cool and I wish I
was cool. I wouldn't mind looking cool.
A cool 70, 80 year old man with a
ponytail, but no, no, obviously no hair
here because he's lost it, but he's got
the ponytail and earrings and he's
trying to be Brad Pitt, who's also also
old, relatively speaking. And and he
doesn't he doesn't have a clue what life
is all about. He's an overgrown baby
playing with his toys. Like the saying,
he who dies with the most toys wins. You
know what he wins? He wins the biggest
baby alive award. That's what he wins.
Back to the point, which
was if we don't work on ourselves to be
worthy of and to be a proper vessel for
God's Torah, all we're going to do is
take that truth and pervert it. And you
have that out there a lot. Okay? So,
it's important like you're all saying,
this is a time to prepare ourselves to
receive Hashem's Torah in 50
days. Okay?
Um based on this we can actually connect
it with a famous teaching from one of
the great sages one of the greatest
sages certainly in the past couple
hundred years is the vn the gr we call
him elu from vna absolute genius he says
that Torah is compared to water what
does water do water makes things grow if
you have a field that you haven't
prepared and and properly cleaned from
the weeds and you water it what's going
to
weeds are going to grow. So that's what
he says. That's that's us. That's the
idea of the preparation for matan Torah.
We have a lot inside of us. We have good
inside of us and we have bad inside of
us. Where does evil come from?
He is evil. Where does he come from?
Hashem gave us the Hashemility. The
source of evil comes from Hashem. So if
I have weeds in me, where did they come
from? I didn't put them in me. on some
level, Hashem put in me a nature, a
nature that can go off track that that
wants to go off track. So, it's not even
we're not even blaming anybody. We're
just just objectively this is the
reality. I'm a human being. I am
basically one step above a monkey
because the monkey is what we they think
was the original human being. Pretty
dumb. after 6,000 years, he hasn't got
much smarter. So, thank God we don't
agree with that nonsense. And it's
interesting, just a side point, because
if you believe we come from monkeys, how
much respect are you gonna have for your
great great great grandfather? He's just
more of a monkey than you are. We didn't
create the negativity in us. God said, I
I am going to take what I've made until
now, and I'm going to include all of
that in a new creation called a human
being. And it has a level of animal. We
have a level of an animal in us, we have
a lot of raw potential and it can be
destructive or constructive depending on
what we do with it. Okay? So the weeds
that we find within us, the fact that we
have issues, the fact that anyone that
has issues in life, he has problems,
things are hard, it doesn't mean he's a
problem, it means he was given these
challenges and there and and many cases
they're from Hashem. Now, what you do
with that is what's going to determine
who and what you really are because it's
what you take from Hashem and what you
make of it is what you're responsible
for. So, yes, we have to recognize if I
don't do if I don't work on myself and I
believe that I'm just supposed to be the
the the the crazy out of control person
that I am. So then then then I then I
can take then I can reach very very bad
places. And I'm describing the life
story of Asav. Interestingly enough, the
word Asov
is and if you would manipulate the word
and change it from his name to an actual
word, it means I'm finished. I'm
done. It's the past tense of an action
and so I did it. It's done. And what is
essentially saying his name is screaming
this. I am what I am. I am who I am and
this is the way I'm staying. That's 70
year old man. That's a 70-y old baby.
That's what he's saying. If this is how
Hashem made me, then this is how I'm
meant to be. It was the Greek
philosophy. The argument between Toronto
Rufus and Raba to Rufus said to Raba,
"What? What's going on over you guys?
You think you're greater? You think
you're better than Hashem? You think
you're smarter than Hashem? Who's
greater? Hashem? What? What Hashem makes
is greater or what you make is greater?"
Raika the genius second to
Moshe. I mean, at least according to
Hashem. Moshe felt
better. He answers back, "Yes, we are
greater than Hashem." He's like, "How
could you say you're greater than
Hashem? Can you make Can you make a
world?" No, I can't make a world. That's
not what I meant. I meant in things that
we can do and that Hashem does that we
think similar things that we do, Hashem
and us. So, we're actually greater than
Hashem. And I'll prove it to you. Hashem
made wheat, right? How awesome is wheat?
Pretty good. Yeah. If I brought wheat
for this brunch, how how happy would all
you guys be? I brought a bunch of plates
of wheat. You'd throw it at You'd stone
me with the wheat. Not if you could do
that. You You would stone me with the
wheat. You wouldn't be happy with the
wheat. I brought bagels, locks, and
cream cheese. How happy are you? Pretty
happy. Okay. So, where did the bagels
come from, man? Ah. So, what's so what's
greater? I'll come next week with a
bunch of wheat kernels or I'll come with
bagels again. What do you prefer?
So, that's where what's greater? What we
do is greater. We make bread. Hashem
made wheat. We make bread.
What's the message? The message is
Hashem made wheat and wheat is not
finished yet. It's it's it's raw
potential there. It's it's certainly the
the the this the the form the matter
that we have to work with. We cannot
create matter. I can't create myself but
I can recreate myself.
That's the point.
You understand? And what's better?
The creation that God made me or the
creation I make myself into, which is
better according to this whole approach.
Don't be afraid to say it. The one, the
one I make is better because that's how
Hashem wants it. And let's look at the
wheat again and we'll see the beautiful
idea. Could God not have made bread?
Right? I don't want to complicate this
because according to Kabala and Midash
Kazal, he did make bread. But but let's
forget about that for now. He right now
we don't have bread. We have wheat.
Could he could he not just provide us
with bread? Of course he could. So what
did he do? He provided us with wheat
instead which we take and through a
process of refining rectification, we
develop it and we create it into
something called unbelievable bread.
Okay. When we make the blessing on this
bread, it has a unique blessing because
it is the the staple of our sustenance
and it is something amazing that Hashem
made wheat that we turn into bread. What
blessing do we say on bread?
Hamosi. Let's go through the words by
word. I'm I'm about so we'll go through
it
slowly. Hashem, blessed are you
God, our God, King of the universe, King
of all worlds. I added a few words
because it's really not just one world,
many
worlds. That brings forth bread from the
earth. Bread doesn't come out of the
earth, right? Isn't that correct? So,
the blessing is wrong. This it's wrong.
So the sages that came up with with this
blessing, they were big sages. They were
the men of the great assembly. How do
they get something this simple that even
Aaron and I know bread doesn't come out
of the earth? And the blessing says that
God took bread out of the earth. So
anybody have any any ideas any solutions
to this? Uh this Yes.
Um the alternative would be thanking
God, blessing God for giving us the
wisdom to make bread, but then we're
making the braha about us. So even
though technically we could say it's not
coming from the ground, rather it's
coming from the wisdom he instilled in
us, saying that it comes from the ground
removes us from all the fruits of our
labor, letting us know that it's all
coming from Hashem.
That's a very nice idea. It's basically,
you know, you just have nothing more to
add to this class. Thank you. Maybe
maybe
maybe the idea here is that um the point
of wheat is to become bread. Like it's
not supposed to remain as just wheat.
It's meant to be refined. If I was half
joking when I said he stole the class,
you just took the
class. Of course, Hashem could make
bread. But I'll tell you a bigger kesh.
Hashem did make the bread. He did make
the bread. But there are two ways to
make something. There's a way to make it
in actuality and a way to make it in
potential.
Now, what did Hashem really want when he
brought wheat from the earth? He wanted
bread. the the rat song, the inner will
and the real point and purpose that God
created a process of planting seeds and
watering it and growing it is because he
knew we have nothing to do with our time
and keep us busy. That was supposed to
be a joke. Okay, but we're in serious
mode. He he put this he he created a
system that we should come out from the
ground, but he he knows the end result
and he wants that end result to be bred.
And therefore, we have to understand me
by myself, what could I make? Could I
make bread? No. I'm using God's world,
God's wheat, God's earth, God's water,
God's air, and the energy he puts in me,
all that to make that bread. And again,
Hashem could have made the bread
finished. And that's what the blessing
is reminding us. God not only could have
made bread, he did make the bread. But
in his humility and in his kindness, he
said, "You know what? I'm gonna make the
bread 10 steps before. Well, maybe
really Yeah. 10 steps before bread. Why?
To give us a chance to take that wheat
and make it into bread. And make it into
bread. That we could say we made the
bread. But when we say we made the
bread, what do I really mean? I mean we
made the bread. Hashem and I make bread.
And that's what was telling Taos Rufus
who had the Greek approach, the the
Roman approach, which is the as of
approach. We're not here to do anything
but serve ourselves, please ourselves,
and be the best animal we can be because
God created me the way I am. This human
animal that's slick, walks on two feet,
cunning, sounds like the snake.
Actually, most of us are more like the
snake than a than a real human being.
But God made the human animal and that's
enough and that's what I am and that's
what I will be. I will come into this
world an animal and I will leave this
world an animal. 70-year-old man with
couple of earrings, a ponytail which
looks a bit weird because it's very
shiny on top because he's bald and he's
got all the toys in the world and he's
still looking for his new toy and try to
pull the toy away from him. He start
crying like a
baby. Sad sad story.
But we have a different story. Rabbi K
says, "No, Hashem left us with ora. He
left us with a blemish, extra skin on
our private parts. Or everyone knows
what happens to a baby when he goes.
It's not a secret." Why is that there?
Because that's how Hashem wanted us.
Yes, that's how Hashem wanted us.
Because he said, "I don't want to make
you perfect and invite you into my
perfect world." then what are you and
what is what does it have to do with you
this world that I'm inviting you into?
You're just a guest in my world in my
palace. He said, "No, I'm making the
world for you. It's your world and it's
going to come through you and then you
won't just be a guest in my palace.
It'll be your palace that you build
together with
me." That's what Rabik was telling him.
You were created with this negativity in
you. The weeds that we're trying to get
get rid of, it's da so you could get rid
of them. So you could perfect yourself
and this world and share it together
with me because a world perfect I didn't
need you for. I'm perfect. I could have
made a world perfect and you have
nothing to do with it and I don't need
you for that. But to share a world
together with you my children that you
will be worthy to share with me and you
won't feel like a nothing, nobody
loser. This is the way I made it. That
you could be a winner. You can be a
co-producer, a partner in the you that
you create and in the world you and I
share together when you're done creating
it. That's what it means. That Hashem
takes bread out of the earth. And to
come full circle, we are that bread. As
the sages say that Adam was the shalom,
he was the choicest piece of the kala of
Hashem. That bread of Hashem, the
choicest piece. And that's what we are.
And we made it. We made ourselves into
that kala. Adam started off as that kala
and lost it for a reason that we should
attain that level once again. And and
that's that's what the all of life is
all about. Okay. So now as we get back
to the weeds that we're trying to get
rid of the grass says that if we don't
work on getting rid of those weeds. So
when we water the the field when we
water ourselves with this wisdom of
Torah which is compared to water
everything grows. will grow sometimes
positive, sometimes negative. But when
we do the work to prepare ourselves,
when we prepare that bread properly,
then you have a a special for Shabas.
And that's what we are. We are the
choicest of the choicest that we are in
the middle of producing right now for
the yom that will be ko Shabbat. The day
will it will be a Shabas that will never
end.
