Why are the Blessings Hidden and the Curses Accentuated? with Rabbi Aaron Dovid Poston

[Music] to the ibane bate midrash welcome home to torah a warm welcome home to torah we we're in parshas kisavo that's chapter actually we're in chapter 27 of deuteronomy and we're dealing with one particular actually two particular verses um sandra can i just ask you to put yourself on mute thank you um verse 12 and 13. so if the familiar if you're familiar with a few weeks ago in partial we spoke about hashem is placing before us but he says see i'm placing before you what the blessing and the curse and what you will do when you come into israel you're going to have half of the half of the tribes on one mountain the other half on the other the other mountain and i forgot to mention a few things before we start number one that we do like you we would appreciate if you followed the hebrew down below in the description box is a link and you could follow the black and white sheets you don't get the pretty sheets like i have but at least you can follow number one number two we use the clear car as the base is the outline for our discussion and we are at and we have been accepting uh dedications it's a new thing here for the um the cleo car shear dedication so people who want to contribute we serve dinner here by the way if you want to come if you live in jerusalem or you're visiting jerusalem at 7 20 p.m on thursday nights just let me know in advance if it's a big group so we can bring enough food so the contributions will help go to feed the the various students to come thank god we have a live group in the bait midrash we also have people on online who are watching us through skype and uh when we finish the share we have questions and answers by the way so if you're ever here you get a chance uh okay another thing so let me mention who the contributors were and what their dedication was is for um so for the aliyat nashamah of yaakov and shalom whose yard site is tonight and the refugee shleimer for bria bhatthava and khaim arya ben rifka also the elias neshama of steve and abram halevi okay so that takes care of those and we really wish that were for suleiman and elias neshama in the script of our learning it should bring healing and tikunim so we as i mentioned we're in chapter 27 verse 12 and 13. this is already from you know a particular a where moses tells us what we will be doing well here it is even though it's in 27 we're still not going to be doing it until we get into the land of israel but it's a it's another uh narrative of what will happen when we are in israel okay so i actually encourage you i'll put some links below for those previous shirim that deal with this so let's go into the verse itself if you go back to 11 moses commanded the people on that day saying meaning what will be when you go into the land of israel these shall stand to bless the people on mount greezem when you have crossed the jordan and enlist the six tribes shimon lavi yehudi soccer yosef minyamin they're going to be standing on mount greasing and then these verse 12 13 and these shall stand for the curse on mount avel and you have a list of six tribes ruthing got ashes vulnerable and of course the levites konim are going to be in the middle of the valley they're going to speak up and say to every man of israel in a loud voice and then you have what i'm going to say is 11 if you count them there's 12. but we're going to stick with 11 for now and say that the last one is an accumulation it's an overview it's a summary of the previous 11. so you have 11 curses the curse is the man blank blank blank next the cursed is the one blank blank blank so basically where are the blessings if god said right through moses you're going to stand you're going to give the blessings and the curses as in partial for a and just to take you for a second to joshua it's number two on the source sheet and all of israel this is chapter 8 of joshua verse 33 all of israel this is when it was actually happening in joshua when we come into the land and their elders and officers and their judges stood on this side of the ark and on that side before the priests the levites the bearers of the ark of the covenant of the lord the stranger as well as the native born half of them over against mongresium half of them over against mount avel and then it says as moses the servant of the lord had commanded to bless the people of israel first in truth that's what happened even though in our parsha you don't see the blessings and that's going to be a big question we're going to try to pose and answer tonight where are those blessings rashi says over there to pronounce the blessings before the curses blessed be the man who will not make the graven or molten image in other words for every one of the curses and then the negative consequences thereof for the sin the list of sin the blessing is those who refrain from doing these sins i do want to mention these all of these sins apparently allegedly are all done in secret no in other words there's no neces there's no witnesses to them and the bastion could therefore not uh hear the court case or even convict okay so this is already going to answer a little bit of why where are the blessings number one and why is it necessary to make such a pronouncement of the curses in other words some of these are actually if you think about it some of them are the death penalty what do you mean a curse for something usually you just say the highest what's the word highest punishment okay so this is a little bit we have some really good questions but let's start with the clear cards question his first question is like this if you actually looked at the hebrew now let's start with just the english it says to bless the people and in hebrew it's right eliam de la varek you're going to live vari the lament in front of the word barak to bless lamid to bless when it comes to the curse it says and the following shall stand upon mount eva for the curse which already it doesn't make sense in english eli yamdu al hadqar shouldn't and have said these are standing to bless and these are standing to curse we're always looking for symmetry we're looking for consistency and when there isn't there has to be a reason why we wonder what that reason is so clearly the lamb is before livare as opposed to when it comes to the curse it's before the word klala so the first thing the clear car points out is ubiklalos lo namar ela yamdulicale you know what if you notice when it comes to the curses it does not say and these stand to curse does not say that and then the clear car is already going into some insight and that insight we're going to discuss okay so that discussion goes like this leficia tovos hashem befoel meaning okay this is hard to describe because hashem is indescribable yet we know that ultimately hashem is pure goodness this pure energy is emanating from hashem and it's cut right so that's going to be the brachos that's what he is he's he's pure goodness and everything good seems to be emanating directly from hashem the word powell means in actuality or he's the cause he's the direct clause let's just translate like this that he is the direct cause of all goodness but when it comes to the clullows when it comes to the curses again this might be hard to just to translate and explain but i'll do the best i can when it comes to these curses they're not they're only coming on their own from the person's as a result of the person's actions in other words it's a consequence of the sin it's not coming like as directly as we think oh yeah god's gonna curse you or god's gonna bless you no god is only gonna bless you and the curses that we may receive god forbid somebody might receive is coming because of god's just ceasing i mean he doesn't say it he he says hiding his face in other words the emanation of all that goodness somehow is ceasing or being hidden or being shielded somehow another there's a stoppage seems like that okay so if there's a constant flow of energy of goodness and then all of a sudden there's a cessation of that goodness what does that do is that really the curse or that allows the curse in other words when we behave wrongly we make mistakes we sin so then there are natural consequences as long as we're doing chuvan trying our best and right hashem is going to constantly flow that energy but if we're not going to do truth and we're going to sin intentionally and whatnot then hashem will just cease i'm just trying to explain here he will cease that flow of goodness and allow those natural consequences to to to take place which will be the curse as we know in eicha that's chats lamentations you'll see number three on the source sheet it says and we're going to figure that word haraos into this devar torah soon towards the end but it says and by the command of the most high neither good nor evil come this is similar to what we discussed before in malachi chapter 3 verses 9 through 19-21 where the the sun the s-u-n the sun is very hot and the evil people will burn burn up and the the righteous people will be healed by the same son and we described it that it was based on the macabre the one on the receiving end what where what is the molecular makeup in this case we're talking about sins versus nonsense so we told them molecular makeup let's say for example of wax or an egg wax is hard but when the sun hits it the heat will melt it the egg for all practical person not talking about the shell but the egg is soft that same sun at least the same a lot in august or maybe jerusalem august that can cause something soft like an egg to become hard it's the same sun but it's the molecular makeup on the side of the receiving end that's going to change the difference whether it's healed or burnt up in terms of the exotic or the russian another example the clio card gives is when you go down to the riverside and you do your laundry so what happens your face will be full of color right you'll get a tan you'll the sun reacts to your skin the skin reacts to the sun and there's color to the to the face and the the laundry which you will hang up i assume you'll hang it up will get bleached the the same sun which can cause something to become darker is the same sun that can cause something to become lighter so it's not a matter of the sun but it's a matter of the receiving end so it sounds like from this that neither good nor bad is coming from from hashem and now we understand why it says ayla it doesn't say the curse but they're standing regarding right how did they translate it in this page i gave you and for the curse regarding the curse that's all they were doing was speaking about it they weren't cursing anyone ate bias they were testifying this would happen as a result but it wasn't a sure thing in other words aid actually it's a i have a better translation right yes what would you say a designate they're designating what would happen as a result that the columbus would come or could come [Music] the matter is a doubt it's not a for sure thing just think about even when the prophets come and say ninven is going to be destroyed or some place is you know going to have a famine and as a result of sin and it doesn't happen that does not make them a false prophet you know what it might make them it might make them a very effective prophet when they say something good is going to happen it doesn't happen we take them out back right you know what we do to them those false prophets okay so when it comes to a negative it doesn't have to happen so those close don't necessarily have to happen especially if it's not even coming directly as a command from god all he's doing is withholding the goodness and allowing the natural consequences to take their their to come to a result after the fact they're only coming as a result of hashem holding back the flow of the constant flow of goodness i think this is really what i explained already as a result of god holding back that flow of goodness so what's really happening the only thing that's really everything is dependent on the natural system the framework that hashem set up and therefore we'll call that nature um now what was stated regarding the curses in our parsha vinisharo how brachas bid the yuk we don't see the blessings they're gone they're left out what's going on the low behavior it's not the other way around it could have maybe just said the broncos and you would have understood the colos for some reason we only have the close the curses are mentioned as i pointed out from verses 15 until verse 26. so you have left he's giving some insight why are the broncos somehow hidden they're not mentioned we know that they're sad but they're not said here you know so it's to remind us of something we all must know that the prime let's say reward is waiting for us in the world to come so the main bracha is in the world to come and what is the world to come hani star it's hidden you don't see it rakhma pero tayhem yochlu bola but what do we do we'd actually benefit from the residue from the the crumbs from the fruit sometimes we get to eat those blessings in this world hashem by the way if you want to know how to actually receive the crumbs at the fruits of the blessings in other words it won't take away from your world to come there are actually a list of 26 things and reasons what you can do spend more money on the mitzvahs have joy doing the mitzvahs running to do mitzvahs all this will add to your physical psychological emotional and spiritual enjoyment in this world from doing the missus but the main principle the main reward is waiting for us in the world to come i i mentioned because the number 26 will come up at the end very significant but nevertheless it's it's hidden but we get to eat some of that in this world why why are we like i i it doesn't says fruit but i i use the word crumbs we're like throwing these little crumbs you know little pieces of fruit lyotlam in other words by god allow he's constantly sending that good flow that positive flow of his own energy we're able it's kind of preparation it's um it's laying the groundwork where we're actually able to fulfill the mitzvas through the existence of the bracha in other words we have like the word mona'im meaning things that prevent you and hashem through his constant flow of blessings it moves those monaim those things that prevent you away so that life can flow so that you can do more mitzvahs right maybe you need a little bit more money to buy a house so you can put a mezuzah right you can use a little bit more money right to maybe there's so many mitzvahs you can do with money perhaps that's where the broker is going to come through the money or whatever it is you want to catch a bus and the bus could have gotten an accident but it came on time right could have gotten stuck in traffic but it came on time and that's the constant flow that hashem will get you to where you need to go to do the next mitzvah to come close to him because that's what the mitzvahs are all about it's connecting to hashem so he's giving you the reward as we say mitzvah guerrero mitzvah and the scar mitzvah's mitzvah that one mitzvah causes another mitzvah and not only that the reward for a mitzvah is another mitzvah the blessing of hashem and now alkane histiram akatuth now we understand why the blessings are actually not mentioned because they're hidden and then he says there's another hint remember that shibaratso's hashem i have a little bit of a hard time translating understanding but basically god wants man to be successful the will of god is what man can be successful in asia then what hashem will do he will actually transform the curse into a blessing because god does not want to give us the curses he wants us to be blessed he wants to bless us that the very curses themselves should turn and will turn into blessings now this is a little bit of a weird i should say weird a very unusual gemara it's not easy to understand but we'll try to go through it and you'll find this in moed cotton 9b number four on the source sheet hang in there this is a very unusual gemara it says like this when robionitan then amisai and rabi yahudah who happened to be sons of current converts they noticed ram shimon bar yochai's son and they said to him what are you doing here so he said to them my father told me go to you guys and you're going to bless me so they said to him this is their blessing right imagine you imagine how holy converts are and their children so rabshimbar yokai the rashby tells his own son go and get a bracha from the children of these converts and so wait till you hear this you have to put on your seatbelt because you wouldn't imagine this is a blessing in fact if you read it slowly which we're not gonna do we're gonna gotta kind of go through quickly it's really not nice it sounds not nice this is not the blessing that you and i would expect so they said to him maybe god's will that you should sow and not reap it already sounds bad that you should bring in and not take out that you should take out and not bring in that your house should be destroyed and your lodging place should be inhabited that your table should be confused that you should not see a new year i mean i would imagine i would have ran away at this point i don't want to hear anymore that doesn't sound so nice anyway so when the son of the rashbe came back he said to his father well you know not only did they not bless me they actually cursed me and they caused me a lot of pain so he said what did they say to you this is very important i want i want to hear so they said such and such i'm not going to go through it obviously that's we already said what and you know what rip shimba yokai does he explains every single one of these statements as a as a blessing it's interesting what does it mean when he said you shall sow and not reap it means that you should bear sons and those sons should not die during your lifetime that you bring in but not take out that you should bring in brides but not take out your sons to to be buried and um i skipped something okay [Music] um when it says you should take out but not bring in means you should have daughters and their husbands wouldn't die during your lifetime otherwise the daughters would end up back in your own home and you you the burden of feeding them and listen it's not a big deal god forbid such tragedy happened you you would do everything you could to bring your daughter into your home but in in the first place they shouldn't get married and their where their husbands would die early and when they said your house should be destroyed and your lodging place should be inhabited what it means it's an allegory and meaning this world this world is compared to your lodging place and the world to come is compared to your house so in psalms 49 12 where it says their inward thought is that their houses shall continue forever the word thought like inward you're thinking inside cure bombs like within so he says don't read it the word says don't read it their inward thought as here bomb but rather read it to switch the race and the bet as kivram rather as their graves right so according to this reading one's grave is considered his permanent house the sages gave robbie shimbayok high son of blessing that he should dwell in his temporary house rather than his permanent home meaning he should have a long life and when they said you know your table should be confused they meant you should be blessed with many sons and daughters so there will be all kinds of noise you can just imagine what it's like going to someone's home for shabbos when they have 10 12 who knows more kid even if they have three kids it's it's a lot quite a lot of noise and confusion can happen on the table but that was a blessing and when they said you shouldn't see a new year meaning that your wife shouldn't die see when you as we know there's a thing called shauna roshana right when you first get married if that's called your first year of marriage things are a little bit you know how do i say it it's like a honeymoon from hell no it's like a honeymoon but there's a lot of a lot of work you know you're talking about two completely different people men and women i'm gonna say it men and women they're completely different okay and they're very different and it's a miracle that we can actually live together and um and be happy but guess what it works out with a lot of work but that first year is so important in order to bond in order to really get to know the other person in fact as we know when you go to war they find out right the the the appointed cohen anointed cohen asked anybody who's in the first year of marriage go home don't go to war it's very important to spend that time with your spouse this is the bond that's going to last a lifetime okay so that's what it means here when it says you shouldn't see a new year meaning that your wife shouldn't die and you have to marry another woman and go through that whole process of that first year again okay so you hear this what happened here the clear car brought this gamora for a reason he just quotes a few a few of the ver a few of the words from the gemara tisrov a little tactide right you're going to sew but you're not going to bring it in can avoid lamar parsha's bow as he explained over there and there's a verse in chapter exodus chapter 10 10. so number five on the source sheet what did we see that what you thought was a curse turns into a blessing as they seem to have said but the rash be understood them all as positive things in the end so in in exodus 10 10 pharaoh said to the jewish people yeah you know what you go go serve go serve your lord in the desert right so may the lord be with you just as i will let you and your young children out see that evil is before your faces in hebrew what did pharaoh see to say these words he saw what the astrologers his astrologers his his magician showed him that there's this thing called evil out in the desert and it's going to decimate the jews what did they see they saw that the jews ended up serving the golden calf right through 3 000 jews were killed there was a lot of blood a lot of blood so that's what he saw he did not see something good he saw something very bad and evil and yet what really happened hashem turned the bloodshed symbolized by the star that he saw amid a bid mars into the blood of circumcision in other words into the everlasting covenant this unique relationship this closeness with hashem that same blood that was seen by the astrologers for negative hashem turned it around and turned it into a positive thing in fact that was in the desert and then again in joshua circumcised them when they come into the land of israel and that's what it means in joshua chapter 5 verse 9 this day i have rolled away the reproach of the egyptians from you there was something overhanging that the egyptians saw this blood as a negative and yet it actually becomes a tremendous positive for they were saying to you we see blood over you in the desert that's how the egyptians that's how pharaoh saw it but in the end as joshua circumcised everybody on their way into the land of israel to firm up that covenant now another hint the cleocar says sha bracha now this might be difficult to swallow that the blessings are include they actually include or they're included within the auroraem so the aurorim the curses are the overall things and they were said but i'm going to say simultaneously or embedded within the curses are the brachas what does that mean now so when you hear like that prophet coming and giving the prophecy of doom right what does it do it should wake you up like awe and fear like whoa and that is a motivation for chuva that's a motivation to come close to hashem so even the claw you can see within the clawla with the curse is embedded the very bracha itself boliday and we know in psalms 3415 do i have it on the sheet not sure if i do such a famous verse it says number six right we all know this in english right turn away from evil and do good it's not just a matter of turning away from evil like in other words transforming what we call that curse and it becomes good it's unbelievable it's like within the verse itself don't just read it as yes i must turn away from evil and then do good but the turning of the evil turret makes good im cain if that's true meepata that from within usually me is like from within the corner a hidden corner within the corner of the curse extends protrudes comes out comes forth the very blessings for you aleph remember we said that there are 11 curses you and aleph 11 curses lefi shashem shal hay now we have the name of god it's a yud and a hand of love and a hay but on a certain level there they could be divided meaning you have the yud hey on one hand and then you it's actually on the right and then you have the love hey which is on the left side of the word the and the tail end of the word nevertheless the udhay of god's holy name is representative of midas hadin meaning strict justice and we know this from he gives us a source several sources if you look in i think it's um 10 11 and 12 in our source sheet the first one is yes god has chastised me but the name for god is just a yud and hey it's a name okay that was sorry that was in psalms 118 verse 18. then in psalms 94 12 it says ashrae there are shared fortunate is the man who you you'd hey chastise okay very interesting this is where the the strict judgment the chastisement is coming from from the yud and the this one is not so obvious but in chapter exodus chapter 15 verse 2 which is ozi the zimmers yah by heely yeshua the eternal strength and his vengeance were my salvation so aussie vizimras yah again the yudhi and he explains this further in partial by but now he's taking us it comes out that that's the first that's the yuden hey so that's strict judgment what about the vav and the hay at the end of now above and hey six and five like the gematria is is um 11. so the vav and the hay of the name hagado shema gadot is somehow representative of god's kindness and mercy i want to take you just quickly when we say kiddush friday night we're repeating the very last verse of chapter one of the sixth day he era of evoker yom hashishi and then it begins with chapter the first verse right we're talking about the seventh day the he um the he er i'm sorry then it says so the reishi tavos the acronym of yom hashishi is hey that would be chapter one and then talking about shabbos finished i think if god finished all that he had done in the heavens and the earth then it's above and ahead of hashem interestingly when god originally wanted to create the world he thought i'm going to create it with me to sedin and of course there's no time in hashem's world but quickly he knew that would not stand it must include and therefore in chapter 2 which is basically a recapturing of the creation of the world god's name yud kevke does appear as hashem elokim in chapter two but in chapter one you know k does not appear at all but when we say kiddish we're actually combining the yud and the hay of yomashishi with the love and the hay of of shabbos of chapter 2 and bring it all together why is that important i think it's important as you will see so we just went through the three verses and then he brings out the idea that the love and the haze is um and he says even the rabbina bachaya who speaks about it on the verse of in in exodus chapter 17 verse 16 where it says case yaw i'm not going to go into it right now but basically the summary is rot that god wanted to create the world the physical world that we're living in right now through medicine hainu besham yudhay through the yudhay and we know this also in isaiah chapter 26 verse 4. you'll see that number 13 trust in the lord forever don't use this english translation for now i'm not saying it's not correct for in yah the lord is the rock of eternity right what does it mean hashem it's the yud and the hay of the name of god which is the creator of the world or the worlds okay so it's yudhay that created this world virus kind but you nevertheless god saw that the world would not be able to maintain itself and to exist odd until he joined until he combined the love hague to the yud and the hay al qain amru therefore wait to hear this in baba basra 9b there is this concept that when you give charity to a poor person you will receive six blessings but when you methios when you speak words of consolation whether it's through a smile through extra kind gestures but especially through speech what ends up happening is you get a booster rocket you get 11 additional blessings and you're going to see this through the verses in um if i'm not mistaken you're going to see this in isaiah chapter 58. now we start with verse 7 that's going to be the main concept of giving to dhaka then you're going to see in chapter in verses 8 through 9 the six blessings then you're going to see the idea of if you mathias if you speak kind words then verses 8 verses 10 through 12 are broken into 11 blessings so let's go through it in talmud bob lee it says like this in barbason 9b ruby gitzock says anyone who gives the proof a very small amount doesn't matter to a poor person receives six blessings and whoever consoles him with words of comfort and encouragement receives eleven blessings the gamora explains one who gives a proof to a person poor person receives six as it's written in verse seven is it not to share your bread with the hungry that you may bring the poor that are cast out of your house when you see the naked you cover him obviously this is acts of khasid these are chacks of charity and then as i mentioned in verses 8 and 9 you're going to see it broken down into six blessings as a result of giving this charity one you shall then shall your light break forth like the dawn two your health will spring forth speedily three your righteousness shall go before you for the glory of the lord shall be your rear guard and number five the lord shall answer okay and then there's and then if you cry god will say i am here that's six those are the six blessings just from giving charity and what happens if you console with words you're going to receive 11 as the verse continues and if you draw out your soul what is your soul it's the ruach ruach is speech is your soul is through the nishima through the breath if you draw out your soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul here's the list of 11 blessings again it's in chapter 58 of isaiah verses 10 through 12. then shall your light shine in darkness one two and your gloom shall be as noon day that'll be great number three and the lord shall always lead you four and you shall satisfy your soul in drought five and strengthen your bones six and you shall be a wet like a well-wooded garden seven like the spring of water whose water does not fail unbelievable who doesn't want that it keeps getting better and eight and those coming from you shall build ancient ruins number nine foundations of generations you shall erect 10 and you shall be called the repair of the breaches and number 11 restorer of the paths to dwell in now i just want to mention because i didn't mention this in the beginning we actually collecting seductive to give out to needy families we've reached at this point sixty percent of our goal we have a few days left so just imagine right we do speak to those receiving we speak with consolation if you're not around and you want to just give so we will we're basically your your we will be your um agents so there is a link below in the description box for the campaign this year you heard it reach deep down into your pockets here we go now the clear car continues he's just quoting the gemara which i will just you know go through quickly hanoitan giving a sum of money to a poor person mitbarek beshesh brachos the person will be blessed with six blessings the six why six because in this world we have six directions right you have up and down and you have northeast south and west okay um so those that's why you're going to be blessed with six in this world just from giving you're physically giving as he'll mention you'll get the physical blessings this world will be called this this physical world hannigbal bashes cuts out it's somehow limited to six directions and the reward is below or against or parallel to the heaven that's above we'll meet to home rovers and we're in the netherworld let's say in this world um basically it goes out in all four directions so up and down and the other four directions north east south and west and that's this world of but but when you appease or console or speak kindly when you're giving this this charity which is of spiritual nature meaning the breath as we we use from the verse shall we then the prime reward is in the world that is hidden that world that is nistar that world which is represented by the name of hey which is 11. that's why you'll get 11 brahmos it's specifically when we talk about the world to come that's the full name yuke vavavke and therefore the the blessings the blessings are listed even though we're talking about the curses but there are 11. what i want to say is that we said that the blessings are embedded in the curses they're embedded and wait till you hear i have a treat because rabbi gladstein gave an unbelievable share whether there's 98 or a hundred blessings we're talking about a different partnership and then we're talking about our partnership we're talking about a different section nevertheless he is it's full of great insight and i want to share it with you hopefully towards the end of the altar even when it comes to those curses god does not send them in a like a constant flow or a harsh stream immediately either but rather he's going to give it to you slowly slowly in a way to wake you up in a merciful way in the beginning very slowly because yeshua what he wants is to you to return you really want to be unified with hashem and he wants that so he's bringing these we're calling punishments curses so delicately slowly to awaken you khederik shah ladur and here's an example from the actual generation of the flood themselves you get gosh may bracha do you know that if they would have done chuva that the rain that already started to come would have turned into would have been transferred into what we call gesh me bracha reigns of blessing and i want to take you on a little journey into genesis chapter 7 verse 12 number 15 it says in the rain was upon the earth for 40 days and 40 nights now that was with the raining then there was the uh the uh the water coming up from the bottom the hot water coming up from the earth itself and it was at least 150 days of of uh floating here we have and the rain was upon the earth rash he says and further meaning continuation of verse 17 scripture says now the flood was upon the earth in other words we're in verse 12. it was raining for 40 days and 40 nights and yet in 17 the flood was upon the earth but when he brought them the reins down he brought them down with mercy even those 40 days of rain were not like tsunami rains right so that if they would repaint repent they would be reigns of blessing obviously once they crossed a certain point they didn't repent then they became a flood so even within the beginnings of what we call the curses they can be transformed and turn you know hopefully with through trueva they can be transformed into a blessing so that blessing is embedded within the curse it has to be like that so let's go back to the clear card [Music] therefore we see that the way that the curses come the curses are coming from the aspect of rakhamim slowly slowly al-qaimbo gom came miss paryud hey therefore as there were only 11 curses in the in the part of the chapter we read you see that this reflects the good and the hay meaning 11 that teaches and reflects god's mercy umitam said because of this all of the rebukes and curses hain shall taurus kohanim haim the partial zoo whether it's in vayikra or whether it's in this parsha it's it starts with the verb and ends with a hay okay so in in vayikra so the blessings actually starts with an aleph and ends with a tough and that represents all inclusive because i'll live through tough it's like saying through a to z so when it comes to the blessings it actually starts with an olive offense with a tough it's all inclusive momish unbelievable when it comes to the curses it starts with above and ends with a hay that's in leviticus 26 14 with above and in 2646 with a hay because there is nothing between the hay meaning those two letters are sandwiched together they're not all inclusive they're not expansive they're very limited so the curses are limited but when it comes to the curses the the brothers which are actually embedded in in the curses that has a whole another aspect it's like saying from a to z it's all inclusive so what does the cleo card hear say he says that al khan bogam came by misfortune so therefore they're coming with 11 curses which obviously taught us about rakhimi 11 umitam zek host hain shelters khan heem hain ba parja zhu they all begin with the ver with the love and they end with a hay to teach us even beroges even when hashem is angry and wants to take his anger out through his rebuke mercy is nevertheless remembered and understood within the within the anger and then he brings down gamora sota i'm not sure if i have this do i have it on my sheet gamora sota no i don't think so so oh yeah number 16. so the gamora actually tells us rabbi yehuda ben nakhmani it's 37b in gamora sota and this was the the disseminator of the reshalakis she taught all these passages meaning these 11 blessings and curses these 11 as we said the the blessings are embedded the curses are stated only in reference to an adulterer and an adulteress now obviously you look at them and you say i don't get it i don't see it so the gemura proves from the verse which we in verse 27 chapter 27 15 where it says curse is the man who makes a graven or molten molten image so we're just about making it but it's obviously for the sake of worshiping a night so is a curse a sufficient consequence for the actions of an idol worshiper this is a fundamental tenet of the torah rather it's referring to one who's engaged in sexual intercourse with a forbidden relative or a married woman in this case and bore a momser now this momser is not allowed to marry just anyone he can only marry another momser and what's going to happen this is just the way of the world unfortunately but it is the way the world that when you are flawed you have this flawed lineage so what you're going to do you're going to go to outside of israel or you're going to be outside the community and you're going to marry a non-jew someone and not every non-jew is involved in idol worship but once you leave israel once you're living amongst the non-jews the consequences will follow and basically you end up losing your jewish identity and worshiping idols and as a result right the father and mother are the ones who caused this they're basically cursing the father and mother are the ones who are cursed for allowing this to happen being involved in this illicit relationship causing this jew to go out and worship idols meaning to be lost amongst the nations because that's what happens when a jew gets lost amongst the nations they become idol worshipers now oh that's very good we're not going to go into each one but rashi on the gomura goes through a lot of them and explains how it's so obvious that these are related to an old adulterer an adulteress but at the very last one of what we call the curses where it says i'm not saying the last one one of them let's see number verse 19. a curse is the one who perverts a judgment of a proselyte orphan or widow now what how is that related to an adulteress or you know adulter relationship so rashi says amy yodaya ledorsho i don't know how to explain it rashi does not know how to explain it drum roll please the clear car is going to explain it you can buy it you can love it but he explains it and this is how he does omirani even though rashi says i don't really get the connection remember we said these are all done in secret okay this is how you explain it if somebody was adultering is that the is that a verb committing adultery with um a married woman not his wife the tale ben mimenu and of course then there's a child born we're going to say it's a momser but nevertheless that child is born ubermoto now when the the real father dies oh in this gig right yes or let's say in this case where the the not real father dies so what happens then the court will grant the heritage the the inheritance to this child who's not really his son and what ends up happening that the other remaining sons get less this is a perversion of justice because he's not really his son and he gets the the the inheritance as if he was and that takes away not from just from the other brothers there's he's stealing not not that he's still the parent who committed this horrible sin are causing this travesty that's continuing on uh that he's inheriting and um the it's basically stealing from the other orphans and he's also because the children are responsible take care of their mother it's also diminishing the widow from what she should have gotten because it's one less portion given given away and the clear card brings down what the ibn ezra writes shakola elude divine sheba cesar that all of these curses are coming as a result of sins that happen in private so to the his kuni uh the madrish will and because there's no witnesses then the baiting cannot judge the case there's no court case alcana harimam therefore it's the very severe that's why it needs to be stated as a curse because there's no basin that's going to take care of this justice i skip something up until now the clear car says everything is correct and there's even proof for this the haraya allah shallow his kiloshin seiser in two of the curses the word cesar does appear it appears when when it's talking about idol worship and it's talking about when you when one hits uh hits another person so in other words in verse 15 and verse 24. so in 15 [Applause] it says at the end and then place it in secret right you see that and in where you're hitting somebody is stealthily he's hitting him stealthily so in hebrew the cesar is used and therefore the the idea that these two mitzvahs idol worship and hitting another human being actually fall into the two major categories of when you know there's always two of something well you know there's mitzvahs so some are between us and god and some were between us and our fellow human being so the one of idol worship obviously fits in between us and god it's a travesty against us and god and therefore that's like the i don't know let's just say the paradigm example of all those mitzvahs and god forbid when you hit a human being that's been adam lachadero that fits into the guy that other category between man and man and that would be like the ultimate paradigm example okay and they're the word in secret so we understand they're all in secret this is a a a giveaway kishnayamelu kololim kolatorov a mitzvahs because these two categories the idol worshipping and hitting your friend hitting a human being these include the entire torah and mitzvahs because all mitzvahs are included in these two categories hainu divine should be because it's the category between you and god and the other category between man and man now specifically ufrat you'd all of eiler now why these eleven lidar bear beholder is spoken in the present tense even though this is what will be said when you go into land of israel and stand on those mountains but it will be set in present tense tiring these are things that are done in private i'm sorry yeah in in um private mitsu so too the the same law would apply with all the missiles of the torah because it goes back and includes them all when i mentioned how many curses are there we look at them they're really 12 but look at the number 12th one the 12th one is verse 26 that curses the one who will not uphold the words of the torah to perform them now what it really what the clear car is explaining is that the the 12th one is not a separate one it's like a it's like a it's kozara it's saying after all was said and done regarding these 11 fulfilled them all fulfill the entire torah because i'm talking about the entire torah ultimately but it's a uh a summary in other words you have the curses you only have 11 curses and the 12th is a overreaching all-inclusive uh curse but it's not like a separate curse it's 11 curses and then this is like the overall final statement about all the curses as devre hattora and now let's go for the final paragraph and i said i'm hopefully going to discuss some of the ideas brought down by rabbi gladstein and it says like this um this agrees this agrees very well with everything we set up into this point it says right that last verse 26 who will not uphold the torah now what does that mean does that mean fulfillment of the torah what does it mean he explains it like this [Music] don't take it lightly someone's learning torah but they're not learning for the right reasons they're not learning to connect to hashem they're not learning for spiritual progress but they're learning maybe to get a good name as a good teacher for parnassa maybe for glory maybe for honor well who knows who knows why they're learning hai nu dav or shiba sasar this would be something that is kind of only god knows you don't know it's something hidden shulom made the shame yurah he's learning for arrogant purposes so the person is learning and he's not interested in fulfilling the misses he's only learning to expand whatever it is he wants to expand in this physical world um but who can really know come on maybe you do have some insight but even the angels wouldn't know affilo malacha cha res ta ubiza even the ministering angels made a mistake in this in jeremiah actually it's brought down in the gemara nadarim but in jeremiah chapter 9 verse do i have that on my sore sheet i do it's on the back it's on page six so i'll read it real quick just to get to the end because that's the point as rav yehuda said that rob said what is the meaning of what's written who is the wise man that may understand this obviously it's very deep we don't understand it and who is he to whom the mouth of the lord has spoken that he may declare it for this in jeremiah 9 11 by the way for what the land is perished and laid to waste like a wilderness and none passes through okay so this matter this idea the question is why would arizona be destroyed and it was asked of um it was asked of the sages these wise men well that's referring to the prophets and to whom the mouth of the lord is spoken but they could not explain it so the sages they couldn't they couldn't explain it maybe the the angels couldn't either um so the matter remained the mystery until the holy one blessed be he explained it himself in jeremiah chapter 9 verse 12 meaning the following verse so what does it say the following verse remember our verse says who's such a wise man who may understand this and basically the land is being perished so we're going to exile going into exile so in verse 12 it says and the lord said he answered because they have forsaken my torah which i set before them and not obeyed my voice nor walked therein so it would appear that they have not obeyed my voice is exactly the same thing as walk therein meaning you're learning the torah but you're not walking the walk what do they say you talk the talk but you don't walk the walk the hypocrites whatever it is they're learning lolisma they're learning for other reasons so let's go back to the clear car and when we just said in the verse admira of the earth for what reason did the land perish this question was asked to the sages the prophets and to the angels below peru sure they couldn't explain it made the mystery perish until god himself explained the questions in verse 11 chapter nine and the answers in verse 12. because they have abandoned or forsaken my torah keep it mo scuba toe but people could look at people sitting in a bait midrash or whatever that you know some kind of study hall or whatever you can see people learning but you would think you could be misled okay they're learning torah of allah but nobody knows why they're learning you assume they're learning lashma but they're maybe they're learning not lishma they're learning for nefarious purposes because and when it came to action they they forsook it they let it behind they abandoned it kaminha grove doreno this was written 400 years ago and he says this is like a majority of the people in our generation they sit and they may i don't think he's talking about universities but maybe he was i'm assuming he's talking about in the bait midrash in his days ah cain omar that's why that 12th curse that 12th statement i shall yaki messed every turn for those who do not fulfill the torah that is accursed mashup cayenne they just speak about it but they don't fulfill it what do we hear from this lol obviously it's talking about someone who's learning but not for the right purposes or goddamn you say you have no greater secret mystery than this they look from they look religious they look like they're fulfilled the word of god you don't know but that's why it's so hidden that's why it's so strict with with a curse now i mentioned this is really sweet this is like the dessert that you all been waiting for and you don't have the pages but this is from a sheer from rabbi gladstein i don't even know where to begin so i'm going to basically sum it up and we have the 98 curses the clear car actually says there's a hundred there's 98 they're both true well which one is it so in chapter 28 if i'm not mistaken verse 61 right so it says over there that all the sicknesses and all of the plagues which are not written in this book right that i'm going to play hashem your god is going to place upon you to destroy you it's very interesting so even though there's a hundred there's 98. you count them up there's 98 of the 100 which one is it so these two are the take them away so what happens like this the justification of the jews they said to themselves okay so what you're going to curse us we can get out of it right like the people in the flood you know what they said over there um i don't think i have the rashi in front of me but basically it's like this when they heard about the rain they said so what we'll build boats you know we can build boat we have boats you know what if god's going to throw us out of the land so we'll live with the non-jews so we'll eat their food we'll import it if we have a drought you know we'll figure it out but when it comes to those two the any sickness and any kind of plague that god would bring those were unknowns and therefore there's actually two levels there's a hundred and then there's uh 98 but that's not even when i go that's not even where i want to go to but i needed to lay the groundwork here we go on pesa on circus we bring 14 what's the word 14 go uh sheep every day so by the the gentiles we bring 70 bulls and we start with a high number and we go down down down down and they're all together over the entire week 70 bulls they're not consistent there's a different number each day but when it comes to the sheep as we know that the jewish people in jeremiah chapter 50 verse 17 we are called the scattered sheep we are the scattered sheep we bring on sukkahs 14 sheep every single day 14 times 7 the 7 days is 98. if we would like to um counter those 98 curses so then we need to go and make sure that we do this but when is it done on sukkahs the time of simcha what was the greatest curse in the um dealing with um in chapter 28 verse 47 in our in our parsha so because you didn't serve hashem your god enjoy the tuv levov with um with a a joyous heart mayro called when you had everything you had an abundance of everything this is like the worst curse but guess what we bring the 14 sheep every single day for our repentance for our chuva for our copara and that is going to counter the 98 curses there's another idea that's brought down in in cheva brachas so in chevy brokers also basically it's ideal to make two a day so you're talking about 14 um one second seven times fourteen because you have two a day seven days so that is seven times fourteen is ninety eight and god's own name jude kevke is times 26 because by the way it actually his name appears in the in the curses in the in the long set of curses 26 times it actually equals the um comatry of root of abundant uh negativity consequences and that kamachi is 676. okay um so god's name is 26. that's the gematria of yodevae and it's 26 times also in the shimone s-ray minus should i say the bronchus from malshini which was added later there's 26 times uk valve k is mentioned in the shimon esre again to counter the 676 the rose um the the negative consequences also we think god is right king david either established or reestablished a hundred bracelets a day okay now there are two broncos that are midorisa so all the bruces that we're going to make hopefully the 98 of the 100 they're going to parallel the 98 curses and then there are two medariza and they will ultimately parallel those two curses that we didn't know in any you know we were in doubt about how to overcome in other words man's yetzer hara he hears the curses instead of justifying his behavior and working it out he'll right i shouldn't say justifying his behavior in other words making it okay saying what i'm doing is not so bad and i'll figure out how to get beyond the curses no there were those two curses that he didn't know about and didn't know how to guard against so they would parallel to the two blessings in addition to the 98 rabbinic blessings the two blessings of birha tamazon and birhat so you have 98 out of 100 blessings that we make every day to counter the 98 bracha and the 98 curses we have an additional two blessings of derisive to counter the full hundred that were made so going back to the clear car yes there are 98 and yes there are a hundred and that's in different section altogether anyway bizrat hashem it's before rosh hashanah there's no coincidence why we are learning why we ezra and developed when we say when we read these parshiot this parsha is coming right for roshana let's get some sobriety in our lives take life seriously okay that yes on one hand we are very blessed and we know that hashem is full of rach i mean but we must get into more serious mode and not take advantage of that special unique relationship that we have with the kurdish baraku i said this as a message to the non-jews as well that you should also feel that hashem is not just your king but he is your creator your father in heaven he did create you and there's a lot of potential to come close to hashem so bizarre hashem we should all grow in that direction and we say everyone should have a great life a great shabbos and peace upon all of your [Music] oh