Why Do So Many Jews Work In Hollywood? - Shelach - The Parshah On Fire

This Torah class is brought to you by tora anytime.com. Out of all the events in the entire Tyra, none have been more historically devastating to the Jewish people than the story of the Moraglin. Nothing was even remotely as catastrophic as the negative report that the 12 spies gave. Nothing brought with it nearly as many negative ramifications as this episode did. If not for the spies, the Jewish people would have been free to enter the land of arisel right away. If not for the spies, we would have erected the Bamed as soon as we entered the land. If not for the spies, Mosha would have let us into the land instead of Yeshua, instilling so much kadusha into the Bamedash that it would have never been destroyed. If not for the spies, our spiritual utopian bliss that we were waiting for would have been actualized. And yet, because of the spies, none of this materialized. Because of the spies, the entire generation was killed out. Because of the spies, we had to wait an excruciating 40 years to enter Arit Israel. Because of the spies, Moses did not lead us into the land. And the building of the of the Ba Mikdash took place with other people. It was prolonged hundreds of years. Because of the spies, the spiritual utopia we were supposed to enjoy never came to be. Because of the spies, Hashem declared that the day the spies committed their sin will be a day of sadness and tears for generations. That day was the 9th of Ab and became the genesis of tishab, the saddest day of the Jewish year, the original day that lives in infamy. the day in which enormous amount of spiritual and physical destruction ravaged the Jewish people for literally thousands of years including the destruction of the first basikdash, the destruction of the second bases, the Romans killing 580,000 Jews in the city of Betar, the start of the first crusade in August 15th 1096, the expulsion of Jews from England in July 181280, the expulsion of Jews from France, the expulsion of Jews from Spain in July 21st 1492. Tishiba was also Germany's entrance into World War I on August 2nd, 1914, as well as Hinrich Himmler formerly starting the final solution and the start of the Holocaust on August 2nd, 1941. It was the first day of the mass deportations of the Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto to Trebinka on July 23rd, 1942 and the bombing of the Jewish Community Center Buenos Eris, killing and injuring hundreds of Jews on July 18th, 1994. All of these happened on Tishab. All of these are traced back to the 12 spies. Now, here's the million-dollar question. What exactly did the spies do wrong? What exactly was their horrific sin? Did they go out on their mission and come back with lies and exaggerations dissuading everyone from wanting the land? No. The Ramban and Borat says that the Moragim said the absolute truth. So, what was the issue? So the common explanation is that the spies stoked unnecessary fear in the eyes of Kalazel and exclaimed that they would be unccapable of defeating the inhabitants of the land and they overly stressed the fact that the land had dangerous and giant people when they should have been faithful in Hashem's protection and relied on his ability to defend them and therefore they were punished. That is the classic explanation. But here's the obvious issue with this explanation. How could these Jews, some of the greatest Jews who ever lived, really think that Hashem wasn't strong enough to wage war against the nations of the land? They really thought that? Didn't Hashem like 10 seconds ago wipe out the entire Egyptian army and bring perhaps the mightiest empire in world history to its knees? Did Hashem not just take an entire ocean and split it in half? Did he not just run rain mundown from the sky and send miraculous clouds and fire to protect the Jewish people? Did he not just wage war against the Mullik and annihilate them? Wasn't it Hashem's credibility established at this point? Wasn't his reputation as an all powerful all-encompassing God proven without a shadow of a doubt at this point? What what more do you want him to do? How could they possibly have doubted Hashem? What was going through their minds? So the Sas gives a very enlightening approach. He says the spies weren't afraid of the seven nations inhabiting the land. If Hashem could beat the Egyptians, he could beat the seven nations. There was no legitimate fear that the all powerful Hashem would fail in his protection of them. The spies didn't fear failure. The spies feared success. The spies saw in the land the exact opposite of what their existence was in the desert. They saw land that would need to be farmed and lakes that would need to be fished. They saw houses that needed to build be built. They saw fields that needed to be plowed. They saw an existence that in their mind completely cut out Hashem of out of their life. Their life was entirely enveloped in Hashem's protection in the desert with Hashem feeding them with miraculous fluid and clothing them with miraculous clothing and quenching their thirst with miraculous water and protecting them with miraculous clouds. The land of Aritzel was the diametrical opposite of that. The reason the spies didn't want and to go into the land was not because the land was dangerous and uninhabitable. On the contrary, precisely because it was safe and inhabitable. Precisely because humans with their own hands could maintain a civilization on the land. Did the spies fear that Hashem would be cut out? The spiritual rendevu they were having with Hashem would come to an end. And that was too much for the spies to handle. Why go into this land when it's only a step down in our relationship with Hashem? Why promote a land that will do nothing but claw us away from the intimate relationship we have with Hashem? That was what was going through their heads. And therefore, they convinced the nation that the land was too much for them. They convinced the people that the land was not the place they ought to be. But they made a grave mistake. What in their mind was perceived as a desire to remain close to Hashem was in reality a fear of having to maintain the relationship on their own. They wanted spiritually spirituality handed to them on a platter and the land wouldn't do that. So they wanted out. That was the of the spies. That mentality was so lethal it had to be completely uprooted because the very purpose of the Jewish people in this world is to inject holiness into the mundane to develop a spiritual relationship with Hashem in a seemingly unspiritual world to inculcate godliness into the fields and the forest and the rivers flowing on this earth. Living in a spiritual incubator does not accomplish that. Entering the land and spiritually developing it does. which is precisely why if you look at the Jewish calendar from a bird's eye view, something pretty odd stands out. Out of 365 days of the year, a whopping 172 of those 365 are days with something holy going on. Whether it's sukus or pes or a fast day, there's something going on. And 172 out of 365 days of the year. Now, strangely, out of those 172 of significance, 127 of them are between Pesak and Sukus. When you look at the calendar, you realize that the vast majority of the holy days are in the same six months between the three weeks, the nine days, basically fromwards there's very little going on and before the stories of Khan and Purum occurred there was barely anything going on. Why is that? Why would Hashem arrange the calendar in such a way? Why wouldn't he want to spread things out a little bit? Perhaps the answer is that Hashem wanted to place a nice chunk of time in the calendar every year for us to be able to implant holiness into our mundane lives and to be able to do it all by ourselves. To be able to cry when it's not tish. To be able to davin when it's not yipper. To be able to dance and sing the songs when it's not. to be able to work on ourselves when it's not the Hashem wants to give us a time to show him that we could do it on our own. That's why the calendar is designed the way it is. It's for this reason perhaps that says that had two ars. One we kept the regular and one we kept the broken and the second one with the broken broken was the one that we would bring into battle with us. Now why is that? Why are we bringing the broken luhis into battle and not the full set of luhis? Wouldn't you think we should bring the impressive set of complete luhis and not the broken set of luhis? Perhaps the answer is that we specifically brought the broken luhis with us when we went into war because they reminded us that Hashem wants to see us get up from failure to pick ourselves up and serve him with self-generated enthusiasm no matter what we do and where we are. That's a reminder we need in a war. A reminder that even though we may be far from home, far miles away from a base madish or a scholar or yeshiva. Even though we're out in the trenches battling, we take inspiration from the broken lis that Hashem wants to see us live up to his standards even when we think we're broken. Especially when we think we're broken. The reason why yumkip is interpreted to mean yimur implying that purim is even more important than and holy than yamipper is because purim is our time to show hashem that we know how to serve him even when we're completely engulfed in materialism and goshmas. It's the time we show hashem that we can serve him in our occasionally not so pristine and angelic world. We show hashem that we can serve him even when we're drunk. It might even be possible that the way one acts on Purim is more of an indicator of his closeness to Hashem than the way one acts on the very pressuring scary day of Yamiper. Our relationship with Hashem is very much like our relationship with our friends. All friends show up to varts, but great friends are there early and stay late and help set up and help clean up. All friends show up to Shiva houses, but real friends are there the day after Shiva when everybody else left. and they swing by to bring over some chocolates and bring a smile. All friends visit their friend when he's diagnosed with cancer and in the hospital. But real friends are there six months later in the Cleveland Clinic when it's same gala and he drove from Pay and it was raining. He had 3,000 other things to do. And he had a headache and he was fasting. And he got there and his friend was sleeping. And he sat there by his bedside unflinching, unmoving, crying, and saying to him over his sleeping body, waiting three and a half hours for him to wake up just so he could be there to smile at him. That's what real friends do. Our relationship with Hashem is the exact same way. It's easy to daven when things are going great. It's easy to learn when we got the perfect amount of sleep the night before. It's easy to have patience for your wife and kids when you aren't in a rush and you're well caffeinated. The key is to do so when you're not. The key is to dab in when you're not in the mood. To learn even when you're tired, to have patience even when you feel like you can't. Hashem wants to see how we act when life is hard, not when life is easy. Listen to this. In Judaism, the number seven is holy. Only after seven days is an infant holy enough to get a bris. The seventh day of the week is Shabas. The seventh year is Shmita. After 49 years comes the seventh month of the year counting from Nissan is the holy month of Tish, the month of Rashashana and Yamipper and Sukis. The seventh month of the year counting from Tish is the holy month of Nissan, the month of Pesak. Sukis is seven days long. Pesak is seven days long. There are seven special fruits in the land of Ars. Seven is the holiest number in Judaism. So following this pattern, it would make sense that the seventh word in the Tyra is likewise holy. You might even say it's one of the holiest words in the entire Tyra. You know what the seventh word is in the Tyra? The seventh word in the entire Tyra is the word, the land, the ground, the earth. Perhaps it's telling us that the land we walk on isn't a landscape waiting for us to build our materialistic temples on it. The land is there waiting for us to sanctify it. It's the ultimate medium for spreading Hashem's holy glory. It's the place for us to plant our seeds of spirituality and have them grow across the globe. The world offers a neverending tsunami of immorality and mundanity. But it's the job of a Jew a Jew to inject the world with holiness. Like Ra says, the Jewish nation is called the Khanim, a kingdom of priests. And he explains that I mean the same way kohanim are to the Jewish people, the Jews are to the rest of the world. the safeguards, the injectors of unadulterated holiness into the world. Listen to the story. I once had a fascinating conversation with a man named David Saxs. David Saxs is a very famous movie and TV show writer living in Los Angeles who contributed to some of the most popular shows of all time. But more importantly, he is a proud Orthodox Jew. And I asked him the following question. I said, "Why in your opinion are there so many Jews who succeed in Hollywood? In the movie, TV, and Broadway show business, virtually everywhere you look, you'll find Jews. Be it the actor, the producer, the writer, the director. Why is that?" So, he looked at me and he smiled and he proceeded to give me a refreshingly sophisticated answer to this pretty age-old question. He said, "Jews have been around a long time. From the times of Aram in ancient Mesopotamia to the times of Misha in the desert to the times of Schlomalik to the times of the Jews in Iran or Iraq. We've lived in Italy and Spain and Germany and France and Morocco and Tunisia. From the Jews in Russia and Ukraine to the Jews in Canada and Greece and Bolivia, Jews have been through virtually every villain the world has seen and has experienced almost every triumphant leader. The Jew has been through every possible plot twist and backdrop. Through every climax and every conclusion, the Jews have experienced every background and every falling action. The Jews have not only witnessed every possible form of drama on life's huge stage. The Jews have taken part in every drama on life stage. And therefore, he looked at me with a smile. The Jew has developed an almost supernatural ability to tell stories. For the Jew has been through the duration of life stories. The Jew has seen it all. The Jew was there to teach history how to act. The Jew was there nurturing the world through its highs and through its lows. The Jew has been there as a shining light when the world got dark. The Jew, no matter where it went, it went with the Tyra in its hand, ready to bring holiness to its new destination. Every Jew has a story to tell. For we are the protectors of life's stories. That's who we are. That's what the Jewish people are all about. Being history's reminder of what holiness is. Perhaps the reason we've been sent to more countries than any other group of people on earth. Perhaps the reason we've endured more than anyone on the planet. Perhaps the reason we've had to climb every mountain and swim through every ocean and walk through every desert this earth has is because our job as the Jewish people is to take the entire universe, every inch of it, and make it holy, no matter what and no matter when. Here's another story. Nathan Strauss was one of the wealthiest Jews and people in the world in the early 1900s. And as the owner of Macy's department store, one of the largest in the world at the time, he amassed a fortune that made him one of the most influential people worldwide. And when opportunity arose for him to visit Ernstro, Nathan and his brother Isidor decided to go check out the land. And after several days of seeing the country, Nathan was very inspired, but he was also very saddened. It's so desolate. He said, "So much work needs to be done." And he turned to his brother and said, "Isidor, I really think we should prolong our trip and help build this land a bit. This is where the Jewish people ought to be, and we have the means to help the cause." But Isidor wasn't here. What do you mean prolong our trip? We have tickets to sail on the largest cruise ship in the world, departing on its maiden voyage from England in a few days. We can't possibly miss that. I'm not staying here. And Nathan tried convincing him about how important it would be and how the Jews could be could be so beneficial to Jews worldwide by them staying and building up the land. But his brother was adamant he was not missing that cruise. And so they parted ways and Nathan poured out his heart and soul into building as much as he could. And his brother ran off to catch his dream cruise. Now you may have heard of that cruise ship. It was called the Titanic and remains one of the most famous and tragic disasters ever to take place at sea. The boat struck an iceberg in the middle of the ocean and sank, killing hundreds of passengers, including Isidor Strauss. It's one thing to be a Jew in comfortable America, making money, living the life, but it's a whole other thing picking yourself up, going to your brethren in feeling for them and helping them and rolling up your sleeves and help cultivate Hashem's land. That's living as a Jew when it's hard. That's what Hashem is looking for. Isidor Strauss is currently on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Nathan Strauss has the entire city of Natana named after him. Not to mention the famous Rak Strauss. He set up health centers and funded yeshivas. His legacy lives far beyond his time on earth. Because when it turned a little difficult, when he had to choose between mundanity or spirituality, he stepped up to the plate. That's what Hashem wants for us to realize what's real and meaningful in this world and to live a life keeping the main thing the main thing. We are all living in a world scrambling for spirituality. The Jew has a job to inject it with spirituality. The spies were afraid of that. They lost out on the It was our job then and it remains our job now. The setting might be different, but the mission is very much the same. Take an unholy world and make it holy. [Music] You've just experienced another Torah class brought to you by tora anytime.com.