First Fruits - Attitude of Gratitude Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz

[Music] so they go out to enjoy a new topic in this week's parsha we have the mitzvah of bringing the first fruits right the Torah says that you come to erage Israel and there are seven species right the wheat and the barley and the gap n2 a novel II mother xate chemin de bas which means date honey and if you have fruits including wheat barley we don't call them fruits but the time so about any of this you let them eat him so the first fruits that ripen from each of these species the farmer in the Land of Israel he puts a string around the first date that ripens the first grape the dragon and later he will bring it to you shall I am to be given to the Kohanim and when he brings them to you shall I am he recites and many history of the Jewish people in only four verses and in fact that many history is incorporated in the hundred of Pesach I Romney olveda be loved on the aramean from Syria tried to destroy my father by a red mitzraim and my father went down to Egypt and we became in this ryeom from 70 people we became a great nation and God took us and then we were enslaved then God took a Tzadik betrayal with great miracles and behold I have come to the land to express my thanks to a cottage water but if you remember these four verses I Romney obeyed are very arid with Rama this is the foundation of the hagatha of Pesach in which we then take each little place and we give interpretations and directors now this is a part of the Haggadah that people might fall asleep for because it's kind of in the middle it's a very important part of that I got it but it doesn't get the same press as the four sign ISM and the - Donna which is the beginning of the Seder but the truth the matter is a lot of that stuff that people love to talk about the four sons that is an introduction to that that's not the actual story of the yet was right the actual story we see it with Ryan are these four versus our Romney evade oven which has Alden dharshan each segment of that puppet so these are two different mitzvahs there's a mitzvah called how baaaad speak to him the bringing of the bickering to the beit hamikdash and then there's a separateness for called creates people in the recitation of a declaration that you say when you bring the Bakula now there's a whole track date in the Talmud called my second career and in the third Parrikar be Corrine it describes the ceremony with great great pageantry in detail that different people different cities would come to you I'm at different times and there would be processions and all of the workers the artisans who would be working like wax myths when a procession came from from Bnei Brak or Tel Aviv or whatever it would be they would stand up and say welcome Lucy my boy my shallow because if the people were honored factor up some of a cheque rights that the men on why do we stand up when a catana iraq allah comes down to go back it's a relatively new customers interesting not everybody does it this was not really done yoga for whatever but that was kind of a thing to do so most people answer well the reason we stand up for a hot on and even a table is because curtain dome Ilhabela time is like a king and by extension a college like a queen so you stand up for royalty but that's not a good answer really because when they walking down the aisle they haven't been coronated yet cut time becomes a mela only when he gives the ring so maybe stand up when he comes back from the purpose but not when he's going to the film so left salivate you gave another reason he said you see from Aceves be cool in that when a person is going to do a mitzvah like bringing to be Corinne we stand in his honor so he says the cut time is about to be the Mitzvah of condition the Rambam actually says that there is a mitzvah to marry it's not just a minute that's true also it's a mitzvah to get married and therefore the haqqani was about to be Oh safe a mitzvah we stand up in his honor just as they stood up with the people that were bringing people in so the Mishnah and the third character before him described the ceremony with great great pageantry and detail now it mentions the family it mentioned that the rich people would bring their be corium in baskets of gold and silver and when they would give it to the Kohanim they would get their baskets back does the baskets were worth worth a lot poor people would bring their beaker in in baskets of simple wicker and they wouldn't get it back if they were barest to ask for their baskets back so they come and kept the baskets and from here the Gallardo mccomus says we see Buster Anja Aslan the use of which means the poor people get poor you're so poor that you bring a wicker basket you'll lose the basket to make poor people get the shaft when you're poor you become poor so the toast receptive asks an interesting question you know we find that by funerals it used to be the old way that a funeral was conducted was that if you were rich you were buried in a much fancy company cotton of gold or whatever it would be and if you were poor you were buried in a poor way and rich people were buried in rich clothing fancy clothes and poor people were very very very simple meaning you were buried according to your economic condition but what happened was that people who were poor were you millie ated they were embarrassed they couldn't keep up they couldn't drink so sometimes God forbid they would even abandon the mace in the street and the Cohiba would take over so revin gum Leo the Nazi the head of the Henry the most honored position in Nam Israel left instructions that when he dies he should be buried in a plain wooden coffin with no adornment Reverend we claim a carpet and in plain white touch with him and from that time it is now become universal min ago calling Israel that we bury everybody in the same way the simple coffin and the white touch we know it happens to be releasing quits laureates Erica so professional different inputs learning funerals even the simple funeral is surprisingly expensive and many many people have great financial difficulties you know the plain pine box and the simple Teresa still wind up costing I've seen 7080 thousand dollars it's not a person thing for many people but the idea was that it should be very simple to be inexpensive and the reason is shallow love is not to humiliate me shame low a person who doesn't have those resources Lola my age as me shame low that's why in the 1960s there was an unscrupulous although quite brilliant in unscrupulous funeral parlor in New York Jewish that was trying to market fancy expensive carved wooden coffins and their advertisement says this way you should do a funeral the way Jews originally did funeral without innovations and modern changes now in a sense they were run because pretty Reverend got Leah 15 that is the way they did it so they were saying the simple coffin is a reform innovation that does not represent the original way of doing it well if you go back to 2000 years of deep that is the earthquakes and the Scooby was a way of presenting him yes that's for wedding I have a similar problem with weddings I think we guarantee with guarantee number of Christina cravings that made yes exactly the same that's right but already in the Gemara like it's particular of them more modern people have extended it to weddings as well although they look about it they tend to exclude themselves but their reason your your revenue can't make a small way but okay now the thing is this so the toast was she opted great commentary on the mission ask staccato if in the case of funerals we don't want there to be a distinction between rich people and poor people that they shouldn't be humiliated why didn't the comment make a similar Isaiah in the case of becoming because it'd be caught in what you're saying is rich people bring fancy and poor people bring simple why don't we enact that everybody bring simple not to create embarrassment for example besides funerals that we give you another example the fifteenth of like one month ago literally one month ago that was the gray marriage day in which women would go out and then with choose who they would marry so the mission of describes it as all of the women wore borrowed clothing and it was a simple white white dress meaning you didn't have any discrimination based on rich or poor so Wi-Fi the corium so all of a sudden we introduced this concept of discrimination where somebody sees you're rich and I'm poor we ought to make it all equal there so the ptosis yupped of himself gives it interest you're right normally we should aim for equality egalitarianism conserving God but since this is a ceremony that's taking the Beit HaMikdash and therefore the more elaborate it is the more honor and homage and kobold you are paying to a shown in the basal okay no so he says for that reason we encourage people to do the fanciest they can because that is cobalt lemak - that is honor to the bank on me - and that is Kobo blush Pina okay we don't make it they ready okay okay that would be it but but this is matter okay this is not ch with the Mick - is referring to when we make you say roots that for example you don't blow show for where Shoshana phones on Shabbos so in the base of Nick - you do blow the show for it because we say debate - Mick - people are conscientious and they're not going to transgress this is a different type of this is a surge of not embarrassing people but the ptosis jumped up says that also in debate Samak - we set aside but there might be another answer that's a little deeper and that answer is the following everyone knows there's a well-known Mishnah in my circus Bracco's in the last parrot Kayaba de Vivar may Allah give direction Mubarak of October a person this is ready may resurface any person must bless Hashem for the bad tidings that happened today death destruction the same way they bless us them for the good now this doesn't mean it's the same for her obviously when bad tragedies happened there's a special bro car that Yahoo I met God is the true judge when good things happen we make a block up should have a yahoo or have tow by on their kids so the Gemara explains right away we don't mean you make the same record but it means you have the same attitude of accepting our shames will as good now even then it's a complicated thing nobody is saying that the way I express my joy when I get a great great gift is the same as my feelings when God forbid a relative Dolly's so you're not gonna it doesn't say dance on the table if a person lost a parent that certainly doesn't make sense but it means that in the inner resources of your heart we try to understand then everything that I shin does is open but we pretty good I don't know why I don't know how it doesn't always make sense to me maybe it very rarely makes it but there is a purpose and there is a goal and there is an endgame so to speak there is a tactless in everything that happens in the world again this does not fit around on this view that well represent but the idea of God's own would affect the whole statement everything as Jim does pretty good needs to be understood in light of the rhumba but if you don't go with the round bumps view and you go with the simple meaning of the gimana this is the GABA surah Tauba right so this is a very important thing in Judaism fact there's a story some people don't like this story there's a famous conceit of the story that somebody asks to measure reach your magnet the mr. richer market about chef no successor I don't understand how a person could accept the bad and the difficulty in life with the same simcha that they accept the good I don't understand it so the men Richard McGee said go to my Tom made revolution he will explain this passage so he goes to revolution rosacea is living in poverty NES of children who don't have food don't have clothing and the house is falling in and the rain is going through the room and he doesn't know that and the guy that's coming doesn't know why would your position be able to explain this maybe there's a grocer yuzu chef in Jiangsu she says the Rebbe said you can explain to me what does it mean to be feel the same simcha for the bad as for the good and your obsession looks very perplexed I don't know why you do let me set you to me nothing bad has ever happened now some some love that story the subset well that kind of almost approaches without them allows the Wahab bill approaches a sense of Buddhism in which evil is an illusion many say Judaism recognizes the reality of suffering it recognizes the reality of bad things happening it doesn't deny that sense of destruction but it says it's not senseless it's not purposeful that there is a light within the darkness so this is very beautiful and again this deserves a whole talk of itself the book of Job and everything but what's interesting is this Rebbe Mayer who teaches this teaching has a source for it and the source for it is a person that says this on masta book all hot oh you shall rejoice in all of the good I share Hashem and lo que ha no saint luck that God gives you know what's the treasure look at the two names of God Hashem and L okay uh Hashem is your cave opening that's the name of God that is used for rocket lotr is a Loki me according to Kazama or not in modern Hebrew usage but according to resolve and vocab is not just the term for Daniel became is specifically the term for God that we use when we refer to God's attribute of justice and Punishment so what is the plastic say sometimes there's Hashem I perceive mercy and sometimes lol Kappa I perceived it but no matter what there's some knocked up a car light oh you shall rejoice that it's all in one way we learned we learned that we learn from adversity we grow from these challenges we develop capacities of resilience inner strength it's a painful laborious difficult process and we often wish why did we have to go through this how do you put your well yeah that we need to do that's all other talk I mean but again but the ultimate lesson of the book of you is exactly that because it's exactly that this is what the message is the message is you have suffered but from that suffering you have become a different person well I don't I don't be exactly asking for it but but he understood you know at the end of the day accept accepted with God well well she said to him curse God and they'll finish you up and he look well ok doesn't say but she makes one brief appearance and then she kind of disappears and you want to say you want to suggest she left it on the I'm not sure if that's exactly without the bit okay yep [Music] right good good okay so this is reppin mares origin now what's interesting is this rabble mayor is an ice crusher based on that person but do you know that that person actually appears in bickering so it's a strange thing be corium is the source of the idea Chi of Adam Lavar ready ah-ha-ah-ha Kundera shimu beret on top of that pasta crystal Matsumoto is in the partially covered that's very strange how does be Corrin connect at all to the notion of being grateful or not greatly being accepting and understanding of even the difficulties so the answer is be cool him in a very very gentle and kind way teaches a human being to accept deprivation in a very gentle way because what is this b kotov is the very first fruit of a person's labor the very first fruit of a person's labor a person cherishes very much you know people frame in their business the first dollar they made the first shekel they made with whatever it would be because they work hard they finally get something and what does Hashem say the first fruit of your labor that you cherish that you love you don't get to keep you have to give up now of course overall it's a joyous context but it reminds a person that's sometimes in life what you loved the most you lose you have to give up the quorum is an indirect lesson in understanding that in life there is sacrifices in life you understand that even the difficulties even the deprivation even the forfeiture have a purpose and you accept them and you rejoice in treasure them so record is in fact an indirect gentle lesson indeed in accepting that sometimes our task in life is to know how to let go of that which we treasure and rejoice it so now we understand father if the corium is a lesson in accepting even the negatives as a higher good pursuant to God's will then at that point because it means you accept who you are without being ashamed the port what do you say when you ask to cut a veteran why the poor people bring wicker and rich people green gold and silver we ought to be concerned for shame and embarrassment but that presupposes that the poor person is supposed to be ashamed there's going to be ashamed of his poverty or the rich person might be so conscious of the wealth of God gaming but picota misunderstanding of what I said puts into your wife is good and the poverty has it's good side under wealth has it's good side and because it means accept who you are and rejoice in it so we're not going to say to the poor person be ashamed of your poverty and therefore we're going to make everybody the same be corium is a lesson in accepting the raaaah just like the tava and therefore we don't cover up you are who you are and you rejoice in it you understand that if I am poor there is much I can not in money but based on my opponents a sham with mysterious nebbish and if I am wealthy that's also nothing to be ashamed about they were embarrassed about although I think about a very clever remark very cutting remark that were stuntmen once had a gentleman take them in bnei brak he said that he's a very successful businessman and he needs to buy a fancy car but he's afraid of I am I right he's afraid people will look at him and be jealous of him and that may have negative effects so Steinman said to him have you finished the Talmud no I haven't you learn Torah several hours every day the briefing says well not everything Sir Simon censor I don't understand your question what will people be jealous easier for I think the person got the messages as well there's no I in earth but being as it may but certainly a wealthy person has many avenues of Sturbridge them as well so man may live by the Korean we don't have the concept of being ashamed who you are now there is however one instance when you pointed out correctly that even by Victorian Kyle were concerned with not embarrassing people and that is the procedure of recitation originally it says if I was able to read or I do the verses I agree might be for him and I recite the verses if I did not know every the calling would say the words and I would repeat after the calling now what happened was people who didn't know how to read were embarrassed they were humiliated by their lack of education so cuz I made a uniform katana that whether you know how to read or not the coloring recite now you may say this contradicts my point the purgatorium we're not concerned with embarrassment because each person should accept his station in life the answer is No then even though it's true that because M says don't be embarrassed about your station in life there is one thing you should be ashamed about it and that is your failure to learn basic Tobin I mean anybody money but look how wonderful it is see on one hand we don't want to listen to this beautiful lesson we don't want to embarrass the ignorant person but we want him to know privately that this is something he should be ashamed about this is truly a genius way of doing it meaning if we wanted to shave him we would indeed go back to the system that if you can't read will read it to you we don't want to shame him but we want him to know this is something you should be ashamed of that so how do we do it we say in order not to embarrass the illiterate we will read it for everybody and that's a tremendous muster meaning don't be ashamed if you're poor don't be ashamed if you're rich or embarrassed if you're rich but if a person could have learned some basic totem and did that isn't cause to be embarrassed and ashamed though it's interesting that today but Hashem the avenues for learning Torah are greatly greatly expanded over really almost all of history besides all of the classes all of the teachers and out of Internet which although the Internet has many many many become in many sets results but on the other end it's amazing the amount of Jewish learning yet like everything else you have to sit through it not everything is so good but the true she was learning and even smart enough be going to a a free database like of course it's not in it not in English but a free database but keep your books fast or you can get literally I think it's up to 60,000 sparring for free and then you go to surah qamar' which costs money you know you can get my dating status 90,000 sperner for free right not to pray you pick the money but no for $2000 is great but $2,000 Jay you thousand sperm that's that's quite a quite a good press so and of course things are in English and there are videos and and youtubes and and amazing amazing amazing months of Torah but that creates a not really anything to say when I coach Parker creates more opportunity there is a greater responsibility to take advantage of that like the olden days maybe a person had an excuse I didn't know I didn't wanted a no one to go to today the excuses kind of go away so that's the one situation so recorded as a lesson not to be downtrodden in rich poor but no not not taking advantage of basic story knowledge that's something to be ashamed of now there is a general message in Shubin as well I mentioned a number of times already the idea that Shuba on one level is about change but on another level it's also about self acceptance because every person is different every person has different talents every person is different and sometimes we get depressed because we look at other people who might excel in this area of that area and I feel like fallen fallen shorts but the truth of the matter is Shuba which involves constructive positive change is also premise on fundamentally accepting yourself as a good and valuable person based on your talents and your abilities and that is why chuga which literally means return is not just returning to God but it's returning to the essential part of your nature that is good and that is holy and therefore paradoxically the hyper awareness of all that is part of the introspection and the freshman and ethic of Shiva must also be predicated on an overall awareness that I am a good person I am a worthy person I am a person who can do good and bring good to the world to myself and to others and only when one has that awareness that Who I am is fundamentally good can I then work on the particulars that likely to be corrected or fine-tuned so if the message of the core needs to understand that whenever God gives me in my life is fundamentally good that also refers to my personality my environment the situation that I find myself in that even though I might think from my perspective it is not an optimal situation but I have to find the good within the situation that I met again like the prayer of the alcoholics and the alcoholic that which you can change you try to change but that which you cannot change you need to so you need the ability to accept and work with it and then you need the insight to know the difference between what did you change and what you cannot change so which well they execute over the bench you are a year in which we realize the greatness within ourselves and from the realization of that goodness we will then rectify whatever flaws needs to be [Music]