G-d is Raised and Elevated Through Judgement with Rabbi Aaron Dovid Poston

[music] [singing] [music] [singing] [music and singing] >> Shalom aleichem everybody welcome home to Torah welcome back to the even debate Madrash. A warm welcome home to Torah. So, this class is based on a book called Rinas Chaim by Rav Chaim Friedlander and it's mainly based on what? On the prayers for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, but we're praying for the whole year, aren't we? So, obviously these prayers include all kinds of fundamental concepts in Judaism, Hashkafa, the way we look at things. Just the fundamentals of Judaism. And Lamid Daled, so part of the prayer is Kadosh Ata. Right? You are holy. We're calling God holy. You are holy. What does Kadosh mean? Does it only mean holy? We're going to see it has another meaning. Venora Shmecha and awesome. Awesome is your name. And what name are we using? We're going to find out. Haketet Dalahalon who sima bracha. This is towards the end of the bracha. Lachein omrim meein hachatima. There's this general rule when you have a long bracha that close to the end you have a summary of the theme and then you have the Birkat Hashem. So, you have the what we call the hachatima, the signature, the stamp, the final stamp on the bracha. So, we're talking about the theme. The theme is going to be expressed here. So, the words Kadosh Ata Venora Shmecha, what are we saying? Ata Hashem Yisbarach Atzmutecha. That you, the name of Hashem, is your essence. Now, is it really, truly his essence? Obviously not. But, kadosh, what does kadosh mean? It also means and can mean and does mean separate. Right? That's why we're an am kadosh. We're separate. When you separate something, you're you're designating it. And we're going to use the word like put up on a pedestal, so to speak. Right? You're separating something, and therefore it has sanctity. Right? We use the word kadosh as sanctity. That's right. So, you're separating. What he says is exactly what you said. Mufrazh umuvdal mehasagatanu hasagatinu. It's actually What are we saying? That is mufrazh means um removed. Right? Hafrashat challah. When we separate challah. Right? Hafrashat challah, that's the term used. Muvdal from havdalah, right? It's muvdal. So, it's removed and separated from what? From our comprehension, from the hasaga, from our uh perception and comprehension. Okay? In other words, we're saying that we actually have the inability to totally comprehend Hashem. Because he's separate. He's above. Agam shimcha, even when we say it's your name, what do names do? We have lots of names for God. Right? So, those names are revelations or um Yeah, revelations of his hanhaga, of his behavior. So, it says Shemotav shel Hakadosh Baruch Hu heim geluyim hashonim, they're different or various revelations shashem Yisbarakh megaleh lanu, that he reveals to us may Han from his behavior. How do we know Hashem only through his conduct? K'gaon Shem HaDin, right? There's one name that represents his his judgment, his, you know, scrupulous judgment. There's a Shem HaRachamim, and there's a name that represents his mercy. And on and on and on. There's many names. But we're saying Nora Shimcha, that his name is Nora. I said that means awesome, awe. Right? Awesome in a positive way, not, right? It's Nora. And what is that language? It's a language of Yirah. Right? So, in when people become religious, they weren't religious, and they always had this notion that God was, you know, some punishing God. They didn't understand that Hashem is really rachamim, and they hear the words fear. Right? Nobody wants to be in that position where they fear something. But there is a lower level of fear that probably we can relate to as fear. And then there's a higher level called awe. So, I'm going to use the word Yirah, even though it means fear, but he's saying that's what awesome means. It's a It's a level of where it's actually from the language from the same um pers- on a certain level root, Nora and Yirah. So, awesome means a certain level of fear. Anu Yireim ach mi'ma shem galeh lanu v'ha- mei-hanhagotav. That we're saying that we're awestruck. Awestruck, right? Yireim. Even from what he reveals to us through his conduct. Remember, we said that he's unfathomable, he's incomprehensible. And yet through his actions, and I just I stop here for 1 second just to discuss what we're witnessing. We are witnessing we're not supposed to rely on miracles, but if you just open your eyes and see all the miracles that are happening around us with all these ballistic missiles and Yeah. A lot of damage, but it seems like very few casualties relatively few casualties. Um it's like today not one person was killed and there were hundreds of missiles and a lot of damage. But okay, there are a few people wounded. We should pray for them. Well yes, lafarish nora. There's another way to explain nora. And we already discussed it as being something called or, but it has another explanation that's rehook. It's distance. It's far. It's remote. But Hashem right has this aspect of remoteness. What may I call hasagatinu? What do we mean? That he's beyond our comprehension. That's called remote. When if it's if it's within our comprehension, that's called close. And if it's beyond our comprehension above our comprehension, that's called remote. Kol mar as if to say gam Hashem is Magalanu that whatever Hashem does reveal to us Shimecha that's his name which is nora which is or or awestruck. If sharlavatain benilim ulahasigo it would be impossible to actually express in words uh our perception. It's very difficult. Just in philosophy a lot of times when you real philosophy you have to discuss You want to know what something is? It's best to first discuss what it isn't. And and that's what the Gamorah does a lot. They want to know what something is and they discuss what for sure it isn't so you get a clear picture of when you finally discuss what it is, you've already discounted all those things that it isn't. Okay? So, that's a that's what the Gemara does. I mean, if you any study Gemara, you realize, wow, we're going in circles. We're trying to figure out what it is, and then we're discussing what it isn't. Well, that's part of trying to narrow something down. Cuz when you discuss Hashem, we may not fully comprehend what he is, but it's good to know what he isn't. Right? And then you can discount that. Part of the prayer is the ain Elohim mim me belowdecha. So, there is no God. Now, that's singular, aside from you. There's no singularity power aside from you. What does that actually mean? So, the word Elohim is ba'al ko'ach echad b'ofen prati. We're describing a singular power. Could be a master of one particular item in in in a in um in creation. So, there is an expression of mastery over one specific power. So, what are we saying? There is no one specific power aside from you. Okay? That's what we're actually saying, which means uh that's the singular. What about Elohim? We use that a a lot in all of our brachos. Elohim is plural. Doesn't mean there's plural gods at all. But, ba'al hakochos kulam, he's the master of all powers. That's what we mean. V'zehu yakavana, that's what we mean when we say ain Elohim. There is no God besides you. There is no God. There is no power. There's no deity. Ain shum ko'ach b'poel b'vriah mib'ladecha. There's no single power in all of the action of creation except for you, because you are everything. Chutz mimcha, aside from you, there is none. As if to say kolamar, mib'li she ata nosein lo et hako'ach b'foel. >> Nothing has power unless you gave it the power. All powers that exist in this universe, whether you call it nature, forces in in physics, it's all under Hashem's rule. Angels, the Satan, right? That's another thing that the cousins and the Christians get wrong. But uh the the what we call the Satan is all under Hashem's He gives it the power to exist and he directs it. Okay, so now the next part of the prayer, "Kakatuv", we say as it is written. And the pasuk is "V'yigbah Hashem Tzeva'ot b'mishpat". Now it goes on, but this is the This is what we're going to focus on. Hashem will be raised. Hashem of the of legions, he will be raised through judgment. That's interesting. He's going to be raised and uplifted up through judgment. "Hakel Hakadosh nikdash bitzdakah". And the the power, this holy power, this holy thing called called God, Hashem, is sanctified through uh kind acts, through tzedakah and charity. And that you can find in Isaiah chapter 5 verse 16. But we're going to focus on these words, "V'yigbah Hashem b'mishpat". Hashem is raised up. He's lifted up through mishpat. And I want to tell you what we're witnessing today, whether it's Iran, whether it's Lebanon with the Hezbollah, uh this is definitely Hashem being raised up through mishpat. But that is when like like with the Pesach is coming up, how he treated and dealt with Egyptians, it was through mishpat. But notice that it says Yud-Key-Vav-Key. So Yud-Key-Vav-Key is usually a name attributed to kindness. So how is kindness attributed to mishpat, which means din? So, we're not going to get into this so much right now because he's not discussing it, but I will tell you, when Hashem meted out punishment to the Egyptians, it was with Yud Kay Vav Kay. And this is something that Yisro saw. He actually saw it and understood this, that this was for the benefit of Am Yisrael. So, maybe that's already like a lead into what we're going to say. That Hashem is raised and elevated, as so to speak, cuz he's already elevated, but he's elevated, so to speak, through judgment, through meticulous judgment. Like Hazal tell us, and Rashi actually quotes it, in in in Parshas Shmini, in Leviticus chapter 10, verse 3. So, the verse over there says, "I will be sanctified by sanctified by those near me, and before all the people I will be glorified." So, those last few words, through the all the people I will be glorified, Rashi explains, right? We're talking about the death of the two sons of Aaron. Okay? God will become elevated through this judgment. But, the Rashi explains, it's these tzaddikim. In other words, through the death of these tzaddikim, God will be glorified because even the smallest sin or mistake by a tzaddik is is considered a big sin. Okay? If we would have done it, it wouldn't even make the radar. Okay? But, when a tzaddik makes a small mistake, and he's held accountable, well, listen to what it says. K'sha Kadosh Baruch Hu oseh din b'tzaddikim when God performs judgment on righteous people and all of Am Yisrael is righteous and we're all going through hell, right? We're being raised. Not only that, mit'ya'are umit'ale umit'kales. Hashem is feared, Hashem is exalted, and Hashem is praised. Um you know, we don't see the whole picture. But the whole world is looking at Israel. Okay, we know that some people get it totally wrong. They're always going to get it wrong. But there's a tremendous amount of people that are sitting on the fence that are coming around and saying, "Wow, there is something special." I mean, just to look at, you know, the amount of money that we put in the to defense, I mean, that's why they call the IDF, right? I just tell you my own story. When I was training for the army, I wasn't really in the army at the time. I was um Anyway, it's a long story how I got in the army. I did get in the army eventually. But what I used to do is I was on a first response team, uh kitat konenut, that was the first response to terror. And in order to train, we trained at an army base. And I remember all we did was defensive stuff. In other words, if there were terrorists that came onto the issue, we learned how to box them in, not letting any not letting any not let any innocent people come across, you know, a gvul a border, and and not allow the terrorists to to escape from and spread their terror, and even negotiation. But all the physical activities that we did was all it was a Krav Maga. It was all just defending ourselves. When someone came out with this knife or a gun and whatever. I just remember we were in the um like a basketball court on the on the um on the army base. And I was with a an 80-year-old. We were we were practicing. Uh we were both, you know, very religious. Um and I started crying. Like think about it. Like we are just trying to stay alive. We're surrounded by 70 wolves. And the IDF, the concept of the IDF is to defend the Jewish people. And just the idea that, you know, for thousands of years we didn't really have an opportunity to defend ourselves properly. Now we have, you know, an opportunity. And it was like a privilege. You know, just a privilege to to to But it was just an awakening that that's what we do. We're not like as the whole world, I shouldn't say the whole world, you know, like in Gaza, they called us baby killers. Like it's just like so ridiculous the the lies that are out there. That this is called defensive moves. When they attack us, we can attack them before before. Anyway, so that's what it's saying over here when when when Sadiqim are punished, when there's a din, or some kind of strict judgment on the Sadiqim, guess what? Hashem is is exalted and praised and is feared. Zos biglal she'aidei hamishpat, because through the judgment shinifroim me hatzadik that is being extracted, so to speak, that's being you know, paid off to the tzadik, a filu a chet kal kachot sara, even a sin that is as thin as a hair, the thickness of a hair, that's when the tzadik sins even the slightest, l'meidin al kol goido bikush kedushato um romamotu yisbarach. So we're learning that about Hashem's greatness and his holiness and his elevation um mechayevet mishnas heroes shelo asos keneged retzono yisbarach a filu kal shehu, that we're learning the liability the obligations of um and and and a great um um warning not to not to cross Hashem's path not to do anything against his will even the smallest amount. So that's why he is elevated he is raised up and the whole world will know I don't care if you know it's been repeated over and over again. I'll just repeat it again cuz it's positive from the Torah right? God says I will bless those who bless you and those who curse you I will curse. I mean it's going to be quite obvious. I think many people are are coming around and seeing it. The old yesh lafarish benoach shiba oilam kashar shofet posek din Whenever it says benoach shiba oilam means like what happens in the world when you look at the world. Okay? That's how human a human a human judge kashar shofet posek a human judge is giving up sock din. He's he's telling you what the verdict will be. Or goyzer oinesh or he's decreeing a a guilty verdict of some sort. lidonim taanot kal paav So in a human court the the people receiving the sentence they kind of resent that they they don't think it's fair. They're going to make a claim ki heim koishim shalgzar din ein ot tzodek They're going to claim that most people right? They appeal that's why you have an appeals court. They're going to claim that it's not fair right? I don't deserve that type of punishment or I'm still innocent or whatever it is they're not happy with the verdict. That's what's going to happen in in in this world as we see it. ak bedino shel kodesh baruch hu but when it comes to the judgment of God and there is a pasuk tzadik v'yashar hu in Deuteronomy chapter 32 verse 4 The rock talking about Hashem perfect is his work. For all his paths are justice. A God of faith without iniquity, righteousness and fair is he. So, when we're going to be judged, maybe the final day, I mean, we really should be tzaddikim now and think of it like this, that the righteous understand the righteous people, these Jewish people that we are, they should understand, we should understand that God is righteous and fair. V'chol matzdikim aleihem misdino. And everybody, according to Rashi, says in Deuteronomy chapter 32 verse 4, that everybody understands that Hashem is just, that his his ultimate judgment is correct. Right? And what do we say when, God forbid, right, someone dies or someone loses a lot of money, right? Baruch Dayan Emet. We say that God is the true judge. We may say it, do we feel it? Right? The Gemara interestingly says that the emotion that you have when you say Baruch Hatov U'Mativ or Shehecheyanu, what a beautiful thing just happened, I'm so lucky to have reached this point, and I'm saying that God is good and bestows good, is the same emotion I'm actually supposed to feel when I say Baruch Dayan Emet. Is it easy? No, nobody's saying it's easy. But it's something that we have to train ourselves, you know, with Ish Gamzu um uh Gamzu Letovah and uh Rabbi Akiva's famous story, we have to think that ultimately, we may have to work it out in our heads first, and then hopefully it comes to our heart. Um but eventually, through age and experience, and and faith, we'll we'll come to this understanding. Not saying it's easy. And Chazal tell us in Gemara Eruvin, I'm a Rabbi Yirmeyah ben Elazar. What did he say? Boi ureh, come and look, observe. Shloke midos Hakadosh Baruch Hu midos basar vadam. This is a famous expression, you hear you see this a lot in Chazal. Take a look, God is not like humans, right? Humans not like God. So, we just saw a big difference between when God judges as opposed to human judge, how [clears throat] the litigants are supposed to feel. Okay, he's right. I mean, if you're really honest with yourself about your own ego and your own sins and your own, you know, working on your middos, you'll probably come to that conclusion right away. God is right. Sometimes it takes a little bit of uh uh being pushed around to really become honest with yourself. But, that's the ultimate. It's The ultimate goal is to be honest with yourself. So, Rebbe Meir ben Elozar said, "Come, look, you know, observe that the way that Hashem acts is not the same the way human acts." When a person is, let's say, a guilty verdict in front of a king, so now he's going to be put to death. What do they do? They take a gag and put around his mouth, so he can't curse the king. He's going to go to the gallows or to wherever, and maybe the electric chair, whatever it is, and they end up cursing the government or the king or the judge. So, they put a gag into his mouth, and that's in order not that they shouldn't curse the king, or at least the king shouldn't hear him cursing him. The way Hashem works is come shall take. When a person is obligated, let's say, to die under the death penalty, he's going to be quiet on his own volition. He's going to understand this is what he is going to get. I mean, if he's really innocent, I think that he'll try to go to some kind of appeal, try to get the witnesses to come forward. But, at some point it's too late. And most likely it was a correct decision. Not only is he quiet, low Ella, um she shall out. But he actually is going to praise Hashem. Can you imagine? They have din. We're going to be praising Hashem. It says Rebbe Yehoshua ben Levi When a human being transgresses the will of God This is what Rebbe Yehoshua ben Levi says. He's digging himself a deeper grave and deeper pit in Gehenna. And what is he doing? He's boiching. He's crying. More reading the mouth and he's shedding tears. Come my eye and show cheating. Like a well flowing with water, let's just say. And they are justifying that the din is correct. They know. They're saying it's right. And they're only for now and they're saying before Hashem Rebono shel Olam Master of the universe Yofi don't uh You you judge correctly. Proper judgement. Or you acquitted properly. Or it was proper that you you claimed I was guilty. Yofi took took on to Gehenna and the Russia in And they're going to say that this was a proper a proper fixing of Gehenna for those who are evil. This is what it means. As we said, the pasuk was Yigdal Shem Tzedek u'Mishpat. Hashem will be elevated um through Mishpat. But remember it's YKVK. Hashem is Magba u'Masalek Anos Nidanim b'Mishpat. Hashem is raised above through the complaints through the um complaints of the litigants in Mishpat. Yeterim is more than this. Who knows He's actually exalted and praised and raised up through the litigants, those who are going to be judged. When the final judgment is given that the guilty party will actually praise Hashem. Next three lines and that's it. That this possuk is specifically speaking about the the judgments of Yud Kay Vav Kay, which we would interpret and know that it's rachamim. That Hashem Yud Kay Vav Kay is raised up midas harachamim through the mishpat. By the way, before I just finish off, we say Hashem Elokaynu, right? Shema Yisrael, Hashem Elokaynu, Hashem Echad. That even though Hashem is our God, Hashem is also, right, the the head name, Yud Kay Vav Kay, ultimately, even though it's includes judgment, it's also Hashem Echad. That everything is included under this, we'll say, name head. And by the way, when you I don't know if you've noticed the old Tanakhs, the old Chumashim, they instead of God's name, they put two yuds. Every Anybody see that in the old Maybe they still have it in some new new Never you know sure, right? the name of God in some of the Chumashim, it just had two yuds. They didn't want because in case it got desecrated or put in the bathroom or something, you know, whatever. Um so, it was like a printer's um luxury uh to save ink or save paper. And because we don't pronounce the Yud Kay Vav Kay, we How do we pronounce it? Adonai. And in the fact that name, it's what's in the middle? Don, din. And the yud in the beginning, sorry, the the aleph in the beginning is an aleph is a vav with two yuds, which is 26, and that is the gematria of yud kay vav kay. And on the tail end of the word is a yud. The yud also represents the yud kay vav kay. So, it when we pronounce the name Adonai, even though we're looking at yud kay vav kay, we're supposed to have in mind but God is both. He's ultimately rachamim, but he also has an ahava, a conduct of judgment and judging correctly. And by the way, this judging correctly is going to bring and raise Hashem. Kol amar af ba mishpat nir'im rachamei Hashem Yisbarach hamarubim. That even through mishpat, through the judgment, that we are going to perceive Hashem's mercy with with in a boundless way, boundless mercy. So, this is just a short piece. We're continuing this every week. However, I think next week we'll focus mainly on something through Pesach. >> [music] [music] [singing] [music and singing] [music] >> Hallelujah.