How Goodly are Your Tents Jacob with Rabbi Kalman Flaks

Heat. Heat. [Music] Let's start with the song is about Hashem as it become our new custom. If we do it this time it's I was thinking we're still in the middle of a war. Sometimes it's going on so long. So like in the beginning we were all like screaming to heal him all day with every free second and we're still our soldiers are still battling mamish putting their lives on the line in every moment. So we shouldn't forget. We never forget. That's why we're here learning learning Torah, right? That's what that's what we're doing to protect all. But we shouldn't forget them. [Music] Bain [Music] is Oh [Music] go my My life is Oh la. [Music] [Laughter] Okay, we're going to dedicate our Torah study to the protection of the whole Jewish people. Thank God they get to be with you guys again. Thank my commanders. They gave me dka. They let me get off today so that I could be off with you guys in in this year and then we got another two weeks of reserves and so uh excited we're going to be continuing our journey of let's just recap a little bit. We talked about our first class the importance of taking upon us to love one another uh before we dive in to connect to one another. And the last two weeks we've been adventuring in Moda ani talking about gratitude starting off our day with so much thankfulness. And now we're plunging into our first once we walk into we're learning at least part one is going to be a threepart three segments of our shir. First, we're going to be understanding the background, the history of how this prayer evolved into our sitter. Okay, that's generally what we're starting with. Second is the bigger themes of matu. And if we have time this time or perhaps next time, we'll actually jump into the words of the itself. This is the most exciting part of all it all. Sounds good. You guys ready for the adventure? Amazing. Okay. So, let's uh ask you guys a question. Where did Matau come from? Who made up that crazy uh verse of Matvo? Who did that? Anybody know? >> David. >> Was it King David? You're kind of right. The second verse vani is from Psalms is from King David. And we'll talk about that soon. But before King David, there was another interesting character and that is Bum. >> Bum. >> Isn't that fascinating? Just two weeks ago ago, we were learning the story of how Balac uh is scared of the Jews and the Jews are going to go conquer and he hires this prophet and bum supposed to curse the Jews and instead of cursing them, he >> blesses them. And as one of those blessings is Matau. And the way that a Jew begins his sitter experience his day in shul, he quotes none other than Bum. Isn't that a little strange? It's weird. You know, we got a lot of great poets in our, you know, in our repertoire. Why are we starting off with the bum of all people? How did that happen? Okay. So, we're gonna talk about that. But let's begin with the garb says the following. Balacma. The sages wanted to put the story, the whole story of Balak and Bam. This whole crazy story we just read about, they wanted to insert it into the crema. So that every day you say schmar and you say the whole long story of banan and balac right pretty crazy idea >> long long ding right imagine you have you want you're tired you the whole story you know you just want to quick marv and get to dinner now you got to say the whole bill so you you're not the only ones who are thinking that the rabbis had mercy upon us. Okay. They said, "Listen, it's going to to take too long. So, we're not going to put the whole bum story into the schma, but they wanted to put the entire Bum story in not just one, the whole story into creation. There must be some sort of connection between Bum and Balak and Keshma." Okay, which is fascinating. But my time, why do they want to put Bum and Balak into Arshma? Because of the whereum blesses this nation crouches like a lion and like a lion who or a lioness I think actually a lavie I looked it up recently is a lion I don't I also thought it was a lioness but uh we can Wikipedia it later if lvie in biblical terms refers to a lion or a lioness. My friend told me it's only a lion. I don't know. Doesn't really make a difference. Um, apparently the lionesses do all the hard work, right? According to the lion king, they're the ones who are doing all the fighting. Anyways, because of this puk of a nation that will stand like a lion. That's why they wanted to insert this into our creatur. Isn't that amazing? of all the pukim they happen to point the garra points out that that's the p which is most powerful in kachma okay it's pretty crazy this isn't a shir about that puk if we had time we could go into it's interesting rashi's interpretation of in what way are we a nation like lions because we bomb uh Iran no that's not what Rashi says she says because we wake up to say kma because we We grab mitzvah. We wake up early in the morning to say and that makes us like a lion. Like the wake up early, grab mitzvah. That's what makes you like a lion. And in the of those mitzvah like we're able to overcome all those and we'll be able to overcome all of our enemies. But I am digressing a little bit. The point is that the garra wants to put in all of bum because of this puk of and assuming not just that puk but in primarily because of that puk but it just would have taken too long. So then the garra says okay so just take that why do you have to take the whole thing just you know put put the important stuff in there so cold if mobu split it up in that way so then we can say it like that but since Mosherenu didn't split it up into one verse segments we're we're not going to make it shorter than the way that Mosherenu you need the whole context and that's why they didn't put it into our schma Okay. But what we see from this clearly is that already in Talmudic times, the rabbis wanted to put the story of Bam and Balak into our daily Davin specifically connecting it to Schma. So far so good, clear. Amazing. Okay, great. Now, so far we still haven't heard about our pas of Matvu. When did when did that come into the picture? So it all begins in another garra the garra in Sanrinu says the following thing. So guys we're going back. It's 2,000 years ago gets up in the base mus and he's saying you you know we can learn from the blessing that bum gave what he really wanted to curse us with really he wanted to curse the Jewish people that we shouldn't have sh that we shouldn't have this that we should have corona. We should have no but without zoom and without to nothing. He didn't want any Torah or connection. That was what he wanted. But Hashem switched it. He wanted that God's presence would not rest among them. So what did Hashem switch it to? That they bless and that they should have shs. Okay, you get with me. says something wild. All of the blessings of Bum, as beautiful as they were, they all went eventually had a negative side, right? A nation that dwells alone. It's there's a nice side of it. We're unique. We're different. But there's also a a curse side of being a nation that dwells alone, right? anti-semitism, having no friends in the UN, right? So that was because of bum because it came from an impure source. It went to bad. It came with it came with bad intentions. There's a good side of it. We're like a lion. But there's also a bad side of it. I don't know what the bad side is. I don't know. But apparently the is saying that every good thing that Bum said turned bad in the end. And I'm putting in there maybe because it came with negative intentions. But there's one exception. What's the one exception? The one which is untouchable. For some reason, this PK, Hashem did not allow that to be turned to be a curse. Hashem loves you so much. He does not allow that blessing of mauvu to have a negative side. He preserves that verse will always be for the good. Okay. So adan as of 2,000 years ago we don't have any decree to have mauvu in our ding. It's not like Schma. It's not like Amida. It's not even like Bar Shamar and uh the that those elements of Zimmer which are from Tamudic times, right? There's nothing that said thou shalt walk into Shul and say Matvu in Tamudic times. But we have these gumaras which are telling us that there's power that there's meaning behind saying the story of Balak. And we have one gumar which is indicating that there's a special power to this of okay one more background information the shami theami says that also says that they tried to put the bum story into the schma and why because if you look in and the bum story is mentioned it's not just insh but this story of the bum cursing is mentioned in it comes up later times in. So they wanted to put it into the ding, but why couldn't they put into the dabing? It would have taken too much time, you know, you got to got to get to work, got to get to the kdish. So uh so they didn't want to overdo it. But at the end of the day, uh there's a rod from the bi from the shami. We got to get this uh bum story into the dete. When does the matvu appear in our modern day sitter? We don't know. But we have a sitter that's dated back to 1,200 years ago. Okay, to the 8th to 9th century and we have his sitter and in his sitter he writes that when you enter into the shul you should say this prayer of and etc etc. So at what point between tamudic times and that sitter did this become part of Judaism? I don't know but it at some point in that time period um it became part of what it means to be a Jew. Okay, based on what we said before and we found it in Rashi sitter and we found it in many many ancient sitter manuscripts. However, just to get a little bit controversial, there were some rabbis who were against saying the Matau prayer. Okay, have you guys heard of this? It's pretty wild. I also didn't know this till I was researching this year. the Maharsha Rav Schlommo Lura the Yamomo he's a 16th century uh Pekk uh living in Poland and very important and very famous and he said don't say the Matva prayer why not can you guys guess why would Marsha have a problem with this fil >> wasn't said by a Jew so exactly not just he wasn't said a Jew. It was said by a Russia mish a Russia. How could it be that words coming from a Russia like bum are going to be the first words that a Jew is going to say? It's weird. It might have been very poetic and beautiful, but at the end of the day, how could it be that? I mean, writes in in that it's better for a Jew not to listen to the music of Rashim. Okay. Even if it's amazing music, right? But if uh you know, all in all, it's another brick in the wall. It's beautiful song. But if Roger Waters is writing it and he's not such a big supporter of Israel, >> then Reinwin probably might not like it so much except the other members of PL Floyd I think are pro-Israel. So it's complicated. But you know what I'm saying that if it's someone who's mamish proven to be wasn't that guy who really ex whatever I don't want to get too contrary that rapper guy who really hates you know what I'm saying if it's some if it's some yeah so if someone who's mamish lola deas a Russia ribbon says don't don't listen to that not saying it's user but we don't want that energy coming into our consciousness okay energy affects us so Marshall says I'm going to be a Russia like bum is the first thing that we say okay and he also says us. It's uh he wanted to curse us. He okay in the end it didn't turn out to be a curse but he wanted to curse us. How can we bring that into our into our ding and he says he would skip it. And there are other rabbis uh the El Rabba and Raakov who also would not say the however many most of the rabbis argue on the mara. So let's think like a lambd why can what what argument can we make against the maharshal's position marshal saying we how could we put the bum this Russia into our sitter >> put the words in bum's mouth >> words you could say it wasn't really the Russia it was who inserted who switched his words so he was just a cle but almost he was totally himself good and there's another proof Now there's even another riya that we can put bum into our >> ding. >> Oh, so the says he was on such a high level of of prophecy that it's like Mosher Rabenu. So so that seems maybe that could be another ayah that we could learn from him that we could that we could bring him into our daily learning. But I want to bring the riot from the garra. The Gmorra said that we wanted to bring the whole story of Bamin Bilak into the keshma not just into matu that a few guys you know the utter when they come into shul every Jew has to say schma with bum the whole story of bum and balac so if the garra is indicating that that's an option so clearly there's an option of of putting bum into the story yeah so that's I didn't make that up the odderas argues on Marshall and says no we can put bum into the into the story and we'll have to contemplate at the end of our why it is what's the deeper meaning behind bringing a Russia like bum as the first thing that we interact with when we come to shul okay but the says that and other said no no the martial was talking about himself he wasn't posing for other people and the seder hay remember him right last last week we said he The first mentioning of Modi of Mosh here. He brings it that we say Matvu and Moshe which is very often quoted by the minimaz brings it down and maybe most significantly the himself the Ashkanazi jew brings down that the minhug is to say matvu not to say that weren't doing that. We're going to quote some sparty. Um I'll quote it right now. the the holy whose safer I brought we'll read something from him also writes that the minhug uh in the 1800s for spartis also was to say matauvu so it wasn't only an Ashkanazi custom and so this certainly became the the minhug of the Jewish people to say the matvuila nonetheless you know you always have to have a little bit of a little bit of controversy that just spice it up And uh it's it it it is interesting uh that there was some controversy to so let's say that's um historical background by the way since I mentioned the brings down that there's a mitzvah not just a min but there's a mitzvah you get when you say the matvu every day. What mitzvah do we get? Where does it say in the Torah? Thou shalt recount bum and bless us about our tents. So it doesn't say in the Torah, but in parag says. So in the it says, "Hey nation of Israel, remember what Bum said. Remember the whole story with Balak." So the takes this literally. He says it must be there is a rabbitical mitzvah to remember what bilham did and we fulfill this when we say the matu every day. And in his ay is safer at home. Uh he he specifically writes that you should have in mind to do all the remembrances every day and also the story of bum. Um and you should have that in mind. The in general has a kesh that the is that you have to have kavana not just for biblical mitzvah but even rabbitical mitzvah actually everyone holds that mitzvah at the end of the day that's how we poss whenever you do uh a mitzvah you should have in mind I'm doing this mitzvah you know to fulfill this mitzvah like right now we're fulfilling the mitzvah of learning Torah we're fulfilling the mitzvah of learning to take protecting the whole Jewish people and then when you think that you get reward and you get mitzvah but bow hold even for rabbitical mitzvah we should have kavana so this safher goes through all the kavanas that we should have in our day I love this safer maybe if we have time I'll tell you stories about me and the safer so that's the wrote 84 and also reminds us to uh to to to have that in mind when we say the mfu okay before we go a little bit deeper one last very fascinating I I I saw Freriedman suggest Why matauvu? Because matauvu starts with the letter >> mem. This prayer is sponsored by the letter mem, right? And where do we see that before that it's there's something powerful about memi. Last week we said that we want to start our day off with mems. So we would even before we go to shu we start off with a me and we contemplated the meaning of me. Mem being rebirth 40 the gantria of mem and how mem is always associated with uh starting a fresh. So also when you walk into the shul you want to kind of start again no matter what crazy things happen from you know your house to the shul and the mixel who knows. So now you're starting one more time and you're you're on your way to start one more time with amen opening ourselves for that rebirth. Okay, beautiful. Um, also I forgot this and the lea all write about the mitzvah of remembering bam, not just yeah after there are six remembrances. This is not included. >> So okay, there's different gear about what are the remembrances that we're supposed to be doing. Not everyone holds it. This makes the list didn't make the cut. But uh according to some it did and according to others it did not. It's not clear exactly you know the status of those remembrances and do we have to remember them or is this a good thing to do? It's a good discussion >> of that sometimes something is not added to the >> so how does that work and how doesn't it work >> excellent question really it's a whole in itself there's many times in the garra where things are cut out because of so we see that the value of not wasting the time >> over the course of Jewish history did that stop anybody >> it the garra is saying that we have to take it into account but I think it's also relevant the the the the community you know is talking about to its generation its generation understands that people did not want that we didn't want to waste people's time and people have to go to work people have to go stag do their staging but each gener each community has to know it's you know what I'm saying if if there's a community where the let's say singing a little bit and dinging doesn't take away from the ding it may it brings people joy in dinging it makes it exciting and and and and enjoyable and powerful then that clearly it wouldn't be a then that would enjoy that. But on the other hand, if you have a community that is just like well this >> hurry up and stop slapping out the ding, then that would be a the dur time when he wrote his sitter took out a lot of things from the sitter and were most certainly because of this >> all all the a lot of the pew team are not there a lot of the the he decides which ones are the core but a lot of the extra peace that came across through history that you can >> Yeah, exactly. Because of the value of focusing on what's important and prioritizing, you know, knowing who your community is and and and making D as powerful as possible. Yeah. >> Dude, it's number seven in our forefathers said that we should know the righteousness of so in this one it is maybe in >> Okay. Yeah. So the different uh different gear saws different gear saws. Beautiful. Okay. So let's talk a little bit about the bigger themes. We we've under we've established that Matau is given by by uh by Bill Harasha when he wanted to curse us and he wanted to curse us and destroy the sh and god switched it and made him say mauvu instead. So, and we said I want to ask you guys why though. Why would it be that would make it that we would da start off our day with bail rush cursing us who wanted to curse us but instead the curse switched to a blessing. What's the nothing stop? What's the meaning behind that? Why would providence have it that our first feel as we come into sh would be come in such a strange way. Okay. So let's give one approach that I heard from Rabbi Lamb. Rabbi Morris Lamb gives the following beautiful idea. He says because the most Jewish thing in the world is to take a curse and make it a braha. And so that's how we start off our day. We take someone who wanted to curse us, but with Hashem's help, it was switched into a braha. And that's all of Jewish history. >> We call that alchemy. >> Yeah. But think, let's go back in Jewish history. Can you think of any tragedies that we've taken and taken a curse and made it a braha? >> Yeah, it's all over the place. It's all of Jewish history. Let's give me some obvious examples. the fact that we're here. Okay, so the Holocaust and the founding of the state of Israel is I think one powerful example of a curse that somehow not just we survived but we turned the curse and made it into a blessing. How about the destruction of the beta mikdash as terrible that was came from a rabbitical Judaism came from it the garra came from it having a personal connection to hashm ding to hashem and threeas a day and so many other elements of rabbitical Judaism how about the Spanish inquisition which led to cababalistic Judaism in spat and we can go on and on and on but on a national level it's clear that our mission is to take when something tragic happens to make that into a braha October 7th. Somehow Am is going to take this terrible terrible tragedy which happened and we're going to make it into a braha. How exactly? I don't know. But but that's that's our mission. >> It's already a blessing. All the Israel was separated and now >> there we go. There we go. So my friend here is already pointing out the fact that we were fighting so much and now we're there's so much. May it continue. Please God is already aem. So, so we start off our day taking a curse and making it a blessing to remind oursel of our mission on a national level to do that. And I would add also it's true on a personal level. Never waste a good tragedy. Never waste a good hitting rock bottom. Okay? Cuz it's when we hit rock bottom in life that we're desperate enough to just change. I'm speaking from my experience. I imagine some of you guys have had similar experiences where it's hard to change when you're kind of just floating a little bit up and down. But when do you really soar and have new ideas and are willing to really get yourself when you hit the bottom? So you take that curse and you make it into a braha. So we start off our day talking about taking curses and making it a and reminding oursel no matter what happened yesterday, no matter what problems happened, we're going to transform it. We're going to make it good. Okay. So that's idea number one. Perspective number one of why we start off with matauvu number one. Perspective number two. I don't know who said this, but I've heard it around. Sometimes as a Jewish people, we take things for granted. It's only natural. You come to shul in the morning and yeah, it's just another chakras. Like I go every day, I wrap my fill and we get up and blah blah blah, you know, got to finish, got to go to work, got to get my coffee. But think about it from an outsers's perspective. These Jews, they're waking up early in the morning to come together to pray sometimes in these stuffy places. They don't even know what they're saying, but they're coming together and they're just giving their time to love Hashem, to do a mitzvah, to do to do something good in the world. From an insider perspective, you don't appreciate. But when you walk look on the outside, at least I think it's unbelievable. We're we're amazing. And so Bum was an outsider. So he's looking on the out and he's saying, "Wow, look at these shs. Look at these. Look at these. Look at you guys coming on a free night. He could be doing anything in the world. Look what's happening in the world on and coming to learn Torah to connect to Hashem, to connect to one another. We're unbelievable." But sometimes you need an outsider to remind us how special we are. So Bum's the outsider and that's what he's reminding us. Perspective number three is the beautiful teaching of the nativa shalom. Nativa shalom um writes the following. Why did bum want to curse us that we should get rid of our shs and our midash? What what was he really trying to do there? He wanted to get >> he wanted to shut down our Wi-Fi. >> We get rid of the wife. He wanted to get rid of the rabbi salaries. He he didn't like the kougal. like he somebody didn't invite him to to the kiddish and so he was just like why was he so anti >> theologist he wanted to to replace Judaism with paganism >> oh okay >> he wanted to cut our >> but why what did he have against >> he's jealous >> jealousy needs to feel >> to hate >> so he had to get rid of >> the dark side >> and he understood in order to get rid of us he needs to get rid of our shs and our and and our so says like this what is the point of life what's the point of being a Jew and he always answers this you know the rebba the purpose of being a Jew is to attach ourselves to and how do we attach ourselves to primarily through two ways through our brains our intellects and through our hearts We connect our brains to hem by studying Torah. What we're doing right now, we connect our hearts to a bying our mo and our that's why we bind our fill in our hearts and our brains. That's the source of our and when we're doing that we're always connected to so bum wants to disconnect us to that's why he does the wholeik to get us into tasara to disconnect our hearts and our brains from he wants to take away our and our yeah so who stops him hashem says that's the one thing I can't let you touch because this is >> unique >> unique it's untouchable and you can never take our freedom our shs and our and our and our fas and our and our learning that's our source of and that's why we start off our day reminding of us when we go into shul of our power that bum tried to strip of us but protected from us. Okay. So, three perspectives as to why we start our day da with the mat from bum adan. We're good. We're clear. Beautiful. Okay. Now I want to read a little bit about the next of and and I think it's sorry and I think this will give us another insight that I didn't realize which is to what we're supposed to be thinking when we're saying this every day. So I'm going to read from Pinkas is safeair quoting the result. So the reason right up there invat brought down the following. When you enter into before you go into sh stop. Okay. before you walk in then you stop you should fear should become a should tremble should shake a little bit that's what the reason says I am right now entering into the sanctuary of the of the world of the Lord >> we could do that if there's only one shrew in the whole town or in the whole country and we can only go there and then like a horse >> like the B mikdash >> and we would go and like that's the only time you're going to get there. It's like it's a whole world on its own. It's like a big deal. It's a very big deal. >> It's not a little foreign this concept for some of us cuz you know especially us Ashkenazi folk. The shul has also become you know that place where you have a fabbran and you hang out and you sing and you have aim and the kdish and you catch up with your friends and all that's wonderful for bringing is a very holy beautiful thing but the result is saying the truth is before we walk into the ket we should tremble a little bit I'm going into the house of hashem the king of the world and this really helps helps completing man and giving you perception. And this is a secret of when you go into the mikdash and we know that is a you should be in awe, should be in trembling, should fear a little bit. We should go with fear, with trembling, with emotion into the Bes. And he goes on to say, "And what should you say? When you walk into the sh then you say this of going with your kindness into your sh." Okay. So according to the reason the of matvu is not actually the first pik of matvu is the second p of vanbra of but in order to get into the right frame of mind for for van of you need to stop before you go into the shul tremble a little bit recognize that you're about to walk into the house of the lord you know maybe turn on your phone on to silent or whatever do do whatever you got to and recognize that you are mamish walking into the bes and then once you walk into the sh recognize that it's the greatest kindness in the world that Hashem has permitted me has given me this private meeting with him to be in his presence for the next whatever however long longing I have personally been granted not because I deserve it but because of his great kindness and it's a great right so that's what the result says is the real meaning behind and van van van of >> I was saying today it's the same idea you know I was having the same idea about about being at a holy place and to sing the the only through the kindness of that we can make it >> that's and that's you know we run through these kilos those thousands of times but that's the main Indian says says Rizal to to to recognize the privilege that we have to dive in and um it's not I don't know you ever walk into a place of a very very of a person of a reb you know you ever have a you go into some great cabalistic rabbi that you're waiting you know for hours online for for I remember once I was meeting Sarah and you had to wait up there in Ari for 10 hours until you finally get and maybe you went to the mikvah beforehand. You know used to do go to the mikvah and learn the of thebah before he would go in and meet with him even if he would meet with him every day but but because he was his right-hand man but he would always have that that awe and trembling. So I don't know in the secular world if there's anything similar but that's if that's if that's >> and and the problem is that we we d every day so we get a little bit of familiar familiar familiarity and that's only natural but is there to remind us that we have the great privilege and responsibility of walking into the sh and uh God has given us this private so let's take advantage of uh every minute of the experience or of the learning experience that we're about to embark in. Okay, on that note, I have to say a beautiful from so the is uh in his another one of his is talking about another that bum says and in the he compares the oh this is the very next after he says your ohale are like rivers. So asked the what's the connection between an ohhel and a river and a nah. He says just like a river. Imagine you take a guy you strip him you throw him into an ocean and he completely immersed and then you take him out. Is he pure? He's pure even if he had no intentions. So he even just went to a mikvah. So just by going into the mikvah of this water he comes out a holy pure person. All the more so if he had holy intentions you know if you said before you go into the mikvah. So it's the same thing with the that's the connection between oh hell and a mikvah is to us that is like a holy mikvah. Right now, we just walked into the space man. Even if you just walked in to charge your iPhone, which you probably shouldn't do. You shouldn't use it as a shortcut, right? >> But you walked in even if you didn't have the right intentions. The says you've just been purified. Now that if you go in with holy intentions, if you say properly and we understand, I'm I'm walking before If you tremble a little bit then all the more so what an amazing purifying experience what we have every day to go dab in to learn Torah in a bish it's a it's a great so that's the the onus we have of going into a one last uh on this on this topic the writes in his safer is that uh the truth is sometimes we're not really in the mood to din probably never happened to you guys but for me it sometimes happens you know you're just not not you're not not feeling it that day and u a part of us kind of rationalizes and says listen imagine I'm going to go to my uh girlfriend or my wife and I'm going to take some flowers and just throw it at her and I'm not really in a good mood. Forget it. You know, save the 50 shekel and you know, go get yourself a coffee and cool off. Like, what's the point if I'm not going to be in a good mood? So, we tell ourselves, I'm not even going to go to shul today. I'm not even going to dab cuz I'm I'm not in a good mood. I'm angry. I'm upset. I'm forget it. Better not to dab in today. Right? That's a part of us has that. But says the there are times in life where we're an oh health and there are times in life whereas a mishkan a mishkim is when you're firm where you're strong you're you're permanent and you're ready to serve hashem with joy but an o is temporary sometimes like this sometimes like that and hashem saysim values when you're have that amazing domining you're singing and dancing you're vibing but He values just as much when you're not feeling it and you still push yourself to come to shul to come together with the kila and davin even if you don't have so much amazing kavana just the fact that you pushed yourself to to to do it to go through the motions to join with the says the kafim that's also extremely valuable in the eyes of the lord almighty so uh so we you should push ourselves even when we're not vibing to to do it to go through to go through the motions Okay, so that was part two, which is just like some of the bigger themes of uh of of Matau. And now we're we only have 8 minutes left, but we're going let's just run through some of the words of the Matau itself and uh and see how much we can uh bring into our day. Yeah. And we'll continue next time. Yala, let's go. Israel, how great are your tents, Jacob, your Mishkan, Israel, on a pushup shot level. What was Bam referring to when he's praising the tents and the Mishkan? He's looking down at the Jewish people from his mountaintop. What's he what's he praising? >> Two different aspects of Jacob. >> So, you're going very deep. You're you're telling me that there's Jacob and Israel. >> You're right. I want to get there in a moment, but I just wanted to ask on a push-up shot level and like simple reading. No uh no fancy Joshes. What's Moshe? What's Bum praising about the Jewish people? >> Sorry. >> Oh, so you're already going to Rashi something about their tents. He likes something about their tents. >> The family life is Rashi. What's so good about their tents? But he liked the the setup of their tents. It was like a cool style from home center. No. So says Rashi, what he liked was their he liked the fact that the Jewish people they put up their tents so that no one could see one another's tents and that's what impressed him that they were, you know, no one was looking at other people's business. This guy's doing his thing on Facebook and that guy is doing his mitzvah on WhatsApp. I don't I don't really care. They should all be blessed. I'm doing my thing. He's doing his thing. Gavalt that the of the Jewish people. Okay. So that's Rashi's shot and that's another beautiful thing that we should be thinking about every day that bums realizes that we're everybody's doing their thing and we're not not concerned at what's going on out of my I'm concerned to help but I'm not concerned to to start worrying about what everyone else is doing. Okay, that's one shot of and we already gave the second shot. What's the Kazal's interpretation? Another interpretation of what's the oh and the Mishkan themed and the batios. Of course, that didn't exist at the time of the Mishkan, right? So, are we are understanding that BA must have had some and he was understanding that eventually the the is what's going to bring bring up the spirit of the Jewish people. Okay, good. Now, what's this Yakob Israel thing? Why does he say one time Jacob and another time Israel? So, what were you suggesting? >> One one is Yakov is when Yak when is on when Yakob is actually on the highest level of Nva. Jacob is is Yakov the the father of the Jewish people. But his role is the higher level. >> The higher level. So this this idea is found in many many many mentioned by but it's all over the place talks about this that Jacob and Israel represent different major and generally Jacob is associated with a lower level and is associated with a higher level. Some related to the gulus is Jacob like and is when the Msiah comes. I like to say it. In other words, when we're moat, when we're at a lower level, that's also beautiful. And also, when we're in a higher level, we're beautiful. You know, we have to we we're all seeking the highs, you know. We're all seeking I I I'm always I want to be on a high, but sometimes we're not on a high. Sometimes we're on a low. And according to Rabbi Aman, the lows allow our highs to go as high as they go. Without the lows, you can't have the highs. When you say the word ay and shabus in the kavod, you're lifting up all of the sparks of the low onto the high. So there's a bum saying it's all good. Sometimes we have our lows, sometimes we have our highs, but it's all important. Okay. So that's stuff to think about and saying what about what what's good? Happens to be my one of my favorite ways of greeting people is I ask what's good cuz like gets person to think yeah what is good? What's what's good in my life right now? >> So I got I stole that from bum. He says matvu what's good? But what is good? What is to in Torah? How do we define to? So we've said many times at this point that we want to understand the definition of a word. We want to go back to the root the first time it's mentioned in Torah. Who remembers way back in the beginning of creation. >> When did we hear >> to >> what? Sorry. >> I don't know that and he saw it was good. >> So God saw sees that the world is good. So something about the world when he creates it is good. So the world is a good place. That's good to know. In its core it's a good place. Not everyone agrees with that nowadays if you read the news but it really is a good place. Okay. But what what but what is good? So if you look in the story of I think it gives us a key to understanding what's good. >> The creation of man is to is very good. But why why is man so good? has free. Oh, so some of the exactly give that that goodness is being able to choose good. >> Yeah. >> Because if we if we don't have choice then that's >> so that's one mahal I think uh the Ramban where others go on that mahalik but I want to offer a slightly different uh interpretation. It it relates what's not good. What's the first thing in the Torah that we know is not good? Lotove >> not good to be alone. The first thing we know is not good is to be alone. Mashma that what is good? To not be alone to be together right now over me. Right? To be together is the essence of good. That's why when God creates man now he's not alone. He's with man when he creates the world now he's not alone so to speak >> and when we exactly and when we are try to get into the essence of not good it's not good to be alone and so we start off our day and we say how good it is that I'm not alone that I'm coming to sh again cuz mvu is a is a sh prayer you could say it whenever you want but really you wouldn't say it if you just are diving at home you say it when you're going to shu How good that I'm joining together with my friends and then I'm joining together with the and that I'm never alone cuz the Jew is never alone and that is the essence of what's good in the world to feel like a bar is always with us. We can always smoo with him and feel like I have friends who are always there with me. That's why say it's not you would think it's the the tent of Israel because it's because now we're united cuz when we come to shul ideally in an ideal world we would be feeling oneness with one another be singing together dancing together domining together domining for one another and really uh feeling aas and love towards each other and towards the Jewish people. So that's what's good. What's good is to be together and we get to learn Torah together each week. What a that we get to learn Torah together. We get to D together and that we recognize what aid it is. What what a what a blessing every moment of life is. Every day of life is that we get to serve Hashem together. What a what a what a what a Okay. Until next time should only be Yeshu and our lives and the lives of the whole Jewish people. [Music] boy. Dash [Music] Amaz. Give I am nama mama. And we got [Applause] [Music] Kazak. Heat. Heat. My [Music] sh Oh