(Part 2) The 8 Habits of Spiritual People Rabbi Robert Rhodes

[Music] ladies and gentlemen boys and girls of all ages as an ass there's basically a couple there's a list of intended outcomes for this sort of thing right and probably top of the list is to pique your interest and get motivated to to work on your humor reading and you keep your reading skills right incredibly important it's the key to the door right you don't need me to tell you that sort of stuff that I have a key it's electronic today anyway you just you know when the high wave something in the direction the door opens the other is specific to this piece of learning from the mayushii law more grateful scenic masters and that is to equip yourself with a list of eight habits to be the most spiritual people you can possibly be right so that's that's what he's that's what he's alternately talking about and in order to get into the text of the math she lost we've got to read a couple of other things and that's where we started last time we were looking at seifish motive of Exodus chapter 28 the list of the eight garments that the high priest wore in the temple book of Exodus chapter 28 to protect itself that and that's that's where this Mimer of the other was out so we did last time also what you'll see in that in the handout you see the portrait handout as opposed to landscape 1 on page number 4 is actually where we started with the the summary list of what the 8 habits are according to 1 you are perfectly entitled to go through this this journey and then read the 8th habit somewhat differently because the rebbe of ish miss does exactly the same thing if you want to continue this whole Dera and this is the series the next text that we would come up with is the one that comes before it in the book where he reads five things from the 8 garments he seems to be more three others then there's about three or four more texts in the same book that give a number of different lists and what we would end up with is I think about the fifth or the sixth list where he gives you base on the temple furniture and appurtenances and tools rather than the high priests stuff a list of questions that you get asked after you have passed out of this world it's a standard sort of Gomorrah thing and very well-known that you say it of funerals I this was Mike my eulogy from my my late father actually who passed away on Shabbat ha kadhal what are the questions that you get asked after you've left the world and can you tick Kenny maybe check mark against you know the oak I did so but that's not why he's telling you this he's gonna give you this whole story to say live with these things in mind maybe knowing that you're going to be tested or that if you if you do it right you can have a great life but here we're focusing on eight things eight habits that you should have and they are based on the eight garments of the priest which brings me to the second hand of the landscape one this is one that i sat up all night with or close to and I liked lists and I'm really quite obsessive and I'm not 100% sure of this entire is entirely correct and with it there's two sides to it I included these seven habits from Stephen Covey's book if you don't compare that or contrast that and you should end up at the end of this in the next session with the list of eight things and a means of remembering them and keeping them in mind you can do this through several different routes one that I think I would use is putting on the eight garments in the order that the priests put them on and that's the second list at the top of the list the other side of that page you obviously put put the pants on first and here's where we're going to get into the issues of I really do need to have that bit of Hebrew skills because some of the words just don't have translations all right I thought I put them out in English so how do you say in a fog in English how do you say sits in English right and you look at these Hebrew words on Google and translate and we'll translate you look at one more fix and a foetus translated as they thought some of them will do this the thing I got for a fob was actually surplice if you've ever been to a Catholic or a night in church so when you brought that up the whole idea of eight habits and the eight like I thought that is a good one that is a good Palmieri thank you so if you do go to the Internet yeah spend a little time on this sort of the service stuff if you go to the internet and look up the garments of the high priest you will see that they do have significant descendants in the Mormon Church these are latter-day saints friends have special attire that they wear to go to their services right its descendant it descends from it and also the various garments that you see Catholic and Anglican priests bishops and the Pope the source of that they put on there's a pretty good resemblance and there's a very clear line of descent so you get into English names and one of the things that a priest wears today is called a surplus which is actually a sort of frilly lace over thin I don't know it's like a woman's slip that gets worn on the outside or this or the sort of lacy dress you would wear with a lot something underneath it all right that doesn't really it doesn't cut it it doesn't cut it because it doesn't it doesn't really resemble how these things are I've - I've downloaded some of the pictures if you want later on we take a look at them but the the temple Institute website is worth is worth looking at the easiest place to start remembering and to start looking at that is the prayer before the Shema right so this is again again we looked at this last time but it's worth taking a look at because if you are among those people who do the morning service every day right you have got this memorize weekday shahuri blessings of the Shema ii blessings before the Shema right a time of intense focus in the ended avenue in the in the service of worship with great love you have loved us O Lord our God super abundant compassion etc etc etc right so what we do what we then continue here is age at the third of the fourth line into that second prayer right before the paragraph of the Shema IV no Javiera home on our father our King camera hey merciful Andrew hey Melinda be merciful to us the tame Billy Bain and put into our hearts a list of eight things and that is where the mass G laughs is gonna start he's gonna say here are these eight things give us the ability to about the morning slug yeah just a Porsche right it's not the lives on here they're very very busy yeah the sake right all right it's a second yep I've already thought about we're well into the service we've woken up think he's up no I I am totally not a morning person and I'm not awake during down here we go but these things should be in your mind and this is I think we're a more the failure selfish bits is really starting from here he's saying and he says that he does this in a lot of different places here's a list of things that you know off by heart already right you've been governing you've been reading these prayers every day for as long as you've been reading them so you've got this list of eight things you got it in your head start here then start meditating on that what does it mean what can I use this for and how can I expand this into a list of stuff that's going to be really useful in my life if you happen to have gone to a school where they taught you what are the garments of the high priests what are the furniture and utensils of the temple I didn't go to that sort of school yeah yeah there was a school in England I did this class with Hadassah one on black and one guy said yeah I know these things there are such schools and our people are privileged to go to these schools but not not all of us grew up observant or even interested in these things I think the picture of different garments once you have it clear what the actual item of clothing is it can be quite valuable because I put on my pants I put on my tunic I put on my robe I put on my plate I put on my belt right and that is that is certainly way of visualizing it so this is useful as a vision ization or as a meditation process you sit down and say I'm putting on my pants metaphorically and this is what I'm thinking about I'm putting on my tunic my cat o-net I still have not gonna take you clear which of the outer garments goes on first I'm putting on the belt because that's an easy one I'm taking my heart and my emotions under control right so back to the sitter which is where we started and that's where where the regulations are starting God says please give us we'll have in to understand last skill to be wise what's the difference between the two he's gonna tell us what he wants us to know from this and the difference the Shamala - listen the Lord to learn Lilla made to teach lish more to keep soft to do hula came and to preserve all the words of the study of your tour with love right and we spent quite a bit of time looking at Exodus 20:8 and it's on the top of page three in the handout I just put in the the relevant verses you know one two three verses that are relevant the verse in job we'll get to because this is this is a biggie biggie biggie in terms of what he's going to be saying all right so I think this chart is reasonably correct you you are very welcome to correct me on it but I am reasonably certain it's reasonably close to being correct I try not to be too certain about things and that's one of the major teachings of the Machine off don't ever think you know it all right we never imagined that the way you think is is the way someone else you think right very very quick aside ten commandments one of the most potent teachings of the repetition it's that there is do not make a past cell or a tuna do not make for yourselves a carved image or a painted or drawn image to worship like lieutenant so worship idols what does that mean so har says this refers to positive Commandments and negative Commandments right how on earth condemning any sense these kids who says do not make your observance or your way of observing a commandment whether positive or negative an object of idolatrous worship for yourself or other people I keep this Mitzvah this way you do not have to bow down to my keeping this Mitzvah this way all right someone else does it differently that's huge that's huge and that's where they learn that's why we learn to see this right okay we're gonna do a little bit of Gomorrah whether we like it or not we are going to learn some Gomorrah here from the Talmud Bavli and that's the first one on me where it says the eight garments on the top Babli r-rahim sixteen okay this is the text where all the garments of the high priest are put together and associated with something in particular that people do the Talmud itself starts on Miami Ben Sasse on said why is this portion at the priests Garmin's placed next to the portion about the sacrifices is to tell you that just as the sacrifices procure atonement so do the priestly garments and this is from the old Santino town with translation so so in old-fashioned British English but he's telling you something very very straightforward here that throughout the Bible there are things that are put next to each other and there's a reason right over and over and over again the laws of AR put next to the laws would be the laws of C come after the story of D there's a reason for it right sacrifices are given and brought in the temple to reach atonement for the Jewish people and of course anyone else as well who have done particular sins similarly the the high priests garment right another way of looking at is these are things that the priests should be thinking about when he's when he's out there with his with his formal garments on but each of them represents something and most of them are pretty straightforward and easy to figure out the numbers here correspond to the numbers of the words in the prayer before the Shema right I know this is oh this is a little bit much too you know I'm not mathematically minded I don't do well with numbers of anything I can't balance a checkbook but counting things is Vegas and the numbers are to understand to be wise to listen to learn etc that's one through eight and that's where I start is that's the easy one that's what I have in my head so that number here is the is the correspondence right the order I don't think matters at all the ultimate goal is that you take one of these lists and it starts to make sense with you and that's not my phone good this this this page here is exactly the way the Gomora starts Katonah myth messiahs method tunic pants mitre whereas the keywords from the prayer before the Shema goes understand be wise lesson learned yeah it's not an order if you if you look this this at least three ways of ordering these and to use my son's expression whatever floats your boat whatever will work for you to be able to have this in your head numbers one through eight are the lists from the prayer before the Shema right and that's what I'm gonna call the prime list right the Star Trek prime universe as opposed to the Kelvin Star Trek universe right there pillow knows what I'm talking about good they're they're they're very close they're very close but not one doesn't exclude this right unless this was already old tradition in this fashion yeah I mean I honestly don't think that there's there's this especially isn't an obvious connection between the lists from the prayer before the Shema and the lists of the garments right I mean it's something that their innocence says not only breslav it's the introduction to the Kotel a thought and he says people ask him where does all this heceta stuff come from because we you're taking damara's you're taking passages from the Bible the Talmud at Halawa and you're putting them to completely new and novel meanings and applications where are you getting this from and he's he answers by saying it's a kernel of truth that was there at the very beginning we're not dealing here with Shakespeare right this isn't just you know great literature this is Tara this is Tara and all of it comes from her scene I all of it comes from God and the expression that we might be familiar with today is God planted Easter eggs it's not the best expression you should million with the term you get a piece of software and you think it does all sorts of things but there's a gift for you in there and it does something else as well you download an album from iTunes right none of us download without paying right I joined Canadian and that's permitted to do in Canada by Supreme Court decisions I download an album it's got 10 songs on it there's a free gift the performer the singer is giving me an 11 song this stuff that is programmed in to the Torah itself comes out at the time when it's needed Hassid ISM the Baal Shem Tov Rob Nasim Mordechai Yosef every one of them these are pieces of terror that were originally intended and written in deep into the code of the Hamish here we're talking about five books of Moses and description what what is supposed to be in the temple and the Mishkan that it was originally coded into there and just the time had to come around for this to be revealed I think that makes sense because I'm one of those people who believes that God gave us a story and books of icy dirt the the Hasidic masters wrote books that are completely magical and reach out and grab you and this this sort of stuff reaches out and grabs me right and we're talking about positive experiences here we're not going to talk about the more difficult stuff that hits you and gives you a good kick where you need to be hurt because you need to have something really forced on you and to be told something in a forceful and painful because some of these books can hurt you they can make you feel very very unhappy but I'm happy because well I missed out on doing that I should be at that level and I'm not right right so let's let's learn this little bit of Gomorrah here which each pizza is gonna then take and tell us that there's something for it was a life lesson for that inherits all right okay first one is easy the tunic the coton that secures atonement for bloodshed as it is written in the Cobra they dipped the coat in blood you remember the story of Joseph and his brothers they pretended that he was dead and then being torn apart by wild animal diptych Odin blood and brought it to the father and said her brother has been devoured by a wild beast whereas they had sold him for cash they wanted to get rid of him right no parachute I am which they used to buy shoes yeah yom kippur stuff that's some yom kippur afternoon just talk about where this comes up interesting interest and stuff but we're gonna try and focus because this isn't that being focused right now so the Katonah to the tunic atones for bloodshed this is something that we are gonna have to get into killing ha we don't know most of us don't kill people on a regular basis right but there's going to be a broader meaning to it man assign the trousers the breeches procured tone them for incest is written Exodus 20:8 let us delve into hospice ah even though it's a gang the whole family can play right right totally not and I'm sure all of us are perfectly chaste and good people right the linen pants are to cover the flesh of their nakedness which is the verse directly referring to making these pants out of linen right good material to make stuff for a hot climate but not just to keep I'm comfortable in the heat but to cover their error to cover their genitalia and to keep their libido under control right really really easy mitts navette the Hat mitre procures atonement for those of arrogant mind now we're getting a gomorrah source rumba Hanina said that that would just place hi procured tone meant for acts of haughtiness it's on the top of your head it's to do with lifting yourself and placing yourself above people the next one is the Ave Nate which this translation calls a girdle although it is actually very much like the garkel that men wear today but much thicker and actually 32 cubits long so that is what about 15 meters or so it was a very very long and clearly cumbersome cummerbund right procures atonement for sinful thoughts of the heart doesn't give you the whip though it is the name it's I can show you the picture of that did they give you the way I don't thinks I don't think so I don't think it matters have you ever yeah I mean 15 meters you don't see it when it's on the actual Kohen Gadol because it sits underneath a parrot it underneath a bunch of things right so this is the separate from his bow they're not bring you that notion of below not at all what they're saying is the pants do that the pants keep your bottom half your animal half under control well now that I think the pants are we supposed to be discussing this all right you're very welcome to discuss this on the pants all the pants do is keep your pants on but yeah I think the the this separates your heart and your lungs with your life from your liver and your kidneys and your digestive system which are processed part of the body it's it's two separate distinctly simple functions within the boy yeah I think what is a life from the other is a waste I would have hung out with the girl wore a teen from the picture that from the one photograph of it in the temple Institute and they actually have one day on a model that you can see it went around your middle and it went around and around and around and around and it sort of was like from your waist up to a middle of your chest cummerbund right I have never worn one of my life and probably never will but this is you never work for the Father for the East Africa probably true I'm not civilized so you know yeah it's to do with keeping the heart and the emotions under control the separation is not a separation from the top to the bottom and the higher function so that what we might call the lower function yep and that's exactly the very first line that he does and also measures 32 qubits which is lammott met Laith heart emotion the breastplate right there's no other word for it procures atonement for errors and legal decisions that is exactly exactly and precisely and thou shalt make a breastplate of judgement is what the Torah tells us exactly the the reference is very specific there in the verse the judgment I think is a reference to be alluded to min that either were inside it or were part of it right oh yeah if you have the art scroll thing you've got you got the whole drawing there right the ocean the the breastplate thing either had something inside it or in and of itself was a means of getting a final yes or no answer to some very very serious questions there's a lot of information on ER but we don't know exactly what it was again going back to the the temple Institute's drawings and stuff they have him using it in wild forget which is which but one of the opinion says the stones on the breastplate would light up and either the priest could read then read off what was on it because they would light up in a certain way and each one represents a letter and each one had the name of a tribe on it so he could read that off or he would go into certain type of mystical trance and was able to understand what was being said that they would get a set of what you and I would see as random letters and combinations of colors but the priest at a higher level of conscience could read that that seems to be what they're putting into that picture they're questions like and this is what we have from from from the Bible itself should we go to war or not which of the tribes of Israel should be the first to go to battle against the particular nation backing the Philistines the Canaanites or whatever it happens to be so real real serious questions that's probably what the text is referring to but in general the ocean mishpat is here tests taken to be legal decisions right the volume of visuals on a roof let's go hoshin which part deals with what legal decisions but luckily if there was a mistake by the Beit din this would somehow accounting mistake yep yeah the you know they're the CAV Amelie the intent of the high priest had to be to do all of these things - I put these clothes on with enormous significance and the weight of the entire nation of Israel on his shoulders literally and achieve atonement and at the same time give out good energy for all of these areas of the lives of our people right a fraud there really isn't a good word for any thought it's an any fun I don't really know what an Aleph paid Dalit is I don't think there's a verb even in in Hebrew to have paid out it's a difficult source its Hosea chapter 3 verse 4 and it's reading a particular verse of a particular time in the history of the Jewish people that because there was no a thought worn by the priests there were idols in the country it's it's his reading of it it's not there in the Farsi this is the mashallah rabbi mordechai Yosef Lehner of ish pips were entirely and completely in the torah of the revelation is right now yeah this is the Gemara that's the source of this yeah [Music] it doesn't entirely make sense if you open it up in your contacts but it's putting things together you have a word and that you have a word in the context of another word and they're there together and they have a certain amount of meaning is everything gonna stand up to a very critical examination not necessarily I think one of the things that that I take from and that I use in my reading of all of all of the great classic masters is the point is the point he's making a point and if nine out of ten of the points that get him to the big point makes sense I didn't I didn't grasp completely the the context wrote the McGill procures atonement for slander for the Holy One blessed be he said that that which emits a sound procure atonement for an act of sound yeah it's the same weakness it's always the same the same or the same root yeah what's the connection is there a connection is there a connection yes I honestly don't have an answer to that I don't have to ask Isaac Moses son for this one he would know this instantly but you have a president we the road and slaughter connected to the story of Yusuf go on so we yourself basically was to a degree slaughtering his brothers yeah yeah I mean that's it's a it's a nut it's another it's another way of reading it certainly but the Katonah connects with joseph it was Joseph Joseph's coat of many colors was the Katonah antigenic rather than yes yep here have some kind of the ball yeah that's that's the connection here in the Gemara and in there bishop is gonna take it to it to say anything bad if you know the coin that one is come up when he's coming anyway they wanted that Leslie connections that she was to warn you not to say right that's why it's Thomas I see I know the question is will it there everybody's where everybody's right awesome you just worry so people are more right than this right right if you like we can learn safer fix crime I think one of the best responses to learning anything with a group that I've ever had in in Toronto we do this the safer cuff explain be getting to ed totally fascinating book okay it changed people that those are just really really interesting and you don't realize and nobody realizes until until he came along how important speeches and valuable good speeches well you know this we know this is stuff we know right we've got to be reminded [Music] there are many other means of having good kosher food but right the last one in the Gemara here's the six again there isn't a particularly good word for that golden plate another one is crown before the tiara would be sort of descriptive but it isn't yeah it was a small plate of a small plate of gold that said holy to God on it and that went on top of them it's navette he put on the turban or the my turn with it seems to be more like a turban than a writer mm-hmm and then he put on the the golden plate on top of it yeah we're talking about the head and a turquoise cords and something like that and if we go to the temple Institute we can actually say yeah it's it's interesting stuff the way of the way they do this yeah apparently from what they say they are ready to rock and roll they may need that all of these utensils garments and stuff that they have made are simply waiting for the Congo dog to death yeah to come down from come down from the stretcher ready to get up out of bed and get ready there okay it's gonna take us quite a while to get through the actual text this is the page number two which is in the Hebrew and will at least make a start on it it starts on page number three in the English right I'm gonna intentionally need the heat as well as the English because I want to push Hebrew skills but I also want to make certain that we get all of the nuances and shades of meaning out of out of the text okay with the mass you often leave this particular book it is not written by him right large percentage of the great proceeding masters did not write the books themselves and this has written several years after after he passed on and the students and particularly the grandchildren grandson and that some wondered one or two of the sons got together and started out the parsha pre-shaped went through the end of the very unified Moses went through the Talmud I wrote down the absolute essence of what he said a few years later they did the same so you have a volume 1 and volume 2 so we're hearing architects of that Exodus 20:8 or 729 and you've got the same parsha in volume 1 volume 2 and then a few years later they did a volume 3 where they put together all of the material that they had not already remembered that someone else had written down book the silver a huge amount of material but it's it's concentrated and on the other hand it's not very long-winded right but there are two versions of this and then there's a bunch of other things so we're gonna make it a little bit of a start here and then we'll write will that will end on time right so the Eila have begun to him which is on page number two these are the garments that you shall make ocean they thought ill etc etc right he may negative she will not be got him he asserts very very clearly that if there is a little bit I'll take it and I think we're enjoying it reasonably good allergy season for a change Billy I am the Lord keep the plants in check thank you thank you it's not difficulty yeah this this I did a few years ago before they brought on the safari ax the attacks that's in block letters so if you have to Safari ax or you go to a bookstore you can buy an edition of this which is in block letters make it easy make it easy for yourself to read so parallel to the eight garments to canoe unshaken s affected a lot the men of the great assembly established in the blessing before the Shema these eight things he is saying this is the intent of the unshaken s effective are formulated this prayer that it was that it was there from the beginning regula have in to understand how skilled to be wise the Schmoe Atalissa in order to learn Lila made it to teach the shmore to keep the last sort and to do l'chayim and to uphold will do one of the one of the pieces here and then we will call it quits because they're the folks wait Lahav in this is the easy-to-understand negative net this parallel is the belt or the sash you have made me a pair out here who olive because as we just learned in this piece of gomorrah he's putting everything together the one word from the list of eight in the prayer before the Shema to understand is parallel to the earth make to the belt which atones for here who are Haleiwa fantasies of the heart at the gallon of Isha toh hai Tao and it was worn on the heart not like a belt that we were today but like you just go gasps I think it's a man of the gown yep I mean that toh hai gam king Lama better Mott and it was 32 our moat which is the the word for late right understand remove fantasies of the heart which if you look at page number four I've taken this to say the habit that you should adopt is stop being a Walter Mitty don't let your imagination rule your life right we all have things that we project onto other people onto ourselves right something from my childhood or whatever it is or something from how I perceive myself and I think other people are looking at me don't never don't live in a fantasy world that's a good start there are seven more to be continued [Music]