Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz: The Offerings are Opportunities to Come Close to G-d

[Music] okay everybody thank you for coming and um today's uh night share is dedicated for Ben Anda DAV and as always for all those whose Health has been affected by the war especially for the safe and quick return of our brothers and sisters held in captivity uh as well as a successful accomplishment of the itf's mission excuse me bringing lasting unity and peace uh for uh CLA andat kers benzar and Sora Sax's mother Shirley goldner Bas Yeshua Mel May the Torah be an alas for them and uh finally an anonymous dedication of the safe return of the army and hostages to their homes in Total Health for the N of the Jewish nation and return home with good health and the coming of mashia Bon wants to thank all of those who have recently contributed towards the purchase of a safer Torah uh I am told that they are close to 40% of the goal obviously we still need Partners to complete payment for the tourist grow and let me remind you that this is not just buying a tourist grow but this will also be the foundation for hopefully a learner minion uh Monday and Thursday even during the week which is a need that is really not met presently uh in Yim there are shabas beginners Min but not weekday beginners minim uh and this is a wonderful way to commemorate the memory of a loved one uh participate in Shar sh ing the love of Torah and according to some opinions this can be a way to fulfill a Mitzvah of writing a safer Torah by participating in the writing and making the sare a shal uh donations can be made either on the website or by a link on the YouTube uh description box below so I urge everyone to generously be Mish uh so there are really two different thoughts I I want to share uh and there really separate pieces but I think hopefully both are are interesting uh the first is that this is pares fakel coming up and pares fakel is the day after yum Kipper remember mosenu came down with the first tablets according to our tradition on the 17th of thas he saw the he smashed the tablets getus exactly did he smash the tablets or some say the other way the medor says the letters of God flew off the tablets because we were not worthy of those letters and the weight of the tablets without hashem's Word was too much so it's very interesting there are two views in kazal did he do an active action of Smashing or was it forer it just was too heavy for him because without God's word life becomes unbearable so to speak the word of God leaves all your stick stuck with is stone rock can't do it but e e either way uh on the 17th of Tas the luos were broken it's interesting people ask the question if if you learn that Moshe broke the luas why did he have to wait till he came down and saw the agle God told him already at Mount Si go down because your nation has been corrupted they have turned away from your ways they have made a golden calf and still mosha comes down with theas so some of say you can based on you see from here you never jump to conclusions until you see it with your own eyes this is quite frankly astounding God told him they made an ago Moses says I got to see it myself and then I'll I'll break so that's something to show that you know no matter where you get your information from you got to check it out you got to vet the information and the like by the way they also say it's a little bit of a joke that the story of the ago is the source for why Jews never insist on making weddings on because the came because they assumed mosha would be punctual and mosha was a little late so they thought he was dead so the answer is last time we insisted on punctuality there was some very very negative consequences so we learned that time is loveka you know Etc in fact this is something I'm still learning I I tend to come to a if there's a I tend to come to a like a half an hour before the announced time now if I come a half an hour before the announced time I'm actually there like 2 and 1 half hours early you know so it's it's a problem I got to I got to get readjusted uh in that particular in that particular way but okay uh so mosenu goes back and forth up in Sinai he finally comes down on yum Kipper yum Kipper with the second lit and the day after yum ker vak he gathers together the community of am Israel vak and he gives them all the instructions of the mishkan that he had previously received so again truma are God speaking to Moshe vak Moshe is addressing am and pudak the the instructions that then get carried out so here is the thing when Moser Reno is addressing the Jewish people the day after yam Kipper so Moser raain who PR prefaces the mishan instructions by telling them 6 days you shall work but you shall rest on the chabas chabas is Holy and anyone who does m shabas shall be put to death and then it mentions one do not burn fire in all of your Dwelling Places be shabas and then right afterwards he then gives them the instructions about the mishin so Rashi brings the obvious question if the purpose of this Gathering is to tell them about the mishan that they're supposed to build why does he preface it with a discussion about chabas so Rashi explains again this is based on the gamorra that mosha Ren was teaching them that even though there is a Mitzvah to build a mishkan for God this mitzvah does not override the Holiness of chabas in fact as you know the whole source for the activities that are called Maan shabas are the 39 activities that were involved in the construction of the mishkan writing and all all of these different cooking cooking dyes uh to get colored for the for the cloths whatever it would be the very definition of Mala so therefore Rashi understands that the reason why MOS is M him he prefaces mishkan by a discussion of chabas is to teach us that you don't build the Mish shabas you're not allowed to do shabas even to build a mishkan or build a b mikash and as I said I think last week maybe the week before that is because shabas represents Holiness of time mishan or mikash represents Holiness of space and in Judaism time is a deeper Dimension than space and therefore the Holiness of time overrides the Holiness of space By the way just as a little aside the Torah prohibits what is called Mala we normally understand MAA as work don't do work on chabas so I'm sure people ask you the question or maybe you've asked the question well work uh listen why can't I turn on an electric light in the olden days making a fire you have to rub two Stones together it took an hour a lot of work today you're telling me flip flipping a switch is considered to be work uh so they say why all sorts of things why can't we use uh electronics why can't I turn on my computer and it actually reminds me of a story that happened to me you know I went to a day school in harred Connecticut and although it was Orthodox but number one it was coed uh and number two most of my classmates were not sh Mar shabas because because in those days the conservative movement didn't yet have their own day school so parents who were interested in Jewish Education had to send their kids to the Orthodox schools there were no other day school options so as a result in my class you know a good 70 80% were not sh shabas and we got along by the way the truth is this was not when I look back at those years I do not see them as negative I see them actually as a good positive way to learn how to get along with all types of juice something that maybe in our Superior educational experiences uh we sometimes we sometimes lack so every type of config configuration has milus and Kronos has good points and and and bad points but as a result you know when it was time for the kids to be Bar Mitzvah Bas Mitzvah so I would be invited so I remember one time I was invited to a bar mitzvah in a reform synagogue I'm not going to get into the should I have gone but whatever it is I was I was going to go and I was I was 12 I was younger than the Mitzvah boy so it was a 5 Mile Walk F mile walk uh no AR you know couldn't carry anything was the summer so I'm walking you know 12 years old I'm walking 5 miles and as I'm walking like halfway one of my English teachers drives up starts stops her car she was Jewish too it just shows you that religious people were in those days and she offers me a ride uh so I say well you know it's chabis I can't go into the car so she says why not so I said well you know you're in the car your extra weight causes greater consumption of of fuel so you're making a fire on chabis you're doing work on chabus not allowed to do work on chabus because your weight is causing the car to burn more fuel so she says to me so let me understand this uh you're not allowed to do work on chabas so you're not willing to go into an airconditioned car so instead you're going to walk five miles without water because you want to avoid doing work on chabas which do you think is greater amount of work walking five miles without water or going into a car and taking 5 minutes so at that point I was f blent as I say I was I was just confused so I kind of just disengaged myself from the conversation but you know in some ways it's a good question don't do work on chabas therefore walk five miles instead of driving right but the answer is the answer actually is that what the turet prohibits is not work it does not prohibit physical exertion per se you know if the nuda would have been do not physically exert yourself on chabas then yeah uh the lady would have been completely right just get into the car but m is a very different point and points out very beautiful thought that m is connected to the word Mel although again emically it's not the same Shish but it has the same letters refers has a certain she IND dict that even words that have different Roots if they share letters you can make a connection with them so M refers to domination control the essence of M is the technical Mastery that I have over the raw elements of creation cooking writing transforming sewing you know all of the different transformative processes that since God created the world in six days and on chabas I commemorate God as the Creator I refrain from my technological Mastery over raw materials so if anything turning on an electric light is even more of a then perhaps starting a fire meaning the issue is not exertion the is issue is shalita control domination over the raw materials of of Nature and M is connected to Mel that during the week God has empowered me so to speak to be kind of the king of creation and on chabas I got to hold myself back and acknowledge that God is the source of creation Now there's still going to be anomalies we can't explain everything for example if one were to say what is the most Godly type of creation that one could Envision one would say creating life creating a child and yet bka you're allowed to do that on chabas right marital relations are permitted uh even if they can result in a pregnancy and the like so if I'm not supposed to exercise my creativity over the world my domination over why can I create life in chavas okay there there are going to be questions that we don't have full answers for but I think ref's definition is I didn't hear yes I I'll get i'll get to that yeah I'll I'll get to that with the Michigan but ref's definition is enormously helpful in understanding that the key toab is not aod which is physical work it's which is creative Endeavor that transforms raw material now the only M that does not quite meet the transformation criteria is carrying right if I if there's no a I'm not to carry from a private area to a public area or for Amos in a public area now that's only a change of space a change of location that is not transforming the object and indeed according to ref HS this is exactly why toos says inab that carrying is called a malaa it's an inferior Mala meaning it doesn't quite meet the defition def because tosas is explaining if you think about this you'd have to know the garas the amount of pages in The gamarra that are spent on the Mala of carrying is hundreds of times more I mean there are major major malos and chabas that are covered in the gamar in in 10 lines carrying is covered in several in masab and virtually all of M right hundreds of times more than than other malas and toos makes the point precisely because carrying does not quite fit the normal definition of m the sages needed to emphasize and reemphasize that Hally you're not allowed to carry without an a now that's exactly the point because it doesn't fit the standardized definition so a person might take it less seriously okay but be this it may the bottom line is very clear that MOS was telling B is that even though I'm giving you a Mitzvah of mish shabas comes first do not do on shabas now if you recall last week you will recall that Hashem also jux Theos when he's talking to Moshe in Hari he juxtaposed shabas and mishan but it was in a reverse order meaning after he gave Moshe all the details of the he then says this is last week's parabas they should observe the shabas to make it an eternal Covenant between God and the Jewish people now Rashi there explains that the J deposition of shabas and mishkan is ex that Hashem is telling Moshe has the exact same meaning as Moshe Hing B Israel and that is even though I'm giving you mishkan shabas comes first in other words according to Rashi the two narratives are making the same point that chabas overrides building the mishkan so and and that's how mosha knew in other words mosha knew in Paras fak to tell them that because he understood that's what Hashem told him when he was in the mountain Paras Kisa but and that's how Rashi understands it that both narratives are conveying the same message message problem is this if both narratives are are conveying the same message why is the order reversed and Rashi doesn't help you here Rashi doesn't tell you why meaning when hasem is speaking to Moshe now this is the first 40 days the first 40 days before the golden calf before the luas are broken he first gives them all the details of the Mish and then says when Moshe comes down the day after yum Kipper and Moshe is conveying to them Theos he first tells them chabas and then he tells them about the mishan according to Rashi the message is the same in both narratives so why is the order inverted it is a very good question and and Rashi does not really help us here Rashi just says in both cases the J the position of chabas and mishan is that chabas overrides mishan so I want to share with you a tremendous tremendous interesting of the who actually argues with Rashi and he says the following in truma now there's the initial instructions of the mishan that was given during the first 40 days before the sin of the golden calf so here is what he wants to say he wants to say that before the sin of the golden calf mishan would have overridden shabas meaning the idea of first mentioning mishan and then mentioning chabas is to in fact teach that mishan is so important it would override chabas and you only keep chabas when it's not connected to mishan it was only after theel that mishan became subordinated to shabas I'll explain why in a minute but structurally you see how this answers the question meaning when Hashem is speaking to Moshe before theel before the golden calf Hashem mentions mishan and then mention chabas because mishkan would in fact override chabas it is only after the that's when MOS is speaking to am Israel that chabas overrides mishan and the order is changed again this is absolutely not the way Rashi understands theim but this is the in other words the is positing an interesting idea uh you know people uh sometimes like to write what are called alternative histories like you know what would have happened you know if uh Hitler would have defeated uh the Allied Forces on D-Day you know or whatever it would be or what would have happened if President Kennedy wouldn't have been assassinated you know all these different alternative histories the actually posits what you might call almost an alternative version of the Torah the version of the Torah without the would not have been exactly the same version of the Torah after the well first of all it wouldn't have had Theo story that that's obvious but putting that aside even the mitzvos themselves to some degree would have had a different configuration and the rule that you can't build a Mishka is a post revision of a transcendental rule that would have permitted the mishkan to be Mish and or the B mik later to be built on shabas this is what you might call alternative the alternative Torah that might have been again it never had a place to be carried out because we never got that first version because he smashed the lucus before we even got it but this is the hypothetical alternative version of the Torah that would have existed now the question is why why would agel make a difference on this particular so here the m points out a very interesting thing on one level we do take the position that you're not allowed to build the B mikash chabas right because as I said before Holiness of time trumps Holiness of space and yet as you pointed out there was quite there were quite a few activities in the B mikdash that were shabish if you would walk into the Mish of the B mikash you'd be very upset I mean all the protesters in bar Street they would start throwing rocks at at the kohanim and and the like every single chabas as well as every single day the carbon Ted animals were slaughtered uh fats and organs were burnt on the M the manora was lit ctus was burnt shabas after shabas after k shabas mean it's not K shabas but things that would normally be shabas and not only were they permitted to do it in the mikdash they were obligated to do it in the mkes Yum Kipper itself look at all the carbonos that are brought on yum Kipper all of which are technical violations of the 39 malas right so it's a well-known idea aod aoda means Divine service in the temple or the mishan mishan and I'm using mishan and Bas mikd interchangeably here aod in the mikash Mish is it sets aside chabas right now there are some rules I mean there are some limitations on this meaning to say private Corban notes that didn't have an assigned time for example if I committed a sin and I had to bring a sin offering I couldn't bring it on chabas because I could bring the in offering on Sunday there's no in other words if there's no particular reason to bring it on chabas I wouldn't be allowed to bring it but things that were part of the daily ritual or the mus ritual which had to be brought on chabas isab if of P falls out on chabas the carbon PES was shed and cooked on on chabas so how do you understand this how come if Holiness of time trumps Holiness of space and I'm not allowed to build the mishkan an shabas then why do I bring carbonos an shabas how do you reconcile that so the M says we make a distinction between what is called the actual Mitzvah of serving God and that which is called a preliminary thing that you do before the Mitzvah let's take bris M as another example bris Mila to this very day if it's the eth day of circum of birth we do a bris on chabas if a baby is born on chabas and the baby is healthy we do the bris on shabas now doing a Brit Mila involves desecration of chabas you're causing bleeding and the like but the Torah says the Mitzvah of britz override chabas just like aod in the B mikdash override chabas Brit override shabas now let me ask you this if a moel lives far away from where the baby is is the moel allowed to drive to the bris and chabas or can the baby be taken to him on chabas the answer is no why is that I thought I bris override chabas answer it is the Mitzvah of Brit that override chabas but taking the baby or taking the moel is called a preparation for a Mitzvah it's the Mitzvah that's but the preparations you got to do for right so the term is Mitzvah preliminary activities for a Mitzvah will not override chabas the actual Mitzvah will so says the that's exactly the Paradigm of mish building a mishkan building a B mikdash is in order to be able to bring the carbonos to Hashem and worship him in that way so as a result building the mishkan is like the moel driving to the bris so it doesn't override chabas because it's a preliminary to a final stage and preliminaries don't override sh the corbon itself is like the bris so corbon is like bris building mishan is like Mel driving and therefore the Mitzvah overrides the chabas but not the Mak Mitzvah not the preliminaries and building the mishkan is a preliminary to being able to bring Corban okay so now says the M brilliantly that was only true after the agel because as a result of the agel we had a certain distance from God we were no longer given permission to bring coronos wherever we wanted we were limited to a particular place we were limited to a particular group of people kohanim we no longer had the blessing of Total Access to God in every way wherever we are as a result the building of the mishkan became a necessary prequisite and a necessary preliminary stage towards carbos once it gets characterized as a preliminary stage it's not going to override the chabas but he says had there not been the sin of the golden calf the function of the mishun would have been different it wouldn't have been a preliminary to corbano F we would be allowed to bring because of our closeness to God we could bring coronos everywhere I don't need the mishkan to bring carbonos so what would the mishan have been it would have been a corbon it itself would have been an act of homage an act Act of Glory an act of honor to God it would have not been a preliminary to being able to bring Corban it would actually be an offering an unusual type of offering an offering of gold and silver and wool and and ah as an offering it would beas it would override chabas so he actually says in this alternative universe that had there not been AEL I wouldn't have needed the Mish as a prerequisite to carbonos the mishan would be seen as a Corban it would override chabas that is why when God is speaking to Moshe all the Commandments of the mishan precede chabas because they're more important than chabs it's only after theel in which our access to Hashem is limited somewhat and therefore we need the mishan to be able to bring coronos so then and only then is the mishan relegated to Mitzvah enablers of Mitzvah very very interesting again it's a theoretical Kish because we never had that first scenario but it's a very fascinating theoretical KES as to the possibility of the Torah having an alternative configuration now I will tell I don't want to get too complicated there is a reason why Rashi could not learn this way because if if you remember rashi rashi himself learned that even the first of were after the sin of the golden CF Rashi says there wouldn't have been a mishkin at all without the so Rashi couldn't learn the mishkin would have had another function there wouldn't have been a mish without the so obviously although the doesn't say it the is going with the Ran's view that uh there would have been a mishan the ramban says following the order of the Torah but the m is adding it would have had a different function okay that's uh so that's one point I I I wanted to uh uh to share with you uh the distinction between aod and building the mishkan by the way some use this for a different thought you know it's very interesting that anyone that ever had to do fundraising for Yesa for a sh or anything knows that um people are much more eager to contribute to a building fund than to an operating budget meaning it's easier it's easier to raise money to put up a building than it is to raise money to pay decent salaries to teachers right you go to somebody who we're raising money for salary because a building is a physical thing there's a sign up there's a plaque and the like but maybe the Torah is teaching us the following the Torah is teaching us that what you do in a building is much more more important than putting up the building meaning to say putting up the building is wonderful but that's not doab what you do in the building that's important enough to be doab meaning the Torah is teaching me that it's not the building that is the greatness it's the aod hasem that is within the building you know you know we have a beautiful it's not well it's still new it's less than 2 years old uh a new basement is very very beautiful but you know people always say you know uh why why why should yiva you know invest money in nice buildings and the like uh you know pay the re what whatever whatever it but but uh the short answer is as Reb vager himself writes reer left instructions to his children that when they print his sarim they should be sure to use the best paper and the best ink because the external beauty of a saare can help a person concentrate and the like so yeah so we recognize that beautiful buildings can help a person Focus but we always have to understand that that is a means and not an ends you can't like look at the building as some type of end in and of itself its value lies in what you do with it and do in it and not in the building itself so that was the H of the M that I wanted to share with you by the way um the gar itself discusses a question if the T says do not do M why does it then single out do not burn fire on chabas fire is one of the 39 malas like it doesn't say don't cook on chabas it doesn't say don't Rite on chabas because that's included in do not doas so why single out fire it's unusual it's anomaly because it's only one of the 39 why why single it out so there there are some technical answers that the gar itself gives but in they say there's a beautiful remes here it's an AR REM an illusion that A is often associated with mlus animosity fire of anger and there's a special warning that shabas should be a day of shalom a day of peace a day of Tranquility do not allow the fire of mlas to destroy your shabus andos tell us that that's why there's a special yat Hara that works over time ER of shabas right everyone knows every every religious Jew knows that Friday is always short it's interesting why is Friday always short when chabas is 3:30 not enough time when shabas is 8:30 not enough time I during the winter I was ready at 3:30 why can't I be ready at 3:30 in the summer the old story work expands to to fill the amount of time that you have so everyone knows everyone knows that chabas is a of chabas in particular is often a time of tension often a time of mlus often a time when people get a little angry and a little upset and it's brought down that the aara works overtime to create those tension situations so that you will not enter chabas in the spirit of Shalom that is the receptacle to receive the blessings of chabas so be careful not to enter chabas with fire try to extinguish the fire of M before shabas comes there was a great one of the greatest rebies of Poland who is really the founder ofas in Poland because the B was in Ukraine was the rebi rabens right one of the great great great he was a third generation he was a student of the mag of mesarich who was the student of the bov and the rebi Reb his grave is still visited by tens of thousands of people every year you go to lens in fact it's the yard site is in UD was it already was it was it Mish this week well this is a a leap year but I think it's is just so it's a big big I was there once myself it was a big big pilgrimage of people come from America certainly many many them come from New York come from erel uh but died and many many many years later tum of talum of tum wanted to find somebody who remembered rabik was because the last survivors were going to die and they finally located a woman who was in her 9 90 s and she had been a young maid in the house for chabas because on chabas they had hundreds and hundreds of people and uh she worked there and they wanted to ask her did she remember anything about the rebi that she could share anything about the rebi that she could share and she wasn't well by then and her mind wasn't so clear then and she said I don't really remember that much but one thing I remember as I worked in the kitchen the whole week with a big staff and we were always fighting and yelling and you know there was always like a lot of things to get done and things were getting messed up you know a very complicated Arrangement but the one thing I remember is that as soon as chabas came in there was like a totally different different atmosphere it's almost like a physical Spirit of Shalom came down the rebi brought down this ruach of shabas and even though Friday night may have been the busiest time of the week but somehow there was no m Shas even she said there used to be a lot of dogs wandering in and out of the kitchen says and they were barking for meat he says he says even the dogs didn't bark on chabas so that's something we should again strive for in our own shabas okay now the other thing I I wanted to to share with you is that in a way uh this week we're also going to have a repeat in addition to paraka the mafer is going to be the first part of last week's PR because this chabus is the first of what are called four special shabas that we have in sheni if it's a Le year uh until Roes Nissan and these are called the four parot four special Torah readings uh the first of them is called parum about the half she the next one which is right before porm is parar about Amal the third after porm is Paras purification by the red heer and the fourth which is the shabas before rodes Nissan is going to be the para about the laws of Corbin PES again they do not suspend the regular Torah reading the regular para is read but they're a special ma today we don't make a big deal about this we we just treat them as run of the mil shabas but in truth that at one point uh in our history they were celebrated as kind of almost y to there were special prayers that were written special ptim special celebrations we've almost forgotten kind of the special Ru of the four par so this chabas the chabas before Roes or in the case of a leap year the shabas before Roes is called par now last week you'll remember we talked about the half sheo but I made the point uh more than once that there are two different half shek mitzvos that are involved there was a onetime half she Mitzvah in which your silver coin was melted down for the sockets that held the mishkan in place and that was only a one time thing that was the Mitzvah in building the mishkan and that we talked about last week okay that was last week's discussion but then there's another Mitzvah of that every single year when there's a b mik or a migan we would give a half shek of silver by the way much much more than the half shekele of an Israeli coin a half shekele of silver that would be used to finance the buying of coronos kores oil it was a tax it was essentially a a tax that was call a flat tax because everybody gave the same marus shek the same amount um imposed on everybody to ensure that the carbonos that are brought are the product of the community clus ra okay carbano seabar now this to be done every year every year you had to give your now in the bikash or the mishan the fiscal year of the basa mikash did not begin Tish the fiscal year began in Nissan Nissan is the beginning of the year so starting with Nissan of every year all carbonos have to be purchased with newly contributed SCH you can't even use the old money in fact those of you that have accounting backgrounds learn you'll see there's all sorts of accounting rules what do you do with surpluses of last year you can't automatically carry them forward the carbonos have to be purchased from newly collected money so if there are shortfalls you got to have a levy in the middle of the a but if there are uh surpluses you have to divert them to other uses you can't use for carbon they're used for City improvements other other types of things so since by the beginning of Nissan we had to have new money in the temple treasury to buy corbano we began collecting the half shekels one month before Nissan and that was Adar so when the time of the basa mikash we began the collection of the half shek for the new year in so even though today we don't have a b mikash and we don't have a Mitzvah of now we do give something called a half before McGill reading and that's a commemoration but the actual Mitzvah of is only when there's a b of mikdash but we read before as a to commemorate the Mitzvah of right we read to commemorate the Mitzvah of so it has nothing to with P or porm per se it is connected to the Mitzvah of so because of this we read as a mafer the beginning of last week's para that talks about half Shea so that's why it's kind of a double duty we read it last week and we read it again this week but it's actually the cavana is different last week you'd be thinking about the schull that were melted down for the sockets this week we think about the M that we contribute every year for the caranas now that does mean that not everybody paid Nissan meaning to say theim are like a tax that are paid throughout the year they had to have some money R KES Nissan but money came in throughout the year in other words uh you know some people p were late some people paid in Tish and some people paid in some people paid in K and that's okay but there had to be some collected money by Nissan the first year did they have to collect the sheer yes so uh rashy says yes Rashi understands in parches by midb they were collecting the half shekele when they were counting the people there uh it's interesting without getting into uh too many Christian references the very famous scene in the Christian Bible of yashka showing up into the temple and overthrowing the T tables of the money changers it's a famous scene he goes in there and there are money changers and he says oh you're trying to make a profit in God's house and he threw over the tables the truth is there were money changers in the area of the Bas makas for a very simple reason you had people coming from all over the world they had to contribute half shekel but they had different currencies somebody from Syria somebody from Turkey uh whatever the country was so they had to go to money changers to convert their money to local shekos and then they would contribute to have shek and the money changers took commissions it's a job like other jobs they did take commissions for it so there was nothing immoral or illegal or anti-al with the activities of money changers it was a legitimate economic activity that serviced the pilgrims the Ole Rego who came for the shalum and the like that they have a Mitzvah of that's all it is but it's it is interesting that in the Christian Bible as you really would expect you know there are many many references to Jewish practices because after all Yash himself was Jewish and he was operating know maybe in a rebellious way but but he was operating within the milu of of of Jewish of Jewish Society including the basa mes now when it comes to the m uh we find two things that are very notable we find that number one everybody had to give the same amount the rich cannot give more the poor cannot give less now last week I spoke about this this is not the same Russia I spoke about this in connection with the sockets okay that's one thought and you can go on YouTube to to see what that sh is about but this is not what I'm talking about now now I am talking about the M of the coronos and and why is it so important that everybody gives the same it says the rich person does not give more even though he could afford it the poor person cannot give less as far as I know I've never heard of a yes show that will not allow you to give more I understand the notion of minimums I understand a school saying we won't let you in unless you come up with a certain minimum amount okay so even if you're poor you got to have a minimum okay but a rich person can't give more me the guy comes in and says you know I have a good income I want to give more than full tuition for my son full tuition is whatever it is $20,000 I want to give $40,000 so is the Yeshiva GNA say I'm sorry we do not allow contributions in excess of full tuition no one's going to say that so when it comes to the Bas of mikash rich people can't give more why is that so here's a beautiful beautiful Mak from the thisas says that the term rich and poor can have multiple meanings there is rich in money and poor in money to be sure but a person could be rich in all sorts of ways a person could be rich in intelligence rich in leadership rich in Charisma rich in business Acumen there's a whole diversity of talents that people can be very very very wealthy in and then there might be people who are less less blessed in some outstanding talent and we might superficially superficially describe them as poor what the turist teaching is when it comes to AEM when it comes to serving God because that's after all what are carbos but access to God rich and poor stand with equal dignity and access to AES the rich and and again I don't mean just financially the rich is not necessarily better than the poor and the reason that is so is Hashem does not judge us by what we accomplish in life objectively Hashem judges Us by how much of our potential did we give to him so let me give you a concrete example Moshe Ben Ys TR known as mait mait was the head of the b andat in the time ofo so he was one of the he happened to be I mean I don't know how if this became personal but he happened to have some very bitter M witho about shita on non-jewish ground a lot of the het M debate is based Ono versus theit so things were a little uncomfortable about but theit was also one of the great post of the time and in addition the mait wrote a book on Jewish philosophy that's called Bim very interesting book it's never been translated in English but it's a very very interesting and incisive book and in the hak in the introduction to Bim he brings a gamor that describes a son of RAB Yeshua bin Ley who somehow was in a coma and had what we would call today a near-death experience or actually maybe a death experience in which he was revived and his soul went up to habah and when he was revived and broke down to earth and he told his father he went up TOA his father asked him what did you see Ina can you remember anything can you describe something so he said I saw an upside down World Elon people who are very high in this world big shots in this world were kind of inferior and those who were lowly and insignificant in this world they were on top it's as if everything was Topsy Turvy Yu Ley told him that is not an upside down world you saw the true world this world is an upside down world you saw the truth this is the gamorra very powerful gamorra but the mait says what does the Sun mean by the term people above people below he can't just mean oh Rich politically powerful people who are so dominant in this world were inferior that's not even surprising what's the Kish of that why would you assume that just because I don't mean many many rich people are tadik but just because they're rich that would mean anything in all the in other words what's thees what is he so surprised about so says theit a tremendous elim does not mean people who were Superior in a material I way it means people who appeared Superior in a spiritual way let me give you two examples imagine you have a bentorah Yeshiva student who is like a super genius and he's able to learn a hundred pages of gamarra a day and remember them and know most people can barely do one and usually not even one but he can do a 100 a day so he figures he's so far ahead of everybody else he'll do 50 a day and take the rest of the afternoon off and then you have another kid who struggles just to get through one column we look at these two kids and we say wow this guy learns 50 blood a day that means he would finish shots every month he's fantastic the other guy well neb he works hard I mean it's not his fault but you know obviously he hasn't achieved the spiritual level of the person who can learn 50 blood a day so the 50 blood a day guy we think is greater in R spirituality when they come to habah it's going to be reversed because God looks at the 50 blood a day guy and says you're fantastic but you only gave me 50% of your capacity and this kid who learned like one page a week gave me closer to 100% so objectively one person did so much more than the other person but God does not judge you based on your objective achievement God judges you based on how much of yourself did you give to him and that was the Kish that that was a surprising thing for the kid that gee the great I thought would be on top and not the simple person who's not really able to learn that much he gave more of himself to Hashem Hashem grades us see teachers often say this as a matter of lip service they'll often tell students you know the main thing is your effort the main thing is your work but Lisa that's not how tester graded test graded based on how well you did objectively but when it comes to a kesh's grading policy that's exactly how it works we're judged by what we give to us and therefore people with tremendous talent and people with fewer talents have equal opportunity to connect to God because everybody can use whatever they have to serve the God and if the guy with less abilities gives more of them to Hashem than the other person they may even be higher says that this is the meaning of an interesting passage in the rambam the rambam writes in h Cha about free will every every Jew can choose this is very important we don't believe in predetermination we don't believe that God decrees you will be evil or righteous you have free will and he then he goes into all the questions about God hardening Pyro's heart famous questions but the Ram's lashan seems to be very hyperbolic the rambam says every person can be as righteous as Moshe Raben and as evil as the first king of Israel yavan benat who himself put up Golden CS later to take people away from the Bas of Mikes okay so B free will is very important as a fundamental of Judaism Free Will as the rambam shows is a necessary prerequisite for accountability and responsibility how could I be responsible for my Deeds if I don't have free will and why should I be rewarded for my Deeds if I don't have free will so I got that right we understand Free Will is real important but come on isn't it somewhat of an exagger ation to say I can be as great as Moshe R the greatest of prophets the one that had a unique relationship with God that no one ever had before no one will ever have how could I be like M says he doesn't bring theit but it's the same that here's the thing in the beginning of sa for yahushua it says Moshe the EV of Hashem died and Yeshua was leader the radak one of the great commentaries on tanak or at least comments why is Moshe given the appellation servant of God EV Hashem what is the unique Nuance in the title of Hashem so the redak says a very beautiful thought he says the of a slave is what does that mean whatever A Slave acquires is the property of his master so if a slave finds a diamond ring or a slave finds a whatever $500 I mean he could hide it no one's going to know but Hally it belongs to his master Ma K RAB so when someone is called an EV Hashem the radak says that means all of the talents that he was given by God he gives back to God mashak EV whatever he acquires belongs to his master mosheen was called EV Hashem because all of the amazing abilities that he was given he Ed them entirely to God's glory not for his self- adverisement fact this actually explains the difference between Moshe and billum Moshe and billum had the same abilities the same abilities Moshe I'm sorry billum was as great as Moshe in terms of raw spiritual Talent the difference is what do you do with it Moshe gave it back to Hashem bam kept it to line his pockets or his kovat or what whatever it is this is why mosha is called evem this is the rad so says rasman when the rambam says every person can be as great as Moser Reno he doesn't mean objectively I can accomplish what mosha Renu did MOS renu's was infinitely greater than mine he had K that I can only imagine my K are diminished my K are a tiny fraction of his I can't be Moshe but I can be an EV Hashem like mosh rabenu mosha rabenu took his 100% and gave it to God I can take my 100% and give it to God so I'm giving the same percentage Yeah my 100% is so tiny as compared to his 100% but we're both giving a 100% And in that way I have a shus I have a connection where I could be Moshe renu and that goes back to the mid that God is judging you by the potential that you've given to him and that's the lesson of the the notion that the rich person and the poor person one is no better than the other intrinsically people have different gifts people have different missions people have different responsibilities but both have an equal access to God by using the abilities that they have so that's one of the lessons of the so wish everybody a good shab and when other comes in we increase our joy that even applied to Al so even this month is but B even more so because it actually is the month of PM so we should to feel the and to experience the Redemption of Hashem from the Persian enemies that still try to destroy us and be we should see GA and [Music] Yeshua go