Real Life Lessons Learned from the Blasphemer in the Desert with Rabbi Aaron Dovid Poston

anybody [Music] Shalom will let him everybody Welcome Home to Torah welcome to the even a big midrash a warm very warm welcome now we're in parashat Emer and we're going to be starting with chapter 24 but I need to give this introduction first of all the general introduction we always use the Hebrew text of the clear car as the basis for our discussion and you can find links down below to previous classes things we did on the Omer because we're in the in the period of the counting of the Omer between pesacha and shavuas also pesachani tonight is peso Cheney which is Second Chances there's also a link down below to a class we gave on pesach Cheney but this is going to be the controversial introduction that I want to give people ask questions on Facebook it's very difficult for me to just type out a text a short text so I've wanted to answer a person's query for a long time and I decided after preparing for tonight's class this would be a perfect opportunity to explain hopefully in just a few minutes now and then you'll see the relevance later on the ques the question was posed on a Ben Noah uh website I could call it a website a Facebook page a group and I'm not even going to mention the person's name nor am I going to mention the name of the Facebook page but the person asks and I'm going to assume he asked in a really sincere way not in a mocking way we're gonna we're gonna talk about mocking tonight um what's the relevance of the Torah it's written 3000 years ago why are all the stories or majority of the stories or a significant amount of the stories not relevant what's that have to do with me and this is coming from a Ben Knox I'm hoping at this point anybody who has studied and considers themselves a righteous noahide would have reached by now after reading from Genesis till the end in Deuteronomy chapter 33 verse 4. it says and I'll read it in English first the Torah that Moses commanded is the heritage of the congregation of Jacob okay so we say the turretive a lot of moshit more Russia every learned Jewish child one of the first verses that he'll ever learn is this verse I'm also going to be giving a class on the 13 principles of our faith which are also relevant to a righteous so stay tuned for that that's going to be on the noahide world center but in the website and Facebook page but in the meantime what does someone who reads this understand I would hope by now they would understand the only way to understand what the Torah the message the Torah is conveying is to ask those who stood at Mount Sinai the witnesses the witnesses themselves that it's a marusha kills Yakov it is an inheritance to the to the congregation of Jacob now in one of my earlier classes when I discussed the seven nokai laws there are two laws that are very pertinent and that is the law of stealing it belongs to Jewish people it's inheritance to them so don't read the Torah think you know what it means it's impossible you can only go to Those whom it belongs to to find out what it says sorry for that you know to break your heart if you got to that point you don't know what it means I'm telling you what it means and there's another way to read the word morasha ASA I mean betroth it's a betrothal this is a like the ring you know the wedding ring that the Jewish people are wearing it's the Torah and therefore also one of the sevenoakai laws is against adultery so don't dare take our Torah and think you have any clue of what it's trying to convey once you realize I have no idea I can try as far as I can get and perhaps that's okay and especially there's a difference between an akum idol worshiper they should not learn Torah because you know what they're going to do they're going to come and fight they're just learning to be contrary right so it's really forbidden for them to learn for that purpose what are you fighting against God and God's Representatives on this Earth right so so but Ben Noah may involve themselves especially in anything that they're obligated in which is a majority of the Torah right any logical Mitzvah besides beyond the seven and any ethical amidstv okay so there's certainly plenty of ethics and that's pretty much the whole Torah really you know when you think what's the Torah if I if I ask somebody I heard this is a muscle an analogy if you ask somebody okay there's a book on the Shelf you read it tell me what it's about or I want to read it what's it about so the first thing I do is I read the first page I read the last page and I figure out everything in between if it's a consistent message is probably that same message the Torah is about doing aggressive right this is what your bunny is all about how Hashem what did he do well firstly he created such a beautiful world but he clothed the naked and in my opinion he brought Adam his wife it's great that's it and what did he do at the end he buried motion meaning after Moses died nobody was involved in the barrier because nobody knows where Moshe is buried it was only Hashem himself who's considered a relative I'm using that word Loosely figured as a close to Moshe so he buried him is okay so basically that's what the third is about and I wanted to say that if this person is coming with a legitimate question and he was only looking for answers meaning what other people have to say cool that's great but if the person is mocking and wondering in a certain sense why is the Torah not relevant you know there must be something else going on here who are just trying to I'm using the word mocking Loosely we're going to see our portion there let's go to our Parsha and it's in Leviticus chapter 24 for those with the English sheets you'll see it's number one so it's chapter 24 verse 10 and 11. really we're starting with 10. now the son of an Israelite woman okay so what does that mean Hebrew when out the Yates a so I want to get this clear so we're not going to be confused hey Ben Isha israelit his mother was Jewish was in Israelite his father actually was he was a Ben ish mitzri okay he was the son now we have extradition that none of us intermarried in Egypt so how did this come about that he was a result of this intermarriage when that never took place in Egypt we'll have to find out shortly but it says now that's plural ready they whose day you don't know until you read just a few more words he actually got in a fight with and it's not this thing they fought with each other very important he fought with someone who's called in Israeli it was in each Israeli meaning he he got in a fight a quarrel with a person who had both parents were Israelites Jewish now what did he end up doing he ended up going out and um blaspheming the Khalil he cursed Hashem and we find out what his his mother's name was in other words when we originally read the text it doesn't say who either one of the these guys names was we only know a little bit about them one is the son of his woman who happens to be the son of the an Egyptian now they went out I'm sorry just skip one thing he went out among the children of Israel it's very important because we would have to deal with that but Israel okay we'll deal with that um anyway they quarreled in the camp which is also significant now the word viennatsu I I you have to be sitting down the word Nazi means to provoke God it's not a coincidence just like the word Hamas means to be criminally violent okay we can go on and on with Russians China and all every name is significant because you know why because the Jewish people are prophetic people okay I don't want to get into that let's move on and then we hear about her name after he um pronounce the Divine name and cursed God so they brought him to Moses apparently there's going to be we'll see that court case and we don't hear at this moment what happened see in the text his mother's name was scholomit the daughter of debris and we'll have to find out what that all means I want to go just to the Rashi to start with because there's going to be three major opinions of what happened when he went out he went out from his world each person is considered a microcosm of the universe and he forfeited his share in the world to come so he left his world that would be one opinion if you looked into the verses of five through nine remember we started at ten but five through nine deal with the lack of Honey these showbreads believe it or not a miracle occurred because they were placed there every Friday hot fresh soft and they were only eating the following Friday so they were there for eight days minimum they're actually times where it could be there nine days or even longer for example when young to Fallout falls out on Thursday night when the holiday falls on Thursday night so they bake them and put them on Thursday afternoon before yantic begins so that would be an additional day and then if it was a two-day which we apparently did have two days of Rosh Hashanah okay that's we have to have a discussion at that at the time already back then two days of Roshana so you know you have an extra day to prepare beforehand so what was he marking listen it's surely the practice of King's warm fresh bread every day here you're giving well it's a sacrifice and it's not really sacrifice but it's basically being served to the kohnim and therefore they're going to be eating bread that's going to be a week old that's going to be either stale or cold or moldy who knows what the answer is no the truth is it was a miracle that happened that they were served warm and fresh the following week for some reason a miracle occurred so he didn't he apparently did not know this but that's one idea he was mocking because right away it says he went out right after the verses five through nine that discussed this miraculous well it doesn't say it's miraculous but we know now that it was absolutely miraculous so he was mocking this I this thing due to a lack of knowledge perhaps but even with a lack of knowledge do you mock would you sincerely ask new what's the deal I want to know why do you do this isn't it cold at least you know you come up with your presumptions and then you hear the answer no it's not cold it's not stale it's actually a miracle in this book I've commanded and then the third opinion that when he left the court in other words okay so some background this man who had no Jewish father actually will not end up with the tribal plot in Eric's Israel so while they're in the desert in the middle all the tribes were and you had the Arab around them and they were delineated there were three on each side and they encamped together with their own tribes so this person whose mothers from Dan as we saw in the end of the verse his mother's name was surely the daughter of debris the tribe of Dan figured he'll just park his tent over there there's actually nothing wrong with that but what he did was he demanded that this should be his in other words you come and you ask permission maybe you pay rent whatever it is but you come with such an attitude that it's entitled me it's coming to me because of my father and because of my mother but guess what that's not how the law works the law is it goes according to the father okay so they took him to court meaning to find out the truth that's what the Sanhedrin is to reveal what the truth is okay it's not always a court case of guilty or not guilty in this case he made such a a Ruckus that they had to make it make it clear to him that's not how it works and as a result of him feeling I'm using the word feeling this emotional separation from the Jewish people and perhaps how he was treated should really get into he arose and blasphemed Hashem I think that's going to be it for now okay so let's go into the Clear Car I think I just want to see if there's any there's really a lot in that Rashi but I don't want to spend too much time at the moment okay so let's go into the clear card and see where he is going to take us for a journey here we go we read the verse for Yates in Israeli Eat Right the son of the female Jew lo parathic you notice that the verses did not tell us any of the names of each of these two people who were quarreling in order to teach us that both of them now what is a pagum a pagum is a blemish it's a some kind of defect what are we talking about what kind of defect can we possibly be talking about I mean even just if we just read the verses to begin with so perhaps a defect of this person's lineage that's all we know that his father was not Jewish is that enough of the defect perhaps we're talking about a much deeper personality issue hair I'm gonna put my finger right like anybody who's quick to get into an argument who is um who wants to fight who wants to quarrel quick to do so this is a problem this is a pagum this is a blemish this is a defect so for those out there who are listening whether you're Jewish or not you understand you can come with questions how do you pose the question right are you looking for a fight or are you looking for the truth very important remember these names their names were not mentioned so these people were like nobodies and maybe like second-class citizens they felt perhaps they felt this way but because of their pagum because of their eagerness to get into clouds with people they are from the Peru team they are from the less refined means the inferior ones meaning they were actually evil and you know what they had no good name you know we call shame toe you're going to leave this world what are you going to leave a good name so here they had they didn't have a good name either people knew trouble walked in the door or I've had it with this guy I don't have the patience for him he's just arguing all the times I don't know I don't know exactly you know what I mean but they didn't have a good name that's why they're right they're sons of Jews we don't even know their names other than one had both Jewish parents and the other one had one Jewish mother and one Egyptian father that's all we know about them so it's only based the only thing we know about them is the the little bit of their lineage that's all we know this one had a Jewish mother and the other one had both Jewish parents and now that's why it actually says in our verse the United plural they both argued they were both pagumim they were both quick to fight [Music] matzo believe it or not you look in the dictionary it means maybe it's a play on the word like Masa mariva but it's actually in the dictionary is memsada K which is katata which is argumentative and looking for fights now I'm going to ask Jacob Israel just help me vinitgals I have many ways I would like to translate this and I'm sure none of them are correct but they're close one is like adding insult to injury one is like one bad person brings out the bed in another person you have a better translation or a better understanding before so say that again clearly versus liable you did something wrong yeah where did it come from how did such a thing come about because he was liable from before okay that's good that's a good explanation because we're going to see that in context [Music] that through this the Israeli meaning the one with the both Jewish parents he entered into an argument with the other guy who only had a Jewish mother and that's what caused the one who's going to call him a half breed okay just that's what we're going to just so we we're on the same page because the Half Breed to go ahead and blasphem Hashem now the clear cards Snowball Effect now he wants to bring a little bit of a proof to this from what it says in that we're going to be dealing with verse 15 17 and 19. so just let's get this clear in verse 15 again of the same chapter 24 it says in the children of Israel and to the children of Israel you shall speak saying anyone who blasphemes his God shall bear his sin istered okay that's what the clear card is bringing down right away now if we're dealing with you know there's different types of mixes and there's different ways to categorize them there's misses between me and God and there's a Misfits between me and man so things to do with me and God I'm like blessing or cursing okay that's between me and God but then there's a lot to in the Torah that has to do with between me and man we're going to call those tort laws damages right so the clear card is asking how in this paragraph that's dealing with a blasphemer are we injecting verse 17 if if if any man strikes down a human being he should be put to death so you're striking down a human being which is between man and man okay just like do not murder appears on the second set of the five uh sorry there's Ten Commandments there's five on each tablet so the first five between me and God and the last five are between me and man do not murder actually each one matches up number one goes to six number two goes to seven and it is interesting right that I'm the Lord your God and do not murder because man is creating the image of God but keep it aside these are tort laws and it even well let's just read the clear card he says furthermore that that statement is that um as we just said this is in verse 17. actually not 17 sorry where's that versus sorry it's a Leviticus 24 verse 19. any and a man who inflicts an injury upon his fellow men and we're going to deal with these verses just as he did so shall be done to him so in the Hebrew it's the ishkite when one person puts a move into and we're gonna have to deal with this word someone from his Nation okay another fellow and we're going to deal with these words cashier Assad just as he did so shall be done to him but then the clear card points out that the verse actually says injury for injury iron tacos shame and uh tooth for tooth shall be given to him the same uh injury now just you should know because this is a very interesting question we know because we have the history it's our it's right it's our Legacy never in history did we ever pluck out an eye for somebody who plucked out someone else's eye never did we cut off a hand for someone who injured someone else's hand in fact the word we have a tradition from Sinai that it's a monetary compensation insurance so to speak okay when there's five different types whether it's unemployment whether it's doctored bills and on and on and on and and pain and liability for libel embarrassment and whatnot in fact the word iron just figure it out I in the letter for I for I the word for I is I in and you spell it out because that's what it is okay so if you take each letter that comes when right before right after so you have the letters i in what's the red what follows that a pay okay and you have good you have a cuff and then you have a an iron and what comes right after nun a summit spells casiff cassif is money okay we have a tradition it always has been money so who are you to come and tell us that hey what's the relevance of the Torah I don't get it something 3 000 years ago you would never understand it had you not had the Jews to ask okay so start from that point ask Jews listen to torah's classes and every single Torah class I hope should bring relevance if you don't hear the relevance ask the rabbi what relevance is that to me in my life and hopefully he will be able to explain it to someone else in the class can explain it because it has to be relevant and if you're not getting it pray to Hashem to open up your mind okay let's move forward and so then so the clear car says this verse is totally Superfluous meaning the last one we just read in verse 19 because in 20 it says as we just read it's all about monetary compensation so what do you need to say about all these tort laws first of all the tort laws were taught already in the Shabbat team in Exodus chapter 21 verses 23-27 and it's repeated again in Deuteronomy Chapter 19 Verse 21. so what's it doing over here what is the tort laws doing over here and so I'll just read the word it already tells you what you're going to do to the person okay so now he says she calls him drum roll please this whole Parsha is telling you right it's trying to teach you and train you that we're what we're dealing with is the negative aspect of somebody who goes around and is um is easy to quarrel wants to get in fights with people he's just looking for a fight shalomariva peace is not going to come out of such a circumstance certainly not going to come from a person who's a quarreler right as a result of the quarrel what will happen Okay he lists a whole bunch of things so it doesn't mean it only has to be someone will strike somebody oh Behemoth or even damage an animal or via zika or cause any kind of damage whether it's bagufa whether it's a physical damage or a momono or whether his property damaging people's property I mean gosh I mean you ever see these things called road rage when you hear about them it's in the newspaper or on these uh these short videos cop videos whatever it is like guys everyone calm down and take a breath you know it says ready for this this is in conduction now this is going to be hard to explain now all the before she might I saw did not bring this so the clear car is bringing this as perhaps something to take to heart cold cell now I did bring the original source which is number seven in condition 70a I'll read to you first our understanding because that's the statement that anyone who disqualifies others basically is disqualified disqualifying themselves because of their own flaws now let's just read how they Tran they use the translation of the Gomorrah anyone who disqualifies others by stating that their lineage is flawed now those words don't actually appear let's just say because of their Moon because what they see in someone else a floor that is a sign that he himself is flawed another indication that this person has this problem is that they never speak of the praise of others now shmuel said if one is habitually right someone who's accustomed in doing this by claiming that others always have the problem he disqualifies himself with his own flaws meaning the very flaw that he accuses them of having is in fact the one that he has I like the word projection but that could be just a psychological term used I have no idea per people project their own problems on others you see it more clearly because it's really within you you don't have the guts to really examine it and work on it so instead of looking at yourself right when you point your finger to somebody how many fingers you're pointing at yourself well I don't know let's just say you have three other fingers pointed to yourself but maybe it's four but anyway the point you all heard these ideas these are fundamental so the that's a big problem that's a big problem so so the clear card says now we understand [Music] so any man who inflicts injury upon his uh his own people his fellow man ready for this the Jews it's like you're not supposed to even suspect people who are basically righteous you can you know if there's something so obvious you can worry about it and talk to people about it and you'll find out perhaps your whole impression was wrong of what you thought you saw but basically you're placing or you're throwing this Moon onto people that shouldn't be suspected to begin with shouldn't be uh they're they're not with a moon they're called kadoshive they're called holy people that's what it means his own people saw and just as he did we saw those words so do you do to him now this is a little bit of a complicated Gamora because it doesn't really conclude it doesn't really conclude the issue here but there's a gemara where is it it's it's above it's seeing 90 B you see it on the page maybe I didn't put it in number four okay so this is a little complicated because it's two sides to an argument and we didn't get to the conclusion but there's a Michael Christian if somebody is trying to muzzle you're not supposed to muzzle an animal while he's working so let's say he the animal's working and you're either verbally through your verbal abuse you're causing the animal not to eat while he's working is that called a Masa is an action or not an action so there's an opinion that holds just verbally doing that is I guess scaring right the bejesus is out of the uh the animal he's not going to stop and eat because he's expecting a scolding and he doesn't like the scolding apparently so rabiokanon says the person is libel whatever it is he maintains the twisting of one's mouth that's what it means by akima crooked lips right the one is using his mouth not in the Holy way in this case you're abusing the animal verbally is considered abuse it's considered an action even if it's only slight so we see that this is an action so too that's why it says just as he did even though it uses the word like I said as action so to you do to him it's basically even though it's only verbal omo basically because he said to him right that the person has a a a a blemish that's really what he's making this accusation now what actually says if we just continue reading and this is in verse 20 for example and we're really talking about an actual Moon an actual blemish that's why it says in verse 20 Cain United bow where do we have number 20 that's number five that's we said and let's just see what the Hebrew is and Kenya say hello no towards the end of the verse no at the very last three words there you go so shall it be afflicted upon them so it shall be inflicted upon him now this is going to be very interesting where we're going with this Israeli meaning both of them are going to be affected by the quarrel each one was afflicting the other none of them were of good character and they only we only know them the fact that their parents could have been of good character that's it they were Jews now the last paragraph Israeli so then it says when out the words went out the yatese who went out and where do you go out from he went out who this was the man who had just a Jewish mother and his father was a ishmitri the huben ishmetry what are we talking about who is this person he's the mitzri shahargu Moshe besheimer mafarish this is the Egyptian that Moses killed using God's holy name when they were in Egypt now who was this guy I want you let me uh give you an idea he was a task master and he convinced um the balabite whoever um debris right sure meets a husband that um he should go out and work extra you know that's what the taskmaster's job is to work people very hard and he did and then he slipped into her bed early in the morning as if he was her husband remember we asked the question I thought none of the women intermarried or fooled around or promiscuous well she was not I'm going to call it rape I think that's a legitimate term when in this case okay let's put it that way when someone uh says they are who they are and they're not and that could has many ramifications alkane called yamim high in the garden this child was whom the child whose father was killed by Moshe using God's holy name he's the same one who's using or cursing the Holy Name he's holding on to this resentment however you want to say now he also stood at Sinai he also converted with everyone else what's going on here you you live through the Miracles the the the Marco the plagues the Miracles everything you left Egypt with the Jews you saw God at harsinai you saw the Miracles you ate the man and you're still going to curse God it had to be something that was long ago trauma perhaps something that was he says batok Libo he was already cursing God from his childhood but this thing was not known if this thing was not visible to other people because he didn't walk around cursing God it was only something in his mind or his heart for all these years now we have a very interesting statement perkiavo chapter four mission of four which you will find on please help me number nine and whoever desecrates the Divine name covertly is punished in public so in the Hebrew it says someone who is well covertly I mean in private he's already cursing God in private his payment obviously the payment is going to be done publicly it's going to come out it's going to come out it's going to come out so I can tell you met a big Eloy how many of us I started off by saying we are a prophetic people how often does it happen to us we have not so innocent thoughts and Baruch Hashem Hashem awakens us sends us messages however it is you stub your toe you lose money in the deal whatever and you you actually can connect dots say you know what it's a capora it's an atonement I realized I did something well hopefully hopefully measure for measure somewhere along the line you're able to see with Clarity what it is that you did wrong because the Shem talks to every single one of us he's in our lives and we just have to open up our eyes and take the veil off as they say he says like this I've can see if Hashem Israel therefore what did God do he caused I mean Hashem cause that this person walks out of his tent but took Ben Israel batok means within the Jewish people in order that it would be revealed his negative character trait his evil traits amongst the congregation we can all see it that is the character trait we're dealing with of desecrating God's name now he ends by saying very possible that's why it says the word say if we go back to where the story of Moses when he goes out and he does kill this Egyptian using God's holy name um I'm not mistaken it's in Chapter 2 of Exodus verse 11. look at number 10. now it came to pass in those days that Moses grew up and went out see the Hebrew word um and he looked at their burdens he saw the Egyptian man striking a Hebrew man of his brothers and then it says his clear card is about to say uh oh wait let's just continue in the clear car so it went out just like Moses said this is with the remember it's measure for measure it's going to come out in a certain way where the person should have been aware or we you know when God talks to us through everything that happens he says so uh so too I'm going to go out and he that that's the word he also goes out the 8 saying and also by Moses it mentioned specifically the ye fan code the co he looked this way in that way the yard he ain't ish he saw there was no person now the before she explains that that's because Moses was able to see this person was um this Egyptian was not going to convert see if there's any potential that he's going to convert that means there's going to be good people coming out of him well let's just say even for the non-jew you can still be you know a girl Tosha or having righteous Gentile children who's going to benefit and um benefit the world so this person had none of that and that's what that's the simple shot to a certain extent maybe that's not a shot some shot is he looked around there was nobody there then what I just told you was a deeper level but anyway the Clear Car saysina so when hamosha did it he did it in a let's say modest private way and what is this Megadeth do the opposite everything is I'm going to do this so bad I'm gonna do it like Mahajan Mahajan if I'm going to already bless God and that's a euphemism I'm going to do it mahadrin I'm not going to do it in my bathroom or uh you know my closet but I'm gonna go out there now I found two things I want to discuss with you and this is going to take a lot of time on the very back page of the English there's a beautiful piece that comes from the art scroll um madrish in other words the archero on the yikaraba it's very worthwhile for those who have it um it really deals with character development so I just want to go through it quickly because I have something else I want to share with you and that is from a website called hardcore masura that's the name of it and it really the the very very important messages so let's go with the clear the um the the rabba message from art scroll So It Begins by just mentioning that obviously a lot of things are not clear here exactly what he did why he went out um and what caused him to utter words of blasphemy in public I think we had a little bit of an idea already actually asked a great question and that is like I mentioned how could it be that a person who grew up with all the Miracles that happened and and saw God at harsina experienced God at harsinai can come to curse his name so there's three opinions three major opinions in the nedrich rublevy says he went out of his world because every human being is a miniature world so when a person Rebels against God he forfeits his Humanity basically he's he left his microcosmic realm okay basically you should understand that no matter where you are on the spiritual ladder no one is immune to sin even it's in its worst forms people are extremely vulnerable to spiritual setbacks and it takes very little to trigger the kind of full experience by the blasphemer in our passage constant vigilance is needed to protect one's spiritual attainment now just to give you an example the the dream of yaakov with the angels going up and down teaches us that lesson in 12-step programs or other recovery programs they tell you there is no thing there's no such thing as spiritual stagnation you're either growing or you're not growing the same thing exactly in Judaism you're either growing you're not growing there's no such thing as stagnation the angels are either going up or down they're not hanging on to a certain uh what do they call that a ring a rung of a ladder and just stay you know being still so this is this is a very important lesson without vigilance one is liable at any time to succumb to Temptation or a crisis of faith and exit the world in which he had lived as a human being bearing the image of God okay the second stage that was he mentioned that it's based on the previous verses that mentioned about what about the lechem upon him about these breads that are over a week old it's either eight days or Beyond in some cases so this is an expression of late sonus an expression of of mockery okay can one can this mockery can drown out a hundred well-reasoned Arguments for taking serious things seriously I mean when you ask a question so you can ask a question on that question but don't interrupt the person oh you know better guys already trying to answer you and you're already like shrugging them up this is only going to create more animosity the person's like either going to give up on you or just get in a fight with you I mean it happens I have to work on myself okay so anyway that's what's going to happen people are the marker is uh not good not good in this way scoffing at a single Torah law principle or lesson can topple one from the heights of inspiration to the depths of heresy I just want to go back to the bottom here such as the nature of scoffers when something appears odd in their eyes they do not think of suspect suspecting their own deficiencies one of the clear car's famous Expressions believe me he did not make this up right he's based on earlier sources the goal of acquiring knowledge is to know that you do not know I mean can you imagine the more you know the more you know that you don't know can you imagine that is that possible to them anything whose logic is not apparent is senseless and they immediately turn it into an object of radical okay there's a very interesting story I don't want to I want to skip that the third say sage taught that the blasphemer went out on his went out from the passage of yahusi meaning he he claimed he was part of the tribe of Dan because his mother was but it doesn't work like that so um this is very important because this is where it's going to lead to he felt slighted he felt slighted by Moses rejection sorry it only goes by the father and your father's an Egyptian so we're going to now get into this idea if I say now like in a minute into how to treat a stranger especially a convert and I should say specially convert as anybody who's even a possibility of conversion I mean when I say conversion you know to be a gear tow shop is a type of conversion you're going through a basement and you're you're taking on a public oath that you're gonna you know honor the Torah to whatever obligation you are obligated in it's it's like it's you know that's what we talk about when avraham and Sarah dealt with converts those were not Jewish converts those were converts to but they not so I just want to read what he says what you're doing is you're touching upon the issue of Pride feeling slighted by Moses rejection of his claim and shamed by his legal defeat the man got up and blasphemed this seems like an extreme reaction but is the nature of Pride there's no telling what it can do to a person we have a mission of Percival what takes a person out of this world jealousy lust and the drive for Honor basically the bottom line is personality traits wield and immeasurable influence on human behavior and if they are negative they can drag a person from the highest of spiritual levels to the gutter of heresy and blasphemy bottom line according to all three opinions then teach us a lesson about the precarious nature of human virtue in general one can never assume that his position on the ladder of spiritual growth is safe and secure the evil inclination lurks at every step and the only solution is to proceed with constant vigilance more specifically one must stay far away from mockery and pride for either can send the person any person even one who had been on the level of Prophecy and experienced divine revelation into a downward spiral leading to the lowest forms of sacrilege and sin as it is tragically did to the blasphemer in the wilderness now as I did mention there is a a link to hardcore masura website where I believe this person gives a very tremendous deep Insight that every one of us should take to heart if you notice just a few verses later right that it talks about remember where chapter 24 it mentions here that um at 20 verse 22 there should be one law for you it shall be for the price light and the native alike from Hashem your God okay um and so it's very important to know that in Judaism we don't believe necessarily in equity right we believe in in Merit and different people are holding in different places in their lives in their spiritual journey and whatever they were dished out at Birth it just is what it is I know this is a very touchy subject today in the great um old country called artzo to breed right the uh the land of the Covenant the United States anyway so the United States of America is dealing with these issues and the Torah already addressed them 3 300 years ago it's very important to know that it's one law you got to follow the law the guy who is another dog right he's he's got he's got a big chip on his shoulders and he was it's not his fault his father was not Jewish and he's not allowed to be in the god day if he can't blast him Hashem and the law is the same he's going to be put to death I'm sorry it's just the way it is right now knowing that there's an you we have so many times the Torah tells us how to treat a a gear or a czar some whose strain who's a stranger and it's very important to know that where we at do not oppress The Stranger it says in Exodus 23 9. so remember we're in verse 24. so just before our Parsha you shall not oppress The Stranger for you know how it feels to be a stranger for your strangers in Egypt okay um Rashi mentions right there in many places we were worn by the turret that the stranger might turn around and return to his evil ways then it goes on it's with the feelings you have to worry about the feelings of the stranger don't oppress them because they might go back to their evil ways but the thing the feelings of The Stranger how hard it is when he's put under this pressure so what we have to do is we have to take into consideration very important and I want to read something from here even though this other nevertheless that second part of that Rashi tells us we need to consider the feelings of the convert or The Stranger In this case that we need to relate with his experience of feelings right he's feeling oppressed and he's feeling alienated may not be justified maybe it is but either way that's his feelings and with this in mind the tone changes rashi's statement reads more of a warning to us Jews not to mistreat The Stranger because we can understand about people making it hard for us we had it bad we had a heart and maybe not 3 300 years ago but every one of us have lit has lived in Egypt and meets Ryan if you understand what this rhyme means a tight constricted place we've all experienced it whether it's adolescents whether before whether it's after we all have our own michigas as they say okay and if we make it too hard for such a person they will surely resort to the most unrefined of their former ways now here in the Torah actually does not call for just equity okay but responsiveness it asks us to step back and consider the background and personal story of the individual we should understand the stranger already has a lot to contend with then maybe they have no family maybe who knows whatever happened in their life and quite possibly a lot of baggage we should not make it harder for them we should not make it harder for them and I just want to read this last paragraph and even more so we need to consider that in choosing to be among the congregation of Israel which was what both a convert and a gear toshav does the convert is less with left with no other home can you imagine someone says I believe in Judaism I'm not a Jew but I believe in Judaism they're going to be kicked out of their Church they're going to I mean I shouldn't say that most likely they're going to be kicked out of their Community as well right they're going to lose family I mean I know I have students who who have been named off that have experienced feeling nowhere not with the non-jews not with the Gentiles and even the Jews do not fully accept them so they're really um you know in a bind between a rock and a hard place guess what this is their home and to the extent that we can we should try to to help to make a caring Israel for their home it doesn't matter if we are personally offended by the person in their background I mean there's a lot of people that I meet that are make me feel I shouldn't say me but people around me feel very uncomfortable maybe they have lots of tattoos maybe they have weird hairstyles maybe just the way they talk right with either the old Christian lingo or Street talk I mean you know certain people that I associate with I can see how uncomfortable they are when these people around based on this very text from Exodus most of our posts can adhere to the opinion that even if an Egyptian turns to Israel to become a convert especially because of their their people's experience and suffering through the biblical plagues and they're being hosts meaning they hosted us even if not very good ones to Israel we are required to allow them to convert by the way it means when they don't enter the congregation it means they're not allowed to marry Jews they can marry each other they can marry other Egyptian converts for 10 Generations okay we are not permitted to turn them away the Torah calls us to make a home even for the people that make us the most uncomfortable through empathy we should consider the situation of another and temper our patience to their unrefinement not looking for nor provoking a reason for someone to stumble not waiting for a reason to disavow them I think that's I have one more thing I think I want to read the turret is not just call us to equality it does not call for Equity even but it does call us to support those Among Us make a place for them and to care for them even if they don't deserve it no matter how strange no matter how difficult they are native born or not okay so I really skipped a lot just to get a lot of the main points across um what do I want to say how do I want to end this off obviously the Torah is relevant that's obvious every letter every phrase every paragraph it's God's message we have a tradition what it means and for those who are seeking what it means by the time you get to that verse right the Torah Tim Allan emotion kills yaakov as we credited in Deuteronomy chapter 33. you're going to say oh they're the ones I mean after reading this I get it they were there they were there they're the ones who are the The Gatekeepers right they're the ones that have the inside all that the Torah is belittling it it is Cliff Notes it is the abbreviated version each letter is a whole universe volumes look behind me volumes are written on each verse meaning it was handed down traditionally to tradition what it means I implore you if you really want to know what the Torah means go find your local Dutch rabbis go find your local Orthodox family go find them and ask them what does it mean if you have any questions otherwise right that's the the um the rom-bomb's main point when he says Idol worshiper should not learn Torah not involve himself in Torah number one because he's only looking for fights but the main thing he says he's looking to create his own religion okay we have enough man-made religions enough of it enough of it because one religion that is not man-made and that is the one that was given to millions of people at once not to some drug addict dope addict uh I don't know and going and on you know some low life who went up all on his own to some Mountaintop and came down and said God talk to me and here's my message right we're talking about the real deal and if you don't believe it just open your eyes and look at Israel today okay and so anyway that's it so anybody that wants to learn more continue to listen to the rabbis just open your mind and I'm praying for you and we're looking forward to seeing you again next week so I'm wishing everyone a great Shabbos and a great life and we'll see you next week [Music]