Tomer Devorah Middah 1 LEARNING TOLERANCE with Rabbi Aaron Dovid Poston

[Music] hey good everybody welcome back to another episode of beyond the seven live from jerusalem with rabbi uh aaron david poston uh who we we've missed these last few weeks uh but it's always a joy to be with him i know uh he stays up late when he does these classes in jerusalem and his schedule is so busy busy busy uh and i so appreciate him doing these classes and uh we're gonna continue i think he's doing chapter one of tomer devorah for us today so let's just break right in and see how the rabbi's doing and uh yeah we're gonna go from there so rabbi how are you doing today so good to be with you again and see your smiling face i have caught some of your broadcasts uh but it's a joy to be with you here again shavuot of dan to all the watchers listeners and subscribers shabbos was fantastic and uh unfortunately i mean we seem to have some uh slightly bad news coming from israel with terror attacks but uh we're of course praying for peace for you shalom and if we can maintain that and get that going and spread through the rest of the world mizrat hashem we're all praying for peace in jerusalem so uh yeah to vote as we say we should hear good news with hashem with the help of god so let's just begin okay so this is the title is based on the tomer devorah saver which is over my left shoulder and i gave an introduction um i think it was pretty elaborate so for those who are watching or listening for the first time please go back to the introduction to give you a a a substantial background foundation for this upcoming series the first of the 13 and as just as i mentioned that what we're dealing with is in prophet michael the 13 attributes now they paralleled the 13 attributes of mercy in which hashem revealed to moses back in in exodus and right after the sin of the golden calf so they are used um by the jewish people by the israelites very often in our prayers but what i think many of us miss you know we call ourselves i guess a religion right people would recognize judaism as a religion i don't like that i don't like that word um but basically called a way of life it's a way of life and you know people get mixed up what is what does being religious mean right obviously there are commandments there's laws there's rituals but it's a philosophy it's a thought process it's a mode of behavior and it's divine it's divine and hashem tells us over and over again to emulate his ways to follow in his ways which means take on these characteristics of which we know hashem by and i think i've said it many times and just to reiterate the idea that the prophets do not come to reveal anything new they only come to guide us on the path that was already revealed to us in mount sinai therefore those original 13 attributes of mercy in exodus are just elaborated upon or let's say um you know i mean maybe even translated or you know conveyed in a different language so that we can understand them so that's what we're dealing with in prophet miha and the first of well i actually i actually don't have it in front of me do i no i'm sorry i don't have is to go back to the introduction i just have a lot of stuff in front of me and take me no problem so basically it says who hashem is like you me so what does that mean the word el is power right that's why it's god god is ill so who is a power like you so what we're going to learn is tolerance right in your daily life to become tolerant now it's much more than that because what is tolerance right again so since we're supposed to make ourselves a manifestation of the divine in this world and we were created in his image so one of the things is to learn about who hashem is and only then can we try to follow in those footsteps so when we talk about this trait and we i labeled it let's say learning tolerance what it really means as the tomer devorah written by the remark ramosa cordovero is these words and i mentioned like i guess it's called counter-intuitive i mean we think of hashem as almighty there's no question about it right the word ale power who's the power like you but the power to i mean i would ask for drum roll at this point because i'm about to tell you one of the greatest secrets an insulted king hashem is tolerant and will take insult and not lash out immediately very patient we'll talk about this amongst the other traits but this idea of melech so this is how what i'm going to do because this is really our first time doing it i'm going to stick to the text the hebrew text and translating and as we go along try to explain it so he begins by saying it's this teaches us what hashem's trait is means that he is insulted he bears the insults he soyvel el bone he um endures the offense now what are we talking about so basically we're talking about the well it's really the next paragraph but he began he he ends this this statement by saying mashallahu rayon this is so difficult for us to imagine it's it's be it's almost beyond our imagination however we have to imagine it we have to because if god and we know that god does want us to emulate him so there are many examples of what god does to bear insult that we are supposed to emulate it's not like in the clouds this is something that we spoke about in the introduction that this these are things that one can do we're capable of doing because he created us in his image and he gave us the instruction manual which is the torah and the prophet michael is only explaining it okay so that's the first statement that he makes hooray endover nistar there's absolutely no doubt that he knows everything right we're talking about hashem who created the world and he knows everything we talk about you know rosh hashanah is not just a jewish holiday it's a we call it a holiday and we're talking about the day of judgment in which not just commemorates the day that mankind was born but it is a opportunity that hashem himself judges his own creation to ponder whether to continue maybe continue let's say generally in mass or at least individually with every creature whether they should continue and every human being should take to heart the um the or i don't know how to translate that word awesome and fearsome day of uh of judgment okay so we sp we speak so much in the liturgy on rosh hashanah that hashem knows everything right it's part of our consciousness to know that there's that even in the most hidden rooms in the you can't hide from hashem and he says furthermore olaf there's not even a moment not even a nanosecond where a man a person is not nourished let's say sustained nizon and actually has any existence without what we call me ellion from the eleon which would be translated as a supernal force right the kawakis force of the el yon coming from above from the eternal force that flows upon the person so just try to imagine we're told hashem is tolerant he is the king who is basically as we said is the insulted king because what's really happening if we're in touch with every thought that we have every action the fact that i can lift my finger i'm not doing that on my own i'm doing it because hashem created me and he created all the all the power that i have is from his power i can't do anything without his power it is a big can we live and move and have our being yeah i think there's a big um problem with christianity and i don't want to go too far into it for those who were past chris former christians or maybe still are i have no idea who's watching that there's some kind of disconnect between what we call good and evil uh in in in christianity um we believe that everything emanates from hashem we don't translate evil necessarily as evil as as as the christians would we'll call it the good that's revealed and the good that is hidden okay i don't want to go too far off track here but everything so what's happening is that when we sin when we have thoughts when we are um acting inappropriate when we're acting immoral when something is is going wrong we're acting selfishly when we're promiscuous when we're insensitive when we're doing something forbidden when we're doing something morally um reprehensible or anytime we're engaged in forbidden actions or thoughts it's all with the energy that hashem has given us and he is witnessing it he's knowing that it's happening and he is not taking action he's holding himself back this is what i'm talking about and we're supposed to emulate hashem imagine someone is at your table and you're feeding them and they're insulting you one moment after another and it's very big test what do we do what do we do okay now i just want to make sure that we understand we're not talking about uh god forbid acting in a way that is um an enabling or encouraging people to do the wrong thing we have to figure out a time and a place in which to give rebuke without anger right because rebuke with anger is not rebuke right it has to be done out of love okay and it's not always appropriate at the moment sometimes it is but has to be done without anger has to be done out of love so this is a huge test and i think i mentioned i know i mentioned at the beginning of the introduction of last of what i gave the introduction is that who am i to be giving over this i am growing i am really you know learning so much and and growing so who am i to be preaching who am i to be telling people what to do i know that this is so valuable that i cannot hold myself back from sharing this okay and at the same time i am personally growing i have failed at this so many times so it's it's one i have difficulty with and i can use for sure i mean yeah working in this job with uh some of these these addicts i mean i need uh tolerance for sure i mean i'm at my wit's end in a lot of respects with some of them and yeah i just want to respond incorrectly uh because they they they seem to beg for it and it's like i i really need to integrate more tolerance for sure okay so let me let me continue on these thoughts so he says hooray timsa mayolam you have to know that there's never never happened it never happened that a a man would sin against hashem shalom that when the person sins put it this way no sin has ever been committed unless at that very instant that the person was sinning hashem was knowingly granting him the power to exist and move his limbs it always happens there's no time that it never happens okay it's like unbelievable and yet that's what happens when we sin hashem is the one giving us all of the opportunities and powers to do such a thing and when you say that what do you mean well i mean most often yeah most often uh people sin because they they think there's something uh some kind of reward uh but even even that is is it stems from uh hashem hashem permits that okay i think pleasure is better instead of reward yeah obviously someone thinks he's going to get something out of it and he's only thinking short term and not long term and he really is acting very i'll use the word insane if we were really truly cognizant of the fact that hashem knows and it's not healthy for us whether it's physically or spiritually it's damaging to us then we wouldn't do it so there's like a a the statement that make is like a a a spirit of insanity or a spirit of foolishness comes over us so i don't know if it re re i think pleasure like you said is is better yes so even when we think temporary insanity for sure that it's beneficial for us um that's just uh again it could be and most likely is of course the ate sahara that could convince us oh we're actually doing a mitzvah let's speak lash and hara about this person it's such a big mitzvah how often have i heard that and unfortunately most people that say that either they don't know the laws of lashnar they don't even know the situation because they haven't really investigated it um so even if they know the laws of lush and higher they're convinced that what they're doing is a mitzvah and this unfortunately is the case with most of our our sins we think that okay we justify maybe think it's even permissible or better it's actually a mitzvah to commit this sin and yet hashem allows us he's empowering us the power to do the sin is coming from him and he is enduring it he's enduring it and this is his way and we are supposed to follow his way so when people sin against us do things inappropriate against us how are we supposed to react and that is what this meda is all about so he continues and says even though that the sinner is using the power that hashem gave him to sin hashem is not withholding it from him he's not withholding it from him now there are going to be cases we're going to see and this is going to be like let's say the proof text where people sin again in tanakh people sinned against hashem and hashem let's say endured it but when they sinned against man hashem did things to prevent it okay and the example is abimelech and uh uh abraham's wife actually states that explicitly right yep and but the example that he gives is in europe but we'll get to it shortly so he continues he says so not only does hashem not stop it but he bears it he bears the affront he bears the insult allah and he'll continue to in no send influence let's say heavenly supernal forces down where your limbs will still move your brain will still function who might see otokoak he's still that that um that power is still moving at the moment of the sin where you are involved in a hat which is called sin and avon is another where let's call it iniquity umakis where you're provoking hashem causing him doing something to cause him to get angry and yet he is so evil he will endure it he will be very very patient i mean i'll just give you an example in terms of the creation of the world because i'll tell us i mean man in the very beginning was not so uh not so good i mean we had the flood we had the tower of babel and yet we learned that why were there 10 crew 10 generations from adam until noah and then another 10 generations from noah until abraham and these are all in order for hashem himself to be patient even though he created the world with 10 statements 10 is obviously a very uh big number uh in judaism even the even the word yid jew the name the the nickname for jews are the tenors i mean i i joke a lot about the name yid it basically means the grateful ones you know yehuda were named after yehuda which leia said at the time that yuda was born she named him yuuta because she said i am grateful that i have received much more than i deserve so yes the jews are called the great grateful ones but the the good the the letter yud is the gematria ten and as we know in judaism things of holiness and kedusha are only said amongst the quorum we call a minion of of 10. so it also happens to be the smallest letter right if you take just a look i don't know uh with a ruler you can look at it from you with your eyes you don't need a you know you don't you don't need a ruler to know that the yud which is that's what gideon jews are called we are small we have to emulate hashem even i i spoke about this before god created the entire universe he created the language and yet the name of yudh and hey and vavine god's own name is the smallest in the gematria of what we call the meloy the fullness each letter has a gematria as as a letter but as the letter spelled out aleph is alif or bet is bet you're tough so they actually equal if you add them up olive is 111. bet is 412. and on and on you can see a chart if you go to um i guess google you can look it up a chart of the milloy the fullness of the hebrew letters spelled out as words look at the chart like from most of the letters are like 70 and above into the hundreds there's only three letters that are like below 20 and that's you'd love you would hey involved so obviously there's four letters haze twice but if you add up any word because every word basically has to have you know at least two letters right so most have three so if you take any word in the entire tanakh so every word is full of right and when you do the meeloy in the hundreds but hashem's own name is is the uk involved and hey which is the smallest word because as i mentioned you hey are like less than 20. and every other letter on its own is 70 above hashem it says where you find his greatness i'm in hashem it's great where you find his greatness there you find his humility even in the very first um chapter maybe the second chapter where god says let us make man who's he talking to so rashi and the medras tells us that he's talking to his his angels that he just created for advice now i'm not sure he'd had to take their advice he does he can do whatever he wants but rashi tells us that for the person on top the person with all the power it's still significant it's a good character trait it's immediate to lower yourself i mean it's actually could be quite insulting if the boss comes and asks the uh the people working for them their advice this is just another example of carrying the insult or living small so jews are supposed to do that i know anybody watching this they're attaching themselves to the jewish nation to the god of of israel the god of israel um abraham isaac and jacob and would like to and emulate this is just the first of 13 character traits so let's move on um now one should not say the low tomar [Music] that well maybe god's not able to do this maybe you know he created the world and what stepped back i mean what exactly would people say god cannot um hold himself back right nope of course he could do whatever he wanted and the example here by jerome so in 1st kings chapter 13 verse 4. you have it if you want to read english i'll read it in hebrew it's okay while you're looking it up i'll get some background here so for those that are aware that there was a split between the north the ten tribes and the lower part of yehuda the the jerusalem and below so it was already predicted it was prophesized by the prophets and um edo comes and um [Music] he did well whatever he has an interaction with eurovom and tears a garment to 12 different pieces handsome 10. and so he knows that this is going to end up being a it's prophetic first kings chapter 4 no it's first kings chapter 13 verse 4. oh forgive me okay let me just it says let me continue the story and then i'll have you read okay so um what happens is your ovum is not straight he's just not acting so proper so even though there was a split that was going to be um prophesized and yourobo then did the wrong thing i mean he set up at temples in the north with idols and he was actually he's not even the priest and he's he's offering incense on the altar as the priest which is forbidden and basically it did just because it was prophesied and even though a prophet was involved in saying that he should be king doesn't mean that it had to be forever and it doesn't mean that he is equal to or even greater than the kings of judah in other words he still there was still such a thing as a governor of any of the 12 tribes but they they are subservient to the king the monarchy of yehudah again that's also why we're called jews because we believe in the monarchy of yehudah even if you're not literally from the tribe of yehuda and many of the northern tribes many of the individuals did come down and be a part of yehuda and because they recognized the monarchy uh but anyway so what jeroboam did was he prevented jews and i say israelites from coming down from the north to to jerusalem and when the prophet comes to visit him go ahead read the chapter verse 4 says and it was when the king heard the words of the man of god which he proclaimed concerning the altar in bethel that jeroboam stretched out his hand from over the altar saying seize him and his hand that he had stretched out against him became stiff and he could not draw his hand back to himself okay so keep this in mind hashem was being insulted because of the idol worshipping he was being insulted because the tribe of yehuda was where the real monarchy stood even though it's permissible to set up kings let's just say they're like more like governors nevertheless to hold the people back from coming to jerusalem and setting up idol worship was a great insult to hashem and he didn't stop it when did he stop at this point something from happening when his prophet edo was being let's say um he was about to be seized and perhaps even uh killed okay he stopped uh jeroboam your of them from doing anything this is i want you to i don't know if you have rashi in front of you but i'll read the rashi actually i just want to read in hebrew first the last part of this verse so so it says he asked that the prophet be seized uh it says the holy one blessed be he avenged the honor of a righteous man more than he avenged his own honor when he was standing and offering sacrifices to pagan deities his hand did not become stiff yet because of the disdain for the righteous man his hand became stiff okay clear as day hashem i mean it's like how could we even say this but this is the reality that when hashem was being insulted he didn't take out his vengeance or anger or um uh right on on the people doing it such as eurovom yet when it came to um preventing or avenging a human hashem did stop okay so that was a very interesting idea and that's the example that that he gives here in the book so that's the last thing we said don't say don't say that hashem could stop the person from so what but rather in the moment hashem actually could paralyze don't say shem can't hashem did it but he didn't do it for himself he did it for the sake of the prophet he stopped your of them let's continue even though we know that hashem has the ability to withdraw the power that he grants the ko biyado the abilities that he has to laxir to return to withdraw the power that he grants holy loymer what one should say is like this or one could say once could say not necessarily this is what hashem could say but he doesn't since you you are sinning against me which we are doing constantly you know what use your own power don't use my power that i'm giving you no he still grants you power to continue there's nothing outside of the realm of the power of hashem everything that happens is with the power of hashem even when we sin the lo nipnez now understand this despite this hashem does not withhold his goodness so as not to suffer the disgrace but what does he continue to do he continues to give the sinner power along with his goodness the hispi hashem is constantly keep us seen keeping us in existence and the power to continue actually continue to sin but what does god want god wants us to do true i i mentioned this many times rabbi kessin simplifies the the process god wants to give us the greatest good and therefore he gave us mitzvahs mrs literally means to connect okay literally the the the root is from seventh seventh means a group of people they're all connected for a common goal seven literally means a staff a group of a group of people working for a common goal it literally means le chaber to connect okay the word itself actually is embedded is utk valvke bringing hashem into the world so this is the idea of the mitzvas so number one the misses are opportunities to connect but god knows that we're frail and failable and therefore he gave us plan b so plan a is the mitzvahs connect i want a relationship with you through the mitzvahs themselves and just maybe i should explain how yudkevkay is embedded in the midst of the word mitzvah so the last two letters of mitzvah's vavhay above hey the last two letters of god's name and the and the memsadik in the atbash you can look it up a t b a s h it's another way of gamachia the otbash is a code where it's like pig latin but whatever it's using the last letter in the first letter interchangeable that's why it's called atbash aleph tough our interchangeable and bat shin which are then to the last second to the beginning and second to the last interchangeable so the yin and the hay are actually interchangeable with the memsadding so we're bringing hashem into the world through the midst okay that's just a side point um so if god forbid which god knows we're not capable of always doing mitzvahs we're failable this is already ingrained so there's num there's step two which is called teshuva repentance okay that's great that restores the relationship that right fills in the the holes of of of the unfulfilled mitzvahs number two if we he knows we're also not fully capable right not all of us do true of it properly like we're not always going to do the mrs properly he knows okay maybe you won't always do the true process properly so there's always plan c is suffering and that is actually good it actually can be good we don't always look at it that way and at least but you know what we can always serve a great purpose yes clean our glasses and put on a little bit of the let's say rose colored glasses let's change our way we view suffering that we'll have to talk about in a whole nother actually i pretty much covered a lot of it in a series i gave on um on the shari truva okay so uh you can look at uh you can look at those series on the charlie chuva um let's continue um okay so here we have we just mentioned that although hashem has the ability to withdraw the power that he grants right he could say right since you sinned against me and do with your own power not with mine now despite this hashem doesn't withhold his goodness and he doesn't suffer the disgrace but in fact he continues to give to the sinner power and his goodness so what does he say here he is the unbelievable endurance and patience defy description it it cannot be this it's difficult to describe he says mashallah you support how can one even begin to describe it and it's for this very reason it mentions these words always described in the beginning melech aloof malek aloof means the king who endures disgrace that you cannot deny that is it's like in other words is gravity for those who believe in it right this gravity there's viruses whatever in the natural world you can say is like a law that's for sure true in the metaphysical world when you believe in hashem and you believe in hashem the way the jews do that hashem knows everything that's going on everything and he empowers every moment the world's existence a very interesting thing that we say during darvanine during darwining we say this in pazuka to zimmer in the before we get to the shema in the morning in fact it's part of the beginning of the blessings it's actually that actually we say this in um actually we say this in the blessings we say this is the blessing of the shema which means he illuminates the earth hashem provides light for those who dwell on it with compassion basically what does it mean compassion he does it gradually right even before the sun rise you have what we call ola right 72 minutes before the sun even rises there's a gradation of light so this is a great act of compassion he doesn't make it all pure once right and because we would obviously be overwhelmed and perhaps even blinded by its brightness so and it says and in his goodness he renews every day continually the work of creation so what we understand is that god is not only the creator who created the world once but every moment that the world exists yes he's he's willing it into existence as if he's creating it now and again now and again every nanosecond so that's the same thing with us by the way if you think okay well god himself doesn't know everything that's going on i know we discuss this idea he knows everything that's going on i have a few interesting i'll call examples where even hashem asks questions that you might say well i thought he was god wouldn't he know these things so i want to read a few of the examples and then we'll read rashi on this for example when god comes to billin in numbers chapter 22 verse nine hashem says to bilum if you want to read that okay numbers 22 9 says and god came to bilaam and said who are these men with you okay so what do you mean god has to ask bilham who are these people with you or in like genesis chapter three verse nine in um when he has um adam yeah where are you yeah ayaka famous question these are all deep questions these these are questions that god posed in order to have a conversation it's not that he did not know who these men were or or did he not know where where adam was most ridiculous thing to think such a thing um also when he asked um cain in i think it's chapter four verse nine where's your brother where's your brother abel okay another example in isaiah 39 3. the so far these are like you want me to read the rashi from uh uh before we read that rashi go to isaiah 39 3. i just want to give a little bit of more background to the another example 39 3. uh before you read it let me just explain what this is about right after already that hezekiah was sick and then was restored to health so a certain king comes to him and um hezekiah wants to impress this king his the king's name was marada baladan babylonia and he shows him his entire warehouse and storehouse and all the treasures and isaiah the prophet so if the prophet says these words which you're about to read isaiah the prophet came to king hezekiah and he said to him what did these men say and whence did they come to you and hezekiah said they have come to me from a distant country from babylonia now remember the prophet is coming and what he is saying is what god told him to say so it's as if right god is asking the question where did these men come from right what do they say to you where'd they come from as if what god doesn't know now with all that in mind i want you to read i think it's the rashi on verse nine of uh numbers uh yeah number nine right numbers chapter 22 verse nine uh rashi says who are these men with you it came to delude him rashi means the ways of the lord are straight and the righteous shall walk in them and the rebellious shall stumble on them from hosea 14 10. stop there saying so that is a lesson in itself and the ways the lord are straight the righteous shall walk in them but the the the wicked will so god wants to have the conversation he wants to see are you honest god already knows the answer he's testing you okay so continue uh by by asking who are these men god meant to enter into a conversation with him as rashi states in the section of bereshit 3 9 on the word where are you but it came to a bellum to delude him for he aired he balaam said sometimes not everything is revealed before him for he is not always omniscient i will find a time when i am able to curse and he will not realize it so think about god was tripping bill him up and he was testing him if god could say motive was incorrect ask him a question um that would like who are these men with you so then bill says oh so god really doesn't know everything huh so i can only curse the jews when god doesn't know no so i'm gonna find that time that god doesn't know right and that's in his mind the evil yeah so continue rashi oh no so rashi on genesis 3 9. let's go to rashi on genesis 3 9 where it says where are you okay when god says to adam where are you yeah this is a huge passage genesis 3 9 i'm going to show rasheed the part where it says where are you uh what which verse was that again genesis 3 genesis 3 9 yeah 3 9 says god said let the water that has been eaten just the part where are you hope i'm in the wrong chapter forgive me go to chapter three come on go get keep staying at chapter one on me next so three nine uh and the lord called a man and he said to him where are you where are you he knew where he was but he asked him this in order to enter into a conversation with him lest he be uh frightened to answer or if he should be punish him suddenly so with cain he said to him below in 4-9 where's your brother abel and so with balaam and numbers 22 9 who are these men with you for the purpose of entering a conversation with them and so with hezekiah in regard to the emissaries of uh marrow duck uh beldon yeah as i've been reading just let me give you a few more verses to think about uh you know i i'm all over i have so many notes i don't know where to start but um i maybe i'll go back in my notes i wanted to go through the definition of the attribute so far it's restraint when offended that's how we're going to sum it up it's restrained when offended so when and while bestowing kindness upon another person the beneficiary perhaps showing a tremendously offensive display than gratitude nevertheless you the the one giving will display a certain restraint of anger now the point is that this action on our part by restraining the anger this ascends to heaven and awakens god's mercy which then in turn brings that mercy into the world i know that some people might have a problem with this idea but we affect hashem okay god wants to be affected i mean at least in this world obviously we're not really relational sure yeah i'm not affecting his essence we're affecting his response in this world okay um the source of the attribute the the idea is when one continues to do favors for those who use those favors against us we are actually awakening this attribute in which hashem will continue to grant life and strength meaning not just to us even to those using the gifts to sin of course hashem could just unplug the life force seizing ceasing the sins right causing the sins and the sinner to cease and come to an immediate judgment yeah but he bears the offense and continues to grant life and the explanation of the attribute which i pretty we should pretty much use the examples of basically i wrote it's fundamental to our faith is the belief that hashem constantly observes all creation and absolutely nothing is hidden from him and i think i used all those examples okay um i pretty much used all my examples up to this point i have here in deuteronomy chapter 23 6 it says but the lord your god did not want to listen to bilum this is moses speaking so the lord your god transformed the curse into a blessing for you because the lord your god loves you it becomes a clear and apparent to all that without hashem's will it's impossible to do anything even bilum said how can i do anything without god i mean he wasn't speaking out of his tookas just in nehemiah chapter 9 verse 6 the idea that hashem gives life to everything you alone are the lord you made the heavens the heavens of the heavens and all their hosts the earth and all that is upon it the seas and all that is in them and this is the part i wanted and you give life to them all and the heavenly host bow down before you in hebrew it's very beautiful the atta you grant life you give life you are the giver of life to to everything um let's continue in i was going to say the clear car let's continue in the term of devorah each page is not long but it takes a while to explain it so the last thing we said was mellick alou so he says like this hainu omru you know this is what it means who is this who is a power like you you are the pow you the almighty the um how do you say the baal the the the owner of the the master of hasid and bestowing kindness you are the again the one whose power to take revenge lincoln hashem has the power to take revenge and la assaf and to take whatever belongs to him and he's very patient the imposter nevertheless but what does he do he has a tremendous amount of patience he'll tolerate and endure the disgrace until the sinners return in chuva again he wants you to do mitzvahs plan a plan b is to do chuva so he has a tremendous amount of tolerance and he carries the insult until we do chuva and he ends up by saying this is a attribute that a person i don't even know the word sarik means needs i put here must i i think it means absolutely must emulate we have to try we have to we have to figure out ways tough to put into practice sometimes yeah strategies we have to develop strategies and figure them out me to say he says you know i i meet a lot of olim khadashim a lot of new um immigrants to israel and this is all i can share with them you need a lot of savile newt and i use that jokingly with a lot of israelis who've been here forever i say it's totally jokingly but i mean seriously you know they laugh you really need a lot of patience here in the middle east especially here in israel especially amongst and i don't mean in an anti-semitic way with a lot of jews you have a mitzvah to love every jew right every human being so when you're around high strong people and um yeah you have to have a lot of savannah's savvlanute a lot of it hashem has it and we're supposed to emulate him the madrega zoo so even if you're insulted to such an extent you should not withhold your goodness even when you're insulted even when you have given whether you're the one giving the energy the food the money whatever it is you're giving time whatever it is you're giving to the person who's insulting you what you are doing in heaven is indescribable what you're doing for your own life and what you're actually helping the world it's metaphysical you may not see it you may not understand it i will also guarantee you won't see it or understand it immediately but bazrat hashem with practicing this you will see unbelievable i'm going to use miracles i mean unbelievable hotsaut reward uh rewards um things coming through in your life when god approached moses that you go ahead you have a question well yeah rabbi i wanted to ask you know where is that line where we are permitted to maybe say um we need to stop this taking advantage situation i mean i i i find you know uh coming out of christianity uh really developed a lot of doormat mentality that there's something wrong with you unless you're you're being a doormat and allowing your life to just be uh completely guided and ruled and uh doormat uh because it was so expected that uh you know uh that kindness is the is the uh uh always the uh scenario and when people are abusing that kindness i you know i guess it's it's a difficulty of mine uh when i see repetitive behavior that you wanna you wanna cut it off you wanna stop it uh stand up for what's uh you know what ought to be uh right and they ought to know that they're they're uh causing or inflicting pain i mean uh i mean i deal with a lot of homeless people and they just they embellish their poverty in the sense that they seem to think that everybody owes them i i'm homeless so you've got to give me and um you know we do our best to provide within a structure um but if they can't even you know bathe themselves i mean it's beyond our ability to care i mean if they need palliative care of some sort it's beyond our ability and so when they embellish it um i think they've crossed the line and um yet yet i still want to show compassion and do uh what's uh uh what's right in the eyes of hashem but it's difficult uh to not want to say stop your your you know like i i had a fellow i had a fellow that was dumped in our city from more than a thousand kilometers away from another city it seems like the other city just had enough of this derelict and uh they actually flew him and dumped him here because it was a little bit warmer climate so he doesn't freeze to death and all of a sudden i can see why i'm thinking gee what city can i you know can we dump him in you know it's like ah la where it's a much more comfortable environment on the streets right oh yeah look what you're asking is a very i'm going to say complicated question on a certain level situationally by saying look at least at the moment right you don't have to you have to figure out when is a good time to approach and figure out how you can help the person for example the example you gave specifically about like homeless people they're not all sick i mean they're not there is a sickness we realize there's a lot of mental illness uh that is beyond some of these people really are incapable of helping themselves and they're like children yeah some of them i mean look i i'm not an expert in this um idea of seductive if this person really is incapable then whatever we can do to make their life more comfortable even though they're insane um look if they're if they are a danger to society or even to themselves oh yeah i had to pull a concealed weapon off somebody you know turn them over to but if they're fully functioning and you just feel taken advantage of listen if they are a seductive case they really are a charity case so then you have to figure out a way to continue giving them it's really their money your you god entrusted you to give it to them um you know if they're capable you help them with the real a real strategy of getting a job and or getting uh some some mental help or some therapy somewhere where they actually get off the streets but it's you know if you're not capable they're not capable so you just continue that's what i that's what i can tell you i mean again if the person is not a danger to you or to society if they are again giving the rebuke in a in a out of love and you have to figure out what is going to be beneficial for the person so of course being angry that they're taking advantage of you is not the way sorry it's just not the way it's because they're not just taking advantage of you they're taking advantage of everybody and they're not growing you're enabling them so the question is how can you figure out a way that you're not enabling them anymore so maybe it's not in your power right and you have to continue enabling them until you find a solution right you want to keep them alive you want to keep them comfortable uh by whatever by not not giving them such harsh rebuke what is rebuke rebuke is to give proof to them a better way so if you can figure out in in a loving fashion to show them a better way and if they're incapable of receiving it right there's gonna be a line drawing doesn't mean you have to constantly go around that person that's abusing you that's for sure you can figure out ways to listen what happens when it's a family member what happens when it's a boss what happens when it's an extra neighbor i mean there are ways to to avoid and not be abused there's no question that you your self-respect comes first right but without embarrassing them without taking your anger on them it was a test are you going to pass the test or fail the test i'm only giving you the general ideas each thing has to be done with on a individual basis and you refer to a rabbi or a mental health expert or somebody who's going to guide you in what's best for you and maybe what's best for them and figure out the balance in between i don't know if i'm giving any thank you rabbi i really appreciate it it's just uh yeah i find myself tested with this more often than i'd like well this is your job you're dealing or have been dealt dealing with you know the homeless and making sure they stay alive and warm and clothed and fed and not hurting other people so um you know that that might be an extreme example but i hope i was helpful i hope you can all definite uh at least it gives me uh uh some thought and uh yeah i appreciate especially i thank you for that definition of rebuke so there's just one more example i want to give about moses at the burning bush and not only what god says to him but what moses was thinking and that is in exodus chapter verse 11. so moses is constantly saying you know pick someone else i'm just your humble servant i'm sure there's somebody better right pick the person who's better basically he has in mind his brother our own so read the chap this is by the burning bush uh verse 11 says but the lord said to him who gave man a mouth or who makes one dumb or deaf or seeing or blind is it not i the lord okay we were talking about the fact that all the powers that we use to function in this world whether for good or for bad all comes from hashem and yet moses is saying look i i stutter i have a speech impediment really you have something else better and it's humility look it's a good thing moses is very humble um but take a look at the rashi who gave there a mouth who taught you to speak when you were being judged before pharaoh concerning the egyptian you killed or who makes one dumb who made pharaoh dumb that he did not exert any effort to issue his command to kill you and who made his servants deaf so that they did not hear his commandment concerning you and who made the executioners blind that they did not see when you fled from the executioner's platform and escaped is it not i whose name is the lord who has done all this again he had in mind always so much connectivity and depth there his brother aaron let me just see if i have here do i have here and the lucky i like what i had here okay i don't have in front of me um so when it came to insulting god god is patient when it comes to for example saving moses is life when pharaoh wants to take him because he killed the egyptian hashem will manipulate everything and make sure that you know pharaoh is dumb or the servants are dumb or whatever but in the meantime moses himself is told that aaron is very happy that you are and he'll come out and he'll greet you and he was i don't know though you know his trait is to love every man i mean be amongst the students of our own right aaron loves peace pursues peace so but moses was concerned i don't do i have here the i don't have it in front of me but i had some interesting notes sorry i don't have in front of me do i no just about this whole process and the prophecies that took place showing that arun himself was so involved he was the leader in egypt when moses was gone moses was out of the picture for like 60 years from the age of until 80. so for 60 years he was out of the picture aron was the leader of the jewish of the israelites in egypt and so moses had like some you know a leg to stand on by saying god you got a real good prophet you have someone who's leading the jewish people keeping them jewish keeping them on their toes making sure they're doing the right thing he told them to get rid of the idols right aaron was unbelievable and yet moses was saying you know at this point you know there's something better than me but god says i'm the one who caused to happen so we said before when it comes to the dignity of man hashem is going to be there he'll make sure that like the prophet edo was saved over there in um by europe right hashem stopped him but for himself he doesn't do it he didn't he didn't do it to a certain extent i mean masala is a heavenly influence it's complicated i don't want to go into that now but i think i think you you have a point there is something called missal that has that's beyond our efforts so we're talking about here though something that is within your efforts to emulate hashem that's how we began these are all things that are within your grasp to do and you can change your model if that's if that's what you're alluding to you can change that which is going to the heavenly influence it's through these 13 meters all we discussed was the first one so far right that you could change not just you who you are remember the villain says the whole point of life is mataki namitos to fix our character traits well guess what god gave us the instruction manual you want to know what the torah is about it's about emulating hashem just go back to the beginning you get a book okay someone gives me a book i what's the book about what's the bible about if i ask you what's the bible about it's about god's hesitant god's kindness he clothed adam and eve he closed the naked and what does he do at the end he buries moses it's the greatest message you could do for somebody and and there's no paybacks and everything in between is all about it's all about the kindness and these are what we call the 13 attributes of mercy so this is the first one okay so beautiful so i can tell you it's within our grasp we just have to figure out how find help go to a professional soul doctor that's what eyes are supposed to be a soul doctor right back in the day you went to the prophet there were millions of prophets walking around from the time we left egypt until we until the prophecy ended the very beginning of the second temple there's different opinions one says it was a million another says there were six million but there were millions of prophets you didn't go to the doctor necessarily you went you something was wrong with your health something was wrong you went to the prophet and said what sin did i do and he would be able to tell you what you need to do to fix your your problem so we don't have that level of prophecy sears and jose but we do have people with kodesh we do people that learn torah we have people that can help you so seek them out and yes i always encourage people to find a rabbi and hang on to the hem of his garment and uh say you know can we go with you because we hear hashem is with you and uh i think uh this book is really starting to clarify some a lot of threads of connectivity uh in the way things really function okay so um as i mentioned to you before we started we're gonna get together in a few weeks and go through uh meet at number two awesome awesome well thank you so much for staying up late rabbi and sharing this beautiful work with us uh in your your wonderful eloquent way uh it meant a lot to me and i hope it meant a lot to you out there in the audience uh thank you for everybody for attending on the noah world center social media pages and my noah heights society canada page so we're going to sign out for now but we'll be back in a couple of weeks um with uh more of tomer devorah so keep an eye out for for that and uh we wish you all well bye for now [Music] is