Tomer Devorah Middah # 4 TO THE REMNANT OF HIS INHERTANCE with Rabbi Aaron Dovid Poston

[Music] hey good day everybody welcome back to another episode of beyond the seven live from jerusalem with rabbi aaron david poston and uh he's been uh doing the wonderful uh book tomer devorah with us and today we've got lesson four in this series and uh i'm just so enjoying this work and it's beautiful always something important to learn folks so let's just tune right in and see how rabbi poston is doing today shalom rabbi uh we're gonna turn the class over to you so good to be with you again thank you so much for sharing with us live from jerusalem shalom aleichem dan and to all of your listeners your subscribers now and of course later because this is recorded it's not just live but it's so good to be live and mostly shabbos it is the 17th of tammuz which in a certain sense relates highly to uh to the discussion of the of the of the hour we are in the book the famous safer uh tomer devorah written by ramosa cordovero describing based on michael in chapter seven the apollo 13 attributes of mercy which we the jewish people say often but especially especially on rosh hashanah now rosh hashanah again is not just a jewish holiday but it's the day that every every living creature on the planet earth in the universe is being judged so i think that to a certain extent i hope that every ben noah takes it quite seriously number one and number two these attributes are really applicable to all of mankind and in the i would just encourage those who are not familiar with the series to go back if you're listening to the first for the first time go back to the beginning of this particular series but to even go back to the original beyond the seven introduction which i don't know what episode we're on but we've been doing this for over a year almost two years yeah yep so go back and check this out one of the main or fundamental principles of a righteous nochide a righteous human being according to the rambam that a non-jew can go to heaven there's no problem at all but there are certain i don't know what you would call stipulations requirements certainly you're a righteous person for sure it's it's not just that there's a certain belief system that you do believe in god that you believe in the god of israel and you believe in the god of israel that gave the torah to the jewish people meaning to the jewish people to then disseminate to mankind it's the same torah that we're disseminating is the one that was originally given to mankind let's say through the jewish people but one of it seems like it seems very clear for the ramban that one of the criteria is that you believe the seven laws were reiterated uh at mount sinai which means you believe that the torah that we have today is the same term that was given but that there's a in other words if you read the torah you understand the jewish people have a certain responsibility right now if i can help any way i can that's what i you know try to do and it's just a joy to see the light especially shine out of the nation of israel and jerusalem specifically yes right just uh like a side point just like when it says in the torah that shabbat is a sign between me and the jewish people that doesn't mean that a non-jew can't observe a certain level of you know honoring hashem through uh celebrating the sabbath but it has to be known to them it's a jewish obligation it's a jewish holiday it's a holiday or let's say a commemoration even for a non-jew to recognize that god created the world and they're participating in that celebration but there is a unique place for let's call it his priesthood okay and it's the priesthood that is disseminating the divine information and so that is what the rambam this um clearly describes as the difference between a righteous no who goes to heaven and a a wise individual who's of the non-jews who will be blessed in this world for being moral or you know following the seven laws but because not necessarily because god gave it but because it makes sense that person will be blessed in this world but not necessarily the world to come so that like separates the men from the boys the girls from the women right and the two and so in this media that we're going to to discuss which is to the remnant of his inheritance is like a paradigm example of the relationship that god has with his chosen servants the priesthood but keep in mind and it should be really embedded on your hearts that anybody that accepts the god of abraham isaac and jacob and accepts the torah as given on mount sinai has made a quantum leap from what we just described as a wise person who might be blessed in this world but will not have eternal life to somebody that is then i'm going to say joining up with the jewish people now it doesn't mean they have joined up and became a jew but they are i don't even i don't think i don't like the word grafted in because that is misused and misunderstood but they're basically believing you know if you say what religion are you they say i'm jewish it's not a lie the jewish right they're like they have accepted the jewish religion if you want to call it i don't really like that word religion but the the jewish outlook on life and um so knowing that as an introduction so this is the fourth character trait of bringing down this mercy from heaven in other words doing something in this world which we will describe what you need to do if you want to elicit this this channel and this flow of god's mercy so i have a feeling that it may rub some people the wrong way if you're not on the page but if you're on the page that i just described in the last few minutes as the introduction it will not rub you the wrong way at all in fact it'll be a paradigm example of how you as a human being needs to behave morally ethically not as it becomes an obligation once you believe in the in the torah remember we said in the beginning that you have seven principles or seven laws but every other additional law that the jews must keep if it's logical or ethical there is an obligation on a non-jew to keep as well so we're going to now get into like some of the nitty-gritty down of why or what these words mean that's the hebrew to the remnant of his inheritance what is this idea so let's we're going to read the hebrew hopefully slowly i know that i sometimes get ahead of myself but we're going to keep to the hebrew and i'll translate mizrat hashem with hashem's help to recognize if you read the bible you'll know that there's a certain relationship that god has with the jewish people and he he hates he behaves in a certain way with the jewish people and we're going to go through so many sources to show you this type of i call it behavior because we we don't really know god except through his behavior the way he acts in this world when we have a an inkling we have a um like a window that's open so we can understand hashem and israel is zion what is sion sion is a marker the jewish people are i don't mean guinea pigs but we are the marker right we are i don't even use the word puppet i don't know what better word to use other than we are his mark we are his witnesses we are his witnesses okay so what we're about to describe to describe is the way that hashem behaves with the jewish people now why is that so important by telling us the israel the heimkrovai the reason god is saying i'm behaving with the jewish people in a certain way a unique way is because they're actually my closest relatives what does that mean beyond that they are actually the closest relationship i have with human beings on this planet now again that does not mean that a non-jew cannot have this relationship there are different stages okay whether it's a a righteous gentile a uh right from the um all the way to aguero toshav which we don't really have in actuality table we have things that are very close and similar to that all the way to what we call gert zeddik someone who actually converts but we're not going to describe or even push any one of these three options one over the other these are all the options that one has but as we describe you actually understand that the jewish people are a marker because the term was given to them it was talked to them directly and this is a an instruction manual they must keep to the letter whereas the non-jews have a let's say it's a more i i don't know if it's more lenient it's just different a different um a different uh plan to follow but the uh the remark goes on to say that they are called bad batzug liquor that the jewish people are called the partners with god abbad zub is a partner the correlay now in the sure sharing there's so many times god refers to the jewish people as bt my daughter ah t my sister ee me even my mother okay so that is described in the medicine sure shearing we're not going to go into that right now but there is a verse in psalms 148 okay 148 14 says like this if you want to read it yeah psalm 148 14 says he raised up a horn for his people praise to all his pious ones to the children of israel the people close to him hallelujah so look we're not arguing right we're not having a debate here this is what king david says so we're looking at verse 14. let me just make sure i have this correctly um because i wrote a note for myself so what does it mean here that with nay israel i'm kurovo hallelujah for the children of israel his intimate people the people that he is closest to hallelujah so i just want to read it's a small enough paragraph um moses says to the jewish people in deuteronomy chapter 4 verse 7 what nation is there so great that has hashem so close to them like hashem is in all things for which we upon him now this you have to understand that's what the verse says there's no argument here the swarner observes that god was never closer to any humans other than he was to the patriarchs abraham isaac and jacob so he says in deuteronomy chapter 10 verse 15 only for your forefathers did hashem yearn to love them and he chose their seed after them even you above all the nations to this day as it is to this day so in the future the devout of israel will attain this level of attachment to the omni present as the scripture promises again in deuteronomy chapter 30 verse 9 which says for hashem will return to rejoice over you for good as he rejoiced over your forefathers so there's something you have to admit there is something unique in this relationship that is called the people i'm closest to and intimate with so i think we're getting a little bit of a um just a small little bit of a glance of why why should this be an attribute of mercy what does it mean that if we all human beings especially the jew incorporates this concept okay we haven't really discussed it that much but that the way that hashem acts towards us if we act towards other human beings remember i shouldn't we there is a maflocus there's an interesting argument what is the most important principle of the torah so for those who remember that rabbi akiva says you'll find that verse if i'm not mistaken in vayikra where is it i have it here somewhere and so that is the uh right here [Music] um one second this is a famous verse right we're probably sure all be familiar with it um i don't know why i don't can't find it right now um it's a very important passage the after the reach for some reason one second i got too much uh paper in front of me it's in vaikra leviticus 1918. it's an interesting verse because it's we're going to talk about revenge and holding grudges this is something that everybody should work on right the torah itself says do not hold a grudge do not take revenge so in that verse in that verse you shall neither take revenge from nor bear a grudge against the members of your people so it is talking about to the jews but these are ethics and logical things that every human being should understand and then it says you shall love your neighbor as yourself i am the lord the word i think we described also in past classes does not always mean your neighbor it's translated here right you shall love your neighbor as yourself truth is rayekah could also mean hashem you should love hashem because you are created in the image of god it's so fundamental i think so many other religions just missed this point they have obviously their man-made religions what i think they did is they created god in their image we were talking about this today why are so many of all this especially christianity but it could be other religions maybe not but for sure christianity it's so much suffering it's all about suffering i mean i don't even want to use the words they use but basically taking up the cross right i mean to suffer right king david says evdu serve god with joy right where is this service through suffering not saying when we do receive suffering we have to know that it's from hashem and we should turn around and accept it with love as we will also see later as we talk about it but anyway my main point was there's an argument so according to rebecca this is the main principle of the torah um there is another opinion let me just bring it up and that is i'm not mistaken one second um i don't have i don't have in front of me who says it but there's another opinion in genesis chapter 5 verse 1. and i think this is very important for for non-jews to understand when you have two opinions in the gemara and it doesn't conclude this one's correct and the other one's totally wrong it means they're both actually correct there's just different perspectives and different understandings so the other opinion is chapter 5 verse 1 in genesis this is the most important principle of the entire torah this is the narrative of the generations of man this opens up a whole nother a whole i'm not going to say a pandora's box but a whole other box of understanding that in the simple shot is this is what the measures tells us that the very day man was created meaning on the sixth day of creation he had relations with java and they had children and you know everything that happened seemed to have happened already on the first day but the point here is that what is so important what in other words what's the main principle that we're all from one human being adam and eve when i say one human being and one couple right and we're all from them and we're all brothers all of humanity this is like such an important principle we're all siblings we're all related in other words what did we say earlier that hashem has a special relationship with a certain people okay that that's true but if we behave like god does and honor and respect and don't denigrate and don't you know embarrass people we're fulfilling what god does and we're going to talk about how he behaves towards the jewish people is the way we all human beings should really behave towards each other i hope i'm just laying the groundwork here because we only read like just a few lines here in the in the remark so after we read the verse in psalms 148 verse 14 so that he goes on he says right god calls the jewish people his sons so many times they are his children his sons and therefore we are like which obviously we have translated already as to the remnant of his inheritance so the language the shay reid it implies blood relation okay so the self south hemne therefore they are his inheritance there is this close intimate relationship because that's usually who you cause to inherit is the closest relatives now we want to know what it means when it says god is actually saying get this it's so important because i think this also goes against these other man-made religions god is saying that if i have to punish anybody but if i have to punish them who are my closest relatives it hurts me deeply i am pained i'm distraught and we're going to see verses after verses that will describe this idea now we're going to first start with isaiah chapter 63 verse 9. now believe it or not i don't know if you unders many people understand what the difference between a cree and exceed the way the torah is written now there are no vowels by the way but we do know grammar and god created the language and he's the master of grammar so sometimes a word is written let's say missing a letter or the letters are not right where there's extra letters but we have an oral torah how it should be read now i mean i don't know why you wouldn't believe us first of all i said there's no vowels and so if there's no vowels the whole idea of how to read it anyway from the very beginning is part of what we call the oral tar so if it's missing a letter has an extra letter how to read it because it's not dramatically correct right according to any of the of the laws of the language where it wouldn't make sense okay so then we have because we were there were his witnesses we were there we understand what it means which chapter in isaiah 63 verse 9. i want to see how i don't know what you which um translation are you looking i'm reading from org okay yeah it says uh in all their trouble he did not trouble them and uh the angel of his presence saved them with his love and with his pity he redeemed them and bore them and he carried them all the days of old now there's so many ways in an inmate just in english alone in all their trouble he did not trouble them just we're just going to read the english what does that mean uh they're they're they're being they're in trouble meaning meaning they're doing something wrong but i am not going to take out my punishment on them okay you can read it like that in all their trouble he did not trouble them you could read it wrongly and say in all their trouble i didn't bother with them in other words i let them you know enough rope to hang themselves right and there's different ways you could read it but we have a tradition what it means first of all it has to be consistent with other verses right so i'll take the judges for example when judges chapter 10 verse 16 we're talking about where the jewish people were not behaving properly and they removed the strange gods from among them so fine they were worshiping idols and now they're they're doing chuva they're re removing these strange gods and they serve the lord and his soul hashem soul grieved by the toil of israel so he he's affected okay now i want to just go to the comment on isaiah 63 9. truth is i think i wanted to do something about verse 8 because verse 8 is also very interesting for he said indeed they are my people children who will not be false god is saying that the jewish people will always stay true this you understand what this is saying that my children these children these these people are my people they're emmistic they're they're they're true so the comment over here says that this verse verse 8 already reflects essential theme of judaism hashem relates to israel's travails as his own the pain that the jewish people experience god sees as his own pain their oppression is his oppression they are never alone and i just remember i i spoke about it this shabbat also you know in the 12-step programs uh i'm sure that this is a famous story all over the world already but imagine someone who has a lot of troubles in their life and they said to god you know god when i was you know i always saw two footprints two sets of footprints in the sand and you know i'm bothered by the fact that when things were really tough there was only one set where were you and god turns around and says where was i didn't you realize i was carrying you right i was there for you you're never alone you're never alone but we perceive or perceived that we were alone until we wake up one day and smell the coffee and realize that it was hashem who was carrying us so the comment continues for he said indeed they are my people children who will not be false remember at the time of the exodus from egypt god said to himself you know since i have rescued them surely they will not deal falsely with me now you and i know that we have not dealt with god correctly all the time so indeed it was this assumption of israel's continued fidelity that caused hashem to rescue them well now although god knew of their future misdeeds because god knows everything he dealt with them as if they would always remain true to him okay so it is true that we were not always true to him and yet he acts with us because he says i will never wipe you out obviously individual jews who you know through their sins and horrible behavior may lose the covenant but the covenant itself as for a people will never be lost in other words people marry out people choose not to have children whatever if that's their personal choice as opposed to making every effort anyway so then their bloodline ends you know and they're they're finished you know um but as a covenant that covenant is forever and will never be uh terminated so now go back to our verse because what is interesting i mentioned there's a difference between what we call karen exceed the way it's written and the way it's read now if you look in any hebrew text there should be either an asterisk or a parenthesis where it says the cults or atom lotsar now lozar islamid and in actually in the in the the rit it's actually lamin alex so there's a way to read it with lamid love but the way it's written in other words they should be both there one in parentheses one not so the way it's actually written is with the lamin aleph which means he will not trouble them the way you read it so in all their trouble he didn't trouble them and he didn't take the punishment out on them that's the way to read it but another way to read it is all the trouble was to him in other words he took the pain he felt the pain all the pain that they experienced he experienced imagine why do we want mashiach why do we want to get out of this exile because hashem is in pain that we are in exile can you imagine i mean every human being on the planet earth has to recognize we're not there right all these beautiful prophecies of what's going to happen i mean this is one of the biggest um what do you call it you know proofs against christianity we're not here sitting here trying to prove against christianity but there's a role the messiah is supposed to play you know when you go through so many prophecies with the isaiah wall right no more wars right everyone's going to get um everyone's going to get along together right that the the truth knowledge will cover the earth as the water covers the scene exactly that didn't happen oh yeah well there'll be a second coming so they say right but the point is that it didn't happen it didn't happen and unfortunately i don't know how close or far we are from that happening but it didn't happen yet and what was my point over here was like this i want to just continue over here okay that he that god is in exile god takes on the pain of the jewish people so it we understand when when we read it as above it means to him as opposed to not so he says he was troubled when they were troubled that's how we read it this differs from the spelling aleph which means is not he was not troubled when they were troubled meaning we might think it means he was unconcerned by their suffering but that's not at all what it means so basically the commentators relate to both both interpretations so when israel experiences difficulties he is troubled hashem is troubled he feels constrained so to speak as we already read in judges 10 16 that his spirit could not tolerate the travail of israel if it says somewhere else something like that therefore even over here in isaiah 63 it has to mean the same thing so both the targum and rashi interpret the phrase based on the spelling even when he brought punishments upon them he would never do so to the full extent of their sins in other words we didn't get what we deserved thank god right meaning in all their troubles he would not trouble them as much as they deserved and that's how you read it now we mentioned that we are god's partner so the sages teach that god is compared to israel's twin to umeme when one twin and cat when one twin encounters pain it is felt by the other close relatives that's how we have to look at each other close relatives feel each other's distress god reacts to israel the same way and he's quoting the tomer devorah he does not merely feel by the way i'm just reading the art scroll on isaiah he does not merely feel for israel the way one feels for a friend rather he is equally hurt so to speak by our pain okay there's a lot more to say but i want to continue in the remark and you i think you're getting the idea again the main point is that we human beings need to look at other human beings as our relative to have pity or you know feel their pain and this will elicit this mercy coming down from heaven okay which is going to be good for us and the world so the the remark continues to explain in this verse that we just read in isaiah 63 verse 9 that it's written with an aleph even though it's red with above meaning it's not read as not necessarily although we said it could be and we explain that but it's read with above which means he feels the pain to explain lomar that this pain the suffering reaches peleon which means it's something in the kabbalistic terms we're talking about beyond our imagination the most supernal place and all the more so to do parts of theme which again is a kabbalistic term i'm not going to explain it right now but he says shabbat this is the main principle in which hashem behaves okay now the next paragraph is taking on that one verse we already spoke about which i don't think we need to go into in judges chapter 10 verse 16 where we already read that he was unable to endure the pain of israel but what does it mean it means that he's not able to endure their pain and shame because they are his closest relatives that how would we feel when one of our own relatives is is going through such horrible pain we have to be empathetic and we will feel it it's difficult but that's what we have to do and then he says this is exactly what a human being must do to his fellow he must behave the same way now we again we are a paradigm example we are the marker whatever we do the non-jews should you know accept the principles the concepts and if you're aware of this concept called israel arabic every jew is responsible for each other okay i mean we are brothers and sisters they are actually like blood relatives one with the one with each other but it's much more than the physical it's spiritual of nature let's call it metaphysical we actually share the same root soul now that's true by the jews but it's also true by all mankind remember rebecca and the other opinion that held that it was genesis 5 1 that this is the the chronicles of man that's the most important principle that we're all descendant from the same mother and father so if you understand that the jews take this responsibility seriously and that's why it's actually very hard to convert meaning from both sides i'm sure that there's a lot that the potential convert has to give up i'm not talking about that i'm talking about from the jewish side that we want to make sure you're serious because if you come in and you're not serious you're going to sin we accept you everything you do is on our shoulders we're also and i want to just take you on a small journey i i'm not sure right now is appropriate but i want to talk about in joshua chapter seven and chapter eight um just to describe this this um covenant the new covenant when we entered the land of israel and we stood at the mount avail and grizzim and we actually accepted upon ourselves the blessings and the curses which was actually our votes a momish of responsibility i want to hold on there's going to be a time let's just talk in general at this point that all our souls are connected all the jewish souls are connected that i have a portion of someone else's soul in within me and he has a portion of my soul within him because we're all ultimately rooted and connected basically there's this concept that the more jews that get together to do a mitzvah there's like this quantum leap of like this the example he gives when you come to a synagogue to pray we need a minimum of 10 people i mean obviously you can pray without but once you have that that 10 people there's things that you can do that you couldn't do without ten things of holiness uh certain okay certain things you know basically there's this concept that if you're one of the first 10 to show up so you're going to get reward for all those other people to come after and the gamora asks what does that mean you mean they don't get rewarded and you get their reward no you get reward equal to them so it's tenfold so if 100 people show up you're getting response you know for every 10 people you're getting like another i don't know how to explain it but it's like a snowball thing it just keeps growing and growing so obviously this is a i forget what it's called in german you probably know the philosophy but that you you take a bunch of individuals and you put them together so you have 10 individuals that's one way to look at it or it's that the once you have the 10 there's this um the what they call that's why i'm sure you'll you'll know that the the sum is greater than the total of the individuals you've heard this expression before you don't know what it's called though anyway maybe someone could type it in the comments and maybe later on when i look it up my friend barbara in germany's watching so okay no but it's it's a like a german philosopher it's not necessarily a german philosophy but anyway so it says this very point points on a bacon asset for the first 10 people to come to the synagogue if you limia boy makarov even if a hundred people come after him macabre connected coulomb the person will receive the reward parallel to all them so it is what do you mean who are you going to receive the reward of the hundred no sorry i ain't clueling because the other 10 are actually included in my own soul or ahem i'm actually receiving ten times tenfold hey man the chad mayhem so i'll just read in english they're 10 times 10 which equals 100 each one of them includes 100 thus even if 100 come after each of the first 10 already has the reward of 100 okay the next paragraph says like this and this is where i want to get into the book of joshua a little bit to explain how this idea is that the jewish people are responsible for each other so the since we're all connected so wise we already know we're all connected physically right we all come from one pair of human beings but metaphysically we're all our souls are connected even the non-jews so yes because within my soul i have a portion of your soul and when one jew sins which in the um the the conquering of jericho went ahead and went against god's will he said oh all the all the booty must be burnt it's consecrated nobody could take he went ahead in the next war we lost 36 soldiers a lottery because nobody came forward a lottery was produced to try to find out who was the guilty party but the term itself when i say the torah joshua says israel sinned the jewish people sinned but only one person sinned and 36 people lost their lives in in a war that shouldn't have nobody should have lost their lives we were miraculously involved in jericho the walls came tumbling down right and it was the next war also there were thousands of soldiers 36 people did lose their lives but it says like this maybe i should just go through it in joshua the beauty of it i just want to mention that chapter seven and eight they're not in order in other words for those who don't understand or never heard this before the five books of moses are not necessarily in order either we have many examples of that but in joshua for example chapter and let's see chapter 7 it says the truth of israel trespassed against the consecrated property so what does that mean what how can that be the amalu so this is the idea when it says the children of israel trespassed against the consecrated property we know that it was only one person as the torah describes he was the one who took it so right away even though it says the children of israel sin it then right away says one guy did it so the cl the um the art scroll commentary says one man sins one man's sin is the nation's responsibility in the aftermath of the resounding miraculous victory of jericho the canaanites were even more demoralized than before and the jews were even more confident this did not mean that the canaanites were ready to surrender unconditionally or leave their homes and flee the land where is the important part well there's just so much here i don't want to read the whole thing to you um here's a good part so verse 1 combines the themes of individual and national responsibility it begins by stating the children of israel trespassed implying that everyone was responsible but then the verse goes on to say that only one man took consecrated property from jericho thereby incaring incurring god's wrath against all the people 36 men 36 men were killed in the battle and it ended in defeat for israel here's the good question why was everyone held liable for one man's trespass even more surprising himself was untouched in the battle why should the nation have suffered while the sinner was unscathed okay so i think it goes into a lot of the explanation that i already gave you we are all interconnected um so that's chapter seven okay now in chapter eight believe it or not this sounds crazy crazy crazy in chapter eight towards i think it's towards the end um let's say verse 30. it says then joshua built an altar to hashem of god from mount evil and this is where we stood right on the mountain with the blessings and the curses and we took responsibility for each other chapter eight believe it or not is like way before chapter seven the day that we crossed into israel we did not go i mean everyone just reads it and thinks this is what happened we crossed into israel and we immediately went seven days seven times around jericho and the walls came tumbling down that's not what happened the very first day that we came into israel we went right to shechem we went right to mount aldo and and griezm and we did this oath where we took responsibility okay here over here in the comment in the introduction it says like this joshua brought the people to mel griezmann and mount aldo which are an area north of shechem where he assembled them all to carry out the command given by moses in deuteronomy chapter 7 27. so you go to chapter 27 where god says this is what you're going to do when you enter the land and there's moses instructed joshua built the altar inscribed the toad is very important he inscribed the turtle on these rocks miraculously the whole thing was a miracle because you're talking like 60 kilometers the all the people traveled when they went into israel they built this altar they did this whole um you know orchestrated blessings and curses on the mount they wrote the entire torah in 70 different languages the entire torah well there's different opinions some say it was just the ten commandments some say it was the seven al-qaeda laws but imagine this it was in 70 languages it's very important why was it in 70 languages so that any non-jew coming into the land of israel should know what the torah says right that there is such a thing as the torah what it says again whether it was just the ten commandments whether it was just the seven of high laws very clearly they have to know to even learn more and if they want to live amongst the jews as aguero toshav they would have to know what the torah requires of them anyway okay so we're going on moses instructed joshua built the altar inscribed the torah and had the konim and the senior levites proclaim the series of the 12 blessings and curses there ready rashi and the radar citing the sages in sota 36a agree the events described here in chapter 8 took place on the day israel crossed the jordan many weeks before the victories over jericho and that i since these mountains are over 40 miles from the jordan it was miraculous for the nation to have been able to do so um okay let's go back into the um the remark where we left off i want to just you know under everyone to understand what it says because one person sinned pogam otsumo he obviously hurt himself through the sin pogem so remember every other jewish soul is connected with his soul and therefore when that one jew sinned he affected the entire nation nimsa meets so the translation basically comes out and he not only harms himself but also the portion of his fellow's jew included within him due to this concept of a shared soul and all mankind is on a level a shared soul just as well he is ultimately responsible for the other just like they are one flesh so i know we're talking about the negative sense somebody sins and we're responsible but just keep this in mind when we have compassion and we have sympathy and we try to help our fellow brother and we feel their pain and we help them out of their pain we're eliciting this mercy from heaven because just like god and this is the truth he's looking at us at least the jewish people as his flesh and i would assume you know educated guess as a rabbi we're talking about any non-jew who's accepted the god of abraham isaac and jacob the god of israel as their god as the power of all powers and praises and daily is going to behave in the same fashion okay so the the remarkable goes on therefore it's fitting for every human being ready to vote to always look for the success of his friend why should you hold a grudge or resentment you right it's clear we're all brothers and sisters okay the flesh we're the same flesh and metaphysically where we share the same soul right according to the other opinion of the other opinion besides remy akiva okay so it's based like this for this reason it's fitting for each person to seek the benefit of his fellow and to be pleased with his fellow success and the other person's honor be just as dear to you as your very own honor because the truth is we are really one we are old and this is the ultimate lesson the jews are teaching the world hashem the lord is one right listen to israel right understand this the whole world should understand there's only one god and it's not just that he's one and unique but everything is ultimately intertwined with him and as is one the jewish message to the world you have to learn how to treat your fellow human being it's going to elicit um such a great amount of mercy from heaven i want to just go through this other idea because i skipped a whole lot of stuff before we go on that in um the way the jewish people are described in genesis 46 27 it says over there in the english if you want to read the english 27. 46 27 says and joseph's sons who were born to him in egypt two souls all the souls of the house of jacob who came to egypt were seventy now in the hebrew even though they were called two souls nepheshnaem nephesh is singular because we know it's two souls but nevertheless when it comes to the 70 souls they're also called a single soul call hanefesh the basis so all i don't know what it says in english i don't know why it says souls it should have had like a parenthesis around the s because the s of souls is not in in the bible it's called soul all seventy were one soul but when it came to the non-jews such as asav and this is not it's also the way they treat each other the reality of the situation in genesis 36 verse 6 where asaph has six people in his household and genesis 36 verses took his wives his sons and his daughters and all the people of his household and his cattle and all his animals and all his property that he had acquired in atlanta canaan and he went to another land because of his brother jacob so okay so he he left israel went to sair but nevertheless in the hebrew we know that he had six souls now six so the jewish people had 70 and it's called singular soul when it came to azav and his souls are called nafashot plural so is that because that's the reality or is that because that's how they treat each other i'm going to side with the idea that that's not the reality the reality is the way they treat each other it didn't have to be that way okay and it doesn't have to be that way i want this to be so ingrained right this is so important that the torah itself calls the jewish people singular unique um as one soul and when it came to the non-jews it doesn't have to be this way that by asav anyway it's plural and called nafashos in plural i want to get into this idea of just the difference between a revenge and a grudge just so we should know because this is very important we have to love our neighbor as ourself our fellow human being if we go back to leviticus 19 18 where it says you shall neither take revenge nor bear grudge against the members of your people so i want to explain what it means to take revenge and what it means to hold a grudge because in english i would just assume that it's the same thing i mean it sounds like the same thing what do i know you may look it up and maybe it has the jewish definition but i'll tell you what the jewish definition is so you don't have to look it up maybe you will still look it up and come up with some amazing insight but according to the torah revenge is where i come to you right now you didn't lend me so i come to you and i ask you i want to borrow something from you okay so you didn't lend it to me okay i needed something from you you said no i know you have it but you said no you didn't have to give me any excuses the answer was no now you come to me to borrow something and i'm not going to lend it to you i'm going to tell you and i'm going to verbalize it you know why i'm not lending it to you or maybe i didn't have to verbalize it the very fact that in my heart of hearts i'm not lending to you because you didn't lend me the very end if i verbalize even worse but i'm not lending you because you didn't lend me that's called revenge i'm actually taking my revenge out and you need it and i'm not there for you that's called revenge what about a grudge the grudge is where the same scenario i came to you to borrow something and you said no now you're going to come to me now in this case i'm going to lend it to you but i'm going to let you know i'm lending it to you because i'm not like you ah i'm not like you who wouldn't lend it to me again it's a sickness within the heart malice yeah okay and it's in the same verse as you shall love your neighbor as yourself again what does that mean don't do unto others that you would not want done unto you we if this is the work this is the religion i don't like the word religion but that's what judaism is it's the work on the character on overcoming your either base inclinations now there's a verse in job job chapter 11 verse 12 you want to read it for us verse 12 says but an empty man will gain understanding and from a wild donkey a man will be born okay so this verse is really talking about how we are in the beginning of our life cycle like an empty man and hopefully as we progress we grow our brain develops we'll gain understanding we're like a wild ass that's the word donkey i'm not cursing i'm just telling you like a wild donkey we are right and rashi mentions a few things what does it mean an empty man a hollow man without a heart or understanding who doesn't understand god's ways right slowly maybe we're changing your life we're telling you that if you act in a merciful way it's going to make your life so much better hashem will treat you the way you treat others basically and you're going to get understanding meaning you're going to re you're going to find you're going to get a heart and you're going to return to your creator and your deeds are going to be very much different than it was when you were born and god will teach the person to be a human being and this is basically what the life process and the life cycle is all about um what else would i want to share there is still so much i want to talk about moses and aron as a prime um a paradigm example while the 60 years that moses was out of egypt you know he ran away when he killed the egyptian and arun was the leader he was in charge and yet there's a few things that are happening god tells moses when he comes back to egypt aaron would be very happy for him i mean only god who knows the thoughts and what's in the heart of man could know that but in exodus chapter 4 verse 14 right this is at the go this is at the burning bush at the burning bush god is telling moses go back to egypt and when your brother sees you at the very end he will rejoice in his heart the sameach belibo meaning it's not as you think your brother will not be jealous of you later on we see that moses is commanded to anoint our own and he's going to spill this or anoint him with this oil later on in psalms 133 verse 2 as you see as the good oil on the head runs down upon the beard the beard of our own which runs down on the mouth of his garments there's a rashi that says our rabbis explains now this is a very interesting verse it's in psalms 133 i want you to 130 read you do so the idea is that moses put for seven days the tabernacle together and took it apart i mean he really was acting as the high priest for those seven days and then the eighth day the first of nisan he basically then anoints our own finally our own is now going to take over so you had this like who should be the king don't you think our own felt i should be the king no so now this savior his brother's coming back from the burning bush into uh into egypt and he's going to be the king and the same thing in reverse when moses is expecting to a certain extent to be the high priest and yet he's the one who's anointing his brother and they both did it with joy so i want to take you to psalms 133 i love how that opens the song of david assam and david behold how good it and how pleasant it is for brothers all sort of dwell together and then he says as the good oil on the head runs down upon the beard the beard of aaron which runs down on the mouth of his garments as the due of sermon which runs down on the mountains of zion for their the lord commanded the blessing life forever so this is a famous song um again um [Music] in psalms 91 15 91 15 reads he will call me and i shall answer him i am with him in distress i shall rescue him and i shall honor him okay again let's talk about the jewish people in in in regard to hashem i want to read the comment on there [Music] let's just see it's psalm 91. okay i'm with him in distress when god was angered by israel he withdrew to heaven when he destroyed the temple however he heard israel's anguished cries so we are on the precipice of the 17th of tamus about to enter these three weeks right we should feel hashem's pain that he's not with us the way he would like to be with us then he cried with them when he destroyed the temple telling his ministering angels my children are suffering and i am suffering with them okay the shahree khaim adds that the righteous man calls out to hashem because he knows that hashem is in pain and the goal of his prayer is to relieve hashem's distress as it were kavyakov because of this his prayers are answered in other words the empathy for hashem not that hashem needs our empathy but he wants us to be empathetic that we have to realize and acknowledge that he's not getting the nakhas ruach he's not getting the total satisfaction from his wayward children so to speak and um just another statement in deuteronomy chapter 32 verse 9. 32 9 reads because the lord's portion is his people jacob the lot of his inheritance as we mentioned this trait is called to the remnant of his inheritance hashem right because the lord's portion is his people the lot of his inheritance now the lot of [Music] would you call it a three stranded chord so we started off by saying that there was nobody as close to hashem as abraham isaac and jacob so this is like the three-plied chord that is hard to break as it says in ecclesiastes that's no hell is chapter 4 verse 12 that a three you can read it it's uh 4 12. four verse 12 reads and if a man prevails against the one the two will stand against him and a three stranded cord will not quickly be broken that last statement about the three-stranded court is not easily broken that uh this is the inheritance this is hashem special relationship with abraham isaac and jacob just to reiterate that and of course we not only we are physically we're the spiritual um children of abraham isaac and jacob and any non-jew who's accepting the torah and accepting that there's a mission for the jewish people should be able to see that as well i just want to take you just to kind of finish this off a little bit going to um in exodus chapter 3 verse 7 right hashem sees the affliction he has surely seen the affliction of my people in egypt i heard their cry because of their sleep so i know their pains right god's you know go now to exodus chapter 2 verse 25. and god saw the children of israel and he knew he knew what he couldn't conceal his eyes for them he knew their pain i don't think i have to go over and over and over and over all these ideas but the whole idea of the burning bush the burning bush there's so many lessons but the god obviously he's not physical but he made this manifestation of a fire that wasn't being consumed but he was telling moses in the burning bush i am with you the jewish people are in egypt they're in pain and i am with you in pain because i'm showing you by this fire that wasn't being consumed but yet the fire was there the fire and um just since we're in this whole chapter of meat of um michael chapter 7 verse 15 we'll end with this one verse that as in the days of your exodus and land of egypt i will show him on another future just like i was there with you then whether the burning bush whether all the pain i saw and i understood i was with you and i knew it so too in the future it's going to be more magnificent when he comes back so to speak um in in in showing wonders god will show us these wonders of this intimacy so it's very interesting we're standing right before the 17th tamus so we know that that's a fast day and it also begins the three weeks of um we'll call it the stages of mourning when we mourn the jewish people mourn the immediate you know burial the first week is where the most the most pain is experienced and then there's a 30-day period which it's less painful and less restrictions on the on the mourner and finally it goes through a whole year and by a year supposedly let's just say you have forgotten at least the pain and the suffering and you move on with your life okay so that's what normal morning is when it comes to what we call these three weeks that we're entering it's the total opposite direction we're starting off light right the 70th time this is a fast day but it's it's only right it's only a uh a day fast not a full uh 24 hour fast which is at the end but then as we approach the first of of um of of there's different customs but there's more restrictions and then the week that the ninth vote falls in and then on air of tish above and then on tishbob itself and we're sitting on the floor and we're not washing and so there's a whole series of more and more restrictions because it's something that we're not even we're so far from the temple we don't know what it was like anymore and so it's something that we need to build upon and not forget in other words the whole idea when you lose somebody is it's a slow progression towards forgetting in this sense it's a slow progression or maybe it's quick you know we have to try to feel the pain and remember and so that is the task that is like the job uh not at least for the jewish people but i think anybody who loves and misses the you know and wants an intimate relationship with the god of israel the god of abraham isaac and jacob will probably at least meditate and and contemplate um that god is in exile and is pained so bizrat hashem we should all do true especially jewish people but all over the world because we really are all interconnected if you as a non-jew does chuva and gets closer to god this will actually ultimately bring all of mankind closer to god oh rabbi yeah that burning bush analogy that you shared i have never uh maybe it's it's just me uh with my uh personal uh shortfalls i never been able to understand the the the empathy of hashem uh it to me i think more logically or more more mathematical or or tangible but that that burning bush analogy you pulled out uh where it's not being consumed i mean not to understand that hashem the eternal uh you know who's omnipresent who's always going to be uh suffers uh when people sin i mean you really brought a an understanding for me that i've never been able to to grasp in the past and i want to thank you for that beautiful beautiful lesson i mean this book has just got such depth obviously it's something i may want to dive into deeper myself but i i'm so thankful that you're explaining it the way you're explaining it because it's helpful it's useful and i hope that everybody out there listening feel free to like the video share it on social media and uh thank you so much i know that uh the rabbi stays up very late for us in in israel to host these classes and uh it means a lot to me and um look forward to hearing more from rabbi poston in this uh book tomer devorah uh but rabbi what's your schedule like are we going to be offer uh some time still or yeah a few weeks we'll see it could be two weeks or four weeks we'll see okay maybe two weeks rabbi i i encourage everybody you know you can check out uh a rabbi poston on his youtube page yebenay uh or his website yibane.com uh always has some beautiful beautiful messages coming out of yemeni they do wonderful work in jerusalem and uh i'm just so thankful to connected with him as a rabbi and uh to just learn so much torah uh they had uh rabbi kessin on last week and uh he's got wonderful messages with rabbi yitzek bridowitz i fully enjoy but i also enjoy everything rabbi poston has to share and uh thank you so much rabbi poston so uh yes so we're gonna sign up [Music] here