(Way# 50) GIVING CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE: 48 Ways with Rabbi Aaron Dovid Poston

[Music] hey good day everybody welcome back uh to beyond the seven uh live from jerusalem with rabbi aaron david poston and we've been sharing the beautiful series the 48 ways to wisdom and today is our final uh lesson in this series boy it's been a journey and i want to say todah rabba it's just been it's so exciting uh to go through this entire uh journey with you rabbi and uh we're so thankful that you've taken the time out of your very busy schedule to stick this course out with us and uh make it to the very end so uh let's just tune in and see how the rabbi's doing today rabbi poston so good to be with you and um yeah you're live on the air sir and uh thank you once again shalom aleiche and dan and all your viewers and all our viewers shavu atov i'm just really glad to be here number one and number two i cannot believe i mean i have to believe it right this is the uh the 50th episode of the 48 ways if anybody wants to know why we have 50 out of 48 ways i refer back to last week like go back to 49 where i explained it and uh some of it would be self-explanatory also through our session here today um should i just begin and continue on or you're live on the air rabbi okay so i really feel very honored that we made this benchmark that we accomplished it's a big accomplishment and i believe that a a party should be made and the bizrat hashem i'll be planning it this week hopefully it will be this week at some point anyway i just wanted to mention the different books that i've been i have been using and that people could use uh to review for themselves so over my left shoulder we have the famous book put out by aysha torah and that is uh based on ravnak's own words um i'm actually tonight's tonight's subject is to uh uh to say over in the name of the person that said it when you say something of value value right something valuable make sure to mention the name so we're going to go deep deep into this idea there's actually a few other titles we can give this the rewards of gratitude and given credit where credit is due so that's for sure now i just wanted to mention the book over my left shoulder that is uh put together by uh shraga simmons rabbi shraga simmons and then coopersmith students of the roshiva i know very well on my right shoulder over my right shoulder is a book called the major shmuel and that is specifically on the sixth mission of the sixth chapter okay so the one by rev observed it's just in english the one in midrishmal a an ancient an ancient manuscript in hebrew but there's an english translation and a lot of really good footnotes i have to say another book i've been using is the matifta on perky avote unbelievable it's not translated into english um but i'm going to use it to start with and then there's of course the maharao he i went through it it's like eight volumes each book is like at least a chapter of perky avoid and uh it's called derek hayem the maharao yes by the way for those who are following me on the other channel on the ibanez channel i give over uh the clear car the clear car was the talmud mukha was the star student of the maharal of prague anyway so this is just this is just chapter six just this one volume wow right so uh that's another and we're gonna quote him tonight as well uh today as well so that's a fantastic um um array of resources for for those uh who want to um delve deeper which i i definitely hope you do uh this is a timeless series yeah yeah maybe before we go into the matifta's explanation i want to let's just say go over like some ideas that we're going to cop uh we're going to cover um basically if you just think about it on a certain level if you're going to take credit for that for some value i mean you're cheapening you're cheapening the the the real value of it it's better to say in the name of the person that that said it even if he's of the lesser let's say he's not as smart or not as wise as you and we're going to discuss why that's important so give credit where credit is due the question is how do you go about doing it okay so number one don't take the credit when it's not yours don't pretend rosh hashim spoke about he always spoke about what we call um how should i say counterfeit pleasures right we're into true we're we're trying to be true so it's accountability it's false it's of this world you're looking for honor for yourself it's not going to get you anywhere in the world to come so giving credit where credit is due it's going to get you first of all a certain amount of humility in your own life which is there's no it's priceless okay um also know who gave it to you right when you hear something like you should you go buy something like where'd it come from who manufactured it um these are all important things when you when you're when you're buying anything of value another idea is that you're actually appreciating the piece of wisdom you're giving credit where credit is due you know that it's a gift wisdom is a gift and it's very valuable it's um so you're appreciating the value and we're going to talk about that right yeah and if you don't appreciate it and you go for this um we'll call it the counterfeit pleasure it's going to make you feel empty if you're really i mean pressed i mean what are you trying to do it's unbelievable so again the titles of this class would be rewards of gratitude there's going to be tremendous amount of reward by you showing the gratitude uh given credit where credit is due but literally literally the words of omir dub or bashem omru is saying it over in the name of the one who said it so what i want to do is i basically did my own translation what i like to do usually is to say the hebrew and then say it over in english so i don't get all confused kind of keeps me straight but i think it's going to take too much time to say both the hebrew and english although i think there's so much value in just hearing the hebrew oh for sure you know what i will do i will actually try to uh do both okay i'm going to say the hebrew cashier when you hear something that you heard me from someone else yamaha nubishma we should be saying it over in their name there and don't become boastful and prideful battalia lolo and and not cause like people to think that it belongs to you hey don't hang it on yourself even when the person you're hearing it from is let's say lower in the stature of wisdom there's a great value to saying that over so the note here quotes a um both rashi and the moxer victory and the medrashmoor and he writes that the the intent of this author of the mishnah is to warn a person one second am i reading the right note no okay i'm not even right here here's the right now okay it started again in uh miley davos and also in pirkei moshe he says like this that what you're doing is you're causing the person when you say over in the name of someone else you're actually going to cause yourself to delve deeper why how does that work why should that work because on a certain level right why should i be quoting everyone else see the idea of we spoke about the kenyan of the torah making the torah yours so as long as you're saying it over in someone else's name which is fine and that's what you should do but once you make the true kenyan what is the kin what does that actually mean that you have you have put in you have added something of your own into the idea and the only way to do that is to delve deeper then you can actually say it over in your own name knowing that other people will carry this message and say it in your name so in other words it's going to cause you to try to make a true kenyan on it how does that work by you going deeper and developing your own ideas that are much deeper than the idea that you heard okay so that is a very important fact because that would fit in well with the idea of how this is one of the 40 ways to acquire the torah and he adds in order right i hate the whole idea is in order that a person should develop new ideas also in their own name now the schmall continues and he writes that through this the person will end up going much deeper um in the torah and to me pretty much what i said and then you wouldn't be forced all the time to say that whatever tour you heard and was valuable in other people's names now let's continue on because what this mishna ends remember we're in chapter six of the six and it ends there's like an end to it and it ends like this even after the 48 ways after it just says you should say over in the name of the person that said it behold lamonita we already learned somewhere else that anyone that says over something in the name of the person they heard it from maybe they actually bring redemption to the world unbelievable who doesn't want to bring redemption to the world now we're in the month of adar now this month's going to be very long because we it's like 60 days we have two it's a leap year so we have two months of aadhaar so we still have a long way off to purim but if i'm not mistaken monday night is purim shane is purim katan meaning that it's the 14th of adar richon which means from that day on we have exactly 30 more days until purim so it's like a little bit of a holiday it's a small little holiday so we're let's say we're preparing for that think about this right this is the month of redemption meaning it's going to bring us into nissan it's a preparation it's rolling out so what better way to prepare for redemption than to hear what it's about to say what did it say in in esther right chapter 2 verse 22. i have it here because i want to quote it from the do i have it here yeah okay esther chapter 2 2 verse 22. if you want to read it actually start reading from 21 and until and including 23. i want to focus on 22. sure okay 21 esther chapter two uh in those days when mordecai was sitting in the king's gate uh uh big thin and terrish two of the king's chamberlain's of the guards of the threshold became angry and sought to lay hand lay a hand on king a a hosheros and the matter became known to mordecai and he told it to queen esther and esther told it to the king in mordecai's name and the matter was investigated and found to be so and they were both hanged on the gallows and it was written in the diary that was read before the king now the important words i want you to see is towards the end of verse 22. so first of all the matter became to mortified because mordechai he was on the sanhedrin to be on the sanhedrin you have to be able to speak 70 languages so he was hanging out in this area by the gate which means all the important people and he heard these uh these two very important people uh conspiring to poison the king to kill the king so what did he do he went and he told esther right so esther brought this to the king she informed the king in mordechai's name now this was written down in a book and the king had his own personal diary so we'll see later what happened in chapter six verses one and two the king his his sleep was disturbed meaning he had some weirder dreams very interesting dreams god bless you if you want to read chapter six verses one and two all right chapter six verse one on that night the king's sleep was disturbed and he ordered to bring the book of the records the chronicles and they were read before the king and it was found written that mordecai had reported about uh big thana and teresh two chamberlains of the king of the guards of the threshold who had sought to lay hand on king hosheros okay you can read the next verse and the king said what honor and majesty had been done for mordechai for this and of course at this point the king honors mordechai and then of course this is how everything develops right all these unfolding ideas how mordecai's then elevated and human has to dr actually drag him around and lead him around on his own on the on human's horse on the king's horse and all the decorative garments that are on mordecai and royal regalia yes tonight is not the point of going through the whole megillah the point here is that when we read chapter 2 verse 22 it says over there that the toymer esther lamela beshame mordechai that esther told the king in the name of now i'm not sure it doesn't seem like mordechai told her to tell the king that he's the one right she went ahead and did it because she knew this principle she knew the principle and we are now becoming aware of the principle this brought about the redemption right had of course hashem is the one that caused the the sleep to be disturbed to have a dream that he thought maybe human was out to get him and he wanted to investigate and he realized the truth was that mor that human actually messed around with the chronicles it happened to be the king had his own personal diary and he wrote the truth was there right it was black and white and he was able to say what what happened did we ever uh honor this guy did we ever reward him right and hummon been in charge you know a lot of fake news out there right a lot of fake news and he changed his accusations to his own um you know script here you have it so it's very interesting it specifically says she went ahead because she knew that she knew the secret that you have to tell it over in the name and what happened of course was it it's all history right that's where the redemption uh finally came through so now i have here in another comment based on this the one who says it over in i'm sorry behold we already learned another place that anybody says over in the name of the person that said it even anything not just torah anything brings redemption to the world as it says in the verse we just read now what does that mean that means that after the fact that what that and esther told the king achashveres in the name of mordechai that that big tan and teresh desire to kill him so this brought about nisbava ayade kach in other words it was like it's actually caused or brought about the ula the redemption for the jewish people so in the comment here he quotes the moksa victory in the midrashmol and they write that now remember we spoke about why there might be 48 ways and this may not even be included so he explains maybe it's not included according to the push up shot the time katana the author of the met the mission brought this not necessarily because it's one of the 48 ways to acquiring the torah but he brought it nevertheless the very fact that this is a very important statement that the one who says it over in the name of the person we heard it from brings redemption that in the future right at the time of the redemption we're all looking forward to this time that what i'm going to quote a verse from isaiah chapter 11 9. what does it say over there it says over there if you want to read it no it's chapter 11 verse 9. now you have to carry you know care about the verses before the verses after never take anything out of context but the idea here is that there won't be any harm anymore not to the jewish people not to his holy house not to the sacred mountain because the earth would be filled with the knowledge of hashem as water covering the seabed in other words the entire earth will be filled with the knowledge of god so the the idea that people hurt other people is mostly due to ignorance i mean i don't want to you know really i don't mind doing it you know bashing the christian world but we know there's no hiding you can't cover it over how much harm do the jewish people have happen because of christian ignorance right but once knowledge of the truth is is revealed right people will have a let's say quarrelling of fighting will cease there will actually be peace okay so this is i i don't know this this is not yet it didn't yet happen it will happen when the world will be filled with the knowledge of hashem's water covering the seabed no one will be aware of the numerous false beliefs and opinions of the pre-messianic days and that brings me to another verse that we're i hope we're all familiar with and if not let's become familiar with it in jeremiah 16 19 chapter 16 verse 19. jeremiah chapter 16 verse 19 oh lord who are my power and my strength and my refuge in the day of trouble to you nations will come from the ends of the earth and say only lies have our fathers handed down to us emptiness in which there is nothing of any avail obviously this didn't happen yet this is again the future redemption when the world will be filled with the truth okay when you're with when the world is filled with truth people will say oh everything we learned up into this point has been a lie but who does jeremiah say will say this it doesn't say the jews are going to say it it says the nations to hashem the nations are going to come from the ends of the earth and they're going to say exactly what you just read and this is like to me absolutely mind-boggling all right and then just as a another idea in safanya chapter 3 verse 9. do i have that here yeah 3 verse 9 says for then i will convert the peoples to a pure language that all of them call in the name of the lord to worship him of one accord so this is obviously messianic didn't happen yet because hashem it happened soon we said it was three verse nine then i will change the nation so even the idea of nations is a different language each nation has their own language they're going to convert they're going to change they're going to convert to speaking hebrew that's what it means a pure language listen i want our listeners to just feel the beauty of the language of ancient hebrew of the way of the the the original language that was spoken before the tower of babel and this is the language we all come back together um and we all have the when when the the knowledge of god is um is filling the whole earth they will even become more hopefully right even more um consumed with uh understanding and speaking the ability to speak and it doesn't mean they're going to speak hebrew like an israeli it means that they will have the clarity through the language of whom of the jews um so i want to explain the last statement in the uh in this commentary that i'm using based on really he only brought the first verse i brought in isaiah 11 9 but he says it comes out that when you say it over in the name of the one who said it you are you actually are acquiring torah right even though it's not listed in the 48 according to most opinions nevertheless it's obviously you're causing the world to acquire the torah and i'll explain in a second therefore the the the s therefore the author ended off the entire list with this idea because by the revelation of torah at the time of the redemption it will be in the future it didn't happen yet but this idea what i want to say was this um there's a quote from in in in the roshiva's book from paul johnson paul johnson is a famous historian i'm not sure if he's english but anyway you know from england uh paul johnson non-jewish historian articulated a certain approach another we're talking about being appreciative of the the author of the statement right so what we have to realize that everything comes from god right the jews are just a conduit right we are a a uh uh we're a a nation of priests right a holy nation and we're the ones who are the trans missers right we're transmitting this this information to the world so i'm going to quote from his book so you can understand why we're talking about appreciating the gratitude and how this brings redemption and so he says like this this is from the epilogue in his book certainly the world without the jews would have been a radically different place humanity might have eventually stumbled upon all the jewish insights but we cannot be sure all the great conceptual discoveries of the human intellect seem obvious and inescapable once they have been revealed but it requires a special genius to formulate them for the first time originally the jews had this gift to them we owe the idea of equality before the law both divine and human of the sanctity of life and the dignity of the human person of the individual conscience and so a personal redemption of collective conscience and so over social responsibility of peace as an abstract ideal and love is the foundation of justice and many other items which which constitute the basic moral furniture of the human mind without jews it might have been a much emptier place bottom line or more barbaric for a lot longer for sure actually how could you be an anti-semite only if you're truly honest with yourself as hitler yamashima was that the jews brought consciousness they brought morality into the world we're barbarians he says and we cannot exist together and this is an idea with a malik why am i again we're in the month of otter and it very much has to do with the whole story line with esther right they are anti-god by being anti-god you're anti-jewish period period right so an appreciation appreciate the incredible impact the jewish people have made on the world through the torah and give them credit for it okay so now with all that being said i would like to start that was like uh using yeah using this safer which i recommend highly recommend for perfect vote anybody wants to learn perky about seriously although it is only in hebrew okay so the roshiva starts off with this idea let's say you heard a great idea you want to share with others right but what do you do right you're going to pretend and and that it's your own invention you're the originator of this fantastic idea so this is the idea remember when you're quoting someone always acknowledge the source don't take credit for something that doesn't belong to you now the time it goes at great length anybody who's learned any talmud or heard a quote rabbi yochanan said in the name of this rabbi right this rabbi was walking with this rabbi and he had a conversation with that rabbi all almost all the time almost all the time you're hearing a whole lineage a whole uh trans transmission there's this rabbi said in the name of this rabbi in the name of that rhyme you're saying what do i need this for it's establishes authority it's intent it establishes a lot of integrity because when you have a a rabbi let's say rabbi mayor that says this and then you have rabbi yuda that says that and then later on you hear let's just say something that doesn't fit right with everything that rabbi mayor said you may say i obviously don't understand rabbi mayor because rebel mayor has said the opposite so many times or he certainly inferred the opposite somewhere else so and now i have to look deeper maybe mayor what maybe i don't have the full knowledge of what mayor is actually saying because it's not it doesn't jive it doesn't jim it's not it's not consistent and therefore that's going to open my mind but that's not the point the point here is this is our tradition to always say over in the name of who said it so the question he asks is why do we have such a hard time acknowledging that someone else is the source of this idea and we spoke about humility a lot during this session and even before the truth is and this i think really falls in with the mullet right we all crave independence and self-respect which is not a problem necessarily right but what does taking credit don't do it gives us our own status well it's me right well intellectual debt to others seem to threaten that status i just want to mention about the word mode the word yehudi i spoke about this before yehudi that's the name for yehuda leia named her fourth child yehuda because she was eternally grateful that she received more than she deserved and this is the words that she even says i've received more than my portion she assumed that since there were four mothers right there were her and rachel lay and rachel and then you had the other two uh handmaidens that it was going to be evenly distributed they knew they were going to be 12 um she just assumed okay it was wrong on her part to assume that but when she got the fourth child she said i got more than i deserved okay so the name yehudah which is what a jews name is because they're basically should be eternally grateful we say a hundred blessings a day that's what that's what i would call a jew the jewish religion i don't like the word religion but the jews are the grateful ones right that's what we have we wear yamaka as part of our uniform that there's somebody above us we give him all the glory and all the all the respect okay so basically that's what yehudi means and so the word mode which is the same root as yehudah mode which we say every morning i knew i am grateful that you returned my soul okay it's basically saying i am again i am a jew but that's the whole point mode is to acknowledge in other words someone gives you something we say todah let's say in english thank you what is what am i saying i don't know what we're saying in english but i know what i'm saying in hebrew i'm acknowledging that you gave me something and therefore i'm indebted to you you gave me something of value well then why would i say thank you it's coming to me or it's worthless i'm not gonna say thank you right but i'm gonna say thank you because i'm indebted to you for giving me something and that is a that is what a jew should stand for and for those who are um coming around the righteous amongst the nations they they they're learning jewish wisdom right this is what it's all about and we are thankful so be that way yeah well one thing we don't like to think is that we're not we're we're not smart enough to figure it out ourselves right we want to be on top of the you know and the high in the status high on the totem pole right who am i oh i needed someone else to teach him it to me no that's okay because even with the whole concept what we call our greatest sages we call them tamade students of the wise right you have to always remain learnable teachable right that's the point so what's the big deal if you had to learn from someone else right when you feel the need to take credit for someone else's work i mean i think they call it plagiarism right it's but really the bottom line is it's really counterfeit pleasure right well it's a sign of your own insecurity right and what you're trying to do is you're trying to look good and this is a cheap substitute right we this is not real and that's the idea of this um when we talk about um counterfeit pleasures the roshiva gave a whole series on the five levels of pleasure which actually can parallel the five levels of our soul we're not going through that today maybe one day we'll go through that idea um but the idea here when we're talking about the five um the the five pleasures of life so there's always the true pleasure which is ultimately the vakas hashem clinging and having that relationship with god versus all the false counterfeit pleasures that we seek in this room not going to go into it now but basically when you're looking for this cheap substitute that you taking credit when it's really not yours so basically um you're looking for legitimate self-worth but you know what the best way is not to take credit right if you want if you want to take credit for the idea then make it yours that's what we talked about in the introduction make opinion delve deeply think about it and then it can become yours and once it becomes yours you can say it over with your slight little nuances in your own name and people will then quote you in your name and that's the way to do it you know rabbi yeah and i like in this as as i've gotten older i i remember listening uh to musicians today who i liked years and years and years ago and of course people age and sometimes musicians age and they can't hit the notes they once did or their tempo is a little different but they're the original artist and and let's face it it's their song they can sing it any way they want and that makes all the difference you you people still flock to see them because they've been crowned with that ability uh in that tune and it makes all the difference i think sure sure sure okay so anyway true independence means you recognize and pay your debts right a person with a genuine self-esteem doesn't feel threatened when casting the limelight on others or and giving proper credit i say it's not i meant i didn't make this up i don't know who did but the truth will set you free right so espousing other people's ideas as your own ultimately damages your own self-esteem because deep inside deep down you know you're a fraud right furthermore if others discover your theft you're going to lose all credibility anyway in their eyes and these are very hard commodities to restore right you see first impressions are everything you know you come through you know and telling the truth it's gonna it's gonna serve you much better in the long run right if you give credit where credit is due people will respect you you're going to feel much better about yourself much better than if you had you know this plagiarism over your shoulders right far better than if you had taken the credit right i have hear something in my own notes if you faked it right and you make a statement as your own in other words you're fooled you're trying to fool people um what you're okay this is what the roshiva said basically what you end up doing if you're lying about it you say it's uh it's your own idea you're going to be put in a very difficult situation where you're now forced to defend that position and you don't have all the knowledge that the person who originally said it unless again you actually did make a kenyan and delve deeply and acquired that idea as your own the gift of wisdom just knowing that it's valuable right because that's what you're that's what you're that's what you're after right let's say i gave you a valuable piece of information now this is not mine this is i heard from the roshiva i i'm sure someone else said it i'm sure that other people still say it but i always i'd love to quote that he said it because i heard it from him and that is a happy wife is a happy life okay so if you're gonna say it already in his name great so when you hear something right where did i hear it from it's so valuable it's going to save my life knowing that keeping my wife happy is going to make my life peaceful right it's going to make my life great that's such an important piece of knowledge but where did i hear it from think about everything you know is valuable so one of the things roshi would ask a lot of people a lot of young students especially if you were brought up in iran you would probably follow kahomani if you were brought up in you know your group you were born and brought up in lebanon you'd follow nasrallah if you were brought up in ramallah or janine you would have followed arafat or abbas if you were brought in shireen now mainstream is one of the ultra ultra ultra orthodox neighborhoods that you would probably follow their way of life whatever redmi they have you might not question it that's not a way to live he wanted his students to think when you have ideas think about it where did i learn the ideas that i have my core knowledge think about the people who gave you wisdom for living perhaps a friend set you straight on something thank thank the friends right did your brother save you from doing something stupid doing an employer give you some good career advice that a rabbi or a teacher ever convey a piece of wisdom that shaped your view of the world acknowledge this acknowledge you receive these gifts the more valuable than gold and silver imagine how different your life would be without this knowledge and appreciate this gift of clarity that people have given you now go one step further and let the source know how much you know you appreciate what they taught you i've spoken many times about not just my rabbis my you know different pieces of i'm gonna say stunning information that changed my life from the different rabbis that i've had but my own parents right when we equate the sixth i'm sorry the fifth mitzvah on the ten commandments list with number ten i think we discussed this before and i've said it many times the five on one tablet and there's five on another tablet and they parallel so we've all asked if the first five deal with things matters between me and god why is number five honoring your parents on that list so we discuss this idea because that's supposed to bring you an appreciation for god right your parents are like god when you're you're young they're they feed you i mean they diaper you they do everything for you and you know you look at them as like the mightiest things that ever cross the planet so hopefully you you mature and you realize that hashem unless you grow up in a um a dysfunctional family right hopefully you'll deal with that and understand and go beyond that but basically you have an appreciation for god on the other hand right number 10 is don't covet you're desiring things that don't belong to you right but when you realize the value i hope and pray that everyone has something that they got from their parents parents really care i mean unfortunately there are parents that are just delinquents right as parents but hopefully they gave you some valuable information and you're able to and he suggests write a letter to your parents share with them and i do i don't write letters but i have shared with my parents and i've shared with them online too things that valuable lessons they've taught me in life um it's like paint your debt it's like paying a debt okay you can never really pay them but enjoy this enjoy sharing with your own rebbe with your own teacher with your own your own parents things that they gave you as valuable lessons you're giving pleasure to them right they're experiencing well i mean they didn't do this for the pleasure of it believe me right there's a lot of pain involved but you know in bringing up children but they also deserve the pleasure too and let them know how appreciative you are of the uh the valuable gift that they gave you um okay rabbi i love how i don't know i hear often from the jewish people when they talk about somebody who's uh gone gone to be with hashem they use the phrase of blessed memory often and it was it's something that's culturally uh uh distinct i think uh to the hebrew people is that in the same line when they talk about somebody of blessed memory well you're you're hoping that um for sure that everything that they've given should be should go towards a continuation of blessing others for hopefully their own um their own knowledge that they shared with their children and but the middles the good character that they endowed their children with it should continue to give them merit in the world to come okay in other words whatever we want to call it um we call gehenna is um it's not hell we don't we don't it's that middle place purgatory limbo what would you say purgatory purgatory which is no longer than 12 months it's a place of refinement and then there's always an elevation even after that through the children so yes the children the grandchildren and what not continuing to do mitzvahs torah mitzvahs and to carry on the jewish traditions will have an impact of blessed memory yep so just acknowledging the source of your wisdom engenders greater appreciation for that wisdom itself right again we're talking about how to make a canyon on the torus so the it's also about value values but let's just say we don't talk about wisdom um you know obviously values are like medos but also the wisdom itself has value to it so by not giving credit you're you essentially deny that you've been given that gift which then degrades the value it's bringing the value down so that is not what you want to do um okay so this also puts a great play into what i mentioned about these prophecies at the end of time appreciating the jews for for the the wisdom that they shared with the world um and this is where this really leads up to that quote by paul johnson he mentions when you think about the core values of western civilization where did they come from right there's like monotheism justice for all universal education dignity of the individual the infinite value of life world peace the primacy of marriage and family you're going to realize it's the torah itself that introduced these concepts to the world now knowing the jews were never more than a tiny fraction of the world's population they they were the one that introduced the ideas that um have the underpinnings of the civilized world um it's truly mind-boggling when you consider what humanity owes the jewish people so that's when he quotes uh paul johnson okay now he ends up with this idea that the jewish people are just a conduit it's all about hashem right if i would sum up anything about judaism it's called god consciousness whether it's blessings whether it's ritual this or that everything that we do is in order to bring god conscious to ourselves and then to spread that to the world so he ends really pretty much with above all give credit to the almighty who gave us a mind to understand and appreciate wisdom other teachers enlighten us but it's the original teacher it's god himself i just want to tell you you know men as a newcomer to the yeshiva in 1988 the roshiva had a group of students who were going back to the states you know remember we're here in israel he they had there's some students who were going back to the states for the first time so we're talking about bale true people who were not religious so the parents were either not religious or even anti-religious or maybe they were traditional to a certain extent but didn't expect their children to come home as so fanatically religious just changed so i might have shared this with you he said listen some of some relatives are looking for a fight they're looking for a battle and they're going to say to you huh what are you learning over there right expecting like you're in a cult you want to test it you're in some kind of uh dangerous uh religion fringe they're not you know these families are not that familiar with judaism they know they're jews they may be proud jews but they don't know that much about the religion the you know orthodox judaism which is the truth of judaism and so they might ask in a very condescending way so what are you learning like not really interested but wanting to start a fight and i experienced it myself to a certain extent with a certain uncle of mine but anyway so they'll ask you know what are you learning so he suggested don't tell him right away i mean like don't get in a fight just tell him ah you probably wouldn't be interested because that you know maybe they're not really interested they're interested in the fight so make sure you like hold your breath so to speak wait till the 10th time when they're pulling their hair out already and saying what are you learning tell us you know we're worried about you so then you tell them we're learning about all the almighty god's revelation to the jewish people mount sinai that's all i'm learning and leave it at that because that's what it's all about so the bottom line is that god is our teacher right there we're conduits moses moses was a conduit whoever whatever our teachers are in yeshiva whatever teachers you're listening to online right but the original teacher is hashem he implanted within us the intuition to discover all there is to know about living and he programmed us with an antenna for wisdom i just want to mention here also we speak about that and this is a valuable piece of information i hope everyone can walk away with that while we're in our mother's womb which i'm not sure that exactly means that but let's just say before our soul comes out into this world our soul is being taught or has been taught all there is to know about the truth about the torah about existence but we're caused to forget it for good reason in order for us to recapture it so when we hear something that's true it's like it resonates like i just know that's true where did i hear that before i heard that before my soul came into the world this is true by gentiles also it just may be more covered up not sure how it works we'll leave it at that then it may be more of a struggle for a non-jew okay we'll leave it at that maybe for another another time but anyway god is constantly showering us with gifts all the time he's giving us right such hesitant all you have to do is read about king david king david will tell you all about how kind and benevolent hashem is nothing is possible without god the problem is that we don't want to be indebted like this leads into the amalek story a malik does not want to be indebted to god they're our arch enemy they are so corrupt in their thinking that there's no there's nothing there's almost nothing rehabilitative with a mullig so therefore as we know there's a special mitzvah to wipe out their memory i'll leave it at that for those who understand what i'm talking about um so what do we do we deny his gifts and we delude ourselves into thinking we're alone right and we're responsible for our own wisdom and achievements so there's a problem right in order to connect to connect with god we have to give up these illusions of our independence and learn to appreciate all the god that is all the good that hashem has done for us everything is a gift from god there is this statement that he brings down in purchase r mishnah that ends whoever reports a saying in the name of the one who said it brings as it says in queen esther right in the book of esther chapter 2 verse 22. so the question is why does giving proper credit bring about the redemption so this is going to get into a little bit of the morale as well at the end so we already know the story i can skip it right we already know we went through it okay so none of this would have happened if esther had taken the credit for herself because it would have been recorded in the book that esther told uh ahashvaris about the plot no she went out of her way to say it over in the name of mordechai so the at the time of purim came around it came about because esther originally conveyed the information regarding the plot in the name of mordechai and now we're going to hear the words of the morale in which i had here anyway i showed it to you originally and when we started he explains the deeper meaning of this idea when hashem brings the redemption he wants the world to know that it's only him he's the one you know his name doesn't even appear in the megillah and yet by the end of reading it you should know it was hashem nobody else this is all this is what judaism is all about recognizing that it's utk bufke who was is will be all existence that's what god's name is all existence why would you fall for a cheap imitation right right right that's and this is what i know that so many of that's the main the greeting on the soup right right are attracted to judaism because we are about unadulterated right pure knowledge of god and that's what it's all about so ultimately right he wants the world to know that it's only he is bringing about the gula in order to create a greater what we call kiddush hashem glory of god's name sanctification of god's name only someone who can remove their ego and give the credit where the credit is due rather than taking undeserved credit can actually merit being the instrument to bringing about the gool of bringing about the redemption that person will give proper credit and recognition to hashem and will proclaim that it was the almighty not the person themselves but god who brought about the redemption maybe we see it soon now i have here just a little side point that i wrote i might have mentioned that i have certain i wouldn't even call them students but let's say friends people i associate with i mean here in jerusalem a lot of people can come up with what they call the jerusalem syndrome right the messianic syndrome and i've crossed i could say a handful of people maybe a few more over my last 30 plus years in jerusalem who think they are the messiah right or they're the reincarnated soul of the messiah so anyway to the jews i rest assured i tell them no problem right you may be the candidate right you may be but don't take credit right you what's bothering you really why do you feel you know usually they have a deep wound of self-esteem and they need to fill it and they need to feel important well they are important right you have a place in this world i try to reassure them right but all the jews are praying for redemption all the jews are praying right and doing whatever they can i say all the jews okay many jews right many jews are working hard and bringing around the redemption so it's a group effort you can also participate right it's not just about you get rid of your ego like moses was the most humblest of all and he was able to bring about the redemption again he brought it out hashem brought it about using him you want to be used work on your character traits it's all about that and these 48 ways right i would say drum roll please but the the villain gun the only person that says the purpose of this world the why we're in it is to work on our character traits humility ver you know the ego is probably and can be one of the most devastating um parts of our effort to to to work on our on our character traits so being honest with ourselves being huma humbled is like right without that i mean i spoke about this before about the whole idea of recovery addictions so there was a famous i think it was young carl young there's a whole idea it's called not god what is it his book called not god was not god meaning you're not god as long as you think you're god you're in big trouble you are it's just a downhill spiral all the way down to you know where right but once you realize you're not gone and there's something outside of power greater yourself that can help you that's where redemption will come and i'll end with that and mizrat hashem i mentioned in the before we went on air that this will be right today was the last uh although i might publicize if we do it uh if we do a party uh i'll publicize the party but uh meaning the the video if i videotape the party different speakers but this rat hashem we will do ravino weinberg told me personally this was his favorite book it's his favorite book so why not right this is um written 500 years ago um ramosa cordovaro we call them right and it's learning compassion through hashem's 13 attributes of mercy right when moses asked i want to know who you are i want to know what you're about it was a very complicated question it wasn't as simple as that god revealed certain aspects of who he is remember it's quite complicated that whole idea but nevertheless god says whenever you're in trouble whenever you're looking for forgiveness whether you're looking for redemption this is what you need to investigate these 13 attributes again what i said about the villenegon the whole purpose of life is to work on our character we're creating the image of god these 13 attributes are again how do you describe god in carefully but these are 13 attributes character traits of god that we should emulate so what greater way that even a non-jew can do what they can in perfecting themselves because the seven noah high laws are not about seven very specific laws there are seven major categories and beyond this is why it's called beyond the seven right that's what our series has been called yes because logical mitzvahs anything that's logical that's written the torah a non-jewish a righteous gentile must follow to whatever degree he can as well as ethical and moral teachings okay so this is a perfect which we there's enough out there we can learn all our days yep it's a perfect segue to our future endeavor all right so rabbi we got our friend our friend nina nina down in brazil she says thank you so much rabbi poston for all your time that you give us uh including the careful preparation of the classes wisdom in such beautiful expressing uh baruch hashem uh uh we will start another book so um uh that's tomer devorah and uh but we're gonna take a week or two off right in a few weeks we'll let you both and when we're gonna start i i need a minimum of two weeks at least to decide i just have a lot going on right now um and uh in a few weeks when we're going to start excellent excellent so uh that is it uh saying it over in the name of the one who says it and make that a practice in your everyday life and it's part of bringing uh the redemption and uh you just never know how hashem will orchestrate uh any situation or circumstance beyond your control but if you work this principle in there will be in fact uh uh effects out there as you've read out of the book of esther uh it changed the course uh in uh played a a wonderful uh uh uh a turn of events there as uh just dynamite to hear uh how it actually works uh there's practical wisdom uh 48 ways to wisdom this is something uh it's been a joy i haven't done this course in probably 15 years or a little longer i think and it was just for me a joy to touch on again and a lot of the notes i took uh were they were out of uh the maharal's version uh so i read that's where i got my first exposure to it uh uh off of a website torah.org and um yeah it's just beautiful beautiful material and uh we thank you rabbi poston for sharing of your time and the wisdom that you heard directly from the author uh from ishitora in that book and we hope that it's blessed you folks out there and we look forward to uh carrying forward with more classes of beyond the seven in the future uh but for now that is the the conclusion to the book the 48 ways to wisdom and uh uh rabbi we hope you get uh the rest that you need uh and thank you once again and uh i find myself quoting uh yebenet often you can always find rabbi poston's material on his website or on his youtube page ybnay.com or his his youtube site ybnay wonderful material i find myself tuning in weekly to rabbi breida which is uh new stuff and i loved catching the material that you put out yourself always wonderful wonderful torah material and uh as you mentioned today about the hebrew language i i find i actually get the definitions more often from from you your your channel and your material they they come alive uh in the hebrew words more and more and thank you for that having that focus so so thank you all and i'm looking forward to seeing you all in a few weeks or however long it takes till we decide all right so we'll sign up we'll keep you posted folks on social media so keep an eye out for that thanks again rabbi poston thanks everybody for tuning in and we're going to sign out for now have a wonderful wonderful day [Music] is