Transcript
Okay, בוקר טוב Boker tov, this Shabbos we have the privilege of reading פרשת בחקתי Parshas Bechukosai, which very often the parshios are read together, so we don't get a chance to focus and emphasize on the second parsha, which is בחקתי Bechukosai. So I want to start this morning, I mean the brief overview is pretty simple. The parsha is made up of three parts. You've got the blessings and the curses, that's two parts. Torah, parsha begins with a list of the blessings, if you obey God's will and you follow his directives and you embrace them in your life, then we're our life is filled with blessing. What exactly that blessing is, I think we talked about last year. How that blessing expresses itself. Then then it goes into the תוכחה tochachah. We have תוכחה tochachah appears twice in the Torah, the rebuke, and this is the first time, and it has a long graphic description of what life will be like if we disobey God, if we dismiss God, if we disregard God's will, then we make ourselves subject to the elements. And this is a harsh reading of the worst that the elements can impose upon us when we don't have divine protection. And then the the conclusion of the parsha deals with the issue of ערכין erchin, which are when a person makes a נדר neder, when a person makes a vow to bring an offering commensurate with their value, with the value of another individual, the value of their wife, the value of their animal and so on, the redemption of those pledges, of those of those vows. Okay? I didn't understand that. The value of ערכין erchin? Yeah. How do we do that? Yeah, in other words it's a נדר neder, it's a vow that you'll bring an animal sacrifice equivalent to what your value is. You have to determine ערכין erchin, it's a משניות mishnayos in גמרא Gemara, what exactly, how do you determine ערכין erchin? So the wife's value is in essence. That's right. Right. And the husband. Exactly. find somewhere else. Right. Why are you telling him? Tell her. If you ask, if you ask the wife, the husband is bringing a קרבן korban on behalf of himself, he barely has to pay anything, he's worthless. And if he has to bring on behalf of her, he'll never be able to afford it. She's priceless. So anyway, okay, but what I wanted to spend our time on this morning is beginning from שלישי shlishi. שלישי Shlishi as in when בחקתי Bechukosai is read as a single parsha. It's interesting that בהר Behar is on the land which is very physical. If you don't do it in the land, you're losing it. Right. But this is בחקתי Bechukosai spiritual. Yeah.Okay, so last year we focused on the first few פסוקים psukim, on the first two עליות aliyos in the parsha, short עליות aliyos but עליות aliyos, that that deal with the blessings and how they express themselves. Interestingly you pointed that out George because the truth is if you notice, all of the ברכות brachos also are described and in the context of land. Right? ונתתי הארץ יבולה Venasati ha'aretz yevulah. דייש Dayish. ואכלתם לשובע וישבתם לבטח בארצכם Ve'achaltem lasova vishavtem lavetach b'artzechem. ונתתי שלום בארץ Venasati shalom ba'aretz. וחרב לא תעבור בארצכם Vecherev lo sa'avor b'artzechem. If you read, you'll see that the blessings all describe themselves in conjunction and connection with the land also. So anyway, beginning with with שלישי shlishi, which is not a real break. In other words, again our real breaks are the סתומות stumos and the פתוחות psuchos based on the סמך samech or the פא peh that shows us where the Torah, where the author of the document, namely הקדוש ברוך הוא HaKadosh Baruch Hu himself saw there being a natural break. But we'll just use it as a delineating demarcation. ואכלתם ישן נושן וישן מפני חדש תוציאו Ve'achaltem yashan noshan veyashan mipnei chadash totziu. The pasuk describes that again if בחוקתי תלכו bechukosai teileichu, if you're following God's will and if you are living the lifestyle that he designs for us, then you'll eat very old grain and you'll remove the old to make way for the new. What does it mean you'll eat old grain? You have something left over from the prior harvest. Oh. So, Rashi points out, Rashi quotes from the מדרש Medrash, תורת כהנים Toras Kohanim. שהפירות יהיו משתמרים וטובים לאכול, שאפילו פירות ישן של שלוש שנים יפה לאכול משל אשתקד shehapeiros yihyu mishtamrim v'tovim le'echol, she'afilu peiros yashan shel shalosh shanim yafim le'echol mishel eshtakad. It's not going to get stale. That you first of all you'll have surplus, but your surplus will never grow stale. And that's a blessing to have surplus but to have to throw it out, have it mold, have it decay, is not a blessing. To have surplus but have it remain fresh and new, that is a blessing. What about the second half? וישן מפני חדש תוציאו veyashan mipnei chadash totziu? and remove the old to make way for the new. שהגרנות מלאות חדש והאוצרות מלאות ישן וצריכים אתם לפנות את האוצרות למקום אחר להכניס את החדש לתוכן Shehagranos meleos chadash veha'otzros meleos yashan, vetzrichim atem lefanos es ha'otzros lemakom acher l'hachnis es hachadash l'sochan. The new grain will be so abundant that you'll have to empty out the storehouse to make room for it. You have to start to rent space in storage facilities, in units, because you'll say I'm just I'm so overflowing with blessing, I don't have room in my house, I don't have room in my warehouse. That you need to rent warehouses and warehouses. So that indeed of course is a great physical blessing. The גרנות granos is the place where they actually grind it. Yeah. So where do they put the old stuff? New storehouses, that's what Rashi says. You have to צריכים אתם לפנות את האוצרות למקום אחר להכניס את החדש לתוכן tzrichin atem lefanos es ha'otzros lemakom acher lehachnis es hachadash lesochan. You have to empty the storehouses to a new place in order to make room for the abundant grain that will grow.ונתתי משכני בתוככם Venasati mishkani besochechem. And the next pasuk God says, I will place my dwelling in your midst, ולא תגעל נפשי אתכם velo sigal nafshi eschem. And this is the perplexing clause, ולא תגעל נפשי אתכם velo sigal nafshi eschem. What does that mean? I will not despise you. God says, I will not come disgusted by you. You will not become despicable to me. That's a very unusual ברכה bracha. But a good one. It's a very unusual ברכה bracha. Backhanded. Right. What kind of ברכה bracha is that? A left-handed. It's very unusual. Imagine that you propose to a girl, you're dating, you're courting her, you have a wonderful dating experience, it's time to get married, you fall in love with her, you want to get engaged, you propose to her and you say, you know, I see us as sharing life goals and I want you to know that you'll never be repulsive to me. What kind of a... You don't sweat as much as the other girls. You'll never, you'll never, and I want you to know I'll never be disgusted by you. You'll never be repulsive to me. What kind of a, is that a romantic proposal? הקדוש ברוך הוא HaKadosh Baruch Hu is saying, you follow my will, you follow my word, so I want you to know, ונתתי משכני בתוככם venasati mishkani besochechem, which we'll look at in a moment what that means, what does it mean when God promises I will place my dwelling among you and you'll never become despicable. I'll never despise you. What kind of ברכה bracha is I'll never despise you? No matter what you do, even though it is despicable, I won't. Unconditional love. Oh. So I I agree. It's hard to call this unconditional love when it's based on the condition of observing God's will, but but, I agree with you, that's what strikes me. You have to understand that the whole parsha is describing so much more than just a simple matter of obedience to a set of laws. The parsha is describing a very way of life. You'll notice a word that is repeated over and over and over in this parsha, and it's the word or a form of the of the verb of the שורש shoresh of הליכה halicha of הלכה halacha. אם בחקתי תלכו Im bechukosai teileichu, if you walk in my ordinances, which of course Rashi interprets as עמלים בתורה ameilim baTorah that one has to be dedicated and toil in Torah. But אם בחקתי תלכו im bechukosai teileichu, והתהלכתי בתוככם vehishalachti besochechem, then I will walk within you. But ואם תלכו עמי בקרי ve'im teilchu imi bekeri, we're going to get to with the negative punishments that if you will הליכה halicha, if you will walk with me with קרי keri. What's קרי keri? Not the secretary in the office, who's קרי keri? קרי Keri comes from the word מקרה mikreh, Rashi quotes when it comes to עמלק Amalek, when it says אשר קרך בדרך asher karcha baderech, which is the same root as קרי keri. Rashi gives three interpretations. קרי Keri comes from קור kor which means cold. So one interpretation here, if you apply the same three interpretations from עמלק Amalek, that אם תלכו עמי בקרי im tilchu imi bekeri means if you're cold to me. God says if you're cold to me, if our relationship is not warm, if our relationship is not animated, it's not vibrant, it's not dynamic, it's cold, it's a cold relationship, then I will be cold to you and I will withdraw my countenance from you. Another interpretation of Rashi is not from קור kor as in cold, but as in as in מקרה mikreh, happenstance. מקרה Mikreh means I ran into you במקרה b'mikreh. If you're in Israel you say, oh yeah, במקרה b'mikreh I was at the supermarket today and I saw so and so. במקרה B'mikreh means by chance, randomness, happenstance. And we don't have time to get into it, but of course that's the whole philosophy of עמלק Amalek. It's a very dangerous thing today that it's one of the most popular words among teenagers. For the last number of years, it's been. It's so random, dad. Random. They use the word random. When I was a kid, who used the word random? You know, when I was a kid, if someone used the word random, you'd say, wow, it's quite an impressive vocabulary. Today, every kid's random, it's random, you're so random. It's a very dangerous philosophy, it's a very dangerous philosophy. Essentially it's the philosophy of עמלק Amalek. And it's the attitude that עמלק Amalek tried to impose and influence upon us of מקרה mikreh, of chance, of happenstance. There's no meaning, there's no purpose, there's no order to the universe. It's all chance, it's happenstance, it's random, everything that happens is random. So God in our parsha says אם תלכו עמי בקרי im tilchu imi bekeri, if your attitude towards me and towards the world in which you live is that it's מקרה mikreh, I'm not here, it's the rules of nature, it's chance. So והלכתם vehilachtem, then והלכתי אף אני עמכם בחמת קרי vehalachti af ani imachem bechamas keri. God says you walk with me with קרי keri, I walk back to you with קרי keri. So what word do you see over and over and over again in our parsha? אם בחקתי תלכו im bechukosai teileichu, והתהלכתי בתוככם vehishalachti besochechem. אם הלכתם עמי בקרי im halachtem imi bekeri, והלכתי אף אני עמכם בחמת קרי vehalachti af ani imachem bechamas keri. What's the theme of the parsha? I would say it's this concept of not dry law, but the concept of הלכה halacha. What is הלכה halacha? We call הלכה halacha law. Jewish law is הלכה halacha, but if you translate the word הלכה halacha, what is הלכה halacha? How you should go. הלכה Halacha means going, it's a journey, means walking in a particular way. הלכה Halacha is about a relationship. הלכה Halacha is about a consistent commitment. הלכה Halacha is about not being casual but being consistent. השם Hashem tells us that if there's a meaningful relationship, then if you if there's הלכה halacha, אם בחקתי תלכו im bechukosai teileichu, והתהלכתי בתוככם vehishalachti besochechem, it's not that you're just keeping a random set of laws, but הלכה halacha, you're on a journey. If you are on a journey with me, then ולא תגעל נפשי אתכם lo sigal nafshi eschem, you'll never be repulsive to me. And what does it mean? So I think I think it was one who suggested it. It happens to be that it's a very romantic way of proposing. Because if you say to a woman I want you to know no matter how many babies we have and how much weight you may gain, how many wrinkles you may form, no matter how what may happen with the infirmities of age, no matter what financial situation we may be in, no matter what, I want you to know you'll never be repulsive to me. I'll always adore you, you'll always be beautiful to me, no matter what. No matter what. If you go bald, you'll always be beautiful to me. In a way, it may be shocking or startling to the 19-year-old or 22-year-old girl who's proposed in that manner, but later in life she would have appreciated retrospectively how absolutely romantic it is if the husband would propose and say, I will love you so much that you'll never be repulsive to me, no matter what. So I I stop short of using the term unconditional love because of course this is all in response to אם בחקתי תלכו im bechukosai teileichu, אם im, if. But I think what God is pledging is if you embrace a warm relationship with me, if you embrace a lifestyle of הלכה halacha, בחקתי תלכו bechukosai teileichu, והתהלכתי בתוככם vehishalachti besochechem, if you're walking with me, not just doing these laws, and because what I think this is one of the just as a brief aside, it's one of the biggest challenges of our generation. It's one of the reasons that teenagers, I think, not only teenagers, that so many in the Orthodox community are yet uninspired, because they are exposed to a world of rote, of rules, of laws, of do's and don'ts, of behaviors and actions. And they forget about the world of הלכה halacha, not הלכה halacha as in law, הלכה halacha as in בחקתי תלכו bechukosai teileichu and והתהלכתי בתוככם vehishalachti besochechem. The life is a journey, it's a relationship, it's a longing to be close, it's a rendezvous with the Almighty, it's intimacy with the Almighty. הלכה Halacha is a journey towards intimacy with the Almighty. And that if we have to show that the שבת Shabbos and the כשרות kashrus and the ברכות brachos and the שעטנז shatnez and the לשון הרע lashon hara and the all of that is a framework to to be on a journey towards intimacy with the Almighty. It's on a all that is a framework towards a warm relationship with our Creator, and then indeed we reap the ברכה bracha, ולא תגעל נפשי אתכם lo sigal nafshi eschem, that if we have that warm relationship with God, we won't be repulsive to him. Yes, Sue. I just have to screen. You're still going to be like for me. Sure. When you just said a couple of seconds ago, Rashi said something with עמלים ameilim or something like that. What what is that? Yeah. The opening, the opening Rashi on the parsha, it says אם בחקתי תלכו im bechukosai teileichu, if you'll walk in my decrees, and מצוותי תשמרו mitzvosai tishmoru, you'll observe my mitzvos, ועשיתם אותם va'asisem osam and do them. So Rashi's bothered. We already said מצוותי תשמרו mitzvosai tishmoru, you'll keep my mitzvos. So what did it mean if you בחקתי תלכו bechukosai teileichu, you walk in my חוקים chukos? Aren't חוקים chukos part of מצוות mitzvos? So what was it referring to? So Rashi is quoting from the מדרש Medrash, תורת כהנים Toras Kohanim. What it means is שתהיו עמלים בתורה she'tihiyu ameilim baTorah. That word, עמלים ameilim, is a word from the מדרש Medrash. עמל Amal means to to toil, to work hard, to exert great effort, which means essentially, it's another way of saying not to have a casual relationship with Torah. עמלות Ameilus could be understood in the in the בית מדרש beis medrash sense as as breaking your teeth over a תוספות Tosfos, to שטייג shteig. You don't just learn the גמרא Gemara and you struggle with one word so you say okay let's turn the page, but you break your teeth over that תוספות Tosfos. You spend four hours till you finally figure it out. So in the classic sense that's what עמלות ameilus is. But I'm suggesting that in the context of this notion of והתהלכתי בתוככם vehishalachti besochechem, בחקתי תלכו bechukosai teileichu, and so on, in the world of הלכה halacha, the עמלים בתורה ameilim baTorah means don't have a casual relationship. It's the same, again, you just you create with the analogy, you go to the gym. If you go to the gym and you have a casual relationship with the machines, you're not going to get much out of it. You're going to walk out and say, right? I spoke about this on שבת הגדול Shabbos HaGadol. The person who goes into the gym and says, totally uninspired, I don't like the music and I don't like the trainer, and they stand on the side of the room watching, and they leave and they say, I don't know why, I don't really get much out of this, what's the point of it? You'd say, you moron, you didn't touch any of the machines. You got to work out. And don't blame the music and don't blame the trainer. Work out and you'll see. The same is true with שול shul, that people who come in, sit back in their chair expecting inspiration to happen to them, uninspired, the חזן chazzan, the rabbi, the שול shul. Again, that doesn't mean we don't have a responsibility to provide the best we can with all of those things. I'm not abrogating our responsibility towards providing the greatest חזן chazzan, trying to provide you the best rabbi and so on, I'm just saying that ultimately it's up to the person to put in their effort. So that's what it means, שתהיו עמלים בתורה she'tihiyu ameilim baTorah. You don't walk into a religious, inspirational, spiritual opportunity in a casual way and expect it to happen to you. But it requires עמלות ameilus, it requires effort, it requires toil and so on. What? You should write about that. I should write about that. Nobody reads the nobody reads the little letter. Oh, yes, they do. The word, נפשי nafshi is God's נפש nefesh. Everyone knows. Isn't that interesting? Right, I also noticed that. No, it could say ולא תגעל lo sigal, you'll never be repulsive to me, I won't be disgusted to you, by you. What is נפשי nafshi? God is referring to נפשי nafshi, my נפש nefesh, like my soul will never be. Rashi picks up on this. אין רוחי קצה בכם ein ruchi katzah bachem. רוחי ruchi, my spirit. My spirit won't be disgusted by you. What was the first half of the pasuk? ונתתי משכני בתוככם Venasati mishkani besochechem. בית המקדש Beis HaMikdash. God says I will place my משכן mishkan. So a couple interpretations. The Ibn Ezra writes, ולא תפחדו שיחודש דבר ותבואו לעולם לידי חסרון כי כבודי דר עמכם velo sifchadu sheyichudash davar vetavou l'olam lidei chisaron ki kvodi dar imachem. I don't want you to fear. Don't worry that you'll ever come to be lacking because my honor dwells among you. In other words, ונתתי משכני בתוככם venasati mishkani besochechem, it's truly the greatest ברכה bracha. It's, two years ago, שבת שובה Shabbos Shuvah when I spoke of three years ago, whenever it was, I spoke about אמונה וביטחון emunah u'bitachon, spoke about feeling השם's Hashem's presence in your life. And I described that that summer I had been reading about it and learning about it and working on it, actively working on it, and the incredible sense of peacefulness that can overcome you if you embrace אמונה emunah. That if you're somewhere and you're struggling and you you you feel that angst, you feel yourself tighten up, you feel that worry, you feel the anxiety, and then you go, whoa, I'm sticking with God. I forgot that he's in control and he said stick with me. I'm sticking with him and everything's going to be okay. I described, maybe right or wrong, how I was driving back from an event and I had to stop at a gas station off 95, it was in the worst neighborhood in in North Miami area, and I was getting out of the car and there were some sketchy personalities and I started to feel, oh my god, I hope I'm not going to get killed tonight or get robbed at gunpoint, which happens often I understand in North Miami, trying to get gas, and I started to feel that angst and feel that tightening. I said, whoa, I'm about to give a שיר shiur next week, it was like before שבת שובה Shabbos Shuvah, about אמונה וביטחון emunah u'bitachon. I'm about to tell 600 people that you got to take a deep breath and stick with God. It's all in his hands. And I felt, I realized that, and I stopped, I took that deep breath, I said it's, I felt this incredible feeling of calm, of peace. That just, look, it's in השם's Hashem's hands. I have no gas, I had to stop. Maybe I planned poorly and I shouldn't have had to stop in this neighborhood, but I had to stop, I have no gas, and now it's in השם's Hashem's hands. And what worrying will get me nowhere. What a sense of peacefulness. And they robbed you anyway. No. No. The gas station might have robbed me with the price but the nobody else robbed me. So that's what the Ibn Ezra is saying, ולא תפחדו velo sifchadu, that ונתתי משכני בתוככם venasati mishkani besochechem. Look at the ברכה bracha in בחקתי תלכו bechukosai teileichu, and I would argue this is not an external ברכה bracha. This is not a ברכה bracha that if you do A then God will provide B, this is an automatic ברכה bracha. If you are embracing a life of אמונה וביטחון emunah u'bitachon, look at the automatic, inevitable result that you'll feel calm and peace and have no anxiety because you'll realize השם Hashem is with you. You're never alone. Or I liken it to, you know, sometimes my oldest daughter or my other daughters will be home with the other kids and and I will both not be home and one of them will call us and say, I just needed to hear your voice, I realized there was no one home with me, I got scared for a minute and everything. You know? So it's the same kind of thing. That's the image I have. I'm in this world, I I feel alone, I'm nervous, and then I call השם Hashem and I just say I'm just checking in because I felt I felt nervous, I felt alone. שלא תבואו לעולם לידי חסרון כי כבודי דר עמכם shelo tavou l'olam lidei chisaron ki kvodi dar imachem. God says I live, I live with you. I'm always home. The Ibn Ezra. Okay. He goes even further, he says he implies in this in the rest of it that the ולא תגעל נפשי אתכם lo sigal nafshi eschem means he will not get disgusted. Right. ואני איני כבן אדם שתקצר נפשו לשבת במקום אחד v'ani eini k'ven adam she'tik'tzar nafsho lasheves b'makom echad. I'm not like another person, here the Ibn Ezra interprets the second half of the pasuk, ולא תגעל נפשי velo sigal nafshi, as not I won't be repulsed, not that my spirit will not reject you, but I can't, I'm not limited to living in one place. That's how the Ibn Ezra understands it. כי בלכתכם מארץ אל עם וכלי מקדש עיניינו עמכם, כי סוד כבודי בתוככם ki b'lechtichem me'eretz el am u'chlei mikdashi einenu imachem, ki sod kvodi besochechem. And the Ibn Ezra says this is not contingent on the בית המקדש Beis HaMikdash. Correct. ונתתי משכני Venasati mishkani for the Ibn Ezra is a ברכה bracha that applies at all times. If you embrace God, you'll feel His presence in your life. You'll realize He loves you. What a ברכה bracha, to feel his presence, his calming hand on your shoulder, his warm and loving embrace, his countenance, his warmth, his radiance, that that's not contingent or dependent on a בית המקדש Beis HaMikdash or a משכן mishkan, that's at all times. So that's the Ibn Ezra. Says the Sforno, ונתתי משכני בתוככם, תשרי שכינתי בתוככם בכל מקום שתהיו, כמו שיעד קודם זה יגל בעמר, בכל המקום אשר אזכיר את שמי אבוא אליך Venasati mishkani besochechem, tishrei sh'chinasi besochechem b'chol makom shetihiyu, k'mo she'yi'ed kodem zeh yigal ba'omer, b'chol hamakom asher azkir es shmi avo eilecha. The Sforno also says that what what's going on in the pasuk is is I'm not limited to one place. My daughter's nervous to be alone, she wants to be with her אבא abba, but wherever I am, that's where I am. If I'm at a meeting and not home, I'm not with her. If I'm home, she can be calm, I'm with her. Says הקדוש ברוך הוא HaKadosh Baruch Hu, I have the capacity to be anywhere and everywhere. And therefore you have nothing to worry about because wherever you are, I am. Wherever you are, I am with you. Okay. He goes even further. Rashi understands it a little more limited sense. Not wherever you are, I'm with you. ונתתי משכני Venasati mishkani Rashi says, זה בית המקדש zeh Beis HaMikdash. This is this is a ברכה bracha for if not the individual Jew is living properly they feel השם Hashem, this is a collective ברכה bracha. If nationally we are behaving the way we should be, then we will deserve God's dwelling among us, namely ונתתי משכני בתוככם venasati mishkani besochechem, there will be a בית המקדש Beis HaMikdash. Okay, continuing. Actually I wanted to look at the רמב\"ן Ramban there. The pattern goes even further and תשרי שכינתי בתוככם tishrei shchinasi besochechem doesn't mention the בית המקדש Beis HaMikdash. I will give the שכינה shechinah to you. It doesn't even though it's on the word משכני mishkani. Correct. The Targum, but that's a simple understanding. That's how the Sforno, that's how the Ibn Ezra, that's how most understand is that it's not talking about the בית המקדש Beis HaMikdash. Targum also understands it that way, it's not a physical structure. It's not God is not making a physical promise. God is uh God is saying uh I will be wherever wherever you are, which is a huge ברכה bracha. The רמב\"ן Ramban quotes Rashi and the רמב\"ן Ramban expands upon it. But I want to skip in the רמב\"ן Ramban, not the first three paragraphs. Okay, the third paragraph. והנה הברכות האלה Vehinei habrachos ha'eileh. See it, anyone following in the רמב\"ן Ramban? Trying to. If you're following in the רמב\"ן Ramban it's the third paragraph in my layout, it begins with the words, והנה הברכות האלה כפי פשוטן vehinei habrachos ha'eileh k'fi pshutan. The רמב\"ן Ramban's making a comment about these ברכות brachos. אם מעוטין ורבוס כלליות בעניין המטר והשובע והשלום ופריה ורביה אינם כהברכות שברך פרט בקיצור im me'utin u'rabos klalios b'inyan hamatar v'hasova v'hashalom u'priah u'rviyah, einam ka'brachos she'berach prat b'kitzur. These are different types of ברכות brachos. The Torah earlier in שמות Shmos gave us ברכות brachos in a very succinct way. וברך את לחמך ואת מימך והסרתי מחלה מקרבך u'verach es lachmecha v'es meimecha vahasrosi machalah m'kirbecha. יפתח וימלא חן וחסד שיברך במאכל ובמשתה שיסר הברכה עד שלא יהיה שום חולי בגופינו yiftach v'yemaleh chein v'chesed, sheyivrach b'ma'achal u'v'mishteh, sheyisir habracha ad shelo yihyeh shum choli b'gufeinu. There in the succinct expression of the ברכות brachos, it was that we'll have bread to eat, we'll have water to drink and we will be without illness. Here it's an expanded version that deals more with rain, with being satiated and satisfied, with having peace and tranquility, with פריה ורביה priyah u'rviyah, with having many children and promulgating. והנה יהיו כלי הזריעה שלמים ובריאים ונולדים כהוגן ונחיה ימים מלאים V'hinei yihyu k'lei hazriah shleimim u'vri'im v'noladim k'hogen v'nichyeh yamim meleim. כמו שאמר ופניתי אליכם והפריתי אתכם והרבתי אתכם וימיכם אמלא kmo she'amar ufanisi aleichem v'hifreisi eschem v'hirbeisi eschem v'yemeichem amalei. וכן המתחילה כי אני השם רופאך v'chein hamaschila ki ani Hashem rofecha. והטעם בזה כי הברכות אף על פי שהם ניסים הם מן הניסים הנסתרים שכל התורה מלאה מהם כאשר פירשתי v'hatam b'zeh ki habrachos af al pi shehem nisim, hem min hanisim hanistarim she'kol haTorah melei'ah mehem ka'asher peirashti. The רמב\"ן Ramban has a general, the רמב\"ן Ramban, נחמנידיס Nachmanides has a general approach to the concept of miracles. Which we're not going to take the time now to develop. There's a fundamental difference, disagreement between the רמב\"ן Ramban and the רמב\"ם Rambam, נחמנידיס Nachmanides and מימונידיס Maimonides, in their approach to miracles, revealed miracles, hidden miracles and so on. So the רמב\"ן Ramban says as I've explained to you elsewhere, I want you to know the natural world is also a miracle. The רמב\"ן Ramban's attitude is that the natural order, the natural world is also a miracle. It's so it's called a נס נסתר neis nistar. It's a hidden miracle. It's a hidden miracle. What's a hidden miracle? For the רמב\"ן Ramban a hidden miracle means if one wants to see it exclusively as a natural phenomenon and not a miracle or hand of God at all, one can. It's a hidden miracle. As opposed to a revealed miracle where it's much more explicit the hand of the Almighty. ואפילו יחיד העובד כי כאשר יהיה איש אחד שומר את כל מצוות השם על בוריין, ישמרהו השם מן החולי והעקרות והשכול, וימלא ימיו בטובה v'afilu yachid ha'oved ki ka'asher yihyeh ish echad shomer es kol mitzvos Hashem al buryan, yishmereihu Hashem min hacholi v'ha'akarus v'hashchol, v'yemalei yamav b'tovah. So if a person is acting properly, conducting themselves properly and therefore merits to be illness-free and to have children and to be blessed with prosperity, is that a miracle? It's a miracle, but is it a explicit, a revealed miracle or a hidden miracle? It's a hidden miracle. I was teaching a a group of boys from the high school the other day and the topic, my topic when I teach in the high school, my I have a boys, a group of boys that I teach every week, and the overriding theme that I speak to them about are things that you never talk about in your 12 years of formal Jewish education. That's that's what guides the things I want to talk to them about. Because to me it boggles the mind, this is not a statement about our schools which are all wonderful and outstanding. I reflect back on my Jewish education that you go through 12 years of formal Jewish education, there's a lot of things you never talk about, like God. How do you know there's a God or divine will versus human initiative or the Jewish view of of creation, the Jewish view of dinosaurs, Jewish view of homosexuality, Jewish view of anyway, so this class I was talking to the kids about, God loves you. I realized one of the things they never hear, 12 years Jewish education, maybe they do today, but I don't think I heard is that השם Hashem loves you. That all this is השם's Hashem's way of showing love to you. השם Hashem loves you, השם Hashem loves you, השם Hashem loves you. So I asked the class, how many of you feel השם Hashem loves you? A few hands go up. How many feel don't feel השם Hashem loves you? A bunch of other hands go up. So I asked one of the kids who השם Hashem doesn't love him. Why? Why do you feel that way? The kid says to me, I don't have the bike I want. He says 360, maybe one day a year I ask something from השם Hashem and he gives it. 364 days a year he's nowhere to be found. I don't see him in my life, he's nowhere to be found. How can you tell me he loves me? So I say to this kid, I know the kid well. I said to the kid, let me ask you a question. Did you wake up this morning? Yeah. You put your feet on the on the ground. Your your legs working, your arms working, your eyes working, your ears working, your nose working? Yeah. You have any, God forbid, illnesses or challenges physically that you're facing? Nope, perfectly healthy. You live in a big beautiful home, maybe one of the biggest homes in the? Yeah, beautiful home. You have parents, an intact family structure where your parents love you and there's a functional family relationship? Oh yeah, my parents are wonderful and they express a lot of affection to me. You have an iPhone, an iPad, a a a flat-screen TV, a, name every gadget you could name. Oh yeah, I have all of those things. What are you doing in the summer? Oh, I'm going to this awesome, expensive sleepaway camp program where you travel internationally. Oh, cool. Where did you do Pesach? We went away to this hotel, it was unbelievable. Um I say, and you can, do you go to a private day school where teachers who are excellent love? And on and on and on and on and on and on and on, I can go. I said, so does השם Hashem love you? What's השם Hashem have to do with any of that? So that's exactly, that's exactly this רמב\"ן Ramban. I'm not blaming the kid. It's a it's something I don't think any of us are that different than the kid. We woke up this morning, our feet worked that got us here to this שיר shiur, we have a roof over our head, we have a car that got us here. We live in a time of incredible technological advancement, comfort beyond our wildest imaginations. Now you can get a new car where your seat can either be heated or it can be air conditioned. Who dreamt of a seat could be blowing cold air, air conditioned? We live in a time of incredible creature comforts, and we say, does השם Hashem love us? Now of course, I don't want to take the time. Kids got into, but what about someone who doesn't have all those things? What if a kid said, you know, we're practically homeless because our house is in foreclosure. My parents are divorced, my parents are not affectionate whatsoever, and I don't have this and I don't have that. Does השם Hashem love me? Even more because he got a child. Oh. So today I said just ask, I say go ask, step up to Rabbi Klein or Canter Wax or Martin Judowitz and ask them if they feel השם Hashem loves them. And after what they went through in their life story, I guarantee you they will say yes. Does that mean every survivor feels it? No. But if they could feel it with what they went through, ask them why and how, then any of us have the capacity to feel it. I don't want to get into the what I talked about with that whole class, I bring it up only in the context of this רמב\"ן Ramban about the idea of ניסים nisim of miracles, that we are all living miracles regularly, they're ניסים נסתרים nisim nistarim, they're hidden miracles. Continuing the רמב\"ן Ramban. אבל אלו הברכות שבפרשה זו שהם כלליות בעם aval eilu habrachos she'b'parsha zo shehem klaliyos ba'am. The רמב\"ן Ramban sees this is very important that the blessings as well as the curses that are contained in this parsha are not directed towards the individual, that's in ספר שמות Sefer Shmos. When ספר שמות Sefer Shmos said you won't be sick, you'll have enough food, you'll have enough water, you'll have shelter. That was the individual. This is directed to the to the nation. ויהיו בהיות כל עמינו כולם צדיקים V'hayu b'heyos kol ameinu kulam tzadikim. And George just speaks to something you pointed out earlier. If our entire nation is כולם צדיקים kulam tzadikim, if we are a righteous people, if we are living a righteous lifestyle, if we are embracing righteous ways, ולכך יזכיר תמיד בכאן הארץ ul'chach yazkir tamid b'chan ha'aretz. And that's why George the רמב\"ן Ramban says that the Torah keeps emphasizing here that the blessings express themselves in conjunction with the land. ונתתי הארץ Venasati ha'aretz, I will give you the land. לבטח בארצכם lavetach b'artzechem, you will have security in your land. שלום בארץ shalom ba'aretz, you'll have peace in your land. peace in your land. מן הארץ min ha'aretz, from the land, לא תעבור בארצכם lo sa'avor b'artzechem, a sword will not pass in your land.וכבר ביארנו כי כל אלה הברכות כולם נסים u'kvar be'arnu ki kol eileh ha'brachos kulam nisim. Now these are miracles. And I tell you, we see that ourselves. Look at how fragile and how vulnerable our relationship with the land of Israel, the state of Israel is. Today is Thursday. The next seven days, the can turn on its head. These are historical moments. President Obama is giving a major address about the Middle East today. Prime Minister Netanyahu is visiting the White House tomorrow. Sunday, President Obama addresses AIPAC. Monday, Prime Minister Netanyahu addresses AIPAC. Prime Minister Netanyahu is going to address Congress, like the State of the Union, a joint session of the Senate and the House. These Abbas's distorted revisionist op-ed in the New York Times this week, a journalistic atrocity that they could even publish such a thing. Well that's the New York Times. But everyone, I don't know if anyone has a subscription still to the New York Times, God bless you. I don't know how you could give them one penny of money when they can publish that kind of thing. But we're living in times in which we realize that all these ברכות brachos, ונתתי ארץ v'nasati aretz, I'll give you the land. לבטח בארצכם la'vetach b'artzechem. בטח betach is from the word ביטחון bitachon. You'll have security. שלום shalom, you'll have peace. And בטח betach doesn't just mean security as in a really strong army on your borders. It means you'll sleep at night with a sense of security that there's peace. Peace with your neighbors, that there's, and so on. These are, says the רמב\"ן Ramban, כל אלה הברכות כולם נסים kol eileh ha'brachos kulam nisim. To have a land of Israel, a state of Israel, to sleep at night with a sense of comfort that there's no one who wants to kill you and drive you in the sea and eliminate you, to feel that there's no systematic effort in the world to delegitimize you. All of that, if you could achieve that is nothing less than miraculous. אין בטבע שבעולם אב שמן וישלם לנו מאויביו ויבא חרב במחנה בליבם לנוס מאה מפני חמישה באחוזם החוקים והמצוות Ein b'tevah she'b'olam ov shemen v'yashlem lanu me'oyvev v'yavo cherev b'machaneh b'libam lanus meah mipnei chamisha b'achuzam ha'chukim v'ha'mitzvos, ולא שיהיה כל הפך מן הדברים האלה בזכרנו איזה עוון זולתו השנה השביעית v'lo she'yihiyeh kol hefech min ha'dvarim ha'eleh b'zichreinu eizeh avon zulato ha'shana ha'shvi'is. Says the רמב\"ן Ramban, if you have all of that, though it seems natural, what's the big deal? Sleeping at night, that's a miracle? That you have the sense of comfort and sense of security that you can sleep at night, that's a miracle? Says the רמב\"ן Ramban, yeah. That's a miracle. That's a miracle. And so that these ברכות brachos and these קללות klalos are not directed at the individual, they are directed at the nation. יחד בשאין נסים נסתרים שאולם כמנהגו נוהג yachad b'she'ein nisim nistarim she'olam k'minhago noheg, even though these are hidden miracles. If you ask Holland, do you feel you, I'm making up Holland. Holland, do you feel that you're in a miracle because nobody's declaring war on you, you have a sense of peace, you feel pretty secure about Holland, nobody's delegitimizing you, there's no anti-Holland movement? Will they say, \"Oh, what a miracle we have\"? No. עולם כמנהגו נוהג Olam k'minhago noheg. That's part of the world. They don't see it as a miracle. אלה הן מפורסמין מצד היותן תמיד לעולם בכל הארץ Ela hein mefursamim mitzad heyotan tamid l'olam b'chol ha'aretz, כי אם צדיק אחד יחיה ויעשה שם רחל מכיר בו וימול לו יום יקרא גם זה בקצת השוים ki im tzadik echad yichyeh v'ya'aseh shem rachel mekir bo v'yimal lo yom yikra gam zeh b'ktzat ha'shavem. אבל שתהיה ארץ אחת כולה והעם אחד תמיד ברית הגשם בעתו ושבע ושלוה וברית גבורה ושבור אויבים בענין שאין כמוהו בכל העולם יודע לכל כי מאת השם היתה זאת Aval she'tihiyeh eretz achas kulah v'ha'am echad tamid, bris ha'geshem b'ito v'sova v'shalva uvris gevurah v'shibor oyvim b'inyan she'ein kamohu b'chol ha'olam yivada la'kol ki me'eis Hashem haysa zos. The רמב\"ן Ramban says, to have any of these ברכות brachos independently, any individual, is completely natural. For a certain family to be blessed, to have prosperity and good health and no illness and of ease with fertility and so on and so forth, that's not a miracle. But what if you had a country where everybody had children? There was no fertility problems. And you had a country where there was a zero unemployment rate. And you had a country where nobody robbed one another. Everyone left their doors unlocked and never locked your cars and your borders were left unguarded because there was no fear whatsoever. Now is that natural? So taken in isolation, each of these is a natural phenomenon, says the רמב\"ן Ramban. עולם כמנהגו נוהג Olam k'minhago noheg. Nothing special. But add it all up and the promise that collectively, nationally, you have a land where there are no fertility problems, no unemployment problems, there's no stealing, there's no problems with security. That is a, that is a indeed a miracle, and that's what the Torah is promising us that if we are worthy, that's what we're destined to have in Israel. And if we don't have it in Israel, then the opposite's true, it reveals that we are unworthy. וההפך זה יהיה בכללות v'ha'hefech zeh yihyeh b'klalos בעונש הארץ b'onesh ha'aretz. And the opposite is true when it comes to the קללות klalos, says the רמב\"ן Ramban. ונתתי את שמיכם כברזל ועונש יכול להיות כמו שאמר בחלום רע מהמאמינים שיקרה למחר ויחלום ויתפרסם אניס פלאותיו תמיד כן בכלם V'nasati es shmeichem ka'barzel v'onesh yachol lihiyos k'mo she'amar b'chalom ra min ha'ma'aminim she'yikreh l'machar v'yachlom v'yisparsem anais p'le'osav tamid kein b'chulam. He says the opposite will happen. If you had a country where illness was rampant, everybody was coming down with terminal illness, with sickness, nobody was having children with ease, there were fertility problems all over the place, we would say there must have been a nuclear fallout there. We would say there must be some phenomenon out there. So that's the קללות klalos, that if that that's what could happen if we're not on our best behavior. It's a long רמב\"ן Ramban. I don't want to read the rest of it, I encourage you to read it on your own, but that's the significant part that I'm extracting from the רמב\"ן Ramban is two pieces. One is the revealed miracle versus the hidden miracle, and the other is that these ברכות brachos and קללות klalos are directed not at the individual, but they're directed directed collectively at the nation.Okay, next פסוק pasuk, י\"ב yud-beis. So that we can say we did more than a פסוק pasuk today. י\"ב Yud-beis. והתהלכתי בתוככם v'hishalachti b'sochechem, והייתי לכם לאלקים ואתם תהיו לי לעם v'hayisi lachem leilokim v'atem tihiyu li l'am. If you do all of the things I listed from the beginning of the פרשה parsha till now, says God, I will walk among you because הלכה halacha is a two-way street. It's interesting if you stop someone in the middle of the night, say, does God keep הלכה halacha? They'll say, what are you talking about? Of course, that's ridiculous. This is the פסוק pasuk, והתהלכתי בתוככם v'hishalachti b'sochechem. God says, I will keep הלכה halacha with you. הלכה Halacha again is not a dry, sterile set of law, it's a journey towards intimacy, connection with God, a way of life. God says, I will meet you halfway. I'm going to take a walk with you. I will go on this journey with you. Mali, you can unplug it. Just unplug it. Unplug it. ואתם תהיו לי לעם v'atem tihiyu li l'am, and then you will be for me, you will be for me a nation. What does it mean והתהלכתי בתוככם v'hishalachti b'sochechem, I will walk with you? Says רש\"י Rashi, פסוק י\"ב pasuk yud-beis. והתהלכתי בתוככם, אטייל עמכם בגן עדן כאחד מכם v'hishalachti b'sochechem, atayel imachem b'Gan Eden k'echad mikem. I am going to go on the hike with you as if I am one of you. So while you are traversing in גן עדן Gan Eden, I'll be with you. The imagery is beautiful. I'm coming out of my castle, I'm getting off my throne, and I'm going to go on this hike. We're going to go for a walk together. ולא תהיו מזדעזעים ממני, יכול לא תיראו ממני, תלמוד לומר והייתי לכם לאלקים v'lo tihiyu mizdaze'im mimeni, yachol lo sir'u mimeni, talmud lomar v'hayisi lachem leilokim. You're worried that there won't be a connection? Know that I will be your, I will be your God.The ספורנו Sforno takes it a little bit of a different direction. If you look at רבינו עובדיה ספורנו Rabeinu Ovadia Sforno. והתהלכתי בתוככם, ענין המתהלך הוא ההולך הנה והנה v'hishalachti b'sochechem, inyan ha'mishalech hu ha'holech heina v'heina, לא מקום אחד בלבד lo makom echad bilvad. הלכה Halacha implies without a destination. הלכה Halacha implies you're going here and there. You're traveling, you're walking, you're going around, there's not one set destination that when you get there, you can say you've arrived. Also you can never fulfill it totally. Right. If there is a destination, then you could say I've arrived. Like your GPS, you have arrived at your destination and it resets itself. אמר אם כן אהלך בתוככם כי לא במקום אחד בלבד ירד שפע הכבוד כמו שהיה במשכן ובמקדש Amar im kein ehalech b'sochechem ki lo b'makom echad bilvad yered shefa ha'kavod k'mo she'hayah b'Mishkan u'v'Mikdash. כאמרם עשו לי מקדש ושכנתי בתוכם k'omram asu li Mikdash v'shachanti b'socham, כלומר בזה האופן ובאותו מקום בלבד אשכון בתוכם klomar b'zeh ha'ofen u'v'oso makom bilvad eshkon b'socham. So he says, unlike the מקדש Mikdash and the משכן Mishkan where God said, this is a designated destination, I am there to the exclusion and exception of other places, no. והתהלכתי בתוככם v'hishalachti b'sochechem means הליכה הנה והנה halicha heina v'heina. God wanders with us. Wherever we are wandering, he's wandering with us. ויאמר ויעד לך שמה ונעוצי שמה לפני ישראל אבל והלכתי בתוככם וירד כבודי בכל מקום שתהיו שם v'yomar v'yaed lecha shama v'na'utzei shama lifnei Yisrael aval v'halachti b'sochechem v'yarad k'vodi b'chol makom she'tihyu sham. Wherever you go, says God, I'm with you. I'm with you. כי אמנם בכל מקום שיהיו שם צדיקי הדור הוא קדש משכני עליון שבו תישכן כוונתו כאמרו השמים כסאי והארץ הדום רגלי Ki omnam b'chol makom she'yihyu sham tzaddikei ha'dor, hu kodesh mishkanei elyon she'bo tishkan kavanato k'omro ha'shamayim kis'i v'ha'aretz hadom raglai. ויעל זה אמיתי אני ונכאי רוח ואחר הדברים v'al zeh amiti ani v'nach'ei ruach v'achar ha'dvarim. So that's what the significance of והתהלכתי v'hishalachti is, the ספורנו Sforno says הליכה halicha implies הנה והנה heina v'heina, wandering here and there. That God, unlike the ונתתי משכני v'nasati mishkani, I'll be in the בית המקדש Beis Hamikdash, it's והתהלכתי בתוככם v'hishalachti b'sochechem, I'll be with you wherever you are, wherever you go. The רמב\"ן Ramban also says that. The רמב\"ן Ramban says שתהיה הנהגתי בכם מפורסמת כמלך המתהלך בקרב מחנהו מספיק להם כל צרכם וזה דרך דברי ברית כפשוטם she'tihiyeh hanhagasi bachem mefursemes k'melech ha'mishalech b'kerev machaneihu, maspik lahem kol tzorcham, v'zeh derech divrei bris k'pshutam. והוא אמת וכן יעשה בהם ודאי v'hu emes v'chein ya'aseh bahem vadai. It's the difference of the imagery of the king who sits on his throne, or the king who goes out to be part of his people. God says, I will be out there with you, part of the people. I'm not sitting isolated, I'm not sitting on a pedestal, I'm not in an ivory tower. Okay, so that's the והתהלכתי בתוככם v'hishalachti b'sochechem. Sure. It's not when somebody is dead. It's time, and then they have to be discontent and that's why he said I'm still your God and I'm going to be afraid of me, which means I'm still, you know, even though I'm walking with you. Beautiful. Yeah, it's a beautiful interpretation that that you might think והתהלכתי עמכם v'hishalachti imachem that if I'm with you all the time and we start to have such a casual relationship, I'm a companion, so then I'm no longer going to be a deity, you won't see me as a God. So אני ה' אלקיכם ani Hashem Elokeichem will strike that balance. רש\"י Rashi says, כדאי אני שתאמינו בי k'dai ani she'ta'aminu bi, שאני יכול לעשות כל אלה she'ani yachol la'asos kol eileh. Why does all the ברכות brachos end with אני ה' אלקיכם ani Hashem Elokeichem? Because God says, all this blessing, you may doubt. Who are you to promise me when it's going to rain? How could you tell me I'm not going to have fertility problems? How could you tell me that my my portfolio is going to skyrocket? How could you tell me? It ends אני ה' אלקיכם ani Hashem Elokeichem, because I'm God. כדאי אני שתאמינו בי k'dai ani she'ta'aminu bi. It's worthwhile for you to believe in me, God says. It's worthwhile to stick with me. שהוצאתי אתכם מארץ מצרים עשיתי לכם נסים גדולים she'hotzeisi eschem me'eretz Mitzrayim, asisi lachem nisim gedolim. And that's why the next פסוק pasuk, אני ה' אלקיכם אשר הוצאתי אתכם מארץ מצרים מהיות לכם עבדים ואשבור מוטות עולכם ואולך אתכם קוממיות Ani Hashem Elokeichem asher hotzeisi eschem me'eretz Mitzrayim mihiyos lachem avadim v'eshbor motos ulchem v'olech eschem komemiyus. This is a very important point. The כוזרי Kuzari, רבי יהודה הלוי Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi makes this point. God throughout our Torah and we throughout our liturgy and our Jewish calendar keep referencing יציאת מצרים Yetzias Mitzrayim. Why? Well, the Torah itself tells us, why did God take us out with such pomp and circumstance? Why didn't God snap his fingers and we'd be in the מדבר midbar rather than in Egypt? The כוזרי Kuzari says because God wanted us to refer to it for all time as his intimate involvement in the details of our life, the miraculous nation nature with which he could bring redemption כהרף עין k'heref ayin, in an instant. So that's why we end this section, God says, all these ברכות brachos, you're doubting that I could be the one to provide it? Are you kidding me? Don't you remember ten plagues? Can I remind you of a little thing called the splitting of the sea? And you're doubting whether I can make you pregnant and have your field grow wheat? Not a problem. אני ה' אלקיכם Ani Hashem Elokeichem. Not a problem for me. It's כדאי k'dai, it's worthwhile for you to invest in me, to know that I can be the one.Now, I want to look at the כלי יקר Kli Yakar. And this may be all we have time for to finish with the כלי יקר Kli Yakar because it's a long כלי יקר Kli Yakar. The כלי יקר Kli Yakar, רב לונטשיץ Rav Luntschitz, פסוק י\"ב pasuk yud-beis, והתהלכתי בתוככם v'hishalachti b'sochechem, deals with an issue I alluded to in a שבת Shabbos afternoon class a number of weeks ago. It was on פסח Pesach, I believe, when I spoke about the resurrection and reincarnation. And I asked the question, if resurrection and reincarnation, reincarnation is debatable. I pointed out there are two different attitudes towards whether reincarnation, גלגולים gilgulim is genuine, is authentic, does it exist? Resurrection, there's no debate. Not only is there no debate, one must subscribe to resurrection, though there's a fundamental debate between the רמב\"ם Rambam and the רמב\"ן Ramban and two schools of thought, how the resurrection occurs, and what's the purpose of resurrection and what עולם הבא Olam Haba looks like. For the רמב\"ם Rambam, when we die, souls are reunited with bodies for a very short period of time, and then the whole world ceases to exist, poof, we go into a world of spirituality, eternity lacks any physical component whatsoever. That's the רמב\"ם Rambam, for which he was castigated and excommunicated and some thought that he was a heretic for believing that. The רמב\"ן Ramban and his school feel, no, resurrection means the soul is reunited with the body and that's eternity. The world to come has a physical component. The world to come is post-resurrection, we remain reunited with the body forever. The details, I leave to you to work out. Do we come back young and vibrant, do we come back old and decrepit? Do we come back with gray hair, do we come back with the original color of our hair? Do we come back, what? As long as we have some hair. As long as we have some hair. You and I would be happy to have any hair, right. If you come back, if you combine the whole issue of reincarnation, it complicates things terribly. Do you do you come back which version of you do you come back as? The man, the woman, the dog, the leaf? Who is your wife, who is your spouse, who is your child? All of these are questions. For you it's simple. For you it's simple. That's what the Rebbe said. For the Rebbe it was simple. If you look at the sources, you look at the, I gave you handouts with 40 sources on שבת חול המועד Shabbos Chol HaMoed. It's, it's complicated. In any case, I asked the question then, why is it all such a question? Why doesn't the Torah tell us? If you have to believe in resurrection, I'll put it to you this way. For the רמב\"ם Rambam, one of the י\"ג עקרים yud-gimel ikarim, one of the principles of faith is believing in תחיית המתים techiyas ha'meisim. You have to believe in the resurrection. I asked Dr. David Shatz who was here for יום טוב Yom Tov, he's the head of philosophy department at Yeshiva University and a very, very prestigious professor of Jewish philosophy. I asked him this question. God says you can't get upstairs if you don't believe in the resurrection. Whose resurrection? The רמב\"ם's Rambam's resurrection or the רמב\"ן's Ramban's resurrection? Do we believe one of them is not getting upstairs because they disagree? Or is it you have to believe in a concept of resurrection? You say to God, I don't know the details, you decide them, but I do believe something was going to happen. Then are you really believing anything at all? So I, that to me is left as, it startled me when I was preparing that talk, that fact, that for the רמב\"ם Rambam one of the י\"ג עקרים yud-gimel ikarim is to believe in תחיית המתים techiyas ha'meisim. אני מאמין באמונה שלמה Ani ma'amin b'emunah shleima. אני מאמין באמונה שלמה Ani ma'amin b'emunah shleima in what? And if the details aren't important, am I really believing in anything? But anyway, I asked, if it's so fundamental and axiomatic that I have to believe in it, why doesn't the Torah tell me it? Where in the Torah does it describe גן עדן Gan Eden, עולם הבא Olam Haba, תחיית המתים techiyas ha'meisim? חסר, עיקר חסר מן הספר chaser, ikar chaser min ha'sefer. This basic, fundamental, foundational fact is missing. So is שכר ועונש schar v'onesh, reward and punishment. And that's what the כלי יקר Kli Yakar deals with here. פירוש רש\"י אטייל עמכם בגן עדן peirush Rashi, atayel imachem b'Gan Eden, דעתו לסלק מעל תורתינו הקדושה כל תואנה המעורר האומר יש לי מקום ללון ולומר מאחר שלא נזכר בתורה עקר השכר והנשמה אם כן ודאי אין כח במצוות אלו להנחיל עושה הנפש לעולם הבא Da'ato l'salek me'al Toraseinu ha'kdosha kol to'anah ha'me'orer, ha'omer yesh li makom lalon v'lomar me'achar she'lo nizkar ba'Torah ikar ha'schar v'ha'neshama, im kein vadai ein koach b'mitzvos eilu l'hanchil oseh ha'nefesh l'Olam Haba. This is very relevant actually to this week. If anyone saw, there was an article with the great physicist, Stephen Hawking. And which he was quoted as saying, the world to come is a fairy tale. For those who are scared of the dark. So I tweeted on Twitter and linked to the article and I said, someone should tell him that some fairy tales come true. But anyway, he says it's a, it's a fairy tale. For those who are scared of the dark. So that's the כלי יקר Kli Yakar. The כלי יקר Kli Yakar says, רש\"י Rashi when he said אטייל עמכם בגן עדן atayel imachem b'Gan Eden that the פסוק pasuk is והייתם והלכתי עמכם והלכתי בתוככם v'hishalachti b'sochechem means I will be with you when you are reaping the world to come, the, the, the blessings, the reward of the world to come. Says the כלי יקר Kli Yakar, that was רש\"י's Rashi's way of responding to those who think the world to come is a fairy tale. Those who think there's no consequences, there's no accountability. ותכלית עשייתו אינו כי אם לקבל שכרו בעולם הזה אוכל ושותה בחלב ובוז V'tachlis asiyaso eino ki im l'kabel scharo b'olam hazeh ochel v'shoseh b'chelev v'vuz. And they think the whole purpose of this world is this world, this is it and only it. There's a fly, there's some גלגול gilgul, there's some reincarnation that's driving me crazy this fly. I don't know who, maybe I, I was mean to this kid growing up. I don't know what this reincarnation of, yeah. So are we talking about when we die in this world and then we go to גן עדן Gan Eden? Or are we talking about the world to come when משיח Mashiach comes? Which, which is it? That's part of the question. Are those two separate things or are those one thing? Well right now, that's part of, I spoke about it in this שיעור shiur. There's a lot of, that's part of the debate. It's not so simple. For the רמב\"ם Rambam, there is no, you don't have a world to come and this, it's all part of one thing. וכבר נשא ורו ספק זה שלמה ורחבם, ובאו בחדר ספק זה שבע דעות U'kvar nasa v'ru safek zeh Shlomo v'Rachavam, u'va'u b'cheder safek zeh sheva de'os. So the כלי יקר Kli Yakar says, there have, a lot of have, a lot have struggled with this question. How do you know there's a world to come? How do you know there's reward and punishment? Maybe what you see is what you get. It's all about this world. So he says a lot of struggle with this and I have seven different answers. ואני באתי לקצר בכל היכולת לסדר פה כדי להשתין פי דוברי עתק על תורתינו הקדושה V'ani basi l'katzer b'chol ha'yecholes l'sader po kedei l'hastin pi dovrei atek al Toraseinu ha'kdosha. He says, I have organized them here in a succinct manner, all seven of the answers, in order to silence those who impugn our sacred Torah. I don't know how many of them we'll have time for. Should we start? Yes. Yeah. Should I make this my שבת Shabbos afternoon class and save myself some work? Oh, great. I was going to speak about קבלה Kabbalah this שבת Shabbos afternoon. Because it's רשב\"י Rashbi's יום הילולא yom hilula, the יארצייט yahrzeit. I was going to speak about what is קבלה Kabbalah and should you be learning it before 40 years old. Which I'm not really in a position to then speak about what is קבלה Kabbalah, but anyway, so I think I'm gonna speak about קבלה Kabbalah. הדעת אחת Ha'da'as achas, the first opinion says the כלי יקר Kli Yakar, הוא דעת הרמב\"ם שכל אלו היעודים אינם עיקר השכר hu da'as ha'Rambam she'kol eilu ha'ye'udim einam ikar ha'schar, וכל הרעות והטובות שנזכרו כאן בפרשה זו הם מדברים בענין הסרת המונעים לבד v'chol ha'ra'os v'ha'tovos she'nizkeru kan b'parsha zu hem medabrim b'inyan hasaras ha'mon'im l'vad. ורצה לומר שאם תשמע מצוותי אסיר רוחך כל המונעים כמלחמות וחיים ורעב ובאופן שתוכלו לעבוד את השם ולא שם מונע v'ratzah lomar she'im tishma mitzvosai asir ruchacha kol ha'mon'im k'milchamos v'chayim v'ra'av u'v'ofen she'tuchlu la'avod es Hashem v'lo sham monea. Says the רמב\"ם Rambam, these פרשיות parshiyos, this פרשה parsha, בחוקותי Bechukosai, the תוכחה tochacha has nothing to do with the world to come. It's not a hint to שכר ועונש schar v'onesh, reward and punishment in the world to come. For the רמב\"ם Rambam, this פרשה parsha says, do the right thing and God will take away the impediments that keep you from doing the right thing. So if you're doing the right thing and you have to go to war, how are you going to learn Torah if you have to go to war? If you're doing, if you want to learn Torah, you want to do good, you want to volunteer, you want to do חסד chesed, but you have to earn a living and you're struggling, how you going to do it? So the רמב\"ם Rambam says the ברכות brachos and the קללות klalos of this פרשה parsha are, you do the right thing, God will take away the impediments that keep you from doing the right thing. You're doing the wrong things, God will allow the impediments to have you stumble upon them. אבל עקר השכר של עולם הבא אינו נזכר כאן כדי שיעבוד את בוראו לשמו ולא מחמת השכר הוא ומהיותו עונש, עין בספר המדע Aval ikar schar shel Olam Haba eino nizkar kan kedei she'ya'avod es bor'o lishmo v'lo machmas ha'schar hu u'mihiyoso onesh, ayin b'Sefer HaMada. So he quotes the כלי יקר Kli Yakar from הילכות תשובה Hilchos Teshuva where the רמב\"ם Rambam says, the reason the Torah never explicitly affirms reward and punishment is to keep us honest. To keep us honest, to make sure that we are observing for the right reasons. Do things for the real sincere reason, do things for the right reason. If I tell my kid, could you do me a favor and clear the dinner table? So if I say, and if you do that, I'm taking you out for ice cream, so then they didn't clear the dinner table because their אבא Abba asked them. But if I say to them, could you clear the dinner table? Will there be a reward? Who knows? We'll find out, I don't know. Now, the ambiguity reveals to me whether they really did it for the right reason or not, because it wasn't absolutely clear and explicit that there was a שכר schar, that there was a reward built in. So for the רמב\"ם Rambam, this section has nothing to do with the world to come. This section is talking about in this world, reward and punishment. And in this world, God removes impediments to allow us to continue to do the right thing. And whether there's reward in the world to come, while of course we believe that, the Torah doesn't tell it to us because it wants to keep us honest, it wants to keep us sincere, wants us to do things for the right reason. That's number one. Number two, הדעת השניה הוא דעת הר' אברהם בן עזרא ha'da'as ha'shniya, hu da'as Rabbi Avraham ben Ezra. בפרשת האזינו וזה לשונו לפי דעתי שהתורה נתנה לכל ולא לאחד לבדו b'parshas Ha'azinu v'zeh leshono, l'fi da'ati she'ha'Torah nitna la'kol v'lo l'echad l'vado. ודברי עולם הבא לא יבינו אחד מאלף כי עמקו, עד כאן לשונו v'divrei Olam Haba lo yavinu echad me'elef ki amku, ad kan leshono. The אבן עזרא Ibn Ezra says, you know why the world to come is not given as part of the Torah? Because the Torah is intended to be understood and embraced by every individual, by every Jew, by every human. And guess what? World to come, deep, philosophical, difficult stuff. So God didn't put philosophy in this book because he wanted the book to be accessible to everybody. And philosophy, these issues to debate, world to come, reward and punishment, good things and bad people, bad things and good people, resurrection, these are complicated philosophical things, he left it out. ודעתו לפי שקשה לצייר אותו שכר כי הגשמי לא ישיג ענין הרוחני על כן העלימה התורה דבר עמוק זה מן העם מהרוג כוסר דעתם V'da'ato l'fi she'kasheh l'tzayer oso schar ki ha'gashmi lo yasig inyan ha'ruchni, al kein he'elima ha'Torah davar amok zeh min ha'am me'harog kotzer da'atam. He says it's difficult, the world to come reward is a spiritual idea. We are physical beings. As physical beings, it is difficult for us to comprehend fully what a purely spiritual world will look like. Since we can't fully comprehend it and appreciate it, it was left out altogether. That's number two. Number three, הדעת השלישית ha'da'as ha'shlishis. הוא דעת רבינו בחיי הזקן, וזכרו רבי אבן עזרא בפרשת האזינו ונתן לדברו hu da'as Rabeinu Bechaye ha'zaken, v'zichro Rabbi Ibn Ezra b'parshas Ha'azinu v'natan l'divro. רבינו בחיי, וגם הרמב\"ן נתן לדעה זו, הוא Rabeinu Bechaye, v'gam ha'Ramban natan l'de'ah zu, hu שכל היעודים שבתוכם הם למעלה מן הטבע שאין זה דבר טבעי שירדו גשמים בזמן שעושים המצוות, ויכלא הגשם מן הארץ כשאינם עושים רצונו של מקום ברוך הוא she'kol ha'ye'udim she'b'tocham hem l'ma'ala min ha'tevah, she'ein zeh davar tivi she'yerdu gshamim b'zman she'osim ha'mitzvos, v'yichla ha'geshem min ha'aretz k'she'einam osim r'tzono shel Makom baruch hu. So for the רמב\"ן Ramban, רבינו בחיי Rabeinu Bechaye, we just saw this רמב\"ן Ramban, he says, all of these things that are described, the blessings and the curses, these are not super, these are somewhere between physical and somewhere between natural and supernatural. On the one hand, whether it rains or not is a natural thing. Weather patterns, weather is natural. On the other hand, for it to always rain or never rain is a supernatural component directed by השם Hashem. אמנם מה שתעלה, for example in the ברכות brachos, רש\"י Rashi says one of the miracles says the גשם geshem, the rain will fall בעתו b'ito, in its time. What does it mean in its time? בעתם B'itam, in its time. רש\"י Rashi says, בשעה שאין דרך בני אדם לצאת, כגון בלילי רביעיות, בלילי שבתות b'sha'ah she'ein derech bnei adam latzeis, k'gon b'leilei reviyos, b'leilei Shabbasos. רש\"י Rashi says God will make it rain. You'll have abundance of rain. But I said, what do you mean it's going to make, that's going to kill my tennis and my golf. I go for a walk every day with my wife. You're going to rain, go to שול shul, I'm going to get drenched. No. בעתו B'ito in its time, God says the blessing of rain is it will rain when you're sleeping. You'll get all the rain you need without it ever compromising your lifestyle. So for the רמב\"ן Ramban, רבינו בחיי Rabeinu Bechaye, that kind of ברכה bracha, is that natural? On the one hand, rain is natural. On the other hand, to have it always rain in a way that's perfectly convenient for you is nothing short of supernatural. אמנם מה שתעלה הנפש למקום חוצבה זהו דבר טבעי אל הנשמה ואין בדרך פלא Omnam mah she'ta'aleh ha'nefesh l'makom chutzvah, zehu davar tivi el ha'neshama v'ein b'derech peleh. ולאחר שמצינו בתורה עונש כרת על הנפש החוטאת שתהיה נכרתת ממקום חוצבה, מזה יש ללמוד שאם לא תחתור שתשוב אל מלונה אל מקום שהיה שם עולה בתחילה, ונראה שעל זה נאמר וקווי השם ירמוז לרשע ארץ והכרית ורשעים תראה. ורצה לומר בבוא עת הכרת ונקמת התורה מהרשעים תראה יש שכר נפשי שירמוז השם לרשע ארץ חיים כי תעל הנפש למקום חוצבה, כידי לצורך להכרית נפש הרשע משם. V'l'achar she'matzinu ba'Torah onesh kares al ha'nefesh ha'choteses, she'tihiyeh nichreses mi'makom chutzvah, mi'zeh yesh lilmod she'im lo tachtor she'tashuv el melona, el makom she'haya sham olah b'techila, v'ni'ra she'al zeh ne'emar v'kavei Hashem yirmoz l'rasha eretz v'hichris resha'im tir'e. V'ratza lomar b'vo es ha'kares v'nikmas ha'Torah me'ha'resha'im, tir'e yesh schar nafshi she'yirmoz Hashem l'rasha eretz chayim, ki ta'al ha'nefesh l'makom chutzvah k'dei l'tzorech l'hachris nefesh ha'rasha mi'sham. So the כלי יקר Kli Yakar quotes רבינו בחיי Rabeinu Bechaye and the רמב\"ן Ramban as saying, who says it doesn't say about reward and the punishment in the Torah? You know how he says about reward? Since the Torah teaches about כרת kares, spiritual excision. כרת Kares is a punishment having to do with the next world, that your soul will be cut off. Your soul will never return to God. Your soul will be limited to the experience of this world. So what can I deduce? What can I extrapolate? If a punishment is that my soul is limited to this world and is excised from a world to come, what does that mean that if I'm not bad, then my soul will be rewarded in a world to come. So for the רמב\"ן Ramban and the רבינו בחיי Rabeinu Bechaye, who says it doesn't tell me the Torah about reward and punishment in the world to come? Of course it tells me about it in the form of the inverse of כרת kares. Number four, הדעת הרביעית ha'da'as ha'revi'is. Ooh, very late. The פי שב ימי מהם היו כל העולם מכישים משכחות השם יתברך והיו תולים שכל הנעשה בעולם הכל באקרא ולא ברצון, ורצה הקדוש ברוך הוא לאמת פניית השגחה על ידי יהודים אלו שעיניהם רואות שכל עושה רצונו מושגח טוב, וכל גובר על רצונו מושגח טוב בכל השגחות אלו. ולו היה מבטיח להם השכר הרוחני עדיין ישארו בכפירה זו כי רצו לשקר ירחיק רגליו, ועיקר דעה זו דעת רבנו ניסים בפרשת בראשית. Lif'i she'b'yamim ha'hem hayu kol ha'olam machishim mashkachas Hashem yisbarach v'hayu tolim she'kol ha'na'aseh ba'olam ha'kol b'akrai v'lo b'ratzon, v'ratzah ha'Kadosh Baruch Hu l'ames pnias ha'hashgacha al yedei Yehudim eilu she'eineihem ro'os she'kol oseh r'tzono mushgach tov, v'chol govir al r'tzono mushgach tov b'chol ha'hashgachos eilu. V'ilu hayah mavtiach lahem ha'schar ha'ruchni, adayin yish'aru b'kfira zu ki ratzu l'shaker yarchik raglav, v'ikar de'ah zu da'as Rabeinu Nissim b'parshas Bereishis. So רבנו ניסים Rabeinu Nissim, the ר\"ן Ran, and here in the כוזרי Kuzari, give a fourth opinion which is God doesn't promise spiritual benefits. Why? Because who is, who does he have to promise reward to? The skeptics. The skeptics and the cynics are the one who say, why do this? Who knows there's reward? Well, if the reward is spiritual and therefore not perceptible, perceivable, then they won't believe it. So God therefore gives this reward about rain, fertility, prosperity, physical blessing because since the whole system of reward is designed for the cynics and the skeptics, he's got to give a reward which would silence them. So if good things happen to good people, that will silence the skeptics and therefore it's a physical reward which is offered and not a spiritual one. That's the fourth opinion. The fifth opinion, קודם קבלת התורה היו עובדים כל העמים כוזבים ועושים להם עבודות מיני עבודות כדי להמשיך להם הברכה בתבואת הארץ להוריד גשם בעתו משאת צרכי הגוף Kodam kabalas ha'Torah hayu ovdim kol ha'amim k'zavim v'osim lahem avodos minei avodos kedei l'hamshich lahem ha'bracha b'tvuas ha'aretz l'horid geshem b'ito mis'as tzorchei ha'guf. Before the Torah was given, they would worship all kinds of astrology and astronomy. They would worship constellations and stars and they would think that that is what impacted, whether it will be a fruitful harvest, whether it will be a positive rainy season, is dependent on the stars. כאשר נתן הקב\"ה התורה ומנעם מאותה עבודה צריך להבטיחם שגם על ידי שמירת התורה יושפעו להם אותם יעודים Ka'asher nasan ha'Kadosh Baruch Hu ha'Torah u'm'na'am me'osah avodah, tzarich l'havticham she'gam al yedei shmiras ha'Torah yushpa'u lahem osam ye'udim. So since God took away from them the ability to worship the stars and the constellations as a form of bringing their physical sustenance, he had to replace that with something else. And that's why he offers this as the reward and says, if you are observant of my word, if instead of worshipping them, you worship me, you'll get the same benefit, which is prosperity. And that's why the Torah here gives the ברכות brachos in the form of the physical, not in the form of the spiritual. That's the opinion of רב סעדיה גאון Rav Saadia Gaon. The sixth opinion is מאחר שנאמר והתהלכתי בתוככם ונתתי משכני בתוכם שיש דבוק השכינה בישראל אפילו בעולם הזה שאין שם נטיה מהחומר me'achar she'ne'emar v'hishalachti b'sochechem v'nasati mishkani b'sochechem, she'yesh dveikus ha'Shechina b'Yisrael afilu b'olam hazeh she'ein sham netiya min ha'chomer, קל וחומר שתהיה דבקות השכינה אחר הפרדם מהחומר kal v'chomer she'tihiyeh dveikus ha'Shechina achar hifardam min ha'chomer. So this fifth opinion, which is also found in the כוזרי Kuzari he says, sixth, I'm sorry, opinion is, what do you mean? God says והתהלכתי בתוככם v'hishalachti b'sochechem, I will dwell among you. If God could dwell among us in this world, if we can feel a spiritual presence, a divine countenance and radiance in this world, then all the more we will feel that in the world to come. So by promising us that we can get a taste of the world to come in this world, what it tells us is if the appetizer is so delicious, wait till you get to the main meal. And the seventh opinion, הדעת השביעית, שכל היעודים והמזכורים בתורה הם לכללות האומה כי ערום נדון אחר רובו. היעוד הוא הגשמי והטוב והשלוה והחיות במי לכל ישראל כאחד. והשכר הנפש של עולם הבא אינו לכללות האומה, אלא כל איש כפי מעשיו, נדון שם על פי מעשיו. ונדב בזאת במצות כיבוד אב ואם ושלוח הקן וכל איש ישראל, ובדעי זה בספר עיקרים וברמב\"ן. ha'da'as ha'shvi'is, she'kol ha'ye'udim ha'mizkarim ba'Torah hem l'klalus ha'umah ki arum nidon achar rubo. Ha'yi'ud hu ha'gashmi v'ha'tov v'ha'shalva v'ha'chayus b'mi l'chol Yisrael k'echad. V'ha'schar ha'nafshi shel Olam Haba eino l'klalus ha'umah, ela kol ish kfi ma'asav, nidon sham al pi ma'asav. V'nedav b'zos b'mitzvas kibud av v'em v'shiluach ha'ken v'chol ish Yisrael, u'v'dei zeh b'Sefer Ikarim u'va'Ramban. So the ספר העיקרים Sefer Ha'ikarim says that all of this physical reward is, what's driving and I didn't point this out. Every time someone is explaining why the physical reward, what was bothering them was, why is the Torah describing that if you obey God's will, you get rain? Shouldn't it say you get a world to come? Why is why is it promising the physical reward in this world, that implies there is no benefit in the world to come. That's what all these answers are trying to overcome. So in the seventh what he's saying is because this is a national promise, you're not going to nationally promise people a national experience in the world to come. That's promised on the individual. So that's why כיבוד אב ואם kibud av v'em it says למען יאריכון ימיך l'ma'an ya'arichun yamecha, that's עולם הבא Olam Haba. And שילוח הקן shiluach ha'ken we have a promise למען יאריכון ימיך l'ma'an ya'arichun yamecha, that's עולם הבא Olam Haba, because those are מצוות mitzvos the individual does. But here, since this is speaking to the unit, the community, therefore you have to give a communal reward and a communal reward is expressed in the physical way through rain and safety and so on and so forth. So here the כלי יקר Kli Yakar quotes seven interpretations about why is reward and punishment formulated in a physical component, not a spiritual. Why does the Torah never mention the spiritual reward and punishment? And seven different approaches, seven different answers and attitudes toward it. A lot more to talk about, but that's why we read the פרשה *parsha* again next year, so. Have a great שבת *Shabbos*.
