Transcript
Okay, good morning, בוקר טוב boker tov. Welcome back to Parsha Perspectives for today. Great to be back together again. As always, I encourage you to join our WhatsApp group of the Parsha Perspectives for the Parsha write-up, for bonus דברי תורה divrei Torah and to follow the schedule. ברוך השם Baruch Hashem, we have a very active summer still left with travel for שמחות smachos. We should always travel only for שמחות smachos. To stay up to date on the schedule, just join the WhatsApp. It's at rabbiefremgoldberg.org/whatsapp. Our פרשה parsha series is generously sponsored by Becky and Avi Katz and family in memory of David Grossman, לילוי נשמת l'ilui nishmas Becky's father, דוד בן מנחם מנש Dovid ben Menachem Manes. We're very, very grateful to the Katz family for their generosity. And we pick up פרשת עקב Parshas Eikev, page 980 in the Artscroll חומש Chumash. והיה עקב תשמעון את המשפטים האלה ושמרתם ועשיתם אתם ושמר השם אלקיך לך את הברית ואת החסד אשר נשבע לאבותיך V’haya eikev tishme'un es hamishpatim ha'eleh ushmartem va'asisem osam v'shamar Hashem Elokecha lecha es habris v'es hachesed asher nishba l'avosecha. This is the reward, עקב תשמעון eikev tishme'un, if you listen, if you hearken. Harken is a word that you only use when translating תשמעון tishme'un at the beginning of פרשת עקב Parshas Eikev. But if you hearken, if you listen to השם's Hashem's משפטים mishpatim, ושמרתם ushmartem. What does the word ושמרתם ushmartem mean? Safeguard, guard, keep, observe, you always have to figure out the טייטש teitch, the translation, because if the Torah goes on to say ועשיתם va'asisem, to perform, to do them, so שמרתם shmartem has to mean something different than ועשיתם va'asisem. And then we repeat, ושמר השם אלקיך לך את הברית ואת החסד אשר נשבע לאבותיך v'shamar Hashem Elokecha lecha es habris v'es hachesed asher nishba l'avosecha. There's so much. We could spend hours just on this opening פסוק pasuk. Why the ו vav of והיה v'haya, ו החיבור vav hachibur connecting it to the last week's פרשה parsha? Why והיה v'haya לשון שמחה lashon simcha, we've spoken about in the past. Where is the joy, the שמחה simcha in this פסוק pasuk? עקב Eikev, why the word עקב eikev? It could have begun אם im. So much in the first letter, first opening words we could have gone on and on. So we'll see a few interpretations and then we'll move on in the פרשה parsha itself. So we'll begin with the אמרות טהורות Amoros Tehoros, the הייליגע רב רחמיאל שיפקה רעדז'אטשאל heilige Rav Rachmiel Shifka Radz'at'zal. And he says the following, quotes from his זדהיע zay\"a, we could quote the אויב ישראל Ohev Yisrael, the Aptar Rav. שמדקדק על עמרו עקב כי מהראוי היה לומר והיה אם Shemedakdek al omro eikev ki mehara'ui haya lomar v'haya im. It should have said, אם תשמעון im tishme'un, if you listen, this is the reward. It's an unusual word, עקב eikev. עקב eikev, if you hearken, עקב eikev as a result, a consequence. אם Im, אם im is if. אם Im would have been much more fitting, why the word עקב eikev? The קושיא דהויער כי ידוע שסוף כל סוף לפני ביאת משיח יקרא כל אחד מישראל מוכרח לשוב בתשובה שלמה להשם יתברך ki yeduah shesof kol sof lifnei bias Mashiach yikareh kol echad miYisrael muchrach lashuv b'teshuva shleima laHashem Yisbarach. The bottom line is in the end of days, when we get closer to משיח Mashiach, in order to get over that finish line, in order to bring him, in order for hostages to come home and to have peace in ארץ ישראל Eretz Yisrael and for us to have security and no more antisemitism around the world, to get where we want to go, to have משיח Mashiach come, we have to be worthy, we have to earn it. We're all going to have to do serious תשובה teshuva. כמו שנאמר k'mo shene'emar as the פסוק pasuk says in שמואל ב Shmuel Beis, ידח ממנו נדח yidach mimenu nidach. ויסבב אז הקדוש ברוך הוא כמה סיבות שעל ידם יתעוררו ישראל לשוב בתשובה V'yisovev az haKadosh Baruch Hu kama sibos she'al yadam yisoreru Yisrael lashuv b'teshuva. הקדוש ברוך הוא HaKadosh Baruch Hu is going to bring into this world many incentives, many motivating factors. He's going to jar us and shake us. He's going to startle us until we are, our נשמה neshama, our פנטל ייד pintele Yid, the Jewish soul is awoken and wants to do תשובה teshuva. לכן ראוי לכל אדם לעשות חשבון מעצמו Lachen ra'ui l'chol adam la'asos cheshbon me'atzmo. So a person should make a simple calculation for themselves. למה אמתין עד אותה שעה שאיה מוכרח לשוב בתשובה Lama amtin ad osa sha'ah she'eheyeh muchrach lashuv b'teshuva? Why do I have to wake? Why do I have to wait? Why should I sleepwalk through life? Why should I be asleep? Why should I be a creature of habit? Why should I be neglecting השם Hashem and His will for me in this world until he's going to have to do something to arouse me out of my sleep, something to wake me up, to move me to change? מוטב אשוב בתשובה לעבודת השם יתברך מעתה מתוך רצוני הטוב Mutav ashuv b'teshuva l'avodas Hashem Yisbarach me'ata mitoch retzoni hatov. Let me not wait, let me do it now on my own. Let me awaken, let me make change, let me transform, let me improve. לפני שצריך לעשות זאת מצד הכרח וכפיה Lifnei she'etzrach la'asos zos mitzad ha'hechrech v'hakfiya, before I'm in a position that I have to. וזאת אמר משה רבינו V'zos amar Moshe Rabbeinu, and that's what Moshe is saying. והיה עקב v'haya eikev, עקב eikev לשון סוף mi'lashon sof. Where do you see the word עקב eikev having to do with the end of days? What do we call, hopefully, the time period that we're in? עקבתא דמשיחא Ikvesa d'Meshicha. עקב Eikev, עקבתא ikvesa, we're at the end. הלא סוף כל סוף יגיע עת אשר בהכרח תשמעון את המשפטים האלה Halo sof kol sof yagia eis asher b'hechrech tishme'un es hamishpatim ha'eleh. עקב Eikev, at the end of days, like it or not, ready or not, willingly or not, on your own or forced, like it or not, עקב eikev, in the עקבתא דמשיחא ikvesa d'Meshicha, at the end of days, תשמעון את המשפטים האלה tishme'un es hamishpatim ha'eleh. You're going to listen. You're going to change, you're going to grow, you're going to learn. לשוב בתשובה לקיים כל המצוות Lashuv b'teshuva l'kayem kol hamitzvos. So therefore, don't wait. ושמרתם Ushmartem, now here's the טייטש teitch, the אויב ישראל Ohev Yisrael says this all over חומש Chumash. It's a famous Aptar Rav. אויב ישראל Ohev Yisrael says whenever you see the word ושמרתם ushmartem, go back to the original appearance, ואביו שמר את הדבר v'aviv shamar es hadavar. What's the explanation, what's the טייטש teitch, ואביו שמר את הדבר v'aviv shamar es hadavar? What did it mean all the way back in ספר בראשית Sefer Bereishis? ואביו שמר את הדבר V'aviv shamar es hadavar, שמר shamar meant to wait. To wait eagerly, לצפות l'tzapos, to yearn, to wait, to long. So to be a שומר shomer is not to safeguard. What does it mean to guard? Aptar Rav famously applies this to be a שומר שבת shomer Shabbos. To be a שומר שבת shomer Shabbos is not what you do from sundown Friday till nightfall Saturday. You're not שומר שבת shomer Shabbos by how you keep Shabbos on the weekend. To be a שומר שבת shomer Shabbos is the other six days of the week. Are you waiting? Are you longing? Are you looking forward? Are you preparing? Is your entire week oriented around Shabbos? To be a שומר שבת shomer Shabbos on Shabbos, that's a הלכה halacha. לא תעשו מלאכה Lo sa'asu melacha, you got to keep Shabbos. To be a שומר שבת shomer Shabbos is, what did he say in the שיר של יום shir shel yom this morning? היום שלישי בשבת Hayom shelishi b'Shabbos. Three days since Shabbos or towards Shabbos, I'm שומר שבת shomer Shabbos. My whole week is, my whole calendar, my whole schedule, the rhythm of my life is oriented around Shabbos. That's what it means to be a שומר שבת shomer Shabbos. To be שומר shomer something is not whether you keep it or not, it's whether you look forward to it and long for it or not. That's what it means to be a שומר shomer. So ושמרתם ushmartem means to long. למה תמתינו עד אז הלא מוטב ועשיתם אותם Lama tamtenu ad az, halo mutav v'asisem osam. So that's the very creative חסידיש Chassidish interpretation of אויב ישראל Ohev Yisrael at the beginning of this פרשה parsha. והיה עקב v'haya, eikev, עקבתא דמשיחא ikvesa d'Meshicha, at the end of days, תשמעון את המשפטים האלה tishme'un es hamishpatim ha'eleh. You'll be put in a position, you'll be forced, you'll be coerced, you'll do it out of a sense of urgency, there's no atheist in a foxhole. The world will be crumbling around you, the walls will be caving in, and you'll come to learn. But why wait for that? Why wait for that? Instead, ושמרתם ushmartem, long for it, yearn for it, wake up on your own, ועשיתם אותם va'asisem osam, and do them without being in a position that you're forced. And before the עקב eikev, there's a דבר תורה dvar Torah that jumped out to me, a parsha perspective for today, because we feel it. The world is crumbling around us. The world is crumbling around us, increasingly unrecognizable, further isolated every day, not just our brothers and sisters in Israel, but we're feeling it, abandoned, betrayed, isolated. The world, the world is a difficult, complicated place. Don't wait for עקב eikev. Don't wait for something to happen to have an urgency in your life, a diagnosis, a condition, to be in a position to have to wake up. Don't wait. ושמרתם Ushmartem, let's wake up on our own, ועשיתם אותם va'asisem osam, and live the righteous life and be that light in this world and redeem הקדוש ברוך הוא's haKadosh Baruch Hu's world in a way that עקב eikev, in the עקבתא ikvesa, we've already earned it. We're not in a position that we need it. That's the first interpretation. רב רחמיאל שיפקה Rav Rachmiel Shifka brings down many, many, many. I'll tell you one more from the רבה קדוש מברזין Rebbe Kadosh m'Brezhin. He says the following, בעקבתא דמשיחא תשמעון מלשון אסיפה b'ikvesa d'Meshicha tishme'un mi'lashon asifa. If you look in שמואל א פרק טו פסוק ד Shmuel Aleph, Perek Tet-Vav, Pasuk Dalet, you'll see the word תשמעון tishme'un is used there in the נביא Navi to have another meaning. תשמעון Tishme'un can mean אסיפה asifa, a gathering. יהיה להם לישראל להתאסף יחד באחדות ורעות כי אז ימים קשים לישראל ועצה לזה תהיה להתחזק באחדות ואהבת חברים ועל כח האחדות יוכלו להחזיק מעמד בימים ההם Yehei lahem l'Yisrael l'hisasef yachad b'achdus v're'us, ki az yamim kashim l'Yisrael, v'eitza l'zeh tiheyeh l'hischazek b'achdus v'ahavas chaverim, u'v'koach ha'achdus yuchlu l'hachzik ma'amad bayamim hahem. עקב Eikev, in the עקבתא דמשיחא ikvesa d'Meshicha, in the end of days, you know what will get you through it, when the world's crumbling, when the walls are caving in, when you're feeling isolated and alone, when it's in the world is increasingly unrecognizable, you know what will get you through it? תשמעון אסיפה אחדות Tishme'un, asifa, achdus, unity, be unified, community. It was a very interesting phenomenon. There were Jews in our community and elsewhere who following Corona and COVID still hadn't come back to shul, to community. And after October 7th, after שמחת תורה Simchas Torah, when they felt the אידישע נשמה Yiddishe neshama was in pain, was connected to our brothers and sisters everywhere, in Israel, people came back. People came back. They want to feel connected. They want to feel part of community. We need community in order to get through. We can't endure when while we're alone. The resilience comes from community. תשמעון עקב Tishme'un eikev, in עקבתא דמשיחא ikvesa d'Meshicha, תשמעון מלשון אסיפה tishme'un mi'lashon asifa, عین ספר שמואל ayn Sefer Shmuel, from a sense of אחדות achdus and of unity. We can't afford to be divided and divisive. We can't afford to be apart and calling each other names. When the world is against us, we have to be united. We have to be united. You know, Sapir Cohen who was held hostage by חמאס Hamas, captured with her boyfriend on October 7th, she spoke here on תשעה באב Tisha B'av, a modern-day קינה kina, and she said while she was in captivity, her חמאס Hamas captors, the terrorists who terrorized her, once invited her to watch the television, the news with her. And they saw Hostage Square. And they saw the tapestry of כלל ישראל Klal Yisrael. Every kind of Jew was there in Hostage Square, meeting the hostage families and דאווענען davening and pleading with השם Hashem to bring them home. And the terrorist, the חמאס Hamas terrorist said to her, \"Right now you're united. Right now while we see you, you're all together. Every kind of Jew, יארמולקע yarmulke, and no יארמולקע yarmulke, young, old, religious, secular, we know right now you're in your strongest. We know that we have to just lay low.\" She didn't say this when she spoke here, but I've seen her speak elsewhere and she included, he said to her, \"But we know we just have to wait a few weeks or a few months, and once you start fighting with each other again, that's when you'll be weak and that's when we'll attack again.\" That's when we'll attack again. It's not a coincidence October 7th happened while the fight over judicial reform, while Jews were shutting down מניינים on יום כיפור minyanim on Yom Kippur in the streets of Tel Aviv. It's not a coincidence that when our enemies saw that we were divided and fragmented, that's when they strike. And when they see us united, that's when they know we have to lay low. והיה עקב Haya eikev, if we want עקבתא דמשיחא ikvesa d'Meshicha, we want משיח Mashiach, תשמעון אסיפה להתאסף יחד באחדות ורעות tishme'un asifa, l'hisasef yachad b'achdus v're'us. When we're strong, when we're united, when we're together, then they can't defeat us. When we're divided, then they know that is their sign to strike. So Rabbi Soloveitchik also has a comment on the חומש Chumash. It says the following, עקב eikev, and this is going on Rashi, everybody knows the famous Rashi, where does the לשון עקב lashon eikev come from? המצוות הקלות שאדם דש בעקביו תשמעון Hamitzvos hakalos she'adam dash b'akevav tishme'un. If you even fulfill and observe, if you're present and you're passionate about the mitzvos that a person steps on, the mitzvos we neglect. We make the mistake in our minds of categorizing mitzvos. Those are the big ones. For a long time already, a Jew is defined, what makes you שומר תורה ומצוות shomer Torah u'mitzvos? Shabbos, Kashrus, Taharas HaMishpacha. Shabbos, Kashrus, Taharas. Those are the big ones. Those one wouldn't violate. A little ones, maybe negotiable. A little negotiable. Does he really care? Does it really matter? Are they consequential, the minutia? So Rashi comes along and he says, \"We don't know.\" It's a Mishna in Avos. We don't know מתן שכרן של מצוות matan scharan shel mitzvos, we don't know. הוי זהיר במצוה קלה כבחמורה hevei zahir b'mitzva kala k'vachamura חז''ל Chazal tells in Avos. Be as careful with what seems like a light and lenient as something strict and stringent. We don't know His calculation, we don't know the formula, we don't know what really matters. So עקב eikev, what you step on, what you step on with your foot, the lowest, what seems like the lowest and insignificant, be as scrupulous and be as careful. Rabbi Soloveitchik writes, \"We can't argue a specific task should be relegated to someone else because it doesn't seem to play to our capabilities. A mitzvah can never be beneath someone to perform. הוי זהיר במצוה קלה כבחמורה Hevei zahir b'mitzva kala k'vachamura. One should fulfill the easy mitzvos simply because one does not know his assignment. Maybe he was sent here precisely to fulfill just such mitzvos.\" Just such mitzvos. One person's going to be the president of the shul. One person, as if that's a position of esteem. I'm not so that's such a grace, you know, you give your condolences to the person who was just elected. But there are people who, you know, they want to make the announcements, the spotlight, the power, they run the meeting, they sign the check. So one person's going to have all that fame. And another person is going to collect the סידורים siddurim and put them in the bookcase when no one's around and when no one sees. Who's greater? Well, public, publicly one has more prominence. But who knows why a person's mission, what their position, why they're here? The ריבונו של עולם Ribbono Shel Olam, the infinite appoints flesh and blood as his שליח shliach. And that שליחות shlichus, that agency is permanent from the oath at birth through the moment of death. A person cannot accept or reject an assignment. A person can never know for certain his ultimate purpose. Why are we here? What difference are we meant to make? What's our position? What is our שליחות shlichus? What's our agency? What are we supposed to be, what problems should we be solving? What role should we be fulfilling? The ירושלמי Yerushalmi in the first פרק perek of Kiddushin provides a powerful illustration. The ירושלמי Yerushalmi tells a story of the supreme lengths that Rebbi Tarfon went to honor his mother. Once, his mother tore her shoe and rather than allow her to walk barefoot, Rebbi Tarfon placed his hands under her feet, alternating his hands as she walked until she arrived home and reached her own bed. That way she didn't injure her foot by stepping on something sharp. And the rabbis came to visit him. When Rebbi Tarfon fell ill, later, חז''ל, the חכמים Chazal, the chachamim came to visit him. Rebbi Tarfon's mother asked him to daven for his recovery in the merit of his honoring her so excessively. And when the Rabanim asked what exactly Rebbi Tarfon did that was excessive, she related the incident of the torn shoe. And the rabbis responded, \"Even had he done so one million times, he would have not have fulfilled even half of the biblical imperative of honoring parents.\" And the commentators on this ירושלמי Yerushalmi, they ask the obvious question. When one is concerned for the well-being of someone who's ill, one normally reflects on that person's good deeds and prays for his recovery. Honoring one's parents is one of the few mitzvos for which the Torah specifically designates a long life. Why, of all times, while Rebbi Tarfon is sick, why did the רבנן Rabbanan see fit to minimize the extraordinary honor? Right, when he was being praised for the honor he showed his mother, they said, \"Eh, it's pretty good. But, you know, even if he did that a million times, it was only halfway what he should have done.\" Really, while he's down and out is when you're knocking him? When he's sick and he needs the merits, the זכיות zchuyos, is when you should have been elevating him? So in addressing this question, here's Rabbi Soloveitchik, a little unusual, quotes the Chofetz Chaim, explained that one can never know his designated assignment. Naturally, one would assume the assignment of Rebbi Tarfon, one of the greatest Torah sages of his time, was the dissemination of the Torah, along with his august contemporaries. Rebbi Gamliel, Rebbi Kiva, Rebbi Eliezer ben Hurkenus, Rebbi Shimon ben Chanina, Rebbi Eliezer ben Azaria, Rebbi Chutzpis Meturgaman. Yet, the rabbis who came to visit Rebbi Tarfon were not quite sure. Perhaps his purpose on Earth was indeed to disseminate Torah. On the other hand, maybe Rebbi Tarfon was created to serve his mother in her old age. For this purpose, he did not need to become the great sage, Rebbi Tarfon. A simple, unlearned Jew could have fulfilled that assignment as well. Perhaps becoming a Torah giant was only a secondary minor assignment. His major purpose was to help his aging mother. We don't know. We don't know. Having many תלמידים talmidim, being a big ראש ישיבה Rosh Yeshiva, that was the public, that was the fame, that was certainly more pride. But maybe his real purpose was to help his aging mother. We don't know. When the visiting rabbi heard his mother suggests Rebbi Tarfon had exceeded the requirements of the mitzvah, they in essence responded חס ושלום chas v'shalom. For if Rebbi Tarfon completed fulfilling his assignment, there's no longer a reason to remain on Earth. And then for he would succumb to the illness. Therefore, they insisted Rebbi Tarfon had not discharged even a tiny fraction of his obligation. They didn't do so to knock him down, they did so as a strategy to prolong his life. You see, the moment you say someone fulfilled his purpose, he honored his mother, he went to extraordinary lengths, he was excessive in his כיבוד אב ואם kibud av v'em, if that was his תכלית tachlis, if that was his purpose and it was complete, that would not be a merit on his behalf. דוקא Davka by saying, \"Eh, that was nothing. He barely began to scratch the surface of what he could do.\" Now you're saying and arguing, \"We still need him here. We still need him here.\" חז''ל Chazal say sometimes השם Hashem causes to rain on an entire continent so one specific blade of grass can grow. תענית דף ט' Taanis Daf Tes. Similarly, sometimes a great man, one of the greatest of his generation could be put on earth to accomplish a relatively small assignment serving his old and frail mother. We don't know. עקב Eikev, what we step on, what we think is unimportant, what we think doesn't matter, might be the entire reason that we are here. It's our שליחות shlichus, it's our purpose, it's our mission on this earth. We don't know, don't step on it. עקב תשמעון Eikev tishme'un. Be שומר shomer, be excited, be passionate, be enthusiastic, even with the things that we step on with our ankle. Turn the page, פרק ח' פסוק א' Perek Ches, Pasuk Aleph. כל המצוה אשר אנכי מצוך היום תשמרון לעשות Kol hamitzva asher anochi metzavcha hayom tishmerun la'asos. The whole mitzvah that I am obligating you today. תשמרון Tishmerun again, the אויב ישראל Ohev Yisrael, the Aptar Rav would say תשמרון tishmerun means don't just keep it when you're confronted with it. תשמרון Tishmerun means be excited about it. Look for it, long for it, wait for it. Be excited after שחרית Shacharis, look forward to מנחה Mincha. You gave צדקה tzedaka, look forward to the next opportunity. You've got out of the סוכה sukkah, you took it down, can't wait to build it again. תשמרון לעשות Tishmerun la'asos, be excited about the next mitzvah, למען תחיון ורביתם ובאתם וישבתם את הארץ אשר נשבע השם לאבותיכם l'maan tichyun u'rvisem u'vasem virishtem es ha'aretz asher nishba Hashem l'avoseichem. So you'll live and you'll propagate and promulgate, you'll increase and you'll come and you'll possess the land that השם Hashem swore to our forefathers. כל המצוה Kol hamitzva. כל המצוה Kol hamitzva. Which mitzvah? כל המצוה Kol hamitzva, the whole mitzvah. Which mitzvah? אשר אנכי מצוך היום Asher anochi metzavcha hayom. So the רב רחמיאל שיפקה Rav Rachmiel Shifka, the אמרות טהורות Amoros Tehoros says the following. כי בתחילה צריך האדם לקיים מצוות השם יתברך בפשטות Ki b'tchila tzarich ha'adam l'kayem mitzvos Hashem Yisbarach b'pashtus. At first when you do the mitzvah, focus on the mechanics. Did you get it right? Did you do it? What's my obligation? What are the parameters? What's the שיעור shiur, the measure? Did I do the mitzvah? Did I do the mitzvah? בפשטות B'pashtus. פשטות Pashtus, did I say the words of the bencher? Is my לולב lulav, are my לולב lulav and אתרוג esrog כשר kasher? Is my סוכה sukkah כשר kasher? שופר Shofar, how many blasts, how many blows? Did I hear them clearly? What's the mitzvah? Tefillin? Did I light the candles? How do I observe Shabbos and make a טעם ta'am in Shabbos? בפשטות B'pashtus. ואחר כך יזכה לקיימן בפנימיות V'achar kach yizkeh l'kayman b'pnimius. And once one knows the mechanics, the outer, the superficial way to fulfill a mitzvah, the parameters, now you got to dive deep. Now you got to get into the פנימיות pnimius. And this is our generation is waking up to פנימיות התורה pnimius haTorah. Don't just superficially discharge and deliver a mitzvah. Don't put a check mark. Done, tefillin, done, talis, done, Daf Yomi, done. I gave a little tzedaka, done. Done, done, done. Now I can go, my country club living, I could go be like everybody else. Now I can go run and have the life I really want. But פנימיות pnimius, what's the depth? What's it really all about? How is it meant to move me and transform me? How is it meant to connect me? The word מצוה mitzva, ציווי tzivui, צוותא tzavsa, means a connection. It's a connection. It's a command. הקדוש ברוך הוא HaKadosh Baruch Hu, the Almighty says, \"Jump.\" What do we say? How high? But a צוותא tzavsa, a ציווי tzivui also creates that connection. It creates the connection. And then the energy can flow. If you close the circuit, the electricity can flow. A ציווי tzivui, a צוותא tzavsa, לצוות l'tzavos is to close the connection, to close the circuit. And now the energy, a part of הקדוש ברוך הוא HaKadosh Baruch Hu between השם Hashem and we're a חלק אלקה ממעל ממש chelek Eloka mima'al mamash, we're a piece of השם Hashem. Now we've closed the circuit through the פנימיות pnimius. מתוך דבקות בקדוש ברוך הוא כמו שאמר הזוהר הקדוש אורייתא וקודשא בריך הוא וישראל כולא חד Mitoch dveikus b'haKadosh Baruch Hu k'mo she'amar haZohar haKadosh, Oraisa v'Kudsha Brich Hu v'Yisrael kula chad. וזהו שאומר הכתוב V'zehu she'omer hakosuv, says the רב רחמיאל שיפקה Rav Rachmiel Shifka. That's the פשט pshat in the pasuk. I don't know if it's the פשט pshat in the pasuk, but that's the טייטש teitch of the pasuk. אנכי רומז על פנימיות המצוות Anochi romez al pnimius hamitzvos. So now let's look back at the pasuk. כל המצוה Kol hamitzva, the whole mitzvah אשר אנכי מצוך היום asher anochi metzavcha hayom. It could have said the whole mitzvah that you are commanded in. The pasuk doesn't say the mitzvah, the mitzvah you are commanded in is the legal mitzvah, the parameters of the mitzvah, the technical mitzvah, the bylaws of the mitzvah. What is אנכי anochi? אנכי רומז על פנימיות המצוה Anochi romez al pnimius hamitzva. השם Hashem says, \"I don't want just you to just discharge and deliver the mitzvah. Don't live a checklist Yiddishkeit. You know what kind of Yiddishkeit I want you to live? אנכי Anochi.\" כל המצוה Kol hamitzva, there's a mitzvah. You got a whole list, a litany. You wake up in the morning, there's a lot to do. But don't just do it. Do it how? אנכי מצוך היום Anochi metzavcha hayom. Do it because you know there's an אנכי anochi in that mitzvah. אנכי Anochi, השם Hashem is the פנימיות pnimius is in that mitzvah. The דרשות חז''ל drashos Chazal, because חז''ל Chazal say אנכי Anochi, אנכי Anochi is an acronym, stands for אנא נפשי כתבית יהבית Ana nafshi ksaviz yhavis. שבאיסק המצוות התורה מתקשר אדם לקדוש ברוך הוא Sheb'eisek hamitzvos haTorah miskasher adam laKadosh Baruch Hu. The Torah is the diary of הקדוש ברוך הוא HaKadosh Baruch Hu. The Torah is a description of הקדוש ברוך הוא's haKadosh Baruch Hu's essence. The Torah is not just some law book sitting on a shelf. It is a description, it is a diary of his essence, of his essence. That's why Torah is so critical for all of our lives. You know, the מפרשים mefarshim, I'll tell you a וורט vort on שבועות Shavuos. I was just too above, why am I telling you a וורט vort on שבועות Shavuos? You'll understand in a moment. But if you look in the תורה הקדושה Torah haKdosha, if you look in the פרשיות parshiyos of the Torah that tell us about the holiday of שבועות Shavuos, it omits what the theme of the day is all about. Wake any Jew in the middle of the night and say, \"What is שבועות Shavuos all about? זמן מתן תורתנו Zman Matan Toraseinu.\" We're celebrating מתן תורה Matan Torah, קבלת התורה Kabbalas haTorah. We're back at סיני Sinai. We're back at Sinai, we're receiving the Torah anew. The only problem is that's lovely, that's nice. It's in the Kiddush and it's in the דאווענען davening. We get cheesecake and coffee and stay up all night learning, but it's not in the Torah. The Torah, it's an agricultural, agrarian holiday. It's missing the essence, the theme, the case of the missing Torah. Once gave a שיעור shiur, שבועות Shavuos is the case of the missing Torah. The Torah is missing from the Torah when it comes to שבועות Shavuos, why? So the קלי יקר Kli Yakar and others, רב דוד צבי הופמן Rav Dovid Tzvi Hoffman and others, they say, \"You know why?\" When's the last time you picked up a palm branch with a citrus fruit, with a myrtle, with a willow branch? When's the last, I could tell you exactly when the last time you picked it up. It's last סוכות Sukkos. And you won't do it again until next סוכות Sukkos because what do you associate those four species with? סוכות Sukkos. When's the last time you ripped a horn off an animal's head and blew it, all different types of blasts and blows? I could tell you exactly the last time was ראש השנה Rosh Hashanah. It's ראש השנה Rosh Hashanah. And so it is with each of the mitzvos. We have the day designated for them and that's what we associate with that ritual mitzvah and that's when we do it, and we don't do it, we neglect it in between appropriately. We're not supposed to. In fact, we have a prohibition. בל תוסיף, בל תגרע Bal tosif, bal tigra, you're not supposed to add, subtract. We don't add. That's הקדוש ברוך הוא's haKadosh Baruch Hu's formula. Says the קלי יקר Kli Yakar and others, say the קלי יקר Kli Yakar and others, if the Torah would explicitly say the theme, the essence of שבועות Shavuos is learning Torah, what would happen? You'd open the Torah when? \"Ooh, Shavuos, my shul puts out a program. Ooh, wah! Nobody makes a program like my shul. There's Torah learning around the clock, beginner, intermediate, advanced, for men, for women, there's adults, there's children, there's everything. Unbelievable!\" And then when do I open the Torah next time? The next שבועות Shavuos. So it has to omit it because we have to know כי הם חיינו ואורך ימינו ki hem chayeinu v'orech yameinu. We live, Torah is our life. Torah is our life. You know, it occurred to me, it occurred to me, it occurred to me that in America, in America, if you open a law book, the Constitution, law books, and you read them, if you're a lawyer, it makes sense. You're advancing your career, that's your interest. If you're not a lawyer and you read law books for fun, you're a nerd. We just wrote an article. You're not allowed to call someone a weirdo. We just wrote an article about that. So I won't call somebody who does that a weirdo, but it's eccentric, it's unusual, it's different, it's certainly an outlier. Now imagine, you have a room full of non-lawyers who wake up 6:15 every morning where they sit across from one another to read law and debate law and study law and and memorize the law and compare and contrast law and analyze law. They wake up 6:15 every morning. And they're still thinking about it all day and they come back to it at night. Does that exist? I don't even think it exists. In American law, in secular law, I don't think it exists. And yet we have such an emphasis and focus. The נפש החיים Nefesh HaChaim, of course, talks about it and others. Torah is כי הם חיינו ki hem chayeinu, it's our life. It's the air that we breathe. And whether you're a legal scholar, whether you're a רב rav, a דיין dayan, a תלמיד חכם talmid chacham, a פוסק posek, a גדול gadol, whether you're a lawyer of Jewish law, a legal scholar, a layman, every one of us has an obligation every day to open that book, immerse ourselves in it, it's the air that we breathe. Torah is our life source. Why? Why? Because of this acronym of אנכי Anochi. אנא נפשי Ana nafshi, because הקדוש ברוך הוא HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, \"That's my diary. That's me. It's a description of אלוקות Elokus.\" So this morning, if you were up at 6:15 or whatever time you did the דף daf, and you were debating, how do you define possession? What's real ownership? How do you demonstrate an acquisition, a transaction? What's testimony? What's partial testimony? How do you combine the units of testimony? You're not just learning abstract conceptual law, you are immersing yourself into the divine design of this world. This is הקדוש ברוך הוא's haKadosh Baruch Hu's definition. And every time you learn it, it has to end with הקדוש ברוך הוא HaKadosh Baruch Hu, now I understand. I've read his diary, I understand, I feel closer to him. So we're immersing ourselves in Torah as an exercise of אנכי Anochi, of His אנכי Anochi. We've shared with you before, it's brought down by the גאונים Geonim and others. All of Torah, the totality of Torah, all of תרי''ג Taryag, 613, is encompassed and included, this is last week's פרשה parsha, in the עשרת הדברות Aseres HaDibros. All 613 are included in the first 10. And the whole 10 of the decalogue of the עשרת הדברות Aseres HaDibros of the Ten Commandments are included in the first דברה dibra, in the first, \"I am the Lord your God.\" And the entire first דברה dibra, the whole first commandment is included in the opening word, אנכי Anochi. And the whole first word is included in the opening letter, the א aleph, the אלופו של עולם Alufo Shel Olam, which means you could summarize the entire Torah and all 613 into 10 into one into one word into one letter. The whole totality of Torah is is א aleph. א Aleph, and what's the א aleph? אנכי Anochi. אנכי Anochi. There is a השם Hashem. He's the designer who created this world. He put us in it. We're here with a purpose. We're here with a mission. We are here with a sense of שליחות shlichus, with agency. We're here to serve Him. We're here to repair and redeem his world and his image. How do we know how to do it? How do we find out what our mission statement is? Where do we find our instructions, our next mission? Because you wake up at 6:15, I'm plugging the כולל בוקר Kollel Boker, whatever time you wake up and whatever time you make during the day, because you're opening up his Torah and you're not just learning it superficially. כל המצוה אנכי Kol hamitzva, Anochi. In every mitzvah there is an אנכי Anochi. Every mitzvah you have a chance to draw closer to השם Hashem, לצוות l'tzavos, ציווי tzivui. There was an opportunity to come closer, to immerse in the diary. So you have to, you have to. It's quoted in the name of Rav Kook. I heard it quoted in the name of others that he used to learn, if you'd learn the opening of בבא מציעא Bava Metzia, you'd learn שניים אוחזים בטלית shnayim ochzin b'talis, two people walk in, they're both holding this garment. This one says it's all mine, that one says it's all mine. הקדוש ברוך הוא אומר יחלוקו HaKadosh Baruch Hu omer yachloku. הקדוש ברוך הוא HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, \"You divide it.\" You can't close the book without saying, \"How does this give me a greater understanding of השם's Hashem's design for his world? How does this bring me closer to him? How does it give me more insight to him? How did I just connect and access his diary?\" Where is the אנכי Anochi? The problem in our lives, the challenge, then I want to go on because I want to get back to פרשה parsha, the challenge is that there's his אנכי Anochi and then there's our אנכי Anochi, our ego, our vision for the world, our needs, our wants, our drive, our desire, our אנכי Anochi, ego stands, it's not our own, ego is an acronym too. Ego stands for Edging God Out. There's not enough room in this world for him and us. When we express our ego, we've edged God out. We've pushed him out of the way. Ego. That's our אנכי Anochi. You know what the problem with our אנכי Anochi? Baal Shem says on last week's parsha, אנכי עומד בין השם וביניכם Anochi omed bein Hashem u'veineichem. The simple understanding of the pasuk, Moshe Rabbeinu was reminding Klal Yisrael, you were so scared, you were so frightened, I delivered the message from Hashem. אנכי Anochi, I stood, I was between you and Hashem, I was the intermediary, I was the transmitter of the message. But the Baal Shem understood it differently. You know what stands between us and God? You know the barrier, the impediment between a relationship with Hashem? אנכי Anochi. When your ego is there, you can't connect to Hashem. When you think you're in charge, when you think you take credit for your success, when you think you're in control, when the world has to march according to your orders and your desire and the way you wrote it out, אנכי Anochi, when you have an inflated ego, עומד בין השם וביניכם omed bein Hashem u'veineichem, it stands between you and God. So it's his אנכי Anochi or our אנכי Anochi? There's not enough room in this world for both. It's either the אנכי Anochi of the עשרת הדברות Aseres HaDibros or our אנכי Anochi which ends up being עומד בין השם וביניכם omed bein Hashem u'veineichem. So that's what the רב רחמיאל שיפקה Rav Rachmiel Shifka says on this pasuk too. כל המצוה Kol hamitzva, the whole mitzvah you got to perform, check. I did the mitzvah. Put on my talis, put on my tefillin, said my Shacharis, gave my tzedaka, learned my daf, did my chesed, honest in business, check, check, check, check, check. Shofar, my lulav and esrog. and my סוכה sukkah, check, check, check. But if you live a checklist יידישקייט Yiddishkeit, absent God, you're a כופר בעיקר kofer b'ikkar. The מצוה mitzvah has to be done with a פנימיות pnimius. אנכי מצוך Anochi metzavcha. It has to come from a place of the אנכי Anochi. וזה אמר שכל המצות אשר התכלית לקיימן אותם בבחינת אנכי V'zeh omar shekol hamitzos asher hatachlis lekaymam osam b'bchinas Anochi. היינו בפנימיות ובדביקות Hainu b'pnimius u'v'dveikus. הנה בתחילה תשמרון לעשות Hinei b'tchila tishmerun la'asos. תשמרון בתוספות נון המורה על הקטנות העניין tishmerun b'tosefes nun hamoreh al hakatnus ha'inyan, כלומר בתחלה יש לכם לעשותם בפשטות klomar b'tchila yesh lachem la'asosam b'pashtus, למען תחיון שיהיה לכם חיות המצוה בפשטות lemaan tichyun sheyihiye lachem chiyus hamitzvah b'pashtus. אז ורבצתם תזכו אחר כך לבוא לגדלות az urvitzem tizku acharei kach lavo l'gadlus. You start small, the פשטות pashtus, the simple fulfillment, the check. I got the measure, I got the parameters. I fulfilled it כשיר kasher. I did it right. Fantastic. But that's the beginning, that's not the end. Knowing you did it right is the beginning, not the end.Think about שבת Shabbos for a minute. If you learn and you observe the ל״ט מלאכות lamed tes melachos, the thirty-nine categories of creative labor, and now you know how to take the jelly beans that you like from the ones you don't like, you learned how to make a proper tea on שבת Shabbos, you learned all the הלכות halachos of שבת Shabbos. You learned the הלכות halachos of שבת Shabbos. But that's it. The laws, the parameters, the details of which there are many to learn, that's the totality of your שבת Shabbos experience? It's the beginning, not the end. It's the beginning, not the end. All those parameters are there to set the stage and the platform, they're the ground floor to build the פנימיות pnimius to then access the sense of the אנכי Anochi. That's number one. The רחמי שבכא Rachmei Shevka has a second פשט pshat. He says, כל המצוה יש לו לומר המצוה בלשון יחיד kol hamitzvah yesh lo lomar hamitzvah b'lashon yachid. It should have said כל המצוות kol hamitzvos, all the מצוות mitzvos אשר אנכי מצוך asher anochi metzavcha, all the מצוות mitzvos that I'm commanding you. What do you mean כל המצוה kol hamitzvah in the singular? Which מצוה mitzvah? הרי הקדים ואמר כל המצוה שמשמע שמדבר על כל מצוות התורה אם כן היה לו לומר כל המצות Harei hikdim v'amar kol hamitzvah shemashma shemedaber al kol mitzvos haTorah im kein hayah lo lomar kol hamitzvos. וכתב על דבר כי עיקר חשיבות קיום המצוה הוא לעשותם באחדות ובאסיפת חברים V'kasav al davar ki ikar chashivus kiyum hamitzvah hu la'asosam b'achdus u'v'asifas chaverim. על ידי זה מתעלית פעולת המצוה הרבה יותר מאשר נעשית ביחידות Al yedei zeh misales pe'ulas hamitzvah harbeh yoser m'asher naaseh b'yichidus. וזהו שאמר הכתוב כל לשון כללות V'zehu she'amar hakasuv kol lashon klalus, שיראה לצרף את עצמו בחבורת חברים sheyireh l'tzaref es atzmo b'chaburas chaverim, וזאת היא המצוה אשר אנכי מצוך היום v'zos hi hamitzvah asher anochi metzavcha hayom. כל המצוה Kol hamitzvah. What's the מצוה mitzvah? כל Kol. What's the כל kol? כלל Klal. כלל ישראל Klal Yisrael. You can't compare doing a מצוה mitzvah alone, by yourself, and doing a מצוה mitzvah with a חבורה chaburah, with a ציבור tzibbur, with a חברא chevra. The מצוה mitzvah takes on a much greater meaning, a dynamism, an energy, an enthusiasm. Do the מצוות mitzvos says the רחמי שבכא Rachmei Shevka, כל Kol. What's the כל kol? כלל Klal. כל Kol. כללות Klalus. כלל ישראל Klal Yisrael. חבורה Chabura. המצוה אשר אנכי מצוך היום Hamitzvah asher anochi metzavcha hayom. Do מצוות mitzvos with a sense of כלל klal, with a sense of כלל ישראל Klal Yisrael.פרק ח' פסוק ב' Perek ches pasuk beis. Now השם Hashem reminds us about our trip through the desert. וזכרת את כל הדרך אשר הוליכך השם אלקיך זה ארבעים שנה במדבר V'zacharta es kol haderech asher holichacha Hashem Elokecha zeh arbaim shana bamidbar. Remember, remember the whole journey. I took you through the desert for forty years. And why did I do that says השם Hashem? I was putting you through a test. למען ענותך לנסותך לדעת את אשר בלבבך התשמור מצותיו אם לא Lemaan anoscha l'nasoscha ladaas es asher bilvavcha hatishmor mitzvosav im lo. This was a big test, a big test to know what's in your heart, whether you'll fulfill his commandments or not. ויענך וירעבך ויאכילך את המן אשר לא ידעת ולא ידעון אבותיך Vayan'cha vaya'arivecha v'yachilcha es hamon asher lo yadata v'lo yadun avosecha. השם Hashem made it difficult for us. He gave us an appetite. We were hungry. And then he gave us the מן mon that we hadn't known and that our ancestors never experienced. למען הודיעך כי לא על הלחם לבדו יחיה האדם Lemaan hodi'acha ki lo al halechem l'vado yichyeh ha'adam. Why did he do that? The divine מן mon that fell from heaven? Because he wanted us to know then and in perpetuity that man doesn't live off bread alone. כי על כל מוצא פי השם יחיה האדם Ki al kol motza pi Hashem yichyeh ha'adam. Rather, everything that emanates from the mouth of השם Hashem, that's what we live from, not from the bread, not from the bread alone, not from the bread alone. One more רחמי שבכא Rachmei Shevka, and then we'll move on to other ideas. And he quotes here the following. וזכרת V'zacharta. להבין מה היה הניסיון L'havin mah haya hanisayon. What was the ניסיון nisayon with the מן mon? השם Hashem says I'm testing you with the מן mon. What was the ניסיון nisayon with the מן mon? לדעת מזה אם ישמרו מצותיו Ladaas mizeh im yishmeru mitzvosav. How did השם Hashem find out by giving us מן mon that fell from heaven, portion for that day, not beyond, double portion on Friday, not more. In what way did he see from our reaction to that whether we would observe מצוות mitzvos or not? So, he suggests the following. בשעת אכילת המן היו כל ישראל בשלימות הבריאות B'shaas achilas hamon hayu kol yisrael b'shleimus habrius. When we ate the מן mon we were healthy. We were entirely healthy. על כותב לחם אבירים אוכל איש Al kosav lechem abirim ochel ish. שאכילת המן לא הזיק לישראל כלל She'achilas hamon lo hezik l'yisrael klal. The מן mon had no negative impact. You know, today every, every few years the warning, the caution, the diet changes, right? Carbs are good for you, they're bad for you. The sugar's bad for you, good for you. Eat a lot of this, don't eat that. Carnivore diet, meat with red meat was the worst thing in the world. Now the carnivore diet is the best thing in the world. It regularly changes. But we're always evaluating what's good for you, what's bad for you, what you should eat, what you should avoid. The מן mon had no negative effect. The מן mon had no negative impact on health. ממילא לא היו רואים צורך לאכול אז מעדנים m'meila lo hayu ro'im tzorech l'echol az ma'adanim. אחרי שאין בזה שום צורך לעבודת השם יתברך Acharei she'ein b'zeh shum tzorech l'avodas Hashem yisbarach. So חז\"ל Chazal tell us, תוספות Tosfos quotes in כתובות כף דלת Kesubos kaf daled, that a person should not imbibe or over enjoy, you know, the sweets or the foods that are bad for you because the more you compromise your health, the less you could serve השם Hashem. So, even though the גמרא Gemara tells us, אכילת המן יכול להרגיש כל טעם שבעולם achilas hamon yachol l'hargish kol taam sheba'olam, the מן mon could have tasted like any food in the world. נמצא אם כן כשהיה אוכל המן היה מבחן לכל איש ישראל לראות אם רצונו מתרכז באכילתו שיהיה לו כח לעבודת הבורא או שברצונו לאכול מאכלים ערבים לתענוג הגוף nimtza im kein k'shehaya ochel hamon hayah mivchan l'chol ish yisrael liros im r'tzono mitrakez b'achilaso she'yihiyeh lo koach l'avodas ha'Borei o she'birtzono l'echol ma'achalim areivim l'taanug haguf. Says the רחמי שבכא Rachmei Shevka the following: the מן mon served as a test in the following way. Essentially I will summarize it or reduce it to this. There are two types of people in this world. There are those who eat to live and those who live to eat. If you eat to live, you stop eating when you're full. You want it to taste good but you're not overly concerned with how lavish, you're not overly concerned with how the delicacies, you're not overly con- you eat to live. And once you derive the nutrients, the nourishment, once you get the energy to live from what you ate, so the eating is now in its place. You're not planning for the next meal. You're not nostalgic and remembering the previous meal. Your life doesn't revolve around the meals and the restaurant and the, eating is a necessary evil of life. You have to eat, you have to sleep, but you're doing it to live, not living to eat. People who live to eat, whoa! All they're thinking about is what's for dinner. What recipe are we trying? The appetizer, the dessert, what's next? What's for dinner? What's the snack? You're living to eat. You're living to eat. So הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu says that a איד Yid in this world needs to eat in order to live. הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave us an appetite. He gave us taste buds. And he gave us a drive for food. And there's nothing wrong with enjoying the food that we eat. There is no מצוה mitzvah to eat bland food. There's no obligation to have bread and water. Once you're eating, enjoy what you eat, but have it in context and perspective and always approach it with an attitude of, I'm eating to live, I'm never living to eat. So the מן mon that could have tasted like anything in the world was the ultimate laboratory. It was the ultimate test. When you imbibe that piece of מן mon, what did you want it to taste like? What would give you the nutrients and nourishment you need to live? Or to taste like the food that was so bad for you, but you're craving. Basically the מן mon would prove do you eat to live or do you live to eat. כי מי שהיה אוכל רק כדי שיהיה לו כח לעבוד את השם יתברך, לא יחפוץ לטעום במן טעם מעדנים, אחרי שאין בזה שום צורך לעבודת השם יתברך. Ki mi shehaya ochel rak k'dei sheyihiye lo koach l'avod es Hashem yisbarach, lo yachfotz litom b'man taam ma'adanim, acharei she'ein b'zeh shum tzorech l'avod es Hashem yisbarach. So therefore לנסותך לדעת את אשר בלבבך l'nasoscha ladaas es asher b'levavcha, לדעת אמיתת הרצון שבליבך באכילת המאכלים ladaas amitas haratzon sheb'libcha b'achilas hama'achalim. So that was the test of what's really in your heart, what's really your attitude towards food. התשמור מצותיו אם לא hatishmor mitzvosav im lo. האם אתה אוכל כדי שתוכל לשמור מצוות השם יתברך או לא Ha'im ata ochel k'dei shetuchal lishmor mitzvos Hashem yisbarach o lo? כי מי שאוכל רק כדי שיוכל לשמור מצות השם, אינו מתאווה להרגיש במן טעם מעדנים Ki mi she'ochel rak k'dei sheyuchal lishmor mitzvos Hashem, eino mis'aveh l'hargish b'man taam ma'adanim. And in that way it was, in that way it was a test. Others have other ideas of how the מן mon was this test. The רשב\"ם Rashbam, רשב\"ם Rashbam says למען לנסותך lemaan l'nasoscha, you know how the מן mon was a test? It's a big test. It's a big test to have no money in your bank account, to live paycheck to paycheck, to wake up in the morning and check your account to know what I what can I buy today. So the מן mon, it didn't come Costco size. The מן mon didn't fall where you needed a pantry to put all the rest, all the rest. You didn't get enough for a month or for that quarter. You got for that day. There were no reserves. Each day, each morning, that day's portion of the מן mon fell. No bulk. No bulk order. No storage room. No garage. So the test was, can you fall asleep without anything in your pantry? Can you fall asleep with your bank account on empty and have אמונה emunah and faith that השם Hashem is going to allow the מן mon to fall again tomorrow? The רשב\"ם Rashbam says לנסותך l'nasoscha, that was the test. Your אמונה emunah, your בטחון bitachon in השם Hashem. Now we have to have, we have to have השתדלות hishtadlus. We have to take initiative, we have to take effort. A person can't have a cop-out, fake, fraudulent אמונה emunah, that they don't work, they don't make an effort, they don't take initiative. I trust in השם Hashem like the מן mon, it's gonna fall. Someone's gonna knock on my door and leave a brown paper bag of cash. That's foolish and that's not a expression of faith, but that is in fact, that is the opposite. But in the מדבר midbar, הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu, this is the way he organized our lives. We went to sleep not knowing or having confidence that the next morning the מן mon would fall. The רמב\"ן Ramban says the test was simply the people had no experience with the מן mon. They never had it before. They didn't know that which right now was working, will it poison me tomorrow? Will it still taste like anything I want it to? Will it be COVID that it doesn't have any taste at all? Who knows? That was לנסותך l'nasoscha, that was the test. The חיד\"א, רב חיים דוד יוסף אזולאי Chida, Rav Chaim David Yosef Azulai, said the test was continuing to see the falling of the מן mon as a miracle. This is a beautiful insight. You know what the test was? Not whether you'd have faith that it would continue to fall. The test was, because the first week you were nervous. First day it fell. Oh, געשמאק, געוואלדיק geshmak, gevaldik, tastes like anything I want. The מן mon must have been amazing for שלום בית shalom bayis, because the woman could have מילכיגס milchigs and the man could have פליישיגס fleishigs. Everyone could have a taste like exactly what you want. Incredible for שלום בית shalom bayis. So the מן mon was amazing day one. And the מן mon was amazing. You were a little nervous. Is it going to fall day two? I don't know. And what about day three? Who knows? But you know what happens by the end of the first week? By the end of the second week, someone says, \"Isn't that מן mon amazing?\" You say, \"Eh.\" Eh. It falls every night, every day. I'm used to it. It tastes like whatever I want. The חיד\"א Chida says לנסותך l'nasoscha, the test of the מן mon was not whether you would have faith it would fall because you'd never adjust. The test of the מן mon is can you remain maladjusted to it? Will it always be fresh and new? Will you continue to be amazed that the מן mon falls? Will you continue to be amazed? The חיד\"א Chida explains a peculiar מדרש medrash based on this. On our פסוק pasuk, the מדרש ילקוט שמעוני Medrash Yalkut Shimoni makes a cryptic comment. On our פסוק pasuk, לנסותך l'nasoscha, that השם Hashem tested us in the מדבר midbar, למען ענותך לנסותך לדעת lemaan anoscha l'nasoscha ladaas to find out what's in our heart with the מן mon, מכאן שמדליקין נרות בשבת mikan shemadlikin neiros b'Shabbos. From here, we see there's a מצוה mitzvah to light שבת Shabbos candles Friday night. From the fact that the מן mon fell as a test, we see there's a מצוה mitzvah to light the שבת Shabbos candles. מה עניין שמיטה אצל הר סיני Mah inyan shmita eitzel Har Sinai? What does one thing have to do with the other? So the הלכה halacha is clear. Where do we light the שבת Shabbos candles? In proximity to the שבת Shabbos table. It's a whole הלכה halacha during קידוש kiddush you look at the candles. They have to be visible from where you're eating. On סוכות Sukkos it becomes a big שאלה shailah. Do you put the לייכטער leichter, do you put your fancy candles in the סוכה sukkah? Can you light them indoors but you see them from the סוכה sukkah? But the הלכה halacha is that you should see the candles, the candle should be near the שבת Shabbos table. Should be near the שבת Shabbos table. When we come home from שול shul Friday night, we find the table set and we find the food cooked and prepared and we find the drinks are purchased and schlepped from the supermarket. When the meal's over, the table needs to be cleared, the dishes need to be washed, the food needs to be put away. How often do we stop and pause and look back at that table and say, \"Wow.\" Wow. I had the money to go shopping for שבת Shabbos this שבת Shabbos. And there are people in my life who helped me prepare and serve and clean up. And this table wasn't empty, but I had people sitting around it who were the people that are the ברכה bracha in my life. Why are the שבת Shabbos candles near the שבת Shabbos table? Because the light of the שבת Shabbos candles is meant to illuminate the ברכות brachos that are right under our nose so we say, you know, thank you. Yes, it was my job to earn the money to buy the food and it was your job to shop and to cook and to clean it, and it was the kids' job to help and to But you know what? It's okay to thank people even when it was their job. People forget that. It's okay to acknowledge and thank the people even though that was their job, that was their role, that was their task. And we forget and we neglect. And the test of the מן mon was losing perspective, taking it for granted. And the test within our home says the חיד\"א Chida, and that's why מכאן שמדליקין נרות שבת mikan shemadlikin neiros Shabbos. The same way the falling of the מן mon was a test, would you become adjusted or maladjusted? Would it become ordinary or would it remain extraordinary? Would you come to expect it or would you still be amazed and surprised by it? Imagine if you your family would think you're you had a little bit of לחיים l'chaim before you made קידוש kiddush. Imagine you came to the שבת Shabbos table every Friday night and you said, \"Wow! השם Hashem, you're amazing. Look at this, the שבת Shabbos table is set. We have china and silverware and crystal. Wow, השם Hashem, look, I have a family. Wow, השם Hashem, look, we have food. Look at the dips. Look at the fancy holders the dips are in. Wow, השם Hashem, you're amazing, thank you. And the candles that are illuminating so I can see the ברכות brachos right under my nose, and I want to thank each and every one of you for what you contributed and I don't take it for granted and I don't feel entitled and I don't have it coming. And it will never get old.\" Every single שבת Shabbos, Friday night and שבת Shabbos day, every שבת Shabbos, every year, for a lifetime. Wow, what a life it would look like. What שלום בית shalom bayis there would be. What would our lives turn to? Says the חיד\"א Chida, that was the test of the מן mon. That was the test of the מן mon and that's what we learn, that's what we learn from here. And we see הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu, the gift of the מן mon in our lives, that's what the לחם משנה lechem mishneh is by the way. Why do we eat לחם משנה lechem mishneh on שבת Shabbos for three meals, preferably שלוש סעודות shalosh seudos as well? Why do we eat the לחם משנה lechem mishneh? Because the מן mon. All the הלכות halachos of the שבת Shabbos table are modeled after the מן mon. We don't have time now. But people don't know this. We're used to covering the חלה challah. תוספות Tosfos quotes several reasons. One of which, right, everyone knows the famous one, to not embarrass the חלה challah. Don't embarrass the חלה challah. Because the פסוק pasuk in our פרשה parsha, the order of the foods, חיטה chita comes before גפן gefen. You should make the המוציא hamotzi before קידוש kiddush. You're making קידוש kiddush because, you know, on a סתם stam Tuesday night, you make המוציא hamotzi before you have a glass of wine. You begin the meal by breaking the bread. If you do that Friday night, you wouldn't be demonstrating it's all לכבוד שבת l'kavod Shabbos. How do you demonstrate it's לכבוד שבת l'kavod Shabbos? By deviating from the norm, first you raise a glass, you make קידוש kiddush, מקדש השבת mekadesh haShabbos, then you break the bread. But you're going out of order of הלכות ברכות hilchos brachos. So to not embarrass the bread, what do we do? We cover the חלה challah. Everybody knows that reason. And Rav Yisrael Salanter famously said, how many times do people embarrass other members of the family at the שבת Shabbos table, meanwhile, they're so busy to run to cover the חלה challah so it won't be embarrassed, the inanimate object. Earlier this summer I was with my daughter, some young girls from seminary last year, and one of them said she was at someone's house on a Friday night. I can't even believe I'm telling you this story. You know, they set up seminary girls at people's homes, very kind of them to host you unless you don't know the host. Seminary girls were at a home of a host they didn't know. And the host sang שלום עליכם Shalom Aleichem. And then he stopped and he said, \"Tonight, we are not going to sing אשת חיל Eishes Chayil and my wife knows exactly why.\" And he went on to make קידוש kiddush. Tonight we're not going to sing אשת חיל Eishes Chayil and if you want to know why, my wife knows exactly why. But I promise you he covered the חלה challah before he made the קידוש kiddush. I'm sure he covered the חלה challah to make sure it wouldn't be embarrassed before he made the קידוש kiddush. I don't think they asked her why. It was obviously a private matter between the two, but he embarrassed her, humiliated her terribly. So I guarantee his חלה challah was covered, probably beautiful, beautiful חלה challah cover. I'm sure it had a plastic around it, was expensive and woven, he covered the חלה challah, because we don't want to embarrass the חלה challah. But that's one reason. תוספות Tosfos brings other reasons. Why else do we cover the חלה challah? Because when the מן mon fell in the מדבר midbar, there was a layer of dew underneath it and a layer of dew on top of it. So there's a הלכה halacha. As much as you have to have a tablecloth on a a uh cover on top of the חלה challah, you have to have a tablecloth under underneath the חלה challah as well. A שבת Shabbos tablecloth, it should be white. The משנה ברורה Mishnah Berurah brings it should be white. I know today tablescapes is the newest thing, with the chargers, because we don't have enough. We have enough expenses to be a פרום איד frum Yid. So now you need a, it's not enough to have a set table. You used to just have a white tablecloth. Now you need a tablescape. I'm going to get in trouble for this. I'm going to stop now. I'm going to quit while I'm behind. I'm going to get in trouble for it. But it should be a white tablecloth, פּשוט pashut. The dew underneath the מן mon, the dew on top of the מן mon. We learn it all from the מן mon. But imagine you sit down and you look at that לחם משנה lechem mishneh and you look at the two loaves and you look at the מן mon that fell in our life and you say, whether there's a lot in my bank account or a little, I know השם Hashem you're going to continue to make it rain. You continue to to fall. It's amazing. You don't have to wait for שליחת חלה shlichus challah to be appreciative that פרנסה parnassah comes from השם Hashem. You're allowed to think about it and you're supposed to think about it every שבת Shabbos when you have the לחם משנה lechem mishneh. That's what it's really all about. ואכלת ושבעת וברכת את השם אלקיך V'achalta v'savata u'verachta es Hashem Elokecha. There's a מצוה דאורייתא mitzvah d'oraisa of בירכינג bentching we learn from our פרשה parsha. רבנו בחיי Rabbeinu Bechaye in his כד הקמח Kad HaKemach on the section on ברכה bracha writes that our אמונה emunah and relationship with השם Hashem are measured by our attitude towards, towards ברכות brachos on food. The big measure, the metric, the barometer, you want to know how your אמונה emunah is? Do you make ברכות brachos before and after you eat? And are you present? Are you mindful? Is there a פנימיות pnimius to the ברכה bracha that you're making on food? Do you pause and say thank you? I'm not entitled, this isn't coming to me. What a ברכה bracha, how incredible I have it. How incredible that I have it. The מגיד Maggid of Mezritch would be more vigilant. He was more careful on כוונה kavanah in בירכינג bentching than he was in דאווענען davening, because the מגיד Maggid said דאווענען davening after all is דרבנן d'rabbanan. It's Rabbinic. בירכינג Bentching is דאורייתא d'oraisa, is biblical. דאווענען Davening is for what we want in advance. בירכינג Bentching is saying thank you for what we just had. He had more כוונה kavanah for בירכינג bentching. He said, saying thank you for what we just got. People have the opposite. People have a lot of כוונה kavanah, they have a competition who's got the longest שמונה עשרה Shmoneh Esrei when it comes to דאווענען davening. דאווענען Davening, I need this, I want that, please help me with this. We pour out our heart, we're fully focused, we're there. בירכינג Bentching, we're already clearing the table, we're playing charades, making hand gestures while we're בירכינג benching. בירכינג Bentching, we're lucky if we say it from a בירכער bencher. בירכינג Bentching you just... we got it backwards. בירכינג Bentching's דאורייתא d'oraisa, דאווענען davening's דרבנן d'rabbanan. And דאווענען davening, yes, we're passionate about what we need, what we want, but בירכינג bentching's saying thank you for what just was, a sincere thank you for what we just had. וברכת את השם אלקיך u'verachta es Hashem Elokecha. We דרשן darshan every את es in the Torah. את Es, כבד את אביך ואת אמך kaved es avicha v'es imecha, את es לרבות אחיך הגדול l'rabos achicha hagadol. I'll tell you something amazing about my amazing younger brother who's extraordinary. From the week that he learned that גמרא Gemara, את לרבות אחיך הגדול es l'rabos achicha hagadol, he called me every ערב שבת Erev Shabbos since. Literally, many, many, many years at this point. את לרבות אחיך הגדול Es l'rabos achicha hagadol. That את es, don't just honor your parents, את es, the word את es add something else. Every time we have את es, the famous story of שמעון העמסוני Shimon HaAmsoni, you know, את es is always including. What is in our פרשה parsha? ואכלת ושבעת וברכת v'achalta v'savata u'verachta, eat, be satiated and bless, ואכלת ושבעת וברכת את השם אלקיך v'achalta v'savata u'verachta es Hashem Elokecha. The פסוק pasuk could have simply said, וברכת השם אלקיך u'verachta Hashem Elokecha. What is the word את es adding? Look at the תוספות שאנץ Tosfos Shantz on the side of the גמרא Gemara. תוספות שאנץ Tosfos Shantz says, you know what it's לרבות l'rabos? לרבות בעל הבית l'rabos baal habayis. Don't forget when you're having such כוונה kavanah on your בירכער bencher, right, if you just came back from seminary over here, or the other was, you know, down here, but you're בירכינג benching from the בירכער bencher, your eyes are closed, you're swaying, you're into it, the long בירכינג benching, don't forget to thank the בעל הבית balabus and the בעל הבית'ס balabusta, the בעלת הבית baalas habayis. Don't forget, who went shopping, who cooked, who spent money, who served, who's cleaning, who hosted. In that effort to say thank you to השם Hashem, את לרבות Es l'rabos, says the תוספות שאנץ Tosfos Shantz, את לרבות בעל הבית, בעלת הבית Es l'rabos baal habayis, baalas habayis. Don't forget to thank הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu. So that was the test of the מן mon. Would the ברכות brachos in our lives that should remain extraordinary and amazing, would they grow old and would they grow stale? Would we forget about them? און בן-טשינג On bentching, Rav Soloveitchik says the following: ואכלת ושבעת וברכת V'achalta v'savata u'verachta, says Rav Soloveitchik. וברכת את השם אלקיך u'verachta es Hashem Elokecha. What does it mean to bless השם Hashem? וברכת U'verachta, this is the ברכה bracha that's דאורייתא d'oraisa. All of the ברכות brachos are דרבנן d'rabbanan. Maybe ברכת התורה Birchas HaTorah is a מחלוקת machlokes by ברכת התורה Birchas HaTorah. All of the ברכות brachos are דרבנן d'rabbanan, they're rabbinic of origin. The only ברכה bracha that we say, that everybody agrees that we all say that's biblical is בירכינג bentching. Good. That's the easy part. Here's the hard part. What does it mean to bless השם Hashem? I know what it means to give you a ברכה bracha. You should have גזונט gezunt and פרנסה parnasah and נחת nachas and I know the ברכות brachos that I want, basically what I need, my hopes, my dreams, my aspirations. הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu is omnipotent and infinite. He's the source of everything. Who are you and what are you to give him a ברכה bracha? You're going to give him a ברכה bracha? What kind of ברכה bracha are you going to give him? Kind of ברכה bracha are you going to give him? So what does it mean to bless God? It's a question on this פסוק pasuk. ואכלת ושבעת V'achalta v'savata, good, you ate and you were satisfied by what you ate. Don't just go back to life and and neglect where it comes from. וברכת u'verachta, give השם Hashem a ברכה bracha. What does it mean to bless God? Says Rav Soloveitchik the following. How can flesh and blood, temporal man referred to in the liturgy as a fading flower, a broken שארד shard, a fleeting cloud, all from כל נדרי Kol Nidrei, approach the everlasting king of kings and say ברוך אתה השם Baruch Atah Hashem. השם Hashem, I'm giving you a ברכה bracha. That's what every ברוך אתה Baruch Atah, blessed are you, God. השם Hashem, come over here, השם Hashem. I want to put my hands on your קפי kepi and give you a ברכה bracha. You, mere mortal, finite, are giving the infinite a ברכה bracha? The answer is that man must provide assistance as it were to the רבונו של עולם Ribono Shel Olam. Man must help God, how? To reveal his presence in this world. השם Hashem does need us for one thing and that is to ממלך mamlich him. We're already אב, אלול בא Av, Elul ba. אב Av is an acronym for אלול בא Elul ba. So אלול Elul is on its way. And אלול Elul leading into תשרי Tishrei, we're being ממליך השם mamlich Hashem, we're crowning God as king. And the גמרא, חז\"ל Gemara, Chazal tell us, אמרו לפני מלכיות כדי שתמליכוני עליכם imru l'fanai malchiyos k'dei shetamlichuni aleichem. הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu is the king. But you know, a king who doesn't have a kingdom, a dominion, is not a king. So השם Hashem says, I'm the king, and the world only experiences me not as a מלך melech but as a מושל moshel, as a ruler. But I need you to reveal me to this world. Talk about me, represent me, imitate me, emulate me. I need you to bring Godliness to this world. השם Hashem has that need. He chooses to have that need. He's infinite and omnipotent, he doesn't inherently have the need, but הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu chooses to need us. He has that need. The שכינה shechina, that divine presence resides with us on Earth. He has a דירה בתחתונים dira b'tachtonim. How? How is הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu able to have a divine presence down here, דירה בתחתונים dira b'tachtonim? We encounter the שכינה shechina continually, yet השם Hashem is not clearly revealed to us. He's hidden. He's indeed close, but he does not reveal himself. השם Hashem is in close proximity, so close we can almost touch him, but not everybody can penetrate the cloud. He's described in the תורה, פרשת שמות Torah, Parshas Shmos, I come to you in a cloud. The obscuring cloud takes on any number of guises. For the physicist, the cloud is a mathematical formula. For the biologist, biochemical reaction. For the physiologist, an instinct. For the psychologist, a drive. For the general, the power of his army. A cloud is any manifestation of nature or man that promotes the illusion that the world operates autonomously, concealing the reality that השם Hashem is responsible for all that occurs on earth. God can decide to disperse the obscuring clouds. And on occasion in history, he chooses to reveal himself and proclaim, I am the Lord your God. More often, however, השם Hashem remains obscure, a God whose abode is transcendence. When one recites a ברכה bracha, he in essence is saying, Master of the universe, you are hidden behind. Listen to this. It's important you listen. This is the כוונה kavanah next time you say a ברכה bracha. Go to our lobby, you haven't seen anything. We're just getting started. Our new little fridge, water, the coffee station, going to have a slushy station. Come to דאווען daven, to learn, you're going to be able to look forward. So, you're going to make a ברכה bracha on your way out, grab a water, grab a coffee, you're going to make a ברכה bracha. And when you say that word, ברוך אתה השם Baruch Atah Hashem, השם Hashem I want to give you a ברכה bracha, here's the כוונה kavanah says Rav Soloveitchik. The כוונה kavanah is רבונו של עולם Ribono Shel Olam, you're hidden behind the cloud. No one sees you. Yet, as I drink this water, I reveal your presence. The very fact I can eat, that my body absorbs food, that I digest and need the entire biological process by in food consumption, the creation of food itself is testimony to your presence. Through this recognition, by my saying this ברכה bracha, I am removing the obscuring cloud, I am revealing you. Blessings are addressed to השם Hashem in the second person person, blessed are you rather than blessed is he to affirm השם's Hashem's very presence before us. As if to say, where are you השם Hashem? You're right here with me. How do I know? Because your presence is evident in this water I'm about to drink. The purpose of a ברכה bracha is to transform the hidden into presence. Through use of second person singular, we reveal the divine presence directly in front of us. This is the כוונה kavanah in just those words ברוך אתה השם Baruch Atah Hashem. Everyone else is just swallowing the water. Everyone else is just spooning in the food. Everybody else is just diving right in to the delicacy. I stop and I remember where it comes from, and by making a ברכה bracha, I am revealing you in this world, I am removing and spreading out the cloud, and that and that is how we give a blessing to השם Hashem. The next פסוק pasuk goes on and says וְשָׁמַרְתָּ v'shamarta. What's the next פסוק pasuk? הִשָּׁמֶר לְךָ פֶּן תִּשְׁכַּח אֶת ה' אֱלֹקֶיךָ Hishamer l'cha pen tishkach es Hashem Elokecha, לבלתי שמר מצותיו ומשפטיו וחקתיו אשר אנכי מצוך היום L'vilti shmor mitzvosav u'mishpatav v'chukosav asher anochi metzavcha hayom. Why is it when you eat and you're satisfied you should give a ברכה bracha? Because be careful. If you don't, it's easy to forget that there is a השם Hashem and then to neglect his commandments. And the Rav points out now a little bit in למדס lamdus. The context of the מצוה mitzvah of ברכת המזון Birchas Hamazon indicates the nature of the מצוה mitzvah. The Torah doesn't require a man to thank השם Hashem. The Torah warns man lest we forget השם Hashem. The purpose of ברכת המזון Birchas Hamazon is to prevent the arrogance which creeps into man's heart and causes him to forget that God is the creator. Fundamentally, ברכת המזון Birchas Hamazon is not an act of thanksgiving or praise, it is an act of remembering השם Hashem, a fulfillment of the constant command to remember and be cognizant of our creator. And as the Torah concludes this section, remember השם Hashem, הוא הנותן לך כח לעשות חיל hu hanosein l'cha koach la'asos chayil. So why do we בירך bench? We're בירך'ing benching, it's a total different way of seeing בירכינג benching. בירכינג Benching is not, he says, בירכינג benching is not a thank you to השם Hashem. בירכינג Benching is to avoid forgetting. בירכינג Benching, why? Because you can look at the food and say, \"What do you mean, I worked hard. I put in the hours. I invested in the right stock. That's why I could afford this great meal. It's me. It's me.\" כחי ועוצם ידי kochi v'otzem yadi as our פרשה parsha warns us. It's all me. השמר לך Hishamer l'cha. Don't think it's all you. ואכלת ושבעת וברכת את השם אלקיך V'achalta v'savata u'verachta es Hashem Elokecha, never stop thanking השם Hashem, הוא הנותן לך כח לעשות חיל hu hanosein l'cha koach la'asos chayil. We spoke about this previously, the דרשות הר\"ן Drashos HaRan. There's nothing wrong with saying, \"Yes, it was my hard work. Yes, it was my creativity. Yes, it was my ingenuity. Yes, it was my entrepreneurship.\" But who gave you all that? Who gave you the skills? Who gave you the talents? Who gave you the insights? Who gave you the entrepreneurship? It's not wrong to say it was me. What's wrong is to say it was me and I'm the source and I'm the sole arbiter of my skills. Says the דרשות הר\"ן Drashos HaRan, don't say כחי ועוצם ידי kochi v'otzem yadi, הוא הנותן לך כח hu hanosein l'cha koach. He's the one who gave you that. Yes, you have skill set. Yes, you have כח koach. But הוא הנותן לך כח hu hanosein l'cha koach, he is the one who gave you that כח koach. It's on loan. It's never permanent. He gave it to you and he can easily take it away as well. We have time for one more. Oh, there are so many, but I'm going to tell you one more. It's from a few years ago leftover from the אש תמיד Eish Tamid. I checked with Rav Druks' שמש shamesh. He did not put out a להבת אש Lhavas Eish yet on דברים Devarim. He's been working on סוכות Sukkos. So he doesn't have a להבת אש Lhavas Eish on דברים Devarim. We've done להבת אש Lhavas Eish through במדבר Bamidbar. He doesn't have yet. have it. So back to the old age תלמיד Talmid. And we'll end with this. It's an important insight. We'll end with this. We have קריאת שמע Krias Shema, second paragraph of שמע Shema at the end of our פרשה parsha. למען ירבו ימיכם ומי בניכם על האדמה Lemaan yirbu yemeichem u'mei vneichem al ha'adamah. In order to increase our days, the days of our children on the land, השביע השם hashbia Hashem. When do we get longevity? גמרא ברכות דף ח Gemara Brachos daf ches. אמר ליה לרבי יוחנן איכא סבי בבבל Amar lei l'Rabbi Yochanan ikka sabei b'Bavel. They told Rabbi Yochanan, there are אלטע קאקערס alte kackers in בבל Bavel. They didn't say it like that. They probably said it nicer. But there are old people in בבל Bavel, senior citizens, empty nesters in בבל Bavel, in the diaspora. So תמה ואמר tamah v'omar, I don't understand though. We say every day in שמע Shema למען ירבו ימיכם ומי בניכם על האדמה lemaan yirbu yemeichem u'mei vneichem al ha'adamah. Where can you achieve longevity? Where do you merit to get old? למען ירבו Lemaan yirbu? It says על האדמה al ha'adamah, on your land. So it should be that there are only old people in Israel. And outside of Israel, everyone dies young. Or you live a life but you don't achieve longevity. אבל בחוץ לארץ לא Aval b'chutz la'aretz lo. So how could it be? איכא סבי בבבל Ikka sabei b'Bavel. I encountered empty nesters in Boca. How could it be? Century Village, minimum age to move in. How could it be? How could it be? למען ירבו ימיכם Lemaan yirbu yemeichem only על האדמה al ha'adamah. To be able to achieve longevity, it's only on the land, only in Israel. So דקדימו ומחשכו לבית כנישתא d'kadimu u'machashchu l'bei knishta, אמר היינו דאהני להו amar haynu d'ahani lehu. כדאמר רבי יהושע בן לוי k'd'amar Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi. So the answer is no, no, no, no. You know how they achieve longevity? Because they came early and stayed late and they were found often where? Not in the clubhouse. Where? Not at the early bird special. Where? At the שול shul. In שול shul and in the בית מדרש Beis Medrash. And the answer of דרוק Druk, how do you answer the question? The question was, where can you achieve longevity? למען ירבו ימיכם על האדמה Lemaan yirbu yemeichem al ha'adamah, only in Israel. How could it be סבי בבבל sabei b'Bavel? How could it be there are old people outside? Oh, because those old people, they hang out at שול shul. They're there early, they stay late, they come often. How did that answer the question? How does that answer the question?So he quotes the מהרש\"א Maharsha in his חידושי אגדות Chiddushei Aggados. פירוש נפלא לישב קושיא זו Peirush nifla l'yashev kushya zu. The גמרא שם קודם לכן Gemara sham kodem l'chein, the גמרא Gemara there before and says, אמר ריש לקיש amar Reish Lakish, in ברכות דף ח Brachos daf ches, כל מי שיש לו בית הכנסת בעירו ואינו נכנס שם להתפלל נקרא שכן רע Kol mi sheyesh lo beis haknesses b'iro v'eino nichnas sham l'hispallel nikra shachen ra. What is the definition of a bad neighbor? We know what a good neighbor is thanks to Geico. Not Geico. Who's the good neighbor? Allstate. We know what a good neighbor is. What's a bad neighbor? State Farm? What's a bad neighbor? What's a bad neighbor? A bad neighbor, say חז\"ל Chazal, is someone who has a שול shul in their community, but they דאווען daven on the block. They דאווען daven, there's a quick מנחה מעריב mincha maariv, no Rabbi speech מנחה מעריב mincha maariv in the driveway. This is not me. This is not me. Before you send me the emails. This is not me. חז\"ל Chazal, ברכות דף ח Brachos daf ches. שכן רע Shachen ra. The definition of a poor neighbor is somebody who has a שול shul, but instead of going to שול shul, דאווענען daven at home, they make a מנין minyan on the block, in the house. And then he quotes a פסוק pasuk. ולא עוד אלא שגורם גלות לו ולבניו V'lo od ela she'gorem galus lo u'l'vanav. Not enough you're a bad neighbor, you are extending the the the גלות galus, the exile.So the מהרש\"א Maharsha says יש לפרש במה שאמרו במגילה yesh l'faresh b'mah she'amru b'Megillah. The גמרא מגילה דף כט Gemara Megillah daf kaf tes tells us, עתידין בתי כנסיות ובתי מדרשות שבבבל שיקבעו בארץ ישראל asidin batei knessios u'vatei midrashos sheb'Bavel she'yikavu b'Eretz Yisrael. When משיח Mashiach comes, all the שולס shuls and בתי מדרש batei medrash, all over the world, they're going to lift up, they're going to fly, they're going to be relocated, they're going to be replanted in Israel. When I spoke to מורי ורבי רב שכטר mori v'rabi Rav Schachter, I have some guilt. We're doing an extension, we're doing a large extension renovation in our שול shul, ברוך השם baruch Hashem it began. It's going to be incredible in bringing more Torah, more Jewish life, to hopefully inspire more of us to go to Israel. But I feel guilt. So רב שכטר Rav Schachter said, what do you mean? The גמרא מגילה Gemara Megillah says, עתידין בתי כנסיות ובתי מדרשות שבבבל asidin batei knessios u'vatei midrashos sheb'Bavel, whatever you're investing in beautifying it here now, it's going to go there. It's going to lift and go, the whole שול shul is going to go there in the future.So now we understand. That's what Rabbi Yochanan was saying. How do you achieve longevity outside Israel? It says למען ירבו ימיכם lemaan yirbu yemeichem only על האדמה al ha'adamah. So essentially, I'm going to put it in my own words, says Rav Druk based on this מהרש\"א Maharsha, I'll put it in my own words the following. The following. Do you know the country has the status of a country in its country? So America is bound by America's laws, America's system in America. But American laws can also apply elsewhere. Where? If in another country it has an embassy. The American embassy in Israel is bound by American law and has American jurisdiction, American autonomy. And the Israeli embassy in New York is bound by Israeli law, has Israeli autonomy, Israeli jurisdiction. An embassy has the status of the other place even though it's found in another country. So I understand this מהרש\"א Maharsha to be saying, the שולס shuls are שולס shuls and בתי מדרש batei medrash are the embassies of ארץ ישראל Eretz Yisrael in חוץ לארץ chutz la'aretz. You're looking for the קדושה kedusha of ארץ ישראל Eretz Yisrael, you want to connect to שכינה Shechina of ארץ ישראל Eretz Yisrael, nothing compares to ארץ ישראל Eretz Yisrael. Before you write me those emails, nothing compares to ארץ ישראל Eretz Yisrael. Of course. But the closest we can come is going to the שול shul and בית מדרש beis medrash in your community, and you're now in the embassy of קדושת ארץ ישראל kedushas Eretz Yisrael even in the diaspora. So how do you achieve למען ירבו ימיכם lemaan yirbu yemeichem when you're not על האדמה al ha'adamah? Because go early, stay late, and spend a lot of time in בתי מדרש בתי כנסיות batei medrash batei knesiyos. The שול shul, the centrality of the שול shul, of community, of connection, of learning, of דאווענען davening. That's the embassy of the קדושה kedusha of ארץ ישראל Eretz Yisrael even in חוץ לארץ chutz la'aretz. Please remain. If everybody stays, it'll take literally five minutes, we'll divide all of תהילים Tehillim. And please God, our תפילות tefilos will be answered, we should have בשורות טובות besoros tovos, ישועות ונחמות yeshuos v'nechamos.
