Transcript
Okay, good morning, welcome back to Parsha Perspectives for today. This week you have the privilege of learning פרשת ראה Parshas Re'eh together, the Artscroll Stone Chumash page 998. We daven every day we should have בשורות טובות besoros tovos. This morning we got good news. They rescued a hostage, ברוך השם Baruch Hashem, in one of the tunnels, brought him back. A Druze man, a father of 11, and ברוך השם Baruch Hashem, we should just continue to have good news and bring all the hostages home. Our פרשה שיעור Parsha shiur this morning is generously sponsored, our whole series is by Becky and Avi Katz and their family in memory of Becky's father David Grossman. Our learning is לעילוי נשמת דוד בן מנחם מניש leilui nishmas David ben Menachem Manish. This morning shiur is sponsored by Yassi and Fimmie Hirsh in memory of her father אלתר פנחס חיים בן יהודה Alter Pinchas Chaim ben Yehuda, his נשמה nishama should have an עליה aliyah. Thank you as always to all of our sponsors. And as always, I invite you and remind you, join our Parsha WhatsApp group for some bonus פרשה דברי תורה Parsha Devar Torah, the parsha write-up, and to keep up-to-date on the schedule. If if we ever have to change things, that's at rabbiefremgoldberg.org/whatsapp. You can join all the shiur WhatsApp groups. Page 998 in the Artscroll Stone Chumash: ראה אנכי נתן לפניכם היום ברכה וקללה Re'eh anochi nosein lifneichem hayom bracha u'klala. This is one of my favorite פסוקים psukim in the Torah. And you know that because we often don't get past it. We're going to try. We're going to try really hard this year, but there are so many different דברי תורה divrei Torah. And what's amazing about this pasuk is, you can dissect this pasuk, so almost every word of this opening pasuk could be the subject of what is either the bracha or klala. The ראה Re'eh, the אנכי anochi, the נותן nosein, the לפניכם lifneichem, the היום hayom. The pasuk ends ברכה וקללה bracha u'klala. See I present before you today, a blessing and a curse. And the simple interpretation of the pasuk, the simple meaning of the pasuk, is what the pasuk goes on to tell us. The story of what comes next. The Jewish people were divided, six tribes on this mountain, six tribes on that mountain, הר גריזים Har Grizim, הר עיבל Har Eival, the blessings, the curses were recited, were articulated. The people answered אמן amein. It's an interesting question we're not going to get into, but you can think about, which is why didn't Hashem just keep everybody together? One audience, deliver one message, why did he have to divide them? Why were half on this mountain, half on that mountain? Half for the blessings, half for the curses. What was the message? Nothing is random or chance, nothing is by accident. There was an embedded message, Hashem had a plan in dividing them in two, two groups, six tribes, six tribes, blessings, curses, why? So the simple understanding of the verse is, see, I place before you today blessings and curses. And then the Torah continues to describe the event, הר גריזים Har Grizim, הר עיבל Har Eival. You can see those mountains today, Mount Eival, Mount Grizim, where those blessing and curses were delivered. But there are additional layers of interpretation of the pasuk, and as we mentioned, what's beautiful what I love about this pasuk is almost every word can be itself the subject of what could be in our life a bracha or a klala. So for example, for example, in the past we've spoken about, I don't want to review all the interpretations we said previously. You could listen or you could read our previous write-ups to see those. But one example, היום Hayom. See I've placed before you the concept, the idea of היום hayom. What does hayom mean? Today. Live now, be here, be present. Why is that a blessing or a curse? Because being present, seize the moment, carpe diem, could lead you to a hedonistic life. You could say live for today, for tomorrow, you may not be here. So just do whatever you want, indulge in every pleasure, pursue every happiness. In which case, it's not a very meaningful life. Or you could live today and say, I don't want to get stuck in yesterday and I'm not lost in tomorrow. I'm going to take advantage fully of being present in every moment. היום Hayom. I don't all I have is, I can't change yesterday, tomorrow's not here yet. All I have is the present. That's why it's called a gift from above. You know that poem. The present. All I have is the present. היום Hayom, I have today. I have today. In fact, the חפץ חיים Chafetz Chaim writes that's the פשט pshat last week's פרשה parsha. ועתה Ve'ata, and now, Jewish people, מה השם אלקיך שואל מעמך ma Hashem Elokecha shoel meimach, what does God want from you? We spoke on Shabbos, what does God want from you? Just to have fear of him, to love him, to serve him, to emulate him. He wants a relationship with you. But why is it introduced with the word ועתה ve'ata, and now? Just say what does God want? ומה השם אלקיך שואל מעמך U'ma Hashem Elokecha shoel meimach. Why ועתה ve'ata? Said the חפץ חיים Chafetz Chaim, ועתה ve'ata, and now, because you know what God wants from you? He wants now. Now, be here, be present, be in the moment. Don't be distracted, don't be competing for attention, don't be lost in your thoughts and your fear and your excitement about tomorrow. It's not here yet. And don't be stuck in your regret or your nostalgia about yesterday. It's gone. עתה Ata, now, be present, be in the moment, be here. That's what היום hayom means. ראה Re'eh, look, I've placed before you the concept of היום hayom. All you have is today, you have the here and now. ברכה או קללה Bracha or klala. If realizing all you have is today, if confronting your mortality makes you indulge in the pursuit of every pleasure and live for the moment, then it's not a very meaningful life. But if your mortality makes you live every moment to its fullest, a purposeful existence, it's a ברכה bracha. So that word היום hayom, היום hayom can be a bracha or a klala, or a blessing or a curse. And that's true for every word in this pasuk. So let's see some new interpretations and ideas and then we're going to get past. I promise. Sort of promise. Try to promise. So the, we're we've been learning the אמרות טהרות Amaros Tahoros, the beautiful insights, the חסידישע Chassidishe insights of the דרך משרים רבי Derech Mesharim Rebbe, זצ\"ל zatzal, who passed away this year. And he quotes the אוהב ישראל Ohev Yisrael. Who is the אוהב ישראל Ohev Yisrael? The אפטער רב Apter Rav. The אפטער רבי Apter Rebbe. רב אברהם יהושע השל מאפטא Rav Avraham Yehoshua Heschel of Apt, the אוהב ישראל Ohev Yisrael. ראה אנכי נותן לפניכם היום ברכה וקללה Re'eh anochi nosein lifneichem hayom bracha u'klala. And that's what the pasuk says מפי עליון לא תצא הרעות והטוב mi'pi elyon lo seitzei ha'raos ve'hatov. כי הנה באמת יש להבין, איך נאמר מפי הבורא יתברך אנכי נותן לפניכם היום ברכה וקללה? הלא אמרו חז\"ל, אין הקדוש ברוך הוא מיחד שמו על רעה. Ki'ne be'emes yesh l'havin, eich ne'emar mi'pi ha'borei yisbarach anochi nosein lifneichem hayom bracha u'klala? Halo amru Chazal, ein HaKadosh Baruch Hu meyached shmo al ra'ah. How can the pasuk say God says אנכי anochi, I am placing before you today blessing and curse. I thought God doesn't place bad. God doesn't do evil. God doesn't make קללה klala curse. So how can it be, איך אומר הקדוש ברוך הוא נותן לפניכם קללה eich omer HaKadosh Baruch Hu nosein lifneichem klala? How could it be that God places klala? The כלי יקר Kli Yakar, I'm sorry, so the אוהב ישראל Ohev Yisrael writes, שכל דבר שבעולם שייך בו בין ברכה וקללה. she'kol davar she'ba'olam shakshur bein bracha u'klala. We live in a world where everything is neutral. Everything is פרווה parve. We imbue it, we endow it with meaning. We give it purpose. It can be used positively or negatively. And it's up to us how we engage it. How we engage it. לדוגמא l'dugma, כשהקדוש ברוך הוא נותן לאדם משפיעות טובות ועשירות kashe HaKadosh Baruch Hu nasan l'adam mashpios tovos v'ashirus. If God gives us resources, if God gives you a lot of access to wealth, to money, is money good or bad? Yes. Depends if it corrupts, if it's spent in the wrong way. We've seen men, we've seen money undo people, be people's undoing, destroy their relationships, their family, their identity, their legacy. Money could be the biggest curse in the world. Money could be the biggest blessing in the world. If you use it to change the world, improve the world, repair the world, redeem the world, if you use it for a meaningful, purposeful life, mission-driven life, then resources, wealth, are wonderful. לא ידוע אם משפיע זו תהיה לו ברכה או קללה, כי הדבר תלוי כפי שישתמש. Lo yadua im mashpia zu tihiye lo bracha o klala, ki ha'davar talui keifi sheyishtamesh. So it's not inherently or intrinsically good or bad, it all depends on how you use it. For צדקה, לחסד, מצוות, מעשים טובים l'tzdaka, l'chesed, mitzvos, maasim tovim, it's a ברכה bracha. If you use it for chaos, for corruption, for moral decay, for decadence, then it's a קללה klala, it's a curse. Then it's a curse. It could destroy a family, it could build a family, and so on. So the truth is, all of these things are, can be good or bad. And that's what the pasuk means, said the אוהב ישראל Ohev Yisrael. ראה אנכי נותן לפניכם היום ברכה וקללה. כלומר, כל דבר שאני נותן לכם יכול להיות ברכה וקללה. Re'eh anochi nosein lifneichem hayom bracha u'klala. Klomar, kol davar she'ani nosein lachem lachol l'hiyos bracha u'klala. God says, know, everything I'm putting in your life can be used for good or bad. Is a telephone good or bad? Yes. If you use it to gossip, to speak לשון הרע lashon hara, it's bad. New York Times today, I don't pay for it, I read it online for free, has an article on gossip. On a on a rare group of people who are committed to not gossip. And among them, of course, not surprised, is a reference to לשון הרע Lashon Hara, gossip, and a song by the chorus for kids jingle author about לשון הרע Lashon Hara and gossip. Yes, a reference in that article. So, is a telephone good or bad? Yes. If you use it to gossip, if you use it to spread slander, it's terrible. If you use it to call and check in on people, it's wonderful. All of technology. Technology may be a prime example in our lifetime. Is it a blessing or a curse? Yes. It's up to you, it depends. Do we have filters? Are we careful? Do they have boundaries? Are we using them to advance ourselves? Are we using them for good or for bad? את הברכה אשר תשמעו אל מצוות השם אלקיכם Es ha'bracha she'tishme'u el mitzvos Hashem Elokeichem, the pasuk continues. אם תשתמש בהשפעה כדי לשמוע מצוות im t'shamesh b'hashpa'ah kedai lishmoa mitzvos, if you use that medium, that means, if you use it to listen to hear Hashem, if you use it to pursue his mission, it's wonderful. It's a ברכה bracha. והקללה אם לא תשמעו אל מצוות השם אלקיכם Ve'haklala im lo tishme'u el mitzvos Hashem Elokeichem. And if you take that means, that technology, that gift, whatever medium, and it's used in the negative, then it's a קללה klala. And that's what the pasuk means. God does not create קללה klala. That's what חז\"ל Chazal, that's what our Rabbis say. בראשית רבה, אין הקדוש ברוך הוא מיחד שמו על רע Breishis Rabbah, ein HaKadosh Baruch Hu meyached shmo al ra. God doesn't attach his name to negativity. So what do you mean אנכי נותן לפניכם היום ברכה וקללה anochi nosein lifneichem hayom bracha u'klala? Because God says, I'm not putting before you a קללה klala, what I'm putting before you is a choice. We have free will, we have autonomy. And it's up to us. And it's up to us. They're not inherently good or bad. All of these things, all of these things. Resources, technology, weapons. It's the person who uses them and how they use them and what they use them for. ברכה או קללה Bracha or klala, we determine the outcome. We determine. So ראה re'eh, God says, look, be thoughtful, be mindful, be intentional, be present, היום hayom. Look, היום hayom, I'm putting before you היום hayom, I'm putting you in this world. And you have money, you have a house, you have a telephone, you have a car, you have a computer, you have technology. I'm giving you all these things and I'm putting you in this world. ראה Re'eh, look, see it, but know ברכה או קללה bracha or klala. Warning, warning. User beware. User beware. Caution. ברכה או קללה Bracha or klala. Don't dive in head first and think it's all a blessing. And don't run away and turn your back thinking it's all a curse. It is all determined by you and how you use it. And that is what Hashem wants us to know. As I said, the אוהב ישראל Ohev Yisrael, that is what the אפטער רב Apter Rav, the אפטער רב Apter Rav said. So then he goes on and he quotes the אור החיים Or HaChaim. ראה אנכי נותן לפניכם היום ברכה וקללה Re'eh anochi nosein lifneichem hayom bracha u'klala. Shulchan Aruch tells us, בכל עניני עולם הזה לא יכוון להנאתו אלא לעבודת בורא יתברך. b'chol inyanei olam hazeh lo y'chavein l'hana'aso ela l'avodas ha'borei yisbarach. When it comes to our engagement with all of the material things in this world, it shouldn't be about pursuit of ourselves, our ego, our pleasure. It's all how can it better empower, how can it better drive our mission to serve him. בכל דרכיך דעהו B'chol d'rachecha da'eihu, know God in all of your ways. שכל מעשיו יהיו לשם שמים Shekol ma'asav yihiyu l'shem shamayim. Everything we do should be to advance. Including רשות reshus, including the category of what we would call it's not necessary, is eating a religious act? Is eating a religious act? Well, the ברכה bracha is a religious act, the blessing you make, washing your hands, benching afterwards, making sure it's kosher. But when you put your food in your mouth and you chew and you swallow, is that a eating act? Is that a religious act? Is going to sleep a religious act? Is sleeping a religious act? So yeah, it all depends how you do it. Are you getting sleep and are you eating to live? To better live in this world, to better fulfill our mission, our purpose in this world? Or are you indulging as an ends because you love to eat and love to sleep and can't get enough. As we spoke previously, do you eat to live or live to eat? Do you live to sleep or sleep to live? So one can know Hashem in all of those ways too. And that's the bracha or klala. היום רומז על התענוגים Hayom romez al ha'ta'anugim. Hayom doesn't just mean mortality and today. Hayom means the pleasures of this world. Why? Why are we enjoying and experiencing the pleasures of this world? Why do you want a nice house? And why do we want delicacies? And why do we want to look put together? Is it all because we're have a mission, we have a purpose, we're on a שליחות shlichus? We're serving Hashem? Or is it towards our own ends? That's the ברכה או קללה bracha or klala about the היום hayom, about the pleasures, indulgences, about the material part of this world. Next, third interpretation he quotes, from the מאור ושמש Ma'or V'Shemesh. Who says the following. אנכי Anochi. The word אנכי anochi. ראה אנכי נותן לפניכם Re'eh anochi nosein lifneichem. God says, see I, אנכי anochi, I am putting before you today, ברכה וקללה bracha u'klala. That concept of אנכי anochi, אנכי anochi means I. I is the ego. Ego. Ego can be very positive. Ego gives a self-confidence, self-worth, self-esteem. Ego can make me feel I have a mission, I have a purpose. You know the Gemara, חז\"ל Chazal tell us, our Rabbis tell us, תלמיד חכם a talmid chacham has a שמינית שבשמינית של גאוה shmina she'bishminas shel gaiva. That to be a leader you have to have an eighth of an eighth of arrogance. I would translate differently, not of arrogance, but of self-confidence. Because who are you to sit up here and look in a camera and a microphone and talk to a room of people and share thoughts and ideas? Who are you? Stay quiet, sit in the corner, keep your thoughts to yourself. Takes a שטיקל shtickel self-confidence. Some people have to overcome their inhibition, overcome their fear of speaking, overcome a an inadequacy, an imposter syndrome. You need a healthy dose in order to be able to express leadership and make change and do good things. You can't have too much because then you're in it for the wrong reasons. And we know people like that, we're turned off to people like that. חז\"ל Chazal, our Rabbis also tell us, כי מלאך השם צבקות, תורה יבקשו מפיהו ki malach Hashem tzevaos, Torah yevakshu mi'pihu. You should only pursue learning Torah from somebody who's like an angel, from somebody who's driven for the right reason, the brand is God, not themselves. It's all about advancing his Torah, not about their own name. But you need a little, a שטיקל shtickel, just a little, a שטיק shtick self-confidence, a שמינית שבשמינית shmina she'bishminas, an eighth of an eighth, just a little bit, just a little bit, a little אנכי anochi. Too much אנכי anochi, you're a בעל גאוה bal gaiva. If you're arrogant, you think you're the brand, fame, fortune, it's all your name, it's all your honor, eh, you're in it for the wrong reasons, you're not our role model. You're not who we should be turning to. But also if you're sitting in the corner and don't express leadership and don't share what Hashem has given you to say, then you're also violating Hashem's will. You got to find that right amount. And that's what the מאור ושמש Ma'or V'Shemesh says, that's ראה re'eh. What did I put before you? אנכי נותן לפניכם היום Anochi nosein lifneichem hayom. What I put before you today is the notion of אנכי anochi. The notion of אנכי anochi, a little bit of a אנכי anochi, a sense of I. Now the sense of I, if you say I'm unique, I'm distinct, I'm a חלק אלוקה ממעל ממש chelek eloka mima'al mamash. I'm a piece of God in this world. I'm a unique individual expression of God in this world. Wow, he's waiting for me. The world is waiting for me. I woke up this morning because I'm not done. I yet have a mission and a purpose. Then that's a ברכה bracha. The אנכי anochi, the healthy sense of I, is a ברכה bracha. But a person who woke up this morning and said אנכי anochi, אנכי anochi, it's about me. Everyone has to worship me, bow to me. Everybody has to follow me and everybody has to repost me and it's all about me, קללה klala. Then the אנכי anochi, the sense of I is a curse in your life and it's a curse to the people around you. So ראה re'eh, see, אנכי נותן לפניכם היום anochi nosein lifneichem hayom, what I put before you today is the notion of אנכי anochi, the I. ברכה וקללה Bracha v'klala. So as I told you, every word of this pasuk, pasuk concludes with ברכה או קללה bracha or klala, blessing or curse. What's the blessing or curse? Could be ראה Re'eh, could be אנכי anochi, could be נותן nosein, could be לפניכם lifneichem, could be היום hayom. Every word that precedes it in the pasuk could itself be the subject that we could either direct as a ברכה bracha or a קללה klala, and that's why I love, I think it's a fantastic, fantastic pasuk. Why do we shift? The תולדות יצחק Toldos Yitzchak is מדייק medayek, he notes, ראה Re'eh, see, is see in the plural or the singular? Grammatically, ראה Re'eh is the singular. ראה Re'eh, you the individual, the singular, see. נותן לפניכם nosein lifneichem. לפניכם Lifneichem is the is the plural. So which is it? Why do we shift? ראה Re'eh, you in the singular, see what I'm putting before לפניכם lifneichem, you in the plural. So the תולדות יצחק Toldos Yitzchak explains, אנכי ראשי תיבות אנא נפשי כתבית יהבית Anochi rashei teivos ana nafshi k'savis y'havis. וזה שאדם עוסק בתורה או מתפלל לשם יתברך באהבה ויראה, ומכניס חיות באותיות התורה והתפילה, v'zeh she'adam osek b'Torah, o mispalel l'shem yisbarach b'ahava v'yira, u'machnis cheyus b'osiyos ha'Torah v'ha'tefillah, when a person davens with passion, with presence, with פנימיות pnimius, when a person is living, reading the diary of Hashem, accessing the divine, then they give life to the letters of Torah. Like the pasuk says, ועשיתם אותם v'asitem osam, אתם atem, מעלה עליכם הכתוב כאילו אתם עשיתם את התורה והמצוות ma'aleh aleichem ha'kasuv k'ilu atem asitem es ha'Torah v'ha'mitzvos. Pasuk says ועשיתם אותם v'asitem osam, do them, observe them. But ועשיתם asitem could mean to make, to to fashion them. How do we fashion Torah? Hashem gave us Torah. The answer is he gave us Torah. Is it sitting on a shelf collecting dust or is it living, vibrant, animated? What's the conversation at your Shabbos table? What's the conversation at your dinner table? What's the conversation when you when you meet a friend? Is it what you're talking about? I was at the wedding of a dear, close, beloved friend last week who I love, since yeshiva, since before yeshiva. We were in camp together. Just an amazing person. And it was taking a long time for them to come into the dinner and I went to go check where he was because we had a reunion of a whole group of friends. I wanted to see him, I wanted to get a picture with him. And I walk into the back of the chuppah room where they're still taking pictures, and this dear friend of mine Avi is in a heated conversation with someone. I looked, I thought, I don't know, the caterer messed up, the flower put, the photographer, who messed up? What's going on? Why is he so animated? Why is he so heated? What's this all about? I see they're taking pictures. This is the father of the bride. What's going on? I get a little closer. See, does he need my help? What's going on over here? And I hear him explaining, that's not the שיטה shita of Reb Meir. That's not where Reb Meir held. So I think where Reb Meir held. They're taking pictures. It's his daughter's wedding and he's telling somebody this insight he had that he's so excited about. Because Torah is not sitting on a shelf, it's not collecting dust. Don't worry, they weren't waiting for him for the picture. It was the three-second break he got between the pictures. You know when the other side is taking the pictures. But what was he talking about? He was talking about Torah. Torah is not in a museum. It's not behind glass. It's not collecting dust. It's alive. ועשיתם אותם v'asitem osam, ועשיתם אתם v'asitem atem. We, we fashion, we make Torah. How? We breathe life. The Torah could be a גולם golem or if we give a little CPR and breathe life into it, the Torah is alive and it's vibrant and it's vibrant. That's that's the, what are we up to, three or four? The תולדות יצחק Toldos Yitzchak says that's what the pasuk means. אנכי, אנא נפשי כתביו יהביו, כלומר ידידים שמקיימים התורה ומצוות בחשק ורצון כראוי, נותנים חיות וקיום בכתב אותיות התורה. Anochi, ana nafshi k'savis y'havis, klomar y'didim she'mekaymim ha'Torah v'mitzvos b'cheshek v'ratzon k'rauy, nosnim cheyus v'kiyum b'k'sav osiyos ha'Torah. When we learn, when we study, when we engage, that you're sitting here this morning, wherever you're watching or listening later, if you're thinking about repeating this on Shabbos at your table, just think about what we're doing. I mentioned last week, who's taking the American law book off the shelf? A lawyer who needs to for their work, to win a case, to take home a paycheck. Somebody for fun? You go to a wedding, the father of the bride is having a conversation, who's not a lawyer or a judge, he's just so excited about some law. We're giving it, it's life. It's it's our life. It's our sustenance. It's who we are. It's the air that we breathe. And that's what he means. ראה אנכי בלשון יחיד, בחינת אנכי שרומז על פנימיות התורה ששייך רק ליחידים. נותן לפניכם היום, פשוטי התורה ונהוגם לפניכם. Re'eh anochi b'lashon yachid, b'chinas anochi she'romez al pnimius ha'Torah she'shayach rak l'yechidim. Nosein lifneichem hayom, pashutei ha'Torah v'hinugam l'ifneichem. So the plural is, I've given the whole Torah to you, everybody, equally, the masses. But the the singular, ראה אנכי Re'eh anochi, the אנכי anochi, to really live and the depths and the vibrancy and the dynamism of Torah, that's the יחיד yachid, יחידי סגולה yechidei sgula. That's more unusual. So we want to not just be among the many, we want to count ourselves among the few who are ראוי ro'uy, who are who are merit and eligible to be on that level to get to that level of who are living and learning the Torah in that depth. So four interpretations. The אוהב ישראל Ohev Yisrael, the אמרות טהרות Amaros Tahoros, the מאור ושמש Ma'or V'Shemesh, the תולדות יצחק Toldos Yitzchak. One more. Rav Aharon Kotler was also bothered in his משנת רב אהרן Mishnas Rav Aharon, founder of BMG in Lakewood. So Rav Aharon Kotler also was bothered why the grammatical shift? ראה Re'eh in the singular, לפניכם lifneichem in the plural. And he says the following. על כל יחיד ויחיד מישראל לזכור, אף אם הרבים לא יבחרו חלילה בטוב, הוא עצמו מחוייב ומצווה מפי שה' יתברך. Al kol yachid v'yachid mi'Yisrael l'zkor af im ha'rabim lo yivcharu chalila b'tov, hu atzmo mechuyav u'metzuveh mi'pi she'yisbarach. You'll say, you know what? Nobody around me is doing it. Everybody around me gossips and slanders and speaks negatively and critically and marginalizes others. Everybody around me is dressing this way or everybody around me comes late to shul or everybody around me talks in davening or everybody around me bends the truth on their income tax filing. So why can't I just be like everybody else? Says Rav Aharon Kotler, that's why the pasuk says, ראה Re'eh, you in the singular. Don't just be a product of peer pressure. Don't just be the composite of the people around you. You as an individual have to think and be present and be intentional and be mindful in who you are and how you regulate yourself and the life that you live. המצווה ניתנה אמנם לכלל כולו Ha'mitzva nitna umnam la'klal kulam. True the mitzva is given to all of us together, אבל מדגישה התורה אלא שלא יתלה היחיד להמתן לכלל, אלא ידע ויזכור שזו פניה ישרה אליו ויעלה ולשמוע בקול השם אלוקיו aval madgisha ha'Torah she'lo yitla ha'yachid l'heimtan l'klal, ela yadav v'yizkor she'zu p'niya y'shira eilav v'ya'aleh v'lishmoa b'kol Hashem Elokav. Know, this wasn't just given. You know there's a phenomenon also, there's another way of understanding what Rav Aharon is telling us. There's a phenomenon that's called, I don't remember what it's called because I wasn't going to speak about it, but I just reminded myself of it. What's the phenomenon called? When you have a room full of people and someone says, can someone take care of it? Nobody takes care of it, the diffusion of responsibility. That's what it's called. Diffusion of responsibility is, you know they say a camel is a horse that was created by a committee. I forgot who said that. A camel is the horse created by a committee. Diffusion of responsibility. When there are so many people around, when you task a huge group with doing something, nobody does it. Why? Because the next person will do it. So Hashem wants us to realize, לפניכם lifneichem, Hashem is asking all of us to observe and keep the Torah. Torah is for all of us. The ברכה וקללה bracha u'klala, all the interpretations we've said until now, Torah, Torah life, Torah lifestyle, it's לפניכם lifneichem, it's for all of us. But we should live, ראה re'eh, as if it's only on us. See it, ראה re'eh, in the singular. So כולכם kulchem in the plural, it's for all of us. Create a community, a people, a nation, bound by and living and an example of Torah life. כולכם Kulchem in the plural, all of us, a community. But ראה re'eh, but we should feel the personal responsibility that if we don't do it, if we don't take care of it, if we don't show up, then nobody will. It's on us. It's on us. And that's as Rav Aharon Kotler is the shift from the singular to the plural. פרק יא פסוק כח Perek yud aleph pasuk chaf ches. פרק יא פסוק כח Perek yud aleph pasuk chaf ches. Torah says the following. והקללה אם לא תשמעו אל מצוות השם אלקיכם V'haklala im lo tishme'u el mitzvos Hashem Elokeichem, the curse if you don't listen to Hashem. וסרתם מן הדרך אשר אנכי מצוה אתכם היום Ve'sartem min ha'derech asher anochi metzaveh eschem hayom. What's going to happen? You'll deviate, you'll get distracted, you'll get lost from the path that I'm showing you today. ללכת אחרי אלהים אחרים אשר לא ידעתם Laleches acharei Elohim acheirim asher lo y'datem. So God says, look, I've put it all before you. I've made a שלחן ערוך Shulchan Aruch. I'm setting the table for you. Here's how to live. Here's the right way to eat and drink. Here's the morality of intimacy and relationships. Here's how to relate to time. Here's how to live. 613 mitzvos, the blueprint for creation, the instruction manual for life. I'm setting it all up as a table. Do it, observe it, keep it, and I'm giving you the navigation tools. I'm giving you the app, Waze, Google Maps. You'll find your way. But if you neglect it, if you abandon it, if you don't keep it, then you know what's going to happen? וסרתם מן הדרך ve'sartem min ha'derech, you're going to get lost and you won't have a map. You won't have Waze. You're not going to find your way back. You're going to follow אלהים אחרים אשר לא ידעתם Elohim acheirim asher lo y'datem. You're going to follow other gods that you don't know. Says the מגיד יוסף רב יוסף סרוצקין שליט\"א Magid Yosef, Rav Yosef Saratskin shlita, משמעות הפסוק היא שמי שסר מן הדרך הוא בעצם עובד עבודה זרה. mashmaos ha'pasuk hi she'mi she'sar min ha'derech hu b'etzem oved avodah zara. The pasuk says what's going to happen? Observe my Torah, embrace this life and this lifestyle. You're going to find meaning and you're going to find purpose and you're going to find joy. It doesn't mean, and I always say this, God and the Torah never guaranteed that if you live an observant life, you won't have struggle. Everyone will be healthy, everyone will get married, everyone will have babies, everyone will make a living. Never says that anywhere. There's no promise like that in the Torah, nowhere. What the Torah promises is that whatever challenge or struggle you go through, now you have the tools to get through it. The resilience, the resolve, the navigation. Now you have the ability to confront and navigate whatever challenge you face. That's the Torah's promise. Not that there won't be problems, but that will have the tools to get to get through it. So Hashem says, I'm setting all before you. But if you don't, וסרתם מן הדרך ve'sartem min ha'derech, if you're distracted, if you go the wrong direction, if you turn the wrong way, you're going to follow a God you don't know, you're going to worship an idol. So wonders the מגיד יוסף רב יוסף סרוצקין Magid Yosef, Rav Yosef Saratskin, it sounds like by definition if you turn the other way, if you pivot, if you deviate from the plan, you're going to end up at idolatry. Who says? Can't you just not be observant but not be an idolater? Who says that if סרתם מן הדרך sar'tem min ha'derech, who says that if you're going to end up neglecting an observant way of life, you'll end up worshipping? הרי המרחק ביניהם רב Harei ha'merchak bein rav, there's a huge gap. There's a huge gap between being non-observant and not being an idolater. Look around the world. Unfortunately, sadly, and this should be a tremendous responsibility and obligation on us, the overwhelming majority of the Jewish world is not observant. Not to any fault of their own. They should have no guilt or shame. It's not their fault. They weren't raised, they weren't privileged, they weren't exposed. And yet the Jewish נשמה neshama is on fire. I I landed yesterday, I had two weddings on Sunday in New York. I came back yesterday morning, we landed. In front of me was a woman, she says, my son wants to tell you something. Her little son says, I'm Jewish too with a big smile. The פינטעלע ייד pintele Yid, the Jewish soul is screaming out. Last Sunday I was in a store and I had to go try something in the in the fitting room and the person running the fitting room says, you buying that for Shabbos? I said maybe. I came out and she said, Shabbos Shalom. I said, it's Sunday. I said, Shabbos Shalom back. I didn't say that. Because everywhere you go right now, the Jewish souls are screaming out, they're on fire, they want to be nourished, they're dehydrated and malnourished. And they're saying I'm a יִיד Yid, I'm a Jew. Connect to the best and the most true part of who I am. I'm a Jew. So you could have a whole non-observant community who are not educated, not their fault, and they're now idolaters? Why does the pasuk say וסרתם מן הדרך ve'sartem min ha'derech and then you'll end up at אלהים אחרים Elohim acheirim? ונראה שהתורה דיברה באם סופו V'nireh she'haTorah dibra b'im sofo. מי שסר מדרך התורה ואף הסתייה הקלה ביותר, בסופו יכול להגיע גם לעבודה זרה. mi'she'sar m'derech ha'Torah v'af ha'stiya ha'kala b'yoser, b'sofo yachol l'hagiya gam l'avodah zara. Because the bottom line is that you'll either live your life, either live your life according to the directives and directions of God, or you're going to end up worshipping at another altar. Now, it may not be the altar of an idol. It may not look like a a stone idol. And you're not going to bow down to the sun or the moon. But if you worship to the mighty dollar, you worship celebrities, you're worshipping at the altar of the country club, you're worshipping movements which are foreign to ours, then yes, that's the formula the Torah is telling us. And tragically, we're seeing it in our time. This is what the מגיד יוסף Magid Yosef, what an insight. I won't tell you how many members we have who've come from other denominations, not because they woke up and became observant overnight. They're still not classically traditionally observant, though everybody's in their own place and on their own growth path. But what happened? They sat in the pews elsewhere and they said, my religion Judaism got exchanged for something else. And and even those other things they believe, I don't want to get in trouble right now, but I'm just repeating what I was told by people who came from there and said, I believe in social justice, I believe in environmentalism, but I'm a Jew, and when I come to shul, I want to hear about Judaism. And I don't want environmentalism and social justice to have replaced my religion. וסרתם מן הדרך, ללכת אחרי אלהים אחרים. Ve'sartem min ha'derech, laleches acharei Elohim acheirim. If you deviate from God, if it's not Shabbos and kashrus and family, טהרת המשפחה taharas hamishpacha, and honesty in business and לשון הרע lashon hara, if it's not about יום טוב Yom Tov, if it's not about God's plan, you're going to end up worshipping, you're going to end up servicing serving movements and and being part of isms that are אלהים אחרים Elohim acheirim. They're they're foreign gods. They're modern forms of idolatry. And even if those values speak to you, and there's many much virtue in some of those values, they're not our religion. So it's an incredible insight, incredible insight. וסרתם מן הדרך Ve'sartem min ha'derech, if you deviate from the path, if you walk away from the life, from the blueprint, from the instruction manual that God's given, it is inevitable, it is invariable that your religious craving will be replaced and supplanted by אלהים אחרים Elohim acheirim, something else, and you're going to be serving something else, and you're going to be serving. some other god, and whether that God is fame and fortune and being an influencer and celebrity, or whether that God you're serving is a movement. We have to וסרתם מן הדרך ve'sartem min ha'derech, the danger is moving. And he says משל הדבר mashal ha'davar, and that doesn't happen overnight, but is an eventuality. And that's why it says וסרתם מן הדרך ve'sartem min ha'derech. ההולך בדרך ועשה סטיה קלה Ha'holech ba'derech ve'asa stiyah kalah, if you're going on a path and you make one wrong turn, you're off a little bit, a little bit at the beginning, במוקדם או במאוחר ירד מן הדרך be'mukdam o be'meuchar yered min ha'derech, in the end, you're going to be very far away. If the pilot takes off and the navigation is off a drop, are there golfers here? If your club face is closed or open a millimeter, so in the first yard off the tee, it doesn't make a difference, but over time you're going to end up in the lake and in the woods. You make one wrong turn, so to begin with, you're only a block away, but keep going in that wrong direction, and you're going to be nowhere near your destination. וסרתם מן הדרך Ve'sartem min ha'derech. So, a little bit מן הדרך min ha'derech. Just a little bit, השם Hashem. I don't like your דרך derech. וסרתם מן הדרך Ve'sartem min ha'derech. I'm going to leave the דרך derech just a little bit. Just what looks like a little bit at the very beginning of changing the path, you end up way, way, way, way off the coordinates of where you were trying to go. A brilliant insight of the מגיד יוסף Maggid Yosef on the פסוק וסרתם מן הדרך pasuk ve'sartem min ha'derech. If you deviate at the beginning, if your angle is off, your trajectory is off just a drop, you're going to end up at the place of אלהים אחרים אשר לא ידעתם Elohim acheirim asher lo yeda'atem. That's where you're going to end up. פרק י\"ב פסוק ב' Perek Yud-Beis, Pasuk Beis. Torah continues about the decrees and the ordinances and what happens to the sanctity of the land. When you come into this land, we have to honor it, we have to cherish it. Certainly we're feeling that in our time. It's fragile and a person has to embrace it and love it and honor it and cherish it, and it has to be central to who we are. אבד תאבדון את כל המקמות אשר עבדו שם הגוים Aved t'avdun es kol ha'mekomos asher avdu sham ha'goyim. And when we enter that land, the Torah tells us, utterly destroy all the places where the nations that served their gods, אשר אתם ירשים אותם את אלהיהם asher atem yorshim osam es Eloheihem. You're going to inherit, you're going to conquer, you're going to take over. There's going to be houses of idolatry. Get rid of them, destroy them, purge them. You know why? If you allow them to remain, if you allow them to stay, they will penetrate, they will enter, they will corrupt. על ההרים הרמים ועל הגבעות ותחת כל עץ רענן Al he'harim ha'ramim ve'al ha'gva'os ve'tachas kol etz ra'anan. Where are these alternate houses of idolatry? They're on the hills and the mountains and they're under every leafy tree. And look out for where they are. And what you're going to do to them, which is to destroy them, break apart their altars, smash their pillars, their sacred trees burn in fire, their carved images cut down, obliterate their names from that place. And then the Torah concludes, and everything I just instructed you to do to their idolatry, לא תעשון כן להשם אלקיכם Lo sa'asun kein l'Hashem Elokeichem. And God says, 'But don't do that to the Lord your God. Don't do that to me.' Erase, eradicate, eliminate, destroy, obliterate, get rid of all the idolatry. לא תעשון כן להשם אלקיכם Lo sa'asun kein l'Hashem Elokeichem. And this is the source of our care with שמות sheimos. Right? So idolatry, you get rid of. But שמות sheimos, anything, a document that has God's name, you're not allowed to throw out. So if you have a ספר sefer, if you have a Jewish Torah book, if you have a, it's a big הלכתית halachic question. We're living in a challenging time with this. Because you know, certainly before the printing press, but even since for the last several hundred years, how many documents did a person have? People didn't have access to books as readily as we do. Today, print at will. Today we have printers at will, the worksheets, the newsletters, the Torah documents, it's the proliferation is just unbelievable. And the שמות sheimos can't keep up to get rid of it. Just can't keep up. It's actually a big challenge in South Florida. We're going to have our Mitzvah market, our annual Mitzvah market in אלול Elul, and we'll coordinate, you can drop off your שמות sheimos. But there's no places to bury it. We've run out of places to bury it. It's actually a coordinated effort in South Florida to buy land to become a collective שמות sheimos because we've just run out of space because there's so much שמות sheimos that's produced. What our kids bring home from school, what we print out each week to read, the newsletters and the Torah letters, it's unbelievable what there is. לא תעשון Lo sa'asun, you can't destroy השם's Hashem's name. Idolatry, get rid of. So that when Jews for Jesus leaves some Messianic document at your door, they drop off a copy of what looks like the Zohar, you know where you take it? Right in the garbage. Right in the dump. Ah, but it looks exactly like my Torah, has the same words, י-ק-ו-ק Yud-Kei-Vav-Kei even looks like God's name. But if it's made from the wrong source with the wrong intent, it is garbaggio. It goes in the, it goes in the garbage. That's what the Torah's telling us. But when it comes to God, לא תעשון להשם lo sa'asun l'Hashem, don't do that to God. Instead, what should we do? כי אם אל המקום... פסוק ה' Ki im el ha'makom... Pasuk Hey now, verse 5. כי אם אל המקום אשר יבחר השם אלקיכם מכל שבטיכם לשום את שמו שם Ki im el ha'makom asher yivchar Hashem Elokeichem mikol shivteichem lasum es shmo sham. What should you do? Go to the place that God has chosen to put his name there. לשכנו תדרשו ובאת שמה Le'shichno sidreshu u'vasa shama. Seek out his presence and come there. Very, very interesting. We've spoken in the past, we won't elaborate now. Very interesting that השם Hashem has this place, it's a very significant place, it's the place you could feel his presence most intensely, it's where he wants us to go and to be, and yet, he doesn't tell us where it is. He leaves out the address. He leaves out the coordinates. Where is it? You know what he tells us? לשכנו תדרשו ובאת שמה Leshichno sidreshu u'vasa shama. לשכנו Leshichno, שכינה Shechina, שכן shachein. His presence, his being your neighbor, his connection, תדרשו sidreshu, be דורש doreish. Just start going and you will intuit, you will follow, you will feel this magnetic spiritual pull to where you're supposed to be. השם Hashem doesn't in the Torah tell us where the בית המקדש Beis HaMikdash is, where the temple is. He doesn't tell us ירושלים Yerushalayim explicitly. What he tells us, the way he tells us, לשכנו תדרשו ובאת שמה Leshichno sidreshu u'vasa shama. You have to be a דורש doreish. You know when you'll find השם Hashem in your life when you're searching. If you're not looking, you won't find. If you're not searching, you won't discover. Said the קאצקער Kotsker, where is השם Hashem? Wherever you let him in. We say in our דאווענען davening, in קדושה kedusha, איה מקום כבודו Ayeh mekom kevodo? We say איה ayeh. By asking where is he, מקום כבודו mekom kevodo. Now you've found him. איה Ayeh. If you're looking, you found him. If you're not looking, you won't find. You won't find. You have to be איה ayeh. You have to be asking, you have to be looking. You have to be a דורש doreish, לשכנו תדרשו Le'shichno sidreshu. Says the רחמי השפע Rachmei ha'Shefa according to the מרא דשמעתתא Moreh d'Shemesh, הנה כן אין מקומות הגוים לאחרי שנחרבו הגוים וביטול תומתם hinei ken ein mekomos ha'goyim l'acharei she'nechravu ha'goyim u'vitul tum'asam. When a non-Jew has a house of idolatry, after you destroy the house of idolatry, there's no longer any presence of impurity. לא כן המקומות הקדושים שבארץ ישראל Lo ken ha'mekomos ha'kedoshim she'b'Eretz Yisrael. But that's not true in contrast, in contradistinction, even when we are exiled, even when we are dispersed from our holy place, אף לאחר חורבן בית המקדש לא נכרת הקדושה ממקומה af l'achar churban Beis HaMikdash, lo nichra ha'kedusha mi'mekoma. The holiness, the sanctity is still there. Ben Gvir lit the world on fire this week, again, by announcing he's open to building a שול shul on top of הר הבית Har HaBayis. Not getting in, the timing, הלכתית halachically right, wrong, politically right, wrong, certainly got a lot of criticism because it's not the right time to be doing that in the face of our enemies and provoking, and does that risk Jewish lives, and so on. I'm not getting into that right now. But why is there controversy הלכתית halachically about whether you can go up on the Temple Mount? It's a controversial question. There are big rabbis who say you can, there are many great rabbis who say you can't and you shouldn't. Why? There's no בית המקדש Beis HaMikdash, so what sanctity is left? The answer is, because in Judaism, in Torah, the sanctity of a place is not dependent on the building being there, it lasts well beyond. The קדושה kedusha is לשעתו ולעתיד לבוא l'sha'ato u'l'asid lavo. It continues. לעולם נשאר בו רושם הקדושה Le'olam nishar bo roshem ha'kedusha. The imprint of the sanctity is still there. מעולם לא זזה שכינה מהכותל המערבי Me'olam lo zaza Shechina mi'Kosel HaMa'aravi. The מדרש Midrash in שיר השירים Shir HaShirim says that the sanctity of the Western Wall never left, never departed, even after the temple, the בית המקדש Beis HaMikdash was destroyed. Jews have always been drawn back, and we've always davened at that Western Wall because it is a very sacred place. It's my grandfather's יארצייט yahrzeit last week. And my father, my family shared a letter he had written his first time in Israel, some 36 years after they were driven from Berlin in different directions, were reunited with his family there, and he talks about coming to what he called then the Wailing Wall. We call it the Western Wall, the כותל Kotel, and the feeling that he had of being there, it's an incredible, incredible description of what it was like to be there. Why did he go there? Why do we still go there? Because שכינה לא זזה מהכותל המערבי Shechina lo zaza mi'Kotel HaMa'aravi. בית המקדש Beis HaMikdash is not yet rebuilt, but the divine has not left that Western Wall. והמשכת הקדושה נמשך מכח תפילת ישראל Ve'hamsheches ha'kedusha nimshach mi'koach tefilas Yisrael. And why is that sanctity there? Because the Jewish people are still davening there. כי אף אחרי החורבן הבית עדיין מתקבצים ועולים Ki af acharei ha'churban ha'bayis, adayin miskabtzim ve'olim. Even after the חורבן churban, the destruction, Jews still gather, we connect, we're a community, and we collect all of our תפילות tfilos there, all of our prayers there, about the future of the Jewish people and ארץ ישראל Eretz Yisrael and ירושלים Yerushalayim and מקום המקדש Mekom HaMikdash. And that, says the מרא דשמעתתא Moreh d'Shemesh, that's what he suggests, perhaps is an understanding of this פסוק pasuk. אבד תאבדון Aved t'avdun, destroy all the places that the non-Jews worshipped. And when you do, there'll be no trace. There is no residual mark. לא תעשון כן להשם אלקיכם Lo sa'asun kein l'Hashem Elokeichem. Don't do that to God. כי אם אל המקום אשר יבחר השם לשום שמו שם, לשכנו תדרשו ובאת שמה Ki im el ha'makom asher yivchar Hashem lasum shmo sham, le'shichno sidreshu u'vasa shama. Keep going even after it's destroyed. There's a מקום makom, there's a place. And you'll find it when you're looking, when you're searching, when you ask איה ayeh. And when you get there, that's where you connect to השם Hashem. And you connect him when the building will be built, the בית המקדש Beis HaMikdash, and even after it will be destroyed when we have no temple, we have no בית המקדש Beis HaMikdash, still לא תעשון כן lo sa'asun kein, don't make it as if there's no קדושה kedusha there. There's still holiness and there's still sanctity and there's still a reason to go and to gather there. פרק י\"ב פסוק י\"ד Perek yud-beis, pasuk yud-daled. We are flying. Turn the page 102, 1002. Where should you go? כי אם במקום אשר יבחר השם באחד שבטיך Ki im ba'makom asher yivchar Hashem be'achad shevatecha. It's a perfect segue. Here these פסוקים psukim are not next to each other, but the same language is used: מקום makom. God says go to the place that your heart will tell you to go, that your spirit, that your soul. Now, your נשמה neshama, your soul, can't be your navigation tool if you don't know you have a נשמה neshama. If you don't know you have the app on your phone, it's useless to you. If you don't know that you have Waze or Google Maps, it can't help you get to your destination and avoid the traffic and the police. You have to know you have it. Your נשמה neshama is the Waze, is the navigation tool in this world, but it doesn't work if you don't know you have it. And you have to know you're not a body that has a soul, you are a soul that happens to have a body. Who we really are, our core identity is our נשמה neshama, is a פינטעלע ייד pintele Yid, is our soul, is that little boy who says, 'I'm Jewish too.' That's who we are. That's the essence of who we are. That's the immortality of who we are. We're a נשמה neshama. So, לשכנו תדרשו ובאת שמה leshichno sidreshu u'vasa shama, you'll only know where to go when your נשמה neshama tells you, when you have a נשמה neshama, your conscience, your moral conscience, your soul, your spark, the piece of God in you, חלק אלוקה ממעל ממש chelek Eloka mi'ma'al mamash. And where will it take us? אל המקום El ha'makom, to the place. We don't get an address, we don't get coordinates. We're just told to the place. You'll know it when you see it, when you're drawn to it. And here again, כי אם במקום ki im ba'makom. Again it's called the place, אשר יבחר השם באחד שבטיך, שם תעלה עולותיך asher yivchar Hashem be'achad shevatecha, sham ta'aleh olotecha, the place that God will choose in all of your gates and all of your dwelling places among your tribes. There you bring your קרבן karbon, your sacrifice. There do everything that I, that I command you. To the place, to the place. Why is it called מקום makom? So back to the sefer, the סתרא עליון Sitra Elyon. And here he suggests the following based on the דעת תורה Daas Torah of Rav Yirucham. Why is the Torah in many places it calls ירושלים Yerushalayim, the בית המקדש Beis HaMikdash, מקום makom? כי אם במקום אשר יבחר Ki im ba'makom asher yivchar. כי אם לפני השם אלקיכם תאכלו שם במקום Ki im lifnei Hashem Elokeichem tochlu sham ba'makom. את הקרבן במקום Es ha'karbon ba'makom in the place. כי ירחק ממך המקום Ki yirchak mimcha ha'makom, if you're far away from the place. We call it all the time, over and over, we call it the place. Why do we keep referring it to the place? So says the דעת תורה Daas Torah, says the סתרא עליון Sitra Elyon, the answer is, don't worry about it. I'm good. I'm good. Says the דעת תורה Daas Torah, because the notion of a place is the idea that each of us have our place. Where is your place? Where is your place? People struggle to find what's my place in the world? Someone who is going through mental health challenges, often you'll hear the language, 'I can't find my place.' 'I don't know what's my place in the world.' Why do we use that language, 'your place'? What do you mean what's your place? What's your address? Where do you live? What's your place? Place is not a physical, it's metaphysical. Place is existential. Where is my place? Where a place describes where's my comfort zone? Where's my identity? What's my purpose? Where do I feel a sense of belonging? That's a מקום makom, that's a place. Where is the מקום makom of every Jew? כי אם אל המקום Ki im el ha'makom, the בית המקדש Beis HaMikdash. It's everyone's place. Everyone belongs there. It's what we would call today his safe space for every Jew. כי אם אל המקום Ki im el ha'makom, it's a place every Jew can and should feel is theirs. It's who I am, it's where I belong. It's where I'm drawn, it's where I'm comfortable, it's my מקום makom. It's my מקום makom. A ייד Yid, a Jew has to know their מקום makom. Where's my מקום makom? Today we don't have the בית המקדש Beis HaMikdash. We still want to go to ירושלים Yerushalayim, we should be drawn to go to the כותל Kotel and drawn to long to go up on הר הבית Har HaBayis. Please God, the third בית המקדש Beis HaMikdash should come speedily in our day. But where do we go when we don't have our מקדש Mikdash today? We have a מקדש מעט Mikdash me'at. We have a temple in miniature. What's the miniature temple we have today? It's called the, it's called the שול shul, the בית מדרש beis medrash. כי עם מקום הגידול היחידי, המקום של התורה ישיבות הקדושות, אם נמצא אדם בישיבה בטוח הוא כי פה אפשר לגדול ולצמוח, מה שלא ניתן בדורנו מחוץ לישיבות Ki im makom ha'gidul ha'yechidi, ha'makom shel ha'Torah yeshivos ha'kedoshos, im nimtza adam bi'yeshiva batuach hu ki poh efshar ligdol v'litzmoach, mah shelo nitan b'doreinu mi'chutz la'yeshivos. You know, a person can't grow if they're not in their place. If you've ever had a garden, I did for about 20 minutes during Corona, long enough to get a דרשה drasha out of it. My kids are still making fun of me. So, if you have a garden, you'll say, why doesn't this grow here? Because you're in the wrong soil. You're in the wrong place. Speak to any, what do they call it, a vintner? Somebody who grows wine. Speak to anybody who grows wine, they'll say, no, no, no, those grapes don't work in that region. You could only put the Cabernet in the soil, in the southern, you can only put the Merlot has to be only in this climate. For something to grow, it has to be in its right place, in its right habitat, in its right environment. So a Jew has to know, where's my מקום makom? Where is the place that I should get planted, that I can blossom and I can grow? Where's my מקום makom? For every seed that you're going to plant, you have to check. You can't just randomly buy seeds in Home Depot and Lowe's and just drop them in some soil. Does that grow in Florida, in our climate? Does that grow in this earth, in this soil? Does that grow in this weather? Is it going to grow in this place? And a ייד Yid, a Jew has to say, where's my place where I grow? So for a Jew, every Jew, where is the place that we grow? בית המקדש Beis HaMikdash. That's why it's called מקום makom. כי אם אל המקום Ki im el ha'makom. It's called the מקום makom because the place that's the natural habitat, that's the appropriate environment, that is the pregnant soil for every Jew is the בית המקדש Beis HaMikdash. And while we don't have a בית המקדש Beis HaMikdash, where is the מקום makom for every Jew? The שול shul. The shul has to be a place that every Jew can come, feel comfortable, feel welcome, and feel they can grow. It's my environment, it's my climate, it's my earth, it's my soil, it's my sunlight, it's my oxygen. It's the place where I can come, it is my מקום makom. Every Jew has to know. That's why whenever we're talking where the נשמה neshama is drawn and belongs and can grow, it's called a מקום makom. A person has to know what's my place, where is my place? Where can I grow in my place? And for every Jew that place is the בית המקדש Beis HaMikdash. And without the בית המקדש Beis HaMikdash, until the בית המקדש Beis HaMikdash, that place is is our shuls. פרק י\"ב פסוק כ\"ח Perek yud-beis, pasuk kaf-ches. Chapter 12, verse 28, page 1004. Here the Torah is giving us permission to eat unconsecrated meat. We're only allowed to eat the קרבנות karbonos. The כהנים kohanim, the priests could eat the sacrifice in the בית המקדש Beis HaMikdash. For a time we were not allowed to eat meat. Then we returned to the license. ברוך השם Baruch Hashem, we're given the permission to be able to eat meat. The carnivore diet, which is back in style. Apparently it's very good for you. Steak three times a day. ברוך השם Baruch Hashem. ברוך השם Baruch Hashem. פסוק כ\"ח Pasuk kaf-ches. שמר ושמעת את כל הדברים האלה אשר אנכי מצוך Shmor ve'shamata es kol ha'dvarim ha'eileh asher anochi metzavecha. Observe and listen to all these things that I'm commanding you. למען ייטב לך ולבניך אחריך עד עולם Lema'an yitav lecha u'levanecha acharecha ad olam. So it will be good for you and your children after you forever, כי תעשה הטוב והישר בעיני השם אלקיך Ki sa'aseh ha'tov ve'hayashar b'einei Hashem Elokecha. Do what is right, what is just, what is good in the eyes of God, in the eyes of your creator, your maker. Back to the אמרות טהורות Imros Tehoros. Says the אמרות טהורות Imros Tehoros. שמר ושמעת Shmor ve'shamata. Observe and listen. Said the הייליגע בעל שם טוב heilige Baal Shem Tov. The בעל שם טוב Baal Shem Tov quoted by the תולדות Toldos. The בעל שם טוב Baal Shem Tov said the following. He says as many places in פרשת קדושים parshas kedoshim, פרשת בהעלותך parshas behaaloscha, פרשת ויקרא parshas vayikra. He says that in many places the תולדות Toldos brings down from the בעל שם Baal Shem. It's a famous בעל שם Baal Shem. The גמרא Gemara tells us, the משנה Mishna tells us in אבות Avos, בכל יום ויום בת קול יוצאת מהר חורב Bechol yom va'yom bas kol yotzes mei'Har Chorev. Every day, every day, still today, every day, a heavenly voice goes out from Mount Sinai, a heavenly voice goes out. And the question is, where is that heavenly voice? ומה תועלת יש במי שאינו שומע בת קול לאיזה סיבה יוצאת U'mah to'eles yesh be'mi she'eino shome'a bas kol l'eizeh sibah yotzes. Said the בעל שם טוב Baal Shem Tov, if we can't hear the בת קול bas kol, the heavenly voice, what's the point in sending it out? And if you can hear it, why don't we hear it? If you can hear it, God, a heavenly voice still is declaring the Torah from Mount Sinai even until today. Well if he's declaring it, why don't we hear it? And if we can't hear it, then why does he say it? Why is it still going out? אמר הבעל שם טוב הקדוש זכותו יגן עלינו Amar ha'Baal Shem Tov ha'kadosh, zechuso yagen aleinu. כי פעולת הבת קול היא להביא בלבות ישראל הרהורי תשובה Ki pe'ulas ha'bas kol hi le'havi b'libos Yisrael hirhurei teshuva. כאשר מרגיש לפעמים האדם שפתאום נפלה בו הרהור תשובה בליבו, והוא אינו יודע מה עורר אותו לכך, יודע Ka'asher margish l'famim ha'adam she'pitom nafla bo hirhur teshuva b'libo, ve'hu eino yode'a mah orer oso l'kach, yode'a, ידע כי הרהורי תשובה אלו הם מכח הבת קול היוצאת בכל יום Yeda ki hirhurei teshuva eilu hem mi'koach ha'bas kol ha'yotzes b'chol yom. Said the בעל שם טוב Baal Shem Tov famously, when a Jew all of a sudden has this awakening, this arousal of spirituality, a Jew all of a sudden says, 'I'm a Jew, I'm proud, and I want to practice more, and I want to learn and I want to grow and I want to change and I want to be connected.' You know where that comes from? The בת קול bas kol is going out, it is speaking to them from inside themselves. When that boy when we landed said to his mother, 'Tell him I'm Jewish. I want to tell him I'm Jewish.' That was the בת קול bas kol. I heard the heavenly voice on JetJew when we landed in Fort Lauderdale yesterday, JetBlue. We heard the בת קול bas kol. The heavenly voice went out when a young boy was moved to want to say, 'I'm a Jew and I'm proud and I'll sing it out loud. I'm Jewish too.' When a Jew says on a Sunday, 'Good Shabbos, Shabbat Shalom,' because that's all they know to be able to let the other person know, 'I'm a Jew. I want you to know I'm a Jew.' That's the בת קול bas kol. That's the heavenly voice. You don't hear it in your ears the בת קול bas kol. It's not a frequency you pick up with an antenna. When in our own hearts we say, 'You know what? I'm deleting that app from my phone. I was about to share that juicy gossip, I'm not doing it. I was about to do that wrong thing, I'm going to overcome it. You know what? I'm going to wake up, I'm going to make it to מנין minyan. I'm not talking in שול shul anymore. I'm going--' That's the heavenly voice speaking to us that gives us that impulse, that instinct, that drive to do the right thing. לפי זה יש להבין כן למה אין בת קול פועלת על כל אדם לשוב כל יום L'fi zeh yesh l'havin ken, lama ein bas kol po'eles al kol adam lashuv kol yom? So why does the heavenly voice go out and ring in our ears and motivate and inspire us each and every day? כי אי אפשר לאדם לשמוע בת קול זו הרי עד שיעשה הכנה תחילה Ki i efshar l'adam lishmo'a bas kol zu harei ad she'ya'aseh hachana techila, because you can't hear that voice unless you first do something to get ready, to prepare, unless you pick up the frequency. So that says the דגל מחנה אפרים Degel Machaneh Ephraim, who was he? The אייניקל einikel, the grandson of the בעל שם Baal Shem. Said the אייניקל einikel, the grandson of the בעל שם Baal Shem, using his זיידע'ס zeide's ווארט vort, what could be greater than using your זיידע'ס zeide's ווארט vort, your זיידע'ס zeide's Torah? So he said the דגל Degel, he said, maybe that's the פשט pshat in our פסוק pasuk. שמר ושמעת Shmor ve'shamata. First keep a little bit, and then ושמעת ve'shamata, you're going to pick up the frequency, you're going to hear the heavenly voice telling you. שמר Shmor is לשון המתנה וצפיה lashon hamtana v'tzipiya. We saw this last week. The אוהב ישראל Ohev Yisrael. The word שמר shmor does not mean to observe or keep. What does it mean? ואביו שמר את הדבר Ve'aviv shamar es ha'davar. We've said this a dozen times. What does the word שמר shamar mean? To wait, to anticipate, to be excited, to look forward to. So therefore, שמר shmor, if you're excited to be a ייד Yid, to be a Jew, ושמעת ve'shamata, you're going to pick up on the voice. That boy, because he screamed out loud with pride, 'I'm a Jew,' something's going to happen. Something's going to happen. I got a, I don't know how the story ends yet, so I'll report it more, but I got a text on Friday. Someone who just moved to our community, an amazing guy, so excited he's here, Sam. He texts me and he says, 'Rabbi, I'm on the red-eye, I'm flying back, and I'm sitting next to a Jew. We struck up a conversation. That's what you taught me to do. And I got him to agree, he's going to Manhattan. I got him to agree if we could set him up with a Shabbos meal. He wants a Sefardic Shabbos meal, he'll go this Shabbos.' He said, 'We land in 45 minutes, you got 45 minutes, go.' So I got to work with my network, tried to find Sefardic rabbis, who coordinate host Shabbos meals, where can we plug him in, sent him to him on the phone, passed it off to the guy. I don't have the report yet on how the story ends. But it's amazing that that guy actually listened when I spoke. It's amazing, I don't know why I was inspired to promote that or write that. Then this amazing guy Sam who moved in actually listened to me. Then he had the courage to say it to the person sitting next to him who mentioned he was Jewish, and that guy was open to nourishing his נשמה neshama. So שמר shmor, if you're willing to lean into your Judaism, ושמעת ve'shamata, you're going to hear השם Hashem everywhere. But it begins שמר shmor. You're not going to hear. You can't pick up the frequency if you don't extend the antenna. Young people have no idea what I'm talking about right now. But if you remember antennas, you know, 880 News shut down two nights ago, was its last broadcast. 880 News in New York, עליו השלום alav ha'shalom. I don't know what's next. 1010 WINS, neber, nebach. 880, there goes my whole childhood. 880 news, it's gone. So, you got to extend the antenna if you want to pick up the, the frequency. That's what you would do before the מנהג minhag before I made several references to Waze and Google Maps. The מנהג minhag before we had technology was to get in the car, take out the map, and then fight whether you should take the West Side Highway or the FDR drive. You'd fight, then you'd agree to turn on 1010 WINS on the tens, but you turned it on a minute late, then you'd have a fight of whose fault it was to turn it on a minute too late to not hear it in time to choose. Anyone remember this? This was the מנהג minhag. So much more שלום shalom, there's so much more harmony since we have Waze. Isn't השם Hashem amazing? You don't have to fight anymore about which highway to take and who didn't get the news on, on time, on the tens, 1010 WINS. 880's done. So you got to, how did we get there? Because you got to extend the antenna. If you want to pick up the frequency, you got to extend the antenna. The same is true with השם Hashem. If you want to hear him talking to you, שמר ושמעת shmor ve'shamata. First שמר shmor, first be willing to say to the person sitting next to you, 'I'm a Jew and I'm proud. Nice to meet you. How are you?' You have to be willing to introduce yourself and lean in and be proud. And then, and I'm not talking just about a non-observant Jew. I'm talking about us, educated and observant Jews. שמר Shmor, to be excited, you have to be looking, you have to extend the antenna, and then השם Hashem says, 'I'm everywhere. And you could pick up my frequency, you just got to extend the antenna. Are you learning? Are you studying? Are you open-minded? Are you aware of your נשמה neshama? Are you nourishing it? Are you safeguarding it? Are you keeping it? Are you expressing it?' Because if you do, you're going to pick up, you're going to pick up the message everywhere. פרק י\"ג פסוק א' Perek yud-gimmel pasuk alef. י\"ג א'. Page 1006. את כל הדבר אשר אנכי מצוה אתכם אותו תשמרו לעשות לא תוסף עליו ולא תגרע ממנו Es kol ha'davar asher anochi metzaveh eschem, oso sishmru la'asos, lo soseif alav v'lo sigra mimenu. The pasuk tells us, observe everything I'm giving you, don't do less and don't do more. Here's the recipe. תרי\"ג Taryag, 613 מצוות mitzvos, don't do less and don't do more. And I want to share with you an amazing insight I saw from Rav Isaac Sher. Great משגיח mashgiach, Rav Isaac Sher. And he shared the following. לא תסיפו ולא תגרעו ממנו Lo sosifu v'lo sigr'u mimenu. We already had in פרשת ואתחנן parshas Va'eschanan. Just a couple weeks ago, we were already told there are 613 מצוות mitzvos. Don't do 612 and don't add to 614. Why not? I would think adding is good. If 613 is great, 614 is even better, right? Well, that'd be like saying to the doctor, 'Doctor, you told me to take a pill in the morning and a pill in the afternoon, tell you I did even better, I took two in the morning and two in the afternoon.' Doctor says, 'What are you doing? I gave you a prescription, a formula because that's what works. If you start messing with the formula, it ain't going to work.' So השם Hashem says, 'I'm giving you a formula for life. Don't experiment. Don't omit a dose, don't add a dose, follow the instructions on the bottle. Take with food, take before you eat, take at night.' Just follow the instructions. Because if you mess with it, you think you know better, you got WebMD, you googled it, now you think you know better, it's not going to be effective. You want it to be effective, follow the formula. And השם Hashem says the same thing. לא תסיפו ולא תגרעו Lo sosifu v'lo sigr'u. Don't add, don't subtract. I told you to take four species on סוכות Sukkos. Don't take three and don't take five. Four פרשיות parshiyos in a תפילין tefillin. Don't have three, don't have five. Whatever I told, just do what I told you. Don't mess with the formula. So we already had that two weeks ago in ואתחנן Va'eschanan. Why are we repeating it here? לא תסיפו עליו ולא תגרעו ממנו Lo sosifu alav v'lo sigr'u mimenu? Why are we repeating it? אזוי פרעגט הרב אייזק שער Azoy fregt Rav Isaac Sher. That is the question of the great משגיח mashgiach of סלאבודקע Slabodka, Rav Isaac Sher. So he says the following. He says because in ואתחנן Va'eschanan, the Torah, השם Hashem was cautioning us when it comes to the מצוות הלכה mitzvos halacha. When it comes to Jewish practice, don't add, don't subtract, don't change, just follow what you got. 613 מצוות mitzvos, this is the הלכה halacha, this is the law. What are we adding now? We're adding something else. We're adding, אותו תשמרו לעשות oso tishmru la'asos, what we're adding is בל תוסף bal tosif also on feeling. בל תוסף Bal tosif on religious experience. התורה מביא מידת הגאווה שלא נתראה לחכמים יותר מגויים אחרים שיהיו קשורים אצלנו ולהעבירם על פי שכלם HaTorah mevia midas ha'ga'avah shelo nitra'eh l'chachamim yoter mi'goyim acheirim she'yihyu keshurim etzleinu u'l'haviram al pi sichlam. Where does the Torah give us this law? In the context of not emulating and imitating idolaters, non-Jews, other religions. It's not just in practice don't add and don't subtract. It means even in our own interpersonal meditation and feeling and song and don't take on new age, new fangled, new neo idea. No, no, no. It's not just in the observance of Torah and mitzvos on the outside. There's also a מסורה mesorah and a tradition, we have a truth on the internal experience of the observance of mitzvos. So don't experiment and don't play with it on the outside and don't experiment and don't experience on the inside. On the internal פנימיות pnimiyus, we have a מסורה mesorah, we have a tradition, we have a truth on the internal experience of the observance of mitzvos. So don't experiment and don't play with it on the outside, and don't experiment and don't experience on the inside. And you see that in our generation. There are people they read a book that they bought in the airport, that's a bestseller. And now they want to inject that into their Judaism. New age, new fangled, new neo-idea. No, no, no. It's not just in the observance of Torah and mitzvos on the outside. There's also a מסורה mesorah in a tradition in the פנימיות pnimiyus and who we are on the inside, and how we do things there as well. And that's why it's repeated, לא תסיפו עליו ולא תגרעו ממנו Lo sosifu alav v'lo sigr'u mimenu. That's why it's told again over here. We have time for one more. We have time for one more. Why not? I control the time. We have time for one more. מנהגים Minhagim is different than הלכה halacha. מנהג Minhag is different than הלכה halacha. So therefore מנהגים minhagim there's differences and there's individuals. We don't have time for one more, but I'll plant the seed. The מגיד יוסף Maggid Yosef tells the following. Interesting. On פרק י\"ד פסוק א', בנים אתם להשם אלקיכם Perek yud-daled pasuk alef, 'Banim atem l'Hashem Elokeichem', we are children of God. So when you experience a loss and death, don't grieve or mourn excessively, don't cut your skin as a result because we are children of השם Hashem. We've spoken about this פסוק pasuk in the past. But he tells here the following, because רש\"י Rashi on the פסוק pasuk says, כי עם קדוש אתה ki am kadosh atah, קדושה עצמך מאבותיך kedusha atzmecha me'avosecha. The sanctity that you have comes from your forefathers. What does that have to do with death and mourning? What does that have to do with cutting yourself? What does that have to do with being children of השם Hashem? How does רש\"י Rashi interpret? What's רש\"י Rashi adding to this פסוק pasuk? He says the following, מעשה ששמעתי Ma'aseh she'shama'ati, I heard that when Rav Soloveitchik, his wife passed away, Rav Hutner, and Rav Pinchas Teitz went to pay a שבעה shivah call. They all knew each other from before the war. Rav Hutner and Rabbi Teitz went to go pay a שבעה shivah call to Rabbi Soloveitchik when his wife passed away. ודנו בשאלה מדוע חמורה אבלות שונה לאב ואמו, ויותר דין אבלות של שאר קרובים Ve'danu be'she'eilah madua chamurah aveilus shonah le'av v'imo v'yoser din aveilus shel shaar krovim. דאיפכא מסתברא D'ipcha mistabra. And what did they discuss? What did גדולי ישראל gedolei Yisrael discuss at a שבעה shivah call? I'm sure they spoke about Mrs. רעבעצין Rebbetzin Soloveitchik, but they also got into a תורה Torah discussion that was permissible during אבלות aveilus. They spoke about why is it when a person God forbid loses a parent, how long is mourning? A year. And if a person loses a spouse, a sibling, God forbid a child, how long is mourning? Thirty days. You would think the opposite. Because the loss of a parent is natural, it's the way of the world. It's how things are meant to go. Nobody lives forever, so people will lose a parent. That's natural. So thirty days, you honor it, you move on. But God forbid, God forbid, the loss of a child, of a spouse, it's earth-shattering. Of a sibling? You'd think that that would be a year. So it's the reverse. And he goes on to say how did Rav Hutner explain it? How did Rabbi Teitz explain it? How did Rabbi Soloveitchik explain it? And how does that explain רש\"י Rashi? So we'll have to share that next year. That interesting question, how the three explained it, and how that explains the רש\"י Rashi. A fantastic Rav Hutner, a fantastic Maggid Yosef rather. We'll pick up with that next year. Please stay next, next year in ירושלים Yerushalayim. Please stay, we'll complete our ספר תהלים sefer Tehillim. Our day began with good news, בסורות טובות besoros tovos, please God it should just continue. We should have only בסורות טובות, ישועות ונחמות besoros tovos, yeshuos, v'nechamos.
