Transcript
Good morning boker tov welcome back to Parsha Perspectives for today we have the privilege of reading and learning Parshas Beshalach together. Parshas Beshalach our story is unfolding the drama is only growing. The Jewish people they're leaving Mitzrayim but have they really left? Pharaoh is in pursuit and even if the people have left Egypt has Egypt left the people? First we begin as we always do with our attitude of gratitude thank you to Becky and Avi Katz and family for sponsoring the Parsha shiur in loving memory of Becky's father David Grossman our learning should be לעילוי נשמת דוד בן מנחם מאניש. This morning's shiur sponsored by Carol Lapchinski for the refuah shleima of מנחם מענדל בן דבורה לאה. Thank you for stepping up and sponsoring doing your part to help us grow and promote and share Torah not only throughout this community but also through the gift of technology further beyond. The Artscroll Stone Chumash we're on page 366 the beginning of Parshas Beshalach. ויהי בשלח פרעה את העם ולא נחם אלקים דרך ארץ פלשתים כי קרוב הוא כי אמר אלקים פן ינחם העם בראתם מלחמה ושבו מצרימה. It happened when Pharaoh sent out the people Hashem did not lead them by the way of the land of the Plishtim because it was too close. Hashem said maybe they'll reconsider when they see the conflict when they see the tension maybe they'll reconsider and they'll want to return and therefore he took them a circuitous route which it seems has been the journey of the Jewish people ever since we are on one long circuitous route. We want to get to the destination already of geulah we want Moshiach we want to arrive at the geographic and the metaphysical Promised Land but we continue to be on this long arduous windy journey this circuitous route. ויסב אלקים את העם דרך המדבר ים סוף וחמשים עלו בני ישראל מארץ מצרים. And so on. So let's start with vayehi the word vayehi. Vayehi has a connotation. Anyone know what the connotation is of the word vayehi? It's not positive. Vayehi is always a lashon of tza'ar. Vayehi is a lashon of tza'ar. This is brought down by the Midrash. The Midrash tells us when we see the word vayehi it means something negative ויהי אין אלא לשון צער. Something sad something challenging vayehi is always a lashon of tza'ar. So why would we begin? This is the story of our freedom. So why would it begin with tza'ar? Why would it begin with tza'ar? Yesh lehavin. I'm in the Amarot Tehorot of the Heilige Rachmastrivka Rebbe. Yesh lehavin מה היה כאן הצער כשיצאו ישראל ממצרים? What was the tza'ar when the Jewish people left Egypt? It's a miracle. We're out we're liberated we're free. Where is the pain? Where is the discomfort? Where is the tza'ar in this freedom and in this good news? Now the Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh already asks this question and the Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh gives the following answer he quotes it in the footnote. That requires the glasses. צריך לדעת למה אמר לשון צער במקום גילה ורננה. This is a time of rejoicing a time of celebration a time of happiness. עוד למה כינה הענין בפרעה ולא באדון המעשים כי הוא המוציא אותנו מארץ מצרים. Maybe the answer is in the second question. What does the pasuk describe? Vayehi beshalach. Who let us out? Who took us out? Pharaoh. Now was Pharaoh the one who took us out and let us out? No. He chased us out. It was the Ribono Shel Olam the Almighty the Eibeshter is the one who performed miracles and he's the one who provided our freedom and our redemption yet the Torah describes nevertheless vayehi it was when Pharaoh finally let us out when Pharaoh finally gave us freedom beshalach when Pharaoh sent us out when Pharaoh sent us out. So maybe that's the answer. The lashon tza'ar in the vayehi is that it was perceived both by Pharaoh and maybe by the world not the Divine intervention not the Divine revelation and assistance not that Hashem created this whole circumstance and scenario and brought about our freedom but it appeared the pundits the newspaper journalists the headlines all read Pharaoh sent the Jewish people out. So vayehi even in that freedom that should have been a celebration there was a lashon tza'ar there was a negative connotation because inaccurately it depicted and described that Pharaoh's the one who sent us out not that Hashem is the one who redeemed us and saved us. This is poignant any year it's particularly poignant after yesterday. It really struck me. Did you see the headlines including a newspaper I hesitate to say in front of an Aron Kodesh out of New York that talks about the Times whose headline was Hamas sends back the last body. That was the headline. It's mind-boggling. You don't know whether to laugh or cry. Vayehi it's a lashon tza'ar on the one hand for the first time in 10 years the Jewish people Israel does not have a hostage in Gaza. For the first time in 10 years. Because long before October 7th, two bodies that were previously held. The first time in ten years, so that should be a source of joy and happiness and closure, not a happiness. It also tells you about the Jewish condition in the world that yesterday we were so all we were all so ecstatic because we got back a dead body. That's where we're at, that when we get back a murdered hero who saved countless lives, who was the first one in and the last one out, that so grateful we are to get back a dead body, we're so overjoyed. How horrible that that's our condition, how horrible that that's where we're at, that that's a source of joy. And yet even that joy was tainted and was compromised with a lashon of vayehi. And why vayehi? Where's the tzaar? Because headlines could still say, headlines could still say that Hamas sent back the last body. Other headlines, somebody who ostensibly is pro-Israel, a prominent reporter for Fox, tweeted and described Hamas fulfills its conditions of the ceasefire by sending back the last body. Do you know that in 24 hours, 20 dentists, forensic dentists from Israel went and examined 200 bodies in a cemetery were dug up and in 24 hours 20 dentists examined in order to confirm that this was the last body? So vayehi, even within what could be and should be joy, vayehi lashon tzaar, sometimes as a language of tzaar. And the Orach Chaim Hakadosh is writing about thousands of years ago, the miracle of krias yam suf, but it's parsha perspectives for today because sadly these stories are still true today. And maybe now we understand more than ever, you know, the fourth bracha in benching, the bracha of hatov vehamaitiv was instituted by Chazal by our rabbis when? What precipitated their instituting that fourth bracha of the benching, hatov vehamaitiv? Harugei Beitar, when the murdered victims of Beitar, whose bodies lay in the field and our enemies did not allow burial or closure, when finally the harugei Beitar were able to be buried, Chazal instituted a bracha. Fourth bracha of benching, which is also the bracha you say if you have an improved second bottle of wine that's brought to the table, the bracha of hatov vehamaitiv. What's the connection? The Gemara tells us the bodies didn't disintegrate, they didn't rot, when they were buried it created a more fertile land and earth than ever before that produced the greatest wine. So therefore there's a correlation, but now we finally look back and we understand. We learn that Gemara every year we think about Tisha B'Av after the three weeks, the harugei Beitar, we're making a bracha because we were able to bury bodies? That's bracha worthy? That's worth joy and gratitude and a blessing to the Almighty? And after yesterday, when we finally have closure and there's no hostages held and that final body is back, ברוך ה' הטוב והמטיב. Prime Minister of Israel made a shehecheyanu in Knesset put a yarmulke on, hatov vehamaitiv, the bracha thanking God. But it's laced with a vayehi, it's laced like it was then so too now, it's laced with a vayehi, a lashon tzaar, because they could still get it so wrong. Bishalach Paro, as if Paro sent us, Paro sent us out, the Ribbono Shel Olam took us out. And it was Moshe Rabbeinu, his faithful servant, as we're going to see soon, ויאמינו בה' ובמשה עבדו. It wasn't Paro and it wasn't Hamas, the Paro of our time, it's always the Ribbono Shel Olam, so there still is this lashon of vayehi. The Radomsk Rebbe quotes the Noam Elimelech, the Heilige Rebbe Elimelech, Rebbe Elimelech who has a different interpretation, he says bishalach Paro that Paro was melaveh us, Paro didn't just send us out, he walked us out. And whether it means literally he walked us out or figuratively, his value system, his culture, his weltanschauung, the attitude of Egypt walked us out. We walked out of Egypt but we were still walking like an Egyptian, we walked out of Egypt but Egypt was still walking in us and through us, bishalach, he was escorting us. And says the Noam Elimelech, that's the lashon tzaar, the sadness in the vayehi bishalach Paro was first step was done, Jews were taken out of Egypt, but we had a long way to go why? Because Egypt was still in the Jews and we needed to be taken out, we weren't done yet, that's the opening of the amoras, the Torah tells us וחמושים עלו בני ישראל מארץ מצרים. We left Rashi quotes two interpretations, vachamushim means only one-fifth left, 20 percent, 80 percent chose to stay. And you look around today and you say, what percentage of the Jewish people are on the wrong side of our issues? They're standing with and protesting with and advocating for and lobbying together with and voting for on the wrong side of the issues of our very survival and our very future. Vachamushim are they? I'm not saying it as a statement, and I'm not big enough person to, I'm just... Are they the vachamushim of our time that choose to stay back and choose to identify with and choose to march and protest together even with those who want our own demise? And the other interpretation of vachamushim means that we were armed. And we saw several years ago vachamushim, what is armed? The Brisker Rav, רב יוסף דב הלוי סולובייצ'יק, the Rosh Yeshiva of Brisk Yerushalayim, one of the Roshei Yeshiva of Brisk, not the Brisker Rav. He said vachamushim, what were we armed with? The next pasuk: ויקח משה את עצמות יוסף עמו. Moshe fulfilled a promise, כי השביע השביע את בני ישראל לאמר, back in Mitzrayim, you remember Yosef on his deathbed, just like his father Yaakov said, make me a promise. Don't bury me here. Take me up and out and leave me interned for eternity in the promised land. Don't leave me here. And Moshe now is fulfilling this promise, he goes and he takes these bones and he brings them with him. And it's in the merit of these bones that the sea splits, we've spoken about all this previously, you can listen online to previous years' shiurim. It's in the merit of Yosef the sea split. Moshe fulfills this promise by carrying the bones of Yosef, and that's vachamushim. What were we armed with? We're armed certainly when we have weapons, but our greatest weapon is knowing our identity. Standing tall and proud as Jews. Jewish practice, Jewish pride, Jewish observance. That's our greatest weapon, vachamushim. With what were we armed? Atzmos Yosef. Read it not atzmos, the bones, but atzmus, the essence. When we know where we come from and who we are and where we're meant to go, when we have a strong and powerful sense of identity and a pride and a purpose and practice as Jews, then we are armed with what we need to defeat our enemies. And it's in the merit of Yosef the sea split. Again, this we've spoken about also. Yosef who overcame his nature, water is natural, one, water flows to its lowest point, to divide water and turn it into two is supernatural and miraculous. Who overcame his nature, if not Yosef? The nature of a healthy, vibrant man, certainly in Egypt, far from his family, with nothing to lose would be to give into the urge, to give into the relentless propositions of the wife of Potiphar. That's natural. It's only natural, that was his natural urge, that was his nature, that's what would have been natural. But Yosef taught us we can overcome our nature. And that's what the Jewish people, Moshe turned to Hashem and said, look, in the merit of these bones of this individual who taught us how we can transcend and supersede and overcome our nature, let the water overcome its nature and let it split. And our Rabbis derive the Gemara at the beginning of the Gemara in Sotah that just as miraculous as the splitting of the sea is, Chazal actually tell us three comparisons: Miznosav shel adam, a person's livelihood is as hard as splitting the sea, and a shidduch, ask a shadchan, it's as hard as splitting the sea. Today, shadchanim or those who dabble, formal, informal, professional and amateur matchmakers will tell you that the joy and satisfaction of getting a couple to go on a first date today is as much as it used to be when you heard they got engaged. Just getting them to agree to that first date after their resume and references and forensic investigation, after FBI, CIA, Mossad, lab reports, bank statements, after they do everything to agree to the first date, the joy of their agreeing to a first date is greater than the joy that used to be when you heard they got engaged. As if we're not compounding our own problems, topic for another time. It was hard enough before we added all these layers of problems. It was קשה כקריעת ים סוף before we made it more complicated. Now, I don't know, it's what's even greater than the splitting of the sea. The Maharal in a famous comment, I quote almost every year in Parshat Beshalach, Maharal says what's the comparison of marriage and the splitting of the sea? And if you think it's not as miraculous, by the way, a healthy and a happy marriage is as miraculous as splitting the sea, just look at the statistics of divorce. Look at the statistics of happy and unhappy marriages and you'll see in fact it is as miraculous. If you, if you are happy with the person you wake up next to and you walk forward to doing it again and for many years, you're in the minority and you're living a miracle as great as the splitting of the sea. Be happy and thankful and sing a song of az yashir laHashem each and every day. Says the Maharal, what's the comparison? Because people are naturally separate, apart, distinct, different people naturally care about themselves, their needs, their wants. People are two. To bring them together and be one is as miraculous as taking something that naturally is one and taking it apart and making it into two. Water always flows to its low... Water always flows to its lowest point. You can't take a fork and knife and cut a bowl of water in two because the water always flows and gathers together, the water molecules stick together. Water always flows together and water is one. To make it two is a miracle. When God told water, stand separate and apart as two, it's a miracle. It's as miraculous as taking two people who are naturally two and turning them into one. Okay, a lot more to talk about here at the opening of the parashah, but let's keep going. פרק יג פסוק כא. So here we are on our way on our journey. ויסעו מסכות ויחנו באתם בקצה המדבר. וה' הולך לפניהם יומם בעמוד ענן לנחתם הדרך. God went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead us on our way. ולילה בעמוד אש להאיר להם ללכת יומם ולילה. And by night in a pillar of fire to give them light so they could travel day and night. So Ha-Kadosh Baruch Hu, the Almighty, was the ultimate GPS, whichever system you want, Waze, Google Maps, whatever you use. But Ha-Kadosh Baruch Hu was the OG version of it. He told us, go straight, make a turn, keep moving, stay still. He is the one who gave us and sent us on our journey, gave us our direction and on our way. Says the Heilege Tiferes Shlomo. Says the holy Tiferes Shlomo. Rashi, Rashi on this pasuk, יג כא. עמוד ענן אינו לאורה. Why did we have this, this cloud of glory? It wasn't for its light. What purpose did it serve? If it wasn't illuminating, it wasn't giving us light, it wasn't a spotlight to let us see the road, what did it do? Lanchotam ha-derech. It was the GPS, the OG GPS. It told us where to go and how to get there. Tzarich iyyun says the Tiferes Shlomo. למה היו כלל ישראל צריכים לנחותם הדרך על ידי עמוד הענן וכי לא היה בהם מי שיודע הדרך איך להגיע לארץ ישראל? Why did you need a GPS? Why'd we need a navigation system? Nobody knew? Egypt is to the south, you're heading to the north. Okay, we got it. We know where to go. Nobody in this two to three million people had a decent sense of direction? Nobody had an idea where to go? You needed a miracle of a cloud of glory that would reveal and lead the people what direction to go on? It seems like a gratuitous, unnecessary miracle. Follow your instinct, follow your good sense of direction, follow the map. It's not so complicated. Egypt is to the south of Israel and head up. Why did we need this whole complicated miracle? Says Rabbi Shlomo, יש לומר כי יש כאן לימוד גדול ויסוד החיים. Listen carefully. This is a lesson we learn every week in our living with emunah. You gotta love when living with emunah parashah perspectives come together. שרק הקדוש ברוך הוא מורה הדרך לכל אחד ואחד כיצד ללכת. Because where do we go, what direction should we head, and when we find ourselves, is that where we're meant to be? The answer is always a resounding yes. Yes. Me-Hashem mitz'adei gaver. Hashem is the one who orchestrates the footsteps of man. ורק על פי ה' יחנו ועל פי ה' יסעו. And later in Parshat Be-ha'alot-cha. It's only with the word of Hashem do we go and do we stop. ולפיכך יש הדגשה מהפסוק וה' הולך לפניהם בעמוד ענן לנחותם הדרך. Those words, lanchotam ha-derech. What do those words mean? Pasuk Kaf Alef, lanchotam ha-derech, to lead them on their way. Hashem is the one who leads us on our way. כי כוחו של אדם אינה אלא על פי ה', הקדוש ברוך הוא מורה הדרך שהוא צריך ללכת. אף על פי שאנו אין לנו עמוד ענן. What about us? We don't have a pillar of a cloud, pillar of fire and a cloud of glory. We don't have these signs. מכל מקום הקדוש ברוך הוא נותן לאדם הרגשה כיצד ואיפה ללכת. Nevertheless, we have an instinct and we have an intuition, we have a sense of where to go and when, and what happens next. אבל אם אדם מרגיש שהוא בעצמו מורה דרכו. But we should never think that we're in charge, we're in control, we're the arbiters of our own destiny. We should never try to micromanage, never get frustrated, never overpower what's happening. But we should embrace our place and recognize where we are is where we're meant to be, and our journey is on the timeline of Hashem, not ours, and we can't force it. אז יכול להרגיש שמה שאיבד את דרכו. A person, if you think you're in charge and you're in control, then sometimes you'll think I lost my way. מי שחושב שהולך מעצמו. When you think you're in charge and you're in control, you're the arbiter of your destiny, then you can feel you lost your way. זהו חיסרון גדול באמונה. This is a major breakdown of faith. שמי שמאמין שהקדוש ברוך הוא תמיד הולך עמו יודע שהיהודי תמיד אינו אבוד. Because if you know that Hashem is always by your side, and Hashem is always carefully curating and choreographing your footsteps, where you go and when you get there, then you feel and you know you're never, ever, ever lost. You're never stuck. You're never stuck. Kemo shepirash Rashi lekoshye says on Lech Lecha on Hagar, ותלך ותתע במדבר שחזרו לגלולי בית אביה. Why didn't Rashi say Hagar ovda darka bamidbar? She lost her way, she's in the desert. היכן ראו שבה מה שאבדה דרכה, how do you know that she went back to her idolatrous ways? The simple meaning of the text is that she got lost. But Rashi comes along and says she got lost means not lost physically, lost metaphysically. Not lost geographically, she got lost ideologically. She got lost, she returned to the ways of her father, she became an idolater. Why not just translate the pasuk the simple understanding she got lost means she got lost? The answer is because whenever you think I'm lost, then you are lost your ideology. You're a form of idolatry. If you think you're lost, you're not just lost physically, you're lost spiritually. Because a Yid, a Jew is never lost. A Jew is always where they're meant to be. So maybe you made a wrong turn, maybe you took a wrong direction, maybe you got a detour or rerouted. So now you have to ask yourself why am I here? Why what am I meant to accomplish here? Because we're always where we're meant to be. And this is a very powerful message, the beginning of our parsha. The beginning of our parsha. Pharaoh didn't understand this either. על פי השם יחנו ועל פי השם יסעו, that you're never lost and every detour was determined from above, and all of our footsteps come from Hashem. And that a Jew, a Yid is never stuck, we're always where we are meant to be. This is a very poignant message maybe for some of you who thought you were going to be back where you were before Yeshiva week. And then an enormous amount of snow landed. Now the truth is we're trying to find sympathy for you but it's hard. It's a clear blue sky outside, it's a magnificent day, fully stocked shul with minyanim and a Reb Shaya in the corner and great shiurim. It's hard to find sympathy for you. It's hard. But it can be frustrating. You had work to get back to or school to get back to or a simcha you wanted to attend and what can you do? The Almighty decided to drop a foot of snow on half the country, except for the free state of Florida. So, and apparently if you thought that storm was big, apparently this coming weekend there's one that's going to make it look like it was nothing coming. Maybe. But you never know, that's what they're saying. So maybe you're frustrated, my flight was cancelled. You're lucky, if you had a flight back Monday, Tuesday, you were good to go, but if you had a flight back Motzei Shabbos, Sunday, you couldn't get a new one until Thursday, Friday, and I know several people flying through many cities and spending endless hours and now you say woe is me and why me and I'm lost at endless hours and when will I get back and why will I get back? But like Hagar, that's idolatry because you think that you control the schedule, the timetable. You think you control where you're going. We do our best, we take our initiative, we make our plans, we book our flights, and then we let go and let God. We embrace our place because a Yid, a Jew is never stuck and a Jew is never lost, the Jew is always exactly where we're meant to be, when we're meant to be there. Hagar got it wrong, Klal Yisroel because we understood lancheusam haderech that Hashem is always revealing and leading our way, we got it right, and Pharaoh also got it wrong. ממילא מיד ששמע בכלל ישראל חזרו לכיוון פי החירות, amar Nevuchim hem ba'aretz. Ilu yada Paroh הקדוש ברוך הוא מנהיגם בכל פסיעה ופסיעה. How do you see Pharaoh also got it wrong? Because Pharaoh's got he's got satellites in the sky and he's tracking Klal Yisroel's movement and he sees this weird circuitous route they're taking and he says to himself, ah, they're coming back. I got them. They made a wrong turn. I can go get them. No, buddy, you missed the boat. Pharaoh, they didn't take a wrong turn and if it looks like it's a circuitous route, they are entirely on track for where Hashem wants them to be. They're not Nevuchim hem ba'aretz. A Yid is never Nevuchim hem, we're never lost, we're never off track. Yes, sometimes we're rerouted but not because we're off track, it's because Hashem wants us on a different route to our destination, to our destination. So Pharaoh made that mistake, Hagar made that mistake, but we're told not to make that mistake. וכן בכל ענייני החיים says the, says Rav Shmuel Berenbaum. הקדוש ברוך הוא מורה את הדרך של אדם in all of our journeys through life, physically, metaphysically. In all of our journeys, we're never lost. We're never lost. And you see this also in shidduchim as the Gemorah in Sotah says, I alluded to earlier, ארבעים יום קודם יצירת הולד בת קול יוצאת ואומרת בת פלוני לפלוני. 40 days, 40 days before conception a heavenly voice goes out and declares so and so will marry so and so. אפילו קודם לידת האדם הקדוש ברוך הוא כבר הכין את דרכו. Hashem already determined and declared who was meant for whom, even before you came into existence. Even yet before we were born, the destination was set. The journey there is determined by him. And all those dates, all of those efforts that weren't the right one were stops on the journey to the promised land. And they too were determined from above. They too were part of the journey. They too were from Hashem. על פי ה' יחנו ועל פי ה' יסעו. Hashem says now stop and check out this one, and then he says nope, על פי ה' יסעו, time to put that one away and to move on and to be patient until you find the one that's yours, but it's all part of the plan from above. בכל מקום שהאדם נמצא צריך להגיד שהקדוש ברוך הוא הנחה אותו והוא עמו. Wherever we are and whatever we're going through, Hashem is by our side. He's on that date, he's on that phone call, he's in that difficult decision about whether to continue or whether to stop. He is with us and all those are moments and learning opportunities. They are stops on the journey. They're all part of the curriculum, they're all part of what will get us to where we're meant to go. You could resist it and you could fight it, you could resent it and you could be bitter about it, or you could lean in and you could embrace it and you could enjoy the journey and recognize it's not only about the destination. It's about who you meet and what you learn and who else maybe you know they could be good for. It's about the experience of what you'll gain and how you'll grow from it. And if you resent it and you're bitter about it and you resist it, then you won't be transformed or changed by it. In fact, if you are, it'll only be for the bad, not the good. But if you lean into it, all the stops on the journey, על פי ה' יחנו ועל פי ה' יסעו. If we lean into all the stops on this journey that all come from above and from Hashem, then we can grow and learn and expand, and that's true on any journey, whether it's towards a bashert or the journey towards a business or the journey towards a breakthrough or the journey towards whatever it is we're working on. We have to see that it all comes from above and from Hashem. Don't resist and don't fight it, embrace it and recognize that we need to embrace our place and let go, let God, and a Yid is never stuck and all the other bumper stickers and magnets and stickers for the back of the phone that we've produced and everywhere else. Okay. פרק יד פסוק ה. פרק יד פסוק ה. Next perek. Paroh's change of heart. It's pretty wild. How many times have we read that Hashem hardened Paroh's heart and this was the last time, until it wasn't the last time, and even that last time was not the real last time. No matter how much of a wallop Makkas Bechoros was, no matter how much we thought that was really the last time, it wasn't the last time. Because Paroh has a change of heart and he starts to head out to the Jewish people yet again. Pasuk Hey. ויגד למלך מצרים כי ברח העם. It was told to Paroh that the people fled. ויהפך לבב פרעה ועבדיו אל העם ויאמרו מה זאת עשינו. He had a change of heart, and they said what'd we do? כי שלחנו את ישראל מעבדנו. What did we do that we sent the Jewish people out? Why did I give in? Why did I agree to this cease-fire, to this deal? Why did I let them take the leverage and have the upper hand? What did I do? Paroh has an entire change of heart, and says Rashi, what was his change of heart? Zaght Rashi, לרדוף אחריהם בשביל ממונם שהשאילום. What made Paroh have the change of heart? 'Cause he lost his workforce? Who's going to pick the lettuce in the field? Who's going to wash the dishes in the restaurants? Change of heart, we deported all the people, now what? No, that wasn't it. What gave him the change of heart? Zaght Rashi, what did the Jewish people do on our way out? We fulfilled the promise Hashem had made to Avraham. Hashem told Avraham when that we leave Egypt, we're going to go berichush gadol. We're going to go with great wealth. So Hashem orchestrated things that before we left, we went to our neighbors, our Egyptian oppressors, and we said by the way, can I borrow this, can I borrow that? We used the term borrow the way a person says can I borrow a tissue, no intent to return it. How can we say such a thing? Isn't it disingenuous, aren't we stealing? So Chazal explain we're not the first to ask this. Years later, the descendants of our oppressors in Egypt tried to sue us for all that money. By the way, it happened again in Egyptian university, maybe fifteen years ago, tried to initiate a lawsuit against the Jewish people, with interest and inflation, how much we took and stole on the way out. To which the simple response is, let's make a calculation: two hundred and ten years of slavery of two to three million people, figure out the hourly rate of what we should have been paid and why don't we call it even, 'cause Egypt got a better end of the deal. So here we took these things on our way out, right? B'kasha, says Rav Shmuel Berenbaum, הרי אחר מכת בכורות קם פרעה באמצע הלילה ורדף אחר משה ואהרן. Lemaher leshalcham. After makkas bechoros, it was such a wallop, such a whack, so devastating that Paroh pursued Moshe and Aharon in the middle of the night and he said, whatever it takes end this just go, good riddance, get lost, כי אמרו כלנו מתים, because he said we're all dying. He sees what's happening. People are dropping dead all around him. Everyone's going to die. Rashi there says אמרו לא כגזירת משה הוא אמר ומת כל בכור וכאן אף הפשוטים מתים. It wasn't just the firstborn who were dying, it seemed that others were dying as well and Paroh's afraid for his life. So how could the same Paroh who feared for his life and saw this as the end have this change of heart that now he's pursuing and chasing the people yet again? Yet again. Says and the Tiferes Shmuel says, everybody knows, כל חכם יודע שאם בא אליו רוצח ועושה hold up. If a thief comes to your store and holds you up, umevakesh mimeno mamono, and says give me your money, hadavar hasichli laasos, what's the intelligent thing to do? Give your money because he's going to kill you, and you'd rather give your money than your life. Vechain kan, מה ירויח פרעה מהכסף שלו, what good is it for Paroh to try to recover this money the Jewish people took if Hashem is willing to kill him, if he almost died, if makkas bechoros almost wiped everyone out? Veish lomar, says the Tiferes Shmuel, דרש\"י בא לתרץ קושיא מה שפירש שרדף אחריהם בשביל ממונם ששאלו. כיון שנטלו ישראל כל ממונם, היה פרעה מוכן למסור נפשו ועמו בשביל ממונם, כי אצלם הכסף היה כל חייהם. That question: your money or your life? Who's the old famous comedian? Jack Benny. Your money or your life? No, I'm thinking. Your money or your life. Some people, your money or your life, they're thinking. Paroh and his people said, we'd rather our money even if it means risking our life. So connected, so attached were they to their money, so unable to give it or forfeit it, even for the right cause, so defined by it that they were really literally willing to give up their life for their money. אם אובדים את כספם כמו שאבדו כל חייהם. If they lost their money it's like they lost their life. If they lost all their money it's like they lost their life. ממונם כל הצלחתם בחייהם. Because if you define success by money, if success is defined by net worth, if your net worth goes down or you lose your money you lost your life. But if you know there's much more to life, if you know that money is only a tool, money's a means never an end, money's a resource to use to give to the BRS Global campaign and express gratitude for how much you benefit, to build a campus to be able to share and teach and inspire and enrich and empower more Torah. If you understand that money is a resource, it's a resource to have your Shabbos table filled with guests, it's a resource to enjoy the beauty of this world and life and thank Hashem for it, but never confuse it with life, then even if one God forbid lost money, they would still have so much of a life. So if you mistakenly define money for life or money for success, if you lose your money you lost your life and you're willing to risk your life. And that's exactly what Paroh's willing to do. And you see this with Lot as well, שהכיר שנתנסה שבאו אליו היו מלאכים ממש, וסיכן עצמו להכניסם לבית לעשות משתה בעבורם. Lot saw these men, he knew they were angels and he risked his life by welcoming them and hosting them. אבל כשאמרו לו צא מן המקום כי משחיתים אנחנו את העיר, but when they say, Lot, come, evacuate, you got to get out because we're destroying the entire city, אף על פי כן, vayismameia. Vayismameia. לא יכול להפרד מממונו. Lot said one second, if I leave, if I evacuate I save my life, but I can't take things with me? Can I first just sell my house and cash out? Can I first just call Shlomi the mover and gather my things? Like what do you mean that to save my life I have to leave all my things behind? Vayismameia. Lot said, I'm going to need a couple minutes to think about that. Are you crazy? You're going to die and go down with your stuff? You could live and survive if it means leaving your stuff. But if your things define you, if you're defined by your things, if you're defined by your portfolio, if you're defined by your net worth, then you have to stop and think. I guess that's where Jack Benny got it from, vayismameia. He said, I'm thinking about it. That's what Lot actually says, I'm thinking about it. I'm thinking about it. That's why the Torah comes and tells us in great contradistinction and we say it every day, we just said it this morning, ואהבת את ה' אלהיך בכל לבבך ובכל נפשך ובכל מאדך. Uvechol meodecha. The teitsch of bechol meodecha means bechol mamono, with all of our resources and all of our things, dedicate them to the service and the mission of Hashem and never confuse our identity or our worth with your net worth. Your worth... Your worth is not your net worth. Never confuse making a living with living, never confuse your net worth with your worth, and when you do then you'll give up your life for them. When you don't, you know there's so much more to life and you still have a life even without them. And that's what Pharaoh didn't get, that's why Pharaoh had a change of heart, that's why Pharaoh pursues the people. All of this azoy zugt the Tiferes Shmuel. Next, Pasuk Yud, Perek Yud Daled, Pasuk Yud. Turn the page. Jewish people panic. ופרעה הקריב וישאו בני ישראל את עיניהם והנה מצרים נסע אחריהם. They raised their eyes and they see Mitzrayim is running after them. וייראו מאד ויצעקו בני ישראל אל ה'. They're very afraid and they cry out, they call out to Hashem. Pasuk says who and what is chasing them? What's chasing them? Not a trick question, you can look inside. Open book test. What is the word? Egypt. Perek Yud Daled, Pasuk Yud. וישאו בני ישראל את עיניהם. They raised their eyes and who and what is chasing them? Mitzrayim. What should it say? Mitzrim. The Mitzrim are chasing, not Mitzrayim. So one answer is, we saw this previously from Rabbi Soloveitchik, there are two things that we're being liberated from: Mitzrayim and Mitzrim. They are the Egyptians who are our oppressors, but then there's Egypt. Egypt is a culture, Egypt is an attitude, Egypt is a philosophy, Egypt is a perspective. To a degree it was easier to save the Jewish people from the Egyptians than it was to take them out of Egypt. There's Mitzrayim and there's Mitzrim. When they looked up and they saw what was behind them, they felt not only were the Egyptians chasing them, but Egypt. They're trying to get out of Egypt, they're trying to change their whole identity and worldview and perspective, and it's Egypt that's chasing them. But Rashi says something else. Why is it in the singular, Mitzrayim, rather than Mitzriyim, the plural? Says Rashi: בלב אחד כאיש אחד. One heart, one man. Now that's a familiar phrase, certainly if you're part of BRS. If you're watching online right now you see the logo in the overlay in our YouTube stream and our logo is כאיש אחד בלב אחד, valuing diversity, celebrating unity. I can darshan the slogan another time, but כאיש אחד בלב אחד, those words are familiar. Why are they familiar? Where did the Torah tell us that? It's another Rashi. Where? Soon, Parshas Yisro. When? ויחן ישראל נגד ההר. We all encamped opposite the mountain and what should the word be? Vayichanu. Why does it say vayichan rather than vayichanu? Zogt der Rashi: כאיש אחד בלב אחד. We were so united at Har Sinai. There wasn't this minyan and that minyan, that yarmulke and the other yarmulke, they go to this school versus they go to that school, they vote this way versus they vote that way. There was one people, כאיש אחד בלב אחד at Har Sinai and frankly since we walked away from that mountain we've been trying to get back to כאיש אחד בלב אחד. Trying to get back. Notes the Megged Yosef, Rabbi Yosef Sorotzkin. What happened? Did we get dyslexic? We got it backwards. All wrong. Previously it was כאיש אחד בלב אחד, that's Har Sinai. But now even earlier we're leaving and Mitzrayim in the singular rather than Mitzriyim. Why? בלב אחד כאיש אחד. So why do we have two different orders? ויש לדייק בשינוי הסדר. Etzel haMitzrim hikdim Rashi בלב אחד לפני איש אחד. Etzel Rashi Yisrael Rashi hikdim איש אחד בלב אחד. So here's the difference. אומות העולם במהותם נפרדים הם כל אחד לעצמו רק מתאחדים בלב אחד להרוג ולהשמיד את היהודים. You could be united in one of two ways. You could be united because you're united and now you take your unity to pursue common interests, common values. Or you could be united only by a common enemy. United by a common enemy. When it came to the Jewish people we had a true unity, a true integration and synergy. We were truly united. And then that unity was the values of Torah, the sense of mission, building a people. We took that sense of unity and we pursued with it. But here the Egyptians, their unity didn't come from anything intrinsic or inherent. Their unity wasn't real or authentic. Their unity was purely pragmatic and functional. They were united by a common enemy, namely the Jewish people. And you see this today. It's also a partial perspective for today. Because there are countries around the world who are bitter enemies and archrivals and the only thing they have in common is hating the Jewish people in Israel. They are belev echad, they have one heart in wanting to destroy the Jewish people, so they act ke'ish echad. We, in great... distinction were ke'ish echad, we're one people, and because we're one people now belev echad, we act with lev echad. When we see ourselves as the children of Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov, the progeny of our forefathers, of our matriarchs and patriarchs, אשר בשרם מוסרים את נפשותינו זה לזה, we're willing to die for one another. We're lev echad, we have one heart. One heart. One heart. When the three boys went missing, I think it was Rachel Frankel who said that the Jewish people, the way that we responded, and there were rallies left and right, and tefillah gatherings over and over. And she said: Two Jews, three opinions, one heart. Two Jews, three opinions, but one heart. And we felt that again yesterday, and today, when that final body came home. So many different opinions. And since October 7th, unfortunately, so much division has been sowed again in our people. But for one moment there's a breakthrough. For one moment when we all got that news alert, when that came across, that for the first time in 10 years there's not one hostage, that there's finally closure for that family and for our people. And please God we can turn a healthy corner. So again, a little bit, two Jews, three opinions, but one heart. Ke'ish echad, because we're ish echad, we have lev echad. As opposed to others, they have lev echad, they're of one heart, united only by a common enemy, so they act ke'ish echad. They find a way to pretend and cooperate as one people for a little while. פרק י\"ד פסוק ל\"א. We're skipping. וירא ישראל את היד הגדולה. We're on our way now, they find themselves between the proverbial rock and the hard place, and Hashem has split the sea for them. And yes, we're flying right through that, because we've studied it in the past. And we now get to what we say every day, we covered it in the siddur snippets, if you want you can hear old parsha shiurim, or you can find it in siddur snippets. ויושע ה׳ ביום ההוא את ישראל. We're on page 374, perek yud daled, chapter 14, verse 30. ויושע ה׳ ביום ההוא את ישראל מיד מצרים. God saved the Jewish people on that day from Egypt. וירא ישראל את מצרים מת על שפת הים. When did we finally have closure? When we saw they died on the banks of the sea. וירא ישראל את היד הגדלה אשר עשה ה׳ במצרים. Jewish people saw the great hand of Hashem on Egypt. וייראו העם את ה׳. And the people saw God. ויאמינו בה׳ ובמשה עבדו. And we believed in God and in Moshe his loyal servant. Now, this I'll just pose to you as a question for you to think about. This pasuk should in some ways be very troubling to us. We just equated faith in God and faith in Moshe. That bother anybody else? ויאמינו בה׳ ובמשה עבדו. So, the simple answer is, we had faith in Hashem and equally had faith that Moshe was his loyal servant. It's not that we had the same faith in Moshe that we had in Hashem, of course. It meant we had faith in Hashem and equally had faith that Moshe was a loyal servant, although that may not be entirely what it says. So I want to share with you from the holy Rachmastrivka. ויאמינו בה׳ ובמשה עבדו. לכאורה יש להבין מה שייך עוד אמונה. He asks a different question. Now? Now? When Moshe first approaches the people and they're suffering in the servitude of Egypt, and he says: Great news, got good news for you, I'm here to take you out. And all the signs around them show otherwise. All the... You know, people gamble, it's an unfortunate, horrific pandemic today. Too many people are addicted. So there are odds-makers for everything. Everything. Every day, every hour, there are odds-makers for when or if America is going to attack Iran. Odds-makers for everything. So the odds-makers in Egypt, what would they have said about the Jewish people getting out? Odds were significantly, severely against. So if the Jewish people nevertheless said: Despite what the odds-makers are saying, we have faith, we believe, Moshe, you're taking us out, we all would have been very impressed. But now? They just lived through and they witnessed ten plagues. Ten times God intervened with nature to perform the supernatural. Ten times that God intervened with the ordinary in order to bring the extraordinary. And then the splitting of the sea to top it all off. And they come out of the splitting of the sea and they say: Oh, now we're believers. And we say: Oh, wow, amazing, they had such faith. Wow, vaya'aminu ba'Hashem. Look at them, living with emunah. מה שייך עוד אמונה אחרי שכבר ראו בעיניהם? After everything they witnessed and observed, after everything they lived and they saw, after everything they experienced first-hand, what more emunah is there that now we're impressed, now we admire, now they had some growth spurt in emunah? Chazal tells us: ראתה שפחה על הים מה שלא ראה יחזקאל בן בוזי. The average... lowly maidservant on the sea saw with greater clarity and confidence than the navi, the prophet Yechezkel. So says the Rachmastrivka. ענין אמונה היה שאף אחר שראו ישראל בעיניהם כל כך עוד האמינו שיש גבוה מכל מה שהשיגו אז. The emuna was with everything we just witnessed and with everything we just saw, and with as much as we still believe, we know there's still higher levels of emuna. We know. If our emuna is only based on what we empirically just experienced, we know there's still a higher level of emuna. Vaya'aminu ba-Shem, their emuna was that there's a higher level of emuna. And somewhat paradoxically, what's the higher level of emuna? Emuna peshuta, simple emuna. It's not a big deal to have emuna after you experience a miracle. But to have emuna when the miracle's not yet come. To have emuna when there's not a happy ending. To have emuna when things seem like they're going wrong. To have emuna, an emuna that's an emuna peshuta, a simple straightforward non-complicated emuna. I don't need some proof or evidence, some highfalutin philosophy, just simple and straight: there's a God, He talks to me, I talk to Him, He loves me and I love Him. Period, plain and simple. I don't need miracles, I don't need more. That is the higher level of emuna, and that's the Vaya'aminu ba-Shem, that even with all they saw and experienced and even if their emuna was based on so much, they knew that there was a higher level. And then he quotes from the Ma'or VaShemesh. קשה מה שאמר הכתוב ויאמינו הלא אין אמונה זו אמונה שלמה אם יאמין האדם אחרי שכבר ראה הכל. So he says, Az yashir Moshe, mikan the Gemara in Sanhedrin daf tzadik aleph learns something from here. The word az yashir, what tense is yashir in? Future. Why does the Torah tell us that Moshe and the Jewish people sang in a future tense? That the Jewish people will sing a song again. It should say they sang, not they will sing. Why yashir, not shar? ומבואר דהנה עבודה ובני ישראל רצו אז לעבודת השם יתברך באמונה מה שייך אצלם אמונה הלא ראו הכל בעיניהם על כן הכניסו אמונתם באותן הדברים שעדיין לא ראו. Their emuna was so unimpressive at that moment because the emuna was based on everything they saw. But they desperately wanted a higher level of emuna. So how could they manufacture a higher level of emuna when the emuna they had was from everything they saw? So what was something they hadn't yet seen? Techiyat hametim, the resurrection of the dead. תחיית המתים מהדברים שלא ראו עוד בעיניהם כלל. It took complete faith to believe. When we look around in our empirical experience, nobody who's dead comes back to life. Once somebody's been declared, they're done. We bury them, we say goodbye. So to believe in a faith that we'll be reunited, to believe in a faith that those who are gone will come back to life, to believe that there is an eternity and immortality of the soul and a world to come, that is something outside the realm of anyone's experience. ועל כן השתמשו בכוח האמונה להאמין בתחיית המתים. So what did they believe in that exact moment? If they had achieved such a high level of belief because they had experienced such a high level of revelation, then what was left to be a leap of faith? They didn't need a leap anywhere, they didn't need any leap at all. So what was yet left for there to be a leap of faith? Techiyat hametim. And that's how our Rabbis knew, az yashir, מכאן לתחיית המתים מן התורה. The Zera Kodesh, the Ropshitzer says something else. ויראו העם את השם ויאמינו בהשם. הקשה הרי מתחילה צריך להיות אדם אמונה בהשם. The order is out of order. It should have first been vaya'aminu ba-Shem and then ויראו העם את השם. Do you first have faith and then you see Him, or do you see Him and then you have faith? Did you ever think about that? You say it every day. What do you do, first see God and then believe in Him, or first believe in Him and then see Him? It should be, you first have faith. What do you mean ויראו העם את השם, they saw Him and then they had faith? When you have faith, then you see. יש שני סוגי אמונה, there are two types, two categories of emuna. האחד אמונה פשוטה מה שמקבל אדם ממסורת אבותיו. The first is: our parents told us they heard from their parents who heard from their parents who heard from their parents that there's a God. He created a world and He's involved and invested in every one of our relationships. He knows each of us intimately. That's emuna peshuta and that's what we receive from those who came before. ומאמונה זו בא אדם ליראת שמים, awe of heaven, להשכלת דעת השגות בשם יתברך אך גם אחר זה עדיין צריך לאמונה. But there's another level of emuna. Yes, we hopefully from the cradle we were singing, Hashem is here, Hashem is there. Yes, we were believing in Hashem and we were loving Hashem and we were singing thank you Hashem, even from when we were three years old, that we receive from our parents. But there's another level: לדעת להאמין שיש עוד גבוה מכל. to explore and experience and to find and to carve our own relationship with Hashem, to talk to Him and to hear Him talking to us, to lean on Him and to feel Him loving us. וזהו שכתוב מקודם וייראו העם את ה' מתחילה היה לבני ישראל אמונה מקובלת להם מאבותיהם ואחר כך ויאמינו בה' שבאו לאמונה העיקרית. It started with the emuna of what I got from my parents and grandparents. Yeah, I have emuna, I keep Shabbos, I keep kosher, I daven, I have emuna, I believe my parents taught me. I'm still singing Hashem is here, Hashem is there, I'm still singing thank You, Hashem. But then we go through things in life, we have moments, we have experience, we have breakthrough or we have disappointment where we say this is not coincidence and this isn't chance and I feel the presence of Hashem, a wink, a hug, a nod, the emails that I begin to live with emuna shiur with each week and those moments our emuna gets to another level. Our emuna's on steroids, our emuna's supersized, our emuna's real. The emuna from our parents lets us see the world in black and white, but the emuna from our own personal journey and personal experience that transforms our emuna to seeing the world in vivid color, in vivid color. That's vayiru es Hashem, vayiru ha-am. They saw, they saw because their parents told them this is how we see the world. But then ve-yaaminu is this enormous growth spurt, it's next level. פרק טו פסוק כב. Az yashir Moshe, now we sing the song. Page 380, after Az yashir. Vatikkach Miriam, now the women sing and the women have their own instruments. You see the women danced and sang separately, Kol Isha, tznius, of course the women side by side, their own journey and experience in avodas Hashem, sing their own song, but of course doing it in an appropriate way. And the women played their instruments, and every year we also mention this among my favorite: where did they have instruments from? There is no kiosk in the desert conveniently selling tambourines. There is no makolet in the desert which you can pick up a flute. So where did they get these instruments? Tupim u-mecholos, where did they find these instruments to be able to drum in the desert? Ella mai, they brought it with them out of Egypt. Why of all the things that you can go and save, of all the things that you could take, you're gonna go grab your drum? You're gonna go grab your harmonica? If you're Nashim Tzidkaniyos, that's exactly what you're gonna get. You know why? Because while everyone else says, \"I don't know where we're going or if we're gonna get there or what's gonna happen or woe is me and why me and why do we have to go through this?\" the women say, \"Do you have the streamers and the party hats and do you have the drums?\" And why would we need that? Because it's gonna be good. Hashem's got a plan and He always has a plan and this is gonna be amazing and there's gonna be a reason that we're gonna sing and dance and we better have the instruments ready for when it happens. Because that's what the Nashim Tzidkaniyos do. They live through life, they travel and journey through life, always with their drums, always with their flute, always with their harmonica, always with the drums. I happen to be privileged, I married a woman who knows the drums, she played at our wedding a few years ago. She played the drum, surprised me at the end of the wedding. But women are always playing the drum, always ready, always ready to march to that beat of emuna, optimism, of faith that it will turn out great. That began back in Mitzrayim, because when the men were like this is hopeless and helpless, there is no future, let's not bring any more children into this horrific world, we're done, let's withdraw from women, we're done. And who was the one who said, \"No, no, no. What's the matter with you? Hashem's got a plan, this is all gonna work out, there will be a brighter and a better day. There is a day after the darkness where there is a breakthrough of great light.\" Who was the one who said that? It was Miriam who went to her own parents and said, \"What's going on over here?\" and it's in her zchus, in her merit, the Nashim Tzidkaniyos. So full circle, the same women who had the faith and optimism to get us out of the women who lead the dancing and who came out holding the instruments because all along they never doubted for a moment and they were ready to go. ויסע משה את ישראל מים סוף. Moshe takes the Jewish people from Yam Suf. ויצאו אל מדבר שור וילכו שלשת ימים במדבר ולא מצאו מים. We come right away from this miracle of a splitting of a sea, we walk for three days and we can't find water. What in the world is going on over here? We walk for three days and we can't find water and all of a sudden now, as high as we were, quickly do we descend and it spirals down. Three days we can't find water. Vayavo'u Marah, we come to a place called Marah. ולא יכלו לשתות מים ממרה כי מרים הם. And we couldn't drink the water from Marah because it was bitter and therefore we called the name place Marah. וילונו העם על משה, we complained, what are we gonna drink? We just experienced a miracle and we're like, \"That's nice, but there's nothing to drink.\" Vayitzak el Hashem and he cried out to Hashem, Hashem showed him a tree, he threw in a stick, it sweetened the water. שם שם לו חוק ומשפט ושם ניסהו, told all kinds of of the mitzos that we already got there. What is this lo matzu mayim? And what is this what is this the water? What is this water? Anyone have the ability to stop time? Anybody? No. So Rashi, Rashi tells us here that Rashi tells us here, sorry, these three days that we didn't get water, lo matzu mayim, don't read it water, what is it we didn't have for three days? אין מים אלא תורה. Water is a euphemism, water is a metaphor for Torah. We went three days without Torah and when we went three days without Torah that was it. We became an incorrigible group of complainers. We became miserable and negative. We lost our filter to see and interpret the world around us. We became lost without our navigation tool. So what happened? Amdu nevi'im shebeineihem, so the prophets בתיקנו להם שיהיו קוראין בשבת שני וחמישי שלא ילינו ג' ימים בלא תורה. So to ensure that we'd never again go three days without Torah, we read the Torah Monday, Thursday and Shabbos. Monday, Thursday, Shabbos, we'll never again go three days without Torah. We saw what happened, how far we descended when we went three days without Torah. We'll make sure that it'll never happen again. Wonders Rav Druck in his Eish Tamid, what was wrong with the simple understanding of the pasuk? Why do we have to concoct this whole further layer of interpretation? No, water doesn't mean water, water means Torah, three days with water means we went three days without Torah, that can never happen again, so therefore we instituted reading Torah Monday, Thursday and Shabbos. What was wrong with just reading the simple understanding? There was no water, they complained, so Hashem got them water. Says Rav Druck, it's impossible. It can't be that a people who experienced everything they had seen, the people who had reached the level of ויאמינו בה' ובמשה עבדו now because they got a little thirsty they were ready to throw it all away? It cannot be. The only way that can happen is what? If you don't have Torah in your life. If a Jew is so distanced from Torah, if you go three days without learning or listening, well then imbibing and absorbing, without picking up the signal of Torah, if you lose your navigation tool you're going to get lost. So chazal understood, it can't just be water, because after everything they experienced that would not be enough of a reason for them to complain the way they did. What happened here? Not just water, they lost Torah. And this is a lesson for each and every one of us. We cannot go three days, you can't go one day without Torah. One day without Torah, this world is so complicated and this world is so enticing and this world is so chaotic and this world is so corrupt that if the Torah is not keeping us on the straight and narrow, if the Torah is not helping us regulate our own behavior and be disciplined, if the Torah is not helping us be who we're meant to be, we will be lost. We will be lost. So chazal said you can't go three days without Torah, but we say you can't go one day without Torah. Torah has to be like food, it nourishes us, sustains us, כי הם חיינו ואורך ימינו. It is our air that we breathe and it is the food that we eat. And the same way, at the end of a long day, a long, long day, maybe a day that you were traveling or a day you were stuck and you had no access to food and nothing to eat, but before you went to bed at 2 AM, you stopped in the kitchen just to nash on something small because even though you don't need it and you'll survive without it, but you can't go to bed without eating something because you didn't eat all day. So Torah too, you can't go to bed without nashing on a little Torah. Torah has to be like the food that we eat, like the water that we drink. And even if you didn't get a chance all day because legitimately you were busy and occupied and preoccupied and running for a million and one things, you can't go to bed, you have to collapse with a little nash, a little taste of Torah, a little something, because a Jew can't go a day without Torah or we'll totally and utterly be lost. Also on this pasuk, we'll end, even though I had so many great, amazing, fantastic, awesome more things to share, but good news is we're going to read Parshas Beshalach again next year. The Rachmastrivka also on these words, lo matzu mayim. הנה מים רומז על תורה והתורה בתחילתה מר על האדם. Why would we compare water to Torah if these were bitter water? תורה בתחילתה מר על האדם because water at first is bitter. הגוף הגשמי הוא סתירה לנשמה ולכל ענין רוחניות because haguf hagashmi, the physical body, is Resist the soul and everything spiritual. התורה הוא עיקר הקדושה והרוחניות. Torah is the source of all holiness and spirituality. לכן אין הגוף יכול לקבל אור קדושת התורה מרגיש בו טעם מר. ועל כן לא יוכלו ישראל לשתות אז ממימי התורה. The body wasn't able to absorb the water, it tasted bitter because the body says, \"I don't want the message of Torah. Torah tells me what I have to give up and what I have to change and how I have to improve. I don't want the message of Torah.\" The body says, \"Indulge in the body, pursue the pleasures of the body.\" So the body resists the measure of Torah, to the body, Torah, the water tastes bitter. ולא יכלו ישראל לשתות מים ממרה כי מרים הם. רצון לומר שישראל עצמם היו אז מרים. What was bitter? Who was bitter? Not the water. marim hem means the people. ולכן לא יכלו לקבל קדושת התורה. If you're resisting, if you don't want it, if you're not in the mood for it, it's going to taste bitter. Water. A lot of people don't enjoy drinking water. Okay, so you spend your father's money on some fancy mug because they came out with a name that weighs like 20 pounds, the Stanley? None of you know what I'm talking about? Because I have to drink so much water. But people don't like water. Water tastes bitter, water tastes plain, water tastes simple. I don't want water. The Torah is the same way unless you know you want it. You know when water, you know when water is delicious? When you just came back from a run. When you just finished exercising. When you walk to shul in Boca in August. Water is delicious. Because water doesn't have taste. How delicious it is depends entirely on how thirsty you are for it. And the same is true with Torah. When you're thirsty for it, it's super delicious. But if you're not in the mood, if you resist it, it tastes bitter. It tastes bitter. משה שהיה דבוק בתורה היה מוטל עליו להכניס בם מסיקות התורה ויורהו השם עץ וימתקו המים. Moshe threw an etz into it and the water was sweet. What's the etz that he threw into it? עץ חיים היא למחזיקים בה. Torah is sweet to those who are thirsty for it. What Moshe did is he turned to a generation of people. And this is what we try to do at BRS. And that's why the upcoming BRS Global campaign, if you support us, enables us to be able to do it. We could end this right now, by the way. If everyone just matches or increases what they did last year, if everyone just does the menschlich and right thing and helps us, then you don't have to hear about it anymore. But really our mission and what we try to do is say the following: there's a whole world of people who don't even know that they're dehydrated. They don't even know they're malnourished. How many Jews, unaffiliated and affiliated? How many Jews, non-observant and even observant, but they don't taste the sweetness of Torah? They're not in a dynamic, real, lived, vivid relationship with Hashem. Like Moshe, we're trying to throw the etz of the עץ חיים היא למחזיקים בה into the water to transform it from being bitter and plain and tasteless into something so sweet that you can't get enough of it. That's our mission, that's our purpose, that's what we're trying to do. And that's what I thank you for coming. A lot more to say on this parsha, even on that pasuk. But until next time, on your way out, please stop and do your part, buy raffle tickets for the upcoming Global Campaign. Tremendous raffle. Tonight 7:15, Loay Al-Sharif. Come celebrate and elevate moderate and amazing voices within the Muslim world, tonight at 7:15. Stay happy, stay healthy.
