Podcasts about mattan torah

Rabbi Jacobson will discuss the following topics:How should we respond to the latest tragic Washington murders? Where is Hashem in all of this? Is there something we can do? Should we stop displaying our Jewish identity, not go to shul, remove Jewish symbols? Why do we read this Torah chapter before Shavuos? Who owns the Torah? Can anyone claim royalties? What personal and global lessons does it offer us for our times? What is the personal significance of this holiday? What is the Torah, and why is the giving of the Torah such a monumental event? What is the deeper meaning of so many seemingly trivial details in the Torah? Why is it important for everyone to go to shul on Shavuos to hear the Ten Commandments if we have already heard them in previous years? If the “entire Torah” is about loving another, why do we see many Torah observant people who are not loving? Does the “entire Torah” include the inner dimension of Torah? Why do the Ten Commandments begin with describing G-d as taking us out of Egypt and not as Creator? And why not G-d that will bring the final redemption? What does Anochi signify? Why were spouses commanded not to be intimate before Mattan Torah? Isn't intimacy a sacred act? Why do we dance with the Torah on Simchas Torah and not on Shavuos? Why do we celebrate receiving the Torah when we didn't even have a chance to read it yet?  Is there a Maamar Chassidus on the book of Ruth that you would suggest we study? 

Rabbi Jacobson will discuss the following topics:What is the connection between this Omer period, Lag B'Omer and the weekly Torah portion? Revealing the hidden and deeper good even in negative experiences What is the central theme of this week's Torah chapter? Is Judaism rigid or flexible? Static or dynamic? What personal and global lessons does it offer us for our times? Why are some blessings so great that they have to be hidden within curses?   Is it appropriate to get an aliya when they read the tochacho? Why did the Mitteler Rebbe not learn from the Alter Rebbe's previous readings that the curses are actually blessings? Can we say that the only reason we are still in golus is due to the pleasure Hashem gets from our effort to overcome the darkness and the challenges it presents? What is the difference between Lag B'Omer and Yud Tes Kislev? Should Israel be relying on America for protection? What can we learn from Rashbi's criticizing the Roman government? Why does Lag B'omer, the Mattan Torah of the Inner Torah, precede Shavuos? Is the Zohar the source of Chassidus? Why did Rabbi Akiva's students stop dying? Why are we allowed to sing during the days of Sefirah? What is the difference between sefiros and partzufim? What is the personal application of Yesod?  Is this week a good time to receive blessings to conceive healthy children?Can you share a few stories about his relationship with the Rebbe? 

Rabbi Jacobson will discuss the following topics: Are we living in Messianic times?  How do we open our eyes and see redemption coming?  What lessons do we learn from this day, especially for our times?  What does the Rebbetzin represent in our lives?  How do we know what stories to believe about the Rebbetzin?  If the Rebbetzin wanted her privacy, why are we speaking about her so publicly?  Is there significance to the number 22 in connection with the Rebbetzin?  Why is the Rebbetzin named Chaya Mushka?  What does this name signify?  Did the Rebbetzin once save someone by pushing him out of danger and then felt that she needed to do teshuva for pushing a Jew?  How did the Rebbe connect this parsha with 22 Shevat?  What is the central theme of this Torah chapter?  What personal and global lessons does it offer us for our times?  Do we need acknowledgments of world leaders for Moshiach to come?  If mitzvos after Mattan Torah transform the physical objects why are we allowed to throw out tzitzis and other materials?  Is Israel behaving wisely by not taking President Trump's aggressive approach with Hamas?  How can we agree to give Gaza to the USA?  Is it moral to expel the Palestinians from Gaza? 

Rabbi Jacobson will discuss the following topics: MyLife: Chassidus Applied Episode 500  Tribute to Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky a”h  How should we react to the rescue of the four hostages?  What happened on this day 3336 years ago?  Why is it important for us to honor it?  What is Torah?  What is Torah from G-d's perspective?  Why was the Torah not given at the beginning of creation?  Why is it called Mattan Torah? Why is G-d giving us a gift?  Why did the Jews have to restrain themselves for three days before Mattan Torah?  Why don't we dance with the Torah on Shavuot as we do on Simchat Torah?  Did we receive the Torah willingly or were we coerced?  Why is saying naaseh v'nishma considered such a big thing?  Why were crowns placed on the heads of the Jewish people at Sinai, and why did the angels and not G-d Himself place these crowns on their heads?  What is the significance of a crown (keser)?  What is the difference between the two levels of Keser, arich and atik?  How does the Rebbe Rashab explain the idea of keser in Hemshech Ayin Beis?  Why did G-d offer the Torah to the other nations?  Was it possible that the Jews could have chosen not to receive the Torah?  What lessons do we learn from Mattan Torah in our present lives and challenges?  What shape were the tablets?  Why do we read the Book of Ruth on Shavuot?  Is the last week of Sefirah, when we focus on malchus, connected with Moshiach?  What does Shavuot teach us today?  

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Mattan Torah Through the Lens of Chassidus Watch on YouTube: youtu.be/yF2x2JN4y0I Brought to you by: Shiurim.net Contact us for all your podcast needs: podcast@shiurim.net

Mattan Torah According to Chassidus Watch on YouTube: youtu.be/TuPBEDeCzN4 Brought to you by: Shiurim.net Contact us for all your podcast needs: podcast@shiurim.net

Rabbi Jacobson will discuss the following topics: Chassidus Applied to Shavuos  What exactly is the Torah and what happened at Mattan Torah?   When was the Torah written? Did it always exist just as G-d always existed, or did G-d write the Torah when He decided to create the world?  Does the Torah contain all of G-d's knowledge, or just the parts that relate to creation and to us?  If we were able to travel to a distant planet, would we be responsible to observe Torah and mitzvos there, or was the Torah only given on Planet Earth?  Was the Torah written all at one time or did it evolve and grow as a document and get edited into what it is today?  What exactly was given at Sinai – the written or the oral Torah?   Why is there a written and an oral Torah?   Why was it okay for the rabbis to write down the oral torah when it was prohibited to do so?  Why then can't we change other prohibitions?  Can there be mistakes in the oral Torah?  Since rabbinic Judaism in the oral Torah is filled with disputes, can we say that those that did not hold by it were on a higher state of Ahavas Yisroel, devoid of arguments?  Why don't the disputes indicate that there are mistakes in the oral Torah?  Since we ignore certain opinions in the Talmud could it be that we are mistaken in our practice?   How did the Avos do the mitzvos before they were given at Sinai?   How did they know Torah before it was given?  If Abraham performed all the mitzvos, why did he wait until age 99 to do a bris?  How could the Jews sleep and need to be awoken for the giving of the Torah?  Why is it considered special that the Jews said naaseh v'nishmah?  Did they say naaseh v'nishmah out of their own free will, or were they compelled to do so?  Why don't we count the 50th day of the Omer?  Why do we sing and dance on Simchas Torah and not on Shavuos when the Torah was given?   Why do we need two separate commandments, one to believe in Hashem, and another not to believe in false gods?  Why does G-d get so angry about idolatry, if other gods don't even exist?  Was the Rebbe loving?        Torah         Mattan Torah 

Explaining the three reasons the Medrash gives why women were addressed first by Mattan Torah.

Submit your question now at https://www.chassidusapplied.com/ask-rabbi-jacobson, or email: info@chassidusapplied.com. WEBSITE: https://www.chassidusapplied.com/ EMAIL US: info@chassidusapplied.com SPONSOR A MYLIFE: CHASSIDUS APPLIED EPISODE, OR EXPLORE OTHER GIVING OPPORTUNITIES: https://www.meaningfullife.com/sponsorships THIS WEEK'S TOPICS: • Chassidus Applied to 15 Shevat o Did the Rebbe refer to the new year of trees as Chamisha Asar B'Shvat instead of Tu B'Shvat? o What are the main lessons of this day? o What do we learn from a tree? • Chassidus Applied to Yisro o How do the three major events of this book – the Exodus, Sinai and the Mishkan – reflect on our lives? o What lessons do we learn from this portion? o Why did Mattan Torah follow Yisro's arrival? o What are some of the innovative ideas that Yisro introduced? o Did the Rebbe ever attribute the idea of sending shluchim all over the world to Yisro's advice to Moshe to delegate? o What does it mean that we are mamlechet kohanim? o What were the Ten Commandments preceded by thunder, lightning, and smoke, which terrified the people? Would it not have been easier to understand the Commandments and internalize them if it wasn't presented in such a frightening way? o Are the “Ten Commandments" a mistranslation of Aseres HaDibros? o Are the Ten Commandments universal laws for all people? o Should we be using the Ten Commandments themselves as a tool for publicizing the Noahide Laws? o If the Noahide Laws are a derivation of the Ten Commandments, why wouldn't the Talmud mention this fact when discussing the source in the Torah for the Noahide Laws? o How are all 613 Mitzvos hinted to within the Ten Commandments? o Is the authenticity of the oral law proven by the fact that there are 620 letters in the Ten Commandments corresponding to 613 scriptural and 7 rabbinic commandments? o Is the authenticity of the oral law proven by the fact that there are 620 letters in the Ten o Commandments corresponding to 613 scriptural and 7 rabbinic commandments? Why is coveting a neighbor's property considered such a big sin? • If Sinai enabled us to transform the mundane into holiness, why are some objects holier than others? • What does it mean to connect to G-d? • Does Torah and Chassidus allow the use of Ketamine and psilocybin for treating trauma, depression and anxiety? MyLife: Chassidus Applied is a weekly video webcast candidly answering questions from the public about all life matters and challenges, covering the entire spectrum of the human experience. The objective of the program is to provide people with inspired guidance and direction, empowering them to deal with any issue they may face. MyLife demonstrates how Chassidus provides us with a comprehensive blueprint of the human psyche as a microcosm of the cosmos, and offers us all the guidance we need to live the healthiest possible life and build nurturing homes and families, bringing up the healthiest possible children, emotionally, psychologically and spiritually. #MyLife #Chassidus #Uvalde

Shiur given by Rabbi Yisroel Saperstein on the Parsha. Shiur recorded in Yeshivas Ohr Reuven, Monsey NY.

Recorded live via Zoom 6/2/2022 Click here for source text

Rabbi Jacobson will discuss the following topics: What can Sinai teach us about the horrific shooting of innocent children in Texas? What is missing in our education system that can help prevent wanton violence? Chassidus Applied to Bamidbar and ShavuosWhy do we read Parshas Bamidbar before Mattan Torah? Who owns the Torah? What is right way of receiving and learning Torah? What is the significance of the Torah being given on Mount Sinai? How do we reconcile the census of the Jewish people with the teaching that we are not supposed to count people? What exact parts of Torah were given at Sinai? How did the Jews oversleep the night before Mattan Torah? Why is the 50th level of impurity considered a point of no return when we have a concept in torah that anyone can do immediate teshuva? Why do we eat dairy on this holiday? Why don't we read from the Torah every day? What's the difference between a hidden blessing and a revealed blessing? And why would anyone want a hidden blessing? Why are we told in the Torah about the negative actions of our forbearers? What did the Rebbe initiate 55 years this week – two days before the 6-Day War?

Vort on Parsha given by Rabbi Bezalel Rudinsky. Shiur recorded for WhatsApp group.

Forced sales, marriages, and Mattan Torah | Mechira 10:1 | Rabbi Eli Nosson Silberberg

Send us a Text Message.Elevating ourselves via Mattan Torah

Rabbi Jacobson will discuss the following topics: Chassidus applied to 28 Sivan – 80 years What is the significance of this day? How did the Rebbe mark this day 30 years ago? Lessons from Korach Why do we need a Rebbe? What was the response to Korach's argument? Can we learn anything from this story about nepotism? How do we understand the story of Aaron's rod sprouting almonds? What should be our attitude to the new coalition government in Israel? Is it appropriate to laugh, as Rabbi Akiva did, after witnessing a tragedy? If we cry when a tragedy happens, does it reflect a lack of faith in G-d? When Moshiach comes... Doesn't the Rambam say that we shouldn't delve into the details about Moshiach? What's the difference between the footsteps of Moshiach and the birthpangs of Moshiach? What can I do about my very devout nanny speaking to my children about her religious beliefs? Why are Jews considered to be the most intelligent demographic? Chassidus question: What does it mean that Mattan Torah didn't happen in the lower hemisphere? MyLife 2020 Chassidus Applied Essay and Creative Contest: 25th Place winners: Essay English: Purposeful Living, Aharon Zev Moshel, 19, Student, Kfar Chabad. Hometown: Melbourne, Australia Essay Hebrew (men): ואהבת לרעך כמוך: ערך עצמי למול ערך הזולת, Yosef Rubenfeld, Jerusalem, Israel Essay Hebrew (women): איך נתמודד עם מחשבות לא חיוביות, Mrs. Riki Gluckowsky, Educator, Rechovot, Israel Creative: Diving Through Dimensions (lesson plan), Mushka Heidingsfeld, 18, Student, Ohel Chana High School LA. Hometown: S. Monica, CA

Topics: Tragedy in Miron If the “world is ready for Moshiach” (as the Rebbe said), why are we still suffering tragedy after tragedy? What does G-d want of us? What is bitachon in face of tragedy? How can this bring us to grow in our love, unity, and acceptance of each other? What can we learn from the difference approaches of Moshe and Aaron to the deaths of Nadav and Avihu? Apology for suggesting that the victims were to blame The Talmud about someone being crushed in the Temple Please comment on other speakers addressing the tragedy Is it right to blame anyone for the tragedy? Is there any validity to the Zohar going around about 45 people dying in connection with Lag B’Omer? Students of Rabbi Akiva Why should lack of respect be a cause for death? Can we compare other disagreements between students, for example those of the Maggid’s students, to the 24,000 students of Rabbi Akiva? Chassidus applied to Bamidbar Do we have an image of the tribes’ flags? Is a census a good thing or not? Chassidus applied to Shavuos What can we learn from this Shavuos being 3333 years since Mattan Torah? When Moshiach comes... Will there be an official announcement? Will we still have a mitzvah to believe in Hashem? Will there be a scoreboard and will those who did mitzvos to make him come get rewarded? Comments and Follow-up: Moshiach’s response to the Baal Shem Tov Tzedaka box near your bed Chassidus question: How do we understand the critique in Iggeres HaKodesh 11 of those who have trouble facing tragedy? MyLife 2020 Chassidus Applied Essay and Creative Contest: 22nd Place winners: Essay English: Peeling Away the Mask: The Chassidic Guide to Overcoming Imposter Syndrome, Mallory Rosten, 23, Student, Mayanot Woman, Alpharetta, GA Essay Hebrew (men): החירות האמיתית: הדרך למימוש הפוטנציאל הטמון בך, Menachem Mendel Sudakevitch, Student, Kfar Chabad, Israel Essay Hebrew (women): יתן, ויתנו אחרים- חסיד, Michal Turnheim, Student, Beitar Illit, Israel Creative: Yud Shevat (sketchbook), Mushka Cyprys, 22, Teacher, Lubavitch London, UK Skip directly to a topic by viewing the episode timestamps in YouTube. MyLife: Chassidus Applied is a weekly video webcast candidly answering questions from the public about all life matters and challenges, covering the entire spectrum of the human experience. The objective of the program is to provide people with inspired guidance and direction, empowering them to deal with any issue they may face. MyLife demonstrates how Chassidus provides us with a comprehensive blueprint of the human psyche as a microcosm of the cosmos, and offers us all the guidance we need to live the healthiest possible life and build nurturing homes and families, bringing up the healthiest possible children, emotionally, psychologically and spiritually. MyLife is a community-supported project, requiring hours of research and preparation each week. Please donate or sponsor an episode, to help us continue and expand this important work. Go here and here for our special section of programs and resources addressing these trying and unprecedented times

Rabbi Jacobson will discuss the following topics: Chassidus Applied to Chof Beis Shevat and Yisro The Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka as partner with the Rebbe What can we do to honor the Rebbetzin? Her words: “In Lubavitch all is good” How do we apply Mattan Torah today? Why was Sinai preceded by Yisro’s arrival and the lesson for us? Parents and children: How can I heal from an abusive home? What can we learn about the Covid vaccine from the Rebbe’s attitude to previous vaccinations? Bitachon in face of challenges What can we say to disillusioned teenagers who have experienced losses? How do we explain to our children prayers not being fulfilled? Follow-up: What can I do to receive an answer from the Rebbe? Will this world come to an end? Chassidus question: What does bizbuz ha’otzros mean in practical terms? MyLife 2020 Chassidus Applied Essay and Creative Contest: 13th Place winners: Essay English: Getting In Shape – For the Final Redemption! Chaya Miriam (Cynthia) Moline, QEP – Technical Copywriter, Jupiter, FL Essay Hebrew (men): כיצד לטפל במשבר ערך החיים בזמננו? Gilad Cohen, Student, Jerusalem, Israel Essay Hebrew (women): יתרון האור מן החושך, Chana Vals, Educator, Be’er Sheva, Israel Creative: Ketores of Kedoshim (poetry), Sholom Cohen, 69, Carnegie Mellon University – Principal Engineer, Pittsburgh, PA

First Part of Sefer Hasichos nun beis - Parshas VayishlachHow does Krias Yam suf, Shiras hayam and the war with Amalek all prepare for Mattan Torah?How does all the above prepare for its completion with the coming of Moshiach? How do we step into this role today? Support the show (https://paypal.me/DaretoDifferentiate)

A insight into why no Jew will be left behind at the end of Galus, based on a deeper understanding into Mattan Torah and the choice relationship between Hashem and the Jewish people.

A insight into why no Yid will be left behind, based on a deeper understanding into Mattan Torah and the choice relationship between Hashem and the Yidden Support this podcast

A Daily Dose of Chassidus with Rabbi Shmuel Braun As beautiful as the day we were married…

What ACTUALLY happened and how its relevant to us? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

What ACTUALLY happened and how its relevant to us? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Map of Existence -- Internal Energy (chapters 1-48) Ten Hidden Sefirot (chapters 18-28) Sinai Synesthesia Ayin Beis Volume 1, Discourse 5, Chapter 19, p. 30-32 Human faculties in the soul are in an ethereal and subtle state, with no tangible form, and can therefore reside side by side with other even contradictory faculties. For this reason, at Mattan Torah, when there was a revelation from beyond the structure of existence, the revelation of the essential soul faculties, "all the people saw the sounds -- they saw what is ordinarily heard, and they heard what is ordinarily seen," because on the level of essence their is no distinction between the faculties. However, this faculty substitution seems to be more than just two different/opposite faculties residing together. Ostensibly, we can say that their role reversal is due to their ethereal state, in which the distinctions between sight and sound (that sight senses the physicality of an object, and sound only its spirit) are not yet developed. But we cannot say that, because the distinction between them is also on their core level: sight grasps the essence of an object; whereas sound only captures its external being (and that is why they are distinct faculties). Sinai thus actually caused a reversal of their functions also in their essence. There is another interpretation that Sinai allowed them to see the divine energy which is usually invisible to the eye and is only perceived like sound from a distance ("they saw what is ordinarily heard"), and they perceived the yesh (existence), which is usually visible, like sound from a distance ("they heard what is ordinarily seen"). According to this (we better understand the virtue of seeing the sound, but) there was no reversal of faculties. However, according to the first interpretation (in which the primary breakthrough was in the fact that they heard the sights) there was an actual reversal of function (even on the essential level), with them being able to hear the essence which is ordinarily seen. This is due to the revelation at Mattan Torah of the Divine Essence, which is higher than the ten hidden sefirot, which caused the faculties not only to reside together but to reverse roles. At Sinai they were able to see the essence and hear/comprehend the essence (not just know of its existence).

The Map of Existence (chapters 1-48) -- Internal Energy / Divine Structure: The Supernal Man of Atzilus (chapters 5-17) Ohr: Conscious and Connected Energy The Advantage of Container over Energy Ayin Beis Volume 1, Discourse 3, Chapter 11, p. 17-18 By contrast, energy is consciously and visibly connected to its source, a revealed manifestation of the Source. The energies in Atzilut are connected to the kav (the ray of light that returns after the tzimtzum); and the kav is connected (albeit in diminished form) to its source in the light preceding the tzimtzum. The containers have an advantage over the energies due to the fact that the tzimtzum did not affect the letters of the reshimu (from which the containers originate), as it did the energy/light of the kav (like the sparks that come from the actual coal, while the flame does not). The power of the containers (rooted higher than the energies) causes the energy to descend into the container. The sublimation (bittul) of the containers reaches higher than the energies -- iskafya (refrain) greater than ishapcha (transformation) -- therefore naseh (we will do) is greater than nishma (we will hear). And the preparation to the Divine essence revelation at Mattan Torah is through the bittul of the containers, that all the people rested at Sinai united "like one person." Concepts: Ohr/energy; kav; rehimu, tzimtzum, sinai

As Sefiras HaOmer concludes, we look forward to Mattan Torah. Tune in to this cumulative discussion on Sefiros, Torah, and Tikkun Olam relation to Counting the Omer.  --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/kabbalah/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/kabbalah/support

Addressing the Personal and Emotional Needs of Our Community and Answering the Most Pressing Questions of Our Lives -- from the Perspective of Chassidic Thought. TOPICS • Chassidus Applied to Bamidbar and Shavuos 00:28 • Why do we eat dairy on Shavuos? 9:25 • Now that most of the world's Jews live in Israel, should the focus shift from a disapora-centric Judaism to an Israel-centric Judaism? 19:25 • Why are we told more about the yetzer hara than the yetzer tov? 27:19 • Should we be more sensitive to older singles when we bless them to find a shidduch? 30:55 • According to Torah, are women permitted to vote? 34:52 • Should I be learning deeper maamorim in Chassidus? And if so, which? 40:18 • Follow up: Anti-Semitism 45:25 Zohar 51:04 Rabbi Akiva’s 24,000 students 58:59 • Chassidus question: What does Chassidus contribute to the understanding of Mattan Torah? 1:00:06 • My Life 2019 essay contest winners: o במקום לְהִתְקַשֵׁ‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏ר, אולי פשוט נְתַקְשֵׁר, Mushka Malka Dekel, 18, Yokneam, Israel 1:07:33 o ‏‏דחף מול דחק, Orya Maimon, 21, Yokneam Illit, Israel 1:09:12 o תוכחה מלב אל לב – מצליחה, Chana Esther Cohen, 18, Ocean City, MD 1:10:15

Part I. Purpose of SorrowTHE DAY OF TEN CROWNSויהי ביום השמיני – “And it was on the eighth day” (Shemini 9:1). In the beginning of Parshas Shemini, we come to that glorious day of the hakamas hamishkan, when the Sanctuary, the Home of Hashem, was finally erected in this world. And the Am Yisroel would now claim the exclusive glory of having Hashem reside among them. They would be the ones privileged to approach the home of Hashem and worship Him.Now, it’s important to understand that the Yom Hashemini was a most majestic and joyful day for the Am Yisroel. There were very few days – we could even say no day ever – in the history of the world when there was so much rejoicing. And the Gemara (Shabbos 87b) tells us that נטל עשר עטרות, it was a day crowned with ten crowns of glory; an exalted day like no other in our history. The Shechina, the Presence of Hashem, was now coming down to rest among them – and they went wild with happiness. וירא כבוד השם אל כל העם ותצא אש מלפני השם… וירא כל העם וירונו ויפלו על פניהם – “And the Glory of Hashem appeared to all the people, and a fire came forth from before Hashem…and all the people saw, and they shouted in joy, and they fell down on their faces” (Shemini 9:23-24).Imagine that! A whole nation; millions of men, women and children shouting in great ecstasy at the sight of the Shechina. All together they stood and witnessed this momentous event, and they were electrified by what they saw! It was the thing that they desired more than anything else – to see with their own eyes that Hashem had chosen to reside among them forever. And they were thrilled down to their marrow. It was a remarkable experience – a happiness and a thrill that was never to be repeated. That was the great day of ויהי ביום השמיני, one of the most joyous days in the history of our people.THE HAPPIEST WOMAN EVERNow, the medrash (Tanchuma, Shemini: 2) points out that there was one person who was reveling in happiness more than anyone else; there was nobody happier than her – ever! And that lucky person was Elisheva bas Aminadav, the wife of Aharon HaKohen. For her it was the most special of all days, mamish me’ein Olam Habo. She was privileged to be the wife of the Kohen Gadol, and she saw success that no other woman ever saw, before or after. Her husband was the High Priest who put on the glorious gold vestments, garments studded with gems and jewels to serve Hashem lifnei u’lifnim. And not only that, but he was a navi as well, a prophet of Hashem.And her sons? Ahh, what nachasfrom her sons! She had four sons, Nadav, Avihu, Elazar and Isamar, and all of them were chosen to work in the Mishkan, assisting their father. A mother’s dream! And not only was she glorying in the greatness of her husband and her sons but it was only the beginning; because she knew that her descendents forever would enjoy this privilege. The family of kohanimwould descend from her for eternity. And that was a success that no other woman was ever given the privilege to enjoy.HAPPINESS ON ALL SIDESThe truth is that Elisheva bas Aminadav had even more than that. In addition to the greatness of her husband, her brother-in-law was the king of the Jewish nation. That itself is an honor and a greatness. “My husband’s brother is Moshe Rabeinu, the leader of our nation. And he speaks to Hashem face to face.” Her brother-in-law was the greatest prophet that ever lived. And in addition to that was her illustrious brother, Nachshon ben Aminadav, the leader of the twelve princes of the Am Yisroel.And on this Yom Hashemini, all of this pride and joy was coming together before her eyes. It was being encapsulated on the day of the hashra’as hashechina; when the Presence of Hashem entered into the Mishkan; and her husband and sons would be the ones officiating in the place that Hashem has designated as His home. And it was all taking place under the direction of her brother-in-law, the King, as well as her brother Nachshon, the leader of the nesi’im. And so while the Yom Hashemini was a day of great happiness for everyone, this most fortunate woman was reveling in joy more than all others.THE PARTY’S OVER!And yet it wasn’t to last. Her joy – not only her joy, but the joy of the whole nation – was about to be marred by the worst of misfortunes a mother could ever suffer through. Because on that day, ויהי ביום השמיני, when two of her sons went in to officiate in the kodesh, they were struck dead by a fire that came forth from Hashem and consumed them. ותצא אש מלפני השם ותאכל אותם וימתו לפני השם – “And a fire went forth from Hashem and devoured them and they perished there before Hashem” (Shemini 10:2). Ay yah yay! What a terrible sadness! A most unfortunate event that will forever spoil the memory of this great day.Now most of us, when we study this terrible event, we regard it as a debacle, an unfortunate mishap that came at a most inopportune moment. We shrug our shoulders and commiserate. “It’s hard for us to understand the darchei Hashem; that such a beautiful day, a most glorious day, should be ruined by a tragedy like that.” That’s how we think. But we’re going to learn now that it wasn’t a chance mishap, that it wasn’t an accident at all.To this tragic day of Yom Hashemini, the Midrash Tanchuma (Shemini 9:2) applies the following possuk, and we should pay attention very well now because it’s Hashem talking to us, and He’s revealing to us one of the fundamental ways He deals with us in this world: אמרתי להוללים אל תהולו – “I said,” proclaims Hashem, “to those who are revelling, ‘Do not be too merry’” (Tehillim 75:5). Hakodosh Boruch Hu gives an order here, an order for how this world should run; He says, “I don’t want people to be too happy.”And that means that anybody, even the most virtuous man or woman – Elisheva and Aharon were virtuous after all – Hakodosh Boruch Hu wants to make sure that a certain element enters into their life, an element that is essential to the success of their career. And that one ingredient that is necessary for success in this world, in addition to all the other components of life, is sadness. Yes, sadness! Sadness is essential in life. And therefore: “I say to the merry, ‘Don’t be too merry.’”A STIRAH TO WHAT WE LEARN HERE?Now for us that’s a big question, a very big question. Because you know, especially if you come here, you already know that in this place we try to live according to the true principle that Hakodosh Boruch Hu is עולם חסד יבנה (Tehillim 89:3), that Hashem made a world of kindliness. After all, we know that Hakodosh Boruch Hu is a tov u’meitiv. That’s number one! It’s fundamental, and we are required to assimilate the idea into our bones that Hashem created everything for the purpose of kindliness.I say “number one” because it’s something we learned way back in Bereishis: וירא אלוקים את כל אשר עשה והנה טוב מאד – “And Hashem saw everything that He made, and behold it was very good” (Bereishis 1:31). Not only tov! Tov me’od. And when Hashem says me’od, it means me’ooooooooooooooooooooood! It means an endless good! It’s extremely extremely extremely good. We know it’s a very good world because Hakodosh Boruch Hu doesn’t give His seal of approval “very good” unless it is very, very, very – and forever we won’t stop saying very – good. That’s how good it must be if Hashem says it’s “tov meod.”So on the one hand we’re saying that Hashem is all kindliness, that He’s good, that He’s very good, and very very good. And yet this great goodness is not always readily apparent to us. Because Elisheva the wife of Aharon did not see the tov me’odshe expected. And most of us don’t see it either because Hashem is always tempering our happiness with some sadness. Our successes in life are almost always sobered by the hand of Hashem one way or another. We don’t have all the wealth we’d like to have. We’re not having the fun in life we’d like to have. We feel that we’re being deprived. There’s always some unhappiness that creeps into our lives. We have grudges against people, we feel we’ve been wronged. People don’t appreciate us, we’re rejected and so on and so forth, all the things that make a person unhappy. And don’t think it’s only you, that it’s only certain people. No; everybody has unhappiness like that. And so, it’s a good question: What happened to the tov me’od of Hashem?OLAM HAZEH IS FAKE NEWSIn order to understand this subject we’ll read a selection from our rebbi, the Mesillas Yesharim. The Mesillas Yesharim, in the first chapter, wishes to impress upon us the importance of directing our thoughts towards the World to Come. And he begins as follows: ותראה באמת שכבר לא יוכל שום בעל שכל להאמין שתכלית בריאת האדם הוא למצבו בעולם הזה – “Nobody who has any seichel at all could believe that the creation of man was for his situation in this world.” The Mesillas Yesharim is warning us here: Take note, this world is not your purpose. You hear this? This world is so good that the Mesillas Yesharim has to warn you not to get too caught up in it! There is so much happiness in life, there is so much joy in life, there is so much zest and fun in life, that it’s enough to deceive anybody into thinking that this world is it! And so the Mesillas Yesharim makes sure that you know that it’s not real, that it’s illusory and fleeting.And he explains it like this: כי מה הם חיי האדם בעולם הזה, או מי הוא ששמח ושלו ממש בעולם הזה – “Because what is the life of a man in this world? And who is there who is actually completely happy and who really has tranquility and peace in this world? ימי שנותינו בהם שבעים שנה ואם בגבורות שמונים שנה ורהבם עמל ואון – Our days are only seventy years, and b’gvuros, if a man has strength and a healthy constitution, then he can live maybe eighty years. But a great part of these years is filled with difficulties and toil. בכמה מיני צער וחולאים ומכאובים וטרדות, ואחר כל זאת המות – A great part is sadness; various kinds of vicissitudes, pain, illness, troubles and worries. And after everything, comes death.”RAV MILLER KNOWS ALL ABOUT ITFind me someone whose life is not visited with disturbances! There is no such thing! The disappointments; the troubles and turbulence are constant. Every family, every individual, suffers in various ways in this world and I know all about it. I get the phone calls all the time. People are ringing my bell constantly. I know much more than you do. Trouble with parnassah, shalom bayis, shidduchim, sicknesses, fighting with neighbors and mothers-in-law, debts and everything you could imagine – and more. Life is full of difficulties for everyone – even the “fortunate” ones suffer in this world.And even if one would live a long life, peacefully, without any disturbances, the end is almost always filled with tzaros. Before death there is infirmity and sickness. Almost everybody eventually ends up in a home for the aged. Many of those who imagine and hope that they will forever make their way merrily through life, will most likely find themselves one day lying in a bed wearing diapers. Some of them will be laying for years in a bed unable to move and unable to perform their functions without the help of a nurse. You imagined yourself to be a happy success in this world and now you find yourself in a nursing home and an apathetic woman is changing your diapers five times a day. “Made in your pants again? So soon?! I just changed you two hours ago!” It’s no longer fun, I imagine, when you get up to there. Could that be the tov me’od that you pursued all the days of your life?NO NEED TO SIGN UP!And after all of those “pleasures”, what is waiting for him? The cold clammy clay of the grave. Ay yah yay, the grave! The thought that we push away and hope to ignore forever. Because, of course, only other people die. There’s a “chevrah shtarbers,” a club for people who die, and people imagine they’ll be able to say, “I never signed up for that!” That’s how we think.And the truth is that even if you would live a thousand years, and it would be a life of no disturbances at all, OK, so now you’re a thousand years old and it’s coming to an end. So what good is it all now? Those thousand years are not enough when the last day comes. A thousand years is not terribly long. It might be long when you’re starting it, but when you come to the end it doesn’t seem long at all. Now begins sadness. And to a certain extent this sadness pervades the entire life. No matter how jolly a group of revelers seem to be; they’re jumping around, blowing horns, and drinking. It looks like they’re living it up, but they’re not living it up, they’re covering it up. Because all of them have at the bottom of their heart – no matter how much they try to cover it up with good times – laying there is the awareness that eventually there will be death.WHAT HAPPENED TO TOV ME’OOOOOOOOD?!And so the Mesillas Yesharim tells us that this proves that Hakodosh Boruch Hu must have intended for a different existence where that promise of tov me’od will be fully fulfilled. Because this world may be tov, and it may be tov me’od, and it may be tov me’od me’od, and with another thousand me’ods – but that’s where it stops. It will always come to an end. And the ultimate promise of tov me’od will only be fulfilled in the Next World. It’s only the happiness of Olam Habo that will never end, and that’s where your neshamah will finally be satisfied.Now we must know that the Mesillas Yesharim is not talking to people who have to be convinced about Olam Haba. His words are directed to bnei Torah, to ma’aminim who already believe in the Next World. He’s talking to people who are born into an environment – this was two hundred years ago or more – an environment where the entire world, even gentiles, all subscribed to the principle of the Afterlife, the Hereafter.But belief is not enough! You don’t just sign on the dotted line הריני מאמין באמונה שלימה בעולם הבא and finished. No! That’s only the first step. And so the Mesillas Yesharim wasn’t writing this to convince us about the existence of Olam Haba per se, but to emphasize that Olam Haba is the sole purpose of our stay in this world. Because even a ma’amin who believes implicitly in Olam Haba could think that maybe this world is also an end in itself.THE SECRET TO ALL DISSATISFACTIONAnd that’s one of the most important explanations for all the disappointment and unhappiness we see in this world; because this world is not the final goal and we have to be reminded of that. We need to be reminded that there’s another place where the enjoyment will continue forever. And there, the enjoyment will take place in such a manner that we will never tire from it; we’ll always be happy with that pleasure and it will continue forever.And so what happened on that Yom Hashemini was part of the eternal plan of Hashem in this world, to interject sadness into the midst of great joy. And the purpose of that was to teach them, during their great joy, that you must always remain focused on the principle that true unadulterated joy will only come in the Afterlife. Whatever sin the two sons of Aharon may have committed, the severity of their fate and the sadness it brought upon the people was decreed beforehand, to teach the Am Yisroel forever and ever the lesson of supreme importance, the great fundamental lesson of Olam Haba.It was no accident; it wasn’t something that just happened to have taken place during a moment of great happiness. It was the plan of Hashem that especially on this great day of joy, the Am Yisroel should be reminded of the true joy that they live for, their true purpose in life. And it is davka sadness that comes about during moments of great joy that accentuates most effectively this great teaching of Olam Haba. Hakodosh Boruch Hu is talking to the hollilim – that’s us – He’s talking to us all the time, and He’s saying אל תהולו – “Do not lose yourself in the addictive happiness of this world. Remember that you are here only to prepare for the World to Come.”TOO MUCH GOOD IS NO GOODAnd that’s what our Medrash Tanchuma means when it describes the happy day that turned tragic with these four important words: שאין שמחה ממתנת לאדם – “Happiness does not last in permanence for anybody.” Joy in this world will not continue forever and the one who rejoices today is not necessarily rejoicing tomorrow. Like the possuk in Koheles says (2:2): לשחוק אמרתי מהולל – “About laughter I said ‘It is wild, it is too much’”. מהולל means gaiety, happiness. And Hashem says, “If someone is reveling in this world, if he’s making his way merrily through Olam Hazeh, getting entangled and absorbed in the success of this world, then I say to him: ‘That’s too much, it’s not good for you. I can’t let a person get lost in his happiness, in his desire to achieve satisfaction in this world, because that’s how a person squanders his life away.’”You’re here for seventy, eighty years after all; it seems so permanent, and you begin to feel that it’s an end in itself, and that’s how a person misses out on the opportunity of life. And so Hakodosh Boruch Hu sends reminders. He gives His order of אל תהולו and He introduces into your life an element of sadness.And so when we study our parsha and read about the great tragedy that took place on this happy day we understand that it was Hashem’s plan to inject sadness into the happiest day in the history of the world. Hakodosh Boruch Hu always brings into people’s lives experiences that are meant to sober them. And He has in mind this general principle of tempering the happiness and success of life so that a person will be encouraged to keep his focus on the Next World.Part II. The Great ConsolationWHAT’S WRONG WITH A LUXURIOUS HOTEL?If life was merely one thing after another, one joy following the next one, people would get lost in this world. Like a man we once had in our congregation. A true story! In our shul! He and his wife lived in a beautiful home on a tree-lined street with gardens. It was a beautiful street and an expensive home. But they had to go for vacation to the country. I don’t know if the country was any better than their home, but they went to an expensive hotel in the country for the summer.The truth is that I didn’t understand the necessity at all. She didn’t overwork herself here in the city, and they didn’t lack anything in their spacious and luxurious home. But they went to the country to spend the summer in an expensive hotel. A luxurious hotel where they could find “happiness”. But then, they left the hotel for a vacation to Switzerland for two weeks. Imagine people who lived that way constantly. They thought that maybe in Switzerland they’d find the satisfaction they were yearning for. But the truth is that they would never find true happiness in this world. Because they were looking in all the wrong places – because they were looking in this world.So what happened eventually? Unfortunately she suddenly contracted cancer. She was quite young and after a long and painful illness she finally had to leave this world. And she didn’t leave as a satisfied and happy woman. Now we understand that Hakodosh Boruch Hu has many purposes; and I’m not the one to interpret any purpose. I’m just saying an illustration. Because even if people have everything in this world, they will keep on looking for other things. And Hakodosh Boruch Hu wants to remind them: “Kinderlach!” He says. “Children! Don’t get lost in this world. Because your appetite for Olam Haba is going to be dulled. And I want you to prepare a big lusty appetite for things of the spirit.”HASHEM TAKES AWAY YOUR LOLLIPOPYou know, one of the surprises that little children get is when they discover how “mean” their mothers are. Here’s a little boy who was given, let’s say, a quarter. A whole quarter! He’s on top of the world now! So he goes to the store and buys two lollipops. He comes home so happy, and as soon as he comes home, his mother snatches them out of his hand. And he can’t understand why his mother who is always so considerate and so kind is now so mean to him. His mother can’t explain to him that it’s just before mealtime and she doesn’t want him to spoil his appetite for nourishing food, and therefore she deprived him of his nosherai.And so too, Hakodosh Boruch Hu sometimes takes away happiness from people in order that they should not lose their appetite for what’s coming later; to keep them focused on the great happiness they should always be anticipating, and that’s the World to Come.THE BOOK RAV MILLER NEVER WROTEToo much success is unhealthy. It’s like too much sweets in your diet. You can’t live on sugar; you need proteins and other nutrients and vitamins too. And you need a little bit of bitterness in life too. And that’s what the medrash is teaching us – it’s an illustration of the lesson that nobody should expect that this life will be nothing but pleasure and good times.You know, many times I was thinking about writing a book. I wanted to write a book called The Pursuit of Happiness. I have a lot of material on the subject and I knew that it would be a successful book because this world is a very happy place. But I didn’t write it because I didn’t want to mislead people. Because this world is not for the pursuit of happiness. Although this world is full of happiness, but people would read that title and think that happiness is a purpose in itself. No, it’s the pursuit of achievement, the pursuit of perfection, that’s what we’re here for in this world.THERE’S A LOT OF FUN IN THIS WORLD BUT…And therefore, Hashem has in store a lot of these treatments for everybody; it can’t be helped. Because the treatment of tzarosis the biggest tovah possible when it causes a person to think of Olam Habah. When people see that there is no complete happiness in this world, and they understand why that is so, that’s already a perfection of character. And therefore it’s important that Hashem remind people that this world is not for enjoyment and pleasure; although there’s a lot of fun in this world, but there’s a special world that was made for enjoyment. The Next World is especially set up for pleasure – it’s a world of happiness. And this world is not the place for that; this world is set up especially for achievement. And that’s the great consolation of this world – that this world is not it!Like Dovid Hamelech said when he saw that difficulties were coming upon him: אם אמרתי מטה רגלי – “When I thought that my foot was slipping,” חסדך השם יסעדני – Hashem, it was Your kindliness that supported me” (Tehillim 94:18-19). That means that I cried out to You that Your kindliness should help me. And many times it did. And then Dovid continues: ברוב שרעפי בקרבי – “In the multitude of my thoughts in my midst.” Dovid had thoughts, worries, of what was going to happen. He was confronted with peril at every footstep. Shaul was seeking Dovid with armed men; he was ambushing him and Dovid was hiding like an animal in caves and thickets. He was constantly beset with worries. And what did he say? ברוב שרעפי בקרבי – “Because of the many worries within me, תנחומיך ישעשעו נפשי – Your consolations were the delight of my soul.” Which consolations? What consolations?THE ONLY TRUE NECHAMADovid was thinking about Olam Haba! Because he knew how to utilize his troubles in this world. He knew that one of the most important functions of sadness is to loosen your grasp on this world a little bit. So he made use of his troubles to create for himself a mind that was an Olam Haba’dikeh mind. And it’s only the man with an Olam Haba’dikeh mind who can weather the storms of this world.Somebody called me up now; he lost his son. A couple lost a son and they wanted to talk to me. Now, if they want to come sit with me, I could speak to them various words of consolation, I could do that. But the only true consolation is the words that we’re speaking here tonight. This world is a place where everybody loses something. But your world shouldn’t collapse for you because of what happened. When you concentrate your life on this world, even if you believe superficially in Olam Haba, but you live here with a feeling of permanence, that’s when the world turns out to be not what you wanted. Everything turns dark and it all collapses into nothing.THE BEREAVED FATHERHere’s another man who lost his son; this man was a mispallelhere in our shul. And his son was a tachshit; a sweet and brilliant man. He was married with a big family and he was eminently successful; successful in the Torah world and in the scholastic world as well. I still remember how the parents were having from this son a tremendous nachas. He really was an example of success and everything was the best that could be. And then suddenly in the midst of Yomtiv rejoicing he died. An unexpected tragedy!And the father took it to heart; it broke him and he never really recovered. He didn’t live long after that. He was a healthy man but he left this world soon after that. And that’s because this father made a fundamental error. He was a good father, a frum man, but he made a mistake. The father had concentrated too much of his hopes on this world. And when this world collapsed, he collapsed with it.WEATHERING THE STORMS OF LIFEBut Aharon Hakohen and Elisheva, when their two beloved sons perished on the Yom Hashmini, they didn’t collapse. And that’s because they understood the nature of this world; they understood that it’s a world of disappointments. And they concentrated on the thought that they would see their sons again. They would continue making their way successfully through the hallway of this world – what is it after all except for a hallway of seventy, eighty years – and then they would meet their sons again in the world of eternity.And that’s what everyone has to know. You can’t expect to be able to weather the difficulties of life, the small disappointments or the tragedies chas v’shalom, if you’re not prepared beforehand with the proper Torah attitudes. It’s the person who lives with Olam Haba on his mind who is able to make his way successfully through everything that life brings his way. Because he knows that he will see his family again and rejoice with them in the Next World. And he knows that he will receive his just and everlasting reward there, no matter what type of tzaros – big or small – he undergoes here.THE SNEAK ATTACKAnd that’s why the Chovos Halevavos tells us that of all the principles the yetzer hara tries to weaken in a man, it is this one, the belief in the next world, that he attacks first and foremost. Because he knows that Olam Haba is the yesod of our lives. It’s our purpose here. So all the other things the yetzer hara can ignore – believe in Hashem, good; believe in Mattan Torah, good; believe in YetziasMitzrayim, good; believe in Torah she’bal peh, good; believe in the whole gemara, believe in everything! You can even believe in a rebbeh, a tzadik! But be weak in just one thing; just be weak when it comes to Olam Haba.“Be weak in that,” says the yetzer hara. “Don’t talk about it; soft-peddle it. Be embarrassed to mention it.” Because Olam Haba is everything! If the yetzer hara can weaken your awareness of Olam Haba then everything else falls away. If your Olam Haba is weak, then your Torah is weak, your mitzvos are weak. Everything else is weakened if Olam Haba is not constantly at the forefront of your thoughts.THE THOUSAND YEAR PHONE CONVERSATIONAnd let me tell you something – the yetzer hara is doing a good job on us. There are plenty of frum people who are very weak in this principle. Now you may argue with me but I’m telling you that very many of us have succumbed almost entirely to the yetzer hara. And I can prove it to you immediately by a simple experiment. Let’s listen in to the conversations in an Orthodox home.All they talk about is this world. And they talk about it a lot! With details; all the olamhazehdikehdetails. The little girl listens to her mother on the telephone. What does she hear already?! Sheitels! This kind of sheitel, that kind of sheitel. And dresses! The mother is complaining about how hard it was to buy a dress. “I couldn’t get a dress anywhere. I went all over town to find a dress.” Finally she found it in a “special” place – around the corner. This is an Orthodox mother?! And that’s all the child hears. Sometimes recipes, and maybe makeup. All things from this world. She can sit next to her mother for a thousand yearswhile her mother talks on the telephone, and she won’t hear Olam Haba mentioned even once.And I’m afraid next to the father is no better. I’m not talking now about the father who is a connoisseur of wines, of bourbons. He has a cabinet filled with all different types of wine and he knows their names! That man I’m not speaking about now. He’s already sold out to Olam Hazeh completely. He’s already sinking in quicksand; he’s in grave danger and he has to take emergency precautions to save himself.WHERE IS ZEIDY?I’m talking now to the frummeh, the best. Here’s a father, and his children, all with black hats, sitting around the table talking divrei Torah. Maybe the father will say over pilpulim if he’s a talmid chochom; if not he’ll say over some gutta verter, some comments on the sedrah. But Olam Habah? It’s a rare bird. You can sit sometimes for twenty years at a table and not hear even once Olam Habah mentioned! Little children growing up don’t even know there’s such a thing. Unless someone dies and so they tell the child that “Zeideh is in Olam Habah now.” But even then, the child is thinking, “What? Where?” Because nobody is talking about it. And there’s a good reason for that. Because the yetzer harah is most interested that it shouldn’t be mentioned.And so we have to do whatever we can that we shouldn’t fall into the trap of the yetzer hara! We should make it a point to speak about Olam Haba at the table. You have to plan ahead, with wisdom, with cunning. “How am I going to sneak in the subject of Olam Haba today?” And when you succeed, so you start making plans for the next meal. And even more than that – how long will we have to wait to hear them talk about gehenim at the Jewish table? Now that would be a Jewish table! The father and his family discuss Gan Eden and gehenim. And the father is always pointing out that למחר לקבל שכרם, in the Next World, that’s where we’ll be rewarded for our life’s work. “Chaim’ll, in the Next World Hashem is going to give you everything! Only Hashem can make you truly happy. And you should know, Chaim’ll, it’s not stam a reward. A person won’t be able to handle the simcha! Hashem is going to have to revive you again and again in order to continue bestowing His goodness upon you.” Now that’s table-talk for the Jewish home!YOUNG ISRAEL OF SLABODKAThe truth is that even in the shuls there’s nobody talking about it! How long will we have to sit in the shul and listen to the rabbi’s speeches before we hear a dissertation on the great subject of Olam Haba? I remember when the Slobodka Rosh Yeshiva once came to America and they invited him to a Young Israel convention – it used to be held here in a hotel in New York City. He didn’t know what Young Israel means; he didn’t know, otherwise he would have surely not gone. So he went and they asked him to speak. Speak?! What is the Slabodka Rosh Yeshiva going to say to them already? Which subject should he speak about? He thought, “I should speak about what the Jews of America need to hear most.” And so he spoke on the subject of gehenim.But you won’t always have the Slobodka Rosh Yeshiva to tell you those things. And there aren’t too many rabbis who are willing to tell you the truth. First of all, many of them are themselves weak in the emunahof Olam Habah. And even if not, he can’t tell you the truth. You’ll run to the other shul down the block, and your rabbi will lose all of his congregants. I told you once that in my shul we make a “membership drive” once in a while. I tell the shul members the truth, and I drive them out to all the other shuls in the neighborhood. That’s why the other rabbonim in my neighborhood love me.IT’S NOT JUST THE OLD PEOPLENow I know that many people don’t like to hear about this subject and I don’t blame them. You might think, “That’s all Rabbi Miller is going to tell me?! That this world is not a happy place?!” I know some people don’t want to hear about the Next World; it makes them sad when I talk about it. They want to imagine that they’ll live forever and ever.But what can I do, my friends? It’s so important to internalize that this world is not forever; that everybody will die sooner or later. So a man comes back to the house after the levayah; the mother of the house is now gone and he’s going to her home now to sit shivah. He sees a nice quiet home; it’s very neat because last week she was still cleaning up. And now she’s gone. What a pity! What a pity! The alter mother or the alterfather is gone. They always said such good words to us; it’s such a pity they’re gone now. But he has to know however that someday he’ll be gone too. Everybody must know that he won’t live forever. And therefore we’re in this world only for the purpose of preparing.And the truth is that it shouldn’t make you sad; because when you know you’re living for a purpose, so every moment in this world becomes more precious to you. You enjoy this world even more because of the opportunities it provides for achieving the eternal tov me’od. And so the wise man, the chochom who is ro’eh es ha’nolad, doesn’t invest his hopes in this world. Because he knows that if he puts his hopes into Olam Hazeh so he’s going to be terribly disappointed. And that’s why you find a lot of old people are very soured on Olam Hazeh; because that’s all they were concerned about and now they see that it turned into nothing.THE HAPPY OLD MANI once visited a home for the aged and I was looking around at the old people. It was filled with American style old Jews, burim, amei ha’aretz, and it was a pity to see them. They were sitting around, staring. Life had turned out to be a disappointment. “This hurts me,” “I have none of my own teeth left,” “I can’t go here, I can’t do this or that.” It was nothing but disappointment. Only complaints, that’s all you could hear.And in the corner I saw an old man with a white beard, sitting at a table with a gemara open. And he was busy getting ready for the next world. He was reviewing everything he had learned in his lifetime. And he was the happiest man in the place! He was busy, he was accomplishing, because he knew that he had a purpose. You know why he was happy. Because none of the disappointments in life had disappointed him! Everything was turning out exactly as expected and now he was getting ready now to cash in. He was busy counting all of his bonds before going to the bank, making sure he wouldn’t leave anything over. He was a happy man!WE DON’T LIKE TRAGEDIESAnd it wasn’t because he searched for happiness his whole life – it was because he recognized all the bumps of life for what Hashem intended them, as reminders from Hashem to remain focused on the true goal. Because he understood the important lesson al taholu, he knew not to get lost in the happiness of this world, and he therefore was the happiest man in this world.How can you be preparing for Olam Haba if you never even think about it, no less mention it? Isn’t that a tragedy? So we’re not going to let that happen to us because we don’t like tragedies. And so, we’re going to have to muster our resources, all of our energy, to fight this battle: Like the Rambam (Teshuva 8:7) says, “A person should always yearn for Olam Haba; he should always think about Olam Haba. Like Dovid Hamelech did. כמה כמה דוד לעולם הבא, How greatly did Dovid yearn for Olam Habah, כאיל תערוג על אפיקי מים, like a deer thirsting for drink.” (Tehillim 42:2)THE OLAM HABA PROGRAM – ONLY THIRTY SECONDS A DAYSo instead of just talking about becoming great, we’ll actually do something about it. Instead of being like the people who just talk about doing things, we’re going to get busy immediately thinking about the World to Come. Together we’ll start an Olam Haba program. We’re going to spend at least thirty seconds every day thinking about Olam Haba, reminding ourselves that we’re in this world only as a preparation for the World to Come. For one half a minute, remind yourself that this world is just a vestibule, a place to put your things in order, before the World to Come.Every day at least thirty seconds on the clock, we’re going to think about Olam Haba. Whether you’re hanging on a strap on the subway, or driving to work; maybe you’re waiting to see the doctor, or even if you’re standing on the corner waiting for the light to change – whatever it is – look at your watch and let it tick off thirty seconds while you are now in the World to Come, thinking about the purpose of life.THE SWEETEST SHALOM ALEICHEM YOU’LL EVER HEARAnd then, when we come into the Next World so they’ll ask you, “What do you want here?” And you’ll say, “I prepared; I thought about Olam Habah in the world where I’m coming from. I worked on it!” “Oh!” they’ll say, “Shalom Aleichem! Welcome!” Because you’re superior to everybody else. You’re a dagul mei’rivavah, you’re one in ten thousand. You’re a head taller than everybody else because you understood the lessons of what happened on Yom Hashmini and you’re thinking every day about the World to Come. Now, whether they’ll give you a front seat, or a middle seat or a back seat, that will depend on how much effort you put into the things we speak about here. But they are going to welcome you; that’s guaranteed.And so, if anyone asks you what you are doing in the world – whether you can tell him or not – you at least have to know for yourself that we’re here to prepare for the great career of everlasting happiness in the Next World. That is the foundation upon which we build everything in this world. It’s the yesod hachasidus v’shoresh ha’avodah, and if you have this before your eyes then you can build. But if not, or even if you do but it’s weak, then you’re building without a foundation. The whole foundation of being a Jew is the clear conviction that our purpose is Olam Habah, the Afterlife. Not that the Afterlife is an annex, something that is alsogoing to be given to us. No – the Afterlife is it!It’s only Olam Habah that counts! That’s your great joy! And do you know what’s going to happen when you train yourself to think this way? It’s going to illuminate your life. It will put a simcha, a deep and profound happiness, into your life. Because no matter what happens, from the smallest bumps of daily life, to chas v’shalom the most terrible of tragedies, you know that you are being reminded by Hashem of your purpose in this world, and you know that you’re headed for success. And once you assimilate this idea of Olam Habah into your bones, then you’ll be capable of weathering all of the turbulence that life brings. And you’ll grow even greater from the constant lessons of אל תהולו that Hashem brings upon you as He prepares you for the great day when you will finally leave this prozdor, the hallway that this world is, and you’ll enter into the טרקלין, the great palace of the World to Come. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Part I. Torah of KohanimEVERYONE IS JEALOUS OF RABBI MILLERIn Parshas Tzav we continue our encounter with the avodah of the kohanim, the ones privileged to stand in the service of Hashem in the Beis Hamikdash. And we find ourselves inundated with the especial attention given to kohanim. Laws upon laws for the descendants of Aharon that place them on a pedestal; rules meant to regulate the behavior of the aristocracy. Now, I don’t want to make you uncomfortable or jealous of me [The Rav was a kohen], but week after week, in Vayikra, Tzav, Shmini, and actually in most of Sefer Vayikra, we become more and more impressed with the great honor and privilege accorded to the kohanim.I know that most of us here have already accepted the maxim of democracy, equality for everyone, so you don’t want to think too much about it, but the truth is when the Bnei Levi were chosen to be the Kohanei Hashem, it was a great pride for them. The kohen walked with a swagger; he was on top of the world! It wasn’t just a matter of being called to officiate at a pidyon haben or to benefit from the terumos and other matnos kehunah. It was a great prerogative, a great privilege, to be the servant of Hashem in His house. And I have no doubt that the rest of the Am Yisroel were disappointed and jealous. The bechorim, who had lost this privilege, surely were jealous, but I’m sure that everyonelooked at the kohanim with envy.TRESPASSING ON HOLY GROUNDSTo be a kohen was an eternal privilege of closeness to Hashem. והיו לי הלויים – “And the Levites shall be Mine” (Bamidbar 3:12); and when Hashem says “Mine”, you have to know, He means “Mine forever.” The medrash says that. “Wherever it says לי, ‘Mine’, it’s for all time; in this world and in the World to Come” (Vayikra Rabbah 2:2). And therefore, to be chosen as kohanim by Hashem “To be Mine” was the greatest of honors; an honor for eternity, that most of the Am Yisroel could only pine for.And therefore, as we make our way through Sefer Vayikra, we understand that we are treading on holy ground. We are being taken on a tour of sorts through the Beis Hamikdash and the avodas hakorbanos, and we feel as if we don’t belong. We have stepped over the boundary into a world of kehunah, a world of kedushah, and we tiptoe through parshiyos Vayikra, Tzav and Shemini as if trespassing on forbidden grounds.And then, as we tiptoe through the Mikdash feeling out of place and alienated from all of these priestly laws, suddenly we bump our heads against something we weren’t expecting. And it’s a curious thing. Right in the middle of the laws of kohanim and their korbanos, we chance upon a possuk that veers from the topic, words that are directed at all of the Am Yisroel. כל חלב שור וכשב ועז לא תאכלו – “Any fat of oxen, sheep, or goats, you shall not eat”(Tzav 7:23). It’s a possukthat’s telling us about chullin, ordinary meat, eaten in our own homes.MISPLACED PESSUKIM?The Torah here, in a parshadedicated to the kohanim, is talking to Levi’im and Yisraelimas well; men, women and children; anyone of the Am Yisroel. And we are told that we are forbidden to eat the cheilev, a certain type of fat, from these animals. And that’s a question; what’s chullin, ordinary meat, doing here in Vayikra, the Toras Kohanim? Why are we discussing our home kitchens in Parshas Tzav?Now actually if we study the end of the possuk, we find that the Torah provides us with a clue: כי כל אכל חלב מן הבהמה אשר יקריב ממנה אשה להשם ונכרתה הנפש האוכלת מעמיה – “For anyone who eats the fat of an animal species from which one may bring a fire-offering to Hashem, the soul of the one that eats shall be cut off from its people” (Ibid. 7:23-25). So we see that the Torah adds a few words here: אשר יקריב ממנה, only the fats of animals that could be used as offerings are forbidden. A lamb, a calf, it couldbe brought on the mizbeiach, so its cheilev is ossur. But it’s forbidden even if it’s not a korban!Now, at first glance, this reasoning is a bit difficult to understand. Just because the kohen working in the Mikdash was once required to remove the fats from a calf and place them on the mizbeiach in service of Hashem, what does that have to do with how I prepare the steak in my kitchen today? It’s not a korban after all! You know that to remove the cheilev entails a laborious process called treibering. You can’t do it on your own. Someone has to be hired, someone who knows what he’s doing, and we pay good money for that. And for what? We’re not talking here about a korban, where the cheilev is offered up on the mizbeiach. We’re speaking of ordinary meat here, of chullin. Why can’t we eat the cheilev of ordinary meat? I don’t know if it bothers you, but I think it’s a good question.WHAT’S WRONG WITH EATING BLOOD?And in the next possuk we find a similar idea: וכל דם לא תאכלו בכל מושבותיכם לעוף ולבהמה כל נפש אשר תאכל כל דם ונכרתה הנפש ההיא מעמיה – “And all blood shall not be consumed by you, in any of your dwelling places, whether from fowl or from animals. Any person who consumes any blood, his soul shall be cut off from its people” (ibid. 26-27). In any of your dwelling places! Even outside of the Mikdash, wherever the Jew, a non-Kohen, eats his ordinary meat, he must make sure to remove the blood from the animal.So the blood of an ordinary beheimah is ossur for us. That costs us too! We’re spending a lot of money on kosher meat today and some of it is because of the melichah, the salting, because we can’t have blood in our meat. Why now, when being taught about the korbanos, are we being told that we can’t have dam in our meat?WHY ARE WE PLAYING “BEIS HAMIKDASH”?And the answer is not a secret. The Torah tells us; it states openly that the reason is because dam belongs on the mizbei’ach: כי נפש הבשר בדם היא ואני נתתיו לכם על המזבח לכפר על נפשותיכם כי הדם הוא בנפש יכפר – “For the life of a person is in the blood, and I have assigned it for you to be put on the mizbeiach to atone for your lives, for it is the blood that atones for one’s life” (ibid. 17:11). That’s why in the Beis Hamikdash the blood can’t be eaten, it’s sacred. It has to be thrown on the sides of the mizbeiach. That’s how the one who brings the korban gets his kapparah.Now, by a korban, I understand. Its blood can’t be eaten, it’s sacred. But we’re not eating korbanos! It’s our ordinary food, our chullin, and the blood is not li’chapeir! We’re not pouring the dam onto the mizbeiach to be a kapparah. And yet, it’s forbidden. And so instead of pouring it on the mizbeiach, we’re commanded על הארץ תשפכנו כמים – “Pour it onto the ground” (Devarim 12:16). And that’s because had this animal been a korban, its blood would have been poured onto the mizbeiach . So we see again that we approach our chullin food the same way the kohanimapproached their kodshim in the Beis Hamikdash. חקת עולם לדורותיכם בכל מושבותיכם כל חלב וכל דם לא תאכלו – “It’s an eternal decree for your generations in all your dwelling places; you may not consume any fat or any blood” (Vayikra 3:17). And that’s a question. Why am I playing “Beis Hamikdash” in my kitchen?A KOHEN HAS TO LOOK GOODAnd what’s even more remarkable is that it’s not only regarding laws of the korbanosthat we find this crossing of the boundaries. It permeates our daily lives as well. The Kohanim are commanded: אמר אל הכהנים…לא יקרחו קרחה בראשם ופאת זקנם לא יגלחו ובבשרם לא ישרטו שרטת – “They shouldn’t make a bald spot on their heads, and they shouldn’t shave the edges of their beard, and in their flesh they shall not cut a gash” (Vayikra 21:5). A kohen has to look like an aristocrat; like a prince. And Hashem tells us why: כי את אשי השם לחם אלוקיהם הם מקריבים והיו קודש- “Because the fire-offerings of Hashem, the food of their G-d, they offer, and so they must remain holy” (ibid. 21:6). They are servants of Hashem, and so they must look the part; their exterior appearance must be befitting of those who stand before Hashem in His service. The holy kohanimmust always appear to others as men of distinction.And yet, these priestly laws are repeated again, this time as a command for the whole nation. The possuk says: לא תקיפו פאת ראשכם ולא תשחית את פאת זקניך ושרט לנפש לא תתנו בבשרכם – “You shall not round off the edges of your scalp, and you shall not destroy the edge of your beard. And you shall not make a cut in your flesh for the dead” (ibid. 19:27-28). בנים אתם להשם אלוקיכם לא תתגודדו ולא תשימו קרחה בין עיניכם למת – “You are children to Hashem your G-d, do not make gashes and do not make bald spots on your heads” (Devarim 14:1).Here the Torah is repeating to the Am Yisroel the same commandment that was told to the kohanim. And the reason given is: כי עם קדוש אתה להשם אלוקיך ובך בחר השם להיות לו לעם סגולה מכל העמים אשר על פני האדמה – “For you are a holy people to Hashem, and Hashem has chosen you to be His treasured people from all of the peoples on the face of the earth” (ibid 14:2). So what was said first to the kohanim, as an admonition because of והיו קודש, so that “they should be holy,” that same thing is subsequently told to the Klal Yisroel with the identical reason, כי עם קדוש אתה להשם אלוקיך, because you are a holy nation set aside for the service of Hashem.SOME SECRETS ARE EASILY REVEALEDNow, I’m not capable of revealing the secrets of the Torah, but certain things are apparent even to our minds. Because it’s remarkable! The same commandments given to the kohen because of his prestigious status are duplicated almost word for word, for the Yisroel, for the most “simple” Jew. Each commandment! Korcha, baldness of the head. Sritah, cutting yourself. P’aszekanam lo yigaleichu, not to cut the corners of the beard. The Am Yisroel walks lock step with the kohanei Hashem!Now of course there are reasons why things are repeated – we learn details from the repetition, new halachos. But right now we’re talking about the pshuto shel mikra. And the pshuto shel mikra is telling us something here. The intention of Hashem is evident in these pesukim, and that is of an entire nation patterning their lives after the laws of the kohanim. And if we pay attention to the words of the Torah, we’ll see that this intention of Hashem began already at Mattan Torah.HASHEM’S TREASURE CHESTBefore the Torah was given, Hakodosh Boruch Hu made a declaration to the Am Yisroel. Now, even the people who know this possuk, usually understand it as a poetic expression; something beautiful and noble, but that’s about it. However it’s not merely poetic and so we should listen well to His words: “I’m going to do something now,” said Hashem, “that’s going to change the nature of the entire people. The whole Klal Yisroelwill become different now. If you will stand at Har Sinai and you say, ‘Na’aseh v’nishma; Yes, Hashem, we accept You forever and ever,’ then I’m going to make you into an exceptional type of people.” והייתם לי סגולה מכל העמים – “You’ll be for Me a special treasure from all the nations; the whole nation will be forever chosen as My prized possession” (Shemos 19:5).Now, Am Segulah, doesn’t merely mean “I’m going to give you semichah; I’m going to give you a rabbinical certificate to hang on the wall and you’ll be honored just by the title.” No; it’s much more than that. Segulahmeans that your nature is going to change. Your character will be entirely metamorphosed and you’ll become an entirely different type of people. At Har Sinai not only did we adopt certain attitudes and promise to remain faithful to them, but we became an entirely different people then we were before.THE JEWS ARE NOT A NATIONWhat that means is that our status in this world, our place in the history of the world was now changed. That’s what Hashem was letting us know. “From now on it’s going to be different. I’m going to raise you up and make out of you an entirely new type of people – an Am Segulah.” Not merely that we are a good nation; not merely that we are the best nation. We are no longer one of the nations of the world! We were chosen and elevated to a status that is far above the status of Mankind. That’s a tremendous concept! A Jew is more than human – no matter what you’re going to say in objection. That’s what the Torah is telling us.And what is our function as Hashem’s treasured nation? Here come the following words which I wish to speak about tonight, because they are really the answer to the questions we asked earlier: ואתם תהיו לי ממלכת כהנים – “You’re going to be to Me a Nation of Kohanim, וגוי קדוש – And a Holy People.” אלה הדברים אשר תדבר אל בני ישראל – Take these words and tell it to the Bnei Yisroel” (Shemos 19:6). “Make sure the people understand what I’m saying now very well,” Hashem said to Moshe Rabeinu.What we’re hearing now is that these words, that we were to become now a MamlechesKohanim, are of the utmost importance. Everything is important in the Torah, but these words are especially outstanding. Now, I don’t imagine myself capable of explaining them properly, but one aspect of these words we’ll talk about now.THE MOST REMARKABLE PROFESSIONFirst we’ll have to understand the word kohen. Like we said earlier, a kohen is one who is privileged to have been chosen for the most remarkable profession possible. And that profession is the service of Hashem. That’s who he is, a kohen. He might be let’s say a plumber as well, or maybe a shoemaker. But that’s all tafel, it’s tangential to his primary function in this world which is the service of Hashem. A kohen knows that his life is dedicated to Hashem. He was born a kohen, he lives his life a kohen, and he will take his last breath as a kohen. All the days of his life are a lifelong career standing ready to serve Hakodosh Boruch Hu.And therefore when Hashem declared that He had chosen us to be His Mamleches Kohanim, His “Kingdom of Priests,” He was charging us with the responsibility of kohanim. What it means is “a kingdom consistingof priests” – a nation in which every individual, man woman and child, is a kohen living a life of holiness in the service of Hashem.And so, while we imagined that all of these laws for the Am Yisroel don’t belong here in Vayikra, what we’re learning now is that they do belong! The kohanim were given these laws because of their special status – and then, to emphasize our status as Kohanei Hashem,Hakodosh Boruch Hu said to all of us as well, “You too, all of you, are my Mamleches Kohanim, and are to act in the same manner as my kohanim.”DON’T WAIT FOR BAMIDBARAnd so we come back to Sefer Vayikra, and we see the laws of the kohanim in a different light altogether. Because we understand that whatever is said about kohanim is a hint for what Hakodosh Boruch Hu wants usto be. Now maybe you never heard this before, but you should take it seriously – it’s not just talk. ואתם תהיו לי ממלכת כהנים means that whatever you’re going to hear about the kohanimin Sefer Vayikra – the whole Vayikra is called Toras Kohanimbecause it deal with the laws of kohanim – don’t think that it’s only for kohanim. Don’t sit back during kriyas hatorah and wait for Bamidbar and Devarim, for the parts that you think are more suited to you. No, no; Vayikra is for you! It’s there to be utilized as a lesson, as model for every person in the Am Yisroel. When Hashem said, “You’ll be a mamleches kohanim,” it means, “I’m telling you how kohanimhave to behave, what duties they have and what privileges they have, and you should know that I intend that you should study them and emulate these principles.Now, I want that to sink in because these words are not a mashal, not mere words. You’re hearing here a fundamental truth of the Torah and if you didn’t know it before, now is the time. And that is the great lesson of Mamleches Kohanim – that we are the Kohanei Hashem of this world. The rest of the world, all the nations of the world, make their way through the days of life, fulfilling their purpose of being the משפחות האדמה, nations whose purpose is this world. And we appreciate that; we don’t hold it against them. We need the Italians and the Irishmen. We need the construction workers and garbage men; we want them to be busy with the adamah.Yet, while the umos haolam are engaged in living in this world, solely for this world, we the Kohanei Hashem, spend our days living in this world – we have plumbers and truck drivers too – but we do it all while standing in the service of Hakodosh Boruch Hu as if we were kohanim standing in the Beis Hamikdash.IT’S NOT POETRYAnd in order that it should be clear that the expression “a kingdom of priests” is not merely a poetic declaration but an actual status, Hakodosh Boruch Hu commanded the Am Yisroel in the same priestly laws as the kohanim. Just like the kohanimare commanded to zealously guard their dignity, so too are we commanded not to abuse our bodies with gashes; we are forbidden from making bald spots on our heads and from cutting the corners of our beards. And all this because we are acting out in our own lives, in our own homes, the same function that the kohanim act out in the Beis Hamikdash. The kohanimhave one function and that is to serve Hashem. And we the Mamleches Kohanim have that same exact function.And because we are kohanimtoo, Hakodosh Boruch Hu tells us: “If this animal would have been offered up to Hashem, the cheilev would have to be removed and brought up on the fire, and the dam sprinkled on the sides of the mizbeiach, before partaking of the meat. And so, even when it’s chullin, ordinary meat that you’re eating you must also remove the cheilev and the dam.” Even though your own personal shechitah is not an avodah of a korban – you’re merely standing in the kitchen preparing supper for your family – Hashem tells you that you are to treat it like an avodah, because the Mamleches Kohanim is always standing before Hashem in His service.And therefore, just like the kohenwho was working alongside the mizbeiach, we can’t eat the cheilev of our beheimos. And the blood that would have been sprinkled on the mizbeiach had this animal been a korban, we spill it out to the ground. The preparation of our food, reminds us that we don’t have the same function as the mishpachos ha’adamah! Our shechita is not merely shechitas chullin – it’s an echo of the shechitas kodshimthat took place in the Beis Hamikdash.NO ROMPING ON TABLESAnd that’s why the Am Yisroel always understood that when you sit around the Jewish table it’s like sitting around the mizbeiach. זה השולחן אשר לפני השם. The Jewish table is called a mizbeiach (Chagigah 27a). It sounds like a queer thing to say, but it’s not just words. In the Jewish home if the children were playing in the house, romping around, and a boy sat on the table for a moment, the mother would shoo him away; “Off the table! You can’t sit on a mizbeiach!” That’s how it used to be. A man told me that; he said his mother used to drive him off the table. “A Jewish table is holy,” she told him.The table in a frum home is holy, it’s a mizbeiach. Not only because you eat kosher food, and feed aniyim at your table. It’s not only because you say some divrei Torah at the seudah.Ofcourse we do that too, all that is important; but understanding that your table in the kitchen is a mizbeiach is much more than that. It’s a reminder that as much as possible, all of what you do in the home is to be done in the service of Hashem. So when you sit at the table, you’re thinking of ways, opportunities to speak about Hashem; to praise Hashem, to praise frum Jews, to praise the Torah, to praise the Torah communities. Not just that you make a token donation to the cause by saying Boruch atah Hashem. That too is good but a nation of kohanim does much more than that. As much as possible you’re thinking about Hashem while you’re eating, and you’re serving Hashem like a kohen thinking about Hashem while serving at the mizbeiach.Part II. Every Jew a KohenTHE KIYOR AT THE SIDE OF YOUR BEDAnd so the person who recognizes his place in this world understands that he is really living his entire live in emulation of the kohanim. As much as possible, from morning till night, you keep in mind that you’re a kohen making your way through life as a servant of Hashem. And that’s why in the morning as soon as you get up you pour water over your hands. What’s the point, what’s so important about neggel vasser? Listen to this carefully. The Rashba (Teshuvos HaRashba 1:191) says that negel vasser is for the purpose of showing that we are Kohanei Hashem. That’s why when you wash your hands in the morning, you use a kli, a vessel, just like the kohanimused in the Mikdash when they prepared themselves for the avodah. ככהן המקדש ידיו מן הכיור קודם עבודתו – “You are like a kohen who purifies his hands from the kiyor before his service.” Those are the words of the Rashba.By the kohanim it says, ורחצו ידיהם ורגליהם בגשתם לשרת. The kohanim have to wash their hands as a preparation for tremendous opportunity to work in the Mikdash. But what does that have to do with us? Because we are emulating the kohanim. We are serving Hashem; that’s our business in life. You get up in the morning and what do you do? You’re a kohen washing your hands getting ready for avodas Hashem. And so the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning, before anything else, you prepare for the day with the most important information that you need. You remind yourself that you’re a kohen, that you’re a member of the Mamleches Kohanim. When you wake up in the morning, what are you getting up for? To go to work? To go to school? To be an accountant? No, you’re getting up in order to serve Hashem all day long.And therefore, as you wash your hands, don’t just pour the water without thinking. What a waste! Think, better yet say, “I am doing this now because I am a kohen. Hashem has appointed me to be part of His ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש.” Our entire lives are dedicated to serving Hashem. Whether you’re in your office working, in the kitchen cooking, or cleaning diapers in the laundry room, you’re serving Hashem. Besides for your davening and learning, you should know that whatever else you do is all part of serving Hakodosh Boruch Hu. You’re an eved ne’eman and you’re a kohen, and therefore the washing of the hands – the preparation for a day of serving Hashem is a very important symbol. And it should be utilized by you to make yourself aware of your status. It’s a shame to waste that glorious opportunity that you have every morning. And most people are missing it altogether. That first act of the day, if done with thought, sets the tone for the rest of the day – that everything you will do, you’ll be doing as a servant of Hashem. THE HILL ON YOUR HEADAnd therefore we can carry the comparison still further. We read a few weeks ago about the bigdei kehuna. And the one garment that is especially described as being worn “for honor and for beauty” was the migba’as, the headgear, of the Kohen. ומגבעות תעשה להם לכבוד ולתפארת – “And the headgear you shall make for them, for honor and for beauty” (Shemos 28:40). You know that the word migba’as, headgear, is related to the word giv’ah, a hill, an elevation. And that’s because the Kohen appears taller because of his migba’as. It added to his height, to denote his superiority as a servant of Hashem. He wore this crown of “honor and beauty” to demonstrate to everyone the importance of his service and his pride in being able to serve Hakodosh Boruch Hu.You know, once upon a time the whole Klal Yisroel didn’t wear hats. But everyone knew that the kohen wore a mitznefes. They knew that, and it meant something to them; there was a tinge of kosher jealousy there. And so the Am Yisroel said, “If the kohanim wear a mitznefeswhy shouldn’t we?!” And so little by little the mamleches kohanim, the whole Am Yisroel, began to cover up their heads because they understood that as much as we can we emulate the kohanim.THE REAL PSHAT IN “SHIVISI”And so when you cover your head today; when you put on your hat, your yarmulke, what you’re doing is walking in the footsteps of the Jews of ancient times who knew that they were kohanim too. And if you wear a sheitel or tichel you can add that thought as well. As often as you can you should be reminding yourself – if nobody is listening say it with your mouth – that you’re identifying with the Mamleches Kohanim. Even though you are not a kohenserving Hashem at the mizbeiach, but you are serving Hashem no less in your home, in your kitchen, at your place of work, or on the street outside. You are a part of the Mamleches Kohanim, and that means that wherever you are, and whatever you’re doing, you’re standing in front of Hashem in His service. That’s the real pshat in שויתי השם לנגדי תמיד. Don’t tell me that you’re picturing the letters of Hashem’s name all the time. You don’t need the letters – you are actually standing before Him.When we study the fact that kohanim wear special garments, we understand that every Jew is expected to look different in his garments. Now I’m not saying right now what you have to wear. If you’re from a certain neighborhood or from a certain group that wears let’s say long cloaks or you wear black hats very good, very good. Black hats by the way is a very good thing; if you’re able to emulate that practice in order to identify with the Torah community, it’s a greatness. But that’s not my subject right now. Because whatever it is, the point is that a decent Jew must be distinctive in the way he dresses; he has to be dignified in his dress. A Yisroelcannot wear jeans for instance. Like it says by the bigdei kehuna, l’chavod u’li’siferes, he has to dress conventionally, in an honorable way. If he’ll wear jeans let’s say, or patched or torn clothing for the purpose of looking like a bum so he’s ignoring the model of the mamleches kohanim.A PROFESSOR ACCOSTS RAV MILLERSo you’ll say what’s the sin? And I’ll tell you – it’s the lack of understanding of our status in this world! I met an Orthodox Jew in the street one day. I was walking in the street and a man accosted me – I was frightened. He looked like a bum! He was wearing a cap, a queer kind of cap, and queer clothing. And then I recognized him as an Orthodox college professor. I can’t blame him really; he’s among bums all day long so he has to camouflage himself so they should think he’s one of them. But that’s not how Hashem wants us to be! He wants us to look different because we are the mamleches kohanim v’goy kadosh – we’re a holy people like the kohanim.Kohanim you know are called a holy group of people. וקדשתו – “And you should make him kadosh” (Vayikra 21:8). It’s a commandment that we have to give a certain deference to a kohen. We recognize that he is holy because he is a servant of Hashem and we therefore accord him a special respect. So you’re sitting at a seudah, and there’s a waiter there. So he’s can’t just serve one, two, three, whatever the seating order is. No, he knows the din that כהן נוטל חלק בראש – “The kohen is served first.” That’s a din in the gemara, the kohen comes first. The kohen gets the first aliyah at kriyas hatorah, that you know already. But not only when it comes to an aliyah; even when it comes to eating, he’s also first.In every matter, we give respect to the one who has been chosen as an eved Hashem. V’kidashto, we treat him with respect because he’s holy to Hashem. Because of his status, his function in this world as the servant of Hashem we accord him privileges and distinctions of honor. כי את לחם אלוקיך הוא מקריב – He’s serving Hashem, and that’s why v’kidashto, that’s why you honor him above all others.YOUR HOLY SPOUSEAnd now, when we think about these words we hear an echo of the words קדושים תהיו – “And you, the Am Yisroel, should be kadosh” (ibid. 19:2). Not only is a kohen a kadosh, but every frum Jew is kadosh. What does the word kadosh mean? It means set aside, set apart for Hashem, something that’s connected to Hashem.Every Jew is kadosh; it says that openly in the Torah that we’re a mamleches kohanim v’goy kadosh. And so, when you deal with your fellow Jew, you have to watch out what you say. Of course, when you deal with a goy you have to watch what you say as well, but it’s not the same at all. Your wife is kadosh, your husband is kadosh. You cannot just hurl words against each other recklessly. Be careful what you say! You have to know who you’re talking to. Would you talk like that to a kohen in the Beis Hamikdash?! You have to respect a kohen, and you have to respect the Am Kadosh. And just like a kohen is treated with an especial dignity because he is holy to Hashem, that same respect and honor should be given to our fellow Jews.ENCOUNTER WITH GREATNESSSo you have to practice up on these truths. You see a fellow Jew, and you say under your breath, “There goes a holy person, one of the goy kadosh.” That’s how to think when you pass a Jew in the street. It’s an encounter with greatness, with kedusha, and it’s important to get that into your head. And it will only happen if you train yourself to think these thoughts; “That man is holy; he’s from the Mamleches Kohanim.”But not only do we have to consider our fellow Jew a kadosh, but we have to consider ourselves as kedoshim. Just like a kohen has to be careful with his kedusha, you’re always reminding yourself, “I’m part of the goy kadosh of Hashem; I’m set aside for avodas Hashem.”And so, since you’re always standing in front of Hashem, you must begin to train yourself to do as much as you can l’sheimshamayim. Little by little you train yourself to think about Hashem in whatever you are doing. And so, when you serve supper to your husband, to your family, why not? You’re a good frum wife, a loyal woman; you’ll say, “Certainly I serve my husband supper. What else should I do? He’s my husband. Any loyal wife would do this.” But now we’re seeing that that is not enough. Your job in this world is to be more than a wife who is loyal to her husband, and to her family. Because while you are doing all of these “mundane” activities, you are doing them with the intention that you are from the mamleches kohanim and that you are serving Hashem.FLIPPING THE PANCAKESAnd that’s what Hakodosh Boruch Hu wants from you. That you should become more and more kadosh; more and more set aside for Him in your thoughts. And that means that as much as you can you try to do things lisheim shamayim, which means that you’re aware that you’re serving Hashem. So you stand at your stove just like a kohen stands at the mizbeiach, putting onto the fire things to burn up to Hashem. And he’s מהפך בצינורא, he’s turning over the fats and pieces of the korbanfor Hashem. And you’re standing there at your mizbeiach, your stove, turning over the pancakes, and you’re serving Hashem no less than a kohen. You’re thinking these thoughts; that you’re serving Hashem right now in your kitchen like the kohen serves Hashem in the Mikdash and the status of your home is elevated to a place of the service of Hashem.Now people will say, “Certainly I’m an oived Hashem, certainly. But that’s only part of my life; I have to do other things too. I have a job, I have a family.” And the answer is, no. ואתם תהיו לי ממלכת כהנים tells you that whatever you are doing in life, you’re still a kohen Hashem.Look, a kohen can also get a job; he also has a family. But he’s still a kohen! So you have to go to your office, to your store, whatever it is, to make a living. But you’re still a kohen Hashem. You have to take care of your children, feed them, bathe them. But that doesn’t in any way affect your status. You’re part of the Mamleches Kohanim and you must keep that in mind always. Hashem took you out of Mitzrayim to be His servant and nothing can change that fundamental truth of your purpose in this world. A Yisroelcan never change his function in life.BANGING NAILS L’SHEIM SHAMAYIMAnd so, even if you’re a plumber or a carpenter, and you’re busy all day long, you should know how important it is for you to keep this in mind. Every time you bang in a nail – of course you have to concentrate on doing a good job too; you might bang in a nail incorrectly and then you’re being paid for nothing, you’re a ganav – but in addition to doing your best on the job, you have to add the thought, “I’m doing this because it’s the will of Hakodosh Boruch Hu. I have to work, I have to make a living, I have to get married, I have to support a wife, I have to support my children.” Of course if you have a rich father-in-law who’s willing to support you, then you could sit in a kollel all your life; and even the kollel man has to be reminded to keep Hashem in his thoughts always. That’s exactly how we have to think and that is the motivation that is chiefly prized by Hashem.And so it doesn’t matter what you do, who you are. You could be a dentist, a shoemaker or an errand boy – whatever it is, that’s all incidental to what you really are. Because your chief profession is that of being part of the Mamleches Kohanim. Now don’t think it’s just a mashal and a pious drasha. No, Hakodosh Boruch Hu expects us to take all the hints in Vayikra, the TorasKohanim, and expand on it with your own mind in many other directions.That’s your business in life. And therefore as much as possible, in everything you do, you should keep in mind that you are serving Hashem. And everything you do, at home, at work, on the, street should be motivated by this awareness. Now it doesn’t mean that everything must be done that way or else you don’t do it. We are human beings and we try our best. We aspire to be kohanim as much as possible and therefore if we could add an additional intent to the things we do, and even say something to that effect, we train ourselves to be more and more kadosh and we fulfill our function in life as a kohen, a kadosh who is set aside for Hashem.When you allow this thought to enter your mind and you gradually continue to practice it, so it begins to take a part in all of your actions, as a share in your thoughts. And after a while you’ll find that part of your intentions in whatever you do is lisheim shamayim. You start by thinking and speaking about lisheim shamayim and about being from the mamleches kohanim v’goy kadosh and it’s all not real, you’re a hypocrite. But that’s the best hypocrite in the world because after a while it begins to penetrate and it becomes a genuine intention that participates in all of your motivations.THE DELICIOUS FRUIT OF PARSHAS TZAVThe great ideal, the important attitude that we are the Mamleches Kohanim, and that our lives, our behavior, and our thoughts, are to be patterned after the kohanim in the Mikdash, must be for us a seed that is planted in our minds, a seed that you must water and nurture all the days of your life. And the more thought that you put into this avodah, the more this seed of Mamleches Kohanim will grow in your mind into beautiful and delicious fruit. The more you water this ideal, by thinking about what we’re speaking about tonight, the more you will understand that everything that you do in your life, Hashem looks at it as if it is the avodas hakohanim serving in the Beis Hamikdash.And as the years pass by, the ideal of being from the mamleches kohanim grows upon you and it becomes a stronger and stronger part of your personality until finally, before you realize it, it occupies a very big part in all of your motivations, and you actually begin to live life as one of the mamleches kohanim. And just like when the kohanim were chosen by Hashem it is written: והיו לי הלויים – “To be Mine,” it meant to be especially Mine forever, so too the nation as a whole was chosen to be the Mamleches Kohanim with that same word. ואתם תהיו לי ממלכת כהנים – “And you shall be for Me a Kingdom of Priests,” is the mark of eternal honor. “Wherever it says לי, “For Me,” it shall never cease in this world and in the World to Come” (Vayikra Rabbah 2:2). It’s a mark of distinction that we must live up to, to be always aware that all of our actions must be for the purpose of serving Hashem. And if we keep that in mind always, then we become the goy kadosh, the nation set aside for Hashem in eternity. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Part I. Living by SeichelTHE MISUNDERSTOOD INCIDENTIn this week’s parsha we read about one of the most misunderstood incidents in the history of our people; the cheit ha’eigel, the sin of the golden calf. The great embarrassment it brought upon the Am Yisroel, and the subsequent punishments were intended by Hashem as admonitions for eternity, lessons for how we should be living our lives. And yet the confusion about what took place at that time – confusion even among the lomdei Torah – prevents us from learning the lessons that Hashem intended from that infamous incident. And therefore, the story of the Golden Calf deserves our attention.And actually the whole thing is a big puzzle. Because we know that we are dealing here with a generation that was exceedingly great. The mere fact of living with Moshe Rabeinu, and seeing him, was enough to change a person forever; you can be sure that one look at Moshe would be enough to change us immensely and leave an impression that would endure throughout our lives. The people saw Aharon, Elazar and Isamar, Nadav and Avihu, Pinchos, Yehoshua, Caleiv, Nachshon ben Aminadav, Betzalel ben Uri and the shiv’im zekeinim. These great men, who lived among the people, certainly stamped the qualities of kindliness, humility, piety, and most importantly of Awareness of Hashem upon the people of their generation.MOST OF THE JEWS WERE NEVI’IMAnd the women too were not in any way denied this greatness. Miriam was the leader among the women – one of the many women leaders – and her fire of inspiration did not fail to melt the hearts of the nashim tzidkoniyosand recast them in the mold of greatness. Men and women alike strove to come close to Hashem and to attain the state of prophecy even before the giving of the Torah, and very many succeeded. That’s a very big chiddush, but it’s what the Kuzari tells us: “All of them sought the state of prophecy, and most of them attained it” (1:103).And therefore, at Mattan Torah, they rose to heights heretofore unimaginable. That great event of hearing the Voice of Hashem was a culmination of the mighty events they had witnessed in Mitzrayim; the ten Makkos had provided them with ten big volumes of emunah, of da’as Hashem, and the spectacle at the Yam Suf had caused the nation to soar to unexpected heights of greatness. And now, as they gathered together at the foot of Har Sinai, all of these influences combined to raise them to a state of prophecy that had never before occurred and has never occurred again: “Face to face Hashem spoke with you” (Devarim 5:4), a form of the highest prophecy. “Was there ever anything like this great event? Did a nation ever hear the Voice of Hashem speaking out of the fire as you heard?!” (Ibid. 4:32-33). No generation before or after was worthy of such a stupendous prophecy on a national scale – “The least of their women was like the prophet Yechezkel” (Rambam Shemonah Perakim 4). And it was this remarkable generation that was chosen to be the witnesses of the Giving of the Torah for all generations to come.THE MYSTERIOUS PUZZLEAnd yet, that is the great enigma, the puzzle, that has to be studied. How could it be that a nation of ovdei Hashem, a people who had heard the thunderous Voice of Hashem telling them: לא תעשה לך פסל וכל תמונה – “Do not make for yourselves any form or picture to worship” (Shemos 20:2-3), should now be dancing around a golden cow?! ויעלו עולות ויגישו שלמים… ויקומו לצחק – “And they brought up olos and shelamim…and they arose to make merry” (Ibid. 32:6). The same people who had seen Hashem face to face, were now making merry around a golden cow. And that needs an answer.Now, an answer for a conundrum like that surely needs a good introduction; so we’ll take it step by step. And we’ll first ask: What does kabolas haTorah mean after all? You know, for us it seems to be a simple matter. Because we think, what was the big kuntz of accepting the Torah? Especially when we understand that they were motivated by a great wave of gratitude; Hakodosh Boruch Hu had just freed them from Mitzrayim and He saved them at the Yam Suf! So there should be nothing much involved here. What’s so remarkable about a people that accepted the Torah under those circumstances? We would have surely done the same. That’s how we think. So listen now and hear how difficult it was.THE BNEI YISROEL HAD A SPECIAL PROBLEMAccepting the Torah means that we subject our minds to the mind of Hashem. We humble our own thoughts, our own attitudes, and we subject them to the attitudes that are taught by Hakadosh Baruch Hu in the Torah. Kabolas Hatorah doesn’t mean that you sign on the dotted line, “OK, I accept,” and that’s all. Accepting the Torah doesn’t mean that you accept something begrudgingly, without liking it. No, it’s much more than that; it means that the mind has to be in agreement with the Torah, your thoughts must be attuned to all the ideals of the Torah in its myriad of details.So maybe you’re thinking, “That’s not too difficult. If Hashem gives us the Torah, we accept it; why not?” But we have to understand what our forefathers were before the Torah was given, and why this was not easy at all. Not only was it not easy but it wasextremely difficult. Now, had the Torah been offered to the Egyptians, or maybe to the Slavs or to the Chinese or the Greeks, it would have been a minor matter. The fact is that when they were offered alternative religions, they accepted them. It didn’t take much to reel them into buying some of the most foolish ideas ever presented to the world. You know, when Yushka Pandra’s mother had a son and they said it was “Hashem’s son”, so the Am Yisroel laughed at that. It was a mamzer and that’s all. לא יבוא ממזר בקהל השם (Devarim 23:3) This was before Goren so what could you do already? It’s a rachmanus on the child, but a mamzer is a mamzer. Even today, there’s one community that when they refer to this man, he’s always given that title; he’s always labeled with that appellation, “The mamzer.”But the foolish nations had no minds of their own – you could feed the most foolish garbage into their minds and they accepted it hook, line and sinker. And that’s what happened – we see that all around us. But the Bnei Yisroel had a special problem that no other people had. And the problem was that this family was a unique kind of people with an unparalleled attitude towards the world, and it’s important for us to know what that mindset was. The Bnei Yisroel were a people who had been trained for many generations not to obey what was told to them. They were trained to use their minds independently. It’s an important point I’m telling you now. They had a tradition of thinking on their own and not accepting what anybody told them.WHERE’S THE JUSTICE?And I’ll explain that. You heard this many times but it’s an important principle. Rabeinu Nissim Gaon, at the beginning of his peirush to Mesichta Brachos, asks a question: How is it that we find that Hakadosh Baruch Hu punished people in Sefer Bereishis even though they had no Torah to follow? Look in thechumash and you’ll find a number of cases in Bereishiswhere Hashem punished people for their sins. Kayin, Avimelech, the people of Sedom – we find that many people were punished for things they were never warned against, things that were not told. And sometimes He visited the strictest of punishments on them for transgressing! “How could that be?” asks Rabeinu Nissim. It’s a good question – Rabeinu Nissim doesn’t need my haskamah but it’s something that we should have asked on our own. How can you punish a man if he doesn’t know that it’s wrong? After all, the death penalty by Hakadosh Baruch Hu is meted out only with justice! Where’s the justice of punishing someone who was never told that it’s wrong? That’s the kashaRabeinu Nissam Gaon asks.And he tells us the following answer, and it’s a fundamental principle so pay attention. כל המצוות שהן תלויין בסברא ובאובנתא דליבא, anything that can be deduced by logic and the wisdom inherent in a man’s mind, כבר הכל מתחייבים בהן מן היום אשר ברא אלוקים אדם על הארץ, a person is already expected to obey from the beginning of time. He’s saying here that anything that can be understood by the human mind to be wrong is obligatory upon a person to stay far away from – even though he was never told anything; never warned that it’s forbidden. If your mind tells you that a certain thing is wrong, if your conscience tells you it’s wrong, then you’re obligated to keep it like a law that’s written down, even though you never heard any statement that it’s wrong. And not just a middas chassidus, extra credit. The obligation is so imperative, so important, that if a man transgresses these obligations of his mind, then he deserves to be put to death by Hashem.AVRAHAM AVINU’S REBBENow this tradition of using the mind, not only using, but relying completely on the mind to know one’s path in life was followed by our forefathers, and that’s why we find that the Avos practiced laws that they were not commanded to do. About Avraham Avinu it states וישמר משמרתי מצוותי חוקתי ותורתי – “Avraham kept mishmarti, My keeping, mitzvosai, My commandments, chukosai, My statutes, v’sorosai, and My Torahs. That’s all plural. He kept so many things. Now where did Avraham have so many things? He only had the seven mitzvos of the bnei noach as far as we know, but here we’re learning that he had a whole list – not just a list of mitzvos, but a list of categories of mitzvos, with sublists and details beneath the headings. And that means he had a host of commandments, more than we could imagine. But from where did he have them?And the answer is Avraham learned all these mitzvos from his mind! Avraham was busy thinking and he was able to elicit from his mind all the great principles. The truth of a Creator was only the first step for Avraham; it was only the beginning of the ideals that Avraham Avinu drew forth from the well of his mind. Just like he cultivated from his mind the idea, the concept, that there’s a Creator, he also drew forth thousands of other principles. He developed from his mind a complete system of how to perceive the world; how to live life, how to think, how to serve Hashem. From his own mind, he deduced all the great truths of reality. He understood the greatness of mankind and that man does not live just for this little life alone. He understood that the great and noble aspirations in a man’s soul must be a preparation for something infinitely more important and more eternal than this life itself.But not only did Avraham Avinu discover these principles and many like them, but he discovered from his own mind the principles of proper behavior, of how to serve Hashem. The laws of the Torah, the attitudes that the Torah demands of us, Avraham Avinu was able to draw forth from the depths of his mind because the human mind has in it such wisdom. And that’s what Avraham taught his children, he taught them to think. And it was with this attitude, this ideal of using the mind to know how to serve Hashem, with which the Am Yisroel came to Har Sinai.THE ONLY ANCIENT SOURCE OF TRUTHThat’s how it was with everything in ancient times. The criterion for them was, “Does my mindobligate me in this law? Does my conscience tell me that it’s forbidden or permitted? Is that action mandatory upon me to fulfill?” And so whenever any problem ever arose, any question of behavior, so what was the criterion by which they judged? It was – “Does my seichel tell me that it’s right or wrong?” And once they probed the depths of their minds and they came to a decision, it was to them the word of Hashem, and they were ready to give their lives for it. They could stake their lives on the psak din of their seichel. Their mind was their Shulchan Aruch. That was the final arbiter; the final authority was their seichel. And therefore they became the most independent of nations. It was a nation that lived by reason and by logic. They were one little family, in a world of great and powerful nations all who served idols and lived according to magic and superstition. The entire world was steeped in the conviction that magic ceremonies and the worship of images were the cause of prosperity, health and all good things. It required an enormous stubbornness in order to remain loyal to the traditions of Avraham their ancestor and to resist the prevailing influence of the world in which they lived. The family was trained to ridicule the claims of the idolaters that boasted of “miracles” wrought by their gods; even the children were reared with the attitude that such tales were false, and they laughed at the world.The Bnei Yisroel turned their backs on the world; they turned inwards to their own minds, and they relied on their clear and unadulterated thinking to make their way in this world. That’s how it was for the hundreds of years down to Mattan Torah. Everything was judged not by authority but on its own merits. Does my reason tell me it’s right? Or does my reason tell me it’s wrong? The mind of man, the unadulterated seichel, that’s the only source of truth.Part II. The Cheit Ha’eigelSOCIALISM COMES TO AMERICAAnd then suddenly Moshe Rabeinu appears on the scene and he wants to turn everything upside down on its head. He says, “Are you ready to receive a Torah?” Now they understood what a Torah meant. A Torah meant hachna’ah, it meant humility. It means to subject your mind to what an authority is going to command you. Of course, it’s Hashem’s authority. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is the One who is giving the orders, “Do this,” “You can’t do this,” “You must think so and so.” But even so, it’s not the seichel anymore, it’s not my own clear mind directing my way in life. It’s Someone else telling me what to do and think. It’s Somebody with a capital S, but it’s still not my own mind. And don’t think that such a thing comes easy to the independent minds of the Bnei Yisroel, because immediately they have their own ideas. The mind rebels at being subjected and subjugated to the mind of another. And many of them thought, at least in the back of their minds, “If it was good up till now, if our seichel was sufficient, why can’t we continue as is?”It’s like telling a liberal today that private property is a sacred concept. Let’s say he’s been reading Karl Marx. He’s been considering the “problems” with capitalism; he’s studying other kinds of societies to understand socialism. Or today he can even study American society to study socialism. The government today is engaged in a great socialistic activity. It’s soaking the rich in order to give to the poor. That’s what’s happening now. It’s a slow form of socialism. It’s gradual, but there’s been a big revolution in the last fifty years (this was said in 1980). They’re taking from the rich and so all incentive is taken away from making big money. The incentive to build businesses and to propel the economy here in America is being whittled away by the liberals. Many people are retiring because what’s the purpose of earning money if it all goes to the government! And who’s going to get your hard earned money anyway? Vagrants, people who don’t want to work.Entire populations of loafers are being maintained in the big cities; shiftless people, some of them are criminals – a big percentage are criminals – and they don’t want to work. It doesn’t pay for them to work. Why should they bother going to work if they can sit home and government money supports them? And therefore there’s a great wave of socialism today. Everything is now based on this idea. Of course they wouldn’t admit it’s Karl Marx, because they know that his name reminds people of the false promises of the past, but there’s no question it’s a socialistic attitude. LAW ABIDING GANGSTERSOf course some people might smile when they hear this. But they’re naive, that’s all. They don’t realize that they’ve been hoodwinked gradually over a long period of time. The prevailing idea is to soak the rich in order to distribute it to the poor, and they’re so accustomed to it that if you tell them today there’s such a thing as private property, and that private property and a person’s hard earned money is sacred, that concept is alien to their minds today. The fact that a man has amassed fortune – he has a lot of land and he has a lot of money in the bank, and you’d like to have some of it, that doesn’t mean you have a right to take it. Even if you do it by means of the rule of law, it means it’s brigandage by law. If the law would give you the right to take a gun and make a holdup, that’s no excuse. And that’s what the law does today. It actually does that.But if you try to tell that to a college student today, he would laugh at you. Their minds have been made so crooked by their professors that they cringe when they hear you mention private property, or capitalism. Because their minds have already been sold on foolishness. It’s very difficult for him to subject his mind to the truth, once he’s been sold on socialism. And therefore when they hear you explain the wickedness of their ideals, they object and it’s difficult for them to accept what you’re saying.THE ICE CREAM OF THE COLLEGESBut that’s only today when people are weak-minded and shallow; and stupid people can be sold stupid ideas like socialism. Today’s youth are so crooked that a professor can feed them lies like socialism, evolution and atheism, and they think that they’ve found gold! It’s like a man who is eating manure and he tells you it’s ice-cream! And he believes it! What can you do with a person so crooked?!But our forefathers didn’t have crooked heads. They lived naturally; their minds were sold on the truth and they knew that their minds were to be relied upon. And because their minds were unsullied by reading the New York Times editorials, they knew that they were able to think clearly. They were sold on true ideals, on ideas that made sense. Of course that meant that they were considering what Hakadosh Baruch Hu wanted them to do. But it came from their own minds, their unsullied attitudes. They were sold on using pure seichel to do good in this world.ACCEPTING THE NEW SYSTEMAnd it was this independent minded people, a people who had always lived with what was hatov vehayashar, good and straight in their own eyes, who were now encamped at Har Sinai. And suddenly these people were told to accept an entire system that wasn’tfounded on their own reasoning. Chukim u’mishpatim. The chukim they surely didn’t understand why they were commanded to do. And that’s a great part of the Torah. You can’t eat this, you can’t do this, and you can’t wear this. You have to refrain from work at certain times. All kinds of prohibitions and very many of them had no explanation at all.And even the mishpatim that seem to have an explanation are often arbitrary. The Torah doesn’t give you any leeway to adjust to circumstances because of what you might think is good. We’re told that in general this mishpat is good and we understand the reason for it, but in a certain situation it doesn’t apply, so you want to adjust, make changes. No! It’s an ironclad rule, the Torah is putting us in a straight jacket.And yet, they didn’t balk at the offer. They accepted it, and they became nichna. They were anavim; they were humbled because of the great gratitude they felt – the experience of having lived through Yetzias Mitzrayim after such a long and bitter bondage, and the triumphant march through the Yam Suf. ואחרי כן יצאו ברכוש גדול, they saw Hashem’s revenge flood their enemies, while they were inundated with a flood of wealth. That caused a great happiness to them and they sang a song of gratitude that will never end; Az Yashir, we’re still singing that song of gratitude today. And so when the time came, they said, “We are humbling ourselves before Hashem, and we give up our own minds. From now on we’ll think only according to the guidelines of the Torah.”THERE ARE LIONS IN THE SYNAGOGUE!And now we come back to the eigel; with the above introductionwe can begin to unravel the puzzle of the cheit eigel. The Torah says לא תעשה לך פסל, that you shouldn’t make graven images. That’s something everyone here understands. You know I had a call recently from a fellow. He told me on the telephone that Hashem appeared to him and told him three things. One of them was he shouldn’t make graven images, and he was telling me that that’s why he can’t go to a synagogue. He said that there are graven images in the synagogue. He saw two lions holding up the tablets of the aseres hadibros and therefore he won’t go into a place where there are graven images. So you see that even a meshugenehunderstands what Hashem said at Har Sinai; no graven images allowed.That’s what our forefathers were told by Hakadosh Baruch Hu. “You shouldn’t make an image of Me or anything that resembles Me,” which means you can’t make an image of the sun, or the moon or the stars. You can’t make an image of human beings or animals, and you cannot do any kind of service in connection with an image. And this was part of the Torah for which they said נעשה ונשמע; they accepted it.THE GREAT MAN IS LATE?!And now they’re standing around Har Sinai, they just accepted everything, and Moshe tells them he’s going up on the top of the mountain into the clouds, and he’s going to bring down the stone tablets that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is giving them. Moshe promised them that he’d return in forty days and then he disappeared into a cloud. Now the faithful people were waiting impatiently because he was their beloved leader, he’s the one who would lead them to the Promised Land. He was their ish elokim,the one who stood for them as their conduit, their go-between, to Hashem. And now he disappeared alone on top of a mountain. He didn’t take along any provisions with him, nothing to eat, and he walked into the midst of a fire. There was a fire burning on the top of the mountain and he disappeared into that fire. And so they were concerned about him. Even the first day there was a big worry, would he come out alive? They were hoping, but they weren’t sure. You read it without any worries at all because you remember the end of the story from last year. But they didn’t have the Torah already like you do; they didn’t know what had happened to their leader. They were in a panic, כי זה משה האיש לא ידענו מה היה לו “for this man Moshe that brought us up from Egypt, we know not what happened to him” (Ki Sisa 32:1). And so now, at the end of forty days they were standing and counting the seconds. “Where is Moshe our teacher?! Where is Moshe our leader?! Where is Moshe the one who is the intermediary between us and Hashem?!” And the minutes were passing by and there was no Moshe. They knew he was punctual. Punctuality is one of the virtues of great men, and he had promised. The hours were passing by and וירא העם כי בושש משה, “They saw that Moshe was already late.” And they knew that the only reason Moshe Rabeinu would be late is if he was dead. That’s what they said. “If he was alive, he wouldn’t be late.”And therefore a panic now took hold of the camp. Moshe is gone! What’s going to happen to us?! He took us out of Egypt but now we’re leaderless in the desert. We are embarked on the great course of history, the entrance of the Am Hashem into Eretz Cana’an, the land of milk and honey, where we want to build a holy nation, and now it has all collapsed in a tragedy of unequalled proportions. It would be impossible to enter a land that’s populated by big and powerful peoples living in fortified cities, without the Ish Elokim to lead us. What will happen to us? We’ll perish in the wilderness. We must immediately set up a lifeline to connect us to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. There’s no other solution! Moshe Rabeinu was our lifeline and he’s gone! What else can we do?!AM YISROEL STUDIES THE MA’ASEH MERKAVAHShould we make an image of Moshe? This we wouldn’t do. An image of a human being we couldn’t do. But we need something, a symbol, a substitute for Moshe Rabeinu upon which the Presence of Hashem should rest. And we have to get busy now and start petitioning from Hashem; we have to start bringing offerings and praying to Hashem that He should redeem us from our plight. And so they reminded themselves that when the Yam Suf was split and Pharaoh’s army was being drowned, they saw a vision. In that vision they saw the heavenly chariot. It’s depicted in the book of Yechezkel Hanavi. The chariot had on it four figures, and one of the figures was the figure of an ox. There was a figure of a man, a figure of an eagle, and a figure of an ox, and there was a figure of a kruv, a certain kind of malach. Now to make a figure of a man, that would be too bold. Even a k’ruv they didn’t want, that would also be too much; it’s playing with fire. And therefore they decided they would make a figure of an ox, a golden ox, and it would be the place for the Presence of Hashem to rest. It was an endeavor to bring nearer to them the Shechina, just like we find later on, when the Shechina rested between the golden k’ruvim. And could it be so wrong? After all, that’s what they saw of Hashem in that heavenly chariot, in the vision at Kriyas Yam Suf.Now, the good ones said, “How could you do such a thing? Didn’t we just accept the Torah where Hashem told us that we shouldn’t make any images?” But there were other people there too who had other ideas, especially the eirev rav, who had recently converted. You know, a great number of noble Egyptians had gone out of Mitzrayim with them. And the eirev rav was not the riffraff of Egypt. It was the elite, the nobility. The best people of Egypt went out with them, and these people said “Look, what do you do in the case of emergency? You must make some leeway. You must make some allowances. And therefore, although Hashem said that we shouldn’t make images but this is an emergency now. The people are panicking and they’ll start dispersing too. Some will return to Egypt if you don’t do something in a hurry. So let’s make an image of a golden ox, otherwise all is lost. We’re leaderless and we have to connect to Hashem.”THANKSGIVING: ECHOES OF THE CHEIT HA’EIGELIn Egypt they had seen such a thing. In Egypt they worshipped Apis, a sacred bull as an intermediary between themselves and the more powerful gods. They had other gods too; the baboon, the crocodile, the snake – but one of the gods was the bull. And so the eirev rav resorted to methods which they had known before joining our people. Like new converts frequently think, they were confident that they could improve the Am Yisroel by applying ideas and methods which they brought from their former environment. They thought they could restore the people’s courage by making an image dedicated to Hashem, and by dancing and celebrating in its honor as did all the nations.So they said, “We had such a thing in Egypt, so we’ll do it here too. Only that we’ll do it in a kosher way.” Like some Jews say, “Let’s celebrate Thanksgiving, only we’ll do it in a kosher way, with a koshercaterer, and we’ll do it with birkas hamazon with yarmulkes on our heads. And we can be the best Jews possible and still do like the gentiles do.” Kosher gentiles! And so that’s what they said there too. “Let’s celebrate the worship of Hashem with a golden ox like they do in Egypt, only that they worship the ox; but we worship only Hashem. The ox is only a symbol for us.”THE SIN OF NOT PROTESTINGNow the good ones said no, but the converts of Egypt insisted – desperate times call for desperate measures – and they went ahead and did it. And the people didn’t prevent them. The people could have prevented them. There were only three thousand that were dancing around the eigel – those are the three thousand who were subsequently executed when Moshe returned. The rest of the people didn’t dance around the eigel, only that they allowed it to take place. That was their sin, that they allowed it to take place. The question is why did they allow it to take place? It was because their minds were still functioning! They still followed logic! And they saw there was some logic to what these people were saying. It’s true that they had accepted the Torah but they still left a little space to manipulate with their own minds. “True, Hashem said לא תעשה לך פסל, we shouldn’t make any figures, but in a case like this, it’s for Hashem and we mean it lesheim shamayim. And we’re not doing it ourselves; we’re letting them do it because they’re accustomed to such things from Egypt. And it’s needed anyhow.” And therefore they permitted it.WE ACCEPTED MORE THAN LAWS AT SINAI“Oh no!” Hakadosh Baruch Hu said, “Then you didn’t receive the Torah fully.” You neglected the most integral point of Mattan Torah! Because what was the defining aspect of na’asehv’nishma that didn’t exist before Har Sinai? After all, the Am Yisroel, long before Sinai, were ma’aminim bnei ma’aminim. Avraham Avinu was the rosh hama’aminim and he taught it to his children. כי ידעתיו – “I know him,” said Hashem, למען אשר יצוה את בניו ואת ביתו אחריו ושמרו דרך השם – And I know that he will teach his children to keep the way of Hashem” (Bereishis 18:19). And the Bnei Yisroel did that – they guarded the way of Hashem always.So what new service did they accept when they came to Har Sinai? It wasn’t just more laws, more details. What changed was that they accepted to be nichnato Hashem in all these details; they accepted the principle that they would stop using their minds, their minds that had until now guided their way in life, and that from now on they would think only what Hashem wants them to think. That was the crux of kabolas hatorah, the defining aspect of Kabolas Hatorah that didn’t exist before Har Sinai.WHAT DOES ANOCHI MEAN?And that commitment of the Am Yisroel to be nichna was encapsulated as a way of life for us, in the first of the Aseres Hadibros. Because when we heard the first three words of the Aseres Hadibros we were being taught are an entirely new attitude. Anochi Hashem Elokecha. What do those words demand of us? It’s a commandment after all, but we don’t see any command here. Pass by any synagogue, or even here, and ask them, “What is the command of Anochi Hashem Elokecha?” and you might very well get a blank stare. Or maybe he’ll hem and haw, and tell you something vague.So we’ll say here that it’s a commandment to know that He is Hashem. Now, to know that He is Hashem seems to be a very inclusive command; if we wished we could include the entire Torah in it. So we won’t go so far; we’ll limit ourselves now to one of the most important meanings of Anochi HashemElokecha. And that is “I am Hashem your model.”Anochi Hashem Elokecha, “I am Hashem your model,” is the command of the Torah; not only that you should know that I am Hashem your G-d, but you should know what I think, and think along with Me. That was what Kabolas Hatorah really meant. We give up our own thoughts, our baby thoughts, and we rise to the thoughts of the Supreme Intelligence and think His thoughts. And those are the attitudes and ideals that we adopt as our own.“CERTAINLY YOU’RE A BLIND SHEEP!”Now, right away, modern people, the self proclaimed intelligentsia, bridle when I say this; they become impatient with me, and they come out with a protest, “You want us to accept everything blindly, to stop using our minds?!” Like once a modern Orthodox rabbi said to me; when I said that we have to follow the gedolei Yisroel so he said, “Are we blind sheep?” So I said, “Yes. You’re a blind sheep; certainly you’re a blind sheep.” No question about it; we’re all blind sheep.And it was at Har Sinai that we agreed that we were blind, and we made a covenant that we’re going to subject our minds to Hashem. Moshe Rabeinu came and said to the people, “I have an offer for you; from now on you have to put on this straight jacket and accept the Torah in all its details. You’ll have to be machni’a and sacrifice your own minds to Hashem’s from here on in.” That’s what Moshe’s proposed to the Am Yisroel. Because what is the Torah after all, if not the thoughts of Hashem? And that’s what accepting the Torah meant. You have to be humble towards Hashem and say that your mind is nothing; from now on I’m going to think with the thought processes of the Torah, and nothing else.And that was extremely difficult. It was a very great sacrifice for them. You know, people can sacrifice their physical liberty sometimes. A person can sign himself away for six years, “I’ll be a bonded servant to you for this and this amount of time.” They can do that. It’s only a physical body after all. But to sacrifice your mind, to sign your thinking away to someone else, that’s already beyond the ability of a thinking people. And even if they do sign on the dotted line, they continue to rebel in the recesses of their mind. They rebel against that bondage of having to think a certain way.THE WORST FORM OF BONDAGEMental bondage is the worst kind of bondage, and that’s what Moshe Rabeinu was presenting to them at Har Sinai. He was offering the most independent minded people to ever walk this earth, the opportunity to give up their most precious possession, their freedom to think. Now if it had been the Egyptians, or maybe the Edomites or Greek nation – any one of the the nations of the world – they could have much more readily accepted that, because they didn’t live by seichel anyhow. They didn’t live by the strict ideas, the strict precepts of the mind. They lived with a hodgepodge of emotions and arbitrary ideas, different gods for different situations; there wasn’t much seichel there, and I’m being gracious when I say that. But the Am Yisroel obeyed the Shulchan Aruch of the mind, the Torah of their conscience, and here suddenly they were told to give it up, to drop it all, and to accept a criterion that was not understandable and not based on their own judgment.And so when the Am Yisroel said “We will do and we will listen,” included in that – actually the most important component of that -was the commitment to think along with Hashem. And that’s why this commitment was set in stone, the stone of the Aseres Hadibros, with the words Anochi Hashem Elokecha: “Think along with Me. Forever and ever, I am to be your model.”Part III. Living by HashemTHINK WHAT HASHEM THINKSNow how can anybody know what Hashem is thinking? Isn’t that ridiculous for a basar v’damto aspire to know? And the truth is that it’s none of our business. But what He wants us to think that He’s thinking, that’s what He wrote in the Torah. He wants us to think according to what He wrote in the Torah. Our career in this world is to adopt the attitudes of Hakodosh Boruch Hu as our own. And Hashem was now going to provide us a model. Anochi! “I am the only model; follow me!” And once we understand that we have a model like Hakodosh Boruch Hu, and that we’re expected to think like Him, that already opens for us a career in life. Hashem’s perfect thoughts are infinite, and therefore we have to get busy thinking along with the Torah. To mold our minds into Torah minds, minds that work according to the guidelines of Hashem’s thoughts is a lifetime of work, and the sooner you get started, the better you can mold your thoughts.Now, the examples of how Hashem thinks are endless, but we’ll mention just a few of them so that we can understand more clearly what’s expected of us. You’ll forgive me if I step on somebody’s toes, but it’s a commandment, Anochi Hashem Elokecha, and we have to know what Hashem is thinking.DO YOU LOVE BIRDS?When it comes to eating, anybody who is a vegetarian on principle, on principle if he thinks it’s wrong to take the life of an animal just to eat meat, that person is in opposition to the principles of the Torah. The Torah teaches us that animals are given to man to use. Anybody who is a vegetarian on principle is using his own mind, and he’s proud and arrogant against the Torah. The Jewish nation is humble to the Torah, and we understand that that’s good for us. That’s what the Torah wants and therefore it’s right. Because the Torah says openly that it is permitted to eat meat. And so, if he thinks that it’s wrong to eat meat, so his thinking is not in coincidence with the principles of the Torah.Now, if a person feels that it’s better for his health to be a vegetarian, that’s something else. We have no quarrel with him. It doesn’t mean that he’s right, but still, we’re not interested in quarreling with him about that. But if he does it on principle, if he says it’s wrong to eat meat; he says that he loves birds and it’s morally wrong to eat poultry – then he’s an apikores, he’s not a Jew. He cannot be a Jew and have a principled stance against the Torah. The Torah teaches that the earth has been given by Hashem to human beings in general, and then to the Jewish people. Now, we also love birds! We love birds when they’re served, let’s say, as roasted chicken. We love those kind of birds. We want chickens to increase and multiply; why not? We want pigeons to increase. Pigeons are also delectable to eat. Did you ever eat a roasted pigeon? It tastes good too. It’s a kosher bird; why not? Anybody who goes overboard for animals shows that he doesn’t have Torah in his mind. He’s lacking a Torah mind. And therefore, anyone who questions the right of mankind to use the flesh of animals, is questioning the authority of the Torah; that person hasn’t yet fulfilled the mitzvah of Anochi Hashem Elokecha.GO TO WORK!You know, today the work ethic has been forgotten in many places. It’s considered not necessary to work. To get by without work. The Torah teaches us work is a virtue. Everybody must work. Unless you’re studying Torah, but otherwise you must work. Torah is also work. But to be idle is a crime. Idleness is considered by the Torah the same as wickedness. For a child to be home and be supported by a parent, not to go to school, is a wickedness. The parent doesn’t report him to the truant officer either?!The child is a loafer and now what’s going to become of him? He’ll become a criminal eventually. So the parents who don’t know what Hashem says about work, so they make excuses. They’re persuaded by their children, persuaded by their neighbors that it’s possible for children not to work, and they become failures.But those who live by the Torah, by Hashem’s thoughts, they’re not going to change that principle. It doesn’t matter what sheker the New York Times floods the world with. The New York Times wants you to think that a loafer who says he’s a writer, he sits in his apartment all day thinking about how he’ll become a famous author one day, that’s a real hero. Or the man who wants to play music. He walks the streets with pride wearing his guitar on his back. He expects everyone to look at him with esteem; he’s a musician after all so he must be filled with noble thoughts.But we look at him with disdain because forever and ever we stand by the Torah principle that גדולה מלאכה, that everybody must be busy with something. גדולה מלאכה – “How great is work, שמכבדת את בעליה – it uplifts the person, it makes something out of him” (Nedarim 49b). There’s no such thing as not working. It’s good for your neshama to work, it molds your character when you’re forced to do things against your will. Of course, you’d like to do nothing and pick the dollars off the trees. “Ahh, if only money grew on bushes,” you think. But we don’t care what you think; we care only about what Hashem thinks. And we know that He told our first father, Adam Harishon ,בזיעת אפיך תאכל לחם – “You’ll have to drip with the sweat of your face in order to eat bread” (Bereishis 3:19). And we look at the world through the eyes of Hakodosh Boruch Hu.SCHOOL SHOOTINGSWe’ll take another concept. Spanking children. In Sweden they passed a law recently outlawing the spanking of children. A child can bring suit against his parent for spanking him. That’s “wonderful” progress in the history of mankind, and there are a lot of lunatics in America who agree to that. Of course spanking has long been outlawed in the public schools, and that’s why you have murderers. Teachers are murdered in school. Teachers are attacked and murdered in schools in America. A boy goes into a school today with a gun and he’s shooting people in the hallways. Shooting people in school. The Torah blames the parents for not spanking the children. When I was in school – I went to school once – it was permitted to spank. There was only a regulation how thick the ruler has to be, and spanking was administered only by the principal. Those were the rules. And so they took you out to the principal’s office and he delivered. He gave a spanking, and it was effective. They didn’t murder any teachers in those days.Now if you’ll listen to the principles of the Torah, the Torah tells us to spank. It’s in the Torah. It’s not in the chumash; actually if you look in the chumash, you’ll find it too, but it’s written openly only in the peirushon the chumash. That’s where Shlomo Hamelech says איוולת קשורה בלב נער – “Wickedness is innately tied into the mind of a child” (Mishlei 22:15). Wickedness, foolishness, is in a child’s mind. A child is full of foolishness. How can you separate the foolishness from the child? So he says how do you separate the chaff from the wheat? You thrash the wheat, don’t you? You thresh the wheat. שבט מוסר ירחיקנה ממנו – “The rod of instruction will separate the foolishness from the child” (ibid.) You must have spanking. Of course, if you don’t know how to use discretion, that’s not a sheivet mussar; it’s just wildness, hefkeirus. But the sheivet mussar of Shlomo Hamelech, the spanking of the Torah, remains the truth forever and ever no matter what the blue ribbon committees tell you.This movement against corporal punishment is a terrible crime against the experience of mankind, and that’s why you have such a wicked generation today. They never felt a father’s strap on their backside, and so the results are the street today. Those children who were privileged to be spanked by their father are lucky because they learned great lessons by means of the piece of leather.WHAT HASHEM ADMIRESSomebody who thinks like Hashem understands the greatness of having children, of large families. Somebody who fulfills Anochi Hashem Elokecha,his mind functions differently than the outside world, it functions properly, and he considers having children not only a duty, but a privilege. It’s a great happiness to have offspring, and we know that by doing this, we are living virtuously, not selfishly. With a houseful of children your life is devoted to others. You’re giving the gift and the opportunity of life to others, and your entire life is spent giving to others.And it’s not only the mother and the father who are obligated to think like Hashem. Anybody walking the street is obligated to think along with Hashem. So you see a woman pushing a baby carriage, and inside are two babies, and six more holding onto the sides, so you admire that – because Hashem admires that! Raising a future family of ovdei Hashem, of bnei Torah, of mothers, of fathers, of ohaveiHashem! We admire that; we see this mother and we consider her a princess. Now she’s dressed very plainly. There’s nothing to admire in the way the gentiles would look at her. She’s busy and she’s worried. Her mind is occupied – raising a family means many responsibilities. Nevertheless we don’t look at the world through the eyes of the goyim. The false exterior means nothing to you if you think along with the thoughts of Hashem. You see what’s being done here, what’s being accomplished. Hakodosh Boruch Hu desires a nation that is multiplying itself. And therefore anyone who is succeeding in this tremendous endeavor should arouse admiration within you.WE ARE NOT THE JUDGESNow this is an entirely new field – I say “new” because it’s new to most people. But it’s a field of endeavor that we must learn to undertake because that is what Hakodosh Boruch Hu meant when He gave us the Torah. Many people have lost sight of the original concepts of thinking like Hashem thinks, but with Torah we don’t yield to what people write, to what the radio plays and to what the television displays. We don’t yield to suggestions from the street. We humble our mind before the Torah and therefore we maintain as much as we possibly can all the great concepts, the thoughts of Hashem, to this day.And that’s only the beginning. There are 10,000 other subjects that I could talk about because the thoughts of Hashem encompass everything in the world. And we’re not going to be arrogant enough to think on our own once Hashem has already revealed what He thinks. We’re not arbiters and judges of what’s right and wrong. Forever and ever our minds follow the dictates of the Torah in every detail. We study the Torah, the seforim, we listen to the Torah leaders, and we see what is the right way to think, and we mold our minds according to those guidelines. And that’s called humility. Humility means that your mind is nothing now.And that gives us a key to unlock the enigma of the cheit ha’eigel. Because what happened then was that they hadn’t fully incorporated into their own attitudes the first of the Aseres Hadibros that they had heard from the mouth of Hashem only days earlier. Anochi Hashem Elokecha! Those words were a direction to the Am Yisroel to adopt an entirely new attitude. To receive the Torah meant to be humble. You have to be nichna which means you declare your mind to be in service of Hashem. That’s the true humility, that the mind should accept the Torah without any exceptions, without any explanations and excuses. לא תעשה לך פסל – “You shouldn’t make any images” means you shouldn’t make any images period.THE EIREV RAV: THE FIRST “LAMDANIM”And so Hashem said, “Now you’re reverting to your old ways of using your mind and saying במה דברים אמורים – “It was only talking about a different type of situation.” Or חסורי מחסרא והכי קתני – “You have to read the words like this; it means something else.” All kinds of explanations and excuses to say it doesn’t apply here and this case is different. “Had Hakadosh Baruch Hu known that this is going to happen, He would have allowed us to do it,” they said. Oh no! No, there’s none of that business. No excuses! The Torah is given over to you without your prerogative to manipulate it. You can’t finagle on Torah. This is it. Once and for all you’re going to accept a new way of thinking, and that’s it; no ifs ands or buts. And that was their sin, that they hadn’t surrendered their minds to Hashem’s word, to Hashem’s thoughts completely.You can’t make any deviation this way or that way. Maybe you think something else would be better? Nothing doing! You must say, “Who cares what I think?!” That’s humility. Humility means our minds don’t function. Of course they do function, but they function only according to thoughts of Hashem.Torah is the best kind of thinking and it helps our minds to develop, but the foundation is subjugating our thoughts to His. Our minds must be humbled before the thoughts of the Torah and not operate on our own conscience; we think and act only within the guidelines of Hashem. And that’s called service of Hashem, to be humbled before Hakadosh Baruch Hu so greatly, so intensely, that your mind is willing to accept everything.TIMES HAVE NOT CHANGEDOnce you accept the Torah, your mind is going to think only according to the teachings of the Torah. And even though it might seem to you that times have changed, maybe ideas should be changed now, but we are humbled before Hashem, and we made the commitment, na’aseh v’nishma, to be humble before Him forever and ever. That’s the nation of anavim. That’s the hallmark of the Am Yisroel. We are bent over before the Torah, before the majesty of the Torah ideals, and we’re always listening to the Torah and trying to think according to the directives that the Torah gives us.And it was the cheit ha’eigel, and its punishment that reverberates through all the generations, that impresses upon us forever the importance of remaining loyal to the thoughts of Hashem in all of their details. And when Moshe Rabeinu finally came down from the mountain, he took the most extreme reaction possible: “And I broke the luchos before your eyes” (Devarim 9:17). “You’re not ready for Anochi Hashem Elokecha yet. If you want to alter even a small detail of the Torah, if you want to rely in any way on your own way of thinking, then that’s already a destruction of the whole Torah, and there’s no need for the luchos at all.”CREATING A TORAH MINDAnd it was this most extreme reaction of Moshe Rabeinu that impressed upon the nation forever the urgency of complying precisely with the law. When the people witnessed the miraculous luchos, engraved by the finger of Hashem Himself, dashed on the rocks to pieces, they were taught forever the urgency of fearing every detail of the law, because every detail is the thought of Hashem, and even the slightest of deviations is a deviation from the only truth in this world.And when we read in the Torah about this incident of so many years ago, we impress upon our minds the same lesson that they learned when they saw the words Anochi Hashem Elokechashatter before their eyes; that we must forever consult the Mind of Hashem, the infinite Intelligence, and only by means of Hashem’s thoughts are our minds perfected. And by means of a lifetime of perfecting our minds, by constantly thinking the thoughts of Hashem and guarding our minds against any adulteration of His perfect thoughts, we prepare ourselves for the great day when we will stand before Hashem and present to Him the culmination of our life work, the creation of a Torah mind.Go Back See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

• Chassidus Applied to Tu B’Shevat and Yisro 0:31 • How do you answer this question: If G-d gave the Torah today, would it be very different than the one given 3300 years ago to primitive people? 13:05 • Does a Torah abiding Jew need therapy? 20:31 • How do we even begin relating to a G-d that seems so beyond us? 29:13 • How should we be promoting the Seven Noachide laws? 36:54 • After a major life crisis, how do you begin living again? 43:15 • Explain a seeming contradiction whether the Holocaust was a punishment for Jewish sins. 48:58 • Follow-up (episodes 242): o Nursing 56:18 o Singing 56:18 • Chassidus question How does Chassidus explain why Mattan Torah at Sinai happened only after Yisro acknowledged G-d, and what is its application to life today? 58:43 • My Life 2018 essays: o Escape Consumerism Before IT Consumes YOU, Liad Braude, 27, Jerusalem, Israel 01:02:00 o The Right Balance between Matter and Spirit, Ziv Kochba, 31, Israel, Haifa, Israel 01:03:48 o To Be or Not To Be, Dovi Oirechman, 26, Lod, Israel 01:05:34

Part 6 of the Avot to Mattan Torah series www.aribergmann.com

5th class in the "Avot to Mattan Torah" series A deeper understanding of the Genesis of the Abrahamic Religions www.aribergmann.com

Rabbi Dr. Ari Bergmann brings you to a deeper understanding of the Genesis of the Abrahamic Religions and of our Masorah.

Rabbi Dr. Ari Bergmann brings you to a deeper understanding of the Genesis of the Abrahamic Religions and of our Masorah. Recorded live at Young Israel of Woodmere 11-4-17