The Complete Bible Crash Course: Book of Exodus
00:01 - Intro (Announcement)
You're listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe, director of TORCH, The Torah Outreach Resource Center of Houston. This is the Jewish Inspiration Podcast.
00:12 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
Hi, welcome back. Good evening everybody. Welcome back to the complete Bible Crash Course. Today we're going to learn about the book of Exodus Now. Last week we talked about the book of Genesis. The book of Genesis is focused on the family of Israel, but the book of Exodus is focused on the nation of Israel. We spoke about the fundamentals of Judaism that we saw from Abraham, isaac and Jacob and the tribes and Joseph and the beginning of our exile in Egypt, and now we're about to start talking about the revelation that the Jewish people experienced.
00:57
Now, if you look in the book of Exodus and you study it well, you'll see that you have to wait till the fifth portion of the book of Exodus in the parasha of Yisro to see the revelation of Mount Sinai. But the truth is, our sages tell us that all of the trials and tribulations, all of the challenges that the Jewish people experienced in Egypt, was all part of the revelation at Mount Sinai. What does that mean? Sometimes, like we just mentioned in our prayer podcast, god brings about challenges so that we can grow from them. Sometimes, god will give us difficulties so that we pray, so that we connect, that we elevate ourselves and we bring ourselves to higher levels. The Jewish people could never be the chosen nation had they not experienced slavery, had they not experienced spiritual abyss, a complete destruction of their spiritual state. Now that they experienced it, that they were the absolute bottom of the barrel, now they can be the leaders of the world. Now they can be the chosen nation, because to be a chosen nation doesn't mean you're privileged. To be a chosen nation means you're more responsible. That means you need to look out for the downtrodden. That means that you're held to a higher standard and as the people who've experienced the greatest amount of trials and tribulations of any nation on planet Earth. Only when we've experienced that can we have proper empathy for other nations, can we care and be concerned for other people who are downtrodden. So part of our greatness is our challenge, the challenges that we see in these first four portions of the Jewish people, in Shamos, in Vaera, in Bo and Bishalach, and we see the Avodakasha, the difficult toil that they were subjected to. This was a tremendous part of their becoming great. And if we look into our own lives, how many times, if we look back in our honest will, we see that the biggest troubles was our greatest blessing, and that's why the Torah gives so much emphasis to the challenges the Jewish people experienced, because this is the essence, the foundation of our greatness.
04:01
So we mentioned in Genesis there are 12 portions. Genesis is the first book that we discussed last week. There are 50 chapters and 1,534 verses. In the book of Exodus there are 11 portions, 40 chapters and 1,209 verses, as you see on the bottom of your sheets, of your handouts. So there are 11 portions. The 11 portions are Shamos, vaera, bo, bishalach, yisro, mishpatim, tiruma, tetsave, kisisa and Pekude, and we're going to, hopefully, throughout today's lesson, go through each of these incredible and important portions.
04:48
So the first four portions are dealing with the Jews in Egypt. The first of those four deals with enslavement and this is the generation passes. Pharaoh is worried and he plots against the Jewish people. He's concerned that the Jewish people are going to be so powerful, they're going to be so strong. What are we going to do? Pharaoh is worried, so he plots that he's got to take the Jewish people down and infanticide becomes the law of the land. This is born. The princess of Pharaoh finds and raises Moses. So the savior of the Jewish people grows inside the actual palace that's going to put out the edict against the Jewish people. The Messiah, our sages tell us, the Redeemer from our challenges in this generation, is here already. He's among us. We just have to merit for him to be revealed.
05:57
Moses feels the suffering of his people. This is the number one quality that is required from a leader. A leader who mocks his people, who are suffering, who don't have jobs, who don't have livelihood, is not a leader. But a leader who can't sleep at night because I need more jobs for my people, my people need dignity, my people need livelihood, my people are suffering. That's a true leader.
06:32
And Moshe? He was in the house of Pharaoh. He grew up, he had all the luxuries you can imagine. By the way, just so that you understand and put things into perspective, we can agree or disagree that America is the superpower of the world and that time Egypt was. It was the superpower of the world where the luxury, the lavish lifestyle that people lived then was well beyond any other nation on earth. The wealthiest nation on earth was Egypt.
07:10
And where did Moses grow up? Inside the palace of Pharaoh. For him to step outside and to see the pain of his people, to feel it. It says Vayar Bissevlosim. He saw their pain, he saw their plight. So he beseeches God please help the people, help your people. He flees to Midyan. Moses marries Sephora and the time for salvation has come. Moses the shepherd and liberator.
07:45
Now it's interesting that you will see that Moses, abraham, isaac and Jacob were all shepherds. Joseph was a shepherd, moses was a shepherd, aaron was a shepherd, king David was a shepherd. Why is it important for a shepherd quality? What's the quality of a shepherd? That that is who the leaders of the Jewish people are. So a shepherd, if you've ever seen one, I actually had the privilege.
08:12
When I was about 16 years old, I went to a place called Kvarsay team in the upper Galilee. I was there with a friend of mine who had an adopted uncle, who was an American, who became religious in one of his backpacking trips across Europe, stopped by an Israel Said. There's nothing really inspiring here. On his way out of Israel, he stopped and prayed one prayer service in a Yemenite synagogue and he never left. And he undertook all of the Yemenite customs. And here's a guy from Brooklyn who's speaking with a Yemenite accent or dialect, trying to pronounce things with a Yemenite dialect which is unique in its own right, but for an American to try that, good luck. And he was a shepherd. He didn't use electricity, didn't want to use any electricity, and he grew everything he ate in his own farm. So when we were there, I was a shepherd for two days with him.
09:24
And I'll just tell you right, when we came in to visit it was the end of the first shift of the pastor and he was coming back with his flock and the son who greeted us was supposed to fill up all of the troughs with water and he forgot to fill up the troughs because he was busy with us. And when the father came back in, he says oh, he should be here any minute, came back in. I can hear the father wailing, crying, because the sheep were so thirsty. He felt their pain and later on I heard him talking to his son saying do you know how much pain you've caused me? That my animals were thirsty, my animals were hungry.
10:17
It's a great sensitivity that when you're a shepherd you learn to connect beyond yourself, and this is a virtue, a quality that you see with many of our leaders. Among the Jewish people, god appears in a burning bush. He mandates him to return to Egypt to bring them to the land. So this is not the first time and it's not the last time we're going to see that there's a theme going throughout the Torah, from the beginning of the first word of the Torah all the way through the last word of the Torah the land of Israel, the land of Israel, the promise, the promise, the promise. The Jewish people are going to enter the land of Israel. And here God says to Moses go back to Egypt so that you can bring my children to the land of Israel. If I didn't mention it previously, I'm going to mention it again here. Why in the entire Torah we see this focus on that the Jewish people will enter the land of Israel, but not once in the Torah do they actually enter the land of Israel. Not once Moses dies, phil bike On the Jordan side. He didn't even enter into Israel. They never actualize the dream till Joshua later brings them into the land of Israel.
11:37
Why is there five books of the Torah? We can't get one verse of like. And the Jewish people settled in the land and they lived there happily ever after and it was great. No, you don't see such a thing, because the purpose of life is the struggle, not the victory. The struggle. The Jewish people are constantly in a struggle to head towards the land of Israel. Are they going to succeed? Maybe, maybe not. That's not the point. The point is the struggle. The purpose of life is the struggle. So if someone tells you, you ask how is your day? Oh, it's a struggle, great, you're alive. That's what it means. A struggle means you're alive. Someone who does the struggle got a question whether or not they're actually living. Living people have struggles. So Moshe hesitates. Hashem reassures him.
12:38
Moses prepares the request for Pharaoh. Moses doubts the people's faith. Moses doubts his ability to articulate. God responds and tells him don't worry, they will follow you. Go with your brother Aaron. Now it's an interesting thing that Moses says I can't articulate it. I'm not so sure that he had a stutter.
13:06
I think what the Torah is teaching us here is that Moses wasn't able to articulate it because he had a stronger form of speech. There are people who can say things in a kind and gentle way and there are people who can say things in a harsh way. Moshe was more of the harsh way, aaron. We know that the quality of Aaron was how pleasant he spoke to people. People loved. You see that when Aaron dies, the people mourn Aaron. It says the men and the women mourned Aaron's death. Why? Because Aaron would bring peace in the home. Aaron would make peace between a husband and wife. Aaron would make peace between two partners in a business. Aaron would make peace because he used his soft tongue. He would use a pleasantness of voice to appease both sides. Moses was a little bit more harsh and therefore he felt if I'm going to come in harsh, I'm not going to be able to persuade Pharaoh. God says okay, take Aaron with you.
14:22
Moses heads to Egypt, sipporah circumcises her son and they come to Pharaoh. Pharaoh increases the burden, the Jews complain and God tells Moses sit back and watch the show. And that concludes the first portion of the book of Exodus. The second portion deals with the first of the seven plagues. God reassures Moses. The four expressions of redemption and you'll see them here bolded I will take you out of slavery before redemption, I will rescue you from Egypt, I will redeem you by splitting the sea and I will choose you as my nation. When God gives us the Torah and these are the four cups of wine that we drink at the Pesach Seder, reflect each of these terms of redemption. Moses hesitates again.
15:17
The redemption begins, the onslaught of the ten plagues against the Egyptians. But also, what we do is we parallel each of the ten utterances and the ten commandments with the ten plagues. So it's not just random that all of these are ten. We know that God created the world with ten utterances, god gave us the Torah via the ten commandments and God punished the Egyptians with the ten plagues. There's a reason for it. Each one parallels something else. So the ten plagues begin.
15:54
The first seven plagues, first set of three, demonstrate the existence of Hashem the blood, the frogs and the lice. The second set of three demonstrate that God's providence extends over everything the wild beasts, the epidemic, the animals die and the boils. And then the last set of three demonstrates that God's power is unmatched, and that's the hail, the locusts and the darkness. And then we go into the next portion, which is the portion of Bo, where we have the last three plagues, and this is getting the Jews out of Egypt. In the next plague we're going to get Egypt out of the Jews Because don't forget that they were in the land of Egypt for many, many, many years. It takes a long time to get that culture out. You see, people who left Italy a hundred years ago. They still talk like they're living in Italy, they still have the accent, they have the attitude, they have the pride. So we have the first of the seven plagues is dumb blood, zwardeya, the frogs, kinim, or the lice, devere is the wild beast, shchin, the epidemic, the bo, sorry Devere. Shchin is the boils, barad is the epidemic, arbe is the locust, khosech is the darkness and Makas, bechoro. So these last three, the locusts, the darkness, and the harshest plague of them all is the death of the firstborn. So the last three plagues are locusts, darkness and the harshest plague. Pharaoh is warned about the plague of the firstborn.
17:53
And if you look at the Torah, the Torah says at about midnight, at about midnight, when midnight strikes, what's going to happen? All the firstborn are going to die. So what does that mean? At the strike of midnight? No, it doesn't say that, it says at about midnight. You know why? If right now everybody looks at their watch right now Apple Watch doesn't count because that is network time. But if you look at your clock, I guarantee you some of you it says 7.58, some 7.59, some 8 o'clock already, some 7.55. If you say midnight to every person, it's going to be different. And they go oh, you see, god was wrong. He said midnight. It wasn't really midnight. My clock it was 11.55. On someone else's clock it was 12.05. And the other person it was 12.03, 12.01. God says kachatsos alayla, at about midnight. Right for one minute or ahead it was exactly midnight. But so that God is very careful with the terms he uses.
19:00
And then we are commanded on the festival of Passover to remember every year and to talk about it with our children, the Exodus from Egypt. Pharaoh surrenders, finally, the Exodus after 210 years of slavery. And then we have the mitzvah of the daily remembrance of the Exodus. Every single day of our lives we are commanded to remember the Exodus from Egypt. We say that in the Shema Asherot seisi, aschem e'erit mitzvah, mitzrayim lihiyoos lachem le'iloim Ani adonai Elohim emet. That's the way we end the verses of the end of the Shema, which we recite every morning, we recite every evening and we recite it at bedtime. We remember again and again that God took us out of Egypt. It's a mitzvah every day to remember that. And then we are given many mitzvahs, including the mitzvah of Tefillin, to remind us of the Exodus. So Tefillin is not the only one. There are many, many mitzvahs in the Torah reminding us of the Exodus. Why? Because if the Exodus is the birth of our people, it's very, very important for us to constantly remember where we come from.
20:25
Now we go to the fourth portion, which is the splitting of the sea, and this is when Egypt is taken out of the Jews the route to Eretz, israel, to the land of Israel. They're heading towards the northeast from Egypt. Pharaoh changes his mind and Israel starts panicking. They're like oh, my goodness, what's going on here? The Egyptians are coming after us and what do the Jews say? Did you bring us here so that we die in the desert? We could have just stayed in Egypt. And then they start saying it was actually pretty good in Egypt. Actually, coming to think of it, that's the way people act when they are panicked. But God reassures them and the sea splits. The Egyptians drown, but the Jews cross on dry land.
21:18
My dear friends, why is it important for us to emphasize that the Jewish people passed on dry land? Because if you have anybody of water, with a wind blowing at a certain angle, scientists say they can split any waters. But you know what they can't do? Even if they split that, they can't make the land at the seabed dry and that's what the Jewish people. They pass through the sea on dry land that even the scientists can't figure that one out. And then we have the Jewish salvation. But the Jewish people stop to sing the song by the sea. The Jews are tested, they are given the bitter water, they are given the manna, and then the preparation for Shabbos and water comes forth from the rock and we have the battle of Amalek. The Amalekites try to attack the Jewish people.
22:23
The next two portions are going to deal with the acceptance of the Torah. So what we need to understand is that, as a people, we are now prepared after these four portions. We have been prepared through all of the challenges of slavery, through all the challenges of not being able to serve God the way we want to serve God, because we had our captors telling us what to do. We had the Egyptians telling us you have to do this, you have to do that. We didn't have free will. Now we're given free will. Now we can accept the Torah.
23:08
So in which portion would the Torah be given in? Shouldn't it be in the portion in honor of Moses? Don't you think it would be a perfect portion? A portion's name would be Moses? No, but instead it's this non-Jew who can eventually converts. It's named after him.
23:31
The portion in which we receive the Torah is Parashas, yisro, moses' father-in-law. Why? Because of the first word in the parasha, and that is he heard by Yishma Yisro. He heard the message. He heard the message. He was reading the paper one day and he sees, oh my, all of these miracles on behalf of the Jewish people, so most people. So they're like, huh interesting. And they continue to turn the pages to the sports section or to the comics or to whatever other part of the cartoons or, you know, lifestyle section of the newspaper. What does Yishro do? He packs his bags. He says if this is the special people of God, I want to be part of that, I want to participate, I want to be part of those people. So Yishro comes and he joins. Yishro reacted and joined the people and they rejoice. He gives advice. Of course they have a festive meal, which we talked about last week in our partial review podcast. He gives advice to Moshe, the advice of leadership training, basic leadership training. You can find Yishro's advice on TED Talks near you, where Yishro is telling Moshe.
24:55
You realize that you have 3 million people here who have left Egypt. They're all wanting to ask you for your advice. They want to hear your opinion on what the Torah wants us and how the Torah wants us to live life. But you know what the problem is? It's 3 million people and you're only one person. You can't do that. You have to make the masters of the 10, the masters of the 50, the masters of the 100, the masters of the thousands, and then if there's any question that goes all the way up the chain that's unresolved, then you can take it. It's like a supreme court. You don't just run to the supreme court. You have local courts, little courts, you have state courts, state supreme courts, and then you have the federal supreme court.
25:48
So 50 days later when they arrive at Mount Sinai, 50 days is from leaving Egypt, the Jewish people are preparing to receive the Torah. The day of the revelation comes. They were preparing for 3 days and finally the day of the revelation comes, and then there is a national revelation of the 10 commandments, a national revelation in front of the entire people we mentioned previously. The only nation to have a public revelation is the Jewish people. The only nation, the only nation that has a documentation of that public revelation is the Jewish people.
26:42
And these are the 10 commandments Believe in God to have knowledge of Hashem. Number two idolatry is prohibited. Number three the prohibition against saying God's name in vain and vain oaths. The Shabbos to observe and keep the Shabbos, to honor your father and mother. The prohibition against murder, prohibition against adultery, prohibition against stealing, prohibition against bearing false witness and the prohibition against coveting, being jealous of what someone else has. And these are the 10 commandments.
27:23
Everything in the Torah is already in the 10 commandments. Our sages tell us even more. Our sages tell us not only is everything in the Torah in the 10 commandments, but all of the 10 commandments is in the first commandment. And all of the first commandment of those 10 commandments is in the first letter of the 10 commandments, and that is the letter alif. Alif stands for the word aluf, which means master, where we're declaring that God is the master of the universe. If you look at the letter aluf, it has a finger pointing towards the heavens, telling you that whenever you see the letter aluf, remember there is a God above. By the way, just as a side note, the first of the 10 commandments starts with the letter aluf. Now we ask the question why does the Torah begin with the letter bet? Because the alif, god, is always hidden. If you open the Torah and on the first page you saw the alif, you'd be like, oh God's right there, right there. No, it starts with the second letter.
28:46
You want to find the first letter that represents God. You're going to have to seek Him out. You're going to have to look for it. It's not going to be easy. On page number one, you're going to have to go to the 17th portion of the Torah to find God there. That's where you will find Anohi, hashem alakachah, I am Hashem, your God. And then we continue here that the God says I am Hashem, your God. There's no other God. There should be no other God before me. And the foundation of our covenant between us and Hashem is laid right there in the revelation that was given there at Mount Sinai. So there's something to. Not only is the commandments given, but there's a relationship that's being built here. I want to share with you for one moment what this is akin to.
29:52
A young girl dates a guy and they fall in love. They fall in love, so they decide you know what we're going to do. We're going to get married. So he buys her a ring and she's so excited with that ring, that engagement ring. It has a beautiful diamond. What is that diamond? What does it represent? Is that the engagement? No, it represents the commitment. It represents the relationship. It itself isn't the relationship, it just represents the relationship. The Torah is our ring.
30:38
The Jewish people were standing at Mount Sinai. This was the most awesome revelation ever given to mankind. And the Jewish people were like oh my God, did you just see that? Oh my gosh, what's going on here? Can we buy a souvenir? Is there a Mount Sinai gift shop Some place? We can get a little memento. We can bring it back to Houston, texas, and put it on our refrigerator so that every day when we pass by a refrigerator or we drink our coffee in the morning, we can remember that we were once at Mount Sinai. The Jewish people want a way to remember this. God says I'm going to give you 613 tools to recall this relationship. The Torah is the most important thing we have because this brings back that recollection of our commitment to this relationship. Every time that bride looks at that ring, she remembers the relationship. It's about the relationship, the Torah onto its own.
31:43
If someone performs every mitzvah of the Torah but doesn't build their relationship with God through it. It's an exercise in futility. What we need to do is ensure that every mitzvah brings that relationship alive, makes it real, and that is the souvenir we got at Mount Sinai 613 souvenirs that God gives us every mitzvah as an opportunity to bring God's presence into our lives. It's as if we're at Mount Sinai. When you are able to connect with a mitzvah hanging on your door, what you're doing is you're bringing that revelation at Mount Sinai right into your home. And when someone lights those Shabbos candles, they're bringing the revelation at Mount Sinai right into their home, and it's not only into our home. We see that God doesn't only make our homes holy, he makes time holy with Shabbos, he makes our bodies holy with a bris, with the food that we eat, by the way, is making our body holy. So there's more to this than just what we can cover in our class today, but I urge you to learn as much as you can in Torah every day of your lives, every day of our lives, to not let a day pass us by without studying Torah, because the study of Torah brings back that clarity of the revelation we had at Mount Sinai.
33:24
Now, interestingly, the third commandment is already in third person, which is do not say God's name in vain. It doesn't say don't say my name in vain. It's. The first commandment was I am your God. The second is there shall be no other God before me. That's God directly speaking to the Jewish people.
33:47
The third commandment don't say God's name in vain. Who's that? That's Moshe. Moshe is conveying the commandments on behalf of Hashem. Why? Because the Jews couldn't hear directly from God anymore. It was too much, too much of a revelation. It's like imagine you hear an explosion. You're too close to the explosion. It's like it's too loud, I can't. I can't. I got to move further back. It says that it was what happened in Mount Sinai. The Jewish people flew miles away from the awesome spiritual exposure. It's like a nuclear bomb, a spiritual nuclear bomb. They were just blown away. God revived them, brought them back to the mountain, and then the next one, and then like one more time and we won't be able to have our souls restored into our bodies. So they asked please, hashem, no more direct messages. Send it through Moshe so that we can handle it.
34:50
Moses ascends to receive the rest of the Torah and then gives all the oral explanations. So I need you to understand something very, very carefully. There are many, unfortunately, who are not Torah scholars, who aren't Torah observant either, who consider themselves rabbis, who preach flawed information about the Torah, and some of what they preach is that, oh, the Torah was just made up by a bunch of rabbis, or that the Torah isn't the same Torah that was given to us at Mount Sinai. This is not only flaw, this is heresy, and we need to know that. The Torah that we have today and the Mishnah and the Talmud in this week's Torah portion this week is parashah smeshbatim. We have a verse where the Talmud expounds on and tells us that every single word of Mishnah, of Talmud, was already given at Mount Sinai. Oh, barabbai, hillel and Shammai weren't around at Mount Sinai, that's true, but their arguments were, the discussions were. What we need to understand is that Moshe and Aaron and Joshua and the elders and the men of the Great Assembly all had notebooks. They wrote down what Moshe told them and they taught it to their children and their grandchildren, and that book was passed down from generation to generation, each one's notebooks. And Rabbenu Hakkotosh Reb'hudah, nasi Reb'hudah, the prince of the Jewish people, the leader of the generation said I need to put together the Mishnah, which is, of all of those books, the oral explanations of the Torah.
36:49
We mentioned in our introduction that without the oral Torah you can't understand the written Torah. It says to honor the Shabbos. It says to protect the Shabbos. It doesn't say how. To me, honoring Shabbos means going to Galveston and going fishing. That's my definition of rest. Well, you got the wrong definition. Many people take it as like it's a day of rest. Oh, ok, so day of rest. That's not what it is. That's superficial at best, but it's even not that it's ignorant. Now again, it's clear. We've said this numerous times here at Torch Our policy is that every Jew there is no one who's better and no one who's worse.
37:45
Our goal is not to say, oh, this type of label or that type of label. We don't believe in any labels. We believe that every Jew deserves the right to be a growing Jew and aspiring Jew, not a stagnant Jew. And as long as someone wants to be an aspiring and growing Jew, hina Matova, ma'a Naim, we welcome you in to our brotherhood. Come, let's learn, but let's be honest and let's be intellectually honest and let's open up our eyes. So the sixth portion begins again. This is part of accepting the Torah, the ordinances, the civil laws, the teaching of sensitivities that the Torah imparts to us, for example.
38:35
So let me ask you if you loan someone money, you loan them $100 and you say, ok, how do I know that you're going to pay me back? They're like OK, I'll give you collateral. What's your collateral? My pillows. I have two pillows. I'll give you my two pillows and when I pay you back the $100, you give me those two pillows. You know what the Torah tells us. Well, what's he going to sleep on at night? He needs a pillow. Give him back his pillows for the nighttime and I'll give it back to you in the morning. But it's collateral. It's mine. No, it's not.
39:07
He's still a human being. Just because he owes you money doesn't make him subhuman. You still have to treat him right. If you have only one piece of steak for dinner one steak for the family and you have a servant who works for you, you know who gets that steak dinner. That's right. You're a servant. He's humbled enough having to slave around for your family. He shouldn't also be humbled even more to not get food. You give him the best.
39:46
We learn the laws of sensitivity in the Torah, the commandment to observe the day of rest for the land, which is the Shemitah, the sabbatical year and the seventh day of the week, the Shabbos, the three pilgrimages, pesach, shavuot and Sukkot, are taught to us in this week's parasha as well. And then again the promise of the land of Canaan, that is our promised land that we will hopefully soon have in peace and harmony, god willing. And the verse over here tells us at the end of this parasha Naaseh v'nishma. This is when the Jewish people received the Torah. What they received, the Torah, the last portion. Didn't they? Yes, they did With all of this, even these laws of finances, the laws of sensitivities, those civil laws, all of these and the laws of the holidays, those were also commanded to us at Mount Sinai, which is why this week's Torah portion, we're going to release the podcast tonight, hopefully, of the parasha podcast, the infocus. Why does it say v'eileh? And these are the ordinances continuing from last week's Ten Commandments, because the Ten Commandments were given last week. You think these commandments now are not related. They weren't given also at Mount Sinai. And these ordinances, v'eileh, these were also given along with those Ten Commandments. And then we have.
41:37
The last five portions of this book of the Torah, of the book of Exodus, are dealing with the building of the tabernacle. The first two is Moses gets the instructions of the structures and the vessels, the priestly garments. Then we have the third portion deals with the tragedy of all tragedies among the Jewish people, the sin of the golden calf. And then the final two portions of the book of Exodus deal with the building of the vessels and the structure and the crafting of the garments. So let's continue to the next portion, parasha's Teruma To rumor the tabernacle.
42:21
God dwells in our midst while we travel through the desert. God wants a place God doesn't need. God is not a physical being, he doesn't need a house, he doesn't need a tent. So why do we need to create a physical structure for God? It's for us to feel a connection. God talks and says God took us out with an outstretched arm. God doesn't have an arm. Last I checked. What does that mean in outstretched arm? It's for us to visualize the concept, is for us to be able to grasp how God took us out with an outstretched arm. Our say just tell us. And the Torah teaches us that the tabernacle was a microcosm of the universe.
43:09
Moses gets the instructions on how to build the tabernacle and he drafts the blueprint of the tabernacle, the design of structure and the vessels, the ark, the cover, the table, the Nora, the walls, the partitions, the altar and the courtyard are all defined in great detail, exactly. Which part is made out of gold, which is made out of silver, which one is made out of copper, what is lined with wood and gold on top of it and otherwise. Every part, every vessel, every structure is clearly defined, its measurement and its layout. The next portion, parshis Titzave, is the humanly side of the tabernacle. That is, you have the physical structure, but without the human element it's not worth much. And that is the Kohen Gadol, the priests, the high priest and the regular priests. Moses gets instructions on how to design the priestly vestments.
44:08
We have to understand another side note here that us as Jewish people, that as Jewish people our responsibility is to be a in Amsegulah, a Mamlechis Kohanim ve Goy Kadosh. Mamlechis Kohanim is a kingship of priests and a Goy Kadosh, what is a Goy? A Goy means a nation, a holy nation. The Jewish people are called a Goy. A Goy means a holy nation. We're supposed to be distinguished. Part of the way in which we're distinguished is like our sages tell us.
44:58
The Torah teaches us that the Jewish people were saved from Egypt because three things they did not change. They didn't change their names, they didn't change their clothes and they didn't change their language. We too, today, can protect ourselves by not changing our names. We have a Hebrew name. Use your Hebrew name.
45:21
You have clothes, garments. The garments identify you. You see police officers they all walk around in their police uniforms. The fire truck, the firemen they wear their fire uniform. And the people who work in different stores they wear their IDs, they have their badge, they have their identifying information. What's a Jew's identifier?
45:44
Our clothes are supposed to be distinguished, they're supposed to be different. And the same is true with the Kohingodol, the high priest. The vestments of the Kohingodol, the small priest had four garments. The high priest Head, eight garments the apron, the robe, the hat, the breastplate, the head plate, the coat, the breeches and the belt, and we can see it in our sheets that we will hopefully provide later tonight. And then we have the tragic portion of Kiesisa, the golden calf. Now again, we mentioned this earlier tonight Hardships, troubles or opportunities. If we harness them properly, we grow exponentially from our challenges. The Jewish people experienced a very big challenge. That challenge was a massive mistake of idolatry to this golden calf.
46:48
So first, the partial begins with a census. Moses designates builders of the tabernacle, which was Bitzalel and Aliyev, and the Jewish people are reminded to observe the Shabbos. Now it's very interesting that we see the juxtaposition of the building of the tabernacle with observing the Shabbos Time and time and time again in the Torah. The Torah says observe my Shabbos, don't build my Mishkan, don't build my tabernacle. On that Shabbos, build the tabernacle, keep my Shabbos, keep my Shabbos, build the tabernacle. There's a juxtaposition. Constantly Our sages tell us this is to teach us that the 39 different categories of labor, of creative labor, that were required in the assembly and disassembly of the tabernacle are the 39 foundations of what is prohibited labor on Shabbos.
47:54
Now, if you ask the ordinary person, they'll say oh, I know what the laws of Shabbos are. You're not allowed to work on Shabbos. Wrong, you're allowed to work on Shabbos. In fact, my wife and I have the privilege of hosting many, many people on Shabbos. That's a lot of work. That's not a prohibition. The prohibition is not work. Let's define our definitions. You're not allowed to do creative labor.
48:27
What is creative labor? Let me give you an example. So work, if I moved my tables around, I moved them from one room to the other was that work? It's a lot of work. Cheers I'm schlepping the cheers from one room to the other room that's a lot of work. Serving 30 dishes a lot of work. None of it is a prohibition. Flicking on a light switch prohibition why Creative labor? Turning on the stove creative labor. It's a prohibition. Anything that changes the existence of something, changes the standing of something, is a prohibition.
49:13
So this is what we learned from the Tabernacle. The Tabernacle you know there's. I don't have the book here. If I had the book here, I would show you a beautiful illustration of how each item of the Tabernacle and its laws that prohibit its construction on the Shabbos, and how that relates to us on a day-to-day, on a weekly basis, on every Shabbos.
49:48
Okay, so Moses receives the tablets now comes down, receives the tablets and the Jewish people miscounted the 40 days. And then Moses sees that there's a golden calf and he breaks the tablets. God gets very angry. Moses prays, moshe descends and he breaks those tablets. Moshe begs forgiveness and atonement on the day of Yom Kippur. So there's a lot of time that passes in this portion.
50:22
We go back to it, but this is a very, very quick summary. Number one we have 50 days from the Jewish people leaving Egypt till the holiday of Shavuot. Shavuot is the revelation that the Jewish people have at Mount Sinai. Moshe goes, ascends up the mountain on that day. 40 days later he comes back down, which is the 17th of Tammuz, and he's greeted with a golden calf, breaks the tablets. 40 days later he goes back up the mountain on Rosh Chodesh Elul and he besieges the heavens and he shakes the heavens for God to forgive the Jewish people over those 40 days. On the final day, which is Yom Kippur, god says and this is in this portion of Kiseza where God says okay, forever, this day will be a day of atonement. And that is the day of Yom Kippur. Moshe pleads for closeness to Hashem and the closeness is granted but limited. And then we have the second set of tablets that are given and God teaches Moses the 13 attributes of mercy and the renewal of the covenant between God and the Jewish people is established. And then we have the 10th portion, which is Vayak el, and this is the nation is actually constructing and building the structure and the vessels.
51:50
Again, what goes along every time we talk about the tabernacle? The Shabbos. There we go, the Shabbos, we're reminded to observe the Shabbos, and then the floodgates of donations come to the Jewish people. And this is the most amazing fundraiser ever where Moses says the day after Yom Kippur okay, we're building a tabernacle, we're doing it right. No more golden calf, we're gonna build a tabernacle the way God tells us. Whoever wants to donate by the goodness of their heart, by the purity of their heart, is welcome to donate. And after two days Moses says no more donations, we have too much donated. Imagine if you donated to a local organization. They say please stop donating, we have enough and we have the contributions to the tabernacle.
52:56
The construction of the tabernacle the craftsmen are again selected, the craft is struck, the craft structure and the vessels are assembled and the menorah is made out of one solid piece of gold. Moses tried to carve it out in fire. It didn't work for him, tried it a couple times. He says God, I can't do this. So God says take the gold, throw it into the fire and I will make it. And that is the menorah.
53:26
And then, finally, the final portion in the book of Exodus is the portion of Pekude, where the crafting of the garments is now made, not only talked about, not only designed, but also put into action. These are Aaron the high priest's vestments. Moshe approves everything Moshe needed. Moshe was the, I would say, the architect, or the drafting, does the drafting of the blueprint, and he approves everything. The tabernacle is erected, the assembly is completed and God's presence rests in their midst. The Jewish people have God, so to speak, present in their midst and the clouds descend as the shechina. As the presence of God is with the Jewish people, there is the heavenly clouds that descend with them. So, my dear friends, this is the summary conclusion of the book of Exodus.
54:39
But what we have to learn from this is, aside from all of the details of the Exodus and of the plagues and of the splitting of the sea and of the giving of the Torah, the Ten Commandments, the laws and the ordinances that are given in Mishpatim, the laws of the structure of the tabernacle, how they should be structured, the vestments of the Kohengadol, the process of repentance and then the actual assembly of everything, what is the purpose of it all? The purpose of it all is to build our relationship with God. At the end of the day, if someone meticulously follows every command in the Torah but doesn't realize that there's a God, he's got a problem, a really big problem. We need to ensure that every single action we do is L'Sham Shamaim, we do it for the sake of heaven, not just because it makes me happy. Oh, I, like the Smithsfa, I'm gonna do it. No, even in Mitzvah you don't so much appreciate has the opportunity to bring you closer to God, and my blessing to each and every one of us is that we merit not only to perform the entire Torah and to observe it all, but to feel the closeness in our relationship with Hashem, in our observance of His Torah. When we learn the Torah, to feel the closeness of Hashem, when we teach the Torah, to feel the closeness of Hashem and when we observe each and every Mitzvah to feel the closeness of Hashem. The only way to do that is to learn the Torah and to prepare for the performance of Mitzvah.
56:37
You can't just show up at the state dinner in the White House without preparing. You have to make sure you pull out your finest suit. Then you're tired. You got to make sure you prepare yourself. What am I gonna say I'm gonna meet the president, I'm gonna shake his hand, I'm not gonna have what to say.
56:57
When we are performing a Mitzvah, we need to prepare ourselves intellectually, emotionally, come prepared. You're about to light the menorah on Hanukkah Not now, but when we do every year. Don't just show up there on Hanukkah with your candles or your oil and light it. Prepare. We're soon gonna be at the holiday of Purim. To get the most out of Purim, we need to prepare, and the halacha says that 30 days before Pesach, which is Purim, we start preparing for Pesach, because you got to get. You can't just show up and expect to feel a connection when we observe a mitzvah. We need to prepare ourselves for the mitzvah, because the mitzvah is like a direct channel between us and God and in order to benefit from that channel, we need to prepare ourselves to be a vessel through which Hashem can communicate with us and, hopefully, through us, to the entire world.
58:06
My dear friends, I urge you, get a Chumash, if you don't have one, which is the five books of the Torah. Chumash is five, so we call it a Chumash. This is my favorite one, the interlinear Chumash by Art Scroll. It's the Shatnstein edition. It is interlinear, so every word gets translated, not just the entire verse. You can learn Hebrew from it. It is so important. This is our inheritance. This doesn't belong to the Orthodox or to the scholarly. You don't have to go to Yeshiva for this. In our own homes, in our own synagogues, in our own torch centers, we can open up the Chumash every week, every day, and read the message Hashem wrote for us. It's our unique message.
58:58
My dear friends, drive safely. Have a good night. Any questions Right? So yes, he was the representative of the Jewish people. The Jewish people atoned for the sin of the golden calf when Moshe ascended the mountain and besieged on their behalf. Moshe is our leader. He's our representative. Contrary to our state reps and our congressmen and our governors and our presidents, who feel like they just can do whatever they want, they work for the people. Moshe was representing the Jewish people and he's besieging the heavens for forgiveness for the Jewish people. Good question, correct 40 days? Yes, a very good question.
59:52
The number of 40 and why it took 40 days to go up, 40 days back down, 40 days till he went back up again, etc. Etc. 40 is the day is the number of transformation. We have 40 many times in the Torah and all of them have the same root purpose 40 days. It rained with Noach. We have 40 weeks in gestation. A baby is considered living after 40 days from conception. That's. Science now shows that this is exactly how the Torah says. We don't need science approval, but we have it anyway that the brain waves begin at 40 days. It's considered a living creature.
01:00:40
The mikvah has 40, the Jewish people in the desert for 40 years. Why all these number 40s? What's going on with 40? 40 is the number of transforming and rebirth. You become something new with the number 40. Whenever some people are trying to change a habit, 40 days is the magic number. If you can change a habit for 40 days, you got it.
01:01:10
Our sages tell us the mikvah transforms a person. They go in impure, they come out pure. Someone who goes to convert. They have to go into a mikvah. They go in non-Jew, they come out a Jew. They're reborn. They're new, new creation. Whenever you see the number 40, you see rebirth. Same thing, by the way, very interestingly, the laws of Shabbat. How many laws are there? 39 laws, but that's not what the Torah says. That's what the. If you look in the Talmud, they'll call it 40 minus one. Give me a break. I can't do math, I can't figure it out. 39, 40 minus one. No, no, no, no. Also, when they give lashes, when the court would give lashes, they'd give 40 minus one. Why? Because when you have the number 40 associated with it, it means that they become a new person. When someone observes the Shabbat, they become a new person. It says that we're infused with an elevated soul on Shabbat. We're a new person. It's a complete rebirth Every Shabbat. All right, my dear friends, have a good night.
