Parsha Review Podcast · Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe

00:01 - Intro (Announcement)
You are listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of Torch in Houston, Texas. This is the Parsha Review Podcast.

00:10 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
All right, welcome back. My dear friends, welcome to the Parsha Review Podcast. This week's Parsha is two portions Achriymos and Kedoshim. Achriymos and Kedoshim and this is the beginning of Achriymos is talking about after the passing of the two sons of Aaron. And then it's amazing because the entire book of Leviticus is talking about the holiness of the Jewish people. The entire focus, everything we see in the book of Genesis is about the family of Israel, the construction of the family of Israel. Exodus is the nation of Israel, the construction of the family of Israel. Exodus is the nation of Israel. And then Leviticus is the holiness of Israel, the holiness, all the laws, the laws of kosher, the laws of family purity, the laws of appropriate and inappropriate relationships, the laws of how to interact with our fellow men, how to treat the land of Israel. All of this is discussed in the book of Leviticus.

01:13
So listen to this verse. It's an amazing verse, chapter 18, verse number 3. But we're going to go back two portions. Can you move this? We're going to go back two verses so we can get the perspective of what's going on. And Hashem says to Moshe, saying as follows Speak to the Jewish people and say to them I am Hashem, your God. I am Hashem, your God Like the practice of the land of Egypt that you once lived in. Do not do like that. Do not behave like they practiced and like the practices of the people of Canaan, in the land of Canaan that I'm bringing you to, meaning where you came from and where you're going to. Do not do like them and their customs do not follow. It's an amazing verse when Hashem is guiding us. You want to know what Hashem tells us, how Hashem tells us to conduct our lives. Don't be like the Egyptians I know you live there. You may have been influenced from them. Don't act like them. You're going into the land of Canaan, which is soon going to be the land of Israel. Don't act like the Canaanites. Don't act like them. So Rashi here brings an incredible thing. First, as he says, why is Hashem reminding us? I am that same God that spoke to you at Mount Sinai not so long ago and I told you I know who is your king and you accepted my kingship upon you. Now you don't just accept my kingship, but now all the laws that come along with this kingdom. Not only that I'm the king, but all the laws, and this is one of the laws. I'm telling you don't act like the Egyptians, don't act like the Canaanites. Okay, and then Rashi says further on verse number 3, further on verse number 3.

03:43
Kema se'eretz, mitzrayim ma'agit, she'ma'asayim shal'amitzriyim shal'aknanim mikul kolim, mikola umos, the Egyptian and the Canaanite nations, the way they acted, were the worst of all the nations, total, complete. You know. Corruption in the way they acted, total corruption. ואו סו מקם שישבו בו ישראל. מיכול כל מנה כל. And the places where the Jewish people lived, the holiest people in the world, where they lived, was completely and utterly devoid of holiness. It was completely corrupt. אשר נביא אסכם שמה? Devoid of holiness, it was completely corrupt.

04:37
There's a warning here. The warning is you have to be careful of the influences of your place, but there's something that's a whole lot more. So imagine, imagine you do the following. Imagine you have, you know, the land of Egypt where you had the Egyptians, where that's the way the Egyptians acted in a way that was unbecoming of human beings. They acted in a way that was filled with corruption. Okay, so now the people were out of there. So what's the big deal? So our sages tell us something very, very important. This is something fundamental for us to remember, always when there's corruption among the people. The land absorbs that corruption Because it's very easy to say well, it's there, it's them, it's not me. I'll give you a couple of examples. You know there's, you can look this up online.

05:43
The San Francisco Zoo has a problem with the animals, that the animals are acting in ways of homosexuality Animals why? Because that's their environment. The animals are taking on the environment of the people that are there, the whole. What they're eating. They can't help themselves. It's filled with corruption, corruption of the activities of human beings.

06:19
So the first thing is that many people feel uncomfortable with there being an absolute right and an absolute wrong, and this week's parashah talks a lot about that. It talks about absolute right and absolute wrong. Well, who are you to decide what's wrong? I'm nobody but the Torah, god, creator of heaven and earth. He defines for us exactly what is the right way to live life and what is the wrong way to live life. Yes, it's wrong, it's wrong. Oh, are you telling me that? Someone who does this or someone who does that? That's not me. I'm a nobody. Hashem, creator of heaven and earth, he tells you this is corruption, meaning this is not the way I created man. To act in such a way is, as the Torah says in this week's parashah, an abomination. It means it goes against my creation. And this is something which is so key, so critical, so critical for us to know this and to recognize this every day of our lives is that when we put ourselves in an environment, we're going to be influenced by that environment. You know, I've accepted upon myself.

07:38
Many years ago I told my wife, you know, she wanted to go on a vacation. I said you can go any. Pick any place on the map, we'll go in the United States. I can't fly to Europe, I'm not, you know. But find any place wherever you want, except one Sin City. I don't want to go to Las Vegas under any circumstance. I don't want to go there. Why not? Because any place that calls themselves Sodom, sodom and Gomorrah that's the name Sin City. I don't want to be there. You know there are areas that you can go and you can avoid, and you can this and you can that. I don't want to be in such a place.

08:19
Would anybody take a nice? Would you think Abraham would take a nice field trip to Sodom? It's a beautiful area, by the way. I don't know if you've ever been there. I've been there right by the Dead Sea, beautiful views of the mountains of the Jordan. It is absolutely. It's magnificent. Think Abraham would take a little trip out there Today. There's nothing there, it's just salt. It's Dead Sea product, right so that they can sell you soaps and shampoos and skins, skin oils, whatever they do.

08:51
But would someone take a voluntary trip to a place that calls itself a place of sin? Why would someone do that? Why would we want to expose ourselves to a place that is corrupt? Now, that doesn't mean that everybody who goes there is corrupt. It doesn't mean that someone who goes there on vacation. It doesn't mean that someone who lives there is evil. It doesn't mean someone who does business there is terrible. It doesn't mean any of that. I just don't want to be there. It's not a place where I invest and work so hard on my own personal growth, my own spiritual growth. Why would I want to sell it out?

09:30
Because I'm in a place that has a bad influence. You're not doing anything. Just don't go into the wrong places and everything will be fine. It's in the ear. It's in the ear. It's in the earth. It's embedded into the place. That's what the Torah is telling us here.

09:52
Mitzrayim is actually a sin in the Torah for one to live in Egypt, not allowed to live in Egypt, want to buy a vacation home? Not in Egypt? Why? It's in the fabric of the place, it's in the air, it's in the earth, as you're saying. It's embedded into it. So a person needs to be very careful. We talk about influences all the time because we are influenced. It's something people think like, oh, it's okay, as long as I behave, I'm good. No, no, no, a person could be at a 10 out of 10 in their holiness. They hang around the wrong environment. Before they know it, it goes to 9, it goes to 8. You don't even realize it. We shrink ourselves spiritually and this is a really dangerous thing where the Torah tells us and Rashi and all of the commentaries warn us yeah, this is a real thing today. It's not just back then in Egypt, it's not then with Canaan. So I needed to change the name. But, by the way, there's something else that's very, very important here.

11:09
The Jewish people leave Egypt and how long does it take them to get to the land of Israel? 40 years, 40 years. Why 40 years? Why not 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, 40, specifically 40 years. Why 40 years? They not 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, 40, specifically 40 years. Why 40 years?

11:28
Sages tell us the number 40 always has to do with creating a new creation, a rebirth. A rebirth, a normal gestation, is 40 weeks, 40 weeks. 40 weeks, how many sa'ah is a quantity of water? How many sa'ah are in a mikvah? 40. 40 sa'ah in a mikvah. For a kosher mikvah, it needs to be 40 sa'ah. Why? Because what happens in a mikvah? Someone goes in unpure and comes out pure. They became a new person. Someone goes, someone who converts. They go into the mikvah non-Jewish, they go out Jewish. It's a rebirth. They become a new person, completely new.

12:22
40 has an unbelievable power. We know that. God says I'm going to destroy this world In the time of Noah. How long was the flood? 40 days and 40 nights. Wherever you see the number 40, it's talking about a complete rebirth, a complete renewal, a transformation. It's a new person. You try to take a new habit into your life. 40 days is the key. If you can keep it going for 40 days, it becomes part of who you are. 40 days, it's an unbelievable powerful number. It's an unbelievable powerful number.

13:09
The Jewish people, for 210 years were slaves, slaves to Egyptian lords and masters and to culture. How are you going to change that people, that they now become a free people? 40 years, 40 years, 40 years in the desert. It's like that's they're like. They have to neutralize all of the influence, all of the impact.

13:34
And we see it was very difficult, because what was it? Not even 80 days after leaving Egypt they served the golden calf. Sorry, 90 days, it was 50 till Shavuot. And 40 days later they served the golden calf. 90 days. Are you guys crazy? You guys just experienced the splitting of the sea, you experienced the 10 plagues, you experienced Amalek coming to fight with you and God wins this miraculous. And you have the manna every morning at your doorstep. Like, what's wrong with you? And God wins this miraculous and you have the manna every morning at your doorstep. What's wrong with you guys? They serve the idolatry of the golden calf. Why? How? Because they weren't out of Egypt yet. It's a big transformation.

14:19
To change, they needed 40 years, and 40 years wasn't a simple 40 years. It was a long 40 years. A lot of traveling, a lot of setting up their tents, taking apart their tents. 42 times they traveled and each time. So imagine it's 3 million people traveling, walking through the desert, making their way towards the land of Israel. They could have walked a straight line. No, no, there's a whole journey here. You're going to have to cleanse yourself here and cleanse yourself there, and a constant part of the process of removing that negativity that they had from Egypt.

15:00
You know, the Rambam used to write letters. He was the doctor for the premier of the king of Egypt, maimonides, and he would sign letters because people would write him letters. He was the great Torah scholar, an unbelievable philosopher, and he would sign his letters. Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, who commits a biblical sin every day by living in Egypt. That's the way he signed his name. He had to, for whatever reason. He had to be there.

15:35
But and there are many amazing stories about the Rambam, but he just one quick story, one of my favorite stories about the Rambam so he had direct access to the king and all of the secretaries, all of the advisors to the king, didn't have such access like the Rambam had. They were jealous. So they conspired against the Rambam and they said you know what? We're going to accuse him of trying to poison the king and then there's going to be a trial. The king can't show preferential treatment to the Rambam and we'll stand a trial and then we're going to get him killed. So there's this big news, breaking news. New York Times, right Unverified sources right. Times right Unverified sources, right Anonymous sources have leaked that the Rambam was trying to poison the king.

16:34
Do an investigation. What are they going to do? The king says to the Rambam he says I trust you, I know you would never do anything to harm me, but I have to play the game, I have to do the thing. So what do they do? They they get together all of the counselors of the king, all the advisors, and they come up with a plan. You know what we're gonna do. We're gonna put a lottery. You're gonna have two tickets in a bowl. One One says life, one says death, and whichever one the Rambam picks, that's what destiny chose. That's what it'll be. If he picks life, he'll live. If he picks death, then that's what was supposed to happen. So they had a trick up their sleeves. They put both tickets as death. They have this big, big ceremony, they call the Rambam up and they say it's time for you to pick your destiny. Pick Life or death. As the Rambam is walking up, the king is there. As the Rambam is walking up, one of the advisors tells the Rambam. He says the king is there. As the Rambam is walking up, one of the advisors tells the Rambam he says that's it. Now we got you. The Rambam realized right away what they did. So the Rambam, without blinking an eye, takes one of the papers, puts it in his mouth and eats it. He says whatever is left, I picked the other one and the Rambam's life was saved In a millisecond. The Rambam thinking Okay, so saving his life.

18:21
The Rambam was living in Egypt studying Torah, and a lot of the works that we have today of the Rambam were written there. Okay, we're not going to ask questions on the Rambam. It says on his grave you know what it says on the tombstone of the Rambam Mi Moshe, ad Moshe, lo Kom, kim Moshe, from Moses to Moses. Rambam was Maimonides. That was his name. There was no one like Moses. He was an unbelievable person, an unbelievable leader of that generation and for all generations. Actually, it's very funny because the Rambam went through the entire Torah.

19:06
Obviously, you know we talk about this a lot. We talk about we have this chart where we talk about the 10 commandments that were given at Mount Sinai, and then subsequently, the entire Torah. Right, so we have. I don't know why this color is not coming out on the. Oh, it's green, it's green, so it's a green screen. I don't know why this color is not coming out on the. Oh, it's green, it's green, so it's a green screen. I don't know if, for whatever reason, it's not showing up.

19:29
So here you have the Rambams, you have the Torah, the written Torah, then you have the oral Torah and then you have the Halacha. The first of the Halacha is the Rambam, the Yad HaChazaka, the Mishneh Torah, an the halachas, the Rambam, the Yad HaChazaka, the Mishneh Torah. An amazing thing. Let me tell you something. It's really incredible. What's the written Torah? The written Torah has the 613 laws. This is the Torah, the five books of Moses, plus the 19 books of the prophets and the writings. Then you have the oral Torah. What's the oral Torah?

20:08
The oral Torah is the explanation of everything that Moshe spoke out to the Jewish people, because the Torah is shorthand. The Torah is not a lot of words, it's not a lot of detail. For example we've given these examples before Torah says you should put a mezuzah on your door, but it fails to say what a mezuzah is. It says to wear a tefillin, but it doesn't tell us what tefillin are. It says to slaughter an animal, but it doesn't tell us how to, and so on and so forth. It gives us all of these commandments but it doesn't explain the how to. It tells us what to do, not how to do. It's a big problem. You have three million people. They're trying to understand, they want to follow these laws.

20:57
So Moshe goes up to heaven, he's there for 40 days, gets all of downloads, all of the explanations, all of the mitzvahs, and he explains it to the people. He says you know what honoring your father and mother is, and he goes into details about that. He says you know what it means by slaughtering. This is what it means. It says mikvah doesn't say 40 sa'a in the torah it just says a mikvah, a water, a pool of water. Where do we learn it from? Moshe teaches it to us and then we find sources in the Torah that back it up.

21:26
But that's the oral. It was the oral explanation to everything. Let me give you an example to this. Eric is a copious note taker. He writes notes, notes and notes and more notes. So I can even tell you that even if he tried to share the entire class that we learned today, he'd come home to his dad and mom and he'd say, oh, this is a great class, hopefully Great class today, and he'll be like oh, he said a story about the Rambam. I wrote down just story of the Rambam. Oh, this is what he meant, right, and meaning he'll write down just the headlines. But the headlines are to remind him of the oral Torah, of all of the things that he can explain and elaborate orally.

22:12
But he didn't write down every word, because also, there's something else. Then, how many years have I prepared for this class? Okay, now, I'm not talking about the few hours, yet, it's a whole life of Torah, of wisdom, hopefully, hopefully something that I'm able to share. You cram that into a little 30 minutes, 40 minutes, 50, 60,. How long class? Yesterday was 92 minutes, right? 92 minute class, that's nothing. You put 30 years into 92 minutes, right? So it's just footnotes. Whatever you can get out of it, the Torah is just the footnotes.

22:52
It's our life's mission to understand the details of every single letter in the Torah, of every single word, of every single verse, of every single chapter of every single portion of every single book of the Torah chapter of every single portion of every single book of the Torah, to try to understand the framework. Why is this verse next to that verse one second? There's a reason for this. Why is this word chosen? This word is an odd word. It doesn't make sense. If you want to explain something like this, you would use another word. There's a reason for it. That's why we have commentaries and commentaries and commentaries and commentaries explaining the. Explain something like this, you would use another word. There's a reason for it. That's why we have commentaries and commentaries and commentaries and commentaries explaining the oral Torah, so that we can understand it.

23:32
So we have the Midrash. By the way, midrash I've heard many people call themselves rabbis, which is fine Say oh, midrash, that's just the, it's just Midrash, it's just Midrash whoa. No, midrash is part of the real story. You want to get the whole story. You want to understand what's really going on the bat behind the scenes. The Midrash is telling you the behind the scenes. It's not some Baba Maisa, it's not some fairy tale, it's Torah too, you're talking about.

24:13
You have the Medrash Tanchuma, you have Medrash Halacha, you have the Medrash Rabbah Talking about. These are unbelievable. Who they were written by? You know. You have the Sifra the Sifri. This is real, real stuff. You have the Sifra the Sifri. This is real stuff. You have Kabbalah, written by Rav Shimon bar Yochai. Teachings from the Arizal. They didn't make stuff up. They revealed what was transmitted to them orally. When they found that it was the right time to reveal it to the world in writing, they did so. So the oral law is written. Eventually it got written. And then you have the Mishnah and you have the Talmud, which explains the Mishnah Very important. Then comes Halacha, by the way, the Rambam, the Rambam's generation.

25:05
There were a lot of people that were unhappy with the Rambam. Who do you think you are to write Jewish law? Because here's the problem In Judaism, one of the things that are very, very distasteful to scholars is shortcuts. There are no shortcuts in Torah. You can't just connect yourself to a USB drive and download the Torah into your brain. It's going to take hard work of reading it, understanding it, learning, asking, inquiring, investigating. That's what it takes. It's a long process to understand Torah. So our sages were very upset at the Rambam. Why are you giving a shortcut to people? You're telling them how to wash their hands. No, let them learn all of the Torah, all of the commentaries, all of the Midrash, all of the Mishnah, all of the Talmud, and they don't know how to do it. You're giving them a shortcut. You're just telling them law one, law two, law three, law four.

26:11
And the Rambam even writes about his own writing. He says if someone just learns the Mishnah Torah, they know the entire Torah, because everything in the Torah is encapsulated in his book. The Mishnah Torah means a review of the Torah. So the Rambam spent a lot of time and energy going through the entire Torah, making sure, including the Midrash, including the Kabbalah, including the Talmud, including the Mishnah, including everything, and constructing a book called the Mishnah Torah, the review of the entire Torah. It says if you learn just my Torah, my Mishnah Torah, you will know the entire Torah. It says if you learn just my Torah, my Mishnah Torah, you will know the entire Torah. The irony about this is that there's no book in all of Jewish literature that has more commentaries trying to understand what he means than the Rambam. You have thousands and thousands and thousands of books trying to understand what the Rambam wrote. It's amazing.

27:13
The Rambam did the homework for us and he organized the book of the Code of Jewish Law in a very brilliant way. 14 different sections of law way. 14 different sections of law, each one clear, concise, sourced. Every single halacha has a source to the Torah, exactly what verse it comes from. Didn't make up things. Nobody has a right to just make up laws. Take my word for it, says the Rambam. No, nowhere. He doesn't say that anywhere. Everything needs to be sourced. So why were people upset? Because this was a shortcut. They saw it as a shortcut, but the Rambam saw it as.

27:58
This is the generation we're in. The Rambam only lived 800 years ago. He passed away in 1204, was born in 1135. 850 years ago. He died at the age of 69. Imagine if he lived another 10 years how much more he could have written. Unbelievable what he accomplished. People didn't like that. There was a shortcut and many burnt his books, including Rabbeinu Yonah. And later Rabbeinu Yonah regretted burning the book and he wrote the Shaarei Tshuva, which is our gateway to repentance. He wrote that book because of his repentance for what he did to the Rambam's books. He realized that he did something wrong. Why? Because the Rambam's books. He realized that he did something wrong. Why? Because the Rambam did something which was generational For our generation. This is what we needed. I'll give you another example.

28:56
There are many people who dislike the Talmud translation by Artskroll. There were, for years, there were, people who were against the Stezaltz translation of the Talmud because they felt that it was. You're chopping it down, you're dumbing it down. Instead of pushing people up to get to the standard of understanding the Talmud. You're pulling the Talmud down. You're making it too easy for people. They felt that this was inappropriate. But what did the rabbis? And if you look at the beginning of the Art Scroll series, you'll see one Torah scholar after another Torah scholar saying this generation needs this. Yeah, maybe 50 years ago not. Maybe 100 years ago. Maybe 200 years ago not, but years ago. Maybe 200 years ago not, but in this generation. This is what we need and, as a result, what do we see?

29:54
that there are tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of people who are studying the Talmud folio every single day because now they have access to it. There's a language barrier. It's written in Aramaic, partial Aramaic, partial Hebrew, something that ArtSchool realized, and it's an amazing company, organization creating probably the greatest, the greatest publications of Jewish literacy ever in history. It's unbelievable what they've produced, what they've done for Jewry, the English-speaking, and now they have the Talmud translated into French. The Talmud, the Schattenstein edition, is translated now to French and into Spanish. It's amazing. Why? To give the opportunity? So that everybody on planet Earth who wants to study Talmud can study Talmud. It's an amazing thing. So the Rambam wrote Halacha. The Rambam taught us what it means to be completely dedicated Just in.

31:13
Another interesting tale about the Rambam is that the Rambam, as we know, wanted to be buried in Tiberias. Why in Tiberias? Because it says that in the time of the third temple, the Sanhedrin, the Jewish court, will be reassembled in Tiberia. In Tiberias, what did the Rambam do? He wrote halacha. He says I want to be there when the Sanhedrin gets reassembled. I want to be there, so he wanted to be there. But the Sanhedrin gets reassembled, I want to be there, so he wanted to be there, but he passed away in Egypt. So you know the hearse that they had back then. It wasn't a Cadillac, the hearse that they had was a donkey. The legend has it is that by the funeral of the Rambam, the donkey started running. It ran away from the procession all the way to Tiberias and indeed, the Rambam was buried in Tiberias. All right, it's an amazing thing, but what do we see here? Let's go back to our influences, the influences that, even though it's an amazing thing, we're going to talk about this more after we do the Parsha series. We're going to talk about something else. We're going to talk about the. You know we can already add it in right now.

32:43
I want to show you something amazing. So I want to talk to you a little bit about a mitzvah that's given in this week's parasha and that is to cover the blood of an animal that's slaughtered. Not the big animals, not a cow, we're talking about a sheep, smaller animals, a bird, a chicken, a duck After it's slaughtered. It needs to be, the blood needs to be covered. And how does that happen? You put blood first, you put the, you put earth on the ground and then you slaughter the animal and then put earth above it. So what happens is that now it's completely covered top and bottom, the blood is covered by earth. Okay, so where does this come from? Where does this law come from? Why does the Torah command us to do this? So I found something really, really special I want to show you. So he says as follows this is an expanded Parsha review podcast episode.

34:02
I'm going to combine this together with what I was going to do separately, but here we go. It says regarding a chaya and an oaf, a smaller animal, not cattle, smaller animal like a deer or a goat, those sheep, those are included in this law of covering the blood after you slaughter them, not the bigger animals. Hamitzvah hi b'chaya v'hov v'lo b'hemos. And the Orachayim explains that she b'chaya v'of ha'dam zehu atzmo ha'nefesh alehem, their soul is their blood and therefore, as a of like showing their dignity or preserving their dignity, we cover the blood V'huam echaya, esachaya v'of, and that the blood gives it life. V'tzoruch limnog b'kavot. And you have to properly, with honor, with dignity, deal with that blood. K'mo sh'mitzave ha'kodesh boruch u'likv'ro adam es. Just like there's a commandment in the Torah to bury someone after they pass away. Beneath them they have earth and above them they have earth.

35:20
Okay, just as a side note, if you know anybody that has any intentions or plans to cremate, stop them. It's a terrible thing they're doing for their body and a terrible thing they're doing for their soul. Right, this body that we have, that we're gifted with, is a hotel for our soul. And when we come to the next world, that body and soul need to be reunited. Because who schleps you out of bed to do your mitzvahs? So the soul says, yeah, I get all the reward because I did the mitzvahs. The body's like excuse me, I'm the one who schlepped you out of bed, I'm the one who took you from place to place. What are you talking about? You get the reward. I'm the one who took you from place to place. What are you talking about? You get the reward. So they're reunited to both receive the reward. But when they're burnt and cremated willingly, that's a devastating thing, because the soul doesn't have who to reunite with.

36:23
Now the question about the Holocaust. That was not willingly. It's a question I always get. And another question that I always get is which body do we get? If we're reincarnation, which body do we get? I say the best looking one. All right, the best looking body is the one you get reunited with? No, but the one that brings you to your perfection, the one that you did the most mitzvahs with. It makes sense that the body that carried us to do the most mitzvos is the one that is rewarded. Okay, the Talmud here now.

36:54
So the commentary here continues. Avol bebehema, but by cattle, a larger animal, ein daman afshah. The blood is not its nefesh, it's not its soul. Shiyeish bo nefesh atzmi, shi hinusuno, murkeves, bisoch, dama, lahach yosa. The blood keeps it alive, but it's not the soul, is the blood, okay, and therefore it doesn't need to be covered. When you slaughter a cow or a larger animal, it's not necessary for the blood to be covered. Okay, and he brings over here a few other reasons, because it's Rachmanus, it's a compassion for the animal.

37:37
But where does this really come from? Okay, so for those of you who say that the Medrash oh, it's just Medrash, let me tell you this thing from the Medrash, okay, the Medrash Tanchuma says an amazing thing. You know why? The birds primarily the birds, but also the small animals are covered. Their blood is covered. Just listen to this.

38:02
He says this is a reward for the birds that showed Adam that Abel was dead. What happened? How did Adam know? Adam didn't know. They were out in the field. Cain killed Abel and he's out in the field. The bird came and let Adam know I need you to come here. And that's how Adam knew Right, and not the bird, but Adam. In the night and the first day of the night that the night of the next day was over, he showed Adam the bird, showed Adam how the bird itself buried another bird that was dead. He says it's a recognition of this good deed that the bird did to Adam that we cover its blood with earth, why it did something good for you. You do something good back for it. It's a recognition.

39:23
Hakaras atov means a gratitude, but an appreciation for the kindness that it did for us, for mankind. How do we know about burial? How did Adam know? How's he supposed to know? There's never been death before that? How is Adam supposed to know To bury Abel? The bird taught him. The bird showed him look, your son died, brought him over there and then he showed him how to bury.

39:54
Because of that, when we slaughter a bird, we slaughter a chicken, we slaughter a duck, which are delicious, great, enjoy them. Adamu anefesh. The blood of these animals is its soul. Therefore, after the blood, you cover it. You slaughter it, you cover it. I want to tell you something else, I want to share with you, just something really, really, really beautiful. So we know that.

40:26
Just by the way, there's a lot we see in the Torah about Hakara Satov recognizing the good. For example, we just spoke about Egypt. Right, we're not supposed to live in Egypt. Don't go there, don't be there. Do you know what it does say Hakara Satov, appreciation, have gratitude. You know why? You lived there for 210 years. Right, when they come and they want to convert, accept them, don't take revenge on them. There are others, like Amon Omoav, that loyav abakal. They're never allowed to convert. You know why? Because they had the opposite of Akar Asatov. They had the opposite of recognition, of appreciation that Abraham saved them. No, they didn't recognize the good that they benefited from our forefather Abraham. They didn't even come out to bring us water when we were traveling in the desert. We were going through. They didn't let us go through their land.

41:24
Hashem says such people have no part in the Jewish culture. No part. If you don't recognize the good that you've benefited, there's no place for you in the Jewish religion, among the Jewish people. It's an amazing thing. It says it's part of the Torah. If a person doesn't have proper acknowledgement and recognition and appreciation and gratitude for the good that they benefited from someone else, there's no place in the Torah. Don't deny the Egyptian to come join. You benefited from someone else. There's no place in the Torah. V'chein omra, torah lo tisayev mitzri. Don't deny the Egyptian to come join you.

42:01
Shehoi solochem shamach sanya gam b'shasat chak. Even though you suffered in Egypt, but you still lived there, they still fed you, they still took care of you Somewhat, even though it wasn't the greatest conditions, we still have to show our gratitude. The Torah says don't accept Ammon and Moab ever to convert to Judaism. Why? Because they denied the goodness of the Jewish people. They didn't come bring you water and the big war between the four kings and the five kings. Abraham saved them From the hands of Sodom. They didn't acknowledge that goodness. They didn't appreciate what Abraham did for them.

42:55
We see this by Jacob, we see this by Yosef. We see this by Jacob. We see this by Yosef. We see this constantly, moshe. We see a constant focus on appreciation, on gratitude.

43:09
So I want to show you something that you know that most animals that are not kosher or not slaughtered in a kosher way, that means the Torah tells us exactly how an animal needs to be slaughtered, not the Torah itself, the oral Torah. And how is that? So there is on the bottom of the neck. The animal is taken, it's turned over, so its legs are up, and then by the bottom of the neck there's a certain spot, exactly where every slaughterer learns they learn through the Torah, they learn through the laws, they learn through all of the halacha To understand exactly the right place where they slaughter. And in one motion it's done. They slaughter the animal and the animal is dead in a single instant. In a single instant. It doesn't even feel pain because it stops the flow of oxygen to the brain and therefore it doesn't get a single drop of blood left to the brain. There's no more oxygen. It's done. It doesn't feel any single drop of blood left to the brain. There's no more oxygen. It's done. It doesn't feel any pain, which is something to be.

44:21
If you ever look at someone who is a slaughterer, a shokhet, you look at their thumbnail and they have this big, big, long thumbnail. Do you know why they have that Not only for the birds right, that was in the temple right Today. We don't slaughter animals like that. They do it because they need to constantly check their knife. The most precious article to a slaughterer is his knife. Why? The knife cannot have a single nick. And in the real slaughterhouse where they slaughter animal one after another, it's on a conveyor belt. There's the sholchet slaughters gives the knife to somebody and gets a new knife for the next animal, gives it new knife, new knife. Why? What does it make a difference? What do they do? They take that nail and they run the knife on the nail. And if there's even a single nick on that knife, it's not a kosher knife. If there's a single nick on that knife, why? Because that nick on the knife will cause one ounce of pain to that animal. It's not aher neif.

45:38
The Torah commands us to not cause pain to an animal, to any creature, an animal, certainly not the person sitting next to you, by the way. Just a separate law in the Torah lo sonu ishesam isecho. Don't cause pain to your friend. Know what that means. Don't cause pain to your friend. Don't say you know that's a really ugly shirt. They're going to feel bad, it's going to hurt them. You know what you have to do. Avoid that. Don't cause pain to hurt them. You know what you have to do. Avoid that. Don't cause pain to another person. It's a biblical prohibition.

46:26
You see, the sensitivity that we have here to an animal that even a little nick on the knife would render it a non-kosher slaughter because you caused pain to the animal. It's not a kosher animal because you caused pain to the animal. It's not a kosher animal. You caused pain to the animal. So I want to share with you something really, really, really incredible. So I'm not going to get into all of the all of the. You got it Okay.

46:56
I'm not going to get into all the gory details, but I'll just tell you very, very carefully, very quickly, that the main source of the main artery that supplies the blood to the animal by a kosher animal, both of those veins are on the bottom of the neck. So when they slaughter both are immediately. There's no more supply of blood to the brain. A non-kosher animal, it's not the same. A non-kosher animal will have one on the bottom and one on the top of the neck. Understand, a kosher animal will have both of the arteries on the bottom of the neck and they're both completely not severed, but they're both sliced, cut, while a non-kosher animal. It is impossible to slaughter the animal without pain because it's too far from one another. It's going to be an animal that suffers pain Because it's too far from one another. It's going to be an animal that suffers pain.

48:22
I'm not saying, and nowhere do we see anywhere, that this is the reason it's a kosher animal or a non-kosher animal. It just so happens to be. It just so happens to be that all the animals that God says this is a kosher animal because it chews its cud and it has split hooves, are the animals that have both of them, both of the pipes in the front of the neck, while the non-kosher animals, those that do not chew their cud and have split hooves, have one pipe in the front and one pipe in the back. They use, by the way, the methods they use in almost every single place, aside in Judaism. They use stun guns, they use other types of methods of killing the animal, which is very painful, very painful. Judaism no such thing. Animal is not shot. The animal doesn't suffer, doesn't bleed out in the same way, doesn't bleed to its death, it's an instant death.

49:40
This is a little bit gory, I know it's not the typical topic that we talk about, but what we're trying to understand here is the beauty of Hashem's Torah. Hashem's Torah is so perfect it all makes sense. I urge all of you. By the way, there's a magnificent book. It's called the Coming Revolution. I don't know if you can see it online Magnificent book by Rabbi Zamir Cohen, and he goes through about a hundred different proofs of the perfection of the Torah. This is one of them, page 150. An unbelievable demonstration of and he explains, he gives the whole background to it, the whole explanation to it, and I'm summarizing it very, very briefly, but the idea that we need to have proper appreciation for everything that we benefit from.

50:43
You benefited from something. I'll give you an example. It's a practical example. You had a job, went for an interview. You got hired. You supported your. Went for an interview. You got hired. You supported your family for 10 years and then you got fired.

51:07
And I've heard people say the most nastiest things. I can't believe it. Disgusting. How can it be that they did this to me and they only have negative things to say? That's not the Torah way. Did you benefit from this company For 10 years you supported your family, they helped you live with dignity, they gave you an occupation, all right, so it didn't end the way you wanted it to end, but now you're going to backstab what you benefited from. Oh, it's the new HR, it's the this, it's the that, all the reasons you enjoyed, you benefited. How can you go and now speak negative? You benefited. How can you go and now speak negative? I have the same challenge, by the way, when I see couples who get divorced. Oh, that guy is just the most miserable creep in the world. And it's like you stood under the chuppah with this guy and vice versa, by the way, you had great times together. You can go now and throw stones at what you enjoyed Someone who believed in you, someone who was okay, it didn't work out. You're going to say something negative. How is that possible?

52:42
In Judaism, we learn that if you benefit from something, you cannot take it for granted. Yes, and Hakara Satov, appreciation of that good that you benefited from has no expiration date. It's okay. I told them thank you, it's fine, I'm good. No, it's forever. And we see our great sages, who benefited from whatever it was, would have a sensitivity and a soft spot. It's not, you see.

53:20
The problem is we're in a world where we see politics, and politics is the most amazing thing. I just saw a clip yesterday, a clip of our president who sent some of the apprentice people you know in his show that he had to meet with Chuck Schumer, who's a senator from New York. My good friend Chuck Schumer, my good friend Donald Trump, my good friend, best friends, what is it 15 years later, 20 years later? Oh, that nasty guy. It's like on a dime. Everything, the whole script changes. Judaism is not about politics. We're not looking for votes from other people, we're looking for votes from Hashem. And we see this with Hashem, that when someone did good, they were rewarded greatly for it, like we see with Egypt, when someone has the trait of Hakara Satov. That's a very Jewish characteristic. I can't stab you in the back.

54:35
I benefited from you. I enjoyed your company. How can I now slap you back? It's something which is so fundamental, which makes sense now.

54:50
Honor your father and mother. Your parents brought you to this world. They brought you to this world. How can you have disrespect to your parents? Brought you to this world, they brought you to this world. How can you have disrespect to your parents? Oh, my life is miserable. My father abused me. My mother, this my mother. You enjoy life, don't you?

55:12
Notwithstanding, you're still obligated to honor your father and mother, and it could be sometimes. It's not. Not every child grows in a family, in a relationship with their parents. That's the most glowing. Okay, torah, doesn't qualify it and say well, if you like your parents, then you should honor them. If you don't like them, then disregard them and beat them to death. No, it's blanket. You benefit from every breath of air that you take. You love your life. You know who gave you that life. Your parents brought you into this world. You are due respect to them. You are due respect to them. You are due appreciation to them. You are due to recognize the goodness that you benefited from. Yeah, you can have your complaints. It's fine. You don't have to go out of your way.

56:20
Perhaps there are some challenging situations that I've been involved with where children came to me and said you know, my parents were like, so abusive and so terrible. How can the Torah tell me to honor them? I said, okay, you can't honor them. Don't disregard them, don't violate the honor. Live in a different city, live in a different state, live in a different country, don't be in contact, that's fine, but don't denigrate, don't put them down, don't disrespect. The Torah specifically tells us honor your father and mother, fear your mother and father Two separate commandments.

57:10
So where did we start from? We started that the place has an influence. The place you reside in, the place you live in, has an influence on you in a greater way than you can imagine. And if you're living in a place of modesty, a place of holiness, a place of godliness, it has an influence. And if a person God forbid lives in a place where there is immorality, like the animals in San Francisco who are in an environment that has immorality all around them, they're influenced by it. And it's a tragedy, because this corruption is something Hashem does not like, it's something that Hashem does not enjoy, and corruption is something Hashem does not like. It's something that Hashem does not enjoy and this is something that takes us away from our closeness from Hashem. So, my dear friends, this is a big charge, this is a big responsibility that we have. We have to appreciate every single breath of air.

58:16
I'll just tell you a quick story. My great-grandfather, rav Ram Gorjinsky, whom we've learned some of his Torah here, he was the spiritual leader of the Slobotka community and after the altar, after the elder of the yeshiva, the head of the yeshiva, passed away. My great-grandfather was the leader, and then the war broke out and he guided his entire community through the Kovne ghetto, giving them encouragement, infusing them with, you know, words of inspiration, giving them another day to live for. But he was handicapped and was never able to walk on his own. And when the Nazis came into their city they said oh, you're sick, we're going to put you in the hospital, right? And then they burnt the hospital. But before they burnt the hospital and he knew that they were going to do that before they burnt the hospital, he told his students who came to visit him. He says they're about to burn this place down. Do me a favor, take my stretcher that he was on. Move it a little bit away from the wall so they have a few extra seconds to live. That's how precious life is. Just a few extra seconds to live. That's how precious life is Just a few extra seconds of life, a few extra moments of service of Hashem. It's an unbelievable understanding of the power, the joy, the love that we have for life, and to understand it's a responsibility as well. It's an enormous responsibility for us to recognize that we're going to be held accountable for everything that we did or didn't do during the life that we have here. The Torah gives us guidance. The Torah teaches us how to conduct our lives.

01:00:26
It's not a story. The Torah is not a storybook. It's not a history book. If it was, it's an awful one, because the first two portions, bereshit and Noach, is 2,000 years of history. The next 10 portions are only about 150 years, right from a little bit more. And then you have from Moshe till the end of the Torah. It's just 4 books, 120 years, of which the it's just four books, 120 years, of which the last book is just 36 days. That just doesn't make any sense, like one is in great detail and it gets less and less and less If you go backwards. It's an unbelief right. The Torah is not a history book.

01:01:15
The Torah is a living book, telling us how to live life. You want to know Jewish morals, jewish values, jewish ethics. It's all in the Torah. The Torah tells you exactly how to do it. Hashem should bless us all that we should have an amazing Shabbos ahead. But also we should merit to learn these lessons from the Torah. It's ours, morosh, achilles, yaakov. It's ours, take it, learn it, read it, study it, review it, share it, because this is the greatest gift Hashem has given to us the manual for living, how to live life, how to make the most of every single day. My dear friends, have an amazing Shabbos.

01:01:59 - Intro (Announcement)
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