Vayikra - Can We Bless Hashem?

You're listening to the weekly para podcast with Ari Goldwag recorded with Hashem's never ending assistance in Rames Israel 5785 2025. This week's para is parikra. We begin a brand new cafer a new book in the Torah the third of the five books. And over the last few weeks we've been speaking about the construction the parts of the Mishkan. We spoke about the concept behind the mishkan the purpose of the mishkan to draw us close to Hashem. And now Hashem calls out to Mosha, Hashem, and talks to him about the carbon, the sacrifices, the the service inside of the Mishk, what it looks like. And sometimes it might have to do with there might be a carbon, a thanks thanksgiving offering, might be carbonous, sacrifices that are related to the holidays that we're celebrating. But mainly when we think about the carbonus, we think about kapara, we think about atonement. we've done something wrong. We recognize we've done that thing wrong and we come to Hashem with a corban with a sacrifice and in so doing we express our remorse. We express that we understand we've done what's wrong and we express that we'd like to change. That's what the carbonus are about. Many of the carbonas the sacrifices. So it's a powerful idea because you know we're in a relationship with Hashem. That means that Hashem expects us to make mistakes. Shem expects us to do what's wrong. That's part of a relationship. Whether it's with our spouses, with our kids, with our neighbors, with our friends, or with Hashem, with God, we also have a relationship. And inevitably, we make mistakes. And there's a description in of what's done when a portion of Israel makes a mistake. And part of this description it says says chapter 4:15 that the elders of the congregation get involved and they help to atone for am is so there's a recognition of course there's individual responsibility for what we've done wrong but there's also a recognition that the elders are the ones who guide us and they also bear responsibility for what happens to Israel, the mistakes that we make. And all of this is just to bring us back into a relationship with Hashem. I'd like to read to you a medish that's on this pik that I just read to you, but it talks about David. We're going to we're not going to get to right away. We're going to say see a beautiful piece in chapter 19 of Telm perutas and we're going to speak about David's approach to chuva and it has everything to do with the carbonus the way that he did it the way that we can do it and at the end I I ask you to hold on till the end over here because I have a beautiful insight into something that we do all the time into the prayer and the brahas the blessings that we make and I I think you know say that one of the things that's always needed is to we need to renew our prayers. We need to have a new insight into prayer. And I think that this idea is helping me and I hope that it will help you as well to dain to talk to interact to have a relationship with Hashem with our creator Tony Shiman. So the med starts off with something that that seems off topic but it's actually not. The Jewish people have a unique ability. We have the ability. We are professionals. We have We are professionals. We know how to appease our creator, right? It's something that we know whether it's in our prayers or whether it's with the sacrifices, the carbonas. We know how to appease our creator. We've done something wrong. We've made mistakes. We know how to return to him and show him that we want to be different. We want to change says you want to know the right approach or the concept the the essence of the concept of what it means to do chuva what it means and by the way I'll mention oh weash you know that's but say it's a that besides we have the three we have the three times when Hashem manifests reveals himself in the world. it's on PES which was when we had a gula redemption so many years ago the year 2448 3,300 years ago or whether it's when we receive the whether it's uh sukas time when when we sit in our sukas but in all three of these times it's a time of din the Mishna says it's a time of judgment because when Hashem reveals himself to us so we have to step up in our relationship with Hashem PES. We're going to eat the matzah. We're We wish we could bring the carbon pes. We're going to We're going to have a beautiful and enjoyable. We're going to clean our houses now. We're we're in the in the midst. But all of this is really about our relationship with Hashem. It's it's a time of judgment, which doesn't mean that it means that we need to be honest. That's what judgment is about. If we want to have relationship with Hashem, we need to recognize the things that we're doing wrong. Clean it up. Now, how do you clean it up? And that's what this is talking about. And I think it's very timely. Review says it's like these kind of person they're very smart when it comes to how they get someone to do them a favor. One of them went, it's a story that happened. He went to a particular woman. He asked, "Do you have do you have an onion that I could I could have or borrow?" So, so he says, "Look, what what can I do with an onion? Really? Can I eat an onion without some bread to eat it with?" maybe you could let me have a piece of bread. And he says there, "Thank you for the bread. Is there such a thing as food without a drink? Could I also have a drink?" And in so doing, so he was able to eat and drink. Right? He didn't come at it all at once. Gradually he asked a small thing first, and next thing next, last thing last. And as we'll see in the insukim in tahim peric we'll see that did a similar thing when he asked excuse me for forgiveness when he asked Hashem to remove his averis. So he asks him in a way which is little by little moving up the ladder first in the in the sins that I've done by accident then in the sins that could have been avoided and then in the sins that I did intentionally. He builds up. We'll see that soon. But the idea is that there's an approach to entering back into a relationship with Hashem when we've made a mistake. Tells us there's another example of this kind of incremental way of approaching somebody. This is a slightly different thing. One's incremental and I ask for a little by a little. But there's another approach. This is kind of a social lesson, but it also will give us an insight into how we interact with others and how we interact with when we seek to enter into relationship with him. So, Raaka says there are women who are smart and they know how to ask for something, how to borrow something. You want to you go to your neighbor, you you want to borrow their vacuum cleaner. Okay, it's Pes time. You your vacuum cleaner is broken. So, what do you do? Some women know how to ask and some don't. Here's the example of a woman who knows how to ask. She comes to somebody's house and in front of the house there's a a raw iron gate and the gate is closed. A woman who's wise, even though it's unlocked or even if the the sh the gate is open, she knocks. She knocks on the gate. She doesn't just walk in. So she knocks and then the woman says, "Who's there?" She says to to her neighbor, "How are you doing? What are you up to? What's your husband up to? Eden, what are your children up to? So before even asking for the thing that she wants to borrow, and this is by the way not Dale Carnegie's how to win friends and influence people. This this is an understanding of what it means to have a relationship with somebody else. It's not just about getting what you want. It's really about entering into the relationship, which is the point here because we're talking about we've done something wrong. We want to enter back into relationship with Hashem. So let's keep that in our minds. But we can understand from a social interaction that when I come in, I want to borrow somebody's vacuum cleaner. So, first I say, "How you doing? How's your husband? What are they up to? How's your kids?" There's an interaction. There's there's a connection that's created. You forge a connection first. As I always say to my kids, my older ones love to play with our little 2-year-old son. And some of them like to get in there quick and try to get a hug out of him. but he's not interested. You got to come in with a soft landing. Find out what he's interested in. Play with him a little bit. Maybe then you can get a hug. So she says you've is it okay if I come into your house? Right. This is kind of she's the approach is I'm asking permission to come. I'm asking permission to have to have a relationship with you. And she says yes come in. She says what do you need? So she says there's a particular thing I need to use. I need to use a vacuum cleaner. Can I borrow it? And she says yes of course you can. So that's the approach of somebody who has the right call it social skills or establishes a relationship first before asking something of someone else. Someone who's not so wise. She goes to her neighbor. The door might be closed, might even be locked, but she just knocks it down. Opens it up. Doesn't even knock. She goes straight to the chase. Can I borrow your vacuum cleaner? I'm really love. So the person who's the neighbor says no way. In other words, there's no relationship established. The maj brings another example of this. There are there's a sharecropper, somebody who works for me. He wants he wants a tip. He wants a raise, right? So some sharecroers who are working for their master know how to approach it and some don't. le Michall. So, we're talking about a sharecropper, somebody who works the land. He's dirty. He's filthy. He is He's putting out the the manure in order to in order to get the minerals for the crops. He's full of dirt. He's full of So, he a person who is the right kind, who knows how to go in, he notices how he looks. He's aware of what he looks like. He realizes he looks dirty. Sorry. So what he does is he switches his mood. Then you're involved in work. So you're in a certain mood. He switches to to be in a good mood. He combs his hair. He cleans his garments. He puts on a happy face. He has a staff in his hand. He looks very austere. Puts on rings on his fingers. and he goes to the owner of the land, the land owner. So he sees he looks all nice and austere and and the owner of the land says, "Hey, what's going on? How are you doing?" He says, "I'm well." Doesn't doesn't go straight into his request, right? He waits for the master to say, "How's the land doing?" And so the sharecropper says to the owner of the land, he says, "May you merit to to be satisfied from the fruits. How are the oxen doing the animals of burden? You should merit to enjoy from their from their fat. How are the how are the goats doing?" He keeps saying things that express his wish for the master. That his master should have success. That his master should succeed. That he should enjoy the the fruits of his earth and of his animals. So finally the master says, "Okay, what are you here for?" He says, "I'd like you to give me a raise. I'd like a pay a bonus of 10 dinar. So he says to him, if you want a raise, I'm going to give you 20 dinar. Going to give you double what you asked for. So this is what it looks like to have a relationship with somebody. This is what it looks like to so to speak get on someone's good side. And it's not about getting the money as we'll see again as we said before. It's about entering into a relationship. You have a sharecropper who's not so wise. What does it look like? His hair is full of dirt. His clothes are full of manure. His face is looks terrible. He goes to his master. He looks disheveled. He goes to his master. How's it going with the earth? I wish that it would actually produce them based on the amount of effort I've put into it. How is the how are the oxen? They're weak. What do you want? Can you give me a raise of 10 dinar? He says, I am already paying you. Take what I already give you. I'm not giving you anything more. Okay. So, all of this is really an introduction to the to the point. And that is King David was an amazing artist. He was an amazing sharecropper of God. Right? Think about it. We think of a when you think of a king, I don't know about you, I don't think of somebody who's a sharecropper of God. What was David? He was tending to am Israel. He was serving the Jewish people. He was raising the fruits. He was fattening up the cows. He was fattening up the goats so that they would give good milk. That was Am Israel. David Amelik was a sharecropper. Hashem is the land owner. But David was the shepherd of his people. So what does he do? How does he approach it? And this is somebody who has a recognition of his responsibility to Jewish people. And this is who we need to be and we need to think this way. So what does he do? He talks about how great Hashem is. We like to actually read to you from the from the itself. He speaks about the fact that the heavens speak of God's greatness, the work of his hands, the greatness of them is told over by the by the sky. Every day, every night, it's more and more revealed his greatness. And it's something that you can't even can't even fully express. God created the day, the night. God created the the sun and the moon. The sun comes out. It's like it's the shine. It's the amazing life that God gives to us. It's like a like a groom coming out from from his marriage. He's running out to to dance with his friends. The heat of the sun, right, just comes out right now for us to see. The heat of the sun acts as God's emissary as it were, heating up the earth, giving life. Then he switches. Them is so amazing. It's so perfect. It brings back our souls. It's pess. The testimony of Hashem, the law of Hashem is something that we can always hold on to. It makes us wise. Just like the sun is shining bright, the Torah and the mitzvah also shine for us. They enlighten our eyes. Reverence of Hashem is pure. It stands for us forever. The laws of Hashem are true. They're all of them together are so righteous, so just so he goes on to say, "How sweet and holy and beloved is the I've been careful. I've been careful to try to keep your but I make mistakes after after I've told you everything about how great you are. After I've told you everything about how awesome the Tyra is and how precious it is to me, it's not always easy to keep that Tyra. I make mistakes. But for for who can understand these mistakes? Clean me off of my mistakes. So he talks about the mistakes and then he talks about the that he's made carelessness about the same as a mistake could have been more careful perhaps and then the third level is the aver that I made intentionally I was out of my mind I was disconnected to you from you Hashem clean me off of all of these and he ends off May my words and my thoughts be desired before you hashem. You are my rock. You are my redeemer. So the mages says this was his approach. It was like the sharecropper who came in and and knew how to say what what the the master wants to hear in order to get his raise. Damel wants a raise in his relationship with Hashem. He says, "I I appreciate the awesome heaven and earth that you've created. I appreciate the Tyra and the Mus and your desire to have a relationship with me, and I want to express that I'd like a raise in my relationship. I'd like you to forgive me for my mistakes so that I can enter into a real relationship with you." First, he starts off singing Hashem's praises, speaking how the heavens sing his praises. The creations speak of the the the heavens speak of the greatness of his creation. He goes on and on. He speaks about the he speaks about how great Hashem is, the son is, etc. All the way that Hashem interacts with us and gives to us. So after hearing all of this says, "Okay, what do you want? What what did you come for?" He says, "Who understands the mistakes? Please clean me off of these mistakes." He says, "I forgive you. I I I'm not going to hold you I'm not going to hold these these things against you. You obviously want to be different. What about the the hidden things that I've done or I forgot about? I could have been better. Will you forgive those two? Hashem says again like the landowner, you want 10, I'll give you 20. Please even forgive me. says for the intentional sins don't let the powerful aes have have power over me let them not rule over me remove them from me clean me off of this great sin is saying you are a great God and I have great sins. It's appropriate for a great God like you to forgo to let go of holding against me my great sins. So the Pik says, "For your name, Hashem. For your name, Hashem. We're looking to Hashem. For your name, I know you want to manifest through me. I'm the sharecropper. I'm the one who's trying to raise up your kids. But we all make mistakes. The leaders need to they have to be involved in helping out those who are being led by them. The only way that they can do it is if Hashem says, "I'm not going to hold these against you either. I know you want a relationship with me." That's the medish. I'd like to share with you a thought that I I feel is very strong, very powerful, and it's something that we can incorporate into our doning. It's going to be a little surprising and I'll tell you, I think it's a simple explanation we see every single day. In our I'm going to focus on the words mean blessed are you the shield of blessed are you bring the dead to life blessed are you the holy Godm you you cure the sick of Israel you blessed are you build Jerusalem Now if you if you look at the shot of the words, it says I'm giving a blessing to Hashem. I'm saying that he is blessed. God needs my blessing. What does it mean? What does it mean I'm giving Hashem a blessing? Could it even mean that? So there's a gar which I'm not going to read inside. I do have it here. I'm not read towards the top. It's a famous was the coing god of the high priest and he came inside of the holy of holies. He came in on the highest day of the year, the most holy day of the year and he sees a vision of Hashem as it were sitting on his exalted throne. Shem is the the judge. Hashem is judging Israel, but Hashem is a is a loving father. And he says, Hashem says to [Music] him, Hashem says to him an unbelievable thing. He says, "My son, give me a blessing." And says to Hashem, May it be your will, Hashem, that your mercy overcome your anger and let your mercy be more powerful than any of your other ways of interacting with Israel and judge us outstandingly favorably. Forgive us. Take away our ais. Yum kipper. The garra says, "What does this teach us? What is the idea of the story?" The garra says, "How can how can a human being give a blessing to God?" And by the way, at the end, Hashem Hashem nods his head as it were and agrees with his blessing. But the the gumar says how can it be that a human being can give a what we learn from here is don't ever dismiss a blessing of anybody. Nobody. Someone gives you a blessing you say a you say thank you. But what we see from this is that a human being can give a blessing to Hashem. And what does the blessing look like? It looks like Hashem do what you want to do. Be the God, the loving God that you want to be. Have mercy on Am Israel. Forget all the anger and all the judgment. Just have mercy on us. That's what the blessing looks like. And I want to say, we talked about the whole time here how David Hamelf interacts as a sharecropper with Hashem or a good neighbor knows how to develop a relationship first and then ask for what they need. Then ask to have a deeper relationship. In the case of forgive my a listen to this hashm I bless you that you should manifest in the world as you wish as the shield of a one who protects the Jewish people who are the main offspring of Abraham. I bless you that you should manifest in this world as you wish by bringing the dead to life. I bless you that you should manifest in the world as you wish and bring to Israel. Hashm I bless you that you should manifest as the healer of Israel. I bless you that you should manifest in the world as the one who returns his divine presence as you wish to Jerusalem to your I'm telling you I've been been doing this having that in mind as I say the brahas as I say the blessings and it has a certain it feels weird to to give Hashem a braha but at the same time it's powerful Don't think that you can't by having an interaction with Hashem as he wishes. You're you're understanding what is Hashem's wish. You're understanding what does Hashem want. Hashem wants to manifest himself just like the sharecropper wants to I'm sorry, the the land owner wants to hear from the sharecropper that everything's going well with his his land. The animals are growing, etc. the the the crops are growing everything. That's the way to approach Hashem. We want forgiveness. We want we want prosperity. We want everything good. It only comes when we have a real relationship with Hashem. And the way that we get into a real relationship with Hashem is by caring about God's will. What Hashem wants to do. He wants to rebuild you. He wants to cure the sick. We're It's a prayer. we think of as something that's ours. It belongs to us that we're trying to get from Hashem. But that's not really what it is. We're doing this the the prayer is really for God's sake, for Hashem. That's the deepest feel. And that's what David is doing as well. He's saying, "Hashem, you want to you want to shine the sun in the world. You want you want people to access you and have a relationship with you through your Tyra. Forgive us now. Forgive us. Manifest through us. Come into the world through us for your sake. Forgive us for your sake. You're a great God. You understand. You made us. You know what it means. You put us here. Forgive us so that we can continue to bring your will into the world. I want to bless you. I ask you to bless me. Hashem should help us as we prepare for this time of interaction with Hashem. Shem is going to come down and reveal himself in our lives. Whether it's through the mitzvah, whether it's through the joy, or whether it's through maybe a gula, a redemption, a protection of amrael in the face of great danger. Whatever it is, we got to be ready for that. Hashm should bless us to be able to see what it is that we can ask Hashem for him. What it is that we can bless Hashem as it were so that he can manifest in the world. Hashm should help us to be able to express that and to be able to receive all the blessings that Hashem wants to bestow upon us the many many full blessing that he wants to bestow on us as we have a true relationship with with Hashem. Thank you so much for listening. Have a wonderful shamus. This podcast was made possible through the gracious donations of listeners like you. For more podcasts like this, please visit www.rigoldwag.com at arrigoldwag.com or search on iTunes Ari Goldwag. [Music]