Parshat Nitzavim-Vayelech 5786 - Erasure By Rabbi Ari Kahn

So is the shar still sponsored or this is still because it's >> tint. >> Uh I will note that this is the second paratin. We had one we had one earlier in the year. So that is a uh I think I think Phil would get excited about such things in the old Torah tidbit. So uh I I don't know if uh if it's covered he could tell you statistically how often you can have the same part >> how often you can have the is that doing anything other than noise? >> We believe that it'll gradually have an impact. So >> you you you know that evolution really hasn't been proven, but fine. So what else do we need to say? Yeah, if anybody uh continuing who's been here from the past knows that we don't actually print out the source sheets, but we do send them out digitally. If anyone's interested, you'll ask afterwards how to sign up. So the share is sponsored by Rabbi Michael and Jerry Lax meter for the fool of the grand sura aaron. So in this week's par there are two in V there is a turn of phrase which is a pretty popular turn of phrase it is a theological condition and it's called hester panim where god for lack of a better term right now I'll say he hides his face. So if we were to look specifically we'd actually see the term is used twice in two verses in the first source of parl and on that day God's anger is going to burn I will hide my I will leave you I will hide my face that's the first time that it's used mayhem from them wrote I'll call her and this will be a result of having turned to other gods. So essentially you turn to other gods and I'm going to hide myself from you. In the next p it says sorry sorry I skipped a sorry I did not read that correctly. Why anybody correct me? Right. And I skipped a line, but sort of that's actually a really interesting thing theologically. Somebody could say, "Oh, I don't feel God is in my life and therefore there's a theological issue. I don't feel God at all." No, that's exactly the point. That is the punishment of uh of Hester Panim. The the the situation whereby a person does not feel God in some kind of sense of immediiacy in their life, that is Hester Panim. So therefore, if somebody could say, somebody would say, listen, where was God during the Holocaust? How could this possibly be reconciled? How could you be believe in a God who is hidden? So the answer is no. But that's exactly what it says invar. It says invar that a time is going to come that God is going to be perceived as being hidden if that's not a contradiction in terms. Now the next verse, I I skipped a line before. The next verse in it says, I'm gonna hide my face on that day. Okay, I'll call the rash. So, because they went and they turned to other gods. So, essentially God is saying I'm in a relationship which is monogamous with you and if you turn to other gods essentially God says I'm out of here. That's that that is the description. That that's what's being said. And maybe that should not be the biggest surprise. But again, that is the articulation of what is taking place over here towards the end of safe environment. What I did or what I perhaps didn't do and that is what I do wish to do today is to give this a little bit more context and as we continue more and more and more and more context because what you see what I did other than misreading the verse and skipping the line what I did is I didn't tell you what's happening here what's taking place and it's easy to say okay this is just kind of the toa even though you know that's not true because the toka was really last week so it's just like continuing the toa no There's actually a really specific point and there is then a larger point and then we'll get to the much larger point if we were to now again just broaden this a little bit and go back a couple of verses. So we started on we read and now we're going to go back to the time is coming when you're going to die. So Mosha appearing in the moade is interesting. I hope you realize it's interesting. One thing that you need to think about is that I don't know if you do but there's two oh moideds if that's the plural of oh moed. There was one where Moshe went and he retired to after theel whereby actually Yeshua is the one who comes and uh and he's with him and then afterwards is when the Mishkan is actually built and then there's another oho. So it would have been convenient if they were given different names instead of just the oh moade. But over here, Moshe is being told that he's going to pass away and Yeshua is going to take over. Now, this is not the first time, and it's not the only time that we're told that Moshe at some point is going to pass away, and he's not going to lead us into the promised land. But what I want to do, and this is going to be really the beginning of giving you the hint of where we're going, it's not, and I already gave you some, this is not the first time that Moshe will disappear. There was another time that Moshe disappeared. And what happened when Moshe disappeared? The people then turned and they worshiped other gods. So over here now, if I said I was going to give you a little bit more context, it says you'll call in Yeshua and Yeshua is going to take over and so on, which is also interesting, and I'm not going to engage this, but I hope you realize we should or could. You are going to die. And what's going to happen when you are gone? When you disappear, they're going to serve other gods. By the way, what's the next? And then I'm going to be upset with them on that day. I'm going to hide my my face on that day. I'm gonna again hide my face on that day. So the context over here then becomes a little bit more interesting because it's saying is that Moshe is going to be gone and when Moshe is gone the people are going to sin. Now if I were to turn around to God and to say well can you explain to me exactly how you know this? Well you you do realize that's an unfair question to pose to God because of course God knows this and then I can say okay do you have any kind of empirical evidence that anything has ever happened? Do you have any kind of model for this? And you all know the answer to that now. Of course, there's a model for this because the last time when they thought that Moshe was not among them, then what do they do? And then they go and they serve another god. So, I'm just saying is that everything over here should be suggesting something really specific. But now I want to go a little bit broader. I mean, you realize I just could have started from the beginning of the first source. So, it goes back a little bit. And this is not part of the orita. Now, of all things to have gotten to, we've gotten to a postmita according to everybody except for the Ibanzra. If you need to know that, if you just need to know, you know who who essentially ignores the Mishna Gomorrah and everything else because he thinks the word mikates means something that anybody else thinks it means. He thinks it's the beginning of the shita. So we are in perab alfud Moshe commands them now this is not the first time and it's not the second time not even the third time that schmita has been referred to and each time it comes at it from a different type of a perspective I mean we had all the way back in Mishbat we had obviously in Bahar there was another time we got to over here it's talking about the end of Hakl the end of seven years. By the way, this may one of the reasons that Cohellet is called Cohellet based on the word. Okay. So, what I now want you to pay attention to, which I assume you would not have it would not have been your first go-to that when we had the term I will hide my face or I will hide my face over here immediately prior to this we have you're going to come and now this is a typical aliyah experience so therefore you now realize something and this may be incred incredibly obvious even though you may not have thought of it on on a linguistic sense. The two opposites are hester panim which now is associated with destruction exile and the opposite of that is being in the land bet pilgrimage going up all that I've now noticed right or noted is that on a linguistic sense versus are actually inverse experiences and that's what you perhaps had not noted or even thought about at all because you just kind of abstract hester ponim is that you know god is hidden and that and that's that if I would have pushed you and I would have said okay what's the opposite of hester upon him then you would have said gillo upon him and I then I would have pushed you a little bit more and would have said okay what is gilo upon him tell me a manifestation and you would have worked really hard and you would have eventually gotten to the right answer but you would not have supported it necessarily and say hold it it's just written in the exact same section over here the two sides of the coin if I want to push this a little bit more what exactly is the hael ceremony well first of all Torah is involved in it that's very important secondly it is a reexperience of matan tora at harinai but instead of a reexperience of matantora at harinai it's a reexperience of matantora initro by the beta midash where the coh now takes the role of you could decide now either God speaking or of Moshe speaking and the the melech is now going to read from the Torah by the way parts of safet just like Moshe reads in his last whatever it is parts of his life maybe the last year of and again just read a little bit more over here you're going to read this Torah gather and now again if I would push you and say can you tell me an experience in Judaism where everybody was gathered together and unified again I I you do know what I do for a living I'm essentially I'm I'm a ventriloquist right I I get you to say certain things and you don't even see the strings sometimes right and I could have gotten you there. You say, "Oh, yeah. Look, in preparation for it was they were all gathered together." And I would have said, "Which who?" And I eventually could have gotten you to say, "I maybe even could have gotten you to say, was there anyone else there?" And you would have said, "I don't know who else would have been there." And I would have said, "Was the Rav there?" And you said, "Yes, the Ra was there. They messed everything up." and over here who are strangers in your midst. Not a Garrett said it. By the way, those are the verses right after the people recoil. They move away and they say, "No, Mosh, you speak to us." No, God should speak to you. So have the fear of God upon you. So you're going to keep and follow these laws and your kids who've never experienced meaning the elders over here were children during matantra. The new generation never experienced it. Make sure you keep on doing this reexperience of in order for the subsequent generations to experience to feel this. And this is when you go and it's specifically it's supposed to be a time of happiness, time of joy. And then you not only go to be in proximity of God, whatever that means, but you also are proximity of Torah. And then Torah is read. And all that I'm now noting, okay, now now let's try to do this again. All that I've noted so far is that we've started with this experience, this idea, this this spiritual dysfunctionality which we can call Hester Panim where even though we are in this long-term relationship with God, there are times that God turns his back on us, but we're told that the reason for God turning his back on us is result of us turning our back on God. So essentially the the danger which exists within relationships is when one side hides one side disappears or one side can't be seen or sometimes one side erases the other side right in I think in the modern terminology we call it eraser which may be the title for Okay. Or in modern terms, what what do they call this? A cancel culture that you that that you you you cancel you cancel the other person or country as it may be. You you you you you erase them. And of course, you have to build up a particular narrative before you can do that. But we will leave the the political discussions to others. But first, we're just noting that the the the relationship issue over here. And God is saying that the res that the concept of Hester upon him is a response for Hester Panim that that meaning that's exactly the point. But the flip side of it was presented right beforehand. The flip side was engaging, embracing, accepting Torah, listening to Torah, gathered together as a people, which which is also interesting because exile is dispersed and spread apart as a people. So gathered as a people in the land in the place of the beta mikdash and then gathering together and accepting the Torah together meaning all of that is is spiritually healing and uplifting and now essentially you see that there are two sides of the coin one side of the coin which we can now call and the other side we can call now is panim and all that I've done is I've worked for the last couple of minutes probably more than needed in order to show that these two things are actually linked and they're very, you know, clearly linked. But all that you needed to do was just to read them together rather than to abstract Hester Punan by itself as this terrible spiritual situation. And it is, but rather there's a context for it over here. If we go back a little bit more, there is a verse which is in par. And over here again, essentially describing all of the various types of idolatries which people may end up worshiping. I always like to note the vil nagon who pointed at the Evan and he thought this was a remedy for the crucifix at Evan for Islam. He thought that uh not just ancient other religions but all kinds of other religions which one can embrace he he feels are over here as you travel in different places and dispersed and exile all of these different religions who their hearts turn from God. Chapter 29. This was who serve other gods. Sorry. I am not going to translate any of those words other than telling you that those are extremely bitter things. That's important. So just note cheat on God. Something bitter over here. And then you're going to hear a curse, this curse. And this curse is the and someone's going to going to bless their own hearts and say shalom. It's all going to work out. It's all good. It's all good. Everything's going to work. Everything's fine. I'm going to go, you know, with my heart which is strengthened and I'm not going to be intimidated. God will not forgive this person and then God will God will be jealous. That's another word you should know. Jealousy. So far what you have is something bitter and you have a vow and you have jealousy and God will erase his name the name of that person from on from under heaven. So what you have is eraser right erasing. You have erasing, you have a vow, you have something bitter and um you have jealousy and every single element over here absolutely points in one direction and the only question is if you get it, if you don't get it and or the other question is will I tell you, will I not tell you at this point or should we make you uh wait a little bit longer? If you don't recognize the elements, they're all the terms which are used when describing the para of sot. It's the bitter waters. It's the vow. It's the kinha. It's the jealousy. It's erasing of God's name over here. It's the racing of the person's name. It's the eraser of taking place. And all of those elements are packed right over here. And again, there's an inverse. It's being said differently. We're talking about a different type of relationship. We're talking about people who are cheating on God. Um I've noted many times that rashi in Shir Hashir based on the midrash where he says to line up the serat wrote across. So you have one and six and so on and so forth and therefore there's one god and don't commit adultery. So therefore not believing in one god or serving other gods is like committing adultery. So there is this uh cross parallel. >> I thought it was I thought it was like not committing murder because Loaf is one god in Salem. The second one not to commit not the second the second one. Correct. Correct. And the second one is not to serve other gods is is adultery. Correct. So we have a chapter in that in the book that I wrote with Joe Lieberman on uh you don't know I wrote one so tough. Anyway, so let's now continue. Everything is really in order for us to now realize hopefully something else. I noted again I I was just kind of set setting all this up. We're about to move those of you trying to keep up with me to lame. So So I've been trying the whole time to already know that there is this other time that Moshe disappeared, right? That that goes back to of course by the by Matan Torah or by the ago there is this other time that these people worship another god and of course that's the same situation. So now let's move to source number three paracle here he calls them your nation has sinned which is you know I point out the and so on that you've taken out of Egypt so they've quickly deviated from the path they've made a a molten calf for calf with the And by the way, notice something. All of this is still taking place when Moshe is up above before he's come down to see what's happening. And let my anger burn against them. By the way, you noticed that term was used earlier today. If you need just to look back in the source number one at least there believe there's another time as well by the way notice now you would have not noticed that it could have been Moshe started no it'sem is quite again important why is your anger going to burned by right again God calls it and Moshe says right this is parents fighting look what your kid did my kid look what your kid did and so on and so forth and Mosha's prayer continues Remember that the ancestors again first secondly you have a covenant and God then recanted as it were from the from the evil he want to do to his people and not notice that shifted there and that's important Moshe turns So what is written there? So the reality is we may not know precisely. There's all kinds of uh suggestions both in the mystical and in the revealed Torah, the sheli midrash, but let's just take the minimum. The minimum of what's there should be the aseriti wrote. And I think you have you have verses that pretty much say that. So the debro are written there in should have been the first one. What I'm just simply trying to get at is that God's name is written on the So then Moshe turns. It is something which is the work of God. either content or God's actually writing it. We're gonna skip all all of this and the then are destroyed. So what I do want to stress and that's because we're talking about erasing things today. Did Moshe just now erase the name of God by breaking the Now you could say, well technically it's not erasing. So well technically I guess whatever the parallel to erasing ink would be when you break a stone where something is chiseled into the stone should be the same act. And then and then he takes the golden calf and it gets turned into powder and he spreads it across the water at Ben Israel and he gives it to them token Israel and he gives it to them to drink. Then he says to Aron, "What in the world happened over here?" And I'll skip a little bit. And he sees that they're wild. turns back to God and he says to him either forgive them then erase me from this book that you've written. So what I've been trying to note is that this idea of erasing you have Moshe asking for erasing. Here we had the erasing in source two which was God's going to erase the name of the sinner and all of this is sitting on top of something which by this point should be very obvious. Rashi points it out the Rashbami even agrees with him. Okay. Ashat. So just look at source number five. It's the Rashi. He gave them to drink. Rashi says that he had intention to test them in the same ordeal that a s would go through. So essentially what Rashi just now did without giving you all the details and I've actually provided for you with all the details which we're not going to read today. You you can feel free to go through as much as this is as you want to but it's all of source 14 reads through I I just want to look at there for a second. It's midrush raba. It starts paret. This is paraso. Naso is of course where par is written and it says that's the how it begins. The word the rabbis teach this para as a either commentary or adjacent to the story of the ego. And then you have the next page and a half with analogies between the two. more analogies than you possibly imagine right now. But if you want to go through every single analogy, then you can look through and and really my point by bringing all this midrashi is just in case you think that this is my imagination getting away with me. It's not my imagination. It's rashi pointing at this. And I just before I read the rashi and the rashbomb and some others, I do I do want to note one thing. I don't know what Moshe learned when he was up on Hari during these uh during these days right Moshe is up there 40 days 40 nights I don't know if among the various things that he learned was the para of sot and therefore Moshe says okay I have an idea I am going to put them through the same process also let's realize something you have the people that actually built the eagle the people that serve the eagle then you have the other people who are standing on the sidelines minds and maybe there's some kind of uh complicity or not but but you have various people involved. God is willing just to get rid of all of them. And when and actually Moshe then sends Ley to kill some people and 3,000 people are killed. So therefore, who does Moshe save? Moshe saves the people who were quiet and stood on the sidelines but didn't protest. Which means that that that's important. That's our guilt involved in this. The guilt is that we did not protest. So I'm saying that that itself is a statement and therefore when Moshe and now I'm running this through the first time that he's already learned the laws of Sot. So then Moshe turns to God essentially saying well you suspect that they're all guilty. Let's run them through the Sot ordeal and then they will all it will be proven based upon you know what you're do you know your rules that they're all innocent. By the way, just to have made this a little bit better if I were Mosha then and I was following my line of reasoning, I would have actually have taken the the broken loot and have that what they consumed because that would have been much closer to the the but we know we need the lo we need the broken loot. Why do we need them? We need to put them in the iron afterwards because it's I mean amro can't only relate to full loot. We also have to relate to broken, right? A lot of us are a lot of us are broken and broken work for us a lot better. I've actually this is not the first time I'm saying this. I've decided that but I think I'm going to do it this year. I have a title for a talk to give before Yam Kipper which I hid upon a long time ago and the title title I just have to have this year now. I have the title. The title is I did the hoke pokey but I turned myself around. So we and then it's going to be attitudes towards a person who did chew them. What should a person's attitude be towards the okay I did the hokeyp pokei but I turned myself around so now what? So as I said I have the title. You don't approve, do you? [laughter] It's okay. It's okay. We don't need approval. Worse comes to worse. They don't invite me back anymore to teach. So there's an element where I would have thought that to have used the loot would have been a little bit tighter but mo I was saying all of this is built upon an assumption and that assumption is that Moshe up during those days learned about the parit and he's saying okay let let's try this out and let's see how all of this works and therefore all the people who survive survive he turns to God and goes listen these are your rules like like what are you gonna do now there is another way of reading it what's the other way the other way is that Moshe does this for whatever spiritual sensitivity that he has and then the paraot is learned from this and it's and it's the other way around which I I think maybe the easier way but again whatever makes more sense to you and that then would be fascinating that Moshe defends Israel who were accused again of of uh of pro probably poor judgment and not being involved enough not doing proactively what they should have done and Moshe defends them and therefore God says fine I'm going to use this in relationships all the time to defend when uh when there is jealousy and by the way all the words I used before when there's jealousy and when then you can use a vow and so on and so forth but now now just go to Rashi because if anything I'm saying sounds completely new to you and and you never heard of such a thing so look at Rashi Rashi on the verse that he gave them to drink again the the eagle dust I know eagle dust is not like angel dust, right? They gave him eagle dust together with >> See the people. >> Okay. In source number five, you know where all these guys were in the 60s. Okay. So when you uh when you see source number five, Mosha's intention was to test them like so. So therefore, Rashi is taking this approach. That's what Moshe learned above. Moshe learned about all these partials. He learned the Torah and therefore he knew this. The rashbam says the same thing. But the tan is so the rash bomb thinks yeah this is in the Torah. Not meaning it's not like Rashi got caught up in this whole midrash. No, no, this is the Ibanzra when it says that and so on. using the water flowing from is the same thing as that aar which is being used from the floor of the beta mikdash which means he's saying yeah no this is something which is flowing from holy place by the way just now also created this parallel which of course we knew I mean the raan drives it home a little bit more but that is this idea that heni and the beta mikdash are parallel experiences is which means by we all we're it's where the Torah comes from and then and then later on will be the place that we are and then takes and essentially that takes the place of Sai and therefore just like the water and that's what I was again pointing out on a shot level again don't accuse the Ibenezra or the Rajbam of being overly ly sentimental in their use of midash and understanding verses. They are both looking at this thematically. They're both looking at this about what is this process we see in front of us. And they're both insisting for different reasons, for independent reasons that essentially what's unfolding over here is a quasi sot ordeal and that's what's taking place as well. He I mean he continues and he and he and he says take a look at the verses there where the innocent again the person who's guilty what's going to happen again we don't have to get into all the details and otherwise they'll be saved look at the also in terms of the waterfish okay he's actually pointing out a invar let's just look at that for a moment in source 11 this is peret This is Moshe describing that. That's the added word here. That's what makes it much now close much closer. Then I mixed it together with the water that was flowing down. So therefore, we gained an extra word here. says meaning he says don't only depend on the description in also look at the description in so he uses the word over here to erase the ael so I I just want to pause now we have a suggestion of three different acts of erasing which are taking place by the ael one. Moshe erased the name of God and I'm saying that in in a way which I hope you understand now by throwing the loot down. Moshe then offers to erase his own name if he's not God is not gonna forgive which I think now has just taken upon itself a whole different type of texture to it because I think we always just kind of saw that not in the more physical sense in the more that okay I don't want to be part of this anymore right I'm I'm I'm going home I'm not I'm not no erasing the name is far more significant once we've identified the sot ordeal as the background of what's taking place over here and Moshe essentially now has Again, there's actually two things he's done. And now there's a third thing that he's offering. One is he's erased God's name, which is part of the selta. The second thing that he does is the inverse. And that is the way that revive binam reads it is that he's erased the idolatry. He's destroyed the idolatry. How do he destroy the idolatry? By by burning it, melting it down, by crushing it, by turning it into dust. So therefore, the idolatry has and again I I love that he used that word over here. He used the word again to erase. There's a race. So therefore the erasation of gods and the erasation of idolatry and Moshe is saying if all this is not working then erase my name erase me from all of this as well and and again all that I'm noting over here is that we would not have even noticed that word or seen it in significance in any sense until you realize what the background of this whole episode is. The Gomorrah in the Gmorra in source number 10 which means he uses the inim conclusion of the Garies as well. Yeah. This is the process of sot which means this is not a random rashi. It's not a random rash bomb. It's not a random notam. It's not all of those midshim the garra embraces us as well. This is the way that they see what took place over there. And I just want to word use again the word m was used previously in sayote in one other episode if you don't remember but it's the other kind of mo another kind of eraser and that is in source number nine parakeet right after the battle against so therefore will be erased theel is erased. erased. People who sin are going to be erased. On the other hand, we find God's name being erased. We find Moshe offering to be erased. So, the the eraser over here, I'm going to say it again, is interesting. Yes, you've been so quiet and so well behaved today. >> So, you missed what I said. >> See, she heard what I said. >> She heard what I said. The midrash actually goes into this and that's where I got that distinction between those actively involved versus those who were passively and it sounds very much like Moses is trying to exonerate those who were not actively involved. I don't remember where it says that there were people to kill those people and only 3,000,000 were killed. >> Correct. >> Correct. Correct. were those who didn't protest and they were made to drink the water and some of them died from a disease which is reminiscent of the German >> well well well the we're not going to engage more than necessary into the SOT process right now but there it's possible again depends which opinion you follow it's possible the SOTA ward will test even if she was guilty for some other type of infraction. Also, it says that if he was guilty for some the man was guilty for some other infraction, then even if she were guilty, then he's undeserving of this. Uh >> yeah, because uh if he's no better than she is, so then why should uh actually it's a good shak. So >> you've also been well behaved today. And I saw I saw you you were trying to couple things that you're actually grinding it into water and everything. And um another thing he did the he burned it, he melted it. The breaking of the luote, which was for adultery against God, if you may, as opposed to real adultery. Um how much is he really breaking God's name? It's like those rabbis who say you can't open up a candy bar wrapper. It'll create a new word when you make You confuse the laws of Shabbat and the laws of erasing God's name. Okay. >> Okay. So, let's leave Shabbat right now. I know that Shabbat is dear to your heart, but leave leave that. And I and and I love the way you say that those rabbis, not the ones that I would listen to. [laughter] Yes. This the the rabbis that tried to ruin Why' you go to candy bar? They would try to ruin the birthday cake, >> right? You can make a birthday cake, but you can't cut it, right? Just take a look. So, so let let's leave the Shabbat problems. >> The breaking up of the book, it's not he didn't erase God's name. Was he careful where he broke it in that commandment? Like there a lot of words that are go there. >> Just let me >> let me pick on him instead. Um, look at verse 13. bed because I knew you were gonna bother me. You can destroy all the places that they worship. By the way, that's already you'll break their things of of stone. And don't do this to God. So I discussed this a couple of weeks [clears throat] ago. Don't do this to God. What can't you do to God? You can't break, you know, you can't erase God's name. This is where actually where it comes from. But if you notice that verse is you them destroy the misbeh. So are you still really going to insist that if you break You have not done what it says here. It sounds awfully similar to this. And I'm not going to debate the point. I'm I'm not going to debate it. I'm going to say it again. [snorts] Moshe handed something holy. I'm happy to say that all that he did is he broke something holy. And again, we have our in our imagination why perhaps this was something which was permitted. But I'm going to say it again. Could we could we be a literal a little literal today? If you break the loot, then what have you broken? How many Okay, your homework is to go home and to count how many times it says God's name in the Are you really going to insist that if you break the you did not break God's name even once, especially according to those rabbis and so on? You you you you certainly have. So I'm going to say it again is that you know what the origin is of of the whole verra today the origin was when I came to this realization that Moshe saying erase my name it's after he already erased God's name is is that in my mind there was a parallel to Moshe breaking the now saying erase me now especially if you realize what's written in verse number 12 and that is pericet which is of course paraso which is of where it describes the whole ordeal of the s and there of course you have I don't know where to start you have the you have the misuse of something which is holy you have which is really interesting compared to now you understand where they're coming from oh that's the water flowing down from sai what is that that's koshimar You have and you're going to then but that's called afar. This eigel was called afar in that's what Moshe himself calls it in right mix with the water but that's what Moshe did is he mixed it to the water and then it says and then you don't cover but no you notice that word was they were wild you make the hair wild that was the same word that was used in both over here and then you continue reading it may and then this these bitter waters and again I told you you We had to stop along the way. That other verse in it where it talked about the curse and it talked about the the bitter things over there and it talked about the eraser which of course we didn't get to yet. That was the same word used in the curse. It's going to get erased. That means that God's name gets and you that that's I think the one point which you're all familiar with that God's name gets erased for the chance of making peace. So then now I'm going to go back and say so what does Moshe do? Moshe breaks the loot for the chance of making peace. And again if this idea of sot is not is not you know standing in front of you. Yeah, it was certainly standing in front of of Khazal. We we'll just go a little bit further in in all of this because there's, you know, one or two more things I want to get to and then of course if I don't want to say that they're found innocent, but if there's this lack of uh of guilt, so then they'll be exonerated. In source number four, which of course follows source number three four is peric lammed gimmel in Schmote which follows per lammed bed. And by the way, now we're getting closer to the point of the ohoid and Moshe going out and going to the moed and the people seeing him. And then in persim I hope you realize that when we're talking about and now what we have over here is that God speaks to and now notice a couple words that maybe we didn't notice in later the the the whole process of healing which is here taking place after is Moshe desperately trying to get to a place of panim is getting a place of gilina trying to again can I see you and then you have this hesitation taking place and I'm not going to work through all of the verses because I was just far more interested in something else and that was ultimately the parallel which is taking place between where we started today with Hester Panim which followed the day will come Moshe when you're going to die and when you die you disappear when you disappear you're going to serve other gods and I asked it right then in the beginning well God where'd you get that from well you know really last time you disappeared they serve other gods and that didn't work out all that well and God says I'm going to hide my face on that day. So now just realize everything which is being described over here the end of Devarim is really like a 2.0 of what's being described over here by the Ael which follows immediately of course what it follows Matanra now you go back into Vim where did we start we started with Hakl we started with Hakel which is >> which is Matanto 2.0 So you're going to do this hak and and hakal seems to be this time where okay let's break it down a little differently during any holiday we should all be and we should bring a and we should hashem as it were h does another thing because it gathers everyone together at the exact same time and then the Torah is being taught which means on on the normally when we go there we're reaching up to God by Right? It's man reaching up towards God. You can fill in the cabalistic terminology for this if you know it. It's man reaching up towards God and awakening from below and we're bringing the offerings. But here where the Torah is coming down where it's being spoken by the king which is trying to re-establish or to reexperience matan to Torah which therefore has all of these elements the ones of unity and the ones of the Torah being taught and and again having this sense of being in front of God but then motion. But that didn't work out so well the first time and that's exactly what God is pointing out. And there is this I don't say a built-in necessary that it has to be that way but unfortunately it is the way that it uh that it seems to play itself out. I just want to move to one or two more things and then we'll uh and then we'll stop. Again, your homework, if you choose, you you will you will actually be surprised by the extent of source 14, which goes through all of page three, all of page four, all of page five, half of page six. And again, it's one after the other after the other of showing [snorts] an analogy between theel and between the so I'm just saying that this is so pronounced. It's like of course Rashi's not going to miss this. It's it's there. It's staring at you. But you saw enough of it in terms of the words that I think becomes clear. What we do notice then is that this idea of the eraser which was different. And I told you there were three different independent movements which all involved Moshe, right? Moshe breaks the loot. Moshe breaks the ael. And again I love Ben Rambam who called that eraser as well. Then Moshe says now erase my name. So it seems to be that it starts with this sot like thing. Then he moves over to erase the idolatry which is again a theme we do find in Dvar. That's exactly what I pointed out to you is that when the people sin and and involved and their hearts are strong and so on and so forth you know that will be erased and that's really what Moshe does and if that's not even working then Moshe says oh fine so erase my name as well. But again, the eraser terminology is one which is interesting and and I'll say it again. All the other elements that you could imagine and you can't imagine going back and forth between these two episodes is uh is is absolutely there. It's it just it's staring at you, but you can, as I said, read through. I just want to end up with uh source number 15. This is a verse in Yeshayahu chapter 25. You're familiar with some of this. The Lord of Hosts will make all these people on the mountain a feast of rich foods. A feast of aged wines. Rich foods filled with marrow. Aed wines well refined. Sounds like the sem that I made last week. Okay, the next I'll call. Now, some of those words are a little more interesting the English and he will destroy the covering that covers all the peoples. That's P and P is interesting. That word you know is connected to the eagle as well and the veil which is spread over the nations. God is going to take away the coverings and which is the verse that you know which stands by itself. And that day God's going to swallow up death forever. Again the erasing is taking place. So the word pan is again interesting. God is going to erase tears. Again the the nice English way to say it. He will wipe away the tears but mah is much stronger. It's not that it's meaning when you wipe them away then your cheeks are still a little bit damp. When you erase them completely it's like the dampness is gone as well. call dear and he's going to remove the disgrace of his people from the north for God has spoken. So this this seems very much to be a cluster of verses which has identified a number of the things that we've seen today is that yeah the people are going to sin and when people sin they're going to be these coverings and when you cover what happens when you cover up then I'm going to say it again in a dysfunctional relationship there's there's the hiding that can take place there is masks that could be wore there's coverings that can take place or there's erasing that can take place and over here it's talking about how God will then proactively strip away the coverings, take away all of the things and bring a situation where the dysfunctionality gets transferred into functionality and the tears which were there because of the separation end up becoming erased. So therefore, as I I'll say it again, eraser and hitting again we started with being hid. God is going to hide on that day and God is going to say at some point I'm going to stop hiding. But God's hiding is only response to people's hiding. And people's hiding and people's covering up and people's worshiping other things and so on and so forth. So at the end of history, what we find is again the same word. What what what we've seen if you need a a wrap up. I didn't it may have seemed like I went in a lot of places. I didn't I really only went to two places, but I couple of stops along the way to get to those two places. And those two places were actually the two places that were both mentioned in our para within one verse to the next. One was Hakel and the other was Hester Pun. In between it says, "Oh, you're going to die and you're going to disappear and they're going to sin." So I said, "Oh, just just think about that againatically, not just historically. Thematically we've had that and what happened that's exactly what happened." And now you look at those two sections, the hael seni receiving the Torah. And then next thing you know, Moshe disappears and the people sinning and then God hiding. So that's essentially what God wanted to do. And then Moshe used this whole process of eraser right over here. It's hidden is God. He used this, right? Moshe uses this in order to try to to fix the relationship. And maybe that's a surprising thing because again to erase amalik I get to destroy the ago I get but to erase God's name that essentially is the same thing as the hester pun which means to take away the luote which is god amongst us in a certain way right the writing is the writing of god it's this is the this is god stuff and to erase that Moshe is essentially already in a certain sense foreshadowing hester punim but Moshe is using this in order to rekindle the relationship ship and say, "Okay, I'm going to break this and the relationship is going to survive and that doesn't work. Okay, so I'm going to get rid of the this and that doesn't work and I'm going to erase my name." And Moshe again, I don't know the answer. Does he already know parat and he's trying to do it on a macro level? Does he not know it? And is he just Mosha's listen, he just spent 40 days up in heaven and he certainly knows things that I don't know and I can't even get begin to guess what he does know. But what I do understand is that Moshe's spiritual sensitivity is absolutely correct. Because on the one hand he saves Israel on the other hand even though he wants this panimo panim and he and God speaks to him panim it's something with the nation that there is a distance over here and Moshe fights for that distance in order to be shortened in order to be able to get situation wrote but we live that I mean that's exactly the point we live in a world which vacasillates between and it's very easy during the times of hiddenness and panim just to focus on that say there must not be a god. And our challenge then is to say no, we need to juxtapose the hester panim and the gilloy panim and say that no these are two these are objectively two parts of the same phenomena. Again I I think the best example and easy example yes 1939 at least till 1945 is absolutely a time of hester panin. On the other hand what happened over here in 1948 1967 and moving forward is time of gili panein. So therefore, for a person to only focus on one and not the other is spiritually unfair. But to say that our experience is both experiences. So don't dare say, well, you know, I just can't get past the Holocaust. Well, I understand the challenges. I understand it. I'm not going to, but I'm going to say try to be a little theologically more mature and say, you can't cherrypick and say, well, I only look at this little part of the movie and now I know everything about the movie. No, these are both realities. And both of those realities are staring at us one after the other in terms of Hoel and Hester Ponim. and they're both right there at us. What I try to point out is that there is a you know a prequel to all of this and the prequel to all of this is exactly what happened by har when we had the most massive glo imaginable which was matantora and the next thing that we know we have this unbelievable panim taking place which starts with our own minds and our own fear and then what Moshe does he says hold it I'm going to use the eraser of god's name in terms of fixing this relationship and that is so theologically daring except for one thing that is parat and that's what ends up bringing about that all those people who stood on the sidelines end up being exonerated and it brings the situation of again getting further deoy pane so now I hope that made sense and now you realize you only needed the last minute and you didn't need the rest of this >> shalom people like this room You got a stereo.