Rabbi Aba Wagensberg - Going that Extra Mile - Parshat Tetzaveh

a thank you to the uh ohion family for inviting me here and thank you to the um the entire kahila for making me feel so welcome from the moment that i stepped in and uh got a chance to speak with a number of you thank you for for welcoming myself my wife and my son who had to step out because it seems that he wants to speak even more that i do uh here this evening um made the um the midfields that we do this evening the tower that we shared together um besides all the stuff that torah does for us and the entire world at all times should also keep in mind serve especially for an even higher elevation to the neshama of rivka but solomon who should continue to receive that unlimited nachas firm from her her children grandchildren the entire family i was thinking that this memorial service um is really connected uh to this week's tar shop in a very what i think is a very powerful way uh our parachute begins hashem commands moshe to command the jewish people and it goes on to speak about the menorah lighting the candelabra as well as the big de kahuna the priestly guard but it's very strange that this parasha does not begin in the same way that most of the other portions begin at least from the time when somewhere in the in the safer of shemos in the book of exodus most parshiots begin by yadav or hashem al-mosha laymore hashem spoke to moshe saying tell the jewish people x y and z and this piracy does not begin that way rather kind of deviating from the norm and you command why is that so so the battle have told him and it's based on the zohar when he says that uh he makes an observation as a matter of fact from the time that motion was born in parashat every single parasha in the torah mentions moshe rabeinu's name with one exception this parasha does not mention motion of anu's name at all why so in next week's parasha there's a story the ego sin of the golden calf and hashem basically said to moshe i've headed up to here with the jewish people i intend on destroying them all and starting again with you moshe will build a new nation from you motriben's response to that uh to what hashem said was that if you're going to destroy the jewish people then then blot me out from the savior from the torah that you have written in other words mushroom said as captain of this if they are going down i'm going down with them you want to destroy them it's over my dead body most rebellion says if you block the jewish people out from this world then blot me out from the safer torah now motion uber basically cursed himself that he wants to be blooded out from the torah but it was contingent upon if hashem destroys the jewish people then blot me out at the end of the day of course because of moshe of anu's prayers hashem did not destroy the jewish people however there is a gemara the gemara in marcos rabbi avoca says that kill allah when a righteous person curses even though it's dependent on something and we never fulfill that condition nevertheless the words of a righteous person have an impact and it's going to take effect anywhere and since motribenu said blot me out from this torah that you have written so it took effect somewhere in the torah and this parasha partial saba is where it took effect that motivator's name was indeed blooded out from this week's powershot that's why the partial does not begin with the normative hashem we can't mention moshe's name because motion of a new cursed himself and it took effect in this week's parasha and therefore it begins in a bit of a strange way not the normative way now the uh vivilla gone points out that although uh moshe debamu's name was indeed uh blotted out from the torah and this parish is where it was the skying was fulfilled why was this parachute chosen more than any other parasha in the torah so the grass says and you can find in the safer panini so the village says that um most often if not always harsha's tetsava falls out on the wake of motion of baby's yard site which is the governor says in mcgill and moshe medo passed away on the seventh day of adar by the way today was zion adar and says the says the grub and almost every every year uh the partial falls out on the week of motionless your site so why was partisan because it fits in very nicely says the village on the yard site day moshe knew when moshe knew left this world so his name left the parsha it's kind of very nice it's juxtaposed to this time of year parenthetically in case you're maybe thinking wait a second um this year is a leap year so maybe you're thinking and wondering so like one second maybe it's not the first month of other maybe it's the second month of aadhaar so either the question bothered me also and when the government miguel just parenthetically the government says i was wondering was it the first adar or the second ador was it a leap year was it not a leap year i began to look around and i have not exhausted uh all the commentaries on the gomorrah but i didn't really find anybody really speak about other rishon and other shami first and second adar and it appears to me the reason why there's silence from the commentaries because perhaps apparently that year that mostly who died was a regular year there was no other elephant other base was a regular years then the question comes so if a person motion didn't die on on sign another in a regular year so when there's a leap year like this year then which other do we celebrate his york site on so here there's a debate between the mahabharata the mahabharata says that the person died in a regular year and an aadhaar then we celebrate the art site on other base and the mission of brewers says the reason why for the mahabharat reason why because other base please talk about the month of adar what's the main other the primary one it's the one that we celebrate the purim one so the person says the main one the stump other is the second other however the rama disagrees and he says no we celebrate the art site on the first aadhaar and the mission of brewer explains the reason why because a maverick spouse when a person has an opportunity to do a mitzvah to celebrate whatever that means for your site so you do it right away you don't you don't uh procrastinate and therefore it's the first other the rama goes on to say there are those that are from here to do both other aleph and other beings it's interesting though according to the rama uh today according to the to the robot today was zaying adar and according to the village says uh almost every year not every time zion other falls out by the parsha of tita so therefore at the time of year when moshe bainu left the world that's the parasha that was chosen to fulfill the curse of moshe riveno and his name was blotted out from from this week's parachute parashat but in any case the villain goes on to say something else excuse me i'm drinking goes on to say that although most of the banu's name does not appear in parshas zitsabe and how is that so so the gross says if you count the amount of sukim the amount of verses in partial find 101 verses so how does 101 represent motion revenue so the growth says you take the letters of the olive bays all the letters have the there's an oh my glove is a revealed letter and there's an oz star there's a hidden letter let's take moshe's name for example how do you spell moshe those are the revealed letters but since every letter can be spelled so there are letters behind every letter let's take one at a time how do you spell the men of moshe men men so the first men is the revealed part of the second men is hidden behind so hold on to the hidden men put that in your pocket the next letter of moshe shin that's the revealed part honey are the hidden letters behind the shin put that to the side as well and the letter hey of mosha how do you well here you can spell hey through these three ways here the village spells hey hey aleph so the hague is the revealed the albuf is hidden if you take all the ocos to the startups the hidden letters of motion of his name that's the second mem from the mem the yud non from the shin and the olive from the hay and you add up its numerical value it equals 101 exactly says the grub although it's still hinted to in the amount of verses in the parsha hinting to the perhaps the the hidden side of moshe rebels so now we have to ask ourselves the question is what is the significance of a hundred and one why is that the number of motion rebate no now there are many different answers as to the importance of 101 the that the valshamtov has one approach but perhaps to suggest in just a more like maybe a simple uh level of understanding 101 represents going the extra mile see people like to do things i think let's do it 100 but by some by other people a hundred percent isn't enough i want to go above and beyond 101 the extra moment the extra deed something above and beyond what's expected i did the test i got a hundred i want to do the extra credit questions also 101 represents going the distance and uh perhaps the proof to this idea about what it really means to be in evan hashem one who serves hashem not just a hundred percent but a hundred and one percent is a gamarin once asked hillel the following question there is a verse in the book of malachi what does it say there it says you'll return and see the difference between a righteous person and a wicked person and the difference between one who serves hashem and one who does not serve hashem that's what the verse says so uh he asks the question it seems a bit repetitive in the verse there isn't the righteous person the one that serves god and hindu russia the wicked person the one that does not serve god why would the verse have to say let's see the difference between the righteous person and the wicked person and let's see the difference between one that serves god and who doesn't serve god it's two ways of saying the same thing it's apparently superfluous so what does hill say back to bar hey he says uh really the person who served hashem in the second half of this verse and who does not serve hashem they are both completely righteous people they're referring to both righteous people so how can it say that one is one righteous person serves hashem and the other righteous person does not serve hashem how's that a righteous person so who explains that hey no doma shona pierceone you simply cannot compare a person that reviews his learning a hundred times to a person who reviews his learning a hundred and one times both sadikim they're both mass medium they're diligent in their studies one does it a hundred times he's called it sadiq who is not yet served hashem the one that does it and 101 representing 101 that person is called the never hashem and moshe rebel in parshas bezos is called in hashem and it fits in so nicely that the the hidden letters of motion of menu's name 101 fits in with the parachute the parachute itself having 101 verses hints at the essence perhaps of motion of anu which was the ability to go the distance giving it a hundred and one percent now maybe we're asking ourselves where do we find that motion revenue went a hundred and one percent i want to share with you right now something that at least to me is a fascinating teaching which shows motion revenue going a hundred and one percent for for the people the height his family the animals on the ark and um the first bird that noah sent out to see if the waters abated was an o-ray it was a raven so the posix says that noah sent out the raven and the raven came back right away and the raven didn't do its mission then we have ideas and reasons that we've seen what happened he went out the raven and came right back so there is a um which is a part of the zohar which explains the sending out of the raven and coming back right away what was going on on a much deeper level so the zomar says like this noah after the flood happened and he's checking to see if the waters had gone down enough to kind of you know let's let's uh anchor let's get off and let's build uh the world again noah looked out of that window and he saw such complete destruction he said wow that was that was like that was awesome hashem took out the entire planet except for us on this boat the whole planet got wiped out so noah took a raven why didn't off take a raven says the zohar because the raven is known to be cruel to its young and there's a verse we say it every day in the suki remember lucas what does it say there that hashem provides food for the animals hashem provides food for the ravens young for its uh for its chicks for its babies they're calling out why are they calling out where where's mommy where's daddy why aren't they feeding they're young so we learn from here says that the medicine alarm says that ravens don't bother feeding their young they are cruel to their children so hashem has to bring worms and whatever and hashem feeds them directly so when noah saw the destruction that was wrought brought on this world noah took that raven and says the magician it's a shocking thing noah when he sent out the raven it wasn't so much to see if the waters had gone down noah sent the raven clapping myla he sent the raven to al-qaeda's borough with a message noah you know something hashem you are just as cruel as a raven ravens don't care about their children apparently neither do you you destroyed the entire world shocking says the zohar what happened as soon as knock sent out the raven it turned around and came right back into the ark says desert what did that mean that hashem said oh no hashem took that raven and sent it right back to noah and said i'm not the one that's cruel you're the one that's cruel you could have darvened and saved the entire generation but you didn't pray sufficiently i gave you 120 years working on that tava very nice you're working for your family what about the rest of the world this is the system that i created says hashem it all depends on people's actions and people's deeds it wasn't my fault this cruelty came from you noah which is why in the the prophet labels the flood ki mei noah zos lee these are the waters of noah it's noah's marble and it was his fault there wasn't a kurdish borough's marble it was noah's fault he was the one that was cruel like the raven now says the ariza noah he left this world eventually but his soul could find no rest because the entire generation was wiped out because he didn't pray enough or sufficiently on behalf of the generation since the arizona what happened noah had to come back down as a gilgal as a reincarnation says the arizona noah came back a second time as none other than moshe rabbenu himself and moshe ribbay knew his function his mission was to set straight what he perhaps did not do in his previous life as noah and moshe was famous for whenever hashem gets upset with the jewish people and it comes time to annihilate amy israel most of them was there he's definitely praying he's darvening and praying to save us one time after the other says the arizo when did moshe benu reach the ultimate tikkun when did he fix the mistake that he made in a previous life when did he pray sufficiently on behalf of the people it was by the sin of the golden calf when hashem said that's it i'd head up to here with the jewish people again idolatry after all that they saw i'm going to destroy them all i'm starting with you again moshe moshe said those words if you're going to take the people out then take me out as well this is over my dead body i'm going down when moshe darwin to the point where he was willing to sacrifice himself on behalf of the people says the arizona that's when he clinched it that's when he fixed the mistake that he made his noah not praying enough where do you see that in the verse what did motion of amy say over his words blot me out from your savior take the word for blot me methaney the outside letters spells may the insight letter spell noah may noah the waters of noah that he was guilty for bringing the flood to this world most of the beta was talking as a matter of fact if you read the words read it backwards you know what it spells it spells i am noah who am i men from moshe i am noah and here we find an example motion was mamish willing to go the extra mile on behalf of people who maybe deserved to be blotted out motion avenue walks the plank he's willing to go down this is something i'm not so sure it's expected the most willing to sacrifice his own life just to save the lives of others and by the way you see from here the motion of had an incredible heart what a leg what a heart mosha had to be willing to love people to such a degree to take the hit like that for others but where is this verse found it's impossible chapter 32 verse 32. what's that in hebrew lamidbay's lambid bays two words lay motion of being who had the heart of hearts loving the people to pieces to the point where he's willing to go down just to save amy israel yes moshe the essence of moshe may be the part that we didn't see it first the hidden side of moshe is 101. those are the ocos that's the gematria and this is the essence of moshe rebel taking the hit loving others even at his own personal loss if that's what's necessary but that's we find moshe did this for the people we also find that moshe rebainu was willing to do this for his family how important family is let's go back to the burning bush at the snap to take my my children out of mitzrayim what was moshe de beno's response to that i'm not going did you hear that hashem just said i want you this is hashem this isn't god talking i want you to go to mitzrayim and tell paro to let them out most of they know i'm not going can you imagine seven days this went on the dialogue went something like this hacha said go no go no back and forth for seven days why did moshe how could moshe refuse how good is barucho so the midrash says an incredible thing says because moshe had an older brother ah was the established navi he was the prophet if moshe baneu accepts this job to be the the goel the redeemer maybe it'll cause his older brother to feel i don't know insulted you know my kid brother mosh you know he's kind he did he did me and so on so moshe baino refused at first to be the shliyat all because he was concerned about his brother's feelings how is my brother going to feel so it's incredible so what happened the verse says hashem's wrath kindled against moshe so the gemara says him that whenever the torah says it was i should get angry there has to be erosion it has to be an impression it had to have but something had to happen as a result of that so the gomorrah says at least according to one opinion that hashem intended the moshe rabeda would be the cohen and i will be the lady that's how hashem intended things to be but now because moshe ribeno refused to be the shliyat for seven days hashem said that's it you're demoted to levi and ahn gets promoted to a cohen i just want to suggest this wasn't a punishment to moshe rabeno this was the greatest reward that hashem could have given to moshe or baby because moshe knew only wants that his brother should have the superior position so this is when hashem said fine you'll be the lady he'll be the cohen at least i know in one area my brother outdid me that's what i wanted it was a reward not a punishment so you're going to ask me for one second if it's a reward and a punishment how can the verse say was angry with moshe it kind of sounds like a punishment perhaps we could suggest to say hashem that hashem's wrath was kindled against the jewish people you know why moshe because of moshe bimotion because what's inside of moshe what's inside of moshe the ocean soros the hidden letters that equal 101 that motion of a was willing to go the distance not a hundred percent 101 for others motion of being who caused the kick rogue because he was so much like this when hashem compared moshe to the people hashem started getting upset with the jewish people why are you aren't you following the ways of your leader of moshe romanu because we find nebba the jewish people were talk to him at the time rashi cites the midrash that says they were snitching on each other did you know that they were snitching the jewish people did you believe this moshe goes out the first day he sees an egyptian beating up on a jew what does it say but you can kovacho he turns hither and feather whoever those guys are he turned here and there right and he saw there was no man what did he do he killed the egyptian the next day he goes out and sees two hebrew men that were fighting with each other and what is what do they say are you going to kill us like he killed the egyptian word leaked out and then power also found out and pyro sent the egyptian authorities to apprehend the moshe and they did they were going to execute him had nothing for a miracle how did the word it says moshe turned here and there vallarti nish there's nobody around so what does it mean there's nobody around who who sought to tell what are you gonna say moshe thought there was nobody around but somebody's peeking from behind the pyramid or something that could be but if the torah says there was nobody or there's no wish there's it's also possible there was nobody there so then how did word leak out says the midrash there was one man that was there one jew that was there the jew that was being beaten up by the egyptian he was there says the midrash that jew snitched told para motion just murdered and you hear this do you hear this you know what we are poor snitches this is unbelievable motion just saved his life what's the thanks moshe gets he goes and tells he starts spreading the word gets emotionally says the midrash that was the son that was the son it wasn't enough that was dust there you go a troublemaker so it says when it says perhaps it means to say that hashem's anger was kindle against the jewish people why be moshe because of moshe because of the bible because inside of mosh is 101 mosh is willing to take the hit for somebody else you contrast that to the way some of the people were being misbehaving that created a kit and that was hashem's anger but of course the fact that moshe went down to a levy and ahran became a cohan that was the greatest reward that hashem could have ever given to moshe um perhaps this could be another reason why parshas titsabi was chosen to be the parsha that motion of menu's name is deleted besides the villago what did the girl say the reason why tetsaba was chosen to fulfill moshe's curse because it falls out next to his york side fits into at the time of year that motion left the world so that parsha his name leaves the powershell but perhaps it's even more than that parshas titsaba deals with what primarily big day kahuna the priestly guard who gets to wear priestly garb priests kohanim how did aharon get that position it's because moksha rabenu wouldn't take no for an answer i am not going to be the agent to take the jewish people out unless you promise me that aharon will be superior to me moshe wants to turn invisible because my brother what about his feelings he might get insulted do you think moshe didn't want to be a kohen why wouldn't he want to be a cullen you know how many myths what does moshe want from life what does he want to serve hashem you know how many more opportunities moshe would have is a cohen and a coincidence so many more the whole thing's about getting close to hashem of course he would want to be the koen but because my brother might be insulted moshe goes above and beyond i'm not going until you you promise me hashem that my brother will be superior to me in some major area i want to step aside i want to disappear i want amaro to shine in the limelight and so that's what happened because moshe wanted to disappear which part of all parties do we delete motribenu's name from pasta big day kahula why isn't moshe's name mentioned moshe wants to disappear i want my brother to have all the glory to have all the covers i want my brother it's his feelings so that's why parashat saba was chosen moshe wanted his brother to be a cohen i mean because i wanted to be superior i'm willing to give that up and sacrifice my own spirituality for my brother just i shouldn't hurt his feelings so that's the harsh emotion we actually disappeared and lets our own take over and you know something however this is this is the essence of the torah the essence of the torah and the essence of torah if you didn't go to the next savior and say prabhakaran it tells us where is the halfway point in the torah where's the halfway mark in versus the halfway mark it's in parashat what's the verse that that marks the halfway point it says and moshe a girdered him girded aro with the belt of the eighth vote valpo low bow and uh he bound him with it do you have the imagery what's the imagery what's this the center of the torah the essence of the torah what's happening moshe ribenu is dressing his brother aharon in big day kahuna in priestly guard the very things moser may know deep down of course he wanted for himself who wouldn't want extra mitzvahs get closer to hashem but i'm willing to give that all up so aha should not be insulted and in the center of that torah what is motivated doing he's tying the belt around our own you see the imagery you know what it looks like when you tie your belt around somebody else it looks like you're hugging the other person that's at the center of the torah this becomes the essence when you get down to the center to the essence it's about the love that motion or banu had for the jewish people the love he had for family the love he had for a brother that he's willing to lose willing to go a hundred and one percent now that's the way to celebrate a york site that's why at this time of year parashat salva big day kahuna and so on so this is the time we celebrate by moshe's name being deleted from the parsha that is the greatest compliment to moshe rebecca wow he was a man that was willing to give up so much the essence of a real hashem who does it 101 for another person this was the specialty of moshe revenue um just before i conclude i'd like to share with you a story which i think drives this point home in a major way and this story is about one of my favorites the british of arabi lady yitzhak and sarah sasha known as the great defender of the jewish people the stories about the british very go on and on he's the one you know it happens today also you know people today at the end of davening chakras for example people like you know they're you know wrapping up their talos and tilling you know like you know the surface isn't even over yet and they're running out to the car getting to the office right and some people the reaction to that is uh let's get the guys stay to the end or dominate an earlier minion and the criticism where digital rebbe is going to show he saw the same thing back in the 1700s same thing he sees people outside the shoulder already with their tolerances philadelphia they're oiling right the wheels to the wagon so they can get to the office and get to get to work faster and when the bridge of arabia saw that it's a famous story he turned he looked up to the heavens he said master the universe look how holy your jewish people are even when they're oiling their wagons they're diving into you it's a different way of looking at things the great defender of the jewish people he was also known for tremendous amount of enthusiasm for mitzvos enthusiasm like they say stories about jumping on the table came to the matzah he couldn't control himself he knocked everything but he got so excited about a mitzvah the stories go on but there's one story in particular that really you can really hit the person can really speak to it to a person's heart they came to the vintage of a rebbe and they said rev there's a some old man some old jew he's calling for you he says he's on his deathbed he feels the end is near and he's asking please bring the rabbit to me please please bring the rabbit to me okay so did you forever hear is that some jew is calling for him he motions to his hasidum come come with me come and the bridge of a rebbe goes into this man's home and sure enough he sees in in the room that he's led into she's a a very very old looking man i mean very old looking antique the man's got wrinkles on top of wrinkles on top of wrinkles he looks very very thin and very frail and he's like you know shaking like this and he's there in his bed and the bridge of erika walks over to him and he sits down ever so gently on the side of the bed and he says repeat tell me what's the matter you called for me is everything okay and the man the man's shaking because rebba i don't know what's going to be with me i'm leaving this world in a few moments i don't know what's going to be with me i don't know whether i'm getting olam if i even have any portion in the coming world i don't know if i'm going straight to gehenna i can't even face my creator i feel i feel like i don't have anything i feel so empty i'm so nervous rabbit please help me so the prediction burpee said to him tell me something if you knew that you had my portion in olam that would be your portion would you feel a little bit better about what's going to happen in a few moments the man he smiled if i knew that i had the rev this helix i'd be sad of course i'd feel calm so the rebbe said to his hasidim i want you to go quick quick get me some cloth i want some parchment they said rebel what are you doing what are you doing get me some ink i want the ink bring the ink to the bread but just fast there's no time to waste so they ran they came back and they brought the cloth and they brought the ink and the rebel wrote down i lavi yitzhak and sarah sasha bridgev hereby give over my entire olam to this man writes the man's name down he called to us hasid them to come and sign his witnesses they go rabbit what are you doing signed as witnesses and the rabbit took everyone's watching witnesses that sawing witnesses that watch he rolled up the document he gave it to this man the man with his trembling hands he takes the star he takes it and holds it close to himself and like five seconds later the man passed away so they went ballistic rebel what did you do you gave away your whole ulum however it didn't even work he didn't even live at the end you know lived happily ever so what did you do the writer said did you notice on the man's face that he was conned when he grabbed hold of that of that document did you notice that because he happened to know us he looked calm he was okay he felt good says the british of the rebellion to make another jew feel calm for five seconds is worth more than one's entire olam haba that's where it's at not going a hundred percent is that are we obligated to give away my old my little commercial ps on the story is that he probably got more om haba for that one act that everything else put together but that's besides the point we don't even know that's to how does a person know how can we trust that's gonna happen he didn't know and this is a story of somebody much more recent in our history of somebody willing to go not just 100 for another person so the truth is that um i got a list here i received a list about some of the qualities of rivkah that solomon you heard it before i'll just mention a few of them again a person that was kind and warm forgiving non-judgmental real authentic flexible adaptable to a child who chooses to become religious to a child who then moves halfway across the globe and lives in a different country and that means that this child and this grandchild and it's a family and there's distance pray to god for guiding her path a strong person that although a husband who passed on 33 years beforehand still strong to move on forward and keep moving and keeping productive and what was paradigm of importance to rifka was keeping the family together and i look at this list that i was given and i say to myself well to maintain all of these things and especially a few of them there's a few of them that for me at least that stand out um non-judgmental that stands out being flexible and adaptable people that leave and one can feel deserted what my way is not good enough for you where it's so easy to uh and keeping family together family politics and all the studio that goes on in so many families and we all feel it to a certain degree and yet that these these items on the list to the way that it struck me was that there needs to be a quality of maintaining all of this uh an outlook on life not just to give it my all but to give it more than my all 101 to go 101. giving in just to keep everything happy keeping it together moving forward and the strength and all alone and still yet maintaining that's a very very special thing very very special thing that we've all come together this evening to celebrate to celebrate the life of a person who who had a quality capable of maintaining the ones that we just shared so may we all we should all be blessed to learn from this lesson to further improve ourselves in this area and not to be satisfied with 100 but to try and all of us together even more so to go above and beyond what's not expected 101 the extra one and live up to of course moshe rebecca what he represented and hopefully in the merit of us taking this lesson more to our hearts it will serve as uh a reason for risk is the summer to go even higher in shamayim even getting continuous unlimited nachas from her daughter from her entire family from grandchildren and we should all be to witness the time of triyasa mesa resurrection of the dead when all of us together will be reunited with our loved ones amen