Vaeschanan - Staying Connected to God

you're listening to the weekly para podcast recorded with hhm's never- ending assistance in ra Israel 5775 2015 this week's para is and in this week's para moshu he has a speech which goes on for a few weeks and uh we have it at this entire safer of theum of Deuteronomy is the speech it's kind of a recap of many of the many of the laws much of the hash the torah's Outlook what does it mean a relationship with God and moshu reminds us in this week's para about our relationship with Hashem he reminds us in this week's parha about the experience that we had at Mount sin receiving the Torah now what's interesting is there's two distinctly different descriptions of our relationship as I understand it as we read the paraa and I'd like to share with you these two different ways and I'd like to try to understand them what is the difference between them and perhaps show how at the root these two different ways that we interact with Hashem are really truly can be United they can you can see how they touch each other and perhaps they're United now mhu tells us that the laws the teachings that he's given over Hashem has given through him for the Jewish people these teachings is so important to keep them these teachings the Torah don't add on to it don't subtract from it and it's something that the nations of the world will see they will understand objectively that the power the beauty the wisdom of the Jewish people is in their commitment to this relationship that they have with Hashem as expressed in the Torah now he says this is in chapter 4:7 as a continuation of this concept he says which other great nation has God so close to them like hasem our God in all of that which we call out to him which other nation has such powerful righteous proper statutes and laws like all his which I'm placing before you today and then the next thing that he says the next words is be very very careful not to forget don't forget what you yourself saw and it shouldn't go out of your heart all of your days and make sure to tell it to your children and your grandchildren about the day that you stood before God at Mount which is another name for Mount Si and then MOS Moses goes on to to give us a whole description of that amazing experience of the Jewish people had one and a half million people experienced an open spiritual revelation of Hashem in the world through which Hashem gave the beginning of the Ten Commandments which all the Jewish people heard and then as we'll soon see the Jewish people asked that the Revelation was just too great it was too much for them to handle and they asked that it be limited after the second commandment mosu they asked Moses you be the one to give us the information hasem should reveal himself to you you can handle it we can't and so the Revelation changed but before we get there I'd like to point out a few different things here it's interesting mosu in in describing or giving us an introduction to the m to what the Jewish people had experience and telling them that they have to repeat it and remind their children about it that that very experience that they had before telling us about that experience Moshe says to us who which Other Nation who else has this type of relationship with Hashem which other a whole nation has a God who is so close to them as Hashem your God or Hashem Our God when we call out to him so there's two points in this p in this verse that I'd like to point out the first is that Hashem is close to us love in all of our calling out to him the first mode of relationship that's described in this week's paraa in regards to how we interact with hasem is hasm is always available for us no matter where we are no matter what our situation is we can always call out to God hasm will answer will be there for us and that's unique relationship it's not something which was existent at the time you know they had all these AAR they had idolatry the only way to get the favor of the idolatry and to get your needs met was to to bring Human Sacrifice or to to give up something crazy for you know for the gods so to speak that was what was the the Pagan worship at the time the concept of a single God is a concept which ab Abraham came upon and the Jewish people brought into the world through the Torah through this Revelation and so but but the amazing thing about it here is that Hashem is always available for us now what's interesting and this is a second point it's really important to understand this and it's very much connected is that the PK in in speaking about God right here it refers to him as Elohim now you've heard from me before that the word Elohim which is God it's the word that means god is plural it's it's plural and interestingly usually when he uses the word Elohim or elokenu the descriptive word Elohim dear let's say God spoke so the word debear is singular because it's God God really even though the word is for God is plural but it's speaking about a singular entity which is God and so the descriptive word or the verb or whatever it is is singular now it's unusual in this verse and the meas points it out we'll get to the measure soon what's unusual here is that in the description in the adjective of the word Elohim it refers to him refers to God as a God who is close love a God who is close to it to the nation of the Jewish people now the word cim is also plural so it's interesting because Elohim is a plural word which refers The God Who is a singular entity but in this verse the adjective instead of being singular is plural and in fact there the mes brings a conversation between RAB Sim and a group of Heretics who kept trying to prove from the Torah that God is Not singular that God is not one but rather there's there's multiple facets this is something that even to to this day the there are certain faiths that would like to prove that you can have multiple facets of God or multiple manifestations of God even in a physical form which is completely against the the Jewish approach to God God does not take on a physical form God does not uh manifest as a human being as a single human being there's no such thing in Judaism in fact it's considered idolatry but so these these idolators or Heretics they came to re and said look God's name is plural here this shows that there's multiple gods and not only that they proved from the fact that it says the word cim the gods are close and cim is reference to many gods they they are close and so responded and said but you have to look at the second half of the P it say like love and all of our calling to him which is singular so showed them that whenever you have a verse which seems to refers to God in the plural it's always going to be referenced at some point in the verse in a singular now what we need to understand here is two things first of all why indeed is the name of Hashem is the name of God plural why is it Elohim which sounds like multiple forces multiple gods why is God singular referred to in a plural also why in this isim they are close why does it use indeed the plural form in reference to Hashem and specifically in the context of this PK of this verse what's the teaching what's the idea now before we tackle these questions this P try to understand it I'd like to direct your attention mention to a later on theum later on that speak about a different mode of relationship with Hashem which we mentioned and that is the way that the Jewish people interacted with God at Mount Si at harini the PK tells us that the Jewish people came to mosha they came to Moses with a with a statement which was a challenge and they said you know we experienced we heard the first two of the DI of the Ten Commandments we heard heard them directly from the mouth of God 1 and a half million people had that experience and now but they said you know it's too much for us as the mag tells us they had an outof Body exper Experience literally all of the Jewish people died as a result of having this exposure to Hashem to God in this open manifestation their souls just left their bodies Hashem had to bring them back to life twice and they said like this this is in P in perak in Chapter 5 Verse 22 and now why should we die this incredibly powerful fire which was the fire of of Mount Si the fire that came down as this whole entire um amazing experience occurred they said we're going to we're going to get consumed by this fire by the spiritual fire if we continue to hear God's voice in this way we're going to die K says the next verse who who else has been able to experience this open revelation of God and to be able to continue to live like this no one else has been able to do this we don't believe that we're going to be able to continue this way and in fact as a result of this uh you know this request or statement of the Jewish people Hashem instructs MOS mosenu was a little bit perturbed you know the Jewish people should hear it directly from God why should they have to hear it through me and and he was correct in a certain sense but Hashem says to him no there's truth to what they're saying they they're afraid they have a fear of this open Revelation and their fear is well founded and indeed the continuation the rest of the Torah was given to Moshe and it was repeated to the Jewish people and they didn't hear it directly from God himself but what's interesting is is that what comes out from what we see here is that there are two different modes of relationship with Hashem the mode that we see over here in the second part of the of the paraa which is a reference to what happened at Mount Si is where a person has an open revelation of Hashem where a person it has this massive um fire and and thunder and lightning and this amazing experience of God and that experience of God is something which is builtin it's not easy or it's almost impossible to be able to to sustain however what's the other mode of our relationship it's the relationship which we spoke about before that who else which other nation has a relationship with Hashem that God is close to them in all of their calling out which means that you know in a certain sense Hashem comes down from the heavens and the heavens part and there's this massive display that's Mount Si but in another sense Hashem is always here always next to me always close to me is the Revelation there intense is the relationship there massive and and overpowering no it's not but so so we see that there's two different modes one is this overpowering intense massive Revelation massive relationship with God and it's something which is almost impossible to withstand to be able to experience and then there's a second type of relationship which is consistently available and the person can indeed be able to interact with hasm at that level without losing his life without losing his his existence in this world now what's interesting is that hashem's intent when it came to this Revelation at Mount sa at heart SII was indeed that the Jewish people should have a direct revelation of Hashem not just for the first two but clearly for the entire Torah at least for the Ten Commandments for the that's something that you see because if they wouldn't have asked if they wouldn't have complained and said to mosha you know we can't handle this it would have continued that way now moshe's response is very interesting Rashi tells us and there's a hint from it in the PK in chap 5: 24 the Jewish people say to Moshe you speak to us we can't hear it directly from God now when they say you the word for you in in this particular verse is instead of and you male they say you female and many times when the Torah uses the female version in a spot where it's supposed to be male so our our sages will make a they will say that it comes to teach us something and Rashi tells us that what does it come to teach us that he lost his power just like a female physically in regards to a man generally speaking women aren't as physically strong as men so here there was a weakening that mosh raenu had as a result of their request let's read Rashi inside he says he you caused me to be weakened like a female because I was very disturbed because of you or on your behalf very and you weakened my hand I saw that you weren't shaking you weren't fearful to come close to him you didn't have that level of fear to come close to God with love but very interesting thing the Rashi is saying let's continue in the Rashi just finish it up before we come back to this point many you didn't want to learn directly from Hashem and you wouldn't want it seems you wouldn't want to learn from me either and the point that I want to focus in on and see is that it would have been possible Rashi is telling us that Moshe is saying it would have been possible for the Jewish people to have an open complete revelation of hem through through through a balance of fear with deep deep love if the Jewish people had enough perhaps belief in themselves belief in God's love for them if they would have believed that that that that that Revival of the Dead would have continued to happen over and over again if they would have believed that the love was there between themselves and God they could have heard the entire Torah directly from Hashem but now that they were unable to hear it directly from Hashem they it seems from the end of Rashi they wouldn't be able to even hear it from Moshe either now I'd like to point out that these two different modes of relationship at least I can speak for myself I know that I would love it if Hashem would just reveal himself openly and I would have this intense experience of God and I'd be inspired and and and that would be that relationship that I would have with him all the time now clearly from this POS it's not something which is is generally possible but clear from Rashi that if a person is on a certain level and has a balance between this year and AA between awe and love of God if a person has a truly deep love of himself and of God and an understanding of God's love for him so then it's possible to have indeed that exalted relationship but what's what's important to understand is that this is something something which is a very high level and it's not something that we can all attain perhaps we can aspire to it but it's not something that we can all attain but there's a PES there's a beautiful thing here that we have a way out it's possible to enter into a relationship with Hashem which is also constant which is also Hashem is revealing himself to us perhaps not in an intense way like M like the what we experienced at Mount Si but there is a relationship which is possible all the time Hashem can be with us all of the time and this brings us back to the previous verse and the questions that we asked we wanted to understand why is it that Hashem that Elohim one of the names of God is this plural name we wanted to understand why is it why is the adjective there they are close what does that mean or what is the idea behind it Hashem is one there's only one God there's not multiple gods there's not multiple manifestations there's only only one God why is the name Hashem plural and the answer is as as tell us that Elohim the name denotes the fact that hasem is the that God is the one who has all of the powers meaning we look at the world we look around us and there are so many Powers there are so many things there's Thunder and there's lightning and there's the sun which is powerful and there's the the rain which is powerful there's so many different things that contribute to our lives and they are powerful there are so many k so many powers in the world and asaz also tell us there's the Stars they have power spiritual power hem sends the shef he sends down the influx of spirituality through the Stars something that we learn inem it's brought down the r speaks about it at length the Sun the moon each of these things have different powers now the the mistake is to believe that they have independent power that was the the ones who worshiped idols and they worshiped the Stars they worship the sun they believe that the that these things have independent power separate from God but in the T in our teachings so that's not true they don't have separate power they are all rooted in God God is the B God it seems as if there are many different manifestations of God but they are all rooted in God himself there's one God and on the surface of it the way we experience of it there seems to be an Angry God perhaps sometimes or a loving God perhaps sometimes there are many seeming manifestations or faces of God but all of them are really not there aren't many gods there's only one God but we experience God in many different ways and that's our experience of God and that's why we refer to him as elim because we experience him in these many different ways and I think that the statement that Hashem is cim why does it say that that it's that they are close I think that the the concept here is that we experience God being close to us in many different situations just like we experience many different aspects of God or many different manifestations of God so too sometimes we experience God's closeness to us in our moments of Joy sometimes we experience God's closeness to us in our moments of sadness and in our moments of danger in in many different situations we find ourselves in God manifests in all of those different situations but always it's a love when it comes to the reference to God himself yes we experience him in many different ways or many different situations but when we're talking about him and we're calling out to him it's always singular the T refers to God as singular because it's always rooted Hashem is always one and we may experience him differently in different situations but there's only one God a very good mush for for the bottom line of what I want to bring out from this is the concept of Tal tal means do d e w do in Israel the land of Israel so it rains in in the winter but in the summer there's no rain but what always is there what's always accessible is the do in the morning early in the morning the water condenses from within the air and It Coats everything with a fine layer of water that's do and do is something as opposed to G as opposed to rain which is more comparable to the experience of Mount at har where it's something which is intense and it's something which which of course gives life the do is something which is always accessible it's not dependent on any Merit it's not dependent on anything something which is for everyone and it's everywhere and I think that that's a very good analogy for us to understand the concept of that is there for he's always there no matter where we are no matter what our situation is and no matter what we are doing no matter where we're up to Hashem is always there when we call out to him is it going to be intense it's not going to be the rain it's not going to be Mount sin but is he there yes and is he accessible yes and is it everywhere is Hashem everywhere is Hashem always available to us yes now what's required in order to access that is a certain level of humility it's a certain level of recognition hey a person might say that's not enough for me I want that open Revelation I want God to reveal himself fire and thunder and lightning that's what I want I want to see it openly but to be able to see that Hashem is there with me even you know this in a to a small degree which is really a great degree that because Hashem is always there is always with me that requires a greater level of humility of willingness to see and to look and to believe that indeed Hashem is is there that hem is helping me in all of our calling out to him we might not always see it we might not even sense it but it's always there it's subtle but it's constantly there if we look for it if we're willing to have the humility to believe that we deserve it or even said better that even though we may not deserve it we still we have a in us we have a piece of God inside of us so whether or not we we deserve it Hashem is always going to give it to us is always going to reveal himself to us to help us to be there with us no matter what and I think that this is why M Moses before he even speaks about the M that open Revelation he wants us to know that the open Revelations the the intense Revelations are amazing are beautiful are important but what's more important is to to to to preface that with the fact that Hashem is always with us and that it requires a level of humility as we've said to be able to see that to be willing to accept that and to receive it and to appreciate it I want to bless you please bless me back hasm should help us to be able to call out to him in all of our our situations to be able to indeed have those experiences those High experiences those open Revelations but to also have the humility to see that there's an open Revelation that's always available to us at every moment no matter what our situation thank you so much for listening have a wonderful shabus this podcast was made possible through the gracious donations of listeners like you for more podcasts like this please visit www.wag.com or search on iTunes Ari goldwag [Music]