Vayikra - Rejuvenation of Israel at 75

you're listening to the weekly partial podcast with Ari goldwag recorded with hm's never running assistance in R Israel 5784 2024 this week's par is we begin a brand new saer it's also par we're going to read about the obliteration of amalik and it's going to be PAB Sunday and in Jerusalem on Monday as [Music] well begins that hasem called out to Moshe after the past five weeks we've been speaking about the construction of the mishkan the Tabernacle the bikash what's the first thing that happens once it's constructed Hashem calls to Moshe Moshe is the leader of the Jewish people he's also the individual who incorporates all of the Jewish Souls into himself hem calls to him and henceforth whereas previously would speak to Moshe in a in a personal place not from a public place from from now on mosha raenu his experience of God's word will be from the ohal moid from the Tabernacle from that place that the Jewish people as a whole all contributed in order to create now why is it of all people that Hashem calls to mosha Ru why is it that Moses is the first one that is called from the and I'll mention that we find that all of the N all the prophets would obtain or receive their prophecy by focusing or by receiving through the Kim hasem speaks from between the Kim the cherubs which are on the Aron so why is it that mosha is the first one what about Aon about Miram there are other Nim there was elad and Maad why is it that Moshe is the first one and we'll see that it very much connects to the Milla to the story of Esther the Mish tells us like this this is in the beginning of of the M ofra the first par Sim he the fifth section in the middle it says like this hasem raises up the one who is low we have a general principle that who is it that hm reveals himself to the one who lowers himself we find that mosenu when he was at the burning bush so he hid himself he saw the vision of the burning bush he said let me let me hide my eyes it's it's something that's impossible it's a spiritual thing not something that I should look at he thought of himself as perhaps not worthy the P says that hasem says to mosha you I want you to go and I will send you to Pharaoh so the word is written is an extra letter why is there an extra hey at the end of the word says Raz not the word can mean go but because it has a hay at the end it can also be read as you you are the one you are the only one hasem says to mosu if you don't go there will be no one else to redeem them it says the says that at the sea yamu as the Jews are about to experience the most incredible miracle splitting of the sea stood on the side hasem said to Moses and you raise up your staff and split the sea hasem said you have to do it m Moses you are the only one who will do this miracle you must be the one to do it you are the one who's going to split the sea againu has a pattern Moses is a humble person he stands on the side at har Mount Si he didn't know that he was the one who was supposed to go up and receive the Torah according to theem Hashem says to mosu you go [Music] up it's not going to beon it's not to be Miriam it's not going to be the zikan and the elders you are to go up and to receive the Torah from Hashem the same thing happened excuse me when mosu put up the he put up the Tabernacle he stood on the side he said who will receive the N who will receive the prophecy from God who will be the recipient of God's revelation [Music] now who lifts up the one who lowers himself hasem says it's enough of this lowering of [Music] yourself this moment is waiting only for you you are the one who needs to step up and receive the prophecy we need to know that this is true because of all the people that hasem called to at the very beginning of the Tabernacle existence who did he call to first it was to mosha to Moses El that's the meaning of the PK that says that God called out to mosha Rao okay and of course you know if we think about it first of all each one of us is called each one of us is called we'll see what that means and how that plays out but each one of us is called by Hashem to do our particular our individual TI in the world our our rectification in the world who we are no one else can be who we are each one of us has unique talents unique abilities unique combination of which makes up our personality and we need to know that we are the one who needs to stand up but beautifully the mes is telling us that mosenu why was he lifted he was lifted because he knew how to lower himself he didn't he didn't see himself as the end all the be all the center doesn't mean that he didn't know who he was but it does mean that he was a humble person he was the UN ofam now I'd like to think about this in terms of Esther hamala right and also in terms of ham we have we want to destroy hamik we want destroy this week's P Zar who is he's the one who says everyone has to bow to me and if one person doesn't bow to him nothing's worth anything so he's the opposite of this aspect and then there's Esther Esther who goes in to the king she doesn't take anything except what he guy recommends she's not trying to win the king's favor she's not trying to win the throne to be the the big winner she's a humble person she does exactly what morai says she has no she has no feeling or sense inside of herself that she's the one who knows that she's better than anybody Esther says to her says to Esther right and although the simple understanding is Hashem will send the the G from wherever he wants to but Mor is saying to her you got to go in now you're the one it's clear you're the one who has access to the king you are the one who can save the day so to speak so just like Hashem says to Moshe you are the one if you don't do it if you don't redeem them who's going to redeem them morai says to Esther really he says it in a in a reverse way I don't want to call call it reverse psychology but he says it in a inverted way he says that if you don't do it so the Gul will come from somewhere else but really he's saying there you have to do it you have to be the one to do it you are the chosen one everything has led up to you being the Redeemer just like when we look at mosha raenu everything led up to him being the Redeemer all of his background all of his life being raised in the palace coming from amam being the do the son of Y so this all led to mosha being the chosen one who had been raised for this greatness so too Esther the Milla tells us about her background how she grew with Mor she was a a unique individual we could compare her I'm not going to but we could compare her to Y okay there's a lot to say about this matter but I want to share with you a medish in the in Mish Raba Esther in the Milla and the Mish teaches us something very interesting and I want to tie it back to mosu we'll see together soon but first tells us it's a famous Mish I was saying was speaking to his students he was teaching them and the students were dozing off the topic perhaps wasn't uh the most exciting topic to his students he wanted to wake them up so he said something which was very surprising something unusual why did Esther Merit to be the queen over provinces this is what God says let Esther who's the great great granddaughter of sarahu where else do we see the number 127 s man who lived 127 years Esther is the great great granddaughter of s Manu who filled her 127 years withus with righteousness with greatness let Esther who is The Offspring of that great has and let her come and rule over provinces so this is the Mish right the Mish requires explanation what is the idea here what is the 127 years of Sarah after to do with Esther being the being the ruler over 127 provinces what is the concept so in trying to understand this the maharu gives us a reference he says I want you to see a which speaks of a comparison of Esther not to S not only to Sarah but also to abrahamu to Abraham but before I read that I just want to for a little bit of explanation mention what some the ma say on this m the first mes and that is that Esther as we're going to see Esther how old was she when she became the queen you know what let's read this mag first hasem commands Abraham to go and Abraham does as Hashem tells him the P tells us that was 75 years old when he left from his from his land when he left his father's house and when he traveled to to the land of Israel he was 75 years [Music] old he asked there the Meer says this parallels another another person another person hadasa Esther Hadas is is one name for Esther Esther is the other name now what does it mean in parallels Esther so let's think about things okay for a moment before we dive in here Abraham when he leaves his land moves to Israel at the command of Hashem he is now entering a stage of gula in a certain sense 75 years old he ends up living to be 175 so so he's in the prime of his life he's in the middle of his life and he's told to go to the land of Israel every step that he takes in Israel is going to end up belonging every piece of land that he steps on will belong to his children grandchildren to the Jewish people so there's an aspect of G of redemption now there's another person who a Redemption occurred at the age of 75 let's see r r says that when Esther went to the became the queen when she went to the Palace she was 40 years [Music] old says she was 80 years [Music] old the sages say she was 75 okay so this doesn't sound like what we would think when we read the story aish is collecting beautiful young ladies we would think that Esther was a beautiful young lady which she was as we'll see no matter what age she was but the M tells us according to Shmo she was 80 according to the rabbis she was 75 now how do we get 75 which of course is the same age that Abraham was when he left his family's home he came to Israel says hasem says to Abraham you left your father's house when you were 75 there's going to be God is saying to to Abraham in the future time there's going to be a redeemer who will come to redeem the Jewish people she's going to be 75 years [Music] old the minion the gatria of hadasa the word hadasa which is her name Esther's name hadasa kria 75 says the medish okay if we look at it carefully Hadas is actually 74 but we find in Gat there's also something called the K which means you can add one for the word itself which is the all-inclusive aspect but also explained that Esther was 74 when she was brought to the palace and it was a full year until she actually became Queen so that gives you now what does this mean Esther Amala the beautiful queen she's 75 years old when she comes in there for say something amazing they say something beautiful they say that just like we saw in the first Mish that why did Esther have 127 provinces because lived 127 years why was she 75 when she became the queen because ainu was 75 when he became the go became the Redeemer of the Jewish people he went to the land of Israel what is it really saying it's really saying something even deeper than it seems on the surface it's saying that sorry we know that she was somebody who was when she was 90 years old she became young again she went back to being her younger self Mir ully why also soru she was the the the one whose child Yak would be the beginning of the Jewish people in order for the Jewish people to start there had to be a miracle saru was the one who when aam was 100 S was 90 she went back to being young again so too says theam so too Esther when she was 75 she was too old she shouldn't have been taken maybe she was beautiful for a 75 year old but she went back to being young just like Sarah that was the miracle that was needed in order for the Jewish people to have their G to have their Redemption AB think about it Abraham at 75 years old he's going to leave his the place where he grew up he's going to leave his father's home he's going to leave his his accustomed land and he's going to enter a brand new culture and try to acclimate there in the land of Israel it's not so easy he becomes young again a also becomes young again so when we say that eser is like Abraham and like Sarah we're saying that the Gula comes to the Jewish people in an in a in a Rejuvenation in a way that shows rejuvenation but perhaps we could say another aspect another idea the Maru here refers to a meish later on which I'm not going to read inside but the medes talks about Yehuda and Tamar we know Yehuda ended up with his daughter-in-law through a whole series of events the middle of the story of ysf not going to get too involved with it but the mes tells us that Tamar was the daughter of Shem she was the daughter of Shan Ben Noah [Music] and she was a righteous woman she she knew that she needed to bring about this Union in order for the future Messiah to be born it's not our topic that's not what I want to talk about but the med thefor there point out they speak about the fact that it couldn't be that Tamar was actually the the direct daughter of Shem because Shem passed away when Yakov was 50 Yakov was 50 that's that's almost that's 60 to 70 years before Yehuda was even born then Yehuda had to be born get married have kids himself that would marry Tamar it's way too far so either either it means that Tamar was miraculously rejuvenated in some similar way to what we're talking about here or explain that it's not saying that she was literally the child of Shem but rather she was M sh she was from the seed The Offspring of Shame now what is the significance of that why am I telling you this what's the importance of it but what I want to bring out from there is that we see that what does it mean that Tamar is from The Offspring of Shem what does it mean it means that as we spoke about in the week's past the person is the product of those who come before me the person is the product of all of their experiences but not just their own experiences their parents their grandparents the great-grandparents ETC there's a process that goes into making who we are making us become the person that we are and that process the fact that she's called the daughter of Shem Tamar is the daughter of Shem means that she is somebody who she still has the aspects of Shem that were given over from Shem to shem's child to that person's child ultimately to Tamar and so the expression Tamar is the daughter of Shame represents that she is somebody who's part of a process who's the culmination of a certain aspect of that process who produces really Gula the Redemption the birth of the great great grandpa grandfather of mashiach of D King David Etc now let's bring that thought back to Esther and mosha was Esther literally 75 years old I don't know I have no problem with understanding the Mish to be literal and understanding it to mean that she she um was rejuvenated that's not what it says in the M explicitly but that's how the explained it but perhaps we could say another understanding based on what we see with Tamar that when we say and this is actually something that one of the maor brings down that when we say that that Esther was 75 it means that there was a process that had begun 75 years before before she became king that was when Mor went into Exile he went with the Jewish people into Exile 75 years before they were exiled right before the destruction of the first Temple and so the the beginning of the Exile starts and the process begins the seeds are planted in the exile for the ultimate Redemption so when we say that she's 75 it doesn't have to necessarily mean literally although it could doesn't literally have to mean that she's 75 it could mean that she's becoming the queen in the 75th year of the process of gula of redemption just like Tamar is not literally the daughter of shame but she is a a product of the process that started with Shem also this could be the explanation of when we say the Y was 130 when when mosh raenu was born could also be understood to mean that she the the pro which would bring about the G which was mosenu Moses the process began already at the time of the beginning of the Exile the Redemption was already planted the concept of redemption the seed of redemption was planted already before when we say that MOS Renu Hashem says to him you are the only one who can be go you are the only one who's the Redeemer you are the only one which what it really means is everything that I've done until now has been to pred uce this exact situation so that you Moshe would redeem the Jewish people you would split the sea and you would be the one to receive the Torah for the Jewish people and bring it to them everything that went into your personal life and the life of your parents and the life of your grandparents and great-grandparents Etc everything has been done to bring us to this point that's what hasem says if you don't do it no one else will do it says to her he got who knows if this was the moment why you became the queen what he's really saying is everything that I experienced I brought you up I taught you to be the sadus the righteous individual that you are everything has gone on in your life started when I went into gas when I went into Exile with the Jewish people and we know that the seed of redemption is planted at the beginning at the beginning of the Exile so who knows what he was really saying is not who knows but more like it's absolutely clear the reason that you're there is to be the GU no one else is going to do it except for you there's a Rejuvenation also in this idea because what it's saying is the seeds that were planted so many years before 75 years before are now finally bearing fruit are now about to be revealed are now about to Spring forth in all of their Glory that I think is theat or one understanding of what the mag is trying to teach us and I think that it's true for each and every one of us each and every one of us has our life experiences each and every one of us looks for AA redemption in our personal lives and also in the lives of the entire Jewish people and I think it's also very interesting that the number 75 is something which we're looking at right now from the time that the Jewish people stood up in their country 75 years ago until now and we're at what seems to me to be a point of redemption of transformation of taking that old Esther Amala lail Esther was 75 years old like aari man who was 90 who looked so old the the the country of Israel in a certain sense it has an old mindset a secular mindset that's about to be transformed and become new and young again with the beautiful influx of more and more from more and more connection to yish K look at all the soldiers putting Onan look at all the soldiers putting on situs looking at all the interest all the balich Chua all of those who are you know coming back look at the the amount of Torah learning that's going on in the holy land and you see a Rejuvenation at the age of 75 which at the same moment of Rejuvenation as in the story of of of Esther there's a moment of of danger a moment of a threat of Destruction but at the same exact moment is when the Jewish people transform Kimu kblu they reaffirm their connection to T they reaffirm their connection to to God to spirituality to a I want to bless you I ask you to bless me hasem should help us that we should be able to recognize all the things that have gone into to our personal lives should help us to to reach our own personal Redemption and also be able to see the national Redemption of the Jewish people thank you so much for listening have a wonderful shabas and a very joyous porm 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