Vzos Habracha-Simchas Torah - Starting Over

you're listening to the weekly partial podcast recorded withing assistance in R Israel 2024 this week's para we complete the Torah with the para and the para ends with a very sad on a very sad note I'd like to discuss this challenge this difficulty this sad note and I'd like to bring it to a positive note the the BK tells us that mosu dies after spending his entire life hoping that the Jewish people would get they be redeemed and come into the land of Israel he did succeed in redeeming them he did succeed in bringing them out and for 40 years he wandered through the midar through the Wilderness with them but at the very end he was not permitted to enter the land of Israel and there's an extensive Mees I'll read a good part of it won't be able to read the whole thing it's very long but the me discusses mosu what did his look like we know that he prayed 515 times over and over again hoping that hasem would let him come into the land of Israel and yet his prayers were not accepted his prayers were denied you know MH was the master of prayer he prayed on behalf of the Jewish people as we'll see when it came to theel whenever they sinned he would pray on their behalf in order that they be forgiven still even though his sin was relatively minor perhaps compared to the sins of Kel He was not his his prayers were not accepted and to the m starts off telling us what he was up up against with his prayer the says 10 times that has to die that it's time for him to go says your days have come your time has come to die you're going to die on the mountain himself says I'm dying he says I know after my death that the Jewish people are going to sin 10 times he uses the language of death in regards to M I'm not I'm not going to read them all the fact that the T says 10 times that mosu is going to die it shows us that there was a X on him 10 x 10 decrees that he would not be allowed to enter the land of Israel even though there were 10 decrees it could still have been possible for to get out of the decree from to escape the decree for him to be able to get into Israel but when Hashem himself as it were and his court when they made that final decree it was signed and sealed says it's a decree from in front of me that you shall not go into the land of is he says you will not go into you will not cross over the Jordan now imagine has something crazy unbelievable this was was used to facing off with challenges used to facing off with decrees and nying decrees it was easy for him it didn't seem like a great challenge says look the Jewish people sinned a number of times many great sins many listen to my prayers says I'm going to destroy them get get away from me I'm going to destroy the Jewish people have forbid but what does it say afterwards it says hasem took back the evil decree hasem said I'm going to strike them with a plague and they'll be the end of but nevertheless the P says hasem forgave the Jewish people as mosha requested so mosha says I have been an exemplary Jew from my youngest days knew knew who he was he knew he was a righteous individual I didn't sin such great sins like the Jewish people did like many if I pray for myself hasem should receive my request so he wasn't worried he didn't think that he wouldn't be answered came in now because didn't immediately pray on his own behalf but rather he figured this is a this is an easy one to solve because of that way of thinking we so immediately hasem swore by his great name he made a that MOS would not enter into Asos says therefore you shall not bring this congregation into the light of Israel whenever it says the word therefore it always is connected to or it applies as an oath we find by the promise that made to B that they would die young that it was preface with the word therefore so what happens what do MOS do M doesn't give up has had told him previously get away from me I'm not listening to your prayers but he knew that that was a sign that he should pray anyway and here too mhu prayed Moshe sees that the decree is signed and sealed go ofus so what did mhu do he knows the tricks so to speak it's worth listening to the tricks of the trade how do we pray but it seems like things are not going our way what do we do so here's what he did he made himself a fast he fasted he made a Circ it sounds like right he made a circle and he stood inside the circle he said to Hashem I'm not going out of this circle until Hashem you nullify this decree listen further what did do at that time he put on sackcloth and and he he put on a a a uh a Talis that was made out of sackcloth from this polish but AER and he sat down in in ashes and he stood up in prayer and supplicated in front of's prayer was so powerful the entire Earth shook all all of the upper Realms the lower Realms everything was shaking butu and the angel said maybe the moment of Mah has arrived maybe the time that wants to renew his world has come that's how powerful M's prayers were which by the way indicates that this is this that mosh was supposed to go into Earth Israel they wanted to enter the land of Israel it was if he would have come into Israel the game would have been over so to speak CLA Isel would have entered with lo as their leader that would have been the Final Redemption it would have built a mdash the Jewish people the reign of the Jewish people would be over all of mankind for all time so his prayer mh's prayer wasn't just for himself that he should come into the land of Israel it was I got to finish the job that I started and if we'll get to it but he says that kind of that kind of he says that type of statement he says I I took them this far I can't leave them now I got to finish the job he was the go he was the Redeemer wanted to complete the Redemption so the the prayer that he's praying is is turning over the entire Earth the physical Realms the spiritual Realms the angels are saying wow it it must be the moment that we've been all waiting for Ma is about to arrive the time is not yet come a voice comes out from Heaven hasem says it's not yet the time of Mia it's not yet the time that I plan to renew our world Hashem says look it's true that moo has a powerful ability to pray it's true that moso knows all the secrets of prayer and he knows how to sit and to wear the right clothing and to say the right words and to get himself into the right frame of mind and really the prayer is so effective that everyone knows what it is and what it means and we're at the moment of redemption but Hashem says I'm the one in charge has has the power The Souls of every living creature are in his hand called Bish and the spirit of every of all the Flesh of man and who is this man that's in the hands of the we find that M himself is referred to as is as a man the man Moshe was very humble more humble than all human beings on the face of the Earth even the humblest person who was the most likely to have his prayers heard was the most likely able to bring the Messianic age you can't change hashem's plan it's not yet the moment it's not yet the time he's in hashem's hands as well what did hasem do at that moment listen if it's if the prayer can't be answered if it's not the right moment for that prayer to be answered the prayer is not going to be answered it's just it's going to get stopped you know in the heavens there's many gates our prayers go through many gates first we send it to the to we we direct our prayers to we direct our prayers to the Holy Mountain to theik the place of the temple we direct our prayers to the the holy of holies to the foundation stone and from there we direct the prayers up to heaven but there are many gates that those prayers have to pass in order to get up to the heavens that hasem said every single gate said I want all the gates to stop the prayers wherever the prayers get to stop stop don't let Moses prayers come through they are not allowed to enter in front of me the decree has been signed and sealed says there was a particular angel I don't we don't say the names of angels except except for certain angels that are mentioned in tanak so I'm not going to say the name of this Angel particular Angel who was in charge of announcing prayers were announcing whatever announcements needed to be made the prayer is getting too strong you got to close up all of the all of the gates it's it's getting too strong his prayers are getting stronger and stronger it's like this battle it's amazing battle between Hashem as it were you know and M's prayers as they're trying to get up M's voice of prayer was Raising it up it was getting higher and higher his prayer was like a sword that just Rises up and rips everything in his path particular Angel he learned the Name explicit name of Hashem from matat we don't say his name either says a different name for him particular angel that taught him wonder how to get in know how to get into the highest Heavens knew he used the particular name of hm he was taught this name by the Angel who in charge there in the highest heavens of letting the prayers in and he used that name he took he put in all his efforts in order to be able to get this x this decree upon him that he won't let enter into Israel to get him rescinded M says extensively further but I'd like to just skip the M here continues and says here's the prayer what was his prayer what did his prayer look like shall let me live let me get into Isel let me go into Israel that wasn't exactly what it looked like says in front of in front of God Master of the world you know so clearly absolutely you know everything you know you know how hard I worked to get the Jewish people to believe in you to get the Jewish people to have faith in you to get the Jewish people to do your will how much pain that I have when it came to getting them to fulfill the Commandments until I said it in them M thinking about it he is giving a message over to the Jewish people that needs to last for 3,300 years until today he worked so hard to to create that foundation for the Jewish people says when he says I I said he said I knew if I invested so much into helping them and to and to seeing their difficulty prayed for them where they did a when they sinned they prayed that they should be forgiven I taught them the I taught them to connect to you Hashem and I knew that with all this pain that I experience if I could see all the difficulties of the Jewish people I'm for sure going to see the joy of the Jewish people the good of the Jewish people the Final Redemption of the Jewish people but the mo has finally arrived the Jewish people are entering into the land of Israel and you're not going to you're not going to let me go over the Jordan River you're not going to let me enter into the land of Israel which it says in the it says that when somebody works in the day you got to pay him on that day I've been working all day I've been working my whole life one goal and that is that the Jewish people should have a relationship with you and should be able to enter into the land of Israel and should be able to fulfill their National Destiny you got to pay me I worked so hard you got to pay me at the end of the day just like it says in the tit when someone works for me you got to pay them at the end of the day you can't let the the sunset and not pay him he's poor the says a guy is poor you got to pay him you got to make sure to pay the guy and give him the money the other day he worked hard all day he the money to pay to pay for food for him for his family I worked all day I worked my whole life how can you not pay me says I worked so hard 40 years in the wilderness in the midbar in order that they should become faithful to you should become a holy nation so this is the the and the Mish doesn't really answer the question the M goes on to say that Hashem tries to send to kill him but the can't succeed in doing it he tries to send different different Angels no one can do it in the endem is the one who has to take M's life directly what well the question is the question is what's the answer to mh's question they don't the the M doesn't ask this question B says hey we didn't you didn't finish I I did the job and I'm not being paid for my for my for my job and you know we read this we read this on simp this is the completion of the T and it's it's like a very anticlimactic completion of the tah I mean we do read on the beginning of yosua when Yoshua takes the Jewish people which is the continuation of the story but the tire itself ends with's death and and it's a very sad ending to a very powerful story of of Mo's life Moses spends his entire life leading the Jewish people setting the foundation for the Jewish people but he doesn't get to complete the job what's the understanding of this ending the understanding of this ending and when we read this on S we read this on this incredibly joyous day it's such a sad it's such a sad completion what what's the joy where's the joy where's the joy so I was thinking about this question and I want to share with you a thought that I discussed witha two weeks ago I was in farway and I sat witha for two and a half hours I mentioned this in the podcast and we discussed lots of things many different things among them importance of living in Israel Moving to Israel lots of different things be Fai inem and you know the question that I post to him was moving into like a new KU a new period of of my life the next few years have some kids and going to we're going to marry them off and it's tremendous expense and can I work with the that I worked with until now can I continue in the same way or does something need to change do I need to have a different approach does it need to be different level of isas of efforts going in and basically after long discussion on this topic the the mascara the bottom line of what we came out with was that we're in the middle of the story and we don't know how the story will end and that's true about msia it's true about Isel that is true about what's going to be in the future of each of our individual lives we're in the middle of the story we don't know exactly what it's going to look like but Hashem is going to show us what's next and how we are to approach the challenges as they come there's going to be a guidance there's going to be a new experience there's going to be something that helps us to understand what it is that hasm expects of us that's the basic idea that we talked about and I was thinking about this in the context of this question why is the ter end this way it's very anticlimactic way that doesn't doesn't fulfill his dream I thinking that you know we finished the Torah who dies and go we don't we don't read the a Tor right away talking about what happens in continuation of the story with Yoshua what we first do is we read braas we go back to the beginning of the Tyra and there at the very beginning of the Tyra is something very interesting and there's a Rashi rash the very beginning of the T tells us why is the T start with gracious why does the T start with the creation of the world why isn't start with the beginning of the Jewish people the first mitvah the Jewish people have as nation which ises the the first month of the year is Nissan Rashi tells us because you need to know from the onset that the foundation of the Tyra is Hashem created the world and because Hashem created the world the rest of the T is not going to make sense because the rest of the is about giving the land of Israel to the Jewish people that's the rest of the whole entire tah that's the first thing that tells us beginning of braus the first thing that we we trip over as we complete the tah is we go back to the beginning of the Torah and we see that the story is not over yet even though mhain dies and it seems like that's the end of his life it's a very sad statement but we go back to beginning of the T it says and the T tells us the whole point of the trra the whole Point gracious is so that you know that Hashem is going to give you Earth Israel hasem is going to finish the story is going to we're still in the middle of the story the story is not over yet we're going to get to that end we're going to get to that point in time don't make a mistake and think that mosh's death is the end of the story even though hey that is the end of the Torah don't think that that's the end because you go back to the beginning and remember that there's the story isn't completely written yet I would say I don't mean this literally but there'll be we have five books of Moses there going to be a sixth book of Moses and mosh is going to come back to life and he's going to write that sixth book on his completion of his journey because he's going to come and this is literally true what I'm about to say it says the G writes that moshin himself comes back to complete the G of CLA Israel Moses comes back to finish the job of course there's a messiah there's old process but he's part of the process so even though it looks like the story is over still part of the story is not written yet and by going back to the beginning to braci we remind ourselves that there's still more to the story Hashem is still planning we need not worry we don't yet have a base of English we're in the middle of the story where where where CL has returned 7 million strong to the land of is where's Theos Where's the temple where's the sh where's the divine presence where's the the all of Cl the Jewish people reconnecting to our faith why is it this why is that happening why are all these negative things going on in the world the story is not over yet we're still in the process we're still in the middle theim is that we're you know we dance around and around and around in a circle we're in the middle of the story The Tyra is not a document that gives us a history of what happened 3,300 years ago this is a document that we're still reading today and we're going around and around reading it again and again because it's still the story is still going on we're in the middle of the story the story is not over yet I want to bless you and ask you to bless me should help us that we should be able to learn the lessons of of the power of His prayer we should be able to learn the lessons that not to give up even when hasem says no don't give up sometimes we need to accept that the answer is no hasem should help us to accept that as well but hasem should help us to recognize that even if it seems like the answer is no there's always another round there's always another chance we're still in the middle as long as we're here still in the middle of the story thank you so much for listening have a wonderful Y and a wonderful shamas this podcast was made possible through the gracious donations of listeners like you for more podcasts like this please visit www. arold wag.com or search on iTunes Ari goldwag