Rav Yitzchak Breitowitz: Feeling the LOVE of Hashem even Through Most Difficult Times

You see your tomorrow [Music] Hi everybody. Thank you. Thank you for coming. Uh we do have uh a lot of dedications today. Unfortunately, some of them are because of the tragedies that happened yesterday. Uh as always, we are praying for the victory of our in all fronts of the war, the lasting unity of AmI Israel, and for all of those whose health has been affected by the war, and for the safe return of all of the hostages. uh in addition especially an aliat shama uh for the murdered victims alkashem uh and remote um I I have their names but not their full Hebrew names. So there's leitak yakov pinto Israel Matzner Rabbi Yoseph David Rev Morai Steinzag and Sarah Mendelson. Uh again may may their nishamos go straight to ganed as people who died alashm and may their death uh be a capora for amrail. May it bring us closer and closer uh to the mashiach uh rafu mena uh which is what this is Rabbi Mendel Kessan himself. Okay men Kessan of course uh I certainly knows about the wonderful uh teachings of Rabbi Kessan and he should certainly have a Rafu Schlma. Clone needs him. uh and of course Rafua Shalma for those who were victims uh who did survive but some are injured in the remote uh terror attack. Uh next week will be the last clap until after Sukkot. Uh also I want to I got a dedication today a dedication by Abraham Cohen from Miami and he asked for the hatla of Ara Ben Ala Cohen Kayla Basitzkim Ben Abraham Ary Ben Abraham that they should be Matlak and be blessed in all ways and uh finally check finally one second pardon Iban has been distributing charity for years to needy families for the Khim. Uh this year once again, Iban will be distributing to widows, orphans, and those in financial distress. Please contribute and be sure to indicate that your donation is for which particular need either through the link below or on the Ibonet website. And to date, I has distributed over 115 sets of fillin to our courageous and the requests continue to grow. Uh, Rabbi Poston personally fought his way into serving for the IDF over 30 years ago uh to be able to stay in a special anti-terror and immediate first responder unit to terror attacks. And uh even though that was 30 years ago, he is continuing that work today by spearheading this initiative to get as many sets of fillin to the soldiers directly to the chaplain in the army and other outreach professionals. Special thanks to the many who have already contributed to this cause. The need is still ongoing and ever growing. Contributions can be made by the website or link below. I just want to point out that it is exactly in this para that is coming up in the Toka. There is a divine promise that when the nations see that the name of God is upon you, they shall fear you. And the Gmoran Brahos has a drasha in the name of Rabbi Eleazar. that that is a reference to the power of the fill in of the head in which they have the name of God that that inspires awe and fear and terror in the eyes of the nations that try to destroy us. So as a result uh fillain is a great mitzvah but in addition it is specifically connected to striking fear in the hearts of the of the enemy. Ra Poston predicts that just as the in the past debated about sending their sons into the army out of fear they might become irreligious the secular will debate whether to send their sons to the army out of fear their sons will become religious in Israel anything can happen and you know I would I actually would not be too surprised about about that they say Hashem does have a sense of humor uh the army might become the biggest Kirv institute uh in in Eritz in Erit Israel. Okay. All righty. So uh this para again kisa we're approaching uh the end of the the end of the year and this para of course does contain a very lengthy portion that is called the toa. The tokah are the rebukes, the chastisements, uh a list of the awful, awful punishments that shall befall the Jewish nation if they reject the Torah. Of course, it does begin with blessings. There's a lot of blessings there as well. Uh but then it goes into all sorts of awesome curses. Now we know that there are two parts of the Torah that are designated as the to one is at the very end of paros. So we'll call that to one and the second is the toa at the end of kiso which we'll call toka number number two. In both the customs are very much the same that we don't want to call up uh a regular person for an aliyah because we don't want to kind of read curses. So the miners, the balor himself uh reads gets the aliyah uh and in many many shows the minis he reads it very very quickly and in an undertone to kind of get over it. So there is a beautiful little misa that um you know the balatana the first kabad rebi was raishn of lead and he had a son who eventually became the second kabad rebi he was ravd dove bear named after the alterby's teacher rav of mezerich and he's known as the mittler rebby the middle rebi simply because the balatana was rebi for many years and the seamic number three was rebi for many years uh the son of the balatana was a rebi for a relatively short time. So he's called the middle one meaning he's between one and three although he was a phenomenal sadic and um it happened once that he was called up apparently they didn't have the min that only the balor gets the aliyah he was called up for the aliyah uh to the toa and when the balor started reading all of these awful curses the mitlerbi got terrified and he fainted and they had difficulty reviving him. So somebody asked him, he says, "What what what was the big deal? I mean, you hear the toka twice a year, you know, for for 30 years, uh, whatever your age was." And you know, you never fainted before. Why did you faint now? What was so terrifying about this? So he says, "Well, all the years I heard the Takaha, my father was always the balor. And when my father read it, it didn't seem so bad. It didn't seem like a curse. So it didn't scare me. My father was away this Shabbat. So I hear it from a regular balor. Now I see how terrifying it is. And you know this is a a cute story but it's also a very profound story because the truth of the matter is even the toa itself on some level that we don't always understand is a demonstration of God's love. God wants us to be the best that we can. God wants us to do chuva. God wants us to turn to him. And what we do makes a difference. You know just like you would you you know you might discipline your child for doing something wrong. And if some other kid is doing something wrong, you're not going to get so involved. So the kid, your kid might say, "Well, why why are you singling me out?" He says, "Because I love you. I care about you. What you do and who you are makes a difference to me more than other other children." Hashem is the same way. Hashem is tougher on us because we make a difference. And therefore even the to comes from God's love an amazing thing. So when the balata so what the mitler rebi was saying was that when the balata would read the the listeners could feel the love of hashem even in those awesome punishments while most people would just see the punishments. They wouldn't see they wouldn't see the love. So he says when my father read it, I didn't faint >> because it didn't seem as bad as it seems when somebody else read it. This is uh what is what is recorded. But a second point my my main point is not about the to actually but I want to share with you a a passage in the zorab. Someone asked Raishim that at the end of the in paratukosai there are words of it ends with comfort and inukosai it says that even when you are in the land of your enemies I have not rejected you I have not thrown you away to destroy you and I will remember the covenant that I made to Abraov meaning the last verse of the to of ends with words of and words of comfort in parasa we don't get that break the toa goes on and on and on and it ends with the verse. You will go back to Egypt and be sold as slaves and no one will even want to buy you. That's how worthless you're going to be. Kind of the ultimate horror of going back to the very beginning. All the progress that you made will be can be cancelled and they won't even watch you and there's no. So someone asked remember why does the inikra end with words of and the at the end of kiso does not end with words of now in truth I I don't want to get too much into the technical aspects the question needs to be understood a little bit because although it's true that the to ino does not end with words of but the truth is the toa does continue into and does end with words in other words it's only if you just look at it para by para that you have this question it could be that maybe as far as the Torah is concerned para by para is not that important it may not be such an essential okay so that's a question that you could raise on the zor but nevertheless certainly it is true that in parasi So there is no now one answer I will give you which is not what the zor says and that's a very interesting observation of the ramban the raman explains that the toa of vayikra is a prophecy about the galot that happened after the destruction of the first temple it refers to the galot that culminated inbanet rishon The to in devorim that we're going to read this shabas is describing the galot that we suffered and we are continuing to suffer in the aftermath of the bay sheni that's why for example there are quite a lot of sukim that seem to directly refer to the suffering of the holocaust bafka in this para all sorts of references that just shout out to you you know think about the concentration camps and the like. So here's what the Ramban says. The Ramban says that the had a guaranteed end that was communicated. They were told that the galut will only be 70 years and after the 70 years there will be a redemption. So as a result the to inra culminates in the because there's a definite end i.e. 70 years. Mashen the second galot does not have a predetermined end. It all depends on the Jewish people doing chuva. So God does not end with because the depends much more on us than it may have depended in the first. And then that's a technical answer that the Ramban himself gives. But this is not what the zo says. The zor gives a different answer that's actually very very fascinating. The zor says that there are two ways a person can experience suffering in life. Right? There's suffering, there's adversity, there's challenge. One can see it as coming from Hashem as love or one can see it as Hashem simply ignoring you and not being involved in your life at all. God doesn't care. In Vayikra, the phrase that's used over and over again is carry. Kerry means if you walk with me in happen stance, you in other words, you don't look at God as controlling the world. You don't look at God as getting involved. Uh you look at God as he doesn't care. So Hashem says mida if your attitude is God doesn't care then God will behave as if he doesn't care. So when a person feels God doesn't care. The tragedy breaks them. It devastates them. It destroys them. They need they need God to comfort them. So in vayikra the soros are described as mikra mikra happen stance coincidence kind of god not being involved in devour god is involved. God will smite you. God will do this. God will do that. Meaning there is a recognition that is coming from Hashem for a positive purpose. So says Rabbi Shimai, you don't need words of comfort for that because the fact that you know it's coming from God in itself gives you the comfort. Uh this is what David says in the 23rd Psalm shift. Even though I walk in the gate of death, in the valley of death, the valley of the shadow of death. Lo, I am not afraid of evil. You are with me in my journey. Your stick and your staff. They give me comfort. Now what is a stick and what is a staff? So the maforam say a stick is what you hit a person with or hit an animal with a stick. A staff is what gives a person support. David Melik says sometimes God seems to be giving me the and other times God gives me the mishet the support says whether it's the stick or whether it's the support they give me comfort as long as I know it's from you I make a difference a matter. That's why Rashashana itself, maybe next week I'll talk more about Roshashana in particular. Rashashana is um very complicated holiday in the sense that it combines two very opposite moods. It is a time of judgment, a time of trepidation, a time frankly of a certain measure of fear. I mean if you look at the dabining you cannot escape that there's an undercurrent of terror in some of the liturggical formulations. If you look for example at nisana tok nisana tok is the prayer that is recited before the kaduca of musf on the two days of rashashana and yam kipper and the sanakot is all about the idea that even the angels in heaven are shaking and quaking and frightened as god decides and there's a whole litany who will live and who will die who will fill their allotment ments and who will not fill their allotments, who by fire, who by water, who will prosper, who will become povertystricken. You know, this was a time historically where people would often break down in tears. They would cry sometimes. Maybe we're not on that madrega so much today, but this was a very, very powerful. So, on one hand, there is this notion that I'm really, really scared. On the other hand, rashash shana is a yumpt. One should be happy. One should be radiant because one understands I'm giving my life. I'm putting my life in God's hands. I don't know what's going to happen, but I know that God loves us. God cares about us. God wants the best for us one way or the one way or the other. And we don't always understand. It'll be good. It'll be fine. And therefore it combines those two things saying whether it's the sh or whether it's the machet as long as I know I matter as long as I know that I'm just not I'm not just being ignored that gives me a lot of comfort that gives me a lot of strength. So the zor says this is why says that you don't need in the invoreim because in the invarim god's presence is acknowledged god will do this god will do this as opposed to the vayikra which is phrased in terms of god ignoring you and things happen that needs a to because then a person feels rejected a person feels they don't they do not they do not matter. So this is what the the zor the zor says. So in this connection I want to go backwards from the to and start in the beginning of the para. The beginning of the para uh gives us a mitzvah that we do not practice today because when there's no bas mikt this mitzvah does not apply and that is the mitzvah of bringing the first fruits of Israel to the bas mikdash. And by the way, fruits, one shouldn't think of fruit bafka because the mitzvah beorim is the first of any of the seven species of eric Israel. So it would be wheat uh barley and then gean then grapes tena figs remon pomegranates olives and dates honey. Honey is meant it always means dates honey in the Torah. So fruit is a little uh you know a little uh confusing because it's fruit. It's the shibbaim that if you are a farmer and you're looking at the ripening of the fruits or the grains that you have. So as soon as you see something gets ripe, you would put a string around it and that would be the burim and you bring it to the bay hamikdash in a basket. Uh you put the basket down in front of the altar. You recite a mini history of amrael arami ovi love on the armian tried to destroy my father and he went to mitim and if these are familiar to you they are the basis of the pesada right so it's interesting that the pesada is foundationally based on what a person said when they brought the beorium in other words what daga does is it takes four verses and it then elaborates on it by you know giving details from schmos or dvoreim etc. So there are two mitzvah here. There's a mitzvah to bring bikor there's a mitzvah of recitation of the borim and then the borim are not a korban they're actually given to the kohanim to eat. So although burim are brought to the bas mikdash they are not at all sacrificed on the altar they are given to kohhanim to eat uh inlay uh in their own homes and the like right so this is the mitzvah of borim there's a whole track date of Mishna that is called masorim there's no bi on it there is a damor at bavi and uh peric gimmel of the Mishna describes the great festivity of the bikorim that different cities would you know people from different cities would get together and they would come to uh the bikorim season began on shoo actually it's the day after shw it's this little a common mistake the borim per se were not brought on they were not brought on yum borim would would be brought the day after yamt and the borim season essentially lasted from the day after till and you could bring it till but once Khan is over you don't bring from last year you're already looking forward to a new year and the like and it mentions that different cities would have different scheduled times that they would come and uh they would come with a great deal of ceremony they'd have a whole procession including musical instruments and the night. And when they would come to Jerusalem, the artisans who were working, the blacksmiths, the tailor would rise and say anatom uh and they would stand up interestingly says, you know, there is a custom which was not an original min. It's kind of a it's a newer min. you know it wasn't was not done in Europe so much that people stand up when a kala go down the aisle you stand up many people do it uh and the question is what's the mccor why why do you stand up for a kala so the standard answer that's given is >> that aan is a mel and a kala is a mala so we stand up to honor the king and the queen but there's a problem with that and that is they're not married yet. So what second uh it's like you know you I don't have to stand up to someone who's going to become king right I ought to stand up when they're coming back they're married already so said like this so said that the makor of the min of standing for the kass and the kala is from bikurim because when the people came from from their cities to bring bikurim the artisans stood up and the and the reason is when someone is coming to do a special mitzvah, you honor them by standing up. It's a way of showing for the mitzvah they're about to do. So says the and the kala are about to do the mitzvah of getting married which is actually counted as a mitzvah and as a result we honor them. Now I'm not sure I fully understand this. I mean obviously we don't stand up every time I I mean I'm in show and I'm dabbing and somebody comes to put on their fillin you know I don't have to stand up because they're about to do a mitzvah so you need to explain exactly when do you stand up for a mitzvah when don't you say the mak of standing for the and the is the hanhaga of the artisans who would stand up for the people who would bring their uh their bor beautiful beautiful ceremony And unlike Truma and Shmita, which we still do today, Bikorim, when there's no beta mikdash, we do not do at all. So that's a mitzvah that we literally you'll never see fulfilled uh for that for that particular reason. So the Mishna then goes on and says a very very odd thing. The Mishna says that rich people would bring their bikurim in baskets of gold and silver and when they gave their bikurium to the coang they got their baskets back. No, the co didn't keep the gold basket. He gave it back to you. A poor person couldn't afford that. So he brought his bikorim in a simple wicker basket and you know it was a little embarrassing to ask it for back. So he lost his basket. So the Talmud comments in Babakama, you see here the old saying that the poor people get poorer. Meaning he's so poor that he has to use a simple basket, he loses the basket. Men, the rich guy that has a fancy basket, he keeps his basket. Right? All right. This is what the Gumar says. Um actually there was a famous study in the United States. I remember this. I I don't know if it's changed much, but I remember this study from you know many many years ago. a basket case. >> The what? >> A basket case that that actually actually shows that the prices for basic groceries, maybe it's even true in Israel, is actually higher in poor neighborhoods than it is in more affluent neighborhoods, let's say, for bread, for milk. And now, now, of course, there are actually reasons for that because, you know, in a poor neighborhood, at least in the United States, the crime is higher, the the theft is higher, right? So, the cost of business is higher. But it actually means that a poor person may have to pay more for a loaf of plain bread than a wealthy person for the same bread. Now, of course, the wealthy person spends money on other things too, but on the basic simple bread, uh the poor person pays more in some neighborhoods than the wealthy person. This is mamish what the Gomorrah says, uh poor people get poorer. That's the tendency of it. Okay. So, this is what the Mishna says. Now the great commentator toosto uh who was a student of the moral of Prague but one of one of the great great uhim raises an interesting question. The Gammorian Moit Katan tells us that originally when people would die they would make funerals commensurate to their wealth. meaning wealthy people would have real fancy funerals and very fancy coffins and the like and the poor people couldn't afford it. They would have uh very very simple. Now as a result this created a lot of humiliation that people who were poor, people not so well off uh they were burying their relatives in u very very simple caskets and it looked very bad and people were humiliated. So it is said that when Raban Gaml who was a Nazi he was the head of the Sanhedrin and he was very wealthy as well. When he died he left the instruction that he should be buried in simple white burial shrouds and in a simple wooden coffin shalesh not to humiliate people who don't have those resources. Now he didn't now it's interesting he didn't say this was the halaka it started off as a personal instruction that he gave it then became the Jewish min although the misa funerals are very expensive even even even the simple orthodox funeral uh I know itself of course is different you depending on well dep okay I don't want to get into that uh if you're willing uh to be buried in the parking garages in haramu cloat uh and you're live in Israel, you can actually get kavor for free. That's true. Uh if on the other hand you want a regular on the ground grave, it costs plenty of plenty of money. We're talking about, you know, maybe $25,000 uh dollars, not shekels, dollars uh for that. Okay. So, are we are we really fulfilling Rabin Gamo's takana of keeping it simple and keeping it cheap and keeping it inexpensive? That's a really good question. But at least the the the value that he's enshrining is we don't want to cause humiliation. We don't want to cause embarrassment. So even the rich people should do the same thing as the poor people. So things should be kept simple. We had a similar idea on the 15th of Af which was the Sadi Hawkins day of Judaism where women would go out parading to find shidim and the Mishna lays down the rule that everybody dress the same. The women all dressed the same in plain white clothing in order that there shouldn't be an embarrassment or a discrimination between wealthy and poor. that the poor women should not be embarrassed that they're not wearing such fancy clothing. And this by the way is is is one of the justifications for school uniforms. Uh basically not not to embarrass obviously in Eritus in particular there are many many uh kids who come from poor families and uh they may not be able to afford the the fancier clothing. So there's sne issues generally. Besides SNES, there's also an issue of, you know, let's dress everybody, let's dress everybody the same, so there shouldn't be embarrassment. So, this is a major concern. This is called Shal Misha. By the way, um there was an unscrupulous funeral parlor in New York. I remember this 30 or 40 years ago. Uh this funeral parlor was trying to market fancy coffins, bronze coffins, you know, etc. And it said the simple wood pine casket was a reform, was an innovation. It was not the original Jewish practice. And the truth is that's act we want to go back to the way things used to be. Now in truth that actually is true because prior to Reaban Gumo there was this idea of uh fancy funeral. So in a sense when they make the claim we want to go back to the old way uh that is uh there's some truth to that. It reminds me of a story that somebody said to a visit Khan uh the great godle in the 19th century that why are you from people so old-fashioned? You ought to go with the times you ought to be modern. You ought to be progressive. So Khan said no no no you are the old-fashioned people. As it says in the Hagada originally our forefathers were idol worshippers. So you're the ones going back to the old ways you know we are the new people matan tora you know and everything else. So it all depends old new are relative our relative terms in that way. So the tossus ytv is here's the question the tsus yum asks given the fact that we are so concerned not to humiliate people based on their poverty then why do we allow by a public ceremony like porim that rich people bring fancy baskets and poor people bring simple baskets we ought to enact a uniform law that everybody form brings simple baskets Because this way you're highlighting the idea that you know Ruvane is rich and Shimon is poor. Shimon might be humiliated right and there why why aren't I concerned with shalesh as misha by the mitzvah of bikur? This is the kasha of the tovos yamt on and the Mishna and the tossus yamtv's answer is you're right we ought to be concerned for this but since this is in the ba mikdash and the more beautiful the ceremony the greater the honor you're giving to God's temple so the cavode of the ba mikdash will override the individual humiliation that a person might suffer he says that for ba mikdash you Do the best that you can do even if that means that somebody will feel a little excluded. That's the tois yips terrorism. But I want to share with you another answer that's given that's actually very powerful answer and one that is actually going to be relevant to el and the yim that is there's a mishna and this will tie into the to as well and we touched upon this already. The Mishna at the end of Brahus quotes aar a statement of Rabbi Mayor that says a person must make a blessing to God over the evil or difficult things that happen in their life just as they make a blessing to God over the good things that happen in their life. Now the Gmorrah explains number one it doesn't mean you make the same blessing for good tidings you make theu blessing or hata god is good and god does good for tragedies you make a braha like aos dana so it's not the same braha but you got to make a braha to god over the good and the bad and the gar makes one more point and in both you have to accept it with sima. Now that itself needs a little explanation no sim what does simka mean? I mean you know uh you know my daughter gets married you know so I dance I dance at the kasna. A person loses their parent. They're supposed to dance. I mean obviously simka does not mean the riotous joy that you would have for a genuinely good tiding. But sima is a more quiet idea that even though I'm hurting, even though I feel pain, even though I'm suffering, I understand it's coming from a loving God and therefore I will accept it. So maybe Simka in this context is closer to serenity and inner calm. So simka doesn't mean you're dancing on the table. I mean for care and first of all even if a person god forbid didn't care for his parents strange whatever it is the there are I mean you're not allowed to u be riotously happy in the way that you would be happy normally right so ska in this context refers to more of an inner state of calmness and serenity that a person understands whatever God does is ultimately good even if I don't really fathom it. So this is a very important teaching. Now in the Mishna Rabbi Mayor does not give us a source for that concept but the Gomorrah quotes a Brya which Rabbi Mayor has a has a more expanded statement where Rabime actually gives a source and there's a Shila in the Ga if you look in the Hagosa Bach there's a question of what Puk he's quoting but at least the way the Bach is O race mayor's mak is a that says you shall rejoice in all the good hashem that hashem your god gives you. So what's the dasha? Hashem is yud which is the name of god that's the mida of mercy and compassion is from elohim that's the name of hashem that's din punishment retribution. So what is the pik saying? You shall rejoice in the good that you get whether it comes from or whether it comes from din. You see how so it's actually it's a pretty nice derivation. You must be mare on the raw and the tova because everything is good whether it's Hashem or whether it's Elohim. You see now what is interesting is where does that appear? In the mitzvah of burim it says when you bring bikurim you shall rejoice in all of the good in other words is the is the source of mayor's that's It's the pusk it's there. Question is that's an odd place in the Torah. I mean borum is a festive occasion. Borum is a joyous occasion. Borium doesn't involve suffering. Borum doesn't involve deprivation. You know maybe the Torah should have given me this lesson when Aaron lost his two children. You know there are tragedies that happen. So maybe there the Torah could have brought it in. Why would be the vehicle to teach me? I mean is not a context in which there's difficulties or adversities that are going on. Borum is very festive. But the truth of the matter is that's not true at 100% level. You know, sometimes very important lessons have to be learned in a gentler context that can prepare us for a more difficult context. For example, uh you know um there is something called the Musravad. Have you heard of this? This is a group that gets together to work on improvement of character, improvement of midos and the like and they discuss case histories. They discuss different nonote that they're facing and it's kind of a group therapy but it's not just psychological it's you know spiritual it's trying to go through how should I have responded for some reason uh there are more women in Musravad than than men I guess that's because of our superior moral character right it's really the opposite uh but but there men in Musurvaz as well and they may say for this year we're working on anger for this year or maybe five sometimes it's a fivey year project this year we're working on gratitude different things now one of the rules of a lot of musravads it's very interesting is you can only bring up small things you don't bring up big things so for example let's assume I'm making up something let's assume the topic is how do you deal with adversity so you don't come in and say, "Oh, my my mother has cancer." And you know, because that's too big and people's emotions get too royal. They're not able to deal with it. So, you deal with small things. What do I do when I come home and I see that my 5-year-old like spilled milk all over the carpet? In other words, you actually talk about what you might regard as trivial things. What's thema there? I mean, why shouldn't you talk about big things? Why do we call little things? Because little things give you the developmental tools so that when big things happen, you have a sense of perspective. It's like you have to exercise yourself with smaller weights and then you can take on the big weight. We're not always ready to learn the lesson at the highest hardest level. But if we get habituated in anger management, in gratitude, in seeing the positives of things, in not giving into anger, whenever we get frustrated. So this is a gentle way of training ourselves so that when big things happen, as unfortunately they do, we'll be ready. We'll have the mindset. We'll have the tools to be able. This is kind of a an interesting point. That's why you actually find that a lot of Musravads deal with a lot of small things because if you master the small things, you'll be ready for the big things when they come. Bikorim is quite similar. Now the Gomorrah says in Bamitzia that a person loves even a small measure that they themselves produced more than many more times they get from other people. And Rashi explains that that which I produce by my work and my labor is very very precious to me. That's why businesses will sometimes put the first dollar they made or the first shekele they made. They'll put it in a frame. It's very precious to them. That which you work upon is much more beloved to you than that which is just a handout. So here we have a farmer and you know farming is uh very very difficult. Hey, today it's a little different. we have irrigation and and the like. But in the olden days, certainly the time of the Torah, you really I mean the truth is every parnas is dependent on God. That that's a certainty. But in fields other than farming, other than agriculture, a person can fool himself and think my skill gets me where I need to be. In agriculture, that's not the way it is. You need that rain. You need that sun. You need the climactic conditions. That's why the order of Zim, which is the agriculture order of the Mishna, is called the order of Amuna because the farmer has to have amuna in God. Otherwise, he will not succeed. But after all of that effort, he finally sees the first fig, the first pomegranate, the first grape that's very beloved to him. He'd want to keep that. That specifically is what he wants to keep. So what does God say? That which you love the most, you have to be willing to sacrifice and give up to serve me. So I wouldn't describe before as a melancholy sad experience. It isn't. But it reminds a person that sometimes life does involve a certain amount of deprivation. Sometimes life involves giving something up. Now it's a very gentle way. It's like the musher dealing with a small crisis. And you have to be happy. You have to be happy in what God tells you to do. even if it's not exactly what you'd want. And the Torah says by starting with things like you eventually develop the attitude of is a very gentle entree into the idea that sometimes the thing you love most in the world you have to be willing to give up. as borim that fig is what I love and I treasure more than anything. I got to give it away. I can't keep it. And that's why borim is the for of So now let's get back to the toost's question. The tossto's question is if our so concerned not to humiliate the poor and therefore by burial and by the 15th of a shiddok ceremonies we want to create uniformity not to embarrass people who can't afford it. Then why don't we enact the same thing by Bikorim that everybody should bring a simple basket? Why do we allow rich people to be ostentatious in their wealth and the poor people may suffer? Because here's the thing. If one of the lessons of bikorim is that whatever god gives you whether it's good bad difficult easy you accept with sima then the message to the rich person is don't be ashamed of your wealth god gave you that braha and the message to the poor person is don't be embarrassed because of your poverty. That's also a blessing. Again, in different ways, right? Because I'll actually say that, you know, everything is a blessing. Everything is a blessing and everything is an ision. It actually says the the challenge of wealth can be a greater challenge than the challenge of poverty in terms of arrogance. Ga. In other words, if Burim is about accepting the the life that God gave you, then to pretend that you're something else and to be embarrassed because somebody has more than you is missing the whole lesson of what's the saying? There's a saying, it's a secular saying, but I I like it a lot. It says if you don't have the life you love, you should love the life you have. Right? Person doesn't have the life they love. They dream about a different type of life. If there are things they can do to try to achieve that, then they should. I mean, I'm not I'm not suggesting the Tyra says passivity, but if the situation is not changeable, then it becomes the will of God by definition. And if it's the will of God, it is good. I don't have the life I love. I should love the life that I have. There's no shame in being poor. There's no shame in being rich. Each person has their function. Each person has their place. Borim is about not pretending, not making believe, not covering up who you are because you're embarrassed. And that's why in the mitzvah which is the source of we don't have to pretend that rich and poor are the same. I mean they are equal in dignity but we don't have to pretend they're the same. Each one has his uniqueness in serving God. Right? A very very fascinating idea. your life is worthwhile without having to pretend to be somebody else. Now this is also relevant in the spiritual realm and this kind of overlaps with what we talked about last week. People have different backgrounds. One of the issues that people face if there are if they convert to Judaism or they're bala they were not raised religious is there'll often be an inferiority complex. Right? They'll meet people who have been you know rabbitical families for 500 years or more and they feel who am I? What am I? But as I mentioned last week and it's really the same point comes out in this week. It is true that the mayarim family that goes back 500 years has many many gifts that I will never be able to have. But the person who grew up in South Dakota has gifts that the mayor Sharim person doesn't have. Because there's a reason why God put us in a place because if if you're going to suggest that only one type of structure is good and everything else is inferior and the only thing I can try to do is try to get as close to that thing as I can, then frankly God is not fair. Frankly, God is not just. Why did God put me there and not there? The answer is because there and there are both good. They're good in different ways. And that's why whether it's a vuva or a goal is not the purpose is not to simply make believe your that other thing. The purpose is to become who you are with your individuality, your uniqueness. Take from your history, your family, your background, the unique strengths that you contribute individually to ami Israel and then your connection with akadesh, right? And this is from Bikorim. And this is why Bikorim there's no pretenses. You don't pretend to be somebody else. You are what you are. And that's good if you use it in the right way. Now here is something fascinating. Side by side with this idea of not being ashamed of who you are, being proud of who you are. We do see one instance where where even in bikurim we want to avoid embarrassing you. And here's what the Mishna says. The Mishna says ka the reading of the verses are ramy ovi. Originally, it says if you were able to read the words, you read it yourself. If you were not able to read, the Cohen would say the words and you would repeat after the Cohen. But Khazal didn't want to embarrass the people who were illiterate. So they enacted that even if you know how to read Hebrew, the Cohen would say it. What is being taught here? that there are certain things that a person ought to be ashamed of. Meaning rich, poor, why should I be ashamed that I'm poor? There's no shame in that. But I live in Eric Israel and I didn't bother to put in the effort to learn how to read Hebrew. Yeah, that's something to be embarrassed about. But but look at the genius here. This is kind of pedagogically so brilliant. We don't actually want to embarrass the guy. If we want if we wanted to embarrass the guy, what would what would we have done? We would have said the people who read read it and the people who don't read it is read to them and they will be embarrassed. We don't want to embarrass the guy. But by not embarrassing the guy, reverse psychology, we're communicating to him, hey mister, whoever you are, I don't know who you are, but if you're illiterate, that's something that you ought to be embarrassed about. But you see the genius. By not embarrassing the person, we're communicating to the person in a non-mbarrassing way what they should be embarrassed about. And that is learn how to read, learn the Torah, keep the mitzvah. So that's the one thing. That's the one thing. Rich, poor, balu, g, nothing to be ashamed about. There is uniqueness. There is goodness in what you're coming from, but you got to use your life in a good and productive manner. And if you're squandering your life, that's something to to think about. That's something in which there's going to be some some to Okay, so that's kind of the the message that we see from the great mitzvah of Beurim. uh may it be Hashem's will that we be to the binanikdash venu and then we will actually be able to fulfill uh the mitzvah burim not only by learning about it not only by reading about it but to actually bring the bikurim uh to the bas [Music] You see your de [Music]