Rav Yitzchak Breitowitz: Making the World an Abode for The Shechina

[Music] oh um okay hi everybody Shalom and thank you for coming the weather is cold outside but learning should be a a uh tonight sheer was dedicated for praying for victory of our soldiers and all the fronts of the war the lasting Unity of and all of those whose Health has been affected the safe return of all of thear M whose yard side is the E ofat and for and then finally um on the behalf of arik daninsky we want to mention uh that Elana and Simka divinsky have upcoming birthdays next week on the 25th and 30th of 25th that already passed but whatever it is uh you know there's a little bit of a mocus do Jews believe in celebrating birthdays a bit of mlus R kki uh took the position that birthdays are not a Jewish thing because he says the only place in the T where Y is mentioned is by parro parro had a y and he released prisoners so it's a thing on the other hand among kasas in particular I think the rebbi and rebbi and other other rebies they do speak a lot that the same way we celebrate the birthday of the world the birthday of ad which is rash uh we celebrate it because we recognize hasem is renewing his Bria so two a person's birthday their Hebrew birthday their Hebrew birthday is in fact the day of their rashash the day that they were created and their special spiritual energy that's there now I know you you have heard in Aro they do this a lot that somebody is said on their birthday they're supposed to they can give Bros and there there are a few I won't say there's a lot of maras but there are a few sources that you're given a special on your birthday to give bras but it's also brought down on that when someone has a birthday they should receive we should give to a person on their birthday just like in rash we wish everybody TOA so this is just a long way of saying we want to wish Elana and Simka a happy birthday and hasem should give them much much bras okay uh so today we have a little bit of a double header and I'm not entirely sure uh which topic to speak about maybe I'll be able to get both in on one hand we have Paras truma uh which is very very important and on the other hand we have parim which is the first of the four special par that we're going to read until PES uh both of these are worthy of a whole at least a whole Shear uh or or not more uh in on their own but we'll try to maybe combine combine the two let me first start with the idea of pares truma uh these are the Commandments regarding the construction of the mishan and as the ramban points out in his introduction in his uh to the book of shos this is really the third part of the book of shos there are three pivotal experiences with one negative turn in the book ofos there is of course and then there's Matan Torah and the culmination of everything is creates a mechanism where we bring the into our hearts and into our souls and therefore which is the bringing of God into Earth and again in the language of the bat who of course actually got it from wanted a de wanted a residence a place to live in this low holy world and the Mish or theik later is certainly the tangible representation of having a because ultimately when you accept God's Torah the ultimate is you make yourself a mishan a Dwelling Place a sanctuary for the sh so in many many ways this is the these paros which by the way how many Paras talk about the mishan it's quite quite amazing we have part of then you have part of have five Paras devoted to the mishkan this is the single most detailed treatment of any area throughout the entire T because the pivotal importance of making this world a place an abode for the sh is of very very Central importance so I just want to point out an important historical mlus between Rashi and the ramban what the particular order of things are obviously in the Torah the Commandments about constructing the mishan were given after mat Torah before the now granted we didn't get around to building the Mish until after the but the the Commandment about was given in the first 40 days when Moshe is in har that's the simple order of the narrative and this is the sheet of the ramban remember the ran I mentioned last week doesn't like to apply the rule of right that's a rule that says the t is not always in chronological order ramban he cannot dispense with that rule because say it and sometimes you have to say the Torah is not being chronological but ran does not like it so the ramban tries to understand all of the narratives chronologically so according to ramban mosha gets the before the but we don't we didn't get around to building it till yipper when he comes down with the second L Etc uh and that's simple that's Pat that's just looking at the narrative but Rashi actually has a tremendous Kish rashley actually says that the whole commandment of the mishkan was a consequence of the meaning mosenu goes up for the 40 days and he gets the Mitzvah of the Torah but not the mishkan not those Mitzvah and then he comes down he breaks the luos he goes back up gets the second L on yum Kipper he comes down God forgives am Israel and that's when he tells them to build a mish meaning according to Rashi you have an amazing which you might call counterfactual hypothesis and that is had there not been a sin of the golden calf there wouldn't have been a mishkan the mishkan only exists because of the meaning the tah would have taken a different form meaning God had a plan a well of course God had a plan a going back to the Garden of Eden okay so everything since then is Plan B but even within Plan B there was a plan a and a plan BB plan AB was Matan Torah would have rectified the sin of the tree of asadas and kind of would have put us back in ganen we messed that up with according to Raji the idea of bikash and mishkan belong to plan BB they don't belong to plan AB meaning had there not been the sin of the ago there wouldn't have been a mish and the sorno explains it in the following way sorno says that although it's true that the whole idea of mishkan and ultimately B mikdash is to provide an abod for the sh had there not been a had we gone back to the level ofish before the sin the whole world would have been a bikes there would be no need for a designated area hashem's would have been everywhere your house would be a Bas of mikdash the street would be a Bas of mikdash the fact that God is saying I will make my mom here but it's going to be a specific place with specific people and specific conditions although it's a tremendous gift it does represent a certain y a certain decline so according to Rashi it's quite an amazing proposition that had there not been a there would not have been a mishkan at all now that raises tremendous questions now obviously Rashi is invoking the Tora is not going in chronological order that's obviously rashi's assumption but okay but that's not so bad I mean that's a claw that kazal have given us but what's a little problematical is how does this fit with the Messianic Vision uh because it's very very clear uh from Nim themselves that when mashiah comes what is going to happen is the building of the third Bas of mikdash that will never be destroyed I mean that's fundamental to the vision of problem is that if Y mashia is the ultimate Perfection and ton of the world and if according to Rashi in a redeemed World there would be no need for a basa mikdash so why would we need the basa mikdash when mashia comes we should go back to the the ultimate Tik of the whole world is the meaning if according to rashi's understanding the Mish bikash represents kind of a withdrawal of God from making his draa in the entire world then why would that be a a characteristic and a yearned for a characteristic in your mashia so I think that's a little bit of a difficulty in rashi's like the ramban of course it's very good like the ramban Bas on mikdash mishkan is optimal it's not the second level it's the optimal state of situation like Rashi it's a little bit of a something to to think about okay so that's one very important smus to keep in mind uh let me remind you that this is the second place where Rashi is changing chronological sequence last week we looked at the building of the altar before Matan Tor when mosha sprinkled the blood where according to the Kish it is after the Ten Commandments Rashi based on the and chabas moves it before so if you were to write the book of shamos in the order of rashi's chronology you would have two major changes there you would move the events at the end of mishpatim the building of the altar to before the Ten Commandments and you would move the mishan Commandments after the major editorial work Rashi is invoking in two discreet discreet separate places and these are not even logically connected these are two separate kavo editorial revisions or reconstructions of the chronology ofish um I don't think in any other KES there is uh such an extensive surgery so to speak it's in that whole pieces are ripped out and put in different places based on so that's hor number one uh the issue of the chronology and the the function of a Mishka number two is that m rabenu is commanded he's not going to do it till after yam Kipper in vak but he's commanded to call upon the Jewish people to donate for the building of a mishun and it gives an inventory of all sorts of precious materials zah gold K silver and now based on the order we seem to be going from the highest to the lower Z gold silver going down but the very last items that are mentioned is the aam the anx stones the aim and the stones that fill the Coen godel's breastplate and they are mentioned last now keep in mind that the AUM in particular the stones that the Coen godal war in his breastplate uh many of them are precious stones it includes Yos includes diamond rubies emeralds sapphires which are even worth more than gold so thees asks aasha we're going from higher to lower but the last item we mention is the most valuable of all why would the aim be mentioned last if we're going from higher to lower we should have said so the gives a few answers one answer is well yes it's true that the aim are more valuable but they were not used in the construction of the mishkan they were used in the garments of the Coen so obviously what is actually used in the mishkan is more kados and therefore we first go through the list of what is used in the mishkan and then we mention what the Coen wears now that's one answer um a second answer that's given is there is a kazal that's say that the a not says theim were actually given by the Nim the heads of the tribes contributed these Jewels now it is said there's a certain pun it says in the the gave the now what does the word n mean N means the heads of the tribes but n also refers to clouds Nim is a biblical term for clouds and it mentions that the Nim got these jewels in the morning clouds that brought down their man there were Jewels there meaning to say that the jewels that the Nim gave were something that came to them without efforts and without sacrifice as opposed to the gold and the silver that the Jewish people gave which came as compensation for the slavery they went through in MIT they took from MIT so the says the most important thing that God values is your effort and your struggle in serving him and therefore those who gave out of their Blood Sweat and Tears even even if they gave quantitatively less or qualitatively less are more valued by Hashem right it's the old story The the Oni who gives let's say $1 $5 fora might be a much more esteemed contribution than the millionaire who gives a $1,000 because it's harder for the on it's harder for the h hasem looks at your struggle we'll come back to this as as this actually connects very nicely to the half she that we'll talk about and therefore the says instead of being mentioned first because it was the most valuable it's actually mentioned last because it came in the clouds there was no work there was no effort hem looks at your work hasem looks at your effort this is an important for us uh and also for our children uh sometimes we may have a situation where someone is not as successful as someone else in a class or whatever it is and they feel bad they feel they're a failure but they have to know if in hashem's eyes they're working and doing the best they can that effort counts for a lot again we'll actually come back to this shortly so that's the second answer the gives uh the third answer he gives is also interesting he says that the Nim did not give their donation till they saw what everybody else brought and then they had the attitude we will fill in which makes sense in some way let's see what they but he says if a person truly wants to serve God they are proactive they are not reactive they don't just wait to see what everybody else does they almost can't restrain themselves therefore there was AAR a little bit in their n Diva slave in the generosity of their Spirit right so these are three answers of the why the which were by far the most valuable component are mentioned are mentioned last now there is another very famous word a very very famous word you probably have heard it uh many times whenever someone is approaching you fora they might invoke this for it that is when the Commandment is given uh that MOS is so it says they shall take for me a donation they shall take for me a donation now obviously the problem is they're being asked to give it should have said they are giving they should give from each froma why does it say they should take from each from a f a very famous question and the famous answer that is given is ah a Jew has to feel that when you give Sak you're not giving you're actually taking you're getting more then you're giving up that's the attitude towards Rus generally yeah to serve God involves sacrifices there are things we give up in general we don't eat where we want to eat we don't go where we want to go we don't do what we want to do so we're giving up but a has to feel that the gift that Hashem has given you by your relationship with aades is by far not even a sacrifice didn't like the famous phrase it's hard to be a Jew he felt which is you know it's yish expression but he said that was negative that conveys to Children yes we're from but it's a burden and it's hard says that could drive a person off the say well why should it be why should I live a hard life but you have to stress the joy and the that what you get is much more than what you give they tell a story uh when was alive pich so so there was a bucker who got engaged to a a girl a Kala so he brought his kala to meet this this may be totally apocryphal I don't even know if it's true but I I'll tell it over anyway because it's a the story makes a good point so whether it's true or not it's another another M so the girl told ra he says my only goal in life is that my should sit and learn Torah he says I will take every sacrifice I will have one dress I will sleep outside if we have to I will live on bread and water I will starve I will deprive myself of every pleasure in the world so that my husband will learn Torah so the story goes after the K left the room ra said break up the break up don't marry her because if her attitude is that your commitment to Torah is painful it's a burden it creates SAR but she's going to be a martyr how long can you be a martyr you can be a martyr for a day you be a martyr for a week then you go crazy you can't marry somebody who looks at this life as a burdensome life of pain and suffering but she's going to do it for God the only staying power that keeps people going is they see the pleasure and they see the goodness in it and therefore sh said you got to feel or she has to feel how much she's gaining from this not how much he's giving up again we can all we can be a martyr for a while but you know you can't be a Marty your whole life and that's not uh that's not the way we live wants and therefore going back uh to this idea when you give for ores or serve God any generally it's not what you're giving it's what you're taking a very very famous word for so in this connection they tell AA with the famous harz who was known as the alter the old man of naric now there are three altars in the musim movement these are all tant one way or the other there's the altar of Kellum who is rant's primary talet and the alar of slatka who became very very famous in slatka the greata ofka and then there's the alar of naric who is the most extreme in some ways a very could very psychologically complex individual uh just to give one example for 2 years uh he locked himself in his house literally the walls were bricked shut he could he couldn't leave his house for two years he just wanted to concentrate in hasem and there were two holes in the wall one from Mil food one for FL food and people because he didn't even know what they were giving him to eat and uh he would eat food on the holes he was called of the holes because there were just two holes in his house he didn't leave his house for two years he couldn't leave his house for two years so the r of narc at the time was the great great God the who was considered to be the premier po of the generation this is like the 1870s and people went to the and they said this guy is crazy let's tear down the house what a guy can just lock himself in a house and the Al I'm sorry the said listen I don't understand rev either but he's a very big sadic uh leave him alone he has his he has his after two years he finally decided it was time I think this is shortly after he lost his wife he became was a widower after uh two years he decided he had solitary confinement he was released the house was torn down and he then started 15 yeshivas throughout Russia you get a lot of energy pent up energy in in two years unbelievable and during the dark years of Stalin when yish kite in Russia was almost totally exterminated the three forces that managed to keep up a little Spark in the darkness of stalinist Russia where kabat kabat had had a big force uh breast had a smaller but bre of and theic in the nonas were the three forces that remained starp in spite of Siberia in spite of death sentences no matter what they kept on going and going and the altar of naric his his idea was amuna and Muna and Muna no matter what that if something is good you do you try to do it even if it looks like 99.999% uh failure and the like so they say Amisa that the auor of ran liman who became Riva in France and he would come to the United States to collect money uh for his Yeshiva but there was a certain problem with him money disgusted him uh he couldn't look at money money was goshas money was the timeus time of the so whenever someone gave him money put money in his pocket he vomited involuntarily so he always had to have someone travel with him to take a check or whatever it would be he could not be Cil money so a story about this is he once showed up at Kennedy Air wasn't whatever used to be called idle whatever Idol was his original name but he showed up at what is now Kennedy Airport and um like the middle of the night from Meritus real uh from France and there was a talmid of his who was picking up his daughter or something and the talid noticed rev liman so he went over to rev liin and said oh can I give the Riva a right so so said yes that' be very nice so he's in the car and like a half an hour into the trip the Tom was embarrassed by say Reby I'm just a little curious uh what would you have done if I wouldn't have been at the airport like what would have happened did you have money for CF Fair s Lian says no I don't I don't carry money so what would have happened if I wouldn't have been here he says but you were here right in other words he says hasem is going to work it out for me very extreme very very extreme idea of again the was actually critical of it the K said you gotta be more reasonable in making your plans but naric was this unconditional so The Story Goes that back in Europe when the altar of naric was still alive the stories I told you he wasn't alive then when the altar of naric was still alive so the story goes there was a cson there was a miser in a town who never gave stuck he was from but he never gave he gave very little he was wealthy and gave very little Stu so none of the yeshivas could ever get anything out out of him but the alra of naric managed to get quite a lot so people wanted to know what's your secret what do you say to the person how do you crack his facade so he said like he said I'll tell you the difference and this might also be apocryphal but that but I could actually believe it knowing a little bit about the alar of nar's Personality he says I'll tell you the difference between you and me you russer sh as you go in and you admire his upholstery you admire his couches and his chair and his tables and you wipe your feet very very carefully and you sit you know tight together you shouldn't you know get your wet coat on his sofa and you show him that you're Mak what he has you're in awe of what he has and then you ask him to give up some of that to you people don't want to give up something that's precious to them and your whole message is this is precious say I different he says I walk in I don't wipe my feet I track mud into the house again I I'm not I I sit on the I sit on the couch with my wet coat I put my shoes on the table I convey to the person your stuff is nothing but I got a deal for you I can turn your junk into something real real valuable if you use it for Torah then it becomes worthy and beautiful and valuable so the alterate Artic says I'm not asking him to give me anything I'm offering him the best investments so he says people always want to take they don't want to give so the difference is I convince the person that he's taking something from me you're asking him to give something right this is M they tell from the alter of the work again I'm not advocating this as either a Hally appropriate response or even a financially appropriate response I'm not sure how many donors are going to give if you walk in with that particular attitude but as I say had it been any other God old besides the alar of naric I I just wouldn't have believed the story here there might actually be perhaps a possibility that it was true the alter vtic was very very extreme uh in that in that way but be it as it may it illustrates the idea that what you give for kadha is not giving up something it's actually taking taking something um this idea that it's not what you uh it's not what you're giving up you're really taking let me give you another story that illustrates this and maybe in a different K but it's a it makes a a similar strong point the p schlomo kahanan a very very great man in fact I I still have this very very vivid memory when I was in ninth grade at nerys in Baltimore 1968 the pich was nifter in 1968 and you know I heard of him but I I didn't know a lot about him uh he was a very close friend of my Russia I mean I was not in the R I was in high school I was just in ninth grade but the pun was nifter the whole Yeshiva was including the high school was gathered together to hear HPM of the p and the rash gave a hin in yish uh I really didn't know yish that well anyways I was kind of falling asleep nodding away at the hpit but all of a sudden I remember this and I've never seen it I've never seen it i' never saw it before and I never saw it since all of a sudden he clapped and he said every person must sit on the ground sit on the ground in Aus I I I literally never saw that before I haven't seen it since and it kind of woke me up I was you know all a sudden you know sit on the ground you know we sat on the ground that pun of now you know in Lithuania before the war before World War II there were 800 R Lithuania and even to be a re of a village you had to know that was the basic idea like used to say when people would callor you say was so he said I know he says to get a job in the smallest Village in Europe you had to know now you know this was the basic require so you had 800 rabam in Lithuania you know how many were killed in the Holocaust 799 of the ranam of Lithuania were killed in the Holocaust the only Survivor was the pavich panovich was a city in Lithuania and he came to erisel and the pavich of was obsessed because he thought over and over and over again why did God spare me what suus do I have to be alive and the pun was obsessed with building Torah in any possible way besides the great Yesa panovich one of the largest yeshivas in the world though I don't want to talk about it's torn apart by makus already for many years and my own personal she would have been had the pich been alive he would have closed the Yesa because he was such a man of of Shalom but be it is right p which certainly was one of the great Yas in the world he built hospitals he built uh uh homes for Yim for Orphans after the war bakov built built built built he was a legendary fundraiser and uh he often said that this was his greatest sacrifice for clausel where all of the SAR and the Kim he could have written had he been able to stay in Yeshiva and not go all over the world World raising money for all of the mice dice that he did so he was a legendary fundraiser you know the SAT rabby what say uh after the moon launch uh in the again right not 67 or whatever it is uh he said people were debating can there be life on other planets so he says I don't know the science satar rebbi said but I know for sure there is no life in other planets because the Punit RV would have been there collecting money if the pun did not go to Mars there's nothing there that's what the S said so the P was legendary and the reason why I mean again I mean we could write even a secular book why was the pun r a successful fundraiser because the answer is he not only was a god Borah but he was very approachable he had a common touch he was funny he could relate to every type of Jew whether you were learned ignorant from or not from you felt he was your best friends he was just able to connect to people on every every level and that's why he was so successful even from a secular standpoint he was so successful because everybody was able to connect him so The Story Goes that in the 1950s he traveled to Chicago from Mar he was already elderly he was already you know the last decade of his life he traveled to Chicago and in those days they didn't have the Jet flight so Eric just fell to Chicago took like 20 hours maybe it wasn't even direct but he came to Chicago to collect money and he comes to a and the same night that he comes to the sh to collect money there's a m from a much smaller Yesa n Yesa as a matter of fact in b as soon as the n m saw the P come in he turned white because this is not going to be a good night for me because the punov is going to get everything and I'm going to get nothing who's going to give me I I can't give a presentation like him so at first he was very upset but then he said to you know okay tonight will not be a fundraising night for me tonight I'll be here to listen to the pich so he sits down in the seat and he says okay I'm here to learn I'm here to be inspired I'm here for the I'm not here for the money tonight tonight I'm off so the P does is usual type of draa inspirational full of Torah full of Stories full of humor full of warmth and the crowd is so excited and uh energized and they want to give money they want to be M and then at the end of his dressure the P says Rabbi Sai I see that here there's a wonderful wonderful shal of a beautiful Yeshiva in B it's so I want to ask you all the money that you would give to me I'm asking you to give to him tonight so suffice it to say that the nard M got much more money than he ever collected on a single night because he got all the money that would have gone to the pun ofure so he goes to the rav afterwards and he says you know Reby I'm very very very grateful this can support our Yeshiva for a month but you traveled all the way from Chicago you're not so healthy you're elderly you put in a lot of effort to collect money for all of your maistas how could you just give it up and the pun up said what do you mean give it up we work for the same team he says if this money could support I'll make up a number 20 people learning for a month why do I care if the 20 people are in the pavitra Bas medish or the Nara Bas medish what's the difference the important point is people can learn Torah because of this money it's not my money it's not pich's money it's the money to be madesh hasem by enabling T now suffice it to say that even among Russia yeshivas this is an extremely rare attitude but the P said it's not about institutions it's about the cause and therefore he said we're on the same team the money that goes to you is just like the money that goes to me so for me to give you the money is not I'm not giving anything up we are shim we are Partners in Torah in the strengthening of Torah the modern rashash sha who was like that uh was re also a Chicago boy who uh became when he became a great great man and who suffered much suffered tremendously um was from par from Parkinson yeah from Parkinson's uh and still he continued to persevere he was really a great inspiration to so many people uh but he also had this idea that whatever money he collect eled belong to CL Israel and he would give money to Lakewood people and their Israel people I thinked uh started a policy that the rash sha could never take money in his hand meaning it had to be somebody who would take the money for him in order that the money shouldn't go to every other every other cause but he actually had the Shea that's who cares Lakewood Nel who cares hir doesn't make a difference support of Torah is support of Torah that's the only thing that that matters an amazing amazing idea because the truth is uh you know human you know even even great people have elements of humanity around them and uh people have a proprietary interest in their particular mosad that's human nature you really can't deny it so much so for a person to kind of go beyond that feeling is a tremendously great spiritual spiritual accomplishment so now let me speak a little bit about the second topic that's coming up actually it'll actually overlap with with what we're talking about par par now we know that in the month of Adar we have four special Adar is of course Friday and shabas shabas is alar uh Friday is the 30th of of Shabbat uh we have four additional Torah readings and these are called the four parot uh the first Torah reading roses or the chabas before if RAR is during the week it's the chabas before roses if as in this yeares shabas it's the chabas ofes itself and this is the ma the extra Torah reading we read actually the beginning of Kisa which is the Mitzvah of there's a Mitzvah to give a half shek do not confuse it with a modern day half sheo a half sheo then was a lot lot more it was a certain weight of pure silver and uh this is a Mitzvah that see the fiscal year of the B Mikes begins in the month of Nissan and starting from rashes Nissan all of the carbonos have to be purchased from newly created funds like a tax an annual tax you can't use old money in the temple treasury to buy the carbonos after Nissan so as a result the mishna tells us that they began collecting the half shekele tax one month before Nissan which ises Adar and they would collect for a month so by the time Nissan came around they had enough to start buying new carbonos andami people continued to pay like like IRS or Oar people continue to pay throughout the year there were even back taxes and penalties it was a whole IRS like system right so the half shekel is essentially the public financing of the carbonos the public financing of the carbonos and and the new money had to be collected at least some of it by Roes Nissan so we started collecting the half Shekel in Adar and to commemorate what was done when there was a Bas mikash or Mish in the desert we uh read about the half shees or the shabas before that's the mitvah but only when there's a now you may recall that we give some money before Milla reading that is also called so once again that's a that's also a commemoration right so we commemorate by reading about the mitv and a of PM we commemorate by doing something but obviously when we give today we're just giving sta but in the time of the B mes this was not sta this was a tax in order to uh Finance the carbonos that have to be brought every day the carbon tamid the daily offering the musaf right it had to come from money there had to be money going in there and and the like and if any of you have an accounting background and you learn the track dat schull the whole track dat you'll actually see all sorts of accounting rules what do you do with surpluses that are carried over from year to year because you can't use the old money for new carbonos so what do you do with the Surplus money what if there's a shortfall because the price of animals goes up what if there is a surplus right so there actually are accounting rules H accounting rules uh dealing with okay now the other three I'll just mention I'm not going to talk about them tonight uh then before porm we have par where there's a ma about am remembering amalik and that of course is connected to ham being from amalik and then we will read Paras which is not about porm anymore this is after porm but Paras is the ritual of par aduma to become purified and that's already a preparation when we had to bring a Corb P we needed to be purified so we already read about and then the finales ises which are the laws of the Corban P so essentially is not connected directly to it's just connected to the mitah is connected to Andes are connected to P that's kind of the that's kind of the the breakdown uh we'll talk about the other three when we get uh to the other three but at least the first one that we're going to read this week is parim parim now by parum we see a very interesting Rule and that is the Tyra makes the point everybody must give a half shek rich people cannot give more poor people cannot give less there's an absolute requirement of uniformity everybody gives the same now there's a question on this I understand the idea poor people can't give less because this is a minimal requirement that every Jew must do so the same way we're not going to tell a Jew hey you can wear Fillin with only three part you know filling is filling so you got to give a half shekele if you have to borrow borrow but this is your obligation okay poor people don't get a break got it I mean it may sound hard-hearted but you know this is your duty as a Jew to contribute to the basa M or mishigan but what is this thing about rich people can't give more I never heard about that if yiva has tuition so most parents actually do not pay full tuition at least in most Yas but let's assume somebody is uh they could pay full tuition but somebody says you knowem Hashem has blessed me and I know that a lot of people don't pay tuition so I'm willing to pay more than full tuition is the ISA going to say sorry we don't take more than full tuition you can't give more well I can't say I I I've had experience with every in the world I obviously haven't but I would have a feeling that most yeshivas would not turn down that offer what is the idea rich people can't give more why not now one simple answer you could give simple answer is that the half shekel served a a a a double function it served a function to finance coronos but it also served a function to compute the size of the population because you're not supposed to count people by head you count to half shekels and then you know how many people there are in other words it was a population device because it's an iron horor it's a bad Omen to count people by head now obviously if you're using the half shekos to compute a population it's only going to work if everybody gave the same amount if one person gave 10 shekos one person gave one Sho you're not going to know how many people there are by counting the coins so one simple answer is that it has to be that everybody gives the same amount otherwise it could not serve as a population counting mechanism but the truth is that's not a complete answer because even if that may have been true in the desert it's not true that every year they would compute the populations and yet every year this is still there so theas offers the following explanation he says when we talk about people being rich and people being poor rich and poor can be measured in many different ways there is rich in money and poor in money but rich and poor can refer to the entire diversity of talents and abilities and potentialities that people have there are are people that are rich in wisdom or Charisma or leadership ability or organizational ability in architecture whatever it would be and then there are people who seem to be relatively relatively B although L everybody has has their talent but at least it may seem uh at least superficially that they're poor but as I mentioned before God looked at not what you've done objectively God looks by how much of your talent have you given to him so when the tyus says the rich gives no more than the poor what the t means to be moram is when it comes to connecting to Hashem in the Bas mikash a rich person and a poor person are fundamentally equal in the eyes of God because you are judged not by your objective attainments whether it's money or whatever but by how much of your potential have you given to God and therefore the Torah is teaching a lesson that if you do your best you are equally in stature to the person who does much more but does his best again that's a very big that's the idea that it's your effort that matters you know there's a a from the r in discusses the idea of Free Will and the rambam makes a statement that's very surprising the rambam says each person can be as righteous as mosha Rao or as evil as the example he gives is yav benat the first king of the 10 tribes who caused people to he erected golden calvs later elah in the book of Mal now I get there's something called Free Will right you're not God does not pre-ordained if you're going to be righteous or evil that's your choice got it but come on is it not a little hyperbolic to say every one of us can be as great as mosha mosha the Tyra says beish there will never be a there never has been and never will be a prophet as great as Moser B in fact that's one of the rambam's 13 principles of Faith so how can the ramban who on one hand says there will be no Prophet as great as Moser RAB then say every person to be as great as mosha Raben it's a contradiction within the rambam himself so so R vman is mabar the rambam in the following way in the beginning of the book of yahushua so it mentions that Moshe died and he's called e Hashem Moshe has given a title EV hasem the servant of God this is a very rare title that's used in the why is he called has so the r one of the great commentators onim says that this is to call to mind the whatever a Slave acquires belongs to his master a slave finds a diamond ring and there's no claimant it's not the slaves ring it's the Masters now will the ever turn it over maybe not but Hally it belongs to the master a slave keeps nothing for himself everything belongs to the master Moshe is called E Hashem because every sing s Le ability that he had he gave over to God that's the radak so says that's what the R means when he says each of us can be as great as Moshe mosha has kadosa I'll make up a meaningless number moshe's kadha is a billion my kadua is one so of course Moshe is a billion I'm just making up numbers Moses Kusha is a billion times more than me but kame that he gave God a 100% of what he had I can give God 100% of what I have and yeah I'm only giving him a one mosha gave him a billion but the lesson of is you are judged not based on how much you've done in life but how much of your potential have you given to a and in that I can be like mosha RAB indeed I can take my very very very diminished talent I can give it to hasem also you see that's the idea of the and the Oni stand before God with equality of dignity if they do the best that they can with what they were given now in truth this can also work in a in a different way and that is that also means that if Hashem judges us not based on our objective accomplishment but how much of ourselves we've given it might be that the Ani gave more of himself than the aser and whatever the talent is let me give you a thought uh from the myit is Moshe Ben yose Tran he was a Dian he was actually the b inat in the time of is one of the great great great POS he actually had his relationship withar was not so good actually was the r of and they had some serious about fact a lot of the controversy even today about T selling the land to the go is rooted in auso and theit and at some point Kyo threatened the myit he was he was going to excommunicate him so they had their their difficulties but both of them are great great great poim but the mid also wrote a safer on Jewish philosophy uh which has never been translated although it's a very interesting saer it's called Bim so in the the introduction the brings a a gor the gar talks about the son of R Yeshua bin Ley had a death experience he died and his Nish went up to ganen and then he was revived or he was brought back to life and he was asked what did you see in so he said I saw a Topsy Turvy upside down World Elon those who are big shots in this world lamata were inferior in that world and those who were seemingly insignificant in this world lamala they were on top everything was in reverse Le told him that's not a tosy chy world that's a true world you saw the truth this world is a Tosi Turvy world now this is the gamar the mait raises the question what do you mean big shots in this world do you mean Rich powerful politically well connected well the kid shouldn't have been surprised I mean why would you have a hav or why would you think somebody is just because they're wealthy or politically well connected why should that count meaning what is the surprise if it's simply material attainments so says to my bit that's not what he meant by big shots he meant people who seem to be spiritually greater in this world we in an inferior position up there how is that so so the example that he gives the numbers I don't remember the exact numbers but I'll give you the example in substance is let's imagine you have two boys in Yeshiva one boy is a genius he is able to learn 100 blot of gamarra a day which is a very remarkable Pace he could finish Shas every month and another boy struggles to learn one do in a week so let's imagine that the kid who can learn 100 blood a day is so ahead of everybody right my magnitudes he said you know I don't have to do 100 I'll do 50 a day I'm still 50 times you know ahead of everybody so he does 50 blot a day and the other kid is still struggling with his one blot a week so when you look at these two boys one boy we see phenomenal 50 BL 50 blood 50 blood he finishes sh every two months that means he makes a c six times a year galic and the other boy we say listen he has a good heart you know you know he's just struggling you know we feel sorry for him in all of a sudden things are reversed the kid who learns 50 blood a day only gave Hashem 50% of what he could do and the kid who did one block gave Hashem 100% no but never 100% but much higher that's what the son of was so surprised to see that people whose rious accomplishments are objectively so great they're going to be subordinate but the answer is because Hashem doesn't judge you by what you accomplish judges You by how much of your potential did you give to him you have a greater potential whatever the reason expects more from you and therefore we're all judged on a curve right so I know that teachers and rebies always tell their students the most important thing is your effort and not uh but on the other hands in in this world it's lip service because Lisa the kid who won who gets a 50 gets a 50 no matter how hard he works but in shamay this is not a joke in shamay it's not a fake this is Howes views us and this says this is the ultimate lesson of he who is rich in talents and he who is relatively poorer in talents you are equal in the eyes of Hashem it all depends depends on how much of yourself you have given to him okay and if one gives more more of himself even though there's less being given that counts much more so again um this is an important message that we need to in incorporate our into ourselves and obviously 100% convey to our children because it's a message to the aser and it's a message to the Y the message to the is don't think just because you can do a lot more than other people you can be lazy and Sherk off you got responsibilities and to the Y the message is don't feel inferior don't berate yourself know that Hashem cherishes your efforts even if you think they're not as successful as they might be so may we incorporate these lessons within our own lives and to our children and our students may we convey them as well so thank you [Music] n