Yisro - Who Was Here First

you're listening to the weekly partial podcast with Ari goldwag recorded with hm's never running assistance in Israel 2025 this week's par is parro God himself reveals himself to the Jewish people one and a half million people strong all at once God speaks and he gives the Ten Commandments he gives us Commandments between man and God Commandments between man and his fellow and the P says right before as an introduction so understand that this is the introduction to the most or one of the most foundational Concepts and experiences of am Israel deforming experience of am Israel where God speaks to us and tells us his will directly and introduction is right before right before hasm says I am hm your God who took you out of Egypt before that says this is in chapter 20 verse1 God spoke all of these matters and said now the Mish gives us a very interesting idea in that's encapsulated in this p and it says like this why does the PK say it this way God said all of these matters as follows the M lays down a foundational principle in the way that God interacts with the world and he says like this the measure says like this God does everything at the same time God is all inclusive God there's no like um in in Christian theology there's the force of good there's a force of evil a counter Force as it were the Satan or Satan is a counter Force against God there's no such thing everything that we witness in the world positive and negative is all from him God is all inclusive that's what we say sh which is which is one is Mercy one is Judgment these are all aspects of the same one God there's no separation in God God includes all aspects he's the ultimate Oneness does it all at the same time God gives according to different explanations there's different ways to understand this we'll do we'll mention both God gives life and takes away life at the same time God kills and God gives life at the same time that came mean at the same moment one person hasm is giving life to a baby is born just as someone else is passing away but it could also mean the person himself experiences life and death at the same moment we'll see what this means wounds a person and cures a person at the same time we spoke about the fact that when Miriam was born that last 86 years of of MIT of of being in in servitude and slavery in Egypt so at the same moment that it intensified is when the GU the the beginning of the Redemption was happening Hashem uh brings a maca inflicts a wound and at the same time he cures the person sometimes through the very wound the person experiences a cure or alternatively KES at the same time causes someone to be hurt at the same time as he cures somebody else interestingly the M enumerates the four cases the four circumstances where there's an obligation to say to bring a to bring a special Thanksgiving offering to to woman gave birth so she brought life into the world and at the same time she was on the verge of death herself someone goes on a boat and there's incredible danger in the water there's no way a human being can live there but it's in order to get to another place perhaps to uh have parasa to deal with one's livelihood a person travels through a Wilderness person lives in a place of death you have the opposites and we recognize in those opposites that it's that's we recognize it the most the person is in danger of death someone who's a hostage who's been taken into a a a you know a dungeon so they need to when they come out they need to bring a carbon Tida they need to recognize that the the difficult situation that they're now out of is from Hashem as well there are human beings all over the world in the North in the South and the East and the West God hears everybody at the same time God has no problem to hear millions of people praying to him all at the same time and distinguish between each of their prayers and provide for each and every one of them what they need so it's very interesting we have here the The Duality that we experience in in the world coupled with the fact that God is unifying God is the ultimate unity he's a unifying factor and for God even though he's one and there's and and his Oneness precludes anything else any any changing any disparity nevertheless somehow we it's one of the you know great Mysteries but somehow God includes all of the disparity and unifies it all it's not a contradiction to his Unity the P says God creates light he fashion light and he creates Darkness and Light here obviously is a spiritual concept which is goodness which is God's manifestation where we see hash as it were in the world but God also creates Darkness where it seems like he's not God is still where he's not so here is talking about the fact that when When God says the Ten Commandments this is like you want to know what's the introduction to I am God what does God look like so God says all these matters all at the same time all 10 as the explained all 10 of the of the Ten Commandments were set at the same moment in the same breath download the Jewish people received the entire Ten Commandments in one word it sounded I don't know how that works or maybe we can relate to it we think of you know we speak about the difference between vision and hearing when you see something you see a whole picture right you see my garden you see the you see the uh the trees behind me you see the the plumaria you see the the uh you see the lemon tree behind me you see the branches of the Grave Vine you see the whole picture and when it comes to hearing though concepts are conveyed one word after another word after another word after another word so Concepts hearing speaking that's a different kind of communication that's something that happens one at a time and then at the end it's complete but when he communicated to is with they heard the the sights and they saw the sound sounds which means their experience of sound which usually is one one concept after another until it combines at the end it was all at the beginning at once download but now the mag say a different or seemingly different but really the same concept and it says an amazing thing and this is so foundational we need to understand this hear this it's it's even deeper right there's a deep there's a certain depth so understanding that includes everything all of the words all of the concepts there is a duality or a seeming Duality but really it's all one but this is another aspect of the same concept when we have dust dust Earth Earth is similar offer we have something which is called dust or Earth Earth says God formed man out of Earth conceptually it means the human being is made out of the physical substance of reality the human being the physical aspect of the human being and what happens after a person a person lives he's formed from the earth think of is formed from the earth Hashem as it were made a clay being a being out of out of Earth breathed life into it and then what happens at the end he returns to the Earth he dies Adam dies and he goes back into the ground he's buried so you start off a human being starts off his Earth he's given life he's given form he's given spirituality and then the physical aspect of the human being returns to the Earth says in 5 verse 8 God uh switches or turns around or flips the morning to to death to the shadow of death what does it mean which it sounds like he returns to the morning he flips it back to the morning what does it mean that in death there's a flipping back to the morning says the Mish it returns to its original way of being to its original form originally the human being was Earth was was was dust he goes back to the way he was originally we have in reality we have a you know we have a we have a start point we have a middle point and we have a finish point and the Finish Point not right says the the the ending is embedded in the beginning where the beginning is embedded in the ending it's a circle life is a circle we return back to where we started the world started with with God's Oneness we have a whole world of disparity we have a world where we need direction we need to be told what to do because physically we want to run away from God we want to do the opposite of what God says but God says here this is what Unity looks like it's called The Ten Commandments it's called It's called The and it's said in one word said all at once in a download why so that we understand where we started we started from Oneness where we're headed we're back to Oneness that's the goal we find a few instances where it goes back to the way originally it was the P says that all of the water was turned into blood it was flipped to blood what happens afterwards the blood turns back to water starts in a certain state water life goes to a state of D which is blood which is death which is separation I think of damida the concept of the woman's menstrual side and then it goes back it comes back to water it comes back to life the woman creates life we find that was given a sign and this is the sign for am Israel for us to understand what's going on and what G looks like what Redemption looks like cuz MOS was coming to redeem us bring us back to our original state the Jewish people naturally is not supposed to be in a state of of separation of of distance from erel from the land of Israel from God we're supposed to be in a state of closeness but we need the separation in order to get back to closeness that's how it is MOS was given a sign his hand Hashem says put your hand inside of your inside of your jacket he pulls it out and it was it turned white became itas it became lepress puts his hand back in he comes out it goes back to being like flesh it starts off like flesh it comes out it's it becomes something which is T which is impure it goes back and it comes out pure again or it starts off a live normal flesh goes to death comes back to life life is the real State we think of death as the real state but it's wrong death is impermanent right that's why we have ultimately there's going to be the Revival of the dead which is the real state of of the way things are Hashem is life as it were says hasem is life is the life force of creation life is the way it's supposed to be not death not like the uh islamists we find that in the Redemption of the Jewish people what happens we find that the water turns into dry land am walks through Dry Land through the sea on on dry land what happens after that the dry land turns back to water and it destroys destroys the Egyptians that's what Redemption looks like things returning to the way they're supposed to be I skipped one little thing here was the symbol of redemption that Moshe gave to parro he had a staff the staff turns into a snake and the snake represents the sin it's not a coincidence that the pharaohs the thing that represented them was a snake it was separation from God P says the Nile is mine I made myself that's the separation from God the lack of recognition the snake the lack of recognition of who's the here who's in charge who's the creator who's whose will do we need to obey we find seemingly contradictory statements within the Torah so we have something that starts in one state changes into a different state and returns to the original state that's the second aspect here of the m and here's a third aspect and that is that we you can find two things in the ti which are contradictory but they come from the same God and they're both true says you need to keep shabas you're not allowed to to to light a fire on Shamus you're not allowed to slaughter animals on Shamus you're not allowed to do that everything needs to be prepared from before shamas you're supposed to bring the the carbon T just like every other day you're supposed to bring the daily sacrifices and the special shabas sacrifices on shabas which means you need to slaughter them you need to burn them on the so the things that in one place might be prohibited in another place not only are they uh allowed they Mitzvah it's an obligation find another contradiction in the tah as it were where the tah says a man is not allowed to marry his brother's wife but the also says that if the brother dies without any children one is obligated to marry his wife the leverate marriage and understand that all of these things which are seeming contradictions were said at the same time all of the were said at the same time they reflect a greater Unity even though they seem in our world to be contradictions the separateness that we experience the eight Sahara the the the the the evil inclination that pushes us away from Hashem pushes us away from God the seeming disparity is for the purpose of ultimate unity even the parro the the snake which caused man to sin it's really about getting us back to the state of unity of Oneness of life everything that you see in the world is a manifestation of even where it seems like God is not manifest it's still a manifestation of hem final point of the M I like to read to you the M says I want to show you something that the attributes of are different than the attributes of human beings let's you have a king a human King he can't wage war and also walk in to theer to the to the nursery school and teach the Little Children Al Bas just doesn't go together you're a warrior you're not a teacher listen this beautiful Med God is not like that just before six weeks before is battling with the Egyptians destroying them he's battling on behalf of Israel God is a man of war with his strength God calms down the sea meaning he uses the Sea's calm to destroy Egypt and then what happens six weeks later on the sixth of Sian AES comes down and teaches Torah to his children he's teaching teaching us Olive Bas that's the same God the same Warrior God is a warrior or God is a teacher a soft teacher says who has the the power that Hashem has who has that intense massive strength that God has and who is a teacher like him so this is what the PK means when it says that God speaks all of these things God encompasses all of these things it's not a contradiction that God wages war on our behalf it's not a contradiction I'm just thinking you know we have the Warriors of am Isel we have kahal and we have the sounds like a contradiction those who study the Torah those who are going out to battle it's not a contradiction they are both reflections of the ways that brings us into Oneness with him destroying our enemies destroying their power being the people we're meant to be teaching us how to be the people we're meant to be both of these aspects are part of one greater aspect I I just like to share with you one more thought before we complete this our Torah it's an interesting thing the M says that things go back to the way they were things go back to the way they were there's a reflection of unity and I was thinking as I read this you know one of the things that says is braus barim God created in the beginning of the world means is called the beginning the first we know that who created the EV the foundation stone which is underneath today the D of the rock it's the place of the holy of holies of the bdash that rock he created the world and then he spread out the world from it there's a point of beginning there's a point of starting of where everything ex extends from and all of the all of the disparity or seeming disparity comes into existence I got the sun in my face here so I'm going to just lean forward I hope it's okay you have all of the seeming disparity and it comes out of the unity but where does it it starts it starts in a certain way let me ask you something okay and this is really the first rashes but let me ask you something who was here first who was first was am Israel first the nations of the world were first AB a was 10 Generations after Noah Abraham who started the Jewish religion he was promised said he's going to send his descendants down into Egypt and they're going to come out and receive the Tyra but he wasn't first what do you mean he's first we is first am is called first we weren't first what does it mean first it comes to the just think about this conceptually who is first Yakov or asov asov is born first but yob is first Ys is one of the last of the sons to be born of the but Y is called first is not born first but puts him first when he gives the blessings what looks like first look at the Christian world look at the Islamic World billions of people look at the Chinese a billion people maybe they're first maybe they're right first doesn't manifest doesn't look like what we call we think of as first this is what first means this is what the racious the beginning looks like it has to do with where it's supposed to head back to it has to do with unity the Christian world I've said this many times but I'll say it again the Christian world is a world of could call it love the West unbounded love without without the balance of Euro without the proper balance of fear you know according to them their Messiah you know because of his death everyone is Forgiven of all their sins that's that's a pretty uh free pass and the world of is Islam is the opposite it's too much yeara too much fear God is an Angry God we have to obey him Islam we need to Bow all the way onto the floor in complete submission and there's truth to that as well but if it's all fear it's not balanced see what you get from this me is that you need both there's the the Dual aspects are part of a greater Unity if you have one without the other you're in trouble you need both you need the and you need the AA you need the fear and you need the love you need the separation and you need the unity am Isel has that special balance that's why we're called racists we have the characteristic of unity of recognizing the balance between what seems to be disparate in Islamic world you can't have too much love it will ruin you they're fighting the West death to America death to Israel they're fighting the West they're fighting that unbounded seeming unbounded Israel we could discuss what Israel means but that unbounded nature of the West and the other way is also true they're fearful of this this intensity of the Islamic world the Christian world is afraid of that the Western world is afraid of that and rightfully so but really we need both aspects and that's where Amel is and that's why we're called raist that's why we're called the we're called the first AB is the first not because he came first but because he recognized what's first it's God who is all encompassing and in unity I am Hashem your God who took you out of Egypt I'm Transcendent but yet I'm also involved personally in your life that's impossible God is is aloof maybe heaven forbid God is beyond this world he's what does he have to do with me in my life that's wrong God is transcendent and yet he's also here he cares about the entire universe and he cares about little old me that's what racious means that's what the the first means and it's all about going back to the beginning it's always about going back to the first going back to this the more all inclusive the more exclusive all the aspects are we understand that the things that seem to be contradictory are not contradictory the things that seem to be how can they coexist the more we recognize that everything is part of God's Unity the more we are first the more we are resonating with a KES God can battle God is a warrior and God is a gentle teacher it's not a cont addiction the same God the same God is a has an attribute of Mercy we we experience his attribute of Mercy which seems completely the opposite of his attribute of justice and somehow they're part of a greater whole God encompasses both of these so I bless you I ask you to bless me that we should be able to hear as we should be able to hear all of these matters and and see them all and recognize all of that which seems to be disparity to be part of a greater hole which is godliness should help us to recognize this and to seek that Unity to seek to be first to seek to be inclusive to seek both love and fear of Hashem thank you so much for listening have a wonderful shamas this podcast was made possible through the gracious donations of listeners like you for more podcasts like this please visit www.wag.com or search on iTunes Ari goldwag [Music]