Ari Goldwag - Balak - Consistent Spirituality

you're listening to the weekly partial podcast with Ari Gold wag recorded with a chums never-ending assistance and rubbish image is real 5778 2018 this week's part shows parshas Bullock and Bullock is always an exciting time for me because it's the completion of a cycle I started 11 years ago with the partial podcasts and this is my anniversary 11 years and in celebration of that I'd like to invite you to my website article DICOM click on the Buy Now page and on top you'll find a donate button help this podcast continued to exist by supporting it I'd like to share with you some ideas about our partial pressures Bullock and specifically about the persona of bilam of who he was when he represents and how we can learn from him obviously how not to be because does not represent the greatest virtues that I found in the Torah even though he does praise the Jewish people but he does it against his own will he was trying to curse the Jewish people I'd like to point out a few different interesting points about Bill um I'd like to try to understand what is the significance of these points and how can we learn from them an interesting point number one we need to understand what this means but our hazael tell us I say just say that bill OH bill um is the same person as loved one notice they both have the letters lammott and days in their name bill um bill um and love okay so they're the same person which as that rears all explains means that they had the same soul they have the same soul root now what is the idea that lovin and bilham Laban was the guy who's who his daughter is married Yacouba vinum Jacob right and he chased after Yaakov to try to prevent him from going back to land of Israel and he claimed that they had stolen his idols right that's love on bill amends the character in our story who tries to curse the Jewish people what is the connection between these two people what does it mean that they share the same soul root okay that's question number one Sage's also tell us something which is amazing and that is that bilham in a certain sense had a neva had a prophecy or level of prophecy that was greater than moshe rabbeinu that was or on par with or greater than Moses and the question is what does that mean replied Freelander speaks about it at length he quotes the Rahman and I'd like to share with you some of the ideas quoted there but bilham is referred to as bilham hock icing which means he was a magician what could he do he could perform magic he could perform real magic black magic we're not talking about the sleight-of-hand which we see today buddy but the the magic the magicians the heart to my movements rhyme the egyptian necromancer's were a burr able to perform true magic and so is bill um so he was a magician he was bill McCoy zijn and it seems as her climb Friedlander says that he started off as a caisson meza somebody who could see the future he was able to read the future perhaps he could see it in the stars whatever his methods were but he wasn't more than just the simple magician which of course was a great wisdom a great hokhmah for that time but the fact that he was able to get a neva the fact that he was able to get a true prophecy a sham spoke through him spoke to him was a great this was a great novelty so who was he was he uh was he a prophet it seems as our cause I'll say and we'll climb Freelander quotes that bilham was somebody who I Shem said look the nations of the world I don't want them to complain and say look the Jewish people they have their great prophets that's why they became so great but we didn't have anybody great we didn't have any prophet so we are you know it's not fair it wasn't fair for us we didn't have a chance so they were provided with bill him as a prophet for them an avi but when we look at his quality as a prophet as a nubbie his level is not so great and it's such a short-lived amount of time that we wonder what was the what was Hashem providing so to speak for the Loom asylum for the nations of the world in regards to responding to their issue in regards to the responding to their request for a chance as well doesn't say like it's so much of a chance you can build on himself as a prime Freelander speaks about it he speaks about the fact that when we look at the the difference between emotion remaining we look at the difference with the way the Jewish people receive prophecy in order to receive prophecy so a person needed to be a highly developed human being they needed to be somebody was a high quality person Moshe Rabbeinu was the owner Michael Adam he had this amazing power this amazing prophecy God spoke to him one-on-one and yet he remained humble not only did he remain humble but he was perhaps one of the most humble people of all time so when we look at Moshe and we look at how do we look at bilham he was the exact opposite he was he was not a good person he was just interested in the future he yes he had wisdom but the the navour the prophecy which he had for one one small period of time didn't change him didn't affect him didn't make him into a better person if anything the power corrupted him as is the way power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely villain used his power to as a weapon against the Jewish people and he said look we can destroy him spiritually if we caused him to sin and he created a very difficult situation with the Jewish people but what is idea how we to understand who is this prophet bilham what is his purpose what is his role how does he help them asylum or what is the perhaps the parallel between bilham and the oome asylum as opposed to moshe obey no and the jewish people what is the difference between the jewish people the god all right of course there are going to be individuals who are an exception to every rule there going to be people with an asylum who are on a spiritual level which is you know beyond them and there going to be people within the jewish people who are on a spiritual level which is below the the paradigm of who the jewish people represent we need to understand what is the paradigm what is the essential nature of the jewish people of a year of a Jew versus the essential nature of someone who's considered an asylum the nations of the world as represented by bilham in this case we need to understand that okay and we also need to understand the difference to the contrast between a Villa and the Harlem oh sure I've been the Jewish people and mussalam what is the specific nature of that as well as how does that parallel as we asked in the first question how does that parallel what happened with love on Laban was somebody who as we said soul parallels bilham how does that how does that idea correlate with what we're speaking about in our context as well so what I'd like to show you is a very beautiful and deep thought that is applicable to each and every single one of us we all have a little bit of bilham inside of us a little bit of love on inside of us a little bit of almost salaam nations of the world inside of us and we all have parallel to that or you know in the forces of reality corresponding Zilla Lisette one corresponding to another we have the power of moisture I mean inside of us we have the power of the Jewish people inside of us we have the power of spirituality inside of us what is the difference and notice it's very interesting when we speak about bilam bilham is somebody who indeed says I can't say anything unless God says it if God says that I can say it if otherwise I can't he acknowledges that his powers limit he acknowledges that there is a God there's one God and yet he remains a caisson he remains a magician who must I am also the nations of the world also they say hey what about us we want an opportunity to have a relationship with God you know the famous story cause I'll tell us which I've quoted in number of times about in the future time a machine up on Messiah arrives so the nations of the world will say hey what about us you gave all these mitzvahs to the Jewish people we didn't get any mitzvahs we didn't get any commandments besides to Shiva mitzvos bnei now after seven Noahide commandments but we didn't get anything what about us and God gives them the mitzvot suka and the result is that they walk out of the circuits - half of them and they kick the suka so it's very interesting in that story as well we see that the character and this is like the essential foundation of the idea I want to say the character of the asylum and the character of a loved one and the character of a bilham they experience a momentary inspiration the experience you know as lovin is running after Yaakov II know after Jacob he knows through his knee interestingly he knows through his magical ways he's able to figure out that the wealth that he had was because of Jacob so it's all because of Jacob he recognizes that he sees that and lovin is somebody who has his his daughters are rifki and Leia are the forebears of the Jewish people there are two of the four mothers of the Jewish people and yet LaVon as he runs after the Jewish people as he runs after Yaakov and and his wives and the twelve grandsons of his because they're going back to the line of Israel as he runs after them so the night before he meets them he has a revelation as well just like Bill um has a revelation from God loving has a revelation from God Shem says to love and don't touch them don't mess with them don't start up with them and the next morning he comes and and he doesn't precisely listen Tasha Michelle tells him don't even talk to him not good not bad and loving comes and he meets with them and he makes a pact with them that Yahoo was gonna steal his side of the rock love on and these people are gonna stay on the other side of the rock but love on as a spiritual experience for a moment because of his interaction with Yaakov because of his interaction with the Jewish people bill I'm also he has an awesome spiritual experiences when Friedlander explains why was he raised up to the level of Navarra he's raised up to the level of navarre only because the Jewish people were coming very interesting the Jewish people in both cases both would love on and with bilam Yaakov and his wives and his children are heading back to the Land of Israel certain aspect of return to the Land of Israel ISM is a aspect of Redemption Jewish people returning to Israel love and tries to stop that on the wait is trying to stop that love and experiences a godly experience which is God says don't start off with them bilham too is hired by Bullock the king of Moab when at which point at the end of the 40 years of the Jewish people in there in the wilderness as they're about to enter into the Land of Israel right so so bilham comes here as well and Shem says Tim don't mess with the Jewish people only say the words that I say to say don't say anything else and so bilham also has a spiritual experience and I want to say that that's the character Loomis Island the character bloom asylum is when did they say hey we didn't get any mitzvos we didn't get any commandments in that story in that Marshall of Hazael they say that when the Jewish people have experienced Redemption the Jewish will have returned to the Land of Israel and they're like hey we want a piece of this too so it's very nice it's a good thing it's a beautiful thing at the most eylem want a piece of the spirituality relationship with God as well but when do they wake up and when does Bill and wake up but when does love and wake up they wake up when they see a massive explosion of spirituality a massive explosion of awesomeness that's when they wake up and and how long is that inspiration how long does it last for them last a very short time hey Bill um has that inspiration for a short moment he's before he was a magician he's a woman of prophecy and afterwards he's a magician it doesn't last very long for him and that's that's the difference between the way that a muscle eylem the nations of the world experience spirituality versus the way that the Jewish people my sure are being experienced spirituality what's the difference and let's take a moment we've been looking now at Bill and we were looking at lovin now let's look at Moshe Lahab do let's look at Moshe look at the Jewish people and the way that we experience spirituality yes in a certain sense we also have that moment of inspiration the Jewish people have just experienced an awesome miraculous exodus from Egypt unbelievable thing they came to Mount Sinai but notice and I don't you know we see the story we read the we read the description of the events that are he tells us and we see theirs as well the Jewish people that a fall and therefore they were it was decreed underneath it would last that there would have to be four years in the mid bar but you know we have to believe that boy who has shaman plans everything from the beginning of course there are options we can choose different paths Lamesa and all the Jewish people are there for 40 years in the mid but what are they doing for 40 years the four years that they were in the mid where in the wilderness they're called the Dorthea they were the generation of knowledge they were the ones who received the Torah and they were the ones who for 40 years were living living breathing Sheena they were living inside of that spiritual realm every single day and it wasn't just like a moment of inspiration and then they before they were there were nothing moment of inspiration now there's something and then they lose it it wasn't like that at all it was the constant continuation continuous to me Dee every single day getting up in the morning praying in the morning praying in the afternoon praying in the evening every single day putting on those the tefillin putting on the Tallis every single day learning the Torah coming back every single day living the life of Torah maschera mana was somebody who he spent years years working on himself becoming a great person he didn't all of a sudden receive the the Neva didn't come in a moment because like bilam know mantra man was 80 years old when he had his first navoo when he had the first prophecy from a Shem that God spoke to him and said go take the Jewish people out of Egypt and then for the continuing 40 years after that he was constantly working on himself he's constantly making yourself greater but it was done in a in a concerted way in a consistent way in a way which wasn't like wow awesome inspiration it was just like hey one action another action another action and that's what led him to greatness and that's what leads the Jewish people to greatness the Jewish people yes of course each and every one of us has inside of us both of these elements we need the inspiration we want to be inspired and we see somebody else who's succeeding because of their spirituality we also want spirituality you also want to have access to that now the but that's bill the bill and the Loom asylum and love on they have a moment of inspiration it raises them up for a moment they're interested for a moment and then they just fall right back to where they were before the characteristic of the Jewish people is we have a moment of inspiration but when does it come it comes after a lot of work and that as we're kind of reading that it says is the difference between a regular navi a prophet emotional bainham and lahardee labellum navi worked his entire life he didn't know when the nerve was gonna come he didn't know when the prophesy was gonna come but he perfected himself he worked on his those he worked on his character traits became a greater person through his consistent and constant efforts one foot in front of the other one action and another action in another action and sometimes it's not exciting it's not exciting to say the same exact prayer three times a day to get to the to get to the synagogue three times a day to there's so many things that we do and it feels like it's by rote and we wonder like what is this about what is the idea but the ideas that gives us a framework it gives us some is Garris that inside of this framework when a person is consistent and does it takes these actions every single day so then the result is that the spirituality that he receives is not just as a fly-by-night a moment of inspiration like a lovin who sees Wow ashram spoke to me Wow a bill and Wow ashram spoke through me before he's a magician afterwards it's not like that with I mean so mclaurel we've been we've been at this for thirty three hundred years Michele gave us the tow for thirty three thirty three hundred years ago and by the way this isn't something that's for everyone that's why it's not so easy to convert to Judaism and that's why we don't look for converts because this is something that requires consistent effort and that's not something that's for everyone most people need to be inspired uplifted and the inspiration just goes away and the person is left exactly where they were before the tour is telling us here with the story of bilham and the Torah is telling us with the contrast between a bill Amanda Misha that that this is the way the way is through consistent effort the ways through consistency coming to learn the Torah and and another point there a plan Friedlander brings out is that the difference is that that a bill of so he gets the inspiration Wow but then it doesn't change him inside and that's exactly what we're talking about here as well the the inspiration is meant to be incorporated we get that moment of inspiration and we have this high and it's awesome but now when does it start to change us that's only through the the concerted effort to consistent effort and taking on things taking on commitments as a result of the inspiration that's how we continue to hold on to the inspiration and become the moisture I mean of course we're supposed to be who we are each one of us but Moshe is that example of somebody who consistently worked on himself who instead of becoming an awesome you know having this awesome power and and becoming corrupted it became a deeper and deeper enough deeper more and more humble and so that was because he took the inspiration and he was muff NIEM this or mucky fat self-confident who speaks about it from from climbing vulajin this or mock if of inspiration the light which surrounds us when we're getting ready to perform a mitzvah to perform a commandment to bring spirituality into ourselves to draw that into ourselves and have it inside of us and for it to expand within us instead of just being something that you know it's fly-by-night flow flow flows away so that is the challenge and that is what we're after that's we're trying to do here so I want to bless you and ask you to please bless me back Hashem should help us then we should be safe we should merit to be able to take the consistent action to recognize the bilam inside of us which wants that moment of inspiration which sees someone else accomplishing or or or having success even whether it be spiritual or whether it be in in ordinary matters Shem should help us to recognize that we need to take consistent action Russian help us to be able to take that consistent action so that we develop spiritually that the spiritual light which we experience isn't just something which flashes on and off or left the same but rather it's something which we take the actions to allow to come inside of ourselves thank you so much for listening wonderful Shabbos this podcast was made possible through the gracious donations of listeners like you for more podcasts like this please visit www.carmensognonvi.com/newsletter [Music]