Behaaloscha - Leading to Hashem's Will

you're listening to the weekly partial podcast with Ari goldwag recorded with A's never ending assistance in Bish 5784 2024 B and I'd like to share with you two ideas which are connected and they in two different pieces in the me which are back to back but really talking about two different topics but we'll see that they're very much talking about the same topic the first one has to do with the idea of the command commands to make Two Trumpets made out of silver silver trumpets and the purpose of the trumpets is to bring a certain Majesty a certain music to the to the Bas of English to the temple and that's the first idea and the second idea has to do with the story later in the par where mosu is commanded as he has certain difficulties with the Jewish people hasem says to him gather for me es gather 70 men from the Elders of the people of Israel I'm going to see that there's a great teaching an important teaching that's uh involved in each of these ideas which is connected and and powerful and we can all learn from very much and speaking of the musical instruments so the measure points out that DAV King David who was the one who so wished to build the B mikdash and here we're talking about the Mish we're talking about the the trumpets trumpets represent majesty and they represent kingship King David is the one who represents kingship and majesty and building of the B mes M tells us this might be uh somewhat known to you it's a rather famous concept says the following perhaps you've heard of the famous King David's harp so we think that he used to play this kinor which in modern Hebrew means a violin but simply understood it means a harp so we understand King David's harp to be a thing that he played on and he created his music and his songs to Hill him the Psalms but the Mish tells us that there was something else that this harp was used for it would hang above his head when midnight came so there would be a Northerly wind that would come and play through the harp so the harp would play by itself it was his alarm clock immediately King David would stand up and all of his students all of the students was who were studying the Torah they would put an effort they would be studying they would Shake themselves off of the sleep they would sit and study the Torah until early in the morning until the until Daybreak this why King David said 57:9 he said awaken my honor awaken oh Nel kenor different types of Hearts Harps I will awaken the morning excuse me this teaches us generally speaking the morning wakes up the people but the other way around people don't usually wake up the morning King David says I wake up the morning meaning I'm Up Before Dawn I'm up already according to the m at midnight I'm studying all night long and there are people to this day who study the secrets of the Torah at this point in the from Midnight until the morning there special coals that's that do this I'm personally aware of one right here in bees and that's what he would do that's what King David would do so he would get up early in the morning the the music would awaken him now I'd like to share with you from the Y Misha he points out something which I never knew before that where were the what were the strings of this harp where were they from and it's important to understand as as you listen start thinking about what's the significance of the fact of where they're from so the yha brings that it says in Paz that Inu and's time when they brought when they went up for that kada when hasem commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son y so they got up there and then hasm stops them the Mal comes and says don't do it don't sacrifice your son so they found an AAL they found a ram that had that had been uh caught up in the thicket nearby and they took that RAM and they used it as a sacrifice there so says every single part of that Ram was used we know that one of its horns was the Sher that was blown at har and mount s when you received the T the second horn is going to be blown to Kash for the larger horn is going to be blown when the Messiah arrives but every single part of the animal was used and will be used in the future so the M the per says a the sen of the ram were saved and they were used in the harp of King David that the harp of David he would it would awaken him it would wake him up in the middle of the night so that he could get up and study the Torah and serve Hashem serve God so he has a discussion as to how it was permitted to use those use those Senus they were part of a carbon so they were MOS they were Sanctified okay not going to get into that but what I want to bring out from this is an amazing thing first of all you see that what is the magish really saying to us it's saying that the purpose of music and this is true of King David and it's true of the Lev the Levites and the temple the purpose of the music was to awaken us is to awaken us and was to awaken them to serve a to get up and learn right the purpose of music is something that awakens our emotions and we have to project that in the correct Direction that's What King David did he used music in order to awaken himself to stay up to be able to learn to be able to shake off to sleep and to study Torah all night long the trumpets obviously which is what the Pas what we're talking about the trumpets are obviously also an Awakening right what's the what's the idea of a trumpet being a majestic type of instrument why is it bone when you have a a king Etc it's because it's Awakening it's it's like a it's for us to realize and recognize the king is here this is where we are we're in the presence of the king especially in a Bish where we don't see the king physically we sense him we need to be reminded that's the purpose of the trumpets that's the purpose of the of the kinor the Northerly Wind Blows through it to remind him it's time to wake up time to serve God that's what the music is meant to do and not only that but it it connects us when the M says that the the GM the Senus of the ram of Isaac were what was used for his for for D's for his Kor for his harp so it means to say that there's something about the sen the sinus are the pieces of the human being or the animal that create movement they create movement inside right when I when I move my hands so the senu inside of my hand they move they create movement and they awaken us right there is movement in our service of hasem they also represent the sen of the ram of of y when do we invoke this Ram we speak about in rashash rer which is when we express the fact that God is our King we express the fact that we want to return to service of Hashem we express the fact that we're willing to sacrifice ourselves give up everything give up our lives for Hashem and of course it doesn't just mean to die for God but it means to live for God so there's a reminder in the Senus of the of the ram of Isaac of Y to to serve God give myself over completely to God to get up in the middle of the night to study the Torah of God that's a very high level this is the reminder of the music so the essence of what a king is King is supposed to be a king of the Jewish people he's supposed to be a leader for us teach us to give ourselves over to God to sacrifice for God to give up our sleep to study the Torah okay so that's the first concept now I'd like to share with with you the second concept and that has to do with the zakim right first we talked about D King David a king the essence of whom is to serve God to teach us to serve God to sacrifice for God now we're going to learn about the Zan there were 70 elders who were chosen by m raenu who were gathered together by mosh raenu in order to help him and to help the Jewish people to serve God properly now the medish and I'd like to read this to you and it's important to know this stuff the proper respect that we are meant to have for sadim for for elders says in chapter 17: 16 hem says to Moses gather for me we're going to see what the idea of gather for me is but gather for me 70 men from the Elders of the people of Israel listen carefully don't get lost here the M tells us that if you're within a certain distance if you're sitting down and a and a an elder passes by whether it's a literal elderly man or whether we're talking about which is the the subject really here if a Torah scholar passes by within a person's dollarus which means about 6 to8 feet need to stand comes within a person's dollar four four cubits 68 feet then you need to stand how does one show respect and we're going to understand this is important why we need to show respect but how do we show respect because we need to understand what it looks like right I'm when I come into my house my kids if they're sitting they jump up they stand up in respect the father walked in the room right that's person needs to stand up in honor of their parents but what's what's behind it what's the idea behind that we're going we're going to try to understand together so first of all stand up second of all say how are you Shalom how are you doing T also en encourages us not encourages us commands us right it's important to know this is an obligation you need to beautify the face of the of an elter what does that mean it means don't stand in the place where he stands if he has a regular spot that he stands don't stand there don't sit in his spot don't contradict him when you ask a question to him when you ask him make sure you come to him with respect if he asks a question don't answer so quickly it's a show a a sign of respect person asks a question he wants you to think about it don't answer very quickly don't interrupt him in the middle of talking great R your R you're Rabbi don't interrupt him call understand we westerners don't like to hear this but it's important for us to hear this if you don't do this if you don't have this kind of respect if you don't approach your teacher in this way you're considered a wicked person in front of God there'll be repercussions you're going to forget your learning MCAT you're going to live not going to live as long a person can end up being very poor Wicked person will not have good w't have a long life because he doesn't fear God now here's an important point and this is going to be the foundation of what the second idea is from today's partial podcast and that is that you don't fear God if you don't have the the level of respect for a teacher for a Zuck for someone who represents the Torah so you're lacking and want say you if one doesn't have that so that person is lacking in their fear of heaven and we need to have respect and fear of God it's one of the foundational principles before we love Hashem which it's much more uh fashionable to talk about in today's Western Society before we love Hashem we need to have respect for God we need to fear God we need to be afraid of doing something that God will not like but the Mage is teaching us that what does it mean fear of God because we can't see asem as we said before the most obvious way that we learned to fear Hashem is by showing respect for those who represent him those who teach the Torah those who are our rabbis our those who represent the Torah those who are studying the Torah when we show respect for them we ourselves are showing respect for God as well okay so that's the basic idea and the measure says how do we know this the says you shall fear hasem with the word s the word s which means the or it's kind of hard to translate but the word s also means along with right went with Abraham and S are the same roote it means with so when it says fear there's something alongside s with Hashem there's someone else that you need to fear what can we say is alongside God as it were the answer is the the one who strives his whole life is all about what is God's will how do I serve Hashem how do I keep his Mitzvah how do I understand what is his will for me and for the Jewish people that person is walking alongside God and so when we show respect for the for the Torah scholar we are also showing respect for Hashem for God where as comes to include those who study the Torah says I will make them into leaders over you right and remember the context here that we're talking about in our par asking mosha to gather together 70 elders we're going to see what happens when they're gathered together an amazing thing happens but the elders are the ones who teach Torah who study the Torah who represent God and God's will so hem says we learned from here that says I've made them I've made the Torah Scholars to be heads over you I want them to be above you in a certain sense we need to look up to literally look up to our Torah Scholars we need to look up to our zakim our elders we need to look up to our rabbis our teachers those who want to who are there to facilitate our connection to God that means that we need to show them honor to we need to place them first if there's a an honorable Aliyah to give out it's given to them right that is given to the r often is given to the r the first alyah of is so amazing thing I want to read to you the continuation of the says something very interesting and I want to remember to come back to an important idea which is connected to the blessing that we say but first says said look I know that if because I'm a Torah scholar I know that people when I walk into the room they're going to stand up for me so or if I pass by they're going to stand up for me so what he would do is he didn't want to bother people he didn't want to have people to have to stand up for him so he'd Go a different way if you saw a group of people standing there sitting there he says that one time I mentioned this to he said to me name no you're making a mistake you need to pass by in front of them you need to see you and stand for you says you will stand that when you stand you you can't you're giving them an opportunity I understand you don't want to bother people maybe you don't you want to work on your own ego you don't want people to stay left for you but they're not that's not the point the point is not for you the point is for them to be able to have a sense of respect for toyra for for an elderly person for someone who has a tremendous amount of life experience Torah experience you need to pass by them so they will stand up for you so they will learn as says they will learn to fear hasem that's the purpose of this Mitzvah I just want to mention I saw one of the mfor explains that you know in in the we say God please bring back your judges our judges and our advisers and and take away the bad judges take away the the the non the secular judges we don't want judges who don't represent you take away anguish and groaning M we say you Hashem rule over us alone it's a very interesting thing because we're saying get rid of the judges give us get rid of the secular judges give us Torah judges and you rule you Hashem rule over us alone so according to what the m is saying it's a beautiful beautiful explanation that when we have proper leaders when we have proper judges we have proper zakim were steeped in Torah and the will of Hashem that's all they care about is that we should connect to Our Father in heaven we should do God's will that's what it means that hasem rules over us right mhia comes why do we want the Messiah what do we need him for we need him because like with the music would awaken him to be able to to study the Torah we want him we want mhia because he's somebody who his whole entire life his whole entire Essence and everything that he does and everything that he teaches is all about serving God showing us the way giving us a chance to have someone that we can respect so that we can also in turn respect Hashem that's what we're asking for there beautiful idea but it's about us learning you know we're we're simple people we may not be great sikim great great righteous people we not may not be big huge Torah scholar but we can respect those we can stand up for those we can show that it's it interests us how are you we care about the love you know we care about him it's it's an important foundational idea in yish kite understand who these people are who are sikim who what does a Jewish King look like what is a a Zak a Torah scholar who is he what does he repres he represents the fact that we are completely bottled to hasem we nullify ourselves we we give our lives to the measure says I'm not going to get into the entire list here there are 13 things that me says that are called for God's name some of them are quite obvious again I'm not reading the entire list Kohan and is the the priests the Levites the people of Israel we're all here bik it's all about serving God it's all made for God's name but the final one on the list besides Israel and the land of Israel Jerusalem are the zakim because the says gather for me what does it mean gather for me it means that they serve to bring us to God there are there are so to speak alongside God it's something that's done for God when you have 70 elders coming together in order to understand how to properly teach the Jewish people to access God so that's an incredible Godly situation finally I want to read to you small piece in the says like this chapter 9 verse 6 says God builds in the heavens the the steps or his his great characteristics and his Auda his collection of people is found on the earth what does this mean what do this ver saying what is this comparable to imagine you have a a palace which is built on a few ships a few ships in the water as long as the ships in the water are connected to each other they're side by side so the palace can stand doesn't say this but obv ly if the ship separates then the palace will fall says the we the Jewish people are like ships that God's palace is standing on if we are together if we have Unity if we are gathered so then hashem's Palace is standing up above in the heavens that's how the verse says God builds his his Mal which me said are steps or advantages character good characteristics in the heavens but it's founded on the earth it's founded on us on our Auda coming together being collected having akas that's a very tall order the entire Jewish people should have akas we see how difficult that is but the me tells us a secret and with this secret we're going to end and we're going to understand what it means for when the Jewish people are Yeshua and when we are uh together and we're serving God properly God is the king that's why God says to Moses gather for me these 70s of Canan these 70 elders when the righteous gather together when they come together they're the ships they teach us how to bring our ships together they are the representatives that we all look up to that we all respect and we understand that they are there to teach us how to serve God and when they do that so all the ships are together and the palace has a place to stand upon so there's an advantage and and a good thing for them and a good thing for the world but when the wicked get together they cause a tremendous destruction to themselves and to the world okay we're seeing that today I don't need to explain that at all about the wicked but let's just understand the bottom line for us and I'm going to give you a blessing as to what that bottom line is that hasm should help us to understand it and bless you and ask you to bless me should help us that we should be able to understand that in order to bring the Jewish people together we we need to first of all our leaders need to come together our Torah leaders and we need to show respect and understanding that they are there their entire Essence is self nullification so that they can serve Hashem and so that they can help us to serve Hashem and that's the ultimate bringing together that's the ultimate aifa ultimate Gathering of the zakim of the elders teaches all of the Jewish people to gather together to serve Hashem properly and when we have that respect for them we understand that what's the music about the music is about reminding us and waking us up to study the Torah and that's who our leaders are sh should help us to understand that and to realize that and in so doing be the place be the nation upon whom God's palace rests and where mhia the Messianic age comes to and begins speedily in in our days thank you so much for listening wonderful shamas this podcast was made possible through the gracious donations of listeners like you for more podcasts like this please visit www.ar goldwag [Music] docomo Ari goldwag [Music]