Borders Made of Roses - Parsha Yisro - By Rabbi YY Jacobson

Good evening and welcome to all of our viewers this evening from across the globe. Tonight's class is dedicated by our dear friends, David and Eda Shattenstein, in the sacred memory of the Kedoshim of Mumbai, including Rabbi Gavriel Noach and Rivka Holtzberg, as well as in the loving memory of a young girl, Alta Shula Bas Reby Soveitska Sverdlov. Borders made of roses is our theme this evening. Not once, not twice, but three times does God caution and warn the Jewish people not to trespass the boundary designated and approach Mount Sinai, where revelation is about to happen. At first glance, it seems that this caution, this warning is justified because as God says in the weekly portion of Yisro, approaching the mountain of Sinai can be detrimental for any person who touches the mountain. But yet, the fact that he instructs this commandment not to approach the mountain once, twice, and then three times indicates that this is actually a major theme of the narrative. It's not just a detail. Make sure you don't touch the mountain. The emphasis on this instruction would seem to indicate that this constitutes a major part of the story. But why? Why is this such a relevant detail and point here? It's an important instruction to make, but it's not the story. And yet, the major emphasis on it seems such as suggest that this is indeed a major part of the narrative. Let us study the story inside. Please bring up source number one. You can open your source sheet right below the video. There is a PDF. Source number one. God is instructing Moses to prepare the Jewish people for the revelation at Mount Sinai. Ve'higbalta es ha'am saviv lemor, hishameru lakhem aleis bahar u'nagoa bekhatsei'u kol nogea bahar mos yumos. Place a boundary around the nation and tell them, "Be careful of ascending the mountain, of even touching the edge of the mountain, because whoever touches the mountain will die. If a hand touches the mountain, it will be stoned or thrown down, whether an animal or a person. They will not live. Only when the final blast of the horn is sounded, then they can come up to the mountain. A few verses later, the Torah begins to describe the actual events at Sinai. God comes down to Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain. He calls out to Moses, and Moses goes up to the peak of the mountain. Now God tells Moses, "Read, go back down. Go back down and warn the nation. They might destroy their present position to go look at God, and many will fall. And even the cohanites, the priests, shall prepare themselves, because God may break out against them, too." Moses responds to God, "The nation can't go up to the mountain of Sinai, because you have already warned us to place a limit around the mountain and sanctify it. So, Moses tells God, "Why are you sending me? Why did you call me up to send me back down to warn the people not to approach the mountain and not to leave their position to come close to the mountain. They can't. You already warned us earlier." By Yimer love Hashem, God tells them, "Lech red, go down. You go down. You come up with Aaron, but the priests and the nation should not destroy their position to come up to God because the consequences could be detrimental." And what happens? By Yimer Moshe Moses comes down to the people and he gives them over this message. And right now the revelation begins. By Yidaber Elokim kol divrei ha'am leimor, God begins to speak all of these words and the continuation of the verses Anochi Hashem Elokecha I am the Lord who has taken you out of Egypt and the remainder of the 10 Commandments communicated to the Israelites at Sinai. Now, we want to understand this conversation between Moses and God. In the beginning 3 days before the giving of the 10 Commandments at Sinai God tells Moses, "Go caution the Jewish people not to come up on the mountain and not to touch the mountain." It's now the third day. God comes down to the mountain. The revelation of Sinai is about to happen. He calls up Moses. What's the message to Moses? Go back down and warn them. Moses tells God, "I don't have to warn them. They can't come up to the mountain. Don't worry about it. You already warned us a few days ago. Three days ago you warned us. And God just tells him, "Go back down and warn them." And he goes down and he warns them, and that's the moment the Ten Commandments begin to be communicated. God reveals himself to a nation and communicates to them the Torah. But what is going on here? Moses is asking a good question. You already told them they can't go up. Why am I saying this again to them? Bring up source number two, please. Open up your curriculum, Rashi. The great biblical commentator explains it in the name of the Mechilta, which is the primary halachic midrashic accompaniment to the book of Shemot, to the book of Exodus, and Rashi says, "Go down and warn them a second time because it is customary to caution a person before the events, and then to caution him once again during the events." So, it's true God is saying to Moses, "Three days ago I cautioned the Jewish people not to approach the mountain, but now as it is happening, as the mountain mountain is being engulfed in the smoke of revelation, as I am coming down to the mountain right now, go and warn them a second time." And yet the question is, if this is all there is to it, we are still left with an enigma. And that is, why was then Moses so disturbed? It is a very common thing to warn people once and then warn them again. As the Da'at Zkenim Ba'alei Tosafot, one of the great biblical commentators, asks the question, "So many commandments and instructions and mitzvot in the Torah are said not once but twice. They're repeated. A person is sometimes cautioned and instructed more than one time. Why was Moses so bewildered by the fact that God is once again communicating this instruction? And God says, "Go down again because I'm saying it a second time." What was really his perspective? What was really his question? Many commentators discuss this dilemma. Rabsad Yagon, Rabbeinu Avraham ibn Ezra, the Siforno, the Orach Chaim, I'm mentioning some of the very famous ones, and many others. Tonight, I want to explore three approaches presented by great Jewish thinkers who lived in our own generation in the last century and see how they understand this episode. The first approach presented by Rabbi Yosef Dov Halevi Soloveitchik. Rabbi J.B. Soloveitchik, who was a famous rabbi in Boston, the Dean of Yeshiva University, Yeshivas Rabbeinu Yitzchak Elchanan, Rabbi Soloveitchik, who was a great thinker and one of the leaders of Orthodoxy in the United States of America, was born in 1903. He passed away on Pesach, on Passover, in 1993. Recently, they published a new book of his called Drashos and Kesuvim in Yiddish. These are speeches he gave in Yiddish and he transcribed them himself, and they were recently published and edited by my dear friends, Rabbi Yehuda Julius Berman and Professor Dov Fischman, and I recently read a speech of his given on Shabbos HaGadol 5709. Shabbos HaGadol 1957 and Rabbi Soloveitchik discusses his perspective on the story. The second approach is that from the famous Rogatchover Gaon Rabbi Yosef Rosen was one of the greatest Jewish minds in a thousand years. He was born in 1858 and passed away in 1936. He was the rabbi of the Latvian city Dvinsk. And literally a genius and a a genius par excellence, one of the most towering Torah figures of the last generation. His works Safna's Pneiach are brilliant beyond words. And the Rogatchover Rabbi Yosef Rosen in his commentary on the portion of Yisro presents his perspective. The third perspective I had the privilege of hearing myself from the Lubavitcher Rebbe. On the night of the 4th of Sivan, 1989, the night of Dalet Sivan 5749, which according to our tradition is actually the day when God communicated to Moses the first time the instruction to the Jewish people that they do not cross the border surrounding Mount Sinai to even touch the mountain and come up on the mountain. The Rebbe was born in 1902 passed away in 1994 and in this talk just a few years earlier, 1989 the Lubavitcher Rebbe presented his perspective on the story. The nucleus of what is being presented is from these three thinkers, but I did add some explanation and interpretation from other sources and the way I understand their commentary. Rabbi Soloveitchik's idea is based on the fact that there are two types of boundaries in the world. There are two different types of borders. There is a physical, concrete border which doesn't allow you to go into a particular territory. This border or blockade blocks anybody. It blocks an adult, it blocks a child, it blocks even an animal. You simply cannot pass over the fence, the wall into the other territory. But there's another type of border. Not a physical border which you can see with your eyes and touch with your hands and which physically obstructs your ability to trespass the border, but a border which is actually abstract. It's metaphysical. It may be conceptual, moral, emotional, spiritual, religious. The border doesn't physically obstruct your ability to trespass. It's a border which requires your own skills, your own understanding, your own sensitivities, your own values and convictions. And it's a border which a child or a certain type of vulgar person or an animal will not get. I mean, give a simple physical example. You have a border which is a fence or a wall, and then you have a border that has a sign and the sign says, "This is private property." That's not a physical border which will stop an animal. An animal will trespass. Bring up source number three. The Torah describes the damage that can be brought upon another person's property through your animal in portion of Mishpatim. Ki ya'aver ish sadeh acher veshilach es be'iro uv'eir bisdeh acher. When you damage somebody else's field or vineyard, you send your animal and it goes and eats the grain or produce of somebody else's field. Uv'eir bisdeh acher. The fact that it's a somebody else's field does not mean anything for be'iro for the animal. There may be a sign, this is an orchard or a field or a farm that belongs to Mr. So-and-so. For you that may mean something, but for be'iro uv'eir bisdeh acher, he crosses that border. As long as there's no physical blockade to stop the animal from entering into the field, he goes into the other field because he's not sensitive to abstract borders based on property and private property, based on the fact that you own something and I have no right to come into your your territory and seize your produce. This is an idea, it's a moral idea, it's an abstract idea, it's a legal idea, and the animal has no understanding of it. And so there are many different categories of borders. And for some, they only understand concrete borders. Others can appreciate more abstract borders. I may have the ability to cheat you, to deceive you, to seize your money, to steal from you. There is no border stopping me. And yet, I can contain myself based on an abstract border. I may have an addiction to alcohol, there's no border stopping me from physically going into the bar and ordering a drink. Not only is there no border, not only is there no boundary, on the contrary, I actually may be compelled to do it. My instincts, my habits, may gravitate towards that bar to drink or to that casino to gamble or other addictions or habits or instincts which people are compelled to do. There is no boundary. Here I must create and be sensitive to an abstract boundary, to a higher boundary, to the knowledge that by crossing this boundary I am destroying my higher self. I am undermining my future, my destiny, my deeper aspirations. You know the story they tell about one of the great Hasidic masters, he was a child and he was walking with his father and they walked by a prison which was surrounded with gates and bars and he asked his father, "What is this place?" And his father explained that this is a prison and they don't want to let the prisoners go out and therefore they lock it up from all sides. So the child looks at his father and says, "I don't understand. Why do they have to go through all of this work in order to protect this prison? They shouldn't be able to escape. At night when they go to sleep those who are in charge should not put Negel Wasser at their bed. They should not put water near their bed so when they wake up in the morning, according to Jewish law, you're not supposed to walk from your bed and leave without washing your hands. They won't be able to get out of bed because they didn't wash their hands with water. They won't be able to leave." This is the innocence of a child. There are different types of borders. Go explain to the child that if you're dealing with these types of people who if there's no water near their bed, they will not leave. These are the people who are not stealing, who are not criminals, who didn't belong in prison in the first place. So there are two types of borders, you see. I want to study with you a lovely fascinating madrish which captures this idea. It's based on a verse in the Song of Songs. Source number four, bring up source number four. The groom is singing praises to his bride in this book of Shir Hashirim chapter 7 verse 3. Shureraych agan hasahar al yechsar hamazeg. Your body is like a round goblet and it lacks not delicious wine. Bitnaych aremay maschitim. Your stomach is like a heap of wheat. Sugah bashoshanim. Surrounded by lilies. As you know, the Song of Songs is a metaphor. It's a metaphor about the love and the affection that exists between heaven and earth. Between God and his people. Let us see how the madrish interprets this verse. Your stomach is like a heap of wheat. Surrounded by lilies. Sugah bashoshanim. Please bring up source number five in your curriculums. Let us read Zuch the madrish. Aremay maschitim, aremay maschitim Without vowels you can read it aremay maschitim, a heap of wheat. You can also read it aremay maschitim, a heap of sins exists in your stomach. Your stomach has Your stomach is like a heap, a mountain of sins, transgressions. Sugah bashoshanim. But it's surrounded, it's fenced off by lilies. Aelu divray Torah shem rakam kashoshanim. These are the words of Torah which are as soft as delicate as roses. How many laws and myths are there in the book of Torah which is the midrashic accompaniment to the book of Leviticus filled with many laws and rituals about the sacrifices and the offerings. The laws of eagle and the exact mindset the priest has to have while offering the sacrifices and the laws of not letting the meat of the sacrifices remain uneaten after a certain period of time. How many laws and myths are there in this book? I believe Levi said it is customary in the world. A man marries a wife he is 30 years old or he may be 40 years old. After he spends all of this money in order to pay for a beautiful wedding now he wants to consummate the marriage for he marries and she tells him I have seen a red rose on my body. Meaning the menstrual cycle has began. There is a flow of blood a red rose. And he separates physically from her immediately. What caused that he should not come close intimately to be intimate? WHICH IRON WALL EXISTS between them? IS AN IRON PILLAR between them. A is a nachash noshchoy. A is a akrav aktsashali akri ikravlo. Which serpent has bitten him? Which scorpion has stinged him? So that he not approach her and engage in a physical relationship. Divrei Torah she rakkin kishai shana. It's the words of Torah which are as delicate as a lily. Shenemar by the Torah says vel isha benidas mussalei sikra. During the cycle of blood, you must give your wife space and not approach and engage not approach her and engage in physical intimacy. This is a time when she deserves her own space. This is what's stopping him. V'chein the Medrish continues mishai v'lo tam shul t'chais he's a hungry man and they brought him a plate with pieces of meat and amrulay they tell him cheilev nofel sham. A piece of non-kosher meat fell into this plate. Umasha yada v'lo yitamei. He withdraws his hand and he does not eat. Migaram lo shelo yitamei. Who caused him not to eat? A IS A NACHASH NOSHCHOY SHELO YITAMEI. A is a akrav aktsashali akri yitamei say. Which snake has bit him? Which scorpion has stung him so that he cannot come to this plate and eat it? Divrei Torah she rakkin kishai shana it's Torah which is as soft as a rose. Kol cheilev v'chol dam lo yisacheil v'lo yitamei lo yit. Certain parts of an animal, certain parts of the fat, certain part of the blood and that is what's stopping him from eating these substances. This then is how the Medrish understands that verse in Shir Hashirim. That your stomach is like a heap of sins. Your stomach gravitates. Your stomach somehow sometimes has an instinct, an inclination, a craving to engage in a certain type of relationship, to eat a certain type of food. But your stomach, which gravitates to sin or immoral behavior, is sugabasheshanum. It's fenced around, it's surrounded by roses, and it's the roses which obstruct your path towards this inappropriate behavior. Now let's understand, as the Medrish puts it elsewhere, another Medrish puts it elsewhere. Who creates a border with roses? A boundary to protect your field, to protect your heap of wheat is not roses. It's the thorns around the roses. It's thorns that can obstruct your path. You place thorns, you place a fence, you put a wall, you put barbed wire, you put an alarm system, you put a security guard. These are borders which can stop the person from trespassing into another person's territory and seize his or her heap of wheat. But sugabasheshanum, can you protect the entrance to a territory you don't want somebody to go with roses? You're right. For a vulgar person, roses is not a border. You know what he'll do? He'll step on the roses, he'll destroy the roses, he'll crush the roses. There's roses. You go on the roses and you go in and you take what you have to take. If banks or houses would protect themselves by putting roses at the door, so if you have to go in to rob the bank or the jewelry store, you have to step on roses, I'm not sure it's going to stop many criminals and thieves from going into the bank saying, "Oh, there's such beautiful roses. I don't want to crush the lilies." Roses are not a good protection for somebody who's vulgar. For somebody who doesn't mind crushing the roses to get to a certain place. Comes the Midrash and says, "But here the groom is praising his bride." He says, "You want to understand my bride? My bride will not approach the heap of wheat because it's fenced by roses. My bride will not engage in certain behavior, will not speak certain words, will not eat certain foods, will not behave in a certain way only because there are roses. And what are these roses? Divrei Torah she rakem kishishana. It's the values and ideals of Torah which are as delicate as the rose and he or she does not want to crush those roses, destroy those roses, undermine those roses just to fulfill a gluttonous and self-centered instinct and desire of this moment. And sometimes this is a far deeper border than any other border. Yes, there are borders that you create through punishments and there are borders that you create through penalties and through guards and through fences and through walls. But there is another type of border and that's what the verse in the Song of Songs is trying to convey and the Midrash is trying to convey. And this is a border of roses. It's the roses of Torah. It's the mitzvahs of Torah which generate their own fragrance and aroma. And the Jew knows that for me to trespass these roses I may be fulfilling a habit but I will be destroying my own higher self. I will be violating my own deeper soul. I will be compromising my own higher aspirations. The life of the Jew is based on the fact that there's not only a physical border but there's also an abstract border. That there are certain things that you don't do. Why? Because they undermine your holiness. They undermine your relationship with truth. They destroy your idealistic personality. And they kill a piece of your soul. There are other borders. The fact that God Almighty instructed, Hashem said, "Do this and DON'T DO THIS." THAT IS A BORDER FOR THE JEW. IT'S a border made of roses. It's not a border made of thorns. It's a border made of the smell of Torah. What compels him? What motivates him? What inspires him not to do it? It's the shoshanim. It's the roses of Torah. By the way, there's a very deep educational insight here. Sometimes people ask, "How do I create boundaries for my children? How do I create borders for my children?" Everyone needs borders. Everyone needs boundaries. They're healthy. They're important in life. There's certain red lines you're not supposed to cross. How do I create them? Can I always do it through coercion and force? Comes the Midrash and says, "The most powerful borders are the syaga b'shoshanim." It's when you make a syaga fence through roses. If you show this child and the youth the beauty of the lilies, you let them smell the beautiful aroma and fragrance of the lilies. You help them appreciate the beauty of the lilies. So that they don't want to step on these roses within themselves and around them. That's the great border that Torah tries to cultivate within the Jew. You know the story there was in Jerusalem, a a Jew, a maggid they called him, the Jerusalem maggid, the Jerusalem preacher, Reb Mordechai Shwadron of blessed memory. He was very humorous, and he would give his famous speeches in Jerusalem, and he once told the story. He said that a yeshiva student came to him and lamented about the fact that life requires so many behavioral routines that are very aggravating to him. They're a nuisance. He says, "You know, I look how animals live and it is so appealing to me. In the morning, they don't have to get dressed. When they want to eat, they don't have to use a plate and a fork and a knife and a spoon and wipe with a napkin. When they have to tend to their needs, they don't have to search for a bathroom." As a Jew, he says, "The animals, I have to put on filling in the morning. I have to pray in the morning. I have to pray in the evening. There are so many boundaries and borders and restrictions and limitations to my free life. Why couldn't I just be a behema? Why couldn't I just be an animal?" And here Rabbi Shvadron says the Yeshiva boy began weeping and he turned to heaven and he said, "Ribbono far vos hast du mich gemacht a behema? Master of the universe, why didn't you make me a behema? Why didn't you create me as an animal? Why did you curse me and make me a person?" And Reb Mordechai Shvadron says, "Hob ich ge'entfert dem bochur, I responded to the young man and I said, bochur, bochur, du hast nicht vos zu veinen, du bist a behema. Young man, young man, you have no reason to weep. You are a behema. You are an animal. You are a beast." Two types of borders in life, two very types of boundaries in life, very different. And the vulgar person will never understand that the roses constitute a real border. That for some people, they will not do it only because it will destroy the roses. I want to take marriage as an example. The foundation of marriage in Judaism is articulated in its term known as kiddushin, sanctity. It's based on borders and boundaries of sanctity. It's the realization that a husband and a wife are connected to each other in an eternal and timeless connection, and that there are certain borders and red lines none of them can cross. It's not that there will be a physical limitation and boundary stopping the husband from crossing those red lines and betraying his relationship as contemporary America hears so often about, unfortunately. Or conversely with the wife. Physically, there's nothing stopping you. But you need a different type of border, a border of understanding what the roses represent. Are you ready to destroy the roses of your relationship and compromise and undermine the trust and the loyalty and the sense of oneness, which comes from the fact that everybody knows, both of them know they belong to each other and to nobody else. These are different types of borders that a lot of people don't understand. Sugabashishanam. It's not a snake and it's not a scorpion. There's no iron wall and there's no pillar wall, the madras says. But there's the reacha teira, there's the aroma of teira. There's the higher values of morality, of integrity. There are divine values of justice and ethics, of goodness and kindness. Of Torah and mitzvahs. These are also borders. I'll tell you a very interesting interpretation I saw yesterday in a Hasidic work known as the Panim Yafos. The Panim Yafos, one of the great Hasidic masters, he says a very interesting thing. He says that God tells Moses, Moses tells God that you told us hagbela sahar v'kidashto, put a limit around the mountain and sanctify it. Put a limit around the mountain and sanctify it. What does it mean put a limit around the mountain and sanctify it? I understand put a limit around the mountain so people shouldn't go through. What does it mean to sanctify it? So he explains this. The word mountain in Hebrew is har. A mountain is har, hey resh. What are the borders of these two letters? What are the borders of hey? So the letter before hey is dalet. The letter after hey is vav. So those are the borders that surround the hey. What are the borders of resh? So the letter before resh is kuf. And the letter after resh is shin. So you see the borders of hey dalet and vav. The borders of resh kuf and shin. So you have kuf, vav, dalet, shin, kodesh, holiness. Holiness is a border. The border of Mount Sinai is holiness. The fact that you know that crossing this border will not endanger you physically but it will endanger your holiness, that's a border and that's the border we're addressing here as we will see in a moment. You know that you're a holy person. You're a sacred person. You're called TO BE A HIGHER PERSON. You're called TO BE A LILY, TO BE A ROSE. That's a powerful boundary. Now says Rabbi Soloveitchik, we'll understand the story. Now we can understand the story. God was telling Moses there is something holy about the top of Mount Sinai. Do not vulgarize it. And this is why there were two instructions. The first time when God communicates to Moses and says, "Go warn the Jews not to touch the mountain, not to come up on the mountain." He's talking about a physical boundary. Create a physical boundary, a sign our people to tell them, "Don't trespass." And that's why it's equal for human beings and animals. And I think this is a fascinating idea. If you could bring up again source number one. Bring up source number one. Take a look in the first instruction. He says, "In Israel." It applies to our animal or a person. It's the physical boundary. I don't want anybody coming close to the mountain. It's dangerous. It's detrimental. That's the first type OF BOUNDARY. LATER ON, it's already the day of Matan Torah. The Torah is being given today. It's 3 days later. God summons up Moses God summons Moses to the mountain and now he tells him, "Go and warn the Jewish people to create a boundary around the mountain and keep it and make it holy." Here he's talking about a different boundary. So Moses asks, "I already warned them." God says, "No, go down again." What he is conveying to Moses now is not a repetition of the first instruction. He's now conveying to him the essence of Judaism. The essence of Torah, the essence of Torah is al yersu. Don't break the boundaries that compromise your sacredness. A human being who understands what it means to be created in the image of God, who understands what holiness means, who understands what transcendence means, is inculcated with CERTAIN BORDERS AND BOUNDARIES NOT BASED on the concrete reality of the physical world, but based on an inner calling and a commitment to your divine journey in this world. It's based on a commitment and a surrender to the fact that life is meaningful and life is purposeful. And therefore certain things in life are inappropriate, unacceptable, and grotesque. These are the boundaries God is telling him. Go down and tell them about different boundaries. I need them to understand the essence of Torah is al yaisu. The person knowing that I am called to live a higher life, a more sublime life, a holier life, a deeper life, a more meaningful life. The Rebbe Tzadok The second interpretation. And before we get to the second interpretation, I want to emphasize one point. We spoke about marriage. There was an interesting bring up source number six. The Talmud says in Gittin, it speaks about a servant, a slave. If a Jew sells himself as a slave under extreme circumstances, dire poverty, he sells himself as a slave. So you he's not allowed to you can't hold him as a slave for more than six years. After six years, he must go he must be set free. Notwithstanding the circumstances, unless he stubbornly wants, the Torah allows it. But after six years, generally he has to go free. But during those six years, the general laws that dictate marriage, kiddushin in Judaism, don't apply to the servant. He cannot experience the legal formula of kiddushin in the traditional sense of halakha. Why? The Talmud puts it in source six, after Beha'alotcha Zillah Shchilah Pritzilah. A slave is in a type of position where he appreciates frivolousness. Promiscuity. Lack of boundaries and rules. This is the point the Talmud is saying. Marriage in the Torah perspective is based on idealistic borders, even not even if there are no physical borders. And this person who subjected himself to a life of slavery is just in a different orbit. And therefore the laws of Kiddushin, which mean holiness, Hagbalos Har Kedashatoi, these are the borders of Mount Sinai. These are the borders of Har, before and after hey, before and after rays as upon him Yafes says, is Kodesh. Holiness is a border for the sensitive eye and the sensitive soul. The Kitzur goes and Rebbe Yisrael takes it a step further. Really to a higher place. Please bring up source number seven. Tzofnas Paneach Yisrael Yitzchak Gimmel Zocher Kitzur. Lo Yuchal Am La'alos. What did Moses mean when he tells God the nation cannot go up? And here he's introducing us to yet another question. If you bring up again source number one, Pasuk Gimmel, Pasuk Gimmel in source number one, God tells Moses, "Go down and warn the Jews." And Moses says, "Lo Yuchal Am La'alos Har Sinai." The nation can't go up to Mount Sinai because you warned us. What do you mean they can't go up? They're not allowed to go up, but they can go up. So the Kitzur says, back to number seven. Bring up source number seven. Ritzoinai Lomar, this means the Mevo Avodah Zarah Nekayim Yetzer Hara Milibam. The Talmud in Tractate Avodah Zarah Dov Dalet Amud Beis tells us that during the revelation at Sinai, the evil inclination was rooted out from the Jewish heart. What did Sinai learn from Moses? Moses wants to say this. Something that is forbidden they can't do, and naturally they will not be able to go towards the mountain because Moses did not know that they will sin in the future. Let me explain what the Rebbe is telling us. Torah mitzvahs is not just a constitution of laws dictating Jewish behavior. They're a set of red lights and green lights and yellow lights. Torah is something else. Torah is seen and understood as the manual that comes together with humanity to teach the Jewish people and the world what is the appropriate way to live a human life and a Jewish life. Just like any product in the store comes with a manual. And the manual helps you understand what the product is, what you have to do in order to achieve its goals and objectives, what you should not do which might destroy it and cause it damage, and what you need to do in order to maximize its benefits and potentials. The manual is not a superimposed book of laws which wants to repress the natural chemistry of the object. The manual was written by the one who created the product to help you understand what it is. And therefore, how to use it, and how not to use it and what to do with it and what not to do with it. Everything in the world has a manual. It's called nature. It's called genetics. Everything in the world follows a system of nature and usually does not waver. Animals have their nature, the solar system has its pattern. The botanic world, the animal kingdom, the inanimate world. Inner space, outer space, everything follows a clear-cut pattern, unwavering. It doesn't change. There's only one exception. The human being comes into this world, now let me figure out who I am and who I am not. So, we experiment. We go to therapy, we experiment, we read, we think, we fight, we philosophize, we get depressed, we make money, we lose money, and we try to figure out our life of 5,000 years. Does it make sense that everything in the world has a manual? And the manual is not superimposed, the manual is its very system. How it works. The sun has its system and the moon has its system and the stars have their system, the galaxies and the planets, everything has a system and as we know, it functions perfectly to allow for our life here on Earth. And the same is true with the human body and with different bodies. Besides our mind, our imagination, our inner life. There's no manual. Who we are and what we're meant to be. This is Torah. Torah is the manual that accompanies mankind in his journey on Earth to explain who the human being is and therefore the commandments of Torah are not superimposed on the human being to repress and crush our freedom and liberty. On the contrary, these are laws to help the person live in a way that is consistent with his or her true nature. In a way that is consistent with her his or her true identity and calling. And in a way that maximizes your inner potentials and resources. However, our nature often doesn't feel this way. Just like your body may crave something which if you eat it will destroy your body. It happens all the time. And yet you crave it. Why? Because your external instincts are alienated from the inner chemistry of your body. Some people are more mindful and healthier and their nature already doesn't gravitate to things that are destructive for the body. But many of us, unfortunately, I think we know it from personal experience, at least I do, our body gravitates to some substances which in a few hours we know will not feel good. But our external nature is not aligned with our internal nature. And the same is true concerning Torah. Now is the moment when God is coming down to Sinai. So Moses believes that the Jewish people are in a state that their very nature is perfectly aligned with their innermost deepest self. And therefore, if Torah says you should not do something, the Jews are in a state where they cannot do that something. Because the should not and the cannot have been synchronized. So when God tells Moses, "Go back down and warn them not to approach the mountain." Moses says, "They can't approach the mountain." Why can't they? Because you told them not to. Since it is prohibited for them to do. So that translates in Moses's mind as an inability for them to do it. Naturally, they will not be able to do it. They will have to break their nature and fight their natural instincts to to go up on the mountain. So, you don't have to warn them. You have to warn something You have to warn a person not to do something that he or she will naturally do. A child is run could run into the street. Stop the child. But, if naturally you cannot do it, you will not do it. There's no need to warn. So, Moses understands that the Jewish people are now in that state where there is a holistic people aligned perfectly with their inner self so that the inner self the inner spiritual human self with the outer nature of the body are now synchronized. So, if God says you cannot do it, you you should not do it, they cannot do it. They will not be able to do it naturally. On this God says, "No, go down. Go warn them." And the Torah says cuz Moses did not know that the Jewish people will sin. He looked at them at that moment from a very pristine idealistic place with the gravitational magnet of sin was obliterated. So, it's not part of their nature. So, their nature is completely aligned with God's will for human behavior. But, God tells Moses, "No, you have to go down and tell them because the Torah was not only given to an idealistic person who reaches a state of mind and a state of heart where you don't want to do evil, where you don't want to engage in immoral behavior, where you want to do positive things, where your very physical system is aligned with your spiritual manual. Sometimes there is a person in that state. Great. But, there are people often who have to struggle and have to fight and their natural composition and chemistry is gravitating to go up on the mountain even though it's forbidden. Sometimes I'm completely alienated and far from my inner calling and my higher, greater, more idealistic nature. And the Torah was given to this person as well. So, God tells Moses, "Go and tell them to make boundaries and borders." Because every person has to know sometimes yes, you need to make boundaries and borders for yourself, physical or conceptual, concrete or ideological, but you need boundaries and borders to say I want to go, but I will not go. Don't only rely on the fact that people are completely pure and holy. And if they want to do something, it means it's the right thing. And if it's the wrong thing, they don't want to do it. Yes, there have been philosophers and thinkers till today who romanticize the state of mankind as Moses did at this moment for good reasons and say don't worry, you could rely on people's own senses and habits and instincts. If they want to, it means it's good. No, we live in a dichotomy, unfortunately. There's a fragmentation that happened the moment Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge. And here you need Hakbalos. Here you need to put upon yourself real limitations and boundaries to know that these are red lines I will never cross. God already sees the sparks, the genesis of the golden calf that the Jews are about to create in 40 days. Moses doesn't see that at the moment. Moses sees a nation that is restored to its primordial grace, the way humanity was before Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge where they can be naked and not be embarrassed. When the very body and physical nature of man is completely aligned with the inner divine nature and essence of man. But there is a fragmentation in the world. So, God tells Moses, "Go down and warn them." We now come to a third approach. The mystical or transcendental approach based on an insight I heard from the Lubavitcher Rebbe, as I said, on the 4th of Sivan 1989. The Rebbe explained the story from a deeper point of view. You see, a great revelation happened on this mountain. The curtains of reality were about to part. The veils were about to be removed. God is coming down to the world. So, God is now talking to Moses and telling the Jewish people, "When the doors of perception are cleansed and everything appears as is infinite, when the people will be given an opportunity to be able to experience the depth of reality, the presence of God like nobody else before and nobody else after, it will be natural for them to want to rush up to the mountain." To get closer, to get the full experience. It's hard for us to understand when we're trapped in the post-tzimtzum world, which means in a reality which is based completely on concealment, shrouded in many layers and veils. It's hard for us to appreciate what it means for a people to experience God in his full majesty and revelation in his full presence. And when that happens, the natural inclination is go out of yourself and run into the mountain to be consumed in the all-pervading reality of God. Let me quote on Orach Chaim to clarify. Open up source number eight, please. The Orach Chaim, Rabbi Nachman ben Nachman describes the death of Nadav and Avihu, which will happen later in the Bible in Parshas Shmini in Leviticus, Aaron's two sons, on the day of the dedication of the temple, are consumed in this holy tabernacle. What happened? How did they die? And the Orach Chaim says, number eight, "Haflas Chibas HaTzaddikim." This demonstrates the tremendous affection of the Tzaddikim, "Shagam Shai Yom Argishim Bemisasam." Although they felt their death, "Lo Yinmenu," they did not stop themselves "Mikrov" from coming close, "Lidveikus." Listen to these words. "Lidveikus Neimus Areivus Yedidus Chavivus Chashikus Mesikus Ad Klos Nafsham Umeiam." They did not prevent themselves from coming close to experience "Dveikus," cleaving, sweetness, pleasantness, love, affection, desire, and sweetness of the creator to the extent that they expired, that their soul left their bodies because the experience was too intense for the body to contain. So, God warns Moses and says, "Tell the Jews that they should not cross the boundary. They should not cross the borders." And the reason is because the objective of Torah was that a human being refine and work with his or her body. That a human being refine his or her physical and material environment. The arrows must be pointing down, Moses. They will be driven, they will be compelled to touch the mountain, to come up to the mountain, to kiss God face to face, but that will translate into their physical demise. And the objective is they must remain down within the containers of a physical world and transform the earthly landscape of their bodies, the earthly landscape of their animal consciousness, the earthly landscape of the world. And turn it into an abode for God and to an abode for the divine. This is an important idea. There basically two visions for Judaism, two different approaches, very briefly. There are those who when you ask them what is Judaism, they see Judaism as an exercise in structure. It's filled with laws and rituals that are time oriented and focus. There's a time for prayer, there's a time for reading the Shema, there's a time for morning mitzvahs, for night mitzvahs, for afternoon mitzvahs. Everything has a time and a structure, and these are people who love structure and they see in Judaism the ultimate paradigm of structure and organization in limitations. They of course draw on the literature of Halakha, of Jewish law, which is all about structure and time oriented. And then there are those who emphasize the ecstasy of Judaism, the transcendence of Judaism, the mystical component of Judaism. The mystic The mystics love the mystic the mystical dimension of Judaism, and they say the Yekkes, sometimes German Jews who love structure, love Judaism as a structure. And often both of them worship their system and believe this is Judaism. For one, Judaism is all about structure, and for the other one, it's havoc, it's chaos, transcendence, going out of your limitations. For some, Judaism is all about staying in your most limited fashion and never changing your lifestyle or YOUR SCHEDULE, HEAVEN FORBID. If davening is called for 7:00 and you start 7:03, some Jews go meshuga, they go crazy. And for others, it's all about transcendence, GOING OUT OF YOURSELF, going out of your limitations. And each of them has sources, and each of them worships their own orbit, and they're both wrong. Judaism is not about limitation, and it's not about going out of limitations. God is not defined by finiteness and is also not defined by infinity. Judaism is about the synthesis and the integration of the infinite and the finite. That creates a tension and a paradox, and that's where Judaism lay. So, at this moment, God says there's going to be a revelation of infinity. The doors of perception will be cleansed, you will experience infinity. Lest you think you can just come up to the MOUNTAIN AND MELT, NO, THEY WILL PERISH. And that's contrary to the objective of Torah. The objective of Torah is to take the infinite experience and then bring it down within the containers and vessels of limitations and lifestyle, to infuse the ordinary with the extraordinary, the natural with the miraculous, earth with heaven, and the finiteness with the infinity. It's not that I want them not to come up to the mountain because I sanctify limitations and structure, and I love the absence of transcendence, no. Judaism is an experience of infinity, but the objective is to bring it into finiteness, into gevul. So, therefore, God tells Moses there are going to be big revelations, but you have to know there must be borders even in the greatest revelations. You have to remember that the objective is to bring it into the containers of the human structure in the human life. This is what he tells them initially. Now, when it comes to actual day and the revelation is about to happen. Now it's actually going to happen here. There will be a tremendous inspiration and craving to go up into it, to melt into it. Here again he has to warn them once again. And say, "Go down and tell them to remain in their place." Moses says, "They can't." "They can't. You already told them." God says, "No." "I know the intense revelation that's going to happen right now. They may be tempted to want to transcend their borders like the himself like another and go and melt away in the ecstasy of God. Go down and tell them to remain within their structure, within their container, within their vessel. I need souls in bodies. I need souls in the physical world. Knowing the intense revelation that is about to take place. I know that now, even if I warned them once, when they will feel the presence of Hashem, they will be compelled to kiss me face-to-face. So, I'm telling you you have to tell them that what Martin Torah is, what the giving of the Torah is, bringing heaven down to earth and infusing your daily physical, mundane life with holiness and sanctity because it's only in that synthesis that you touch the essence which transcends both the finite and the infinite. Let me conclude with a story. There was a wedding in a city of Shklovin. Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, the founder of Chabad, the Alter Rebbe, was marrying off a grandchild to a grandchild of the holy Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev. The chuppah was on Friday and Chassidim tell the story that they were about to go to the chuppah. The groom and the bride were there, but the door to enter into the chuppah was very narrow. And the question was, who goes first? Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, the great master, or the great master, the Alter Rebbe, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi? The two began arguing. Rabbi Levi Yitzchak said, "You go in." And the Alter Rebbe said, "No, you go first. You're older, but you're smarter, but you're a lover of the Jewish people, but you were our teacher's beloved student." Back and forth, who goes in first? In the meantime, the chuppah, they're waiting to start the chuppah, and they're arguing who goes through the door first. So, the holy Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev turns to his colleague, Rabbi Shneur Zalman, and he says, "Lomir durach gehen de vant." Let us go through the wall. And the Rebbe responded and said, "Nein. Zol der tir veren breiter." Let the door expand. There is the approach of let us go through the wall. Let us reach a place which is beyond the limitations of life. Where walls are not boundaries, where walls are not borders, we can go through the walls. Came the Alter Rebbe and said, "No, through the door we must go, only through the door." Nature and structure is here not to undermine it, but to infuse it, to redefine it. To reveal the infinity within the finiteness. We go through the door, but let the door become wider. Have a wonderful night. Mhm.