CHOOSE GREATNESS {Yeshiva Aish Kodesh Norfolk Virginia}

Long Island. >> Oh, very nice. >> Okay, perfect. >> Nice to see you. >> Okay. Um, it's a big plus to have everybody here. We don't have such a world famous speaker and we're very very well known speaker and it's a so without further ado, we also wish a big on. >> Yeah. Okay. Okay, good morning everyone. I assume now it's uh the beginning of this man and in the beginning of this man we always have to know you know the garra begins with t. So you have to know what's tafalif. In other words, before you open up the garra, what is the what are the right thoughts? What are the right preparations we should have in our mind for being in yeshiva and for learning tyra in general. There's a very interesting comment of Rabuya on the shar. Rabuya talks about the hierarchy of different mitzvah in the Torah. What does that mean? that technically speaking the most strict uh aver that carry with it punishment of bezden and then you have a ver that carry with it uh other severe penalties and then you have what we call that that uh is violated with action and then you have something called a that it's not an action and then the lowest on the totem pole is an assay a mitzvah because if someone violates an assay there's no punishment in this world meaning there's no punishment that could give to you but then raen says even though a mitzvah is not really that strict compared to other mitzv nevertheless listen to these words says the greatest avenues of hashem are given with And then lists different mitzvah that are what he calls. I'll give you a few examples. Trust in hashem mentions thinking about hashem's rail. Okay. Now, if I were to ask you, if you were making a list of the most important mitzvah, who knows what is the most important mitzvah sass in the Tyra? Anybody know? What would you say? The most important mitzvah. What would you think? >> What would you say? We say it every morning. I'm learning to is the greatest mitzvah. What would you say is number two? If you had to guess the second what >> ding ding is one of the second one is what would you say >> respecting your father and mother >> it's interesting is a very important mitzvah actually in this week's para we have which the med says is and the says is in a certain sense the med is the most important but the thing is is talking about and I'll try to explain this more areas of and I would have thought is number one and number two and actually there are many gar that group together and many gumas that say let's say if you want to be spared from the birth pangs of Msiah you should learn to be there are many many gumaras that speak about learning Torah and doing in fact Shabasal Shabas says that children came into the base medish and they said a drussa that even from the times of no one ever said such a good drussia you ready for the druss the drussa darian the alf stands for learn stands for says the fact that these Two mitzvah are alluded to in the beginning of the alf days learn says from here we see the two ink the twoar the two main ways of serving hashem are learning and doing and therefore throughout chass we always find learning tra and doing are always put together what's interesting is when lists all the that are given the mitz say number two is and number three is so I was very happy to see that because that means these are you know the most important but then we have to try to see what is number one number one must be really important and I was shocked I was stunned when says the greatest avenues of say you What mitzvah number one is malas the of like it says choose life. I'm saying what the of is not a mitzvah. There's no mitzvah. Bakira is a mitzvah. B is a concept that a person has free choice that Hashem determines and decides everything in our life. Everything that happens to us is not a coincidence. It's not because of some, you know, if somebody harms us. It's not because he wanted to harm us. It's because Hashem decreed if somebody does something good to us, it's not like the guy wanted to do something good to us. We believe Hashem wanted this good thing to happen. But is an idea. It's a concept. I remember I was once giving a shir to seniors and an 80-year-old guy. I was talking about free choice and this 80-year-old man who was yeshiva educated. That's why by the way it's important to pay attention in yeshiva cuz sometimes the rebi could teach something and if you weren't listening that day this guy was 80 years old and listen to what he thought. I remember I said you know we believe that a Jew has free choice. The guy says what? He says you're a kifer. You're a heretic. We have free choice. God determines everything we do. Whether we do a mitz or we do a vera, Hashem makes us do it. I said, "You're a nice guy. It's nice that you're wearing a yamaka. You probably put on fill in every day, but you have the same belief as Christians. We don't believe that ink. We believe Hashem determines everything we do except our actions. We do mitzvah. We Hashem so to speak when it comes to mitzvah and a veras he gives us free choice but free choice is not a mitzvah it's an idea the Rambam when he counts the 613 mitzvah he doesn't count as a mitzvah and ra says that is a not only is it a it is the very first and most important mitzvah so probably we have to try to figure about what is raishin. Rish means every single word he says is carefully calculated and we have the right to analyze and study why he put it in this order and why he said it this way. Okay. So I was looking around looking around and I saw a ton of develo tano is one of the midrashim. Did you ever hear this? You're obligated to say, "When will I reach the maj?" Have you ever hear that teaching that here it is? I wake up in the morning and I'm I walk into Yeshiva. Maybe I'm a little tired and about to open up the sidd and you need to ask yourself when will I dive in like Abrahamu he probably d in the good shakas he made up shakas you know he probably he the real shakas and when I come to min I should think when will my be like do you ever hear that obligation that there's a to say when will I reach the maj of Abrait and yakov So I was I was bothered by a very interesting question. Ready for this question? You know Tana is a medish. Who wrote who wrote the medish? Anybody know? Tanoim. Could a Tana come into a base medish and say, you know, I think that every Jew should say, could a make up a What do you think? >> No. No. What could a Tana do? What a Tana could do is he could tell us how he understands what the is saying but a Tana has no right to innovate. They can't be even can't be even if would come and say you know I want to I want to innovate a new they have no right. Even a Nvi can't innovate something. So how could a medish come along and say that a person is obligated to say that when will I be like the I mean you know it's a nice thing to say but how could a med say that we're obligated to say it says somewhere in the did you ever see in the kish you ever you ever open up a kish they have in north look at this see you could open up the kish I don't see anywhere it says is not in boracious not in shimmo not in vayikra that it says you have to put on fillin it says you have to keep shabas where does it say that I'm obligated to say when am I going to be like moenu in other words the question is is it good enough just to do the mitzvah or is there some kind of obligation that a person should always try to strive and to think when could I be a very big sadic when could I be a When could I do great things for Is there such an obligation? Are you supposed to think that way or is it enough just to do what it says? So I'm looking around and I I looked at some of the mafia and they all ask what is talking about that the first mitzvah is you should choose life. What is that mitzvah? So then I found in another safer of Rabuana Rabinana wrote the safer shar. So how does it work over here? You guys are in what grade? >> 9th through 11th. >> Ninth, 11th and 12th. >> 10th. >> So 9th through 12th. Okay. You ever see Shah Chuba? I'm sure in the Yeshiva they they whip out the Shar Chuva in L. Yeah. Rabuana wrote the safer Shah Chuva. He also wrote a safer sh it's another towards the end of safer sha rau says something amazing rau writes that every single day a person should strengthen themselves and should add to the raashem and should think about what more they could do and should think about why loved and why the were so dear What did they do that made them so beloved by Hashem? And a person should want to be that way. And a person should strive to be that way. And if a person wants to be that way, says he will be rewarded as if he already achieved that. As long as you do your best, for the choice alone, you'll receive reward. Like it says you should choose life. You ever hear such an amazing thing? Rabo learns there's a mitzvah in the Tory that at every Jew, whatever level you're on, even if when right now you open up a garra, maybe we can't even read one line of gar on our own, but still you should open up the gumar and say I want to know the with the rashi and tyus and you know I come from with the marsh and they're very into you want to know this ma you want to know it like the biggest when you come to Davin even if it's hard even to say the words it's okay it takes time to get used to dabining to get into davening to understand the meaning of dining but the first step before you davin is how would you like to dab what do you dream of what do you aspire to what levels would you like to reach rao learns That is a mitzvah in the Tory. You hear this? So B is the beginning of the MSA alf is what you think before you open the gar is the big mitzvah. Are you ready for this mitzvah? One day I want to be a big one day I want to be a big one day I want to be a great that's a mitzvah in the Tyra and what's interesting is according to if we're med if we're if we look carefully at the order of the mitzvah if number two is if number three is which you would expect them to be one and two if puts the mitzvah number one that must be like step one step one ine is not what you're doing but what you would like to be doing it's not where you are but where you would like to be and that's a very important mitzvah and especially in the beginning of Isman and especially when you're a teenager that's a very important mitzvah because more important than what you do is what you would like to do. You know somebody a bakar once came to Kyvski and the bakar said to can I have a bra I want to be so laughed he said I can't give you a brah to be only you could become a if you learn you'll become a if you don't learn you won't become a what do you want from me so the bakar thinks for a minute and the bakar says okay give me a bra that I should want to be a So, I can't give you want to be that's up to you. That's your free choice. That's your I can't interfere with that. You know, you on your own, every has to decide, has to bring out the desire to be a So, the boy was very clever. The boy says to you're right. Only I could want to be a could the Rebi give me a that I should want to want to be aim smiled. He said that I could give you a braha for. So I guess following I wish all of you that you should wake up in the morning and say I'm not sure yet what I want but at least I should want to want uh the right things. So it's a great that you have to be in yeshiva kadosha here in Norfol Virginia. You know, in New York, it's hard to explain to, you know, let's say, uh, I have I have boys. You ever hear, you know, they're like 2,000 kids over there and you you go over there, you think every single boy in the world goes to yeshiva. You know, you never even people in New York, you never even saw a kid who doesn't go to yeshiva. But, you know, to explain to them that even though there are thousands of kids in Yeshiva, they're only 0.000000001% 000 0 1% of young people in the world. But you know here you understand your mamish cherry picked if you're in yeshiva that means cherrypicked you of all the millions and billions of people in the world to be you're like you're you're VIPs your royal class and basically the whole world I don't want to put pressure on you but the whole world stands on your shoulders. So you got to step up to the plate. You know, most Jews in the world today, not only do they not know, um Schnealis, they never heard of Aramino. 90% of Jews today, they don't know Arau from George Washington. They don't know the difference. They don't know either of them. They never heard of Moshabenu. 90% of Jews today don't know the But you go to yeshiva, you know, you know, and uh you have a big job, you have a big tap and should give you all. I wish you all