Do Not Act Like All the Other Nations with Rabbi Aaron Dovid Poston

Shalom aleichem everybody. Welcome home to Torah. A warm welcome home to Torah at the Yibaneh Beit Midrash. Baruch Hashem, we have a Zoom audience, we have a Skype audience, we have a live audience. Uh we're going to begin. It's going to be a I think it's going to be a short class on Parshat Shavuot, and then we're going to break it into a second class on the Omer, continuing part two. So, I hope you stay tuned or click the next video to see that as well. Okay, so I decided when I looked over the parsha, something short, something sweet, uh that um actually hit me like it like resonated in dealing with the Omer, because when we are in the period of counting the Omer, we're in a period of our lives where we're really concentrating and working on our character traits. Okay? As we all know, the famous expression that uh Rabbi Akiva's students were not treating each other with respect, and unfortunately, a plague came and 24,000 of his students passed away from the plague during this time. It's really supposed to be when we have the temple, it's going to be like Chol HaMoed from Pesach until Shavuot. This is a time of great simcha, but as you know, during most of this time, we don't have weddings, we don't have you know, celebrations of sorts, we don't listen to live music, at least for 33 days of of this period of time. So, the idea is to concentrate on working on our character. Now, interestingly enough, in chapter 18 of Acharei Mot, chapter 18 of Leviticus, those five verses, right before we get into all of the sexual abominations, which is quite a list through the rest of the chapter 18, these first five verses introduce a concept. And this concept, I just want to also preface, when it comes to righteous gentiles, truly righteous gentiles, they will, I hope, really understand what the Torah is trying to say here. I think that if you are not yet, you have not yet initiated yourself, you have not accepted upon yourselves the seven Noachide laws that were reiterated at Sinai and support the Jewish people in their mission, there's it's very likely you're going to have a misunderstanding. You're going to come out and think, "Wow, that's what the Jews think of non-Jews?" Okay, so be prepared. This is not going to be a PC class at all, okay? And I pray that those non-Jews, gentiles, who are watching this will do their own investigation and look into what we call the seven the Sheva B'nei Mitzvot B'nei Noach, the seven mitzvot that were given over to all mankind, and they will better understand the Jewish nation and the way we treat uh let's just say pagans, or how we look at pagans, and how we actually treat and look at righteous gentiles, mamash like our own brothers, right? A a non-Jew can live in Israel and be socially acceptable accepted um totally like on a whole 'nother level. It's just totally unbelievable, right? An unbelievable madregah, an unbelievable level that I think and I hope that every non-Jew would aspire to. And in the end of days, the the holiness, the kedusha of Eretz Yisrael will extend to the whole world. So, um I think it's better to get on the page, because you will be living in Eretz Yisrael, no matter where you live on the globe, after the Mashiach comes, right? Because the kedusha of Eretz Yisrael will spread to the whole world. So, I think that gives us an inkling of who will survive Armageddon, the the war of Gog and Magog, right? You got to get on the page with the program. So, let's look at chapter 18 again, Leviticus. Hashem said to Moses, saying, "Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, I am Hashem your God." Not the first time we've heard such a thing, but now it gets interesting. Do not perform the practice. Now, you have to know the Hebrew, right? Hopefully, you all learn Hebrew, because in the days of Mashiach, everyone will I don't know if they'll actually speak Hebrew, but they will understand, and they will um praise Hashem in the holy tongue. Do not perform the practice of the land of Egypt. Now, in Hebrew, it says "K'ma'aseh Eretz Mitzrayim." Right? "Lo yeshav asher yeshavtem bo lo ta'asu." Don't act, don't perform, don't practice, don't act like them. Again, we're talking about character traits, and we're also talking about customs, things like that. But not only that, don't just look backwards in the past, when I'm going to bring you into the land of Israel, don't act like them either. There's something about them you shouldn't do. So, don't act like the people who were in Egypt, and do not perform the practice of the land of Canaan to which I bring you, and do not follow their traditions. In Hebrew, uh "U'k'ma'aseh Eretz Kena'an asher ani mevi etzchem shamah lo ta'asu u'v'chukoteihem u'v'chukoteihem lo telechu." I just want to finish uh the other verses four and five. Carry out my laws, right? God wants you to follow His laws, His ways, and safeguard His decrees. My decrees, He says, to follow them. I am Hashem your God. You shall observe my decrees and my laws, which man shall carry out and by which he shall live. I am Hashem. Okay, we're not going to discuss a very important topic tonight, and that would be which mitzvot, what does it mean you should live by them? That's a whole a whole sefer, a whole discussion in itself. Um so, now, let's go read in Hebrew the last two verses. "Et mishpatai ta'asu." Right? God wants you to do His uh laws. "V'et chukotai tishmoru." Right? His statutes you should guard. "Lalechet bahem." To go in them. "Ani Hashem." Uh your God. "Eloheichem u'shmartem et chukotai and guard my statutes v'et mishpatai and my laws asher ya'asu otam." These are the things you're supposed to do, but don't follow who? Who did we hear? Not the Egyptians from the past, and not the Canaanites who are the uh how should we say it? They're the natives. They're not indigenous. They're actually thieves. They're actually from Cham. Canaan is from Cham, and therefore they belong in the land in the in the continent of Africa. However, as you know, anybody who knows geography can see the north north uh we call it northeastern tip of Africa, you have Egypt, and extends over to what we call the Sinai Peninsula, and and then into Eretz Kena'an, Eretz Eretz Yisrael. Really, this is Eretz Yisrael. That's the true name, the true nature of it. However, at the time, these people were there. They shouldn't have been there, okay? They were there, and they were expelled, correct? Little by little, as we will just see. So, now, so I just want to get my notes together. I do do that, right? Here we go. As the verse says, this this is the Kli Yakar, okay? The Kli Yakar says, "K'ma'aseh Oh, I also want to mention, what I gave is only like not even a third of the essay. I just wanted to try to capture this thought before we go into the Omer, because I think it's fundamental for us to capture this thought uh since we're working on our character traits during this throughout the Omer, during the counting of the Omer period. And the verse says, "Like the actions, k'ma'aseh." And we saw translates practices, don't follow traditions either. Uh those who uh of the land of Egypt which you have dwelt, past tense, but it didn't end there, it also says, "When I bring you to the land, don't act like them either." So, the first question the Kli Yakar is basically asking, I mean, what do you need both for? And we'll look at Rashi, because what Rashi has to say is very interesting. So, you saw both, "Asher yeshavtem bo." That's the past tense. And also, "Asher ani mevi etzchem shamah." I'm going to bring you there. Don't act like them either. "K'mo stam Yosef Ba'al Halachiv l'veit Aviv hamakom she'eino mekukav kol kach." Think back in Egypt. What did Yosef do? Yosef told his brothers, "When Pharaoh asks you, what do you do for a living, make sure to tell him you are shepherds." Why? Yes, it's true, I won't deny it, they wanted the best of the land, nice, lush, green area somewhere off the Nile where they would be able to feed their sheep. But the rest of the verse says because it's an abomination in their eyes. Why? Because the the sheep and the goat the sheep was their God was their deity. And therefore he wanted them he wanted the brothers to live separately. We didn't want he did not want them to assimilate. He didn't want them to follow their their ways, right? Their practices their their behavior. This was the most important thing to Joseph. So going back Joseph himself tried his best to separate his brothers and his household from a place where they could become ruined where they they could become mikukao ruined. I don't know a better word than that. K'dei sh'lo y'lamdu mimaseihem in order not to learn from their actions. Hadura saboyim who? That our own children and our children's children, right? That we should not learn from the actions of these particular Gentiles. I'm using this act this description. These particular Gentiles so far we saw don't act like the Egyptians. We saw what Joseph did. V'chein m'stama Kadosh Baruchu be'er l'Yisrael. So too Hashem was also doing the same thing. He was following Joseph's footsteps. Or could we say Joseph was doing Hashem's will from the very beginning? Yes. That Hashem also wanted to separate Israel to a place where they would not become so corrupt so mikukao so ruined so much. K'dei sh'lo y'lamdu meihem. Again so we shouldn't learn from them. But one second when we came into the land how fast did we conquer? It was first of all it was a long war. It was a seven-year war and then it took another seven years to divide up the the land. But it was never accomplished until the time of David Hamelach. So you're talking about like 400 years it took for us to finally get rid of any kind of foreign foreign influence in the land of Israel. I want you to go to Exodus chapter 23 verse 30. God even says over there it's going to happen little by little. And because there are ramifications if you conquer the land too fast. So I mentioned it's in Exodus chapter 23 verse 30. Let's just see the context. The context over there says even though 30 is the I believe it's the last few few verses of that. And here we go. You can start even verse 27, right? I'm going to send my fear before you and I'm going to confound the entire people among who you shall come. And I shall make all your enemies turn the back of their neck to you. 28 I will send a hornet swarm before you and I'll drive away the Hivite the Canaanite and the Hittite before you. Now in 29 he says I will not drive them away from you in a single year lest the land become desolate and the wildlife of the field multiply against you. Right? If you have x amount of Jews in an empty land you have what do you have? Lions and tigers and bears. Woah woah however it goes, right? You could have an onslaught of wildlife that would just be so overwhelming plus the weeds and and whatnot. So but look at the next verse. Hashem himself says little by little and that's our verse. M'at m'at slowly slowly little by little shall I drive them away from you until you become fruitful and make the land your heritage. So keep this in mind. I want to tell you what Rashi says over there. I'm sorry. Rashi going to say in our verse. He's going to tell us that the reason this verse is coming to tell us about the Egyptians cuz they're like the worst. Now today's Egyptians are not the same. They're not that different but they're they're not the same. Okay? They're not the same. They're not the same people. Right? So Herod and other great leaders I don't know if Alexander the Great other people mixed up so many different countries with different populations that nobody knows really who anybody is today. Okay? So many of the people of the world don't even know who they're where they're from. Although we do have some of our students here I can verify these people are 100% Chinese made in China, right? Okay. All right. So now the kodem she garish es kulam before they would all be expelled. Remember it's going to take a long time. Yeish l'chosh there is to be concerned there is to be worried about. Pen y'lamdu mimaseihem. God forbid lest we learn from their ways. Al kein amar that's why it says sh'afilu k'maseihem lo ta'asu. Even their actions meaning the when we come into the land of Canaan even their actions do not follow. Now this is where it gets a little interesting. Kal vachomer l'sha'ar l'sha'ar to'avot Mitzrayim asher lo yishak'u bahem. The kal vachomer l'sha'ar umot. Okay? So it's true by the people in Canaan it has to be even more true by the Egyptians who are worse. And not only that there's also a logical conclusion. You may not agree with it but there's a logical conclusion. This this applies to all nations. Meaning we have a command not to follow the customs of the Gentiles. It's not just Egyptians it's not just the Canaanites. But this is like a command not to follow in general anybody who's not a part of the Jewish nation. But Rashi didn't seem to say that. Rashi seemed to say the reason the Torah is telling us is because they're the worst of the worst. Both the Egyptians they're the worst of the worst and the Canaanites they're the worst of the worst. The Kli Yakar is bothered by this. Because if you want to say a logical conclusion would be the other way around. What's the other way around? They're the worst of the worst that's why God has to tell you don't follow them. But listen Australia they're nice people. America they're so kind they're so polite. Right? Canada you can't get better than that. That's okay. No. That's not that's not how the Kli Yakar he's he's bothered by Rashi because you would come to a conclusion that would be okay. So he has a little bit of a problem. He actually asked the question. K'safka d'da'ata lomar is would it really come upon your mind to say that it's docked that specifically sh'oykin sh'gashu bahem. Va'ashani meivi eschem sham it's only going to be by the Egyptians who you were dwelling by and it's only going to be by the Canaanites and the people I'm going to bring you to ham'kukalim mikulam that they're the worst of everybody? Doesn't make sense. Only those lo ya'asu only those you shouldn't follow? Aval k'masei umot she'eino kol kach mikukalim ya'asu. Big question mark. But all the other nations that aren't so bad you may follow? You hear his reasoning it's a great question. And he answers chalila God forbid m'lomar kein. No way you can't say that. But rather it's coming to add something. And why would you have these two examples? It means it's a principle. It's not just these two examples. It's not just Egypt and it's not just the the Canaanites. But rather k'dei sh'lo yili Yisrael makom l'ta'ot bahem in order for the Jewish people not to make a mistake by maybe saying to themselves you know what? May acher sh'yashvu b'eretz Goshen. After the fact that we lived in Goshen we weren't really amongst them but we were separate but nevertheless we did that because we didn't want to learn from them anything. Vada'i hatam l'fishei maseihem mikukalim kol kach. And v'chein meivi eschem Kadosh Baruchu meivi otanu l'eretz zu. Vada'i ein maseihem mikukalim. We might think okay just like we were separated over there it's okay, right? In Egypt it wasn't so bad cuz we were separate and the very fact that God's bringing us there it can't be so bad either. So um sh'gerashu me'artza. What was the point of God saying he's going to expel them? Heinu l'fishei sh'yashvu b'eretz lo lahem. Because they they were living meaning what we called natives but they weren't indigenous. The Canaanites were not the indigenous populations we started from the very beginning. They're from Cham. Right? Shem Cham and Yafes the three children of Noach and they were divided amongst the continents. Again I don't know what happened to Australia I think they all came from Europe at some point. But no obviously there's indigenous people there. Okay? So you have Asia which Eretz Yisrael is in Asia and that's Shem. That's why us and the Chinese are really kissing cousins so to speak. And then you have Europe which is Yafes and then you have Africa which is Cham and Canaan belonged on the other side of the Suez Canal. Okay. So they're not native sorry they're not indigenous. Sh'rei ha'Kena'ani haya holech the kodesh ha'aretz mizaro shel Shem. That's what they did. They conquered the land. The Canaanites conquered the lands from the children of Shem. So, they're the real occupiers. Right? Not occupying in a negative sense. They were kodesh. They conquered the land. Al ken hu drakka kodesh baruch hu dia. This is exactly what Hashem wants to inform you. Shegam hem ma'asim mekukalim that also, right? That's why the verse tells also the Canaanites, they're also um they're not native they're not indigenous. They're not going to stay there very long. Don't worry, but don't learn from them. Ve'im lo kol kach kazulatim, they're not really like everyone else. Mekom kom, nevertheless, kedei bizayon deketsif in order to stay away, let's say, uh from the the degrading or the derogatory types of behavior and ketsif, which is also uh it's called um uh the opposite of fitting and lo hagun, right? It's um the very bad behavior. Yesh ba'asim. Kama kal vachomer luzulatan, the answer is the ultimate answer to this puzzle is this applies to all nations. With the exception, I already mentioned in the beginning, that righteous gentiles are also actually allowed to live amongst the Jews as a ger toshav, which unfortunately we don't have that status today. But bizrat Hashem soon once a majority of the Jews live in Israel and we're able to follow the laws of shmita on a Torah level and we have the temple, then the right? When Jubilee when the laws of Jubilee apply then the laws of ger toshav would apply. But in conceptually speaking there is such a concept called a ger toshav and we welcome the non-Jews to of course to accept what God already commanded them and to live amongst us, right? That we would treat them like our brothers in our in our midst. We would have no problem learning from them because they would be like like Jews. Like Jews in in a in a great sense because they they have accepted the Torah from Sinai and in public in public for the most part they would observe Shabbat in public for the most part. They wouldn't open up pork restaurants in Israel. They would observe and respect the Jewish traditions and you could rely on them for so many things. Unbelievable. So, that day is coming soon. I really feel it in my bones. Okay, so I I wanted to introduce this idea because what we're talking about in in the Omer is working on our character traits and it's going to come up. These same concepts are going to come up. So, I'm going to just say shalom aleichem to everybody. Have a great shabbat. Have an awesome shabbat. And uh stay tuned, you know, if you want to watch the the video on the Omer. Bizrat Hashem it should be uploaded very soon or already by now. And um Sidor, welcome home to Torah. Have a great life.