Episode 15 BEYOND THE 7 (Do not follow after your heart and eyes) with Rabbi Aaron Dovid Poston

[Music] it's [Music] hey good day folks welcome everybody back to another episode of beyond the seven where uh rabbi poston in jerusalem has been continuing uh sharing with us the six constant mitzvahs and um today is part six of their let me er the sixth part of that even though we had a uh uh uh an introduction lesson so this is one of those things you can go back and review especially uh the last six prior to this but this is a real cap he's been teaching us lots of beautiful stuff out of torah and this wonderful book so let's just jump right in and see how the rabbi is doing today i know it's getting late in israel and it's been hot and he's had a busy week but it's always a joy to be with them rabbi poston how are you doing tonight so good to be with you sir and you've got the stage shavuot of everyone thank you so much dan and thank you for all those who are joining us now and who are going to watch us later um yeah tonight is going to be the i guess the the finale although i want to admit that everything that we've been learning is just really a basis for you to do further study um i don't know if i can even justify the greats who have spoken about these six constant mitzvahs i think what i'm hoping to do is introduce you like introduce a a thirst a desire to know more because these mitzvahs these six constant misses we said in the beginning are not necessarily time bound to a certain day a certain holiday a certain person this is incumbent upon everyone all the time one can fulfill these misses so as we spoke and i'll just reiterate what the first five were because we're going to go deeper into number six is to know or believe there's a god okay so that is like so fundamental and i think it's fundamental to to the nocads as well why keep them okay so maybe out of logic fine but you're not going to get to allah you're not going to get the real uh relationship with the ribonucleal island with the creator of the universe that is just so wonderful to have you wouldn't have that if you didn't believe in god okay so that's number one number two is not to have any other gods now how do you how do you what do we express what does it mean we said that it meant that you're not going to shortcut you're not going to try to find success in any other way other than through the all-powerful creative universe how much do we cut ourselves short number one but it's also idol worship right don't have any other gods we think there's powers in this world that are going to bring us success and happiness and we're just following down the wrong path so that's important to know number three is that god is one to really understand what that means that everything and i mean everything even we talked about this because many no heights have come out of christianity uh about the satan about anything that we'll call evil anything that we call bad uh i know again i don't even know if that's a proper translation we talked about everything is good but there is revealed good and then there's hidden good so we call hidden good is something we cannot perceive as good but ultimately ultimately ultimately we'll come to realize that that it was really for our benefit okay so that's knowing god is one then we talk about love of god and fear of god so that was like putting your foot on the gas pedal and the fear was like putting your foot on the brake and while you're driving you have to always be cognizant of your speed your turns the directions going in people passing you you know you have to be defensive driver so er in life so you need to always even though if your foot is no longer anywhere near the brake pedal which i hope it is because it's somewhere near the brake pedal in the cars i've always driven the the gans and the brakes are actually right next to each other but i'm saying that your phys your foot is physically not on the brakes but in your minds you know that at any given second you have to um you're you're um you're uh i'm not impulse but you're um i forget the word um you know when you when the doctor comes and gives you a little knock with a hammer on your knees your reaction to the reaction okay so you have to be ready to react okay so that's love and fear now we're at drum roll please right we're at great mitzvah that says like this you shall not wander after your hearts and after your eyes after which you are going astray what in the world is that talking about so it's actually in the parsha of what we say every day twice a day uh and that's the shema okay so shema there are three paragraphs now that third paragraph is not actually in the deuteronomy paragraph which we actually read today in um but it's earlier on in numbers chapter 15 and it's in the parshaft seat seat and it's a great question why are we reading this at night men anyway it's only men are obligated to where it's eat seat and we're only obligated during the day so why are we saying even at night why are we conscripted to say this paragraph that has to do with seed at night so that the talmud talks about it and before we get to that okay so it will be in in gomorrah 12 b before we get to it i want to just pose some fundamental questions so the word in hebrew let's read the the source in hebrew first hamlet you should have these titsy or etemoto you're supposed to look at them uskartem you're supposed to remember at kohl mitzvot hashem all the midst of hashem so for a jew they're 13. for a non-jew we said there are these seven overreaching principles you're supposed to make these tsitsi i'm sorry this is referring to the missiles you're supposed to perform them you're supposed to do something it's active veloso suru now don't stray don't spy out there's three words maybe more for spies moroglim most people are familiar with that the muragaeo which is actually in modern hebrew or actually even in english the word to tour to um like when you go on a tour group where you go on a tour right so you're checking out the land in fact in israel the emblem like it's called an icon for the ministry of tourism is or right i don't know how to describe it are i think it's like two people carrying a pole with uh grapes on them which is exactly what um is referred to by the moroccan by the sin of the spies and that's the you know emblem so i don't know get it i mean i kind of get it in other words for israel to use that emblem for the ministry of tourism it's probably a reminder that anybody comes and visits this land should not go back with an evil report right hopefully that was the intent as opposed to uh the other way around okay so that's uh just a point of interest rashi actually says on this verse which is very problematic it's problematic because it infers that our heart and our eyes are not positive things and that bothers me a bit and we have to discuss that so let's read the rest of those so don't stray or tour or follow right don't tour after your eyes the acharya in almost a different word where after your eyes the word is going to play a pivotal role in our lesson tonight now that's the interesting word zoning that's another word for going astray but it could and does have sexual connotations so in terms of the eyes it's more sexual but we'll have to talk about what what's the problem with the heart but anyway rashi says the world of suru is like the word for scouting out the land as it was in um um numbers 13 25. now he says the heart and the eyes are spies for the body now spies are not necessarily bad but he says they are its agents for sinning come on what does rashi mean the eyes see and the heart covers you know covet covets and the body then commits the transgression so one thing we should keep in mind with this fantastic statement that the eye sees and then the heart has this desire the problem is the verse says it the other way around it says don't fall after your hearts and after your eyes shouldn't it if rashi is correct is correct don't get me wrong we have to get into what rashi means uh because he's only quoting a measure okay so the measure says the eye sees the heart desires and then the body commits to sin so these agents are used for sinning and we know it's a fact that these things are not intrinsically bad right the heart is not a bad thing and the eyes are not intrinsically bad either another idea is the word for seep see oh i just want to you know let's just continue so the word what does it mean so it may have no meaning at all right you can just say it's the it's a noun it's describing this particular fringe side of the garment however when we look into and i'm not saying an entomologist i don't know that much about language but the song of songs chapter 2 verse 9 we talk about my beloved resembles a gazelle or a fawn of the hinds behold he is standing behind our wall looking from the windows peering from the lattices which has to do with observing so that's a looking minute from the windows but the next word in hebrew which means peering has to do with sight has to do with looking it's from the lattices in other words when you're like a peaking time god forbid um you're looking through between these lattices but here we're talking about looking for your lover right this story of the song of songs is talking about it's a love story and the person is awaiting someone so when you're waiting for somebody you're pacing around the house and you keep looking out the window and you're looking through the blind so to speak so here the word matsits so the word seed seed itself has to do with looking keeping that in mind also what is one of the important traits or characteristics about the tsitsi is there's a a thread of i'm going to use the word blue but we know that it's not blue it's it's actually called it and this taheilet is a unique color it's somewhat maybe a little bit of green in fact the tama tells us that when one should actually look to the sea and see the color which is probably more greenish maybe blue and that should remind you of the color of the sky which hopefully is more blue it's a different hue a different tone a different shade and then that is supposed to remind you of the color on the throne of glory so in other words it's all about gradations in order that you should look at something to remind you ultimately about i'm going to use this word on purpose means the purpose so the purpose is is god so everything is supposed to bring you towards the service of god in fact the sea is what we call fear because the sea way rumbles i don't know if you know i know kids are petrified usually when they first go to the sea and i'm talking about the ocean i'm talking about the ocean where the the ocean itself the water wants to come it wants to go beyond its boundary but of course it's high tide there's low tide of course there's also tsunamis but we're not talking about um you know the outside the norm talking about the way the water works it's kind of like it wants to come and then it pulls back so when we think of nature it's actually fear so this brings us on a lower level we're talking about looking at this the color of the sea we're supposed to reach this level of fear and then we look up at the sky because the color then reminds us the sky and the sky has all these um how do you say it all these orbits all these planetarium stars and they're moving around and around in a perfect orbit usually okay there's comets meteors but in general the stationary the ones that we look at the planets and the stars they're moving around and that's like if you ever been to a jewish wedding or bar mitzvah and i'm sure they do it also in others there's dancing in circles because that represents joy so the planets are serving hashem out of joy the sea seems to be serving hashem out of fear so this is supposed to remind us of our also level of of joy in serving hashem and then ultimately the tahlit in other words the word tacheilas which is that color we're looking at it and supposed to remind us of all our obligations whether you're no height or not right when you're jew or no hide the tachlet the purpose the purpose is to have that connection with hashem so in this mitzvah i think this is what we're going to get this is where we're going to see at the end i don't want to jump the gun here but we're talking about the litmus test after going through the first five of the six constant mitzvahs now this is the litmus test have you accepted and have you incorporated are you living with the first five because now is the test are you going to watch your heart and your eyes so they don't stray okay so we're going to discuss all this hopefully in detail so that was more of an introduction [Applause] and okay so really we have to ask ourselves what's wrong with our heart and our eyes that god is commanding us to make sure that they don't stray so i want to go through this gamora in broncho 12 b that discusses it says there's five reasons why we're going to say the shma knight right where we say the shema this last paragraph of ct because there is a okay i don't want to get too much into the obligation but basically the first paragraph of the shema the second paragraph is basically from the torah the question is the third is it also from the torah or is it rabbinic the bottom line is there's a there's quite a few torah concepts in there that god wants us to remember on a daily basis so the question was what other options were there so parashat balak which is very long was one of the options but in instead this parashat was put in so we this is like part of our mantra and it's very fluid on our mouths we know it by heart but the question is why are we saying this at night why are we saying this at all so there are five elements if you count them there's really going to be six and there's no question which two go together but okay so rabbi huda bar hava said this portion of the ritual french fringes was added because it includes five elements so we know about the um the midst of the fringes themselves that we speak about the exodus from egypt we speak about the yoke of the mitzvoth i actually just want to read it from here because i printed it off for myself so we have the mitsubishi seat we have leaving egypt you see him it's ryan which by the way we're supposed to remember every day so that's important the yoke of the mitzvahs what is what is accepting the yoke of the mitzvahs so it says and you shall do them as i translated you should do them then there's the um the you shouldn't be involved with the opinion of heresy so we're going to talk about that a lot tonight the question is maybe the the the yo taking on the yoka midsons or denying the yoke of this is basically heretical okay so that question is whether those two are the same um there's a prohibition against thinking of well god is warning us against our thoughts against of doing transgression transgression it's called here of era just thinking of sin and then the he avodahzara to think of idol worship so there are opinions that the word the opinions of heresy and idol worship are actually the same so you can understand why we're discussing this with right that they have besides the i'll be i'm going to say obvious um avoid heresy yeah eating god in the revelation otherwise they're not at least the pious ones they're going to go to heaven because this is part and parcel of what we call amongst the khasi um that they believe in the revelation so the exodus from egypt is obviously important obviously knowing the the goal is that about the relationship heresy is obviously a problem so the question is why is this so important okay so where do i want to begin that's going to be the question because i have really so much to talk about and i don't even know where to begin let me let me tell you what i have come to understand the rambam explains what is minus minus is that heresy what is what exactly is this so the idea is don't even entertain it now you know the truth you've studied you know the truth but why would you open yourself up the world is full of it's you know anybody's paying attention to what's going on the news there's a thing called fake news there's a mainstream media and it wasn't just now that we have tv and um you know radio all kinds of you know internet it always was there's always been fake news i actually use the the new testament is my proof that fake news been around for a long time okay so take that as you will why the rambam says just entertaining any possibility that there's an alternative to hashem's existence you're playing with fire right you already know this is true why once you entertain it you know i think goebbels i mean there were these people in the nazi regime regime that they said if you keep telling the lies over and over again you'll get the people to believe it and so if you even begin to entertain it just look at the world today look at the world today it's unbelievable i'll talk about some of the things the hot spots of what's going on but the question you have to ask if you're so secure in your knowledge of god why not entertain it i mean you know we believe in science you know examining all the sides you know what are you so insecure the problem is that it's a problem you know people fall prey to you know all kinds of catchy ideas and catchy phrases as i just mentioned about the the the mass the mass media we have to protect ourselves and we actually have to protect our sanity and it mixes us up it begins to plant doubts into ourselves so you really have to do everything you can to protect yourself rabbi yeah you know it didn't didn't doesn't that knock say about about wisdom wisdom studies the whole of a matter um when we're when we're trying to understand especially those coming out of the 70 nations i mean when we're dealing with a topic or a subject um and we know that there's varying opinions or degrees i mean are we not to look at the whole thing or are you just talking about things that can distract if you're doing a sincere study let's say you are whether you're a doctor or a scientist or you're doing any um you know serious work in learning look that's that's the um what's the word that's the career you're chosen but you then you have to be on guard i'll give you an example like rabbi toby singer if your job is to um do counter missionary or to get jews out of christianity so you're actually allowed you might have you must you must study these things okay so that's when you're you're doing a very particular but if you're just sitting and chilling and relaxing oh yeah i'll just open this up or people invite you we're going to this protest you know it's for you know whatever it is you know then you you're uh open to these ideas for what do some studying first make sure that this is something that you believe in if you're going to go to a protest so don't dance around a trap don't dance around a snare so what happens is we get used to these ideas and the example of like western society there's um there's a total deterioration of values you know and i'm gonna use labels okay liberalism or progressive left they have brought up ideas that are now widely acceptable um what was not socially acceptable generations ago now it's totally acceptable that they believe nothing is absolute that anything goes that the world is healthcare ownerless there's no god and i read as soon as the shabbos was over that they're burning bibles in portland or wherever these places are that they're they're um now look i don't know whose bible they're burning but uh once they're trying to burn the truth and this becomes like a frenzy this is how one little idea can open up and look what they're doing already they're getting rid of or trying to get uproot all the the values that we hold dear you know what was maybe immoral one year ago is now accepted they don't believe in right or wrong it doesn't exist that they believe there's no absolute truth whatever society accepts um now people like us who may be what they call absolutist they're going to call us old-fashioned primitive outdated mystaciously they're narrow-minded yeah you know um now they'll call themselves very accepting and open now the pro it's a big problem especially for i'm going to use the word unaffiliated jews let's say unlearned jews jews that have been bought hook lining sinker to this idea that they think tolerance i'm using that word specifically they think that this is the most basic jewish ideal that they would fight for tolerance you have to hear everybody's ideas everybody's now i know there's cancer culture it doesn't mean you can't hear them but it's it's a problem it's a big problem that they believe you have to respect everyone's beliefs you know and the concept of democracy is basically said everyone has a right and to express their opinions and beliefs so this is a bit of a problem okay we're gonna have to deal with it as individuals you know society is one thing but as individuals living in the society how are we going to deal with it so if you look for tolerance in the bible you're not going to find it you're not going to find it i'm sorry you know there's an idea that if you're kind to the cruel then you'll be to the kind right we noticed this by king saul right he was supposed to wipe out the whole nation of the malay and he left the king over and he was too compassionate to this cruel person and then as a result not only later did you know amali come against us but he even went ahead and killed the khanim in nov because they supplied they gave king david well he wasn't king of the way he was king but anyway they supplied king david with supplies and therefore he killed righteous people so even in his own lifetime this was a big mistake and you could see how someone could slide down i guess the the rabbit hole and it's very bad so it goes so far as blood libels you know that i don't know if many people are aware of this it's really a sad thing to have to mention but it was in the dark ages in the middle ages and even today and it probably was way back when that the non-jews many of them obviously not all of them believed that the jews killed young christian babies or gentile babies to draw their blood out to use for making matzos now you can say like this is so weird why did we have to put up with this type of pogroms i mean they they they killed us they they talked this horrible um libel against us it's called the blood bible and many jews lost their lives but i think it was important that any sane jew knew we don't eat blood we don't kill christian babies it is so preposterous that it was basically like a big red sign neon lights don't follow their ways they are insane these people have made up absolute lies and therefore they're not to be believed in other words it was like a protection a lot of anti-semitism ends up protecting us people who are not that affiliated but then they get uh what's the word you know they experience anti-semitism and it strengthens their own identity in judaism and many of them have either returned or like we see now many jews are afraid of what's going on in america and are ready to uh to make a big move to ericsson so we see that on a certain level that um you know we know it's absolute nonsense and therefore it can keep us in check and not go not go after them not far left holocaust denial listen i mean this is only 70 some years ago and the human basically the idea humans are so gullible you have academics professors i mean all kinds of you know supposedly very smart people and they're in total denial of the holocaust and uh there are many followers right there's people that unfortunately spin doctors we call them um listen i'm not an expert on evolution but there are parts of the evolution theory that are just so preposterous okay it's more of a religion uh following the blind and some of it doesn't make sense but hook line and sinker and so what i'm trying to say by giving you all these these lists this list of things is that it's obviously not true at least in its entirety and yet yet people willing to you know give up their the first five mitzvahs because they're following after the hearts of their eyes we'll have to discuss what that means still even in america you had the north you had the south you had a civil war you know that the the democrat when you could do your own study on this the democrat party was for segregation they were for slaves they were and the republicans were for integration and getting abolition getting rid of the slaves and the kkk was started by the the democrats and today the the lying factory the propaganda factory is that the republicans are the racist and it's like you know it's now i don't want to get into the whole thing with masks but also we have to know that the science swings both ways okay just so people are aware that the elderly the people who are have immune issues we must try our best do everything we can to protect them that's for sure but some people are like i heard in the previous calling police because someone isn't wearing first of all you don't know maybe the person has respiratory you know maybe they were experienced i think there's a whole long list if people were abused as children they don't have to wear there's all people who have mental diseases all kinds of reasons why wouldn't why wouldn't one need not wear a mask but basically this is like getting out of hand it's just way out of hand okay so there's always new science coming up so we have to be careful and follow the torah and not what just society thinks or is um to tell us you know what i forgot to do i want to mention uh the num how the how rubbed by daniel katz translates the hoffenskayam's original uh work actually comes from the say foreign but let's just stay on track here i know we're halfway hour in but this is what it says this is about mitzvah number six one must remain cautious not to be drawn after the perceptions and desires of our heart or be driven by desire from what your eyes appear to see this is what the torah teaches in numbers 15 39 do not be turned by the base desires of your heart and after your eyes which can lead you astray our sages at the talmud which we're in the middle of reading in brahmos 12 b explain this teaching in more depth after the base desires of your heart which on a deeper level is a form of opticorsus that's heresy so we're going to see following after your heart is heresy whereas following after your eyes is called lust zlute so what is heresy it's denial of hashem's existence and after your eyes which alludes to zenut which is lust how is pursuing the base desires of the heart comparable to denying shem's existence because when the foreign and disruptive thoughts rise up in our heart they can contradict and challenge the higher divine knowledge and torah wisdom we attempt to live by that's why i say this is like the real litmus test the category of eyes and lust is referring to someone that lust after the pleasures of this physical world and who does so with the sole intention of gratifying their animal desire without any higher or pure pure motivation or intent such as being healthier and stronger to grow in spiritual development in service now that's the correct way okay so that is what we're dealing with for those who missed what we're really referring to here now i wanted to talk about this uh gemara in 12b we were in the middle of it we mentioned about these five elements we talked about them but the in the paragraph it actually mentions three so the gomorrah wants to know where do we know the other three uh remember they're six but five okay anyway so the yoke of the mitzvah is obvious that's because this will do them the ritual fringes is obvious because it discusses to make them and the exits from egypt you should remember i took you out of egypt okay fine but where in the world in that paragraph you have the idea of what we call dot minus this idea of i just want to make sure i have here uh dr minos is the opinion of heresy where do you see it in the paragraph or the idea of hirohorivera thoughts of transgressions or thoughts of idols where so okay let me continue with the go away the gamora responds that it's taught right don't follow after your heart that is referring to psalms 14 1. if you look at psalms 14 1 for the conductor of david elohim the fool said in his heart there is no god so here you have naval bilibo we're going to use this phrase later we're going to dissect it a little bit better but it's the fool who says in his heart so you can see that the heart can come to the conclusion that there is no god okay but that's foolish so now we know what it says don't follow after your heart it's referring to idol worship because you would not know that the heart unfortunately could be the seat as we see here the fool says in his heart there is no god then you have what does it mean after your eyes so that's talking about transgressions of licentiousness and you can go to judges 14 3 where shimshon samson speaks to his father and his mother he wants that woman and who's not jewish he says to his father take her for me because she's pleasing in my eyes her take for me because she is pleasing in my eyes and what about idol worship how does that relate because it says don't stray loss of suru don't stray ah after so in georges 8 33 it says the children of israel turned again astray after the after bow so in hebrew the yeshua implies going after as the verse explains after idols so you had the word in our don't stray after the your hearts in your eyes okay so that is just that was really i think laying the groundwork okay so what i want to mention now something absolutely fascinating i think anyway and i hope that you guys will also for sure okay let's see you see the word lev which is heart it's laminbet now again i don't know if this you're seeing this frontward or backward okay you might be seeing it backward not gonna help okay okay uh the word for idol is bethlehem now i know people would say isn't i in llamad that's also true we're when i'll show you that beth lamin means idol worship okay so lava's heart that's in one direction the opposite direction islamic bet so i'm betlamin amazing so we're going to go through a piece of the benjoda which i know you guys absolutely love every time i go through it and i have to find it it's from the back of one of your sheets here it is he asked the same question the gamora asked when it says after your hearts this is heresy he asked the question for where do we know where does it imply heresy so he says if you look at the the word laminbed le mafreia means in the opposite direction bethlehem is a nickname for for idol worship and now i give you two verses as proof for that in jeremiah 51 44 you can look it up and i don't know in the english but this english translation says i will visit rest rest retribution on bell b-e-l in babylon and i will take what he has swallowed out of his mouth the nation shall no longer stream to him even the walls of babylon have fallen so the word bow is the name of the god in babylon that was 51 jeremiah 51 jeremiah 51 verse 44. okay i'm sorry i was reading 34. and rashi says on there on the word bell it's a deity of babylon now go to isaiah 46 1 it says karabaw this kara means to squat to bend over kauris naval and naval spoils himself soils himself their idols were to the beast and to the cattle which you carry is made a load a burden for the weary rashi there says the deities of babylon squad squatted and soiled themselves this is an expression of ridicule of the idols like one who suffers from diarrhea and doesn't manage to sit down on the seat in the private privy before he just discharges with a splash okay that's a little bit too graphic but you get the idea that the word baal beth lamid is the same as heart but backwards so continuing continuing with this most interesting ben yoda he says that this heresy is drawn it draws a man towards idol worship also the language now in hebrew bilbu bilbu that's where the word babylon comes from bilbo means all mixed up right the tower of babylon we became all mixed up so the word bow bethlehem is based on this babylonian listen i went to jamaica with my wife my wife's from jamaica and uh the uh one of those guys called with the dreadlocks anyway rastafarians rastafarians yes yeah i mean you know i'm sure they're not the only ones i think even christians they're really into this like um there's some kind of culture called babylon and you gotta stay far away you know they know that babylon is full of lies and idols and all that stuff right even to this day they're perhaps that's quite known in christianity we look at babylon's dead you know that's uh they're gone but maybe maybe their uh their ideas live on in other people so the word bow which is idols is related to bilbo which is confusion so basically what is heresy heresy is that heresy is the mixing up the confusion and the overturning of the words of god the living god that are written in his torah right this is like hello just keep learning torah you don't need to get involved with all this stuff and now if you go to first kings chapter verse 37 this is part of the conversation elijah the prophet is having with hashem in response to warning these jews don't sit down you can't sit on the fence you have to choose between god and bow bal is the number one what chapter rabbi first kings chapter 18 verse 37 sorry rabbi you got it yes sir so elijah's saying answer me oh lord answer me and this people in other words if you can bring fire down from heaven and create this miracle the people will make a choice here and you'll you'll show them and this people shall know that you are the lord god and now these are the important words and you have turned their hearts backwards in other words the ataha sibo you are the reason means to follow but here it means back to go backwards which they were into idol worship so that was bethlehem and elijah wants their hearts to be turned backward to their true hearts which is laminbed i know this is really you know beyond a lot of people yeah beautiful if you want to look at rashi on that it says you have given them a place to turn away from following you although you were able to direct their hearts towards you and that's what um elijah wanted that god to do and if you don't answer me i'm going to deny and say you turned their hearts okay it goes on and on and on so okay so back to this idea that what we find out is that the reversal of the letters lamin bet which is heart turns into bet lamin meaning she gets bob babalu which is causing confusion now that this is real we have to cr we have to create a safe space safe space for our own sanity right rav north weinberg taught that insanity is contagious and how true it is how true it is you have to choose your friends wisely this is what it means don't fall after your heart of your eyes right choose your you have to be careful what you're looking at careful what you're going to read careful you turn on the radio carefully you turn on the tv and i'll use a joe biden one be careful with your turn on your record player right for those who know what i'm talking about i pulled the biden okay that's called a bind okay and this is what it means if you look in psalms remember we read this already psalms 14 1 this was the full set in his heart there is no god but in hebrew it says is not part of the roots really is right bethlehem it becomes a bethlehem the noon is like causative in the sense that navel belibo the the fool says in his heart so what's the real root of nun betlam and again it's bet lamin he's the fool he's the one in idol worship and he says in his heart there is no god so he says keep ashamed within the name of navel you have the backwards laminbed it's it's betlamin that's basically you're talking about a rearrangement of the letters and that's causing the problem and now when we come to that last piece ahrens this is causing your when you when your eyes stray you're going to have a possibility of dirty thoughts like sensuous thoughts so the word achary so akhere is what we said earlier on means minus means problematic thoughts it's backwards so it says like this that the word iron i in that's for the word i though the letters that come right before it i mean if you work backwards from ayan is so the sonic is the letter before the ion the tet is the letter that comes before the yud and the mem is the letter that comes for the nun in other words each letter of iron i there's a letter before it and that's satam satam i know it sounds like the word satan and we're going to relate it to that in a second it means to be blocked this is going to cause a blockage in your relationship with god tom is a stima like when you have uh pipes and they're clogged it's called the lush is the actual blockage is the thoughts that are coming from the satan and this we have to be on guard for ki satan meaning those two words the satan which is the uh the power that's creating a lot of problems for us and the blockage it's all one it's one concept it's one thing wow okay so that's we're just getting started i'm kidding we're almost there now so i think we should realize how important this is this is the real litmus test if we really the question really asks is after you have the first five why do you need this because this is really putting into practice everything you've learned if you know there's a god right and there's no other god and he's one and you love him and you fear him the truth is you would not want to follow your hearts in your eyes but you have to be on guard at all times god created this world where remember we talked about this in order to have reward there has to be an effort right that there has to be that friction that god does not want to give us the bread of shame he doesn't want to just give us a free gift the more effort the more the reward is worth and therefore on a daily basis on a moment-to-moment basis we're faced with all kinds of challenges not just you know pornography or women who aren't dressed properly but we're we're constantly faced with well it's an easy way to make a buck i could just show them real quick the contract and make sure that the font is really small there's all kinds of ways that we you know violate the first five because we're weak or because we have these desires for a quick fix we have to be on constant guard so what i want to do is read the last the last page of this sixth mitzvah which deals with the practical applications okay so if we get internalize the practical applications hopefully we'll be able to increase our service to hashem our love and in the relationship so the words lo suru which means don't stray is a mitzvah that protects the five that precede it it's actually a protection for that it means that assuring our success in implementing the other constant mitzvahs and preventing us from becoming blinded by emotions and cravings that run counter to the outlook on life that we have developed through the study of the constant misses the heart which represents the seat of emotion often sends us messages that contradict reality in the spiritual realm realm those messages might manifest themselves as feelings or regret of our choices that the vote should devote ourselves to torah mitzvos right how often do we find family members or community members hopefully not in the religious community but that are upset about our choices and they degrade us right they call us fanatics extremists those feelings might not be accompanied by the by an overwhelming drive to acting correctly but they never will nevertheless cast a pal over our service of hashem in other words we become less fired up to serve hashem when society seems to be against what we're saying the eyes perceive sights that can lead to cravings which can overwhelm us and distract us from the truth we've come to know just long enough to cause us to sin since emotions and cravings are hard to quell once they begin to fester the key to success is prevention i think they say prevention is the best medicine um i don't know who said that maybe it was benjamin franklin i don't know uh thus the midst of this phrase don't stray after your heart and eyes rather than straying after your heart and eyes put these essential organs to use in other words use them in the service of hashem you're constantly you know they're they're hashem we have them and god wants us to use our heart he wants us uh did i talk about the ones no there are actually quite a few interesting verses that i think i skipped it that god says i want your heart here i don't think i read this in proverbs 23 26 god says my child give me your heart give your heart to me he wants your heart don't throw it out right we just have to train it right also the concept of the eyes the sanhedrin is called the eyes of the ada the sanhedrin if you want to look in um and numbers 15 24. when it talks about the um it's it's a communal sin but it's because the eyes of the assembly made the mistake the eyes and assembly there is talking about the um the sanhedrin so we know there's so many things that the the heart and the eyes are good for and they actually have such positive purpose so our goal is to use what god gave us in in serving him hashem properly okay here are the practical applications one develop a strong emotional bond with torah mitzvahs and service of hashem which will fill your heart with emotions that promote your quest for perfection and thereby prevent you from developing contradictory emotions you know intellect over emotion everybody has the ability to do it and that's why we mentioned that most of these missiles are actually intellectual this is more practical but the other ones were more thought out number two avoid situations in which your eyes might see something that could lead you to sin because craving can develop from the slightest perception you just see the slightest thing and it can develop we can also develop cravings for spirituality use it which manifests themselves as learning to choose correctly as a matter of routine okay but not out of rope so you know someone has such a craving for spirituality pick up books start having a relationship with a teacher number three we talked about netflix making sure you do an accounting of your soul as a completion of the taj mahal and efficient process that you started in the previous one was called yirat hashem the fear of god set aside time occasionally to review all the insights you've gained during your study of the sick constant mitzvahs this will ensure that you will not become distracted and that your actions still reflect those misses for the purpose they represent okay the bottom the bottom line is this mitzvah of don't follow after your heart your eyes it protects all the six the five previous mitzvahs it requires us to take steps to avoid getting distracted and losing sight of our true goals and mission which is the word trailers right this idea of don't fall after your heart your eyes is impartial the word is the word for that blue blue purple green thread whatever that the word trails represents it's that thread and that one thread that one thin that's it that's going to make or break this is the purpose right it sounds like it's reversed the first five are fundamental but this protects those fundamentals this is what's going to it's a litmus test do those five really mean anything to you then you'll protect your heart from minus from heresy and you'll protect your eyes from physical pleasures and lust that will distract you in your service of hashem okay so i know if there's any questions that were posed well rabbi you know like the last few weeks um you seem to have captivated the audience a little bit i mean i'm really blown away about the uh uh llamad bet and [Music] it's just it's such a huge and yet should be something that's right there simple and easy to grasp but you know what it unfurls and unfurls and unfurls with the wisdom that comes out and function um the number of scriptures you're pulling out uh are just profound um i like the way you brought it out in numbers and proverbs and even kings and in the profits i mean it's just amazing to see how the the principle is so there and alive and i think you really you really brought this home in the sense that those first five yes they're as big as they were as grand as the classes have been you know this is the litmus test where's the rubber hit the road you know is it the real deal and this is the chaos tacos yeah wow you know i was even looking up because i got a view of the sky here when you were talking about the ocean and the color and and and i'm looking at the color of the sky and you know i got all kinds of ideas flowing through my brain but i think you punched it home as far as the way um our heart and our eyes are connected but more so than that how it should be prioritized how how things need to be kept under wrap and and in check and and and also developed and um there's definitely definitely so much room for human growth here um but the way the path i think these six constant mit give us a great framework that i think it's it's so dire in this day and age that those of the 70 nations really need to hear they need to plug in and just say okay is there something here for me how could they listen to such such profound truth without saying there's nothing in it for them or even begin to see the connection and and see how torah can come alive you know i've heard so many people speak over the years and um you know even the question of confusion the way you brought things out you know the way things that bring indecision and hesitation into people's lives and they're usually because it's going in the wrong direction the exact opposite and uh yeah um it's usually by putting up that idol before you know in the heart you know and and um they don't realize and uh especially us who's out here in the 70 nations i mean it seems like the jewish people have understood this for a long time it's very very tough to to get the world uh to say hey wait a second it it rings true it's not just it's not just you know it's not just something you can check on a uh a mathematical a formula it it rings true and it walks out true and and and the relationship with hashem and the peace that comes with it i think is there it's plain in in in these six constant mitzvah um i'm wondering if anybody there online has any questions or rabbi have you got any statements i'm going to see if there's any questions online here while you're waiting for those questions to come in if they do i want to mention that tonight will be the last class on the six constant mitzvas we're also taking a small break for the summer we're going to come back sometime in a month's time in about a month i think and we're going to begin a new series i don't know how long it's going to last i don't think it'll last 48 weeks i could try to cover let's go longer [Music] i don't know if it's backwards i don't know if you can see the cover but it's 48 ways to wisdom okay it's based on if you want to do some homework it's based on rav north weinberg series it's um based on the sixth mission of the sixth chapter of perpetual vote 40 48 ways to acquire wisdom in other words it will teach you a mahalak a derek a way to behave your modification for your life to make it more successful how to acquire wisdom daily wisdom in your life and how to live a a torah eternal life so bazrat hashem when we all come back yeah i'm gonna do i'm gonna put a post out folks yeah uh august 23rd and i'm planning to do my last broadcast for about five weeks or six weeks at then so that means it's a few weeks away still so it might be might be about eight weeks or so before we see uh uh uh rabbi aaron uh rabbi poston again rabbi i wanna thank you personally because this series has been a real turnaround for for my life turn around for even even with the no hired world center we've been doing a lot of broadcast here for a couple of years uh and when you're serious this beyond the seven it's real you know provoked a lot of noahide to think wait a second you know there's been questions and uh endlessly by noah hides can i do this can i do that a lot of them come with a misconception should i be doing this should i be doing that or a lot of them just don't care and they think i'm going to do it anyways and they missed the whole point of the matter of what is specifically for the nation of israel and what are they supposed to be teaching you know and i even looked at a post online a friend of mine down down in arizona there had a post up and and the point being that he was somebody had inquired about you know noah hyde clergy and there was a lot of argument back and forth back and forth and i had to i had to weigh in on that i says i says nowhere in torah tanakh has hashem you know asked anybody whatsoever except the people of israel to be a kingdom of priests nowhere and and and and you know a leader is what a leader does right and um you know if if if no heights need to develop in their area need to develop in their communities um be a leader for who you are but you have to be able to walk it out and you're not going to even be able to walk it out unless you know what it is you're supposed to be performing the class that you brought alive has actually been on the seventh given people uh whoa wait a second we can barely hold a candle to this you know uh so especially for those that you know it goes right to their head they think they're a leader i'm going to be in ohio i'm going to be a no highly and the reality is we realize you know we can't hold a candle unless we're you know being taught the truth and this beyond the seven has actually started to really open up noah's eyes to say that there is more that they can do but it's got to be done right or it can be this this this uh uh lamidbad bet lamid uh mix-up and i think um where your uh where your uh pulse is to share with us is is is spot on rabbi thank you now i just want to say how much wisdom there is in the torah in fact i it was even in this week's bar show could it be weighed how much wisdom there is in torah could it ever be measured or weighed right right unbelievable that's so great um let me just find it [Music] um like even in this week's parsha there's so much about listening the word shema like in this week's parsha it means to intellectually understand so the word shema has to do with hearing as opposed to seeing there's no intellectual understanding with seeing and even the seat of emotion which was our heart and it speaks so much about seeing seeing seeing here even in you know in talking about in this week's parsha don't follow after your eyes here who can assure that this heart should remain theirs there's always this doubt when it comes to the heart or when it comes to the eyes there's so many doubts but when it comes to really the intellectual understanding then you're then you're i'm going to say on safe ground but again you you're always going to be tested in the hearing yes and understand what that is remember that that's yeah folks that's totally different than sight and i think rabbi poston's lesson today are in the six across the midst really punch that home uh rabbi i don't know what to say but all i can say folks to you out there listening the the 48 ways he's going to start to share if you've never ever ever looked this up in pirkei avos chapter 6 if you've never looked at what that 48 ways really is i want you to understand this is a course that goes from crescendo to crescendo to crescendo to crescendo you think you're at a symphony you think you heard it all and then all of a sudden it's bigger it's broader it's it's grander and it's like you know just light up light up light up i want to invite everybody personally even though we may be away for a number of weeks we will be back hashem willing with uh the 48 ways to wisdom and i look forward to hearing you uh extrapolate that especially from the source you're going to be uh doing it from but yeah you pierce chapter six folks you guys can look it up and uh how deep it is it's something that could go on for a year year and a half so okay this is what i wanted to share so the jewish people you shall safeguard and perform them for it is your wisdom and discernment in the eyes of the people i told you in this week's partial so much thing about eyes and and heart but main thing is to hear but listen to what it says so it's true i just want to mention how much wisdom is in the torah and we're here to share it because how can one live their life without the instruction manual that god created the world with and gave it to us us meaning the whole world just that we are the priests we are the teachers so it's so interesting this is chapter four of deuteronomy verse six talk to the jewish people you shall safeguard and perform them for it's your wisdom and discernment in the eyes of the people whatever we're doing somehow another it's considered wisdom and discernment in your eyes who shall hear all these decrees again here it's not put on the heart or the eyes you have to hear here means intellectually understand them wow deuteronomy and discernment in the eyes of the people who shall fear all the decrees so the non-jews should fear sorry here here which means even the ones you're not obligated to perform you should still learn about the moral compass about the the imperative yeah there's so much depth to every mitzvah of how one should live their lives even if you're not obligated to you this is home at the non-jews i read it okay chapter four of deuteronomy verse six it says safeguard yeah go ahead oh sorry i was just gonna read it it says observe therefore and do them for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples that when they hear all these statutes shall say surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people okay so read the next verse also for what great nation is there that hath god so nigh unto them as the lord our god is whenever we call upon him and which yeah so look there's so much wisdom here and it's for you it's for you it's not we're just here to disseminate it obviously we have to live it we have to like you said it comes first to us and we have to what's the point in teaching tour if you're not living it so we're doing our best and i hope there's more that would join us and in all levels on every facet whether you're a full-fledged member of the tribe or you're just part of the human race rabbi have you ever heard the phrase don't shoot the messenger you know but truthfully you know i got some books arrived in the mail this week and there's been a bit of a backlog with coronavirus uh down in in the united states and i got a book from a rabbi in florida uh and my point being it came i was excited i was overjoyed and the truth is if you look at the scripture for what it is and they're sharing it you know when i say don't shoot the messenger look at it in a different light when you're getting something beautiful the truth is the torah from the the the people of israel out of jerusalem it's just a joy to have them share it as it was intended from sinai it's beautiful rabbi i want to thank you this is profound any closing words then before we we escape away for a number of weeks someone just asked if i will be on your banana the next few weeks the answer is yes our classes are going to continue as is so i don't know if you know there's yibben a youtube channel you just punch in y-i-b-o-n-e-h and you'll find the icon you know it looks like a little bit of a wall with some bricks saying yibane in english in hebrew you should subscribe i invite you to subscribe it's in your interest i'm not going to say it's not going to i don't get anything out of it um so number one if you subscribe you'll be able to see rabbi brightowitz whoever else we're having and you'll be able to keep up with us in the interim excellent and you can always go to your website um uh or find him on social media folks you can find him on facebook you can find him uh on his youtube channel like you mentioned rabbi it's a joy to spend time with you and i love the torah and i love your angle it's a joy to be with you so i'm looking forward to the 48 ways hashem willing we'll see you in a number of weeks folks and this is i'll be stepping aside because i i have an exam coming up and all kinds of stuff on the go uh and then you know rosh hashanah yom kippur gonna hit so uh rabbis aren't gonna be available then to do broadcast so um i'm looking forward though to getting back together with you and and i look forward to the day so hashem willing we'll see you in a number of weeks rabbi uh but i'll still be doing broadcast folks till august 23rd is where my target is uh then i gotta really crack down and make sure i'm prepared for this exam so you know till then um this is dan signing out with rabbi uh rabbi uh aaron david poston in jerusalem who stays up late just to share torah with you out there folks so i hope you appreciate it share this message on youtube share it on facebook share it all over social media thank you very much folks and have a wonderful wonderful week [Music] is