For the War is Not Yours but God's! and the Secret of Tefillin with Rabbi Aaron Dovid Poston

[Music] Shalom Al everybody Welcome Home to Torah a warm a very warm welcome home to Torah we are not at the Yan aate mad once again we are still due to the war we are at the ER M where people are making titas some people even make tias in the room I know it's hard to concentrate and make titas the same time but tonight's Shear today's Shear is about tius a little bit we're going we're going to touch upon that at the end but mainly about to fill in and by the way our organization Yan has made a major effort to raise funds in order to get to fill to the soldiers and it's so relevant you're going to find out how relevant it really is what we're doing why there's an Awakening amongst the soldiers who want to put on the filling it's like this inner cry for what you will find out in this year we're going to start in Chapter 13 the very last verse it's verse 16 of chapter 13 and it says very strange language it's we'll see why so it shall be a sign upon your handy at the end the other verse says it should be a sign upon your hand as a y right without just a cuff with the with the vowel here you have have a cuff hay at the end we're going to explain it and it should be ornaments between your eyes that's what toos are we'll see in Rashi for with a mighty hand the Lord take us out of Egypt by the way so we'll look at Rashi real quick the word toos it doesn't seem to be originally a Hebrew word Rashi says it was an old Coptic word and it's like um Toto f are basically two two and in African also it means to and there's a tradition that it really also means to speak to speak like pesak uh on pesak we open our mouth and we speak about the Wonders that Hashem did for us so too these are supposed to be as a remembrance as we'll see another verse and whoever sees them is B right bound to the to the Jew between their eyes will recall the miracle of the Exodus and speak about it it causes you to speak about it okay so let's see with the cleard the cleard mentions right away I'm not on the right page here we are so and the page I gave you it's re Sonic bet it's the bottom the last two paragraphs so it's verse 16 so tell us it's actually in the sh AR we all know that men put on toin on their weak arm it's very strange because the verse tells you it's going be a sign God took you out of Egypt with a mighty arm right well the truth is we were 49 levels of Tuma we didn't even want to leave he had to take us out by force but the point is here rash the clear brings inor Y is a is is a word that symbolizes weakness dim something that's dim you know when you talk about colors it's a color that's dim it's not a bright color here you're talking about a weak color here in this sense we're talking about the weak hand so it's counterintuitive because you would think that it should be on the on the strong hand the truth be told that the Mitzvah is done with the strong hand now I'm left-handed so my my right hand is my right my left hand is perform my right my left hand is considered my right hand my strong hand and it's doing the Mitzvah so my right hand where I lay the toilin on to is my weak hand but everyone else right 90% of the world they're going to put their to fill in on their strong hand but what does it teach usill in be small and you can look in verse sorry Source number two in 37a Rashi said the requirement of the toilin is to be doned on the weak arm on the left arm and it's based on this verse right should be ass signed upon your arm Y which is written with the letter hey at the end and we understand that you put on your weak arm happens to be a m i don't understand the mlus I have to tell you but it's worth reading that RAB ABA said to Rashi well you can actually say y don't read it as y but read it as y with your strong hand which would be your right arm and um Rashi responds back and says it's written with a hey not a so it's not but it's your weak arm so it's done on your weak arm it's going to be very important your left arm is your weak arm and therefore theill is put on the weak arm don't worry women we're not just talking about laws of tfillin we're going to go deep into some really fundamental concepts in our faith and our relationship with Hashem and and how this all relates in a very practical way so right away the cleart says V the reason for the matter is as follows right hopefully we all have SE SE I want to translate differently SE usually means intelligent that's how we use it in modern terms but as we know the clear who we're basing all of our uh teaching tonight on he's a student of the Mah the Mah translates the word SE as Spirit like Soul i' like to take a middle view so you have the rambam and the rationalist SE means intelligence you have the cabalist they say SE means spirit so I'm going to call it an intellectual spirit bear with me that's my compromise he says that the SE which we call the intellectual Spirit and the which is the physical part of who we are zul they are Rivals one to another right the physical world and the spiritual world are Rivals that's don't worry about that they're locking up the office and guess what third line down when one Rises whether it be the intellectual Spirit which Rises then the physicality diminishes or vice versa I want to tell you a real quick story about R Lish R Lish was a bandit before he became rim Lish he was B Chua but before he became famous as a balua and a rabbi yet he was I think of like Tarzan swinging from the trees and or maybe Robin Hood and uh swooping down and and and he was a bandit stealing I don't know if he was a murderer but he was a bad guy and The Story Goes that he saw raban R yokan by the way was very beautiful I'm not going to go into how we know but he was beautiful beautiful as a man and he was swimming in the river or lake and rer saw him and thought it was a woman and when he jumped in realized it's RAB yokan raban realized the reason why R Lakes jumped into the water to romance him let's say h he knew he was beautiful H he saw the power and the desire the physical desire of this person and he told them that if you commit yourself to learning Torah I promise you I'll give you my sister as a wife RL said yes and at that moment he lost all of his physical strength so there is this up and down you can't have both I mean Hali maybe in the ultimate World there is a way but let's just talk in the natural world we live in it seems like there are opposing each other so you can't have both when one goes up the other goes down and here is a principle when the physical part of us is Afflicted then what increases the the spiritual intellect then increases and the proof is Vu just look at what happened in Egypt we were Afflicted in Egypt why was it a punishment right what did Abraham do that God promised your seed will be strangers in a land that is not theirs 400 years were we that bad no not necessarily this was a promise in order for a certain outcome and the outcome I believe is right here in order to bring the physicality of the Jewish people into the iron Crucible which is a purification it's like I think of the witches pot right it's going to be hot and obviously when you deal with metals or maybe any other kind of liquids the I'm going to use the word scum I don't know whatever what other what other word to use but there's some kind of a film of so less that you're going to get rid of that so it's a purification process that's what we had to go through whoa that through that iron Crucible we we were raised up we increased and strengthened ourselves on a in spiritually intellectual level and proof or in order to Bear witness from the word we have this concept we all know people who are in their old age and we also know because we've been ourselves youth at some point while a person is still yet young and ignorant you know what happens that's when we're at our physical height our physical strength is at its height guess what that's also when we are and I'll just say it that's when we're most stupid right when we're going through you know the up until adolescence and Beyond a little bit however when you come in your days meaning when you advanced in your days meaning old age the then the physical power or prowess that we have is continuous continuingly to diminishing itself that's when your hopefully your your wisdom increases and there's no question why we stand up for someone who's 70 years or older we have to stand up even if they're not a they have experience there's something wise hopefully in their that they've acquired through their life two more lines therefore this is very interesting if someone would say I want you to look at um number four in the sore sheet it's Ecclesiastes but before we do that I want to go back to Source number three here that this concept the more that Israel is Afflicted the more we Prosper so this idea that it says in Exodus 1:12 right the Egyptians Afflicted us as much as they would afflict us afflict them so did they multiply and they gain strength and they were disgusted in you know in the eyes of the Egyptians because of the Jewish people the Kash ano as we were afflicted well that's the next part but basically that's the increase the increase of what it's true we have this tradition that there were the more they Afflicted us the more we had babies the more babies we produced but I think it's also in terms of the uh the SEO so the now going into Ecclesiastes chapter 7 verse 10 where it says don't say so only a fool would would say this as it says at the end how is it that the former days were better than these right whoever is looking back when they were youth stupid and ignorant think that it's much better for not out of wisdom have you asked concerning this says don't say that when we were young it was such much so much better that's only physically but what about all the wisdom that we've gained daily all those [Music] years it's not out of it's not a wise question you're showing how little you um cherish wisdom and then behe behold shahare it says in the next source which would number five in job 12:2 that it's in in the ERS that's where the wisdom is found and in longevity there is understanding okay so that's the first paragraph This is the same case with we have two hands right 90% of the population their left hand is weak by the way is anybody here left-handed like me okay so I told you it's a very small percentage so the left hand is the weak hand the he it is dimmed it's weak but now where is the I looked it up it says that the heart is on the left side of the chest it's slightly to the left okay it's basically in the center but it's slightly to the left the liver we we don't we have two kidneys so we can't say which side it's on it's both sides the liver is on the right side the heart is going to rep represent the SE the spirit SL intellect that's the heart oh we're not talking about the toil we're talking about the arm the weak arm is near the heart that's what we're talking about your weak arm is near the heart okay so your teillon is on your weak arm closest to your heart okay so that so the CLE car explains that your weend is ConEd it's the first line of that next paragraph It's parallel it's close to the heart that's where the wisdom resides in the heart that the very place that the um the intellect resides which is in the heart is gin Goin means that's what causes your head to be weak in other words the reason why your left hand is weak is because it's so close to to the heart not not because it's the heart as an organ and it pumps blood but it's because it's so close to that part of your body that is so spiritual as we described the spiritual part is going to be as opposed to a strong physique um so he says it's right it's the the the arms themselves right is what it deals with with physical matters so that which deals with the physical matters and that which is closest to the heart is going to be weak but when it comes to your right hand which is strong which is so close to the place where your liver is that's is that liver is where it's the it's where the power and physical desire stem from there's no opposition it's not opposing the the right arm that's where the main place of power resides but we come back to that place of spiritual intellect which was the heart sham y That's where you're going to find the weak arm on the left left side Turn the Page now our verse says right it's going to be a sign on your weak arm as if it's saying not it's going to it's it's like it's saying it's a sign on your heart because the weak arm is only weak because of the close proximity to your heart the spiritual seat of your spiritual intellect it's telling you it's going to be a sign on your heart not just on your hand why because the LA is the the heart is the reason for the weakness of the hand now the reason for the is as a zik as a Rememberance so the toing is there in order to be for a person as a remembrance in order to remember the very place of the heart the where the um the spiritual intellect it's not only in the heart it's also in the mo okay therefore the verse says b between your eyes before I get into this I just want to mention when it says be between your eyes we do not place theill in here between our eyes we place it above our hairline between our eyes meaning even Steven right in the middle where the when we were a baby so there's a soft spot if you ever had touched a b you know it's a little bit spooky you touch a baby's forehead there's a real soft spot so what I see is eventually it joins but there's still a crack or there's still some V vulnerability there the toil is like an antenna okay it's connecting your brain and I'll explain why your brain to theill it's like an antenna now what do you mean between your eyes your eyes are your mirror or S window to your soul to your brain I mean there's a direct connection with all the nerves behind behind the scenes right so I'm going this on purpose because if I showed you the side my side view the teillon is directly above those nerves between the eyes and the Brain okay those nerves is the connectors and therefore this antenna is in a very soft or vulnerable vulnerable place where it can easily uh infiltrate is that the word or you know enter and therefore that's where uh theill is clear so going back to what the cleard is saying is what does it mean between your eyes we all know right the eye sees the heart desires and then the hands act right then there's action so these are called two agents the eyes and the heart are agents which cause us to sin therefore those two places meaning the eyes and your hands or let's say your heart for the matter they require extra um awareness uh remembrance I'll just read like this H it those members of your body those organs of your body require something in order to remind it that Hashem exists and his abilities and in that way it'll serve as a reminder to do chuva but I think it actually serves you more as a reminder not to sin in the first place but of course we're only human and of course we do uh make mistakes but at least this should help serve in order for us to do trua okay so the clear continues usually means alternatively something different but I think what the clear usually means when he says another level of understanding so he starts off there's a reason that it mentions your weak arm to teach you that shal it's a very interesting verse in uh 1 Samuel 2:9 you'll find this in in number 10 on the souret the last words for not by strength will man succeed will man Prevail okay it's not by strength our strength only by hashem's strength okay so as we will see and this is so Prime for what we're going through right now as a people in our war although I have to tell you this war did not start on October 7th it is a 100-year war and you know since we started coming back in Mass maybe even 150 years but anyway it dates back to the time of yishmael and but in the meantime it's not by man's strength he going to win the war but it's Hashem will fight our Wars in fact just go to 2 Chronicles 20:15 you could see it inside for the war is not yours but God's this is God's War okay so go on that the hand of man which is weak in general is anyway weak from doing anything whether it's big or small be provided right it's only weak when hashem's not with us as long as Hashem is with us then he strengthens our hand and the verse in Isaiah chapter 41:20 expresses this quite clearly in order they shall see and know this is number 12 on the sore sheet Isaiah 41:20 in order that they shall see and know and pay attention understand together that the hand of the Lord did this and the Holy One of Israel created it so it's through Hashem and then we get to the next part just like King David said now this is a little bit of a a narrative that we're going to go through the story of King David in Psalms 16:8 he says I place hasem before me always which is we're very familiar with that but think about the next part because at my he God is at my right hand I will not falter okay so the the Rashi says on that verse in all my Deeds I have placed fear before my eyes why because he is always at my right hand to help me so I should not falter the other explanation is what's in the right hand that is the Torah is in the right hand okay so that's how originally thought what was D worried about think about this a second I think zerak brought this up during one of the breaks if my liver is on my right side which is my strength and my weak hand is next to my heart which is my spiritual strength then I'm doid and I'm thinking what does God want of me he wants me to be physically strong because he created me that way with my liver and my right hand is strong and my SEO or my spiritual aspect and my left hand is weak so that's how God wanted the World created no D rethought about this deeply again we're four lines down David was originally extremely bothered by the very fact that the heart heart the seat of in intellect and spirit is on the left side and the the liver is on the right side as if that's what God wants and therefore the physical prowess is the most important thing and the whereas the intellectual Spirit would be Tel Tel means secondary k car just like the right hand is the ier the prime and the smel and the left is secondary but you know what he thought about this he said you know what I place God before me always now we know that God does not have a physical presence not a body not a right not a left but the Torah ascribes physical what they're called they're called anthropomorphisms when I do in and I walk forward three uh steps and I walk back three steps when I walk back three steps which way do I bow first I bow to the left then to the right to the middle why am I bowing first to my left the answer is because that's God's right it's his right it's God's right hand that I am tapping into so listen to what he says when I place God before me always and I just said those words usually in front of every uh Amud where the schak the person who's leading the prayer service usually that is written doesn't have to be but it's in a lot of sedor it's in the it's actually the first in the right theim are those who put hasem before them always so the left my left is really God's right and in that I am assured I feel secure that what because he is at my right hand I shall not falter I'm going to translate this at the end listen to this translation I wrote it down because it's what King David actually said in the beginning was you know I have set God before me always but then he realized that my his own left hand is facing God's right so to speak so to speak kav therefore what King David said was in this I trust because God is at my right side when he's at my right side I won't falter meaning that the physical Drive remember my right is where the physical Drive is it's on the right and it will not be able to turn me away from the correct lifestyle so the right wants to take me away but because of God's right hand so to speak is raised in Majesty to give might and power to the intellectual heart so God's right is over here on my left side but he's raising that up so that the intellectual heart which is opposite God's right hand because it is opposite my weak hand which is the seat of the heart and thus my physical abilities come solely from God I'm remembering that even on the right everything comes solely from God he's the source of everything that's the best translation and understanding I can give and he goes on to say the next part and King David says see my heart is rejoiced Psalms 16:9 see we' talked about that's 168 the last the next verse which is the last verse of chapter 16 therefore my heart is that right or there's one more verse no we're going to deal with verse 11 is the last verse so verse 9 therefore my heart rejoiced so D is now confident what does he say because I see and I perceive that hem is the one who is strengthening me he's holding me up therefore in verse 11 he ends verse nine ends at the end I'm sorry verse 11 go to Source number 16 King David says there is pleasantness in your right hand forever so God's right hand is parallel his what his SE his Spirit his weak arm I'll just read the whole verse you shall let me know the way of life the fullness is of joys in your presence there is pleasantness imut in your right hand forever beautiful idea so the clear continues masma Z masma means infers not my right hand but God's everything is dependent on God's right handed that is going to be parallel my weak hand the that's why God told me and commanded me to put on to Fillin right we have the the um we have the doid in the knot in the back behind sitting at the entrance way of my skull we have the shin inscribed right on the on the itself and you have a yud on the knot that's on the arm that's shinid yud one of God's names that's what he means when he says the name of God is engraved on thein on the the weak arm to teach you remember God's name is is going to be inscribed on my weak arm sh that the hand of God that is what strengthening it's the strength of the right hand that's giving my weak hand strength so it's God's right is parallel to my left weak hand that's what it means going back to Exodus 13:1 16 which we said was Source number one it's our verse that at the end it says that God took us out of Egypt with a strong hand his strong hand not our strong hand I knew that it was through his right and what besides we have to know the right is always Mercy the left is always didn't and judgment so keeping that in mind it's through hashem's Mercy that he took us out of Egypt so his right strong hand is parallel the person's weak left hand and with that strong hand he took us out with his right hand and with that um uh I'm basically facing when I'm facing Hashem so to speak I place God before me always then his right is always parallel to my left to teach you what that we should Place onto our hearts that weak side that no action is totally dependent on us only with the help of God only with the help of God can we accomplish anything in we're totally dependent on God we will be answered and it will and if we think it's us first of all we're running up the wrong path so when we have when we're aware of God's help and we're dependent on God's help by the way we're we're learning during the week one of the curses in Leviticus I think it's chapter 26 verse 27 or 28 God says if you act with me with towards me with Randomness bikra I'm going to act with you B mikra with Randomness when we say wow everything it's it's it's really M I can see the hand of God believe me the hand of God is always going to be there when you say I don't see I don't see it well you're you're acting with Randomness towards God God will act towards you in the same way now going back to our original verse I think it's no it's not our original verse it's actually 13 verse 9 so where do we see that on the sour sheet 139 it's probably where we're at it's closer to where we're at um on the last oh I didn't bring it okay it's number 21 on this so it says eight okay that's why I wrote that as a help number okay number eight so this sounds like our verse right and it shall be for you A Sign upon your hand and is a remembrance what did R verse say it says it shall be a signed upon your hand and ornament between your eyes so you already see it's different but the Hebrew is different in in our verse originally in verse 16 this verse says sorry it says doesn't say verse but it shall be to you it shall be to you okay um besides the word Y is spelled correctly let not the but the the with the with the uh the correct vow okay it's going to be a remembrance but it's a remembrance to whom to you wait till you hear this if you ever see anybody walking down the street with theill on right some people wear theill all day you go to the old city you'll see them when you're walking through the street you have to cover the head to fill in because in case there is dog excrement or just garbage could be other things so you want to have them covered but once you get inside should not be covered so the arm to fill in actually should be covered okay we'll talk about that in a second and that's why you have a plastic box that goes over it by the way now I always thought I mean you'll see many people they'll took they'll take their once they put the on they put their into the sleeve or they put on something that covers it their tal whatever it is it's supposed to be covered it's for you okay okay it's for you but the head toil does not say it's for you which means it's for others to see and we're in the middle of a war so there going to be very important what I'm about to tell you now there's a little plastic box that's used to uh let's say guard against the wear and tear of putting your hand into the sleeve because it's supposed to be covered but I always understood that the Box itself also is making a covered so the men who make this fil I I got to ask them a question why is there a hole is it so that when you come across you can kiss it yes and no so he said to me like this when if it was covered entirely there is a and I saw it in the when you make a br on something you you're supposed to see it you're putting a mza you're using uh putting things in in a m you see it you're holding it whatever it is even food it's you're looking at it so you're making the on the it should be seen the whole is so that you're not violating this of not seeing it so it's it's kind of covered but not entirely covered okay I just thought that would be an interesting tidbit of information right now we just said the word it's and the word is spelled correctly when it comes to the Head fill in to you is not mentioned why because it's a sign for others and this is Deuteronomy 28:10 which you will find I believe uh on the last page no it's the number 22 on page five yeah I would say drum roll please this would be like the highlight of the she right we're in a Mil we're making tiis we're making you know we're collecting money and distributing to fill in then all the peoples of the Earth will see that the name of the Lord is called upon you and they will fear you and by the way so that we do wear to fill in the the Mitzvah is really to wear it all day long I'll just give you some background why don't we many don't majority do not because either they're busy walking around doing other things during the day you really have to have Consciousness and cavana so we have to also have a clean body right no passing gas no thinking about certain things so many people are not on that level to to be able to wear to fill in all day long um what else did I want to say about that I forget maybe it'll come to me but oh while we're in war all the men were to fill in this was in war you get this H how did I find this out uh the yemenites the way they tie their toilin is in a way that would never fall off in war they can throw Spears they could throw grenades whatever it is right there's there's no way that it would fall off and I try to uh since I learned that I also try to tie in a way where it's not going to fall off either um okay so this is a very important idea I'll just read the gamor BR 6A number 23 where is it derived that the the Fillin provides strength for Israel and from the verse we just read and all the nations of the world shall see the name of the Lord is called upon you they will fear you it's taught in another Bryce said this is reference to the ones on the head not of the ones on the arm because that's what it means when it says the name of the Lord will be called upon you now let's continue just a little bit um fine okay last four lines there's another we put on our hand to fill our arm to fill in first then we put on our head to fill in and when we're finished praying or take them off what do we take off first we do in reverse order then we take off our head to fill in first so what ends up happening the arm to fill in remains on you longer because you put it on First and you take it off last so the the clear car says what is this idea that we're placing the Fillin on the arm first and afterwards on the head and then when we remove it we take off the head F first why we mentioned there were three agents we spoke about the eyes see the heart desires and then the action takes place I think the word action is just a code word for the arms or let's say the hands are code word for Action where does the action take place mostly in the arms so he says the IES the heart desires the the the the instruments of action finish off the job so if that's the case see the word Ro then the hand it the hand to fill in is carrying a majority of the of the problem the problem being what the hand and the heart as opposed to the eyes which is in the head so he says carries a majority of the two out of three because you have the heart and the hands connected to the hand filling therefore the hand requires extra guarding much more against sin than the than what you need the head filling for that's why it's left on longer therefore it's introducing this idea to preference prefer preferable preferable not preferable to to get at it before it happens basically to prepare the fixing in that place so too when you remove move it you you know it's it's basically on you longer basically is on there longer so I just want to take you to Exodus 15:39 this shall be fringes for you when you see remember all the Commandments of the Lord to per them and you will not wander after your hearts your eyes so we did speak about this idea just like the toilin is to remind you about your eyes and your heart so too inside the Mitzvah of tius which is in Exodus 1539 it says don't chase after what your your heart and your your eyes your I see which is the weaker part and these are the agents um and this is what we're doing here we're making ties for the for the Army for the soldiers and and Rashi mentions that the gatri of tius by the way it's not true it's correct it's not true Rashi says that it is 600 the reason in the Torah see how he says so in the Torah it only has one y but it's pronounced with two Ys so that's why rash can get away with saying the gatri of tius is 600 then you have of course eight strings with five double knots that's 13 8 and five is 13 so you have 613 supposed to remind you of all 613 Mitzvah by the way so when I was in a Torah one of the main things is that we were supposed to learn all the 613 Commandments in order to remember right because it says you remember you can't remember something youve never learned it so I I did at one point in my in my life I did REM I did I was tested I I memorized them I was tested even though today I can't say I can recall all of them like on you know the what do you call on you know if I W someone woke me up in the middle of the night list all 613 Commandments I can't do that but when I'm learning the Torah and I'm learning the gamor the oral Torah I know nobody's going to pull one over on my eyes and say this is aid from the Torah when it's not or this is only the reun and it's not I know what the Torah says and I know what the reanim say I mean I don't have it at the recall but I think it's a very important thing that people should try to at least some point learn them if not memorize them um but anyway that is very important everything we said is very important and I want you to all just consider how important this is for am Israel that any any Jew that you know who's not putting on to filling that you can encourage them if you're Jewish you have more right to encourage them but um there's an Awakening going on so many of our citizens so many of our Jewish brothers and sisters after what happened on October 7th and they're in the Army they're fighting for their lives they're fighting for the survival of the Jewish people by the way I just want to make a political statement and I hope I don't get uh crashed from YouTube but South Africa has taken us for a violation what they call a violation of some kind of a pact against genocide do you know what that pact actually says it says that any signing member has an obligation to prevent stop and even punish those who are committing genocide and I want you to know there's no doubt in my mind or any anybody who has any SE that the genocide is against the Jews and we have an obligation to stand up and do something about it and so not only is it not a violation but when this trial is over and if they come out with the truth that they actually do we don't know that they will actually say that not only did Israel not violate the pact against genocide they're actually doing the right thing in let's say punishing or taking to task those who have violated uh The Pact against genocide anyway that's all I'm going to say about the matter where to filling serve with joy and connect connect now connect tomorrow but keep learning Torah have a good chabis have a great life we'll see you next [Music] week [Music] oh