KLM: Mitzvot of Parsha Yitro - To Be Kind is Divine with Rabbi Asher Baruch Wegbreit

[Music] oh to be self focused is human to be kind is divine one more time to be self-focused is human to be kind is divine by the time we're finished tonight we're going to understand this very deeply and if we make a commitment this will impact us for the rest of our life I call that a promise okay so welcome back to this new series that were cavana for the Mitzvah of the para and I offer you two things every time first of all what everyone wants they want to have a word for the table they want to have a word of Torah a deep insight into the Divine Torah for their shabas table but at km we want to bring you something else we want to bring you a Mitzvah a Mitzvah something out of the box a mitzvah for your shabas table and for the rest of your life again if you make a commitment all right so with that in mind let's get get started but here's something I'm adding to the series I mentioned to you the first time this incredibly holy safer called evid aik servant of the king the king of kings this safer is extraordinary and what it does is in every single paraa it reveals and delineates all the different Mitzvah that you can find in there now let me qualify that and explain it of course is going to bring out the Torah Commandments but it will also bring out Commandments that are let's say considered rinic but based on our paraa or minhagim or or or character development practices that come from our oral Torah based on our paraa so here's the new offering I want you to know yro if if you committed to MRA going over the Torah portion every week yro is not so difficult meaning it's not so long the one after it boy oh boy M but is's kind of short so take a guess this is aoral uh request take a guess how many Mitzvah are in parchase yra now y has the ten commandments so that's 10 ready I hope you're sitting down 78 do you hear that when the evid of melik the servant of the king studies the Torah portion he finds 78 mitzvos don't worry we will focus on just one because I want it to carry on with us like I said for the rest of our lives okay now let's see the Torah sword course that we're going to bring out a very beautiful Insight based on the Benish high and then after we have our word for the table we'll move on to the mitzvah for the table here we go you know what let me just give a little bit of background before we see uh the source that we're going to dwell on this par is titled by the name of a famous convert named yro now not only did yro have the covo the honor and the glory that his name is one of the Torah portions in the Holy Divine Torah not only that the opening section begins with yro if you will giving Consulting advice to the Jewish people all right and he we'll see the context right now in fact let me just mention it he observes that mosenu is sitting day and night practically adjudicating cases applying Torah laws because the people are seeking God in their lives and that means they want to know what to do in every given situation and he's sitting there their loved beloved teacher and he's delivering so yro looks at mosha he says mosha you're just going to wear yourself out and the Jewish people are going to have to wait in these long lines so he proposes a system of Delegation of the judicial process okay that's our context now let's dig in we good Paris yeah that's great okay great um so I just set you up for what's taking place here yro is Consulting to mosu he's concerned that there's he'll be overwhelmed by having to adjudicate everything apply the Tor to everything and he's about to make a proposal that mosha appoints a series of um additional judges on different levels okay famous that's the famous Consulting advice that he was privileged to deliver and this is Torah itself okay a side point that you should know uh Rabbi Miller makes it clear there's a midis right oral law that makes it clear m also KN knew this and he understood it more deeply than yro but because yro was his father-in-law the Torah gave him the honor of delivering this Divine messaging okay with that in mind let's take a look where I um placed us Israel is about to give his advice to the Jewish people and we'll see in in the orange letters this is where our uh our Torah for the table comes from and this is where our mitzvah for the table is going to be found okay here we go all right you know what I'm going to do this in English just make it all inclusive yes says to mosenu now listen to me I will I will give you counsel and hasem will be with you okay that sounds a good uh sales he says to Moshe you represent the people before God all right you should represent them he's mosha he's proposing is the Supreme Court the Supreme Court Justice okay the the the main one right you'll take the really difficult cases before hasem okay and now he's now he then says make sure you're very careful to warn them about the importance of the laws and the teachings that their CA um their verdicts and cases are going to be based on he's he's he's saying pass on to the judges the following okay this is like instruction to the judges here comes the magic words then he says make known to them the way that they are to go and the practices they should follow a very general sounding thing let make make known the way they should go on and the practices they should follow so guess what that is not enough depth and divine truth to just say that so let's look at uh let me explain to you how the gamara the tmid inaia laded Bas how they interpret these words and I'm GNA I'm actually going to this part I'm going to do in Hebrew and English okay so if you look above in Hebrew it says I should have put Y in Orange I apologize because we're going to see that the tud Alis is g to reveal what y yra was saying on a deeper level okay so this okay so he's telling mosu make known to them to the judges all right who are going to be interface ching with the people he says make known to them the the gar says the words the Derek refer to G um acts of kindness all right let them know about acts of kindness y that they should travel on they should walk on the Y that they should sorry y that they should go on that is referring to visiting the sick and ba on on it right here this is a little awkward I know here let me just read it down in English make known to them the way so we need to understand that the way says the talud alludes to G acts of kindness right lending sugar to your neighbor we'll discuss that's number one that's the way they are to go they are to go alludes to visiting the sick and this English translation doesn't put it there on it on it on the way the it on it means bearing the dead Okay so let's just review this and then we're going to hear the Benish High's understanding of of all of this okay so again context which is very important yes yro is is conveying to mosha advice to set up a Judicial System particularly um what criteria to appoint judges and how to break the judges down per numbers of the people you know a whole system of of of of that but before he gets into that right the N very next p is going to start you need people who are God-fearing and not greedy etc etc and then he says how you divide them but before he his parting comment before he gets into those details is he says uh let them know the way they should go on okay and then the gamar says what is that talking about and let's bring that in again the way means acts of kindness they should go means visiting the sick and on it means bearing the dead so let's understand this according to the benishai but before we do um me my dear friends and Tom meum that are watching they understand this because we were privileged um to re have a vital Mur tradition of Torah from our Rabbi Rabbi shim green and we learn how the how the oral Torah uncovers the Divine messages that are not obvious and my life changed when I realized that the Bible without the oral interpretation is like a body without a soul and it's very very subject to misinterpretation I for the eye tooth for a tooth Etc right so the oral law is precious but let me explain something I'm about to show you that one of the great Torah commentators has a if you will a difficulty with how the talet understands this verse now don't think that the difficulty means there's that God wrote The Thing incorrectly this is the secret I'm going to tell you Hashem dictated the Torah and he expressed things in in ways that appear to have anomalies superfluities well I'm glad I was able to say that right so that's the way he conveyed it in order to uncover secret hidden crucially important messages good so when I say that the benishai one of the great rabbis from Baghdad when I say that he has a problem just know that he's raising the problem to reveal the deeper meaning okay so here's the problem he asked and I wouldn't be surprised if some of you might be uh um bothered by this okay mosha uh isro's purpose is to give Consulting advice how to appoint judges okay according to the talmud what that means is that well sorry what he says before he he gets into the details he says by the way let them know the way uh let them know about kindness like acts of kindness let them know about visiting the sick and let them know about bearing the Dead What on earth does that have to do with appointing judges do you hear in there's an expression that young the Youth of of of Israel they say meser what's the connection you hear the gamar is the gamar can't Infuse things that make no sense in the context so why would there be a messaging saying right before you're going to go choose men who are not greedy and um break them into tens and hundreds and thousands etc etc what what does that have to do with burying the dead and visiting the sick and acts of kindness okay that's the puzzling aspect that now the Benny Shai is going to explain okay listen to this this is for your word for the table so I just want to make sure you're clear on what we're what we're um uncovering the the go the T it says that the way means kindness that they go means visiting the sick and burying the dead is the last part so how does that fit in with the paraa which is talking about appointing judges and making a Judicial System good that's your ask this a try this at home try this at your shabas table ask them that difficulty see what they say that's another beautiful thing about Torah study is everybody gets to be get in there roll up their sleeves and and ask questions and raise difficulties okay you should do that but let's hear the Ben's response he explains like this what was yro trying to do look he's going to now propose a u a series of court and judges and one of the things that is always dangerous is just the system getting overwhelmed with lawsuits I'm sure Sha Sha will have something to say about this okay in other words and I I I have a feeling it's true I won't mention the country okay uh but there there's countries that become litigious I think I pronounced that right they're just always taking people to court they're they're in bickering Financial disputes monetary it's happening if you don't what I'm gonna sue you I'm gonna take you to court I'm gonna take you to court I'm take you to court well you know you're gonna have to wait in line right litigiousness okay so yro is revealing Divine understanding and what does he say before he gets into to the judicial system he says like this teach them to practice kindness on a regular basis right G make known to them kindness as a practice why because and this is so beautiful to do kindness It's always at a cost of your time or your resources right an act of kindness means without getting paid most of the time most of the time but right when you act kindly there's a cost on your side and if you en custom yourself to expend your money and your time to help others guess what you become a little more flexible when it comes to monetary issues you're more forgiving foregoing forbearing all the fours okay that's a beautiful quality in fact one of the greatest rabbis of recent timean zal it's called m in in Hebrew like forgoing things right there's a dispute and you just forgo he say is it really worth it right he says in his hundred years of life he never saw anyone lose from forgoing things now let let me qualify this and say if you're a victim of Injustice you have a right according to Torah to address the Injustice and if it's at you know the welfare of your your family that we're not saying never go to court but what's going to get you to not be litigious and and be always like uh having adversarial um uh judicial debates if you practice kindness you're accustomed to not getting so uptight about your time and your money you hear that isn't that beautiful so he's giving a a way to prevent the system from just getting ridiculously overburdened all right so that's make known to them the way of kindness all right so that's why I mentioned it has a lot to do with appointing judges because you won't need to appoint as many judges if the people know to practice kindness step number one but there's have to ask something else though is visiting the sick in act of kindness yes of course is burying the dead an act of kindness yes of course so why is it that yro is saying like this basically make know to the way them the way let them practice kindness they they are to go that alludes to visiting the sick on it bearing the dead why is he isolating visiting the sick and bearing the dead what's special about those acts of kindness okay now if this is going to be um a word for the shabas table we all know that every word of Torah is always enhanced by a story okay so and this will be for good for young and old alike listen to the story The Ben hi brings there's a man who has a neighbor and this neighbor is a lousy guy let me explain he builds uh right against the wall of the uh of let's say Clon is the the the victim the good guy right so he builds in a way that he basically encroaches on the property of pony that's number one he also puts like uh um plumbing system for the bathroom uh enough and that actually seeps water into the other person's building and damages it Okay this not sounding good is it right so that's what's happening he's causing real damage now plony the victim isn't around when this is happening all right and he C he did some other D neighbor with the Tor would defined as damage uh uh that neighbors do okay you could definitely take people court so what happens plony comes home and he sees this and he gets it he says he's Furious he says this guy's crazy I'm gonna take him to court and that's what he tells his wife and he heads off to court to make a claim so they'll summons the guy affidavit I think it's called so he goes he he he heads off to court right he says goodbye to his wife he's angry he's going to take the guy to court he comes back too early his wife listen what's going on he says I decided not to file a complaint she's what why not now she's a good woman she just wants no why not why didn't you do that and he says like this you know I went to make a summons and this and that but on my way I saw I was passing by there was a funeral for this very very wealthy businessman now you have to know something he said four months ago this wealthy business man businessman who one of the more distinguished people in the community he built a mansion he built himself a mansion like something fitting for a king however four months later he drops dead so I passed by I knew who this man was going to be buried and I saw they put him in this square hole that's about whatever 10 feet 11 you know and it's this wide and I said wait a minute you know he thought this big mansion was his house but look at look look at his dwelling space now okay part number one okay and so he also he also passed by people uh um who were who were ill and sick right and they were not enjoying life so much a sick people that's what happened when he went to visit the sick with this story we can understand what's so special about the Mitzvah of visiting the sick and burying the dead it's what our re calls a reality check as we say which I learned my mother passed a person um is sobered about life and he can really uh refocus himself when he sees people who who lived in fine homes being put in a little square place okay or when he sees people that were at the top of their strength and now they're in a hospital God forbid and they're not feeling well in other words you ISRO yeah so here's the thing what's another way to reduce litigiousness in a society that people realize where the the real property is the real property is in the world to come by a Torin mitsos we build mansions that are Everlasting right they realize you know you can't take it from with you when you go so why should I pull my hair out uh over these material possessions why and therefore they don't go to court and they reduce the number of judges and again I qualify I'm not saying you can't or shouldn't but this is what isn't this amazing this is the word the Mitzvah not the Mitzvah the word for the table is that um Hashem through yro delivered the falling Insight that could impact Society so deeply right how do you get rid of like contener litigious I'm going to take your cutes neighbor disputes right how do you get rid of that practice kindness you'll be looser with your possessions and then you might let go when it's appropriate and go visit the sick go help put the dead in the ground and that will sober you and prioritize you to where your real substantial possessions are okay that's the word for the table let's go now to the mitzvah for the table okay here we go help me a shim okay so now I know for the a lot of listeners kindness is not a a new Mitzvah but I know from my experience with cavana litz's KM um speaking to people all around the world first of all people don't realize that um kindness is a Torah Commander it's not you know do a nice de good de it's a Torah commandment number one now this the veterans of KM know that kindness is under the category of loving your neighbor like yourself and or it's under the the Mitzvah of to emulate aem's ways those are two big Torah Commandments that kindness falls under that visiting the sick and burying the dead falls under but we learned that in our para you can add a Torah commandment which means by the way this is according to the smok the okay a famous counter of Torah Commandments and according to reabo Yona this is an extra Mitzvah you get when you're kind and when you bury the sick Etc you you fulfill the Mitzvah of all right so number one Vital Information kindness is a Torah commandment and for those veterans there's a third at least a third commandment that means the kadua the Holiness the Deus of another commandment is infused in us if we have cavana okay so let me breathe ly discuss some I I there's there's a million ways to do kindness but I want to reveal a couple of interesting ones the second two are really things that you could do all the time that you are doing all the time so we want to get full connection from it okay so number one uh if you're fortunate enough to live in an apartment complex and have neighbors right my my our Revy ravie green said you know he once saw an adver M for homes and it was saying not a neighbor in 50 miles right it was advertised they had a big electric fence and a huge grassy planes and acres and in not a neighbor for Miles so my rebi says wow that's a slum poor guys living in a slum No One's Gonna knock on your door and say can I borrow some milk you poor person you honey so anyhow if you are lucky enough to have neighbors right and communicate with your neighbors lending milk sugar even though you're not spending your money you're lending your object that's a kindness but look at this one you see my exclamation point there Torah books the there's um where is it I think it's a mish says the following it's unbelievable it if you want you should really I highly encourage you to lend Torah books why because that particular act of kindness will be so incredibly Everlasting for you meaning it must mean that we know you get eternity from mites but this one is super substantial why because you know what you basically did is here you want to borrow this and you'll get some eternity right you you'll get Eternal Divine truth there's nothing bigger you could do there's no greater kindness than to hand something they read it and they inculcate Divine truth and wisdom and that for them is unbelievable and eternal okay so that's number one I wanted you to hear that now these next things you know uh people on this call I know do this giving good advice and it doesn't matter if you're a lawyer or a management consultant or you know building real estate Etc if you give advice to your client and even though you get paid if you have kavana to do it as a Mitzvah right because it's kind to give it even if you pay get paid right that's huge do you realize how much you're guiding your children your wife your friends uh your husband Etc right so the key thing is and we'll drive this in in a minute have cavana when you give good good advice it's happening all the time and then this one this is the number three is very easy encouraging people you know you look great today you know I can't believe you got up even though you were so tired right I can't believe you spent that ex right go the I'm telling you this is the way to become loose about the the false priorities of the world it's so PR yeah that I just gave you three ideas of kindness and let's discuss the cavana and then I want to really push it okay and then we're going to finish all right here we go so look the the the the second half of this is so important okay because but you you have to um this is we're now at the kavana the Mitzvah right we have to um take what we call the sacred pause because when you stop before you do what you're doing all the time or any way when you stop and pause and say I'm in front of AEM what does he want me to do what Mitzvah right so here it is just declare the following okay this is in long hand you can shorten it but ready I have in mind to fulfill the Mitzvah of doing good to others to the extent of my abilities as Hashem commanded what's the difference let me just give this uh pul Tre example right you give advice all the time because it's your job because you're a parent because you're a spouse right you're giving advice all the time so you get up to the world to come right and um they give you like a like a modest BNB right they give you a modest BNB right that that's the person who did it because he gave benefits to people so according to some he will get some eternity According to some he'll have a good life here but he may not get eternity unless he's doing it because Hashem commanded him okay then take number two he trained himself to make sacred pauses and start to train his mind to pause bring Hashem into that fill that moment with Hashem oh Hashem you want me to do this y okay I'm going to give this advice obviously I I like I love this person but I also I'm doing this because he commanded me to they say Excuse me sir come over here and you'll be given islands and castles and mountains I don't know how to describe it but it's just incomparably greater so I'm just saying don't don't discard this uh second part it's huge the I two more things and we're done with the mitzo the partion okay I want to encourage us right now I want to give I want to speak about here we can take this off I want to speak about uh um two did I make yeah two benefits of doing kindness of train yourself in kindness and visiting the sick making it as much as you possibly can to the extent you can to benefits amongst many okay benefit number one is you know those who are God conscious everyone would like to know what's my purpose here on Earth what am I here for right and there's all sorts of uh what do you call it Adventure tales and fairy tales about you know looking for the secret treasure and this and that okay so the truth of the matter is wouldn't you like to know what God wants from you this is benefit number one would you like to know that guess what he wants you to love kindness love it be addicted to doing kindness like my our dear friend doid SC addicted to kindness not just to do kindness to love kindness that's benefit number one benefit number two is timely okay everyone who's ever been with their wife somewhat near their wife when they gave birth they know that they thank God that they weren't made a woman CU they know that us men are relatively speaking wimps and cannot bear the pain of the contractions you know unbelievable pain of contractions right now we see it the world is going through contractions because please God the Final Redemption is around the corner and and we need to fulfill the Mitzvah of feeling pain pain and compassion on all these beautiful people that are sacrificing their lives literally it's heartbreaking okay there's a lot of pain and contractions now the T it says you want to avoid those contractions as much as possible you know Hashem has his plan for everybody but if you want to avoid it do two things right now in this period be occupy yourself with Torah like it's your business right be oorah and right and doing acts of kindness if you do this the birth is going to be beautiful it's an epidural H there we go you want an epidural for the final re Redemption be involved in Torah like we just did with the the Tor um the Torah for the table and and do the Mitzvah the do it constantly be obsessed and addicted finally we're going to finish off the way we began we said the following okay here's what we need to know all right I want to go back to the P we'll be done in a minute okay give me a second please okay let's go this way uh here let's go back to this pusk we have two more things to understand and then we're going to finish the way we started and I hope on a much deeper level ready in Orange let them know about the way what's the way the if if the Torah is saying let them know about it implies they don't know about it but what's the way kindness do you think the the Jewish people didn't know about kindness you think the non-jewish people everyone's aware of kindness so what does it mean let them know about kindness and here's one more question it says kindness um the word the Derek the path that mean refers to kindness how is that so that's a very general word the path why does the path refer to kindness okay let's start with that I'm going to finish with uh I mean you can melt from this okay he says like this when the Torah uses the word Derk a path he says he says this he says everywhere where there's movement towards a goal and striving to achieve a purpose that's called a path right you're on the path means that you're striving for something you're heading head towards some goal all right what is the path or the road that most people are traveling on the path of personal acquisition and pleasure me my family my needs that's the path that's what's what that's the goal and the purpose of so many right the path is to achieve and acquire what you want and need but what about the path the path is the road let's give Frost credit Frost Robert Frost The Road Less Traveled is the TR is the path of Hashem okay would you like to go on the road list traveled what does that mean if we're only speaking about hasem as he manifest not about Hashem as a being in essence but hashem's path means Hashem is always trying uh has the following purpose he's always trying to achieve kindness giving to others selflessness that's the path that hasem travels right so Hader the path means the pathless traveled which means the one that Hashem takes has is always when we speak about Hashem in terms of action he's always trying to give to others and do to others and that's the path of kindness ready to be self-focused is human to be kind is divine do you hear it that's the path we want to take and let's have cavana for that right let's say when I get give advice when I lend a book of Torah when I smile when I encourage when I give charity when I X Y and Z let's have in mind that we're going down his path right as he commands us because he wants us to be truly happy right go visit go to the burial place go to the hospital and you'll realize that his path is the best path because it's Everlasting and it feels so good to be like God instead of like a dog forgive me you know like something that an animal that's you know okay so let's go down his path all right this completes the mitvah for the table you have a word for the table in the M of the table and please practice this forever and you will be forever changed [Music] oh