Our Role in This World: Shaarei Teshuva 2:20-23 with Rabbi Aaron Poston

[Music] everybody welcome back to the uh charity chu kabura it's not just for women although it's only women live and we get to ask questions afterwards right if i don't put them to sleep that is and this is the safer we're using so i do recommend i highly recommend you get this safer who publishes it art scroll yeah and it's called gateways of teshuva of repentance and for those who know it's written by ribena yonah goes back almost a thousand years he was a contemporary of the ramban the famous not rambam as maimonides but no commodities in fact they even became family they married into each other's family now we are in sharpet which means basically it's broken up to four chapters like chapter two but we're like many many paragraphs in and we go by paragraph so we're in paragraph 20. for those using our book we're on if you're using another book or the computer i can't help you other than letting you know we're in paragraph 20. okay so now what we're dealing with is an attitude that one should adopt towards life in this world okay we're here hopefully for 120 years and you know i should let you know it doesn't really mean literally 120 years it means that just as moses lived to 120 and he was healthy healthy all the way through to the very end of his rat hashem no matter how many years we live it should be long but that we should bazrat hashem be strong clear-minded and healthy that's that's the bracha okay so while we're here in this world we have to have we should have if we're into true if we're into life then we should have certain attitudes and it begins like this the eakers safer cohes right king solomon the author the the compiler of such wisdom in ecclesiastes peace be upon him he writes or he actually he um he begins right um what does he say right if you go to the first chapter paragraph chapter one of ecclesiastes the second verse right we all are familiar vanities of vanities says cohellis vanity of vanities all is vanity as i will read everything is vanity now there are seven times that vanities is used here in in all together and he rashi mentions that this um this is parallel to the seven days of creation okay now uh so really we're talking about life in this world right the seven days of creation and for those it's the same idea okay that this world seven actually represents perfection in this world the physical world eight is beyond this world so the very fact that there are seven vanities the usage of the term vanities and he means to imply this world which is that's what he's talking about okay so basically king solomon he composed this book and he uses the word vanities the logisti the use of this world whatever we have all these vanities all the pleasures everything we have should be used to serve hashem everything right don't use anything other than to serve hashem meaning like if you want to go to a baseball game right or you want to go bowling or you have a nice steak dinner or if you're a veggie vegetarian and you have i don't know whatever it is you guys eat right it should be to serve a chef to recharge your batteries you could do mitzvahs serve or a guest whatever it is make bronchos keep your body healthy so you can serve hashem the ultimate goal of whatever pleasures and usages you're using in this world is to serve hashem [Music] it's not just the beginning but also the ending the hasimah right the the his um the very end how he signs off go um does he bring that down no but that we'll see it later there's a verse going to bring later and right now there is a thought brought down in the first in the very first of the comments in the bottom and i wanted to bring in perky vote chapter four uh mission of 16 which we're going to see again later at the end and i'll just read i'll read this comment because i think it's very important life in this world is the futility of futilities only if it is used exclusively as a means to enjoy worldly pleasures and to amass worldly possessions now think about i mean king solomon was besides being very smart very wise he was extremely wealthy he had everything and we're going to see a major describes this idea that if it hadn't been for for king solomon saying this we would dismiss it out of hand okay but in the meantime the comment goes on if however it is used meaning the worldly pleasures are used as a means of performing mitzvahs and acquiring life in the world to come then and only then it acquires profound meaning so in percent chapter 4 verse 16 rabbi yaakov used to say this world is comparable to an anti-chamber like a cruise door hey yeah in fact this is the word they use but a uh what is a cruise door an entranceway i think they call a lobby right and but where do you want to go you go through the lobby to eventually end at the banquet hall the real you know where the meat potatoes are right where the real the it's not just the appetizers right um so that's before the world to come prepare yourself in the ante chamber so that you may enter the banquet hall right fix yourself this is the time to work on yourself to do all the tikunim the cruise door in that lobby area or whatever we know where you hang your jacket up and you fix your tie or your bow whatever it is you're doing right i guess the appetizers and wipe off the little thing before you walk into the banquet hole and get your picture taken by the paparazzis which is like the palace they translated as the the banquet hall let's call it the banquet hall okay very nice so before demonstrating how this message is also found at the very end of kohl's as i mentioned is mentioned at the end as well robaino yon is going to digress to bring out a very important point regarding the verse we just recited and he's going to bring it from the medrash of koheles imran zikranov the rabbis of blessed memory had said in cohes rabbi chapter 3 paragraph 13 illu adam akher hayao oymercain if somebody else would have said what king solomon said hayinu omrim ul assaf state prototype al kane nick shava olam whoever saying this is most likely dirt poor right never even put together two nickels and never even scratched together two protein protot these are the minimum uh the minimum what do you call it the minimum value of coins used in talmudic times okay so you basically would have dismissed this saying the guy's a bum of course he's going to look at the worldly pleasures right but someone who has his own jet his own yacht his own i mean you can imagine what king solomon must have had so for him to have everything and say that then it's meaningful but for us who don't have all these things right we don't have all these things we might have some of these things um okay it might have some meaning but if you had nothing right you might have thought the person saying this is dirt poor so it's meaningless but it was king solomon so that's that would have been like a dismissal let's say uh thinking the person never amassed any uh kind of um and any wealth in his life so you have to realize and i already told you that had acquired such wealth look in first kings chapter 10 verse 27 it's just a text proof really it says and the king made silver as common in jerusalem as stones now if you've been to jerusalem or you've seen pictures of jerusalem you know that jerusalem stone is covering every building it's okay at least in jerusalem right and but it's very beautiful it's actually a a municipal law uh that buildings built after i'm pretty sure it's 1967 not in 48 but in 67 and that buildings must be covered which is some stone or glass whatever it has to fit certain uh criteria certain united standards and it makes sense because jerusalem so beautiful but anyway going back to first kings uh malachi olive right that it mentions the king made silver is common in jerusalem as stones and cedars as common as sycamores and they are in the low lands and abundant that that are in the low lands in abundance okay so we know that he married so many of the foreign king's daughters masked allies and people pay tribute and taxes and whatnot but the point is that it's just proof that he had a tremendous amount of money and he was not one of those people you can dismiss for saying ah who needs it who needs a yacht who the guy had it and he thought it was heaven so i'll just read what he says here since he was absolutely wealthy and experienced a luxurious lifestyle but nevertheless declared the pleasures of this world as futile his message will not be rejected out of hand right the fact that it was him that said it makes all the difference in the world now we're talking about about true though i'm talking about someone who's doing chuva and hopefully everyone watching this listening is would like to be in that category so basically we're going to talk about how serious taking this life is and not falling for all those pleasures so he now brings in the one of the last verses right the khatam sifrova amar right at the end of cohes in chapter 12 verse 13. how does he end the end of the matter everything has been heard fear god and keep his commandments for this is the entire man sulftivar the end of everything okay so basically we're referring to the idea that the only thing that matters is fear of god let your heart be towards heaven and not fall for all the pleasures of this world the only thing that matters is torah and mitzvos as i said before tm for those who are familiar with what tm is torah and missus right that's all that matters okay so what means is that everything else the pursuit of worldly pleasure and the success included is meaningless i know living in the united states as i grew up it was very difficult keeping up with the joneses right and then now we have uh keeping up with the schwartz's right it doesn't matter who where what neighborhood there seems to be a lot of competition and as a young adolescent not knowing that much about life having to have the newest to this you know whether it was clothing or games or whatever uh look we all have to figure out how to raise our children to be appreciated of what they have and uh it's it's one of the big tests of this generation for sure uh we want to raise our children to have such appreciation and not what they say i don't even know the kardashians right everyone's trying to keep up with someone else right so we have to be very weary of this you want to have hopefully in your home you know pictures of rebbies or sparring on the wall like we have and you you want your children to at least hope to you know you you they should love these these books they should love these men these people that they admire let's say and people's families you know the rabbi who lives down the street you know keeping up with the jones wow the rabbi's son just finished shots or just finished my schneider's or just finished you know learning a certain book and now he's teaching it well doesn't matter what level you're on you should also be teaching something or learning something anyway here we go now we're on paragraph 21. rubena yon is now offering another perspective on why a person's focus should be directed exclusively to serving hashem in case we didn't know umi hashemis barack daya this is an idea of being blessed god if god blessed you with intelligence he granted you anyone granted with intelligence yeshiva they should place on their heart they should pay attention to this following idea that what did hashem send you into the world to do he sent you into this world to safeguard his commandments his torah his decrees by the way this is parashat akev and the way to read that first verse amazing according to the cleo car just look at rashi for a second rashi says something to the effect that and it's not it doesn't even make sense until you hear what the clear car has to say what how does he translate akev can be translated as reward we see that other places it could be translated as because of but we all know ekkev is like yaakov it's the foot it's the heel and rashi says that you should look at those mitzvahs that are trampled upon with your feet meaning you take lightly not so lightly that's that's that's really the extent of his comment this is what the torah is trying to tell you so the word really means with so now all you have to do is go back one sentence to last week's parsha where god says to keep he wants you to guard his torah his mitzvahs and he breaks it down into two categories says my mitzvahs the khukem and the mishpati and in this week's just term one page one more sentence it's because if you listen to my what to my mishpatim but the word ekeb really means hooking if you take the khutin which are mitzvahs that don't really have logic they're not based on reason per se they're more like religious right those religious fanatics they keep the cooking right they know where shane is right they wait six hours before you know eating uh having milk after a meat meal right all these like these crazy things they eat matzah a whole week of pessa right they take a lulav and an estrogen they shake it this is like religious fanaticism no that's what the torah is telling you equate them take them seriously just as those hooking which yes may not make so much sense and therefore you take them lightly not only do you take them lightly you tread on them with your heels right you yourself i mean i'm talking about us right it would be likely if you had to weigh them out yes all these benadem le chadero all the mitzvahs that are like you know make sense don't murder don't steal don't commit adultery all the things that if you were put on a desert island and told to make laws that made sense for your society you take seriously but all the superstitious seemingly superstitious seemingly meaningless seemingly yeah you hear the word seemingly that don't really have any time or reason you don't take so seriously you tread on them with your foot that's what ekkev means so ekkad means the mish the hukim take the hooking justice seriously on many levels meaning number one the huki may not make a lot of sense but you should do them like the ones that make sense and the ones that make sense don't do them just because they make sense either but because god decreed them equate them together and that's what it means at hamishbatim equate them together anyway so we're back here where he says this is what we should be doing if you're if you had been granted intelligence which i assume everybody watching this knows how to turn on a youtube video that takes quite a lot of intelligence so then therefore you should also uh take seriously your mission in this world which is to safeguard uh his right to observe his safeguards his torah his decrees and his commandments right after having in there internalize this placing this on your heart right don't pay attention to anything else nothing else really matters meaning in the priority remember say this is the ikar well you mean now remember at the end of your days after 120 years if you faithfully performed god's mission or your own mission let's say your own mission in life right of doing what you have to do so yeshua barina the simchas you will experience eternal joy you will return to hashem in song with eternal joy upon your head right imagine you were sent across the sea to do a mission and while you're there and you're doing a mission for the king so while you're there you're on basically paid vacation right it's not a vacation you have a mission to do so what are you going to do hang out in the bars go in to a ball game perhaps perhaps but you're going to focus you're going to hyper focus you're not going to stay too late you're not going to delete that you're not going to spend too much money that wasn't part of your your your mission you're going to make sure that your ultimate mission is accomplished because if you come back empty-handed off with your head so basically you want to have like a sober head about you while you're on that mission and if you go to the bars to get a coke right it's to uh you know to visit a friend for a few minutes you're not going to hang out there get drunk and then not accomplish your mission the following day shane aina of alibu zulati okay i said that no i didn't she ain't another levo zulati al davashni khuto so you're going to make sure to to behave like a loyal servant doing what your your mission was and your eyes and heart are focused upon nothing other than what pertains to the situation to the actual mission until you return and complete your mission and report back to the king that you have succeeded in what he sent you to do now this is going to be he's going to use some interesting verses to prove this point but he skips around so there's three verses he brings down and that's in proverbs they're all in proverbs chapter 4 verse 11 chapter 22 verse 19. and the same 22 verse 21 it's not so simple to get all these ideas out of these verses but we'll try here okay um where is it sorry okay proverbs 4 11. in the way of wisdom i instructed you i led you in the paths of uprightness in other words god gave us the direction the torah is a madrichayan it's an instruction book for living he gave it to us that's what it is use it what are you going to do come back and say oh i didn't i lived my whole life i didn't know what i was doing of course you're going to be pature right you're going to be exempt because you're you didn't you didn't do anything and you'll get the reward for someone who is pator which is you know not a whole lot basically you can't really claim this you really can't claim it you know this is you have to listen you let's say in the 60s you ordered the first computer ever made from japan again i don't know where it may be korea i don't know where it was ever made maybe china and you get the box and you open the box and there's no instruction manual i don't know how far you're going to get you'll probably be able to turn the power on if you even knew that the power button was the power button you play what's going to happen when you come to the most simple commands of what copy and paste and delete maybe maybe you'll figure it out but it would take you forever right here you have an instruction manual it's right in front of you use it so hashem gave you the way of wisdom i instructed you right yashar great then we go on to proverbs chapter 22 verse 9 19 sorry that your trust shall be in the lord i have made known to you you this day even you he has revealed what he needed to reveal to you you just have to open your eyes open your eyes to make known to you the certainty of the true words to respond with words of truth to those who send you well obviously hashem sent you to this world and he gave you instructions so he expects you to follow them i will read this phrase the the comment here number four king solomon here writes that the lessons he has taught throughout michele throughout proverbs explaining a person's obligation according to the torah remember a prophet anything in the prophets and the writings there can be nothing new right moses says you can only follow those who know the tradition right nothing new they can't teach you anything new that you didn't already hear about so whatever king solomon is teaching you is something you should already know written in the torah are meant to enable a person to tell hashem he's fulfilled his mission on this earth after he dies and after he dies he's going to be asked to make a reckoning of his life so basically the rabbi speak about all the way back before video before tv before these iphones and smartphones that when you pass away your life will be uh flash before your eyes so to speak you're gonna make an accounting and a reckoning for everything it would be very hard to imagine that ever happening before tv and videos and all that but now we have it right in front of us how can we ignore this hashem made a concrete sample or example of dugma of what it's like and that's how imagination works anyway it's very hard to imagine something that doesn't exist there has to be some similarity in life that you can imagine something similar to so look it's a reality that you will be accountable so take life seriously but now in paragraph 22 this is the idea of being aware of one's mortality right we're not going to live forever okay now we're on 196. paragraph 22 minute dividing one of the things that a person is obligated to remember on account of you know making sure you realize you're sober right that you take life seriously is the day of your death and i think we spoke about this already right you should always do true for one day before you die you never know what that will be so you do truth every single day the idea behind this so you don't move you don't negate you don't become void from doing shuva when you don't soften your hand so to speak you don't become weak in trying to serve hashem how does he translate that it doesn't even temporarily neglect the surface of god or even slacking right becoming weak in it the tidal shinato may not so you will if you want you once you know this you're going to deprive you're going to deprive yourself of sleep in order to work hard in learning torah practicing torah will it beau name be yours hashem and try to understand what it means to have or or and you know of hashem we translate all here as fear of hashem lataken midos nav show to work on your character traits to rectify to make the tikkunin that are necessary malos and to attain levels of higher levels of fear and love now he does discuss here the different levels of fear because there's a lower level of fear that we call fear of punishment hala vi if only we were all on that level but that's the lowest of the levels okay then you have real true love and then you have even a higher level that is it's like a combination of love but of awe and that is what we call fear of the the sin fear of now we can't harm hashem but the torah is written in our language so like we always talk about is savor and we want to please hashem hashem doesn't have emotions but the same idea that it's written in the language of man so basically i use this example for your partner who's sleeping if you forgot something in the bedroom and you want to get it two o'clock in the morning so you will tippy toe in afraid you will harm them by waking them up not that you're afraid that she's going to throw a shoe at you that may be that maybe but that's the lower level right you're going to walk in there and you're going to make noise you're going to you know trip over something or drop something and she's going to wake up and she's going to be very mad at you the next day or he and uh no no that's fear of punishment right that's the lower level but do you love that person so much you don't want to disturb their sleep right so that's how we should feel in respect to hashem not that he is affected in any real sense by what we do but this is how we should view it um and so he says like this on the contrary armed with this awareness he will deprive himself of sleep in order to toil the study of torah to think about the ways to increase his fear of hashem to rectify the character traits to attain the highest levels of fear and love of hashem so in number four the highest levels of fear of hashem which are included in this category are we call yeras haramammus that's the highest level all of the or awe of the exaltedness of hashem can be attained only after a person has already refined his character traits ravino yonah therefore lists fear of hashem twice his first list thinking about the fear of hashem which is possible for anyone regardless of one spiritual level and then after mentioning rectifying the character traits he mentions attaining the highest level of fear of hashem which can be done only by the one who has already rectified his character traits so you understand the two different levels of fear one is a lower level one's a higher level and now he's going to bring in a verse in a second oh so one second i don't think i finished this idea not only should you try to rectify your character traits to to to achieve this high level of love and fear like those mitzvoth right you should be developing plans scheming devising plans of what of how to exalt and glorify the mitzvahs right just thinking oh i have this myth but i can do it more mahudar i'm going to visit some in the hospital but i can write a letter or i can tell other people to pray for them and i can tell them that i you know i brought all these uh dash what's the word i'm looking for that this person regards and this person they know that more people are thinking about them this is going to help their recovery right you're going to and you can stop and get flowers if you don't you know or just write them a card as i said uh how can i do the myths for better right i'm having working i'm having guests in my shop stable so which ones really need you know a meal and can i offer them a package to take home if they're really poor and make it like we're giving everybody not just them right so they so so they don't feel embarrassed right if they if they're very poor and they're in need oh no we give everybody a little package to go home with right you never know anyway so you can think about how to develop your mitzvahs you know think about it if you're just meditating and contemplating how i can do mitzvahs better open the read so maybe it's just kavanaugh's you need but bazrat hashem you can develop your mitzvahs exalt and glorify them in every way possible lyot linafsho segul so that we will so that all these will serve as a treasure and a storehouse of merit for your soul in the world to come not that you're serving not that you're doing it in order to get the reward you're doing it to really do the mitzvah you know like uh triple a you know or double a whatever you want to say you know sugarless as they say the best and it says in michele that's proverbs chapter 10 verse 8 it says the wise heart it takes commandments what does that mean hebrew yukah mitzvahs he grabs them he takes them he acquires the mitzvahs but what about a fool but he who talks foolishly will weary so you have god granted you wisdom he granted you say hell this is all that matters is tnm cnm tori mitzvahs think about how you can beautify toyagy of the adir and bring them to the highest level okay number five i do want to read this it's a very short comment a wise person seeks opportunities to do mitzvahs and seizes upon these opportunities even if he's not formally obligated to perform those misses by the way it's just an interesting concept that i brought up this morning with my group why were the jews exiled in the second temple from yerushalayim it's in other words it's almost like why was the temple destroyed right we have all these reasons seen as kingdom in the first temple we had the three big cardinal sins big big stuff but the word gamora abovement see it says because the jews kept the torah what the jews kept the torah and that's why they're exiled that's why all these calamities came to the jewish people yes the north tells us that now it's in mixed in with the middle of discussing the laws of returning lost objects so you have the letter of the law these can be returned or should be returned these that you don't have to return you can keep so the gemara there is telling us a very important point yeah we just learned all these laws about when to return lost objects when you don't have to but you know what you should go beyond the letter of the law just because the letter of the law says this think about it how what if it was your object right love your neighbors yourself how do we translate that into reality does that mean what your friend wants you should do no what your friend does not what you would not want done unto you don't do unto others if if someone found your object and didn't have to return it because the letter the law says you can keep it well i i think it leaves a little bit uh a negative feeling but that's that's the truth you really can't keep it but that's not what god wants god ultimately wants us to go what we call lift name is sure beyond the letter of the law beautify the mitzvahs yes i know i know i don't have to return it but you know what i'll make a sign and i'll say whoever lost this object bring me the symone the semani means signs and i'll be happy to give it back whoever it really truly belongs to right so that's another idea okay let's go on um you should know right if you're wise you know do not live forever and therefore one who's wise of heart knows and remembers that the days of his life are short they're short especially in relation to what you need to do in this world we're only here for i keep saying 120 years we know we're not here for 120 years i know that maybe as time goes on it seems like people do live longer but um anyway it says in perkial votes chapter 2 verse 15. i think i tried to sing this song once before it's it's only a mishna but it's a it's a beautiful song i think they sing it at day camp and uh rebecca tarfran used to say did i say chapter 2 mission of 15 yeah and hayom katsar malacha maruba actually this is not the song um sorry maybe there is a song i don't know it but we say on friday when people people ask me you know oh can you help with this that the other thing if i have time but basically hayaom katsar malacha maruba right that today is short and there's a lot of work that friday especially you really feel it the owner of the house is pushing his workers to finish the work right the literal translation the day is short the work is much the workers are lazy the reward is great and the master is pressing um what is the point over here number one we're all we're all naturally lazy you need to be motivated so remember this paragraph was based on we don't have much time take this world seriously whatever you do in this world is really what's going to count now when i was young i was not brought up religious as you guys already know but i asked my mother a very serious question i asked her a few quite a few serious questions i was um a little bit of a philosopher and i said to her mom what is all this about mashiach people talk about the messiah what exactly is this i also asked about what is heaven what in the world is this thing after you die and she told me very succinctly very briefly but very profoundly this world it's what you make of it and that is going to be an extension however you make of this world it's going to end up being your your your own you know if you live a miserable life you have bad attitudes you have bad relations you're not a nice person you're not going to enjoy the world to come it's going to just be the rest like that but if you really work on your character without saying characters you know work on your relations with people and you you have a good life and we're not talking about wealth here we're just having a good life with good relations and healthy attitude about things this is how it's going to be in the world to come and she's basically basically right and i asked about mashiach and she said i really don't know if it's a person but i know that it's going to be a time of peace a time of like utopian society that people would not get sick anymore that people there won't be wars anymore and a tremendous amount of you know whatever money there would be would go into you know research and development and health facilities and anyway i thank my mother for instilling that into me at a very young age here we go we're now on paragraph 23 and i think that will yep that will finish us so let's let's take it ravina yona contrasts the sense of urgency displayed by those who constantly remind themselves of their mortality with the attitude of those who do not do so so we're talking about the sober ones versus the not sober one people who realize this world counts whatever i do we say in the the wenatchee group we used to say we should make a bumper sticker all deeds matter and this is going back years ago before before the black lives matter uh took off but basically all deeds matter so here we go someone who's not cognizant who's not thinking who's not aware who doesn't constantly remind himself about the day of their death doing shiite will tend to imagine that he's plenty of time i can live forever and that there's no rush to attain the objective of life therefore lacking this sense of urgency he's liable to spend his time on trivial matters things that are really nonsensical i want to read the comment here without consciously reminding oneself of one's mortality the abstract knowledge that life is temporary will have little effect on a person and he will be subject to the illusion of permanence that affects afflicts mankind in the words of the zohar a person goes about this world thinking that it permanently permanently belongs to him and that he will remain there for many generations this is the worst kind okay so now our rabbis mention amur is the coroner and perky vote that's the the first mission that we met we read it says 417 but i believe it's 416. right this is the idea that actually it might be yeah it's uh it's it it might be 417. anyway so i don't know why i might whatever i don't know why i wrote what i wrote but anyway this is what it says that this is also ribbiaco the same author who wrote in 16 that a single moment of repentance and good deeds in this world is greater than all the world to come and also a single moment of bliss in the world to come is greater than all of the present world meaning that all of the physical pleasures in this world don't even add up to one moment one short brief moment in the world to come so let's start again that what you can no longer do mitzes once you passed on in fact the hebrew word it's interesting secular people use it as well right when you pass on to the world when you pass from this world to the next they say you're niftar what does that mean you're dead thank you very much but it actually means you're pator you're exempt that's what it means you're exempt from what mitzvahs that is the term used all throughout the experiment obligated is exempt so when one passes from this world to the next they use the word nifter yeah he was nifter nifter they don't even know what they're saying these secular jews nifter means they're no longer obligated obligated because in the world to come there's nothing you can do the level you produced in this world is what you're going to the level you're gonna be on for forever okay so um so whatever that's every moment in this world is like unbelievable it's you cannot compare it to the eons of light years whatever you wanna however you wanna measure the the the world to come one moment in this world cannot be compared to even a moment in the world um it has to say greater it's greater a single moment of repentance and good needs in this world is greater than all the world to come and that single moment of bliss in the world to come is greater than all the pleasures of 120 years it's an amazing idea and we should take it to heart and this is all we got right now um so he ends up like this therefore even if a person truly had plenty of time it would be a serious mistake to approach serving hashem with the lack of urgency since every moment brings a new opportunity to acquire immense reward now there is a comment on 198 i do want to read and then i want to tell you a little bit more about my own stories okay with regard to reward in the world to come the rambam writes that the early sages informed us that a human being does not have the capacity to properly comprehend the goodness of the world to come no one knows its glory beauty and potency except for the holy one blessed be he and these sages informed us that all the benefits that the prophets prophesied for the jewish people are only physical matters which the jewish people will enjoy in the time of mashiach when jewish sovereignty will be restored i mean this is an amazing idea i don't want to i want to stop for a second that um gomorrah discusses this idea who's greater about shuva or someone who never sinned right and it really doesn't have a conclusion there although many understand that the greater is the bausa for many reasons right they they had already tasted sin and they're holding themselves back i just want to mention that i believe the converts in bali truva are in the same category in this case they already tasted sin and now they they have reversed they've turned their lives around so on a certain level you can understand why they would be greater on the other hand we also have like a person like aron cohen who never sinned who didn't sin anyway with the golden calf and yet he was a despondent he was down why didn't his tribe have an opportunity to bring as the nasima the other leaders of the tribes hanukkah gifts for the dedication of the altar and hashem promised him don't worry i have something special for you and that is even greater than what the other tribes are bringing are kerbanos i'm going to have you like the menorah and of course we know the hashman we have the celebration of the holiday of hanukkah in honor of the the konim and the idea of lighting the the menorah which was given to arnold khan but basically back to this idea that the prophecy that all the prophets talk about are not for the highest level because no eye has ever seen so the more discusses who the prophets when they tell you all this great stuff it's for the lower level whether it was about shooter or the todd gum or whoever's on the lower level but also if you marry your daughter to atam khacham or if you do business with the tamil or if you support and give charity right all these things are going to be that's what the prophets were giving this great beautiful idea of what's going to happen when mashiach comes that you will be rewarded greatly but the talmud himself the person who's really truly righteous they will even get more and that is indescribable it is not talked about in the prophets because no i has ever seen and i just want to read the rest of that comment to explain the goodness of the life the world to come however is immeasurable and utterly beyond comparison the prophets did not describe it even by means of analogy for fear of cheapening it by doing so so whatever is waiting for us hashem the the real truth to deakin will be in that category that's beyond what even the prophets were able to describe okay so that's the end of today um in bizarre to sham next week we'll start with paragraph 24. um that's it okay so i'm going to say goodbye to you guys on the camera and i'll take questions from the zoomers the zoomers here we go [Music] is