Parsha Yisro: "Anochi" Why the Opening of the Ten Commandments is an Egyptian Pronoun

okay good morning everybody and welcome thank you for gracing US Today's class is dedicated nishas and a loving memory of Hanah bdavid from Sydney Australia in her loving memory a woman of endless compassion patience dedication dedicated by her daughter and Grandson on the occasion of her second Y and may her love accompany always and be a source of light and inspiration for you the whole family and all of the PE all of our people amen the class is also dedicated in loving memory of Rabbi Aram Feldman and root worth and schling by their family thank you very much and may their memory be a source of light and empowerment for you and the family and all of the Jewish people and may we see the Fulfillment of the prophecy amen thank you very much for your partnership you have a source sheet it's one page it's also posted later on the yeshiva.net if anybody wants to see it or download it together with the class itself excuse me yeah yeah it's 10 years whatever whatever goes on goes on stays before purm about Esther Ohad about her going into the darkness you mean yeah yeah it's there in P the purm section so everybody knows that pares y this week's para is really in many ways the fundamental par of the Torah I mean every par is fundamental but it certainly has the story that shaped all of Jewish history and all of Jewish existence and is really the pivotal moment of History what we call mmed Hari the moment that the Jewish people stood at Mount Si and received aeras the Ten Commandments and the Torah which all happens here in p and what's interesting though is theu of the paraa because the first half of the paraa and the second half of the paraa seem very disjointed the first half of the paraa talks about an event which even though it's certainly a very interesting event it doesn't seem to fit into the portion of mat and that's the event of Y coming to the desert now let's remember the history when mha escaped Egypt when py was trying to kill him because he killed an Egyptian who was beating a Jew he ran away to a place called midan over there he helped seven girls seven seven women who were at a well and being uh provoked and harassed the tah says by by uh by the Shepherds and he saved them and he helped them irrigate their flock and then when they came back home their father said why didn't you bring him home to eat and of course they bring him and he marries one of the daughters called TPA now what we don't know is till this moment is that seora and his two children their two children G and Alazar never made it back to Egypt because the Tor does say that mha took a donkey and he took his wife and he took his children and they were on the way back to Egypt but in parish's history we learned that at some point he sent them away so Rashi says that when Aaron saw them coming he says don't bring them to Egypt now we have enough problems so he sent them back home so it's only in par is that the teret begins that is who was the father-in-law of MAA and the priest of midan decides to come visit his son-in-law and of course he comes with his daughter T M's wife and their two sons the two babies G and elazar who were born in midan and that's how the story begins heard everything that happened he heard about the Exodus of Egypt and he decides to bring himself and the family to the desert and they come and he sends a message to mha I'm here your wife is here your children are here mha goes out to greet him the whole nation goes out to greet him and then the T describes a beautiful Feast that they they arranged where y was being fed and eating bread and then the next day of course he starts mixing into his son-in-law's business and he tells him he doesn't know how to run his operation the next day he sees mosa sitting with the people from morning to evening and he says it's not going to work you're going to get ruined everybody's going to get ruined novel TI you're going to decompose this is impossible you need to learn how to delegate and he gives his son-in-law advice how to change up upend the entire system of operation and the bigger is that M actually listens to him and the next scene is he says goodbye to his father-in-law and he sends him back home he goes back home right away the next scene is mat on the third month the first day of the month the Jewish people came to the mount to the desert of sin and that's when the preparations from M happen until the Revelation and that goes to the second half of the par the question is why do these two come together it's a very interesting story isra coming giving advice telling mha to do things differently having a meal bringing the family there but why is that the first half of the para that deals with mat which is really the central event of Jewish history especially that isre himself wasn't a Jew yre was a priest of midan in fact kazal say he was the greatest idolatry he knew that was the greatest expert on idolatry in the world and yet his arrival is the first half of the portion of mat what's also interesting is the name of the par you would think that the portion of mat would have a more Jewish name or a name even if you want to give the name of a person it would be maybe the name of M he's the one who received or maybe the names in are very important they they capture the theme and the name of this par is yra who wasn't even a Jew even though he was his father-in-law and not only that as he comes and he says to now I know is greater than all the gods so Rashi brings from the med from the how did he know God is greater than all the gods there was not a single idolatry that was not engaged in so he knew literally I mean imagine the Curiosity of this person how inquisitive he was wherever there was a pagan form of worship a philosophy a religion uh an an idea a practice a form of worship a cult he went and investigated it and he worshiped literally every single Pagan a that existed so now he comes and say now I know from all the gods how did he know all the gods he knew so this is fascinating who this man was obviously he was a very curious person he was a developed person he was a he was a a great scholar and a great seeker and now he says this that God is greater than all of the other gods and it's his name that carry that the carries not not not certainly not M what is the significance of that in fact the Z says in the beginning of par that the T could not be given until yro arrived so y's arrival wasn't just a technical a technical story and even a beautiful story because the family came but isra's arrival was not just a family event it was a national event that said only after is could come that's when T was given in other words till he arrived there was something lacking there was something missing and that says when he said I know that God is greater than all the other gods so now allowed M to happen now the T could be revealed in the world the question is why it's a very thing that he came and he acknowledged and he said such beautiful things and he celebrated his son his son his son in-law's accomplishment that's all beautiful and astounding and and heartwarming but the zya says only afterwards T could be given so we'll get back to this bem but I want to now it looks like we're going to change the subject we're not really going to change the subject but we'll get back to this at the end beder let's see something very fascinating and also strange in the opening of The Ten Commandments everybody knows that the first words of the is I am God your God you have it here in the First Source sheet that's Exodus chapter 20 verse one Hashem spoke all of these words saying I am Hashem your God who took you out of the land of Egypt out of the house of bondage and that's the first one of the 10 sayings The Ten Commandments I am God your God who and then comes the second one you shouldn't have any other gods in my presence and then comes the third and the fourth all the way down to number [Music] 10 if we notice here he identifies himself in three ways hasem always translate as I I am I am now usually in the word for I is an an is I like we have even kma the end ofma right an hasem it's almost exactly the same words but instead of using the word the word is and usually whenever we want to say the word I in tanak the word is an but here the word is so the medish says something very interesting about the word if you take a look in your second Source sheet this is med and it's also in this is just the source where this med comes from says the med says what is the meaning of the word it's actually from the Egyptian language it's not a Hebrew word or in Egypt if you wanted to say I to somebody else you wanted to tell your friend I so the word you used was or an and therefore the says the M says that the word is it's not a Hebrew term it's not fromes it's from the Egyptian language well I have to confess when I saw this the first time or when I saw it one of the times I decided even though I believe the M but I still I wanted to uh it was strange to me that the word is not a Hebrew word like because you know it's so entrenched in our culture it's like really not a Hebrew word so I went to uh today it's not hard to do the research I went to do a little research and uh indeed if you look at the language of the cops that's c o pts which is representing the final stage of uh ancient Egyptian Egypt went through many many evolutions and the final stage of ancient Egyptian language is called the cops copts it now survives only as a language that's used for Liturgy like for poems and songs in the Coptic church that's where it survives this language but it's from ancient Egypt so I was looking it up and then I saw that the word an or an which is exactly how the word is spelled in the med means I it literally means I so this is actually in the ancient Egyptian language that's how you say I or and that's so this is a very very fascinating Med that says Hashem is basically saying I am the God your God who took you out of the land of Egypt who took you out of the house of B bondage I took you out of that wretched gloomy Society where you enslaved and subjugated where your children were killed where you were tortured where you were slave laborers and the opening word that he uses for this is an Egyptian word an you you just told me you took us out of Egypt but it's interesting that the first word he actually uses bash MIT and what is powerful is that this is the opening of theis so the most Central word that opens up the Ten Commandments is not a Hebrew word it's an Egyptian word why is Hashem using an Egyptian pronoun to introduce himself at the most important moment of Jewish history which actually talks about them being taken out of Egypt and the house of bondage now the truth is that it's not just the opening word of theis in many ways it's the most quintessential it's the most basic word of the Ten Commandments because all the Ten Commandments and all of the T mitz are dependent on that single pronoun you know I am here I am the one who did this it's Hashem saying this is me I am behind all of this I'm behind Exodus of Egypt I'm behind the universe and I'm behind what's happening right here right now so many ways you could say that the word is the most Central and pivotal word in t because all of the are based on it and all of are based on it is the axis upon which everything else revolves it's the focal point of it all and yet this essential pronoun the beginning of all Hashem introduces himself to the Jewish people in the world giving them the entire tah he decided to use the Egyptian language almost all the words in the T and all other words in are all in Hebrew this is the language of the Torah it's called lashes the holy tongue the ran says the language in which the world was also created that's the language in which all of the T is written besides very few words in contrast the most Central word of the Ten Commandments of the T is communicated not in the organic language of T but in the language that they just left which is Egypt and it's also not only not Hebrew it's also the language that represented exile so how are we supposed to understand this so the medish continues and offers a very interesting explanation if you take a look in your next Source again he tells us a whole he gives us a whole explanation and he says as follows you have it also in the English I have a translation but I'll read it in the Hebrew and translate when came to give the Torah to the Jewish people he wanted to speak to them in a language that they knew and understood that's why is Egyptian and he explains as we said before in Egypt if you want to say I you say or to what can this be compared there was a king whose son was captured and he spent many years with the captors with the kidnappers during those years he learned the language of those captors because he was a hostage by them years pass and the father takes Vengeance of his enemies he fights them and he finally releases and liberates his child and he wants to now converse with his child in their in his own native language but the child doesn't know the language he's been so many years alienated from his parents what should the parent do so he began to speak to him in the language of his captors so that he should be able to communicate even he was taking him away from there and he wanted to speak to him and restore him back to his old life and their organic native language but he couldn't understand a word that he's saying so he spoke to him in this language the same is true with and the Jewish people during all those years that the Jewish people spent in Egypt they learned the Egyptian speech the Egyptian conversation language now when hm redeems them and wants to give them the they can't know how to hear it they don't know how to understand it you know what I'm going to speak to them in the Egyptian language so the first word is which is which is in Egyptian so his first word is not in Hebrew he wants them to understand when he says I and that's why he Converses in this language that's what the madas is teaching us now this is a very moving Insight the father doesn't want to wait till the child learns the language of the parent until then they can't connect they can't bond they can't communicate so therefore he wants to communicate in a way that the child will understand even though it's not his language and in fact it may be a language that he detests or certainly has very very profound negative feelings towards because this is the language he was trying to liberate his child from nonetheless I want to communicate with him or with her and therefore he uses the word that's what the m is teaching us reminds us of the famous metaphor of rman of brv you know the famous metaphor he was the great of BR was the great grandson of the bmov and he tells a story about The Prince and the turkey you remember the story it's a very interesting story there was a royal Prince like in this story and unfortunately something overtook him and he convinced himself that he was a turkey or he was a chicken it came into his mind that he is a turkey so what happens he sits down beneath the table he can't sit at a table turkeys don't sit at a table at cheairs and he of course takes off his clothes because turkeys don't wear clothes and he's pecking at some bones or crumbs under the table of course he stops speaking all he can do is the king and the queen were horrified they summoned every doctor every psychologist every expert in the Kingdom but nobody can help this boy nobody knows what to do there was one Sage who arrived and he volunteered to help and he said that he will be able to help this child and to everybody's astonishment this man also removed all of his garments and he also went down under the table and he started to Peck at the crumbs and at the bones and suddenly the prince had company there was another rooster together with him also cuing together with him for days and finally he says to him what are you doing here he says what are you doing here he says I'm a turkey he says I'm also a turkey we could be friends so they sat together for days and nights and then after a few days the sage signaled to two servants to throw him two shirts so they threw on the two shirts and he puts on a shirt and the turkey other the other turkey looks at him and says what are you doing he says who told you that turkeys don't wear shirts turkeys can also wear shirts so he convinced him to put on a shirt and then pants he says turkeys can also wear pants so he convinced him to put on pants and then who told you that a turkey can't eat other Foods so he convinced him to start eating other foods and then he sat at the table and he convinced him that turkeys can also sit at a table and so on and so forth until until finally he was behaving like a human being and R used to tell the story he would tell a lot of stories and you had to understand the metaphor and the metaphor was that sometimes when you want to influence a person I have to really go in to their mindset I have to understand where they're coming from I have to be able to make them believe that a turkey can also wear a shirt if I tell them you're not a turkey I become the enemy I become the stranger so it's really the ability to go into the other person's world and it's not easy because I want them to come into my world it takes a lot of humility it takes a lot of Courage but this person understood that it's the only way that he's going to be able to really communicate from within not be afraid of camouflaging himself as the identity of the turkey and uh only then can I truly truly influence the person and the truth is that it's so it's true in so many areas you know when I'm speaking to a person from a distance emotionally or physically it's not going to work or at least often it's not going to work because that space inside of them that feels so distant won't be able to be moved it won't be able to be touched so there is an alienation that I have to get over and that's a barrier and that I could only do when I actually go into this place so on one basic level this is what the Mish is telling us that Hashem does exactly that and he begins theis with the Egyptian language like the child who does not understand the language and I want to speak to you there is however a great question and that is that the famous medish that in Egypt the Jewish people didn't change their language it's one of the things that they did not change they didn't change their names they didn't change their language and here suddenly the medish is telling us that they didn't know what word they had to speak on how does that this seems like to be a you could say it's two different there's an argument another question would be according to this it's not just the first word that has to be Egyptian all of the words have to be in Egypt after the first word he still doesn't know the message you say fine so now I know I it's it's hard to understand all of the should have been then been been an Egyptian not only the first word like the father in The metaphor the father speaks to the child in the language of the capts throughout the entire conversation not just the first word true the first word is the more most important it's me it's I it's your father speaking to you that's what he had to understand but still if you want him to understand the entire conversation it would seem that the other words should also be an Egyptian but the truth is that what the med is telling us here goes One Step deeper it's not just a technical idea about the Egyptian language versus the Hebrew language it could be that the Jewish people knew lashan kides or at least many of them knew Hebrew and because they still practiced their language even when they were in an ancient culture and an alien culture and slaves as the other Med say but rather there is a deeper message here and this has to do with the very nature of talking to the Jewish people at that time it wasn't only about language it was also about identity and this is where the med becomes so significant not just in terms of linguistics but also in terms of an existential relationship and what we mean is the Jewish people indeed left Egypt that's true but as we always talk about the fact you know you could take somebody out of Exile you can't always take Exile out of them a part of Egypt a part of MIM remained with them and it remains within each of us all of us as we experience Liberation on many levels but there's still as long as we live in this world and before there is a complete redemption in the world there are parts of us that remain in MIT or MIT remains in us the word MIT comes from the word matar which means restrictions confinements limitations fears shells husks that we live in so we have parts or our core that remains wholesome beautiful idealistic the Divine perfect glorious but we also have parts that are that are that are insecure that are fearful that are gloomy that are depressing that are confining that are very limiting so there's a part that make us feel and make us very restricted we're very restricted we're confined we're limited that's means a person can get frustrated and and angry and resentful and anxious and and self-blaming and self loathing Etc sad whatever it is every person 's own MIT and sometimes we carry in our psyche gallons of of of MIT whatever that looks like whe it's wounds or toxicity guilt sadness fear insecurity and all types of various emotions and instincts and this is where is so powerful that the opening of the opening of hm's communication the opening of the Revelation the opening of the giving of the giving of the T is with an Egyptian word not with a holy word with an Egyptian word in other words one of the greatest mistakes that a person could make is that we become fearful of our own MIT it's almost feeling that God can't relate to that he's not present there there's no relationship with that there's so much shame and guilt around it so what the medish is telling us is no the opening of the is I'm going to speak to you in the Egyptian language I'm not afraid of that which torments you I'm not afraid of that which makes you anxious I'm not afraid of the darkness it's only a CIP it's a shell and every shell is meant to pierce to pierce through it to break through it and to open up that which is inside of it it's not like I cannot be found there Hashem says it's not like I can't relate to it within our Egyptian constructs and modalities and realities there's nothing too scary or too overwhelming when a person says you know I'm just overwhelmed I'm messed up I'm I'm ruined I'm I'm deteriorated all of that that's what Mitri represents that's what MIT represents it's the house of bondage it's the house of slavery so the opening of the entire is that word the metaphor of the father speaking to the child in that language it's not just about language it's much deeper than that the child may feel that there's no connection anymore cuz my conversation is completely different than your conversation we don't even understand the same language it's not just language we don't understand the same terms not living in the same paradigms we see the world in completely different ways there's language as language where you just translate but then there's language as existence language as a metaphor of Concepts it's a completely different language it's not relatable to you so the father comes and says no I'm going to speak this language I'm not afraid of this language we're going to connect right here in this language in other words from all the parts in yourself you could connect they're not alienated they're not essentially foreign and remote these are all things that can be elevated and sublimated and dealt with so I you're going to find in the MIT even in the Egyptian words and modalities inside of them you'll be able to find me you'll be able to connect to me and don't think that you those parts of you have to be ignored or repressed or amputated or or or alienated similar to what we spoke last week from the bov that mha told them at the see you know if you'll be able to look at MIM today you won't have to see them again or you won't never see them again in the same way but if you don't have the courage to look at them you're just going to ignore them it's not like they're going to disappear they're just going to become entrenched deeper and deeper and leak out in different ways so here even in a stronger way the actually begins with the words with the word so Hashem is telling his people don't be afraid of your inner Egypt don't be afraid of your out Outer Egypt in fact the entire purpose of T is to communicate the Divine message to that part of you to the L MIT that is that is the purpose to communicate the Divine message into the Egyptian language into the Egyptian space to be able to embrace and communicate with my fragmented emotions and my challenging feelings and my broken thoughts and all of my toxic stuff that's going on and sheare share with them that God is here that there is a God in the world share with them not be afraid that they are somehow out of the domain of Holiness and there's no way I could communicate to them and it means practically you know sometimes different things come up in people's minds in people's hearts there's moments where a person is elevated and inspired and overwhelmed by gratitude and there's moments of ecstasy and Clarity and things are very very clear I'm not controlled by any Clippers by shells and husks and those are very powerful moments and then there's other moments where that gives room for an opposite experience where the person isn't place of anxiety or duress and stress where the person doesn't have Clarity where the person feels that part of their heart is shut down they don't have Clarity of what they want and who they really are they feel like they're in a more external space and it's not just intellectually it's emotionally the person's energy changes that's exactly when I am in so the whole was I'm coming in there to take you out Andis even when you're out from there I'm going to speak to you that language I'm not afraid of that language in other words we can hold on to that space we can feel it we can breathe through it we can experience it and know that inside of there there is a there's ey and because there's eye you can work through it you can work through it and come out on the other side much more empowered much stronger much deeper much more authentic because now you have transformed and elevated and dealt with all the parts of your per of of of your personality so I don't have to get terrified or discouraged I'm empowered to be with them and know that I can find meaning in them and throughout them because it's the guilt and the shame around these feelings that drives people more mad than anything else The Experience itself is the experience it's an invitation it's something I need to work on it's something I need to work through it's also a Divine message of bre writes in the something very powerful he says that it says in that tells I'm going to come to you I'm going to come to you in the midst of the I'm going to come to you in the midst of darkness and a heavy cloud and that's what they see at har and he says what that means is that if you look into the darkness and the heavy Cloud you're going to find me you're going to find he says that's what m understod and that's Misha's gift to the Jewish people that don't be afraid of the clouds and the Darkness because inside I'm over there I'm going to be there just like the first word is the clarity to know that inside there work through it work through it don't give up on yourself and don't feel that this is the end and this just demonstrates that you're dishonest and everything is worthless and everything is fule which happens especially people who are working on themselves you know we don't stay in light for 24/7 until mashiah comes very speedily in our days hopefully today but there's moments of light there's moments of Darkness so he says I am going to be in that AR in that Darkness Mo understood that very well and the m every Jew understands that very very clearly the challenge is that emotionally when it happens it doesn't feel that way cuz if it would feel that way it wouldn't be dark right it feels like I'm stuck I'm in MIT and MIT literally means stuckness like literally a stuckness it's a paralysis it's an emotional stagnation and at that moment it's just so easy to become blah and like a numbness takes over and uh and you relate to what I was talking about yeah okay some of you at least okay like there's a little deadness that sets in and that's literally like I'm again stuck in a gus literally stuck in a Gus and it takes then the awareness of M to say no I am there I am in that Darkness I am in that cloud so why do I have it it's really because something that I need to work through this is part of my growth my healing process my transformation everybody according to their own capacity and it's literally designed it's custom made for every person in other words different things will come up throughout the day every single day which is part of the nish's Journey that day and every day is different and sometimes when a person touches very high places the darkness that comes afterwards could be more thick and more dense because it's an opportunity actually to work through some deeper things that they're now ready for so it's not something to discourage the person and disempower them and tell them that they were neglected but on the contrary it's my very Mission so means that speaks to the Jewish people the first one says I'm about to give you I want you to know I'm not afraid of your Egypt your inner Egyptian qualities you must not be afraid either speak to it just like I'm speaking to it I'm speaking in it and I'm speaking to it I'm not afraid to employ its language because I want to reach it and therefore you can also employ its language and reach it it's like that Prince the sage goes down into that space he's not afraid of that language he knows that on the contrary that's the only way you'll be able to lift him up when I'm afraid of that language a part of me could never be uplifted that part always has to remain off limits only when I can go down under the table with myself you know think about those that metaphor of in terms of yourself you know we have inside of us a prince we have inside of us a prince that sometimes thinks he's a turkey right it's a beautiful metaphor of Rabin I once I read it I think in one of the books articles very very powerful metaphor he said there was once a uh there was once a huge storm a thunderstorm and you know after these Thunder storms unfortunately a lot of the birds nests get destroyed the eggs don't survive or the chicks don't survive so there was this farmer who felt bad and he started to look around after the thunderstorm for different nests maybe some eggs survived and he saw that there was a nest of an eagle and one egg seemed very much intact After the Storm and The Farmer felt bad he was a chicken farmer so he took this egg and he brought it to the chicken cpop and one of the chickens who didn't really know the difference sat on this egg just as it sat on all of her other eggs it usually takes 21 days 3 weeks for a chick to emerge from the egg uh with an eagle it's a little different but the the egg was warmed sufficiently and one day a little chick came out of course only you know nobody really knew the secret that this was an eagle that the mother the chicken thought it was one of her chicks and what is even worse the eagle himself thought that he was just another chicken or rooster so he stayed with all of his siblings you know pecking and looking for crumbs and bones and seeds you know how chickens are and he did this for years and his head was all day in the ground in the earth like a [Laughter] chicken and uh life went on anyway he became an old man and he already knew for years that he's a chicken he looked a little different but so what people look different you know in families now right not everybody looks mom the same right nobody's perfect so you know he was a little different but he was part of the family and he accepted as the family and he were one day he was already an old man and he was out there somewhere in the field looking for some bones or some crumbs or some bread or some seeds and he lifted up his head for the first time and he saw this most Majestic Elegant Eagle soaring and Eagle is you know the king of the birds and he gives a Big C he emits a big sigh and he says Ah I wish I was an eagle and that's the end of the story now no chicken ever said that no chicken picks up its head and says Ah I wish I was an eagle and there's a reason no chicken says it because they're not Eagles they're chickens it was only he who is an eagle that can appreciate the pain and The Angst I wish I was an eagle because he was an eagle and he knew that he was not living up to his potential but it's even deeper than this what allowed him to be able to experience that not somebody coming into the farm and saying you idiot you're an eagle not a chicken but rather somebody modeling to him what an eagle looks like when he could see what an eagle actually looks like you know it's like wow oh and that's reminded him of who he is you know genetically it was a memory of who he is that's how you get reminded of who you are if somebody would come into the farm and said you think you're a chicken you're worse than a chicken at least chickens are chickens you're a real idiot because you're not even a chicken you're an eagle and you're stuck here in slavery and all that would do is you know make him feel more guilty about himself and make sure that he doesn't leave ever but it was the modeling yeah yes yes yes yes yes it's a very powerful metaphor on many layers on many layers it's a very powerful metaphor cuz how common is this how frequent is this you know the egg just ends up in this place and a and and a person just doesn't know yeah this is my environment and in each person's life whatever that means and sometimes my entire life I'm trying desperately to fit in to be the chicken and I'm trying to be good and but I see I'm a little different I'm a little weird I'm like so how much shame and how much blame and in so many people's lives you know so much of my life is trying to fit in to a particular modality that works for other people but it's really not not a person's modality I was giving a share the other day so I gave a metaphor I said you know imagine imagine uh you're uh stuck on the FDR and there's a lot a lot of traffic a lot of traffic and you're really trying to maneuver and get around and somebody says what are you doing here you're actually in an airplane you don't belong in the traffic of the you're in an airplane but they were told they just want to be like all the cars so you got land FDR and you're struggling with traffic just rise up and fly and there's no traffic over there your traffic is very different than Manhattan George Washington FDR traffic I mean sometimes you have air traffic but it's very different type of traffic the world is open to you but if I somehow learned that the way of being successful is if I'm in a car on the FDR so that's my entire life I'm trying to compete I'm trying to compete with cars when I am an airplane how tragic is that but in the person 's mind this is what success means so it's really truly appreciating and understanding that but I can't understand it by somebody just telling it to me but it's really an energetic experience of who the person really is so doesn't mean yeah that I just become the eagle and I'm transformed into an eagle it means that I have perspective that I could look up and embody feel what it means to be an eagle and that's the the moment that's that's a great moment of Grace now when I go back to my farm because that's what I'm used to I can hold that and I could communicate that truth even to the other parts that still feel that they have to be chickens now we have nothing against chickens chickens are amazing and roosters are amazing just if you're an eagle you should be an eagle you don't have to be a chicken yeah of that's a great question that's a great question in this story The Eagle didn't huh in this in this story The Eagle didn't come down into the farm in the other story The Sage went under the table so that's really that's really that's that's a great question and I think the answer is right there if by flying over the chicken farm I can Inspire the chicken that's good but the sage knew if he's going to fly over the table nobody's going to be inspired he has to go down into that space so we really have to make that very Discerning call of how deep do I have to go down into the other person's space to be able to touch them if I could just do it by flying over that's amazing but not always now of course you're right whenever a person goes into that space they have to have the right gear if the sage thought for a moment about him going on the table he's going to start thinking that he's a rooster it would be very dangerous because not only won't he help the rooster he'll damage himself too you know it's like a lifeguard to jump into the the water and schle somebody out you really have to know what you're doing if I don't know how to swim or even if I know how to swim but I don't know how to shlep somebody who's struggling we know what can happen right so it's really the ability to be able to go down into those places must come with a person having the fortitude and the resilience and the the internal safety and identity to be able to do it I cannot hold space for other people if I don't know how to hold space for myself it's impossible just like you can't have empathy for other people if you don't how to have empathy for yourself because all of that is going to come up and if I don't have that empathy for myself I'm going to get so triggered and entangled and then I I won't know what's me and what's the other person so indeed one one needs to be very very Discerning you know how they go down when they go down and not do it from a place of uh guilt or shame or desperation but rather from a place of true love and affection and empathy so there has to be a lot of an an an internal an internal conversation you know the B once said said it says in you should rebuke rebuke your friend which is the Mitzvah of basically trying to help somebody get out of a difficult situation or doing something wrong Etc so the says why does it say twice and he says because before you speak to the other person you always have to first rebuke someone else you have to first speak to yourself and ask yourself where is this coming from if this is coming from anger or desperation or I'm overwhelmed or I'm stressed you're just trigger triggering the living daylight out of me then I'm usually not going to be effective it's like the sage screaming you idiot turkey get out of the table what happened to you and then the turkey just says oh nobody nobody gets me like I can't trust anybody so I first have to before before I speak to you I have first have to have a conversation with me and say what is happening inside of me you know what is happening the more I could make space for my own MIT and deal with it the more I could make space for another person's MIT and deal with it so that's a very very profound question of really understanding where the person is and how deeply I have to descend into their situation but sometimes it's very very deep it's it's I got to go in to schlep him out if somebody God forbid is in a is in a pit I have to go down sometimes I could just lower a rope sometimes they're too weak to take the Rope you know so the person yeah also point of jealousy that it's interesting what you're asking it's interesting I think you know the word jealousy usually has a very negative connotation but not always like the gar says which means there jealousy like I'm jealous of you because I think you took it away from me but then there's seeing something in you that speaks to me it's it's it's an aspiration it's aspirational and that's a very powerful thing you know when we see equality in somebody and it speaks to us it means somehow you're connecting to it so now yeah learn from it maybe speak to the other person and ask them you know what they did to get here and what are their methods that's that's an amazing thing it's an incredible incredible thing so it's it's a different type of jealousy you know there's a jealousy where I'm busy obsessing with you having something feeling that you stole it from me and that only means that I don't know who I am I'm completely I'm not looking inside and I don't even know my power and I think you took what you took it from me you know would be like uh like the ray of the sun getting jealous of another ray like why you shining in that house like it's it's my and the answer is the sun has enough Rays for everybody trust me you don't need to the other Ray did not steal your your thunder your light I should say the other Ray did not steal your light the sun has enough light for everybody to go around you can ask the other way wow you are amazing teach me teach me there was a Jew I knew he was his name was R futas futas so he was in Stalin's Gulag for I think more than 10 years in Siberia and he survived he was a very very intelligent man a very funny person so when he got out of Russia after many many years he liked telling stories of his experience and when you spend 10 years in Siberia Trust me you got lots of stories so he once shared an amazing story it was such a lesson he would tell the yes stories he once shared an incredible story he said that they used to play cards in the barracks at night there was nothing to do he himself didn't play but they would play cards now it was illegal you weren't allowed to play cards and if you were caught with cards you could be put in solitary confinement or punished terribly this is Siberia where most people didn't survive remember you're talking about 70 below zero in the winter it's could be 70 below zero it's crazy see he says but in his Barrack there was this group and they always played cards and the warden never caught them he never caught them anyway once the nachalnik nachalnik in Russian is like the prison Warden comes in he comes to their Barrack they're playing cards and uh they hear the footsteps and suddenly all the cards disappear they go into somebody's hand and then he comes in and he says I know you're playing cards and I'm going to find them and he searches everywhere for the cards everywhere in everybody's there weren't really beds but it was like you know straws mats of straw there were no drawers or lockers this is Siberia old Barracks that they was was it was not livable it was horrible so there was not much to C not not not much place to search but he searched everywhere he could not find the cards he's angry he's cursing and real Russian curses that I'm not going to repeat here and uh they know how to do it and they know how to do it yeah much better than Americans and he said I'm still going to catch you guys I'm going to catch you and he leaves in anger and he slams the door and mendal says and 5 seconds later the cards come out and he cannot understand this so the next day he goes over to one of the leaders there a big Russian muscular fellow and he says you have to tell me the mystery how do you guys do this so he says listen you I trust I'm going to tell you the story but if you share this story with even one person I will kill you with my bare hands so mendal didn't share it in Siberia but after he came to America he sh the story and the man says as follows we have here the best pickpocketer of mosca the best pickpocketer of mosca so this is what happens when the guy comes in yeah we get we get we hear him coming we collect the cards we give it to this guy he's always near the door and when the inspector comes in he slips the Cards into the pocket of the inspector the inspector looks everywhere the only place he doesn't think to look is in his own pocket when he's about to leave he takes out the cards from his pocket he leaves we so the mendal said he turned to the he says everybody's looking for the cards and everybody else's pocket they don't know that it's in their own pocket I'm searching here and there it's in your pocket your pocket your drawer your bank your house your marriage your kids it's in your own pocket the guy never thought in a million years to check that how would the cards come into his pocket and amendo said he learned so much about life at that moment you know and that's really what it's about the moment a person can truly realize that you know somebody told me uh some sometimes there's a person people love spending time with and the reason they love spending time with is because you know the the person has such a purity or such a wisdom or such idealism or such regulation that it's really inspiring and one of the mistakes we could make is that we attribute power to that person and then it becomes about jealousy you know I want to be you but it's not what that person is that person is just in the frequency of God's light you know it's like it's like if I want to if I tell somebody I want to look at you because you're the sunlight you're not the sunlight you're in the sunlight so you're reflecting the sunlight so it's amazing so the job is now you come into the sunlight so you'll also reflect the sunlight so relationships are very very blessed and Powerful when they can teach us how we can have access to the sunlight when it becomes about I want your position in the sunlight that something is off something is off because that's where that's where the tenth commandment comes in right that's where jealousy comes in in the sense that I feel that you stole my thunder you stole my light you didn't steal my light nobody could steal anybody's light we can learn from each other how to channel that sunlight how to stand in the sunlight so that's also the that's that's the idea of the eagle of the chi the real chicken is never jealous of an eagle it's not supposed to be an eagle I don't see the deer in my backyard and Muny ever get jealous of squirrels and squirrels ever get jealous of deer and beers get jealous everybody's it's only people who have big imaginations and we start comparing ourselves so the the reason the eagle got so jealous is because it was an eagle it was looking at something it was supposed to be and whenever there's something I'm supposed to be and I'm not there's a pain there's an angst and that's why people have such deep idealistic aspirations and it gets them upset but it shouldn't get you upset what you're searching for is to touch yourself to touch your sunlight and if another person can help me see that that's amazing so in that sense that so back to the m so when Hashem comes and says I want to speak to you in the Egyptian language like the child like the father to the child who was in captivity I'm not afraid of the language again we're not only talking about language here we're talking about emotional language you know those words words that seem so debilitating so difficult I can't even utter them like can I speak to Hashem in that language can he speak to me in that language and the answer is exactly that's exactly the whole purpose of the reason the to was given it wasn't given in heaven to the angels it was given to the people who were in Egypt the gorra says in shabas that when mha came to get the tah the angel said it doesn't belong on Earth it belongs in heaven and hasem told mha give them an answer and he said have you been in Egypt they said no so he said well the whole Torah begins on if you haven't been in Egypt then the alter wasn't given it was it's exactly to communicate the language to the rooster who's under the table and doesn't think capable of being above the table and having that level of communication with that space without the fear and the paralysis that these parts in me are just too ugly too undesirable too grotesque too weird to be able to deal with did I answer your question very important yeah very important you know the story of of pan it's a beautiful story there was a drew that came to of pan and he said that somebody else took his parosa away from him he took his livelihood away from him so he told him I guess it wasn't so realistic so he told them that it was he said did you ever notice that when a horse comes to a pond to drink you ever see what a horse does before it drinks to a trough to a pond to an ocean it starts kicking it kicks the water very strongly and then it drinks why so he said because when the the horse comes to drink suddenly in the water it sees a horse so it thinks there's another horse coming to steal my water so what does the horse do he starts kicking kicking the horse in the water until the water becomes dirty and murky with mud and then the other horse is gone and then he says now it's my water now I can start drinking so man mlan says what the horse doesn't realize is that he was what he was seeing is his own reflection he wasn't seeing another horse and by kicking it he just made his water dirty and he also forgot that God has enough water for all the horses so this is so true in life you know I think by making my water dirty now suddenly it's going to become my water so mayor said don't try to be not like that horse so here the point really is that when we can model that for other people it becomes a very very very very powerful tool for that healing now here we come to another very important point and that is the name of an the name that's used here is an what does an mean an of course means I in the Egyptian in the Egyptian language as I said Hashem identifies himself here in three words Hashem which is usually translated I am the Lord your God the last two are in Hebrew are Hebrew words the first one is an Egyptian now let's understand this Hashem has names names means the way he's known and experienced by others like you'll say you have a good name you have a good reputation this is your name this is how people call you so a name represents how other people know you how other people relate to you how other people experence you know people have a nickname people have a cute name people have different names but then there's an what's is not a name an is the very eye the essence of everything it's I it's not even a name so a name is something that's relatable to others I is literally your quintessence right your name and reputation represent that which people know about you you'll say she has a great name right he has an interesting name he has a good name but there is your innermost eye which nobody knows sometimes you don't even know if I ask you know what does your essence Mish look like maybe some of us have a little glimpse of our Essence sometimes we ourselves don't have a name for our Essence because it's beyond names that's what an is is the essence so how do we touch the an how do we touch the an of Hashem the innermost essence of Hashem hashem's Essence beyond all names beyond all experiences beyond all light Beyond any definition and description we could relate to here comes the true depth of the madish it's not through spiritual segregation it's through L and the We Touch through L and by Having the courage to bring the Divine Light into our inner and outer Egypt the is in Hebrew sometimes it's counterintuitive and it's paradoxical but it's the raw truth when I face my MIT when I face all of my struggles my pain my Temptations My Brokenness whatever they look like when I don't run from them when I don't get afraid of them I rather embrace them and I choose to find the infinite light inside all of these parts of my life I don't touch God's names I don't touch hashem's names or spiritual light rather you capture the eye of Hashem the essence of his very the deepest and purest Essence the ultimate core of all reality so Hashem is teaching the Jewish people something very profound the eye of the eye of hem himself you can only grab onto if you're ready to go down into Lush and MIT into Egypt into the psychology and environment of the Egypt inside of you and bring light and Clarity and Holiness and morality and values and authenticity and truth and godliness into those seemingly very lowly dark or even depraved space that's what says when he builds the if you look in the last Source the last Source builds the and he says these words can God really dwell on the earth the heavens and the heavens of Heavens can't contain you yes this Temple that I have erected will contain you is astounded the highest Heavens can't be a they can't contain you and here's a little simple home on the Temple Mount onas that's going to contain you what is really saying the heavens sh the heavens of Heavens representing deep spiritual lofty aspirations and states of Consciousness Heaven is not just physical Heaven it's the heaven in the person it's when a person reaches Heaven they cannot contain you they can't contain you they can perhaps capture some of your names some of your Revelation some of your radiation some of your brightness some of your luminescence but not you it's this home which I erected right here from physical bricks you could go to the you could go to the excavations near the K and see literally from physical bricks physical matter with physical blood and sweat and tears and physical people amidst all types of obstacles and confusions it's this home a home built from physical matter this is the home which contains you an your deepest deepest core and if you see his word is and one of the interpretations here is the word AF means you know what the word AF AF means anger and pain like this is a home built from AF it's a home built from moments of of Brokenness from moments of pain a this bias is built from a this this this can actually contain you this is what contains you so it's in the the is ready to come down to he's not afraid and now it's also the opposite way we're learning it's from the MIT that you touch the therefore not only should you not be afraid of it but on the contrary this is the greatest opportunity to touch the real real Essence that's beyond light and the reason it touches the essence Beyond light is because it's it's it it looks so dark so the light doesn't reach it but the essence reaches it cuz the essence is not afraid of Darkness the essence is present in the and the as much as it's in the light so paradoxically by touching those places in myself and yourself you go not to the names you don't go to you go to the that precedes all of it and it's true about ourselves it's also true about others sometimes we're bashful to reach certain people we're bashful to reach out to certain people to connect to certain individuals to make an impact on surroundings we're like that's MIT that's like too far it's too remote how can I bring godliness Holiness love yish truth authenticity these people are too alien or too triggering or or it's too far but what we're learning here is a the entire function and purpose of T was hasem said I wanted to be brought down to MIT to enlighten and educate and transform narrow-mindedness and the restrictions of Egypt into an oasis for the Divine don't give up on any person not on yourself not on your child not on your friend's child and not on any Jew or any other person because never be afraid to go down to those places in yourself and others it's in the that comes down to and that's where you find something even deeper than all the names that's where you find the true essence yeah you can ask you [Music] yeah great question so the answer is the real an is the opposite of ego right just like we spoke before about jealousy an means ey the truest eye of a person is one with Hashem it's really one and therefore that truest eye is present in every part of our life your eye is present in all your names it's present by day it's present by night it's present in our highs it's present in our lows that that Essence is present in every moment and in every experience so when we relate to that which is really hasem because of the Oneness so then we're not afraid of going into all the other parts of ourselves because the essence is already there and like you say I just have to reveal it even though it sometimes takes a lot of work and precisely by going down to those places in myself I will find my Essence that's much deeper than my name you sometimes see it also in a person I mean I think you can always see it when do people touch their deepest Essence when do you get to know yourself in the most found way not just your name you know there's three parts to every person that says in medish there's who I am there's who I think I am and there's who you think I am how many people make peace between all these three there's who you are there's who you think you are there's who other people think you are that's the difference of is who you are is already a name but it's the essential name it's who you think you are and which is the only name of Hashem that changed es between the plural and the individual is the only name of that adjusts according to the individual nature is who other people think you are so there is my name for myself who I think I am how I experience myself which is much deeper and then there's who I really am and then there's who other people think I am which is the part of me that relates to them in life our purpose is to make peace between all these three takes a lot of Courage first of all you have to find out who you are and second of all you have to not so care so much about what other people think you are so to all these three come together right that's where do we really get in touch with our it's usually when we sift through and we touch our scariest places our darkest places the places that trigger you most like rman says I said earlier I am going to be in that Darkness it's usually when I have the courage to go to those places that I'll be able to find my deepest Secrets my deepest Essence as long as I'm not ready to touch that at best I will relate to some of my names which means I'll relate to external parts of me but it's that an that essence of essence of essence which is beyond names Beyond description you can't even talk about it because you can't Define it it's just like an inner frequency it's an inner Divine frequency and flow it's the it's the eye that's beyond anything and that I usually touch when I'm ready to sift through and work through the MIT inside of me so that is always present so now we come back to is so this is the secret of Y coming before mat who is y y was not Jewish in fact y worshiped every in the world comes the Z and says the T can't be given until comes and says because this is exactly what yre gave the Jewish people yre represented somebody from a completely different world we spoke before about the first word ofus is an Egyptian word it's not even a it's not a Hebrew word and Y For Whom the par is named represents somebody who's from a completely different culture in a different world K midan and then he comes he comes into the midbar so the Z says now when he comes the tah can be given because y represents the Paradigm of elevating and sublimating everything in the world to Hashem is represents the idea that even a person like me and not only even precisely a person like me when he says now I know that God is greater than all the gods he gave the Jewish people the confidence to be able to know that don't be afraid even of a isra who worshiped every single ofar in the world because when you have the truth you don't be afraid not of the isra inside of you not of the is outside of you on the contrary this gave the Jewish people a confidence and a and a trajectory and a purpose that could only come from isra because he literally came from all the he learned all of the wisdom and then he brought it all back so now he articulated that the ultimate power of mat is to elevate and sublimate every single part of ourselves including the lowest part of ourselves like who worships every and yet ultimately says from it and through it now not everybody has to go through what y went through that's not the Mitzvah to go through what but isra represented that Paradigm that ultimately everything in the world and every experience in life can bring you to ultimately figure out and it's Al practically because the Jewish people were slaves for so many years and slaves sto having confidence the Ezra says that at yam they were so afraid of the Egyptians even though you had 600,000 men between 20 and 60 so fight them and dezzar says they couldn't because they saw their masters and a slave psychologically is subservient to the Masters they didn't have the courage to fight them that's what Dean Ezra says they were so many years slaves psychologically they were looking at their masters even though they outnumbered them but emotionally they didn't have the guts the enourage the audacity to fight them that's why they were so paralyzed that's what dezzar writes so now they're coming to mount sin just seven weeks after they're liberated and God says I carried you out on the wings of eagles you're not chickens you're Eagles literally that's what he says in and I'm going to make you a holy nation and you're going to transform the whole world and the Jews Like We you got the wrong people here well not me you got the wrong people to give them something so powerful like T and give them this Mission that's so powerful it was very difficult you know just like we can't contain deep sadness it's also hard to contain deep Joy like sometimes the news is too big to contain and it was yro who suddenly comes into their life and says I have been there on the other side I could tell you about the product you have empowered them in an entirely New Way y showed them what they have and when they heard it from y they can listen to it because y came from a completely different place and Y also showed them what the purpose is MIT the purpose is to be able to permeate the entire world and the entire world of a person with the truth of T not be afraid of any of it because even every ciper that he went through brought him back ultimately to God because now he could say and Y also taught them something powerful you know often people make mistakes in life yre worshiped every AAR but at this moment everything was sublimated in a very interesting way because he realized that every AAR that he worshiped could teach him he could have never said that God is greater than every other God if there was one AAR that he didn't touch so this means paradoxically and counterintuitively every AAR that he fell into which was AAR was paganism at this moment becomes transformed because it gives him the awareness that he could have never had without it like the gar says that when we do CH of love every sin becomes a Mitzvah so isra was teaching the Jewish people as well that when we go through our stumbling blocks and failures everyone becomes a stepping stone and a catalyst to be able to say this this shell this husk everyone just teaches me more and more and more the truth of hasem the truth of and by going through it it like becomes a stepping stone it becomes a cat it becomes a springboard and that's why the name is actually because represents that the ultimate purpose is a it's not just will remain in its own bubble ultimately the entire world like we say in Al the entire world is going to be transformed I don't want to uh I don't want to compare one I don't want to compare one person to another person but I'll just say this and it may be interesting to note and that is last week week president Trump met the Israeli Prime Minister BB Netanyahu and uh he threw a bombshell as he said that America is going to occupy GA going to take over Gaza and send and send 1.7 million Arabs who live there to another country where they could live safely and he's going to renovate it and turn it into the Riviera of the Middle East okay huh so you know have good jokes so one guy told me this is really an invitation for all the to be able to move Tel into Gaza because it's going to be under American occupation so that's how Messiah will get all of s to move into Isel without any issues whatsoever that was just a funny joke that gave me it is I was there it's really beautiful it's really beautiful yeah I was in gka yeah you don't now I know that uh president Trump has a Jewish son-in-law nonetheless I don't mean to compare him to isra and his son-in-law too with all due respect to him and his wonderful son-in-law but nonetheless sometimes you could see something and learn something very powerful when yra comes to the Jewish people and he speaks to them it makes an impact that is extremely powerful because he comes from such a different world from such a different culture and he gave them a boost that they should have had but because of their situation they didn't have it and hearing from y these words it empowered them it uplifted them you know is said the grass is greener on the other side I went to all the green grass on all the other sides I've been there done it I went through it I experimented with it and I'm coming here and I'm telling you you know this is your opportunity for ultimate transformation of yourself and in the entire world it was a fascinating moment as Trump said this there was a woman I saw the video who sprung up and said but it's their home how can you do this this is their home and he looked at her and he said a home I'm not going to use the word who you said but he said it's a Gehan basically he said it a little more graphic so it's a crazy place every house is attached to another bomb every few years there's another War Another War for a 100 years been trying to do the same thing you got to think out of the box you got to think differently it's simply not working it's not working to rebuild it billions of dollars so they should declare another war in a few years against the Jewish people so somebody said yeah but it's their home you're you're you're you're occupy you're occupying somebody else's home what about a Palestinian State build a Palestinian state in Saudi Arabia there's a lot of space there for a Palestinian State and I found it fascinating because Here Comes an American president who's not Jewish in the first weeks of of his presidency and he's not ashamed to tell the whole world that the old strategy of doing things the same way again and again is going to fail and essentially all of is is God's Eternal gift to the Jewish people for eternity and you don't have to be embarrassed about it and it's the only way to make peace not just for the Jews but also for the Arabs so this was a fascinating fascinating thing what Jews were embarrassed to say for decades because they have to be politically correct here comes a man and it's not even his country he's an American and he has the guts to say this about Gaza and Jews it is their country God gave it to them ab and yob walked there 3,700 years ago 2,000 years before Muhammad was born walked there and walked there and walk there walked there talking about 3,000 years ago 3,200 years ago 3,400 years ago 3600 years ago we're always embarrassed to talk this way and the shame to talk this way allowed us to fall into a trap of absolute absurdity of giving territory and building up a people that simply has one agenda and that is to murder literally every every single Jew so sometimes it's a is that teaches people how to speak how to be confident yeah and everybody screams for a few days and then they scratch their head and they say not a bad idea not such a bad idea but the real challenge is that Jews liberate themselves from their own inferiority complex and from their own fears and from their own negative self-image and really have the pride and the dignity to be able to speak the truth to the whole world and this is a tremendous opportune time so here we have a living example about sometimes the statements of a non Drew can Empower a nation to be able to think differently and change its strategy to be able to embrace its true ethic of life and love and peace have a beautiful week thank you next week we're on 9:30 next Tuesday be hasem you're welcome oh wow wow okay amazing thank you for coming ah beautiful J only thing I was to say is people what you think of me what I think of myself and because we really no there's who you are there's who you think you are and those other people think you are so you know your that right so it's very hard that it's because you care what you think other people think of you that impostor makes it hard to find out who you are that's true when I when I really start believing I'm a chicken yeah a lot of