Parshas Shemos: The Incredible Lesson of Pharaoh’s Daughter

okay today's class is dedicated by Liz and Dr Michael Michelle and Liz Michelle is here with us gracing us so thank you very much in loving memory and in honor and leas of her father Hali Ben harav bamin who passed away 25 years ago on the 11th day of Tavis you're smiling cuz you remember yes Rabbi Irving Levy was was a respected t a legendary Bal and one of the founding fathers of the beautiful Muny community so everything all the fruits we uh Harvest today and reap today from the pioneering work of the individuals who uh trailblazed this path so today's class is dedicated in honor of his and may He remain an eternal source of love and blessing and and inspiration to you and to the whole family and all of the grandchildren and great grandchildren I should mention six great grandchildren serving in the Army protecting our people and our homeland and uh may his memory always serve as a powerful source of empowerment and inspiration to the family and to all of the Jewish people and thank you very very much also today's class is dedicated lus in the Merit of Leora Ruth Ru Ruth Bas s and in Merit of all Jewish women yes and all of our soldiers in AR is may God protect them all amen and thank you very very much is it's is it you could sit up front there few seats here with pleasure could it either right here or here maybe whatever is more comfortable you know there's moments in life where we sometimes face challenges or adversity that seem to be so potent and overwhelming and complete completely impossible to deal with like an insurmountable obstacle sometimes the heart intuitively feels what's the right thing to do but the Mind often trying to be rational says just there's no way you're going to be successful this is a place where we're just stuck and you have to acques to failure there is a deep emotion or maybe a deep feeling what to do what not to do but again there's another voice voice that says this is too big for you you're incapable it's impossible and today we're going to learn a very powerful story in this week's portion which really guides us and gives us a blueprint when it comes to such situations now we're going to go through a story that some of you probably heard I don't know a 100 times at least a few dozen times certainly many times any self-respecting Jewish school the kids grow up with the story there's coloring books every coloring book a Friday has the story a lot of pictures around it and one particular aspect of this story is so well known that it's really deeply ingrained in our curriculum and our education and for good reason because it is one of the most foundational stories in Jewish history and of course it's the story of mos renu's birth and rescue as an infant often as a child when you learn stories and then you hear the midrashic interpretations you know it's just part of the part of our culture and part of our bloodstream as they say when you get older sometimes it just behoves us to be able to revisit it and to see if there was maybe a depth or a profundity that we can often miss and the truth is children are capable of very very profound ideas often I find more than adults CU their their minds are very fertile and extremely open they understand much more abstract realities than we think they do but sometimes you know things are dumbed down and they don't always get the full point and it really depends on the communicator the teacher the parent the educator the mentor because always you know we can only educate someone else as much as we educate ourselves you can only change somebody else to the point that you're ready to change yourself that's an old and deep and true rule in life I can't change anybody more than a ready to change myself so let's go through the story it's the well-known story par made a decree that every male Jewish infant that is born should be cast into the Nile Delta yeah so it's interesting it it it says the verse doesn't say Jewish boys it says he commanded his entire nation any any boy that's born should be cast into the river he doesn't say Jews it's interesting if you look in the unus in the in the Aramaic translation over there he adds any boy that's born the that is born to the Jewish faith I once heard from the former Chief Rabbi of Israel Rabbi Israel mayor llit and he said something I mean tragic but profound he said par made it as a decree because simply a population explosion it had nothing to do with the Jews there was no anti-Semitism involved but the tum which is the translations they said they whispered it's the Jews it's the Jewish kids it's not all the kids so in the verse it's it's like no no we just need to control the population you know there's just too many people there's not enough food there's not enough shelter it's just a decree about everybody there's no blatant anti-Semitism here but the tarum says you know the whisper was is the Jewish kids this is based on The ramban Who holds that P's entire mechanism was completely secretive and clandestine there was to the point that if the Jews came to par to complain he's like oh really I never knew these evil things are happening it was a whole brilliant uh mechanism that he created similar to what how the Germans did it in the beginning so that there shouldn't be an outcry and a Revolt it's a very interesting discussion of the ramban ntz and her brilliant commentary ones dedicates a whole essay to this Rashi also says that for one day it was for everybody that one day afterwards it was only for the Jews so yeah very interesting that t only says speaks about everybody in any case M was born and we know little mha is born at that point his name is not mosa in fact the medish says that his parents named him a different name it's actually 10 different names that he had but his parents named him to or yukel or tvia the mikra goes through 10 different names that MOA had before he was given the name mha which was not really a Jewish name and we'll get to that in a moment so mha is born baby mha is born before he has this name his mother sees says the moment he's born she sees how precious how good he is she can hide him for three months but after three months she's simply not capable of hiding this infant anymore and that means at any moment he will be taken kidnapped by the by the Egyptian tyrants by the Egyptian monsters and cast and drown in the Nile so we know what she does she builds a little she constructs a little basket and she takes her baby who's only 3 months old she puts him in the basket and she places it in the marsh at the bank of the Nile the Nile River what was she thinking we don't know what she was thinking it doesn't say but I guess she thought maybe maybe somebody will have Compassion maybe an Egyptian will find his boy and save him she doesn't know but if he stays in the house he'll for sure be killed so she's hoping and of course her sister her daughter his sister stands from Far simply to watch what happens and now an unexpected turn in the story and let's see it inside this is the book of shapter 2:5 sa for you have it in the Hebrew on the right side the original and in the English which I took from Safari on the left side the daughter of Pyro goes down to bathe in the Nile and her Maids are walking along the Nile she sees the basket in the midst of the marsh she sends her amasa literally most people would say amasa is her maid servant one of her servants as we'll see our sages had a different perspective and she takes the basket she retrieves this little basket from the Nile River she went into the river she went to bathe and she sought and she retrieves it she opens it and she saw him she saw him and this was a child and behold he was a weeping lad she has compassion for him and she says obviously this is one of the Jewish children how did she know well one logical way is some of the commentators say who would put their child in a basket in a river this would be the scheme of a Jewish mother who desperate and with some hope you know some hope in a crazy situation might put her child here and then we know the story the sister of course who was Miriam runs over to her and says should I go and call for you a wet nurse from the Hebrew woman so that the child can be nursed the baby was crying and she says yes go and of course in a brilliant move of Miriam she goes and gets her mother so in verse nine the daughter of says take this child and nurse him for me and I will give you your wages so basically mha gets to be nursed by his mother and his mother gets paid for that that's pretty good I don't know how many of you were paid for feeding your children they think you should pay them right that was a joke so the woman took the child and nursed him did the daughter of par know what is happening maybe she seems like an intelligent girl so she probably had the what they used to call in German yish aiten finger anybody knows what aiten finger fillers six cense she may have sensed it but obviously everything was a secret so mosa is saved there's a Jewish woman nursing him she's even being paid by the princess of Egypt the daughter of P the boy grows up and she the wet nurse his real mother brings him to the daughter of par but and he becomes a son to her she adopts him like her own child she also names it says I drew him from the water m means I drew him from the water that's the story right after this story we have verse 11 this the story now takes a whole other turn this is M as an infant as a baby literally being rescued from Death now the next story is by came to pass in those days now m is already a growing up he grew up in the palace he grew up by the daughter of he goes out to his brothers obviously somebody told him his true story he sees their suffering he sees an Egyptian man striking a Hebrew man one of his own Brothers M considers them his brothers even though he's an Egyptian prince so so to speak and we all know the story he turns this way that way he sees there's no man he strikes the Egyptian dead and he hides him in the sand as he comes out and he sees this Egyptian beating a Jew to death so he now takes the initiative and he kills the Egyptian what happens afterwards in the story is somebody informs to the Pharaoh who's mha's grand grandfather right it say really it's a z so to speak adopted grandfather because it's the daughter of P's father and he hears what his grandson or adopted grandson did and he wants to kill him and that's when mha becomes a fugitive and he runs away to midan and there the story takes another twist where he goes to the well which was basically the central meeting place and where he knew that some of his great Patriarchs met some very interesting people and that's where he meets yre Seven Daughters and he saves them from the harassment of the Shepherds and of course one of them ends up becoming his wife and soulmate Zar now when we look at the story of the daughter of par and it's interesting that the T does not give her a name the T just says the daughter of par went down to bathe at the river in in the book of Chronicles one chapter 4 we do have a name for her her name is bisha BAS par b or people call her B the way it's pronounced is B basas over there she is given a name according to the sages it's the same person but here her name is not said even though here is the story over there just mentions her husband's name he was name was mored but there's a reason for it because the real story is not her personal name baa or any other name the story is that she was the daughter of par that the daughter of par is the one who goes down to bathe the river now when she's there and she sees the basket she decides to retrieve the basket opens it up and has compassion it's an amazing story it's a beautiful story y M's mothers hope in the darkest of situations that something may save this child indeed comes to fruition Miriam of course is the great shaten who brings it all together and we're very grateful mha survived when we take a look though in the gamar and medish and Rashi there's a whole other story and it's this other story that we want to focus on and I'm going to raise some questions today that probably when you some of you when you were children the first time you heard this you asked this question but you may have been told we don't ask these questions or when you're older you'll understand which you never did but now you're older so hopefully today we'll try to understand together very often children ask very very intelligent questions we don't always have the answers so sometimes if we're really unevolved we get triggered and we get upset we teach them not to ask questions and in that sense we dumb down not only our intelligence but their intelligence and we also teach them something deeper and that is you know real authentic questions will not be addressed in this place cuz nobody can deal with it that's a horrible pedagogical mistake stake especially today when people are extremely extremely I mean always but today people are intelligent and children are very intelligent and they think a lot and they process a lot and if there can't be an authentic conversation it means essentially that faith means I have to close my eyes because if I open my eyes who knows what's going to happen so pedagogically spiritually it's quite an error so here we have a fascinating teaching of our sages and if we want to be a little irre it's strange why would they need to add this Supernatural story that we'll observe in a moment on a very very beautiful story what's their Supernatural story you remember and it's all the col it's many of the coloring books what is it you remember her hand got longer now we just read the text the text didn't say that if it says in the text it says in the text it says the C split the SE split it doesn't say her hand got longer it says she went to bathe and she saw a basket and she sent aasa we'll soon see what that means and she took it and she opened it up it's a it's a very the story has a sequence that makes a lot a lot of sense so let's see rashi rashi says who is thisas it means her maid our rabbis gave it a different interpretation doesn't mean she sent her servant it means she sent her hand like it says by it means her her hand why is it called amasa the answer is there's a measurement in Hebrew called anama what is an amama an Amma is basically the joint from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger which means from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger is known as Amma in Hebrew and that's why the measurement called amama is based on that so that's basically that joint from the elbow all the way down to the bottom of the tip of finger is called amama so they say that is another way of saying she sent forth her arm or she sent forth her hand but then the question is why doesn't it say we usually don't use the word for hand now it makes more sense to say means her maid there is an expression in Hebrew called right we have if you remember an means a made the more common term is so could have said so it's an common term and because of that they said it doesn't mean made it means hand but why are you calling it aasa and this is where they come up with this fascinating story because if it would say she stretched out her hand and took it it would just mean her hand took the basket means that something happened to theama of the hand instead of becoming anama it became much longer than that that's what rash is going to say here the last few lines it's her hand her arm grew many cubits so that she can reach the basket that's why it doesn't say y it says something happened it was her arm her armor wasn't a regular Amma this was a unique am an Amma usually is between a foot and two feet a foot and a half some people say it's a little more than a foot and a half okay that's a big argument in exactly what an is you know we like arguing about everything so we argue what am is exactly fine but you're talking about a foot and a half two feet that zip code somewhere there right you wouldn't have gotten that point her suddenly became manyas imagine her hand wasn't a foot or her arm wasn't a foot or foot enough imagine it was 20 ft 50 feet 100t because the basket somehow was floating deep in the river how could she reach it says means her hand stretched out many many if you turn to the second side Rashi didn't make this up on his own and actually got this from the that's tra the says there's a big debate between two of the greatest sages what does aasa mean one says it means her hand the other one says no she didn't send her hand she sent her maid and the gar says why do they argue do we have to argue about everything it's a nice story she sent she got the basket no let's argue about this and why is it even relevant and what's the difference the bottom you know it's it's interesting know like the bottom line is the kid was safe thank God next no how did the basket come like what a classic quintessential Jewish argument 3 and a half thousand years passed and we're still discussing well let's figure this out how did it come you sent me no you didn't send me I never went oh was your hand oh it was your hand so why' it say AA very very fascinating what Jews argue about but as we shall see what seems like a very technical and I would say maybe inconsequential and really valueless arguments like thank God the basket is here like who cares is really representing something very very profound and it's a lesson for all of these type of debates and discussions so one says it's her hand one says it's her mate it doesn't say it says it should have said is the common term for mate the other one says it's a because if it be the hand it should say not so it should have said is an Aramaic term which means her arm stretched more and more and more and more and that's why why doesn't say y it says to give you a different type of term that there was something strange here with theama it was not the regular measurement from the shoulder from the elbow till the tip of the finger now I want to I don't want to be a party pooper I don't like being a party pooper at all and now somebody who tells quite a lot of stories I do not want to ruin a good story it's the last thing I would want to do but I'm compelled to be a little bit of a party pooper and I want to put myself for a moment with a lot of humility or put us all for a moment into the minds of these sages Reb the same the same idea is quoted in the med Med R Rashi quotes it so Rashi feels it's very relevant even in the literal interpretation of Kes I want to put myself in their shoes and come back to the story and see what compelled this interpretation again if the text says it explicitly it says it explicitly but the text obviously doesn't say it explicitly they had a problem with the word amasa so because it doesn't say y therefore we're going to create a miracle and say that her hand stretched out let's say 20t 30t 40t what was really what compelled our sages to impose this miraculous Supernatural story into this very natural story which even in it most natural version is a very very inspiring story like what's wrong with the story as it's read here is a heroin a great woman the daughter of par the Tyrant of Egypt who sacrifices her own life to save a little Jewish infant and she knows he's Jewish she says it the T uses those two words she has compassion in an insane environment where compassion is deleted where compassion is absolete where compassion has been replaced by cruelty by sadism by barbarity suddenly there's a girl or a young woman from which compassion would be completely unexpected she's the daughter of par she got her education in parro's Palace she sat as she was raised by this Tyrant by this dictator isn't that an incredible incredible story why the neede to tell me that her hands stretched out 50 ft or 20t or 10 ft or 100t or 200t like so you'll say well we have a problem with a mus okay so because you have a problem with a word therefore we're going to go to such an extreme and create such a dramatic Miracle number one number two I would argue and again forgive me for my irreverence I would argue that the miraculous story actually eclipses and takes away the natural story I would say that in this case the natural story is far more inspiring and interesting than the miraculous story because the miraculous story is like okay you can't reach the basket and suddenly your arm extends so it's like God doing all these Miracles fine the natural story is in a way so much more powerful it's about the human courage moral courage in the face of such darkness and Insanity it's such a powerful story it's such a potent story you know sometimes you need a miracle touch in order to give the story some luster some meat and potato some uh what's the word some o some you know some energy here you can't get better than this the miracle just it's it it it it takes away our attention from the from the actual the concrete simple physical natural story that happened here I have a third question we all know there's a famous principle a famous saer called Russ s and he elaborates this in eth Russ but this a very well know and dict him God does not do miracles in vain nature is not a mistake nature is the Rhythm of Life and the consistency of nature is the glory of existence so Miracles are not just done you know why not let's throw out a miracle every Miracle has a profound profound purpose that needed this miracle the question here is what about here why was there a need for a miracle here that her arm should stretch shout I mean For Heaven's Sake she went down to bathe so she was in the water so go swimming it's good exercise anyway and the Nile she must have been in a very beautiful section of the Nile the Nile is the second to the longest river I think in the world I think four and a half or 5,000 miles right it goes from like from wara to Kennedy Airport it would go I mean it doesn't go from warsa to Kennedy Airport but but that's a yeah it go people don't know goes to 11 countries yeah the Nile is is is the longest or the second to the longest river in the world I think after the Amazon or maybe even longer or the same size they argue which is the longest it's an incredible incredible River and parts of it are not so parts of it are beautiful and stunning my assumption is that the daughter of par had a private beach and she had a very very nice section go swimming go get the basket you went down to bathe so what's the big deal I mean it couldn't have been miles and miles and miles you have to swim 20 miles I mean she saw it you don't want to do it yourself send a maid they're arguing why it says so Hashem makes her hand stretch out like this but why do you need why you don't need a miracle here it's like if I need a tissue so my hand does not have to stretch out to your table to get a tissue I have I have tissues there miracle I can ask somebody can you please give me a tissue bti is a princess they're happy to do what she said in fact one opinion says that she sent her maid that's why she had assistance that's why she had helpers go get me the basket it you don't want to send them go yourself swim you'll have a beautiful morning swimming so we say you know why not the hand stretched out what would be the point of that there's no need for when there's no need for a miracle actually it's inconsistent with the whole idea in the Judaism a miracle is always when there's an absolute necessity not stom let's do another miracle finally I want to ask like a very what they called in Yiddish your grandmother would call a kutash you know what a kutash is I don't know how to translate a kkash I'm sorry huh a silly question yeah but but but it's usually very good questions yeah usually klut kasas are good questions okay I want to know now be honest with me if you went to a river a beautiful beautiful beach and you saw a basket and you're curious maybe your instinct tells you that there's something very precious there and you decide to go in and stretch out your hand and bring it and as you stretch out your hand suddenly your hand starts going like this one foot two feet three feet 5T 10t 50 feet 80t n what would you do scream and how long would you stick around that place run you would run for your life and on the way you would take out your phone oh you don't have your phone cuz you're in the river okay you would ask somebody to call 911 whatever it is I don't know get me out of this crazy place there's ghosts here there's demons here I I would be very very scared I give this girl credit her hand suddenly stretches I mean let's face it this is from like horror I mean you'll forgive me for this expression it's like a scene of a could be a scene of a horror movie you know when things start stretching what else is what's coming next my leg is going to start stretching and then my stomach is going to start stretching it's already outstretched enough I'm not talking about B I'm talking about me like what's next what else is going to stretch you know there's good stretching in yoga it's good it's healthy you get the adrenaline pumping the circulation pumping but there's a Shear right when your hands start stretching it's pretty scary very good it's a pretty scary story as we grow up with this story we usually don't give these things thought or we do but we don't maybe get very intelligent answers so let's summarize our questions number one the text doesn't say there was a miracle what pressured what compelled our sages kazal to put this into the text now I know they had a difficulty with the word amasa but still it seems far-fetched number two the natural story seems far more miraculous than the miracle story The Natural story is heroic it's amazing it's inspiring it's inspiring you're just ruining it number three God doesn't do miracles in vain why was there a necessity for this miracle the basket could have been retrieved under natural circumstances either by swimming there or sending somebody there and finally it seems like a very scary event that most people would probably run for their lives because like I'm not dealing with this situation in order to answer these questions we need to understand how medish works and I want to give gratitude to a dear colleague from the five times by David foran from alive beta who also has many works on Kish who gave a Class A number of years ago on this with these questions and some other ideas and a lot of the thoughts I'm going to share come from him and it's also based as we're soon going to see on one of the great who says the insight as well the core of it what is medish when people grow up learning or medish is often quoted the medish says this you read to your kids at night the medish says on shabas Med and the medish always has apparently more stories than what the text has and many people think and they think this honestly that it's simply like the sages wanted to make the stories more entertaining so like baa comes to the river okay let's stretch her hand why not first of all it's good for coloring books it gives you a couple of hands you could make them green and white and yellow and blue why not so that's number one number two it adds drama to the story and you see it constantly in the medish they had this story and that story you know Yakov meets asov right it says he kissed him what does the medish say he tried to bite him and what happened to his neck his neck you remember became marble like weird does that say it's a gaka story why not let's let let's send ASV to a dentist for a couple of decades why not break his teeth it's good for him to break his teeth but again what like what's WR with Asa just meeting yakob and it's a beautiful story he kissed his brother deep down they had positive emotions towards each other they were brothers after everything's said and done so people often misunderstand we have a story this week that mha went on a donkey back to Egypt so which Dunkey is it you remember which Dunkey it's the same Dunkey that a used for that Caden it's the same Dunkey that Messiah is going to come on wow this Dunkey has a I want to have his jeans this Dunkey has some good jeans that dunkey's 4,000 years old and where is he and again like what's wrong MAA went on a donkey it says he went on the donkey okay qu question who's the donkey so from the donkey became A's donkey mhi's donkey right these are very important questions like we to put ourselves on what are the sages teaching us when one doesn't have context for this it could seem like and I say it could seem like completely unjustified almost like a a um it's not serious just put in Another Story Another Story let's just make it more entertaining the truth is it's the exact opposite and to understand this I'll give by Foreman's metaphors music will be a good understanding when you sit down on the piano you remember the first time you or your child decided to sing a song when they thought they were pianists and they started like this da da da da da da da Dum D and you're like okay Carnegie hold tomorrow or da D D D D D D don't worry I'm not going to quit speaking there was a guy who came to a rabbi and he said he needs a job he doesn't have parosa so the Rabbi says do you have any offers he said yeah I can become a singer and I can become a dancer what do you say suggest so the rabbi said I think you should become a dancer he says really wow that's so interesting why you've seen me dance he said no but I heard you sing so the the notes are actually accurate du D D D D D D D D but something is off what's off it's accurate what's missing is the resonance and the Harmony and usually with the piano we have the right hand and the left hand The Pianist here probably can explain this very well and with one hand we stick to the actual notes of the ballot and the other hand gives us the Harmony and it fills the gaps so somebody else sits down at the piano it's a whole different experience what happened I did it right the first time but it was just was more stuck it was more stagnant it didn't have the flow the musical resonance yes it was embellished very good but embellished doesn't mean like somebody exaggerating and saying things that are not true embellished in the real sense of the term you know some say it's an embellished story which means 90% of it never happened when you say Harmony embellishes a song it doesn't mean it creates a fictional reality it brings out the full luster and depth and Harmony in The Ballad so it's not just dry it's not just the mere facts the actual notes are like the mere facts but the harmony gives it it's Beauty its Elegance it's exquisiteness it's Bliss it's Delight it's you want to hear more play another song on the piano the first person you're not asking to play another song it's like okay bar give me some Tylenol the text of Tav is like the right hand on the piano medish is the left hand if you have only medish without the text it's like Harmony without the song itself and if you do just that you'll see there's something missing because you don't have the etm you don't have the core of the ballot once you have the right hand playing the actual notes then the left hand brings out it accentuates the full richness that is embedded in the melody and that's what all of medish is I don't know if there's even one exception to that yeah do med actually come from the oral Torah yeah the medish is essentially part of tal it's the oral tradition that was not written down with the text so the text is almost like the essence it's the core of the melody the medish is here and saying did you notice what this Melody has do you hear the richness let me play the harmony for you I want you to get the full song I'm not here to create new stories and dramatize things and create fiction you the prerequisite of all tah is an unwavering commitment to authenticity and Truth the moment that commitment to authenticity and Truth is missing it's time to smash the idols which is what Abu did it ends up not being a made story because it came from right now there's different types of madha meaning sometimes M has to be understood literally sometimes as metaphor but the metaphor is also there in order to bring out the concept in an educational engaging relatable way which is what metaphors do metaphors illustrate stories in a way that's illust illustrative so that people can relate to it and we're going to take this medish and show you what they're doing here the sages weren't interested here in embellishing a story that never happened and just having her hand stretch out 50 feet and 100 ft which would have caused her to have a nervous breakdown and even I would get at quezy every year when I read it and it's a strange story and leave me alone I don't need my hand stretching I mean I like to stretch my hand but to a limited degree I don't need it to become 50 feet or 100 feet and there's no need for a miracle in vain and the story itself is amazing what the sages are doing here with this story is they're actually telling you the story they're actually playing the song correctly because what they're saying is you could read through the story and not read the story you get the facts and it's nice mha was saved B you raised him I want you to really get the story I really want you not only to understand the story I want you to be able to internalize the story and apply it to your life and how did they do that they did it by this particular medish and the same is true literally with every medish it's revealing it's exposing the inner music so it fills the gaps it always fills the gaps right another Mees we once learned this together was that when Yakov wakes up in the morning and he sees he married the wrong wife Leia right so the medish puts in a conversation that happened between Yakov and Leia you remember Yakov asked Leia what do very good but the medus says he said something much sharper he said something I I would expect Yakov to go uh what right but the med says Yakov actually looked at her and said the Apple doesn't fall far from the tree your father is a liar and you're a liar and Leia responded and what did she say every profession in life to in order to cultivate it you need a teacher you can't even become a barber if you don't have a mentor to teach you how to cut hair because if not you're going to mess up people's here my father is a liyar and I'm a lawyer and we had a good teacher and I'm going to tell you about our teacher there was once an old man who couldn't see and he wanted to bless his oldest son and the younger son went and stole the blessings lying to his father he is the great mentor of me and my dad he taught us how to lie whoa like don't start up with Leia okay that's one lesson you know yakob thought he's gonna like Leia came back so like what doesn't say this in the text it's a fascinating conversation why would the SAG just put this in like where did they get they had a tape recorder in the room Google had a video in the room and they taped this conversation between yov and Leia here again when they read a text they're bringing out the inner story and we gave a whole Shear about that the same is true with literally every measur it says when yov met ra the first time he started to weep doesn't say why so there's this whole story because he saw that they won't be buried together that's such an interesting Med you remember that yov saw he won't be buried with here again what what maybe he wept because he was emotional he remembered his mother ra may have looked like his could be so many reasons he wept he was a fugitive he was alone in the world there a lot of reasons people could cry raal was unique human being her Persona her face Etc but they put in that something about the burial he he wept because he knew that he somehow he knew he won't be buried another reason he wept was cuz he was broke because alifa as of son stole all of his money now all these things don't say in the text but they're in medish and everybody learns them Rashi quotes a lot of them only when you understand medish as the harmony filling in the gaps you understand that there's so much gaps and that so many gaps in the text because that's the text the text is very brief and concise Divine and concise and the med fills it so let's get to our story here far more than the physical story this is a metaphoric story The Mahar of prag the mar often say with M you have to know if it's a literal story or it's an illust it's an illustrative it's representing an idea the arm represents that tool that instrument that we use to reach things I want to bring a safer I want to get a tissue I want to get a cup of coffee so I stretch out my hand and I take the book I take the cup of coffee I take the bottle of water I take the mic whatever it is what the sages are telling you is this when the daughter of par came here to the river she sees a basket now obviously she was a princess so not any basket that she sees is she busy retrieving obviously she had a feeling did she maybe hear something maybe she heard a muffled sound of an infant did she send something sometimes your nervous system your heartbeat experiences something she obviously sense that there's something special in this basket and she was right there was quite quite a person there as it says when mosha was born the whole house was filled with light that's another medish the whole light was filled with light so people who are sensitive can feel that light and therefore she goes and she retrieves it and then she opens it up and of course her suspicion or instinct is validated there's a little baby there 3 months old sobbing away maybe he's terrified he's starving he's thirsty that's why Miriam says let me go get you a Jewish wet nurse a Hebrew wet nurse to feed him and she says yeah and she takes this baby as her own to the point that she's going to pay the wet nurse meaning she's now the mother she's going to pay a wet nurse which is what a mother does a mother pays the wet nurse in other words I am the full mother of this person and ultimately at the first opportunity she takes him home and raises him as her own son to the point that she is the one who names him so now the question is this when Bato was standing at the bank of the Nile River and looking at this baby and planning to adopt him as her own child was this a goal that you would say is Within Reach not really why not because she's a daughter exactly exactly is this a goal that is reachable is this a goal that with your arm my with my arm I can reach out for rebbit and Klein's bottle of water I can do it it's not so hard if I want to stretch a little more I'm not going to do all my yoga moves at the moment I can get something a little further okay if I really really try you know for the those who are into stretching you know bodies can be extremely flexible and amazing but if somebody tells me can there something I left an object last time Neil Armstrong left something on the moon can you please take your hand you're a good stretcher no take your you're doing yoga for 39 years every morning from 5: in the morning till 6:30 so take your hand stretch it and get it off the moon now I'll say a spaceship maybe with a space there's certain goals that are simply not reachable your arm can go another foot 2 feet 3 feet but there are goals that are unattainable unless you are completely living in the world of hallucination and fantasy so now if B was to articulate to me or to any of us her goal there's a Jewish boy here I feel bad for him I think I'm bringing him home I'm raising him as my son what would any sane person tell this girl you're insane you are insane certified that's what they tell you you are Misha you know the moment your father par sees this he's going to kill not only the child he's going to kill [Music] you but I I'm compassionate I understand you're compassionate so that's why you're going to die and the child is going to die but what should I do there's a there's a baby here well you know how many babies were killed like wake up and smell the coffee okay your father Ain no saint he's a villain I can't do this okay so so what do we do now so everybody should commit suicide now you really feel bad I have an idea for you find an Egyptian woman find some poor Egyptian woman living on the outskirts of some City in Egypt pay her let her raise him as her son I don't know maybe we can camouflage him to look a little more Egyptian okay I can hear that nope he's my boy he's my boy I'm GNA name him she adopts him officially like a son like her son this is a goal that is simply unreachable I don't care what a strong and powerful and amazing arm and heart you have there are dreams that are small there are dreams that are big there are Ambitions that are Titanic and great but somehow attainable there are people who have great dreams but the dream live in the realm of possibility this seems like a dream that lives in the realm of impossibility if I can give a an illustration so that you see how clear this is Imagine in 1942 if adol Hitler had a daughter and this daughter was a very nice girl and she sees in the wara ghetto or in another ghetto or in trebling one of the transport she sees a little Jewish baby 3 months and she knows the fate of this baby and she feels compassion so what does she do she takes the child and raises him in the burg off she doesn't smuggle him to America doesn't smuggle him to Russia doesn't smuggle him to Britain or to Switzerland she brings him to the burg off are you crazy you are absolutely insane this is not a dream that's normal this is a quit while you are ahead you are a crazy person everyone is going to die with one bullet he's going to kill both of you you're done if this is how he cares about people we what how much think he cares about his daughter not only that how do we know that this is true first of all was quite logical but the gamar says this is exactly what her servants told her the gor actually puts it into their mouth why does it put it into their mouth cuz this is the normal response of anybody you're not M you have a good life you're the daughter of a you're the the wealthiest people in this land this is a superpower he's the most powerful person in the world you're his daughter you're privileged in your heart be normal about it don't destroy your whole future literally a death sentence for you if you'll take a look in the next Source if you turn it to side b side B of the source tree the second one tra page 12 she sees the basket they saw that she wants to save this boy they said our master mean in the whole world when a king issues forth a decree even if nobody listens to him at least his children will listen to him where is your loyalty he raised you you grew up in the palace you're supposed to be a good anti-semite come on you have your jeans this Venom towards Jews this carelessness for Jewish kids this apathy towards Jewish infant even if the whole world doesn't agree with him your family your family family doesn't do this to a father especially such a father you're a traitor you're betraying they not even talking about her mortal physical danger they're saying this is disgusting how you're treating your father literally under his nose betraying his command what a what a spoiled narcissistic girl her father father gave her everything he asked for one thing to kill every Jewish boy and you can't listen to him aand they didn't use that word it's this drama that our sages want us to understand now we have to say one thing thank God baa didn't listen to my dramatic accusation of her being insane which they told her her you know what she did she stretched out her arm she stretched out her arm means much more than she stretched out her physical arm yes of course she stretched out her physical arm maybe she sent her maid maybe she went swimming there she stretched out her arm what it means is baa said I cannot remain passive I cannot remain quiet I cannot watch this I can't sorry you're right I get it my father my father my father she stretches out her hand but her hand is limited how much can a human being achieve now here comes the story and this is what the sages are telling us when they say her hand stretches it's saying something much deeper than just a physical Miracle whether her hand stretched physically or not is not so relevant what happened is this in history there is an invisible hand hand it's the Invisible Hand of Hashem Hashem is infinite his arm is Limitless as she stretches out her arm there's another arm that joins her arm an invisible arm and once that arm joins her arm how long is her arm her arm is endless her arm is metaphysical her arm is Limitless her arm is infinite because her arm is now an extension of a Divine arm and then things happen in ways that nobody could imagine I think it was General Montgomery who said the difficult we do immediately The Impossible takes a little longer that's the story the story is the courage of this young woman to stretch out her arm in the face of such adversity and darkness and craziness and Insanity where she could have easily been accused of being the most insane person nuts suicidal and yet she understands that in history there are moments you need to stretch out your arm show up with your heart with your presence with your creativity with your authenticity and there's an invisible arm and once the invisible arm joins you you would never be able to figure out and imagine the results what happens she takes him home par likes him P like what are you this is a crazy story she names him MOA it's exactly what happens and then suddenly here you see how everything is connected in t now tell me if this is beautiful or not four times Ines four times Ines throughout the whole KES right away in pares of and then even later in The Exodus of Egypt is defined with one particular term it is so emphatic because it's the opening of the that's how we know it's so important it doesn't just say Hashem took us out of Egypt it always has that expression he took us out of Egypt remember he took us out with a strong hand and with a stretched out arm and I always wondered well God doesn't have an arm and he doesn't have a hand it's all metaphoric you could say God took us out with his heart with his love with his eyes with you know God saw us he heard us with a stretched what does it mean he took us out with a stretched out arm what he the Jews by their by their lapel and slep them out it's obviously a metaphor why is that term repeated four times in that's how we start over the story in the I don't mean to bring back memories or preparations but PES is coming and cleaning should begin this afternoon unless you're going to the hotel at this point everybody's still up at the S know the next paragraph it gets a little sketchy because somebody decided that they have to share every they ever heard in their entire life not only about but about anything but the first paragraph there still a pretty good mood right before the ADHD kicks in and your daughter decides that she's ready for sh and your son already finished the s and somebody else is having a meltdown but and we re-experience the Exile of Egypt and try to liberate ourselves from it by the way people just in parenthesis it's just popped in why are saders so dysfunctional the answer is because it's supposed to be you're supposed to relive what it looks like so if you could get out of that sit if you can get out of a Jewish Seder unscathed in a good mood that is a profound by the way so it's all a psychological exercise to test your sanity and equilibrium okay if you don't relate to what I'm saying it's fine you're lucky I remember somebody wrote me an email before one page I said I wish I could come to your Sader table to see what an amazing impeccable Flawless seder looks like and I tell my wife I don't think he wants to come to my seder table my kids don't like when I say and anything anything you could speak to the world at home of course it make sense that's smart anyway how did I oh I know you could Hashem stretched out arm you could say Hashem stretched out heart Hashem stretched out Consciousness Hashem stretched out legs I mean it's all metaphoric you see the depth you know who zya Nya this is he took us out of Egypt with a stretch out arm whose stretched out arm baa it's her stretched out arm that was the miracle of The Exodus of Egypt the greatest Miracle here is not that her hand extended the greatest Miracle is that she stretched out her arm in the face of such profound darkness and abuse when it would have been much more logical cold logic would dictate remain in your whole and be quiet you care for Jewish kids go to your room and sigh you could send a check for $36 if you're in a good mood $360 no problem for the Hebrews slaves. comom no problem you don't do this you're crazy that's the miracle B she stretched out her arm but as she stretched out her arm someone the Creator joined his arm with her arm and that's how the Exodus happened cuz it was MAA who grew up in the palace who staged the revolt against his grandfather and here we come to another fascinating thing that ezzar asks a question why did Hashem have it that the first Jewish leader didn't grow up among Jews you now we have a law in America that the president you can ask Trump about this the president needs to be a hom growing potato or at least a homeg grown tomato it's one of the unique elements in the relationship between Barack Obama and Donald Trump and there's a logic to it you want to lead a country you have to be what's called what are they called the Mish from the a what they haish yeah haish if you you you were born in jakaro I have no problem you were born in Peru beautiful enjoy Guatemala or Peru but you have to understand the culture do you understand that M grew up he never saw shom Z he didn't know what chickpeas look like he didn't know what jalapeno Herring tastes like how could you be Jewish he didn't know what spongecake rugal cinnamon buns B For Heaven's Sake Kush cake you could lead a Jewish people without knowing what kush cake is it's very hard yeah he didn't see he grew up among the Egyptians we don't have a Jewish leader like that you have to feel the people you have to know the culture where you're coming from you have to understand the mishas a Jewish leader growing up without sushi at every Sim when Chinese food I mean what type of Judaism is this without Sushi and Chinese food maybe it's good for the Chinese and the Japanese but not for the Jews they could survive without it how could we dezzar doesn't dramatize the question like me I'm just a little giving a little Harmony leftand Harmony it's a great question so dezzar answers the always the best answer and he says I don't know ask God but then he says two other things he says number one if mha would have grown up among Jews they would not respect him a you can't be a prophet in your own City when mosa would become a prophet there would be an old Jewish yna who's been living there forever and she would look at him oh mha you know I used to babysit for you I remember when you ran around without a diaper you were the hardest kid I ever had when did you become a prophet you know good good luck but then say something else if he would have grown up among Jews he would have developed a slave mentality and he could never stage a revolution against the superpower M had to grow up in an Ambiance of expansiveness he had to grow up in royalty so he had Royal hus if he would have grown up among the Jews unfortunately he would have had very very narrow hus he would have seen the world from a very narrow place it's so true about people because if I grow up in a boach sometimes I can't even think out outside of that box and if I do it's only relative to that box somebody once told me that his he asked his son you know he said his son told him tat you telling me to think out of the box I don't want to think out of the box I want to think as though there's no box if I grow up in a slave in a in a home of slaves by definition even if I'm trying hard my entire Paradigm is so limited and it happens to so many people's lives emotionally and psychologically right my greatest expectations are still defined by a slavery I grew up in Brooklyn so there was a over there his name was Teddy and Teddy Teddy used to go around every morning and collect the whole day would he was a very nice old man he would collect money for Teddy and somebody once saw him buying a lottery ticket for $300 million on Kingston Avenue he said Teddy if you win what are you going to do with the money he said I'm gon to put security guards at all the doors of shul so nobody else could collect money besides me I could be the only one collecting money I don't want anybody else collecting I want all the money to go to me he's going to have security guards by all the doors he couldn't liberate himself from that Paradigm even if you have 300 million so says not to grow up with royalty so look what happens here this not only has an impact it creates a situation where he Rebels against his own own grandfather he's the only one who could stand up to pyate because he knows him he feels him he knows what aristocracy is he knows what royalty is he also knows what corruption is people don't realize when mosa approached pyra he was approaching his grandfather his step-grandfather he wasn't approaching some stranger he knew this boy from childhood it's his grandson For Heaven's Sake and that's what drove pyate crazy you from all people it's like we saved you we saved you and that's the ultimate the ultimate Paradox of History that it's the evil itself that assists to its own destruction cuz its entire purpose is really to be destroyed and transformed so that's why ultimately deep down that is what itself assists its own destruction that's how it works so parir without knowing it like gave all this love and he appointed mha as the leader and of his home and this m himself staged this Rebellion so the great miracle of and if you take it a step further what happens right afterward she names him mosa why dides she name him mosa cuz I took him out of the water and that becomes his only name most people don't even know that mosa had other names The Only Name that we know till today is Mosa Moses mosha Reno the name that he was taken out of water why was that so important for his identity that he was taken out of water because she wanted that Misha should always know this cuz she knew that he was destined for leadership and one of the greatest mistakes of people who have influences they are afraid to stret stretch out their hands and she's telling him your name is m cuz somebody stretched out their arm to take you out of water when there was no likelihood that it's going to work so what's the first story about M look at the intricate Beauty what's the first story he goes out from the palace what's the first thing he sees an Egyptian beating a Jew to death he turns here and he turns there now again I'm going to consult the audience here okay if you're M you're standing there you're in the Egyptian ghetto an Egyptian is beating a Jew to death Jews have no rights they're in concentration camps they're slaves you're going to kill the Egyptian what do you think mha is going to happen you'll save the Jew maybe for a week maybe he'll be killed in a month maybe he'll be killed in six months but one thing is sure you killed an Egyptian when par hears about that what do you think he's going to do to you m I have a great idea for you my dear friend mha play it smart don't say a thing walk away make believe you didn't see it you know why get big in P's Palace par likes you Rashi says he appointed him as the head of his estate grow more and more and more you know what will happen one day par is going to kick the bucket one day everybody dies he's anyway eating too much he's overweight hopefully the heart attack and the stroke will come sooner than later and he'll be mummified on one of those pyramids they're going to need a new king Misha maybe you're this you're the anle maybe imagine if you're the king of Egypt then you'll save not one Jew you'll save a whole people Mo play it smart I know there's a Jew being beaten to death but you have to see the big picture long-term strategy come on don't react with your amigdala prefrontal patience cool Collective apathy go home make believe you don't care you want to cry in your house I don't care you can go to therapy that's what you would expect it makes sense think about an SS officer who would be a successor to Hitler I'm sorry for my example I just want to bring it home and he's seeing a Jew in awit or trinka about to die the SS is beating him to death he could kill the SS man and the Jew will stay alive for how much longer I don't know but one thing happened once you killed this SS man you're not succeeding Hitler your true colors come out and indeed it's what happens mha has to run away he just lost his entire position so what would cold logic tella stretch out your harm and kill the Egyptian or not of course not what does mha do he does what his stepmother did why because right now he sees a Jew being beaten to death and he says I cannot allow this to happen how things are going to work out I'm not the creator of this world I don't have to figure it out I know my responsibility right now there's a Jew dying I will not let this happen and you know what happens his arm is joined by an invisible arm he runs away to Mion he is a fugitive but what happens at the end he comes back and he saves the entire nation he makes the revolution stretching out his arm somehow did work and it all happens in midan because M raenu knows my job is not to figure it out my job is to stretch out my arm my job is to be proactive to be present to C to be authentic to be real to stand up to this evil and darkness and Injustice so the stretched out arm of baa has a domino effect it creates the stretch out arm ofu when he comes to midan he sees seven girls being harassed by Shepherds he could say I'm a fugitive I was almost killed mix out they could all gang up on you tomorrow call the mafia and kill you he stretches out his hand again and saves these seven girls and that's how he gets his wife and ultimately yro is his father-in-law and hasm reveals himself by the SN [Music] let's take a look in the next Source fourth source of the page there's a tremendous lesson here people stop themselves from doing the right thing from doing the good thing it's purposeless you're wasting your time when you show up with your full heart and soul there's an invisible arm then nothing will stand in your way not because you're Mrs brilliant or Mr brilliant and capable but because you join your arm to an invisible arm she stretched out her hand just one amama literally one cubid that's where the hand is one amama she stretched it out the length of her hand she stretched out to the length of her hand this is what one of the greatest Masters the student of the of and the of the KB and the and many others he passed away in 1827 this is what he teaches so now we understand that this whole medish all of our questions God doesn't do miracles in vain why ruin the story why add something to the text this is scary it really what they're doing is they're giving you the full music the Resonance of understanding the story because they're talking about two possibilities in life when I dream about something big or small when I face a difficult obstacle or a challenge sometimes people face corruption and as you know this is quite a dear topic for me in our community sometimes people see corruption abuse evil and then those who stand up and speak are accused of ruining families and communities why because they stood up to Injustice because they stood up to evil and it's so frightening I'm not going to stretch out my arm and fight City Hall P will kill me immediately all the shim and my families will get destroyed I'll be thrown out of all the institutions and I get it I get it I'm not judging anybody but this silence this silence just a few shabas ago there was a shabbaton of Ray of Hope Ray of Hope was an organization that was created for young women who were abused in their bodies in very very many of them in very very horrible ways now I happened to be invited I don't know like seven eight years ago for the founding moment of that organization it was in somebody's home and there were maybe six five or six girls sitting around the table sharing their stories what I heard that night changed my life when I heard those six stories this shabas they had almost I think 160 or 170 women sharing this and one of the most common powerful tragic common denominators is things that happen within a family sometimes fathers and brothers and then when these poor girls finally speak up the rest of the family excommunicates them and bans them where's the respect for tati you're ruining a beautiful family this is called R first you murder this poor girl and then when she finally wants to speak up you murder her a second time and in a way it's worse even these are examples baa could have easily been quiet and have a very beautiful and go home to a beautiful party with her father watching on TV how they're murdering more Jewish children and this is true in so many areas in life and by the way I want to tell you something somebody was at shabbaton called me a few days ago and this is a was for me it was very very moving she said she met a woman over there and me she told me that was disproportionate amount of them tried to commit suicide a huge amount of them people don't realize what's happening people don't realize the pain that people go through I happen to know this sug quite well it's a literally emotional murder you could recover but it's crazy pain you crazy pain so she told me that a woman told her that I was giving a class a little while ago and you know I can go off tangent in my classes those of you who come here know it's one of my uh flaws blessings whatever somebody said I don't digress I just extrapolate anyway I was giving a share I was learning a text I I don't even remember but I was giving a sh and suddenly I started to talk about this and the need to validate people and understand what they're going through and not to call them Liars do people think that a 20-year-old girl or a 7-year-old girl 10-year-old is comfortable for her to come and say stories about her father that's exactly what she needs in her life or she's been suffering for years and years and years and years and years in silence and her father's like the godar he's a low life he belongs in prison for 80 years sick person brother is a sick person instead of doing chuva taking accountability saying I'm sorry they now put the blame on her it's ridiculous it's ludicrous and they call this religion and they say if you talk about it it's a there was no in there's no like theem of telling victims that our whole God is just a fake God because for our intimate Pleasures we'll do anything and use anything how many people were turned off how many people today in the open are from but hidden they're not from because they were so turned off by religion and by rabbis CU instead of standing up to Injustice they're busy protecting perpetrators okay I can go on for 3 hours about this but we'll stop it here you get my point so I went off on a tangent I was talking about the need of validating people and the need of understanding the pain and the fact that a person's soul at its court is indestructible and no trauma can destroy it and then I said to the class I just went off on a tangent I don't know why I don't know why and then but maybe there was somebody who had to hear it so this girl tells my friend she says that day I wanted to commit suicide and I happened to be listening to RAB Wawa's class and he said those words and it saved my life literally she was there to shabbaton to tell the story and then I realized here's a I could have I I didn't prepare for this I couldn't have guessed this this is what happens when we stretch out our arms everyone one in their own way I don't know I could I would have not even knowing this story how could I nobody knows these stories baa was fortunate to see the end of the story she saw the liberation and by the way the med says why she called b b means B the daughter of Hashem Hashem told her you took my child and made him yours I'm taking you and making me mine that was the story she looked at him and said it's my child my child you don't think rationally a doctor tells a mother there's nothing I can do for your boy the mother says okay let me go play Tetris there's nothing to do let's go eat let's go drink coffee it's not what a mother does it was her son you made mha your son I'm making you my daughter B and that changes everything and the same is true also with spiritual goals you know people have goals for their marriage can I really have an amazing relationship with my spouse can I have an amazing relationship with my children can I have a relationship with my go with God with my soul and then there's a voice in us that says forget it just give up give up can I ever become emotionally healthy can I liberate myself from crazy abuse can I become a joyfully present and happy person can I really discover my inner Divine soul and live from expansive Consciousness is it even possible there's a voice in us that says your arm is very limited you've been like this 30 40 50 years you know how much anxiety you have give up give up but B says no you stretch out your arm and you stretch out your arm things that are unimag happen on every level but I have to be able to stretch out my arm and there's a voice in me that says you're crazy M you're insane this is not about ignoring the bigger picture this is the bigger picture the ultimate bigger picture is I don't know when we think we control the world and we know outcomes it's a joke what do we know I don't even know what's going to happen the next second do I know where the next breath is coming from I trust I own the I don't even own the oxygen in the world you know what big picture do we know we have a little big picture that we create in our mind the real the biggest picture is if you allow your arm to be a channel for hashem's arm that's called the big picture that's the real big picture so when a person knows Al don't stand idle when the your friend's blood is being spilled and I stretch out an arm that's called a stretched out arm that's aligning my arm with hashem's arm and when that happens there's different different levels of achievements and accomplishments I want to show you I want to share with you a story and that's what I want to finish with I learned this in a very very beautiful and Powerful way I'm going to tell you the story very briefly pesak 1997 I was a Yeshiva student it was two years before my wedding and uh I was walking on Eastern Parkway one day in Brooklyn and Crown Heights and a Jew by the name of R comes over to me and says would you like to spend PES in KOB Japan KOB Japan right but what would a nice kabad boy do PES in his home K seems like a beautiful place Aisha place to do a Seder so I told MOA that's great so I had a friend his name is Liber we went together to Japan we didn't know what to expect what happened was is a community in coob no Rabbi at the time they have a beautiful sh and they wanted a s for the community didn't have anybody to lead it so they called up Raab who ran the houses around the world and I asked him so he asked me so we went to coob he gave us money we filled up suitcases with matah and wine and some basic food and we went off to KOB Japan the it was pretty amazing we had like a s with 200 people it was pretty incredible shabas after PES we went to Tokyo at the end of daving somebody came over to me and and said do you mind giving a Shear in pavas it was the shabas after PES I said sure So we went up to a beautiful Library I gave a sh there were men there there were women there and uh I finished and I was about to go home to we were staying and we had a little doggy bag with some tuna sandwiches to have a delicious shabas lunch a Drew comes over to me and I see he has a yamuk he has a beard he has pis he introduces himself as Adam and he says would you like to come eat in our house I didn't know I didn't want to say no and I didn't know about the Kos but he looked very very uh religious so I said you know I eat and he says yeah yeah my house is everything come to my house okay so I go with my friend to his house we come into his home the homes in Japan are very very small extremely small I come into the house it had three bedrooms each one maybe 10 feet it was Tiny I meet his wife her name is yaka and she's Japanese a Japanese woman I'm like what where did I come in here is this like an intermarriage situation I need kosher food she tells me my Japanese name is yak but my now my name is I'm like okay what's going on and then I see a little boy he's with and a big black coupple I'm like okay I guess this house is kosher and then a little sister and he tells me I just finished learning says you could test me so I test and it we sit down everything is homemade it was delicious kala I still remember almost as good as my wife souro kala we had an amazing meal it was a tiny because there was some other guest there was another Japanese G that was Tiny but it was like G such an Ambiance I'm saying where am I [Music] we I mean what's going on there so theak ra tells me the story she says my husband Adam came here from America a secular Jew he wanted a little money so he became an English teacher in Japan completely secular assimilated he intermarried he married yaka Japanese woman unfortunately as is the situation with many young Jewish men and Jewish women who marry out of the faith a few years into our marriage I asked him you're Jewish yeah what does it mean he doesn't know say I want to know I'm married to a Jew I want to know so I start reading about Judaism and I fall in love with it there was a conservative Rabbi who would come visit I convert with him so now I went through a conversion after he leaves I read more about Judaism and then I realize that a conservative conversion is not a conversion so now I need to convert again so they go to America to the West Coast and they go through she goes through a kosher conversion they come back to Japan and now she turned them into a with a with P they have two kids they home School them they teach them they teach them she says the milking I do myself so should the baking I do myself so it should be and he just finished that he learned with his father and you could test him and I was there a whole shabas it was like a very very special experience extremely special experience and to see her dedication and her commitment and loyalty and her enthusiasm and her kids enthusiasm and her husband enthusi sometimes you don't see that uh in this zip coat that level of enthusiasm in any case I left Japan I came back to Good Old Brooklyn New York okay my father had a Yiddish newspaper called the algam journal he used to have old Yiddish writers there then they started to die so he asked me to do a column on the para every week so those years I was doing a column on the par and it was I remember one Wednesday morning and the paper goes to press and he calls me says I didn't get your column I said yeah ta I was traveling I won't be able to write when he says but I have this empty space please something I said but it takes me a few hours I I won't have it ready he says anything could you send anything so I said let me look at my computer maybe there's something and I start looking through my computer maybe some old article I wrote that I could you know use and then I see that a number of years ago after I came back from Japan I wrote in Yiddish I wrote up a diary of that chabas but the problem is it's a para article this is not a para story so you know how the Jewish mind works it was a shabus after sh so I added a paragraph It's the shabas after sh I'm still thinking about millus Rus Rus tells her mother-in-law wherever you go I go where you sleep I sleep where you die I die your nation is my people your God is my God right you remember and I said some people think that this was only in the times of Rus and I want to share with you about a woman I met some time ago that literally reminded me of Rus and I told this whole story in the article which I already wrote up and I wrote when I see when I met this woman and I heard from her she left everything to become a Jew you could still hear the echo of Russ's commitment in our own times I sent the article to my father it was printed that chabas my parents made a for a relative in the house one of the men there was a little tipsy I still remember he comes over to my father and he says such nepotism by you father say what are you talking about says your son's article let's face it was trash it's supposed to be on the para I buy it I want to read something on the para he writes to me about Japan and and in a black yam and a conservative or Orthodox conversion and he connects it to Rus because he reminded himself of Russ come on that's not an article that's rubbish if he wouldn't be his son you would have never printed it it belonged in the garbage he was a little tipsy he was saying this to my father in front of me you know and uh my father smiled I had nothing to say I actually felt that he was a little right because I just kind I had like few minutes I just added a paragraph and those so sh years and years passed I really forgot about the story you know things move on years later I was invited to Melbourne Australia for a lecture to fly to Melbourne you stop in Los Angeles I stopped in Los Angeles and I had a friend living in Aura Hills California at the time so we went went with my wife to stay there for the night and I asked what time is shakas tomorrow morning they said six o'clock shakas in Rabbi sapinski SCH so I got up early I went to the minion for Shak 6:00 a.m. and then I had to rush back home we had to get our flight we had a stop over but we had to go back to Melbourne on the way out the Rabbi says Rabbi Jacobson I owe you a debt of gratitude for years I wanted to call you but I forgot you're here I remember I have to tell you a story I'm like okay go ahead and this is what he tells me he said I want you to know that I get emotional thinking about what happened he said I want to I want you to know something a number of years ago a couple moved here from Japan they wanted to be in a community I always have guests at my table for shabas sapinski is one of theim in Aura Hills California so there always guests at my table and they came over shabas afternoon and it happened to be that there were no other guests it was just them and they started to talk about how hard it is to integrate and the worst thing is how people bully their kids because of what they look like they look Japanese and you know kids could sometimes be not nice so I don't know if it was the school one of the schools there the I'm not sure exactly but they were bullying the kids and how much pain and she said I went through so much to become a Jew so much sacrifice I converted twice you I changed my husband and this is the treatment and then she spoke about you know the difficulty of integrating and something that happened in SCH and how people could be so snobby and selfish and careless and detached and instead of really appreciating people for who they are it's always it's often with judgment and you don't fit into my click and you don't look like me and it's just she was so turned off and she was like she's Nami like this is the Judaism this is the Judaism I sacrificed so much for instead of people being appreciative being curious It's the exact opposite and she really downloaded her heart and Rabbi sapinski tells me Rabbi Jacobson I'm sitting there and I know she's right some people could be rude obnoxious or just insecure people live in their own bubble and they just don't know how to be gracious and kind right parentheses you know you see somebody in SCH in a supermarket a stranger smile you embrace them you said but not everybody does that they're they're afraid I don't know whatever the issue is I'm not here to analyze them at the moment he said I didn't know what to say I was just listening we finished the fish and he says I want to tell you something I always have a minute between the fish and the next course I say over I say over something I say over ad how do I get ADV I get your father's newspaper okay and usually I read it and I always read your article on the para so I have it's very nice stuff that you write and I write he said that week it didn't come on Friday and I needed I wanted to say I want to say something inspiring and you always have something inspiring to say so I went out to the front to see maybe the newspaper came and I didn't notice it and I saw it came and I brought it back to the dining room table and I told him I said listen this writer usually has good things to say but I didn't read it this week so I don't know but usually I trust him so I'm going to read you his it's in yish but I'm going to translate as I read it and I'm going to read it for you and usually it's something nice and I think it'll be good and he starts reading it it was the shabas after sh we're just coming from sh we just read Russ and I'm thinking about Russ and I want to share about a Rus in our own days and I want to share about a chabas I had in Tokyo Japan and I wrote this whole article detail by detail about the couple sitting right there at his table and I'm like sometimes our Judaism can get boring and clumsy and burdensome and monotonous and then once in a while you meet people whose souls are on fire their relationship with God is so real it's so authentic and just like Russ in her day I can hear her say your people is my people your God is my God where you go I go where you dwell I dwell and how inspiring it is he tells me she's sobbing her husband is sobbing Rabbi sapinski is sobbing and he says I want you to know the the the Resurrection The Emotional comfort and confidence you gave these people that chabas you'll never even understand they were so downtrod they felt so unappreciated they felt so unwelcome the sacrifice was for nothing and then this was not any nothing I could have staged I couldn't have orchestrated this that week in a newspaper like a big newspaper nobody nobody asked for it nobody initiated it it's years after it happened it's just this article all about them and how much we have to appreciate them and he said if you did nothing in your life but this your reward will be infinite for the way you gave them back their souls it gave them a whole new lease on life and on Jewish life for them and their kids he's sharing this with me like 6:30 7:00 in the morning and suddenly I have a flashback to the sh in my parents home this guy screaming at my father nepotism this article should have never been published I forgot about it it was years before and suddenly I have this flashback and then I'm thinking how I actually agreed with them because I just took that out from the the computer cuz I needed a fast article and then I learned the ultimate lesson in life and this is the lesson of B and that is stretch out your arm and when you stretch out your arm it's joined by hashem's invisible arm and hashem's invisible arm literally is boundless and infinite and its impact is beyond imagination have a wonderful week you're welcome I thank for com thank you should be a good better for you and the yes that's a good question that's a good question was it a Hebrew name or Egyptian name so some say the Evan Ezra says that it's actually an Egyptian name others say he named him she named him mosha in Egyptian this there's an argument among the commentators read something yes yes yes izra discusses it yeah thank you for coming thank you for coming I I when I'm that's a good question so say they they say that somebody once asked the Reb rayat the previous rebba how he accomplished so much in the Soviet Union under impossible circumstances so you know at the end ofra people say aask with the name the the first letter is from the beginning of their name and the last letter is from the end of their name you ever heard of that Minh I know theing no so his name was YF so the name the P for that is in 139 it's to H 139 so it starts off hasem will complete for me so that's the py that he would say every day so he said I I do my thing and God completes I stretch out my arm and wherever it has to go it goes yeah I have learned this always in life I D M why you stayed so loyal to whom to by him it wasn't culture it's a good question because it wasn't culture it was real he was a man of God he he got the truth once you get the truth it doesn't matter where you are you could be in the depth of Darkness you're a glow of God that's irrelevant Where You Are you also stay loyal why do you stay loyal you're here every week why do you stay loyal that's very loal cuz the soul is loyal that's why that was amazing thank you thank you for coming thank you