Pesach - Israel is Hashem's Song

you're listening to the weekly paral podcast with Ari goldwag recorded with hm's NeverEnding assistance in R Israel 5784 2024 this week we don't have a paraa it's pesak it's the Passover holiday and I'd like to share with you a thought from a special safer a book that we read this shabas once a year if your ashas read it every single week it's the book of Shir the song of songs which is a beautiful description a musall an analogy for the love that Hashem has that God has for the Jewish people and our love for Hashem for God and I'd like to share with you a piece from the medish the very beginning of shirim the medish is trying to understand the word shirim it's called The Song of Songs what is the concept of the song of songs the greatest song that there ever was King Solomon wrote three different books wrote coales Ecclesiastes which is a collection of wisdom and seems like he he wrote it in his old age after many years of searching and trying to understand what's really important in life we had a second book Mishay Proverbs which also has a tremendous amount of wisdom but our sages say that the holiest of holies the deepest of the deep of all of his books is the book of shirashi and the song of songs which is a love song and it seems to be talking about a man and a woman but it's speaking about the Jewish people and Hashem is speaking about the love that eternal love that exists between God and man now why is it referred to as the she hash the song of songs so in the simplest understanding it means that it's the greatest song it's the the most awesome song that there is it's a song that describes hashem's love for us and our love for him but on a deeper level the M says that there's something else that's going on here I like to read it to you inside but before I do there's a statement from the which says that whereas whereas the other books of of King Solomon coelus Ecclesiastes which teaches us about all of the vanities of Life all the foolish things that people are trying to pursue people talk about life liberty and the pursuit of happiness well King Solomon tells us that that's not really the way to go really what we're meant to pursue is fear of Heaven is to serve God this is all of what Humanity has after a person's life they're not they're not left with anything except the Good Deeds that they've done the service of God that they've done but that's something that can apply even to someone who's not a a member of the House of Israel not not a Jewish person Mish Proverbs many different Pim many different statements and so to speak phrases of King Solomon about what's important in life again it's something that can apply to anybody it's wisdom it's something that applies to anybody but the uniqueness of shirim the specialness of the song of songs is that it's only for us it's only for the Jewish people people and I would add just as we know that chabas the day of the seventh day of the week is a special and unique day for the Jewish people the Muslims have Friday the Christians have Sunday but there's one day of the week which is Saturday shabas which the Torah promises it's a sign between God and the human being between God and man between God and the Jewish people the the chosen people it's just for us and in a similar way just like we have the seventh day of the week is shabas the seventh month if we count from Tish in a normal year in a non-leap year the seventh month six six months and the seventh month is Nissan Nissan is a month which typifies which sign ifies which reveals to us the specialness it's like chabas just like chabas is something that's unique to a Jew we find shabas so when a non-jew keeps chabas he's liable for death right a person who's becoming a gear is is about to convert as long as he's not yet converted he has to break chabas at least once on Shamus turn on a light it's special for a Jew only a Jew shabas only a Jew has this unique relationship which is typified by chabas and typified by pesak Passover typified by the seventh month and all the special Mitzvah the carbon PES the obligation to eat the matah the mar Etc to do a Seder to remember the God chose us to be special to him that's what PES is about it's also a type of shabas we also find kazal say refer refer to and the P refers to a as a shabas it's a time when we don't do Mal we don't do any conscious creative acts representing our full relationship with Hashem God says don't and we don't but here I'd like to share with you another aspect of it the me says like this why is it called sh why is it called the song of songs so we spoke about it in terms of the fact that the Jewish people is special to God special from amongst all the other nations that's what the says who we remember from the he gives us a mush he gives us an analogy so somebody who took a measure of of wheat to the baker he said I want the finest flow he wanted a loaf of bread made from the finest flour the the best parts of the wheat that he brought what's unique about the song of songs is that its character is that it is the finest flower it's the choicest of all the books that King Solomon wrote and it represents the fact that the Jewish people are the chosen Nation the special Nation unto what does it mean the song of songs it means the most qual the highest quality song the loftiest song the fanciest song listen to this language we will sing songs and we will praise the one one who made us a song in the world God made the Jewish people a song what is a song we're going to try to understand what is a song why the Jewish people are referred to according to this mes we are our very existence is a song we are singing whether we have a good voice or not we are singing a song to the world P says in Amos 8:3 that they raise up a song of Hal of Praise of God in the H in the sanctuary of God right one of the main mitzah unfortunately of PES we're not able to do we would like to do we want to do hopefully soon we'll be able to do the Mitzvah uh we we would fill up the ENT entire sanctuary of God we would fill up the temple the Bish we would fill it up because we would all go there the entire Jewish Nation would go to the temple to bring their carban P to bring their their sacrifices for the Passover seder we need the the the main thing is missing from our saders we don't have the Passover sacrifice the the the sheep or the goat to eat but we fill up God's sanctuary with our sh with our praise right alongside we do do this part in the S which is just really a reminder of the way it's supposed to be we're supposed to sing Hal we sing Hal We Sing Praises we thank God for taking us out of Egypt but that's supposed to uh ACC company it's supposed to surround the eating of the carbon PES we supposed to sing Hal as we eat our carbon pesak right but the Jewish people is called this song We Are the song we are the song that Praises God I'd like to share with you two different things one is a description of what is the aspect of song what what is the what there are three things here that it mentions here it says it's m which means the most the most valuable of the songs the most Transcendent of songs which means the most fancy of songs right what are these three different aspects and how do they apply to the Jewish people we the Jewish people are a song so we need to understand songs what is the value of a song what is the concept of a song how do we the Jewish people act as a song to God in this world so I'd like to read to you from Thea first and then I will read to you from the theim the T also has a beautiful idea about song and the Jewish people he starts over and says it says here three languages says the a song is called valuable for three different from three different perspectives the first is what is the song trying to say what is the message of the song right this is important right I think about this all the time when I sing a song I don't just want to sing a song that's just like a nice tune or a nice nice some PK that you found but there's the message what is the message of the PK what is the message of the verse what is the message of the song This is the Inner Essence of the song because a song has some inner message that it intends when you write a song you write a poem so you're trying to give over some message with it when you sing a song or when you say a a an analogy right in the song of songs so it's an analogy to the Jewish people and God but it's speaking about a man and a woman and it's speaking about their love relationship and how they go out of that relationship come back to that relationship but it's speaking about the Jewish people people so there's the message itself then there's how you couch the message how you express the message with an analogy the outer aspect of it if you look at it in a superficial way you can read the story and hear about what a relationship between a man and a woman looks like and and how a man and a woman can be in love and how they can fall out of love so to speak and come back together and how one would love to to give an opportunity for the other one to come back etc etc so there's the outer aspect which requires a certain amount The Superficial reading of it which requires a which also has lessons in the in the simple understanding of it and that hides within it the deeper lessons so a good song has a simple explanation and a deeper explanation I'll give you an example one of my songs is called L ofler code and the song is about hey we're at we're having a good time we're not going to stop dancing we want to keep dancing we don't want to stop that's the simple understanding but the deeper understanding of what I meant with the song is that no matter what's going on in life the the difficulties and the challenges that I'm going through I want to continue to have a positive attitude I want to continue to dance I want to continue to to be positive and optimistic so there's the outer aspect of it which I can learn from which is when you're in the middle of a Sim you're rejoicing with someone else's joyous occas so we don't want to stop we want to continue we want to we want that joy to last and on a deeper level we want to be optimistic and [Music] positive the third aspect is the way that it's given over the the song itself besides for the content and the the depth of meaning and the the message of the song there's also the the language that's used there's a certain Beauty in language so corresponding to the first aspect which is the the message refers to it as the most valued of songs because the content of the song of of the song of songs is on a higher level than all other songs the content is the relationship between God and the Jewish people and corresponding to the second aspect which is The Superficial aspect it's also Transcendent it's also great if you look at the simple understanding where it refers to a beloved as wine and as the smell of oil and and spices perfumes all the other beautiful analogies that are given there's something to learn from the simple understanding of these analogies okay con Ai and corresponding to the third one which we said is the the choice of language the beautiful way that it's expressed it refers to it as the what does that mean that's the decoration right we find that when someone wants to make their hair look beautiful so they're referred to as missar they're making their hair look nice so there's a beauty in the language itself in the way that it's expressed says the that hasem made us to be a song made the Jewish people to be a song what does it mean it's a language of Praise like we find that in the sanctuary in the temple the Holy Temple of hasem so we sing songs but those songs are an expression of Praise of God the Jewish people are the song We Are the song We Sing the song We Praise Hashem with our very actions with our very being now listen to this because it's very interesting because we spoke about the fact that is a special song just for the Jewish people it's something that teaches us something Co us uh Mishay Proverbs Ecclesiastes these have great wisdom which anybody can learn from the nations of the world can also but there's something special about shirim the song of songs and that also reflects itself in the fact that the Jewish people receive through this Praise of God through our performance of Mitzvah through our the song that we sing which is really our service of Hashem our eating of the matah our eating of the carbon PES the M our shaking oful our sitting in our learning our constant awareness of hm in the world what the result is that the Jewish people we receive God's influx that is giving down into the world first and then from there we receive it and it seeps out to everywhere else so when we are doing what's supposed to be done so then the result is that we receive goodness we are singing a song and that song is heard by the entire world and everyone else also receives the Beautiful the beautiful revelation of hem that God wants to reveal to mankind I'd like to share with you there's atim here there's a um an explanation from the listen to this carefully it's so beautiful pay attention think about contemplate the beauty of this very short statement just says hasem made us to be songs in the [Music] world we the nation the children of Israel the essence of our existence and our continued existence in the world our very essence is one that sings praise to Hashem that praises and songs are coming out that speak of God's honor and his Holiness from the moment that we became a nation in the world so the result is that more and more there's a revelation of of godliness in the world God became more famous so to speak right at the time when we received the Torah the entire world were pagans they believed in multiple gods the Greeks believed in many gods the Romans took that on until we came along until the Jewish people came along there was nobody who believed in a single God but when we came along and everyone started copying us the Christians and the Muslims Etc all of a sudden there was a new awareness in the world there was a song that was being sung and the fact that we exist the fact that we're still here after 3,300 years the amazing as the amazing Divine Providence that Hashem has demonstrated that we're here it's a testimony to the fact that there a Creator to the world and there is a God who runs the world listen to this beautiful language it's as if we are the living letters the living words of in in in the rhymes of a song of praise for God and were written upon the the paper the parchment of the entire world sh other to praise the master of everything and to make heard his praise and as we saw at the end of what we read it it proves that this is what it's saying because it refers in the PK that we read to the song in the sanctuary of God what's the explanation of this it refers over there in that verse to the fact that there is a time that comes for the Jewish people where that moment arrives the the end point the Mah the age of Messiah the Messianic age I'm sorry it's the opposite there's a moment in time where the song ends where the song seems to stop because the Bish was destroyed the temple was destroyed so there was a y so I translated it as a Hal a praise but if you look at the verses itself the t is explaining it refers to the fact that there was a sad there was a crying that was going on because we lost our Temple we lost a place where the main manifestation of Our Praise of Hem Of Our Song is thees is the main place where we serve God it's the place where the NV and the prophets would receive their prophecy it was the place where God would commune with us and we would commune with God if we could talk about a location which represents shirim that relationship between us and God it was the Holy Temple the holy of holies which had in it the Kim the cherubim those angels those childlike angels that represented the love of God and the Jewish people people and this is how we can understand the reference to the name of this of this book this is a a song that was made prepared by the author that it should be in front of me it refers to the the the song of songs it's the song of those who sing song by their very existence of the Jewish people it's the song of the Jewish people sh that we will sing it that's what it means when it says we will sing songs and we will praise give praise to the one who has made us songs in the world as our sages hint to in all of the and the of that it refers to the attachment that the Jewish people the people of Israel have to their God and the incredible love that God has for us that he expresses through the way that he deals with us through the way that he guides us and helps us all times and the whole entire concept is that theim the song of songs the entire book here is in order to give praises to the people of Israel because we are the ones who give praises to hm I want to bless you and I ask you to bless me hashm should help us that we should recognize who we are we are a song through our observance of T through our keeping of the Mitzvah through our keeping of The Commandments and through our celebrating a like P which is in the sth month it's the chabas this is what makes us special in the world this is what makes us to be great Hashem should help us to be able to sing that song to sing the song of his greatness praise him through our actions and may Hashem indeed may his name be raised up and may we Merit the ultimate song that the Lev the Levites will sing and we all will join along in the Holy Temple in the B mikdash thank you so much for listening have a wonderful shabas and a wonderful PES this podcast was made possible through the gracious donations of listeners like you for more podcasts like this please visit www arold wag.com or search on iTunes Ari goldwag [Music]