The 13 Principles of Jewish Faith - Principle #1: The Freedom of G-d and Man - Rabbi Akiva Fox

we're back to speaking about the 13 principles of faith the first of the principles is shahab iris proxima who beret oh man English Allah bruin that a shame is the creator or as we learned he's not only the Creator but he's constantly creating and recreating the world as we say in feel as we say in Davin aha Mahadeva to v Mahoney I'm Tommy Massa gracious I shall read news with his great kindness the mass a precious the the creations that he made or that he established at the beginning of creation he renews this every day and we explained that that's part of the will or the rut sign of a Shem to continue the world being since the world only stands or only remains on based on the fact that a sham wants it and wants it again and wants it again to be so that's why we use the word x ray continuous creation meaning it's not just something of the past that he created but that he constantly creates so I'd like to delve into that a little bit something that we've mentioned a little bit before but we're going to we're going to go into it analyze a little bit more in depth the word burrow or the word buh ray comes from the word bria creation now the ram ban in braces knock manatees and i'm going to say one of my rabbi pun / jokes / corny lines that I'm allowed to say once every class and this is it is that there's my mana tease that was the rambam there's a knock manatees that was the rom bond and they had a great great great grandchild who was an investor banker stockbroker who is called commodities okay so the word bria borough says the Ramban means not just to create an image or to paint or to form or to structure the word bara is referring to a specific type of creation called yesh may I in yesh may I a means to make something may I in from nothing that means to turn some to turn something into something else is no big stink you can turn solids into liquid by melting it you could turn liquids into solid by freezing it you can turn one type of kugel into another type of kögel by putting it in the recycling bin or getting mold to come out of it that's not such a big finish that's no big shock it doesn't take that much talent you could be a magician and turn something and quickly form it into something else that's no big thing yesh may iron to create something from nothingness that means lahav will you go on to stage as a magician and you have absolutely nothing in your hands and you're not sketching and it's not a figment of anybody's imagination or sleight of hand you have nothing and then you make something to make something from absolutely nothing you have no materials you have no paint you have no ink you have no play doh you have nothing and now there's going to be something how do you do that that's almost perhaps impossible that's what I xem did when he created the world there was nothing I in there was absolutely zilch kaput garnished FS Nara and a Shem created a world from that nothingness why do we need to know that we need to know that for a few reasons number one don't ever think that the world preempted or existed before Hashem meaning Hashem found a bunch of materials around he walked into this warehouse called the world and there was a little paint over here some trees over there a little land a little water and he's like you know what I got a great idea why don't we put it all together he rolled the play-doh in a ball like this and he's like wow I got world I can make a bunch more of these I could make a moon and the Sun and aika light it on fire and then he came up with the easiest thing to make would be snakes he just made it like challah dough and he's like wow these are great that's not what happened Hashem didn't come to a world where the materials existed and he took whatever was available to him and he formed it and he structured it into a world no that would mean number one that something came before Hashem and that is not what we believe because we say it's one of the next on e moments the shower buddies function like who recien he is the first he existed and nothing else existed but it also tells us something else something very important which is that a shin was not limited when he created the world meaning if he would have certain materials that existed when he created the world so what the creation that he would make would be the outcome would be limited and restricted to the materials that he had when I was in yeshiva way back years ago in the 1920s so the Shiva didn't have a lot of money so in order to get food for the boys to eat they had to go to somewhere called the food bank now the food bank is basically all the stores in the area shoprite and all the big big chains ralphs and vons and whatever they basically give back all they give they donate all they're almost out of date or almost passed the date or their damaged materials the boxes are smashed or the the bottles the stickers on wrong or whatever it is they gave it all to the food bank the food bank was distributed at a nominal fee to all institutions that needed it so how are you Shiva got a weekly or a bi bi monthly delivery from the food bank now that was difficult for the cook because the cook could never create a menu he was limited to whatever they would have in the food bank so if they had lettuce and they had oatmeal he would have to make something of lettuce and oatmeal and it wasn't very good I remember that for breakfast they didn't have cereal they couldn't afford it so they got whatever the food bank had to offer now the type of food bag the type of cereal that the food bank was offering at the time was called Uncle Sam's natural laxative that's for older people or people or having a difficult time with their inner plumbing so you can imagine that after tasting this cereal the boys in the bathroom they had a rough time and it had no taste so they also got something called mots and Knott's Berry Farm blueberry sauce that was a little bit beyond the expiration date maybe a year or two and we will put it together and we made something so that cook in yeshiva when he created the menu he was very very limited to what he could make because it wasn't up to him he got his ingredients from somebody else so he couldn't no matter how much of a a wonderful exquisite cook he may have been which he wasn't but he was limited to the ingredients that were there from the food bank Hashem is not like that Hashem doesn't take whatever ingredients existed Hashem created the ingredients to make the world perfect exactly the way he wanted and he was not limited restricted or beholden to anyone or anything it was all up to him exactly the way he wanted to create it that's how he created that tells us two things number one the world is perfect exactly the way God wants it to be whatever we have whatever exists it's here for a reason that includes me and you and we also learn about the freedom of God Hashem is free he's not limited he's not beholden to anything or anybody he does exactly what he wants and there's nothing or no one in control of him he's not restrictive in any way shape or form and that is a very important message for me and you because God gave over that freedom of existence that freedom of will to me and you as humans we were created in the image of God which means that he gave in us the ability to be free to not be beholden to anyone or anything to have choice that nothing sir should restrict our vision we could look at the world with a pure perception we don't have to do anything if we choose not to do it we will not do it that is something that he gave only to mankind you and I have the ability to do what we want when we say in in tell him dovid amela says king david says in the saw in the Psalms lave thara pure heart burra Lee ello Kim create from me Hashem what we're saying is create with the power that you used for creation not to be beholden to anyone or anything that I will have a pure heart that will not be restricted that will not be restrained it will not be limited it can do as it wishes yes there are things in the world there were forces there are energies and there are people that want to hold us down they want to restrict us they want to captivate us that we will in a certain sense be beholden to the way they perceive the world with the impurities painting our heart but we ask Hashem to give us the ability to have a pure heart unrestricted unrestrained unpainted so that we can live a free life in the free image of God that has free choice bethere oh that will make us be able to connect and reconnect with a Shem as the real Sela mellow Kim in the image of the all free God you