The Lord has Chosen YOU to Be His Treasured People with Rabbi Aaron Dovid Poston

[Music] Shalom Alim everybody welcome back to I would say the b midash but of course we know we're here at era B midash and welcome home to Torah a warm warm a very warm welcome home to Torah we are in parches for a but as those who follow this class know that we use the CLE car as the basis for our discussion we encourage you to use the original Hebrew sheets which you can find in a link below in the YouTube description box uh before we start I do want to mention that I really try to stay away from politics at all costs maybe I'll have to do a podcast just for that because but in the me time we know that what we do we do Mitzvah they affect the world they reverberate they send out positive Godly influences to the world and I mentioned there's a website an organization called just one thing and uh one could go it's www w. it's one word just one thing just one thing.com I believe it's. I hope it's. I'll put the link below and you could take upon yourself a cabala a do a mitz do a kind act and it Willem they will match you up with a soldier it will Pro it will help protect it will help us win the war um by the way I think I already mentioned this last week hopefully we'll have them in a few days another eight pair of to fill in to give to the Army to distribute to those who need but just one thing they have on their website you can choose to learn a mission day recite a shotar in one place be kind to others put on to fill in keep kosher recite the Bedtime shma from a sitter be careful in modest dress accept Kabal chabbat 20 10 minutes early or as we're accustomed taking on shabas and letting it out 10 extra minutes called to chabis um don't talk during sh we tius daily and look what we're doing here we have people making tias for theim as we're as we're attempting to learn so this piece is going to be in my mind at least from the Hebrew point of view a little bit complicated and I'm going to request your help and um we these these ideas it's called Maka these are philosophical deep Concepts uh it's not so simple so I have to I feel I have to um explain a lot of stuff stuff so here we go well we take a look at chapter 14 we're in chapter 14 of Deuteronomy we're going to be dealing with verse one and verse two okay so what you may what you may see when you look at these two verses are they have nothing to do with each other but guess what when you're finished the CLE car gets through explaining or I get done explaining what clear's trying to say you will see a direct connection between verse one and verse two verse one seems to be a h issue you are the children of the Lord your God it's a very nice description about the Jewish people not too many people in this world right non-jews are generally not called the children of the Lord you shall neither cut yourselves nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead so of course when someone dies in a state of I don't even know what word to use desperation sadness pain feeling cut off themselves people do this apparently and Rashi says do not make any Cuts or incisions in your flesh to mourn for the dead in the manner that the amorites these are a uh an ancient civilization that they would do this because you you the Jewish people you are the children of the omnipresent and it's it's appropriate for you to be handsome and not to be cut or have your hair torn out it's not appropriate okay so it's like a h thing although there is some Hasa worldview behind it you're different you're supposed to be beautiful and cuts uh somehow would take away from that beauty but then the the Rashi goes on it says don't make any baldness between your eyes very strange I mean except for the unibrow person who really thinks about making baldness between your eyes however since there is baldness between your eyes maybe that's an example of what baldness is if you didn't know so Rashi says near the forehead elsewhere it says so in Leviticus 21:5 there actually is for the Kim for the for the priesthood they shall not make their head bald okay and that would mean to make the entire head like the baldness that's between your eyes Okay one may must not make bald spots on any part of the head so maybe the B NE right between your eyes this idea is is just to inform you perhaps what the idea is of not making bald this a description it's a location on your body that for surely except for the unibrow is bald however when we get to verse Two For You Are Holy people to the Lord your God and the Lord has chosen you to be a treasured people for him out of all the nations that are upon the Earth if you're going to read like the CLE car is going to read it that verse two is just a continuation of the thought and don't make these um cuts do right and don't make yourself bald because you're a holy people to the Lord your God he's chosen you to be in the Hebrew you are the most treasured people out of all the nations that are upon the earth now that we have a little inkling of the Hebrew as well let's start with the clear clear says right do not cut yourselves for the dead person he begins by explaining Theos in a certain sense there's some correct fashion for the non-jews to cut themselves as they believe because of their belief that once you go to the next World you're gone there's no coming back we understand number one we have one of the 13 principles of our faith to believe in the resurrection of the Dead But even before that the whole concept is when a soul when a body dies the soul does not die there's a continuation of life okay so the clear is saying that the umos are MIT Kaden in other words there's it's almost like logical that they would do this it's like almost rightfully so that they would do this that they would feel pained because in their belief system when you die it's over it's finished but the clear is saying but you the Jewish people are not like this look at as we said in verse two where it says God has chosen you's he's chosen you to be a treasured people now we're going to deal with the word seula what is that mean it's a treasure it's something valuable the all kingly Treasures treasur that are owned by you know very powerful people those are things that are put away into a treasury right we all know we've seen enough movies we've read enough books we've heard that very powerful people have uh you know Swiss bank accounts and uh maybe in Panama who knows what right we hear about this they put something that is not so common well we'll see that first of all that's what they do they put their valuable things into a treasury so too what does God do he's values the pure Souls of the righteous the pure Souls of the righteous maybe they're not so common but they're certainly valuable and therefore Hashem places The Souls of these righteous individuals these pure and righteous Souls into a storehouse and he says the these are not things that are lost disappear so so according to Jewish people you don't have to mourn so hard because why should you be pained on something that still exists it has msas it continued existence and I have my friend zarak here and we have the word that's where that Soul Will Shine from he will shine there it's only that his son has set in this world right when we say the sun has set for a person we mean that the lights went out they are physically not here but what does that Soul do in this o in this treasury in this safe deposit box in this very uh um room full of values that Hashem has hidden that is where that righteous and pure soul will consume the gifts that Hashem has given him in the Eternal world now kazal tell us in gor shabas 105b which you'll find on the source sheet number four so regarding laws of mourning for someone who's Kosher for an upright person and a Torah scholar the gamor sites in the name of rabish shim pazi said that rabish Ley said in the name of kapara and this is what he says anyone who sheds tears over an upright person someone who's righteous obviously we're talking about when they die okay and by the way you know unfortunately many of our soldiers and um I mean even on October 7th we had civilians uh who have been killed and every time we hear about it we should shed a tear we should shed a tear anyone who sheds tears over an upright person someone who's kosher the Holy One Blessed Be he counts his tears that's strange hashem's going to count your tears and then he puts them in his treasury his treasury as it is stated so in Psalms 56:9 it says H now those last two words are almost like a rhetorical question what are we saying here King David is speaking you've counted my wanderings I have many travails let a lot of hardships put my tears into a bottle into a flask into a safe someplace for safekeeping are they not in your book now the word book is a safer but it also means you're counting not only counting something that is recorded perhaps it's no coincidence right we're talking about the par leading up to rashash all H the Y to we're getting ready to be what written inscribed in The Book of Life or God forbid not okay we're approaching the awesome day of judgment so we're beginning El in a few days the chauffeur would be blown and what do we know about the chauffeur it says is there such a place a city where the chauffeur is blown right where the people will not fear tremble and that is a little bit of a leading to what we're about to speak about because you are shedding a tear who are you I don't know how righteous I am but I'm shedding a tear for someone who is righteous right many of our soldiers and our civilians they died because they were uh Jewish that's called a in Hebrew real martyr a uhem they were murdered they were they were murdered because they were Jews they automatically go right to the highest place in heaven and this is you know obviously not at all like our counterparts over there who blow themselves up expecting to get Heaven we're talking about on the defensive on the receiving end of such a uh uh torture anyway keeping this in mind those last two words is it not in your accounting is it not in your records are they not in your book okay so let's go back into the clear he says he's actually telling us the Hebrew of that Goran shabas that one who sheds tears goes down the tear and now tears is plural for a second I'll just show you why in a second so someone who cries over someone who is koser then counts and he places what those tears into his treasury that's what base gav is and how do we know we just read the verse in Psalms 569 correct that was the verse we read and I'm putting in parentheses what's the reason for this that also those Souls now which souls are we talking about since those since all also those Souls they themselves are the treasure now we're talking about the one crying over the righteous and he's kind of segueing in the one who's crying his tears and his soul is going to be elevated to be righteous because you're empathetic you're feeling the pain of the loss of something that loss of what the person who is righteous had I'm going to use the words had fear or awe of God okay and therefore you're recognizing the O of God is a treasure and Hashem is kind of elevating you to that same level can you understand by crying there is this elevation to you to your tears and to who you are because you value now how do we get to that it's a jump he says like this the reason is we may not know which Souls we're talking about this time moment but he says also those Souls they are a treasure therefore there's also going to be placed there those tears into this treasure for safekeeping like it says King David says H are they not in your records are they not in your treasury are they not in the account book and the clear says Lil move on I don't understand he says this language are they not in your records what are you talking about so the CLE car begins I the CLE car I'm going to give give you my thoughts what I think is going on here the answer just as Hashem himself brings out and brings in according to the number of like stars and I just want to make a short break to understand what we're talking about if you go to the last page on the English sheet so God tells Abraham to come outside he took him outside and to look Heavenly word and count the stars and he says just like there so many so too will be your seed okay go ahead count the Stars so will be your seed keep in mind we're talking about the Jewish people in Genesis 468 number 13 so the names of the 70 Souls that went down Egypt were mentioned and a few chapters later Exodus 1:1 again the names were given again why Rashi tells us allthough number 14 on thei in Exodus 1 vers1 Rashi says allthough God counted them in their lifetime right back in chapter 46 he counted them again after their death to let us know how precious they are to him because they the Jewish people these souls are like into the Stars which he takes out far from Beyond the Horizon and brings them in by number and by name and we also saw in uh we'll see in Isaiah 40: 26 lift up your eyes and see who created all these he says look up at the stars who takes out their hosts by numbers all of them he calls by names another idea in Psalms 1474 he counts the number of the Stars he calls them all by name so keeping all that in mind these ideas that the souls are counted what's counted only that which is only things that is valuable and important you own Farmland so at the end of the day you have tons or Acres whatever it is of fruits but when it comes to hay or weeds that you might feed to your horses or cattle who's counting who counts wheat not wheat uh hay who counts straw something that's not you don't count soem counts us we're now that's also a little bit of an idea what aul isul is something that's treasured something that's and he says right there this whole idea that is bringing out and bringing in we're talking about Jewish Souls just like like the stars right they set on the horizon right they disappear for a while and they come back but they're called out by names this teaches you about how important they are anything that is of importance has a number therefore we understand when King David right spoke why there's a reason for counting his travels his travails and why the tears were placed into a flask or for safekeeping but then it says hello are they not recorded right aren't they in your book the accounting book what does that mean to say h also they themselves are in your C who day the people crying that you bring them out you bring them in according to name according to number so even if we're talking about the actual Souls that died but there are people who breathing them and those people who in bereavement they are just like them also with their tears that are going to be hidden away and counted mik after the idea that you're not going to make Bal here and there whether it's talking about the Le the or after someone dies therefore it's not proper to place a BAL spot between your eyes for the dead person somehow the cleard is relating the idea of the eyes we saw that idea several times between your eyes because that's where the tears come from right I don't know I mean I'm just guessing that it's usually coming from the inner side it's could be coming from any side but the the tears are coming from between your eyes keep so the idea of causing this baldness between your eyes it's teaching as if right we're referring to those tears are as if they were removed and lost that's not the case but rather they're kept in God's flask in some type of for safekeeping sake and further there is to explain ker as we said the idea is that if someone sheds a tear for someone who's Kasher someone who is upright and and righteous then mama what is most likely he's crying about or she's crying about that they are pained by the lack or the missing space of the Kishon Hamas the uh this ability this person had to create or the importance of this person through his actions H who El Elohim this is the fear of God now we could be talking about the person who died or we could be talking about the person who's beving but since we're speaking in the beginning about the person who's beving so let's continue so it means the person who's beving is what is actually having a moment of awe of Hashem and what do we know about that it says in Isaiah 33 verse 6 you see it on the sore sheet um it's number six and the faith of your time shall be the strength of salvations wisdom and knowledge and these are the important words fear of the Lord that is his treasure remember we spoke about amula a treasured Nation I know it's a different word in in Hebrew but in English it's the same concept he the fear of God that is his treasure that's what God Treasures so if we began by talking about the person who died was full of Y because he was kosher what about the person who was not as kosher but felt the lack of the the person who was full of fear that attaches himself to the person that was full of fear therefore he's full of fear again we don't we don't know what fear is yet we're going to discuss it we'll call it awe of God but the last thing we said was in Isaiah 336 who the fear of God that is man's treasure that is The Treasure of the man hu the cleard doesn't read it like that he reads it that's God's treasure God's treasure the only reason to make a a treasure box to make a safe deposit box is for something that is not common something that is rare now you should know this everything is in the hands of God everything that happens Z every single thing that happens on the planet Earth that we know of is with God's Direction it's in the hands of God except for that is the only thing that is not in God's hands that is in our hands therefore what does God do he places also the tears of the person B gaving into his Treasure House and now we understand when it says God wants us to be his treasured people and it's going back on the other idea it's going on the idea between your eyes because what happens between your eyes that's that is teaching us about the very place from where the tears come from so I want to sum this up cuz I want to go into some other sources what the clear is trying to say is not only is the person whose Soul passed away going to what we call Heaven okay and to a his soul is also treasured the tears of the one breathing the one who's left alive who's feeling the pain of What Not the loss because the person isn't lost it's just the lack of another human being walking out with yamus we're going to discuss that now there's different types of of fear of awe and that's what I want to lead into I have sheets here I don't know if you got it the it's on Bros 33b it's not a but it's okay so he goes into this idea this is from the is the on thator that hasem the only thing that hasem really Treasures is okay is going to place into his storage anyone who is has well the question is what actually do we derive from this what benefit does this have like what what's the musas what are we supposed to take away from this what's missing if we didn't know this and furthermore why is it called his treasure so the the answers as he always does near it seems to me with the help of God to explain did you know that there's two types of fear there's a lower level we call that guua and then there's a higher level which is which is praiseworthy so look we were all children once so children do have the the lower fear but eventually we grow up and we should have the higher level of awe so he says there's two types of fear just having fear of punishment that's the lower level that's listen we should at least have that the second he says you're R the second is a a fear based on hashem's greatest just having the knowledge of how great and awesome he is should put us into a level of trembling this type of fear is experienced or known or Found By Angels by Angelic forces and all the Heavenly hosts therefore therefore we relate it to to to the heavens and that's why it's a well-known statement we should say to people the fear of Heaven should be on you there's no question this is interesting we're right before ELO we're about to enter ELO getting into the mood getting into the season 40 days before yam kipur but the truth is this is really all the time we should have this meaning to say that we should have the fear the awe just like the fear all that the Angelic forces have from that type of fear that the angels have we should have that's a prayer now we're all human beings and we don't really see what's the depth in our friends hopefully our friends we can but people we don't know what do you know what's in their hearts so a human being is not able to recognize this type of fear versus that type of fear only Hashem can know that because this is within the heart a even the Angelic forces they don't really know what's going on in the heart of a person slave and that's why we say the only thing that's hidden in God's Treasure House is all of God specifically because only to him is it revealed only he knows the only thing he knows the is the this um o this treasure house full of the fear of God as if to say that level of fear that F level of awe which is a custom in heaven or that we said that in this Treasure House everything is in the hands of God except forem except for the fear of heaven so what does it come out everything that happens every single thing that happens in this world was already decreed Bor it's nigs are bedor rock and the only thing that's an exception is is is this awe this fear and that remains hidden two words for hidden and it's God does not use his Force this is something yes you can pray for you should really pray that Hashem give you assistance in having your we could talk about that another time but there Hashem could help and will help as do M prayed for y so there is an idea that hm will help you to get to that level now there's a few verses I wanted to show you on the back of the Hebrew sheet this is how important is and then I'm going to read something from the back of the MAA so starting with Psalms 110 this is something we should be saying every day or at least thinking about every sitter I believe has it on page one right after mod the beginning it's 111:10 the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord in Proverbs 9 chapter 9:1 the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord a little bit of different R uh Proverbs 1:7 the fear of the Lord is to be beginning of knowledge in Proverbs 1427 the fear of God is the source of life okay now I want to just read from you to you what you don't have this it's a very short piece and when we went over BR 33b it was a simple statement and we had the verse in Deuteronomy chap 10:2 now if you look at that verse you'll see it's 10 verse2 we have it on our sheet somewhere oh now oh Israel what does the Lord your God ask of you only to fear the lord now that's how it starts but look with the continuation how do you know how can you test for yourself to walk in all his ways meaning to follow all the Commandments to follow his character traits and to love him and to worship him to serve him to do the Mitzvah to Worship the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul so this little statement here is the writes okay the actual idea of having fear of God of course you have to attribute all that to hem everything's from hasem even that he says one in a thousand does not even reach a level of fear of God on his own I'm sorry without the help God I mentioned you should for this we find that he himself prayed to be able to reach that level another idea in this P was mentioned by Moses right he gives rebuke to the Jewish people before he dies and after he um already rebukes them for other sins like the sin of the golden calf um that they wanted to go back to Egypt and this is after the death of Aon so he says to them even though you did all this loves you and he has mercy on you the only thing that hasem wants is Fe is awe he's that's what he wants a a a respect uh um God Consciousness and knowing that he is greater than us it's interesting one of the ideas of learning and I repeat this many times the cleard says it the goal of learning is to know that you don't know meaning I think in English they say the more you learn the more you learn the more you know you don't know but the goal of learning is to know how fantastic how unbelievable great God is so the more you learn the more you learn how gr is you realize you'll never fully comprehend and that is okay to not fully comprehend okay it's okay um Rashi explains on the Torah this idea that the idea it's not that is speaking about y specifically but rather Ella he when we speak about it's including service of God is the verse itself the continuation of the verse expressed that all of that your service to God is also in your hands however the an yahu brings a medish and I think I brought this medish in number 18 another thing I asked God replied and we're starting right we're going to be starting in El reading Psalm 27 so at first you said I asked one thing to dwell in the house of God right right just one thing I asked is to dwell in the in the in the house of God but then you said to me to behold the beauty of God to visit a sanctuary but I say before you master of the universe that the servant should not not be equal to his master at first you did not ask much of me as it says and now Israel what does your lord God ask of you but to fear the lord your God but then you ask for many commandments so first of all fear it's the beginning of everything will lead you to do more Mitzvah first of lead you to do them properly as well so but then you ask for me many Commandments as it says in that verse we said in um Deuteronomy 10:12 to walk in all his ways and to love him be content with being a servant so that you may be like your master right you want to learn learn and behave and imitate like God there's an interesting book that just came out an English translation to Tom dor part two so I already gave a sheer Series in tomor part one which was the 13 attributes of Mercy which one should imitate but we're going to get into at some point I'll give over part two with with the different SP but in the meantime there's one thing I just want to end with on the back of the sheet we did on the Ben it looks like this it's in Shabbat and it mentions all who shed tears and it does say tears on a person whose kosher K counts them and he places them into his treasury the uh there's the bone on shabas 10 shabas 105b it seems to me with the help of God to explain with the himself wrote In the if you look on the sour sheet I spelled it out number nine the word for a tiar tear I don't know if I spelled that right a tear is but if you times it by two because it's plural it's two okay but it's the word tears is plural and so singularly the word do me he is 119 but 119 twice is 238 it's the same um G is RA so he points this out and he mentions that Rael is considered the Treasure House and in Isaiah 336 we already read that Yem he that Yem is his treasure house and go into this idea in Jeremiah 31:14 which is a very famous statement made about Rael Rael wept was weeping for her children and hasem told her her weeping will not go unanswered okay 31:14 in Jeremiah so says the Lord a voice is Heard On High lamentation bitter weeping Rael is weeping for her children she refuses to be comforted for her children for they are not and Hashem promised her that he would bring her children home so bem we should see the end of this galut right I think the next uh the next T will make is to K it's pretty easy it's pretty easy but it's worth it it's just a hop skip and a jump around the corner but not not many people go and we go we spend a few hours there learning that's going to be the deal um so we should see an end to this galute but how are we going to bring it about like we started off just one thing do Mitzvah but I think there's an important ingredient and that's just having an a right that's where it begins in other words that's the Catalyst that's going to be the Catalyst to make your Mitzvah really a treasure and God forbid if someone who of caliber passes away we should really do our best to shed tears not like I fake tears but to understand what we're missing what this what the character of this person was and that we don't have that in this world but that person continues to live on and there's no reason to cut our skin especially between our eyes these tears are very V valuable so you have a great shabas a greates coming up and a tremendous amount of growth during this 40-day period until yum kipur but there's no reason to to wait let's start right away the chauffeur is going to be blown already on uh on I think Tuesday the second day of Ros kodes and um we'll be saying SOS at some point depends if you're ashkanazi Ori if you're a little bit like me who's uh really drawn toi so in the past we have gone to um the Cave of the Patriarchs the mar is open 11 days of the year just to Jews 11 days of the year just to Muslims and the other days it's split like there's a wall you can go but you can't see the whole thing so during 11 days you can see the whole thing and we go into the and Dav okay and sayos so maybe we'll do that that usually will take place during the 10 days of CHA either the week the week before Rashana or during the 10 days of chva for us ashaz does 11 days so we got two t planned one to by the way that's where my engagement is my engagement anniversary is coming up that's where I asked my wife to marry me and I blew a chauffeur at Kev Ro and we're coming up this is dated so that we're coming up on the 16 year anniversary and um what can I tell you we're looking forward to many more good years and I we hope that this gullis will be over very soon we're all preparing right we're all preparing ourselves how how we're going to prepare ourselves just one thing just do one more Mitzvah and with that we wish everyone a shabbat shalom keep an extra 10 minutes try to bring it in 10 minutes early or 10 minutes late either way you don't have to do both but uh at least two minutes on each end anyway so have a good shabas and have a great life and we won't see you next week because we have a a wedding one of my students is getting married but the following week we'll be back let round to show [Music] oh