The POWER of Free Will | Parsha Perspectives | Yisro 5786

and Bogota will welcome back to Parsha Perspectives for today. We have the privilege of reading and learning Parshas Yisro together. Every Parsha is the most important Parsha of the Torah. Whatever Parsha we're reading that week is the most important Parsha in the Torah. But arguably, many people think this is Parshas Yisro, of course, contains the Aseres Hadibros, the Decalogue. We stood at the base of that mountain united and as one and received that Torah, the most seminal moment of all of human history, and it's in this Parsha. And so, whatever week something is in the Parsha is the week that we live it, that we experience it. And so, that seminal event of of Kabbalas HaTorah is happening for each and every one of us one of us in our lives. It's a big Parsha, page 394 in the ArtScroll Chumash. But first, we express our gratitude. Parsha Perspectives series is generously sponsored by Becky and Avi Katz and family in memory of David Grossman, a learning shidduch for the neshama of Becky's father, David ben Nachman Munk. The shiur is also series co-sponsored by What happened to our co-sponsor from Bnei Eli? Our shiur is also sponsored today by Harry Goldman in commemoration of the yahrzeit of her husband, Hilton Goldman ben Hillel ben Gershon, by Judith Rosen in memory of her husband, Elimelech baruch ben Ben Zion, by Nechemia and Bracha Pumper l'zecher nishmas Bracha bas Simcha, the birth of their first grandchild 19 years ago and year survival of a heart attack 18 years ago, all on the 19th of Shvat, which we're grateful for, anonymously in honor of the first yahrzeit of Elisheva bas Ezra Lisa Cohen and Shmuel ben Avraham ben Eliyahu, anonymously l'zecher nishmas Avraham ben Avraham ben Akiva and Shaindel bas Dovid ben Shmuel ben Dovid, Nissan ben Shimon and Leah bas Bracha bas Yosef HaLevi, and anonymously, and this was the dedication sponsored anonymously, a freeloader no more. My favorite dedication so far of all time, a freeloader no So, you'll say, "A freeloader no more?" What is that referring to? Why would someone dedicate a Parsha shiur under that name and under that umbrella? And the answer is very simple. Because if you pay for your streaming service and you pay for your entertainment and you pay for your FPL bill and you pay for your membership at Costco, and you pay for every other benefit in life, we need your help if you enjoy the partial share. If you're a BRS member, you're already doing your part. You're helping cover the costs, the security, the parking, the coffee, the slushy, and the guy giving the share. If you're not a BRS member, we welcome you, we want you, we invite you, and we want you to learn with us in person or virtually online. All we ask is that you help us out. Help us provide all those things. So, if you're a BRS member, thank you, you've done your part. If you're not, please join our BRS Global. This are the two weeks that we do our campaign. We've got to get to our goal. We're only at about 12% so far. If someone wants to stroke a check and get us there, then you won't hear another word about it. Then we're done for the year. But if you don't, then we got to keep going until we get there. So, please, if you're watching listening online, go to brsonline.org/global. brsonline.org/global, and buy your raffle tickets to be entered to a raffle, two tickets, domestic tickets to Florida. Come spend Shabbos happy BRS experience alive. If you're here in person, buy the raffle tickets, give the two tickets to your grandchildren, your children. Fly in your best friend. Fly in others. They'll be grateful to come given the weather elsewhere. No matter how cold it is here, it's still warmer than it is elsewhere. Partial source of page 394. Vayishma Yisro Moshe. Yisro came to Moshe with the Israelite nation of Yisro Israel from Egypt. Yisro, Midian, the father-in-law of Moshe heard all that God had done for Moshe and the Jewish people, that he took us out of Egypt, that he took us out of Egypt. Vayishma Yisro. Yisro heard. Rashi says Mashmo Sham Uba. Rashi's paraphrasing from the Gemara Zevachim. Mashmo Sham Uba. What did he hear that made him get up, stop what he was doing, and come? Many people hear world events. They hear appeals for help, and they just turn the page. They just let it go in one ear and out the others. And some, Mashmoa Shama, they hear something Uba and they show up and they care and they give and they do and they come and they participate. So, what made Yisro Mashmoa Shama? Rashi quotes the Gemara in Zevachim. Yitziat Mitzrayim or Milchemet Amalek. The Gemara there really has a third opinion, which is maybe it was Yitziat Mitzrayim, maybe it was Amalek, or maybe it was Matan Torah. Maybe he heard about Kabbalat Torah, which of course begs the question, why then is it out of order? Because in our parsha, Yisro arrives not after the Torah is given, Yisro arrives before. And if historically, chronologically, Yisro really came after, whenever the Torah publishes, whenever the Torah organizes, not chronologically, but thematically, you have to ask yourself why. And that is the question we've asked ourselves and we've spoken about in the past. The Yish Divrei Rashi, Mekor Divrei Gemara, quotes from the Gemara in Zevachim, they quote the entire Gemara. But Rav Tanchum bar and the truth is this requires investigation. Mah Kushi Mashmoa Shama Uba? Why does the Gemara, why does Rashi paraphrase? What did Yisro hear that made him come? Why is that a peculiar question? Cuz just keep reading the pasuk. VaYishma Yisro, Yisro heard, what did he hear? He heard Kol Asher Asah Elokim l'Moshe u'l'Yisrael Amo. He heard everything that God did for Moshe and the Jewish people, Ki Hotzi Et Yisrael MiMitzrayim, that he took us out of Egypt. So, you're so curious, you're so inquisitive, "Ooh, I wonder, what is it?" He came, but I I wonder what drove him. What do you mean "wonder what drove him"? Just keep reading. It's in the pasuk itself. What was the Gemara asking? What was the Gemara asking? K'vetch Mefarshim K'rama Makom Lishana Mashmoa Shama Uba. U'vi Yoter Tamua, and even more so, says Rav Druk, K'riat Yam Suf u'Milchemet Amalek. So, Sarah says "A name of a crow." The two options that Rashi brings of what Yisro heard that made him come are in exact contradiction or inconsistent with what the pasuk itself gives as the reason. Pasuk itself gives it the reason. Why did he come? He told us so many times, he took us out of Egypt. But those aren't the two reasons Rashi suggests. The two reasons Rashi suggests are either splitting of the sea or war with Amalek. So, why not just stick with the partial shot? Why do you have to get all creative? Why do you have to guess? Why not just stick with the possible? The possible tells us explicitly, why do we have to guess? Oh, it's not enough. We've joked through the name third question. What is so special about those two things that those would be the catalyst that would precipitate Yitro getting up, buying a ticket, packing his bags, taking a leave of absence from where he is, and going to join the Jewish people, maybe even to the point of converting. There were all these other miracles. There were the 10 plagues. There were the other miracles that God did. There's a big menu to choose from of which miracles might have motivated Yitro. Why, if we're not going to stick with what's what it says in the possible, we're going to come up with our own, why come up specifically with those two, and why not stick with what's in the possible or come up with one of the other great miracles that God did? And lastly, number four, all for the price of one. Why are we mentioning at all the war with Amalek? Here's what's peculiar about Yitro being impressed with the Jewish people in the war with Amalek. Who won the war with Amalek? I refer you back to the end of last week's partial. We didn't win that war. We weren't triumphant and victorious. At best, the war was a draw. We walked away. We survived, but so did they. They didn't disarm. They didn't disband. There was no council that took over Amalek. Amalek remained intact, in force, continued to haunt us, and continued to haunt us out of your misery. We didn't defeat and we didn't destroy and we didn't eliminate Amalek so what's so impressive? What inspired Yisro to come because he heard about the miracle of of the war with Amalek. The real question wasn't what did Yisro hear? Because that the possuk tells us. What did Yisro hear? He heard that God took us out of Egypt. That's not the question. The whole question is three letters long. The whole question is the last word. Mashmu'a Shama? U'va. What did he hear that made him come? See the world is watching the news and the world reads some exposé about Israel and the Mossad and what they accomplished and achieved with the Beeb operation, what they accomplished and achieved with this operation, how they were able to take out a pinpointed strike, they knew our enemy was sleeping in his bed in his apartment at this time and a missile went right through a hole in that wall, through that bed and and they say, "Huh, that's amazing. That's fantastic. I wonder how they did that. What happened in the game last night? What happened in the market yesterday? What's the weather going to be? When is it going to finally warm up? They just keep turning the pages. Everybody else heard and followed the news and you know what they did? You know how it impacted them? You know what they changed about their life? Gornisht. Nada. Nothing. Yisro is the exception. And that is characterized by that one word. Not Mashmu'a Shama, what did he hear? In fact, we sang in Az Yashir that the whole world Yergazu, they all heard and they all trembled. The whole world heard, it was the headline, it was the front page and that's not hard to imagine that little tiny country smaller than the state of New Jersey in the Middle East called Israel dominates the news every single day. There's a war of Russia and Ukraine, you hear about it a little bit, sometimes it's tucked a few pages in. Israel, ceasefire that seems to be holding and it's still dominating. The Jews always dominate the news. Mashma shama, you'll hear everything you want to know and don't want to know, true and false. But the Jews will always dominate the news, not by choice. If we can exit out, we easily and happily would. But we dominate the news. The question wasn't Mashma, what did he hear? That the possuk says. Says Rav Druck, the question was, "Uba, what made him come?" Aisa shmua shama shmua she shpia alav v'yoser. What impacted him that he closed the newspaper, that he turned off the internet, that he shut off the news, packed his bag, bought a ticket, and said, "I've got to check this out for myself." V'yoser m'vosher m'arich l'saper. K'sher Yisro told Yisro kol ha'olam al matan Torah, komach d'kochavim achas umrado b'chasam. The whole world, the whole world, idolaters, believers, they all shook, they all trembled by the truth of God and by this unprecedented and unparalleled revelation of Sinai. They all heard it, but nobody moved, nobody came, nobody listened. Yisro's impressive to us, and Yisro is worthy of a parsha being named for him because Yisro teaches us the mida, the quality, the capacity of vayishma, of listening. Not just listening audibly, not just listening where you heard, listening where you're transformed. How many of us hear a drasha, a shmuze, we go to a shiur. How many of us read a book or listen to a podcast. How many of us follow news or a friend tells us an extraordinary story. You find it fascinating. Maybe so much so that we remember it or we repeat it, but does it change us? Does it transform us? Do we radically do something different in our life? Not just Mashma shama, but Yisro, like the rest of the world, heard, but Uba, what made him come? Now it's Kriat Yam Suf b'chamas Amalek. Kriat Yam Suf az niflu al pnei Edom, kolam niflu. Everybody heard, but Yisro it Uba. And what was it about Amalek? So says in answer, I'll tell you mine. I'll tell you mine. It doesn't say Amalek. Are you happy there were many miracles? Answer me this, he said, Amalek was not changed by the news. Did Amalek hear about the miracles of Egypt? Certainly. The whole world did. Amalek, their intelligence division branch, Amalek certainly heard about the 10 plagues. And did it make them rethink attacking the Jewish people? Absolutely not. Amalek were unmoved, unchanged. They didn't pivot. They remained on course to be our enemy. And yes, sir, said that's bizarre. These miracles, this divine providence and protection, there's something special about these people. And here you have Amalek, and it's not the Amalek, that didn't move him. There was no victory. It was a draw at best. So what moved him? Why did he come? Cuz he had to check out who are these people? Who is this Amalek that would attack a people even after God intervened in nature to perform countless miracles on their behalf. But I suggest a different answer. And my answer I think is relevant for our time, too. After the show this morning, I have what is increasingly filling up my schedule. So much so, too much so, but how can you say no? And that is we have a base and forget it. We have a rabbinical court for conversion. And you'd think that after October 7th, and you would think maybe after October 7th, there was a listed a sympathy of the world against the Jew. But after October 8th or 9th, when instead of sympathy, it didn't last long, anti-Semitism is on the rise. Anti-Semitism is spreading and is everywhere. Anti-Semitism is a real danger and a threat. So, if you have the luxury of not wearing the tag or label Jew, wouldn't you think that you wouldn't want it? And now, in my lifetime more than ever, people are lining up and saying, "I want to join this people. I want to convert. Let me in. Let me in." Sincere, genuine, incredible, extraordinary people who are ready to radically change and transform their lives, and they want to convert. And we have a base in our regular meetings and our sponsoring rabbis and our conversions. Baruch Hashem, it's among the greatest to be involved with. And you look and you ask and you wonder. One of the questions we ask when a candidate is in the mikvah, do you believe in God and the world to come and reward and punishment and techiyas hameisim and the whole list of questions we ask, do you accept all mitzvahs, observe what you know, what you don't yet know, what's easy, what's hard, de'oraisa, de'rabbanan, all the questions that we ask. We say, "Are you aware of are you familiar with the concept called anti-Semitism? Do you know that from this moment going forward you are a full-fledged Jew? And as far as anti-Semites are concerned, you have a target on your back. Do you still want to dunk? It's not too late to walk out." And 100% rate, they say, "I'm all in. I'm all in." What made it vivid years or decades ago, I think and what's motivating so many of these converts, they say the world is obsessed with this Jewish people. Why is the world obsessed with this people? And the most heinous, evil, wicked people on Earth are the most obsessed with this people, somehow threatened by this people, and desperately focused on eliminating this people, I got to check out this people. When the most evil, wicked people on Earth are singularly focused on one people, there's something special about that people. That's our people. When Israel fights a war not on seven fronts, but on eight when you include online, when seven separate peoples, and then the whole online world are all targeting the Jewish people. There's something special about the Jewish people. So, maybe Yisro wasn't moved by a victory over Amalek because there was none. At best, we had a draw. What motivated Yisro? Why Amalek, these most evil people on Earth, why are they so threatened and bothered? Why are they so obsessed? Why do they have such a different double standard when it comes to the Jew? I've got to check out these people called the Jew. It was true then with Yisro, and it's true now with our geray tzedek, our righteous converts, so many whom we're privileged to know in our time. I want to share three interpretations of the Ach Pri Tzvu, the learning this season of parsha perspectives, the Haligas Ha Liska Rebbe Tzvi Hirsch, the Rebbe of Ribshaila, the Ach Pri Tzvu. Vayishma Yisro El Midyan. And he says the following. HaTorah Ramza Lanu, De Yachol Adam Lehafoch Es Atzmo Mehepech Lehepech. The last couple parshios, we were very focused on God hardening Pharaoh's heart. God suspending his free will. What it looks like when you have no autonomy and when you have no choice. And now, says the Ach Pri Tzvu, the Liska Rebbe, now we are pivoting from a storyline of a person who had no free will to an extraordinary example of what can happen, what possibility are opened when we express our free will. Yisro went Mehepech Lehepech. Yisro radically changed his life from one extreme to the other. D'mitzvila Hayah Kohen Midyan. Va'achar Kach Nasa Chosain Moshe. He went from being the priest, the high priest of idolatry, the leader of an idolatry idolatrous religion. He was this mega pastor of the world's greatest mega church who had the largest mega megaphone. And he just preached, and he went from that to becoming the father-in-law of Moshe. V'gam Ki Yotzi Hashem Es Yisrael Mimitzrayim, Tainu Sheyachol Kol Echad La'asos martial arts about here he have shoes looking at home in the middle of the little Torah that you should give all that up walked away from that notoriety that fame that fortune you should walk away from that prominence and dominance to start from the bottom to go into hater and learn the olive base to don't join the Jewish people in the desert and start from the beginning of their story. And why why is the introduction to a lot of stuff he doesn't spell this out but I'll expand so if indeed you should logically comes after our Sinai why would the Torah put it out of place why would the Torah place you so as the preface as the introduction to the Torah and maybe it's for each and every one of us to know that it is never too late if we employ and engage our hero if we express our our autonomy our conscious our free will it's never too late to become who we are meant to be it's never too late to start with people started at 40 at 40 years old he was a shepherd and ignorant shepherd at 39 and at 40 he saw the water drip on the rock and he realized something could penetrate even his thick skull that's the shallow Makayla it's what people said about himself and he started to learn from the beginning uncle Schnauzer maker of a Targum we've been promoting and learning that project who's the Targum is Targum on close on close was advanced how did uncle start he was sent to go convert and he walked out and he kissed the mezuzah what's that he told him what it is I want to learn I want to learn uncle started where hater kindergarten pre-k whatever you call it you picture this grown-up sitting at one of those little mini desks in one of those mini chairs when do I get to be the father I probably didn't do that but you can picture on close with all the Shabbos and but it's his week cuz the teacher couldn't leave him out because everybody has to get a chance even though Unkeless is in advanced age and he's sitting with all the little kids in the little chair and Unkeless has a little tzitzis party and Unkeless has the Chumash party and Unkeless has the seder party and Unkeless starts from the very beginning and so does Yisro. Yisro is Midian. Yisro is the mega pastor of a mega church. Every everywhere home, he's a household name. And now he finds himself in the little cheder with the little kinderlach with the little children getting a little pekel of candy. And Yisro, he has a little cubby that he puts his little backpack and he opens up his little lunch and he starts from the start starts again from the beginning. And that image is so holy and so beautiful and it's so inspiring and so motivating and so empowering. It's not too late. Start daf yomi, Tanakh is making a big siyum. The daily study of Tanakh is making a big siyum. Soon a new cycle is starting. It's not too late. Join. Rambam, the cycle of Rambam just made a siyum. South Florida which just had a beautiful event for the siyum of Rambam. Just started again. Take up. You could start again. Doesn't matter what age, what stage, where you are in life. Yisro says the Parsha of Yisro, Yisro becomes the incredible inspiration. Start again. New, what are you starting? Tu Bishvat. We're ready to blossom and bloom. We're ready to grow and burst forth. We're ready to wake up like those It was a little warmer today. Could be the iguanas are going to wake up. Not the one in our parking lot. Unfortunately, he's never waking up. But the other ones, these iguanas, you can wake up. It's not too late to wake up. His heart is His heart is So we go from Paro whose heart is hardened, Paro whose heart is stone, Paro who is fixed, he's finished, he's done to Yisro who is the greatest example of someone who so radically changes his life. Why says the Parsha of Yisro, the message to us is listen to the messages, be inspired by them and make a change from them. What are you going to change? What are you going to do differently? Then he continues the next piece. He built him over all who custom of Russia the same question everybody asks. Why are you asking the passage itself says it? It says what Moshe told Yisrael what Yisrael heard rather. So, why do you have to ask what did he hear? Now, as much as I said that we have a line out the door today to join the Jewish people, the tells us that when Messiah will come and there'll be this great revelation and there'll be the resurrection and God's presence and influence will be undeniable. We're done. Sorry, base din is closed. We're no longer accepting interviews, candidates. We're no longer accepting converts. Why? Because there's nothing special or impressive about that point. Everybody wants to join the Jewish people. It's what we call in the world of sports a fair-weather fan. When you all of a sudden become a fan of that team because they're in the Super Bowl or they just won it. You become a fan of that dynasty, it's not impressive. It's when you stick with them through their losing seasons. That's when you're a real fan. When you stick with the Jewish people when everybody wants to kill us and destroy us and eliminate us and lie about us and you want to join us, come. Let's find out more about you. We could welcome you. We'd love to have you. But when Messiah will come and everyone want to join, sorry, we're closed. The passage is coming to ask us. That's what the Torah is telling us. What time period in what time period was Yisrael joining the Jewish people? Like Messiah time or like a anti-Semitism on the rise time? So, you might say, well, the Jewish people were at a high. 10 plagues, splitting of a sea, giving the Torah at Sinai. We're clearly God's people. >> because he was so impressed by miracles. There is no fetish. So, what was it that drove him to made him come is not what's in the possuk. But, what is suggested separately says the second interpretation that's where it comes to. And lastly, there's a big debate. What's more important? To have the right beliefs? Or even if your beliefs are not exactly on track, on target, to live the right actions. What's more important? Yediah or Maiseh? So, some people mistakenly believe and he references here in the name of the Sifrei Chaim, Ha Yediah. How do you become complete and whole? What matters is Yediah. What matters is what you know and what you feel. What you do, that's a separate story. The other philosophers, they're so focused on philosophy and the truth academically, conceptually, philosophically, theologically, that's what matters. As long as you can contemplate and philosophize and think and arrive at and conclude, that's what matters. But, that's not the Jewish approach. Ha Maiseh. What matters most is the world of action. The famous Mishnah in Pirkei in Pirkei Avos, last week's parsha we're stuck between the sea and the Egyptians and God says, "What are you doing? Close the Sidor, close the Tehillim, start walking." Russia tables and MS. Why are you crying out to me? Is an acronym for the word MS, truth, MS. Let me explain. Because Matityahu is MS. When we live with the world of action and the serious nefesh and we just walk even though we don't know what's going to happen and we put one foot in front of the other because Hashem is the MS. He is the truth and we're living in his world of truth and he interacts with us in truth. And we demonstrate that faith. It's not through moving our lips. It's not only through the tfila of the sitter and the tehillim, but it's in the world of action. It's that mysterious nefesh that is the MS. And that's what Yeshua does, too. The other philosophers would say, Yeshua doesn't have to buy a ticket, pack his bags and come. What does he have to do? He has to lean back in his armchair, smoke a pipe, philosophize and say, "Ooh, I just heard I he split a sea. Ooh, war with Amalek. Ooh, he gave a Torah. Uh based on my philosophical calculations, based on my evaluating the evidence, I philosophize that there is a God of this world. Shine." That would be enough. But not for us. We evaluate not only based on philosophy conceptually academically. For us, what matters is the world of ma'asim. That's why it was the uba. He got up and he came. He demonstrated a world of action. Now he qualifies to be our people. What did he hear? What happened in Krias Yam Suf and Machamas Amalek? Only those two. Not Yetzias Mitzrayim, not Matan Torah. What happened in Krias Yam Suf? What caused the sea to split? Because we heard the Matateh Akali. Nachshon ben Aminadav, we closed the Seder, we closed the Talmud, and we started walking. Yisro said, "Ooh, that's interesting. It's not just about philosophy, it's about action." What happened in Machamas Amalek? We didn't lie down passive victims, we fought back. We picked up arms. Moshe Rabbeinu's arms were lifted. Aaron and Chur lifted his arms, we looked up to heavens, we combined our Tefillah with finding valiant fighters. A world of action. What caused Yisro Mashmo Shamao, but what made him come? Meaning, what made him not only come to philosophical conclusions, but also act? What made him act? He saw what we did both in the case of Krias Yam Suf and Machamas Amalek, he saw the Matateh Akali that we lived the Mesirus Nefesh, that we didn't just wait and rely passively on Hashem, but Hishtadlus, we made an effort. Action, Ma'aseh, and from that he understood that we have to act. It requires a world of Ma'aseh. This isn't hard to see or understand. It's the truth in all of our relationships. Could you imagine? Spouse says, "Would you mind taking out the garbage?" "Ooh, let me philosophize about how much I love you." "I love you in ways you can't understand. You don't even understand what love is. We two halves of a whole, and that love, it's so great, it's beyond the word, and it hurts." Yeah, could could you take the garbage out? Love me less and take the garbage out. Ribono shel Olam says, "Love me less and Taryag Mitzvos. Don't wait to feel it, don't wait to philosophize about it. Do it." Action. A world of action. Yisro saw and understood that, and that's why he came. And lastly, and then we'll start the Parsha class, Yisro, the Rabbi Sacks, in the great Rabbi Sacks Chumash, the new Chumash, Parshas Yisro is divided to two episodes, writes Rabbi Sacks. In the first, Jewish people receive the first system of governance developed by leaders of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens at the advice of Yisro, Moshe's father-in-law, whose name the parsha bears. In the second, it receives its eternal constitution by way of a covenant with God, making the entire nation a kingdom of priests. A brief summation of its key elements is given by the voice of Hashem himself in the form of the 10 Commandments. The twin tablets with their 10 Commandments are the enduring symbol of eternal law under the sovereignty of Hashem. Both episodes, Yisro and the revelation, have one theme in common: delegation, distribution, and democratization of human leadership. Only God can rule alone. That's parshas Yisro. That's Yisro's message to his son-in-law. And that's the theme of parshas Yisro. Only the Ribono shel Olam can rule alone. For the rest of us, delegation, distribution, democratization. School leadership, school leadership, governance of a country, of Klal Yisrael. Delegation, distribution, democratization. There's an incredible platform for business called EOS, Entrepreneurial Operating System. Our shul is adopting it. Six months. Yesterday we had another one of our quarterly meetings, eight hours straight. It was incredible. Our implementer, the great Steve Schwartz, to whom we're incredibly grateful, talented expert EOS implementer, and much of EOS, I told him, is parshas Yisro. It has themes called delegate and elevate. The idea of an organization having core values. And here, when Yisro succeeds in convincing Moshe you have to delegate and elevate, he gives him a description of how do you choose people. You need to choose what qualifies to to be people. Anshei chayil, yirei Elokim, anshei emes, sonei batza. Those are the core values of the Jewish people. People who live the core values, exemplify not aspirationally but already, those are the core values. All the EOS, everything about the platform, that's Klal Yisrael is going to run and operate. It's enough of Jewish organizations acting heimish. Our mission is too great. Our responsibility too profound. The difference we have to make so awesome that we can't be hamish. It's inexcusable. It should be intolerable. We have to be professional. We have to be excellent. We have to be organized. We have to use the tools at our disposal, EOS or others. I highly recommend it. And that's where Yisro comes in. Sometimes it takes the outsider to see. Yisro comes from the outside and he says, "You're already so hamish? You barely born of people. You just got out of Mitzrayim. Yesterday you were slave, and already you're operating so hamish. So last minute, notes on the back of a napkin, no meetings, no notes, no vision, no values, no goal, no vision, no traction, no nothing? Yisro comes and he says here's Yisro is the first implementer. Yisro comes in as the EOS implementer and he teaches scorecard, delegate and elevate, L10 meetings, teaches core values, teaches all of these things, and we, the Jewish people, since then are different thanks to his input and impact. Now Moshe greets him. He goes out to greet him. He shows great honor to his father-in-law. Beautiful relationship and a beautiful example. There are a lot of halachas. Not only of kibbud av v'em, but how that relates to in-laws. And Moshe is one of the examples we have several other in the Torah. They're not all great. Lavan father-in-law didn't exactly have a great relationship with him. Tried to kill him. So, but Moshe and Yisro have a good one. Vayisafer Moshe, Moshe tells his shver kol asher asah Hashem lePharaoh, everything Hashem did to Pharaoh Mitzrayim, al odos Yisrael, all the story of the Jewish people. Es kol hatzla'ah asher metza'asam baderech vayitzilem Hashem. And all the tzla'ah, what's the word tzla'ah? Open book test. What's the word tzla'ah? You can look inside. Travail. Travail's another word for all the misery and challenges and all the problems and all the hardship and everything that they went through. So what's that all about? Moshe is already kvetching? Yeah, how was the flight? I who I was sitting next to, the seat I got, what time we took off, how cold it was, the turbulence it was, they stopped giving individual bottles of water, if you ask for water now they pour it in a cup but the cup on your tray is going to spill. It was miserable, the Wi-Fi didn't work and the other thing Okay, but you got here, you're here, you're safe, you're good. Moshe is kol atzla'a, that's what he's focused on. The Ibn Ezra writes to Hakatan Sura Shilah Adam La'asav Lo La'agidah Ba'atam Sh'Yotzi'u Mitzrayim B'Yom B'Yom Mikulam Itzilanu Hashem. The Ibn Ezra says no, Moshe wasn't a kvetcher and he wasn't a complainer. Moshe wasn't sharing all of it to highlight the negative of the challenges along the way. Why did Moshe do it? Because he was setting it up as the miracle of Hashem. Would you believe we were hungry and thirsty? Hashem made a miracle. He brought us water and he gave us manna. Would you believe they were chasing us and they wanted to kill us? Hashem made a miracle. He split the sea and we walked right through. Would you believe that even when we were out and we were free and we thought we had smooth sailing from here, this nation rose against us, Amalek, they tried to destroy us and Hashem let us survive, we walked away. Moshe, says the Ibn Ezra, wasn't kol atzla'a, was not hearing all the travails because they were kvetchers and complainers and miserable and fabizna, we suffer from the missing tile syndrome. No, it's the opposite. Let me tell you about all the things that could have gone wrong and did go wrong and yet despite that look here I am and look how amazing Hashem is. The Medrash Yisha, and I'm reading from the Megillas Yosef Saraskin, tzla'a tes lamed vav shanim sh'nish'abdu Mitzrayim The word tzla'a is a reference to the tough lamed aleph, the 436 years in Egypt. In the Perush Rashi to this pasuk, Rashi says Moshe didn't show levo l'kabel ha'Torah. Why is Moshe telling a story to Hashem? Why is Moshe? This is come let's have a come let's sit and catch up. Let me tell you. Why is it means elaborate? I want to tell you a story. Let me tell you the story. Why? So Rashi says he was trying to draw him close to Torah. There were two more here to leave the carbon of the Torah. There are parts of the Torah. That's going to make him want to join the Jewish people? It was difficult. We didn't have air conditioning. We were hungry. We were tired. We were playing. We were miserable. We were encouraged. That's going to make him want to join the Jewish people? That's going to make him want to embrace this thing called Torah? He writes to make it yourself. That a person's nature is A person elevates what's precious and comes with difficulty. May God to be okay. He elaborates on the language here and he says the following idea. If you want to understand the miracle of the victory over a miracle, you need to understand the fear that we faced beforehand. They talk about the 6-day war. That there were graves that were dug all over Israel. Cemeteries were prepared. The graves were prepared. Freezers were prepared. They thought it would be a slaughter. It only adds to the miracle after when you know the level of fear and fright before. In order to appreciate the miracle of the month falling, you have to understand you have to understand just how hungry they were, how desperate they were, how afraid they were where they were going to find food. You have to leave the carbon of the Torah. You have to come to the over my chain motion machine. When you describe the level of fear, the level of the fright, the level of helplessness and helplessness, and yet Hashem was there reaching every time. He answered the call. They not only came out the other side, they came out stronger and greater. That only adds to Yisro's love and affection, his connection, his desire to come close. The milk the about to report to the the Yisro came here to convert. It's not so clear. The text never tells us explicitly did Yisro convert, not convert? Did he come and stay? Did he come and visit and leave? We know that Moshe tried to convince him to stay. But it never tells us whether he stayed or not. So, but the quotes the says Yisro converted. And the says cuz she is a she is a Geyer. We ask the candidate, why are you here? What brings you here? Why do you want to convert? Don't you know we're hated, we're despised, we're repulsed, we're stepped on, we're spit on, we're targeted? Moshe been to his leave Yisro and ask the Giyaro for the last of the samples called the law. Making Yisro's last suggestion is this is a precedent for our practice that when someone comes to convert, the first thing we try to do is talk him out of it. We say be a Noahide. Believe in God and observe the seven Noahide laws and don't risk your life. Don't wear the label Jew and don't put a target on your back. We try to talk him out of it. And if he wants to come nonetheless, if she wants to join nonetheless, with open arms. And we with great admiration and awe. But first we say, are you sure? It's very tough. Do you know the cost of two tuition? Do you know the cost of kosher food? Do you know the cost of making Pesach? Are you sure? Are you sure you want this? You know the anti-Semitism? You're going to go places, you're going to be worried whether you can wear your yarmulke or not. Are you sure? You know what we've been through the last 2,000 years? You know what been to the last 3 years. Are you sure? When they want to know anyway, we say, "We love you. We welcome you. We're in awe of you." And where do we see that from? Says the Maggid Yosef, from Moshe's treatment of Yisro. Relatively new safer by my cousin in in Lakewood. Rabbi Aryeh Gans, and he quotes here by Saper Moshe, he quotes from the safer as 9 the Torah. The Zayda of the Maggid Yosef. The normal course of things, when someone has great success, they talk about themselves, their success. I saved them. I had this idea. Then we got through it. Then we put this And especially before whom do they do that? Their mother-in-law and father-in-law. People tend to show off to the in-laws because they want to prove your daughter made a good choice. I'm not the loser you thought I was. I I didn't amount to nothing. I amounted to something, and let me prove it to you. Let me tell you all about it. Let me tell you all about it. When other people are telling the story, then they they don't give the credit. We take the credit for ourselves when we're trying to advance ourselves. And here you have the humblest of all people, Moshe Rabbeinu, talking to his father-in-law. killing Moshe Yisro. And here the Torah has to tell us that when it says Yisro arrived, Moshe told him by Yishmael Yisro, he heard everything that God did to who? To Moshe and the Jewish people. He didn't hear that from Moshe. He didn't hear that from Moshe cuz Moshe doesn't show off. What does he hear from Moshe? Everything God did to Paro and Mitzrayim. >> Moshe is so humble, so modest. He doesn't talk about himself at all. He doesn't try to prove anything to his in-laws at all. He only talks about the Jewish people and everything that happened was in their merit. And this is another example of the incredible humility of Moshe Rabbeinu. Yisro hears it all and he turns to Moshe and he says, "Baruch Hashem." Baruch Hashem. Like a good convert, came out of the mikvah. Baruch Hashem. Baruch Hashem. He saved you from Egypt, saved you from Pharaoh. Who saved you? Who saved you? This expression Baruch Hashem very interesting. The quintessential Jewish expression. When you ask someone how you are, Baruch Hashem. Quintessential Jewish expression of thanks, gratitude, and acknowledgement is Baruch Hashem. Thank you Hashem, praise you Hashem. Praise to be the Lord. Baruch Hashem. Baruch Hashem. So Reb Nachman of Breslov writes in his holy book Likkutei Moharan that he would travel around the little towns and villages of Eastern Europe asking Jews how they were. However poor or troubled they were, invariably they would reply, "Baruch Hashem." It was an instinctive expression of faith. And every Jew knew it. Baruch Hashem didn't mean, "I'm healthy, I'm well, I'm prosperous, and I'm rich." Baruch Hashem meant, "However I am, thank you Hashem." They might have lacked the learning of the great Talmudic scholar or the wealth of the successful, but did they believe that they had much to thank Hashem for? And they did so. When asked what he was doing and why, the Baal Shem Tov would reply by quoting the passuk, "But you are the holy one enthroned on the Jewish people's praises." The passuk can tell them, "Every time a Jew says Baruch Hashem, he or she is helping to make a throne for the Shechinah." Every time we say Baruch Hashem and we invoke Hashem's name in a conversation, we are building the throne for the divine. Now, interestingly, three people in the Torah use this expression. All of them all of them are non-Jews. Three people use the expression Baruch Hashem. Good trivia question if you do parsha questions at the Shabbos table. Three use the expression Baruch Hashem, all of them are non-Jews. People outside the Abrahamic covenant. The first Noah. Baruch Hashem. The God of Shem. The second is Abraham's servant, Eliezer, who Abraham sends to find a wife for Yitzchak. Who blessed Hashem, God of Abraham, who has not withheld his kindness and faithfulness from my master. And the third is Yisro. Here you do not need to be Jewish to have a sense of reverence for the creator or to recognize the history of his hand in miraculous events. Hashem is universal. Therefore, humanity created in his image is universal. This is an essential reminder. The great problems humanity faces are global, while our most effective political agendas are are at most national. We need to find a way of combining our universal humanity with our cultural and religious particularity. No one demonstrates this better than Yisro. His wise advice comes as it were from the outside. Gives Jewish people first system of governance. The religion of Israel is not the religion of everyone, but the God of Israel is the God of everyone. You do not have to be Jewish to be good, wise, or beloved of Hashem. And you see that from the three people who taught us the quintessential Jewish expression Baruch Hashem come from three non-Jews, the only people in the Torah who use that expression of Baruch Hashem. Parshas Yisro Perek Yisro Yisro comes and now he plays the role of a good father-in-law. He offers some unsolicited advice. And he says, I'm I can make these jokes now cuz I'm a father-in-law. So, Vayomer Yisro el Moshe, "Lo tov hadavar asher ata oseh." This is not good what you're doing. You're exhausted. You're wiping yourself out. You're trying to be a hero in taking care of it all yourself, and you can't possibly You can't possibly be accessible, available, and take care of everyone. You need to in the EOS system called delegate and elevate. You're going to have to learn to delegate. How do you know whom you can trust to delegate to? How do you build a team? So, you have to have core values. And then the Torah tells us, Yisro tells him, "These are your core values." Those are your core values. There's a scorecard to determine whether these people will qualify in your core values. You have to know is it right person right seat. How do you know if it's right person right seat? Because it's alafim, sarei me'ot, sarei chamishim, sarei asarot. There are different levels. There's a hierarchy. Different roles for people to play and you have to determine do you have right person right seat? It's all EOS. It's right there in the psukim. It's right there undeniably in the psukim. So, the first thing Yisro says is lo tov. What you're doing in your system, you're going to fail. And there are many people who lead institutions, Jewish, non-for-profit or for-profit, where they think they're having success, but it's a fraction of the success they could have if they go from figuring out on their own and being hamish to listening to Yisro and EOS and adapting and implementing these platforms. So, he uses the word lo tov. Where else do you see the word lo tov? It's one of the place One of the place in the Torah where the expression lo tov is used. So, again, I refer you to Rabbi Sacks. Moshe must learn to delegate and share the burden of leadership. Interestingly, the sentence, "What you are doing is lo tov." is one of only two places in the Torah where not good occurs. The other, "Lo tov yosa Adam l'vado." It is not good for man to be alone. This is the introduction to when Hashem is going to extract Chava from Adam, split them in two, and introduce us to the institution of marriage. We cannot live alone and we cannot lead alone. You hear Rabbi Sacks? What the Torah is telling us, these are the only two times in the Torah that words lo tov are used, it's not good, is because the Torah is telling us, God is telling us, you cannot live alone and you cannot lead alone. That is one of the axioms of biblical anthropology. The Hebrew word for life, chaim, is in the plural, as if to signify life is essentially shared. There is no life if it's not shared. Life has to be with another, in friendship, with a neighbor, with Clausel, in marriage, in leadership. Lo tov, you cannot live alone, and you cannot lead alone. That's why the word lo tov lo tov and lo tov the only two times the words lo tov are used to teach us you cannot live alone and you cannot lead alone. The Torah tells us Hashem gives us a charge. We're getting ready now. We arrive at our Sinai, we're in Parshat Yitro. In the third month since we left we arrive in Midbar Sinai. The tagline and the motto of our shul, of our community, our BRS community that we value diversity, not divisiveness. And we celebrate unity, not uniformity. We want unity, not uniformity. Many communities want uniformity. One minyan, one nusach, one mode of dress, one expectation. We don't want uniformity. We had Yanam Shabbas morning at BRS. And we want unity among the minyanim. You can't have unity without diversity. If you don't have diversity, you don't have unity. What do you have? Uniformity. In order to have unity, you have to have diversity. So at Har Sinai, we had all the diversity in the world. You had Ashkenaz and Sefard and Nusach Sefard and Edot Hamizrach, Persians and Moroccans and Teimanim. You had it all. You had everybody. The Ashkama and the Netz minyan and the teen minyan and the outreach minyan and even the people who fly through the davening minyan, no drasha, and get right to the kiddush. You had everybody. I don't know if they have JFKs at Har Sinai. Could you come to Har Sinai just for the kiddush? I don't know. There's a phenomenon in our time that's called JFK. A lot of shuls are suffering from it. JFK are the people who come just for kiddush. Not for davening, they show up just for kiddush. JFK. Many of my colleagues, rabbis and shul suffer. So, did Har Sinai have like a kiddush club? This is taking too long. Between Anochi and and you know, they say, "Who wants to step out and have a lechaim?" Was there a kiddush club at Har Sinai? I think not. Was there JFK, the people who showed up not for Har Sinai Kabbalas Torah? They came in time for the kiddush. The kiddush that followed. I don't know. We didn't have diversity. I mean, we had diversity, but we had the ultimate unity. Vayichan sham Yisrael. Rashi says, "K'isha echad b'leiv echad." We studied this last week when we talked about how the Egyptians had "leiv echad k'isha echad." And why was it the reverse? When the Egyptians pursued us once again in this last week's parsha, Rashi said, according to Chazal, "leiv echad k'isha echad." Now, here are "k'isha echad leiv echad." We explained that last week. But, it brings us up to pasuk vav. Top of page 402. "V'atem tiliyu mamleches kohanim v'goy kadosh. Eileh hadvarim asher t'daber el b'nei Yisrael." You should be a kingdom of kohanim and a kadosh, and a holy holy nation. What does it mean to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation? What does that mean? This is our mission statement. This is what it's all about. What are priests? What role do priests play within a people? They're the role models. They're the examples. They're the ritual leaders. What priests are to a people, the Jewish people are to the world. We're a mamleches kohanim. What the kohanim are to Klal Yisrael, they serve in the Beis Hamikdash, they do the avodah, they and Levi are the teachers of Torah. We are the kohanim of the world. You can't sit and sign up for that. You can't say, "Leave me alone. I'm a businessman. I'm a ba'al habayis. I'm a ba'al habayis. I'm a ba'al habayis. I do my thing. Where I didn't I'm not in I'm not in outreach. I'm not in kiruv. I'm I'm an ambassador of Torah. What do you I leave me alone. No. You're part of the mamlacht Kohanim and that's the charge even before Kabbalat Torah. Even before Hashem gave us that Torah, he said to us, here's what you're meant to do with it. Wherever you go and everyone you interact with, in business, gym, the supermarket and in life, you are the mamlacht Kohanim. You are the Kohanim of the world. That's part of why they hate us. Part of the source of anti-Semitism is we are the conscience of the world. We're meant to be the role models and examples and the teachers of the world and that's also chazal. Because where does the word Sinai come from? Sinai. MiSinai. From Sinai so they hated us in Sinai. Anti-Semitism is MiSinai. They've hated us ever since Sinai, ever since we got this charge to be the mamlacht Kohanim. Often in school in a class, it's the members of the honor society who get bullied and picked on. What did they do wrong? Because they get good grades? They deserve to be bullied and picked on. Nobody deserves it. Certainly not the best behaved, certainly not those making the greatest grades. Why? Why is it that often often the bullies are bullying the people who are in the honor society or in best example or making the greatest grade? Because they're the consciousness. They're making them feel bad or ashamed or guilt. And that's part There is no singular explanation, but part of an explanation of the anti-Semitism in the world is that's the role that we're playing towards others. And that's why Rabbi Sacks writes here that we have a mission statement. Most are defined in terms of language, geography, political structure, long association. Jews became a nation by adopting a task, by a covenant with Hashem. Absent that, it's hard to say what it is to be a Jew. What does it mean to be a mamlacht Kohanim? Priesthood fell to Aaron and his sons. Priesthood is not even not seen by the Torah as a distinctively Jewish phenomenon. Yisro is a Kohen Midian. Ibn Ezra and Ramban interpret the word to mean servants. A priest is a servant of Hashem. Rav Saadia Gaon, Rashi, Rashbam understand it means princes. We're the princes of the people. Says Rabbi Sacks, I want to suggest a different interpretation by looking at the wider context against which the biblical narrative was set. The earliest writing system involved the usual number of hieroglyphic or pictographic symbols. The result was that in each society where there was writing, there was a literate elite, a knowledge class, often involving in administration. Only the few had access to knowledge and so to power. The invention of the alphabet reduced the number of symbols needed to learn to less than 30. We cannot give a precise date for the first alphabet, somewhere between 1800 and 2000 BCE, but unlike alphabetical scripts, the alphabet seems to have been invented only once. All the hundreds of scripts are direct or indirect descendants of the Proto-Semitic writing from Sinai desert. Was it divine providence that led to this invention exactly the right time and place to be used by the Jewish people for the holiest of purposes, namely recording the divine word, or was it this new development that allowed the Jewish people to develop the consciousness, the high level of abstraction essential to monotheism? Was that made possible by literacy that allowed them to decipher the word of the one and only God? Functionally, a priest in the ancient world was the one who could read and write. A kingdom of priests therefore is a nation of universal literacy. Rabbi Sacks suggests that maybe Mamlakhet Kohanim means in the ancient world it was only the elite who were literate. We, literacy is not a luxury. We are the people of the book. Literacy is not a luxury. We are the people of the book. Mamlakhet Kohanim is a nation of universal literacy, and he elaborates on this idea very beautifully here. It's for Shmuel Shmuel Berenbaum. We haven't even got to I've got a thousand more things to get to. It's another thousand more minutes to get to them. He has a different suggestion of what it means. A Mamlakhet Kohanim. Rashi quotes Sarim. We were princes. Kimada Samar, Ubnei David Kohanim Hayu, the children of David were Kohanim. They were officers. They were parliamentarians. They were Sarim. As Shmuel Berenbaum Ketzef Shakhokh Ba You know, they say like Israel is a country with 9 million prime ministers. That's the old joke. Israel is a country with 9 million prime ministers. So, we're a people with millions of members of parliament. We're all sar, everybody's a sar. Everybody's a cabinet member. Who who who are we ruling over? A me yes sarim. Take an army, yes sar betzavah. You only become become a lieutenant. I don't I'm going to reveal my ignorance right now. I don't know the hierarchy, but you grow the higher levels in the army means that you are responsible for more and more soldiers. You're an officer, you're a lieutenant, you're brigadier, you're a general, whatever all the ranks are. You climb in rank, the more people that you outrank and that you dictate orders to. But if everybody is a general, then there are no generals. So, what does it mean? The Rashi teaches, mamlacht cohanim means a nation of sarim. We're all generals. We are all generals over If we're all generals, who are the soldiers? We're all generals over ourselves. See, the general is the one who makes and executes the plans. The general is the one who gives orders and holds accountable. Sar ha'alim einam machshavim klum. They just listen to the officer's orders. Kol Yisrael are tzarich l'hiyot k'mo sarim. So, we all need to see ourselves as a sar. We all have responsibility, accountability. We all order ourselves. We all have to fall in line with ourselves, and each of us is an officer. Each of us is a general, not over others. What it means to be part of the Kohanim is to learn to regulate ourselves, to have sovereignty over ourselves, to live with a discipline. So, that's yet another Rabbi Saks quoted many Rishonim, offered his own interpretation, and I'll tell you one more here from the from the Tiferes Shmuel, that what does it mean to be a sar? What does it mean to be a member of the Kohanim? Sar is sovereign, to have rule over ourselves, and to be on a top of ourselves, and to have chiddush. Say Hakol Bederech Sekhakh. So, we're up to Seder Shemot it's two, so excited when they come together, but we don't have time for that. Um Oh, man. Perek Yitro pasuk tet zayin. We're coming to Har Sinai. We didn't get to Har Sinai. On the third day when it was morning there was thunder and lightning and a heavy cloud on the mountain, the sound of the shofar was powerful, and the entire people that was in the camp shuddered. We have a minhag that we learn from this pasuk. Anyone know what minhag? We emulate something from this pasuk. Not everybody has the minhag. Not everybody has it. There's a minhag that comes from this pasuk. Again, my cousin and his adiya Torah of Ganz quotes it. The Tashbetz, who was a student of the Maharal of Rothenburg, the Tashbetz When parents walk with a candle, their son and daughter down the aisle to the chuppah, it's because the chuppah represents Kabbalas haTorah u'Matan Torah Har Sinai, and walking with the candles commemorates the light the lights, the lightning, the light show, the kolos u'brakim u'lapidim that took place at Matan Torah. The Matas Moshe kasav, "HaTam she'kolel ish lo ner b'yado, ki l'isha yesh lo reshunim b'eis evarim." A woman has 252 limbs. Well, a man has 248. Together, they are 400 they are 500. Twice the word "ner". And therefore, the father and the mother each carry a candle. The two candles together, ner * 2 is 500, which is ish v'isha, this union that's about to take place. Ner * 2 also is pru u'rvu. The mother and father when they're walking their children down the aisle, all they're thinking about is how long will it take till we have grandchildren? Because that will make this whole cost of the wedding worth it. If these two under the chuppah will give us grandchildren. So, that's the kavana. Each holds a candle, the father and the mother of each of the brachosson and the kallah. Twice ner is pru u'rvu. Tosafos in Sanhedrin writes, The chosson and kallah the gabbai bris milah they would light a candle and show for a bris. The Ran also writes in his chiddushim that they would, he quotes here at the end, that Rav Ovadia says this is not a Sefardi minhag. And it was never their minhag and therefore, we don't do that minhag. But, it's very interesting that most of the halachos of the chuppah are derived from where? Our parsha. Kabbalas Torah. The Tashbetz quotes many of these references that the chuppah is over the head just like Har Sinai was held overhead kafah al hem har k'gigis. So, many of the laws of the wedding and of the chuppah are derived from Har Sinai including this one for those who do have the minhag, not everybody does, of walking down with with candles. Um Mhm. I'll do one more. Paragraph passage Gimel. We didn't even get to it. I told you how this is one of the biggest and best and most important parshas in the Torah because of the serous of divas and we didn't even get to it. Maybe we should do a second parsha sheer during the global campaign only for those who give to the global campaign. Plus the Gimel Lo Sasa Pesel K'chol T'munah We have a raffle with tickets that you can buy and enter those who said the two tickets to Boca Shabbos with us including a Shabbos meal in our home. That's my wife's cooking. But if you give 1800 or more to the global campaign, you're in a second raffle that I personally will make you dinner. I spoke about last week in my Emunah sheer, my dinner that I make black and blue steak, unbelievable. Fried onions and homemade french fries that are out of this world. I would challenge you to the greatest french fries on earth. I personally with my masculine apron will make you dinner. Special raffle for those in the 1800 and more. So join the global campaign. Don't miss out. Don't make yourself a carved image. Don't make yourself a pesel K'chol T'munah. Don't make yourself. Rabbi Abraham, Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski asks Zatzal. He asks, one word is extra there. What word is extra? L'cha. The Shvirger. On the money. Parsha of the Shvirger of the Shvirger Shvirger. On the money. The word L'cha is extra. Extra. Why do I have the word L'cha? The possuk could have simply said, Lo Sasa Pesel. Don't make a graven image. Don't make an idol. What's the word L'cha? What's the word L'cha? Moreover, says Reb Twerski B'chlal, why does the Torah need to prohibit this? Have you seen anyone bow down to an idol recently? You see anyone worshipping stone or the sun or the moon? It's irrational. Why would someone build something with their own hands and then bow to it and think it has a power? Totally irrational. Totally doesn't make any sense whatsoever. Says Rav Tworksi, he says human beings by nature want to be free. We want to have that feeling that we can do whatever we want. Nobody controls us, no one dictates to us, no one holds us accountable. We can do whatever we want. In order to achieve this goal, we create an idol not to worship the idol, but the idol is an extension of us. The idol is our creation. What are we really worshipping? Ourselves. When you create something, we can dictate to it whatever we want. Every form of a Buddha Zara ultimately and essentially is self-worship. It's not really the worship of the other. By delegating or designating it as an idol, you, the designator, are really worshipping yourself. And that's why the Torah says, lo saseh l'cha pesel. Don't turn yourself into an idol. Don't worship yourself. Idol worship is gone, but self-worship is alive and well. People are worshipping themselves, their ego, their arrogance. This is a chapter in my book. You can pre-order. It's going to be coming out this fall. It's all about ego versus elocus. There's only two ways to live life, and they make the entire difference in the kind of life that we live. I just saw, this is going to go in the book, a Harvard study. 56% of the people polled were asked, in the 30 days prior to the taking this poll, did they find meaning or purpose in their life? And 56% said no. No meaning or purpose in their life. They were living the same day over and over again, waking up, going to work, getting through the day, and going to sleep with no meaning or purpose. And the correlation between the mental health challenges, the increased anxiety with those who had no meaning or purpose in life. It's screaming at us. Screaming at us. Ego or elocus. Ego, if you're living a life of ego without meaning and purpose and mission for another, it's a life of misery. And when you live a life of Elokus, what's my mission? What's my purpose? Why am I here? What am I meant to do? Who am I meant to be? It's a life of joy, peace, and serenity, and meaning and purpose and happiness. There you go, a little preview to the book. So, it says Rav Twerski, "That's lo sa'aseh l'cha pesel." In this question of ego versus Elokus, lo sa'aseh l'cha, don't turn yourself into an idol. Don't worship your happiness. Don't worship your perspective and interpretation of the world. Don't worship that you have to micromanage others. Don't worship that you have to always be right. Don't worship that it's all you. You're your programming, your prompt in the AI. Don't worship yourself. Lo sa'aseh l'cha pesel. Don't turn yourself into the idol. Thank you so much. Really, in all seriousness, please help us. If we could reach our goal, you could stop hearing about this. Until then, you're going to continue because we need that help. If you haven't, I don't know how you can't. If you're grateful for these opportunities to learn, please be a donor at online.org/global. We have our people outside. As simple as swiping the credit card, get your tickets into our raffle. Please help make your difference. Stay happy, stay healthy, stay holy.