Thought for the Week Parshas Vayakhel Pekudei "Measuring" Infinity, Rabbi Yaakov Winner 5783

hope everyone is healthy strong and happy physically and spiritually today is it's a passion which are connected it's a pasture which is it's also Cafe Adar which is so there's a lot of things happening and we have to understand as usual the connection between some of these things we're not going to talk about everything but some of the things before we begin we'll start with a prayer and when this prayer we'll talk about one of the favorite subjects that we spoke about many times like you could start a conversation by saying this is the story of life this is the story of Judaism I'm sure you've heard that before but sometimes it's like variations the prey we're going to start today with this name so what does that mean so mcniform we say that I'm just saying we say this Vanessa same means Hashem is the one blessed God is the one who supports those that are falling so the blessing is to any person that's falling who's feeling a weakening or diminishing or under pressure he should see and feel how same is made from Hashem is supporting him and he gets out of a situation now today we're going to talk about what is Judaism all about really I'm going to say there's like three ways how to look at it and in particular in relation to how Hashem deals with the world like nature Miracles Etc but before that let's get straight to the point the safest moist is called we called schmois that's in Hebrew and actually the translation for the word schmoise's names but then we have the other names Exodus Leviticus Genesis so in Schmo is actually it's actually odd strange that the name is which means names and the name is Exodus and why is it called Exodus because the primary theme of the whole safer is The Exodus and for the purpose of today's talk it's very appropriate because actually it comes from the ramban that amban describes the five swarim and concerning safer shmuzz he calls it safely the book of redemption so it means that the central theme of the whole safer is about Redemption and over here we find something which is a bit hard to understand what I'm going to speak today comes from a secret from the river but I don't know where so you'll have to forgive me if someone knows where that ever speaks this thing please let me know in any case we know also a rule that knows foreign and we have a rule that the end is connected to the beginning and the beginning is connected to the end as a matter of fact in many circumstances we say we time we collect the end like when you finish the years later we finished and we immediately start voracious so that's just how we see in a physical demonstration now sometimes we connect straight away the beginning to the end so that's a concept where we want to say it's an ever-ending cycle as soon as we finish we really start again but there's another thing that is thematic there's a connection and inner significance that connects a common theme the beginning of the end and over here we ask ourselves the question we find what is the name of the parachute means Counting what was the accounting it was an accounting had to give the tally of the entire work of the mishkan yes this is what Rashi says by the way at the beginning of she says and this passage all the weights of the contribution of the mishkan have been listed the castle is and all of its implements have been listed Etc is giving now an accounting like just like you go to the accountant you want to say how much coins came how much silver how much copper etc etc so this is the sum total of all the contributions like we have a charity and then we list all the contributions who gave what not in this case who gave what but I'm saying what came in that's what it means is giving an accounting interestingly in the beginning of the parisha there's also Accounting in the end of the say for sorry the beginning of the safer at the end of the safe practice because they Maisha is giving accounting of money value objects questions he counted them in the beginning of the parash of elishmuzz interestingly enough it says she says [Music] even though he already counted them before but he's counting them again and it says first is the schwatim and then it becomes okay so what is over here the connection why is it important that the beginning of the safer starts with the concept of counting and the end of the safer starts with a story of counting when counting seems to be the opposite of Google what is counting Counting has to do with something which is measured something which can be counted if we say something can be counted that means we're talking about a limited thing we are going to count and then we stop the account and we come to the sum total that means it's measurable we can measure it we count it put in a box beautiful and whether we're talking about people shooting Netflix or whether we're talking about the donations the contributions that came we're talking about a sum we counted so it seems to be something limited something measured something could be put into a box now if we say Gula means to break out break out of constrictions break out of limitations as is well known the concept is Egypt doesn't mean a place that's a geographical country on a map but it means limitations the whole idea of the Jewish nation is the point that we can break out Break Free from any limitations any laws governed by Nature Etc that's the whole idea of the Jewish Nation so how is it that the entire safest months talks from the beginning to the end which is something which connects the whole safer about counting and how does that fit with the theme of ghoul so the answer is that there's really three levels there's a level of limitations we'll call that golus then there's a level of Exile then the level of breaking out but sometimes we have something this is very familiar to those who learned that it was my modern we have grow blequel and mugged in togetherness and then we have Atmos we have Google something which is limited then we have something which is unlimited but it's limited in the fact that how is its Infinity revealed by leaving Earth by totally destroying nature then there's the third level which is the true Infinity that could bind unite diffusion of opposites the finite itself becomes infinite now over here there's many different levels in this itself sometimes it means that there's not one change in the laws of nature except that it's unbelievable coincidences that come together as we saw in the story of Purim we'll get into it slightly and sometimes it means it might be more than than that in other words it could be a slight change in nature but still the point is that it comes through in nature not in a way that we have to leave nature entirely okay so the general points are clear there's limits that's limitations that's exile then there's an idea of leaving planet Earth going out of normal Realms of physicality and limits but that ultimately is not the ultimate Infinity because this is sort of infinity that can only reveal itself if we break laws of nature and we break it doesn't fit in with the natural order of the world at all the ultimate is when the thing which is Supernatural it's true Infinity reveals itself in nature which means in most cases as we'll soon see it means that we look at something and the phenomena is unique why is the phenomenon unique because we see how on the one end it's nature but on the other hand it's something unnatural it's miraculous it's magical it's mystical it's extraordinary it's fantastic Etc there's that element and this is what we'll see brings out and is brought out and connects so let's start with the beginning in the beginning of the safer first it starts with a number we're Counting counting like we said before seems to be limits and we're counting we come to some total which is 70. guess what and exactly later the beginning of the safer it says if negro part over you should too much in English the children of Israel a fruitful teamed increased and became strong very very much so so when we talk about these are all words that are related to break out like Beyond extraordinary and the fact that the person says would be wild which means exceeding the Mind exceeding exceedingly exceedingly so we started talking about 70 and the person is explaining that you know what when we looked at the tally of how many Jews were then there a couple years later it doesn't make sense and Rashi actually says on the spot is they gave birth six children from one womb from one pregnancy so is that totally miraculous well it doesn't mean necessarily totally miraculous has it happened I didn't check out the Guinness World Records if it ever happened six in one shot I think it did if I remember correctly ah but to say that it happens to everyone of course that's miraculous but technically speaking on the other hand in every single woman will say it is possible but obviously it's an s but it's a nest that's still in the realms within the limits of nature but it's a miracle but wait there's more so number one we started for the small handful we're talking about limits misbar 70 and then from the 70 all of a sudden the six hundred thousand men between the age of 20 and 60 but weight is more just a couple of seconds later it says something that you could say totally Supernatural and I believe it's one of the greatest inspirational circuminator because as much as they would Afflicted the hidden so it would increase and so it spread out so again in a way you could say yeah it wasn't like the frogs that every time we hit a Jew the Jew turned into ten Jews Like It says by sardia or it didn't happen that every time we hit the Jew and we whipped them they became bigger and bigger and the more we whipped them they became bigger that would be a miracle that had beyond beyond beyond like leaving nature but if you look at the concept because the more we tried to crush the you know we tried to destroy the heat he becomes more powerful unless everyone was spoken about this concept and we spoke around many times in years past the immortality of the Jew inexplicable as the famous article for Mark Twain what is the secret of their immortality so this is what the person was referring to because [Music] it was so obvious that it had nothing to do with nature they wouldn't say that what is the secret of the immortality would be I don't know we took a Jew we threw him off the Empire State Building and when he landed he just bounced up to the top again it was running around no that's not what's going to happen so six million Jews slaughtered there was a Spanish Inquisition there was trials and tribulations there was Communist Russia etc etc so we do see how the Jewish Nation could be harmed and as we're going to say by their God that we speak about all the time so we do get wounded we do get we do get harmed there are there are um what's it called casualties but nevertheless on the other hand if we take a look at it and Mark Twain wrote this before World War one and before World War II if he wrote it today he'd be writing it with a greater emphasis on the miraculous nature of it what is the secret of the mortality and especially if we look at the contribution he writes that of what we've made to society so this is what the person means to the direct proportion how the Jew has been attempted to earn the malay we have the most Nobel Prize winners you just kind of flourishing and that Israel and in America so the truth of these words is phenomenal and there is no answer that's connected to something physical but at the same time we're walking we're talking we're humans they're going to argue with humans like any other humans we're not going to get into that discussion how so in other words they can't understand it but obviously there's a special case of divinity of spirituality of Hashem that's in the Jewish Nation so let's go back to the what we're talking about is counting 17 Netflix then it becomes 200 000 between 60. the age of 2060 and such a sort of entity that Casiano it's that they're not like any other numbers or finite Nation Etc that's the beginning of so we see the connection between something which we first count and then we show that in this thing it's a nation amongst Nations we walk amongst men it seems like we're different yet how can we explain it we can't but that's exactly the point someone's what it says by Martin Taylor foreign the whole point was to give it to people that are humans in a certain sense of flesh and blood that cry that bleed that hurt now let's go to the end of the depression again so what's because they by the way you could say that the theme we're talking about today is in a way the sum is greater than its parts we talk about the contributions so you know what it's a bunch of material objects would cement I'm just saying copper gold silver but what comes out of it so in the beginning it seems like imagine his moisture being his sheet it looks like a charity here it is it says silver gold it's a simple piece of paper now what did this paper produce come to the end of the Parsha is [Music] cloud cover the 10th of meeting the glory of Hashem fill the Michigan and moishi was not able to come to the 10th of meeting for the cloud rested upon it and the glory of Hashem filled the Michigan so we're here too what is going on over here Michigan take a couple of coins we're going to take coins we're making a pledge we're building a sanctuary so you think to yourself so what's the sum total of the contributions of man the answer is that Hashem himself which doesn't reside in any of the spiritual worlds comes down into the mishkan so again we see this paradoxical nature we start off with having to give an accounting of every penny so we're talking about copper pennies making accounting you know like somebody pours over a pushka we're going to count the pennies we're gonna count the Nickels we're gonna count the dimes we're gonna count the quarters we're gonna count the dollars what comes out of that the compilation that we took all these coins together we cause that that's Muslim who's the essence of Hashem himself was transcended as everything and has no definitions where does it come he's boxed into a physical home into a physical place here in the eye on my head here right here and make sure baby couldn't go there whatever the explanation is because he could ask me she went to the mountain wasn't himself true so that's just something that will come to speak about but the simple meaning of the verse over here is that the divine revelation was too great too intense but she couldn't go it was too much to be there as God filled is Hashem himself so we see the same theme precisely in a context of counting pennies nickels and dimes to come to the climax the culmination the sum total of all these pennies nickels and dimes is Arts they wish themselves because he chose to come into this house which is built from these pennies nickels and dimes and this is the story of Judaism in a way like for example we spoke about this many times this year cannot go on and on talking about this idea of the fusion of opposites but I want to make it clear that over here when I talk about necessarily a direct Fusion of opposites I said it comes in different forms but the idea basically of Yiddish kite is the shame to bring together a level of which is the explicit name which is hashem's infinity but that's a level of infinity which makes such a miracles is the level of godliness which is that comes down so the finite and the infinite should come together but how do we reach it in other words what's going to be the final picture that we take the spaceship and we graduate from Earth or the opposite we're going to show how we're going to get the essence is revealed how by being in a physical world and that's actually proof positive that's the essence because if it wasn't the essence of Hashem the highest level just a level which is a lower level of infinity not the ultimate Infinity then we wouldn't be able to stay within the physical because in relation to that level the only way we can access it and the only way it could be residing here so to speak is if physical gets out of the way so there's many examples that could bring out this and I've read the last week I think I mentioned it but we didn't get into it so this week I'll try to get into it a bit to make it a bit more clear because we I mentioned this idea many times the famous gamara which says that that the the the idea of Jewish faith is is is brought out in say this in the part of mishnais that talks about agriculture planting and the maim razal is that says that he believes in Hashem plants let me just take a drink my voice [Music] excuse me so the question I ever asked whenever he brings this out is here we have Roofing and here we have Tom Dick and Harry The Neighbors so one of them takes the seed plants in the ground Tom Dick and Harry Frank and whoever Peter and hey everyone also taking the scene and planting in the ground so why that's how you see the Jewish faith if you want to see Jewish faith we should have said Tom Dick and Harry is planting a seed that's your neighbor and you know what you did you walked up to your backyard and you said oh no I say my channel oh no I shame guess what Tomatoes sprouted up you didn't have to plant you didn't have to wait week she didn't have to you plow the field then you'd say that's AC faith you don't have to do anything in the natural world you go straight access the supernatural and you say some Sheamus and that's how you see that Hashem has no limits according to the laws of nature you'll have to plan then you have to wait you have access to to the miracle Channel you could just go out there and say and tomatoes will come up the answer is that's not the point that's not the way God wants you to live your life could do the same thing which externally looks like what he's doing he's taking a seat and putting a plant your thickness seed and planting it but when he puts in the seed he believes in the seed he believes in nature when you put in the seed you don't believe in nature you believe Hashem made a natural order also but the real power is not nature the real power is Hashem who is controlling nature and he wanted you precisely to act in a natural way in this instant but what he wants from you is you don't see the nature you see the supernatural in it you understand that it's not nature that's ruling it's really the ultimate Supernatural That's ruling but that's the point he wants you to bring it up not in a way that you have to eject from Islam haza he wants to do in a way not that you're not doing physical things the whole purpose was to be in a physical world and that's the Kiddush to show how the Jew doesn't get fooled by the facade or by the cover-up he sees the shame of value Behind The Shame of the king and that's the ultimate as we spoke many times another example in a word that we use many times about this to understand is we said that in Judaism the concept that and this could also refer to almost everything that the thing which is Transcendental also comes down the thing which really transcends time and space comes into time and space itself so the most famous example of this in the rep is Torah is the mon as we spoke many times the Moon came down and you couldn't live off it by just by just staring at it you had to digest it it had to go into your body and I would say it had to become transformed to your bloodstream but nevertheless no matter how much you took everyone got the same amount together with the man with jewels and diamonds and jewelry Etc and there was no waste so the paradox then on the one hand we're talking about a physical object and you had to digest it but at the same time clearly it didn't have the limitations of other physical things like we spoke many times that ever touches up that everybody says from heaven not that it's bread from heaven is that means it's a Heavenly bread not a bread that came from Heaven might selection is bread that came from the ground means that even as it comes down and it has certain parameters connected to the physical you have to eat it and have to become transformed into your blood but still there was no waste and no matter how much you took the same amount ended up in your hands by the way whatever taste you wanted to have it had you want that it taste like ice cream it's ice cream watermelon watermelon steak steak etc etc so now some total of everything we're speaking about that the reason I just want to be clear that some of the examples I gave we see these obvious Miracles that are Miracles according to the laws of nature on the other end is clearly that it stays totally natural but it's the same point the thing is that this this idea of divinity of Hashem himself is revealed in the physical and in such a way that we never graduate or leave the physical and now we understand the ultimate Gula the ultimate goal is not to become Space Cadets that we leave planet Earth and we go to our Silas the ultimate goal and that's the whole point of view the sky is that when you're in New York City or Los Angeles or Miami or Melbourne or Paris you're higher than that place in that place like we spoke many times half of a belt in belt so now we understand the whole safest mice the whole idea of gula the beginning of the safest ways connect it to Paris very briefly so to speak for miracles and the whole point is actually usually Miracles that are transcend nature so maybe we could say that's the whole lesson we have a yakubei the end of which emphasizes the big like what it says in the beginning of the same that there are Miracles that happen in nature like the story of Purim and it's also we have Miracles that are totally Supernatural so my friends you can ask for both Miracles and you can live your life and have this Hashem there's a miracle we do things that are totally beyond the nature but then you do Miracles that are more maybe we can measure it more qualitative a small step doesn't have to look like it's so great maybe it could be like you know when you want to speak something you shouldn't speak and you don't speak that would be called like a smaller Miracle that's in nature a miracle of self-control and then there's a different sort of Miracle we have to stay up three days straight and do something because of whatever reason I'm just saying we have to think of the idea of Miracles miracles in nature Miracles outside of Nature and then apply it in our service of Hashem Hashem should help any person that has a problem in any of his life should be strengthened the triple strengthening and the Shabbos is the gay military and obviously like in everything the whole point is that the muzzle again if you won the lottery ticket today it will say it doesn't have to be it's not a miracle that's a supernatural someone has to win And if every single area of your life [Music] becomes enhanced in the schools of the rabbitsun it doesn't have to mean that it's a total Supernatural thing in a revealed way it could mean that it's not a total Supernatural thing even if it has to be a totally Supernatural thing so be it but muzzle sometimes is exactly like we spoke before about look at this guy and look at that guy they're both seemingly doing the same thing externally and by this guy it's the muzzle that enables the difference and when you look at it you can't explain it you don't see open Miracles we just say this person did the same thing that that person is going to make the difference so we should take a seat of the Robinson should help every single one of us in all areas of our life we should be able to see the difference and ultimately Miracles and we should come to the ultimate that in the floor is