We're All Co-Producers in the Story of Life! Create Light Not Darkness

when we Ponder the story of life and creation so clearly clearly our focus is on God the Creator and the world he created and of course God had a plan in mind for this creation and we see in the Torah you know the words of the Torah show us a concrete expression of that Divine will what has what hasem had in mind sort to speak from his world and we can sometimes see the stories unfold and literally parts of the Torah are etched in stone in fact we're told later on when the Jews were in the desert coming into Israel they they actually carved out the entire Torah in on Stone and that that kind of gives the impression of of of permanence unchangeable yet yet there's another part of creation which we we must acknowledge why because it's us we are a big part of this creation human beings were placed in a pinnacle most important position in creation we we're created last and one idea behind that is that the entire purpose of creation is for us and therefore you know just like a bride and groom come at the very end onto the onto the and that's when a wedding begins so to life the story of life begins with Mankind and therefore we count the beginning of the of the year not from the first day of creation but from the sixth day the day that Adam and Eve were created because they Mark the beginning of of of of creation the beginning of Life not the the six days or that the five days preced eating those were prep prepatory days those were days of preparation Hashem made set the stage put things in order but life begins with Adam and Eve and so we are a big part of this creative story the story of creation is is us it's the story about us for us and so we have to figure out where do we fit in God of course is Ultimate infinite he's the Creator and he runs things and so but but with that in mind what do we have to offer what what can we do what can we change are we are we robots are we just robots here you know you know this is a script and we're just filling the role of whatever has been scripted for us or are we also on some level creating you know let's not compare our creative abilities to Gods obviously we are just a microcosm of of of you know this part we have we have a part of God within us but but obviously we're not we're not comparing but we see in the Bible comparisons between us and God the Torah says in in in kosim that that God is Holy therefore we should be holy and and that begs the obvious question so what if God is Holy why should we be holy we're not God what's our connection with God so the short answer to that is that we have a part of God within us that God instilled within us and therefore we have a potential to become Godlike as well of course this must be understood and used from a perspective of humility as Moshe Moses the great teacher shows us he accomplished amazing things all through a perspective and a position of humility true humility so today I'd like to share with you all in exploring how we balance the story of life whether it's a story where God's in control and does everything versus our ability to participate and perhaps alter things what is the free choice that we have to what extent can we see it affect this world for the positive certainly and unfortunately maybe perhaps for the negative so we're going to use the book of bamidbar which means the word Bidar means desert although if you look in art scroll the name of the book is called numbers because the first story in the book of Bidar discusses the counting of the Jewish people something a theme that we see reoccur and so the book of ab midar I think is where we're going to find an answer to to these questions you know how much is really riding on us you know how much can we change how much can we affect are we in fact going to have a hand in bringing mhia and bring this world to Perfection the answer is an absolute definite yes how when how many Falls along the way will we incur that's also up to us but certainly we're taught God said I want to make a world together with you we are Partners in this creative process when we live up to that potential that we have within us and so as partners with God and creation we have an unbelievable opportunity and responsibility you know lying before us so let's get started just so we're aware of where we're where we're plugging into so again in the art scroll kashim you know thank God for art scroll the Beautiful kashim with commentaries and English translations so the book of B midbar again Bidar means in the desert is on page 726 on the Hebrew side 727 on the English side and let's appreciate the book of B midbar the third book in the Bible third book in the Torah discusses the Jews in the desert right so let's just understand the Jews went to Egypt as and were slaves we were redeemed from Egypt and instead of being immediately brought to Israel we were brought into the desert for a period because of our sins the sin of the golden calf and later on the sin of the spies we were stuck in the desert ultimately for about 40 years and then we go into Israel and we're going to explore those details and how it unfolded and and and explore perhaps what could have been what could have been could the story have been different okay so to do that we have to appreciate the details of now the book of B midmar and the the para of B that comes up it's the the third para the third basically Torah reading in the book of bbar and it's on page 778 and 79 in the English we have say for Bidar which has the par then and then the third one okay so let's start how does the book of bbar begin begins with the counting of the Jewish people and that's why the English s says it's the book of numbers counting the Jewish people is something that's not new to us at this point we've counted the Jewish people numerous times including this one and we have to appreciate what that represents so the basic theme behind God counting us is because we are precious to God God loves us and therefore takes interest in us and that's not only in a general sense sense that the Jews are my people but every person is like God's only child and therefore we are counted in an individual way and each face is unique there are no two faces that are that are alike and no two people are alike and Hashem has in the counting through mosha in this case each person shows himself and is seen and the uniqueness of him is is identified and it's important that he understands that he's unique and to Hashem he's unique yet at the same time he's part of a total number which is the total of all the counting because as we are unique to ourselves but as part of the story of Life part of Cl Isel the Jewish people we are part of a whole as well and that's the beautiful story of everyone everyone is his own person but yet he's part of a community he's part of a country he's part of a world and we have to realize if we isolate ourselves from the people around us from our surroundings then we're alone so we have to be connected with the people around us in our surroundings but if we're too much connected then who are we what are we so there's the uniqueness about us but then there's the commonalities that unite us as well we have to embrace both and that is the the idea of the counting we count the individuals yet we they are part of the sum the whole total number as tells us that we're also together and that's how the book of bid begins with this beautiful counting of the Jewish people emphasizing how precious we are how important we are how unique we are and how we all must ultimately stick together to accomplish the grand common goal of of creation okay now we're going to fast forward soon but before I just one more point I don't want to forget the this counting takes place actually interesting it says it takes place in the in the in the desert as we said the desert of SII right and it was on the second month of the second year right so it's month two of year two so let's really appreci this is a very important detail the Jews leave Egypt and they get stuck again because of the sin of the of the of the golden calf they get stuck for an entire year and so now it's it's uh not the first Passover that they celebrated in Egypt and then left but it's it's coming around to the second Passover and already you know and and it already passed this is beyond the second Passover that we spent in the desert so it's the second month of the second year which is the month of er right after Passover and it's the second year and this is when this counting takes place and this is the beginning of the book of bbar everybody get that okay now we're going to fast forward to pares balot and balot in the third reading the third portion page 778 in the Hebrew and English 779 says like this that God now speaks to Moshe in the same place the the the desert of SII Sinai desert when this time it mentions the year first the second year again so we're similar time period same place same year right but when on the first month of that year when is that first month that's the month of Nissan we count the months by Nissan when we left Egypt that's the that's the first of the months and so this is the month of Nissan so comes out if we're going to contrast now the beginning of the book of amidar it took place in the month of ER on the second year of the Jewish people being in the desert and now bot three pares in it goes back to the month of Nissan which is really going back one month earlier but in the same year second year and again both parot are after the first sin I'm sorry not the first sin but after the sin of the golden calf which means that they were stuck in the desert for a long delay of a year okay so let's appreciate this is and this is going to be the discussion that the commentaries mentioned and we're going to appreciate and get into the story right now with this why does the Torah go backwards in time generally speaking the Torah you know unless there's something forcing it to shift order should be chronological you know if I'm going to tell you a story so I should tell you first things first last things last there is a logical order to a story and it should follow a correct timeline that is the general way to tell the story however there would be reasons why sometimes we must switch and change around the order and that is in fact one of the legitimate approaches to how we understand the Torah the Torah should be understood to be chronolog logical in the order of how and when things happened unless there's a reason why Hashem has to change that and put something that happened earlier later or something that happened later earlier and when it's happening like that there has to be a reason motivating it it wouldn't just be okay that's just the way it came out there's no such thing as that's the way it came out in the Torah so let's appreciate why would the beginning of the book of bamidbar the book with of the Jews in the desert start in the second month of the second year that they're in the desert and then switch back to the second year but the first month right the second year but first month go back in time a month later on in the book it should have been the other way around the the story should have started on the first month of the second year and then in the middle of the book we should have gotten to the second month of the second year okay I know I kind of repeated this a lot but I want it to be very clear because this is exactly what today's talk is is about so if we look at Rashi one of the great commentaries on the Kish of course basing he's saying on the sages unbelievable sages with r KES they revealed to us a fascinating idea that that that blew me away unbelievable idea that once we get into it we're going to see things we never thought we would see or at least that's what happened to me and here's how it goes so what's so unique about the month of Nissan is it's the month with the probably the most famous Jewish holiday in it right now it's also the first Jewish holiday that we celebrated as a people because when God showed himself to the Jews in Egypt so he said start counting from the month of Nissan and and on the 14th of Nissan we had a special Corban the the sacrifice of the pesak offering and that night the night of the 15th was the Passover holiday when we ate the the sacrifice and that morning early early in the morning we we left Egypt unbelievable this is the story of Passover and the very first Passover happened in Egypt and this is the beginning of the Jewish people together with this unbelievable holiday and unbelievable miraculous event of the Passover that that God passed over the Jewish people and saved them and took them out of Egypt when punishing the Egyptians beautiful story so right now in the second year it's also the time of Passover because Nissan is the month of Passover and we see in the month of Passover so we did another Passover in the second year that we were in the desert and this was a very interesting Passover celebration because it wasn't so clear that we were supposed to do that celebration why not as I hinted to before the real story potentially could have happened where we left Egypt into the desert we got the 10 commandments and right away within weeks we would have been in Israel and we would have been live happily ever after that would have been the end of our story we just lived forever in Israel but because of the sin of the golden calf plans were changed and here's one example of how we and unfortunately with our shortcomings and our failure to live up to our ultimate potential caused a delay where we were now stuck in the desert and a whole year goes by and it becomes the next year of Passover and we're stuck in the desert now interestingly enough there is no direct commandment in the Torah based on the way God Gave Over the Mitzvah of Passover that we should do the Passover sacrifice in the desert because the Commandments actually says to do it when we get to Israel why it makes perfect sense because we were supposed to be in Israel by the next Passover and so the Commandment actually says when you get to Israel do the Passover like you did in Egypt and so there would never have been a Passover sacrifice in the desert but here and now in the second I'm sorry in the first month of the second year we're told by God directly by God with this like one time type of commandment to do the corbon P now in the second year even though you're in the desert even though you sinned and you might think that you're not wanted and you're not loved the answer is no you're still my people I love you and I want you to do the PES offering now in the desert and we did so okay that's not where the problem really starts yes question that so that the first year there what they do this is this is the second year you're saying right so the first year they did Passover in Egypt and then went immediately into the desert so they did the they did the the offering in Egypt for the first year yes and then they spent an entire year in the desert and now it's again Nissan and they're told to do the Corbin P again on the 14th of Nissan and so that's why they did it the second year but again I want you just everyone to be clear the reason why they had to be commanded did specifically to do it in the desert was because the original commandment the way it's written in the Torah did not include doing it in the desert it included only doing it in Egypt and then doing it in Israel because we were technically able to potentially wise be in Israel the next Passover but now because we sinned and we're like stuck you know like you get a flat tire and you're stuck on the road so we were stuck on this journey to Israel in the desert one year later so Hashem said I want you to do the Corbin PES right now do it and we did it and here's where the problem begins because at the end of that year we were stuck we we were given another challenge and that challenge was it reached time our time to go into Israel and the people were concerned about some things and they decided let's send spies into the land of Canan it was called then which would become Israel and Scatter out the land and to see how we should approach and go about you know entering and conquering the land now Hashem saw of course that this was problematic and even mosha was aware of some some issues and some problems that could develop from our wanting to check out the land instead of just trusting God with absolute faith and saying obviously if this is what God wants to do then this is what's best but we we did want to send spies and mosha was told that you can agree if you want it's up to you you can send them or not send them it's your choice and Moshe acessed to the people feeling that they had good intentions they wanted to do practical things check out how to be defend ourselves how to attack how to how to go about you know entering Israel and conquering the land problem here is this of the 12 Jewish leaders which represent the highest level of righteousness and Leadership of the Jewish people 10 out of 12 failed in this challenge that they faced and they they gave up hope and they came back to the Jewish people in the desert and said we cannot conquer this people they're too strong for us and in fact included in their criticism of themselves and said that that the people are too strong even for God even say such thing that's what they said they said even hasem so to speak can't can't get rid of them and the people all heard that and kind of were weakened of heart they gave up and cried that night and that became the night designated for unfortunate crying because that is the day of Tish that we have to commemorate the destruction of each of the temples and all of the Jewish tragedy we are somehow linked to this Tish event and so it all goes back to the Jewish people you losing hope believing the the the the evil speech the Lush and Hara of these 10 10 princes of Israel 10 Jewish leaders and unfortunately we fell we fell as a people and that caused us to stay in the desert for 40 years but at that moment that that that that that we were reaching the end of the second year we had a chance to live up to the challenge have faith in Hashem no matter what and we would have entered into Israel at that moment and it would have been miraculous we would have had Hashem with us and we would have merited a Divine protection and and a Divine Providence that we have have perhaps never never seen again but but we failed and we were stuck again in the desert for 40 years total of 40 years and here's where we get back to our story The the rabbis ask exactly on the story of balot where where we bring up the Corbin the second year and ask the very big question why isn't The Story of B midbar the book of B midbar why doesn't it start in order why doesn't it start with the story of the Corban PES that we did in the second year that's the big question let things be in order why would you change the order year number one Corban p in the in Egypt year number two Cor pesak in the desert and at the end of year number two where we're just about to go into Israel there's another delay because of the sin of the spies and the entire Jewish people that cried and we're stuck now in the desert not just year number three but year number three all the way to year number 40 okay so now let's go back how many times did we do Corbin pesak so far we've mentioned twice once in Egypt once in the desert now after we got stuck in the desert for another year year number three all the way till year number 40 how many corbon PES do you think we offered up we'll leave you guys with multiple choice guess zero excellent choice zero and this is where the story really begins the third year we're stuck in the desert and pesak comes around and not one person thinks or asks or or discusses the idea of it's time to do Corban PES why not why not the answer is because as we clearly explained there was no commandment to do K PES in the desert there was only a commandment to do it in Egypt and then to do it in Israel yet God specifically said in the second year a one-time commandment do it for me now in the desert and we did it and now huge question what should be done the third year so historically what was done nothing nothing was done and that's why we're now we're get into our story based on this reality that the third year there was no Corban PES done at all until year 40 still none not until we went into Israel and conquered the land many many years later that we do the next Corban PES so what happens is that there's this big gap in Corban p and that's why the Torah is going to tell us now through the sages at this why doesn't the book of midbar begin with the portion of of the Corin PES which happened in Nissan why does it skip the Corbin pesak and tell us about a calendar that took place after Corbin pesak because Corin pesak turns out to become one of the stains of the Jewish people in their in their history in the desert because what was the this beautiful Mitzvah that expressed the the connection between us and God and his love for us and our love for him since in the third year there was no Coran PES and there was no other P the entire time in the desert it becomes an embarrassment to us that we lost the Corban pesak for 38 years 37 years we lost the for 37 years because why that's the big question why how did we lose this mitzvah for 37 years we had it in Egypt we even had it in the midbar once but never again so so that's that's what we want to focus on so the L of the mid is this it said why doesn't the Torah start the book of B midbar with the story of quan PES why not why isn't it there it should be there because it's an embarrassment to the Jewish people and we see from here that God does not want to begin this third book with a story that embarrasses us that turns out to be a blemish to us therefore he hides it from the beginning of the book and tells it to us little bit in the third par third he squeezes it in there so it should not be as noticeable okay that's the story there are two things we have to appreciate right now one is the technical reason why it was such an embarrassment to us and second which is what what I believe is is what I really want to focus on is we see from here implied by the sages that the book of B midmar could have looked different that really in reality the beginning of the book could have been and even should have been the story of Corbin pesak yet because of our inactivity our inability to live up to the challenge that we faced in that third year it is left out of the beginning and squeezed in in the middle of the book but the reverse is also true based on the sages had we have done a third Corbin PES and that includes a fourth and a fifth and a sixth till till we left then what would the book of B have started with seemingly the story of Corbin PES okay so let's let's let's appreciate one approach the approach we're going to follow is that we had every opportunity to do the Corbin pesak in Egypt in the desert on that third year but we didn't ask to do it and the story goes like this God comes to us in the desert I'm sorry in Egypt and says I want you to do P why because p is going to be this special Mitzvah between me and you to show your Devotion to me your trust in me your undying love for me this is the Jewish people for God why because think about the story God promises Abraham Isaac Jacob you're going to be my people you're going to inherit the land everything going to be great and then there's a famine we get thrown into Egypt and then we become enslaved in Egypt and and and we can ask ourselves where was God when we were in Egypt B babies being killed we had a lot of opportunities to ask questions just like in today's Times a lot of Jew out there asking a lot of questions Where's God why is God do that we had an opportunity to to lose Faith to be weakened but yet when God showed himself 210 years later and said I'm here I'm with you I'm here to save you we had no questions we said we are your people and we are with you and we will follow you even into a desert and that Merit is remembered forever there are verses in tanak that say how God was so happy to see our loyalty to him like a bride following a groom wherever he he he decides to go because you're you're my God where we're your people you're our God and we will follow you with nothing into a desert because that's how much we love you and trust you we could have said where were you for 2 years how could you let this happen to us we didn't we said we're yours we trust you and that's it and the symbol of that trust and of our of our really willingness to risk our life our lives for God is is embodied in this Corb PES how did the P go as we were slaves in Egypt a country that dominated us had the ability to kill us had ability to to to force us to be slaves they could do anything with us God said I want you to take the animal that they worship as a God and offer it up as a sacrifice to me and not only do I want you to do it like quickly or quietly so that nobody notices I want you to go and advertise and publicize what you're doing go and buy an animal and say this is CU I'm going to sacrifice it to my God and keep it for several days in your home that the Egyptians should understand and see clearly what they're doing what's being done and they should really become so angry they should kill you and in that willingness to risk your lives for Hashem for me that's going to be your Merit to get out of Egypt and we did that we did that we risked Our Lives to do this Corb PES and with that Merit and of course then theem came himself to take us out like his his only children and saved us this is the beauty of P there is no Mitzvah like this it's Unique in that when we were a weak people downtrod you know killed abused in every way you can imagine we held on with a thread to whatever we could hold on to and we summon the strength to have this unbelievable courage for Hashem and Hashem will never forget that that he calls it our a kindness of ours to love him and follow him Faithfully into the desert without asking any questions this is the faith that is still a merit for us protecting us this is unbelievable beautiful Mitzvah so what happened we failed we did the we did the sin of the golden C we were stuck in the desert and we thought hasem doesn't love us anymore who are we we betrayed him hasem says no no no no I'll never forget what you did for me in Egypt and therefore I want you to do the Corb P now for me in the desert because I don't want this Mitzvah to disappear this Mitzvah is our Mitzvah it's our symbol of the love and devotion we have for each other because I came to take you and save you and you followed me and this Mitzvah is our Mitzvah and I don't want it to stop just because you failed with the golden CF so now you're stuck in the desert okay that wasn't the part of the original plan we're supposed to be in Israel right now and you would have done it but just because we're in the desert now and you have fallen and failed on some level I still love you and I still want you to do the Mitzvah so we did it again in that second year in the desert because hasm did not want to see that Mitzvah stop now we hit the third year and on the third year we have a big problem if we're following the story what should we have said the third year should be we should have done Corb P so we have a couple of questions number one why did God not tell us to do it the third year like he did the second year God could have said okay okay we're stuck another year you did again the sin with the golden with the with the with the with the spies okay just like last year I want you to do it so do it again this year but God did not say anything what about Moshe Moshe said nothing no one says anything including the Jewish people they don't even think to ask and and nothing happens and 37 years go by so what's the embarrassment what's the blemish the blemish is this if we saw that Hashem wanted us the second year and asked us to do the P so we should have real realized that that means that if we wanted to we could do it again in the third year that's that's what what we're saying now that we should have realized and we should have wanted the Mitzvah ourselves enough to come and ask Moshe Moshe what's going on what's with PES Moshe would have said that's a great question Al askem and what would the answer have been according to all this yes to make it even more embarrassing in the second year of pesak in the in the midbar in the desert there was a group of people that were impure and they couldn't do the Corbin PES and what did they do they ran to Moshe and said Moshe why should we be missing out on the Corbin PES we were impure and according to one approach they were doing a Mitzvah they were they were they were taking care of a dead person that needed to be helped and so either either way you going to learn it out they were doing something positive so said why should we lose out on the cor P the special Mitzvah mosha said I'll ask Hashem and he did and Hashem said let them do it again and they were able to do it in ER in the second month they were able to do the P this called P sh if this comes in entire holiday and a special day called PES sheni when all Jews that are not able to do the p in Nissan are able to do it in unbelievable this represents the idea of of coming forward on our own initiative and saying Hashem we want Hashem we want we want to do for you this is the idea of doing extra you know we might have thought that between a relationship between God and us it's God is the king we're his people we do what he says but to initiate to volunteer in that we want to do this or that who says we could but you know what God's Not only our King he's our father and in that relationship that closeness between Father and Son you can always do from the heart sincerely there's always room for more just like imagine a father comes home from a long day of work and his son thinks my father must be thirsty and without it being told gu goes and brings him a nice glass of of water would the father not be happy so when these Jews that missed PES came forward and said we missed it we wanton it can we have it the answer was yes and now the big stain so to speak is the third year what happened last year Hashem said do it and you were also happy and even you this small group you said what about us we also want it and I said yes well how come in the third year not you and not them no one thought to come and ask me to do it and in in in reality according to this approach God was waiting for someone to come forward and ask because a relationship is not one way it's two-way meaning God left that third year you know with a potential if you respond to my affection with your own affection and you come with love and sincerity and ask to do it my answer is yes but at this point I want to see it come from you I came already and said do it last year now I want to see that you will mature and rise up to a level of sincere devotion where you will ask and and and that's what never happened in that third year and that's why that third year became a blemish a blemish for us and now we're going to come back to the beginning and bring bring this story full circle and it's like this we said that the book of Bidar could have started should have started with the Corban p and we now appreciate what is so special about Corbin PES it's an unbelievable Mitzvah a unique Mitzvah what does it start with instead counting now counting us is not new counting us we see in the book of shot it starts and Rashi tells us there because we're precious we also have other countings so counting is not new so what's so special about this counting so I would say like this when God counts us it's him showing us how much he loves us and that's how the second book starts then there's the third book which is God again calling to Moshe and us to give us the Torah now we reach the fourth book what's the fourth book about so I would like to say this there are two sides to this relationship there's God loving us and there's us loving him back faithful devotion this fourth book God wanted to see something new he wanted to bring us to a not a higher level when we came to hasm and said hasm we love you also can we have Corb PES had we have reached that level of devotion initiating right then Hashem would have said yes and the Book of B midbar would have started with something new till now God created a world which means he loves us that's the book of bares book of shos says he counted us even after we were no longer life to show us that he loves us the book the third book shows us how much he loves us because he called Moshe our leader to give him a Torah for us to bring us closer to him connect with him now he said the fourth book is is for you now what's the result of all this love what's the result of carrying you on my shoulders the result is where's your love where's your initiation and that did not come for the fourth book the fourth book had an opportunity for our answer back to Hashem the the book of the desert is a book about our devotion to Hashem as we said we didan PES we risked Our Lives we showed our faith and I love to Hashem and Hashem says in the book of tanak I remember your kindness the kindness and your love for me in your youth when you were broken people you followed me into the desert full of love and full of faith and that I will never forget and that is what the fourth book was meant to to capture meant to show and teach the world what a full mature relationship is between Hashem and his people and his people to that's the from God says I am to my beloved and my beloved is also to me there's a there's there there there are two tracks we initiate sometimes and hasem is the main initiator but but he wants to see something come from us what kind of relationship is going to be one-sided every time one the same person has to say let's go out for dinner what about the other person one time saying you know what honey let's go out for dinner it has to be two ways and that's what the fourth book represents that that higher level and and commitment that we have also to initiate that we love you Hashem and since we didn't reach that level so Hashem chose to continue again with another expression of his love to us rather than our response to him which is what could have been okay so now we appreciate the fact that we did not come forward in that third year to ask for p means we didn't rise to the full level of true love and Devotion to where we are not willing to lose that connection and say no we want it we want it not because we do your business but because we want you and since we didn't reach that level it's a blemish blemish for the Jewish people 37 years of blemish and I would like to just add that the the essential blemish begins with that small group because where were you the third year you came forward the second year and said we want it we want it why didn't you come forward the third year so something was missing you should have come forward to the third year and the blemish continues to the rest of the people because you saw them last year come forward and ask and you didn't learn from them that's another blemish we were meant to learn from them and we should have come forward so all of us together not coming forward becomes that big let down in the middle of the midbar and that's why it never became the the beginning story of the Jewish people in the desert okay so where do we go from here where do we go from here well that's our story our story is not hiding from any of our shortcomings God did not hide the fact that Adam sinned on the first day of creation he did not hide the fact that everybody makes mistakes the Jewish people at the Pinnacle of their their their their their Ascent on Mount Si where they saw God right away they failed with the golden C and of course when we're ready to enter Israel ready game over the end of our beautiful story we failed our leaders 10 of them failed so what do we do you get back up and you try again that is our story it's what comes out of the Fall that will Define us God does not expect us to be perfect he has perfection where does he have Perfection he has angels that are perfect but angels are nothing they're not real angels are God's robots he made us and he made us real and therefore we can really fail but when we persevere and when we accomplish then that success is ours and that is why Angels don't have a name there are numerous stories in the Bible that show us that Angels don't have a name why don't they have a name because what they do is not their own we have a name because what we do is ours because it comes through the struggle comes through the fall therefore our accomplishments are ours we have challenges we have setbacks angels are just perfect God robots and that's the the the deeper understanding over here there's a there's a kazal that says that a Mitzvah is going to be called on the one who finishes it something along those lines the Mitzvah is called on the one who finishes it well let me ask you a question who else should it be called on of course it's aat theat is that if someone else finishes is your Mitzvah but the Mitzvah is God's that's the that's a deeper message here a Mitzvah is not mine did I make a Mitzvah I didn't make up a Mitzvah I'm a simple person God made a Mitzvah the source of a Mitzvah is God that's the whole idea of MIT one who's commanded and does That's The Power of mat T when God decided I want this it becomes what God wants not what I want so a Mitzvah is infinite and whose Mitzvah is it not my Mitzvah it's aem's Mitzvah but there's a big here God has things that he wants sometimes he ask Angel to do what he wants when an angel does what God wants who gets credit for the action not the angel it has nothing to do with the angel it's God's but when we do what God wants who who gets it we get it the Mitzvah is called on our name the one who completes that Mitzvah because we do it with with choice we struggle for we work hard for we give our life for it and that's why that Mitzvah is my Mitzvah in the end and it's an unbelievable Fusion it's hashem's Mitzvah and it's my Mitzvah together believable and that's what we can accomplish and now I'll conclude with a few examples of the point I want to really bring home is this what we started with yes the Torah is etched in stone yes it's written on parchment and we can't change the Torah but we can change the Torah because we affect the end result because Hashem put it in our hands to affect in such a way the end of our story is not written yet the end of this wonderful book is still open those pages are not concluded yet because it's up to us if we live up to our potential and devotion that we have for hasem we will see an unbelievable ending to our story love kindness light Revelation Mia the we can make it happen because hem wants us and gave us the power to make it happen or our inactivity can just cause things to slip through our fingers it's all up to us there are two stories that can happen over at least two there's what Hashem had in mind we can live up to that potential or we can fall somewhere short of it and I'll show you a few examples from and from that bring this point home there's a beautiful story that to me blew me away touched me in an amazing way there's a story about when Moshe was chosen to be the Jewish leader hasem said you're the going to be the Jewish leader you're going to go take the Jews out of Egypt and mosha said no who am I what about my brother Aaron and the Torah tells us that when Aon was told about Moshe being the new leader he wasn't upset he actually went into the desert to meet Moshe and it's written in the Torah the Torah writes exactly Aon this unbelievable selfless Godly person that went into the desert to meet his brother and give him kuk and to celebrate with him for his unbelievable accomplishment nothing no no no negative feelings yet the sages add that if Aon knew that that story would have been written in the Torah was going to be written in the Torah he would have not just went out by himself he would have made a he would he would have got a band and music and a buffet and made a party if he knew that it was be the Tor he would have done more but he didn't unbelievable I think along the lines what we're saying unbelievable idea of potential realities Aon was amazing and the Torah records how amazing he was but you know what he could have been more amazing in potential he could have came and made a bigger celebration with music unbelievable to hear that if we only knew our power if we only know our potential Hashem is watching us the angels are watching us all the world world are watching us what we can accomplish that's the biggest mistake we make the Jewish people we think we're little we're meant to be humble not little we're humble and then all of God's power becomes ours to use we have to rise to the occasion and we can make unbelievable things happen we can tap into that infinite potential and and power of gods because he gave it to us to tap into and we can make things happen if we push if we believe in ourselves we believe in Hashem and we go that extra mile we can make worlds happen it's up to us