Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] In our culture, we talk a lot about progress and we speak about the importance of moving forward.
[00:00:06] But the question is progress and constant progress, always good.
[00:00:13] So we know that every week there's a weekly Torah portion which is read all over the world in synagogues.
[00:00:21] And there's a cycle that goes through the Jewish year.
[00:00:26] And we know that there are some years where there are more weeks and less weeks. There are leap years.
[00:00:35] And that's why some of the Torah portions are paired together sometimes because that you have less weeks.
[00:00:44] And in other years they are read separately.
[00:00:48] So we have a Torah portion which is paired together.
[00:00:53] It's a double Torah portion.
[00:00:55] And the two chapters are Nitzavim and vayelech.
[00:01:00] And the names of these Torah portions seem to be contradictory.
[00:01:06] Nitzavim means to stand.
[00:01:08] Because this chapter is starting with the words and you are standing today in front of God means and go.
[00:01:16] Because it's talking about Moishe walking, going.
[00:01:20] So there are two chapters. One is called standing, one is called going.
[00:01:26] And they are paired together. Whenever there are two chapters which are paired together, they have to have some unifying idea between them. It seems very strange that out of all of chapters in the Torah, we paired together two that have the opposite meaning. One is standing, one is going, one is walking. Not only that, we know that in Kabbalah we specifically refer to standing as someone who is not having any progress and walking is somebody who is progressing.
[00:02:02] Why is it so? The answer is that we need to know that only standing is not good because we need to also progress. But only walking is also not good because we need some time for standing.
[00:02:21] And today we will try to understand why do we sometimes need to stand.
[00:02:28] So here it is.
[00:02:30] When we progress, when we move forward all the time, we need a time when we will absorb and get used to the progress that we have achieved.
[00:02:44] And everywhere we see it, for example, in sports, whenever somebody's going to gym every single day, he's told not to work the same muscles every single day. You need to let muscles rest because they need to acclimate.
[00:02:57] They need a chance to get back to themselves after that being stretched, after that being worked.
[00:03:03] The same thing is in economy.
[00:03:05] We know that economy always goes up and down and sometimes the economy is growing and it's progressing. But then there are times when it is contracting. And what happens when it's contracting?
[00:03:15] I was speaking to a friend of mine who was in the dot com business right when there was a dot com industry bust and many companies along line of his were Going out of business or having trouble. And I was talking to him and I was saying, listen, now it's probably a very bad time for a business. He says, now it's a great time.
[00:03:36] Because before that, everybody who had a couple cells in his brain was trying to make a dot com business.
[00:03:45] Now all of those companies that didn't know what they were doing, now is the time when they're all dying. So for me, he was saying, who knows what I'm doing? Now is actually the best time.
[00:03:57] Now it's the time of filtering, where all of the people who were not good at what they were doing, now is the time when we couldn't get rid of them in our economy.
[00:04:08] So it is like this in our physique with sports, it is like this in economy. It is also like this without learning, without studying.
[00:04:16] If I am in a class all day and I'm just absorbing new information all the time, I'm not going to be able to retain any of it. Because I need a time when I would sit down and just think it through.
[00:04:28] Especially if we are talking about information which is pertaining to some life's circumstances or something which is pertaining to what I'm doing. I need to think how to apply it. I need to think what does it mean for me?
[00:04:40] So I need a time when I'll just sit myself quietly and try to chew on what I just heard.
[00:04:46] This is a time of progress and this is a time of standing.
[00:04:50] And we see the same two tendencies in our Jewish life as well.
[00:04:55] Everything we do in Jewish life has two elements, progress and then a time when we absorb it.
[00:05:03] For example, in our services, we have two prayers. One of them is called Amidah. Amidah literally means standing. It's a prayer that we stand when we read it. That's the main prayer which is recited. It is also called Shomona esra. Everybody is reciting it quietly when they are standing.
[00:05:20] Then we also have a part of our services which is Shema and Shema. According to law, you could sit or stand, but our custom is to sit when we say Shema.
[00:05:33] Why is that? Because Amidah is when we stand in front of God. This is a time of our growth. That's why we are standing.
[00:05:42] Shema is an excerpt from the Torah, which is actually not even prayer per se. It's not addressing God. Prayer is is us speaking to God. Shema is not speaking to God. Shema is speaking to ourselves. That's why it starts with the word Shema Yisrael, which means listen, Israel, who is Israel. Israel is us. We are talking to ourselves. This is a time when we are supposed to be thinking into what we already know.
[00:06:08] So this is why. This is when we sit. Sitting means absorbing and thinking things through.
[00:06:15] Standing means reaching higher.
[00:06:17] So there are times when we stand, there are times when we sit. And in the Torah, we have a part of a Torah.
[00:06:24] Our Torah has two parts. We have written Torah where every letter has to be exact and nothing is ever changing. This is the written Torah. But then we also have the Oral Torah, which is the Talmud, and all the subsequent books written by the rabbis that discuss about how these parts of the written Torah apply to our lives.
[00:06:46] And this is the part of the Torah which is constantly moving because it is constantly changing based on the application to modern life.
[00:06:54] Now it has to constantly move based on the rules which are set in the beginning by the laws of interpretation of the Torah. So it has to be done in accordance with everything what we already know before. But it's changing because when Moses gave the Torah at Mount Sinai, there was no electricity. So there was no laws about electricity. There was no laws about DNA. There was no laws about all of the modern inventions. And because these inventions were created, this is how we now have opportunity to move forward and to apply these innovations to the Torah and to see how will the Jewish law react to those innovations.
[00:07:33] So this is a part of Torah which is always moving.
[00:07:37] And for example, one of the famous questions, when microphones just came out, there was a question, are you allowed to use microphone on Shabbos or not? And there were some electricians and people who were knowledgeable in physics. They came and made their presentation in front of rabbis. And vast majority of rabbis back then did not know anything about electricity.
[00:07:57] And the rabbis were under the impression that it is permitted to use microphones on Shabbos. It was Lubavitch Rebbe, who has a degree in physics, who came and said, no, no, no, I know how microphones work. And he explained why they cannot be used on Shabbos.
[00:08:16] Because every time when there is sound, there are oms which are exchanging.
[00:08:22] So this is a part of Torah that has been moving forward compared to how it was before microphones were invented.
[00:08:31] So we have a part of Torah which is immovable, we have a part of Torah which is static, we have a part of Torah which is steady. And then we have a part of Torah which is constantly in progress. And same thing with our prayer.
[00:08:43] Very often people come complaining, why do I always have to read same prayers every single day?
[00:08:48] So I tell People, that's true. Words are the same.
[00:08:51] The emotion and the meaning which you put into them is already up to you. And that doesn't have to be the same.
[00:08:57] Again, we have a part which is static, and then we have a part which is up to you. And this could be static.
[00:09:04] And the same thing with our mitzvot, with the commandments, we do. We know that when we read the code of Jewish law, there are laws which are the minimum of observance. And then there are gray areas.
[00:09:15] People always ask me, how come there are gray areas in law? Some rabbi says this, some rabbi says that. I always answer, well, in medicine also, there are gray areas. Every doctor will tell you that you need to do sports, but some doctors will say you need to have exercise every single day.
[00:09:30] Another doctor will tell you every other day is good enough. So it's a gray area. So I always tell people, yeah, there's a gray area because in every field there are gray areas. But then here is another important reason why there are gray areas. The basic minimum. This is the immovable part. And whatever is on top of it, the gray area. This what you can add yourself.
[00:09:48] This is up to you.
[00:09:50] For example, there are standards of kosher, right?
[00:09:54] There's such a thing as Pat Israel baked goods. It says if a baked good is not baked by Jew, but it, but all the ingredients are kosher and it's made in the kosher kitchen. Even if it's not baked by a Jew, you, according to the basic law, you're allowed to eat it.
[00:10:11] But there is a better way of keeping kosher where you eat only whatever is baked by a Jew.
[00:10:19] So this is, you would say, a gray area. Some people do this, some people do that.
[00:10:23] So how do we see it? The basic level, that's the bare minimum. That's the immovable part of the Torah.
[00:10:30] Whatever you do on top of it, that's already the your addition. This is what you could do, and that's your promise.
