Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] In the world today, we have two views.
[00:00:07] One of them is that humans are really rotten at their core.
[00:00:13] People are selfish and people are greedy.
[00:00:17] And that's why we can only live in a society which is controlled by a. A legal system that enforces specific laws.
[00:00:29] And that's why our society will never be perfect.
[00:00:35] And it's going to be always unfair and we just need to live with it. That's it. This is a view number one.
[00:00:43] Then there's another view that humans are imperfect as we see them now only because of some external factors.
[00:00:55] Some claim it's lack of education, some emotional distress. It's not seeing future, it's whatever it is. And if we will modify the environment, we will create a better society of perfect people. And this society is going to be already a utopian world where everything is going to be the way we want it to be.
[00:01:19] For example, Karl Marx believed that people are greedy because of money. If you eliminate the financial system, if you eliminate money, people will stop being greedy. Many people believe that people are greedy because there's not enough art in the world. And you need to teach people about humanities and art and the world will become much kinder and better. Other people believe that you need to educate people. Once everybody's going to go to college, the world's going to be different. There are so many different ideas that have been throughout the world.
[00:01:48] They were all based on the fact that we need to create a human 2.0 that is going to be a better human. And then the society will be much better. The society will be the way it was meant to be.
[00:01:59] The Torah disagrees with both of these views.
[00:02:05] Number one, we humans are all created with a selfish side to us.
[00:02:13] We have a Nefesha B', Amit, we have an Emmastic soul that is always going to look for self interest.
[00:02:21] And so often I hear people when something terrible happens, when somebody does something terrible, or when there are terrible events on mass scale. Like for example, the events of October 7th or the events that were in the Western World Post October 7, the antisemitism and everything else. So many times people were saying, I cannot believe that in the 21st century we see something like this. And I always looked at them and said, you know what? You are surprised and I'm surprised that you are surprised.
[00:02:54] If humans were waging Wars in the 10th century, in the 11th century, in the 15th century, in the 20th century, why do you think humans will stop waging wars in the 21st century?
[00:03:09] If antisemitism was in the 1st century, of common era antisemitism was in 10th century.
[00:03:15] How come you? What do you think it will be? No antisemitism. Suddenly, now in 21st century, we don't have humans 2.0 that suddenly things will change.
[00:03:25] The Torah doesn't believe that humans the way they are because of some external factors.
[00:03:32] You take away money and they will stop being greedy. You give them education, they will be moral people. Somehow, automatically, the Torah doesn't believe that. But on the other hand, the Torah does believe that we humans were not intended to be the way we are.
[00:03:51] We are now working on a Plan B.
[00:03:55] Plan A was when Adam and Eve, Adam and Chavez were created first, and they were in Garden of Eden.
[00:04:02] Then they did something wrong, ate something they weren't supposed to, and they were kicked out of Garden of Eden. Then there was another attempt when the Torah was given, of creating the society the way it was meant to be. And then again, there was a sin of the golden calf and people again did something wrong.
[00:04:20] So this was a big setback. But when Mashiach will come, we will finally be the way we were meant to be.
[00:04:27] This is when the nature of people will change.
[00:04:31] I cannot do it directly myself right now. There's nothing I can do to myself right now will change my nature.
[00:04:40] There's nothing you could do, no magic wand that you could waive and give me some new education or take away money or do something will make me a different person. Human 2.0. But when Mashiach will come, it'll happen. So if we will do enough mitzvot, if we will perform enough Torah commandments to make this world better from inside out, from the spiritual realms that should drip down to here, then Mashiach will come, and this is going to be the era that we are all striving for. So in other words, the Torah is appreciating the fact that all these political and social thinkers and philosophers, we're looking at the world and we're wondering, I cannot believe that this is how the world was meant to be, because we see so much evil, we see so many things that go wrong. The Torah says, yes, you are right, this is not how the world was meant to be. It was not meant to be with all these things going wrong. But now we are operating on Plan B.
[00:05:43] We have blown plan a couple times, and that's why we are here where we are now.
[00:05:48] So in other words, the longing for a better society, the desire for utopia in the world is fully justified.
[00:05:57] The methods, how people try to achieve it, are wrong. As we see, they just don't work. As a matter of fact, the Torah is telling us that many people who did terrible things throughout our history really were moved by very righteous motivations from, for example, Korach. We just read in the Torah about Korach, who was the first communist, the first socialist. Everybody's equal.
[00:06:22] We are all holy. Why are you telling me that you are serving in the temple and I am not?
[00:06:28] Hasidus and Kabbalah explained that really Korach was right, but he was just couple thousand years ahead of his times.
[00:06:38] He was seeing Mashiach the way it was meant to be.
[00:06:42] He was longing for the time of Mashiach when we were actually going to be equal. The separation between Cohen and Levi will still be there. But what Korach was striving for everyone to have the same closeness to God as Kohanim had back then. And this will be when Mashiach will come. So in other words, he was trying to achieve good things. And as we know, road to you nowhere is paved with good intentions.
[00:07:09] So he had the right intentions. So here's a fascinating thing that people who had the best intentions, the most noble intentions, did the worst things in our history. And Korach is an exhibit A of that.
[00:07:22] So in other words, the Torah says, now, in the world we are living in right now, we need to live according to the situation we are in. There's nothing we can do. We are now living in a Plan B world.
[00:07:35] We need to act according to Plan B. At the same time, we need to do as many mitzvahs as we can to bring in the Plan A condition.
[00:07:44] And once it's going to be here, this is when we will be able to have that utopian world that all of these political and social thinkers were dreaming of.
