Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: So we are now reading the Book of Bamidbar. We just started the Book of Bamidbar and we are before Shavuot.
And this is not a coincidence. We usually start Book of Bamidbar right around the holiday of Shavuot, the holiday of giving of the Torah.
And the Torah was given a desert.
And as a side point, why was Torah given in the desert? God could have given it in the land of Israel. God could have given it somewhere else.
So it says that God specifically lived in an empty area in a desert. So nobody could afterwards claim that the Torah is a result of some specific.
[00:00:39] Speaker B: Culture or some specific ideology or some specific social structure.
[00:00:45] Speaker A: It's given on a barren land where there's no local social structure, there's no local culture, there's no local laws. That's why the Torah is for every person, country, for every nation, for every. I mean for Jews, wherever they will live, in whichever country they wouldn't live. And it is for all times besides for that. It is interesting that it says that when Jews were traveling from Egypt, they went all around, they had the miracle of the Red Sea. And then it says on that day they arrived to the desert of Sinai.
Which day? What day was says in commentaries. This was the first day of Sivan, which is actually today.
Today is Roshnoder Sivan, the first day of Sivan.
And the Torah was given five or six days later. The Torah was given either on 6th or on 7th of Sivan. There's an argument in Talmud which one is it could have been either one.
[00:01:43] Speaker B: We know for sure it was Shabbat.
[00:01:44] Speaker A: When the Torah was given.
But we don't know which day of the month was. It was because the month before Iyar could have 30 or 29 days and we didn't know which one it was that year.
[00:01:57] Speaker B: So now Jews are arriving at Mount Sinai.
[00:02:00] Speaker A: They are parking themselves at the foot of Mount Sinai.
And what happens?
Nothing happens. Which is surprising. Why? Because every single day before Jews were receiving the Torah.
Every single day before Matan Torah Moishe Moses was teaching the Torah to the Jews.
We know that there are laws, for example, laws of Shabbat Jews received even before at their previous stop at Marah and many other laws they learned there.
So when the Jews came to Mount Sinai, they came already prepared.
Moshe was spending his time teaching the Torah to the Jews.
[00:02:41] Speaker B: The day when they arrived at Mount.
[00:02:42] Speaker A: Sinai, it says he wasn't teaching them anything.
[00:02:44] Speaker B: He told them, guys, you take a rest. You're probably tired from the road.
[00:02:47] Speaker A: Tomorrow we're Going to pick it up where we left off.
[00:02:50] Speaker B: Now it's very strange.
[00:02:52] Speaker A: Number one, they weren't that tired, if you'll do the math. If the Torah was given on Shabbat and they came on the first day.
[00:02:57] Speaker B: Of Sivan, they traveled for only one day.
And it wasn't a big travel.
[00:03:02] Speaker A: In Marah, which was a place, one of the stations of the Jews before Mount Sinai, God commanded to Moishe, to Moses to tell the Jews about Shabbat.
[00:03:14] Speaker B: Because the Torah was given on Shabbat.
[00:03:16] Speaker A: So when the Torah was given, they were supposed to already know the laws of Shabbat.
[00:03:21] Speaker B: Well, Moshe did not carry anything on Shabbat. Moshe came down the tablets later and broke them. But on Shabbat he was not carrying anything.
But also the Jews were not traveling on Shabbat.
[00:03:32] Speaker A: So when they came to Mount Sinai, it was only one day travel, one and a half days.
So now we also know that why were Jews learning the Torah the whole time before they came to Mount Sinai? Why was Moshe teaching them the Torah?
[00:03:47] Speaker B: Because they were so excited to learn the Torah.
And here they actually came to Mount Sinai. This would be probably the day when they would say, okay, let's go, let's hear Jews just went home, went to sleep.
[00:03:57] Speaker A: Doesn't make sense.
So our sages explain in Kabbalah that it's true that they did not hear Torah from Moshe on that day.
And the explanation which is given in Talmud, which literally means from because they were weakened by their trip, is also a correct explanation. We just have to understand what does it mean? We have to understand it in context.
We're not talking about physical weakness, we're talking about spiritual weakness. And we're not talking about physical travels, we're talking about spiritual travels. What does it mean?
Whenever you are learning any information, use.
[00:04:38] Speaker B: Your brain as much as you can.
[00:04:40] Speaker A: Any science, anything. You are studying, you are using your talents.
And before the Torah was given, that's how Jews learn the Torah. Jews learn the Torah like we study the Torah today.
So you'll ask me one second. If Jews learned the Torah before Torah was given, then what was the big deal about giving of the Torah? Jews already knew it.
[00:05:04] Speaker B: Ta Ram, I'm giving you the Torah says God. Thank you.
[00:05:08] Speaker A: We already have it.
[00:05:09] Speaker B: So what happened on the day when.
[00:05:10] Speaker A: The Torah was given?
So that's exactly what happened, Matan. Torah means giving of the Torah. God gave the Torah to the Jews.
[00:05:17] Speaker B: Which means that from now on, Jews were not learning the Torah, only using their own talents.
God was helping them to Absorb it. God was helping them to make it part of them.
God was helping them to understand it better. So after the Torah was given, it's not only that we are studying Torah.
[00:05:37] Speaker A: With our own intellect.
[00:05:38] Speaker B: God is helping us to absorb it.
But in order for us to benefit from it, we need to recognize who this God is.
We need to understand that we are now coming to Mount Sinai and we are about to stand before the Creator of the world.
[00:05:59] Speaker A: What happens when you are in the presence of somebody really great?
If you are in awe of somebody and you're standing right next to him, what happens? You forget about yourself.
You don't think about my eye anymore. My eye disappears.
In Kabbalah and Hasidut, it's called bitul self abnegation.
[00:06:21] Speaker B: You forget about yourself.
[00:06:23] Speaker A: You get lost in this person's presence.
So Jews were studying the Torah and they were absorbing the information, which is great. Now they came to Mount Sinai and their sense of self was weakened from the travels from arriving to Mount Sinai.
[00:06:45] Speaker B: When they came to Mount Sinai, they.
[00:06:48] Speaker A: Were lost in their awe. When they understood that the Torah will.
[00:06:52] Speaker B: Be given right here, right now, and God is going to come down himself right here.
They were not capable of absorbing any information.
Because if you will come now to.
[00:07:03] Speaker A: See somebody who you are really in awe of.
Olden days, you could have used the metaphors of presidents or prime ministers.
[00:07:10] Speaker B: Now with today's political climate, if you mention any president or any prime minister in America, in Israel, doesn't matter, there's at least 50% chance that the person will not have a very high opinion of them.
[00:07:22] Speaker A: When the communists killed Tsar Nikolai ii, when the fitliba of Sherebbe Hashem found out about it, that he was murdered, he said, ah, they have eliminated one of the last examples from the Torah.
[00:07:37] Speaker B: Because Torah speaks about God being our king.
[00:07:41] Speaker A: People today don't understand what a king is.
[00:07:44] Speaker B: King is somebody who has absolute power.
Every citizen of his country is his subject. He owns everyone in his country.
He owns everything in his country. We can't fathom such a thing today.
So imagine how a Chinese citizen is feeling when he is walking into the office of Xi Jinping. Imagine how Chinese citizen feels when he is in the presence, face to face with the chairman.
So I can promise you he's going to forget about himself. He's going to forget that he exists.
And I will tell you something else. If at this moment Xi Jinping is going to start talking to him and say something and give him some very sophisticated intellectual teaching, he will not be able to Absorb it.
Because to understand something, you need to engage your faculties, your intellectual capabilities. If you don't feel yourself, if you are lost in awe, you will not be able to engage your brain to think.
So Jews came to Mount Sinai, and I guess if you could use this metaphor, they felt like a Chinese citizen in front of Xi Jinping.
But we are now understanding why Jews were not able to learn anything on that day.
[00:09:01] Speaker A: And not only they were not able to learn, this was a necessary step for future learning.
[00:09:09] Speaker B: Because in order to really understand the Torah, you have to understand who it's coming from.
If you don't have the reverence, if you don't have the respect, the awe of who gives you the Torah, then you will not appreciate the Torah itself and you will not be able to learn it.
[00:09:28] Speaker A: Once you have this awe, once you understand who God is now, he's not only allowing you to teach His Torah, he's giving you the Torah, he is helping you absorb it, integrate it.
[00:09:43] Speaker B: So that's why whenever we learn the.
[00:09:45] Speaker A: Torah today, we don't just learn it as a scientific book, we have God helping us.
[00:09:51] Speaker B: As a matter of fact, it says.
[00:09:52] Speaker A: That whenever a person is reading any.
[00:09:54] Speaker B: Torah text, God is sitting in front of him and saying these words together with Him.
So God directly is teaching us this Torah. And God is a pretty good teacher.
So it is very interesting.
[00:10:09] Speaker A: So what happened?
[00:10:10] Speaker B: The Jews came to Mount Sinai.
[00:10:12] Speaker A: They were awestruck that this is the place where the Torah is going to be given.
What happened on the next day? This awe wore off.
[00:10:21] Speaker B: They did learn the Torah next day, and then up until when the Torah.
[00:10:25] Speaker A: Was given, which was on the 6th or 7th of Sivan.
[00:10:28] Speaker B: So for a few days they were reading the Torah.
[00:10:29] Speaker A: And then God came down at Mount Sinai. God spoke with them.
[00:10:34] Speaker B: They were again awestruck. It says that their souls almost jumped.
[00:10:37] Speaker A: Out of their bodies.
[00:10:39] Speaker B: They barely survived that experience.
So now they came back to themselves.
God doesn't want us to constantly be.
[00:10:48] Speaker A: In the state of war. Why? Because in the state of war, we.
[00:10:51] Speaker B: Cannot function as individuals. We are lost in front of God. We don't feel ourselves.
This is why actually it says that when Jews came to Mount Sinai, the.
[00:11:02] Speaker A: Torah refers to the Jews in plural, in singular form.
[00:11:07] Speaker B: It says, and he came.
[00:11:09] Speaker A: Jews came in a singular form, which is grammatically incorrect.
[00:11:13] Speaker B: And our commentaries explain that this was because Jews were unified.
[00:11:17] Speaker A: And because of their awe, they were unified in all the previous stops. And they were traveling already for almost seven weeks.
[00:11:27] Speaker B: And during these six plus weeks, they, as you could Expect among Jews did not have very big unity.
Every Jew has his own opinion and everybody wants to say something else. You know, whenever two Jews meet, all three of them are talking about.
So it is natural.
[00:11:45] Speaker A: Why?
[00:11:45] Speaker B: Because we all feel our eye.
[00:11:48] Speaker A: When Jews came to Mount Sinai, they forgot about their eye. They were lost.
[00:11:52] Speaker B: Then they started learning the Torah, Their eye came back, they were arguing again. Then they came to the 6th or 7th of Shiva. When the Torah was given again, they were lost completely. Then they came back to themselves.
[00:12:02] Speaker A: Why?
[00:12:03] Speaker B: Because you need both of these experiences, this awe in front of God.
You need to experience because that's going.
[00:12:09] Speaker A: To give you inspiration. This that you need to move forward.
[00:12:12] Speaker B: But then to move forward, you need to come back to yourself.
You will not be able to function as an individual.
You will not be able to implement the Torah laws to your life if you will not feel yourself and not identify yourself as an independent being.
So you come back to yourself. Obviously that's when all the arguments start. Because this one feels one way, the other one feels the other way. And we are all Jews, we all have our own opinions and we are very opinionated, as you know.
But all this is only after we.
[00:12:46] Speaker A: Appreciate who was the Torah given to us by. And that's why this was a necessary step.
Generally our lives are in this back and forth mode between two stages. In Kabbalah, it's called iratzo vashuva.
We realize who God is and we live in this state when we are inspired. But then in this inspired state, we.
[00:13:12] Speaker B: Usually cannot function very well. So we need to come back to.
[00:13:15] Speaker A: Ourselves and implement whatever we were inspired to do.
The Torah is telling us that our inspiration is fuel.
You are very capable of having your.
[00:13:28] Speaker B: Fuel burn out without having it used for anything.
We do it very often.
[00:13:33] Speaker A: You could leave your car running if.
[00:13:35] Speaker B: You have a gas powered car.
[00:13:36] Speaker A: Some people still have gas powered cars.
[00:13:37] Speaker B: Nowadays very few people leave their engine on and it just wastes a whole tank of fuel. That's when we have an emotion that we don't catch and we don't put into action. That's what happens. Emotions are fuel.
Now when we capture it and we utilize it for something, then what happens?
[00:13:55] Speaker A: Afterwards we bring this emotion into our.
[00:13:59] Speaker B: Life and we use it for some specific action that the Torah is instructing us to do. That will give birth to a new emotion later on that I will be able to utilize as well.
[00:14:09] Speaker A: And this is this ratzo and shuv.
[00:14:11] Speaker B: This is back and forth.
You become inspired, but you cannot. Usually when you are overcome with your feelings. You're not capable of implementing everything you want to do.
So many times people wake up, they're very inspired to do something.
[00:14:27] Speaker A: This young guy comes to this old man, and he says, Mr. Wise Man, I woke up one day, and I have this great desire to live forever.
This old man says, you know what? Get yourself a job. Start working.
And work is going to make me live forever? No, it's going to stop you wanting to live forever.
[00:14:47] Speaker B: So we wake up with inspiration, and very often it goes completely out of the window, and this inspiration dies, and then nothing is left.
[00:14:56] Speaker A: The Torah tells, no, no, no. Take the inspiration, put it to work, and it's going to produce new inspiration later on.
