Boundaries, Freedom And Creation In Torah: Jewish Wisdom - The Secret To A Meaningful Life

0:01 SPEAKER_00: A husband and wife go shopping together.

0:03 SPEAKER_00: They've got lots of errands to run, so they agree to split up and then they'll get back together later on.

0:09 SPEAKER_00: The wife finishes everything, and she's trying to call her husband and she can't get hold of him and she doesn't know where he is.

0:16 SPEAKER_00: After half an hour eventually answers the phone.

0:19 SPEAKER_00: She says, Where are you?

0:21 SPEAKER_00: He says, Darling, do you remember three months ago we found that little jewelers and you saw the diamond necklace you loved, and I said that I get it for you one day.

0:31 SPEAKER_00: She can't believe it.

0:32 SPEAKER_00: She's beaming, she's smiling.

0:34 SPEAKER_00: She says, Yes, I remember.

0:36 SPEAKER_00: He says, Well I'm in the sports bar across the road.

0:40 SPEAKER_00: We laugh because the husband knows what matters, but lives as if he doesn't.

0:46 SPEAKER_00: That is a mistake we all slip into at times.

0:50 SPEAKER_00: There's a duality to the reason we keep Shabbat.

0:53 SPEAKER_00: We keep Shabbat because Hashem created the world in six days and rested on the seventh.

0:59 SPEAKER_00: We also keep Shabbat because Hashem took us out of Egypt.

1:02 SPEAKER_00: It is Yitzhiat's Mitshraim and the Jewish people becoming a nation married to Hashem that the purpose of creation, creating a dwelling place for the Shekhinah is once again restored.

1:14 SPEAKER_00: If Yitzziat Mitchraim is about freedom and Shabbat creation, let's try and understand what freedom really is and what it means to live well through the lens of creation.

1:27 SPEAKER_00: There are two key principles we learn from the story of creation.

1:31 SPEAKER_00: One in how the world was created, and one in how mankind was created.

1:37 SPEAKER_00: In so doing, I think we'll uncover the challenges facing the Western world today and what it means to live a life of holiness and meaning.

1:48 SPEAKER_00: In order to explore these themes, I want to ask one key question.

1:53 SPEAKER_00: Hashem puts Adam in Garnaidan and tells him he can eat from every tree in the garden except from the eight Sadat.

2:00 SPEAKER_00: Adam and Hava eat from the tree, they're exiled from the garden, and death is introduced into the world.

2:07 SPEAKER_00: But why does Hashem put such an obvious temptation in the middle of the garden?

2:13 SPEAKER_00: After all, if you put kids in a sweet shop and said you can have all the sweets apart from that one, we know that the kids would want the sweets we said they couldn't have.

2:23 SPEAKER_00: Secular people often want to use this as an example of how Hashem is cruel or how the stories are made up.

2:30 SPEAKER_00: Let's explore the real reason and see what we can uncover.

2:35 SPEAKER_00: One of the striking aspects of creation is the ordiness with which Hashem made the world and the distinctions which he sets out.

2:46 SPEAKER_00: Hashem creates light and separates light and darkness.

2:51 SPEAKER_00: Hashem creates Shemaim and separates the waters above and waters below.

2:56 SPEAKER_00: Hashem separates dry land from sea.

3:00 SPEAKER_00: Hashem creates the sun and the moon to separate from day and night.

3:04 SPEAKER_00: Hashem creates water creatures, birds, animals and insects, and we're told each according to its min, its kind.

3:13 SPEAKER_00: In other words, there is a separation, a distinction between them all.

3:19 SPEAKER_00: At the end of the sixth day, we're told that Hashem saw all that he had made, and it was very good.

3:25 SPEAKER_00: And Unkulus, which we understand as the Peshat, brings down and says it was very orderly.

3:32 SPEAKER_00: And the Ramban quotes Unkulus and then goes further and quotes from Kahelet, for everything there is a season and a time, to explain this orderliness.

3:44 SPEAKER_00: And when we're told that the heavens and the earth were finished at the beginning of chapter two of Barashit, after the sixth day, the Midrash in Barashit Rubba says that everything has boundaries.

3:55 SPEAKER_00: The heavens and earth have boundaries.

3:58 SPEAKER_00: If there is an order to the universe created by boundaries and separation, then it is key that these boundaries are respected.

4:06 SPEAKER_00: This is the foundation of a large part of Saifa Vayikra.

4:10 SPEAKER_00: So for example, in Pasha Kadoshim, we're given many rules of kilayim.

4:15 SPEAKER_00: We're told not to crossbreed different animals, mix different seeds, and we're given the rule of shatnas not to combine wool and linen.

4:23 SPEAKER_00: And on that pasuk about shatnas, Ramban says that one who mixes these things corrupts the work of creation.

4:32 SPEAKER_00: And Rav Shimsham Raphael Hirsch says a very similar thing about Pashat Akare Mot, which is about forbidden relationships.

4:40 SPEAKER_00: He says it corrupts the work of creation.

4:44 SPEAKER_00: It is the creation of boundaries that enables us to experience the world.

4:51 SPEAKER_00: For example, it is because men and women are different that we can experience the virtues of both.

4:58 SPEAKER_00: Attractiveness is created by the distinction between them.

5:03 SPEAKER_00: It's no surprise that in countries where there has been an increasing merging of genders, you know, much of the Western industrialized world now, we're told there's no difference biologically between a man and a woman, that birth rates are in decline as compared with countries where this has not been the case.

5:21 SPEAKER_00: After all, think about electricity.

5:24 SPEAKER_00: It's plus and minus that create attraction, that create a circuit.

5:29 SPEAKER_00: If you've got plus and plus or minus and minus, there's no attraction.

5:33 SPEAKER_00: When distinctions blur, attraction weakens.

5:38 SPEAKER_00: And when attraction weakens, relationships and ultimately society begin to struggle.

5:44 SPEAKER_00: Distinction doesn't just organize the world, it's what allows us to experience it.

5:52 SPEAKER_00: So we see this in the Western industrialized world today.

5:55 SPEAKER_00: I would suggest to you that many of the problems Western civilization is facing is because of the blurring of boundaries.

6:04 SPEAKER_00: So we see the blurring of gender where you see doctors in Congress being interviewed and they can't explain the difference between a man and a woman.

6:12 SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about the biological difference.

6:15 SPEAKER_00: It's absurd.

6:16 SPEAKER_00: But there are many other ways in Western society that these boundaries, these distinctions are being blurred.

6:24 SPEAKER_00: So I'll give you an example.

6:26 SPEAKER_00: We're increasingly being confused and eroding the idea of truth because we blur facts and opinions.

6:34 SPEAKER_00: Facts are facts, and of course we're all entitled to opinions, but when you blur the two, you erode truth itself.

6:42 SPEAKER_00: Let me give you an example.

6:45 SPEAKER_00: I was speaking at a conference in London, and someone at the coffee break came up to me and said to me, You people are committing genocide.

6:54 SPEAKER_00: I assume because of my kippah, they meant as a Jew.

6:58 SPEAKER_00: And I said to them, Do you know what genocide is?

7:02 SPEAKER_00: I said, the Jewish people suffered a genocide in the Holocaust.

7:06 SPEAKER_00: And 80 years after the Holocaust, the population of Jewish people still hasn't recovered to the levels before the Holocaust.

7:15 SPEAKER_00: I said, but in Gaza, the population's grown existentially after those after the last 25 years.

7:23 SPEAKER_00: It's a lot of things, but it's not a genocide.

7:26 SPEAKER_00: You know what the person said to me?

7:29 SPEAKER_00: You and I have got a different definition of genocide.

7:32 SPEAKER_00: But that's crazy.

7:33 SPEAKER_00: There's not two different definitions of genocide.

7:36 SPEAKER_00: Yes, they can have a different opinion on what's gone on, but you can't distort facts.

7:42 SPEAKER_00: And when you do, you live in a world without truth, which is where we are in the Western industrialized world today.

7:49 SPEAKER_00: But let me give you another example.

7:52 SPEAKER_00: We've blurred work and home life.

7:55 SPEAKER_00: Now I'm not a Luddite, I use technology all the time in my business.

8:00 SPEAKER_00: But the fact is that when you blur those boundaries, you cause all sorts of problems.

8:05 SPEAKER_00: So people go to work now, but they'll message their friends and be on WhatsApp discussing things.

8:10 SPEAKER_00: And therefore they're not really at work because they're still tied to what's going on outside of work and not giving their all to their workplace.

8:18 SPEAKER_00: And when they go home, they're still on email.

8:22 SPEAKER_00: They're still getting messages from work.

8:24 SPEAKER_00: And so they blur the lines.

8:26 SPEAKER_00: They can't actually be at home and be with their families.

8:29 SPEAKER_00: And we're seeing this.

8:30 SPEAKER_00: People suffer with mental health problems and stress and anxiety because the boundaries have been blurred.

8:36 SPEAKER_00: At work, they're still attached to home, and at home, they're still attached to work.

8:42 SPEAKER_00: And this becomes a problem.

8:45 SPEAKER_00: Perhaps the worst example of this is social media because it's blurred private and public life.

8:51 SPEAKER_00: So you get an example of a family having an intimate moment at home, and someone stressed out what they look like, so they look good for the Instagram photos.

9:01 SPEAKER_00: And this is a problem because people share the most inappropriate intimate thoughts and feelings online.

9:09 SPEAKER_00: We blur the distinctions between private and public life, and perhaps the worst affected as school children.

9:16 SPEAKER_00: Because you know, people that are bullied or suffering at school a little bit, the home is always a safe place.

9:21 SPEAKER_00: But now they're kind of attached and still being bullied digitally when they should be in a safe space at home.

9:28 SPEAKER_00: The blurring of these boundaries leads to mental health and anxiety and stress, all sorts of problems.

9:36 SPEAKER_00: When distinctions collapse, clarity collapses, and when clarity collapses, we lose meaning itself.

9:46 SPEAKER_00: Hashem created the world with boundaries.

9:49 SPEAKER_00: If we lose those boundaries and distinctions, we destroy the very fabric of the world.

9:55 SPEAKER_00: Now these boundaries are vital in the idea of holiness.

9:59 SPEAKER_00: Judaism creates holiness in all spheres of life by creating boundaries and distinctions.

10:05 SPEAKER_00: So in Judaism we have holiness of time.

10:08 SPEAKER_00: If every day was the same and we made no distinction, we wouldn't be able to draw closer to Hashem.

10:14 SPEAKER_00: The problem is, of course, is that Hashem is everywhere and at all times.

10:18 SPEAKER_00: But then how do you encounter Hashem?

10:21 SPEAKER_00: It is by creating boundaries that we can encounter Hashem on a level that otherwise would be difficult to experience.

10:29 SPEAKER_00: So for example, come Shabbat, we make Kiddish and Hafdallah to distinguish and create a boundary between Shabbat and Hagim and the other regular days.

10:40 SPEAKER_00: We refrain from malachot and by refraining from creativity on Shabbat, we acknowledge Hashem as the creator of the world.

10:48 SPEAKER_00: On Yom Taf we refrain from Malachot to recognize Hashem as guiding history and we stop influencing events.

10:56 SPEAKER_00: It is by having these boundaries that we can have an encounter with Hashem that otherwise we wouldn't be able to have.

11:02 SPEAKER_00: And we do it in the week as well.

11:04 SPEAKER_00: We distinguish times for Shakarit, for Mincha and Marev, when we can encounter Hashem in our every day.

11:11 SPEAKER_00: And of course there's flexibility in those times.

11:14 SPEAKER_00: But you can't dove a mincha at nine o'clock in the morning, and you can't dava Marev at 2 pm in the afternoon.

11:20 SPEAKER_00: And so there are definite times of day where we can have that encounter.

11:26 SPEAKER_00: But it's not just time.

11:28 SPEAKER_00: We also have holiness of space.

11:30 SPEAKER_00: So we can create a holiness around our dinner table on a Shabbat.

11:34 SPEAKER_00: We can make kiddish and then we make hamotsi and we can give Divray Turan sing Zamirot.

11:40 SPEAKER_00: And in so doing, we can bring a holiness to our table and encounter Hashem in a way we wouldn't be able to otherwise.

11:48 SPEAKER_00: And if every place was the same, it would be hard to encounter Hashem and feel close because Hashem's everywhere.

11:53 SPEAKER_00: But we have a shuh, a Baikineset, which we can distinguish from other buildings.

11:58 SPEAKER_00: We don't behave the same there, we don't dress the same there, and therefore it's easier for us to encounter Hashem.

12:05 SPEAKER_00: We have Erit Ishrael, which is holier than the other lands.

12:08 SPEAKER_00: It's easier to encounter Hashem in Erit Ishrael than anywhere else.

12:13 SPEAKER_00: And then within Erit Ishrael we have Yerushelaim, which is holier than any other cities.

12:18 SPEAKER_00: And Ha Habid is holier than any other place in the world.

12:23 SPEAKER_00: When we go to the Kotel, for example, we can feel something special because we've created holy space and it's a place that we can counter Hashem in a way that we can't encounter him in other places.

12:37 SPEAKER_00: There's also holiness of people.

12:40 SPEAKER_00: I think one of the most amazing parts of a wedding in Ashkenazi tradition, in fact, many Sefadim have adopted it as well, is when the colour circles a chatan seven times.

12:51 SPEAKER_00: And one of the reasons it's brought down that a colour does this is to create a boundary between the chatan and colour and the outside world.

13:00 SPEAKER_00: Because there's a level of sneer modesty between men and women, and boundaries create a sanctity and a holiness preserved for man and wife.

13:10 SPEAKER_00: This is why the Jewish people have to say separate from the rest of humanity.

13:14 SPEAKER_00: It is our separateness that enables us to be the Kohenim of the world.

13:18 SPEAKER_00: We have many examples in history and in the present day that once Jews abandon halakha and tradition to fit in, it is not long before those Jews' descendants are no longer Jewish and are lost forever.

13:32 SPEAKER_00: Without separateness, there are no Jews.

13:36 SPEAKER_00: Of course, there are plenty of examples where we interact with other nations in business and commerce and international cooperation, in Siddaka, in help and support.

13:45 SPEAKER_00: Israel's often the first country to send help and support when Hashalom there's a natural disaster somewhere.

13:52 SPEAKER_00: But without preserving our separateness, keeping Shabbat and Kashrut, seeing the world through the prism of Torah, not in a secular way, we would not be able to fulfill our tough kid of being the coenym of the world.

14:06 SPEAKER_00: The boundaries and distinctions matter.

14:08 SPEAKER_00: And of course, this is the same for a husband and wife.

14:12 SPEAKER_00: They need to have intimacy.

14:13 SPEAKER_00: It's only intimacy that love, commitment, and trust can happen, and you need boundaries because you don't behave the same with your spouse as you do with everything everybody else.

14:24 SPEAKER_00: And those boundaries enable the intimacy to happen.

14:28 SPEAKER_00: If we understand this, if we understand that boundaries are the foundation of creation and holiness and identity, then we can return to our question.

14:38 SPEAKER_00: Why did Hashem place the eight Sadat in Ganaidah?

14:43 SPEAKER_00: If Adam and Hava could have eaten from every tree, how could they have encountered Hashem?

14:49 SPEAKER_00: Hashem is everywhere.

14:51 SPEAKER_00: But as soon as he says you can eat from every tree, there's no way to have connection and awareness.

14:58 SPEAKER_00: So therefore Hashem puts the tree in the garden to create a boundary.

15:02 SPEAKER_00: Only one.

15:04 SPEAKER_00: But by doing so there's a constant awareness of Hashem.

15:07 SPEAKER_00: Because when Adam and Chavah are eating in the garden, they go, ah, but we can't eat from that tree.

15:12 SPEAKER_00: Why not?

15:13 SPEAKER_00: Because Hashem told us we can't.

15:16 SPEAKER_00: The boundary itself guarantees an encounter with Hashem and therefore introduces a level of holiness to Adam and Chavah.

15:25 SPEAKER_00: The prohibition wasn't there to restrict Adam and Chava.

15:29 SPEAKER_00: It was there to make a relationship possible.

15:34 SPEAKER_00: Of course, ultimately Adam and Chavah surrendered to this temptation, and they were consequently exiled from Ganadin, and pain in childbirth and hard work and death were the consequence of going against Hashem's word.

15:46 SPEAKER_00: It is the fact that Adam and Chavah could choose to disobey or obey Hashem, another reason for the eight Sadat, the freedom of choice, free will, which is the other aspect that sanctifies life.

16:03 SPEAKER_00: So let's look at the creation of man.

16:05 SPEAKER_00: Hashem says, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.

16:10 SPEAKER_00: And in the very next Pasuk, we're told that humanity was made, but Selem elokim, in the image of Hashem.

16:18 SPEAKER_00: There is a lot of complexity, but by understanding this conceptually, we will be able to unpack what makes us godly.

16:27 SPEAKER_00: The Rambam in Morena Vukim explains that we're not speaking of the human body, but the intellectual ability of mankind, which is but Selem Elokim in the likeness of Hashem.

16:38 SPEAKER_00: This intellectual ability is made up of two parts which are linked.

16:42 SPEAKER_00: Rashi explains that Hashem gave us the power to understand and discern.

16:48 SPEAKER_00: And the Sforno agrees with Rashi.

16:51 SPEAKER_00: That means we can act intelligently.

16:53 SPEAKER_00: And he points out that we also have free choice.

16:56 SPEAKER_00: This is part of being made by Selem Elohim, which means we can go against Hashem and abuse the very freedom he has given us.

17:06 SPEAKER_00: So how does this work?

17:08 SPEAKER_00: So the midrash in Barashit Rabba really explains.

17:11 SPEAKER_00: So explains that Hashem made the angels completely from the spiritual realm.

17:17 SPEAKER_00: And therefore they have no free will.

17:20 SPEAKER_00: They just have to obey Hashem because they're made almost purely of Nishamah, they're just attached to Hashem.

17:26 SPEAKER_00: Meanwhile, the animals are just made from the earthly realm.

17:31 SPEAKER_00: So they have no free will at all.

17:33 SPEAKER_00: They just follow instinct and desire.

17:35 SPEAKER_00: That's all animals do.

17:36 SPEAKER_00: They're not really culpable for the things they do, it's just instinctual.

17:41 SPEAKER_00: But human beings are made from both.

17:45 SPEAKER_00: We're told in chapter two of Barashit, Hashem formed man from the dust of the ground.

17:50 SPEAKER_00: This is the earthly element.

17:52 SPEAKER_00: But then Hashem blew into his nostrils Nishmat Chaim, the soul of life, and man became a living being.

18:02 SPEAKER_00: And it's this mix, this mix between the physical, the earthly element, and the spiritual, the nashammer, which is the tension, which gives us free will and free choice.

18:13 SPEAKER_00: We can follow our nishama and be attached to Hashem and do the right things, the Yetzatov.

18:19 SPEAKER_00: Or we can follow the physical, the base physical, and follow the Yetsahara.

18:24 SPEAKER_00: That's the choice that we make.

18:26 SPEAKER_00: But this is the other area where the secular West is undoing itself.

18:31 SPEAKER_00: Scientists tell us that it's DNA, environment, and evolution that dictate behaviour, and that free will is an illusion.

18:39 SPEAKER_00: And this, of course, has given rise to a victim culture where people don't want to take responsibility for their actions with dire consequences.

18:46 SPEAKER_00: So somebody does something and go, well, it's his upbringing.

18:49 SPEAKER_00: Of course, what do you expect from the environment he came from?

18:53 SPEAKER_00: Or it's just his DNA, it's how he's programmed.

18:57 SPEAKER_00: This has been a disaster for the Western world.

19:00 SPEAKER_00: Funnily enough, developments in quantum physics are now challenging this idea of strict determinism, and therefore it's opened the door to a scientific explanation of free will.

19:11 SPEAKER_00: And many neuroscientists now argue for free will also.

19:15 SPEAKER_00: So Bizrat Hashem, the science will eventually catch up with Torah.

19:21 SPEAKER_00: What's unbelievable is the Torah preempts this.

19:25 SPEAKER_00: So Adam and Chavah break boundaries, the boundaries and distinctions that Hashem has created the world with.

19:31 SPEAKER_00: You can eat all the trees, but not this one, not the eight seda.

19:35 SPEAKER_00: That's the boundary, but they cross it.

19:38 SPEAKER_00: But the very next narrative after the fall of Adam and Chavah is Kine and Hevel.

19:44 SPEAKER_00: Hevel brings the best of his flock for an offering, but Rashi explains that Kine bought from the worst of his produce.

19:52 SPEAKER_00: Consequently, Hashem accepted Heel's offering, but did not accept Kine's.

19:57 SPEAKER_00: But Kine refuses to take responsibility and even rejects the advice from Hashem.

20:04 SPEAKER_00: Hashem tells him, Sin, you know, crouches at your door, but Cain, you can conquer your evil inclination.

20:13 SPEAKER_00: The murder of Hevel is Kain's revenge against Hevel for being favoured and Hashem for favoring him.

20:20 SPEAKER_00: Kain decides that it's their fault rather than Kain looking to improve himself.

20:26 SPEAKER_00: Kain's failure wasn't his offering, it was his refusal to take responsibility.

20:33 SPEAKER_00: He could have taken responsibility and done to Shuva.

20:36 SPEAKER_00: Instead, he decided to be a victim and blame Hevel and Hashem, blame others.

20:44 SPEAKER_00: So what enables us to live a life of godliness is respecting the way that Hashem created the world.

20:50 SPEAKER_00: Boundaries and distinctions are necessary for us to experience the world in all its richness.

20:56 SPEAKER_00: For example, we want women to be the best women they can be, and men to be the best men they can be, and be different in a way we experience the rest of the best of both.

21:07 SPEAKER_00: And they stay attracted to one another because they're plus minus, they're different.

21:11 SPEAKER_00: There's an energy, there's an electricity, there's an attractiveness there.

21:16 SPEAKER_00: Torah creates boundaries in time for Shabbat, in space, the Bait Kenesset, Erit Ishrael, Yerushelaim, in relationships, the intimacy and sanctity of marriage which is secured by boundaries, the separateness of the Jewish peoples that we can encounter holiness in our Shem and our world.

21:35 SPEAKER_00: Similarly, living a life of godliness means exercising our free will in the right way and making the right choices.

21:43 SPEAKER_00: The key though is taking responsibility when we make mistakes.

21:48 SPEAKER_00: It is the respective boundaries, taking responsibilities that enables us to live a life of holiness and meaning.

21:58 SPEAKER_00: It is Rat Hashem.

22:00 SPEAKER_00: We can learn to do this and be inspired by the story of creation so we can grow and be the best we can be.

22:08 SPEAKER_00: Freedom is not the absence of boundaries.

22:11 SPEAKER_00: Freedom is found within them.