Parsha Balak: Jewish Teachings & Torah - Who Decides Who You Are: Freedom, Identity & Modern Culture

0:00 SPEAKER_00: Schmuel buys a donkey from Chaim for$2,000.

0:04 SPEAKER_00: Chaim takes the money and he says, I'll bring it the next day.

0:08 SPEAKER_00: The next day comes, he knocks at Schmuel's door.

0:10 SPEAKER_00: He says, I'm so sorry.

0:11 SPEAKER_00: Schmuel says, What's wrong?

0:13 SPEAKER_00: He said, The donkey died.

0:14 SPEAKER_00: Schmuel's a bit upset.

0:16 SPEAKER_00: He says, Okay, no problem.

0:17 SPEAKER_00: Give me my money back.

0:19 SPEAKER_00: Caim says, Actually, I spent it.

0:21 SPEAKER_00: So Schmuel's now frustrated.

0:23 SPEAKER_00: He says, Okay, well, give me the dead donkey.

0:26 SPEAKER_00: Haim says, What do you want with a dead donkey?

0:29 SPEAKER_00: Schmuel says, I'm gonna raffle it.

0:31 SPEAKER_00: Haim says, You can't raffle a dead donkey.

0:34 SPEAKER_00: Schmuel says, Well, no one will know.

0:36 SPEAKER_00: Haim gives in the donkey.

0:38 SPEAKER_00: About a month later, Haim bumps into Schmuel.

0:41 SPEAKER_00: He says to Schmuel, how did it go?

0:43 SPEAKER_00: Schmuel says, it was amazing.

0:45 SPEAKER_00: He said, I sold 500 tickets at$10 a ticket.

0:48 SPEAKER_00: It was$5,000.

0:50 SPEAKER_00: Haim says, but didn't you get any complaints?

0:53 SPEAKER_00: Shmuel says, only from the winner.

0:55 SPEAKER_00: Haim says, What did you do?

0:56 SPEAKER_00: Shmuel says, I gave him his$10 back.

1:00 SPEAKER_00: This week's pasha.

1:02 SPEAKER_00: Balak is the most amazing pasha.

1:06 SPEAKER_00: Because really, ever since the creation of Adam Harishon, everything that happens in the Torah, the characters know what's going on.

1:13 SPEAKER_00: They don't know everything, not everybody knows everything.

1:16 SPEAKER_00: But these characters that are part of the story know some of what's going on.

1:21 SPEAKER_00: Suddenly we have pasha Balak.

1:24 SPEAKER_00: And of course, Moshe Rabainu and Bene Israel are completely clueless.

1:28 SPEAKER_00: They have no idea what is going on.

1:31 SPEAKER_00: And of course, they only found out afterwards when Hashem dictates this part of the Torah to Moshe.

1:38 SPEAKER_00: And it's an amazing message for all of us.

1:42 SPEAKER_00: Because there are times when we see the hand of Hashem.

1:45 SPEAKER_00: For example, there have been so many miracles in Eritch Israel since 1948.

1:51 SPEAKER_00: And then, of course, there are times in our lives when we feel like Hashem's absence.

1:56 SPEAKER_00: Of course, he's still there, but we feel his absence.

1:59 SPEAKER_00: Perhaps the most obvious one in recent memory is October the 7th.

2:03 SPEAKER_00: But what this Pasha comes to tell us is that Hashem is protecting us all the time.

2:10 SPEAKER_00: There must be tens, hundreds, thousands, millions, maybe tens of millions of times when Hashem has protected us and we have no idea that he's protected us.

2:20 SPEAKER_00: We're blissfully unaware.

2:22 SPEAKER_00: And it's such an important message for us to internalize this protection that Hashem bestows upon us all the time.

2:30 SPEAKER_00: And of course, intellectually we can understand it.

2:32 SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Hashem is protecting us even when we don't know.

2:36 SPEAKER_00: But to internalize that, for that to become part of us, it's such an important thing, and I think quite a difficult thing.

2:45 SPEAKER_00: This week's Pasha, Pasha Balak, has so many meta-narratives going on.

2:50 SPEAKER_00: There's so much that we could talk about.

2:52 SPEAKER_00: But there's one thing that I want to focus on, and that is what this week's pasha has to say about free will and identity.

3:03 SPEAKER_00: Because it has a meta-narrative on both, and they come together towards the end of the pasha, they intersect.

3:11 SPEAKER_00: So why do I want to talk about it?

3:14 SPEAKER_00: Well, it was interesting.

3:15 SPEAKER_00: I was writing a speech for a conference I was giving in Birmingham in England, and every generation has their question.

3:26 SPEAKER_00: The big question, the big sociological question that all peoples, all nationalities are wrestling with at different times and in different ways.

3:35 SPEAKER_00: And I think the question for many, many generations has been, how do I live?

3:41 SPEAKER_00: How am I supposed to live in this world?

3:43 SPEAKER_00: What am I supposed to do?

3:45 SPEAKER_00: And it occurred to me as I was writing this speech that over the last 20, 30 years, something around that timeline, this question has changed.

3:57 SPEAKER_00: I don't think the question of our generation now is how do I live?

4:01 SPEAKER_00: I think the question of our generation is who shall I be?

4:06 SPEAKER_00: Or who am I?

4:07 SPEAKER_00: And we see that with all the identity politics in the world.

4:12 SPEAKER_00: And of course, the Western liberal democratic idea of freedom is essentially we're free to choose whatever we like, the limits being how it affects other people.

4:23 SPEAKER_00: And so many of the laws in Western liberal democracies are about trying to manage the effect that people can do whatever they choose and at the same time protect the rights of others.

4:35 SPEAKER_00: And of course, there's lots of debate as to where that starts and stops.

4:39 SPEAKER_00: And therefore, in that context, you can choose to be whoever you want to be.

4:44 SPEAKER_00: And I think in the postmodern liberal world, that's gone even further.

4:49 SPEAKER_00: Because things that we thought of as fixed, like gender and ethnicity and culture, comes along post-liberal, uh postmodern liberalism and says the following says, no, those things are just social constructs, and therefore you can choose your gender, you can choose your culture, you can even choose your ethnicity.

5:11 SPEAKER_00: And not only that, but you can keep inventing it.

5:14 SPEAKER_00: So we have this word fluid, and fluid means that you can choose to be one gender one day, and over several weeks or months or whatever else, you can change that yourself.

5:25 SPEAKER_00: And so we have a situation now where you can create yourself, you can define yourself, and you can choose your own truth.

5:33 SPEAKER_00: That's the world in which we live.

5:37 SPEAKER_00: But Torah says something so different.

5:40 SPEAKER_00: Torah says you can't choose truth, you can't choose reality, you can't even choose identity.

5:49 SPEAKER_00: What you can choose is how to live, what you do with those things.

5:55 SPEAKER_00: And therefore, the the question in Judaism isn't who am I or who shall I be, but it's who did Hashem create me to be.

6:05 SPEAKER_00: And I want to look at that through the prism of this week's pasha, pasha Balak, and see where it intersects at the end and what that tells us as well.

6:15 SPEAKER_00: So if we look at free will, right at the beginning of this week's pasha, Balak sends messengers to Bilam.

6:23 SPEAKER_00: He wants him to curse Bene Israel.

6:27 SPEAKER_00: And Bilam says, Well, wait, and I'll see what Hashem says.

6:31 SPEAKER_00: And Hashem says, You shall not go, you shall not curse these people, they're blessed.

6:36 SPEAKER_00: And Bilam says to the messengers he can't go, and they go and relay that back to Balak.

6:41 SPEAKER_00: And Balak starts to send higher and higher ranking messengers, and the prize for Bilam gets more and more, and in the end, Bilam really wants to go.

6:51 SPEAKER_00: His desire is for him to go, and he says to these messengers, wait, and he's going to see what Hashem says.

6:57 SPEAKER_00: And Hashem says to him, You're not going to be able to curse the people, but if you want to go, go.

7:03 SPEAKER_00: And Rashi brings down on that idea.

7:06 SPEAKER_00: And he says, Bilam goes in spite of himself.

7:10 SPEAKER_00: What does it mean in spite of himself?

7:13 SPEAKER_00: Because Bilam's whole mission to go is to curse Bene Israel.

7:18 SPEAKER_00: And it's the one thing he's not going to be able to do.

7:21 SPEAKER_00: Hashem's already told him he's not going to be able to do that.

7:24 SPEAKER_00: So he goes in spite of himself, despite the fact that he's not going to be able to achieve his mission.

7:30 SPEAKER_00: And Rashi says he thinks he will.

7:33 SPEAKER_00: He thinks he's going to be able to persuade Hashem or find a way or find a loophole or find something that he's going to be able to do.

7:41 SPEAKER_00: There's a Gomorrah in Machot, Ten Ahmed Bet, that says, down the path you choose, you shall be led.

7:50 SPEAKER_00: What's astounding is Hashem says to Bilam, you shan't go.

7:55 SPEAKER_00: And Bilam is so insistent as the prize gets bigger that Hashem says, okay, you can go.

8:01 SPEAKER_00: In other words, the free will that Hashem gives us is immense.

8:06 SPEAKER_00: It's an absolute gift.

8:07 SPEAKER_00: We can even go against Hashem's own instructions.

8:11 SPEAKER_00: You shall not go.

8:13 SPEAKER_00: But of course, the danger is the path which we choose is the one that we're led.

8:18 SPEAKER_00: And when you go against Hashem, it's not going to end very well.

8:24 SPEAKER_00: And of course, we know it doesn't end well for Bilam.

8:28 SPEAKER_00: And so free will is an amazing gift because it seems to have no end.

8:34 SPEAKER_00: We can even go against Hashem.

8:36 SPEAKER_00: But then we have to take the signs.

8:38 SPEAKER_00: We don't want to abuse that free will.

8:40 SPEAKER_00: We don't want to get it wrong.

8:42 SPEAKER_00: So we have to take the signs.

8:44 SPEAKER_00: Bilam's literally told by Hashem not to go.

8:48 SPEAKER_00: But in our own lives, when we make choices, we get signs, the things that people say to us, the feelings that we have when someone doesn't feel right, when we just think this isn't right.

9:00 SPEAKER_00: You feel uneasy.

9:01 SPEAKER_00: And it's our responsibility.

9:03 SPEAKER_00: It's not easy to do it, but to take those signs.

9:06 SPEAKER_00: So we don't end up making the wrong choices and being led down the wrong path, which can happen with free will, with this gift that we've been given.

9:15 SPEAKER_00: It's also a responsibility.

9:18 SPEAKER_00: And really that's the whole story of the donkey.

9:22 SPEAKER_00: So, of course, Bilam the next day he's gonna go, he guts on his donkey, and the donkey goes along, and there's an angel of Hashem brandishing a sword, but Bilam can't see it, and the donkey veers off the road into a field, and Bilam beats the donkey, and then a second time it veers off, and there's a narrow path, and it scrapes Bilam's leg against the wall, and again Bilam beats the donkey, and the third time there's nowhere to go, and the donkey just crouches down because the angel's blocking him, and Bilam hits him again, and eventually the donkey turns round to Bilam and says, Why did you hit me these three times?

9:59 SPEAKER_00: And then Bilam is allowed to see Hashem enables him to see the angel brandishing the sword.

10:05 SPEAKER_00: And then the angel says to Bilam, If it hadn't been that the donkey had veered off the path, I would have killed you, I would have saved the donkey, but I'd have killed you.

10:15 SPEAKER_00: In other words, the donkey saved Bilam's life.

10:20 SPEAKER_00: The Svono and the Malbin bring down on that very similar idea, which is, how did Bilam not see the signs?

10:29 SPEAKER_00: You know, this donkey that's a loyal servant of Bilam has served him always very, very well, suddenly is doing all these crazy things and veering off the park, and Bilam's hitting the donkey.

10:42 SPEAKER_00: These were signs for Bilam.

10:44 SPEAKER_00: This isn't right.

10:45 SPEAKER_00: Your donkey doesn't normally behave like this.

10:48 SPEAKER_00: The donkey's loyal to you, the fact that it keeps veering off even though Bilam couldn't see the angel, this isn't right.

10:54 SPEAKER_00: These were signs.

10:56 SPEAKER_00: But he was so gung ho, his ruts on his desire were so gung ho on fulfilling this cursing of Klenai Ishrael, which he wasn't supposed to be doing, that he just doesn't see the signs at all.

11:09 SPEAKER_00: Rabainu Bachai goes further.

11:12 SPEAKER_00: Rabainu Bachai says the donkey spoke to Bilam.

11:16 SPEAKER_00: A talking donkey.

11:18 SPEAKER_00: And what does Bilam do?

11:19 SPEAKER_00: says Rabainu Bachai.

11:20 SPEAKER_00: He responds to him like it's normal.

11:23 SPEAKER_00: This is a talking donkey.

11:24 SPEAKER_00: This isn't a normal thing.

11:26 SPEAKER_00: He should have been absolutely astounded, Bilam, and realized that this is a very abnormal situation and he's probably in over his head.

11:34 SPEAKER_00: He shouldn't be doing these things.

11:35 SPEAKER_00: Maybe he should be turning back.

11:37 SPEAKER_00: And he doesn't.

11:38 SPEAKER_00: And this is such an important lesson for us.

11:42 SPEAKER_00: Because ultimately, if you look at Bilam, the donkey's veering off in all directions, and he doesn't notice the signs.

11:50 SPEAKER_00: And then the donkey speaks to him and he just treats it like it's normal.

11:53 SPEAKER_00: He has a conversation with him.

11:55 SPEAKER_00: Bilam loses his grip on reality.

11:58 SPEAKER_00: When your son go gung ho on a mission, when you're so determined to fulfill things even against Hashem's will, you start to lose your grip on reality.

12:09 SPEAKER_00: And we see that, we see that in Seifer Shemat with Pharaoh.

12:13 SPEAKER_00: He's so determined not to let B'N'ai Israel leave, let his slaves leave, that he loses his grip on reality.

12:20 SPEAKER_00: Egypt's being destroyed all around him.

12:23 SPEAKER_00: And he can't let go.

12:25 SPEAKER_00: He can't just say, okay, let Bene Israel go, leave Egypt.

12:29 SPEAKER_00: And we see in history so many times when despots, dictators, evil leaders, the whole world ends up imploding on them because they make such terrible decisions.

12:40 SPEAKER_00: And you think, well, how did they make such bad decisions?

12:43 SPEAKER_00: But they lose their grip on reality.

12:45 SPEAKER_00: You go so far down a path, you're so dung-ho on your evil intent that you actually lose your grip on reality.

12:54 SPEAKER_00: And it's hard to imagine, but we see it.

12:57 SPEAKER_00: That's the message of the donkey.

12:59 SPEAKER_00: And we have to be so careful in our own lives not to lose a grip on reality in the same way, but to not lose ourselves when we're so determined on a mission, even when the signs are telling us something else.

13:15 SPEAKER_00: Rabbi Hanoch Erentroi, who was the chief rabbi of Munich, he died in 1927.

13:22 SPEAKER_00: In fact, his uh grandson, who was named after him, Diane Hanoch Erintroi, was a big Diane on the London Beth Din.

13:31 SPEAKER_00: So Rabbi Hanoch Erentroi sees the whole story of the donkey as a mashal.

13:38 SPEAKER_00: And he says the following You know, we're human beings, we make mistakes, we don't get it right, so we go down a path that's not right.

13:46 SPEAKER_00: And in the first instance, the donkey veers off into a field.

13:50 SPEAKER_00: In other words, there's plenty of room for manoeuvre.

13:53 SPEAKER_00: There's twin plenty of room to change your mind, there's plenty of room to do to shoever and realize you've got it wrong.

14:00 SPEAKER_00: But if you don't take the signs, if you keep going down, the second time the angel blocks the donkey, it's much narrower.

14:08 SPEAKER_00: There's a wall on each side, and this time Bilam's leg gets scraped against the wall because there's much less room for manoeuvre.

14:15 SPEAKER_00: You've still got a chance of turning around, you've still got a chance of doing to suva, but there's a lot less room for manoeuvre.

14:22 SPEAKER_00: Of course, finally, the last time the angel blocks the donkey, it's such a narrow path.

14:27 SPEAKER_00: He's got no she's got nowhere to go, the donkey, just bends down, just curtails to the angel because there's nowhere to go.

14:35 SPEAKER_00: If we keep going down the wrong path, eventually we lose our ability to even turn round, to even do to Shuva.

14:45 SPEAKER_00: Because what happens is behavior is habitual.

14:48 SPEAKER_00: We get into habits, we get into a state of being, and if that state of being is the wrong state, eventually you go down so far down the path you're unable to turn around.

14:58 SPEAKER_00: That's what happens to Bilam.

15:01 SPEAKER_00: That's what happens to Pharaoh, really, in Seifer Shamat.

15:05 SPEAKER_00: And so we have to be so careful.

15:08 SPEAKER_00: What the Pasha is telling us is free will is the most amazing gift.

15:12 SPEAKER_00: And because Hashem's given us free will, he doesn't take it away, he allows us to use it.

15:18 SPEAKER_00: But if we abuse that free will, if we use it for the wrong things, eventually we lose our grip on reality, eventually we lose our room for maneuver and being able to turn our lives around.

15:31 SPEAKER_00: And so this free will, the gift that it is, is a tremendous responsibility for us of how we use it and to be mindful to try and follow the right path.

15:43 SPEAKER_00: What's even more radical than the free will is what the Torah has to say on identity.

15:49 SPEAKER_00: So Bilam wants to curse the Jewish people, but the first curse he gives, which of course is really the first bracha, what does he say?

15:57 SPEAKER_00: How can I curse when Hashem hasn't cursed?

16:00 SPEAKER_00: How can I be angry when Hashem's not angry?

16:03 SPEAKER_00: He can't go against reality and truth and what the what the world is, what the destiny of the Jewish people is.

16:12 SPEAKER_00: He can't do that.

16:12 SPEAKER_00: Hashem is reality.

16:14 SPEAKER_00: You can't go against Hashem.

16:17 SPEAKER_00: And so Hashem at the beginning of the Pasha says, Don't go.

16:20 SPEAKER_00: You won't be able to curse these people, they're blessed.

16:24 SPEAKER_00: And the midrash in Tanchuma, it's also in Bamid Barabbah as well, but Rashi brings it down from the Midrash in Tanchuma, fills in the dialogue between Bilam and Hashem.

16:35 SPEAKER_00: So Hashem says, Don't go.

16:37 SPEAKER_00: And Bilam says, Well, I'll curse them from here.

16:40 SPEAKER_00: And Hashem says, you won't be able to curse them.

16:43 SPEAKER_00: So Bilam says, okay, I'll bless them.

16:45 SPEAKER_00: And Hashem says they don't need your blessing, they're already blessed.

16:49 SPEAKER_00: And then the midrash says, a hornet, neither it's honey nor its sting.

16:55 SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?

16:57 SPEAKER_00: The hornet's insignificant.

17:00 SPEAKER_00: We don't need its honey.

17:02 SPEAKER_00: We don't need the benefits from it.

17:04 SPEAKER_00: And of course we don't want its sting.

17:07 SPEAKER_00: Bilam is insignificant.

17:09 SPEAKER_00: We don't need his blessing.

17:11 SPEAKER_00: And of course we don't want his curse.

17:13 SPEAKER_00: What does it mean he's insignificant?

17:14 SPEAKER_00: He was meant to be the greatest non-Jewish prophet of all time, as great as Moshe Rabinu, at least in potential.

17:20 SPEAKER_00: Why is he insignificant?

17:22 SPEAKER_00: He's insignificant because he's trying to change truth.

17:27 SPEAKER_00: He's trying to change reality.

17:30 SPEAKER_00: He's trying to change the identity and the destiny of the Jewish people.

17:34 SPEAKER_00: And those things are fixed.

17:36 SPEAKER_00: At Korban Pesach, we became betrothed to Hashem.

17:40 SPEAKER_00: At Matan Torah, we became married to Hashem.

17:43 SPEAKER_00: We have a covenant with Hashem that can't be overturned.

17:46 SPEAKER_00: Bilam's not going to be able to do that.

17:49 SPEAKER_00: We can choose whether we live up to that covenant or not.

17:52 SPEAKER_00: That's our free will.

17:54 SPEAKER_00: But it's unbreakable.

17:56 SPEAKER_00: There's a Gomorrah in Sanhedrin in 44 Ahmed Alif.

18:00 SPEAKER_00: It's explaining how the Jewish people lost the battle of Ai under Yahshua.

18:05 SPEAKER_00: And it quotes from the book of Yeshua when it says, why did they lose the battle?

18:11 SPEAKER_00: Because Yisrael sinned.

18:13 SPEAKER_00: And the Gomorrah brings down on that and says, even when it sins, it's still called Yisrael.

18:20 SPEAKER_00: We're still Am Yisrael.

18:22 SPEAKER_00: But ne Yisrael, we still have a covenant with Hashem.

18:26 SPEAKER_00: And so what we have to understand is Hashem chose Avraham long before Avraham chose Hashem.

18:34 SPEAKER_00: Before Mazan Torah, when we get married to Hashem, he says, You will be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

18:42 SPEAKER_00: That's the calling.

18:44 SPEAKER_00: And we are born into a covenant, whether we like it or not.

18:47 SPEAKER_00: That's our identity.

18:48 SPEAKER_00: We can choose to live up to it, or we can decide not to.

18:53 SPEAKER_00: That's our free will.

18:54 SPEAKER_00: But that is our identity.

18:57 SPEAKER_00: And this brings us to one of the most profound things Bilam says.

19:00 SPEAKER_00: Because what does Bilam say?

19:03 SPEAKER_00: He says it's a people that dwells alone, not reckoned among the nations.

19:08 SPEAKER_00: And Rushi brings down on that.

19:10 SPEAKER_00: What does it mean not reckoned amongst the nations?

19:13 SPEAKER_00: We're not on the same reckoning as the other nations.

19:17 SPEAKER_00: The other nations are within creation and within history.

19:20 SPEAKER_00: And we've seen nations rise and we've seen nations fall, and the Jewish people are still here.

19:27 SPEAKER_00: Because at Korban Pesach we were betrothed to Hashem.

19:30 SPEAKER_00: At Matantorah, we are married to Hashem.

19:33 SPEAKER_00: And we are tied to Hashem.

19:35 SPEAKER_00: And in the same way that Hashem is outside of creation and outside of history, so we the Jewish people are tied to Hashem.

19:42 SPEAKER_00: We're outside of creation.

19:44 SPEAKER_00: The normal rules of history and the world don't apply to the Jewish people.

19:49 SPEAKER_00: We are an eternal people because we have this covenant with Hashem.

19:54 SPEAKER_00: That's what it means.

19:56 SPEAKER_00: And therefore, because of that, we're a people that dwell alone.

20:00 SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?

20:02 SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean we can't have friendly relations with non-Jewish nations.

20:05 SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean we can't trade with them.

20:07 SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean that Israel isn't one of the first countries to send help.

20:11 SPEAKER_00: When Hasfishalam there's an earthquake or a natural disaster somewhere in the world.

20:15 SPEAKER_00: We can have good relations, we can be on friendly terms.

20:18 SPEAKER_00: All of those things are fine.

20:20 SPEAKER_00: But ultimately we're distinctive.

20:23 SPEAKER_00: Ultimately we're different.

20:25 SPEAKER_00: And that's why we're alone.

20:26 SPEAKER_00: Have you ever been in a room, a group of people, where something's going on in your life or whatever else, and you just don't feel part of the group, you feel different because of the things that are happening to you.

20:38 SPEAKER_00: That's the Jewish people.

20:41 SPEAKER_00: We can be friendly, we can be on good terms, but we are different.

20:46 SPEAKER_00: And what's interesting is whenever in history we've tried to shun our difference, we've tried to renege our Jewishness and just blend in with the other nations and be the same as them, it's never gone well.

20:59 SPEAKER_00: It's not gone well for the Jewish people, and the other nations won't even accept it anyway.

21:04 SPEAKER_00: They know we're different.

21:06 SPEAKER_00: They won't accept us and let us blend in because we're not the same.

21:12 SPEAKER_00: The post-liberal modern world wants to say you create your own identity.

21:16 SPEAKER_00: You can be whoever you want to be.

21:19 SPEAKER_00: But Judaism says something different.

21:22 SPEAKER_00: You can't change reality, truth.

21:25 SPEAKER_00: You can't change identity.

21:27 SPEAKER_00: You just choose whether you live by that identity or not.

21:30 SPEAKER_00: We have a covenant with Hashem, and we can decide whether we become the best people we can be and fulfill our meaning and purpose within that covenant.

21:40 SPEAKER_00: Or we can try and not stick to that covenant and fail because Hashem is reality.

21:48 SPEAKER_00: The more we are ourselves, the more we stick to the identity we've been given, the more reality we live, the closer to Hashem we are.

21:56 SPEAKER_00: The less we do that, the more we pull away from that, the less of ourselves.

22:00 SPEAKER_00: That we are.

22:02 SPEAKER_00: These two ideas, the idea of free will and identity, intersect at the end of the pasha.

22:10 SPEAKER_00: Because Bilam realizes he's not going to be able to curse the Jewish people.

22:14 SPEAKER_00: And so he says to Balak, he gives him advice what you want to do is lead Khal Israel off the right path.

22:22 SPEAKER_00: Seduce them.

22:23 SPEAKER_00: That's what you want to do.

22:24 SPEAKER_00: And of course, the Moabite women come into the Israeli camp and they lead them astray and they start worshipping Baal Peor, idolatry, and we're told that 24,000 people die in a plague.

22:40 SPEAKER_00: So what is that?

22:42 SPEAKER_00: You can't change identity.

22:45 SPEAKER_00: The Jewish people have a covenant with Hashem, but their free will means they can portray that covenant.

22:52 SPEAKER_00: And that's what happens.

22:54 SPEAKER_00: The intersection is the identity is already there.

22:58 SPEAKER_00: But free will means you can portray it.

23:01 SPEAKER_00: And they portray it.

23:02 SPEAKER_00: And if you portray your identity, if you betray who you are, if you betray reality and truth, it's never going to end well.

23:09 SPEAKER_00: And in this Pasha, it ends with 24,000 people dying.

23:13 SPEAKER_00: And it's only because Pinchus kills a navi, shocks Kal Israel, and the plague stops.

23:23 SPEAKER_00: That is the only reason it ends.

23:26 SPEAKER_00: Doesn't end very well.

23:29 SPEAKER_00: And so we learn amazing things.

23:31 SPEAKER_00: We learn that free will is a gift.

23:33 SPEAKER_00: It comes with a tremendous amount of responsibility.

23:36 SPEAKER_00: But Hashem won't take that away from us.

23:39 SPEAKER_00: Even when Bilam is told not to go, in the end, Hashem still lets him go.

23:45 SPEAKER_00: But identity is something else.

23:48 SPEAKER_00: The postmodern liberal world wants to say you can create your own identity, but Torah says we're given identity.

23:55 SPEAKER_00: That's our truth, that's reality.

23:57 SPEAKER_00: Our choice is whether we live by it and become the best people we can be and live a life of meaning and purpose.

24:03 SPEAKER_00: And just think about this.

24:06 SPEAKER_00: You're born to parents you didn't choose.

24:09 SPEAKER_00: You're born in a country you didn't choose, speaking a language you didn't choose, in economic circumstances that you didn't choose.

24:17 SPEAKER_00: You're given talents that you didn't ask for, and we all have limitations that we also didn't ask for.

24:24 SPEAKER_00: And your early schooling you wouldn't have chosen.

24:28 SPEAKER_00: And all of that goes to contribute to your identity and who you are.

24:36 SPEAKER_00: And so the postmodern liberal world wants to say identity starts with freedom.

24:44 SPEAKER_00: But what Torah comes to tell us, and the reality of life, is that identity starts with your creation.

24:55 SPEAKER_00: Your choice is to decide whether you want to live up to that identity or not.

25:01 SPEAKER_00: That is the free will.

25:03 SPEAKER_00: And so when we say Moldeani in the morning, when we ask ourselves, what shall I do today?

25:13 SPEAKER_00: Really the question we should be asking is what does Hashem want from us today?

25:18 SPEAKER_00: And that big question of this generation, who am I or who shall I be?

25:24 SPEAKER_00: From a Jewish Torah perspective, that question is something else.

25:29 SPEAKER_00: Who did Hashem create me to be?

25:33 SPEAKER_00: Our free will enables us to live up to that and live a life of meaning and purpose.