Parsha Va'etchanan – Where Judaism & Jewish Teachings Begin - Torah - What Makes Judaism Different?

0:00 SPEAKER_00: Shmuel comes home from school and his dad says to him, What did you learn today, Shmuel?

0:06 SPEAKER_00: And Shmuel says, I learned that Moshe Rabainu took all the Jews out of Mitchraim out of Egypt.

0:11 SPEAKER_00: And his dad said, Wow, did you learn anything else?

0:15 SPEAKER_00: And Shmuel says, Well, yeah, Dad, they got to the Sea of Reeds, and the Egyptians are chasing them.

0:21 SPEAKER_00: So Moshe radios in to his engineers, and the engineers come and they build a bridge, and then the tanks escort Klali Ishrael across the bridge, and the Egyptians are giving chase.

0:33 SPEAKER_00: And Moshe Rabainu radioed for the Israeli Air Force, and the Israeli Air Force come and they bomb the bridge, and then the Egyptians drown in the sea when the bridge collapses and Klali Ishrael was saved.

0:46 SPEAKER_00: And his dad looks at Shmuel and he says to Shmuel, Is that really what the teacher taught you?

0:52 SPEAKER_00: And Shmuel says, Well, no, Dad, but if I tell you what really happened, you'd never believe me.

1:00 SPEAKER_00: So this week's pasha, Veethan, really has everything in it.

1:05 SPEAKER_00: Moshe talks about Yitzietzmith's rhyme, he talks about Matan Torah, of course it's safer devim, so he talks about going into the land of Israel.

1:14 SPEAKER_00: And then we have foundational texts in this week's pasha.

1:18 SPEAKER_00: We have the Shema, we have the Asserat Adibrot, and it's really interesting.

1:23 SPEAKER_00: It's like if normally a pasha you'd think of as a concept album with some you know links and themes that go through it, Vaetchanan really feels like a greatest hit with everything thrown in.

1:37 SPEAKER_00: So then you say, so what is Va'ethan really about?

1:41 SPEAKER_00: What's it telling us?

1:43 SPEAKER_00: And of course, it always comes after Tisha Ba'av.

1:47 SPEAKER_00: And I think that one of the things we have in this week's Pasha in Vaetchanan is we have the foundation of Judaism.

1:55 SPEAKER_00: We have what makes Judaism different from any other religion.

2:00 SPEAKER_00: And it's so important because when you think of other world religions, people will say, well, the great monotheistic religions are Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

2:12 SPEAKER_00: And then if you want to talk about other great religions, you'll talk about Sikhism and Hinduism and Buddhism.

2:19 SPEAKER_00: And while that might be all the great world religions, to lump Judaism in with all the others is not right.

2:27 SPEAKER_00: Because Judaism is unique.

2:30 SPEAKER_00: Judaism is completely different from any of the other religions.

2:36 SPEAKER_00: And it's important for Jewish people to understand that.

2:39 SPEAKER_00: It's important for Jews to understand that Judaism is not just another world religion, another religious system, another faith.

2:48 SPEAKER_00: Judaism is fundamentally different and unique, and we need to understand why.

2:57 SPEAKER_00: So we have in this week's Pasha, the defining Pasuk really of Jewish faith, Shemai Yisrael, Hashem Elokenu, Hashem Echad.

3:07 SPEAKER_00: Listen, Israel, Hashem is our God, Hashem is one.

3:11 SPEAKER_00: And of course, this idea that Hashem is one means there is only one God.

3:16 SPEAKER_00: We understand that.

3:17 SPEAKER_00: But it means so much more than that.

3:20 SPEAKER_00: When we say Hashem is one, Hashem Echad, what we mean is Hashem is everything.

3:27 SPEAKER_00: There is nothing outside Hashem.

3:30 SPEAKER_00: Nothing exists outside Hashem at all.

3:33 SPEAKER_00: So for example, the Maharal in Guvarot Hashem in the second introduction, he says, nothing is separate from Hashem.

3:43 SPEAKER_00: Everything exists from Hashem.

3:47 SPEAKER_00: We have a Pasuk in Yesheahu.

3:49 SPEAKER_00: It says, Can an axe glorify itself above the one who chops with it?

3:55 SPEAKER_00: What does it mean?

3:56 SPEAKER_00: It means, of course, the axe has no independence.

3:59 SPEAKER_00: The axe is only prone to do whatever the wood chopper's gonna do with it.

4:03 SPEAKER_00: And Yesheahu is saying that is us.

4:07 SPEAKER_00: Hashem is everything.

4:09 SPEAKER_00: We can't do anything outside the means and wherewithal that Hashem has given us.

4:15 SPEAKER_00: There's a Gomorrah in Chulin in Seven Ahmed Bet.

4:19 SPEAKER_00: It says a person injures his finger below only if they declare it above him on high.

4:27 SPEAKER_00: In other words, nothing happens on earth without Hashem knowing and Hashem declaring it.

4:34 SPEAKER_00: In other words, something as insignificant as stubbing a toe or stubbing a finger.

4:40 SPEAKER_00: Even that only happens because Hashem declares it above.

4:46 SPEAKER_00: And of course, if we understand that, it seems to be a challenge to free will, which we'll come on to in a second.

4:53 SPEAKER_00: But we have to understand this concept.

4:56 SPEAKER_00: And then what are we told?

5:03 SPEAKER_00: You shall love your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might, with all your resources.

5:10 SPEAKER_00: And what does that mean?

5:12 SPEAKER_00: So there's a Gemara in Brahot in 54 Ahmad Alif that wants to explain.

5:17 SPEAKER_00: When it says loving your God with all your heart, what does that mean?

5:21 SPEAKER_00: It means your Yaitsahara, your evil inclination, and your Yaitsa Tov, your good inclination.

5:27 SPEAKER_00: In other words, with every part of your being, your emotions, your desires, your ambitions, everything you feel, all of those things, you should love Hashem, your God, with everything you have spiritually and emotionally.

5:46 SPEAKER_00: That's what it means, both the good inclination and the bad inclination, the Yetzahara and Yaitzh Taf.

5:52 SPEAKER_00: And then it says, and with all your soul, and that means with your very life itself.

5:58 SPEAKER_00: In other words, you should be willing to give up your life for Hashem.

6:02 SPEAKER_00: And of course, there are times prescribed in Torah when we have to do that.

6:06 SPEAKER_00: And although they're exceptional, there's not many of those.

6:10 SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, our rich history in Judaism has told us that there's been many, many times when Jews have had to die, Ekidish Hashem, give up their lives for Hashem.

6:21 SPEAKER_00: And then it says, with all your might, with all your resources.

6:25 SPEAKER_00: And the Gomorrah wants to explain, that means with your money.

6:28 SPEAKER_00: In other words, everything that you have in your physical material possessions.

6:34 SPEAKER_00: And so we're supposed to love Hashem with all our heart, which is our emotions, our spirituality, our ambitions, our desires, the spiritual side of us, and then with our physicality, with our money, with the physical resources we have as well.

6:51 SPEAKER_00: All of that, everything that we give our entire being should be to love Hashem, because of course everything is from Hashem, Hashem is one.

7:01 SPEAKER_00: The Sfa'emet explains that your desires, your ambitions, your goals, all of those things come from Hashem.

7:12 SPEAKER_00: So then you say, well, if my thoughts, if my desires, if my goals, if my ambitions, if all of that comes from Hashem, then how do I have any free will?

7:22 SPEAKER_00: Because Hashem gave us free will.

7:35 SPEAKER_00: He retracts to allow us to make those decisions.

7:39 SPEAKER_00: And so Hashem gives us our hopes, our dreams, our desires, our ambitions.

7:44 SPEAKER_00: But what we do with those feelings, what we do with those thoughts, that is up to us how we filter those.

7:53 SPEAKER_00: That's our decision.

7:55 SPEAKER_00: And the Svat Emmet wants to explain to us that actually what we're supposed to do is return those back to source.

8:02 SPEAKER_00: Hashem gives us ambitions and desires, and we can elevate those and return them back to Hashem redeemed at a higher spiritual level.

8:13 SPEAKER_00: Of course, you say, how do we do that?

8:15 SPEAKER_00: And we do that through Halacha.

8:18 SPEAKER_00: You see, people think of Halacha as Jewish law as restrictive.

8:22 SPEAKER_00: It tells us you can't do this and you must do that, and you can't do it this way, and you have to do it that way.

8:27 SPEAKER_00: And people look at it and think, well, this is so restrictive.

8:30 SPEAKER_00: Why would somebody want to live their life through this system?

8:33 SPEAKER_00: But what Halacha actually does is redeem us.

8:37 SPEAKER_00: It gives us the freedom to take these things and elevate them.

8:42 SPEAKER_00: Because Halacha accepts people become angry, that people crave food, that people seek wealth, that people experience physical desire.

8:52 SPEAKER_00: Halacha accepts ambition and love and fear and joy.

8:56 SPEAKER_00: But Halacha enables us, gives us a system to turn anger into striving for justice, ambition into serving Khalishael, love into marriage and kindness, money into sadaka, desire into holiness.

9:13 SPEAKER_00: That's what Halacha does.

9:15 SPEAKER_00: It allows us to redeem these things and return them to Hashem, return them to source in an elevated way.

9:24 SPEAKER_00: But what does this mean?

9:26 SPEAKER_00: It means that Judaism is unique because every other system starts with the individual.

9:37 SPEAKER_00: You think of the American constitution.

9:40 SPEAKER_00: The American constitution starts with the individual.

9:45 SPEAKER_00: And nations and religious systems start with the individual, but not Judaism.

9:52 SPEAKER_00: Judaism starts with Hashem.

9:55 SPEAKER_00: Hashem is one, Hashem is everything.

9:57 SPEAKER_00: Hashem gives us our lives and our feelings and our desires and our emotions, but then we can take those through the intellect.

10:05 SPEAKER_00: The Yetzar and the Yetzh Tav that Hashem has given us, and we can redeem them.

10:09 SPEAKER_00: But the starting point, the source in Judaism is Hashem.

10:16 SPEAKER_00: In this week's Pasha, Moshe talks about Matan Torah.

10:23 SPEAKER_00: And it's so important.

10:24 SPEAKER_00: Why does he bring that up?

10:26 SPEAKER_00: Because almost every other faith, every other religion, every other system starts with individuals or a small group of individuals, either one or a small group, and they have a revelation, they have a vision, they have an idea, and they then have to convince others that they're truth, that they're right, and then others follow.

10:49 SPEAKER_00: So of course, in Christianity it's Jesus and his disciples.

10:52 SPEAKER_00: In Islam it's Muhammad.

10:54 SPEAKER_00: In Buddhism, it's Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha.

10:58 SPEAKER_00: In Sikhism, it's Guru Nanak.

11:00 SPEAKER_00: In Hinduism, it's from teachings from many, many individuals that evolve over a long period of time.

11:08 SPEAKER_00: But not in Judaism.

11:10 SPEAKER_00: In Judaism, it starts with divine revelation.

11:14 SPEAKER_00: It doesn't start with an individual, it starts with Hashem.

11:18 SPEAKER_00: Every single Jew was at Hasini.

11:21 SPEAKER_00: Every single Jew heard at least the first two of the Asserat adibrod.

11:26 SPEAKER_00: And that's why Moshe turns around and says, Lest you forget the things that your eyes beheld, unless you remove them from your heart, because you were there.

11:37 SPEAKER_00: You mustn't forget.

11:38 SPEAKER_00: You must keep it in your mind and in your heart what you saw, what you heard, because you were there when Hashem spoke to the Jewish people.

11:49 SPEAKER_00: A national revelation.

11:51 SPEAKER_00: No other nation declares a national revelation in that way.

11:56 SPEAKER_00: And the Rambam says in his Mishnah Torah and his Side Torah and the foundations of Torah, he says, we don't believe in Moshe Rabainu because he produced signs and wonders.

12:10 SPEAKER_00: We don't believe in Moshe because he brought the plagues with his staff, or because when we got to the Reed Sea, he he split the sea with his staff, or when he hit the rock, the water came out.

12:23 SPEAKER_00: Because the Rumbam says for all the miraculous signs and wonders that Moshe brought, there are magicians, there are sorcerers.

12:32 SPEAKER_00: We don't go by that.

12:33 SPEAKER_00: That's not what validates Moshe.

12:36 SPEAKER_00: What validates Moshe is that every single Jew was at Hasini and every single Jew witnessed Hashem speaking to Moshe Rabinu.

12:47 SPEAKER_00: They saw it, they heard it with their own eyes and ears.

12:51 SPEAKER_00: And that is why we believe in Moshe.

12:54 SPEAKER_00: Not because of the signs and wonders that he brought.

12:57 SPEAKER_00: It's such an important point because we were all there.

13:02 SPEAKER_00: The source and the starting point was Hashem.

13:06 SPEAKER_00: And then Moshe lays a challenge down in this week's pasha for all generations, really for the entire world.

13:14 SPEAKER_00: Because what does Moshe say to the Jewish people?

13:18 SPEAKER_00: Has a people ever heard the voice of Hashem speaking from the midst of the fire as you heard and survived?

13:27 SPEAKER_00: What's Moshe Rabbeinu saying?

13:29 SPEAKER_00: Moshe Rabbeinu saying what makes Judaism special, what makes Judaism unique and not like any other system and any other religion in the world is that we have divine revelation.

13:41 SPEAKER_00: Every single Jew is at Hasina.

13:44 SPEAKER_00: Moshe wants to say that's why Judaism is unique.

13:47 SPEAKER_00: And three and a half thousand years ago he said it.

13:51 SPEAKER_00: And this is why we know the Torah is divine.

13:54 SPEAKER_00: Because how can a human being say that?

13:56 SPEAKER_00: How did Moshe not know that 500 years later, a thousand years later, two thousand years later, another nation was going to declare a divine revelation en masse that millions of people heard.

14:09 SPEAKER_00: But of course, three and a half thousand years later, no nation has ever declared it.

14:15 SPEAKER_00: And of course, Hashem knew that that would be the case.

14:18 SPEAKER_00: And so Moshe could say these things.

14:20 SPEAKER_00: What makes Judaism unique is our divine revelation that every Jew was there and no other nation claims that, and they never will.

14:29 SPEAKER_00: That's what he says.

14:30 SPEAKER_00: He speaks into the future, into thousands of years in the future, which you can only do if it's divine.

14:38 SPEAKER_00: That's what makes Judaism special.

14:41 SPEAKER_00: And then Moshe goes on.

14:43 SPEAKER_00: Because what does he say?

14:45 SPEAKER_00: Has any God miraculously come to take for himself a nation from a Mr.

14:50 SPEAKER_00: Nation?

14:52 SPEAKER_00: And then what does he say?

14:54 SPEAKER_00: With signs and with wonders, with war, with a strong hand, with an outstretched arm, with greatly awesome deeds.

15:01 SPEAKER_00: He says, as Hashem your God did, which you saw in Egypt before your eyes.

15:07 SPEAKER_00: In other words, again, everybody was there.

15:11 SPEAKER_00: And this is so important.

15:13 SPEAKER_00: Because when do we get betrothed to Hashem?

15:16 SPEAKER_00: When is our kadushin to Hashem?

15:18 SPEAKER_00: It's with Korban Pesach.

15:20 SPEAKER_00: And the very next day we come out of Egypt, yet see out Smith's Ryan.

15:24 SPEAKER_00: And who witnessed it?

15:26 SPEAKER_00: Every single Jew.

15:28 SPEAKER_00: Every single Jew was there when we gave Korban Pesach.

15:32 SPEAKER_00: Every single Jew was there when Hashem took us out of Egypt.

15:36 SPEAKER_00: This was lived experience.

15:38 SPEAKER_00: This wasn't one individual telling people what happened or a small group of people.

15:43 SPEAKER_00: This was every single Jew experienced it for themselves.

15:47 SPEAKER_00: And then when did we marry Hashem?

15:49 SPEAKER_00: When was the Nisuim?

15:51 SPEAKER_00: That was at Matan Torah.

15:53 SPEAKER_00: And who was there?

15:54 SPEAKER_00: Not Moshe, and then afterwards he tells all the Jewish people the revelation he has, and we have to believe him.

16:00 SPEAKER_00: Not Moshe and Aaron and a few of his trusted advisors.

16:04 SPEAKER_00: No.

16:05 SPEAKER_00: Every single Jew was at Matan Torah.

16:08 SPEAKER_00: Every single Jew experienced it.

16:11 SPEAKER_00: This is lived experience.

16:13 SPEAKER_00: And so the source for Judaism is Hashem.

16:17 SPEAKER_00: You know, in every other religion, the holy book comes from an individual or from a few people.

16:23 SPEAKER_00: You look at the New Testament, comes from Jesus' disciples, actually, many, many, many years later.

16:29 SPEAKER_00: Muhammad writes the Quran after he comes out of a cave.

16:34 SPEAKER_00: But with Judaism, the people didn't create Torah.

16:39 SPEAKER_00: Torah created the nation.

16:41 SPEAKER_00: Torah created the people.

16:43 SPEAKER_00: Torah comes from a divine revelation which every single Jew saw and heard with their own eyes.

16:50 SPEAKER_00: This is lived experience.

16:54 SPEAKER_00: Of course, then there's a challenge.

16:56 SPEAKER_00: If you have this lived experience, how do you preserve that memory?

17:01 SPEAKER_00: And Moshe says it many times in this week's pasha, and of course, it's in our foundational text in Shema.

17:08 SPEAKER_00: You have to teach your children.

17:10 SPEAKER_00: That is our responsibility.

17:13 SPEAKER_00: Because this is our heritage.

17:16 SPEAKER_00: This is shared memory.

17:18 SPEAKER_00: And therefore, you have to ensure that every single generation understands the lived experience that Jewish people have that's unique from any other religion.

17:28 SPEAKER_00: And that's why we have in the Gomorrah in Kadushin in 30 Ahmad Alif, what does it say?

17:34 SPEAKER_00: It says, when a father teaches his son Torah, it's like he taught his son, his grandson, and his great-grandson.

17:42 SPEAKER_00: Why?

17:42 SPEAKER_00: Because in Kahelep we have this idea of a three-ply cord is never broken.

17:48 SPEAKER_00: Once you go three generations, you secure it.

17:51 SPEAKER_00: And so the Gomorrah wants to say, once a father teaches his son, it's like you've secured Torah for another few generations.

17:58 SPEAKER_00: That three-plied cord that's never broken.

18:01 SPEAKER_00: Because it's our responsibility, it's our children's right and heritage to know this lived experience that everybody experienced coming out of Egypt.

18:11 SPEAKER_00: That everybody experienced Matan Torah.

18:14 SPEAKER_00: And the Gomorrah goes on to say the most amazing thing.

18:17 SPEAKER_00: When a grandfather teaches its grandson, it's as if the grandson is learning from Hassini itself.

18:25 SPEAKER_00: Why?

18:26 SPEAKER_00: Because of course that's the three ply chord.

18:29 SPEAKER_00: When a grandfather teaches his grandson, that's the three generations there.

18:34 SPEAKER_00: It's as if he heard it from Sinai himself.

18:37 SPEAKER_00: Of course, this is why Yaakov Avinu took Ephraim and Manasheh as part of the Shivatim.

18:43 SPEAKER_00: You say, why?

18:44 SPEAKER_00: Why didn't Yaakov just take his sons?

18:46 SPEAKER_00: Why does he need to take grandchildren?

18:48 SPEAKER_00: Ephraim and Manashe and make them part of the Shivatim as well.

18:52 SPEAKER_00: Because that's the three-ply court.

18:55 SPEAKER_00: Because if Yaakov just takes his sons, you've only got two generations.

18:59 SPEAKER_00: When Yaakov takes Ephraim and Manashe, Yosef's sons, then you've got Yaakov, the generation of his sons, and the next generation down.

19:09 SPEAKER_00: Ephraim and Manasheh, Yosef's sons, that's your three-ply court.

19:13 SPEAKER_00: And so we have a duty as Jewish people to teach our children.

19:19 SPEAKER_00: Every single one of us in this generation to teach the next generation and the following generations.

19:25 SPEAKER_00: Because this heritage to be a Jew, this lived experience that the Jewish people had, that no other nation, no other religion, no other system or philosophy claims, that's what makes Judaism unique.

19:39 SPEAKER_00: The source is Hashem, the beginning is Hashem.

19:44 SPEAKER_00: And then we have something else in this week's Pasha, where Moshe talks about the land of Israel.

19:50 SPEAKER_00: What does he say?

19:51 SPEAKER_00: He says, See, I've taught you Chukim and Ishpatim, decrees and ordinances.

19:56 SPEAKER_00: Just as Hashem, my God, commanded me, so that you should act accordingly in the midst of the land to which you come to possess it.

20:05 SPEAKER_00: In other words, Moshe is saying, I'm giving you these laws so you can keep them in I'eritz Ishrael.

20:12 SPEAKER_00: And Rams Rav Shim Shem Raphael Hirsch wants to explain.

20:16 SPEAKER_00: This is unique.

20:18 SPEAKER_00: Because how do nations form?

20:20 SPEAKER_00: People discover new worlds, new lands, and they settle those lands, and there might be war and there might be other things, but the people start to develop and culture starts to develop, often based on the terrain and the weather and other things.

20:35 SPEAKER_00: And ultimately, as these people grow and the culture grows, you need laws.

20:39 SPEAKER_00: And the laws come so they can govern the land, and a nation emerges.

20:44 SPEAKER_00: And nations are very much tied to the geographical borders they're in.

20:48 SPEAKER_00: So the Spanish are Spanish because of the borders of Spain, and the Germans are German because of the borders of Germany, and the French are French because of the borders of France.

20:58 SPEAKER_00: And normally what happens if you look at history is when people lose their territory from invasion or other things, those nations tend to disappear.

21:07 SPEAKER_00: Because what made them cohesive as a nation is the geographical boundaries.

21:12 SPEAKER_00: They emerge from the land itself, not the Jewish people.

21:18 SPEAKER_00: The Jewish people are given the laws in the Midbah, in the desert.

21:24 SPEAKER_00: And it's because they have the laws, then Hashem gives us Eretz Ishrael a land in order to keep the laws.

21:32 SPEAKER_00: In other words, the land doesn't define who the Jewish people are, the covenant defines who the Jewish people are.

21:40 SPEAKER_00: The Brit with Hashem, the Torah itself defines who the Jewish people are.

21:47 SPEAKER_00: Torah didn't emerge from Jewish history.

21:50 SPEAKER_00: Jewish history itself emerges from Torah.

21:53 SPEAKER_00: And so we're given Erit Shishrael to keep the laws.

21:57 SPEAKER_00: And that's so important because that is the Only reason we're given Erit Ishwael, and therefore, if we go into Erit Ishwael and we don't build a society based on Torah, we don't keep Torah, we don't need the land.

22:10 SPEAKER_00: That's the only reason it's been given.

22:12 SPEAKER_00: And therefore, if we don't keep Torah, what happens?

22:14 SPEAKER_00: We get exiled from the land.

22:16 SPEAKER_00: And we always read the Etzchanan after Tisha Ba'av.

22:21 SPEAKER_00: And of course, on Tisha Ba'av we commemorate the destruction of the first Beit Amiddash and the second Beit Amigdash when we were exiled from the land because we weren't keeping Torah properly within the land.

22:32 SPEAKER_00: And therefore, whereas every other nation disappears when it loses its territory, the Jewish people for 2,000 years was scattered throughout the world, through the Middle East, through Africa, through Europe, in America.

22:46 SPEAKER_00: And yet we stayed the Jewish people.

22:49 SPEAKER_00: Because what kept us together is not a land.

22:54 SPEAKER_00: It's a Brit with Hashem, a covenant with Hashem and Torah.

22:58 SPEAKER_00: And so, like every other nation, the source of their nationhood is their land.

23:03 SPEAKER_00: The source of our nationhood is Hashem.

23:06 SPEAKER_00: It's Torah.

23:08 SPEAKER_00: And the land comes afterwards.

23:10 SPEAKER_00: And the land is only given to us to keep Torah in.

23:14 SPEAKER_00: And no other nation on earth is like that.

23:17 SPEAKER_00: It's unique to the Jewish people.

23:21 SPEAKER_00: And so Pashat V'ethan comes to teach us and remind us that Judaism is different.

23:28 SPEAKER_00: It's not that we believe in one God that makes us different.

23:32 SPEAKER_00: There are other faiths that believe that.

23:35 SPEAKER_00: It's not that we have mitzvot commandments to keep.

23:38 SPEAKER_00: They are a bit different from other commands in other religions, but nevertheless, other religions have commandments, rules that they should keep.

23:46 SPEAKER_00: It's not that we have a holy land.

23:49 SPEAKER_00: Other religions and nations have holy places.

23:53 SPEAKER_00: The difference is deeper.

23:55 SPEAKER_00: It's that every civilization and religion begins with man or begins with land, begins with individuals.

24:03 SPEAKER_00: Judaism begins with Hashem.

24:06 SPEAKER_00: The individual themselves, their hopes, dreams, and desires comes from this idea that Hashem is one, Hashem Echad.

24:14 SPEAKER_00: It starts with Hashem as the source, and then we can then take those and using Halacha, we can challenge them through our channel them through our free will and Yetsahar and Yetzatov to redeem them, return them to source.

24:27 SPEAKER_00: But the starting point is Hashem.

24:29 SPEAKER_00: The nation begins with Hashem.

24:33 SPEAKER_00: Not with human discovery, but divine revelation.

24:37 SPEAKER_00: It's lived experience.

24:39 SPEAKER_00: We marry Hashem at Matan Torah, which is a national revelation, and our engagement before that is with Corban Pesach and Yetziat Smithrayim, both of which are lived experiences, both of which every single person in the nation was there.

24:58 SPEAKER_00: And it starts with Hashem.

25:01 SPEAKER_00: The land begins with Hashem.

25:04 SPEAKER_00: Not that land creates law, but Hashem's law created the need for a land.

25:11 SPEAKER_00: Every single civilization has to answer what comes first.

25:15 SPEAKER_00: Is it the individual, society, culture, politics, or land?

25:19 SPEAKER_00: Every civilization begins somewhere, but Judaism begins somewhere else.

25:25 SPEAKER_00: Judaism begins with Hashem.

25:28 SPEAKER_00: Everything else, the individual, the nation, the land, destiny itself, flows from that one truth.

25:35 SPEAKER_00: Hashem is the foundation.

25:37 SPEAKER_00: Hashem is the source.

25:39 SPEAKER_00: Hashem is one.

25:41 SPEAKER_00: This is where Judaism begins.

25:44 SPEAKER_00: And this is this principle that means that Judaism is completely different from any other faith, religion, philosophy, or civilization on earth.