Torah Parsha Chukat: Jewish Teachings - Escaping The Prison We Create

0:00 SPEAKER_00: Chaim and Schmuel are having dinner in a diner, and the 10 o'clock news comes on and they're watching it, and there's a man on a ledge that looks like he might jump.

0:11 SPEAKER_00: And Schmuel turns round to Chaim and says, I bet he jumps.

0:14 SPEAKER_00: And Chaim says, I bet he doesn't.

0:16 SPEAKER_00: And Schmuel takes out$50 and puts it on the table.

0:20 SPEAKER_00: And so Chaim takes out$50, and as he puts it on the table, the man jumps.

0:25 SPEAKER_00: And Chaim's very upset.

0:27 SPEAKER_00: And he says to Schmuel, here's your money, it's yours, you want it fair and square.

0:31 SPEAKER_00: And Schmuel turns around and says, Look, I can't take your money.

0:34 SPEAKER_00: He says, To tell you the truth, I saw this on the 7 o'clock news.

0:37 SPEAKER_00: I knew he jumped.

0:38 SPEAKER_00: And Chaim says, I also saw it on the 7 o'clock news, but I didn't think he'd do it again.

0:46 SPEAKER_00: So this week's pasha, Chukat, right at the beginning we have the famous phrase, Zot Chukat Hatorah.

0:55 SPEAKER_00: This is the decree of the Torah.

0:58 SPEAKER_00: And very famously the midrash in Bamid Barabbah goes out of its way to explain how Shloma Hamelech was the wisest man that ever lived, and it tells us all sorts of reasons why he was the wisest man, that he could talk to animals and all sorts of other things.

1:13 SPEAKER_00: And then right at the end it quotes from a Pasuk from Kahelet where it says, I thought I could fathom it, but it eludes me.

1:22 SPEAKER_00: In other words, Shloma Hamelech was saying he could understand everything, but para aduma he couldn't understand.

1:28 SPEAKER_00: This mitzvah that we take the red heifer to purify people that have become contaminated, and it purifies the people that become contaminated, but it contaminates the very people that help purify them, and this inner contradiction, and it's very, very difficult to understand.

1:48 SPEAKER_00: And so we have this phrase, Zotchukat a Torah, this is the decree of the Torah.

1:54 SPEAKER_00: But it leads to a number of questions around this idea of chukim.

2:00 SPEAKER_00: And of course we have chukim like kashrut and tefillin and shatnez not wearing wool and linen.

2:06 SPEAKER_00: The question is this how does doing mitzvot that we don't understand help?

2:14 SPEAKER_00: The Torah gives us mitzvot to do that we really don't understand.

2:18 SPEAKER_00: How does that help us in any way to do those mitzvat?

2:22 SPEAKER_00: And if part of what we're trying to do in life is form a relationship, a connection with Hashem, how does doing mitzvot that we don't understand help strengthen that connection with Hashem?

2:36 SPEAKER_00: And then of course this phrase itself, Zothu Katsha Torah.

2:41 SPEAKER_00: This is the decree of the Torah.

2:44 SPEAKER_00: But there are lots of hukim in the Torah.

2:47 SPEAKER_00: So why is the Paraduma?

2:49 SPEAKER_00: Why does it say for that one, this is the decree of the Torah?

2:53 SPEAKER_00: Why?

2:54 SPEAKER_00: I mean it's not the decree of the Torah.

2:56 SPEAKER_00: There's lots of decrees of the Torah.

2:58 SPEAKER_00: But obviously the Torah doesn't make mistakes.

3:00 SPEAKER_00: Why is it saying that?

3:01 SPEAKER_00: What are we supposed to understand by it?

3:07 SPEAKER_00: So what's interesting is we go through life and we there's a phrase that people say, if I'd only known X, I wouldn't have done Y.

3:17 SPEAKER_00: Or if I'd known X, I would have done Y.

3:19 SPEAKER_00: In other words, we say there's an information gap and we didn't have the information, and therefore if I'd known X, I wouldn't have done Y.

3:27 SPEAKER_00: But actually, when you look at life, it might be true occasionally, but it often isn't.

3:34 SPEAKER_00: Let me give you examples of what I mean.

3:37 SPEAKER_00: So you think about health.

3:39 SPEAKER_00: We have more information today about what eating healthy is, nutrition and understanding the human body and what we should eat and what we shouldn't eat and how much we should eat and how much we shouldn't eat.

3:51 SPEAKER_00: We have all this information, and yet many, many of us still don't eat healthy.

3:58 SPEAKER_00: And we have so much information about sleep and how lack of sleep can affect mood and can affect mental health and it can affect productivity and even longevity, how long we live.

4:10 SPEAKER_00: And yet many of us go to bed far too late.

4:14 SPEAKER_00: And we have so much information and understanding now about screens and smartphones and how constant screen time and scrolling can lead to depression and anxiety and stress, apart from the fact of the complete waste of time it often is.

4:30 SPEAKER_00: And yet many of us spend far too long on our phones.

4:35 SPEAKER_00: And whether it's information about how we improve relationships or how we can improve our financial situation or even the self-improvement of ourselves, there's so much information out there, and yet we fail to do any of these things.

4:52 SPEAKER_00: And of course, the thing is this the problem really isn't informational, the problem is transformational.

5:00 SPEAKER_00: The problem isn't that we don't have information, the problem is how do you take that information and actually use it to change yourself.

5:10 SPEAKER_00: That's the challenge.

5:11 SPEAKER_00: The information's there, but changing ourselves, transforming ourselves, that's really, really hard.

5:19 SPEAKER_00: And of course, the Torah itself gives us so much information, so much insight, so much depth, so much knowledge, there's so much to learn there.

5:30 SPEAKER_00: But the Torah does something else because the Torah understands that information isn't enough.

5:36 SPEAKER_00: And so the Torah gives us 613 mitzvot, lots and lots of mitzvot to do.

5:44 SPEAKER_00: Because, of course, what's unbelievable about Torah is Torah is built on a premise that the rest of humanity didn't understand till almost a thousand years after Torah was given.

6:00 SPEAKER_00: Because Torah understands that the information we get, what we think about, doesn't change us.

6:07 SPEAKER_00: What changes us is action.

6:10 SPEAKER_00: What changes us is what we do.

6:12 SPEAKER_00: And therefore, the Torah gives us loads and loads of mitzvot every day of our lives.

6:18 SPEAKER_00: Almost every moment of every day, we have things that we're supposed to do.

6:23 SPEAKER_00: Aristotle said the same thing, but almost 800 years after Torah, and of course, he had the benefit of Torah being in the world, and so that knowledge became available.

6:36 SPEAKER_00: And human psychology today says the same thing, but Torah is the oldest safer in the world that we have that actually is built on this premise.

6:47 SPEAKER_00: We have so many examples of this.

6:49 SPEAKER_00: But in Pirke Avot in chapter three, Rabbi Akiva says, Everything is foreseen, yet free choice is given.

6:57 SPEAKER_00: He's talking about the fact that Hashem knows everything and yet we still have free choice.

7:02 SPEAKER_00: And Rumbam, in his commentary on Perke Avot on that very pasuk, brings down this idea and says, someone wants to give a thousand gold coins to Sadaka.

7:14 SPEAKER_00: And they can give a thousand gold coins in one go, or they could give one coin away each time and give one coin away a thousand times.

7:23 SPEAKER_00: And the rum bum says it's far, far better to give one gold coin a thousand times than a thousand gold coins in one go.

7:33 SPEAKER_00: And of course, what's interesting about that is the material fact of it doesn't change.

7:38 SPEAKER_00: A thousand gold coins are going to go to Sadaka.

7:41 SPEAKER_00: Why does it matter if you give a thousand in one go or if you give one at a time a thousand times?

7:47 SPEAKER_00: But the rum bum says the following you give a thousand gold coins once, it doesn't change you.

7:54 SPEAKER_00: One action doesn't change you.

7:56 SPEAKER_00: But to give a thousand gold coins and do it one at a time, so you give one thousand times, that changes you.

8:05 SPEAKER_00: That develops your middle of generosity.

8:08 SPEAKER_00: Because the act of constantly doing it a thousand times of giving, that changes who we are.

8:16 SPEAKER_00: Seifa Achinach, a couple of hundred years after the Rambam comes along and says, very similar thing on mitzvah 16, which is uh korban pesakh, not to break a bone of the korban pesoch.

8:32 SPEAKER_00: He explains that mitzvah, but then he says, the heart follows actions.

8:37 SPEAKER_00: It's actions that change you.

8:39 SPEAKER_00: And he goes quite far with it.

8:41 SPEAKER_00: He explains and says, if someone's got the inclination to be evil, but they undertake to keep Torah and they do the mitzvot, they will become good.

8:52 SPEAKER_00: Alternatively, if someone is a good person, they've got an inclination to be good, and they end up doing bad things, they can become evil.

9:01 SPEAKER_00: And the Seifer Hakinach brings down the idea of someone at work, someone working for the king, is forced to do some bad things, but those actions affect us, and eventually you can end up bad.

9:15 SPEAKER_00: And so what's amazing is Torah is a hack.

9:18 SPEAKER_00: Torah is a hack to become a good person because it's a book of action.

9:22 SPEAKER_00: There's so many mitzvot we have to do, and if we dedicate ourselves to doing those mitzvot and we do them properly, it changes who we are.

9:31 SPEAKER_00: And so just by keeping Torah, we can become people that are worthy of being the kohenim of the world, of being witnesses to Hashem, because those actions change who we are.

9:45 SPEAKER_00: Of course, in Torah, we have three types of mitzvot.

9:49 SPEAKER_00: We have the mishpatim, what's often known as the rational rules, because they're rules that almost every society has developed.

9:57 SPEAKER_00: So do not murder, do not steal, develop some sort of court system.

10:02 SPEAKER_00: These are the mishpatim.

10:04 SPEAKER_00: And then we have aid.

10:06 SPEAKER_00: And aid are the rules that are the mitzvot that are testimony to Hashem's existence in the world.

10:13 SPEAKER_00: So we have Shabbat, testimony to the fact that Hashem created the world.

10:18 SPEAKER_00: And we have the Khagim, testimony to the fact that Hashem is involved in history.

10:23 SPEAKER_00: And we have Sain Shema, testimony to the oneness of Hashem and the existence of Hashem.

10:30 SPEAKER_00: These are the Adu.

10:31 SPEAKER_00: And whereas the Mishpatim we would have come to ourselves, and many societies have, the Adu we wouldn't have necessarily come to ourselves, we wouldn't have necessarily created Sadanite, for example, but there's still a logic to it.

10:46 SPEAKER_00: We understand why we're keeping those.

10:49 SPEAKER_00: And then of course we have the chukim, kashras, to fillin, shatnas, not wearing wool and linen.

10:58 SPEAKER_00: And these we don't understand.

11:00 SPEAKER_00: Ultimately, we do them because Hashem told us to do them.

11:05 SPEAKER_00: And comes along Ravyalevi Yitzak of Berdichev.

11:09 SPEAKER_00: And he says the following.

11:11 SPEAKER_00: He says, with the Mishpatim, we keep those.

11:15 SPEAKER_00: But we can explain those away.

11:17 SPEAKER_00: You know, we say we're not murder.

11:19 SPEAKER_00: Well, it makes sense not to murder.

11:20 SPEAKER_00: How can you go through society, people murdering each other, and it's wrong?

11:24 SPEAKER_00: My inner moral sense tells me that it's wrong.

11:27 SPEAKER_00: And then even the aid at Shabbat.

11:30 SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, it makes sense to have one day off a week.

11:33 SPEAKER_00: Who wants to work seven days out of seven?

11:35 SPEAKER_00: It makes sense to have one day a week.

11:36 SPEAKER_00: And keeping pace, it's nice to remember where my ancestors have come from, where we are in history, who we are as a people, where we've come from.

11:46 SPEAKER_00: We can explain those mitzvot away.

11:49 SPEAKER_00: But then when it comes to hooking, kashra, I have a burger, and then there's some milk chocolate, and I want to have that milk chocolate, and I can't because I've had a meaty burger.

12:00 SPEAKER_00: And you say, Why can't I?

12:02 SPEAKER_00: Because Hashem said so.

12:05 SPEAKER_00: You go to Shaol every day and you put on a black box on your arm and a black box on your head to fill in.

12:11 SPEAKER_00: Someone says, Why are you doing that?

12:13 SPEAKER_00: Because Hashem told me to.

12:16 SPEAKER_00: You see a beautiful suit in a shop and you think that looks lovely, I'd love to get that for Shabbat.

12:21 SPEAKER_00: And you go and have a look at it and you realize it's made of wool and linen, it's shatness, you can't have it.

12:26 SPEAKER_00: And why can't I have it?

12:27 SPEAKER_00: It's a beautiful suit because Hashem said I can't wear that.

12:31 SPEAKER_00: And so the hukim are so important because they remind us that we don't serve Hashem on our terms.

12:40 SPEAKER_00: We serve Hashem on his terms.

12:42 SPEAKER_00: Sovereignty lies with Hashem.

12:44 SPEAKER_00: If it's only Mishpatim and Aidat that we have, we could decide that we keep the mitzvot.

12:50 SPEAKER_00: Ultimately, yes, Hashem gave us the mitzvot, but they make sense to us.

12:54 SPEAKER_00: And then Hasfishalam would be worshipping Hashem on our terms.

12:58 SPEAKER_00: The Hukim ride roughshod over that.

13:01 SPEAKER_00: Because Kashrus, Tefilin, Shatnas, and many others, we only keep because Hashem told us to.

13:08 SPEAKER_00: And therefore, it becomes very, very clear that we are serving Hashem on his terms.

13:15 SPEAKER_00: And therefore, when it says Zothu Katz a Torah, this is the decree of the Torah.

13:20 SPEAKER_00: Because ultimately, this is why we keep the Torah, because Hashem told us to.

13:24 SPEAKER_00: However much many of the mitzvot make sense and we can rationalise and understand, ultimately we keep Torah because Hashem told us to.

13:32 SPEAKER_00: And why para adumah?

13:34 SPEAKER_00: Why that one is Zothukat Torah?

13:37 SPEAKER_00: Because that is the paradigm of a huch.

13:40 SPEAKER_00: Because that's the one that has an inner contradiction.

13:43 SPEAKER_00: Kashrut doesn't have an inner contradiction to it.

13:46 SPEAKER_00: We just keep it because Hashem told us to.

13:48 SPEAKER_00: We can't really explain it.

13:50 SPEAKER_00: But Para-Duma, the fact that it contaminates people that are already pure and purifies the people that are contaminated, this inner contradiction, the fact that Shloma Hamelech himself, the wisest person that ever lived, couldn't understand it.

14:03 SPEAKER_00: It is the paradigm, it's the ultimate hoch.

14:06 SPEAKER_00: And therefore we say, Zothu Kata Torah, this is the decree of the Torah, but this is the reason we keep all of Torah.

14:15 SPEAKER_00: And it's very interesting because in the Western world today, in the Western secular world, freedom really is doing what you want to do, what you understand, what makes sense to you.

14:29 SPEAKER_00: You make those choices.

14:31 SPEAKER_00: Torah comes along and challenges that.

14:34 SPEAKER_00: Torah says maybe freedom isn't that.

14:37 SPEAKER_00: Maybe freedom is the ability to go beyond yourself.

14:45 SPEAKER_00: What Torah challenges, therefore, is the following.

14:58 SPEAKER_00: You know, a non-Jew said to me, Why are you putting on to fill him?

15:02 SPEAKER_00: And I said, to be honest, I don't fully understand it.

15:05 SPEAKER_00: It's just that Hashem told me to do it.

15:07 SPEAKER_00: For most people in the Western world, that's a crazy thing to do.

15:11 SPEAKER_00: You're doing something you don't understand on the say so of Hashem.

15:16 SPEAKER_00: But that's because we make reason the measure of all things.

15:20 SPEAKER_00: And reason is not the measure of all things.

15:23 SPEAKER_00: And actually, we can understand this through philosophy.

15:26 SPEAKER_00: Immanuel Kant comes along and he says the following Right, we only understand the world through the prism of our own mind.

15:34 SPEAKER_00: What we're seeing really is not reality, it's reality filtered through our understanding of what reality is.

15:43 SPEAKER_00: And the philosopher Bertrand Russell wants to explain Immanuel Kant, and he uses what's called the blue spectacles analogy, and it's a wonderful way of explaining it.

15:54 SPEAKER_00: You put on blue spectacles, and then you look at the world, and the world looks blue.

16:00 SPEAKER_00: Everything you see has a blue tinge.

16:03 SPEAKER_00: And so if you've got these blue spectacles on, your reality is that everything has a blueness to it, everything has a blue tinge.

16:11 SPEAKER_00: But of course, you're not seeing reality.

16:13 SPEAKER_00: You're seeing reality plus blue lenses.

16:17 SPEAKER_00: But that's how we see the world.

16:19 SPEAKER_00: We think we see reality, but we see the world through the prism of our own minds.

16:26 SPEAKER_00: And therefore, if we're only ever gonna go through reason and logic, we become prisoners of our own minds.

16:35 SPEAKER_00: We can never escape ourselves, we can never transcend, we can never go on, go beyond who we are, because there's no ability to do that if reason and logic are the measure of all things.

16:50 SPEAKER_00: But there's a deeper problem here because reason and logic will explain the what of the world.

16:57 SPEAKER_00: You can understand what happens through reason and logic, and it will also explain the how of the world.

17:04 SPEAKER_00: So you can explain what happens through reason and logic and how it happens through reason and logic.

17:11 SPEAKER_00: But what reason and logic will never give you is it will never give you the why.

17:17 SPEAKER_00: It will never give you meaning and purpose, it won't explain the point of things.

17:23 SPEAKER_00: Because in order to do that, you have to go outside of the system.

17:28 SPEAKER_00: And if you stay within reason and logic and say you're a system yourself as a human being, you never go outside of that system.

17:36 SPEAKER_00: And if you don't go outside of that system, you will never find meaning and purpose in life.

17:42 SPEAKER_00: And actually, much of the problems of the secular world today is that there are millions, even billions of people living without meaning and purpose.

17:51 SPEAKER_00: But of course, we all need meaning and purpose, and there's a big void.

17:55 SPEAKER_00: And people get addicted to shopping, or they get addicted to food, or they get addicted to their phones, or they get addicted to substances, drugs or alcohol or other things, because they're trying to fill a void of meaning and purpose.

18:09 SPEAKER_00: Because human beings need meaning and purpose.

18:12 SPEAKER_00: We're meaning-seeking creatures.

18:14 SPEAKER_00: There needs to be a point and a purpose to this.

18:17 SPEAKER_00: You know, life's not easy.

18:18 SPEAKER_00: We all have challenges and struggles as we go through life, and it's much easier to face those challenges and struggles if we think we're doing it for a reason, if there's meaning and purpose behind it, if we have to go through these challenges and struggles with no meaning and purpose, that's really tough.

18:36 SPEAKER_00: But you have to go outside the system to get meaning and purpose.

18:40 SPEAKER_00: So let me explain what I mean.

18:43 SPEAKER_00: Take love.

18:45 SPEAKER_00: All of us want to be loved, and all of us want to have the ability to love others.

18:51 SPEAKER_00: And love's very difficult to explain to people.

18:55 SPEAKER_00: But if you said, why does love matter?

18:58 SPEAKER_00: You say, because people want to know someone cares.

19:01 SPEAKER_00: So why does it matter that someone cares?

19:05 SPEAKER_00: Because that gives a human being a feeling of significance, belonging, and connection.

19:10 SPEAKER_00: You go, okay.

19:12 SPEAKER_00: But why does someone need to feel significant and a sense of belonging connection?

19:17 SPEAKER_00: Ah, because then if they feel significant, they feel they belong, they feel connected, then they can flourish.

19:24 SPEAKER_00: Why do they need to flourish?

19:26 SPEAKER_00: Ah, because if they flourish, they can be the best versions of themselves.

19:31 SPEAKER_00: Why do they need to be the best versions of themselves?

19:34 SPEAKER_00: Because then they can fulfill their purpose.

19:38 SPEAKER_00: Why do they need to fulfill their purpose?

19:41 SPEAKER_00: Because that's why Hashem put them here.

19:44 SPEAKER_00: Ah, now you've gone beyond reason and logic.

19:48 SPEAKER_00: Now you've gone beyond the system.

19:52 SPEAKER_00: You've introduced Hashem.

19:54 SPEAKER_00: There's always a primary reason.

19:56 SPEAKER_00: There has to be something bigger than you.

19:59 SPEAKER_00: And you know, that can be truth, it can be freedom for certain people.

20:03 SPEAKER_00: You know, it's Hashem, but there has to be something bigger than you.

20:07 SPEAKER_00: You have to be able to go outside the system to be able to explain the system.

20:13 SPEAKER_00: Millions of people around the world love football.

20:17 SPEAKER_00: But you couldn't explain why football's so amazing by explaining the system, the rules of the game.

20:23 SPEAKER_00: If you said to someone that loves football, why is football amazing?

20:27 SPEAKER_00: They wouldn't say because there's 11 players against 11 players and they kick a football.

20:31 SPEAKER_00: They wouldn't say because you score goals.

20:33 SPEAKER_00: They wouldn't say, oh, football's amazing because of the offside rule.

20:37 SPEAKER_00: None of that explains football.

20:39 SPEAKER_00: The way you explain football is you know what's amazing about football?

20:43 SPEAKER_00: The excitement it brings, the joy it brings, the sense of belonging it brings when you go and support your club and you're standing there with 30,000, 40, 50,000 other people, the sense of connection and belonging and being part of something, and the joy and the exuberance when your team score and you win.

21:01 SPEAKER_00: But that's all outside the system.

21:03 SPEAKER_00: That's nothing to do with the rules of the game.

21:06 SPEAKER_00: That goes way beyond the game.

21:08 SPEAKER_00: And you can have a computer that's programmed at chess.

21:13 SPEAKER_00: And if you say to the computer, show me the moves I need to do to win the game, it will show you the root the moves.

21:20 SPEAKER_00: Because that's a system question.

21:23 SPEAKER_00: And then if you say to the computer, okay, you showed me the rules or the moves I need to make to win, now tell me why winning's important.

21:32 SPEAKER_00: The computer won't be able to do it.

21:35 SPEAKER_00: Because that goes beyond the system.

21:37 SPEAKER_00: It's programmed to show you chess.

21:39 SPEAKER_00: Why winning's important is beyond the system.

21:43 SPEAKER_00: That goes beyond.

21:46 SPEAKER_00: Meaning and purpose comes from a primary reason.

21:50 SPEAKER_00: That's para duma.

21:53 SPEAKER_00: Zotukata.

21:55 SPEAKER_00: This is the decree of the Torah.

21:58 SPEAKER_00: Because ultimately, why do we?

22:00 SPEAKER_00: Keep Torah because Hashem told us to.

22:04 SPEAKER_00: That's why we keep Torah.

22:06 SPEAKER_00: That is the primary reason.

22:07 SPEAKER_00: That's why it says Zothu Kat a Torah.

22:10 SPEAKER_00: This is the decree of the Torah because ultimately we keep the Torah because Hashem told us to.

22:16 SPEAKER_00: That is the meaning and purpose.

22:18 SPEAKER_00: And the Para Duma is the paradigm of a hawk.

22:21 SPEAKER_00: It's the paradigm, so we use it on that particular hock.

22:24 SPEAKER_00: But that's the reason we keep Torah.

22:29 SPEAKER_00: So now we've got an issue.

22:31 SPEAKER_00: And the issue is as follows.

22:32 SPEAKER_00: If we say we've got to go beyond reason and logic to find meaning and purpose, and that goes beyond us, and we don't understand all of this, then the question is, well, how do you get to any level of understanding?

22:46 SPEAKER_00: How are you going to get there?

22:47 SPEAKER_00: You can't do it through reason and logic.

22:49 SPEAKER_00: You have to go beyond the system.

22:51 SPEAKER_00: How therefore do we get any way that we can understand it?

22:54 SPEAKER_00: Sounds like it's now all beyond human beings.

22:58 SPEAKER_00: And the answer to that is just that we have to live it.

23:03 SPEAKER_00: You can't understand love from a book.

23:06 SPEAKER_00: You can read books about love as much as you like.

23:10 SPEAKER_00: But the only way you'll start to get an understanding about love is when you find someone you love and when someone loves you.

23:18 SPEAKER_00: When you find someone you love, you'll start to understand a little bit about what love is.

23:24 SPEAKER_00: When you feel loved, you'll start to understand a little bit about what love is.

23:29 SPEAKER_00: You have to live it.

23:31 SPEAKER_00: And that's Torah.

23:33 SPEAKER_00: It's no coincidence that the first ever Jew, Avraham Avinu, what is the first thing Hashem says to the first ever Jew, Avraham Avinu?

23:44 SPEAKER_00: Lechlacha, go for yourself, leave your land, your relatives, your father's house.

23:50 SPEAKER_00: In other words, Avraham, at 75 years old, you need to leave everything you've ever known.

23:57 SPEAKER_00: Leave it all behind to a land that I will show you.

24:00 SPEAKER_00: In other words, you don't even know where you're going.

24:02 SPEAKER_00: I'm going to show you while you're on your journey.

24:05 SPEAKER_00: That is beyond reason and logic.

24:08 SPEAKER_00: For a 75-year-old man to leave everything they've ever known, they've ever experienced in their life on Hashem's say so.

24:16 SPEAKER_00: And go to a land they don't even know where they're going, that's a hock.

24:21 SPEAKER_00: That's beyond any reason and logic.

24:23 SPEAKER_00: But it's only when Avraham takes that leap that he starts to get an understanding.

24:29 SPEAKER_00: And that is Emuna.

24:32 SPEAKER_00: Living Torah.

24:34 SPEAKER_00: That is Emunah.

24:35 SPEAKER_00: It's a hock.

24:37 SPEAKER_00: And it's no coincidence that when did Klali Ishrael become Hashem's nation?

24:44 SPEAKER_00: So the Nisun, the actual wedding happens at Hasini, but the betrothal, the Kidushin, that happens at Korban Pesach.

24:52 SPEAKER_00: And what does Hashem say to Klali Ishrael?

24:55 SPEAKER_00: You're in Egypt.

24:56 SPEAKER_00: You've been oppressed by the Egyptians for over 200 years.

25:00 SPEAKER_00: They've killed your children.

25:02 SPEAKER_00: They're trying to annihilate you.

25:04 SPEAKER_00: And you know what you're going to do now?

25:06 SPEAKER_00: You're going to take a lamb, the god, someone they worship, something they worship.

25:10 SPEAKER_00: You're going to take their god.

25:12 SPEAKER_00: You're going to tie it to a bedpost for four days.

25:14 SPEAKER_00: Then you're going to shacht it.

25:16 SPEAKER_00: You're going to kill it.

25:17 SPEAKER_00: You're going to roast it so it stinks throughout Egypt.

25:20 SPEAKER_00: Then you're going to eat it and you're going to put the blood across your door.

25:24 SPEAKER_00: You're going to dab the blood in your doorpost.

25:26 SPEAKER_00: That's a hock.

25:28 SPEAKER_00: It goes beyond any logic.

25:30 SPEAKER_00: What are you talking about, Hashem?

25:31 SPEAKER_00: They're going to kill us.

25:32 SPEAKER_00: Why would I take their God and antagonize them and tie it to a bedpost and kill it and eat it and then put the blood on the door as well?

25:39 SPEAKER_00: It's a hock.

25:40 SPEAKER_00: But you just have to live it.

25:42 SPEAKER_00: That's Emunah.

25:44 SPEAKER_00: You live it.

25:45 SPEAKER_00: And when you live it, then you start to get an understanding.

25:50 SPEAKER_00: And the greatest moment in Jewish history, the greatest revelation in the history of the world, we stand at Matan Torah.

25:58 SPEAKER_00: Hashem's going to give us the Torah.

26:00 SPEAKER_00: And what do we say?

26:02 SPEAKER_00: What do we say to merit being given the Torah?

26:06 SPEAKER_00: We said, Na'ase vanishma.

26:09 SPEAKER_00: At the greatest moment in Jewish history, what do we say first?

26:13 SPEAKER_00: Na'ase.

26:14 SPEAKER_00: We will do, then we'll understand.

26:17 SPEAKER_00: But first we're going to do.

26:18 SPEAKER_00: That is a hock.

26:20 SPEAKER_00: It goes beyond any logic and reason.

26:23 SPEAKER_00: If someone said to you, here's a contract, I want you to sign it, and then I'll show you what's in it.

26:28 SPEAKER_00: You just laugh, you'd say, no chance.

26:31 SPEAKER_00: But with Hashem, Hashem said, here's a Torah.

26:34 SPEAKER_00: And we said we're going to do it.

26:36 SPEAKER_00: We got no idea what's in it.

26:38 SPEAKER_00: That's beyond any reason and logic.

26:40 SPEAKER_00: That is a hock.

26:40 SPEAKER_00: But once we accept Torah, then we'll start to understand.

26:44 SPEAKER_00: Vanishmah, then we'll understand.

26:47 SPEAKER_00: It's a hock.

26:51 SPEAKER_00: Can only understand Torah once you start to live it.

26:57 SPEAKER_00: And that is Zothu Khatha Torah.

26:59 SPEAKER_00: This is the decree of the Torah.

27:02 SPEAKER_00: Because that is the only way we can start to understand by just accepting Hashem's will.

27:09 SPEAKER_00: Then we'll understand after, and the Para Aduma is the paradigm of that.

27:14 SPEAKER_00: And the Orhachim says as much because the Orhim on Zotukata Torah brings down and he says, every mitzvah is a hok.

27:24 SPEAKER_00: Every single one.

27:26 SPEAKER_00: Kashruk we don't understand.

27:28 SPEAKER_00: Shaking Lulavanetro, we don't understand.

27:30 SPEAKER_00: Putting on Zafilim, we don't understand.

27:32 SPEAKER_00: They're obviously chukim.

27:34 SPEAKER_00: But even not murdering, which makes complete sense.

27:38 SPEAKER_00: There are lots and lots of levels, mystical levels beyond what we understand that we don't get.

27:44 SPEAKER_00: Keeping Shabas.

27:46 SPEAKER_00: It makes sense.

27:47 SPEAKER_00: Yahshem created the world in six days and rested on the seventh.

27:50 SPEAKER_00: So we work six days and rest on the seventh.

27:53 SPEAKER_00: And we're human beings, we can't go 24-7 for weeks and months and years on end.

27:59 SPEAKER_00: So we have one day off a week.

28:00 SPEAKER_00: It all makes sense.

28:02 SPEAKER_00: But beyond that, there's so many mystical things going on that we don't understand.

28:07 SPEAKER_00: Every mitzvah is a hock, every single one that we keep.

28:13 SPEAKER_00: And so in this week's pasha, we learn the most amazing things.

28:18 SPEAKER_00: Paratuma comes to teach that meaning and purpose can't come from within us because we're part of our system.

28:27 SPEAKER_00: To have meaning and purpose, we have to go beyond reason, beyond ourselves.

28:31 SPEAKER_00: You have to go outside of the system.

28:35 SPEAKER_00: You have to be willing to live truth before you understand it.

28:39 SPEAKER_00: That is Emun.

28:40 SPEAKER_00: Emunah is not believing in Hashem.

28:43 SPEAKER_00: Emuna is living that belief, doing something.

28:49 SPEAKER_00: That's why Avraham the first Jew left everything behind on Hashem's say so.

28:55 SPEAKER_00: That was a hock.

28:57 SPEAKER_00: That's why the Jews in Egypt took the Korban Pesak and slayed it.

29:01 SPEAKER_00: That was a hock.

29:03 SPEAKER_00: That's why the Jews at Matantorah said, Na Sevenishma, that was a hock.

29:10 SPEAKER_00: Most people try to think themselves into being better people.

29:15 SPEAKER_00: The Torah knew before anybody else that you can't think yourself into becoming better people.

29:22 SPEAKER_00: You have to take action.

29:24 SPEAKER_00: You have to live to become better people.

29:26 SPEAKER_00: Put onto fillin, eat kosher, keep shabas, say brachat, give sadaka.

29:32 SPEAKER_00: That's how you become a better person.

29:35 SPEAKER_00: You don't undertake the mitzvot because you fully understand.

29:39 SPEAKER_00: You do it because you live Torah.

29:42 SPEAKER_00: And over time you'll be able to understand.

29:44 SPEAKER_00: This is Zot Hukat Hatorah.

29:48 SPEAKER_00: This is the decree of the Torah.

29:51 SPEAKER_00: Mitzvot are not just expressions of who we are, they're tools that create who we can become.

29:59 SPEAKER_00: The modern world teaches that freedom is living according to your own understanding.

30:05 SPEAKER_00: But the Torah teaches something far more profound.

30:08 SPEAKER_00: If you only do what makes sense to you, you'll never escape yourself.

30:13 SPEAKER_00: You're confined to the limits of your own understanding.

30:17 SPEAKER_00: The deepest freedom is the ability to go beyond yourself.

30:25 SPEAKER_00: To find something greater.

30:28 SPEAKER_00: That's the deepest freedom.

30:30 SPEAKER_00: What's interesting is probably every single one of us has a mitzvah that doesn't quite make sense.

30:38 SPEAKER_00: A mitzvah that we don't understand.

30:40 SPEAKER_00: A mitzvah that we don't do properly, or we neglect a little bit, or we don't do it with full kavana, it doesn't speak to us, it we don't understand it, we don't get it, a mitzvah we don't do at all.

30:52 SPEAKER_00: What if that mitzvah, that mitzvah is the gateway for you to connect with Hashem better?

31:01 SPEAKER_00: For you to deepen your relationship with Hashem.

31:05 SPEAKER_00: Because that is Para Aduma.

31:08 SPEAKER_00: That is not a seven ishma, that is Zot Hukat Hatora.