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Shavuot: A Book of Kindness · A Thought for the Week

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to a Thought for the Week, a Torah in
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  Speaker 1: Motion podcast. I'm Jake Hellman, founding director of Torah in Motion,
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  Speaker 1: and it's a pleasure to have you here with us.
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  Speaker 1: The midrash in Root Rabbah quotes Rams the Era who says,
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  Speaker 1: mighi la zu, this migila migut aimed by low Tuma
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  Speaker 1: lower below head tare has no nothing, no laws, no
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  Speaker 1: Jewish laws, nothing but purity, impurity. What's permitted? What's forbidden? Lama?
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  Speaker 1: Why is it written? Why is it in lad? Come
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  Speaker 1: a start to teach us what is the great reward
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  Speaker 1: for those who do acts of kindness to one another?
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  Speaker 1: The migrush is explaining why Root, Why? Why is root in?
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  Speaker 1: What does it teach us? So the medre it's really
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  Speaker 1: a fascinating answer to me. Dress says, well, look at
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  Speaker 1: what happened to all the wonderful people who did did
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  Speaker 1: cassad I mean root, what she did to her mother
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  Speaker 1: in law and ends up being the great grandmother of
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  Speaker 1: King David and boas and kindness in the field, helping
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  Speaker 1: one another, And so it tells us about the importance
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  Speaker 1: of casset. The me Dress, as I mentioned, is discussing
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  Speaker 1: why Root is written at all, like why is it
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  Speaker 1: in tenach it also, although that's not what it's addressing.
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  Speaker 1: The Medrush also explains why Root is read on Shavu what,
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  Speaker 1: the holiday which today we celebrate with the receiving of
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  Speaker 1: the tourisman mattan tourteo. That's how we observe the holiday
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  Speaker 1: of Chavu. What Because the Torah is also a book
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  Speaker 1: of cassa. Not only mikhilett Rut, but the entire touris
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  Speaker 1: a book of cassad This is a statement the teaching
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  Speaker 1: of Revsim Lai in Sota fourteen a tore Kilkasadim. The
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  Speaker 1: rush rep says, the Torah begins with Cassaid, the so
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  Speaker 1: fog me ludy man. It ends with cassaid. In the
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  Speaker 1: beginning is cassaid the thieve, as it's written by us
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  Speaker 1: a shamelo himla damist or by God made clothes for
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  Speaker 1: man in the garden of Eden so bishar rubin the
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  Speaker 1: great act of kindness of clothing the naked, which says,
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  Speaker 1: that's what God wants us to do, young kipper, that's
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  Speaker 1: what the fast is all about. Feed the poor clothing naked.
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  Speaker 1: The so foglu Hasidim, and it ends with acts of
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  Speaker 1: kindness to thieve by bor O toba God that God
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  Speaker 1: buried mosh Rabnos. So God is performing both and team
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  Speaker 1: and burial of the dead and as the marshan, and
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  Speaker 1: that's obvious. Points out what Digamara is saying is that
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  Speaker 1: the tour begins with cassid and ends with it means
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  Speaker 1: it's kuloh hasse that the entire book, it's a book
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  Speaker 1: of cas said it. So that's the main theme of
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  Speaker 1: the tour. It's not a book of law. A lot
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  Speaker 1: of people think the tor is a book of law.
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  Speaker 1: It has laws in it, but the ultimate goal of
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  Speaker 1: the Torah is a book of has said. And while
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  Speaker 1: the meat Rush, of course is referring to acts of
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  Speaker 1: cresset of God. We are created in God's image and
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  Speaker 1: we have to copy God. It's the beautiful idea of
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  Speaker 1: the Torah, a semi heretical idea of the Torah, that
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  Speaker 1: so by performing acts of hasset we become godly. That's
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  Speaker 1: how we exercise our sellem Eloheim. Now it's interesting the
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  Speaker 1: burial of Mosha, that's the end of the tour. That's
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  Speaker 1: the last few verses of the Torah. But God giving
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  Speaker 1: clothes to man does not happen till the end of
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  Speaker 1: chapter three. I might have if I was learning this
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  Speaker 1: meet rush or for teaching this meat rush, I might
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  Speaker 1: have said that the first act of Hassid is God
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  Speaker 1: created the world for man. Olam wmmelf teaches the world
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  Speaker 1: was created through Hesset for the purpose of Cassid. It's
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  Speaker 1: for the benefit of man. God didn't need the world,
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  Speaker 1: so to speak, So why not say creation, or why
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  Speaker 1: not say creating Gabba that low to fa yodam le vado.
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  Speaker 1: It's not good for man to be alone. So God
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  Speaker 1: did this great act of kesse, creating a partner or
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  Speaker 1: putting him in Ghanadan. There are other acts of Hesset.
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  Speaker 1: That is the beginning of the tour, not really literally
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  Speaker 1: the beginning of the Torah. So I think Resumli is
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  Speaker 1: pointing out something even more powerful that why was man
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  Speaker 1: clothed because man sinned? Had man not sinned? Right in
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  Speaker 1: the garden of Eden, the physical and spiritual world were
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  Speaker 1: in total harmony. There were to be nothing wrong with
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  Speaker 1: being naked. There was nothing The physical and spiritual went together.
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  Speaker 1: It's only because we sinned that we needed clothes. There
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  Speaker 1: was a break between the physical and the spiritual. So Ressimel,
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  Speaker 1: I want to teach that hesset should be done to sinners.
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  Speaker 1: That that's true hessen not it's the one who's righteous.
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  Speaker 1: You're your best friend. You dose to people you don't
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  Speaker 1: like so much, you are not deserving of cass said, okay,
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  Speaker 1: that point number one, now very interesting. This same Rev.
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  Speaker 1: Team Lie who lives, I believe in the third century
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  Speaker 1: in the land of Issio, one of the moraim of
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  Speaker 1: the tumb Mood. So it's the same Reugh seam Lie
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  Speaker 1: who is the author of this very very popular notion,
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  Speaker 1: but very obscure notion that has very few sources in
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  Speaker 1: rabbinic literature. Matter of fact, this is pretty much the
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  Speaker 1: only source in the toumb Mood. There's one other small
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  Speaker 1: allusion to it, and that's the notion of six hundred
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  Speaker 1: and thirteen meets foot Digamar. At the end of my
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  Speaker 1: second Macott tells us the rush rough seam Lie the
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  Speaker 1: same expression meat before the rush saving toret let fest
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  Speaker 1: it here d rush rough seam Lie. It's interesting, it does,
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  Speaker 1: say Amar. The rush he he looked deep, he dug deep,
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  Speaker 1: and he elucidated and discovered that sheikshmut or slosis, rain
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  Speaker 1: meet sweat and them rulo Lamosha. Six hundred and thirteen
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  Speaker 1: meets foot were given to Mosha. Three hundred and sixty
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  Speaker 1: five negative because of the days of the year, one
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  Speaker 1: for each day, so to speak, and two hundred and
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  Speaker 1: forty eight positive because of the avar riem the limbs
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  Speaker 1: in the body. And then Degmar continues the whole discussion,
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  Speaker 1: and that's really the only source we have of six
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  Speaker 1: thirteen meets. With the Tamara and Shabbat, we talked about
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  Speaker 1: the breaking of the of the tablets when Mosha broke
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  Speaker 1: the Lukhota breath, so it mentioned that they violated the
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  Speaker 1: yak meets foot. So it's very interesting. So this rough
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  Speaker 1: Simli teaches that their six hundred and thirteen meets foot
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  Speaker 1: and the tour begins with hasse and ends with Hasseid
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  Speaker 1: putting them together. That means every single meets for out
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  Speaker 1: of the Torah is an act of Hassid. That the
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  Speaker 1: six hundred and thirty meets foot our acts of Hassid.
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  Speaker 1: Very similar to what Hillel said, right, what's the Torah?
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  Speaker 1: The entire Torah on one foot is what's hateful to you?
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  Speaker 1: Don't do onto others. All the rest is commentary. And
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  Speaker 1: what's important to point out here is kulo all it means,
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  Speaker 1: even the meet sweat between man and God. We would say,
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  Speaker 1: the meets sweat between man and man to give charity
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  Speaker 1: eight the quote the naked whatever we do to help
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  Speaker 1: other people, not to gossip, that's Kuloh has said, but
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  Speaker 1: to keep kosher, to keep shabbat ton it meets twelve
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  Speaker 1: between man and God Misusa, what is that the with hassaid,
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  Speaker 1: I think that's exactly the point. Every meets vah Torah
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  Speaker 1: is Kuloh has said, and all six hundred and thirteen
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  Speaker 1: meets for what each one or are an act of
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  Speaker 1: cas said to excite. The example of the tour gives
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  Speaker 1: us itself is the motion of shabbat. Right. So in
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  Speaker 1: the ten Commandments, there are two different reasons given for Shabbat.
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  Speaker 1: The initial reason, the reason we hear about at the
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  Speaker 1: beginning of the Torah before God closed the naked right,
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  Speaker 1: the first notion of the year is that God created
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  Speaker 1: the world and he rested on the seventh day quote unquote.
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  Speaker 1: So we keep Shabbat as an act to acknowledge that
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  Speaker 1: God is the master of the world. It meets between
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  Speaker 1: man and God and the second set of the aserha
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  Speaker 1: they brought. We remember that we were slaves, not to
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  Speaker 1: enslave other people. A slave is no concept of time.
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  Speaker 1: So shahbati coomes a meets vah between man and man.
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  Speaker 1: And I think the tourist is just setting up a
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  Speaker 1: template here. Every meets fab between man and God has
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  Speaker 1: a aspect between man and man. Maybe that's the primary aspect.
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  Speaker 1: God doesn't really need our it's foot. Maybe that's just
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  Speaker 1: methodology in additional methodology to help us man and man.
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  Speaker 1: So for example, we fast on young kipper. The tumb
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  Speaker 1: says the reward for a fast a ta give charity.
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  Speaker 1: We know what it's like to be hungry, make sure
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  Speaker 1: other people aren't hungry. We sit in asuka on sukkut
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  Speaker 1: to know what it's like not to have a home,
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  Speaker 1: not to have a roof of our set help the homeless.
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  Speaker 1: We put a mezuza on our door that we should
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  Speaker 1: have a welcoming home. Every meets fab between man and God.
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  Speaker 1: The Torus Kuloh has it the Taurus kulo act of
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  Speaker 1: kindness to other human beings. And of course this plays
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  Speaker 1: out with the a serata de broad which is of course,
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  Speaker 1: is the reading on the first day of Chevuta the
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  Speaker 1: only day, and is reel. But no, we know we
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  Speaker 1: don't one to five, six to ten. Right, they inserted
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  Speaker 1: the Bret ten ten commandments and ten sayings. But we
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  Speaker 1: can also read them horizontally. We don't have to read
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  Speaker 1: them vertically. So one in six, two and seven three nights.
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  Speaker 1: So for example, and him, if you believe in God,
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  Speaker 1: means man is created in God's image. We don't kill,
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  Speaker 1: don't have other gods, don't commit adults, tree, every meets fat.
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  Speaker 1: The first half is man and God as a parallel
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  Speaker 1: between man and God. And this of course explains very
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  Speaker 1: easily why the fifth one tibuta am you know, what's
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  Speaker 1: that doing on the side of the You know, man
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  Speaker 1: and God honoring parents. That's the point that honoring parents
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  Speaker 1: is honoring God. That meets foot between man and God
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  Speaker 1: are reflected in how we observe that meets foot between
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  Speaker 1: man and man. How we treat man is tells us
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  Speaker 1: about how we treat God. Right, if we are dishonest
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  Speaker 1: in business, we're not just cheating that, we are cheating that,
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  Speaker 1: but we're cheating God. I mean we don't really believe
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  Speaker 1: in God. We don't, you know, we're we're trying to
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  Speaker 1: outsmart God. We're we're cheating someone who's created in the
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  Speaker 1: image of God. That's true for a MEAs what This
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  Speaker 1: is a very simple idea, but it's a very important idea.
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  Speaker 1: And when we I don't believe, we stress enough that
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  Speaker 1: that's the foundation of Torah. Now it's interesting, rosi masas
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  Speaker 1: there's six hundred and thirty meets for now. It is
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  Speaker 1: true the town would never ever listed six thirty meets what.
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  Speaker 1: That's another fascinating topic, the whole history of the development
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  Speaker 1: of six thirteen meets. But it's not till the eighth
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  Speaker 1: century that we get our first list ever of the
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  Speaker 1: six hundred and thirty meets what and it's there are
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  Speaker 1: a lot of arguments, but we do not have an
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  Speaker 1: agreed list. Be that as a may Casset is not
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  Speaker 1: counted as one of the six hundred and thirty meets.
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  Speaker 1: But those who count these means for do not count Casset.
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  Speaker 1: There's no mitsv to do. Said why because that's every
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  Speaker 1: mitzvah ks. It is the foundation of all meats what,
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  Speaker 1: So it's not counted as one of the meats for
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  Speaker 1: and it's not something that's like an obligation that means, well,
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  Speaker 1: we do it because we have to do it. We
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  Speaker 1: do it because that's what it means to be a
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  Speaker 1: human being. That's what it means to be a Jew,
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  Speaker 1: and that's what it means to be a descendant of
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  Speaker 1: Avram Abno, it's not by chance that the first Jew
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  Speaker 1: is we. We think of Abraham. We describe him as
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  Speaker 1: the man of kssa, the person of kindness. Other traits
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  Speaker 1: go to other people, but even mosh Robino, you know,
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  Speaker 1: he's our teacher in yakas Gura. Everybody has their different specialty,
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  Speaker 1: but the foundational specialty, the one that everything else builds upon,
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  Speaker 1: is that of Casaid of being bene Abraham. Torretskila. Cas
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  Speaker 1: said it, Sofa has said. Each one of the six
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  Speaker 1: hundred and thirteen meets what is an opportunity to do
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  Speaker 1: to others. Faksama. We hope you enjoyed a thought for
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  Speaker 1: looking forward to learning with you next week.