Daily Chidush: Tough Days also have a Purpose - Part 1

0:00Hello, how are you? I know it's the middle of the night for you and you're probably sleeping, so I'm hoping this will be something you listen to first thing in the morning. And B'ezrat Hashem, we will also try to get one in later tomorrow. But I had a thought today, and after looking at the entire day that I had.

1:21There's not much productive that happens today which is not at least compassionate toward the normal day. Sometimes, you ask yourself: why does Hashem do such things? We also ask ourselves when someone is mitbonen, when someone is reflecting and tries to figure out: Why do things happen to me? Why do I do this? Why does this happen? Why does Hashem want me to do this? Why does Hashem want me to do that? I think every one of us, at least once in a while, if not even more often than once in a while, asks, why does Hashem want us to do all of these things? So, this week's parashah is Parashat Shemini in Sefer Vayikra, Leviticus, chapter 9. Moshe Rabbeinu tells Am Yisrael a message that sometimes we don't remember.

2:22And even if we remember, it's not at the top of our mind, it's not in our conscience, it's in our subconscious. In verse 6, Moshe Rabbeinu says something that can change everyone's life. It's a simple statement. It's not something that's a... There's no magic trick to this statement. There's no major chidush, an innovative idea, that perhaps you haven't heard of. But sometimes... It's good to remember. Moshe said, this is the thing that Hashem has commanded you to do. Then the glory of Hashem will appear to you. In so many words, Moshe Rabbeinu is telling us the main reason for every one of all of the mitzvot that we're ever going to have to do

3:22Everyone, the ones we understand. Like, for example, kosher - we know that it's healthy for us. It's better quality food, especially with all the videos coming out in recent years showing the disgusting nature of non-kosher food. It may taste good to people who eat it, but when you look at what goes into it, how it's made, the torture the animals go through, and the diseases they have, you begin to understand the wisdom behind the Torah's dietary laws. I have people who are not Jewish sending me emails explaining things to me. One specific guy I'm thinking about right now is a tzaddik. He's not Jewish, and he says to me, "I was in the butcher business, and that's when I realized that the only way is to eat kosher food." He's in the business. He gave me some more details, but I don't want to disgust you first thing in the morning. But anyone that wants to check this stuff out on the internet, you can see what happens to non-kosher animals and how they do it. It's quite disgusting. The point here is that there's a benefit to it. Is that the real reason why Hashem brought it to us? No. What about praying? Someone prays. You know, a Jewish person is obligated to pray at least three times a day. You know, for a man, whereas a woman is required to do it at least once a day.

4:51So you pray in the morning, you say Kriyat Shema, you say the Amidah, you say a few Tehillim that come before and after the prayer. In the afternoon, you do Mincha, and in the evening, you do Arvit. So we say, okay, this is something that the sages instituted. Shacharit was started by Avraham Avinu, Mincha by Yitzchak Avinu, and Arvit by Yaakov Avinu. So our forefathers did it, so that's why we're doing it. Is that the reason? No. What about when we do the bracha before we eat bread? We have to wash our hands: three on the right hand, and three on the left hand, and then we have to remain quiet until we do the blessing on the bread, and then we eat the bread. Is that the reason why? You know, we see that, oh maybe this teaches us patience.

5:52The reason why we do it is not the reason that on Yom Kippur, we have to say "I'm sorry," nor is it the day that we have to appeal if our judgment on Rosh Hashanah did not come out in our favor. Yom Kippur is the appeal. Many people think that Yom Kippur is the most important day of the year because it's the day of judgment. The mistake is that Yom Kippur is actually the day of appeal. It's important because it's the last chance. in reality, if you did well on Rosh Hashanah by praying fervently, you wouldn't need the Day of Atonement. But since we don’t know what our judgment is, everyone attends. Someone who knows they truly poured their heart out in prayer throughout the year, especially on the Day of Judgment, Rosh Hashanah, knows that Yom Kippur, Baruch Hashem, is another opportunity to connect with Hashem. But... Maybe he's not as worried as someone who is showing up to Beit Knesset for the first time all year. We know it's a good time to say, "I'm sorry." Is that the reason why we do it? No. Moshe Rabbeinu is telling us there's one reason why Hashem told us to do everything: because He said so.

7:17I know this is hard for some people to understand or perhaps for some people to accept in today's politically correct and liberal world, where everyone wants to believe that Hashem is their friend, Hashem is their buddy, or any other names they come up with for Him. I want to remind everyone that Hashem is not your friend. He's not your buddy. I had a student call me today when I was at the airport. The conversation starts like this: It worked. Okay, what worked? And then we start the conversation. I won't give you too many details. But he says it worked. What worked? He says, well, we learned in a shiur. The Gemara says, in the tractate of Berachot, in the Oral Torah, when the evil inclination comes to a person...

8:17Sages say you have to do three things when you're about to sin and you want to stop yourself from sinning, obviously, because you don't want to face the consequences one day. You have to say Kriyat Shema, you have to say Shema Yisrael. But if that doesn't work, then learn Torah. But if that doesn't work, then remind yourself of the day you're going to die. Why? Why this pattern, this strange pattern of things? Kriyat Shema reminds you that there's a God. There's a God. There's a God that created the heaven and the earth, and there's an eye that's watching, an ear that's hearing, and everything that you do is written in the book of Hashem. When you say Kriyat Shema, you remind yourself of those things. There's a Creator that's watching you, especially when you sin. If that doesn't work, if that's not enough to convince your evil inclination that it's not worth it to commit the sin, then it says to learn Torah. Why learn Torah? Because Hashem said the yetzer hara is so strong and so smart. He's smarter and stronger than all of mankind that ever lived. So the sages asked Hashem, okay, if he's so strong and he's so smart, how can we beat him? He said, I created the yetzer hara, but I created a potion, a poison for him. What's the poison?

9:46Torah is the ultimate purity. It's the purpose of the world. The purpose of the world is the Torah. Let's not mistake this: we are not the purpose; the Torah is the purpose. How do we know? Because the Torah was created before us. The Torah was created 974 generations before the world was created. And if Am Yisrael would not accept the Torah, Hashem would destroy the world. In essence, showing us that if it's not for the Torah, there's no purpose to the world. So, Hashem is telling us here that this yetzer hara, which He created in order to create balance, to establish a reward and punishment system, has a remedy, a beat to the game, a code. It's called Torah. You learn Torah, and your neshama automatically becomes stronger. But sometimes it doesn't work. Sometimes you can't focus. Sometimes you said Shema Yisrael, but you're still thinking about the sin you're about to commit. Sometimes you're reading Parashat Shemini of this week, but you can't really focus on the fact that it provides one of the best proofs in history in Chapter 11, Verse 9, where it says that everything that has fins and scales in the water is what we're allowed to eat.

11:12Here, we know that Hashem gave us a secret that the only fish we are allowed to eat have fins and scales. The sages tell us that you will find fish with fins but no scales, like sharks or dolphins, but you will never find a fish with just scales and no fins, including mutations, including evolution, including everything you want. you will never find it. Obviously, the one who wrote it had to be the one that's not only the creator of it but also the one that's in control of it. Because there are over two million species out there and over 40,000 different types of fish, anyone that wrote this book obviously must have known all of them and the ones that would exist in the future and the past, and knew that if anyone ever found a mistake, they would find a fish with just scales, no fins; the whole book is canceled. Once there's one mistake in a divine book, it's no longer divine. This is the reason why the New Testament or the Quran, from the false religions of Christianity and Islam, are very easily thrown out in the garbage. People realize that they're wrong because there are mistakes in practically every single page. The Torah does not have any mistakes. If you ever find an issue, you don't understand or you think is a mistake, it's always because you don't know the answer. Not because there's a mistake. I guarantee you that if you look deeper into things, you will find the answer because someone much, much smarter than you already asked the very same question thousands of years ago and already found the answer thousands of years ago from Moshe Rabbeinu. But back to the issue at hand, Hashem is telling us, use this Torah.

12:40you don't understand or you think it's a mistake, it's always because you don't know the answer and not because there's a mistake. I guarantee you that if you look deeper into things, you will find the answer because someone much, much smarter than you already asked the very same question thousands of years ago and already found the answer thousands of years ago from Moshe Rabbeinu. But back to the issue at hand, Hashem is telling us to use this Torah. This beautiful Torah has scientific proofs, medical proofs, historical proofs—everything you want. It offers ways to live our lives and holds the secrets, but sometimes I can't focus. Sometimes my mind is on the yetzer hara. That doesn't work. So, step three, Hashem is telling us: remind yourself of the day you're going to die. Why? Not because Hashem wants us to be morbid people that are depressed. Quite the contrary, He wants us to be happy. You're obligated to be happy. The Shechinah cannot be part of your life if you're a miserable person, just like we learned from Yaakov Avinu. Yaakov had two names: he had Yaakov and Yisrael. You can see that when Yaakov had prophecy, he was called Yisrael. When he did not have prophecy, he was called Yaakov.

14:05So throughout the entire time that he thought his son Yosef, Yosef HaTzadik, was dead, he is referenced in the Torah as Yaakov. But the very minute he found out that his son is alive, in the same sentence, his name changes from Yaakov to Yisrael. We see in the same sentence both names, and, obviously, this is what our sages teach us: Hashem wants us to be happy. In order for us to be happy, we have to be connected to Hashem.