Rationalizing Sin - Parashat Bereshit

0:03All of these people, they call themselves rationalists. These people are part of the destruction of the world. They're destroying the world. Why? Adam HaRishon. The Rashba. says, what was really the mistake of Adam HaRishon? How could Adam HaRishon make such a mistake? If you learn the Midrashim and what the Torah writes about Adam HaRishon, he's a perfect human being. They say that even his heels were like two suns. He was huge. He was beautiful. He had the ultimate chokhmah. All of the neshamos in the entire world were inside him as one neshamah. He was at such a high level that the malachim, the angels of Hashem, thought he was God. They thought he was God, so they came down from where they were; they came down, and they wanted to say "Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh," and bow to him. At that moment, just as they were about to bow to him, Hashem put them to sleep. Why? Because if they bowed to him, it would necessitate their destruction. By putting them to sleep, it was clear that he couldn't be God. Why? Because God doesn't need to sleep.

1:21Doesn't sleep, Hashem. So that's not God. It's something else beautiful. It's not God. It's not God. So how could such a perfect human being, so much Chochmah, Hashem gave him the job of naming each creature. Now, he didn't just name each creature whatever made sense. Like, for example, the Avdi, the guys from Google, they're very smart people. The guys that started Google. And I remember I watched a documentary about them many years ago. And I asked them, how did you come up with this name Google? Like, what does Google have to do with searching? What does Google have to do with all the things that you do? They said, Google is like the biggest number or something like that. It's bigger than infinity. It's like a math geek type who knows what this means. And that's what Google means. Meaning it makes sense to them. To their fans, I bet you 9 out of 10 of their fans don't even know what Google means. They just know it means search engine. They can't relate it to math. They can't relate it to a certain number. I don't know what it means. Watch. Half the fans today go, Google? What does Google mean?

2:44Google's gonna respond; Google means website. Don't worry about the number; go back and search for more stuff to buy, mostly on the website. Do not pass "Go"; don't collect $200. So now we don't have Google for you guys to ask questions elsewhere. We have a square about Google to ask questions about stuff that you can buy on Google, so we will make more money. So now, no. such a perfect human being didn't name it didn't name the animals because it made sense to him; he named the animals based on their essence. What is the essence of this animal? So, for example, when he named sus, sus is the Hebrew word for horse. Seuss is the word for horse, but seuss also comes from the root of the word that refers to charging right into war, which is what a seuss does. The one animal that rides into war is the horse; all the others run away. The seuss runs into battle, as the actual horse likes war. It's a warrior. The seuss is indeed a warrior.

4:01All of the animals have similar names if you look at the Hebrew and how it is made. Another example is "Kelev." Kelev is a word for "dog." Kelev comes from the essence of the fact that the dog's essence is "kulo lev." What's "kulo lev"? It means he is "all heart." The dog is all heart. Anyone who's been a dog owner knows that the dog is incredibly loyal and loving. loves his owner completely, even if the owner is abusive, like some of these evil people that abuse their dogs. They starve them, they beat them. I wish somebody would beat the owners instead of the dogs. Why? Because the dog is such a loyal animal, such a good animal. It loves its owner even if it has no reason to. It's created that way; its essence is to be loyal to its owner to the end. the end, and that's why usually when you see these dogs that go crazy and they bite the owner's kids or the owner himself, it's not so simple. It's not just an evil animal because the pit bull bites. No, it's not true. It's not true, people. I had a pit bull for 16 years. It's better than most human beings.

5:22Reality is something's wrong here. Usually, it's sometimes because the play-fighting the dogs engage in sometimes goes a little too far, and the dog doesn't know when to stop; that's one reason. Number two, sometimes it's because they torture the animal, they torture the animal. Number three is also because the person that it bit is a stranger; it's not the owner, it's the owner's kid. so the dog is, you know, maybe jealous, or it thinks that this child is hurting the owner in some way. There's something to it, or sometimes it's because the owners are just outright evil, like this guy Michael Vick and all the people like him who fight dogs. All of those people that fight dogs, really, what they do to these dogs to train them is outright abuse. I don't think they should get jail sentences. I think they should be executed. But even according to the Torah, you don't get a death sentence for torturing an animal. You get penalized monetarily. Some people are so evil, it's amazing to me such people exist. They drown the dogs, they hang them, they do all types of vicious, vicious things. Even if you see, for example, when you go to Asia, China, Thailand, and all these places, they eat dogs. But now, unlike the rest of the civilized human beings in the world,

6:49When you eat a cow, first you kill it. You shecht it, and you shecht it. The non-kosher way is obviously not exactly the nicest way to kill an animal. It's very vicious. But you kill it nonetheless. However, the way these people kill the dogs, the ones that eat the dogs, is not only that it's vicious, it's just borderline inhumane. It's just not human. You see how they torture them, and for no reason. Whenever you have this strange diet that you have to eat anything that moves, anything that has four legs except the chair, anything that moves except the boat, you eat everything fine. You want to eat everything, whatever you're going, you're allowed to eat it. But why do you have to torture the animal, the poor animal, Miss Kenah? Why do you have to torture her, hit her on the head, torture, why? Malash, evil, evil, evil people. And that's why you see, when you say Baruch Shelo Asani Goy, when you say every day, thank God for not making me a goy, these are the things you have to think about. Because what does it mean? The goy doesn't have Torah. You eat everything fine. You want to eat everything, wherever you go you're allowed to eat it. But why do you have to torture the animal, the poor animal, miskena? Why do you have to torture her, hit her on the head? Torture, why? Ma lahem, evil, evil, evil people. And that's why you see when you say "Baruch Shelo Asani Goy," when you say every day, "thank God for not making me a Goy," these are the things you have to think about because what does it mean? The Goy doesn't have Torah.

7:58You don't have Torah, so for him, it's much more difficult to become a decent human being. Much more difficult. You, as a Jew, if you're not a decent human being, you're worse than the goy. Why? Because you have the instructions. So now, the dog is all heart, and Adam HaRishon called it kelev, which means 'all heart.' its loyalty, and just as all the names that he named all of the animals and all of the creatures based on their essence. I'm talking about the names in Lashon HaKodesh, the Holy Tongue, not the modern language. Sometimes the modern language does not have the same name as the Holy Tongue, and many times it's actually the opposite. But anyway, Adam HaRishon had the ability to know the essence of every one of the creatures, even though he was only alive for a few hours. You would look at the dog, you would know the essence of the dog, everything about the dog. You look at the horse, the essence of the horse. The lion, the essence of the lion, and so on and so forth.

9:09How could such a creature, such a being, such a perfect human being make such a mistake? Hashem said there is one mitzvah. What's the mitzvah? Don't eat from the tree of knowledge. Don't eat. That's it. Yes, He gives the six other mitzvot, the first six of the seven Noahide laws. Don't worship other gods and so on. But one key. One key to being on a good list is not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge. Don't eat from the Tree of Knowledge. Well, it goes into how. So, the Rashba says there is a secret. What's the secret? The Rashba says Adam HaRishon looked at his own essence and he says, "I am flesh and blood. Flesh and blood cannot continue forever."

10:09Can I continue forever? That's a problem. Why? I want to thank Hashem Yitbarach by serving Him forever. I want to thank Him by serving Him forever. Now if I'm gonna die, I can't do that. So now Hashem told me don't eat from the Tree of Knowledge. He told me not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge, but I need to understand why it makes sense for me to eat from the Tree of Knowledge. Because that's the only way that I'll know where the Tree of Life is. If you remember in the Torah... When it talks about the trees, talks about the trees, Hashem never said don't eat from the Tree of Life. He never said that. He said don't eat from the Tree of Knowledge. So, you ask yourself a question, why didn't Adam HaRishon just skip the Tree of Knowledge and go straight to the Tree of Life? Because what does he want really? Be'emet, what does he really want? He just wants to live forever. Why? So he can learn Torah forever and serve Hashem forever. That's it.

11:19He doesn't want to go against Hashem. He rationalized that if he's going to die, he can't serve Hashem forever. So rationally, it makes sense for him to live forever. Therefore, he could go and eat from the Tree of Life, because Hashem didn't say not to eat from there. He didn't say don't eat from there; He said don't eat from the Tree of Knowledge. Regarding the Tree of Life, He said nothing. So, I gotta go find it. The problem is, the Torah says, if you look at Sefer Bereishit, chapter 2, it says, translation, chapter 2, verse 9. Hashem, God, caused to sprout from the ground every tree that was pleasing to the sight and good for food. Originally, all the trees were for food, including the tree of life in the midst of the garden and the tree of knowledge, good and bad.

12:27Wait a minute. So now it talks about this verse mentioning both of these trees: the tree of knowledge and the tree of life. It says the tree of life is in the middle of the garden, in the midst of the garden, betoch hagan, inside the garden. Betoch means inside the garden. But as for the tree of knowledge, it doesn't say where it is. However, Adam HaRishon knew where it was. How do we know he knew where it was? Because he ate from it. That's how we know you know where it is. You have to be a genius. You have to look for a pasuk. How do you know where it is? Because he ate from it. If you ate from it, that means you know where it is. Okay, wait a minute. So now, where's the tree of life then? It's in the midst of the love. It's b'toch ha'gan. It's inside the garden. Where is inside the garden? It's big. Where is it? That's the problem. That's exactly what Hashem is trying to tell you. He knew where the tree of knowledge was. But where inside the garden, meaning the middle of the garden, was it? He didn't know. He couldn't find the Tree of Life. So he said, the only way that I could find the Tree of Life, he rationalized. How? I need to get knowledge. Knowledge of what? Knowledge of where the Tree of Life is. So he thought, I can make an aveirah for the sake of a mitzvah.

13:55It's not that I want to go against Hashem. I love Hashem. I want to serve Him forever. So I rationalize that I need to make a small averah, a small sin. Why? To go and eat from the Tree of Life that I'm allowed to eat from. But I don't know where it is. Instead of wasting time looking and looking, which could take a thousand years, I'm wasting precious time. Maybe I'll die before I find it. Hashem is not served during that time. So what do I do? I'm going to rationalize. Will you rationalize? Rationalize. I'm going to eat quickly. Small little aveirah. Small little bite. Small little bite. Oh! My brain opened up. I know exactly where the tree is. I can go eat from the tree and then I can serve Hashem forever. Hashem says you destroyed the world. You destroyed the world. Why? You rationalized. You rationalized. I never told you the Torah is supposed to be rational. Anyone that wants to rationalize the Torah at every single turn, of course, finds many things that are rational. Of course, there are many things that do make sense, but that's not the reason why we do them. That's not the reason. You're not supposed to serve Hashem because it makes sense. You're not supposed to fulfill a mitzvah because it makes sense. You're supposed to do it because Hashem said so.

15:11We are meant to be a light unto the nations, not to follow their misguided practices. Remember, every Jew has to remember that he's a Jew and she's a Jew. We don't celebrate non-Jewish holidays, even if they seem harmless. It's a zilzul, a disrespect to the Torah, and we should always hold our own traditions and teachings with the highest regard.