Holy Nation

0:00Today is a special day. My daughter asked me if I was coming to Shulta today because it's a special Super Bowl speech. I didn't know it was the Super Bowl, but she reminded me. The Super Bowl and that the minigame is in Badam-Idrash, that we give an extra long speech. I always tell people that if they want to know one of the greatest communities in the world is the Badam-Idrash, because it was on the Super Bowl. If you remember about four years ago, I was working on the calendar,

1:02so I was off in my timing, so we were sitting outside here. I thought Shkia was 20 minutes later than what it was, so I kept speaking and speaking and speaking. Nobody told me anything, so I kept speaking. And finally, I finished speaking. Alan, remember I finished speaking? And it's a mess. Why did you speak so long? I said, no, I just spoke to Shkia. He said, no, she was 20 minutes ago. And nobody interrupted me, so I told people, this is the greatest community in the world. They're very holy people in this community. It's a true story. It tells us, I guess, that by Purim, we were rounding the belt to our Purim now. So, indeed, it says, what did Hamun accuse us? Vesta, say, in Shreynas, we call on that the laws, the rules of this nation,

2:05is different than all of the other nations of the world. And remember, Kshreysh had 127 provinces. He was a ruler of the employer civilized world. Okay, not all civilized, not civilized, but all the entire world. Every nation has differences than other nations. You know, in the English, I remember I went to go for a wedding to England. So, they sent a driver to pick me up. I was not in England, I don't know anything. So, they sent the driver to pick me up on the airport. So, he comes, he meets me at the gate. We walk toward the car. And of course, I go to the car, and I go to the car to open the doors. So, he asks me, am I driving? So, he says, no, no, no, you drive. So, he says, what, you're in my seat? Because it's on the opposite side. Every nation has different rules. The different rules, every nation has. What do you mean? The Jewish people are different than all of the other nations of the world. Oh, I see this year, Alan. You had the lights go off on me to make sure I don't know if it's big. I see, yeah. Every nation has different rules.

3:06What is the difference in the Jewish people? I mean, it's just different places. That's the way every country operates. It's different. So, I heard a beautiful explanation that the Jewish people does say, and the rule is, shinism would call them to be different than all the nations. And that really is it in the nutshell. Right? Do you want to know the essence of the Jewish people? We're just, we're playing a different game. We're just a different league. Right? This is just different than all of the other nations of the world. Right? This is them. We have to recognize. Right? We have to be, as we mentioned this morning, a memlach eskaya, and then we go to the Scottish. We have to realize our goals are different. Right? Our goals are not to be just, this is hard for people to put their finger to grasp or to get comfortable with. But as I mentioned this morning, our goal is that to be Jewish non-Jews. You know, they do it one way. We do it slightly differently. Right? We need kosher. Okay, so you cannot, as we mentioned this morning,

4:07you can have a 24-karat gold burger. But as long as the meat's kosher. Now, the goal is that you should be infused your whole, your whole raisin to etch it. What makes you operate is different. People say, is that I want to be a good Jew. What does that mean? I want to be a moral person. So that's excellent. If you want to be a moral person, that means you could be a seven-know-a-hide lost. That's what every person in this, in God's world, is supposed to be a good person. Everybody's supposed to be a moral person. There's just to be a God-fearing person. That's a universal principle. To be a holy nation, to be a nation that's driven by the 613 versus the 7th, that's really what we're all about. And, you know, and it says that God put the mountain. He lifted up the mountain above the Jewish people, cuff all them harky geese. So it's a little bit of wondering, this morning we talked about nassevanishmah. Did we talk about that at the end?

5:09No. I don't think so. I don't think we get to it. But it says that the Jewish people said nassevanishmah. They said, we will do and we will hear. So they pledged 120% connection, conviction, connection toward God. So why did God have to then put the mountain above them? They had already subscribed to the system. They had already said, yeah, nassevanishmah. We're going to do it. So why did God have to hold the mountain over the Jewish people? Right? Fear. Right. It's a fear in us. But why was it necessary if they had already agreed? Right. If they had already agreed willingly, why did they have to put the mountain over them? So one explanation is, one explanation is that it's good and fine to volunteer for something. The problem with volunteers is that

6:09they always feel like they're volunteers. And volunteers is good and fine, except for when they don't come. Meaning it's going to volunteer. I don't have to. I don't have to. Person has to feel he's obligated. You work, you know, everybody. A volunteer doesn't have to show up for work. In fact, legally in California, I was in a conference on the legalities of if you have a volunteer, do they have the rules of an employee? Do they have the rules of the employee? In the state of California, if the volunteer, if there is an extreme expectation that the volunteer must perform, he could be the legal status of an employee, whatever the reason was. I mean, he's a volunteer, somebody doesn't have to. There has to be a feeling of, I don't have to. I don't have to. And he's wants to, but he doesn't have to. That's a volunteer by legal definition. So the Jewish people,

7:10not a definition, I'm a volunteer. I don't have to. So one explanation is, like I'd be saying, is that you got to. You have to. You have to be honest, that you have to do this. And therefore, it's a cottage broker who had to tell the Jewish people, he had to hold the mountain over it, because, told them, they felt like volunteers. I told them, I don't want to. So I'm not interested. And therefore, you need the Kaffaliah and Harkigigas. That's the idea of Eved and Ben. They say, Avinu Malkainu, our father, our king. A person has to bounce between two lines. One is you have to want, but you have to also realize that you have to. Reverend Ben. Yes. Has there ever been a time in history like ours in which it does feel like everything is voluntary? In other words, prior to the enlightenment and the breakdown of the shathal, you had no choice. You know, the Kila had its ways with you if you didn't come around and come to the media. Is there ever been a time that people really feel like

8:10what a guy or a guy just did, because I gave you an income out of them? It's a problem. It's a problem. Listen, there's a lot of development right now. You just see, look at kids in general, right? You have to give them, you know, and you have to stand up at the table when they walk in the room, the fact that they came to the table. You know? Sometimes sometimes you have to beg your head on the wall. I have to ask the kid, you know what I mean? Like, you're happy that they eat. You know, that's good for a tea, or what? I have to be happy with the kid and all the kids that they eat. It's a don't eat. That's okay. That's a great question. I mean, it's just a general issue. But we have to realize for ourselves a little bit, we have to feel we're obligated. When we say the brochah, really is, is that you have to focus when you say your brochah, Cherkideschannu be mitzvah sava vitsi vanu. Right? Plus you've got a Cherkideschannu.

9:10We sanctified us, be mitzvah sava with his commandments. There's one word of that brochah that people don't like. Vitsi vanu. No, I'm serious. Vitsi vanu. You're commanded to do. I remember my very first gig, if you will. My very first time, I was before, I was officiating. For I holidays, I was in Austin, Texas at the University of Austin. They wanted to have an Orthodox service. They had a reforming conservative. They wanted to have, for the first time, an Orthodox service. I was in this training program, so somehow I ended up there in Austin, Texas. So I remember we were having a conversation on Mr. Cherkideschannu. And this was old college kids, some staff, but primarily college kids. And we were having trouble, we were having a conversation about mitzvahs. And she was not understanding the idea of mitzvah.

10:10So I didn't have experience. I didn't understand the problem on the conversation, but somehow I finally realized that her explanation of mitzvah is, we were talking about mitzvahs, you have to do. So she kept saying, you mean, so it's a good deed. And I kept saying, yeah, it's a mitzvah. And she kept saying, it's a good deed. And then it dawned on me, like sometimes you're in the middle talking and you realize, oh, that's what they mean. So her explanation of a mitzvah was you have mitzvah day. The federation has mitzvah day. I remember years ago, we had discovered, they wanted to make a mitzvah day. So I said, don't call it a mitzvah day. Call it a chesa day. Kindness day is nice. Mitzvah day, no. Mitzvah, because mitzvah is not an option. Mitzvah means you have to. That's what the word means. But she shared the definition, what's mitzvah is, it's a good deed. Good deed means that, I'm not a good mood. I'm going to do the good deed. I'm not a good mood. I don't go to the deed. It is a person has to realize, when it comes to mitzvahs, is that you have to realize, you have to do it. You also have to want to do it.

11:12You've got to work on both. But you have to realize that you have to. You have to realize that you have to. It's a certain amount of training that we have to do within ourselves, self-discipline. And that's a little bit, that art of self-discipline, of feeling that you have to, has been lost. And that's the idea. The, the, the, it says that God lifted up the mountain, and He said, if you accept the Torah good, and if not, there will be your burial. So meaning is, you have to, otherwise you're finished. But the problem is, the text doesn't fit. Because if I, if you're holding the burial over somebody, if you're holding something over somebody's head, and you say, you do it good. If not, here is your death place. Meaning, here, I'm going to bury you. I'm going to drop the mountain, and it's nice knowing you. But that means, here is your burial. Not there. What does it mean there? So one explanation, beautiful idea, as many, many to this. One idea is, is that Shum means,

12:13later in time, you're right. You don't have to, you don't have to do anything. But you have to realize this, is that if you don't submit yourself to the Torah, if you're not fortunate to recognize and realize the value, you're right. You're going to feel like you're, you're going to feel good. You know, you, you got out of it. You did what you wanted. But Shum, down the road, you're going to regret it. Right? Later in life, you regret it. You realize, this is that, oh, what I could have done. Right? Shum. It's always, it's a Shum there, there, there, there, there. Right? You push off what you have to do. You know, you keep kicking, kicking the can down. Shum, Shum, Shum, Shum. And it's all of us have to realize that, that, the great privilege that we have. You have to realize, as Shabakhabanu, and I think, as you get older, you say this, Bukhah differently. Right? As Shabakhabanu Mikhalaam, I'm a Salonist, so you have to say the Bukhah every morning. Right? It's the one Bukhah that's Biblical. Right? It's a Biblical, quite a must. Right? Bukhah is, as Shabakhabanu, you chose us from all the nations and you gave us the Torah, you have to realize this, how glitlaq,

13:13how lucky we are to have the Torah, how fortunate we are to have the Torah. So even those, that I have to give credit, even those that are watching today, the Super Bowl, right? This comes half-time. Right? Is they're going to be watching a special program, right? They're going to be watching a program, special four speakers are speaking during half-time. Right? Shabakhabanu, right? Everybody else is watching the half-time. And everybody else is clicking to the Torah any time, to see a special half-time show. Right? Here, you're on a higher level than everybody. You don't even go to the Super Bowl. You're sitting here in Shul. But those of us that David meant earlier, I guess, right? After we realize that Shabakhabanu, we have to realize this, how fortunate we are. And we realize this, the gift of Torah really gives us this special gift that to know, does say, I'm shown this, what Haman knew. Haman knew these Jews, right? They're different than all of the other people. Right? This is the whole essence of the Jewish people is that they're different

14:13than all of the nations of the world. This is what the Shem, we should be proud Jews, we should be strong Jews, and we should be devoted Jews. Oh, man. Oh, yeah. Did you see them? Okay. They're neighbors, right? No. For what? No.