Latest / Kerem B'Yavneh Parsha Podcast / Shavuot 5786 | Rabbi Shlomo Friedman

Transcript

Shavuot 5786 | Rabbi Shlomo Friedman · Kerem B'Yavneh Parsha Podcast

• 0:08
  Shalom from Camp Yavneh.
• 0:11
  The story's told of a certain Israeli diplomat that was in חוץ לארץ and
• 0:17
  he figured it would be a good idea in order to strengthen his ties
• 0:21
  with the Jewish community to attend the services on שבת.
• 0:26
  So he shows up in שול and the גבאי sees פנים חדשות and he
• 0:31
  figures well,
• 0:33
  it might be a nice idea to give him an עליה.
• 0:37
  So the גבאי comes over to the diplomat and he asks him his name.
• 0:45
  The fellow says,
• 0:46
  "My name is יצחק." "בן?" asks the גבאי.
• 0:50
  "בן שלושים וחמש." But the גבאי says,
• 0:53
  "No,
• 0:53
  no,
• 0:54
  האבא,
• 0:55
  האבא." So the fellow says,
• 0:57
  "Oh,
• 0:57
  האבא,
• 0:58
  האבא בן שישים ושבע." עד כאן the story.
• 1:04
  Now what makes that story somewhat humorous is the dual meaning of the word
• 1:11
  בן.
• 1:13
  A person is the בן,
• 1:15
  the child of his parents,
• 1:17
  but he's also the בן of his years.
• 1:21
  What does this have to do with חג השבועות?
• 1:24
  That we'll see in a second.
• 1:26
  The נצי"ב in his הקדמה to ספר שמות points out that the בה"ג has
• 1:34
  an interesting name for ספר שמות;
• 1:36
  he refers to ספר שמות as הספר השני.
• 1:41
  At first glance that seems pretty bland.
• 1:44
  We could probably come up with better names for ספר שמות:
• 1:48
  ספר הגלות והגאולה.
• 1:51
  What sort of name is this,
• 1:52
  הספר השני?
• 1:55
  Explains the נצי"ב that the בה"ג is trying to make an important point over
• 1:59
  here.
• 2:00
  The בה"ג is emphasizing the fact that just as ספר בראשית is the story
• 2:06
  of the בריאה,
• 2:09
  so ספר שמות is the continuation of that story.
• 2:13
  And the בריאה is not complete until the Jewish people accept the תורה on
• 2:20
  הר סיני.
• 2:22
  Of course,
• 2:23
  a similar idea is expressed by חז"ל.
• 2:25
  רש"י writes:
• 2:26
  ויהי ערב ויהי בוקר יום השישי.
• 2:30
  Why the sixth day of creation?
• 2:32
  השישי is a רמז the sixth of סיון where the Jewish people received the
• 2:37
  תורה.
• 2:38
  Without the Jewish people accepting the תורה,
• 2:41
  the completion would not have been fulfilled,
• 2:44
  the creation would not have been complete.
• 2:49
  And thus ספר השני,
• 2:52
  ספר שמות is the completion,
• 2:54
  the spiritual creation of the world.
• 2:58
  Physical creation,
• 2:59
  ספר בראשית;
• 3:01
  spiritual creation with the accepting the תורה,
• 3:05
  ספר שמות.
• 3:06
  מורי ורבי,
• 3:07
  Rabbi Mordechai Willig שליט"א pointed out that just as these two stages of creation
• 3:13
  exist on the cosmic level,
• 3:16
  this is also true on the individual level.
• 3:21
  Every human being is created in a sense by the ג' שותפים,
• 3:26
  by הקדוש ברוך הוא,
• 3:27
  by his father and his mother.
• 3:30
  But there's an additional level of creation that a person needs to do for
• 3:35
  himself and that is the spiritual creation.
• 3:38
  The רמב"ם points out in מורה נבוכים towards the beginning when he discusses the
• 3:43
  word ילד,
• 3:45
  that an individual that does not develop himself spiritually and intellectually is like an
• 3:52
  animal,
• 3:53
  just in a certain sense worse.
• 3:55
  An animal doesn't have the brains to be able to connive,
• 4:00
  to be able to plan to do all sorts of terrible things and a
• 4:04
  person that doesn't develop himself in terms of מידות טובות,
• 4:08
  in terms of תורה,
• 4:10
  could do all sorts of terrible things with the brains that he was given.
• 4:14
  So we all need to see to it that we are developed not only
• 4:20
  physically but also spiritually.
• 4:22
  The physical development,
• 4:24
  our physical growth,
• 4:25
  that's something which is in a certain sense not in our control:
• 4:29
  על כרחך אתה נוצר,
• 4:31
  על כרחך אתה נולד.
• 4:32
  But in terms of the spiritual creation,
• 4:35
  that's all up to us.
• 4:37
  Before חג השבועות,
• 4:39
  it's a wonderful time to see to it that we are not only בנים
• 4:43
  of our parents,
• 4:44
  but also בנים in the sense of the children of our years,
• 4:49
  using our years properly,
• 4:51
  using our time properly,
• 4:53
  dedicating ourselves to תורה.
• 4:56
  And if in fact we do so,
• 4:58
  then we will be.
• 4:59
  fully בנים אתם לה׳
• 5:03
  אלהיכם.
• 5:04
  May we be זוכה to a proper קבלת התורה on חג השבועות and throughout
• 5:09
  the year.
• 5:11
  שבת שלום and חג שמח.