Parshas Devarim - Seventy Languages, One Soul

2:44 How could you translate the Torah into seventy languages? The Torah was given in Lashon Hakodesh; it should remain in Lashon Hakodesh. What's this idea of translating the Torah into seventy languages? We see that Moshe Rabbeinu was insistent. That before Klal Yisrael goes into Eretz Yisrael, this was important. It was a preparation for going into Eretz Yisrael. The Torah needs to be translated into seventy languages. Very interesting thing. The number seventy is a very common number in Yiddishkeit. We know that the Torah, when it says Shema Yisrael, Hashem L'Keno Hashem Echad. The Ayin, which is Begamatria seventy, the Ayin is written very large, and the Balaturim explains that this is a reference to Klal Yisrael, which has seventy names, and we were given a Torah, as the Gemara says, that has seventy names and was elucidated in seventy different ways. And to differentiate us from the seventy nations of the world. We know there's many things like this. The Gemara in Shabbos eighty-eight B says that the Torah was given in seventy languages.

3:47 We know that the phrase VeYedaber Hashem u'Moishah Lemer is said seventy times in the Torah. We know that there were shivim zakenim. There were seventy members of the Sanhedrin. The Tukunei Zayar gives seventy explanations of the word Bereshis. David Ameloff says the average person lives seventy years. Most importantly, we know that the Torah can be understood on four levels: Pshat, Remez, Rosh, and Sod. We know the Gemara already says that Nichnas Yain Yatzas Sod. Sod is B'gamatria seventy. Yain is B'gamatria seventy. So a person that can hold their Yain like the Das of the shivim zakenim again, there's a tremendous amount of Torah around the word around the number seventy. Shaila is. What does seventy mean to us? When the Torah describes going down into Mitzrayim The Torah says, "How many people were we?" Seventy. It's not true. The Torah has a very specific phrase. The Torah says, "We were shivim nafsh." What's the exact translation of shivim nafsh?

4:50 Seventy Seventy soul. We all translated it as seventy souls because it doesn't make any sense. Shivim nafesh means seventy soul. It should have been pluralized. Why didn't the Torah do that? Al pika bala, there's a very interesting idea, a connection between the letters ayin and aleph. Really We're supposed to pronounce the letter ayin very differently than the way we pronounce it. Anyone here, Teimani? Have a real Teimani person here. The Teimanim, the way they pronounce the letter Ayin is actually the correct way of doing it. Who's Teimani? Who we got? Ayin. Your life matters. But that's really the right way to say it. The real right way to say it is a very guttural sound. It's actually an Ayin. It comes from the back of the throat. So Alpi Kabbala The Aleph is hidden. Within the iron That's a very deep idea. What does it mean that the aleph is hidden within the iron?

5:58 So it goes like this: seventy represents a fragmented world. Aleph represents the unity of a fragmented world. I'll explain what I mean. When we look at the world from a purely physical perspective. The world is as fragmented as could possibly be. We are all separate and distinct from each other. I am separate from this table, from this water bottle, from you. You're all separate from each other. And yet, the Torah says that even in the state of a fragmented world There's a unity to creation. The way I heard it once from a very well-known Balqirov is, he said, "Soft-core monotheists believe in one God." Hardcore monotheists believe in oneness. They believe that within the fragmentation of the world, there's a unity. You can pervert and destroy that unity. What does that look like? I'm trying to decide how politically incorrect I should be. So I'll just be very politically incorrect.

7:16 Let's say you have a well-intentioned rebbe. And I mean it. He's well-intentioned. But the Rebbe sees it as his job to get everybody to think in the same way To act in the same way, to speak in the same way. And he's coming from a place that he believes is for the sake of unity. That's not unity. That's the perversion of unity, and it's exceptionally dangerous. Unity like that throughout history has caused the death of hundreds of millions of people. That was communist Russia. It was Hitler. Yemach Shemo. That was Megdal Bavel. That was Mitzrayim. This notion of everybody has to be the same. Everybody has to be on this. Everybody, if we're working towards the same thing in the same exact way, we're exceptionally powerful. Yiddishkeit comes along and says exactly the opposite. Yiddishkeit says that we are all fundamentally different, as the Gemara says, no two faces are the same.

8:17 And each person has to be radically unique. When I say radically unique, I mean it. Most people when they hear that They get a little nervous. What does that mean? I should be radically unique. If we really had a strong sense of self We would be excited. We would be excited to wake up in the morning and express the unique people that we are. But we are so conditioned for social acceptance that most of us are willing to trade in what makes us unique so that we could be part of the group. The saddest day As a parent, the saddest day is when you see your kid trade in their unity. I'm saying their true unity of who they are to be unified to themselves, which means they're going to be unique. For conformity, I'll tell you what it looks like. I have six kids.

9:22 I have five girls and then I had a son. Eventually got it right. So my daughter Two years ago She was obsessed since she's a kid. She was obsessed with unicorns. Little girls, that's what they like. I really understand it, but this is you know This is the way of that species. So I like buying my daughter unicorn stuff. I like that when you're a dad, you want to get your kid what they like. So I come home sometimes from a trip to America, and I've gone to Amazing Savings and bought everything that's unicorn, because the whole thing costs you like seven bucks. But you come back and you're holding this amount of stuff, and your daughter's face lights up. So I'm headed to America, and my daughter says to me "Abba, this time I don't want unicorn stuff. I don't want any unicorn presents." I said, "Miriam, why don't you want unicorn presents?"

10:27 Girls don't play with unicorns. It's babyish. Now I know that my daughter still likes unicorns. I know that she wants to play with unicorns. But she's at an age where it's more important to her to fit in than it is to be. What she really uniquely is And Rabbi Sa We're not any different. We're not any different Because to say what you really think, and even to think differently And to be the unique version of yourself that you know you have inside of you It means being so attached to your own soul that you have the true confidence to be yourself. And if we had that. You know what NCSY Kola would look like? It would be incredible. It would be what it's supposed to be. We are supposed to be this exceptional tapestry, and each one of us is supposed to have our unique role in that tapestry, in that play. But we keep saying other people's lines because we're too afraid to be ourselves.

11:30 And we're meant to be fragmented. We're not all meant to be the same. I love it when I hear guys saying like. Oh yeah, in that community, they all just wear black and white. They're all the same. As if clothing is what makes you unique. Clothing is not where you express uniqueness. You are much bigger than your clothing. And by the way, for all of those who say that, I often look at them and go "And you're so unique with the way you dress. We all more or less dress the same. We all wear the same t-shirts, the same polo shirts. You go to YU, you know exactly what a guy is more or less going to look like. We all kind of like that." There's certain programs that we're all on. You went to DRS, then you went to a certain yeshiva in Israel. I won't say its name. Then you went back to IU. You went to Simon School of Business. You became an accountant. You live in Woodmere. You know what I'm saying? And not that there's anything wrong with that. That's a wonderful life.

12:27 Maybe you should live in Israel, but aside from that, I'm saying it's a wonderful life. It's a great thing. It's a great thing, but where's the uniqueness? Where's the radical self acceptance? This is my line, and I'm not embarrassed to be myself, and I'm not embarrassed to say what's truly me, even if other people laugh at me, even if other people will look at me and go What's he doing? That's him. A guy that I respect very much. He's a guy that nobody would mess with. He's a monster. He's huge. One of these big, in high school, he was the captain of the wrestling team, but there's In Yeshiva League wrestling. Smaller versions of captains, this guy was a monster So nobody would mess with him. And he comes from a family that preaches, and I love this about his family: his family preaches radical self-acceptance, be yourself.

13:20 So I remember he came to Yeshiva. This big monster of a guy And he announced Chevra, we're starting a Quidditch league. If anyone wants to join. So I went over to him. I said to him, "Dude, what are you doing Quidditch league?" He's like, "No, we're gonna have a Quidditch league, Reb. You wanna join?" I'm like, "Not so much. Because I don't really do sports anymore. This body doesn't allow for it so much. And second of all, if I'm gonna play, I'm not playing Quidditch." But I love the fact that he's a stickle weird. I love the fact that he's a stickle weird because he's himself. He's not embarrassed to be himself. You see all these chevra. Everyone has to do the same thing. Nobody gets to think for themselves. You have a keppi. You have something to say. You also could look at chumash. You also could write svarim. You also could look at a gemara. You also could look at a teisvus. You know how to think. You're smart.

14:14 But we train people to be conformists and not to be unique because we're afraid of fragmentation. In Yiddishkeit, the alef is buried within the ayin. The oneness is buried within the fragmentation. When we see things that are different in Yiddishkeit, we say there's dignity in difference. There's something exciting when you're unique. You don't have to be a sheep. You don't have to listen just because they told you to listen. You have to think for yourself. And people get upset when I say that because they say, "Rabbi Berg, you know what's going to happen if they talk and think for themselves?" I don't know what's going to happen. Maybe they'll have a thought. That can't be a bad thing. But maybe they'll think something that's not what you think. That's also a good thing. That's also a good thing because we need so many voices coming together to say so many different things.

15:02 And this is why in Yiddishkeit, if you look at the number seventy, it's always seventy surrounding one. Yaakov Avinu was coming down to Mitzrayim; he was surrounded by the seventy members of his family. Mezrich Tanchuma says that in exile we are like a solitary sheep surrounded by seventy wolves. On Shmini Atseres, we have one ox that we give for Klal Yisrael. After we give all the other sacrifices for the seventy nations of the world, even in Sanhedrin, they're surrounding the Sanhedrin. The seventy members of the Sanhedrin surround the Muflo, which is a Melachon of Pela, which is the inverse of the Aleph. By us, the fragmentation of the world The iron of the world Is the means to seeing the unity of the world. They're not a stirah Memele. We can understand the Ksav Seifer explains why Moshe Rabbeinu, before we entered into Eretz Yisrael, came and said "We need to separate the Torah into seventy languages." Ksav Seifer says it his way; we're going to say it our way.

16:04 Ksav Seifer says that in the desert, a Jew would have said We could serve our Kadosh Baruch Hu in the desert. In the desert, there was total unity; there was no fragmentation. Everything was clear, transparent unity. But what are we going to do when we come into Eretz Yisrael? Where now we have to start to work the land. There's going to be farmers, and there's going to be bankers, and there's going to be accountants, and there's going to be commentators. There's going to be politicians, and we're going to have to do so many things when we come into Eretz Yisrael. How could we possibly learn Torah in Eretz Yisrael? Comes along Meisher Abeno, and he says, 'Bear Hated. Listen carefully. This not just a teaching. This an explanation.' Why is it an explanation? Because you have to look deep into it. And he comes and he says, "If you only believe in serving Hakadosh Baruch Hu through unity, and you don't know how to see the unity in the fragmented world" Then you've missed the point of the entire Torah.

16:58 The Torah is meant not only to be in Lashon Hakadosh But it has to speak to every single Jew in the language that they speak. That was the lesson of Meisher Abenu before we came into Eretz Yisrael. You're afraid. You're afraid, he says. You're afraid to go into a fragmented world. You're afraid to leave NCSY. Who's probably in this room right now. I think he's in this room right now. Now I saw him. He's in this room right now. He came to me a couple weeks ago when we were first starting in NCSY. Kol. He was already moving. He was already getting into it. He's already cooking. And he said, 'What's going to be if I can't?' What's going to be if I can't hold it when I'm back in America? What's going to be if I can't hold it? We've had a bunch of conversations since that point. Now I am going to give him another answer and share it with all of you. He's in the crowd.

17:48 It's not just for when it's unified. Torah is for everywhere you go. We don't believe that Torah is only for the beis medrash. If you are an accountant, you have to be an accountant and you have to be a ben Torah when you are an accountant. If you are a lawyer, you have to be a ben Torah when you are a lawyer. It has to come with you wherever you go in a fragmented world. Is a true miser told this over in the northern campus tonight. My wife was offered a full fellowship to college. The difference between a fellowship and a scholarship? Scholarship is when you don't pay to go to college. A fellowship is when they pay you to go to college. She was offered a full fellowship to college, which meant that for three years she was going to have to take certain special classes, but they were going to pay her, not just pay for all of her books. She was going to get a stipend so that she could be in college. My wife didn't want to go to college. She said, "I don't need to spend three years in college. I'm smart. I could learn what I need to learn from textbooks." So she wanted to be an actuary. Ever know what an actuary is? It's a very serious type of mathematics. It's very hard to learn.

18:53 So she bought a textbook. She taught herself actuarial mathematics and she passed the exams. She became an actuary. She went to work for a company. Probably many of you have heard of it, AIG. And in AIG, she had a boss. His name was Pat Riley. Not that Pat Riley. This Pat Riley wore a bow tie And was bald—a very different Pat Riley. I don't know if you know this, guys, but the actuaries are not the coolest people in the world. They're like these are the mathletes; these are the people that get picked on in high school. Isn't that exactly? But my wife happens to be an exceptionally modest and dignified person. And in a meeting in AIG, one of the chavra over there. Use the swear word And afterwards, after the meeting My wife got called in. Wasn't my wife that used the swear word?

19:48 My wife got called into Pat Riley's office. She sits down. Pat Riley says to my wife "I want to formally apologize to you. I want to apologize. My wife says, "For what?" Person used an inappropriate word in the meeting A word that we know you shouldn't have to hear." A word that we know you shouldn't have to hear. My wife grew up with brothers. And sometimes brothers don't necessarily use the most refined language. My wife was like, "No! It's like I don't want anyone to get into trouble." Pat Riley goes, "No, we already contacted Human Resources, and he's going to come and he's going to apologize to you." My wife is a regular Sanua person. What was it that Pat Riley saw in her? He said a person doesn't speak like that in front of me. I'll tell you what it was. It's the dignity of being a Jew.

20:46 It's being able to say, 'I am uniquely me, and this is me.' You hold yourself. It's not just for the Beit Meir beis medrash. You didn't come here to say I learned Torah in Beit Meir, Shabbos in Beit Meir. It's not just Shabbos in Beit Meir, chaver. It's going to be Shabbos in Tinek and Long Island. It's going to be Shabbos in LA and Chicago. It's going to be Shabbos in Cleveland than in Kansas. It's going to be Shabbos in all those places. Is it a special Shabbos here? Absolutely. But if it's only Shabbos and Beit Meir, and it's not Shabbos wherever we go next Then Chaval Azman, did we miss the point? Man, did we miss the point? It's everywhere we go. We take it with us. It doesn't matter. Chavosam Chavir, like you know, the chevr that I'm in high school. Stop. If you can be you everywhere, that's how you know when you're real.

21:35 Don't worry about your friends. Don't worry about your friends. Your real friends will accept you. Your real friends will stand beside you and go He made some moves. We see it a little differently. He came home from NCS Yikolo a little bit more machshav tayra. He's working on having a night seder. Maybe he's not coming out in the same way with us anymore. But your real friends will stand by you. And I'll tell you the truth. In my life, I was very blessed. I had amazing friends in high school. And I came to Eretz Yisrael And I made certain moves that my friends didn't necessarily make. You learn the hard way. Who are your real friends? Because your fake friends will talk about you behind your back. Your fake friends will go. Your real friends will be the ones that stand up for you and say, "We value the person that he's truly becoming."

22:30 But Rabbi says the person that you're truly becoming doesn't necessarily dress the same as everyone else. Doesn't necessarily talk the same way as everybody else. Doesn't necessarily have the same values. There's going to be some of you that have primacy of the state of Israel. There's going to be some of you that have primacy in the black gemara. There's going to be others that find value in sifrei chasidus. Some of you are going to find your place in davening. Some of you are going to find your place in chesed. Some of you are going to find your place in kiryv. Every single person here is different. And within those boxes that I just created, there are so many subdivisions and subdivisions. How many of us ask, why does Rabbi Yisrael want my mitzvah? It's the same mitzvah as everybody else. Same mitzvah as everybody else. The answer is it's not the same mitzvah as everybody else. It's not the same mitzvah. Your mitzvah has to be uniquely you. There's a famous story with Rav Steinzalz that somebody came to him and they said, "Rebbe, it's so hard to say the same tefillas every single day." He goes, "I agree" But what's supposed to be is that you say the tefilla and then you're a fundamentally changed person. So the tefilla remains the same, but the next day you are fundamentally different.

23:33 If we were tapped into our true soul, the aleph that's buried within the iron, we'd have no problem with that. Running out of time. But in the three minutes that I have left, I just want to say one thing. I said it last week, but I hammer it home again. I had the biggest sukkah in the world this past Shabbos, and again today. And tonight, we had the opportunity to have T. J. With us. And I was with TJJ on Shabbos, and I was with TJJ today. I have to tell you, Rabbi Yisai, what's happening on TJJ is so special. It's so special to be a part of. And I spoke today for an hour and change with some of the girls from TJJ Southern. These girls are unbelievable. These girls are unbelievable. And I want you to know An hour went by, and we had to end because the next part of the program was coming. It felt like five minutes. I could have gone for five hours easy.

24:32 We're going to go to Yom Ences. And you're going to look around And you're going to see there's going to be a lot of different types of Jews. A lot of different types of Jews. And it's good for you to see it. It's good for you because you come from the bubble. Each one of you is in your own bubble for the most part. And it doesn't matter if that bubble is the Five Towns or Teneck or Engelwood or Skokie or Pico. It doesn't matter where you're holding. Rabbi Yisai, it's a bubble. And tonight, and in a couple of days. First of all, Tishavav comes into the world. And after Tishavav, by Yom and see. As why I want you to take a moment at Yom and see. You'll be doing your thing, but I want you to take a moment to appreciate. Chalal Yisrael is a beautiful tapestry with so many different types of people.

25:20 Don't look at people and define them. They're more observant. They're more tsnius. It's not the avida. The avida is can you appreciate? Every single type of Jew. If you could appreciate their uniqueness, then you could appreciate your own. If you could appreciate your own uniqueness, then you can appreciate theirs. But if you find yourself looking around and judging And you're just focused on the iron and you haven't seen the aleph that's buried within that iron Then unfortunately, you don't get it. It's a beautiful tapestry. If we can only take the time to appreciate each other for who we truly are, which is a chelak elokah mimal mamish. Actually a piece of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Rabbi, I have a good Shabbos.