Parshas Yisro / Tu BiShvat - I Know You Hear Me But Are You Listening?

2:32 And number two. The activity of Yisro was shmiyah, listening. So there's something about these two concepts that we need to understand in a very deep way. One, who was Yisro, and two, what is the deeper understanding of shmiyah? How are these embodying the entire idea of Kabbalah Satora? If you look at Rashi, there's two obvious problems that we can find with Rashi. The first problem is that Rashi uses a very strange lashon here. Mashmuah Shama Uba. Rashi doesn't say what was the event that Yisro heard that brought him to become one with Klal Yisro. It's Mashmuah Shama. What was the Shmiyah? What did he hear? What was the hearing that he heard? It's a funny language, Mashmuah Shama Uba. That's the first kashon Rashi. Second kashon Rashi is. Yisro was not the only person to hear about the events of Kriyas Yamsof and Mochemas Amalek.

3:36 We know that the pasuk says, 'Shamu ami mergazun.' Everybody in the entire world heard about Kriyas Yamsof and Mochemas Amalek and they were afraid. What was unique? What was unique about Yisro that he heard and he came, and everybody else heard and they didn't come? In fact, it was the opposite; they became afraid. Those are the two questions we have on Rashi. Before we answer this, it's going to take a long time before we answer this tonight. I want to go through four different machleiksim that we find in Shas. Four different machleiksim, not just in Shas but also in Medrash. And we're going to go through each one and understand them very deeply. Then we're going to return to our original question. In this week's parsha, we also have another machleikus. The pasuk says, 'V'chol ha'am – the entire nation saw the sounds of the thunder and the flames and the sound of the shofar and the smoking mountain.' So the medrash – most of you girls know this medrash. The medrash brings a machlekes between R' Yishmael and R' Akiva. What exactly happened?

4:53 Because if you look at the pasuk, it seems to be the pasuk doesn't make any sense. What's the literal translation? The entire nation saw the sounds, so it doesn't really make any sense. What does it mean? How do you see the sounds? Rav Yisrael says it's not the way to read the pasuk. It says they were roim. What were they seeing? Not esakolos. They saw the lapidim and they saw the hara ashem. They saw the flames and they saw the mountain that was on fire. But it doesn't make any sense to say roim esakolos that you could see the sounds. Rav Kiva says no. Ordinarily, you can't see sounds, and ordinarily, you can't hear sight. But in this case, they heard what was ordinarily seen, and they saw what was ordinarily heard. So the machlekas between Rav Yishmael and Rav Akiva. The question we're going to try to answer tonight is what's the deeper understanding of this machlekas? Girls, I want to tell you something. The Hebrew word for argument is not machlokus. Does anyone know what the Hebrew word for argument is? Vikuach. Vikuach is an argument. What does machlokus mean? Machlokus means a chelak. It means a part of something. Whenever you have a machlokus, the way that we do it in Judaism is we don't just say what's the truth, but we see the truth from two sides.

6:18 When you have a chelak of each, you have the entire understanding. So when we ask what's the deeper understanding of this machlokus, we're trying to understand how both of these shittos fit together to create one unified idea. That's one machlokes between Rav Akiva and Rav Yishmael. There's another machlokes between Rav Akiva and Rav Yishmael. The pasuk before Hakadosh Baruch Hu gives the aseret hadibros says v'yedaber lekim es kol hadvarim ha'ele leymor. Generally, when the Torah says leymor, how does the Torah use the word leymor? Moshe Rabbeinu is being told. Say this over to Klal Yisrael. But there's a problem. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is giving everything to Klal Yisrael directly. So what does Lemor mean in this case? It's machleikas again. Rav Kiva and Rav Yishmael. Rav Kiva says, or we'll do Rav Yishmael first. Rav Yishmael says that Lemor meant that Klal Yisrael was affirming and answering Hakadosh Baruch Hu that for all of the commandments that Hakadosh Baruch Hu would give, we would follow them. But what exactly did we say? This is a machlokes between Rav Yishmael and Rav Akiva. Rav Yishmael says on the positive commandments, we said yes, we will follow them, and on the negative commandments, we said no.

7:41 We will not go against what you said. You understand? So, to the positive we said yes, and to the negative we said no. Rav Akiva disagrees. Rav Kiva says to both the positive and the negative, to the ases and the los ases, we said yes, we will obey what you said. This is a really difficult machlokas for us to understand because they're not really disagreeing, right? As they're both saying that everybody in Klal Yisrael affirmed that we were going to obey exactly what Hakadosh Baruch Hu told us to do. But it seems that there's a fundamental machlokas in how we said it. Who cares how we said it? Either way, we said the same thing, right? That's the second machlokas. A third machlokes. This is a famous gemara in Brachos that most of you girls have thought about or think about at certain times in your life.

8:35 What's the right thing to do? To sit and learn and study all day for the rest of your life, or to go out and get a job? Today they have all sorts of fancy terminologies for it: learner-earner-learner. Every girl has to have exactly what she wants on her resume. If you don't have exact clarity, nobody's going to know what you want. Not that the guys know what they want, but it doesn't matter, right? This is Gemara and Brachos. The pasuk says, "Va'asafta deganacha." Pasuk in Kriyas Shema. What does that mean? "Va'asafta deganacha." Supposed to harvest the wheat. Rav Yisshmael says, "Not so, From." Rav Yisshmael says, "You got to work and you got to learn." Rav Shimbar Yochai, The Talmud of Rav Akiva. Says vaasafte de ganecha is a curse. Vaasafte de ganecha is a curse. Really, we're supposed to be at the level where we just sit and learn all day, and Hakadosh Baruch Hu will have other people take care of it for us. The Gemara says, "Who do we pasquin like?" Harbe'asa k'ri Rav Yishmael va'alsa bi'oda. Many people did like Rav Yishmael, and it worked. And many people did like Rav Shimba Yochai. The Gemara says, and it didn't work. The Gemara again, we have to understand two things here.

9:45 Number one. The Gemara says we have a machlokas between Rishmal and Rishem Bayochai. We have to understand what's the depth of the machlokas. But here, the Gemara doesn't really give a regular psak. When the Gemara gives a regular psak, what does it sound like? And we pasquin like Rishem Bayochai, and we pasquin like Rishmal. Here, the Gemara says a strange going. Har be also k'ri Rishmal v'also be adam. Har be also k'ri Rishem Bayochai v'lo also be adam. The Gemara is reporting the facts. The Gemara is telling us the statistics. Why doesn't the Gemara give us a regular Pesach? Last machlekes. Tu b'Shvat. Everybody knows Tu b'Shvat. Tu b'Shvat is Rosh Hashanah le'ilanos. This is the new year for the trees. When is Tu b'Shvat? Tu b'Shvat is of course on. So girls, when they ask you where Grant is buried, isn't he buried in Grant's tomb? Who's buried in Grant's tomb?

10:46 One more time. Who's buried in Grant's tomb? Grant. When is Tu B'Shevat? Shkayach. We can get there eventually. It just takes us a little time. Tu B'Shevat is on Tu B'Shevat. It's not so posh. Beis Hillel says Tu B'Shevat is on Teshuvah B'Shevat. But Beis Shamai says that Tu B'Shevat is not really supposed to be on Tu B'Shevat. It's really supposed to be on Rosh Chodesh. Reish Chayda Shvat is Rosh Hashanah Leilonos. So that's the last machlekas. What's the underlying theme between this machlekas? That's enough questions for tonight. There's a big discussion that's going on today all over the world. Even if you think at first this discussion is not relevant to you, it's very relevant to you. The discussion is: Should you bring it into high schools Seminaries, Yeshivas? Should you bring in discovery, The Eishat Torah program that proves God? It's a very big conversation.

12:01 Some say, Don't bring them in. Why? Because if the kids don't have questions, you're going to give them questions. Other people say you're being naive. Every one of these kids has the question. Bring them in. It's a big conversation. They say back, "What if they don't like the proofs? Then what's going to happen? You're really going to turn these kids off." So somebody came to me and asked me what I think. So I was very clear with them. Lameisa in today's d'or. Everybody is thinking about these things. Even those kids that have a natural lamuna, they have questions and they deserve answers. But I agree that the problem is with a lot of these seminars; they don't do a very good job. And I'll tell you why. Let's think about the question for a second. Can you prove God?

13:03 So what are we going to have? We're going to have somebody that's going to come in. He's going to come to this room. He's going to point to the door. He's going to look at the door and he's going to say, "I'm going to tell you that door magically appeared there." How many people buy that? How many people buy that the door magically appeared right there? Nobody's going to raise their hands. Nobody intelligent. Why? Because if the door has a design, it must mean there was a designer. The door has a design. It must mean there was a designer. Everybody knows that. Did any of us see the door being installed? No. Did any of us go to the factory where they made the door? Did we meet the guy that made the order? But every one of us in this room has no issue with the fact that a designer made that door. And for some of us in the room, it's going to be fine. It's going to be more than enough. I got it. If you look at the world, this is what they're going to argue. If you look at the world, it's an amazing display of design.

14:03 You girls. I don't know if you have this. It was very, very, very big back in the 90s and in the early 2000s. There were tapes of Rav Victor Miller, The Chassidic Lavrach. Do you girls know who Rav Victor Miller was? Victor Miller could go on for hours about an apple, the design of an apple. An apple is an orchard. That's what an apple is. An apple is an orchard. What an unbelievable design Hakadosh Baruch Hu put in an apple. The human eye is an exceptional thing. It's exquisite. I was talking to a girl that I had in my house this Shabbos. I said, "Are you happy?" She said, "Yeah, I'm happy." I said, "Are you thrilled?" She said, "I don't think I'm thrilled." I said, "Let me ask a question. If you were blind, and I came along and I said, 'I'm going to put two balls in your head that are going to allow you to experience sight,' would you be thrilled?" She said, "I'd be thrilled." I said, "You have it already. You have it already. If I told you that you were going to have healthy parents who loved you. How amazing would that be if you were an orphan? That would be amazing."

15:09 Great. So you have that already. There's so much incredible design that we have that we don't take stock of. We're all sitting a little bit. Everyone's worried about all the different things in their life. We have amazing things in front of us. Because Hashem Baruch Hu created this world with an exceptional design. And most of the people in this room are probably going to go, "I believe in God, right? Because something must have created this. It's too random to say that all of this evolved. Even everyone, every scientist would admit it's a ridiculous thing to think that all of this came randomly. There must have been a designer." But there's going to be some exceptionally spiritual people in the room who, when they hear this, are going to be very frustrated, and it's going to sound like either one of two things. The spiritually self-aware person is going to say, 'I really don't feel like I need anyone to prove God to me, and honestly, it doesn't help me at all.' There are going to be those people, and then there are going to be the people in the room that are also exceptionally spiritually sensitive. We should never denigrate these people; they're exceptionally spiritually sensitive.

16:14 And they say, "But I want to see God. Don't ask me to believe in the spaghetti monster in the sky that created all of this. It's coming from a very deep spiritual place." It's coming from a very deep spiritual place. Why? Because the power of proof should not be applied to God. Shouldn't apply it to God. Let me explain. Two, three hundred years ago, people did not ask for proof of God. Why? Because they were not interested in proof. Because proof is a scientific word. What does proof mean? Proof means I can measure this. That's what a proof is. I can measure this. That's a proof. How can I measure this table? I take a ruler. I know it exists. I can measure the dimensions. I can see the space that this table takes up. So I can prove it. But if you ask me to prove God, how could I possibly have the instrumentation to measure God? I can only measure something that I am bigger than. I can only measure something if I have an instrument that's bigger than the thing it's trying to measure. Not bigger necessarily in its size.

17:18 But bigger in its capacity. How can I possibly prove God? There is nothing bigger than God. It doesn't even make any sense. Do you understand the problem with all these seminars? All these seminars are coming along and they're saying, "I can prove God to you." First of all, why would you want to? And second of all, how could you? Telling me that the door had a design is not a proof. Telling me that the door has a design is an indication, but it's not a proof. And people are smart enough to know that. We don't need proof to know that something is real. In fact, the more proof you have that something is real, the less real it is. I'll give you an example. I don't like art. Never have. I don't think art is amazing. I just don't. But there are people that spend their lives studying art, and they will sit in front of a beautiful painting and just look at it and wonder. My father told me that the Mona Lisa once came to Brooklyn. He went to see the Mona Lisa and he cried. I looked at my father and I said, "Dad, she's not that ugly." He said, "I don't know, I didn't get it." He was so excited to see the Mona Lisa.

18:31 Me, it didn't pass on. I don't like art. If somebody came to me and said, 'Prove to me that this art is real,' how could I possibly prove that art is real? I can prove that color is on canvas. But can you prove art? Can't prove art today. You could do anything you want. A homeless person could cut themselves and smear blood on a canvas, stick a banana peel on it, and sell it for a million dollars because it's abstract art. It's New York City. It's the struggle of mankind to be beyond his ultimate capacity to transcend this human existence. All this nonsense. You can have people that are going to talk about these things for hours. Lamaisa, it's all silliness. How could you prove art? And that's why that homeless guy can make a million dollars doing that. Because you can't prove it. Here's another one. I don't know if they do this in seminaries or if girls do this. But I know guys in yeshiva do this all the time. You ever hear anyone argue about music? Arguments about music are the dumbest things in the world. How could you possibly know what's better? What's better music? Guys ask me like, Rebbe, what did you listen to in the 90s? I'm like, I don't know.

19:33 Green Day. Green Day was around in the 90s, right? Oh my god! And they start talking about all the different. Can you prove music? If somebody says to me, 'Prove that this is music,' you can't prove music. You could prove sound, but you can't prove music. I can measure sound. You can't measure music. Here's the last one, and it's the best one of all. If somebody comes to me and they say, 'Prove to me that your parents love you,' first of all, if you have to ask the question, isn't there something so off? Prove to me that your parents love you. Number one. Number two. What if somebody actually answered the question? How sad would that be? What would that look like? What would it sound like? I know my mother loves me because of all that she does for me. Then you don't love your mother. Then you have a maid, or you have a cook. Or whatever role you have. You have a chauffeur, whatever role your mother plays. Her love has nothing to do. It's really nothing to do. All those things are maybe symptoms of her love. But the fact that she drives you from place to place when you're a child is not love.

20:40 That's not love. That's the symptom of love. So if somebody says, "I'm going to prove to you that your mother loves you because of all the things she does for you," That's not love. Love cannot be measured. And everybody in this room knows that this table is not so real. Why isn't this table real? Because the moment I don't want this table to exist anymore, I can get rid of it. In yeshiva last year, we had a bunch of boys that thought it would be a good idea to take a couch and pour gasoline on it and light it on fire. It was not a good idea. One day you can have a couch. The next day the couch is gone, right? Because a couch is just a thing I can measure; it's real, right? But if I can't measure something, how much more powerful is it? How much more real is it? Music has this capacity to touch us in a very deep way. This Shabbos, I had only a couple of kids home for Shabbos. My wife went away and my two daughters are on a retreat with their high school. So I just had me and three of my daughters home. So I told my daughters we're gonna make the most amazing food, but we're gonna make our Shabbos tables zemiros.

21:42 We're just gonna go zemer after zemer. I'm watching my 12-year-old daughter, who is this exceptionally spiritual kid. She's got her eyes closed and she's singing at the top of her lungs. It's so much more powerful than saying this is real. This table is barely real, but my daughter closing her eyes isn't that so much more real? Because you can't measure it. The experience is beyond. What tells us the truth of something? Seeing or hearing? Everybody in this room naturally would say, If I see it, I know it's true. It's the exact opposite. There's a halacha. The halacha is that if a judge is walking down the street and he sees somebody murder somebody else, he sees Reuven pull out his knife and kill Shimon Chas v'Shalom. The halacha is he's not allowed to be a judge on that case. Why? Wouldn't that be the best judge to have? He mamish can't mess up. He knows exactly what happened. Seeing is not as true as hearing.

22:44 And it doesn't make sense to us at first. Because we think if I'm a judge and I have to hear witnesses come and give testimony, do I, the judge, know what happened? Of course not. I'm only hearing a version of the events. But it's really the opposite. When you see something, then you can't tell what really happened. You can only see it through the lens of your own bias. And even if you think, 'But I saw it with my own eyes.' How many people say that? 'But I saw it with my own eyes.' You didn't see anything. You didn't see anything. Emunah is much more real than sight. I saw something. You know what you think you saw. You know what you think. How many people believe today that Eretz Yisrael is oppressing? The Palestinians, and they'll show you videos. We don't, you don't know what you're seeing. You don't know what you're seeing. But if you hear the evidence, if you weigh the evidence. If you're sensitive enough not to see something, but to listen to what's really going on, it's going to be a much truer experience.

23:50 I'll give you an example of this. A young woman sits down with me. Now I could see her attendance in Sheer. I could see it with my eyes. I could see how engaged or not engaged. I could see if she's there or if she's not there. Sit down with that girl, listen to her experience, and you will come away. Whoa! I never thought of it like that. A girl comes and she's totally disengaged. So Berg, what is he sitting and saying? She's totally disengaged. She doesn't care. She shows up because she has to. That's my interpretation of the events. Sit down with the girl afterwards, and you go. You really look out of it, and she goes, "I just my mother's really sick, and honestly, I'm just having so much trouble focusing." Listening will give you a truer experience than seeing. And all women know that, and men don't have a clue.

24:52 It takes men years to learn that listening is more important than seeing, because a man knows what happens; he sees it. And women spend hours and hours actively listening to each other. I have with you: the first time I ever heard this phrase 'active listening,' I thought it was the funniest thing in the entire world. What does 'active listening' mean? This is how a guy actively listens. Listen. Let me tell you what you have to do. That's active listening to a guy. Let me solve your problem. That's active listening. Good husbands know that women, and it took me years to learn this. Please don't hold this against your husbands. It took me years to learn this. It takes years for a man to learn that what a woman wants is this. I had a really hard day at work. I really hear that. That's the whole thing.

25:51 It took me years because why would any guy ever know that? If you go to a dorm, and you should never in your life have to go to a dorm, but if you go to a dorm where there are guys—I can't say living, that would not be appropriate—where guys are squatting and they have all of their stuff and nobody showers. But if you ever have any reason to walk through a dorm, here's what you hear: you hear men grunting at each other. That's the extent of their communication. There's a women. There's a reason that it's true. We say. Tisha kavan of speech were given to women. Nine. There were ten measures of speech that came into the world, and nine of them were given to women. What does every guy say? They don't shut up, right? Makes sense. I know that Chazal intimately. It's the opposite. First of all, it means you're much better at communication. It means if you have Tisha kavan of speech, that means you also have Tisha kavan of listening. You have the capacity to sit and listen to each other. Actively listening means that you can really validate, understand, embrace, be empathic for somebody else's experience. Listening is better than seeing.

26:53 Faith is greater than vision. It's hard for us to hear that, but it's true. I can see the table, but I can't see love. But I have emuna in love. I have no idea how I know that my parents love me. And if I point to all the anecdotal evidence, that's the Torah sight, that's vision, and it's not true. You know how I know my mother loves me? I have no clue. But deep inside of me, I have this exceptional connection to my mother and to my father. I know. I've always known it. As much as my parents were upset at me at certain times, punished me at certain times I never, for one thought, that my parents didn't love me. Why? I have no idea. It's something deep inside of ourselves. With this in mind, I want to try to teach something very deep. I want to go through all of these machlokhem and I want to show you something exceptional. Let's go back to Beishamai Beisila.

27:43 Zayar Hakadosh says that in Oyelim Haba we're going to pass him like Beis Shmaya. Beis Shmaya is called the sharp one. Why is Beis Shmaya sharp? What does it mean to be sharp? Sharp means that you don't see what's real. You don't see what exists. You see beneath it. You can look at something and see its essence. That's what Beis Shmaya does. Beis Shmaya always sees a little bit deeper. Why does Beis Shmaya say that Rosh Hashanah Leilanos? Should be on Rosh Chodesh Shvat because the sap has the potential. It hasn't yet come into the tree, but it has the potential to come into the tree on Rosh Chodesh Shvat. Rav Kiva says no. It only actually comes into the tree on Tu B'Shvat. So Beis Shamai looks at the potential, deep underneath the ground, and Beis Hillel looks at what exists, what's real in existence.

28:43 I want to tell you something that I saw from Rav Moshe Weinberger. Unbelievable pshat. Beis Shammai is deeply connected to Moshe Rabbeinu, and Beis Hillel is deeply connected to Aaron Hakohen. Why? Because Moshe Rabbeinu says, "Loi ish devarim anochi." I am not a man of words. What does it mean? I am not a man of words. So there's many, many different understandings of this. To be able to say, "I stutter." I had a lisp, an impediment, whatever it is. I want to tell you deeply what it means. Deeply what it means is, I'm trying to speak, but people have a difficult time hearing what I have to say. Because what Moshe Rabbeinu was saying is it's hard for me to be in this world, because I'm already in Eilam Haba. What I'm saying is not right in front of you. It's two steps before that. It's all the way in the beginning. So when you look at the Sofatevos, when you look at the last letters of Lo Ish Dvarim Anochi, it spells out Shammai. Lo is Aleph, Ish is Shin, Dvarim is Mem, Anochi is Yud. It spells out Shammai. So Beis Shammai is the Torah of Moshe Rabbeinu.

29:53 It's Sofei Teivos. It's what will be in Olam Habah. It's at the end when all is revealed, the essence of things. That's Beis Shammai. Beis Hillel is deeply connected to Ar Na'akim. Why? Because what's the job of the Cohen? The job of the Cohen is to engage the world as it is and to bring Torah into this world. And what does Aaron Akayin mean? The pasuk says, 'Who yields to all speech.' Meishabenu was told by Hakadosh Baruch Hu, Meishabenu, you have a hard time with speech, so we need someone who's going to speak. The oilam azel ashon. That's going to be Aaron Akayin. Who yiel lechal lepeh, which is roshe tevels hillo. Who yiel lechal lepeh is roshe tevels hillo. Why is it roshe tevels? Because it's right now in oilam azel. Beis Hami is Oyla Mabos. Why does the Zohar say we passim like Beis Hami and Oyla Mabos? We passim like Beis Hami and Oyla Mabos because that's what he's speaking to. Beis Hami is always speaking to the essence of things. This world is like an onion. You peel away the layers until you get to the essence. Oyla Mabos is when all the layers have been peeled back. Then you'll finally see what's real. That's Beis Hami.

30:54 Melech, we understand why it's Beis Hami that says it's got to be on Rosh Chodesh. Beis Hami is not just telling you that's when the sap has potential to come into the tree. Beis Hami, that's the way he actually sees it. Beis Hami doesn't look at the fruit and think, the fruit comes from the sap. He's one step before that. At the very essence, is the tree roy? Is it appropriate? Is it a cleave that can now be makabel sap? That's what it is. Beis Hillel says, no. We live in this world. We live in Oyla Mazel. We have to talk about what actually is. Hillel is connected to Arna Cohen. Who was Rav Yishmael? Rav Yishmael was a great one. So everything that we're going to see in the machleksim that Rav Yisshma has, whether it's with Rav Akiva or whether it's with his talmud or Rav Shimon bar Yochai, Rav Yisshma is going to have the perspective of the kain. His perspective is going to be how we tachlis engage the world.

31:53 Rav Akiva is going to be the opposite, as we're going to see. Let's first deal with Rav Yisshma. Rav Shmuel is the Gilgal of Yosef Hadadik. Rav Chaim Vital brings down that Rav Shmuel is the Gilgal of Yosef Hadadik. There are many similarities between Yosef Hadadik and Rav Shmuel. First of all, Rav Chaim Vital brings down that just like the brothers removed the coat of Yosef Hadadik, we know that the Asarah Haruge Malchus, Rav Shmuel was one of the Asarah Haruge Malchus. Came why? Because the brothers sold Yosef down to Mitsrayim. What was the first thing they did? They took off his coat. By the way, does anyone know why they took off his coat? They took off his coat because the coat was a shmirah. The coat was an exceptional protection. So the first thing they had to do if they wanted to attack Yosef was they had to get off his ksinas pasim. The ksinas pasim was a protection because it was the same ksinas pasim that Adam Harishon was given by Hakadosh Baruch Hu. That ksinas pasim went throughout the generations. We're not going to talk about it now. It was the first thing that had to happen.

32:52 Rav Yisshmael had his skin taken off when he was one of the Asara Harugeim Malchus, just like they took off Yosef Atzadik's coat. Both Yosef HaTzaddik and Rav Yisshmael are described as exceptionally beautiful. Both Yosef HaTzaddik and Rav Yisshmael see the world as it actually is. That's why Yosef HaTzaddik went into politics. They both sat in jail. What's this idea about seeing the world as it is? The idea is as follows: If Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave Torah to this world, it means it's not only shyach to getting the world to Eilim Haba. Which is of course true, but it's shyach right now. Rav Akiva sees it differently. He's the other side of this machlokus. Rav Akiva was called Roish LeChachamim. Why is he called the wisest man of his generation, the leader of the Chachamim? Because the pasuk says Chacham ainov bereishet. The Chacham knows how to see into the future. He has eyes in his head to see into the future. So what is Rav Akiva always about? Rav Akiva is always about seeing the future. What's the famous Gemara? Everybody knows that when they went Harabayis after the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash, and everyone is crying because they see a fox coming out of the Beis Hamikdash.

34:17 Rav Akiva is laughing. They say, Rav Akiva, why are you laughing? So he says, 'What do you mean? Now that I know that the nevuah about the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash came true, I also know that the rebuilding of the Beis Hamikdash is going to be true.' And he said, 'Akiva Nachamtani.' There's a famous question. Everybody asks this question. It's a famous question. You don't laugh at a funeral. One day there's going to be a tkiyas hamesam. But you don't laugh at a funeral. Why was that a nechamah to them? Imagine if Chassidim we lost somebody that we loved and we saw somebody laughing. Why are you laughing? There's going to be a tchias amesin. That's not a nechama. That's a terrible thing to do. But it wouldn't be a terrible thing to do if you had a navi at your funeral. If there was a navi at the funeral and the navi was looking into the future and the navi was seeing the resurrection and the navi was seeing this person walking around, Basking in the glow of the shechina and elam avah, that would be a tremendous nechama. The godless of revakiva is that he lived that way. Rav Akiva didn't live in Eilam Azza. He lived in Eilam Abba. So he already saw the rebuilding of the Beis Hamikdash. When you're around somebody like that, it's a tremendous nechama.

35:26 The difference between the Chacham and the Kain is that the Kain sees the world as it is. Rav Akiva sees the world in its essence, as it will one day be. So when we look at the machlekes between Rav Ishmael and Rav Shmuel Yochai, was who? The Talmud of Rav Akiva. What do we see? Rav Ishmael says, 'Va'asaf de deganecha.' You have to engage the world because Lameisa we live in Eilam Azeh. That's the job of the Kohen to say. What does Rashi say? Rashi, who of course wrote Desire. Who was the biggest makobel? Who brought down new levels of the secrets of Torah into the world. What does Rashi say? Don't focus on Eilam Azeh. Eilam Azeh is a curse. Look at Eilam Haba. Look at the world as it should be. Don't engage, and that's why the Gemara doesn't pascan.

36:08 You notice that the Gemara doesn't pass on. The Gemara doesn't say who's right. The Gemara says you have to know who you are. Many did like a Rav Yisshmael, and they were successful. Why? Because that's who they are. And many tried to be Rav Shimbar Yochai. They tried to be a person who looks into the future. It's not a simple thing to be able to say, "I'm living in this world, but I'm looking into the future." Har be'asu v'loy also be adam. But who's right? They're both right. They're both right. It has to be a balance. There has to be times in our life where we live with the world as it is, and there has to be times in our life where we look at the world and we say, "Not what is, but what could be." Go to the essence of the thing. Don't focus on the here and now. Focus on the future. There's a time for both. Let's go to the machlokus between Rav Kiva and Rav Yisshmael. How did they affirm that they were going to listen to the mitzvot? According to Rav Kiva, they said yes to everything. According to Rav Yisshmael, they said yes to the positive commandments and no to the negative commandments. What does that mean?

37:05 I was walking down the street with a young man in Los Angeles a couple of years ago. And he says to me proudly, '17 years old. I don't do things unless I understand why I'm doing them.' This is what he says to me. He's very proud of this. It's like a very 17-year-old thing to say. If you think about, 'I don't do things unless I understand.' At 17 years old, you understand everything, and the only things you do right are things you understand. It's hard to remember what it was like to be 17. I imagine one time in my life I was also like, "I don't do things unless I understand." And I spoke to him. I was walking down Pico Boulevard with him, and I said, 'You do this, you do that.' I gave him a whole list of things that he does that he doesn't understand. The mitzvot have two dimensions to them. There's the underlying reason why we do the mitzvah. Each mitzvah is unique. Each mitzvah is different. For example, a person could say the value of keeping Shabbos is that it connects us to the concept of deep creativity. That would be true.

38:17 Person says I could give tzedakah because when I give tzedakah it transforms me as a person. I become a giving person. Isn't that true? The Rambam says that the more a person gives tzedakah, the more it changes them. There's a lot of truth to that. But then there's something else. Not that the mitzvah has any reason whatsoever, but just because Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave it to us, it's a mitzvah. And if Hakadosh Baruch Hu gives us the most arbitrary activity in the world, it's also a mitzvah, and it's equally a mitzvah. Why? Because it came from Him. For example, if my wife tells me, "Do me a favor. It's important to me that you pick up your socks." By the way, that's a real life example. For every man I've ever known in my entire life, why is my wife obsessed with picking up my socks? But say this: If my wife comes and tells me, "I need you to pick up your socks," what is she really saying? I'd like a clean house. What is the service? The service is, I'm cleaning my house for my wife. It makes me a cleaner person. But if my wife comes to me and she says to me It's important to me that you learn German poetry.

39:25 There is no rational reason. Even for Germans, there's no rational reason why anyone should have to learn German poetry. I can imagine Italian poetry could sound beautiful. Italy is a beautiful place. The Italian language is a beautiful language. French is a beautiful language. It's a beautiful place. German, German poetry just doesn't make any sense. How would you say ich bin ein? It's like an angry sort of language, right? But it's not less of a mitzvah. It's not less of a mitzvah at all. Adra, but it might be more of a mitzvah. Why? Because I have no idea why I'm doing it. I'm only doing it for her. So once again, Rabbi Yishmael says, When Klal Yisrael heard the commandments, they heard them and olem azeh. So they looked at the mitzvos and they said, These are positive commandments. It requires a yes. These are negative commandments. So it requires a no. I will not do them. Rabbi Kiva looks at the essence of the thing. Because he's the Chacham, he looks at it from the perspective of Oyel Mabah. What does he say? All mitzvos just come from Hakadosh Baruch Hu.

40:31 Don't get caught up in the petty details of the mitzvah. Don't get caught up in the what tikkun it's going to bring about into the world. Live with Oyel Mabah. We said yes to everything because we don't see any of the differences. Rav Yishmael says we saw what we saw and we heard what we heard by Har Sinai. Rav Akiva says we saw what we heard and we hear what we see. Why? Because Rabbi Shmuel says Torah was given to the world as it is, why would Hakadosh Baruch Hu change everything? I should be able to see things that I hear, and I should be able to hear things that I see. Rabbi Kiva says Torah was already the beginning of bringing this world to Eilam Haba. In Eilam Haba, you're going to be able to see sounds, and you're going to be able to hear sights. What does that mean?

41:20 Like we said before, so many people in this world are walking around in this world. They're seeing the world but they don't know how to hear it. They're seeing things but they don't know what it means. They don't know how to connect to the essence of the thing. And the opposite: there are people that have deep faith but they can't concretize it. They can't grab onto it in a tangible way. But in Olim Haba, both merge. In Olim Haba, the mitzvah that you do won't just be physical. It won't just be the physical mitzvah but you'll get to the essence of the mitzvah. So you'll be able to see the sounds. You'll be able to hear the sights. Rivkaiba sees it from the future. Let's go back to Yisro. There's a machlokas by Kriyas Shma. Should you say Kriyas Shma in the language that you understand, or should you say Kriyas Shma in Lashon Hakodesh in Hebrew? What should you do? Smachlokes between the Chachamim and Rebbe. Chachamim say bechaloshin shata shomea in any language that you understand, and Rebbe says it must be in lashon hakodesh. What's the obvious explanation of this machlokes? Is listening mean hearing, or does listening mean comprehension? That's the obvious machlokes.

42:33 If you say that it could be in any language, what does that mean? It means it should be in the language that you comprehend. But if you say it should be in lashon hakodesh, then it's not about comprehension. What is it about? What words did I hear? That's the machlokes. Some people hear, but they don't comprehend. So who was Yisro? Yisro was a Cohen Midrash. But people forget who was Yisro's great grandfather, all the way back. His great grandfather was, of course, Avram Avinu. Because Avram Avinu did not have two children. Everyone says that Avram Avinu had two children. Yisroken Yisma. How many children did Avram Avinu actually have? He had six more, so he had eight children. And of the six children, one of them was Midyan. Yisro was the continuation of Avram Avinu. That's why Avram Avinu has a letter added to his name. What's the letter? Yisro's name originally was Yisr. He had a Vav added to his name. Vav. Yisro is the continuation of Avram Avinu. Just like Avram Avinu, Yisro spends his entire life trying out every religion under the sun. Why? Because he's a spiritual seeker.

43:52 He wants to know the essence of things. He wants to know the truth. Another thing about Yisro's connection to Avram Avinu is Avram Avinu was the first Jew, and Yisro was the first Ger. He was the first one that joined Klal Yisrael afterwards. They even both had the same names. Anyone know what Avram Avinu's other name was? His name was Eitan. And Yisro also had the name Aton. So Yisro is the continuation of Avram Avinu. He was a spiritual seeker. What does that mean? It means that when he looked at political happenings in the world, current events, he refused to see them as they are. Only a fool could be looking at what's going on in the world today and see just the political events that are happening. If you can't hear the footsteps of Mashiach drawing closer, you have to be out of your mind.

44:46 You must be missing something. It's a wild thing. The people that are sensitive, when they're like people say Mashiach's coming any minute, this is what you hear. They've been saying that for so long. Really, you can't hear the footsteps of Mashiach getting closer. You can't hear some of the craziest things in history that this tiny little inlet of a land has become the center of world politics. That where the embassy is in Yerushalayim? That the government of America moved their embassy to Yerushalayim. It's a statement of we stand with Eretz Yisroel against our Yishmaelek cousins. That's like a crazy thing that's going on. It's almost a crazy thing. There are people that see these events. They watch them on CNN. They don't know how to listen. Yisroel was watching current events. There was Kriyas Yamsuf, and this is the craziest thing. Then a nation came and attacked Klal Yisro. He couldn't believe it.

45:40 How could you see open nisim like that? And it doesn't change you. How could you see it and it doesn't change you? Not only does it not change you, you attack them. The whole world knew what happened. It was broadcast live on CNN. Their water split in cups all over the world. They had a cup of water. Kriyat Yamsof. Every single cup split. Everybody knew what happened. Shamuah miyugazun. They were afraid. They didn't know how to engage. Yisro was the only one who had the koyach of shmirah. Why? Look at those words of Rashi again. Ma shamuah shama. Yisro has a double language of shmirah, like the chachamim and like Rebi. He knows how to hear. But he also knows how to listen. That's what makes Yisro unique. That's why Yisro and Shmira are the two things that get you to Kabbalah Satora. Kabbalah Satora does not mean that you know how to learn up a Ramban and Chumash. That you know how to learn a block Gemara with the Tosos of the Rav Kiva Eger. That's not what Kabbalah Satora is. Those are symptoms of Kabbalah Satora. It's possible to spend your entire life learning Torah and it has no impact on you whatsoever because you're not listening to the things that you're learning. What's the pshat? You can learn Torah. You could see the Torah. But you don't know how to listen to it. That's why the Gemara's in Bavli.

47:03 Which is the Ikkar? Says Toshma, Come and listen. It's possible for a person to go through an entire year of seminary and to be so obtuse that it doesn't matter what the most amazing shiur is. It doesn't matter. But it just right off. She can't hear it. Why? She could see it. She can't hear it. What's the pshat? Because people don't know how not to hear the words. They don't know how to listen. They don't know how to bring it in. They don't know how to make it a part of themselves. I want to tell you something. Probably the greatest privilege that I had in my life was that both of my parents are balei tshuva. Both of my parents didn't come from family. I want you to know, growing up, that was a great source of embarrassment to me. When people would talk about their cousins, they were going to their cousins for Yom Tov, they were going to their cousins for Shabbos, they all got together. So I also would say, yeah, we got together. But I knew that my Hanukkah party and my Pesach Seder were very different than everybody else's.

48:07 Because guys in my shirt, when I was growing up, their fathers were Rashi Yeshiva. Their fathers were very Chassidic. Those were my friends, and they would tell me the Divrei Torah that their cousins and their uncles said. And nobody in my family was religious. So we had strange guests at our Seder. For example, we had a cousin who got married. She married a second time, so the new husband came to our Pesach Seder. Now my father runs the most incredible seder. We used to have 35, 40 people at the seder, and everybody would be included. So there's my new cousin, Uncle Fred. And my father tells Fred, Fred, when I get up to this part of the seder, I'm gonna ask how many people came down to Mt. Sinai, and who was born on the way. The answer is there were 70 people in total that came down to Mt. Sinai. The one that was born on the way was Yochaveid. Even though it's Machlokas, that was the answer my father gave.

49:12 Came time, that point in the seder, and my father says, "Does anyone know how many people went down to Mitzrayim, and who was born on the way?" And Fred raises his hand. He goes, "Fred." And he goes, "Seventy people went down to Mitzrayim, but oh Jesus, I forgot who was the one who was born on the way." So without missing a beat, my father goes, "No, Jesus is the wrong answer. Does anyone else know?" But that was like a legendary story in my seder. Every single year, when we got up to that section of the seder, somehow Jesus made an appearance. Because that was the joke that happened that year, and it became a part of the messara of my seder. Now here I am sitting next to Aaron Blumenkrantz, whose father was Rabbi Blumenkrantz, Lechert Tzaddik Levracha, who's my really good friend, who's a Pesach Hador, who writes the Pesach book every single year. And I'm like, new Aaron, how are they preparing for seder in your house? He's like, I don't know, my father does the same thing he always does. He learns all day, all night, every moment of every day. How does your father prepare? I'm like, he marks Jesus and the Seder at that point. Like, I don't know. Like, what do you say? Yeah. So growing up, I was very embarrassed. Looking back on it, it was the greatest gift. You know why?

50:17 Because if I didn't have parents that knew how to listen, I wouldn't be here today. The gift that my parents gave me is that they were willing to listen. Not just to see, but to listen to what was deeper, to what was truer, and to make actionable changes in their life. So when I was a kid, I was embarrassed But now I have so much respect for them because they weren't just people that heard about assimilation; they actually listened. You should know, so many of my cousins are not marrying Jews. Jewish continuity is a real thing. So many of my cousins aren't marrying Jews. And if they come and they hear a she'er on assimilation, it doesn't impact them a kiyuza. They know how to hear it, but they don't know how to listen. But my parents, Baruch Hashem, were people that knew how to listen.

51:10 The biggest gift that you can give anyone else, and the biggest gift that anyone else can give you, is to really listen. That's why so many marriages are in so much trouble because nobody knows how to listen to each other. There's just so much. But I know what's going on. You don't know what's going on. Listen. A friend needs help. Listen. You need help. Speak so that somebody else can listen. Listening is a gift. We should be zeich to listen to each other. I'll be asking you to do that for many years to come. Amen.