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Medrash and Shmos Rabba tells us that Yisro was called Yisro, even though that may not have actually been his name Because he's responsible for adding a parak to the Torah And we'll see what Yisro added to the Torah. But before we do, we should ask ourselves the very obvious question: if you think even for a moment about that concept, that something could be added to the Torah, that sounds very strange. We know, for example, that there are things in the Torah, like Benos Slavchad, like the Mikoshesh Eitzim. Like Pesach Sheni, where there were halachos in the Torah that certain people merited that the divine revelation should occur through them. For example, when it comes to Benos Slavchad, the fact that they had a chilek in Eretz Yisrael. That was anyway the halacha, but because of Bnos Slavchod's desire for their tuchah to have a place in Eretz Yisrael, they merited that the revelation of what Hakadosh Baruch Hu's will and wisdom is for this world should come through them.
By Pesach Sheni, the same idea that these people, because they missed the carbon Pesach and they had such a tuchah to bring the carbon Pesach. They merited that the divine revelation about Pesach Sheni could come about as a result of their efforts, but not Chas V'Shalom to say that anything new was added to the Torah. But here the Medrash is saying something that appears to be very bold, appears to be very daring. That it's not just that it came about through Yisro, but that Yisro added something that without him, it wouldn't have been a part of the Torah. In other words, the Torah was complete. The Torah was complete. Comes along Yisro and adds something to the Torah. Not like Benos Slafchad, where the revelation of the Torah came through their efforts. Not like Pesach Sheni, but that Yisro actually added something on to the Torah, which is of course impossible. How could that be that Yisro adds something on? The divine will and wisdom of Hashem is perfect. So whatever Hakadosh Baruch Hu was going to do, he was going to do. It doesn't make any sense to say that Hakadosh Baruch Hu had a Torah and then came along Yisro and then added something on to the Torah.
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Doesn't make any sense. And not only that, we know that Moshe Rabbeinu is complete, and everything that Moshe Rabbeinu gave over was perfect. So what would it even mean that he added something on to the Torah of Moshe Rabbeinu? Meaning, without Yisro, Moshe Rabbeinu wouldn't have given over a complete Torah. The idea seems to be preposterous. It's bold, it's daring, and it needs to be understood very deeply. What is the thing that Yisro, so to speak, added onto the Torah? In order to answer this question, we need to look very carefully at what happened. So Yisro, we know Comes after kriyas yam suf, after machmas Amalek. He comes to Klal Yisrael and he has a conversation with his son-in-law. My daughter and son-in-law got married after the week of Parshas Yisro. And they all the jokes were being made that the Ufrof was Parshas Yisro. So I was of course the father-in-law Yisro coming and telling his son-in-law what to do. I had all those good father-in-law jokes, and now it's Parshas Yisro this week. And my daughter is Bezrat Hashem, literally, expecting any moment. She still has not had the baby. For those of you that are keeping score at home, she is almost two weeks overdue.
At this point, I think that I will never be a grandfather. The baby is Shchassu Shalom. We hope that Bezrat Hashem she will give birth to a healthy baby boy. It should just be a healthy. I'm more than happy to stay in Eretz Yisrael for as long as possible, and certainly to stay for the Bris of a baby. But we'll be happy no matter what it is. So of course, all the father-in-law jokes were made. Yisrael comes, the ultimate father-in-law, and he says to his son-in-law Moshe Rabbeinu, "Why are you sitting alone? And the entire people, all of Klai Yisrael, are coming to you from morning and evening." So Moshe Rabbeinu said, "What do you mean?" They come to me to speak about God. If they have a machlokas, they say, "How should I? How should we behave in this case?" Moshe Rabbeinu judges the case. He teaches them the law of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. He teaches them the Torah. This is what Moshe Rabbeinu is doing all day and all night. And Yisro said, "It's not good.
It's not a good thing that you're doing. You're going to wither away like this. Klal Yisroel will wither away like this. And you can't do this alone. So Yisro came up with the following plan, and Moshe Rabbeinu ultimately implemented this plan. What was the plan of Yisro? Listen very carefully. Moshe should teach the people all of the halachos of the Torah and the path that they follow, and all the things that they should do, but the application of the halachos should be left to specific men. There's going to be judges that are going to be appointed. When there's a machlokas, when two people don't know what to do, they'll go to those judges, and those judges will pass in the cases. Only the huge things will come to Moshe Rabenu, and all of the smaller things will come to these judges. This is the parsha that Yisro added on to the Torah. Very, very strange. This is not rocket science.
This doesn't appear to be rocket science. One imagines that Klau Yisrael eventually would have fallen into such a system anyway. When I was in camp, they had the guy who ran camp. His name was Mr. Richie Altbe, and Richie Altbe used to give the same shmos every single summer, not every single week. Every single summer, in the beginning of the year, he gave the same shmos to the counselors. It went like this: There is something called a chain of command. This was the Richie Altobee summer special. I am Simcha Day Camp in Farakway. He said, "I am the director of the camp." Beneath me, there's an assistant director. Beneath him, there's a head counselor, and beneath him, there are division heads. You are a JC and you are a counselor. If a kid misbehaves, do not bring him to me. This is what he would say every summer. He said, 'I am the atom bomb.'
There is a path that we follow. If a kid misbehaves, first it's your job to try. If you can't do it, then you go to the division head. If the division head can't handle it, it goes to the head counselor. If the head counselor can't handle it, it goes to the assistant director, Rabbi Michael Leffschlita. And if Rabbi Leff can't handle it, then it comes to me. But do not come to me when you see me out on the field and say Ruvain is misbehaving. Why? Because when you were the director of a camp of over a thousand kids. Can you handle the day-to-day minutia? Of course not. Of course not. So here's Moshe Rabbeinu. Klal Yisrael's millions of people. Moshe Rabbeinu247 24/7 is sitting, and all the people are coming to him. Does anyone think that this is sustainable? Obviously, this is not sustainable. It's not sustainable for two levels. Number one, how could any human being do this? And even if you want to say that Moshe Rabbeinu was on such a level that he could sit and do this all day long, how are millions of people going to come to him? Every single time something happens in Klal Yisrael, Moshe Rabenu is going to be adjudicating the case. It doesn't make any sense. But not only that, what happens after Moshe dies?
What would we assume? Now Moshe Rabenu dies, and they enter into Eretz Yisrael. Now what? There's no next Moshe rabenu. Moshe rabenu is Moshe rabenu. So obviously, at some point, they were going to implement this system anyway. After they came into Eretz Yisrael, probably somebody would have said, since Moshe Rabenu is not around, let's appoint judges, and they'll paskin all the cases. Yisro comes along with this huge chiddush, which doesn't appear to be much of a chiddush at all. It's an addition to the Torah. And what's the addition? Just do the intelligent thing. Just break it up into a system, a chain of command. Not everything should go to Moshe Rabbeinu. Do you guys hear the question? Question number one: How could you add something onto the Torah? Question number two: This doesn't seem like that big a chiddush. What's the big deal? This is an addition to the Torah. What are we talking about over here?
So listen to the word of the Labavitcher Rebbe because it is a game changer of an idea. We see something that's different but appears to be similar. Something that is a—it's not exactly the same, but it's a similar concept. The first two dibros of the Asaras Dibros were given to Klal Yisrael directly by Hashem, correct? And then what happened? Then Klal Yisrael came to Moshe Rabbeinu and said, "We can't handle this. You tell us what to do." We can't handle hearing it straight from Hashem. Let Hashem tell you, and you'll tell us. Moshe was very disappointed by this. He wanted Klal Yisrael to hear directly from Hashem. Do you see the parallel? Just like Moshe Rabbeinu wants every person in Klal Yisrael to come to him, Moshe Rabbeinu wanted every single person in Klal Yisrael to hear the Asaros Adibros. Directly from Hashem, you see the parallel. You got to speak it out. You think people hear the parallel? They don't hear the parallel. One more time, just to make sure everyone gets it. I learned this from a Rebbe in Mivaser. He always says, 'You think they get it? They don't get it. Say it twice.'
Just like Moshe Rabbeinu wants every single person in Klal Yisrael to come to him to adjudicate their case. If there's a dispute in Klal Yisrael, he wants to pasquin it. When it came to Arsina, what did Moshe Rabbeinu want? He wanted every single Jew to hear it directly. Not through an intermediary, directly. Not through a judge who's repeating what Moshe Rabbeinu says, directly from Hashem. See the parallel? You see it now? Write it on the board. It's clear. You got it. You're paying attention. Locked and loaded. Fine. Viper. And Hashem said what? Hashem said, no. Moshe Rabbeinu, they're right. I'm going to say it to you, and then you're going to go and relate it to them. What's the inner pshat over here? So the inner pshat is like this. The best way I know how to explain this is through the muscle of an alcoholic.
You have an alcoholic And he's destroyed his life. He's drank his life away. He's lost his job. He's lost his kids. He's lost everything. You've seen such a person. They have something called an intervention. An intervention is when the guy walks in the door, and he's got his six or seven or eight best friends waiting there. And they're all sitting down, and there's somebody who's paid to be a professional in the world of interventions, and he walks in, and he right away knows that he's in an intervention, and they sit him down in a comfortable chair, and all of his friends start crying and they tell him "You've hurt us, and it's you're destroying your life." And then what does he do? He goes to rehab. That is one way to get to rehab. And there's nothing wrong with that. But there is another way to go to rehab.
And I'm going to say this. I want to say it carefully. It's a little bit more of a powerful way to go to rehab. Nobody told you to go to rehab. But you yourself hit rock bottom. This person hit rock bottom to such a degree that they checked themselves into rehab. What's the difference? The difference is as follows. If your friends inspired you to go to rehab If in their presence you became the best version of yourself Did you really self-actualize, or did they bring out the best self in you? If you yourself hit rock bottom and you choose to change Then ena kanami, maybe it took longer for you to get there. But the truest version of you, the most authentic version of you, came up. And how did it come up? Because you elevated it. I'll give you an example of this in the world of alcoholism.
There are some teachers, some mechanchot, some rakazot, some rebayim, that are so dynamic. So charismatic. Their love for their talmidot is so powerful that in their presence you can't help but be inspired. Have you ever met such a person? If you've had the privilege of being in such a person's life Where they say something and your heart is open to the things they say because of the respect you have for them, because they're on such an incredibly high level when they speak, you can't help but listen. There are people whose presence somehow makes you the best version of yourself. You walk away from those meetings knowing exactly what you need to do. It's not them; they bring out the best in you. It's not just that you're listening to them, but they see your deepest, most authentic self and elevate it. They bring it up inside of you. You walked into the house in one place to visit with this Robertson. You walked out in a completely different place.
There are some people. They're such incredible tzaddikim; they have the capacity to do that, and it's beautiful because they brought out the best version of you. But there is something small Lacking in that. What's lacking in that? You never participated in the process of bringing out your most authentic self. It's only because they saw you that way that your most authentic self came up. But it's much harder work. To look inside yourself. To dig deep and say, "Who am I? And what do I want? And what do I want to do? You walk away from a meeting with a rabbi tzad and you're talking to her about waking up in the morning and davening. And she looks at you with the kindest eyes in the world. She looks at you with rabbi tzad machlis al yashalom's eyes, and she says to you "You You have trouble waking up in the morning and davening.
Do you know how the rabbi tzad is waiting for your tefillas? Do you know the chen that you have in Hashem's eyes? Do you know what happens in Shamayim with your tefilas and you believe her, and she's not lying to you, and you feel it. You're like the next morning you wake up for davening, it's like Yom Kippur ne'ilah, and it's a Wednesday with the long shir shal yom. And it's like you had unbelievable kavana throughout all the brachos of Shemona Esrei. You actually paid attention. It's an amazing thing. It is, but also a little bit lacking. Because imagine how much deeper it would be if you did the work to be able to say, "Do you know how much nachas Hashem gets from my tefilos? Do you know how much chen I have in Hashem's eyes?" The net is not the same. Because when you do the work, there's a transformation that occurs.
Mashiach could come and he could overwhelm the world and change the world into a godly place. But if Mashiach comes and he overwhelms the world and makes it into a godly place, what's missing? The world itself never chose to transform. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is sitting there by Har Sinai and he's saying to these Jews, 'Anochi Hashem lo kecha.' I would say, 'Sichah me'eres Mitzrayim.' And the word of Hashem was so powerful that the Jews felt themselves being elevated to the point of death. They said we can't even live anymore. We're so close to Hashem because their truest self was brought up. But the Jews said to Moshe Rabbeinu, 'This is not the way we want to be makabel the Torah' Because if we're making the Torah this way, then it's Hashem's Torah. But if we're making the Torah through you, Moshe Rabbeinu, if we have to work hard for it, if we have to dig deep inside of ourselves to discover the Torah that's within every single one of us, then it won't just be Hashem's Torah that he's given to us, it'll be our Torah that we learned together from him.
You, Moshe Rabbeinu, need to be our teacher, but Moshe Rabbeinu didn't want this. Moshe Rabbeinu says to Klal Yisrael, 'You're missing out on the opportunity to touch the deepest recesses of your soul.' But Hashem says, Moshe Rabbeinu They're right. They'd be more inspired if I told it to them directly. I would touch the root of their soul and elevate them to such unbelievable heights. But then, who would they be? Think about it. I had to spell it out in a different way to try to make this a little bit clearer. Think about it in terms of a relationship. In a relationship, there's something called codependence. Do you know what codependence means? Codependence means that I asked the question, but I got to say because I just said a moment ago, you got to speak it out for those people that don't know. Codependency means that you lose yourself to the other person.
In a relationship, it requires two people. Avram and Sarah get married. If Avram stops being Avram in order to be married to Sarah, then who is Sarah married to? If Sarah stops being Sarah in order to be married to Avram, then Avram is not married to anyone. Two people need to be firmly planted in their own soil. Each uniquely themselves contributing to this shared space in between. That's what a relationship looks like. You might say, isn't it beautiful, Sarah's this incredible Eishes Chayil? I'm sure you could hear the story now. He was a guy in yeshiva and he wasn't so stark, but then he married Sarah from Tomer Devora. And she had these amazing eyes to see, like God sees. And she met Avram on this date. And where everyone else saw this bummy guy who couldn't wake up for shachers, who couldn't learn, Sarah from Tomer Devora, Sarah, a Talmidah of all the amazing teachers, I am not even going to start to be mafarid each one.
Sarah, the amazing Talmidah of Toma Devora, she looks at him with such kind eyes, and for the first time in his life, Avram feels cherished and valued and beloved by Hashem. The next day, Avram, being his most authentic self, goes out and davens. Isn't that incredible? It is, but it also isn't. It is because Baruch Hashem, there's somebody in his life that teaches him to touch the recesses of his soul. But it isn't because he never did the heavy lifting to discover it himself. He never went through the transformation process. In a certain sense, he's lost himself to Sarah. There's no like. In Sara's presence, he can't help but be himself. But he's not authentic. It's the truest version of him, the highest version of him, but it's not the most authentic version of him because he never did the hard work to discover it. Hakadosh Baruch Hu says, "Meysher Abenu." This is exactly what I want. I want to give a Torah to those people who want to search for godliness.
For people who want to strive for godliness. For people who want to break themselves in order to discover the true essence of who they are, because that person is a completely different person, and that Torah is a completely different Torah. Now watch the parallel. If you understood that, watch how it plays out. There's a machlokas between Moshe Rabbeinu, the ultimate insider, and Yisro, who's the ultimate outsider. I want to share with you what the difference between an insider and an outsider is. It goes as follows: Your parents are insiders. Your teachers are outsiders. Why are your parents insiders? You may not know this, but your parents know you better than anyone else in the world. And you might say, 'What are you talking about, Rvberg? My parents don't know me. I am the deny till you die kid. You know what that means to deny till you die?'
Deny till you die means that you obfuscate the truth. You manipulate the truth. You conceal the truth, you omit the truth, you do whatever you can so that your parents see you in a certain way. Everyone. Somebody once told me a great vart. This is an amazing vart. People think that kids lie to their parents because they don't want to get in trouble. It's not true. Kids are willing to get in trouble. Nobody wants to see the look of disappointment in their parents' eyes because the look of disappointment in the parents' eyes goes right to the heart. When you see your mother and you did something wrong, and she gets that phone call from that teacher, and you see your mother on the phone, you can picture it. By me, it's a corded phone. By you, it's a cell phone. You see your mother on the phone.
And she says, "Hi, Mrs. Schwartz. How are you?" And your heart drops because you know that Mrs. Schwartz said that morning that she was going to call your parents that night, but you were hoping it was a bluff, and that Mrs. Schwartz would get home and have her own kids, and then she'd get busy and forget to do it, and the next day she'd come in and she'd go, "I chose not to call your parents last night, but you better behave today." You know that woman? But this woman, she's a great teacher. She's committed to your discipline. She calls, and your mother picks up the phone with a smile on her face, and then it looks like this. You ready? She goes, "Hi, Mrs. Schwartz." I see. Yeah. Huh. I'm sorry to hear that. That's very serious. The anxiety of the kid is not, ooh, I'm about to get grounded. That's not the anxiety.
The feeling is, look at my mother's face. That woman who loved me into being, look how disappointed she is in me. So when your mother gets off the phone, what do you do right away? Just so you know, she's not just calling you tonight. She's calling ten kids. I wasn't the only one. I wasn't the leader of the group. I wasn't even really a part of it. I just happened to be next to them. And I know what she told you, but the truth is she hated me from the very beginning of the year. You know these moves because you live these moves. And even if you didn't live these moves, your sibling lived these moves, and you had to live vicariously watching your sibling live these moves. That's my brother's story. Everybody has to. Everybody knows exactly this nikkuda. Moshe Abeno is the ultimate insider. He knows how to play the game. He knows you better than anyone. That's your parents. You think you're lying to your parents?
Years later. You're gonna realize how much your parents knew. You'll know because you'll know your own kids. And you're gonna laugh and you're gonna call your mother and you're gonna give your mother some nachas. Mom, did you know that I was lying in high school? And your mother will go, Well, I didn't know every lie, but there was a general assumption of lying. It's like she has a. You ever notice how parents have a sixth sense sometimes? They go, I just want to check. Are you sure you're allowed to do this? They go, Oh yeah, the schools telling us we have to. Like understand? If I don't, I'm gonna get in trouble. You go all the way to the opposite extreme. They go, really? It doesn't sound like the school. They're very broad these days. It's a whole different because ever since the new principal, because the old principal, you have a whole story. Your mother somehow has a sixth sense, an intuition, a beinu isera. This kid is denied till you die, kid. There's a lie there.
Your parents know you better than anybody. And even by the way, if your parents buy the lie that you're selling, they still know you better than anybody. They know your goodness. They know who you really are. Moshe Rabenu is the ultimate insider. And then there are teachers, rebbeim, mechanchot, rakazot, people in your community, camp counselors. These are people on the outside. They see you from a distance. They see you not as your best self, but they see you as the self that's in progress. And because they see you as the self that's in progress, listen carefully. They value progress. The process is more important than the result to the outsider. To the insider. What does a parent want? A parent wants good things for their child. I want my child to be amazing. I want my child to be the amazing self that they actually are.
That's what a parent wants, and a parent does not want the pain of watching their kid in process. I was having a conversation in shul a couple of weeks ago with a guy in my shul. He's an amazing person. He's a young father, and he has a teenage son who is giving him a tough time. You know those. You know what it's like to be a dad of a teenage son. I was going to ask you. Do you know what it's like to be a dad of a teenage son? Those words were about to come out of my mouth. The first thing that occurred to me was they're girls. They don't know what it's like to be dads. The second thing that occurred to me was they have no children. I shouldn't ask them this question. That was the rhetorical question that I stopped myself from asking. It turns out that at about 7:09, my ADHD kicks in a very severe way. Because not only did I stop myself from asking the question I then needed to explain to you what went through my head and why I didn't ask the question.
Veiterinshas This father is a great guy. And we were talking about a shir that I had given in the neighborhood, and he was saying to me, "But don't you need to control your children?" I was like, "Nah, no man, you can't control your children. You can't. How would that even work?" And the father's face was like. Oh man, that's what I've been trying to do. Maybe this is a longer conversation for outside of shul. He's an awesome guy. He's an amazing person. He just wants what's best for his kid. He doesn't want the process. He doesn't want to avoid the headache. This father is all in on the headache. Because whether he wants it or not, the headache is already there. He's all in on the headache. That's not the problem. The problem is I just want my son to get through it. I just want him to be awesome already. I just want to be davening and learning and a good father and a good husband. I just want my kid to be the best person that I know that he is. But on the outside, this kid who's learning with an averich in the neighborhood, the averich values the beauty of the process. That's what it means to be an outsider. When a rebbe sees a kid and the kid is floundering in yeshiva
The rebbe says, "It's an exciting process." When the mother calls the rebbe, she says, "What's going to be with my kid?" What's the difference? Why is the mother so anxious about the kid? Because she just wants to be the kid he is. Just be your best self. And the rebbe is like, 'No, the process is important.' Moshe Rabbeinu comes and he has the Torah And he learned all the halachos from Hashem, and he knows exactly how to implement the halachos in their daily lives. And he says, if somebody comes to me and they have a dispute with their neighbor, two things Moshe Rabbeinu says. Number one, nobody knows better than me what they should do, and number two, and this is the main crunch, in my presence, Moshe Rabbeinu says These people elevate themselves and they become their best self. And the machlokas falls away.
Machlokasim are often and almost always exceptionally petty. I don't mean to say that people aren't fighting about real things because there are real things to be fought about. But I'm telling you right now, most of the time, if we would just check our ego We could allow these machlokesim to slip away. You have a guy in yeshiva making up a case, but I'm not making it up at all. You have a guy in yeshiva. It applies to girls in seminary also. You have a guy in yeshiva that builds up a narrative in his head about his roommate. He's selfish. He's self-centered. Everything always needs to be his way. Everybody in the room is hot. But he insists that in the dead of winter in Yerushalayim, the air conditioning be on. You've seen this fight in this seminary with your roommate. Chas Shalom, not us, but about fifty percent of you just went like this.
Right? It's not right that I should have to wear a sweatshirt to go to sleep. It's ridiculous. I didn't mean to do it. It's a beautiful Talmud Torah moment. It's my fault, and I take responsibility. I'm the one that gave the foolish mussel, causing your ADHD. It's contagious. I brought it. Achet eschatayani maskarayom. This is all my fault. Stay with me. The other roommate comes into my office, and he tells me, Rebbe, this guy is out of control. He doesn't even know that everybody in the room hates him. And they're not on speaking terms anymore. And now one of them, I'm totally making it up. It just happens a million times. And now they say we have to switch rooms. But he's the one that should have to leave. He's the one that should have to leave. And they go to the av biyat. What the av biyat says?
Av biyat, it's my fault. I know I did this. It's my fault. I'm just asking you to forgive me for what I did. What the av biyat says? Lunatics. It doesn't have to be your way or his way. If you guys were each your best self, you know what you'd be doing? You'd be fighting for the other person. And in Moshe Rabbeinu's presence, that's exactly what they would do. I once asked Yitzi Haber, who's been partners with Donny Weinreb since he's 15 years old. I asked him, 'Why do you have no machlokus with Donny?' He said, 'I want Donny to make more money than me, and Donny wants me to make more money than him.' When you have two partners that each want the other person to get more than the other person, there's no machlokus. Moshe Rabbeinu says, 'If Klali Yisrael has a fight' If this one is fighting that she hung her laundry outside of her tent, and the other one said, 'It's not right that she hangs her laundry outside of my tent because it blocks my view.' I don't know what they were fighting about in the midbar, but it's not fair that she takes in the munt at seven o'clock in the morning. My kids are still sleeping. Whatever they're fighting about.
When they got to Moshe Rabbeinu, his presence was so godly, his radiance was so deep that they stopped acting like children and fighting over nonsense. He brought out their best self. It's an insider's view. Moshe Rabbeinu doesn't want the process. What does Moshe Rabbeinu want? Just be your best self. He's an insider. He's a parent. He's our tati. That's what Moshe Rabbeinu is. But then there's Yisro Who's literally kohen midyah. He's literally a ger, according to some, and according to others, he wasn't even at Matan Torah. Could there be a greater outsider than Yisro? There cannot. And Yisro said as follows: You see Klal Yisrael as they are. I see Klal Yisrael as they could be. You, Moshe Rabbeinu, you see their best self. But I see the process. So he said as follows: He said, "Of course, Moshe Rabbeinu, it's your Torah" But if you don't give it over to them, it can never be their Torah.
It'll only ever be your Torah. And the Torah should be a partnership. It should be your Torah, Moshe Rabbeinu, given by Al Kol D'Shbaruchu, Tiras Meisha, Meisha Emes V'Sayras Sayemes. But you need to give it over so that each one of them might not be their best self, but they could discover how to become their best self. That's what Yisro adds on to the Torah. First of all, now we see we answered one questioner already. It wasn't simple. Of course, after Moshe Rabbeinu died They would have implemented such a system. Of course they would have. But you see that the argument now is much more sophisticated. Yisro is saying for everyone in the room. Moshe Rabenu You gotta make it yours and theirs together. You gotta bridge the gap. It can't just be one or the other. That's not a small thing to teach. But listen, what Moshe Rabenu does, he says, "Yisro, you're right And I'm implementing it right now in my lifetime.
And listen, why that's so important? Because if Moshe Rabenu would have said to Yisro, "You're right, do it after I die." Then it would have been Moshe's Torah for Moshe's people For the best of the best, for those people that are their best self. It would have been their Torah. If it's Moshe Abinu's Torah, it's their Torah because they're the best self. By implementing it in his lifetime, Moshe Abinu says. Now I can tell you that this is what Hashem wants. That Hashem wants it not to be. I am my best self. But I'm in the process of becoming my best self. Where do we see this? I'm quoting now from a Medrash and Vayikra Rabba. Listen to these very beautiful words: Afilu Masha Talmid Vasek Oshid Lomer Lifnei Rabo Kula Nemru LeMoshe B'Sinai. Even if you have a Talmid Vatik, an accomplished Talmid, someone who's a real, real authentic Talmid And he comes up with a Chiddush and Tyra.
It was already said to Moshe Rabbeinu by Arsina. How could that be? If I just came up with a chiddush today in 2024 How could Moshe Rabbeinu have heard it by Arsina? And not only that, but if it's a chiddush, then Moshe Rabbeinu didn't hear it. If Moshe Rabbeinu heard it, it's not a chiddush. It's not new. Yichat the Vart. Number one, if I said it now for the first time in the history of the world in 2024, how could you say that Moshe Rabbeinu heard it by Arsina? Number two, if it's really a chiddush, if it's the first time it's ever been said, then of course it wasn't heard by Moshe Rabbeinu. Otherwise, it wouldn't be a chiddush. How could you say it's a chiddush and Moshe Rabbeinu heard it? Now says the Rebbe, it's very beautiful. It's a chiddush. It's your chiddush. You came up with it. It was part of your process.
But Moshe Rabbeinu already included the process into his Torah. So it's anything we come up with, any chiddush in our process. It's already Moshe's because Moshe Rabenu appreciates the process. Girls, I want to share with you something. We're at that time of year where everybody is experiencing some level of burnout. Maybe you were experiencing burnout a week ago. Maybe you're experiencing burnout now. Maybe you'll experience burnout next week. But it's the time of year. It's the winter. This has been going a long time. It's two Adars. You're already starting to project forward. Pesach's not that far. The Poland trip is not that far. You could already see the horizon. It's still far off, but you could see it. And you might be saying to yourself So new. How am I doing? My hopes, dreams, aspirations, and expectations for this year. Am I my best self?
If I had a Moshe Rabbeinu in my life, maybe if there was some Rebbe, some Mechanechet, some teachers, some Rakez, or whoever it is, that in their presence I would just be on fire. I wouldn't leave their presence ever. I would stay forever. But I haven't found that person, and I'm feeling like maybe I'm wasting my time. And even if I'm growing, so what? A guy in yeshiva said to me today, and I hope he listens to this recording. A guy in yeshiva said to me today, "This is a guy in yeshiva who day one of yeshiva probably the biggest Exciting parsha that we could have in yeshiva. Some parshiyos are exciting, some less exciting. This parsha was deep, complex, complicated, and sure to give us a run for our money. And for the first three months of yeshiva It was an exciting parsha. An exciting parsha.
You know what?" Right now, end of January time I would say one of the biggest hatslachas in yeshiva this year is this young man And I called him into my office today to tell him. I said, "I want you to know your name has come up probably twenty, thirty times in the last month." People come to yeshiva to visit to check it out. They come into the beis medrash, and this guy's there like a pillar. He's sitting in the beis medrash before seder starts. He's sitting in the beis medrash learning Gemara. And I said to him, you're doing unbelievable. You proud of yourself? Are you as proud of you as we are? He goes, but my skills and learning still haven't improved. I'm like, you've been from for four months, dude. Like it's not true. He was from before that, but you know what I'm saying? He hasn't been from for four months. The first couple of months, he gave us a run for our money for six weeks.
But in his head, what he's saying? I hope he's listening to this. What he's saying? But my skills aren't good enough yet. Because he just wants to be his best self already. But he has to know, and everyone in this room has to know. The process is as important as the result. If we had Moshe Rabbeinu in our lives, Berg would be out of a job. Be very sad for my children and the grandchild I might one day have. This is going to be your first that you will. This is my first. Lachaim. Don't get too excited. I'm gonna be pops. Really? That's nice. It's my fault. Don't stay with me. What time is it? It's seven twenty. The ADHD has long since passed. I'm already in a new level. Attention deficit hyperactive disorder. Moshe Abeno was in this room. Every one of us would be glowing.
Don't we want a Moshe Abeno in the room? The answer is no. We don't want Moshe Rabbeinu in the room. We want to make sure that we are connected back to the divine revelation, but we want the Moshe Rabbeinu that allows us to be in process and that values our process and that knows that becoming is as important as being. And that's not a small thing to know. It means that you can treat yourself with kindness and compassion. It means that as you go through the process, you can appreciate that this is complex. And that things are not black and white, and that you may be ahead today of where you were yesterday, and tomorrow you might be two steps below that. But you're somewhere along the derech And as long as you're somewhere along the derech, that's a beautiful place to be. Girls, have a wonderful Shabbos.
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