Why Did the Torah Need to Be Given on a Mountain? Why not in a Valley?
All right everybody. Welcome back. Partia review. Okay. Um this is Partia is behind the Hokosa. The Hokosa is actually my twin brother's apartments of Parsha. So it's very exciting. Identical? Yes. Yes. So how do we know it's him and not you? Yes, it is also mine, it's true. I was making a joke, is it's also mine. How do you know where they are you and not you? I have no idea. I don't know if I'm me. I don't actually know. We could have been we could have been swapped easily several times. Especially my brother Ralphie's here. He helps us in your own. No, you weren't swapped, but yeah, I'm saying it's very it's a very high possibility that I'm him and he's me. What are we gonna do about it? I don't know how to do anything about it. We're just gonna listen to him. We're always all ourselves. You're saying it doesn't matter if they were swabs. Right. Oh, it's that. That's true. You're thinking tahlahs. Perfect. Okay. So it's a double parti, Bahar Bihu Kosa, just a beautiful idea from the Lababachure. Um, and that is Bihar, that the Torah was given on a mountain, which and we know Hashem like went through this whole process to choose the most humble mountain. So if the Jewish people needed to be taught a lesson of humility, Reshikibotar Misina, one of the ideas explained at the beginning of Perki Abba was the that Moshe accepted the Torah, Misina, meaning sinai represents humility. Moshe was onov mi koladam. So accepting the Torah, Misina means accepting the Torah comes Mesina from a state of being humble. When you're willing to be open to accept, then you can receive. And but why don't you just put it, give it to us in a valley? Meaning if he wanted to teach us a lesson of humility, he should have done it, did it in not on a mountain, even though you're right, it was smaller comparatively to the other mountains, but it was still a mountain, no less, right? So why was the Tara given on a mountain, a small mountain, and not just in a valley? And I think the contrast can be found in the beginning of time when the well, not a couple hundred years after the creation of the world, by Migdal Babel, when the when after Naerh was saved, and the end of Parshis Noach, it talks about the people that they built a tower to go wage war against God in heaven. And so they were going up there to attack, and the tower points out something really interesting. It points out that they they started off in a valley. Now, if you were smart and you were organizing this whole group, you would say, Well, let's already get a head start, so let's start on a mountain a couple thousand feet up, and we'll continue on from there and go wage war against God. But they didn't do that. They started in a valley. Why would they do that? And one of the ideas expressed is that um they didn't want anything to do with Hashem. Hashem created the world, right? And therefore, Hashem created the mountains. And if they were to use the mountains, so then Hashem would still have uh, you know, Hashem would still have a comeback and be like, yeah, you got up to me, but the first 2,000 feet wasn't your own doing. It was it was mine, it was mine, right? Didn't he create valleys also? Well, of course he did the valleys, but in in the world that we do have, the canvas that we're playing with, that was the lowest possible place without with the least amount of help from from God, and therefore that's that's where they chose. So that beneath sea level. That would probably be a little bit even lower than the valley? Beneath like in the beneath sea level Dead Sea down the Earth Sea. Right. Right, in theory, but they were coming, I mean, that it was it was happening in in Bubble, I guess in that place. I don't know if they had based on the topography of the land, I don't know if they had that. Right. Start digging the ocean, like the floor of the horses. Yeah, well, I'm saying, how would they have gotten to the floor of the ocean? Start digging. Start digging. Yeah, no, but I'm asking him, yeah. Uh the I I'm not sure why they wouldn't they wouldn't have did that, but in contrast to the mountain, the next the next option, what the opposite of the mountain would be the valley. And there's specifically the Torah is not given in a valley, it's given on a mountain. Because when it comes to Judaism, Jewish wisdom teaches us that you know, first of all, we don't distance ourselves from Hashem, we don't, we don't try to go away from God. We we obviously need his help or nothing with nothing without him. But but but secondly, the mountain represents the fact that it's true a person, a person needs to be humble, the small mountain, but a person needs to still be a mountain. That's really the point that the Lababajah makes, that a person has to be a humble mountain. So meaning humility is not like viewing myself as less than, but it's viewing myself as I'm more than because of the gifts that Hashem has given me, because of all the greatness that that God has bestowed upon me. So it's it's greatness in a context of the Abishhthar. It's godless in the context of where I am on this planet. So that's the beauty of Bihar, the Torah given on a mountain, specifically, but a small mountain, and this is the the it's like a confluence of coming together to create this as a model of Jewish, of real of Jewish anivos. And it brings me to the next point. Um, I sent this out by Lag Bomer. I don't know if anybody had a chance to read it or not, but I'm just gonna reiterate the Ribishin Bariachai, right, author of the of the Zire. So Ribishin Bariachai, I found one mimer that he describes the the Nimala, the ant. And it the reason why I'm talking about an ant is because the ant is considered a very lowly low creature. It's like the creepy crawley, it's it's it's teeny, it's tiny. It's like one of the, of course, you could find things that are smaller, but from our practical, the ant is like the smallest of the small. Yet Shlomelach tells us, Leichal Nimala, Atzel, if you're a sluggard and you're a lazy man, so then go to the ant and you'll learn how to have lived with us. Uraid Racha, the chathaim, look at its ways and you'll become wise. So the ant becomes a model. The Madris Rabbah in Shoftim, in in the Madras Rabbah in Devarim, it says like this on Shoftim Vishutrim, it's talking about having uh people above us, Shaftim Vishutrim, like police, guardsmen. And the Madrish picks up on this and it says, Leichal namalah, this is what it means, Leichal namalah, go to the to the ant. So quotes the Pasik in Mishlay 6, 6. And the the Mish the Madrish says a few interesting things about an ant. And you'll see why I'm bringing it up in context in relation to the first thing I was describing about uh living with a sense of humility but with confidence, like a humble mountain, like a mountain. So, first of all, the ant is interesting in that it has three homes. So one in Baltimore, one in Florida, right, and one in Israel. It's three homes. The measures luck stay in the menu. One in the ground, one very low, one in the middle, and then one on top. But where does it store all of its stuff? It stores it not down below, but in the middle section. The measure says that it doesn't store it on the top because that's where the rainwater is. It doesn't store it on the bottom because it gets a little, the it's more muddy from the sorry, it's more damp from the mud. The middle section is like the sweet spot. Um, I did see just Darak Agav that the some of the Bali Musa point out that this is really a model in Avaris Hashem where we know you're not supposed to be extreme, you're not supposed to be two this way or two that way, but like the Rambah tells us to find the middle, the middle of the road. So that's another thing that we do learn from the ant to take that middle road. But what's interesting is the ant stores a ton of food in that middle section. Yet the Madris says in the same Madrash over here, it says, Rabitan Khuma, it says, the lifespan, uh the right, the lifespan of an ant is only six months. The the diet for that entire lifespan is a kernel, is a chita um, right? It's a kernel and a half of wheat. So six months, a kernel and a half of wheat, yet it stores in its middle section of its home, it stores a crazy amount of food over the course of its life. And the measure says, why? Why does the ant do that? If it's it's just going to die, why does it store so much more than is necessary? So the major says an amazing thing. Why does the ant do this? Sha umrah, because it says, does it mean physically? No, ants don't talk figuratively, spiritually. This is what's happening. The ant is speaking this out. Sha'umra, the ant says, Shemar Yigzer, Allah Kurushbar, Kuchaim, perhaps a shem will give me more life, via limhachal, and then I'll be prepared to eat. Meaning to say there's trillions of ants, right? And they all live six months, okay, give or give or take. But the average lifespan is about six months. Yet the ant has a level of amuna, it has what we call hope, right? It has tikvah, it has, it believes that there's going to be a future of perhaps, of maybe perhaps Hashem will give me more time. And if he does, well, I have to be ready. So the ant represents the opposite of atzel, represents the opposite of laziness. It works hard, it gathers in way more than it actually needs because perhaps maybe Hashem will give me more life. Allah Rabbi Shimon Baniukai says Rashbi, umatsuba bar shalash sholoishmeyas kor. He like proves that the ant gathers in way more than it needs. He said there was an incident where they found in one of these ant holes 300 kor, a very large volume, 300 cor of this grain and of what it was gathering from the summer to the winter. A crazy amount. And from there he learns, this is what Schlumelch says. So to you, just like the ant prepares, thinks in the future, thinks it's future-oriented. Perhaps I'll have more life. So to a person has to spend time in Alumhaza in this world, preparing La Ilamhaba, taking in all the tire and all the mitzvos, all the opportunities that a person can get, because you never know, maybe Hashem will give you more life, right? And you're always preparing, just like the ant, working hard, constantly preparing. And that's the mimer of Rabishim Bar Yochai as it relates to an ant. And I was thinking about this because if you plug in the gamatria, Rabishim and Baryochai is 915. There's one pasik in all of Tanakh that has that Gematria, and that's this pasuk in Mishlay. The Madras doesn't say that, but the the the the pasuk in Mishle, 66, Lechal Namala, Atsel Raedracham, is the only Pasuk in Tanakh that has that Gematria 915. The exact same as Rubishim Barrichai. I believe this is the only mimor that Rubishim Barakai mentions the ant. But if anything, this, and Ribishim Barakai has a lot of you know statements throughout the Chazelle, but it's interesting that perhaps there's this like connection that he's trying to give us in terms of, again, we just had Logbaimer this week, but in terms of the message of Ribishim Barichai and representing, right, the fire. The fire is the opposite of Atslos. The fire represents fire doesn't stand still, a fire is constantly moving. Rush Shim Barichai's day of Lag Baimer's Zaya represents a fire, radiance, and that there's illumination that's possible again, not just in that holy book, but it's a reminder, and that point of the fire is we dance around it, reminding us that that exists inside each and every person. Every person has that spark of divinity. And Reb Shimbachai came to this world to remind us be like the ant, be like the ant who you don't know your allotted time. No one knows how long they have, but take advantage of the time that you do have. And I thought that was an amazing thing. But uh bringing this out for specifically, specifically from the ant is, and I saw this in the notes here, but it brings down from Rivnuss and Wachtfokel that you know people think that laziness is somebody, somebody just doesn't want to work. But that's not really what laziness is. People have like a distaste towards work and they're lazy. More psychologically, laziness comes from a feeling of doubt, a feeling of in a lack of complacency, more of a feeling of a person doesn't feel confident. And what's fascinating is that by the maraglim, one of the things that they said was, right, the temeroglim were there and they they overheard the giants talking, and the the pup such him talk about grasshoppers, right? We were like grasshoppers in their in their eyes, in our own eyes. And we learned from there that they had there was a lack of of they had a lack of um self-worth, exactly, self-value. But Rashi changes it from grasshoppers. Rashi says, ants, right? If you look in Rashi over there, he says that he must be coming from Chazah, but Rashi points out that what the what the what the 10 spies heard was there are Nimolim, there's the in the Krumim. They heard the giants talking about them as ants in the form of people. And they took it as my gosh, ants the smallest of the small, holy, creepy crawlies that small that crawl on this earth. And they took it as a negative. They came back, gave the bad reports, oh my gosh, there's these big giants. And the rest of history we're still in gullus, partly because of that lack of self-worth. Well, what's unbelievable is that they didn't hop, perhaps on their level, they didn't hop that being called an ant is not us is not something to be taken lightly. They were viewing it as, oh my gosh, they're calling us ants. So you're at in terms of size and and physical tamas, it's true. They're much smaller. But in terms of what the ant represents, Shlom al specifically tells us, Leichel Numala. No, no, yeah, it's supposed to be an ant. The fact that they were calling you ant, you should have taken that in stride. You should have chaped around. Rashpi brings us pasta and says, This is the pasuk where you chap around mitzus on this world. You don't know your allotted time. And this is the right, so it's it's just an interesting thing that the whole mistake and which led to the Shiba, which led to Khorban, was because we didn't tap into being like an ant. We're supposed to be like an ant. Um, an ant is really so it it it an incredible creature. I think I don't know if I mentioned this here, but a couple weeks ago we were having ant issues, we're still having ant issues. But I so you know if they're they're on the floor, you step on them or whatever, although they say not to step on them because they the scent will waft away and waft off, and the other ants will pick up on it. It's like an alarming smell, even though we can't smell it. So better not to step on them to kill them in that way. But I was trying to do a test, I I tried an assassination attempt. So the ant I was on the counter and I just flicked it off, like, okay, it's gonna fall 36 inches off the standard counter height, it's gonna fall to its death because 36 inches corresponding to its own size of like one millimeter. That's crazy. It's basically almost 200 times the size. It doesn't make bones. Well, well, well, that's what I learned. I didn't know that. But the the ant that'd be the equivalent of a person falling off the Empire State Building. Just probably flipped over and yeah, I don't even know, I couldn't even tell. But yeah, it just what it just walked away. The ant is beyond um the regular, the the regular laws of nature. You know, an ant can lift more than 10 times its its weight, and and we see it. Ant gathers in way more than it needs, and all these aspects about an ant represents no the fact that the giants called us an ant, that wasn't the problem. The problem was not hopping, that the ant is an amazing thing. If we if we just if we just hop, we're supposed to be like a a mountain, we're supposed to have a level of uh be humble like an ant or whatever, like but but have that confidence that I could accomplish so much, gather in a lot, uh carry much more, and and I could fall great distances, but I'll I'm I will always survive. You could knock an ant off the Empire State Building, it will still survive because terminal velocity, it's only gonna hit four miles an hour. It's not gonna, it's right, and the bones, the skeleton, it's not gonna, it's it's just it's not gonna break. It's immutable, it's unbreakable. That's really the Jewish people. We're like the ant and in so many ways. So before we close, I just want to share with you the Kedushas Levi in this week's Parasha, Parsh's Bhikkhu Kosai. In the first Pasuk in Bhakukosai, the Tarah tells us in Bihukosai Tirhu, if you will go, if you will walk in my chukim, my statut, right, meaning if you'll walk in the Tarah and the mitzvah, the S mitzosa Tishmar, you will guard and watch the mitzvah, as he samus, and you shall do them. So the Kedusha's Lady points out two very interesting things. Number one, he points out telecha, which means to walk. A person, he says, has to always be in the realm of Telehu, always walking. He says, right, Tana Velyo, call a shine, halachus bikal yom, whoever learns halachus every day, mufta klo shub unalumhaba. But that word um shaina doesn't just mean to learn or to teach, it also means like yishanah, which means to deviate, or means to change. And he learns from here, the Alzeh Omar, he says, what does it mean? Kala Shana Alakos doesn't again doesn't just mean to learn halachus every day, but it also has another connotation. It means every day a person should change his ways, meaning to say, like a snake, you leave that skin behind. That's what it means to be memis atmo, to kill oneself, means to I'm not the same person that I was yesterday. Today I'm a new a new Briya, I'm a new entity. Shahailik bachol yaim vajga yuser gadola every day to move higher and higher up levels, and that's what it means to be a uh a ben alumhabah. I was thinking about that, what we were just reading about, that the Reb Shumricha and the ant, that a person is lives on Ilamhza, but we're constantly thinking about Alumhaba, that we could infuse this world with Ilum Haba, we could bring it in. Alumhaba represents that I'm future-oriented, I'm thinking about the future. That was the ant. The ant, there's most creatures, they're it they they live and eat and breathe in the here and the now. The ant is one of the unique creatures in this world that actually considers the future. Maybe Hashem's gonna give me more light, right? That's an Alamhabadika perspective where Haba I'm thinking about um the future. I'm living in the present, but thinking about the future of what could be. And that's what it means. A person who's Yeshan Halakh is a person who changes his ways every single day. Mufta klo shubna ulhaba, that type of person is a ben Ulamhaba. That explains in Buchukosai Telehu, a person who connects himself to khukosai, to the hukim of a crushbarhu, te'lechu, this type of person is in the bikina of a mahalikh. This person is a walker. That's what we're supposed to be, constantly walking. But then he says something else. And with this, this is like the last idea I just wanted to share. It says, Yes, mitzvah tishmo, you're gonna guard the mitzvois vasisam osam and you'll do them. So it's a it's a little bit redundant, but it belongs in the department of redundancy department. Yeah, why does it say and the mitzvoisai tishmar vasisam osam? I mean, they're both like uh has have they're both expressing a similar sentiment that we're fulfilling God's mitzvah. So why does it say both of those? And he explains that tishmoru doesn't just mean to to guard and to keep, but it also means to look forward to. It means to see into the future. Why does it say but Yaqv Vinu, the Aviv, Shamar Sadavar? When Yosef told about this, the the dreams, all the brothers were, right, they were in a frenzy, but the aviv, his father Yaaakov, shamar sadavar, he right, like the Khazap Puna, he anticipated the matter. So shamar doesn't only mean to observe or to keep, it also means to anticipate, to think about the future. Shamar. And using that, the the Kedusha Slevi, the Bhadich, says that's what it means, Vyasmitzvaysa Tishmaru. A person might not always be able to complete the mitzvos that he intends to do. We all have, we're all in good spirits and we all want to do good. Vyasmitzvaysa tishmaru is telling us that even the mitzvist that a person is unable to fulfill, but it's in the realm of Shhamar. It's in the realm that he wanted to do it. He had intention to do it, he had a deep drive to fulfill it. Something happened, right? The chazal tells us, person wants to do a mitzvah, but he can't do it. A Qurishbaru kh is mitzvah for la myself, that type of concept. And what happens is something amazing. There's this concept that when a person fulfills a mitzvah, it's always done on a humanistic level, which means it has its, by definition, it has its limitations because we're human beings. But when Hashem fulfills a mitzvah, Hashem's completion of a mitzvah is in its entirety. So in a certain realm, when someone's unable to do something, and a Kharish Baruch's mitzvah lamaisa, that lamaisa is actually much greater than if you would have done it on your own. This concept is brought out by um in the Yarastavash by Ryuj Ayushitz. The only person who was able to ext who was able to overcome the Zakhusim of Hamun was Esther. Why is that? And what Zukhus did Hamun have? Hamun had a tremendous zakhus, his great-great-grandfather was Aesav. Aesov had a tremendous amount of kibutrav aim. The only person, and there was a tremendous, there's a rich, right? And that's one explanation why Aesov specifically did that mitzah, because he wanted to be on this world, to, you know, to do everything you you need to do, to kill and murder and zanus, for as long as he wanted to. So he knew the reward, right? Of uh he knew Arichhass Yamim, that's why he specifically wanted that. Okay, but leaving that aside, there was a tremendous achus that Esaf did, that he was Mechabid's parents. The only way that his that that could be over over, the only way that could have been thought was with somebody who had more kiber of aim. Who was somebody who had more. Kiburav Aim, somebody who has no parents. Specifically, it was Esther. Esther, who was unable in her lifetime to be Machabed, her physical parents, she had a deep desire to want to do it. And therefore, Kurdish Bark's Mitsaif La Maisa, and therefore her level of Kibirav Aim actually surpassed any other person physical level who has who was blessed to have parents because it's always with limitations and drawbacks because we're human beings, but she didn't have those limitations because her because right, she didn't have parents. So it was only yearning, it was only desire, it was it was Tishmu. It was only tishmo, it was only of Ivshamar Sadava, it was only in the realm of wanting, and therefore Hashem fulfilled it for her, and therefore it was hers, it was only that that was it was her level of kibut of aim that was able to overcome uh Hamman. And that was why specifically she had needed to be the one. It's an amazing piece from the Yaras Devash. But the point over here from the Kudish Lady, Vyas Mitzvais Tishmor, to when a person yearns for the mitzvous, then the Tara says, Vasisa M Osam Hashem says, I consider it as if you did it. That's that's the so it's not redundant, it's really saying two separate things. One is saying, have have the Shmira, have the want the want to do it, and Vasisa Musama Shem is gonna consider it as if you did it. Yesterday I was coming home from Shul and I got a WhatsApp from a friend of mine. I'm not gonna say his name, but his name might have been Yitz. So I get a friend, so so he sends me a WhatsApp. He's like, he's like, Ori, I'm all way at basketball, I didn't learn anything today. This guy's a growing person. He said, I didn't learn anything today. I know I'm gonna be exhausted when I come back. He's like, could you just like send me a quick Devar Torah, like WhatsApp voice note? Um, you know, that way I could like that'll be like my learning of the day. So I sent him, I sent him, I told him this Vart from the Arist Divash. I'm like, the fact that you like he might could tell, first of all, most people wouldn't even do that. Like the fact that he he had a busy day, work, kids, whatever, and he was going to play basketball. Like, but Lamaisa, he it was enough that he reached out to a friend of his to say, hey, share with me a VAR. Like, and I I I told him, I think that was amazing that that that that he did that. It shows that he really wanted to. Um, but there's this this value in wanting to do something, even if you're not going to complete it, and Hashem will complete it for you, it's gonna be considered Vasisem, it's gonna be considered as if you did it. Um, so we should all be to tap into the these are really two ideas, but I don't know if they're connected or not. But the idea of being like a mountain, being a humble mountain, be like Harsina, that's the ability to receive, but also to have that confidence that yeah, we're small people, we're ma'at, we're a small nation, but just like the ants, they're small, but they're capable of so much there, they could survive of the greatest fall, and they could carry way more than they they possibly think. And with that in mind, a person could have a chukah and uh uh and uh and a desire to want to do things. And again, I may have shared this before, but I think it takes on a whole nother dimension of meaning when we when we think about being uh shemur teramits, right? Or are you right? We talk about from people, right? Are you shemashavas? Are you shemataramitz? So we view it generally as oh yeah, do you keep shabbas? Do you keep the alachas? Do you do you keep kashras? But based on this, it it's so much deeper than that. Are you Shemar Tera Mitzh? Means do you yearn for closest? Do you yearn meaning are you shamir, meaning from the lush of Iveshamar Sadavar? Do you anticipate your Yirishkai? Do you look forward to it? Are you living like Rashin Barichai or dancing around the fire, not just some not blame, but uh but during but during during the year? Do you value yourself as being an ant? That's the idea of being Shemir Tara Mitsu, is to constantly yearn um for the things that that we we that for the for the most for to yearn for the for the beautiful things that are here for the life that that we have. What about the queen?
