Parshas B'shalach

"BOKER TOV"

The first thing we are told in this week parsha is when Pharaoh let us go.

Is that Hashem did not lead us in the 'normal' way. ie. 'the shortest, or the most logical from our stand point', and that we were armed, 'with what'? And that Moshe took the bones of Yosef HaTzaddik. And that Hashem was leading us night and day. literally, we saw visually, the pillar fire and cloud. His ovious and overt leading of us night and day.

Ok so?

Then we are made privy to an personal conversation.

"Hashem spoke to Moshe", "Speak to the children of Israel; and tell them exactly whats going to happen next, no surprises here right; 'Boker tov', Pharaoh is going to come after you and I'm going finish him off and the Egyptian's once and for all.

And so this is exactly what happens and Israel panics, Why? What are we missing here, Nu? Were we not told exactly what was going to happen next? And if that is not enough we were armed? The key is right here in the next pasuk.

"The children of Israel raised there eyes, and they were very frightened; then they cried out to Hashem, (Ah there is something here), then they said to Moshe "Were there no graves in Egypt so that you took us out to die in the wilderness? 'COMPLAINTS!!!'... "Is this not what we said to you while we were still in Egypt when you came to take us out... "Lets us be and we will serve Egypt"... 'better to be slaves than to disrupt your daily lives, I always say, we like the suffering'.

What happen from the time of the miracles of the Geula til now? What's problem? How is it that we fell from the level of our Emunah (sharei Nun minus one) that we experienced on the night of Pesach? Seeing the open manifestation of Hashem's ratzon, His Divine Provodence.

From this we raised our eyes, we wanted to believe again in determinism (derek hateva) the seemingly natrual events of this world. So we chose to close our eyes to ratzon Hashem and opened them to our own determinism in short we over estimated our abilities, then realized we could not handle it and started to doubt all over again. Then the mixed multitude which looked up to us saw we were waivering and they started to complain. We did not guard our eyes we began to look around at the world and as soon as we did we fell from our Emunah. We are told to guard our eyes!

This is what we are told we did not desvre to go out from Egypt on our own merit so in fulfillment of the promise to our fore fathers Hashem added to our Daat to increase our Emunah so we we could leave. A free undesevred gift. Hazal tells us 'that a prisinor can not free himself on his own, he must have assitance from without', but as soon as we went out we lost our lofty Daat. Now we were going to have earn it through guarding our faith in Hashem.

We can not and must not trust what we see. Especially in the media! And what we hear in the news! "What lies!" To have Emuanh is to not look at this world our its happenings.

In the She'ma we are told in the third perek "They shall be to you as Tzitzit, and you shall look at them (big hint) and remember all the commandments of Hashem and to fulfill them and not to follow after your heart and after your eyes by which you go astray..." We are told to specifically not use out sekel or to trust our eyes! WHY? Becuase we start to think, our own hagasot in our chochmah, fallen chochmah then we start to look into how we can go about doing it with out Hashem. This is what 'Adom HaRishon' did he thought he could fix the 'shevat hakelim' all by himself. You see every time we think we can do it on our own we have fallen into self generated heresy. We make ourselves into g-d's and try and remove Hashem from the throne. It is much easier to just listen and do than to try to be a king.

The Tzaddik tells us next what we need to do. "Moshe said to 'the people' "Do not fear! Stand fast and 'see' the the salvation of Hashem that He will preform for you today;"... Why is not 'children of Israel' but 'people'? Is it because something has happened? Or is it that here, He is speaking to someone else? The answer is both we got out of your troubles and said thanks for the help we can take from here we'll call you if we need you. Oh ok, let's see how you do? This seems to be a reoccurring theme in our national history.

A person who believes that Hashem sustains everything through His ratzon and that all life-force comes from Him, is he himself filled with vitally and life! He recognizes the Hand of Hashem even in the inevitable trials and tribulation that living life brings his way, and knows that what ever the compassionate one does is for one's benefit (Berakhot 60b). This was how it was for us on the night of Pesach, expanded Daat.

On the other hand, when a person attributes all the happenings to the laws of nature, and of natural occurrences, his life is no life. He lacks vitality and life-force, and if beset by any of life's difficulties has no where to turn for consolation. Just like we where at the sea, it seemed like there was no where to turn, cliffs on one side wilderness on the other the sea infront and the Eygptian's to the rear, constricted Daat.

The manifestation of Hashem's will reveals what the purpose to all of one's suffering and that in the end he will be rewarded for the affliction he has to endured.

Rashi tells us. Shemos 14:14-16. Hashem will do battle on your behalf. Hashem said speak the the children and let them journey, there is nothing left to do but to travel, for the sea is not a barrier before them... The merit of their forefathers, and of themselves, and the faith they 'had' in Me when they went out of Eygpt are sufficient to split the sea for them. "So we see it was only 'their lack of Emunah that caused their distress'! "Rebbe Nachman teaches us that the only reason one must travel is to to repair his Emunah" (likutey Eitzot).

In the parasha it says they will sing, in future tense So as we come to Shabbos Shirah may take it to heart that the only obestacle is our own lack of faith and may it be His will that we this shabbos in joy fulfill the pasuk and sing out loud of Hashem praises. two of the ten songs are in this week the haftorah contains 'Devorah's Naviah song' there are ten songs all together they are; they are a segula for the geula.

1) Song of Creation, (Bereishis 1:1-2:3), 2) Song at the Sea, (Shemos15:1-26), 3)Miram's Song... 4)Song of the well (Bamidbar 21:17-20), 5)Parshas Haazinu (Devarim 32:1-43), 6)Devorah's Song (Shoftim 5:1-31), 7)Hannah's Song (I samuel 2:1-11), 8)David's Song (II Samuel 22:1-51)
9)Hezekiah's Song (Ysaiahu 38:9-20), 10) Song of Songs (Shir hashirim 1:1-8:14)

Gut shabbos

"Bo"

Parsha sh'vuah, this was my first shabbos and my the first aliyah I had in Israel in 1995 in Elon moreh.

Hashem spoke unto Moshe, "Come to Pararoh, for I have made his heart and the heart of his servants stubborn so that I can put these signs of mine in his midst; and so that you may relate in the ears of your son and your son's son that I made a mockery of Egypt and My signs that I placed among them- that you may know that I am Hashem."

The first plague of the sidrah, introduces a new element. Hashem informs Moshe that He intends to make a mockery out of Egypt; flattening the pride of, and fully crushing the ego of Pharaoh and his ministers, so that not only Egypt but also the Jews would know that I Am Hashem. The inclusion of the Jews in that category implies that even believing people are often imperfect in their emunah.

That Pharaoh had resisted the evidence of the divine origin of the plagues is not a surprise. But even though the Jews were people of faith their faith, was not shalem perfect, 'as is now the case', it was not til the 'creas yam Sof' splitting of the red sea that the Torah testifies of Benei of Israel that they had Emunah in Hashem and in His servant Moshe. With the war that we just went through, we still want to explain away all the nesim that openly happened. I spoke with the tank crews yesterday and they told story after story of mirciles

"And so that you may relate", this is the of aspect of Emunah the belief to such a degree that we would continue to tell of these events, "to our sons and son's sons" forever. You see Emunah is increased as we speak of the deeds of our Father in heaven, all of those who hear us, and ourselves as well is increased. Emunah is gift we can give to each other that can't be refused, when I speak to you and tell that Hashem is great He really becomes great in our heart and in our minds, this is what we call 'Hoda'ah' we elevate all of creations as a result.

Hazal teach us that the words we speak create, if we speak with Emunah then we repair and draw closer the world to Hashem but if we complain and vech, or explain away every detail as natural, then we distance and damage the world. You see the Jew really is the most powerful individual in creation as we can change literally the whole world for the good or the bad just with our speech. We need to understand this and begin to exercise this and repair all the damage. every letter is a building block of creation.

(Perek 14:4) the Fourth aliyah, Rebbenu's aliyah for he always was called to rev'eevy

Likutey Halachot:
Moshe said, "So Said Hashem ' At about midnight I shall go out in the midst of Egypt. This statement is ambiguous, There's a famous gemorra that discusses this.

There they ask the question? "What Moshe didn't know when Chatzot was? We understand from Rabbi Natan in Likutey Halachot, That this is not speaking of the middle of the night 'geula Mitzraim'. It's speaking of the final geula and this is covered or closed, even Moshe didn't know exactly when it would come.

"KaChatzot Halailah ani yozeh" This is a secret Moshe didn't know the point of Chatzot this is why it say KaChaztot, About Midnight. Also Moshe couldn't tell when was Chaztot, but Dovid knew exactly when it was/is, for it says that he would raise at exactly Chatztot and sing praise to Hashem. Like hazal say in the gemora Brachot etc...v'chuleh Moshe knew that the Ikar was the the final redemption, and that it would come in the zuchut (merit) of Dovid and all the zaddikim that followed who have and still get up for Chaztot, and mourn the destruction of the Beis HaMidash (the Holy Temple) and cry out to Hashem. and all of the zadikim that are in Gan Eden... and what will come out from this the coming geula is an aspect of .... like the our rabbi's have said "all those who mourn for yerusalem... it is impossible to know the exact time of when will be coming of the End, because it's very very hidden and closed. And also from the first geula, we find a remez a hint, from the words, "Kachatzot halialah Ani yozeh", At about midnight I will go out. Because in the first geula when He sent Moshe to take out the Jews , And from the beginning Moshe refused the mission unless Hashem would reassure him that he would carry on til the end. Moshe said 'I won't do it unless you tell me also of the time of the final redemption'. example I will only watch the movie if it has a happy ending. and also in the words saying, "Kachotzot halialahani yozeh b'tok miztrayim ect... Like there in Hazal that's why it says 'Kachatzot' About approximately.

Because the time of End, the final redemption is very very concealed matter. and only Dovid who is himself Moshiach can say with certainty "chatzot lialah I will get up etc..."that's why Moshe said "koh amar Hashem". Because this revelation is an aspect of Chatzot and only in the form of remez, hints, because she is very far from us the matter is concealed and it is impossible for us to comprehend it and that is why he used the word "koh' because he didn't know precisly. And we get from Tikun Chatzot only in the form of a remez, a hint and understanding of the end.

You see we can not use our intellect to calculate and predict the final redemption we can only rely on Emunah as Moshe our teacher had to trust the word of Hashem in this matter. all the parsha's contain material for us to understand and also that which we must trust without understanding, in this way Hashem is teaching and leading us to this very day. Until then it is very important to get up for and to say Tikun Chatzots as it is in the merit of those who get and say it that the final redemption will accrue an it will come at about chatzot. And certainly with all that is gonig on in the world we should make alittle more effort to help bring The Redemption before it's time.

So get up look up and cry out for we are getting closer everyday.

Gut Shabbos
Reb Nati

Va'eirah

And Hahsem spoke unto moshe, saying "I am Hashem. I appeared to Avraham, to Yitzchak, and to Yaakov as El Shaddai, but with my name Hashem I did not make Myself known to them."
Rebbe nosson writes in likutey halachot:

"Elokim spoke...I am Hashem... Perush Rashi " this is drawn out from the previous inyan (concept) of what is said, "Why have you harmed this people". And such "Elokim spoke to Moshe saying to him I am Hashem". Because all the diffcult questions about Hashem come from concelment of the truth. The ways of Hashem that are imposible to conceive of are derived from that concealment. those ways are epitomized by thetalmudic discussion of, "ztaddik v'tov lo, ztaddik v'rah lo; and rasha v'tov lo , rasha v'rah lo ect"... and everything is in order to enable free choice, that's the meaning of; "And Elokim spoke", is an aspect of din and so forth. "And saying unto him "I am Hashem", is aspect of rachamim. Meaning that He (Hashem) is informming him (Moshe) that Hashem, is the same as Elokim and it is all one.
Because the midas of rachamim and the midas of the din, in absolute truth, they are one. Only from our prepecstive it is impossible to conceive this! because the inner nature of the truth of His (Hashem) ways and His middas. are impossible to conceive just like it is impossible to understand innner essence of Hashem Himself. and this is the reason for the pasuk, "And I revealed Myself to Avraham, to Yitzchak, and to Yaakov as El Shaddai and My Name Hashem (yud key vav key), I did not reveal or make known to them."