TheYeshiva.net - Rabbi YY Jacobson

When G-d Overwhelmed Us With Love, He Forced Us Into the Relationship

Is Judaism Based on Love or Guilt?

5Comment
Call-in
Listen to the class on the phone
Call +1 (845) 201-1933
When prompted, dial the ID number below.
7407
MP3
MP4
Source Sheets
Copy Embed

Class Summary:

This class was presented Thursday on Parshas Tetzaveh, 9 Adar, 5780, March 5, 2020, at the Ohr Chaim Shul, Monsey, NY

Categories

Please leave your comment below!

R
Ralph -4 years ago

I was listening to the shiur yesterday on kafah alihem har kgigus. It's a mefurash rashi in hazinu 32:10 the passuk says he surrounded us rashi says it means by matan torah clearly it is a act if love.

Reply to this comment.Flag this comment.
R
Rachelle -4 years ago
When ever we are cut off from God we are really cut off from ourselves and who we can be. Torah, God is just the GPS that tells us where we are and where we are lost or out of alignment. How cruel it would be if we were left to own accord and God, wouldn’t care to intervene and be a partner in our journey. And we would be left with no tools and no instructions how to navigate down here. As children of God we have the opportunity through Torah to discern and free ourselves from all the forces that don’t belong in our life and don’t allow us to be free and bring out the best in us.Torah is about being free to bring forth the ultimate expression of our unique light and be the ultimate ME. How fortunate we are...

It’s really fake news to believe that God and Torah is here to suppress us ...

Rabbi YY Jacobson: This morning I was thinking that people need to get rid of those automatic reactions from childhood, like guilt. We need to go to the core, the root of them. Otherwise the moment guilt comes in, we withdraw and run to protect ourselves like we did as kids. We become hostage to them and live a life of desperation and cut off from ever experiencing Elokus. Never tasting real freedom.

Reply to this comment.Flag this comment.
Anonymous -4 years ago
Rashi:

והם תכו לרגלך. וְהֵם רְאוּיִם לְכָךְ, שֶׁהֲרֵי תִּוְּכוּ עַצְמָן לְתוֹךְ תַּחְתִּית הָהָר לְרַגְלֶךָ בְּסִינַי

Even A Ratzon from klal yisrael like the Baal Hatanya because they felt that love and conncetion.
Reply to this comment.Flag this comment.
M
Moshe -4 years ago
We all didn't ask to be born
We all didn't ask Him to be born. We didn't ask to have a yetzer hora. We didn't ask for the Torah. We didn't ask for negative consequences (can't say punishment) for breach. . What is this? A giant elaborate trick or trap or set up?

In a reflective way, children also didn't ask to be born. They didn't ask to be Jewish and to have the requirements of the Torah and kibud av on themselves.

What's with free choice?

Rather, before Creation, (and similarly, before conception) He was all One, one in the sense before the tzimtzum. He is of course still One but after creation He is a different type of One. A One having created something which can perceive itself as separate. There exists the possibility of an atheist. Or of a child that says :you're not my mother", just as intelligent.

The purpose of all creation then is to return to that unified oneness, to the situation before creation. To make the puzzle whole again. To reunify with the Originator. That takes bittul. When bittul is obtained, even partly, then there's room for the other, for Hashem and reunification is possible. Any ego or yeshis prevents that reunification. Ergo, to be mivatel oneself, in a positive good way, is to align oneself with one's true essence and purpose to return to that primordial state.

But not like Nadav and Avihu, but to do so with one's feet on the ground. As it was intended.

Reply to this comment.Flag this comment.
M
Moshe -4 years ago
Another moshel: parents often say "I'm going to eat you up"
I.e. I love you so much I want to be totally one with you. One entity. For mothers, "I want you back in my womb". And ditto for fathers, at least vicariously.

So holding the mountain over our heads was not a threat to accept or else, not a gun to our head; but rather an offer to hug, to love, to fully love like the parent above who desires to become one entity with the child. Like it was before any separation between Hashem and us and parent and child. .

We were there. We accepted. We have that epigenetic DNA now. The less discrepancy between Him and us, the less discrepancy between who we can be and who we are, the more we are aligned with Him, our purpose and our true selves. We aim for 100% alignment. A lofty goal but the closer we get to that, the truer our path. Lehavdil like a car with a perfect alignment, goes straight.

Avraham Avinu paved the way by not only "discovering" Hashem, but also by being a "chariot", a vehicle and conduit for Hashem with no agenda or ego of his own. His will was his will.

When someone approaches to give you a bear hug, you can limply stand there and allow it. Or, you can fully participate, you can hug back so its bilateral and reciprocal. That's a full two way hug. That's what happened at Har Sinai. And to do that requires complete bittel.

And the Ein Sof can only dwell where there's bittul. (Query on the egotistical talmud chocham who thinks he's better than everyone cuz of his Torah. The "top bocher". Some make spirituality an avoda zora, a tool with which to condescend. What the Baal Shem tov fought. Today there even exists a disease where some people worship health and healthy food! See "orthorexia").

So we mivatelled ourselves, hugged back, accepted whole heartedly and He reciprocated. That's a marriage made in heaven, pun intended, and has even endured our transgressions on the lower contractual level over time while the higher, deeper covenantal level is eternal.

Reply to this comment.Flag this comment.