The Garden Within | RE'EH רְאֵה - Portion 47

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Teachers of Torah have coined the Hebrew term PaRDeS (פרדס – a word literally meaning “garden” or "orchid") to refer to a four-tiered system of biblical interpretation, which reveals that each word, verse, and story in the Bible could be simultaneously understood on four different levels.  

Through this year-long course, we will explore the very words of God from these levels of the garden.  The name The Garden Within was chosen for this teaching series because it adopts the PaRDeS system of learning and because it delights in the spiritual pleasure through reaching new understandings and being pierced by lightning flashes of the intellect. The pleasure gained, of course, also refers to the nearness we feel to God when learning His Word.

One of the primary goals of The Garden Within is to demonstrate that the “stories” in the Torah are not merely one-time occurrences, temporal incidents undergone by specific individuals long ago. Rather these stories are archetypal in nature, reflecting or representing various physical and spiritual energies ever present in all aspects of reality and within each and every person.  That is, the Torah is deeply personal and speaks directly to each individual reader for where they are in their life.  So, come, take a walk with God in the Garden of the Torah!

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SPEAKER_00 0:19

Good evening, everyone, Nair of Tove. Welcome to the Garden Within. As we are continuing our year-long journey through the Torah's portions, and we find ourselves in the midst of the book of Deuteronomy. Uh and uh we're gonna spend a little quite a bit of time this evening talking about uh what that means at this juncture in uh the book of Deuteronomy because we are getting very close to what in the Hebrew calendar, the the calendar God gave to us in his word, especially in the book of Leviticus, uh, we are entering about to enter into the month of Elul, E-L-U-L, Elul. And Elul is considered to be the most holy time of that calendar, uh, because it leads us into the month of Tishre, uh, which is when Rosh Hashanah, the new year, uh Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, uh, Sukkot, the uh Feast of Tabernacles, all happen in Tishrei. And so Elul is seen as a month of preparation for that. Uh, and so we want to look at how the Torah portions, and in fact, going back to last week in Ekiv, uh, but looking from Ekiv all the way up to the portions that'll take us to Rosh Hashanah, the head of the year, the new year, uh, how they have as part of their theme um preparing us for this holy, auspicious time. And uh you can even see it in the Gospels. Um, it ultimately begins in the month of Elul and goes through that 30-day month and then to up through Yom Kippur. And what's interesting is you see this actually, if you have the eyes for it, you learn the calendar, and when you read the gospels, this is the 40-day period that Jesus is in the wilderness, and that's why he does it then. It's also uh when you look at the church's liturgical calendar, the church's liturgical calendar takes its cues from the Hebrew calendar itself, and that's why you have a 40-day period of Lent. Uh, that 40-day period actually has its roots in this 40-day holy period in the Hebrew calendar. And even if you're in the Eastern Orthodox tradition, their Advent is also a 40-day period. And so again, it's it has its biblical basis from this. So we want to talk about that this evening because I think it's one of the best ways when you're reading the Torah and you're studying the Torah and you want to take it seriously as the revealed Word of God, that it's divinely inspired, and that it's still therefore important and relevant, um, that this is one of the ways to do that, to know what the the point, the the the you know, the cosmic energy, if you will, that's is that's connected to these portions, getting us ready for and entering into Alull. Uh has different names for this period, this 40-day period. You have the days of awe, is one of the things they're called, the the days of repentance. It has different uh terminology, but it all is getting at really, we are about to enter into a very holy time in God's appointment book. Uh and so it's kind of like getting us ready for that. All right, so that's where we're going to be heading. Uh, we'll talk a little more about it, where we're at in the portion, what it's covering, but first let's um get going with the blessing before the study of Torah. Baruchata Adanai Eloheinu Melch'ilam, Ashekidishano, Bomisfita, Vesivanu, Le Sogbidivre, Torah. Blessed are you, Lord God, King of the universe, who has sanctified us with his commandments and commanded us to be immersed into the words and the matters of the Torah. Amen. So this week takes us to the portion known as Ree. It is the Torah's 47th division of 54 divisions, covers Deuteronomy chapter 11, verse 26, and goes through chapter 16, verse 17. Ree is a Hebrew word, uh verb that means to see, and comes from that opening verse in the portion where it says, see, I place before you blessing and a curse, right? And so Re is that verb that means see, to see. Okay. Um I want to talk here, and this is uh something we've talked about many times with the Torah and the Torah portions, and again, how to get the most out of Torah study living in the 21st century as followers of Jesus the Messiah. Uh, and that is uh the axiom to live with the times. That's a very important concept, and uh that picture that individual is the one uh who coined that phrase. Uh but the portion of Ree, it customarily falls near uh Rosh Chodesh Elul. Uh that is the month of Alul, the new month of Elul, which is, you know, so it can happen a little before or right at it, but it don't, you know, it's happening like it is now. Uh we're today, the 20th day of the month of Av, so we're getting close to that end of that month, and we'll begin Alul. And so it means you're about one month out from Tishrei, and so you're about one month out from Rosh Hashanah. Uh, the great day of the Lord is often how it's referred to in the scriptures. So whenever you're reading your Bible and you come across in the day of the Lord or on that day, the great day, all of those references, Old and New Testament, those are all pointing to and referring to Rosh Hashanah. Uh, so it's this great day of reckoning and so forth. And so the entire period of Elol leading into that is spiritual preparation for what are called the days of awe. Now, the days of awe, known in Hebrew as Yamim No'im, refers to the uh period uh beginning with Rosh Hashanah, the the Hebrew New Year, and concluding with Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Uh, the solemn season is marked by spiritual introspection. So that means for us as we're reading our Torah and we're wanting to think, well, what should my mindset be? What should I be thinking about as I'm reading it? What should be engaging me? Uh, this is it. It's a time of spiritual introspection, it's a time of repentance, it's a time of prayer at a different level. So if you're one that prays in the morning and the evening, great. During this period, you're gonna pray more, you're gonna pray longer, you're gonna pray maybe three or four times a day and so forth. Um, it's a time when we as individuals actually actively seek reconciliation, not only with our God and our creator, uh, especially through the work of his Messiah, but it's also a time where we seek reconciliation with our neighbor, with one another. And so what that means for us is essentially over the next month, that our mindset should be on how can I reconcile with those that maybe I need to or that I'm not on good terms with. Uh, this is a time to work on making those things right. And remember, God created his calendar, you know, and it's filled with Moed, Moedim, right? It that means appointment. So they're appointments, they're divine appointments that we have uh with God to work on certain things. And so it's just like you get your oil changed every 5,000 miles, or your tires rotated every 6,000 miles, or you go for your annual physical every October, and you get your blood drawn and you cough and do all of those things every October, right? You God has a spiritual calendar for those kind of appointments. And one of the things that we are now entering into is the appointment to seek reconciliation, again, not only with God, but with our fellow human being, because as we talked about with the Shema, those intersect. The horizontal and the vertical connect. How we love God is expressed in how we love one another. How we love one another is actually a genuine reflection of how we love God. And so the same is going with reconciliation efforts. If we are not loving our fellow human being, we're not loving God. If we're on the outs with our fellow human being, we have someone on the outs with our creator. Uh and so, as I mentioned, this is considered the holiest time in the Hebrew calendar that we're about to enter into. And it's a time when, according to the tradition, God essentially opens the book, right? That's Rosh Hashanah. He opens the great book of accounting, if you will, and then he offers between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur that opportunity for forgiveness and renewal, so that on Yom Kippur, that is when your name is written in the book of life and it is sealed for another year. That's the mental image you should be having as you enter into this season. In accordance with Rabbi Shneer Zolman of Li'adi, whose picture you see up there, his dictum is that we should live with the times, meaning we should connect with, we should learn from, and we should apply the weekly Torah readings to our lives. We should allow that to kind of set a spiritual rhythm for us every year. And so we would expect that the weekly Torah readings around Re begin to contain explicit and implicit allusions to the approaching days of awe and the process of spiritual introspection that is undertaken at this time. And so it's no surprise to learn that this is indeed the case. And so, what I want to do now is kind of starting from last week's portion, Ekhev, and march through Akev to this week in Reie and go through each kind of week's portion until we get to Rosh Hashanah to kind of give you some things to be thinking about, to begin to get that focus so that you can live within the times. And you know, part of that also means that every week's portion in some way should speak to something that's going on in your life. Uh, it should have some kind of connection, uh, something should resonate with you. Uh, and so with that, uh, I want to start looking at these portions. So the previous portion, last week, Ekiv, uh begins uh this trend by alluding to the upcoming days of repentance and its very first verse. In Deuteronomy chapter 7, verse 12, it says, And it shall come to pass, Ekev, right, the name of the portion, if you listen to these judgments and keep and do them. Now the word Ekev is related to the Hebrew root of the word for heel, like the heel of the foot. And and it's also related to footsteps, right? That's it's that's its semantic domain for you linguistic files out there. Uh and the heel is at the end of the body, and it represents the upcoming end of the year. So whenever you get to Ekev, like if you speak Hebrew, you're like, oh, we're coming to the footsteps, right? And this period of the year is also known as the footsteps of the Messiah, that we should start to hear the Messiah's footsteps coming. Uh, and so it's the heel of the year, uh, not just the heel of the body. And so if we listen carefully, if we are in tune with the change of the seasons, meaning the seasons embedded in God's calendar and the inner dimensions of it, we can already faintly hear in the distance the footsteps of the coming new year. Uh, and so Ekev kind of begins that, especially just with its name, Ekev. And then we come to the portion Re, which opens in Deuteronomy 11, verse 26. See, that's the word Re. See, I put before you this day a blessing and a curse. A blessing if you listen to the commandments of your God, which I command you this day, and a curse if you do not listen to the commandments of your God. And so here the Torah instructs people to keep their eyes wide open to like such as this week, to clearly examine the choices life is presenting you with right now, and to accept responsibility for the consequences of the choices that you have made in your life. And as we are about to soon see with the month of Eloh and the start of the preparation for the days of all, we must do so fully aware of what's at stake, which takes us to next week's portion, which is known as shoftim, which is the Hebrew word for judges. And so what's going to be happening starting with shoftim and the portions following it, is those portions on its Peshat level, right? We're going through the garden, pardays, on its Peshat level, it's going to sound like it's giving instruction about secular things, like you need to appoint judges and you need to appoint officers, and you need to have a system of justice in your community and to guard your gates. Are you this is what you're gonna do when you go out to war. And they mean what they say, and they say what they mean on the Peshat level, but the the sages throughout time have always understood these words, how they become practical to us on the Remez level and the Drash level, is they are also speaking to internally. So, you know, the human body is understood to have seven gates to its city, right? Your two ears, your two eyes, um your two nostrils, two, four, six, and your mouth, right? And so when it says to appoint judges and officers to guard and keep your gates, right? It means, you know, if you're gonna set up a community and so forth, you need to have a police force and you need to have a justice system and you need to have all of these things to kind of guard your society and to guard your gates from enemies. But the sages have always said, but it also means for you to take that internally. And so you need to guard what you're looking at, you need to guard what you're listening to and your senses, right? What kind of things are you smelling and inhaling and what's coming out of your mouth, right? These are the gates you really need to guard, right? And so, Shoftim, that portion next week begins in Deuteronomy 16, verse 18. Judges and officers you shall appoint in all your gates. Again, although this injunction clearly at its most simple level applies to society at large. But again, Hasidic thought relates it to the private realm, the internal realm as well. So at this time of year, when introspection is called for, the Torah is reminding us to appoint internal judges and officers and to begin to judge our thoughts, our speech, our actions by instilling whatever is necessary to enforce discipline and even to undergo pragmatic changes if necessary. The judges are the sole forces within us that recognize the truth and provide us with a plan to change ourselves for the better, to align ourselves with God's word and to align ourselves with God's will. And the officers enforce discipline, they spur us on, provide us with the fortitude necessary to truly improve and mature spiritually. So, in order to bring about change, we need to be ready to go to war, if you will, to confront those internal stumbling blocks that prevent us from advancing in our relationship with God. Fundamental change never comes easily. It takes great determination for us to reach these goals. And so the next portion after Shotim is known as Kitetse. Kitetse begins with this verse, Deuteronomy 21, verse 10. When you go forth in war against your enemy, and God or the Lord your God has delivered them into your hands. And so again, on a very basic Peshat level, this is letting them know, hey, when an enemy comes to you and you're going to have to defend your community, know that the Lord has delivered these enemies into your hands, and it gives advice on how to go to war. But Hasidic thought again, the sages, the teachers, especially those of the more mystical tradition, transfer again this commandment, kietse, that means when you go forth, that's what kietse means. When you go forth in war, they transfer that from the social-political realm and again turn it into the private internal one, emphasizing that on the individual level, that enemy, that enemy is the yetzer harah, that enemy is the evil inclination, that enemy is our sinful nature, and those character traits in us that need to be rectified, corrected, repented of, and where changes need to be made. And so when we make a real effort to confront our enemy, the enemy within, then God comes to our aid, is the promise. Kitetse continues in its portion with how to treat a beautiful woman who's captured in the course of war, whom one has become strongly attracted to. The Torah then explains how to deal with this situation and how a man can successfully control his physical desires in a way that otherwise would have not so good consequences. But again, the sages say as we're approaching the days of awe, we turn that to an internal level, and instead of going, well, this is talking about ancient warfare when they would invade a community and they would take plunder from the spoils and take their livestock and take their gold and take their weapons, and if they happen to see some beautiful women, they might take them as well. And the Torah is kind of speaking of like that we don't really behave that way as people of God, but if for some reason you do find yourself falling in love with uh the member of this Canaanite tribe, this is the proper way to handle it, right? It takes all of that, again, turns it internal, and says, when we break the spell of complacency, when we confront the inner shortcomings, when we find ourselves being attracted to things that could be dangerous for us, then we realize we need to address that in a holy way. And so we realize war is always war, it's never fun and games. And we must be aware and careful when capturing our internal enemies, that we must be prepared to deal with the issues that come up in a sincere and realistic manner. And when we do so in the name of true rectification, Ki Tetse would tell us, when we are willing to do the spiritual warfare, God will assist us. That God has promised us assistance in that, that He will hand the enemy to us. Even though the repentance process requires serious spiritual work, we are reminded not to lose sight of the fundamental sense of joy that should pervade all of our service to God. And it also reminds us not to become so involved in the process that we lose sight of where we're heading. Then after Kitetse, as we're marching toward the days of awe, going towards the month of Tishrei through Elul, getting to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, we have the portion known as kitavo. Kitavo reminds us in the beginning of its portion with this passage, Deuteronomy 26, verse 1. And it will be, which is the Hebrew word, it will be, is only it's all coming from one word in Hebrew, vehaya. Vehaya is a very, very, very important Hebrew word. Vehaya, and it will be when you come into the land which the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance. So Moses in this portion on its most basic level saying, Look, the Lord your God is going to give you the land. You are going to cross over from Moab, modern day Jordan, you're going to cross over the Jordan, you're going to enter into the land of Canaan, the promised land, what we now know as the land of Israel. You're going to enter in by Jericho, and he's going to give you that. And when you come into that, right, then Moses goes on to describe what you will do when you enter into the land. But if you study and do a verbal study in the Hebrew of Vehaya, wherever it appears in the Bible, especially in the Torah, you will see that it only occurs when there is something of great joy. Vehaya in Hebrew, whenever it occurs, is always kind of a signal for something of great joy is about to happen. And that's why it's used here. You're about to enter into the land, you're about to inherit everything that's been promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, which you've been exiled for in Egypt and so forth. You know, you're going to enter, it's going to be this great time of joy. And you'll see Vehaya, wherever it's used, it always to the reader signals great joy. And so the people's greatest joy is entering and taking possession of the promised land. But again, on that internal level, on that introspective level that we are entering into in this holy time of year, this entering the land represents the great joy that's found in attaining one's spiritual goals and maturing in their relationship and with the knowledge of who God is and what has been given to us in Messiah. Qasidud again teaches we need to approach Rosh Hashanah and the ten days of repentance with not only awe, not only reverence, but also with great joy. So it's also a time where we begin to think about what brings us joy, what holy things bring us joy. And then that brings you to the Shabbat, the Sabbath before Rosh Hashanah, the portion that's always, without any exception, that is read before Rosh Hashanah is the portion known as Nitzava'im. Nitzavim. And it begins with these words in Deuteronomy 29, verse 9. And you are standing today, all of you before God. Now the Zohar states that this verse is actually referring to Rosh Hashanah itself, where we stand before God on that great day with an undivided heart and a clear conscience, if we have maximized the opportunities provided for us in the month of Elul. And so the portions leading up to the days of awe carefully instruct us how to maximize these holy days and to perform the spirit the essential spiritual work that we all are to undertake. If we listen and internalize their messages, we can fulfill the dictum of living with the times in its highest form. It's also why, if you're ever in Israel, the land of Israel, during the month of Elul, you will hear every morning shofars blaring everywhere because it's trying to prepare your ear for the great blast of shofar on Rosh Hashanah. And so it's kind of like a rehearsal. And so in Israel, every no matter where you're at, uh even if you're in a hotel, somebody's going to be blasting a shofar to remind you of the calling of the divine counsel, the calling of the holiness, the reminder of what's coming, right? And so as the Torah portions of Eloh lead us step by step towards the day of awe, we recognize the recurring call to examine our hearts, to wage war against our inner enemies, and to pursue holiness with vigilance, but all while moving forward in joy. Yet we also have to be aware the law also testifies to our own inability to truly stand blameless before God by our own resolve. There is only one who has kept all of this perfectly, the one who endured his forty days of temptation perfectly, and who has fought and won the true war against the evil inclination and against sin itself, and that's our Messiah, Jesus. And so, as Paul writes in Romans chapter 8, verse 3, for what the law could not do, and that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin, he condemned sin and the flesh. Our journey through self-examination and repentance is always going to be crowned with hope, not because of our spiritual achievements in and of themselves, but because the promised land, entering into that place of peace and reconciliation with God, is ultimately given to us as a gift of grace. Where the Torah reads, You were standing today, all of you before God, we should also hear the echo of Jesus standing for us, interceding for us as our great high priest, and presenting us holy and blameless in him. Again, from the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21. He made him who knew no sin to be a sin offering for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Now I'll give you that translation because that's the way it sounds in most good English translations, and it needs to say sin offering, not sin. And I need, I wanted you to hear that so you hear, oh, it's a familiar passage. But I want to draw you into the actual Hebrew word for sin offering, a better translation, and your better English translations will translate it this way. It really means purification offering. It's not an offering that you made because you sinned and now an animal is getting punished for you. It was an offering that you made so that you could be purified. And so part of the work of our Messiah was to purify us so that we could then be presented standing before God on that great day, pure, blameless, without fault. And so, again, as we do the spiritual work of Elul, it should also ultimately point us to our Messiah and what he's done for us. And so the footsteps of the new year become the footsteps of the Messiah. The one who walks with us through Elul, calling us, confronting us, redeeming us, and assuring us. The joy and the awe of the season, again, are not secured simply by our obedience alone, but by his perfect work on our behalf. And so let us then greet the king in the field. That's a very famous phrase for the month of Alul. That the king is in the field. And what they mean by that is the Almighty God, right, has come close to us in this world. We think incarnation for that, right? Um, and so the sages have always said Alul is when the king's in the field. That is, you think about it on an earthly term, the metaphor, the king, the one who lives in a palace, the one who is above the peasants, right? He's now to be found where the peasants are working and where the dirty work is done. He is not above you, he's not beyond you, he's entered into your lot, and he is accessible to you. And so let us greet the king in the field, confident that in Messiah, God himself draws near to us. And he transforms our repentance into restoration, he transforms our self-examination into assurance, and he takes every step we make and turns it into a dance of joy before his throne of grace. So that is how we're gonna live with the times over the next several weeks as we march into this very holy season. All right, seeing with Messiah's eyes. So Deuteronomy chapter 11, verse 26. Again, the opening verse of the portion where the portion this week gets its name. Re see. See, I'm setting before you today. And whenever you read the word today in the Bible, again, whether Old Testament or New Testament, today means today, by the way. Doesn't mean today for them back then. It means today, like August 3rd, 2026. And if you read it on August 12th, 2027, it also means then. Today always means today. So always keep that in mind when you're reading scripture. That's that that's that's a cue, like if you ever do what's called Lexio Divina, which is praying the scriptures as you read it. If you're reading and you see the word today, that's a cue. If you're doing that particular type of devotion, very ancient form of devotion, you stop and you go, okay, what's this talking about today? So today I'm setting before you a blessing and a curse. And we're really gonna unpack this verse because this is this is really a deep verse, because that's a correct translation. If I were teaching you Hebrew and I put the Hebrew on the test and you gave me that translation, I would give you a hundred. And you got it right, A plus. But there's another way to get a hundred on this, right? We're gonna eventually get there. Um, but this is a very important verse because it's talking about today. And the reality on a deeper level is we're gonna see is the same thing is both the blessing and the curse. It's not like this is the blessing and this is the curse, which one are you gonna choose? It's more like no, this one thing is a blessing, and it's a curse, right? It's dependent on you, what it becomes. And so very important, very important verse, especially as we're gonna develop it and translate that pronoun I to anohi in Hebrew. Very important. So let's kind of work through it. So this first verse in the portion re tells us quite literally to see. That a blessing and a curse has been placed before us. So why does the Torah tell us to see when it could have used another verb such as, hey, no, know that today I'm doing this. Why does it use the word for physically seeing? Are blessings and curses really visible to the naked eye? At times, the blessings and curses in our lives can seem so clear that we can answer that question in the affirmative. At other times, though, what first seemed like a blessing, you might find out turned out to be quite the opposite, or what first appeared to be a curse or something negative, in fact, turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Both scenarios present themselves quite frequently. The type of vision that the Torah is referring to transcends the physical. So we remember our good friend of the show, Rabbi Shlomo Karlbeck. He called this ability to truly understand the meaning of life, to see what is before you. He called that seeing with the eyes of Messiah, possessing the keen prophetic sight that enables one to see the whole forest and not just the individual trees. The sage is taught that the wise person is one who sees that which is born. That is, a wise person discerns all of the potential consequences of their actions. To attain the level of introspection of this, it's necessary to succeed in the month of Alul, and so we have to try to activate this type of sight, Ree. The call to see that is set before us in Rea reverberates through the ages, summoning every generation not merely to physical perception, but to a spiritual recognition, a vision that is fulfilled ultimately in the coming of the Messiah. Just as Moses urges Israel in Deuteronomy 11, verse 26, to see the blessing and the curse, so the scriptures point us to the one who has himself both the manifestation of God's blessing and the one who became a curse for us all, so that we might in exchange receive everlasting life. And so the Messiah Jesus invites us into a deeper scene, a vision not limited to the surface of life's circumstances, but is illuminated by his Spirit. So the Apostle Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 3 18, but we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. Through Messiah, our eyes are open to the true nature of blessing and curse. He bore the curse of our sin upon a tree, so that in him the blessing spoken in Torah might embrace us and all. And so in the season of Alull, as we search our hearts, as we go introspective, we are called to see with the Messiah's eyes the path set before us, not as simply a choice between external outcomes, but as an invitation to embrace the life that is truly life, the life that can only be found in the Messiah, who is the Torah made flesh. The Gospel of John says in John 1 17, for the law was given through Moses, and grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. And thus as Moses set before Israel blessing and curse, so too does the Messiah set before each of us the way of life. To see him, to believe in him, and to walk in his light, to see him as the one who became the curse, so that we might receive the blessing. But this also flows into another concept, and that is the idea that this also is for the good. And that image of that structure there is in Israel the grave of the individual who phrased this teaching, that this also is for the good. Now, in the Torah portion known as Viet Canaan, when we covered that, that's where the Shema is revealed. We saw that the Shema, Deuteronomy 6, verse 4 and following, it's revealed only after God denies Moses permission to enter into the promised land. This suggests to us that sometimes our knowledge of and faith in God is strengthened precisely through hardships and crisis. The message is hinted at in a remes level that's found in this week's portion of Rea as well. If we look at that verse, Deuteronomy 11, verse 26, that opening verse for the portion, see I'm setting before you today, a blessing and a curse. The initial letters of the Hebrew words for blessing, which is baracha, and the Hebrew word for curse, which is kelaula. The initial words for that is a bait and a kuf. The bait and the kuf together have a numerical value. Bait is two, kuf is one hundred, so it has a numerical value of 102. That is the same numerical value for the Hebrew word emuna, E-M-U-N-A-H, which is the Hebrew word for faith and faithfulness. True faith derives from realizing that God is the source of all things, even those things that appear to be curses. That is why the Talmud instructs us, as we talked about last portion, the Hundred Blessings each day, to bless God for both good and what initially appears to be bad. While reaching such a positive attitude is not easy, the Torah teaches us to strive for it, to search for the good in all eventualities. The famous Torah scholar Nahum Ishkamzu, who's buried under that structure, was fond of saying that this, meaning an event that appears to be negative, disastrous, cursive, that this is also for the good. And so our journey through the Torah and especially through the testing moments of our lives continually draws our gaze beyond what is seen to the one who is unseen and yet ever present, namely our Redeemer and our Messiah. The message hidden in the initial letters of blessing and curse remind us that faith is forged not by some kind of sheltered existence in a bubble, but it is formed in the very furnace of blessing mingled with adversity. The persistent confession of God's goodness in all circumstances, that this too is for the good, baruchatah and anai elohenum elako elam finds its truest expression and ultimate fulfillment in our Messiah. Paul states in Romans 8 28, we all know that things work together for the good of those who love God and who are called according to his purpose. And Jesus, the righteous one, endured the greatest seeming curse, the cross, and yet through it unleashed the greatest blessing, the forgiveness of sins and the gift of new life. In him our eyes are open to re, to see, to see that no hardship is wasted, that no pain we experience is meaningless. And he is both the author and the perfecter of our faith, the one who transforms our curses into blessings, for he himself has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. And through Messiah we are empowered to trust and to declare that even through tears, this too is for the good. For every road ordained for us leads ultimately to God's promised rest and Messiah, which is our eternal blessing. And now I want to give you the alternate translation of the verse here, as we talk about ego clarification. This is a fundamental part entering into the month of Elul and a big part of what the month of Elul is about. So again, our verse. In addition, this opening verse, see, I placed before you today a blessing and a curse, can be read in a different way, legitimately. But this also, as we're looking at the pardays, this would be the level D, Durash. Here's the translation. See, the I. Meaning the I, the I in you. We'd call it the ego. Ego, by the way, is ego in Latin, which just means I. It's just the pronoun I. In case you wanted to know what your ego is, it's I. See the I, because that can be it can be indefinite over here. Placed within you today. This itself can be either a blessing or a curse. The I. The ego that you have within you today. That can be either a blessing or a curse. That is a legitimate way to translate Deuteronomy 11 to 26. This durash level reading, this homiletic reading, is based on one of the Balshem Tov's teaching. When he interpreted the words of Moses from Deuteronomy 5. Verse 5, where it says, I was standing between God and you at that time to relate the word of God to you. But the Bal Shem Tov explained the Hebrew could mean that when Moses stated that I was standing, when he said I was standing between God and you to the people, it meant the aspect of the I. The ego is what stands between you and God. The notion that the ego separates human beings from God stems from the fact that the Hebrew word for I, in Hebrew, is anoki. A-N-O-C-H-I. It is the root word for ego, which in Hebrew is anoki-yut. And in truth, there is a great paradox at work here. In essence, the pure soul is one with God. It has a unity with God and has no real independent status. And yet, God has imbued all of us with a soul and fashioned us in such a way that we also feel quite independent. Inherently, the ego, the enoki, the enoki' ut, the I within us, is neither a blessing nor a curse in and of itself. It's just you. It all depends on how much we clarify and separate our sense of self from God. In Hebrew, there are actually two words for the pronoun I, anochi and ani, a-n-i. And they share the exact same letters except anochi simply has the additional letter kof. When the letters of the word ani are permuted, they spell a-in, which means nothing. This permutation hints at a profound truth. At times, the ego truly does stand between us and God, between us and other people. The ego gets in the way of our relationships. And even between us and our own true nature as image-bearers of God. And truth be told, most of the time the ego stands between us and pretty much everything else. When it does this, it's to be labeled a curse. However, this is only happening when we allow our ego, our anorchi, our eye, to go unchecked. When we give our animal impulse full reign over our thought, our speech, our action. But when we channel the ego in the right direction, it actually becomes a healthy instrument for doing good and for aiding in fulfilling our life's goal. And in this sense, when you use your ego to further good goals, to defend your family, to seek what is right and to stand up for what is right, the ego becomes a blessing. This having been said, without committing to the hard and at times humbling spiritual work entailed in clarifying and purifying the ego, we will usually find ourselves enthralled to its raw, unadulterated influence. We will find it leading us into an endless morass of things like jealousy and anger, selfishness, the drive for power and control, the drive for revenge and vengeance. The entire book of Deuteronomy actually reflects this paradox of the ego because it's the only one of the five books of the Torah that's written in first person. Sometimes when Deuteronomy uses the word I, Anoki or Ani, it's clearly referring to Moses. Moses is talking in the first person, I. But sometimes it clearly refers to God. Moses is saying, God has said, I fill in the blank. But other times when you read Deuteronomy, it is difficult to ascertain who is speaking, God or Moses. This alludes to the point we've been driving at. When the ego has been truly clarified, man and God can become one. This is what happened with Moses, for he had managed to clarify his ego to such a degree that the Shekinah, God's divine presence, spoke through his throat. He only reached this level because the Torah testifies in Numbers 12, verse 3, the man Moses was very humble more than any person on the face of the earth. Humbleness, entailing a high level of self-awareness. That's what ego clarification is. How self-aware are you? It did not diminish Moses' power. Paradoxically, it increased it exponentially. Hillel the elder encapsulated this paradox of blessing and curse inherit in the I, the anoki, the ani, the ego, in his famous statement from Pirke Avot. If I'm not for myself, who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, what am I? And another quote in Pirke Avot also reflects what is written about of Moses. Make his will as your will, so that he will make your will as if it were his will. The struggle between blessing and curse runs through Reah, and it finds its most searching battleground within our human heart, where the eye, the ego, so often stands between us and true communion with God, and true communion and fellowship and relationship with one another. Moses, the humblest of all, models for us not the erasure of the self, but its purification, a humility so total that God's very words could be spoken through his mouth. Yet even Moses, with all his humility, could not usher the people into the promised land. It would take one greater than Moses, it would take the true and better mediator to fully reconcile the paradox of the human eye before God. This one, of course, is our Messiah, who, though he was in the form of God, made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of man, and being found in the appearances of man, humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. Philippians 2, verse 7. In him the infinite God truly becomes I, a Noki, Emmanuel, God with us, not to separate us from the Father, but to unite us with the Father forever, with and through him. Through the cross and the resurrection, Jesus the Messiah absorbs the curse of our prideful, wafer selves, and offers instead his own humility, his own spirit. In the Messiah, the ego no longer stands as a barrier, because he's made peace, reconciling us with his Father through his own body. And so the true blessing is not the strengthening of the self apart from God, but the emptying of the self into the arms of our Messiah, who returns us to our created purpose, to live no longer for ourselves alone, but to live for the one who died and was raised for us. This is the humility that magnifies true power. And this is the oneness that Moses foreshadowed and that Jesus fulfills. And this is our invitation in the portion of Rieh, but also as we begin to march towards Elul and the days of all, this is the invitation. Clarify our I, our Anoki, in the light of the great I am, and discover that in losing ourselves to him, we will find the truest blessing of all. He who will lose his life. That's Jesus not saying you need to be willing to die for me. Not that that teaching can't be found in the gospels, but that's not what he means, he who will lose his life for me will find it. He means he who will die to their self, he who will crucify their own ego for the sake of becoming united with the Messiah. That is the one who will find true life. And that is the blessing that is placed before you today. It is you. You today are a blessing or a curse. And Allah prepares us so that we receive the blessing through the great I. The great I am. All right, we will close there today. Much to think about, lots of good stuff. I would encourage you to go back and re-listen because we're really entering into a very auspicious time. And, you know, again, if you're if you're studying the Torah, if you're coming into class, I assume that's what you're doing and you're wanting to learn, like, well, how do I take this Bible? I believe it. I know it's God's word. I know it's his love letter to me, I know it's it's for me, it's it's the way he, the primary way he's communicating with me. How do I take the words on these pages and like apply it to my life? Tonight was a crash course and how to do that over the next four to six weeks. And it's the time on God's calendar where he's made that appointment with you. Today. Let's close with a blessing. Baruchta Adunai notain haturah. Blessed are you, Lord God, who has given to us the gift that is the Torah. Amen. Shalom, shalom, go in peace. Hi everyone. Thank you for engaging this teaching. You know, we at Emmanuel have as one of our goals to make our teachings available online to anyone, everywhere, at any time, whether that's through a podcast or our YouTube channel or an MP3 download. It is our gift to you, and we want you to use it however you see fit. Also, if you feel uh motivated or desired to support future teachings, you can do so with the donate button at the bottom of our teaching page. That's found at immlutheran.org forward slash teaching. Again, thank you for participating in our teachings here and hope to see you or engage with you somehow, some way, somewhere. God bless.