Parshas Yisro | Mountainside Distractions

As wacky and as hectic as things have been here and the magical traveling clouds of glory. Rumor has it that today things are going to get even a bit more hectic and a bit more miraculous, as I welcome you into this week's weekly parasha podcast. This week we have the greatest event in human history it's the day of revelation. Now, moshe Rabbeinou, we told us that prepare y'all selves, ready yourselves for three days, separate from man and woman, husband and wife. Go to the mikvah, purify yourselves, clean yourselves up and have yourselves ready by the foot of the mountain. Today's different and I woke up to the sound of the Really blaring shofar. It's getting louder and it's not turning off. The smoke at the top of the mountain Makes it that I can barely make out the top of harcina, for it's so thick. The thunder and the lightning is Both audible and visible. The scene is really shocking and the people are a Bit afraid. But Moshe Rabbeinou, he gives us hope and confidence that we're ready for this, to witness Hashem, our God. So he gathers us up and leads us to the foot of the mountain. Our instructions are Not to take a step past where we are allowed to stand, for the mountain is Dangerous to the touch. One wrong step and it could zap you. Because of the incredible holiness that is residing now on the mountain, I could just bar who Is said to maybe rip open the heavens and show himself to us, to maybe reveal All that we are to fight for in this world, in our destiny. We're gonna have an inside seat, a Moshe and Hashem talk face to face. So yeah, not all days are created equal and it's the day of revelation. And now the mountain harcenei, this cute little mountain that now is fully decked out and ready for its moment, is to be the grand stage, the Mecca that will play host to this miraculous event. But what's our job? Well, all this will transpire. What are the Jewish people supposed to be doing? Well, we got our instructions from Moshe Just a bit ago, and they were very direct and very clear. That's a yachts who betacht us a hard. We should ready ourselves. And then that's a siatsu At the foot of the mountain prepare ourselves, stand and watch. But Moshe used the word Vatysyatsv. Doesn't exactly sound the same as to see. It seems like something more, a very unique word. It's actually interesting to note, ladies and gentlemen, that this word is to be what the Jewish people should be engaged in at the most incredible moments of their life. Vatysyatsv. So what does it mean? After some research, it actually has become clear that this is now the third time in just the past couple of partios that this word has shown up. The first case was when Miriam was watching her baby brother, moshe, boat down the Nile in his little raft, and she was standing on the side of the Nile peering through the sea and its reeds that were growing up from the sides. Vatysyatsv, miriam and she watched with anticipation, it would seem. She wanted to know what's going to happen to Moshe and engaged watching and they were shown him also. Point out this word again last week. When the Jewish people are fearful for their lives, for the evil taskmasters are gaining on them. The Egyptians are getting closer and closer and they cry out to Hashem please help us, save us. You are our only hope. Moshe Rabbeinu interrupts these events to deliver a brief message. His directions are Jewish people, don't fear Altyru. Hissyatsv that same word uru Hissyatsv uru. Clearly it doesn't mean just to look, but Hissyatsv uru Beiruchim, gathering up all that were shown him in these three places. It shows us that this word is what we are supposed to be doing at these great moments? We're supposed to watch the great salvation. Ready yourself to watch Hissyatsv uru as Yeshua Hashem, see how it's all going to work out. And the Egyptians will be smited, smoked. And our job is not to poel us, not to accomplish any of this, but it's just to be the item, the entity that will be saved. And our only tonight, our only small ablugation, is Hissyatsv to witness it and to watch these great happenings. And that's what we're to do today, on this day of Revelation, hissyatsv uru, betacht, az-ahar, there were to stand at the foot of the mountain with anticipation to witness, to be present. It's the same thing that Miriam did while watching that little raft float down the Nile. What's going to be? I really would like to watch in an involved way, to be engrossed in, enveloped by and fully transfixed on the current situation. It would seem that this is to be our jobs, because, forever and ever, the Jewish people are to get their faith and their belief in Hashem from these moments, the Kusari. The Kusari explains to us that a Jew doesn't need to start with the ex nihilo, the mass, the matter, the forces, the cosmic forces and the baracious borough to prove Hashem's existence, in his relationship or our relationship to the Jewish people. You don't need to go that far back. But we recall the very first commandment we received at the Ten Commandments. I know he Hashem Elokecha. I am the Lord, your God. Why, how do we know? Why should we know what? Should we recall, day after day, the very next few words, the Ten Commandments A'shar hoitzei, si'cha, me'eretz mitzroyim, that extracted you, that brought you out from the house of slaves, the house of bondage, that saved you. That's why we believe in Hashem, because it's intimate, because it's personal, because, oh, how daddy loves us. It was Hashem that brought us out. We all saw it. It was my Zadie who was being whipped in Egypt and then, all of a sudden, he wasn't, and now he was on the wings of eagles flying towards the Holy Land. So keep your proofs in your science. This is my dad. So we're to internalize all of those message with scintillating clarity, not missing a moment, trying to pick up on every detail. So, on this day, by the most incredible revelation, the revelation that's for all the marbles that we have been told a day that was coming, we're supposed to be, are at the foot of the mountain, fully ready, fully present and fully transfixed on the show that was about to begin. It is now become a very relatable piece of musser this by Isyatsu, this concept that you kind of sit back and watch the greatness of Hashem, the concept of being present to be affected by the messages that God sends us. It's a point of musser and it seems to be very important now, because I don't know if we're off base, if we just jump right at it and say that maybe if Hashem would do the great revelation now around to Harsenei, I'm not sure if we'd all be there with our minds, because we may ooh, we'll see it, we'll hear it, but maybe we'd be distracted by a notification, a new email, distracted by whatever is the new hot commodity, become somewhat of a pet peeve of people that I respect, how they always point out how, when they walk in the streets, how no one is ever present with what they're doing or life itself, because they're looking into that phone, they're looking into really anything or some sort of distraction, but they're definitely not by a siatz. Wu betacht des ahar. I wonder if we'd have to, you know, run har Sinae back, if we would do it now, because some people miss some of the important ones, or they put the fifth commandment on hold and say wait a second, can we record that? And just go back for a second. I was on the phone A new email A while ago. I remember picking up on this. I was actually a little bit. I think I was in high school. I was with my brother and we had taken the subway in New York City and we had counted that on the subway there wasn't one person that wasn't on their phones, that wasn't head up witnessing life, engaged in Chaim. There was some distraction. This isn't an attack on a cell phone. That just happens to be one of the most prevalent and common distractions. This is a hopeful, encouraging talk for all of us to try to do our job in life, which is to witness the miraculous and see the Hashgah of Prohtes that is done by Hashem on the grand scale and the stage they call earth. And we are to by a siatz wu betacht des ahar. We are to by titsatzav Miriam. We are to a siatz wu wu us Yeshua Hashem, to watch with anticipation, to witness, to be transfixed, to be present on life and not distracted. It would be pretty cool if, in the biggest moments of our lives, we could harness this mindset, to become so consumed with what's going on. It almost feels like a meditation. It feels so gripping, it's almost a subtly good feeling when you become hooked on a topic, hooked on life, so present in a talk, so privy to a film, to a book, to anything, something you're reading, everything you're learning, but you are at least focused on Chios, on life. I wonder how pleasant it would be to vatisatzav vatisatzav, his siatzav wu u ru u as a walk in a park, when you are just present to the birds chirping and the wind blowing through your hair and witnessing all of the blessings that you have the ability to witness. While you can contemplate, you can get into your head and think about life and your Creator, and how pleasurable that will be. When you are vatisatzav vu vatakhtisahar, even waiting for what's going to happen with excitement, like Miriam peeking through the reeds waiting to see what's going to be with her baby brother. It is a call to action that we should try to silence distractions, that, when life is going on and most specifically, important life moments, big moments, days of revelation, that we witness them and, baruch Hashem, that our forefathers don't have the nesay on the challenge that we have of all the constant distractions, because they fully witnessed it and they told their kids. Who told their kids? And now we have the clear picture of what went on. We just need to be sure to hear it from our parents and witness what we can for ourselves, and that begins with muting distractions and trying to witness the truth. So that's it. Stand by the foot of the mountain, be present in life, present for your kids, present for your spouse, present for your reading, present for your learning, present for your work, present in every moment, present when you need to do business, present when you need to take care of something, but always present, ready to witness, ready to be alive and engage, transfixed on moments, living life, because that's really the only place that life can happen and that's in the present. Like the Jewish people at the very foot of Haricinai On that day of revelation, the most monumental and incredible revelation that has and will ever happen, our job was then and continues to be, that's the Satzav Miriam To watch the show, to be present in life and to witness the miraculous.