Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Lines is made possible by Steele memorial.
[00:00:03] Speaker B: Good morning, everybody. At 350, we're going to be going.
[00:00:06] Speaker A: Live with Zelda Chen, radio 905-881-6003 or 416733 2000. Www.steeles.org. steeles Memorial Chapel, the chapel with a heart.
Okay. Ramadan Mubarak. The holy month of fasting begins for Muslims across the world. Rabbi Mendel Kaplan is our guest for the show this morning.
So, Rabbi Kaplan, are you there?
[00:00:40] Speaker B: I'm here, Zelda. What a strange way to introduce me.
[00:00:45] Speaker A: Well, one and the same, two great bits of information. And you, of course, come right there. Okay. So the oldest, most complete Hebrew Bible, Rabbi Kaplan, is on display in Tel Aviv before its sale at an auction. The Codex Sassoon is thought to have been created about 1100 years ago by a scribe in Egypt or the Levant. Do you have any information that you could elaborate on that?
[00:01:20] Speaker B: Yeah, there's actually a special Toronto connection. That codex was smuggled out of Syria by Judy Feldkar, who is a torontonian jewish heroine who saved so many members of the syrian jewish community who were relentlessly persecuted by the wonderful government of Syria. And here's what's really compelling about the Torah scroll, Zelda.
Not that we have a Torah scroll that's eleven centuries old, that's identical to our Torah scrolls. What's compelling is that there are Torah scrolls that were produced in Yemen and Torah scrolls that were produced in eastern Europe, Torah scrolls that were produced in Great Britain, and Torah scrolls that were produced in the areas of Kazakhstan or Mongolia.
And they're all identical. Despite the fact that our physical outward appearance is different. And there are Jews who are white and black, blue, green and yellow, despite the fact that the customs vary, despite the fact that our food and our dress is unique and different, the Torah scroll is identical. And that, Zelda, is extraordinary. It's something that really can't be explained unless you accept the concept of the truth of Torah coming from a higher place, and that the jewish people all lived together in the same place, studied the same Torah and revered it and devoted their lives to it. The fact that we have some very old manuscript is due to the fortuitous nature of an ancient jewish community that had to evacuate very, very quickly.
And they took their, their sefer Torah with them because jewish people always took Sefer Torah with them. But they left their library behind.
And their library, Zelda, is today referred to as the Dead Sea Scrolls. And with the exception of the Book of Esther, we have found all of the other 23 volumes of our Torah, of our Tanakh are represented in the library, and I want to emphasize library, not Torah scrolls, because the Torah scrolls were taken with the jewish people. Jewish people have unfortunately been on the run for a very long time, and history has not been terribly kind to us. At least our neighbors haven't been very kind to us. And when we had to run, we would take the Torah scrolls with us, just as we did in the pogroms. There were times when we were forced to leave various areas of eastern Europe or areas of North Africa when the local population persecuted us. So too, Zelda, one must understand and appreciate that the incredible nature of all Torah scrolls that are identical is the single most powerful testament. If you're looking for scientific proof to the veracity and the truth of the jewish people, I mean, the codex is nice.
It's remarkable to see something like that, a manuscript that's 11th centuries old that matches our Torah scrolls today. But on a personal level, what amazes me in a far more profound way is the fact that Torah scrolls that are much younger, which were copied from Toro scrolls, which were copied from Torah scrolls, which would copy some Torah scrolls, which were ultimately copied from the Torah scrolls, authored by the hand of Moshe Rabbeinu himself.
[00:05:05] Speaker A: Fascinating. Absolutely fascinating. It's so interesting that we don't get creditors Jews for everything that we have done. And yet this bit of information is so telling and so incredible that it's quite amazing what the jewish people have accomplished, how important they are to civilization.
[00:05:29] Speaker B: Okay. It's certainly one way to look at it. I mean, Zelda, the bigger picture is that we have the shechina, we have God's presence amongst us, and the way we've survived is inexplicable. Many a wise person has noted whether it was Louis XV who asked Pascal if he has any proof that there is a God. And Pascal, without a moment's hesitation, said, the Jews, your majesty, the Jews. Or the writings of Mark Twain, who spoke about various glorious empires across history that rose and filled the world with their splendor, only to end up in the dustbin of history. But the jew is still here. And in Mark Twain's inimitable verbiage, what is his secret? What is the secret of his eternity? And the secret of our eternity, Zelda, is that we are privileged to have Hashem's presence amongst us. We are not necessarily smarter, richer, stronger, or more well endowed in a material or physical sense.
The only thing that is unique to us jewish people is our Neshama is our soul. We have a unique soul, a special soul. And we are privileged to have a special relationship with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. It has nothing to do with race, creed, color, even affiliation. It doesn't even have to do with education or level of observance by virtue of the fact that you are halachically jewish. And there's only two ways that can happen. Either your mother was halachically jewish, or you converted according to halacha. But if you are halachically jewish, then you are a part of this people who has the special gift of a unique relationship with Hashem yz Baruch, with Almighty God, the creator of heaven and earth. And Almighty God's presence carries us, uplifts us, and enables us not only to survive, but to continue to flourish. And this is evident in the Torah scrolls, which have been preserved with so much masirat nefesh, so much dedication, so much sacrifice. I've heard people foolishly invoke the concept of broken telephone, being certain in their smug and disparaging way, say, well, you know, the Torah. How could it be true? And after all, so many generations, after generations, I'm sure there's mistakes. And as I mentioned, the most compelling thing is the fact that here we are with Torah scrolls, and now, for the first time in millennia, in communication with jewish communities that we had nothing to do with, and we didn't even aware, weren't aware of, didn't even know they existed. And they're coming with the same Torah scroll. Zelda, it's amazing. And you know what else is amazing? Since it's Chodesh Nisan. It's the month of Nisan. For us, the jewish people, Nisan is the month that marks are receiving our first mitzvah, the mitzvah of sanctifying time. It is the month in which we experience the exodus, which by extension, means our birth as a nation. We were a family before we became a nation, but we're a nation family who shares the common ancestry on the spiritual DNA of Avram, Yitzhak, and Yaakov, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Sara, Rivka, Rachel and Leah, the matriarchs and the patriarchs. They have imparted to us a spiritual DNA that enables us to always remain connected to Hashem, to Almighty God, in a special way. And each and every single year. Zelda, in an unbroken tradition, fathers and mothers, grandfathers and grandmothers have gathered their children and their grandchildren and their extended family, and they've told the story of the exodus. And to those naysayers who mock us and talk about something silly, like a game of broken telephone. Understand that this is not a game, that this is something that we have risked and spent our lives on preserving, that we have dedicated our very essence to being able to pass Yiddishket on to the next generation. Zelda, we're telling the same story.
And the fact that we're telling the same story, reading the same text, eating the same food, the matzah is the same. The mora is the same. The fact that we're doing this generation after generation is the most compelling scientific evidence to the veracity and the truth of our tradition. We don't look the same. We don't behave in the same fashion, but we are committed to the same Torah. And it is statistically impossible for a disparate group of people living in different parts of the world to accidentally come up with the same story and preserve it year after year after year after year. You never could have convinced a nation to tell a story that didn't happen. It's statistically impossible. We aren't talking about a tiny group of people in the story we tell. There are millions of participants.
Jewish people are skeptical by nature. You never, ever could have gotten a story like that off the ground if it didn't happen. And indeed it did. And Hashem's presence is amongst us. And this is the month of Nisan, the month of miracles, the time in which we left the land of Egypt forever, the month in which we dedicated and sanctified the Mishkan, the traveling tabernacle. And the traveling tabernacle is a manifestation of God's presence. And the tabernacle no longer stands. The Beit Hamikdash has been tragically destroyed, taken from us twice. And yet Hashem, almighty God's presence, continues to resonate within each and every one of our heart, mind, and soul. And that's what Nisan commemorates, and that's what this month is about. And that's what we, as jewish people should be talking about. We don't need to borrow pages from anybody else's playbook. We don't need to incorporate traditions of any other faith system or of any other culture or civilization. Zelda, we need to be all we can be. And all we can be is members of am Yisroel, who are proud, who are committed, who are devoted, and who are filled with a sense of awareness and passion for the incredible privilege and tradition, for the heritage that we have been given.
[00:11:35] Speaker A: So with everything that we have been given from Hashem, why do we have to explain ourselves to so many, even to our own jewish fellow Jews that cannot understand who we are, why we're here, and the importance that we bring to each other.
[00:11:58] Speaker B: Well, let me simplify your question. Why is it that there are so many people who deny God's existence? Why is it that there are so many people who question God's existence? Why is it that people are so obsessed with ideas that are atheistic or agnostic? Why are they so obsessed with it? And the answer, Zelda, in a word, is that creation is real. God is real, and the world was built by God with the possibility to deny all of that.
Because when we can deny God's presence but choose to recognize God's presence, something special has happened. Hashem has given us the opportunity to create holiness, to transform our world that is inherently, on the surface, a dark and dismal place, into the place that it was always destined to be, into the place that inherently, it is, beneath the surface, a godly and a goodly holy place. And that privilege is mine. And that privilege is yours. And that privilege belongs to our listeners. Each and every one of us can make a difference. And you're asking, well, why isn't it simple? Because good things aren't simple. Why is it that junk food tastes great and healthy food doesn't taste good? Why is it that staying fit, physically or materially, requires so much strenuous effort and discipline, whereas getting fat, flabby, and sick is so easy? That's the way it is, Zelda. Good things have to be worked for, and we will always be challenged. And the path of greater resistance is what builds resilience, courage, stamina, and strength. The good news is that we're very close to the end. And once we finish this ridiculous, challenging race, once galut finally melts down forever, mashiach comes, and our world actually evolves in the blink of an eye into all of the things that I'm talking about.
[00:13:53] Speaker A: Okay, Rabbi Kaplan, when you say the messiah will come for our non jewish listeners, the mashiach for us, what does that actually mean? Is that a new beginning? Because you keep saying that. The end, it's a new beginning, is it not? And if so, what would we be seeing?
[00:14:15] Speaker B: It's certainly a new beginning. It's the end of darkness. It's the end of difficulty. It's the end of concealment. And it's the beginning of a world that finally is a place that reveals its true nature. Yeah, of course it's a new beginning. You know, Ravi ad din Eben Yisrael is the colonel of Rachah.
You know, some people refer to him by his old day. Mishteinzalz. He used to say that Moshiach's coming represents the end of human history as we know it. He had a wonderful way with words, and I think he makes a very good point. Human history as we know it is the result of what seems to be random events, things that are unconnected foibles of people and governments and civilizations, and even downright evil. And all of these things will come to an end. There will be no longer any evil. There will no longer be any concealment. We will notice in the most obvious way how nothing is random, how everything is choreographed by hasHem. And, of course, there will be no evil. And these are the ingredients in human history as we know them up until this point. But, Zelda, here's, I think, what's important to point out. Whilst the coming of Mashiach is indeed a new beginning, the coming of Mashiach also represents the culmination of everything that we have been doing since Matan Torah, Matantorah. Mass revelation at Sinai was the time when we were each empowered to make that difference. God made us his partners. And Mashiach's coming isn't something that arrives proverbially out of the blue. It comes as the culmination, as the final stroke of all the things that have happened. Think of it as an electromagnet that goes live. You know, the entire system has been painstakingly put into place. There's a whole network, but until the electromagnet is connected, it's not active. So you have a whole system, a system with millions, billions, trillions of little details, and then in one moment, it all goes live and everything is activated. And it's going to be incredible. You know, a lot of people ask about Mashiach, and those are. That's good that they're asking about it. I have taken it upon myself to try to educate people about Mashiach by giving short little classes on the subject.
I invite anybody who wants to know more about Mashiach to visit my YouTube channel. By the way, please subscribe. It's YouTube.com. rabih Mendel Kaplan. And a while ago, I did 70 snippets on what life will be like when mashiach comes. And I'm in the midst of doing 120 segments on what is Mashiach. What are we awaiting? What do we believe I'm up to? I'm preparing segment 33. Most of them are about 1520 minutes. Some of them end up being a little longer. And you can learn a lot, because for as much as we don't know, there is enormous amount of information we do have. And the Rebbe strongly encouraged everybody to learn about Mashiach. He said that learning about mashiach and understanding what mashiach is and why it's so important enables us to yearn for mashiach. And the yearning for mashiach that we might feel invariably accelerates the process of the redemption and mashiach's arrival. And, Zelda, mashiach is going to come. It is not a question. There are principles. Basic principles of faith.
13 principles of faith. This is the 12th principle.
And if we believe that there is a God and that he created the world, and I do, if we believe that there is a God and that he cares about each of us, loves us, and has expectations from us, and I do, then we must believe that in the end, this has a goal, it has a purpose, it has a destination. And that's the era of mashiach.
[00:18:10] Speaker A: Well, for those of us who are convinced that that is the situation, there are many others who think it is totally hogwash. Okay? How can you be so sure, so positive of what's to come?
[00:18:30] Speaker B: You know, Zelda, I don't set my clock by virtue of what people around me say or what time they think it is. I set my clock by an objective reality. Like you could say that time is the result of the movement of the heavenly bodies. I'm absolutely convinced that it's 11:34 a.m. right now. And if everybody around me were to scream that, in fact, we're in the middle of the night, it's not going to change my mind. It's not going to influence me in any which way. We, the jewish people, have always been a minority, a minority amongst minorities. We are a tiny segment of the world's population. If we would look at what others would say, where would we be? You know, we talk about our first father. The founder of everything that we have is Avraham Avino. And Avram Avina was Echad haya. Avram. One man. One man together with his wife, sorrow. One woman. They stood up against the entire world, and they were unfazed. That courage has been bequeathed to us. That stamina, that inner strength, that metal is necessarily a part of the fabric of my DNA. And your DNA, as members of Amusole, Avraham and Sarah stood up against the world, and you and I can, too. And how people will look at things or what they might comment or say or think, really, in the end, doesn't change anything insofar as my objective truth and my absolutely unshakable faith in Hashem, in his Torah, and, yes, in the coming of Mashiach.
[00:20:10] Speaker A: So what will that actually look like? From a physical and non physical way Mashiach comes, what happens to the world? Does the negatives go away? Everything changes to a positive mode. Is that what we are going to see when Mashiach comes, when the messiah comes?
[00:20:35] Speaker B: Those are very broad brushstrokes. Of course, it gets a little more detailed, although what it will actually be like, we'll find out when Mashiach comes. It's like talking about the difference of colors to a person who's blind. He's going to get healed, and he's going to have his eyes. He's going to be able to see. And there are people like this who have been gifted with sight, but they don't really have a prior frame of experience, so they can't really tell you what exactly is going to be like. They're anticipating and looking forward to waiting for the time they're going to be able to see.
Amonides is very clear in telling us that the world will not change, per se. That is to say, there will be soil, minerals, vegetation, animals, people. We're all going to look the same, Zelda. But the truth about God's presence will be apparent to all, and there will be an enormous, really almost unimaginable amount of plenty. Everybody will have so much of whatever they might possibly want that nobody will be interested in material pursuit, and instead, everybody will focus on the knowledge of God, because this will become the currency of our existence, and that will be the thing that excites and stimulates us. People won't be jealous of each other because everybody has everything they could possibly want and far more. Imagine a world where diamonds were everywhere, as plentiful as sand. Would anybody bother fighting over a diamond?
And because there'll be no jealousy, there'll be no competition, because there'll be none of that. There'll be no wars. Everybody will have everything. There'll be no illness.
No, no, no. It's not just a mindset, Zelda. It's.
[00:22:19] Speaker A: It's not realize that they have everything. So will that change? Will people respect each other and have enough?
[00:22:29] Speaker B: You know. You know. You know, Zelda, it's not a mindset. It's. It's. It's a. It's an actual change that we're going to experience. There will be unlimited amount of all good things. The only thing there won't be unlimited is on misery and sadness, but there will be unlimited amount of all material plenty, as the rambam says. Hatova t ye mushpa at Harbe, there'll be an enormous volume of goodness. So there'll be lots and lots of goodness available for each of us. And it won't just be a mindset. I mean, you can't tell a person who has endless amounts of food that he needs a mindset to know that he's not hungry. He isn't hungry. He's eaten his fill is sitting at a table full of food. He doesn't feel hungry anymore. People simply won't have the possibility of being jealous of each other, because anything you could possibly want, you'll have.
And that will change our mindset, and that will make us extremely positive. You know, you talked about whether we will respect each other. Zelda, a human being. From Torah's perspective, the name for a human is Adam, and Adam is a permutation of the hebrew word adame. Adame means in the image of.
In today's day and age, it is possible for people to have a rotten, a corrupt mindset, to look down at another human being, to see another human being as less than somebody who they can disrespect or walk all over. When mashiach comes, the truth is obvious. So we will look at a human being and see that each and every human being is. Adam is in the image of goddesse. And how could you disrespect the image of God? So we will respect every single human being. We will be courteous to every human being. We will be kind to every human being. We'll have no reason not to be friendly and compassionate and loving, and the world will be filled with love, and the world will be filled with respect. And Zelda is going to be a fantastic reality. You know, I would say to anybody who feels despondent or doesn't have optimism in the future to learn more about the coming of mashiach, to strengthen and fortify one's faith in the coming of mashiach. And that will give us endless optimism and hope, not only in things being okay, but far better than we could possibly imagine.
[00:24:44] Speaker A: Well, I can't wait. And I don't know who will be here to benefit from this incredible coming.
And you're positive? You're sure, you know that this will all transpire at some point without the.
[00:25:04] Speaker B: Shadow of a doubt. And I hope very much that you and I and all of our listeners and those watching on Facebook will all be here to see this?
For this, we ask g to give us continued good health. For this, we ask Gh to shield and protect our brothers and sisters in the holy land of Eretz Yisroel. For this, we ask Hashem for the privilege of life so that we can be the ones who have that incredible gift of welcoming the coming of mashiach and the era of universal peace, prosperity, happiness, and fulfillment for all.
[00:25:40] Speaker A: And what will happen to the concept of hate that will be destroyed? You're saying people will be sad.
[00:25:50] Speaker B: People won't even be jealous. Forget hate.
That's like asking what happens to the darkness when the lights go on.
Well, the darkness just disappears. It's exactly how things are going to be. There will be any hate when Mashiach comes, Zelda, the lights will be on so brightly that darkness and hate is a very dark and awful thing. It'll dissipate forever in an instant.
[00:26:18] Speaker A: Well, I can't wait.
[00:26:20] Speaker B: Neither can I. And that's why our sages ordained that we ask for mashiach every time we daven our Amidah prayer. Thrice daily, multiple times a day. A friend of mine did a calculation, and it turns out that if you recite your daily prayers as a Torah Jew and recite the grace after meals and just. Just do the things that a person is supposed to do on a daily basis, you're actually asking for Mashiach 82 times a day.
So there's nothing that we await more ardently, nothing. We hope for more than the coming of Mashiach. And we have it on very good authority, Zelda, that the more we know about mashiach and the more we anticipate and await the coming of mashiach, the faster he comes.
[00:27:08] Speaker A: Okay. Well, it sounds to me like the most incredible thing we can ever imagine. The fact that people will be respectful and kind to one another. They will not feel the need that they have nothing when they have everything.
I just can't imagine the world in that state and how long it'll take before we can discover it. And the. I mean, it just sounds so wonderful.
[00:27:44] Speaker B: It will be so wonderful. Think of a gorgeous ballroom that's filled with everything that is pleasing to the eye and the palette.
But it's dark because there's a blackouthenne, and it's. And it's. It's in the middle of the night, and nobody sees anything, and suddenly the lights go on, and everything is available, and you say, but it takes so much time to set that room up, and it takes so much time to bring in all that food and so much time to bring all those guests and so much time to create the atmosphere and have the music. That's right. No, no, no. Everything's in place. Everything is there. The lights just have to go on. Hashem has created everything already, and as soon as the lights go on, that incredible reality will begin.
[00:28:35] Speaker A: Well, you know, everything you're saying has so much validity and so much joy.
How are people going to behave to one another? They're no longer going to be jealous. They're no longer going to be in need. They're going to have enough, and they're going to be aware of the fact that they have enough. You said it is the question.
People always want more. It doesn't matter how much they have. They still want more.
[00:29:12] Speaker B: When mashiach will come, there will be so much that people won't want more. You know what, Zelda? It's like saying there's some people who keep wanting more food, never have enough food. But if you're sitting at a table that's overflowing with food, at a certain point, even the greatest glutton doesn't want more. He or she has enough. We will all have more than enough, and people won't be jealous of each other, and people won't be competitive in a negative way. And you know what, Zelda? The only thing we won't. We'll be able to have more of, the only thing we'll still have an appetite for is the knowledge of hashem, and that's what we will seek. It sounds strange to us now, living in a world that is motivated by money and power and sensual pleasure and libido. We can't even imagine people just wanting knowledge. But that's, in fact, how it's going to be.
Imagine if you offered people an opportunity to have a private conversation with God or to discover the secrets of the universe. People would give everything that they had to be able to achieve that. Well, Zelda, that's exactly what's going to happen when mashiach comes, and each of us will be able to know and understand Gd to the maximum of his or her potential. And we have enormous amounts of potential that hashem has given us. If we yearn and crave for this, we should start to do something about it now. And doing something about it now is mashiach, is the time when we all know and know Hashem and respect and love each other. Let's start doing that now. Let's learn Torah. Let's act in a way that is kind, compassionate, generous, sensitive, and sweet to others.
Let's give as much sadaqah as we can. Let's care about others as much as we can. Let's respect others as much as we can. Let's try to learn as much as we can about hashem. Utilize the gift of life, the gift of time. You know, I shared on Shabbat at some point during the Torah reading words that were penned, I believe, by Yerbiuda Halevi, the greatest, the spanish liturgist and the spiritual poet. He wrote that a person worries about the loss of money, but he doesn't worry about the loss of days. He says days will never come back. And the money, you know, it's here today, gone tomorrow. It comes and goes. And people end up spending all their wealth on trying to regain the health that they lost in pursuit of the money. These elder people live such silly, foolish lives, so often focusing on the external, the things that are just husks, the things that are easily discarded, the things that have no meaning and don't really bring people happiness. And the things that are available, the things that they have, their family, the time that Hashem gives them, the things that they should value and cherish and utilize, somehow gets swept away in the cascade of silly material pursuit that punctuates so many of our lives, and it's just a crying shame.
[00:32:16] Speaker A: Okay, Rabbi Kaplan, we're totally out of time.
[00:32:18] Speaker B: Ah, you talked about time. There we go. Well, I'm glad we got to utilize this time to talk about things which are of a higher and more refined nature. And, Zelda, I look forward to hearing you announce on the radio waves that, yes, mashiach has finally come. I wish you and all of our listeners a wonderful day and end with a hope and prayer that we will soon be sharing the best news of all, the arrival of mashiach tzidkayn ubim heyra ubi amaynu amin.
[00:32:47] Speaker A: Okay, thank you, Rama Kaplan.
[00:32:50] Speaker B: Thank you, Zelda.
[00:32:52] Speaker A: In just a moment, managing your money.
[00:32:57] Speaker B: Thank you, everybody, for joining. Have a gorgeous day.
