Preparing video...
0:00 / 0:00

Access the Blessing For Upholding the Torah & Judaism - The Chofetz Chaim's Presentation

257 views
Rabbi Daniel Glatstein Official avatar
Rabbi Daniel Glatstein Official

Transcript

Auto-generated transcript. Not time-synced to the video.

Okay, good morning friends. Parshas Ki Savo Eilah ya'amdu l'varechah es ha'am al Har Gerizim v'eilah ya'amdu al ha'klalah b'Har Eival. And the Torah lists a number of klalos. Arur asher lo yakim es divrei ha'Torah hazos la'asos oisam v'amar kol ha'am Amen. >> [snorts] >> By the way, just a hora'ah b'alma, why every time the word Amen appears in Chamish it's always to a klalah? Either by sotah v'amrah ha'ishah Amen Amen or by Ki Savo. Anyway, the Gemara says in sotah all the arurim began with a brachah. So first they said baruch hamakem hamakem es ha'Torah. And then everyone answered Amen. What exactly is this baruch? Baruch asher hamakem es ha'Torah. Baruch asher yakim es divrei ha'Torah hazos. So it comes a couple of times and includes two things. Number one, every single Jew is mechuyav to support Torah. Every person according to their ability like we say in Chazal in many places. Every Jew >> [snorts] >> it's not only for g'virim, mashirim every Jew the same way a Jew has to be al y'dei Torah, a Jew has to machzik Torah. V'ois klalah kasuv b'zeh ha'kamatz das ha'Torah b'klalah. Also this includes upholding the religion in general. Now this is dependent on Beis Din who has the authority like we find in Yerushalmi. Arur asher lo yakim. What does it mean arur asher lo yakim? Cursed is he who does not uphold the whole Torah. What the Torah is falling? So Shimon ha'Amati says this is a Beis Din of Matan. And regarding this thing Yoshiyahu tore his clothing when he saw when Yoshiyahu HaMelech uh was when Hilkiyahu was making uh long overdue repairs on the Beit HaMikdash and Yoshiyahu found the Sefer Torah Moshe Rabbenu and it was rolled to Arash Lo Yakim Es HaDavar Hazeh. Yoshiyahu said Al Ayila Hakem. The Ramban writes in his Perush Al HaTorah like this. It is sought it is expected in this upholding um from the king and the Nesi'us, meaning any Jewish authority has the ability to uphold Torah from those who are abolishing it uh even if such an individual is a tzaddik gamur. If he does not take a stand to uphold the Torah, the religion, the Halacha, he's bechalal ara. Says the Chofetz Chaim if you're about to breathe a sigh of relief because you'll say I'm not a Beis Din, lav davka Beis Din. Every single Jew if he has the ability to stand up for the religion and he shies away he has the ability to mechazeik the religion and he doesn't, he has a chiyuv to do so. Like Chazal say anyone who has the ability to be moicheh ba'anchei irai and is not moicheh he will be liable la'anchei irai. However, if he turns them into the to the straight path and the religion is strengthened through him tavai alav brachas umorim be'arba'ah re'ishim. Meaning this is not only uh referring to bracha and kla um to a Beis Din. This um this applies to every single Jew. If you have the ability to uphold Halacha, to uphold correct uh Jewish behavior. If you do it, tove all of brochos b'har Gerizim. If you don't, then arur asher lo yakim es divrei ha Torah ha zeh. Now, the brochos are pretty serious because they emanated from 600,000 Jews together with the Kohanim, the Levi'im, the Arurim. Is there a better brocha than that? Now, ul'hakim das ha Torah yesh b'chol echad b'ma she chanan Hashem. To uphold the religion, every Jew has some ability through what Hashem blessed you with. K'ma d'chsiv, "Kabeid es Hashem mehoncha." Honor Hashem through your resources. Omar Chazal, "Al tikri mehoncha ela mechincha, d'hai numa shechanancha." Through what God graciously gave you. Yesh yesh mi shechanan Hashem b'ish u'rav. Some people have a lot of money. So, there are things you could do with your money to be m'kayem Judaism. V'yesh b'yad ha chacham yeshivos u'talmidei ha Torah. You could support yeshivos, you could support Torah learning. Ein l'cha hakamas ha das u'shmisa. Some people have the ability lidrosh b'rabim. O is shar inyanim ikariyim hanoygim l'atzem shmisa ha das o other vital functions that are relevant to preserving the Halacha. Kol zeh b'chol hakamas ha das u'shmisa v'chein l'ma'id b'peretz neged hadvarim hagormim l'harisas ha das. Or let's say to stand up in the breach against those things that are destroying the religion. Let's say you coming to a shul and the guy next to you is on his phone. And you go over to him and you give him a big shalom aleichem and a big smile instead of telling him, "It's so nice to see you. I just want to remind you you cannot bring a phone into a shul. If you don't do this, this is an opportunity. Baruch Asher Yakim as divrei haTorah hazos. By the way, maybe you haven't heard yet. We have this movement where we're asking people to commit not to bring their phones into shul. So, now's a good time to join in Chodesh Elul because at the very least when the guy next to you sees that you don't have your phone in shul, he's going to be reminded and you're going to be you're going to get a blessing from 600,000 Jews emanating from Har Gerizim. Now, the question is, what do you mean get a bracha from these Jews who are on Har Gerizim? It happened already. It happened already. We missed it, you know, we we haven't been there in a while. No, the Chofetz Chaim says those brachas continue continue to reverberate from Har Gerizim from 600,000 Jews together with the Kohanim, the Leviim, they said the words Baruch Asher Yakim as divrei haTorah hazos and you could access that bracha. In other words, you could choose, you could send 100 bucks to an organization, you could believe them that by pressing three um big uh rabbis with long beards will bless you. You know, I don't know, maybe yeah, maybe no. I don't know where the money's going exactly. Even if you could verify where it's going, or you could try to access a bracha from 600,000 Jews from 3,300 years ago together with I mean, there were some pretty big Jews over there. Yehoshua bin Nun was there. Caleb ben Yefuneh, all the Nesiim. This is the mitzvah of Baruch Asher Yakim as divrei haTorah hazos. Have a good day, everyone. Shkoyach. >> Recording stopped. >> You always say something.