Thought for the Week Parshas Shoftim Elul = Safe Space, Rabbi Yaakov Winner - 5786

How are you? I hope everyone's it's very late in Melbourne. Shabas is in around an hour. So the time is short. The first thing is we're going to give Msiah should come now. Today is a very apicious general day in as is well known. The Reb always stressed that one should spread and teach the five acronyms connected to Lul and we are going to speak about one of them today and how it's connected to the parish. Unbelievable. But first let's say a prayer and we'll speak about thank you for life. One prayer for thanking Hashem for life is which the emphasizes is now not about thanking for life but it's really thanking Hashem about the fact that you're a Jew. We'll say another prayer connected to a major thanks for all living things shall forever thank you. We say thank you Hashem. Beneficient is your name and to you is fitting to offer thanks. So basically this blessing is thanking Hashem for everything life and all that is contained within it and all our experiences. So for this we say thank you Hashem. In this week's par the bra and the bring down the mitzvah of cities of refuge. So the says in capital you should prepare for yourself the way to these cities. Whoever killed someone inadvertently by mistake and accident would run to the three cities will soon see more of refuge. Prepare yourself the way and you'll see here at length. And then there's also the famous where it says that he will run there. He will be able to run there and live. It's a fascinating fascinating mitzvah. It's mentioned in the a couple of times. There are three mitzvah related to the miklot. The more you look into it, the more you see the and it could be we're going to have to speak about it some other times. I thought I was going to get to the but first I think there's some basic aspects of the mitzvah that are actually which I didn't realize till today. In this mitzvah we see the paradox of the awesomeness of one single life. What does it mean? What's contained? What's the idea of a life? So let's go back to the question. What's the idea? So the idea is if somebody killed somebody accidentally and that itself there's many details. What does it mean exactly accidentally? He has to run to a city of refuge to save himself from the goadam. The gyam is a relative of the one who was killed who may want to avenge the fact that he killed a person and the goyam is allowed to technically to kill this person who by mistake killed another person. So what is the mitzvah? We have to set up cities of refuge where this person who killed accidentally runs and then there's a court case to decide if it was a genuine mistake and then he doesn't have to live anymore in the city of refuge necessarily. I don't want to get into all the details, but what's the point? He does have to live in the city of refuge. But it could be that it could be a case where it comes out that it was murder. And there's actually some cases of an estake which is considered a most most most mistake was impossible at all to even think that a murder should come out of it. And then it's considered a case where he doesn't have to go to city of refuge. But these are all details which I don't want to get into. The general mitzvah is that if somebody killed somebody accidentally and then it was considered a mistake, he has to go into city of refuge for the rest of his life until the co passes away. And this way he's secure and safe. It's a safe haven that the goam cannot kill him. So what is the paradox which which is so awesome that I recognized and discovered today was that when you look into the reason for the mitzvah it brings two sides. On the one side it says that the reason why he has to go into exile is because since he killed somebody accidentally that means that this has some connection to him. In other words, this act of causing the end of life of another person is so grave, so serious that that's your atonement. Even if it was by mistake because we cannot measure what it means a life and YOU SNUFFED OUT THE LIFE OF ANOTHER PERSON. This is immeasurable. the seriousness of this thing and therefore the only thing that could counter it is that from because of this you have to go into exile for the rest of your life until the passes away. That's how seriousness the measure of a life is. Together with that it's brought down that you have to feel the pain for the rest of your life of what you caused others inadvertently. But because like I said before that shows that it has some connection to you. So on the one hand when we look at the mitzvah and we look at the reason for the mitzvah what's behind it. It's because of the person who committed it. He has to go through that. That's in other words so-called like a punishment an atonement so to speak. But guess what? Some commentaries bring out the opposite effect. the opposite idea. Why does he have to go to the mitzvah is to protect him? Because for whatever reason Torah allows gives license for the person who is a family member to be able to kill him. We go through such a degree such such we we go through such um effort that he has to go into exile but it's all about to save his life. So we see the value of what it means in life OF HOW FAR WE go to make sure that another life should not be destroyed. In other words, part of the concept of the miklot is to if we look at the overall big picture is to minimize bloodshed. And one way how we see this clearly connected is because in the P that it says he's going to run to one of these cities and this was the P we mentioned before he'll be able to escape to that place of refuge and live and from this we learn out and the brings it down that Talmud if a disciple a student goes into exile his teacher has to also go to exile. It's hard to fathom but this is the AND WHY BECAUSE HE SHOULD HAVE A LIFE. So even though he has to go in exile and on one hand the stages um emphasize that this going into exile is equal to death. So that shows how it's a punishment so to speak for the person that killed accidentally. But at the same time with the same Torah it's I'm stressing he should have a life over there. So it's about his benefit and therefore he's able to to demand and get a life and what does a life mean including his professors his masters his teachers it's beyond it's unbelievable and I don't know why I think there's a reb about it yes I know for sure there was I think I spoke about on this week's pure but you know just like we always speak about the unbelievable Rambam that says that where do we know that the true definition of every single Jew is that he wants to serve Hashem is from everyone knows this I don't want to elaborate And he when it comes to giving a divorce, we force him until he says I want. Obvious question is he doesn't want. You're forcing him. Therefore, he's saying he wants the Rambam comes along and says just the opposite. He really wants to do what Hashem's will is because every Jew wants to do Hashem's will. And when we forcing him, we're like beating the devil out of him. He became possessed with some evil spirit that's now convincing him to do something wrong but that's not his true being. So we have to get that possession out of him and then his true will comes out of what's his true will that he wants to serve here too. Where do we find I'm just wondering where do we find in that the true life of a Jew is I don't think we find it I mean as far as I know I don't know of another example we find it as is that if the disciple goes into the he has to run there as a safe haven so then the teacher wants to go why because he has to live he has to have a life and what does he mean alive that he has his the one who teaches him to unbelievable. So here we see the beauty of Yiddish in general that in the same mitzvah we have two aspects of it. In other words, in general what's one of the beautiful beautiful things of especially in light of is how things could work on many layers on many levels. It's working on two levels over here. The mitzvah is working on the level where it's a punishment for the one who committed murder by accident. And number two, it's on a level and a layer where it's his for his protection. It shows that we're safeguarding him. We're keeping him safe. And to what degree we're going to go so far as to make sure he's safe that we're going to make special cities of refuge for such just such a person who finds himself in such a situation that he's in danger because there are assassins that are trying to kill him. And look what the T will do just to protect that person. It's amazing and it inspires me when you learn and you see the appreciation of how something could have a logic this way and a logic that way and it all works and it's no no problem. Now before we get to the connection to L and what it means practically something that I learned just today interestingly I never realized this before. Everyone knows the six mitzvah that the writes in the beginning of they're called the sheesh mitzvah to me this the six constant mitzvah that everyone knows about but somebody remind me today and I didn't even realize and I looked it up in the where the brings the six mitzvah that are he writes as follows there are six mitzvah to this and what are they to believe in not to believe in any other gods to to practice to understand to be aware of the oneness of Hashem to love him to fear him. Do not stray and guard yourself. Do not stray after the desires of your heart and other things that are evil. And you should be on guard. And then he writes like this a sign to remember the six mitzvah. These are the six mitzvah that are incumbent on every single Jew. Every single Jew is obligated to these six mitzvah 247. That's why they call the mitzvah to meet this. There's no limitations to where you live, male or female. And he writes These six mitzvah to remember them as a sign is the six cities of refuge you should have. That's a p at the end of midbar. So that's an amazing sim. In other words, what's miklot? You have to see the mikl as your protection. Your mikl is your haven. You know today the world is crazy about safe space. There's safe cities. Those six mitzvah are the safe space of the entire Tyra. If you'll keep strong, if you focus on those six mitzvah, you'll be protected from all sort of evil. Today, the world is crazy and we've seen this especially during the time of COVID social distancing and even vaccines. I mean, everyone I think I think most people agree on the idea of vaccines. I don't want to get into any problems right now about CO, but let's talk about German measles, polio, uh what the shingles. Most people take the regular accepted vaccines been around. What's a vaccine? You're going to get a little bit of a problem. Why? Because a tiny sense of the population, you know, gets this and this and this. And you want to protect yourself from that and that that. But in general, the whole idea of physical health, the Reb mentioned once in a we're talking to parents and you tell the parent, you know what, when it comes to physical health, we'll go with 50/50. And the Reb says, the parent would scream 5050, I don't want 50/50. I want 100%. So the Reb says, when it comes to spiritual health, of course, he should say the same thing. You don't want 50/50, you want 100%. So this is the message of miklot it brings out what are the stakes the person who's not in the miklot his life is in danger that's why cities of refuge in a way you have to be on the run any relative who's considered a ladam could kill you so for your own benefit on because we made for you a special safe space which will be the protection the security shield the iron dome that's that that will never fail and IF NOT ANYTHING COULD happen who knows comes the and says this is the why is that the just like the shikl with the six cities of refuge that saves your five. These six mitzvah are the six mitzvah that will save your life spiritually. If you focus and concentrate on and these six mitzvah then it'll be like a city of refuge. Now we come to the Rebik is the famous he spoke about the month of and is the one who said that the one of the acronyms of that's a I think where it speaks about somebody who killed somebody by mistake and the literal PK says you have to read the whole to get the context of what's going on over there, which means you didn't want to kill, but it was unintentional. Hashem brought it about into his hand and I will make a place for you. Will you be able to escape? will be able to run to. So El the month of El is the month that says that Hashem gave us a month that we should run into which means the time where we could take care of every mistake that we did throughout the entire year. This is the safe space that will take care of whatever mistakes we did throughout the entire year. So first of all we have to emphasize anything which you which you really care about. YOU'RE NOT WALKING, YOU'RE RUNNING. It's like for example if there was a wholesale a mater something that cost regularly $1,000 and now you can get it for $70. You're running. I'm just saying you're running. You're not just walking. We have to run after Hashem. The motivation has to be fierce, has to be intense. You understand? And that's the ver that you should feel that this month of El once it's a matter of life and death. Your life is in danger. Your spiritual life is in danger. So then you see the city of refuge as something which is the greatest gift that Hashem gave you this opportunity and therefore you're running there similar to writes in we mentioned this before of it's I don't have the we don't have the time to get into the details but just to read um one line we say the is talking about a motivation how to inspire the person when a person realizes that the only way to transcend the limitations of the body and in general the limitations of this world you know there's a lot of Tom Dick and Harry's in the world got If not for mitz, I'd be like any Johnny. But I realized the preciousness and the beauty and the awesomeness and the profoundity of to the degree that I realize this is the only way. This is the only life and this is the only way I could transcend the limitations of my body. And if not, I'm thinking to myself, what's life all about? How much time is spent on eating and sleeping and dealing with issues? Whether the issues is dandruff, acne, mortgage, bank, bills and the gave us an opportunity which lifts up everything that we realize that you can infuse the mundane with spirituality and he gives you those windows where you can connect with infinity so that will inspire you to know it. That's what he writes about in chapter 31. See there. And therefore he says this is your all day days of your life. What's the you realize that with Yiddish you can transcend the limitations of man so to speak and that's what means we could take a without seems a bit depressing. I have to always think that I did something wrong and I have to do chuva. No means I'm always returning. I'm on a journey where I'm returning home. I'm returning home. I'm returning to my true self. That's what I'm doing every single day. And then he says, And he says in the example of a king's son who was kept in captivity grinding corn in prison and becoming covered with filth then he is liberated and he returns to his father's royal house. That's what it means. He's constantly connecting to his true source sitting at the table in his father's royal house together with his father. So is doing and mitz in such a way he's always motivated and he's that he was given this opportunity of transcendence. So this is what it means. Represents Hashem gave us a month. A month which is a safe space, which is a a safe house, which is a cocoon, which is a haven. And this is what it means. We're returning to the true self. This is who we really are. We got distracted during the years, sometimes chasing petty true realities. So we have to realize we were given this month. We should cherish it. We should love it. We should run to it like describes sorry inf. I'll finish with an analogy which I think I said many times before. It's called the hair and the hound. So in the olden days there was these these royal these people that were a sport that they had. They would chase hairs rabbits that are small. Anyways, so there's a chase going on. People are on riding on the horses and they have these big hounds and they're chasing the rabbits and there's a grandfather walking with the grandson. There's many different versions of this fable, but I'm saying it the way I heard it. There's a grandfather walking with his grandson and the grandfather tells the grandson, "Hey, what do you think? Who's going to win?" The grandson says, "Of course, the hounds. Every step the hound takes is four times the size of the rabbit. And the rabbits are tiny. And the hounds are bigger and stronger. So for sure they'll catch the hair, the rabbits. Anyways, they're watching what's going on. The grandpa says, "Watch." They're watching what's going on. In the end, the hound the here, the rabbits escaped. And the grandson says, "I can't understand it. How is it possible that the rabbit was able to escape the hounds? The here escaped the hounds." And the grandpa says, "It's very simple." The answer is because the hounds were running for their dinner. The hounds were running for the supper, but the hairs were running for their lives. Meaning to say that the reward if they captured the rabbit for the hounds was that the hounds would get fed this rabbit. So the hound is running for his supper for his dinner and the hair is running for his life. So this is a if somebody looked at like it says in the life then the running to it would be different with a greater joy with a greater power. So we should all maximize We should all appreciate the beauty of and how to see that it's the true the true life of every single one of us and then we'll attach ourselves to it with a greater power than anything else because it's the most precious thing that we have. And by us doing it, that will make sure without a question of a doubt that it'll be now posting from my home, your man in Melbourne.