Halachic and Hashkafic Issues in Contemporary Society | Rabbi Anthony Manning

It's good to see everybody. I'd like to thank our sponsors for the Shir. Today's shar the Wednesday morning here in bedi is sponsored um for the academic year bin David and Limb Ara Strauss and bush and rais the parents of Judy Marcus. Today's shar is sponsored as is the whole academic year leu nishmoas brandit and zelig ben kman shalom and also a special dedication today today's shar is dedicated by Ela Friedberg and Bob Dale for the your side of Ela's parents Fanny and Sid Freedberg thank you very much for that dedication we appreciate all of those immensely so hashm we have a big crowd here today uh and I hope that you'll uh take something quite fundamental away from the shar I'd like uh talk about a topic which I think goes to the very root of what it means to be Jewish. Uh what it means to be a Torah Jew. Um you always wondered, right? Someone said I always wondered. Yeah. Uh this is the uh the last of a three-part series. Uh next week and for the next three weeks actually after this I'm not going to personally be here. I will be away in America recruiting. uh but there will be other sharim no doubt uh without question here and I'll be back uh please God four weeks from today maybe a little jetlagged but uh hopefully still you know conscious and compassment um two weeks ago we looked at what it means to be a noite we share the planet with eight seven eight billion other people what what are what is their status in Jewish thought what what is our relationship with them we looked at the chev mitzvah bin when it was parious No. And then last week when it was we looked at the issue of why and the why do our commentators dedicate significant space-time effort to discuss to discussing the issue of whether the kept the Torah and the Imah kept the Torah. Why is that important? Why is that relevant to us today? And we looked at that in some depth last week. This week the final part I want because para say right it maps onto the para very well to look at the issue of what is the Brit Aot and more fundamentally is whether there is a Torah that goes beyond or together with the Torah of Sinai and this is something which is incredibly important because we've constantly been accused as Jews for the last 2,000 years of uh being parochial of being particularistic, of being slaves almost to law. Uh remember the classic Christian Pauline uh accusations that the uh the law kills, the letter kills, but the spirit the spirit gives life and we have to be spiritual and not just legalistic. And of course, as hakic Jews, as Jews of Tariq mitzvah, we've constantly been subjected to this accusation that the the law is oified. It's it's carnal. It's materialistic. it's or material. It's it doesn't free us. It doesn't allow us to be spiritual people. Now, there's a lot of responses to this, okay? And we're going to look at one specific one today. Of course, the Christians said what the Christians said, which is, you know, go and be a Christian. Um, but let's assume that that's not part of our discussion today. Uh, even in the world of modernday Jewish studies, there is a tendency to buy into that narrative. Except it's not about Judaism. Nothing wrong with Judaism. It's it's rabinism that's the problem. It's hakism that's the problem. It's the legalism that's the problem. What's going to free you? What's going to free you ism is going to free you because that taps into the spirit or maybe kabala. Cabala taps into the spirit. And there's nothing wrong with there's nothing wrong with kabala but to some degree they they buy into this or this analysis of them rather buys into the same dichotomy. There's the law and there's the spirit and the Torah does not if you like clearly provide both. I want to give a a different approach today which is to a large degree an approach of Rasolve. Um Rabbi Saxs al steps into this as well. Rabbi Saxs was significantly impacted by Raf Salvich and [snorts] and that is it a focus on Brit avat also we'll see very clearly focuses on this and actually we'll it'll turn out that this is a very fundamental part of Torah which is often forgotten and sometimes when we focus on this and we look around us and we're saying why do these other Jewish people not get it which whoever the others are the ones that we think just don't get it what's wrong with them why can't they see that they're wrapped up in this kind of very technical approach and they can't see beyond it. So we'll see one of the answers to that. So let's have a look at the very beginning. We've got a lot of sources to get through today. Um I would also say before I start with Britavot the Rasvetic has an entirely separate approach which of course in Halak man is that you've misunderstood you've misunderstood the details. Actually redemption lies within the details. the hakic details themselves can develop an entire philosophy of Judaism and you should go away and read hakic mind and I'm not talking about that today but that's a very valid approach which just completely explodes the dichotomy and says you've read it all wrong the hala will set you free as it were the there's not the devil that's in the details even to use an expression the devil's in the details you're buying in to that quite anti-Jewish narrative nob lies in the details etc. But we're going to look today at the the Brits Avat. Um, let me give you two different ways of looking at it. What happened at Sinai? Was that an overwrite? Was that a kind of reboot? And what happened before is irrelevant? Or is this a continuum? Let's start with the Rambam. Where better to start? Number one as follows. So, Adamarish received six laws. He goes through them. So idolatry not to curse God's name not to murder not to commit different acts of sexual immorality not to steal to set up a court system. How do we know about these six laws to Adam? Because we have that as a tradition in our Torah and there's also a natural law. People should have been able to work these out even without being told about them. It's just part of being a a moral ethical human being. And you can you can imply these also from the words of the Torah and and if you look at the command of God to Adam and not to eat the fruit and how that works. So they they tease out the six laws to Adam from there. We looked at that before and we're not looking at it now. But look at the next word. Then God adds, "You can't eat a limb from a living animal." Fine. Oh, now we have seven. And that's how it rested until you get to Abraham. Again, it's not a replacement. He's Noah plus he gets miler. Now we're up to eight for who hit pal Shakarit which is really fascinating. The Rambam picks up on this midrashic idea that Abraham Dav Shakar I mean and he says no this is actually a hakic idea. Shakaris is deeply rooted in Abrau. He takes this midrash very very seriously. He should al always take midashim seriously but he takes it literally as well which he doesn't always the cameras and then he takes a tenth and how he the mayor shim and how he gives his tithes etc the and he adds on another davening towards the end of the day now I don't know why the raam can't just say I I any answers on a postcard I didn't look too hard at anybody but he he he called the other one shakar now he calls it another filler towards the end of the day. What's he got against the name? I don't know. Not for now. The Jacob adds in the sciatic nerve, the hit Aravitz and he dav. Okay, great. And then in Egypt, this is what we don't often think of gets another upgrade. gets extra mitu until came along and the Torah was finally finished. Now, there's no question that the Rambam is presenting here a cumulative approach. How do we end it with 613? Well, we start with six. We then go to seven. We then go to 8. We then go and we get to 613. But we are Noah hides plus. We don't just abandon what came before. Now many of the Maporima are interested in this Amram question. What what was Amram given in Egypt and you can look Mishna says like where where on earth did he get that from that what was Amaram given and there are various answers. I brought you in two I brought you in three. Um maybe this is talking about the mitzvah they got at Mara. We often talk about those they got as they were leaving Egypt or the mitzvah they got in Egypt before they actually got to Sinai. But everyone's trying to work out what was given to Amram and how does that work. I don't want to get too bogged down into that now. But this everything they get before Sinai proper can be called the Brit Avat or maybe the Brit Mitsry as well. It's a pre-Sinai Brit. Rav Solvich is going to call this the Brit Mitzy which is also this Brit Avat. And that doesn't go away. And in fact, if you look in the makri in number four, how does he get to 613? He brings a POS from Yahu. God fenced off the Jewish people and cleared out the derk. He plants a soric. I had to look up what a soric was. A soric is a very beautiful vine. A choice vine. What does that mean? Says the vitriz. What does he plant for the Jewish people? 66 mitzvah. That's the magic number. 606. Which by the way if you're into cabala is also a pretty important number in terms of redemption to you know the the tav and t but that's not for now he gives us 606 vashv mitzvah and of course we already had seven mitzvah mitzvah that's how you get to tarag mitzvah now of course even the prei mitzvah to noah are now a bit different for us we saw the end of last year is a little bit different for us than it is for the benak. For us, an animal is hakically dead once you even if it's twitching. I'm not getting into the gory details, but for a benoak maybe it's not hakically dead until it's dead until it's stopped moving. And that may depend on, you know, how you define a min. We looked at this whether non-Jews can eat eggs, whether Jews can eat. We're not getting into that now. Maybe murder is different for Jews. Maybe abortion is different between non-Jews and Jews. Maybe idolatry is a little bit different from Jews, between Jews and non-Jews. Maybe non-Jews are allowed to to engage in shito in in in connecting God with other powers to get through to but we're not allowed to do that. Okay, good. There are differences in the details, but basically we are 606 plus 7. If you look at it like that then we are we started as Noah we went through Abraham and the Britat that we had before remains the one time of the year which I always strikes me we we connect ourselves to this is Rashashana in the in the in the of Zikronos in the middle of Mus Rashash we say to Hashem remember Noah remember Noah's children we're not just talking about the rest of the world we're talking about ourselves so we are also Noah's children however there is an alternative way of looking at it that sees it very differently What uh what was what were the Jews given at Sinai? 613. Not 606 + 7. 613. Number five says the midrash. There are 613 letters between the beginning and the end of the ten commandments. But actually there aren't 613. There are 620. Okay. What are those extra seven? Forget about the ben Noak. That's not relevant. It's overwritten. Zion made different idea. God gave made creation. God gave the law. What is the law? 613. The whole world really connects and exists with Torah. So too the there are four 620 mitzvah mitzvah. Meaning if you do want to count Ben Noah that's in addition to the 613 it's not part of the 613 it's 613 + 7 equals 620 for example number seven says the gmorra interesting garasi a technical detail init whose mother is capable of becoming tame to having baby the baby is given this bris on the eighth day And anyone whose mother does not have here it's talking about a C-section and how that works. It's not clear whether the baby has a brick on the eth day. I'm not giving it on but it links the two because it says in the etc etc. Fine turns around to say well what are you talking about? Surely you can prove from Abraham. They didn't have they didn't have any of those things that came in and yet aren't they given bris on the eighth day. Doesn't that destroy your whole argument? It's obviously got nothing to do with didn't have the laws of tum. He responded, "What are you talking about? Once the Torah was given, all bets are off. Everything that came before is relevant. The Torah is given a new. We're not interested in what did in terms of theic nature of our mitzvah." What about Gan? We're all about to read soon with Yakov wrestling with the angel and he kicks him in the thigh and says the Torah that's why we don't eat the gidhanasha. Okay, so says the Mishna Mishna deals with it. Number eight, no egg is ganasha doesn't apply to non-coosher animals. There's no gidan in a horse. There's no gir. That doesn't apply. If you eat the giranosha of a horse that's not called the ganosha. Okay, fine. It's d I just want to make clear but it's not the girosha. No, if you eat the giran of a horse, then you're doing two of you're eating horse and you're also eating says I don't understand but surely Jacob had a prohibition of ganasha. Don't we see that in the Torah? Okay, but there was no concept of animals yet. So clearly the two are not connected. You can have ganashe without having to have kosher and trave animals. They said, "What are you talking about?" No, we don't get that the mitzvah from it was said at Sinai. But Moshe puts it into the Torah at God's God's request, demand, whatever dictation, puts it in in that place because it's thematically connected with that. But Jacob, if you'd have gone back in time and spoken to Jacob Ainu, aside from last week's sh that the others kept the whole Torah and how that works and said, "What about Gan?" He would have said, "Don't know what that is." Okay. G what? Because we hadn't got the mitzvah yet. Okay. Again, maybe Yakov kept the whole Torah. That's last week's ship. And the Rambam sees this as fundamental. And by the way, people often don't focus on this. If you ask anyone, ask do a survey thousand Jews, is there a mitzvah of haknasim? And everyone will say yes. Then ask them where does it say that in the Torah? And I can guarantee you 999 will start talking about who? And you'll turn around and say, "Well, don't you know the Rambam on?" You can't learn a mitzvah from look at what the Rambam says. Number nine, listen very carefully to this very important principle in your Jewish life. when he's commenting on the we just read you need to understand everything we're careful to do today or that we do proactively we don't do anything because of premotion only because of Moshe and Sina not because earlier people got I'll give you some examples. The reason we don't eat from a live animal, which by the way was standard practice in the ancient world, you had you were a small farmer, you had one cow, it was very expensive. If you shed it, you'll never be able to eat all the meat. Obviously, they couldn't freeze it. They couldn't always salt it. So, you chop a leg off the animal and the No, you'll p you'll bandage it up. You'll you'll Yeah. It'll be a hop along cow. Yeah. And and you'll have a three-legged cow, then you'll have a two-legged cow, and then you'll have a one-legged cow, and then and then eventually you'll have no choice, and you'll kill it. They did that. That's how people worked because you can't kill a large animal and suffer the financial loss. Came along the Torah to all people and said, "You can't do that to an animal." But that's not why we don't do it. We don't do it. Now, is there any direct reference in the Torah after you shall not eat? No. But that's not why we we don't keep the mitzvah because of Adam, because of we keep it because of Torah. Like oral law. We don't do circumcision because did it to his family. Okay. We we were told by Mosh to be circumcised just like he did it. And there you do have a you have to have the ones. We don't do it because may have done it. Even if Yakov did keep it, it's irrelevant to us. Didn't we did they say they say 613 mitzvah were given on that's all the mitzvah. What came before is irrelevant. Also add on from the number 10 matra. We never learn from before matan tora. And so too, just to finish this section number 11, very interesting. What about Shiva? Where do we know the idea of Shiva from? So you'll say, well, they said Shiva in the Torah. No, they said Shiva for Yakovu. It's explicit embrace it. What about Chevro? Isn't she chevraas in the Torah? Absolutely. Doesn't Lavan say to Yakov, we'll first do it say seven days for this one and then you can marry that one. says the Ramba number 11. We have a mitzvah to mourn for deceased relatives. That's not from anything before. It's from when Aaron turns around and says to Mosher Rabenu, "How can I eat from this corbin?" Big debate which corbin it was when his sons had just died. I'm in a minor. The only aesam on a Torah level is the first day. It's the day of the death which is also falls on the day of the burial rather the rest of the day. And even though you'll tell me it says in the Torah sit for the Torah comes and the is renewed. However, he says Mosheren for Shiva. Moshe wearing his rabbitic hat created the rabbitic framework of Shiva for a relative and and and Chevro seven days. But that was wearing a rabbitic hat. It was a very ancient decree. But we don't do anything from before Matra. So if anyone starts to tell you that Abrau invited guests, you'll say to them, "Well, what about this?" Okay, good. So why do we invite guests? What is the mitzvah? We've had this sh before. Does anyone remember? Where does it say in the Torah, thou shalt invite guests? If we're not going to learn it from very good all of the we do, whether it's all of them are all from and therefore that's the mitzvah in the Torah. It's not from au. Okay. So it sounds like we're rebooted Jews. So what have we seen so far? Two distinct ideas. One is that we are Jews because of Sinai. And the other one is well hang on a minute. Aren't we six plus 606 plus 7? We're not just Jews because of Sinai. We're Jews from before. And don't from we're pro protojews from before. And don't forget the first question of Rashi which reverberates through the whole of Zabracious. What is the point? Why do I care? Why am I learning about Abra and Yizk and Yakov and Ysef and his brothers? Why is this relevant? And Rash's answer which is Erit Israel focused as we saw last week from Rabbiakov Kamki doesn't really get us the whole way. Do I really need to know about all the Ysef and the brothers and everything just to know that Erit Israel was given to the Jews? Okay, maybe. But there may be other answers as well. And Rafiche comes along and says there is. There's a fundamental question. Yes, sir. >> That's also from the Rambam. So, so what's he going to say? So, he he's going to say I also thought of this questionly the mitzvah the obligation is from Sinai but the roots of the mitzvah go beyond and that's the point here is that we may say that I have an obligation to do this because Mosha said it but that's not where the mitzvah originally comes from I have a bridge that goes beyond that and above that and that gives another dimension which we'll see right now to the law other than the pure hakic element of the law there is an ethic beyond the sinai and that's coming from And therefore the ram I think can hold both. And the route of salvation he said this is what's called the Brit mit ink he talks about the Brit goral the the uh the covenant of destiny of fate and the Brit and the covenants of destiny. If you just turn for a second to the to the end of the sheet look on page number um eight n and 10. Okay I'm not going to read this don't worry. Okay. But but I'm not going to read this, but you're going to read this. Okay. You can read this as homework. Um and uh then when you get very excited by it, you can then get cold doof and you can reread. I'm sure many of you have read if not all of you have read Doofi. It's absolutely fundamental. Says Rav Solivetic. There are two britats and we must never forget. There's a Britsai which we which is what we're avadim we we do because of nasma but there's a Brit mit which is also the Brit Avat. So let's just talk a little bit about I just want to read you a couple of bits from this. It's also relevant maybe to how we feel today after our uh election excitement. Uh maybe we feel my wife woke up this morning and heard the news. She says Barak Hashem the Jewish people are consistent consistent cons. She said consistency is a very important mid. He says and that's what we see here. The Jewish people consistently say the same thing. Okay, you look you can look at it half full or half empty. Okay, fine. Um so look at the second paragraph. What is the covenant of fate as opposed to destiny? Destiny we're not looking at today. Destiny is to be an orgoyim to to to be the tarag mitzvah etc. What is the covenant of faith? Fate signifies in the life of the nation as it does in the life of the individ. What is the covenants of fate? Okay. >> Is that the same on your book? Yeah. >> Page [snorts] eight. Page eight. >> Page eight. Page eight. Page eight. Okay. What is the covenant of fate? Fate signifies in the life of the nation as it does in the life of the individual an existence of compulsion. A strange force merges all individuals into one unit. The individual is subject and subjugated against his will to the national fate or existence and it is impossible for him to avoid it and be absorbed into a different reality. The environment expels the Jew who flees from the presence of God so that he's awakened from his slumber like Jonah the prophet who awoke to the voice of the ship's captain demanding to know his personal national religious identity. You can't escape. There's nowhere to run. You can't hide from being a Jew. You are part of a national fate that will pull you in even if you try to escape. And he talks about this in a few different ways. He says uh and I'm just going to flag these a little bit. At the end of the bottom of that page, he says there is a shared fate of shared experience. Just look at the bottom of page eight. First, the awareness of shared fate appears as that of shared experience. We're all in the realm of a shared fate that binds together the different strata of the nation and does not discriminate between classes and individuals. Fate does not distinguish between nobility and common folk, between rich and poor, between a prince dressed in royal purple velvet and a poor man who goes begging from door to door being a between a pious Jew and an assimilationist. He says Jews are Jews are Jews. The Brit at Sinai might differentiate because these Jews keep Torah or keep Halaka and these Jews don't. But that's not the fundamental Brit. The fundamental Brit before that is the Britot, the Brit Mit. All Jews were enslaved in Mitrine. It didn't matter whether you are from or you are not from. They don't care. And we've seen that in our own time. Uh so so many ways. There's no way you can hide. On page nine, he he mentions the Brit the the shared historical experience of suffering. I'm not going to get into that now. You can look at that yourself. And he said all Jews should feel the suffering of all other Jews because at the end we're all children from the same family. He brings a nice uh the moshel that was brought before him. The Gomorrah asked a question of a uh of a person with two heads. We'd call this a conjoined twin. Do they take double the portion as two people for inheritance or are they really one person? Interesting question. And what is the solution which is proposed? If you pour boiling water over the head of one, does the other one scream? Meaning, are they really one person or are they two? And says the says Raf Salvetic, all the Jewish people are really a multi-headed single person. And if you pour boiling water over the head of one, the other one has to scream. And if the other one doesn't scream, then there's something wrong. If there's something happening to part of the Jewish community and the rest of the Jewish community don't feel that sense of pain or kinship, there's something deeply deeply wrong. Um, and therefore, that's the second part of it. The third part of it, at the bottom of page nine, he talks about responsibility. Call is Arab. That's part of the Brit. And again, it doesn't matter whether you care about Shabas or you don't care about Shabas. If there's a Jew out there that could make Kdesh because I could have an impact on them and they haven't made Kdesh, then I haven't made Kdish. And that's a very real principle. That's all he says part of the Brit from the Brit Sinai. You could say, "Oh, I I don't care. They don't keep Shabas." No, no, that's not how it works. And then fourthly, right at the end on page number 10, uh he talks about at the last element of this, which is cooperation, um loving kindness, helping every everybody else, treating every single Jew as a brother. Just leave the last uh two paragraphs of uh page 10. Um and we'll get the we'll get the gist of this. All Jews and those attached to them are like brothers. As it is said, you are sons to the Lord your God. And if a brother will not show mercy to his brother, then who will have mercy on him? And to whom can the poor of Israel look for help? To those other nations who hate and persecute. They can look to help for help only to their brethren. From both a midst of a heritage which is compulsive and fateful, and a terrible aloneeness, which are the source of the unity of the nation, issues forth the attribute of which summons and drives the faithful collected to imbue their unity with positive content by means of the constant participation in events, suffering, consciousness, acts of mutual assistance. The isolated Jew finds his solace in his active adhesion to the whole and by tearing down barriers of egotistical separatist existence. Meaning we think we're all different political parties. But that's an illusion with the Britavod. We join with our neighbors. The oppressive experience of fate finds its connection in the coalesing of individual personal experiences into a new entity called a nation. The obligation of love for another person emanates from the self-awareness of the people of fate which is alone and perplexed by its uniqueness. For this was the covenant of Egypt concluded. So you can read more on on your own, but it's it's critical. Our kinship, our connection with other Jews does not come from Sinai. At Sinai, we stood as a nation, but then some people says, "Yeah, I'm into this and some people are not into this. Some people keep Shabasa, some people don't." And you can separate between people on that basis. But for the Brit Avat, you absolutely can't. And therefore the covenant of Egypt, the covenant of the avat says Raal Salvetic is the covenant of fate. And all Jewish people at the end of the day are in the same pot as they say. You know, people who didn't meet in Shul met in the camps. They all met together there. Uh and we know this to our own uh to our own uh distress over many many situations in the past ever. Okay, that's one thing. So the Brit Avat is fundamental to our unity as Jews and therefore you have to look past all the stuff that comes after the afot and focus on the avat. A second thing I want to bring you a few quotes from someone I don't really don't usually quote who is Rabbi Walter Worsburgger. Now some of you here may have known Rabbi he was your rabbi you I knew I would I I could put money on the fact that someone or maybe multiple people he was what? >> He was your teacher Rabbi Walter Worberger who I never met. I grew up in England in the boondocks and like we never knew anybody. Okay. But he very very much sets out the idea of there being an ethic which goes beyond pure halaka pure Sinai and we're going to look at this right now which is really important and some people just don't get this and therefore they behave in a way they talk in a way they think in a way and you think that why don't you get this the Brit Avat is so fundamental. Let's look at a couple of quotes from Raversburgger. It should be borne in mind number 12 on page three. It should be borne in mind the meticulous observance of hakic norms does not exhaust the meaning of Jewish piety. Hala merely provides the foundation. It is a necessary but not sufficient condition for the attainment of religious ideals. As Raf Salvich put it, is not a ceiling but a floor. It starts with the he doesn't end with the and we'll see that in real terms soon. Number 13. Jewish piety involves more than meticulous adherence to the various rules and norms of religious law. It also demands the cultivation of an ethical personality. We are commanded to engage in a neverending quest for moral perfection which transcends the requirements of an ethics of obedience. Okay. I think she's just having a snooze. Yeah, she's doing We were just checking you were okay, but it's good. It's fine. She looks fine. Okay. Okay. An ethics of obedience. That's because we talked about Jewish unity. So, you were all concerned for each other. Barakashem. The halakic system serves merely as the foundation of Jewish piety. Number 14. Because mere obedience to a set of formal rules that specify the Torah is only a necessary but not a sufficient condition of ethical propriety, another source of moral authority must be found. Now, some people might feel that very controversial. Isn't Torah enough? The answer is yes. But Torah is not just from Sinai. Have a look here in number 15, a slightly longer quote. The Bible records a variety of covenants that do not mandate obedience to specific norms, but establish a unique relationship between God and man. Jewish ethics encompasses not only outright hackic rules governing the area of morality, but also intuitive moral responses. You know, common sense. How common is common sense? You know you people doesn't everybody realize that you can't do no everybody doesn't realize that arising from the covenantal relationship with God. What makes it intuitive is because you feel like a Ben Arainu not just a Ben Mosher Rabenu which provides the matrix for forming ethical ideas not necessarily patent after legal models. And he gives three examples. One experiencing a sense of kinship and solidarity with fellow Jews. We just had this the covenants of faith etc. two and look at this. Acknowledging the unique and preeminent position of the land of Israel as the central arena for the fulfillment of Jewish destiny. Erit Israel cannot be understood from Brit Sinai. And and sometimes you speak to people about this and and you you we you we can't put your finger on what what are they not getting here. Like again I I I I I very much subscribe to Raf Ephraim Goldberg's uh position uh when he took a Vashir about how annoying it is for people living in Erit Israel to turn around to people living in America and say ah what are you thinking you know why can't you make aliyah everybody with eyes and usually this person just made aliyah two weeks ago of course and for the first 65 years of his life was living in wherever in moni and now it's like ah you can't believe it you're living in America schmutzlar okay so that's it's It's it's it's it's not helpful. It's not helpful to talk that way to people. It doesn't achieve anything. But in principle, when you ask somebody like why aren't you thinking about Israel in in a different way and they answer well you know according to it's really it's a mitzvah it's not it's not a mitzvah. You don't have to live in it's like a mitzvah. You do it but it's turn the pages of forget about the mitzvah is an obligation. Is it is it just a key or miss? Is it just every page of Tanakh is telling you that you need to be living Israel? Okay, not everybody can. There are certain reasons why people shouldn't. D I'm not getting into that. But you can only have a relationship with Israel through the Brit Avat otherwise you're thinking of it like did I shake my lulaf correctly. Now shaking your lul correctly is very important. Please don't get me wrong. But it's not the same as living in Israel. It's not the it doesn't have the same resonance. And people think it does. And that's why you know they're not dealing with this issue. So I think you only really understand Israel if you get the Brits aot and also then he says finally um uh the uh beyond their which we're going to look at in a minute and I've referred you at the bottom of page three top of page four to some beautiful Shirim by Rabbi Judah Goldberg which it's like R Eron's brother okay Judah Goldberg who is one of my friends and neighbors live in lives in Harov he uh has on the gush etion website seven or eight very nice shearing about Brit Avat and Britai and the difference between them. He talks about a socopolitical commitment of Brit Avat, a geographical commitment, an ethical commitment, a theological commitment and therefore Brit Avat fills in a lot of those things um which uh which which do not necessarily get emphasized in the same way. Give another example intermarriage. Do we look at intermarriage as a issue? It is a hikic issue. There is a Torah mitzvah not to marry a non-Jewish person if you're Jewish. But if that's how you look at intermarriage just as a well I don't know if you're mim this mitzvah obviously intermarriage is much much more fundamental than just a hahic issue. You could make a hakic case by the way if someone's technically speaking which of course is whenever someone starts a question with like technically speaking you know that this is fundamentally the problem. Yeah, they they they they've con concocted a technical answer because they've got a gamarakov and they're and they're Jews, but they know there's something wrong with this. Technically speaking, you can make an argument. They're given a choice. It's better for a Jewish man to marry a non-Jewish woman than to marry a Jewish woman who is not going to go to the mikvah. You could make a technical hakic argument like that, but it's ridiculous. Ask any rabbi in the world which is better that I should marry a Jewish woman but she doesn't want to go to the mikvah or I should marry a non-Jew. A thousand out of a thousand will say of course you have to marry a Jewish person. Yeah but technically how do you justify that? No. Like don't you get that this is more fundamental than Britinai? This is Britavot. How far do the AOS go to ensure that their sons will not marry a whatever then counted for a non-Jewish wife? Okay, it was a bit different then. Okay, but they're very mprid on it. They're very careful about it. Therefore these core Jewish values core um ideas of Torah which are so fundamental Brit Avat is what is putting them forward. Now page four beyond this is very important. Have a look here is bothered that just living a life of technical according to the letter of the law is going to leave you dry. It's not going to give you the spirit that you need. Number 16. The issues resolve the issue resolves itself in turn into the problem both historical and analytic of the relationship between pre and postsinai orders. On another level, however, we are confronted by an issue of far wider scope. The question is not what vestigages of natural morality continue to bind the Jews or to what extent receiving the Torah abregated any antecedent ethic. We're not just asking are we ben no plus. It is rather whether the demands or guidelines of halaka quite apart from the ground common to natural halaki morality are both so definitive and so comprehensive as to preclude the necessity for and therefore in a sense the legitimacy of any other ethic. Reading Rav Literstein is always good for your reading and good for your comprehension. People think Rav Salvich is complicated. It's really not. Rav Salvich English is his seventh language or something like that. He just sprinkles in a bunch of philosophical words here and there, but Rav Litenstein like, "Oh, now that's English. This is English by a man who would be happy reading Shakespeare or Chaucer or Milton um as as as anything else. Maybe Torah what he wants more." What's he saying? He's saying that we need something other than just the mitzvah. Don't we need that? And the Gomorrah says this number Shanuan that the was destroyed because they they made judgments according to Torah, says the Gomorrah. What should they use? They should use like arbitrary make things up. Of course, they have to use Torah. Why are you destroying your shaleim? Because because the dionim judged according to now what this means is they insisted on and only on the and they wouldn't go beyond sometimes when the says something is permitted. It's not the right thing to do. It's not. You have to have the to know when the says mut but pass it's pasted and who's going to tell you that no one's you can't look that up in the Mishna brewer you have to develop a a sensitivity for that and this is part of the system as well here's a source we've had a few times before but I like it so I brought it again number 19 says the Rambam we have a beautiful midrashic idea on the mitzvah of you have to be yashar you have to be straight and you have to be good says beautiful midrash they said this is the mitzvah what's you go to a bin and you claim $10,000 and the other guy says he owes you nothing and the bastin says you know something do you want to have aara here which is that maybe it's gray maybe the real answer is somewhere in between maybe it's not all or nothing it's not binary maybe if you pay $6,000 that's that's a what does this The Torah starts off by saying you have to keep the mitzvah and all the laws which God has commanded you. And now the Torah says even when you weren't told what to do, you have to use your brain. We've managed to raise multiple generations of many Jews who do not remember anymore to use their brains. Okay. And that's not my line. You can you can hear that other places. You have to use your brain to do the right thing because God wants you to use your This is so important. Okay, you can't possibly include in the Torah. Everything you ever do in life, your relationship with your neighbors with your friends, your business life, your political communal life, all the political things you How do I know which part which party to vote for? Oh, look it up in the Mishna Bureau. That's not the answer. Okay. I had quite a few students who sent me voice messages saying, "Rabbi, I don't know what who to vote for. Tell me who to vote for." Sir, I'm going to tell you who to vote for. Okay, Dastra is another Shia which is not for now. Okay, we can talk about Dasta another time. I think it's a whole series which maybe we should give. So, I didn't tell them who to vote for. I mean, I did say one thing. I said I don't think I said I don't think you should vote for the Arab parties. I think that's a I think I think that is that is a hak and hashkafic problem. Okay, so I will own up to that. But I said beyond that, I said, 'Look, here are five issues that you might want to think about and you have to think if these are five issues that are important to you, who's going to do a better job dealing with these five issues? I don't know. Did I help them? Probably not at all. They probably just deleted the message and says, "No, that's useless. Just tell me who to vote for." No, use your brain. After the Torah has given us many, many different specific mitzvah, don't tell tales about people. Don't take revenge. Don't bear a grudge. Don't stand by while people need your help. Don't curse the deaf. Get up in front of the elderly and the wise. That's very specific. Now, now he gives you a general rule that you should be working out the right thing to do. Meaning, meaning what? Meaning every time you learn a spirit, a a legalistic or detailed aspect of halaka, you should also be thinking of the spirit of the halaka. What kind of a Jew am I meant to be? What kind of a person is this telling telling me to be? And then when I come across something that I just can't look up in a book, I know what to do because I've worked it out because I've become the kind of grounded broad person the Torah wants me to come beyond just the details of the Britina. Yes. So I think >> Oh, good. So we'll get to that in a second. In fact, maybe we'll get to that right now. Number 20. This number 20 was made for you, sir. And that is the source that we're on right now. If, however, says Revelation, we equate with the din. If we mean that everything can be looked up, every moral dilemma resolved by reference to code or cannon, the notion is both palpably naive and patently false. Isn't that what you just said? What happens when you realize the ethical thing to do is not what the halaka says, right? Which of us has not at times been made painfully aware of the ethical porcity of his legal resources? Who has not found that the fulfillment of explicit halakic duty could fall well short of exhausting clearly felt moral responsibilities? I I think that's exactly what you just asked me which is a good question. Now what's his answer number 21? This is not a straightforward answer. He says just how independent of is the ethic that en nobles us to above above the scoundrel with Torah license. That's another very important Ramban. You could become a low life a scoundrel but everything is technically correct. Your meat is mahad and a mahadin but you fresh it like a beah. your wine is the most the best ha but you drink it like a drunken you know you can become a if we regard dinner and as co-extensive very independent okay that's independent if however we recognize the is multiplaner many dimensional that profilerly conceived and includes much more than is explicitly required or permitted by specific rules we shall realize that the ethical moment we are seeking is itself an aspect of so your question he says is a nonquest because If you if is driving you to the answer which is morally and ethically a problem it means you haven't learned the breadth he says of what the Torah really wants you to be. I suppose there comes a point when a person's moral compass is a skew and that's the problem. And okay where where that lies is a good question. At what point do I turn around and say well I haven't learned the Torah properly. If I learn it more deeply I'll realize it's broader than I think. Or what point do I say well maybe I'm just off. Maybe I just have got the wrong uh the wrong uh input and I've watched too many bad movies or I've heard too many podcasts has given me it. That's a good question where you draw those lines and you have to try and work it out. He says but there's a lot more to Torah than just the technical letter that we are reading and the Rambam brings this down in 22. Jews cannot be cruel. It's just not possible that they can be acting in a cruel way. This is not a Jewish trait on any level. That the Jewish people, the children of Abraham, a Jew has to be a to the point that if a person is acting in a cruel way, there's a sh is this person even Jewish. How could they act that way? But that's not from Torah. That's beyond. Yes. >> Yes. correct. You're absolutely right. And I brought I brought you in number 22, which is exactly your point as well. You're never going to allow your general, emotional, psychological, ethical values to override a clear halaka. That's for sure. Meaning, we're never going to turn around and say, "If the says it's wrong, then maybe it's okay." We're never going to do that. But we may turn around and say, "If the says it's okay, then maybe it's not okay for me." There is a difference. And therefore, you're 100% right. We cannot just have a vague, you know, I'll do whatever ethically, morally I work out from reading the Torah. We lose a very fundamental thing. Absolutely. But that means that we need to have aso as a se as a as a flaw. and then go beyond that. It's not a ceiling, it is a floor. And uh uh I brought you two last things here which I want to talk about in the last uh five minutes or so of this year. One is a question which was posed by Rabbi Saxs. You know there's a very old uh Greek uh conundrum which is called the youthro dilemma. I'll read it for you here in 24. Is the pious love by the gods because it is pious? Or is it pious because it's loved by the gods? It's very famous old philosophical conundrum. Meaning, let's put it into Jewish terms. Does God give me all these mitzvah because they're the right thing to do? Murdering is wrong and giving doing is right. And therefore, God knows these things are right and wrong and tells me therefore do these things because they're the right things to do. In which case, who needs God? I if I can work out for myself what these things are, I can do them without God. God's just telling me what the right things to do are and let's find a way of getting to them without needing. So I don't need God to tell me. I can work it out for myself. Or is what God's telling me to do the right thing to do because God's saying it. It doesn't matter what it is. It doesn't matter what the moral or ethical implications of it are, even if it seems horrendous, even if it seems completely against every moral fiber in my body. If God says that's the right thing to do, that's the right thing to do. H how how do I in which case you have no clear moral kind of grounding because anything that God says to do is then the moral right thing to do. So how do you get around that? So Rabbi Saxs has a great piece and you can read it yourself on the top of page 10 and he brings a really interesting difference. He says there's a massive difference between the Greeks and the Jews. This is a bit of preheka Torah for you as well. The Greeks had this problem. He says, and you can read it for yourselves, because the gods, the Greek gods didn't create the world in the Greek psyche. The gods were just uh page six, top of page six. Yeah. The gods were, you got page six there. Yeah. The gods the gods were just kind of random beings that got angry and played around with people and tell people what to do and do this and do that. But they don't they didn't make anything that's real in the material world. They didn't believe that God created the world. Even if they believed in one God, they believed in the eternity of matter. And therefore, God was a lawgiver but didn't create anything. Whereas the Jews don't say that. It's so fundamental to us that God is both the creator of all things and also the giver of law and giver of Torah. These two things together and and um these are the two things that always go together. like in kdish we don't have that dilemma because the very thing that gives us our moral and ethical underpinning that creates us makes us what what we are is itself from God is the origin of both of those things we don't believe in the gods therefore they shouldn't conflict there shouldn't be a conflict we're not looking for a conflict between law and morality between law and ethics or for that matter between science and Torah it's a false conflict for the Greeks it's a conflict because they're coming from different places but for the Jews it shouldn't be a conflict and And therefore again he's saying a little bit like Rav Solvich is saying Rav Renstein is saying if you look deeply enough into reality you'll see calm conflicts with the Torah because if your identity of Torah is so narrow that's why it conflicts but look at the Torah in a broader way. Yes. What exactly is the concept of >> which maybe what the gentleman was saying over there there which is that there are some things which are explicitly in the Torah but we don't always say that the wording that the Torah gives is exactly how the mitzvah pans out for example but it doesn't mean what it says it means something quite different the way we learn the gazer sakosov is more multiplaner is broader is has a lot of different aspects to it all gazer gazer sakosov means is that we don't we don't get this from learning it from some hermeneutic principle it's actually in the text itself but the text itself is very complicated anyone who has ever learned any text which we all have knows that full well let me finish off um just one line of raal have a look in number 27 it is obvious to me that god does not want man to eat human flesh The famous conundrum, if you were, you know, stranded on a desert island and all that you had a choice between eating is tray for animals or god forbid dead people, like what would you eat? Because the Torah says pigs are trave. But the Torah never said people are traveing the pigs. He says, "No, I can't believe it. It is obvious to me that God doesn't want man to eat human flesh. The Torah fails to mention that the eating of human flesh is forbidden, not because it's permitted, but because certain things are so obvious that it's unnecessary for the Torah to state them. Interesting. The same idea that you've got to get your head screwed on the right way. Let me just finish with Rav Cook. Rav Cook has a long piece which I've brought you here at the end of the Shir in Hebrew and you can read it for yourself. He expresses it in a slightly different way because he's also coming from a cabalistic place. He says every Jew has two elements to their identity as a Jew. They have what's called the sigula of a Jew, the hidden inequality of a Jew and they have the of a Jew. the choices that they make says now ideally in an ideal world the sigulah that the very Jewishness that makes us Jewish he says which comes from which is brit should go together with the which is the choices that we make which come from britzai again he's putting these two things together he says but in in many people it doesn't happen that way for example he's dealing with the secular Israeli early secular zionists and he's saying how do I look at these people because he was under a lot of pressure. People said to him, "Why do you reach out to these people? Why do you deal with these people? They're they eat they don't keep shabas. They don't they break they they trample on the most fundamental in." And he says, "Yes, that's true. That's in terms of their but in terms of their sug What is that? That's nothing. That's something really important." says their sugula is shining bright because they're there for Israel, but the has been oluded. Says I'm going to hold it against them for that. Very often it's not even their fault. Of course, that really annoys secular Israelis when you tell them that really they're more religious than religious Israelis because I'm not sure they want to hear that. Well, maybe they do. Maybe they do want to hear that now. I don't know. People are changing, you know, in front of our very eyes. But for Ravk Cook um these people had an an immensely strong sigula even though they lacked that element of bikes okay that can develop etc. Now can you have it the other way around? Can you have somebody who is doggedly attached to the letter of the law but has somehow lost connection a little bit with cloud Israel lost connection with Eris Israel lost you you may be able to have that as well in in his day the only people who would lost their sibula were the kind of self-hating Jews. I don't know. That's an interesting question whether that has spread and that's more that's another problem that we have today. But he says never forget that there are these two elements and again this comes back to everything I've said in today's sh a Torah which I've got to finish because Rabbi Golshai is there. Um a Torah which we are connected to and committed to is a Britai and a Brit and that addresses the question at the very beginning of the sh which is the where do we find our our life our spirituality our beyond the law. We find it also in the lives of the avat and hopefully we can take that with us. Lots of homework for you to look at there. I will return please God in three in four weeks with totally different topics.