Parashat Pinchas: The New Jew

This of course brings us to the matter at hand which is of course the holy paratas which is reminding us each year of the obligation that every single Jew has to uh protest and rebuke uh when they see people desecrating the name of God, desecrating the Torah. Uh and uh of course this is a mitzvah that bazar bin fulfilled at the utmost most unique most extraordinary way in history. And this is not what we are supposed to do uh today as far as take a gun or take a spear or take something that could kill somebody. We're not this is not what the mitzvah is today because no one is zealous like Pinas was. But that does not mean that we are recused from this. That does not mean that we're not allowed to rebuke anymore like some heretics think or some heretics teach that there's no more mitzvah of rebuking. The Rambam specifically writes in the 13 and the 13 principles of faith that the same Torah that Musherenu got and gave to is the same Torah that we have today and it will never change. Meaning every single mitzvah is relevant. Every single mitzvah is applicable. The fact that we are not able to bring sacrifices to the beta mikdash right now because there's no beta mikdash does not mean that the mitzvah was canceled. It just means it's not possible. Just like the mitzvah of yum is uh of marrying a uh you know a man marrying his brother's wife after his brother died and left a widow with no kids. The mitzvah of yum uh is not relevant is not applicable obviously as long as your brother is alive. uh you know but the point being is is that people have to understand that all of the mitzvot of the Torah are applicable are relevant to this generation. Anyone that tells you otherwise is simply falling in the category of heresy uh because the Torah doesn't change. Now with that being said it is well known that the mitzvah of rebuking is extremely difficult for people to do. Uh it's a uh people don't like uh uh conflict. people don't like uh to uh to uh put themselves or other people in uncomfortable situations. Uh and of course uh I understand I can tell you that uh being in the uh uh being in the position that we're in uh and constantly fighting new wars at uh you know against different heretics and uh different people that are desecrating God's name is certainly not making us more popular. Uh if I was a uh someone that uh simply uh did what the so-called mainstream rabbis do, I would easily have a hundred times more people uh you know watching and learning and doing. And you would say, well, so why don't you do that? Because mainstream is not helping am is in one of the worst possible situations we've ever been in. 80% of AmI does not even keep Shabbat. Uh you have people that are literally driving to shul on Shabbat, meaning the one time during the week that they have an opportunity to serve Hashem and remove themselves from all of the things that uh are causing them to go against Hashem that are helping them go against Hashem. The one time which is to go to shul on Shabbat. They're violating Shabbat. They're violating the laws of God even more so. and unfortunately many times with the approval or so-called a uh closing uh their eye behavior by their rabbis which you know don't tell them anything pretend like they don't know even though they make a special parking lot for them and sometimes even valet. So the mainstream way is not working and we see it. We see it in reality. You see how there is a there's a degradation in our current generation much more than uh than is ever uh seen before. We uh you know if you look at some of the uh chuvot some of the responses of the of previous generations from a few hundred years ago from a thousand years ago you don't see questions addressing the issues that we deal with today as far as having entire communities that are not keeping anything entire communities that are even supporting the enemies in some cases. uh you know secularism was not a uh was not something that the uh Rambam had to deal with ignorance yes heretics yes but not secularism secularism is a modern-day invention it's an Israel invention meaning since Israel founding of Israel since the enlightenment movement that preceded obviously the founding of Israel by over hundred years all of this secularism is something that started over these last couple of hundred years but has peaked over the last 50 to 70 years and unfortunately it's like a new form of Jew a new form of Judaism has been created so much so that you'll have literally uh such comfort with secularism among some communities that you have secular people driving to the synagogue on Shabbat and they still consider themselves Orthodox Jews. I remember when I had to uh uh see this uh you know from from from a you know from from a firsthand perspective when I moved to Boca Raton and I saw how the Boca Raton synagogue while they do a lot of good things a lot of things to help the community a lot of things that uh you know get people to uh to learn and so on even though the heretic at the top is uh isn't in charge there's still a lot of good in the community itself there's still a lot of good people there but unfort Unfortunately, because the heretic is at the top and is constantly looking to appease people and fill uh fill up their the pockets, what ends up happening is that they have this so-called Orthodox synagogue with a parking lot that's active on Shabbat. Now, they pretend it's not an active parking lot because the parking lot that's directly next to the shul is shut off, but they open a new parking lot, which is a large field right next to the shul. And they even have one of the employees of the synagogue, sometimes two of the employees of the synagogue working there. So, it's it's a ridiculous uh insult to the intelligence of of of any member that actually cares about Shabbat. even more in an insult. Uh and of course there has been times where people have approached the synagogue to ask them not to allow this tea to ask them even to help them not allow it by simply buying the land and they won't allow it. Why? Oh, we want to cater to everybody. Now this mentality of catering to everybody while uh making them think that they are orthodox Jews while they're driving to Shabbat is obviously a desecration of a Torah. desecration of a kadosh's name. But it's not easy for people to speak out against this stuff. Hence the reason why you see this in many communities unfortunately in you know but very few people speak about it. Even more so there are other issues out there that uh you see that uh very few people protest against it. Very few people I don't mean protest in the street with signs. Protest meaning say something, make a statement. say this is, you know, put your foot down, not allow these things, speak to the rabbi, you know, do all types of things that uh that would get people to at least understand that their ways are wrong. We're seeing a lot more political correctness in the communities to the point where there is a mix of reform within the orthodox community and very few people are even able to tell the difference until they look into the details or until they actually learn some Torah. Now on one end it would seem like all of us and I could tell you myself 10 years ago in my shim you would see I would tell everybody that they should rebuke but after over a decade of experience and of course seeing and hearing a lot of the stories I can tell you that everybody should not rebuke some should but not everyone and I don't mean that you shouldn't fulfill the mitzvah. What I mean is that you shouldn't fulfill the mitzvah by speaking to somebody as a form of rebuke, but rather fulfilling the mitzvah of rebuking by doing other things such as giving people a USB uh that uh you can get from our store for free. You can get a the books uh to to these people. You can invite them to a that discusses Shabbat or whatever the issues are or simply teaches Mousar. You can re rebuke in other ways. And why is why is that the case? Why not rebuke? Why shouldn't everybody just simply become pinas right now uh without the sword, without the spear? Because not everybody has the ability to remove themselves from this situation. And what ends up happening is that there is cases where a person can rebuke in a perfect way and it could help somebody. It could help somebody even transform their life. And there's a situation where a person can rebuke and cause more damage than what you know than the damage that was there before. Meaning not only they didn't help, they actually caused damage. So here we're going to learn a little bit about what Pinas did and what are we supposed to do and why there is a difference. [Music] And if silence was not a crime enough, praising the wicked makes it even worse.