Rabbi Mordechai Kraft - Four Words Can Save A Life

welcome everybody I'd like to welcome you back to Tuesday lunch and learn and as we say it Emmett if it's Tuesday it must be lunch and learn so we hope that these classes are are inspiring people to utilize some time the week for Somerville is a sham and the few ideas which which inspire us to continue our growth this week I'd like to speak about a topic which i think is is relevant to ll and although not directly related to ello I think it's particularly relevant at this time because I'd like to speak really about the the power of our words the power of who we are and the way we can influence others and and if we can influence others of course we would influence ourselves and the goal of elavil is to make that change in ourselves to turn back to a sham and say I want to live up to be that person you created me to be so to understand the power we have is is probably so critical and so crucial and many ways that was the message of this lobato if the great yeshiva in in Vilna which really focused so much on those kinds of the galas all of them the the greatness of who we are and if anything's lacking in our generation maybe we can even say it's that that we don't appreciate really how powerful we are how much we can influence people with our words with our actions how much we can change ourselves we live in a world perhaps we've we've demoted that concept and lost sight of what we call the greatness of who we are and so I'd like just to bring that out in an unusual way but in a way which is directly from the parsha and for this we're gonna look at at last week's torah portion which was parts of shoved him and then partly shoved him we are offered a very interesting very interesting concept and maybe even a mitzvah and it has to do with in a very specific specific situation that says he must seek Halabi odama says one finds a person who was murdered killed Shemin loketh enough sin to how they reached an Elfa beside another me he called we find him in the field we don't know who murdered him for your susyq nequisha of Tahoma do Al Ahram assure civil Salah what has to happen is the signal coverage of their home the elders and the judges really the the the great leaders of the generation have to come and they have to measure out and determine which town is closest that which town is the largest city nearby but which town is actually closest in proximity to the deceased where you measure deceased from this whole question but we want to find out what is the closest town and I guess assuming that the murderer will somehow come from that town but maybe that town bears the greatest responsibility because it's it's the closest so what has to happen it says for hire you're a clover look allow the city which is closest to the to the deceased look who's look who's Cigna you are here egg look buck or Shalu but Bosher low yahshua oh we have to take a calf and has been egg law a young calf a cap that was never worked the captain never had any type of yolk on it waha redo Signia ER he s egg little ASA a Tong they take the calf to annul a Thomas called to a a ravine which is is barren shallow yeah a big bubble you Zara I guess this aspect of the starkness of it like that in order to he to evoke the emotion of the the loss and the desolation and and the destruction of a life we are food Shama so ugly over that hole we break the neck of the calf by the red by the stucco by this ravine Vinicio hongbin lav Kevon buffer Sherlock a flu shots to the rock pajama Shambo p.m. you a cold river called no God the Kohanim are there because sickening I air and all of the the elders of the city and they go he told me the elders are talking about the great men of the the great men of the generation signe ie are he a crew of Apollo hollow again or from the city which is closest in proximity to where this body was found you could soar see a day in my leg lower roof of a novel they have to wash their hands on the egg la Ruffa over the calf whose neck was broken beyond ovm room and they have to make a declaration What did he say your dana loesch f who has the Dahmer's being in in the row our hands did not spill this blood and our eyes did not see corporately I'm here so compare Liam harissa relish uppity so Shem at Eton table hockey puck hell I'm goofy is 12 the happily madam I shall have Khepera atonement for your nation Israel which you redeemed don't allow the don't allow innocent blood to be amongst you nation the crap will hammer damn that this blood come as an atonement reality viola Dominic in Makeba cocky tosser yoshiyama name sham sham removed the innocent blood from your missed key toss and you're sure that when that which is right is done in the eyes of a sham they're very interesting and this set party shot them ends with this particular Mitzvah of what we call the the angle alpha are they get the calf which you break the neck you know we look at the the incident or the the halacha outside I guess they're just a few things come to mind you know why were they doing it so different opinions and then one opinion of course is that it should be what it means human life is so crucial the death of one person a murder or what does that mean you can't just allow injustice to to to to go unpunished you have to identify it and you have to be aware of it and this is a person we don't know who the murderer was one person we go through out of our way well the great men the great leaders the Kohanim there's a cane and the sages have to come and of course bike by coming it in addition to attracting attention to the travesty and the importance of every life hopefully it will also call different before should perhaps bring witnesses and the witnesses will be able to say we saw something we we heard something we you know we we we might be might help us to ascertain identify who the murderer was so it doesn't attract in addition to just drawing attention to the importance of life maybe we can justice can be can be can be pursued in this fashion and the common it's this very specific ceremony where they have to measure to the closest town and the closest town seems to to be the most responsible for some reason it's not the town that has the greater population somehow it's the closest town and that's a very specific law in the taurah and the halal luck discussion do you go after the closer or the majority call of a rock or a car over rove it's really a different discussion but this has brought us one of the proofs or sometimes closeness is the greatest indicator but that aside the question that I'd like to really focus on is what is this declaration that the elders of the city have to make so let's read it one more time it says seek Nia era here crow female hallow all the elders of the city who are closest to the body your butts or see a de amalah roof of an alcohol they have to wash their hands so if over this calf that neck was broken we honor one rule and they have to respond and say your dana loesch Afua s Adama serving in the row our hands did not spill this blood and our eyes did not see what does that mean the elders of the generation the the great men the the perhaps even the members of the Sanhedrin these are great great sages and they have to come and they make a declaration our hands did not spill this blood and our eyes did not see what does that mean Oliver let's let's try to take it slow that your dana loesch of who are hands in the spilled his blood so Rashi ask the question right on that and he says what could that mean he says Vicki Elsa I'm lazy can a basin shuck weeds on them him would anyone possibly suspect that the members of the great assembly the members of the great based in the Jewish quarter sages would anyone ever suspect them I'm spilling blood up being murderers so why do they need to make such a declaration being the end of the row and our eyes didn't see what does it mean so Rashi continues and quotes the consult and says every new hope are truly below bizanosa below Libya obviously it doesn't mean that we're accusing them of spilling blood but rather it's a declaration to go in SOTA mem a 45 base says Laurie anewhopeee are true no Paloma zona sul Olivia we can declare that we know as a fact that when this person left this town he did not go without proper food say to Ladera proper Olivia proper accompaniment we know that when a person leaves one's home so supposed to give them something say to the Darracq something to eat along the way and we know you have to malapa them it submits with the turret to accompany a person as they leave your home so the saviors have to say we are not responsible for the death of this person perhaps because we fulfilled our requirement to make sure this halal was known or even more specifically we can testify and know for a fact that this person when he left the home of the individual from whom he came before he was murdered we can testify that he did not leave without food proper provision for the way and we could declare and testify that he had proper livia proper escort he was accompanied meaning what if any of those two were lacking then we would be responsible for his death if he didn't have proper food for the way and if he hadn't been escorted properly and we knew about that and we didn't intervene we would share the burden we would share the responsibility for his death let's think about this for a moment maybe we could understand the first part the sentence had we known that he left this home without proper food yeah maybe we would be responsible because maybe his attackers attacked him three miles down the road and had he had provision had he been given something to eat he would have been a little bit stronger he would have a little more energy or maybe it was five miles down the road he was walking maybe isolated the east side of drink and you have had more strength and he would be able to defeat his attackers he would be more physically able I had he had proper food so we have to declare don't we know we had proper food so we're not responsible but the second part of the sentence a statement is even more puzzling we have to declare that we know that when he left he had proper Olivia proper escort so as we mentioned we know that it's a a mitzvah to accompany a person as they leave your home you have the company that they have to to walk out with them meaning what had he not had proper escort we would be responsible for his death now let's think this through for a moment where might he have been killed let's say he was killed three miles down the road okay how far are we obligated to walk that person as he leaves our home what's the tour demand of us does the tour the man that we accompany the person to the next town does a tour the man that we accompany that person one mile or maybe a half a mile or just a tour of demand that we accompany that person maybe 500 feet fascinatingly the requirement to walk someone out of your home is a requirement to walk that person Dalit a lot for a mode which translates into approximately eight feet one is obligated to walk eight feet with the person as you leave your home in order to fulfill the holic requirement of being Malala accompanying a person as they leave your home a very beautiful concept by the way when the person leaves your home we don't just send them off we're required to walk them out but we're only required to walk them out eight feet now if this person were killed within 8 feet of the home one could say look why don't you walk that person out had you there in two of you of course you might defeated the attacker or attackers but he wasn't killed eight feet in front of the house he was killed a few miles down the road so how could walking that person eight feet possibly of help prevent the death of his person three miles down the road to such an extent where again our sages the great leaders have to declare we know that he had proper escort when he left hey not a proper escort we'd be responsible for his death but no we know we had proper escort he was courted eight feet out what happened three miles down the road therefore is not our responsibility because we know he had his eight feet of walking now listen carefully that means that if he didn't have that eight feet of walking of accompaniment and he had been killed three miles down the road we'd be responsible for his death how could we be responsible for his death he didn't get killed over here got killed over there I heard a very fascinating answer to this question and before I say that answer the Earth's ability to say the morrow first the marami prague suggests something very interesting he says that what's the whole purpose of walking a person out of your door the reason behind that beautiful mitzvah is to show that you feel solidarity with the person but together when it's not just you're leaving my house I'm with you we're part of a larger unit called the Jewish people and I'm walking a little bit with you to show that there's a togetherness amongst us well one nation one people were a family and I I want to walk you out just to show you and demonstrate that so the morale wants to say just on a spiritual level and something very beautiful that when a Shem sees that we love and care for each other he gives special protection just walking somebody eight feet and showing that I'm with you take me with you a little bit you know I'm I'm together with you we're gonna part right now but we really wanted showing that love that brotherliness that solidarity with with with another with another Jew is his family and as Shem smiles on us so greatly when we show with our family and they're all wants to say it's a spiritual thing we get extra see how addition Maya extra protection from God so if one did it accompany those eight feet we want to get that extra protection from Hashem and therefore a it's possible that a tragedy get to take you know tragedy could take place and we do respond to that tragedy because we didn't even we could have evoked by showing brotherliness and and love we didn't have that extra extra protection from a sham we see to what extent a sham loves when we we conduct ourselves as family however I'd like to offer another explanation and and this is explanation that I heard from my Rocha Shiva Manik Lebovitz saw the great virtue Shu I was crying and Ravana suggested as follows he said it's true the Mitzvah is only to walk the person eight feet from your home and granted he wasn't killed in those eight feet he was killed miles down the road however we have to understand what can happen as you walk a person eight three four oh well let's see how long does it take to walk eight feet maybe it takes four seconds to walk eight feet what could happen in four seconds you have time to say maybe a sentence and a half I want to thank you for coming it really meant a lot to me thank you for spending time in my home you're a very special person have a safe journey that's about it maybe even just half of that thank you for coming I appreciate that you spend time with me thank you have a safe journey or maybe just even part of that it was very special having you have a safe journey one cannot say many words in the time it takes to walk eight feet however in that time one can literally affect the destiny of that individual not necessarily for a spiritual vantage point that the morrow wanted to say but for a very practical psychological insightful way you could change a person's self definition you can enable a person to see how special they are you could enable a person to realize wow you really believe in me you really think I'm somebody and that belief that they feel in themselves as a result of you can literally be the difference between life and death in other words that one conversation might have given the individual the fortitude to defeat their attacker three miles or wherever it was down the road because you said two sentences for a sentence and a half you're a special person thank you for coming that is so powerful we don't understand oftentimes the power that we have to change another person's life we think okay just words Who am I I can't affect anybody the toes saying don't think like that in the time it takes to walk eight feets eight feet you can offer words that might be the difference between life and death and had you not said those words the elders have to claim were responsible we knew he didn't have eight feet of accompaniment we knew he didn't get that word words of inspiration and therefore we are culpable as well in the death of this person he could change the life of a person at the time it talks it it takes to walk eight feet that's the magnificence of the Salah of the statement that's the power that we possess and again as we are in ello right now a few weeks from Rosh Hashanah we have to realize we have such power we can affect the lives of other people so magnificently it doesn't this I take you've it a long conversation it might just be offering words of encouragement words of belief I believe in you you're very special you can do it we don't understand how powerful we are to affect others and to affect ourselves to send messages inside ourselves to say we can do it as well you know I just to close on a personal story I remember in my early years of learning sheiva I was discouraged as often times people do get discouraged when they're not necessary succeeding in the way I'd like to succeed and I remember one time I was working a particular point in the tablet with my my study partner Michael rota and I was feeling just very low and feeling discouraged and feeling maybe this isn't for me maybe I'm not going to succeed in learning Talmud and Jewish learning maybe I should pursue a different area maybe not pursue the path of being a rabbi and as I was struggling to understand and feeling so internally discouraged one of my Rib a him one of my rabbis came by and I remember he stopped and he listened to what I was saying and he said for words he listened and he said music to my ears music to my ears indicating that what I was saying was on the mark a little bitter if it wasn't on the mark he was acknowledging the the effort I was putting into it music to my ears is what he said I remember to this day how I felt a surge of confidence in myself and the realization of the feeling that maybe I should give it a try keep pushing maybe I can't do this so in some ways I feel my life was changed through four words that's the power that we possess it's the power given to us by God because we're all creating the image of God and therefore we have an enormous power to affect the lives of others - never underestimate that ability and of course it never underestimate the ability that we have to make that significant change in ourselves as well