Rabbi Mordechai Kraft - Pinchas 2

Okay, so let you know, what I want to do with you today just um is just something we're going to really looking at Parshas Pinchas. But I want to look at it just through the eyes of something that went wrong in Moshe and Bnei Yisrael's reaction. What do I mean by that? I I mean that in the whole episode that we looked at last week in the the whole case of Shittim where you know, Bilam has an idea and he said if you want to ensnare the Jewish nation the best way to do it is to get them involved with immorality and the God of Israel hates immorality and will despise them for it. And very cuttingly and very successfully Bilam was able to convince or maybe even Balak was able to convince the women of of Midian and some of Moab to invite the men to come see, you know, come to their town or whatever it was over there to see their wares and the older women sat outside and the the young women sat inside and they said, "Look, why don't you come inside to see what we have?" And it was a very subtle process, but it worked. And you know, we looked at last week that before they committed the the sins of immorality they they made them bow down to the the service you have to bow down to the idol of Baal Peor. And I guess the Gemara says, you know, the the Hittite avoid the saw came the Hittite riots. You know, they really weren't concerned with Baal Peor. They really wanted the riots, but had to kind of, you know, the immorality, but had to justify it by, you know, kind of living up to the to the to the philosophy of Baal Peor. I remember, what was that philosophy? It was kind of like a a philosophy that said that you are free to do whatever you want to do. You have no restriction. The world is yours. You're the most god-like, the most elevated when you live an unrestricted life. And that's why the way Baal Peor was served was through, you know, this terrible, you know, this absolute disgusting form of service of of, you know, of defecating and and doing one's needs in front of it or something like that. And and and again, the highest level has taught us, explained to us, you know, don't think they were primitive in their thinking. It sounds like a very disgusting and primitive philosophy, but it wasn't. It was really a highly sophisticated philosophy. It was the inverted idea of the greatness of the human being. What we call godliness of Adam. Godliness of Adam we know is our inner core that comes from having a neshama and therefore there's no limitation. So they inverted that and said, you know, aren't aren't you you know, don't you you you have no limitation. You're most godlike when you are completely in control. Do whatever you want to do, whenever you want to do it. So that's like I say like inverted godliness of Adam, turned around. And in some ways a little bit sophisticated. And perhaps that idea is very much alive and well and living in our society. You know, why you know, aren't we aren't you more elevated when you're you don't have restrictions? Don't restrictions hold you back? So of course we understand, no, it doesn't work that way, right? That that that restriction the human being will not follow the straight path. We have a lot of pulls. We have a pull of the body fighting the pull of the soul. So unless we harness ourselves, direct that energy, we're not going to go in the right way. And we discussed the the etymology of the word yoke in Hebrew. The word yoke, meaning the the yoke that the ox wears, is called an ol, ayin lamed, which is the same root as oleh, which means to ascend, to go up. So that yoke doesn't limit the ox's capability, it channels his capability. Well, there's a right, it might limit it. He's 2,000 lbs of raw energy. Without that yoke, he can run everywhere he wants in the field, but there won't be any productivity. The productivity is a function of the fact that since he has that yoke, now he can harness him to a to a plow and he can he can plow your field for you and you can create something. So to to harness the all the energy we have, of course, we need restriction. But there is such a philosophy that says, you know, remove restriction. Just be free to be whatever you want to be. That's the highest level of serving God. Who needs Who needs any form of externality? You know, I remember, you know, I grew up, you know, I I I I grew up and you know, if you know my my history, I grew up you know, I became a baal teshuvah when I was in college a little after. And um I grew up in the reform movement. And in the reform movement, they had already rejected the idea of the yarmulke. That the yarmulke was something that they felt was, you know, an externality that got in the way of proper service of the divine. What do you need this external form of service? Get rid of the yarmulke. So, there are no yarmulkes. And why? Because they felt externality inhibits and limits. As opposed to the fact that they said, no, the external expression puts it above your head, focuses you to realize that you you have a a sham is above you. Have a sham is above you. That means you have to control yourself in service of God. You can't be ruled by one's lower aspect, which is the whole struggle of of what it means to be human. Which means we have a body pulling us down and a soul that's pulling us up and that fight is the battle of life. The yarmulke helps us with the fight. It is a tremendous and necessary a necessary ingredient. Yirei shamayim That's what yarmulke really means. Yirei shamayim. So, now at Shittim, the the the Bilam suggested that the you know, they they seduce the men. And to some extent, they were successful. You know, and there it it Many of the men or some of the men went from maybe the tribe of of of Shimon went after the women of of Midian. And there's an incident which is sort of it all culminates with the nasi of Shimon taking the actually the the princess of Moab and bringing her before Moshe Rabbeinu. And asking Moshe uh the following questions. You know, we'll take a Let's Let's look at the inside right now. Just going to look at um the pasuk which is in Chaf Hey Vav. And what did the pasuk say over there? It says Vayehi Am Bochim Pesach L'Moed. It says and they start crying at the at the opening of the Ohel Moed, at the opening of the tent. Uh good question here. Long that's another time, another story. Another story. Um so let me just read the the Midrash over there of what happened when when um this leader of of Shimon comes and he takes the princess of Moab and and then starts committing an act of of of immorality right right, you know, right in the open and causes Pinchas have to to take a spear and to spear them both and sort of ended and by doing so ends the plague. There was a plague that resulted over 24,000 members of class who died in the plague. This this was an enormous amount of people. And let's just take the Let's Let's look at the conversation for a moment what happened. It says that what happened that the leader of of Shimon came to so Biblosa Vayehi Ben Amram He took one of these He took the She was actually the princess of Moab and presented her before Moshe Amalo Ben Amram. Said to him, Ben Amram, son of Amram Zimri Terus O'Sura Is she permitted or is she forbidden? Amalo Sura Hilach Moshe said back, she's forbidden to you. Amalo he said to Moshe Amalo Zimri Zimri said to Moshe, thank you for you. Amalo Zimri Zimri said to Moshe Be'oso Shel Ach Ach T'Medina Be'oso Be'oso Shel Ach Ach T'Medina See. Moshiach you also took a a woman Midianite, didn't you? It's a Persian Midianite. So why are you now telling me this woman is forbidden to me? Interesting. It says me honest rational you don't show Moshiach. Immediately it says in this rational you don't show Moshiach. His he became weak. You know that this attack against him that he took a woman from Midianite and now he and now uh you know and now why can't I take a woman from Midianite? It says me honest rational you don't show Moshiach. He became weak. His hands became weak. And this I would be men of a law court. And he forgot the law court. He forgot what he should do. You know it and you know it has to be one who remembers the law court that says wait a minute, you know that that cannot be going on. That if you're aroused to see such immorality and you're so moved by it, you have to cannot you have to be a cannot so to speak. You have to take radical action and kill them. So Moshiach forgot the law court. Why? Because he was so upset by what he saw. The girl called him by Becky. And he started you know they started everyone by Moshiach started moaning in tears. The servant him a boy came. And that's why it's written the passage it says that they were crying. But the Midrash continues number of them. Why were they crying? She needs raffle you damn also show. It says she needs raffle you damn because her hands became weak. They just they just they were crying like they just were totally in shock and at such sorrow of what they saw. All they could do was cry. You know and then it paralyzed them kind of. And so Moshiach Moshiach the man of the moment it can be compared to what can compare this to? It says the bus milk to a princess. She discuss she turned the kindness of the hoopa. She's preparing to get married. She's at the moment before she's about to go to the under the huppah they should be a parion. The nims of Kelson in Macha. What hap- What happens? All of a sudden, they discover her being nickel Kelson in Macha. That she is sinning with another man. Like imagine the shock of such a moment. She just raspable she just raffle Yud hey of Krovah of Krovah and everyone just becomes weakened by the shock of of such an enormous violation. This is Kakh Yisrael. So too Yisrael Mosha was thinking. The soul mem shana we're talking now at the end of the desert. We're talking, you know, the 39th year. We have whole experience the end of the 40th year. Hain while Yarden. They're going to run they're they're at the Yarden right now. They're at the Jordan River. Lav or they are to soul they're getting ready to cross into the land of Israel. She now Marviah Yarden. As it says in the chapter to Yarden the base of the base Haishim you know be Haishim both. Ad Eival Hashitim bar Rosh Movav bar Eival Smoakh. They were right there on the other side of the Jordan River. Ready to go in. This is the end of the this is the end of last part of 40th year. Visham dif Snezhnus. And all of a sudden they break out in Snezhnus. Snezhnus means immorality. Imagine what this looked like to Mosha. Ru raffle Yud hey Mosha Yud hey Tzadiki Mimo. It says we're raffle his hand Mosha's hand became weak. And the Tzadiki with them also their hands became weak because of Bochen. And they cried. And they were going to cry but all made Knegad Shishim Ribo. The Yikakh Egel also the raffle Yud hey like it says similarly his hands became weak by the Egel. Elobishal Pinchas Yovel to us Rolo. And what happens? It says but you know Pinchas came and he took that which was fit for him. The fish is in other words the way the measure is expressed is that motion became weak and because he became weak so pin kiss responded and took action or the fish in this at sale and then the measure says because motion was this at sale wasn't was lazy the word this at sale is lazy this contest it means he somehow didn't exist it was lazy Who is this at sale the fact he he didn't you know he didn't act he didn't know what to do became weakened the word here is this at sale low yield each as for Russell we don't know low yield each as for Russell that's one of the reasons we don't know his burial place we don't know his burial place we don't know why he didn't come into the land because he hit the rock and he didn't speak to the rock and now the measure is telling us the reason we don't even know where he's buried all we know he's buried on the side of the on he's buried in Moab one of the reasons it's almost it's a according to this it's a little bit of a punishment to him low yield each as for Russell we don't know where he's buried because on some level he was miss at sale he became lazy and became weak and didn't forgot and forgot the whole life we don't know where he's buried that's one reason I I you know there are other reasons brought down also in other places too you know there's always this idea that he shall walk to keep his burial hidden his his cover his grave hidden that we shouldn't worship motions as it were motions the vehicle of communicating God's daughter we should never mistake motion for for a sham as other religions have certainly done but the measure says over here the reason why we don't know where he's buried in Moab is because he was miss at sale he became lazy not the best word for this but we'll get it we're going to define it differently. But he became weak, just he forgot the law because he forgot the law cuz he was so overwhelmed. And therefore didn't act. So the law of the Torah and therefore the measure sense by saying, this teaches us should say on the us can number of a cow can not could see. Person has to always excite himself, has to always awaken himself and have alacrity as reasons. As it says in Pirkei Avot, us can number you have to be a person has to be bold like a leopard. The cow can not sure. And light like a an eagle for rats could see and fast like a deer. Who give or are you strong like a lion last of the corner. In order to do rats on corner. You know, these are different type of animals that have such strength. And a person has to always try to excite himself to be, you know, us can number be strong like that leopard, you know, light like the eagle, fast like a deer or strong like a lion. You have to be strong. Don't don't don't let yourself be paralyzed by fear and don't let yourself be paralyzed by by pain, by by sorrow of what you see. You have to You have to feel it. You have to excite your inner inner feelings to to to to overcome it. We can at law made. And from here we learn should be ducked deep in the king of the side. We also learn that to what extent the college is so precise, so exact with sad to king at the side. And to a hair's breadth. A small mistake the most of a man makes in not having enough inner excitement and not of in inner motivation caused him to to forget the law and as result he doesn't we don't know his burial. His burial is hidden. No one can visit his grave. It's in it. Okay. So, let me welcome all what I what I what I think is just somewhat intriguing about this measure. And this one is as follows. It It's trying to look It's trying to understand you know, Pinchas knew what to do. He remembered this halakha here. And so it's interesting halakha that says, you know, that that it says here "Kena'i Pog'im Bo." Halakha says that when you see something that is absolutely wrong and uh you know, immoral and uh you know, and and and you're so moved to action, one is allowed to to to take the law into his hand and and remove the problem. That's "Kena'i Pog'im Bo" is the way it's expressed. And that's what Moshe should have done. And people were dying, remember? People were dying in the plague. There was a plague that the Kodesh Baruch Hu brought. You know, and and Moshe couldn't respond to it. And Pinchas said, "No, what are you talking about? We have to respond, you know." Again, Pinchas was a very thought-out decision, by the way. It wasn't just he acted. You know, it's like he waited, he decided, he looked, and he felt it, he knew I had to do it. It wasn't just he took his spear and ran. He he It was a very cerebral process and it's connected to his emotion and he did it and and he did the right thing. But there's a criticism of Moshe Rabbenu for not having responded. That's what's going on over here. Moshe should have responded. Now, it's because Moshe didn't respond, apparently, or because the Kodesh Baruch Hu wanted Pinchas to do it. Maybe Moshe wasn't able to remember the halakha. But the midrash is saying more than that. It's saying that Moshe should have had a degree of bechirah, free choice, to remember the halakha or not to remember the halakha. Now, it could have been, you know, once he remembered the halakha, he might have given it over to Pinchas to do. But Moshe's being criticized for forgetting. The question is is what caused him to forget? What what what caused Moshe to forget? So, the midrash seems to be telling us why he forgot the halakha. So, what happened? He forgot the law come because he was so overwhelmed. He became so emotionally pained by what he saw that he just couldn't respond. But I guess it's kind of kind of understandable, right? That when you want to see something which is so uh wrong to the extent where the measure says it's like, you know, a bride going to the huppah. And and all of a sudden before the huppah they discover with another man, like what? Like, you know, how how you know, how can you do such a thing? And Moshe Rabbeinu was feeling this for the 40th year, you know, we've been in the desert for 40 years together experiencing all these miracles, having to communicate with the Bon all of them directly. And and the people, you know, it was a 40-year yeshiva. And and now for this to go wrong? Again, you're like, like, how could it go wrong? And one of my daughters asked me on the Shabbos, we're talking about it a little bit. She's like, I don't like, how could it go wrong? You know, which is I thought an excellent question. You know, the answer is the human being is is a is a is a very complicated uh creature. There are a lot of cocos, a lot of forces going on inside of us. We have a lot of things happening in who we are. And it's not always so simple. You know, we have an idea, we have an idealism. But at the same time we have competing forces of the body and desires and passions. And it's it's always a battle that we are we are fighting to some extent. And that's why it says in Pirkei Avot, "Al tishma kol adam ad yom mosecha." Don't trust yourself till the day you die. And who's that talking about? It's talking about Sadducee coin who was one of the who was the coin godol. And at the end of his life as an old man, he all of a sudden had the thought that the Torah shebaal peh is not true. That the oral law is not correct. That partially oral law is not correct. And he became what's called he started sort of a a movement called Sadducees after his name again became labeled through his name, Sadducee. Which really those who rejected the oral law Sadducee. And that became a major my focus in class room. Sadducee in the fight between we call the Pharisees and Sadducee. And they would start rejecting the oral law. And and and that that of course they went their course of history cuz you don't have the oral law you don't have a Torah. But it it's the fact that an old man could be an old man at the end of his life could start saying, you know, I have questions. It means that the yetzer hara is on active duty. You know, they don't don't think the gates of hara isn't isn't competing isn't fighting with us. It is. But always on guard, you know, I remember he says he says who says it um in uh in the Or HaChaim one of the Mesillas Yesharim the Rosh Yeshiva of Chevron Meir Chodosh So, he writes a little piece in the bottom of one of the versions of Mesillas Yesharim. You know, he says that that by a soldier he says we compare ourselves to soldiers with the the army of Hashem the the tzivos Hashem. It's a little different. You know, in army a soldier he's on active duty and then he's off duty. He goes home. You know, he gets R&R rest and recovery. He says it's we're we're never off duty. The yetzer hara is always on active duty. And he's always trying to to seduce us and sway us and pull us and you know, that's why one has to always be alert to it. You know, there's no we're never there's never off time. You know, and we could fight it of course and and and reach high levels where the yetzer hara's arguments aren't attractive. The yetzer hara is always working. It's always it's it's always working. So, even in the 40th year of the desert you were still susceptible. Of course they justified it and but but the high you know, that's the core of it. That's the power of of of the drives of of you know, going inside of us. What it means to mean you know, what it means to be human. You know, being a human being is a complicated it's a complicated thing. It's a complicated thing to be. That's why we need a title. Otherwise we're lost. So, what what what what motivated and there was motivated forgot the Halakha. And the reason why he forgot the Halakha is because he became so pained by what he saw. And that's the Jewish bit, that pain. You know, how could you argue with that pain? Especially the way the Midrash compares it to a to a father witnessing his daughter on the day of the Halakha. Like how could you argue with the pain? As a result of that pain he was his atzel. He became a little bit weakened or lazy and and forgot the Halakha. And as a result Kodesh Baruch Hu said, "Look, he forgot the Halakha, you know, you know, not going to People aren't going to know your burial place. You know, why that's the meter guy can be that I'm not sure. But we see that he was madakdek with suicide. Cyrus it says Sham judges great something taken by his brother. He's punished. It's a punishment. You know, it's a punishment cuz he did something wrong. He forgot the Halakha. And why did he forget the Halakha? Because he was in pain. So, you know, I'm not sure. So, question is like what should he have done? What should he have done to to remember the Halakha? So, to that the Midrash gives us a clue. The Midrash says, "Well, what he should have done is he should have had more feeling. He should have been more askan number or askan see. Askan number means you you know, be bold like a leopard, you know, in in person. Be bold you know, not just be bold like you know, you know, like be a person to it but you know, just like get involved. Invest yourself in it more. Invest yourself. Look at Look at it more closely. You know, feel it more. That's what he should have done. He should have been askan number to really look at the situation. This is so terrible. My gosh, we have to do something about it. Had he done that apparently he would have remembered the law. Now, this is where the question lies. That's what the measure seems to be implying. But, here's my question to everybody. Ready for the question? The question is this. The whole reason why he forgot the law of what to do here was because he was so pained by what he saw. And the college bar criticizes him to the measure of what the measure brings out. The sham criticizes him saying, "Had you felt it more, you would have remembered the law." Wait a minute. He became paralyzed in thinking and forgot the law because he was feeling it. But, the criticism is that had you felt more, had you been more sorry and feeling it more, this is terrible and really applied yourself to the feeling of how bad it is, you would have remembered the law. But, wait a minute. The whole reason he forgot it is because you're in pain. So, create more pain and you would have remembered it. Does that make sense? You forgot it because you're in pain. But, had you have felt more pain, you would have remembered it. You forgot the law of what to do here that says, you know, you know, "Can I put him both in it?" You have to take action and then kill the the the perpetrators. You forgot that law. You forgot the law because you were so pained by what you saw. But, had you been in more pain, I was going to ask you to see really felt it more, you would remember the law. But, you forgot the law because you're in pain. If you were more in pain, you would forget even more. And the measure says, "No. Had you felt more pain, you would have remembered the law." So, any suggestions how that works? Do we have a Do we have a problem? Maya, go ahead. What do What's What's your insight? My insight? Um maybe it's that he like if you're in so so so much pain all you can do is cry out to Hashem, but if you're in enough pain that kind of like maybe there's a middle ground that kind of stagnates you or that um paralyzes you and that was his problem. There is this pain that paralyzes. And then there could be additional pain that moves to action. That Dave what, David? That moves you to towards action. That moves you towards action. Makes you move. That moves you towards action. I think you're both correct. I I think that's the message teaching us here. In other words, yeah, there is pain that paralyzes, no question. Moshe has been criticized to say had you felt it more, that would have somehow galvanized, would have would have mixed with your mixed inside of you and would have excited your brain and you would have remembered the halakha. Had you had more emotion, you would have had greater intellectual insight. There's pain, right, that paralyzes, but there's another level of pain where when you really feel something deeply and you're really bothered by something, that will help the intellect have greater clarity. In other words, Hashem created us in a way where we have we have a heart, we have emotion, and we have intellect. Often times, our emotion and our intellects are two different worlds and they sometimes the emotion confuses the intellect, as we know. Sometimes you we know there's the right thing to do, but our heart pulls us somewhere else. You know, someone, you know, let's say, you know, in a a relationship could work this way often, that you see something, a girl might say, you know, he's I you know, you know, like like it's um you know, I know intellectually he's not for me, but I you know, I I just like him so much, you know, I just can't I can't whatever, I just can't get clarity on it. And so we needed outside observer to say, "Listen, you know, like he's he's he's not what you think he is cuz the emotion confuses, blinds the intellect as we know. But there's a powerful combination of of of heart and intellect. And and that is when we feel something. Always can never rush could see is the way the our allies express it to to ignite your heart. Always can never rush could see be bold like a leopard fast rush could see fast like a like a could see like a deer Kalkanesh like like a eagle eagle re these are emotions. These are you know, you know, these are inner inner feelings of excitement which is the emotional world. When the emotional world is used properly it can ignite the intellect to have more clarity and more vision. That's when the human being is aligned perfectly. When the emotion actually ignites the intellect. The emotion doesn't inhibit the intellect. The emotion ignites the intellect. And as we saw the motion been as criticized that you felt to a certain point where it paralyzed you. Your job there was to feel it more. And if you felt it more you would have found the solution. Let's see if we can hear those words a little bit inside the measure to see if we see see if that that comes out a little bit. It says like this. It says that how much may have been addressed. It's implicit in this particular statement of our sages. Should this album of emotional nation satsu the motion forgot the local because he was in the satsu. In the Nisasel Hebrew, you know, it is the word atslah means lazy. I don't know if laziness is the right translation here. At least atsel means he didn't He was lazy in feeling the pain. He was lazy in getting himself excited emotionally to what he saw. That's really how we have to translate it. So, it says either either says Nisasel Yod of Basically says that it it says in the Midrash, "Nisasel Yod of is on him in the Halacha." His hands became weak. And he forgot the Halacha. It's Mash Moshe Shlicha Kadosh Godol Olam. Which implies what? That we see forget forgot the Halacha was because of his pain. But here's the here's the punchline. It's because he felt such pain, he couldn't get clarity to know what to do. He's criticizing He's criticized what? It says, "However, either I am Moshe Misdares Biyesurim Had he applied himself to feel more pain, to get more emotionally invested, I am Moshe Lo Ores Lo Halacha. He would have aroused his intellect to discover what to do. But he is Zocheh as Halacha Zocheh as Halacha and remember the Halacha. So, the criticism of Moshe was you were lazy. What was the laziness? The laziness was that you were lazy in exciting your emotions and feeling more. Had you felt more, you would have remembered what to do. Had you aligned what the Kodesh Baruch invested inside of us called emotion, which job is to excite us, and we're excited, what happens? The intellect has greater clarity. You know, I'll just give you the a that it says by um I believe it's by Chaim Volozhin. That in Vilna, there was a a woman who had been an agunah for many years. An agunah we know is a woman who she never could remarry because we don't know what happened to her husband. Either her husband left her and we don't know if he's dead or if it's a situation where a husband um refuses to give a get. Both situations called an agunah, she's like a chained woman. She can't remarry. There was a situation in Vilna where there was a woman who had been an agunah for many years. You know, you know, and I guess there was no actual evidence of what happened to the husband and and she couldn't uh she couldn't remarry. And she was really you know, very in a very sorry state for many years. So, this woman came to Chaim Volozhin. This is in 18 19th century, 1820s, 1810, probably those years. And she came to Chaim Volozhin. And she told Chaim Volozhin the story. And a few hours later Chaim Volozhin was able to was was able to permit her to remarry. A woman who had for so many years sat as an agunah because they couldn't find a way to permit her to remarry and to establish in some sort of veracity that her husband really had died. And so he came and told the talmidim, the students that he he permitted her to remarry. And they were shocked like, "How did you do that? Nobody was able to find the solution." So, his response is very interesting. He said, "Had you seen her had you seen her also you would have also found the solution. You would have also found a way to permit her to remarry. Had you seen seen her also you would have found a way for her to remarry." So, what did he mean by that? He had you seen her also mean I her and I saw how emotional she was. I felt so bad for her. I had to find out I had to allow her to remarry. That can't mean what he that can't be what he meant, right? Because if a woman husband is still alive and she remarries, it's called "ishas ish". That's a married woman having adulterous affair. And that is something which is have we have proper witnesses that a bait din is is an enormous sin which could be punishable by death. And the children of such a union are mamzerim. They can't marry into the class girl. So, it can't mean since it's so we always said this we're so cautious when it comes to to agunot because the consequence of remarrying in you know, when a woman might still be married is something which is a risk which which could be lethal for both all parties involved. So, it can't mean that he he felt well, I felt so bad for her I had to permit her. What he meant was because I saw her and because I felt her pain so deeply I had to my my my my emotions were so aroused that it enabled me to dig into the halakha, to dig into the sources to work through the Shulchan Aruch in a way that perhaps no one else looked at it and I was able to find a a a heter to find a point of permissibility that no one else was able to see. And the reason I was able to find it was because I felt so emotionally aroused by having seen her. That's what he meant. So, it's a a beautiful concept. The emotion of seeing this woman and feeling her pain galvanized, activated his intellect to be able to perceive something in the halakha that no one is able to perceive and to find a way to permit her to marry. What it was I I don't know. But he was able to see something that I could apply this. This is applicable here. There's a There's a lot basis for permissibility to remarry. And the reason why he was able to discover, he said, was because I saw her. I felt it. I It My heart was so moved. My emotions was so aroused. And that's why my intellect was more fired up. That's when the human being is functioning on all cylinders. That's the power of the of combining this this enormous this enormous gift called emotion with with the mind. It gives us greater clarity. And that's why, by the way, you know, we're always working on the heart. We're always working to to arouse ourselves emotionally, to get excited by what we do. You know, and to to So easy It's so easy to lose that excitement. That's why we always have to encourage people. Have to give people his up. Oh, you're doing good. You're doing great. You know, you You know, and encouraging ourselves. Sometimes just hearing a sheer, just like ooh, focus back on what I have to do, you know? It happens to me sometimes. I get I could also get a little bit just get down or something and and just just a few words. Like, oh, yeah, that's the purpose of life. I'm going to I'm going for it. I got to get back into it. Doing it, you know? And the emotion is such a valuable tool to fire our intellect that we have to utilize it. And you know, that that's that's really when Rabbi Yisrael Salanter developed this whole process of of learning mussar, you know, and and and feeling that the mussar has to kind of inundate the yeshiva's schedule, which now it is, baruch Hashem, in all yeshivas. But this is a concept that you have to move the heart. You have to have the heart the heart the real where we are emotionally is where we're going to be intellectually. You know, it's very difficult to be someone else intellectually, but not and not if if you're not there emotionally. Or, you know, if if someone is placed intellectually, but not there emotionally, you know, they're not going to It's not going to affect them. As someone said one time, you know, even we define ourselves almost by our emotional connection to something. You know, so so someone asks like who are you? You know, we always sort of like we people put their hands to their heart sometimes. Or maybe they say, "Where are you?" I'm not here, I'm over here, you know. Over here, you know. Somehow our hands go right to the the core to the source of emotion, which is the life. The heart. You know, so this is by the way, life, the word life means heart. Numerically, it's 32. Which is the same numerical value as covod. Or covid. Covid means your honor, your your where you are heavy. Is covid. Co- co- covod. Covod is 32. Covod. Honor, 32. Co- vod. Vod vod. Covod. Where your honor is is is your life, is your heart. That's where your And covod means covid, heavy. Where your your your centered. What's heavy means? Where I'm centered, where your gravitas, you know, to use a fancy English word. Where your gravitas is, where your gravity is, your center of gravity is where you are emotionally. Because where you are emotionally, that's what really triggers your your intellectual outlook of the world. So we're always trying to work on the heart to try to develop the heart in a way to to be excited, to feel. And that's why they saw so long to develop the whole system of of studying and learning to develop ethical change, which means that you have to invest emotionally. So that's why you know, if you go to your yeshivas today, you know, what the what a yeshiva what a mussar seder looks like in a yeshiva. Yeshiva by Chofetz Chaim was always the same time, it was 3:00 to 3:30. And the first 10 minutes of the seder, maybe 12, 14 minutes, supposed to just you're reading a word, mussar shalom, close to the office, whatever it might be. Or or something like that. You're working on something, trying to understand intellectually. And then the last 15 minutes, you're supposed to sing it. With a nigun. You know, you know, you you create a certain there's a certain nigun and melody that you apply to the words and that's in order to allow it to enter your emotional system. Your emotional your emotional veins to bring it from the head to the to the heart, which isn't always so simple. Like they say, you know, what's the longest journey in the world? What's the longest distance in the world? It's from the head to the heart. That's this. So it but that's what that's what Rabbi Sholom was accomplished in the aspect of learning the motion, which was send it. Make it emotional, you know, get it into your your bloodstream, your emotional bloodstream. And the more emotionally attached we are to something, the more we feel something, the greater clarity we'll have intellectually. And that was the criticism of Marshall Vianello. That's what he was criticized for. It says because he didn't feel enough, he became paralyzed. He couldn't think. And the criticism is you were lazy. You should have excited yourself more. Oh, it's good number one and three. Run, you know, be strong like leopard. What does that mean? Get get get emotionally invested in it. And had you been more emotionally invested, you wouldn't have been paralyzed with the emotion. The emotion would have triggered the brain to come to the clarity. Yeah, you got to take action here. I know what to do. Interesting. That's where the human being is aligned in such a beautiful way. That's where the heart and mind connection is supposed to look like. That's what it's supposed to be. Now, it's interesting, you know, just This concept I just like to bring out out in one more place. This is this is a story I think we're all familiar with and you know, and we see this concept working working once again. But before I go there, any questions with what I'm saying? Clear? We're good? And yeah. Thanks, Rabbi. That's good so far? Can I say something? Yeah. Oh, Irina. Hi, good morning. Yes. Rabbi, can I say something? Yeah. Uh because they know Do you hear me? You hear me? I do. Yeah, sure. Yes, we do. Because life must not work on his uh humility. I guess it was too much for him to uh accept this personal attack. You know, this negative part of humility when person don't feel not protect himself. You understand what I'm talking? Mhm. I'm trying to get clear what you said. Then in other words It's negative part of humility. humility was enormous. Oh, are you saying it's it's the it's the it's hum- humility gone wrong, in other words. Yes, it was too much for him. in other words. Yes. Right, we talk about like inverses, right? That's one of our themes in this year, right? Like Because it was personal Yeah, the inverse of godliness in a man means No. I'm free to do whatever I want to do. Greatest of man means I channel all my energy in the service of God and I control my body. Inverses aren't you free to be godlike, do whatever you want to do, right? Right, humility is no no like we say no per- personality trait is good or bad. Personality traits are neutral. That's what the Rambam writes. He calls the uh his book really on personality traits. He calls it the madah. Means knowledge, you know, wisdom. There's the wisdom with which we apply our to our personality traits to determine if we're utilizing them correctly or incorrectly. Humility, which is probably the most pristine and and the most elevated personality trait we have, can be both good or bad. It's neutral. When used properly, it means that, you know, I'm only a vessel for you and therefore there's no reason for my self-indictment. When used improperly it causes a person to say, "I I don't know what to do." Right? Maybe your job is to act like that. You know, your job is to take action. Your job is to decide the law for you. Your job is to to to take initiative. "Well, who am I to take initiative?" That would be misused, misappropriated humility. I was going to ask you what about the the emotional stems from a Bal Peor? It may be at least from from from for our generation and and side guys of the world right now it seems like like it's it's it prones everyone towards emotionality. And even emotions that are experienced as being uh um in intense. This creates like a noise for for the kind of emotionality that you're talking about that in creates a shortcut to Halakha. Yes. I I I hear what you're saying that that I mean uh the battle that that we're fighting is you know, the emotional system of the human being can be so powerfully motivating. It can also be distracting. Yes, it can also be a noise and it can be dangerous when not aligned properly. You know, again, as you're saying, sometimes the the emotion can drive a person from having proper judgment as we see oftentimes in in in many things. The the the pull, the emotional, you know, whatever that might be, whatever the emotion is pulling us up for, certainly in relationships, right? That would be a classic example. The fact that person is just emotionally invested with you know, likes a person, feels something and they can't have a clarity of who the person really is. And you're right, there there is a danger in emotion. No no question and and and sometimes that we have to be very careful about your emotions of jealousy and then emotions of of you know in inappropriate emotion that's pulling us away from proper intellect. That's an extraordinary danger. What the Torah is trying to instruct us in this case of Mosha is there is a proper for alignment that we're trying to shoot for. And that proper alignment is to utilize this enormous power of emotion. Emotion is is is inherently you know can be is like it's like a an engine fuel. It's like a rocket fuel. Used inappropriately right, the rocket ship can you know go in all sorts of directions. But used appropriately it can arouse the intellect to greater clarity. Especially in areas where we want you know we want clarity. You know I have I have to find the solution you know. I have to know what to do over here. You know it's it's I feel so bad about the situation. As emotion I feel how can you know I feel suffering there's a plague going on right now. People are dying. You know I I have to I I'm I got to feel more. I got to feel the pain more in order to get the clarity of what to do. That's that's where the engine fuel becomes utilized appropriately. Is is it is emotion again emotions again they I think I like like me those you know. Emotions are neither good nor bad. They just can be misused or used appropriately. Hashem wants us to be emotional. Hashem wants us to to to galvanize the heart. Hashem doesn't want a a a cold sort of you know it doesn't want to you know a cold calculated you know expression of service of Hashem you know like come on a leap a boy. Kadosh Baruch Hu wants the heart. You know sometimes women are better at this than men. You know they're more naturally more emotional which is a wonderful quality. Men have to work a little harder to sell it emotionally. But even when this the the the the power of this the emotion, the power of greater feeling is we have more intellectual clarity. That's what I'm trying to express that sometimes the problem isn't isn't intellect. The problem is emotion. And and that's all that's the problem, you know. If if a person, you know, I just just just to take a very extreme example, you know, it um you know, like if a person tells me that Rabbi, like I'm I you know, I you know, a person starts saying they don't want to be religious anymore. You know. You know, like you know, my my first response to that is this is not an intellectual discussion. This is an emotional discussion. And you know, with a little bit of probing and gently and and not too evasively, but quietly, I usually get to the core of it, which usually has something to do with a person has an overbearing father or or you know, and and um just feels the person feels so down about themselves because you know, they just feel like a failure. Or or or it could be that that there was something that happened, you know, or for women sometimes the girls that could even be cases of abuse. And just therefore such a resentment of of of people who claim to be religious, things like that. In other words, often times the it's not that's that's bothering, it's it's it's the emotion. And and you have to kind of redo it emotionally. You have to get inside a person's heart and have them start feeling, you know, feeling the love for Hashem and feeling how much Hashem loves them and and work it that way. And and that of course brings it back to the clarity, of course this is true. You know, again, that the the the you know, where we are is really a function of of what we're feeling, you know, what what the heart you know, the the heart the heart the heart feels. You know, the emotion of the person, you know, what what we we you know, what did what did I you know, it um I told you a story that uh I had a I had a a guy a student I was I was teaching at the somewhere. And uh he came over to me and he said, you know, he said, he wanted to talk to me. And um you know, and so I sat there talk to him. And the first time first question he asked me, he said, "Rab, have you wrote ever read Isaiah 53?" So, I know when I hear that question, I I know exactly what that means. It means he's been uh missionized. Cuz Isaiah 53 talks about the suffering servant. And the way Christianity holds of that Isaiah 53 is that's talking about Yeshua. So, I know right when he said Isaiah 53, he's he's you know, he wants to convince me that that that really Yeshua is correct and and we should follow that. And you know, that that's where he was holding in. So, you know, by the way, you know, Isaiah 52 says the Isaiah the suffering servant is the Jewish people. Isaiah 54 says the suffering servant is the Jewish people. Isaiah 51 says the suffering servant is the Jewish people. Isaiah 55 says the suffering servant is the Jewish people. Isn't it probably you know, as the Gamara says that if you have a question about you know, what something means, it's look at its neighbors. Look what the pasuk before look at the pasuk after it and that will give you insight into what the pasuk means. So, to take one pasuk and say, you know, oh here the suffering servant means uh Yeshua but not the Jewish nation is certainly a distortion of um of our of our of our holy prophet Isaiah. But that aside, so I said to him, I said, "I can't say that. I said, I I've read Isaiah 53 a little." I said, "But I said, I want to ask you one question." I said to him, "When did your parents get divorced?" And he looked at me and he said uh How did you know my parents got divorced? I said just When Well, when did they? You know. He said, "Yeah, just last year." Yeah. And I I said, "Did it bother you? It must have bothered you. It must have been very painful for you." And he said, "Extremely." And we talked about it. And um The reason I did that is because if if a guy a young Jewish man is coming to me and he's telling me that he's looking at Christianity and somehow believes that's the truth often times what it means is he's looking for a father figure. That you know, the way Yeshua's presented in certain by the missionaries at least is that he's the perfect man. The perfect father, the perfect husband, the everything is perfect. Very attractive the way he's presented even in pictures is he you know, it looks like a Hollywood actor. So I took a little bit of a risk. I didn't know his parents were divorced. But certainly I figured I could take a risk. He could say no, you know. But if I'm right, it gives me a lot of credibility in the conversation. And I kind of had a feeling that what he's what he's asking me isn't being motivated by intellectual curiosity but it's being motivated by emotional pain. And I happen to be right, you know. So it did give you a little bit of uh you know, of credibility in the discussion. It's because it seems to be a pattern that way. That's why I took a chance cuz these questions are often times are motivated by the where one you know, one's emotional distress. He's looking for a father figure. And that's what the missionaries offer through Yeshua. Look at the perfect He's a perfect father. He's warm, he's loving, he's embracing. He doesn't leave you. And look at him. You can see him, you can touch him, you can feel him, you know. There's a picture of him, you know. We have a man here. To relate to the abstraction of the Kodesh Baruch, you know, it is is takes a little bit more work. That's what Christianity does. That's their argument. You know, of course with Sham is the ultimate father, he loves us. He's He's really you have to go to him. And that that you have to retrain yet you have to bring the conversation there. That's what I tried to do. So, again, you know, it it's it's a person's emotionality is really determining a lot of what they're thinking intellectually. And and that's why in the on the inverse, you know, with the way we really have to excite ourselves intellectually to want to commit to studying more, to learning more, to growing more is is is to work ourselves emotionally. And and oh, Sham loves me so much, you know, to get these feelings. Oh, he loves me. Loves me. You know, I I just I remember my Reisha Shira. He whenever he would say these concepts, he used to say, "Oh, you know, Sham is saying, you know, Sham we we do this." He's like, "Oh, come, just tell me a little bit more, a little bit more." You know, like almost creating this such an emotional warmth in the way that Kodesh Baruch looks at us. Very very Kodesh Baruch is a friend of mine. He's a wonderful Tal Chocham, really. You know, he always says it like this also, you know, it's like, you know, imagine a you know, a third grader speaking to his Rebbe. A third grader is a little boy. Rebbe, you know, big beard. And you know, the the little third grader is is coming to the Rebbe and just telling him about, you know, how excited he is that he uh you know, that he got he has an extra snack today, you know. And Rebbe's like, "Ooh, that's so wonderful. So wonderful." So, you know, the way this friend of mine is also very Kodesh Baruch. The way he does it he also like you know, that's a Kodesh Baruch. That's a Sham. That's a loves us. He Listen for us for davening, you know, he just every word oh, say it. I'm so happy to see you. Say it again, you know. You know, so when you change the conversation in one's own mind to create this emotionality of it, the warmth of it, it becomes a different intellectual appreciation of what's going on. You know, and and so where we are emotionally really defines sir intellectually where we are. By the way, it also has to do with with where we are emotionally is is sort of the also in a radical way uh decrease what we're even able to see intellectually. You know, the I it it says as a tradition, I think it's so fascinating, that the American Indians when they first saw the boats of Columbus come through, they couldn't see it. They could not see it. They physically could not see these boats. Now, the the Nina, the Pinta, the Santa Maria, these were very large boats of the day in 1492. Whether Columbus was a good guy or bad guy, we should tear down his statue, we shouldn't tear down his statue, that's another discussion, right? But these boats were very very large. You might have enjoyed it. These boats were very large. The Indians couldn't see it. And they say, I this study that I I read, whether this is true or not true, but this is what they claim, is is that the couldn't see it was because they had never experienced it. That in not that the intellect they couldn't see because emotionally they had no experiential knowledge. They didn't They There's nothing inside themselves that could feel this is possible. You know, there this was something which which was beyond their ability to comprehend that there would be such large boats. The largest boat they ever saw was a canoe. So there should be such boats was something that that their eye was seeing, but the intellect wasn't processing because they they had no This was not like I was not an emotional reality. That was the reality of this was such that there was nothing inside of them which which was enabled the mind to to trigger it. Probably that's the heart. The heart they couldn't relate to it. They There's no relationship to it. And therefore the intellect couldn't see it, relationship is a function of emotion. So, it's so so fascinating. He said the same thing, by the way, by by the Mitzrim, the Egyptians. This is the Ramban says that at the sea, so when the the says there was a eastern wind, a a a Ruach Kadima, an eastern wind that was blowing that blew, and it was splitting the sea. And not only was it splitting the sea, it was splitting the sea into 12 equal parts, the Ramban writes. So, 12 equal parts, one for each shavet, one for each tribe. The The Egyptians were witnessing this, but the Ramban says, "May rov seenasom." Because of their great hatred for the Jewish nation, they didn't see this awesome miracle, and they attributed it just to the eastern wind. It's a natural phenomenon, the eastern wind is blowing. It's blowing into 12 equal parts. This is an open miracle. But because of their emotional hatred, they weren't able to perceive. The The The emotion determines what the mind is capable of perceiving. If you don't want to see it emotionally, you won't see it intellectually. You know, that's that's why people when they say to you, you right, you know, if you if if God would show me a miracle, you know, I I would believe. The answer is no, you wouldn't. Well, it's not that it's only if you if you emotionally want to see the miracle. Number one, you want to see the miracle unless you You want to see it. You're only going to believe this if if emotionally there's something drives you that says, "I want to believe, I I want I want this relationship with Hashem." Otherwise, you'll look at the miracle and it will will blow right past you. Maybe we do that also sometimes. We're seeing miracles in our lives always. And so then we look at the sign of creation, such an open miracle. But the more we say, "Hashem, I want this relationship with you. Oh, I so badly I crave it." The more those miracles, like, "Wow, I see it. I see what you're doing, you know?" And then those moments of excitement are so beautiful. The But it's the the heart that drives the intellect. That That's That's the That's the insight I'm trying to bring out from today. How important it is to to arouse ourselves emotionally in order to have clarity. Yeah. Everybody we're good? Quick comments? You know, if you if you like just just Yeah. David, you helpful? Yes. Indeed. Yeah. You know, I'll just you know, just if you have a moment, I'll just take just one more example of it. And And this was by Yosef. Oh, it always goes back to Yosef with me, right? It always It's always coming back to Yosef. I That's the Yosef story. In the Yosef in the story of Joseph, so it says as follows. It says that when Yosef took Shimon and put him into the board into the dungeon, why? Because Shimon was the one who threw him into the pit. So, measure for measure measure. And then measure for measure. And it says that um the brothers finally said the word, "Ashamnu anachnu." Which means that we're we're guilty. We're guilty. "Ashamnu anachnu." The word "asham" in Hebrew means guilty. The word in English, "ashamed," most likely comes from that word. "Ashamnu anachnu," they say. And And what do they say? Shimon is being thrown into the pit 22 years after selling Yosef. And the brothers obviously realize like this is not you know, random. This is not a coincidence. You know, they come down to get food, and all of a sudden the leader of Egypt wants to meet them, and accuses them of being spies, and takes Shimon and throws him into a pit and like you know, the brothers are very intelligent people. And they say, "This is a shame and a nacha. We're guilty." What does this have to do with? This has to do with the fact that we sold our brother, or the fact that we threw our brother into a pit 22 years before. But this is not what they say. And I'm reading to you from the the the the writings of the Sforno. The Sforno wrote that I did Sforno, one of the great Italian sages in the 1400s. So he says, when they said a shame and a nacha, that we're ashamed, we're guilty. Listen to what they say. They say, What's the language over here? Let me read this one. He says, Mhm. I want to shame and a nacha Eloheinu. The Sforno writes, We're guilty concerning our brother. It says, "Lo amru she tihi ashmas amanu chivas omi sasa." They don't say that we're guilty about selling him or killing him. As far as they they're concerned now, they think he died. Ela aksi rusum bi his chanaim bi his chanaim Avo, excuse me, al al aksi rusum bi his chanaim. What are we guilty on? On the cruelty that we we had. Bi his chanaim when he was crying out to us from the pit. It says, "Vihena he kida kosav kitsiyo bilivom." Vachashvu es Yosef ben Noach bisachash binashu namisum. They felt that Yosef was trying to kill them. They felt that Yosef had been a rodef, that he was running after them. You know, that he that he was trying to kill him in this world trying to not in the next world. And therefore they thought they were doing the right thing by by killing him. But now the brothers 22 years later have a revelation revelation. What do they say? revelation We heard of the calling to us from the pit. He was crying. And we acted with cruelty. We were actually we were cruel alpha be the road of even though they thought him to be a road of even they thought him to be an enemy and he was trying to kill them. We should have had compassion when he was crying out to us when he was beseeching us. So what happened what what does it mean? Although that's what Reuben said. I said to you don't send with the don't send against the child. Okay. Then what what the the story is telling us is this. The story is saying that 20 years later what happens is they start they realize they did something wrong regarding Joseph. But they say our mistake wasn't that we sold him. That wasn't our mistake. Our mistake was when he was in the pit and he was crying out to us of us. We caused ourselves to be cruel. And as we sold we didn't feel his pain enough. We We didn't feel his pain enough. We didn't And that's that's that's what we did wrong. And that's why this has happened to us right now. We didn't feel his pain enough. Now what's what's the implication? It says He was calling to us and we didn't hear. We didn't hear because we had made our hearts cruel. Implication, what? Had they been less cruel, had they had more feeling, more compassion, they would have heard. They would have heard his requests for compassion. In other words, they would have discovered something. But wait a minute. If they felt that he was a murderer, who cares about having compassion? You have to do what you have to do. No, it implies that had we felt more, had they felt more, they would have intellectually discovered that he wasn't trying to hurt us. He was just a child. He was just a naar. He was child having dreams, saying things he shouldn't say, but he wasn't dangerous. What the phone was saying that had they felt more, they would have come to a different intellectual realization of who Joseph really was. So again, I think we see the same principle just coming out in a different light. That the mistake was a function of not feeling enough for a brother. Had they felt more, they would have been able to understand that that he is not dangerous. He's just acting inappropriately. They really thought he was dangerous. They really thought that he was trying to take them away from this world, the next world, like Pishmal, like Asaph, like this was an enemy number one. And later, 20 years later, they said, "You know what our mistake was? We didn't feel enough. We didn't feel his pain enough. And had we felt his pain more, we would have discovered that that he was just a child. That he wasn't really dangerous." So that that's the proper That's the again, the the what the real what the you know, they discovered about themselves was the in the the the the way had they had more emotional connection, more compassion, the intellect would have greater clarity. And that's what we're striving for. And that's what we're trying to shoot for in our lives, to to really get ourselves emotionally invested in the service of the bonus in the service of Hashem. To really feel it, and to get ourselves we ourselves with ideas. Excite ourselves with who loves me so much. He's so kind to me. Excite ourselves every time we take a bite of ice cream. The world creates such delicious tastes that I should enjoy it. Like a blessing of it. Off with the emotionality is what stimulates intellect to say, "And I want I want to I want to serve him more. I want to you know, I want to dig more into the Torah. I want to be more exacting in in in mitzvot. I want to be more attentive to other people's needs. I'm I'm intellectually there because of emotion there. Everybody, I wish you a wonderful day. And uh Mr. Sham, we should work on these concepts a little bit to to to to invest ourselves more into emotion and understand that's what really triggers the intellect. Wishing you a wonderful day everybody. And uh Mr. Sham continue continue Mr. Sham tomorrow. Great. Thank you so much, Rabbi. You're welcome, Rabbi. Thank you, Rabbi. Thank you very much. Rabbi Hersh, you're welcome. Have a great day. Thank you. You too. Thank you, everybody.