A Fateful 10 Tevet Meeting with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz

Heat. Heat. [music] [singing] [music] [singing] >> [music and singing] [music and singing] >> Welcome everyone. Would like to dedicate our shir today of Esther Badin. That's the mother of our good friend Kayat Sammed very big supporter of our shir and also Rael Bat Aram whose yard site is on the eth of tbase and kaya shindel bas whose yard site is the 10th of tase. Okay, today being the 9th, so we have an eth, 9th, and 10th. And that sets the tone for this year very much because I want to speak about um the the 3-day period that we're in, which is the 8th, 9th, and 10th day of Taves, which coincides with a couple of interesting world events. specifically an very important meeting between President Trump and and uh our own BB Netanyahu, Prime Minister BB Netanyahu, which is occurring uh or occur occurring 10:30 p.m. tonight, I believe, in New York time, which will put us exactly on Assarves. Interesting day to have a meeting about the future of Jerusalem and Israel. Uh-huh. There are no accidents. I want to reflect on that the Assarves meeting what we can anticipate and what it might be all about. Secondly, I want to uh congratulate Somali land. So Mali land is was recognized by the state of Israel today and I today or yesterday as a legitimate uh state fitting all the definitions of quote unquote your favorite and mine international law because they have been keeping their own boundaries since 1991. They won freedom from tyrannical European imperial England in the 60s but then they were forced after five days of independence to merge with Somalia which we all know we'll talk about what Somalia is and represents both in its location and also with politically in the United States. Somali Somalia is a terrible enemy of the United States. But Somali land is not and the first country in the entire world that belongs to the United Nations to recognize this little country but strategically important, symbolically important, spiritually important. We'll talk about all that is Somali land being recognized by the state, the sovereign state of Israel. What does that mean? And why did it occur particularly at this unique period in time during the calendar that we're in 8 9th 10th of tes as well as this unique year 5786 was a year of tremendous tremendous significance in the in the destiny of the Jewish people things are moving rapid fire. So let us begin [snorts] tell us uh our rabbitic sources tell us the three events occurred in these three days that we're in the middle of 8 910 taves 8 was yesterday 9 is today which is Monday yam sheni and then yamishi the fast of a serv is tomorrow and what were those three events and what is the survis all about and and what is our avodas Hom what is our important focus going to be hopefully for tomorrow we have to get the significance of it context of it it's not just a day to deprive yourself from eating as which we will see from the uh uh the writings of rab nasana breast love is not the worst thing to fast also we'll get into a little bit of whether women should fast altogether which is an interesting subject these these particular tanos So three events happened historically all of them of concern of great concern because the month of Tavves spiritually does not belong to the Jewish people yet. What does that mean? We know that time is one of the dimensions of creation and that the Jewish people are in a prolonged galut. And this week's para, which we'll touch on an incredible shot in this week's para as well, um is really a galut para sinquanan. It's one of the most gullless paras in the entire Torah. In fact, probably the most gullless para in the entire Torah. We find at the very end the death of Yakov, his burial escape from Egypt to make it to Kevron to the holy city of Hevan for burial. But Ysephic as the book of Genesis as the book of Berius comes to end comes to a term to its term. We find him buried in a psycho a sarcophagus. Some say deep in the Nile. Some say deep in a pyramid somewhere guarded by uh sorcerers, dogs, which were spiritual creatures of great damage that were guarding entry lest anyone take away from Egypt the miraculous coffin of a great sadic which everybody knew to be a great blessing. So they either said, "Well, sink it in the Nile and we'll keep the blessing of Yoseph here forever, or let's hide them in some pyramid and surrounded by magical creatures that the Egyptians only knew too well how to conjure up demonic dogs actually that would destroy anybody who would come even near the burial site. The only person who could rescue him from either venue according to our medish was none other than the Messiah, Mosher Rabenu. What does that mean for us? Okay, all these exciting things which we're going to say tavis can be tough. But when the going gets tough, the tough get going. So we need to get tough tough for T getting tough for Tes. That's our theme. So three major events. Number one, the Torah was translated into Greek, which is known as the Septuagant or Targum Shivim, by none other than Tolmi, who was a successor of Alexander the Great. We know Alexander the Great divided his world into four uh regimes. Interestingly enough, because we speak about four Galuyote, four exiles of Jewish people. Ironically, Alexander the Great, who conquered the whole world did divide the world into four segments. And some of them, several of them are still subjugate the Jewish people today, which is um the Tomeic dynasty took Egypt and the Middle East including Eratus Israel, at least originally. The Syrian Greeks uh took Mesopotamia. But that was also they eventually took away Eratus Israel from the Egyptian monarchs and that began the biggest biggest uh tragic years known as Galutavan, the days of Antio, the days of Kaneka in which the Greek the Greek Syrian Greeks came to destroy the religion of Judaism which Tommy Hamel never did. Now Tommy was an enlightened person. He considered himself probably the greatest most educated person. He was the intellectual heir of Alexander the Great as much as a physical heir because he carried with him the traditions of the wisdom seeking of Greece uh that was that had preceded uh Alexander the great's preeminence the teachings of Aristotle Plato before him but primarily Arisatellian knowledge and method so Socrates and Socratic method going back the entire history of Greek wisdom which as we know was in direct opposition in many ways to the wisdom of the Torah but eventually reconcile because it says somehow there's a reconciliation. You'll have to explore what that means. But uh the fact is that Greek letters adorned the holy beta mikdash because it says in the Mishna and skullim that when they collected money from people the the chests that were used they were called uh lishkot karens. They were to receive the coins they were with Greek letters. Very very interesting. Why were they with Greek letters? Huh? Deep mystery. Okay, we'll perhaps have an explanation. But Tommy's treasured wisdom above all else. He was the ultimate philosopher, king of his day, much like Marcus Aurelius would later be in the times of of Behuda under the Roman exile. But he wanted the greatest library in the world. Alexandria of Egypt. The beacon of of uh Greek wisdom was Alexandria. Notice named after Alexander the Great conquered the world. And he had the greatest library known to man of science and also of philosophy. And he wanted, of course, a copy of none other than the Jewish Bible. Why? How could you have a library that didn't contain the book of books? Okay. And he commissioned elders 70 or 72 depending on the version to translate the our Torah into Greek. Now this created a tremendous dilemma because as we know the Torah itself contains four levels at least of wisdom and that is parades shot rese the deeper reading of a text but what's how do you understand the psukim re is what are the illusions ions to deeper cababalistic wisdoms and dash is also is what we call the ability to extract using the 13 mida 13 principles of Torah like kalomer etc and also to offer agadic or halletic interpretations and then finally swed which is the encasings of how the Torah itself is simply a chain of mystical names of God. So on that level of utter utter otherworldly mysticism, the Torah is interpreted in that sense as well. And the Zohar for example is a peran to Torah coming from mystical perspective. That is so much rich wisdom which gives birth also to hakic understandings, interpretations, talmudic interpretations and understandings uh Jewish law um philosophy ano and by translating to Greek you shut the light on the entire enterprise and end up with a simple Greek reading which can easily be mi in uh misinterpreted. From the very first Puk of the Torah, the challenge was it says braces. And if you turn it into Greek or for our purposes English, you'll say bar. Oh, this entity known as brachid created god. That's already off. That's already a vodor. You didn't get out of the first puss yet and you're already being challenged with a votor. This is a disaster. So they had to amend the simple readings as they were and translated into ancient Greek which was a rich language which the allowed the Torah to be written into ancient Greek because it was considered like a royal language. It was the most noble language ever created by mankind after Tarum which was actually a partial Torah language. Tarum is a step down from Hebrew. It has a kaduca to it. Yava ancient Greek does not have kadusha to it but it could be a repository to kadusha and that's one of the interpretations that um of Noah's blessing to the nations of the world that said let y spread wide that's what yus means spread wide but the dwelling of theina will be in the tents of shem i.e e our bases migdash or we will shall have some of the aspects of yafes's beauty reflected in the basa migdash which may understand which may explain why Greek was allowed to be a language to to hold as a cle to hold the safer Torah and also to hold the text of the Torah as well as to take the contributions of sodaka into the b mdash this is a very profound ideas it was deserves a lot of its own attention I'm just mentioning it year in passing to say that this event took place on in this period 8 910th Davis. The other event was the death of Ezra the Sofare. Ezra Sofare was a living link to the ancient tradition. He was on he said that he was in his generation equal to the greatness of Moshe. Mosher Rabenu in seeing the soul of the future leader that would return the Jews to the Beetham Mikdash and reopen the Betham Mikdash and also cleanse the the the small minority of people 42,000 plus who came from the raggedy people who came from Bavl and Bavl kept the prestigious Jewish families and sent only uh rough and tumble you know Jews who were willing to go to the wild west of Erit Israel which had been destroyed and was in complete disarray and and uh conflict and they said take those people don't take our fi our finest the finest people will tend like precious vines here in in the galut of Bavl teach them Talmud and keep them holy and pure you can take all the dregs there's no such thing as dregs but take the ones that we don't even know if their lineage was Jewish or not. They might not even be Jewish. They might be sorry in in Kaducian spells this out just a terrible confusion that this that the just the halic state kind of like the state of Israel today. There's such an ad mixture of people who are are identified as Jewish but hahically maybe not Jewish or they're proudly non-Jewish even though they're called Israeli because they qualify by the law of return. A big mess that the Rabanud is supposed to sort out but with great difficulty. And then there's questions of conversions. All of this was placed on the lap of Ezra the Sophair who came to rebuild the pristine holiness of the second B mdish the company of several Nvim of which he was a member himself of the Ani Knesses Adoll of the men of the great assembly who transitioned the Jews back to Erit Israel reestablished the second Basa mikdash and set the second bas on its course uh to it to its destiny with its rendevu with holiness let's put it that way So his passing was a terrible loss and it occurred in this period of time cuz he was that link to our holy tradition, the knowledge, the ultimate knowledge. He was called so fair. You might look at him, I would suggest, as a figure that was prophetic wisdom versus the later wisdom of Toli, which is human wisdom. That's really what he was about. And Ezra Sofa was an early member of that. an early cohane in the second Ba Mdash and of course Shimadic who followed him was the was the last of the Ankesses Agdola but Ezra was a great leader and establisher of the Knesses Agdola. So when we lost him, we lost the creme de la creme of of of Jewish Torah and spiritual aristocracy uh of that era which signaled the beginning of the end of the prophetic era. That was a terrible loss. So we basically started to lose what? Prophecy. The third thing, so the sanctity of the Torah, the prestige of the Torah, the depth of Torah learning was diminished by the Targum Shivim. The loss of Ezra Sophair, who by the way reintroduced our mystical Hebrew alface known as Ksav Ashuri, the square block letters that we use today, the quote unquote Assyrian Hebrew. He revealed it to the masses because it had been not in use. Everybody knows if you studied a little bit of the garra migilla that the Torah may have originally been given in terms of the original Sarasa dibbros in our current Hebrew alfay which has mystical images. I mean it's unbelievable the the dash that we have on the shape of the current Hebrew letters that are in use. Okay. What what a dalid symbolizes what a gimmel symbolizes is only relevant when we're writing it in the text that we use today in our sephrra. But that text was considered so holy and so um privileged that not everybody was allowed to use bandit about. You didn't have sephrra written in that with those letters. you had something called iri Hebraic the Hebraic alphay which was a much more simplified version. Uh the letters were um like for example more shapes than our current block letters and um but that was the common script. In fact, even the second lucos according to our tradition were given in kav i. And guess what? It wasn't until Ezra the sofair led the Jews back to Israel that he felt that the Jewish people was one he was such an interesting figure because he made many takot we say takat ezra that's a whole subject in a shir in its own right Ezra he made certain rules and says we got to get the Jews re reconnected to Torah mitzvos and to each other. I'm going to enact a series of laws that are even going to protect the holy institute of marriage because intermarriage was destroyed the generation of between the two bet mikdash came to restore Jewish families to their sanctity to ritual purity to marriage of Jew and and Jew and not marriage of Jew to non-Jew. Okay. So how do you protect the nasent newly purified recently purified right Jewish people amados observing Torah mitzvos living in the holy land and keeping the holy Torah mitzvos that was a tough tough tall order to take what essentially was people who were not particularly learned in Torah mitzvah in fact the very first Russ Ezra assembled the people in in Ushalam. He read to them the Torah and they started to just to cry. They didn't even realize that they were violating the Torah. They didn't know taking a non-Jewish wife was necessarily a big problem, which is much like Jews today. Nobody thinks in modern America uh you know that it's such a big deal to be married to a non-Jew because this is my Jewish husband and that's fine. You know, we make a Christmas tree. I read I I even saw an interview just just it just shook me. A woman was sharing a woman was sharing that that that um she was I don't know she was commenting I think she was even commenting about politics or Israel. She she said yeah my husband's Jewish but we love to do the Christmas tree and all the little things and I made him Kaneka gnomes. You know what a gnome is? A gnome is this little fat guy. It was like a a gremlin or a leprechaun. So, I made Kaneka gnomes to put under the tree like little fat Santaas but Jewish, whatever that looks like. And uh and her husband didn't like it. Why didn't her husband like it? Okay. And um gee, I wonder why he didn't like it. It gently remind maybe made him a little bit uncomfortable. Maybe just a little bit uncomfortable. Khan Kaneka gnomes. That's what's left. And where she's so into her Christmas celebrations and he's sitting there watching the Kaneka gnomes. This is the reality of of America today, of gullis today. And and no one thinks anything of it. It's wonderful to have a Jewish spouse. Why not? And that's what they thought then, too. Our most famous identified movie stars and actresses are proudly Jewish and married to non-Jews. They don't think a thing of it. This is my Jewish part. This is my Jewish aspect. These are my roots. Okay. Your family comes from Holocaust survivors and you want to marry this. You marry a Catholic guy. I'm not mentioning names, but you're going to have Jewish children. Okay, I guess that's something, you know. Now, I also saw a snapshot of the Biden family. Now, you know that the Bidens have a Jewish daughter-in-law, very Jewish. Uh, Hunter, the famous Hunter. Biden. Hunter like Asab, I guess. hunter. He was a hunter. And then he's married to this nice Jewish girl and uh they have a Christmas picture. There's no Hanukkah picture, but she's very I think her name is Cohen. I mean, it's just like it's well known. I don't think she's even that that aranged. I think she comes from some sort of background, a little background. Same with Hillary Clinton's uh son-in-law who's Jewish, came from a very well-known conservative family, not just politically, not politically conservative, but you know, you know, traditional Jewish family. And they married Hillary Clinton's daughter and Hillary would not allow her daughter to convert to Judaism even though the really wanted to. And if you remember that wedding, they wore they would they had a they had a talis. They had some reform rabbi performing a ceremony. They made sheras. This is all documented. I think it was on the cover of Time magazine. They showed him running out with his talis from under the with Clinton's daughter, you know, and it said in ironically, you could see the words on the cover of Newsweek. What's wrong with marrying Jewish? We love Jews. Jews are part of us. So this is what Ezra had to contend with. But he could he was uh magical in his success in in turning that generation which was so so far away back towards Torah and Mitzos. The effect that he had that that sadic had on on them was super profound. Super profound. And greatest rebi of all time Ezra Hassof. That's why he's called hassof the teacher the the you know the anti told me that's what he really was hasser not philosoph and not a not a biblio um creating um libraries but creating Jewish life. So when he passed it was a great loss for the Jewish people and that occurred now was a disconnect. He introduced the Jewish letters because he knew and this is um right in the beginning of migillah that he he they speak about and the and the four final letters manip etc the that have a different shape than their regular letters that when they appear at the end of a pok end of a verse. So why did he introduce all that? And the Gmorra asks Nim notes asked the Gamar very beginning of migillah you know introduce new things. So the Gmorra says no it's not new it's something very old but that was forgotten and reintroduced. This was part of the mystical aspects of Torah part of Kabala. And you know what Kabala is very interesting to people who are a little far away from Torah mitzvos. You're not going to get them to come to mainstream Torah classes so easily. But if you tell them, I want to reveal to you some mystical secrets of the of the Cabala, which is the secret teachings of the Torah. I'm here. Okay, I'm there. Even Gmer are coming. They're lining up. They're lining up to go to the Cabala center. I even saw something recently that blew my mind. There's a guy, I'm not going to mention his name, who's not Jewish, but he studied a lot with the quote unquote Cabala Center. I'm not saying I'm not endorsing them in any way, shape, or form, but this guy was featured on a Kaneka video with his Jewish wife and Jewish kids. And guess what? His Jewish wife calls him the rabbi. Now, he's a He knows he's a And he says, "I'm a goy." He said, "But he knows more about Torah and mitzvah than almost all any Jew, certainly in America." And that's because he's on fire with these teachings that he got. And he knows this place. He says, "I know who I am. I know I'm God." But his wife is like, you know, she came from, I think she was Russianborn. And she said, you know, when we were in Russia, we knew we were Jewish. They didn't make a big deal about it. Nobody spoke about it. didn't really mean anything. You know, when we were growing up, you know, you're Jewish, okay, so fine. Don't make a big deal about it, that's all. But he keeps telling them lessons and ideas and they make a and and and Jewish concepts and the he's constantly teaching them. And he said, "I learned with this rabbi. I wrote down everything he ever said to me. I went through all of his teachings. I know it cold." Boy, this guy's on fire. Even a can get on fire from this stuff. I'm not saying that they should should be allowed to study. I'm not I'm not endorsing that they should study it. But it was remarkable how this guy was given giving uh giving over to his Jewish wife who was clueless, utterly clueless. And that's the power. That's the power behind Torah, you know. And Torah can draw out souls and bring them to Kadusha. That's why we have a cabala from teachers like Rabbi Nak and Braslo that real sadikim people who really care about Jewish souls can draw souls to Torah and mitzvos through the vehicle of conversion. And it's not for everybody. You have to be a great great soul to inspire non-Jewish souls to seek God. But it happens all the time. All the time. But it's usually through some great personality or that their souls themselves were on a journey that they did all on their own because we understand that their nishama had a special special Jewish connection and had to be part of Torah mitzvah. Yeah, that's a whole discussion in its own right. But what's my point? Loss of this loss of the richness and scholarship of Torah. That's the septuagent loss of Ezra Hasser that sadic rebi who was akin to Mosher Rabenu to take a generation like the Jews of Egypt who on the 49th level of Ta vased Garnished 80% didn't even make it out of Egypt and Mosherenu was their savior that's an Ezra figure and then of course the third and most tragic one which happens on the 10th day of TBA the very day in which Trump is scheduled to meet with in Mara Largo is surv. The day that Jerusalem became under siege. Okay, siege is not destruction. Siege is not destruction. And there was plenty of food and and supplies especially in the second base of mikdash to hold out. But that's when what happened? Jewish unity began to crumble. And once Jewish unity crumbled and there was interessine rivalry especially in the second B mikdash people who wanted to fight Rome versus people who didn't want to fight Rome they burned down the storehouses to promote conflict and say let's go fight but that wasn't the wise thing to do at that time nor was it the will of Hashem according to Zakai it wasn't the time for that it was time for a bitter elongated golus which what Hashem decreed on us for many reasons that not not all of which we are under we are privy to and it was a mistake and the gdole had said it's time to regroup and rebuild but that day of the siege of marks the beginning of the end and I would suggest not because anything was missing there wasn't a breach in the wall there wasn't starvation and there wasn't even uh a a material war going on what went on was a siege mentality a crisis which crumbled Jewish unity. So if you're going to take those three things, the unity of Torah, the unity of the sadikim and the rebim and uh with this people of Israel and then just on a simple level, the unity of Jew to Jew, right? That is the the challenges of tough taves. Now tavas as I said is a month which has not been liberated completely in its holiness and its kaduca. For example the month of tish which has rashana yam kiper the month of el which has 30 days of chuva. These months these times of year pesak shuis right these times have reached their apex already many many many years ago. Even tishov is an apex because it's a moade but it's it's it's it it was and will be a holiday eventually but taves not but the first two days of taves belong to kaneka so it's like yakov holding on to the heel of as right or one candle banishing a ton of darkness two out of those uh 30 days 29 days are filled with such a power that it can illuminate the entire the entire month and this is what we we are end so one week after Kaneka things get dark but wait it's not really true in the world outside the sun is starting to produce is be visible for a longer period of time the days have begun to grow so Why is it so dark? Okay, the answer is we're lost in the darkness of the natural world which is starting to get its power. It says in the end of Mmarinus that our time, the time of the Jewish people is associated with the moon is nighttime. Nighttime is for Torah. The concerns of the everyday world go away. You're free to contemplate and learn and sit quietly and connect lovingly with your family. That's Jewish time. Jewish time is moon time. Okay? Sun time is where there's industry and war. They always wait, you know, you know, the wars were done in the daytime, right? To see where you're going. Okay? People are afraid at night. So when the days are getting shorter starting with right after tishabove says the Gmorra at the end of Tinus Y Mif you have to add the nights are getting longer add Kadusha add Torah but now that we've hit post Kaneka always always it's post winter solstice that tid comes out the end of Kaneka roughly Kaneka roughly coincides with the winter solstess is in the year of creation, the the first day of Kaneka was the winter solstice. The day of of December 24th, which pagans observed as a great holiday. Why? Cuz thank God the days are starting to get longer and the bitterness of winter is going to eventually dissipate because there's going to be more sunlight hours starting after the solstice. That's the darkest moment. And then but for us, it's the brightest moment. It's the first day of Kaneka. If you see the paradox now the darkening is going to come afterwards. The month of Tes month that still is in gulus that's still under the thumb of Asav. But we have as Jacob grabbed the ankle of Asov. The first two days of Taves were grabbed by us and we have them. Now we have to transform Taves using our prayers and returning to our three principles. Number one, the unity of Torah. Torah in-depth indepth Torah study not not cursory Torah study really getting deep that's number one what nights are really for and then the Ram said he didn't miss one night of I think he learned all night I don't know that he slept more than an hour to a day very he slept you know when when he was so exhausted they threw him on a donkey and carried him home from the or the emperor's palace where he was a doctor all day and he came home at night. They threw him on top of they he was driven home asleep on a donkey to his to his house in fost and when he got home ah I took a nap he was up all night learning Torah writing etc. So this is this is this is the challenge. Now let's I want to take a look at something in the para and uh that reflects this and then we'll talk about uh Mara Lago and Somali lands. Okay, I have a incredible question for you from the para that reflects this theme. You remember Yoseph and Yakov are the two of us most associated with ghosts. Yakov spends almost his entire life in hiding. Either he's running from Asov and he's hidden in the yeshiva of Sheba or he's hiding out by Lavan or when he comes back ter Israel he's experiencing terrible problems first with Dena then with the sale of Yoseph horror horror and and before that the city the battle for the city of Yakov did not have a peaceful moment BK Jacob Basha he wanted to live in peace in the land of Israel so tell us he says you think you have it so easy have and you also want you want everything what what are you asking for that's an answer to people who say I just want to have a peaceful easy life it's not necessarily what life is meant to be it's here where we challenge and grow and overcome incredible obstacles and are tested to the limit and then we'll then we have uh after 120 years plenty time to rest. That's what Nelson a breast lover used to say. He says, "I'll sleep after 120. I don't need to sleep." He slept maybe an hour or two a day, too. He goes, "I'll sleep later. I have plenty of time to sleep." That's a big problem because I, you know, because we all want a nap, especially on a rainy day. But the point being is that Jacob Vainu was the epitome of gullis and yose fatadic became yose fatadic only because he was engulf and he was za to produce the two tribes that he was merited to to father in gul. So here's here's uh the issue. Okay, you all know that in the beginning of par Yakov and Yoseph are contending with problems that are that that are very much created by the fact that they're sitting in mit. Yakov's dilemma at the beginning of the para is how after I pass away, how am I going to get out of here? and were all under the mal of of uh of parro. Although Jacob was not a slave to parro he was the only person who wasn't a slave to parro including all of the all of the brothers because they said we're going to be to Yoseph and Yseph was sold as to and he's an toro we're all all slaves to parro every Jew except one Jew was never an EV to parro he was never an to anybody maybe to love him a little bit but that was by his own choice so Yakov says how can I'm not in EVID. I'm not going to be buried in Mitsim. I don't want to be in Mitsim. Mitsim is essentially of Odora. I don't want my body to be resting in this place which was rife with Odor which will later be turned into lice in the plague of of Kenim. I want to be buried. where he buried his wife Leia in the holy city of Kevron, one of the four holy cities of Eric Israel which are [snorts] and they represent according to the um according to the Tanya and this is also mentioned in the teachings of of the Maharal M Prague four holy cities four elements okay That what does that mean? There's the world is created of fire, air, earth, water. Those are the four elements of his teaching says that they really represent negative traits. The it is the trait of fire is associated with the negative implications of pride and anger rises up. Um, ruach is associated with emptiness, empty talk, mockery, boasting, full of hot air as they say, she air lashenhara. Okay. May is associated with tya. Okay. I mean, water is what's needed for things to grow. Water is what fluids are what needed to create life. So, it's rife with passion and and desire. the creation of life. But off is laziness, sadness, depression, heaviness. Jerusalem, it represents fire, the fire of the holy temple. That's the holy fire, the tun of these bad meidos, the fixing of it. He represents physical burial, the muck, but the holiest thing you can do with with earth is bury a patriarch there who carries the kaduca. And we know yakavina lace. The patriarchs never die. Their nisham is alive. And if you go to Davin by the graveside, you're connecting with incredible power and life. And then uh then you have is is earth. Taria of course on the on the yam on the sea of the galley represents water which is also tora which is lifegiving to uh which is why it's associated with tya. But on the holy sense, barati barati tora tavlin tora can take passion and channel it for kaduca. And then finally is the pure mountain air which is the center of mystical mysticism and kaboa. So Israel rectifies those four galuyot as it were. And the truth is the four galuyote also correspond to those four elements. Edom, the current and last galut which is associated by the way with America and Europe and Russia is guess which one? Laziness, sadness, materialism. That's the gullus that we're in. We're in a gullus of depression and sadness of empty materialism. Yavan was great intellectualism and vain speech and hoardiness. You know that was in previous generations. Now people are just low. In Europe the tya was for intellectual stimulation you know uh classical music. classical music because the villain goan said it was the closest possible thing to to uh to to Torah to to create those incredible symphonies was was a spiritual kak. Who cares about symphonies? They just want music that bangs and bangs their head and is so loud you can't even possibly relate to it. The idea of a melody, the idea of something clever. No, today is just plain. Madai is passion and and pleasure. That was that and Bville was fire pride of in fact they tried to burn burn us with fire. They tried to throw Abdanil into a lion's den and they tried to burn Michelle Lazaria. So those four golios and these four cities represent the antidote to those four golios. Which is interesting to think that the place the single place which is very very interesting which is against our current exile is the city of even more than the burial place of the abos. The very place where Yakovu wanted to escape to right calls Yoseph his son and says get me there swear to me that's a first conversation that he has okay and then it and then Israel his father bows at the mita to thank him and to acknowledge that Yseph is his superior in this regard because only Yoseph has the political power and clout to ensure that Yakovu will not be kept in the land of Egypt after he passes away. That's the first conversation that they have in the Torah in this week's Torah portion. The second conversation which is all on on the heels of the first one is that as Yakovu is dying, Yoseph appears with his two sons, Ephim and Manasha. Okay? And Ephraim and Manasha are they he wanted to be they wanted him to be blessed and Yakovu does bless them. But first he asks Ma who are these kids. How do they deserve a blessing from Ephraim will come the wicked Yuru and Benad who will split the kingdom destroy us and create the pathway to our first destruction. He will take 10 tribes away from the house of David. and he will bring Israel back to the worship of golden calves immediately right when the time of the first B mikdash was was at its strongest and then a will come wicked akav who turned the entire country into a vodor the northern kingdom and you want me to give these people a blessing and I told you says yakovu that they are going to be called tribes and vishimoni I'm graduating them to the level of being what you yose are not just another one of the tribes You are a a super tribe because you're like me. You're like one of the OOS that produces tribes. You've produced two tribes. Hashem told me such a thing would occur and I'm conferring that blessing upon you, Yoseph. Yseph, you now become morph into a double tribe known as Ephraimasha. That was their second conversation. Now, let me just ask you a a question. What? For what reason and where does Yakov mention the fact that that your mother Rael Mesa and was not buried in the Marus. See, Rakmanu never made it to Kevron. She dies on the outskirts of Blehem, a city in the state area of Yehuda, the birthplace, in fact of David and Mill. That's why the the Christians say that that's the birthplace of Yoshka because everybody knows that it was the birthplace of you of of David and that's where they how they ripped that off from us. Okay, by definition. So, uh, she didn't make it to Mara. Now, if you were going to have a conversation, if you were Jacob and you were going to have a Yakov and you're going to have a conversation with Yoseph explaining yourself in which he did explain said, "Listen, I wasn't my idea. Hashem said there's going to come a time there's going to be an exile and Raul is going to stand there as it says in the Nvi will cry for her children and eventually the gullet will end." Okay, fine. If you want to give me that explanation, which conversation should you have in which should you mention that? Where should you explain not and ask for the forgiveness of Yoseph for not burying his mother in the resting place in the singular resting place for with next to Yakovu in Kevon which went to Leia and he's even having Yakov asks Yoseph to do this ter terribly difficult idea take me to where Leia is buried I have no interest in going to be blem and bury being buried next to your mother no I'm gonna I I'm asking you to help me to be back. So wouldn't you think that that's the conversation where this point should come up where the apology should be made where the explanation should be made clear. Yakovu does not discuss this in the first conversation with Yoseph in which he asks him to bury him in. He says it after Yoseph comes with his two sons and Yakov informs him that they're going to be tribes and then he brings up the issue of burying Rael in the outside of Bethlehem. It's in the wrong place. It's in the wrong context. You follow me? It's in the It's not part of that particular dialogue. Why is it there? So I'd like to suggest you an answer I thought of before and an answer that I thought of now that's relevant to us now. The first answer I said is you know okay look Yakov wanted to be buried demarah he asked Yseph to do him that favor he doesn't need to give him explanations he said that but when it comes to telling Yseph that he is a super super tribe that he's like the firstborn and that his two sons are going to be the primary primary sons of Schwatim at that point begs a question Yoseph could ask. If it's true, Tati, if it's true, daddy, that my mother is so significant that me Yoseph will give birth to twoim, then why did you get b Why did you request of me to be buried next to Leia? If I if you're telling me that Leia was the primary wife just like my brothers said to me all the time they all said that to me that I'm not superior to them. I'm not even equal to them. Then why all of a sudden did you choose me to be the king of the and get two tribes? If my mother is not as central to your vision as Leia their mother was. So there YaKob has to explain to him. That was my first answer. It needs an explanation. No. Yeah. No, Yoseph Rael is a primary wife. She's there on a special mission. And um that's why I asked you to bury me, Mara, but I didn't bury your mother there. In the second conversation is relevant because he elevated Yoseph. So he says Yseph saying, "I don't get you, Dad. If I'm elevated, then why is my mother not elevated with me?" If we're thear, if we're the main deal, if we're the main course, then why isn't Rael going to be in? That's the first answer. I thought of that answer. But now I think of a a different answer. And the answer is this. Remember that Yakov looked at Ephraim Manasha and saw evil. He saw ultimate evil. Yur, Benabad, and Akav who have no share in the world to come. Jewish leaders who not only do not help Kaisro achieve his goals but destroy them to the core and he has to justify his blessing and Yoseph brings out according to Kazal his safer yen saying listen dad their mom is not daughter of Dena who is really part of the family and and you know I didn't take some Egyptian wife and produce children these children are Jewish And Yakov looks at the children and says, "I got a problem. These kids are so far gone, are so going to produce leaders that are so far away. It's just further away than even the Jews that Ezra Sofur had to work with. But I'll tell you what I'm going to do. Bring them to me and I'll bless them. I'll take care of it. And then he says, I'll prove it to you because your mother rail is the guarantee. Even if these kids get gull for what they're going to do, there is a happy ending and a justification that I can give these brahos in good faith because your mother will guarantee that they end up in the right place. This is a very powerful explanation and that's what we're really hoping for today. That Jews should awaken from this stuper, the stuper that they were in during golus babel and that carries on to today that we're now in the earthiest, laziest, saddest, and most materialistic gullus. But don't don't think twice has already guaranteed that the Jews will come back. come back to their senses and come back to their four holy cities out of the four golios. And that brings us to the end of Trump in Maralaka. Uh what does he want from Natano? He's forcing us, he's forcing the state of Israel to swallow the fact that they are not in charge of almost anything. That bitter enemies of Hamas will not be destroyed. If Trump deems that Turkey needs to be a primary role in the rebuilding of Gaza, which they will be because they give the money because the Arab states won't give it, but the Turks who are really Kama supporters will and it's about money and it's about prestige. Then there you go. Then the then the current gullis adome even the best parts of it which were represented by America and Donald Trump have already not what they were. and he'll have to b uh he'll have to argue which he will that at least to protect us from Iran at least he might not even win that point cuz I don't think it's in the vision the current vision the vision has gone off a little bit and that's on Assara and the test of assures there we are being besieged today it's also the day in which mamani takes control of New York. It's also the day where we come to recognize that conservative no longer means pro-Israel. That you can be equally anti-semitic if you're a conservative as if you are a progressive. And that happened this week as well when uh Ben Shapiro who wears a yamaka and is a from person was terribly isolated by conservatives who speak only evil of Israel because they're paid to do so because that's how they make their money and earn their fortune and fame and that's what's keeping them in the news is how much they hate and demonize Israel. And they're on the right side, meaning the conservative side of the coin. So the curtain draws dark on the support of America for Jews. Although I did have a boy here for Shabas who was wearing a yamaka is part of program. He's the he says there are three yarmakas on the campus of UC Berkeley where where free Palestine free Palestine began. And I'm talking 30 years ago it began. All right. [laughter] Not now. And he's one of the only three yamakas. And he's like those first two days of tavase that hang on to the rest of the darkness of tavase. He says and nobody bothers me and I have a yamaka and I just go to my computer classes and I don't engage in philosophy or politics or anything like that. I'm just learning here and I'm proudly Jewish and um I think he's an anomaly though and he's certainly a minority. But under this moment, this assarves darkening in which our interests are being clouded over by convenience, materialism, prestige and power as they always have. We cling to our vision of Erit Israel in its tlas, which is the four holy cities. Those four holy cities are what's really at the debate. own primarily and to a lesser extent Taria and and but maybe we've won those two battles but the last two are we're still battling very very strongly and we need we need on this fast day which is coming up tomorrow to daven that Hashem should reverse the trend the challenge of Assar in our era and make it come in the direction of the return of the rally Holy Maya who's standing as Yakov promised. Don't worry if the Jews are as difficult as Benavat as as as lost as a still have faith in the Jewish people that they can return that their core goodness will come out and adaba that this dark this darkness will bring out the light in the Jewish nishamas and this time we won't be lost but will burn bright and that's why I love the the the support of Somali land coming at this time. You know what Somali land is? It's a country. It has borders. It respects law. It's Muslim. Its flag and its and its uh and its mottos differ very slightly from Egypt's flag, from Jordan's flag, and from the so-called Palestinian flag. Same color, same image. Everything for Allah except one thing. They respect peace. They want peace. They respect Israel. They see Israel as their savior. As their savior. The first state in the world to recognize them. Can you understand what a what a spark of light that is? And what egg on the face of all the countries that recognize Palestine but refuse to recognize Somali land. It's so classic. The people who deserve to be recognized as a state is the peaceful, organized, independent and good people of Somali land. And you, my the world, you corrupt world, because of your own money and prestige and power interest, take a group of terrorists and crown them a state. What a farce. What a satire. I'm so happy that this happened right now in this in this month of Tavis. It's a taste of the future. This little Somali nothing land is what the world will be under Msiah where they turn to you for recognition, for advice, for wisdom, for saving their necks from disease, from famine, and most importantly to provide protection and peace, taste of the future that should give us a spark of tremendous hope on this difficult day. Let's dive in that Hashem should have mercy on us in the of the people who were sacrificed in these terrible wars now and in previously and in times of the B mikdash and say time for tavase to turn around. This is the tabase turnaround but it depends on Jewish unity because that's what the Serb is really crushed Jews coming back to each other coming back to Torah settling our differences seeing our common ground. doesn't have to be perfect, but it does have to be in a good spirit. Havai, halai, that we should be able to do that. I'll mention one last thing. We lost a great warrior for that. His name was Ron Durmer. Ron Durmer resigned and he's not in Mara Lago. And for me, that is an Assarbase moment because what that man from Miami did, my brothers know him very well because my brothers grew up in Miami. Our family was in Miami at the time. He stepped into role as an American above politics. He had no interests. He had no political ambitions. And he helped Israel bridge the gap of dialogue and politics to America in a way which was brought miracles. And now he decided to retire because of his family. And I'm telling you, it's a gutwrenching loss because he was a man who was above it all. Who gave his mir nephesh just so that the goyam should understand us and appreciate us just like they did Yosephic just like they would listen to Yoseph to bring the bones of Yakov. You know it says that when they brought Yakov to burial there were nations of the world led by Asov came to stop it. No he for you sounds like today. But when they saw the crown of Yoseph on the coffin, they all put their crowns on the coffin and they all participated internationally and globally in the affirmation of the Jewish control of Hevron through the burial of Yakov and in the legacy of the Aos. Sounds familiar. This is where we're headed. There's Hashem. That enlightenment should come. The light should shine. TB's turnaround is here. Shem should bless us and be able to withstand these moments and let's hope for desire. But I think Somalia then was a little ray of light. So I'll take it. Have an easy fast and a meaningful a good week. [music] [singing] Heat. Heat. [music and singing] >> [music] [singing] >> Oh my >> [music]