Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz: Parshat Pinchus - How To Be A True Activist

my baby [Music] thank you for coming and uh tonight's share is dedicated for a reformed Shimon Ben Elka and Eliza batalea and you have three Ben Rocco Leia and may babies in addition the one that is sponsoring it asks for a special Fila for success in all areas of life especially so once again in addition and once again we also have an anonymous donor so thank you very much Mr Mrs Miss Anonymous for your generous and humble support of Torah so this week we're moving to a parshus pinchas and Parsha spinachos quite logically is very much connected to Parsha spalak remember what we're talking about right now it is the 40th year of the Israelites wandering in the desert this is the end our own Miriam already died and Aaron already died and it was already decreed that Moshe will not be entering the lands of Israel in fact it's so interesting how much the Tyra basically skips over 37 and a half years of History you know we're told everything had happened in the first year matantora egel all of those things and then we have the sin of the spies which was a year and a half after they left and then kimat everything is skipped over and all of a sudden we're in the year 40 and all of these different things happen and as the Jewish people you'll remember from last week as the Jewish people are approaching Eric Israel they wanted to cut through the land of Moab and even agree to buy food and water the mobites didn't allow it but balak the king of Moab is worried he hires bilum to curse the Jewish people and God as it were takes over billum like a marionette and every single curse that villain wants to utter gets turned into a bracha so again I'm not sure what the business Arrangement was uh Bullock is obviously very upset uh is there a money back guarantee it's not clear or maybe billum doesn't get paid until he does the job but one has to admire the great Ingenuity of bilham he had a certain power of curse and we discussed that last week Anthony took away that power and turned it into a blessing but billum comes up with a plan B if I can't hurt the Jewish people by virtue of my cursing them I will hurt them by causing them to sin in fornication sexual immorality with the daughters of Moab and avodizora the abodes which was a very disgusting it was actually an idol that was served by defecation there are actually deep meanings as to why that would be a manner of serving it and the like but essentially it was the glorification of of the body and everything else at the expense of any connection to something spiritual now I want to share with you a very fascinating horror of the Ariza why billum went to plan B it's very very fascinating we mentioned last week that billum's great success in cursing is because he was aware of the moment of the day when God has anger in the world there's like a moment of the day less than a second where God has grown off and if you utter your curse in that window it becomes effective because you've pushed the the nuclear button billum knew exactly when that was and that's why his success rate was so great but what did God do that day God canceled the Eden God canceled the moment of anger so as a result billum tried to push an empty button nothing was working now what is the spiritual function of this moment of anger so the Swarms say by infusing the world with a tiny little bit of severe Divine wrath that is what creates what we might call conscience that is what we creates inhibitions that most human beings have some inhibitions unless you're literally uh you know a psychopath uh you know even if you sin you know you're not going to go all the way and what is it that restrains me it's that sense that my nashama feels the wrath of God albeit in a highly diluted form so here's the problem if God cancels that moment of anger that means there are no longer at least for that day there are no longer inhibitions against sinning as a result villain brilliant a strategist in this world building figures hmm I'm not able to curse because God canceled the moment of cursing that means the spiritual force that creates inhibitions against sin is not operating so there'll be especially vulnerable to enticement and everything else and in fact this is how the Ariza translates to posic when villain is going and God was angry so it says God was angry because billum is going but the irie has a hyper literal translation of the verse listen to this the anger of God was angry because it went away meaning the anger was angry because it was not allowed to do its job in the world in other words not that God was angry at billum because he was going but the anger was angry because it went away so this is the logic of bilum invoking Plan B and plan B was very effective uh there was the Nazi of the tribe of Shimon who was fornicating with the midianite princess and many many Jews followed that example of a voted Zara and Gili arios and people were dying right and left up to 24 000 people died and they would have continued to die if pinchas would not have taken so to speak the law in his own hands and kill the Nasi of Shimon zimri and the woman of Midge and Cosby the midianite princess and he killed them in flood rental as the legal attrition goes while they're having actual relations and this is based on actually is it's on the books that if a Jewish man is public you know it's a very limited the Jewish man is publicly fornicating with a non-jewish woman now publicly actually quite literally means publicly if you are a zealous person we'll discuss what that means you are permitted to kill them but only if they are actually in the middle of the ACT had zimmery separated from Cosby pinchas would not have been perpendiculars would have been a murderer the halachic legitimacy of Pinnacles is act of zealousness was only because number one it was beforehetsia it was public and number two which was bishas Masa it was during the action of intercourse itself and even though this was an act of violence the magay far the plague immediately stopped and God made a covenant with pinchas a covenant of peace it's interesting that Rashi has a very interesting comment again from the medrish that pinchas did not officially become a Cohen until after he killed zimri ah you asked me a question what does that mean Pinterest was the son of elazar Allah was the son of our own Pinnacles was a coin by birth not really because you see even Aaron was not a coin by birth right Aaron was born alive like Moshe Aaron became a coin by virtue of anointing and elizar became a coin by virtue of anointing so any children born after their anointments would have been cohani was born before el-azhar was anointed so pilgras was born so to speak as a commoner Pinnacles was not born from the Kahuna line he was born prior and Pinnacles had not been anointed yet and as a result pinchas became a coin only after we killed zimmri now number foursome then asked well why was that so why didn't God allow Pinterest to be anointed together with our own and Allah so it's interesting because it's brought down that if a coin kills somebody in fact this is nogalomice even today a coin who kills somebody is disqualified from Durkin cannot tune and many Sito say that's not only referring to wrongful murder but even uh if it was he killed he killed an enemy in an army or we killed a rode it was totally mutter just like David another was disqualified from building the Temple because he was a man of blood even though David's wars were the Muhammad of Hashem so too there is a disqualification of a kohenu kills it's actually very very relevant if you have a coin who served in the Army and the Cohen killed even an enemy even a terrorist at least there's a Shyla you see kosher to Durkin and he certainly could not work in the base of so if pinchas would have been a coin when he killed zimmery that would have disqualified him from doing the avoda therefore God deferred uh's Cohen status until after he killed zimmri and then Pentacles could be elevated to a coin that's how it works now the terrorist describes Pinterest it gives a lineage the son of elazar the son of Ara usually going back to grandparents is somewhat unusual although we did it for Korra but usually the igles of the Torah is your father like you're caught up in the tell right you're somebody son of somebody why do you go back to the grandfather so Rashi gives us an answer again based on the midrash Dimitris says that when this young upstart pinchas went ahead and killed a very prominent leader of the Jewish people zimmery so the many people of the different tribes were vasanoso they looked at him in a very deprecating manner and they said who does this guy think he is his father's I'm sorry his mother's father was himself an idol worshiper who fattens calves forever desire now the way this works is the Torah tells us we know of course Moshe married a daughter of Israel but interestingly enough El Lazar moshe's nephew also married a daughter of Israel so maternal grandfather is Israel maternal grandfather is Israel Israel in an earlier stage in his life was the high priest of Midian who had been an idolater so the SWAT him said who does this Pinterest think he is I'll be IMEI the father of his mother fattened animals for abodeazara and he thinks he has the right to be a zealot on behalf of God with so much sin in his background therefore the terrorist says yes it's true that pinchas from his mother's side comes from Israel but from his father's side he comes from our own and therefore don't look at the maternal grandfather look at the paternal grandfather this is what Rashi says now the truth of the matter is this actually is actually very very difficult to understand yes it's true that pinterest's paternal grandfather wasara but that doesn't change the fact that his maternal transfer as I say oh how can you do it you're tainted by ISRO the answer well don't look at this or look at the other one yeah okay you have the other you also have Israel and it's also schmere because why do we even look at that as a change I mean after all yeah ISRO in his past you know long ago had worshiped I mean what why is there some stigma that he comes from Israel if anything Israel is about Juventus because I'll say the place where the beltsuba stands is greater than the tiger who never sent so because of this the kasab cipher okay this is not an explanation of Rashi this is another answer the kasab cipher gives another answer why the Torah says a little biography here everyone has heard of rev Moshe Cipher very much a Schreiber in the Irish and that is the famous Assam Sofia again some silver is actually famous for a number of reasons I mean number one he's one of the Godzilla post game one of the great mahajim but also he was an extremely important communal leader he was the leading Rabbi in Europe at the time of the rise of the reform movement and a lot of the Orthodox response to reform was based on the for some sofa's teachings he was a great great battle battler against reform uh although it is interesting that a hundred and thirty years later whether he saw cilantro said he was not sure he agreed would agree with some ciphers stance against reform was Absolute Total separation and diligently delegitimation rip and by the way reflection of Hirsch was exactly the same way people always look at reversals like modern Orthodox no it's true reverse embraced Tori and Derek Eric secular education culture and the like but vis-a-vis the reform movements absolute now resource launcher later when the haskala and some of I mean reform never took root in Lithuania or Poland but haskella Enlightenment and the like when we saw cilantro said maybe it would have been better had we interacted with reformed Jews had we spoken in their synagogues she or him not not the type of thing had we given classes there perhaps that would have brought more people back to Torah in other words is the response total separation or is the response go to where they are and maybe be a positive influence again this is a child of kirov generally and this is not the time to fully address that but this is a very live issue even today you know many people in the States United States if they're not Orthodox they will not go to a class in an orthodox synagogue or Yeshiva so the question is if they would go to a share that you would give but you would have to give it in the reform Temple do you go or don't you go uh do you say well by going into the reformed Temple I'm legitimating it as a holy place in which case I shouldn't do that go there or do you say hey this is how I reach people so I have to digress with the story because it's such a cute story some of you might know riverfryan buckwalt of Lincoln Square synagogue who oh okay okay are you from Manhattan okay so uh he's kind of a legendary guy he's been running a Jewish Outreach in Lincoln Square for I think over 50 years uh for sure and he told me a story and this is actually one of the most classic stories that um he had decided that he was going to offer some Jewish Outreach classes in non-orthodox venues because it was a way of reaching people that otherwise wouldn't be reached but he didn't want to do something that would antagonize the more right-wing Orthodox world so he called mosha sharer the final of who is the legendary head of Agoda and of the official repository of Yeshiva and Hasidic non-satma Andrew told him great ideas exactly what you have to do you have to go out and Reach people and that way you'll bring them to Torah you'll make them show me Mitzvahs wonderful thing now feels very good about it and he started doing his programming now the Agoda used to run a magazine that's no longer operating the Jewish Observer and although remote did not write articles in this Observer everything I rest assured that every single letter in the Jewish Observer I mean letter of the alphabet was personally approved by Moshe share the editor was Rabbi Neeson Walton who lived in my neighborhood in his retirement till he was nifter a few years ago so the Jewish Observer ran a whole article about well-meaning rabbis who cross unacceptable lines he says we know he didn't mention in my name says we know that these rabbis you know their kavana is the same shamayam they want to serve God but they're really making a big big mistake by going to these non-orthodox venues and we have to protest and indicate this is not the Derek the godzillaum already said not to do these things he says you know I called you two weeks ago and I asked you if this is okay you told me it's okay and then I see in the Jewish Observer I'm being criticized as a sincere Rabbi at least they acknowledge that a sincere Rabbi who's Crossing Lines what's going on sir mosha sharer told him listen it's your job to do it and it's our job to criticize we all have that it says we all have our roles we all have our roles in Chloe Israel and that is actually quite a brilliant statement that reflects the organizational truth of Jewish life and and that is things are sometimes things sometimes have to be done that are outside of the box but we have to be sure they're not too outside so you always need kind of a counter Force to pull back now the counter Force may be pulling back too extreme so you need to pull in the other direction but then you need the pull and then the other direction going to the other side that's what he says he says you're fine but we have to criticize it that's kind of the way it works and that's actually a very useful key to a lot of things that go on in average Israel if you read between the lines in terms of the wall posters the pasture villain that are condemning this and that and that a lot of it is simply the force to the other side to be sure that people don't go over the cliff okay um I totally forgot why was I bringing up the story what was I talking about right uh say again yeah so the importance of the Hassan sofa was the same server did formulate the absolutist response against reform uh and because I'm sofa had uh you know very many eminent descendants and among them was his oldest son the kasab Sophia Sophia who also was a great postek and wrote him and shaylas and chuvas and he wrote A Commentary in the Torah like his father it's called the relative and the self-sofer offers his own unique answer why it says and he says like this don't think the posic means was the son of elazar and their Lazar was the son of Aaron that that is the genealogy rather both references go back to pinchas had two fathers pinhas was the son of a Lazar and Pinterest was the son of iron genealogically biologically he was the son of a loser spiritually he was the son of Aaron what does it mean to say Pinterest was the son of Ira so here's what the kasav cipher says very uh you know we talk about zealousness I stand up for God I fight for God I criticize I look around and I see sinners and I speak out shop Cipher says you have to be very very very careful because sometimes people are zealots not because they truly worship Hashem but they love to focus on the shortcomings of others because that distracts them from having to look into themselves they love to take a book that Rabbi Stein's house wrote of whatever 500 pages and find find that on page 398 in footnote 869 there is a line that contradicts a speech that roughshak made in 1947. ABI Carlisle we got him there is a gotcha mentality in which certain people get Delight in uncovering the shortcomings of others says over such a person does not have the right to be a zealot because he is not acting for the glory of God he's acting to be critical to find fault so the Torah is telling us Pinterest was a zealot not because it was his personality to look on people's shortcomings he was a spiritual son of Hiram pins was The Oaf shalom the lover of peace the pursuer of peace away the sabrios he loved everyone and through his love this is our own he brought them to Torah the Torah is says accepts over was a spiritual son of Ira so he did what he did not because it was his nature to be zealous he did what he did out of Abbas Israel he did what he did out of loving the Jewish people the Jewish people were dying right and left he didn't act out of hate he didn't act out of anger even against the Russian he acted out of love and says the sofa that is the only legitimate basis for being a zealot your motivation is love of God and love of the Jewish people not even hatred or anger against the Russia now in truth it reminds me a little bit I heard many years ago um controversial guy and I I'm not necessarily relying on on him or whatever it is but he certainly is a very very committed person abas Israel he cares about Jews uh and if you remember if your memory goes back long enough in the 1970s he was very very involved in the demonstrations against the old Soviet Union uh and be happy Jews and there were times that he was thrown into jail it was you know he would think whatever you go in front of the Russian Embassy and do demonstrations and he would be arrested and the like so he was a big activist he always got his name in the paper so he once said a line that's a very very uh very good line he said in order to Be an Effective activist you have to hate doing it because when you love doing it then your ego gets into the way if you love The publicity you love being in the front page of the New York Times you love the TV interviews then you're no longer acting for the cause you actually have to be a person who hates what you're doing but you're doing it because you have to do it not because you want to do it and that's what the kasab safer is saying about Pinterest didn't want to do what he did Pinterest had to do what he did and his motivation was avat Israel now I always think a little bit that may be the cassava sofa Maybe is being a little bit autobiographical or biographical about his own father because for some software was on some level extremely strict in his denunciations of reform in his refusal to have any type of dialogue any type of discussion and people sometimes perceive them as harsh unyielding hyper critical because remember I want to point out that the earliest manifestations of reformed were things that were fairly innocuous for example we wouldn't even call this reform today the about the abolition of the first jacom porkun and Shabbos now the first you come pork and the Shabbos musaf asks Hashem to show compassion for the race galusa in Bravia so they said there's no Rich collusion by them so let's get rid of it and yet because I'm safer saw that as the seeds of change or even giving address in Hungarian or German instead of Yiddish we wouldn't even call that reform I mean every American show Israel too uh we you know so many dresses everything I do remember uh years ago in Baltimore you know that was it was Oberlin it was like uh Hungarian hasidus I was giving a a share years ago uh in safer hamitzvahs and the person went over to me after the share and he showed me something on the wall takanos of the Kasam sofa that says no share in the base knesset can be given in any language other than Yiddish so he said if you want to give a share we have a side room here but you can't give it uh in the basement itself because I'm safer so people looked into some Cypher as kind of a bit of a fanatic a bit of unyielding I think with the cassav cipher is saying about pinteras he's actually talking about his father as well that his father was motivated Israel and this vort of the cassav cipher explains a very interesting issue because we find that not only did Pinterest become a coin as a result of this my sir but Pinterest is given what is called brisi shalom we see shalom means a covenant of peace so first of all what does that even mean what what is a covenant of Peace what is a bris Shalom I mean what what is being given to pinchas with the words breath Shalom so the simplest meaning is that as a coin he can make peace and Reconciliation between God and the Jewish people indeed what is what are the last three words of biercast may God give you peace that's what the calling does so it's a strange thing why should Pinterest get the bracha of shalom as a result of his murder of Cosby even if it was a Mitzvah but it was not a midst of a peace the answer is yes it was because his motivation was to bring peace between God and Israel and that's what Hashem is saying this was not an act of violence this was an act of Shalom you can look at it you can describe it by the metaphor of an amputation right uh if somebody's leg has to be amputated in order for them to live that is not an act of violence and disfigurement that is an act of keeping somebody alive it's very very different type of a type of thing who himself was quite a zealot when it came to issues like Zionism and secular studies although on a personal level he was extremely kind but your Prime salvation once said how do you tell the difference between a true zealot and they sell it who just likes to find fault so we compared it to a housewife who brought a cat to deal with the mice that are running around in her house now both the housewife and the cat hope that if there are mice the cats will catch them but the difference between them is the housewife would be much happier if there'd be no mice the cat would be sorely disappointed William says said a true zealot whose only interest is the glorification of God and his love for the Jewish people gets no pleasure in uncovering the shortcomings of others their fondest wish would be the Jewish people would keep the mitzvos there would be of us Israel there would be peace and harmony there are sins that we have to protest does it with sadness and does it with prayer that all that are going astray should do chuva and come back to God on the other hand the other type of kanoi which I think unfortunately yeah it's not for me to judge any individual and I'm not but there is certainly a group people like this would be very disappointed if they'd have nothing to protest nothing to find nothing to expose you look and you look and you look for some type of ugly Underside and if you look you will find because after all nobody is perfect kohela says there is no righteous person who only does good and does not sin and then you have the gacha gotcha gotcha gotcha if I am says that's the kanos of the cat that is not the canals of the housewife and that is illegitimate indeed to act like pinchas when you don't have the motivations of pinchas that is just violence that would even be murder in this case would be murder whenever whatever it is it's an illegitimate thing so this is something to think about this idea of kanos zealousness for the sake of God right what we think is for the sake of God is often for our own egotism but the truth of the matter is even foreign whose motivations were totally holy totally elevated totally pure kanawat is a dangerous type of weapon to take up because ultimately it affects even you in negative ways as I'll tell us that Pinterest eventually morphed into El yahanavi now what that means exactly is not always clear does it mean that Pinterest didn't die he just like lived for hundreds and hundreds of years he became Eliana you of course didn't die and went up to heaven meaning quite literally pinteras is a Leo another or does it mean it's a gilgal yarnavi is a Reincarnation of the nishama that's a maclocus meaning do we literally mean the physical body of pilgras did not die and went up to heaven as Elio and Navi or are we dealing with three incarnations we'll leave that question to the side although we glorify him as as one of the greatest of the Nivea and really the only one who went up to shemaim in his Gulf and not Justice in Sharma but if you look at the story Hashem was essentially firing or your Navi what happened here was giving muscle to akhav and all of the idolaters and put a an antagon every decreed there would be a famine for three years no rain and akhav in his rage wants to kill early or never he put a death sentence on him and you'll never went into hiding Etc but eventually Eliana Navi calls the prophets of the bowel which is the idol of Canaan to come to Haifa what's your Mount Carmel and he says we're going to have a test I'm going to show you who the true God Is Back and the 400 prophets of the bowel build Amy's and they pray and they call out to their false god and nothing happens maybe you're not screaming loud enough keep on screaming nothing happens and he calls down and fire comes from the heaven and consumes the korban tremendous Hashem and everybody bows down and they recite what we recite at the end of Yom Kippur Hashem who or Elohim God is the true God there is none other wow a beautiful Hashem sanctification of God's name a repudiation of our bodizara phenomenal how long did the inspiration last one day the next day of tells Elio if you think this changes anything you got another thing coming I'm still going to kill you at this point Elio hanabi's spirit gets broken because he used the best trick that he had Supernatural miracles and it doesn't change anybody imagine his frustration so he runs into the desert and he wanders for 40 days and he arrives at Mount Sinai harcina and at harsinai Hashem appears to him but there's a number of preliminaries there is a great fire but Hashem is not in the fire and there's a great earthquake and Hashem is not in the earthquake and there's great winds and hurricanes and Hashem is not in the winds but then there's what's a cold Mama DACA a small still silent voice and God is in that small still silent voice and essentially the message that Leona begets is go anoint your successor Alicia in polite words Hashem is saying I'm firing you what's going on because I forgot to mention this before ashram appears to them is complaining about the Jewish people he's saying forget about these people no matter what you do they don't believe in you they annul your covenants they worship our lord of Zara they don't keep your Torah and that's when Hashem shows him all of this and what Hashem is doing is don't think you reach people by miracles and don't think you reach people by yelling and don't think you reach people by criticizing Reach people by the small silence voice and when you have lost faith in your people you can no longer be their leader Elio Hanabi gets replaced just as Moshe rabena one of the interpretations of mosharabena not being allowed to enter is because he lost faith in the Jewish people that's one of many interpretations Leo and they'll be the same way and that is by the way why Elio and obvious condemned to go to Every bris because he said they have annulled your bliss Hashem says oh yeah most Jews practice breasts even if they're not religious unfortunately there is an anti-circumcision movement that's really but generally speaking Jews practice breastmila so here's the suggestion I want to put out when you become a Kanai even if your motives are totally the same shamayam you're developing so to speak the notion of looking at others noticing their faults noticing their flaws you may catch a certain disease to become hypercritical to become negative to lose faith in the goodness of your people in other words the suggestion might be that even suffered in morphing into a Leo and Navi and his chica is to constantly see the good in the Jewish people by going to the bris by going to the pesos later I told you the two events that most Jews keep even if they're not religious Elio and Navi has to be there so this is one danger of a kanoi you become hypocritic you know it reminds me a little bit you know Mark Twain Samuel Clemens was in his early 20s he was a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River in fact Mark Twain is marked two things I'm not sure what he was marking but is it Mark Twain is a pseudonym based on what he was doing as a river pilot on the Mississippi River and he writes that as a pilot he could never see the river in the same light again he compared it this way he compared it to uh again excuse my my his example which is not so sonal but I'll just mention it quickly he was describing a ballet dancer a ballerina or it could be a man as well and you're watching the ballerina or the ballet the dancer and you see grace you see fluidity you see beauty of movements now let's imagine you happen to be an orthopedic surgeon and you're watching the same thing so instead of seeing Grace and fluidity you're seeing tendons being stretched muscle fibers being ripped different tendons being twisted and as a result the superior knowledge of the surgeon prevents him from seeing the beauty of the activity because he sees the ugly underside of it so Mark Twain is making the point when I was just an Amorous I didn't know anything about the river so I see a beautiful flowing river but now I see this current signifies you know some rocks or trees meaning all the different things that the Casual Observer would have been beautiful I see them now as dangerous and everything is with a critical eye all right this is a bad thing and this is a bad thing and this is a bad thing and as a result Mark Twain said he lost the capacity to see the beauty of the river and this is in some ways the cost of the zealous person that you're so focused on seeing flaws that you lose sight of a greater beauty that might be present everything is negative it's like if somebody had a beautiful white Kittle and there was like one spot there our eyes are drawn to that spot even though 99.999 percent of the kiddo is pure and white and beautiful so kanos is dangerous sometimes necessary but it's dangerous because it can atrophy your sense of appreciation of the goodness of Ambi Israel and that would suggest that this is why the word Shalom that God gave princess a covenant of peace the love of shalom is katua meaning it's only a partial buff because maybe the remnants is the peace that you get by zealousness he's never going to be a complete peace because it's a peace that came through criticism it's a piece that came through denigration and therefore it's not the completeness of ashalah that will complete a total Harmony in the situation so that's one aspect of the dangers of canos now again the dangers of kanaus doesn't mean there isn't a time and a place for it but don't be Cavalier in saying I'm acting with shame shame I am and therefore because it has its costs it has its cost to you and another cost to you is kind of the cosmic rule of the universe that when we cause pain to other people even justify it justifiably it comes back to haunt us we see this idea when Mordechai hears of the evil decree of Haman against the Jewish people so the public says he cried aloud and bitter scream hazal in the age before computers pointed out that this identical expression or almost identical expression appears one other place in the Torah and that's when ASA comes back to Jacob and discovers that yaakov took the brachos foreign that yaakov caused asaph the descendant of ASAP through our molec which is Harman causes that identical pain to the descendant of yaakov which is Mordechai now this can't be understood as a punishment because after all whatever the explanation is yaakov had to do what he did there was nothing wrong in what yaakov did but what's the lesson of time she'll ever used to say you see from here that the same way if you jump into a fire to rescue a baby did you do a good thing yeah did it have to be done yes but does that immunize you from getting burned usually not in other words it's not a punishment it's a consequence you go into a fire you get burnt so too you cause pain to somebody even if they deserved it and even if it was justifiable there's going to be some type of repercussion that it's going to bite you so you got to be careful about this sometimes you got to be willing to take it yeah but no that there's something you're going to have to take and to other very quick points about the dangers of condos and that is number one it often prevents a person from focusing on their own flaws you know it's always easy to say oh mashiach didn't come because of them whoever the them is right and by focusing on other people there's a great distraction in which we're really not looking at ourselves and it's so much easier to blame the other guy you know we're entering this week the three weeks which commemorate starting with the 17th of Thomas on Thursday and this is the time in which we don't just mourn the loss of the temple but we ask ourselves why we lost the basement and we know the famous Kumar in Yuma that the first that Temple was destroyed because of avodazara idolatry giliaryus sexual immorality murder and that brought us only lasted 70 years 70 years was destroyed even though the Jews were largely observant because of Sinatra polarization hatred and that is a Godot that is still lasting to this very day how much worse is the Sinatra Kingdom even then it saved rights to say vibrations of the bias was religious one upmanship in which there were many many different religious groups in the bayachani and each group looked at the other one and said you're an epicorice you're no good you're no good and they were simply focusing on the flaws of others by the way the the native in a sense then if they've proved his very points by the fact that he was criticized for being too tolerant of other Jews in other words he was basically saying that when we look down at other Jews that is the sinach kingdom that caused the Corbin bayachni and then its sieve was criticized for writing that because what was he legitimating reformed conservatives I was no conservative but reformed zionists or whatever it would be which reminds me of when Pope by John Paul uh criticize or maybe was Benedict after him criticized certain segments of Islam as being too prone to violence and they violently protested his denunciation so it's interesting point he makes the claim hey you guys are too violent how dare you say we're violent we're going to burn down your house because you criticized us for being violent essentially so native says claw Israel has a problem that it's intolerant so they come back how dare you come as intolerant we are going to condemn you for calling us intolerance uh you know it kind of kind of proves the protest proves the point but okay obviously in this time when we mourn over the Corbin based on mikdash we have to be very very careful not to look at the faults of other people to ourselves what can we work on what can we correct how can we improve and then rest assured that if everybody goes through that process you will have a better world you will have a better Jewish people you will have a world in which we become worthy once again of the of the base I just want to end with a a thought of cook very very interesting thought you know we call the amida right the daily amida we call it Shimona esri now Shimon esri literally means 18 blessings but as you know if you count it there are 19 blessings in the Amina not 18. celebracos explains that originally the amida was 18 blessings but in the time of Robin gamliel which was after the Corbin bayashani Robin gumliel of iavna of yavina that's the grandson of the first Robin Camellia said we need a bracha against what are called the meaning are sectarians some say they're early Christians because early Christians were you know masquerading actually they were Jews but they were governing in our synagogues and and they were trying to be my current people just like Messianic Jews today and we need a bracha against them said who is capable of writing abraha against the meaning and they looked around for a suitable author and they finally found a great Rabbi called shmuel akatan that means shmuel the humble and shmuel the humble is the author of The bracha against the missionaries and the apostates the informers there should be no hope and that is the night so it's not positioned as number 19 but that is the 19th of the amida of La malshinim al-tihi this is it says explicitly that the authorship is attributed to the Tana shmuel hakatan by the way the brachi name has undergone extreme censorship over the years so there's a whole big maclocus what is the original text of it and if you look in different sidorim you'll find different versions of the old version new version Etc but the basic idea is so small about that seems to say it's going to be hard to find an author who can write beer katamina I mean the same way the other blessings of Shimon Ezra written that'll be written that way as well what is uniquely difficult about birkasamine and why which be the one that is worthy of writing because I mean so rev cook answers with cook has a parish on the center called Olas Reya that's a nice pun Allah is the term for the pilgrimage offering but that you bring for the three regardless but really is also the abbreviation of his name right so Allah so in the last three years cook says the following idea is very unique among all of the blessings of the amida because it is the only blessing that is phrased as a curse any denunciation every other blessing is asking God for something positive give us life give us forgiveness give us give us give us Redemption we pray that Hashem should give us blessing the only bracha that truly asks God to punish and destroy is destroy the Heretics destroy the missionaries destroy the informers when you ask God to destroy your motive cannot be vengeance hate anger because Vengeance hate anger do not go up to God as something that God accepts your motive has to be the love I love my people so much that I ask that those forces that destroy my people be taken away but I'm not doing it out of hatred for them I'm doing it out of all of us Israel and reminyl says who is capable of such a thing it's like saying that you know uh somebody has to not hate Hitler in order to pray for the fall of Nazis how would that be possible the missionaries the informers the apostates the Heretics they've done so much damage to us who would be capable of praying to God without feeling hatred and anger and resentment we have to have somebody who writes the braco with a purity of intention so then even if we fall short we tap into that is the right guy why is shmula cutting the right guy so this is a great final aspect we know very little about shimulakatan very few statements are mentioned the gumar does give us a story that one time he was sitting with the and a Bosco came out and said there is someone in this room that is as worthy as Moshe Rabino of the Shekinah coming down on him if the generation would be worthy and everybody looked at he was the one that everybody acknowledged but we really don't have any statements of other than one statement that appears in Turkey of us and that one statement is not even his own it's a possible meaning this was his motto and what is mulakatan's motto what is his mission statement benef when your enemy has a downfall do not rejoice remember this was the president Hashem told the Angels when they were singing about the destruction of Egypt don't take personal Glee in the sufferings of even even evil people so if that was his mission statement says he's the right person to write for them I'll see him because his motive is not going to be Glee at the destruction of the bad guys it'll be a genuine concern for the rest of the Jewish people so the idea is that sometimes we have to fight evil sometimes we fight evil by an army we kill terrorists sometimes we have to fight evil by protest by giving mother sometimes it has to be done but it's never done or never should be done with a personal Glee at exposing the shortcomings of others the motivation has to be the glorification of Hashem and ultimately a love for the Jewish people so sashem it's still possible that we will not have to have a fast this week um the basement may come and as the passage in zacharya says these fast days will not just not be fast days it will actually be holidays they'll be on them so the 17th of Thomas may turn into a yamchief even this year but if hansra Shalom we're still not going to be zelka I wish everyone as they say a meaningful fashion do you wish people an easy fast so it's interesting some say easy fast well fast you're supposed to feel deprived he's supposed to feel a certain amount of suffering so I don't know who coined it but that's a nice meaning meaningful fast is a nice uh I thought it was kind in my old community of Silver Spring but then I discovered that it's used all over the place so I want to wish everybody a meaningful fast and may we be zoka to the BSA mashiach and Dominion base thank you you like everybody [Music]