Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz: The Power of Speech

[Music] everybody I'm glad you come as I I think I've told you before since most of my teaching most of everybody's teaching is via zoom there's a special pleasure for me to be able to talk to some real human beings in person it actually makes it much easier to communicate so even though it might be a little bit of an inconvenience to you all I do appreciate your your coming outs and I'm not sure if you encountered any transportation problems I had to get off a bus because there were some demonstrations and then a cab had to go to a lot of circuitous routes I'm not sure what's going on but in usual I am you know we are among all the other wonderful things of yours line we are also the city of demonstrations things will often happen that'll be a little inconvenient but this is included in what our harkaman called safar halika the reward of getting to a place getting to a mitzvah is also considered to be part of the merit of the Mitzvah itself we are in the period of time that is called the three weeks beginning with the 17th of Tammuz and ending with the ninth of of this is a period of 21 days it also goes by the term Baynham it's a rim which literally means between the narrow places like in English we have an expression between a rock and a hard place and that is this is a period of time that is bracketed on the 17th of Tammuz well it all depends you connect you can connect it to the tower and then you can connect it to the Corbin base and Mick - in terms of the Torah the 17th of Tammuz was actually the day that moshe rabbeinu came down from mount sinai it is the 40th day from Schmauss and that is the day where he saw the golden calf and he smashed the lukas that happened on the 17th of Tammuz the ninth of us was the day after the spies came back the spies came back on the 8th of us they gave their devastating reports that night which is the night of the ninth of of the Jewish people cried they lacked faith and God decreed that they would die in the desert and only their children would enter so that's the 9th of out so the 17th of Tammuz is connected to the faith of the Marah glim and the 9 and I'm sorry the faith of the AYGO the golden calf and the 9th above is connected to the fate of the moraga limb but in later times particularly during the Second Temple the 17th of Tammuz was when the Romans broke into Jerusalem after a siege that had lasted several years and three weeks later they burnt the base on Macduff and the ninth of us so this period is called Benham it's arrium and it's a time that we think about how we rebuild the base of McNish and the way we rebuild the base and make dutch is not so much by doing something external on the Temple Mount that's kind of the job of Messiah until Messiah comes our job is not to engage in physical construction of the temple but our job is to construct a temple of our heart and our soul as the Pacific says when the Jewish people were commanded about the Michigan feel so li mikdash make for God a sanctuary the shikhandi becomes so I will dwell in them meaning the real Michigan of God the tabernacle of God the sanctuary of Hashem is not in a building the sanctuary of Hashem is in our heart and in our soul and the temple gets destroyed when we are no longer worthy of having a Shem in our heart and the sanctuary gets restored when we become people who are capable of having God in our hearts and that is how we rebuild the base on McNish so therefore this is a period of time that is not just connected to morning it is connected to introspection and thoughts about how do you repoter you build a temple a sanctuary for our College Bartow in our heart I'm sure you've heard it's beautiful song as well the very beautiful phrase Belvoir v Michigan ethnic in my heart I will build a Michigan a sanctuary a dwelling place for Hashem that is the avodah of a Jew in many many ways to make our heart in our soul a dwelling place for God and when that happens when there's enough of a critical mass of people who do that Aveda do that service then the Third Temple comes down from heaven and it establishes with finality that God is here by the way you Shalom is going to be renamed at the end of the book of your Cesco it's very very interesting so it says the name of Jerusalem shall be when the third temple is rebuilt Hashem Shama God is there and because I'll actually say the word Shama without vowels could be vocalized Hashem Shama God is its name the very city is going to be identified with God Michelle I'm has many many names I think there's something like 30 or 40 different names in enough for Jerusalem but the final name that it's going to get in Hashem Shama the UK vodka the tetragrammaton Hashem is there and that is what it means in building the mikdash what is the there there there is not just the Temple Mount that there is in our heart and in our soul so that's what we think about so let me just mention very very quickly I'm only going to talk about one of these three but I'm going to mention three associations that Reposado the great specificity of southwark of lublin makes about the three weeks and then I'll develop at greater length one of those three the other two I'll leave for maybe next week he points out the following he points out number one that when you build a structure the very first thing you have to do when you build something is clean the building site of any debris or any garbage but you have to get rid of the garbage get rid of the debris before you can dig a foundation and destructon edifice so two of southwark says before you can make your heart and soul a sanctuary for god you have to get rid of the garbage that clogs up your building site and what is that garbage that garbage are the three negative attributes that Pirkei avos discusses I think you've mentioned this last week and that is kina jealousy Tyva lust and Cabos seeking honor and glory they take a person out of the world they destroy a person's relationship with God so if Southwark says the reason why we have three weeks to think about the Corbin Betemit - is because there are three negative attributes we have to try to uproot because that's cleaning the building site the three weeks are connected they correspond to kena Tyva covet see that's rough so duck's point one I'm not going to talk about that so much tonight other than you know make you aware of the three weeks I can negate kena type of a covered one other thing he says kind of a derivative connection to this is we know that the first temple was destroyed in biblical times because of the worst a virus a voter's our idol worship gilli Araya sexual immorality Severus dummy murder the second temple was destroyed because of sin athena hatred and polarization but going back to the first temple for a moment of tzedakah actually says voters are regularized evil snowmen are the extreme manifestations of King a type of a couplet so even if I'm not a murderer I'm not an idol worshipper I don't engage in sexual misconduct but those are only symptoms of the character flaws of keynote I've ever covered how is that so let's take murder a jealousy when taken to an extreme can be so extreme that you literally murder somebody in fact most murders that are not related to terrorism or the light actually arise out of some type of family quarrel where there's some extreme jealousy or a gang member is jealous you have the jacket that I that the kid wants or you have the shoes and as crazy as that sounds that can create a fury which can result god forbid in a murder so murder is the extreme manifestation of jealousy in which I so begrudge what you have that I'll even take your life type of lust obviously when it's manifested in an extreme way to turn into Gil Arroyo sexual impropriety now the third Association is a little less obvious and that is the Association of Cub owed honor glory ego gratification and idolatry and that's a little less obvious but the Association simply is that idols can be different things there can be an idol that is a statue you bow down to or you can make an ideology your idol whether it be communism or there'd be any type of political system and you can make yourself an idol when you devote your life to your own self gratification when your comforts becomes the most important aspect of your existence then in a sense that's a voters are because literally what does elbow does are I mean a far in worship the worship of anything other than God doesn't have to be a statue if I worship money if I worship power if I worship status if I worship science and I consider that to be the most important thing in the world that is a form of avodah Zarah so ultimately avodah Zarah is connected at least in an allegorical sense in the symbolic sense voters service connected with Cabos when I make myself the measure of all things so if sudden points out therefore we shouldn't necessarily pat ourselves on the back and say oh I'm not guilty of avodah Zarah gilja riah's chouriço stomach well maybe we're not guilty of those actual bee savior's but if there's those roots clauses are connected to kena Tyva covet then unfortunately right there's a lot of talk about Cobra de beber but about being an asymptomatic carrier right so even if we're a symptomatic we can very well have the disease that give rise to Kenna type of a cover page that's throughout Southern Observatory weeks correlates to Kenna Tyva covered and our job is to clean the garbage remove the debris remove the garbage the filth from the building site so that our hearts and our souls can be open to the godliness of the Shekinah which rebuilds the base--emitter sh ii association with the three weeks that ruff Southwark makes which also i'm not going to talk about a lot but i'm just going to mention it there quickly so the third one will be the subject is that points out that we know when the jewish people were taken out of mitzrayim god did so with four terms of redemption this is why cuz i'll we're maitake at the Seder that you have four cups of wine to celebrate the four terminologies of redemption that God uses in partials for era for Jose see I will take you out the heat salty I will save you the God out the I will redeem you Villa cockney I will take you unto me as a nation there is a fifth term I will bring you to the land which is connected to the Messianic Redemption but in terms of myths Ryan we have these for the show notes of gula and because of those for the show notes of gamma cos awareness a cane for cows ups rep so that points out that the three weeks and the well he says Shabazz Arbor Thomas and the three weeks correspond to the for the show notes of gula but going in Reverse for example shippers Arbor Thomas should have been the culmination of the exodus think about this because the purpose of the exodus was that God would give us the Torah what should have happened on the 17th of Tammuz Moshe urbane okay we heard the Ten Commandments on Shoeless but on the 17th of Thomas he's coming down with the tablets that would have been the conclusion or at least the purpose of each see estimates ryeom and that is why it's always the same day of the week as the first day of pacer as is Tish above as well and yet instead of becoming a stage and redemption it became a stage of exile syrup syrup actually correlates Shiva Zorba Tamas plus the four plus three equals movements away in the negative sense from the for the show note of Gokula tisha ba of corresponds to the fifth flushin of guna but again in Reverse instead of bringing us to the land Tish above is korban and gullets away so rhapsodic says you can envision the 17th of Tammuz plus the three weeks plus tisha buff as almost the photographic negatives of the four Lashon note of Gokula culminating in the fifth lusha they are like the opposite picture of what should have been but of southwark points out that in the opposite picture there is also a movement towards reclamation because if you look at our journey away from God as a circle rather than a linear movement when you move along the circumference of a circle the further you get from one point the closer you are to that point coming from the other side right I have a point on a the circumference of a circle I move away away away away away away away I'm getting further and further and further from that point but in the process of getting further from that point I'm getting closer to that point on the other side so in a paradoxical way gullet and estrangement bring us closer together they create yearning they create passion they create desire to be connected and that desire to be connected can even be stronger than it is when we actually are connected the old saying of absence makes the heart grow fonder the great Rutner the great receiver of high in Berlin it was a very very colorful person as well towards the end of his life he made Albie I came to Eretz Israel he retired so to speak from his receiver in Brooklyn he came to Eretz Israel he was asked at one point at one point in his their life was there anything he missed about what slots do you miss anything about America so he didn't say hog and gas or whatever it would be I mean yeah you know how get us there anyway what he said was the one thing he missed about living in Israel was that he no longer had the yearning to come through a Rich's job because he was here already he missed that yearning that's a very interesting statement because you might say well what sense does that make he was yearning to have something now he has it it's not the same in some ways the yearning is a stronger love than when you actually have it and that website up says is why the negative of galoot can have a very strong propelling power to connect to God and bring Redemption because it creates yearning it creates a sense of loss it creates an absence in my heart and that absence in my heart yearns to be filled and commensurate with the yearning comes the redemption and therefore rhapsodic says even though it seems at first glance that the 17th of Tammuz the three weeks and teach above our movements away from the four stages of redemption coupled with the fifth stage in point of fact as you're moving away you're actually getting closer and that is the meaning of the famous statement of our sages that the Messiah will be born on Tisha buff it does not necessarily mean that's the birthday of the human being that will be mushy us is unteachable about certainly cannot understand it that way because the Rebbe sir birthday was indecent but even even without without Shabbat I mean the morale says it doesn't necessarily refer to a birthday but it means the Messianic idea comes into the world through the grieving and the morning of the 9th above that shows Hashem how much we yearn for the redemption right so that's rough Southwark second point right so the first point is the three weeks are connect in a tie Vaclav out the second point is the three week well should was our baton was the three weeks our reversals of the four of the show notes of gula and Tish above is the fifth LeSean of google app and even though it's a reversal it actually brings you to those stages of redemption now the third point of rhapsodic which is the main thing i want to talk about tonight is that drove sadiq points out that there's this interesting progression in the half tourists that we read for the three weeks starting last week two of them are from the book of year me Yahoo and the one before Kish above is from the NA VI Shia and here obviously it all talks about prophecies about the destruction of the temple and the like but if so that focuses on what you might think is a relatively minor point he focuses on the first words of each of those sub tours the first words of last week's of Torah which is the first of the three weeks is d'Avray yirme'yahu the words of your meal so the faculty that is being described is Deeb or speech staff timer this week we is really chapter 2 of your mio shimu devar hashem here the Word of God shamea so we move from D Bor to shamea and the third half Tyra which is the the be the first chapter of the Isiah vio is called hezonia Shia Obon emotes vision so you're going from speech to hearing to vision Rev subject suggests that itself is a spiritual progression that one has to understand you know we talked about speak no evil hear no evil see no evil I know that the English saying goes in the other other direction but there is a significance in this direction because what it's suggesting is that when I confront so to speak sins like Lashon Hara so initially I have to confront it externally meaning I simply control my mouth I have negative thoughts I think I have resentments I have hatreds I have angers but I bite my tongue and I keep quiet so stage one is simply suppressing your speech and directing it in proper ways and then you progress to a higher level where not only do you not speak negatively about others but you also don't even listen but even that is not the ultimate level the ultimate idea of blush in Hara and average Israel the images it's positive is not so much I hate people but I control myself but it's to redefine what I see that I focus on the good I focus on the positive meaning I'm not struggling with controlling my tongue anymore because I view the world in a different way so initially a voter's a sham generally it may starts with suppression you want to do something and you control yourself but eventually it culminates in a Reaper ception of reality in which you strive not to see the negative you try not to see the bad in people and alike and at that point you're no longer struggling with hearing evil or seeing evil or speaking evil because you simply don't see it to begin with therefore ozone is the most important thing now as you know or should know the Shabbat before the ninth of I was in fact called Shabbat a zone because of this of Torah it is the Shabbat of vision and this farm also say because we should actually try to visualize what a world of the base hamikdash and mushiya would be like we try to bring ourselves to that type of visualization but that also means we have to visualize each other in good and positive ways so it turns out therefore that this is yet a third progression in the three weeks moving from controlling your speech to controlling the inputs that come into your ears and finally redefining your perception of reality in positive ways now it's interesting although I'm off sync by a week that if we look at the first stage of the three weeks which was last week's of Torah but it's going to be this week's part just strangely enough as controlling speech the idea of speech is very very important in the parsha of this week and I'll talk about this in two different ways but first let me quote a famous pisaq in proverbs Shalom Juan Ella the wisest of all people compiled a book of wisdom as to how you live your life and the like that's called Mitch light and one of the famous verses in Mitch lay is how mothers waha Khayyam be at Ellucian life and death are in the hands of the tongue your tongue your mouth your speech can kill you and your speech can keep you alive now the mega-rich gives a very practical example of how this actually works the medics gives a very interesting story the Midrash tells us that all the limbs of the body were fighting among themselves again obviously it's novel Oracle Midrash in which the legs were saying we're the most important part of the body because without us you're not able to go anywhere and the hands said we're the most important part of the body because without us you can't do anything and the eyes said without us you know you can't see where you're going so all of the different limbs where our limbs or organs were arguing who is most important so finally the tongue says I don't know how the other organs you're talking without a tongue but the tongue says I'm the most important so they laugh at the tongue and they say who are you you don't even have a backbone you can't even stand up you know you're just lying down what's so great about you so the tongue says I'll show you so anyway this person whose organs are arguing is a servant of the king and the King doesn't feel well so the tongue causes the person to say Oh for a dog like you I'll bring you dogs milk to help you so the King says off with this head how dare he talk to me this way so all of the limbs say to the tongue what are you doing you're getting us killed and the tongue says I'll take care of it and the tongue then has the guy say that was amputated sorry he says oh I was speaking my native language where the word dog whatever it was actually means hero lion Superman that's what I meant I was using the language that I grew up with and the King says oh that's what you're meant bro that's fine you're you're a faithful servant so the tongue says to his you know companions you see I could get you killed and I can get you saved life and death is in the hands of the tongue this is an actual metric that gives this give the story but we have to understand of course that life and death is not just physical life and physical death life and death refers to the impact of our speech on others we can use our speech to give people strength encouragement supports when they're going through difficulties and we can use our speech to destroy people to humiliate them to cut them down you know you can die in a lot of ways and it's not just through a knife through your heart a person can die when their spirit is broken a person can die or does that mean in the sense even though he's alive when they no longer have hope when they think that nobody cares and with the well-placed word with the even are very simple you know five five seconds and how are you doing whatever it would be you can change a person's life we have to recognize the power of speech to give comforts and strength and encouragement and the power of speech to destroy you know rough palm great great receive a great Sadiq respond once recounted a story about this he said there was a man that he know and the man was a simple a simple person it was neither Thomas Holcomb in any way was a religious Jew and the person was in the hospital so we're pon wrote him like a card like a tool I'm tired you know hope you get better that minute didn't even remember doing it so like 20 years later the person died eventually and rapine went to the Lavanya and that the funeral the widow like holds up the widow spoke or somebody spoke and says you see not my husband you know got this card from the great Russia Shiva enough pom and that kept him alive for 20 years he felt so loved and so close shove and so important Rippon didn't even remember writing this this was a a two line card it was a considerate thing to do but this was not a big thing that registered in his memory and yet for this simple Jew it's made the difference I mean the wife actually said this kept him alive for 20 years amazing what our words can do by the way this also illustrates a very important axiom in life after - after 120 years when God is going to show us the significance of our actions both the good in the band we might be very very surprised what was the most significant things we did with our lives you know we're gonna think that was this accomplishments that accomplishment etc it may often be things that you literally didn't even think we're important and they were the things that get us into GaN Eden if we're lucky if we're fortunate sometimes they're insignificant small things that are not insignificant at all they really make the difference I heard a story years and years ago about a woman that came to happened in Israel I don't know I don't know if all the details are true but this is the story the way it was reported a woman seemed a little agitated she went into a hotel she wanted to get a room at a high floor no top floor of the hotel they told her the room is not available for six hours so she sat in the lobby for six hours by herself after the 6 hours were up she got her room on the top floor and she proceeded to jump off and commit suicide and it was pointed out that for the six hours that she sat in the lobby not a single person spoke to her now again I mean most of us probably do behave that way I mean I wouldn't okay I certainly wouldn't go over to a woman and then but it would be a man I wouldn't necessarily go over to somebody either so I'm not putting myself on any pedestal but the question we have to ask ourselves this if even one person would have gone over her and said how are you doing would she perhaps not have taken her life it's just she did I think there's a plain off-broadway play based on the short story about the guy that was about to commit suicide and all of a sudden he gets a phone call he's kind of meticulous an OCD person so he picks up the play says I want to take the call before I kill myself and it turned out to be a wrong number and the guy says please don't bother me I'm about to take my life and like you know the woman at the other end just talked him out of it what are you doing you know it's the wrong number but there must be a reason and that little contact can really make a difference in a person's life so when we say how love is I am Beato Michonne it's not simply a matter of physical life and death although sometimes it is but it's a matter of using your speech to build up rather than destroy that's such a wonderful thing that's why it is said that the coffee time was actually a very talkative person somebody after the puppet time wrote about Lashon Hara so there were rabbis who wanted to check him out they would send surreptitious people to spend Shabbos with the kibbutz Khayyam and see if he gossips and one of the people who went gave a report that at first he was very very surprised The Hobbit time had a son-in-law who never spoke only Torah never spoke a word but the hobbits time is sitting there talking and joking and telling stories and the person is I'm wondering why is a happy time the big big sada care the SAR law seems to be much more righteous and meticulous about speech but then he realized that the son-in-law strategy was simply not taught how many times away there was much more difficult to talk and use your speech but only in positive and constructive ways that's much more difficult it's always easier it's not so easy to keep quiet either but it is easier relatively speaking simply keep quiet than it is to use speech in positive and good ways without crossing the line so what is the connection between speech and the parsha that we're going to read about so there's really two connections the beginning of the parsha talks about the concept of making a net there now this is very very unusual a net air is a vow a person has the power to say that you know this Apple is forbidden to me through a vow and if he transgresses as well he is committing a sin the Torah says Moyock tell devar oh if you make a vow or an oath you are not allowed to transgress it and then there are various rules if a wife makes a vow the husband can annul it if it's within the day that he heard it if a daughter makes about the house below the age of 12 and a half the father couldn't know that etc but be it as it may if you think about it a vow there's an extraordinary concept because normally we would think only God should have the authority to declare what is forbidden and what is permitted you know God said you're not allowed to eat Hazzard County Pig and so if I eat Pig I'm committing a sin but if I say I'm not allowed to eat this Apple this Apple now huh logically becomes a piece of hazard if I eat this Apple it is a spiritually detrimental as eating some ham how can that be who gives me the power to make something forbidden isn't that the power of God so you see from the whole parsha of neder the whole halakhah of oaths and vows that God embodied human beings with a power that their speech creates realities their speech creates spiritual realities it's not just words people say sticks and stones may break my bones we heard his children but names will never hurt me very very not true if anything the sticks and the stones that break your bones at least if you're young but as I said most of the time the bones heal okay but their hurt and the pain of the name can stay with you forever and the parsha of neder is a very concrete illustration of how words become spiritual realities in the world my word can transform an apple or a piece of chocolates into Kaiser and availa I have that power those are the powers of my words so that's something to think about that the whole parsha of vows and oaths underscore the power of speech by the way going back to this idea of sticks and stones may break my bones I remember hearing an interview with Richard Nixon after he left the presidency in disgrace after Watergate and he was being interviewed about all the different challenges he faced in his life and of course obviously he went through quite a lot I mean the country went through quite a lot oh but he had ups and downs and victories and defeats and he had a very colorful controversial life although insofar as we Jews are concerned you know we don't consider that and we mix him did a lot of good for for Israel but you know there were obviously moral moral problems but I was fascinated that Nixon kept on talking about insults that he suffered in sixth grade on the playground and after all he's been through resigning and disgrace the presidency of the United States this 75 year old man is reminiscing about the way people spoke to him in the playground when he was 11 years old now he would hope and you would think that we would get over it but you know we don't totally get over it and it's a scary thing when you're a person who controls the destiny of Nations and the world and you're you know a finger so to speak it's not the nuclear button that's what happened to you when you were in sixth grade is going to have an impact on your thinking and whether it's Nixon whether it's Saddam Hussein whether it's a Dolf hitler or a joseph stalin this is part of the mix now you know don't get me wrong obviously I'm not giving anybody a free pass I'm not giving Hitler an excuse because Hitler suffered a certain measure of rejection there are plenty of people who suffer rejection and they become righteous good moral people and this is free will and that Shem says we have to go beyond the difficulties of our childhood obviously obviously obviously but nevertheless it is an undeniable fact that those experiences play into the mix of who we are no matter how secure we think we become about how accomplished we become there is that child within us that is still suffering the pain Oh even childhood experiences and all of that is included in a mother trial honey be out on the show okay so one connection to speech is that is the parsha of Neda but there's another connection as well it's a little less obvious later on Act it's a double Parcher this week so it's pretty big in the second of the parsha out which is the last parsha in by midnight it's there but this is the last time that it's mentioned we revisit the ear mcnutt's now what is the ear Michael at the City of Refuge right that the halacha is that if somebody committed homicide somebody killed another human being in a non intentional manner it was an accidental death so they're not put to death but they are sent to a City of Refuge there are designated cities in which they are supposed to remain in that city until the death of the Kohen Gadol now that's a very indeterminate sentence if the Kohen Gadol dies a day later the murderer goes home after a day if the Kohen Gadol stays alive for 50 years the murderer stays in the year Mick left for 50 years if the murderer dies before the Kohen Gadol he is buried in the year Mick lot and he is not excused to the family plot till the Kohen Gadol dies very very strange sentence fact is omission of mentioned that the mothers of the Coen gulls used to bring care packages they used to bring food packages to the road stem in the year Mick left so that the road scum shouldn't pray that the Kohen Gadol dies because they want to get out so by the way just to understand this be sure you understand that in order to be high up to go to the air Mick lot it's not you have to be negligent there has to be a certain carelessness there has to be something that secular law would call manslaughter if something was a true unavoidable accident you get no punishment at all and you stay home so essentially if there is intentional homicide which we would call murder that is a capital crime for which a person could be executed if there is negligent homicide like he went through a red light you didn't look you didn't look both ways you went through a stop sign you throw some heavy object off your message without looking who's below so you're not intentional so it's not a capital crime but you are negligent and callous and therefore you go to the ear make lots as a and if you step outside of the Year McLouth to go Allah done the blood avenger the relative can actually kill you he's given permission to kill you if you step outside of the air McNutt acting to be accurate you have 2,000 hemos from the air MacLeod so you have the city and then there's a zone around the city that you're still protected but if you take one step beyond the 2,000 a most around the air make left you are vulnerable to the guerrilla done now the Gemara asks the following kasha if the mothers of the Kohanim ghetto limb had to bribe the road sim not to pray against their sons the implication would be that such a prayer might be effective meaning what are the mothers afraid of the mothers are afraid that the road skin will pray that the Kohen Gadol will die but why would such a prayer be effective I simply pray somebody would die why would God listen to my prayer so listen to this there are two answers that are given one in the Babylonian Talmud and one in the Jerusalem Talmud both the Bob way and the Rochelle me ask the same question but they give different answers the answer of the Babylonian Talmud is that the reason the prayers of the road skin would be effective and that's why they have to be bribed is because the Kohen Gadol is a person who deserves punishment and that makes him vulnerable to their prayers why does the Kohen Gadol deserve punishment which makes him vulnerable because he should have prayed he liked the calling goggle is the spiritual leader of the generation ideally although there were many corrupt : mt dolan but ideally the Kohen Gadol is not just a priest is the leader of the generation he should have prayed that there be no tragedies on his watch and if he didn't pray enough to avert those tragedies he deserves punishment this is the bubbly and because he deserves punishment he would be vulnerable to the prayer of the road skin which is why the mothers had to ride them now let's think about this for a moment how could the Kohen Gadol pray it's one thing if this would have been a natural disaster the Kohen Gadol should pray there shouldn't be tsunamis there shouldn't be forest fires there shouldn't be earthquakes but here we're dealing with volitional behaviors granted it's not intentional homicide it's not murder but we're dealing with careless people people who don't stop at red lights people who go through stop signs people who throw things off they're mere peasant these are choices that people make and do we not say how call me they sure million everything is in the hands of heaven except the decisions to serve God in a proper way so how can the culling is I think Tana can I pray that you shouldn't sin can I pray that you be a religious Jew many would say no because whether you're a religious Jew does not depend on God whether you're a religious Jew it depends on you so how can I pray that God should make somebody else really know I can pray then God should make me religious too and the reason that so is because Hashem responds to what I want to be so if I want to be a show mitzvah I can pray that God will give me the strength but if you don't want to be a shomer mitzvah how can I pray that God should override your choices so how can we say the calling girdle should have prayed that people look both ways and don't go through red lights and don't throw things off the map essent these are choices of irresponsibility that people know so what you see from the Bible says the Kazon ish is an amazing thing that the predicate of my assumption is incorrect the power of prayer which is speech speech going back to the reality speech is so great that prayer can override the fundamental principle of free will yes I have made a world in which our moral decisions are primarily volitional everything is in the hands of heaven except your action I am but the kayaker Fela can override that never the cousin it says contrary to my assumption that you can be mitzpah well that a Shem should inspire somebody to do chuhwa and then deed that's what we commonly do there are actually many prayers before lips benching on Shabbos and the like which are really praying that my children should be righteous you know you might say how can I pray that my children should be righteous if that if they don't want to be righteous that's their decision God does not interfere but through prayer you can do it so that's an illustration of the power of speech to override free will that the coen goggle can pray people should be more responsible right so the Misrata bridge can pray that more of us wear masks all the time or whatever it would be even though that's our decision but that's nickel a lint Fela that people should be more careful and more conscious that's the answer of the bubbly and that highlights the co-ack of FEMA to override bellezza which is an amazing thing the euro Xiaomi asks the same question though again what's the question why did the mothers have to bribe the rote skin' not to pray against the Kohen Gadol what did the Kohen Gadol do that was wrong he's not deserving and the Bob Lee's answer is he is deserving of punishment because he could afraid the you Xiaomi gives another answer which is even more can you show me says the Kohen Gadol did nothing wrong but the power of prayer is that even an undeserving person could be caught in a prayer now it's hard to understand that but the co-ack of prayer is so much that if I pray that somebody should die and I do so with sincerity and with devotion that can result even an innocent man being killed because God built into the structure of the spiritual universe that feel I believe shall M as a in fact someone to say that this is why the bribe worked meaning listen if I want the Kohen Gadol to die because I want to get out giving me some brownies is going to change that it's not but it's gonna make my prayer a little less devout me a little less Kabana against the Kohen Gadol because of the brownies and that makes it less of a love shall n now this is an interesting again I can't fully explain it but it is brought down in rhetoric and other others Sir Francis say this that even an evildoer if they truly pray to Hashem with devotion God will give them kind of a negative spiritual power and in fact that's part of the difficulty that we face with the Arab nations the B'nai Ishmael the Arabs do have a connection to praying to one God they pray five times a day although their prayer services are short we only pray five times on Yom Kippur they do it every day and part of why they are so dangerous is they have a certain dark spiritual energy that comes in part from FEMA now I will be the first to admit that it's hard for me to understand why God should listen to H feel aa to effect something that is immoral and evil yet to feel eyes kind of built into the fabric of nature that it affects changes so you see from the bubbly and the you show me two differents perspectives on the power of Tefila the bobbly indicates that Fela can override the fundamental principles of free will and the Usami indicates that Fela can result even in an evil being perpetrated if this fellows beliefs on them you know it's interesting there's a story in the second condition and again it's hard to know how literal we take these stories about a ruin an abandoned building in a town that was frequented by an offs us an awesome monster kind of a demonic monster that had seven heads and nobody would even walk into that building because the monster would kill them so a bias suggested when a certain rabbi comes to town this robbery was a great Sadiq we should deny him lodging and tell them the only place he could sleep is that abandoned building without telling him what's there and when he sleeps in the building he'll take care of them Abhaya was brought to us he'll take care of the monster so the rabbi shows up and he needs to have a place to stay and everybody says not available so finally the rabbi sets himself up in this abandoned building and the monster comes and the monster tries to kill him the monster has seven heads and the person says eight Fela and every fella severs one of the heads of the monster so after 17 Lots the monster is dead Brooke a Shem everybody's happy but the rabbi goes over to Baia afterwards and he said how could you put me in this situation I could have been killed how could you assume I could get out of it right - fela my life was in danger I buyer said I trusted you I knew you I know your prayers are so powerful that nothing would happen to you that's what the gemara says but the Marcia asks an interesting question let's accept a bias points let's accept that abaya was so confident that this man was a great great sadiq that his prayers would be answered okay let's assume that but there's another problem and that is the Gemara says that if you get the benefit of a miracle in this world because it's supernatural it takes away from the reward of your mitts votes in the world to come meaning if I get good things in this world that are physical or natural I get money I get on or whatever it is that doesn't take away from all of my BOB because I'm just getting this world type of rewards but if I am benefit from a supernatural miracle it's like God is using something outside of the world to protect me that uses up my Olam haba so here's the point even if a buyer was confident that this person would merit a miracle so a buyer doesn't have the problem of putting the guy in danger but is it fair of a body to take away part of this rabbi's Olam haba so the Marshalls answer it's very interesting the marshal says you lose your own my BA if you benefit from a miracle but when you benefit from your prayers that is not called a miracle because it is the natural power of prayer to effect these changes therefore it's not a miracle even though it is a miracle but it's not considered a miracle that takes away from allah baba now listen up we understands that not all prayers get answered the way we like Hashem listens to all prayers and the Shem gives us answers our prayers and many many different ways by giving us the strength to grow from our situation but still prayer can affect one jurist wondrous transformations they tell a story of this may be apocryphal because I don't think the dates work out very well of that when the gara Rebbe was smuggled out of the warsaw ghetto so the story goes again and I know see now that these things are broadcast I always get comments or criticisms if things are not historically accurate I don't have the same freedom I have to be inaccurate and telling a story so I will say to the audience that's this is probably not a true story and historically I don't think it happens but it's a very interesting story so I'm going to say it anyway and that is the story goes that the gara Rebbe was brought to meet Winston Churchill because he Winston Churchill was told that the gara Rebbe was a saint and Sadiq and Churchill wanted to get some spiritual guidance and this is during the Battle of Britain this is when London is being bombed and on night after night after night after night and Churchill you know asked the Rebbe you know what do we do to get divine protection in this moment of danger and the gara Rebbe said well I can give you two answers do you want the miraculous way or do you want the ordinary way the normal way so a trick you said will tell me both so the Rebbe said the miraculous way is you get your army your Navy and your Air Force together and you defeat Germany that would be a miracle the normal way is take the sums and we tell them and the regime saves you that's the normal way things work so he says beats Fela is the normal way and the superiority of your army is going to be a that's going to be the America and therefore the idea that the first stage in the three weeks is working on the kulluk of dbar comes out in this parsha both in the connection Nidoran and in connection of tefillah words up to Fela now there is again a famous story the pun of a drug which is true in which the pun of somebody once asked upon a future of in Yiddish about Dominique Favre us errant furnished which is Yiddish why does God not answer me for our bus éireann furnished and the pun of it you have said your words are exactly right but you got to reap UNK shoe it air and fruits missed it's not that God doesn't answer you God answers no my Ehrenreich nisht can be read two ways he doesn't answer or errand for the answers no now you might say oh why are you fooling around with semantic games isn't it the same thing it's not the same thing at all when you say God does not answer that means he doesn't care he's indifferent he's not paying attention my life doesn't matter to him that is sad that breaks my spirit that makes me hopeless but when God says no that's a totally different issue he cares he's invested he's listening and he makes a decision like a loving parent would make that for whatever reason we don't always understand the reason this is not the right thing for me so God's saying no is very very different than God not saying anything and the part of it you have said God always listens he may not give us what we want but if he doesn't give us what we want I can call Mick Jagger he gives us what we need right you can't always get what you want but you get what you need and this is not a mockery I usually would rely upon but it's a very very beautiful sentiment in some Jimmy answers prayers in many ways the strength to go on the courage not to be broken or defeated and even in the middle of tragedy that's Hashem answering your prayers the ability to rebuild your life after the Holocaust as tragic as the Holocaust was God gave you an answer and really this is the story of the Jewish people that out of the ashes will become will come Redemption and rebuilding and be as with the Shem this is the period of time in which we think about this we yearn for it and may all of us be socha to experience the redemption of our College Barco and I'm Israel Ben hey Ravi ma no thank you [Music]