Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz - The Torah is Not in Heaven

Okay everybody and uh as uh you probably know I was away for a few weeks so I'm glad to be here back. Although I have to I'm going to England for sure it's all again so I just came and taking another trip but okay. Uh anyway it's interesting I see the uh the ad for the the British on the very nice uh all all night session. So I had mentioned that in the scholarly literature uh it is actually shown that the spread of the custom of staying up all night Shavuot current coincided with the introduction of coffee into Europe meaning to say as coffee spread from the Americas into Europe the custom of staying up all night also spread so it was connected to that. So coffee does play an important role uh in Jewish tradition. Thank you. So anyway I'm going to talk about Shavuot tonight a little bit of a change from our haftorah. And we all obviously know if any of you ask anybody what is the event that Shavuot commemorates what is it that we celebrate so obviously the answer that we give is Matan Torah and the davening says Matan Torahseinu. So first as a preliminary matter we have to define the term Matan Torah. What do we mean that the Torah was given on Shavuot? We certainly do not mean the entire five books of Moses because more than half of the Torah consists of events that occurred after Matan Torah the story of Korach the story of the spies the right we didn't get the story of the golden calf at Matan Torah. That would reduce everything to a script that obviously K'lal Yisrael was not given a script of what they're going to be doing that wouldn't make any sense. So we have to redefine Torah so maybe you'll say well Torah doesn't mean the five books of Moses those narratives didn't happen till they happened but maybe Torah is a listing of the 613 mitzvot. But even that is not entirely true. Number one Moshe got the 613 mitzvot over a 40 day period he didn't get them all on Shavuot. And number two the Jewish people got mitzvot over the 40 year period. There are quite a few mitzvot that we did not get until the 40th year in the desert. So we certainly neither Moshe nor Am Yisrael got the whole Torah on Shavuot and really what happened on Shavuot b'pashtus is simply not simply the Aseret Hadibrot the Ten Commandments which are the foundation of the Torah and God's divine revelation to Am Yisrael to 3 million people and uh that was the beginning of a process that took 40 years but that is what we celebrate. Now the Maharal points out a very very interesting observation and it's a question that many people ask. And that is on one hand we say we celebrate Shavuot because of Matan Torah but that's not the reason the Torah itself gives. If you simply look at the Chumash why is there a holiday called described exclusively as an agricultural festival. Uh Bikkurim for example so Pesach now Pesach is described in both ways Pesach is described both as Chodesh Ha'Aviv the month of the ripening of the barley and of course the day of Yetziat Mitzrayim. Uh Sukkot is primarily described as Asif the ingathering of produce from the field. Shavuot is Bikkurim the first fruits it is also the wheat harvest etc. And in truth you know because um most most of us Jews have become urban creatures over the past uh millennia we have relatively less sensitivity to the agricultural nature of the Chagim. Here in Eretz Yisrael I think maybe we have a little bit more consciousness because you know we do have agricultural people and and the like but one cannot uh really minimize the importance of agriculture as ways of expressing gratitude to God with the cycles of nature and the changing of the seasons and the rainy season and the harvest season and how important this was and these were focal points of coming together to give gratitude to Hashem. But it's still a good question that why does the Torah emphasize agriculture exclusively? Why does it not mention the phenomenally important events of Matan Torah occurring on Shavuot? So here is what the Maharal says. Maharal says that it's impossible for Hashem to say be happy because of Matan Torah. And the reason is because whether I should be happy or not depends on how I live my life. Meaning if I live my life following the Torah observing the Torah learning the Torah then it's a source of eternal joy and pleasure. But if I live my life in disregard of the Torah maybe I'm better off without it because once there's a Torah and I don't live up to it there is accountability there is responsibility. Right that's why I got just ask somebody if you have a non-Jew wants to convert to Judaism. So we often tell them you know before you convert you know have your last uh shrimp or oyster because uh you can still enjoy it so to speak. Once you're Jewish can't enjoy it anymore. So the Maharal says God cannot command be happy because of Matan Torah because maybe I'm not going to be so happy. So God can say all right listen for the wheat harvest you can be happy no matter what from not from religious not religious the wheat harvest is intrinsically a joyous occasion in an agricultural society. But Matan Torah it's not Hashem that makes it a Yom Tov it's we that make it a Yom Tov by the choices that we make in our lives. So it's as if to say God is saying I'm giving you a happy day because it's a wheat harvest. Whether or not it becomes an even happier day because of Matan Torah that's up to you that's not up to me as the Kadosh Baruch Hu says. And this is why the Maharal says the Torah does not emphasize Matan Torah as the reason for the holiday of Shavuot. Now another point about Shavuot that's very interesting and again it's actually an obvious point but it's worthy of note. Shavuot actually does not have a date in the Torah. Uh Shavuot is defined exclusively as a the 50th day after you count the Omer meaning you count the Omer for 49 days that 50th day is Shavuot. It happens to be based on the present configuration of the calendar that that 50th day is always going to be the sixth day of Sivan. But that's not inevitable. Under the present calendar the months alternate 30 29 30 29 so Nisan is always and Iyar is always 29 so the 50th day getting into Sivan will be the sixth of Sivan. But at the time of the Beit Hamikdash when Rosh Chodesh was determined not by uh calendar it was determined by witnesses who would come in any given month could be 30 or 29. You didn't have to have an alternating sequence. So the Gemara says if both Nisan and Iyar would be 30 so the 50th day would be earlier in the month of Sivan Shavuot could be as early as the fifth of Sivan. If both Nisan and Iyar are 29 days so the 50th is later in Sivan because you've begun Sivan earlier uh Shavuot would be the seventh day of Sivan. It is only when you have as we have today 130 and 129 whether it's Nisan 30 and Iyar 29 which is our calendar or theoretically if it would be in reverse Nisan 29 and Iyar 30 then you're going to get the sixth of Sivan. So the date of Shavuot is almost accidental that is not inherent in the nature of the Yom Tov. The only thing that is inherent in the nature of the Yom Tov is it has to be the 50th day from the counting of the Omer. And the Ramban explains that is because Shavuot in a sense is not a separate Yom Tov at all. It is the 51st 52nd day I don't know 51st day of uh 51st day of Pesach meaning uh uh uh and therefore in fact the Ramban even says that Omer the Omer period could be regarded as a long Chol HaMoed. So if you say for example you don't work during Chol HaMoed you can take a pretty long vacation although the job will not be waiting for you uh when you uh when you come back. And the reason why it is one long holiday is because Shavuot gives meaning to Pesach. Pesach is the holiday of freedom and Shavuot is the holiday of submission to Hashem. And the important lesson of the linkage is that freedom has value and purpose only when it involves submitting yourself to something higher. I mentioned this idea before that freedom cannot be the purpose of life. Freedom does not give a person a purpose freedom enables the achievement of a purpose that you've defined, but it does not provide the content of that purpose. And therefore Hazal say that the Korban Omer on Pesach is barley, which at least before the invention of challenge was primarily fed to animals. Uh Shavuot the Korban in the Mikdash are chittah, wheat, which was human consumption. Because freedom without Torah is animal liberation. With Torah, it becomes human dignity. Again, I forgive me for repeating, I mentioned before the beautiful metaphor of the Indian poet Tagore, who didn't know any Jews, but he wrote about human existence generally, that a human soul is like a violin string that is capable of beautiful, beautiful music. But, paradoxically, the string can express its music only when it's tied down across the bridge. If you simply free it up, take a loose string and put it on the table, you cannot get a sound from it. And therefore, pure freedom without commitment does not turn into anything beautiful. It's just a wildness and a boredom and an aimlessness, uh which does not lead to anything. And therefore, Shavuot is not simply a separate hug. Shavuot is the culmination of Pesach. And that is why in the in the in the Mishna's language, the holiday of Shavuot is called Atzeret. When it says Atzeret in the Mishna, it does not mean Shmini Atzeret. Shmini Atzeret it goes by a different name. It's called Yom Tov Acharon shel Chag. The word Atzeret in the Mishna always means Shavuot. And Atzeret has different translations, but one of them is like latzor, conclusion, the stopping point, the end point. Latzor, and that is the idea that Shavuot is the end point of Pesach. It is the purpose of Pesach. Now, I remember in the 1970s when uh there were a lot of campaigns to get Jews out of the Soviet Union, the former Soviet Union. So, in all of the synagogues in the US, Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, so they would put up a big sign, and their motto was uh what Moshe said to Pharaoh, let my It's a mistranslation, but shalach ami, let my people go was the line they always had. But, you know, number one, that's not an accurate translation. Anyway, shalach ami means send my people. But, they also left out the end of the verse. Shalach ami v'ya'avduni. Set Let's send my people forth so they may worship me. Yetziat Mitzrayim was not an end all, it was a means towards a higher higher end. And that higher end was avodat Hashem. The truth of the matter is even in a purely secular context, this is very, very true. The true The true flourishing of a soul only occurs when there's a discipline and a commitment. I mean, think about for example, uh a jazz musician, right? So, a talented jazz musician can do a lot of improvisations, called riffs, all sorts of things. So, you have this uh 10-year-old kid who's really He really admires how the musician can do all of these things. So, he wants to So, when he takes an instrument up, and his parents say, "You got to practice scales for 3 hours or whatever it is." The kid says, "No, no, no, I just want to you know, bang. I just want to play. I want to be creative." But, you have to know that the people that can do the riffs and the improvisations, or the Picassos that that can do all sorts of amazing things, had to go through a period of time where there was that submission to that discipline. And when there's that submission to the discipline, that can open up avenues of creativity that would otherwise not be there. So, there's all the difference in the world between the person who simply bangs on the piano without going through the uh ritual, so to speak, of doing scales, and somebody who bangs on the piano after they've done that. Because at that point, there's there was a discipline and a framework which allows true creativity uh to to flourish. So, that's kind of a general thought about the relationship of Pesach and and and Shavuot. But, now I'm going to shatter a common belief, so I hope you will not suffer from that post-traumatic uh stress. And that is there's a problem here. The Magen Avraham, the great commentator on the Shulchan Aruch, actually proves that we didn't get the 10 Commandments on Shavuot. We got the 10 Commandments the day after Shavuot. And the proof is the following proof. We have a book from the Tanaim. It's from the time of the Mishna. Or you actually It's earlier than the time of the Mishna, called Seder Olam. This is actually a very, very important This uh was a work of Jewish chronology, meaning this is the the sages of the Mishna, Rabbi Yosi in particular, worked out uh the different dates of many, many events. In fact, many, many famous teachings, the famous teaching that Rivka was 3 years old is actually based on Seder Olam. Much of Rashi's chronological reconstructions in the Chumash are based on Seder Olam. So, Seder Olam records a tradition that the Jewish people left Mitzrayim on a Thursday. There's no proof for that, but that that was the tradition. So, if we accept that as authoritative, let's figure this out. They left on a Thursday, so that means the first day of Pesach was a Thursday. Since you start uh That That's correct. That presupposes that That's right. That works out exactly. But, that means the first day of Sefirat HaOmer was a Friday. Now, if the first day of Sefirat HaOmer is a Friday and you count for 7 weeks, the 49th day is a Thursday. So, day 50 of the Omer is a Friday. But, we have another tradition, the Torah was given on Shabbat. So, the Magen Avraham asks, Matan Torah did not occur on the 6th of Sivan. That was day 50. It occurred on the 7th of Sivan. That was day 51. So, this is the one place where Chutz La'Aretz has it right. Chutz La'Aretz has 2 days of Shavuot. When were the 10 Commandments given? They were given on the second day, which of course doesn't exist in the Torah. It doesn't mean It's not a It's I mean, it's not a chag, right? So, Magen Avraham asks a very basic question. We celebrate Matan Torah a day earlier than we ought to be celebrating. And if we ask the question therefore, what happened on Shavuot? The technical answer is nothing happened on Shavuot. The 10 Commandments happened the next day. So, what's going on, right? Of course, in a way, that might answer why the Torah doesn't say celebrate Shavuot because of that, because it wasn't. And yet, and yet, obviously, we've incorporated that celebration. So, here's the Magen Avraham's answer. And uh overall, this is fairly intricate. There's a whole sugia in Maseches Shabbat that goes through the chronology of Matan Torah. It It's quite complicated. But, the basic idea is the following. On Wednesday, Hashem told Moshe to take the tell the Jewish people to separate and sanctify themselves today and tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday, and I will come on the third day. The third day, which would be Friday, and give them the Torah. So, Hashem initially said 2 days of preparation, and I will come on the third day to give them the Torah. Moshe, in communicating that commandment to the Jewish people, deviated from God's words. And Moshe added an extra day. Moshe said, "Prepare yourselves for 3 days." This is called Moshe Mosif Yom Echad Mi'Dato. And therefore, God acceded to Moshe and pushed off Matan Torah by a day. So, it turns out I'll explain how this works, but it turns out that according to God's original plan, the Torah would have been given on Friday, which would have been day 50. It is only because Moshe Rabbeinu was Mosif Yom Echad Mi'Dato that it got pushed off to day 51, which was Shabbat. So, says the Magen Avraham, we do not celebrate Shavuot on the actual day that Hashem gave the Torah. We celebrate Shavuot on the day that Hashem would have given the Torah had his original plan been carried out. This is the Magen Avraham's answer. Now, just to fill in a little bit of the detail, the Gemara in Shabbat actually tells us there were three situations where Moshe Rabbeinu added on or supplemented or changed the words of Hashem. And Hashem agreed to him after the fact. The very first was this. He added a day to the preparations of Matan Torah. The second instance was that he decided to be celibate from Matan Torah onwards. He was never again with his wife. And although this is not a model that we are allowed to emulate, it's not for us to follow, but for Moshe Rabbeinu, Hashem said it was appropriate because he was on permanent call. He was on 24/7 call for Nevuah. Therefore, he had to be in a state of readiness. And the third case is the breaking of the Luchot after the 40 days. On the 17th of Tammuz, he comes down. He sees the Egel Hazahav. He smashes the Luchot. Hashem didn't tell him to do that. But Hashem said, "Good idea." So, these are three instances. Again, I'll come back and explain them and because how could Moshe deviate from God? I mean, what's going on here? But the Gemara does say these are three instances of Moshe Rabbeinu Mosif Yom Echad Mid'ato Mosif Mid'ato Vi Hiskim Hakadosh Baruchu Al Yado. And Hashem agreed to those changes. So, says the Magen Avraham, "Since Hashem's original plan was Wednesday and Thursday were the days of preparation and the Torah would have been given on Friday, Moshe converted Friday into a day of preparation pushing Matan Torah to Shabbos. So, Shavuot is based on when Hashem would have given the Torah, not on when Hashem gave the Torah. This is the Magen Avraham's answer." Now, the problem is the Magen Avraham's answer is in itself problematical because why should the hypothetical be more important than the actual? In other words, the Torah was actually given on Shabbos. May Eizeh Tam She'eiyah. So, why are you celebrating the day that should have been Matan Torah? You want to celebrate the day that actually is Matan Torah. So, there are lengthy explanations here and let me start off with a famous famous Gemara that I'm I'm sure you've learned or heard over the years. And this is the Gemara of Tanur Shel Achnai. Tanur Shel Achnai is in Bava Metzia, the fourth perek, and literally it means the earthenware oven that resembles a coiled snake. And again, the technical problem is not that important to us, but imagine an earthenware oven and the way it was transported was it was cut into rings, like these rings here, like hula hoops. And you would transport the rings. And then when you wanted to set up the oven, you would set up the rings, put mud, dried mud between the rings and you'd have an oven that would retain heat. And when it was time to move the oven, you'd get rid of the mud and you transport the rings, right? That's the way So, the reason why it's called a coiled snake is because the the rings resemble like a snake that has its tail in its mouth, the way snakes sometimes do. The technical Machlokes is this. We know that earthenware vessels and metal vessels, really all vessels, they could be Mekabel Tumah. If a dead animal or a dead human touches the earthenware vessel from the inside, it becomes Tamei. But we have another rule that when something is broken or smashed, it is no longer susceptible to Tumah. So, the Machlokes is, do I regard these rings as the equivalent of a broken oven, in which case it would not be Mekabel Tumah, or do I say it's not really broken, it's made to be put together and separated. It's not in a broken or defective condition, so it would be Mekabel Tumah. Again, a technical issue. The Sages, the Chachamim, took the position that it's Tamei. It can be Mekabel Tumah. And that was the majority vote of the Sanhedrin. But there was one great Rabbi who refused to agree with that decision. And that was Rabbi Eliezer ben Hurkanus. And he he argued his position and they didn't accept it. And he refused to give in to the majority. So, the Gemara then says, he tried to invoke a number of miracles to convince them that he's right. And he said, "If the Halacha's like me, let the carob tree fly away." And the carob tree blasted off like a rocket. And the Chachamim said, "We do not listen to carob trees. They do not have standing." And then he said, "If the Halacha's like me, let the river change its course and move backwards." And the river moved backwards. Hashem is on his side. And they said, "We don't really care about rivers, either." And then he said, "If the Halacha's like me, let the walls of this Beit Midrash collapse inward." And the walls began to collapse inward. And Rabbi Yehoshua said to the walls, "Don't you dare." And the walls didn't know who to listen to. So, it remained slanting. So again, this was apparently an attempt to justify the slanting walls of the building and they attributed it to not knowing what to do. But again, like a broken record, the Chachamim said, "We do not listen to walls." So, he did three great miracles. So, finally he pulls out the big guns and he says, "If the Halacha's like me, let there be a voice from heaven, from God himself, saying I'm right." And a voice from Shamayim, a Bat Kol, said, "Halacha k'Rabbi Eliezer." Can't get better than that. And you know what the Chachamim said? "We don't care. You, Hashem, mind your own business. Stay out of this because you said in your Torah, you said in your Torah, Lo Bashamayim Hi. The Torah is not in heaven. You gave it to us to decide how to implement implement Halacha. And therefore, even you have no particular right to change the Halachic process." Now, when we talk about no one is above the law, this is really a you know, we talk about king and the kings, etc. This even says Hashem, k'viyachol, is bound by the structures of the Torah. The Torah is his law. In his law, he indicates that there is no heavenly input after Sinai. Meaning all Halachic process has to be through human endeavor. And therefore, God himself cannot change the law. In fact, technically technically, if you want to know why a Jew cannot be a Christian, why can't they be a Jew and and believe in in Yeshua? Now, there are a lot of reasons, but the technical reason is that any religious belief that says that the Torah was superseded by later divine revelations is by definition false because God himself has bound himself not to supersede the commandments of the Torah. So, a prophet cannot abrogate a commandment even if he does all the miracles uh miracles in in the world. Okay. I know Christians argue that Jesus didn't do that. Okay, but I'm not going to get into whether it was Jesus or Paul who did it. That those are interesting questions. Some say Paul is really the inventor of the Christian religion much more than Jesus was, but whatever it is, uh any philosophy that abrogates the Mitzvot is by definition not Jewishly acceptable. Now, we'll come back to this, but this is Lo Bashamayim Hi. Now, this sounds like a tremendous chutzpah, but the Gemara then records that years later, somebody asked Eliyahu Hanavi, who was in Shamayim, right? Eliyahu Hanavi goes back and forth between earth and heaven. "What was Hashem's reaction when they said to Hashem, 'Stay out of this. Lo Bashamayim Hi.'" Did he want to destroy the world or something? They said Hashem laughed and he said, "Nitzchuni Banai. My children have bested me. They have been victorious. I will stay out of this fight. I will not get involved." Now, the Gemara goes on. There's kind of a sad ending to the story. And that is because Rabbi Eliezer refused to give in even after all of this, maybe because of this, he had all these miracles on his side and the Bat Kol, he was excommunicated by the Sanhedrin. And Rabbi Akiva, his student, was chosen to inform him of that. And Rabbi Akiva comes to Rabbi Eliezer. Rabbi Eliezer at that point is very old and very sick. He's in bed. And Rabbi Akiva stands, comes into the room, and stands at a distance of four amos because you're not supposed to be in the proximity of someone who's been excommunicated. And Rabbi Eliezer doesn't fully grasp what's going on. And he says, "What's wrong? Why don't you come close to me?" And Rabbi Akiva had to tell him, and the way he said it was this. He said, "It appears that your colleagues have separated themselves from you." He didn't say, "You're excommunicated." They have separated themselves from you. And Rabbi Eliezer started crying. He was sobbing because he said he's now become like a Sefer Torah that's tightly wound which there's so much Torah there that's never going to be read and never going to be learned because he was essentially disabled from being a teacher. And what made it even more tragic is that Rabbi Eliezer's wife was the sister of Rabban Gamliel, the head of the Sanhedrin that excommunicated So, he was excommunicated by his brother-in-law. So, the Gemara recounts some interesting thing. Rabbi Eliezer's wife never let her husband say Tachanun. Whenever it was time to say the Tachanun prayer, she always interrupted him. Why is that? Because Tachanun is the time when you express your private anguish and suffering to the Almighty. And she was afraid if he would express to Hashem the depth of his pain, Hashem would punish Rabban Gamliel, her brother. So, she always interrupted him when it was time for Tachanun. Again, this this raises a point that's actually very very significant, but it's not the main point I want to talk about. And that is, well, wait a second. If Rabban Gamliel was justified in what he did because he needed to preserve unity, then why would he be punished? I mean, what what is the idea here? And if he wasn't justified, he'll get punished anyway. So, here you have to understand something, and this is a very sobering truth, and it's a disheartening truth, but it's a truth. It is a spiritual law of nature that when we cause pain and suffering to people, it will come back to bite us even when it is justifiable. The fact that something is justified does not immunize yourself from the consequences. An example would be in the physical world. Let's imagine, God forbid, a young baby, a baby fell into a fire. And you jump into the fire to rescue the baby. Did you do the right thing? Yes. You're a hero, you're a tzaddik, you're righteous. God will reward you. But does that mean you're not going to be burnt? Now, in rare cases, God does an extreme miracle, but by and large, you know, you can't say, "How could the fire harm me? I was doing a good thing." The answer is, yeah, but it's kind of inevitable. When you play with fire, you get burnt. When you hurt people and you destroy people, even when it's justified, there is what is called a moral trace that comes back to haunt you. Now, particularly when you're dealing with a righteous tzaddik like Rabbi Eliezer. So, she did not want her husband to express his pain to God. But one day she made a mistake. She thought it was Rosh Chodesh. Rosh Chodesh, she didn't bother to watch him because you don't say Tachanun on Rosh Chodesh. But what happened was, she miscalculated. It was not Rosh Chodesh. And she saw him saying Tachanun, and she said to him, "You have killed my brother today." At that very moment, an emissary came to inform her that her brother was niftar. So, that's that's the end of the end of the story. Now, as a little aside, the Vilna Gaon uh addresses a maybe a peripheral point, but an interesting one. He focuses on why did Rabbi Eliezer choose those three particular miracles? Right? The first miracle was the carob tree. The second miracle was the water that changed its course. And the third miracle were the walls of the Beit Hamedrash collapsing. What do those three particular miracles represent? So, here's what the Vilna Gaon says. Rabbi Eliezer initially tried to convince the Chachamim with logic and argument. He was not successful. So, after he lost that, his second strategy is to demonstrate that he has certain qualities of character that he ought to be listened to because he has the things that a great talmid chacham needs to have. And the Vilna Gaon says there are three qualities a great talmid chacham must have to be great in Torah. Quality number one is tafkid b'muat. That means you are satisfied with very little in terms of materialism. You don't need a lot of money, you don't need a lot of creature comforts, you don't need uh fancy food, etc., that many pleasures. You live a very simple life. Because if you're overly involved in the material world, then your mind cannot be focused on the Torah. So, he wanted to demonstrate that he lived a life of austerity and simplicity. And that is exemplified by the charuvim. The carob is a very simple food. I don't know if you had this when I was uh a child on Tu Bishvat in in the States, they used to give us this dried carob called bokser. I don't know what the Is bokser Yiddish or I don't know what language Arabic? I don't know even what language it is. Uh I don't know what they call But the bokser was uh just like eating wood. I mean, it was actually drier than wood. Like so so absolutely, you know, you couldn't You would break your teeth quite literally. Uh But bokser or charuv, the carob, is used in the Gamara as a sign of simplicity. There was a very great Tanna, Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa, who was a great miracle worker. And Hashem said about Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa, "Kol ha'olam kulo nizon bishvus Chanina beni." The whole world gets its parnassa in the merit of Chanina, my son. But Chanina beni day low b'kav charuvim me'erev Shabbat l'erev Shabbat. And all he takes from the world is a measure of carobs from erev Shabbat to the next erev Shabbat. So, the charuv is simplicity, austerity. So, Rabbi Eliezer is saying, "Listen, I'm a person that is palish me'olam hazeh. The carob tree will testify." Right? So, that's the first miracle to establish his tafkid b'muat. The second quality you need is humility. Torah is compared to water, and there many reasons, but one of the reasons is, just as water goes from high ground to low ground, the Torah leaves the arrogant and goes to the humble. So, he's demonstrating he's calling upon the water to show that he's like water. "Water, testify how humble I am." Now, of course, you may say this sounds very odd. A humble person does a miracle to say how humble I am. "I am so humble, I will make the water change its course." One thinks that's the opposite of humility. That's kind of boasting, showing off. Like you're showing off how humble you are. Uh how can that work? But the truth of the matter is, on a deeper level, that's not a contradiction. Because uh humility does not mean denying your worth. For example, Moshe Rabbenu is described as the most humble person. Now, if you would have asked Moshe Rabbenu a shaila, what Let's say he would have said, "Oh, don't ask me that. That 5-year-old is so much smarter than me. Uh he's better than me. He'll give you the better answer." That wouldn't have been modesty, that would have been insanity. Obviously, Moshe Rabbenu understood what he was. But humility basically says that whatever talents you have were given to you by God, they are not a basis to look down at other people. And therefore, a genuinely modest person, when the occasion warrants, can make a statement, "I am modest." Because Rabbi Eliezer needs to present the argument, "Listen, you guys, I'm not fighting you because of egotism. I'm not fighting you because I'm too proud to give up my position. I have testimony from the water that my motivations are for the glory of God and not because of my self-aggrandizement." So, yes, if a person simply makes a point in a crowd, "I'm modest," that's a bal ga'avah statement. But if it's necessary to advance his cause, then sometimes a person can say, "I call upon God to testify I am not acting as a result of my ego." The third quality is diligence, hasmadah. You could be modest and simple, but if you don't spend the time in learning, you're not going to be great in Torah. So, that is, he's calling upon the walls of the Beit Hamedrash to testify that he was always there. So, the Vilna Gaon says the three basic miracles are to demonstrate the qualities of his tafkid b'muat, the quality of uh anavah, and the quality of hasmadah, of diligence. But that didn't work because after all, ultimately, halacha is not based on personality. Uh Nary a okay, you have all these wonderful qualities, but if you haven't convinced us logically of your position, we're not going to accept it. So, now, let's go to the most important part of the story, which is the fourth thing. After the three miracles fail, lo bashamayim How do you understand this? This is a real real real difficult statement because we don't have prophecy today, and we haven't had prophecy for a long time. So, when we try to discern the will of God, we have to use logic, precedent, analysis, text, analogies. Right? We go through the process of human reasoning, which is roughly similar to any type of legal system. But ultimately, what is it that you're trying to do when you use your logic and your reasoning? You're trying to figure out what God wants you to do in a given case. And since we don't have prophecy, which is a direct answer to that question, we have to try to figure it out by indirection. But, if God tells you what he wants, how can you dismiss that as irrelevant? I mean, let me give you a a trivial example. Let's imagine But, didn't he give us 313 menorah principles? Yes, he did. But, he But, he But, he's telling you what he wants. He's telling you what he wants. So, let me give you an example. Let's imagine children in a family are debating. They want to give their parents a birthday gift. Right? So, they're sitting around a table and somebody says, "Oh, Yael likes this." And then, "Oh, Yael really likes this." And mom walks by and mom says, "Well, since you're talking about it, what I really would like is this." They say, "Mom, keep out of it. We We are We are discussing what you want and and what you say you want is not relevant to our discussion." So, here we have a debate about what the ratzon Hashem is. And Hashem tells me his ratzon, and I say, "Lo bashamayim hi." Right? So, this is a a question that the Drashos haRan discusses. And he mentions another question as well, which is somewhat related. That is throughout Shas, throughout the whole Talmud, and even going on to present times, we have numerous innumerable machlokes in Halacha. Different opinions, and the different opinions are often mutually exclusive. Beit Shammai Beit Hillel. One says kosher, one says treif, one says pasul, one says valid, one says chayev, you're obligated to pay, one says patur. Right? There are opposite opposite answers. So, which is right? So, even though in the Halacha we go by one opinion, but the Gemara says they're both right. Eilu v'eilu divrei Elokim chayim. These and those are the words of the eternal God. But, what does that mean? God gave the Oral Law to Moshe b'Sinai. So, God said either yes or God said no. And if God said yes, the one that says no is wrong. And if God said no, the one that said yes is wrong. And you're telling me they're both right. How can they be both right if they go in opposite directions? It's like the old story about uh a two people had a machlokes, and they went to a rav for adjudication. And the rav hears one side of the story and says, "You're right." And then, the rav hears the other side of the story and says, "You're right." And then, the rav the rebbetzin says, "How can they both be right?" He says, "You're right, also." Everybody's right? What did Hashem say? So, here's what the Drashos haRan says. The Drashos haRan says that when Hashem gave the written and the Oral Torah to Moshe Rabbeinu, he did not give it with a specific Halachic ruling on every conceivable situation. He gave principles, the 13 principles. He gave principles from which it was left to the sages in every generation to apply those principles to the ever-changing mosaic of life. The Torah is unchanging and eternal, but life changes all the time. So, for example, when we have something like, you know, even today, the new questions. Uh not so new anymore, but surrogate motherhood, aim pundak la. Cloning, nuclear war. 150 years ago, electricity. And we have a Halachic scholar that tries to figure out how Halacha addresses it. So, some people understand the process, well, Hashem told Moshe something about electricity, but I don't know exactly what he said, so I'm going to try to figure out what Hashem told Moshe through these various texts and analogies. The Ran says that is conceptually incorrect. Hashem didn't tell Moshe anything about electricity. Hashem gave Moshe the raw materials from which it is our responsibility to then see how those things would apply. In other words, Torah she b'al peh is not a static body of information. It is a fluid mechanism by which the chachamim are authorized in every generation. Now, I'm leaving open tremendous definitional questions. Number one, who are the chachamim that are authorized to engage in this process? And number two, what exactly is the process? When is a Halachic process legitimate and when it is not? Suffice it to say, there are certain processes and methodologies that are considered to be non-Halachic. Right? I mean, maybe I'm glossing over the most important question here. But, the key point I want to say for this for purposes of this year is that Torah she b'al peh is a dynamic, creative, and interactive process. It is not simply statically, in a static way, transmitting information. Therefore, the Ran says, this is why there can be machlokes. Because people ask the question, how could there be arguments? What did God tell Moshe? If you understand that the chachamim are taking the same principles, but they are differing how to apply it, then it's possible for both to be true in the eyes of God. An example would be, although I've never had such a professor, but I I read about them. Let's say you have a complicated mathematical problem, a differential calculus problem, and you really have to work it out for pages and pages and pages. And your final answer happens to be incorrect. But, a professor might say, "I'm going to give you full credit for process. You followed the process." So, here's what the Ran says. It is true that Hashem has an answer to every question. But, Hashem doesn't give us the answer to every question. He gives us the process where we're supposed to figure it out. And even when we get it wrong, it becomes right, because that is his will. And therefore, lo bashamayim hi basically means this. Yes, mathematically and objectively, Rabbi Eliezer is correct. But, operationally, the truth that you apply in this world is the truth that the majority of the chachamim come up with. Meaning, there is mathematical truth, which is said to be objective reality, and there is Halachic truth, which is the culmination of a process to which God gives divine imprimatur. Now, you may say, "That's kind of a crazy way to give a you know, to convey a body of law. Why didn't Hashem just give us the rules? Why did he give us a Torah that is so conducive to argument, to ambiguity, to lack of clarity?" Now, one answer you might give is, "Well, Hashem couldn't have given Moshe the answer to all questions, because people wouldn't understand. I mean, electricity, you know, those things didn't exist then. So, you have to leave it open." Well, he could have given Moshe envelopes saying, "Don't open before, you know, 1895" or whatever it is. And then, you'd get the answer. Right? If If you learn a page of Gemara, you you understand how much the Gemara is a work of groping in the dark. I mean, that's the beauty of it. In which we really don't have the answers, and we're looking, and we have different opinions, and different ways of looking at things. And it didn't have to be given that way. It could have been given in a very straightforward way. God gives you the rules. And yet, Hashem didn't give us the Torah the way Hashem gave us the Torah in a way that compels us to be active creators of divine truth. So, the moshel would be, let's imagine you want to bake a cake for your 4-year-old in Gan her birthday. So, there are two ways you can make the cake. The easiest way is when she is asleep or in Gan, you either make the cake or you buy the cake. Go to a bakery and buy the cake. Beautiful cake. However, a deeper way of showing your love is to make the cake with the child. Now, objectively speaking, a cake that you're going to make with a 4-year-old will probably not be as good. Uh the kitchen will be a mess, there'll be cocoa on the floor, and there'll be uh sugar on the counter, and there'll be eggshells in the batter, and uh it'll be lumpy, and part of it will be underbaked, and part of it will be overbaked. And you could have done a much, much better job by yourself. And the bakery could probably even do a better job. So, why is it Why is there any value in my making an inferior cake with my daughter? The answer is, the love is not in the product. The love is in the interaction and the relationship. And Hashem said, "I don't want to give you a finished cake. I want to give you the raw materials, and we bake the cake together." Yeah, the cake that we bake together is going to be lumpy, and confusing, and ambiguous, and unclear, but it's the cake of relationship and love. And that is why the true translation of Matan Torah doesn't just mean God gave us the Torah, it means God gave away the Torah. God abdicated his final word and that this is his higher will. His higher will is that we should be the one we meaning through the Hakhamim again, I'm glossing over who are the Hakhamim, but his higher will is that even when we get it wrong he cherishes our endeavors to understand divine truth. Right? That's Matan Torah. Okay? So, if you understand that Matan Torah is God deferring to human interpretation then when is the first time that that happened? That happened on Friday which was the 50th day of the Omer because it was Hashem's original plan to give the Torah that day. He didn't give the Torah that day because Moshe interpreted God's words as requiring an extra day. So, it turns out that was Matan Torah. Meaning Matan Torah occurred not by an act of commission but it occurred by Hakadosh Baruchu deferring to the human input into the divine will. So, Matan Torah as an event was a non-event. It was the non-event of not giving the Torah on the original day that was the greatest expression of what Matan Torah represents. And that is why we celebrate Shavuot not on the day that Hashem gave the Ten Commandments but on the day that Hashem deferred to Moshe Rabbeinu by not giving the Ten Commandments. Now again, whether you should share this with your children, I'm not sure because it it would contradict everything everything they learned in school. It's not good to confuse them too much. Uh but this is this is the emes. This is the emes according to the Magen Avraham's calculation Matan Torah as the event of Matan Torah occurred on the 51st day. So, this is an important idea, the dynamism of Torah. Now again, in in a way it's it's revolutionary and a little bit dangerous because obviously if you take these ideas to an extreme, you can make a case for all sorts of reforms and all sorts of things which are not within the Halakhic process. So, one has to understand exactly what is the Halakhic process and that's not such a simple question because obviously within the Halakhic process there is room for great innovation and great creativity. And there's no doubt that we are much more cautious in many areas than we need to be. But part of that is you know unfortunately religious Jews are often defined by uh anti-religious movements or non-religious movements. Meaning if you have movements to the left that are advocating reforms outside of Halakha the natural instinctual tendency of people faithful to Halakha is to circle the wagons and say nothing ever changes. On the other hand, the statement nothing ever changes is not a true state it is just not a true statement. It is not a Halakhic true statement, but it it does come from legitimate fears. I'm not I'm not dismissing the fears that if you open up uh certain uh opportunities, then you know, the slippery slope so to speak. Once you allow something out, what's going to happen? And in our generation perhaps that is a legitimate fear. I you know, I'm not I mean I can see I can see both sides of the argument. But it is important to know that Torah Shebaal Peh is a dynamic and creative process based on the idea of Hashem giving fundamental principles to Moshe at Sinai and we take and those are divine principles and we take those principles and we apply them to the ever-changing scenarios of life and Hakadosh Baruchu does not give us a final answer. He basically says he will defer to the answer of the Hakhamim. In fact, let me give you an interesting maaseh that illustrates this really it's it's a non-rational maaseh, but it's a very interesting maaseh. You know, we have a whole category in Halakha called treifah. What is treifah? Uh colloquially whenever an animal is not kosher, we say treifah, but but that's not the technical term. Technically a treifah is an animal that has some type of defect in its internal organs, a lung or a heart or a kidney or a liver. So, even when it's shechted properly, it's properly shechted. But you then inspect it and you see various defects in the internal organs, so the animal cannot be eaten. That is what is called a treifah. Most commonly these problems are found in lungs uh and and the like. Now, Hazal have a tradition that any animal that has one of these treifos can normally not live more than a year. A treifah is an animal essentially in a terminal condition. And there's also some thought that if a human being has those defects he is in the same boat. So, uh in Europe there was a certain defect that throughout Europe was considered to be treifah but in the city of Volozhin the Rav paskened it was not a treifah. So, there was a man in Volozhin that had this lung condition which in the rest of Europe was treifah and in Volozhin was not treifah and he wanted to go to a drier climate for health reasons. So, the Shaagas Aryeh who was the Rav of Volozhin at the time said you cannot leave Volozhin because as long as you're in Volozhin Hashem does not give you the din of a treifah and therefore you can live. As soon as you leave Volozhin you will be subject to the Halakha that applies in the rest of Europe you will be a treifah and as a treifah you will not survive a year. Therefore, he says it is better for you to stay in Volozhin than to leave Volozhin and go to a better climate. Now, the man thought this was ridiculous. I mean he has a medical condition. I mean he'll either die or won't die and he might as well go to a better climate. So, he dismissed this and he went to the warm climate and he died within the year. Which means essentially what the lesson is that in some metaphysical way Hashem changes the reality to follow what the Halakhic determination is. And you recall another example which is not quite as dramatic actually, but another example uh is uh when Rabban Gamliel's Sanhedrin made a certain day Rosh Hashanah and Rabbi Yehoshua thought that was a mistake and he thought Rosh Hashanah was a day later and he was ordered by Rabban Gamliel to come to him with his money and his staff on the day that was his Yom Kippur, the day after Yom Kippur, and he didn't know what to do because how could he violate Yom Kippur? But Rabbi Akiva told him, "Listen, even if you're right, your day is not Yom Kippur. Even if astronomically Rosh Hashanah was a day later and Yom Kippur was a day later, if the Sanhedrin decided that it would be early, that is how Hashem responds as well. So, Hashem Hashem's will is reflected in how the Hakhamim come out. And that's why even if Rabbi Eliezer was right in the story of Tanur shel Akhnai he still turns out to be to be wrong. So, be this may, I want to wish everyone a Chag Sameach and a good Yom Tov. May all of us be so happy to a true Kabbalas haTorah with much much joy and of course ki ish echad u'velev echad to be like one person with one heart. I did not understand why Moshe um came to the conclusion that that Matan Torah was a day later. Yes, yes, I I didn't actually that's a good point. I didn't quite explain it. The reason why he came to that conclusion was he misinterpreted when Hashem said they should separate a day and another day he understood that to mean it had to be two full days, so you don't count the day that he got the commands because that was already a partial day. So, Hashem meant today and tomorrow and I'll give the Torah on the third day. He understood it has to be two full days and therefore this is the first day and then two complete days. So, he misinterpreted the divine will and Hashem said, "If that's how you see it, I'm going to go along with it." Okay, take care. Be well. God