Rav Yitzchak Breitowitz: Lag B'Omer - Putting Fire into Service with Balance

[Music] You see your tomorrow [Music] Okay, thank you. Hi everybody. Good to see you. Um, I actually have a controlled experiment because this morning for some reason there was no limitation on people asking questions in the middle of this year. I I never exper quite literally uh every 3 seconds uh there were questions. So I can compare the two types of teaching styles. Anyway, uh we are praying for victory of our kayim in all fronts of the war. As always, the lasting unity of AmIrael and all those whose health has been affected by the war, the safe return of all of the hostages. Uh Rafu Schlma Borak Benfreda Bacha Batara again lasting unity and safety of Amy Israel, safe return of the soldiers and hostages, recovery of the wounded. Aliatn Shama uh that she was dedicated for Sasha by Sasha and Freda Engard in memory of their daughter Shosana Esther whose yard site is on the 19th of er and an anonymous contribution again for the niton of and our hostages to return safe and totally healthy to their homes uh Hashem's protection of all of Kalis the gulma bimhra viamum Um I want to deviate a little bit from the paras shvua and talk about uh the holidays that exist during this week. We actually had one already and one is coming up. Uh yesterday was pesak sheni and uh Friday uh will be lag ba. So I want to talk briefly about pesak sheni and lag baome. Uh, somebody described Pesak Sheni as the most important of the unimportant holidays. I that's a little cruel or a little coarse, but but there was a good point about that. We often don't appreciate Pesak Sheni and it's worthwhile to spend a few uh minutes about the significance of Pesak Sheni. Uh, Pesak Sheni remember that in the desert we only brought one Corbin Pesak. We brought a Corbin Pesak in Egypt and then the next year we brought one Corbin Pesak in the desert. After that, the next Corbin Pesak is in the days of Yeshua bin. There was literally no other Corbin Pesak brought in the desert. And that first Pesak in the desert, there were people who were impure. Uh they were tame and the Maklo, why were they tame? either because it was their turn to carry the bones of Yoseph and they were tame or they were tame because they were the ones who had to retrieve the bodies of Nadiv and Au who died in the Mishkan and they became Tm. A to person cannot bring a Corbin Pesak. So they went to God. They went to Moshe and they said why should we be deprived of bringing a Corbin Pesak? Moshe didn't know the hala. So he asks Hashem and Hashem says, "Okay, we have a new law that if somebody is tame or this will be operative when they're in Israel, they're far away, however that's defined. They can bring the Corbin Pesak one month later. Uh the Corbin Pesak is normally brought the 14th of Nissan and it's eaten the night of the seder, the 15th. Pesak Sheni is exactly one month later. They bring the Corbin Pesak on the 14th of Eer and they could eat it the night of the 15th. Now, first of all, just as a general issue, uh we believe as Perkyo says that Moshe got the whole Torah at Sinai. Uh so if that's the case, he got all of the mitzvah at Hari. Now, pesi is a mitzvah in the Torah. So, in what sense can it be said that Moshe didn't know? Wasn't he given that mitzvah? Now the truth is there are four places in the Torah where Mosher Rabenu did not know the Peni is one of them uh your T etc. Another one is he didn't know the punishment for the gatherer of wood on Shabas. He had to ask Hashem. Uh the third is he didn't know the punishment for the blasphemer. He had to ask Hashem. And the fourth is the daughters of whose whose father died without any sons and there was an uncertainty if daughters inherit property or it goes to the deceased brothers. Moshe didn't know. Now the problem is if this is part of the mitzvot of the Torah, didn't Moshe get all of that at Mount Si? So the Kazh offers a very very uh nice explanation for this and he says the following. Obviously, the idea that Moshe got all the Torah at Si does not mean that the Jewish people were given all the mitzvotes when he came down because after all, if you read the Torah, it's very very clear that mitzvot are given over 40 years. There were mitzvot that b Israel didn't even know till the la last day of Mosher Rabenu's life. So we have to differentiate between when did Moshe get a commandment and when was he given permission to reveal that commandment to bin Israel because it's very clear from reading the Kish that mitzvos are rolled out at various occasions and that's the meaning of the very common ubiquitous phrase hashem eloshe god spoke to Moshe so in English we translate laymore as saying it's really a superfluous word. But if we understand laymore is to say it to others, this is the green light. Hashem now tells Moshe the mitzvah that you already got at Sinai laymore now is the time to recount it to Ben Israel. So the says this is Mosher Rabenu's dilemma. He knew there was a law called Pesheni because he was given that at Sinai but he was not yet given authorization to reveal it. God wanted it to be revealed through this incident and every other situation. Meaning Moshe had the knowledge but from his perspective it was inside information and therefore he had to ask. It's a very very logical approach to Mosher Rabenu needing certain triggers to be able to reveal it. Now why certain mitzvos are given at certain times is always going to be a little bit of a mystery but the Kazunish differentiates between when did Moshe get the commandment and when did bin Israel get the commandment. So if you were to take a snapshot of the Jewish people in the desert at any given moment in the 40 years, the mitzvot that they had would differ from picture frame to picture frame because the mitzvos are rolled out uh in in time. Okay, so that's one point of a peshi but another point is this. It wouldn't have been revealed had people not asked for it. Meaning why would they ask? They're exempt. They're t as far as is concerned they're exempt. Now let's imagine you got a signed stamped certificate from the almighty that you didn't have to keep pes this year and let's assume we could prove its authenticity. Are you going to are you going to start arguing why should we be deprived? You would kind of know maybe not but you take advantage you know you got an exemption putting aside the issue that maybe God himself couldn't abregate the mitzvah because the Torah is not in heaven. Okay. Uh but putting that theological philosophical question aside, they're putter. So why are they complaining? If you're putter, you're exempt. You're exempt. So the says the following idea that if you love Hashem and you're not just doing things because you have to do them. You look for opportunities to serve him. And when you don't have those opportunities, you feel pain and you beg Hashem for an opportunity. And the lesson of pesak sheni is a very profound lesson. It is the gift of the second chance. No matter how impure you feel you are, we might feel we are. No matter how far we are from God, if you truly want to become close to Hashem, he will give you the chance of doing it. But you have to want it enough to ask. In other words, it's one of those things where if you didn't ask, you're not going to get. But you ask and you pray and you beg and Hashem sees how much you desire to serve him. the opportunities in life are going to become manifest. You know, people often say, "Oh, I want a sign from God. I want God to show me a sign that I should do uh this mitzvah or that mitzvah. When God shows me a sign, then I'll move ahead." Well, once in a while that can happen, especially in your life. But the truth is, sometimes it's the opposite. Sometimes God says, "Oh, no. Don't ask me to show you a sign. I want to see a sign from you. you show me a sign that you truly want to serve me and then I'm going to make myself available. So pesak sheni pesak sheni is the wonderful message of never giving up hope. No matter how tame we might feel we are impure, no matter how far we might we think we are, akadesh will always make himself available to us if we truly yearn to serve him. So again, even though pesi was yesterday, I I think it's an important enough message that we should remember it. And again, it's quite astounding. Had they not asked, it wouldn't have been given. This is a very unusual mitzvah. It would not have existed had they not expressed the desire for it. It would have disappeared or at least until some other group would have asked maybe some some other year. It wouldn't have existed that year. It came so to speak from the bottom up as opposed to the top down. Even though I did say Moshe was given the mitzvah at Sinai but again but the mitzvah was given if people ask this is the mitzvah. meaning there's a certain trigger that had to be met. Okay, so that was yesterday. Let's look a few days forward to the 33rd day of the omare. Uh we spoke about last week other times and you know from you know your own experiences that the period of the counting of the omr intrinsically should be a happy period. It should be a joyous period. There's we're looking forward to the giving of the Torah. There is nothing intrinsic in the counting of the omare that should have any sadness whatsoever. And the safer writes this the writes that this is a happy joyous time. And yet we know that we observe various practices of mourning of not getting married and music and haircuts and this is because of the death of the 24,000 students of Rabi Yaka. uh remember the the tragedy here that during the period between Pesak and Shabbulos the 24,000 students of Rabi Yaka died and the gaonim started the custom it's a postalmudic custom that we observe mourning to commemorate the 24,000 students of Rabiaka and ad hay so first of all there's part of the story that people often ignore from Rabaka's perspective and his wife's perspective Just imagine what this meant. He went to study Torah for 24 years. His wife lived in poverty. He finally comes back with 24,000 students. All of the suffering now becomes, you know, justified. Now we understand it was all worth it. And everything that Rabi Yaka and Rael worked to create over 24 years. Number 24 is so prominent here. All of it was destroyed. All of it went down to dust. Zero. Zero. All of the accomplishments of a life of suffering, a life of deprivation, a life of sacrifice wiped away. In fact, Rabika's wife died shortly afterwards. And maybe it's no accident. Perhaps it was connected to heartbreak on some level. So the Talmud says Rabi Aka started again with five students. Five students among whom are Rabi Shima and now think about this. You build an edifice 24,000 the largest yes in the world mirrors what 8,000 24,000 it's all wiped away. People have to realize Rabi Yaka one of the greatest lessons he gave us was to start again to not give up to not despair. Your world is destroyed. You go on. This was the lesson of Ami Israel in the aftermath of the Holocaust. People lost everything. They lost families. They start again. That's a tremendous lesson. that part of the story people don't pay attention to and a person might think what's the purpose what I lost 24,000 Tidum I'm going to I'm going to teach five people Torah what am I going to get out of the five teaching five people Torah and yet from those five people came the basis of the Mishna the Gmorrah all of the Torah that exists in AmIram at least indirectly comes from the five students that Rabi Akiba taught There was a great rashisha who came from Europe, Raflomman. Uh he was a Talmud of Rab Ber Libovich, great one of the Gdoli Rashish Shivas. And Rash Moheimman came to America before the war before World War II and he became the Rashiva of Toru Vidas. He had been a great rashiva in VNA and in in those days uh there were very few yeshivas in America and even within the yeshiva there weren't a lot of students. So he was giving a shir I think to five students that's the story and he was very enthusiastic and he was animated and movement and leedic you know very lively so somebody said someone who knew him from Europe said you know reply in Europe you were giving a shir to 500 to meet him so you got excited you got animated now you're giving a shir to five people like what's the you know what's the big deal why are you getting so excited like you're talking to a big crowd and So Mahimman said, "I'm not giving issue to five people. These five people are going to have families, children, grandchildren. Some of them are going to become rabbis and teachers of Torah, who are going to have students." I'm not speaking to five people. I'm speaking to the thousands and thousands of people that are eventually going to be learning Torah because of what these five toidum are absorbing. And one can imagine that Rabbi Akiba had that same vision. He had 24,000. He lost them all. He has five. But those five were the future of everything that Ami Israel became and can become. So that's the part of the Rika story that we often don't don't pay a lot of attention to the idea of the courage and the faith the faith in God and the faith in yourself to be able to start again when everything has been taken away from you and that's a very enduring lesson. So we do have magba omare now in virtually all minhagim lagba omare is either the end of the morning period meaning from mag onwards weddings music or at least it's a hiatus meaning there are different minhagim if the ais continues after lagba omare or it stops after lagba omare but whether it continues or it stops lagba omr is the freebie the free the free date in which of course it's very very difficult to get a wedding date on L bulber because everybody everybody wants to get married around this time of year like bomber is the natural date. Uh so the question is what is so special about the 33rd day of the omr. So in truth there are two different traditions about what makes lagba omare muad. Tradition number one is it was the day that the students of Rabi Yaka stopped dying. They were dying for the first 32 days of the omare. Day 33 they stopped. Of course it's not clear what that means. If he lost all the 24,000 I mean it stopped because there weren't any there wasn't anybody left. But apparently the M uh the plague could have kept on spreading to other people and it just stopped. The plague stopped. This devastating plague stopped. So therefore it's a celebration that the ma stopped. That's one interpretation. And then there's another interpretation uh favored by the toidum of the Arizal that it is connected with the death the death uh not not as part of the plague the death later of Rabbi Shimon Bariohai. And why would we celebrate the death of Rabi Shimon Bariohai? Because it is said that on the day of his death, he revealed to his talidim the great light, the great mystical teachings of the Torah that are contained in the book of the Zohar. And precisely when his great nishama was leaving his gof around that time is when more of his light was revealed to the world. And that is the source the tradition that Hilula the yard site of Rabi Shiman Bario that's the basis of the pilgrimage to meron right meron is where Rabi Shimai is buried together with his son Rabi Rabi Shimon and it's based on the yard site of Rabi Shiman. Now again we don't have time to go over um the history here. I mean there are there are historical articles that question whether in fact this was the some have even said this was based on a printing mistake uh because it does say in the that is yo rabbi the day that died but some have shown in an earlier editions of the pates there was an extra letter in the word shame there was a simat the day of the rejoicing of and the whole idea may be af I'm by the way when I when I give you these digressions I'm doing it for my own self-p protection because I don't want to get letters saying you know you omitted I I want the listener to know that I am aware of uh I forgive me for my self-indulgence but I I am aware of the historical controversy uh but be it as it may it is by and large makubal in Ami Israel that this is the yard site of Rabi Shimon Bario and we are celebrating uh the great light that he revealed and that is why hundreds of thousands of people go to Meon. Now of course as as all of us remember uh a few years ago or two two years ago uh there was a great great tragedy uh because of the the crowding one has to be very very careful and this year there's another complication like Bulma is Friday so one has to be very very very very careful uh to time their trip so they will hopefully uh get back to where they have to be before Shabas or or spend Shabas in Meon. I mean, you don't want to be in the middle of the road uh when it gets dark. Uh it's not the most uh comfortable or covetic a place to spend shabas. And by the way, there's even a that even if you're willing to camp out on the roadside, but if you're going to cause extra police and security to have to work on Shabbat because of the roads, so even if they're not religious, you're contributing to extra desecration of Shabbas. So it is a I'm not taking the position of whether you should go to meron or not. Um in fact some say meron is so crowded on bom that even leaves town then and some say it's better to go when it's not like b because then you have the whole you know you go to a typical day in the middle of the week. So there'll be like 20 pe 20 people there or whatever it is. You you can you can spend hours and hours by the Kev of Shimai as opposed to when you have hundreds of thousands of people you know uh you'll be lucky if you can even approach uh the Kev uh for any significant amount of time. So that's an interesting question whether Lag Bulmer is the day I should go or maybe I should try to go when there are fewer people and I can have more cavana and more more direction. Okay, everyone has to make their own their own decision about that. But the the basis of of going to meron is that lag bulmer is the yard site of Rabbi Shimai. So it turns out we have two different celebrations of Lagom. One is the MA stopped the other is the death of Rabbi Shim that was much later. So I want to focus on each of these ideas to kind of show that Ladma Omare embraces two different ideas that on some level are contradictory to each other. We have to work with them in tandem. First, why would Lagma Omar be a sessation of the MFA? Why would it be Paddafa that day? So remember what the Gammoran Yuamas tells us. Vamas actually tells us a reason why the students of Rabi Akiva died. They did not show proper cavote, honor, respect to each other. In fact, I mentioned last week that this is why, you know, people asked the question, why are we mourning the deaths of 24,000 students of Rabi Akiba? Yeah, that's a great tragedy. Of course, it is. But you know, unfortunately, we've suffered worse. Crusades, prims, the Holocaust. I mean, why am I going over the 24,000 students year after year after year after year? And I think the answer is push. If the if the idea is just we're mourning the loss of life or the loss of Torah greatness, then indeed, why would I focus on that instead of things that numerically were greater? But the difference is that I don't know why God brought the Holocaust. People have all sorts of theories and different suggested reasons, but I don't know what I'm supposed to work on. I I'm not given an assignment because I simply don't know what the specific problems were. I mean, we guess, we speculate. With Rabi AKA students, I have a definitive diagnosis. I have an authoritative explanation. Consequently, I have my assignment. What I do during the omare period is try to rectify that particular sin. That's why I mourn over this again and again and again because there's a specific reason I can latch on to which is not true for the other later tragedies in Jewish history. I don't know what I'm supposed to latch on to. Meaning the ais of sira is not mourning it is rectification. It is tik. We have to fix the loav. Now the question is how could it be that the students of rabbi didn't show respect for each other? What did they push each other out of line? Did they call each other idiots? How did they behave? I mean after all this is rabiaka. Remember taught loving your friend as you love yourself is the most important in the Torah. His didn't absorb it. So Alhur says a very fascinating etmological point. He says the word which we translate as respect or honor is connected to the sherish of caved. Covet is heaviness, weightiness. And he says the following. If you would look at the students of Rabbi AKA, there is no question they behaved with to each other politeness, derit righteousness. But cavode is really an attitude. I look at a person even in English when somebody is a very very eminent authority in a field we might call him a heavyweight right it's not just a boxer or uh heavyweight is he's a heavyweight in medicine or whatever whatever it would be so cavote is the idea of looking at another person seeing their greatness seeing their goodness seeing being their weightiness, their gravitas to use the Latin word. So Hersh points out, you can be polite to somebody, you can be very nice to somebody, but you might also look at them as you're inferior. You're nice to them the way you'll be nice to a a so-called insignificant person. But I'm nice. What do they call no bless? I don't know if that's how you pronounce it. You know, I'm up here. You're done there. Now, Reverse says when it says they didn't show proper covenant for each other, it refers to the notion that they didn't see the value in what the other represented. Now, there's still going to be a question. Why didn't they realize that? But maybe, just maybe, you know, who knows, they had such a great teacher in Rabbi Aka that they felt, I don't really need to learn from you. What can you teach me? I am I'm I'm connected to the the guy above. Right? So first points out that the were not transgressing but attitudinally they didn't have a sense of seeing the in the other person and God took them away because you can't be a leader because these were going to be the leaders of Torah transmission. You can't be a teacher of Torah if you don't see the the weight the significance of the people that you're teaching this the msira the msira of Torah the transmission of Torah cannot be like sometimes communicated you know sometimes a rebi or a teacher might communicate the following message I mean not not with these words but says you're a nobody body, you're a nothing and I'm filled with wisdom and I will make your life worthwhile by filling you up with all of the good stuff that I have and you'll get rid of all of the garbage that you have. Now, now again, I I I'm not aware of any well maybe there are a few but very very few very very few teachers actually talk this way but often there may be a kind of implication you don't really count but I will give some meaning to your miserable life. Cavote is really the opposite idea. I see where you're coming from. I see that you have something to teach me just as I might have something to teach you. And that says was the and they died. Now if you're going to ask me is the is the onus for not showing a death sentence? That sounds pretty extreme. Well, what I'm saying is not a death sentence per se. It's not that you're guilty of a sin, so we're going to shoot you, but rather you can't have the role of being the transmitter of Torah when you lack that mida. So, we have to go to someone else. That's how it is. Now, so what what happened on lagba that this stopped? Why did it stop? So here I have to be a tiny bit cabalistic. Uh we know that the ano the infinity of the almighty called the ano relates to the world via a mechanism of the called the 10 spheros. These are 10 energy centers in which divine energy manifests itself in different ways. Of the 10 spheros, the first three are described in Cabala as God's intellectual processes. That's Kesser, the crown, which is will, wisdom, understanding. So, we're not going to talk about the three mental operations of the Almighty. But the lower seven spheros are called midos. These are already things that we connect to emotional expressiveness in which God's mental operations are carried out into actual behaviors and uh these are the lower seven spheros the lower seven and I'll mention them but I'll explain them as we go on there's loving kindness benevolence gura inner strength teres beauty nets is eternity or victor victory. Hod is glory. Yes is foundation. Malus is ultimate kingship. And these are the manifestations. Again, um the the idea of the 10 spherus, which is probably the single most pervasive idea in all of Cababala has sometimes been attacked by by great authorities as creating multiplicity within God. And that's why it's a little you can hear both things. Some people say if you deny the zoa you're an apicorus and some people say if you believe in the zoa you're an apicorus there there were movements that actually said these are heretical ideas because they're against the unity of god I'm not going to get into that although obviously the fact that I'm using the spheros obviously means I'm not going with that second position that it'sus uh but again as carto and the Arizal uh tell us uh there's only a single unity of god but god is perceived received in different ways by different actions. The mushel that Raosha kadero gives is if you pour water in colored glasses. So in the red glass the water will look red. In the blue glass the water will look blue. It's the same water but it's a manifestation. It's a perception. So we have these 10 spheros. The 10 spheros, 10 different manifestations of divine energy through which God relates to the world. And I again I'm only looking at the lower seven. I'm not looking at the the first three because the first three are really God's cave internal mental operations. Now what's interesting is every week of the omare is connected to one of these spheros. So for example the very first week of the omare which is the week of pes at least the first six days pes. So or starting from day two is the week of loving kindness. The next week is the week of inner strength. The third week is the week of beauty which is the harmonization of right now. So every week is identified with a but interestingly enough because there are seven days per week. Every day is also identified with a spher. This is kind of an infinite series like like a hologram meaning to say within every spheras and it keeps on going by the way infinity. We're not going to go past one level but in the spir of day one is of day two is gur of day three is to of meaning within every dominant spir are all the other shades at the same time. So that actually means you can actually see this in in many sedur even the arch sitter every day of spher is identified by both its week and by its day. So day one of spir is called of second day of pes. Day two of spir is called gura within. Now don't confuse day two of week one with uh day one of week two. Day two of week one is called gava within. Day one of week two is called within gavora. And there are actually are helpful books in English and Hebrew that try to describe exactly what my behavior should be to incorporate these different nuances. Because as the divine energy flows based on that combination, I elicit it by my behaviors that correspond with that combination. So there are books that will tell you what is the within Gabbor, what is the Teresa within all of these different things, a manual, a 49-day manual cabalistically of how I incorporate the development of my midot tovot based on the configuration of the of the spherus. Now we also know and this is true for the US as well. The spher what are those things that kind of apply to everything and that is other things that there are seven personalities who embody the essence of that spiritual energy. So aramino represents the mid of au represents inner strength gura yakov is the synthesis and the harmonization he represents beauty which is also called truth eternity and perseverance is mosher raenu note that mosha is number four glory is aon yose this is why cababalistically yose is six not for it's a Jacob Mosha Yoseph represents foundation and melik represents mus which is said to be a repository of all of these influences to combine them. So each week therefore is connected to that personality. So now let's map out logba. Lagba Omare is the 33rd day of the Omr. Okay, I'm allowed to count it now because we're not yet there. So, I'm not going to lose the braha. So, when when when we're going to count omare th uh Thursday night. So, what are we going to say? This is the 33rd day. It is four weeks, which is 28 days. Now, it's a little confusing because you say four weeks, but you understand that you're in the fifth week, even though you said four weeks, four weeks and five days. So, ba is the fifth day of the fifth week of the Omr. Fifth day of the fifth week. Cabalistically the fifth spir is identified as hod glory aron and not only is it the week of hod but it is the day of hod. So lag ba is glory of glory shahote our own squared our own doubled whichever mathematical function you want to use our own our own spiritual aura is the kak that comes into the world on now what was what was what is the me of hod generally so it says is hod unlike which is mosher raenu victory right victory implies I subordinate an opposing kawak there's this opposing kawak and I win over it that was Mosher Rabenu's function Mosher Rabenu's function was to teach Ben Israel how to conquer their yateshara how to keep the mitzvos right fight it and he had to push it on people. People were not always willing. Moshe had to kind of force them into it. Hod is the opposite. Mida hod is when you step back and let the other person shine. Net is I push you to do the right thing. H is I step back so your inner goodness can emerge. Iron's mida perios tells us is o shalom ferv shalom a lover of peace a pursuer of peace oabrios he loves all of God's creations that's a very broad term that even includes animals carvan although probably that probably that's not going on the animals but he brought people to Torah through his love the gammor Mori tells us that when Aaron died, the grief that Ben Israel felt was even greater than when Mosher Rabenu died. Mosher Rabenu was the greatest of all Nvim. Mosher Rabenu gave us the Torah. Mosher Rabenu was God's emissary to take us out of Mitim. But to be frank, the average person didn't necessarily have a lot of connection with Mosher Rabu. Our bayer was above. I mean, imagine his very face would normally not be seen. If you'd see him walking, imagine, you know, face covered. He's beyond us. Aon was a man of the people, right? There was a h fight between husband and wife. Aon got involved. Aon brought peace by making each person feel validated and accepted. Because how did he bring peace? So Avis Nassen explains it. He would go over to the wife and say, "Your husband is so sorry that he hurt you." Even though the husband didn't say anything, he wants to make up. And she would say, "Oh, it's so lovely." You know, and uh he would say the same thing to the husband. Note the psychology here. He didn't tell the wife, you know, you're wrong in what you did. He kind of validated her and that brought her desire to be closer. Then he validated him. Right? So which is how is to see the goodness in the other to validate the other to build a person up and that way bring him to Hashem. So now you can understand why LBAR cabalistically was the day that the students of Rabi Yativa stopped dying because the reason they died they were dying is they didn't show proper cavo to each other and as hers explains they didn't see the specialness the uniqueness in the other personality. But ladom is a spiritual power based on Arona Cohen's maida and it's a double dose of Aon. It's Hod Shabbah. So spiritually on that day the cataracts are lifted from their eyes. they perceive in the other what they normally would not be able to see there. Now if I say the mafa stopped and didn't resume it was a permanent change. If I say it resumed then it was a temporary phenomena. So that depends on the different but on that day there was that transformation. It was the ho shabot, the glory of glory that liberated them from the laguaz. And once they're liberated from the salaz they are liberated from the which came because so this would be the this would be the mystical reason why the 33rd day of the had a certain kak to uplift the rabbi to rectify that aan and in our We should try to be sensitive to that as well. A day of a day of unity, day of Israel uh and and and and the like. So that explains theme number one of LB. But now okay. So now we have theme number two, a celebration of the greatness of Rabbi Shim. Now in Braos there's a very very fascinating between Rabi Ishmael and Rabi Shimeshma right the terror says if you keep Hashem's mitzvah you will gather your grain so says Rabbi Ishmael what is seemingly a very sensible position If the Tyra says if you keep the mitzvah you'll gather your grain. A Jew is allowed to work. I would have thought you know you're not you have to learn Torah you can't do anything else. The Tyra allows parnasa. Rabi Ishmael says the Tyra says it's good to make a living. That's God's reward for doing mitzvah. Okay, that sounds right. Well, somebody argues with that. none other than Rabi Shimon Rabi Shiv says go to work get a job a person is going to plant when plow when it's time to plow and plant when it's time to plant and harvest when it's time to harvest and thresh when it's time to thresh when is he going to learn Torah and how can he waste his life on physical survival where every single second he is separating from God by not learning Torah. So he takes the extreme position that is referring to when the Jewish people are not doing the will of God. Now Tossos asks right off the bat, how can you possibly say you're not doing the will of God? I mean the Torah says if you listen to Hashem. So Toss explains he doesn't mean they're not doing the will of God, but he means they're not doing it at the highest level. The highest level is Hashem will take care of me. I will devote myself to God. Now the Gomorrah says many people followed the path of Rabbi Ishmael and they were successful. They made a living. They devoted themselves to Torah learning. They were blessed. Many people said, "I'm going to be and unfortunately they starved him." Which means the Gmorrah indicates that the general for most people is Ishmael. A person needs to have a parasa etc. A way of supporting a family. Although the vagon is that note that the gammor doesn't say it just says many people tried it and it didn't work. The vagon says in every generation there are going to be who can live like because it did work for him. Remember for 12 years he was in a cave fleeing from the Romans and during those 12 years fruit trees sprung up water. So he basically had the attitude it worked for me why can't it work for you? The Gomorrah says most of the time it's not going. By the way, I I do I want to point out again this is something that we could talk about a lot. Um is is this relevant to the Kell debate? Cole versus so you're tempt you know one is tempted to say oh yeah according to Rabi Ishmael no k right go straight to work you know love dka because first of all k is a plan I mean you're you're trying you know you are creating income sources was much more radical than kim would be the equivalent of a person saying I'm going to learn and I'm not even going to go to ko because I don't want to take any money for I mean it's it's a very radical position it's A it's a position where he says I will make no histo in matters of haz god will take care of me that it's much more extreme than kel co is you're creating a at least a type of short-term economic plan his point is no plan at all so I see a person of unbelievable holiness a person whose closeness to God was so great that he was literally lifted above the world of hishad the world of economic activity totally totally devoted to Torah to avoid that we can grab onto to but we admire it like we're looking at the star and we're trying to get some of the light of that star in our own lives. So in effect the two themes of lagba omare is a celebration of unity, tolerance, respect, avat and a celebration of the transcendental greatness of a man who is totally removed from any materialism, any physicality. A person whose only desire in life is closeness to God, spiritual fire, two different things. Now, what I want to suggest here is that in real life, these themes are almost a contradiction because here is the thing. It is often the case in our polarized worlds that the more passionate, the more fiery I am in my spiritual aspirations, the less tolerance, respect and legitimation I can give to people who are not living in that madrega. We see it in the Torah world all the time. I devote my life to Torah study, nothing else. Oh, you work. You know, you're an inferior type of person. You're not a person who really counts in the world. You're a person who's living a second rate life, and there's nothing I can learn from you. Again, I'm overgeneralizing. I understand. I don't mean to attack I don't mean to attack anyone, but I'm just saying it's often going to be the case as we get truly committed to a certain ideal. We disparage those who are not living up to that ideal. And the other way around, I become tolerant. I become open. I become accepting. I'm okay. You're okay. At that point, I lose my passion for certain ideals because everything is the same. Everything's good. Everything's great. So at some level, my passion dilutes my tolerance and my tolerance dilutes my passion. Right? You can find Jews who are passionate but disparaging of others. And you can find Jews who are open, tolerant, and respectful, who are not passionately connected to a life of Torah learning because they feel all pathways are equally legitimate. So what is the message of Ladb? The message of Ladb is a bit of a complicated message. The message of lagba is this is not a binary choice in life but somehow you got to combine both. You have to connect to Rabbi Shimai not necessarily in the way he lived his life that may be beyond us but in what is your priority what is your focus what is your goal that's hashem but at the same time be like a o shalom for rode shalom to see the good in people to see their worthiness not just to have compassion on them as if they're your inferiors, but to understand the goodness that lurks within the nishama of every Jew. And if in our imperfect distorted lives, our passion dilutes our acceptance of others and our acceptance of others dilutes our passion. The two themes of Lagba Omar say you got to have both at the same time. And the truth of the matter is this goes all the way back to the very beginning of Jewish history. This was the mid of Abramavino. Abramavino embodies in his own personality these two opposite midot. On one hand, Abraino is Mafam as the pillar of the one who brought everybody into his home. The one who prayed even for the degenerates of Saddam and Amra. Not only praying but arguing with God. Maybe there's 30 people, 20 people arguing and arguing and arguing when he didn't even argue for his own son. When Hashem said, "Slaughter your son or take your son as a corbin," he didn't say the word slaughter. So Aram says, "Sure, you know, where should I go?" You know, uh, but for Saddam and Amora argues, he pleads. I'm not going to address that question, but but but it is interesting. So, Aram represents the epitome of looking at every human being as worthwhile and good. And yet a maven was known as a the Hebrew but but darian that the word is uh a spiritual designation that the whole world was on one side of the river so to speak and he was on the other side meaning to say he was passionately connected to the idea of amuna and one god and even if the whole world thought he was crazy he did not move from his passionate commitment. So on one hand he was open to everybody and on the other hand he was so firm in his ammun and his convictions that nobody could change him and maybe that's why Ara is called the first Jew. The term of the first Jew is a very hard to define term actually uh you know we don't even have a precise definition of what that means uh because obviously Ara had a child who was not Jewish you know as did uh but but one of the aspects is the ability to combine your love and your respect for the other with a firm commitment to your amuna and to your priorities and the And that is the challenge of lag bom and that is the challenge of Jewish life uh certainly init and in as well. So I want to wish everyone a very very happy and joyous bom and may we be za to incorporate uh these two ideas in our lives not just on lagba but uh at all all times. Thank you very much. [Music] You [Music] must sh my