Rav Yitzchak Breitowitz: The Scapegoat as a Bribe to Azalzel?

[Music] You see your tomorrow [Music] Okay. Hi everybody. Thank you for coming. And uh today's shar is dedicated as always praying for victory of our soldiers on all the fronts of the war. As all of you know, of course uh the prime minister is planning on expanding uh the warfront to encompass all of Gaza. So this is still a man of tila and for the lasting unity of the people of Israel and for all of those whose health has been affected by the war and the safe return of rasm of all of the hostages. A rafu of for Ben Freda Batia Batara and the lasting unity and safety of the people of Israel. Safe return of the soldiers and hostages. recovery of the wounded and shalom al and again a third yet a third an anonymous contribution was again once again made for the and for the safe return of the hostages and hashem's protection of Israel and for the ga vimeu and uh we desperately need the ga uh we have uh this week a double para because in kadoshim which is normally the case uh when you have a non- leap year so you have extra pario that you got to you got to combine uh so I do want to share one thought from parat which is the first para and then a longer thought from parasian uh which is the second para uh para mo is actually very very interesting it deals with the yum kiper ritual it actually deals with the coen god going into the holy of holies the keshak dashim Yum kipper and itffect how how he affects atonement uh for quali Israel actually there's a very interesting just as a little aside a very interesting of the vil nagon which if you wouldn't read the pukum carefully you wouldn't even notice it but once he points it out it becomes obvious and that is if you read paraote it talks about a whole ritual two goats going into the holy of holies And as you're reading it, your mind automatically says, "Oh, this is talking about Jam Kipper because it is." And yet, Yam Kipper is not mentioned until the very end of the description in which it says, "And this shall be the service of Yum Kipper for all future generations." So the vil nagon is makadesh based on a metric that for the 40 years of the desert when iron was the cohen gdado he could enter the keshak dashim any single day he wanted to provided he went through the entire elaborate ritual that is described it is only it is only for the future generations that this avod is limited to yam kipper and again if you just Look at the pukim. This will literally leap out at you. Although you wouldn't notice it because our mind supplies a lot of things that are not in the text and we just assume it's in there. But in point of fact when it describes Aon going into the holy of holies, it does not mention Yumiper. And the vagon says that could be into the keshim. And some commentaries explain that because exemplified the characteristic of oal shalom, the lover of peace, the pursuer of peace. That gave him aus that every single day for him had the holiness of yam kipper which allowed him to enter the kadeshakum. very very interesting and as I say it's one of those that once you hear it it's you almost it's not a kdish it's it's exactly what the puss is saying but among the yum kiper rituals that are described the most mysterious if we were to ask like what is the greatest atoner of yum kipper what is the aspect of the service that brings the greatest kapor so you're tempted to think well when the ken guttle goes into the keshak Dashim. That's the big deal. Well, that is a big deal of course, but that is not the most powerful avoda of Yum Kipper. The most powerful avoda of Yam Kipper did not even take place in the Ba Mikdash at all. Well, it started off in the Ba Mikdash, but then it ended. Say again. In the sky. What? What do you Well, yeah, but I'm talking about Kipper is the ritual of the two goats. The goats the rim. The two goats. What is this ritual? Right, the ritual is that Aron the Coen Guttle or whoever the Coen Guttle is takes two goats. The two goats have to look the same, be the same color, be the same size, be the same age, etc. He draws lots. One goat will be a sacrifice to God. So Lashem whose blood will it'll be slaughtered in the temple and its blood will be brought into the kodesakashim. The other goat is called sir la aazel. The goat that goes to a zazel. Now aazelle actually means it's a strange word. It means the demons of the desert in which not the coin guttle but somebody else walks the goat around 10 miles out from the city 12 meal in a place of desolation and emptiness and throw pushes the goat over the cliff and the goat dies and the goat as it were bears all of the s it's a very strange description the goat bears the sins of the People like the Coen Guttle put his hands on the goat in the B mikdash and somehow all of the sins of Claw Israel enter the goat and when the goat is thrown over the cliff and the goat dies all of the sins disappear. Now that is the most powerful atonement of Yam Kipper. Not even the goat that goes to God but the goat that goes to Aazel scapegoat. Now it's called the scapegoat. Now the rabbitic term for the scapegoat is not the same term as the kumsh calls it the goat to aazel called it hamish the goat that is sent away. Now if you think about this for a moment you can see Kazal wanted to use a much more pariff term the goat that's sent away raises all sorts of theological problems what we're bringing sacrifices to demons that inherit inhabit the desert and that's what we do on yum kiper and that is what brings atonement to kalisrael that sounds mighty close to idolatry and superstition and the notion that the sins get transferred to the goat like sins are this physical poison that the goat takes and the goat dies and the sins disappear. So because theologically most people wouldn't understand this in fact we we don't really understand it. So Kazal deliberately picked a term that's less loaded although that doesn't explain anything but they called it the goat that you send away. They didn't want to use Zaz because of its repercussions. But I want to spend a few moments just analyzing on a very very simple level what the SAT represents. Ramban who was of course a great cabalist know didn't hear you. Question Ramb was a doctor only. Ramban was a doctor also. Yeah. That's correct. Mubarak. He was a mubar. Of course. No, he didn't have the itself didn't know the right I'm talking about Ramban. Okay. Ramban was a great Ramban. No, neither of them had the Zoro. The Zoro was not published until later. But Ramban was a mubel. Kabala and Zo are not the same thing. Uh there were great makubalim before the zor became for some. Ramban was absolutely a cabalist. And the Ramban uh writes very very often in his commentary of the Kish that he will be offering interpretations al based on the secrets of the Torah and he uh adjures he swear makes the reader swear that when he reaches those points the reader will skip it unless he's on the Madrega to study Cabala. So Zor and Cabala are not the same thing. Zoir became the major text of Kabala. But there were great makubalim. No, I I understand right. Okay. Sorry. Yeah. I I listen I I understand but uh I'm not going to get into the I am not going I am not going to get into the debate when was the zo written. Let's assume if wrote the zoa. Okay. I will I will go with the conventional accepted approach. But it is still a dra pashett that the zor was not known to the rishonim until around the the late 1200s. And that that that is historically true. So the ramban did not have the zoher. Uh yeah the zor existed but it existed in a concealed form. Uh the ramb was not a makubel. Okay. Ramban definitely was a makubel. And there was a great cababalistic tradition in Spain and in France and in Italy uh way before the zora became public and way before the Arizal hundreds of years uh before before the Arizal. So alpabala the Ramban explains that the sorish is called a shad a bribe that you give the satan a bribe that you give the satan. And the mushel that's given is this. Let's imagine you want to see the king. But the king has vicious attack dogs. If you try to get into the palace, the dogs are going to attack you. So all burglars know uh that they carry some raw steak with them. And when the dog attacks, of course, a well-trained attack dog can overlook it, but the average dog, you know, uh will go for the meat. And therefore the meat distracts the dog and therefore you're able to have access to the king. So says the ram on we have access to God to give us forgiveness to give us elevation. But there are so many demonic forces that try to block us. They are called in fact the uses the phrase the arrogant dogs that try to stop us. So the shad the is the shad the bribe the beef steak that you throw to the dogs. So they get distracted from their kit from their prosecution to God and that gives you access. Now the truth of the matter is it's a it's a very vivid mushel but it still from a rational standpoint does not make a lot of sense to us that you have to distract demonic forces otherwise God is not going to listen to you. What exactly is that? So Rev. Destler uh had a very interesting koak. Rav Desler was also a person who learned Kabala Muser all of the different branches of Torah. But Destler maintains that even mystical ideas can and should be translated into psychological and ethical terms that you can apply to your muser. And here is what Dustler defined as a shad. Literally it means a bribe to the satan. So Rabbustler says the following. The way this translates psychologically is that you know there's a mitzvah in the Torah, a strange mitzvah that when you surround a city in time of war, you must give the enemy an avenue of escape. You cannot surround a city on all four sides. Why is that so? Why should I give enemy an avenue of escape? So Ramban gives a psychological reason because when people have no avenue of escape, they fight with extreme ferocity. An avenue of escape, I'm not going to fight so much because you know I can get out. I have a way out. That's what they say with aliyah too, right? If you want if you want to really be committed to Israel, you got to burn your bridges because if you have an escape route, yeah, you know, you're not going to be willing to ride with the with the difficult waves. Now, so Destler, the same way if the enemy is totally blocked, they're going to fight with unbelievable ferocity. The Yates is the same way. When you try to kill your Yates, it will assert itself tremendously powerful. So example a person decides they they want to do chuva uh for lashara. So they say from this day forward I will never say another word of lashara for the rest of my life that's trying to destroy the what's going to happen is there'll be a powerful feeling welling up within you meaning you mean the rest of my life next 10 years 20 years 30 years whatever may a viram shana. How is that possible? I can't do it. Maybe I'll start tomorrow. This is called the notion of the sahara will try to attack you if you try to kill it. But ribbustler says sometimes you have to play mind games. You say okay I won't speak lashhara till 12:00 noon today. I can hold out for three or four hours and the HR is not going to bother you so much because you've made a concession. But what happens is as you get yourself habituated in good habits, you'll actually have greater resolve later. Right? So thus points out the mystical idea of a bribe to the satan is a psychological mechanism for approaching chuva incrementally. peace meal and giving concessions like a pressure cooker, letting the steam out a little bit so you don't explode. You try to take on too much of a global uh change in your life. What's going to happen is there'll be an explosion. Right? So that's that's an interesting gloss on the Ramban. But I want to mention quickly before I go on to the the main thing I want to talk about some other points about the scapegoat and that is Rafersh points out that if you look at the two goats from the perspective of the goats right so goat number one that's designated the goat of God its uh throat is going to be slit and its blood is going to be collected and it'll be brought into the holy of holies and it will be burnt and all of this is in the visual field of the other goat who's going to go on a long walk. Now, from the perspective of a goat, the goat sees uh his twin goat as serving God, but that is destructive and leads to death, but I'm having a great time. I'm going on a ramp for miles and miles and miles. So, re points out this shows us the illusion of a freedom from a life of of commitment to God. Meaning we sometimes think oh if I commit myself to God I'm creating slavery I'm creating deprivation I'm creating hardship but if I reject God I have peace and joy and freedom but your first points out that goat of vazel may have the illusion of freedom but ultimately is going to be pushed off the cliff not dedicated to anything and therefore it reminds a person that what looks like freedom in the short run turns out to be darkness and destruction in the long run and what looks like deprivation in the short term leads to redemption and connection to God in the holy of holies and the keshaktashan. So the ritual of the goats refers says is to focus our mind on looking at the long-term picture. In the short term, all sorts of things appear to be really really good and yet they ultimately lead to that which is death and darkness and destruction and things that the short I think there's a famous psychological experiment nothing to do with Judaism. Well, indirectly it does but it's was not a Jewish experiment about the notion of deferred gratification. I think it involved marshmallows or something. What was it? You had a choice or candy. You had a choice. a kid kids kid little kids had a choice of taking one now or waiting five or 10 minutes and then they could take two or three. So some kids went for the immediate gratification and some kids were willing to wait longer for a greater reward. And they traced these children through adulthood. And it was found that the kids who were willing to defer their gratification were generally more successful in life because they didn't go for the shortterm gain. They looked at the long term. Well, in many many ways, life itself is exactly that situation. You got to be in life for the long haul. There are many things that in the immediate short term would be very advantageous. Eat where you want to eat, travel on travel, whatever you want. In other words, one could say mitzvah are burdensome for me, God forbid. But if you look at the long-term relationship, it creates meaning and purpose connection to and all of those temporary conveniences that you thought you would gain seem to be kind of worthless, meaningless in light of the long-term goal here. So Rahur looks at the surak the two goats is the path of ease and comfort turns out to be the path of devastation and destruction and the path of sacrifice turns out to be the path of holiness and consecration and union. So that's one point about the two belts. Another point about the two belts focuses on the idea that they have to be exactly the same. They have to be exactly the same. Why is that so significant? That highlights the idea of free will. Because sometimes people who sin say, "I can't help it. I was made a certain way." You know, God gave me a bad nature. God gave me a cruel nature. God gave me a lazy nature. Especially now with the human genome project where we map and sequence all of the genetic structures of the human organism. So people have the lazy gene, the disorganization gene, the violence gene, the murder gene. Everything is genetically programmed and people have raised questions does know what does that mean about free will autonomy but obviously Judaism believes that maybe people have different propensities people may have different inclinations but there is this manual override that is called free will nobody is born to be a Russia nobody is born to be a sadik people make the choices that bring them to that way. And that is highlighted by the two goats because there's the good goat that goes to God and there's the bad goat that goes to Aazel. But in essence, they are exactly the same. The bad goat didn't start off bad and the good goat didn't start off good. It's what they became. So as a result, particularly on yum kipper, the most the most fundamental principle of doing chuva is free will to recognize that you're a free agent. Because if you believe that the trajectory of your life is determined by your genetics or by your past or whatever it is, you'll never take responsibility for your life. And taking responsibility presupposes free will. And therefore no matter what my circumstances I can make the right choices I can make choices psychology I don't know psychology is not taught fraud young yeah okay the past creates psychology of the present I'm sorry the p well well well well okay so so this gets into something more complicated and again I don't want to fully address this I get to the other thing revved makes a very important important point. See the the way when the Rambam describes free will, the Rambam seems to make a statement that any single moment in any part of your life, you always have the capacity to choose to be a righteous person. Now the problem is that sometimes a person has been led by many many experiences in life that he's in the street, he's in the gutter, he's an alcoholic, he's a cocaine addict. Does God expect that this cocaine addict in the in the gutter uh should walk into the base medish of Mir Yeshiva right now and go to Adafy Mishir? I mean, is that what God says? Why aren't you in yeshiva right now? So, Rev Destler developed a very subtle and sophisticated idea called Nikuda. Nikuda sabak means there is always a choice, but it's not the same choice. Meaning the guy that's the cocaine addict cannot choose at that moment to become a fully from Jew and God does not expect him to do that. But there will always be a certain aspect of choice. At this moment you can go into treatment at this moment. You can do something that will put you on the right path. So it's not like every moment I could decide to be totally righteous or totally evil. I am a product of my past but there is always a nuda there is always a fulcrum point there is always a tipping point that a person can decide and he says and that is our accountability meaning to say uh let's look at look at all of us everybody has certain areas that hashem they passed they're no longer struggling so for example if you're an orthodox Jew for many years and you walk buy a pork barbecue restaurant, whatever it is. You know, you're not going to say, "I'm actively struggling not to eat pork. Maybe there was a time in your life that you were okay, but that's not your your test. You're past that. That's no longer in your bira range." And all of us also have areas that are beyond us. meaning whatever there are certain areas of spirituality that we're not re really ready to choose and that's not that's also not range meaning there's a range a range where you're in a position where you could go here or you can go there some areas you're already past and some areas you haven't gotten toler says the judgment of God is not on everything the judgment of God is whatever is called in your bira range at a given point in time. Now, as you advance spiritually, your range will change. Meaning more and more things may be behind you and you're moving in the direction where things that were ahead of you now become the decisions that you have to make. So the active range of is not static. See that that's where the Rambam is a little difficult. The Rambam seems to imply a very static model that every single second I can decide to be a completely righteous person. Rev. Destler says the active range of free will is an everchanging dynamic based on how you are progressing as a person and that is the standard of judgment that the almighty applies. So I so I I do agree that obviously we are connected to our past. Our past has a tremendous influence on who we are and many factors of our past were beyond our control as well. Parents, family, whatever it would be. But that does not negate the and uh as I pointed out part of the rese part of the rese of the two goats being exactly the same is that every person does have the capacity to be good or or bad. But then a final point I want to bring out is that how are the goats chosen? They're chosen by the cohen putting his hands in a lottery and uh one goat will be called the the hashem goat and the other goat is the aazel goat and uh so it's really not the goat making the decision. It's somebody else making the decision. So here you have a very interesting muser for parents and teachers and that is the self-fulfilling prophecy of negative labeling. The bad goat becomes bad only because he's labeled bad in the lottery. And that should remind us uh very very much that often the labels we put on things on people become the reality of their situation. A person becomes bad if he's viewed as bad. A person becomes good if they're viewed as good. Uh the Gomorrah gives us a story that in the aftermath of the Ba Mikdash, there were many Jewish children who were orphaned and they were wandering the streets and uh there was a son of a very very great rabbi. The rabbi had been killed and he was a kid. So the only way he could he could sustain himself was he became a male prostitute. And Rabi Yehuda Hanasi wanted to reclaim this child because his father had been Rabie Hanasi's own teacher. So he reclaims the child. He says, "I'm taking you off the street. You're going to live with me." And then he he wanted to make the kid a roshiva. He was a teenager. Make him rosh. So the kid says, "How can I be a roshiva?" He says, "I want to go back to the street. I enjoy the street. I'm used to the street. What type of job are you giving me?" So ravidasi said well how does it look if a rashiva becomes a prostitute you can't do that you have a you have a position you're important you're respected in other words it became a self-fulfilling prophecy that because he was given respect he was given a position he grew into the position uh that he was and this is how we have to deal with our kids frankly you know um when there's negativity uh that we're always communicating what happens is that becomes the reality of who who they are. Right? So that's just some general stuff about the soy hamish taker service and in terms of our own avodashem and the like. Now I want to jump forward as I say I have two uh unrelated pieces here uh to the beginning of paras kadoshim uh very very beautiful uh there we have the famous pekka you shall love your friend as you love yourself and we have the this is the mitzvah of aas is uh the mitzvah of loving every Jew like like like you love your like you love yourself. And let me point out a vort which I had heard in the name of the safer hakava hakabala but I have not been able to find it and I don't know who else would say it. This is a vert that he would say but he would say it doesn't mean he said it. As far as I know I can't find it but this is a very beautiful linguistic observation. Uh one of the there are several words in the Torah for friend. One word is rehea is friend. The other word is right. So, so the terra doesn't say love your as you love yourself. The Torah says love your as you love yourself. So what is the difference between and so let's look at the shish here friend comes from the word people who are joined is to join. So a is a friend who thinks like me, who agrees with me. Everything I say he thinks is brilliant. That's a Now rehea which means friend strangely enough is connected to ra bad or trua. The chauffeur sound is a broken sound. So rehea represents a broken relationship meaning a relationship in which a person does not always agree with me. A person sees the world in a different way. So the Torah doesn't say love your as you love yourself. That's obvious. I'm going to love because the is just like me. But the is the person who is different than you, who sees things differently than you. That's a person that's harder to love. And that's why the Torah says, "Love your rehea as you love yourself." By the way, this is why in chevraos, husband and wife are called auim, beloved friends, but not butim. Because once again, the idea of marriage is husbands and wives are not supposed to be identical. Each one sees the world in a different way, right? And each one learns from the other. I try to understand the way my wife sees the world and learn from it. And hopefully she would do the same, right? That's how it works. And each of us becomes greater than the sum of our individual parts because each of us incorporates within ourselves the vision of the other. That's rehea, right? you're not going to grow from because is just confirming whatever you already know. Right? So that's good. It's comforting to be confirmed but uh it's not growth producing. It's just whatever I know is good is right with Rehea there is the potential for growth for expansion for insight for getting beyond. So that's the first point again I I don't have a source for it. The safer kaba kabala which is a safer not many not many people use today but it is a phenomenally wonderful safer written in the 19th century whose specialty is subtlety in language always goes through subtleties in language so a thought like this is right up his alley but unfortunately I I couldn't I couldn't find it but I think the thought itself uh is a very very valid one. Now we also know that Rabi comments on this. The great Rabbi the theam sofur says very beautifully that it doesn't just mean it's a fundamental principle in the Torah but it means it's a fundamental principle in bringing people to Torah that if you're a person you want to bring people to Torah to Yiddishkite whether it's students whether it's your own children you want to bring them to Torah you don't bring them to Torah by negativity by criticism and by denigration. You bring them to Torah by love. And when they feel your love and your concern, they will gravitate to what you're teaching. And that's what it means. This is a great principle to bring people to Torah. And the EMS is why did Rabi Aka say this? This emerged from his own autobiographical experience which is very relevant to the Omr period and that is we know Ryativa was an ignorant shepherd and he was in the employ of one of the wealthiest land owners in Yusaleim. a landowner who went by the name Kalba Savoa which literally means an oversted dog because it says he was so hospitable that even a dog would lose its appetite. Dogs never right dogs are always hungry but so he even the dog would be stuffed and he was very very balaka very righteous person in some ways but his daughter Rael fell in love with this ignorant shepherd. Aka was an ignorant shepherd working for Kalba Sabua. Now Aka didn't even know how to read. Didn't even know how to read. Was he Torah observant? I'm not even sure. We don't really know. But he didn't know any Torah. That that's for sure. And she saw something in him that nobody else saw. Even Rabaka did not see. And she married him. And her father made a vow. Her father was so incensed. He made a vow that she would get nothing from him. She she he dismared her. She would get zero. And she lived in poverty with Hakka, the ignorant shepherd. And at one point, she sent him to study Torah in your for 12 years. He started with the first graders. After 12 years, he already had accomplished something. He came home to visit her after 12 years. And this is one of the strangest parts of the story. And uh before he gets to say hello, he overhears her conversation with a neighbor where a certain neighbor says, "What type of husband do you have who leaves you for 12 years, doesn't come back?" And she said, "I wouldn't mind if you go for another 12 years." He hears that, doesn't even say hello. Doesn't stop for a cup of coffee. He goes back for another 12 years. Now I have to admit I think this hits all of us and h okay I get maybe I get the 12 years I get the 24 years I mean I get that if that but can't say hello can't uh can't have a cup of coffee or whatever they drank tea probably tea in those days uh so there are different interpretations again none of these are going to fully answer the question uh one interpretation is that he didn't want to break the continuity meaning even if you have a little break That kind of takes away the momentum. 2 * 12 is not the same as 1* 24. So he wanted the momentum. The other shot I like a lot is more of a humanistic shot. If he would have allowed himself to stop and see her, he wouldn't have been able to go back. He would have been overpowered by her suffering. But she wanted him to go back. She knew this had to be done. So he had to be cruel in order to do what he had to do. Again, this is something that is totally beyond us. Uh but this is the story. So after 24 years, he finally comes back and now he is no longer the ignorant shepherd who was learning how to read with the first graders. He is now the greatest rabbi in Israel, Aka Benose. He comes back with 24,000 students. Can you imagine that? The largest yeshiva in the world uh is probably Mir, the mere yeshiva. And Mir has between 8,000 maybe 9,000 students, the largest in the world. This 24,000 students. And this woman is dressed in rags and she's pressing through the crowds to see this man that's coming. And the students think she's a crazy woman or whatever it is. And they, you know, block her. And Rabi Aka says, "Shalib is shimm all that I am and all that you are shallah is because of her." and they get reunited and all of the sacrifices are now worth it. She produced the one that would convey the Torah to all the future generations. Although Raika tragically died a martyr's death later. He was tortured but that that that was later. Now, interestingly enough, Kalba Sabua at this point doesn't know that is his son-in-law. He doesn't he knows a great rabbi came to town with 24,000 students but he but he finally regrets all the years that his daughter was suffering 24 years. So he wants to go get released from his vow released. So he was told that the scholar could release you from your vow. So he goes over to the scholar and says, "You know, Rabbi, many, many years ago, I made a vow that my daughter can have no benefit from my property because she married an ignorant man, but now I see how much she's suffering. Can you release me from the vow?" And Rabaka, who recognized who he was talking to, said, "Well, let me ask you this. Would you have made the vow had you known that your son-in-law would become a so he says I wouldn't have made the vow had I know had I known he'd learned how to read so said you're released from your vow and then he identified himself and that's the story okay this is a very very rare example of what in many ways could be described as a romance from the Talmud Now it's not romantic in the typical way you would describe romance but in the sense of what motivated Rabi to ultimately fact described that when he was init learned but he he hated he hated them. He even described if I would see a Tamil Kam I would bite him and not like a dog bite but like a donkey bite that breaks the bones right a dog bite breaks skin a donkey can break through the bones I hated him and psychologically you can understand that because obviously rebika was a smart person I mean imagine the situation where you're intelligent you're bright but you don't have education even you don't have education and you see all of these Harvard professors as it were, who maybe are not as smart as you, but they got the credentials and they got the degrees. One can understand from, maybe I'm humanizing it too much, one can understand from a human perspective, there's got to be a certain jealousy. I mean, I can tell I can tell you that there are quite a few automobile mechanics who didn't even finish high school who are a lot smarter than professors at the highest levels of academia. uh you know they can fix cars, they can they're they're just very very bright but they don't have this formal education thing uh and and the like. All right. So in Israel it's not such a big not not as important but in America you know the credentials are the end all and be all be all of everything. So one can understand from a human perspective Rabaka's hatred of Tom. But what did what is Rael? Rael saw in Rabi through her love of him abilities and potentials that he didn't even realize that he had. And through that love she gave him the confidence to be able to do what he needed to do. So this fits the first thought. was the love that Raal had for me that gave me the ability to become great in Torah and that that is now granted this is an extreme case and you know if any husband would want to do this uh any rabbi in the world would basically say user user user don't do it this is a unique case in fact I'll tell you an interesting story a speculation I have which I have absolutely no proof for so if you ask me for the source the source is only me but there was one rabbi in the garra Ben Azai and the Gmorrah records he never married because he said how can I get married my soul desires to learn Torah so the postrus of the Gmorrah is Benazi didn't marry he said I can't tear myself away from Torah learning I can't assume a domestic life we used to call old bachelors in yeshiva members of the Ben Azai club no their soul desires to learn to now to springs from the Jewish sheli that actually Benazi I did get married, but he got divorced. And the person he married was none other than Rabbi Yaka's daughter. Now, here is my speculation, and I I like it. I think it is a very good speculation. You're Benazi. All you care about is learning Torah. A wife, all those other things, they're going to distract you. But there's a mitzvah to get married, a mitzvah to have children. So you have to find a wife that's going to make no demands whatsoever. So where do you look? Like daughter like mother. Here we have Rabaka's wife. She made no demands whatsoever. Probably daughter is going to be the same thing. I'll go with that one. Ah problem is daughter saw everything her mother went through. She said, "I'm not going to live that way." Okay, that's my that's my reconstru that's my reconstruction as to what happened. I think it's very very plausible uh that that happened because I don't have any particular proof but the point basically is it was the power of Rahul's love that made Rabbi Aka and uh in fact uh this is the power of a good wife a good wife you know behind they'll say behind every man is a good woman or some say a surprised woman whatever whatever it would be okay Now, interestingly enough though, the same rabbi I just mentioned, Ben Azai, Rabbi Yaka says is the clut of the Torah, Ben Azai, the same Benaza's son-in-law at one point came up with another verse that he considered to be the most important teaching of the Torah and that is man is made in the image of God. When you realize mankind, human beings are made in the image of God. That's the most important idea. So the malim offers a very interesting insight into the debate between Rabaka and Benazi as to whether the most important principle is via or the most important principle is that man is made in God's image. And he says both of them are focusing on love of your fellow Jew as very fundamental. But how do you get to the love? So Benazi, which is consistent with his intellectual orientation, says you get to the love by philosophical contemplation. I contemplate the greatness of the human being. You're in the image of God. So of course I love you and I respect you because you are a representation of godliness. You use your mind to get to love. Rabbi Aka's point is it is not always your mind that gets you to the right place. It sometimes has to be your action because the Malin points out the note love to your friend towards your friend is not referring to the emotion. It's referring to action act in loving ways. Benazi says the contemplation brings you to the emotion. Rabbi Yaka says it's the action that brings you to the emotion. You know marriage counselors will often go with what Rabaka says. A person says I don't feel love towards my spouse. I don't feel anything. So sometimes the answer would be will be act as if you did. act in a loving way and then the feelings will come instead of looking at actions as consequence of feelings. The feelings can come from the actions themselves. Now of course that feels fake initially. It does feel fake. I'm going through motions. But the truth is your actions can educate your feelings. This is the says in many many places. A person is influenced by his actions. Act happy, you become happier. Act kindly, you become kinder. The emotions get educated by the actions. So, Ben Azai is more of an intellectual orientation. Contemplate the greatness of man and you will love. Rabi Aka says, "Forget about the contemplation. That's not going to take you where you need to go." didn't fully work for Benazi himself rather act and through the action you become a different person in that in that way right so that's an interesting makus now there is a third opinion there is a third opinion which the ana which is quoted as part of the medish but it's not in our medish you actually don't we only know it from secondary sources in which there's a third opinion who says I'll give you a more important principle than man is in the image of God. And the principle that the third opinion comes up with is you got to bring a corban in the morning. The daily offering of the morning and a corban in the afternoon. The corbent of the morning, themed of the afternoon. Now here you scratch your head a little bit. Well, okay, there's a mitzvah to bring the corbent, but in what way is that the most important principle in the Torah? And here the Bali Muser say the lesson is consistency. Again, going back to moods. You know, all of us have moods of spirituality in which we become spiritual and then we have moods where we're not so excited. But the carbon tumid's lesson is every single day you got to bring that offering. Sometimes you're in the mood, sometimes you're not. Stay with it. Consistency is something that builds religious character. When we're creatures of moods, some days we're doing it, some days we're not doing it. We're simply going with the wind. We're being blown around. You know, I knew the what? Yeah, that's right. That's the ru the ru even if you do good things because you're doing it because you're blown with the wind. You know, I remember um in in my community and I remember growing up and I remember even as an adult as well, uh there were older people who kind of were living in America before they were yes. They actually went to public schools. They didn't have yeshiva education, but they were like shers. They would go to schul no matter, you know, no matter what. This was their thing. This was their thing. And I remember um I had a neighbor one who lived one block over. He was like, you know, 90 in his 90s. And I remember him, you know, he would walk to SH would take maybe take him a half an hour in the middle of the winter snow matter no matter what. I mean, people who were 40 years younger, if there was a little rain outside, they wouldn't and they had a car. Uh they wouldn't go to show. There was too much trouble. I would get wet going into the car from my house, etc. And here was a person who would walk. Okay, it wasn't 10 miles, but you know, he would walk five blocks uh through the snow with a walker and everything else. He just and it wasn't even a he didn't even look at it like a sacrifice. This is just what you do. And I always think of them as a model of consistency. This is your job. You just do it. And that's a very fundamental principle because all of us want to be spiritual. All of us want to be ecstatic. All of us want to be excited. But life isn't always that way. Life has its boring moments. Life has its depressing moments. Life has moments where things are not so exciting. But you stick with it. You stick with it. And that's the lesson of the carban tamid. Every day, every day, no matter what. Okay. The final point I want to share with you is also a story in the Gomorrah. The famous story of Hill. Uh remember a non-Jew came to Hill very famous well first came to Shamai and said teach me the whole Torah when I'm on one foot so Shami thought this non-Jew was mocking and making fun of Judaism and said get out of here who was renowned for his patience and there are a number of stories about Hill's patience said okay I'll teach you the whole Torah on one foot and he said in Aramaic anything that is hateful to you that you wouldn't want people to do to you. Do not do to your friend and the rest of the Torah zil gore. Go and learn. Now, this is often paraphrased as the negative golden rule because uh the positive golden rule is do unto others as you would like them to do unto you. This is not phrased in the positive. This is phrased in the negative. That which is hurtful to you, do not do to another person. And unfortunately, as part of a distortion, uh, Christian scholars sometimes contrast the phariseaic attitude of Hill with the much more generous attitude of Jesus. And they'll say, Jesus says, "Love your neighbor as yourself." Love, love, love. Hill just says don't hurt people. So we clearly see the superiority of Christian morality over phariseaic morality because the Pharisees just say don't hurt people. Jesus says love. Now that's a patent absurdity simply because yeah Jesus does say love your neighbor as you love yourself but Jesus is quoting a in the says it was not Yashka's invention. So, so the question becomes, it's an interesting question. Why does Hill use the negative? We normally assume that doing good things for people, making them feel good is a higher level than just not hitting them. If the only thing I say was, "Hey, I didn't slap you today." You know, we wouldn't automatically consider that to be such a supreme spiritual level. So it is a good question. Why does Hillel use the negative of not harming people if the Tory itself endorses the notion of positive love? And I think there's a the Bali Musher tell us there's a very profound lesson in Hillel's teaching and that is before you start helping people do no harm. be sure you're not hurting them when you're trying to help them. And this is indeed something, well, I'll give you a prosaic example. You know, when people are sick, they're under the weather. So, people have different coping strategies. Some people want to be left alone. They don't want visitors. They don't want phone calls. They don't want people to make chicken soup for them. They want to be alone. They want to sleep. Other people need company. They need food, etc. So, let's imagine you're a person who wants to be alone. You want to sleep for 5 hours without any interruption. Your neighbor rings your uh apartment 6:00 a.m. in the morning with a huge pot of chicken soup and says, "I was up all night making you this soup." Uh, and you say, "Well, thank you, but I really want to sleep, but I made you this soup." Well, the question becomes this. The question becomes what's the yeah you're doing a lovely thing but you're not doing the way the person wants right so maybe you feel good about the great thing that you did but you're not really helping the other person now hill is saying the following what is hateful to you don't do to others you wouldn't want people to ignore your wishes you wouldn't want people to not pay attention to what's important to you so when you help other people don't ignore what's important to them. So that's an important lesson. Before you become a dogooder to the world, be sure you're not harming people in the course of doing that. Right? That's the that's the idea of why Hillow uses the negative because don't start doing positives until you've ascertained with careful reflection that you're not hurting somebody in the course of of doing that because a person's dignity is very important. A person's self-respect and the person's priorities have to be have to be respected. They're not just an object for your mitzvah. They're not just oh I'm getting my own haba by taking care of you. That's using a person as an object and you don't use people as objects. What they tell the story? It's it's a bad joke but it's it's it's kind of funny. Uh there was a man who had learned in some muser that if you marry a bitter bad wife, the suffering is so great you're guaranteed to get maban. So he was determined to marry the worst woman he could possibly find. Uh he was given good shid he didn't want said I want. So he finally marries a woman who's miserable and bitter and complaining. Says, "Barakashem, that's what I want." So he marries a woman and the woman changes overnight. She makes breakfast in bed and she smiles and kind and makes five course meals. Like everybody would just be amazed how kind and compassionate and giving she is. But he's not happy. So he says to her, "Well, listen, I I I very appreciate the nice things you're doing, but that really wasn't the deal. That wasn't my expectation." So she says to him, "If you think you're going to go to Haba because of me, you got another thing you got another thing going, right?" So So sometimes, you know, people go through these things for their own ego and not not because of and that's why Hill emphasizes the negatives. Okay. Um, but there's another question. The guy, the non-Jew asked the question, teach me the whole Torah on one foot. Now, Hill didn't give him the whole Torah. At Mo, right, the Torah is between man and God between man and man. At most, Hill gave a principle that explains the man-to-man interpersonal commandments. Do not do things to people that you wouldn't want them to do to you. Okay. So, we could call that a summary of but it doesn't pick up. It doesn't pick up shabas. It doesn't pick up. So, how is he answering the question? The guy said, "Teach me the whole Torah on one foot." And just because Hill says, "And the rest go and learn." I mean, that's not an answer. I mean, he wants to give you the whole Torah. So, Rashi says a phenomenally interesting point. Just Rashi. Rashi says when Hillel says what is hurtful to your to you do not do to your friend. Who is your friend? Your friend is not just another human being. Your friend is the Almighty. The Almighty himself is your friend. And indeed um Rashi quotes a puss in Misha alazov. Do not abandon your friend who is the friend of your father as well. And that's the almighty. That's Hashem. Now that's fascinating. So just as you wouldn't want your wishes to be ignored, don't ignore the wishes of your friend. So this is another yet another aspect of our relationship to God. You know, God is called Aenu, our father. God is called Malcanu, our king. Uh God is called uh a parent. God is called the sibling. In Shirim, it's a brother sister relationship. Husband wife relationship is very common. God is the husband, we're the wife. But now we have a new aspect in the relationship with Akaleshu. God is your friend. When you feel lonely, afraid, isolated, you have a friend in the world and that's a whole different aspect. And therefore, when Hill says what is hurtful to you, do not do to your friend, it also encompasses not only but it also encompasses. Now, I just want to end with the idea that I ended the Rebaka story with Rebaka coming home with 24,000 students and the joyous reunification with his beloved Rael. But that's not unfortunately that is not the end of the story. Uh that part of the story is triumph, success. But very shortly thereafter those 24,000 students died in a plague between Pesak and that is the source of the minhagim of mourning not getting married etc during the omare and just think about this 24 years of work to bring 24,000 students everything collapsed everything turned to ashes Everything's gone. Rael herself died shortly thereafter. And again, speculation one could surmise there that heartbreak contributed to that as well. How much could she take? Interestingly enough, it mentions Rabi Akiva started again. He got five students. Was one of them. And he started again. And all of the Torah that we have came eventually through those five students. That itself is a remarkable lesson. You lose everything. You lose everything. And you start again even as an older person who lost his beloved wife as well. That's the lesson of Ami Israel. Not giving up. But khazal tell us that there was a spiritual reason why the 24,000 students of rabbi died because they did not show proper respect and regard for each other. Next week I'll talk about this some more. We're at the end of this year but I just want to point out that one of the major themes of the omare is that when we think about the deaths of rabbi students we don't just mourn their deaths. After all, if it would be, see, if it would be just a question of mourning deaths, we've had worse. I mean, 24,000 is obviously a tragedy, but we've had 6 million in the Holocaust. I mean, more in the Crusades, we wouldn't necessarily just focus on the number of 24,000 people dying. The significance of focusing on this year after year after year is not the mere fact of their death but the reason that they died because they did not show proper cavote for each other and therefore it is it is our avod during to try to rectify that by showing cavote respect honor love again connected to the para as Um again I I say almost every week that initially in the aftermath of OC of October 7 there was a resurgence of a ini that was very very positive albeit from tragedy. Uh now people get used to things and unfortunately uh bad habits reemerge and we no longer necessarily have that same sense. We have to try to hold on to it. We have to try to hold on to it. We have to try to build on it. We have to try to create a world where Jews love each other because after all uh not too many other people love us that much in the world that we're in. Uh we have our relationship with Hashem. Uh and we have our relationship with each with each other. And that's about it. That's all we have. That's all you need actually. But that's all all we really have. Um I don't want to get political. I mean, even Donald Trump, you know, uh I think we're, you know, we're happy he's president, but you know, if it's not in his interest in any given state to support something that Israel needs to do, uh he'll, you know, he'll go off on his own path as well. So, uh so he's not Mashia, right? We have to remember that. Uh he is not he is not Mashiach. Uh and ultimately, all we have is God. And uh in order to bring Hashem into the world, we need to have this aasel. And this is why we think about the students of Rabi. Thank you. [Music] My birthday is your