Rav Yitzchak Breitowitz: THE LONG ARM OF THE L-RD -The Torah is Our Wisdom in the Eyes of the World

Everybody shalom shalom. Thank you for coming. And today's show is dedicated for for schleimer from Baruch ben Frieda and for the liberation of Israel from its enemies, safe return home of the soldiers and hostages, the lasting unity of Ami Israel and for all of those whose health has been affected by the war and dedicated to the release of Arvin Nathaniel ben Sonya Tzeona I'm sorry, Tzeona in Iran and also dedicated by Yaakov and Devorah Shore in the memory of those who were murdered on Simchat Torah 5784. It's almost coming up to a year, the yahrzeit. Aliyah neshama of Yitzchak Hirschbein Eliezer and in honor of our beloved mother, mentor, and teacher Mrs. Esther Jadick. I just have to say another personal word here. Mrs. Esther Jadick was the second grade teacher in the Hebrew Academy of greater Washington for many, many years. She was my own son's very, very beloved teacher and she made aliyah. She was already well in her 80s. She made aliyah just this year. And it's a great zechus to have her here in Eretz Israel. So, this is in honor of I guess this is her children, love Margaret and Fred. Uh thank you for introducing us to Rabbi Reiss and etc. Uh but this is Margaret and Fred in honor of their wonderful mother and in memory of Rachel bas Shishaya, whose yahrzeit is the 18th of Elul. And finally, Yibaneh has launched its annual campaign to collect and distribute charity to the needy this upcoming holiday season. The list of recipients has increased due to the dire situation of displaced families due to the war and a link to contributions can be found below on the Yibaneh website the and the YouTube description box. And as of now, Yibaneh has reached 20% of the goal. There's still a lot more to go. And as Chazal teach us during this period in particular, teshuvah, tefillah, and tzedakah uh teshuvah and prayer and charity take away the evil decrees that can afflict us. So, this is a very, very wonderful auspicious, good time uh to give tzedakah to people who really uh need it. I'm sure that all of you have heard of the news that the hospitals in Lebanon are apparently flooded with all sorts of Hezbollah terrorists who need emergency medical treatments because their beepers or whatever they were using exploded on them. Not that we should be gleeful in that sense, but I I I can't say that my heart goes out uh to the families. That's Hakadosh Baruch Hu is uh is the shofet kol ha'aretz, is indeed the ultimate judge. And those who plan evil against Ami Israel eventually, eventually will meet their their destruction and uh at least Baruch Hashem, we're seeing some aspects, some aspects of this. Um I want to talk about two things. I'm going to go in reverse order. The first thing I want to talk about is actually a little later in the parsha. And the reason I'll talk about it is because I'm also learning sefer Yehoshua with uh the boys in Ohr Sameach and in the book of Yehoshua is the fulfillment of a mitzvah that described in this parsha. And it's very confusing because the accounts uh both in the Chumash and in Yehoshua are not always clear to understand. So, I just want to go over the basic thing of what happened and then see if we can figure out why it happened. Uh the Torah tells us in this parsha that when we cross the Ardein, right? Moshe's giving us this directive. When we cross the Ardein uh we should go to a place near Shchem in the middle of the country that has two mountains, Mount Gerizim which is a very fertile mountain and Mount Eval which was a kind of a desolate mountain. Six tribes should stand on Mount Gerizim and six tribes should stand on Mount Eval and Kohanim and Leviim with the Aron Hakodesh are in the middle and they turn to Mount Eval and they pronounce Well, I'm sorry, they first turn to Mount Gerizim and they pronounce a blessing, various blessings. Blessed is the person who honors his parents. Blessed is the person who keeps the Torah. And after each bracha the whole nation says amen. Then they turn and they face Mount Eval and they say the same thing with the curse. Cursed is the person. Now, in a way it looks kind of bad because the curses are all directed to one group of six tribes and the blessings are all directed to the other group of six tribes, but it's obvious that the blessings and the curses are to everybody. So, you might wonder, why is this why is there a configuration of six tribes get the bad message and six tribes get the good message? It's a bit of a bit of a problem. And also, if you look in the Chumash as how the breakdown of the tribes, it doesn't seem to have any particular logic. It's not based on order of birth, etc. So, I I read an article by a mathematician, an interesting explanation. He pointed out that if you add the populations of all the tribes the only combination that will give you an equal number on each mountain is this particular uh arrangement. Meaning, no other arrangement will give you equal number. Why is equal number important? Because this is the image that we have when we think about Yom Hadin. Chazal say, you have to look at at the world as equally balanced. Equally balanced with good and evil. And one little deed can make the difference. So, Hashem puts six, a number that represents the curse and a number that represents bracha equally balanced so that each Jew knows they can make a difference. They can change the world. A person has to know, I do a mitzvah, I might save the world. I do an aveira, I might destroy the world. And therefore, this was a graphic notion of the the idea that the scale can go either way. So, this mitzvah is called brachos u'klalos, the mitzvah of giving the blessings and the curses on Mount Gerizim and Har Eval. But then, there's another aspect of the mitzvah. Because remember the Torah commands us to go there the day we cross the Ardein. Now, we crossed the Ardein directly opposite of Yericho. Right? Yehoshua crossed the Ardein opposite of Yericho. The place where we camped was given the name Gilgal. Gilgal means to roll over and actually the the the pasuk in Yehoshua says, it was called Gilgal because when we circumcised after not doing so for 40 years in the desert Hashem said, I have rolled away from you the shame of the Egyptians who were uncircumcised, Gilgal. The Jewish people, just to remind you, I'm I'm sure you know this, did not circumcise for 40 years or at least 39 years in the desert. The generation that left Mitzrayim had bris milah, of course. But the kids who were born in the desert at least after the first year, I'll get to that why, did not circumcise. And that's why in the beginning of the book of Yehoshua, there's a mass circumcision after we crossed the Ardein. Why did the Jews in the desert not circumcise? So, the Gemara gives a prosaic reason. It says that after the cheit hamraglim one of the things that God took away from us, although we still had the clouds of glory and we still had the manna. But he took away a healing north wind that would heal a person from weakness. And that was beneficial apparently for children who would be circumcised. And to circumcise a child and then travel in the desert on donkey or whatever they were doing could be dangerous to the child. So, they didn't circumcise because of sakanah. Now, this is pretty amazing because if you think about it the Jewish people were not traveling every day. In fact, most of the 40 years, they weren't even traveling. At least in one place they stayed for 19 years. So, you can't circumcise kids that are born over a period of 19 years when you're not traveling? What's sakanah? The sakanah is don't travel, you know, right after you circumcise your kids in in in uncomfortable conditions. But the short answer is they never knew when they would be traveling, right? The cloud would Hashem would activate the cloud. So, yeah. I'm not going to circumcise my kid today because maybe we're going to travel today. I We didn't travel today. Okay, but I didn't know that. And tomorrow's going to be the same thing and that can go on for 19 years. You know, it reminds me of a story. When I was a a rav in Silver Spring so one of the uh father-in-law one of my congregants, an elderly gentleman, had uh chest palpitations and became faint. He couldn't uh balance himself on uh Shabbos or Yom Tov. I don't remember if it was Shabbos or Yom Tov. So, I myself I myself went to the telephone in the in the in the lobby and I kept the door open so people would see me and I I dialed 911 because it was potentially pikuach nefesh. I still remember this kid who was walking around outside and he says, "Hey, the rabbi's on the phone on Shabbos, you know." He's making fun. He announced it to everybody, which is actually good. They should know that uh pikuach nefesh you call. Now, it turns out that baruch Hashem, the only problem the gentleman had was he was Thank you. He was dehydrated. So, does that mean I committed a sin? I'm allowed to to dial the phone because there's sakana, but it turns out he's not in danger. All he needed was to drink a glass of water. So, did I do an aveira? Certainly not because pikuach nefesh is based on your evaluation of the situation. If you see this as a possible pikuach nefesh, you're muchlav to act. If it turns out not to be dangerous, baruch Hashem it turned out not to be dangerous, but that didn't change the legitimacy of your action. Same thing here. If I don't circumcise my son because maybe we're going to travel today and therefore it'll be dangerous, then even if it turns out we didn't travel, it was perfectly fine. So, because of this we did not circumcise in the desert, but when we cross the Yarden and we come to a place, God says circumcise, and that place was called Gilgal because Hashem said, "I have rolled away from you the shame, the cherpah of being uncircumcised, which was the nature of the Egyptians uh and the like. Okay. But be it as it may, the mitzvah's the following. Hashem says, "When you cross the Yarden and you come to Gilgal, you shall remove 12 stones. Get 12 people of each tribe. They should remove stones from the Yarden. And those stones you should inscribe the Torah." So, now I'm going to I'm combining Yehoshua, parshas Ki Savo, and the Gemara Mishnah in Sotah because it's you're not going to see an absolutely clear narrative. But the way it was is, inscribe the Torah on the stones in Gilgal, transport them to Har Gerizim and Har Eival, build a mizbeach of those stones, bring korbanos, then dismantle the mizbeach and bring those stones back to Gilgal. Okay? So, that's in addition to another monument of stones in the Yarden itself to commemorate the crossing of the Yarden in which the Torah was not inscribed. But the Har Eival and the Gilgal monument are the same stones, meaning the stones were taken from the Yarden. They were brought to Har Eival, Har Gerizim. A mizbeach was built. The mizbeach was dismantled and the stones were brought back to Gilgal to have a permanent monument. Now, on those stones was written the Torah. There's a little bit of an uncertainty. Did they write the Torah in Gilgal the first time and transported it to Har Eival or did they write it in Har Eival? There's a little bit of a machlokes how that was, but be it as it may, the stones are taken to Har Eival, the Torah is written on the stones, it becomes the mizbeach, and then you bring it back to Har Gerizim. Uh I'm sorry, you bring it back to Gilgal. Okay, this is the mitzvah that is given in this parsha and it was fulfilled in the days of Yehoshua bin Nun shortly after Moshe Rabbeinu died. In fact, it was fulfilled on the 10th of Nissan. Moshe Rabbeinu died the 7th of Adar. This is only 33 days later. Now, Chazal point out that this is an absolute miracle because Har Gerizim and Har Eival is not next door to Yericho. Imagine where you know, Har Gerizim and Har Eival is where Shechem is. So, you're talking about uh you know, 30 km, 40 km. So, the whole nation went with those big gigantic stones. They went from Gilgal to Shechem. They brought korbanos and then they came back to Gilgal the same day before nightfall. So, the travel was by a miracle. But I want to talk about another aspect of the miracle. They wrote on these stones the Torah be'er heitev. That's the word, be'er heitev, with a good explanation. What does it mean a good explanation, be'er heitev? So, Rashi brings Chazal, they wrote the Torah in 70 languages so that every single person in the world who would see that monument would be able to understand what the laws of the Torah were. So, there is a machlokes Rishonim what what did they write? What is the Torah they wrote on the stones? Shitah number one is, they wrote the whole Torah from the base of Breishis till the lamed of the "Ein Kol Yisrael", the whole Torah, and they did it 70 times. 71 times, the original plus 70 languages. That's supernatural. First of all, where are you going to get uh stones that big? And how are you going to do it in one day? In the Jordan. Huh? Get them in the Jordan. Yeah. So, so that's one thing. Uh the Even Ezra brings a a pshat that perhaps the Torah does not mean the entire Torah, but it's a listing of the 613 mitzvos, the laws of the Torah. So, that's obviously much shorter. Still, 70 languages is still quite an unusual feat. So, this was a monument in Gilgal, which means Gilgal was like the entry point to Eretz Yisrael. That's was our entry point. So, anyone who enters the land from that major entry point, like the Allenby Bridge or whatever it would be, would see the laws of the Torah. Now, where that monument went, we don't know. Why isn't there that monument? We we have neither the monument in the Jordan which memorializes the place of our crossing, and we don't have the monument of Gilgal that has the Torah in 70 languages. And that would have been wonderful to have Moshe Rabbeinu's Of course, English is not one of the 70 languages. English is a composite language that came later. So, we wouldn't have known what the definitive English translation was, but we would have had definitive translations in many many languages. Uh the Mishnah says, by the way, that when you go to a place in which miracles were done for Am Yisrael, you actually make a brachah, she'asah nes la'avoseinu, God did a miracle for our forefathers in this place. And the Mishnah enumerates one of the places where you make the brachah is the exact spot where the Jewish people crossed the Yam Suf and the exact spot where the Jewish people crossed the Yarden. So, apparently in the time of the Mishnah, those places were still known. We don't make the brachah today because we don't know exactly where these places were, but apparently uh it was still known in the time of the Mishnah. Now, I have to admit, I'm not sure why we have uncertain certainty about the Yarden. I mean, I could tell you where we crossed. I mean, we obviously crossed the Yarden opposite Yericho. If we know where Yericho is, we know where we crossed the Yarden. So, I'm not sure what the uncertainty is because even if you tell me, which may be indeed very true, that modern Yericho is not the ancient Yericho. Okay, that that's fine because ancient Yericho was never rebuilt. B'seder. But it's certainly very close by. I mean, is it to say we don't know where they crossed the Yarden seems to be hard to understand, but nevertheless, that's what the poskim say. We don't make these brachahs today because we're not exactly sure at what point they crossed. Uh but be it as it may, here is the issue I want to just raise very quickly just in terms of pshat. What is the purpose of having the Torah on pillars, stone pillars, in 70 languages at an entry point like Gilgal that apparently was a the major entry point into the land of Israel? Now, it does make sense in a sense. In fact, some societies still do it. They kind of tell people as they come in, "These are the local laws." Like these are the speed limits. These are the rules you got to keep. And every person should know the rules. But the problem is, are not obligated by those rules. Meaning, if it would have said, for example, "Let's put the seven commandments of Noach on stone pillars and translate them in 70 languages so that everybody would know." That makes sense because a non-Jew needs to know, "Hey, in this country we enforce the Noachide Code against Gentiles. So, you got to know. But, me mother shock. The In other words, either way you look at it, if the purpose of the pillars is to tell the Jewish people about things, then you don't need the 70 languages. Just have the Torah. Just have the Hebrew. If it is to inform the Gentiles, then it should have been the Noahide Code. Why have this all all of the mitzvahs uh bishvim lashon? So, there must be an idea here that we want the non-Jewish world to be aware of the wisdom of the Torah, even if they're not commanded to keep the Torah. The Torah said in Parshas Vayishlach Nun, ki hi chachmaschem u'vinaschem l'einei hagoyim. The Torah will be your wisdom and your understanding in the eyes of the nations. The nations will look at your Torah and say, "What a great nation you are that God has given you righteous laws." Which means, this is an interesting idea, I think, because on one hand, everyone knows Judaism does not proselytize. We're not trying to make non-Jews Jewish. In fact, we're supposed to discourage them. The only thing we encourage is the Noahide laws. We don't encourage non-Jews to become Jews. And as the Rambam writes, a pious non-Jew who obeys the seven commandments of Noach gets a share in Olam Haba. But, even if we don't want non-Jews to become Jews, we want the wisdom of the Torah to permeate their consciousness, to raise them as people. That there should be an ethical message they absorb from the commandments of the Torah that should influence their behavior. And the truth of the matter is, there have been books written, even by non-Jewish historians, about uh I think Thomas Cahill wrote something called The Gifts of the Jews. What Jews have contributed to society. You know, people like to talk about, not that I would use the term, the the Judeo-Christian ethic of the dignity of man in the image of God. So, the truth is, it's Judaic ethic. Christianity did have a role in spreading that aspect of the teaching and the like. The dignity of man, you know, the the the idea of ethics and morals. The idea that God cares about morality. You know, this is such a self-evident proposition, we don't even think of it as a chiddush. Even you know, even evil religions in theory adhere to the idea that God cares about morality. But, we don't realize this is a chiddush of the Torah. Because if you go back to pagan religion, pagan religion did not care whether you were moral or ethical. Because the gods were not moral or ethical. Jupiter what what Zeus? Uh you read about what the Irish guy I mean, rape, murder, uh whatever it was. So, the idea of a sacrifice to a god of avodah zarah, small g god, was nothing more than paying protection money to the mafia. In other words, pay him off so he'll either won't bother you or he'll help you. But, the notion that Jupiter cared if you were honest in business or faithful to your wife or you didn't cheat people, that was not in that was not in the parsha. That has nothing to do with anything. Meaning, I'm not saying there weren't ethical Romans, Greeks, or Babylonians. Maybe there were a few. I'm not I'm not denying that they were ethic Some may have been ethical. But, they were not ethical because of the religion. They were ethical because they were ethical. It had nothing to do with religion. The chiddush that the God who created heaven and earth, number one is monotheism. But, the chiddush that God cares about morality is the chiddush of the Torah. So, as a result, we wanted there to be shiv'im lashon. So that the who come to Eretz Yisrael should see the wisdom of the Torah. Should understand the wisdom of the Torah. And perhaps, number one, see the greatness of Am Yisrael. And number two, incorporate the the ethics and the values and the morality within their own consciousness. So, it's an amazing thing. The whole Torah, or at least the mitzvahs of the Torah, were on 12 huge stones that were situated in Gilgal. But, then the Gemara gives a very curious machlokes, a very curious machlokes, that's quite difficult to understand. Because there's a problem of a contradiction in the pesukim because the pasuk says, "Take your stones, write the Torah, cover them with plaster." Sid. So, there's a machlokes. One opinion says, "Plaster the stones and write the Torah on the plaster." Which makes sense. It's easier to write on plaster than on stone. That's fine. But, the other opinion says, "Write, not engrave." This was not engrave. "Write on the stone. Cover the stones with plaster." Now, this is a real question. If the purpose of writing the Torah in 70 languages is that people should be able to read it, what tachlis is there to write the Torah on the stones and then cover the stones with plaster? You're obscuring the writing. So, that's exactly what the other opinion says. The other opinion who says you write on the plaster says, "Well, if you're not going to write on the plaster, if you're going to cover the writing with the plaster, eicha lamdu umos ha'olam Torah? How will the nations be exposed with Torah?" So, the answer that's given is also a curious answer. Hashem gave them momentary ruach hakodesh that when they saw the plaster, they would peel away the plaster and see the Torah. I'm not even sure what that means. Was the plaster then replaced? I mean, every time? What does it mean the nations took away the plaster? I mean, every visitor did this? I I don't know. I actually don't know the exact scenario. But, the question still becomes, why is Hashem playing the game? Why is Hashem playing games? In other words, why is Hashem saying, "Let's cover up the Torah, and then I will give ruach hakodesh to the to want to peel off the plaster and expose the Torah?" The chiyur, the most sensible thing is write the Torah on top of the plaster, just like the like the other opinion other opinion says. So, then it suggests that God wants to communicate kind of a double message here. I want you to see the Torah. I want you to be exposed to the Torah. But, know that the Torah is not really yours. In other words, that's the idea of covering it up. Meaning, it doesn't belong to you. Uh and that's why we talk and say, "A ben Noach should not keep Shabbos in all of its details and the like." So, the covering up is This is kind of an attraction and uh a repelling. Meaning, we want you to see it, but until you become Jewish, it is not fully something that you have a that you have a shaychus to. But again, it's a very, very interesting thing and we really don't know how long this thing was up. Was it up in Dovid Hamelech's time, Hamelech's time, uh the time the duration of the first Beis Hamikdash? Uh if it was not up, it was taken down at some point, why was it taken down? How was it taken down? A lot of things that are not clear. But, this idea of the Torah in 70 lashonos is something we we need to to remember. Now, Rashi says the following, just to give you a little commentary on something Rashi says. Rashi says that Yehoshua put up three monuments of stone. Monument one was in the Yarden itself to mark the place where we crossed. Monument number two was in Mount Eval, the bread blessings and the curses where they built the mizbeiach. And monument number three was in Gilgal when they went back. So, Rashi talks about there being three monuments. Now, based on the description we went through, this Rashi is very difficult. There were not three monuments because the stones of Mount Eval that built the mizbeiach, they were dismantled and they were brought back to Gilgal. So, all you have are two monuments, both of them in Gilgal, one in the Yarden, and one on ground. So, why does Rashi count Mount Eval and Gilgal as two? This is a question that all the commentaries on Rashi ask. Uh the most famous commentary is Rabbi Eliyahu Mizrachi. Not related to any modern Mizrachis. Uh Eliyahu Mizrachi wrote the great, great peirush on Rashi. And he asks the kasha that how could Rashi say there were three monuments of stone when in fact there's only two because Eval and Gilgal are the same. So, he explains Rashi very simply. Rashi doesn't mean there were three monuments. He means there were three erections. Meaning, stones were erected in the Yarden. Stones were erected in Gilgal. And those stones were then dismantled and re-erected in Gilgal. So, there's only two monuments, but there were three ma'asim of erection. So, when you learn the Rashi, be a be aware that that is uh the understanding of Rashi that Gilgal and Eval are the same stones, but it was erected in Eval for a mizbeach, and then they moved it. A final curiosity, which I have I have no answer for and it's nothing to do with the shear either, is that it's very strange. When Hashem said, "Set up a monument in the Yarden." That's without the Torah writing. To commemorate, Hashem said, "Take from the land 12 stones and put them in the Yarden." So, the Jordan monument in the Jordan was taken from the land and put into the Yarden. The monument of Har Eval and Gilgal, where the Torah was inscribed, was taken from the Yarden itself. Meaning, go into the Yarden and pull out obviously huge stones. This was a major excava- excavation operation. These are 12 huge stones. So, isn't it curious that the monument in the Yarden had to come from outside the Yarden, and the monument that will be outside of the Yarden has to come from the Yarden. I mean, Hashem could have said, "Take stones in the Yarden and set them up vertically set them up uh vertically." Okay, so I'm just pointing out uh a a maybe a difficulty or a point to think about in the text, but it's a very very fascinating point. Again, I have no particular chiddushim on this. I just wanted to mention it because it is um it it was a mitzvah that is it's it's commonly misunderstood. People don't have a sense of what happened and what was done. So, I thought it was worthwhile just to clarify the picture. Sometimes it's worthwhile to draw the picture just so you have a sense of what happened. Right? The what happened uh you know, sometimes people think, "Oh, what happened is not important. Let's Let's go straight into the why." But, the truth is, you know, you can't really do a why until you have a what. So, uh once you have a what, then you can start analyzing the reasons for things and the like. Now, I want to go backwards though. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm still going to go forwards. Uh yeah, I'm going to go two forward and and and then two back. I'll be back. Uh after this, Moshe Rabbeinu gives us a tochacha, a very long tochacha. Now, the tochacha is very uh very long list of all of the awesome awful punishments that will befall the Jewish people if they reject the Torah. And this is the second time this was done. There is a tochacha at the end of parshas Vayikra. I'm sorry. That Well, the end of safer Vayikra, parshas Bechukotai. That's the tochacha in Vayikra. And now we have a second tochacha, parshas Ki Savo, towards the end of the book of Devarim. It's interesting that the number of curses is exactly doubled. There are 49 curses in Bechukotai. There are 98 curses in Ki Savo. The Ramban points out in a very famous thesis that the first tochacha was primarily concerned with the first Beit Hamikdash. And if you look at the different sufferings it mentions uh they correlate to what happened in the destruction of the first Beit Hamikdash. The tochacha in Bechukotai, I'm sorry. The tochacha in Ki Savo is the galus we are in that dates from the destruction of the second Beit Hamikdash. And part of why it's so much longer is a remez that the galus is going to be so much longer and the like. And once again, if you go through the pesukim and then you compare them to the Holocaust and various other things, you see many many many frightening predictions in the Torah coming from Hashem as to what actually happened to us and happens to us in the course of our history. So, this is a Ramban, an important Ramban to know. The tochacha in Vayikra is churban Bayis Rishon. The tochacha in Ki Savo is churban Bayis Sheini, including the galus we're in until the coming of Mashiach. And this answers an interesting question of the Zohar, although it's not the Zohar's answer. The Zohar points out someone asked Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, you know, the author of the Zohar, "Why at the end of the tochacha in Vayikra, there are words of comfort?" Hashem says, "V'zacharti I will remember the covenant of Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov. And even when you are uh with your enemies, I have not rejected you. I have not spit you out. Because I am Hashem your God." Meaning, the tochacha ends with words of comfort and words of nachama. That's in Vayikra. The tochacha in Devarim, this week's parsha, does not end on a pleasant note. It just says, "You will be taken back to Egypt, to the very place where you were never supposed to go again. And you will be sold as slaves and maidservants. And nobody will even want to buy you. You will be so despicable in the eyes of the world that no one's even going to want going to want to buy you." And that's the end of the tochacha. Kind of a downer. There are words of comfort later in the Torah, but in the tochacha itself, there are no words of nachama. So, a tonement asked Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, "Why is there nachama at the end of the first tochacha? And there's no nachama at the end of the second tochacha?" So, the Ramban's own answer, he doesn't bring the Zohar, is the following. The churban Bayis Rishon had a known and definitive end to that galus. Yirmiyahu Hanavi was told, "The land will be desolate for 70 years. It was known after 70 years we would return, or at least we were given permission to return to Eretz Yisrael and rebuild the Temple." And that was known at the time. At the time of the churban, we know. Now, there's all sorts of machlokesim, where do you count the 70 years from, and that's why there were false starts and everything else. But, the bottom line was it was yadua that the first galus has a kitzva, has a fixed point. Mamela, we could actually say, "All these bad things are going to happen, and then I will remember the covenant." But, says the Ramban, this is a little frightening, there is no stated end for the churban Bayis Sheini. It all depends on the Jewish people doing teshuvah. So, it doesn't end with a comforting message because it's not up to God whether there'll be comfort. It's up to Am Yisrael. Now, the Rambam does say that even though we're only going to be redeemed by teshuvah, he does say that the Torah does promise us that the Jewish people will do teshuvah at some point and the geulah will come. But, since the geulah is totally bit teshuvah and it's not a davar katuv, it's not a fixed guaranteed time, the Ramban says there's no nachama. There's no guaranteed nachama, so to speak. That's the Ramban. But, the Zohar get Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai in the Zohar gives a different answer. Again, the question is, "Why is there nachama in the first tochacha and no nachama in the second tochacha?" And his answer is a very deep answer, as you might expect in the Zohar. And an answer that may be hard for us to fully accept. He points out, there's a difference in how Hashem describes his punishments in Vayikra and how he describes his punishments in Devarim. This is putting aside the first Temple, second Temple. Even Zohar is not going with that. In sefer Vayikra, parshas Bechukotai, it describes Hashem as concealing his face, as withdrawing. A refrain that is stated more than once in Vayikra is, "If you walk with me b'keri." Keri means casual, feeling you're not connected to me, "I will walk with you as if I'm not there." In other words, the ones that is described is not the active involvement of Hashem in my life. It's the idea that God is absent. God doesn't care. God is not interested. God has withdrawn. That is something the Zohar says that may even be more painful than the affliction itself. Hashem just doesn't care. At least that's the I mean that's not the reality, but that's the feeling. Hester panim. Concealment. God is still there. But he hides himself. Now, in Devarim, in Ki Savo, it talks about Hashem as an active force. God will smite you. God will exile you. Which means even though it's onchin, but there's a sense it's coming as a message from Hakadosh Baruch Hu. So says Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, when a person feels abandoned, God has to eventually comfort them and reassure them. But when a person feels Hashem is involved in their life, that itself is the comfort. I'm comforted even when God is hitting me. Because I know he's doing it out of love so I should do teshuvah, become close to him. So you don't need frosting on the cake. You don't need cherry on top of the sundae or whipped cream on top of the sundae. You don't need Hashem to say, "I'll comfort you." Because the tochacha is described as Hashem being involved. When you feel Hashem is involved, that can be the comfort itself. David Hamelech says this. Shivtecha in the in the 20th mizmor of David, mizmor chof gimmel. Shivtecha umishantecha heima yenachamuni. David Hamelech says, shivtecha, your staff, mishanes is what you lean upon. They give me comfort. So what's the difference between I mean both of them are like canes. So a shevet is that which you hit an animal or you hit somebody with. I hit you with a shevet. A mishanes is something you lean upon because you can't walk very well. Sometimes Hashem gives us a shevet, a club. And sometimes Hashem gives us a mishanes that we lean upon. David Hamelech says, shivtecha umishantecha, whether I get the shevet or whether I get the mishanes, if it's cha, if it comes from you, heima yenachamuni. That can give me comfort. That can give me strength. I'm not abandoned. I'm not disregarded. It's not that I don't count. Things are happening to me that are hard. Things are happening me that are painful. But I have to believe in ways I can't always articulate or identify that if Hashem is doing it ultimately, there will be a good that is there. Kol ma d'avid Rachmana, whatever Hashem does is letov. And this is what the Zohar says. When you know it's from Hashem, that is your comfort. You don't need an articulation of a statement of nechama. Okay, and it's a it's a deep thought from the Zohar and it's it's and I'll get I'll I'll be the first to admit that it is a hard thought to internalize as a person goes through so many difficulties in life. I'll share with you a quick thought. Again, this deserves a lot more time than than we have. The Piaseczna Rebbe, Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, the last Rebbe they say of the Warsaw Ghetto, a person who was such a tzaddik who gave encouragement to people in the worst worst times. You know, he wrote he wrote Torah even during this time and he hid it away and it was found after the war. But some of these were private thoughts. They were not necessarily for public consumption. And there were times that he was wrestling with despair. He was wrestling with depression. I don't mean clinical depression, but he saw the tragedies around him. And he couldn't justify it based on conventional theology. Right, the conventional theology is we committed sins and Hashem is punishing us. Okay, that's what we would normally say. But he said, "We weren't so bad." This is a bit of a daring thought. He says, "We weren't so bad to have deserved this. How bad were we?" So he developed a thesis out of his own private grieving that really is so monumentally innovative, so to speak, a new a totally new idea. He said that the suffering of Jewish people is because God is so close to them. He wants them to share in the suffering of the divine. To cry with God as God looks at a world of chillul Hashem. He looks at a world of evil. And God grieves and God weeps. And in his closeness to Am Yisrael, he brings us into his private room to cry with him. And therefore he said paradoxically, extreme suffering can sometimes be a sign of the greatest closeness. He gives the moshel. Let's say a woman is widowed. She lost her husband. She has children. So on one level, she would be heartbroken. But she has to be strong for the children. So she takes care of the kids and then she goes into her bedroom and she cries alone because she can't show her crying in front of the children. But then there may be moments in which there is such a desire for that closeness that she opens the door and she and the children cry together. He said, "That is that was the way Again, this is not like, you know, somebody has to give a dvar Torah so they they come up with a vort. I mean this is a person who privately is struggling with grief, with suffering. And he couldn't understand what Hashem was doing. It didn't make sense to him. And he had this idea. We are connected to the divine weeping of the universe. Because indeed the Midrash in Eicha talks about God retreating to a private room. He says, "When the churban Beis Hamikdash happened, Hashem Kaviyochol lost his desire to maintain a world. He would How could there be a world? How could there be a sun? How could there be a moon? How could there be anything?" But the angels said to God, "You got a job to do, God. You have responsibilities. You can't just take a vacation and give up." So Hashem said, "If you will not let me cry, I will go to a private chamber and I will cry alone." And Hashem had a private chamber. He keeps the world going even in Auschwitz. Like people In fact, this was a common statement that people would say in concentration camps. They would look up at the sky and they would see a beautiful sun or beautiful moon, stars, and they would say, "How could the stars shine? How could there be a sun? How could the world keep on being beautiful when this is happening?" The truth is Hashem was almost coerced into doing it, keeping the world going. And he would cry privately. But he brought us in to cry with him. You see? Such a a staggering insight. As I say it, it's not the normal way we understand. This is what he wanted to say. And and in some ways I think this might be what the Zohar is alluding to as well. That when you feel that you're connected to Hashem, the sorrow becomes bearable. The sorrow becomes manageable. And that's why there's no there's no explicit nechama in the tochacha in in Sefer Devarim. So now I want to skip forward to the beginning of the parsha where we have an actual happy mitzvah. And the happy mitzvah is the mitzvah of bringing bikurim. That a farmer in Eretz Yisrael uh every year would take the first of the fruits. Actually, fruit is a little misleading cuz it's the seven species. That includes wheat and barley as well. And he would bring it to the base hamikdash and he would recite a brief history that God took us out of mitzrayim and he brought us to the land. By the way, those verses are actually the foundation of the Haggadah of Pesach. We actually take those verses of the Bikkurim recital and we put them in the Haggadah. And then the Bikkurim are not a korban. They're brought to the base hamikdash and they're put down in front of the altar, but they're not sacrificed on the mizbeach. They are given to the cohen who can eat it anywhere in Yerushalayim. He doesn't have to eat them uh even in the base hamikdash itself. And this is a very very happy mitzvah. Uh Shavuos was the beginning of the Bikkurim season, but it wasn't limited to Shavuos. You had basically from Shavuos till Chanukah all the way you could bring the the Bikkurim and the like. And the Mishnah in perek gimmel of maseches Bikkurim uh discusses the ceremony that cities would come together, meaning all the people in a given city would travel as a group to Yerushalayim. And if it was a weekday, the artisans of Jerusalem, the blacksmiths, the tailors who were working, they would stand up in honor of the visitors and they would say, "Baruchim haba'im mitzvas Baruchim haba'im from Bnei Brak and the like." By the way, Soloveitchik says, interestingly enough, you know, uh the minhag that uh we stand up for a chasan and a kallah. Uh now, some say this is a relatively recent minhag that in Europe they didn't but not because stand up for a chasan and a kallah. It's kind of an American minhag that spread to Eretz Yisrael because all the Americans that come, of course, you can't really prove this one way or the other because in Europe they didn't sit down for chuppahs at all. There were no chairs. So, uh everybody stood up for the chuppah. So, you didn't see the notion of getting up. Uh but the reason that people like to give why I stand up for a chasan and for a kallah as well is because a chasan is like a king and we're supposed to honor a king. But there's a problem with that reason. He's not married yet. Uh when he's walking down the aisle, he's not a melech yet. He's a melech only when he puts the uh ring on the kallah's finger and says, "Harei at mekudeshet li." So, the chiyura, I ought to stand up, you know, people are dancing but he's not yet a melech. He's going to be coronated. I'm not mechuyav to honor him yet. You don't have to honor the Prince of Wales. You only have to honor, you know, when he becomes King Charles. So, Rav Soloveitchik gave a different reason why the minhag is to stand up because he says we see from the story of Bikkurim that when people are going to do a special mitzvah, we honor them by standing up. We're greeting the people who are bringing Bikkurim. So, the chasan is going to do the mitzvah of kiddushin. The mitzvah of kiddushin, the Rambam actually counts as one of the 613 mitzvahs to get married. It's not just a mitzvah of pru urvu of children. There's a mitzvah to get married and therefore we stand up for the chasan because we are mechabed oseh mitzvah. I have to admit I I'm not sure I fully understand this idea that you stand up when somebody's going to do a mitzvah. I mean, uh somebody comes to the base medrash to put on their tefillin in the morning. Uh do I I stand up for them? I mean, people are doing mitzvahs all the time that, you know, I don't stand up for them. So, I'm not sure what the gether is that you stand up in honor of people that are oseh mitzvah. But still, this is the Mishnah in Bikkurim and Rav Soloveitchik wanted to say that this is the makor, this is the source of uh standing up for the chasan. Uh according to that, would you stand up for the kallah? It's not so clear. Because although there's a mitzvah on the chasan to get married, it's not so pashut there's a mitzvah on the kallah to get married. Nevertheless, if the kallah is enabling the chasan to do a mitzvah, it could be she deserves to be honored as well. I don't know, but that might be a basis for the chiyur. If it would be melech and malkah, chasan is king, kallah is malkah. If it's mechabed oseh mitzvah, one might differentiate in that in that way. Okay. But be that as it may, the Mishnah goes on and says that rich people brought the Bikkurim in golden and or silver baskets and they would get back get back the baskets. The would take out the fruit and give them back the baskets. Poor people brought their Bikkurim in wicker baskets and they were too embarrassed to ask for it back, so they lost the basket as well. The Gemara Bava Kamma comments, you see, poor people tend to get poorer because you're so poor you bring a wicker basket, you don't even get the basket when you go back and and the like. Uh now, the kasha the Tosefos Yom Tov asks is a very interesting kasha. He says we find by funerals that originally when people died, they would make a very fancy funeral, fancy coffin, fancy garments. In other words, they actually made funerals as fancy as they could. But what happened was poor people were humiliated. Poor people were embarrassed. So, when Rabban Gamliel, who was the nasi, the head of the Sanhedrin, and a very wealthy individual died, he instructed that he be buried in simple white burial shrouds in a simple coffin. Shelo levayesh es mi she ein lo. And that became the minhag of Yisrael. He established a precedent. If the most eminent leader of klal Yisrael wanted to be buried in out in absolute simplicity, that became the norm. That's why I have to give some type of um admiration, so to speak, for chutzpah of a bit of a bit of an unscrupulous funeral home in New York. This was years ago that was trying to market expensive metal coffins uh to the Jewish market and say, "We are the only funeral Jewish funeral home in New York that is doing things the way they were originally done. We are doing the original thing. Everyone else is an innovation." Technically, they're right because the simple coffin is an innovation of Rabban Gamliel. And they're going back to the pre-Rabban Gamliel takanah. Of course, that's reminiscent of a statement Rav Yisrael Salanter once said. A maskil once went to Rav Yisrael Salanter and said, "Why are you frum Jews so old-fashioned?" So, Rav Yisrael Salanter answered, "You're the old-fashioned ones because the Haggadah says we originally were idolaters and pagans. Uh so, you're you're you're going back to the old ways. We're the ones that do things new." And the like. So, the same thing same thing here. So, the Tosefos Yom Tov, the great commentator commentator on the Mishnah, asks the question, the same way we don't want to embarrass people at the time of their death and embarrass their families by making everybody do the same thing. And let me give you another example. On the 15th of Av, which was the day that people would pick get married, so, uh all of the women wore the same clothes. Plain white dress not to embarrass people who could afford more expensive clothing and the like. So, we do have this concept. We don't want to embarrass people. We try to abolish income differentials. So, the Tosefos Yom Tov says, the chachamim should have enacted. They should have enacted that everybody brings Bikkurim in a simple wicker basket in order that it shouldn't be a situation where rich people bring gold and silver and poor people get humiliated. Why isn't there a takanah shelo levayesh mi she ein lo? The Tosefos Yom Tov's answer is, "You're right. We ought to have that. But since this is a mitzvah that honors Hashem in the base hamikdash, we want to do it as beautifully as we can." Okay. But I want to make a make a make a point of the following. The Mishnah gives does give an example where we do have solicitude not to embarrass somebody and it does it in the following way. When you bring your Bikkurim, you are supposed to read a declaration of our history, five pesukim. So, the Mishnah says, if you knew how to read, you would read it. If you didn't know how to read, the cohen would read it and you would repeat after the cohen. But then the sages enacted that even if you know how to read, the cohen would read it and you'd repeat for everybody in order not to embarrass people who were illiterate. There were yidden who were illiterate. They didn't know how to read. So, if the pshat would be, if you know how to read, you say it yourself, and if not, the cohen reads it and you repeat, that would identify the people that were illiterate. So, in order not to humiliate people, the cohen reads it for everybody and again, he doesn't he's not motzi you. He reads it and you have to repeat the words. So, here, let me think about let's think about how brilliant this is. On one hand, we don't want to embarrass a person who's illiterate. But we also want him to know it is something he should be ashamed about. It's kind of a reverse psychology. It's kind of saying, "The reason why we're reading it to everybody is because we don't want to embarrass people who don't know how to read." So the Am Ha'aretz might actually be thinking, "You mean there's something wrong with not knowing how to read? Who knew?" In other words, it's a brilliant pedagogical psychology in which we're communicating. See, this is another answer for the gold and the silver. Some say the reason why we allowed the rich people to bring gold and the poor people to bring silver, uh the poor people to bring wicker, is we want to communicate the message that there's nothing shameful about being poor and there's nothing shameful about being rich. Each person should be grateful because Bikkurim is about gratitude. And what is gratitude? Gratitude is rejoicing in what God has given me. So think about this. If the whole of Voda of Bikkurim is to be grateful for what God has given you, then how can we then say, "Oh, we got to pretend you're not poor" by making everybody the same because there's something shameful and embarrassing about who you are? Bikkurim is about being grateful for what I am. So I'm poor and I'm proud of it and I'm rich and I'm proud of it. Because every person has their way that they serve Hashem. Every person has their trials. Every person has their challenges. Every person has their tough kit. Some people do have an avodah that even in my poverty I serve Hashem with loyalty. And some people have an issayon that even I'm wealthy and I have so much business, I serve Hashem. Bikkurim is about not being ashamed of who you are. So the notion that we have to cover up things, maybe we do that in other areas like funerals or whatever it is because humans are humans. But in a mitzvah that is specifically focused on gratitude, you don't have to pretend. What you are is is is good. But what's interesting is that's true in gashmiut. Physicality, materialism. But when it comes to ignorance in Torah, when you could have done something about it, like you never learned how to read, I mean you can't learn Torah. That's something to be ashamed about. I mean some things you're supposed to be ashamed of. Now, we don't want to embarrass you. Look how beautiful it is. We don't embarrass you, but we want you internally to realize it's something you need to fix. Right? So that that's an interesting point. This is a beautiful pedagogical strategy. You're not teaching by humiliation. That's not good. You're not embarrassing somebody. You're not singling them out. Nobody's going to know that this guy doesn't know how to read. The only one that's going to know is the guy himself. Nobody is being embarrassed. But the person has, what do they call it, a teaching moment or learning moment in which he says, "Gee, I didn't know there was anything wrong with this. I guess there is. Maybe I ought to fix it." So this is kind of the psychology of how you motivate people, not by embarrassing them, but by making them realize that there is a lack, there is a chisaron that needs to be fixed. But that pertains to Torah knowledge. When it comes to rich, poor, what are you covering up? What are you ashamed of? Life is good. What God gives you is good. Eizehu ashir? Right? Who is the wealthy person? Hasameach bechelko. And what does it say in Mishlei? What's the pasuk? Better a simple meal of vegetables in which there's shalom, the poor man's meal of vegetables, than a very fancy seudah where there's riv, machlokes, and animosity. Right? And that's why in Bikkurim there are no cover-ups except when it comes to Torah knowledge and the ability to read. So I'm going to stop here. Wish you all a good shabbos and uh a good good good year. And be'ezrat Hashem we should be zocheh to a kesiva vechasima tovah. Amen.