"8th, 9th and 10th of Tevet" Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz VaYechi

[Music] so I thought again today I'm going to digress a little bit from my usual because this Thursday is a fast date one of the fast days on the Jewish calendar it will be the tenth date a base and I want to talk about that a little bit and not only the tenth day though because there's an interesting trilogy of Jewish days there's the seventh the eighth of today's the ninth of say based attempt it's a base but I'm going to start backwards the mandatory fast that we're going to observe on Thursday which is not a 24-hour fast is just from dawn till nightfall is the tenth day of teh base and that is the beginning of the siege against Jerusalem when the book that's where the king of Babylonia waged war to destroy conquered Jerusalem and destroy the first the temple his siege began on the tenth day of kbase and it lasted for three and a half years culminating in the destruction of the beit hamikdash the temple on the ninth of of but the first the tenth of Tabas is the very first events in the events in the culmination that which culminated in the destruction of the temple so we fest now one interesting question is this the Rambam tells us that the purpose of fasting is not simply to refrain from eating but rather we contemplate the sins and the imperfections and the defects of character that resulted in the destruction of the temple and we resolved in our own lives through repentance and meditation and reconciliation with others to try to improve ourselves so that we become worthy of God's presence and one becomes worthy of redemption now that is why you know when people wish each other and easy fast at some cow that's a bit of a misnomer because a fast is supposed to hurt it's supposed to be uncomfortable but the good way of doing it which is a bit of a cliche but it's a pretty good cliche I think is you wish people a meaningful fast because the concept is it should have meaning it should have purpose so although as I say the phrase meaningful that's become a cliche but it's a meaningful cliche and therefore it's an appropriate way to describe our mindset during a fast now with that thought in mind I want to raise a question that I think is an interesting question and that is there's a famous passage in the Gemara that talks about the difference between the first temple that was destroyed by the Babylonians and the second temple that was destroyed on the same day the ninth above 490 years later by the Romans and that is the Talmud says the following what were the sins for which God destroyed the first temple these are the absolute worst sins in Judaism idolatry sexual immorality like rape incest adultery and murder these are the only three sins for which a Jew must give up his life before he transgresses you know if you need to violate the Shabbat because once life is in danger you're supposed to violate the Shabbat in fact I shouldn't even call it violation of Shabbat it's not a violation but if somebody goes over to you in a time of oppression and says renounce Judaism or I will slit your throat you must be willing to make that supreme sacrifice some of you might remember a few years ago there was a reporter for The Wall Street Journal Daniel Pearl who was not a religious Jew but this is before there was Isis but he was kidnapped by the kids below are some terrorist group and they they they filmed this on YouTube they posted this on YouTube just how animalistic can you be in which they held a knife or a sword to his neck and they basically said you know do you believe in Mohammed or whatever and his last sentence in his life was I am a Jew and on YouTube who was posted the face they slit his that they killed him he was taken off very soon but for a while it was literally on YouTube and that is called dying for the sanctification of God's name you know Talmud says the person could acquire his share in the world to come with one second of complete and committed sacrifice that is what mr. pearl managed to do at least at the very end so the first temple was destroyed for the worst of the worst avodah Zarah idolatry gilja Rao's sexual and morality murder now at the time of the second temple most of the Jews were observant they were keeping commandments so why was the second temple destroyed it was destroyed because of Sinatra phenom irrational groundless hatred polarization and dissension among the Jewish people and the Talmud remarks come and see the first temple that was destroyed for the very worst sins of idolatry sexual immorality and murder the core bond that destruction only lasted seven years as I'm sorry 70 years 70 years later we had a second temple but the second temple that was destroyed because of baseless paper we are still suffering that exile almost 2,000 years later and of course one has to look around in one sees how suffused we are on all levels with hatred polarization dissension no the fact that the world hates us that's nothing new that's to be expected and indeed bracha shemesh am put into the white house a very improbable hero a person that does not fit the definition of who we would necessarily regard as a righteous and saintly person but nevertheless for various reasons that was the person that Hashem has chosen to be his Julia to be his agent to do good things for the Jewish people whether it's the recognition of Jerusalem whether it's freeing a person who was unjustly given a an unduly harsh sentence although Dedes guilty of some crimes but not for 27 years and and light so it's true that perhaps we have some people in the world that love us Donald Trump and Guatemala for some crazy seems to have a great affection for the Jewish people but by and large we are hated by the world but forget about that let's look at the hatred and polarization that exists within the Jewish people and let me emphasize that hatred does not have to mean you're throwing rocks and cursing people hatred includes indifference coldness the idea that I just want to be with people of my my ilk my quick my type if anybody outside of that group I really don't care about very much that is also hatred hatred is not simply which you might call hot hatred hatred can be apathy indifference coldness so here is the technical question I want to raise with you and that is you know the ninth of us is a significant date both for the destruction of the first temple and for the destruction of the second temple because indeed those were the days that both temples were destroyed so consequently when I meditate on the ninth above I can think about groundless hatred and lack of unity because that is the event that precipitated the destruction of the second temple and of course I think at least I can identify areas in which you know perhaps I could be more loving etc others I could do too I could do repentance on that but the problem that bothers me is this the tenth of tab eight coming up on Thursday has nothing to do with the second temple there is no historical events on the 10th of tab 8 that is linked to the second temple the only historical event that is linked to the 10th of tale 8 is the first temple which means what I'm thinking about on the 10th of teh base are not the sins that cause the destruction of the second temple but the sins that caused the destruction of the first temple now how am I supposed to relate to them you know if the motive of that motif of the day is sin Athena hatred and polarization I got plenty to think about what idolatry sexual immorality and murder I'm not guilty of that I may be guilty of sonography Nam of not caring enough about my fellow gym I will plead guilty to that but I don't bow down to an idol adultery rape incest haven't done that and haven't murdered so the question becomes given the fact that our Sir Robert abate is focused on the first-base on Macduff how am I supposed to connect myself to those particular sins and what lessons do I draw from contemplating those particulars interesting question people don't realize that a surrogate a baby is only connected to the first temple unlike the ninth of our that is connected to both temples so here I want to share with you a thoughts from the great Hasidic rebbe reb inaudible Lublin who says that the three cardinal sins of idolatry murder and sexual immorality even though they are extreme since they are really symptoms of deeper character flaws which which taken to an extreme can result in these of a lots and therefore even if a person doesn't have the symptoms they're asymptomatic they may still have the disease now what diseases that so we know that empirical votes and ethics of the fathers we have the famous teaching of shimon hatzadik one of the great great high priests of the second temple where shimon hatzadik says that the world stands on three pillars there are three pillars of holiness that sustained the world torah the study of torah avodah divine service through sacrifice and prayer and the third pillar is give me Lucas Adam acts of loving-kindness benevolence and compassion these are three factors of holiness which the world stands on these three pillars look at the world as a table that needs to be supported by these three legs that's why we say the three about three patriarchs represent these three legs Avraham exemplified love and kindness it's luck that was a sacrifice represents the pillar of divine service and Yaakov who according to our rabbis spent 14 years in intensive Torah study before he went to lavon's house represents the idea of turin etc Torah avodah Camillus Kassadin but the same way that there are three pillars of holiness that keep the world alive there are three destructive forces that drive God away from the world that suck up holiness like a vacuum cleaner sucks up dust and those three negative destructive forces are kina which are Sultanpuri opposed jealousy envy Tyva excessive lust and preoccupation for the hedonistic now I do say the word excessive because the Torah is not ascetic the Torah does not want us to renounce our enjoyment of the physical world the Torah recognizes the legitimacy of physical pleasure but the point is if you're too involved in the physical pleasures of the world your mind and your heart is no longer going to be connected to God it's similar to the idea to make it simple that if a person is addicted to junk food they're not going to take the time and effort to make a five-course French meal or whatever it would be because their obituary to the quick fix material pleasures our quick fix spiritual joys take time and effort and if you're too habituated to the instant gratification you'll never put in the efforts to achieve a spiritual meaningful deep life so these are the three negatives right Torah avodah kamila scoffs Adam are the positives kena jealousy Tyva excessive lust for hedonistic and cover cover is the desire for honor ego gratification self-aggrandizement these are three factors that take a person out of this world and as the ultra slow but get used to explain it dissing it doesn't simply mean you're not going to get your world to come that's obvious but it means your life in this world is going to be miserable when you're filled with jealousy and lust and an incessant desire for honor and applause and our judge elation of the crowds you will never get pleasure from the life that God gave you God gave each of us tremendous blessing in our lives but if I'm always looking at what the other guy has and what I think I deserve it I'm not getting then I'm not gonna literally see the pot of gold that is in front of my eyes so purposes quite literal a person loses this world not just the world to come because there is no joy in his life because of envy jealousy and the length so here is what from successful setup says if a person has envy at the good fortune of other people and that's a character flaw that's a very deep flaw within our personalities most of us have it to one degree or another but it is a flaw it is something we need to work on to try to appreciate and be happy for the good fortune of other people but your subject says kinna when taken to an extreme can turn into murder and indeed statistically that is actually true if you factor out war and terrorism and unfortunately in there just so we cannot factor that out and if you simply look at you know street murder so to speak you will find that a very high percentage of murders are family affairs or some event where somebody was jealous of somebody else and in a rage they simply kill someone in the United States a lot of murders are simply teenagers or jealous of somebody's shoe somebody's coats somebody's car somebody's computer so jealousy can easily turn into rage and rage can escalate into violence so am i guilty of murder maybe not but if murder is an extreme symptomatic manifestation of an underlying jealousy that is a flaw that I might have to some degree sim Nam tava which is excessive lust that can obviously lead to gilja Rao's sexual promiscuity so even if I didn't take it to that level but if I'm too involved in the sensual and the hedonistic death connects me in a negative way to every way arises so the first two associations jealousy is connected to murder and lust is connected to our IOT sexual immorality is a fairly clear Association the third is a bit subtle because the third destructive force that Pirkei avos identifies is covered a person who seeks honor Siraj elation self-advertisement and he connects that to idolatry how is that so because idolatry doesn't just mean you worship you bow down to a statue most of us do not bow down to statues today although some people do but rather anything in your life that is more central to your life than serving God becomes your idolatry a person's work can become his idolatry a person's political affiliation communism can become an idolatry socialism Zionism whatever it might get sports huh sports can become your idolatry and ultimately when your interests and your passions become more important to you than serving God with sincerity and honesty and integrity you have made yourself into an idol you yourself have become the object of your own worship the old phrase looking after number one well that's a good phrase if number one is understood as a chef but if number one means you then your relegating God to second third or no place then in a sense you are guilty of ideology because of one's misplaced sense of ego and arrogance you know it's interesting that the Bible describes man as being made in the image of humans as well as being made in the image of God and in many ways we are godlike and God intends us to be godlike we have creativity we have intelligence God gave us the ability to master the forces of nature instead of being mastered by them right we drained the swamps we conquer disease God gave us a mission God did not say we should be passive in the face of natural phenomena but we are given the power to conquer disease to do all of these things so in many many ways when the Bible says we are made in the image of God we are meant to be godlike in terms of the power that Hashem has given us over the world but we always have to recognize that our abilities and our wisdom and our talents and our strengths and our competence are the gifts the Almighty gave us for the betterment of the world but when we attribute our success to our greatness because we become filled with you Brits and arrogance then the very talent that we have become a source of destruction that is why it's no accident going back to World War two that Germany which in many many ways was by far the most civilized society in Europe in terms of science in terms of literature in terms of accomplishments you know even England was looked down at as somewhat primitive compared to the high culture of the German intellectual and yet precisely out of a culture that was so rich that was so deep that was so accomplished came destruction and evil of unimaginable imaginable proportions because when man makes themselves into God man becomes worse than an animal because then life is about conquest domination arrogance you know in many ways maybe it's not a proper way to express it but in many ways hitler yimach shmo may his name be be blotted hitler was a very very keen observer of Judaism Italy understood Judaism in a perverse way better than many Jews understood Judaism and he writes in mind comes that one of the reasons he hates Jews besides the his belief that they were connected the timing has been delight but those are political reasons but in what point one point in mine confi says he hates Jews because they invented we believe God gave us us but they invented the idea of conscience and morality and he didn't like that because he said that conscience and morality put a brake on power and achievements they tell the powerful person there are certain things you can't do there are certain places you can't go and sister said no no no life is about conquest life is about domination life is about the strong overpowering the weak and if you have some system that's saying I can't do that because I'm hurting the weak person so in Hitler's perverted mind that was evil I have to say I give credit where credit is due that that is actually a remarkable perception granted a perception that was meant in a very evil and derogatory way but the concept that Judaism is about telling man in spite of your power in spite of your abilities you have responsibilities to the weekend to the vulnerable and you must learn to curb your responsibilities by submission to God so as a result of so the excess just to go back to the poor I was making that when you substitute worship with God with the celebration of your own power that is a form of idolatry and they connect Stuka vote sobic eats or to summarize which of southwark is saying is the following that when we think on the tenth of tables of idolatry sexual immorality and murder we're not necessarily thinking of the particular sins that we have make we have committed perhaps we didn't worship an idol we didn't rape somebody and we didn't murder but those are symptoms of character flaws and those character flaws can exist within us to a greater or lesser degree the character flaw of murder is the underlying jealousy at the good fortune of another the character flaw that leads to sexual immorality is too much of an indulgence in hedonistic pleasure and the character flaw of at least a certain type of idolatry is when you make yourself your I don't and you live with the sense of Cabos your ego your selvedge elation and the light and therefore the point is that I'm sorry but abate it is not just a sin not to see none the hatred motif which of course we always think about but we think also about those cardinal luparello that we think are long gone and yet in various forms they are still within us of course so Natsuki naam is relevant as well there is a tradition although it's not it's not a well-documented tradition but it is a tradition in some sources that the tenth of teh base was the day that Joseph's brothers sold him into slavery now it's interesting these sources for that are very very light sources you will not find them in Tom Latour the like but nevertheless it is recorded in some later sources that the 10th of Tabas was mercy Bozzio safe and of course when we think about hatred polarization dissension animosity but see like yourself is roots of all of that so I'm sorry but abate therefore is connected to the semantically none aspect aspect this world so you know we are told the not be sorry at the prophets acharya so I guess I'm getting a little have Tory in tonight as well that these days are fasting when the Messiah comes not only will they no longer be fast days but they will be days of joy and sympathy why would that be so why will the ninth of I've become a joist and I understand it won't be a fast because we have a temple but the pursuit does not only say it won't be a fast the pursuit says it'll be a holiday why would it be a holiday why will the tenth of Taebaek be a holiday because the answer is if you use fast days to look into yourself and to rectify whatever you can rectify and enough people do that and that creates a critical mass that brings redemption the redemption is linked to the experiences if I had during these days that is the inner meaning the morale says of the famous statement that the Messiah is born on Tisha birth now that doesn't mean that the birthday of a physical man that will be much here it has to be the night of but it means that the Messiah comes into the world through the tears and the yearning and the introspection that we put in in reflecting on the loss of the base of Mick - and to some degree that's true for the tenth of Terry's as well because that's also a day of reflection all right so that's what is coming up as I say it it's not a 24-hour fast and if people are a little bit ill even if if they're not seriously ill they should talk to their lor local Orthodox rabbi to see if they need to fast we are fairly good loc our that's right local el cor local competence yeah or Clark do it if you do it the other way confident local or that traveling Clark Lauren yet which means clear so that's good get somebody Clark that's a good point of course that's always been a problem for me you know I open up how box it worked or not when I have a Shila and I have to look at that lava so I open up a safer hell car and it says if you have this question ask a competent local Orthodox rabbi that's what it's a process so what is what am I supposed to do I don't know I guess I have to find the confidence to what did I travel so this is the perspective on the 10th of tabes that's coming in now this past day was the eighth of today's and tonight is the ninth of day base I want to talk a little bit about those two because it's very interesting the short sonarak records a very strange statement it says that although it is only the 10th of today's that is a mandatory fest but some righteous people would fast on the eighth of today's and on the ninth of today's as well they would fast for three days they would eat it would be nights in between but they were literally fast for three days and I guess your honor says that he never met anybody that did this so it was not it was obvious not a common practice but some righteous people did fast for three days now let's talk about what those events represent let's first start with the eighth of tapings so the eighth of tables was made a fast day because that was the day that the first Greek translation of the Torah was completed now what is the story here so here we're talking about towards the beginning of the second temple shortly after the death of Alexander of Macedon the Persian Empire automatically acquired the land of Israel Palestine as it was called and what happened was when Alexander died his empire was divided among four generals and for Jewish history purposes the two most important generals are Tom 8p tol m ey who took over Egypt and North Africa and so Lukas who took over Syria Turkey Asia Minor and as you can imagine era travel is in between those two centers and now Giselle became a constant football between the Tomei of dynasty and the syllabus of dynasty going back and forth the Hanukkah story was when erage Israel was under the control of the southern third dynasty under king Antiochus who ruled out of Syria but there were other times when original was controlled by the Tomei of dynasty in Egypt this by the way is for told in the Book of Daniel chapter 10 11 and 12 which talks about a bitter series of wars between the king of the north and the King of the South now the Book of Daniel was written at the time of the destruction of the first temple many many years before these events but prophetically speaking the king of the north is Salukis or Antiochus during the successors and the king of the south has told me and it really describes many of the events as they actually unfold well at a given time when eric estrela's under the control of the Tommies and their capital was alexandria in egypt named of course after alexander of macedon Alexander the Great told me wanted to get a translation of the target because he built a library that actually was one of the wonders of the world similar to the National Library of the Library of Congress in the US in which he wanted a copy of every book of course there were fewer books than but every book in the ancient world so he commissioned 70 elders to translate the Torah and he put them in 70 different rooms they worked separately and miraculously through divine inspiration they came up with the same translations they made certain change which were not literal and yet God put it into their mind to make those identical changes one example is that in the list of non kosher animals the Torah mentions the are nebith which means the rabbit is a man culture animal but apparently whatever the Greek word for rabbit is was the name of mrs. Tommy so if they would have written the rabbit is a there's your animal that would have been an insult to mrs. Tommy so they used some euphemism for rabbit that didn't pick up her her name that's one example now their work bunny mess their work is called in Hebrew the targa mushy liam the translation of the same it often goes by the name the Septuagint and in writing it's the abbreviation is the Roman numeral 470 is called lxx so if you ever read Bible scholarship which was largely uh harrassing anyway but if you read the Bible copy you will see references to the LX x which is the Septuagint so the Gemara tells us the day that the Septuagint was completed was a day of darkness in the world and because of this it was completed on the 8th of Taebaek again a totally different year than the book of Esther write my name of years apart but it came investing now it's interesting that Philo of Alexandria who lived in Alexandria obviously records that the Jews of Alexandria made the eighth of tomato a holiday they celebrated the day that the Greek translation of the Pentateuch was completed but what Philo and the Jews of Alexandria regarded as a joyous day the economy never just rel regarded as a tragic now what's so tragic about it what is the tragic the Torah was translated into Greek why is that a problem so some say well by making the Torah accessible to the non-jewish world that gives non Jew the power to distort and misinterpret its message and possibly have a negative impact on other Jews but that's not a convincing argument really because we actually read that Moshe Rabbeinu himself translated the Torah in many languages so that people would know it's part of our mission indeed to spread the Torah so some have suggested the opposite the tragedy of the Septuagint was not that non-jews could read the Torah the tragedy of the Septuagint was that Jews were incapable of reading the Torah unless they had a translation the problem was that the Alexandrian Jewish community was very wealthy affluent politically well-connected highly assimilated highly Hellenized and outlook as a result many of them maybe most of them did not know Hebrew there are indications in the Gemara that they actually wrote their Torah scrolls in Greek in fact you know there's a famous description in the Gemara of the great synagogue of Alexandria it was described like a Roman Basilica and there were gold and silver Thrones and it was so huge that when the Kazan would say abroad nobody could hear him of course if some synagogues you can't because of the talking but there would be a flag where the gob I would wave a flag and your that's right but I want to tell you the truth if you read the Gemara carefully it almost seems as if the Gemara is not intending to give you an actual description it's a bit of a parody it's a bit of like making fun of the ostentatious nacelle of how fancy-schmancy everything was when in fact a lot of those people couldn't read Hebrew and other people didn't care that they couldn't read Hebrew their Judaism was about money and power and influence I was very familiar anyways and when the come in wax enthusiastic so to speak about how fancy the building was it's really kind of saying that's all these people had it's kind of a veiled criticism I think if you go between thee between the lines so the eighth of type I suppose it was considered a bit of a tragedy that Jewish society at least Malik's adrià had become so assimilated that they could no longer connect to their tradition and to their religion or to their language except through a foreign medium now I remember when the art scroll works first they began coming out so in one hand people were very very happy and very excited that so many classics of Torah were now available in translation but I remember somebody wrote a little bit of a dissenting voice that says you know it's a wonderful thing that we have it but it's a sad thing that we needed others if we need it but what Hashem that we have it but it's very sad that we needed it because people should be able you know lotion Arco - the holy language is our legacy is our treasure and that is the key through which we can try to access all of the infinite depths of the totem and even the best translation by definition can only pick up one nuance of infinite nuances okay so that's the tragedy of the eighth of TV's what is the tragedy of the ninth of TVs tonight tonight new tomorrow so here very very strange the show kinara says the following the eighth of tonight was the completion of the Septuagint tragedy tenth of today's the bull shark nets are began the siege against Jerusalem that culminated in the horrible tragedy ninth of tabes in the middle he says the Cohanim did not give us the reason for it very very strange there is this fast on the nine but the sages didn't tell us why does it mean they didn't want to tell us why they didn't know why they forgot why what type of thing is that it's like you know well you read that halacha that says some people fast on the ninth of tailless but we don't know why very very peculiar now in the sleek house of the ninth of Davis it makes the claim that the ninth of today's was the anniversary of the death of Ezra the scribe and Ezra is considered in many ways to be the second Moshe Azra was the Jewish religious leader at the beginning of the Second Temple and the Gemara tells us that if the Torah had not been given to Moshe Ezra was worthy to get that Torah Ezra is like the second motion so you could understand just like some people faster than the seventh about their which is Moshe Rubino's death some people fest it on the ninth of today's that is as Rosso pre-study is the second motion of a know without him the Jewish community after the Babylonian exile would not have been able to reconstitute themselves so that's fine I understand that the death of Ezra would be mourning but why would the show Senora to say we're not given the reason that's a fairly obvious reason right why cover white cover that up so because of this there's some very very fascinating historical work that there are actually hidden reasons for the ninth of takes that are connected to Christianity and when I mention them you'll understand why the sages did not want to overly publicize the reason and there are two different theories each of which has some early sources that back it up source number one is that the ninth of tailless was said to be the Hebrew birthday of Jesus of Nazareth and in the writing of one of the medieval we show him early scholars he writes that the 25th of December in the year of Josh's birth fell on the ninth of today's and since Christianity was a source of so much persecution against the Jewish people and so many Jews leaving Judaism and becoming Christians the Columbia made the ninth of today's a day of mourning and sadness and fasting because that was the Hebrew birthday of Yasha the issue is yo show Jesus Jesus was just Greek for Joshua so his name was yahushua or yeshua so heather they like to abbreviate the yeshua is an abbreviation for yo show up and therefore we mourn on that day now there are a lot of problems with this correlation first of all the one that are the one that suggested this is assuming that Jesus's birthday was December 25th albeit under the Julian calendar or not the Guru Arjan but that's not at all clear there are some traditions within Christianity that assumed Jesus's birth is in January in fact the Greek Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Church observe Christmas then second of all even if Jesus was born December 25th what year was he born I mean in order to meet in order to make the statement that the separate twenty-fifth was the ninth of cave-ins the year that he was born you would have to have some proof about what year he was born and the year of his birth is highly uncertain the only thing we can say for sure is it was not year 0 of the Common Era meaning to say he was either born a few years before or a few years after he that year year one right he was not born in year one that he was born either before or a little bit after so the whole speculation that's the year that he was born the upside the December 25th of the year that he was born was the ninth of today's you know how do you know the year that he was born in 1900 was December 25th and therefore many have said that that theory is no does not have sufficient evidence also it's very unusual because no fast day is ever enacted and for somebody's birthday they tend to be connected to anniversaries of debts so there is a second theory which is truly amazing and you know one of the most popular Jewish works of the Middle Ages truly the Middle Ages was a Jewish version of the story of Christianity that goes by the name told oshi ation now some of it's the history of Jesus some of it are above them Isis some of it is authentic Jewish history etc but in Togo she ancient these gives us the following accounts quite amazing early Christianity early Christians rather were all Jews they were Jews right the apostles were I think all Jewish basically Paul was Paul never knew yo stupid poem selfless tuition Paul began the active ministry to the Gentiles so there was a very big concern that as long as Christian beliefs were circulated within Judaism there was a very very significant risk that more and more Jews would become Christian they would believe in Jesus as much yes or whatever it was so the sages were very concerned how do we separate Christianity from Judaism to make it a separate religion and therefore it will no longer have a spiritual inject on our fellow Jews soin told us yeshua describes a meeting of the Sanhedrin in which they are talking about this problem and a fellow got up who goes by the name Shimon Kiba now Shima keepo keepa in aramaic means rocks so Shimon Kiba is what the Christian Bible calls Simon Peter again let me refresh your knowledge of Christianity a little bit yesh cos first apostle his first talmud was a fisherman called Simon Shimon he was the first one who followed yashka according to the Christian Bible and Yoshika designated Simon to be his successor in leading the church and he said to Simon you are my rock and upon this rock I will erect my church rock is Petra Petra so he became known as Simon Peter Shimon keeper Shimon the rock later the new Christian Bible called him just Peter but he was Simon Peter so Shimon Kiba is Simon Peter so according to Toto see Asia she might keep a volunteered for the equivalent of a spiritual suicide mission he basically said I will leave the Jewish people I will leave them I will become a follower of Christianity I will become a leader of Christianity and I will convince the Christians that they are not part of Judaism they should reject Judaism and I will separate Christian influence from Judaism and that is why I will move from Jerusalem to Rome Peter in fact is the first bishop of rome and which is the official title of the pump the pump is actually the Bishop of Rome technically you know you have the Bishop of Indianapolis I have the Bishop of Rome but no but but Peter established the Bishop of Rome and told us eh who says that his intention was totally for the sake of heaven to remove Christian influence from operating on Jews and it said that although he became a Christian proselytizer a missionary etc but in the privacy of his home he would locked himself up for several hours he continued to do midst votes and serve Hashem privately but he never let anybody know now if this sounds like above my sister's gonna point out that there's actually a Rashi a comment of Rashi in my success ago desire that was censored by the church but if you go back to the original manuscripts Rashi doesn't give you the whole story but Rashi mentions that the activities of Peters were done for the sake of heaven as is written in The Chronicle Association so Rashi is apparently alluding to this story so it is then recorded that Peter led the Christian Church for a number of years and Peter died on the ninth of tapings and to memorialize a righteous man who made a tragic decision to externally leave the Jewish people cut himself off from Jewish life in order to keep Christians out of Jewish life their word tsadikim that was fast on the anniversary of his death to give him honor so tonight is a your side share in memory of shimokita the first bishop of rome the Apostle Simon Peter who according to Rashi and told och acted for the sake of heaven now there was a further little twist of this he made one more request of the sages and the additional requests he may was that I'll never be able to Davin with the Jewish people again but I want to write a prayer and I ask you that you recite that prayer in your synagogues so I will have a favor that will have a portion in your prayers and the tradition is he is said to be the author of the prayer niche mats niche mats called hi it's a very great beautiful prayer we were cited every Shabbos and jankis in the daytime and we were cited at the Pesach Seder and according to some traditions the author of that prayer is Simon Peter Shimon Kiba now I have to say that this is obviously not accepted by everybody mocks our victory which was a commentary on the Fela that was written by Rashi stone eaten record a tradition that the author of knishmas is shimokita but then the editor says class official dog this is absolutely not true we certainly would not have the influence of an idolatry in the Jewish ritual so there's at least a my focus and arguments about this but you understand why the show cleric would say some people fast on the ninth of tissue a ninth of teh bait but we're not going to say the reason they don't they don't want to connect it to overtly to the Christian Church because it would confuse Jews and this might antagonize the Christians as well because they might look at us as defaming Peter by saying he didn't believe in what he was teaching now I'll tell you another thing too in the 19th century there was somewhat of a popular academic theory that that was the role of Paul because in some ways although the Toldo CHEO connects this to Simon Peter it actually makes more sense to understand Paul that way because Paul was the one who actively priscilla ties to the Gentiles Paul was actually the inventor of Christianity and in the 19th century even among secular academics there was a widespread argument that Paul was a who wanted to separate Judaism Christianity it's it's a little less historically plausible to connect it back to Peter Shimon Kiba and yet they told us Yeshua literature does exactly that so this is kind of what you need to know about the eighth of Taebaek the ninth of Taebaek the tenth of Taebaek these are three days of tragedy and sadness in our in our calendar but as I say the most important one is obviously the tenth of tab 8 and we hope and we pray that as the nervous Acharya says those days will become days of rejoicing days of sitri days of redemption for the Jewish people you know it's it's pretty well established that we are in the period of time that is called the birth pains of mushiya or the footsteps of machines or the heels of machines there are different phrases that are used the birth pains of mushiya really gives you a double message on one hands you know birth is coming on the other hand labor pains can be very very painful meaning hazael are telling us that the Messianic era is not going to be smooth sailing there can be a lot of things going on a lot of dislocations in the world we also don't know how long it is because the birth pains of mushiya can be longer than nine months it's not it doesn't have to correlate to the nine months and so in a way we might be in for rough sailing or perhaps we've had it already you know the Holocaust could have also have been as long ago as the Holocaust that could have been the birth pains and of course we've had many many things since but whatever it is it will eventually culminate in the birth of a new world and a new existence you know in a world of peace and understand and godliness and holiness and be sure to ship we we pray and we hope that these fast days should turn into days of joy and rejoicing very very soon but may remain you know I'm looking for it myself because after I did this I wanted to get a copy of it it's not on keeper books and it's not on Oh sir Hockman so it's not in any of the farm databases but it is available it is available I mean there are scholarly books written and told those natures so you can get it I've checked the National Library and I'm sure they they would have copies there's also not one version the problem is it gets it gets rewritten in different ways so you'll see different versions of it you know the basic story is that Jesus was technically a monster that was what would think you know the Catholic Church records the idea of the virgin birth that's just to mask the fact that Mary had a different person than Joseph in mind and therefore there's an after-the-fact interpretation they're different different stories about that one thing one thing I want to tell you about Jesus so that that's actually very interesting there is a passage in the Gemara that again was censored but we were able to put it back now that says that Yeshua Yeshua was actually a Talmud he was a student of one of the rabbi's of the Mishnah and the Talmud illustrates the importance a beautiful phrase that when you deal with your students your deal with your children your right hand your stronger hand should always draw them near and if there needs to be discipline or punishment or criticism you do it with your left hand the weaker hands that rejection should always be the weaker part of what you do the dominant should be love and care and it mentions that Yeshua left Judaism because his teacher was too mean to him - tuftan the storming the Camargue is an interesting story that he his Rebbe were at an inn and they ate a meal and the Rebbe remarked this whoosh Pizza is very beautiful now whoosh Pizza in Aramaic is an ambiguous term it can mean the end or the lodging or it could mean the NT / so yes you thought that the rabbi was praising the beauty of the woman so he she said well I think her eyes were too close together so the rapper was very offended that you know that the ancient thinks he's talking about the woman he was talking about the end so the rabbi didn't talk to him he says you know you have to do children so it mentions that for the next 40 days the age who came to the revit ask forgiveness and the Rebbe didn't want to talk to him the Rebbe wanted him to really understand the severity of the offense on the 40th day the Rebbe said if he comes to me today I will forgive him he suffered enough and the a shoe came in that 40th day but the rabbi happened to be in the middle of doffing and he was not allowed to interrupt after some reason yes you did not process that and he said that's it I'm leaving this religion I'm gonna start my own whatever whatever he did so because I'll actually say that it was the fault of the rabbi who was too strict and to rejecting and this is a great great key and how we raise our children the right hands has to always be drawing in fact I read from a very very fine religious psychologist Sarah Radcliffe who writes many many many very good books and problems on raising children and marriage counseling in the light that she says parents should aim for a 70/30 ratio that's 70% of their communications with their children should be positive and affirming and you keep the critical interactions to 30% your lover she actually you know comes up in actual numbers now the way life often works is that in some cases almost a hundred percent or negative in not because we're always critical but if everything goes okay we don't say anything you know so if the kid is doing good people say anything when he's doing bad all of a sudden you know where we're at we're on this case so he says if you're gonna have reasons to be critical and that's legitimate just be sure that it's more than doubled with affirmations and positivity and everything else again it's a wise lessons good for marriage go to be aware of that okay wish you all well and thank you and take care [Music]