Basics of Emunah #26 - 39 Lashes for a Slice of Bacon? by Rabbi YY Jacobson

The Yeshiva.net Dear Rabbi Jacobson, I thank you for the opportunity to be able to ask any questions or dilemmas I have concerning Judaism. If you could just put your cell phones on vibrate in the beginning of the sheer, please. I know I'm Jewish, it's hard to listen to, but if you could just do it anyway. I'll start again. Dear Rabbi Jacobson, I thank you for the opportunity to be able to ask my questions concerning Judaism in a relaxed and serene atmosphere without being judged and without being accused of having malicious motives. I am a Yeshiva student. I've been learning in Yeshiva for many years and I enjoy the learning very much. I've learnt many masechtas of Gemara, many Talmudic tractates with their commentators. I learn Chumash, I learn Halacha, I learn Meforshim, I learn Rishonim and Acharonim. I learn a lot of what Judaism presents to us. There's something that has disturbed me greatly and I wish to bring it up with you. And that is all of the limitations that Halakha, Jewish law, imposes upon the person together with the very severe punishments and penalties. If you read through Chumash and you read through Mishnayos, you read Gemara you discover the severe penalties and punishments that the Torah imposes upon all types of things that don't seem that serious at all. We're living in the 21st century. How is a progressive open-minded normal person who cherishes freedom who cherishes democracy how can I learn this Torah and really take it seriously? How can I embrace it as the godly perspective and instruction manual for life, as you like to say? Give me a break. I eat an olive volume of horse meat or a particular piece of fat in a kosher animal and I receive 39 lashes because I ate an olive volume, a kazayis, of crab, real crab. Not the fake uh anus. Real pork. I eat a little bit of blood and my soul gets cut off. Venikhrasa hanefesh hahi. The Torah mixes in to I do in my bedroom, what I do in my kitchen, what I do in the privacy of my life. I light up a cigarette on the seventh day of the week, and you'll forgive me, all hell breaks loose. Is this normal? I try to be open and intelligent. I don't know how to deal with this. We learn about it. I asked one of my teachers this question, how does he make sense? Because one day we were analyzing all of these penalties as though it was some abstract idea concerning some foreign far star, and I said, you know, this is real people in real life. And he gave me this blank stare, which meant to me, "Don't ask these questions." And then when I pushed the envelope a little bit, he said, "It's just how it is. Just learn the details." But after learning all the details for so many years, I just don't get it. Some people have said, I read articles, "What do you want? This is a 3,000-year-old religion. For a religion that's 3,000 year old, it's not bad. There There have been much worse systems. Yes, a lot of it is pretty severe and pretty tough, but you know what? Nishka ferlich, it's not so bad." But based on an understanding of Torah as the God as God's blueprint for life, sensitive, respectful, humane, this is how God wants the world to be. This is how it's supposed to be when Messiah comes. This is the world from a Torah's perspective, something is not matching up. Some people who are maybe more out there are very apologetic, and they're uncomfortable with a lot of these laws and a lot of the penalties. They don't talk about it. They don't ignore it. Some are very comfortable with it, but they have absolutely no relationship with people outside of the system and outside of the fold. I am struggling with this. Perhaps you can enlighten me. Just learn mesechta Sanhedrin. Learn mesechta Horiyos. Learn mesechta Krisos. Read Chumash. Vayikra, Acharei Mos, Kedoshim, Emor, Sefer Devarim. And you know exactly what I'm talking about. This is an articulate young man who raises, I think, a very important and powerful point. I've received many letters of this nature. I read this because I think it encapsu- encapsulates many of the emails and letters that people have written about this topic. I'm going to try to address at least one aspect of it this evening. It's a loaded theme. It's a loaded topic. We still have to get back to it on other occasions, bli neder Hashem, but at least we could begin the process. And the way I want to address it is actually through a story that I heard from the person it happened to. Sometimes there are stories, as they say, maaseh shelo haya kachaya. A story that never happened. This is how it happened. This is a story I didn't hear from klay sheini, revi'i, chamishi, shishi, or shvi'i, or meya. I heard it from klay rishon, meaning I heard it from the person with whom it happened. He told it to me himself. I'll tell you the story exactly the way he shared it with me a number of years ago as he visited my sukka one night of sukkos. The story takes us back to the month of Teves Tav Tav Tes December the end of 1968, December 1968. On July 20th, 1969, which means 7 months later the first humans would land on the moon. Although everybody in this room seems so young and fresh and vibrant, I know there are a few people who uh remember the story, and the other ones remember it even better cuz you were above the moon. So, you even had better perspective, at least on an unconscious level. Neal Neil Armstrong Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon and uh it was a moment. It was a moment to remember, and Armstrong's famous message that he broadcast back to Earth in which he said that's one small step for man one giant leap for mankind. But, this story takes us 7 months takes us back 7 months earlier. On December 21st, 1968, Tav Shin Chof Tes 7 months before the landing on the moon for the first time in history as far as we know man broke the bounds of Earth. At that time, December three astronauts three Apollo 8 astronauts, Frank Borman James Lovell and William Anders took the first trip around the moon. They didn't get onto the moon but the first trip around the moon. The flight was initially planned as another orbiting checkout of uh the Apollo hardware but rumors that the Soviets were plotting to uh uh beat us into an orbit around the moon caused a last-minute change in plans. There's nothing that got Americans moving as knowing that uh the Russian comrades the communists were ahead of the game. It was December 25th that year, 1968. The world held its breath as three NASA astronauts conducted 10 orbits of the moon. And they circled the moon on all sides, the dark side of the moon, the bright side of the moon, and they made it back safely to Earth two days later, December 27th. This was a critical prelude to what would happen 7 months later as Armstrong and Aldrin would actually land on the moon July 1969. The very same week, Thursday, December 26th, the Hebrew date was Hey Teves Tof Shin Chof Tes, the 5th of Teves, the end of '68, another event took place, far, far less significant. Certainly far less dramatic, and nobody held its breath as this event took place. It took place in a small radio studio in New York City. There was a man whose name was Barry Farber. Barry Farber uh is still alive. He's an elderly Jew today who lives in Baltimore. He was one of the most popular radio talk show host for many decades. A Jewish fellow. And that Thursday, December 26th, he interviewed a rabbi on his radio show. Both Southerners, so the shidduch clicked. The interview clicked. The rabbi's name was Rabbi Zalman Posner, who was the rabbi of the community in Nashville, Tennessee, the founder of the Akiva schools in Nashville, who served as a rabbi there for I think close to a half a century. He passed away a number of years ago. And the discussion between Barry Farber and Rabbi Posner focused on the legal Halakhic tradition of Judaism. Rabbi Posner was the one who shared with me the story. Barry Farber presented the following question on the airwaves. How dare Judaism feel that it has the right to interfere in the private lives of individual human beings? He protested. How dare the Torah instruct people what to eat and what not to eat? What is What is it anybody's business what I eat? I understand you instruct me not to harm other people, the golden rule. I understand that to be to create a civil society, you can't do to others what you don't want them to do to you. So you can't steal, you can't kill, you can't deceive, you can't cheat. But how can you respect a religion that mixes into people's private diet choices? What really perturbs me, said Barry Farber on the radio, is the punishments that the Torah imposes upon the would-be transgressors. As he told him, according to Judaic law, if a Jewish adult willingly consumes food the size of an olive that has been prohibited in the Bible, I'm quoting him, whether it's pork or horsemeat or or lobster or the like, he's liable to receive 39 lashes. Now, just for historical integrity, he kept on saying 38 lashes. That just has to do with Barry Farmers and Maratsos, but just he thought it was 38, but okay. Torah actually says 40. There's an argument in Maseches Makos that the law is 39, but he kept on saying 38. Okay. But the point is the same. How can you, Rabbi Posner, living in 1968 in Nashville, Tennessee, justify such a violation of human rights, OF HUMAN ABUSE? HOW CAN YOU HOLD such a document sacred? Why can't you say this document is old-fashioned, it's archaic, you can discard it? How can you hold such a document sacred? It's nobody's business if I eat a ham sandwich. Rabbi Zalman Posner, you know you're on the radio. And the radio then, still today, but the radio then was the radio. This is before this was the great medium of communication throughout around the world, and he had quite a lot of listeners, and this was the question with which he confronted Rabbi Zalman Posner. So, Rabbi Posner Rabbi Posner tells me, he says, "I tell Barry, I say, 'Barry, listen. Let me tell you a little bit about Jewish law. You have to understand that rarely, if ever, did a Jewish court, a Beth Din, have the right, from a Torah point of view, to impose upon a person the penalty of 39 lashes or any lashes.' He says, 'First of all, according to Judaic law, according to Torah law, lashes, or Malkus, can only be administered by a court whose members were ordained by a judge who was in turn ordained by a previous judge who was ordained by a previous judge all the way back to Moses to Mosha who was ordained directly by God at Sinai and literally he had to be a direct link in that chain. He can identify the person who ordained him and gave him permission to judge who can identify the person who gave him smicha or named him all the way back to Mosha. Since this form of ordination does not exist anymore in Jewish life it ceased approximately 1500 years ago in the 5th century after the common era when Jews were becoming more scattered and more dispersed they didn't have the infrastructure of teaching students to the point that they would be ordained on this level. So this level of smicha ceased no Jewish court since the 5th century after the common era for one and a half millennium ever has the right and the ability to execute the penalty of lashes. In terms of death penalty this ceased much before that. Already 40 years before the destruction of the second base amikdash the second temple as he put it which was destroyed in the year 70 after the common era meaning in the 1st century after the common era 1900 more than 1900 years ago 40 years before that approximately 2000 years ago no Jewish court since then had the right to execute somebody and the reason was of course you have to have ordained judges and a court of 23 you couldn't have a court of three but in order to execute to try capital cases as Hazal explained in Masachet Rosh Hashanah and the Rambam in Hilchos Sanhedrin and in other sources the Sanhedrin the Supreme Court had to be located judging in the base amikdash right near in the base hamikdash, on the har habayis, in a place called lishkas hagazis, a special room. And 40 years before they were already exiled from there, they left, there was no capital punishment. Lashes, according to Rebbi Shmuel, for lashes you also need 23. To give lashes you also need 23. Well, this is not This wasn't on the radio, that's not the halacha, but this stopped close to 1,500 years. But then he said there's something more. Even during the times of yore, when the Jewish courts had this right to give somebody lashes, the penalty could only be carried out if you had two aidus, two witnesses, who were not related to each other or to the violator, who observed the act. IN OTHER WORDS, A PERSON'S OWN admission would not suffice to penalize him. In other words, a person could not come and say I did this, he would not get the penalty. The two witnesses had to testify. They were scrutinized mercilessly by the courts with chkirus and bdikus, tremendous investigations and cross-examinations, each one independently. If the slightest discrepancy was discovered in their testimony, they were invalidated and the victim, the potential victim, was exonerated. Third, for a person to receive the lashes, the witnesses couldn't say we observed the act. That wasn't enough. They were required to testify. Can we fix this? They were required to testify that they warned him prior to his or her transgression, what we call in halacha hasra. Now, what did that warning have to look like? If two witnesses came over to the Jew who was sitting and eating uh, nice piece of pork or shrimp or lobster, and they said, "Do you know you're not allowed to do this. We're warning you. The consequences will be severe." And he looks at them and he says, "Ha! Kish matzah you want?" He doesn't get He doesn't get punished. There's no There's no penalty of lashes. It's not enough for them to warn him in generic terms. They had to spell out the punishment he would receive if he would proceed to perform the prohibited act. So, if they saw him eating a piece of a piece of swine or another non-kosher piece of food, they couldn't just say to him, "You're not allowed to do this." Or this is very severe. They had to say, "You're prohibited to eat this piece of pork, and if you do, you will receive lashes." In other words, the warning had to be detailed and explicit exactly what's going to happen. Fourth, even after their warning, a person would still not become liable to receive lashes unless he verbally accepted the warning and reiterated it back to them, demonstrating it to them, demonstrating to them that he understood it clearly. So, for example, if they tell him, "You know, if you eat another bite, another kazayis, you're going to get lashes." And he went like this. OR HE SAID, "YES, I KNOW." AND HE EATS IT. You know what happens? Anybody knows? There's no punishment. Say, "Yes, I know. I know what you're saying. Leave me alone." Or he nods his head. Or he does another gesture to them. Whatever it is, he does not get the punishment. He has to respond to the witnesses warning and say, "I understand what you're saying. I'm about to EAT THIS PORK KNOWING THAT I WILL RECEIVE LASHES." He has to specify the exact punishment he's going to receive. Only then does the halakha does Torah accept the testimony of these witnesses. Why? Because then we can ascertain that the man really, really knew what he was doing and we can HOLD HIM RESPONSIBLE. FIFTH, still not GOING TO WORK. YOU KNOW WHAT THE fifth thing is? If after all this, he waited more THAN 3 AND 1/2 SECONDS FROM THE END OF THE warning in order to continue to eat his meal of pork or horse meat or shrimp or lobster, he waits, LET'S SAY, 5 SECONDS, 4 AND 1/2 SECONDS, and he eats it, no punishment. Because we say, you know, maybe he forgot. Maybe he's dreaming. Maybe he's fashloffen. He has to eat it toich k'dei dibur of the hasra'ah. He has to fulfill the He has to do the transgression, whether it's eating non-kosher, whether it's violating shabbos, whatever the transgression is of all the sins of the Torah. He has to do it within the time that it takes to say, "SHALOM ALEICHEM, RABBI." Greetings to you, my rabbi, which is approximately 3, 4 seconds. And if he waits more than that, no punishment. That means, imagine what I just said. They have to see him. They have to know what what doing. They have to warn him. They have to explain to him not the consequences, but the explicit consequences. HE HAS TO REPEAT BACK TO THEM WHAT THEY SAID, NOT GENERALLY, BUT SPECIFICALLY. And within 3 SECONDS FROM THE END OF THEIR WARNING, 3 4 seconds, HE HAS TO ACTUALLY HE OR SHE HAS to actually do the act. And if not, we say, we're not sure. We're not sure he's guilty, no punishment, no penalty. So, Harry Goldberg or Harry Finkelstein, whatever. There may be a Goldberg here, so it's your seventh cousin. Is sitting and is eating crab sushi, and again, we mean the real one, not the one in the kosher restaurants. Two observe two witnesses observe him doing it. And they tell him that he's going to receive lashes. He reiterates the warning of warning verbally. He waits 4 seconds. He continues to eat the crab. They can scream in court from today till tomorrow, the man will not get any punishment cuz we could say he forgot the warning. This means that it was almost impossible for anybody to ever receive lashes. You had to You had to be a real Or a real idiot in simple English. In order to get yourself lashed by a Jewish court. And here's the deal. IF YOU WERE A REAL they couldn't punish you either. So, if they saw THAT THE GUY, YOU'RE NOT DEALING WITH A FULL DECK, they sent him home with with a bag of potato chips and Pepsi. That's what they did. And they wished him luck, and they said some to him. So, if the guy was a real idiot, he couldn't get punished. If the guy was not AN IDIOT, HE HAD TO BE AN IDIOT TO BE ABLE to get lashes. IT WAS ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE. WHO DOES THINGS within 3 seconds in a normal day? Especially if you're Jewish, yeah? You could not, you procrastinate. This maybe tomorrow, maybe next week, maybe in a year. But it still didn't work. It still didn't work. Even if everything happened and you did it and you did it within 3 seconds and you were taken to court and they tied you down and you broke out of your knots and you left the room, they wouldn't take you back. And if that's not enough and you'll forgive me, but that's the Halacha in Messiah in Sanhedrin and in Rambam and Hilchos Sanhedrin, if a person as a result of realizing he is going to be lashed, is compelled to go to the bathroom in that room, he is freed. He doesn't receive even one spanking. The Nikkur Chichala in Necha. He was embarrassed, he was ashamed by being compelled to go to the bathroom right there. Whatever form it is, urine or moving of the bowels, and he is exonerated. He's free. Says Rabbi Posen to Barry Farber, "Where can you find in human history a judiciary system that functioned in such a fashion? It's almost you see that the Torah is trying to do whatever it can not to punish the person, even if he did the crime willingly. Every possible loophole that you could create is created." It it He says it could have happened once in a hundred years, maybe once in 200 years, maybe once in 50 years. It was almost impossible for a normal person to receive it unless this person mummish wanted to do it after all maliciously wanted to do it. And again, if he was crazy or she was crazy, they anyway were exonerated. This occurred Thursday night, December 26th, 1968. One day before the astronauts came back. Why am I putting the two stories together? Rabbi Posner tells me the following Shabbos, which was Zion Tavistock Tess, the 7th of Tavistock 5729, or December 28th, 1968. He was already in New York, so he didn't go back to Nashville for Shabbos. He remained in Brooklyn for Shabbos. That Shabbos afternoon, the Lubavitcher Rebbe held a farbrengen, a public gathering as he would often Shabbos afternoon, in his shul on 770 Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn, and one of the participants was Rabbi Zalman Posner. The Rebbe began his address that he wasn't planning initially to speak to address the crowd on that Shabbos. However, the events of the week and various letters he received from people about it created confusion in many people's minds. Somehow, many Jews at the time were confused as a result of the understanding that man could make it to the moon. Somehow, people felt it undermines one of the principles of Judaism that man belongs on Earth and the moon belongs to heaven. In Kiddush Levana, we say, "K'shem she'ani ro'eh k'negdecha v'eini yachol l'goa boch, I I dance before you and I can't touch the moon." Some people became confused. And he said as a result of that and other other other events, he decided to farbreng, to speak to speak on this Shabbos. One of the talks, he suddenly started to talk about the radio interview that happened Thursday night. And Rabbi Posner tells me, he says, "I'm standing there and I'm feeling very, very uncomfortable." The rabbi says, "Just 24 hours ago, a mes lesh terek or the mes lesh and half 24 hours ago or 36 hours ago, a rabbi in New York was asked the following question." And he went on to share with the crowd what happened, the synopsis of what happened during the radio without names, during the radio interview between Farber, Harry Barry Farber, and Rabbi Zalman Posen. And the rabbi said, "The answer that the rov gave contained a kourtuv shleimus. Meaning it contained a uh a speck of truth. It contained a grain of truth. But, it wasn't a real answer to the question. So, now I'll tell you why it wasn't an A REAL ANSWER. LET'S say that in ancient times, the Jewish court, the Beis Din, did not punish a Jew more than once in a hundred years due to the tremendous difficulties and the intricate conditions imposed by the Torah on the execution of the penalty. Granted. But, the question still applies to the one time in the century that a Jew did receive lashes. HOW DO WE UNDERSTAND that the Torah instructs that a Jew be whipped 39 times because seconds after a warning by the witnesses, he consumed prohibited food? Why are we mixing into the private lives of otherwise good and decent citizens and human beings?" And he said, "People today raised in democracy, raised on the spirit of freedom, raised on the spirit of self-expression, how can they earnestly embrace a value system that seemingly displays such a lack of tolerance if even once in a hundred years?" And he said, "Maimonides, if giving 39 lashes to a person is not a bad thing, if it's not a bad thing, do it more often. If it's bad, if it's immoral, saying I do it only once in a hundred years doesn't make it moral. If somebody says, "I never murdered anybody, just once in my life." "Just once, I mean, I have a good record. 80 years I WAS A TZADDIK. ONCE I LOST IT. I DON'T BREAK THE WINDOWS OF MY HOUSE EVERY DAY. ONCE IN A WHILE, ONCE IN three years, every shmita I go crazy, I turn into a pumpkin, and all the windows get broken. YEAH, TRY TRY TELLING a spouse to remain with that husband. It's only once in a few years he loses it." Now, the question itself I want to emphasize is an important question because truth is truth. If I'm NOT ALLOWED TO PUNCH YOUR NOSE IN AND BREAK your nose and break your ribs, doing it once IN 70 YEARS TO ONE PERSON doesn't make it right. Doesn't We don't work that way. If it's immoral, it's immoral. And saying, "OH, IT WAS JUST ONE person and one and one Russia and it was only once in 80." SO, IT WAS ONCE in 80 years. But if it's immoral, IT'S IMMORAL ONCE IN 70 YEARS. AND HE SAID, "THEREFORE, the rabbi got away with it, but he didn't answer the question." He got away with it because he basically explained the truth that it wasn't easy TO GET. SO, FINE, IT'S NOT easy to get, but the concept remains a question. Or to put it differently, I go back to this Yeshiva bocher. Forget about if it was done practically or not. The concept that you keep on learning about. How do we understand this? And Rabbi Posen says from moment to moment I was got becoming more uncomfortable and more uncomfortable. I was flattered that the Rebbe knew about my radio interview. Either he heard it or somebody repeated it or he heard a recording or he heard it live. And I was flattered that he gave me a compliment that I said one quote of shleimus that it was a speck of truth in my answer. But nonetheless, it was quite a uh intense moment for me. And then the Rebbe said that the Baal Shem Tov teaches that everything that a person sees or hears is a lesson in life. Even something that happens hundreds of thousands of miles away. Even theoretically something that happens today, we know about things that happen millions and billions of miles away. The Baal Shem Tov says the person is at the vortex of the cosmos. What you observe or what you know about is part of your journey. It's part of your lesson. If the Rebbe would have realized that the same week that he was interviewed, the whole world held its breath because of the astronauts for the first time making it up to the moon and orbiting around the moon, he would have had a clear-cut perspective on how Judaism views life. And this is what the Lubavitcher Rebbe went on to share the explanation that is rooted in a Mishnah, and a Gemara, and a Rambam, and many of the Seforim of the Rishonim and the Acharonim and the Ma'amarei Chazal, especially in the world of Nistar and the world of Mussar, Machshavah, Kabbalah, and even more in the world and the literature of Chassidus. And Rabbi Posner shared all the details with me from his memory from 1960 68. A few days before I was born, so I I heard it from him. I also read the transcript of others who were there and wrote it up to be able to complete it. And I'm going to present it, albeit concisely and briefly, and in my my own words. Before the three astronauts boarded the the spacecraft, boarded the Apollo, they were instructed exactly what to wear, what type of gear to put on, how to dress, how to move, how to sit, how to stand, even how to go to the bathroom, what type of shoes to wear, how to behave, how to live, every detail and nuance of their daily conduct before, during their journey on the spacecraft was meticulously and intricately governed and defined by the engineers and by the scientists who planned it all out. They were even told how to sleep, how to position themselves when they go to sleep, what position they could be what position they can be. Almost every single part of their behavior from their most external parts to the most intimate, even a private thing like tending to your own physical needs what we call going TO THE BATHROOM, HAD TO CONFORM to the instructions and to the manual that was outlined by the space experts. Now, imagine a mid-flight, one of the three fine astronauts says, you know, this is 1968. Smoking is still very, very popular. Right? A cigarette, this was the way to somebody came into your office, today you offer a cup of water. Or some spinach. Or some wheatgrass. But then, or sushi, kosher sushi I hope. But then you offered a cigarette. That was just the way it is. One of them says, you know, right now outside that's happening as well. One of them says, "Isn't it nice around the moon? I think it's time for a cigarette." Time for a cigarette? Mother have to assure you have to go out to smoke. Certainly after you orbit around the moon 10 times, you deserve a cigarette. So he takes out a cigarette, HE'S GOING TO LIGHT UP A CIGARETTE. Naturally the other two would probably freak out and rebuke him quite harshly. And he's going to turn to them and say, "Excuse me. This is 1968. We live in a democracy. This is a free country. I'm entitled to make my own choices. I want to light UP A CIGARETTE OR I'M GOING TO I'M GOING TO sit here or I'm going to stand here or I'm going to take over this garment or I'm going to put on this garment or I'm going to stand IN THIS POSITION. WHAT'S YOUR BUSINESS TO TELL ME HOW TO LIVE MY LIFE? STOP DICTATING ME AND DON'T BE A TYRANT." OBVIOUSLY, his observation is very foolish. If he was in the privacy of his own home or standing on a street corner and he lights up a cigarette or he takes off a shirt or he puts on a shirt or he sits or he stands, it's really nobody's business. But what's happening here, you're deviating from the proper conduct in the midst of a mission in outer of You can't see it as an isolated act divorced and detached from other people. You have to see what he or she is doing or not doing in the proper context. In other words, it may be a very small deviation of a law, but essentially when you see it in context, what is he doing? First of all, he's putting three lives into danger. The situation is so flammable, it's so vulnerable, it's so hazardous, as we know from all the journeys to space since, that it's simply very dangerous. Besides, it may be sending an investment of billions of dollars to the garbage dump, and it may be laying to waste decades of sweat, toil, and energy by scientists and engineers in the preparation of the mission. For decades they have prepared for this mission. They invested, Uncle Sam invested, a billion or more than a billion dollars in this, and now suddenly, with one act, you are endangering all of this sweat and blood and toil and research and tears. This deviation of the rules may destroy in a single moment the dreams and the hopes of an entire country, maybe of an entire world, representing the apex and the zenith of scientific and technological achievement and the crown jewel of what human beings in their ingenuity can in in their ingenuity can accomplish. And here, BECAUSE YOU HAD TO LIGHT A CIGARETTE, EVERYTHING IS JUSTIFIED TO BE PUT IN DANGER BECAUSE YOU WANT TO MOVE to this position cuz you don't want to wear this garment. For such a chutzpah, for such selfishness, for such narcissism, of course the person should be penalized. You're ready to destroy three human lives, billion, multi-billion dollar investment, tremendous labor of thousands of scientists, astronomers, engineers for decades, kill a mission anticipated by THE ENTIRE WORLD. WHY? BECAUSE I HAVE A SELFISH craving to smoke a cigarette. That's a demonstration of incredible lack of sensitivity, apathy, narcissism, and selfishness. So, yes, if you're in the privacy of your room, no one can mix into your life. When you appreciate who you are, where you are, what's at stake in your existence and your behavior, perspective changes. And with this, nobody will argue. Any sane person will not argue that democracy and freedom means you let the astronaut get onto the spaceship, and you say it's a free country, you do what you want. There's too much at stake in your action. You're not a small, insignificant person at this moment. You're an astronaut representing the United States of America. It's less obvious, but this is the truth about human life as well. And this we want to focus on now for a few moments. The history of mankind is really a voyage. It's a journey. It's a journey that begins with creation, and it continues till the end of time. All of us, and all of civilization, and all of humanity, and everything that exists, have been chosen and put together on a little planet which as we say in the shininess toila eretz al blima. Just like the space shuttle our planet is suspended in midair. We don't feel it. But if you look at a picture from outer space, we are like a space shuttle, we're suspended in midair, and we were put here all together. And we were sent on a mission. Our planet was sent on a mission just like the space shuttle. And the mission is to generate a kiss if you will between heaven and earth. Together the human race travels a long journey through space and time assigned with a mission to sanctify the planet. And to turn it into a beautiful and harmonious abode for love, for light, for holiness. As the madrish says lasus loyis baruch diru bitachtoinem we were sent on a mission to transform our world into a home for the divine, into a home for infinity, into a home for oneness. Every single person who ever lived and who ever will live is indispensable to the journey of our planet towards redemption. History is a play and you must contribute your verse. The human story is a grand composition. And each of us contributes our stanza. If your stanza, if your verse is lacking all of history remains flawed. There are no extra astronauts. There are no unnecessary players in the game. Every If you're here, if you were ever here, if you will ever be here, it's because you are an essential part, and you play an essential role in this mission of bringing the spaceship to its ultimate destination, OF BRINGING THE PLANET from creation to Geulah, to redemption. Each person has his or her task. Even animals, each animal has its task. Every worm, every tree, every shrub, every bush, every boulder, every mountain, EVERY FLOWER, EVERY BEE, every mosquito, every mammal, every fish, every phenomenon of nature, and certainly, in a deeper way, every human being and every Jew is an indispensable note, as we discussed previous last week in this symphony. Your contribution is not just nice or cute. It's necessary. Somehow, the mission needs you. Your mind, your heart, your psyche, your input, your soul, your thoughts, words, and action in this world on a daily basis. And this is what the mission is says in Maseches Sanhedrin, daf lamed zayin, Sanhedrin 37, where it discusses how they used to warn the witnesses who were testifying about a capital case concerning a person, and they told the They told the witnesses, "Lefichach nivra Adam yechidi, the first person was created alone, one Adam, to teach that kol hamkayem nefesh achas kilu kiyem olam malei, vechol hamachriv nefesh achas kilu achriv olam malei. If you destroy one life, you didn't destroy one life. You destroyed a world. Imagine somebody would have killed Adam, who did they kill? They didn't kill Adam. They killed the entire world, all of humanity. When you kill one person, you snuffed out all of humanity. YOU PRESERVED THE LIFE OF ONE PERSON, you preserved all of humanity. Look what came from one person. And the mission continues kind of line of the world. Therefore, each person is obligated to say, "For me the world was created." And one of the interpretations is exactly this. What do you mean for me the world was created? This sounds like a person with personality narcissistic personality disorder. Imagine you come into your marriage and you tell your wife, "Let me tell you the rules. For me everything was created." Of course, you, that's a given. You and everything you own and the whole world in fact was created for me. You know there's a serious issue and here the mission is as every person is obligated to say this. So, that means I'm obligated to say my wife is also obligated to say this. That's a great idea. The answer of course is what the mission means is something much deeper and completely different. And that is there's something at stake in the planet that without my contribution will forever be flawed. There's something I bring to the play that nobody else can be can bring and therefore we could say the whole thing was created for me because there's something in the creation that waits for me to fulfill and for it to be fulfilled, it needs my input, my energy, my presence, my value. The greatest source of self-esteem in the human psychology, the human psyche. A person ought to realize what is it about their life that is so valuable. It's not just their own feeling with somebody else's feeling, but rather it's true. There's something at stake in your moral choices which affects the entire universe past, present, and future. Just as by the spaceship a single move by a single astronaut that's wrong can derail the entire mission can destroy the whole journey. So, it is with the space mission granted to humanity. We were also sent on a space mission. Each person Each person is so valuable that as a result of their choices, positive or negative there is an impact that is felt on one level or another level in the entire mission of the entire spaceship from creation to redemption. Now, the astronauts had space experts who gave them a manual and gave them the lessons and classes and seminars and workshops for months and years how to prepare for this mission. The Torah The Torah is the manual that was given to the astronauts for their grand mission. It's the divine blueprint that guides the human being how to achieve his or her mission in transforming the world. So, when the Torah tells a Jew don't eat certain foods or don't speak certain words or don't do the following actions, whether it's eating chametz on Pesach or eating food on Yom Kippur. Whether it's eating cheese and meat and cheese mixing milk and meat or whether it's as I said eating blood or whether it's lighting a fire on Shabbos or harvesting grain on Shabbos or baking or cooking or plowing or sewing or erasing or tearing or excuse me or carrying on Shabbos, whatever it is. AND A JEW HAS THIS MANUAL and the manual instructs both the positive and the negative. How I what I do, what I don't do, what I eat, what I don't eat, how I behave, how I don't behave. And it sometimes gets involved into very, very detailed and intricate issues. A person could look at it and say, "What are you mixing into my life?" But it's just like the people on the spaceship saying, "What are you mixing into my life?" You don't understand the context of your life, the meaning of your life, the value of your life. When you see who you are, you're an essential player in the story of the cosmos and the story of the planet. Every act generates vibrations through the entire cosmos. Every single thought, word, and deed counts. It matters. It's significant. It's a piece of art. The human being is the interlacing link between heaven and earth. What I do has a cataclysmic effect on the past, on the present, and on the future. They tell the anecdote about a Jew who needed a job. So, he saw that there was an Indian tribe that needed a chief. So, he applied. And he had a darker complexion. He could be mistaken as an Indian. So, they hired him. Now, to be an Indian chief, you have to be able to look into the stars and predict the coming weather during the winter. So, they asked him what he sees. He knew how to read the stars like I know how to read the stars. So, he says, "Based on the stars, it seems like it's going to be somewhat of a cold winter." You know, whenever you put in the word somewhat, it's like par if it doesn't mean anything. So, he said, "Okay, it's going to be a At night, he sneaks out of the town. He goes to a public phone. Some of you may still remember public phones. I lay in my shoulder. He puts in what was then a nickel or a dime. He calls up the Washington Weather Bureau. And he asks them about the winter, and they say it's going to be cold. So, he goes back to the Indians, and he says he looked into the stars again, and going to be cold. Wow. The chief changed from somewhat cold to cold. They knew it's time to get to work and gather a lot of wood for the coming cold winter. A week later he sneaks out again. He makes a call again to the weather bureau. Then he says, "New?" They say, "Ooh, it's going to be very cold." He goes back to the Indians and he gives a new report from what he is seeing in the stars. At this point they're now frantic. They are gathering lumber and wood to no end to make sure they're going to warm their bones in what's going to be a very cold winter. A week later he sneaks out. He phones the bureau and they tell him it's going to be excruciatingly cold. Goes back to the Indians, tells them about the new vision of the stars. And now 24 hours a day men, women, and children are doing nothing but collecting wood for the excruciatingly cold winter that is going to befall them. A week later he goes out and he calls them again. And he asks them, "What does the winter look like?" They say it's going to be the coldest winter in the US history. This poor Jewish kid at this point plops us. He said, "I really don't understand you guys. You are driving me nuts. First you tell me cold, then you tell me very cold, then you tell me excruciatingly cold. Now you tell me the coldest winter in the history OF THE US. CAN'T YOU TELL ME WHAT'S GOING TO BE AND JUST MAKE UP YOUR OPINION your decision?" And the man says, "Listen, I don't know who you are. I don't care who you are. But I'll be honest with you. You think we know anything about the weather? We know nothing." So he says, "IF YOU KNOW NOTHING, WHY ARE YOU DOING ALL THESE PREDICTIONS?" HE SAYS, "ALL WE KNOW IS THAT THIS YEAR THE INDIANS are collecting wood like crazy." But there's a profound message here. He was the one who WAS DELAYING THE GUN SAKASH. He was the one who WAS DEFINING THE ENTIRE PREDICTION. HE THOUGHT HE WAS RECEIVING the information from them, when really he was the one who was creating the information for them. So now understand when the human being appreciates who he or she is FROM A JEWISH TORAH perspective in the context of creation. Here is a manual that the ultimate engineer and space expert gave you for you to be able to fulfill your mission in bringing this SPACESHIP TO ITS ULTIMATE DESTINATION. AND NOBODY COULD DO WHAT YOU COULD DO. Not in the positive and not in the negative. Be shivili divrei oilam. Each person the world was created for me. If I ignore the manual, I step at the manual, I reject the manual. I deviate from the manual. I could look at it and say, "It's my business. IT'S MY LIFE. IT'S MY WORLD. IT'S MY LITTLE KITCHEN. IT'S MY LITTLE BODY. MISHTAKENISH TARIN." AT the surface I seem authentically correct. It comes simply from misunderstanding the fact that the human being has a real meaningful place in the entire universe and in the planet. Nobody is a random error. Nobody is here because of some mistake. But rather you are here because you were conceived in love and you were conceived purposefully to be here. And when the person abuses the instructions THAT WERE GIVEN ON THE spaceship just like one of the astronauts abused it AND SAYS, "I DON'T WANT TO WEAR THESE SHOES. OR I WANT TO GO NOW to this AND THIS PLACE. OR I DON'T WANT TO STAND IN THIS POSITION. YOU DON'T TELL ME HOW TO STAND. THIS IS NOT MY SUGAR. NOW, I'M A BIG MAN I'M A BIG BOY. In a very real way, I'm not only abusing my own spiritual or physical self, I'm in a very real sense hurting and abusing thousands of years of love, of blood, of sweat, of tears, of millions of men and women who sacrificed their addictions, who dedicated their lives to lead the world on its journey towards wholeness, towards harmony, towards redemption. My participation is critical. When I choose to reject these instructions for my mission in space, I'M ENDANGERING THE ENTIRE MISSION, ALL THE PEOPLE ON THE SPACESHIP, all the money, all the resources, all the dreams, ALL THE ANTICIPATION. WHY? CUZ I HAVE A TAIVA. CUZ I HAVE A CRAVING. NOW, IF WITHIN A FEW seconds of me hearing a clear-cut warning by the witnesses as to the NATURE OF WHAT I'M DOING, AND I DON'T WAIT, I go ahead and I dig into that piece of bacon OR SHRIMP, KNOWING THAT BY COMMITTING THIS ACT CUZ I'M HUNGRY, I'M NOT EATING a piece of bacon. I'm laying to waste thousands of years of work, of sacrifice, and of love. Why? Cuz I'm hungry. CUZ I'M STARVING. CUZ I HAVE A TAIVA. CUZ I HAVE A CRAVING. CUZ I HAVE ADDICTION. CUZ SUCH HUNGER I HAVE. CUZ THIS IS NOT BECAUSE I'M MAKING A MISTAKE. I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT I'M DOING. IF A PERSON DOES THAT, KNOWING that with one act I am hurting the dreams and the hopes of all of history. I AM HURTING and abusing the dreams and hopes of all of history. So that I should be able to fulfill my craving to eat a non-kosher piece of steak instead of a kosher piece of steak, which is only a 5-minute longer wait. The Rebbe finished and he said, "I have now a question. 39 lashes? That's not a question. The question is for the mayor. The question is why not more? However, we don't think of life in such terms. We don't see ourselves in that context. We see ourselves as self-contained small little mortal worms. We don't see the grandness of our life. We don't see the grandness of our decisions. We don't see the grandness of the blueprint. We don't see it. Which which gives in my opinion a new historic perspective on how halakha develops. The way many Jews who who learn Yiddishkeit seriously see it as this Yeshiva boy explained. There's almost two Judaisms. There is the real Judaism that was practiced thousands of years ago when the Jewish courts had all the power and then life was not be rosy. And then there is NOW WHERE WE GET TO BE Americans when we need to be Americans and Jewish when we need to be Jewish. OKAY, SO YOU DON'T need pizza for 8 days and they have to make kosher for Pesach pizza also. But the real severity of Yiddishkeit David misses Malkus, Carbonis, Koris and all that. It's so inapplicable. And as I explained before, halachically, there's all these penalties and punishments don't exist of Jewish courts. You can go to a Jewish court for monetary disputes. And even then, you know how often it works out. If you're familiar with this If you're familiar with the process, but I'm not going to go there at the moment. So, some people think it's just it happened. That's how history I were in exile. We don't have our own authority. Israel is a secular state. And uh we It's been a There's no Sanhedrin. There's no Bet Din, etc., etc. And that's true. But, there's a whole spiritual dynamic that coexists with the physical dynamic. It's not that Judaism is less real or that these things don't apply. Rather, we all know people who may open a light on Shabbos or may eat for breakfast bacon and eggs, chas v'shalom. Or may eat on Yom Kippur, or may eat a cheeseburger, or may eat blood or frogs when they're in China. I don't think anybody does it here, but when I was in China, I saw what they eat. Schrotsum and and and other interesting things. If you've ever been to Shanghai or Kaifeng or the other interesting places, Beijing. Or they transgress the other shas mitzvos, lo shas mitzvos, whether it's lying, deceiving, stealing, cheating, swearing, violating the obligations between one person and other person, between a person and God. And here's the real question. How many of us are capable of seeing our individual acts as affecting the world and our individual acts as affecting history. We don't see it. There's no such transparency anymore. I'm eating something and all I say is leave me alone. Leave me alone. It happens in marriages constantly. Tonight by dinner you ate something you weren't supposed to eat and your wife said why don't you have a salad? Why do you need to eat hot dogs? The hot dogs are for the kids, right? And what was your response? You smiled and you said, "Of course." But when she left the room, You can admit it. Don't worry, you won't get Malkus. Maybe you will, I don't know. You ate it. And what was your thoughts? WHY DOES SHE HAVE TO MIX IN? IF I EAT A HOT DOG or a salad, That's our notion. But in Yiddishkeit, your thoughts, your words, your actions are not just powerful. They're not just incredibly powerful. They're infinitely powerful. You're an ambassador of the divine. What God does has an impact on the whole universe. What his ambassadors do have a tremendous impact on the universe. And that's why when you open up a Rambam Hilchos Teshuvah Perek Gimmel Halacha Daled, quoting a Gemara in Kiddushin, I think Mem Tes, what does the Rambam say? At the surface, it seems like a very strange verdict in Rambam. How can a rational person say this? But the Rambam says in HILCHOS TESHUVAH, "YIREH ATZMO VESKOL oilam kulo k'shakul." You should always SEE YOURSELF AND THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE IN A BALANCE. "CHOTAH CHEIT ECHAD, chiyav atzmo veskol oilam kulo l'chaf chovah V'GARAM L'HASHCHATAH." HE PERFORMED OR committed one sin, he tipped off, he he uh he HE TIPPED THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE AND himself to a negative side and caused destruction. "ATZAM MITZVAH ACHAS, HAREIY CHIYAV ATZMO VESKOL OILAM KULO l'chaf z'chus v'garam lo u'l'olam haba TESHUVAH U'MACHAL." HE PERFORMED OR SHE PERFORMED ONE MITZVAH. He He He tipped himself or HERSELF AND THE ENTIRE COSMOS TO THE MERITORIOUS SIDE and brought for him and them salvation and rescue. That's That's the meaning of the is the foundation of the world. He changed the whole world. And you look at the Rambam and you're saying, is this fantasy? Is this an illusion? Is this a delusion? Is this Is the Rambam saying something cute for a person to imagine nice grander things about himself? How long are these dreams going to last for? And the Rambam takes us from the Gemara. But the truth is, what is at stake in these words is an essential essential perspective of us. And that is all of Judaism is a protest against human mediocrity. Against the human being looking in the mirror and saying, "I am valueless. I am insignificant. I am a nothing. I am worthless." All of Judaism is an exercise and a meditation against the human being thinking that their actions or lack of actions don't amount to much besides themselves. In the Jewish perspective, the human being is an indispensable component in this grand mission and everyone therefore waits for my next move. So when I make my next move, ALL OF HISTORY WAITS. GOD HIMSELF WAITS. WHAT'S GOING TO BE MY NEXT MOVE? Because there is infinite meaning in my next move. And when I realize THIS AND I SAY, "DESPITE ALL OF THIS, I'M HUNGRY. THIS IS WHAT I WOULD LIKE TO DO NOW." There's something very off about me. There's something really inhumane. Really off. Really, really selfish. 39 lashes IS NOT THE ARGUMENT. TODAY, IT'S VERY HARD FOR PEOPLE TO see this. So, it's almost impossible for most people to see this. Even when many of you hear this, what are you feeling? You're feeling guilt. You're not even feeling what I'm saying. In other words, even when we hear this, how do we process it? Wow, I'm so bad. I'm a pretty evil, evil person. In other we can't even get it. Imagine the astronaut in the spaceship. You say, "Make sure this is what you do." And he says, "I'm such an evil person." You're missing the point. But when we lack that transparency, when we lack that ability, we see today none of these punishments apply. Why? Because you can't expect from a person today to experience this. And because you can't expect from a person to experience this, our violations of Torah do not bespeak the same selfishness or immorality. Rather, they express more than anything else ignorance. Lack of knowledge, lack of depth, lack of wisdom, lack of sensitivity. Somebody came to me once, actually once last week after the sheer. And he told me about how many sins he committed in his life. So, I told him, "I have a question to you. My question is, what do you think about somebody who punches his father in the face and knocks him out?" He says it's a compassion bottom. And it's not a very sweet penalty. I asked him a question. and what happens if you insult your father and mother? He says, "Well, it's not a punch in the nose, but it's really absolutely wrong." Kibud ove a So, what happens if you'd ever met him and you don't know that he's your father? You don't know he's your father. And you say something harsh. He says, "I didn't know he's my father." So, I said, "Let me explain to you something. For you to commit an avera for you to commit a sin willingly means that at least once in your life you met God. You had a relationship with God. You felt that God was your God and your father, and you said, "You know what? Now I'm betraying him." Did you ever even have once in your life a positive experience with God? He says, "I don't know what that is." I said, "Even once?" He said, "You can't commit an avera." What's the idea? You could commit acts of ignorance. You could do things that you don't understand. You're not betraying God. How can you betray somebody you don't know, you never met, you never felt, you never experienced, you never understood anything about his relationship with you? You don't even know that there's an intimate relationship here. ALL YOU KNOW is that this is wrong without UNDERSTANDING ANYTHING. A SIN IT IS, but for you TO BE AMAZED IT'S VERY HARD. IT'S VERY HARD TO FIND TODAY PEOPLE WHO BETRAY GOD. TO BETRAY GOD YOU HAVE TO HAVE AN EXPERIENCE OF GOD. THEN OR TO PUT IT IN the context OF THIS CLASS, YOU HAVE TO SEE THE CONTEXT OF LIFE, THE CONTEXT of existence, the meaning OF HUMAN LIFE. THAT'S WHAT HALAKHA IS BASED ON. HALAKHA REALLY IS A VERY spiritual science. Halakha is not a concrete science. The concreteness of halakha is a manifestation of spiritual physics. If you don't understand the spirituality of physics, if you don't understand science and physics, cosmology and astronomy, geology and botany from a spiritual metaphysical point of view, if you don't understand PSYCHOLOGY AND ALL OF science from the spiritual divine point of view, you can't understand the science of Halacha. Halacha sees the human being as standing in the vortex, in the epicenter, IN THE EYE STORM, IN THE EYE OF THE STORM, IN THE CENTER OF THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE. And our actions, thoughts, words, lack of actions are extremely extremely significant not ONLY TO US, NOT only to God, not only to our community, to all of history, TO THE ENTIRE PLANET, TO THE ENTIRE SPACESHIP. AND WHEN I'M AWARE OF IT AND I CAN'T NOT HOLD BACK. NOW, IF I WAIT 30 SECONDS AND I EAT THE PORK, HALACHA SAYS, "YOU KNOW WHAT? The guy is having a bad day." BUT IF I CAN'T WAIT 3 AND 1/2 SECONDS, AS I I CAN'T WAIT 3 SECONDS KNOWING EVERYTHING AND reiterating what I know, then the Torah says, "This person gets 39 lashes." Today, these punishments don't apply because the transparency is not there. Yet, we learn about it because there should still be sensitivity to what is going on among sensitive souls cuz just because it's not transparent or I'm unaware of it doesn't change the essential fact. And I found a stickle Chazon Ish. The Chazon Ish writes in Yoreh De'ah, Hilchos Shchita, Siman Bet. Chazon Ish was Rabbeinu Avraham Yeshaya Karelitz, who was one of the greatest Lithuanian Halachic authorities and of the last generation. He passed away 1953. And in a commentary on he discusses at length the status of heretics in Jewish history. And there was a knowing that there was a in that in the island. My name is the one is the one there's a Jew who's a real mean and a a heretic who detaches from the Jewish people from God, denies the existence of God, etc. This person goes out of the status and the obligations that we have to a regular Jew. So the writes and I'm going to quote a paragraph of his. And we post this class on the dot net, we will also post the source sheets for this as well as the other classes. The nearer the end in my reading and the is come show you and on the bus go with the dirt and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the I believe that all of the about how to treat heretics in the most harsh way only applied when the divine providence was revealed. For example, there were common miracles. There was communication from God. The righteous of the generation were under a display of unique divine providence. And when somebody denied God, it took a tremendous amount of frivolousness and chutzpah. It demonstrated absolute apathy and carelessness. They knew what they're detaching from and yet they did it because they felt that this is what they want to do. They want to rebel. They want to sin. And then to eliminate such a person would protect the world. It was obvious to all Jews that somebody who persuades people to go to idolatry is destroying the world and bringing plague and sword and famine to the world. He says, "Today, if you harm a Jew who's a heretic, you're going to increase people's faith. THEY'RE GOING TO SAY, 'WOW, people of faith are murderers. People of faith are abusers. People of faith are the most horrible people.' They don't see a relationship between moral behavior and the state of the world. The people who are even doing it don't understand what they're doing. They're not portraying anything. They don't see God. They don't KNOW GOD. NOW YOU'RE GOING TO ATTACK THEM PHYSICALLY? ALL YOU'RE GOING TO BE DOING IS be seen as a violent, destructive person who will further people away from God. And since the Kiva collates men in the second And since our entire purpose in life is TO FIX THINGS, NOT TO destroy things, I don't know if everybody agrees with the Hazan Nesh. When what you're doing is not fixing, the Halacha says, "Don't do it. The Halacha says, 'Don't do it.' Instead, reach out to these Jews and bring them back with ropes of love and place them IN A CORNER OF LIGHT ACCORDING to our greatest capacity." What the Hazan NESH IS TELLING US is don't view Halacha like a blind man and drive straight into the wall. You know when the highway is going straight, so you take your hands off the steering wheel and you say, "I'M GOING STRAIGHT. THE ROAD is turning, IT'S NOT MY PROBLEM." It's the road's problem. That's fine, but you know what's going to happen next. You may fall into the Hudson River. You may go over You may go into a wall. The road is winding, you better move your steering wheel. When you look at halakha, you have to see the context, you have to appreciate the purpose. HERE'S AN AKAIRA, GO KILL. SAYS, "OUR JOB IS TO FIX THE WORLD, TO HEAL the world, to repair the world, to make things better." IN THIS CASE, ALL YOU'RE DOING IS YOU'RE DESTROYING JUDAISM. The approach therefore has to be opposite. Now, this is a Litvak, so I'm a Litvak. I chose a particular source here. This is the Chazon Ish. This is the Chazon Ish, was one of the greatest Lithuanian gedolim who followed the analytical and halakhic strict approach of Lithuanian Jewry, but he's giving you here perspective. You expand this and you understand now when it comes to malkus, lashes, when it comes to death penalties, when it comes to sacrifices, when it comes to all of the great punishments of Torah, I go now back to my dear yeshiva boy and your letter and I say to you, continue learning and sensitize yourself to the grandness in which Judaism sees a person like yourself, a person like myself and all of us. Understand that in Yiddishkeit, yes, you are not a small, insignificant teenager. Just to give a simple example, you A person could say A yeshiva boy or somebody else could say, "I'm going on vacation for 3 months. I'm going to go to Peru without a cell phone and disappear." And it's fine. But can the president of the United States of America do that? Can the president say, "I need vacation." and he does. And say, "I'm going and I'm disappearing for 3 months. Don't bother me. Well, excusez-moi." You ran as the president of a country and you were elected. You're not a small insignificant nobody that you can disappear in a forest, sleep in a cabin for 3 months, and say, "Let me mind my own business." You're the most powerful person in the free world. You have you're in charge on the black box, on the black suitcase, and everything contained in the black suitcase. There's too much at stake in your existence for you to go into disappearance. We have a North Korea. We have a Syria. We have a Middle East. We have our friend Putin. We have a lot of interesting people. You can't We have all the United You have 300 MILLION PEOPLE UNDER YOU. You're not A SMALL PERSON. YOU SAY, "WHO CARES? WHAT DO YOU CARE ABOUT ME?" WHAT do I care about you? There's too much at stake in your existence. One day you will step down, or one day your term will be over. And then you'll go to Peru for 9 years if you want. You'll go sit You'll go sleep in a cabin in a forest. So, a person SAYS, "I'M A FREE PERSON. WHY DOES TYRO MIX IN? WHAT DOES GOD CARE? I eat, I don't eat, I do Shabbos, I do Yom Tov, I do Yom Kippur, Purim, Pesach, matzah, shvuos, shofar, lulav, tzitzis, tfillin, shachris, mincha. YOU DON'T HAVE ANYTHING BETTER TO DO WITH your life than to tell me what to do 24 How to tie my shoelaces?" HOW TO TIE MY HOW TO CUT MY NAILS? EVEN IN THE BATHROOM YOU HAVE TO TELL ME WHAT TO DO? "YOU'RE CUTTING YOUR NAILS WRONG." REALLY? THANK YOU, GOD. THIS is brilliant. Like, this is really what you're concerned about? And I'm supposed to take it seriously? So, people who grew up with it, okay, you cut your nails this way, that way. 2 4 5, etc., whatever the system is. 2 4 1 3 5, or the left side the other way. This is how you get dressed. This is how you get undressed. This is how you go to the bathroom when you think about it. Especially a person who's looking at it from the bigger picture and says, "This is what the sages were busy with. This is what the right the great philosophers and rabbis will be THIS IS WHAT GOD is busy with?" It seems strange, very strange. Unless unless you could become a student of the spiritual science of the universe and the spiritual science of the human soul and to understand that tying shoelaces from God's perspective is very meaningful. You know why? Because your acts are rooted in the eternity of existence. And your acts are essential to the purposeness of all of existence. Just like the astronaut on the spacecraft, on the shuttle, whose shoelaces or lack of shoelaces become quite significant. But as history goes through different stages, some things are visible, some things are less visible. Some things one can experience easily, some things can't. It's difficult to explain. And that's why the halakha, the way it applied in biblical times and in the times of the Beit Hamikdash and the times of does not apply today. Not because it's not serious and not because we happen to struck strike out lucky. But because of the sensitivity to where we are in reality, which also means when there is a Beis Din, it's not that there's wanting lashes. First of all, we explained it's so difficult and what it means is Torah is sensitive to what people can see and what people can't see. What people can appreciate, what people can't appreciate. And by the way, this verdict of the Chazon Ish, which some people debate with, it's it's it's it's a it's a well-known discussion, which I'm not going to get into, but this verdict of the Khonaysh was quite an extraordinary verdict cuz he was living in the Holy Land surrounded by many many Jews, some of them who had a good Yeshiva. Today it's already different because today very few secular Jews have had any serious Jewish education. But uh in his day, there were still Jews who went to cheder, went to Yeshiva, and so forth, and he says that you have to understand the situation that we're living in and see the full picture and understand how Halacha is here to build the world, to build goodness, to build kindness. Judaism doesn't have the objective to say, "Wow, we destroyed and we're happy about it." Because then you completely missed missed the boat, you completely missed the point. And when you look at this and you think about this, you can understand the Tochacha in a different way. When you read the Tochacha, the words of rebuke in Parshas Bechukosai and Parshas Ki Savo, and as somebody once told me that when he reads through those verses, he wants to tell God, "Why don't you take a deep breath and drink an iced coffee? Like if you're not going to do my laws, the heaven is going to become this and the earth is going to become this." It's like "We're not as significant as you think we are." So we didn't do we're not we're doing And I said, "You know, you could look at the Tochacha and see it as very harsh and very negative, and it is." And somebody wrote this week a comment and I got a few emails that my whole class last week was obviously based on a false premise because I conveniently ignored the Tochacha. I didn't even mention it. And I tell this Jew, "I know about the Tochacha. I know I read Parshas Bechukosai, I read Parshas Ki Savo, but you can't cut out pieces of Torah when Moshe Rabbeinu says Me'avas Hashem Eschem. Moshe also knew the Tochacha. When he said Me'avas Hashem, the Nevi'im also knew the Tochacha. The Chazal also knew the Tochacha. They all the but what does the mean in many ways with the means is God is looking at the Jewish people and saying I want you to understand who you are you are not insignificant creatures you are presidents not of the United States of America presidents of the world presidents of the planet we're on the spaceship together and I want you to understand that your thoughts words and actions have a cataclysmic effect because you're too big for me to make believe that you're small I cannot make believe that you're a small people I just can't I can't say yeah they're nobody's who cares we are too tight we are too romantically connected I have chosen you and therefore I need you I love you infinitely and therefore I need you infinitely and when you detach from that everything is affected all of history is affected heaven and earth is affected you mean the world to me I want to ask you a question some spouses often complain that their other spouses expect too much from them I mean I'm not home for I'm not home for 10 minutes where are you I was once traveling on an airplane and I was going to I think to Puerto Rico for a lecture somewhere in South America and uh I was sitting near a man and right when we landed I did what a good Jewish man does I took out my phone and I called my wife to tell her that I landed and he asked me who you calling and I said and he said to me you know it's so good to be a bachelor I said why he says I don't have to call anybody I could do whatever I want be with whoever I want I don't have to call anybody he says I'm free I'm not enslaved." And he got me thinking. Sometimes conversations on an airplane can get you thinking. What if you have a choice to tell your children two separate messages? You could tell your children, "You can do whatever you want. You know why? Cuz nothing you do matters to anybody. We just don't care. Nobody cares. You have no responsibility because just like an ant, you really don't get upset. Imagine you tell an ant, "Go right." And the ant goes left. You go crazy? You like go to therapy and have a nervous breakdown? Now, I tell you the distance between you and an ant is far less than the distance between you and God. So, what's going on here? An ant goes to the left instead of the right, I couldn't care less. I go to the left instead of the right, and God is like, "Whoa." But this demonstrates the infinite romance, the infinite love. So, you could tell your child, "Do whatever you want because mommy doesn't care, tatty doesn't care, nobody cares." Or you could tell your child, "What you do really, really matters. When you do this, it hurts me. When you do this, it generates tremendous joy. When you do this, the world is changed." Do you want your children growing up in a world where they know they can do everything cuz they don't matter? Or that their choices must be calculated and moral because they don't only matter, they matter infinitely. Do you realize that when we talk about uninhibited freedom, it comes together with a tremendous sense of depression. Meaninglessness means I am nothing. I am worthless. Of course I can do whatever I want. I don't have to call. Nobody cares. Nobody knows. But imagine a married man goes on a trip, and you don't call your wife for 3 days, what happens? Anybody wants to tell us? What what's this? You go on a trip and you say, "YOU KNOW, I'M NOT CALLING FOR 3 DAYS." I'M ALSO ENTITLED TO VACATION. THAT'S WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN. IT DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY. Why not? Why not? A regular man knows you have to call. You're away on a business trip, you have to call nine times a day. Before you get dressed, after you get dressed. Before you ate breakfast, after you ate breakfast. Before lunch, after you call and you call and you call again and you say, "Yeah, you have underwear." I mean, you have undershirt, sorry. You have socks. Yeah, there's food, there's no food. The hotel room is nice. You of course say that you're bored and lonely and the hotel room is disgusting and you wish to be home. Whatever you say, but you have to call. You have to call. And then she calls you nine times or 10 times, you speak 18 times a day and you have shalom bayis. Imagine you say, "I'M NOT CALLING." She's a big girl, I'm a big girl. I don't suggest it to anybody. Try doing it and you'll see the results. Why? Why? The answer is simple. BECAUSE YOU MATTER TO YOUR WIFE. THE MEN ARE LOOKING AT ME LIKE I'M CRAZY. Because they don't believe it. They don't believe it. They don't believe it, okay? Maybe maybe you have to have a talk with them. Tell them that they matter. There was once a There was once another maaseh with a chassan that was a lion getting married. There was a lion getting married to a lioness. So, they made a big chasseneh. They took the atrium or a terrace channel, whatever. They took one of the halls. And the lion came to the wedding with the lioness and everybody was mabputz and mabdeckt. And all the animals came. Everybody got an invitation. All the animals came and they gave mazel tov and a a drasha geshenk, a gift and checks and everything was beautiful. And they had a lot of food at the weddings, what the types of food that lions like, like the food that we have at our weddings more or less. So I don't mean to support the theory of evolution, but in some areas some areas there are similarities and uh the mouse, the achbar, the mouse, the mois also came to the wedding. Of course, why not? The mouse is a prominent a prominent uh citizen of God's planet. The mouse also came to the wedding. And the mouse goes over to the head table and embraces the lion to the best of his capacity and he says, "Ah, mazel tov, bruder. Mazel tov, ACHI ACHI. MAZEL TOV, my dear brother." At this point, the lion lost it. The lion says, "You have the audacious chutzpah to call me your brother? Do you see the contrast between you and me? I'm a lion. I'm the king of the jungle. You're a mouse. With a blow, I can obliterate you. With a pinky, I can turn you into dust. I can revert you back to naught and nothingness. HOW DARE YOU COME TO MY WEDDING AND CALL ME YOUR COMRADE, YOUR BROTHER, AS THOUGH WE'RE COLLEAGUES AND FRIENDS? And the mouse nods with a lot of empathy and compassion. And he says, "Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. Before I got married, I was also a lion." It happens to everybody. It's the first night. It's good. I wish you well for sheva brachas. It's hard FOR MEN TO UNDERSTAND. SOME PEOPLE BECOME MICE. THE reason you have to call is BECAUSE SOMEBODY CARES ABOUT YOU. Somebody won't sleep tonight if you don't call. They're going to be worried what is happening with you 3,000 mi away or 30,000 mi up over the Pacific. They're thinking about you. IF NOBODY THOUGHT ABOUT YOU, NOBODY CARED ABOUT YOU, YOU DON'T HAVE TO CALL. BECAUSE YOU DON'T MATTER. SO GOD SAYS, I need a call three times a day. That's what I'm asking for. Called Shacharis. Morning is a longer conversation. Mincha might have a shorter conversation. Don't ignore it. GIVE ME A CALL. I MISSED A MINCHA. GOD SAYS. THIS YOU DIDN'T MISS a Mincha. You didn't miss a Mincha. YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE? YOU KNOW WHAT YOU MEAN TO ME? WHEN YOUR WIFE IS UPSET at you, really what she's saying is I'm crazy about you. She doesn't always know how to say it in those words. I know that. I didn't know this is going to become a therapy session, but whatever. Some people can't help themselves. Suddenly everybody woke up. Okay. But at the end of the day, you may learn, but but your wife getting upset at you, suddenly everybody is awake. You understand why you can't give people Malkus today? How do you give a mouse Malkus? How do you give a mouse Malkus? There's no space on the body to give Malkus. You have TO BE A LION TO GET MALKUS. IF YOU'RE A LION, YOU KNOW HOW TO ROAR, YOU CAN GET MALKUS. YOU CAN GIVE a mouse Malkus. Yeah, give a mouse Malkus. The poor mouse is traumatized in the MIDDLE OF THE NOW YOU'RE NOT GOING to give him Malkus? People don't even know HOW TO SIN TODAY IF THEY WANT TO SIN. Still looking for a person who knows how to sin. I still didn't meet that person. They sin with guilt and then they go to therapy for 30 years and then they're drugged up and then they want to take their life. Who knows that it's sin? To sin for real, you have to be healthy. You have to have tremendous confidence to say, "I'm fighting God." Somebody's fighting God. Somebody knows what God is. The only God they know is abuse and trauma and negativity. What do they know about God? Tamu uru ki toy va shem, then you could sin. Dovid ha Melech says, "Tamu uru ki toy va shem." Fazu vetizen as the Abersht is good. We say Shabbos morning, "Taste and see God is good." IF YOU DIDN'T TASTE, KI TOY VA SHEM, WHO'S REBELLING? Who's sinning? It's an aveira b'shogeg. Usually it's b'ones. IT'S WITH TRAUMA. The mazid today is completely NOT THE MAZID OF OF THE mana bayis. It's a completely different mazid. Now, I don't want my words to be misconstrued. Somebody wrote me a letter last week that I denied the principle of faith that there's schar v'onesh. I I said it I think 29 times in the middle of the shiur. But, because I didn't explain punishment the way he understands it, I deny reward and punishment. Cuz by him, he would have been happy if I would have said "Punishment means God is going to barbecue you to the point that you're going to be so well done, it's not going to be a shaila anymore. You want a medium done or raw." It's going to be well done, and then he would get excited. Then Judaism would feel good. I DIDN'T DENY SCHAR V'ONESH. I DENIED YOUR SCHAR V'ONESH, which is rooted in Christianity. That's what I denied. I'm not denying now that there's an aveira b'mazid when somebody knows what they're doing and they do an aveira, it's b'mazid. I'm explaining to you that it's A DIFFERENT TYPE OF MAZID. A REAL MAZID, that's what the Chazon Ish is saying. A real mazid of a real rasha where you say "M'ridin v'lo ma'alin" is in different circumstances. And you have to be sensitive to this today. Cuz if you're not sensitive today, you don't understand who you're dealing with. You can't pick up the generation. You can't bring people close to God if you don't understand how close they want to be and how close they need to be and how close they are. is a is the yeast that blocks and you have to remove the blockages. So when a person understands, when a person appreciates this, when you look at the Torah of Of course it's very very strict. Of course it's very very intense. But what does the intensity express? The intensity expresses that the approach of Judaism to a person is do not call yourself small. It's just not who you are. I want you to see yourself in the context of the grandness of your true impact and influence in the world. Now one could say, "I don't NEED THIS PRESSURE. I AM HAPPY TO BE A WORM." GRANTED, but you're not. YOU'RE NOT A worm and therefore you're not happy to be a worm. It's like a person who's married. If you're married, you're in a relationship, the relationship means something. It may hurt, there may be pressure, there may be pain. I have to open myself up to my reality, that's true. But denying your reality and saying you're a worm or a frog, you're denying your own true reality and therefore it comes back to haunt you cuz it's a betrayal of your true self. So I come back to the question. You could raise children in two types of societies. One is a society where you tell the child, "Everything goes. You know why? Because nothing you do matters. You have no impact. I don't care what you do." Another message is, "Everything you do does matter and therefore I want you to be conscientious of what you do." Which society do you want to raise your child in? What do you think is better for your child to live a meaningful, productive, wholesome, and even satisfied and happy and serene life? To tell a person that he or she amounts to nothing produces usually a sense of inadequate worthless worthlessness. It's not a coincidence that the same generation that has embraced evolution and I mean atheistic evolution as a sacred doctrine meaning we are all mistakes is also the generation that is the most prosperous in history and can't figure out why so many young people are so depressed. They don't know why. What don't they have? Starvation they don't have, war they don't have, plagues they don't have. Their longevity everyone should sit and have a smile on their face 24 hours a day. And yet the anxiety of people is incredible. The distractions that we invent. Why? The most prosperous, most beautiful, most blessed generation in history for real. But there's another message in our generation and that message is that ultimately you don't matter. You really amount to nothing. You are truly insignificant. Especially those of us those sitting here or listening or watching or will watch who were abused. And this message becomes not quadrupled but it becomes ingrained in the essence of their psyche and it becomes the story and the narrative by which they live their life. And when you read the Torah and you focus in on the Sukkot even what we call the harsh Sukkot, the negative Sukkot, the warnings what are they essentially saying? They're essentially saying that the infinite creator of heaven and earth the infinite God who created the human brain and therefore the distance between the human brain and God is absolutely infinite. THAT INFINITE GOD chose the human person and the Jew as his partner IN IN AS HIS PARTNER IN REPAIRING THE WORLD OIL THE AS WE SAY AS IN THE CO-PARTNERS in molding in recreating as the GAMARA SAYS IN HE TURNED YOU INTO HIS PARTNER AND CO-CREATOR IN FIXING THE WORLD AND I SHOULD HAVE CAN'T MAKE BELIEVE THAT IF HE DOESN'T SHOW UP the business will remain intact. Just doesn't work that way. If you have a if YOU HAVE A PARTNER, THERE'S ACCOUNTABILITY. WHAT SHOULD I TELL YOU? YOU'RE A YOU'RE A CO-PARTNER IN THE WORK OF CREATION. YOU'RE TOO BIG TO MAKE believe that you're small. That's one of the greatest messages of Judaism. YOU'RE TOO GIGANTIC. You're too infinitely big to make believe that you're small. Is this good news or bad news? Superficially a person could say, "Eh, very bad news." But that's very a very superficial perspective. And the reason a superficial perspective is cuz if you were a horse at the other day I took my son to a horse stable. And I spent there a few hours and I was watching one of the horses. And I have a when I watch animals I'm thinking of a sheer. So I'm watching the horse and I'm trying to communicate with the horse. And I want to understand if he understands anything that I'm thinking about him. What is he thinking about me? Cuz I was busy psychoanalyzing this horse. And I wanted to understand if he could think about me the way I'm thinking about him. And after a few hours I realized that he IS ACTUALLY A HORSE. AND HE IS CONTENT BEING HORSE, AND I SHOULD STOP MAKING HIM A SUGAR with my insecurities, who I am and who I'm not and who I want to be and who I was tomorrow and who I was yesterday and who I have confidence and who I have no confidence and I have a right to live and I don't have a Am I happy? Am I sad? HE'S A HORSE. BARUCH HASHEM. AND WHEN you're a horse, you're happy being a horse. As long as you get your hay, and when I gave him the hay, he became my best friends. That was it. Now, horses actually are emotional and they're sensitive and they know what you're feeling. Those who know horses, horses have a life. But they're horses. They're supposed to be horses. And humans are supposed to be humans. And when the interaction is a healthy one, the human brings the horse to where the horse has to be and the horse brings the human where the human has to be. But there is a distinction. When the human being defines himself as a horse and says, "I'm a horse and I'm happy with that position." It's a lie. It's a betrayal to who I am. I can't be happy cuz it's not me. I'm lying about myself. When we ignore the way Torah and Halakha understands a person, superficially it may sound gashmak and good and easy and delightful, but deep down, what Halakha is, as I spoke last week, it's a manual. It's a blueprint of describing who you are in this world. And the whole system of behavior from externals to intimacies is a system that grows out of the unique destiny and identity of human existence. Okay, have a wonderful week and thank you very much. Sure. Why did I not choose to be a horse? That's true. No, I mean, it's true. I also didn't choose to be born. And I didn't choose to make a system where I have to breathe and I have to eat. That's true. I didn't choose to create a system where I have to go to the bathroom, I have to eat, I have to breathe, I have to sleep. I have to make money to live. I didn't choose any of this. And some people indeed say, "You're right. I don't want to live anymore." And they take their lives. And yet every every moral country has a law that if somebody's jumping off a bridge, they call the police and the police take save him. Why? Cuz somehow we know that somebody to take their own life is not good. It's It's It's not doing anything to anybody. He's killing himself. The police will mix in according to the law and they'll take him away from the bridge. He says, "What do you want? I don't want to eat. I don't want to breathe. I don't want to sleep. I don't want to work. I don't want to make money. Nobody You didn't ask me. I didn't choose it. You're forcing it upon me. My mother brought me to the world. It's not my problem." You're right. None of us chose to be human. Yeah, it's the same thing. If a person was born a Jew, this is who he is. So, I could say, "I'm not human. I'm going to go underwater. I want to live underwater." But I am human. I can't live underwater. I need to live here. I need the oxygen here. I need to eat, I need to drink, I need to sleep, I need to get dressed, I need to work, I need to make some money, etc. Even though I wasn't given that choice, but this is who I am. Because this is who I am. So, what's the healthy approach to life? To embrace it. And to embrace it with joy. To realize this is who I am. This is my destiny. And the same is true when it comes to a Jew. He can make believe he's not a Jew, but he is a Jew. Or she is a Jew. And whatever I do, I won't change it. And if this is who I am, this is the instruction manual that defines my behavior for me to be who I am. I could choose not to. I could choose not to. Just like I could choose not to live in a way that is according to what a human being needs, as we do all the time. We sometimes do harmful things to ourselves, but it's not going to change my humanness. I'm not going to become a fish. I'm not going to become an animal. I'm not going to become a plant. And every sane country understands its obligation to protect the life of the person, even if he wants to take it. You understand what I'm saying? So, Torah does the same thing. Now, a person could say, "I didn't choose it, and that's it. I'm abandoning it. Okay?" A person could say that. That's true. But that's a tragedy. The tragedy is this is who you are. It's your greatness. It's your power. A person can also say, "I don't have a fa- I'm not obligated to my father. I'm not obligated to my mother. I'm not obligated to my family. It's not my choice. My mother brought me to the world, so that's why I have to respect her. My father decided to have a baby. It's my problem. I don't acknowledge them as parents." What do you say to such a person? He's right or wrong? He didn't choose it. His mother brought him into the world. Now I have to suffer. Now I have to respect you? Now I have to be close to my family. It's not my problem. It's your problem. You want me and your family. It's your problem. I don't have any issues with you. We know there's something off about this, right? You're not going to call this person completely healthy. It makes sense what he's saying, but there's something off. What's off about it? What's off about it is that all of the gifts that were given to him, he just sees as a curse. He doesn't see the blessing. Everything is a curse. You were given birth. You were given life. You were given a body. You were given a home. You were given love. You were given health. Right? We're part of a system. Everyone gives. Now it's your turn also to give. You can't just take, take, take, and not give. Everything in the world gives and takes. There's nothing that gives. From the sun to the oceans, from the soil to the trees, everything every animal, everyone gives, and everyone takes. Can be one person who says, "I'm the only one who takes." Part of the ecosystem is everybody gives and takes. Hatzo'at HaPesach, first days. Okay. Hatzlacha Rabba. This class is brought to you by the Yeshiva.net. Please help us continue the classes. Make even a small contribution at www.theyeshiva.net/donate.