Tomer Devorah with Rabbi Avigdor Miller 27 Ch 12 Asher Nishba'ata La'avotenu As You Swore to our

Shalom. We are in chapter 12 of Tom Devor. The next character trait of mercy of Hashem is as you swore to our forefathers. And Tom Devor says there are people who are not worthy and still Hashem has pity on all of them. And the inot explains this principle based on the verse. I shall favor those whom I shall favor. Moshe asked Hashem, please show me your ways. How do you guide the world? And Hashem said, I favor those that I favor. And the gar elaborates, Hashem says, this treasury, this storehouse from which I am taking out favors to bestow on people is a special storehouse. is for people who are not worthy. So, Hashem showed Moshe that he has a special way to treat people who have no merit. And I will give them I will give them a free gift. For people who do not have their own merits, Hashem has extra mercy on them. And he opens up a special closet, a special drawer, a special treasure house of mercy. Worthy people have other treasuries from which Hashem can draw more easily. But these people have no other place from where Hashem can bring something to defend or justify them. as a last resort. Hashem has another treasury for people who are not worthy at all. This is called [snorts] his treasury of final favor or grace that Hashem favors them and gives us a free gift. They don't deserve it. They did nothing to earn it and still Hashem in his kindliness desires to help them. Anyhow, why is this? Now as an aside we have to understand that uh a person has to be humble and therefore even if he feels he has merit I have I do I pray I'm connected to God and therefore I expect God to do for me that is not good even if a person does have merit, he should not rely on his merit. He should still ask Hashem to give him a free gift. That shows humility. And um really everyone desires to receive gifts from this treasury. Not only people who don't have merit. Everyone of us we ask Hashem to give us from that treasury because it will be a free gift. It will not cost us anything. It will not subtract from our merit. A person who has uh gava, he has pride and he says God I deserve, then he uses up his merits because Hashem says they have the merit that they come from the great forefathers or their own merit since they come from the forefathers. Oh, so he says the people who don't have their own merit, what merit does Hashem use? One of the merits is that they had ancestors. Maybe the person himself doesn't have any merits, but he's not lost. he may still benefit from the merit of his forefathers because Hashem says, "I swore to their forefathers and therefore for the sake of that oath I'm going to do favors for their descendants even if the descendants themselves are not worthy." So there are three levels actually. There's the level of a person who deserves. Nobody really deserves but at least he has some merit. Then there is a level of a person who doesn't have any merits on his own but he does have merits of his forefathers. And then there is a time our sages say in the future that the merit of our forefathers will be depleted will be gone because the more we use that merit the faster it gets depleted. If people are close to God and fulfill mitzvot and um do what is expected of them by Hashem, then they supplement their merits and Hashem doesn't have to use up the merit of forefathers. But as the generation goes down and less and less personal merit is produced, the more Hashem has to draw upon the merit of the forefathers. And our sages say that in the future, the merit of the forefathers will be gone. And then we're going to be on a third level. The third level is the person doesn't have his own merit and there is no more merit of the forefathers. What there is is Hashem will show mercy to the one that he decides to show mercy. It's only going to be a free gift. No credit from our forefathers. Completely free gift. Why? Because Hashem is merciful. But we're still speaking about the second level. Although the people themselves are not worthy, they should still be rewarded because of the merit of their forefathers. Because of the mere fact that they come from the seed of their forefathers to whom I swore. Therefore, I'm going to conduct them and lead them until they will be benefited in some way. This means Hashem is trying to benefit them even though there is no reason why they should should be why they should be helped beyond the fact that they are descendants from the forefathers and Hashem swore an oath to the forefathers. So this 12th character trait of mercy of Hashem's 13 attributes of mercy is as I swore to our forefathers that we can still rely on the merit of our forefathers both when um we need something and we asking Hashem for help or when we are thinking will I be able to accomplish this task? I need to do something but I'm concerned maybe I'm not going to be able to maybe it's not going to work and we have to know that we have special assistance from our forefathers. Don't just look at your own strength. Also consider the strength of our forefathers. They are standing there ready to help. And on top of that, the third level is don't forget about the strength of God Almighty. [snorts] that if you cannot do it yourself with your physical strength and your mental abilities and even if the merit the help assistance from our forefathers is not enough, Hashem is there and for him there's no limit and therefore a person should never be afraid to undertake a mitzvah, a new project. As long as it's the will of God that it should be done, we will have assistance from our forefathers and we will have assistance from Hashem himself. Now Tom continues, "And that is how a person should be when he desires to emulate Hashem." By the way, this week's para, we have the source for this mitzvah to emulate Hashem. As it says in this week's para, you should walk in his ways. Walk in the paths of Hashem. Just as God behaves with this trait of mercy of remembering for the person his uh previous merits even if right now he's not worthy. But what about his parents? What about his grandparents? Do they have anything to bring to the table? Do they have any merit? What about his great-grandparents? And if not for the last how many generations? But what about Abraham and they are their forefathers and they are their foremothers. We all come from the same f grandparents and therefore we should develop love and care for every Jew just for the fact that they share the same grandfather and the same grandmother with us. So Raber explains what does it mean you should walk in the path of Hashem. Just as he behaves with this mida, we should also do so in a certain sense. Of course, nobody can do it in the same exalted manner as Hashem. But to a certain degree, we should try to emulate him. cannot be perfect like Hashem but we have to try to approach to go in that direction that's why it says you should walk on his path so you go towards that it might be miles and miles away you not going to reach Hashem he's uh above the entire universe but we go on the path that he showed to us. And Rabbi Cordova continues, even if he encounters genuine reshim who are Jews, even if you see real bad people, he shouldn't be cruel toward them or try to shame or belittle them and so on. Don't write them off. Everyone who is a Jew has a spark in him and that spark comes from his nishama and from his ancestors. And Rab explains, of course, you cannot honor or praise wicked people, but we're not talking about that. We're not talking about flattering them. We're talking about having mercy on them. You must be limited by the fact that you know who you they are. They are children of our forefathers and therefore don't delight in shaming or cursing them. Don't make fun of them. Yes, they may have done bad things, but we don't throw them in the garbage. They are still Jews and we still hope that they will turn around and we still pray that Hashem should inspire them. You can pray to Hashem like you say every day and for the slanderers there should be no hope. Which means we ask Hashem that there should be no hope for all those who are enemies of our people. even Jews who turn against us. So in that blessing we do pray against all our enemies including the Jews. We asking Hashem to foil all their plots. However, when you encounter an evil person, you have to limit yourself in the way that you deal with him. You cannot put him down, cannot embarrass him, cannot um disparrage him, cannot tell him that's it, you're a lost cause, there's no hope for you. No, there's always hope. Rather, he should have a certain amount of compassion on them and he should say, "Despite everything, they are descendants of my forefathers." Abraham Yakov. Even if these people themselves are not worthy of my compassion at all, their forefathers were very worthy people. Same forefathers as mine. And when you scorn the children, you are scorning the fathers. Abraham loves all his children. Yeetszak loves all his children. As we mentioned before, Yitzak even loved Asav. Yakov for sure loves all his children. And therefore, how can we hate any Jew? And therefore, we have to think that we don't want that our forefathers should be embarrassed by me. How? by me putting down their children, the forefathers will be embarrassed. Now, Ra explains, "When a person transgresses a Torah prohibition, the the Torah says in paras that we have to give him lashes. How do we do it? We take off his upper shirt. until his waist. We put him uh slanty. He's leaning on something and we give him lashes. And the the the strap, the leather strap with which we lash him is long enough that it should cover his whole back and go around and touch his chest as well. >> [snorts] >> This is administered with the full strength of the officer administering the lashes and the lashes leave big red welts. Yet the agent may not add one more lash than is necessary. He has to count up to the number that the court assigned. maximum 39 and depending on his health it can be less lashes and he must count carefully because if he gives even one more lash than the court assigned that will be a sin for the officer himself. The verse states, "And your brother, the one receiving the lashes, will be shamed before your eyes." When you give him the 39 lashes, he deserves it. He's guilty and we give it to him. But after he received all 39 lashes, he doesn't deserve lashes anymore. And if I mistakenly or on purpose add one more lash, that's embarrassing for him. It's like taking an innocent person in the street and hitting him. That's embarrassing. Let's understand this. He was a criminal. He was brought to court, judged, and the ruling was that he deserves lashes. And he has already been put to shame because of the lashes. He's sitting there s standing there and he's getting lashes. He is embarrassed but still he's your brother and one more lash is going to embarrass him more. You have to remember that he is a descendant of your forefathers and it is forbidden to shame him more than the amount. The Torah says even a person who is being put to death for a capital crime must not be put to shame. It's it's enough that he is being put to death. Which means not only a criminal who did a minor offense and deserves lashes, but even a criminal who did a capital crime and is receiving death penalty. Even he needs to be honored and not embarrassed unnecessarily while he's receiving the death penalty. You can't spare him from death when it's mandated by the Torah. But since he is a descendant from uh our forefathers, he still should not be shamed. So we choose the most honorable kind of death for him. Now, Rabbi Corda finishes the chapter by saying, "Hashem, no, the person tries to cover up their shame and if it's possible, he tries to improve them according to his ability." Which means if we meet an evil person, we don't embarrass him. We try to save him from embarrassment and to gently rebuke them to bring them to the right path. Do whatever you can do. Even if the sinner is a complete rash, you could give him something to eat and tell him to make a bra. The rasha will ask, "What's the purpose?" Do it anyhow. Give him a chance. Give him opportunity to do even a small mitzvah. Do whatever you can to improve him even a little bit because after all these sinners are the children of our forefathers. Have in mind that the forefathers still have compassion on their descendants and they're still praying for each one of their descendants and that Hashem swore to our forefathers to give his children mercy. So we should also emulate Hashem and give another chance to every evil person. Of course, we have to keep in mind that if somebody is trying to hurt you, you don't give them them another chance to hurt you. You protect yourself, but you still give them another chance of compassion. Don't give up on anyone ever. These examples are given to us so that we should practice them. When you have a grudge against someone or you're jealous of a neighbor, of course you might be wrong entirely. But while you are angry at them and you think you're right, at least keep in mind that Hashem has sworn to this person's forefathers, Abraham, and Yakov, and they are interested in that person. Think even a little bit for the sake of this character trait of Hashem. I'm going to emulate Hashem and I'm going to try to think well of this person. You can use this attitude toward your husband or wife too. Even if they don't deserve in your opinion and even if they mistreated you, show them compassion and say, "I will be merciful towards them." Even though they don't deserve, I will be merciful towards them because they have their ancestors praying for them. I cannot hurt them and I cannot put them down because by doing so I'm putting down S, Rifka, Rael and Leia. I'm putting down Abraham and Yakov. We should practice these things even in a small amount. And even though you probably will not totally transform your character and become a sad gamur, a complete saint, but with that little bit you are fulfilling the Torah mitzvah of Thank you for listening. We'll continue tomorrow. Have a great day.