Tomer Devorah with Rabbi Avigdor Miller's Commentary 20 Ch 9 VeTashlich Bimtzulot Yam Kol Chatota

Shalom. We are continuing learning Tom Devor. We only have a few weeks left before Rosh Shah and we're trying to finish it before the new year so that we are ready to stand in front of Hashem and that Hashem should judge us um in a way that we should come out righteous and that we should deserve a year another year of good life. And we know that the the best way to achieve it is by showing Hashem how he should judge us. How do we do it? By behaving that same way towards the others. And um what better way can there be than learning to devor that teaches us how to treat every Jew with love, with respect, with concern, with care and um with patience and forgiveness. And that is our topic today. We're in chapter nine of Tom Devor. The ninth character trait of mercy of Hashem which is called in Hebrew. In English it means he will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. Tom Doro starts this is a good quality of Hashem. What do you mean a good quality of Hashem? Rabba Miller explains, "Not only does Hashem accept Teshua from sinners and forgives them, but he takes their sins and casts them into the sea." And we will see what it means. Once a person does touva, he is forgiven. Why does Hashem need to throw the sins far away? This ninth trait is a little a little difficult to explain. For example, we know that when parro Pharaoh and his army were drowned in the sea, it was not merely a spectacle that caused the Benet Israel to see the power of Hashem's hand and be so grateful that Hashem to Hashem that they sang to him. This is the famous song at the sea that we still sing every day in our morning prayer. That was definitely one of the results of that great event. When Jewish people saw the entire army of parro drowned, they were inspired to sing a song. Yet the author takes it a step further and explains that when Po and his army drowned, they took along with them the sins of the Jewish people. Wow. Amazing. Now we learn a secret here that what was the necessity for Hashem to drown Egyptians? They could have stayed in their country. The Jewish people ran away and everything's good. We call it tishuva. The Jewish people came back to the land, the promised land, the land of Israel, the holy land. They went to a wrong place, to Egypt, the worst of the worst. There they sank to the 49th level of impurity. They learned from the Egyptians and they served idols. They did other u things that were not according to their holy stature and they did they cried out to Hashem and said Hashem we don't want to stay here anymore and Hashem saved them. Hashem gave them a way out just like Hashem helps every person who wants to come back the person doesn't do everything himself. It says that in our fight against our evil inclination, our fight against our physicality is so strong that we would not be able to overcome it. We need Hashem's help to overcome the all we can do is pray. All we can do is say, "Hashem, please help me. I need you. I cannot do it myself. It's too much. I can't handle it. We make the first step, but then Hashem take takes us the rest of the way. So the Jewish people cried out to Hashem and Hashem sent them Moshe. He sent them the 10 plagues. He sent them Aaron and Miriam. He sent them the clouds of glory. He sent them the pillar of fire. And he took them out. Now the Jewish people are out of sin, out of the clutches of and seemingly that should be enough. Let them go to the holy place and shalom is. But Hashem said that's not all. I have to take the evil. I have to take the bad and I have to drown it. And Jewish people have to observe it. They have to witness how the place where they sinned, the people that stumbled them, their own sins are drowned. Very interesting. Now, Rabilla continues, "When a person transgresses and then does toua, Hashem accepts the tusha, but he also wants that person to suffer somewhat for what he did. You don't get away without some consequences and these consequences are necessary for the person's future because if the shuva would be very easy the person would mistakenly think I can sin and then just say I'm sorry. This is what uh little children do. They hurt their siblings and they say, "I'm sorry." And the parent says, "Why did you do that?" And he says, "But I said, "I'm sorry." And we know that when saying I'm sorry is too easy, then hurting someone will be easy as well. And therefore, when the Jewish people came out from Egypt, Hashem said, "I can bring them to the Holy Land straight south to north. They'll be there in just a few short days. But Hashem says, "If I make it too easy to come into the land of Israel, they will leave the land of Israel and they will go back to a sinful place just like that within few days." And Hashem said, "Therefore, I have to make the path of teshuah the comeback harder." And Hashem led them roundabout way through the sea of reeds, the reed sea. And therefore in our personal life, Hashem says it's not enough that a person does the shuva and says I'm sorry. I want to protect him from ever going back so that he has a memory. I remember how much I suffered because of my sin. I remember the punishment and I don't want to do it again. And therefore, people ask why does the Torah have so many punishments? [snorts] If a person does this, he gets lashes. And if a person does that, he has to pay a fine. And if a person does that, he has to get a death penalty. And if he does that, he gets cut. Why so many punishments? Because through the punishments, we're gonna take it seriously. Like commentators say, Rashi quotes that if a doctor comes to a sick person and says you should not eat this food, it's not healthy and you should take this medicine, it will heal you. So some people will take it seriously. Many will not. But if the doctor comes to a person and says, "You better stop eating this food, otherwise you're going to die like your neighbor died who ate this." And I warned him. And he didn't listen and he died. And you were at his funeral and you witnessed how eating this caused him to die. And then the person will take it to heart and say, you know what, I will put the picture of my neighbor's funeral always in front of my mind. And whenever I want to eat that not healthy food or I want to engage in that notalthy behavior, I will bring up the picture of my neighbor's coffin and my neighbor's grave and my neighbor's funeral. And it will serve as a reminder and a guard rail, a fence for me that I cannot pass because I don't want to die just like my neighbor died. So when something happens to a person that he interprets as a punishment, that punishment is very beneficial. The person should take that punishment, put place it in front of him. Just like David Aik said in I sin in front of me always. Why does David Hamel, King David need to place his sins in front of him? And that is because that will prevent him from sinning again. And that is the best um purpose of punishment. Punishment is not to let off steam. When a human being gets angry and hurts another, it's in order to release some anger. But Hashem punishes not because of that. Hashem does not change. Hashem punishes us for our benefit. What's the benefit benefit of punishment? memory for the future that we shouldn't continue sinning because then we will have to go through this punishment again and if we take it to heart then the punishment will be like uh the best reward because of that punishment I never sinned again in my life that if not for that punishment who knows where I would be. Thank you, Hashem, for giving me that punishment because it saved my life. So therefore, Hashem created a world that you don't get away without some consequences. Of course, without even when then even suffering is not enough. Which means if a person is stubborn and he does not admit his guilt and he goes through suffering, it's not going to help him because he will not attribute the suffering to the sin. >> He will just say I'm not lucky or Hashem is not righteous. God forbid he's not fair. Why is God punishing me? I'm a good person. I don't kill people. I don't steal. He thinks he doesn't steal. He thinks he doesn't kill. I keep the ten commandments. He thinks he knows what ten commandments are. And he thinks that the entire Torah is just ten commandments. He forgot about the other 63. And he says that the punishment that's coming to me is unfair. I'm a good person and therefore instead of becoming better because of the punishment I will become worse. If God is punishing me, if God is not treating me well, then I'm going to go against God. So in such a case, punishment only makes him worse. And um that's what our sages say that um that one rebuke for a smart person does more for him than 100 blows, 100 lashes for a fool. A fool will get one hit after another hit and he will not change. He'll just say it's by chance. He'll blame other people. It's your fault that I'm suffering. You caused it. You did it. He will only become more angry, more resentful towards others, towards God, towards his wife, towards his children, towards his um parents. Everyone is at fault because I am suffering. But why am I suffering? And he doesn't know that it's a message from Hashem. So a fool can be can get smacked 100 times and it's not going to help [clears throat] you. A righteous person will receive a verbal rebuke which means a a much lighter form of punishment and he will take it to heart and he will say wow thank you Hashem for pointing out to me my mistake. I will take it to heart. I will put that rebuke of Hashem and I'll frame it and it's going to be always in front of me. That one rebuke does more for a smart person than 100 hits for a fool. So without touva punishment is not is not going to help. The fool will suffer his whole life and he will not change. But a righteous person, he will do to Shuva and he will observe Hashem's message to him and he will take that message and carry it with him forever. But even with tshoua, the person must pay for his sin in some way. That payment means suffering. Hashem took the suffering that we were supposed to undergo along with our teshua and put it on parro and his army and drown them in a sea. And this is a better way for an even smarter person. Like they say, a smart person learns from his mistakes. He receives a rebuke and he learns. A fool doesn't learn from his mistakes. He repeats his mistakes. He suffers and continues sinning. But I learn from other people's mistakes. I don't need to suffer and then learn. I see how other people are suffering and I learn from them what not to do. So, Hashem said, "I'm giving Jewish people an opportunity to learn from parro. parro oppressed you and he was punished and I'm drowning him. And from that Jewish people, you who also sinned along with Egyptians, you should take it as if it's your punishment. Remember it. Sing about it every day of your life. That is why singing the song of the sea every day is so important. It reminds us of Hashem's guiding this world that there is reward for good and punishment for bad. And when we think about evil people being punished, we stay away from evil and we will not get punished ourselves. [snorts] When you see a criminal being led away by police, it should serve you as a as a powerful message. And you should say to yourself, I will not live a life like he did. I will do everything according to law. I will do everything according to the will of God because I don't want to be embarrassed and punished like this criminal. Hashem took the suffering that we were supposed to undergo because of our sins in Egypt. He combined it together without touva and he said the message together with tishua is going to be enough. And he put the punishment on par and his army and drowned them in the sea. That's how our sins were atoned back then and that's how they can be atoned again in our times. If you want to avoid punishment for your sins, do and learn from other people's punishment and apply it to yourself. And Hashem says, "You did to yourself the the treatment, the therapy, you applied the punishment to your heart, and I don't have to apply the punishment to your body. It's a little complicated, but pay attention and we will understand this subject. Tom Dor continues, Israel sinned, so Hashem handed them over into the hands of parro when they were being persecuted in Egypt. Why were Jewish people persecuted in Egypt for 210 years of slavery? It was because they began to lower their guard and became too friendly with the non-Jews. They fraternized with the Egyptians despite Ysef's warnings. When Ysef was alive, the Jewish people were righteous. Yseph gave them the land of Goshan, far away from Egyptians. He isolated them that they should not serve in parro's army, parro's government. They spoke a different language. They dressed differently. They had different names and they lived in a different land. But when Yseph died, Jewish people started spreading out throughout Egypt. They started getting jobs and government posts doing business with Egyptians and they started learning from them how to be a good Egyptian. Some of the Jews committed the sin of being influenced by the environment to some extent and therefore Hashem punished them by causing parro to make decrees against them. After they repented, Hashem accepted their teshua. But those sins still had to be compensated in some way. Therefore, he handed them over to parro. Because of the persecutions, they returned to Hashem and repented. If so, why would God punish parro? Likewise, we can ask another question. the conqueror of Babylonia who fought against the Jewish people. Hashem handed us over into his hand but then he was punished. And similarly, Haman the minister of Akashiro in Persia who was sent because the Jews of Persia had become too friendly with the non-Jews in the time of Akash or other similar cases. Why were we handed over into the hands of our enemies? Hashem does not console himself by just saying since they repented no more harm should come upon them. If so, Haman parro and sanif should be removed from them. Rather, Hashem gives us over into the hand of our persecutors. we do and we have to suffer a certain time under the dominion of our enemies and then Hashem punishes our enemies. If so, then Haman Har should be removed from them. Why should these persecutors be punished afterwards? Hashem sent the persecutors upon the Jewish people in order to induce them to repent. Once they repented, let Hashem withdraw the persecution and no more harm should come upon the Jewish people. Parro was sent to persecute the Jewish people in order to cause them to do touva. Why should parro suffer if he was chosen for that role? He is just a puppet in Hashem's hands to show Jewish people that they are on the wrong path. Since Israel, Jewish nation heard the decree of Haman to destroy them and [clears throat] fasted and did. Therefore, Hashem withdrew the decree. But then why should Haman be hangked? Hashem should have arranged for Haman to simply change his mind and withdraw the decree. Similarly, Sanhariv was sent to frighten the Jews into doing tishua. After am repented, San should have changed his mind and gone away. Why did Hashem have to bring destruction upon these persecutors? Par was destroyed. Haman was destroyed. San was destroyed. But this is not enough. Something must happen. Without teshua, a sinner deserves whatever he deserves. But even with tshoua, Hashem accepts the tshouva. But there must still be some payment to wipe the sin off the books. And that suffering can either come upon the Jews, God forbid, or upon their enemies. Rather, the wickedness of Haman turns back on his own hand on on on his own head. And so to parro and san. Instead of causing cli to pay for their sins, Hashem makes their persecutors accountable for the payment. And the persecutors must suffer for the sins of Isra. That's an unexpected kind of action that Hashem does because of his mida of kindliness. Instead of punishing the Jews, Hashem punishes our neighbors. We look at them and we say, "Wow, look at the power of God. Look at the strictness of Hashem. These nations were not good and they were punished. Let us take it to heart and we will become better. Haman was hanged to atone for the sins that the Ben Israel did when they were friendly with the people of Persia. Although they did to Shuva, they still deserved some kind of penalty for what they have done. But that penalty was placed on the head of Haman. With his hanging, their sins were finally entirely wiped out. It sounds perplexing, but that's what the author is teaching us. When parro made decrees against Ben Isel in Mit and they cried out to Hashem and repented, Hashem accepted their repentance. What about paying for the sins they had committed? Instead of putting those sins on the Ben Israel, on the children of Israel, Hashem put them on parro and his army and threw them into the sea. While this sounds like a strange and novel idea, it is found in Tanakh. As it says, I have made Egypt as your atonement and the countries of Kush and instead of you. That which should have come upon you, I put upon them so that we observe and pay attention and remember. So we have um explained how Hashem's kindliness works. Even though we deserve punishment, he puts the punishment on someone else. we call it he throws our sins into the depth of the sea. An example of that is parro and his army. And next timeem we will learn um how does it apply to us? How should we behave according to this character trait towards other people. Thank you for joining. We will continue tomorrow. Have a great