Tomer Devorah with Rabbi Avigdor Miller's Commentary 22 Ch 9 VeTashlich Bimtzulot Yam Kol Chatota

Shalom. We are in the middle of chapter nine of Tom Devor in the trait of Hashem of mercy called he will throw all their sins into the depths of the sea. Rabbi Corda says this is actually the secret of the image of Nevad. Danielle in a vision saw a great image and the image was that the head was gold, the body was silver, the bottom part was bronze [snorts] and the feet were of clay. that was a symbol of the various um rules that would have power over us. The Galuyot, the exiles of the Jewish people and which one after the other would be destroyed. Now what does it mean? First Erit Israel was given over to the power of the king of Bav. He had the head of gold. So again the vision that Danielle saw describing the future first had the head of gold representing Babylon Bel. Why gold? Rabil explains it could be because of all our exiles in Bavil. The Jewish people had the best treatment like we say the golden era of Spain, the golden era of Germany and now the golden era of the United States. In Bavl, Jewish people had the strongest community. They listened to the central authority. They had an authority of uh the prophets. We're talking about Babylonia of um um before put story. The prophets were there, the leaders were there, their king was there, the nobility were there. And they really had a golden era. Some regions of Bavl were given to the Jewish people entirely. They had autonomy. Neharda was an old Jewish city. The walls around it protected the Jews with the government's permission. Now, Rabilia is speaking about uh Babylonia already after the second temple, which means from the end of the first temple, the Jewish people got to Babylonia. And they stayed in Babylonia throughout the 70 years of the first exile. [snorts] They stayed there throughout the 420 years of the second temple. [snorts] And they stayed there after the destruction of the second temple and um for a few centuries after. I mean even until recent times when the community of Iraq were moved to the land of Israel and when the community of Iran moved to Israel and to United States, Jewish people [clears throat] were in Babylonia in the present day Iran, Iraq and parts of Syria for about two and a half thousand years. For 2 and a half thousand years, Babylonia was a home to the Jewish people. And um even 2,000 years ago, Jewish people had autonomy over some cities like Neharda. They built walls around it with government's permission. There was also a re galuta what's called in English exile who was a Jew in charge of the political affairs. He was the the one who would interact with government officials and he would be the one who um was the the like the prime minister now like the president now he's not a religious leader but he is a political leader so um we don't have such a person in the United States but in Bavville they had like you would say the chief rabbi except that he wasn't a rabbi he a lay man who was um a political leader of the entire Jewish community of Babylonia. He was like a king. The Talmud Bavi, the Babylonian Talmud was set up in Bav and it is the more authoritative one of the two Talmuds that we have. We have Talmud Bav and Talmud Yushami. Talmudi was um compiled in the land of Israel and Talmud Bavi was compiled in Babylonia and even though it was compiled outside of the land of Israel, it is more authoritative. Why? because Jewish people could come together and learn in big yeshivot like surah and although it was an exile it was an exile in a place that was most favorable Jewish people didn't have to run for their life they could learn Torah openly they could teach Torah openly and they had huge huge yeshiv um Bate Midrash Midrash and um they they even had their own police force. Even though the Babylonians were rashim, they were evil and they destroyed the first beta mikdash. Still they are referred to as a head of gold because the Jewish people were welcomed in their lands until they became a Muslim. Then about 1500 years ago situation became worse. But still Jewish people were tolerated well tolerated until about um 50 years ago. Subsequently that head, the golden head was humbled and smashed in the vision of Daniel and Ben Israel were handed over to Persia who had in Daniel's vision the breast and arms of silver. So Persia replaced Babylonia. It was in the same lands of Iran, Iraq, part of uh [snorts] Syria. They were also beneficial for the Jewish people, but less so than the Babylonians. And in this manner, Persia was also destroyed until the Jewish people descended to the um legs and they were subjugated to the power of the worst governments, some of which were iron. And then they descended even further into the feet into the worst governments that were comparatively um made out of clay. We say that the the last um exile, the last period is called de Mashia, the time of the footsteps of Mashiach. But it's also compared to the e av is the heel. So we pass the head, we pass the body, we pass the legs, we pass the feet. Now we are in um the heel in the lowest part of the body. So this is a hint to the history of am is the Jewish people. With every galut exile, they went into a place that was worse than before. Now, Hashem, we have um some rest in the United States and we have some freedom and we have some benefits. At the same time, we witness a lot of anti-semitism on both individual level and governmental level from city officials, state officials and um the the the federal government. If you look carefully, you will see a lot of uh bias and anti-semitism, but we're used to it and relatively compared to other countries, it is good. [clears throat] We have other problems in the United States that we didn't have in other countries, and that is immorality, permissiveness, and friendship with the the nations that surround us. Um, and arguably that may be even worse. Um, but for those that utilize the freedom properly and they use the freedom to do the will of God, they have freedom to do the right um thing. They have freedom to follow halaka, Jewish law. They have freedom to learn Torah. And uh as always, freedom can be very good for people who know what to do with it and freedom can be very bad for people who don't know how to use it. This is one of the reasons that Noah wished well upon his son Ham. And he said that it would be better for him to be a slave because he saw that when Ham and his children were free, they started being immoral. They debased themselves and um it was not good for society to have such free actors and free thinkers. And therefore, no said it would be better for you, my dear son, to be a slave to those that uh will give you proper instructions and will control you. If you don't have self-control, then Hashem should give you over into the hands of those that will control you. So for Jewish people, it is the same. A Jew that knows how to use his freedom to serve God. For him, freedom is the best thing. We wish to be freed from the yoke of the nations. But for a Jew who doesn't know, who gets lost and does unhealthy things for his body and for his soul, we say um that actually the subjugation of the nations of the world is good for the Jewish people. When the Jewish people were under the subjugation of the Russian government, they do didn't do anything immoral. They had spouses. They were loyal to their spouse. They had family unit. There was no discussion of same gender marriages and of many other evils of society. There in in the Soviet Union, there were no conservative Jews. There were no reformed Jews, reconstructionist Jews, Jews for Jesus. God forbid all these things were not known. Everyone was a Jew, an Orthodox Jew. And uh yes, there was no freedom of religion, but at least you did not exchange your [clears throat] religion for um freedom from God. Um, now for the the the Orthodox Jewish community in the United States, it's a ha haven and heaven because we can build yeshivot. We can build synagogues for the most part without restrictions. We can send our uh children to Jewish school. We can study Torah. We can disseminate the Torah. We can have websites like Torah anytime and uh many many others and uh Torah is available to everyone who wants. So for us freedom is excellent and we wish for more of such freedom. But again for those that are less committed for them freedom is not serving them well. Now we continue with um Tom Devor. It says Rab Cordova continues and what is going to be the good end of all this. Finally, Hashem will reconstitute the entire image and judge them. Coming back to our topic, we said that Hashem puts punishment on to our enemies and the thereby he cleanses the Jewish people from our sins and all the nations will come back into existence to be judged. Even the ancient nations that are no longer around. First, Hashem smashed the image of the nations over the course of history. Bavl went down, Persia went down, Greece went down, Rome went down and so on with uh Spain, with Germany, with Soviet Union and many other nations were judged for their own sins and for their treatment of the Jewish people. But in addition, on the final day of judgment, all the nations will be set up again with their full presence, and they will all be judged and smashed down together, the nations themselves and what came out of each nation. Because we say that not only the original 70 nations were physical nations but they were also spiritual and therefore they passed down their philosophy and their ideology and their soul to nations that replace them. For example, ancient Rome is not here anymore. Ancient Greece is not here anymore. But their philosophy lives. ancient Persia and ancient uh Babylonia are not here anymore, but their philosophy is alive. And so any nation that accepts their culture, their philosophy replaces them physically as well. But he says that the actual representatives of the original ancient nations will also rise up on the day of judgment. The day of judgment or the resurrection of the dead is not only for the righteous. It's only also for the sinners. And the sinners will be judged, punished, and destroyed. This judgment is essential to remove from us, the Jewish people, any taint that we gained through our sins throughout history, similar to what was affected by the goat of Aazel. Now, as an aside, in some Yeshivot you see, especially Yeshivot that are for ballet tesha, um they have a a shelf and on that shelf, boys that come to Yeshiva and change their life, they see that what stopped them from being productive was their smartphone. phone. So these boys out of their purity of heart and innocence, they take their phone that they spend hours and days on and they wasted their life and their potential and they after doing tishuva, they feel so bad that this um instrument caused them so much sin that they take this phone, they take a hammer and they smash it and they put it on display on that shelf saying that I conquered my addiction. I conquered the evil that I was holding in my hand and now I am free. Whether smartphones are good or bad, we can argue about. And of course uh for someone who knows how to use like we said someone who knows how to use freedom it is good but for majority of people who stumble and get hurt from the extra freedom that smartphone provides it is not recommended. And of course, children are in a category of someone who doesn't know how to use their freedom. And therefore, children should not be given smartphones until, preferably they get married. Once they get married, they're more safe. They're not running after their friends, after the fads, after the uh w winds of society. they are settled and it's not recommended even after they get married but if they want it's their choice already it is less dangerous but for children who do not yet have a developed mind to judge what's right and what's wrong how much when and where it is uh highly recommended not to expose them to smartphones so again why do these boys when they become religious take their smartphone and smash it because they follow this um idea. They probably didn't read what we just read in Tom Devor but intrinsically they feel that this is the right thing to do. You take the object of sin and you destroy it. In addition to your tishua, in addition to your regret, your remorse and changing of your ways, you destroy the object of sin. It could be after they leave yeshiva and they get a full-time job, they might get a phone again. So then you'll ask, why did they smash the old one? They should have just put it in safekeeping. And the the point is that it is a very powerful um tool to help you cement your tishuva and change your ways to smash the object of your sin. Later they'll put a filter on it. They will have um software on it that is called accountability software where someone receives an email every week with a list of website websites that you visited and that will protect you that you should only visit kosher websites and it will save you so much time and so many forbidden images will not enter your soul because you took precautions of putting a filter plus accountability software. But at the beginning of our um path towards God, we should separate ourselves from all bad influences and even destroy the object of our sin. So similarly, Hashem not only accepts our teshua, but he also wants to destroy those that caused us to stumble and that includes the nations of the world. Now, Rabbi Corda quotes from the soon we will read this. >> [snorts] >> I will use up all my arrows against them. What does it mean? The Gar makes a certain induction from this statement. My arrows will be used up, but the Jewish people will not be used up. When you say, I will finish my weapons against my enemies, that's not a good thing because my weapons will be finished by my enemies. Not, God forbid. So for us, it's a good thing when Hashem says, "I will use up my arrows against the Jewish people because it's a prophecy that the Jewish people will survive. Hashem will send all his arrows, but the Ben Israel, the Jewish people will not be destroyed. The arrows will be sent against our enemies and our enemies will be the sacrifice like the goat of Aazel that finally purifies Am Israel. So we have a choice. If we do not change and we stubbornly stand against God, then the arrows that are directed to the Jewish people will fall. God forbid on the sinners. However, if Jewish people back down and they say, "Hashem, you are our creator, our king. We will serve you and we will not rebel against you anymore." Jewish people stand away from the path of rebellion. Then these arrows that are flying will find a new target. They will go to the nations of the world and the Jewish people will be safe and uh the Satan will receive his portion. In Danielle's vision, if the nations have already been destroyed, what is the purpose of reconstituting them and destroying them again? These ancient nations were punished already and were wiped off the face of the earth. They only remain in in museums. Why do we need to resuscitate them and destroy them again? This is Hashem's system of judgment against all those who caused suffering to the Jewish people. After the Jewish people accept Hashem's judgment and repent, then Hashem, so to speak, is sorry that they suffered and takes their suffering and puts it on their enemies. Even though the enemies have disappeared, Hashem will bring them back again and make them bear all the sins in return for what they did to AmI. Because if the nations of the world would support the Jewish people, the Jewish people would excel. If the nations of the world would not interfere with the Jewish people, would not put stumbling block, would not um put the Jewish people down, the Jewish people would be in a much better place. But because the nations stopped Jewish people from serving God, they closed Yeshivot. They closed Mikva. They um made laws against the Jews. Therefore, when the Jewish people become weaker and they sin, it is the fault of the nations. as um they say that if the nations would know the benefit that the whole world got from beta mikdash, they would send armies and to stand around and to defend it. And they would send armies to instruct the Jewish people, please serve God. Please go and learn Torah. they would actually encourage the Jewish people and supervise make sure that every Jew is doing the their share in the service of Hashem. So, Rabbi Cord continues, "Then they destroyed all the copper, silver, and golden parts together." As it says in the previous verse, he smoked the image to the feet. Everything was destroyed already. Only the feet remained which were smitten by Hashem at the end. Nothing was left of the whole image except the feet which represent the final uh exile, the Rome that we are in already for 2,000 years. Because the might of all these nations was already gone, the head, the arms, and the torso and even the legs. And despite the fact that in the verse 34 the entire image was destroyed one section after another in verse 35 it says they were destroyed all at once. The sequence of these verses indicates that the image was reconstituted and then destroyed in its entirety at once. Someday, Hashem will make s and the wicked people who were his agents and did his deeds and actions stand up. Meaning the wicked people of the nations who persecuted Israel will have to come back to life and Hashem will execute his judgment against them again. The truth is when they brought suffering on ami Israel, it was the will of Hashem. Ami Israel was faulty in some way. Which means nothing happens to the Jewish people if it's not decreed by Hashem. And why is it decreed by Hashem? Because Jewish people sinned. However, once the Jewish people repent, then retroactively there is no reason for the punishment. So now whose fault it is? The nations of the world who punish the Jewish people who are innocent. Now the Jewish people repented and now Hashem looks back and says, "You caused pain to my child." And Hashem, so to speak, regrets having caused the Jewish people suffering. Therefore, he takes all their suffering and puts it on our enemies again. But Hashem, we are making good progress and hopefully tomorrow we will continue. In the meantime, thank you for joining. Have a great day and hesto.