Tomer Devorah with Rabbi Avigdor Miller's Commentary 24 Ch 9 VeTashlich Bimtzulot Yam Kol Chatota

Shalom. We are in the middle of chapter nine of Tom Devor. We are in the character trait of Hashem. He will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. We said that Hashem forgives the Jewish people and any punishment that occurred on their account, he gives to their oppressors, our enemies. And the reason is because our enemies are the ones that usually cause us to sin because they create a negative environment for us. And therefore, when Hashem needs to find the um culprit, it's no longer the Jewish people because Jewish people did tesha. They regretted and repented and the punishment is now reserved for those that um caused us to sin. What is the purpose of all this? It's to teach us about a mida of Hashem. We are supposed to learn from the way Hashem behaves and we are supposed to behave the same way. Now we see that Hashem not only is kind from the beginning, he's also kind to those that don't do his will. He is even kind to those that rebel against him. And not only that, he takes care of their mistakes. He himself fixes them. He himself removes any damage done by mistakes. He suppresses our sins not to see them. He treats us uh like his closest relatives beyond the letter of the law. And now we're learning that not only that, but he also puts our our punishment onto our own enemies. Now the question is how can we emulate such a trait? How does it fit in with human beings? How can we do what Hashem does with evil people? We have explained that when Hashem must send suffering upon the Jewish people, it hurts him because he feels our pain like a close relative would feel his pain. Like um imagine if a Jew is caught sinning and there are witnesses and they come to the court and they say we saw this Jew um sinning and we warned him and he heard us and he decided to do it anyway and now we need to punish him. The court after Checking out the witnesses, they declare that this person is guilty and he deserves lashes. Now they need to appoint a an officer to give him lashes. And they call their best officer and they tell him at this time give him 39 lashes. And the officer comes into the room where the criminal is and he is shocked because he sees that the criminal is his own son. And now he has to beat his son and he loves his son dearly and he doesn't want to hurt him. And when he hits his son with a whip, he knows it's the right thing to do. He knows he's commanded by the court order to hit him. But it hurts him. And every time he hits and the son screams, the father also screams in his heart. So too when Hashem needs to bring suffering upon the Jewish people, it hurts him so to speak. Therefore, when they accepted upon themselves to repent properly, when the Jewish people recognize their mistake and take upon themselves not to do it anymore and they ask forgiveness, Hashem is so happy just like that father in that courtroom as he's about to hit his son and it hurts him and he's crying, he hears that the judge says, "You know what? We will forgive him and you don't have to hit him." That's the happiest day in the father's life. So too, when Hashem sees that the Jewish people repent, regret, change their goals, Hashem is overjoyed. Instead of punishing them, he can now reward them for their tishua. But he still goes after the friends that caused his sons to sin. He goes after the bad company. Hashem then um demonstrated his anger against the entity that had caused them to suffer. Who are those bad friends that took advantage of my son and led him on the bad path? And therefore, he goes after our enemies, those that created laws that would suppress the Jewish people, that would suppress their serving God. They would stop Jewish people from learning Torah. As an example, he caused Parro's army to drown in the sea because of what the Egyptians did to Ben Israel. They enslaved us physically, but at the same time, they also made us used to idol worship and other forbidden behavior in Egypt. And it took a long time for the Jewish people to get rid of those habits. On Yum Kipur, Hashem causes the goat of Aazel to be thrown off the cliff to atone for the sins of Ben Israel. Again, the goat of Aazel represents the and we're putting all our sins on the and we're saying, "Hashem, within our heart, our desire is to do your will." Who is stopping us? It's the it's a force outside of ourselves that God you introduced and if not for that, we would be righteous and inside, deep inside, we are righteous. And therefore, please allow us to throw that force away together with all our sins. And we throw that goat off the cliff. We cannot emulate this character trait in exactly the same way, but the author explains it in a general way as follows. So, Rabbi Cordova says, "A person must also behave toward his fellow man with the same character trait even if his friend is a rash." What does a rash mean? An evil person. An evil person means not an ignorant person. not a person who was uh raised in an environment who um that environment that did not allow him to explore his Judaism. We're not talking about that, but rather we're talking about a Jew who recognizes God, who knows the better way to live and um still he does serious sins and therefore such a Jew is sent punishments of heavy adversity. illness or poverty until he becomes a crushed ruined man. And now this person is humbled and um he is embarrassed by his retribution. So our obligation when we see that an evil Jew, a Jew who recognizes God but for one reason or the other sinned and then was punished and does regret. Now we should not hate him. After he has been shamed by this retribution, let him be like your brother. We know we have a commandment not to keep hatred in our heart against our fellow Jew. And that hatred is not about someone who is hurting you currently or someone who is sinning against God currently. Rather, we're talking about someone who hurt you in the past, but he doesn't hurt you anymore. but you're still upset at him because you remember how he embarrassed you or how he caused you pain and it's hard for you to forget. So the Torah is saying try to remove that hatred and treat him like your brother. This is based on the verse 40 lashes he should be given. You should not continue to beat him beyond these and your brother will will be shamed before your eyes. Which means that when a criminal is decreed lashes and he receives the required amount at that moment after the last lash he turns from a criminal into a righteous individual in our eyes because we caught him. We gave him the punishment and he received the punishment. At this moment, we forget about his sins. We assume that from now on, he's going to be righteous. And we treat him like that. We treat him like our brother. And if by mistake or on purpose, the officer gives him one more lash, that's going to be a sin on the officer because he just now hit an innocent man. [clears throat] The moment before he was a criminal who deserved punishment but once the punishment was given he turns into a righteous man and any lash or any harsh word towards him is a sin because he is now a righteous brother. Once the sinner has undergone that suffering, you consider him again like a brother. And therefore, Rabbi Corda continues, "And you should bring him close to you even though he once rebelled against authority and did what his heart desired. But once he is punished, you have to have pity on him. and to the contrary do whatever is possible to rescue him from his persecutors. This is how we treat Jewish people who made mistakes but now they are on their way back. Don't say his sins caused this to befall him. It's his own fault. rather have pity on him according to this mida of Hashem as I have explained. Now, Ra Miller continues, "Of course, we cannot do anything to demonstrate that we're going to punish someone's persecutors. It's not possible to emulate Hashem." Exactly. Because we're not in control. We cannot say I'm going to punish those that um gave you bad example. We don't know what happened behind closed doors. We don't know all the conversations and all the h negative encouragement of his friends. Who did what? We don't know. And therefore, we cannot assume and we cannot punish. Only Hashem can do it. But just like Hashem so to speak regrets that he had to punish. Likewise, we should be sorry for such a man in his plight plight. When Hashem has to punish a sinner, he um cries. When we see Hashem punishing another Jew, we should cry despite the fact that he had he sinned. We should have pity on him and try to help him and bring him close. Now, Rabbi Miller says a story. I'm reminded of an incident regarding a state supreme court justice who fell into great trouble and lost everything. He was once the most important person in all of the courts of New York State and [snorts] today he is a disgraced, forgotten, broken man. I wrote him a letter consoling him and telling him he should return back to his people and his faith. Of course, he didn't answer, but that's the of you should cast all of their sins into the depths of the sea. So, what did Rabil do? He realized that this public officer, this Supreme Court justice was punished and was given his due and was embarrassed. And now we have to welcome him again into our midst. And we have to give him another chance. [snorts] And we have to treat him with respect acknowledging that now is a time when he might rethink his life and regret and start again and we have to keep the door open. And by the way, this is an important way to deal with um our children. Often children do things against parents. They say hateful things towards their parents. They blame their parents. They might even physically hurt their parents, embarrass their parents in public. And parents are hurt. And sometimes they want to banish their children from their life. And uh we are learning now not to do that. Why is that? Even if God forbid your child is going against your ways and against Hashem's ways and they are not keeping mitzvot or one mitzvah and you don't approve of their way, you should still keep the relationship going and you should still keep your door open because at a time when they will go through trouble and they will be inspired to come back. If your door is closed, they're not going to turn to you. They're going to find consolation on the street. But if you tell them that despite everything you did against me and against God, I still love you and I am still welcoming you back and you are still my child and it hurts me that you are suffering. Then when our child will regret, will be hurt and want to come back home, he will turn and see is the door open. Is am I allowed back home? And if he sees that yes the door is open, my parents heart is open, they do not look down on me, they still love me, then the such a child will go back and return to his parents and he will return to his parents' way. So just like Hashem treats even a sinner, that's how we have to treat every Jew to give them another chance to show them that it hurts us that they're suffering. Welcome them when they come back. Hashem, we finished chapter nine and uh tomorrow we will continue to the 10th character trait of Hashem. and metlyov. He gives truth to Yakob. In the meantime, thank you for joining. Have a great day.