A Union is to be One - Part 2 - Rabbi Samuel Steinhaus

[Music] friends we talked about a relationship we talked about a bris what is the first step that someone completely unfamiliar perhaps like yourself thanks to take that first little step forward what is it the first thing we have to do is to get acquainted how do we get acquainted you know somebody somebody was following Terra ask them to show you what a Shabbos a Shabbos day feels like and his experience how it works get acquainted you don't have someone get a book get a Torah book and start start to study entire life one of the biggest mitzvahs one of the best things we can do is just to study Torah thrives on study on challenge that's one of the hallmarks after how many people have I spoken to coming from other religious systems so-called and saying we were told no questions Tara welcomes questions the better the question bigger the challenge we know the better the answer is going to be question clarify discussing you're privileged and there's a place where one can study nearby go there you know to yeshiva it's a rabbi it's someone who can guide take time and effort to study today it's a touch of a button on the internet study but study meaningfully get to grips with the issues get to grips with a background with a history get the sense of reality that flows through the entire Torah there's no imagination or fairy stories it's all documented with evidence in front of millions of people it's reality and if it's reality it's going to work and it does perhaps you haven't come in contact with it but it does get in touch you'll find surprises some of them pleasant and some not so every aspect of reality that we come in touch with in connection has aspects that we didn't expect not used to have patience take it in your stride understand connect do and you will find the answers if not immediately as you go along what do we do what we do in each other what happens when I study I study the Torah that Hashem gave to us on Sinai what am i doing friends yes I'm a messing information but more than that I'm a sitting and clarifying I sit in front of a target and I'm working on an issue and the magician isn't how to achieve financial go or even some kind of emotional it's to find out what does Hashem want us what man to do in his plan its moral it's right it's clarity and once you've got it it becomes part of you that's the beauty of learning Torah when you learn Torah and you clarify an issue and it's clear in your mind now that this is the way to go your own conscience your own sense your own sense of right and wrong has been honed to a higher level because it's not an imposed system it ties up but what do we know it ties up with that little little God's Word that's lying right inside us but hasn't been brought out to the full it's there and we just have to bring it out let me give an example couple of years ago must be 25 30 years ago the following question arose in the United States you know there are Siamese twins this was a classic case of conjoined Siamese twins and the condition was there was one heart shared by both twins the heart was closer to the cavity in the cavity of the one one heart running two babies now the doctors win a country because the doctor said look there's no chance that both will survive with one heart so it's either or either we operate and choose one to survive and the other has lost it oh we just let nature take its course and neither will survive now the interesting thing about this case was that it involved an Orthodox Jewish couple they were the parents it involved the government of New York because it was a State Hospital and it happened to also involved with the Catholic Church because the head of the hospital was was involved the Catholic Church so the question did the rounds in all of these different institutions from our point of view the question went to the great authority rabbi moshe feinstein there's a memory the authority on terror and he ruled and he said how logically if the heart is in one side the not in the other then to operate and if the one child dies child dies and the other owner survives survives if it's in the middle there's nothing we can do what's the basis what's the basis of this ruling so let me by way of illustration present you with the parachute story it's a story that I used to like throwing to a group of people and to hear their response the different responses the parachute story goes like this the analogy is very strong but the parachute story is imagine you're flying in an aeroplane and you have to jump out of the plane and land with a parachute you jump out everything's fine pull the ripcord the parachute opens a problem behind you there's another person and this other person is also flying comes down and his parachutes doesn't open and as he comes to you he grabs hold of you and you know that there is not enough in that parachute to support two people what do you do well you can choose your either say goodbye let him take the Paris and that's the end of yourself or you push him out or you just hope for the best and hope you land on a haystack not that many haystacks down below what do you do now there's a basis for this China and the first one in the Gemara the Gemara discusses the principle of one person robbing another person not of money but of his life and when a person comes to rob an innocent individual of his life says the Gomorrah he forfeits his own right to life and if I'm in the position to do so it's the one occasion where I may take the law into my own hands and save the innocent victim who is about to be murdered because the murderer is about to rob him of a life that he's not entitled it's a very powerful and very strong bit so that there's a very very limited application but does have application it's called in terror terms eroding her own if a half of Aaron Haga says the Talmud and Sanhedrin somebody's coming to kill another person you are allowed not only allowed you actually obligated to take the law into your hands and prevent that murder by even if it means taking the life of the aggressor the Halawa requires that when you can you shoot at his legs and not at his heart but if that's the only way to kill him that's it you may do so and you shall do so it's a very powerful Aloha and that is the requirement it has offshoots in that self-defense is a very similar situation because at the end of the day if I'm beyond being unfairly attacked I am allowed to shoot him first before he shoots the first volley so the question in the Six Day War did NASA stop the battle first or did we shoot the first volley is irrelevant in tera terms because her ball Ahura go home if it's definitely in crystal-clear that he's coming to kill you hush Gamla hoga the halacha gives you permission and requires you to kill em first very difficult but very clear now this doesn't just apply to a conscious robber but it also has application in situations where involuntarily one person has the right to life and the other person is trying to take it away from it ruled rabbi feinstein the baby that has the heart in his cavity is the owner from a Torah perspective of that heart the other baby is effectively draining him of his own life support system of the number one babies life support system therefore baby number two has no right to it since he has no right to it therefore we are within our rights to prevent that's sucking away of life support by baby number two and we operate and baby 2 dies within our rights a logically to do so now this matter of life and death Dara Shems will covers all and assumes clarity and moral clarity covers all issues this is what we're doing when we're learning Tara clarifying what does Hashem want based on what was taught to talk but to Moshe and signer they did it the one baby died and the other baby survived based primarily on the ruling of River function with the agreement of the government authorities one baby survived unfortunately it didn't survive very long there was other well there complications the baby didn't make it either but the conscience of everyone concerned was not only clear but it was strong it was sad it was difficult it cost life of a baby but Zell this is Tara Tara is clarity and action based on learning things well and learning the sources well understanding them integrating them and applying now I've given you the self in a few minutes to actually study the sources there's a few hours study to get through the source to see what the Mishna says based on which passage it is in the torah and then to go through the clarity of the different aspects of roundish and then take it to its furthest source in the Ramban short on our walk working out it wasn't something that falls off the tongue it was something that needed heavy and detailed clarity seeing the early authorities the later authorities how does it fit in how's it been applied its law its Tara law but it's the will of Hashem the beautiful will of Hashem this is an extreme case but the same laws guide us through the happy sides of life they guide us through our relationships they cried us through our festivals they cried out guide us through our mourning periods wouldn't know it and every situation that faced his guide was the great rabbi Samson riffle Hurst said he said the difference the difference between religion as perceived by most people and Tara the difference is that religion is man's view of God Ahura is connecting to through God's view of man Hashem has a will what's something of us and he's promised us that the relationship with him that we're looking for and the good that we're looking for all lie in that treasure in that treasure chest of his will so that by clarifying and getting ourselves in line with that will and referring back to the relationship discussion that we had in the previous talk by overcoming the weaknesses that want to threaten the relationship and dealing with them not allowing something to interfere we become better I become better the relationship improves and it's win-win it's God's view of man it's not man's view of what's going on we have that as well there's a lot written on the spiritual side of things and certainly an advanced era we study more of that but in basic Torah which everyone has to study it's God's view of man how do you build a life that is successful that is spiritual that's in line with the Creator because it's the creator's own instructions clarified Holland to a fine degree and then you'll ask a question so many years in saina how do we know that we've got it right let me answer the question tell me to joy music have you ever listened to the classics if you like a classic classics well composed a few hundred years ago there's not a man alive who actually remembers what the music that Mozart composed sounds like from outside or Beethoven Schubert or any of the classic composers how do we know that the music is accurate well your sense written down yeah but music is music is not just notes how do we know that it's got the feel that compose ahead well if you hear a great musician play music that was composed a couple hundred years before him and he plays it within his own interpretation of feeling then what has actually happened is that his own musical ability ties up with what was in the composer's mind and a heart and feeling and he's got it right another musician may get a different angle to the same music but the music is the music of the composer without any question because you can immediately pick up if there's something wrong one note played out a ton doesn't work each one of us has been built by the Creator with a fine sense of right and wrong highly highly sensitized and finely tuned but it's in its potential state hasn't come on as we get in touch with terror and we find tune and we learn our own conformation gives us our own sense confirms all along that what we're doing is right besides for the enormous evidence that we have that what we're doing is right because right is right innately it's not right because somebody else said you get that sense of right you know I mean if it doesn't click right it doesn't feel right then you've got to check it out it's the wrong notice krypton there's something wrong and we find that sometimes and we have to work on it and we clarify so there's an innocence in a powerful Torah moral sense that is honed and fine-tuned through the study of Torah and that leaves no doubt in our minds that what we're doing is what was intended Hashem left us not only with the Torah but also with systems to ensure that the Torah is studied as it was designed these are systems we have to study the thirteen principles of Torah Shanna dresses by him and other other systems that we have but we know when we see someone who is following Torah he doesn't need a lot of confirmation you see that he is where he is you see his greatness and you see that it's not superficial or charismatic or any of the other things that the imitations try so hard to follow but don't succeed friends it's there it's available today it's at the touch of a button go for it take time study learn whether it's the bible in flemish whether it's the Mishnah whether it's the Talmud whether it's other books that are available in English go study and may Hashem [Music]