Journey to London 2024: The Legacy of Sefardic Leaders From Ramban to Rav Ovadiah {Hendon BBM}

this Torah class is brought to you by Torah anytime.com America I think your mama's just arrived today and uh and I arrived and my stuff is still on the yeah their stuff is still on the plane and uh um and yes it's it's wonderful to have uh have from America come and speak to us and Enlighten us and thank you very much okay good evening gentlemen it's a great honor to be here this evening it gives me tremendous to see that even at difficult times young men gather to learn not just to learn T but to learn with AOS to learn gamar to learn Rashi and tus nothing destroys the sitra nothing destroys thear nothing does more for cl is than genuin Li I was asked to speak about a subject I don't think I ever spoke about this as a topic by itself the Legacy ofm I am I am not um I don't identify you know in America I don't identify as aardi although some of my family lineage May Trace back to Spain so I might have some saric blood but I was asked to speak about the ramban and actually I brought some notes with me that I read on the plane about the ramban but I left it on the plane I was asked to speak about the ramban's or and I have what to tell you about it but I left my notes on the plane so let me tell you a little bit about the rambana and then we'll speak about four the old time great you know there's a there's an amazing the says you know what the Mila of Spain over ashas was the ritv says all the of comes from one Shepherd as opposed to an ashaz where there were different streams of tradition in all the says came from ran it's interesting from the ran even the same who writes you know the expression they say about the ram that from Mo to the r nobody stood up like mha like the ram himself by the way ashaz don't agree with that you know if I were to ask you who was the greatest reine anybody know the answer who's the greatest Rish what rashash Rashi the Riff no the the an the rambam yes if you're AI don't agree with that there's a and also the brings that that RAB is greater than R you everybody wonders why do asham follow the RAB what about the r you didn't want to start up with okay but I'm here to talk about the legacy of the ramban the ramban had a tradition in cabala also the ramban was a of RAB Ezra R Ezra had G the writes the ran also had G I had a certain harha when I was at the mar if you come out of the mar you go onto the plaza and you make a left there is a Mata there that Legend has it the raan is there even though there are other places that ran is also purported to be buried but that this is one of them ran has a c at the and it hit me it's interesting that the ran would be buried right at the you know one of the most well-known teachings of the ran it appears in the beginning of it appears in it appears in it appears in what's one of the most welln teachings of ranim the ran holds that everything that ab and yob did literally created the future history and Destiny of the Jewish people so nobody more than the r upheld the value of every single of so you know his is right there right next to AB there is a saer the ran wrote called a saer which he debated a Jewish apostate named Pablo christiani this was a very dangerous uh proposition for the ran because it was a lose lose proposition you know if Pablo Christianity wins a debate it will be demoralizing for the Jewish people if ramban wins the debate then will he escape with his life there are a few things that I want to share with you the ran we have it if you look in the ran we have a saer called in the course of the argument they're talking about a lot of much of the argument is about you know did Mia come already or you know like the believe or like we believe you know we of course believe didn't come yet actually I once served on azdin in Queens of geros and the person was in the Mikvah and the rozen said to the person in the Mikvah you're going to be M mitz yeah you going to keep chabas yeah do you believe in Messiah yeah do you believe Messiah came or will come if you say he came we can't convert you they made the conversion dependent on that anyway in the course of this discussion they're discussing the so Pablo kushani says to Ran hey you know ran um what does it mean someone from Yehuda ruled from the beginning of time who who are these people Kao didn't have Kings throughout what the rabbis so paani says to ran who do you think you well you think you're such a big Rabbi that you fulfill so the ran says some rabbis did some rabbis didn't if you're called rebi maybe you have a certain kak if you're called RAV maybe not and then the ran says me I'm I don't qualify and the ran writes I said this to him out of humility out of uh politeness meaning he didn't want to boast and say really me yeah if there's anybody that qualifies to be me now the Ran So that hit me as very powerful here the ramban is debating this man about the basic fundamental principles of Judaism is challenging the ran about a in the but instead of the ramban basically hitting back and saying yeah I am I do fulfill I'm one of the eminent alltime figures in CLA is the ran shows in the course of a debate the fundamental principles of Judaism the ran says better to be an un of even than to you know get a undercut in better be better to show humility than to uh get a winning argument I thought to me that was very powerful it's one of the great hash of that debate was Pablo Christianity asked for safer from the ran where Pablo Christian and he said there in it says Mia may die and actually he made a mistake because that maybe the r talks about in a different saer where the ran brings such a opinion but slipped and he asked for and the ran says it's not there it doesn't say it there and yeah it does and the ran says uh um no it doesn't say it there and says well the r was one of the greatest ever lived on so they open up and the RAM and the ramban reads to him that a king is destined to arise and build the B mikdash and gather CLA is and it didn't say anything of the sort and the ramban says you think your your uh leader your God was mhia he couldn't even help himself he couldn't even save his own skin certainly not save anybody else so anyway this is considered one of the great acts of hash in this debate a few years ago I was in France at um at the location um excuse me in Spain at the location of the debate of the ran and Pablo christani so that's just a little bit about the ran that the says is so to speak the RO where pis comes from now I had a cha I wanted to go to thear of maybe the four alltime great now I don't know that there's you know in America they have uh some Matt Rushmore you know mat Rushmore you know the four greatest presidents of the United States I don't know if there's an official Mount Rushmore of but I guess in my own mind got to be you know the right in terms of um fi yeah the benai and rad right now rad not so hard to go to the Cav you know where it is it's say you go to sanhedria in saneda Cemetery is there and people come and they pour out their hearts okay so is not not such a big deal does on har but he wasn't originally on har he originally was buried on in lavaro so actually a few weeks ago let's say it's almost right two weeks ago I was in learno and I wanted to go to the original spot where the was buried in lavaro and I wanted to go there on the day of his burial meaning I want on his yard side who knows when the's yard side is so we were trying to arrange the trip so I should go to La it didn't work out it was a day off I was a little disappointed so you say okay you know it's not like you're going to his he's not there anymore moved they moved the from laar to Har but I don't know I wanted to go there I went there and I didn't realize I didn't know the original mat of the is in Leo it's unbelievable and uh it has on the side all the the wrote more than 70 or so you know and a lot of the that the wrote have the names of parts of the body so you have Mo you have sa sh you have a lot of the a lot of the names of the are from parts of the body and all all the are listed on the on the and all the buried next to the there is oh this was a bias by the this was one of the three who if you whatever your was with the that's you know that's your godas anyway so we were there on we came home shabas and I was learning on shabas on on chabas so he was buried on y so had it that I was to be at the original of the on the day the was buried only 218 years later the was n in 1806 and uh we were there in 2024 a little bit later but Mish exactly to the date by the way the has an amazing observation in the says you know the first comment of theama you have Miss Brew over here uh some something very interesting you know every time the the Rama writes something what does the Rama say what word does that with okay anybody know what's the first everyone says no it's not yeah says it's all about talking why does he say twice so the say because it's they want it to be to the in the beginning of their work 13 so two times to the in the very beginning of his work starts off which says what that means is one should always imagine their Mind's Eye the sh in front of them doesn't matter what you're looking at you're looking at your the wall you're looking at your friend you're looking at the sun you're looking at whatever you see there's sh in front of you and says you should be that's the last comments of the the discusses the is per something or is not anything you know do do you celebrate per I think according to the r and the r does not have according to other it does have says so we have two says the first the second is the says that if you're if you put the in front of you always then you'll be someone who you'll always be happy you want happiness if you always see and everything that happens to you and everything that occurs and everything that you do if you're you and one thing that's very interesting so this is officially um so so you learn you ever learn what of now they have an addition has I think what is it called he has a maybe something like that on the on the a lot of the of the were to connect in all MIT that you do to the shame I'll give you a few examples the says you know when you give he would say it says the arm is the V the hand is the he the the coin is the yud even if you use zel or quick pay whatever it's still yeah and then the hand of the on is a hey this way you're you're you're focusing on the sh in the or the would say that after uh daving so you should try to learn in your a little bit even and he says the is the the is the the V is the MIT and the is a lot of the a lot of the or um you know many of you probably were not yet M the mitvah of anyone be the says every time you say you should why because even though it's very interesting brings down what does mean shame the name should be made M and rejects that says that's not what it means it doesn't mean shame sh means shame it means the shame but the brings that that's the and therefore when you answer you should think you're being theah of wiping out because when is destroyed then hashem's name will become great again the sh will become the sh so you see in many of the of the it was focused on bringing actually uh I have a very special connection with the I mentioned my my family origin is from Poland my grandfather is a survivor of the Holocaust he was in aitz he was in Wars so he was a tal ra zba he was a Ben biased by RAM zba and before the war he also knew English so when he was liberated from the Holocaust the American Army made him the head of the religious Department Of The Joint The Joint was uh an office of the American Army to help the survivors so my grandfather after he was liberated helped the Survivors by printing the very first farum for the survivors and the first saare my grandfather published for the survivors was the LA D of the I have a copy of it it's in army green it was published in Germany in 1945 46 the LA D of the was the first saer published for the survivors in right after the Holocaust in rights in something out of this world you know you guys in England you're very polite you know you're very proper you're civilized so probably on purm it's a very elevated experience it's a very Sanctified experience you know even if there's a little bit of drinking I'm sure it's with tremendous Kad and and but not every in the world you know are the B uh on such a high level as they are here in right is that how you say it so the talks about that onm and uh where he quotes from the where the of PM are the greatest and of any time during the year of any time in our history says that if CL on this day would spend the day aside from being in especially in says he gives like a that if clo would dedicate themselves he says there it's certain for sure the G would happen right away it was it was very interesting to me I uh saw recently that one of the oldtime great Giants from the world from the mum the abov you ever the yob the abov was born the day the passed away on Al in 1806 so you see that connection between uh the and so to speak like the continuation of the the legacy of the and what was very interesting to me is the Benes Kai's parents were not able to have children right away and the Benes Kai's mother from Baghdad made the trick trip I think to Morocco to the abir yov to get AA and sure enough she gave gave birth to the Ben from the so you see you know like from the to the the now the Benes you know I cheated with the Benes why cuz the Baghdad Kev didn't work out into the itinerary for certain reasons we couldn't make it no we were about to go it just you know didn't work out but the har you know and then the mum say that he moved you know I think shimi one of the M Bagdad said you know the Ben moved from Baghdad to Har I go with that so according to that you know I got that K Ben is also what he was able to accomplish and the that he wrote this the the benai writes we have a letter from the Benes Kai to one of the great philanthropists in the sadic world um he says you know the benai originally was in a business partnership with his brothers his brothers had a whole business in India and they they supported him and somehow there was some kind of um impropriety that supposed that was discovered and the you know Ben was implicated on it and he was imprisoned because of it and when he came out he went into seclusion for some time in M you know his but the Ben at a certain point of time he could not continue to afford to publish his far and we have a letter from him I believe to the sason family that it hurts him more than the fact he can support his family is the fact he can continue publishing his far he even writes he has a historic and he's willing to sell the sa to for funding to be able to continue to publish his far you know when he was when he was young he discovered in the BR we make on havah we make four BR we make we make and we make so the want to know you know what's the reason for the order of these four why first and then and then and then um and then very simple then you move up to the nose then you move up to the eyes and then you move up to the mind so that's the the for the reason of those four now fi that was a tough one if if uh now I don't highly do not recommend anyone going to the Kev fagi in Turkey they're not that friendly to us right now nor were they when we went but at that time we didn't know any better and um I started learning thei I really loved a lot of his the not to be conf sometimes you seen a say for oh you know when you learn Yesa and you say you think it's you know any if you're if you're a proud you need to say no is but has many many tradition has that he has 72 and I like to say his you know R hutner would say that the yard side of RAB salant was every year R's yard comes out because RAB was the one you know there are a lot of people who they're very mid on you know as long as it's not interpersonal a lot of people are on or on or on different yeah so they'll run to do a Mitzvah and by doing so they'll step you know they'll put their dirty shoe on the guy step on a guy's foot he just shined his shoes so him so strived his whole life to put on an equal pedestal all Mitzvah in the anybody know what did rant do on AR y you know what would a big sadic do on Aram Kipper so we imagine big sadic on Aram Kipper probably woke up early he went to the Mikvah he probably was toal you know 101 times no no no let me tell what R did arer he woke up in the morning he davened he had a bite he went into the kitchen he took a hammer out of the the cupboard he put it under his jacket he went to the shoes and he examined every table and Shear so that to make sure there was no nail sticking out cuz if there was a nail sticking out somebody might rip their pants and whoever owned the Sho would be a mazik and there' be no way to pay back and he proceeded to go to every single Shool he proceeded to go to every single shol in the city so that there would not be any Hees in the city held you know that there was once aab of people who wanted to be and they were going to start to learn and they were going to start with and then go to shabis and then Ain and RAB salant said it's wrong you should not learn sh that way so why it's almost entirely is what should we learn so who strove his whole life to equate all he was would say like to say because there 72 get the 72 fagi anyway there was a little opening that uh somebody called me up he was able to arrange with the government to make a trip to Turkey it was for the yard side of the cats and I to be at the ofi and when on the day that we went to the K ofi it was the yard side of fi's son RAB fi ra fi was his while we were there we're walking around ismir and we see this C it's covered in dirt it's covered in uh weeds we dusted it off we cleaned it off and we read the Mata R fi the son of fi also a very eminent um God of is I had never heard of him before but uh I was honored that you know we cleaned off we were I came back to America I needed a share to say I give a share every Wednesday night and I'm looking for a sh I'm looking for a topic I'm looking for a topic I remember it was par Kisa Anda talks about breaking the and the topic I was looking into is are we worried about aara when it comes to teaching T is there AAR when it comes maybe there's somebody's standing up everyone's looking at them is there a in when it comes to so I saw first of all the talks about well maybe we should learn out that that say the were given in great Pomp and ceremony and therefore they were broken the were given in a more discreet Manner and therefore they were preserved so maybe when you teach T you should do it in a more M setting so I saw they quoted that fi has a Chu on it oh great I was justify fi so I open up the CH fi and he writes one paragraph and he says let me tell you something when it comes to this subject my son fagi wrote pages on it here let me c let me bring it right over here so a few days before I had never even heard of ragi and within moments of visiting him he he came back and he visited us so so there you have a little bit you have the ran the ran was the RO from which all pis comes from you have great and the andagi and of course Marana now I'm going to tell you my favorite story that nobody likes okay but you might appreciate this a little bit but uh it's not an easy one to swallow and here it goes so was headed to the south of Israel and and we're good no okay R was headed to the South and basically the babaali got win that rad was coming and this was going to be the first time that these two giants would meet fine so Raad is coming and the Babas is preparing himself and the basali meets R for the first time and he's Malala to him that RAB had the soul of one of the fine he then says everybody leave everybody leave everybody walk out he tells RAB the only one in the room at at the time he was a little boy and he stayed in the room tells he feels this it's an a that the two of us are together in the same room if we rash right now and we eat h m will come right now R looks at his watch he says right now no I have to go to AER so the babaali says yeah but if you don't wash right now I don't know when mhia will come says okay I guess Mia will have to wait and did not wash because the is that as important as it is to build a bikash even more important is the fact that you come together to learn T every night that's so it's an honor for me to to tell you keep up the great work and Mia should come after the S is over you've just experienced another Torah class brought to you by Torah anytime.com