Letters of Strife and the Mechanism of Love - Parsha Pinchas - By Rabbi YY Jacobson

[Music] good evening i want to share with you tonight a very interesting story that takes us back to the 18th century to the jewish capital of lithuania vilna which was known as yurushalayim de litta the jerusalem of lithuania there was a debate that broke out between the group of jews known as kriyam kharits and traditionally observant jews the karaites were a sect that did not believe in the rabbinic tradition of judaism they did not accept what we call torah shabalpa the oral tradition articulated in the mishnah and the talmud in the midrash and so forth they remained loyal only to biblical judaism and there was once a debate between the carrots and their brethren the traditionally observant halachic jews the famous gon of illness rebellio cramer's last name was kramer suggested who was a student of the vilnigan he came from the city of pinsk to represent the jews the jews in their debate against the carrots now one of the first issues that the kyries brought up in the debate was the fact that the sages throughout the mishnah and the talmud and throughout the halachic literature refer to the bill of divorce between a man and a woman as a get gimmel tests again this to them was proof that the rabbis disassociated themselves from the bible in fact they invented a new judaism in lieu of biblical judaism why why did the sages the karate representative asked have to invent a new name for a bill of divorce the torah gives it a name in deuteronomy in the portion of kisetsi the torah calls it safer christos the torah says that if a couple is getting divorced the husband should give to the wife a safer crisis a book which severs them a book which cuts them off which separates them and thus the marriage is an old yet the sages were compelled to change the name and instead of calling it a safer christmas the new name is get gimmel tess this proved the carrot representative said that the sages disassociated themselves from biblical judaism who was a great scholar immediately responded and he quoted that famous tradition that is brought in sources in the tractate of getting attracted of divorce in the name of the jerusalem talmud and you can open up source number one because here we'll have the quote that he gave at that debate source number one right below the video you have a curriculum with the first source let me get it here thank you source number one reads schulte this is in the commentary of the shilt who writes a commentary on the mordechai one of the great rishonim interacted in the beginning of the first chapter los angeles where does the term get come from the jerusalem talmud says there's an animal that is situated in the cities near the ocean its name is gita and it expels all of its bodies all of its friends so here we see already that in nature there is an animal which acquired this name gita hence the sages used the name get to describe a divorce in which the husband and the wife expel each other and they separate they cut their life they separate their lives from each other they call it get just like this animal which expels its friends is called gita i should just note that in our texts of the jerusalem talmud we don't have such a statement but we do know that there are tract dates of talmud urushami that are missing but it is quoted in shilt from the urushima he quotes it from others it's quoted in haiti in the beginning in the laws of divorce so the carat representative says but why did the sages have to go to kraken to the cities near the ocean and find an animal called gita and use that name to describe the divorce that the husband gives the wife in judaism when there's a name clearly in the torah safe for crisis and yet they abandoned that name and they invented a new name in fact in talmud and in mishnah it's called gittin tractate gittin so there's an animal called gita which means it ex which expels all of its friends why do they abandon the biblical name the karat representative wanted to know and on this rabbi yehuda labe did not have a reply he came back to the vilnigan the story goes and he reported about the debate and the fact that with this question he was stumped and the vilnigan told them and said on the contrary it's the name get which demonstrates the brilliant depth that the talmudic sages had in biblical language and in the hebrew tongue and it's that brilliance which is conveyed by the fact that they chose this word of two letters get to describe the divorce process between a husband and a wife you see the villenegon said every single letter of the 22 letters of the hebrew alphabet from aleph to tough connects with every other letter aleph and tough make a word s based and tough make up a word bias a home hasn't it obeys on us of gimel and suff gulas is a biblical word the redemption dalai dansoff dallas adore hayensoft has case and you can go through the whole alphabet every single letter from the beginning from the middle from the end all the 22 letters are synthesized they are connected in some form or fashion i did the first and the last let's do the first and the second aleph and bays do they ever come together of course there's a word av father is aleph and base there's a word ba he came bay is an aleph she came there's a word be a well that's base aleph so in the tanakh we have the olive coming together with the base there's a word aveda something that's lost brings together an aleph and a base how about bayes and gimel of course beget a garment brings together bayes gimel and dallad a man brings together gimel and bass what about gimel and dallad get there a fence brings together gimmel and dalek daggell a flag we have together darlin and gimmel and so on and so forth take any two random letters in the alphabet you can try it out take dalid and tess that's a little uncommon nit stadok man stadium how will we justify ourselves the dollar and the test came together in the word nitstadak how about dalaran yad a hand or die enough a barrel why a biblical word men and allah come together there is not one word in the tanakh not one letter in the hebrew alphabet i'm sorry which does not come together with another letter now you may ask me there is no word in the tanakh which brings together the hebrew letter zion samach and sadiq you will not find a word bringing together these three letters but the zai and sama khan sadiq are connected in another way namely there is something known as there are five sources for all of the 22 letters of the alphabet zion sama shin reish sadik are rooted in the teeth zion samakh sadik you close your teeth bite the teeth to utter these letters the five letters aleph kes are rooted in the guru in the throat base in the lips there are hey matsuri five different sources for letters they're from the teeth so they come together so the bottom line is you will not find a single letter in the hebrew alphabet which does not connect in one way or another with every single of the other 21 letters of the hebrew alphabet either they come together in a word either they come together in a shirish which means in the roots of words every word has a shirish a grammatical root you'll find the letters coming together in a single root or you'll find them being integrated in the source from where they come from the mouth of the person but there will be some way in which every letter comes together with every other cell letter the zion and the samach the take any two letters they will come together in one form or flesh there is an exception and the exception is two single letters in the alphabet which you will never find under the same roof these two letters will never come together you will never find them in a single word they will never come together in a single word nor will you ever find them coming together in a single cherish in a single root of a word nor will you ever find them coming together in the place of the mouth these two letters are forever eternally separated in the russian codice in the hebrew language which two letters you guessed gimel and tess you could read through the whole bible you will find no word that brings gimel and tests together no root in the hebrew language would bring them together and they're not associated with the same source in the mouth gimmel and tess are hence the letters of divorce that's why the vilnigan said the sages decided to call a divorce again what does a divorce accomplish it painfully and sadly separates a marriage a union between a husband and a wife which is not just a technical physical legal union it's legal it's technical it's physical it's also spiritual it's soulful and that union is separated and it's an eternal separation the two are now separated they're not connected to each other even if they may have some things connecting them especially if they had children but as far as a husband and a wife they're completely separate from each other which two letters do they choose gimel and tess come together to make a divorce these two letters that are separated and never come together define hands the get the divorce so it's precisely their use of this word the vilnigan said that demonstrated their unique understanding of the structure of the hebrew tongue of the biblical language i think you can add to something interesting if you take a look bring up source number two taiswas writes in the beginning of massachusetts the reason is the custom to have 12 lines in a document of divorce a jewish document of divorce said because the word get is the numerology of 12 gimbal is 3 and tess is 9 so it's 12. now the obvious question is the name get is an invented name so the rabbis call it a get and then based on their name they say now we need 12 lines because the name is get that doesn't make sense it's not like the bible calls it a get so we say since get is 12 therefore you have to have 12 lines it's a rabbinic name and the rabbinic name is a novel name it's not rooted essentially in the biblical literature so why just because they're naming it get like the urashami says because it's an animal called gita so that's why they should make a law that you need 12 lines because in the name get you have the number 12 what's the logical connection tysters brings a second reason which makes sense what's the second reason the torah calls it safer crisis a book of divorce so it compares it to a safer torah a book scroll to save a torah we know between every hummus there is four empty lines separating one book from another book triboracious and schmeichel between schweitzenberg 3 times 4 is 12. since the get the safer is called a safer it's like a sacred torah so we have 12 lines taisuf says you don't count the lines between bamidbar and varyam since devarim the book of deuteronomy is only a repetition of the previous books which is why it's called mishna torah i understand this the torah calls it safe for christus so we compare it to a safer torah which has four blank lines between one book and another book but just because the name get which is a random name because of an animal that exists in kraken in the cities near the ocean called gita should we make a new new law that you need 12 lines what's the logic but of course the answer could be because the very letters gimmel tess represent separation it's not just a random name the very letters gimbal and tests which are three and nine those are the letters for some reason that the creator of the hebrew tongue felt in body separation the very letters represent separation and that's why they never come together gimel and tests somehow are allergic to each other they represent separation from each other and hence the very letters are connected to the concept and since the letters make up the number 12 therefore we have 12 lines and again one of the students back to the story one of the students of the villenegon who was present so the story goes listen to the novel insight that his teacher just presented and he said that based on this we can understand another very interesting phenomena that is in the portion of pinchas we have the commandment to offer what's known as the carbon dominant the carbon tamid the offering of the tamid tamid means constant perpetual was a daily offering offered in the sanctuary in the tabernacle and in the holy temple in jerusalem one sheep in the morning and one sheep in the afternoon every single day seven days a week 365 days a year it's the constant perpetual offering that the jewish people offer to god a lamb in the morning and a lamb in the afternoon the source of this mitzvah isn't the portion of pimples and you have it in source number three bring up source number three you have the eight verses and he goes through the whole source now take a look leave source number three open and take a look and the student says read through these eight voice verses and you'll find every letter of the hebrew alphabet is here the aleph and the beijing the gimbal the dollar the hey i'm sorry the owl of the bay is the dal every letter of the hebrew alphabet in these eight verses you could look at it yourself it's on your screen it's in your curriculum you'll find every letter of the hebrew alphabet besides two letters which two letters are gone are absent mysteriously you got it the gimmel and the tests are not present in this portion why why did the why were the gimel and test deprived from making their way into the eight verses of parasha's atomic the answer is open up source number four the gemara says and get enough time to come at base and in fact this is the conclusion of the whole tractate of the voice of gittin rebel said um someone who divorces his first wife even the altar sheds tears on him the altar weeps for the tragedy of this divorce of a husband and a wife who are the first couple who are first marriage the altar christ you know they tell the anecdote about the woman who comes to the rabbi and she says rabbi i need a divorce you need to make sure my husband gives me a divorce so the rabbi says how long have you been married she says we've been married for 45 years the rabbi says 45 years married and now you're going to get a divorce do you know what the talmud says that kulam agari shish nafalum is if you divorce your first wife the altar is also weeping so she says him from for four and a half decades i was crying now let the altar weep a little bit now what do we see from here that from all of the things through which we choose to identify the pain of a divorce we identify the altar somehow the mesbaiac the altar upon which the sacrifices were brought that's what weeps when a divorce happens why was the misbehave chosen why was the altar chosen at the surface you might say the altar is the place of sacrifice the altar is the place where the jewish people brought their sacrifices day in and day out the altar series and saw the value of sacrifice the value of sacrificing something of yourself for the sake of a higher truth a higher cause for the sake of your higher power of your god in so many cases a couple gets divorced because they are unable unwilling not ready to make sacrifices every marriage requires compromise consideration of the other person sacrifices of your own ego of your own priorities of your own schedules habits instincts cravings when the altar sees a couple which is failing is not ready to sacrifice believing that they'll live much better lives if they're self-contained the altar weeps on a deeper level the altar was the place where the jewish people offered their sacrifices to god which represented the relationship the marriage the bond between humanity and the creator between the jewish people and god and therefore the altar could not tolerate the divorce so the student of the vilnigan says that's why in this portion you don't have gimel tess this is the portion of the tummy the daily offering on the altar the altar cries when a husband and a wife get divorced because the altar cannot tolerate the gimmel test and therefore disportion expelled the gimel and the test all the other letters are welcome in parishes but the gimbal and the tests are excluded it doesn't tolerate divorce now here the obvious question is so many portions in the bible deal with sacrifices and offerings and altars the walter is the first time discussed in truman and in the book of leviticus different parts of bamidbar why is it only in pinacas in the parshas atomid in the tamid offering where we suddenly have the symbol that the altar cannot tolerate divorce gimel tess why from all of the portions dealing with sacrifices and from all of the portions dealing with the altars in the temple the one that the torah chooses to highlight and say here you will not have the gimmel and the tests representing the voice is the portion of pinchas why this one perhaps one possible interpretation may be based on an insight i had the privilege of hearing from the laboratory at a public gathering youth based thomas tafshin mamdaland the twelfth of thomas 1984 which was the portion of pinchas the fourth day the fourth portion revealed of pinatas dealing with the carbon talmud and the rabbit then explained the dynamics of the atomic offering as they apply to our lives timelessly as the torah emphasizes in source number three this is an oil atomic there were two types of sacrifices that were brought in the sanctuary and the temple one was known as a carbon oiler which had a different qualification most offerings that were sacrificed part of the flesh of the animal or the grain the meal that was offered it wasn't only animals there were also other offerings there were birds and there were grain offerings from wheat meal wheat flour or barley most of them a part of it was burnt on the altar another part was eaten by the kohanim by the priests and very often another part was eaten by the bilin by the people who sacrificed their offering so they were split up part went on the altar part one to the koan and part went to the masters the question was which part who exactly gets it how long they can eat it for where they eat it for but the common denominator of most sacrifices is that they're split between different parties then there was a sacrifice called the carbon oila the ila was unique that the entire offering was consumed in the flames of the altar no part of it was eaten or consumed not by the kohanim not by the priests not by the israelites who offered it it was a complete dedication to god completely offered on the altar this is called the carbon island now the carbon tumid the perpetual daily offering in the morning and the afternoon a lamb in the morning and a lamb in the afternoon as the torah clearly says in pinchas was it it was a carbon island was a offering that was completely consumed on the altar what does this represent there are two types of relationships that we can have with god one is a relationship in which i serve god but part of my service is the personal benefit that i get from it maybe i serve him because i want the reward maybe i serve him because i'm scared of the punishment maybe i serve him because i enjoy it i enjoy the meaning the depth the fulfillment it's an important relationship but this is a relationship that's primarily based on myself since i want the benefits that i will gain from connecting to you therefore i connect to you so even though i'm connecting to you and i'm dedicating myself to you and i'm giving you of my time and my energy and my resources but i am also i have a stake in it and i may have even the greater stake in it because i'm doing it because of myself i run the reward i'm fearful of the consequences i want the joy i want to appreciate the benefits of it and that's the primary motivation so who am i serving i'm serving you but at the core of my service to you is the service to myself they tell the story about abhishel salantar bisol salanta was the founder of the muslim movement rabbi israel lipkin and they said that he once saw a jew eating chicken very enthusiastically so he asked him why you're so passionate about the chicken and the jew tells him rebbe i love the chicken he says really you love the chicken and the juices absolutely yes i love this chicken he says wow it's interesting to see how you treat things you love you love this chicken so you had it slaughtered it's neck sliced it's blood spilled its feathers plucked its flesh cut into pieces and then sauteed or broiled or cooked and what's left of it converted into your blood circulation is this how you treat all the people you love you have them killed and then plucked and then you eat them up you don't love the chicken you love yourself you love your taste buds you love your abdomen the chicken happens to satisfy your stomach and your taste buds so therefore you're eating the chicken but the love here is not to the chicken the love is to yourself sometimes i say i love you what do i mean by i love you do i love you or do i love me and it's just by loving you my life is enhanced so when i say i love you essentially it's part of my self-love i need you you help my life you glorify my life you enhance my life physically emotionally financially spiritually whatever it is but at the core of my love to you is my self-consciousness in our relationship with god there's also these two things i offer an offering to god but i get much in return that's one type of relationship then there is the carbon oiler the carbon euler relationship is that the whole sacrifice is consumed by the altar that represents a jew who was committed to god not because of his personal benefit it's not that i am driven for me to have something better i'm rather committed to you because of you it's not on my terms it's on your terms and that's what the carbon atomic represents that every day the jew offered a type of offering in which he asked not what god can do for him he asked what he can do for god what he can do for truth it's not about enhancing myself and my life and my ego on any level on a primitive level or on a more sophisticated level but at the core is me rather i ask what can i do to serve truth what can i do to be here for god who created the world from something to not from nothing to something from nothingness to somethingness ex nihilo in the old latin term yes that's a different question lest you think that this relationship you can only have in the morning times of light in times of brightness and times of prosperity when you're very comfortable now you could afford to say ask not what he or she can do for you ask what you can do for him or her comes the torah and says every day in the morning as well as in the evening when the sun rises and when the sun is about to set wherever we are in our life whatever day i'm having whatever state of consciousness i'm in i'm capable of experiencing this type of relationship to ask not what you can do for me but what i can do for you and just as this is true concerning the jews relationship with god that at the core of the jewish experience is that when i wake up in the morning i ask what i can do for you and when about to retire i ask what i can do for you it's also true in human relationships because as we know human relationships mirror and reflect and they ought to mirror and reflect a relationship between the jew and god there are two types of love there are two types of relationships one relationship is i love you because you're beautiful so who do i really love i love myself and i enjoy your beauty whatever type of beauty it is and therefore i love you because your beauty gives me so much and then there's a different type of love you're beautiful because i love you i love you i'm here for you and since i'm here for you you become beautiful that's a different type of relationship and that's where presented in the carbon oil that's a relationship that withstands all temperaments it withstands all fluctuations it withstands all different transitions in life it's true in the morning and it's true in the evening when the sun rises and when the sun sets in the roller coaster of life when we're going up and we're going down if the relationship is based on my benefits continuously then it's temperamental then it's conditional then it's circumstantial and if i find somebody else who can offer more of these things at least in my perception i can easily abandon you for a new person but if the relationship is based on you i commit myself to you i want to be here for you it's about you not about me then in the morning and in the evening it will have equal power when i'm in an upper and when i'm experiencing a downer when i'm in a moment of exhilaration and when i'm in a moment of difficulty and challenge this was the secret of judaism the carbon tumid the sheep in the morning and therefore through very different circumstances through thick and thin they had a relationship with god because it was about god and it's this type of relationship that guarantees eternity that there's no separation and that's why it's in the tamid offering that there's no gimel and tess from all the sacrifices it's only in this sacrifice in this offering in which the animal becomes completely consumed on the altar representing that i'm completely involved in the relationship it's not about me and my ego and what i'm going to benefit no part of it comes back to me it's that i ask not what you can do for me i ask what i can do for you it's that type of relationship the carbon tumid which avoids the gimbal and the tests and guarantees a permanent and meaningful union it is true that there are times i should emphasize this i know there are people watching and listening who know this from their personal lives that a divorce saves lives sometimes there's no other option sometimes there's horrible abuse and dysfunction to the point that the marriage cannot be saved which is why the torah gives us the option of divorce sometimes there's no other way out despite the pain despite the tragedy and if that's what the reality demands then that's sometimes the right thing because some divorces have saved couples and have saved children but as we know and i'm not i'm not addressing those and the torah sanctions those in the torah allows it and sometimes it's the right and moral divine thing to do but very often that's not the case probably in most cases it's not the case and here the torus says what's the way of avoiding it that you have to have in your relationship at least the element of the carbonate to be able to ask not always what you can do for me but what can i do for you how can i be here for you based on your needs your desires your personality your conviction and your heart and soul have a wonderful night my dear friends as we continue to grow enhance the yeshiva.net i want to thank you all for all of your contributions even if it's in a small amount and i want to ask you we want 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