Eretz Yisrael: Promise and the Mitzvah | Rabbi Dr. Aaron Adler

Bogatov, we have a minute for the pregame show. Wednesday morning's shurim at the Bet Midrash program here in Rkavia in memory of Daniel Ben Davidid and Limudbat Abraham Strauss and Morai Ben Moshe and Raisel Bat Moshe Yseph Meer Marcus Zona parents of Judian Manak and Marcus. Our share as usual is in memory of Alva Frist Alisha. I will send all of your regards to the congregation Shorah of Cincinnati this Shabbat, right? But I will be here next Wednesday. Have no fear because Tuesday I have to be home as you know. And as I told my son Etan, I don't care if you put me on the wing. I am coming home. >> I am the coming home. >> The pilot seat. >> The pilot seat is only if, god forbid, something happens to the pilots. I'd rather that not happen. I'd ra My wife said we should buy a plumber simulator. >> A plunger. >> A plunger. Right. Got to become a plumber. and then upset. >> Uhhuh. I'd really not prefer to be in the pilot seat this time. Yeah. So, nevertheless, uh I did find out from the rabbi of the shul there that this coming Shabbat there's a national program in throughout the United States and Canada of Nephesh Benesh sponsoring Kdesh in shul for for the price of having someone speak about aliyah. How's that? knows you have to you have to you know put the cougal in the in the stomach. So you're speaking about >> so the rabbi told me he says being that I'm coming what a coincidence you know so I will be the one talking about aliyah except that it's not a coincidence there's no such thing as coincidences the raam says this in the laws of uhot says if you think that god forbid sot was a coincidence then a kadosh will god forbid send more coincidences until you realize that there's no such thing as a coincidence but we are supposed to react to things that go on in our lives and if put me in Cincinnati for the Shabas that turns out to be a nephish sponsored kiddish shabas and it's part you know so um I guess I have a mission um to deal with so some of the things I'll be saying shabas morning actually comes from this particular sh on you can't go wrong with you talk about the mid the first um call to Abrainu to pick himself up and to go to Eritkan which will ultimately become But if you look at source number one where it says you know you have in this p um basically um two very fundamental ideas about coming to Israel. One is what I call the legitimate reasons why not aliyah. Well, well, there's family there and there's connections and there's uh there there's there's national feeling and the homeland and all kind culture and and and and so many things that that hold people back and yet tells Abrainu you have to break loose basically in that phrase you have it all all the uh the the reasons and I'm not you know belittling the reasons they are they are serious considerations and more often than not override the desire to come to Israel because it demands an awful lot of nephesh self-sacrificing as we will see in a few moments but the phrase to the land that I will show you you see they didn't have ways so didn't have a clue exactly where he was going to go to with his destination was not clear. And it's interesting that the second time that was told and indeed he's told twice is at the very tail end of next week's par with regard to the and you should go to the exactly where exactly should he go? out a general direction but specifically when you get close I'll point out the mountain [clears throat] I will specifically point it out. So the point asked the question why in both cases of these both in was not told the destination but he's told to start moving start moving. So D said made several comments here and he said that the very very movement is also important. Sometimes people travel and obviously it is a mode of traveling. It could be a car. It could be a boat. It could be a train. It could be a plane. Whatever it is, a mode of transportation, but the mode of transportation is just the the vehicle to get you from place A to B. So A was important, B is important, but you have to bridge the gap between A and B. You have a mode of transportation. But what you do on the way is just, you know, try to just get over it and just get to your destination as quickly as you can. But here is basically telling that the the way to get to Israel is also important. And the second is when you're initim. And uh if I already can jump ahead in the notion of kadusha, the sanctity of Israel, the hala distinguishes between the sanctity of the land and the sanctity of yushion. It's two different halak categories that carry with it different realms of prohibitions and mitzvot that go along with the package of the kadusha both in terms of all of it is and all of yim. So there is an advancement to go to your I'll even cite a Mishna at the end of there the Mishna is talking about marital relations and what happens if you have a couple init and they're contemplating aliat is except that one party wants it badly and the other party is lukewarm or downright against. We all know people in this uh shisle in this category and the question is how do you deal with it? Um more often than not um schlomiat becomes the the answer. Uh where sometimes the schlomiat is the person who really wasn't happy about aliyah goes with it because the other party wants it badly and sometimes the party that wants it badly gives in and sticks sticks you know sticks it out stick it out in in hutzlar. So that sometimes happens. But what the Mishna doesn't say as a factor. The Mishna says divorce. The Mishna says that the party that wants aliyah has the upper hand in a divorce proceeding. So if it's the husband, he wants to go on aliyah and she doesn't. So you have to you can coers her to go on aliyah and if she refuses, she should be divorced and forfeits her tuba money. But if she's the one to go, so it's just the opposite. She can get the baiton to force the man to give her a get a divorce and she gets the maximum of the which means the party in a marriage that wants aliyah has the upper hand. And then the Mishna continues the same language which means if you've got the couple live in BVA maybe they were born and bred in BVA or or they came in al went to BVA but now one of the parties wants to move to so the same haka actually applies says thatim has has this advantage of living in a place of kadusha. Now, if somebody's going to tell you that um this doesn't apply today, well, you can just check out the Rambam where he says that this applies in our days even if there's no sovereignty, Jewish sovereignty init. It's just a mitzvah across the board. Yeah. FGI, >> what defines? >> Okay. So, Fagi is a u u a guide of the old city of Ullayim. And I don't get uh I don't say you are. You you by my my odds you are you are and I don't get any commission for this but I can tell you that there's a lot to learn with walking the streets of old city of Fagi. Um you will discover that we can archaeologically somehow pinpoint where was everything is everything is approximate but where was the bound where were the boundaries of in days of beta mikdash that is very very important thing to know in terms of the of today and then there's the expanded which is I guess in conformity with um what was told we just read is going to expand and today that's from you know the Ramote in the north and and Gilo in the south and the Harnof in the in the in the west and so on. Um I I I always talk about the greater Jerusalem which simply means wherever bez has O2 in the phone number. So that's going to take you that's maybe more even but that's going to take you beyond already uh gadv and uh and and gushion and malim and bamesh and uh that's why if somebody has kura in bamesh it can be considered possibly kurabalim because you know it's an o2 number to call the cemetery there >> no so the kadusha so mim is asking about the kadusha there you need the sanhedrin that's a mishna in Sanhedrin the first page we have the told the Mishna of the first page that in order to expand Yusayam from the point of view of its sanctity you have to have a decision by the Sanhedrin that's going to happen that's going to happen and then we who live here in bring let's say to Corban Pesak we're not going to have to dip into somebody's you know Dalamos in the old city to eat the Corbin Pes but you can take it home to Ravi you can take it to Katam take it to Gilo take you to to Ramote and you'll be able to eat maybe to BM yet and be able to eat the Corbin Pesak there because Corbin Pesak can be eaten only in a variety of other corban. So that's going to happen. So you're right that you have to specify the boundaries the boundaries for example the Rambam says that the law of mdash says you have to have awe not fear or obed this obligates on certain for example you now to spit on the ground. So spitting on the ground in Tel Aiv is that's just a nice not a nice thing to do. But if you do the same thing by the cotel by the way which is in the area of kadusha you violate a biblical violation of mknashitu you know how to do it or throw a piece of garbage down. You have a gum wrapper and you know you don't find a garbage pale you throw it on the floor. You might have done that you know in Afoula or in Bereva. All right not a nice thing to do. for sure not but in it's an isra you know to do that >> by speaking on the phone right in front of the >> speaking of phone right in front of depends who's on the other line maybe it's a you know maybe you don't know maybe you're getting a request from you have to be you have to be maybe somebody's calling you to ask for to be pale for a particular person and uh you know okay it can be right it can be you have to beame no doubt But even further, the Rambam says that the mitzvah biblical command of taking for seven days is in forget about is only and we do it today only because of the mikdash. But he says that mitzvah is invoked today as well in effect. So if you live in the old city in the places that are marked within the borders of yushlay of old you have a biblical obligation for our baminim for all seven days. You may say what's the difference in Tel Aiv they're also taking a lof. The difference is that in day 2 3 4 5 6 and 7 we are lenient for all kinds of issues that occur to the Lulu and not so particular about all the the the the uh all the strictures and so on. But inim what you do on day one you have to do on day three and day four and day five. There's no there's no leniencies there. And that is very very important. without getting into the question of blowing on Shabbat which is aim issue that there's a history to this as well. So anyway, I'm just pointing out that that there's and there's there two and the said furthermore that both of these cases the um the journey is important because he said that the Torah never actually spells out the destination in both to teach you that what's paramount is that you're making the journey. You're moving. And he's not really talking about the physical journey. He's not saying uh you know all right you know you lived in St. Louis, now you move to New York, so you're closer. No, no, no, no, no. He's not talking about that. He's talking about that there's a certain spiritual elevation that takes place with aliyah that perhaps we were never even educated that it should take place. I can tell you I learned a lot from my father, but perhaps the most insightful idea that he told me was that um when we talked about the aliyah with yard sites, so people say that a shama should have an aliyah. That's a common phrase which I always remind people. I don't have a clue what that means. It's a cabalistic idea. I don't know what it means. People say it. >> I What? >> You have an aliyah, right? You have an aliyah. They said I once wrote an article about going on aliyah. Getting an aliyah. Going on aliyah. It was printed by the ou many years ago. The u the the little catch there on the word aliyah. Aliyah. But my father alam said when the day he came in aliyah in 1993 he felt his nishama had an aliyah. Now that's something that I can explain hakically by the way that's not that wasn't cababalistic. My father wasn't a makub but um there is something to it. You can actually feel a little energized spiritually by by being here and that has something to do with the movement the movement of coming to Israel. And that's why the Torah in in lie of giving us the precise destination ops to tell us about the movement towards to the land to the mountain that I will show you that is no less important than the arrival at the destination and and that that is very very important. So that's really the first the title of the year is when you ask people generally go to and do a a survey right we love that word today a sec right a poll an opinion poll right in case you maybe you're not reading the newspapers enough right on the hour to hear the latest poll which yesterday's polls are different and tomorrow's polls are going to be even different right it's just entertainment. That's all it is. It's an activity to keep the newscasters and analysts busy, make a living. It's parnosa. Don't ruin their living and so on. But uh as many of us know uh the day after election day, people look back at all the polls and they say, you know, they should put some of the pollsters uh on unemployment, >> right? Or or as Dr. Yseph Borg used to say, stay away from I play on the word, right? stay away. But if you did it >> opinion is that the polls were people got it wrong. >> There you go. Polls right, people got it wrong. Yeah, you got it. You know, without even, you know, playing a joke in the memory of Schuman Perisol Shalom, but he won every poll and lost every election. So, you know, just uh be careful with the polls. Be careful. But anyway, if we did a poll at Takamarazid on some Friday afternoon where you had a zillion Jews there coming in and out um and and and you asked the question from when do we have the mitzvah of Israel, many are going to point to and they're all wrong because doesn't give us the mitzvah. the mitzvah you have to wait all the way until I'm sorry and I think I have it here on source number seven source number seven just dropped down on the first side the mitzvah as the ram and source number eight says source number eight on the bottom of page source number eight seven and eight. So the Ramban says now when the Ramban says ali this is my opinion he's already warning you that there are other opinions and of course what he has in mind right now is the Rambam who lived a little less than 100 years before him who does not count living in Israel as one of the 610 613. It would be a horrific mistake to suggest that the Rambam was against Israel. He was not against Israel. He has reasons why he didn't incorporate it into the listing of the 613, but he's in favor very much so of living in Israel. The Ramban goes beyond the Rambam and says it's part of the 613. Yeah. >> Oh, Rambam doesn't include Ramb. >> Correct. You got it. Okay. When he says alati, this is my opinion. You see already that he's warning you that there are those who uh disagree, but this is his opinion. So the mitzvah part of living in Israel is you have to wait till the end of Bidbar. There's no rush, you know, because they're in they're 40 years in the desert. So they don't have the mitzvah yet up until that point. So now they get the mitzvah which is very nice. They're on the threshold of entering a terri which is the very end of parat mas. I mean sepharim is there's no action going on in seafarim except at the very end when mushenu passes away otherwise it's just narrative it's just it's not narrative at all it's mitzvah it's review it's review of the Torah and so on so what do you have inl you have the the promise and the promise and the mitzvah are two different things they're two different things so one of the concepts of of the mitzvah is of the ha of the promise is called let's use let's try to define the word. So you may be familiar with it in a colloial sense when we say he has a kazoka you know how can they not give him maft this year he has a kazoka he's been getting ma for 10 years and and so on and you should know we do use it in that if you have something that's done three times you you have a handle on it that you have some ownership over it and that's derived from bababatra the third chapter that if you are the owner of a land or property field and nobody wouldn't contest that property for three years. Then even if you lose your documentation, but people can testify. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This guy is in this house three years. So it's going to be yours if let's say 10 years somebody comes and you know tries to evict you because um one second it's my land. My land okay bring documentation. I don't have documentation. My grandfather burnt the the the the the contract and so on. I don't have it. So say we're very very sorry but this family is living here for three years they have a kazaka. So that's called and from there is derived the whole notion of it's actually the derives it also from the concept of shamuad the shore the ax that gorge three times is upgraded to a different status from tam to muad and the gor deres the idea of three from from there but you have the idea of after three times it's it's already you have a kazaka on it and so on so what is the idea We have a on it from our forefathers. That means they lived there. Abram was there three years and it's no no just I used as an example example to understand what the word means. It means you've it's yours. You've got a handle on it and nobody has the right to replace it. That's what is and that begins in and that's why say from our forefathers. This is going to take us back to so the question is what do we have in to to give us some body some content to this this promise this assurance that builds the so here we have in the para what I actually snuff out is four different and the question is going to be why does Abraham Aino have to be told four different times that I'm going to give you Israel Um was he uh was he so unsure of himself and he needed to hear it a second time and a third time a fourth time? You can doubt that if you look at the first source again and then it just jumps to the seventh because in the interim picks himself up and he starts moving. He's given the promise in source number one in the second line and Abraham is told by your children my gosh he doesn't have children yet right this is before he doesn't have children yet right so builds a and this was his way of and actually it's type of thanks Thanksgiving to acknowledgement of the but this could have been enough. This could have been enough. But then in source number two, what happens is you have the the squar between the shepherds of Abraham and the shepherds of Lot, right? His nephew Lot. And they're arguing over the land. It's uh if I can simply quote each one's grabbing the garment and each one says it's mine and they're standing in bait. What do you do? And you know what the Mishna says there? Saysu okay rip the garment in half whichally means sell the garment and split the cash. Doesn't mean rip the the the talis in half or rip the talit there means a garment or rip the winter coat. Nice. nice nice winter coat and so on. All right, let's take a you know a knife and cut it in half. You got one half, you got the other half. Then obviously nobody has has anything. You sell it and you split the money and the question is when do you say that's already a shir in Matsia but the the headline of is two are holding on to the tal and and they neither of them have witnesses that they own it. Neither of them have documentation they bought it but they're holding it and holding something conotes ownership except that two people are holding it. So the mission says fine. So now two people own it. Each one has 50% share in this. And I cite this to see what happens immediately. How does a kadu resolve the well Arafenu resolves it by saying okay he suggests to the shepherds of Lot. He says you know what you look right or you look left. Pick whatever you want for yourself and we'll keep the other half. If you go right I'll go left. You go left I'll go right and that's it. which is an interesting policy of partition, partitioning the land. And then the Torah says in source number two, after the Lot family separates from him, lift up your eyes and see from where you're standing, neg all the four directions, north, south, east, and west. Whatever you see all around, just gyate 360 degrees. It's going to be yours. And your children, you're going to have children. You won't be able to count them, right? They're not going to have a long enough stub in the in the to have your children's names and birthdays and numbers. That's going to be so packed. because they can't count the dust, the dirt of dust of the ground. That's how the census of the your children, your progeny is going to be just walk back and forth. And and there's a that says that one of the ways you can actually bring about a canyon acquisition of a field is simply by walking back and forth on the field. I mean there are things that you have to do. Put up a fence and this that. But but here says all you got to do is just walk back and forth the field a few times. Let people see you're doing it. They see it's your field. So whenever you go on a here you should say this. Right. Right. Right. The question is if you're yo if you go on a bus you you laugh. I once had a a big you know here in my RA was here for a visit once and uh he gave a speech at the U center actually when it was the OU center and he had to get to uh to for some other occasion speech whatever Shir and I think somebody there whether it was Sam Shaw somebody asked anybody want to volunteer to take to I raised my hand right away you know like why not you know I drove the r I drove Rafa was a big fine so I took him and in the car and he was Marvi in 197172. So he um he uh he he told I asked him I said when it says whoever walks four amote for amote is six to eight feet not a big deal from here to the door that's it init it's you're guaranteed a person of I said does this work if you're in a car on wheels so he looks at me and he says you know why not I said I said this there's a reason I'm asking the question because I think this might emanate from the mitzvah of aliel and aliel had to be by foot. Had to be by foot. If a person limps, the person is exempt from the mitzvah of alerel. There's no aliial regal in a wheelchair or you have to be able to walk and walk firmly otherwise you don't. That's a shar. I'm not going to go into this now. You're going to have to trust me on this one. So I said if the concept of Israel emanates from the mitzvah of aliel you can't go up to aliel on a bus or in a car it has to be or in a helicopter for that matter has to be walking hasel it's not an accident calls it it's means by foot what >> I have two feet >> you have two feet but it's three times but Three. I got you. But it's three each. >> Yeah. Little tangent to what you're saying though, but starting off the other with they weren't the best friends so to say, you know, he had other hand went to war for him. >> Absolutely. >> And also my question also after this is why did not negotiate? Why did he go to war right away? Why why didn't he try to negotiate with the other kings? Why did he go to war right? >> Okay. So for first of all with regard to the first comment indeed Aramino saw lot as a nephew and he was willing to be Mosene nephesh to to to save him and you see he does go to war to save lot who was captive captured in by sudome in the in the war fine we we see that in the in the continuation of the para he had no gripe against the lot there was a territorial issue here pointed out that sometimes partition is a temporary solution and I emphasize iz the word temporary. Do you know that in 1947 when they voted for partition most of the people in Erit Israel were jumping for joy didn't jump for joy because he felt that you should rip created because we just gave up part of Israel and it not only Rafuya the cook I remember when the Israeli government several years ago withdrew from parts of in a deal in a political deal Korea she says we gave up you know our sovereignty to a certain degree. But the point was that sometimes for pragmatic considerations, you you should do it because yahud is not based on all of nothing. Not based on the whole is not it's it's striving for all and hope for the best that you do your best and so on. Not everybody's going to achieve the the 100%. You do your best. And so too with with the idea of Eritz is as a political entity you do your best but if you can only get a sliver of land. So at the moment take the sliver of land. I mean after the shawah we needed the sliver of land that the UN was willing to give us. It actually because of the war of independence became a sliver plus a little more. After 67 it became a lot more than that and so on. But the RV basically acknowledged that part of the brit part of the of Israel is that there will be occasions where we're not going to have all of Israel. And that's why says so you should understand that the second the second promise is linked to the division of the landare after Ramino separates from lo he gets this unbelievable promise. It's all yours. which means you have to understand that even though you gave up something, let the record stand. This was only temporary. Temporary. And you're going to get it back and you're going to get it back. And that's the second uh and this this basically talks about political uh pragmatism which sometimes uh has to be employed and uh you can't just have the the ideal vision and it's all or nothing because if you do have that, you may end up with nothing at the end of the day. Um I mean this was part of the issue at Bay Cheney at the destruction with Rabohim and Zakai and the others and um there were those who of the Kamim who felt that we should not revolt against Rome and and just hope for the best of what we have and there were those zealots who felt no we got to beat them and so on so on and they went for broke and lost everything basically lost >> and he said because he realized that the only thing to do was to salvage and teaches us that amuel will continue albeit limping in the words of Jacob solely limping uh but will survive with Torah. We can survive without beta mcdash but we cannot survive without Torah and therefore it's not beta mikdash that defines amrael as the Greeks and Romans thought. They had it wrong. They had it wrong. It's Torah that defines Ami Israel. And then comes the third promise. The third promise is source number five and that's the war. I'm sorry it's source number four rather source number four it says and what you have in the is what we call the britbarim the britbarim is the covenant that's where you have the uh rainu is told to actually slice um some animals and to walk through this is very gory the whole scene with the britbarim and the question is why we call it betarim between the sections of the cut animals. Um, and says in source number five, which is the I'm going to jump down to the middle middle of source number five. You should know your children are going to be strangers in a land and it's interpreted as Egypt obviously. They're going to be slaves there [snorts] for 400 years. But don't worry, I'm going to get them back at the end of the day. Whoever they are, they're Egyptians. You're going to walk out with your pockets filled. You are going to pass away. You're not going to see this. This is an interesting point of morality. says, "I can't do it with you because the Amorites, the Amori nation, they're not ripe yet to be thrown out of Erit Israel. They haven't degenerated enough. I have to give them another four generations for them to really, you know, hit rock bottom that they deserve to be thrown out of Israel." And then it says in that day cuts the covenant with Abraham and you will get this land. And here we have borders mitimahara is interpreted by some as the wadi elarish which splits the sinai peninsula in half from the north of of the of the the b the theran down south to shamal this is one opinion rashi believes it's the nile river which is cairo and I remember in the yamipa war the the word was that sahal pas asking like Rashi because they went over the uh the the Sewish Canal and we were 101 kilometers from Cairo on this way and Nihara Parat the Euphrates River is way beyond Damascus way beyond which means if you live in Damascus in theory you're living in Erit Israel the the Syrians don't know that yet but all right the and then it gives us the nations pi the nation is not usually known later on but um you have here 10 nations don't we usually talk about seven nations of cananan yeah because the keni kinesi and kaboni are not usually counted because they weren't conquered and the tamudali says this is waiting for messianic days for yam mashiach we're going to take over the kimon kinesi areas and Then there are four different opinions. If you want to check me out on this, it's in the midv. There's four there are four different opinions as to the identity of the uh nations. Where are they? The geographic location of these nations. So some say it's part of Asia and some say it's part of Africa and some say it's east of Israel. But the most interesting to me is the opinion that says it's Turkey. Yeah, >> it's Turkey and Hashem one day when we get Turkey, so we're going to have all the water in the world. There's a lot of water supplies in Turkey, you know. I remember we were there once on a on a mono cruise and we in Turkey at a gas station. They just had a faucet of water just running. Nobody ever shuts off the water there. There's so much water. It's like a waterfall. Every forcet of water. So, we'll have that. But I also understood why we eat the dried figs from Turkey on tubishvat because one day it's going to it's going to be part of and the question is who is going to get the lands of ki kines and kadoni if the other lands are going to be divided again by the 12vatim. So the answer is the ga rim the converts are going to have to have a nla a section init is and because the sections were divided already by Yeshua in the in the days of entering at Israel so where will the where will the gimm the converts live and the answer is they're going to be given as anakla these uh enexed areas of ki kadmoni kinesi wherever they may be but we haven't forgotten about the cibur the community of the gay So now you have this and the Britim is introduced if you go back to source number four with and after all of these things happened and Raji tells us there's a difference between and if it says it's connected to the above. If it says we've turned a new page it's a new subject. It's a new story means connecting to the previous chapter. And if it's separated and that's what Rashi says it's connected between the words disconnected like mlot disconnected separated separated from each other and here it says and what Rashi is trying to tell us is that what we get in the coming the ben of is integally connected to what we just read before which was World War I. It was the war of the four kings against uh the five kings. It was World War I. And what were the issues? You know, there's not an extra puk in the Torah, not an extra word in Torah. There's not an extra letter in the Torah. Yet, there are 14 sukim that give us the political background of what this war was going to be. The revolt, we get the battle itself, what we call in Hebrew Moresha. you get the the the battle stations and so on. All to find out one little detail which under microscopic observation is that Lot fell into captivity. Now that's the reason that we need the story. That's the whole reason we need the story. Who cares about the previous 13ukim? Why do we have to be told four kings five kings was this and the names and so on and they what's going on there was a merit sh they started fighting what do you need this for the said to teach us that part of the britarim you think this is just a wonderful thing britbarim it's a nice contract with we're going to get it's all hunky dory is it comes with a price tag. We are going to be involved deeply involved in every single international conflict in the world whether we like it or not. It's part of the deal when you study world history ancient of the ancient times and you study about Assyria Ashure. Before Ashia it was Aram and after that it was Assyria Ashure and afterwards it was Bavl and afterwards it was Paras Persia and afterwards it was Greeks and afterwards Rome and then it was the Byzantines and afterwards it was it was the Ottomans and after the Ottomans it was the British mandate and so on and after the British mandate even with state of Israel there was already I remember clearly I'm sure you do too that the six- day war six day war was fought on the battlefield between ourselves tal and Jordan Syria and Egypt But I remember sitting in New York City in ninth grade and listening to Aba Iben, our our foreign minister at the security council with with Arthur Goldberg on one side and Federinko the the the Russian ambassador on the other side. That's where the war was being played out on the diplomatic field between the in the cold war between United States and Russia and we're a little pawn in the middle in the middle. So what was the britbarim? Two hefty animals on the side cut. And who walks between Ramov is going to walk between all the maamote in Hebrew which means all the great uh what's the word? All the superpowers of the world all the >> all the atamoth all the all the powers of the world. And this is connected to Gary as we walk through the same thing. The scene of the Yamsu is the same thing. [snorts] Once koma is spelt with av which means a wall protection and once it's without av means anger which means they're ready to pounce on us these sides of the yams and crush us and kill us and so on. Who decides if it's going to be or if is with a kadosh it's going to be and if not it's going to crash in and it's going to be and it's going to be a lot of anger and destruction and so on and we will walk through. So sometimes we were able to withstand the the maimote all these powers in the world and sometimes we unfortunately collapsed and capitulated and so on. But this is the destiny of amel and this is the root of the britbenarim. We had to hear about the first world war of the king four kings against the five kings and Abramina would have been perfectly happy sitting on the porch and learning dafimi and uh and taking in a little sunshine and on his rocking chair but no he heard that lot was captive and he had to go and join the war and take sides and and save Lot. This is who we are all about. Don't forget for one minute. So there's, you know, the the world, it took the world a little bit to find out, a little bit of time to find out what we knew already for quite a few years that the war between the Muslim nations and Israel has nothing to do with geography. How could it be to do with geography if you have 23 nations and countries and millions of million people and and you think a threat is a little sliver of land with 600,000 people in 1948. If you think of a question of geography, you're making a big mistake. It had to do with theology and it took the world a long time. Now check out Paris today. Check out Italy. Check out Michigan. Check out New York City. They're they're finding out that this is a world war. It's a world war against Western liberal values and Islam. And Amis is caught in the web. We're right in the middle of it. Nothing's changed since Aramafino went through the Brit Bane Habitarian. >> He didn't want he should have negotiated that. Is that what you're trying to say? >> I'm not saying anything. I'm not >> I'm just telling you I what what I'm looking at the scene as we see it in the in the modern era it's a replay of it's a modern version with different actors and different garments and so on but it's the same Abrahamu Ben Abrainu and we're going through we're going through things and we know that the formula to get to the other side is to continue saying and we have to do it and we're going to do and uh and it's happening even in this country. We've spoken about it more than once that the um one of the very positive um derivatives of October [snorts] 7th three years ago is the elevation of the spiritual atmosphere in the country. So you know some people say it's nonsense not no no no it's far from nonsense but spoke often about the difference between religiosity and spirituality and spirituality is very very important and uh we're seeing it in front of our eyes but beyond this third there's a fourth ha and that's source number at a fourth time we're told you're going to get and it goes with Abraham. Abraham end of source number six. So if you want to know what the source what the root of Brit is, I'm not going to get into the of who does a Brit, who's obligated, who and so on. Um the root of Brit is nephesh giving blood for others. Giving blood for others. And it's linked with the mitzvah of corban pesak. And that's why they are the two only positive mitzvot in the Torah where the non-compliance carries with it the penalty of karate. And karate while being a little bit of a mloet. So most seem to interpret it as uh unnatural death be below the age of 60. But the Rambam doesn't buy into that. The Rambam believes it's the loss of and total detachment from Israel. And uh what the Torah teaches us that with regard to a person who's uncircumcised cannot eat from the Corbin Pak Torah doesn't say that if you're not circumcised, you can't put on fillin or keep shabas or eat kosha. You can a person who doesn't have is obligated in all the mitzvot to so why is he boxed out of pesak because it's linked the purpose of the brit links us to the connection of am is we are taught that the purpose of brit is linking to am always pointed out that the ceremony of a conversion process and I stress ceremony not the essence the essence is the acceptance of mitzvot man or women who convert have to accept mitzvot. You can go through all the ceremonies you want. If you don't accept the mitzvot, it's it's just a way it's a farce. It's has no value whatsoever. But um the ceremony for accepting men into the fold and the rough said as an afterthought that women are accepted into fold dually with going to the mikvah. But the men have to do two things. They have to have a brit and they have to have mikvah. And he explained that the brit is that which the person accepts upon himself connection to the people. And then the mikvah is where he accepts on himself a unique relationship between himself and a kadosh because am enjoys double kadusha double sanctity. And we're holy because we're connected to a people and we're holy because we're connected one-on-one to a kadoshu. So the g has to go through that pro process. DV said women don't have britah but they accept the first part as well with the u with the brit and that's and that with the mikvah with the going to the mikvah and that's why uh here the fourth element of eritz is connected with the brid why because brit is something that has to do only with ms nephesh there is a um a gamarot who says it pretty early in the game in the name of Shim and Barai that there are three things that are acquired only with that unfortunately sometimes we we we take we accept it with great pain one is Torah one is and one is so um you know with regard to the factor of you have to leave that to how he measures it with regard to Torah I think we are capable of understanding how people have really gone to great uh lengths and and great sacrifices to maintain Torah study and Torah uh observance and so on. With regard to Erit Israel, I don't think we have to explain it. I think it's so clear what what this is all about. And um you know whether it's the ultimate sacrifice of those who fall who have fallen as soldiers or in victims of terror and and and wounded that's no small number of a sacrificial number of people um and so on and uh whatever financially taxing it might be there there's um there is an an unbelievable amount of isim that's involved except that if you recall what Rashi tells of Ramavinu. I mean Rashi tells of Ramavinu. I learned this in first grade because uh when I learned first grade Kish and Rashi was Khish, right? It was Kishhish and Rashi. I think it was that once said that um you know she wanted people she she didn't want to print originally her notes her her her her gillion note as they called it because she wanted people not to learn Kish and Liberovich. She wanted people to learn Kish and Rashi. But when you learn kumish and rashi sometimes you you forget that it's rashi who's quoting a medish usually 90% of the time and it's not in the kish itself right uh when was the first time you heard of oh I remember it was parish right one second that's invari that's rashi but it's in the head it's one puk no you read it as one pukari So Rashi says and Rashi says this is for your benefit. I mean you're going to make the calculation that this is going to be a tough one but in the end of the day you're going to recognize that you did it and it was beneficial. I don't know if the word hana means enjoyment but you're going to get satisfaction out of this. you're going to realize this was the right thing to do and and and you don't always see it up front. Sometimes it takes years of going through a lot many many ups and downs in this country until you ultimately realize it. Uh you know the problem is so I always say sometimes when when the nephesh would have the the big circus at the airport and the rah and everything some people uh you know went for it and some dfka decided to bow out. I know that uh in my brother-in-law and sister-in-law's family, two kids came and allay on the show and one opted for it, one opted not to for each one has a good reasons why to you know have part of it. But I remember it was almost like getting drunk. You get the olim drunk and think that that this init it's one big party and then all of a sudden baboka you woke up and all of a sudden it's not such a party any longer and I'm not sure that the should be intoxicated with a party the minute they get off the plane. I think when we got off the plane 1979 and we sat for an hour and a half with some ke filling out the forms and so on and and then you know they put us in a cab and sent us at 1 in the morning to misraote. There was a mono limb there. Okay, get a good night's sleep and tomorrow morning the bureaucracy starts. Okay, and you take it step by step and and and so on. And everybody was told take two vitamin P pills every day. One is patience and one is protectia and um and then you have a you know a good chance of making it you know without problems and so on. So, so Abra was told at the end of the day and I think that's a message that people should hear today without a doubt even with all the ups with the bumps in the road. Yeah, >> we I get we get great satisfaction from hearing from our five children all born here. They say all the time, we're so grateful that you came here. >> There you go. and our grandchildren. I said >> I'm not gonna speak for myself. Miriam is sitting right here and every year when we do yalya the kids say that very very much so very much so. Yeah. Yeah. My father had one beautiful Torah Torah same thing that Rashi says and two other times in the Torah it says to >> okay >> so when Moshe carved he got the stones he became rich from the rest of the stones from the >> and by sending the slaves the spies he end up getting 40 extra years in the desert. >> There you go. >> Okay. >> So that >> I'll think about using it the shabas. Okay. [laughter] >> But it says I have to quote it, you know. Yeah. >> Would you I didn't hear you what you said about the where is >> I saw about the prat the is not far from there either. There two rivers where >> I'd say it's northeast of Israel beyond Damascus in in in Syria. It's the border. Hidek is the border of Syria and Iraq today. And Parat Euphrates is a little closer to us. But um is the tigers, >> right? One is called the Tigers and one is the Euphrates. Right. Correct. Correct. So right if you if you ever heard Raul Benoon and Rafy of Maidan, these great uh tour guards of Isisro and they ask they talk about so where was Ganeden in the Kish? Which where's the geographical location of Ganeden? So uh you know so the answer is it's according to at least their opinion it's Israel although somebody piped up and says no I thought that was gem. No, no, no, no, no, no. It's not gem. >> It's ganim. If you read the newspapers, read the newspapers, it's ganim. >> Where was in that time? >> So it so the question is where when when Adam and Kav were put in Ganeden, where was it in this globe? >> Was it? >> So we don't know there's a we don't know. So So according to this opinion, it's and the proof is that the four rivers that border um the the one is the prat, one is the prat. exact same naharat that's the border of its from the northeast and then they show that the other sides bordered in the west so so the yam so the idea of um of the borders of is something that's already ingrained even prior to uh except that it's just a it's a promo it's a forerunner it's not spelled out it's not spelled out at all so what we have in this para is and and just one last word When we speak, we speak of two borders of Erit Israel. One is the larger border that we're talking about here of Abrau. That's the border of the name called Erit Israel. And there are many mitzvah that conform to that. For example, the mitzvah of living in Erit Israel. So if you live in Israel, you can be anywhere north all the way into Syria, south all the way down to because it says meionat it's mentioned by name and as that's the south and even uh further west than our current border in the negv you're living you fulfilled the mitzvah of even a little bit north of the northern border into Lebanon aeri I served there in Lebanon 1984 so so that was Israel also it was it was biblical Erit Israel beyond the northern border with with Lebanon. So that's one thing. But then there's the border of for the purposes of the agricultural mitzvot of and there it requires to be sanctified. That's a different category. That's not that's called sanctification. And that was done originally by the Yeshua first time in and then done a second time when Bayeni and Bacheni the second temple second betash era was significantly smaller. the map was much smaller and it's only that smaller map that enjoys the kaducats today that you're obligated in the mitzvot and that's why if you grow in the arava area pro agricultural produce you don't have a schmita issue I don't want to call it a problem people think shmita is a problem that needs a solution it's an issue and because you're out of the pale of the second map but you're in the pale of the first map so you fulfill the mitzvah of living in residing initi and growing things and so on but you're not obligated in Shmita or Truma Masro because it's not in the Arava area from south of Arad all the south of Yama I'm sorry south of stone all the way to on that part that's not part of it is part of the border of Bacheni but it's the lower limit it's the southern limit >> of second beta mikdash yeah look when they talk about Yehuda and Galil, the north and the south of Desal. So the north was the Galil and the south was Yavna was Yavnlay. That was pretty much the south of you know when they said uh if you have a uh if you if you want to be rich it says daven towards the north. If you want to be a davin towards the south because the were in the south and the wealth or the higher the economics were in the north. So it didn't mean hey Doma hey Doma go to it meant go to Yavn where you add the there. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. We said some fine things about and today and uh I'm preaching to the converted with everybody here but hopefully those who may be following this year online abroad will also um be inspired by what parasa is all about. She make hers.