Mishpatim: Servitudes | Rabbi Ari Kahn | February 12th 2026

This week >> this week she is sponsored by Rabbi Michael and Jerry Lax meter for the fool of the grand chain aona. Any improvement she should continue to heal >> and to be 100%. >> So this week's para is para mishbatim. This week's par got that which is discussed a lot. So I just want to pause there for a second. There's something here already about this first law, this first mishbat, if you were, if you will, that should be exceedingly jarring and disturbing. I mean, the the truth is I don't know how much it really bothers us. the whole concept of evidry or for that matter what we would call slavery. Although obviously you would need a more precise definition to what exactly are the limitations or the freedoms which are enjoyed by such a person. But the very fact that it's called EVID again part of what's jarring is that it's evidy and therefore what you're talking about is within our community is that there will be a Jew who will be an indentured servant. again whatever that word will be I'm going to stay with servitude for today and he has got become engaged within a situation of servitude so now part of the reason why this should be jarring is okay now now just to back up a little bit to to say ask the simple question well how did we get here and what's going on and what is this whole para about so the observation which is one which I think uh almost anybody who reads this should sense is that there is a correlation between the various laws or the mishbatim which are mentioned in this week's para and the asser which we have seen in last week's para how closely they're correlated it's 100% or no or again that's something that we could discuss we could debate we can see what's here what's not there and we can look at the similarities and the differences but that's but still nonetheless when uh perhaps you know note that in the very first debort now this is something you all low because Rashi cites it and the Gumarra says it and that is from the very beginning we have God introducing himself as I'm God who took you out of so there is going to be something which is interesting about this first of all we're still dealing with the first the first dor is I am God so what exactly does that mean but it's not just that I'm God there's to these other elements. I am God who took you out of servitude. So now you have a situation of a person who finds himself back in a situation of servitude. So that leads us to this thought and it's going to start on a micro level. Have we just now undone part of what God did? Maybe maybe that's the the way to put it. And the Gmoran source number two, as I said, this will sound very familiar to from Rashi because Rashi really uses this. I just figure that maybe it's better off just to go to the the source. He would use this as material. So we're more familiar with the that phrase manes which is by the way we find it in a pesak theme obviously I once discussed this asking about the these other tanote and his answer was we have to research this more uh [laughter] manag afterwards we're told in back in source number one is the fellow who says I want to remain in a relationship of servitude I I like this situation so then we're which is the judge in this context and you take him to the doorpost and then you put this hole in his ear. You know that's really interesting because you know that a the evid that I mentioned that we were in betaadim is part of the certro but it's reflecting back to mitim on the other hand when we ask ourselves an a very easy question when did I ever see doorposts mentioned before and then the answer is that was part of the ritual of leaving Egypt that we took the blood and put it on the doorpost of the corbin pesak and that was part of the liberation. So is this really trying to talk about or to express that somehow this person is undoing the liberation again on a personal economic level and and that would be quite disturbing but there is something which is more disturbing which hovers beyond all this and I don't know if that occurred to you yet. This is speaking again starting off right away but it's speaking on an individual basis about one person who's going to behave like that. But is there a possibility on a national level to regress and go back to a situation of servitude? Which means was the leaving of Egypt a permanent solution or is it something which is uh negotiable depending upon behavior? And right away when we hear about a macro sorry a micro situation where an individual is able to regress lose his economic freedom and the term which is used is evid and I said part of it is maybe it's better maybe it's worse that the master is another Jew again you you understand why it's better because hopefully there'll be compassion the Gmorra especially Rami talks about all kinds of considerations why if you somehow took for yourself a uh a servant, you've really have acquired a master when you consider all the ways and obligations that you have to treat him properly. But nonetheless, the fact that a Jew is enslaved by another Jew, and again, maybe that's too strong of a word, but you have to realize there's something wrong about this. But the Gmorra continues, "Why in the ear?" And it says, that that you are my servants and not servants to servants. I want you to keep that turn of phrase in mind. We're going to come back to that in a very unexpected way, right? You don't know where you don't know where I'm going. I'm just going to tell you right now. We have to always have at least some surprise in this. So this but not not a servant to servants. And this person found a master for him for himself. And again, I'm going to say something which maybe you didn't hear me say yet. And that is he talks about I am God. There's two ways you can have another master. One way you can have another master is by losing your economic freedom. The other way is actually much closer to the context of ani and that is to worship a different god. that's also taking a different master. So therefore, what's taking place over here is a really interesting combination between what we would call economic and political freedom and on the other hand religious freedom as well. And that and and no leaving Egypt does both. Anki according to this is addressing both. This person has regressed in one level. Do we have some kind of a uh of a hint of a possibility of regressing on the other one as well? The continues I believe that would be again. what we already had intuited we find very clearly being expressed by the gar as well. So you have this individual who is undoing the anuli and he's undoing the passover freedom and rather taking a relationship of servitude. Now before we go in a uh in a more expected way I just want to go in the other direction for a moment. I can argue and obviously when I say I can argue it gets mo a lot of you excited because then you figure oh I can argue also I I could argue that the extension of the aserati broad takes place in three different places. One place is over here in Mishbatin which I think is again fairly clear. The second place with the midrash points out and does the the analysis and the associations and all the heavy lifting for you is in paratoshin. And the third place is see that was easy. And the third place should be the most obvious one of all and that is inan whyan because that's where the serot mentions again. Now in these let let's be easier about this certainly in vayra we'll see about mishbatim soon cuz that's what we want to talk about mishbatim it's going to become obvious as well but certainly if you work through specifically parhat kadoshim if you want to be a little bit more creative going from into kadoshim you want to be more creative into kadoshim to the end of the book and I'll explain to you why in a moment. Then something happens which is not obviously there more than one half of a phrase maybe in the serro and if you look in say forim it becomes again completely completely clear and what is that that it speaks about the land of Israel which means notice something which you may or may not have noticed last week and that is The Serat Road does not speak about the lands of Israel except for maybe one turn of phrase and that itself is interesting because some of us especially some of us sitting here would be very tempted to say that a central aspect of Judaism is the land of Israel. If you want, I I can rephrase this and again go back to that pivotal moment that Moshe happens upon God by the burning bush which is Sai and God says you know I'm God and know we're we're going we are going to take them out and take him to the land which I promised Ayakov and take him to the land which flows in milk and honey and that's the destination that that's what the whole story is about. If if you lost that, you kind of, you know, lost lost the narrative. You you you you lost the plot. You really don't know what's going on. And that's been that's been the plot from operation going on till this moment. And then, you know, this little slight thing, oh yeah, by the way, I'll give you a sign when you take them out. You'll serve God on this mountain. That's a detour, but doesn't change the destination. If you want to then we can then say that we have dual destinations when we leave Egypt but one is Sinai the other one is still the land of Israel which is clearly the ultimate destination but what's interesting now is this observation that this first detour doesn't make any mention of where we're going now here is really something which is ominous and I go back to my question is liberation as expressed in the first dor ani right you have it in front of you who took you out of Egypt who took you out of servitude don't don't worship any other gods so then the question runs out can you imagine somebody raising their hand and ask especially if it's a Jewish kid sitting in class saying well what if we do like what if we do yeah I just want to know what what exactly is the punishment before uh right you and you know that there are people who are going to be asking such questions you know can I can I uh can you know I I I can deal with is so it seems to be and again here's a point you could disagree with me it's okay it seems to be that the aserit by not discussing the land of Israel seem to be acknowledging that the Jewish people have an obligation to serve God whether they're in the land of Israel or not which means hopefully no one's going to say oh Shabbat that's only the land of Israel I'm out of Israel I don't have to keep Shabbat hopefully no one's going to say that about some the other ones as well when you get to the left side of the of the dro no that doesn't apply that doesn't apply that these are only Israelentric no the serro apply all over and these are these are universals but I'm saying by even giving that statement that it applies all over has within it something which is potentially a negative interpretation by then understanding that there is this possibility that this is not going to work out and if it doesn't work out it doesn't mean that the covenant is It doesn't mean that there's no obligations. It just means that we're undeserving of that thing that was promised at this particular moment. Which means the promise is the promise and then we'll have to wait a little bit longer until we're able to enter into the land but or to return to the land but nonetheless the rules that you have gotten into the as it were still is going to apply and you still have upon you theatro. So the lack of the mention of Israel within the debro should be something which is a little bit jarring. Now you go back to Vayikra and Kadoshim is a restatement. Kadoshim was introduced by Akreote. That's why I went back there. Amote has a whole section of laws that have to do with sexual impropriety. There it says very clearly if you don't follow these laws, the land will vomit you out. It is about the land. Then we get into Kadoshim and Kadoshim is talking about things which have to do with holiness. And it goes back to the land. It leads back to the land when you get to Emma. All the holidays mentioned in terms of the land. It leads back when you get to Bahar which is where it landed. finally gets to and I'll remind you if you don't remember this then you'll have to go find an old lecture that I gave about this but I'll remind you that in this week's para Moshe reads to them the safer habit according to a good deal of rishonim a lot of them the balottovote you want specifically to see one you can look at the but there are numerous other ones who claim that the book that Moshe read to them the safer habit before they said nas the same pock Mosha took out and ragged them safer Brit and then they said to the safer habit clearly Rashi is going to have to smooth things over in a different way but says what's the safer that's para at the end says and these are and this is the covenant that God made the brit that God made with the people of Israel by her this is what was said by Sai vikra didn't start by byi sikra starts by the moade the end of it rever verts back and it tells us about the Brit and this is all about being in the land or being kicked out of the land. That's what is about. So if you follow all of Vayikra again getting to the restatement of their debut getting to this point of holiness holiness will allow us to live in a holy place but if we don't follow the holiness we will not be able to live in a holy place and we're going to find ourselves in exile. And guess what? Then we still have an obligation of keeping the of keeping the law although we can't keep as many laws. There are there are different kinds of opportunities. A whole bunch of things were lost. You want to go take a look again at Dvarim. The whole thing is about avoiding aod avoiding idolatry and and then you look at the restatement of the serro there. The major focus is clearly on avoiding a vodar and therefore deserving to live in the land which means that it is a restatement going towards this other issue which I'm going to say it again now it's really interesting that the serotin kinds of skips it but as I said there is something ominous there in the background which then leads us to this other question in terms of uh maybe understanding mishbatim a little bit better and and I'm going to say it's this is not going to be hard for us to see in Mishbatim the direction that it goes. It'll just take a little bit of time. All that you needed to do is go from the beginning of the parish and say where do I see Israel? Now the truth is is that a lot of the laws which are mentioned how or to what extent a court system is able to do these things outside of the land and how there are technical issues involved and I'd prefer the whole discussion not to get lost in technicalities but but I don't want to avoid those either. But if you go back and look at the debro and look at source number three and again you have an and you have not to worship other gods and not to take God's name in vain again all of these are universal which is universal and then you get to one law and that is the fifth and that's honor your father and mother in order in order to lengthen the days that you will live on the land which the Lord your God gave you. Now, there's two possibilities here. One is just to read the words and say, well, what does that mean? And it sounds very much like it's talking about the land of Israel, which then would actually cause us to uh to pause for a moment and then raise the following. And the then it continues. you know and so on and so forth and then there is no reference to the land of Israel which means why is this the outlier which means that then becomes the question if it's not mentioned in the context of any of the others then why is it mentioned over here which means either all of Sarah bro should be these things which apply all over and then you also obviously the way I phrase it just now come up with another question so outside of the land of Israel I don't have to honor my parents or or or is it of course saying something else that in the land of Israel there is an additional reward for it but that doesn't mean that the obligation that meaning this is what you get for it that doesn't mean the obligation doesn't apply otherwise but nonetheless the way I'm phrasing this question now is why is this the outlier which means what is this what's going on here what what is the deeper message I've missed what is it that that I need to still ask myself and I'm going to say this now just to make this clear everything I've said till now are things which already were percolating in my mind going from Sunday morning I told you on Sunday I try to read I try to go through and already on Sunday morning I was troubled on this already from last week I was thinking about the debro in terms of uh in terms of and as I was reading through mishbatim which again follows up on it I was looking for it charting it seeing where we where we get there and all of these things I was looking for a a a solution so try that again we still have our evid i which is jarring Rejection of ani, possibility of reverting, implication is possibility of reverting not just on an individual level but on a national level rejecting ani not just in an inference of ani but rejecting ani and then where does that take us when we do are guilty of votara and we know where that takes us that leads towards expulsion that leads towards gal that leads towards kurban when we go back and look at the saratra that's when we the jarred the second time when we realized it's not talking about the same destination that we thought it should have been talking about when we listened at the snare. Okay, I got a short stop to make, right? No, the stop that we made there seems to ignore the destination that we have. And therefore, what it's actually saying is it's still the destination, but even when you're not there, you're still going to have these rules that you have to live by. And as I said, there is this therefore this other thing that needs to be worked out. We have our issue of our servitude right of evidy and the servitude of exile. We have our servitude of serving other gods. So therefore we have all these different aspects of servitudes that we that we had including we liked the term of which also is a is a term that we uh liked and we're still mystified with. The source number four says He he he notes and and the Rambad normally is the one who gets credited for this. I don't know why but the Iban Ezra is kind of ignored. We we like to say that the first five commandments are about man and God and the second five are about or interpersonal. And what's interesting about that is the fifth one is so is that interpersonal or is that in terms of God? So he points out though that's still in terms of God and and as I said the Ramban goes in that direction as well because ultimately when you ask why should I honor my parents because my parents brought me into this world and they give me life and they give me sustenance and they take care of me and so on and then you have to ask yourself the other question. So who ultimately brought me into this world and who ultimately gives me sustenance and who ultimately takes care of me which means the same emotion that I have towards my parents should fuel a type of emotion that we have in terms of God and therefore what the point the objective of this is not meaning the way you fulfill this commandment is by honoring one's parents but the objective emotionally psychologically and religiously should be that I should foster a relationship with God as well for the exact same uh reason so therefore The objective of all five of the first commandments are in terms of the man to God relationship and the objective of the second five is one which is interpersonal. So that that would seem to be the way to understand this as well thera notes a little down the line. So seems to be saying there's something special about honoring parents. You honor your parents there will not be an exile. So once again that's interesting and once again we have to ask ourselves why specifically this. I mean I could have said you know avoiding idolatry should be good thing. I could have said keeping Shabbat's a good thing. I mean I could have said this by others. So I'm still left with my same question. And what is it? Why is this the outlier? Why is this the one which uh has this promise to it? The Ramban in source five again says a lot of the same thing. And again you can go and read through in order to understand but but again he goes in the similar direction. He though ends up bringing in the Gmorrah. And I'll just tell you as follows. The Gmorrah seems to imply he he makes it sound like it's not exclusively. The Gmorrah seems to imply that long life over here is Olmhaba and not necessarily the land of Israel. As I said, it's it's um Haba that you honor your parents, you will get olabah. But presumably any of the commandments, you bring olaba. So again, why is this the outlier? Why is it stated over here? But the Ramban seems to go in that direction as well. He he perhaps he understands it as being both. But there is a gumar that he that takes you in that direction. This is really interesting because he parses the verse a little differently and it's not so easy what he does. I just want to go back and look at the verse for a moment again. It is still in source number three and in And he says that this is the conclusion of the first five. Just for our sake, imagine the first five and then imagine because it's not what he says. You push enter cuz you're in the middle of a p. You push enter, you get a new line and then it has the conclusion of the first five. So he's claiming it's not an outlier. He's claiming is for all five. Let's look at the words of this for right now. The grammar the words it didn't say it. I know we've been told all along our entire lives. >> Yeah. >> That it's that gets that prize not. So anyway, this foro is really interesting because he cut cut the verse in half and he claims that it's again visually is what's interesting because he's imagining the right side and the left side and therefore he's imagine the bottom of the right side of these words and therefore it it for everything on the right side. In order to do that you have to kind of cut the >> Yeah. On the left side you'll need a conclusion like that, right? >> Uh symmetry. So you have to look at the end of the left side. But that's not my concern. My concern right now is is this foro claiming what did he accomplish? He's he's saying that all five of the men of the man to God laws have this benefit to them. Again, it's interesting. He does talk about the others at the end. You can you can you can take a look. Okay. If we return back. So so so far where are we? We have our problem with our servitude. Then we have our problem with uh with the lands of Israel. We have our problem with can we reverse this on this macro level. We have uh our problem now of uh why is Kirin the outlier and we see various attempts to claim that it's not. So when you go to source number seven, we've moved to perkiml in parglim. There is no doubt whatsoever that in parishim that we moved towards the land of Israel. I'm just saying you this is unavoidable. It's not debatable which means don't try to debate. It talks about right your land. I mean this is landbased and then and the seventh year is going to be the sabbatical and so on. It continues and it says shalim there's going to be three holidays and the holidays here are mentioned in terms of their agricultural identity right spring festival all agricultural all have to do with seasons um Zion ine and it talks about making a pilgrimage. Again, this should be interesting also for those who are going to claim, oh, the Mishk was only introduced after theel. This is really interesting because here it talks about making a pilgrimage. Look at the next couple of verses especially. What do you do with your first fruits? Theim bring them up to the house of God. So, I'm going to say it again. All of this is agricultural. All of this is landbased. All this is about the land of Israel. This is this is the beta mikdash. These are the laws of the laws of kachimote. It's all it's all staring at you over here. I mean it even talks about it's I skipped that verse but it's also talking about offerings. It's corbanote. It's beta mikdash. It's it's working the land. And that leads us directly that was puket and that leads us directly to puk kuff. I'm going to send my Now you'll tell me how you want me to translate Malik right now. >> How do you understand Mala? >> Representative >> representative emissary or or Malik. An angel. >> Sorry. Could you say that again? >> Doubtful. It's bad enough I said it the first time. So you're going to send and bring you to the place which I've prepared for you. Okay, first of all, it's very interesting. I've prepared. It's such a nice way of saying it. I'm going to send someone to lead you in and take you to the place that I got ready for you. It's like, you know, I I booked the hotel. Everything was ready. the chocolate's on the pillow, that the bed's turned down. I' I've prepared everything for you, and uh and I'm going to send someone to just make sure that you get there, okay, and and everything is safe. So, it's it's a great it's a great I I I think. But then we have, you better listen, that that already got a little ominous again. Say it in the positive. I will I will take care of your enemies. Your enemies will be my enemies. But of course you realize if you follow my word and then again our kid in the class should be raising hands then saying well what if I don't? And now you already know what if you don't then God says I won't. I mean the implication is I won't be fighting your battles. [sighs and gasps] him. See, we've only got to the same place that I wanted to from the beginning. What is that? It's the other side of right. Don't serve other gods. Meaning, when you get there, don't rebel against me. Don't serve local gods. Don't serve the Canaanite gods. Lo of dame. So, now you realize where I started the very beginning where we become slaves to our to to other people who I've and I've set you free and now we've reversed. But God set us free from being in Egypt which we were underneath this other not just economic and not just political but also this other religious system whereby the Egyptian gods were dominating our lives as well. And if you go to land of Israel and revert so that that that now we see is the problem. So let's let's state the easy part. What's the easy part? Does para mishbatum talk about the land of Israel? Of course it does. Which means when we have this expansion of the seratad road, is there going to be something which is landbased? Of course it is. And and you just have it in a really clear sense. If you even want to say that the holidays over here are an expansion of Shabbat, right? You have various types of Shabbat, various types of days where you have to have uh days of rest or not do creative work or not do work. So then it it works really nice. And you actually did have it. I I skipped it, but you had an interesting flow of information going from to which I had skipped right in order to have a day of rest and then it went directly to the holidays. So therefore, seeing the holidays as expansion of Shabbat and seeing Mishbatim as an expansion of Serat, all that's easy. But what do you see very clearly over here? You see the land of Israel staring at you in in various ways, but what you're also told is do not serve their gods. When you continue to want, we'll go a little further. I'm going to chase them all out, not at once, slowly. And it goes to this whole way about how um how the conquest will take place. again serving your god serving the other gods will be catastrophic ultimately. So when we ask ourselves this question, can this be reversed to can be? There is nonetheless much more of a debate regarding how to read that verse about him sending my malik rashi. Well, first we'll look at the more positive ways. The ibzra said all the things he wanted to say in source number eight. He says the he says if you accept all the all the laws then I'm going to bring you to land and lots of people have made mistakes regarding understanding this is the saf is a safer Torah and some say it's a it's our own habit and he and he says no and he brings various pieces of information from Brchik where we find Malika being used in a very positive way. If you want you can look where he brings one which is when Abraham sends his to find a wife God has guided me. says who he's going to send his emissary in order to help you or we have find Jacob saying so we find various ways where a is something positive and it is a malik whatever mala means doesn't engage that much here what it means he leaves it a little bit mysterious but it's God somehow micromanaging and sending an emissary to make sure that God's will takes place which by the way sounds extremely positive the the rashbam Yeshua instead of going backwards he goes look by Yeshua and Yeshua does meet this mysterious uh individual if you recall this and he connects it with something that will take place in the future theory somehow somebody who is on a mission from God becomes God's emissary rash However, comes back to our ominous feeling and here they were in firm informed that they are going to sin as God is going to say to them, I'm not going in their midst. So, Rashi does a really interesting thing over here. This is not even our famous theory of conservation of angels. It's it's something else. He he looks at source number 12. Where does source number 12 come up? Right after the initially God's first offer is I'm going to wipe them out and Moshe argues and saves and so on. And then God gives in to Moshe. He accepts the prayers. And that's source number 12. Fine. You're right. I made a promise. Take the pe take your people out. This is where the kind of things becomes a subtext. Go take them out. And this sounds great and I'll send my Malik. So Rashi essentially is saying here when it says and previously when it says that it's the same thing this is the and that's what Rashi is noting to see and that's the same thing I mean that's what was said in our context as well which is why it leads Rashi the same thing but then the other shoe drops Right? Which all sounds great because I'm not going to go in your midst because you are stiff necked people. And I keep telling you that's a term which is introduced exclusively after and in relationship to serving other gods specifically to theel and you are so bad if I'm in your midst and I punish you right away for the things that you do you're not going to make it and therefore it's in your best interest that we not have that kind of relationship rather that I am a little bit more distance and only by mala Now before we read any further over here the Ramban in 13 takes issue with Rashi. He tells us he quotes Rashi and he writes he says what are you talking about? Did you read the next couple verses? The next couple verses Moshe and he prays to God and he says excuse me you hired me to take them out. If you are not in our midst, how in the world are we going to make it? meaning he he pushes back and he counters at the very end of source number two which is the sorry p source number 12 which is perlim right on the top of page three says okay Moshe says sorry first the only way I'll know that you found favor is if you you are with us because that's what you requested I will fulfill and Therefore, the Ramban is pointing out that's very nice. Again, what he's really what is he what's he really saying back to Rashi? Rashi is saying that this is ominous because this predicts the future at the point where the Mala is going to go and God won't be with him. And the Ra is saying, "What are you talking about? That never happened." How can how can you say that we're hinting at something which didn't happen? Now, Rashi would probably defend himself and say, "Yeah, but God threatened that and therefore he's giving the threat, which means this is conditional, which means is this reversible? is going to the land something which is guaranteed which then of course takes us right back to the uh seratro in terms of God not mentioning the land of Israel there with our one outlier. So this is essentially where I was at when I was trying to nuance all the various elements, right? I mean again I I I known that the mala is the issue. How do you read it? A lot of again you saw a lot of Ronin read it in a positive way. Rashi reads this in the more haunting way. The haunting way may fit in really well with uh what we've s seen in the serro. Okay. what happens if we don't you know and even over here in in in mishbatim it sounded very much like if you do and we have to ask well what if you don't which is that that annoying question and then I came across first of all if you want to know how I came across it there's a book called deer and that deer told me look at the mas so I just have to pause a second I I don't have the book at home the masem I wish I do but I don't have to find it one day the reason why I have to find it is because every time I've seen something quoted from it I've loved did. I just absolutely loved what he wrote. I I think what he does over here is absolutely breathtaking. And which means you better be impressed. And if not, then uh I I I will I'll tell you in a second. I will pursue a different audience. That's all who's who's worthy of uh of uh of this. And but but but it's the second that I saw them that the that he speaks about it. So already I was uh I was looking forward. So source 14 mashem you want I gave you a little bit of biographical background a little bit first name I can tell you more about him Ashkanazi bini Elia Har now if you look him up again 1513 to 1586 if you look him up you're going to see the most remarkable life first of all just in terms of the geography I mean he's born in Europe he ends up getting educated I believe in Turkey he ends up becoming a rabbi in Egypt he goes goes back to posing and he ends up in Prague. He ends up in which means ju just the travels that he made seemed so improbable. I mean you you would probably have thought that people just didn't do that kind of thing in those days and if they did how in the world you know I don't know how many points he had. You know what what what uh but but it really is fascinating the places that he went and uh and the places that he was rabbi and and and how all of this is reasonable. But he wrote a book called Ma Hashem. And let's just pause there for a second. That's such a great name for a book. I mean, it's it's it's bombastic. Mashem, God's works. So, uh, we're going to start in Torah. Later, we're going to look at he writes. He said, "It's actually amazing, but he's going to say something amazing. right? You'll have a long life. Why? Why the st and can we say it our way? Why the stress of the why the Zionist perspective? Why the stress on the land of Israel? What does it do with the land? Are you really going to say that outside the land of Israel you don't have to honor your parents? You notice that's source 15. This was a warning. Who were was the owner of the land before we got here? Answer did not have honor of his father. So we're going to have to look at some of the verses to understand what just now happened. I would again the question over here only just one technical point. or who's the one who had lack of the honor and what exactly did what exactly did the Torah doesn't tell us clearly. Now you may not have followed that but that was breathtaking what he just now did. So, let me start all over again and ask you perhaps a different question. When is the first time servitude is mentioned in the Torah? I told you this is all about servitude. Who you serving? Or as Bob Dylan said, you got to serve somebody, right? Who who who which was his Christian uh face who um who's the first person where servitude is mentioned where is it mentioned the first time answer as far as I know right over here which is besid periced after the flood which is also Bobul anyway before the flood so no there's after the flood so in source 15 he does this again and he does it in a much deeper way and I'm just going to leave that for you as a present because he says all the same things explains it a little bit more and I want to look at the verses first in source 16 which first of all begins right after the flood and it begins with a covenant which by the way is interesting because that's really where we started today. We we're we're making this covenant. It's the covenant that there'll never be a destruction like this. there won't be a flood. And somebody else should have raised their hand and said, "Well, what if we do bad? Will there be a different kind of a destruction?" And God, well, I never said there won't be. So, and we have the the rainbow and I'll remember God says, "I'll remember the covenant and so on." And that ends the covenant and so on. So already is introduced and is introduced. So why we're not sure and what Kanan is doing there, we don't know. Noah becomes an ish, which again is part of our issue here as well. He drinks, becomes intoxicated, he rolls around naked on the ground. So the father of now we again we don't know what Kanan did. Kanan's going to become cursed over here and we don't know what kind of tone of voice he uses when he says this. Is he being disrespectful being respectful? We don't know howan is taking this. So that's clearly sounds that it is speaking and they walk backwards not to see and there part of the question is what does his young son mean there is that or is that his grandson or is that I'm just saying is that there is a lack of clarity over here but So what is remember remember we noted that term back all the way from the beginning today you should be my and not. So the first person is called is actually we're find actually say he said that the is who is he he the one that I skipped the longer discussion question in source 15 he actually is explaining why is it that ami is had to become slaves specifically in Egypt if you want you can look back where it's bolded in the beginning of 15 the first one he talks about Egypt being there is some kind of an epicenter over here and leaving Egypt will leave much more of an impact upon the world but he continues and he says again we're going to go a little down like 10 lines down also where it's bolded that the other reason over here maybe sorry maybe the end of the previous bold paragraph for in order to make a little bit more sense of all this and and we're we're moving right now towards the end and then we'll have tie this up. I I want you to note the Ramban at the very end in source 20. This is in Beret when it talks about the various descendants of Noah. The land of Israel is the as it were for the people of Israel. that God gave at the time of the dispersal, right? When all the nations were spread to different places, he gave it toan. Why is so in order for them to cultivate to work on the land to dig the trenches to dry up the swamps to do all the heavy lifting in order to get the land ready when the people of Israel come in. And then in retrospect you come to the realization thatanan was the slaves of again the curse that they get from Noah is that they become slaves. They're going to become the servants of the servants of their brother. And that was the whole point of the of the mashem. His whole point was to say that why do we have to be so careful? Let's make sure we don't lose focus here. Why do we have to be so careful with kib of a why is kavan mentioned specifically in terms of the loss of land is because the curse that goes to kam and by extension then goes to kanan goes back to disrespecting the father or perhaps the grandfather disrespecting Noah because of that they end up being cursed and as as slaves and losing land but what was the curse of slaves so he says we'll be very focused on what the curse was that the servants of your brother will end you will be end up becoming servants to them. So now the Ramban did not go in that same direction. He did not tell over that but what he did say is that in retrospect we're going to figure out that Kanan is going to end up and what I skipped over here an interesting comment of theamare that what Kanan is going to end up doing if they want to stay they can end up stay and and take jobs of uh in the service industry let's put it that way in terms of what uh if they do want to stay here but on but on the other hand what the rabban is saying in retrospect all the work they did over here is the preparatory work. Which means when God also says, "I'm not going to bring you in all at once and we're not going to kick them out all at once." No, the land needs to be cultivated. The land needs to be taken care of. Let's just tie all of this up again. I mean, what really was the line that went all the way through? It was one of servitude. It goes back to an is the very first dur. And now in Mishbatim, where do we start? We start with servitude, which means I broke you out of slavery. I gave you economic, political, religious freedom. Can you revert back into a situation of losing economic freedom, of losing political freedom? Can you choose to lose religious freedom? And of course, the answers to all of us, of course, it's possible. When you read that very first mishbat, which again is parallel to that first dour, there's something which is disturbing about that. And that and that right away kazal tells us right that that was the dsha right manishana you know what's going on over here are you really undoing pes are you really undoing putting the blood on the doorpost are you really undoing your your liberty and if that's true on the individual level what was our question well what happens if can this take place on a national level but ani was not just about that hint I took you out of slavery it was don't worship any other gods and that seems to be the key to it we want to stay in the land of Israel we can't worship other gods again it comes down who are you going to serve which means God set us free in order to be able to serve God. He didn't set us free in order to serve Canaanite gods. On the other hand what we found is that in the Asera dro is almost no mention almost no mention of the land of Israel with one exception and that one outlier we found intriguing. The one outlying was honoring parents. When it came to all the other laws doesn't say anything about lands of Israel and that we also saw in a potentially ominous way because perhaps this is telling us that we may not live up to the rules that we need to. We may not fulfill in order to get to that other destination or even worse we get to the destination and we're exiled from that destination. That does not take away from us the obligation of keeping the laws. The seratro and the laws of the Torah apply all over wherever we go. Wherever we go, we have to keep these laws. Although admittedly, we lose a lot of the laws. We lose the whole national sense. We lose that rish and we lose the we lose the ability of creating a national identity. What we have is lots of specific laws. We lose the agricultural laws. We lose the beta mikdash. We lose the san. We lose all kinds of aspects of religion. But we still have to keep the laws. Shabbat still applies. Lo still applies. Loaf still applies. Lo still applies. So all of these things are still a part. But then we still had to answer but the outlier and the one who went and explained why that again we saw an interesting comment of the no it's not just that it's the first five. Well why why the first five? Why not all 10 as as you noted but there was just again a fascinating point which came back to the masm. What he said is that specifically the land of Israel was given to Kanan again was given to Kanan but on a temporary basis that the curse of servitude that he receives is because of disrespecting parents. So therefore we're being told specifically be careful about honoring parents. Now a number of commentaries you want to look at revir you can look at some others who speak about basic decency is going to be on how a person treats their parents. Can I really expect decency in terms of other relationships of a person who does not treat their mother very nicely? Which means you you realize again in [clears throat] a normal relationship in a normal relationship the person who can't be respectful of their parents I'm not all that optimistic that they'll be nice to their neighbors they'll be nice to other people. They'll be nice to other people on the road and so on and so forth. which means it seems to be that the level of appreciation we need to have for our parents is the most profound one because they did an incredible amount you know uh a couple of my kids have kids in the last couple of months and both of them it's their first kids I've uh I I have a whole bunch of grandchildren but both of these they got married in the last couple of years and they both had their first child both have first sons and one had a pity the other one's going to be next week and uh I asked my son who's I said so do you like him. He goes, "Yeah." I said, "Do you love him?" I said, "Yeah." I said, "Is it rational?" I said, "Is it possible, therefore, that your parents like you more than you ever know?" >> And he kind of looked at me and like he he was he was processing this point. I mean, it still comes out that the that the love and the care and the torment that a parent has in terms of relationship towards the child is something which children never understand. maybe when they have their own children, they begin to uh possibly understand it. But we need to have that appreciation to our parents. We need we we we need to respect and take care of and and anything we do is insufficient. I mean, anything that we do is it's insufficient and not enough and we think we're being special and it's not enough. And what we're told over here is that deserving of the land of Israel and is connected to to this because we ultimately are going to go and again to just complete the curse ofan but it's the which is us and he's claiming that's why we had to go to Egypt to be the servant of his brother to come out and then he becomes our servant again in different ways either by staying in the land and then choosing to respect the new owners or by virtue of having done as the rabban says all the heavy lifting and then presenting us a beautiful land as God said, "Don't worry, I'll going to take you there and and everything will be prepared." Well, who's going to do all the preparing for us? Well, the answer is Kanan's going to do all the preparing for us. I don't know if you know this. There's actually a really interesting m we're not going to get into now, but I'll just mention it in fasting. There is the special one-time law which some of the rishonim understand that when you enter in, it goes, I gave you all the good. So, what did the good include? So there's some shown will say that when you entered into the land, anything you found in the refrigerator, you're allowed to eat. So if literally if there were pork chops in the refrigerator, you were allowed to eat them. When you enter the land of Israel, God said, "I prepared for you all the good which is there." It was like a one-time thing. You can eat anything which is there. So I'll say that's like kind of like a real exaggeration of this point. But as I said, it's the way that Rashi seems to take it. The the Rambam reads that law in a somewhat of a different way. Don't try this at home. Okay. But but nonetheless, what I think we've seen is something which is interesting. The extension of the serro is the land of Israel. The extension of this because again Judaism [clears throat] is ultimately a part of it is the land of Israel. What part? What percentage? We can discuss. We could debate. When you look at the various extensions, I'm going to say it again. It is in Mishbatim. It is in Vayikra. It is invar. All of it leads to this macro understanding, this macro keeping of the laws and how the serotro then get turned into all of these other laws. It's over here staring at us in Mishbatim. It was right there. Is this reversible? It sounds like it's reversible. We did have an academic question. I'm going to call it that because ultimately both sides are going to agree about the larger point. There's an academic question about how we understand that malaq. Is the mala something which is taking care of us and it's and it's a nice verse and it's and it's God being gentle with us or as Rashi said it's ominous. the arm bond. What do you mean atominous? Again, God is taking care of us, but we know that at the end of the day, yeah, God is taking care of us, but this is something which is reversible. And because it's reversible, we need to be careful. And maybe the best way of being careful is by having that lesson in front of us. What's the lesson that we have in front of us? What happens when we're not decent people? Well, give me an example. Somebody's not decent. I'll give you an example back from Beret. I have a great Bible story of somebody who wasn't decent. You know who that was? That was Kanan and that was Kam. And there was something really bad about what they did and they ended up getting cursed. They ended up becoming slaves and it goes back to servitude and servitude is where we began. So therefore, this issue really is one about servitude and who if you're going to serve God, you'll be free. That's what's interesting. You're going to serve God, you're going to be free. You'll be free in your own land. But then we see that that first mishbat a reversal an evid i so disturbing an evid i. So really so disturbing and then can this happen on a national level? And apparently it can. And that's why we go back and we look at the example of Kanan. We look at the example of what happened and essentially they become the servants. Right now they're labalabayed. Right now they're in charge of the land of Israel. And the next moment they become the servants of those who end up taking over. That's a powerful lesson. So how what do you do? No, you don't have to start with anything drastic. What do you do? Take care of your parents. What do you do? You start with something simple. What do you do? You start with the most logical mitzvah that there is. Right? Schulen says it most logical mitzvah. What do you do? You start with something small because we believe that if a nation is built upon small behavior, start with the obvious. Start with taking care of your parents. Hopefully, there'll be a real spillover effect. And that will lead us to not just my parents, my family, just my family, my neighbors, not just my neighbors, but my neighbors neighbors, not just them as well, but create a society which is based upon caring, based upon responsibility, based upon taking care of somebody. And if you build a society like that then all the agricultural laws which exist all of them make sense and if that then we are only going to be serving God as we are free people in our