Mountains & Buckets and the Post-Purim Era | Rabbi James Kennard

robai good morning uh or good afternoon um my name is Rabbi James Kennard um I made Aliah nearly a year ago uh I've been speaking here a few times before basically when rabish Shaw needs me I'm coming uh from ah good question from Australia and not Brooklyn not Brooklyn you can tell it you've narrowed it down to not Brooklyn excellent um I am born and bred in the United Kingdom subject of his majesty in the United Kingdom um but I did spend many years in Australia before coming here yeah more or less more or less words he doesn't have an American answer no we establish that okay so um raber Shaw asked me to teach this spot this week and next week next week we'll be looking at a piece of the Milla this week I wanted to look at a more global view of what could represents and let me start by asking as we all know what is not in the Milla the name of Hashem uh does this make it the only book in the Tanakh with that no it's not actually but it's certainly significant that when we are praising Hashem for the Salvation when we're saying Alim and we're thanking Hashem yet hashem's name is not in the Milla it is alluded to next week we'll see one of the key places it's alluded to but it's not there in the Milla what could be the significance of this why is it not in the mcgilla and what does that teach us so we'll come back to that question next question I want to ask is what is the meaning of a particular gamarra which is quite well known the story it tells is quite well known but what is the meaning and how does the story make sense so let's start on the sheet with quote number one which comes from The KES at the moment of Matan Torah or just before the Torah was given we read Moshe brought out the peopleim towards God from the camp the and they stood what isim so well here's an interesting example for those who are interested in the tension between Pat and dush between the simple meaning of the text and the more homolytic meaning of the text here we have one of those examples where the balance is reversed the literal meaning of the text is the one adopted by the midash the nonliteral meaning of the text we would say they camped they stood in the Foothills or at the foot of harini that's how we translate it to make it make sense according to the simple level according to theat but if we look at the literal meaning of the word in this case t means underneath underneath the mountain and the midash as we will see works with the literal meaning of the word t as opposed to the simple reading of the text which actually has the nonliteral meaning I won't get stuck into that because it's another topic but it's just interesting that sometimes the most literal meaning is not the same as the simplest one um I Heard herself tell me if there's a difference between simple meaning of the text and mash literal meaning of the text so after that let's see what the mid is so the gamar says in number two on the words and it understands for the purpose of This midash Means literally underneath they stood underneath the mountain what's going on continues the G so R the various people say this teaches that Hashem suspended over their heads the mountain kagit you can translate that as a barrel I prefer like a bucket sounds a bit more sort of authentic he held the mountain over their head so they were literally they were under the mountain the word t implies the mountain was over their heads Hashem lifted up the mountain over their heads and he said to them if you accept the Torah jolly good and if not there will be your Graves so we learn we read the story of the Torah of mat and Torah we tell our children about the mountain covered with flowers actually it was in Flames we don't tell them that bit we tell them about the people said nishma which was a fantastic expression of their willingness to accept the Torah according to the gumar here in chabas it's not like that they were told accept the Torah or or else and then in number three he responds of the is obvious says from here there is a big objection to the Torah because the Jewish people can say forever more we were forced into accepting it it wasn't a voluntary acceptance that Covenant stuff that Brit stuff it was all one-sided because we had a mountain over our heads is a big objection to the Torah however don't worry ra says they came back and they accepted it in the time of as it's dtive as it says in the Milla Kimu theu Kimu they maintained or they established theu and they accepted hayim the Jews accepted and established says the gamorra on that ma they established what they had accepted previously so story mounting over the heads Moder a big objection to the Torah because it means it was a forced acceptance which is not an acceptance but it's okay because there was another moment in Jewish history when they accepted the Torah willingly and we can see that alluded to in the words of the mcgilla Kimu Vu they establish what they had previously accepted so we have a few questions number one what on Earth is this mountain over their heads that's not our image ofes giving the Torah number two of all the times to rectify this huge problem puim I mean we're getting in the mood for puim and we like puim and it's fun but we also know that there are other more significant times in Jewish history MIM B puim which is an interesting story in itself but it's sort of self-contained how can puim be the key that unlocks the acceptance of the Torah and there's another point there is roughly 800 years between mat Torah and puim so for all those 800 years the Torah was not accepted apparently because the this problem of not accepting V Torah voluntarily or not even be given a chance to accept it voluntarily was not rectified until puim so during the whole of B Rishon during the whole period of the Kingdom They didn't accept the Torah they hadn't accepted vorah willingly how can we explain this so the answer is there are many ways of explaining this and there are many things learned from this story uh I'm going to give you one which I hope will be of interest um I put on the page numbers four and five it's not strictly our topic but I'll just mention it outside the ramban explains the story like this says uh the ramban in number four and again in number five I'll say it outside says that the Jews did have this mod araba exactly as we said up till now they were forced to accept the Torah but they went along with it because they went into erit Israel should have been immediately it was 40 years after accepting the Torah and the Torah makes very clear that the Torah is to be fulfilled in ER Israel and the BR and the the guardianship that KES promises at harini is fulfilled in erit Israel the ramban was a big big Zionist and the ramban says the Jews accepted the non-acceptance of the Torah without complaining because they went into ER Israel and enjoyed all the baras of being in ER Israel then the time came when the Jews sined they were exiled from ER Israel and they had the option then of saying you know what we never accepted Borah we only did it to get er Israel and now we haven't got er Israel and there's a PUK inesco which is quoted here as as the na'vi says to people don't say don't say you're like a slave whose master has sold you to someone else don't say that you can now go and do your own thing because there was a real fear that after losing erit Israel which was if you like the payback for being forced to accept the Torah the Jews would now go off and worship other gods but they didn't they went back to erit Israel unfortunately only a small percentage did but that percentage went back to erit Israel and willingly accepted if you like the deal thereafter the deal is we'll live in AR Israel andm will look after us and that's the Covenant so it's as if they accepted the Torah and the time of going back to ER Israel the end of the first Exile the beginning of bay cheni is the same time as purin part of the backdrop to purm which we won't get into now was the Torah the temple was in ruins it was time for the Jews to be allowed to go back to Israel and rebuild the B mikdash and akish didn't let them Akash verish wouldn't let that happen it wait to his descendant probably his grandson Kesh to let them do that but the moment of puim is more or less simultaneous with the moment of going back to ER Al for chaining so says the ran that's what the gamarra means when it says they re accepted the Torah in the time of a after they were saved from akes just like they were saved from parro and the ramban says it was even more dear to them that they were saved from akish then they went back to AR Israel voluntarily and voluntarily accepted the Torah so his Focus just just one moment his focus is not on puim his focus is on as it often is for the ramban the relationship between the Jews and AR Israel yes people did not go back that's true and I realized that as I was saying it that would be a question for the ramban for those who did go back they did by the way just I just mentioned you know we're all living here in Israel I think most of us in this room are all in and rightly proud of it um in the time of B cheni I think it's reckoned between 10 and 15% of the Jews went back to Israel and in our times we've way exceeded that way exceeded that and that's something that we can be proud of in our times that we've done more than those who came back with Ezra and okay I heard wasn't was threaten and you accept the Torah will be so good for you and it's not not that you'll be very good aaut okay the this the midrash itself we could describe as a homy and you're putting a homy on the homy which I suppose is is fair enough and I'm going to give my own interpretation which is also one of many um I I do like the idea though it's like a Hooper and I can imagine the saying to the color if you accept my proposal that'll be great if not you're going to have a life be a great situation accepting on himself the obligation engaged cannot away and that was the okay it's still a it's a HOA with a you know with a dark side okay let's move on we've got a few questions unanswered let's have another one number six the r at the end of Hil Milla he end the rambam ends each of his sections with something a little bit sort of uplifting if I may say um and he says the following which is based on Yami others read Yami differently but he says as follows call C all the books of the and all the books of the Kim are going to be cancelled in the days of mashiah Milla will exist will continue just like the five books of the Torah and like the of the Torah in other words as he says T which will never end forever and he doesn't give the reference but I've given the reference to the Rami there so inia the book will look a little bit different you'll go to the Tanakh section and you'll find five books of the Torah and Mill at Ester and that's it now again this is surprising this raises a question what is the rambam based on the Yami saying and again if you were asked to name book number six if I said we're only allowed six books out of the 24 books of tanak and obviously the first five areash what would your sixth candid be I suspect for most of us it wouldn't be Migel at Esther you're sure by the way in the next number next source which I forgot to number so 6B is the Bly the gamorra that says it's going to be five books of Moses and Yeshua because Yeshua describes the value of the land of er Israel but we're not going that way we're going with the rum Bam's way what is it about the mcgilla that makes the Milla St and by the way he gives us a big clue in for the interpretation I'm going to share he gives us a big clue he says that the Milla will remain like the five books of Torah and like the of the T now what do the five books of Torah have they have lots and lots of Mitzvah the t is the details of the Mitzvah what about the other books of a tanak they don't the other books of tanak with one exception do not have mitzvot and as I would explain there's a very important reason why why not but there's one book of Tanakh and only one book of Tanakh that has MIT V what are they if we look in number seven at the end of the story everything's hunky dory and morai wants to remind the Jews to celebrate and commemorate their salvation wrote these words and he sent books or scribes to all the Jews letters all scribed who were in all the provinces of the King near near and far and what did the letter say that the people should accept upon themselves but they should do they should make the 14th of AD and the 15th for those living in wall cities didn't mention what's going to happen this year that's another story because it's three days of P him anyway on the 15th G so the Jews should accept them on themselves that every year on the 14th and the 15th they should do things what should they do next p turn over the page like the days on which the Jews rested from their enemies that's the 14th of Adar and the 15th of shush and the whole month which was turned from sad to Joy and from M to Festival to make them days of feasting and joy and sending to each other not name and gives to the poor and elsewhere it talks about something which is understood as reading the Milla so there you have the four Mitzvah of P which Mor says the Jews have got to keep so if we want to have on our bookshelf the laws of the Torah we will need in the future the five books of Moshe Torah and the T B and Mill eser because without Mill eser we're missing these mitzvot yes we uh no and I'll tell you why as I will explain BTO is the prohibition of adding extra to a Mitzvah or adding an extra Mitzvah Mar look at Russian ramban we only have 69 no we have 6113 and another four but actually we have more than four but we will explain okay so um why by the way won't we need the other books of Tanakh the simple answer to that is there's a theme to the other books of Tanakh the theme is your rubbish people improve um if I can sum it up the nvum come and tell us that things are not so good and things need to get better and that is the theme repeated over and over again in lots of different ways throughout the books of tanak there's narrative there there's history there of course but the the main message is as I've just uh perhaps caricatured or summed upia we won't need that message we won't be told to improve ourselves because we will be living on such a high level that we will have reached the top already so we won't need the other books of tanak except for Miga because we'll need the book of the mitzvot now is this a good idea for morai to be inserting these Mitzvah let's have a look so we the question was asked is it bosv so sorry make clear Rashi says bosv is like taking a Mitzvah and making more of it to say that you have to have five strings in five corners in your sitzes or you have to have um five parts in sorry not sitzes five parts in the to Fillin instead of the four chapters that we have um or to um have an extra one in the ARB Min which would make it Min um the the ramban learns it would be like a whole extra Mitzvah something that I can't sort of to not not adding to an existing Mitzvah but a whole extra Mitzvah either way they're forbidden it is forbidden to add a whole extra Mitzvah or even to add an extra bit to a Mitzvah um you might be thinking but don't we do this quite often don't we have lots of additions to the Mitzvah so that's uh if you're thinking that you're on the right lines the rumbum and I've quoted this just because the rumbum as is his style puts in a succinct and clear way the halaka that we're talking about but we find it in the gamar we find it in the Kish and it's like this in number eight if a person arises either Jewish or not Jewish and he does a sign or a wonder and he says and Hashem has in sent me to add a Mitzvah or to subtract a Mitzvah this is a false Novi a lying Novi he's come to deny the of mosha by the way some people say that the rambam is being a bit pist here I wouldn't say that I would never say that the rambam is teaching Torah he's not fulfilling an external agenda but it's worth pointing out that this that says if you come to add a Mitzvah or subtract a Mitzvah you're a navisha and I didn't put it on the page but you're executed that's the punishment for navisha um the might have been included in this uh Christianity and Islam both of which are premised on God did have a covenant 63 minutes far but they've changed God changed his mind he took away most of them he took away all of them um that person has denied the na of mosha one of the ikuna one of the principles of Faith enunciated by the rambam again is that the N of mosha is greater than all other NOA from other Jews and even from non-jews and the NOA of mosha by definition cannot be contested so somebody who adds an extra Mitzvah is a navisha is put to death has done a very very bad thing any problems here anyone now in the firing line morai we have just declared morai to be a navisha um which is obviously problematic ah okay you're ahead of me you're ahead of me okay so we just saw a suggestion that morai is not a na'vi well in truth he's that's not quite the full picture um if we jump to number 11 no sorry I'll go out of order I'll go to number nine go to number nine so the gumar again Milla says tanim there were 48 Nim and seven Prophet tessis um there were actually many more but those 48 and seven we actually know about and they're named in the in the Tanakh sorry okay thank you is they prophesied to Israel and they didn't subtract and they didn't add to what's written in the Torah except for Mill so before we read the next line let's let's just pause for a minute and and start spreading some of these pieces together a na'vi cannot introduce a new Hal Hashem said here's the package 630 mpot no more than that if a nov or no fewer than that either if a Novi now who is a Novi a Novi is somebody with a hotline to AES a Novi is someone who receives messages from aadesh baru in the way the rest of us don't now if a Novi wanted to add a Mitzvah of his own to say I've got a good idea I think you should uh do something and he says and and he appears in this town square where nvum did uh what would people say people would say he's telling us to do this because hes has told him because that's what a Novi is a Novi is a conduit for messages from aades so if a na'vi says I've got a good idea I think we should keep a Mitzvah he can't do that he can't do that because then he runs the risk of being seen as adding to the Torah itself on behalf of Hashem and Hashem says you can't add to the Torah and you want never add to the Torah so a na'vi cannot Institute a new Hal there are a few counter examples um which I will uh deal with briefly in a moment but basically a Novi cannot Institute a new and yet we've just read that 48 Nim and seven n prophesied for Israel and they didn't introduce any new Hala except except the one that they did why did they Institute mikra Milla on what basis why is that not subject to the same restriction as every other Mitzvah that they can't introduce and the gamar sort of raises its own question they didn't introduce any Mitzvah except the one that they did and the next paragraph sort of answers it but by raising other questions my what did they seek what did they seek to find a source for the idea that we should read the Milla what is the case when we are delivered From Slavery to Freedom we say Shir we sing halel as we did when we came out of MIT from Death To Life how much more so how much more so should we celebrate and sing a song of Celebration when we are saved from Death To Life as we were in the time of we don't say Hal but we read the mill instead okay yeah that's right so the great question which is used in the context of Hal on Y is why is there no Hal on puim and one of the answers is that Mill is the equivalent to Hal there are other answers which go in a different direction okay we we're very close we're very close you can see where we going with this we're very close to unraveling that yes he didn't say that this is from he said this is what I think should be done because we were Sav he didn't say all this is telling me either I'm a very good teacher or I'm I'm not teaching you anything new one or the other because you're ahead of me in where are we going with this my darish is a fascinating question the not not the question itself but why we need that question if a Novi is going to introduce a new Mitzvah which they can't but if they're going to how will they do that Hashem will them a message and I'll say here's a new Mitzvah but that's not what these NV who instituted mikra mcgilla did they looked for a source they looked for a reason to introduce it and they worked it out from pre-existing material they said look we already have a Mitzvah to say Hal on PES we can derive from that we can Dar from that that we will work out we have a Mitzvah to read the Milla onm The nvim Who instituted mikra Milla were not acting like nvim they were acting like ranim orim or the sedm who work in an entirely different way I said you might wonder don't we have lots of mitzvot that were added by the rabbis yes we have a myriad of mitzvot that were added by the rabbis in some cases in most cases they added to an existing Mitzvah Shabbat if we only kept mitzvah dator for Shabbat it would look very very very different to the way we keep Shabbat because I'm sure I haven't done a survey but the vast majority ofat of what you can and can't do on Shabbat come from the rabbis to safeguard the Integrity of the original Mitzvah from the Torah as we said at the beginning of p k were enjoined to make a fence around the Torah Tor it's part of K's job to add extra restrictions usually restrictions to safeguard the existence of the original Mitzvah and more than that they added extra Mitzvah the Mitzvah of cre Milla the Mitzvah of Kaneka which we'll come to a minute and a few other Mitzvah if you look at the back of the they're listed there the Mitzvah added by the rabbis so we've just said that a na'vi can't add a Mitzvah on pain of death but a rabbi can because a rabbi is not claiming that this Mitzvah comes from God the rabbi is very explicit this Mitzvah comes from the rabbis and indeed when one learns a new halak topic the first question to ask in any halaki topic is always is this Mitzvah mid or is it midan because the rules are different so the first thing to know about any Hali topic is which piit comes from the rabbis and which comes from the Torah if a Novi introduced a new Mitzvah it would look like it came from the Torah even when it didn't but when a rabbi introduces a new Mitzvah it's explicit that it comes from the rabbis so that's why this almost sondy line of gumar number nine on the page says they didn't introduce any new Mitzvah except the one they did and then the next paragraph explains they dared they ex they analyzed what the previous material tells us and on that basis we work out what to do next that's what rabbis do NM don't do that they don't engage in sort of pill pill they don't work it out they just get the message kazal work it out and who is M is morai a navi or is he a rabbi well the answer actually if we look a bit F if we look at Rashia number 11 on the gamar that we just learned Rashi says they didn't introduce any Mitzvah if you say what about I mean and often go together nah and K Milla sort of often go together they're both both added later so why don't mention that in when we said 48 n 7at instituted only one Mitzvah what about kanah didn't they introduce that as well says Rashi the N had finished by the time he come to kanah so kanah is absolutely pure Rabin Hana doesn't need to be mentioned here because there were no de around in the time of there was still some round the last of the Nim the Nim who prophesied about the return to ER Isel at the very end of the first Exile and if we look at the marha in number 12 sorry Hanah is not from gracious starting like the world but it's and it's Hanah light will always be even after you know that that's what's gonna keep going okay I I I don't want to get into into Hanukah right now we'll do that maybe at kanah time um although something later on the page we'll relate back to kanah um I it's a very interesting question and my first thought and this is only a thought from that I just arrived at on one leg now is the mishan this relevant to last week this week Etc the mishan is a microcosm of the world or the universe and in many ways you can see how the way the mishan is divided on different sections that matches the way the universe is divided on different sections God created the world we created and God under God's instruction the Mini version of the world that's called the misham and therefore I think it's quite appropriate that God in his macro World created light and we in the Mini World created light through our olives and it's that light that will endure but I'll leave that for another time okay um continuing the marha commenting on the Rashia number 11 so Rashi number 11 just to pick up the thread said at the time of Mori there was still nvim around and therefore the comment of it was the nvim who introduced mik Milla but when acting as rabbis um the says for old Parish rash quotes the who says there were around in the time of M but then the Mar saysi m himself was a Nai karish Rashi as Rashi explains based on the mid called Esther was also a prophet May and that's why the gar that we saw in number nine referred to not rabbis but the N of the niat because mikra Milla was instituted by nvim by Mori and Esther but here's the point and this is why I quoted this Rashi Mori straddled the two eras the era of NAA to the era of kazal morai is the pivot morai and Esther are the hinge on which this turns so they start started as Nim and they were Nim but they introduced the mitzvot of puim of which mikra Mill is representative acting as ran acting as kazal using the techniques of kazal which means we Dar myish we Dar to work out what the hakar is we don't ask Hashem what the halakar is we have the famous story with ends with the punch time bash am he the Torah is not in heaven it's for us to work out down here but that's in the period of the rabbis in the period of the N things were different and represents the moment when the nvim gave way to the raban and the fact that this book uniquely out of all the N can contain mitzvot because those mitzvot come from the rabbis tells us that this is now a new era there was a previous era and this is now a new era and in this new era there won't be nvim there will only be rabbis now at this point I want to ask a question which is often asked when one analyzes this sort of subject why are there no Nim after this time why does a KES not send us Nim and let me offer a psychological answer so the NV used to meet in the Town Square in the market and they would stand on a stone and they would give their message and the people would say wow this is an important message we must listen to what the N saying because they're speaking on behalf of God if somebody in the Mal M stood up and said I've got a message from God what would we do we'd send him to hospital because we' assume he's got some psychological problem what would we not do we wouldn't say oh let's hear what God has to tell us in the time in a him sometimes they did and sometimes they didn't which is better than now record now already gave him advice that they didn't listen just why the whole y possibly yep um why don't we why wouldn't we listen to Vim now and would we listen to the VM them and here comes my answer to the where we started and that is this the people in the time of the Nim had an awareness of AES which after the time of nim we don't have there was a sense of God in the world which they were Merit they merited to to receive and we alas don't have that why was there a sense of God in the world it's not just our fault because during the whole period of B Rishon from y MIT until the end of B Rishon there were open Miracles starting with 10 plagues splitting the sea very very obvious demonstration of hashem's power hashem's existence hashem's care for K Israel and when the Jewish people were told do you want to set the Torah or not it is possible to explain CL that they didn't really have a choice if aesu says if aesu appears without any possible doubt that this is a kades acting in the world and you're sitting in Egypt and you see plague after plague after plague and then you come out of Egypt pushed out by the very Egyptians who enslaved you for hundreds of years and you come to the Sea and you get worried what's going to happen to the Sea and the Sea splits and then you come to a mountain which bursts into flames and I says here I've got an idea do you want to accept the Torah there was no rational way in which they could not do otherwise it was absurd do you put your hand in a flame no you don't put your hand in a flame could you yeah you could but nobody's going to do that could the Jews have said no thanks possibly but would that have been in any way a rational decision no when hashem's presence is so obvious you don't have a choice and that I'll just say perhaps is what the gamarra means when it says the mountain was held over their heads because to symbolize the fact that they did not have a choice it wasn't rational to say no we don't want the Torah is like saying I'll walk through the fire you won't do it just just one let me continue my thesis and the apparent the relevance sorry the manifestation of God in the lives of a Jewish people the obvious existence of God was continuing throughout the time period of risham in at least two ways number one there were open miracles in the B mikdash every day every day you could go to the B mikdash and you could see the hand of Hashem but furthermore as we know you know sa for shaim in particular is all about the Jews do something bad Hashem sends an enemy the Jews ask do to shua Hashem sends someone to redeem them a a chaet in the ti period of malim it's not quite so obvious that cause and effect isn't quite so obvious but it's pretty obvious it's pretty obvious bad things happen to bad people good things happened to good people that was the world in which they lived and for all that time from M right through to the end of B sheni it remained an irrational choice to reject the Torah and to reject God all right richan thank you very much thank you yeah you confirmed your listening thank you um throughout the whole of rishan it remained the fact that hashem's presence was so obvious so manifest that it wasn't option to say we don't want the Torah and that's why there wasn't a need for a rectification of what we call in the gumar this mod this big problem with the Torah because that same problem if you like it continued to exist the problem was there was no real way of refusing the Torah not on a rational basis and that continued to be the case so I like to walk around that continued to be the case in time of Bot Rishon what happened at the end of Bot Rishon that's when things changed and what's the most obvious example of how Hashem is not apparent in the post puim world in the Milla there's no mention of Hashem now we know the way we read the Milla is we look for all the hints that hasem is there we look for all the raur before the Mak as say the Cure before the punishment we notice the fact that Esther was installed as Queen before hon came up with his plan we notice that Big T and ter should been unmasked before it was necessary to find favor for Mori and example after example after example we know that hamon built the Gallows with the intention that Mori be hunged on it but only because those Gallows existed was the king able to say hang Hammond on it etc etc so all these ways we're not just looking for cute examples of refur before the Maka we're looking for the hand of Hashem because the hand of Hashem is hidden because it is possible to read the mcgilla as saying a totally secular account of some political machinations going on at the Persian court it's possible to read it without Hashem it's possible to live our lives as if Hashem is not there it's possible because has we live in a world where Hashem is hidden and our task is to look to seek for Hashem in this world where he is hidden when does that start that starts with Milla Esther that starts with PM PM is the time when when every other book of to the the the sorry every other book of the tanak has been about Hashem did this Hashem did this hasem sent this message hasem sh this message the Milla stands out as one where Hashem is hidden okay so but but we still have to look for it we still have to look for that connection and that's what rabbis do they look for connections they look behind the text and that's what we have to do and that why the Torah the the mountain over their heads was if you like a problem from Matan Torah through to the end of bishan but Kimu they accepted the Torah again in the time of puim why little old puim is such a significant day in the Jewish history the day of the re acceptance of the Torah because puim created the environment where of God being hidden the offer of the Torah when God was manifest when God was revealed that's the old phase the new phase is when God presents himself in a hidden way and says will you accept the Torah and when the Jews accept the Mitzvah that M gives them they are showing that in a totally rational way in a world where God is hidden where they do really have a free choice I.E there's no mountain over their heads they are able to accept the Torah and that is the Willing Acceptance of the Torah and that is why the problem of the Torah being forced upon them because hashem's presence was so obvious has now been rectified and it's rectified in puim so puim represents the coming together of a lot of different factors which I think there's a common theme obviously hashem's name is not there because we're now in an era where Hashem is hidden that's why Sorry by the way in before puim if a Novi came and said I'm a Novi people would listen to him because they have an awareness of God in the world after puim if a Novi came and said I'm a Novi people would say no you're not because we don't have that sense of that connection to God porm is also the time when the who bring direct messages from God hand over to the rabbis who don't have direct messages that's why they have to work it out for themselves which is harder although it gives more opportunities and that's why the Torah is so great to learn because there's so much to learn of it because there's so much discussion about how we should understand what the Torah is actually saying that's the period of kazal which begins with morai and Esther who bridged the Gap they are as we saw in the mara both Nim and they are also the the mar didn't said they're both rabbis don't ask me whether can be a rabbi we won't get with that one this is the OU okay yes but rather a spiritual connection with a certain level where with hem that that merging at that moment didn't but not that intellect okay um I'll probably take a more intellectual view because I'm probably more into the intellect and less into the spiritual but but I hear what you say that that what I presented as an intellectual problem that hashem's presence is so obvious can also be understood as hashem's Spirit infused the people in such a close connection okay we've got a little bit more time um so I want to go a little bit further because there's another little piece to this puzzle that I think fits very well u in number 13 the gar describes a very strange event based on a from which says they cried out so to give a little bit of a way of what's coming next we're talking about the leaders of Jewish people um a little bit after the a little bit after the which and the Novi says they cried out to Hashem in a big voice and then the gamar says my Omar what what did they cry out what did they say what was what were they asking for some say said which is translated usually sort of wo wo there's this thing which has destroyed our mikdash which has burnt our our Sanctuary the and has killed all of the and has exiled the Jewish people from their land what is and and furthermore bam and it's still dancing amongst us they're referring to the Yahara here we have this very obscure episode where the leaders of the people kazal at that time um complained toes about theara theara has caused us to do bad things which has resulted in the mikdash and the the Exile and the deaths and and we still have this B sorry this Yahara dancing amongst us and then they say umum the reason you gave us the Yahara was that we could receive reward for not following the eight Zahara if there is a temp a tempter only then can we get the benefit of not being tempted but then they say we don't want that reward below sorry we don't want it and we below and we don't want the reward thank you very much God you've given us this Yahara which if we reject it we get a reward but we know that if we don't reject it we get destroyed so we'd rather not have the eight Zahara at all so the story carries on number 14 so in in in accompanying their request to Hashem they fasted for three days and three nights and Hashem hand handed it to them he handed the yahar isodar this was the yaha for aara so the Torah is sorry the gamar is describing a time when the Yahara for aod Zara was destroyed now by the way there's a bit more to a story initially they asked for the Atara for all um transgressions to be destroyed then they noticed the hens weren't laying eggs and they realized some desires are good and are necessary for society to function so they sort of modified the request and what they ended up with they destroyed the Yahara for aara that's what the gumar says and in a dramatic fashion in a story which may or may not be taken literally it answers the question or gives an answer to the question why don't we have a Yahara for aara anymore we don't if you read tanak which we talked about a lot today you find the Jews were very very often tempted into aod Zara they would sacrifice their children they would do all sorts of repugnant things they would presumbly dance around totem poles like we have this image of how idolatry Works anyone want a fancy dancing around a totem pole today anyone want to want to do any of the repugnant things that are described in the Torah about abod Zara wouldn't occur to us we would never even think of it why don't we have this desire to do a Vora like we're told over and over again our ancestors did so the gor says because the eight Sahara for aod Zara was destroyed but there are two sides to this coin and going back to our bigger theme of we now live in an era where Hashem is hidden when people worship totem Poes or trees or planets they obviously did a terrible thing which is utterly to be repudiated but they did it because they had a sense of the Divinity if you worship a tree you d ify that tree you say this tree it's some sort of God at least at least you are aware of the idea of God now you ascribe it to the wrong places and the wrong things but at least you have an idea of God we live after the aahar was destroyed the Atara for aod Zara and that means we don't have the desire to serve other gods we don't have the desire to sacrifice our children or to dance around tot Poes that's very very good however the flip side of the same coin is when we Hashem acts in a hidden way we don't see him we don't look for him we don't darey trees good but we don't Dy God either not good and this is part of the postp ERA this is part of the baggage that comes with it Hashem moves into a hidden mode just like aara was conquered the Yara for AAR was conquered this matches up to roughly the period that we're talking about because in number 15 the S says Alex Alexander the Great until the time of Alexander the were prophesying withes but from Alexander's time onwards incline your ear and listen to the words of and in number 16 the V says pish he says that bit in that the NOA came to an end at the time of Alexander the Great the Greeks coming into erit Israel that was also the time for the story described in number 13 and 14 about the end of the eight Zahara fodara it was the coming of the Greeks which was 150 years after purm in other words the blink of an eye it was uh just after porm the Greeks came to herit Israel says to vagan that we match up with the story of the destruction of the Atara forar because and now I I don't have time and now we'll come back to this maybe atah time because this is really AA but the Greeks had Hellenism which was different from paganism and in helenismo of what that finally reached its finale 150 years later when the Greeks came Alexander the Greek came and they were told explicitly there's no more n since the Yahara has gone that's good but we live in a world where we don't see God as much as we should and we live in a world where God has hidden himself his name is not in the Milla extra mitzvot are in the Milla because it's not written by a navi it's not a naua from Hashem but it's the beginning of the postp era on porm we dress up and on porm part of the fun is finding who's behind the mask our task on puim and every day of the post puim era is to look for Hashem behind the mask it's hard it was easier in the time of nim but now when we live in the world where Hashem is hidden our task on puim as we read the mcgilla but as we look at every event in life and we have a lot of events at the moment and a lot of times to opportunity to see the hand of Hashem that is our task in the post PM era I'll see you next