Non Jews, Jews and Mizvot - part 2 - The Avot | Rabbi Anthony Manning

Buckets of welcome everybody. >> Thank you all for coming. Please find a seat. Get some uh get a sore sheet, bit of coffee. I'd like to start by thanking our sponsors for this year. The Wednesday morning bet midrash program here in Rakavia. A bet hanasi is dedicated for 2026. Leu Nishmois Daniel Benavid and Limwood Bad Abram Strauss and Morai Ben Mosha and Rael Ysef Mayor Marcus who are the parents of Judy and Manaka Marcus and my shir is also spond sponsored through 2026 Leilu Nishmoas brandit and Zelig Ben Kman Alima Shalam Shubi and Aliyah for the namas. Um, I'd like to ask you please to turn off your phones. Uh, and that way we can continue without musical interludes. Okay, just a little bit of housekeeping just to remind you. I'm uh giving she list today and next week, please God. And then I'm going to be away for three weeks. I'm going to be in uh the states in the Boston area, in the Chicago area, in New Jersey, in Philadelphia, in Manhattan, and a little bit in Long Island. And yeah, I get around. I have to. and uh then I'll be back uh after that. But there will of course be sharing while I'm away. We are in a short series last week, this week and next week looking at issues which are very relevant to the paras that we're in right now. Last week we looked at the issue of Noahide law. What does it mean to be a Ben Noah? What does it mean to have mitzvah? This week appropriately for we're moving into the aos. What does it mean when kazal tell us that the aos kept the Torah? The aos and the imos kept the Torah. Now this is often presented I've often thought in the past this is a little bit of a technical maybe even a pillpool type of approach which is here. Got it. >> A pill uh approach which like I mean okay that's cute that's interesting like you know why do I really care? Why does it really matter to me today if the others kept the Torah? But when you think about this, it's actually very central because it goes to the root of our relationship with Torah in ways that I'll try and explain to you. And and this is something just occurred to me as I was walking in today. The Mishna in Kushin, which is one of the sources that we bring on the sheet, brings this idea as a as a hashkaf or masha idea, the end of kushin. And that itself makes it very important because the Mishna doesn't deal with hashkafa. The Mishna doesn't deal with Jewish thought. It deals with halaka. But it allows itself at the end of every ma pretty much the end of every maka to give a little hashkafic flourish a little end note with thing an important idea that he wants you to know about. So when Khazal was sitting down around the table when Yehuda Nasi was sitting raasi to try and work out what are their key core hashkafer nuggets that we're going to include at the end of this Mishnayas they chose this one and if they chose this one that means there's something going on that they want us to know about it and we'll see many of the are engaged with it and want to understand it before we get into the sheet let me give you six reasons why I think this is important and you can keep them in mind as you go through the share first of all we need perhaps I don't know if you need but this idea helps us to understand the nature of Torah. Torah is not just a legal code given to the Israelites in the desert when they left Egypt. It's much more than that. It's a blueprint for all of creation. Now you can either understand that as a cabalist on a cabalistic level that on a certain level Torah exists in a spiritual reality which our physical Torah is simply mapped onto and that there's a more fundamental primordial Torah which is the root of all creation which is the root of all reality we live in. This is the idea that God looked into the Torah and created the world from the Torah. It doesn't mean he looked into braces briim. He means he looked into a Torah which is a much bigger more fundamental spiritual version. So that we need to know and how the aos connected or on a more rationalist level that the aos understood that there was a a code of law a code of conduct a natural law if you like that precedes the Torah that how to be a mench how to be a human being. That's very important as well. So that's the first reason it's the nature of Torah. It helps us to be an Abrahamic Jew. We'll talk a little bit about this. It's important not to just be a Mosha Jew. The Torah doesn't start with the first mitzvah. Okay, I'm I'm an eved. I have a master. My master commands me. I do what I'm told to do. We have to do that. Yes, that's called nasma. We're in we're doing it. We're theadim. But the Torah doesn't start with that. The Torah starts with a family relationship. We're bananim. We're children of Hashem. We love Hashem. We want to do things because of a personal love and excitement and a passion as a volunteer. And therefore, keeping Torah as an Abrahamic Jew is also very important. And we can forget about it because we get lost in all of the details of theim and the Mishna Buru, which is very important. We forget that we have to be an aos Jew, not just a Mosha Jew. That's second. Thirdly, it helps us to focus on the reasons for mitzvot. Abraham worked it out for himself. Jacob worked it out for themselves. We'll talk about what that means. We also have to work it out for ourselves. We can't just say, "Oh yeah, tell me what to do and I'll do it." We need to be asking why. How why is it like that? How do I know that that's the truth? The kind of things that Abraham did, we have to also do. That's a third reason. A fourth reason is it fundamentally affects the way we keep Torah in Israel. The Torah of Erit Israel is different from the Torah of now a hashgraphic idea. It can have hakic implications. By the way, Rav Hutner had a kumra which I heard many years ago from Rav Aaron Listenstein which I try to keep myself although it doesn't come up very often that if somebody if a man puts on fill in in the morning let's say in America or it's not so much it's not so relevant in America because of their flight times but a man puts on fill in in the morning and then flies to Erit Israel they should put fillin on again in the afternoon because the fillin that they put on in the morning is that's that's Monet's fillain monet is not the same as fillin or even Tel Aviv's fillin and therefore Or if you ever see somebody wearing fill in the afternoon, maybe that's why they're doing it. That's a fifth idea. The mitzvah, fourth idea of the mitzvah is it it helps us understand. It's a fifth reason that kazal laid the the rather laid the fundamental infrastructure for everything we do today. And a sixth idea which I read I don't know if this is necessarily the truth but some of the scholars suggest that maybe this whole idea is a bit of an anti-Christian palemic that you know the the the one of the things that it says in the New Testament that that Paul writes to the Romans is that Abraham managed to be a Jew managed to to be close to God and he didn't need any law. You see you don't need any law. You can be a a totally connected person based on faith and faith alone. Of course, this was his his pmic against Judaism. So, it could be that we turn around and say, "Well, I'm very sorry. That's a selective reason reading of the Torah. It says very clearly in the Torah that God gave Abraham, Mishbatim, Torus." It's not just faith. It's also law. And therefore, this is an important reading, too. So, let's get into this. I think we're going to have a lot of fune, but it's quite detailed. I'll try not to get bogged down in all the details. We're not going to read every single source, but I want to make sure that we have time to get to the stuff at the end as well. So, let's start with the the opening pos, and this is the one I just referred to. Number one says the embraces this is uh God talking to says as follows. I will increase your offspring like the stars of the heaven. I'll give them all of these lands. and they'll be blessed etc. all the nations of the world will be blessed through your children. And here's the key line. Why? because because Abraham your father listened to my voice and he guarded my mishit my my uh ordinances or my uh I don't know how you translate mishmerit the things I wanted him to keep my mitzvot myim my laws to and myas Abraham kept misharot mitzvotim as well and toot What does that mean? What are those things? So, first of all, we're going to give some chat approaches. What could that be referring to? This is a posic in the Torah. This is not a midrash. This isn't, you know, there has to be a here as well. And then we'll get into some more midrashic ideas. And we'll see some of the questions. What does that mean? Everyone knows some of the classic cases. The obvious did not keep all of the Torah. We'll see that as we go through. So, there are different ways of looking at it and understanding these these key phrases. Mishari, etc., etc. Rabbi Lee Tag, Rabbi Man Lee Tag, a good friend of mine and someone who whose Torah I'm sure you know and you should you should read wherever you can. He breaks it down into different approaches in the Maporish and what they what they bring from. But we're going to start with let's start start with the Rashbam. The Rashbam is perhaps Rash's grandson is perhaps the most fundamental of all because don't forget is not a binary thing. You've got a a continuum. You have ultrahat ultra dr you have drashyhat and drush and you have everything in between. It's and therefore don't think of it as just one or the other. Look at number two says the so he looks in to the mitzvot that Abraham obeyed that then kept for God and he sees references to these words as keys to these mitzvot. It's very very ch based. So what does it mean by he listened to my voice? He kept the because it says there okay and that was what I asked him to do this is British he uses the word for the Brits. Okay, that's brick that he had to wait a days before the brick again brings the of this refers to brickmiller the deep the fundamental here is these are the mitzvah he had as a revealed non-Jew gazelle like theft arayot sexual morality desiring other people's things having a court system theasim interesting we know everyone was into but we see the rash understands this was one of the fundamentals of the mitzvah which we touched on last week all of these things applied before the Torah was given but they were renewed and they were explained to the Jewish people and we took a new brit but these were things that Aram did before you see from his life. That's the >> because >> because because of I'm going to give you this >> braha. So many other words. >> Okay, good. So other people talk about the we'll see Rashi. We'll see Rashi when we get to Rashi in a few minutes. Look in the Ramban. The Ramban gives another approach. The Ramban gives quite a few approaches and we're going to see most of them but we're going to divide them into different types. Look at his number three. What's Mishmati? He takes a more holistic approach. It's not specific things he did he did, but it's a way he connected to God belief in God. He believed in Hashem in what Hashem is and special the special nature of monotheism and he kept this in his heart. He bore this monotheism through his life. That is the mish merit and he shared this with all of the non-Jews, all of the idolattors and he did a great outreach work. What does mitzv mean? This is that he abandoned his family. He was able to be most he brought up his son and he threw out. These were all mitzvot. He copied Hashem. He was if you like in a in an early form. Okay. Banav and he commanded his children and also that is the on himself and on his children and on his servants and all of the other mitzvah okay good so that's hishat go over to page two gives another kind of approach he says on ahat level I think this just refers to the mitzvah leave aside the issues of the of the mitzvot. Look at what he says. Number four, he says, you can break this down into the mitzvah are a murder, setting up a system to avoid violence and theft is that is taking a limb from a living animal. the kilim and we saw last week that one of the chev mitzvah or part of the rubric mitzvah is also kim okay not to crossbreed animals shall be maybe not to crossbreed trees and there we saw last week there are hakic implications as to whether non-Jews are allowed to do this or we're allowed to help non-Jews to do this fine this is the laws of courts and the visor these are all And he kept the will of his master, the will of Hashem. [snorts] And he kept them in all of their details. Meaning she mitz are not just seven basic ideas. There are whole basis of law. It says as it were you know we have it doesn't have 400 chapters but his did I don't think that's a literal thing that he had a book or a migill in the back saying but it means that he didn't just keep a very basic idea he kept every little detail he was a detailed person this is more like I said before against perhaps the Christians who were saying you don't need to be a detailed of he even had a kind of level of the secondary etc. And therefore we have this idea that even the chevo need to be learned in detail. We have this idea of the yeshiva shame a what did the yeshiva of shame va look like? You know, sometimes we think uh oh, it must have looked a bit like Ponovich or or or or or Meazarav or or something like that. I don't think necessarily looked like that. Maybe it was some kind of ashram. Maybe it was some kind of philosophy school. I have no idea what it looked like. But Kazal wants to to keep pointing out that there was a limud. They learned these things in a certain amount of detail. There's a famous Gomorra that Yakov was sent off to learn in the yeshiva ash there. missing 14 years that we try and work out before he leaves out Israel. But you may not know in number five the yeses of Abraham al- Narra after the aada when Abraham returns alone alone and the question is what happened to Yeitzk now of course you could get more mystical and say Yitzk actually died on the Aada was brought back to life later on there's all sorts of different ways of looking at it but this this midrash is much more down to earth where is where's he gone Rabbi Rabon Rabbi Baraki said in the in the name of the rabbis of the south shame he sent him to shame limo also went to yeshiva again whatever that yeshiva looked like but there was a a limud there were laws and therefore just to summarize what we've seen is the different shout approaches all of these mentions in the pukim of different kinds of laws so maybe it's the chev Maybe it's the general things did in his life. Maybe it's specific things he did in his life. But that is the approach. However, you and I all know that more exciting perhaps than the there's something's very important, but it's it's it's harder to teach it to small kids in you know when they teach kids, they always teach them midrashim because midrashim are juicy and exciting etc. You need to just somehow teach them later on in life that there's more than just midrashim and you need to learn shout as well. That's where that's the problem. The problem is not how we teach the 5-year-olds. The problem is how we teach the 15 year olds. Okay? So have a look at the drash. So comes along says the mission at the end of kushin matsu we find says the mission source number six. And here's a critical gear question. What is the next word? We find says the did all the Torah before it was kept. What's the other alternative? The other G is shake. He kept all the Torah before it was given. What's the difference between he did it and he kept it? We'll see soon what that difference is. And he brings Abraham. Very good. So we have this Mishnake statement as to how this works. We then have a Gmorra in number seven. Here it says for sure etc. So says to Raf Raf of course is the first generation of Amarim. What do you mean he kept all the Torah the Ava mitzvah? Maybe that's just talking about she mitzvah all these laws like we saw in the pashanim says he replies maybe maybe there's what about briser that's not one of the chev mitzvah okay so he says so let's say it means mitzvah the mitzvah and mil which is the eighth mitzvah which is actually quite nice actually because mil of course is the number eight the eth day it's the eth mitzvah why not that says to him no Why does it say this is the law of detailed mitzvah later comes along and says what do what does that mean even kept so that you could learn it like a very detailed much later daon meaning to say he kept everything all the Torah laws all the rabbitic laws he lived just like you know you lived today in Lakewood. He could have been the same, you know, wore a strial, whatever he did. Um, he kept every mitzvah. You could, of course, say that Tashilin is not just randomly a little detail of a ribbony claw, but is very much auilin tile. You're allowed to cook on for shabas. How does work? It works on the basis of what we call h oil. Since you can cook on yans in case guests come and you hope that extra guests will come, that means it's also for yansf even if it turns out the guests don't come and use it for shabas. That's a life. No, hoping that guests come, wanting guests to come. So maybe their duffka talking about tailin um and uh and that's why they picked that. And this piece of the Gomorrah here ends. And Rashi loves this approach. Rashi all over wants to say yes, it's a maximalistic really. He kept all of the laws of the Torah. Let me show you some lovely rashes. First of all, the rashi on this. Okay. He kept all the mishabono. Okay, he's even keeping on Shabas and not asking a non-Jew to do things for him. Whatever a non-Jew meant in those days all the on Shabas doing things with the shiny here that these are if they hadn't been written you could have worked them out for yourself logical rational etc. things that the non-Jewish world laughs at and mocks. He didn't eat pigs. He didn't wear shas which are not logical like he do you do it because God tells you and you're an eid. So he's also like an ever. He's pulling into more of an e adon relationship. What does it mean to la? But it's not just Abraham. It's also Noah. Look on the top of page three. What does it say about Noah? God says to Noah, "Take all take from all of the kosher animals. Seven of each. Seven pairs. Actually, it turned out okay." And from the non-cooser animals. Okay. two by two. How did Noah know what's a kosher animal and what's a non-cooser animal? So on ashhat level, you say, "Well, it's not really Cashas. It's a different kind of Noah." No, says Rashi Israel. What will in the future be kosher for the Jewish people? This teaches us this teaches us to Noah learned Torah. Noah studied Yorida. Noah knew which animals were kosher, which animals were not kosher. He knew like you and I know he knew. Go to Lot. Number 11. Lot presses the angels and says, "Please don't stay in the street." And and they really really pushed them and they came to his house. They went after him. They came to his house. He made them a meal. He made them he baked them matzas and they ate. Why did he bake the matas? Oh, shot level. They're quick to make. You know, you can make them in a few minutes. Oh, says Rashi. Pesa. It's Pesak. What do you want? You going to give them? It's say night. It's Pes. Of course you eat mats. Why is Lot keeping Pes? Get to that in a minute. Okay. Yakov. Look at number 12. Says Rifka to Yakov. Go to the herd. Get two little goats. two good goats. I will make them into food for your father just like he likes. Says needs dinner made from two goats. I looked it up online. How many people the two goats feed if you eat normal portions? And the answer is over a 100 people. You can get over [clears throat] a 100 people to invite them for dinner for two goats. He needs to make two goats. Okay, says Rashi. No, it's not. It's also It keeps being pes interesting. There's a reason for that. Every year. Yeah. Not not for a while. Don't worry. Okay, fine. It's he may and the other one he makes for for dinner, which is still pretty pretty good dinner. But he's there. Where does he p? How does that work? And famously number 13 perhaps the most famous of all and sends his messengers to saying this is what Jacob says the I lived I lived with Jacob with their lover. Now the first in rashi is a more bas means garti means I was always a g I was never really there to stay. I was always planning on coming back. Okay, that's a very approach. But no one remembers that comment of Rashi. They only remember the next one. Dar alternatively given though I lived with love and harasha mitzvah shamati. I kept 613 mitzvot. Now of course you can't take that literally because no single human being can keep all 613 mitzvot. You need to be a Cohen and not a Cohen and a man and a woman and a you need to be all of those things all at once. But what's he saying? He's saying he kept multiple mitzvot. And you see other things midrashim that says to Asaf, sharpen your knife so that it won't be an avail. Yakov and Yseph are studying a Yseph kept chabas etc etc. So there is a whole drash approach that that is insisting that they kept all of the mitzvah kaput. Now how do we how do we understand that? Let me give you two suggestions. One is a little bit more uh rationalist and one is a bit more mystical. So the miri comes along and says I have a more rationalist way to explain this midrash. The the mirror himself was from a more rationalist school from the Rambam school very much. But he says maybe this midrash means as follows. And I brought you in number 14. You can look in your own time. I'll explain it outside. He says look Ara kept he brings a few different versions of this. of katos was the first version he brings and then he brings a tash. So he says is shabas kept shabas and tashin is a kept yans. What does that mean? What is shabas? Shabas is the fundamental belief that god created the world and living according to that belief. And every time you don't turn on a light on chabas you're making a statement. God created the world. The world has meaning. It's not random. My life has meaning. There's a lot of things to think about when you don't turn on the lights on Shabbas or when you make Kdish on Shabas. And what else is fundamental to Judaism? Every Yonf is mitime that God is not just the creator but God is the God of history. God intervenes in the world. There's hashka. It's not a deistic religion where God is absent and completely uninvolved. So what do we mean when the midra says God that Ara kept Shabas and Ara kept Yon? means he carried these two fundamental principles with him all of his life that god is the god of creation and god is the god of history and that's what his message was to the world okay that's a nice way of spinning these midrashim so doesn't mean of davka it doesn't mean davka [clears throat] it means what they represent fine but there's a much more mystical approach which I uh which I uh alluded to at the beginning which if you look at the makubalim from the zohor onwards really the everything in this world is just a pale reflection of a more real spiritual world which is parallel to it. That partly is what the word cabala means. Kabala of course is a received system of wisdom. But kabala is also makb. What's makb? >> It's parallel. There's a parallel. Everything in this world, every finger on my hand, every part of my fiber, every mitzvah I do is parallel to an equivalent version, which is the much more spiritual and real version. You think my hand is real? This is completely unreal compared to the real yad, which is the yad hashem, which of course is not a physical hand, but it's the ultimate yad that a yad could be. The schllo talks about this a lot. And therefore, every single matz mitzvah I do is just the the sort of um what's the word? The gashmas the the the physical realized version of a much more fundamental reality. So of course Lot's eating matzah because Pesak is not because the Jews came out of Egypt. The Jews came out of Egypt then because it was Pesak because that mystical and realus was in the vibe of the h of of all of the universe. Therefore, the people had to come out on that night and it inverts everything. By the way, there's a hint of this a little bit when on Seda night when you point to the masses and he says it's because of this that God did everything for me when I came out of Egypt. That's the that's the wrong way around. You're saying it's it's so that I could eat matzah that God came out of Egypt. We came out of Egypt. No, we eat matzah because we came out of Egypt, not we came out of Egypt because we need to eat matzah. And that's maybe a hint of this idea. No, we eat matzah because this is the night of matzah in all the spiritual realms. And it happens to be the so of course Lot was tuned into that. A was tuned into that. And therefore, there's a mystical idea which underpins all of that. And that's very interesting because that uh therefore really reinforces that we uh uh we are we're not just keeping mitzvah. We're keeping a reality which is way spiritually beyond that. Okay, good. So far so good. Now the problem is that the didn't keep all the mitzvah. What did they not keep? So I brought you some sources. We're not going to read them all inside, but there are many examples and you can probably think of some yourself. The most obvious one. >> Okay. Marry two sisters is more of a problem than marry two wives because I mean your wife might think it's a problem if you marry two wives. Yes. But according to the basic Torah law you could marry two wives. But he married two sisters. Total no. No no no. Milk and meat with Arau. That's interesting. Yakov made a mata. A matsa is a single large stone in order to worship hashem. This is a Torah prohibition to make a matsa. Mosher Abenu made 12 mats at Hari. You're not allowed to make a mata. So, how does this work? So, just pick up one source here. Number 17. The Ramban says, "I've got a problem in if it's true that the kept the Torah." How did not and he married two sisters according to some midrashim Arabus four sisters cuz billah and sila were also halfsisters sisters the amraaso and amra marries his aunt you can't marry your aunt according to the Torah you can theoretically marry your uncle it's not recommended but you can't marry your aunt He put 12 months of if you're telling me a kept all the Torah, but then everybody else is breaking it left, right, and center. How does that work? He was just a now again the age points out that obviously it doesn't mean that anyone ever kept all of the Torah. You can't Abraham couldn't have given me a because there was no such thing as a Mishkan. He couldn't have been the Coen god. But it means that there's a maximalist keeping of the Torah. So how are we going to answer that? I'm going to give you six or seven ways of answering that question. These are all you can pick whichever you like for your Shabbas table and you can talk about this any para for the next like six weeks. So I've given you lots of material to use even when I'm away. So one thing the Ramban says in number 19 is what does it mean to keep all of the mitzvah means to keep Shabbat. Shabbat is connected all of the mitzvah. So maybe when it means that he kept all of the mitzvah means he kept Shabas. He was connected to Shabas. We saw this Araino had a deep connection to the ideas of Shabas. So maybe it's really just talking about Shabas. That's one suggestion. Famously number 20 the Ramban then says ah but I've got an even better he kept the mitzvah only init. And everybody knows this number 20. This deserves to be looked at inside. I'm going to give you an answer which you're going to love from the rabbis. He says learned the whole Torah Torah through the he was involved in it and he and he kept all the reasons for it and the deep details of it but he was an he didn't keep it as an ev like we keep it now after he wasn't commanded he did it as as a volunteer. And and that volunteering, that love, that sense of I want to do extra, I want to do more. That's init marry his wife, his his aunt. Elohim. What do we call mitzvah? Mishbat elohar. Mitzvah are of the god of the land, the land of Israel. All of Judaism is rooted in the idea that mitzvah apply init. It's on every page of maybe they could show that to some of the people who don't seem to remember that in today's world. Even though yes, we have an obligation on a Torah level to keep even init. It's not as I once heard some fellow stand up on a Friday night and say some Israeli fellow in Shaw mitzvah init only I says that's not true that's not what it says it's not the Rabon to murder people in America okay just just to be quite clear about that okay but it says that they're not the same it's not got the same spiritual weight we already hinted to this which we'll see in a minute the reference he's making and I'll tell you about it later on in the now if Jacob only married two sisters init one of them has to die because he cannot be married to init and many of the many of the more modern rabbi talks about this explained that that's that's how we read these paras and the ramban himself says explicitly very interesting comment in vikra The minute they entered into Israel, Yakov never touched Rael ever again. Very interesting, tragic in some ways. She was pregnant with Binyamin, but that's where it ended. And she has she she bears the baby and then she dies. But she's she's maybe Rabbi says maybe even she died before they came into Israel. And the par that's a bit harder to say because it says she died on the way to. So what's on the way to you know? So you could say that Bethlehem is on the way to Ifrad and you could say that uh Damascus is on the way to I mean it depends on on on on which way you know what your your distances are. >> Punished for his sin. >> Why? Why? >> He was punished for his sin. >> No, she wasn't punished. Ah that's an interesting question. Okay. Everyone has their own and everyone has their own reasons for what happens to them. But they also why was he punished that she had to die as it were. Not punished but it's it's the just the reality of what needs to be there. It's very interesting. I mean from our perspective we talk a lot about why it's important for us that Rakam Rakamu is not buried in Maris Ma why she is buried somewhere else etc etc that is if you think that dying is punishment might not be >> oh spoken like a true Miss Nagget it's true because if if you you could you could you could take the view that dying is actually not a punishment at all >> from her >> okay that's already different she had a difficult marriage all the way through this just makes it even more difficult etc etc but it's very interesting but this idea is fundamental. And look at what he's were alluding to in uh on the top of page five here in it says uh in the in the we have to keep mitzvah. You'll be exiled from the land but you have to keep mitzvah but you'll be you'll be exiled from the land for some but you'll still put on you still do mitzvah in says the is what the the ram and also rashi elsewhere refers to even though I am sending you into goddess I'm exiling you from the landlar You still have to be special and stand out with the mitzvah you do in why when you come back you'll know what you're doing. You can't not keep mitzvah for 2,000 years and then come back to and say now we have to learn what mitzvah are. I mean it's hard enough to do mitzvah, right? Relearn how to keep relearn how to do and mitus. But can you imagine if that was the whole of Torah? And by the way, the Rambam says uh that if there were a minion of Jews in Erit Israel at all times during the golus, we would have also lost pesak and sukus and we'd have looked back at pesak and sukus like we look at you know corbonus and we'd have been saying in America and Russian wherever for the last 2,000 years we used to keep something called pesak we used to keep something called we we could have lost mitzvah very easily could have lost them but we didn't they stay there in therefore this is the idea and this is fundamental that mitzvah have be kept in Israel with a different kind of intensity. That's another answer which I think is well known but I think it's worth contemplating. It gives us a different relationship with Israel and the way we do our mitzvah here. Fine. Um a nice answer from our kameki >> mitzvah were they were voluntary. The ramban just said that >> I'm not I'm in page number five uh in C3. I didn't bring you a whole source. I just brought you a reference there. Ra Kamineski says as follows. Why did Yakov This is so Rav Kamki like through and through. Why did Yakov marry two sisters? >> Was that >> Hashem wanted it? >> Okay. How does he know Hashem wanted it? He How does he know Hashem wanted it? Lavance tricked him. Okay. Okay. Good. Good. Good. Very good. Good. Okay. Could be. Could be. We'll get to that. We'll get to that. But Pashkus, he didn't want to marry two sisters. He marries Leia or he mar he marries what he thinks is Raal. He gets Leia and he turns to Lav and he says this this is not what we had in mind. I don't want to do this. And Lavan gives him a whole stick. H you know we're all from here. We don't marry off the younger sister before the older sister says Rabakov there is a prohibition to marry two sisters. Let's say that the mitzvah do apply init and he's not allowed to do it but he's volunteering to do it because he's not bound to do it but he's bound to not do the wrong thing by ro yeah and wrong thing by meaning he has a midas obligation. He has a personal obligation. What's he going to do with Leia? Does throw her throw her out? Say, "Oh, I don't want you." And with Rahul or say like, "Well, okay, forget it. I'll just keep he has to act like a mench with Rahul and Leia." And if there's a choice between not acting like a mench or keeping the mitzvah, which is not obl obligatory, then of course he has to act like a m because the mitzvah can't override acting the inappropriate way to That's a beautiful answer that the moral obligation like it didn't exactly work out. >> What's that? >> It says, >> "Okay, good. It did work out so well." No, sometimes there are consequences that follow from doing the right thing >> and it doesn't always work out, Rosie, if you but you still have to do the right thing and uh and therefore that that's a very nice idea. Okay, a couple of other ideas and I want to get into a couple of things towards the end. Um there's another approach. says, "I don't know why you're all wrapping your sat yourselves in knots with this that that Jacob did this and and Moshe did this." When it says that Aram kept the whole all the mitzvah. It means a kept all the mitzvah, >> not the others. Who said anyone else kept the mitzvah? You're assuming kept the mitzvah and therefore and why would he have to keep the mitzvah? It says Ara kept the mitzvah. So just be happy with Abraham and then all your problems go away because all of the other people who didn't keep mitzvah were not Abraham. very nice. Um, and the AO and the Maharal rather takes a a similar idea. Avan kept the mitzvah but they were tuned in. Whichever they felt they were connected to, that's the one they're the ones they kept. But don't start asking cashes on all of the others. Very important in number 24 is the difference between positive and negative mitzvah. And this is what I want to dwell on for a minute. The Maharal, the Maharal says in order to understand this, you need to understand the fundamental difference between a positive and a negative mitzvah. And this is this I think we take away with us a big message for today. 24 look at will we please bottom of page four of page five even if you want to say that all the mitzvah are good things to do. They're the right things to do. They're straight things to do. Why why wouldn't they keep them all? Why why isn't it appropriate to keep for the others to keep all of the messes? Why are they breaking some? Because there are certain people who are not obligated to keep mitzvah and he brings the ofudan like that a blind person is exempted from mitzvah as an obligation but could do them as on a voluntary basis. We don't pass it like that that we pass when the blind people are obligated fully mits. Why is there a shila? Because you can only be obligated mits if you have d if you really understand what's going on. And he was raised the question does someone who is not able to see do they really understand everything that's going on? And the pas is yes they do absolutely somebody who is deaf and mute. Okay that's a whole other question. they can't hear and they can't speak their kazal pas that we can't be sure that they know exactly what's going on because we can't communicate with them and therefore they are exempted from mitzvah by the way raised the question today someone who is deaf and mute we can communicate with them we have all sorts of ways of communicating we can commute by touch we can do all sorts of things with them and they they put on theater that deaf mute people have a very engaged life in the world today barak and therefore he says even though kazal said a deaf mute person can't count for a minion because they're not don't have d maybe that's not the same today which is an interesting question because we live in a different world that's not that's a different sh about changing okay so according to blind people were exempted and women are exempted but from the mitzvah they're exempted from etc who then le say they should do them no just because you're exempted oh I don't care I don't want to hear the cha for I'm I'm a I'm exempted. No, it's a good thing you should go. Women make extraordinary efforts to hear chauffeur. People run around blowing chauffeur for women even though they're exempted. We do make an effort. So why do why would we make an effort here? You get that's only with a positive mitzvah. The you only get merit for volunteering for a positive mitzvah. Why? What is a mitzvah? negative mitzvah. God said you're not allowed to do this. But he told me that I am allowed to do this. So why would I not do it? What do I achieve by not doing it? It's not even relevant to me. It's not like this is a good thing to do to hear chauffeur. This is just something that they're not allowed to do, but I am allowed to do. Why on earth would I volunteer to not do it? tourist me about women are exempted from going uh from the the prohibition as a Cohen of going onto a cemetery. If you're an Asian Cohen, if you're a Basen, you're allowed to go on a cemetery. So, is there such a thing as a woman who would say, "Even though I'm a woman, since I'm a basen, I'm not going to go on a cemetery. I want to take that on." There's no such thing. The lotus or a woman who will say, "I don't want to shave my I want to grow pis." Yeah. Because you know something, it's it's God says not to cut off the corners of your hair even though that's only for man. So I'm also going to do that. So it doesn't make any sense. There's no for that. There's no at all. Of course, you're asking also why would they voluntarily not do something which is not even maybe that's a problem of a mitzvah but to do a positive mitzvah then they should try and do that and therefore he's saying the kept positive mitzvah because that's to tune into God's ro but why would they not keep negative mitzvah or why would they observe no mitzvah rather why would they not eat pork or not it doesn't make any sense Because the mitzvah's assay is part of the love that a person has for Hashem and that's what we're trying to express here. And that's actually the mar I brought you on the top of page six. That's the difference between assa and km. I asked you what's the difference between the assu they assa they did the mitzvah or says according to the version that says assa it means the mitzvah assay not the mitzvah says and if you think about all the mitzvah they quotequote broke they're all negative mitzvah don't put up a mat sa so they put up a mata because why should they not there's nothing to do with them don't marry two sisters why not I mean it's nothing to do with them on the contrary if god says you're allowed to do something and you choose not to do you're denying yourself something. Why would you why why do you have to be former than everybody else? It's a little bit like the Nazir. We have this, you know, slightly ambivalent relationship with the Nazer. God says you can drink wine. So, uh, the Naz says, "Yeah, I'm not going to drink wine." Like, why not? What's wrong with you? Everybody else can manage to be and drink wine. Why can't you manage that as well? What What are you taking on this extra? But to do a mitzvah, I say, "Okay, good. That that's that's that's volunteering to do something we love." Because that's me. Aha. Look for a second in 26. Okay. Um it says around this is on the mitzvah of and other such mitzvah that the positive mitzvah is greater than the negative mitzvah just like love of hashem is greater than or of hashem because if you volunteer and do something extra with all your body with your the the will of your master who that is much bigger than someone who just tries to not do something. That's why we say if there's a clash between two mitzvah and they come at the same time, one is a positive mitzvah saying do this and one is a negative mitzvah saying but don't do this and they're literally simultaneous like yum. Yum is a mitzvah. you must do yum to be makim shame hame to marry your uh sister-in-law in order to to to raise the name of the dead brother but on the other hand the Torah says you can't marry your sister-in-law so which one wins the assay wins because ahava is greater than a Torah says put wool situs on a linen bag that is a mitzvah of sites you must do this but the Torah also says don't wear the positive mitzvah overrides the negative so That's why the boys were tuned into positive mitzvah because negative mitzvah is just not shy to them. It's not relevant to them. And that's actually a very interesting way of understanding it. And again, for us, it changes the way we look at positive mitzvah. We should be running to try and do positive mitzvah. Uh and and we tend to sometimes just focus on what we we're not allowed to do. We're not always focusing on what we must try to do, etc. I brought you another uh idea here before we get into the last section of the year that it could be that the kept whichever mitzvah they decided they needed to. And this is what the lady said over there. Rua Kodesh. They had Ruha Kodesh. They opted in. Yakov needs to build 12 tribes. He needs to build them from the best mothers in the world. So you can't really do that from one wife. I mean it's a lot of work. I mean you can. You can, but 12 children is a lot to marry a wife and say, "Darling, we're going to be having 12 children." Um, so you know something, he splits it. This is interesting. to val and the perish there they say he marries two wives because these are the two best women in the whole world who you'd want to be the mothers of your tribes and then it makes it six each okay very nice um although it doesn't match why he originally only wanted to marry one but okay leave leave that aside um the guri says it's more of an opt out rather than an opt in okay they only opted out of mitzvah kadesh the orim says something very interesting you'll have to do khazor on this afterwards there's a lot of material Here the orim says I don't know why you're you know you're getting upset about this the areim we don't we don't often think about the obvious we think of no what can avi do through a novi can at any time make a can say that on a temporary basis this mitzvah is suspended because god told me to suspend it we see that elia na'vi on har caramel bringing corbonus when the BA mdikdash is down the road and there's a prohibition to bring corbanis and harl so why are you getting upset he does whichever a quotes and quotes are appropriate for his kesh so too with yak so too with yakov etc etc fine the last two things I want to look at as follows and I think you'll like c7 on page seven comes along the radaz and gives a very technical answer some people love technical answers some people don't like them so much but he says says as follows. He says, "Why are you bothered about this?" Look at number 32. Yakov married two sisters. What's the says the Radvas? He was in Egypt in the 15th century. This is not even a question because there's no sibling connection between them according to even if they deny they're a vodor and they become mut they're not sisters anymore they were never sisters they're not sisters then when they're non-Jews because they have the same father we don't go according to paternity in in the in the non-Jewish mitzvah and they're not sisters even if they're gay him. So, of course, he can marry them both. Why? Because they're not sisters. They were never sisters. They were never sisters when they were non-Jews, and they're not sisters when they're Jews. Now, we don't let people marry prohibited quote unquote relation like incestuous relationships. In theory, if a mother and a father and a son and a daughter who are non-Jewish all became Jewish, then all of them are allowed to marry each other. The son can marry the mother and the father can marry the daughter, and the brothers can marry the sister. Now, obviously, we're not going to let them do that. We have the Rabonans that say no, no, no. But he says, "No, they're not sisters." So, it's fine. Okay, if you like that, great. Rav Mosha Feinstein says, "I don't know what's wrong with you. You're not allowed to marry two sisters if you marry them." Kushin, you're not allowed to do kushin with two sisters. But the AOS were not Jewish. And they didn't have kidushin. They just had a monogous relationship that a non-Jew has in order to make a non-Jewish hakic marriage. And no one ever said you can't marry two sisters if it's through that non-kidushian based relationship. Nice. So he says there's no prohibition because the prohibition is to do kudos with two sisters that didn't kudos. Now more fundamentally and we'll see this right now the between Rav Mosha is and the Radvas. Ra Moshi is saying the Avis were non-Jews were non-Jews whereas Ravaz is saying the Aas were Jews and if you do Gear and uh you become Jewish then some of these things disappear and therefore I want to maybe focus on this a little bit look for a second at the last page uh skip to page number nine you can read the mm much much of the rest yourself um maybe I'll come back at the very end to 30 37 and the emis but look at this I brought you a little uh a little chart at the bottom or some some um summary here. There is a beautiful there's a beautiful com uh commentary called the parashatraim parasraim rahud roamas he's not so famous but he has a thesis running all the way through brachid uh he was this like 300 years ago he says if you understand what they're really arguing about then all of the stories of say for bracia start to make more sense this is the fundamental question from a onwards is are we Jewish minus maybe Jewish but not yet at Sinai or are we non-Jewish plus which are we and let me give you some examples um if you look here there are two positions we saw Moshe just said I don't know why you're worrying about Yakov married two wives they were not Jewish and therefore there's no kushin etc this is the position of the uh French shinim who say they're not Jews they follow the male line theatim can marry paternal sisters ammon can marry his paternal aunts, no problem. They're not Jews. Yakov can marry two paternal sisters, etc., etc. Whereas the the Ramban takes the view, and we saw the Radvas takes the view. No, they're Jewish. They're Jewish. They kept Shabas, they learn Tyra, you know, Arabs. You have to find another way to explain why they're married to his sisters, etc. This is more the position of the Bavi. The other is more the position of the Midrash. And therefore, says the parasim Yakov is not sure. He's not sure, are we Jewish or are we not Jewish? And therefore, when Ruven sleeps with Bilhar, assuming he sleeps with her, okay, he rearranges the bed. Let's take the view that it's like literal. So then there's a big difference. If they're Jewish, then they're not liable because it's not really his wife. But if they're non-Jews, then he does. It's adultery. But so what is it? What did Ruben do exactly? What did he do here? Yehuda and Tamar. Tamar says, says the parim, we're not Jewish. Therefore, I was never married to heir and Onan. I don't have to marry the next one because and it's not good for me because look what happens to, you know, all the other ones. Yehuda says, "No, we are Jewish. Of course, we're Jewish." And therefore, you're a shame yava. You have to marry because you're waiting because it's your brother-in-law. And she says, "No, it's not my brother-in-law. We're not Jewish." Ysef, Yseph says, "We're not Jewish." Okay. Um the brothers, Ruin, Yehuda, etc., says, "We are Jewish." And the accord between Ysef and the brothers is Yseph says we're non-Jews and the brother says or non-Jews plus and and Yehuda says and the brother says we're non we're Jews minus and this explains a midrash he says remember the midrash that Yas goes and reports on the brothers and he say he runs back and gives lash and horror to Yakov. What does he say that they're doing according to the midrash? So Yas says three things. They're eating a minai. They're insulting the children of the Bilah and Zilba by calling them aim. And they're also acting inappropriately with Canaanite women. That's what he says according to the midrash says the paradim this works beautifully because according to Yseph, they're not Jewish. So Yseph sees them eating from a shehided animal which is still twitching. According to the if you're Jewish, it's dead. Once you it's dead. So it's not but according to the non-Jews if it's moving it's not dead. So Yseph says we're not Jews and it's it's the brother said we're Jews. It's not what's your problem here? So to Bilarpa Yos says we're non-Jews and therefore the children of a maidervant are are free people are just as free as anybody else and therefore why are you calling them a vadim? Why are you relating to them as slaves? Whereas the brother says what are you talking about? We're Jews. You know it's the child of a shif canananis. Of course it's of course it's an e. What do you think? Of course it's an eidus on that. And the Canaanite women says we're not Jews and therefore there's much more of a likelihood we're going to intermar. We have to have extra boundaries. We have to be careful. And the brother said no it's fine. Okay we have to have boundaries but we're Jewish and they're not Jewish. We're not going to marry them because they're a different religion. It's a he and he this is just an overview of about 65 pages of analysis of every single story in braces which he understands basically comes down to the question are we Jews or are we non-Jews yes >> on the other hand shows his father asked who are these kids and shows him >> shows him a so according to that why would he have a kuba if he's not Jewish That's a good question. Okay. So, you can pick apart the whole thesis and work out when it doesn't work. Okay. Good. So, read it and write accounts. I'm sure many people have done that too. Right. Let me just let me just end with one little thing which I think is very important. Have a look just with me at at source number 37. We take take two minutes on this. Let's look at it in English. It's a sheamish. Shamish. Let's have a little bit of to end off the sh. So, look at what he says. Let's just read it in English to be quick. When it says Aram fulfilled the entire Torah, surely the meaning 37 is not the performance of the commandments as they are now. He didn't keep mitzvah like you and I keep mitzvah. He didn't have a mission of for this is impossible for most of the terrorist commandments. This is obvious. All the more so since most of them depend on the Exodus from Egypt. You know this is because of mis and this is because of it's not doesn't make any sense before you see mis rather the meaning is the light of the commandments the or mitzvah there's a spiritual essence to them in the manner of what stated in the zohar that Jacob fulfilled through the rods that he peeled the secret of fillin when I wear to fill in in the morning I need to put a little black box with straps on my head when yakov fulfilled the mitzvah of fillin he didn't have a little black box with straps. He was peeling things off a rod and putting them in front of sheep. And that was the spiritual version of tillin that manifested in physical terms through peeling rods and putting them in front of sheep. He was keeping fillin but not yillin and my fillin but his version. In this way it was possible for them to fulfill the entire Torah but in different vessels, different caim and lvushim. These are very cababalistic terms from those that exist after the giving of the Torah. For once the Torah was given, it is no longer possible to fulfill commandments except in the caim and the levushim according to the Torah. And if someone comes and contemplates the secrets of fillin and starts to peel rods to serve as vessels and garments for the light, he's done nothing at all. I go to shul tomorrow morning and say, you know something, I've got a new idea. We're not going to do fillin today. Here are my little rods. Here's my little knife and I'm going to be peeling rods all morning. We're dabbling chakras. He says that's ridiculous. He's done nothing at all. He's considered like a skull that does not wear its fill in and he transgresses do not add, do not subtract. Why is this interesting? It's interesting for Ash. It's also interesting because he's aid defending and one of the arguments made against is you're so focused on the underlying spiritual reality that God is imbued in the world that why do you need to keep you know you can connect with God directly through etc. Now, that's not what the exactly said, but you can see he's he's he's saying, "This is not what we do. Believe me, I'm not going to start peeling rods just because I'm aid. I'm going to wear fillin just like everybody else wears fill in." And the shame is kind of pulling back into the to the He's not the first. The the others do it as well. But hopefully, you'll have enough material in that year to talk to your grandchildren and your great-grandchildren for a few years to come. Um uh but it it really is important I think as to how we relate to mitzvah to Israel to the aos etc. And we can pull a lot from that. Next week final part part three uh and we'll conclude this topic.