Parshat Bamidbar The Backstory of the Role of Levi by Rabbi Ari Kahn

a couple things one is I want to finish something up from last week that we had and I'm get I'm not going to do the whole topic not going to repeat myself but there's something which did occur to me so let's begin and then we'll move further into uh this week's par show it's on this yeah it's right here right here in uh in Source number one we're told that that Ezra created a Tak Ezra decreed that we should read and this is last week's par that we should always read the which means we should be reading in before right so that that's what it says here and we should read the in in the end of the Torah we should be reading them prior to rashash the ones in dor my what's the reason said either by this is interesting is of course from B and is of course Israel we'll see why that's important in a moment not so far off that that a year gets finished with all of its curses as it were which means let's get them out of the way before the new year so therefore let's read all the curses at the end of the year so then we'll start we'll start a new we'll start a new year we'll start with a fresh slate and therefore all the curses are left behind now the gar answers the obvious that when you talking about that it makes a lot of sense that let's get rid of them all in then we'll start the new year answers yeah in that on that holiday of is connected to the fruits of the trees it's when we start bringing Borum and there's an aspect of prayer and God the aspect that God judges the fruits by the way that gives you then three different times which are pan you have also rashash you also have tuat you also have so therefore If This Were Tu bishvat and I was forced to try to give a Shear on this this should be one of the places to start looking you know so what really is will the real Rashana for the fruits of the trees please please stand up so nonetheless this is interesting now in our in our world and our world view and our understanding in or our implementation of this it becomes very simple I said or relatively simple all that we need to do is we need to slightly manipulate the calendar because we have you know we're more or less at the same time so therefore we slightly manipulate it in order to make sure that we got toai before or for that matter that again same thing in so as I said slight slight that's kavo slight adjustments to make it happen there's a toast vote in Source number four who writes again on on that Garra and he writes where it's bold here one second before that that he then said yeah we want to read it before but we also want there to be a break we want to have the clot at the end of the previous year have a clean break and that would be the next par essentially what he's explaining is why this week we're reading parb before we get to so let me now if there's a lack of clarity let me try to be uh be clear this week we're reading parbar now there are those who would say oh why are we reading bbar and then they'll focus on Kabal T because is coming and for example if you wanted to you can Channel Source number two which is a nice M it says the Torah is given off in the desert course it's free whoever wants to be able to take Torah to take to her it's accessible so that would be like a wonderful you know reason and and I'm sure there's all kinds of twists and turns on that on that particular teaching which will connect with with with bid no I'll say it again that uh one can argue the merits of this because the reality is that that's not really it's not like kazal in any place said Oh we must read bbar prior to the point was to read prior Shiva and as TOA pointed out but we seem to have a week in between it's not as much unless you can argue no it's deeper it's not as much because B midbar needs to be there it's really because we want to move the curses ever so much away so now let me just now get a little bit uh more complicated on all of this and that's why I stressed before the AR versus the bille and I mentioned before that it's relatively easy all you need to do is make this slight adjustment and then it comes out in the right place but all of that is talking about the right of Torah reading as done in bav where they finish the Torah every year but if you follow trienal system where the Torah is finished every 3 and a half years that's not such a simple point because it's not a question of a simple manipulation one way or the other most of the time you're far far away from this so then what exactly is this teaching and apparently and this question is asked by the acronym and appar apparently the again the suggestion is that it must be that the same way that we have we have to read we have to read and so on same too they had or and they had a special T they took out a second Torah and they read the CL because this is Tak of Ezra so in a place that you can just make it in the right way so then it works easily in a in a place that you can so then you take out another Torah and then you fulfill this obligation which then leads us to another Point why exactly were they doing this again to finish the year is one thing but if you were nowhere near those Cod if you weren't going to read it this year at all if like you're two years away from it so then why put it in there just to be able to get it done with when there was no reason to get it done with because it wasn't there because we're not going to read it till you know once every three and A2 years so that took me back to something that I did mention last week the there were three different opinions we saw in the m in Source number three regarding what was the content of the saerit and I'm going to ignore the the two of them but the third one was the opinion of which is the end of the first line and then he continues and then it goes to now again to remind you what we learned last week the question was what was the saerit which was in par which was what generated the nma according to is they heard all the curses and they say we will accept the Torah which means this is a preparation for Matan Torah which means according to what I'm suggesting if you follow RAB is's logic why would we read prior to Torah prior to because was what according to again this we saw the and this we saw in others and it's based on this is this is what they said so the same way that you know we want to truly accept the Torah we accept all the consequences as well so that's why we're doing what they did when they received the Torah as back back by seni and then that would make a lot of sense to read parai prior to uh prior to as I said that occurred to me as a second reason other than the other elements which seen over here and now we can start parid which is either very deliberately over here or is just filler between and again that's the way the to seem to kind of suggest it but uh from the very beginning you know aside from this theme of Torah being received in the desert it's not really what Saab B midbar is about I mean that that's a very nice veror but it's not really what it's about mosha Source number five beginning peric Al Al [Music] and that's what we need to pay attention to there's a census which is taking place if you want to get a little bit more sophisticated we about to go into a marching position the the census which is taking place really delineates what we're looking for it doesn't say all people it doesn't say people of every age what it says over here is very specifically the people who are called you sayel people who are of age to go out into battle those are the ones that we are counting over here which means we absolutely should not be ignoring over here the thrust of this verse the thrust of sa but midb bird starts off right away we finished receiving the Torah we finished with a m done it's all built we're ready to leave seni we're ready to March towards the next destination and that next destination is land of Israel but the land of Israel very much may be a place that we need to use some type of military force in order to have a conquest and over here we're getting ready we're we're getting ready really in the most military way that you can again you don't need anything more than that turn of phrase is it did not have to say it it didn't have to put it that way and then when it starts to count them it says again in uh by Ru it it says how many people call and I spared you of all 12 tribes by having the same turn of phrase which is indeed that it's there now then the only complication in everything I just now said was the definition of 12 tribes because who our 12 tribes is always gets complicated ES in the book of B midbar because there's a little wiggle room over there and the wiggle room becomes do you count Ley or do you not count Ley and if you don't count Le how you get to 12 and you get to 12 because ysep gets turned into two into frasha and that's one of the things that you look for whenever you see the list of tribes in uh in in the book of midbar and uh look for that matter you can go every time that the tribes are mentioned who's included who isn't included and then maybe it'll tell you something so over here it it includes the two tribes of Yosef ephra and manasha and it specifically blatantly excludes sh Le when which is after listing all the others still in Source 5 which itself sounds a little ominous and next that is being separated it doesn't describe them as going off to war it doesn't describe them when they're being counted as rather it says that they are being separated and delineated they are going to be used for something else they are going to be taking responsibility for the mishan they are going to be en camping we'll see by the mishan they're going to be taking care of the taking care of the the utensils and they will be they will encamp around it they they are in a position of protecting the mishkan it is a completely different type of of a role which is being played for them it continues it says and no one else can do this they're the ones who will take it apart they're the ones who will put it together and and let's just say stress something over here it's not that Ley is given a pass it's not that Ley is has no position to do Ley has actually a position to do which is probably much more time intensive than the other tribes because they're always going to be protecting and around the mishan and they're always going to be the ones that will have that responsibility the other will be in their encampment and their job is one of being again on they're on duty taking care of the mishkan and always being there to protected so what we see over here is Lum are separated and then it's articulated a little bit more this separation everyone else is co everyone else is in this larger I'll call it a concentric circles you know over here it's not even concentric over here it's a larger encampment and then the inner encampment will be Ley and we we have a again a a separation that all that is in chapter yeah anger literally yeah anger plague that means that this needs to be done properly this needs to be properly and that is their responsibility in Source number six and all that we've done is we moved to the CH second chapter the same kind of thing comes up it gives ACC counting of all of the tribes it comes to particular number A Familiar number and then it says and they were not counted the same way so the counting is of those who are going off to war and those who are not counted are the ones who have different jobs Source number seven all that we're doing is moving to the third chapter Ley should all be brought about and just like Aon is separate for his job Ley who Aon comes to what extent is also part of the background here again the same kind of words we heard that they have a different job and their job is going to be one to protect [Music] the that means that their job again there is a difference of those who go out to war versus those who are in this position but each one has their public service that they need to do and I'm going to repeat myself if anything shav Ley has a full-time Public Service as opposed to the others that are going to have more of of an occasional service um then we're told something in pcut bet which is going to really be the beginning of what I want to look into so the job of theim now we're learning is replacing the job of the Bor of the firstborn which is interesting because again this line is blurred between who's a Cohen and who's a Ley and what was the job of the firstborn and what's the job of the Cohen name and we actually now have a kind of like a twostep taking place especially look at because the became Sanctified I mean that that I think is what's really important now and in a certain sense to do this right we'd have to go back and carefully read peric gimmel right peric bet is when when the Mak actually takes place peric gimmel is when we learn a couple of including P so therefore there needs to be a p because the now is Gods why is it Gods so the simple reading over here is that God struck all the firstborn what's interesting that it should have been only that generation the fact that it goes through every generation that the firstborn has some kind of Holiness well that's that's what's taking place over here which means the first born was designated for death and that's what happens to the Egyptians our firstborn are saved and therefore God saved them and God said okay now it's my essentially my proa if I'm taking them but then we're told now that levim are taking the place of the Bor who were designated for Hol is and that itself is kind of uh of interesting how exactly that happened now as we continue you know we we're going to learn a little bit more about how this takes place let's just read First Source number eight now all that we've done here is we moved to peric doid and peric and and incidentally over here it does talk about the the the shift that takes place between the B and the firstborn and the and the five and so on and the and the difference numbers and how do we make up the difference in Source number eight which is really interesting because you would have thought okay these guys got easy jobs no spiritually what they have is really quite difficult and be careful because it's a precarious job and to and it gives warnings about if this is done inappropriately and I'm not getting into any kind of details then just like the Cohen God and as I said this blurred line between the Coen and just like the Coen Godel is going to have the honor of going into the holy of holies and be able to serve but essentially try to bring about kapar but we also know that if the coin god messes up and something's done wrong you kind of have like this high stakes uh um situation whereby there is maximum gain but there's also maximum Danger so now we're learning a similar thing about Lev yes they have this job but there's also some danger involved in this and what we have then now is a much more interesting parallel because I know what's hiding behind a lot of this and I know what's hiding me even behind that so let's start off two sides of hiding the first thing which is hiding behind it hold it it's not really fair they're going to war and they're just involved in the Mishka and said no this is dangerous and this is dangerous now what's hiding behind all of this so obviously what anybody who's going to be listening now or will listen to this afterwards especially now during a war is going to be thinking about those who stay in Yeshiva versus those who go out and saying well that's dangerous and that's dangerous and all of us know that's not really true that's dangerous and that's not really dangerous right I mean people generally don't get killed sitting and learning I mean there were stories here and there about uh people who got killed learning mostly it was elderly people trying to pull a book off the top of a shelf and uh know there are stories about that one particular who always used to attack that safer and that safer fell down and killed whether these things are true or not is a whole different point but um as I said that's obviously going to be behind all of this and I want to deal with some of that as well now the other thing is is as we're learning this and as we're reading this it one thing is somewhat perplexing and that is well why we shave at Ley chosen like what happened with Ley and how did they become the candidates and and if you were really cynical maybe if you're korak and so on you'll say well it's mosha is related to Aon so I mean this is an old custume you give jobs to people that you're related to and therefore and therefore it's uh it's obvious where why Ley is uh is involved in all of this but I hope you all realize that's not so simple by the way the same kind of thing you'll find the best explanation will be that by the ago when mosha calls out and all of sh come there by the way sharpen that a little bit more and you can say that when did the B ever get to work as a Cohen by theel there were cenim who were working that day so if you say that the first born were working by the agel and then you say and Ley comes and is this anti anti- agle everything is very sweet and everything is perfect and the only thing which is strange is to the extent that the Ramba moves away from that and that and that's really what I wanted to get to today because that that's the that that is correct and that's the easy way of going of doing this so why is Ley special now the first and oldest which I didn't even bring here the first place that makes a reference to Ley as being the one who is chosen is a taraman back in par V where yakob says that I'm going to give a tenth to God right God will be with me I'll give a tenth so he does some really interesting math and says therefore one of his 10 kids but he has 12 kids okay let's say one of his 12 kids was said to be dedicated so then what he says is you have to separate the first born because they already have Holiness and he has first four firstborns so you get rid of all of those and then you left with actually left with eight so what he does is the way that you would count Myer you count 1 2 3 4 5 6 7even eight and then you go back to the beginning 910 and it lands on Ley so therefore Ley was shim went on Ley that's why you got to N9 and 10 so Ley was number 10 and therefore le' already right away was designated as the holy Child because Yakov made a vow and all of this ISO so I'm saying that's the earliest expression that I saw of why Ley is chosen it goes back to that particular uh that particular point the romman will start with Source ah there's one more thing that I want to consider first and that is something which comes up in Source number nine which maybe is really instructive because it's mosha orbu talking about CH Ley so therefore if you want to know what mosha thinks about this then why not look where mosha speaks this of course is in and this is M's which by the way sounds very much like it's focus on our own so that P revealed a dual role of Ley one role is the second half of the PK the one that we would have thought of is which part of Ley the kohanim part of Ley what do they do they're the ones who working on the Tor they're the ones who working in the mishkan they're the ones who were taking bringing the Corban out but it's the first it's the first part of the PK which interesting because it gives their role as that their job is is to become the rabbis to become the the pokim the to be the ones the teachers the the ones who are the rabim and I'm just thinking now there are other places the ram I could have chosen as well to look at in terms of the construction of the sanedrin that there there would be a preference of having people of Ley on the Sanhedrin as well so o over here we see that Moshe is telling us the role of Ley is should be dedicated for Spiritual Pursuits as opposed to other Pursuits now the easy way of doing this is the way that was suggested that we should have just looked at theel and that explains everything for us but the rambam does something else in Source number 10 over here the rabam start this is this is a great it is the history of monotheism and how monotheism gets taught and spread and so on one of the remarkable parts of this rambam is as much as we love to think of the rambam as a rationalist and the rambam is somebody who's only going to be dealing with law it is always fascinating when the rambam weaves in midashim which he then tells us now this is our religious history and this again I'm afraid to use the word the ROM pasin that this story is what happened it's a funny thing to it's kind of like mixing metaphors but I'll say it again for the rambam's description of the history of monotheism he goes and weaves together some interesting midra and gives us some background and he starts off almost telling the story of Abraham the iconic class who breaks all the idols he doesn't quite say it but he gives us aspects of it and I I skipped most of again he doesn't tell us exactly that mid that he broken but he does tell us that that AB had to run away so you see that part of the of these MIM are here the and then spreads the word and goes travel place to place spreading monotheism and every time this that they called down in the name of God the r understands it he called out in the name of God who's he calling out to all the local population it's also remarkable it tells AB had this incredible success and the this is these the follow teachers teaches now the word over here is to me particularly interesting and maybe I'm overseeing it and over sensitive to that word right now but what does Nim mean all those who accompany him all those with him but you also know something else I see Michael already gets it from his smile and the word nilim actually and Michael is a Ley and he thinks all of this is a birthday present for him maybe maybe maybe it is and uh and it's interesting use of the word okay that does not that does not occur in our and that's what's interesting is that the Raam over here is telling us Le was already designated for Spiritual work byah and he appointed him the and he placed the tribe of Ley in charge of of of the learning of Thea of teaching people and the tribe of Ley continually had to be the ones take this responsibility again I love that he used that word again he a knowledge of God spread with them but again Le had this responsibility but they went down to Egypt and there was this uh this deconstruction that took place and they started and they all started to become idolators like everyone else so I'm saying this is fascinating the r is saying that sh never suffered from this only retained their belief and they never served idolatry so now go back to your yes that's again here too for two today the there it says that Yosef made special rules for the kohanim so there are again the sinic will say yeah he married about cohain so of course he set up a family there are other mfor on the PK said that he was preparing the way for the Jews as well that they were going to be families of the co have rules for them but it's really interesting here because you know if you're going to say oh look at shave at Ley in the it's manifest that as the is taking place sh Le then responds and they're the anti what the raham is saying yes they were always the anti VOD Zara instead of just saying oh what happened you know what spark woke up you know who got out of bed on the wrong side of bed that day and said let's go worship the agel and who got out of bed on the right side of the bed and said what are you talking about let's worship god what the raham is saying this is not something new is that they were following their practices of what they did in Egypt and they're following the practices of what they did in Egypt so as I said the ROM is really interesting by telling us the history of monotheism by saying that shav Ley was always on one side by the way in terms of Hal there's that if somebody worshiped somebody was a cohain for aara they cannot serve in the BET mikdash which means yes we believe in chuv and so on but in order to be a cohain you cannot have been somebody who served AAR and now the next day say listen I changed my mind I want to be calling the B doesn't work that way so the ram seems to be taking that same Hala and kind of making it much much more dramatic and saying not just that it's that ultimately the people who are going to be this tribe who are going to serve God in the beta mikdash they are the ones who in Egypt never actually were involved in the Sin and again the says and he says generally the Jewish people in Egypt deteriorated to the point of almost forgetting who they are they went back reverted to the beliefs that all kinds of pagans had and because of compassion of God and the Covenant that he had with the aot he sends in order to try to bring them out of the the depths of their uh spiritual depravity K so again it's fascinating the r over here in his laws of tells us specifically about who messed up and who never messed up and it's interesting that he takes sha shavit Ley back over here here's another expression of uh of the same kind of idea which is is kind of the beginning of the r the next one is kind of the end of the ram so here you have the start of the book and the end of the book so here the r writes in par he talks about what we normally call the so the r that's somewhat of a misnomer because for the ram six of the seven were already told to Adam it's only it was the seventh was given to it's the seventh Mitzvah was given to to Noah or as opposed to the first which is a famous thing which says in other places as well more famously he says it I don't know why it's more famous but in the seventh chapter of his perha the ram there writes that yes yov was told about gasha and it says then therefore to this very day the Jews don't eat the ganha he says we don't do it because meaning I don't want too many negatives here we don't stay away from get because God said it to yov we do it because God said it to mosha Bahar and over here as well he says same idea the authority of Judaism does not go back to what we received from no or Adam or yob or aam or anyone else along the way it goes back to what we received for and then it says that's the seventh right commanded but he you see one is a command one is voluntary which is also really interesting in terms of the whole discussion is when is the proper time to according to the way that we see that did at the end of the day went out went out if he goes out in in the evening so why in the world do people want to that's the tension do you do it is it from the aote then you do it later is it from the carbon note then you would do the earliest time you can bring the corbon so therefore there's this wonderful interaction between the corbane and the aot as to what is really the the reason or behind our performing of the or how we do which is interesting he could have said that you know this came from no it's out of nowhere the ra pulls out oh yeah had all kinds of more MIT where does he get this from again I don't question the ramb because AR never tells us where he gets anything from but the r but I'm saying this is what's interesting so that's also how do you understand that If Today Was we're talking about then maybe we' get into this point a lot more but it is really interesting it really is interesting that again one character over here was the one if I would have told you predict who would have been listed over here you would have got you should have gotten no you should have gotten you should have the only one who you were not able to predict would have been amam I'm not just saying this cuz my daughter-in-law's ma name is amam but I think the key part of this is that amam according to the ROMs and just get into the Ram's Head a little bit according to the way the ROM is looking at the world amam of course is designated because he's from Ley a prominent person in Ley so therefore that is where where the Holiness is and those are the teachers and which means what happens afterwards the ram sees this as a reality before and I'll just say this is really interesting because again this is the rambam's Hala book and but he paints this really interesting picture that by the time that we get Ley we should not be surprised at all that Ley is designated so therefore to when you go back to that point and you say oh look at Theo Ley doesn't sin and then Ley comes and what the rambam would have seen is of course that's what they're going to do because that's that's who they've been for a very long time and it goes back to yob ainu who already designate slavy and and therefore they're the ones who take this position and and and therefore this idea that mosha articulates at the end of his life y right they're the ones who are going to teach Torah that sounds to be that yeah yakob was the one who already said it which would really be interesting again because you know we love to compare the brood of of yob and The Brood of mos and over here the Rama just now gave us a reason to one of the biggest differences is Ley because Ley in yob does not get this over you know overly positive braa and over here what the ramam is saying oh the BR that that was given by mosha that was actually the Braha which is based upon what Yakov had commanded Ley to do and so now you ask hold it how did Ley turn around cuz Yakov cuz Yakov is the one who turned him around Yakov sees Yakov separates them and Yakov sees the potential and Yakov sees this element over there and therefore theel is not the turning point it is just evidence of something which already existed so I'm saying again I'm not reading more or less I'm just telling you what the rambam is stating over here yeah we don't we only see negative so we're so so exactly and I'm say that's exactly my point is that the ram is it tells us that Yakov commanded Ley to teach so I'm saying where does he get that from that's actually moshe's blessing to Ley and he and he and he's reading that and saying moshe's giving that blessing because that's who they were and it all goes back to yov did now where does that come from that's really interesting this is all would presumably the r would say this tor shal and this is what happened and this is our history because again it is fascinating I keep repeating myself every time the rambam weaves in history together theology together with law we where we we you have to sit back and pay attention and he paints a really interesting picture over here so therefore if I would have started with that random designation of amam you would have said oh that's that's that's strange where did that come from and you would then say Oh I'm let's work backwards because mosha and Aon are going to come why did but but again the ram keeps doing the same thing why does MOS andon come from that family well because because amam was somebody which is really special look the gumar says it that amam was the god the gar says it and that's part of the objection that that we find by Miriam where so upset you know if you do something everyone is going to follow so it I'm going to say it again there is this whole strain over here which is pure which the ram weaves into an understanding of what we call understanding of the background Thea and when you say where did he get it from yeah I agree really good question and the and apparently Yakov sees his son quote unquote going in the wrong direction going off the DK grabs him and somehow succeeds in pulling him back I I I I have nothing else to say other than I'm just reading to you what the rmom says and yes it is quite surprising it really is surprising and the ROM's going to insist oh take a look look at the success that Yakov ultimately had with Ley look how Ley does succeed in turning around you had to separate him from Shimon they go in completely different directions but again he's saying that that Ley was always there never look they also said they're never involved in slavery it all because the same point they became the coim that's really what his point was they were the coim and therefore they were never enslaved they were separate but where does all that come from you read the you don't necessarily get all this and part of it is working backwards how could it be that the shavid was going to work in the beta mikdash if they used to be o deara no over there VOD Zara had a possibility which makes this whole thing of the choosing of the firstborn so much more interesting because the choosing of the firstborn only becomes ultimately this temporary stop Gap until Ley then is going to emerge and show their true colors but it's not that it happened then it's something which emerges then because of things which already had happened before the ramom comes back and maybe this is much more famous and there were like two other places the rambam that I really wanted to get to and let's see how much we can get to here I mean one which I'm which I cut out because we always want to go down to four pages was the whole discussion what exactly the role is Ley in the mkes so that we cut out completely if you want I can send you the exact sources and you can have your homework can learn that over chabas on the other hand in c number 12 we're going to get to a point which is really famous and that's going to be part of our problem K that is going to be separate and here in the Lords of Y again chapter 13 peric gimmel we're told that that they are not going to be involved in coning the land now shet Ley also we're going to be told is not going to inherit land which means the the land will be divided by 12 tribes who are the 12 tribes back to our question before so what do we find that Yosef gets a double portion if Yosef gets a double portion who lost a portion answer is Ley so where's Ley supposed to live so Ley are supposed to be again they're going to be cities of levim and so on but they're not going to be Farmers they're the ones who are supposed to be the teachers for all the other tribes they're the ones who have religious responsibilities they've been designated for different type of work so but he added in over here that they're not going to inherit the land L Kanan and they also they don't take any when it comes to Conquering the land they're not going to be involved in the conquer I want to pause here for a second look at source 13 the when he explains this and the is so good and you should learn the you should he not only tells you what the mitz are he he always gives rationals for the mitz which are always interesting here he writes they serve God it's in it's inappropriate that they should be using things that were captured by others the Lev Are Holy they should be using holy things not things that were taken in in battle shom that means even though in terms of law you're allowed to capture things during war it says nonetheless the levim who have this Holiness to them it's inappro again it just you realize what he just now said it's pished it's pished what does pish mean that's what he said he he just said it's pish it's not uh it's it's inappropriate is it allowed yeah it's allowed but but a Ley shouldn't do it why because of this added kadus of the Ley everything that they acquire should be acquired in an absolutely pure nonviolent holy manner without any kind of drama to it let me continue and I want to go back to the ram in Source number 12 he um right you can learn this when you have time sorry why do they not have inheriting the land or The Spoils of War IM with their brothers [Music] because their role is a different role their role is to teach their roles to be involved in holy work and therefore they're not involved in the others they don't go out to war but they also don't inherit and they right they They al they don't go and Conquer they're in the army of God and God provides for them by the way you can argue now that that is the the true mode for the that God takes care of him but then the ram says which has been overly I wonder who the first one who actually quoted in this context ra the r says no not only Le any person in the entire world whose spirit moves them who understand from their knowledge by the way notice the ra it's always goes back to first book Is say from M over here is this person to serve God again the word dot is there God will remove from such a person all kinds of worldly this worldly Affairs or issues that person becomes holy and God will become their portion their inheritance forever and they'll have in this world enough similar to the and that's the end of the book of now this has been widely quoted by people who sit and learn in k Why everyone needs to support people learn in K it goes look where shave at Ley and shave at Ley therefore doesn't need to go to war and therefore shave at Ley is just there in order toh sit and learn so the first thing that we would have to then ask ourselves is that really what the rum just now said or not it's it's first of all what's really interesting is the rahen didn't even limit this to Jews any people can dedicate themselves to God he also didn't say over here that people will give them money it says like God will give themas that the they're going to have a minimal amount but if we think back about shavit Ley it wasn't that shavid Ley didn't have physical and spiritual work to do they were working it wasn't that they were sitting and learning is that they were working they were teaching they were the judges they were involved in the life of the of the world and and and then you can start saying okay if the raham over here says that anybody can be like shave Ley well part of shave Ley is they don't get any Nala they don't get any inheritance they don't get to own land so does that mean that somebody from sh that wants to be like shave Ley is not able to buy an apartment so I I I just want to pause there because I I obviously just now overstated this but I can assure you that my Shear on Shabbat afternoon is going to be various shot and Chu that start talking about how B Torah need to behave because they so much believe in this application and therefore for example could uh one of the questions I was asked is can somebody who's uh Ben Torah learning in K could he buy something from hot La po hot poel is something that was the court decreed that this person went bankrupt or had gets and they took it away by force and you can get good deals on outside La po you can buy cars you can buy things you can buy all kinds of possessions because it was re what's the repossessed so can you buy it or did they just now say about shave Ley that they look at the no sh you can only buy things if it's dark if the person wanted to sell it if the person doesn't want to sell it and there's some kind of pressure by the government and so so maybe it becomes inappropriate so I'm just saying how far to take this is uh is interesting on the other hand and again I want to focus for a moment on the on the financial part and we'll see how much time we have to finish this up writes anybody who says listen I just want to learn Torah and God will provide will provide by good people helping me it's the ra does not like this and this person actually rejected Torah and extinguishes the light of Torah and he causes something really bad for himself and he'll lose his share in the world to come one second and this is not as strong as he's going to say it someplace else give me a second various articulations of don't use Torah as a way of making money whoever learns Torah but does not have any kind of prop job causes not just everything else it will cause other sins and eventually his person will end up taking things illegally and so on and it's an arable high level for person to make a living from their own hand workk that's the way that the elders behaved and that person is the one who inherits this world and the next World now if you thought that was strong then you should take a look what the r writes in his Parish which is in Source number 15 here the ram writes and I know that my words will get many of the great people in Torah upset with me maybe everyone I'm going to say it I'm not going to be silent I'm not going to uh you know bow to anybody who who before me or now by the way Rama wrote this when he's very young he writes the patient now you realize he quoted the same source that he'll later use M don't use Torah as a way of making a living he cuts himself off from the world to [Music] come and people ignore this we'll skip a little bit and they and they try to force the communities to support them and again and any he what what he's going to do here in the next whole bunch of lines is he's going to tell you how bad this is and then he's going to start bringing evidence he says how many of the tanay lived in abject poverty he says and do you think if they allowed their communities to pay them money they would have lived in such poverty hillo we knew had no money raka was poor and and he starts going you know y works as a blacksmith and we could start he could start start going through the list of all the T they all had jobs he goes do you think that Amel would not have supported reaka or that he's not letting them support he he says like what are you talking about he was just read through pay attention as you learn and uh as I said he goes through a great deal of detail over here and he uh he absolutely does not love it so I I want to end with something which the rambam uh sorry which I heard from R Sal but I it occurred to me now that it's actually tighter than I thought it was when I first heard it if you look in Source number 16 it's a br there's a teaching found towards the end it says that said in the name of from the day destroyed God's place in this world is in right we don't longer have we don't no longer can serve God through the mikash we serve God through Torah good couple lines later it says it also says similarly greater somebody who sub subsides based upon the work of their hands more than someone who fears Heaven that regarding somebody as fear of Heaven it says so over here just First Step there's two teachings coming from the same tradition thear very often will do that that once it brings a tradition one tradition it'll bring sometimes two or three like essentially from the same line from the same Corpus from the same Source R salv over here said that he thought that the two were interrelated he said that if I'm told that since theb bet mikdash took place now God is in the world of Hal so therefore the person who is the world of Hal the rabbi the POS the Dian is therefore going to say that just like the BET mikash existed based upon donations so therefore the the will say I need to I replace the bet mdash I should get donations therefore Sal said well look at the next teaching it says greater is the person who lives based upon their own work than the person who hasay quote unquote Shay isn't enough you need to work as well and again that that's what I saw in and then I realized yesterday day before I realized that the that of course R salv is correct and of course his understanding is correct and this was actually the source of that ROM that we saw in Source number 14 in h Torah because he quoted the same P you always have to be careful when the ram quotes a p why is he quoting that P which means at the end of source 14 he says that it's a on a great level people that make a living by their own hands and he quotes that which means the ra quotes this in T it's not just some random teaching so therefore that would seem to support it so let let me let me recap just in case people think uh they don't have any idea what we what we did today what we observed is this real change just taking in place that shav Ley was designated for different type of work there would certainly be a Temptation for us to say okay this is all a result of theel and I can make that stronger I can even make the argument the whole mishun is there because of theel again I I can use theel as the turning point and everything dramatically changes that then what we notice that the others are going out preparing for war the tribe of Ley at least here in the desert has a role to do full-time always be around always take care of take apart put together protect be in charge of the mishkan that is full-time work that Javid Ley has what we then learn is moving forward that jav Ley has this other role of being teachers which the ramam Expresses in the braa that he gives in Z what happened when we looked at the rambam we found something which was really interesting and that was the rambam claims that this whole expression of Ley goes all the way back goes back to amam was for before amam it goes back to yakob that Yakov already has designated him that they already which means Theo reveals something about Lei but is not the turning point but it's when that Turning Point becomes clear in our mind in our eyes but the rahs claiming something which existed before on the other hand we have this wonderful teaching which we really don't know exactly what to do with regarding shavit Ley says they don't go to war and by the way when the Raman writes that shavit Ley doesn't go to war what kind of war is that is that talking about Mitzvah is that talking by Mitzvah everyone goes to war by which means the whole argument over here that one doesn't go to war that's not talking about an existential War that's talk yes that's that's that that's talking about a different kind of War when it's a situation of absolute then all uh all bets are off and everything changes at that point you know even all of those people who returned from Battle the one who built the new house and the one all of that is M when it comes to a war which is existential things are uh completely Conquering the land again there's there apparently three different levels there's three different levels the Mish deals with these different types of war is so therefore that would be a certain type of mitvah but not the type when enemies are coming in and attacking you that already makes something else so as I said this this the r is uh has been utilized to make a claim it's probably not probably to use the Ram to say the ramam says that somebody who sits and learns can therefore you know live based upon donations the Rah didn't say that I can absolutely assure you the Rah didn't say that that God May provide Damas low so that's up to God to do but uh to demand that somebody's going to take care of you because we're shave at Ley we sit and learn that's just simply not what the rambam says that is saying that if somebody wants to live in poverty somebody can live in poverty but don't expect anybody paying and quite the opposite rahen doesn't think you're allowed to take that uh that money to learn of