Parshat Ki Tavo 5784 by Rabbi Baruch Taub

rutner of course was the Russa of Yesa in Berlin in New York uh he was um he was a student in slabodka in Europe he went with the rash slka to kevron he was in kevron he developed a tremendous relationship with r cook and and roseld rfel was the r of the uh the and he was Rook was the r of he was very close to rev cook in fact in his early years rev when he returned to America there were two pictures in his Suka one was uh rev cook and the other was with Shaman H um at the AE at the age of 70 he uh he came to Israel f for the final time and when most people are thinking of retiring um he started a Yeshiva here Yeshiva which is today run by his son-in-law Ronis and David whose wife is uh Al sholom died last year rabits and Brewery David who was the dean of BJJ the uh Harvard of women's seminaries in the in the K world she or herself were H only child she had a doctorate from Hunter College so all of this I hope is not going to be filmed um let's get to the point okay R hutner unusual your telephone unusual unusual um R is an unusual B probably the B of the 20th century okay famous gor we're all familiar with it there are three that are opened that the Ron opens on rash right thoroughly righteous people they are sealed immediately for long life r gamur the opposite people thoroughly R him Alisa they are signed immediately and sealed Sign Sealed and Delivered to death that's going to be our topic the people in the middle they are u in suspense until yum Kipper we're familiar with that Gora so far familiar territory continues continues the rambam this is the this is the the gamor rather Z listen carefully Z if the Ben the guy in the middle or the girl in the middle right is merits then they are sealed for life if they Merit if they did not Merit then they are sealed to to death the r brings this but he changes he makes a dramatic change in one word in the gor the gamor says that if the if the the man in the middle merits so he is what does he say if he does he is sealed for Life instead of a merit it's not a general he merits but he has to do something he has to do Chu the r focuses in on it's all about Chua for the the the benoni right chuva not just mer maybe there's other merits I don't know he says but now here's the thing he brings a question from Maran haon Mari Blazer R Blazer R Blazer was one of the three famous talim of R salant the founder of the mus movement he was also known as R ITA pet Berger because he was the chief Rabbi of St Petersburg which today is Leningrad and it's fascinating Story how he became the chief Rabbi uh he was he lived in a small town with his wife was running a grocery store he sat in the back and was learning Torah and was writing Torah but they they found him they knew who he was and they came from St Petersburg to offer the position and they sat with him and said we're offering you the position position he says I can't take the position why I'm afraid to pusin Chiles they said you're hired we don't want someone who glibly oh it's oh it's not a shot it's okay fine yes no a m we want someone who has yay and he became the raboy of St Petersburg a tremendous goal but he asked a question here that bothers R hutner he asked a question like this why is the rum buum changing right so here's what he asks here Gish he feels a serious question [Music] who's the he's got 50 let's say let's use a 100 right is our base point so he's got 50 and 50 right he's got 50 merits and 50 demerits right so what do you do anytime he has a merit whatever will be let him let him do one Mitzvah so he's now right so then he's now he has a majority of merits so now he merits he's got this he's got 51 over 49 let him what's his P of CH let him just do one more Mitzvah right that's raz's question so rut is going to answer this and he's going to with respect vazer he's going to give us a real understanding of what the man in the middle is all about not as simple as as we just expressed number this question gives me an excuse he says to flush out the real meaning of what it means that to someone who has a majority of of and someone who has a majority of demerits it's a much longer piece I'm I'm I'll fill in the blanks it's not everything you see is it's much longer than this in any case in other words definitely it is a quantitative it's a mathematical quantitative thing if I have a majority of demerits or a majority of of merits in other words it it's not always it's not always only purely mathematical he says that being said but you you have to it's Bas it's a it's a baseline of of of mathematics but it's not purely mathematics because we spoke about this last week for those who were here the sometimes you can do like a gold star Mitzvah right which will knock off 20 demerits right so it's not purely purely mathematical right it could go the other way but it can change at any minute it can change the ra but who makes the decision um we said last week this ramban how do you decide right we live here in we do all the mitvah we come to study Torah on a Thursday morning right we keep Shabbat what good whatever everybody does right but we do everything right coming rash is coming Yer is coming we feel pretty confident then there's a guy in witch Kansas right who's not sh shabas he doesn't do anything one thing he does he keeps kosher and his Mish to pen a fortune to fly in meat from Denver so he keeps kosher who has more Merit points right well only the ronam decides and obviously the ronam is going to decide on this guy if we're not up to mustard right that's what he's saying that being said so you see that this mathematical um measure is also not just quantitative it's also qualitative right mik that being said the actual the actual object of this measurement the things that are on the scale but it's a scale so the scale is going to determine both the quantity and the quality it's a fascinating scale SC uses it doesn't only measure quantity but it also measures the quality of the item that's on the scale it's a it's a the amount [Music] of a simple level it's like R says right but there's a there's a problem with that I'm going to fill in some of the blanks that are not here before we do the last the last paragraph if it's only quantitative it it really doesn't make sense because you're coming up to Kipper right so it's busy you're do a MIT you get up in the morning I go to Sho I don't go to Sho I do fil I light candles this week I don't I do whatever you know the gra it's constantly going up and down up and down it's you know so at what point so you mean by Neon yum Kipper the re stops the clock right that's not it right doesn't make sense to us right that's not that can't be that can't be how it works so really what he's what he's going to I mean even somebody he says he's going to develop what he's going to give us in this last paragraph it's it's incredible it's a it's a majestic idea um he says that rubos rub um is not about the numbers it's about the persona it's about who you are in other words you can have a person who is his personality is he's rubos he's really good person he's a very good person right he's R so and then you have a person who's a rubo who's a terrible person so let's say the rubos gets angry once in a while get angry but the anger of the Bas the real rashu is a real Bas that's his his his Mo he's an angry person all his life right his anger is the anger of the person who's who's a rub is on a much different degree of anger right qualitatively right so so now listen to what he said listen to what he's saying here about the man in the middle this line it's not about what you do it's about who you are it's about your your NE it's about who not what you do doesn't judge by what what we do he judges by who we are like how we do what we do right this a new a new look [Music] so this way I'm going to with all respect he says I'm going to deflect and reject rit's Point Risa I have an answer for you it's not a problem right it's not about math right says since the is the man in the middle he's 50% 50% let him just add one right right go home and have your sud you're finished you're good why does reject this idea ra says no the r changes the words of the gor because the ram is explaining the gorah the gorah is not about math alone right now we see now we see the weakness of the question the premise of rit's question what is being what we understand now it's about who you are it's not about what you do majority of bad of aus is not about what you do it's about about who you are so to the guy in the middle it's also about who you are or who you aren't yet right in other words the the personam the guy in the middle the man in the middle right he has no he has no identity he has no zut he doesn't know where to go he doesn't know what to do he likes the good life but he also really likes to go to sh he likes to to learn Torah he likes to he would like to do more but he doesn't know which way to go so he goes this way he goes that way he's what we say wishy-washy he's constantly going back and forth right his Nish is in crisis he is has no he's D he has no Z he has no identity he has to discover he has to make a commitment which what his identity is he has no one way or the other the the Persona of the that's the personality of the B he has no identity we not know we don't know where he stands we just don't know where he stands he doesn't know where he stands it doesn't matter he can come he can clap Al 100 times six times nine times you know all the ales right but it doesn't change you know he'll lose he'll get the Mitzvah he'll clap Al very seriously but after y what's going to be with him right it's not enough just to clap right even if on yum Kipper everything is goes you know he breaks the bank and he's full of Mitzvah right and no AAS right Aller that's what happens what could happen to us right but at the end of the day he's still the man in the middle he doesn't know which way to go and we don't know where God is going to take him and as long as his Persona is in the middle he can't be signed and sealed and signed for he can't right because that's not who he is now we understand it's beautiful R how one word in the r why the r changed that word right from to to chuva right to Define for us what the man in the middle is the purpose of CH is he has to confront his wishy-washy nature spiritually he has to confront it he has to make a serious decision do I go right do I go left which way do I go ver Chua and the way to do that is chuva chuva the process of chuva is what not just saying I'm sorry for what I did but I'm sorry for what I was right right this is the one thing that's going to move him into the identity of a person who is the majority of Al and he will be signed and sealed for okay I told you it' be worth it okay I'm really sorry to keep you waiting really also had something very beautiful you know we'll save it for another time next week IM we will be here on time and what I want to do next week with you is is a little different um I want to do a Shabbat shua with you which I'm going to be doing in Johannesburg so I'm not going to be here to do it so I want to share it with you and I think it'll be worthwhile topicwise topic-wise because the topic is Yum kerat which is what we have this year Yer comes out on chabas is that calendric right incidence that it just works out that way in the calendar or is it something much deeper that it's not an accident and there's something about Shabbat and yum Kipper a symbiotic relationship between shabas and yum Kipper with which adds something to Yum Kipper this year which we do not have every yum Kipper of the year of the years okay