Parshat Vayakhel: Mirror Mirror on the Wall | Rabbi Ari Kahn

so those of you who didn't like Trum and so guess what we get to do a lot of this again we get to implement all the things that you may not necessarily had connected to so there's a couple of different ways to approach parad vak and to try to make it interesting and what we're going to do is we're going to look at really one element which is either fair or not fair there but but it's here so we should see it and let's just start reading and then hopefully understand so whoever whoever person let's say whose Spirit stirred within them and they had this Spirit of generosity to bring over these gifts which were asked for in order to do the both in terms of the things itself let's say the or Theo and also for the big day Kesh so again truma was really about the building and Tava was really more about the clothing so there it said what we need right par truma was you know bring these things donate these things and now it says and yes people donated so all that is good it's clear it's nice and it's the next p which is a little bit more complex because it maybe it's not necessary that that that's why we have to start speaking about it because when it said K is I would have said K is doesn't necessarily mean literally man in terms of gender it could have been each person I'm not sure exactly how you would have wanted to say it each call is could have been each person and we we understand that sometimes the language is inclusive sometimes not the problem is the next the word Al is also difficult so the men something the women so aside from just saying that there were men whose Spirit stirred them which could have been any member of the Jewish people of B Israel so now it added this other element about women donating and then the things which they know which they donate the and theab and the Kum especially the kumas creates some controversy as far as what these things are and for some how appropriate it is to donate for the Mishka and that itself is is very interesting in terms of what is an appropriate donation and what's not an appropriate donation and now one of the places that I'm going to end up going which I don't like I just want to tell you I don't like it but I'm going to do it anyway because I'm following the mforum to a great extent is is there any need now to go into what's the motivations so I'm sure on your travels just now you've seen many great shes and right and then did you say each time and say well I wonder what this guy did wrong if he's donating this uh oh see how innocent he doesn't think that way the Gen right right the no you just no you just the generous the generosity of spirit so the generosity of spirit is great and you would not want to go down that other path uh I think I mentioned this to a donate to to a fundraiser some point and it was like a light went off I said just follow you know follow the scandals like so you could fix all this you know we'll give you Absolution right you don't even have to confess what's the matter all my in all my innocent friends over here and and by the way again I want to say that I I am not ascribing really bad motivations and that's what I said I don't like this I don't like going down that b um I I'm I I really am like you there just something a little twisted maybe someplace I really am like most of you say no that that's really nice that's really great you see see what she did see what she did 100% see see how easy that was you could be a you could be a Paran as well okay but but that's that's going to be one of the issues that could come up but again why separate the men from the women and and and so on [Music] she's flying today anybody has all these wonderful colors and so on they can donate them also there's a need for various precious metals or has certain types of wood and so on bring them Bring It On and any woman who is particularly skilled when it comes to sewing so wonderful let let her bring these uh the these skills i i two different people I saw in the last couple weeks raised the same question and that was did the people who worked on the mishun were they just The Artisans that had worked on now you can I say the pyramids someone's going to say to me well the Jews didn't really build the pyramids of course we build I I don't care the various projects that they worked on PTO Ram say the various things that they did maybe we had Artisans there so maybe so all that we did is that we hired the same people and we brought them here because there are some address him that's that that say no is that they that there was something else happened over here it's much more this spiritual gift happened so if I had to explain the spiritual side of it it does say it maybe it's a little more next week a little later on this week it talks about VI Maloo they got filled up with the spirit of God so why say they got it the spirit of God so maybe it had to do with the understanding of precisely what it is that God wanted which means the specifications is where the Spirit came in or you can say the Spirit came in that gave somebody whose hands just didn't have that kind of dexterity to do certain things that suddenly they found the ability that they were able to do it but I do think that it's interesting over here so again is something internal that she has this skill she always had the skill she'd been sewing before or now suddenly the skill emerges I guess you could do the same thing and by the way the easier way to read this is it sounds like it's default um this if if you want to go down the path of the golden calf and you want to say for whatever reason I don't know where you get these things from that the women didn't sin right like we we'll double back to that but just say that you're right and that the women didn't sin so if the if the women didn't sin so one of the things that we'll see is that they receive a present and that present is is that they don't work on roses right do we know this so I don't know if any of the women here have this custom you look like you never heard of it so uh so okay but that that's actually a part of it at least in one of this FM that I saw and early that talked about the custom of women not working on rashes what it says the thing that they don't do is sewing and laundry well laundry is by choice apparently yeah no it's sewing it's it's why because it says and it goes back to connect all of this with the again one way or the other um by the way why R keshes because this the Moon is something thing which goes in there's a cycle there's a time that it disappears and the time that it reappears there's no moon there's a sliver of a moon then there's a full moon and then it goes away so Moshe is not here but they believe he's going to come back so therefore there will be that sliver Rish is going to happen and therefore this belief in this cycle whereby MOS is going to come back would seem to be the reason why specifically Roes so uh so again I think that that is the is the connection again just to finish this off it goes back and it comes back it doubles back on this so again it's men which I could have thought was just generic and then there's men and women and then there are is again that is I think is generic I think it's everyone but then we have afterwards in you have the again according to the mid they feel hold it what about us we got left out of all of this and they bring the and and once you see this I'll read further and it's at this point that you realize when it doubles back to as opposed to was and then so now you just realized this whole section was a little bit more complicated and we don't know the truth is we don't know what to do with all this I I just want to say that if few have complete Clarity then wonderful but it it seems to be somewhat confusing because I just could have said people people who were stirred brought donations and that would have been it but nonetheless we seem to have this really interesting divide so let's start with Source number two and what I am going to say today is whatever sources I bring I could have brought most likely tenfold that say the same thing and I chose what I chose for the reasons that I chose It generally succinct and it says it in a certain way there may be more by the way I also just want to know stylistically what I do generally I would try to find the more popular commentary to say something even if it's not necessarily the first so if Rashi said something so I think they just a level of comfort with Rashi and I don't have to go find necessarily before and so I'll say I I'll just leave it like that over here the mid the women did this first again he's looking at so what did he just now do time to donate the women go running and the men now are trying to catch up to the women who were in front of them that the women were able to go in and the men didn't go in now there's something really interesting here in the background that will go down the line that you wanted to go down and now you see he's just avoiding it and that that's what's interesting because I could have said one of a couple things there's two major sins that take place in the desert one major sin is Theo s of the golden calf and the other one is thein and by both of them we have decrees which are given Rashi by the way believes that the reason that we are 40 years in the desert is because of theel not because of the morum I know that sounds a little confusing because by the morlum it says okay therefore you going to be here for 40 years and and Rashi there points out but there's only 39 years left you can't say it's a 40-year punishment if it's only 39 years so he says that they already got the punishment by the morim but there but they got a suspended sentence and when it's kind I don't know how many of you have been arrested and uh you're laughing I once gave a class someplace not even going to say where it was a class that or be ke in prison and I said have ever you been to prison and the whole place goes quiet and that apparently there's a guy in the back that just got out of prison so I have to be careful the questions that I uh that I ask so coming back to this point it's somebody could be arrested and they can be told that okay this is your first offense the truth is you deserve 40 years but I'm giving you you know you're out but if you do something wrong then you're going to go back and get that original sense so that's essentially what Rashi does over here with theel but I could have said the the women didn't sin and that's what you wanted to say from the beginning we we we'll see why one could or one shouldn't say such a thing but let's say the woman didn't s the agle so I should say the women didn't s with the agle so therefore they never got the 40-year sentence so therefore of course the woman should go into the land of Israel or even better you can say that the women didn't s also the Morlin they believed they wanted to go into the land of Israel as long as the men were troubled with whatever men are troubled with so therefore either way and now you have to go back and s look at this med and say hold on a second why are you ascribing the reason or the rationale for women to of God Israel not because they didn't sin here and not because they didn't sin there but rather because uh they they ran with a great degree of enthusiasm to donate and the man had to go chasing after women which itself could be interesting in Source number three like everybody has this great amount of of joy and they want to do this and and that now I don't know if to call once again we have our problem do we want to call the elephant in the room theel or the agle in the room I mean there's something here in the background that yes obviously we we have to consider this what is the sequence did it happen yet did it not happened yet what how do we fit in the whole timeline here the chronology it's the word oh no sounds like this could lead to mixed dancing donating to the mishkan and so on but it also continues and says now if you just keep reading theim here you draw a very simple conclusion what's that that everybody was very enthusiastic about giving so now you have to go back and say okay if everyone's enthusiastic and they bring more than they need so then how do you fit the women to all of this so apparently you're going to say then the women were more enthusiastic even but I'm just saying it's it's that once you read the the pum further on you you're a little a little confused as far as exactly what's going on in Source number four the m [Music] don't shake your head yes it's the opposite of what you said yeah you got fooled you got fooled oh there was one familiar word over here so I guess that's the same thing okay pause let's look at source number five and then we'll come back and look at source number four again and we will try to make sure that we are not confused in Source number five we have right we didn't have a share last week you all too busy drinking or doing whatever you do on PM right I guess you're not you were preparing to [Music] drink delayed by way it's also interesting you have that same Al over here they gather upon we don't know happened to MOS andon says to them and Aon says sure bring your wives and your children your daughters and sons jewelry now if you were to ask me go ahead ask me what is Aon thinking to me it's clear it's a delay tactic and I think there are a couple of delay tactics here along the way so essentially saying sure go bring your wife jewelry is the perfect way for this thing to end very very quickly but the problem is the next p and and by the way so it's at this point that I'll put words into reena's mouth you say tell the wives to give and but the wives never gave but my only question will be how do you know that and my followup to that would be how do we read pole gimmel and POA gimmel I think could be read more than one way and all the people of the nation should should I do that again you don't like that I did that and all should I explain all you say but what does all mean right we're get we're getting we're getting to Bill Clinton territory now right so now you realize that you could say oh no it's just the a of and I will go on record by saying I wish I had an a of r that I can blame everything that I ever do on it's like the best thing in the world everybody needs an a of by the way one of the other things that you again this is this is subtle but it's you could really do this especially the more religious somebody is do you believe there's an airv around today say yeah who's the a of Rob let somebody tell you who their air of Rob is and then you'll know a great a great deal about them I asked my I asked my students this week if they were to make a p an upto dat today PES and they would I showed them the artwork through the generations of the four Sons so I said if you would pick a wicked son what would the wicked son look like today I mean how would you how would you and I think it's a really good question to ask for the Seder also but uh that's essentially the same question who's your wicked son who is your air of R who you so it's great you just want to say no we didn't do we got the a REV again my mother comes to what happened to your room wasn't me it was the a I mean I I think it's great I think we what happened to the car the a I I think it's a wonderful thing for us to utilize as much as possible yes oh the men interesting how do you know I don't know I don't know you you can always say I mean I would have been tempted to say that the am daa is the IM it's the hangers on I would have said that's the AR of and not necessarily B versus the I think there's some places about mid you can go down that path nonetheless what's my problem my problem is God's response why does God then say okay let's wipe the entire people even the women so so what so God doesn't seem to know my parut that's what bothers me so one way of reading that right where are we still in Source number five per everybody gave donations now go back a second and let's read Source number four again yes yes yes yes the men the yeah the men maybe we'll see there are some commentaries who go out of their way to say this was an Egyptian custom of course it's not the Jewish custom the men were still Egyptian in certain ways and that's and getting rid of this was this all is part this all comes from their Egyptian sensibility the ago and even the earrings but you you realize that we're working very hard to uh to say that I remember years ago somebody somebody inv had a student in one of these yeshivas and the student put in an earring so uh so he went to R Yash and asked said it's m like what do you wanted says it's m so I I spoke to ofstein once about this kind of thing as well and he said to me there are certain things now alra there are certain things that Judaism looks upon as scance and we find this and it's worthwhile setting educational boundaries but nonetheless it doesn't mean that they're prohibited and he and he said to me that uh the Yu rabbis in the 60s had this problem in terms of long hair that there was there was no real H against long hair but nonetheless there was a political statement involved in it and they had to decide what exactly a Yeshiva student should be if in fact Wu is Yeshiva I don't mean to pick on anybody when I say that I'm just asking what their self- defin is okay let us uh continue so it really does sound like everyone brought so go back to Source number four how are we going to get healed from having given and the Assumption in this midash is that when iron asked for in puked is what they did pimo reflects pked and is not some kind of a shift that and and therefore the women were involved as well of course you can again try to make a distinction said the men brought the women's jewelry and the women were not involved but I I think at this point you're you'd be working a little bit harder if uh you actually said that I also want to point out another thing um first of allim is good V is a very strong language it's like they threw it off them they that's also great deal of enthusiasm so therefore one could now say that all this enthusiasm it's not just the fact that they give it's the way that they give I mean that that also makes a very big difference in terms of somebody giving to somebody give because you know what can I do and you know they feel like they're bleeding if they give $10 or $100 or a TH or a million dollars I mean some people do it out of uh pain and some people do it out of uh a very different attitude I mean I I have a friend who I truly believe he works today only to be able to give money I don't believe he has he has what he needs for the rest of his life and I truly believe that he works today so that he can support institutions and uh and and so on because he he he just like his his financial career was involved in Investments he sees this as Investments and I've heard him use the word investment when he talks about donations I'm investing in this whatever this cause may be afterwards we can talk you have to you have to raise money also okay um but when we continue I mean again if I want to point out aon's delay tactic in P I think the building of a is a delight is a second Delight tactic oh if you want to do something we need to build a proper so then you start a whole building committee and and so on and so forth so that is another Delight tactic but finally we're serving God tomorrow so that's also really important that Aon is still talking they're talking about the agel he's talking about God and um but tomorrow and Aon was right mosha did come down tomorrow and he's just trying to delay as I said I think there's multiple things but next problem the problem is the next so now they Channel their inner oh let's get up early time to uh serve and they bring these offerings so they essentially have a wonderful party another no Rashi at least tells us where's the Rashi look at source number nine right saying the Hebrew has come to this Hebrew lad has come to abuse me as a word so rash so if it is if there is gilia Rod the odds are really strong that women were involved are you are you with me on that or uh or my math is off yeah so so again as much as you want to tell me oh no no the women AR involved at all it's not necessarily the easiest argument on the other hand if you look at source number six it's a taram yonatan or pseudo yonatan turns back into Aramaic but you seru he puts it right there in the and the woman refused so therefore no no the people no it was the other the women weren it's the men the men pulled out their own earrings and they and they gave them I think that's what he means so K is all the people but not the women the women refuse to participate look at so now I'm just pointing out that that verse was not as easy to read as some of us maybe think it is and and maybe there's a way to read it one way there's a way to another way and what does it come down to us what does K mean I mean if I say some know is a little difficult and and I'll say it again what bothers me more than than this is that God says okay that's it we're wiping them all out if H if at least 50% of the population are not involved then what are you talking might wipe them out in uh Source number eight Source number eight is called the Tor scha so I'll just ask you real quick do you know what it is right so this is why rabbis can still look impressive because people don't know the torma um years ago when I brought my uh copy of it I just want to say my copy it originally when it was published it was published like in smaller volumes like like para by paraa and it like took up this much space on uh so to today they put it in they like they're only this tall and like this fat and there's only like nine or so volumes and only goes to through b midbar it it's a Encyclopedia of t shabal on thees written by Rabbi Kasher Kasher and uh if you know let's say the Torah tomima imagine the Torah tomima on serious steroids and again a thousandfold so he brings on every P multiple midashim and then he has footnotes explaining And discussing all kinds of commentaries so I I've seen very impressive rabbis who give very impressive classes and the whole thing is like one footnote of uh of rashan it's that again people don't know and and also I I've told rabbis invest go go buy it it's alh Torah now has just now started putting it up online so if you look at Alor you can find it I think at least as well continue Source number eight is the T but it's a footnote why do they have to come together in order to avoid fighting in order the woman's going to say hold it how can you go make this donation without talking to me and the and the man can say who whose money is that how can you go take it so now I am not gonna go deeper into this than you see the words in front of you but now you can start asking other kinds of questions and it was really behind what I was asking before that when someone gives a donation should I be really looking into what the motivation is should I know what kind of guilt or really good thoughts that they have should I try to figure all this out do I have to check where the money comes from and years ago um milin gave a right Michael milin who who either fairly or maybe unfairly by the government was prosecuted but he gave uh he donated to jts and I think there was a big debate whether to take I think they they did accept the donation but um do I say hold it this man was uh one and but there's worse things I mean with him it was all Financial crimes and they made laws afterwards in order to stop him from doing what he was doing um but let's just just let's just say that Jeffrey Epstein left in his will uh money for uh a program on ethics like like do you say yeah okay listen what do I care where the money comes from what do you say no no no no we can't uh we from Epstein okay from his brother his brother was why you talk to a rabbi first okay and but it's even more interesting when a person's not alive because that maybe there's some kind of a an intent to have some kind of a t and whatever but I but I understand exactly why it could be extremely dis distasteful there is one major charity which was absolutely against the spirit of the life of a person who I I'm not saying the name now publicly if you want I'll tell you afterwards and the lawyer just uh started giving money left and right all over the place to do good deeds for a person who never who wanted to do good deeds so I guess in his mind there there was a big estate there and there was good reason taxes and so on to give charity and he decided I'm going to do a Tien for uh for the Nish let's continue over here because over here it just now took us hold it the money that the one let's say a woman borrowed some clothing from someone now I have to go back when she borrowed it did she have to really return it can I gave a donation of that to the BET mikdash and it starts to get into a much more interesting question by the way a number of years ago I both spoke about it later on I wrote about an idea which is found in multiple commentaries the MIT talks about it the Mah talks about it I'm trying to remember how much earlier it goes but that is that and they quote this gar about that he's the one who opens up schools in order to teach kids but one of the things that it says that he does is he goes and he plants things and then the things that grow he uses them in order to write Scrolls and have Scrolls written and and some people have money just buy Scrolls so he says no I'm trying to create something which is holy so every part of what's holy needs to be holy the foundation of Holiness needs to be holy and you can't have anything which is Tainted within it and they go so far as to say that that's true with the big day con and Aon would have felt the difference right W walking in with a beautiful whatever it is Big de Co but how beautiful could it be if it was based upon a donation of of someone like you can't build something holy without holy ingredients it just does doesn't work that way so as I said I wrote about that I'm not going into that more than that right now but you you realize over here that things are a little bit more complicated and I just want to read a little bit more than that over here is that as they were going in each person was together with his wife right it was the man with the women the women the men they went in together unified to give it and therefore they came in as couples and made their donations as couples which I guess sounds very nice and that's what billum had seen when he said look how beautiful this is now this theme I'm gonna come back to this of the men and the woman together saying you know this look it's important for uh for a couple to to be in sync and to say that the donations were in sync does create a very nice image and I again I just hope that you appreciate what it says here now let's go back to where you wanted to lead us to begin with and and and just realize it wasn't easily accessible we're going to the pider so first full understanding for a lot of us when we see that it says there's a midash right midashim are not created equal there are ancient midashim and then there are later midashim if you have a midash let's just say in the M that's pretty old if you have a midash in the peser it's a little bit more I don't want to use the word suspect because that's not fair but it's later I mean exactly how late the p is there there that's subject to debate let's put it this way there's a very strong suspicion that it's after the start of Islam course it talks about ishma and talks the name of isma's wife which happens to be the same name as uh the wife of Muhammad so and there's a couple of things there what leads one to say that oh this is really quite late M but let's let's [Music] read that is what I had said earlier as the first light Tac if he would have said just you know bring in gold I don't care where it came from but he says no bring me your wives gold your children he thought that would be the end of it sh the women heard about this okay that's it see this is what you were educated on they said they said no and they absolutely refused um over here I left the footnotes so you could follow them if you want the footnotes froma lots of uh interest things including the idea of tell where do we get this idea that women don't work on roses is there in footnote cuff if you see it there he brings a number of different commentaries who say this okay okay yeah in uh in footnote which we're not up to it says is a peric which is called it's a peric which deals with all kinds of Customs starts with customs of a of PES so it say like what happens if a woman has a custom that she doesn't work on a particular day they do respect that custom so it goes women right don't work on rashes more than when more more than than men so they just to realize something again I don't know how much we want to go into side points we're have to finish it at some point today but um roses in Israel when there was a bet mikdash was different fromes in when there was a bet mikdash and it was different from when there is no bet mikdash so the whole history of which means essentially when you bring a special corbon in the bet mdash it created a certain of Holiness and when you don't have that there's something else there's famous Kamar that when RAV who came to he learned in Yeshiva in Israel withi he travels to B which he where he spends the rest of his life and he walks into R and they're saying Hal and he has no idea what's going on what are they doing say Hales apparent apparently they only said Hal in Israel when there was a bet mdash no mdash no no no Corban BR so then you don't say Hal because Hal was the Shir that the Lev would have said but we have no B you don't do this and then he walks in and he finds they're saying Halo and then he realizes that they're only saying half Halo right and everybody asks hold it did they say the or not say the so then people don't want to say he came in late so then some say oh it must be that he came in early for the second minion whatever but um but RAV is there shocked that they're saying Hal at all so apparently they didn't say Hal in Israel post second bet mikdash and as I said these things are a bit more Dynamic than sometimes we uh we think so over here in this footnote it tells us says no the women guarded or or sh guarded is a terrible word to use they uh what word should we use instead they observe they observe much more than men did so as I said if you're interested in any of the literature so this footnote will take you in that direction but what you do see from the per Lesar is that women were not involved in that in said to to make idolatry and you think that's going to help you and God gave them reward in this so this whole idea of a cycle going together withes eing and weigh and so waning and to talk about and and go back again because I'm I'm reading this in mosi's disappearance and appearance I see this is being absolute con till that time the men used to have earrings now this goes to your point so you notice Arabs are being mentioned over here as well which again is why one would be somewhat suspect as far as when the timing here in their erors it doesn't say the men but I'm going to say it again you can read these verses in different ways okay so till this point we realize that we have tension regarding women's participation in theel and then the flip side because again if the women sinned with theel they donated then so now they're donating now as well and they fix it then they did it with a great deal of uh of enthusiasm and now they're doing with a great deal enthusiasm on the other hand if you want to flip it and say no the women did not sin with theel and they refused but when it came to something which is holy then they chose to be involved now this everything we just now saw is one side of the issue there's another side which again you could argue with me is not necessarily organically connected but we're connecting it sour number 11 it says now the first problem that we have is simply translating those words I I I know that for some of you translation should be very easy but it's not at all a consensus how you translate those words I'm going to just read to you one translation and and then point out what the problem is so that first part of the verse is easy they made these things out of copper good good so what is me or even better what does mean what does mar mean so now you all are going to tell me that marot means mirrors and the only problem with that is that the usual translation of marod is Visions right Mar Vision that has there is is a vision it's a prophetic Vision nonetheless so let's just say they made it from mirrors the word is translated by many from the same word as as a as an army or those who gathered together from those who gathered the people who gathered by the gate of of the so I'll read to you one translation I have he made the copper base and his copper base from the mirrors of those who gathered for service that was just really interesting added in who gathered for service at the entrance of the tent of meeting it just now gave a purpose for that Gathering if you look at tarum again what did that mean right is that a by the way just noticed he put in the women who came to pray sadly is to pray they came to pray that's where they would come and pray so essentially the the the women who would come they made their donations to the to the mishkan the English translation of Uncle ISS he made the Bas and out of copper and the base of copper for the mirrors of the women who came to pray at the entrance of Theo I'm not going to get involved in the question of what ohid means in this context it's I mean the a number of conies talk about it the tar added another word is is the listen you're ready to talk about women so you let's throw in as well right you have to throw inar right that's the problem with most classes for women it's not either they'll talk about or they'll talk abouta you're shaking your head um so it's interesting that it just made believe there was a n there kind of there were these modest women who came to the Mish say again that's that's really interesting the tum yonan we skip 14 go straight to the Hebrew and 15 they it was is made out of the mirrors of modest women so now you realize he just threw a lot a lot of things in over here and I hope what you're beginning to understand is that we're getting a narrative a narrative is being created by this all that it says is they don't mirrors so not even mirror they don't arguably it says they donated mirrors in order to make these uh the the the the Basin right that should have been enough but nonetheless you see one commentary to the other again talking about the women and uh now we have but we have even more over here come to prey but over here there was more it's when they would bring a carbon when they would bring a corbon so why they bring a corbon so presum they bring a corbon because they gave birth there's a corbon afterwards and I'm going to stop and I'm going to go to Rashi anyway Rashi is more familiar and Rashi is gonna create a whole another problem that when they would pretty themselves up they would have a mirror that they would look at and even these mirrors they didn't have would you sash say even they gave everything we need to build the Mish whatever you need just just you know take thear and mosha didn't like this because mosha said oh this is there for thear now I have to stop a second because there's just a lot to talk about this there really is a lot to talk about this I mean one I would certainly bring this into the discussion when we're told that mosha separates from his wife and say you know what is going on and you know what do I do with this is this really the yahar I mean for for a woman to look attractive to her husband is that really y if it is Yar by the way it's the atar being uh being focused in a very particular direction and it's I don't want to say it's strange I don't want to say it's disturbing certainly interesting but would wouldn't necessarily been the first word that that we would have used there is a gor which talks about that when they bu the second p mikash and they all started you know some people started crying some started laughing and said the still with us and then it says they defeated but they heard a cry come out from the K Kash when they defeated so that's also really interesting to say that the AAR coming from the K kashim again there's lots of different ways to to describe that Kamara but to say that that it comes out from the kak kadash could mean to me that I need to rethink exactly what yahar really uh really means and if it's sublimated in in into a relation with a husband and wife again you you know the word I'm trying to avoid don't you I'm trying to avoid Christian influences and saying and look at original sin and say that essentially puritanical attitude toward sexuality is such that all thing all thoughts and actions of of sexual activity is automatically something in the realm of thear I I don't know I don't know why I would say I mean I don't believe the ramban would say that ramban wrote a book on K in terms of intimacy it's why why nonetheless mosha feels this way it could be the women don't feel this way all the more so I I I want this I accept this they're beloved to me you see the word they created Legions of Jews why because again he's going to say because the husbands were tired the women would bring them food by the way complete opposite of the but we're intimate in a in a holy way they would look at the two of them together in the mirror it's also interesting and she would try to endear herself to him and therefore they would end up being intim and have children and so on and so [Music] forth and the water from that event be used for the SAA which is also very interesting as opposed to AEL issue because right after the AEL mosha comes down and does a SOA like ceremony by breaking down the AEL and putting it together with uh with water and then making the people drink it so you have you so are the are the Jews do they have Fidelity towards God and now using this poel to create the Kor in order to see if in order to actually it's there to push aside the jealousy of theb and then he stresses and you should know that these are literal mirrors why does he have to say that and not Visions because he knows what I told you before that more often than not the word would mean a vision and over here it uh it means something else over here it means actually mirrors how much further do we go here I think that's enough later on second line from the bottom he says mirrors right actually wres mirror there I put it in ital ital good mid 17 they all their own mirors essentially he doesn't know about this Rashi again and so on but he's saying no quite the opposite and this was used in order for a woman to be inspected I have I have to explain this a little more keep going so again going back to the so she uses this to make herself attractive to her husband and now it's going to be used in order to see if a woman had actually cheated on her husband so they said no you use this mirror which you used for intimacy to be with your husband that's what's going to prove your innocence so as I said he's trying to get some kind of a almost like a mid mid over here IB Ezra okay this is really where we had to get to today there's a little bit afterwards 18 the this is what women do is when Ezra tells you women in the morning they look in the mirror make sure they look okay and he quotes a little bit about this he but then there became women who were they were such that they gave up on the on the pleasures of this world but they no longer needed their mirrors so I know that some of you are thinking that they would look in the morning and they say mirror mirror on the wall who's the firmest one of all says no that that they would look they came to the point they didn't need the mirrors anymore and therefore they gave when you give your mirror away you say that said certain things don't make a difference to me anymore I don't look beautiful what would these women do instead they'd come every day there's lots and lots of women and and and again you may be thinking it's it sounds almost none likee right and and this is not necessarily what you would have chosen to say yeah that that's what Jews do so I I I want to continue because especially the Patos are going to move in a slightly different Manner and they they know something about mirrors so therefore it's it's going to be this secret of mirrors so let's start with the B and again always realize if one of the balos would said it then it spreads you can just look at the others and you'll find similar things but so yeah yes yes yes yes yes yes which is really a great point you know again I don't know about you I'm going back to I said in the beginning you you have some people may the borka ladies I assume every one of them has like a really really interesting past I'm actually soon they're full of tattoos and they're full of like all piercings and all kinds of uh things I I I assume that that people who've gone down One path then will overcompensate in the other path in order to try to uh get some kind of uh forgiveness you've learned so many interesting things today anyway look the reason I'm saying that is because there is a certain approach in Judaism which I I'll call normative and once normative when somebody goes away from the normative you have to say so why are they doing this so sometimes when you've gone too far one way then you feel the need the other way which is why you're point about maybe the people who may have sinned in in other ways with the in the time of the agel as of which also makes the SOA process by after the so much more interesting there's a lot more to say about this including the famous Rashi chir shiram that you read the asserted you br a cross and then don't make Idols goes together with don't commit adultery they are connected to one another but let's for the third time let's try to read the um he says they were put in the so now obviously we have to go do a model of the Mish and take a look and what's he saying so he says that the women who are outside when you have the you have the Basin positioned in the right way and their mirrors on them they can stand outside and watch the mirror and see the reflection and see what's going on inside so then when those guilty women are being tried and being perhaps punished they can see this which itself is absolutely fascinating but but that's the nature of a mirror previously were they were used to see yourself but now when they're positioned in this way he goes oh look you you can see you can see in this other direction um in Source 21 that's can goes in the same direction 20 they use them in order to be attractive I'm skipping there a little bit and he goes like in the direction of bzra and then they move towards sh again just moving towards this the serving of God I no longer need my makeup I no longer need my I don't know all the things my eyeliner and my mascara and my lipstick and my blush you'll have to tell me what else I missed here along the way but uh by the way these are the questions as Rabbi I can't forg to answer but what about make I just ask my wife I I I I I don't know not that she knows all these things that much either at least she understands I mean I'm like the fourth son Ain no she at least uh understands a bit Source 22 the mosha of zakum again we're in the world of toast vot here he's going to give us a couple different answers or explanations he quotes Rashi in the very beginning mosha finds these things distasteful right again the same thing they're placed in a certain area there towards the north that we just now saw did you follow that yes and this is really interesting he's saying know just like I told you that the woman can stand outside and look at the and look at the mirror and look inside the Coen can look inside could be inside and look at the mirror and see the woman who's outside so he says is that it's obviously inappropriate to look at women he goes but nonetheless when you bring a Corbin for someone you need to know who you bring the Corbin for so therefore the woman would be standing over there let's call it the she'd be standing over there and he would look at the mirror which then would have a reflection and let's also recognize something else the mirrors that we have today are not exactly what copper mirrors were back in the day and I don't know how clearly you can see I I think to a great extent you're dealing with a distorted type of mirror but at least you see the person who it is that you bring the Corbin for so he just now reversed it and he's going to keep on going on this he he he just now went down the mirror rabbit hole and he's going to say okay once you have mirrors look where he keeps on going with this um that all the people out can now see what's going on this is the closed circuit cameras that now you can see what's going on in the bet mikdash that you want like this AIS of Holiness you have it why do you have it because we have the mirrors says no one should be in the and Mos is saying but no one can be there when this happens and now everybody can see what's going on but by the way God says no nobody should be there but it's okay if everybody looks in it's okay if everybody sees and understands what the coing GLE is doing inside so I'm just saying is that you thought like this you know innocent these mirrors no the mirrors go in more than one direction especially these mirrors on this angle and you see that people are taking different ways I I just want to end up by uh saying one thing that struck me a couple of months ago when I was learning towards the beginning of of San hedrin you can actually those who learned aomi can count exactly how long ago this was it's in Source number 24 it's G which I'm not going to explain the whole thing over here it starts and so on it says we laws of but what is the case a woman takes her her what do you call this he calls this actually a if you look at source 25 the hair covering a woman uses was donated they donated him for sa of Tora by the you look atardi Tores sometimes you see that on top there's like some kind of a like of a cief looking thing this gar says that oh if you made this donation now this actually begins this whole discussion in Hala if it's allowed or if it's not allowed if it's proper it's improper the actually brings down and ver 26 towards the end you don't use something which was done for a private person's individual use you don't donate that for the safer tah M disagrees with Rama and what's his clinching argument at the end his clinching argument is I'm not going to read the whole [Music] thing look at toward towards the end through like last three lines or so he goes no but they they gave the and therefore certainly in this case of donating the and again the gar says the women did it women would take the hair covering and by the way it could very well be that a woman's by first of all the so to theme is still all over this which is interesting secondly is that it could be they consider this is Holy this is something which is holy and if it's holy I can donate it to sa for Torah and what does the gamar say that's what they did and then afterwards you find these commentaries or is appropriate not appropriate and at the end of the day but of course it's it's appropriate I me just going back to that Rashi the same way that they donated the mirrors which is holy I want to go back to that again that mosha feels the of God argues say no this is Holy and I'm I'm adding words into this it's holy and if it's holy now it can take its proper place in Holiness but not only is its proper place of Holiness we sh a couple of more things this allows the woman who's standing outside to look inside but it also allows something else it allows the Coen who's inside to look back at that the women and therefore this creates this connection between the am and between the Mak kados and not only that when the Koh goes in and does whatever it is to do we still have we can't be there but we still have our I'm GNA add one word our holy mirrors to be able to look and to see what's going on and it becomes that these are uh that these are really multifaceted or it's not faceted it's mirrors that have all kinds of usage to it and are just far more interesting than I think we realized when we uh first like read that verse and maybe just would have connected it to this whole General issue of donations as I said right away we saw the commentaries create a narrative they don't all create the same narrative but nonetheless there's a story to be told over here and as I said it continues till today of women donating their hair coveries say no I want this to be on the S I want this to be on the saf t