Parting Salvos Rabbi Shmuel Goldin

doing is it's it's unfortunate, but the last part in the Torah we rarely really pay much attention to in terms of study because they happen around the and we're busy worrying about the and learning about the and talking about the and it's unfortunate because those last parot are really very dramatic and very important and I thought what we would do is we're going to take a look I call it parting salvo. So, we're going to take a look at a number of different specific portions of specific pariote at the end of the Torah just to get an idea of some of the wealth that's there and some of the ideas that are there. Certainly not comprehensive in any way, but pretty much sort of as an example. Let's start with the first and without question, the first is unfortunately very appropriate for our times. Take a look at the first section on page one, please. It should be familiar to you because we read it before Purim. All right. Remember what did to you? We'll talk about that phrase in a moment. They came on you in the way and they picked off, if you will, all of those that were straggling behind you. And most people explained that last phrase to be referring to. And then finally, when God finally gives you the opportunity to dwell peacefully in your land, erase the memory of a mole from other under the heavens. So let's take a look at the first question I asked. What defines in this in this section? What is it that defines am? Let's let's realize that we talk about Amalik all the time, but what are the characteristics of an enemy that make that enemy Amik anything in the text? >> What? >> Okay. So, what's >> great? Correct. Ka comes from the word mikra. There's a medrashic explanation that everybody lies likes and it's related to the word k and cold and what it says is that that this medish suggests that when we came out of mit we were burning hot nobody was willing to touch us because we were so powerful in their eyes and then amal comes as the first attack and that cools everything down and creates all the problems. So that's not the explanation we're going to focus on. We're focusing on what you suggested which is the word mikre. The word mikre comes from the word means happen stance. They happen to you on the way. It just so happened that this wasn't a planned attack. And more importantly there was no reason for this attack. This was totally gratuitous. You were not traveling in their land. You were not endangering them. you were not affecting them. You were just leaving Egypt and moving along. And they attacked you for no reason. And this the last point is who do they attack? They attack the weak. So you have certain characteristics that make someone. They are individuals who will hate you for no reason. Sound familiar? All right. And and they are people they will pick on the they will try to get to the weakest among you and pick them off. All right. So that's that's Amoleik. Now let's take a look for a moment at the Rambam. All right. We're going to take a look at the Rambam. And we're not for the first Rambom we're going to learn is not about Amalik. actually about the seven nations that are in the land. Mitzvah, it is a positive commandment. It is your responsibility. It's a positive commandment to destroy the seven nations. Those are the seven nations in Kanan because the Torah says destroy them utterly. If you happen to find one of them and you don't fulfill this mitzvah, you have transgressed the positive commandment. And then the last three words. Anybody want to tell me what that means? They are no longer identifiable. you can no longer identify one of someone from the seven nations. All right, let's understand that. In other words, what we're saying is that for some reason something happened historically that caused there to be a break in the identification of these nations and they are no longer identifiable by their source. Well, we're going to skip for a moment and come back. Take a look at the bottom of the first page and the top of the in the English on the top of the second. It's a fascinating little story found in the Mishna. And this story has particular importance as we see in the Ramb. Boayom boy Yehuda G AI a convert who was an Ammonite by stated identity. He said, "I'm an Ammonite." People do things like that, I guess. I my my brother-in-law who is a um in charge of Kashus in the five towns says he had a fellow who worked for him who he had to fire who called himself auduki. He was part of the sudukim which is a whole another group but the ammonites. All right medari can I enter the community? Can I be part of the Jewish world? It's not just enter. I mean, can I be part of the Jewish world is the Ra would say, you're not allowed to. No, you can come on in. Omar, what can I do? turns to and says, "What are you what are you talking about?" It says in the Torah, "Lo yo, hashem adori, you know, it says in the Torah, up until the 10th generation, an ammonite cannot enter the community. What are you what are you letting him in for?" says, "Rebos." Are you telling me that Moabites are identifiable? Ashbel. Now, what does that mean? San Heriff, the king who the who um ruled over the attack on the 10 tribes and exiled the 10 tribes, the Assyrian king. Basically, he had a an unu not unusual but a very wise way of dealing with those that he conquered. What he would do is he would uproot people from their homelands or from their homes, put them in another community, take the community there and put them back there. And he did that. Why? Why did he do that? Because he was robbing them of their strength. In other words, if I'm home and I'm in my land, I can rebel. But if you take me and you disperse me, you put me in different communities, you So San came and that's the turning point says Ramon Rabiohua. That's the turning point. The turning point is Sanv exile of the 10 tribes and at the same time buildumos. So says Raboshua based on that this Ammonite can come in. This ammonite doesn't know what he is. He's claiming to be an ammonite, but he can't identify himself as such. And this brings back a, and just as an aside, a a powerful memory that I have. I may have mentioned this before. One time and during one of the um missions that I had with members of my show to various places, we we always went to Israel, but we sometimes tacked somewhere else on. went to Rome this time and we were standing by the arch of Titus and the non-Jewish guide was talking and he was saying you should know what the arch of Titus is. It represents the conquest of the Judeans. Basically the the idea was that the Romans felt that not only had they conquered them but they had destroyed them. They would no longer exist. There was a triumphant parade underneath the arch. And I stopped. I after he finished I said I I just like to add one thing and I said this underscores the heroism the quiet heroism of one particular figure in Jewish history that we don't think about enough and that's Rabbi Yohanon Benzakai because Rabi Yohan Ben Zankai orchestrates the transformation of the Jewish people from a temple-based society to a rabbitic based society. In other words, he knows that the if the temple is destroyed that you can't that's not going to be the glue. Even its memory won't be the glue to hold you together. You have to have something else. And and therefore he started he put into place various different things but he kept the oral law going from before and onward and because of that we were able to retain our identity. This guy turned and he said, "I want you to know, he says, I am always amazed when I stand with a Jewish group here." He said, "You know, I live in Italy. I'm not a Roman, right? There are no Romans. I'm Italian. It's amazing to me that you as a people can take yourselves back all the way to those times and before and still claim and and with reality and with proof show that you are part of that people. He says I'm amazed. It's it's amazing to me and you know sometimes you have to hear it from others. It we of we don't take it we don't spend time on it enough. It is miraculous. miraculous the work of Hashem and also the work of Ben Israel that we have been able to survive across the generations against everything that we faced and still we're here and still we thrive. Mark Twain said it, others have said it, we should say it. I'm teaching a two courses at MMY this year and and one course is on the birth of the Jewish nation. The way I started was with that story. I said you have to understand that it is miraculous and you went when I had my sh had a spartic minion is a spartic area as well as an Ashkanazic. It was an Ashkanazic sh but we built a beautiful area for the spartum in the community and that's grown tremendously. Every once in a while some of my Ashkanazic congregants would go into to Davin with well you know Davin to because that's Yiddish. They don't say English but go into to pray with they don't say English either [laughter] to be met pal with the with the spart they would come out they say to me rabbi it's so different it you know it's really it's like different world I said you don't get it you don't get it the miracle is not that it's different the miracle is how much the same it is it's the same amid It's the same schma. It's the same structure of the tilo. Sure, a lot of things are different because we pick things up as we go. But the fact is that we when when we we're living in unusual times. The walls have come down. Spartan and Ashkanazim had no contact with each other for centuries. The fact that we could re recognize each other as Jews, it's amazing. So I said to them, you got to understand that's the miracle. The miracle is not how different it is, but how much alike we are. Yes. >> So basically everybody is allowed to convert these days. There's no such thing as loit. >> That is correct. >> That is correct. That is correct. There's no ammonites. There are no Egyptians. There are no any of those any of those peoples have been dispersed and have disappeared. Now go back up. Yes. I'm sorry. >> What? Well, we're going to get to that. >> Okay. >> All right. Now, take a look at the the second Rambam back on page one. [snorts] All right. The second Rambam is following is the right after the one before and it says it is a positive commandment to destroy the memory of you always have to remember the bad things he Remember what did to you. You have to remember in your heart and speak it out and then remember in your heart. You cannot forget his hatred and his enmity. The Rambam leaves something out. What does he leave out? >> He doesn't say that when he talks about the seven tribes, the seven amim, what does he say? He says they're not around anymore. He does not say that about Amalik, which leads Ravik and others to suggest, and this the Rav is very clear on this, that there are two kinds of amolic. There's a biological amalake and there is a philosophical amalik. And while a biological I can no longer identify someone as a biological amalic. I can't do that. Right? I can certainly identify people who are philosophically amalic and that's what we are facing in our world. Right? Not just not just from our neighbors here but around the world. The last thing I heard now is that Norway is thinking of making it a threeyear jail penalty if you do commerce with from the West Bank. Three years >> you I say who done Shamron. They say the West Bank, right? So, but the point being that that you know what's going on? I mean it it it's amazing how the world just shifted shifted and that's the next thing I want to talk about. Let's take a look again at this mitzvah. This mitzvah if you read it seems counterproductive, right? Why? Remember, remember so that you erase the memory. So if you erase the me I'm not going to remember. Why? what's what's it telling me to do and why? So the truth is that it's telling telling us something very powerful that we forgot perhaps and the world wants us to forget and that is that there is a difference between and to forget something means it's still there. It's still there. You you may not see it now. You may not recognize it now, but you but that's still around when you erase something sh. And that's what we're dealing with here. We're turning to the world and and that a world that told us after the shawah over and over and over again, what do you keep bringing up the Holocaust for? It's passed. It's gone. There you now people don't hate you like that. Guess what? >> Guess what? You know, there was a bubble. There was a bubble at after the Shawah where it was unfashionable to be anti-Semitic. You couldn't do it >> outwardly. >> What? >> Outwardly, >> right? It was unfashionable to to present yourself as anti-semitic. >> We lived in that bubble for a pretty long time. >> And now the bubble's burst. And what do we see? What was there the whole time? This is not new. What was this couldn't be new? This is what was there the whole time. And it's amazing to see again and again how we become the the the focal point of the hatred of the world. It's crazy. So therefore this really is a very very appropriate section for us to think about and not pass over and that is difference between and between forgetting and erasing and we turn to the world and to ourselves and say we've got to erase it once and for all. Okay. Next turn to the next page. All right. So that as I told you if you came in a little late you you don't know what we're doing. where I said that it's a shame that we don't spend time with the last uh parote in the Torah because we're so busy with Yantiff. So I'm taking certain sections from those pariote just to learn them and they're disparit par they're not connected to each other necessarily but they are each important and telling us something important that I'd like us to learn. All right so the next section is the beginning of parasavo. The last section we learned was in Paris. And in Pariso, the the Torah opens with a section that should be familiar to all of us. When you come to the land, when you come to the land that God gives to you, you shall take the first fruits of your land that God is giving to you. Bring it to you. You should come to Cohen who is in that day vom and you should say the following. And now this is what we are reading is known in vernacular vidiurim. It's the formula that you recite when you bring the bikurim. What do you say? I'm saying to god your god. All right. I I said this is the first line. I said, "I have come to the land that God promised to us." Then I go on after the cohen takes the the fruit from me and puts it by the misbehines up. You'll say before God now sound familiar, right? The entire section is contained in the Hagod. So let's ask ourselves a couple of questions about that. If you were well, let's start with this. Which holiday is the bikurim associated with? >> Right? So why am I saying it on Pes? Even more so that section if you understand the Hagada properly that section is a section of limud Torah. What do we do? We take this paragraph we quote it and we dissect it and we give all of the commentaries on give commentaries on. So we're learning together in the middle of the seder. We'll talk about why that's so important. But if I were to pick if you if you were to pick a paragraph from the Torah that you thought we should learn at the seder, what would you pick? What would you pick? >> Something from where >> you see, right? I thought something from one pes something which were reliving something. Why am I taking a section of the text that is found in Dvarim which speaks about what? Which speaks about the a farmer speaking now about something that happened centuries before because that's when this is going to be said. This is going to be said once you conquer the land. So why not take it's what we call the difference between a primary source and a secondary source. Why not take the primary source? Why not take that part of the Torah that talks about the story and not take this part? So, there are a variety of answers, but the one that hit me is the following. Take a look at the language of the farmer. All right, he starts off. My father was a wandering Aramian. He went down to Egypt and he lived there and dwelt there in small numbers and he became a great nation. Who knew what just changed? What just happened? us. All of a sudden, he's not talking about someone else. All of a sudden, this farmer who is talking centuries after the story occurs turns and says at at the point what at the point in his discussion where we become a nation where nationhood is born. He says all of a sudden he is what is he doing? He's personalizing history. He's taking history that happened to someone else and he's saying it didn't happen to someone else. It happened to me. And that I think may be why this is the section we're told to learn at the seder because of all what is what is the primary goal of the seder. Primary goal of the seder is to inject us into the flow of of Jewish history. You ever think for a moment about how the seder is structured? You have ritual before the meal and then ritual after. Why don't we structure it like all the ritual and get to the meal or the meal and get to the ritual? We probably wouldn't stay for the ritual, but the fact is why why are we injecting the the me the meal right into the middle? And by the way, it's not only in the middle of the ritual, >> it's in the middle of halal. It divides halal into two. So if you look carefully what you find is that everything before the meal is happening in the past. Everything after the meal is speaking about the future. The turning point is which would be right and and now we're moving into the future. And what's the meal? The meal is the present. The meal is me. The meal is us. We are the meal, right? And and we are sitting at a meal that is encompassed by Jewish history and it's injecting us right into the into the flow. And that's why I think this section is chosen. And I'll tell you something else. I think that's why we learn at the seder because when you learn, if you learn Gomorrah and other oral law properly. So again, I hear you have to hear it from others. I heard it from a balchuva who started learning amara for the first time and he came to me he said you know he said it's amazing time falls away I'm sitting at a table and Rabi Akiba says something and then Rabbiel says something and then Rashi who lives centuries later says well you know I I maybe we can correlate this way and then toos Rashi's grandchildren start yelling at their grandfather And they start saying, "No, we this is what we say." And then and I'm sitting at this table and they're all talking and the Rambam and the Ed everybody's coming here. Everybody's in town. Everybody's in town and the time just falls away. I am part of an eternal flow. So learning is perhaps the single best way to arrive at this personalization of history to recognize that we are part of a flow of a conversation a dialogue that began centuries before we were born and will continue until the end of days. And that that may be what this section is meant to portray and why we read it at the center. Yes. >> Right. >> What they did to us? It's like what happened to the Jews in Europe was successful >> of course and then came >> right what's happening >> what's happening to us not the same but but you don't think that part of what is fueling the hatred today is not the success of the Jewish people >> sure it is sure it is I think I told you the the famous joke about two Jews that are two old Jews are sitting on the subway in New York and one of them is reading a newspaper and it's one of these newspapers that's anti-semitic to a tea it's just horrible and his friend turns to him and says uncle why are you reading that rag he says you don't understand if I read the other papers I get depressed I read this I own the banks I have all the money I do all the things right it it's it I feel good when I read this right so The point being that yeah a lot of that yes last then we'll >> talking about personalization of history it's interesting in the text what we have to say why is it referred to >> well in the first yeah right so it the first Eloh is the one that he says right and he's saying to the coain I've come and and he's introducing himself and he's saying I'm it's your god it's not just my god it's your god too. When he says, right? Then he says the name is Eloh that's talking about him. He's putting it down before the of his god. So the second elo is not the co. The second elo is >> what? Why isn't >> because that doesn't fit the name is hashem. It says the t the coin should take it m and place it by the m ofash. So that's what so that's right. Okay. But you're you're right about the next sentence. Again, you're not that's not the guy speaking. That's the Torah telling him, right? So, the only time that he really uses the phrase this the word Eloh to speak of God is when he first comes and introduces himself to the >> Cohen. >> That's right. Correct. Correct. Okay. Next, turn the page, please. All right. Now, one one of the things I want us to remember as we're going through the next sections is that we we're on the last day of Mosha's life in parim we are we are we've reached the last day of Mosha's life and safer dvarim to really understand safer dvarim is in its totality Moshe's farewell addresses to bay Israel. It's it's tremendously dramatic to read to read drive appropriately. You have to have in mind that Moshe is saying goodbye that this is he telling you what he wants you to remember. He he's make and I've always felt by the way that that you see Dvarm is different because there's much more of Moshe in the text. It doesn't say Moshe talks I did this. We did this. He talks in the first person. It's not like the rest of the text. And I've always felt that Hashem says, "I want there to be to learn a certain huge lesson and we've said this before I know and that is that we are the product not only of books and letters. We the product of people and their actions across the generations." He wanted us to get a glimpse of Moshe the person and recognize that from that moment on we will also be the product of people who travel across the world and travel across time. This is this is this is so it's tremendously dramatic. Now he stands and he says, "You are each standing. You are all standing. All of you uh page four, I'm sorry. Page four. You're standing before God, the Lord your God, right? Everybody from the from the water drawer to to the uer of of wood to theim to the everyone you're all standing here and and I'm talking to each of you equally to cause you to pass through a covenant. Remember the word bris in the Torah is very very specific. It's a very powerful word. You can have agreements. You can be and that's a sort of an agreement. You can have a bris. A bris means we're intertwin. You're responsible for this. This is this stance. This is so it's a there's a legal connotation to a bris. And what is he saying? Right, etc. He's you should he's taking telling you today that you have to follow his way etc etc to enter in the covenant not just with with you but what is he saying he's saying who who is this verse with all Jews across time right the only problem is well before we get to that problem. The rabbis are, you know, they're amazing when you think of it. They they they they debate the efficacy of this bris on a legal they they debate the efficacy of the bris legally, right? Because they say, are you legally allowed to commit someone who is not there at the time to a specific action? So they argue about that. So comes under scrutiny here. But putting that aside, there is another problem. And the other problem Moshe actually mentions but not as a problem. Look at the bottom. The last statement at the bottom. This is the britz that God told Moshe to to convey con to to convey and to to create in Eric Movoras in addition to the covenant that God created convened at Kore. And if you go back, if you go back to Matan Torah, you find there's a moment there where the word bris comes into play and Hashem says, "I'm making a bris with you. I'm making a covenant with you." And and it's starting here at Hari. So the rabbis ask, "What do you need to breed for?" Right? If you're having a second bris, does that mean that the first one didn't take? So that happens with Aviamelik and Abraham, right? Avi Melik makes a bris with Abraham. When Yitz when he when Yeitzka comes into the scene, he comes again and he says, "I want to make a bris." And what you see from that is that the first bris didn't work. You know, if I have to make a a treaty with you on the same thing about a treaty I made before, then I as we often experience. So why are there to be retold? And Rabves says the following. He says there are two covenants that we are all responsible for and they are different in nature. [cough] There is what he calls the Britote the covenant of the forefathers and there is the Brit I'll call it Britany the individual covenant with each of us. The Britta vote he says is the covenant that is made between God and Knesset Israel as a body everybody. In other words, with as a as a group, the Brit here is a covenant he makes with each and everyone. And both of them are essential. And in fact, the Rav and this is appropriate. See, we're talking about Doma. Now, the Rav says that there are two paths to Chuva that every Jew must go through on Yom Kipur. One path is the individual path I have to go through. I have to look at what I did. Look at what I change. The other path is a is connecting myself to Knesset Israel. The other path is I have to be part of the Jewish collective. And he says if you look carefully at what happens in the Torah the Hamish, right, the the goat that sent them, which is a whole another discussion, right? But what what happens before the goat is sent to Aazel? The Cohen states a confession for all Israel on the goat. In other words, and what what is he doing says thereof? That represents the communal kapora. That represents and the only thing what's necessary for you to receive that communal kapor is you have to say I'm part. I'm one. I'm with you. But then there is the individual road that you have to take as well. And that's why we'll find in the yomipper liturgy for example that is so there's a distinction between us and everybody meaning two different elements. each of us individually and each of us as a part of the collective whole and and why I think this is so important today is because that's also part of the struggle that we're facing. How many people and I'm not getting I'm not going to get involved in politics will say I'm doing my thing. I'm doing it well and I don't be have to be part of the collective. I don't have to and I'm not just talking about the I'm talking about others as well. I don't have to be part of you know I you if you're not part of the collective the rough says then you then one path towards chuva one essential path is simply not taken simply not taken and therefore we will go through both of those and I think when we go through it on yum kicker in addition to going through our own personal lives and actions we should think real hard about what we're doing for the collective, volunteering, uh other things, what what can we do, each of us do? And and the Ram says others say that if someone performs every single mitzvah, but doesn't mourn the temple's destruction will not be able to see its rebuilding. In other words, the idea being you have to be part of the collective as well as an individual sadic. So those two those two breto speak to two different elements and to two different pathways. All right, we're almost we're almost finished. Let me just go quickly to the next section and now I'll take any comments. All right, the next session is is is really um very quickly very sort of strange. Next section is rashi and not not the text. It's the last puk in the Torah. The last puk in the Torah says at the top of the page no there never rose a um a leader etc. to all the signs etc etc that God did so all of these great things that Hashem did all right and Moses played a role in bringing down right an Israel and what happens is the the rabbis dissect each aspect here what did the oos that it's talking about what are the mo it's talking about what's the yada what are why this rep and they they point to specific points in Mosha's career that the line is referring to and then you come to the last one and they say the following that refers to the fact that he broke the tablets the last words in the Torah. So you look at that and you say that's what I'm supposed to remember about Moshe just and by the way that's a very controversial act there there there are those who say he did it on purpose there are those who said he was forced to do it but one way or the other it's not so simple and who has to come to him later according to the say so I'm going to just introduce a thought because we have to stop turn to the next page for a second one motion. >> Oh, >> typo. Typo. Okay. Sorry about that. How totally remember Aam. No, should say how we were told to mention Moshe. Sorry about that. All right. All right. If you take a look at the bottom of the next to last page and the last page, you see you see Moshe recalling what happened at Hari. And when he recalls what happened at Arseni, he mentioned something that was not mentioned originally. And that is that he created God told him to make an ark of wood and he put was told to put the tablets into the ark of wood and he take a look it says it four times in the span of five sukim and again this is something that is not mentioned when it occurs. This is only mentioned in Mosha's recollections. So I'm going to throw it out to you. I'll let you think about it over yontiff and and see if you can come up with an answer for me. Why is that so important? Why and and can that help us understand why Mosha's breaking of the luote was correct and important as well and something to be remembered. All right. So that's your that's your homework. Uh we'll see you all. I said mistake, mistake, mistake. I really >> who is the rough son