Rambam’s Letters (Pt VI) | Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz

O of the last statement that you can't make everybody happy. I have a similar little conundrum. Uh last week uh some people approached me before this year and they said that the questions were too disruptive. Could I announce that be no questions till the end of this year? I made that announcement last week. Right after this year, a few people told me, you know, we really missed the questions. Uh so so I'm not really sure what to do. uh you know one of the reasons why I teach adults is because I don't want to get involved in classroom management. When you have kids you have to manage the classroom but I see that uh classroom management becomes relevant even when you're with adults kind of you know so I'm not really sure what to do right now. Um today I think we'll keep last week's format of no questions but but in terms of I don't know if you want to have a vote or you want to have a discussion uh or whatever uh and I'll give it some thought as to try to create the balance because I I do understand uh that either people want to bring up questions and that's actually a good thing. On the other hand uh sometimes uh it may be a little disruptive. So as always the question is how do you how do you balance those different things? So uh you give it some thought, I'll give it some thought and maybe we will come to a consensus as to how to uh deal deal with it. Again, as I say, in terms of myself, I am not averse to questions, but you know, once again, I I want to accommodate uh what people want. Anyway, um I want to start off a little bit. Uh yesterday was of course Yu Shallayam. I didn't get a chance to say anything about it because it was yesterday. I just want to say a short thought and it actually ties into our class because it is from the Rambam. I want to share with you two observations that the Rambam makes uh in the Minuan about Jerusalem. Very interesting interpretive observations. I'm sorry. Pardon me. Do you want to do this? Oh yeah. So first we have a a dedication. Can you see this? Yeah. Uh our shirt today is dedicated anonymously for the Rafu Shalma of Vana Bat Blumma and Aolina Batgalina. Uh that's it. Okay. And a reminder if anybody is interested in sponsoring this year or any other shares, you can see me uh or get my information from Rita or in the Torah tippets. That I'm leaving. Thank you. Thank you. The Rambam points out that although the first mention of Jerusalem is after Aram's war with the four kings and Malitc the king of Shalm which is actually Salem in English Salem in America does not have such a good historical record but nevertheless Shalm is connected to the city of peace uh brought Abraham Leah and Yayen and Malitak has actually shamed the son of Noah. So it's actually Abram's great great uh greatgrandfather. Uh and Malisedc was the title the ancient title of the kings of Jerusalem that even the um Olam recognized there was something holy and special about Shalm and the king got the title righteous king, king of righteousness, Malit. Uh but the Rambam points out that later in the Torah when the Torah talks about particularly in the book of Dvarim when the Torah talks about bringing corbanos in the B mikdash it always says you shall bring your carbanos in the place that God will choose. Doesn't say where that's going to be. And that's why the B mikdash is called the house that was chosen by God. So it's almost as if the Torah was keeping the identity of Jalim as the holy city secret to be revealed. David was told where the Bam Mikdesh was going to be built. The Rambam says why does the Torah make it a secret? Shallay was a known city. Shalm whatever it was called Shalm. So the Rambam says the following. He says two things. If the Umot Olam would have known that Jerusalem was the holy designated city of God, they would have fought ferociously much more so than they did and that would have made the conquest of Yushai much much more difficult. And then the Rambam goes further. We know that Yushaim straddles theatim of Yehuda and Binyam. We know this that part of even the B mikdash itself is divided part of the Mikdash is Yehuda part of it is uh granted all of the tribes it's like the District of Columbia which is kind of the national it is national property but it is physically situated within the tribal boundaries of Yehuda and Binyammen. So says the Rambam, had the tribes been aware of where you where the holy city would be situated, they would not have agreed to the Kalukatar. Therefore, the Rambam says it was important to keep the identity of the holy city secret until after the conquest and even after the tribal division of the land. And that is why always refers to asm the place that God will choose. My question on the Rambam is simply this. Given the fact that we see already from the time of Shame Ben Noah that there was something special about the city that it was called Shalm the city of peace or the city of harmony the city of completion and the kings were given the very honorific title of Malited king of righteousness so the Rambam's implication that Hashem wanted to keep this totally unknown so nobody would recognize that this had a special spiritual ual significance seems to be contradicted by the malitic story itself and after all it was it was the site the Harabay was the site of uh are we to assume that the Jewish people simply didn't have a tradition that that was the place it was like a totally unknown thing till Hashem revealed it to David Hamelik by the way a little aside on this the Rambam does not say this but it's based on a medish uh How do we get yerushalim from shalem? Right? The original name of the city is shalm Salem. So the medish explains very interestingly that yushaim is like Minneapolis St. Paul. It's twin cities. The original city was Shalm. But Araminu when he sacri was willing to sacrifice and haram araminu called the place hashem year. God will see meaning God will look down and see what was done here today and that shall be an eternal merit for ami Israel. So as a result the city was shal the harabayat was called year. Therefore Jerusaleim is shalm. So how do you get yu? So again the saying that the alf and the he in year just gets combined into above because the kabatria of alf and he is. So when they when they joined the two cities, they contracted it into Yeru. Now we're still not 100% there because that would give you just like the English Jerusalem, right? So where do you get the extra Yim? Where do you get the second Y? Now the truth of the matter is in most of Tanakh, not in the Torah because Torah doesn't mention Yusha, but in the Nim and Kuim when Yusha is spelled out, it typically does not have the second Jud. We pronounce it. The cre is yushim, but it actually does not have the it's yushm in terms of the uh consonants in the word. But here too the mafam say very beautifully that just like raglim yay oimay uh means two or a plural yushlay means two yushms and it's not east Jerusalem and west Jerusalem uh because that's one city but it's the heavenly shallahim sha and our job in life is to create an alignment between the heavenly and the earthly to have them in alignment. And when they are in alignment through our mitzvah, our Torah, our all of the good things, our they become in alignment. That's when there's gula. Uh when they're not in alignment, we remain in golos, we remain in inban. And that's how you get from Shalm to Yushim. It's Shalm. The ALF and the H get combined into a V. And the double Y, the extra Y is shall. Okay. But be it as a that's not from the Rambam. The first Torah that the Rambam says is why the identity of the holy city was kept obscure in the phrase. But then he makes a second point which can have some very interesting political implications even today. Uh the Rambam points out that Eric Israel was largely acquired by military conquest. Right? The book of Yeshua discusses wars and Yeshua didn't finish the job. Many wars continued during the judges period and even in David Melstein there were wars. So you er Israel including the city of Jerusalem was acquired by milah and yet the harayat itself was not acquired by milah it was acquired by negotiated purchase. Uh there was a man, we're given his name, Arravna Hayevusi. Arravna the Jebisite. He was a Canaanite. Yvusi is one of the seven nations of Cananan. And he happened to own the Harabay. Haramaria. And uh he used it as a threshing floor. It was an area that he would thresh grain. And David Aamelik was instructed by God after a plague to purchase the temple mount from our Ravna Hayvi and De Malik collected money from every tribe. That's why I mentioned that although the Harabayats and Yushayam is situated physically between Yehuda and Binyamin but in fact it is national property. It was purchased from every tribe. So the Rambam says if all of Eric Israel was conquered by military conquest, why was it necessary for the temple mount to be purchased? And the Ram says a fascinating thing. He says, "We know that David Hamel himself wanted to build the BA mikdash." And told David, you are not allowed to build the B mikdash because the B mikdash is a place of shalom, a place of peace and you are a man of war. You're a man of bloodshed. Even though all of David's wars were uh they were not bloodthirsty violence, these were divine commandments. David did nothing wrong. David did everything right in all of those wars. Nonetheless, the beta mikdash must be connected to shalom. It cannot be a product of mil and kata. Therefore, although David bought the temple mount, he bought it. And although David Aamelik assembled all the raw materials for the Basa Mikdash, the actual building of the Basa Mikdash could only be undertaken during the reign of Schlommo who already was a man of peace. So the Rambam says the following point, interesting point. The same way that David Amelah could not build a base of mikdash because he was an ishamim a man of blood. The temple mount itself cannot be acquired by military conquest. It because it must be acquired in a peaceful consensual cooperative way. It's it's just an extension the Rambam says of the fact that David couldn't build the base. Now the implications you know again I don't want to fully uh get into all of this. Obviously we regained the harabayat through mil kama right this was the great uh miracle or one of one of the many miracles but many say the greatest of the six day war. Nevertheless when people talk about sometimes why don't we build the base of mikdash now. So without getting into all of the implications, part of it is that we really can't build a basikash till the world reaches a state where it recognizes that this is a holy place of the God of Israel. And that's could be why the Rambam writes in that the BA mikdash must wait until the coming of Mashiach. Uh and part of that might be because part of the messianic vision as you see in the prophet Yeshay is that the whole world will come to recognize and there will no longer be war and there will no longer be hatred and only then are we ready to build a basa mikdash. You don't build a basa mikdash in a state of war a state of violence and and the like. So yes, we we conquered what we needed to conquer, but we're not yet ready to build a basa mikdash because the world itself has not reached that stage. And remember that the basikdash is designed to be a house of for the entire world. This goes all the way back to Schlommo's dedication of the first B mikdash in the book of Malik, a very long dedication in which he prayed to God that may every person in the world, even if they're not mit they're not of the covenant of Abraham, may they turn their hearts towards this place to pray to you for whatever it is that they need. And yes, of course, as the very famous in the name of Hashem, that my house will be a house of prayer for all of the nations of the world. But essentially, the Rambam is arguing that until we get to that point, we're not yet ready for the Bas Mikta. So, it's not just the Jewish people need to be transformed. In a sense, the world itself needs to be elevated and transformed. And that's why everything connected to the mikdash must be connected to shalom and and and the like. So again, uh we have uh we do have the harabayas. Everyone, you know, the older people at least remember the announcement of Matagore Haray Bodenu. Uh very very exciting. And uh someone was just telling me that they remember that first shuas just right just a few weeks not a few weeks just over a week a week after you know and then shu is sib uh uh the first time that people went to the krai for at least 19 years and the excitement was so palpable an amazing level of excitement and now you know going to the koto maybe it's not routine I hope it's not routine But it's a relatively common type of thing. Certainly one does not have the same feelings that one might have had in 1967 going for the first time. Uh but it reminds me of a famous ine uh that's the mismo that we say from till the end of sukus. So the famous PK says that says there is one thing I ask of God. I want to dwell in the house of Hashem all the days of my life. To see the pleasantness or the sweetness of Hashem, right? Sweetness and to visit his sanctuary. So the well wait a second here. Does he want to be a permanent citizen or a visitor? He says I want to dwell in the house of God all the days of my life. And then he asks I want to pay a visit. Well, which is it? You want to be a visitor or you want to be in the house of Hashem all the days of their life. So the thought is uh they look at they give a mush of a boy that puts on fillin for the first time after his bar mitzvah. And you know a kid looks forward to putting on fillin. That's kind of uh you know he he's with the big boys now. uh maybe from the time he's 11 he's dreaming of fillin and when he starts putting on his fillin and initially of course the straps collapse on themselves I don't know that seems to be an occupational hazard of when you begin to put on fillin but it's so exciting it's so gishmach it's so wonderful so much enthusiasm but then the days become weeks and the weeks become months and the months become years and the years become decades and be as hashem one should continue to put on fill And that may have from Sha, but it certainly does not have the same excitement as the first time. So David prays, I want to be in the house of Hashem all the time, but I wanted to have the same excitement as my first time visit. I want to be a firsttime visitor in all of the avo. I remember the very first time uh I came Derek Israel as a as a tourist. Uh 1979 I had finished law school and my parents al did not really have money for it. They gave me a trip uh to Aratisel uh to and I remember how exciting exciting everything was you know even missing the buses was great and in those days 79 pre-inifada uh things were relatively peaceful um you know Kib war had already subsided and we used to go on Arab buses maybe some of you might remember that there was kind of a little bit of a kabaya they had goats and chickens on the buses which was kind of fun uh going on the Arab buses and getting lost was great. You know, everything was so so wonderful. After a while, you get habituated. You also get older, have something to do with it. And you know, not so much fun to walk around in the sun and whatever whatever it would be. Uh but what happens is that the enthusiasm sometimes wears off. But we have to be mocker always that Mosher Rabenu the greatest person who ever lived the greatest Na'vi did not have the to come to Erit Israel even though he yearned and even though he begged Hashem for a chance and we have the zakus to be in Erit Israel to be in Jerusalem we don't have a mikdash yet but at least we're in proximity to the mock of the mikash and we just take it we just take it for granted we just take it for granted which reminds me a little bit um uh there was a famous in the 19th century there was actually a very well-known German rav and one of the way of mayor layman Marcus layman who taught uh assimilated youth through historical novels he wrote different types of novels which were based on midim and based on right so actually was a very effective outreach tool uh to bring people uh to so he one of his novels is um about Rabaka. So uh there's a scene in the novel there uh it mentions Raika's wife who was single at the time. She was a young girl Rael and uh she was with her friends and they were thinking about how to spend the afternoon. So Rael suggested again this is this is kind of fiction but it's a reconstruction. Why don't we why don't we go to the Basa Mikdash and watch the Corbanos. So her girl her girlfriend say you know they always do the same thing every day there. Let's go to the let's go shopping and you know again I don't know if such a conversation ever took place but it just shows you that you could you know look at every you know you could just not be excited about no matter what it is you get habituated and it doesn't make the same rum and this is what David is praying I want to be here always but I want to feel like it's my first time first-time visitor. So that's a a very very important yod uh to keep keep in mind. Okay, that's my uh little uh talk on yallay. Uh now I want to just I'm not sure maybe we'll even finish up uh hashmad today. Um the basic point when all of the dust settles the Rambam now has to deal with the final question that took him quite a while to reach. Right? We went through the laws of martyrdom and one of the things that you do have to give your life for is a vodora, right? We talked about that. So the question finally becomes so do we have to give up our life before we profess belief in Islam or not? So here the Rambam makes the point you don't have to give up your life and therefore if you didn't give up your life you committed no sin. You are permitted to say I believe in Islam and Muhammad is as God's prophet and you do not have to give up your life. Now why is that so? Because the Rambam just said for you have to give up your life. Now I've said already a few times just to remind you the one thing that we might have said if we were asked the question is specifically not the way the Rambam goes. One might have addressed the question by saying, well, yeah, you have to give up your life before you profess idolatry. But Islam is a monotheistic religion. Islam does not worship images or idols. It does not impart physicality to the divinity and it does not believe in a trinitarian concept. Remember there are two reasons why the Rambam says Christianity which basically was Catholicism. This is pre-reformation. There are two reasons that make Christianity an idolatous belief according to the Rambam. One is the duality or the multiplicity based on the trinity more than one God. The other is the physicality. The notion that God had a physical form. Those are the two reasons why according to the Rambam Rabenam was Tom actually said it was not idolatry but according to the Rambam it was idolatry for those two reasons. Now based on that argument Islam is not idolatry because neither of those reasons apply. uh the idea of God is a monotheistic entity with no multiplicity and number two it is totally uh spiritual there is no physicality there's no corporality of the divine in fact Islam was very is was still is very very strict on uh even paintings and making images of anything actually stricter than than Jewish ha is on this So what's interesting is it's it's interesting to ponder what you might call the road not taken. In other words, in spite of the fact that the Rambam in the Mishna Torah asserts as a general proposition that Islam is monotheistic and it is not idolatrous. That is not the route that he chose in Hashmad to justify those affirmations. In other words, he could have said that, right? That that that would have worked too. And yet, I need to emphasize and again, this is not the first time I'm saying this that the Rambam specifically does not predicate his on that. And instead, I'll try to address later why he didn't do that, but he does not do that. Instead, he offers two other rationes why a Jew is permitted to make those affirmations and does not have to give up his life. Rationale and both of these rationes are are very problematical. Rationale number one is a profession of belief is not the same as an action. I must give up my life before I worship a bodhisara. Now worship could mean pray to an idol. It could mean sacrifice to an idol. It could even mean declaring to the idol, you are my God. Those are acts. Even speech can be an act of But if all I say is to somebody, I believe this, but I don't act upon it. The Rambam makes actually a fairly startling assertion that a profession of belief is not the same as an idolatrous action. So for example, according to the Rambam, if a person, let's say the Nazis are are looking for somebody for a Jew and you say, can I say I am a Christian? I am a believer in Jesus. According to the Rambam, you can do that. Meaning, you'd have to give up your life before you enter a church and take mass because that's an act of worship. But if you simply say what you are or what you you know what you want to profess to be the Rambamish is a profession of faith is not in itself an act of idolatrous worship. Now I want to point out uh this is one of the places where Rabbi Dr. Professor Salvet, I've mentioned him a number of times. Uh he's wrote extensively. He's wrote on many many things actually. His stuff is amazing. I I actually just love reading it. uh but one of the things he wrote a few articles on is he wrote on this myimead and he claims that it is a non-halafic work and a lot of what the Rambam is doing is to simply allow a bleaguered community to feel good about itself in order not to be demoralized and he makes the point that this statement of the Rambam that profession of faith is not the same as idolatrous action is number one he feels the Rambam himself didn't agree to it and never and let me just point out that obviously it is obvious that the balattosos during the crusades in France and Germany did not believe in it as well because they routinely ruled that a person must give up his life before he declares that he's a Christian so uh when I when the Rambam makes this point we're not saying it so to speak uh but this is the Rambam's first nuda big profession of faith is not idolatous action. That's reason number one. And then he gives reason number two which is equally fascinating. Reason number two is they know you don't really mean it. Meaning uh the guys that are going around and they put a knife to your throat and they say say these words or we'll kill you. and you say these words and then they send you home, they know it's not sincere. So the idea is the Rabam says even odor if the oppressor knows that you don't really believe in what you're doing and you're only doing it not to get killed. That's not called a bodhisora because by definition there is no belief behind the action. Now this thought Huh? Yeah. Well, that's right. This thought is very problematical because here's the thing. If you're going to tell me, I mean, you go in circles. If you're going to tell me if the oppressor knows I don't mean it and I'm only doing it not to get killed, that's not avodor for which I have to give my life. Then why would I ever have to give my life for a zora? Meaning somebody goes over to me and says, "Bow down to this idol or I'll kill you." He knows I'm only doing it cuz I don't want to get killed. So why do I have to get killed? In other words, the whole that I must give up my life before I worship an idol doesn't make sense if you're going to tell me if they know I'm only doing it to save my life. It's not idolatry in the first place. and and you know the example of Khan and the seven sons would be an example of that as well. So again uh Dr. Salvichek uh uses this as kind of evidence that the Ramdam didn't really believe this either. Uh but again he's trying to give comfort to a community that failed in some some degree. But these are the two surprising rationes that the Rambam does offer. And the surprising rationale that the Rambam does not offer is that Islam is not about which means the Rambam's two rationes apply equally to Christianity as opposed to anything unique about about Islam. And again as I say uh obviously the experience of the Ashkanazic communities during the Crusades was absolutely not in accordance with the Rambam's opinion and that is why Jewish communities were wiped out uh during the Crusades because of their refusal to accept uh Christianity. Now the issue the issue of the Holocaust though is is still a little different and this is pretty subtle. Uh the issue is could a Jew save his life by saying he's a a Christian or by getting documents that say he's a Christian. Now according to the Rambam the answer is for sure yes that's without emlope but I want to point out that many postkim say even according toos it would be permitted for the following reason toos says it is forbidden for a Jew who is known to be Jewish to say I repudiate my Judaism by being a Christian because that's a renunciation But that's not what went on in Nazi Germany. In Nazi Germany, it wouldn't help you to say, "I'm a Jew that converted to a Christian. They would kill you anyway." So what you were doing is you were not renouncing your Judaism. You were engaged in an impersonation of being somebody else. So that's that's a subtle distinction. There is a distinction between identifying myself as a Jew who is repudiating Judaism and embracing Christianity versus passing myself off as somebody who was not Jewish to begin with. So many say that even like tophos that says a Jew must give up his life before he says I embrace Christianity. uh many would say impersonation would still be permitted and indeed it was common. It was common. There were even very great rabbis who were smuggled out of Europe with either papers that they were Christian or even uh they were dressed as a priest or whatever whatever it is they uh got smuggled out. So uh this is a subtle distinction between what you might call repudiation versus impersonation. Impersonation is a different thing. But like the Rambam, there's no question whatsoever. Like the Rambam, even if they know I'm Jewish, I could say I believe in Christianity because the Rambam has a profession of faith is not an act of a question. Yeah. This ties in also to the second rale you mentioned. It's not just a question of whether the oppressor knows that you're not really that others around you talks about this fact that if you do an act of a others around you will see that and will then think you are in the case of whereess he doesn't know but people there well yeah yeah but but but don't but don't you have the kind of the same problem because if if you know everybody sees the guy holding a knife to my throat, then the they're also going to know that I'm only doing it out of fear for my life. Now, I I do want to point out that the Rambam then has a backup rationale. Correct. Yeah. The whole issue whether or not Yeah. Yeah. For sure. For sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, that's that's very true. And again as I say um I mean I hate to say it. It's not for me to say that the Rambab is giving conclusions that he himself knows are wrong but this is uh Dr. Salvetk's rationale. Yeah. And I have to say that you know there is a lot of logic in his position because the Rambam then has another thing that's important and you see these you know it's like they say uh the person who was up for a murder charge has two defenses. uh one is uh I have an alibi that I wasn't there and the other is I killed him in self-defense. Uh you know so the rabb kind of does it this way. He says number one they didn't have to give up their lives for these two reasons but number two even if they should have given up their lives they're still Jews in good standing after the fact. Remember that was the point the Rambam made that even if you worship the des you're still a good Jew. And the truth of the matter is I think the Rambam's main argument is that because remember what he was fighting against. He was fighting against the contention of this rabbi that says once you have professed another faith you are not Jewish. Your mitzvot are worthless. God does not want you to do anything. Your dvening is rejected. your shabas is worthless and the like that remember the Rambam has said he had to fight. So as a result he may he made that point that even if we say they should have given up their lives they are still Jews in good standing after the fact that indeed is both the and I think that in the Rambam's heart of hearts although it's very dangerous for me to talk in those terms that was the ultimate rationale that the Rambam was going with but he wanted to offer them some comfort that you know maybe you didn't even have to give your life now and you see that the Rambam is equivocating here because the Rambam says of course if you're willing to give your life up for this that is a great kushem. Now wait a second here remember in the Mishna Torah the Rambam totally rejected the notion of voluntary martyrdom. In other words, you either have to give up your life or you're not allowed to give up your life. All of a sudden, the Ramban brings in this idea, you know, if you were willing to give up your life, that's a pretty good thing. What's going on here? So, the Rabbam is kind of hinting, yeah, you really should have given up your life. I'm not going to say you have to, but you should have. But okay, you're still a Jew in good standing. Because you see, because if the Rambam honestly held that there was no duty to give up your life, he wouldn't have said you're allowed to give up your life because the Rambam's overall thesis is there's no such thing as voluntary martyrdom. So this is very very fascinating uh because you see that the Rambam is equivocating. Now again the one point he's not equivocating on is that they remain Jewish and whatever mitzvot they do are valuable. That is the firm conclusion that is uncontested. But in terms of the should you have given up your life, you see the Rambam is kind of fudging this and is equivocating on it. He doesn't want to say they had to give up their lives but he think but you know you could have done so and it's kishem etc. Now the final point that Ramba makes is also very interesting. He says do whatever mitzvah you can do for sure. Every mitzvah you do is good is wonderful. One should never have the attitude that because I can't keep everything um I shouldn't keep anything. Very important. But the Rambam says you have a religious duty to get out of there to move to relocate to go to a place where you can keep the Torah without fear. And even if this means you will be povertystricken, and even if it means if you will have to give up all of your possessions and all of your property, being able to serve God is worth more than any of your money, move. Leave. And then the Rambam says anybody who stays because they don't want to give up their they may become actually a meas. Now we know by autobiographically this was the Rambam's own experience right the Rambam did indeed with his family move to different places within the Islamic world in order to escape persecution. This is actually his advice for for everybody. So you see what's going on here. He's trying to do a lot of things. He's trying to comfort the people that are stuck there. He's trying to give them. He's trying to encourage them to do whatever mitzvos they they can. But he's also intimating it would have been better if you would have given your life. And he's telling them get out of there. So he's trying to do two things at once. He's telling him get out, but he's also saying but no, but if you're not able to get out or you feel you can't get out, nevertheless, you're still a Jew in God's eyes and your mitzvah count. So it actually is a very masterful work uh which is trying to accomplish a number of objectives and uh again Dr. Salvich says that absolute hakic accuracy was not necessarily the Rambam's first objective here uh because he's trying to rebuild a devastated community that has been demoralized by the message that they've gotten and he needs to build them up. And this might even be an example of what described using the inimator. Sometimes to stand up for God, you might have to temporarily deviate a little bit from from the in order to give people encouragement and by and large uh the letter did accomplish this objective. The communities were built up. Uh they did become Torah observants. uh some of them did profess this belief but then they were left alone. The Rama made the point that you know you you said your 5-second thing and then they let you go home and keep shabas and keep kosher and keep filling. So uh in a sense the letter was successful although it's straddling some inconsistent ideas. Yeah. Did anyone use these arguments instead uh in in in the in the time of the exposure? Yes. Yes. Obviously. Yeah. That's much later. That's in the 15th century. Uh yeah. Yeah. Uh they were used in Spain and that would justify the moranos as they were called. Although now they're called conversos oranusim. I understand moranos means pig I think. So they actually don't like uh that term. Uh but yes in fact keep in mind that the response of Jews in the Spanish countries which was conflicted with Christianity was different than the response in France and Germany. France and Germany, martyrdom, martyrdom was the norm. Uh in Islamic countries and even in Christian Spain later there you had much more affirming you know external affirming and that was largely based on the precedent of keshmar. Okay. Uh we'll stop here. So I think I think we we actually finished our coverage of this letter. Our next letter will be a letter that the Rambam wrote a few years later. Uh again dealing with Islamic persecutions but from a different direction. The problem of the false mashiach interestingly enough not but somebody much earlier. And this is called eeretan uh where the Rambam discusses how do you know if somebody is a true Mashiach or a false Mashiach. So this is eeran which is also has another name the opening of of hope. Okay. Have a wonderful wonderful y. May all of us be to be