Sins of The Fathers | Rabbi Ari Kahn | May 7 2026

So going backwards now, the Kotai raises some problems, it it also I mean if you read through it, maybe there's some challenges because the language isn't that simple. But what I will say and I want to be really careful about this that in in a certain sense it's poetry. It's divine poetry. The terminology and the phrasiology is hauntingly beautiful. Now you say, how can I call it beautiful? Because it talks about horrific things. But nonethes horrific things in a very poetic way. And there are certain elements that you can't you just can't miss. Again, anybody reading it even with minimal understanding of Hebrew is going to be able to identify a number of the elements over here. I mean again just for the simplest level the number seven keeps coming over you're going to be punished seven times over. So when you see the number seven coming again and again and again and once again going back to Bahar and Bahar spoke about schmita about seven. It talked about Yovil 7* 7. So therefore you have seven and seven* 7 and that then now is repeated and finally it says it really clearly and then once you're once you are chased off of the land you know let's go to in source number one we're going to skip down a bit from and then the land is going to keep its Sabbath as long as the destruction lasts and you're off in exile. And then the land will finally be able to rest which means God is giving us a mandate before we enter the land and it is that the land rests every seven years and there is this larger system vio 7* 7 and then is also interesting because you almost hear the wordy ritso is a term which is used by right Again, I don't know if you if you notice this. There are times that we need to pray for our prayer. At the very end of the we say we did said all the things then we'd say God may our prayer be acceptable to you. That is a prayer for a prayer is one of the if you want. I mean, I'll leave that for Sam to tell Rabbi Sam to tell you about all the Reb. But one of the Reb wrote a for people who can't pray. Somebody has a hard time praying. So, here's a feel. If you have a hard time praying, there's a feel you should say to be able to pray. As I said, I could uh I could direct you towards this if I had to. But we do it at the end of the prayers. We also do it at the end of the What is that? There should be a ritso that the prayer that we're saying that God should accept what we've done. God should accept our avoda. So this is fascinating because there are rules of engagement. One of the rules of engagement. Okay, let let me say it in a broader sense. Jews have to keep Shabbat. It's actually almost I'm being careful. Almost the introduction to our para. There is one of these interesting arguments that take place every now and again that our parote begins in per kgiml. So anytime anybody sees that what they should be doing is at least be curious why did somebody think that there were two sukim which were part of the new conversation which are actually as far as kazal are concerned are not part of the conversation. So I I did not satisfy that for you. You're gonna have to go back and look what olive is. But is now that's actually a wonderful end of which speaks about Shabbat and it speaks also about mikdash. And by the way, if this verse sounds familiar, the exact verse is repeated more than once. But it also allows us to do something else. Last week in Mr. we had a whole list of the various holidays. One of the curious things about all of the holidays there is the amount of times that the word Shabbat or Shabbaton was used. The whole argument that takes place with the busim is whether is on x day or it has to be shabbat what's shabbat but the word shabbat is used many times in that section. What shabbat means contextually there it means a day of rest. It doesn't mean the s it doesn't mean Saturday. I mean we've done this in the past to uh to illustrate this point when you have the first day of tish being called the shabatone and the 10th day of tish being called the shabbat shabaton and the 15th day of shift of of tish being called the shabaton you can't have have all of those on Saturday it just doesn't work right one and 15 not one 10 and 15 that that just doesn't work and it's at that point you realize going backwards that Shabbat did not mean Saturday night it meant after that cess sensation of work and now you realize there's a whole bunch of different types of shabat and now you read this verse at chhattoishu but it was just now extended how was it extended because that's still parhat bahar in parat bahar we learned about a whole another type of holiday sorry a whole another type of day of rest and what's that it's not just a day of rest it's a year of rest and it's a year of rest yes the farmer gets to rest yes the farmer gets to take the year off and does not have to quote unquote have to work but something else apparently needs that rest and that is something else which is dynamic and has a personality and has if I'll say has feelings you'll look at me like I'm crazy but is a life force and that is the land of Israel itself which means that the land of Israel needs that rest and over here as you read into the toa and and and again I'll say it again I don't know how you miss the significance of the number seven which is used time and time again over here and that then becomes this motif within the again if if I'm I'm just being random. If you look at you just have to look around and you'll find that number seven again and again in this section and that's not random and I'm going to say it again. There is something poetic over here and this description that there's going to be destruction and finally the land will get to rest which means God has determined that that is one of the rules of engagement that is how this land works and that therefore again Bahar and Bkote come together. So I I want to just do this a little bit broader and tell you again what the challenges are. The challenge is is that it is poetry. Anytime you get poetry, things become a little bit more difficult. There are words that we need to understand what the significance of those words are. There's another word which is used again and again which again we've spoken about in the past and that word is carry comes again and again and again in the section. It's mentioned some seven times over here. So you realize that that is also a a major issue. But this idea of the rest but when I read this for example and so I could have said no that's you know that's the end of the previous section but that's somewhat disingenuous to say that because I don't have to go listen carefully I don't have to go far as to say that this needs to be the beginning of because there is a connection between the two the connection between the two isu yes it ends bahar it's the perfect link to parhat because this is a section but what about it So then you read these other again horrific things over here about the destruction of the holy places. Let's let's take a look to make sure that uh we can see those verses as well. Just one second. Look at Your holy sorry your cities will become destroyed is a much stronger term. It's desolate. It's miktoim and your your your temples will be destroyed. It's more than destroyed. Desolate. that those last couple of words I'll tell you in a moment what the nitiv says about them. So one of the things that comes up again and again when offerings are brought and what an end of a by the way what an end of a what is vayikra about? So you would have been tempted to say that Vayikra was all about Torat Kohanim. It was about the Mishkan. It was about corbanote. It was about serving God. And we have this whole list of which corban when we bring both as a community, as individuals, the holidays, you know, we eventually get to as well. We have all of these offerings. And look at this verse. You don't follow the rules of engagement. So what happens? What happens is your cities will be destroyed. You know, I'm I'm skipping some elements here. You're going to be sent into exile along the way. Your your holy places are going to become desolate. And what was that last turn of phrase there? So there's when when offerings are brought it says it becomes this pleasant smell which is of course a wonderful anthropomorphism that God does not need that wonderful smell but what it's saying is that God is accepting our offering and this is saying that that that's lost that door is closed that the nits actually says He he plays with this idea by the way very very popular idea at the time the niv lived I mean if you realize right he died approximately I think 1893 and it's already by the beginning of the shivation which itself is uh a little bit unfair because I don't know when you start really to count the shivation the the secular uh understanding of it is only when secular people came you know all the tamidhag who came long before that. So they took out the first aliyah. Well, the first aliyah after the first and the second and the third and the fourth aliot which were taking place beforehand. But there began to be a discourse among the question about building a misbeher speaks about it. Riker speaks about it. Sofur speaks about it. I don't know if you know that Sofur was Ravi's son-in-law. Did you know that they were actually the same age? And uh the Kasam Sofur had been married to a woman named Sarah I believe for 25 years and did not have any children and she passed away. And both him and Rka Ager were candidates to become a rabbi in a certain place and uh Sofa was chosen and Riva Ager and him were in good terms anyway. And he writes them a letter. Okay fine you won. And he goes but you know my my my daughter who was like 22 years old 23 years old she goes her husband passed away. Do you know anybody who would be good at chidik? So he goes oh we have to find a shik. He gave his daughter. So he says to his shamish, "You got to find a shak." And he goes, "You know, you're single. You know, your wife passed away." And he like he never thought of it. So he ended up marrying Vika. And all the children that he had ended up only coming from Vakiva Aar's daughter. And her name was also Sara. It made it very easy. It was much easier. Both wives have the have this have the same name. They they tell over her a horrific story. I don't know if people who tell it over realize it's horrific. They tell over a horrific story that she passed away also at some point. And uh they never told her at one point he came to visit and by that time the Kamsofa had his third wife and uh and uh they never mentioned to it and this I I think the purpose of the story is to say how modest she was and how uh she came and served whatever and River never noticed it wasn't his daughter. Now I personally have a very hard time with that uh with that story but when you want to tell stories about the greatness of Sneas there you go that's that's a that could be a great story. It's good thing he didn't go over and give her a hug and a kiss. That's all that I'll say because that was uh in fact not his uh we'll see if the U edits this out, right? You know, we p we we push and we test them every single week. So anyway, getting getting back to uh getting back to our point, all of these people discussed this idea of building a misbehing comment on our para like right over here on this puk. Let's see if we can find this for you because it makes it more authentic if you get to see it inside. The nits starts on source number 11. We want him on at the very end he writes that right what he says is is that even if they had him as right and even if there was an ability politically and whatever again I'm not going to even consider right now for the moment I know Stu is more radical than I am he's ready to go up to the temple mount right now and bring Corbanos. What? >> Have you been there for a while? >> Have you been there for a while? But you're ready. You're ready. I'm saying emotionally you're ready. And And by the way, I'm not convinced. I'm not convinced in terms of one is allowed to go up, but I think it's a mitzvah. I know that. That's very confusing. I know it's very confusing what I'm saying. I But but I'll say it. I'll give them more things to cut out the there's according to the Rambam the Mak Mikdash still has the holiness by the way there are comments on this week's para and commentaries that once it's destroyed theina leaves the question is is that is that by the way if it leaves all of it then I and kind of ask a question. So what are we doing here? What are we doing here? But it's still errites. The only point is is that the kaduca could be manifest more. Full pause. The Rambam follows the opinion that the makda still has its holiness. Flip side of that is not anybody and everybody can go to every place there. The thing people don't want you to know is that Herod elongated the temple mount and built places that don't have that same kaduca that the original beta mikdash had. When you read a rabbitic source describing the harabay, you need to ask, is this by a rishon? Is it by a cheni? Is it by a cheney that was built by Ezra? Is it by a cheney that was reconstructed by the Mcabes? Is it by a Cheney that was reconstructed by Herod? Did you ever realize that there's three different Bayenies? Right? Just realize is so now any random discussion about it, which one are they referring to? Now I go back to the point about the kaduca. So if somebody goes up today to the place that Herod was, they're in really pretty firm ground that they're allowed to be there. The only problem is so why do they want to be there? Because that does not necessarily have that same. So that that's like the flip side of the problem. According to the rivid, by the way, this is also you're not allowed to say out loud. According to the rivid, the kaduca dissipated. Therefore, one can go to any place up on the temple mount. Everyone who will say to you but not according to the rivid some by the way want to read the rib differently because the rivet writes there's no of you want me to say in there's no of cries the right there so there's some will say ah he didn't say it's mut he just said there's no of I don't think that's really what what he means but if you want to argue that that you can but the rivet is really saying that there's no kaduca there but so if there's no kaduca so then why why are you going but I'll tell you why you go I'll tell you very simply why you you you you go out of the mitzvah of kusha of capturing the land of Israel. There is a mitzvah to capture the land of Israel. So you you could take this question in a uh in a micro level and you could say is a soldier doing guard duty allowed to go up to the temple mount? Many serious rabbis have been posed such questions and have had to deal with the question and then the answer being well maybe they should go to mikvah again there's there's this whole thing Mosha by the way did believe that people can go up to the temple mount again to certain areas they can't go with the kadesh was they can go up but they have to go to mikvah that's all they don't need a paraduma they don't they need to go to mikvah to go to the areas that you're allowed to go up on the temple mount so again I I'm very comfortable saying okay revosa revosa was ravosha a lot of the people say you can't go up it's because of political reasons and the political include also religious reasons that if we allow people to go up and people who didn't go to mikvah will go up so I I have one simple question would those same people would they have told that son kim in a certain day in June in 1967 check one by one did you go to mikvah today did you go to mikah today oh no you can't fight you know you go you you go back go back to the line over there and go and go to the mikvah or you say no this is the middle middle of a of a war and you need to go and and capture the Temple Mount. So, I have news for you. Should I say that again? And if we all abandon I'm I'm sorry if I'm getting political. If we I'm not really sorry. If we all abandon the Temple Mount, so then it's not the Yodenu. And essentially what I'm giving you is is a political argument why I believe that it's very good for Jews to go because that shows that it is actually ours. It's a place that we care about. You know the kids I am sorry if I called the kids and my kids. The kids that went into Aza, they said every single house that they went into had a picture of Alexa there on the wall. >> Every every single one. He goes for them. and and and they rile them up about that. I mean to to be an Arab leader is not so difficult. All you need is to rile people up about elaxa and put pictures and say they're storming elaxa and we if we stormed Alexa as much as they say we do but but by the way this also spills over to settler violence where my wife happens to be an expert in this and the list in the UN in their official list of settler violence it includes if a non-Jewish non-Muslim tourist goes up to the Temple Mount, they count that as settler violence. Why? Because they're storming Alaka. That that that that's what it comes down to. So, you know, we we may not like it, but we're involved in a in a war for holy places. And it goes back to this question, are these holy places? Do they still have the holiness? Then it's civ's point over here is even if politically we could again right after and there was a possibility we know exactly the place of the msbayak and even if you want say say the msbayak is act is accessible and it's there and it's standing you know what he says you can't bring it you know why because of this p because the puk says that god does not accept the offerings right now the the the it's heavy he goes that's the pri that's the price over here now you can call it the is I I don't care about that description the is here it's not he no I he says that's what the verse means I will not accept this as a so now go ahead and ask yourself so bring it don't bring it he says don't bring it and I find that as a really interesting comment in within this whole discussion again ravet linger some of us when we learned in yeshiva knew his commentary on the gmorrah it's called so he also has shotuvot which he called binansion and he has a number of questions there that going back with sir kalisher regarding bringing carbon down on the harabay can you do it if we go back we're going back to Israel and people got very excited about this we're going back and the thing about going back also is that theina also comes back I mean that that that's also a part of it which means if I if I if I caused anybody any pause and gave anybody any kind of permission to say hold why am I here today you're here today because every single four amount that you walk has a hal like bringing a carb on has like bringing a carbon itself is considered to be something which is holy and every time that we're here and we walk and we do mitzvot especially mitzvah what we do is we bring the back to erit Israel I'm saying that that that's a part of it if you just need you know the garra rashi and so on the garra says is that when the Jews come back the land is going to respond and rashi says the land giving its fruits are the greatest proof that the Shina has returned and therefore every time you open up devoutly a bottle of Israeli wine, you can then uh you know feel the in the glass as well. It's not just it's not just wine. It's actually something which is much much uh stronger than that. So let us let us continue. So when I go back to that it's you realize that that is very much now you decide was that an introduction to was it an end of Bahar was it a bridge between the two because that's what's at stake over here it's keep the Sabbaths plural keep the holidays keep right keep yov these are the rules of engagement guard the mikdash How do you guard the mikdash? What's the best way of guarding the mikdash? Oh, keeping the Sabbaths, following the rules, following the laws. Because otherwise what follows is again this horrific this horrific toa which comes in over here which then goes to these exact themes talking about the talking about the in the holy places talking about us losing the land. So again, you play back this this give and take of the sense of brotherhood, the builtin sense, you know, I called it before social justice, that's almost a meaningless term to me. You It's interesting that for the Rambam, the laws of stuck and he doesn't call them the laws of stuck. What does he call them? Matanim, and where does it come up? It's in the middle of which means the laws of the land the mitzvah are built in institutional taking care of the have nots. Do you want me to tell you something which could save you money which is completely radical if I gave anybody reason not to be here? Do you know who he was >> Waldenberg who was a great he sat on the Bin Hagad one of his co- danim on that bait was Yoseph I I can absolutely assure you now anybody who wants to write any serious Torah article today all they need to do is find a topic that Rabbi Waldenberg wrote about even better find one that Rabbi Vad Ysef and Rabbi Waldenberg wrote about that each of them tends to go off for 20 pages of sources. Make believe that you found all those sources by yourselves. Quote them just at the end of it by oh yeah by the way the titilzar talks about this and nobody talks about it and you'll essentially have an article of 50 60 pages just explaining what they had on any given topic. You can just choose the two of them and they really are that good and and they are on a very similar type of level that sits writes you know there's a thing called right so isim don't answer is it a Torah law rabbitic law or a custom just don't answer or the best answer you anybody who comes to my gad and Shabbat knows that the right answer almost always is The the right answer it's okay good it's it seems to be that the dominant opinion regarding is that it's the Torah law of getting giving maser is agricultural right you grow those grapes right you grow right we're back to the making the wine you grow those grapes and take ma that that is a Torah law of maser the taking of of charity which is so ingrained it's so institutional it's so much a part of who we are as a people. So, no rabbi is ever going to get up and tell you what I'm saying right now. Oh, yeah. That's a nice custom. I mean, sometimes people will ask me questions and say, "You know what? Can I use the money for this and this and this?" I said, "Well, when you started doing it, did you know it was a Torah law, a rabbitic law, or a minhug?" And they said, "Like they don't know." So, they say, "Okay, it's a minhug." And when you started doing it the way that you did it, did you say binander? Because you do a min you, well, I didn't know it was a min. Okay. So, now you have the latitude. And you can do it like this and this and just say bined as you proceed onward. And again there are times that people need the latitude for whatever reasons. That sits I told you I have to come back to him. He said that one counts Israeli taxes as maserim. He goes you know why? because they're used for social causes and social justice. And therefore, if you live in Israel and you're paying 10% of, right? 10%. >> 35. What are we up to? >> 62%. >> 60. You're up to 62%. >> You >> No, I want to know what you're making. No, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. So everyone gives saddak except for the people that don't work that don't pay anything >> right. >> So they have to they have to do mas you got you got it you understood. So he's he claims that people who are paying masaka that that counts towards uh towards maser now whether he would tell you rely on this and and so on because still you know we're people that this is who we are. we we give stuck but he's saying yeah that how does that not count because again you go back to this fundamental concept and I want to say it again that's part of parahar it was keepmita but also the guy okay keep yo and then the guy who sold his place and he he can buy it back help him buy it back that have not don't let him become destitute make he's your brother and and the brother again is not literal he's your brother and that that and that is this this sense and I'll say it again Now that the Rambam understood that the laws of stucka I don't know if you know this Rabbi Salvich had spoken about this he did not like the translation of stucka to charity why because he knew Latin and he knew what the word charitus means in Latin and essentially it's much more of uh somebody being benevolent and giving to somebody who's undeserving and he felt that stuck has the word sedic within And there is justice involved in this. And we in a sense are partners with God. And God essentially wants to help this person who's poor and and appoints you as this uh as this partner as it were. There's this great garamaran bababatra that says that one of the Roman dignitaries challenged her and said you should know that you again Jews are generous and says because you give taka you're going to be destined uh you know for hell or whatever the hellfires whatever have channel in our Sunday morning. So he goes what are you talking about? He goes well if God dictated that this person should be poor and again very much the Roman perspective is one that if you were born in a certain strata you will never be able in your life to rise to a different level. So therefore, God has decreed that this person is to be poor and you're going against God's decree. And he goes, you know, that God said that this person should be thrown into a prison and under difficult conditions and you sneak into the prison and you start helping this person who's been arrested and uh and decreed to be suffering. How dare you go and against the will of God. And Ribbaka responds and now you'll see how it goes right back into para bahar. Rika responds. He goes, "Because we get stuck, God is going to reward us." He goes, "There is a king who got mad at his son and he put his son, you know, in in a prison and then his other son, the brother felt his brother's pain and goes and wouldn't the father be happy that brothers are taking care of one another." So essentially the Roman perspective was the person who is poor is like a prisoner who's been rejected by the king while nonetheless Rabika sees the person who's suffering as having celim and those of us who are reaching out to help we realize that our brother is in pain and again that language of brother is so important over here so the Rambam then concluding all these chapters dealing with the mitzvah which have built into them again paya and so on again all these laws in mass all these laws that we take care of the have nots he sees this as as structurally being part of the rules of engagement of living in this land of living in the land of Israel and that's part of why this becomes so significant. So again, I just want to broaden this and stretch this a little bit more because I I've told you many times that there's a thing which is called a drussia. There's a thing you know I I I I could try to look beneath the surface understand depth and understand you know and reis and so but the sometimes the biggest challenge is trying to figure out and my definition is a very consistent definition of pat. It's a contextual understanding of the Torah and the only challenge that comes up sometimes is to try to figure out what is the context. Right? So if I were to say why does exile take place, how broad do you want to go? I I by the way could do what I've done so far and that was a Bahari. I stretched a little bit more. So I snuck into Mr. Yes. Mr. Bahari perspective. But you realize I can I I can go a little bit broader if you wanted. I can go back into I can go into a kadoshian >> you want. I'll go back to Batius. So give me a second. We'll go back there as well. So if I if I go back to aim and kadoshim then I realize that the land itself these are not my words these are the words of the Torah the land itself has sensitivity and when it lists the arayote the sexual sins it says the land will vomit out such be so you stop right there hold it a second a vikra on why exile happens happens because of sexual sins as And now you go back a second and you think about you know who the one who said this the first bet of anybody know who said it does anybody forget that anybody know who said that whoever says something brings who said that so now you realize why we're in the situation we're in right but nobody remembers who said that should I help you with Omar good. So to continue along those line there's certain things you need to know if you ever have yeshiva baku sitting at the table certain questions you need to ask. So who was it who said that the first bet of and the answer is someone by the name of sorry someone the name of he was the one who said it so now you can ask a simple question hold it where do you see that how do you get that so I'm not going to work hard now all that I'm going to do is vikra shut I just stretched the canvas a little bit it said it right here so now I just have to ask myself another question and the other question will be Do we ever get a sense that if somebody is guilty now we're going in your direction. If somebody is guilty of spilling blood that they need to go off into exile. >> So So how far how >> so then you have Cayenne kills he goes off into exile. Why? Because spilling blood requires exile. That I'm telling you I didn't have to work that hard. You know all know who else went to exile after he spilled blood? See if you get this one. >> Moshe. >> Moshe. Who said that? >> Moshe. Good. You get a gold star. You have to go buy it yourself, but you can put it up on you can put it up on the fridge. >> Neither of them were here. >> Neither came nor. >> Right. And now that teaches us if you want. It's a kabak that Yeah. That exile is required. But the land of Israel, which is sensitive and holy, even more so. Later on, if you want, we can find we could find it moving off into Bidbar. We can find the whole idea of Miklat. And we can whole like yeah the land of Israel sensitive which means somebody reading this will say hold it gay a vodora by the way you you should get much more of a sense over here as well in terms of a a vodor the only thing that you didn't expect perhaps would have been right there's one more thing you wouldn't expected and what's that and that was because if I would and that's and that's for a very simple reason we are more in tune to kazal than we are to the Torah itself is focused on it's focused on Shabbat. It's focused on again this holiness of the land. But there's one more element about all of this that I that I wanted to try to get to and it's really important because for some reason before I started I was asked the title which is terrible because I normally don't know the title till afterward. And as we move further, it says the following in right source number one is this verse I I guess you know a lot of people speak on this para they can just focus on this verse they don't need to do anything else there there's so many elements of this that you can notice the zakarti what's the what what is the importance of that why obviously why are the avote inverted avod mentioned many times why are they inverted over here and then Abraham why is Jacob spelled with a v so if you looked at the rash and so on which means there's so much over here why is there why is there is but it's notar why or what is so I'm just saying is that there's just so many moving parts over here that I just now pointed things out that you can again easily give an hour shear on on any of those elements over here. But let's focus on the positive part. The positive part of all that is that after all the list of all the terrible and all the things that are taking place, we find one more thing and that is that God says I'm going to remember the covenant. Could be you forgot the covenant. It could be and again it's in stages. It's in stages in terms of foreigners coming, the land not responding, finally us being kicked out, us going off into exile. And then God says, "But I'm going to remember the covenant," which means the if you want, we can call this. And and again, the inverse is what's troubling. If we read a couple of verses before this, I think it's the key perhaps to understand this and maybe give us a whole another understanding of what's taking place. We've already noticed the Kerry, which I did not talk about enough this year, but I've spoke about it enough a lot in the past. You want one minute about Kerry? According to Rashi, one minute about Kerry. According to Rashi, it means happen stance. And it's used as say seven times. If you treat God this way, God will treat you this way. Essentially, what it's saying is, let me let me put it like this. I don't know how many uh screenwriters I have over here who want to you want to get into movies. You already you already got the camera. So, and really think about developing plots or writers thinking, right? What do I know about writing? Right. I don't >> Does anybody here know how many books I've written or no? >> 12. >> Please. Do you count the books in French? >> Okay. Apparent apparently I have 22 books. But as I said, what do I what what do I know about uh about writing uh successful plots and so on and so forth. I don't have to write plots. But if if somebody's going to describe again, you want to write a love story, but love stories are boring. You'd rather write about about things which are more human like cheating, right? Which is so much better. So how exactly excuse me so h how exactly did things fall apart? So what the to says is the problem is taking somebody for granted. It it it is the it's the carry it's the happen stance which means what are what is the way this is just right now I'm going to you know try to make everybody feel guilty. What is the way to keep a relationship? And again, sometimes you can't keep a relationship. But one of the ways to keep a relationship is what if I were to say that random acts of kindness, which for kazal, by the way, are to create a god consciousness, to always have the other person in your mind, to always have them thinking about you, for always to be again engaged emotionally. what Khazal is saying over here. Oh, it doesn't start with Gilot and Vodor, that's how it metastasizes. That's what it turns into. Which means the starting point of destroying a relationship is simply taking one another for granted. Which means that that then creates the atmosphere you know the opposite of something growing that nothing grows which means that is what kazal describing over here and therefore if you take me for granted I'll take you for granted >> and essentially what khazal are doing is saying disengagement causes disengagement and unfortunately a relationship is only going to be as strong as the one who's less interested in the relationship. One person can't keep a relationship. So the person who's less engaged is going to be the one who's going to then challenge the relationship to if it's going to have a possibility of continuing. And then that is what Carrie is doing over here. Carrie is saying is that if you're the one who's disengaged, if you're the one who has no emotional involvement in all of this, if you're the one who doesn't have God consciousness, so then what do you expect to happen? There's going to be a lack of relationship. And then I'm going to say it again. It turns into all of these other things. So that is certainly an element getting to this last part that I want you to get to. It says as follows. We'll start with Zion. Right? We just now read about then the land will finally rest the destruction, the Shabbat. Okay. Something's going to happen within the hearts when you're far off in this land of others. That's where the term, by the way, if you've ever heard of the book as a driven leaf comes from the By the way, some of you be very disturbed. Just right where I was pointing before, he tells us how anti-semitism is actually a good thing because it stops us from assimilating. He says it right over here. I I love the over here because that's what was stressed in last para how we need to stretch out our hands to help those who have fallen. You're not going to be able to stand up. What was the opposite of that? the very beginning of the para where was that you're going to stand tall and over here you have the opposite of standing tall what is that that you're going to collapse under this right that you're not going to be able to stand up good the so by the way that's important just to see the the reversals over here you get lost among the non-Jews and those who remain. And it talks about the sins being erased in this foreign land. And finally, you asked me the title before I started. I said sins of the fathers. So, finally, it got to the sins of the fathers over here. And it says, "You should do vidi, right? Asham, by the way, when we do vido, how do we say it? Isn't it great? Right. Everyone's looking at the person next to him. Right. Right. Right. But we we don't we're not guilty of all of these things. It's it's good. So why are we saying our fathers, grandfathers, mothers, grandmothers? because of the that they were guilty of. Mah is a great word. It's a terrible word and they as well who walked with me in this happen stance type of uh way. So I think that part of the dynamic over here is and and there's a couple of different ways of doing this and I am really putting together a whole bunch of different commentaries right now and I'm not giving you all the chapter and verse but let's put it like this. We're far away from the land and we start saying vidoy and we say voy for our parents. So what do we do? Is this sincere or is it insincere? So of course it's sincere, but is it truthful? See, there's a problem. After we started with the which means God is still punishing. So why is God still punishing if we just did voy? So some of the commentaries therefore point out that there must have been a problem with the voy. So there's one VOI and and maybe maybe we'll even say it another way. There there's there's one very eccentric fellow who's in my shul. He won't listen to this. He'd be honored if he heard me call him that. He he he for whatever reason never wants to say. He goes, "How could you say it's a lie? It's lash and you're not allowed to say lash about your parents and say how can you say such a thing?" So to point out that it's a in the Torah. So I'm not sure how convinced he would be of this. He has his own perspectives. So the Torah says that you say vtoy, but there's two different ways of doing it. I said sincere and insincere before, even though insincere is not the right word because we're sincere. That's the problem. It's very easy. It's actually very important to always have someone to blame. Extremely important. Right? You know, you've heard me say lots of times that it's great in the kish. We always have the air of Rav, right? It's great. Everyone needs an AIFR. Right. What happened to your room? Was the AIF Rob? Right. Right. What happened to the car? It was the Arav which means it's the air of Rav are wonderful to have. And by the way, it really is interesting in terms of Makshava today to see different people who their heir of Rrav is. If you know who someone's a rav is, you know everything you know about them. By the way, you can do the same thing and ask somebody, again, this is al another question. If your shabas tables are really boring, you can ask somebody, do you believe in the concept of aim? And presumably they'll say yes and say good in your mind, who's the other, right? Who's the other legitimate aloo? Why do I get and I'll end up saying lashhara? Why do I get the feeling that certain people will have a very very narrow other alou and all kinds of people who are not included in that other alou which means who is that other group that you think is an absolutely legitimate group? By the way part of what we do is we always allow the other aloo to be on our right never on our left. Don't ask me to explain but that's the way that it goes. It's always on our right. They're okay a little extreme. They go a little bit far. I don't think I think they're extremists, but they're a legitimate alou, but we never find the people on our other side as a legitimate aloo. So that's interesting. You always need your av. You always need someone to blame. And over here, the way that we're talking about our parents, we're often exile. We're suffering. And we say because of my parents. It's the way that my parents, it's the mistakes that they made. It's the sins of them. Which means we then we have to double back and God says, "Okay, that that creates more distance because what we need to do is at some point take responsibility. Our hearts need to open up. Our hearts need to become things which are real." And it's only at that point when we can have and I'll tell you exactly what Rabbi Salvich said. I mean I can quote you word for word because I was in the room that he said that it would be lush and har to say unless that there is a way of bringing about kapara which means why are we ever allowed to say voy because vidoy creates kapara kapara in simple English is atonement and every time I say voy I bring about atonement. So therefore, if there are sins that were done in the past, and by the way, part of the problem with sins is is that they sometimes become intergenerational. Sometimes we do inherit. Sometimes parents could have made a decision to send to a certain school or not to send to a certain school, to to stress certain things in education, not stress other things, to cut corners here or perhaps not to cut corners there. and we become either the beneficiaries or ingrained built in that's part of who we are. So for us to say hold it part of the problem which exists is things which I've inherited and therefore I'm going to do vidor and say and I'm going to stop that cycle I'm going to stop that and I'm going to achieve atonement for this which means that there could be a really sincere. So now what happens when we do that sincerely? We say no no my father may have made a mistake. My grandfather made a made a mistake. Now again sometimes we can correct them. So what happens immediately afterwards? See I don't think this I don't think this is an accident. Immediately afterwards next immediately afterwards what happens which means what is it that generated this is because I started looking backwards and started looking at the I started looking at the I started looking how we got to where we are today and what what about the way I was raised was absolutely correct and I embrace and what about it I need to fix and I need to perhaps you know pivot a little bit and therefore I'm able to say we've all made mistakes but once we have that honest sincere approach that then generates okay not just my father my grandfather I go backwards keep going backwards in line and I get to Jacob then I get tok and then I get to Abraham and that then generates the Brit that the Britta vote that then generates the vote and it's at that point that everything can now go back and be fixed and we can go back in time because we had this sincere combin this this sincere Which means essentially what we had is two stages. First was going back to the parents in an insincere way and using them as an excuse for everything which takes place. And then the second way is to go back in a thinking of it again and now in a more constructive way in order to find how do I really go back and and fix things. And then it came back to that last point which I want to focus on. It's not just the It's not just that there's a covenant that God made with Jacob and with Theitzk and with Abraham that there is another element to this which I kept saying before has a life to it. It has sensitivity. It it it feels the pain. It feels when blood is spilled. It feels when it has to work on chabas. It feels when it has to work on schmita. And that's the land itself. the is which means that it's as if the land is sitting there and waiting and the land is desolate and the land is mourning and the land is saying when are my children going to come home that that's a part of what's taking place over here which means part of the drama of the book of Vayikra is the land is a partner in all of this you didn't realize it when you started out we started out in this little uh we started out in this in this tent in this very quiet conversation where God calls out to Moshe, a quiet conversation taking place in private in a very holy place. But the holy place then it seems to grow and to grow and to grow and then we realize the holy place is not just the Mishkan. We realize there's another holy place and that's just a microcosm. The holy place is the land of Israel. And then the laws seem to move over the land of Israel in terms of you need to keep these laws or the land is can't tolerate it. The land has sensitivity. And then we move over further. The land has a holiness to it. The land keeps chabas. The land has a schmita and there's a yoval. And if you don't keep it, the land needs to keep it and it will keep it either if you're here and keep it or you'll be kicked out and it will keep it. But God's will will be done and the land those are the rules and the land will keep those laws. But the land on the other hand is like a mother who's looking for her child. And when the child leaves the house, it's not just an empty nest kind of feeling. It's that there there's a place in the heart which is empty. There's something which is missing. There's something which needs to be there. There's a void and there's a vacuum and there's something which is just not the way it's supposed to be. And therefore, God is saying the land is a part of this whole thing and start stretching backwards. Start thinking about where you came from. Start thinking about the parents and the grandparents and go all the way back to Yakov and to Yeitzk and to Avam. And once we go back and we realize the way things are supposed to be, no matter how far-flung we are in the exile, there's this other part in all this who for most of history was all alone, desolate, lonely, and essentially saying, "When is it that my children will come home?