The Three Oaths and Rashi’s Comments on Shir Hashirim by Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz

I introduce the uh discussion of the Shalo sh the very famous passage [Applause] in about the three oats and I want I want to revisit it a little bit uh the gar is talking about the great spiritual Merit of living in ER Isel some very very beautiful page about how when the rabbis would come to ER Israel from b or whatever they would literally uh bow down they would got on the dirt and they would kiss the Stones Some people to this very day actually have such a minog putting aside the issue of bowing down on Stone uh they you know they come by down they uh kiss the ground as they land uh today it's a little different but in the olden days when the airplanes would uh land and you'd have to walk or take a bus to the terminal so you were on the tarmac and people on the tarmac would sometimes kiss today you know you're in the terminal terminal right away so you don't have most people not not going to kiss the terminal of beneran Etc so the gumar goes through the idea that ER Israel is a beautiful place a a spiritual place a holy place you're close to Hashem and again let me remind you that the rambam brings all of those passages even though he pans that living in the land of Israel is not a mandatory Mitzvah he still brings all of those beautiful passages but in the middle of that in the middle of that discussion let me just be sure this is on one second yeah in the middle of that discussion the gamor seems to take a left turn by bringing a statement of an Amora that God made the Jewish people take three Oaths when the Bas of mikdash was destroyed and the three Oaths are based on a PK in shirim that is repeated three times I will actually go over the exact language of the PK right now but just to enumerate the Oaths uh the PK begins I make you swear Daughters of Jerusalem and the three Oaths are y literally do not Ascend over the wall bit of a enigmatic expression the second isos do not rebel against the Nations and the third oath is low so actually there are two gearos in the gar which is very interesting one Gea ises do not push the coming of mashiach prematurely the other has a different instead of a we have a don't commit sins that will distance the coming of mashia so D re in manuscripts are very easily mistaken so some are and some GE okay be it as it may what let's take these three Oaths so again just a quick review and then I'll go on to it some new points do not climb the wall so this has it's a little ambiguous because this has two implications and it's not clear if it's an either or or both one implication is do not come to AR Israel and mass individuals come but there should not be a movement to bring all of the Jews to Israel before mashia comes but there's a second implication do not try to conquer the land of Israel by Force of Arms so there's a little bit of an uncertainty uh are these two independent variables that we shouldn't encourage mass alah or is it all connected do not try to conquer ER Israel by force of arms in order to bring the Jewish people back so there's an ambiguity right there uh there are indeed some authorities who understood the first oath that individuals come but there should not be a mass alah there are some who did understand it that way others seem to understand it that the emphasis is not on mass alah that's a beautiful thing that's a good thing but the emphasis is on do not conquer ER Israel from a foreign government in order to establish Jewish sovereignty now again please as I'm talking probably people's temperature is rising let me just let me just emphasize I'm right now quoting and explaining a gamorra and even last week I already told you uh different interpretations of this but bear with me a little bit even if uh your blood is boiling I I can assure you I am uh although I have I have friends in satmer and even friends in narta I'm neither satmer nor narta uh so right now I'm not telling you my hashkafa I'm just going over a passage in the gamar so Lo yalu says do not try to establish a Jewish presence or a Jewish state or a Jewish government in the land of Israel if that would necessitate military conquest the second is a general rule which is almost a coral corollary of the first do not rebel against the governments in which you uh live under Jews should be loyal citizens do not be revolutionaries of course Jews are always are in fact always revolutionaries but this is the second shua and the third shua depends of course on the Gea if you are that's actually a simpler explanation that simply means try to be righteous do not do the things that delay the coming of Messiah that that's actually a relatively simple idea and it's basically telling the Jewish people be as righteous as you can the first Gea is a bit more [Music] enigmatic don't push Mia to come earlier than it would should come what does that mean practically I mean we pray for the coming of the Gula all the time one of the 13 principles of amuna is uh and of course kad's campaign we want mashia now is that a violation of so apparently the meaning of this is very enigmatic and it's ultimately bound up in cabala and that is apparently there are mystical means largely not known to us which can bring the mashia before we have reached an organic stage of Spiritual Development where we're worthy of it and the warning is simply kind of directed to the mystics Among Us do not try to bring mashia earlier than it's supposed to come because that could devastating consequences now if we bring mashia by Torah and MIT and is that's perfectly good that's what you're supposed to do but don't bring it artificially on because that could be very very destructive okay so the third Shu we're not going to focus on so much even the second Shu we're not going to focus on so much uh but the first shua L I had mentioned uh again this is by way of review a little bit that this is the the the Y this is the U the peg the fundamental argument of the satv uh and the Carta that it is prohibited for the Jewish people to establish a state until the coming of mashiach because establishing a establishing a state would be a violation of this oath that we made to God Lo yal that we will not try to conquer the land of Israel by force from the ruling authorities and again the satv makes very very clear that this has nothing to do with whether it's a religious state or not a religious State even if the rosah even if the Prime Minister and the cabinet and the whole knesset they would beat sadim who spend the afternoons learning in K right they do the government work in the day and in the morning and do in the afternoon it makes no difference if it would be the or whatever it would be now you understand this there words one aspect is the secular nature of Zionism that's one aspect of it but this has nothing to do with that Lo basically says according to the's understanding not allowed to have a States until the coming of mashiach it's a violation of this oath now I had already pointed out that it's absolutely clear that ramban at least could not possibly accept this gorah as authoritative simply because the ramban not only says it's permissible to have a state the ramban Apparently says that's part of the Mitzvah of yesel remember as we explained extensively when the ramban says there's a Mitzvah to live in ER Israel that doesn't only mean it does mean a mitzah to live in ER Israel but it's not just it's not just a Mitzvah to live in ER Israel there's a Mitzvah to establish Jewish sovereignty over everything within the territorial boundaries people forget that according to the ramban it is not just living here that matters after all many need to recard to live here it is the establishment of Jewish sovereignty now obviously if this is a mitzvah in the Torah to establish Jewish sovereignty that couldn't be overridden by some oath we took later I mean what is the generally if you make an oath to violate the Torah the oath is null and void so it's very very clear that either the ramban had a different understanding of that Kamar which I don't even know what it would be or the ramban maintained that was an aoic state I'm sorry that was an agatic statement which represented one particular person so they had the T character even in the time of the am but it does not re it does not represent normative that's the point number one that you know you have this gar which may mean a certain thing but it's absolutely clear that ramban did not follow that gorah in his codification of the Mitzvah of yesel okay uh but be it as it may I what I want to point out today something new and that is fascinatingly and it's hard to know the source if you look at Rashi in shirim Rashi without even quoting a metress so it's it's hard to know where Rashi got this from has an absolutely totally different interpretation of those words so what I want to do today is really if I would have had a PowerPoint or whatever uh should have done a handout but I want to compare phrase by phrase in this PK how Rashi interprets it and how the gamorra and kasas interprets it and interestingly enough according to Rashi the gamor and Kos has no relevance whatsoever to Aliyah and no relevance whatsoever to Jewish statehood it is talking about a totally different matter so let's first look at the verse from the standpoint of the gor's interpretation the verse says and this verse appears three times in Shir virtually identical the first time and the second time the words are exact the third time there's a one-word difference which I I can't explain but other than that the PUK are identical okay phrase one bot I impose a shabua i I impose an oath upon you Daughters of Jerusalem so according to the talmud who is talking to whom according to the talmud the speaker of his is none other than this is the gor's interpretation God is making an oath upon the daughters of Jerusalem according to the gar who are the benot J they are am Israel so in terms of speaker and audience the gamor is locating this as KES is imposing a sh on the Jewish people why just as an aside why would the Jewish people be referred to as benos I am the answer is because every Jew every Jew no matter where you are you have to consider yourself a child of Yus you're a Bas use the feminine every person is a boss you actually see this from a right uh because it talks about uh you know is like a widow who is bereft of her children we are the children of yush that's the biblical image it's a little mixed we're both the husband of Yim because she's an Al and we are the children of Y but jush know they tell the story just as digress for a moment that there's a medish that asks the question Yad died of course in MIT but he merited to have his bones carried in the desert for 40 years and he was in erel whether or wherever Y is buried there's a bit of aus there but y was the itself says y was to be carried to it was decreed that he could not enter ER Israel but why couldn't he be buried in ER Israel why did mosha Reno not even get a K in so the medish gives an amazing answer it says says yoseph did not deny his origin uh when he's speaking to the SAR he says I am I was stolen I was kidnapped from the land of the Hebrews meaning I come from the land of the which is is so ysf is moda beo yoseph admits where he comes from therefore he merits to be buried in the land when Moshe runs away from mitam and he's in mijan and he saves the daughters of yra he protects them at the well so they come back to their father and they say is MIT an Egyptian man saved us which means apparently mosha identified himself to them as ish MIT because that's why they that's what they called him so presumably that's what he said he was so the med says Moshe is kofo Moshe denies his origin since Moshe denies his origin he does not Merit being buried in the land yoseph acknowledges origin he is z to be buried in the land Moshe denies his origin he's not Z to be buried in the land so the question is very obvious Moshe never was in erel I mean Moshe is not denying anything uh he was born in MIM and he came from M yose was born in ER Israel so he says this is where he's from the medish seems to be saying there is some complaint against mosha rabenu that he didn't tell the benot is that he's from isra but he's wasn't what's the what's the complaint so theim say a Jew has to feel that even if you live in and you've never even been in erel you are a child of er Israel this is where you are Moshe should have said I am from ER Israel but I was born in or whatever it would be this is how you have to identify yourself and for that reason moeno did not Merit to be buried in because that's called a they say who been in in in Poland his family had been in Poland for 500 years whenever he was asked where he's from he would say I am a Jew from but for the past 500 years you know we haven't been we haven't been home we haven't been home actually people from Brooklyn often talk the same way but uh you meet them in Baltimore whatever I'm really from Brooklyn whatever um you know Rabbi wine he should be well um tells the story that when he was building uh his yiva in man so somebody offered him special wood Timber from Finland that has a useful non-warping life of 350 years meaning average wood is 75 to 100 years and then you got to repair it or replace it at least because it bends or it warps and the like this was a special high quality wood that lasts for more than 300 years uh so it really would have saved a lot on repair it would have been a much more durable structure s by wine said he refused to accept it because he was not going to build a structure in the Goa with the intention that it should last 300 years because when you do that you're making a statement that you're not connected to erel you're not thinking about mashia meaning you have to look at life in the Goa as relatively short term I understand shortterm doesn't mean tomorrow it's over but shortterm this is not the permanent situation now I have aashan Rabbi wine my kashan Rabbi wine I should ask him my K wine is that he should have taken the wood because the says that all the and mid in are going to be relocated to ER Isel when mashia comes so take the wood and it's going to be here it's going to be here anyway so what's the problem but okay but the Shah makes an makes the same point much earlier not about medish but he says he was very critical of Jews who built big mansions uh in in the GOL because the big mansion a Stonehouse a brick house you know big permanent things is kind of making a statement I regard my presence here permanently and the truth of the matter is I mean even in short term I I've seen this I mean I I saw this within my own lifetime where um particularly in the some of you may remember this uh in the 60s and 70s uh there was a tremendous change of neighborhoods in which schs had to leave the sub they had to leave the inner cities and go to the suburbs so I remember growing up a magnificent magnificent old style shells with stained glass windows and you know engraving the aser hados beautiful shells and like within 10 years uh they just they're they're now churches you can still see and again Hally that's actually pretty improper but okay okay but putting that aside uh a lot of these were sold to church and you can still see the asera andos you know and like they tell the story at at the dedication of one of these shows the sh dedication the black uh pastor of the neighborhood showed up so you know he wasn't invited and they asked him like well it's nice to see you but why are you here so he said I just want to see the building we're getting in 10 years which unfortunately in the 60s and the 70s there there there really was that type of phenomenon and the like so you see that the Goa is not a permanent thing unfortunately sometimes it happens that these negative aspects of the Goa uh have even poisoned Us in ER about G and the disengagement from Gaza where it's it's part of the Hester panim that that even in erel we are experiencing many many aspects of the galut that we can't go to the harab you're not allowed to DAV in the harab okay putting aside there not to go to the harab but if youing that you're allowed to go to the harab if you follow that it's certainly quite a Shand that under Israeli law you're not allowed to do on because it's going to cause a riot I mean that's I mean I don't go to theab so it's not Irrelevant for me but how painful it is that if you maintain that you're allowed to go to that Mak you're not allowed to to serve on that Mak what type of thing so in many many ways the truth is we're in guts no matter where we are but at least here at least we're maybe we feel it even more but at least we're closer we're closer to the center of G okay so go back let's go back to the P so is speaking to the Jewish people so the Jewish people are called B sh then again this is the gar interpretation I'll juxtapose it with Rashi in a moment then it says oh is an unusual it does not refer to the house in sh is an unusual plural for it's very unusual but it's translated as dear de r i impose an oath on you with the deer o oh aot gazel now this too is enigmatic just push I'm imposing an oath on you with the deer or the gazel of the field what does that refer to so the gamar doesn't say but Rashi even I'm not giving you rashi's overall interpretation but what Rashi says on this would apply to the gamar as well and that is the deer and the gazelle are given as an example of something that is very beautiful and graceful but it's also vulnerable and weak meaning to say there are many many predators like wolves or whatever it is so a deer is not necessarily at least in this imagery a deer is not necessarily a strong animal that can defend itself that well against predators mountain lions Wolves and the like so essentially what God is saying is if you break this oath You Beautiful your you as a beautiful deer will be vulnerable to attack and the like right so so far we're moving and now we come to the critical words so not two verbs here and the m in a sh canotes a negation meaning do not to do not to so the gar explains to is a verb that comes from stirring like stirring the pot or right to is to awaken so don't stir or awaken and here I don't really have a clear sense of the distinction here the love the love divine love so this is feminine until it is she the love desires to come in other words don't stir up God's love prematurely so now you can see based on that translation how the gamorra then constructs the idea of not rebelling against the Nations not conquering AR Israel and this would actually support the Gea don't try to bring mashia early because the whole context is wait until God's love wants to come do not bring it on before it's time so you understand what's going on there other words from this translation this is how we construct these categories do not bring the Redemptive potentials earlier than their ready to come and as I indicated the TARTA the sat in particular uh built a whole Foundation against the idea of a state of Israel he built it upon I mean not the only reason but one of the most important foundations is the shal sh Theos now I had already mentioned just again forgive me for for repeating stuff from last week that even number one the ramban does not accept thisor it seems but number two I had mentioned the idea that um the state of Israel was in fact not created by military activity the state of Israel was created by International consensus and recognition initially at uh well really starting with the balver Declaration and culminating in Sano conference and then United Nations recognition and the military activity that was generated in connection with the founding of the state was not to create the state it was defend a state that had already been recognized by the International Community so therefore the answer is this was not the Revolutionary War this was not like the United States overthrowing British rule uh this was a defensive War for a state that was recognized by the International Community so that's one reason and then I had mentioned another reason from mayor Sim the or who said that if you read the gamar further you will recall there's a fourth oath in the gamara that the UMO promised not to oppress us excessively and since they didn't keep their oath so we're not bound by our oath the contract has been breached okay so those are are different ansers so essentially uh if you're not in aarta you will respond to the shal shot in three ways number one who says we follow it ramban clearly does not follow it that's answer number one number two medat Israel was not established by military activity it was established by International agreements and the military activity was defensive after the fact in nature and answer number three uh would be that the shal sh remain binding only as long as the are not and since obviously they did and remember of course was founded in the ashes of the Holocaust as it were but even before that wrote before the Hol he said the had violated uh their commitments uh and therefore we're not I should also add that some interprets only refers to building aik it does not even referred to a state meaning don't build a Bas I make this So that obviously wouldn't be a problem either okay but what I want to do now is show you that if you look at Rashi in Shir you see it as Rashi has a radically different translation of the whole PUK every time it appears all three places which in which it has nothing to do with this issue whatsoever so I want to go rash because it's interesting to compare rashi's translation from the gamorra first first of all Rashi changes the speaker listen to this instead of I impose an oath on you according to the gamarra the speaker is God and he is speaking to the Jewish people according to Rashi the speaker is the Jewish people are who are imposing an oath on the nations of the world J so according to Rashi the Jewish people again this is symbolic we we're not referring to an actual conversation but this is a symbolic conversation I impose an oath on you nations of the world now which means what is benot J but J are the so let's stop right there why would the Beno why would the UMO I explained before why the Jewish people are called Ben J because that's our home that's our our source why would theot be called but J that's a very strange name for the umot so the maam explained that according to rashi rashi himself doesn't say but according to Rashi since the nations of the world have such a yearning to control and dominate Jerusalem so it's kind of they become almost children of Jerusalem not not in a spiritual sense but those who have this big desire right uh as you know everyone has a desire to control Jerusalem one way one way or the other okay so now so so you see number one how Rashi radically changes the translation now then we have so that's going to be the same the imagery of the dear or the gazelle being vulnerable and weak except the Jewish people are saying if you violate this oath God will make you vulnerable and weak talking to the but now two verbs so this is very important according to the gamar to means to stir up toaru means to awaken don't stir up don't awaken Rashi has an absolutely radical opposite interpretation u means to destroy and Rashi brings a PK to H him where it talks about the ISU destroy destroy until the foundation this is in the capital of theim alar so so do not destroy and to Rashi says does not come from awaken but it comes from undermining for example in even in modern Hebrew when you appeal a case you want to appeal a case it's so according to Rashi do not destroy sorry do not destroy and do not undermine God's love we's see what that means ad now the word ad is very very interesting the normal translation is until but Rashi brings a number of suim where OD can mean while something's happening so I'm going to read the translation according to Rashi and then tell you what Rashi says the meaning is we the Jewish people impose an oath on the nations of the world do not destroy do not undermine God's love for us as long as God is as long as while God is desirous of maintaining that love says Rashi this simply means that we are telling the Jewish people do not undermine our faith in Hashem when we are under your control meaning to say God will get you for it in other words it is simply saying the Jewish people are declaring we will be faithful to Hashem in the galut so you see how many changes Rashi is making in this interpretation number one who is the speaker number two to who who is being addressed number three the translation of too and tooru and number four ad does AD mean until or does AD mean while something is going but the bottom line is according to rashi's translation of the Pak the PK is not referring to conquering ER Israel it's not referring to Rebellion it is simply essentially declaring that we adure the Nations to let us keep the Mitzvah even in the G which really means it's a declaration of faith on our part meaning it becomes rhetorical the nations are not making any such oath but it's as if I declare I will be faithful to Hashem no matter what my conditions are okay so uh the point I wanted to make is that the whole ban against the Medina or whatever it would be uh is based on the gor in kassas and of course that the gorah is there right I mean you can't I'm not saying that the gamorra is deleted but it's very very interesting that Rashi and shirim has a totally different translation of the verse which is very very fascinating he changes it in many many ways and the whole message is different it's nothing to do with Aliyah nothing to do with it has to do with our commitment to remain loyal toes in spite of the adversities of the Goa and although I have to say that we have not always lived up to that as an entire nation but there always have been Holocaust whatever it would be who no matter what was happening they were faithful to the Jews who have died Al the Jews that were mostes under all of the conditions that one could imagine um I remember reading a A Memoir of a a woman who grew up in stalinist Russia and they practiced yish Kai very much in Secrets but they were very very fir but school was Saturday they had school on Saturday so like she talked about like for 10 years she had to come up with a different excuse every time why she couldn't write the had one day a broken arm and a broken whatever I mean the whole week was spent with figuring out what the excuse would be and somehow she managed and they described she was like 35 or 40 when she finally left Russia and she described as they were flying out and they left uh the airspace of the Soviet Union she said I'm out of there it was like a sense of I'm out I'm out it was like being in prison for all of those years an amazing amazing thing so um it is interesting where Rashi got it from I I didn't do the med in sh is huge so it might very well be a medish but I don't think uh any medic source is cited you know as you know the overwhelming majority of rashi's comments are normal Al based on Med whatever it would be uh in fact um has a very very interesting essay because it is it is a worthwhile subject and that is what are the criteria for the midashim that Rashi incorporates because somebody might say well why should I bother learning Rashi I just learn medis so you learn medis and you'll see 50 interpretations and Rashi will give you three so why did Rashi choose three and reject 47 and there's a whole it's not just a halfhazard thing that Rashi chose three so wrote a whole book uh not a whole book but a long very long essay on the criteria that Rashi must have used in choosing midrashim now I'll just tell you bit it's not our subject but it's it is an interesting subject so interesting I I permit myself a digression there's a very big M's own view I called her n because she wanted to be called n so not not out of disrespect n's own view was that rashi's primary considerations were linguistic in other words he wanted to explain Pim according to syntax according to grammar according to dict according to context now many midashim are like non gramat apparently non-grammatical and they don't fit the overall context of the verse so she made the point that Rashi would pick the midashim that are most consistent with the what's called consistent with the linguistic and syntactical and contextual structure of the verse so instead of looking at the medish as an isolated PK you could then integrate it with the ho now in truth in Truth uh in Shir shiru in particular Rashi makes uh her Point explicitly Rashi will give offer of matters and then say there are other midashim here but I'm not going to mention them because they don't fit the running nature of the narrative so there's no question that her point is correct but others have pointed out that apparently Rashi had other objectives as well Rashi will often bring a med or AAL that is inspirational or pedagogical meaning Rashi had other aims other than parut Rashi also had an aim to educate us Inspire us uh make us understand the values of Judaism so apparently that sometimes overd rashi's commitment toat and Rashi will sometimes bring a medish that's notat because it has such a beautiful teaching that it's something we need to know in in fact it's fascinating there are so many kazal which are in the gorah and the medish that we kind of know them from Rashi or even people who are not so learned in yiva know them from rashi rashi popularized an enormous number of teachings that the kid who left ker at at 14 would never have learned in gamorra but he knew them from Rashi from the Rashi inish and therefore Professor grman AB Gman uh made the argument that Rashi was not just looking at Linguistics and syntax and diuk he also perceived himself as having a mission to be a teacher for the future generations of am Isel so again I I don't see this as a stera I mean there's nothing inconsistent with an author having more than one one objective but the reason I went on to this digression is because I believe that rashi's comment of I believe I have I have to double check is not even based on a medish at all it is rashi's own understanding of the PK and to me that's a little unusual because the gar and kasos obviously had a different understanding of that PK so why did Rashi uh deviate from them I'm sorry someone had a hand up yeah does r have any commentary on that yeah rashy rashy comments on the gamar sure what's he say on the gar um Lo yal do not try to gain ER Isel by Force of Arms he interprets it exactly the way the tur interprets it and he doesn't indicate why we don't pin like that or whatever it is so in the gamorra he goes with the gamorra and then Shiri goes with a different a different interpretation of it yeah yeah they say and and I I I I don't know how to reconcile this because the bris R Sal the last R of brisk who came to a and died in ER Israel uh was a well-known anti-zionist I mean he essentially identified uh not with modern inter character which I think he would dismiss as crazy but I'm talking about you know against the Medina and yet the bris is quoted as saying that in 1948 that this was a this was a smile from a KES to bring Comfort to a devastated nation of Israel after the enormity of the suffering Hashem wanted to give us a hug wanted to give us a kiss wanted to say I'm with you uh which is a beautiful sentiment I I just don't know how to reconcile it with everything else that's quoted in the name of the brisar so I I don't know but but the brisar himself acknowledged that this was hashem's reassurance to his people in the aftermath of the of of the Holocaust yeah we came you're talking about time of yahushua yeah yeah yeah so so this is 100% correct obviously the original settlement of er Israel after Yus M after mosh's death was through military conquest and that lasted for many many years uh the military conquest was not completed all the way until and even even afterwards and uh and the like but apparently this is a post horban oath meaning the the the philos philosophy that's being expressed is once God kicks you out uh God has to bring you back and you can't do it on your own uh of course some would argue well we never do it on our own if we're successful it's because hasem wanted us to come back it's like um what did somebody say somebody said to a Satur who was saying you can't have a Medina you have no right to do this and that so the person say all right so what should we do wait until mashiach says what will mashiah do oh mashiach will build these beautiful buildings and do all these different things he says so we already have these buildings I mean what's the we should like destroy the buildings so they're going to be rebuilt again like you know what's what exactly would would the point uh would the point uh would the point be okay so now I just want to mention one other thought you know um again not directly relevant but per somewhat relevant this is the para of bolock right and uh Bak of course hires bam to curse B Israel and three times billum tries to curse B Israel and every time he curses Hashem changes the words to a b is of course very upset I'm not sure if billum had a money back guarantee or you lost your deposit because friendly Bullock paid a lot of money uh it's not clear if he got any of it back or not you know Bill may have whatever the policy is um but bam then speaks a fourth time he tried to curse us three times turned into a braa the fourth time he becomes a prophet and in truth as the rambam explains he actually is talking about mashia he says I see him but not nowu I Gaz it's not near this is a Messianic Vision mov a star has stepped forward from Yakov shave Isel a staff has come forward from Israel and it will smite the corners of moav again hostile Nation thear called and will undermine again these are enemies of the Jewish people we know in fact that this is why rabi yiva renamed right the second Mikes was destroyed let's say in the year 70 and then we had a great revolt against the Romans in the year 135 this is called the baroka revolt and for wild was very successful Barba liberated 900 Villages there is evidence under the spiritual guidance of RAB Akiva their uh the foundations of a third Temple were laid by the way as a one Cas you might ask in the is hey how are they allowed to do the Bara Revolt you're telling me you're not allowed to gain ER after theban you're not allowed to gain ER Isel by Force of Arms well what on Earth was the bar Revolt or for that matter the in other words that's something to think about meaning the question from yesu is not such a question because that was prean but both the bar revolt and the makban Revolt were after theban well that could be after the well the bar rol is after the by ch uh the uh mban Revolt was during the bayen but but either either way it involves regaining ER Israel like conqu okay putting that aside though Bar's real name was Shimon Ben Kiva RAB AKA named him son of a kav because rabaka believed that Shimon Bena was mashiah and he used the PK okay so the who yite it's a big yite he's buried in it's coming up is it the 15 of thas it's coming up very very soon Sunday suay yes so thousands of people thousands of people go to go to Har so the asks what is the double repetition here yov a star shall step forward from Yakov the shave Israel a staff shall rise from Israel what's the yov what's the Israel what's the repetition if it's both talking about mashia so the says a very interesting point he says that yakob is the name that's given to the Jewish people when they're relatively lowly it's like the heel Israel is the name of Triumph and victory that Jakob was given when he fought with the angel so is is for yov refers to what we call hamon the average Jew so yov is the average Jew Isel are the sadik now mashia can come in two different ways mashiach can come in a miraculous Supernatural way in which everybody sees the hand of God and that's called a star a beautiful star or mashiach can come in a very gradual slow way which involves politics and wars and step by step by step two steps forward one step back a gradual process to he comes right so it says the am like this if even the Yakov are deserving of mashiah meaning if if mashia can come because even the average Jew is righteous mashiach will come in a Supernatural way but when mashiach comes only in the Merit of the Israel and the average you is not so then it may be a very laborious slow gradual process like a person hobbling on a cane come shave it like a person is on a cane now this ties in very well to one of the thoughts of rev cook much later we can debate and we really haven't discussed it a lot maybe we'll continue to discuss it about the idea of the beginning of the Redemption right in the so the is this is the most controversial line in the whole prayer and there are shows that say the prayer and don't say this line and in the British version of the prayer which is totally different this does not appear the beginning of our Redemption which is just another way of saying that the fact that Hashem allows millions of Jews to come back we rebuild this is part of the Gula process so people make the argument sometimes how could this be part of the GAA process number one so many of the founders of the state and the politicians today are not only non-religious but many are anti-religious anti- Torah and number two how could something be called part of the Redemption if it's filled with Wars and terrorism we would assume mashiah would be mashiah but like the everything fits in because mashia could come as this burst of a star but only if CLA Isel are sikim even the yov but when Mia comes in the of theim and most of us are not worthy then it will come in a very gradual process and even people who are ra from Torah will be in involved in the Messianic Redemption and the Messianic Redemption will be accompanied with defeats andot and destruction and setbacks and even giving up things in other words the is saying that's the nature of gradual Gula that Gula is not necessarily a sudden process Gula is a gradual process and the revelation of mashia is in stages and there will be a time in which we will reach that stage but even the prior stages are part of that Redemption and that's the meaning of the double P or the double phraseology is Masia can be a k or mashia can be a man on a cane now kazal use a different phraseology based on a p in zakar the one p says and the other P says a poor man riding on a donkey so the takes that dichotomy about msia and he applies it to the kav and the shave and the yov and the Israel so yeah could be talking about King David so you're right the rambam himself actually has a very different view of this the rambam divies up the in two halves the first half isav and the second half is Mas soes yes takes these these couplets and he says the two things I see him but not now is that's how the divides it up okay you all have a wonderful week