The Three Weeks: The Keys are in Our Hands | Rabbi Sam Shor | July 8th 2025

We are just a few days. We talked about looking ahead to the art site a few days from now. We're also just a few days away from the fast day of Shivas Tamuz and the beginning of the period of the three weeks. We know the Mishab Bua tells us that there are many many tragic events that occurred throughout Jewish history on the beginning on the 17th of Tamuz continuing till the 9th of A. And this entire period therefore is a period of both introspection, sadness, reflection. But not only those those ideas, it's also an opportunity for us to what to look towards the future and towards a brighter tomorrow. And it's these ideas that kind of that tension that pushpull between reflecting on the tragedies of the past and anticipating a brighter tomorrow that really these three weeks are are really all about. That tension really personifies everything we're meant to experience during the three weeks. And this morning, as as we look ahead to the three weeks, I thought we could maybe uh address that tension, maybe clarify what we're meant to gain and accomplish during these three weeks and how we're supposed to use this entire period for both personal and collective growth. Okay, so that was our introduction. We're going to begin. We're going to jump right in on our sheets. Text number one on our source sheets, the Gamarra and Tanit towards the very end of Messanit. The Gomorrah tells us, "Our rabbis taught when the first temple was destroyed, groups of the young priests, the young gathered together and they had the keys to the B mikdash in their hands." Okay. So, we're going to break this down, but I want us to I want us as we read this Gamarra together, think for questions and clues to maybe unpacking this Gamarra as we read it. So, I'm going to read it again because I see a couple Rab and others just joined us. Tan Raban. Our rabbis taught when the first temple was destroyed, they gathered together groups and groups of the young kohanim and they had the the keys to the ba mikdash in their hands and they went up to the roof of the mikdash and they said before master of the universe since we did not live up to our end of the bargain. We didn't merit to live up to our end of the bargain to be trusted guardians of your enterprise of your mikdash. you, we're going to give the keys back to you. And they and they throw the keys up to the heavens. And the proverbial hand of God appeared in the heavens and took the keys back from them. and they fainted meaning the young priest they faint and they fall and they perish in the flames below. So it's a very challenging on many levels. Obviously the first question is what does it mean? Why specifically the young kanim? What is the significance of the young kanim having the keys to the enterprise in their hands? That's the first question. The second question is why do they throw the keys back to God? And the third question obviously is what does it mean that the proverbial hand of God appeared from in the heavens and took the keys back from them? We know that Baraku does not have an actual hand or hands. So obviously we have to say what what is the message that's being communicated here by this by this imagery of this agata. And lastly, lastly, what is it the the tragic ending that they that they perish that they Yes. You want has another question. What keys? What gates? What? Exactly. That's a that's an even better question. Where are the I personally have learned through the Rambam numerous times and I don't recall anywhere in in those of the Rambam describing the closing the locking the B mikdash with keys. So what does it mean that they're holding the keys in their hands? Okay, we're going to come back to all these questions. We're going to try to answer and address all these questions as we continue. I want to learn together another another gumar that many of us are probably familiar with. This is text number two, the Garuma. And during the time of Sheni, the Jewish people kept mitzvos there was no it wasn't that they basically were told they was destroyed because they were involved in all kinds of terrible acts. Okay. But he during beni for the most part we kept mitzvah. Okay. We actually did for one another. Why was it destroyed? That despite the fact that there people were seemingly seemingly in terms of ritually observant. What was what was what what what did happen then during that time period? We'll take questions at the end. Okay. Is what? baseless hatred. So of course we can ask the question, we have to ask the question, how could it be that in a society where people for the most part seemingly ritualistically kept mitzvos and even were engaged in acts of how in such an environment could could a could that baseless hatred even come into existence? And so we have to understand number one what is and how can we begin to fix So as we know this course is called modern masters. The first of the modern masters we're going to learn from today is Rabbi Aramshaw. Rabbi Aram Shaw is the son of a more a more well-known Torah personality. That's Rabbi Gdalashore. Rabbi Gdal of course was the longtime Roshiva of Yeshivas Tara Vadas and also the author of a beautiful set of farm known as Oridal Yahu. It's his son Rabbi Ramshaw who actually edited the ordal Yahu and Rabbi Abramshaw's farmer are called Halaku. Rabbi Ramshaw lives today in Brooklyn. He's a prominent Torah personality in Brooklyn and a master teacher of in Brooklyn. So this is text number three in our sheets says Ramshore the work that a Jew needs to do during these months of of that what do we need to do what do we need to strive to do what do we need to work on during these months of tamuz we need to work on fixing the many transgressions and tragedies that have occurred during these months. He's going to give us examples. The story of that we just read a few weeks ago. Okay, that occurred during the month of Tamuz and the beginning of the month of and it's all it's this transgression of the which sets the course ultimately for the future destruction of the BT explain what he means by that because it's the what what's the root of their transgression. It's misuse of speech, inappropriate speech. Okay. And as we learned in the arg that we just learned together. Why was the second destroyed? Because of baseless hatred. And we know that the source of all baseless hatred is what? Inappropriate speech. As we learned from many, where does hatred begin? What's the first step to to hatred beingcome manifest? It's what? accepting words of lashar for one another and other such um inappropriate speech. Inappropriate speech and other inappropriate speech says is the source of all of all hatred. The and therefore the work that we need to do during this time period during the three weeks during the months of of is what says Rabbi Ram the first thing we're meant to work on during these three weeks is what how we use how we use the power of speech. No it's the person says it just accept and and he says so it's not just it's not there is he says acceptance is what kind of spirals it forward but you you can't if there's no being spoken then there's no for us to struggle with accepting or not so really really what he suggests is what we need to work to be careful uh with our speech and as says I think he's correct also the things we listen to and we're going to hear that we're going to see that emphasized them a little bit from Kakon as well. Uh, Binetta. Okay. So, what other things do we are we meant to work on during this time period? Okay. It's very nice that we talk about the reflection the reflection on the and overcoming the the sin of and the sin of and working on our our speech. But what else are we meant to work on during these three weeks? So if you take a look at text number four, this is a gamarra that should be familiar to most of us. The inab said, "Okay, the moment when a person appears after the age of 120 in Shayim to be judged in Shayim, they meaning the the ministering angels will say to him, "Did you engage faithfully in business? Were you honest in your business dealings? Did you set aside regular time for Torah? Did you come to every Tuesday morning to learn Torah? Did you do everything in your capacity to try to to fulfill the mitzvah of procreation? Okay. And then finally, here's the last one that's maybe a little bit out there for most of us, unfortunately. Yeshua. Did you anticipate redemption? We know those of us that learned together with Rabbi Bowitz these past number months we know that in the okay we're all familiar that one of the the most important ones and the most familiar ones is this idea that we believe with perfect faith in in the coming of Msiah and even though he may tar every single day what we're waiting for him. So what exactly does that mean? What does it mean Yeshua? And by the way, if at the age of 120, please God, when we get up to the next world, okay, if you would have, I think last week we spoke about Kaplan had this beautiful safer if you were God, right? So if you were God and you were listing the things that you're going to quiz people on terms of what they accomplished during their time here on earth, okay, why all the were you honest in business? Might be might be a thing I would something I would think about. Were you kind to others might be something I would think about. Did you set aside time for Torah? Did you try to bring life into the world? Those are all beautiful things. But Yeshua, did you anticipate redemption? That that's one of the core values that you be quizzed about in terms of how what you how you used your time here on earth. Sadly for most of us, I don't think if we didn't see this gamarra, if we were asked what we to list the the values by which we spent every single moment here on this earth, if we were to list the top the top 10, so to speak, let's be honest, how many of us would have would put cit Yeshua right up there? So my question is, what does it mean to anticipate Mashiach? And why is this such a fundamental idea of Jewish life? Okay, before we learn the next piece on the Shalom from the son of I, I want to share with you a story that's attributed to of the great Russ of one Shabas afternoon, one Arab Shabas afternoon on a Friday is sitting in his home study. He's not in the B yeshiva. He's sitting in his home study and he hears a great commotion coming from the streets and he first ignores the commotion coming from the street and then his wife says to him, "I'm going now to the shook to buy a few last things for Shabas. I'm going to the market. I'm leaving the soup on the fire. Okay, please keep an eye on the soup." And Raan goes back to goes back to his learning. his wife leaves and then once again he hears noise coming from the shook and this time it's even louder than before and intrigued he finally goes to the window of the balcony and looks out to the street and he hears them announcing Mashiachu Mashiach is here Mashiach is here so quickly runs to his closet he puts on to to put on his shabas frock and he looks at a shabas fra and he notices that it has a stain on it and it's missing a button and he begins to cry and he's literally paralyzed as he's crying and he says how can I greet Mashia Senu with a stained stained garment that's missing a button and then all of a sudden he hears the familiar voice of his wife kind of not so pleasantly calling him from in the kitchen saying, "Kayen, I thought I asked you to watch the soup. The soup is boiled over. It's spoiled. It's ruined." And Ra realized that he had just experienced a day a daydream. He had gone into a a days, a trance. He was so filled with this idea of anticipating Mashiach. The Mashiah could come at any moment that lit the greatest arguably one of the greatest lan in the history of the Jewish people. He was so focused on this idea of anticipating Mashia and that Mashiah could come at any moment that literally he had gone into a daydream a trance and thought that Mashiach had indeed arrived. So what does it mean to anticipate Mashiach? What does it mean that after 120 when we get up there and we finish this lifetime we're going to be asked did you anticipate Msiah? So we're now going to learn a beautiful piece from the is hopefully going to give us a little bit of of clarity on this idea. This is text number six on our sheets. And we learn in the words of the we just learned together. Okay. When a person leaves the world, just as we said, they're going to ask him, did he set aside time for Torah? Did he deal fairly in business? And do they anticipate redemption? We're speaking here, by the way, not about just a Jew that's not that's not so connected. We're talking specifically about a Jew who seemingly is ritually observant. Okay? Did he anticipate Msiah? And even though he was ritually observant and committed, the one of the first questions we're going to be asked after 120 is, did you anticipate salvation? The question is not did he believe in the coming of Msiah, the concept that there will be a Messiah. Okay, that's not the question. He said, "But rather did you anticipate, did you long for? Did you wait every single moment and realize that Hashem's whole purpose of creating the world?" Okay. Is that we should eventually get to that era of Mashiachu and completing the world, perfecting the world, making it a better place. This idea is one of the essential questions that a Jew is going to be quizzed about about after they leave this world. And just as the question of that's asked, did you set aside time to learn Torah is one of the fundamentals of Jewish life in the Torah? So too, so too, he's asked, "Did you anticipate redemption?" Because that anticipation of Messiah, the belief, the longing for Messiah, the belief that a Mashiach could come literally at any moment, that is a fundamental that needs to be rooted in the hearts and minds of every single Jew in the same way that is embedded in all of us. So that's the first point that the Rebi makes. Now he continues, And the other thing we have to understand is what that if a person doesn't go through life anticipating Msiah then that's means what then he's also lacking in his understanding and his trust and belief okay of what believing in Mashiach is really all about and what the purpose of our existence is really all about. Yeshua. There's another aspect of anticipating redemption that is brought by our many many holy books. [Music] The power of amuna, okay, can bring forth what? That thing that we believe in. Okay. It's a famous through the merit of our ancestors were brought forth from it and through the merit of amuna we will also experience the final redemption. So the sunbi in this beautiful piece number one reiterates the importance of this idea okay this that it's one of the fundamental isot of of of mach is this idea not only of believing in msiah but anticipating longing and the mashia come at any moment and more than that the if we're lacking that then in that anticipation could cause what the delay the delay And this is idea that we've shared many many times and I'm just gonna spend one minute to just review this. uh we we shared many times that the teaching from okay the great master related to the mitzvah of eating on okay I'm just going to review this idea because it's a fundamental idea that demonstrates exactly this point that the rebi is making here okay in his commentaries on on the on the he mentions that the sed begins the mi begins with the words the the Arab mitzvah that this matzah that we eat on loyal seder is represents what the slaves rations that our ancestors ate while they were enforced servitude in mit that's how the mi begins and towards the end of the mi comes rail and ragl says whoever doesn't discuss these three ideas okay is not does not fulfill the mitzah and the three things we need to speak about are pak matzah. And when it comes to matzah, rabiel explains why do we eat matzah? Not to recall the slaves rations, but we eat matzah to recall what that once it was clear the Jewish people were going free. They didn't allow their dough to rise and they went forth from in great haste. Okay. Soak asked a question. He says, I don't understand. Sed begins with the whole 210 years that the Jewish people were enslaved. This is what they ate. What sustained them? Matzah. But then later on, okay, after Hashem's done all the miracles, okay, and demonstrated clearly that he has their back, all of a sudden the the we're going forth and we don't let the dough rise. All we've had to eat for 210 years is matzah. Okay, we don't let the dough rise. So obviously the answer is what what's what's correct. Obviously the answer is both. Okay. Matzah and Leiser represents both these ideas. The slaves rations as well as the fact that we left in great haste. But then ask the question. He says that's if that's true. Why' they leave in such great haste? Why' they leave in such great haste? For 210 years all they had to eat was matzah. All they had to eat the slaves rations was matzah. They're finally they see Hashem has their back. They Hashem's done all these miraculous things, okay? And all of a sudden, you know, they're going to go forth and you don't let the bread rise like 10 10 minutes more. So instead of having that that flat fuka mata that we've eaten for 210 years, okay, we maybe let it rise a few minutes. We could have a a bila, we could have a a marble rye. So says and this is this point that the Rabbi is making right here. Sometimes a bar presents us with windows of opportunities to experience miracles. And if a Jew believes with all his heart and anticipates with all his heart that Hashem can indeed bring Yeshua Yeshua, that Hashem can bring salvation at the blink of an eye. that when those windows open up before us, what do we do? We jump right through those windows because why? Our hearts and minds are plugged in and anticipating, longing for, anticipating that moment when that Yeshua comes. But if we don't go through life with a sense of anticipation and our our belief in miracles is maybe a little bit half-hearted then what can happen says when those windows take questions at the end when those windows open up and our hearts and minds are closed to those opportunities we might miss that opportunity and therefore that's what the is saying here the when we go through life with this idea of Yeshua are when we experience life where where every single moment we're we're ready, we're demonstrating, we're longing for, we're ready for that Yeshua to come. Okay? Our bags are packy packed, but we're we're ready to pack those bags in 10 seconds if we need to. We're ready for Yeshua or do we live our lives as lip service? Yeah, we believe in the Msiach. It's a nice idea. and says what says the son of mabbi the consequences of of of that of that fine line okay could be disastrous we could we could be causing or miss the the or missing the opportunity when it presents ourselves okay so just to build on this a little bit more we're now going to learn a short piece from this is text number seven on our sheets says the following quotes. Okay. Mashiach is not going to come until what? Until the last coin falls from our change, our pocket. Right? And now he's going to explain what that means. That is until what? There cease to exist heretics that don't believe in miracles and they write off every miraculous event by the laws of nature and they fail to see theem in those miracles. Belief in nim belief in the miraculous is a fundamental idea of yk. We need to live every single moment believing that miracles can come true. They do come true. That miracles can happen at any moment. Yeshua Yeshua. Okay. So now we're going to look at a difficulty. This is text number eight. every generation did not merit to build the Bikdash in their days. They're considered as if what they destroyed the B mikdash in their days. So that's a very very difficult idea. There are so many sadikum so many sadik sadik is that have existed throughout the many many centuries. There have been good people that have existed and have done good in the world. How could it possibly be that they're somehow held accountable because for whatever reason they didn't merit to d to build the base of mikdash. They're somehow held accountable as if what they continued to contribute to its destruction. So every single day we're going to come we're going to come back to that question in a moment. Every single day we dive in three times a day as part of we say and these are the words I want to focus on. And it Hashem should build these speedily. Well, most of us translate that sentence as what? Hashem should build your shine speedily in our in our days. But the Rebi Ruptitz has a very different take on that sentence. And Rabbi Barak Simon and his beautiful text number 10, the the next modern master we're going to learn from is Rabbi Barak Simon. Rabbi Barak Simon is one of the Russian Shiva in Yeshiva University today and is a beautiful setar called Imra Barak. And Simon in shares the following beautiful idea from the rebi of ruptured. Okayesheresh. We learn in the beautiful work of the ruptured known as mayes for the holy ruptured memory and explaining the words that we say every single day. builds as the says. And how does he build with our days? Not in our days, says the rabbi of but in or with our days. Through the way we spend our days. Every day that that a Jew worships God all in accordance to to their capability. We are contributing to what? To building. There are those that in one day can build what? A whole wall. While others, depending on our spiritual capacities, others might only be able to place one proverbial brick. This is how a Jew, every single Jew builds can build the B mikdash as they serve Hashem every day until the B mikdash will be built completely speedily in our days. So just to begin to bring this all together, we are we learned in the beginning this this powerful and challenging story of the young Kanim and I asked the question why Davka the the imagery of the youth and I think it's to suggest to us that at that moment of bias Hashem is already setting the tone that the future what do the youth represent the future generations okay the keys are in in the hands of the future generations. If we want to build the bas mikdash, we want to see the basa mikdash, the keys, the proverbial keys are in our hands. Okay? Hashem gives us the keys. The keys are our hands. What are those keys? Exactly what the rupture teaches us here. How we spend our days. Do we spend our days involved in mitzvos? Do we spend our days not only involved in our misses, but do we spend our days anticipating, longing for Msiach? Do we want to see Mashiach in our days or is that just a concept that's buried deep in the back of our minds? How we spend our days can make a difference whether we can actually turn the proverbial keys and and open up the BA mikdash once again or whether the BA mikdash will remain in ruins. So what what are we meant to do during these three weeks? We began by saying that the first thing we need to work on is what and not only but not to be okay to fix to be the was the first idea we learned. The second idea we learned that we need to really work on during these three three weeks and we all based on the faces as we discussed this we all know we need to work on this and that's the idea of Yeshua anticipating redemption wholeheartedly fullheartedly believing trusting and believing that at any moment Hashem can bring Mashiach and finally we also spoke about what this idea of recognizing the keys are in our hands how we spend our days what we do during these three weeks can make a difference whether or not we will be to see or that the mikdash will remain in. Now I want to share one last idea in the he says actually this is all mapped out for us already they decided which which haos we're going to read during these three weeks he says let's take a look at the opening words of each of those hauros we have first we have yahu okay yahu spoke shimu devarashem heed the word of god is the next haftra and the Third Torah is okay had a vision. So says it's mapped out for us how we're meant to spend these three weeks. Okay, these three weeks are meant to walk first begin with by by by working on our words yahu working on our speech. We also in the second haftra shimashem we're being taught and reminded that to work on what just as reb that we have to work on not being the cabel inappropriate speech we have to be careful with the things we not only the things we say but the things we listen to and the last idea is and that is what we have to be careful of the things we We have to intuititude ourselves not just to see appropriate or inappropriate around us but we have to condition ourselves to see the bigger picture and to anticipate that despite all the ugliness and confusion we see in this world right now we have to anticipate and see the bigger picture. Rev cook in a beautiful mammar that we may have learned together in this cla class over the weeks in the past weeks. Raf cook describes how the redemption from and the future redemption of Msiahu is one act that has not ceased. It began Hashem extended his outstretched arm and strong hand initim and it continues to weave its way through all eventualities. Cesar Cook, all of the ups and downs, the hills and valleys, the peaks and valleys of Jewish history are all contributing to the drama, the continued unfolding drama of the destiny of the Jewish people. It's a process. We are in a process. If you go into were to go into an art gallery or this will close. Rabbi David Aaron, it's a martial that I've shared many many times. If you were to go into an art gallery and look at all the different pieces of work works of art in the wall, okay, we walk in, we see masterpieces, okay, but what would happen if we were to literally go up and put our faces against right up against each one of those tapestries, what would we see? We wouldn't see a masterpiece. We'd see a bunch of ugly random blotches of paint, a bunch of squiggly, confusing lines, and it would look like total chaos and disarray. It's only when we begin to take a step back and begin to see the entire picture and take in the entire picture that we gain perspective and those ugly random squiggly lines, confusing squiggly lines and ugly blotches begin to come together to form a masterpiece. My friends, we have lived through some very confusing times, some very challenging times. And when we're in that moment, when we're in that moment, we may be dazed, we may be confused, but if we begin to take a step back and see those confusing, ugly, troubling moments within the greater context of the bigger picture of the unfolding destiny of the Jewish people, then we can see that each of those confusing moments, each of those ugly blotches are actually coming together as to form a masterpiece. that is well on its way. If we can take these ideas to heart over these next three weeks and can work on these ideas, the ideas of appropriate speech, heeding the right messages, seeing the right messages, then we will be to see that masterpiece come to its fruition with the greeting of Msiahu. Not as just a an idea in the back of our heads, but literally there will be to greet Mashia and the B mikdash. The keys, my friends, are in our hands. Have a great week.