Torah Yerushalayim: Opening Remarks | Rabbi Shai Finkelstein

I want to introduce Rabbi Shai Finkelstein. Wow. Man who it's hard to have a whole thing here to read. >> Rabbi Shai Finglestein was born 7,000 some was born in Israel attended served in the IDF and was ordained by the chief revenue of Israel. Rabshi is a popular teacher beyond popular and lecturer in a number of venues including a weekly shear for the most incredible organization in the world. in that oh you Israel he is also a senior editor of the cohen mik at at cohen publishers prior to his arrival at I spent 16 years I'm a witness because I saw him there and I saw the dresses he was given there at the at the and the senior rabbi baron hers congregation both both in Memphis uh Tennessee during his tenure in Memphis he also earned an MBA from the fogman school of business and economics from the University of Memphis where Finglestein became the RA name July 2016. Wow. Uh subsequent to which the shul has seen tremendous growth in programming, learning and popularity. All that happened for good reason. [Applause] I might grow. Um, Robert Burman, thank you very much. And Robert Shaw, thank you very much. And I'm not going to say that we love hosting the whole you because we are not hosting. They are play. It's really the same uh the same feeling. And I am so grateful Burman that that you feel at home. That's what we want. And uh it's really we're not cooperating with OU. We are not partnering with OU. We are Mash Mash Bet. So uh we'll keep that feeling bat for many many years to come. So uh I really would like to speak to you about two approaches towards me and yipur which are in a way detailed innoma. It's a very I think famous says Who is this entity that you purify yourself in front of him? And who is the one to purify you? Your father in heaven. And then he brings to the first I sprinkle some water on you and you will be purified. And the second verse is which means says the same way that the mikvah purify the impure. This is the same way that Hashem purify us. When you look at this Mishna, you definitely see two distinguish ways in terms of the first way is who is the one who do you stand in front of? Who is going to want to purify you? And the second approach was is who is the one who purifies you? And then the represents two different approaches. The first approach is mashem will sprinkle the water on us. And the second one is the idea of mikv which means you need to go into the mikvah and to immerse yourself into the mikvah. So what's the difference? So the difference is pretty obvious. When hashem sprinkle the water on us, we are passive. We don't do anything. We stand there and hashem sprinkle the water. The mikvah requires us to do something. First the preparations before we go to the mikvah so we don't have any fat. B the mikvah itself we need to make sure that it's and third and the most important thing is that we need to immerse oursel in the mikvah. We need actively to go and to immerse ourselves in the mikvah. So the Mishna and are basically trying to present present to us two different approaches. One I will call it more of a passive one which is you stand there and God sprinkle the water and the second one is the active one calling us to do something and to go into the mikvah and to seek purification. Now the interesting part is that when you look at these two approaches, we can assume that the preferable one is that we will do something. It will not be it will not be for free that we just stand there and God sprinkle the water but rather we do something about it. So if that's true, let's talk about the mikvah for a second. Not for a second, 3 minutes. The mikvah itself can purify if it's based on rain water and you create a mikvah and then you can immerse yourself in it. Can a mikvah purify another mikvah? >> How long do we have? Okay, so the answer is yes. Now, it's a bit of a tricky question, but the answer is yes. And what do I mean by that? There are two ways that you can add water to a mikvah to a a kosher mikvah or you can caser another mikvah. It's called or ashaka z literally means seeding. So if I have a kosher mikvah 40 s of rain water and I open the facet and I let the water go the mikvah from 40 s become 60 and it's still the right has it own opinion but in if I'm not mistaken says that that's we ask him like most of the and if you have a mikash and you add water you're offering obviously without changing the color all But what does it mean? It means that you take the water that were not kosher, you plant them in the kosher mikvah and it's all become what? Now it's become a big kosher mikvah. That's one way that the mikvah can operate in a way that it will cure other water. Now there is another way. It's called hashaka. If you have a kosher mikvah here and you have a non-cooser mikvah here, what do you do? You open up a little hole 5 cm and the water start moving along that's called from the wall. So when the water goes from the kosher mikvah to the non kosher mikvah the non-cooser mikvah becomes what kosh now what's happen if I close this little window little hole it's still kosher because it what it did the hashaka before now I want to take this method and talk to you about what I think we need to do this year Burman spoke about that we have to understand that this can dictate the next year. I want to talk about something that we can do not only but also it's one thing that we will create ourselves as a mikv we will immerse in the mikvah we will purify ourselves we will atone for our sins and that's wonderful the problem is or the question is or the challenge is what did we do for others who are not that fortunate to know that there is a mikvah. We're not that fortunate to know that there is someone who would like to sprinkle some water on them. So there are two ways to do it which means you invite someone and in a way you immerse him or her into your own mikvah and they become in a way an extended part of who you are. For that you really needed that person would be willing to do so to really immerse himself fully within you and to accept what you are telling him. But then there is another way hash which means you open up a little hole 5 cm between the kosher mikvah and the non-cooser mikvah between the person who knows to the people who not there yet and you create a little hole and you let the water go. The other mikvah will become kosher but will still be independent of the other one. He does not need to lose quote unquote his identity. He can just adopt a new identity. I would like to really challenge each one of us here take what what Burman said before. So this is more on a spiritual understanding of to know exactly the dening and what do we do but then to challenge you with one more challenge. Don't invite foragim only your friends. I'm sure each one of you know at least one person live alone that does not have a meal. That's a given. You bring them home. but that maybe he's not that religious or maybe he doesn't know, maybe she does not know and invite them and make an assessment. Can you try to offer or hash? And even if it's only a little hole of 5 cm, you open up meaning open for me a little thin opening and I will open for you the big door, the great door, the sanctuary, the ulam. So sometimes it's even hard or even harder to invite someone that you don't know exactly and to invite them to your house and to to to make this little hashaka. But it will go such a long way. It will show that we understand that we are really the fact that someone does not know does not mean he's not interested. It might be that he or she just didn't meet the right person and that right person might be you. So I would really encourage everyone to take the lessons from the mikvah not to wait for God to sprinkle water on all of us. Be active. Do something about it. We truly cannot live our lives based on the song of waiting for the world to change. If we will wait, it will never change. We can change the world. Look at the songs, the Hebrew song and the English song. The English song is waiting for the world to change. I'm not going to sing it. Don't Don't worry. I see people are like worried. Okay, I know I'm I'm trying to be a good rabbi. Definitely not a good singer. So, waiting for the world to change. What is the song in Hebrew? We are not waiting for anyone. We're going to change it. So it's a challenge for you and want to wish each one of you and create your own with whatever it takes to bring more people.