Parshas Emor: The Rogotchover's Recurring Dilemma and the Students of Rebbi Akiva

this Torah class is brought to you by Torah anytime.com okay good morning everyone BR to the K in cugar Hills New York I'm in Cedarhurst but um hope to be together soon today is the yard side of my great-grandfather so learning nishas yov Ben uh we're going to speak about a topic it's m Maya that this topic came up as you're going to see um it's a topic I know I I've been speaking a lot about lately and I did not intend to speak about it again this week but somehow it just came up and um we're going to bring out a very importanta today you have to put on your thinking caps and your L glasses do not defile my holy name and I will be Sanctified in the midst of the children of Israel I am the Lord who sanctifies you so from this of from this I will be Sanctified we learn out a number of things aside from the fact that we learn out the Mitzvah of K hasem which is that when somebody is put to the ultimate challenge where somebody has to either denounce his belief in the Cardinal principles of Judaism when somebody is challenged with one of the three cardinal sins one is obligated to give up their life and this is the Mitzvah of kesem but even if it's not for one of the cardinal sins even if it's for any mitz the T but if it's public if it's among the B is one has to sanctify the name of God the gar learns out from here that that how do I know an individual does not say any manner matter of Holiness whether it's to say kades to say Kad to say to say none of these things may be performed if you don't have 10 people how do we see you need 10 people says the it says the word and it says by and over there excuse me it says by um the it says by it says and it calls and we learn out from the was 10 because the there were 12 maragam take away Yeshua and K so from here we learn that you for requires a minion by the way has a chuva that let's say you have um a or a and you have nine people and you're walking down the street and you need a center you're to a minion because since the mar of Minion are the Morag and theim they were they says they were so from here we learn that to to to create a minion you could even be as someone who is not a but let's think about this concept for a moment obviously this is a concept uh this is reality that we live with every day because we're not able to D in with a minion we don't we don't have a minion unfortunately you know so we're we're stuck ding at homes so while nevertheless there are important parts of theing that we're not really capable of uh saying but let's try to understand this so you could have uh let's say you know Ravid Feinstein ketki all the big Rivas in America you gather them together in a room and they're they make up nine and they cannot D in with a minion doesn't matter they could you could take the they can't D in with a minion even though maybe they all know sh and maybe all they're all the highest level of sh and nevertheless they cannot create a minion and yet go to a jail not a petty crime jail go to a jail of and every bad a in the world if you could get 10 of these in a room they could D with a minion so you're telling me nine cannot be to make a minion and 10 be how's that possible one could put all them in his back pocket he knows more than all of them and anyone they know imagine you tooka Feinstein Aon Cutler the you take them nine put them in a room they can't say they can't say the words and you take you know 10 people who and they could be to make a minion how's that possible how do you explain that why would that be it's just about numbers it's only it's it's quantity and not quality says 12,000 pairs of they extended from gas until anti Paris and they all died in one time because they were not and the world was desolate until Rea came to the sages in the South and he taught them who did he teach and they established the tah at that time says the G they all died between p and Sh so the first thing is let's understand why did they specifically die during this time of the year primarily the month that occupies the space between p and Sh is er why did they die um primarily in ER and we're talking about we're talking about people who could be we're talking about why was it that they were not able the says they were not why why why did they have this difficulty being and why specifically R's after all was the greatest of the T then why did his have this issue and not let's say the of other so this so this is the question of the in his entry on where he quotes the in and how is it he says look he says sadim they are not like us you know we our emotions are very powerful and we can't always control our emotions but says these their hearts were in their own control to turn to Incline to whatever Direction they would want why were they they not know and why were they punished specifically during this time period so um I'm going to make a brief uh a brief appeal for whoever is listening here and whoever is listening out there so we're working on a saer on the holy tana and it's coming to completion in its writing um I thought this coming Friday would be the last year on it and I had no intention of was speaking mayor today but uh I apparently I I had May because I forgot about an entire chapter uh about R and um we're going to about to speak about it right now so if anybody wants to participate in the publishing of the saer um please contact us we'll be greatly appreciated we appreciate those who have participated so far but the gamar says in kadan and I want to introduce it the writes um I believe in the that the principle that we are the children of Hashem is the Cornerstone principle of he calls it P it is the Cornerstone principle of the Torah that we are the children of like we learned in this past week however the sh is and the discusses it's it's also and that is what if we don't act that way you know if you if you take your kids to the park and they're Rowdy and they misbehave and somebody looks at them says who are these kids so could you say I don't know I'm not sure I adopted them no it doesn't it doesn't work this way if you have children they're your kids no matter how they act but the gamar feels that it's not so simple by in terms of our relationship with HUD says that we are God's children when we act that way when we don't act that way we're his Andor as we mentioned so many times holds famously ques foolish children another children who have no faith another evil children corrupted children and it will be that instead of it be saying it be said that you are not my people it will now be said you are the children of the Living God so the gar asks why do we have to bring so many Pim and the gamar says well cuz you would think maybe we're children when we act foolish but not when we don't have amuna no even when you have no faith you're still God's kids but maybe not when you serve Idols no even when you serve idols and you're Mas you're still God's kids and but maybe I was say okay you're called a naughty boy no you're called a a gaka Gaz a Tyra yinga doesn't matter what doesn't matter what we do so the um it doesn't matter what we do and how do we pasin so um you'll say what do you mean how do we pasin this is not a matter of but we've mentioned many many times the Raja writes in ch that we pasan like ra the reason why we pasan like R is because ra cites many to defend his position over the years we quoted other reasons why we passing like from because the the only reason typically we don't pass in likeor um right in general we never passing like R the says we don't passing like like R but the reason is because 's opinion is so deep we don't understand it but we mention that our relationship with God is relevant to God so in God's realm he certainly understands the depth of rme's sh and therefore regarding this issue we pasing like ra others say we passing like raer because typically raor is quoted first as a tanama and here he's quoted last indicate he has the last word be it as in May and this instance we P like that we are always the children of hem I'll just remind you on Friday in the per we learned that the ran the ramban disagrees with the Rajan the ramban says we Pas like Ruda ran in Hau and the closenberg rebba says Rashi and Par also seems to indicate we Pas and like rabih Huda but that being the case we're going to be uh exploring R mayor's opinion that we are always considered the children of Hashem get a load of this we're about to open up a new understanding of this let's try to understand the concept of a minion and a the gar tells us always be afraid of the why should I be afraid of the Yano I'm not afraid of Yano barrel barrel I'm I could put Barrel in my back pocket FAL nothing to be scared of why do tell us one should always have to the point where the says that the the greatest of all the prophets was punished because he said listen up you rebels so as thean in the it's number six on your sheet why why was mha punished for calling the Jewish people Rebels Ruan was a rebel shim was a rebel Ley was a rebel every individual y was a rebel so what was mha doing wrong by calling them Rebels says the ran and the ran reveals an amazing concept that CLA is does not just the sum total of its parts CLA isra is not just 600,000 uh people one two you know what what are what is the entity of the Jewish people The Entity is the the names that make up the composite of the Jewish people no the details the individual Jews that make up the Jewish people fused together join together and when they come together they are elevated above the sum total of their parts they're forged into an entity called seore and the seor transcends the respective limitations of each individual so while ruin may be a rebel and Shimon may be a Russia and Ley might be no goodnick but together CLA is is Untouchable and the entity of CLA Isel is not diminished not by the shortcomings of Ruin and not even by my shortcomings there's an entity there's a composite called Isel that transcends the respective limitations of each individual says the ran this is what the gamar means when it cites the opinion of RA May that we are always the children of Hashem even if we're foolish even if we don't keep mitz even if we have have no amuna even if we worship idols we're called AA says the r not the that Ruan is called ainga No Maybe Ru is a rash Mar as a y the individual he might be foolish he might be corrupt and he's not called a good child according to the ran when the gamar says that R holds we are always the children of hasem that means the entity of Israel The Entity of clis of the nation B is are always called the children of hem in other words as a collective composite we are Untouchable we are not diminished by the limitations of our of what makes us up and in that sense and therefore M was not allowed to call the Jewish people Mo he could call Ru he could say Ru you're a rebel shim you're a rebel Ley you're a rebel but he could not say that the Jewish people are Rebels because as a nation as a people we are the we're this is the principle of the ran and this is a principle that we're about to um explore based on six different of R Rosen known as the r he is often referred to as he was born in r in 1858 and he was n in Vienna in 19 1936 he was one of the greatest gu of the 20th century he had a photographic memory he was born in rachov in the Belarus to a family of laim and at the age of 13 he went to study in slutsk by RIM salich under Rim's father of the B Hali he then studied under Mahar disin and then he was the RV of theid community in dinin for about 50 years and his counterpart of the lfish community was RA simin and they served side by side for 50 years in excellent relation um he actually gave SM to uh he gave to Ritz's father in Moritz um okay now it's interesting that um he had many writings and his manuscripts were smuggled out of laia in the form of micro photographs which were mailed to a saffron family in the Bronx at the outbreak of World War II and those who were invinc to help smuggle out his manuscripts were both caught by the Nazis and were killed so many of his seven were published by R Andel Kasher and some by Tis so the rag was one of the greatest all time and he discusses this he discusses this concept that the ran mentions and that we quoted from the so we begin in number eight in a saer called where in he says that the rambam scoffs at those who want to differentiate between the concept of composite and detail however says the rug the truth is this is a very big G in in many areas regarding theor and the Pratt in other words let's try to understand the concept of PR and seor are the of the or are they a what does this mean in other words we could say the same thing about um the human body for instance let's talk about the human body is there such a thing as a detail does a detail is a detail in entity in it of itself or is it merely a fragment of the composite or we could say the the the other way around is a composite an entity of itself or is it merely a composite of all the details for example is there really a concept of human being is there an entity of human being some philosophers would say no there's no such thing as a human being there's blood and there are veins and there cells and there are teeth and there's enamel and there's hair and there's skin and there eyes and they and they just happen to come together but it's there's no entity of human being it's just the various details that make that make it up or do we say no there's no such thing as we or we say no a tooth is just a tooth and a vein is just the vein and blood is just a blood and each one in and of itself is almost has no value only in that it comes together to produce an entity called human being here I'll give you a good example until about I don't know uh five six years ago my life was wonderful and then uh I somebody gave me this big box that I don't even know what it is it has wires and it has chips and it has buttons and it has a grass a glass screen and you know it it makes your life um very complicated you get messages on it people need things on it you could send things on it a computer you know a computer can make your life easy and a computer could uh make your life uh extremely difficult so is there is a computer just a composite of wires battery um chips buttons glass green and metal or do we say no a wire can't do anything a chip can't do anything a battery can't do anything a glass screen can't do anything it's only the way it is put together the various details that are in it of the of them in it of itself very limited fused together to create something that that transcends the limitation of each detail so this is a that the r CLS in the and he says this is really a r and RI and that is let's say you have a so you say let's say you have 10 people you say let's say you have 100 people if you have 100 people you say there is an opinion you say and let's say you have a thousand the says and let's say you have 10,000 you say that is the opinion of the says Raba no there's no difference not between 10 11 20 100 a th000 10,000 a gazillion you could be benching in metli stadium you're it's going to be the same it's and who do we like look sa B number 10 on your sheets the bottom line what is this what is the between and says the r explained by in number 11 in the he says holds that aor is merely the sum total of its parts so if you have 10 people the Tor is 10 and if you have 11 people the tior is 11 and if you have a 100 people it's a 100 people and if it's a th it's a th and therefore the respective value of a cber of 100 is much greater than of 10 and the respective value of aor of a thousand is much greater than 100 and therefore it shows when you have 10 people you say when you have 100 you say Hashem when you have a thousand you say hash when you have 10,000 you say him in other words says the gamar saysi aor is not a different entity than the individuals who make it up so if you have less individuals the respective value of aor is less if you have more individuals it's more and it's going to show in the text that you say in the Liturgy that you say and therefore the more people the more you praise because holds there's no such thing as an entity of aore aor is merely the sum total of its parts so you know Accord toi you could have the following expression because if the people who D in the then the is more if the people D in the sh are not then theor is not that is the opinion of rabi but comes Raba Raba says like this aor is much greater than the sum total of its parts was not allowed to call Rebels that is because they were not Rebels as a they're not Rebels they transcend the limitations of their respective members therefore RAB hold the same way is not downgraded by the by the respective limitations of their members aor is not upgraded by the respective levels of their members either and therefore um therefore aore would not differentiate between 10 100 or a thousand interestingly number 12 in the the rug quoted by he quotes the question of of the philosophers also about the philosophers disagree their camps of philosophers of idealism and camps of philosophers of realism and again they debate whether a human being is more than the whether human being is more than just his hair and skin and eyes and uh teeth or does the human being fuse together to become a a composite that transcends this here's another illustration of this which we find in the brought in the per on page 56 let's say I say I hereby and I'm not saying this but let's say somebody would say I hereby make a that I will not get Hana from anyone in the city of Q Garden Hills okay so all you guys in the I can't get H from you but let's say somebody then comes and moves into ugard Hills later and lives in qar Hills for 12 months the opinion of the ran and the opinion of ramban is excuse me the opinion of the ran and the opinion of the rambam is that I am AER not only to everyone living in cugar Hills but if somebody moves in later and lives there for 12 months then you are prohibited then the person who made the ne is prohibited in other words one is also not only to those who are living in the city but also to those who move into the city and Hally become a resident of the city however the ramban disagrees and the ramban holds your only Auer to those living in the city so the rra comes and explains what is this what is the between the ran and rambam who say you're user to anybody who will ultimately live in the city and only and the ra and the ramban who says only those who are currently living in the city oh says the is very simple when you answerer yourself to the residents of the city how do what is a city what is a composite if a city is just a sum total of its parts so it's only a sum total of the parts of those who are currently living in the city if someone moves into the city later he was not a resident of the city and therefore you're not user to him hence the opinion of the ramban however the ran and the rambam hold that there's an entity called a City and the entity of the city is much greater than the sum total of its parts you're it it it's transcends to become an entity called City residents well City residents mean anyone who's a resident of the city so even someone who moves in later provided that they're living there for 12 months would would be considered a resident of the city and the person who made their n would be user to them okay let us continue number seven um number 17 there's a that a carbon can only be brought by a and not by because it says only a individual only an individual could bring a carbon y not Partners how does a bring a carbon uh which is a but technically when the brings the carbon she's bringing it on behalf not only of her but on behalf of her husband as well and and a husband and wife are a partnership so the same way cannot be a carbon m a husband a should not be able to be m a carbon M either because it's considered a carbon of Partners oh comes the rugged shover and he says no there's a very big difference between partners and a husband and wife a husband and wife marriage is not a partnership it's whatever she says no just joking marriage is not a partnership marriage is a institution marriage meaning it's not husband and wife it's is it's not is is it's is it's a fusion it's a harova it's a harova m mizus um mgus it's a fusion and a mixture of a entity called marriage so it's not considered a carbon of but instead it's considered brought on behalf of this institution hence a husband and wife would be able to bring the carbon of a we now move on to a great lumus of a also one of the great of the end of the 20th of the end of the 19th century beginning of the 20th century RF Angel who is a ren crack out and ultimately in um he's buried in Vienna at this to be at his and he wrote many many and like the rugged shover he also had a encyclopedic memory and he was able to fuse together and tie weave together strands of nigla nistar lumus and he deals with the very interesting sh he deals with the following sh says the that Bim that who bring a carbon if one of the partners has an improper cavana why don't we say that um the opinion of is if one of the partners has an improper kavana they will be the carbon so asked R angle so how is any carbon tet ever good if one member carbon tet is a carbon seore brought on behalf of all of K Isel if one member of Cl has an improper kavana he will then be downgrading and destroying the carbon toid because his according toi that the Cav of a of any of the BM ruins a carbon so how is a carbon T brought maybe one of the members of clol will have an improper says of angle number 20 in the no you're making a big mistake there's a big difference between partners partners are are not an an Enterprise Partners is ruven and Sh but a carbon seab is brought on behal of theor and just like Rea holds that a bigger or more ofor does not Elevate the tore the same way the ran teaches us that even if someone is a murderer he doesn't downgrade the tore so too if one member of the Tira of Cl has an improper cavana this will not destroy the carbon the reason it won't destroy the carbon is because the seabo transcends the limitations of its individual members and one individual improper kavana will not downgrade the uh level will not downgrade the status of a carbon brought on behalf of all of Claus this is the concept that thean explains that one of the ingredients of Kus was ex excuse the expression smelled terribly are rre but nevertheless when it was together with the other ingredients it was neutralized so too we could have this that this that but when they enter the they become part of theor theor transcends the limitations of all their parts therefore we go back to the concept of a minion you could have nine so long as it's nine they're and each y has deficiency but once you have 10 people even though I'm deficient and maybe the other guy is but when we fuse together to become aor we are elevated to an amazing status the status ofor transcending the respective limitations says the holy I believe this is his thear says that this was the following Min when he would D in with theore he would DAV briefly because of when he daved by his on his own you would leave him in one corner you would find him in another corner he D with so much with so much with so much energy and he was Mar says this Isa when he daved on his own he D with a br he DAV with you couldn't find him near anywhere near the place that he started but why was Raba so brief when he DAV in with the because Rea is the one who holds that when you have 100 people a thousand people the is the same the of Ving is the same because an individual does not take away from the Tor but an individual doesn't add to the seor you're neutralized aor is not downgraded by the deficiencies of its members but it's not upgraded by the attributes of its members and therefore says if i d on my own so I'm on my own so it's all dependent on me I'm going to give it everything I have but i d with the seab the se's is not elevated by any added kavana and therefore did not have the same need and we could say amazingly this is because there's another OFA and that is in the mishna that says beloved are the Jewish people we are always considered the children of even greater love is that it was told to us that we are the children of has who is the balra that we are always the children of hem amazingly the balra per is now does hold like we said said many times that there's a famous story in Baba Basra a conversation between tus ruus and RAB AKA where tus ruus ask Rea hey RAB AKA does God love the poor Raba says sure he loves the poor so tonus ruus says so why doesn't he find them a job so says tus Rufus in my opinion if you give charity to the poor you should be Misa because the king decreed that one of his servants should not be supported and you're going to contravene the decree of the of the king says Rufus my opinion anyone who gives SED says no bad example this is analogous to a King who put his kid in jail and no one was allowed to feed the king what will the king do to someone who feeds his kid the king will reward him says RAB AKA that is what giving sadaka is says y that means hold no matter what if you're always allowed to give s that means we are always like the children of Hashem and the reason we pass like says in his commentary to the reason why we pass in likeor is because agrees toor that and is always like RAB AA and even though we never passing like R but we do passing like RAB AA and especially here R and reab AKA are now the RO against RAB Huda but I want to add reab AKA is the balam that we are always the children of Hashem why are we always the children of Hashem but what if this guy is not deserving that guy is not deserving reab says doesn't matter but as a collective entity we're Untouchable we're it's immutable God's love for us as a seor is immutable ah this is re who holds that the deficiencies of an individual do not downgrade the tore but this is also RAB AKA who holds the attributes of the individual do not upgrade the comes and number 19 and he says we know that have to Accord each other great respect everyone has to Accord each other great respect why do I need to respect you why do you need to respect me what's the concept what is the motivation what is the reason to respect one another well I respect you because you have my I don't have you have me I don't have you have I don't have you have qualities that I don't have and maybe I have qualities that you don't have so since every person has his individual strengths I need to respect you for your individuality and your individual good qualities however if you were a student of RAB AKA let's think about some of the teachings that you would probably always hear you you would always hear Hashem always loves the Jewish people that no matter what one individual does God's love for the seore is immutable and Untouchable that the entity of is transcends limitations of individuals but we know if that's what we would hear from our rebbi Raba we would likewise also hear and see reab AA when he would D Bor he wouldn't D extra long because theor is not upgraded by the relative strengths of its members there's no difference between 10 100 and a thousand there's no that seor is not elevated by the sum tootal of its parts in a way this concept taken to the extreme diminishes the individual strength of a because when you focus on the greatness of aor yes theor is great that it it it rises above the limitations of its members but it is also not elevated by the strengths of its members it's it's you know for lack of a better term in a way taken to its extreme it's communism where there's just the end there's the state but the individual in a way if he doesn't diminish he also doesn't Elevate and in a sense focusing on this too much could lead to not being it was specifically The Who emphasized the god the greatness of the entity and the composite and the seore lost a little bit from the individuality and the greatness of the and this says the sh is the meaning of the med that Hashem loves CL really in two ways there's a national love and there's an individual Love Actually you know when we say many of the and we have a share on this learn that the reason why it says the and not the is to teach that God's love for us is not only on a national level but on an individual level also the sh cites his father theer saying on the Meda number 24 one says Hashem counts us like stars and another says this indicates that God loves us on two on two levels he loves us as a nation and he also loves us individually for our respective strengths and the sh is says you know the month of niss is the ma the Mas of the sheep tell us about the Sheep it has only one voice to the month of Nissan represents CL Isel being beloved as a nation but the month of the mael is a thear rash says about AAR the Horn of an ax is composed of many many composite Parts the month of says the sh is the month of God's love for the Jewish people as individuals there he says it is the month of when we need to focus on how loves us as that we have to strengthen ourselves in the being and therefore the specifically because of the emphasis on the greatness of the transcending above the limitations of its members they sort of lost track of the greatness of each individual that is why since most of spher during the month of er that is why these students passed away in the month of we are says theah is azah on the individual and no individuals with the of his friend has two parts says says it's MIT to count days we count the days to indicate that we are beloved to God as we count the weeks to indicate we are beloved to God as the CL so this is Rea who held that the minion is not elevated by more people in the minion and therefore we don't say Hashem a minion of 10 is like a 100 is like a thousand this is the opinion that when you oer yourself to a community even someone who moves in later you're user to because they're part of the community this is the opinion that if you that a could bring a because marriage is an entity that's greater than just husband and wife this is the opinion that aor cannot beel the carb because theor rises above the limitations of each individual member and this is the opinion of RAB AK who his when he was not as long but his who knew sort of this this opinion was taken to the extreme and we always have to remember the's love for us is in two ways the as as aor and as individuals so with that let us um take the lesson of the to count the the weeks to realize our worth in front of Hashem as aor and to count the days to realize our worth in front of before as in individuals okay everyone feel good be good stay safe over 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