Parshat Acharei Mos - Ballistic at Ben Gurion - A Talmudic Response to Modern Day “Makkos“

Heat. Heat. [Music] My birthday. [Music] Welcome everyone. Today 22nd day of the omare we are past para tazri mitsorra which spoke about niggoim. is the afflictions that occurred in the time of the Bik in the time of the Mishkan time of the midbar uh that revealed the work that we needed to do to develop spiritually and we'll get into some of that but also uh we we finished makot on Shabas and we're moving towards shabua we started mas shabu mascos deals with the punishments that we get for violating a serious love makos is a mini it's a scare of death It's not supposed to be a death blow, but it's it's not far from it. It is a capital punishment. In the gar, it says that if we just learned today in the dafomi that if you warn somebody not to do a a law, for example, not to violate chabas, okay? Um and um and that's a death penalty if you have warning according to the Torah. But sometimes in theory people could warn them not to do it and they would get macos. There's a whole question whether macOS is like a lesser death penalty and therefore if you warn them warn people don't do it and you will get macos you will get the 39 lashes administered by in a specific way with a very hard strap made out of cow skin and and donkey skin which hurts a lot and brings a person into contrition and embarrassment so that they'll do chuva. um will that work in a place where it's a a life and death uh penalty because it's pretty serious. So macos are serious uh business and it's it's it's not on every type of thing that you would get macos and that's what we've been learning about up until now and then we just began the garra shuos and we're going to see about the connection between the two because why not because that's what's current in the Jewish world but also because current in the para because we learned about and the beginning of shua speaks about margarim exactly what we talked about in this week's parha the kanim seeing the various types of skin afflictions and judging them for what they are how serious they are and whether they require a person to be shut away for a period of time and then and be sent away from the camp. So these are serious issues negim about whether or not a person is create is is a dangerous person that that they need to go back and do some inner work before we can read them to the general society because they're a danger to themselves and to society and the primary cause of that of course being the primary cause being lash harra being people who cannot be trusted to speak properly and we're going to talk about that in a second but here's the overarching reason yesterday there was a ballistic missile attack at Bengorian airport. No one was killed that nobody was seriously injured although five people were lightly injured but oanu it was like a maka but not maka being that we got smitten. How do we get smitten? because airlines immediately cancel their flights to Israel and that incurs a terrible financial immediate financial loss and problems for travelers and frightens people away from Israel and it's a maka. It may not have been misused but it was a serious maka and um so my question so things have gone ballistic at Bengorian. The title of today's shar is ballistic at Bengurian. When will the maros end and the shus begin? I repeat, ballistic at Bengurian. We saw something awesome. We have to look at it both ways. Thank Hashem that it wasn't worse. But look and probe at what's going on over here. What is the story with all these macos? young men who died seemingly for no reason entering Gaza and making mistakes about which building to to to go in and detonate. What difference does it make? And I'm not here to speak politics or army. I know nothing about both. But seems to me that there was a mistake made and senseless death of beautiful 19year-old or 18-year-old or 20-year-old young men with a whole life ahead of him shalom. Those are misusdons. Those are death penalties and we're very very concerned. So our question is when will the makos end and the shuos what are the shuos? Well the famous shuos are positive and positive and concerning that hashem and I'm going to speak about that were are recounted at the end of the makos with which we made a today. So we're going to bring all these things together, the para, the dafayomi, the current events, and we're going to learn some very, very, very informative and helpful information straight from Kazal. Straight from Kazal. How do we how do we take a position what's going on without just throwing our hands up in despair or saying why is this some why is this suffering happening to us or when will it end? So all of the above. What can we do Hashem to d into you to earn the to earn this and to thank you for your ongoing protection amidst all of this? Now I have to add to that a couple of other things that happened and then we're going to go into the into the drussos and the deeper understanding of of how to have a havana about our interaction with Hashem when we see these types of things in the Torah in our lives in our learning. So there's a story like this. There's a there's a there's a bar a bar a series of bars owned by a Jewish fellow very popular sports bars. People go in there and do what they love to do. Watch sports and drink. Jews love to watch sports, but they don't drink that much. Other guy like to drink, but they don't watch the sports so much. But there's a whole group of people that love to watch and drink, both mileas. So, they came and they brought them their their beverages so they could get drunk. And they put a little sign on. No one knows exactly why, but the waitress came with a sign to enhance the experience that they were having at their table and they put a sign curse the Jews. I wanted to say the expletative deleted that they put on the sign and this is put on their table to enhance their visual and also alcoholic experience. What does that mean? What that means is is that when a person wants pawn and pleasure in America today, in America today, this is real. This is not fake. Part of the great pleasure of being an American today is to join into the public realry and and the great crowd dynamic of hating the Jews and willy-nilly hating Israel. That's considered fun. That's considered recreation. That's considered um appropriate social behavior. That's a maka too. What's going on? So the guy who happens to be Jewish said oh these people who came to my bars I'm going to send them Holocaust education material. Yeah. But that's not the point because it's not about individuals. It's true if you pick out these people as individuals they'll be ashamed of their behavior. But that's not the concern. The concern is that the that the group dynamic in America has now turned to such an anti-semitic tipping point that this is considered legitimate social behavior. If that's not a concern for someone who grew up in America, which many of us did, um that should that should that should be looked at as a red light. Okay. So with all these things in front of us with ballistic missiles arriving from the Houthis Yallaya with things heating up with Iran especially with America unknown somewhat ambivalent connections between the US will and Israeli and what's good for America and within Israeli society what it wants. What do we do? What is a God-fearing loving Jew who loves Clus loves Torah? What can we do? Is there anything that we can do? Of course, we can dabble, but let's look inside. And I think there's some incredible, incredible information that Khazal planted intentionally at the end of the mass makos that is exceedingly informative to Jews throughout the generations when and where they encounter various macos ballistic or not. Look at the end of the gum. Everybody knows at the very end of Makos the famous story of Rabaka and his and his um friends at the time of the bdash and how Rabaka viewed the episode of a foximbo of a fox emerging from the keshka uh unlike his friends. Okay. And I'm going to I'm going to read you that story. But before I do, I'm going to read you the previous part. Everybody talks about this little piece of agato which appears several places in shas and it and it's punctuates makos. So let's think let's think together. Why would Khazal in their incredible wisdom, depth, knowledge, foresight place this episode at the end of Makot and as a liaison to mash and I will tell you from learning as we've been doing the last few days, you will see that the garra was very very curious about the connection between Macos and spends the entire first couple block trying to sort about the structure of the first Mishna and its connection to the previous uh laws of Makot and it's all about Makos. It's incredible. It's as if Makos continues to blot or more into Makashuos. So, we're still learning about Makos. And I'll explain why. For those learning about me, you'll understand, but I'll make it into simple terms. But first of all, that's the end piece. That's the pinnacle, the story of Bika and his friends viewing this tragic episode of a fox emerging from the kotesh kadashim which means abandonment which means bewilderment which means uh a sense of of of uh lack of life lack of future lack of human uh presence. It's wildlife and why is shell in particular? Could be something else but it could have been uh some other sort of life form. And then the comparison split screen is that the Romans are engaging in an incredibly loud u disturbing and idolatrous celebration. Who knows what was going on over there, but one thing is for sure. The screaming, the shouts, the celebration echoed in the ears of Rabbi as they watched the shu going out. And the juxaposition of those two things led his friends to tears, but not Rebak. Those makos did not concern Rabaka the way they did his friends. And we'll see why. But before we do that, we have to go back one step earlier in the Gmorrah because the Gmorrah asks as an intro to this, how shall I say pinnacle, the summit of MFakos is this story and in in in uh enforce it and embellish it upon us more than one time in Shas and by putting it to the end of the saying look at this this is vital in fact it's even But before that there was an introduction. They asked an incredible question. The question was as follows. Reb this is [Music] on towards the end of the dabb gave us a very famous um teaching. He said meloit moh there were 613 meos the mitzvos given at si you want to talk about matan tora you want to talk about understanding the essence of Torah what Torah really is constructed with what is it what is Torah so he said the Torah contains 613 mitzvos right and 365 negative commands uh that can spawn to the solar year. Why the solar year? Why is negative the solar year? We can speculate only 248 positive commands. Now that focus on man. If you look at it for a second before going any further, one is about the solar system and one is about man. Huh? That gives you a little bit hint about what Torah is all about. The Torah is telling man how to interact with the created world of Hashem, i.e. the solar system, the sun. It doesn't say anything about the moon here. It says the moon is like Israel, but the sun is the creation of Hashem, right? And that sets the tone for all human experience. That's what's the source of life. Without the sun, we would perish immediately. And with too much sun, we would still perish immediately. There is a message, a theme in the Torah is daring here. He says, you know what the Torah is really all about? The Torah is telling man how to navigate the world in which Hashem created him into. What am I doing here? What's the purpose here? How am I going to live with this? How am I going to make sense or purpose or meaning out of this world and and of my life of my very essence? You got it. We gave you Torah. Take the Torah, apply it to yourself, apply it to your circumstances. And that's the message of Torah. So telling us Torah is essentially instructions for living and navigating our natural world. Beautiful. But then he said and then he deres that from another puk. But then the garra says as follows. Uh another that was all right. And then it says David, right? He says, "If you want to get a message about the essence of Torah, you need not look at all the mitzvos, the entire creation and the entire experience of humanity. You could actually look and focus down on 11 ethical requirements. They are so to speak the roots of the 613 mitzvah." What is that? Saidim, right? Who is it that will dwell in the tent of Hashem and on your holy mountain? Again, tent, human, mountain, nature, who will be successful in this great goal of really living our lives and using our our lifetimes in a way which enhances not only us but the world. And you're living with Hashem, in a way of kadusha. Number one, an honest person, a sincere person, a straight person. Two poet that you are looking not only to be perfect like Noah. Noah is sadikim. Okay, it's great to be Noah, but it's not enough. Poelc, which is the name of a shoe in Pittsburgh, by the way, poed. Nice sh in Pittsburgh. Rabbi Miller. Anyway, That was Mosher Rabenu. Like Mosher Rabenu who who says that Moshe brought to Clal Israel, right? That he brought to Clal Israel. He brought justice to the Jewish people. Mosher was not content to be perfect himself, which he was. He could have stayed by Israel who might have meditated in the desert the rest of his years and been the ultimate sadic but alone. So no, no, I'm going to go back to Mitim and I'm going to bring justice to the world and I'm going to bring situs to the Jewish people. Now here comes number three. Dober MS Bilabo, an honest person that his essence is truthful. If you live on a lie, if you live based on a lie, right? And the Torah is the truth and anything else is the lie. So if you admit to yourself, listen, whatever I think of myself, whatever I think of everybody else around me, whatever my wants and desires are, as it says in going forward, going backwards, what I will do, what I won't do, there is one truth and that's Torah. So if I pursue what the Torah tells me to do, I'm seeking truth. If I don't, I'm seeking my own uh embellishment, enticements, whatever I want, then that's a lie. And you have to be very clear about that that a person should say, number one, I want to be good. Number two, I want to help others. Number three, but I got to be truthful. I have to be truthful. The only way I can be and the only way I can be uh helpful to others with justice is with Hashem's justice. with Hashem's definition of tumimus. Okay, we're not going to go into that right now. Then it says, oh, excuse me, alo he refuses to speak evil. So again, the non-corruption of language. What's in your heart is what goes on in your communication. It comes out. The feelings of your heart emerge in your thoughts and then in your speech as the Tanya speak Tanya explains in depth. If our words are evil about others, then we are not we are not aligned with the goal of Torah. Finished. And and similarly, don't speak evil and don't do evil. Most of what's happening in the world today about the Jewish people, which is what I told you in that opening story about what's happening in the sports bars, blank the Jews, is about worse than Lashinhara. It's Moti Shamra. It's slander, right? And the next immediate thing that happens after that is violence. Throughout the history of the Jewish people and for example I can tell you from 1391 to 1492 literally right what's that 100 years um 1391 there was terrible slander and persecution of the Jews verbally until there was complete expulsion 100 years later. It took 100 years and then there was no internet. today takes 100 seconds but in that time it was 100 years till seeped into every person's poison mind and heart the Jews need to be expelled they are the killers of this another thing that went on another thing that went on because I look for these things I look for these things in understanding our world there was another crazy thing that took place in the United States Senate which is disturbing to the core disturbing to the core They wanted to they wanted to pass a definition of anti-semitism, which is that if you hate on Israel and hate on the Jewish people that you're an anti-semite. There were two people who got up, one in Congress and one in the Senate, that made amendments. So, our good friend, fellow traveler Bernie the Jew, um you know, Senator Bernie, who who you know You have to hand it to him. He's very consistent. He's like the He's like the one who calls out the wickedness of the Jewish people. We He must see himself as a modern- day prophet of some kind. He says we have to be able to say and condemn. You can't adopt this definition of anti-semitism because if you stop saying bad things about Israel and and that's lashon of lalono because he accepts any mishagas that kamas says as virtual truth and he repeats them and he says that and worse shamra he says I have to be able to say that the Jews are committing genocide and that everything the kamas says is true. If that amendment will be assigned here then I'm good. Okay, don't hate on the Jews except when it comes to Israel and the Palestinians and the issue of erratic Israel on that a mock bid. He said, I need to be able to retain my ability to accuse the Jews, my fellow people, of genocide because in his mind that's the biggest mitzvah he could ever do, assuming he wants to do mitzvah. And there was one other objection. There's a woman named Green who's at least I say controversial is uh in the Congress and she said, "Wait a minute. If you say we can't speak lush and haram say she shmer about the Jews, what about the great slander of my religion that the Jews killed our Lord? I have to put an amendment into the Senate law which this was last week. This was Wednesday of last week. Okay, this was a week ago. not even a week ago and they said I have to have reserve the right to call Jews killers of God. So we have two caveats here. I need to be able to retain the right to call the Jewish people uh bal genocide and also that their religion is is deicide will kill. As long as those two things are still kosher, we will say the rest of the things you say about the Jews and Israel are okay with us. This does not disturb you. They're paying attention. Hello Jews around the world paying attention. This really happened. And one of them was one of us. One of the people saying this stuff to condemn Israel to the core at all times as genocidal maniacs is us. is is one of us. What is Hashem telling us? But that's not it says. Okay, this is 15. He said there's still more more requirements if you want to hold on to the essential basis of Torah. He didn't actually harm his fellow person because when you start speaking Russian, the next thing is to harm him, right? And He didn't suffer at the hands of his relative. Meaning that means that you're I'll give you an example like this. All Jews are evil because one Jew somewhere did something bad. Now we know this from the modern era the is the issue of the Drifus trial where they confused where you know where they would they took this um Jewish military person in Paris and they they accused him of treason and they used the trial as a way to put the entire Jewish people and Torah on trial. What's that about? And one of the things they said at the trial was your says Adam, the Jewish people are called Adam, but the non-Jews, the Gentiles are not called Adam. Isn't that discriminatory and racist? This came on the in the Drifus trial going back. This is what inspired uh Herzel who was a young secular vianese know nothing about Torah mitzos or Judaism journalist covering the trial says enough is enough. We got to get out of this place. They hate us to the core. We need our own country. And Hashem used him as an instrument uh to help bring about the modern state of Israel. is very very interesting ways. But this event spurred at least at least um according to some the the uh the very movement it certainly spurred Herzel into action. So now what did they say? So what did they enter the trial? They had certain rabbis and represented Jewish people defending defending the faith and they said I'll tell you what it means. It means that we're all the the non-Jews are not subhuman. It just means the Adam is singular. We are one. Meaning you could be five million French people. But there aren't really five million French Jews. I mean 5 million Jews. There's always one Jew because whatever a Jew does in any place on the planet will be considered the responsibility of every other Jew on the planet. And that's why we are called Adam because you view us as a person, as one person. If a Jew does something wrong, you claim in Syria. In Syria, there was a blood liel. That means all Jews around the world are guilty of blood liel. You have looked at us as Adam. We have not. And and we're proud of it because we are eh. We are because we're connected to Hashem. And that's why we're And that's why we have to that's why we can't sustain disunityity of the nature that we have today in our own country. That's the real tragedy is a division within protest this way, protest that way, uh secular versus religious, religious versus uh army, army versus it's it's unfathomable. It's unsustainable and it's evil. Not only that, but forget evil. It's dangerous. It's outright dangerous because our lack of ehood is a fatal flaw. Okay? And that's what it means, you know, that you have a a sense of contempt for other people. If we have contempt for for each other, contempt, then that's that's off. That's honor those who fear Hashem. Don't despise them. Honor them. Be truthful. Can you imagine taking oaths? And here we go from we go into taking oaths that your word is your word. That's not all one big lie. You can't get up in the media and say whatever you want to say. Truth or fact makes no difference. You can't just get up there and say lies about people about what happened, what didn't happen. And similarly, you didn't lend money with interest, which is destructive to other people. We all know compound interest is our biggest financial problem whether it's mortgages or loans or anything else and and and and if we're on the other side of it it's our biggest benefit but the Torah doesn't allow only within certain parameters to in certain circumstances and with Iska etc because it's very powerful it's no it's bites it it subjugates people we're saddled with debt modern man is saddled with debt whether it's the debt of their house or if they're car over over the fineries that they want to buy, their vacation, everything else. Yeshiva tuition, you name it, debt, pay vacation, debt, and don't let money bribe your judgment. Oh, then you're on the course of the Torah. So David took all 613 mitzvah, right, and said there are 13 ethical principles that are the core of all these mitzvos. So if you really want to know what Torah is all about, and it's hard for you to comprehend and analyze all 613 mitzvos, let's start with this as a basic foundation, and then you'll learn all the rest of the Torah mitzvos. It's a lifetime project. Uh one second. The Gomorrah has has uh compares these to various biblical figures. Each one of the 11 is personified in the good way of etc. And then um the Gmorra goes on to say no follows David and breaks it down into six. Okay, I'm just going to skip over that one for reasons of time. Yes. Okay. And the Gomorrah analyzes that that uh those six. Okay. And then finally Yesh afterwards after he tried the the six principles he boiled it down to two. As it says in per nunva very important paric of Sodaka sodaka and mishbat sedaka means righteousness especially in terms of of uh of compassion, kindness and justice. And then there's also mishbat which is maintaining law and order. Yeah. If you not have mishbat and you don't have civil law, society will deteriorate. So he said there's basically Torah has two primary objectives. If you want to get to the bottom of all the 613 mitzvah says you in fact it's echoed in a Mishna at the end of par one in the name of Shimo if you want to maintain the world three things are necessary he says right so it says Because are the same thing, right? And similarly here you have two because it says over there from Mashia. If you look at the very last Mishna, you'll see the same two concepts and stuck by also in the Torah itself, Hashem says he chose he chose because he will teach his student his progeny to do and then what does it say or what's that's the important comparison between when to be strong and when to be kind, when to be strict and when to be softer. How you going to know? It requires the wisdom of Schlomma. In fact, this speaks the famous story of Schlomik and the two women who came with the baby, the fighting over the baby. And that's brought here because that required it required a knowledge. Who's the who's the right mother? Who can ever know? It requires that's the message of Yesh. You can't run this world with Mishb and Sodaka without the Torah. The Torah will is the basis of it. So now go learn the 613 mitzvos and you'll figure out what mishben is. When there was the famous medical ethics question about the Siamese twins, not Siamese twins, yeah, conjoined twins. Conjoined twins that went back in the 80s and the the doctor at the time was a famous u the the surgeon general of the United States was C. Ever Coupe. That name might ring a bell. C. Shepher Coupe was the one who first put out that smoking was dangerous. He was the first one who put the surgeon general's warning on. But they had a case where there was this this uh some some child was born as conjoined twins and one could survive if the other one were removed. So, can you kill one to can you kill one of the um one of the attached twins in order to save his fellow or just have to not do anything and let them die? And this became a raging question in medical ethics. And it came all the way to the attention of the Jewish community. And they put the question to Mosha Feinstein. And in a very famous chuva, Mosha Feinstein Poskined that the one who wants to kill the other one who whose presence would cause the death of the other was permitted to be done away with because he had a d of a rodeave. That was a very interesting sac medical ethic, one of the great medical ethics questions of all time. and Raosha and C. Ever Coupe, the surgeon general of the United States at the time said, "Go ask that elderly rabbi and what what this what the proper ethics is and whatever that elderly rabbi says is the truth." He said, "I can't figure this out. There's no way for me to figure this out. The only person who can figure this out is the one who is the balor." That's what this piece of garam is showing us until we get all the way down to one. Amos comes along and says coarashem is dearos per if you seek me hashem is the essence of justice. Hashem is the is the essence of mercy. We're getting knocked about to and fro. People are dying. Ballistic missiles are being shot at us. We don't know political direction. The Jewish people seem to be increasingly increasingly uh hated for absolutely no reason. It seems we don't know how to navigate the situation. Hashem, we're really at a loss. Provide us a clue from the Torah what to do, how to navigate. of course keep doing to mitus and keep learning and but can you give us some perspective on what give us something that we could take with us and maybe use as a tool to help us navigate these uh these difficult times. So he said, "Okay, here's the tool. Seek Hashem. Hashem is the source of the wisdom of the Torah." You have to find out what is Hashem's will. Your number one question is, "Okay, what does Hashem want from me at this time?" But more importantly, I want to know what does Hashem really all about? Learn Hashem's Torah. Understand his teachings. Probe the wisdom of the Torah and its justice. Immerse your mind in it. Immerse yourself with prayer seeking to understand. Like Mosher Rabenu asked Hashem and this would indicate an interest in the world of the esoteric world of mysticism and how you going to know Hashem. The purpose of the Tanya, for example, the purpose of the Tanya was to explain to people about Hashem, how he judges the world, how he sees the world, what the purpose of this world is, what Hashem wants from you. Seek it. Seek wisdom. Don't just go about your business, sell, make your make your money, pay your bills, and you know, another shabas table, another diamonding. That's incredibly incredibly perfect. But Hashem seems to want a little more, a little more out of us. He wants a a deeper relationship. He wants really us to be seeking him out. No one likes to be in a relationship and the feel that the other party doesn't really care about them. That's really sad. There's a famous story about when he was a little boy and he was playing hide-and-seek with his friends and this is recorded in the breast of literature and they and then he was hiding behind some rock somewhere and then either was his mother or or uh someone found him crying behind the rock and they said why are you crying? He said, he said, "Well, I went to hide and no one came to look for me." That was just too painful for him. This is one thing if they don't find me. That's the go objective of the game. The game is not to be discovered. But that they didn't care enough about me to even look for me. That's painful. The greatest pain in relationships is not harm done by people. It's apathy. This um was said by professor Ellie Weisel says the opposite of evil is not goodness, it's apathy. Don't care. Just don't care. So Hashem doesn't want us not to care. He wants a deep relation with us. He's sending us all these ballistic messages. It's like, okay, all right, Hashem, save us. Help us. What can I do? What what should the Jewish people do? What should I do as a person? How can I inspire myself? How can I inspire others? How are we going to respond pro properly? Am I going to become an activist? Am I just going to sit and sayim? Am I going to go out and do I'm going to try to raise money for the soldiers who are wounded and injured and and and and and give them compassion and trauma treatment? There's lots of lots of things to do, but apathy is not a choice. can't close your your doors, your gilded uh French doors and say, "I'm busy, Hashem. I'm too busy to engage this world." I don't think that that is what we're saying. Seek Hashem. If you're seeking Hashem, Hashem certainly certainly has mitzvah for us to do and put them into use. What is it? is go out and comfort the the dead, comfort wounded, um do acts of sodaka, uh learn Torah, whatever you can do. Whatever you can do. But then the Torah rejects this and says, "No, Amos, you're wrong because it doesn't say dear Shuni." Dear Shuni could mean all the Torah. It's not one thing. It means everything. Remember, when you're seeking Hashem, you're seeking the totality of Hashem. Tanya speaks about the totality of Hashem's relationship with man. It's not It doesn't qualify as one position. It's not a position. It's a command to do everything. So, that can't be the one thing that we must carry with us at all times. At all times. I saw a beautiful story that that was recorded. I think Abra Abrael's uh debate Torah and he sent out a story like this. There was a reunion of two people from a from their hometown in their 90s. They saw each other after maybe since the Holocaust. Okay, they're 90 both 90 years old. They knew they knew the they grew up in the same neighborhood. They were like nextdoor neighbors. And uh when the woman saw this neighbor, this friend, he said to her, they asked, "How did they survive? Everybody else died. How did they survive? What was the key to their survival?" So the man told her the following story. He said, "I survived because of Kibava aim. How's that? We were in the Warso ghetto and they said at 10:00, line up on the on the army platform. We're taking you away." Uh probably whatever they lied to them, they were taking them and taking them to death camps. And my father said to me, "Oh, sorry." This was the girl. The girl told the story. He said, "Bring me my Shabas shirt." Says, "Tati, what do you need a Shabas shirt for? We're just going on a train." He goes, "I want my Shabas shirt." Fine. She gets a Shabas shirt. He looks it over and says, "It's not starched. Please go starch the collar." The collar. Takes another few minutes. Okay, iron it. Okay, fine. Iron it. Go get me my tie. My tie. can't find it. In the meantime, the train leaves and she is spared and she survives. He said, "You see, my father gave me a gift. He gave me the mitzvah of Kirim and it saved my life because I I believed in and I had to do whatever my father told me under those circumstances. I was I survived. I survived." So, there is a some sort of something to latch on to. Here is here it is. So comes again this is inosab came and he said there's one principle that is the foundation stone of everything that hashem wants you to know and do is different what this could possibly mean the mar says that to believe once you have amuna you will believe in all 613 commandments is obligatory and that's the key in other words you can't get to 613 mitzvos unless you believe that the Torah was given at Sinai so that's the key if you have a you'll get to the rest of the mitzvah you don't have a you're not going to get to any mitzvah that's the miri says that when you do any of the 613 mitzvah do it from a place of hashem I'm doing this because I believe hashem commanded me not because my next door neighbor is doing it and it my Reb is doing it and my father is doing it and my mother's doing it. Don't do it for that reason. Do it because you believe that Hashem commanded you. I will tell you one more perhaps addition to this and that links us into how we doing time-wise. Seven minutes. Seven minutes. Perfect. The message here is a person who's a sadic who strives to be a sadic. One of the essential points of all Torah because Hashem is right. It's not that you have to have amuna. You have to live amuna. I love the but it doesn't cover the last word. It doesn't cover the what's the here's the credo of life. You're going to live through all kinds of things ballistic and otherwise the way you must approach it is with faith. All your hard times, all your bad times, supposedly bad times, all your challenges, all your good times. Don't walk around and say, "I'm so smart. and made the most brilliant business move in the world. I'm a goyan. I'm a goyan. I No, you could have just as easily lost your pants and everything with it. The reason why you were successful is because Hashem said that this is not directly connected to success ever. No matter how logical it is, no matter how good it is, there always there's always reasons why it doesn't work out. But if you believe that your successes and your but more importantly your difficulties and your failures you have a muna that this is what Hashem wants you to do you hit it that's the point and with that the maka ends the story sees the shuim we said his his friends saw a fox which is utter devastation destruction no human hope and at the same time massive celebrations by the Romans. They're bringing out their beers and their sports and they're putting blank the Jews in front of them and they're carrying on and carrying on and they're celebrating destruction of the temple and their dominance of the world and you're not going to cry. So he said he says um he said they asked what are what are you laughing about? There's nothing to laugh about here. So he says, notice he doesn't say to him an answer. He questions them. He says, you look at this and cry. That's the problem. It's how you look at it. It's not whether objectively it's one way or the other. It's your way of looking at it. Why? Why are you crying? He said, "What are you crying? I'm obviously crying. Things are going horribly." So he says, "This is why I am laughing because it says There were two there were two um prophecies. One is what happens when the ballistic missile falls. The ground is plowed out in diameter of 25 I think it was 25 um whether it was meters. A gigantic hole. Can you imagine if that hole fell in one of the when I think fell in one of the terminals? Can you imagine if it fell on a plane? It was just one big hole though in the ground. So there was there's an avoa like that. Terrifying things. But now that the navua of Zakaria of of came true. Now I believe the of what's of Zay Yesim. There'll be there's going to be old age homes in Jerusalem, right? They'll sit in the seats of not the rest of it. It says there'll be children running around. Now I have neighbors, beautiful neighbors from South Africa. And the neighbors told him, "You have kahara, a compliment of beautiful boys. They make kahara a big ruckus." He says, "I'm asking you from 2 p.m. on Shabas, please take them for a walk so we can get a nap." So I said to him, "Look, we ma at that time in my house with our beautiful zor. Bring them to our house. We'll give them ice cream and books and cakes and they'll stay here for mka and then you'll go on." And then we made the summ of this mass. And I said, "Look, here it is. We're a living. We are living the nua of Zakaria. The children are playing and making noise in the streets. Do you believe what that's all about?" So here's the amuna. Reba looks at everything and says that was his not not that was his rebies but his thing is everything that Hashem does is for the good may not look good may not feel good but it is for the good it's heading us in the ultimate direction of good and even now I will look to see the events of my life as good no matter how I interpret them and say this is horrible no you're wrong, says Rabika. It depends on how you look at it and how you formulate it and how you interpret it. What's going on now is not horrible. What's going on now is an imperative for the gula. Just like said, there's going to be this and there's going to be that. There's an imperative. There's a rubicon that we have to cross. There's a a travail that we have to go through. It's Moshia. It's the births of Mia Mashiach. But in each thing, look for the silver lining. No one was killed, right? Those guys sitting and drinking the beers, they got reprimanded in the Senate. They said, "We can't accept these crazy amendments. We're going to have to work it out." There is response. There is good that's being taken out, drawing out of evil. Sometimes you have to lift the kernel of good. This is what we walk with. If you walk with that, you will never turn against Hashem. And if you will never turn against Hashem, you will never turn against his Torah mitzvah. So this this culminates this whole important discussion at the end of macOS which really in my words you frame it this way. What do we do when we get macos? What do we do when things when things are extremely uh difficult to the point of extreme pain and suffering? The mar says don't lose your connection with Hashem and Torah. Torah is the remedy to that. Yeah. But but bottom line is you're only going to get to Torah if you believe that Hashem is doing good and we can't go into this at this time that you are as a Jew to take this attitude of did you know that it's not an option it's not and it's not it's therefore I will say to you for all these concerning events whatever it is personal or national or international whatever is the world is in a crazy place but we know from our from our misor that there's something called Mashiach. It's well very well articulated in all our literature and going back to we are the lucky ones sitting here in Eric Israel being able to live and walk out into our beautiful neighborhoods and to see the children playing in the streets and waking people up from their shabas naps. I love it. It's unbelievable. And traffic jams that you can't get through because there's too many cars and you say to yourself, "Oh, I don't like being in traffic jam." This is a miracle that there are even Jews here. And there's even a bigger miracle that can afford cars and they're supposed to bring down the tariffs down to 17% instead of 100% according to Donald Trump. And that means everybody will be able to afford a car and there's going to be even more traffic jams and even greater simha at the fact that Jews are populated with Israel. And that ultimately our our our safety here is guaranteed by Hashem and our successor. Hold on to that and you will hold on to the entire Torah and then the Shabuos will start to kick in. Hashem made this shu Hashem promises whatever he promises for the good happen. So we're into not the four that we're not allowed to come back there to Israel because that apparently has already happened and that's a big debate between Sadmar and everybody else and and and I'm not going into that and who cares. It's water under the bridge. Let's just focus on the fact that we're here. The children are playing. We're we're seeing incredible miracles. divine protection. We're seeing the world completely boiling around the issue of Jews in Israel. There's nothing else in the world that interests anybody except Gaza, Israel, Sha. They have nothing to do with them. I don't know. They have no interest in anything except for this. And that's a flattery. And that's because Hashem wants the world to watch and learn and have a muna in him and to serve him and get to know him and all the principles we have here. Hashem should give us the imperative strength to see everything as said. Hang on to that. That's the principle you're going to walk around with. It's all good. And look for the good. Don't just leave it at that. Don't say, "Well, it's good. I I don't really believe it. You know, maybe I'll figure it out in 120 years. That's a madrega and that's and you can perfectly do that. But there's a higher level called that is said let's try to figure out where the goodness is and look for the opportunity to thank Hashem. No one was killed. No one was hurt. Right? that Hashem protects us from 99.9% of the ballistic missiles. Turn it out for the good fore we will walk with this principle that Hashem taught us and here it is in Makos and here it is in our lives and here it is in the Torah and we'll move forward with Hashem's promises the restoration of Israel through the B mikdash [Music] My birthday party [Music]