Rabbi Ari Zeev Schwartz - Rav Kook's Guide to Unifying the Jewish People | Torah Efrat 2026

What we're going to be studying tonight is from this book um which is the spiritual wisdom of Ravkok. Um and uh there's probably about six pieces here alto together. Now obviously we could be learning Rafuk in Hebrew tonight but I think that sometimes to faster you try and do too much you don't get anything. So I find teaching rough cookook in Hebrew to an English audience is not a good idea. Uh we don't end up discussing the ideas. It just ends up being an class. So I don't really want to do up with you. I want to learn um what I think are the most profound deepest um ideas about life and let's do it in English. Okay. Does everybody know what language ruk um spoke in most of the time? >> You know he would write to his mother even after all his love of height. So >> she wouldn't have known Hebrew. >> I know, but I'm saying maybe he could have been only speaking Hebrew. Benura, he refused to speak to his um his child in any other language but Hebrew and famously alienated his child from everybody else. But Cook was more human, right? Been speak to your mother in Yiddish and obviously Hebrew as a thing to work on. Okay, as everyone's walking in. Um, okay. So, the theme tonight is a guide to unifying the Jewish people. Tisha is for many people the time in the year to work on how to do it. Okay. It's so important for us to realize that it's not just a sweet idea. This is one of the most difficult things to work on. In marriage, it's called shalom. In amish, it's called. And we're even going to talk about between different parts of your soul tonight. the different parts of your personality, your identity. Everybody is at war. Okay? Um at war with Iran, at war with the at war with the secular, at war with your wife, at war with your husband, at war with yourself. There's always a war. Okay? And we've got to figure out a solution how to make peace. Yes. >> Um I'm sorry. I just want to point out that Rav Schlommo has a not supposed to use not this ch word and not that ch word, not this word, not this word. And the P word. Of course not. >> That's the neighbors across the way. They don't be like >> you're already being censored. >> Well, okay. I mean, the truth is book's going to do it to us. He's going to he's going to use some labels tonight. I actually like when people use labels as long as they do it in a um a lifting way cuz it's like saying someone's name is another name. Okay. Is another name. They're not mean words if you use them in a beautiful way to describe somebody. My name is Ari Schwarz. I hope you don't think of it as a negative slur. Okay. So let's start with the first piece. This piece is from Rafuk writes there are two philosophies towards life. The philosophy of unity and philosophy of Peru separation. The philosophy of unity of looks upon everything and discovers the good qualities within all. The combination of all the details is the greatest possible good. Okay. So let's stop here. Cook is describing here a philosophy that if you choose it, you stop seeing everybody as your enemy, as somebody who is against you, and you start seeing everybody as being on your own team. Okay? So, it doesn't matter if the have a different name, they're on my team, they're called the Jewish people. Doesn't matter if the have a different name, they're on my team. Okay? We are all in it together. Doesn't matter if we have this word we use, go non-Jew, they're on my team. It's called humanity. There is no us against them. That's the philosophy of In contrast, let's read the second paragraph. In stark contrast, the philosophy of Peru, separation perceives the world of division and separation as the true reality of life. The more things become drawn to its philosophy, the more perception of life becomes true. The materialistic senses and all superficial thinking are strengthened through this philosophy of separation. It impacts life results in the increase of darkness and evil. The cook is trying to encourage us to stay away from the philosophy of Peru. Let me describe to you what it would sound like in your own mind. Philosophy of Peru is you're wrong, I'm right. Okay. How often do we think that even if we don't say it? Okay. Um you're in you're not as smart as me, you're not as intelligent than me. Okay? You're not as kind as me. Maybe you're not as Zionistic as me. In other words, we always have this feeling like we're superior and you're inferior. That is the philosophy of Peru because I'm seeing you as the enemy. You on this other team and I have to win. Okay. This feeling of I have to win. That is the philosophy of Raf thinks this leads to all darkness and evil in the world. Okay. So before use the swear words of this sh which is say we said well the truth is it's only mean and negative if you think of them as the enemy but they're not the enemy. Are our brothers and sisters are our brother and sisters. There's nothing evil about there's nothing evil, but yeah, we're different parts of the Jewish people. And that's what that last line is. Look at that very last line now. There is no end to the profound battle between these two philosophies on an external and internal level. In truth, all the events in this world are lead to one destination to actualize the philosophy of unity and to overcome the philosophy of separation. This is a great beginning to the class and I'm going to really encourage everybody um to think of the whole night or at least the whole 40 minutes with me as one main idea. How do we get out of ourselves the philosophy of payload because it destroys everything. It's such a bad philosophy. Okay, he's going to describe later which is we do it to ourselves. In other words, let's say if you grew up watching film, listening to music, secular music, secular film, and then you become very religious and you start trying to insult, degrade, um, silence those parts of your personality, your identity. That's also, that's also separation, and it's not going to do you any good. Okay? I grew up in Australia. Okay? Australian culture is part of me whether or not I like it or not. And I have to accept that and make peace with that. So everybody here which I assume is almost everybody a lot of us when we make aliyah we sometimes feel embarrassed about the pride of ourselves that is per that's the philosophy of philosophy of is I have to dod with my own personality okay I speak English and I teach Torah to English speakers because I've made peace with the fact that I'm an English speaker I'm not embarrassed about it I'm not in denial about it when someone says why don't you teach her of cooking Hebrew I because I'm not a Hebrew speaker who teaches to Israelis speak to English and I'm proud of it. There's nothing evil about what I'm doing. You do you in the sense you teach your Hebrew Jews and I do me. I teach my English Jews. And you know what? We're all in it together. We need everybody to fall in love with Torah. So if everybody was speaking Hebrew and all the English speakers would have no Torah. So I had I was actually speaking to this one um Zionist this morning, certain um data Zionist, let's call him that. And he he was annoyed that I was speaking so much English to him. And he said, "You've been in Israel for 20 years. Come on, speak more Hebrew." And and I said, "The truth is I'm proud of my English. Nothing wrong about it. It's beautiful. And I can also speak Hebrew. And that's me doing in front of him." In other words, I am owning my dual identities. I have many identities. It's true. My Israeli Jewish Hebrew identity, I would say, is my strongest identity, but I have other identities. And that's what is saying here, right? We need to make within ourselves, not just outside of ourselves. Okay. Does anyone have any questions on this first piece before we go to the next piece? Okay. Um, everyone should know that himself was struggling a lot with identity from a young age. His mother was his father was a nag, right? And this was basically an intermarriage like marrying out. And it was very strange um for Raf Cook as a young kid to have parents from both of these worlds. It would be like today Sparti, Ashkanazi, Ethiopian. In other words, they're different worlds. And many times Rafuk when he was a kid, he was um confronted by people and there's a story that when he was in, you know, playground when he was a little kid, somebody came up to him and said, "Are you like your father Missag? Are you like your mother acidic?" And he said, "I'm both." from a very young age he's dealing with the question of Peru first afterwards. Okay, so these are not questions that are just abstracted out of book's mind. It's clearly something he's dealing with from a very young age. How do I make peace with the different parts of my identity? Okay, let's go to the next piece. The leaders of countries and all the intellectual experts of society are rooted in the philosophy of Peru separation. They use the power of imagination to describe the world through the lens of separation. Unfortunately, the world is still not worthy of leaders who are rooted in the philosophy of abduct. However, the essence of the light of Msiah is built on the philosophy of unity. The more this attitude increases, the more it affects all the details and events in the world. Now, if you look at these two pieces, they're actually written right after each other. Can everyone see at the end of each piece? Look at the top piece. At the end of it, it says 760. And then the next piece is SK 761. That means that he wrote them e either he wrote them on the same day or he wrote them straight after each other maybe it was the day after. So we actually have the order of when he wrote his pieces. Now the reason why I brought them together is the first piece is about in general. Second he's being more specific. He's saying what about political leaders? Most political leaders, most people who lead countries, who lead communities, who lead school jewels are in philosophy of Hwood. It's a very painful but honest description of what Ruff Cook is seeing with his eyes. Think about what it means to be elected. You have to insult all the other candidates. That's the only way to get elected. Okay? That is philosophy here. It doesn't matter what side you're on. If you're a liberal, Democrat, Republican, Dantumi, everyone's putting down the other candidates in order to get up. It's not philosophy of good. And the truth is Raf Cook is saying something very painful or very accurate. You won't get elected if you say philosophy of a good. If you're saying the other candidate is so beautiful, so wonderful, and I'm so beautiful, wonderful, and everybody is adding something great, no one's going to elect you. You win because you insulted everyone, made everybody look like a fool, and you got in. And this is the pain that Rafuk is describing here that we have yet to merit to have leaders of Akur. We wouldn't vote them in. Okay, that's the painful thing. We like it when we hear a politician or a leader say our group's the best group. Join our community. Join our show. I'll tell you why that seminary is much worse than ours. We have a head of a seminary here. >> I love your seminary and I also love the other seminaries. But you know what? I know because I've been in so many board, you know, staff meetings. Every seminary thinks their seminary is the most special. And that's beautiful because that's how you get students to join us. Can't not say that language. Nobody's going to come in if you say have a good seminar and they have a good seminar. Everybody's going to say there's the best and this is painful. But this is the way we are attracted. We are attracted to Peru. Okay. Um even let's take the example of tonight, right? This is the World Cup is tonight. I'm sure none of you have checked your phones. You don't know what's going on. But I assume I assume you've picked a team. That's how sport wins, right? Sport is about picking a team and um consulting the other team and we hope the other team loses. We hope our team wins. This is something we are attracted to. So the question is um Rook's going to give us some mindblowing. We haven't even got to the main part this year yet. mind-blowing insights into how to create but clearly you can see it's on his mind and I think it should be on your mind how to get out of Peru mindset how to get out of competing I'm better than you okay you owe me I'm right you're wrong get out of that mindset not the are the best the are the worst the are the best the are the worst get out of that whole mindset we want to do it which is we're all in it together you have a question >> yes so with regard to the example full of seminaries when I was looking at seminaries for my daughters. >> Yeah. >> Um I went to some presentations and there was one that said negative things about another one and I said I will not send my child. >> Um I just politics is like I still don't like when there's negative advertising and negative uh campaigns. But in the real world, it's the winner is the one who outshines every >> the question is how to outshine without insulting the others. That's the question or questions. Have you ever heard of this phrase lo way of talking anyone but him? Not how great are we? We we can add so much but it's that negative slur towards the community. And I, by the way, that's amazing that you didn't send your daughter >> to to that seminary because it's really Peru. I don't want my daughter to be in a Peru separation, a division. Do you have a question? >> No, I wanted to just say something about the idea of politicians. That's essentially why when we were at a higher level, we had that were actually the were anointed because Hashem told them and everyone to agree it wasn't a competition and so there was more at that time because we were all under one king and one but we're not in that place right now which is why we are where we are here >> by the way he uses the phrase until the Msiah comes in other words he thinks Msiah is a mindset an attitude a philosophy of Abdul which is according to the gar what is really um bringing in Msiah was born on which is another way of saying is on on this. Okay, let's read on. Um, we don't have endless time, but uh this next piece is just so juicy. I'm very excited. Okay, here we go. Okay, so this is um a famous piece of cook. It's in his book or and it goes like this. There are currently three conflicting forces within our people. The war between these forces is most recognizable in land of Israel, but their activity derives from the generally life general life of our people and their roots go back to human nature and so on. These three forces need to be united amongst us so that each will help the other to defect itself. Left on its own, each one will present the distortion of extremism which is diminished when each one challenges the other. We would mo we would be most unfortunate if these three forces should be left in mutual isolation. Here we go. He's being very dramatic. He hasn't told us what they are. Here's the line. Ready? These are the three basic drives that our life and the like all humanity must express itself in some form. religion, nationalism, and humanism. Okay, now I want to stop here. Today, Raf Cook would call the three this I'm on purpose using that word. You'll see he's going to say it later on. The second is um they probably called right-wing Zionists. Okay, they could. And the last one is the liberals. Okay, it's hard to figure out what work to use that today. I think liberals. He's going to say a little bit later, but we've got here. We've got here the the right-wing Zionist and then the three is the liberals. Now, the question is where is Dumi? We'll deal with that later in the piece. But I like how Cook writes in this um this piece that these are three forces that exist in all countries within all people. In other words, they're not just political forces, they're also psychological forces. People have a religious urge to connect to God, connect to even mitzvah. Um whether it's Christian, whether it's Jewish, whether it's Muslim, in every country it exists. Existed in Australia, right? There was a Christian tenant in Australia. In America, there are Christian. In Israel, it's Jewish often. Okay? Then there's the national, right? Trump is definitely the national in America. In Israel, that's bibby. You have people Israeli security is the most important. The IDF, that's that national make America great again, right? That's the national energy. And then the third is liberal, the love of all human beings, right? That will fall into the case of people who are anti- racism, anti-exism, always caring about the human and not just their nation. Now, I really, really want us to focus on these words instead of being threatened by these labels. They're very helpful. When we think of labels, not in a judgmental way, but as a way to reflect upon ideas, they become endlessly helpful. It's like if you go to a doctor and the doctor says, "I think you may have the flu, you may have, you know, maybe you have something with your teeth, maybe you have." The more we have words to describe things, the more we can treat them and we can heal them. But we don't have words, we don't know how to heal. Even the word cancer, which is such a scary word for us, thank God we have the word. So now we can actually try and heal it. For thousands of years, the word didn't exist. Okay? So we shouldn't be threatened by these words. I'm actually quite excited that he's willing to talk about these dangerous worlds. Okay, let's keep reading. I want everyone to skip down to religion, nationalism, universalism. See the next one. These are three groups that we currently see in the Jewish people. One is that which people have grown accustomed to call orthodox. Even in Hebrew, he uses the word orthodox. Orthodox. It carries the flag of holiness and argues passionately for a life, Torah, mitzvah, and faith. The second group contains the new type of nationalists who fight for all matters that have a patriotic quality. It desires to rebuild national life after so many years spent in the bitter exile. It desires to absorb many of the wisdoms collected from other nations for the sake of enhancing our third group is that of the liberals. In Hebrew, it uses the word liber liber. In the past, it was the same group that raised it flag during the alignment period. In today's age, it continues to show its influence in many wide ranging fields. Instead of focusing its efforts on the national aspiration demands universal enlightenment of culture, morality. So I want everyone to realize according to Ruff Cook, this is not like a new phenomenon. This always existed. There were always three forces within the Jewish people. There were the zealots, right? People who are obsessed with the law no matter what. Keep as many laws in Judaism as possible. Then there are people who obsessed like Barakovba, national security, national revolutions, right? They were willing to fight for the Jewish people. Wasn't about religion. It wasn't about humanity. was about strong Israel. You got in the Zionist time period, right? Early Zionism, a lot of nationalism. All he wanted was the Hebrew language to be spoken by every single person. He didn't care if it was difficult, if it was easy. It didn't matter if his child was alienated from all his friends. Everyone knows the famous Elias Benhur story. His wife is singing a Russian la, which seems like a very nice thing to do. And I agreed at um his wife um only he now and uh and his son remembered this screaming but he wasn't he wasn't traumatized by he was impressed by he he remembers fondly that his father was a zealot for speaking Hebrew and in the split of his zealatry his obsession with Hebrew thank god we have a Hebrew speaking country so that's an example of nationalism in a very extreme way okay it wasn't humane what he did that night to his wife for his child, but it was definitely very Zionistic. Then you've got the liberals in every time period in the Jewish people. You've also got Jews like Rabbi Sax. I think he's a great example of a rabbi who spent most of his time writing about human liberal values. Right? It doesn't mean he doesn't keep but he really cared about that language of universality and science, how it fits with faith. And it makes sense why so many non-Jews respect Rabbi South Torah because he really defined that humane liberal part within Orthodox Judaism. Okay. So as we read on, we're going to now see Raf Cook deal with a question of questions. How do you make peace between these three groups? They have completely different agendas. Okay. So let's see bottom paragraph. However, it must be recognized that in a healthy state there is a need to combine all three forces. We must always aspire towards a healthy situation in which each force is given the ability to influence us in all its richness and virtue. The ideal harmony comes about when no group is deprived of its influence nor given too much power. Page the religious, the national and the universal should work together in both an ideological and practical form. Each individual group will begin to realize that it has a unique talent within this three-way coalition. In Hebrew uses the word coalition, coalitia. Each group will recognize the virtue and benefit the other group provides. This consciousness will continue to expand and mature until not only will each se appreciate the good virtue within the other groups, but even more than this, each group will understand the need to be influenced by the criticism of the other group. So that through this critique, each one will become balanced, protected from the danger of its own extremes. Okay, let's stop here. This is one of the most remarkable paragraphs. We'll have a read. um Rabio Benon who was a teacher of mine um and he's still alive and he knew Rafuk's son was a student of Rafuk's son he told me that this piece should be um the political manifesto of Israel he thinks it's that important this piece of Rkook he thinks every person who um works in the in Knesset in the government should read this piece and study it should literally be the ideology of the state of Israel it's that important what is Raf saying here he thinks that for the Jewish people to succeed. We need every group. We're talking about we're obsessed with and Shabbat talking about the right now. I'm not talking about spiritual ideas. Does everyone know there was literally protests in Jerusalem on Shabas? There was a cafe open. There was a cafe open not far from my place on a grippus right next to my house. Okay. And they were fraing protests. Why were they protesting? Because it was open on Shabbat. They are obsessed with That is their gift to the state of Israel. That's their gift. Instead of seeing it as only their negative, that's their gift. They are passionate about Kashuk. They are passionate about Shabbah. Okay. And Rafuk says that's what they contribute. Then you've got another group which are the nationalists and they contribute army. They contribute IDF. They contribute the economy. We need a strong economy in Israel. We need a strong army. How are we supposed to protect ourselves against terrorism? And you got a third group. The third group are you know what? Everybody has to be able to treat with equality. That's the liberals. Doesn't matter what color skin. There was actually a um a murder, I think it was six months ago, um of an Ethiopian teenager. She was working at a pizza store. I think it was in Natana. I'm not sure. It was it was close if it wasn't there. And it was he was open and Yeah. And it was a terrible he was bullied and he was killed that night. Okay. And his mother and there was on the news. They're all talking about it that the police didn't react correctly because of the color of his skin. This is racism. Okay. So, we need people in Israel who are bothered by liberal human values and not just religious and not just national, right? The religious matter, the national matters and the human the liberal. And that Rafuk says that each group has to learn to recognize that they are bringing a different contribution to Jewish people. Now, he also says that everybody's extreme since the only see their goal, their value. So therefore, they don't really care how they get their value into the state of Isra. They just want to get rid of the army as long as everybody's keeping Shabbat. They're going to get rid of any liberal values because they just want everybody in Israel to keep hala. So they are blind to the other two values because they are so focused on theirs. And the nationals are the same. People who want everybody in the army, the only thing that matters is getting everyone to join and list because it's so important because we're always surrounded by terrorists. That's a very important value. That's amazing. There's a blind eye there. What about all the people who don't believe in that value? What about all these religious values they feel in their from their point of view contradict that? So the government doesn't really see that struggle. They don't think of it as valuable. Okay? That that that struggle that they're dealing with. And then the liberals who say, you know what, we have to figure out a way that all Jews in Israel, whether you're religious or secular, are able to live side by side. And that means a cafe is open on Shabbat. Okay, we're not going up to the to have coffee with us. But why can't we have a cafe open on Shabbat on the Tal Street not far from my house? I think there's three cafes. I don't know why they don't protest there. Okay. Do you know there are no buses in Jerusalem on Shabbat? So the secular are frustrated about that. But on the other hand, there are cars. There are cars on Shabbat. So there there's a tolerance there. You see how it's trying to find some type of equilibrium. How can we give rights to secular people? they can also drive on Shabbat but on the other hand we want the energy of Shabbat so no buses that's this back and forth of cook is encouraging us instead of um saying the religious are always right they should get all the power says no these three values matter to Israel and they've always mattered it's not just a new thing okay so the law in terms of the really matters all these values matter but on the other hand national security the army and then liberal values. Um what we're going to see is quite a shocking thing. Usually we think of Rafuk or a rabbi obviously he must be in the religious group. How could it be? Raf Cook is saying that the religious one should also listen to the other two groups. But as we're going to see the Rafuk doesn't think that Judaism fits into just religion. Okay. Judaism is not just a religion. Let's keep reading. Second paragraph. And therefore when we look with intellectual honesty at the controversies that we are suffering in our generation we must know there is only one path open to us each one whether individual or collectively should internalize this lesson. Everyone should underline this. This is a remarkable life. Everyone is called upon to defend the unique values to which one feels connected due to the nature of one's soul as well as one's customs and education. But also one must understand how to utilize the wisdom that is found in other types of people and groups. By doing this one will be able to balance oneself and one's group through this path we can hope to arrive at a type of life that's fitting for our nation living in everyone to think about this in such a practical way. Cook thinks that every person in this room okay everybody is aligned to certain values and a certain identity. Question is why do you have that identity? R Cook actually gives you two reasons. He says it could be because of nature. In other words, your personality leads towards liberal values. you're just a very open-minded, tolerant person, or you lean towards a little bit more conservative values, which is there's a certain view that's right and everybody should follow it. Whichever way it is, that's natural. The other explanation of why you have a certain identity is because of nurture. You were brought up by certain parents who were very liberal or with certain religious parents or certain Zionist parents. So, that's the reason why you're so Zionistic. Be honest with yourself. You're in that group because your parents put you in it. And that's fine. It's not an evil thing. It's not a bad thing. Okay. Just like the language you imparted to your children, to my three kids, they speak fluent English and they also speak Hebrew. They're fluent Hebrew. But do you know what's their main identity? English. They're the English speakaking home. That's their identity. Okay? Doesn't matter what's the reason why it came. Is it because their soul loves English or their soul loves Hebrew? No. They grew up in English speaking at home and that's their identity. They have to now deal with that identity. So Rav Cook says that everybody's got an identity. Okay? You have to defend your identity. He actually thinks you should identify and then defend it and at the same time respect other people's ideologies. Okay. So this is a remarkable piece. Now I'm telling you right now I identify as thought about it for years. I grew up in a modern orthodox school. That's my tribe. There's so many reasons why that's my tribe. Either because of nurture, because of nature. Either way, that's my tribe. The question for me is can I respect on the one hand who I am? and also make space for the for the and actually respect that they have a different contribution to the Jewish people than me. We have different, if you want to use the metaphor of music, everybody's in a symphony, right? We're all in an orchestra. We're playing different parts of the symphony. One person's playing clarinet, one person's playing saxophone, one person's playing violin. If you get rid of the violin, so it doesn't sound as good if you get rid of all the the brass doesn't sound as good. It's actually good that there are different sounds when you put them all together. That's the symphony of life. So, we should be happy there. We should be happy there. We should be happy there are that there are different groups within the Jewish people. Now, you might say, "Well, Raf Cook, how could you say they're konian?" He didn't use the word. So, if you want to be really specific, he says the word liberal. So, if you instead of saying, maybe we could say it's good that there are Jews who are very passionate about humanitarian liberal values. That their main thing that like wakes them up in the morning is stop racism, stop sexism, how to give women rights. In other words, this really bothers them. Remember one time I was at a certain seminary and a rabbi said to me who was very leftleaning, very liberal. He said, "Rabbi, I never hear you talking about feminism. Come on, why don't you give Shirim on it?" And I said, "I think you should give Shir on feminism since you're passionate about it. I'm not against it, but it's not clearly something that animates me, that moves me in the way that it moves you. That's your contribution. You want to talk about talk about it." Okay. Clearly R cook is something that animates me and that's something I'm contributing that he's not. Okay. So I really really think this is something that everyone should try and figure out what is their group. You're all from this sitting in Ephra right now. Ephra clearly is your this is your sh or this is your home and you should be proud of Ephra. You should tell people how beautiful Ephra is but not to degrade Jerusalem. You know some people they'll move to Ephra and then they'll insult Jerusalem. Jerusalem is so that's why I moved to Ephra. There's no need to insult the place you left in order to move somewhere. Right? I don't need to insult Australia in order to make aliyah to Israel. Israel is my homeland. Right? This is where I want to spend the rest of my life. Hashem, there's Australia as well. Does anyone have any questions before we go on? I look very brainwashed. Hashem, you're all in my group. I have one. No. Okay. We have a little bit more time. Um, really only five minutes, which is very sad. Um okay let's do the very last piece. Everyone see the spiritual calling to unify. Okay. So Rafuk says all imperfections in the world both physical and spiritual come about because each side only comprehends one point of view of existence. In a person's eyes their own attitude is praiseworthy while all other points of view are incomprehensible must therefore be wiped away from the Lord. This general way of thinking continues to grow and influence individuals, groups, generations and entire time periods. Indeed, anything that is outside of one's own individual world must be damaged and destroyed. And as a result, confusion and complications increase in the realm of opinions and beliefs, attitudes towards life and communal matters. Okay, so this is the paragraph I'm going to read with you right now that I really brought the whole piece just for. So up until now, we've been talking about groups outside of us. Cook here is going to describe parts of yourself. You're at war with parts of your own identity. Let's read this. In fact, the individual person also suffers endless confusion inside themselves. One emotion does not approach another emotion with the appropriate respect and affection. One thought pushes away another thought in an insulting and aggressive way. The ability to have a respectful conversation between the different feelings inside oneself become impossible and the general feeling of beauty to restore one's soul decreases and fades away. Indeed, the world in general and we specifically are suffering from so many flaws and imperfections. Okay, so let's stop here. If Cook thinks that the project of shalom doesn't just mean do it to other people to other groups. We've got to figure out how to start with ourselves. Everybody here is made up of so many identities. When you can't make peace with the different identities inside of yourself, you're not going to be able to make peace with people outside of you. Okay. First, fix yourself in order to fix other people. So, let's take the example of what we said before. Israel versus Putin. Everybody in this room is has this war inside of them. Am I Israeli? Am I American? Am I Australian? Am I English? You're all of these things together. It's true. Your main identity may be Israel, maybe Jewish. That doesn't mean you need to insult the other parts of your identity. And when you can actually have respect for that is the way I grew up. That is why my accent sounds like it is. Then you know what? When you meet people who are different from you, you'll also be able to respect them. Okay? It starts with you. Let's take the example. Maybe somebody in this room is a Bouva. They used to be less religious, now they're more religious. Do you insult and degrade the old version of you and make fun of every single thing you did in the past? Well, you know what's going to happen if you do that? Every time you meet somebody who used to be less religious or who's becoming more or less religious now, you're going to degrade them insult. It's going to be very hard to have towards them. So, we have to have compassion on the different parts of our life in order to have compassion on people outside of us. It all starts from within. That's why I want to come back to the beginning of the class which is Rafuk first have to make peace with his multiple identities, right? That misnugget side of his father and the and theidic side of his mother. The more he makes peace with that, the more he has this talent. When he meets secular people when he is 39, he makes aliyah Isra has this way of being so kind and loving towards people he disagrees with. He fundamentally disagrees with a lot of these secular people. But he's found a way to make peace inside of himself with those parts he disagrees with. He can make peace with those outside of him. Uh we started a little late. Will you give me one more minute? We'll finish. I think the best way to finish this class is really to think of the following um story in the Tanak and Rafi used to use this story a lot when he would try and explain to people how there's a story in Mal um where and Solomon um have has two women who come to him and they're fighting over this child, right? They're saying, "This is my child." The other one says, "No, this is my child." And Sh says, "Give me a sword. I cut the baby in half and you'll get half half." And uh one of the mothers says, "That sounds fair. You should get half. You don't know who it is." And the other mother says, "Forget about it. Give the child to the other mother. Just don't say Now note that had didn't have genetic testing. It was impossible for Schlommo to know but he couldn't figure out who was the person after his child. Right? Cook says inot he says this story teaches us about any group within the Jewish people who wants to cut away the other groups. He wants to destroy the other group so that only their group exists. It's not the true mother of the Jewish people. That's how you destroy your baby by cutting it in half. So ask yourself, do you want to get rid of the You're not the true mother of the Jewish people. Do you want to get rid of the liberals? You want to get rid of Jerusalem and only be in Ephra or only be in Jerusalem and get rid of Ephra. Any time something inside of you says, "I won. My group is the best. I wish everybody was like me." It's like you're cutting the baby in half. My to everybody in here, be the mother of the Jewish people. Sometimes you have to let go a little bit in order to keep the Jewish people together. Less judgment, more love, more warmth. Have a great night.