Transcript
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hi everyone this will be our last little
presentation here in Spain we had an
amazing time thank you everybody for
your participation and patience
and bezel sashem we have an amazing day
planned for tomorrow Shabbos Sunday and
Monday I want to conclude by telling you
a story that happened in tough Shin La
mirchas
1978.ft was invited by the Spanish
kahila
to visit and inaugurate the Yeshiva and
Madrid
and in the context of this context of
this visit where the value is actually
invited to meet King Juan Carlos who
reigned as king of Spain from 1975 to
2014 when he abdicated in favor of his
son Felipe VI
rabavadya had profound respect for King
Juan Carlos not only has a powerful
Monarch and a world leader but he
respected the King as a a wise
sagacious man who is proficient in many
disciplines and actually felt that upon
seeing Juan Carlos who should make two
brothers
who has the power of life and death
you should make the bracham
and amazingly it's recorded in the safe
area
that he should combine two brachos into
one and upon King seeing King one Carlos
rubbavadi recited the bracha Baruch
Hashem
and at this historic meeting King 1
Carlos srivavaglia the following
question
is there a difference in the observance
of Torah between ashkenazim and
you said no there's no difference at all
in the fundamentals
they're only minor discrepancies in
terms of matters of custom but they're
not Central to observance by the way
Robert you're right it's brought in the
safe apparel Darwin we entered the
palace the windows were closed and
surprise it was hot in Spain
you'll have a hard time relating to that
but it was very hot and my wife
Robertson was with me and I noticed her
about you said how flushed her face was
and the queen was sitting next to the
king she stood up from the chair and
opened the windows and this was the Kim
of the navi yashaya paragraph says
Kings will be your nursing your wet
nurse and your princesses Kings will
serve you and Princess is your wet nurse
King Juan Carlos then expressed his pain
and regret for what the Spanish people
perpetrated 500 years ago during the
time of the explosion and the King
related that many Jews went from Spain
to
Amsterdam that's where we're headed and
they were accepted with open arms and
they were April they were able to
produce a Bible
and the King said I was fortunate enough
to receive a copy of the very first
Bible that was published in Amsterdam
which I read from daily and I enjoy
learning from your Torah and your wisdom
and it is filled with deep knowledge and
intelligence
the king then turns to Abad and he says
Rabbi how many Safar them live in Israel
today
and remember said spard them that's a
very generic term stardom includes
Egyptians jordanians
Iranians Moroccans Iraqis Indian Yemen
so Saturday includes Jews from the
Orient these are all sardim
so
ravavady says the term spardy includes
uh many many people many nationalities
many countries of origin
so the king then turns to rabavadya and
he says
he asked for the value a stunning
question any serious student of Jewish
history should be bothered by this
question
why would a Jew who has no connection to
Spain whose ancestors were never in
Spain why would they call themselves
Spaniards why would a Jew in Yemen in
Iraq for more than a thousand years why
would he call himself
and robbadio gave an answer they would
like to use as The Guiding Light of this
trip says our nation is not centered
around the geographic location
our country is centered around the Torah
Ain
um
says you're going
and the greatest Sage of Spanish history
was the yelid Cordova the rambam rabbin
maimon born Shabbos era of pesach 1135
nifton base 1204 the rambam was born in
48.95. by the way it's half love a fella
there's a tradition from the villagoyan
there are five thousand and eight
5845 or
corresponding to the years of the world
well the 4 890
corresponding to the year of the birth
of the rambam reads
the year the Apostle corresponding to
the year of the birth of the rambam says
moisha began to
explain the Torah hakadosha says you
know why Jews from Yemen from Iraq from
Iran are called zardim
because all of these Jews accept upon
themselves the sack of the greatest
and therefore it doesn't matter if you
come from Morocco Syria Yemen Iraq Iran
India they're all Spaniards because they
accept the sack of the rambam the
greatest Sage of Spain
this was very reasonable in the eyes of
the king the king was beaming he took
great pride that the light of the
greatest Sage of Spain spread throughout
the Jewish World by the way the king
then offered ravavadya a gift
later on in history River Valley was
having rheumatitis and his wife said
let's bring our mezuz to mccubble
so the macabo said
I think there's an avoidazara in the
house
a river Valley's wife said yeah the
cross that King Juan Carlos gave you we
need to get rid of it
and repavadya threw them a couple out of
the house he said you're a charlatan a
cross is not available
[Music]
[Applause]
anyway I just thought I would share that
with you
and this Insight I want you to carry
with you throughout our trip
when you ask a Jew where do you come
from
we come from
the city of the who we follow
of the godylam that graced the city from
now on when you think of Cordova it's
important because it's the city of the
rambam when you think about Barcelona
it's not because it was the location of
the 1992 Olympics
it's not because dream team won the gold
in 1992. Barcelona is significant
because it's a city where the Raj was
then more than 40 years being Marvin's
Tyra writing more than ten thousand
shoevice from now on when you think of
the holy city of Seville don't think of
Seville because of The Barber of Seville
think up Seville because of that or the
Ritzville or of Seville
in Arabic means of civil
and from now on when you hear holy
toledo
don't think about the churches in Toledo
Ohio don't think about
the bars in Toledo Ohio you think about
Asher khadishi you think about the Holy
Rush who graced the city of Toledo when
you think about Lucina
think about the roof and the re magash
and this is a very important lesson the
identity of a Jew is not where you live
it's who are the Israel that you
associate with and this is one of the
great lessons of our trip we're going to
go to the city of Amsterdam where that
was the city where the ram Khan Haven
the
biakov
in Israel mortara Rivera live of
Amsterdam and many other great sages and
the identity of a Jew is
you associate with
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