Shiva Asar B'Tamuz - Building on the Day of Destruction {Yeshiva of Great Neck}

this Torah class is brought to you by Torah anytime.com tonight is the 17th of tamos Shas it's a night of mourning a night of Destruction however very interestingly tonight is also a night of building I want to share with you a simple calculation a simpleone that s makes really an amazing Discovery s tells us that root Andi they returned from the fields of moav but the M does not say exactly when they came back doesn't give us the date that they came back but if you look in the tum on theum says they came back P the day before P now if you make a calculation it says that they stayed in the field of till the end of the Harvest three months which means they're coming to the field of baz on the 15th day of tamas and Ruth has a big dilemma because her mother-in-law is saying you see this man maybe he wants to marry you maybe you should discuss the prospect of marriage with him and Russ is a little apprehensive he's an old man Boaz was an old man he was so old that he actually died immediately after marrying Russ that's how old he was and R wasn't sure maybe the guy maybe he's going to drag it out you know how these old guys are you know maybe he's going to drag out the process and Nami says don't worry Nami says this man will not rest until he settles the matter today today s asks how was Nai so confident that Boaz would settle the matter that day he says very simply because they came on the 15th day of tamuz they go back to the field on the 16th of tamas that night would be the 17th of tamuz you don't get married from the 17th of tamuz it's not a good omen to get married from the 17 Tam so this was literally the last 12-hour block that boas had to marry R so Nami tells R I'm telling you you go to him today and he's going to tell you today either yeah or no whether he's going to marry you because that night would be Shas and he married her that day and he lived with her that night the night of the 17th of T and who has conceived that night o the father of yesai the father of David says even though tonight is a night of destruction of mourning but in this evening are the seeds of the fruition of the Mal now this is not an anomaly because actually all of the fast days have in them the the flourishing of the as we know the med says is born on actually makes the calculation if if Mia is born onsh then mhia was conceived months prior so really all the fast days even though they're days of Destruction but latent in them it's a time of building so there's no better Endeavor that we could be involved in this evening then coming together on behalf of Yeshiva of Great Neck to see what we could do to build Tor because there are many important institutions in the Jewish people there many important institutions in Great Neck but first and foremost primary the primary way to build the Jewish people as we're going to see is predicated on the foundation of the Torah I want to share with you another interesting event that happened on that the mishna does not tell us we're going to see what the says but this happened 248 years ago today 1776 the founding fathers of the United States of America I'm sure you could tell me who they were George Washington Thomas Jefferson they signed the document the Declaration of Independence and the United States of America was established on Shiva assar the United States of America so now what does that mean does that mean what does that tell us about our country is that is it a country of binyan certainly a great amount of Torah has been built in the United States of America on the other hand we know the intermarriage rate in this country is the highest it's been perhaps in the entire galut you know that for every marriage that takes place in the Jewish Community 70% of them are in intermarriage so the United States of America has been a source of great ban that sh it has also been the greatest source ofan for the Jewish people and that's also sh and our decision on sh is what will we do with this important day so let's examine what the mishna tells us occurred on shivas the mission tells us five tragedies happened on Shas number one moshu come down came down with the tablets with the L and he sees the Jewish people worshiping the golden calf and he shatters a l the M continues we know every single day in the they brought the you know and tell you a little interesting you know it's important if we can to try to sayot carot is the introduction to we don't always have time to do it so usually that's the first thing that goes you know the carbot will be more important than the carbot but if you have minimal time to say carb theban isban so if you have like 30 seconds extra will be number one according to many it's to say theb stop being brought it was abolished when some Say by in the times of the Greeks some say in the times of the Romans some say the ra says the third tragedy the mishna says the walls of the city of Jerusalem were breached on the 17th day of Tas when in the times of B in times of B it was not the 17th of tamos it was the ninth of tamos it was the ninth of tamas fourth tragedy apostas the Greek General burnt the Tor he took a Tor he burnt the Torah it wasn't a regular Tor it was a significant Tor it might have been a Torah from Antiquity from the times of Ezra he burnt the Torah and number five five they erected an idol in the temple so we have five tragedies Moshe broke the they stopped bringing the carban the walls of the city were breached they burnt the Torah they put up an idol but here's the question here's the million dooll question it seems like a random collection of tragedies is there any connection between these five tragedies the were broken they put up Anar they stopped the carbon Tam I mean a lot of bad stuff has happened to the Jewish people throughout the ages you could collect and gather many tragedies that have happened why do kazal specifically gather these five tragedies especially it's not even recording them in chronological order for example the a that was put up in the according to Rashi was put up by Mas in the Bish why would that be La listed last in the mishna why is that the fifth listed tragedy in the mishna so why does the mishna record these five tragedies and why in this order it's not even in chronological order so I want to share with you tonight A revolutionary perspective of this mishna this this approach is recorded by the AR of Yakov etlinger rakov etlinger was one of the all-time great akronim he lived in Germany he was the rebi of R sham Rafal H he actually was a very educated uh Rabbi who attended University at first but ultimately he had to leave because of anti-Semitism but his Kim are so eminent that himself writes footnotes on the was a great M he would go to sleep every night at 2 a.m. after saying and he would be up at 5 a.m. to learn with and he would learn in his until midday this is the wrot it's called says that this Mish is not giving a historical record of tragedy that happened on sh but it's giving us a global understanding of the downward spiral of the Jewish people in other words if you see somebody let's say you see somebody heaven forbid they leave the religion they leave observance they don't they're no longer it doesn't happen in a vacuum it doesn't happen in one year it doesn't happen in one generation There's A F step approach to the downward spiral of the Jewish people so in other words you look at the United States of America there's a 70% intermarriage rate how did it happen because if you go back 50 years 60 years their grandparents their great grandparents were big rabbis back in the old country so what happened to them say AR it's a five-step approach number one the tor is broken they used to learn Tor every day every morning every evening and now maybe they slacking off a little bit maybe it's now only every morning or maybe it's only Shabbat and Sunday or maybe only Shabbat afternoon that's generation one generation two the daily service of the begins to dwindle they used to go to Manan three times a day every single day every single Shabbat but then it became just Monday and Thursday and then it became just Shar Monday and Thursday and then it became just Shabbat and then it became just Shabbat and then it became just Shabbat Roes and then it became just and then it became just and then in the Next Generation hav the whole city is breached the city is an allegory to the Jew says the Jews compared to a city we're a city we have a lot going on inside of us we're in our mind in our heart sh calls the Jew a city now the walls of the city are breached and the Jew is prayed to the for every type of abomination and now the Torah is burnt and the Torah is not valued and the Torah is Forsaken and the ideals of Torah are lost and then finally instead of a David dangling around the neck Lo ALU heaven forbid there's a different symbol hanging around the neck it never happens in one generation it never happens at once it doesn't happen in one year there's a five pronged downward spiral beginning with slacking off and then the are weakened and then the whole city is breached if you want to know what is the root cause of the downward spiral of Jewish descent it begins and starts with slackening off in Li we're about to embark on the period of do you know how many days in the bed that is the best triv question at all you know well how how many days in the B how many days in the 3 weeks so everyone says 3 weeks so they're 21 days the thing is you know shabb is a Tuesday and is a Tuesday so according to Advanced calculus Tuesday to Tuesday is 22 days in fact there's a big question why do we call it the 3 weeks is that even correct is that a misnomer but there're 22 days in the 3 weeks how many hours in the 3 weeks 22 * 24 do we have any accountants over here 22 * 24 Ben actuary 528 hours in the three weeks how many praim in the sh how many praim in the mishna in there's a holy who explains that if the root cause of the G is slackening off then the way to rectify that during the 3 weeks we have 520 hours the key the key to the are theim of the Tor 528 praim in now you'll ask what do you mean at the end of says there only 523 in the Mish proper five of and you have the fifth and Bim is another is not mishna proper so you have 523 misher five of to that's why the last five hours of the three weeks after already some of the lifts but this puts into sharp Focus what our aod is during the 3 weeks you could not have picked a more important venue a more important occasion to kick off to jumpstart the than to show support for this mad which is planting Tor here in Great Neck seeds of genuine Li Tor T this looks like a small seed this looks like a small gathering but from this small gathering from this small occasion we're planting a great seed that from it will grow a tree and will flourish a ban a b a b that will bring the G I'm going to share with you another gatria because I know you're gatria lovers actually the brisar when he heard this gatria he said he heard this gatria from r zeld you're related right of course by the way you want to hear some of the geld if you ever you know inat you count the words of all the M right all the and you count all the words 702 words we say Friday night in cabal chabbat gatria Shabbat 700 these are a few examples of so y said we're going to say the this he told it to brisar he said it's impossible for human being to have come up with that unless so this is our great job this is our great a during this time of year you know of I know you're great admirers of he says that is why we start the stands for why because came down with the in didn't work out but he tried so it's but even though he tried then it wasn't successful our job is now to actually make it really I'm going to end up by sharing with you a very important story historical story I feel a very special connection with the story because my grandfather knew this individual perhaps you may have heard of the great Rabbi rabit Isaac Hali Herzog the first Chief Rabbi of Palestine before even the state and he was very involved in rescuing uh Jewish children who were given over during the Holocaust many parents did not have any hope of uh their children surviving the Holocaust so many parents gave over their children to monasteries or to priests or to Christian families hoping maybe this would be a way that their children could be saved and when the Holocaust was over many of these families returned back to the priest back to the monastery back to the church they said we want our children back no they wouldn't give them back because the law is once a child is baptized he can never be given back to uh their former religion Rabbi Rabbi Herzog had with him a list of the names of 10,000 boys and girls who are given over to churches to pastors to priests to monasteries and he he had audience with the Pope and I know the story because my grandfather met rev Herzog in the DP camps after the Holocaust and rev Herzog told my grandfather he had just come back from speaking to the pope and he says Pope I have with me the you know famously Razer silver would go to the monasteries and he would cry out Shay is and the kids would be like awoken from a deep Slumber and they would come running to him and the pope looks at the list and he says sorry all these children have been baptized our religion states that once the child is bapti he can never revert back to their original uh religion he slams the door in R Hero's face and uh nothing he could do Rabbi barel wine great Rabbi historian he grew up in Chicago he says in 1951 R Herzog came to Chicago and all the Yesa Bak in the midwest they came out to greet Rabbi Herzog RAB Herzog was a very aristocratic personality he wore a Top Hat he had a silver cane and he came to speak in the Yeshiva and he gave a 45 minute complex discourse in Yiddish and then he says he wants to speak to the young men of theiva this was a ski Yesa he wants to have a word with them in English he said to them I just came back from meeting the Pope I had with me the list of the names of 10,000 boys and girls who were given over to Christian families during the War I asked the pope please give us back our children and the pope flatly refused he says they've been baptized can't give them back to you rev Herzog then broke down crying at the Lecter he says there's nothing that I could do for these 10,000 children they're lost forever but then he pointed to everyone sitting in the crowd he said but what are you going to do for the future of the Jewish people what are you going to do for Jewish children because many of them we still have with us and all they need is a Jewish Education so the number one question we need to ask ourselves tonight is what could we do in the next 528 hours to strengthen the Torah to dedicate ourselves to Torah and most most importantly to dedicate ourselves to Torah education here in our community and to the Yeshiva of Great Neck whatever we can all do to strengthen this yes to strengthen the r to strengthen the Russ we're strengthening the whole Community we're strengthening the Jewish people and we're helping reverse the downward spiral of the Jewish people that began on this evening and 20 48 years ago when they signed that Declaration of Independence let's make it this evening that that signature was put on that document for ban for the Jewish people to help rebuild the Jewish people and the Merit of us gathering tonight we hope we pray that in the future tomorrow the 17th of tamas will be transformed into a holiday for the Jewish people you know when moshu was delayed Aron Ain says to the people come give me your gold give me your silver he says tomorrow will be a festival asks he asks tomorrow's a festival tomorrow tomorrow's a fast day says far off in the future tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow the 17th of T will become a Great Festival for the Jewish people and this evening is where we start reversing that downward spiral May bless all of you and and with contined thank you very much have it easy fast you've just experienced another Torah class brought to you by Torah anytime.com