All You Need Is Blood (Ep. 311)

Hi, this is David Olowski and welcome back to the Rabbi Olowski show. [applause] Thank you very much. And whether you're watching with our friends over at any time or our producers [music] or wherever you watch and listen to your podcast, as always, we're excited to have you along for the experience. And this is a second in a series of episodes that are being sponsored in memory of Eli Yahu Ben Yehuda whose yard site is Zion Tavves on this is on his 10th Yite. So uh there is a theme that uh has been dedicated to these. You saw the first one already [snorts] and that is on the 250th anniversary of the United States of America. And uh this dedication for this week is sponsor is focusing on the underlying Jewish aspect of America. So that when people like Candace Owen says that really everything is done by the Zionists that America does and we control it. It turns out it's true. [laughter] Um, this is from Ken Spiro. The Hebrew Bible played a major role in the creation of the United States and its democracy. It represented a watershed moment in world history under like under countries where democracy evolved over a period of hundreds of years. The United States was the first country to be created from its inception as a democracy and the Bible and Jewish values played a major role in this process. This is something that people do not appreciate. The United States was not founded like any other country. When they offered George Washington to be a king, he refused. When they asked him to be president a third time, he refused. He said, "Two times is enough for anybody." King George of England at the time said, "This is probably the the greatest man in history. He gave up power. Nobody gives up power." It was sat down with a keshman to decide how to make this country as opposed to it slowly evolving. Many of its earliest pilgrims, hello pilgrim, who settled the new England of America in the early 17th century were Puritan refugees escaping religious persecutions in Europe. These Puritans view their immigration from England as a virtual reenactment of the Jewish exodus from Egypt. To them, England was Egypt, the king was Pharaoh, the Atlantic Ocean was the Red Sea, America was the land of Israel, and the Indians were the ancient Canonites. I guess that's why they killed them all. The earliest legislation of the colonies of New England were all determined by scripture. The first assembly of New Haven in 1639, John Davenport, stated the primacy of the Bible as the legal and moral foundation of the colony. Well, you cannot stress enough uh what they call the Judeo-Christian values that America is based on. But I have to say it's even more Judeo than Christian if you go back to the sources. The Hebrew Bible also played a central role in the founding of many of the universities. Harvard, Yale, William and Mary, Rutgers, Princeton Brown, King's College, later known as Colombia, John's Hopkins, Dartmouth. Many of these colleges even adopted Hebrew word or phrases as part of their official emblem of or seal. We mentioned that last time with Yale. So popular was the Hebrew language in the late 16th and early 17th century that several students of Yale delivered their commencement orations in Hebrew. That is better than many of the day schools in America today. [laughter] Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Brown, Princeton, John's Hopkins, and the University of Pennsylvania, taught courses in Hebrew. Many of the population, including a significant number of the founding fathers, were products of these universities. Thus, we can be sure that a majority of these political leaders were not only well acquainted with the contents of the New Testament. Old Testament is what we call the Torah. New Testament is the sequel where God gets married and has a kid. and also had some working knowledge of Hebrew. Benjamin Franklin's proposed design for the great seal of the United States included Moses parting the Red Sea. The model around the seal read resistance to tyrants and obedience of God. And as we mentioned last time, the money says in God we trust. And of course as we know on the liberty bell is mishap from vayikra paras bahara proclaim liberty throughout the land until all the inhabitants thereof. Nowhere is this more evident than in the opening sentence of declaration of the penance. We hold these truths to be self-evident. I know you probably know the rest of it from Joe Biden. We we hold these truth to be well you know you know the rest of it. [laughter] You know the thing. That's one of my favorite clips. Anyway, we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal and that they are endowed by their creator with certain uniniable rights. That among them are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. You get it? It's from God, from their creator. The concept of these rights come from God is of biblical origin. 1776 in the War of Independence, there were about 2,000 Jews living in America. Yet their contribution to the revolution was significant. Most important were one of the fin one of the most important finances was Kaim Solomon. I I even learned about him in a secular history book in school who lent a great deal of money to the Continental Congress. He was never paid back and died bankrupt. And President George Washington remembered the Jewish contribution when the first synagogue opened in Newport, Rhode Island, which is still around in 1790. He sent this letter. May the children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in this land continue to merit and enjoy the goodwill of the other inhabitants. While everyone shall sit safely under his own vine and fig tree, there will be none to make him afraid. You you find that Pik in Nvi a number of times. Everyone sat under their gein and Tana. Um it's so interesting. uh maybe 25 years ago there's this fellow outside of Kir Safa he built what he calls the Hasminian village where he recreated what life was like during Mishnaic times and he built everything a wine press an oil press uh you know he did all kind of things the way that they would have done it in the time of the Mishna house he built a house he said did everything himself and he said that a fig tree if you plant it next to a house will grow over the house as will grape vines. So when it says everyone was under their grapes and their fig tree because it literally grew over the house and they were living under it. Interesting. And finally John Adams in a letter to FA Vanderamp. John Adams who in many ways was more responsible for the founding of America than anybody. Um they made a miniseries about him. John Adams. Uh there's a famous biography about him and of course he is the star of 1776, the musical version, which is not as historically accurate as it should be, but it certainly makes for a very fun. Here's some great songs. Anyway, I will insist that the Hebrews have done more to civilize man than any other nation. They are the most glorious nation that have inhabited the earth. It's it's so interesting when you recognize a quote like that from John Adams, similar quote by Mark Twain, you know, about Jewish survival and you contrast that with Adolf Hitler who also understood the significance. And he says, "The Jews have inflicted two wounds on mankind. Circumcision on their body and morality on their soul. These are Jewish inventions. This war is between the Germans and the Jew. All else is facade and illusion. So he understood that we have a contribution. Everybody seems to have understood the the power of the Jews. It's just United States decided to take that tradition, harness it and use it. And as I mentioned last time, uh the um the record has never been perfect, but compared to every place else, and uh I don't know if I mentioned it the last time, it reminds me of the quote of Winston Churchill, democracy is the worst form of government except for every other. [laughter] Okay, so that's our introduction. Uh we're we're starting say formos these first pariosmos bo and bashal tells the story of mat. Now, of course, as uh Hashem tells Moshe already on Hari when they were talking by the burning bush, the purpose of is mira and then the purpose of mira is to build the mishkan as the ram says which will be a traveling hari and that's all of sishmos all that's why the mishkan is part of it says the ramban It's all part and parcel of this idea. And that's why when you come to the Pesak with the Arlovski family in Nokinet in uh on Pesak and uh if you want to have your own seda that's fine if you join me for the seda of course when we sing Denu you'll notice that there are 15 steps in Denu and after we leave Mitzim then it includes you we come to Hari And then it continues in the midb for 40 years and then the last step is we build the base of mikdash that is part and parcel of so coming out of and getting the Torah and getting all these things they're all uh connected. So I'm pretty sure I said this before. I'm not 100% sure. I I did a little search to see if I if I actually spoke about this. I couldn't find it anywhere, but I'm going to speak about it anyway. If I've spoken about it before, well, you're going to hear it again. Yeah. Um I know you're not allowed to quote him anymore, but Bill Cosby, you know, he was once doing a routine. He goes, "How come no one ever complains that Frank Sinatra sings the se same six songs over and over again? Nobody cares. They say, "Sing it again." But if a comedian tells the same joke, they said, "We heard that one already. [laughter] Tell a different one. Why not? Why can't I tell the same joke?" And the truth of the matter is that uh I have received many emails over the years from people who say I enjoy listening to your you know shimm and your podcast uh over and over again because uh I they're funny. I enjoy listening to the jokes besides the Torah. There's a regular Torah, you know, uh share. You listen to it and it's over. you're the funny part you can listen to so people can listen to it again and again I think you know here here something that's interesting um I don't remember who who uh said it but they said you can only repeat a joke once every 3 years and a story once a year and a data even in the same speech [laughter] so I don't know who coined that who the wit was but uh you know there there is a concept. So, if I've said this before, like I say, I'm not sure if I didn't. Uh uh we're doing this for six years. We uh we have hundreds of these podcasts. It's absolutely amazing. So, I don't remember if it's in there or not. So, I'm sure I'm sure that uh I I can't say that. I can't even say people won't remember because I have people quoting me back everything I have ever said to the point that it is absolutely frightening. Laavd I heard from Ami Cohen who's the son of Rip David Cohen he says I don't know if it was his father's birthday what it was they wanted to give him a gift he says but what could you give him he had his everything every safer you know so they go downstairs under the steps there's an old box of sperm there they figure he doesn't remember what he's got and he wraps it up and gives it to him and he looks at and he goes oh I'm so happy you know smiling goes my copy is missing three pages I always wanted to see what was missing thanks for getting me a new copy >> [laughter] >> So that's what it's like with my podcast. You know, I had somebody sitting in once years ago and after I gave the whole podcast, he goes, "You didn't say anything I haven't already heard." [laughter] No. So if you've heard this beforehand, fine. I I'm going to start with an introduction. And the introduction is that uh and I've spoken about this. I know I did this in a question and answer not long ago that people ask why do we uh learn Gumarra? Why do we have to learn all these things? And uh there's different answers that they give. And uh the real answer is because everything in Torah is related. And you never know where something that will appear to be completely esoteric turns out to be of deep significance. So let me give you an example of >> [clears throat] >> uh something that is esoteric. I think I would I would venture to say most people who have learned Gumarra or learned Mishnayas and have come across this concept would tell you that it's somewhat esoteric because tuma and tara for the most part does not exist today. Yeah. You don't have to worry about eating your and um truma is automatically considered tame. Then there's uh it's interesting I I may have told this story also. Um there was a time when Rab Rubin uh his hashkah uh he he was working together with cook from they were giving a hashkah and they were producing uh olive oil in Israel and uh they took off the truma and the tuma was of course tame. So they were going to pour it down the drain and RF [snorts] cook who's a cohen he says wait a second to truma a cohane even bisman is allowed to burn it for his own benefit so what do you do with Tom Truma you burn it so why don't we give it to kohanim and let them burn it and so they took all the truma and put it into large plastic uh containers and they distributed it to Kahanim. Now, one of the people who worked for the Hashkah lived in my building. So, I used to get cases of Tame Truma oil and high quality. And so, um I started lighting my Shabas candles with oil. I used to use wax candles until now, but gosh, I got free trauma oil and the only thing I can do with it is burn it. So, I would fill up my my candles and I would burn them and uh it made me look religious and it cost me less money than candles and it was just as good as could be. And then after a few years, they moved their production to Spain. So, [laughter] I didn't get any more free oil. So, I think what am I going to do now? Go back to wax and and show everybody that I never was never cared about in the first place and I was just doing this cuz it was cheap. So now I buy the shem or and use that except this peska because in osha they were selling regular olive oil that was cheaper than the shem and lama or it was 14 shekels a bottle. So I bought a whole bunch of them. I should have bought more but and uh I was lighting with regular olive oil. So it's very exciting. Mrs. Fendel Scholam. She she told me, she goes, "At one point, you know, Ry Fendel was lighting with uh with the olive oil," she says. And I stopped it. Goes, "Why?" He goes, "Cuz I had a bottle of this oil and I didn't realize it. And I fried the schnitle in it." And they were absolutely disgusting cuz it's not made to be eaten. She loo terrible story. She was very upset. Anyway, so um uh [clears throat] so uh tumara doesn't really apply today, but here's a den and stay with me here. We're going to get a little esoteric, but stay with me. I am a master educator, so it's okay. Sometimes we do some Torah here. when we when in the first year when we establish that it's the Raviolski show and not a shir it's because we talk about all kinds of stuff in addition to merely Torah but sometimes we also talk about Torah you know reminds me that a guy was in Tus Mosha and uh and he wanted to stay for a second year and Visman was trying to convince the parents to let him stay for another year and they said well we believe you can find Torah in everything it's ironic they were saying this from Ry Miselman who has a PhD for MIT. But so we believe you can find Torah in anything. We can find Torah in science. You can find Torah in literature. You can find Torah in math. He says yes, but you can also find Torah in Torah. And I would argue that that's probably the most efficient way to do it. [laughter] Somebody asked him, can I go to MIT and get a PhD? He says, sure. If you could learn eight hours a day like I did, why not? >> [laughter] >> He's he's an unusually gifted individual, Reverend Miselman, but anyway. Yeah. So, a little esoteric. So, stick it with me here. Apples are growing on a tree and the ubiquitous dead sherets falls on top of it. I say ubiquitous because you're always hearing about a dead sher as our force form of of a tumor. Yeah. and that that rat falls on top of the apples growing on your apple tree. Yeah, there are certain things that that are ubiquitous and mostly it gives me the opportunity to use the word ubiquitous which is almost impossible to work into a sentence under normal circumstances. But whenever they want to talk about they talk about dead shares as people say uh you know the given to ruin ruin ruin should live and not die. So again a wit once said why because in every case it starts off Ruvane dies [laughter] and Shimon inherits him. Ruvane dies and Shimon marries his wife. Ruvane dies [laughter] just Ruain should live and not die you know. So the dead sherro. So I have an apple tree and a dead cherrots falls on my apples on my apple's tummy. No. Why? Because they're attached to the ground. As long as it's attached to the ground will not become tummy. Great. I pick all the apples and I put them in a basket and then a dead sher falls on top of it. Are they tummy? And the answer is no. Why? Because in order to become tame, there has to have been machirin. The makia means to prepare which means it had to have first become wet intentionally with one of the seven liquids. Yeah. Now let's say I decide to wash off my apples with Tropicana pure premium orange juice. Yummy but not amashka. May peris does not count. There are seven things that are considered liquids known by themonic device. Yad yad yud is yin wine. Dalid is dvash honey. Shin is she oil is milk. Tess is tal do now I don't know how do is different than water. But Rashi says this in parasalik, you find it in a few other places. I cannot explain the difference in the um chemical composition between dew and water. But apparently it's treated differently. And the last word which is dam dalid stands for dam which is blood and mem bringing up the rear isim water. So, it had to have become wet with one of these things on purpose. Which means if I left my apples outside and the dew fell on it and I come out and I say, "Oh my gosh, these are slimy and I don't want it." And I try to wipe them off quickly and then a dead carrots falls on it. It won't work. I had to have wanted it. If I come out in the morning and say, "Oh, that's great. The the dew fell on it and now you know that helped to wash them off and then the dead sherets falls on it." it will become tummy. Okay, you have to grant me this is pretty esoteric. None of this applies today. So I was in for and Morai Kornfeld the of knowing him when he was younger my my uh his family and my wife's family grew up together in Kugan Hills. So he happened to be there Morai Cornfeld from the Daphomi um advancement institute. If you are not familiar they have many many DFomi resources. The one that most people are familiar with is their bookmark which has the calendar of the Dafyomi that uh that they give out but they have all kinds of things online all kinds of resources. So he comes over to me and he says I said right the seven mir. Okay. Um I'm savvy you know in fact it's actually interesting because this is my third time doing uh dafomi third third cycle and when we started this cycle I decided to do something based on my son's first sashas at his first sashas my son Jacob sa Shapiro spoke and he said this is not really a sashas this It's called samus. In order to do sashas, you have to also do all the mishnayas that does not doesn't have gar on it. And the next time he he did he he did shas three times. The next time he did it like that. So starting this cycle I said you know what every day after we'll do a mishna. And so we had to get through all of except for brahas. We didn't have to do anything in moade because even though there's no bavi on skullim one of the strange things about dafyomi is you do the yalmi on skullim. So we have to do anything mo on the zikin we had to do abos and edit nashim there wasn't anything that's not covered and kachim even the ones that don't have gumar on it they do it in dafi which is interesting and so now we had to do tyrus uh with the exception of nida which has a gumar on it the rest of it is mishn so we just recently finished makiran and now we're doing yum so Mish coming to the end of Tus finish up all the Mishnay before we finish up the shas and we'll make a real s of mash this year it would be very exciting but in any event so you learn about this it seems completely irrelevant to your life so uh Rab Morai Kornfeld he sees me at my and he says there are seven mash and I said right and he says there are seven holidays that we celebrate I'm not talking about tubishvad and tuba and uh you fast days. But but as far as holidays go, there's [snorts] rash and yamiper, there's pesak and sukus, and there's pur seven holidays and there are seven liquids. Now, everything in Torah is connected. That's for sure true. He says, "So each one of these liquids must correspond to a different yant." And right there on the spot, we lined them up. They were pretty easy to line up. Sukus is obviously water. You d for rain. You pour the water on the mak. That's an easy one. Kaneka is obviously oil. We've spoken about that. We eat foods cooked in oil and the nace took place with the miracle took place with oil etc. Uh perm is obviously wine right mitzvah to drink till you don't know. Yeah, you're supposed to drink. And the avu says why? Because all of the story revolves around making these parties with wine. And that's why wine was a central idea. And there's more to it. Yen has the numerical value of so and all the secrets that take place, you know, and everything is hidden. Okay. Shuis is obviously milk. That goes without saying. We all know that many reasons are given why we eat dairy on shis etc. So that's a pretty easy one. So far we're doing pretty good. Russia sha honey dip the apple in the honey have a sweet new year. Obviously there's more reasons connected to it but be mic that leaves by process illumination of course do on yum kipper and that was it. We did this in a few minutes and I was deeply moved by this and maybe it's 20 years ago trying to remember. I have since said it over to many different and everybody is always uh amazed by this insight and everyone always adds to it. They come with another insight. I'll give you one example. Um somebody said to me that's so interesting. So the two um the two holidays that are draon of rabbitic origin pur and kaneka are the only two man-made liquids. You have to squeeze the olives and squeeze the grapes in order to get the wine and the olive oil. So uh that's one insight. I have over the years developed shirim tying in every one of these liquids to the particular holiday that we believe they line up to. And I'm going to share one of them with you now. Uh what with um the story of Yas Mryam unfolding. There is one aspect of the story uh that is a little difficult for someone like me and I'll explain why. Um when I became the age of 12, I am by nature an extremist. I see things in black and white. I would never have um kept the um the wishy-washy Judaism of what you know was being celebrated when I was growing up being observed. I was either going to be from or not do it at all. So once I became from, it was like clear, okay, so I'm going to have to become a rabbi. It goes without saying. I'm going to do it. You do it, you know. So, uh, my father had a family business, a floor shop. And when I told him I was going to become a rabbi, so he reacted the way that any parent who has a family business has and dreams of their children going into the business. He tore ka, he sat on the floor, lit a yardside candle, you know, mourned my passing. [laughter] But eventually he came around and he said, "Okay, if you don't want to go into the business, so at least do something with your life." you know because everyone knows a rabbi is no job for a Jewish boy you know become a doctor now he didn't didn't even bother suggesting I become a doctor that is the dream of every Jewish parent they tell the story when the first Jew was elected president so his mother came to the inauguration and someone said you must be very proud of your son and he goes who Sheldon of course he's a doctor [laughter] That's that's every every uh Jewish parent's dream that their son should be a doctor. My father didn't even go there cuz he knows I can't handle blood. He says, "Become a lawyer. Become a lawyer. You you remember facts. You think quickly on your feet. Yeah. You know how to argue. Become a lawyer." I said, "Dad, I want to do something for Claus." He says, "You can you can defend uh poor Jews. you can uh go after cases of of Jewish discrimination. I said, "Is that what you want me to do on the side?" [laughter] That doesn't make any money either, you know. So, I became a rabbi and uh I count on the kindness of strangers. [laughter] I always say that you know in in Jacob's to Shim so he says uh he tells Shim you should be spread out among Clay. So it says there are no all the poor people and teachers of children come from Shim. And I thought why the double language just say teachers of children and I'll know that includes poor people [laughter] because whenever you check the Forbes 500, you know, list of the richest Americans, there's almost never a day school rebby there. [laughter] I'm pretty sure. I'm not positive. I'm pretty sure. Yeah. But anyway, um so uh so he was hoping I would become a lawyer, but he never said be a doctor because I can't handle blood. Uh I I'm very queasy. My my children know already that if they get cut and they're bleeding, go to go to Ima. Don't even bother going to Aba. And if Ema's not there, just sit in the corner and slowly bleed. But don't [laughter] don't go to Hubba cuz it'll just become worse. I can't handle blood. Not mine, not anybody else's. You know, I just have a very uh very squeamish. What am I going to do when they build the base of Mikdash? I'm a Cohen. So, I'm pretty sure they're going to put me in public relations and uh I'll be leading the tours. Okay. Who's with me? [laughter] All right. Stick with me. I have this uh I have this from Toya over here. You're in my group. Okay, stay with me. [laughter] Hi, my name is going Dave. Everybody, hi Co going Dave. Okay, let's go. [laughter] I don't even know. I have to find out. I When it comes to the mumim like uh they took a a vein out of my leg and they cut open my chest and they bypass my arteries. Does that make me a balum? I don't know. Took out my gallbladder. They took out my wisdom teeth. I don't know. They keep doing stuff to me, but I don't know if any of this makes me a mum or not, you know. So, uh, so we'll find out. I'm sure. Anyway, so, uh, at least I don't have a unibrow. Thank God for something. So, [laughter] I was once at a family sa and I said, you know, I don't remember what it was. I was talking about people were balding and I said not uskis we lovkis all have our hair we have heart disease and diabetes but at least we have our hair [laughter] so a family sim one of my son-in-laws who's losing his hair you know he says the truth is I'm losing my hair but hey I don't have diabetes and heart disease and I said it's not worth it [laughter] and you got to have a tradeoff but anyway so you will notice that blood which as I mentioned would be according to our little the liquid that corresponds to Pesak there's a lot of blood in these four parios a lot of it so for example in uh this week's para the Jewish people are emotionally dead what shakes them up when parro slaughterers their babies to get blood to bathe in. And at that point, they cry out to Hashem. Until then, they were they there was nothing left inside of them. Um when Moshe says they're not going to believe me, so he says, "Take your stick and throw it down. It'll turn to a snake. Pick it up. It turn back into a stick. Put your hand in your jacket. Take it out. It's got leprosy. Saras, put it back. it'll be healed. And if they don't listen to those two, they'll definitely listen to this one. Take some water from the river, pour it on the ground, and it'll turn into blood. Why are they going to listen to the blood more than anything else? Okay. Paras, we have Makisdam where all the water of Egypt turns into blood. It first attacks the Nile River and from there it spreads all around. everything, even even water in vessels. You might remember that scene in the Ten Commandments where the slave girl has the jug and she toss it down and it's filled with blood. Yeah. The blood was everywhere. And the river turns into blood. And why is the first maka? Because it says when God punishes the people first, he attacks their gods. But they worship the sheep. They worship lots of stuff. Some of their gods were still left already when we left Mitzim. They had to first be destroyed. So uh so why' you take the Nile? They they worship the sun, right? That Rah is the sun. Farro is the name of God. Ram say so when you find these it's it's from the sun the sun god. Um uh they worship scarabs, right? sacred beetles, George Ringo, whatever it was. But the point is that uh they worship all kinds of things. Why'd you go after the river? And then of course in para's bow, we take the blood of the Kak and paint it on the door. All right. The door, the two muzas and the mashkov to be I know I know my fact checkers will be out there. Um, by the way, one of the fact checkers came out and apparently I mentioned the story of the longest pesak and I said it was the Maharal and someone said to me, "No, it was a no Yehuda." And I looked it up. He's right. It was the Nhuda in Prague and not the Maharal. Made a mistake. I make mistakes. But um but it was the two doorposts and the lentil. Talk about blood. What a bloody scene. And we actually do it this at the seda, you know, by the blood ye shall live. The blood of the pesak and the blood of the brisma. So again, a lot of blood. And speaking about blood, when I went for uh I got a yora, which is basically you have to study kashas. That's what they test you on. The idea is that if you can show that you're competent in that, then you'll go on and master other areas of hala. Or in my case, you only know kash. So whenever people come to ask me shilas, I usually say I'm not that kind of a rabbi. Someone shows me their fill in. Is this a soul? And I said, I don't know. Drop it in a pot of chicken soup and I'll tell you what to do with it. You know, that's how I do that. You know, someone brought me there yesterday. guy say wait I'll put it in a pot of chicken s we'll see [laughter] so but you learn kash and one of the areas you learn is malika which is soaking and salting I remember uh reb who was giving this at the end he says I wish I could tell you what my rebi told me when we finished malika now go home and ask your mother how to do it and it was interesting I was born in 1959 and by that point already the butcher was doing it but I saw my mother had an old salting board you know they used to keep big boxes of kosher salt and they used to kasha their own meat their own chickens this was uh everybody did this it's so consultant and um and so we went through all the laws of malika and the amount of time that you have to leave it on and and how much salt minimum amount of salt it was interesting uh they said most of the time when you get kosher chickens, they're very salty because they put a lot of salt on and then they wash it off, but some of it stays behind. Yeah. But there are certain people on low sodium diets, so they have to be very very careful to put on the minimum amount of salt and wash it off well beforehand. Um, which is uh interesting the way the way that they uh they look at it. But anyway, but there are two exceptions to the law of Malika. One is a heart. It says the way that you have to soak and salt the heart is you make a crisscross in it, rinse it out. That's it. Because the heart does not absorb blood. It's a muscle. If your heart absorbed blood, it would slow down. Boom boom boom. Heart failure is when there's liquid surrounding your heart. It doesn't work so efficiently. So you certainly don't want your heart to absorb blood. The other thing that is an exception is liver. You cannot soak and salt liver because it's all blood. Uh when I was uh in Hank so one year I had my rebby rebby warmman and his father was a butcher back in Germany. He said that one time my friends you know they were hungry. I said I'll get some from the butcher store. So I I took a liver. I didn't know it was liver and uh we knew you had to soak and salt it. So we put on the salt, we put it in, you know, in a bucket and we came back. It was just a bucket of blood. The only way to cash a liver is by grilling it. So it's interesting. There's one thing that has no blood in it and the other thing that is completely blood, a heart and a liver. Why is that significant? Because we say Lebo. We translate that as we hardened his heart. That's not what it means. There's one place where it uses the word kash. That's hardening his heart. There's sometimes when it says he strengthened it. But when it says says the medish, I made his heart into a liver. I liverized his heart. Sounds like a strange thing to say. What does that mean? A heart is dynamic. It's a muscle. It's always pumping. If it stops pumping, you die. A liver is not pumping. If your if your liver is pulsating, you got a problem. It just sits there. It's a filter. It filters the blood. It's filled with it's a lump of blood. Libo means I let his heart become a liver. I let his emotions and his dynamism to care and feel like a human being become numb and dull and dead like a liver. As Martin Luther King said, if you want to keep uh person in the gutter, you better stay in the gutter to make sure he stays there. And that is uh what Pyrro says in in parish when he says um let us prepare ourselves and deal with them wisely. Yeah. What does that mean prepare ourselves? We have to make ourselves hard-hearted in order to oppress these people. During the Nuremberg trials, they asked one of the Nazis, "Okay, you held that the Jews are evil and they're vermin and they have to be exterminated, but why all the degradation?" And the Nazis said, "You think it's easy to kill people? We have to make them subhuman first. We have to squatchch our own humanity in order to do this. It's not easy. I know we make it look easy, but it's not that easy. The mitzv say we have to prepare ourselves for this because we're going to have to lose some of our humanity in the process of becoming oppressors and becoming people who destroy. And that's why originally parro didn't want to tell uh about the genocide that he was doing. He told the midwives, "Quietly kill the boys and you, you know, in in the womb so that nobody knows about it. I don't want anyone to know that I'm I'm a genocidal maniac." But when he had no choice, he turned to the people and said, "We have to do this. Let's let's let's destroy the Jewish people. Let's enslave them. Let's kill their babies." It's uh a certain act of cruelty that transforms you. [snorts] The Jewish people slowly became dead in Egypt. That's what happens when you're oppressed long enough. Um, you just have to close off all your feelings. There's no way to make it through a traumatic experience unless you totally close yourself up. The Pik says, "I will take away your heart of stone and give you leasar a heart of flesh." Said, "If we didn't have a heart of stone, we never would have lasted through this gullis. You just can't see all of this suffering for thousands of years and not have it kill you." I used to tell Ray Bowman the reason he was having heart problems is because he took everything right in his heart. He he would get very emotional. He would get very upset about things and you have to you have to, you know, learn to distance yourself a little bit. But that that was not Ray Bulman if you knew him. He he he didn't know how to do that. He took it all right right inside. But anyway, um that's what happened. And therefore, in order to save the Jewish people, they had to come back to life. And where did that happen? When they saw their own children being slaughtered for their blood and they finally cried out to Hashem and said, "I can't take this anymore." And Hashem hears them and says, "Oh, okay. Now I'll bring the gula. But we had to ask for it. And until then, we kept saying, "It's not so bad. We can handle this. It's not so bad." It wasn't just cute when they asked the kudzka, "When is mashia going to come?" And he says, "Whenever we want him." So we had to say we're going to come back to life. What is orah? Is a it's closed, right? You can't eat the fruit the first 3 years. It's or it's closed off to you. The place of the brisma, it's closed off. You have to cut it off to be able to open it. And the Torah speaks of oras. Your heart needs to be circumcised because you have a heart of stone because you're dead. And so Moshe was given a simmon for the Jewish people. See this dead stick says in that sie, look how it comes to life. See, Saras is called dead flesh. Look how it comes back to life. And you see how the water turns into blood. That's why that god was struck first cuz the Egyptians thought they don't need anything. They have the Nile River. The Nile River just overflows and waters all of their crops. No, it's not the river that gives you life. It's your blood that flows inside of you. Come back to life. You've been cruel for so long. You wake up. And Pyro just couldn't do it. He would harden his own heart and say, "I don't care. I don't care." He saw the macos and he didn't care. He was so congealed. His heart had become a liver. And while that was going on, the Jewish people were coming back to life. We circumcised our body. We circumcised our heart. We looked at was taking place and we became renewed. We came back to life. And so in the last parish in Bashalik after all of Egypt has been devastated after the firstborn has died after Pyro said get out of here they rushed us out he hardens his heart one last time and pursues us and that's the end of the story because you have to be alive you have to care Lao chief rabbi uh of Israel he was chief rabbi by telev then became chief rabbi of Israel. You only get that job for 10 years. When he retired, he went back to Tel Aviv, didn't retire. So he was a child in the Holocaust, which was the only way you survive is by becoming a rock. There's so much horror and destruction around you. How could you go on? And uh at the end of the war, people were dying just from a lack of wanting to be alive. just from a lack of the will to live. And the army brought in psychologists to speak to these children and it wasn't helping. They were all just dead. So they got a rub and a rov brought all the children together and he spoke to them about the tragedies and spoke to them about their parents and spoke to them about their family to a room full of stonyfaced children. And as he reaches his crescendo, he says, "And now, kind you can cry." And here a little girl sobbed. And here a little boy gave out a cry. And here other children began to weep until the room was filled with crying children. And Reb Laauo says, "When I knew I could cry, I knew I would live. says of deslan suka says that first mashiach bin yoseph will come before mashiach ben David and he will be the final casualty in the war and he says why because yseph represents the heart and yehuda represents the head we're not going to get the gula intellectually it's going to be emotionally we have to come back to life we have to break open our heart and feel again and when we do then we can have a gula then we can come back to life and then we can live. So during this time as we read these parios and we see the emphasis on on blood on hearts on livers on on being dead on coming back to life it's time for us to wake up the gula is very close I've told this already [snorts] back when Kanvski was still alive someone said to me he he went to bring his boys and one of the boys said is mash coming and he said no he's outside knocking on the door. We just have to circumcise our heart. We have to replace that heart of stone with a heart of flesh. We have to feel again. Okay. Uh we have some appreciation comments here. Thank you for the question and answers. I hope the rub will get to some of mine. What can I tell you? We do twi twice a week we're doing these and can I know how we get a lot of them but uh we just keep trying to go through them. I really just wanted to thank the rub for the answer to happy Kaneka which gullis is hummon from. Thank you. It was truly enlightening not a pun. Of course, thank you for all the Rav Shir and podcast aside from the Torah and laughter. They are a tremendous source of for all of us and also saves me from a lot of man because the clarity of the ideas allows me to listen and be inspired while driving, waiting in line, checking letters, walking to sh and a myriad of other activities. Thank you very much. Recently, I've gotten a number of these appreciation comments where people say, you know, I'm listening on my headphones and suddenly everyone sees me cracking up and they say, "Oh, must be listening to Rabbi Olowski." [laughter] Hi, my name is David Rhodess. You give me so much with your podcast. I always go every week to see the new one. Out of all the speakers, you're the best. You give me so much. I wish there was something here I could disagree with. [snorts] Michael M who has sponsored a whole bunch of paras and fives. Now the para and five we don't make any speech but this person sponsored a lot of them and they put it under appreciation comments. Thank you for your dedication to Israel and your efforts in Satyra. Thank you who helped me to make this possible. I've been listening to your sharam for years, even before the Rabbi Olowski show started. Yeah, I used to have cassette tapes. Uh, and I enjoy your combination of deta and wit. Thank you. [snorts] The combination of ideas you share from Shapiro and the surprising wealth [laughter] of pop culture knowledge you have, comic books, secular novels, etc. bring Torah to life with excitement and meaning. I I I had a rebi many many years ago who said to me everyone has a purpose in life ori yours is to be a bad example and I really tried to live up to that so I figure everything that you get in life is a matana they tell a story I don't know if it's true or not but I don't care I'm not piss but I tell a story that one time rashi was walking in the street and this noble woman was on a horseback and suddenly the horse reared up and her skirt skirt flew up and she saw this garment that she wore under her skirt while she was riding the horse and he was so upset. Why did that happen to me? And then when he was writing his parish on Tyra, he's describing the aphod and he says it looks like the garment that a woman wears under her skirt when she's horseback riding. How would he know that? That was the incident. I don't know if it's true or not, but I always feel like anytime uh I have some bits of nonsense, it was a mat from a bar for me to use as a mushel to try to illustrate a point. So there you go. And you never know what you could do with it. when I used to run NCSY. So I had the entire Shabaton before we would go in for the meal because all the advisers left and they were having an advisor meeting, you know, preparing for what they were going to do. I had to keep everybody busy and um I used to challenge the kids if they could name 25 Batman villains from the old Batman TV show. How many people in can do that? Anyway, I miss listening to your Mozy Shabas para share and hope you can start them up again soon. I do too. It's just I don't know what happened there. It just nobody was coming and afterward I was sitting in this big sh by myself and it was cold. Anyway, well, I know you describe your goals differently. I would suggest your shirum for the acronym chip cadesh. Oh my gosh, this actually works. This is what I say. Humor, I inspirational, Practical. That's exactly what I said. I want to say a kadesh. I want it to be entertaining. I want to be inspirational, be practical. Chip galdic. Yeah. May you be blessed with many more years guarding am on how to chip away and become better hashem. Thank you very much. And that's it for this episode. If you want to find out more about the show, you can go to my website raoli.com. We're right at the top. You can click and sign up for the Pesak program in Nokiner. It's going to be a blast. And I have to tell you, at this point, uh, we've already sold a third of the rooms. And, uh, every day I hear two or three more rooms are being snatched up. I'm guessing as we get closer to Pesak and more people turn around. I hear from a whole bunch of people who tell me, "We're planning on coming. We just haven't done it yet." Please do not miss out. I would hate to find that you want to just come and sleep in the lobby cuz the lobby will already be full. There won't be a place for you. You'll have to go down to the swimming pool and just keep swimming. I think the little lounge chairs on the side are already filled in. So anyway, please if you're considering coming, come now. Sign up, join us. It's going to be a blast. You can sign up for one of my online shiim at on Sundays for women on uh Monday and Dafomi every single day. You can submit a question, you can submit a comment, you can sponsor an episode, sponsor partner and five sponsor a question and answer. And uh that's it for this episode. Until next time, I am Devon Olowski and this has been the Rabbi Olowski Show. >> It's the Rabbi Orlovski Show. Torah and Sima, ready to go. The Rabbi Olowski Show. Knowledge and wisdom will help you grow. Lots of fun in every episode. And we don't have to rhyme, no. 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