#1: Iggeres HaRamban (10 Minutes of Meaning) - Introduction

morning good morning and a good summer to all may we here BOS today from and from around the world 10 minutes of meaning begin a new series this morning ran very excited to begin to explore to learn together the Fantastic letter of the ramban to his son 10 minutes of meeing series is generous sponsored by SCH and Esther shyts in honor of their parents and children please help yourself to coffee and to cookies this morning very proud to have completed together in this slot if you want to listen or go back you can find them all online and this morning we begin together the letter of the ran Moshe benman to his son from Israel when he moved to Israel his son was still living in Spain we'll give a little bit of a background and then we'll dive in it's a very short letter you'll say why are we learning this how long could it take one or two sessions but literally every word of thean is precious every word is such a source of inspiration so we'll explore and we'll analyze and we'll use two primary commentaries that are fantastic first foyer wrote a magnificent commentary art girl published on thean and more recently maso wrote a short commentary and both our fantastic works that help us help us through so when is the ran first of all who is the ramban we've heard of the ran is Parish on we've heard of the ramban this commentary and Chast ramban was a prolific writer and commentator on the width and breadth of Torah not only Torah not only the revealed Torah as in tanak and Sh but the ran as well was a great cabalist was a great Mystic and in fact his commentary on Kish is filled with cabalistic illusions with references to to mysticism we know about the ramban he was a doctor less well known as the ramban was also a physician the ramban also was a was a doctor he was born in 1195 in garona in Northern Spain to a prominent rabic family and ultimately he passes away in Israel in the year 1270 he moves to Israel when he's expelled from Spain he can't be there any longer after the um after the disposition in which he has a public debate with the Jewish apostate Pablo christiani in 1263 King James of Aragon ordered him to to defend the Jewish scholarship and the Jewish approach against Christianity it was assumed that Judaism had a bias and the ramban did a fantastic fantastic job as you would imagine he didn't go on the uh on the offense but defending the Jewish position and the Jewish perspective he later published the um the account of this debate under the title the two volum writings of the ramban that we have today that include the sa the ramban's um describing the verbatim account of this debate but the priests of the Dominican claimed that he blasphemed Christianity and UL ran was expelled from the kingdom and he had to flee from Spain and so at the age of 72 which today is Young 72 might as well be 27 but then in the 13th century was not as young the ramban without the help of of nefes Benes settled in arel he made his way through a difficult Journey arriving in 1267 in AKO in the port of AKO and it's there and we have this tradition from a which is quoted in the beginning of both of these commentaries that's when we have the tradition that the ran wrote this letter back to his son who was still living in Spain his son nman named for his father uh was still living back in Spain and the ramban wanted to continue to have an influence over his son to inspire his son to motivate his son and so he wrote this short letter to his son and he promised his son WR this letter to his son in order to encourage him and motivate him in the particular attribute and character trait of humility of humility as we'll see the ran thinks that this is the key the Lynch pin to a life of meaning and purpose and proper MOS is to focus on to be modest and to be humble and he commanded it's a powerful word commanded C so back then parents could still tell their children what to do so he told his son read the letter once a week and that not only should he read this letter once a week he should learn it together with his children and he should habituate himself he should read this letter weekly with his children to the point they commit it to memory that they know the letter by heart it's interesting that he points out to learn it with his children M says the Stifler told him people make a mistake in thinking that mus is for adults it's for B for children children you tell stories ofik children you make arts and crafts for the Seder children so the ster told them learn mus with your children mus not in the sense of harsh difficult rebuke but to analyze and to focus on character traits and qualities and what we could aspire to be to the the quotes that the ran said to his son that he should communicate to their children in their young age to condition them to live with a healthy sense of all reverence for then the raan offers a very bold promise the ran says any day that you read my letter you will be answered from Heaven anything you ask that's why if you open your sitter right now that's in front of you you'll see most s dur today havean printed in the sitter Incorporated almost as part of that it's a quick read and it's an easy not only to read it to recite it like a but to read it and to study it as a motivational statement a daily a daily motivational statement and the ran promises it's a bold promise who is he the promise what does ramban come off promising if you read his letter every day Hashem will answer whatever you want because the ran is not promising about his letter ma point out the ran is promising if you live the values in the letter then you're living The Virtuous righteous life that Hashem wants and that Hashem himself promises you that if you live the life of meaning of purpose of righteousness of virtue then he will answer and any one who accustoms themselves to say it will be spared and saved from Calamity and you are promised to enter the world to come and you'll be protected from anger and you will arrive at you will arrive at humility so when did the ramban write this letter to his son he told him read it every week with your children accustom them to a life of and you'll be spared you'll be saved you'll be answered anything that you want so it's assumed during his first El in Israel at this age of 72 and the ramban was expelled from Spain and made his way to Israel to the port of AKO ran for the rashash that El made his way to Yim what he found there in Yim the 13th century was a city that was in ruin ruins it was plundered the crusaders had absolutely destroyed it and there were very few Jews the ran struggled to get a Minion for that rashash you just talk about The Marvelous Miracle of the modern Israel today and with all of its challenges with all of its problems with all of the issues in the debate with all of the lack of of commitment to religion even from leadership but you think about Yim today compared to the ramban the ramban made his way to and struggled to get a minion in all of Y that's how few Jews were there and that's what it looked like he wrote another famous letter to his son and he describes the situation he writes what should I tell you in regard to this land many are its forsaken places and great are its wasted areas the truth of the matter is the more sacred the place the greater the devastation it has suffered Yim is the most desolate place of all that rashash ran gave a Dr in that small group that small minion that he had trying to give to the Jews who remained in y in Isel and then he made his way back to to AKO which is where he lived and which is where he died he only spent a few short weeks inim but he converted a space to be the sh for that Y and that's what we have today known as the ramban sh in The Old City for many years that sh was destroyed the Arabs the Muslims destroyed it but in 1967 when miraculously Hashem you know kindness gave us back the old city of when it was liberated and we found the sh of the ran and ruins it was reconstituted and today I'm sure you've daved and what do you see hanging on the wall of the ran this letter that we're going to study that the ran wrote to his that he wrote to his son he went back to AKO that's where he died in 1270 and it's unclear exactly where he's buried some say k some say near maras others locate K some say in AKA which is where he lived others say in y unclear exactly where he where he passed away there are different versions actually of this letter and the letter he wrote it we said in 1267 but it's not found or heard of between 1267 and it's first published in 1623 in as part of the and it was later printed by the r by the great classic mus work the by by a ofo how do we know 400 years it wasn't published it wasn't found that's how strong our tradition is when it reemerges that this is an authentic version of the the ramban's of the ramban's letter so that's the backdrop to who the ramban is there's a lot more to say about the ramban himself and uh the background to what motivated him and why and when he wrote this letter but that's why it's worth our studying who doesn't want to fulfill and tap into that promise of the ran if you read it weekly he doesn't say Wednesday mornings with coffee and cookies but if you read it Wednesday and we're going to read it slowly word by word if you read the whole letter weekly daily the promise it gives us because of how it will condition us to become the best version of ourselves excited and looking forward to reading it together if you join the WhatsApp group where we uh post the schedule and uh some bonus material I pinned the G you could see it there and follow along there continue with living with amuna at 8:45 should be a day that we hearos toos