#538: Amida: Al Ha'Tzadikim (Part 7)

s is generous responsible the Saka family and as well by and a for on theim and we have defined and described what we think about whom we think about for and which brings us to the GED righteous converts in our in our daily mindfulness three times a day is to Davin for the well-being the prosperity the success of the GED the right righteous converts I mentioned that in the original formulation of the this expression this phrase this Clause was not included it was of gak who added it why did he add it because he lived through a time of persecution and despite the persecutions you would have thought when Jews are targeted when Jews are persecuted when Jews are assimilated I would think who would want to convert who would want to join such people and yet in his time there were those who were flocking who were drawn like magnets to the Jewish people sometimes you saw three opinions what did he and one of the three opinions was he heard about mik which is very peculiar because if you look in the Torah in the story of our battle our war with amalik who wins who triumphs to draw no one he didn't hear that the Jewish people were the few against the many the weak against the mighty we defeated them we survived them we lived in another day and amalik did and still continues until now to haunt us so what was yra so impressed by about the war with amalik a war we didn't even win that we just survived that he was drawn to come check out the Jewish people and I've always thought that maybe what inspired or motivated yro was when you see evil and wickedness in the world and it is so threatened by and it seeks with a really peculiar Obsession to eliminate one people a people who are keeping to the themselves and only contributing positively to the world that people must have something special about them not that we welcome or want the anti-Semitism the hatred of and others but the fact that the epitome of evil is so targeted so directed at one people there must be something special about that people maybe that's what inspired or motivated yro and that in the time ofak as well even though it was a time of persecution people said if evil is threatened by this people there's something special about that people I want to check them out it's really extraordinary we're privileged here to have a bon of Gus that rug and I and other in in South Florida Under the Umbrella the Bas of America one of the regional B we meet regularly and we convert people regularly and just like a couple weeks ago we welcomed some new members of our tribe some new individuals into the Jewish people and as part of that ritual not only in advance but while they're standing in the Mikvah about to immerse and about to emerge a new person we ask a series of questions and one of them is are you aware of anti-Semitism my whole career I asked that question and it was like a throwaway are you aware of anti-Semitism you know there are people who hate Jews are you prepared to be among them yeah no problem today that question means a lot more than it once did and there's something extraordinary when people say yes I've seen what's happening on campuses yes I see what's going on in the world and nevertheless I want to be part of this people and those indeed are the GED that we are Dom for that's who we're doing for these righteous righteous converts these special converts when a person converts they're born again is G says though that is a tamic principle it's unclear what P or where exactly that comes from in the Tor others suggest sources for it but the principle is that when a person converts they are born a new they're born entirely again it's a fresh start some say from here you see that the soul of converts was present at Haren those who were destined to convert were also included at har how do you see that because Kaz do not tell us the expression is not a non-jew a gentile who converts is as if they're born again rather it's G sh a convert who converts what do you mean a convert who converts you're not a convert until you convert you're a gentile who converts why is it g sh is G and they say you see from there G is g a convert who converts someone who was destined to convert whose Soul was on the path of trajectory to convert and they finally went through and they followed through with the conversion but even before then their soul was attached to the Jewish people to the extent that we say it was present at har so these G ated these righteous converts why are we doing for them why are they included singled out so we mentioned this is the most often repeated Mitzvah in the Torah tells us 36 places the Torah tells us to treat a convert properly and the points out while we have the Mitzvah we have to love our neighbor as ourselves when it comes to the G there is no limit other fellow Jews you have to love them like you love yourself if you don't love yourself too much you don't have to love others too much where is the threshold as you love yourself but not so when it comes to a a gared sedic when it comes to a righteous convert there's no limitation on the law the ra writes in is to the love that we have to show the convert tells us Hashem loves the converts not only do we have to exhibit and demonstrate that love Hashem loves them and one of the ways we emulate hasem is by showing that love rather says there's no greater Sim No Greater Joy than causing happiness for poor for the Yim for the uh for the orphans and for the widows and for gam for converts so you see the Torah places an extraordinary emphasis on their well-being and their happiness and as we'll read I guess next week talks about one fulfills the Mitzvah of loving the convert by davening for the convert and therefore GED is included in this uh in this BR that we DAV that they should be well that they should stay on the path they should continue to be a source of inspiration and that their Merit should serve to help the Jewish people