Parsha Perspectives for Today (Shoftim)

contributing to contributing to this so he says a very similar thought a very similar idea that before the judge judges others they should judge themselves hazal tells us first judge first to evaluate yourself and then evaluate others ourselves when you know that you're clean when you know that you're pure when you know that you're innocent then you can judge others and then it will be a mish and then first judge yourself you know when you point the finger at others you have three fingers pointing back at yourself that which we see as a blemish in others when we're willing to dismiss when we're willing to judge when we're willing to assume about others we're really revealing a lot about ourselves so this posik while it's giving us of course a national mission or mandate about our attitude and approach towards others it also very very much is teaching us about our responsibility towards ourselves that you should not be in a position that you are uh judging others but first before first correcting the follow says that word khashogt which means khazal here interpreted to mean means first judge first fix first correct or repair yourself and then others sir fellaini points us to bayana rockets points us to british may in brexit we say um we shouldn't tell ourselves lies we shouldn't distort our view of ourselves we shouldn't rationalize the word rationalizes we tell ourselves rational lies we should be honest with ourselves honest with ourselves and then all that is included first judge yourself first look at yourself and only then bishop to assam can you look at those around you and then it will be mishpathek then it will be just and honest because you're not holding to a double or dual standard we are first holding and evaluating ourselves rodrick notes another anomaly in this very passage of assurances it begins with uh specifically it begins in the singular um is plural so which is it is it the individual the singular lashon titan or is it ii in the lashan in the plural and he says the following we already explained based on the says we're talking about the individual you have to place a a guard and an officer at every entrance to your body to your soul you have to be judicious and vigilant in how we live and how we behave what does it mean and he therefore suggests the following is you see when we improve ourselves when we elevate ourselves when we are more careful ourselves and we behave in a better way ourselves we don't only improve ourselves it trickles down it overflows it has an impact and lifts all those around us the opposite is also true if a person slips or slides if a person is more lackadaisical or casual in their attitude towards torah and mitzvot if their fire is dimmed or extinguished if the person is much more relaxed then the people around them are going to become uninspired as well we are a product of our environment the rambam says you have to choose so carefully where you live because socially our friends and our neighborhood our neighbors and our environment both nature and nurture have an enormous impact on us and we have that enormous impact on it and that's what the positive is coming to tell us he suggests that why does it switch why does it transition from the singular to the plural that shafted individually and then visceral in the plural collectively to teach us that the decisions and the attitude that we have for ourselves doesn't only impact ourselves but will impact those around us it's true in a virus it's true in wearing masks distancing and behavior and it's true metaphysically it's true spiritually it's true the spiritual viruses that can contaminate and that can be transmitted as well our attitude our approach our vigilance is not just about us it's not an individual sport it's a team sport it's a team world and the attitude that we bring will have a much more global impact and that's what the parish is beginning by telling us that the judges the judgment that we have and the judgment that we use what's safe what's correct what's moral what's ethical what's appropriate the shofting bishotra the judgment that we use and the vigilance the officers that we place around our behavior and our attitude it begins with what we choose for ourselves ends with vishal too and the plural will impact the greater number will impact the greater amount and therefore we have to be very careful in our choosing how we're going to behave and being very very careful and clear in how we use our judgment the puzzling then addressing now the uh the judges velocity a judge has to not pervert judgment you're not allowed to respect someone's presence below don't accept bribes bribery is pernicious bribery is odious bribery corrupts bribery compromises justice lossy don't accept shohad and why should you not accept shokhan the passage tells us why khazanish that accepting bribery is not really a rational law but it's a hoke and how does he know it because he says the shoghi who has a lot of money invested in the whether the animals kosher or not kosher the shoka is believed regarding his own shrita a person is believed regarding their own cassius arov can pascal regarding his wife's own need to shilas so you see that even though one is so to say has a bias nevertheless they're allowed to judge in those cases but most disagree and they say it's not true bribery is a uh is a very rational rule and the passage itself here tells us the reason why yeah it blinds it clouds the eyesight the judgment the vision of whom of the very powerful passage it means who is prone to bribery who is vulnerable or susceptible to having their opinions swayed by a bribe not just the wicked or the evil or the corrupt it says it blinds the eyes of the wise and salafi makes crooked whom the devray sadiq so you see that bribery is something that can affect that can compromise not only those who are corrupt but even those who are wise and those who are righteous that's how powerful that's how impactful that's how penetrative it is we gave uh three or four shi urum about shohan and protects it earlier this year you could listen on my website over here from goldberg.org we applied it to modern applications of questions the bribery scandal that happened in the world earlier this year you remember that there was a in our lives were divided between pre-corona and after corona so you may remember pre-corona there was a whole scandal of those college admission bribery scandals but those scandals and that protects you happens all the time not only in college secular college campuses it happens in yeshivas and khadaram and kolem who do you know and how much did your grandfather donate and what's your connection and how do you get in and we gave a series of shirum approaching this question but that's how shohad it has that impact on the uh on inside the pascal on paragraph gimbal doesn't say it clouds the judgment of the wise it says pick and those who are clear-sighted those who are bright it's not just that if you're stupid you accept the bribe people who are brilliant except the bribe that's the power that's the temptation of bribery it appears no less than three times in the torah it appears once in tehillim tillam teswav one of my favorite proclama of all tale i'm a very short peric that talks about what is the description what are the criteria of a righteous person caspar or no the person who doesn't lend with interest and a person who never accepts bribery against the innocent person who begs in that way will never be shaken will never be abandoned forever that is the righteous lifestyle that a person should aspire to dub off describes and in the behaviors or character traits of the truly righteous includes that is our part of the prohibition of accepting shokhan the marks teaches us about this passage about this prohibition of that it doesn't just mean if you change your mind it's not just bribery is prohibited if it actually sways your opinion even if you stay with your opinion you're forbidden to accept the bribe so you're going to accept that student anyway you're going to you're going to rule in the favor of that particular litigant anyway nevertheless it's prohibited to take a bribe why should that be why should that be so fast when we are analyzing and we are adjudicating when we are trying to conclude what is true what is just what is right what is righteous it shouldn't come from our book it shouldn't come from our intuition or our instinct it has to come from the pursuit of trying to reveal the will of hashem the rats on hashem because that's the only true truth that is the only authentic and that's why this explains the gemara uses the language allah a diane a justice a judge who has done ms lamito who is trying to discover or pursue or rule the truth in the truth it's a very clumsy or awkward expression what does it mean to be done din ms la amito how do you rule the truth in the truth and that's what this fascema suggests he says you know you could come to the truth by accident a broken clock is right twice a day you could come upon the truth you could stumble upon it by accident you could also come to it for the wrong reasons and the wrong conclusions you can come to the conclusion that is true not out of emma's but out of sheker you were bribed you happen to judge in favor of what's right but you were bribed to do it that's what the torah is telling us don't accept bribery even if it doesn't sway your opinion even if you rule what's correct why because our mission is to be done in ms la amito not only to come to the right conclusion but to come to it for the right reason the right conclusion for the right reason because that's how we draw close that's how we connect that's how we stick to that's how we reveal his goal his vision for this world only when you seek the truth with the power of the torah that's true can you really cling to the source of truth but when a person is willing to hear bribery show favor be swayed a fellow who said even if you're correct then it's not truth it's not din dun din ms lamito salazar parsha parshas not only are you prohibited from offering a bribe says that the judge is forbidden from taking the bribe why because of lifting the evil seating a prohibition of lift the either you're not allowed to accept a you're not allowed to accept a a bribe okay tara then continues you have to pursue sadek now the torah all of a sudden develop a stutter why is the torah being redundant sadek sadek tierdo what is added by the dual double language of tsedek zedek righteousness righteousness shall you pursue sedek zeddek my brother-in-law's father is a federal judge in new york and in his chamber he has these words saddek teddy tirdov written this is what he has the torah he is uh prescribing his attitude towards justice why the double language zedek has a penetrating insight and such an important insight in our time and for all times he says the dual language trudeau means sedek bitsa pursue righteousness with righteousness you know you see sometimes people have a righteous ends and they pursue it with a very unrighteous means so they have a very righteous noble ends they're trying to fight for justice fight for the vulnerable fight for the downtrodden fight for the targeted fight for the discriminated against but they do so in such an unjust way look at some of the movement we're seeing in our time standing up to oppose racism that's wonderful all good people should participate in a movement that opposes racism but rioting looting discriminating against others that's not said like bit sedek tierdof that's an extreme example there are much less uh extreme examples in in true politics in life in the workplace zedek people have a noble and just cause that they're fighting for but they fight for it in very innovable and unrighteous ways and that's what the past is telling it says of simcha boone sadek bit sadaq tierdof pursue justice with justice but the sanhedrin aflame and base has a different interpretation of tedec the mother the reason it's repeated twice is to tell us that there is not only one kind of justice there are two kinds of justices that doesn't sound very just that sounds corrupt what do you mean there are two kinds of justices how could that be so the gemara says there's a tsadek of din and there's it's of the absolute rule what is the absolute correct thing to do absolute justice objective justice but there's also a saddik there's a righteousness to shara shara means compromise the spirit of compromise compromise by definition is not staying true to what is just when you reach a compromise you're not following the strict letter of the law you're actually compromising whenever i mediate whether it's a two partners in a fight or marriage or whatever scenario i always introduce the mediation by saying that we're looking to create a compromise and the definition of a compromise is something neither party is happy about but both parties can live with the spirit of a compromise is something you're not necessarily happy about but you could live with if you were happy with it then you would have gotten your way maybe that's just but it's not a compromise a compromise is something that neither party is necessarily happy about but both can live with that's not unjust a compromise is also a form of justice sadiq sadiq tierdof sometimes there's din sometimes there's something that's absolutely correct excuse me and sometimes there is a spirit of a compromise and a compromise is also a form of something which is which is correct which is correct the gemara wonders keita and the mark gives an example over us up is that two boats are passing in the river and they encounter one another who gets to go first what are the ethics of lines that's what we did in this series three or four or five parts i forgot how many about the laws of bribery of protection of lines were the ethics of lines we went through a number of shilohs but what are the ethics what are the halachas that guide the formation of a line who gets to go first can anyone cut the line can the vulnerable the weak the disabled the poor can atomic cut the line is anyone entitled to use protection to get in earlier to cut the line we saw that in questions of supermarkets we saw that in the case of organ donor or organ recipient lines we saw that from the small to the uh to the large can you use protection to cut a line what are the ethics and what are the of it i encourage you if you're interested to listen we addressed some fascinating fascinating shout outs had a fascinating question he was asked apparently there was a nine file somebody had a great idea they walk into a supermarket and there's always long lines to check out so they had a great idea they put the cart online at the checkout empty and then they walk around and start shopping and as they collect their goods they put it in the cart that's already moving on the line and by the time they're done getting their things and have filled their cart their cart is at the front of the line is that correct is it correct morally ethically halachically is it correct is it permissible that and other fascinating questions like it tara then goes on and tells us you're not allowed to plant an idolatrous tree a tree that's bowed down to a form of idolatry you can't plant it where near the mizbeh what's the connection between an idolatrous tree and judges and justice we spoke about that in previous pasha classes it is a fascinating question muhammad it is a form of a abomination to hashem we have the death penalty for one who worships idols and uh so on okay parak yazaya pasekhas page one thousand twenty six in the article if a matter of judgment is hidden from you what happens you live where you live and you have shields you have questions you're not sure exactly how to observe properly what do you do there are debates there are uh there's um more than one opinion means it's a pella it's a pella rash it says wonder means that is something which is obscured from you something which is covered from you you don't have access to it you are you are um distanced from it it's and you don't know what the halacha is what's this mean being dominant is are questions in in civil law you don't know who is right and who's wrong who who's obligated who's exempt negola nega when it comes to the laws of diverse when it comes to fights what do you do they come to vallesa you get up and you go to the place you go to the place that i've chosen again a throwback to last week's partial we talked about we talked about last week's parishioner why doesn't hashem give us the coordinates he never tells us where it is where is this base on niktas where is this mysterious mako we talked about last week that we're supposed to magnetically be drawn to it intuit it we're supposed to want to on our own search and discover holiness and find it so when you have these questions you're supposed to go specifically to this place and uh you'll come to the economy this is the source of rabbinic law rabbinic authority the torah is telling us exactly hashem says i gave you a torah i gave you a written torah but you also have rabbis and they are the ambassadors they are transmitting the oral torah and when a question arises do not stray from what they tell you right or left la sassoor is the power of rabbinic law so why do i have to keep hanukkah in purim and why is it that i can't go swimming on shabbos or i have to observe other forms of rabbinic laws in my life why do i have to keep all these rabbinic laws so torah says observing rabbinic law is a biblical law the rambam and the ramban of a famous discussion if that's the case why do we say something durable but a doubt in a biblical law we're strictly doubting rabbinic lower religion every rabbinic law really is a biblical law so really every doubt and rabbinic law is that of a biblical law it's a great discussion between the rambam and the ramban not for now but observing rabbinic law has an element of observing a biblical law because the torah empowers and charges the rabbis to be the ones who interpret and to be the ones who who institute laws laws that are safeguards for us and laws that are new laws for us to observe the shellac has another beautiful understanding and interpretation homolytically of what this passage means and he says the following listen carefully we're still in khudis allah has not yet begun we're still in the month in which we mourned which we mourn the destruction the devastation the distance from the shrina and the causes of it and he says the following says this is describing if you wonder you're sick and tired yes and you want to understand that i don't understand when it comes to the blood of an animal the torah says after you shaft the animal you have to cover the blood but and yet jewish blood flows freely and so many of our ancestors weren't even given the privilege of a proper burial being din ladin when it comes to animals the daughter says has been illusions animal at its child on the same day it's cruel and here we have mothers and their children families who were slaughtered simultaneously by negotia i don't understand the guy when it comes to a house that is afflicted with saras we take out all this contents in order to save and preserve them and yet you're holy based on makedash it was burned to the ground with everything in it means you've reached a point with wonder you don't accept how could it be hashem why do you have such a dual standard the way you ask us to treat the blood of animals between the way war blood is treated bane dingladin the laws that pertain to not showing cruelty to the animal and look how much cruelty has been shown to the jew bay negra nega between how could god not be more careful more protective of his honor and our honor being done with him and the answer is it says keep reading in the pasta you know what the answer is if you wonder know what the answer is if you don't understand it's because of the divre rivos because of the mahlokas because of the infighting because the baseless hatred of the sun because the way you treat one another if you want to know why there is this duplicitousness why there's this dual standard why the world treats us differently than the way we're supposed to behave neglig the answer is because of our infighting because of the way we treat one another because of our attitude because of our baseless hatred when we don't treat one another correctly then the world has no problem mistreating us as well says maybe homiletically that's what this pasik is alluding to that's what this passage is hinting at okay so after we've seen the torah institution the authority of rabbinic law that the rabbis are empowered to be the ambassadors the interpreters and also the authors of law we move over to another law namely the law of the king allah you're going to enter the land there are three laws that might when you enter the land of israel there are three laws that dictate our behavior we have to conquer the land eliminate the malec and the canaanite nations we have to establish a king and then we build the basal nectars does the modern government of israel have the status of a king interesting question the laws that apply to a king the king is the sovereign of israel does the modern elected government of israel have the halachic status of a king with implications interesting discussion in halacha what do they empower and title to do so when we enter the land we have to follow this three-fold formula and do these three things and the torah here describes it as via marta you will say you will want that king the king has to arise from among you you can't have a king a king cannot be from a convert or from those who did not originate it's a king not a queen from which the rambam deduces that positions of authority are prescribed specifically for men not for women not because women are not trustworthy not because women are not capable or competent but these positions of authority also demand a certain level of cruelty one has to be able to go to war and battle one has to be able to switch off their kindness and their predisposition towards empathy to be able to uh enact and exact what a king demands and the torah doesn't want women who have a more maternal instinct to suppress that or quiet that in order for what it takes how does that apply rabbi salvation applied melaka malka this is felt that a woman should not be a president of a shul others disagree and say is a madrish but it doesn't apply in halacha and are more liberal it's ironic that everybody said is that the the post sake and the guddle of uh the more modern so to say community took that hard line position on female presidents of shules others take more more lenient positions but there is a whole discussion of melancholomaca positions in what's called serra the ram called surara authority again not because there's incompetence or lack of trust but because what are we trying to cultivate which behaviors or what what instinctive gender attitudes do we want to preserve as the pros to want to want to suppress the belzaretta has a beautiful insight because the torah tells us about this king there are several laws that govern the king number one below susan you can't have too many horses because the king is going to want to increase his stables want to increase his collection of horses will be drawn back to egypt which is where horse breeding took place but we're not going to go back to egypt we're not supposed to go back to geographically physically and we're not supposed to go back there in our mentality with superstition and so on we graduated we move on we freed ourselves the king can't have too many wives the question is all of the arable mode and should not pursue too many riches when the king is on his throne because of allah is mishnah is that the king has to write a safer torah the king has to have his own personal safer torah it is one of the halachas yes they're right and the king will have this torah with him and i'll read from it all these days so that he will learn to have all of hashem and to observe all of hashem's torah and his laws so that he does not become too holy or arrogant over his brothers you know if you're in a position of being a king you have a palace and a throne you can offer someone's head you can call for a capital punishment your ego can get somewhat stoked you can get uh inflated you can get arrogant what is the antidote what does the torah prescribe to be able to offset the inclination towards arrogance that a king would follow it is to have a safety torah tavis learning torah living torah carrying it or a safety torah is what will fight and offset that that inclination the belzaretta the tsar shalom of bells says mikhairev how is it how is it um he interprets this passage by drawing close to your brothers your sisters by being someone of the people avasi sro afla vires ben adero by being a person who loves other jews who's kind and compassionate and good and accepting allah as your mela be careful by getting along with hashem's other children you can't claim to love god and mistreat his other children they go together they go together rashi says what's the purpose of the torah why is he carrying the torah sarah rashi says not one torah but two torahs jesus one torah stays home with him and one torah comes with him at all times it is the king's spiritual compass reminds the king of his bearings his context to whom he reports his sacred mission the king carries two torahs one that is at home and the second torah that he carries with him off on the road the king has to internalize these lessons of torah to the extent that they remain with him all the days of his life learn the torah the torah is the guy the torah is the moral compass the torah is that anchor because the king as they engage in diplomacy or warfare the king as they encounter the opulence of royalty the king can easily sway or be swayed and therefore the torah is their compass the torah is the anchor and that's why he has to have a torah the sofa right pasha shoftim writes the torah has to be in the possession of the kings all the time because the king has to make difficult decisions a king has to decide with whom to engage in diplomacy with whom to make peace what to give up for that peace what level of taxes to levy on the land how to react to a pandemic a king has to make nearly impossible decisions all the time and so the king carries that torah to remember that the king should not make those decisions arbitrarily or randomly or his own intuition it is the authority of the torah that should determine the king's conclusions that we have a guide the torah is supposed to tell us how to behave and how to think the torah should guide uh exactly the conclusions that we come to the torah now he didn't just have one torah he had two torahs tells us that there were two torahs even though the pastor just has vice verba karakol that there's one torah torah that's written for him the ignorance and engineers there are two torahs one back in the palace and one he carries with him all the time and wherever he goes the ramban writes that there is a different law with these two torahs one of the torahs can be inherited one of the torahs he can receive in yerusha let's say the monarchy is being passed on in succession within the family so one torah can inherit the second torah he has to specifically write or commission originally on his behalf what does that mean these two torahs one can be an inheritance and one he has to write in his behalf so my son-in-law recently had his uf set a beautiful insight from the medris tapio who said the following he says that the idea is that there's one attitude we have towards torah there's one lifestyle of torah that we have that we got as an inheritance this is a part of our total way of living a part of our total life which we got from those who came before our men hug him our attitudes our appreciation our love our passion from our parents and from our grandparents from our ancestors from our community but the other form of torah is the torah that we have to write ourselves we can't just rely on we can't lean on we shouldn't be satisfied or complacent with the torah that we received we have to write our own torah we have to offer our own destiny we have to create our own our own path towards a relationship with hashem it has to be both of these the two torahs the one that we receive in inheritance the urushi and the other torah that we the other torah that we write okay the immachaim also has an insight into this obligation of writing a torah the ibrahim says the following you know i was going to quote one because of those missionaries this is an illusionary hint to all of us i understand but i'm not a king so why does this law apply to me call you throughout the name we saw in last week's passion we are children of hashem and as children of hashem if you are a child of a king then you are a prince or a princess then you are royalty so therefore these laws apply to all of us we as kings we as royalty also have to have two torahs the torah is at home and the torah that's on the way that means to say that we shouldn't think that the moment i leave my house when i go to work i go to the gym i go to the supermarket i go on vacation i go on a trip i don't know the torah anymore i have a more lenient torah i have a more relaxed torah i have a more permissive torah no it's the same torah there's the torah of my home that guides my behavior my attitude my relationships my conversations in my home and there's the torah i have to take with me on the way there's a torah that tells me be honest and truthful have integrity at work be kind and courteous be compassionate and pathetic there's the torah of home and the torah at work it's the same safe torah it's the same safe torah there's no difference in the torah the same rules that guide and regulate who i am and how i behave it's the same torah but this is the one at home and the message that it has to also come with me on the way it has to guide and inspire my path even as i even as i go we continue after the laws of the king the priestly gifts that we support the kohanim and levine they serve the people they are the community koala they are the rabbanim they are the clay kodesh and therefore they didn't get their own land they are supported by the people who are grateful for the model they set and the teaching that they that they offer so we have the priestly gifts that are given to the kohanim and the levian moving right along prophecy hashem sends for his prophets and here in this context the torah tells us hey look at friends this is exactly what torah's telling us it's all about tom and tia in michelle a person needs to be taming means don't look at horoscopes and don't look at others don't worship other sources don't be impressed by power or celebrity or fame tom tia betam have an exclusive relationship a monogamous relationship a reliant independent relationship with whom him only that's how we are to live our lives become him with him become him with him you should not pursue horoscopes and don't look at other things that predict your future and don't believe in superstition silly superstition only believe in hashem whether those other silly superstitions are silly at all maybe astronomy astrology superstitions maybe there's truth to it maybe we can in fact see our fate in our future by studying the cosmos the ramban says there is truth in it but we're not supposed to look we're not supposed to rely in mausoleum we rely on hashem says the whole thing is narushka and salinas to begin with but it's points out that there's two in the torah two mitzvahs in the torah that have the word one in total be pure be complete be holy be focused be exclusive be singular with hashem and the second is be modest be humble with hashem with these two middles is a person can walk around and they can act like they're a tamim or the tsanua a person can in public or for their own notoriety for their own honor a person can act like they're such a righteous holy roller in these two ways says hashem really knows when no one's looking when no one's watching imagine the real measure of whether you're atomium tanua is not vis-a-vis relationship with others but the real measure of whether you're atomium or a tsanua is it's how you behave it's how you behave when you are with hashem with hashem i forgot where i saw it that tamim tamim is if you want to be with god then you have to be a timistic person like yaakov yoshi you have to be a tamin if you're a person who does shtick if you do shtick on your income taxes stick in your interaction with others stick in your following of the rules if you're not tommen if you're not a pure and a holy and an innocent person if you have other calculations and compromises that you're making corruptions then you're not imagine if you want to be emerging then the prerequisite is tamim you have to be a tamin if you want to qualify to be im hashem torah continues and it goes on and it tells us yet again yet again the laws of the irmikla kiyaku when you're going to enter the land and you're going to eliminate the idolatrous nations you're going to have to set aside set aside three set aside three cities for yourselves or a mikula we know that an accidental and accidental murderer can be pursued by the surviving relatives of the one who was killed and you run to the aramaic let that city of refuge we talked about previously the six cities of refuge are the words six words of shma where do we find refuge where do we find protection when we feel we are being pursued we find it by immersing ourselves in the trust under the protection of hashem i want to share with you an interesting when it comes to your nichola a very interesting halacha the passage says you run to one of these cities and you live in dallas you you run to one of these cities and you will live there now the simple understanding is you will live there what does it mean that you're going to live there if you run to one of those cities the simple understanding of you will live there is that you will be protected remember tag when you were a kid if you're at home you're touching the home base then you're okay you're a mikula it's the home base you're being protected the rambam interprets it differently they're not writes talmud shigalala ari nikla nigalan rambo imo if a student if a student of torah is fleeing to an ear mikula then his rebbe goes with him because the passage says that what is the goal of the irmikla to live a sailor so we have to provide for the person who's going to be in the ir nicola everything they need to live if you're a real jew if you're alive if you're a mavakish if you're really one who searches and wants to learn so to be secluded isolated to be an ear nikola with no access to torah you might as well be dead so the torah says the whole reason that we provide the aramic word is to provide you with life to provide you with protection so to not have torah is to be dead even while you're alive so if a student has to go to near miklot the rebbe goes and if the rebbe goes the holy yeshiva goes with him as well why because because the whole reason is so that they have life what you see from here is the torah is the oxygen that we breathe breathe the rabbits from the marcos if i would have asked you you're gonna have to go into isolation you have to go into quarantine quarantine you're gonna have to be isolated you're gonna have to shut down what do you need to take with you let's say you have no internet connection what do you need with you what would you take what would you take your favorite food favorite book videos water what would you take what would sustain you so that's what the torah is saying is how could a jew not say i would need to take torah some safer i would need to have it i would need a review rebbe because the torah promises that you're supposed to be and one of the ways that we live is torah we are nothing and we can have nothing without it and as we begin the month of ello this week we should remember that torah is fundamental foundational to the core we mentioned yesterday the first mission of pirk the world exists on three pillars points out it is specifically in that order torah avodah and it has to be in that order when yaakov sent his sons down to gupta to yosef to egypt they went to goshen first to set up a basement first we need torah it's the air the oxygen we breathe it's the nourishment we have without it we'll wilt away without it we'll shrivel up and die we cannot exist without the study of torah the inspiration of torah without torah and that's how he interprets the gemara says why did the kardashian destroy the battery make dash who says what does that mean we abandoned his torah shalom we didn't make the bracha torah first they didn't recite the birka satoru before learning that's a capital crime that deserves a capital punishment he says it means shalom means when we give a bracha to our children we give a bracha to our children we bless them to get into an ivy league college we bless them to break the six minute mile we bless them to be millionaire billionaire trillionaires what do we bless them for shilaberko by tara the first brah has to be should be a ben torah or torah the first black has to be that you live a total way of life first barak has to be that you excel in torah and then everything else comes after so they did it out of order has to be the very first barakah we give our very first hope aspiration ambition in our lives if a person has to flee to an ear miklot we have to provide them with torah because you simply cannot live you cannot be alive without the holy without the halakha torah torah then talks about going out to war going out to war and the kauai mashup muhammad gives a speech and motivational talk to inspire the people who's eligible to go to war who do we keep home who do we keep home from war so tori says that if you built a new home if you planted a vineyard and if you got married and you didn't enjoy the benefit of any of those three new things then you stay home then you stay home oh also there's a fourth category who is that fourth category perch page 1040. the officers continue when they say who is the one who's fearful faint-hearted go home go home don't ruin the don't ruin the uh what's it called of the army not the motivation the don't ruin the morale don't ruin the morale of the army you're faint-hearted you're afraid you're soft-hearted what does that mean soft-hearted so rashier explains what does it mean who is this category the person who built a home but didn't live in it rashi says why do you go home if you build a home and you why do we send you back if you built a home and you didn't let yet live in it why do we send you back so rashi says rashi says the person who has not inaugurated their new home we send you back why because it's nefesh agmas fish agus nefesh let me ask you a question if you go to war and you die do you really care that someone else lived in your home before you ever got to live in it is that your biggest problem that you didn't get to take up residence in your new home and enjoy it your biggest problem is that you're no longer here on earth your biggest problem is that you were killed at war you're gone so the aguas nephesh is a person who's more worried about their things than their life that's agnes the person who is more concerned with more protective of their possessions than they are of their own life than they value their own life that should be a cause of argument fish that a person should have so you built a home but you didn't live in it you planted a vineyard but you didn't drink the wine from it or you're married but you're not you're done with yourself aleph then you go home we don't want you but who is this fourth category who is this individual who is faint of heart soft-hearted who's going to ruin the morale what did they do wrong and why are we sending them home so rashi tells us who is this individual person who can't see blood we have a member of our rabbinic staff i'll protect his identity if there's a picture or you describe a scene or somebody has a cut there's blood he'll pass out fall flat on his face there are people who can't see blood there are people who cannot go to war they can't imagine pulling a trigger they don't have what it takes to be able to respond in the moment sort of bikiva says that's who we're talking about soft-hearted means person who's faint of heart is soft-hearted they can't take it interprets it to mean the person who's afraid of the average the mistakes of the indiscretions in their hand they're sent home what are these aveiros a vera shabiyado the person who has a veros in their hand they're sent home who is this person with a veiros in their hand we don't have time where i agree with you inside there arakayama qatar says when a person goes out to war and they're enlisted the battlefront it's only natural to be scared it's natural to be afraid to say to yourself what if i'm unworthy to survive what if i'm unworthy what if i don't deserve to come home the mind will take the soldier to a bad place and they'll approach the war they'll go out to battle with fear and with doubt they'll think about the avedas the mistakes the poor judgment they've shown the violations they're worried and the law catch up with them so that's the aveiros but why is it described as biado the averos biado in their hand why is it described as biado so where are these avedos where did they happen don't they happen in your the fear of the avedos happens in your heart or it happens in your head why do we describe we have to send them home because a lot of doubt and uncertainty they'll be afraid and the reason of their fear is because the aveiros the mistakes they made that that fear is in the head of the heart what do you mean explains creatively he says the process is telling us the following when it comes to past mistakes and violations we know we can always be believed we can have regret and remorse and commit not to repeat them we can do true in our heart prepare for the things that we've done but that which is beyond the things in our hand if you've stolen you can't just decide in your head that you're about juva you have to repair that you have to return that which you stole if you damage someone you can't just decide in your heart that you're a better person you have to make whole the person that you harmed that's what the person fears alveros we send home the person who specifically is afraid of their videos that are aware beyond the imran that's the fourth garage gives a different interpretation tora says the person is they're soft of heart soft of heart carrying something in their hand who is this person says look at the second that come right before we just described the other three individuals we send home from battle built a new home planted the vineyard first year of marriage when it says we send home the person who's soft-hearted and they're carrying something in their hand we're not adding a fourth category says the ms we are alluding to the first three what all three have in common is they're distracted their thoughts are elsewhere elsewhere how could you be expected to go to battle how could you be expected to be a warrior and to fight to defeat an enemy when you're thinking about that house and you'll never get a chance to live in it when you're picturing that vineyard and you'll never have the chance to drink from it when you have an image of your spouse of your wife who you've never had the ability to really settle down with we don't just send home someone who can't stop thinking about what they did wrong the stakes are so high and the consequence is so grave we even send home someone who can't stop thinking about something they did right nothing wrong with building a home or planting opinions certainly getting married but those thoughts are extraneous they're distracting a person who can't regulate their thoughts a person who won't be focused the person who can't quiet the noise in their mind we cannot afford to risk our future by having them in battle this is the danger of our time pis or hanefesh our mind our thoughts they're so scattered they're so fragmented they're so broken how can we control our thoughts so we can go to battle how do we keep our mind from racing so that we can focus on overcoming the yatahara what we need to do because the before shamu described the battle in this is the battle against our alter ego it's the battle against our yate sahara it's the battle against the voice that is telling us to sabotage and how does it win extraneous thoughts by contaminating our mind with pollution with noise and the way to defeat it is to learn to quiet the mind the way to defeat it is to remove the average shibuyato beardo to not have in our hand juggling so many thoughts simultaneously but the ability to regulate them shofting the show trim we place policemen and officers at the gateway to our brain to our thoughts not every thought that comes knocking do we have to allow in we're allowed to reject it we're allowed to tell it to go home we don't have to let in every thought that occurs that occurs to us there's another interpretation perhaps what does it mean that we send home the soldiers afraid of the alvarez biodo varus that is in his hand the average that's in their hand maybe what it means is a vera shibuyato katsuraba says the issue with the soldier is they don't know how to move on they don't know how to put down the poor choices of the bad decisions of the indiscretions the average everything they ever did wrong in their life they carry biado and they become debilitated and derailed by this image that they can't do better that they're unworthy that they can never accomplish it's bieldo they can't ever put it down they carry it with them everywhere they go they carry it with them everywhere we go it's like isaac share the great mashiach says chuva is not about evaluating the past and getting stuck there it's not about beating ourselves up or feeling inadequate or incapable or unworthy those attitudes those thoughts they sabotage our future and they cause us to forfeit our present they're not at all what it's about they elicit hopelessness and helplessness chuva is about being able to move forward don't carry the average biodough resolve them feel regret for them pledge to do better in the future but don't carry them beyond though don't carry them around with us all the time that's what we dive in for every night when we say in venus hashem removed the satan from before me and from behind me to something before me i understand something before me are the temptations that i'll yet confront i don't want to eat that say that look at that act in that way i understand the satan that is before me who is the satan that is behind me the satan that is behind us is the average when we carry it with us in our hand when we refuse to put it down and let it go when we think that we're unworthy and we can't do better it incapacitates it debilitates it helps it prevents us from becoming the people that we're capable of being much more to say on our incredible passion but we'll leave it there for this year join us tomorrow morning 8 15 for 10 minutes of merciless hisham 8 45 for living with amuna tomorrow night 9 o'clock we're going back behind the bema have a healthy a happy and a holy day