Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz: Corona Crises during the Omer - G-d is your Friend

[Music] okay hi everybody once again we are broadcasting remotely from Oris America Shiva are we posting again was kind enough to come to me and we hope the it's Ratish M who knows that we will be able to resume live in person she or iam very very soon and I know that all of us are praying for a refuel for Claudius RAL and for the whole world that this macula should should be taken care of in a good good way last week we did not have a class as you know because it was young mats mullets and I hope that you celebrated that moment to stay as well even though obviously it was more isolated than was usually the case part of what we think about yeoman SMUD I'm not going to talk about how much much at length tonight but part of it is the notion of a Coretta Toph remember that the State of Israel was established in the aftermath of the awesome destruction of European jewelry the twelve hellish years of Hitler 1933 to 1945 wiped out six million Jews a million and a half children we were decimated we were devastated we were broken and while we don't really understand why such a thing happened to us a Shems ways are very very mysterious but in that aftermath God gave us a precious gift God gave us the ability to come back to our land after thousands of years almost 2,000 years and it was described that God gave us a little bit of a smile and an embrace and a hug after the awesome destruction that we went through and when we look at all that Israel has accomplished both in terms of religious life in terms of any canonic land that it's become an atomic Empire in terms of the aid and assistance that it gives to all over the world in fact I'm actually seeing now American Jews are calling for Israel to help the United States it's going through Corona kind of an inversion of the normal situation of America helping Israel I think all of our hearts has to be have to be filled with profound gratitude to the Almighty over one of the great great miracles in Jewish history yes we have many many issues with the State of Israel the old saying of two jews and three opinions is very much alive in this country but at the end of the day this is a family feud it is a fight among members of the family we must love each other we must care about each other yes we disagree and we have to be honest in our disagreements but we can't allow the disagreements to poison the reality that we are one and when we are one Hashem will give us the sea otter the shmaaya the divine assistance to be able to deal with the so many issues that we have to face so Beatrice I am especially during this period of the counting of the Omer you know the counting of the Omer is supposed to be a happy time logically it's we're getting ready to receive the Torah it's a joyous day and yet we know that during the Omer period we have various mourning rituals we don't get married we don't listen to music we don't get haircuts as a sign of our sadness and our suffering and the Ghanim tell us that this is because the 24,000 students of Rabbi Akiva imagine the size of that yeshiva all died during this period of time notice my focus does that mean they died in one year does it mean they died over several years but it was during this same period of time every year did they die because of a plague that is what the Gomorrah literally says or did they die through the Romans because they participated in the insurrection of Bar Kokhba of which Rabbi Akiva was the spirit leader it makes no difference what was the physical cause of their death but resolved through their divine inspiration identified the spiritual cause of their death and that is they did not show proper honor and respect and regard for each other and therefore as great as they undoubtedly were they were not worthy to be the Torah leaders of the next generation because if I'm not able to look at my fellow Jew and see them in all of their dignity in all of their beauty and all of their radiance I cannot be a teacher of Torah I cannot be a legitimate leader of the Jewish people and therefore they were taken away the purpose of our mourning during the Omer is not simply to cry over a tragedy after all unfortunately we have had tragedies that at least numerically were much worse 6 million is a much larger number than 24,000 but the point of the morning is not so much to cry and to grieve as it is to remember and to rectify the reason for their deaths and to understand that we must look at our fellow Jew and see their honor and see their dignity and see their casillas it's very very interesting where our first points out that the word kavod that we interpret to be honor has the same root as the word covet which is heavy weighty and refers says showing somebody kavod doesn't simply mean being polite to somebody I could be polite to you but I still regard you as my inferior and I'm polite to you the way I might have compassion for an animal or whatever it is kavod is a very different orientation kavod means i look at you and I see you as weighty as having gravitas as being significant even today at least in slang when somebody is a significant person we might say he's a real heavyweight that's not referring to his bowing boxing prowess but it refers to the fact that he has something that's worthwhile sokka vote is not politeness it is not the noblesse oblige that you have towards your inferior but it is the genuine sense of looking at a person and seeing their dignity and seeing their importance and even when you disagree with them you can respect the vantage point from which the person is coming needless to say this is something that I think the Jewish people are very much suffering from we have differences of opinion and that is good and that is right as any page of Gemara open up any guff of shots and you will have McLucas disagreements disagreements among the tenoram of the mission and disagreements among the Emma rhyme of the Gemara and disagreements among the rishonim Rashi in toast sauce and the rava and the ROM bond and the Rambam and disagreements among the acronym rebbi akiva are in the castle seclusion and the receivers Amishman McLucas is kind of the spice of the Jewish tradition and the essence of Talmudic dialectic but when we let that maloca slide into demonization D legitimation disparagement personal attack we are reenacting the sins of the students of Rabbi Akiva and probably a much worse way than they did it we I assume that they did behave eloquently properly but they didn't have the attitude of respect we unfortunately may take it even to a further degree and that's going to taint our ability to accept God's Torah because to accept God's Torah our sages say we had to be Keesha hood of a labor front one person one heart and when we don't have that Octus and we don't have that unity we as a nation are incapable of accepting God's Torah and thus the idea that during the period of the Omer we both prepare ourselves from Matan Torah and we rectify the fate of the Talmud a rabbi akiva are not really two missions they are one central lavota which has both of these elements they are literally two sides of the same coin and this does raise an interesting point because in some ways you know we live in a what you might call a religious polarization of personalities in the sense that sometimes you have a person who is passionate and fiery about Theravada shem who is so committed to torrent a mitzvah it's cavaldi gets tremendous and yet we often find that somehow the more fiery and passionate a person becomes in a Nevada session the less tolerant and respectful they are towards those people who are not living at those same standards fact it's almost inevitable as I grow in my religiosity and my fervor to serve God I will become less accepting of other types of people and then conversely we have what you might call big tent use Jews who welcome everybody I'm okay you're okay I love all Jews I love all humanity standing alone that's a wonderful thing but you often find that that type of Tenth Avenue sreya lacks commitments its lacks direction if everything is okay if I stand for everything then I stand for nothing so we seem to have a Hobson's choice we're between a rock and a hard place I either become a religious fanatic who serves God that's the expense of looking down at people in denigrating them or I become a tolerant loving wishy-washy person who stands for nothing it's going to be hard to kind of unite the two positive aspects of those personalities within a single religious orientation and framework and yet that's exactly what spirits Hamer is calling upon us to embody on one hand as we prepare for God's Torah we strengthen ourselves in the learning of Torah in the doing of mitzvot in dominating and again let me just insert the obvious points although because of the crisis that both Israel and the whole world is facing most of the shoals and most of them in Yanam most of the yeshiva are functionally closed down but that doesn't mean we compromise our learning in our prayer if you're not able to dive in in a show with a minyan then it's the opposite the duty to intensify my own qivana in my prayer becomes even greater and in a sense I now have an opportunity to develop my own personal unique relationship with God and if I can't go to yeshiva or a base Meldrick or a synagogue to go to my share then I have to learn whether it's be by zoom remote technology or the simple old-fashioned way of opening up my Gomorrah and focusing on it I have to do it if we allow the difficulty that we're facing to create a weakness in our Torah and our mitzvahs that would be a tragedy that would even be greater than the corona virus itself so we have to take this challenge and turn it into an opportunity to grow in our Torah and I'm it's votes and during the Omer that's exactly what we do but at the same time we have to be mystic and we have to rectify the sin of the talmidim of Rabbi Akiva in other words and this is a general rule that's very helpful for life always don't be a binary thinker don't look at life in the sense of either/or choices should I be religiously intense or shall be a lover of other people the answer is yes be both and one of the ways of looking at it is that if I want to be a religious fanatic I'm using the word in a positive way I mean that no negative here but I want to really be intense in my religiosity then let me recognize that the same Torah that says Shabbos tatras it's filling and learning also talks about Alvis Israel so yeah if I want to be a fanatic again I use the word in a positive way then let me be a fanatic in the love that I have for my fellow Jew as well let me fold that in to my definition of being religious because we do have a distorted idea of what it means to be a from Jew you know we divide the world between us and then whoever the US is whoever the them is religious versus non-religious and we say Oh religious means keep Shabbos kosher and the laws of family purity and not really just means no well wait a second what about religious including honesty and business what about religious including of us well what about religious in terms of not speaking loshon Hara fact somebody once asked me I was a little bit of a wise guy how come there are Orthodox Jews who are not honest in business now that's an unfair question because you know there are people who are not honest in business in all walks of life but this is what the person asked me so my smart alecky answer was there is no such thing as an Orthodox Jew who is dishonest in business because if he is dishonest in business he cannot be an Orthodox Jew it would be the same absurdity of saying how come there are Orthodox Jews who don't keep kosher the answer is if you're not keeping kosher you like an Orthodox Jew but the problem is we don't identify business ethics and being a dumb must have a row as part of what it means to be from so I know what the guy was asking and the guy was asking a good question but if you really delve into it in in an analytically precise way then in point of fact keeping the mitzvot Benidorm Mahavira is just as important if not more so than the myths wrote bernard on the Macomb and therefore that is why severa embodies what at first glance is a contradiction and an inconsistency but in fact it involves two roads that converge and of course the great inspiration for integrating these perspectives is none other than the first of our patriarchs of rama v no of rama v no was called of rama III of ROM the Hebrew and because I'll say that the reason he's called everyevery literally means the other side of the road or the other side of the river and on one level it may refer to the origin east of the Euphrates but me drastically because I'll explain that Avraham Avinu was a person of such committee of such inner spiritual strength of such spiritual passion that he was willing to stand on one side of the river so to speak and the whole world could think he was crazy and he did not deviate he was the proverbial true believer he stood by the MS he taught the truth he was not disappointed even when his life was threatened he when he was thrown into a fiery furnace he was willing to die for his beliefs it's interesting that's why he merited the miracle his brother waited until Avram was saved and then he said oh I believe in God too and he was thrown you and he got burnt that's our Romania's father Harlan and the reason is God does miracles when you're willing to die for him God is not going to do a miracle for you if you're just deciding because it's convenient and it's going to work out but that same of Rama V know who was fiery and passionate and who stood by his ideology no matter what the rest of the world thought was the Avraham Avinu who prayed for the most degenerate civilization on earth the regime the evil doers of Sodoma Hamoui and he argued with God and he pleaded with God when he didn't even do so for his own son when God said take you suck and sacrifice him as he Corbyn any bargains maybe there are 50 righteous people maybe there's 45 40 30 20 10 and he begged and he cajoled and he argued because he's seeking to find the good redemptive quality even in the most evil of people so we looking at Brahma vino and we described of Rama vino as the first Jew now that's a little bit of a confusing term it it was before the Torah was given and should probably give a whole share about what does it mean to be the first Jew it's not such an obvious term but whatever it means is he set the pattern for what we have to be totally devoted to us yet and at the same time seeing the goodness in others seeking their welfare in both a physical sense and spiritual sense an understanding that fidelity to Hashem is not a contradiction to the love we have for others it's exactly the opposite one of the ways we emulate Hashem is by the love and care and concern that we have for others and that's why the two themes of spirit Psalm air come together I remember many years ago I when I lived in Chris Lara I was giving a shear in Columbia Maryland which at that time now it does have an Orthodox about community but at that time there was no Orthodox synagogue there really no Orthodox people but I was giving a share to people who were interested in Judaism and at the end of the share one of the women went over to me she had a question and she prefaced her question with the statement I'm not as religious as you but now I honestly don't remember the question that she asked but I do remember what I said and I think a shaman gave me the the right words to say I said why do you say you're not as religious as me maybe you're more religious than me there may be things I know about that I do that you don't yet do Shabbos or whatever it would be but maybe you want your parents better than I do maybe you speak less Russian harder than I do maybe your loving and more kind than you know that's also in the Torah that's also part of being religious it's this artificial idea that being a religious Jew means X Y & Z that creates such a dichotomy I think I mentioned many times before a beautiful beautiful puzzle initially in Proverbs which I think people ought to write and tape on their refrigerators or put on their bathroom it well can't put in the bathroom but put it on a mirror in the bedroom or something like that and the puss success initially come I am upon him upon him cane laughs Adam Lee odham as water reflects the face that you show it so to the heart of a human being reflects that which you show that human being and the Vilna Gaon explains that when I look into a pool of water the face that I see will be the face that I show the water I show the water a smile I will see a smiling face I show the water a frown I will see an angry face whatever I show is what I see back slow mamela teaches as water reflects the face that you show it the heart of man reflects what I show that person I show you love I show you concern I show you respect you will feel that way about me I show you disdain I show you denigration you will feel that way about me this is something very much to ponder you know we know a narrative film again this is a reflection both respira and for the Omaha's modes that passed last week we live in a very polarized society in Israel whether it's religious versus secular whether it's her ad versus Helio me whether it's the in groups of calcium and MS nagham or different groups within the Hasidic ramus negate worlds and although there's so much that should unite us we take every little difference and we magnify it and each side looks at the other side that's a little different with the attitude that anybody who is religiously to the right of me or politically for that matter is a fanatic and anyone to the left of me is a heretic or not be chorus it's only where exactly where I am that's right and we look at each other as if they're try for no good or a male core a riffraff for any one of the many many terms that get thrown around by religious and secular Jews and we have to recognize that when we do that that's going to intensify the hatred resentments animosities that will be felt towards us whoever the US is and that's why nothing ever gets resolved in this country because each side is D legitimating the other if on the other hand we would try to find common grounds we would try to understand that just to a large degree we're on the same page in spite of many many disagreements then love epic the opposite would happen as Melek said the respect and the love that I have for you is going to be mirrored back to me there are a lot of examples one can talk about here I remember a few years ago when there first was a law that talked about drafting yeshiva students into the army and we know that this is a matter of great great controversy I'm not going to address the pros and the cons about that very difficult issue with that is an issue in which both sides feel very very deeply on one hand the imperative truth of matter is there are strong weighty arguments on both sides on one hand the National necessary burden of defending our state which is a religious duty as well as a secular duty on the other hand the absolute importance of torah study even as a matter of national security because a believer understands that without these elusive Lema that's how a the army cannot do its job on the other hand without the army we're vulnerable as well so this is a classic problem which has strong merits on both sides of the argument so a few years ago there was a demonstration by the religious people who were against this compulsory draft law and at the time they said it was around the bus near the bus station they said there were 800,000 people that's in who knows crowd estimates are often exaggerated but 800,000 people a huge crowds ants British M there was no violence there were no garbage cans set on fire people said to Hill them people prayed as rallies go this was a kid ashesh em it was a sanctification but Lamia Scottie I think there was one little thing that was missing what would have happened if after two hours of talking about the importance of Torah and how we can't let our bene Torah go into the army which might be a secular environment though you know arguments what if at the end of the two hours a prayer would then be recited that Hashem should have recommend mercy for those who are serving in the army and we're grateful for what they're doing even though we don't want people to be taken out of the base of Madrid what would have happened had 800,000 people who were not in favor of compulsory military service acknowledge with gratitude the role of the people who have elected to serve and as a result are putting their lives at risk I don't know what it would would have happened my guess is what she would have come because at that point we would have bridged the gap at that point we would have said yes we have a Hodge gothic difference yes we have a mock locus but we acknowledge what the CL is doing we acknowledge what the police do with the firemen do what the garbage collectors do and by acknowledging all of these different roles they would acknowledge what Torre does as well and that would have I think 800,000 people but that would have been the great bridge that perhaps again I'm not a nubby and I would be a fool to claim that I know this but I just have a feeling that that was almost a messianic experience that we fail to use so this hatred and polarization and they're included by indifference as well it's not doing the Jewish people any favors at all we're not doing the world any favors we are delaying the gula we are prolonging the hora Bombay Simic - and you are remaining in the very difficult situation that we find ourselves indeed some have pointed out that the coronavirus itself kind of shows just like the ha one of the lessons of the Holocaust is a Jew is a Jew is a Jew religious non-religious Hitler didn't care and they kind of reminded us that we have this common faith so Korona maybe even in a stronger sense reminds us that all human beings kind of are connected it'll hit you if you're rich if you're poor if you're Jewish if you're not Jewish if you're from if you're not from it makes no difference and an awareness of our common humanity can actually be a blessing in disguise so in every dark cloud as the saying goes there are going to be silver linings and maybe this awareness that we are so interconnected maybe this awareness might be one of the lessons that we can take in a positive way so in this connection I just want to share with you a thoughts really from last week's parsha which really bears exactly on what we're talking about we have in last week's part of the great Mitzvah Perik your Tesla viagra loss is not a feasible Rebecca do not hate your brother in your heart via hostile area Kaka mocha love your friend as you love yourself via hostile area Hakka moja the Mitzvah of Abbas Israel and in the tourist colony in the Madrid - hummus viagra we have the very famous statement of Rabbi Akiva via half Galleria coca mocha you shall love your friend as you love yourself Zach Lau God all Bottari this is a fundamental principle of the Torah this is the most fundamental principle of the Torah via Hoff jewellery Oaxaca mocha but the tourists calling him then brings a second view and this is the view of ben azzai then as I says I got a better one for you instead of via half killer Africa mocha I will cite you to a park in gracious that talks about man being made in the image of God and that is something that's even more important so what exactly is the mark locust here is there an issue between Rabbi Akiva and ben azzai so the malbim offers a very beautiful interpretation let's start with Banaszak both rabbi akiva and Benassi are focusing on the imperative of loving another human being loving another Jill but the question is how do you get there the NAS eyes approach is you come to love another human being not even not even Daffy good Jew by contemplating where they come from they are made in God's image Selam aleykum right this is often described as the foundational judeo-christian ethic and I'm not necessarily endorsing that description but dignity of man man is made in God's image now what is God's image mean that obviously does not mean a physical image God does not have a physical image but it refers to spiritual qualities of intelligence of compassion of morality of autonomy of freewill of creativity so then as I says when you contemplate the greatness of a human being you will love him because you will see their divine qualities so been a size argument is start with philosophical contemplation and that will bring you to love Selam aleykum rebbi akiva difference with that position because rebbi akiva x' position is that philosophical contemplation as an abstraction only takes you so far I could be a person who loves humanity in the abstract but where the rubber hits the ground I can't stand the people I work with my neighbors I fight with my own spouse and my own children but I'm a lover of humanity rebbi akiva argument is philosophical contemplation is a generality of generalization it's an abstraction it does not bring you into the concrete loving that you need to do concrete love must be manifest by action by living in the real world by facing the nitty-gritty of life now here's what the malum says for you have to live a yahoo kabocha is not a mitzvah of emotion you should feel love because if the pus Achmed's feel love towards a fellow Jew or a fellow person it would have said for hasta Estrella just like it says by loving God for your hafta ace hashem elokenu LaRocca the prefix love love to your friends says the malbim is behavioral rather than emotive it is action oriented rather than philosophically oriented behave towards your friends in benevolence kind compassionate ways so this is a very interesting McLucas been acai is emphasizing philosophical contemplation as the way that brings you to love rebbi akiva says you'll learn to love by behaving in a loving way the emphasis is on behavior and as the safer a Kleenex says very very often a dumb niffle Kaffee pulao tough which means instead of action being the result of emotion and thoughts we look at virtuous action as that which educates me to feel and think a certain way and that's the MA hocus ben azzai and Rabbi Akiva and as we always know when there's a ma hocus rabbi Akiba and anybody else halakha kuraby Akiva and therefore like a marriage counselor will often tell a couple who are fighting and the one says I'm not in love anymore sometimes the response is act as if and then you might discover something within you that you were not aware existed love has meaning only when it's manifested in behavior they tell the star about Leo Tolstoy the famous author of war and peace that Tolstoy was was a count in the old Russian aristocracy and he was also somewhat of a social reformer he wrote treatises against serf them against slavery even against smoking it said so somebody once said to leo tolstoy can toast i don't understand you are against serfdom you agitate for the freedoms of human beings but you own serfs and you don't treat them that well and Tolstoy responded just because I am a lover of humanity doesn't mean I have to be nice to people now Tolstoy certainly understood what he was saying and he is making a very very good point people are enamored with abstractions the rights of man democracy freedom love but they can't say a kind word to the next-door neighbor or their secretary or the person they pass in the streets and Judaism starts from the opposite premise you love by what you do and through your actions these beautiful emotions will come indeed I think I've mentioned before that this is why the Song of Songs uses sexual intimacy as a metaphor for divine love idea you know the Song of Songs almost didn't make it into the Bible banned in Boston there were rabbis who took the position that the Song of Songs was simply a romantic story of a lover a princess and her beloved like Romeo the ha vo like Romeo and Juliet and they thought he had no place in our sacred writings so there were rabbis who wanted to exclude the song of songs from the biblical canon until Rabbi Akiva taught that Song of Songs was a metaphor for the passionate love that God has for the Jewish people and the Jewish people have forgotten and when it talks about my beloved was knocking at the door and I didn't want to get up and when I finally got up my beloved had left that is not just describing a missed tryst when it's describing the idea that when God is knocking and waiting to redeem us we're not ready and when we're ready God is not ready the panorama and the tragedy and the pathos of Jewish history but the question becomes if she Reshiram is indeed a metaphor for the intense love that God has for the Jewish people why does hemella who was the wisest of all people employ a passionate sexual description that can be easily misunderstood as I won't say pornographic but at least as romantic literature in fact there's an old accusation against art scroll that I'd scroll doesn't even translate the Song of Songs literally so when it says my lover covers me with passionate kisses art scroll will say something like God took us out of material and did ten plagues now that's an unfair accusation because although that is indeed how they translated but in the commentary they also give you a literal translation so you can get the literal from the commentary as well but article says we're not going to put the literal in the real in the translation because it's too prone to be misunderstood well Shalimar Melek was wise that's the way he wrote it why didn't he write it the way art scroll translated and in truth in the arts girl she Reshiram there is an answer to that in a letter written by Rev gifter in Hebrew that was not translated but actually is an answer and Rev gifter says she Reshiram is a Michele it is a parable but unless you understand the parable you cannot get the ultimate message Shira Shira is about loving God but you don't love God by abstract contemplation you love God by the love you show to his children if you're not capable of intimacy if you're not capable of relationship if you're not capable of connection if you're unable to transcend your egotism and your selfishness you will not connect to God and therefore she Reshiram is reminding us that not just love of man which is rebbi akiva is teaching but even love of God is predicated on the actions that we take in the here and now and that's the mock locusts now I don't want to be too speculative here but I want to tell you something about Benghazi ben azzai was one of the greatest rabbis of Talmon and it's interesting that when the Talmud discusses the Mitzvah of getting married ben azzai actually said he couldn't get married because not show Khushi Kabhi Torah his soul so much desire to learn Torah that he felt he couldn't give that up and form a human relationship but when I was in the Shiva we used to call the older bachelors in yeshiva members of the Banaszak Club they weren't getting married because na from Koshka Vitara their soul was so desirous this is what the c'mon yvonna says but toast voz brings a view of I think from the you shall me that Ben as I in fact did get married for a short time he married Rebecca Kiva's daughter and they got divorced now we're not given the story of why they got divorced but I'm going to offer something that's absolutely a speculation it is nothing more than a guess but I think it's very interesting imagine you're a ben azzai personality all you want to do is study Torah you don't want to be involved in domestic life you don't want to be involved that much in raising kids but you got a mitzvah to get married so you look for a wife who's not gonna make any demands hmm let's remember the story of Rabi Akiva Rabi Akiva had a wife who came from the richest family of Jerusalem and she married an ignorant shepherd but she so much encouraged him to learn Torah that she sent him away for 24 years to learn Torah till he became the great-great-great rebbi akiva and when he came back and she was living in poverty because her father disinherited her and she came in rags to greet her husband and all the students the 24 students who 24,000 students who eventually died but all of the students pushed her away they thought she was a crazy woman and rebbi akiva uttered the immortal words shall leave a shallow hem all that I have done and all that you have shelah is all hers so let's go to bed not say so but nothing he sang mmm that's the type of wife I need and therefore he married rebbi akiva 'he's daughter but what was the problem with me a kiba's daughter saw all the suffering her mother went through she was not willing to live that life but they got their voice the point I'm making is this then as I came to alpha T 3 L through philosophical abstraction but that philosophical abstraction could not be implemented in the stresses and struggles of daily life and that's why rebbi akiva identifies the behavioral aspect as being more important than the philosophical aspect so that's the mark locus in the Torah Kohanim but now I want to share with you a related text and this goes back to an earlier time than rubba Akiva this is the Great Sage Hill oh and all of you know this story is one of the most famous stories in the Talmud about the non Jew who wanted to convert and he first went to Shama and he said - shall I teach me the whole Torah on one foot and shall my thoughts that the non Jew was mocking him and he shooed him away the non-jew then went to hello and said teach me the whole Torah when I stand on one foot and Hillel gave him an answer Hillel said in Aramaic my the sunny luck what is hateful to you what you wouldn't want people to do to you you wouldn't want people to disrespect you you wouldn't want people to humiliate you you wouldn't want people to disregard or ignore you what is hateful to you do not do to another person do not do to another let's say ve duck and the rest seal come or go and learn now there are two questions on this famous passage first why does hell L utilize what you might call a negative ethic of love instead of a positive the Torah says love your fellow as you love yourself Hillel basically says don't hurt him don't do things to him that you don't want to be done to you now that is what we would think is a negative ethic in fact Christian theologians make a big point of this although you'll see in a moment a very foolish analysis they have they say look at the difference between Hillel and Jesus Jesus advocates loving your fellow person as you love yourself give him benevolence show him compassion show him care yellow who represents the inferior pharisaic morality simply says don't do bad things to people if you wouldn't want them to do bad things to you so hillo does not advocate love Hillel just advocates not hurting well it is true that Jesus did say love your neighbor as you love yourself but Jesus was quoting the Torah in Leviticus it's in the klemish so it is a good question if the Flemish advocates what we might call positive love why does Hillel downgrade it to negative love surely showing somebody benevolence and kindness is a higher level than just not hurting them that's question one question two is how is Hillel statement an encapsulation of the whole Torah saat the whole Torah the Torah has myths votes be another Malcolm T man and God and the torres mitzvahs Ben Adam a severity man and fellow man at most Hillel statement might be a summary of Ben Adama cavero do not do things to people you wouldn't want them to do to you but how does hello's formulation pick up Shabbos and kasha race and filling and sharpness it's not the hotel the guy said teach me the whole Torah on one foot at most Hillel only offers half of the Torah not the hotel room so these are two questions on this famous story one is why does hillo move away from the positive to the negative and number two how is it the whole Torah since Hill ELLs formulation is a summary statements of Bernardo maha vailo not Bernard Amman welcome not between man and God so let's take each of these questions on the first question there's a very very famous Hesburgh explanation that is offered by Revis false Elantra quite beautiful you know in the epic ratico thwen doctors assume their responsibilities so it is often said that the first rule of medical treatment is do no harm that before you try to help a person you have to be sure you're not harming them in the process this very paradigm applies in the interpersonal relationships we that we have with others often we look at people as objects upon which we can do our mitzvahs notches on my belt how many people did I make from how many people did I have a Shabbos guess how many people did I bring to you Shiva but we never take the time or the effort to really know them to respect them to legitimate them there's kind of a paternal a condescending paternalism in how we look at them as objects so we can go to all Emma Bunton so hilah's lesson is quite profound before you start helping people be sure that your help is not demeaning and degrading them and you're not hurting them in the process get to know them get to understand them respect where they're coming from understand that they have an orientation that might also be worthy of respect so Hillel is really giving us a very very profound lesson don't start helping people till you're sure you're not going to be hurting them by the patronizing help that you think that you're offering Tessa requires respect Beth said requires a sense of reciprocity when I learned with someone who is not yet a show Masha BOTS it is not simply I am there to teach them the truth I am also there to receive the insight that they have to offer me and only when there is that type of respect because after all that's what her little thing what I want someone to treat me like a never to treat me like a nobody I wouldn't I don't shouldn't treat other people that way as well so that is why hillo moves from the positive to the negative don't start loving people so you get to know who they are and the like but we then left with one more question and that is how is Hillel a statement of the whole Torah Hillel only covers Baynard um Locke Aveiro so interestingly enough the answer to this question can be found in Rashi himself Rashi in the Gemara gives us a beautiful phenomenal answer to the question what's her love language again my the sunny love what is hateful to you do not do to your friend Sabra we assume table rock means my fellow human being but Rashi says you know who your friends can be your friend can be God himself God is your friend now this is quite amazing because we're used to describing God in many many different ways we describe God as our King we describe God as our parents sometimes our relationship to God is like a slave to a master and sometimes our relationship to God is like a child to a parent reg on Rosh Hashanah when we blow the shofar we say am kabbani mean Kaaba then maybe we're children maybe were slaves if we are children who love us like a father has compassion for a child and if we're slaves have mercy on us but now we have a new idea that God is not only my king and God is not only my parents God is my friend and Rashi quotes a pus akin michl a ray aqua Faria of veha altas o do not abandon your friend who is the friend of your father and your grandfather all the way back in times that I feel lonely in times that I feel isolated I'm scared I'm frightened I face so many unknown challenges in life God is the friend that is with me to sustain me to comfort me to help me through this to give me the strength to withstand the challenges of life and that's a beautiful idea so when Hillel says you wouldn't want someone to hurt you don't hurt your friend the friend includes my fellow human being and the friend includes a Kurdish Park in this time of comparative isolation and hopefully it will be getting better very very soon but we're not out of the woods yet the person has to know that God is always with them and even if you're all alone even if you don't even have the solace of being with a spouse or being with your children and so many people either don't have children or even if they have children their children are not able to be with them even for Pesach even for a seder know that a Shem is your friend he is with you he gives you strength he gives you comfort he gives you love and no one is ever alone as long as there is a God in the world and there is a God in the world so again I hope for all of us and all of the cloudy Israel all avarage Israel all of the worlds Jew and non-jew that we should feel the loving presence of our Creator we should feel the friendship that we have with our Kadosh Barco and it should give us strength to go on and strength to grow from challenge and to take adversity and turn it into opportunity and to take challenge and turn it into success and then we will look back at this very difficult time and we will hopefully be able to be proud at what we were able to accomplish and then Akhilesh Baraka will have much knock on sin joy in the struggles of his children to be well in shavasana [Music]