Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz: Do Not Turn Away From What the Sages Instruct You to Do!!!

[Music] yeah everybody Shalom and uh first the shear is dedicated for the following ra Bor Ben feda and for the liberation of er Israel from its enemies safe return home of all the soldiers and hes the unity of am Israel and for all of those whose Health has been affected by the war and as well as dedicated to the release of Arin benona in Iran alzer Zim dedicated by my friend in Brooklyn Yi k hon there of and again a great response was received regarding the new WhatsApp group where you can access Ebon classes written up in PDF format that's again A A friend of mine RAR vinsky has put in a lot of effort on this it has accumulated over 230 members since last week's announcements and to join the WhatsApp group click on the link below in the YouTube description box and finally most importantly this is r Bush El we are approaching the days of judgment and our sages have tell told us chat repentance prayer and charity mahaz they take away they can mitigate the evil decree so this in particular is a time in which we focus very much on staka on helping others in need and Yan has launched its annual campaign to collect and distribute charity to the needy this upcoming holiday season uh the list of recipients has increased of course due to the dire situation of the many displaced families uh due to the war and a link to contribute can be found below as well as on the ban website and again May there are many many people who do need our help this is also a time of great expenses for the Kim and Al like uh so it would be a great great Merit to give to a very very worthy worthy cause I know that um all of us are really heartbroken over the tragedies that continue in CLA Israel the six hostages who were just just murdered in In Cold Blood uh and somehow it's like Israel's again it's a bizarre world that would be would be funny if it wouldn't be tragic uh that somehow Israel is to blame for uh being uh too stubborn with respect to hostages I mean what on Earth what type of world can that even be imagined and uh the the pain of the families of the hostages who are still alive and their families is just an unbelievable pain and uh we have to pray for them we have to feel their suffering we have to do what we can to try to mitigate uh a little bit of what they're going going through and uh the one thing to think about as well is we are approaching the end of the year and a new year is coming and in a new year uh cabala in particular we'll talk more about this you know Hashem puts into the world on rashash Shana the energy that's going to be sustaining the world in the year and rosashana Hashem withdraws all of that energy and replaces it with something new we hope and we pray it'll be better more merciful more compassionate but it is new meaning all bets are off uh it's a new beginning a new start it's a new reset it's a reboot whatever metaphor or mushal you want to use so as a result I think all of us can think that this has been such a very very very difficult year for the Jewish people but this year is almost up and there'll be a new energy in the new year and we can hope and we can pray that that new energy should be an energy of rim and an energy of Shalom and an energy of Comfort uh to all of the families who have suffered and to really Eric Israel to am Israel to all people that are that are suffering all people of goodwi listen I'll say to the non-jewish world as well we want them to be blessed we want them to prosper if they live in Morality and they live in goodness and harmony with the will of God we want the world to be a better place and we pray that the energy of 5785 the new year that will be coming should be a year in which that energy is going to be is going to be present so um it is a very somber time I think our hearts are broken if our hearts would not be broken that would be something wrong with us at the same time but bezus Hashem we hope that Hashem will look at our broken hearts and will bring the Yeshua and the GAA to arm Israel I also just want to mention that there are two interesting y sites that are coming up this coming week besides the ones of are people who are dedicating the shear uh one is the art sites of Rim who is known as the Ora is named after him and the other is Rook R Sim died before R died in 1926 R cook died in the early 30s I don't I think I think it was 31 or 32 I don't remember do anyone remember the exact year for some reason the year is escaping me but it was the early 30s I'm I'm sorry 1935 oh 35 okay I didn't realize it was that late so that but that's correct he already spoke about Hitler he spoke about Hitler coming to power do remember that you know reading about that uh but both of them were kohanim of Mayor Sim and haken cook and although in many many ways they were very very different uh but it's uh in many many ways they were the same and it's worthwhile remembering uh their particular greatness I'll talk about R cook first simply because he is more familiar probably to to most of the people here uh R cook uh we sometimes forget uh was a Lithuanian godal in the most traditional mold meaning to say uh he was a God uh who was a talmid of the nitv in the great Yesa ofan uh the NV in fact remarked that the whole Yeshiva would have been worthwhile just to ruce one person like riff cook meaning that that justified the entire Yeshiva the great Yeshiva of Alan and uh R cook was of course uh we sometimes forget this he was an absolute master of Kala torula the entire Torah the B thei the medish cabala as well cabala Casas so on one level you looked at R cook and you saw a traditional God Borah very very great traditional God Borah and the other Andre of cook was was also very unique and that created a lot of controversy even in his lifetime and much of that controversy even continues to this very day you know in most of what you might call Theos I don't think ref Cook's yite is going to be remarked upon uh in my own Yesa it will not be remarked upon unless I I choose to remark upon it which I'm not sure what I what I'll do or not yet because I you know I need I need the income uh you already okay but but the point basically is that the uniqueness of rev cook number one was his unparalleled Isel but it wasn't just it's it's a much deeper idea it wasn't just the idea that he loved everybody which which of course he did but he actually was rooted in the deepest recesses of cabala in which he said that within all evil there lurk Sparks of Holiness which can get perverted trapped so for example he looked at secular Zionism and certainly there were aspects of secular Zionism that not not only were nonreligious but were actively anti-religious uh there were among the founding fathers and mothers of Zionism and antagonism not not not among everybody I'm not at all suggesting that but certainly there were segments in which the whole idea of God the whole idea of Torah was said to be a relic of the diaspora and the new new Jew needs to be heroic and not kind of bend their will to God so the reaction of many in what was called the old yesu the old pre-existing religious settlement in Israel was that these guys are AIC corim they kofri they're Heretics we have to distance ourselves from them rev cook saw it in a different light although ideologically he was of course as committed to the Torah as anyone but he saw in the yearning to rebuild erel even if it seems to come from a secular place he saw it as coming from the intrinsic Holiness of the Jewish Soul so I might say I'm building up the land because I'm a Zionist or a communist or a socialist or whatever I might think I am but what's really going on is my Nisha yearns to be connected with the almighty R cook said some people come to ER Israel because of their connection to Hashem and others will come to Hashem through their connection to ER Israel and if not in their lifetimes in the lifetimes of their children or their grandchildren so he was in quite a deep sense an eternal optimist because he saw in the Jewish Soul a greatness a beauty a holiness that may take many many different forms and some of the forms might even be perverted in bad ways in fact even the idea of so many Jews leaving Judaism he actually saw a certain positivity in that because they were rebelling against the superficiality against the complacency against the idea that you just live by rot and yes it was unfortunate that they didn't find that spirituality and vibrancy in Judaism but rebellion was a message to us that we have to indeed bring enthusiasm and passion into our Judaism and we can't just imitate the old patterns so one could imagine that this type of language is very very controversial is prone to being misunderstood and in his own lifetime rev cook was although he was greatly admired by many many GM there's no question I'm not going to suggest that uh he was denigrated by everybody here many many admirers among ad Israel but at the same time he had also many many detractors and as you would expect uh he never descended into that level of invective and in fact he said he was grateful to his critics because they kept him in line he said he may have had a tendency maybe to go to too much of an extreme he felt he needed the the corrective so I just want to mention a a a quick story about dff cook that was said over by Rose do Sal RAB salic R Joseph salic of is University one of the great great leaders of American Orthodoxy once again in many k circles he's not mentioned either uh but he only made one trip to erell he came to erel in the 19 again in the 1930s before R cook shortly before R cook death because he was actually a candidate to be Chief Rabbi of Tel AV he ultimately did not get that position and it's very very interesting how his life and the life of Judaism and er Isel might have been different and how Judaism in America might have been different had ra solic been in erisel rather than America and later when he was much older he was offered dep position of Chief Rabbi of of er Israel of Israel that he declined by that at that point he had made his decision that his Destiny was to be in the United States although his great son-in-law rarin lonstein made the decision to go from New York to to AR Israel so in his one trip to erisel he said uh he met rev cook he met rev cook and rev cook and rev salvic were very very different in terms of their analytical approach their Derk and learning I mean they they were not necessarily on the same wavelength of salv was of course a brisker analytical learner uh of cook was more in terms of bot's wide wide ranging knowledge but he did say Ru cook was the most extraordinary spiritual figure he ever met and he said people make a mistake when they describe rev cook as a philosopher he was not a philosopher because philosophers tend have to be logical and linear and use syllogistic logic rev cook was a mystical religious personality and not a systematic but he told one story about R cook I'm not sure if R cook told him this story or he just heard it and he said years before uh when they were sh Kim when they were Kim in the early years of uh the immigrants to the to the state and um many of them again CH violently violently anti-religious rev cook wanted to pay a visit to these unreligious or non religious or anti-religious Kim because he wanted to be M of them he wanted to interact with them and the like so when he showed up I'm not sure if he did it by invitation or or or he told him ahead of time but he just shows up for shabas and uh his first request was um could we organize a minion Friday night in shabas we could just have a minion together he was told no says we don't do that here we don't have minions we don't have doing we don't believe in God so cook said H okay so he had brought his wine and his bread and he sat in the communal dining room for the Friday night meal but it was not a Shabbat meal it was just a Friday night supper and uh R cook recounted uh they were playing music they had instruments uh they were playing radios uh people were doing sew using sewing machines uh totally totally not sh m in every single sense and R cook simply sat with the people shmooing with them talking with them and the like uh the next day shabas lunch if you call it Shabbat L I don't know what they called it exact same thing R cook just didn't say a word other than friendly conversation with them and then uh they had an afternoon tea that we would call sudit but obviously it was not a Shabbat sudit in any way and then at the end of Shabbat uh Rook uh says he wants to say goodbye to everybody and he said you know I really really really enjoyed spending time with you and I admire all that you're doing and I hope to come back soon and maybe we'll even be able to eat together next time mean all right so and he just left that night the head of the kibutz calls together everybody and says we're curing The Kitchen tonight because the next time the rabbi comes we want to have kosher food and the head of the kbut said had RF cook given us muser had he criticized us had he told us we have to be kosher have to keep Shabbat we would have just kicked him out or certainly we wouldn't have listened to him he never judged us he never criticized he never gave us merer he showed us love he showed us respect he showed us that we mattered and we want to please him maybe we're not ready to please God we want to please him we want to do something that he would like because he cared about us and Ric said many many years later Ric said that is how you reach people that is how you change people that is how you Influence People by building them up by giving them a sense that they matter and that was that was Ru cook and when we think about the art side of Ru cook we should think about trying to incorporate that wonderful wonderful midah in our hearts in our souls because ultimately that is how we can have an impact on our children on our students on our fellow Jews the other godd who died earlier in 1926 was mayor Sim Kain who although he never came to arel uh he was very very similar in his personality he was a guy inam a tremendous tremendous brilliant brilliant gone uh at a very young age was recognized as such it's very interesting that um this is a whole subject in and of itself but you know I've mentioned before I think that the N karta who are against the idea of a state of Israel till mashia they base it on a talmudic passage in M uh that talks about an oath that God imposed on the Jewish people not to kind of establish a Jewish sovereignty until the coming of mashiah this is the famous there are three Oaths that are mentioned and this is the famous source of NY carton the SAR rebi the three Oaths you can even look up a Wikipedia article actually very good article on the three Oaths and obviously the mainstream that does not subscribe to that extremism has to deal with that talmudic passage so one of the interesting sources is a letter that RoR simen wrote to Karen haod back in the early 1920s in which he made the arguments that the gamara prohibits establishing a state by military action because this is before there was was a state but he said since the balur Declaration in which the ruling country the ruling Nation Great Britain authorized a Jewish homeland there is no longer an impediment to establishing a Jewish State because it is done with h it is done with the international agreements and of course this would be equally true for the UN resolutions later and if and of course in history The War of Independence was not an aggressive War it was not like the uh you know the American Revolutionary War it was a defensive War we were legitimated as a state and then we were attacked and 1948 was a war of Defense so it's interesting that the himself that's his book onma these are the two books he wrote the MMA himself uh kind of gave the theoretical justification for a Jewish State all the way back uh in the early 1920s based on the B for declaration He also mentioned another idea that in the gamarra it says that just as God imposed an oath on us God imposed an oath on the nations of the world that they would not oppress us excessively so he saw this as a package deal we don't start a state the Nations treat us with kindness and respect obviously the Nations did not live up to their covenants this is before the Holocaust right after the Holocaust even more so so therefore as a package deal we are no longer subject to that oath either right so those are the theoretical foundations um of of the Jewish state in terms of dealing with the three Oaths and these were articulated by R Sim in a letter to the Karen to the Karen haod uh also in his book on Kish he basically it's Mish prophecy rues uh I mean he died in 19 26 his actual book on KES which was not printed till after his death but there may be things there that are 50 years before that we don't know they're not dated but in paros he literally foretells the Holocaust coming out of Germany he says that when Jews want to replace the Torah of Jerusalem with the Torah of Berlin Berlin becomes a source of devastating destruction and you know as they say he died in 1926 we don't know when this was written but many understand this as literal Divine divine inspiration uh it's interesting I can tell a lot of stories I don't want to spend the whole the whole hour telling stories but it is interesting that he was the Rev of the L City in lvia called dvinsk and there were two raban in dvinsk there was theic RAB R of dvinsk who was Rose Rosen known as the rugged sh gone and R mayor Sim was the rav of the n inin and both of these ranim were G Mish and they were very dear friends but they had a very very different personalities it's amazing just an interesting contrast of godl Rim was very refined very quiet very calm very kind very softspoken Rio Frozen who actually was a kabad he was but Rio Frozen was so brilliant and tempestuous he was like fiery fiery fiery fiery like you were afraid to talk to him uh and uh he held nobody in esteem because basically he felt that all the great rabbis are ignoramuses they don't know anything and uh in fact they said raren Cutler who was a young man was already a great Shiva he very much wanted to speak to the rugged in learning but he was afraid to go to the rug Le the rugor would cut him down so he dressed up as a businessman he represented himself as a babot and he said you know I'm a working man I have a store but I try to set aside a little bit of time for Torah study uh could I tell the rav some thoughts I have so he tells the rag Trev his kushim which were very complex and the rug Trevor gave him what raron said was the greatest compliment he ever had in his life he said he told me that for a businessman I learn okay that was that was the highest compliment uh because the rug Trevor was mercilessness in terms of he was so brilliant they say if you look at a pictures of him you will see his hair was long and the tradition has it that he never got a haircut because he didn't want to stop learning for the time that his head would be uncovered and it's recorded that when he was sitting shiva for his wife uh he continue to learn and someone said well you know during shiv you're not supposed to learn he says I'd rather go to hell because I'm learning than not go to hell and not learn because not learning would be a bigger geham than than uh than whatever I'll get for learning uh during during a veillance so there were very very different personalities uh one was softspoken one was extremely fiery and yet they both uh work together in dinin and the like so be it as it may we think about these gadm and uh we hope that we can follow in their ways to whatever degree that we can and they should continue to be Mita yosher people who bring Merit to CLA Israel at a time when we desperately need it so both so again not the rug TR say is not this coming week but mayor Sim and rev cook I think they're day they're a day apart uh fourth of fifth of uh in the para itself now uh the para of schim so once again this is an interesting para it is very concerned with authority structures remember that this is the last month of Moser renu's life and as a good leader Mosher raena was very concerned with succession issues what's going to be after I'm gone now within a Jewish Society there are many many different roles of leadership there is the melik who is head of state or head of government there is the Novi the prophet and of course there's more than one Prophet who is a religious leader that inspires us there is the Coen who is in charge of the sacrificial aspects of the betam Mikes there is the Sanhedrin the Supreme Court of of 71 that is both a Judicial and a legislative branch of a Jewish state in terms of interpreting the Torah right so we have Mel we have Novi we have Coen we have Sanhedrin and then of course we have lower courts that adjudicate disputes like a Baston of three or whatever would be now in truth to a large degree Moser raenu to some level on some level was a one-man show he was both the Mel he was both the political leader and the spiritual leader yes Kahuna went to Aon but he was the greatest of the nvim but when Mosher rabenu dies these roles are going to be dispersed they're going to be decentralized they're going to be different bodies around uh mosh already consecrated the first Sanhedrin uh but that's like a first start until that point he was the Sanhedrin Moshe was equal to the 71 members of the Sanhedrin so par schim does deal with a delineation of the various sources of authority that exist within a Jewish Po and instructions are given about the need to be obedient to those different forms of authority so there's one point I want to talk about here in terms of the Sanhedrin of 71 which is really the Supreme Court and legislature remember they're both every student of halaka knows that the body of Jewish law is divided into two categories there is what is called the Ora laws of the Torah and there is what are called Rabin laws laws that were enacted by the rabbis and surprisingly right if one thinks about it it's quite amazing what percentage of Jewish observances are actually Rabin rather than Tor so very simple example reciting the shma in the morning and in the evening is a Torah law the Torah itself requires it as one of the 613 Mitzvah daving the amida three times a day or even twice a day is a Rabin the blessing I make or the blessings I make after I eat bread are Torah loss the blessings I make before I eat bread or before I eat any food are Rabin LS doing chabas is a violation of a Torah law moving M items in my house is a Rabin Lighting near Shabbat or near or reading Milla RAB law even though Milla is in tanak but it's not in the Torah so technically mikil is midra so the big analytical question that one asks is how can there be a concept of the rabbis I'll discuss in a moment who are the rabbis the rabbis adding obligations to the Torah does not the Torah itself say you shall not add nor shall you subtract you can't subtract that I understand you can't get rid of anything but the Torah says the same way you're not allowed to subtract you're not allowed to add well isn't the whole edifice of Rabbi legislation adding to the Torah the Torah doesn't say you got to read Miguel anpm the rabbis say you have to the Torah does not prohibit moving what we call Mah items in my house the rabbi say you're not allowed to the Torah does not prohibit eating chicken and milk the rabbis say only meat and milk the rabbis say can't do that sometimes just in terms of vocabulary when these are negative rules don't eat chicken lest you cross the line and confuse it with something else that is called a gazer those are negatives don't do X lest you come to Y other times they make positive enactments lighting Kaneka candles lighting chabas candles and the like those are called takana right so rabbinic activity are takot if they're positive POS rituals and giz wrote if they're negative rituals but still How can there be takos and gazerro if the Torah says Thou shalt not add so the ramban writes both in the SE mitzvos and in the mishna Torah that every mitzvah actually is a Torah commandment based on this para in this para we are told y this is talking about the Sanhedrin of 71 you shall not depart from what the Sanhedrin directs you to the right or to the left it's interesting it's very tempting to use contemporary usage here meaning don't be more religious than the Sanhedrin don't be less religious don't go to the right to the left that's loveka what it means there so you know what the rambam says this is divine authorization that empowers the sun hedrin to legislate takot and gazer and since Hashem himself gave that authority to the Sanhedrin so this is not a contemporary Rabbi you know I can't make a Gaza so to speak but when there's a Sanhedrin since the Torah itself empowers the Sanhedrin to make such a gazer it is not considered an unlawful addition to the Torah and then the rambam goes further if you violate Rabin law you are violating the Torah LA because if the Torah says you shall listen to the takot and G of the then when I don't listen to theot and of the I'm not just violating a rinic law I'm violating the Lota of lotas as well as a positive commandment VI you shall do according to what they instruct you and the rambam explains based on gamar and chabas this is actually why we're able to make a on mitz let's consider kanah candles before I light Kaneka candles so what do I say hasem blessed art you Hashem El right our God the king of the world you have Sanctified us you have made us holy with your mitos Vu and you have commanded us to light the candles of Kaneka you have commanded us to light the candles of Kaneka so the ram says wait a second here where did command us to light kanah candles it's not in the Torah it's a takana of the how can I make a where did Hashem command me to listen to raban says the rambam again based on a gamorra Hashem didn't command it's true Hashem did not command you to light Kaneka candles but but Hashem commanded you to listen to the sages the Sanhedrin therefore indirectly you're commanded to do what they told you to do and therefore the rambam says every Jan becomes a do you know people often say oh it's only Rabbi as if to say it's less important the Ram's point is you know every single Rabin law becomes a Tor via the lur and via the very very fascinating so in many many ways the distinctions that we make between Rabin laws and Torah laws D ran versus the may be analytically important but practically they're not that import because every becomes a mitvah of now it is interesting that this is what the ramban writes my Manis ran Manis has a long long critique of the rambam's assertion and we can talk about this again for hours and hours but I just want to mention one one particular question the ramban asks and the ingenious answer of Rio KRA the ran asks the following everybody knows that there is a major distinction between Rabin law and Torah law in the area of doubt and that is a famous rule that says if you are in doubt about a Torah commandment you have to air on the side of stringency if you're in doubt about a rebin law you are permitted to be lenient so a very good example would be the following if I don't remember if I DAV my I just don't remember so with respect to the shma I must say the shma because since the recitation of shma is a Torah law if I am in doubt whether I fulfilled a Torah law or not I have to be strict and I have to do it even though I might be doing it twice but but with respect to the am if I don't know whether I DAV the amida or not of course I should know but but whatever reason I literally don't remember so since the prayer of the amida is rinic if you're in doubt you don't do it this is called very very well-known principle in so ramban asks a brilliant question on the ramban since if I don't fulfill a rabic law I am in violation of lur then every time I'm in doubt whether I kept a Rabin law I'm in doubt whether I'm transgressing lur so every suff in a Rabin law should be a sa in a Tor so the same way I say I should say because every is a suff whether I'm transgressing right this is one of the many many questions that ramban has on ramban so there's an absolutely brilliant answer from the commentary KF mishna and many of you might know I hope you know this the KF mishna is none other than the commentary of R Kyo the author of The Who the very last work he wrote after he did the and after he did the his last work was a commentary on the ramb that is called K mishna so it's yose Ciro and he says the following he says well wait a second here lur says do not depart from what the rabbis the Sanhedrin told you to do now who gave you the rule that the told you to be make so how can you raise the question if I don't do it I might be violating lotas for sure you're not violating lotas because you are working within the guidelines that the gave you and therefore uh if the ranan said because we're not discussing why they said it that's another question but if whatever reason the raban enacted a rule you can't raise the question but maybe I'm transgressing lur for sure you're not transgressing lotas because you're bka doing what they told you to do or not to do and therefore he said the Ran's question is not a question be this it may I just want to point out an interesting thought for the month of el as I say many of us are sometimes overly lenient in rabbinic laws because you say it's only dra in the great work of Shah Chua the gates of repentance a book by rabeno Yona one of the great classic works on shua that many people do study uh during uh this period of time RAB Yona writes that we have statements uh in Rabbi literature that violating Rabbi laws may be more severe not only are they also Torah violations they may be more severe than violating Torah laws why should that be the case why should it be more severe even like the rambam they would be equal so Yona gives a very interesting analogy it's a very fascinating explanation we know that in Paras fikra if a person commits certain very serious sins inadvertently there is a sin offering that you bring this is called a Corban so for example if I violated the laws of chabas because I didn't know the Hal or I didn't know that chabas was was not over yet or whatever so I bring a Corbin now what if I'm not sure if I violated chabas now there is an example would be the following if shabas is over 6:15 and I do Mala at 6 because I later discover my clock wasn't right I bring a corbon but what if I do Mal and then I discover that chabas may not have been over yet but maybe it was in other words I don't have definitive knowledge of my I only have possible knowledge of my so there's an interesting corbon that is called aam taloy This is called a suspended guilt offering meaning if you know you sinned you bring a sin offering if you're not sure if you sinned you bring a suspended guilt offering and the truth of the matter is the suspended guilt offering is only a temporary stop Gap because if you then find out that you sinned you got to bring the sin offering but that the suspended guilt offering covers you until you find out one way or the other okay versus Corb now here is the anomaly is there a minimum amount of money that you got to pay for this corbon so the gamar says when it comes to a sin on offering there is no minimal amount even if someone gave you the animal for free or you bought an animal for one one cent you can bring it as a Corbin there is no that you got to spend x amount of money but when it comes to an Asam tal you got to spend at least two sell us whatever two it's it's a significant amount of money now this makes no sense because in I don't even know if I send so in the worst case scenario I send but if a Corb does not require an expenditure even though I know that I sin I can get by with with zero expenditure how can an asham tooy require more money than a corbon katas since in the worst case scenario it would just become like a corbon katas so rabona offers the following interesting explanation raban Yona says that to a large degree the atonement that God gives you is connected to the magnitude of your regret and your remorse the greater my regret the greater my remorse the greater I understand that I did something wrong and I'm sorry the greater atonement and purification I get the less impacted I am the less I care the less atonement says by the person knows that he sinned because he knows that he sins the regret and the remorse is likely to be deep and profound so God says the Penance will be less because you've done the etal work with an the problem's going to be the guy brings his Ash but what's he thinking in his mind you know who says I did anything wrong you know shabas probably was over who knows he doesn't have the same regret precisely because he doesn't know that it's a sin therefore God says the Penance is going to be deeper because you lack the remorse that's why the is more expensive than the says same thing with raban when kazal say if you violate a raban it's a bigger sin they don't mean objectively it's a bigger sin violating the Torah is a bigger sin but it means precisely because I don't take it so seriously I don't have the same regret therefore the Penance has to be deeper when I transgress a Torah I know that it's wrong Hashem accepts my regret and gives me atonement when it's a Rabin law I may take it for granted analogizes it to the versus the right so this is one idea of the source of Rabin law very very important according to the rambam this is why we can make the BR on Rabin laws now the other source of authority that's discussed not the only other but another one is of course the institution of melik now here too we have a very very interesting mlus if you look in the way the T worded it says when you come to the land and you will say I want to have a king like all the nations of the world then God says Hashem says you shall place for yourself a king and the King has to be Jewish among your brethren Etc so there's a huge M here according to the rambam based on a gor it's all based on goras this is actually a Mitzvah there is a Mitzvah in the T for the Jewish people to establish a monarchy later the monarchy was given to Etc but there is a Mitzvah to have a monarchy how does that work today why don't we do it today interesting questions but according to the ramb is a Mitzvah now the obvious question of course that one is going to ask and the rambam himself asks it is that after 300 years of Judges when the Jewish people finally come to shmoel Ani and they ask for a king so you'll recall Shi tries to talk them out of it he says oh a king is going to take your sons and take your daughters and confiscate your property and impose taxes and if you want a king a flesh and blood king you are rejecting the rule of Hashem who is supposed to be your king and finally he gives in he gives them a king he anoints sh and he says Hashem is dis satisfied with your decision remember he says if Hashem doesn't like your decision Let It Rain and there's a whole down for so the question is very obvious if is a Mitzvah then why should shmu and Hashem be critical of the decision of Isel to want a m and you know the answer that everybody gives is well they had the wrong motive because they said we want a king like all of the Nations well you know I don't think you can really base it on that because after all that's the same words of the Toyah itself when you say I want a king like all of the Nations those same words appear in thees Hashem says you shall appoint the king so the rambam's answer is not focusing on those words but the rambam focuses on the idea that you're right there's a Mitzvah to have a king but their motives were not proper their motives were that they didn't want hashem's rule they wanted the rule of human being and therefore the rambam says even a proper request can be tainted by an improper motivation and that's why Hashem gave them a m that was destined to fail he did not give them a m orud he gave them a Mal from the tribe of Benyamin that was not supposed to last because their motivation was improper but the bottom line is the she of the rambam is that the appointment of a king is a mitv and this is the mainstream position in but there is one minority view to the contrary and that is none other than Don Y abarbanel abarbanel is a very very colorful figure the abarbanel uh Orel depends how you pronounce it was the finance minister of Spain during the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella uh it was his financial Acumen that financed the Expeditions of Columbus to the new world and uh he lived through the Inquisition and um he was needed did so much that Ferdinand and Isabella when the Jews were who didn't who refused to convert were expelled the expulsion of the Jews a barbano was given permission to remain in Spain and he was even given permission to practice his Judaism privately but he refused he said I will go with my brethren and on the ninth of a he led a procession leaving it is recorded inim that he instructed the Jews who were leaving the the Spain where they had lived for hundreds of years to play musical instruments on the ninth of H that their Spirits shouldn't be broken and they should have courage to make a new life for themselves and just as a little historical curiosity a barbanel who was in his 70s was the head of that procession but toward the back of the procession was a woman with a four-year-old son and that four-year-old son was of yose kar the one who eventually went to Constantinople and from then came toat the great great Rabbi who authored the and the mishna that I had mentioned earlier and theel went to his children first to Portugal then to Italy Italian city states and that's where he wrote his great commentaries on tanak very long commentaries that's really uh the Rino's length is a real real problem because there's so many beautiful points there uh but there's a lot to weigh through and that's why there are various abridgments of a barbanel that are being written today and the like and in his commentary to the book of Schmo as well as to his commentary in this para he actually writes about his own personal experiences that he doesn't like monarchies monarchs tend to be dictators they're not responsive to the people other than mashia and maybe ideal but even in our own list of Kings many of the kings were no good so he actually interprets not as a Mitzvah but only as you're permitted to do it if you want it but I'm advising you not to do it and that explains sho's opposition and the ranel says he very much liked the form of government in the Italian city states where people were elected to terms and they had term limits so people who were making decisions about other people would eventually be accountable to those very people so this is very very fascinating it's one of the few places uh in Jewish uh Rabin literature where you actually have a discussion of political philosophy in favor of not democracy per se but would you call a republican form of government representative democracy with term limits and accountability and election and that's the barbanel even though it's an interesting Paradox because the barbanel is also one of the most prolific writers on mashiach in which he talks about the Messianic ideal of a Righteous Mind Archy so although he actually was anti- monarchy in Prem Messianic periods but he does understand that the ultimate ruler will be a a monarch okay now I just want to leave before I leave this I I want to deal with another aspect of M that is once again relevant to the period that we're in and that is we know that scha H was deposed because at one point he was given the Commandments to eradicate the nation of amalik and although he did the job 99.9% but he left over the king of amalik AAG who in the brief Hiatus till Shu killed him impregnated a woman who was the ancestor of H and there were also animals that were not destroyed and essentially um sha faced the idea of one strike and he's out he doesn't get the job done he's out DAV commits a very Grievous sin with the beautiful woman Beva and although David suffered tremendously number one the child that he had from Beva the initial died and David was persecuted by his own child of Shalom Etc so David suffered much but the Mal remains with d and not only that but schl is the second child from B the actual child from from Beva became melik and the ramban writes by the way that mashia is descended not only from dbid D had many sons mashia is descended from schlomo that's actually going to be the Messianic Messianic line now it's true that kazal give us what you might call kind of a whitewash about D well you know about was technically divorced because soldiers would go to when they go to war would give their wives a get and violated Royal commands and therefore he deserved to be sent to the front all of that is fine and good but nevertheless you see from Nasi that David's thoughts were not pure and this was a great great sin so why is sha not given a second chance and David given a second chance this question is asked by Rio Alo saer Karim great great Jewish philosopher in the uh late 1300s early 1400s and he gives two interesting answers why is David given a pass and Sh not given a pass the first answer that given is a political answer it's an interesting answer too and he says that Sha's mistake was Malin in his responsibilities as Monarch as Monarch and political leader he had a responsibility to deal with amalik he failed to carry out his Royal responsibilities this was malfeasance in his governmental function that is caused for removal D was a personal moral failure but it was not an abuse of the powers of government now this answer is actually very very fascinating just from a legal perspective know in American law I'm not sure about law in Israel in American law there's a big big big big mlo can a president be impeached for personal moral misas meaning the following the Constitution allows a US president to be impeached so things like Insurrection things like bribery things like uh abuse of power as a president that's impeachment but what if a president simply goes into a McDonald's and punches somebody out in other words he doesn't he does he doesn't do anything that any other person couldn't do or even if As Trump once remarked famously he could shoot somebody in Fifth Avenue and would still be elected is that grounds for impeachment so there actually is a some say that even criminal behavior is not a grounds for impeachment unless it pertains to conduct in office that's a big mlus well REO and again if you go back to Clinton long time ago with Monica Lewinsky is it's really the same type of question uh are right are those things that are they basis for impeachment okay but be it as it may that's answer number one now the truth is even answer number one is not so ped to me because I understand that David being with Beva was a personal AA not an abuse of power on the other hand doid ordering her husband to go to the front that is by virtue of his Royal position meaning a commoner wouldn't have been able to do that so I'm not even sure if this answer is fully good but this is the first answer of Alo gives the second answer though I think is much more relevant to our aod and that is it's not that Sha's sin was worse than David's sin maybe D's sin was worse I mean Sha's sin was a sin of omission I didn't kill a all like D's sin is is similar to adultery and it's similar to causing murder but the difference between David and sha is not in the magnitude of their sin it is in how do they respond when they're called on it you'll recall when shmoel comes back to the scene and he says to sha why have you not fulfilled the words of Hashem so Sha's first response is denial I have done everything Hashem is commanded and Shmo then says why do I hear the sound of the bleeding sheep you can't deny that anymore so sha blames other people I was afraid of the people who wanted to take spoils in other words sha responds with denial and blaming others now with David Shmo of course is no longer alive when David is with B so the navi that comes to David is nus and the navi and nus and the navi says to starts off with a parable there was a rich man and a poor man and the rich man had flocks of sheep and the poor man had one little lamb and the rich man wanted to make a banquet so he took the the little lamb of the poor man and he slaughtered it what do you think should be done to such a man and D says such a man is wretched and selfish and cruel such a man deserves to die even though it's not a capital crime per se but such evil Behavior Nasi says to David you you are that man it is recorded that David responded with only two words I have sinned I am wrong now what's fascinating is doid could have used all the excuses that kazal say that he had could have said he could have said she was divorced there was no adultery here or was because he disobeyed a royal order he had the excuses you know we often come up with excuses and we don't have them he had the excuses but he knew that his heart was not pure he knew that technically everything was fine but Hashem looks for more than technicalities and therefore no excuses he took responsibility so sayra Alba Hashem understands that people make mistakes Hashem understands that people sin and even if you sin that doesn't automatically disqualify you from leadership but you got to take responsibility for your shortcomings don't blame it on others don't deny and it was the honesty that DAV had that allowed him to maintain the malus and from mashia to come from David and of course let me point out that this was a quality that David had from his ancestor Yehuda this is the story of Yehuda and tar right T is about to be burnt at the stake for her adultery and she is willing to go to her death without revealing that she was with her father-in-law Yehuda as kazal say better to die by a fiery furnace than to humiliate somebody publicly and she just says the man that gave me this money belt and staff is the man I was with if Yuda would have said nothing nobody would have known and she would have gone to her death Yehuda stepped forward and said she is more righteous than me the honesty the Integrity the taking responsibility admitting when we're wrong this was the greatness of DAV over sha was also a very very great stic and as we do our own aod at Chua we should think about this as well because we do have all of us have an infinite capacity to kind of blame others to have different types of excuses but as the katari said when the Torah says You must distance yourself from a lie the most important thing is don't lie to yourself you can fool other people but just be sure you don't fool yourself we need to take again we're not talking about public responsibility I'm just talking about actually in our own lives to take responsibility for our lives and then we will own our decisions when we own our decisions we're able to correct them to reformulate them to improve them to return to our KES with a so be well in [Music] it [Music]