Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz: How to be a True Activist

[Music] burning again I appreciate your coming it's I know for me it's a big relief to be able to actually speak to human beings my computer screen wasn't working this morning so I had to give a share on the zoom telephones actually it's a new riddle what is the one thing that's worse than giving is shared by zoom is giving a by soon by telephone that's even even worse than just speaking to a receiver so British Empire it might be inconvenient for you but it's a season for me to have actual people that I'm able to talk to so I do it very much appreciate appreciate your coming and again we hope and we pray that while we selling really the whole world could be in a massive or Akua that unfortunately Caronia we thought was dying down but it is unfortunately coming back in a stronger way than we thought would be the case by now and we hope and we pray that they should be a temporary setback in this recession everyone should have a referral and those who are not sick should at least they remain remain healthy the pressure were reading about this for this job is as precious pin cuts and it's always the sharpest which inaugurates the three weeks of mourning over the Corbin based on McNish now to understand precious Pintrest though we do have to connect it to last week's parsha if you remember last week alum was hired to curse the Jewish people and three times he goes this place to that place to that place and every time there are seven altars and on each altar there's a part of the aisle a bowl Emma and I ran and nothing's working just doesn't work he tries to curse us three times and God changes all of the curses into blessings so Bullock the king who hired him is pretty upset but says get out of here you know I hired you for a lot of money no I'm not sure the sumbitch is actually not clear did bulla get a refund or not give the money it's not really the financial arrangements were so I'm not sure but whatever it was Bullock was pretty upset and he sent bilham home in disgrace yes now I shall recover that's correct imagery disgraced right God took away that's withheld from you oh that's okay that I don't know what you think of it means they're the money okay possibly possibly that maybe I'm sure but what's interesting is that bilham comes up with a plan B villain comes up with the plan B I can't curse them but I know that the God of Israel hates immorality and therefore he advises bollock to get the daughters of Moab to entice the Jewish people to fornication and to avodah Zarah to idolatry of Balfour and the truth of the matter is bill um is to our to our detriment bill um is somewhat successful in that endeavor the Jewish people many of them thousands of them are youth shout in the faint of of being with the daughters of Moab and worshipping Balfour and there's a mocking father's a plague that is decimating thousands and thousands of Jews and at some point a fairly prestigious person the head of the tribe of Shem on Zimri the son of soloing gets up and he publicly publicly not even though the tent publicly cohabits with a Midianite woman a Midianite princess cosby buster and when moshe rabbeinu says how can you do such a thing it's forbidden so Zimri says back to him who permitted you to marry the Midianite wife that you have sleepovers now obviously our own we understand it's a former converted cetera etc etc but whenever in his motion was so astounded by that type of crispa that moshe rabbeinu himself didn't know what to answer and Pintrest a grandson of iron gets up and he publicly kills both Zimri and Cosby in flagrante delicto meaning while they're in the actual sexual act and again the halacha is a little complicated but there actually is a rule that if a Jewish man is publicly and again there's a lot of conditions that are normally not going to be met but if a Jewish man is publicly having intercourse with a Gentile woman and they are in the middle of the act they didn't stop yet if they stopped you couldn't do this a zealot who can all discuss them the definition of a zealot is actually permitted to kill those two people but look at all the conditions Jewish man and non-jewish woman in Reverse not necessarily Jewish men non-jewish woman they are in the middle of the sexual act not before and not afterwards once they commit the act they have to be tried by a court and number two it has to be in a public way not in a hotel room not in a bedroom it has to be in the streets with people watching assuming you have all of those conditions there's a fourth condition you have to be a cell like you can't be a regular guy and we'll discuss what do we mean by a they so it's in a moment and Pintrest is act of violence brought actually great blessing on the Jewish people the MA gave I stopped only because pin house stood up for the glory of God 24,000 people died and got like a fire and there would have kept on going if it was not for the Connaught what's the zealousness of interest and because of this God declares that Pincott the son of Eleazar the son of Aaron took away my anger from the Jewish people because he was jealous or zealous I think I'm not jealous he was jealous on my behalf and therefore moshe lisa i did not destroy the jew my anger will pain and more therefore say unto Pincus Keenan eNOS saying lo as free see Shalom I give to Pintrest my covenant of peace just in terms of translation what what do you say covenant we don't want to copy this compliments like a promise that God makes to have a relationship with you like every bris is the Covenant that God made with Abraham but what is a covenant of peace exactly so the simple meaning is that Pintrest will be a person Pintas and his descendants Kohanim will be people that will be able to affect peace between different types of Jews and between Jews and a college party so it's an interesting irony isn't done that a man of violence a man of war a man themselveses a man who murdered two people is given the reward of being a cop it being a intermediary for a covenant of Shalom how could that be so here let me go back a little bit you know people people often say that's you know they don't keep a certain Mitzvah because they don't want to be a hypocrite right they don't want to open up at the more uh bar in Torah because that's not what they normally do and if they do it it'll be a little bit hypocritical or whatever it is go to a minyan etc the truth of the matter is a certain measure of hypocrisy is actually a glue thing now exactor Pope once remarked that hypocrisy is the tribute that device pays to virtue think about it even if in the privacy of my home I do all sorts of bad things if publicly I find it necessary I live by a certain standard at least what I'm doing is I'm acknowledging that the standard is right as opposed to simply undermining the standard in fact that's kind of the issue with gay marriages it's brought down even in madrasa thousands of years that although any homosexual sexual relationship it's forbidden but making an official marriage out of it is worse meaning to say there are two types of sins a person could commit one is I sin but I know it's wrong and the other is I don't think I'm sending at all what I'm doing is perfectly right the Midrash actually says the second is much worse than the first because the first I'm a sinner but the least I acknowledge a standard of right and wrong in the second I'm redefining what is right or wrong that creates a confusion in life so the hypocrite at least has a sense of moral clarity the hypocrite says there's a standard I'm ashamed not to live by that standard publicly so even though I'm a hypocrite I'm still doing now where do you see democracy as a certain welcome you actually see it from the daughters of Moab towards the end of the Torah the Torah says that Jewish people cannot marry people from lower globe even if they convert because the Moabites were really bad because they hired bill long to cursing so we're not allowed to marry Moabites we do know however from the story and the other reason they're bad was that when we needed food and water they refused to give us food and water and therefore they're a pariah people now we know from the story of Ruth who was a Moabite and married boas and from Russ Cain King David over the militias a great-grandson of breath that how logically ruse was allowed to marry in to the Jewish people because the law against the Moabites is only the male Moabites and not the female Moabites but we know that's not love that's the holy soat of how risk was allowed to marry into quality israel now why are the feel minute female law bytes per minute so the Gemara explains that the male Moabites are condemned because they didn't give us food and water but the female Moabites cannot be condemned for not giving us food and water it would not have been sun knew it would not have been modest for the Moabite women to offer a foreign army food and water so we can't blame the Moabite women for not offering its food and water because it wouldn't have been some new way for them to do so now wait a second here where the Moabite women concerned with some meals obviously not because when it came to idolatry and fornication they put on their best their best dresses or whatever it would be so their motive for not giving us food and water was not because of modesty it was the same cruelty and knocks of the hoods that the men and yet they were doing the right thing for the even for the wrong reason now there's Lamesa it's an expression of smiie and for the women not to go out to a foreign army and even though the earth was the furthest thing from their mind it was a good action and therefore god does not penalize it so in a way what the whole lesson of more than this bit of a complicated proof shows is the right action even for the wrong reasons counts for something even the women who were let's say not to Noah weren't they forced by the men was that they talk about when they were prostituting for the Jewish men weren't they forced by their well the practice of the circum is not that it's the other way around if the daughters of moe of enticed so we can actually say therefore that this is one of combats approaches for Kirov right you know they ask a person are you Jewish yeah put on tefillin he says I don't believe in God I don't even tell recent do it anyway you're a Jew so that's film they don't even believe in God and of course the kebabs claims and I think they're right to some degree then once they put on tefillin that kind of gives them that connection that is in their subconscious that they didn't even realize do the right thing and then the feelings will come so that's kind of Alexander's Pope a point that hypocrisy has a certain virtue to some degree but there's one area where you can't be a hypocrite if you're not doing it for the right reasons don't do it at all and that's a Zelan for the glory of God when you stand up to be a zealot for the glory of God and inflict Mooser denunciations and punishments around other people your motives have to be 100 percent pure if you're doing it for fame for reputation for ego for self-aggrandizement then it strength meaning the very murder that pin shot they're very killing that pin host in which for him was a great sanctification of God's name if a person would have done it not totally for the sake of God and for Israel would it been an act of murder the same action so kind not woods to be zealous for the glory of God you cannot be a hypocrite you have to act out of everybody's and then that's why the halacha actually is that if I see a I see all these things I see the non-jewish I see the Jewish man and the non-jewish woman and their public and their in the in the action and I asked my rod and I'm not allowed to kill them if you ask the ref says no you're not allowed to because the cell is acting so totally with Seamus Shem he doesn't even think about what he's doing he does it totally with shame shall I many of you might have heard of its controversial robbery in America rabbi yahi Weiss was not retired I'll be having my family very controversial guy he is actually the founder of the left-wing Orthodox movement that is known as open orthodoxy and the founder of the open orthodoxy Sheva home of a Torah there's a lot that can be said about it which I'm not going to go there and I certainly do not agree with a lot of things that he says and a lot of things that he does but one thing I will say about him is he is a person that really has a tremendous love for the Jewish people and even if his decisions are sometimes misguided he is always acting out of a genuine genuine care for um Israel and if you follow him going all the way back to the 80s and the 90s actually the 70s even earlier you might recall that he was a great activist on behalf of Soviet Jewry in the days when there was a Soviet Union and he would often get arrested he would be at these demonstrations he would chain himself in front of the United Nations the police would come and arrest them and he spends you know day a week sometimes in in jail very very often and he was always getting his name in the newspapers there were always pictures etc he once made a statement they remember to this day I must have heard it maybe 40 years ago and he said in order to be a successful activist you actually have to hate activism if you love activism if you love having your name in the newspaper if you love having your picture taken if you love being interviewed by the TV reporters then you're not really acting for the cause you're acting for the glory for the Cabos for the attention the only person that can be an activist to help Jewish people is someone who actually hates the publicity but he's doing it not be this is what he enjoys he's doing it because it has to be done even though he doesn't enjoy and they could stop so fair says that's exactly the fort for Pentos when the term it describes pinnacle zealousness it calls him Pinta the son of Eleazar the son of Aaron the company now Rashi already points out that this is a little bit of an unusual years because normally the Torah does not identify you by your grandfather it'll say you know remain the son of Yaakov it's not going to say Liu bang the son of iago of the son of Yitzhak but in the case of pink Rus it goes out of its way to say that not only is he a been Eleazar but Eleazar is a son of Aaron why does the tyrant go all the way back to the grandfather so here is what the Kasab sofa says except sobre the way was the son of the SOB silver and I'll point out in a few moments why I think there's a Nora biographical significance to this he says the following pin crusts stood up for the glory of God and killed two people there are many people who are zealots but they act out of anger they act out of hate they act out of resentment they act because they are offended by all sorts of things and they also want to augment their reputation as people who are jealous for the glory of God but they're not acting others love for the Jewish people and they're not acting out of love of God they're acting out of their own egotism of their own temper those chameleons are trait for those kind of neighbor impossible so the Kasab cipher says when the timer says Pintrest the son of Eleazar the son of Aaron it doesn't mean as we would translate Pintrest was the son of Eleazar and their loss or was the son of rather Pinterest has two fathers pin cuffs is the son of Eleazar and pin Haas is the son of Ireland Pinterest is the son of Eleazar because the laaser was his biological father but pins Gus is a son of our own because Pincus followed in Ireland's ways our own is described in Pirkei avos as the lover of peace the pursuer of peace one who loved all of God's creatures all of God's creation and through his love for all of God's creation Makarova that's alright he brought them to God the Tyra's testifying that Pinterest was exactly like a bee wife described Pincus engaged in this violence not because his nature made them do it it's the other way around pitiless whole nature was to be the om shun them the rotation of the pursuer of peace the lover of peace Pintrest acted not out of hatred for he believed he acted out of his love for I'm Israel because mommy's rather dying like fleas there's a Mike a father that's spreading 24,000 thousands of people are dying Pincus was motivated out of love he was not motivated out of hate and therefore he did something that was not his natural impulse to do he was not a hot-headed zealot he was a son of our Pintrest acted not because this was his nature he acted despite his nature because it had to be done and that is why the British Allah is totally appropriate I'd raised the question how could an act of violence even if it's justifiable how could an act of violence bring down a blessing of peace the answer is the violence itself was motive to bring peace in obviously this was an act of our kin the analogy would be amputation right people describe imagine you've never you know you're not familiar with surgery you've never seen a hospital etc and you're walking down a hospital corner and you see a surgeon who was about to amputate and on it looks like an axe murderer coming up and I wanna know what's going on here but in reality the amputation was necessary to save the life of the organism Pintas amputated a limb to save on Israel who were dying Pintrest is a been IRA now the reason why I think there is some significance that this thought was said by the Kasab's over who is the son of the sums over there some so favorite Mochis over was really the gondola door and he lived in Hungary and he lived at the time of the beginning of the reform movements in both Germany and Hungary at the beginning of the 19th century and one of the characteristic characteristics of the consumption but they're not not all rabbis agreed with was the kasam chauffeur was a relentless fighter against reform likea communicated their me refused to give any legitimacy to go into they're going to their temples going to their synagogues and people sometimes looked at their sums over it's too much of a zealots to fanatical why didn't he work with the reform movement at such as the groups also after even that later had he been in the generation of the to some supper he would have been more lenient that's quite amazing Rousseau's founder himself said perhaps it would have been better not to make such a separation okay to adjudicate between those to his own limits way above my pay grade I'm not going to do it but I think what there's but the kiss-up surfers marami says that his father was like peanuts his father in some ways was divisive his father divided his father rejected but like Pinterest it was out of love for Chloe's room not out of hatred not out of animosity not out of enemies it wasn't a personal thing it was something that one does with sadness and with not to regret because you did the right thing but sadness that have had to come to this and therefore it's so last resort only when everything else fails the canoeing has to be motivated out of love not out of hate and there is too much motivation we see today of people who style themselves as zealots some of them are as young as 13 year old boys were younger with their demonstration that they're blocking of traffic and all of the major inconveniences they inflict on an economy but they're right just uhlet's standing up for God I don't want to judge anybody but I think they have to ask themselves are we motivated out of love or are we motivated out of hate animosity and resentment the Cudahy must have done of love and that means and here let me share with you two interesting statements one by the great reliance of ancient with claim of risk who said how do you tell the difference between a true con ie and then an illegitimate coming he said it is similar to a housewife who buys a cat's in order to catch mice the housewife and the cat have a common agenda that if there's nice the catch attention what's the difference in orientation between the housewife and the cat is the housewife would be much happier if there were no mice to catch the cat would be sorely disappointed there is a certain type of zealots who gets a certain pleasure in exposing the shortcomings of others they look when a new book comes out they'll go through the book line by line and they'll point out that in footnote 491 on page 860 there's a little bit of line words that contradicts something too rough shot said in a speech 35 years ago heretic we have to burn the book because it contains offending five words looking for heresies looking to expose shortcomings of others and when they can't find those shortcomings they're very disappointed we haven't met our quota for the day but the genuine can I praise that there should be righteousness and holiness once used to do sugar tries to reach Jews by love instead of throwing rocks at people who are driving in Shabbat they may invite them to come for a meal and enjoy hospitality if cook is a beautiful quarter I don't have the quote in front of me buddy says it's the way of the righteous and the wise to generate light and not to fight darkness you don't throw rocks at Dartmouth we dispel darkness by night sure if I am says the canoeing like Pinterest is like the housewife who really hopes there are no lies but if never were stuck and there's nothing else to do we do what we have to do but the other can I loves to expose the shortcomings of others the second thought on this is from Brooke himself not the quote that I mentioned there which I had it but Rove cook is a very interesting point we know that's the Amidah is it called the Schmo Ness or the eighteen blessings even though if you counted there are 19 blessings so the Gemara explains that originally the prayer was 18 blessings but after the korban of the Second Temple in yog now when this amendment was in the OP now Robin Gallio who was the Nessie was very concerned for me in the numerous sectarians who were the mean him some say they were early Christians that were infiltrating because they many of them were Jewish who were infiltrating shawls etc and spreading their heresies some say these were informers or informing on Jews to the Romans heretics and farmers Christians were not really sure who is being included here but Rama Khalil says we need a brough against the heretics and the informers who will be able to write they wrestle against the heretics and the informants and the person who was finally chosen was a Tana who was called chamoy huh captain that's well a cotton either means whoever humble or small the shorts of my life stood for anybody short but the Gomorrah seems to understand it as humble because it mentions a few stories about him it says that once the people of Assam Hendren were sitting in the chamber and a voice from heaven came and said there is one of you in this room who is worthy to have the Shekinah rest upon him like mother Aminah but the generation is not worthy and all of the sages in the room looked at Shoreline cut them because they knew he was the one that was the holy stone a very very humble person where is another story where somebody had eaten garlic once it was like bad breath in the room and member gomila ordered whoever add the garlic you know get out of here and she will not cut them got up and left so the other person would leave also without being embarrassed because they wouldn't know who was the wrongdoer etc so she well the captain was very very humble and he was the one who composed the 19th mamita which is the bra against the heretics machine into the Informer's there should not be hope now rough cook asks the kasha what is from Camille squanders apparently run Camille is wondering who could possibly write this brother well whoever wrote the other brothers could write this brother nothing so unusual with this brother and why would she love cotton be the most likely person to write it what is so problematical about the bracha against heretics the drum gum leo is in a quandary who's going to be the author they weren't around any weapons but the truth of the matter is though it is true that you didn't have the unchanged census on della that's very true but on the other hand the Nusa have been changed already it's very very clear because there are references to events that happened for example when the I think innocent until the road the base of Macduff was up so all of the references to mesh and restore the base of victims obviously there were modifications so when we say the Avenida was written by the answer a dozen Angola we are not referring to the final version that we actually say so of cook says the following the uniqueness of all emotion in is that all of the breakfast of the yummy Donna are asking God for blessings bless us give us - ah give us cool ah give us revoir give us all of the things that we need and the Jewish people need in the world needs the only brother that is a curse brother the only brother that calls for the downfall and destruction of others in great detail is emotional it is a brother of retribution and punishment now here's the problem in order to punish in order to ask God to punish your motivations have to be for the love of the Jewish people and the sanctity of God you can't ask got to punish if your motivations are anger revenge vengeance now given the fact that the Jewish people have suffered so much at the hands of the Romans and the Christians and the Informer's the natural motivation of such a brothel would be animus and hate and resentment but God does not accept prayers that are based on those emotions surrounding the Leo said who is capable of even asking God for retribution but be motivated out of love for ami as well instead of hate and the person that remedy that criminal meal identified was shmulik aunty what's so special lunch we don't even Samba but in truth we have very little that he said there's no high buckles and shots that are in his name but he's quoted once in querque of us and when he's quoted in parody of us it's not even his original statement it says missions take the shmulik uh Taniya O'Meara shmulik cotton used to say used to say means it was his motto and what he used to say is actually a puss lurking mislaid it's not even his own again and the Pusser conditionally says in the fall or vessel I love to smile do not rejoice when your enemy is destroyed that's what a chef told the Angels why they shouldn't sing when the Egyptians are drowning in the Red Sea so remember Gamliel said if shawarma content has the attitude of not rejoicing in the downfall of the enemy he is the one who can write the machine in after he tick in many ways this is actually one of the things that we can be very proud of the Israeli army of the IDF because on one hand it's very important to know that Judaism is not a pacifistic religion we're not pacifists we stand up and we're supposed to stand up to an enemy that's trying to kill us above the harka top somebody's going to kill you or until somebody else hush came for our blow we kill them first that is the Halawa that is proper we don't turn the other cheek we don't let people kill us but at the same time our army does what it has to do and it does it British am SuperDuper superlative William we all have to be grateful but there's never a glorification or joy in the destruction of even the enemies that try to destroy it you do it because you have to do it you don't do it because you like to do it and that's a very very big difference with the other side I remember seeing around maybe more than 10 years ago a picture of a of a terrorist who had killed some people some Jewish people and he dipped his hands in their blood and he was dancing around in a crazy dance of rejoicing in the blood dripping from his fingers a celebration a symptom that's not the way a Jewish person behaves even if the Jewish person kills the terrorists you know you're sad that it have to come to that because your motivation is not to kill your motivation is to save and that's a very big difference if I have to kill in order to say I'm gonna do it but it's the saving that is my goal and not the killing I mean even I don't want to get into controversial issues even dr. Barwick Goldstein who you know went into a mosque and killed a lot of Arabs and you know he was wrong et cetera but there was not this rejoicing aspect of it I mean he is unfortunately was driven crazy and he actually had helped many many many errors but he had seen Jewish blood be spilled and he had seen terrorist activity is literally drove him over the precipice to kind of almost in insanity where he did something that was very very wrong but there was no concept of a smile on his face and laughing as he was doing it and that's a very important area and I think in many many ways we have to be proud that the IDF still has that that culture the culture of the notion that we take life when we have to but it's a tragedy every time we have to do something in fact as we pointed out that the IDF goes to the greatest lengths of any army in the world to avoid collateral damage you know the US will bomb from the air and when you bomb from the air you're gonna kill a lot of people who are non-combatants Israel sends his hye-lim door to door to door to door you open up a door you might be met with with dynamite or whatever it would be that many armies actually say Israel is too irresponsible in endangering the lives of its own soldiers okay and I'm not going to opine on that not an expert at all in that area but whether it's the right decision of the wrong decision in some ways I'm very proud of an army that behaves that way and that is why ref Cooke says that's only the one who has the attitude of not rejoicing in the downfall of the enemy is able to fight against the enemy and even ask God to destroy the enemy because they're not motivated out of personal hatred and personal animus so this is an important idea because again they say in the State of Israel in particular many many people are zealous for the glory of God so they so been describing and the question becomes you know do you meet the definition again I don't want to cast aspersions maybe some some do maybe many do the wrong thing is before we engage in that type of approach we need to ask ourselves what are our motivations now let me point out that even righteous jealousness even pinterest and selflessness carries some very significant costs there are costs to being zealous for the glory of God Plus number one is if you OB q eight yourself to always look for the negatives and look for the reasons to criticize eventually your sense of seeing the good in things atrophies because you become a negative person who sees the ugliness under everything because in truth everything has an ugly sign I can look at a mea Shiva and I can identify things that are ugly about it any rabbi and he got on and if you become a convoy your whole array that now becomes always looking for the ugly sight no Mark Twain hasn't one of his one of his essays not the novels but in one of his essays he describes makes a little it's not perfectly - no as I wouldn't say this an awesome man but I'll say it here he describes how a doctor would view a ballerina dancing and how a non doctor with you it's from if I'm a non doctor and I see a ballet dancer I see grace I see Beauty I see fluidity I see movements but if I'm an orthopedic surgeon and I see that same dance all I see are the ligaments stretching and bending and tearing and I can no longer see the beauty of the overall experience because all I can see are the negative tears mark train was actually describing his career as a steamboat captain I'm the Mississippi River that Mark Twain it was Elizabeth II would call out for that we marked something in the water so he said before he was a steamboat captain he saw the flow of a river as a beautiful beautiful thing he saw the Sun reflecting on it and everything else but once he's a captain all he sees are dangers he sees rock he sees trees he sees Rapids and he said he lost his ability to see the beauty of the river because he was so fixated on the dangers of the river and he gave the mushroom of the orthopedic doctor who can no longer appreciate the beauty of dance because all they see are they damage the qunari suffers the same thing in fact weather comes I'll tell us because I'll tell us it's not again these things are not not always clear if they're meant to be on your personal material that Pinterest really didn't die pin cross reemerge --is hundreds of years later as Elio Hanavi who himself never died he was taken up to heaven alive pin truss is all you're nothing but know your enemy of course is revered but we have to remember le yamanami was fired what was the story Elio and hubby on Mount Carmel built this altar and fire came down from heaven and great miracles happened and everybody said I sham is the God and it was wonderful but the next stage was business as usual everybody went back to their old ways and King Otto Togo we go you had a good day yesterday I'm still gonna kill you Elio I know he runs into the desert and he cries out to God and he says what type of people is your nation they're worthless no matter what miracles you show them they reject you hey fair breasts they know your covenants and God actually told Elio and nothing essentially you're fired this was the famous scene that there was an earthquake and it was not in the earthquake there was a fire in ition was not in the fire and there was a still quiet voice and the Shem was in that voice and he told a yahoo go and anoint your successor Elisha so one of the explanations is that one semi Johanna we could no longer see goodness in the Jewish people Hashem said you can't be a leader anymore that maybe Moshe Rabbeinu sin as well rebellious ones so in the 7c Pintrest zealousness turned into the critical eye of Elio and not me which disabled him from seeing the good than the four Hugh said that that's why the origami is condemned to go to every branch and every Pesach later because bris and Pesach Seder are two rituals at least until recently with the anti-circumcision movements in the world but a bris and a Pesach Seder are the two rituals that almost every Jew keeps religious non-religious Orthodox are reformed and then well you know Hanavi is forced to see that no matter how far Jews are from God they still have that connection it's kind of a tickin for his statement they know your covenant oh yeah go to every person to whatever the scene that they keep the Covenant and some so it's a punishment right you think it's a wonderful thing to go to a risk every day throughout the world no it's a it's a schlep it's a trouble but he has to go because that's his that's his cut partner that's this color so this is a very true idea because once you get habituated to will always see the negative it affects you you can no longer see I remember years ago when I used to work with NCS white it's a beautiful youth organization mainly for public school kids so I remember a Saturday night was like true confession time they'd have a publicist it was dark and kids would get up and tell their stories and it was very emotional and people would cry you know high school kids anyway high school girls especially they always cried they told stories and they cry and they get filled with emotion but it really was very very moving and I remember a girl giving up and she was saying how her parents are not only not religious but they resent her keeping Shabbos and they don't let her to pass so when she does after her parents go to sleep she goes into the bathroom and she likes her hidden Shabbos candles in the bathroom and then she makes the Brucker in the bathroom then she blows them out and then she turns on the fan so there won't be any any smell of the candles and that's how she keeps Shabbos now you could give a smear test to some identify how many of a rose this girl did you know Brooklyn the bathroom lighting the fan electricity and you can talk about all right what's happening what woman this is a hundred I various you know but there's another way of looking at it how much she cared how much she tried how much you wanted to serve God even if she did it totally wrong but look at what she's going through and maybe Hashem considers that job is a lot better then the perfect job is we keep but we don't have to struggle and everything's fine so the cannoli is not going to see that they're part of the story the zealot is going to identify the 25 Morocco's that she violated and not understand what's going on so there are dangers in being negative we need to be negative sometimes we need to identify problems to be sure but we also need to go beyond them and see a whole the second problem with being zealous is that when you put your gaze towards other people you're not looking at yourself you're spending too much time watching what other people do and the problem with that is when you watch what other people do you don't concentrate I'm the flaws and the inadequacies within me then I can try to correct in fact that's why many people like to be zealots because when I miss Ellen I can spend all my energy identifying what you're doing and that absolves me of looking into myself now it's true that creeping up assess that one of the qualities of a wise person is he loves taka he loves lesser but that doesn't mean he loves to give masseur it means he loves to receive loving to give is not necessarily a a milah so that's the second cost that we have the third question is that it's very very difficult to do Shiva when you think you're acting for the sake of God that we can act for the sake of God we can have all sorts of you know improper motivations but if we convince ourselves that we're acting the shame shamayim then how will how will we ever come to children like this is a bit of a joke you know it says perky of us any Marcus that is for the sake of heaven will endure now the simple meaning of the mission of course is that that's a positive thing meaning if two people are arguing like pillow and Shimon and they're doing it to serve God we will continue to study both opinions that's the plot of the mission but to see this aspiring they interpret a bit of a humorous thing that when you have a much locus where each side convinces itself it's for the sake of heaven it'll never end that much I could go on forever because nobody could ever admit that they're wrong so for with its Cayenne right everybody hats for the sake of heaven but they say in tockman what do we say we say sure a new allocation oh right save us a Shem Blasi Lena was a parallel cast a single new mantra Mecca atoned for our sins for your name so simple meaning is for the sake of your name give us atonement but someone is say give us atonement for the sins that we commit in your name cut they saying they're la mancha Mecca because those are the sins for which repentance is almost impossible the final cost is a very very interesting idea that behind which beloved's develops and refine 11 says you know there are certain laws of nature that God put into the Bria in which even good motivation is not going to protect you an example God food I'm walking by there's a fire I go into a burning house to rescue a baby did I do a good thing I didn't wonderful thing but does that mean I'm not going to be burnt no I mean very often I might be seriously British because the fact that you did a good deed does not immunize you from the consequences of playing with fire once in a while God might do a supernatural miracle that's true but that happens once in a while the norm is whether you're righteous or evil whether your motives were good or not if you touch fire it's going to bring you so if I'm 11 says the following the same way that rule works with physical phenomena like fire it also works in the spiritual realm when you cause pain to another human being even if what you're doing is right and if what you're doing is justified there's kind of a cosmic law of nature that when you cause pain it comes back and bites you now sometimes you got to take that cost sometimes you have to be willing to do the right thing but don't think that just because I'm acting the shim sham I am that's gonna immunize me from the consequences of my action the proof that he brings is from Mohammed and Mordecai if you remember when hummin decreed that all the Jews will be wiped out on the 13th of Adar so when Mordecai here sensitive the Megillah says bye Yitzhak sakhanka de la mora he cried aloud and bitter cry now cuz i'll this is before computers they noticed there's only one other place in tonight where the identical expression of a loud and bitter cry appears and that's where ASA finds out that Yaakov took away his blessings Asaph cries a bitter and loud cry so cuz I'll say because of the bitter cry that Yaakov made ace of myths a service descendant comin from a mullick causes Yaakov descendants to go through the same thing now however we understand the story of Yaakov and the Bravo's so that of course is a whole topic in and of itself we generally understand Yaakov did the right thing Yaakov was justified this is the way things have to be Yaakov acted for the sake of heaven and this is what's God's plan however we understand it so why should young Kovas descendants suffer because it was Yaakov did - ASA and with crime 11 says cuz I don't mean there's Mordechai was punished because of what Yaakov did there's nothing Yaakov did that's deserving a pie this is not punishment this is inevitable consequence you caused pain to another person you are playing with fire and the fire is going to burn you this is a warning if you want to be sell it you wanted to mean somebody you want to shame somebody why don't you Millie ate somebody you want to hurt somebody and whatever form it takes even if it doesn't take the extreme form of penance you have to know that there are going to be consequences now sometimes you have to be willing to take the consequences yes that's called courage but don't think you get a free pass because you think your intentions are good and as a result you better examine your intentions very carefully because if you're not doing it for the right intentions it'll be much worse even with the right intentions there's going to be so these are the ideas of zealousness and its importance as an introduction to the three weeks because this is a period of time when we think very much about the Corbyn based on Nick - and the base of Mick - was destroyed the second temple was destroyed because of the hatred and polarization that existed in Claudius well this is called sonata Phenom and therefore are evading this time is not just a mourn and not just to remember history but to try to rectify in our own lives what we can do to have the base of mikdash rebuilt and there's nothing greater that we can do than to build on our own and I have ideas for help to see the good in people to be they saw me them of Irena Collings om Shona Bharata Villa and here let me just make a final point Pinterest has given the covenant of peace as I said before because he was motivated out of peace but it's interesting that in the sacred taurah the word Shalom is written in a bit of an unusual way the love is well it's cut it's called the rub Cuttino there are two ways it's written different tourism some have a fog that splits horizontally so it's like two sections others just have a shorter buffets but it's and it's incomplete but it's an incomplete buff either a broken vow an incomplete month what is the significance of that maybe there's a lesson here that the piece that zealousness brings is never going to be a complete piece don't be something defective in it because it came through my focus and it came through violence and therefore even when Hashem gives the breath of peace it is not so complete I'm indeed we actually see this in the Binion based on the fish itself nothing on avi tells David a melon that died already then he will not be able to build the temple fresher because dubbing is a man of war a man of violence a man of bloodshed and therefore he cannot build the place of God's presence on earth the only one that can do it is his son Roma who will be a man of peace because there'll be no wars during his reign now the question is very obvious dub its wars were divinely sanctioned they were against the enemies of the Jewish people did dub it do anything wrong in conducting his warrants no these are what are called will comment Mitzvah so why should have no comment mid survive be a disqualification the answer once again is even when the violence is justified and right it does create a certain merit rock formation and the Shalom that comes into the world is not complete and that is why it had to go to and in fact the Rambam makes a point about the whole Arab ayats most of our Chitral was acquired by military conquests we fought and we conquered the Huayra baiance as well as more a Samana Taylor but that's a separate thing the Huayra by it was not acquired by military conquest it was acquired by a negotiated purchase from a man called you know the honour Rovner Hayabusa a rather the Jebusite Dumbarton Allah bought the Temple Mount from the arm why couldn't it be conquered so the Rambla the Rambam rights in the marina broken that just as the temple could not be built by a man of war the temple could not be built on land that was conquered it has to be land that was bought that's actually a little relevant today in terms of building a temple today etc but that's the idea that Shalom does not come out of bloodshed it burns okay anyway be well and thank you for coming and have a shabbat shalom [Music]