Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz: How to Receive Revelation - Journey to a relationship with G-d

[Music] okay hi everybody again I apologize for being a little a little bit late and I hope everyone had a wonderful toobut shots and inspiring to be shot and it is brought down that just as to be shot is the new year of the trees a human being is also an inverted tree whose roots are in heaven and as a result the equivalent of the SAP that goes up in the trees are the spiritual influences that go down into us so as a result to which tribe is a time of renewal of the rediscovery of potentialities that we were not aware that we had so Basra hm I hope that all of us should experience a sense of his statutes of renewal and growth after this Rosh Hashanah Avila notes of trees today we are moving to topic 2 of the book of Exodus you will recall that the book of Exodus seifish motive as three topics with some digressions in the middle some very significant digressions like the sin of the golden calf but in terms of the forward trajectory we have yet cieth metrium we have the Exodus and then we have the receiving of the Torah and then we have the building of the sanctuary that brings God into our hearts and in our souls we have concluded for now the story of you'd see atmos ryeom and we are now moving to the receiving of the Torah it's worthy to ponder just for a moment the relationship between those two events basically the lesson of the linkage of it's not easy at smith ryeom in Matson Torah is the notion that freedom as a value has no significance unless it is linked to the assumption of some noble goal freedom from something is not a purpose of life one cannot say for example the purpose of my life is to be free that is a nonsensical statement unless one defines what is it that you want to accomplish by your freedom that is why the holidays of Pesach are links with Shavuos via the ceremony the counting of the Omer because they pesach without a Shiva house without a Kabbalah a Torah without a receiving of the Torah is fundamentally meaningless that is why the Gemara tells us for example that the grain offering that was brought on Pesach is a barley offering and the grain offering that is brought on Shavuos is a wheat offering barley at least before the invention of children's was primarily animal fodder and therefore freedom that is not linked to Torah is simply animal liberation it is the Torah that is a human it turns Animal Liberation into human dignity and human freedom this is quite an important message even from a secular standpoint that people have to understand that freedom must be connected to responsibility freedom must be connected to commitments if it's simply a question of not not being bound by anything it does not have any content and not only does it lack contents but it becomes destructive I've quoted more than once the beautiful analogy the beautiful metaphor that the Indian poet Tagore uses in which a human soul is like a violin string capable of producing the most exquisite music but only when it's tied down across the bridge take a loose string that's totally free totally unencumbered what will you get out of it you will get nothing out of it and therefore we understand that freedom is a beautiful thing because freedom is often the indispensable condition to achieve self-actualization but you have to have a self actualization has to be a self that you have actualize just to be free is essentially meaningless so as a result therefore there was always a linkage in Judaism between the season of freedom and the season of commitment which is not an Torah and that is why interestingly enough the rabbinic name for the holiday of Shavuos the rabbinic names that the tories name is called that cereth when cuz I'll say the word at Sarat they don't they do not mean meanie at service they mean the holiday of Shavuot now what Sarah literally means conclusion like a stop sign outsourced stop conclude don't go further because that Sarat is regarded as the conclusion of the holiday of Pesach in fact rambin actually says that you could visualize the counting of the Omer as one long ho-hum oh wait linking a single holiday Pesach Shavuos now B can't be careful about that you know if you tell your boss you don't work during column OE and you decide to take off all of the days between Kasich and show us the job will probably not be waiting for you so be careful not to take it too literally but spiritually the counting of the owner is that link between freedom and responsibility that is so important now we know of course that what's the story everyone often a Jew will say well I'm not that religious but I keep the 10 commandments which were of course appear in this parsha so robbery Emanuel Feldman who was a rabbi in Atlanta for many many years almost actually one of the legendary Orthodox American rabbis he now lives in Israel his owns is oldest son is his successor he tells the story he writes about life in the rabbinate over 50 years and you know much of his congregation for a lot of the time we're not hala quickly observant but he was trying to run an Orthodox synagogue and bring them to the initiate 3 tells the story that there was a woman who used to just show up at his office and she loved to talk to and you know he dominated her because you know he was a nice woman but often she would come at very bad times when he was very very busy overwhelmed with work and she always had the same lines that rabbi I'm not as religious as you but I do keep the Ten Commandments and normally he would not and he would smile but one day he was a little irritated so he said oh yeah what about the fourth one so it happens to be the fourth commandment is remember the day of Shabbos to keep it holy so she said which one is that so he said keep the shop a day do you keep the shop at that so she said oh I didn't know that was there so the truth of the matter is when people say they keep the ten commandments they actually mean they keep the five commandments they keep the last five I don't kill I don't steal I don't commit adultery I don't covet although that's a hard one I don't this not to be tough but probably most of us do have do Cabot's even religious Jews but you know the first one's a theological you know keeping the Shabbat you know believing in God so the Ten Commandments are considered to be very very important they are the only commandments that were given to the Jewish people directly from god with miracles and thunder and lightning and the rest of the Torah was given to Moshe privately to be communicated to us but because I were afraid of this attitude because I were actually afraid that people might overemphasize the Ten Commandments because it mentions that they used to be a min hug in the beit hamikdash in the temple that the Ten Commandments would be recited every day publicly and the sages discontinued that custom so people shouldn't say this is the only part of the Torah that is binding exactly that attitude they actually discontinued the thing based on that there's a very interesting response of the Rambam it's not in the Rambam so logic book it's like a private letter that he wrote you know many people have a custom it probably is the most common custom that when we read the Ten Commandments in Sheol this Shabbos we will stand up meaning even if you sit down for the Torah reading some people stand up for the whole Torah reading but even those who sit down they rise for the Asura the deep breaths in honor of the giving of the Torah so Maimonides actually writes he is not in favor of that custom because the same way azam abolished the public reading of the Ten Commandments in the beit hamikdash so that people shouldn't have the attitude this part of the Torah is more important than that part of the Torah Maimonides said the same objection might apply to standing up for this part of the Torah when you don't stand up for that part of the Torah so Maimonides actually wrote people either should stand for everything or sit for everything you don't preferentially designate certain parts of the Torah as more significant nevertheless in spite of Maimonides arguments and the logic of his position the prevailing custom is I do believe that people do stand up for their service in different ways right so some people stand up a few verses before hand in order that they're not just favoring favoring those particular verses and a reverse of finding does have a response of where where he defends the the prevailing min hug and again I want to point out that the Rambam does not give that as a holic ruling in his mission of Torah so maybe it was just more of a suggestion rather than a definitive Shakalaka well that's an interesting again I mean this is not our subject tonight at all you know the Rambam wrote his code as well as the guide to the perplexed and the commentary to the Mishnah but he also wrote many responds ax and in the responsive there are how the crowd that are not in his coat and it's an interesting issue why didn't he incorporate him from his true votes into the coat and here there's actually an interesting idea that's the only thing the Rambam clarified in his coat are laws that have direct sources in the Babylonian Talmud or the Jerusalem Talmud any law which is just a matter of his own logic he did not incorporate in the code of the mission of Torah itself so that's an interesting methodological issue okay now we know if you look in a many sad or iam there's a list of six remembrances Shh suki wrote six ideas some some expanded to ten that you're supposed to remember every day remember the Exodus etc remember the Shabbos even every day you think about Chavez so one of the things that you're supposed to remember every day is the standing at Mount Sinai to get the Torah that one should literally visualize every day that mahmud that great assembly where God gave us the Ten Commandments and by extension the rest of the Torah as well although we didn't get the commandments but essentially the Ten Commandments are the root and the foundation of all the other Commandments and this corresponds to what Casals say that the Torah should be new in our eyes every single day we shouldn't kind of oh I put on tefillin today because I did it yesterday no the same way when you eat breakfast right you don't say oh I'm eating breakfast today because I did it yesterday in the day before no I'm eating it because I'm hungry now so - with Torah there needs to be that type of excitement as a result therefore it would be instructive to examine the steps that the Jewish people took to prepare for the Torah then because that would be relevant to how we prepare for the Torah now because we are supposed to be reliving that experience so I want to share with you mainly a very very interesting beautiful comment a long time ends of the hora Khayyam a Kadosh auric I am the light of Life is the great commentary on the Commish written by Rev Khayyam Benatar of Cline Benatar was around 250 years ago he was a rabbi from Morocco who came to Eretz Israel and he is buried on high res am the Mount of Olives and his yard site is in the month of Thomas I think it's the 15 to the 16th one of those two days I remember I think it's the 16th of Thomas and you may know that every year on this yard sighs thousands and thousands of people come to the orihime skevur it was considered to be a great great Sadiq and mokuba and the like and he focuses on the following and here we have to have a relatively close reading in the beginning of Matt Ventura it says bajo de chelly she on the third month counting from Nissa Nissa near seven let's say Spanish real merits Mizrahim from the time that they left mitzrayim they left in Nissan so the third month would be nice on a or c1 on Rosh Chodesh even they came to mid by Cena they came to the Sinai desert that is pasta Calif PASOK base then seems to go backwards while ye Sumer feed them they left the Oasis of Rafi dim valve Omid Barcena they came to the Sinai desert by a canoe by mid bar and they encamped in the deserts by Iran sham israel- are and they encamped next to the mountain next to Mount Sinai so the ark I am Ponder's what information is the second verse giving me that I don't already know from the first verse because here's the thing at the end of precious mashaallah we are told that the Jewish people were in the Oasis of Rafi them that's where I'm not like attacked them and in pasta Calif I just read it says they came to Sinai so by comparing the end of last week's parsha with this week's partial we know they left repeat him they came to Sinai so what is the purpose after you've told me in the first verse they came to Sinai what's the purpose of then going backwards and they love to repeat him and they came to Sinai the Sinai desert and they encamped in the Sinai desert went right and then again I gathered repeats they encamped in other words pisaq base is totally superfluous in light of the information we already know the only thing persik Bay's seems to be telling me is they left Rafi them they came to Sinai well I know from beshallach they were in repeat him and I know from Persico if they came to Sinai so what is the purpose of puck bed is there so here is what the our FIM tells us the our FIM tells us that PASOK pays is not referring to the geographical journey that the Jewish people took that I know geographically they left Rafi dim and they came to Sinai but rather it's metaphorically describing the spiritual journey that one takes as one becomes ready to accept God's Torah and it's really a four-step plan so you just put these four steps into action much easier said than done for sure but this four-step plan will mean you become a person that is ready to accept God's Torah step one and we're just going to take the different phrases in classic base values Samir freedom you must leave what is called refeeding now what is repeated now we'll repeat him is an oasis it is the place where the Jewish people were it is the place where I'm all that attacked us they were the very first nation that attacked us after we left mitzrayim and I my leg was defeated but ghazzal say we feed him has a double meaning why did a mullah attack us in a place that happens to be called Rafi them because Rafi them also exemplifies a certain attitude Rafi dim is an abbreviation or a contraction of rough ooh yah diam their hands were weak from the Torah now what does it mean hands are weak this is an idiomatic expression let's imagine that you're crossing a busy street and you're holding your baby in your arms you will hold the baby very tight because God forbid you don't want to trip or drop the baby the baby's squirms so things you care about you tend to hold very tightly now let's imagine at the same time your your foot you're just holding some tissue and even if you're not a litter or you don't deliberately litter but you know you might be holding a relatively loosely if it blows out of your hands you don't really care that much it doesn't really make a big difference so the phrase their hands are loose refers to a certain attitude in life in which my relationship to Torah where story wasn't given yet but it means the relationship to God is something I don't take very seriously I lack passion I lack excitements I lack enthusiasm even if I keep the commandments I do them by routes I do them mechanically I do them superficially so the first step to truly accepting God's Torah is leave the world of rafita and embrace Torah with passion and excitement and enthusiasm indeed as I'll say a male cat Texas when we are in they stay there for feed them when we are in a state of coldness indifference sometimes even hostility that is exactly when I'm Moloch has it Suntory and in order to be freed from my Moloch and in order to embrace God's Torah we need an atmosphere and a feeling of leaving Rafi them that's why ye Sumaira feed them this is a very important point indeed it's it's one of the hidden problems of the religious world many men every African the coffee's done everybody for many people in religious world even if people are from their religious they go through the motions they do everything right but in some ways they are what you might call I don't want to see they because I think all of us ever I mean I suffer from me too in different ways the Living Dead feeding ourselves we don't get joy we don't get enthusiasm how do we get it that's a hard thing that's not easy to do especially since so much of Judaism is in fact repetitive right we dive in the same things every day we do the same things quite a lot and it's hard sometimes to have a sense of renewal I hope you fast I sometimes see I mean that's not recently and that often certainly but I sometimes see you know these Christian revivalist shows you didn't really say this you know they're dancing around and excited and so passionate and they say wow why why can't we have a show like that now truth is maybe if I lived in a cloud maybe I would see it yeah we have a neo casitas we have cow Bachmann Yanam now it's true it's true that the ballot Anya was very suspicious of overly emotional Judaism because he felt even though he was a crescent that's why I come bad about us if I see this based on the intellect he felt that emotional excitement is very ephemeral it's very temporary it kind of comes and it goes and it doesn't last it has to be linked to something more enduring more introspective he was very suspicious that's why in fact it was almost the least acidic of early Hasidic masters people don't realize the alter rebbe was not only in trouble with the manag dim the house remedy was in great trouble with other Hasina other pathetic groups because his path was kind of a combination of both so I'm not taking sides on this I'm not advocating you know pure emotionalism I I certainly understand how that can be superficial and that doesn't really change a person but passion I mean look at the random you know we would look at there was a round bottom is the epitome of rationalism right the round boom was not somebody who probably danced around in a cow buck minion the Rambam always talks about the mind and yet you see when the Rambam describes contemplating I get the God loving God he actually falls that loving God means you cannot take your mind off Hashem and he uses imagery bridges we would call quite risque it's like a man that is lovesick with feelings towards a woman that he cannot stop thinking of that's exactly what the Rambam says Lisa V the idea of how you love God so the Rambam actually had a tremendous passion that came from the intellect itself is something that's a little foreign to us in many ways because we separate emotion emotionality and intellectualism when in fact for the Rambam the intellectualism itself was the great adventure it was an ecstatic excitement it was linking to a cosmic intelligence the infinity of God be it as it may each person has to find their own way but the point is we needed Judaism of enthusiasm of joy of passion not simply following rules in a mechanical superficial way so that is step one you want to accept God's Torah leave the attitude of rule your day have minutes over and embrace the Torah with passion okay step 2 it says they came to the mid bar right they came to the Sinai desert so here the rsam points out that desert has a very interesting connotation a desert is relatively empty in fact there are those who find their photographers who actually finds deserts extraordinarily beautiful because they're not cluttered with stuff you don't have and at least in the pure desert you don't have a lot of building you don't even have a lot of trees the very emptiness of the desert gives it a certain pristine quality so here with the rsam says an interesting point the second step of Matan Torah is to declutter your life and free yourself from over dependence on material possessions now we know that Judaism is not ascetic Judaism does not say bath take a vow of poverty sleep on a bed of nails be celibate all of that is not true mitzvah to get married one is supposed to have a nice home and build a family and one is supposed to enjoy the world have we just had too much but one of the teachings that is often quoted on to b'shvat is the teaching of the talmud you show me that a person will be called to account for every pleasure of the world they could have indulged in and they didn't because God put those pleasures in so we should get joy and appreciation so we're not talking about renunciation we're not talking about a hairshirt we're not talking about eating no dry bread and water enjoy life but we do understand fundamentally that's the more invested you are in stuff the less room there is to connect to God and the reason that self is because material pleasures are instant gratification and spiritual pleasures take work so the same way that in internet culture we're used to web surfing and flipping from one thing to another so it's very difficult to read Shakespeare or read Dickens I'm using secular analogies because when you're a ooh ated to the instant gratification you can't put in the time in the effort for something that's more sustained or the same way that the person who lives on junk food is not going to spend three and a half hours to make a beautiful french meal or whatever it would be because the instance takes away the of willingness to work for something greater so - generally when you're connected to the physical pleasures of the world which gives you an instant gratification we are unwilling to invest the time in the effort in matters of the mind and matters of the spirits that require work so you got a declutter the RFI M says that's the idea of desert come to the desert simplify get rid of the stuff that's unnecessary of course I would add to the orihime he doesn't say this directly that decluttering may have a secondary meaning as well and one hand it may mean getting rid of the stuff that you don't need but that can also refer to all the psychological baggage that we carry we carry in our hearts and there are mines resentments grudges angers they really kind of clutter things up but they take up a lot of space in our minds and they don't even pay rent right they live rent-free in our brains and part of it is decluttering it's interesting that there was a competitive cyclist I read the story one I heard the story once a person who had been doing bicycle races Tour de France all of that stuff and he became a shomer Shabbos so we had to stop racing because the races were over the weekends so we have to give up I give up those races so he was asked you know was it difficult for you to give up the races or how do you find being a shomer Shabbos so he said no no Shabbos is very much like my competitive bicycle race what's going on because when you have racers who are just like a runner on the NSA Roland became as well they're very very high level of competition the difference between the winner and the next place is maybe fractions of a second right in swimming whatever difference might be attending you wouldn't even know you have to have special measuring devices a tenth of a second one hundredths of a second and the light so when you're doing your bicycle and some guy is like you know a quarter of an inch or less behind you so you have to start getting rid of all the things that are slowing you up you get rid of your tap you get rid of your scarf because those little things make a difference Olympic swimmers you know shave their body air because the little hair on the arm might slow them up a tiny little bit so he said competitive cycling taught me to get rid of the stuff you don't need in life and that's what a Jew is to get rid of the unnecessary baggage so as a result competitive cycling and being shomer Shabbos are kind of the same type of process embrace what's helpful and pushes you for it get rid of the stuff that's holding you back that's an important lesson in life and that's the second step coming to the deserts my first step is leaving Rafi them passion second step is coming to the desert unclutter yourself simplifying and now the third also says desert so desert does double do it because it says and they encamped in the desert right so desert is mentioned twice in this verse and here the rsam says desert has another connotation on one level it is simplicity and disengagement with possessions but the fact that the desert is so empty is kind of a humility there's a humbling about it it's not pretentious it's not arrogant it just is there and that is the third quality format on Torah and that is the quality of humility not to be arrogant now it's interesting that here we have mixed metaphors the rsam reads humility in the desert use of the word desert and yet we have other rabbinic teachings that use humility in the message of water Taurus compared to water just as water leaves the high grounds and it goes to the low ground Torah leaves the arrogance and goes to the humble so it's interesting that the metaphor for humility almost employs two opposite ideas it uses the metaphor of water and it uses the metaphor of deserts which is a simple unpretentious place why is humility so important well in the most simple level humility is important because it is only humility that enables me to learn because when I'm arrogant number one I think I'm right and there's nothing you can teach me and number two I'm also never going to admit any gap in my knowledge because that would make me look bad or whatever whatever it would be again arrogance it can actually be connected to insecurity that's a whole other psychological profile but be it as it may when a person is humble they're open to learn they're open to grow they're open to hear God's voice even if that challenges their preconceptions and therefore it is fundamental in Judaism that one can really connect to the Torah only in a state of humility okay so we've mentioned three steps leaving Rafi them is enthusiasm passion and excitement the first mid bar is uncluttering of the mind and simplifying your life by not being so invested in possessions and the third which is the second mention of mid bar is humility humbleness willingness to learn from every from every person perfumers and deed says they say okay hun who is the wise person alone made me call Adam one who learns from everybody one who says I can learn from everybody I encounter sometimes I'll learn what not to do that's also a lesson I can see something negative and say yeah that's a good lesson protector wise right what do they say a wise person learns from other people's mistakes if you're not so wide you got hopefully you'll learn from your mistakes if you're really bad you won't even do that but there are three three levels of how that that works by the way let me go backwards for a moment I'm talking about disengaging from possessions it actually reminds me a little bit I don't know if they still have this campaign Pepsi Cola had a campaign for a number of years I was just called buy Pepsi get stuff and that kind of epitomizes the materialistic culture it doesn't even make a difference what you get I just want to get stuff all that matters is that it's stuff it's like materialism just for materialism it doesn't give you any any pleasure or like by the way in that connection if I could address for a moment there actually was a case because pepsi-cola had a commercial I remember when I taught contracts in law school this was a reported case that was in the law school case books because it's such a that's really a very funny case Pepsi had a commercial because you had points you can get prizes so they said like 420 million points which they computed was impossible we'll give you a carrier jet the military jet and it was a joke commercial and they actually show a kid in high school who you know all the kids are parking their bikes and this kid like comes down the school Brighton left with a military jet you know you know fake photography no obviously it was a joke and they made a number that was so astronomically high that they knew for sure that nobody in the world could ever possibly reach it but lo and behold some kid in New York somehow accumulated 20 million points maybe a little help with Iran or whatever it would be you know and he demanded delivery of a military jet anti-suit Pepsi Cola in federal court for breach of contract because it's because technically an advertisement is an offer which if you accept by complying with the conditions you actually have created a contract that's a well-known idea in basic law that advertisements can be contracts when they're the when the conditions are are activated so he actually brought a lawsuit in federal court demanding delivery of the jet or in the alternative damages which would be equal to the value of the jet which would be whatever it be 30 30 million million dollars or the like fascinating case now the court dismissed the case the court said come on did you know this was this was a Chuck but there's actually breath and one wonders who did he contact to get this I mean was there a foreign power involved or or whatever it is by the way it is against the law to sell military certainly got US laws against Israeli law to to sell military jets to private people you can't even if you're rich enough you can't just buy a a military jet to draw right okay now we now come to step number four now step number four repeats the verb intent right step number three says yacon new by mid bar step number four also uses the verb camping but it switches from plural to singular vehicon now in step number four we already have a rabbinic Russia because why does it say the Jewish people encamped in the singular because this teaches us at har Sinai we were each a kind of La Bajada we were one person one height act of unity and this is step number four you want to receive God's Torah you have to be united with your fellow Jews innovati through part of that is because that's the way I learn from each other and part of it is the Torah was given to the Jewish people the Torah was not given to individual Jews when I'm connected to the Jewish people I'm then connected to God's Torah we know of course how precarious and vulnerable Jewish unity is today on all sorts of levels it is not only between tensions between religious and secular which is one level of tension but tensions you know within the religious world and our people don't speak to each other and the sinner phenom and the hatred the polarization the indifference the coldness the idea that each of us has our clique as our group and that's part of why we don't have a base of mikdash yet that's part of why we don't have Michelle because the Second Temple was destroyed because of this irrational groundless hatred and unfortunately as the Talmud Usami says in every generation that the base of make that is not rebuilt we are guilty of the same sin that caused its carbon so that's unity so our four-step plan is very simple passion simplicity humility and unity rather than a cart and we have our mission statement and that is how we accept God's Torah by following those four steps and that is the purpose of the second pass ilk not to repeat the geographical journey of the Jews but to indicate their spiritual journey now let me mention a parallel story in the gomorrah and actually link it to the other time although he does not make the connection one of the most famous stories in the Talmud a story which is enormous ly important philosophically to understand the legal structure of Torah is the famous story of Tenochtitlan oi Tana shellac nigh literally means the snake-like of Vinh and this was a technical debate about an earthenware oven that would be transported by cutting it into horizontal hoops imagine a lot of hula hoops if you remember with hula hoops were so they would have an earthenware oven but in order to transport it it would be cut into hoops and they would carry the hoops and when there whenever they had to reassemble it they would put mud in between the hoops and when it's right out they had an oven they can get them get rid of the mud and then transports the earthenware hoops so it's called Tonya Sherlock nice simply because it resembled a coiled snake snake whose tail is in its mouth so well so there's a mark locust an argument in the Gomorrah does such an oven is it susceptible to ritual impurity because normally of dead animals or dead people come in contact with vessels they become impure but only if the vessels are functional not if they're broken so for example if you have a broken vessel it does not become Tommy so the question is whether these hoops were considered broken or that was the way they were transported and they were considered functional focus most of the sages took the position that the the oven is susceptible to tumour rabbi eliezer took the position that it is pure and although he was overruled by the majority he refused to concede the point he brought all sorts of arguments they were rejected but he said he's right so since he could not convince the sages on the underlying dispute he started invoking supernatural means to prove his point and he said if the halacha is like me let the carob tree uproot itself and fly away and the carob tree uprooted itself and flew away and the how come the sages responded we don't listen to carob trees okay if the Holocaust like me let the river reverse its course and move upstream and the river reversed its course a miracle and the sages said sorry we don't listen to rivers either trees don't prove the point and rivers don't prove the point so then he said if the luck is like me let the walls of this study hall collapse inwards and the walls began to collapse inwards and Rebbe yahushua stood up and told the walls don't you dare move so the walls didn't know who to listen to Rebbe a letter ordered them to move we have you ordered them to straight now so because of that the walls remain slanting the Talmud says until this very day that's kind of explaining the architecture of a base red roof that was out of whack again you could guess the answer we don't listen to walls trees don't prove you're right and water doesn't prove you're right and walls don't prove you're right so finally he invokes the big guns he says if the halacha is like me let there be a voice from heaven God let God declare that I'm right this is called a Bosco and they voice from heaven God declared rabbi eliezer is correct and the Cohanim said to God we don't care what you say either because you said in your Torah the Torah is not in heaven you gave us the responsibility to interpret the Torah and once you gave us that responsibility you do not have a say in the process any more talk about nobody's above the law right we say that nobody is above the law God has to follow those rules too well so now you think that's pretty arrogant but in point of fact it mentions that somebody met elijah the prophet and asked him what was god's response when they said stay out of it and he says oh god was laughing and god said my children have been victorious over me i'm gonna stay out of this fight now this itself is a remarkable remarkable story and one could spend almost a lifetime pondering the implications because after all i mean think about this this way if the goal of halakhah determination is to try to figure out what the will of god is in any given case and good we don't have direct revelations so we do precedents we do analogy we do analysis but ultimately we're trying to figure out the will of God how can the will of God be irrelevant in that process it's like I'll give you a trivial example it's like kids are debating what they want to get their father for a birthday present so they're sitting around now I think dad likes this I think dad likes this and I bow walks by and says well you know what I really like is this something something so they say to the father please dad stay out of this you have nothing to do with this discussion I mean we're discussing what your father wants so your father's desire is not relevant to that determination now Allah is apparently the same thing what does God want us to do in a given situation and normally we don't have direct divine input so we got to try to guess okay that's fine but if God tells you what he wants how can you dismiss that as irrelevant to the process now you might say well who says it was a genuine voice all sorts of people either hear voices or make up voices that's a possibility but that is not at all what the Talmud seems to be saying the Talmud is not suggesting the inauthenticity of the voice the Talmud is suggesting that even if the voice is 100% authentic it does not enter into the illogic determination and essentially the way this is explained it's not again this is not the major topic I'm going to address but it's such an important idea that I have to I'm going to mention something that's secondary to the story but connected to our orihime but the primary message here is that although God does have an objective truth and on an objective mathematical level let's say rabbi eliezer is correct but God also has an operational truth that is the way we are supposed to live on this earth and he wants the operational truth to come through human reasoning and input so God might say rabbi eliezer is right and you guys are wrong but you guys have the authority to determine how my will is to be implemented on earth because the Torah is a partnership between men and God and it's as if a teacher says to a students I give you full credit for process you need to say even if you got the wrong answer I will bless it as what I want to be done on earth because it came through your reasoning your effort your attempt to ascertain the divine well meaning there is higher truth and earthly truth there is objective truth and operational truth there is substance truth and process truth very very complicated idea and that's kind of how the whole logic process works it's actually reminiscent a little bit Lahab tale of a famous statement made by the great Supreme Court justice and Nurenberg prosecutor Robert Jackson who said about the United States Supreme Court the Supreme Court is not final because it is infallible but it is infallible because it's final meaning to say the Supreme Court might say something is totally wrong but definitionally they are the final word so halakhah creates a system where even if the the end result might be wrong in some sense that is the system god wants us to follow so it becomes infallible by virtue of the system not because objectively it is true okay again this is very very profound and as many many implications it is actually not the point I want to talk about I want to talk about almost a side point and the side point is a comment of the Vilna Gaon who simply discusses what is the significance of the three miracles rabbi eliezer does before he hits the Basco miracle one was the uprooting of the carob tree miracle truth a miracle 2 was the reversal of the course of the river and miracle 3 were the walls of the beit hamidrash so here is what the Vilna Gaon says the Vilna Gaon has a list of 3 qualities that one needs to be successful in torah learning quality number 1 and you'll see this overlaps of the earth claim it's a little different quality number 1 is simplicity of life style disengagement with material possessions that is signified by the carob tree the carob is very very simple food that generations of American day school students who see this dried carob and too much fat it was absolutely awful broke broke your teeth but it was because I'll talk about the great righteous people subsist only on plain dried carob the rabbi eliezer is basically telling the from him listen to me because I am a person who lives the most simple of life as the carob tree can attest as he's using nature to testify as to his spiritual attributes the second quality is humility which is signified by water and the art Higham analysis it was desert but the water because water goes from high ground to low ground and he says listen to me because the water can attest to my humility now you might stop there and say wait a second that's a little odd I'm telling you I am so humble I will make a miracle to change the course of nature so that water will reverse its course that doesn't seem to be characteristic of a humble person but in reality that's not a contradiction because true humility doesn't mean you think you're a nobody but it means you recognize that you have gifts but those gifts came from God so a person can legitimately say if he means it that I am a humble person I'm not doing this for egotism I'm not doing this for arrogance I am not doing it to show that I'm better than you I'm doing it because objectively I believe this is right and the water can testify that I have that characteristic of humility so the carob tree matches up with the first desert in the era Hyams analysis simplicity the water matches up with the second desert in the archives and humility now the third quality this is the Ramadan's list is one of diligence the baits are made rest you got to put in time even if you're you live a simple life even if you're modest if you don't put in the time the hats my dad to learn Torah you're not gonna know it that corresponds with passion because when you're passionate about something you lose track of the time right one of the one that most wonderful experiences life it doesn't happen that often for many people is when you're so engrossed in something that at the time just flies that's a tremendous feeling you you're kind of in the zone I think is the expression they use or in the moment you're just flowing you can go for hours without eating without drinking nothing even bothers you that's a wonderful wonderful feeling of being connected that hopefully would be in learning but but but but people can have those experiences and other things as well they lose themselves in it so the ability to spend long hours is really connected to passion because when you don't have passion you're not going to be able to do it I mean after five minutes you're gonna get restless so the point that I want to make is that the Vilma gowns three qualities that Rebbe Eleazar is showing that he has do match up with three out of the four of the orihime's qualities so just just to give you the list here again the the passion matches up to the walls of the base measures which is diligence the first mid bar which is simplicity matches up to the carob tree the second mid bar which is humility matches up to the water so Rebbe Eleazar is trying to demonstrate he has three of the qualities that a tummy tuck on must have but what's interesting is that what he is missing one thing he is missing quality number four unity because he's unwilling to the views of others so it's interesting that perhaps I shouldn't say failing but perhaps the one thing that caused his words not to be accepted was the inability to compromise and create unity so the Vilna golems list of three I would submit matches up with three out of the four of the are a Khayyam but Rebbe Eliezer fails in the quality of unity by the way just to finish the story yes yes that is correct that is correct going up to the majority that that's hundred percent correct that's part of the unity deferring to the process now I just want to mention that the end of the story is not not so pleasant and that is because Robbie Eliezer refused this Sanhedrin his own brother-in-law Reb and Emil who was the head of the Sanhedrin excommunicated him he put him in a room which means he was no longer allowed to teach Torah he was no longer allowed to have students and Rabbi Akiva who was his disciple was instructed to communicate to Rabbi Eliezer that message and rebbi akiva vengers will be eleazar's room every loser was sick in bed and he stands at a distance of four cubits from him and Rabbi Eliezer says why are you standing so far away and Rabbi Akiva said it appears that your colleagues have separated themselves from you and Rabbi Eliezer began to sob because he said I am like a Torah scroll that's totally wrapped up tight there was so much to give and I cannot give any more and it mentions that ravioli Ezra's wife who was robbing Gamliel sister never let her husband say the taco noon prayer because the taco ninh prayer is when you express your anguish to God and she was afraid if he were express his anguish to God God would punish rub and gunwale for causing that anguish but one day she thought it was rush kodesh well you don't say talking him so he wasn't interrupting him and it was not rush Kurdish and she comes in and she sees that he's saying Tuckerman he said to him you killed my brother today and at that very moment Robin come Leo died she got worried that Robin Camille died exactly here now again I do not understand the story that Robbie Eleazar was praying for the death of Robin to me I do not understand the story that way at all but it's simply more of a deeper idea that by expressing his anguish God intervenes now this again there's so many fascinating issues here because one might argue why should Robin from Leo be punished for this at all he did the right thing he needed to establish the institution of the Sanhedrin so this gets us into the very interesting thing that just because you did something that was morally correct does not remove the traces there are there is there is what's philosophers call moral traces even in virtuous action there are negative consequences that have real consequences sometimes you do a virtuous action but it causes pain it causes suffering there is no total defense in the fact that I needed to do what I needed to do because there's kind of like a cosmic law of the universe that's the pain that you caused people comes back to bite you an analogy might be jumping into a fire if I jump into a fire to save a baby I did the right thing I did a good thing I did a virtuous thing but that's not an insurance policy that you're not going to be badly burnt because it is a consequence of nature that fire is going to burn you once in a while God may do some supernatural miracle but that is not the normal way things operate and you can't say but I did the right thing you did the right thing but you were playing with fire so in a way that's less easy for us to understand that example is we could readily grasp but that's also true in the realm of morality people may do what they need to do but they're still going to be some accountability for the pain and the suffering that was cost which really put you in a no-win situation quite literally there's no way you can get out of it you're gonna get burnt one way or the other you do the right thing and I this is the way I understand the Reverend kahlil rabbi eliezer story I do not understand the story that Rabbi Eliezer was praying for the death of Reverend Emil but rather as he expresses his anguish Reming Emil is going to be called to account account for it okay anyway be well have a wonderful week in musician we'll see you see you next week [Music]