A King and Queen Debate Lamb Chops & Goat Meat

the yeshiva.net [Music] today's class is dedicated in the loving memory of sarah basra buchel michael michelle from muncie in tribute to her yard site on the 23rd day of heshman she was born in 1927 passed away in 2011 came from a city called viritsky in czechoslovakia near munkach and then arrived in auschwitz together with her family just prior to schwes of tufshandala in her parents were immediately murdered she survived some of the few survivors of viritsky which is near munkach many of her relatives studied with the famous men she survived to become a matriarch of a great jewish family with a lot of children grandchildren and great-grandchildren whom she gleaned much knockers from and a rabbitson of a world-famous jewish educator as well as one of uh on her own became a acclaimed nursing home administrator cited by new york state for her honorable ethics i want to thank her family her children for this dedication and contribution and tahinish masatsura so i want to explore with you today a story it's one of those very peculiar enigmatic and seemingly absurd tales that are recorded in gemara in talmud at least at first glance it seems extremely difficult to understand and we want to try to uh unravel at bazer hashem the story is recorded in gemara and talmud in two places one is in page 57 and the second is intracted crisis chris is page 28 which is the end of the track date in each of the two times that the story is recorded there's a few other details even though basically the story is identical in both places but together we have a full picture the story that the gemara tells us that we're going to focus on today is it starts off malka or malkasa havayasvi the king and the queen were sitting which king and which queen they were both from the dynasty of the kashminoi family ruling during the second temple era in one of the places the second time around the gemara identifies the name of the king as we'll soon see so the king and the queen are sitting and what are they doing as they're sitting there are involved in an argument what's the argument they're debating which food is preferable to eat malka um the king says that goats are much better than sheep oh malka samra and the queen says no sheep are better so they're basically in a dispute which food is more delicious lamb chops or the meat of goat the king says the goats are better the queen says the sheep are better and they can't manage to resolve this argument so what do you do what does a couple do when they can't manage to resolve an argument huh you got to bring in an expert right today they call them a therapist so you got to bring in an expert so they said you know what we have the right person to ask who would be the greatest connoisseur to be able to resolve this dispute what tastes better goat meat or lamb and they say there's one man the one who eats most this type of food who was that the cayenne goddess the high priest in the basa mikdash who was responsible for the service in the holy temple and much of the service included offerings of either goat or sheep and the kayanim eat many of them now kai and them have shifts they were there around two weeks a year but the cayenne goddess the high priest was always there so if you need to find out the difference between the taste of goat meat and sheep who do you go to you go to the one who consumes the most on a constant basis so they say let's call in the high priest the cayenne goddess his familiarity with these animals will prove to be beneficial to resolve our debate and it's an interesting segway suggestion because from all the jews in the entire world he would know best because he consumes the most lamb and goat in the entire jewish world so the king and the queen summoned the cayenne goddess his name was isakhar he came from a town called barkoy he sucked her from a town called barkai who was a cayenne goddess he was the high pr he was a high priest in the second temple and they present to him this historic question and debate of the king and the queen what is better the meat of goats or the meat of lamb of sheep what does the kind god will do he looks at the king and he makes a gesture of disgrace saying how can the king even think that he's right it's obvious that the queen is right why because there was a daily offering in the holy temple every single day there was one carbon that was brought daily 365 days a year seven days a week one in the morning and one in the afternoon it was known as the carbon tummit the word tamid means consistent perpetual what was that offering anybody knows what was it a sheep or a goat sheep if goats were better why would god want that his daily meal in the morning and the afternoon should be lamb chops he should say sunday lamb monday goats tuesday lamb wednesday goats but the fact is that the daily offering was always a sheep and with his hand he went like you know like when you uh a gesture of uh or in english would be uh huh disdain to the king of what a foolish thought and question it is to argue with his wife with the queen and think that goat would be better than sheep so the king was very insulted not just insulted he was furious and angry at the denigrating tone and the denigrating wave of the hand of the cayenne goddess so he declared since this man the high priest had no reverence for the king his right hand with which he insulted the king probably should be chopped off which would make him also unfit to serve in the basamignas because as the sages described in talmud zwachem page 24 the service was done primarily with yagyamin with the right hand the cayenne goddess of the high priest bribed the executioner he gave him a bribe to cut off his left hand instead talmud says when the cruel king found out he discovered what happened he had the remaining hand chopped off it's a horrible story i know i don't mean to ruin your tuesday morning i'm just telling you a story that the gemara records the story is finished he punishes the high priest the way he did as i specified and then the gemara wants to know who got it right says rabashi the high priest did not know the famous teaching of the sages later would be recorded in a mishnah our sages say and ask the question which is a more choiceiest sacrifice is it preferable to bring a sheep or is it preferable to bring a goat and the the the sages say schnein shkulinkajas it says that a sin offering could be brought in chevis and a's either a sheep or a goat to teach you their equivalent raviness says not only did he not know the teaching of the sages he didn't even know a clear passage in vayikra para gimbal in kevis him a's you can bring either a sheep or a goat meaning when the torah gives a person permission to bring either a sheep or a goat is there any preference to one over the other so the way the terror phrases those offerings where you can bring both indicates clearly that they are equal stature and you could choose this so you could choose that there were two such types of offerings the carbon pesach the passover offering that was brought by every jewish family every jew or most jews before pesach could be either a sheep or a goat so which one was brought you could bring whichever one you want there was no preference but you could take from sheep you could take from goats the same is true with a carbon katas many of the sin offerings which could be either here too there's no preference and therefore the gomorrah says that the cayenne goddess from kvar barkai was unaware he aired about this by maintaining and claiming that the sheep is superior to the goat that's the end of the story psalm 57 chris is 28. i ask you what are we supposed to make of this apparently absurd tale are you supposed to laugh or are you supposed to cry is this a humorous tale is this a parable is this fiction is it a metaphor is it allegory is it what happened is it just a reflection on the monstrous behaviors of the monarchs of your of the cruel sadistic and barbaric methods of the kings of yore you made the wrong gesture and you were mutilated you disagreed with the king in a way that he disliked and he chopped off your hands i mean we know that that's how the roman emperors and many many other monarchs monarchs operated for a wrong gaze for a wrong gesture for a wrong answer one can find himself missing ahead some jewish kings sadly sadly we're no better is that perhaps the whole point of the story just to teach us what some of these kings were capable of but how about the story itself with all the details do kings and queens have nothing better to argue about than if lamb chops are superior to goat meat and even if they are arguing about that for whatever reason does it have to be recorded in great detail in the gemara for eternity anyway how can you ever argue about the taste of a meal what do we say in hebrew al tam viraya and hitvacaya you can't argue objectively about taste about smell everybody has different preferences you like chocolate i like vanilla you love lamb i like goats this one loves deary this one appreciates deli since there since when do we call in an expert to give a verdict about such futile arguments completely subjective about people's tastes so he likes goats so you like goats so eat goats she likes lamb so eat lamb what were the two restaurants in yerushalayim and they were arguing which one to go to i mean imagine a husband and a wife are arguing one evening which restaurant to go out to which is probably not so infrequent in new york he wants chinese probably healthy chinese with sugar and she wants a vegan so you call the new york times food critic to your home to tell you which food tastes better he wants deli she wants dairy so you start calling food connoisseurs who are well known in the world of food to start resolving these arguments resolve the argument what first of all what's the argument now you bring in the coin cuddle now what are we to make of the kind goddess strange answer i mean literally every detail of the story raises more questions what are we supposed to make of his ants the king and the queen were ostensibly arguing about physical taste how will that get resolved from understanding what is the daily sacrifice in the bay samiktas did the high priest really believe that god asked for a daily offering of two sheep because he so appreciates to eat lamb chops and you know what time six o'clock in the morning the carbon tumid was brought by sunrise there's people who eat meat in the morning i don't know if anybody's sitting in this room but six o'clock in the morning is a stretch so did he really believe that god chose sheep every day twice why he pushed once a meal he wants a physical meal of lamb chops and he enjoys the meat and he asks for two lambs because god's taste buds are much more appreciative of lamb chops than they are of goat meat how does such a pagan idea and it's mamash a pagan idea come to the high priest of the jewish people the klingon so they're arguing what's better they bring in the coin guddle and he says i'll prove it look what god eats every day he doesn't go for goats he goes for sheep now even if he's going to tell me that this king and queen were not arguing about the taste maybe they were arguing about sheep and goats themselves which one is greater which one is superior which one is of higher stature that only makes the question stronger what type of foolish argument is this what's better a goater a sheep or what's a better animal what's better a cow or a donkey what's better a camel a chicken or a duck a bull or a camel a cheetah or a tiger what do you mean what's better who cares what does it even mean each one has its own strengths its own advantages its own chemistry and its own life patterns its own genetic makeup so what type of argument is this what's better what is a philosophical argument that's completely irrelevant and inconsequential not only that after the story is over the gemara returns and says and who was right not only does it record the argument it takes it so seriously as to ask the question who is right the story is finished he punishes the high priest the way he did as i specified and then the gemara wants to know who got it right and the talmud says not him not her and not the high priest because from a terror perspective they're both equal not only are we recording the debate we're taking it so seriously to the point that the gemara then goes off on a whole discussion proving not the king was right not the queen was right not the queen god who sided with the queen was right they were both wrong now the gemara comes into this story with an introduction talking about this particular high priest he beforehand completely disregarded the value and the holiness of the avoider he used to wear gloves whenever he worked in the basement for a cayenne certainly a kangaroo to wear gloves this qualifies the aveda it's called a khatsitsa as you know is a partition between the actual his actual hand the limbs of his body and the avoider that he was doing so wearing gloves disqualifies the service and really displayed his disgrace towards the service in the basamiktus and the talmud says that he was punished for this sin of the way he represented the kind god was the leader of the of the besamiktas and he represented the work of the jewish people in the basa miktus so he was punished for this via the story that followed about the king and the queen with the sheep with the sheep and the goats as a result of which he couldn't do the avodah anymore because of this tragedy that befell him so some would say that's the reason for the story we don't care about their argument the sheep the goats the lamb chops but if that's the case why does the gemara then go in to discuss the details of the question as though it was a serious question it could have just said this happened to him you want to give a brief detailed description the fact that gomorrah goes into all the details of the story of how it happened there's many of stories of people who got hurt and the gemara says it was a result of something but here we know exactly how it happened this means that their argument is significant especially that at the end of the story the gemara goes on to take sides and explain who was right and who was wrong and actually they were both wrong who was this king so the second time the gamora tells the story he tells us who was this king yanai malko malka sahava yasvin the king is or as he's known alexander yanai here he's identified as janae malka yanai the king alexander yanai his greek name was alexander genius alexander janius he reigned over the jewish people over judah as it was called judea for 27 years this is a fascinating and difficult period of jewish history his rulership over erits israel lasted for almost 30 years 27 years from approximately the year 103 to the year 76 bce before the common era approximately 170 years before the destruction of the second base emittage through rome who was alexander yana alexander genius his father was joyconan yochanan was the son of shimon shimon was one of the five sons of matasyahu who led the chanukah story under the leadership of their father matasyo and his brother yehuda hamakabi and his other brothers we say on chanukah soon in a few weeks the whole story of chanukah the revolt against the syrian greeks happened during the days of matasya who was the son of kyan god this is all families of livium of priests they come from the tribe of levy their kayanah this mata show had five sons they led the famous kashminoi revolt against the syrian greeks they liberated the beisamiktus they removed antiochus had a had a statue of zeus placed in the basamiktus for jews to worship it he had he had the the priests uh sacrifice pigs in in the basamiknish besides the horrific the horrific persecutions of of death and bloodshed the five boys with their father staged a revolt the revolt went on for three years it wasn't a few it wasn't a six day war it was a three-year struggle of just a few thousand jews maybe three four thousand jews against seventy thousand troops as we say irabim the few defeated the many and after three years they liberated the base amigdas and the story of chanukah is enshrined in jewish history forever they cleanse it they find the oil they light the manure then for the eight days and hanukkah becomes a celebration the conflict will continue for another 30 years by the way it's not like everything was uh rosy and easy another 30 years they would fight many of the kashmir boys would lose their lives in the battle one of those boys was shimon shimon was one of the boys of matissio shimon had a son whose name was yochanan he named him after his grandfather apparently because matasiyo's father was jochen so shimon had a son whose name was jochen in greek yose has a name john herkinus he why am i giving him a greek name when he's called the king why because he became a hellenist the gomorrah says he became a hellenist which was the group of jews who not only sympathized but embraced the greek and syrian ambitions to change judaism and the jewish people forever yanai was a son of jochen a son of shem and the son of matasyo meaning shimon one of the maccabin was his grandfather and matasyo was his great-grandfather this is alexander yanai and he succeeds even he inherits the throne from a brother of his his brother also has a greek name aristobulus he's known as the bullish one not only that alexander jamie is marries his brother's widow aristobulus one he takes his throne and he marries the widow she's known as shloim hamalka shlomzian amalka became the queen of alexander genius it was first his brother his wife and he marries his widow she's known as queen salam alexandre and our sources shloimalka alexander genius alexander yanai is known in our sources as a heinous monstrous leader it wasn't only his conquest to expand his kingdom without any regard for people's boundaries that was the issue but it was the bloodiest besides the bloody civil war he created among the jewish people so his reign is characterized as a cruel and oppressive one with never-ending conflict he was a ruthless tyrant the gomorrah says that sadly he attempted to murder every last talmudic sage of his time one survived due to his wife schlemt who had a brother shimon banshatach and she made sure he fled to egypt where he survived he married as i said his brother's widow in the secretion of allah he once had six thousand jews murdered by his soldiers during the yamt of sukis in the courtyard of the base hamiktus the mishna indicates the story josephus describes it in detail so it's not surprising that when a high priest disagreed with him and said that lamb chops are superior to goat meat and how can you and he went like this with his hand in this dismissive wave of disrespect and disdain he should have him chop he should have his hand chopped off and when he finds out that he bribed the executioner and had his left hand chopped off he did the unthinkable and chapter of the second one as well when you know the historical context of this person and what he did and josephine josephus josephus flavius joseph matasio was was a jew he was also a cayenne and he led the revolt against rome this is 170 years later and then he became an accomplice of the romans he wanted to save his life and they accepted him and they turned them into a historian he was a great writer and that's where we have a lot of the stories of the history of the second base of english comes from josephun his jewish name was joseph and matissio and then it became the roman name of josephus flavius we have his books the antiquities of the jews and muhammad saw them the wars of the jews and over there he records some of the grave heinous acts of alexander genius and we have in the ghazala itself about what he did it's interesting to note that the second base hamikrish was a very difficult period for the jewish people because the kashmir dynasty started off with such glory they were great righteous people matasio and his children yahudah maccabee and the other brothers shimon aliyaza they were exceptional people but the next generation the next generation they became extremely corrupt and there's the famous ramban who explores how such such a thing could happen to the kashmir family and it was ultimately they who invited the romans into judea to make peace between the brothers and you know once you bring in the beer into the house to make peace between the cats and the dogs the beer says i like this house and uh once rome got us foots into arizona they never left pompeii was brought in and the romans never left so this was a very difficult they had a basement but it was a difficult period in jewish history probably the nine best years of bayasheni were the years after alexander jainis died the king died and his wife became the monarch of the jewish people for nine years the jewish people had a woman a female as their king or as their queen queen but she was the soul she was a leader and those nine years were probably the best in terms of uh respect dignity peace harmony her respect for halakhah respect for judaism there's a very the jewish people always have and had a soft place in their heart for shlomsi and hamalka who was the queen of a very very tough and barbaric husband but when she ultimately got the reins during those years she uh gave the jewish people a very very uh very peaceful a very peaceful journey so now we know who this king and queen were malka and malkasa and they're arguing about the sheep and the goats which only brings the question again to a four why does the talmud feel the need to immortalize a barbaric story about a barbaric king this guy has done many things and not only to individuals on a collective basis to thousands and thousands but this story is recorded in 1732 we're now going to go forward in history a long long time this story happened 170 years before the second temple's destruction second base immediate was destroyed in the year seventy after the common era this story happened before the common era around 106 before the common era that's why i say was around 170 years before the corbin of bayashini we now travel way way ahead and we come to the 18th century the 18th century lived in a little city in this rich called in miss rich in the ukraine a jew named rabdiv bear known in the jewish world as the market of mizritch he passed away on you test kislev tough coffee gimmel the 19th of kislev right tough lama gimmel would be uh 1772 13 years after his teacher the holy balshempt of the bistrol champton the margaret of ms richard in one of his teachings he suggested that the reason the talmud records this whole story is because it also serves as a parable it's not just an some far-fetched archaic dispute that a king and queen had in the palace one day about what they're gonna have for thanksgiving dinner or what they're where they're going to go out to eat or what they're going to serve at their party that they're making that weekend rather it also serves as a parable about a very profound theme that continues in life for thousands of years a debate that is so significant proof of it is that it still has not ended the debate has still not ended in other words the debate between the king and the queen about the sheep and the goat represent a very profound debate about the future the development of jewish the jewish people and they touch on very profound ideas connected to education pedagogy and children the market of misreach said also that the king and the queen were para they were allegorical of two people it's interesting the first time the gemara tells the story it says it without a name the second time it tells the story it says the king and the queen doesn't say the name of the queen but the name of the king but the maggot says on a metaphoric level there is another king and queen we're talking about and this is yitzhak and rifka yitzhak the second patriarch of the jewish people and his wife rifki the second matriarch of the jewish people however as faith would have it the students of the market of miss rich who transcribed the teaching of their master one of his greatest students is a man known as the heiser of lublin the seer of leblind sierra of leblind his name was yitzhak horowitz he was a levy he later became the famous master of leblind he came from a polish city called land suit i had the privilege of being there and being in the shul today he's known as the seer of leblind and he as he transcribed the teaching of his master he says i forgot the details of what he said and i'll quote him he has a book called divre ms the sierra of leblind has a book called diria emmas and i saw this in parsha's dish which we read before pesach nissan time we read parsha's boy as a preparation for pesach over there we read about the pesach offering the pesach offering it says you could take either a sheep or a goat so the sierra lebline says a sheep or a goat i quote he says pirush tikkus as i once explained on the story of the king and the queen with the goat and the sheep nearly sha shamati me arav kim [Music] shah um i once heard from my master a man of god the rabbit a bear the market of mizritch who was the teacher of the sierra of leblanc that the debate between the king and the queen was art sardikem greater or bali trouba grader but i don't remember how he connected it and how he explained it and then in parentheses he gives a possible interpretation this is the seer of lublin khaize of leblind passed away on tish above tough ayan dallad which would be 1814. his rabbit passed away 1732 he passed away 1814. no one's somehow he fell from the he fell from his room into onto the ground and he fell ill and he passed away that year on tish above the middle of the nepal at the end of the napoleonic wars against uh from france against russia that's the seer of leblind come with me one generation later the sierra of leblind was a contemporary of the balhatanya who was also a student of the market of misrich the founder of chabad the rabbishaman of lyadi and he had a grandson known as the cemetery of lubavitch who has a safer called he was the grandson of the balatanya he passed away the next century 1866 tough reigning it says in the book divre yamas that was authored by rabbitzhak lanser that's how they called the seer of leblind his name was rabyakovitzka karowicz and they came from lansutes they called him even though he's not known today with that name but if you know reputation is the choice of the blind it says in his book that he heard from the magic that there was a debate between the king and the queen about sadiq but tributary lancer says i don't remember what the maggot said what the connection is goat sheep and the tzamak said it says venera let me share what i think or what i might speculate and suggest may be the explanation in the words of the market so what follows now is the teaching of the market the way it's been articulated by his student the seer of leblind a generation later by that sadek the grandson of the balatanya who happened to be the third chabad rebbe in the dynasty of khabad al-itanya was the first and then his son and then the his grandson taking their ideas and developing it somewhat the way i understood them and applying it to our lives and seeing how we are to understand the gemara in its appropriate light and for this we have to go back to nature and understand what is the difference between a goat and a sheep so i don't know if any of you have grown up with uh with goats or with sheep even though you live in in a region of new york where until a few years ago was very common until today you have some places uh where you have goats and sheep they share external characteristics they share many external characteristics but they're fundamentally different in behavior and also in disposition sheep are docile sheep are submissive sheep are shy goats are aggressive they're shrewd and they're stubborn they're also naturally curious and they're also independent sheep must be part of a flock they must be part of a herd sheep always tend to remain in the herd there's no such a thing as a wild undomesticated sheep good luck maybe if you feed him some drugs that will alter his behavior you will not find a vilde un crazy sheep that is just very aggressive but there are many wild and untamed goats even when they're domesticated never mind the mountain goats and similar goats which are extremely powerful sheep are generally more meek they're more tame they're more consistent they're more dependable goats are tough they're abrasive they're not as easily predictable we have it in yiddish you'll call somebody a shep salah right or even in english a sheep a shepherd what is that represents somebody who follows follows the herd just you know follows the follows the trail and then you have in in in yiddish you have an expression an action via sig stubborn as a goat or an altered sig an old goat which represents a stubborn abrasive more difficult difficult type of character there's an old yiddish anecdote about uh some fellow he considered himself a great scholar and one of the greatest rabbis of the world the problem is he held himself in high esteem much more than anybody else and he would travel from city to city and he was extremely he didn't suffer from too much humility let's put it that way to the contrary and he once came to ashtettal and he had the gift of gab so people gathered to hear his great russia's great sermon or lecture and he's standing right there on the bim and the middle of the shul and he had this pointed goatee beard and he was giving a schmooze and there was somebody sitting right in front and as he looked as this rabbi opened his mouth fellow sitting in front went like this went like this and then a minute later he goes like this and then a minute later like this and every few moments he fluctuates yes said no yes or no the sermon went on for two hours and this fellow in the front seat was yes and no and yes no and this scholar finishes the speech and everyone goes over yes and then this man comes over to him and he says wow it was such an honor to have you in the audience i saw how enthusiastic you were and how involved you were i mean and i see how brilliant you are because every few moments you were like yes no yes no which means you really have a mastery of the subject it's incredible i would love to have you as my disciple as my student maybe you want to travel with me you know elijah had eli shelly oh have had elisha a rebel needs a student he says actually it's not what i was doing he says what do you mean what was this about i guess you agreed says no no no he said for many years he thousand years for many years in my home in my house for many years i had an old goat and unfortunately the goat that lost disappeared i don't know what happened to it and i've been searching for it everywhere suddenly i see you and then i hear you you open your mouth and you start talking and i say oh mamish my sig this is mamash what my goat was like and i'm like wow this is it but then i heard you say something and i'm like no no no no my goat would never speak such nonsense but then a moment later i'm like you know yeah you could qualify so i'm like yes and a whole speech i'm just going back and forth my goat not my goat yeah no yeah no yeah no you know man looks at him and says what was the mascara what was the conclusion he says in yiddish bist a goat you are but you don't belong to me so goats and sheep have very different dispositions very different characters and it's interesting in hebrew as we spoke many times lush and kaidish is the holy tongue of the language which hashem created the world words are never um random in lush encoders words are connected to the essence what's the name of the sheep what's the name of a goat exactly an ase a's means what what's azut also in a positive sense hashem hashem will give his nation goats no that's not what it means it means he's going to give them strength oys right there's the concept of yes yaakov avinu speaks and says yes says which is a very very critical message for the jewish people god gives his nation strength god blesses his nation with peace the jewish people could never achieve peace if they don't first have the quality of eyes of strength of dignity of internal power holy power peace does not come from uh stretching out your neck to be slaughtered and apologizing for your existence then you're just used and manipulated and pounced upon more and more as winston churchill said appeasement is feeding the crocodile in the hope that you will be eaten last hashem oh islam why is a goat called an ace because of its strength its aggression its or audaciousness its abrasiveness its hutzpah heavy what does it say the government the mission says sheep are called in aramaic imra in this debate the queen says sheep the word imra comes from the word umar omar versus dibur there's vayidaber and there's vayoimer koi soymar the basiacov the is always soft speech sensitive speech visage harsh speech gideon are sinews which are a tough viber a goat is called an a's is another name for it which is that's what the gemara says imra sheep is umar which is always soft speech there are softer animals they're just much softer animals this is also true about their meat by the way i don't know how many connoisseurs do we have a calling cuddle there how many connoisseurs there are on goats and sheep but the fact is goat meat you ever cooked it it's much tougher it's much tougher than lamb or sheep it has to cook much longer to soften up so if you're planning to cook it just give yourself enough time it's pushed physically tougher so these two animals says the maggot represent two types of people there are types there are people and you could raise your hand if i'm describing the person you're familiar with there are people who are more reliable steady consistent what they did yesterday they'll do today and then again tomorrow they usually don't rush into anything and therefore they don't have to run away from anything they don't make rash decisions and then live in regret it's just not not their style they're more traditional they follow the tried and tested paths of life they're wise and when i say wise they're wise in conventional and time-proven ways they don't seek to rebel to initiate to fight systems they follow the herd and it's directives there are other personalities i saw nobody raise their hand with the first one there are other personalities and they are goats wild independent don't like when you tell them what to do they'll all they won't do what they won't do the right thing not because they think it's not because they think it's not good because you told them to do it they're wild they're independent they're also original and they're stubborn they're often abrasive they're not afraid to try new things although inevitably they're going to make mistakes and often wallow in regret they're sometimes stubborn now of course there are endless variances between all these two personality characters it's not a sheep or a goat but sometimes they can be stubborn that's why we say in english he's a real old goat they don't follow the herd they will run from it they have to experiment things on their own they will not easily submit and surrender sometimes they're very exciting to be around if you don't have to mother them they're also full of energy they're full of enthusiasm they have a hard time by the way keeping appointments schedules commitments they're they're of a different nature now the question is are you a sheep or are you a goat malcolm the king and the queen of the jewish people yitzhak and rifka would sit and debate this question it's all there in parishes told us because there was game in his mouth virifka i have a suspect riff get a special place in her heart for yaakaif says the maggot of misreach the way the khaisa of lablin and the tsam sadik explained and aesop is defined in humish as ish is known as yaakov avinu says about my brother he says my brother is celia right what's another word for goat saeer which also is the word for here it says when asaph was born kuloi kader is sayer he was covered with here the part of the middle east that was given to the family of aesop is eretz sayer sayer means a goat sawyer sahir is a goat ace of is called the sorry of the goat which means a hearing man but it means a goat-like man yaakov is associated in the turtle with sheep partisan yakov yakov separated the sheep turo describes yaakov as he grows up is a quiet person dwelling in the tents ace of his deity he's a skilled hunter ish saudis a man of the field in other words they were opposite in their very nature in their very chemistry physical and spiritual chemistry yaakov was pure refined heavenly for him submission to the divine will and the divine purpose it felt organic wholesome right in that sense he is the kevis he is the sheep calm tranquil tom dwelling of the tents and the study halls he follows in the footsteps of his father yitzhak of his grandfather avraham he focuses on spiritual growth and perfection he's disciplined he's structured he's balanced he's centered the kabbalists call him a soul of the world of structure the world of balance the world of tikkun he's an integrated soul anchored in the values of his neshama and his progenitors asaph is the sawyer asap is a goat he has a lot of life he's a lot of vitality he's a hunter he's a warrior he's a man of the field he's also impulsive he's rash he is uh emotional he's street smart he has a certain crassness bruteness and physicality to him he can also be reckless he can be brash he can be very impulsive he can sell his birthright because he's hungry that's not a sheep that's a goat and yet his emotions and love towards his father are extraordinary appealing and incredibly moving when he discovers that he lost his blessings he breaks down in uncontrollable sobs in one of the most emotional descriptions in the entire tanakh and as i pointed out in the class we had i think last year two years ago and told us how the terror makes sure to describe to us intricately like in no other story the emotions that asav felt when he walked in to his father's chamber and discovered that the blessings have been snatched from him yeah ace of and you almost want to cry with asav who at that moment was hoping for such a deep intimate connection with his father and then felt that and it was taken from him ace of also struggles and how do we know he struggles if he destroys it in the womb he is agitating his mother and the khazal say rashi brings that whenever she would pass a pagan monastery or ashram he would kick he would gravitate what does this mean it means it was not easy for him to live a moral life to live a disciplined life to live a restrained life to live a systematic life governed by the blueprint of the values of his own family of his parents of his grandparents so in the womb of his mother he's gravitating towards centers of idolatry where his brother is gravitating to the yeshivas of of shame and aver he's he's gravitating to places where there's idolatry and idolatry doesn't just mean they worship the statue idolatry in the whole tanakh is a euphemism for places of anarchy anarchy and then orgies and complete promiscuity and and moral breakdowns idolatry was not just some form of yoga pilate exercise this was not ace of choice to struggle this was the playing field that was designed for him he would need to struggle against a lot of inner many inner demons many inner impulses he had the soul i don't know how to say he had the soul of an addict i would say he had the soul of and what do i mean here the soul of an addict he was extreme he was deeply sensitive he was very passionate he was intense and he was powerful and if such people don't learn how to gain mastery over their life they often go to the other extreme to dull and numb the profound pain that they cannot they cannot deal with he's called an admini the country that he's given is called eretz edom why edom red admoni so that's why you call this country red because he happened to be to be a red hat it wasn't because he was born a redhead it's because he was full of hot blooded red bloody passion there was a deep passion about him a warmth about him but he was also unbridled he was also undisciplined does that mean asap was a bad kid it doesn't mean he was a bad kid but it means he was a different type of a child he was a goat he wasn't a sheep what comes easy for the sheep does not come easy for the goat today he would be diagnosed with a lot a lot of names at the age of 11 he was already expelled i think from nine schools all over brooklyn then they didn't have the terror doesn't have all these titles yet but he would certainly be described as a ration an impulsive uncontrollable teen who wreaks havoc wherever he goes he can't sit that's for sure he's out in the field already from age two he's in the field hunting animals he's not like his his his brother he couldn't even master the timetable at the age of 14 he's already quite he's been around the block nine or ten times the queen is sitting with the king and they're debating what's better sheep of the goat and the maggie takes us into such a powerful understanding of this story in the gemara not just a story about lamb chops and goat and arguing what we're going to have for dinner it's really a very profound story about how to understand life how to understand your children how to understand yourself most importantly how to understand those moments and those relationships that are not easy those children that we might have that cause us sleepless nights but can also cause us to reinvent ourselves if we can go into a deeper place of ourselves of our souls our relationship with god with truth with yiddishkait and of course with our loved ones the queen says means the sheep are superior the king says the goats are superior what are they arguing for rifka the taste of lamb trumps the taste of goats for yitzhak it's the reverse he loves asaph rivka loves jaakov this is not a simple debate it's a moving it's a profound debate rifki is the practical woman rifki comes from a family of idolatry deception promiscuity rifka has seen the other side rifkin knows what filth exists in the world rifkin knows the depravity rifkin knows the narcissism rifkin knows that what seems so creative and uninhibited on one side really can lead a person to hopelessness despair and a breakdown of his or her ultimate life rifka knows very well the world she's seen her brother she's seen her father she is seeing her grandfather and therefore she favors something about the disposition of the sheep the straight shooter the good boy the disciplined sadiq what does the seer of leblind say from the market it was an argument in sadiq what type of an argument is this art sadikum greater or our bali trouba greater and balichuvi here is not the name for people who have grown up in one type of home and then returned balichuva is a archetype of a personality that saddik doesn't mean what we call today the ffb versus the bt that's it's no matter where you grow up it's about your whole motus apperendo your veltan xiao what type of nishama you have what type of challenges you deal with and this is an argument which is greater that sadek or the the person who somehow just follows the right path and embraces it enthusiastically the sheep or maybe no something else is greater and it's not an easy debate to answer yes there will be a sign that will say of course sheep are greater take the goats and get rid of them get them out of my life i don't want to deal with them that's one perspective yitzhak had a very very different perspective yitzhak said no way i love those goats don't throw away those goats he had a special place in his heart for asaph it's not that yitzhak didn't appreciate yaakov that's not what the story means of course yitzhak appreciated yaakov learned with yaakov gave over the blessing of the covenant ultimately to yaakov you see when yitzhak sends yaakov away to find his shidduch really he's escaping from asaf he gives yaakov the blessings to continue the covenant of it's not the blessings that he gave him when he thought that he was asaph yitzhak always knew that yaakov is very different than asaf yitzhak was not the naive man who was just deceived by one son versus the other of course he had a he knew exactly who yaakov was but he had a special feeling for asaph the struggling soul who has so much energy and doesn't know where to place it the kabbalists and the mystics call asap on a shama of a soul from the world of chaos there are two worlds this is speaks about this frequently there's the world of chaos and there's the world of balance yaakov comes from the world of tikkun asap comes from the world of toy you the world of chaos and yitzchak feels that asaph is really a giant if he can only learn to harness his unbridled intensity passion feistiness impulsiveness and energy into building a world rather than destroying himself and a world asap can become a powerhouse of goodness of leadership he can be a beacon of light a harbinger of love if he can help him integrate his goat goat-like forces and realize his potential there's a famous say for hey from the rebel of kamarna and parshas told us he says that ace of it's rooted already in the in the writings of the arizona and the bellatonia that the soul of asav was higher than the soul of yaakov and the commander says there's two people called admini in tanach asav is an admini and someone else you know who else a redhead with beautiful eyes so the gemara says in sanhedrin fascinating that doing who didn't like david tells seoul david is an admiring he's a redhead he's like asap beautiful eyes on david and him had the same energy same energy david could take on a goliath not everybody could take hamagollos david had the same energy but the beautiful lies were presented that dovet took that energy and he brought it under the authority of truth of godliness very very different david would not just kill because he's having a bad day because he's having a bad mood david took his infinity and he managed to discover the vessels but it wasn't a simple life david's life was not a simple life and if you follow the story of david it reflects on some level the story of ace of the kaminer says and he says yaakov was rooted in the soul of mushroom asa was rooted in the soul of mashiach who comes from david which is an admini who's going to change the whole world redeem the whole world yitzhak recognizes this potential kitsaid before he loved it because there was game in his mouth was it means it was game in his mouth he realized that in him there are unbelievable sparks that are trapped and you have to extract them there's sayed bef he's holding with inside of himself tremendous potential so yitzhak says yaakov is the tsadik we love the tzadik but asav is destined to become the ultimate baltruva what is chuva triva means return truva is the paradigm of a life in which i stumble i fail i make mistakes i error maybe every step of the way but from every mistake i reinvent myself trover requires sobbing remorse i sometimes have to break down and wallow in a river of tears with profound awareness of how much i didn't know and the mistakes i made and then each one of them can perhaps become a springboard for me to re invent myself it's the pro profile of a person who has struggled and struggles with skeletons and demons addictions immoral cravings and all types of traumas every person knows it in their own life remember these characters are never black and white you're yaakov everyone has a yaakov in them everybody has an ace in them like every character in tanakh the question is maybe what is more emphasized what is more what is it more that you have to deal with and yet despite all these demons the balthrova doesn't give in and doesn't surrender to superficiality doesn't surrender to despair doesn't surrender to the trauma to the fear to the existential angst and anxiety he will continue to fight he is saying he or she is the ultimate warrior the person who will transform darkness into light and that's not easy because to transform darkness into light i have to enter into the darkness i can't transform something if i'm living in an ivory tower removed from it but it's only the beltruva who takes darkness and transforms it into light struggle into opportunity chaos he or she transforms into a deeper and infinite rainbow his challenges are deep but if he or she can appreciate their true meaning and their true value what happens is they realize that this becomes a springboard for a new humility and for a new awareness and for a new growth and then you redefine them and that's what it means that darkness is transformed into light and that's why yitzhak wants to give the blessings to asaf why why would he do that couldn't rivka sit down with him by dinner and say it's huckle you're a good guy you're a holy guy but trust me i know these kids mama knows best that's what you do what do you do with your husbands say yankeldovich metal mutton come downstairs for a moment and he knows trouble you call me and say listen i know you have good intentions now you always start over that way and you start off with a compliment and they say but listen trust me this is not the way to go in fact that's what everybody does in voracious the women don't only call the shots they tell their husbands they're calling the shots sarah calls the shots with you small kava calls the shots with the hadas [Laughter] rakhil and leia call the shots with marriage and rifle calls the shots with the bronchus but rifka will not sit down with him so the market is teaching us they did sit down they didn't only sit once they sat every night and they spoke about it they used to speak about the goats and the sheep this is the sophisticated and profound way of our sages conveying very deep philosophical and psychological truths in simple language what is better and rifka and yitzhak understand each other because as we often say what makes a good marriage versus a miserable marriage is not how much couples disagree in all the research that has been done about marriage for the last few decades they thought initially great marriages they don't disagree and miserable marriage are always fighting and they realized the same exact amount of arguments that good man that couples that have difficult marriages have couple that have wonderful marriages have it's not if they disagree or not it's how they disagree with each other it's what that what's the outcome of a disagreement it's if i see you disagreeing with me as a sign of mistrust of negativity or i see your disagreement with me almost as charming almost as of course you're a different personality that's what makes this marriage exciting i'm not married to myself huh she disagrees yeah she's different really oh you wanted to marry yourself so don't get married and even the supreme court of the united states of america has not yet decreed that you could marry yourself even though it seems that's one person told me it's logical because many people have split personalities and why can they get a tax discount if they marry themselves but everybody understands the definition of marriage the relationship with somebody else of course yitzhak rifka spoke about it but rifk understood yeshua's perspective and she would not take away from yitzhak his perspective on asov because it's sacred it's holy it's divine just as yitzhak listened to rifka's perspective so yitzhak wants to give the deepest blessings to asap because he believes in this boy not because he is he believes in this boy if the goat will be sublimated if the goat will be enlightened if the goat will be elevated it will become a source not a finite light but of infinite light and that's the key infinite light infinite light only comes from the transformation of the negative energy from that which destroyed all the structures why did god make these two worlds the world of tayo in the world of tikkun why are the yaakovs and asaps why are there sheep and goats why do some of some mothers and fathers have sleepless nights why there is this superficial perspective but we want to understand the truth of it and the truth of it is because light that fits into a vessel is always finite light that is infinite breaks vessels it breaks structure but if that light could find could find its structure it has to find infinite structures encountering infinity is always difficult because it defies our comfort zones i have no comfortable place to put it into and whenever i see in my life something i can't fit in i go crazy because we like to wrap our brains around things and that's the beauty of the world of tikkun but in the ultimate in the ultimate reality in the ultimate purpose it's the synthesis of what the bala tanya likes to call oyre is the toyhu becalam the tikkun the lights of chaos in the containers of tikkun the lights of asav and the containers of yaakov the lights of infinity in the containers of jacob and for this aesop has to transform himself but also yaakov has to transform himself and to say this subtly sometimes for yaakov to transform himself is harder than for asa to transform himself because asap knows that he has to transform himself his life is a disaster yaakov looks in the mirror and says i'm doing great i'm just following the right thing i don't have to transform myself you've got to transform you've got to transform yourself and when you wake up and smell the coffee come meet me in my ivory tower and what happens is this character who attaches himself to yaakov suffers from a whole new type of problem which is spiritual smugness spiritual smugness is a very dangerous thing because it uses god as a crutch for not allowing myself to transcend my comfort zones and to transcend my fears so yitzchak wants to give the blessings to asaph now look at the fascinating meticulousness of the hebrew language what's the word for the sheep remember kevis what does kevish also mean in hebrew a ramp a ramp right there was a ramp going up to the altar allah vacavish we say in the morning allah vacavish what's the universe style of you're not supposed to go up on steps to the mizbek you have to go up on a ramp what's the definition of a ramp definition of a ramp is you see yaakov ascends in consistent gradual steps like when you're climbing a ramp growth is incremental growth is structured growth is slow you're climbing a cavish a ramp goats they don't believe in ramps you ever watch goats they believe in climbing walls they take gigantic leaps they jump over fences you ever saw mountain goats they jump off cliffs and they jump on top of cliffs ace of the potential balchuva can take quantum leaps he's not going to go on a ramp but when he goes up it's going to be a radical change in zohar it's the expression is that the baltimore serves hashem with an infinite vigor with an infinite strength his unbridled passion can inspire quantum change in the world nuclear energy is dangerous but if you can figure it out as a source of light it becomes a very very powerful source of of illumination now see this which animal was brought onion kipper to atone for the sins of the entire nation a goat they chose two goats not two sheep why suddenly every day was a sheep yum kipper it was a goat in fact in english the expression scapegoat what's the scapegoat you know where the expression comes from scapegoat it becomes from the second goat that was brought on him kipper which so to speak carry the sins of the jewish people and they took it to a mountain called as zozel what does that name sound like as and then azel how many times oys do you have in that mountain twice azazil means a strong goat within goats itself its eyes shabba oys it's the strength of a goat the goat embodies the passion what's this idea goat is going to carry my sins really that's how you get rid of sins take your sins put it on a goat wonderful and now go back to sin what's the idea of this the idea of this is very powerful number one i take my sins and i place it on a goat how does that happen what does that mean it means something so beautiful and magnificent and that is you have to be able to separate yourself and your sins one of the greatest tragedies in life is not that i did a sin i am a sin not that i made a mistake i am a mistake not i did something wrong i am wrong and that blocks so many people from transformation because i look in the mirror and all i can tell myself is i'm i'm doomed i'm a loser i'm kipper you take your sins and you literally place it on the goat it's like almost i'm not the sin i may have done it i have to apologize i have to say i'm sorry i have to look at it i'm accountable but it's not me there's an eye that is wholesome that is pure and where do i put it on i put it onto a goat what's the goat what did he do it's a very powerful idea we come to the next step the sin is always carrying a passion that i'm looking for every sin contains a secret there is a noise there is a passion there there's a strength there there's some there's a void i'm trying to fill the golden bodies the passion and the strength which can result in sin but when i can understand that it can also result in transformation and allow me to become azazel in the powerful good sense allow me what do they do what happens with darzozzle they bring it to the mountain the kangado throws it down they're not the kind god of the shliya the emissary throws it down and the mission says it didn't reach the half of the mountain it's completely fragmented into little pieces what does this mean psychologically spiritually how does this help for atonement and here we reach a very profound idea do i have the ability to be able to say goodbye to everything i know about myself that's what happens on that mountain on that mountain the goat is split into little pieces nothing is recognizable anymore that's the power of true the ability to completely say goodbye and reinvent myself anew without holding holding up the fears that will not let me ultimately be emancipated that's why when rifka tells yaakov dress up like your brother and go take his blessings he says i can't why my brother ace of his ish sawyer what does that mean literally he's heary and i'm smooth-skinned but he meant something much deeper i can't take the blessings the blessings is sawyer he's a goat i'm smooth i'm straight i'm a sheep i'm a straight shooter i'm very different each sawyer doesn't only mean physically he's heary and my father is going to touch me and feel that i'm not hearing them smooth which is why rifka dresses him up with his uh uniform asaf's uniform he's saying asap as the character of a goat i don't he's the one who needs the brachas not me ultimately rifka feels that at this point aesop can't get their blessings it would be like giving an addict money and saying hey this is for rehabilitation you know what he's going to do with that money he's not going to go into rehabilitation ultimately the blessings have to be given to yaakov and one day he'll be able to deliver them and integrate them with asuf but now let's see the end of the story they call in the cayenne goddam rifkin are having a very interesting conversation about supper how to deal with the kinder right what are we doing with asap what are we doing with yakov which parents which functional healthy parents don't have these conversations we call them goats and lambs it's really a very deep conversation about sons and daughters and grandchildren and about ourselves it's not just about our troops it's about ourselves they call it the kind goddel why are they calling the kangadool he's the great spiritual uh jewish authority let him determine to the answer the question who's greater yaakov the goat of the sheep that's which soul does judaism cherish more who does god love more which one is better for judaism and for the world and the goddess laughs at the question he's like do you idiots it's really calling me for it's a non-starter of course god favors the lamb to the goat look at the carbon we bring every day what does he want every day he doesn't ask for goats he asks for sheep 365 days a year hashem wants sheep he does not want goats a malayovo you can bring a goat if you want also a sheep in other words the daily offering of judaism comes from sheep not from goats the goats are the second tear we love we respect we admire we want the sheep we want the obedient children who follow the straight path who don't deviate who embrace the messiah we love that saddiquim the righteous among us they follow the divine blueprint for life yes if we could we're going to try to help the goats but let's remember they are second class citizens and we always wish they could have been sheep that's what the cayenne goddess says and he proves it from god he proves it from the torah he proves it from the daily offering of judaism and here we come to the remainder of the story which now can be understood also on a metaphoric level such a person cannot be a kind god such a person cannot represent the jewish people he can't be the ultimate jewish leader because he missed an important part of the boat losing the right arm represents something very profound the zohar says the right arm represents love the left arm represents strength discipline restraint penalties guru means strength is kindness love the king says yitzhak such a person just lost his right arm he lost his quality of hesit he lost his quality of love the high priest who cannot appreciate and respect the soul of asaph and understand that aesop did not choose to be a goat in the womb of his mother he was struggling not every child chooses to struggle people don't wake up in the morning and say how can i make my parents miserable how can i make sure to become the headache the migraine of this family for the next 20 years very few people choose that if anybody i don't even know if anybody differentials are dealing with different realities encounter different people different situations have different challenges on every level and if all you can say is you're a second-class citizen and i wish you could have been somebody else even though we can understand it from a human perspective i'm in pain and i'm in pain and i can acknowledge that and say i'm in a lot of pain it's not easy for me it's hard for me that's justifiable but when the kind god the laughs and dismisses it and says it's obvious that this is not the real thing he says you have just lost your quality of hesit your right arm if you cannot respect the journey of a goat you are lacking in love for your people you cannot represent the people of israel you may be a good man you may have tremendous qualities but you can't be a monegistrol you can't be an authentic parent an authentic teacher an authentic leader an authentic mentor you are one-dimensional and that's awesome and celebrate it and do your thing but as somebody representing the jewish people if in your heart you don't have deep empathy and appreciation of a different journey you have lost your right arm but as it turns out what happens he actually loses which one his left arm wow what does that mean what that means is sadly he forfeits even his left arm what does this mean spiritually what does it mean psychologically it means he even loses gevorah why that's what he is he loves guru he loves strength and discipline because in judaism even gura discipline and strictness which is very important discipline is not a curse discipline is a blessing children and students need discipline they cherish discipline they require structure people who mock discipline and call it love are reckless they wreak havoc on children's lives and on students lives discipline is not a bad word in 2019 it's a holy word it's a wonderful but with one condition it's filled with deep love it's born from deep love it's filled with empathy it's being sensitive to the challenges and unique circumstances of the person you're trying to discipline discipline that's divorced from love empathy understanding can translate god's forbidden to cruelty it becomes about i'm a disciplinarian things are my way it becomes about my stubborn insecurities and egos rather than helping the person i'm trying to discipline and giving him or her the life they deserve and the life i want to help them build help them polish their diamond a high priest who looks down at a goat-like soul who has no space in his heart for the journey of an ace of lacks both hessed and both arms neither his love or his discipline can be trusted i can't trust love if it runs from discipline because it's selfish and i can't trust discipline if it divorces itself from love because it's equally selfish both of his spiritual arms are missing remember this cayenne goddess i told you his story before the story he used to wear gloves in the vasamiktas what does that mean why did he wear gloves in the base amiktas the answer is he never wanted to get his hands dirty he never wanted to get his hands dirty with the blood and the fat of jewish sacrifices jews brought sacrifices that's how they poured out their soul to god meal offerings animal offerings for so many different reasons a mother had a baby and she brought an offering somebody did a mistake and cindy did an offering another brought an offering a mitzr brought an offering azava zava whatever the situation was nefersky sacrif poor people brought offerings their soul was in it but i'm not gonna get my hands dirty i wear gloves it's a persona it's an attitude in life it's the person who doesn't want to get dirty with real people real situations and real challenges i will sit in my ivory tower with my books and i'll send fourth commandments and if i need to touch something i don't like i'll make sure to wear gloves so that nobody can affect me nobody can get too close to me nobody nobody can touch me i think i told you once a story i know the person with whom it happened to it left such an impact on me talk about gloves the laboratory used to get around 600 letters a day he didn't allow his secretaries to open them because most of them were private letters he used to open every envelope himself you ever tried opening 30 envelopes a day 100 envelopes a day and sometimes he would get 700 800 letters a day the mailman would come with four huge sacks three or four but saks assay of mail remember this before the days of emails before the days of faxing and he sent back answers to everyone a letter or a note and his secretaries would not open the envelopes so there's a jew his name is and it's it perturbed him so he went and he bought a electric opener he ever used those electric openers people are not so into mail but an electric opener you put it on machine it opens it up i saw your opening envelopes 800 envelopes 600 envelopes 500 envelopes with your your finger portion can get hurt the laboratory ever returned it immediately he thanked him we returned it said why he said it makes too much noise the the machine makes noise he doesn't like it fine so he went and he called sony and he asked him if they have a silent model a son they don't have they don't have they used to have it but they don't anyone in stock no but suddenly for the right amount of money there was one left in stock and he got it and he was excited and he gave it in to the lubavitcher to be able to use it was a silent envelope opener you put it in an envelope the rabbit returns it back to him this time he was perturbed what's it doesn't make noise so i guess the rabbit felt the odor he owed him an answer because and then initially he didn't share it but the second time he shared it and he said he told the secretary to tell this jury absolutely said you know a lot of jews write and everybody seals their envelopes in different ways some people steal their envelopes with glue and some people seal their envelopes with saliva some people seal their envelopes with staples or with scotch tape or any other way they seal their envelope and there's some jews who seal their envelopes with their tears how can i open with a machine that which a jew sealed with his tears the electric machine won't pick up the tears it's a machine i open it with my fingers i can i can absorb that i can absorb it the beginning of relating to a person is not when you read the letter not when you answer the letter it's when you're opening the envelope reading the letter is stage two it's when you're opening the envelope but some of us we want to wear gloves i don't want to get too close i don't want to get dirty i don't want to be affected and we can understand why it's not easy it's not easy to absorb so much i have enough of my own problems i got my own issues i have my own chaos but if you want to be a kind goddamn a kain god kind god was the person who represents the jewish people represents all of their souls they can't be you can't make a separation you can't build a wall between your soul and your body and the people that's not a kind god so this is spiritually the beginning of the story that ultimately results in the loss of the hesad and the loss of the gevorah i can't lead people from a comfortable throne somewhere in an attic in an ivory tower i have to be able to touch the texture of people's pain i have to be able to touch the soil of struggle this is what we call empathy and a real mentor and teacher cannot wear gloves so now the gemara wants to know who was right this is not a small question this is the key question who was right they debated and debated and debated they're debating it in your house for 25 years the coin god who had an opinion so who's right great question this is an important question was rifka right was yitzhak right and this is what the gemara teaches us that the question is phrased wrong there's no right and there's no wrong the torus sees the goat and the lamb as equals one doesn't have preference over the other one is not superior over the other and when the terror allows us to bring both as an offering it doesn't give priority the one to one over the other the goddamn was wrong and let's understand what that means the daily offering was brought from sheep not from goats 365 days we bring sheep not goat because yaakov captures the stability of cloud israel yaakov captures the consistency of claudiusroll which is dedicated to a life of wholesomeness of rats and hash fulfilling the will of hashem of mitres of messiah a healthy human being who lives a healthy life in a healthy home is a as a person who lives with structure with discipline who knows things that i embrace and things that i don't embrace in order to build a healthy home a healthy community one has to construct solid foundations consistent foundations foundations that are anchored in powerful values we even know with children in a home a healthy amazon that has a schedule there's a time to eat and there's a time to bathe and there's a time for fun and the time for recreation a time for sleep there's structure those structures are not bad and evil they're the foundations of creating people who are creative all creativity must grow only if it's planted in the soil of consistency creative artists who destroy consistency ultimately destroy their art asap has to discover the caleb of tikkun the killing of yaakov the carbon tumid how do i serve hashem every single day i serve hashem every single day with a sheep we need to build our homes and our lives on strong firm unchanging values and morals if not things disintegrate into chaos which is why rifka says the brachas have to go to yaakov asiv is not capable of handling them you're giving him tremendous light he has tremendous potential but right now unfortunately he's going to squander it all yaakov has to set the standards and one day he'll be able to give the bronchus to asap now yitzchak wants to bypass the process of transforming ace of slowly and methodically up a ramp he wants to overwhelm him with light in a full swoop we understand that but rivka says it's not going to work we need the kevish we need a ramp that should never mean that in judaism the goat is the second tear that the goat is inferior that the soul of a child or a teen or an adult who's struggling with darkness who's struggling with deep challenges whatever they may be because of things that happen to him or her or because of things internally or any other reason is somehow to be seen as inferior as a second class as a compromised product as the losers among us who we never have to tolerate i may have that instinct that's the that's your soccer's instinct i may have that instinct because the pain is very deep and you could respect that instinct but from god's perspective they are equal even if they are different each soul has its blessed journey and mission never ever must i allow or am i allow allow myself to lose that perspective not to challenge myself and say this soul is a helicopter it's a piece of hashem look at understood this why did he love asaph because that's what a father does a father loves and stays connected to a child without any conditions even if there are disagreements we love lambs for what they give the world but we also cherish goats for what they give the world and even more for what they will give the world each one of them brings his or her unique light to the world and if our hearts are not open to embrace that to cherish it to admire it and to empower both the goats and the sheep then ultimately we are failing not only them we are failing also ourselves which is why the gemara finishes the story that shenayam that ultimately from hashem's perspective there's nobody to say this one is great this one is great but sadiq is superior the baltruva is superior every soul has its journey and in our process of self-refinement and preparing the world to goula we open ourselves up to the soul of yaakov to the soul of asov understanding that in the ultimate scheme of things yitzhak rifka will be synthesized the lights of chaos in the structures of tikkun have a wonderful week i have a uh 21 year old jinji redhead jinji thank you so much the message was beautiful thank you when he was in 10th grade he said i had enough of yeshiva i quit i'm out of here and he quit and he said i'm going to work he went to work he got a job a new day as an assistant manager we supported him in that he put on blue jeans for he was wearing black and white he put on blue jeans after about a year he said i'm sick of chasing the dollar i'm going back to yeshiva and he went to israel well he got back into amazing story yeah oh yeah all this class is brought to you by the yeshiva.net please help us continue the classes make even a small contribution at www.theyshiva.net donate