How Jews Overcame Collective PTSD - Women's Bechukosei Class

The Yeshiva.net The structure of Parshas Bechukosai seems enigmatic because it begins in a beautiful fashion where Hashem pledges his extraordinary idyllic blessings when the Jews live up to their covenant with Hashem in Bechukosai Telechu es mitzvosai tishmeru venasati gishmeichem ba'ito ma'isa venasati gishmeichem be'itam venasna ha'aretz yevulah ve'etz hasadeh yiten piryo If you follow the statutes, you observe my mitzvos and do them, so then as he continues, I will grant rains in their proper times, the earth will uh give its produce and the trees of the land will produce their fruits, etc. This section is followed by a section known as the tochacha or the warning that if the Jewish people fail to fulfill their role in the world as the ambassadors of the divine, they will become victims of um losses described in frightening detail in the And immediately following this section, known as the tochacha as the rebuke or the warning comes the next section, which is actually the fourth section Re'ee. And here a completely new subject is introduced. And it's known as the laws of erchin ayin reish chof yud nun or e r c h i n, erchin or erchin, which means evaluation. Erech means evaluation and evaluation. Erchin means evaluations in the plural. These laws basically specify how a person might, if they donate their own value or another human being's value to the sanctuary to the Mishkan to the to the Tabernacle in the desert and then later would be of course to the base of miktash to the holy temple. But if somebody says I want to donate my value to the base of miktash. How do you estimate that value? That's exactly the subject of these laws of erkin. So the Torah specifies the exact sum one must contribute if he or she makes such a pledge. The sum is not based on a person's strength, physical prowess, or even strength of character. Completely not. It's generic. It's a generic value for each gender for a specific age. So for example, the erech or standard value of a Jewish male between 20 and 60 is 50 silver shekel. No difference if the person is frail and weak, the person is powerful and strong, if the person I say I want to donate the value of this person. If the person is the greatest of the great spiritually or morally or physically or on the opposite extreme. It really doesn't distinguish between people in terms of the nature of their body or their nature of their character or so. It's generic. So the Jewish male between 20 and 60 whoever he may be the sum of their value the Torah defines as 50 silver shekel. Which would be a silver currency weighing around 9,000 g of silver approximately. It doesn't make a difference whether the individual whose worth was pledged was a uh again most brilliant or powerful person alive physically or spiritually, the amount donated is dependent only on two things, gender and age. So, if I pledge to contribute the value of a particular boy who's 5 years old, I say, I want to pledge the value of this person to the base of miktash. This is a boy who's 5 years old. I need to contribute 20 silver shekel. That is a silver currency weighing around 360 g of silver, and I pledge it to the base of miktash to the temple. What happens if I pledge to contribute the value of a 1-year-old boy? A little baby. I say, I want to pledge his value to the base of miktash. I pay the holy temple five silver shekel. There's an entire tractate in Mishnayos and Gemara dedicated to this mitzvah known as Maseches Erchin, the tractate of evaluations devoted to this topic. It goes without saying that these numbers don't reflect the actual value of a human being, any human being, because the there's no price to life. The value of a person is is priceless. There's no price somebody's going to pay. I mean, you see it even practically every day. How much money will people pay in order to stay alive? And the answer is they'll give everything away because life is beyond something you can buy for money or sell for money. These are symbolic numbers. And the symbolic numbers the Torah attaches to different genders, different ages, representing representing certain features of this gender A this gender or this age group and it's complicated to understand why the Torah chose these numbers for this gender for this age. Is there significance in this? Is this rational? Is this super rational? Which the commentators explore in great length to try to see the pattern, the rhythm, the male, the female, and what age male and what age female. But the bottom line is that it's very clear that it's not the real value of the person because you're not making any other distinction outside of gender and age. But what one is equally disturbed by is the structure and the location where these laws are placed. Why right after the Tochacha? Right after the rebuke, right after the warnings, the stern and harsh chastisement that the Chukosai introduces, do we immediately have the laws of Erchin, of evaluation, discussing the value of a person whose value you want to donate to the Beis Hamikdash, whether it's a man or a woman or a child, a male or a female? And in this case, it particularly seems completely out of context because it's not like it's just a different topic. It's like you're speaking about the general relationship between man and God, between the Jewish people and God, the blessings and the curses. The beginning of the parsha is filled with blessings, then comes the warnings, and right when that's over, he says, "These are the laws that God gave the Jewish people at Mount Sinai through Moshe." And the next scene, the next the next narrative, the next stage is Hashem tells Moshe, "Let me tell you the laws of the pledges of Erchin, of the value." When we open up the Baal the Baal HaTurim, as I mentioned to you in the past, is one of the great commentators of Chumash, authored by Rabbenu Yaakov, the Baal HaTurim, who lived in the 15th century in Germany and Spain. Was the son of the Rosh, Rabbenu Asher, one of the great sages of the time. So, the Baal HaTurim represents the following numerological explanation, if you will. And this is what he says. Says the portion of Erechin contains evaluations in this order. Starts with 50 shekel, 50 silver shekel, goes to 30 shekel, then to 20, then to 10, then to five shekel, three shekel, 15 shekel, and 10 shekel. For various ages and gender groups, the number varies. As I told you, every gender and every age has its own number. So, you have 50, 30, 20, 10, five, three, 15, and 10. The total of all of these categories comes out to be 143 shekel. If you don't believe me, you can do it on your own. 50 plus 30 is how much? 80. Then you have another 20 is 100, then you have 10 is 110, another five is 15. You have another three is 18, then you have another 15, and then you have another 10, so it's 143 shekel. And the Baal HaTurim says it's not a coincidence. This number matches exactly the sum of curses. The sum of all the curses that exist in the Torah. He says, you have the rebuke in parshas Bechukotai, but you have a second portion of rebuke in Deuteronomy in parshas Ki Savo. In this portion of Bechukotai, you have 45. In parshas Ki Savo, you have 98. Almost double. 45 in Bechukotai, more than double. And 98 in parshas Ki Savo. So, 45 + 98 is of course 45. Another 100 would be 145. Minus 2, 98 is 143. So, basically, the Baal HaTurim is saying that the Torah, in its homiletical way, is giving the anti the the antidote, the remedy. That the remedy for the tochacha, the remedy for all of the harsh chastisement in parshas Bechukotai is the mitzvah of Erchin, which essentially represents the mitzvah of tzedakah, which is charity. Because what is Erchin? Erchin was not just a person gives money. A person makes a pledge that I want to dedicate to a sacred cause the value of this human being, male or female, whatever age. So, essentially, it's an extension, it's part of the umbrella of the mitzvah of charity. So, the 143 shekels of contributions cancel out the 143 kuf mem gimmel chastisement tochacha. That's just one hint homiletical interpretation of the Baal HaTurim to give you one example of an explanation. But I want to present another explanation. By the way, this reminds us of what the Gemara says that uh when Haman tried to uh convince the king of annihilating the Jewish people, he offered him a huge astronomical sum of money, a serous alafim kikar kesef, 10,000 kikar of silver, a huge huge amount of silver in the ancient Persian empire. And the Gamorah says about this that hikdim shiklehem lishkalov. When God told the Jewish people that before Rosh Chodesh Nissan, everybody should donate a machatzis hashekel, basically their shkalim preceded and canceled out his shkalim. And the commentators explain how the numbers actually match up in perfect symmetry. But I want to discuss now a second interpretation, which was presented by the Kotzker Rebbe. Kotzker Rebbe was one of the great Hasidic masters, named was Rabbi Menachem Mendel Morgenstern, who lived in the city of Kotzk, which is a city in Poland. Passed away in 1859 on the 22nd day of Shvat. And he was one of the great, very genuine and sharp, and holy luminaries of his day. And he presents a different interpretation. To appreciate what he's saying, I think it would be worthwhile to introduce it with a story. And I do have to tell you, I read this story over the years, and I heard it from different people, Hasidim of Klausenburg, Sanz-Klausenburg Hasidim over the years, and I read it in different sources. And I've seen it transcribed in different versions. And I still did not get down to the original source and authenticate what is the proper version of the story, but here is the crux of the story in at least one of the versions that I once read. Klausenburg, Klausenburg is a village in Romania. And after the Germans invaded the village of Klausenburg in Romania, they began to celebrate the defeat of the Jewish population in their usual sadistic fashion. And they gathered all of the Jews into a circle in the center of town, and then paraded their rabbi, their rebbe, whose name was Rabbi Yekusiel Yehudah Halberstam, known as the Klausenberger Rebbe. He was born in 1905, tough for some okay, and he was the rav, the rabbi, and the spiritual leader of this town. Rabbi Yekusiel Yehudah Halberstam, and they paraded the rav and the rebbe into the center of the circle where the Jews were standing. The Klausenberger Rebbe was later taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where his wife and 11 children perished. He survived the war, and he came to America. He remarried. He had more children. And he built a grand Chassidic movement known today as Tsanz-Klausenburg or Klausenburg. He also built the beautiful Laniado Hospital in the city of Netanya in Israel, which was based on a pledge that he made to God during the very dire moments when he felt he was about to perish. But at this moment in Klausenburg, the SS guards began taunting and teasing the Klausenberger Rebbe. They pulled his beard. They slapped him around. They pushed him around. And these vile young soldiers pointed their their rifles at him. And their commander began to speak. And the officer, the SS officer, sneered. And he said, "Tell us, Herr Rabbiner, tell us, uh, great rabbi, do you really believe that you are the chosen people? That Juden sein in das auserwählte Volk. Do you believe that the Juden, the Jewish people, are the chosen people. And the soldiers guarding the crowd of Jews heard this question of the officer and they broke out in laughter like you know, what a what an insane question under the circumstances. Do you believe you're the chosen people? Completely at the mercy of uh the SS. But the Klausenberger Rebbe did not smile. In a very serene voice, he responded clearly and he said, "Yes, most certainly." The officer didn't expect such a response. He expected the Klausenberger Rebbe to smile in a show of submission and surrender to the powers at hand to be able to allow them to taunt and tease the people and demonstrate the futility and insanity of such a notion that this despicable race, down-trodden, dejected, who cannot even protect themselves on any level, were the chosen people. You know, you just laugh along with the master and hope for the best. That's what he was expecting. And when the Klausenberger Rebbe responded differently than he expected, instinctively he became enraged. And he lifted his rifle above the Klausenberger Rebbe's head and he crashed it down on the head of the holy Klausenberger Rebbe who fell to the ground. As he fell to the ground, the officer continued with a raging voice, "Do you still think you are the chosen people?" he yelled. And the Klausenberger Rebbe, already on the ground, nodded his head and he said, "Yes, we are." Now, the SS officer became infuriated. Not enraged, but infuriated. He kicked the Klausenberger Rebbe with all his might in his chin. And he said, "You foolish Jew. You lie here on the ground, beaten, humiliated, in a puddle of blood. What in the world makes you think that you are the chosen people?" And the Klausenberger Rebbe responded with words that are, I think, unforgettable. His mouth was gushing blood. He was maimed. He was wounded. And from the depth of this humiliation, beaten and crushed on the ground, he said something to this effect. I can't say this is verbatim what he said. I told you I saw different versions, but all the versions point to the same message. So, it's not verbatim, but it's the theme of apparently what he said. He said these words, "As long as we are not the ones kicking, beating, murdering other innocent people, we are the chosen people." That's what That's how this Jew responded. I also once saw a story about the Rov of Telz. Different part of Eastern Europe, Lithuania. Telz is a city in Lithuania. And like most Lithuanian Jews, they were murdered in the Holocaust. The Rov of Telz was a Rov Bloch. And uh the Germans gathered the Jews of Telz as well. And the story goes that he was taunting and teasing the Telzer Rov, the Rov of Telz. And he told them at one of these sadistic festivities that the SS like to create, he told them I'm just trying to remember the words that I read. That was a while ago. One of the survivors attested to share the story. One of the survivors of Tels, there were not many but there were a few. And he said, at some point, he says, "Here a binner, great rabbi, who is the Yud the Yudishe Got? Where is Where is the Jewish God? Where is he at these moments? Who is dein Got?" he says. "Where is your God at these moments?" And the Telsher Rov responded and he said, "As as euch dein Got." He's not only my God. He's also your God. And he holds you accountable for what you're doing now. The man was equally enraged, infuriated. Both of these responses point to a certain state of mind, a certain state of consciousness. On a physical level, these people really had nothing. They were What's the word? Uh It seemed treacherous, valueless, no dignity, nothing. No protection, the most basic needs of a human being, basic safety, basic protection, basic boundaries were taken away from them. But their inner core was full of richness. Their consciousness was expansive. Their vision broad. And their identity completely intact. This is not to underestimate in the slightest the horrific uh pain and agony they observed and experienced. But, it's precisely at such moments where one could see a display of the grandeur, the exquisiteness, and the inner pride and dignity of the human spirit that even such barbaric and painful and unfathomable inhumane circumstances could not deprive them from. In the beginning of Parshas Bechukotai, there's an expression, one of the blessings, there's a word that's used once. I believe it's once in the whole of Tanakh. I don't think it's ever repeated again, if I'm not mistaken. God says, "I will walk among you. I will be your God. You will be my people. I am God who has taken you out from slavery, from Egypt, from being slaves. I broke the yoke that kept you bent over. For oil eschem kaima meos, and I shall lead you kaima meos. The word kaima meos doesn't have a parallel in the Tanakh. It's used here only once, kaima meos. What is kaima meos? It made its way into benching. Harachaman hu yishbor, right? Oil hagoyim or oil hagolus me'al tzavareinu v'hu yolicheinu kaima meos l'artzeinu. He will lead us kaima meos. What is kaima meos? It's not a common word. So, I think it's used only once. We say it also in the blessing before Krias Shema, in Ahavas Olam or Ahava Rabbah, if you daven Nusach Ashkenaz. V'havieinu l'shalom me'arba kanfos ha'aretz, v'shever oil hagoyim me'al tzavareinu, v'saylicheinu meheira. Again, kaima meos l'artzeinu. Kaima You should lead us swiftly kaima meos. What is this word kaima meos? So, the Rashbam The Rashbam, who was a grandson of Rashi, writes and says, "Look at the context of the pasuk. It says, 'I am God who has taken you out of Egypt where you were slaves va'eshbor moitos ulchem va'oilich eschem komemius.' Va'eshbor means and I broke, I will break. Moitos ulchem, what's moitos ulchem? Oil is a yoke, like the yoke that they place on the ox who plows the field to harness it, to control it. That's oil. Moitos, he says, comes from the word matah, which means bending. Lahtos is bending. Because what the yoke does is it causes the the the head of the animal to be bent down, to focus downward. The head is not uninhibited and free to move in all directions. So, he says, "Va'eshbor moitos ulchem means I will break the yoke that causes you to look downwards. Va'oilich eschem komemius." He says, "What's komemius? When you take off the yoke, what's the first thing the ox does? It lifts up its head. When the yoke is there, its head is bent down. You will take off the yoke and it lifts up its head. It now can experience itself in full stature, as we would say, in full height. He says, "Komemius k'shehussar ha'oil, zoikef es rosho." Rashbam says. The yoke is removed and the ox or any animal that has the yoke, zoikef, its head is now straight up as the ox would like it to be. Indeed, when you look in Rashi, Rashi says on the words komemius, two words, "B'koma skufah." Koma means height. Skufah means upright, erect. One's posture is is fully erect. That's b'koma, with a height, but scofa. Scofa means straight up. The person is not bent over. The person is not hunched. The Gemara in Maseches Bava Basra, Bava Basra page 75 quotes an argument between Reb Meir and Rebbi Yehuda what the word kameimeus means. Reb Meir says kameimeus is sh'tei komos shel Adam ha-Rishon. The double height of the first human being. Kameimeus is like plural koma. That's what the Maharsha says or Rashi says or Rashbam says kameimeus has two mems. Koma has one mem. Kameimeus is cuz it's two heights. Double the height of Adam ha-Rishon. That's what Reb Meir says. The height of Adam, I will give you that height, but be double. Reb Meir's view. And he specifies what it means. He says that the height of Adam was 100 amos. Meah amah. Kameimeus is 200 amos. Rebbi Yehuda, his colleague, debates him and says, "No. Kameimeus is the height of the Heichal and the walls. The walls of the inner sanctuary of the Beis Hamikdash during the second Beis Hamikdash was the height of 100 amah. Kameimeus is the height of the Heichal, the chamber of the Beis Hamikdash. It went all the way up to 100 amah in the second Beis Hamikdash. That's what kameimeus means." Interesting argument. Double the height of Adam or the height of the Temple walls. Rebbi Yehuda and Reb Meir's translation of kameimeus. Sometimes koma scofa means very physical, as in the case of the ox. You take off the yoke, and the pasture can be erect. Person could stand upright. But koma scofa, as we all know, is not just physical. It's also emotional. It's psychological. It's spiritual. Sometimes physically a person may not be tied down with shackles. A person may not have a physical yoke on top of their neck causing their head to be downward. But emotionally or psychologically the person has an invisible yoke that holds them down. Sometimes that yoke is conscious. Sometimes that yoke is not conscious which only makes it a more powerful yoke cuz if it's conscious at least I can identify it and try to deal with it. If it's unconscious I often I'm groping in the dark. I don't know where that yoke is but that yoke is holding me down. So the promise in the beginning of the Koiser is and that's how the brochos actually end. The last word the eschem Kaim Mius. The apex of all the blessings is I will lead you in a in a state of Kaim Mius the Kaim Skufa. Upright stature, an erect stature. As the Rashbam says the antithesis of Mitas Olcha. So now let's go back to our conversation here. One of the greatest gifts of the Jewish people was that they did not allow humiliation and persecution that they endured sometimes by mighty armies and nations to ever define their inner identity and the inner worth of their identity, their destiny, their dignity. Like fearless lions they left Auschwitz and the next day they turned around to rebuild Yerushalayim or to rebuild their homes and communities the world over. As I spoke last week at length about the three names of the cemetery, the base, Hakforah space, oilam, and base Achayim. We know of many of people of culture who endured a lot of agony and suffering, but as a result, they could never rehabilitate themselves emotionally. They remained eternal victims of their oppressors. In fact, there's a fascinating you wouldn't think it's psychological, but it's such a fascinating psychological insight. In Parshas Masse, the end of Numbers, it's already 40 years after the Jews left Egypt. They're about to enter into the land of Israel. That's where we're holding Ela Hadvarim. And the Torah lists the 42 journeys that they made from Egypt all the way till Arvos Moav, the plains of Moav, near the Jordan River as they were about to enter, thank you, into Jericho, into Yericho. 42 encampments. I like to quote it accurately. Can I trouble you to give me one of the blue Chumashim on the bottom shelf, anybody over there? So, there's one pasuk, the way the Torah describes the way they left Egypt, but you have to remember, when you read it, thank you, it's written 40 years it's written about a story that happens 40 years later. Because it's recounting the 42 journeys when they left Egypt. So, he says, it's he's writing this Moshe wrote down all the journeys. In other words, 40 years later. They left Ramses. They left Ramses on the first month, 15 days. And the day after they brought the Pesach offering, the Jewish people left B'yad Rama with an outstretched arm before all Egypt. And the whole narrative is written in past tense cuz it happened 40 years ago. Vayichtoi, vayisu, vayisu, vayachnu. Vayisu means they traveled. Vayachnu, it's all in the past. They did it in the past. One pasuk is in present tense. The Jews left. They left Egypt. They left with pride. Um Mitzrayim mikabrim. And the Egyptians are burying those who were smitten that night, the people and their gods. Back to past tense. Um Mitzrayim mikabrim. In middle of the story, there's something in the presence. What's the difference between the Jewish attitude and the Mitzrayim attitude? What does it mean to be in Mitzrayim? 40 years later, I'm still defined by that story, which has caused me this oppression. That's what it means to be in Mitzrayim. To be in Mitzrayim means I will never ever be able to move on. I will always remain stuck in that place. And my mind, like a scratched CD, you ever have that scratched CD? And you You don't know what I'm talking about. You don't use CDs anymore? Is this like archaic? I didn't say a tape. I said a CD. It's scratched, and you have the song, and it's trying to go to the next note, but it can't. Sometimes we have a CD in our brain that's scratched, and you just go back and back and back. But But it can't be, and I really cannot let go. Um Mitzrayim, 40 years later, they will still be bitter and resentful and full of hate. Why? Because a person who's in a state of Mitzrayim, of of of restraints, of of of Um Mitzrayim is a place of limitations, where I become extremely narrow. The word may Mitzrayim comes from word metzarim. I find myself completely confined within these narrow confinements and limitations. So, years and years go by, but I don't let the passage of time to allow me to find healing, to open a new chapter, to move on, the same resentments, the same anger, the same fury, and most importantly, the same inhibitions. My mind is still under the spell of this force. The Jews were in Egypt and they suffered, but they knew how to leave Egypt. Ooh, the Egyptians never knew how to leave anything. It's fascinating. People often talk about the refugees who live in Gaza, the refugees who live in the so-called West Bank, Yehuda and Shomron, Judea and Samaria, and Gaza, and today they number in the millions. They number in the millions. They speak about the injustice that so many of these people, their families, lived in what's called proper Israel, within the green lines. That's Israel's boundaries before the war, and in 1948, so many of them became refugees, and they want to go back and reclaim their lands in Jerusalem or or Yafo or Haifa or Tzfat, etc. What's often not discussed is that in 1948, there were approximately the same amount of Jewish refugees. From where? From all over the Arab countries who couldn't remain there any longer and had to have a mass exodus from many of the Arab countries, like Tunisia, like Iraq, like Syria, and other countries, plus all of the Jews who survived the Holocaust and had no home. They were all refugees. Nobody had a place called home. Today, where are all these Jewish refugees? Where are they? What happened to them? Why aren't they standing in Poland or in Germany or in other places in Eastern Europe or in Arab countries screaming and blowing themselves up cuz they want back their old home. The answer is Israel absorbed every one of these last refugees to the point that there's no Jewish refugees anymore. This was their uniqueness, not that they forgot what happened to them, but they didn't allow what happened to them to deprive them from their future. Because the greatest reward I can give to my tormentor is that he wins over me not once but twice. He wins over me when he torments me and then he wins over me even when I leave. Even when I leave, I live with his or her her her shadow. That the Jewish people refused to give to their tormentors that victory. They would not allow the memory of that hate and the sadism they experienced to mar their productivity and their creativity and their ability to live and to love and to build. So the Torah says it all in one word, um it's rhyme macabre. They're still burying the dead 40 years later. Who buries the dead 40 years later? There's no concept of mental emancipation. I'm still there. What we call today trauma is all in that one verse, um it's rhyme macabre. Trauma means I'm not there physically but I am there. Physically I may be in a different place. Physically I'm sitting in a tent on 24 Shay Road, zip code 10952 in Rockland County, no shackles but emotionally where am I? Physically I may be in the most beautiful region in the world. I may be on the Swiss Alps or in Banff or in some other beautiful, absolutely splendid location in the world, the whole world is smiling at me, but internally I'm somewhere else. Internally, my mood, my disposition, is completely in shackles, completely in chains. The olam is not just a physical condition. It's an emotional condition. It's a psychological condition. So, therefore, you have so many people, they simply couldn't do it, and you can't judge somebody like that. People who remain eternal victims of their oppressors. How many people have I met personally who have shared with me abuse that they went through as children? And they still cannot shut their lights at night. They can't sleep with the lights off. Because the darkness of the room triggers something that is so present and so real. How many people are in a situation, and they'll have a flashback of an experience, and they are there. They're not here anymore. It's so real. And sometimes the slightest triggers, other people can't understand it. They see They see a car. They see a certain type of beard. They see a belt. They see a certain type of shoe. Some people they see a shul. A boy once told me he could never walk into shul again in his life because of something that happened to him in shul on Friday night. It happened over and over when nobody was there. I'll spare you the details, but you'll use your imagination. He said, "I can't walk into a shul." He told me I I was once describing in a shiur, in a lecture, I was describing the beauty of Shabbos, the beauty of a community singing together. And he came over to me after. He says, "I wish I can relate to what you're saying. Maybe one day, but today, when I walk into these places, it represents pain and purgatory. I can't." Now, if somebody who doesn't understand this person sees a person refusing to enter into such a place because it would seem they're insensitive, or they don't care, or they're careless about their family, or their God, or their community. Really, it's the opposite. They care so much, they're so sensitive, and they simply can't. So, this is not something one can ever judge because it's a very real part of people's lives, and you see it sometimes with complete peoples and complete cultures. Even after they're set free, it's an external freedom, but their inner sense of identity and liberty has been obliterated. And I would say from the little experience that I have that this is one of the great challenges that so many of us have to deal with. And sometimes the challenge is so deep that we don't even know that this is a challenge we have to deal with. It becomes second nature. We second-guess everything. We second-guess our instincts, our emotions, our feelings. We can't trust ourselves. We don't know why we are. We can't be free. We don't even know. Some of us are so used to this lifestyle that this becomes second nature. This is our only version of life cuz it happened at such a young age. We don't even know that there's a concept called freedom. And the only thing that's worse than exile is when you substitute exile for freedom. That's the only thing that's worse than exile. Because if I know THAT EXILE IS EXILE, THE AWARENESS OF a disease is half the remedy. The awareness that this is exile, this is subjugation. This is wrong. This is bad. This is sickening. It's already you're up there. But when somebody substitutes exile is called redemption, when subjugation and horrific submission becomes the only version of one's life, that is very, very painful. We the Jewish people as a whole glean strength to emerge from literally every historical disaster with courage and confidence to rebuild and prosper. Don't take this for granted cuz if this happens to individuals, it happens so much more with complete nations and peoples. And yet, we have a people sitting right here or wherever they're sitting around the world. And as discussed last week and I continue on that theme with Rabbi Akiva, a people that went through over thousands of years unfortunately so many disasters on so many different levels. And yet, one can still look at the Jewish people, their spirits are not dulled. They're still pulsating with ideas. The Jewish people are very vivacious people. We still drive the world crazy. As somebody once said, you're supposed to be a dead fossil together with the We're You ever walk into Century 21 and meet somebody say, "Who are you?" "I'm from the ancient Greek Empire." Walk into Evergreen or Rockland Kosher, Wesley Kosher, all the super Who are you? "I'm from the ancient Byzantine Empire. I'M FROM THE ANCIENT ASSYRIAN EMPIRE, Philistine Empire. Oh, I'M FROM THE ROMANS. I'M FROM Julius Caesar's boys or Pompey or Vespasian." These are the fossils. You go to museums for these purposes. That's really where the Jewish people belong from a historical perspective. Don't take it for granted. Rabbi Akiva Emden writes that from all of the miracles that the Bible describes, the greatest miracle that transcends them all is You know what the greatest miracle is? Go home and take a look in the mirror. And you will observe a miracle, as he puts it, greater than Krias Yam Suf. And Rabbi Akiva Emden understood this comes not from This is not a primitive statement. It comes from a deep sensitivity to understand history. It's very hard today. We live in the 21st century, to have that full picture. But when you develop a full picture, it's an incredible phenomenon. MAINLY YOU SURVIVED, OKAY? BUT THAT YOU SHOULD LOOK LIKE a fossil. You know what a fossil looks like? You took those science classes. You know what a fossil looks like? Ezekiel calls it at some ice here a vey choice. Dry, dry bones. Dry bones. But that didn't happen. Not only Jewish people survived, they survived with the tremendous vivaciousness. In every disaster, they took on with courage and were determined to rebuild and always to rebuild doubly, triply, fourfold, fivefold, tenfold. And one of the answers is one of the answers is from the order, from the structure of Parshas Bechukosai. From the structure of the portion of Bechukosai. Because the Torah enumerates the terrible suffering that the Jewish people might endure from the nations around them. The Torah describes the terrible casualties of anti-Semitism, of the hatred of the Jewish people. And the Torah finishes. And what's the next stage? What's the next verse? What's the next verse? Like what would we expect? And the least expected mitzvah comes in. The next is the value of a human being. That's the discussion. Erkin. Strange concept. Why are you letting people donate the value of people? YOU WANT TO DONATE, TAKE MONEY AND DONATE IT. WHAT DO YOU WRITE A CHECK AND YOU DONATE IT. HOW MUCH YOU DONATE? WHAT'S THIS IDEA? I COME TO YOU, I'm going to donate your value to the Beis Hamikdash. You're going to donate my value. You could do it with anybody, by the way. You could do it with your neighbor instead of selling money. What do they say? I donated in your honor, right? So in the olden days it would be not in your honor, I actually donated you to the base of English. I donated your value. There's a very profound message here, and that is that the title is telling the people no matter what happens, no matter the circumstances never ever lose focus of the value of your life or the value of another person's life. No matter the circumstances there's always that extraordinary value as an individual and as part of a nation now and for eternity. And that value can be contributed to the base of English which reveals the divine presence in the world. So when the closing bigger rebel was lying on the ground beaten and degraded surrounded by SS guards who with the pull of a trigger can destroy his life he never ever lost that innate value as a child of God, as a prince of humanity, as a miracle of a man, even in the the fact that I am not the murderer. You can murder an innocent person. I can't murder an innocent person. That in itself was a display of a tremendous sense of courage and dignity. That's why the partial of Eric and which literally means value, Eric is a value and evaluations comes right after this. But if you look at this historically and individually it goes even one step deeper. And I want to point to a theme in history that people often don't notice or take for granted or are unaware of, but it's important to be aware of it. Jewish history experienced outbursts of creativity that were completely unprecedented at different stages of our history. In other words, you have a nation that lives and functions and procreates and builds and maintains and it's amazing and maintenance in life is an extraordinary feat. You know, just keeping a house clean as you know, doesn't happen in a vacuum. Somebody does it. Some of you are familiar with that very, very well. You know the anecdote. There was this fellow who came home at night, 6:00 he came home from work. And as usual he used to walking into his home. His wife says, "Hi, how are you?" The kids say, "Hi." Sits down, loosens his tie, sits down for dinner and he comes home Hurban Bayis Shlishi. It's like Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A Hurban. Yeah. First of all, all the kids are without clothes running around. Every piece of food is on the floor. The couches are filled with chocolate mousse cake and ice cream. The beds unkempt. The kitchen looks like a chicken by Kaparos after Kaparos or like the world after Noach's flood. The place is a disaster. Mishrayt, Miloyft, Mahakt. The kids are killing each other. It's a mess beyond messes. So he turns to his daughter, he says, "Where's Mommy?" "Oh, Mommy's upstairs." Comes into the room and she's there under a blanket reading a book, one of her favorite books, calm, smiling with potato chips near the bed, some Pepsi-Cola, probably Diet Pepsi. And he's like, "What are you doing?" She says, "I'm relaxing." "What have you been doing all day? She says, "I'm relaxing. I'm just reading a book. This is what I do." He says, "Do you know what the house looks like? Do you see the destruction? I mean, how could you just lie there and do nothing and and not deal with the situation?" Well, she said, "What what's the issue?" He said, "HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? I NEVER SAW THE HOUSE LIKE THIS." SHE SAYS, "AH, let me explain to you something. You know how every day you sit down and you ask me, 'What did you do today?'" "What what did you do today? What did you do a whole day?" "Well, today I didn't do it." So, never underestimate maintenance. Maintenance. And maintenance of a people is not easy. But, sometimes you see in a person's life like this outburst of creativity. Sometimes in an individual life, you know, some some years are more monotonous and you just go with the flow. And sometimes like you give birth to a new child biologically or mentally. It's also true with a people. If you look at the Jewish people, there were certain stages of tremendous outburst of creativity. But, here's the most fascinating fact. And that is that every outburst of creativity followed on the heels of one of the worst disasters in Jewish history. And it's an undeniable fact. You could go through Jewish history and see the moment when there was a tremendous outburst of scholarship, of creativity in different fields. It happened as a result after a tremendous moment that would have warranted despair. Very briefly, I'll show it to you. After Yitziat Mitzrayim, which for the beginning of Jewish history was not just a crisis but a genocidal crisis and the suffering of the Jewish people went through in Egypt and it's still shocking how a band of slaves who had nothing suddenly it just in 7 weeks experienced divine revelation with a mandate and a blueprint that would change the world. From all the books in the world from any perspective you look at it Jewish or not Jewish the Bible remains the greatest best-seller of all times, the most impactful document on all of humanity and civilization. Today there are approximately 3 billion people in the world who all consider themselves the spiritual or biological heirs of Abraham. That one little Jew who commanded no empire, no army but God just told him in you all the nations of the world will be blessed. The basis of civilization came from that Hebrew Bible that they experienced after this. And if you'll go through Jewish history, take the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash, the first Beis Hamikdash. It was an absolute crisis. It was the first time the Jews were exiled. They lost their center, they lost their home, they lost their commonwealth, they lost their political and military power, they lost their spiritual epicenter the Beis Hamikdash. And what happens? What happens? Following on the heels of the Churban of Bayis Rishon, extraordinarily and and it still remains it still remains mind-boggling the the outburst and the creativity. There's no Beis Hamikdash anymore. Yechezkel Hanavi introduced the concept of Mikdash Ma'at. What's Mikdash Ma'at? Mikdash Ma'at is wherever Jews are going to be they're going to create a little sanctuary which we call today the shul. An extraordinary institution. How? Because the main shoulder base amictus was destroyed. And a new creativity of Torah Shebaal Peh, known as the Zugois and the Tanaim, happened in middle of Bayis Sheini. The great traditions of the oral tradition Torah Shebaal Peh were primarily developed during Bayis Sheini, like all of the brachos and all of the tefillos by the Anshei Knesses Hagdoloh. The second Bayis Hamikdash's destruction was far worse. This literally seemed to spell the end. And what happens on its heels? The outburst of creativity, the entire authorship of the whole Mishnah, the entire Gemara, Talmud Bavli and Yerushalmi, all the Midrashim, the whole Kabbalistic literature, like Zohar, Sefer Habahir, SEFER YETZIRAH, ALL THIS in the decades and centuries right after the Churban Bayis Sheini. The creativity of the scholarship, of the piety, the piety, the saintliness, the depth of wisdom by the Tanaim, and then the Amoraim, and then the Rabbonans Savoraim, and the Gaonim. Incredible stuff. Comes the Crusades in Europe. The Crusades in Europe were horrific. And in that very era, on the heels of the Crusade that destroyed the three communities of Shum, Shpire, Vermiza, Mainz, Speyer, Worms, and Mainz on the Rhine River in Germany. First Crusade 1096. And on the heels of that comes the unprecedented creativity and outburst of Ashkenazic Jewry. Heralded by Rashi, who lived through the first Crusade in France, and his descendants known as the Baalei HaTosfos, and all of their students who built Ashkenazic Jewry in the East. We read their commentaries and we don't realize that surrounding them were just a few days before what they experienced. They should have all given up and surrendered. You go to Spain, Spanish Inquisition that began in the 14th century and ended in the horrific expulsion of 1492. It was one of the greatest blows, one of the greatest stabs in the history in the chest of the Jewish people. A few hundred thousand Jews who expelled who expelled from a place where they were for hundreds of years, close to a thousand years. Tur HaZahav, the gold What is it called? The golden uh the golden age of the Jews in Spain, incredible prosperity and success. Some of our greatest sages, scholars, poets, philosophers, astronomers, linguists were produced there. People of the of the caliber of Rambam and Rebi Yehuda Halevi and and Reb Reb ibn Gabirol, Rashba, Ramban, dozens and dozens, hundreds of luminaries of Spanish Jewry, all gone in one day, Tisha B'Av 1492. And many who couldn't deal with the pressure and converted or became Marranos, many of them later burnt at the stake when they were caught. And what happens after that? Those very Jews who left, suddenly there was a whole new outburst, the whole Hochma sa Kabbalah, the whole wisdom of Torah sa Sod of Jewish spirituality, the mysticism, all the writings of Reb Moshe Cordovero, the Arizal. It's all the 1500s, right after that. Many of them came from there. Reb Alkabetz and his colleagues from Tzfat came from Spain with Reb Yosef Caro. They moved to Tzfat. And suddenly he's composing Lecha Dodi Likrat Kallah. Have you read through Lecha Dodi? You would ever notice where this person is coming from? What this person experienced? Read through the Shulchan Aruch of Reb Yosef Caro, all the commentators. And the same is true with blood libels and pogroms and auto-da-fés in Europe produced tremendous creativity of Rashaim and Macharim. Comes 1648, 1649, the Khmelnytsky massacres. Massacred most of Jewish Poland. 300,000 Jews. The Holocaust eclipsed everything else, but this was the worst disaster in Jewish history before the Holocaust. Since Khurban Bayis Sheini, Khmelnytsky's pogroms 1648, 1649. AND IF THAT WASN'T ENOUGH, SHABBETAI Zevi's false messiah, the the debacle when he converted to Islam in in 16 1666. And what happens on the heels of that comes the Baal Shem Tov. The whole revolution of the world of of Chassidus of the Baal Shem Tov came on those heels. And then in the Lithuanian world, the whole growth of the whole Yeshiva movement came on the heels of this. These were tremendous and what happens? A hundred years of incredible spiritual creativity of luminaries like the Baal Shem Tov and the Maggid of Mezeritch. And in his in his area in Vilna, the Vilna Gaon. People like the Baal HaTanya, Reb Levi Yitzchak of Berdichev, like Reb Nachman of Chernobyl, and the hundreds hundreds of luminaries, a century of unprecedented revival and a new dosage of consciousness. In our own generation, the Jewish people experienced the worst of the worst. Some of you grew up in such homes of parents or grandparents of survivors who watched their entire families perish. Like the Klausenberger Rebbe, in one day a wife and 11 children reduced to smoke. It's unfathomable what they went through. Now, some of them were saints, but most of them were regular human beings who played in Poland and in Lithuania and in Ukraine and in Hungary and built families and communities, regular people. Kids who grew up in the 1920s and 1930s and then endured something that still remains unfathomable. Mamesh unfathomable. I still read Holocaust literature, diaries, books, documentaries. I still can't believe it. I read every story and I'm like still asking myself did this really happen? And I've read quite a lot about of this during my life. I mean at least relatively I read quite a lot. Still surreal, it's unfathomable. Like I'm reading the story and I'm saying no, it can't happen. Something at the end had to something at the end had to happen. Reminds me of the this boy who the teacher was teaching parshas Vayeishev, you know, Yosef goes and they take off the tunic and uh and they throw him into the pit and this boy starts crying. When you read parshas Vayeishev and you're attentive, you start crying. The next year they were learning the parsha again. Yosef is going close and the boy gets UP AND SAYS, "YOSEF GAINISHT! YOSEF HAS GESEHEN WHAT THEY DID LAST YEAR. YOU SAW WHAT THEY DID LAST YEAR. DON'T GO, YOSEF!" AND HE YOSEF GOES AND they strip the tunic, they throw him into the pit. Yet, kumt es dir. Es is nicht gefolgt. You didn't learn from your experience. Now now you're responsible for it. We have this natural human sense. It's still surreal, it's still unfathomable. But what's even more unfathomable, greater than the unfathomable barbarity of the Germans and their comrades, those who helped them in Poland and Lithuania and Ukraine and Hungary who helped the Germans achieve their final solution, more unfathomable than that is the courage of those Jews who survived and the next day they did not forget what happened. Their numbers were tattooed and remained tattooed and some of them still in their arms. And yet they looked ahead. And so many of them built incredibly large families. Not just families, family webs. And gave them whatever they can. And many of them would scream in the middle of the night, but it wouldn't stop them from waking up in the morning and trying to give their children a life that was better than they had. Now, I sometimes meet people who are second or third generation or fourth generation Holocaust survivors. Some of them are still suffering because they went through a lot. It wasn't easy. The transition wasn't easy. But I think it's always important to remember that the greatest miracle is that they can even try to rebuild their life on a most basic level. It's incredible. I once met a Auschwitz survivor. He should have had a force later name is Benny Fishoff. Reb Yechiel ben Zion Fishoff. And he told me he told me these words. He said that the Gemara says in Maseches Sanhedrin in the 11th chapter, there were three people, Chananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, who were thrown into a Kivshan Aish, a fiery furnace. And they survived. Nevuchadnetzar cast them into the furnace. And they survived. And they're never mentioned again afterwards in the Tanakh. They're mentioned in Daniel. We never hear that about them again. They like disappear from our literature. So the Gemara says, "What happens to them? What happened?" So Reb Yochanan says, "Olu nash Olu l'Eretz Yisrael, nasu nashim, v'holidu banim u'vanos." They went up to Eretz Yisrael from Babylonia. They got married and they had children. And Reb Yechiel ben Zion Fishoff looked at me and he said these words. He said, "Reb Yisrael ben Yitzchak, they were in a fiery furnace. They came out, they should have gone crazy. What do we call it? PT the post-traumatic stress disorder, but magnified. And it's normal. Many of us have it in a smaller magnitude as a result of smaller events, but in our own imagination, they're not small. How can you assess trauma? How can you assess trauma of the soldier in Vietnam or Iraq or Afghanistan or the person who went through very subtle trauma nobody understood it, but he was 6 years old or she was 6 years old. Go explain to the brain of a 6-year-old that it's nothing. For the 6-year-old, this is everything. My mother, my father, my my rabbi, my community, my environment, my friend, my brother, my uncle, whatever, my babysitter. You can't assess it. So, that's what should have happened. So, the Gemara says, "You know what happened to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah?" They said it's time to go back. They went to Eretz Yisrael, they got married, and they built a family. Reb Elimelech Shapiro told me, he says, "You know what the greatest miracle about the Holocaust survivors is?" He says, "We're not saints. We got married. We built Eretz Yisrael spiritually and physically. And we had children." So, he told this to me at a Sheva Brachot in the Five Towns. Why was we were both at a Sheva He told this to me. So, then they invited me to speak at the Sheva Brachot. I really had a drasha. I said over what he said in his name, he was there. But then I said, "I want to add something that Reb Yechiel ben Zion didn't say. Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were saved from the fiery furnace. They were cast there, but they were taken out. But the whole generation of Holocaust survivors, they themselves were taken out. They were plucked out of the gas chambers, Mengeles selections right or left. But they left 6 million in the gas chambers. Their brothers and sisters and parents and children and nephews and nieces and uncles and aunts and communities were reduced to ashes in the gas chambers, in the crematoriums. This was not a Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah story where three people were saved. They were saved, but so many others weren't. And still, what did they do? They rebuilt Eretz Yisrael. They got married, and they had children. This is an infinitely greater miracle than Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah did something extraordinary. But Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah faced the flames once, and they were out. These Jews still faced the flames because of everybody they left behind. And yet, they did not allow that to mar their willing for the most part their willingness for life. And when you just read stories like that of Primo Levi, who ultimately took his life or other survivors, you can understand all of those who didn't and what it took for them to rebuild. What happened after that korban? You would expect maybe the dulling of human life. But the fact remains that with the vision of a few individual great Jewish leaders and with the vision of every survivor, they rebuilt Jewish life in unprecedented ways. Again, it's easy for us to take it for granted. But if somebody was around 77 years ago, this was un- dreamt of what they did. Both in Eretz Yisrael in Israel and throughout the entire diaspora physical, emotional, spiritual, families and communities. You go sometimes to the funeral of a survivor of a Holocaust as some of you have recently gone and you see 100 grandchildren, 200 descendants, 300 descendants. This person weighed 60 lb if if on the day of liberation after a death march, emaciated skeletons they themselves couldn't imagine a future and a few decades later Echod oh hi Avram v'hairish es ha'aretz. A whole a whole generation was born. And a generation that's alive and Jewish creativity is not showing any signs of dying or even becoming duller or weaker. They say that there was once a news story about somebody that he died and he really didn't die. So he sent out a note and he said what was the word? He said uh my obituary was written prematurely. The Jewish obituary was written prematurely. But I do want to emphasize that sometimes when you see people who from the tochecha they rise up with such dignity it represents the value of life in a far more powerful way. They tell a story about the Satmar Rav Zchuso yagen aleinu v'divrei yagiv Yiddish titlebaum when he came to Eretz Yisrael he was in Bergen-Belsen And Hungarian Jew came and asked him for a blessing before his departure back to the US. And he says, "Rebbe, when you go to America, there won't be anybody worthy to ask for a blessing." So, the Satmar Rebbe said, "Go any Go to any Jew who has a number tattooed on his or her arm, and you can ask them for a bracha. And when you have such a person available, you really don't need me to give you a blessing. Because the greatest sanctity, the greatest holiness, the greatest splendor of human life, of Jewish life, of holy life emerged. And here, a lot in conclusion, we have two heights. Reb Yehuda says the double height of Adam. Reb Meir says the height of the heichal. There's a difference between the two. Adam was the first human being. Adam is the first person to be created. The height of Adam represents the height of a person. The dignity of a person. But tzelem Elokim asah et Adam. In the dignity of God, in the image of God, he created a human being. That's the height of Adam. The height of the heichal represents the height of the sanctuary, the height of the Beit Hamikdash, which belonged to the Jewish people. There is the height of Adam is the dignity of every human being. Reb Akiva says in Pirkei Avot, "Chaviv Adam shenivra betzelem." Every person Hu haya omer, Reb Akiva would always say this. Every person, betzelem Elokim asah et Adam. That's the height of Adam Harishon. The Mishnah Gemara tells us The Mishnah Gemara tells us in Sanhedrin page 37, "Why did God create man and human The first human being single?" Lefichach nivra Adam yechidi. All animals were created as peers, male and female. But Adam and Hava originally were like Siamese twins. And the answer is that every human being is an Adam is a whole universe. And then the matter continues, why did God create the world in a way that we all come from one source? The same father and mother Adam and Hava. And the reason is that throughout history no human being should be able to turn to another human being and say I need God in Hava. I have more worth than you. Somehow my blood is redder than your blood blood. What's the height of Adam? The height of Adam is the dignity of a human being as a human being in the progenitor of all of civilization and humanity, which is Adam. That's the first dimension of human pride. That's the first dimension of Adam. What gives you dignity as a human being? Not your job or your clothes or your wealth. It's all good to have great clothes and great job and great wealth. It's the very innate fact that you are a human being. When Thomas Jefferson wrote that these are self-evident truths that every person equally is entitled Excuse me. To that sense of liberty that the American Bill of Rights guaranteed, what makes it self-evident? With all due respect it's anything but self-evident. And I'll prove it to you. For 6,000 years it was not self-evident. It's a recently modern development that every person is entitled. Nobody agreed with this. It's not self-evident. It's a concept. It's an idea. And it was introduced by the Judaic values that one person can't tell another person I am superior to you and you are essentially here to serve me. Which is why the symbol of ancient Egypt is the pyramids. What do the pyramids look like? What do the pyramids look like? You ever saw the pyramids a picture? Broad on the bottom and it gets narrow, narrow, narrow, narrow all the way to the corner there's a point on the top. What does that represent? Represents a culture. The masses are here to carry the privileged ones on their backs. And they are there to carry the more privileged ones on their back all the way till you reach the Pharaoh, the demigod, the god of all of Egypt. He sits on top of everybody who are here to carry the demigod. Now take the menorah. What does the menorah look like? You see how the menorah works? The exact opposite. There's the base and the base carries all of the branches. All of the seven branches of menorah represent the seven Who is the leader in the Jewish people? The one who carries on his or her shoulders all of the souls, THE EXACT OPPOSITE OF THE pyramids in Egypt. Like the Gamara says in Gamara told two potential Jewish leaders who said it's not for us. He said, "You think I'm turning you into I'm TURNING YOU INTO LEADERS? I'm turning you into servants. A true leader is the ultimate servant because he understands he's not superior to anybody else. He has a privilege of carrying the people, of being there for the people. That's the of Adam. That's what it means a person has to know that they're an Adam, not in an arrogant and primitive and foolish and narcissistic way. The of Adam is the height of human being and it says double height of Adam because there's the height of the body and there's the height of the soul. The say that before he was 200 and then he was diminished to brings the the soul and the body were one. The two heights and created a gulf between the two which is why Adam and have a embarrassment from their body exposed and they had to wear clothes because before they introduced us the body was just an extension of the soul. The two heights of Adam and Eve means your height in your body but also your height in your soul and one infuses the other cuz what gives the body dignity is the consciousness of the body, the soul, the nefesh, the neshama inside the body. But it's not just the height of the soul, it's also the height of the body. Human dignity means to preserve your body and to preserve your soul and to attribute to them the great dignity that both of them deserve, the double height of Adam. Comes Rabbi Yehuda and he adds there's another height. That's the height of the heichal. The height of the Beit Hamikdash. A human being is not only an Adam from the word Adamah which means he was made of earth. The word Adam as the Zohar says comes from the word Adamah. Adamah Elaion, I reflect I reflect the divine. I reflect the heaven from the word Doima. The human being is a messenger. The human being is a metaphor for God. Mivsari Echzeh Eloha. When you look at yourself, from your flesh you can perceive the divine. A human being is a Beit Hamikdash. Va'asu li Mikdash. Veshachanti besocham. A Jew is not just a human being Adam in the sense that he or she is a fine, good, ethical, nice person who observes the Sheva Mitzvos Bnei Noach which is tremendous as a reflection of Tzelem Elokim, that's stage one. Then comes Rabbi Akiva and says Chavivin Yisrael shenikru Banim laMakom. There is the Chaviv, is the Jew who is called a child. A child who brings to the world the presence of the master of the world, who reveals divinity in the world, who reveals the oneness in the world, who reveals the kedusha in the world. That's the koma, that's the height of the heichal. That's the gift of koma mi'us. The koma skufa. You would think the taiga her That's how the blessings end. You would think that the rebuke cancels it all out. Look what you have been through. You're downtrodden, you're treacherous, YOU'RE DEJECTED LIKE THE SS officer tells the Klausenberger Rebbe. YOU'RE NOT COMING MIOS, YOU'RE EVERYTHING BUT COMING MIOS. The next portion they read away read the air kin. Never ever allow even the worst challenge the worst crisis the Jewish people will face as part of their journey to cancel out and diminish their inner sense of purpose, value, and dignity and to think in any way that the crisis somehow is not part of their journey. It's not part of their value. It's only because of their holiness. It's only because of their holiness that they can attract such venom, such hatred. And therefore, not only did it not debilitate them or paralyze them. It unleashed the greatest outburst of self-spiritual actualization throughout all of history both in the height of Adam as Adam the two heights body and soul and in the height of the heikhal, the height of kedusha, the height of the Beit Hamikdash. Individually what that means is if you could look at your life and everyone has their own little pekelach that they have to deal with. I don't know how to say pekelach in English. Packet. I know the word package, but I mean everybody got their little let's call them doggie bags. So, if the doggie bags would just be filled with tuna and sardines like in the chol hamoed trips nishkafarlach, but sometimes those bags are filled up with some other substances. And a person could look at it and a person can maybe unconsciously not be aware that those things may be gripping you, may be holding you back, may be holding you down, may be telling you something about yourself that is really paralyzing your ultimate creativity. Here comes Parshas Bechukosai and says Lo ima'astim v'lo ga'altim l'chaloisa. Never, even in the worst of times, should they ever feel that they're despicable. On the contrary, the Torah brings right away to airkin to the value. If there is a challenge, it's only for one reason. In order to allow you to unleash unprecedented creativity and rejuvenation. Rejuvenation as in Jew. Have a wonderful week. Thank you. Thank you. Devarim is a repeat of it's a Mishneh Torah. Yes. So, why is it that Ki Savo has 98 and over here only 49? Good question. The Ramban says Yeah, yeah, no problem. The Ramban says that the first Torah was by Rishon. The second is by Sheini. That's what the Ramban says. Ah, and the other and besides the Ramban, I mean otherwise everything else is really repeated. Right, so the Ramban says there was a different Torah. This was by Rishon. For by Rishon, there's a by Sheini. means that if It was more grand. If you want to find anything cuz everything's supposed to be in there. So, like you're supposed to even find the the simon for the Holocaust in the Torah. That's what some do, yes. So, that that's what they're saying. I I am a child of a survivor. My parents both survived. They were in camps together. Which camps? Um actually, my parents come from Hungary. So, 1944 they were taken to Auschwitz, but their train was turned back. The only train from 30 trains that went from Hungary to Auschwitz was turned back. They were in Auschwitz, a train arrived ahead of them. Mengel did not want to have two trains at the same time. So, he didn't want one place to see what the other one is doing. So, he asked the train to leave, and their train was turned back. They ended up going to Austria. They were in a camp over there where called the bread uncle. My two grandmothers worked side by side. From there they went to Theresienstadt. May they were liberated 1945 from Theresienstadt. Wow. And they both survived. Welcome back. This class is brought to you by theyeshiva.net. Please help us continue the classes. Make even a small contribution at www.theyeshiva.net/donate.