Rambam’s Letters | Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz

an endangerment and our heart certainly has to go out for them and their families as well as the and ouros are indeed that there should be a ghoulish limit. It's interesting. I got a an interesting email from somebody. He said he had a big makus with his wife. He said that um he decided as an act of self-sacrifice that they would not sing on Shabas until all of the Katuim are freed. His wife said, "Well, what's going on? I mean, you don't take away from the joy and holiness of Shabas." So, he asked me what my opinion was, and if anyone's interested, I basically said, "Your wife is 100% right. uh if you want to cut down on something, don't have chocolate or cake. You know, that might that that might be that might be a legitimate sacrifice, but you don't take away uh you don't take away the shabas for the other way around. When you do these mitzvah, think about the my mitzvah should be a zus and a blessing uh for them. You don't cut down. I mean even during the Holocaust for example Rebson Katar of Arin Kata's wife uh for five years she had she had a sweet tooth and for five years she did not have chocolate for the entire shawah uh she did not how can I have chocolate if if Jews are suffering but I can assure you they didn't cut down on whatever nhagim they have on chabas or whatever although don't sing anyway but okay that's a separate thing okay so anyway I'm very pleased to announce that we are going to begin our course uh because the the name the name of the course is letters and introductions of the Rambam and we hadn't gotten to any letters yet because we were going over the Rambam's commentary to the Mishna. We were going over the Mishna Torah and we went over very briefly an outline of the Morim. Uh but today we actually are going to start with a bonafide letter. Uh and uh you can get the entire letter in Hebrew and English on Safaria. Not all the a lot of the letters you won't be able to get. I'm gonna either have to make a copy or just discuss it. This particular letter which is the first of the famous public letters of the Rambam uh is available online in different ways. Uh the Rambam again wrote it this letter in Arabic with Hebrew letters though not the Arabic right. He wrote the Arabic and Hebrew letters and it was translated into uh Hebrew relatively early. And uh this letter goes by two titles so interchangeable. It is called either hashmad the letter regarding forced conversion or it is called maar kidush hashem an essay on the sanctification of god's name. Okay, those are interchangeable. Do not confuse this with another letter the Rambam wrote a kind of an overlapping called which was sent to the Yemenite Jews. We will we will get to but that is not this this is a hashmad or keshm uh this is in the nature of a public letter meaning this is not a letter that was written to any uh one person this was written to a community and it's a little strange like where did the Rambam get his authority at this point the Rambam was only 27 years old when he wrote I tan The Mishna Torah has not been written yet at all. The morim certainly has not been written at all. And even the perishay has not been completed because that was completed around the age of 30. Yeah. Which letter? Well, it's either called or mamarashem. Uh so far has it. uh for some reason um they put very few lines per page. So so it covers 147 pages but it's only like four lines per per per page. So uh suppose that these names were not the name no the names were not the names were given by the translator. The Rambam did not give a title uh to the essay. uh they were given by translators and uh we we we this chu this as essay is but how do we know it? I mean we basically know it because it is quoted in Shoou shortly thereafter it is quoted by the reashites one of the great postkin it is quoted by the tashbets Shiman Benze so essentially this is reconstructed from the quotations of the translation that appear in various sources so the Rambam was 27 years old at this point in his life he his father is still alive we don't really know about his mother and these are the years of wandering. The Rambam is not yet in Egypt. Remember the Rambam was born in Cordoba, Spain and because of Islamic persecutions his father took the whole family on a series of wanderings uh to Morocco to Erit Israel briefly various other countries in North Africa the MRI till they eventually got to Egypt where the Rambam spent the rest of his life. Uh and this letter is written before the Rambam gets to Egypt. When the Rambam is living in Fez, Morocco that is actually where the Rambam got his medical training uh by apprenticeship and the like. The Rambam's father is still alive. And what is going on is that uh the countries of the Madre which basically north North Africa are being ruled by a very fanatical group of Muslim extremists. So life is not always that that different uh called the almoads that's the pronunciation and the almoads had a thing very very strange and the Rambam himself says this is the strangest kind of forced conversion that we ever faced in Jewish history. The Raam says that they would stop Jews in the streets or anyone that was not a Muslim and require that they affirm uh the Islamic statement that you know Muhammad you know God is one God and Muhammad is his prophet etc. And if a person refused to do so, they would simply be killed. The kn basically a knife was put to a person's neck and say these words or else. And uh someone and the Ram doesn't mention who someone had asked a rabbi another rabbi who is unnamed aboutly what are we supposed to do? Are we supposed to give our lives by refusing to make this profession of faith? And that would mean, by the way, not only would we die, there's an extra twist here, but it would also mean that our children would be raised by the um one one has to keep in mind that martyrdom here is not just giving up your life for keshashem in a sense a sense you would be sacrificing your children. That was part of it. Or do we say a Jew has to give his life no matter what Yavar? So the rabbi gave a very very harsh answer and the Ramb makes the point several times that this rabbi was not living under these circumstances. So in a sense the Rambam says he should have remembered Perovos of not judging people until you're in their situation. The Ramb the Ramba mentions more than once that this rabbi is living a life of relative comfort and freedom and he's looking down at Jews who are being persecuted. And this rabbi said, "You must give your life before you make this statement." And not only that, but the ra but the rabbi says, "Even if all you do is enter a mosque and you say nothing at all, you are hahly an idol worshipper. This is what the rabbi says. We'll see the rabb will differ with all of this. You are luckily the rabbi is nameless. Uh I mean as we go through this you'll see why the rabb didn't want to mention his name. Uh he says so number one you must give your life. Number two you are treated as an idoltor even if all you did was enter the place and not do anything. And then he said that you are hated by the Almighty. And any mitzvot that you do after you have embraced idolatry are not only worthless in the eyes of God, but they are treated as sins. Meaning you walk into a mosque to kind of plate the persecutor and then you go home and you put on fill in and you dab in and you keep chabas and you keep kosher. This rabbi's message is it doesn't count and you're adding sin to your sinfulness. This by the way uh was the straw that broke the Rambam's back. The Rabam says, "If the guy simply would have made a mistake, you got to give your life." Okay, I would have I would have kept quiet. There are so many fools in the world. He says, "I don't have time to address everybody." But the straw that broke the Rambam's back is the message that don't bother doing mitzvah because they're worthless in the eyes of God. One has to understand that essentially this person is giving people who succumbed cart blanch. You might as well not be Jewish. And that the Rambam said he could not allow. He could not allow that statement to survive because you have to understand that in many many ways this thing that's called the hashes although there's a lot of in here and the is bit complicated it it is actually a letter of comfort and emphasizing the point over and over and over and over again and we'll get to the martyrdom issue but that is Okay. If you can't do some mitzvah, that doesn't mean you don't do other mitzvah. Whatever you can do, you have to do. That's a general approach to life. Uh always never take the position that if if there's a part of the Torah that for whatever reason you're not fully keeping. Don't bother to keep the rest. That's a very big mistake. And he makes the point that a person who is abodor will get punished by God not only for abodor you'll get punished for not washing his hands before bread mean don't think that because you're doing the worst sins therefore the little ones don't count. If you can't do the big ones do the little ones. If you can't do 100% do 50%. If you can't do 50% do 5%. Every mitzvah is treasured. So that wouldn't all. Yeah, that's correct. I mean uh because the moriranos is a later phenomenon under Christian martyrdom but uh you have you have a very similar situation. So this rabbi who the Rambam constantly says who fancies himself a in fact this is very unusual. Now the Rambam is known throughout his career as a very temperate moderate person. Now maybe at 27 he had a different personality. Who knows? People sometimes get softer as they get older, but I think not. But this letter is a rare example of frankly the Rambam losing his temper. The Rambam is angry. The Rambam is furious because the Jewish people are being put down. The Jewish people are being demoralized. There were a lot of Jews who were listening to this type of sak and they were saying, "Okay, listen. We made that profession in the street because the guy was gonna stick a sword in our neck. Well, let's not keep shabas. Let's not keep cautious. What's the point? God doesn't want it anymore. And this could literally destroy Abby Israel. And just like the saying goes, a person should not necessarily be judged by their worst day. A person should not be judged by their biggest mistake. There is a life beyond that. Again, I I haven't yet addressed the should they give their life, but the Ram is saying even if you took the position, which the Ram will disagree with, that they should have given their lives, that doesn't invalidate all of the mitzvot that they do later and should do later. Okay. So, uh so the bit now the let me summarize the Rambam's conclusion, but then I want to go over it in great detail and we were this will cover more than one session. this makeover up to three sessions because there's a lot of rich material here and as they say the Rambam was 27 years old. What's interesting is that some of the Rambam's halak conclusions written at the age of 27 are not fully consistent with theic rules that he codifies in the Mishna Torah. In fact, uh Rabbi Dr. I am Salvetic Ra uh wrote several very wonderful articles on uh this letter uh and there's a lot of criticisms and comments by other people that he incorporates and he answers and his conclusion is that he calls an exercise in rhetoric and not meaning to say the Rambam essentially wants to comfort broken and demoralized people and as a result he is actually giving rulings that he knows are not the but to kind of make them feel good because he feels that they needed that and that's the only way they're going to stay in the fold. Uh that raises interesting issues. There are some people will say, "How dare you say that the Rambam is distorting in order to comfort uh people in order to give them is that the appropriate DK?" Well, I'm not here to decide that and I'm not even going to take a definite stance on that particular issue. Uh but uh Dr. Salv has some very compelling points that the in this letter are not fully consistent with the Mishna Torah. Now you could say well the Rama wasn't distorting maybe he changed his position. No that's possible. You can't prove that. Meaning if I see a contradiction between what he writes in the letter and what he writes in the Mishva Torah there are two possibilities. Uh either as Dr. Salvet says this is just and comfort and therefore it's not necessarily supposed to be accurate or you could take the position that the Rambam shifted his position. So I I I don't know if you could prove one way or the other. Uh but this is it's it's undeniable that the Ram that's one of the Rambam's main motivations was to provide and comfort. Yeah. kept being consistent in that approach because I believe opposed to calculating the date of arrival, right? But yet because people were so oppressed did so itself. Yes, that's correct. And in fact, that's going to be in the next letter about these persecutions where the Rambam will talk about right after he says never ever ever calculate the times of the me M messiah calculations. But I heard something from my father I want to share. Immediately after he says not to do it, he then offers it as a little bit of a little bit of of of of comfort. Okay. Now let me point out interestingly enough just two years before this mama keshashem was written and disseminated the Rambam's own father Rabi who was a dian wrote his own letter he did it first he wrote his own letter to belleaguer Jews but he did not deal with aspects and the letter which again was written Written in Arabic translated into Hebrew is known as eer that's the name of it the letter of comfort written by the father of the rabb I have not seen the complete I've seen some paragraphs and essentially is basically telling Jews that even though there is much suffering even though there are much yurin they are coming from God's love and eventually they'll will be ga eventually there'll be mashiach and don't give up. Uh in other words, it was more of a very general letter giving people and comfort without addressing the tangible points that the Rambam felt compelled to address. I guess because of this other rabbi who gave his his uh negative response. Uh as I say it's a bit of a mystery to me that uh the Rambam as such a young man who had not yet uh written the great Sarim for which he was known would be in a position to be a man of influence. But the truth of the matter is it is it is cited in historic sources that the Rambam already had a reputation as a brilliant Talmet, a brilliant scholar of the Torah, a brilliant philosopher and as a result at least within the confines of the North African communities, he was already known. It's it's hard to imagine in those days because how does a person's reputation spread? I mean you didn't have internet uh you didn't have email you didn't have YouTube you didn't have all the different ways in which you become instantly famous how does somebody in Fez become famous in Egypt or Egypt there normally we would assume it's from your books but there were no books yet right there were no books yet so but nevertheless it is said that the Rambam was already ya uh in many many circles yeah I mean That's must be what it is. Merchants are traveling. People spread word. Yeah. I mean eventually uh a reputation is there. It reminds me a little bit a totally different context but I think it's very cute. You know this will take us to the uh 1600s way way after the Rambam and we're moving from spartic jewelry to Ashkanazic jewelry Poland. And I always found it very endearing. You know, one of the greatest greatest postkim uh in is the primagim it's in the back of every and the primadim is one of the great great great definitive commentators on the so whenever there's a if primagim says something that's considered final. Now the primmaagim was not a rav and he was not a roshiva. He was actually a rebi he taught children and he even wrote different manuals for elementary education and the like. So how did he get a reputation? So the way it's described it's so fascinating to me. He was a guy who sat in the back of the sh. He was a he was not you know and you know and people would whatever people noticed after a while that you can kind of ask him a shila and he would kind of know the answer so people began to just ask him shyus and that's how you know he became like the priam you know uh just by people just asking you know uh revosa has this revshae in a in a very endearing way um in the in the 1970s the New York Times for some reason had an interview with Mosha Feinstein. I'm not sure exactly what the scenario was and the reporter like asked him like you know how did you become the big guy like how did you become the one that everybody asks? So he said in this very modest way he says you know someone asks you a shila you give an answer they they tell somebody else that hey here's a person who can give answers. So eventually you know people come to you because uh one person tells another person there's word of mouth. So to go back to the Rambam we have to assume that basically this was a word of mouth situation and there were trade routes 100% North Africa uh and these trade routes gave the Rambam pureum and the Rambam is using the pirum for uh spiritual advantage in writing letters of this nature. Yeah. letter that he wrote in response to a question. So the way the letter begins is a man asked another person who regarded himself as a about all of this and this is what the so-called said and I have to respond. So it's it's it's not it's not Mashma that they turn to him for a second opinion. The Rambam is taking the initiative to go ahead and do it. So first um when the Rambam uh before the Rambam begins his analysis uh now we cause a lot of sukim in Cohelis that uh you know a wise person knows how to keep quiet. Uh foolish people constantly talk. Uh it says in Cohelles like the crackling of thorns under a fire keep on crackling snap crackle pop. So too are the the voices of the foolish people. And he he brings like every puzz in the in the in the Tanakh that that talks about people who waste their words and say foolishness and and the like. And then he brings an interesting point. He talks about the idea that before you say something, you need to review it several times to be sure that it's accurate. Don't just speak off the top of your head. And if you're going to write it down, the Rambam says you should review it a thousand times before you write it down because when you're trying to communicate a permanent message, be sure that it is correct. So in effect he's telling the person you didn't think this out well enough. You simply responded uh you know your immediate response and you were led astray in that particular uh particular way. And again um he goes on and he says he he makes a final point. He says the last point that the rabbi made was the rabb kind of almost goes crazy. Forgive me for saying it this way. He says the rabbi said you know even the Christians would give their lives before they would acknowledge Muhammad. So how could a Jew not be as good as a believing Christian? So the Rambam says is there no God in Israel? He says people would burn their children. So we should burn our children. We should learn from them what is the right way of doing it. We should imitate them. Says is this what the rabbi is saying that we should look at and look at their mira and we should follow their example. And he even says the phrase and the Ram kept on saying I didn't want to say anything until I read everything because maybe as Cohelith says she knows sometimes the end of the message is better than the beginning. So I kept on reading and reading and reading and reading and reading and everything got me more and more and more and more upset till I finally said and especially the statement that the mitzvote don't count anymore. I he says I have to I have to uh respond. And so that's kind of the the introduction uh of the idea that the Rambam says that this was such a horrendous message to the Jewish community. He says, "If people are simply foolish, if people simply make mistakes, I can tolerate it." All right? There are plenty of idiots in the world, I'm not going to correct. And the Ram even is, and I know my owness as well. He says, "I'm not perfect either." Okay? So, I'm not going to I'm not on a roving commission to correct every single misstatement that is out there. If that would be a job that any of us would assume, we would never have time for anything else. But he says a statement that will take Jews away from Judaism, take them away from the Torah. That much I do have to fight now. So that's kind of part one. It's divided into parts. That's is kind of his initial dietry of the letter is very again very very masterful and it's kind of a message about Jewish leadership. says, you know, the role of a Jewish leader is not to knock people down. It's not to criticize them. It's not to denigrate them, but it's to build them up. And we see throughout Tanakh that even when the Jewish people were truly sinful, truly sinful, not like people who are acting because of fear of their lives, but truly sinful. When the greatest of leaders denigrated them, God punished them. And the Rambam gives a few examples. Number one is Mosher Rabben, right? The Jewish people in Misim, we just had Pesak were as we know on the 49th level of impurity. That's why they had to be redeemed 190 years early. They didn't have time to let their dough rise because as the Arizal explains the Ram doesn't bring bring the Cabala obviously that had they waited even the amount of time it takes for the dough to rise they would have hit level 50 and that would be irredeemable. The Jewish people were odara except for shvet levy. The Jewish people didn't practice brisa except for lady. And that's why it was the carbon pesak. They had to circumcise themselves to be able to bring the carbon pes and that's you will live by your blood. Damayak is bloods plural. The dam pes and the dam. So the Jewish people were very very sinful. Now the Rambam brings another khazal which some differ with this that they also were sexually promiscuous. Now for there there is actually another kazal that says they were not. So I understand that but the Rambam at least brings a kazal that they were kiluba they weren't doing the 49th level of impurity. They were not in a good place. Four-fifths of them died anyway because they had hit level 50. And yet in spite of this when Mosher Rabenu said at the very beginning of his when Hashem said go to the Jewish people, Mosher Rabenu said, "They will not believe me." What did Hashem said? Hashem said they will not believe me believe you. They will believe you. You will be the one who years later will not have faith in me when I told you to speak to the rack. Same lesson, right? Mosher Raen lobe, you didn't believe in me. Don't look at them as lacking says don't call them people who are not m see their potential. See their goodness. Misha Rabenu the greatest of the Naveen was Nash because he did not see the good in his people even when indeed there were over there bodar mamesh I should add although it's interesting the Rambam doesn't bring this directly that in according to many interpretations that was the sin of the hitting of the rock itself there are many interpretations he should have spoken to the rock he hit the rock but according to many it's because he called them rebellious ones. When a leader does not have faith in his people, he can no longer be a leader. So that's example number one. That's the example of Mosher Rabin. Example number two is Elio Hanavi. Eliohanavi was of course a prophet in the northern kingdom of the 10 tribes and he was a prophet during the reign of Akav Akav pretty bad guy. According to the book of Malim all of the Jewish people at least the 10 tribes all of the northern kingdom were of except for only 7,000 people. There's a puss in Malikim that says there are only 7,000 people who did not bend the knee to bow. Bal is the Canaanite god or kiss that god. And Elio Hanavi does a mass miracle in Mount Carmel, right? You can go and see it today where he uh this was a contest. The 400 prophets of the Baal built an altar and Elio and Nabi built an altar and they're calling down to God. Well, they're the Nia Bal are calling to their God, their idol and Elon is calling to Hashem. And of course, the great great miracle of El Bahar Carmel is that fire came down. It consumed the carbon even though there was a ditch and there was water and a miracle came down. By the way, because there's a basikdash, there is a basa mikdashly. You're not allowed to bring corbanos outside of the basa mikdash. And this is a classic example of what is called that a prophet can issue emergency rulings if it's a one-time isolated reason of kashm and's act had a tremendous impact. All the people that were there bowed down to and they decreed as we say at the end of Yamipper. You would think he brought everybody to cha but you know very shortlived. The day after this event is saying the marriage of Isa is really one of the most perfect shidim in history in a in a negative way of course husband and wife are really on the same page. I guess I guess in some way you have to admire that. But Russia and Rashas together and Yebo says to Leo, "Hey, this death sentence that we put on you because there don't think death's been cancelled. Yeah, you had a nice you had a nice show yesterday, but we're still going to kill you." And apparently this miracle was very shortlived. And this broke Ela because he kind of did the biggest thing he could do and it didn't really work. So Hashem tells him go into the desert and Yoani wanders in the desert till he reaches Mount Korea. And then there's a storm and there's an earthquake and there's a fire. And each time it says that is not the voice of Hashem. He's he's waiting for Hashem to speak to him. Hashem is not in the fire. Hashem is not in the earthquake. Hashem is not in the storm. Hashem is in the kyle deaka, the soft quiet voice. And the message essentially is kind of reminds me of Donald Trump's old show. He says, "You're fired." He says, "Go to Alicia, the prophet, the man Alicia, make him your successor." And the Rambam is Mazar. The Rambam is Masberry here that Elio Hanovi felt the Jewish people are encouraable. I did the greatest miracle you could imagine. and they don't change. And he says to Hashem, actually he's actually dialoguing with he says as Chris, they have anulled your covenant. And Hashem says back to him, "Oh yeah, that's why you're you're condemned to go to every single brisk that Jewish people ever do. They happen to know my covenants. They're still going to be faithful. They're still going to do mitzvah. We think going to a bris is a joy but you know if you have to go to every single bris it could be a little bit of a burden and this is also the macor although it's not a prefer that nobody comes to every seder because if you think about it the two rituals that almost all Jews I mean you jump kipper too but uh all Jews try to keep not all but most very very large percentage even if they're not religious at is they do keep circumcision although tragically there are some exceptions even to that but by and large they keep circumcision prits and they keep some form of a pes so Elio Hanavi who said the Jewish people don't keep your covenant is condemned to reexperience that again and again and again and again. And Hashem says, "It is not your job to be Israel. It is not your job to talk about how bad the Jewish people are even when indeed they are bad." Then he keeps on adding and kakur in this situation where they were acting for fear of their lives. But as a general point, Elio lost his job because he was a malame on all Israel. So that's the second example. Moshe is example number one. Yes. Leo is example number two. And he brings from again the the Ramb makes a point that this reading of Eliovi is not his own but it's in the Medish Shira that brings it. The third example is after ali and that is yes the na'vi and once again is actually uh in mal shudah he's in the southern kingdom and uh this is around 140 or 50 years before the basiktash but the Jewish people are already in a zora Right. The famous reasons the first temple was destroyed because of right the worst the worst of aos uh and the naveim give muser over and over and over again. Uh and remember that uh in perk it's out of order a little bit is inaugural prophecy. It's out of order but his inauguration to Nva is not the beginning of the book. It's by Periclav and he's in the B mikdash and all of a sudden he has a vision of Hashem sitting on the it's not it's similar to Yasco's vision but without the details Dr. The Gumar has a very interesting remark about this. It's peripheral to our discussion, but I'll mention it because it's very interesting. It says Yesho just says, "I saw the Almighty sitting on his great throne." Now, if you look inco that throne is described with different types of angels, detail after detail after detail. This is called the ma mer the chariot of god the greatest mysteries it doesn't give us any details I saw god on his throne so says the medish everything saw yes also saw but is compared to a villager a cuffrey a man in the sticks who sees the king Right? Let's imagine you live in a far away little village and one day the king comes. It's going to be so vivid to you that you're going to remember every detail. Yes. Is like a person who's part of the king's staff. He sees the king every day. So it didn't make the same impression. Yes was actually more ragil in the vua than therefore he was like of the melik who sees the melikes is a kaf who sees the interesting point it's a little because this is first nua I mean to say you know he's not yet but this anyway u and in this nua perk So he perceives Hashem addressing the heavenly court, the base in Shaala with rhetorical questions. He says, "Who will go? Who shall I send to be a ni to be a prophet to my people? Who should go?" And Yeshua is chosen. And yes says like Mosher Rabena but with a somewhat of a different nuance. He says I am not worthy of going. But then he says I am dwelling amongst a people of impure lips. people who profess idolatry and the like. And then it is recorded that a hot coal was taken from the msbak which was put on his lips. Again, this could be as as a dream. This didn't mean it actually happened. And Hashem says, "Your sins have been burnt away." And understands that is giving him. How dare you impugn the Jewish people by calling them to even though as the Rambam says in point of fact they were of and the Rambam even says again this is all based on a medish that this was this actually led to his death many many years later by none other than Manasha. Again, let me give you a little a little history here. Uh, yes spanned many many years. But yes active career of Nibua was around 80 years. He he died over the age of of 100. And um in his time some of the kings were righteous and some of the kings were evil. Uh for example, king who was a very very righteous king was uh that was when the 10 tribes uh the the Israel was overthrown and then turned to and a great great miracle happened the first night of Pesak where 180,000 of San's army got decimated in the merit of the prayer of aamelik uh who was a very very righteous king. Uh but you may recall the Gmoran Brahos that got got ill the Pussk says and he almost died and the Gmoran braos explains that was being punished by Hashem because he refused to get married and he refused to get married because he saw with that the son that he would have would be a Russia and therefore he didn't want to get married and said to him, "It is none of your business to look into the future. You must do the mitzvot of Hashem, but to minimize the the the risk of a bad kid, I'll give you my own daughter to marry." So's wife was Yeshu's daughter. They had a son. That son was Manasha. Manasha became king at the age of 12 died and he had the longest reign was years and exactly as envisioned was a Russia not only in his own but he caused others to sin. And according to Kazal, this is not in the in the narrative of the Nak itself. It was Manasha himself who ordered the death of Yeshay, meaning his own grandfather. Uh and Yeshu tried to evade capture. He turned himself into a tree. And Manasha ordered that the tree be cut down. And uh every place they put the saw, they could not cut down the tree. But at one point, which was Yeshua's mouth, where his mouth was, they were able to cut down the tree because that's where he was vulnerable. He was vulnerable because of the lash that he spoke against the Jewish people. How many years earlier? 80 years earlier. Now, now again, it's an interesting point because you might say, "Well, wait a second. Any is not supposed to save." I mean, the whole book is filled with to you're bad, bad, bad, bad, bad. Do cha do chuva. The difference is, yeah, the na'vi is told by God to give to Israel. But when he's talking to God, you're made. Your job is not to denigrate. Your job is to be constructive. So being a constructive teacher may mean you point out and flaws, but you don't inherently denigrate. Now by the way I just want to point out just as a little aside not really directly connected to our Indian but it's something that's worthwhile uh talking about that is what is the story about mana are you know are people born to be evil uh has this he's going to have a bad son and indeed it exactly happens was manasha born to be bad was it inevitable that it was going to be a Russia Is there such a thing as they call bad seed? Someone who just born to be bad. Um what about what about free will? So the truth of the matter is one way of understanding it is the idea of self-fulfilling prophecies that is Manasha was born with strong Yates to be sure but he was also born with compensating strengths and abilities. The Gomorrah actually says Masha was a phenomenal learn it in Torah. When the rabbis of the Talmud were discussing that he won't have a share in he came to them in a dream and he said ask me any question that bothers you in Torah. He knew everything. So what happens though is this. If you as a parent are convinced that your child is going to be a Russia, how are you going to deal with him? How are you going to educate him? How are you going to In other words, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. I view my kid as bad. He's going to be bad. In a way, mana, I'm sorry, was not well served by his advanced knowledge. The advanced knowledge might have become a reality. Now there's another interesting point that's very very fascinating. You know we have two books in Tanakh in that more or less cover the same territory. One is the book of malim which is really only one book of malim and the other is the book of right uh malim actually covers more because covers the northern kingdom only covers the southern kingdom but there's a lot of overlap in fact it's a it is a bit of a mystery uh what is drayam about because it either repeats or it contradicts so either way you got a problem if it repeats what's in why the repetition if it contradicts what's in mim then how do you explain the contradiction it's got to be a problem whatever you do but one of the most interesting contradictions is the life of mana in the book of mahim manasha's 52-year reign is described as unending evil m Viadov there is nothing redeeming whatsoever about Manash he was a bratty 12y old who became king and he just continued the rishious all of his life in Dra there's a fascinating end story here says at some point he was captured or kidnapped or held for ransom by the Babylonians. This is preban. This is not the preorban. And in his imprisonment, he turned to Hashem with all of his soul, all of his heart. And when he came back to Jerusalem, he became a bal chuva. He returned to Hashem and Hashem accepted his cha. This is a remarkable discrepancy between the book of malim and the book of book of malim once a rasha always a rasha. The book of manasha himself did sh. So I I saw an explanation about this very nice explanation that when you when you evaluate the evil of Minasha you have to look at it at two levels. There is his personal sin. He did sins. He he he he did many many many aas but then he created a certain atmosphere where not only was he but he was And after many, many decades of that or several decades of that, he finally decides to turn a leaf and become a better person. Well, maybe that's great for him. But did he undo all the spiritual damage that he perpetrated in AmIrael which by the way made the B mikdesh virtually inevitable because everything after other than Yosh's reign for a while everything was downhill from so therefore the book of Malim and the book of are focusing on two different aspects of Manasha. Malahim is focusing on Manasha as king because Malahim book of kings as king his evil was not eradicated because the evil the poison that he put into the Jewish nation remained and his own sha didn't change him. It's like the story about lash and you hear the story you know shake the feathers out of the pillow and then try to put them back. That's how you take care of lash. Can't really change it. Is focusing on manasha not as king but as person as person he could do chua and did do chua. So it's an interesting dimension uh that we have to keep in mind that sometimes the damage that we create in the world. We can't automatically fix uh we can try to fix ourselves but the things we do to other people are not always uh repairable. One of the things he was showing how we got to the Yeah. for the people who came back to after and encouraged them that there would be a leadership of the etc and therefore it showed a better side of whatever was going on. Okay. Okay. I hear you. I hear you. Okay. Uh yeah. Thank you. Yes. Also starts criticizing She said by telling him to marry the zona and the whole that's right why isn't there anything more well well I mean hashem has different ways got burnt you know again I mean if you're asking me why does get the hot coal and hosa get the prostitutes I I don't know I mean I I I I think I I think the central message is the same and it's interesting that the ram doesn't bring that example oa is actually a very very excellent example making that point further. Uh yeah so so I I agree with you but but I I can't really you know I can't really answer why some Nim Hashem gives them that ownersh and some others. So be it as it may yeah so you know it goes both ways. Well yeah well well well number one he he could have learned from his experience that that's exactly right. I mean uh remember that this experience of calling Ben Isel am is the very beginning of his prophecy right so he had an 80-year career so in the course of those years uh you know one learns one grows so again I just want to point out that the Rambam is not yet addressing the substantive issue here but even the introduction is very very powerful in which he says don't be mature on amuse don't look at Jews use to denigrate them, to put them down. That's not your role. Whether you're Mosher, and then he'll bring another case, which we'll get to next week. He says, "Don't you speak against God's people, there's going to be a cost to you." And this is the muser he's giving to this Rav saying, "How dare you speak about Hashem's nation this way?" tried to escape it because he didn't want Israel to be criticized, right? And then he's held up as an example of somebody who did the wrong thing. So, you just don't know whether you don't know. I mean, listen, you know, you you got you got to follow Hashem's rules. That's for sure. But on your own, at least, don't initiate negativity to Okay, I'm going to stop here. I just want to say I'm sorry. I neglected to announce that today's share is sponsored anonymously. So uh I do appreciate whoever the anonymous person is. Thank you for your support and may it uh for Hashem it's not anonymous or may it be a source of