Rav Ilan Meirov on "Naming a Shul after a Dog"

first of all I apologize for coming a bit late as uh as you know yesterday was President's Day so the kids had no bus service it's understandable but why they have no bus service today I'm not quite sure it's theek the whole week but any event I want to read to you a famous where I will send a hunger into the land it's not going to be hunger for bread or or thirst for for water rather rather to hear the words of and we see this P we see this being in our generation it's taking place before our very own eyes where you have tens of thousands hundreds of thousands of Jews around the world that are finding the truth they're dropping the old way of life a life of and they're accepting upon themselves a life of Tora a life of purpose right but any you know being that we have such an influence of of there's always many interesting questions that pop up the have these interesting questions that are brought before them and it's so beautiful to see how they dissect these questions so we know there's many uh great lecturers in ranim that go from City to City to inspire Jews you know that are far from the path of Tora they go there to give some inspiration guidance and in Israel you have many such organizations where the Rish go one day there in Ka and then Tel Aviv and then they go here and there every night they go from one city to another in order to inspire their fellow bre it's called Outreach Outreach Of course so in any event what happened was there's a as follows very interesting case there was a rabbi that was on his way to the city of ashalon ashon as we know is in the southern part of is and we know that over the past few years unfortunately ashon has been hit with hundreds of rockets coming in from Gaza and it's it's a it's been very very frightening to live over there and these Rockets could be hitting anywhere at any point a parked car a house a school a house whatever it's random attacks so as this R was driving out to give this sh he enters the city and he hears the siren go off you know when you hear that siren go off that usually means that you have a few seconds 30 seconds whatever it is to go find some shelter run for your life basically and he's a siren he pulls over to the side in a very very quick fashion he runs out of the car looks for somewhere to hide he finds shelter a few minutes goes by everything is nice and clear nothing happens in his territory but as he comes back out to go to his car he sees that his car is surrounded by a bunch of of Russian immigrants and he's not quite sure why what happened you know are they trying to you know hijack my car did I do something to them I mean what what exactly happened over here and as he's inching forward and closer and closer to his car he notices that some of them are in pain and they're crying and he sees a lying on the floor is a dead dog apparently as he was pulling his car over he ran over the dog and he's apologizing profusely I didn't mean it I didn't see it you know I heard the siren I just quickly pulled over to the side and and please forgive me I'm willing to pay for the dog it wasn't my fault and they're hearing a story they sees mamash obviously he's not making this up in fact the fact that they let go of the dog that show that they too were under under pressure because of the sirens and uh and they basically forgave him don't worry about it like your fault we realize it you know everyone was under pressure we ran this way you ran that way they M gave him full for what he had done but now what happens is the story doesn't end there this Rabbi builds a nice relationship with these individuals where they started to invite him to give shim in the city of ashal and cons basis he comes in one week in the second week I'm making this up it's yeah I'll tell you right now everything all the sources in a second Where You Know Rich R had his child come before him we'll go through all the details right now so what happened was they invited him one week a second week third week they build a good relationship with him people are trying to keep moreat the whole nine yards and eventually they get to the point where they get so inspired they tell the rabbi we're ready to open up our own little mid our own you know we want to have a sheer once a week whatever it is we want to have Torah on a nightly basis you come in your come in come Inspire us the Rabbi says amazing idea tremendous idea I I think it's a it's a great plan I'm going to help you make it happen so Rabbi we have a a portion of our our attic our Basin whatever it is we have a certain property that we want to redesign make her intoed in order to inspire other people great as they go along with this plan they get ready for the grand opening and they tell the rabbi Rabbi we decide to name our bed mid zigor zor so the Rabbi says beautiful I think it's a great idea who is eigor is it your father your white father who whose father is eigor dog dog so they say no not my father it's the name of the dog that you killed we're naming the sh after the dog I got that right away so what are you so what are you doing in that case do you allow them to name or do you have to say it's a respectful it's a m what's going on over here but the r kept quiet and he brought this child before a sonla should we be should we should we protest this idea or should we go along with oh I got an idea what would you do I would say you say meaning reward have shame and you make everybody happy Z okay what I would have done that's what you would have done what if they tell you hey what are you doing our dog's name was Igor not Agra not gr not something else that's the name of this color I go a different dog okay I hear exactly what he's saying let's see how deected this case let's see what he said again you have to know sensitivity you know especially people that have dogs you know they have a certain attachment it says that a k is he gives his heart for his owner for his I mean he he he listens to his master and and some people that have their dogs like their child Mish that's how they raise it so that's a very that's a child of popped up let's see how he answered this question there's a that's on the top right we're going to quickly read it you really don't have to read the whole but read it over here very quickly everyone over here if you don't just share with a person next to you we are one two three four five lines from the bottom says why was Shilo destroyed we know when entered entered Israel for the first time they stayed in the city of Gil right that was right outside of that's where the Mish was there for 14 years and eventually they moved it to Sheila and it stayed in Sheila for how long for 3 69 years 369 years in in shil so says why was m destroyed now we know that mishil was destroyed in whose generation at the time ofah kohen elah Coen had two sons and P right a was the the man who was he was the Ken that had questioned KH we know was married to she had no children right eventually panina married Al well she had 10 children and went to shil and she was crying and she was begging give me one child what I want it for exactly and had misinterpreted the and he thought she was he thought she was drunk and he accused her of being drunk he said hey G go home come back when you are sober she started crying to him I'm not drunk Shalom I'm here I'm a brokenhearted woman I'm praying to she didn't necessarily tell him what it was for but being that he was he had suspected he had doubted he had questioned someone that was therefore he gave her he blessed her whatever you asked for should give you and what she had asked for was a baby was was a baby she had a baby boy as be know the story right eventually she had more children yes and we know what tell us that when she had a child had lost two of her but that's not for [Applause] now was time now what happened was his children unfortunately were not acting 100% properly why was Mish destroyed there were two things that took place over there two major cardinal sins two sins that took place number one was G number one was immorality and number two was was degrading thein they weren't conducting themselves properly over there and then the says yes it's true that the talks about Al children as if they were shom as if they had been with the women that came to the Mish to offer sacrifices the says no don't think like that anyone that thinks they actually sinned is to he's making a mistake but really what they did was they had a certain for the and those that came the women that came after they gave birth after being a they would bring you know birds doves nothing special and they would make these women wait a long time and they would take the the more chunk and the women many times out the wait overnight they couldn't go back to their husbands so therefore as if they actually did but whatever the case may be because of their lack of Cav therefore the Mish was eventually destroyed had say was sh's father and he warned him that because of your children there'll be tremendous destruction anyone that hears what's going to happen their ears going to ring right and eventually himself had a prophecy and he was told about what's going to happen and went out to war against theim we lost that war and P were both killed at that war the mishan was destroyed the AR was taken away and when Al heard about this he fell off his chair and he died instantly so why was it destroyed because of imity promiscuity and because of who's who is the author of this statement if you look at the next page which is right next to it on the sheets you'll see we underline on the first wide line the first why was that destroyed it's another question Twitter discusses and he says because of three things and what were they it right these are idol worship murder and that is the cause of the first being destroyed the author of these statements is who is this anyone knows his history who is this individual did you ever hear him before so gives us a oneliner as to who he was and now we're going to tell you the story behind that one liner listen carefully the mid brings out his follows there was a certain there's a very Pious individual there's a very Pious individual that was a and he was and he had one cow that was his source of to work the field Milk The Cow whatever it may be what happened was one day this's life had a turn for the worst he's having many financial difficulties he's having hardships hard times and he needed the money up front and he had no choice other than to sell his cow he puts up a for salees sign and he has different buyers interested in negotiating back and forth eventually he found the buyer some go came along I'm interested they worked out the details shom shom the deal was made he sells the cow he gets the money he needs the GU is Happy the is Happy everyone moves on with their lives the first day the the go has this animal does his job Monday does IT job Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday comes along Shabbat and shabas this animal decides to take a little break and the owner comes starts beating it then starts this and this guy lied to me he fooled me he looks Pious but he's a fraud right he goes back to this kid's house and he says uh excuse me what is you gave me some damaged goods this animal he's he's lasting five six days you're working and now he's he he refuses to even move you gave me damage Goods I want my money back the here this says no no no no Noom this thing has been very loyal for years he does his job let me just talk to him talk to him what do you mean talk to him you talk to the animal to the par to the cow so theid goes over and he whispers to the cow and he tells the cow o my dear cow as long as you were under my ownership as long as I owned you you had a day off Shabbat was a day off I can't work my animals on Shabbat but now because of my great sin I to sell you and now you're you're you're under the ownership of a go you have to listen to your owner go work for him and the cow started behaving himself and he realized that he has to go listen to his owner the guy sees this he's said Paul what are you doing witchcraft what's going on you talking to an animal but whatever the case may be he sees that the animals starts doing as this tells him and the explains him what the situation was Jews don't have animals work on Shabbat we let it rest and the gets amazed he gets inspired and he says how could it be that we have over here an animal that has no noina no dot right this animal knows what it means to work for his creator he knows what it means means to serve his creator in whatever which way he does and I human being that's created in the image of God I'm just living a life of it can't be how can it be and this person he converted immediately he says I want to join he got started next thing you know he converted so now as sh points out this man was what he became a convert due to the cow but wait doesn't end there so now he has to choose a name so what's your name he said my name is I want to okay no no no notah what has a cow the son of a cow that's the name that he chose and they didn't say hey this is a they and he became one of the leading recording him all the time recording him the famous sh why the first destroyed was corded by he's the one that said it the stay off you should know generally a they usually go by the name what who's Ben bagbag what kind of name is BB who who would name who's name Ben bagbag Ben he what kind of name is point out that he too was a go and it was would have been a tremendous insult to his family and to his community if they find out that he converted to Judaism so he called himself Ben B bag the son of B and bag B is gatria five two and three bed is two giml is three he's a son of five and five we know Abraham and Sarah had a hay added to their names right that's a numerical value of five he said I am the son of Abraham and sah right Ben son of five and five now why he call Ben cuz his friend already called him Ben right but whatever the case may be the of converts is to name themselves as sons of that's what it is so here comes along and he said no why because I became says he converted thanks to a cow that he called himself Ben the son of a cow based on this it would seem no the cow inspired him the cow is what got him into the right path quote unquote so therefore therefore we would let him stick with that name so maybe in our case where this Russian family became through the dog after they could call their after the dog who would have a question would you agree to this or disagree is it a good comparison not a good comparison here is the name of the individual here is the name of telling you there there a big not big difference he says how could you compare okay say this guy wants to be known as the son of a cow said it's an individual right but to name name after a dog trous tremendous tremendous tremendous B it seems like that's different when you have different compared to different animals it's character I'm saying it's it's not because of naming after over here when you're naming the after the dog itself plus another thing you could say is it's a culture animal you know it's a dog it says Compares someone as a dog animal right how could you how could you compare maybe a Kos animal to to a dog maybe there's no there's no comparison of May what do you say I I think I mean it's proper to name it after the dog obviously it's proper or not proper proper yeah it is proper yeah you you can I know CU you have a dog that's why you're saying that you have you have a you have two dogs H okay any event okay put that aside say better do it my way and if anybody ask then first try my way if not that then try that way any event now brings down he brings down another he wants to bring down a different for this concept for this point we have over here two pieces of we'll start off with me that's to the left we read there a very short story and then we read me it has another story right in the top the first line to the left of your on the bottom it says there was a certain individual he invited his me a certain to a certain he made a sud whatever it may be and he invited the r of the community and what happens is if you look at the M he explained the situation a little more in depth and he says when the Rabbi came to sit down at the table right and the r sit down and you know he's waiting to see what other going to join him on his de and next thing you know the guy brings a dog to sit down next to the r on the de the r sees this and he says what am I did I did I ca you any harm I owe you something why are you embarrassing me like this am I a nobody you're sitting me at the days next to a live next to a dog what's happening over here so the Bal starts defending himself dog's not complaining huh the dog's not complaining he says no Shalom Rabbi nothing against you rather I'm doing this because I have a to the dog what the story the guy tells the r he says there were a group of of gangsters of robbers of crooks that came to the city and and they would take people hostage and they had to rent him you know they would cause and who knows what they would cause and one of them came along one of them came along to my wife he did to my wife and he nearly kidnapped her assaulted her and I had a dog and came along my dog he attacked his this R and he bit him and he saved my wife so I have for my dog for coming along and saving my wife therefore I'm doing this to the dog and that's how the story ends it seems like the r didn't protest he understood where this guy is coming from and he left the story as it is so we see over here told to the dog that he actually gave him a cover in this suda whatever the suda may have been and there's one more story we go to the previous page of here to the right it says we underline the line the word it's smack in the middle of the page you see you see over there yeah okay there was a certain story with is like a shepher right there was a there was a Shepherd right and this Shepherd was milking his cow right it says he was milking his cow means snake snake Right comes along a snake now the Bal the guy that milked the cow he and his family finish milking to go inside for a few minutes while they were inside the house comes along a snake hissing goes into the bucket of milk next thing you know it comes out and it goes on it uh on its path now the snake come along and he ate from his milk he drank from his milk obviously he left some of its uh poison and there was a dog the dog of these this babite happened to notice this whole story he saw this all in you know happening before his very own eyes and he saw that this snake went inside and probably poisoned it right when the family the balab the guy that own the animal came along he wanted to go make himself cereal right to drink some milk the dog starts barking wildly starts barking it bur on but the family ignored it okay the dog is you know having its mngs right so he's barking bid it what can we do at the end it ate from it and it died now there's two different ways of interpreting it one way of interpreting it is that one of the family members ate from this milk and he died right but there's another way of interpreting it bring down and they say as follows that the dog and it's brought midash they bring down the story that in reality the dog when he saw the balab was about to drink out of his cup of milk this dog went running and it jumped into this bucket it drank from the milk itself and moments later it dropped dead he and the dog died not that one of the family members died by drinking no the dog went out of its way and put his own life on the line in order to save the M the family when the dog did this they realized something's very weird they suddenly died they did a little investigation they found out the water the milk was B poisoned by a certain snake and it continues it continues it's actually he brings down that the the Shepherds mhm they took the dog and they buried it and they made a they actually put a a tombstone on his grave and they wrote this is where the the soul the dog is buried obviously not Jewish cemeter right but the point is they gave it a certain cover as a for the dog saving their life story ends right there so based on these three four five stories that we just quoted R says as follows he says yes it's true is it to name a after a dog obviously not but this family this family that we referring to the Russian family in ashon right their dog is what ultimately got him to DOA after it was killed in a car accident by this Rabbi and eventually they were inspired by the same Rabbi that killed the dog and they want to name the after the dog says let them do it you don't want to touch people's sensitive points right to be what are you talking about that's very easy to do he came along and he says let it happen of course I'm sure they were hoping that in a few weeks after they open the sh they get a little more inspired a little more then they make a maybe they'll call it uh you know uh or something else and change the whole thing around but says if they want to start by name after theg says the says let do it don't make a big deal out of it don't make a big deal let them do it why is this you know just shows us what the power of a is all about what what it means even to to an animal to you got show it we all know when told him hit the water hit the water what say I can't hit the water I you do it yeah but why why didn't he do it yes he did at the end what do you mean he did at the end he didn't is because no that's that's a different story one second that's a different story what we're trying to say is he refused to hit the water and turn it into Dam because the water saved his life I what the water has feeling there feelings the water has no feelings right you know like we cover the bread on Friday night on shabas morning why do we cover the bread in order to what not to embarrass the bread usually we make first and here we are in Shabbat we make the on the wine first so we don't embarrass the bread the bread has feelings What feelings the bread have obviously it's not about the It's Not About The Bread it's not about the water it's it's in order to make us accustomed to having feelings towards people and sensitivity towards people if you're going to cover the bread and embarrass your wife or your children then what what are you doing so why' you cover the bread the whole idea is to have in order for you to practice your sensitivity you could practice on inanimate objects that's the way remember in Yesa one of our used to give us real good tips how to control our emotions how to control our anger problems our patience so I was very impatient I still am very impatient but I was very very impatient back then and he gave me a good tip of how to control it now it's not going to work when you're dealing with your family members or your friends so we he went through my different uh situations in life I used to live in the second floor of apartment building and there was an elevator this is what he tells me he tells me anytime you come home click the elevator click the button if you see that the elevator is past the third floor third fourth fifth sixth right you wait for it if you see the elevators in the lobby the first second floor then you take the stairs this way what's going to happen is when it's past the third floor I'm going to wait and work on my patience and when it's under I'm going to work on my laziness you're a young guy go take the stairs right in other words the only way for you to work on yourself properly and without offending anyone you know if I decide to take the stairs one day when it's on the fourth floor he won't get off fence of the elevator right so the only way to work is really to work with inanimate objects when it comes to a stop sign a red light a yellow whatever it is work with these items and it's going to help you exercise your muscles when it comes to other matters control your emotion exactly you know the famous ran where the Tora tells us we're going to read in a few weeks it says what does what does it me what does tell us oh in other words you might think you mean you should wear you know and you should only eat this type of meat and you do this do you should be from what's you should separate yourself from what's permitted for you you know you have all these this you have these Buffet dinners or you have AOG bar and you're there and you're eating some a piece of chicken and a little piece of meat and rice and you're full you're satiated everything's good but you say let me take another piece another pie it's all GL kosher everything's perfectly fine K is the highest standard could you eat it of course you allow to eat it is telling you hold yourself back from eating that hold yourself back and you know what's going to happen if you hold yourself back from that t of a permissible T right you're going to exercise your muscles to hold yourself back from a forbidden TAA cuz how could you hold yourself back from a forbidden TAA if your muscles are not ready for you can't fight it off so you practice by fighting off something for you s like we have some delicious cakes here for breakfast right you want to take a second piece and a third piece right so I tell the younger guys listen control yourselves control yourself with the cake control yourself with some other things in life that's what it comes down to that's what it is so in any event the concept of is something that is a tremendous tremendous lesson that we learn over here how felt and that you should be and let the family name the after the dog because the of the dog is what made them do I just want to discuss for the last 10 15 minutes another point over here with regards to alah coen's children we just mentioned that their children really didn't do the with any woman anyone that thinks says anyone that says he's making a mistake so we find this concept in many other scenarios like our dear friend is pointing out it says it says regarding what he did was switch and then it says what Ruben right regard same exact story anyone that thinks made no any other who else did we see this by where is we have a in where it says if you think we have we said we have another case with the children of I want what does it say about's children it said that right had people com and complaining to him they want a king we need a m like all the other and it says about his children they used to go after you know where the money is or where there is a now why it say that a few reasons number one they were and would throw out a word by the way you know you know this and that if you need somebody to give it to you know where to go right so it could have gone to a different person but I went to them instead right but on top of that it says that what would he do he would actually go from City to City in order to inspire to judge to give sh and the children had different they would stay in their local right and whoever wanted to be judged or be inspired come to us our doors are open we're not locking the doors anyone's welcome but people were so used to sh's way of doing things that by this children not doing it they said no these people not they're doing it for financial uh considerations right but we see over here four or five times bring down that if you think they sin and this brings down is it's a basic concept that we have that applies to anyone with stature anyone with stature such as these these great people like David and right and and the children of people have stature whenever you do something small big and will consider it big as well to a certain degree because people expect more out of you that's why says bring was authored by RZ people don't know him for his book yeah they don't know for they know for his book the famous that goes based on Olive base right and ask a very simple question says why is it that we have to say the V do every day and we say in plural form number one and number two what if I didn't do this thing can I skip can I skip one of them I know I didn't steal anything right I know I didn't speak I know I didn't do this I didn't do that can we skip these things so he brings down three or four reasons why you have to say everything and why you should say in the plural say number one he says right it says about the of of whatever it is right and it wasn't even his power it wasn't his uh animal but the gar says it was his neighbor's animal and because he didn't rebuke his neighbor he didn't point it out them by the way I don't know if you realize but this a little problem he didn't point it out therefore it's what it's on his as well furthermore he brings down you never know what you did in your previous gulim who you were what you were what your problems were what sins you did what you have to do for therefore even if you may feel it doesn't apply to you you still got to say it on top of that he says he says a person of stature is judged differently like these four individuals that we just mentioned before that a person that is known to be a fju who does something wrong the media will exploit it and blow it up much greater than it is it's going to cause a much greater and therefore you're going to be held more responsible for it and on top of that he adds a last thing he says there many quote unquote light sins which a person tramples on not a big deal and it's considered as so for example where does the gamar tell us tell us right you Mur there's many different cases where seemingly small things are really blown up greater not by just the public tells you that therefore he says every single person must say all the V different do you say it every day you don't say it every day the V how often do you say it only ker once a year right there are others that say every others that say every Monday and Thursday say two or three times a day three times two or three times we're not living the same lifestyle as you when they have whatever the case may be the reason why the two brings that the reason yeah yeah yeah the reason why many people don't say it the way is say it twice a day three times a day if you some people say before they go to sleep as well right and uh cu the worry was if you said every day you're not you're going to say robotically yeah you won't say it wasana you start you know you're rushing right through it you don't really put your heart into it that's why many don't say it every day and they they limit it to as much as they could limit it I me not to say it every day but a person should know that if you are saying it like some of the people in the crowd say with kav don't just blurt it out you know your mouth is saying one thing and your heart is thinking something else a person has to do real now you know Z what is z I have the same thing that we have what is z z z Oh you say it every day you don't say every day so you don't say every day and you still remember unbelievable any event right so now what do mean we did by we did we says says no it doesn't ne mean he says there's many things that we did B how know us I really didn't I didn't realize it was a problem but because you didn't come to [Applause] learn it's like a right therefore he say that person has to be careful be always like to say rather if you have the opportunity to learn the topic a whole question do you have this concept it's a major major simple many come along they were raised in this environment other say what do you mean it's no secret is all over Isel this Cur organization all over Isel right these people have that chist to go check it out go see what it's all about right others arguing this point but whatever the case may be says he says when he saying in the in the video you're not referring to M you're referring to that becomes a that's what he says another thing he points out he points out lastly with statement after the he say we don't say this every morning it's exactly the opposite we say we say and he said oppos so first of all first of all there three times three types of sins that we have we have a we have and we have a what's the difference means when you do something purpose no is inadvertently I didn't know I wasn't aware is when you do it knowingly yeah but I had a Ty listen I wanted to eat I couldn't hold myself back I was hungry I was this such a good smell whatever it is you know it's us but you couldn't hold this back and then PES what does PES mean means I know but I'm going to do it I don't care let me e it so now with this being said means in this context means a person that does right so with this being said the question is why does he say shouldn't be the other way around you start with the lower level and then you work your way up you work way up to higher level so say as follows they said we know there two types of right when a person does what happens to they become eating right you're drinking if you do wow look at this cre unbelievable look at the sun the moon the stars the human body unbelievable I want the your sins are turned into if you do then what happens your sins go down BEC so I I ate this knowing I had I ate it I know when I was scared about the punishment right then that become so now in this case with was fearing they're about to be destroyed they're about to be wiped out they did say first forgive and now become forg as well that's how the explain many other say the same exact thing but anyway just as we see that the r is here give the second we have two things first of all we see the tremendous tremendous concept that you can name after a dog because of the things that they had after this dog right made him we saw is the name of he became he became a and we saw the other two they discussed the case of the dog sitting at the days with and also the cases of the dog that was given that says that's number one and number two we see the concept of of how important it is for a person to realize there's four or five different types of a that you could do whether it's because you're responsible for your neighbor sins or your family sins or whatever it may be or because previous or because of your stature where you did or like we said lastly that people are and is really considered great like and lastly we see here the concept went along and he says forgive us for our sins depends you're doing and when he did like we did by the case of the he started off by stating the first and then