Rav Kook Lights Up a Neglected Part of Torah | Rabbi Aaron Goldscheider May 28th 2025

Let me just begin with the uh the sponsor this morning. The Shir sponsor for the 2025 academic yearly shalom. Okay, I want to wish everyone a kesh a good kesh as we begin the month of Sidan. And with that, we look forward to celebrating the uh the shabuot which is just a few days away. And uh this is already a wonderful time to begin to think about shabuot and to begin our preparations and our spiritual preparations as well. And uh with that in mind, I want to look at a topic which is appropriate for shabuis for shabuot. And that is matanra, the giving of the Torah and limu tora, the study of Torah. And we know whenever we study the the words of RV cook and the teachings of RVuk, there's always something always something novel. He always has something new to say, something that uh that has not been said in the past. And that's one of the exciting things about learning Ravkuk and the teachings of Ravk to see his insights to see what it is that he highlights the way that he sees Torah. So that's the question that I asked myself as I was beginning to uh prepare for today. What is it in the writings and the teachings of Ravkok that's unique in the area of Talmud Toru? What does he bring to the table that uh that has not been said in the past? And um so this is what I'd like to share with you this morning. Uh this the following idea and we'll see three examples three examples of this this morning and I think all of them are are really beautiful wonderful examples of uh of RVuk's teachings. So in the last 200 years or so, 300 years or so, when we think about learning and certainly Lithuanian learning, the learning that comes from the vil nagon, from the great yeshiva of Alajin, our traditional way of learning. So I think all of us would agree that that has centered on the importance of studying the Talmud. And even today, if you speak to somebody about serious learning, they'll talk about the gamura learning, the Talmud learning that they're doing. They'll talk about the daffomi which has become incredibly popular which is quite an amazing thing that numbers hundreds of thousands of people that are studying a dafgamara every day. So Rafk came along and he said that's very very beautiful. It's wonderful that that is the centerpiece of study but there's an area within gamarra itself which he's felt was being overlooked and that's what's called the agada or the agadada of the gumar. And the truth is when I was in yeshiva when I was at yeshiva university so the the rebum and the shirim that I was in so you would study the gamarra and if you would come to a piece of a gada and a gadata is the nonhalahic part the non analytical part of the gamarra where it kind of goes off on a more um more of hashkafa philosophy sometimes there are stories yeah that's right in narratives in the gamarra so at that point the rebi would say, "Okay, now let's skip that and let's get back to the let's get back to the to the real stuff, you know, let's get back to the to the analysis." And that's that's not uncommon. Not uncommon literally to skip that section. You can kind of do that on your on your own. You can read that. That's not something that we necessarily do in the Shir. So, Rafuk writes a lot about the importance of studying ag that those sections of the gamarra those sections that speak about hashkafa those sections that speak about hashem those sections that speak about insights and wisdom in spirituality and sometimes esoteric sections and we're going to look at one of those which is really the first ag that's found in gamarra is a very esoteric description of what happens in heaven nightly we'll see that in a moment and we'll see the way that Rkook understands that but Rafuk says this is incredibly important to study as well this area of study what's called again the agada or the agadada why is it so important I want to just highlight three ideas that Rifkook shares why is it so important to do this and maybe especially today Rifkuk felt and again he was talking about a 100 years ago over 100 years ago but he was talking about in today's generation the importance of studying the agata number one the first reason that he offers is that not Everybody loves Gamarra. Not everybody is attracted to Gamarra. It does take a certain mind. It does take a uh a certain intensity to study Gamarra. And Rav Cook writes the following. I'll just read one line to you from RV Cook. This is from a beautiful collection Oro Torah, one of the classic collections of RVuk's teachings on the Torah. And he writes the following. If you want to take a look at this page one, source number one. This is Oro Torah peret. Shalook and this is one of the beautiful aspects of RVok. says, "You know what? Not everyone is the same. You know, not every person has the same interests, right? Not everyone is is attracted to the same areas in life and in learning. Every person has a particular a particular interest." He says it's true of life, right? Somebody wants to be a dentist, somebody wants to be a sociologist, somebody wants to be a lawyer. Everybody is different. It's true in learning as well that we're attracted to different parts of learning. We should appreciate that that not everyone necessarily wants to study Gamarra. So that is that's point number one. And by the way, somehow that was I don't know that wasn't really the approach for for a long time. Sit and learn Gamarra. That's what you should be learning. And the other things are really secondary. Rivkuk says let's appreciate everybody for who they are. The second idea which I think is really a fascinating idea that Rafuk speaks about is the idea that he felt that in this generation that people want to observe mitzvot yes but they want to know the meaning and the purpose and how that mitzvah is going to make a difference in their lives. And I remember actually when I was a rabbi, I was a rabbi in Westchester, Mount Kisco, New York that often and I was with more baluva, but they would always say, "Rabbi, okay, but tell me how does this apply to my life?" Like how can I bring this into my life? How is this meaningful? And that's that's a fair question, right? How is kash meaningful? How is Shabbat meaning? I want to understand how this is going to enhance my day-to-day life, my relationships. It's interesting. There's a uh there's a Kiru program. It's one of the most popular K programs today known as momentum. It's headed by a woman Lori Palatnik. She lives here in Shallay. And her idea was we have to do Kiruv for women and for mothers especially. That's where she's putting her money and all of her effort because if you could be Macare the mother, what happens afterwards? She's going she's the one raising the children and she's also going to be Macarv the husband as well. So, she has all the influence in the house, right? The father gets up for work. He's out. He's coming home at 7:30, 8:00. He's having dinner. He's watching a sitcom. He goes to bed. Right? That's the father of the house, right? But but the mother of the house, the mother of the house knows where their kids, what the kids are doing, where they're going to school, what they're doing after school. So, the mother is having the major influence. So, she said, "Let's let's do that. Let's put all of our effort." And that's and that's what she does. She brings about 10,000 women to Israel every year. It's a little bit slower in the last year and a half and uh certainly with Corona, but that's that's what she does. And she does an amaz it's an amazing amazing program. She right now I think the last week I saw it advertised that she has thousands of women that are here in Israel. What's her name? Lori Palatnik. Lori Palatnik. She lives Look her up. Yeah. An amazing personality as well. Amazing teacher. Um and she lives here in USA. She moved from she was in Toronto. She was in Washington. She made aliyah and she's here. Um, but what's interesting, this is the point that I want to share with you. So she brings the women to your shalim. So you would think if you're bringing all these women to shalim and you're going to teach to be m so what are you going to teach them? So you think you okay let's let's talk about the Torah, let's talk about mid. He she doesn't talk about that at all. She brings them and she talks about how a Jewish way of life is going to enhance your relationship with your husband, that you're going to have a happier home, that you're going to have more successful children. In other words, she's taking the lessons of the Torah, the wisdom of the Torah, and she's sharing, she's showing how this enhances your life. Now, Ruf Cook says when it comes to Torah learning in our generation that people want to know how the Torah is going to make my life more meaningful. Maybe it worked a 100 years or 200 years ago, you were told this is God's command. Do it. Surrender to God's command. Actually, if you read Rabbi Salvichek, that's one of the themes in Rabbi Salvich's writings is the idea of surrender. There's a divine, there's a God, there's divine will, and you are to surrender to that will. Now, how does that go over in the in modern times, right? To tell young people or if I were to tell you that's mitzvo. Don't ask any questions. God has commanded you to do the following and do it. Not well. Not well. You don't like you don't like that approach. Okay. So, so Rav Cook said, "It's not this isn't going over well either in our generation. We need to understand. We need to show the depth. We need to show the spirituality that's found in a Jewish life." And where do you find that? Well, where is that? So he says that's in the agada. That's in the agada. That's that part of the Talmud and we need to study that part of the Talmud as well. So that's the second idea that Rafkuk shares. A third reason that he offers for the importance of Akadada. And here this is kind of taking this idea one step further and that is that people not only want to know the reason but they want to know the secrets of the Torah as well. They want to know the sod. They want to know the mystical aspects of Torah. People have a yearning for that. Now, just to share one line from Ravuk. This is also found in in in his orot per the first teaching. This is right in the middle of the page, page one. And by the way, when is the right time to study Cabala? For we all know that, right? 40 years old. We all have to know all of Shas. We all have to know everything. And then you're allowed to open up the Zohar. Then we can study Cabala. Passed away at 37. What? What's that? Right. The Arizel, the great cabalist, passed away at 37. Yes. So, Rafuk writes the following Torah. When's the right time to start studying the secrets of the Torah? He says when you have desire when you want to come close to Hashem when there's a great yearning for that where you feel that real longing and it almost is it almost overwhelms and overcomes you that you want that closeness to you want to understand more about God. There's one of my teachers. He's a cab. He's a cabalist. He's Rabbi David Aaron in the old in the old city. He lives in the old city. One of the great teachers of Cabala today. He has a book called The Secret Life of God. Don't we all want to know the secret life of God? Like what does God do all day? And what is God? And Rafuk says in this generation, people want to know more about God. We've been talking a lot about mitzvot, right? We tell you how to keep Shabas, how to keep kosher, how to get up in the morning, wash your hands and mod. But how about God? Is anybody talking about God? And RV cook says our generation wants to know more about Hashem, more about a baru. Yes. Yeah. The reason I wanted to say something is because I know that, you know, many many years ago when I was young, I don't know um anybody. I really didn't know anybody who studied kabola. was always a no no you were ready for it and yes correct Joe was studying what including film stuff that's right that's right okay so it has to be yeah it has to be I think there's a real problem with it and I think that a lot of the people who study it are a little bit off okay okay no no so they're There there there's truth to what you say as well and know are we watering down cababala people teaching it and they don't understand kabala to understand the higher math right you have to know the the the first level math as well so yes you do need to know and you need to know n'vi you need to know gamarra so yeah a fair point but rkuk is open to the idea if a Jew wants to know more about these secrets so to speak and the cabala and about god that it should be open open to any Jew to do that by the way interesting personality Rabbi Ary Kaplan, you may have heard that name, one of the great rabbis. He lived in Brooklyn, New York, and he began translating cababalistic works that were never translated, never opened open to the public. And he felt this going back to the 60s and the 70s. He ended up working for the OU for a while. Also, many of his books about sits mikvah shalim were all written actually for NCS wires. But he began to translate material. He felt it's time to let to to open it up. Open it up to everyone. If this is what people are searching for, if people want a relationship with Hashem in this way, so this is this material should be open. And Rufuk says the same thing that it's time. If you if you want it, come and get it. That's what that's RV Cook writes. What when's a good time to it's when you want it. That's his uh if and you have to yeah sincerely sincerely um to to study that material. And Rufuk says one more thing and here this will not be a surprise for those who have been studying Rufk and studying together with us and that is now that we're returning to the land of Israel there's a different kind of learning in the land of Israel what's called Torah which is a Torah that is a redemptive Torah. We're ready now for the secrets. We're in the place of God. We're in Yaleim. We're where the schina is. We're not we're not in my any longer. We're not in Tene any longer. We're not in Los Angeles. where maybe these ideas were not really appropriate. But now that we're we're sitting right now a mile from the Harbayas, right? We're a mile from the Makoma Mikdash. We're in a very very holy place. And that place, by the way, the Shina never left that place. If the building's not there, the Rambam writes that the Shina is still there. So we're in the place of the Shina. If we're in the place of the Shina, so now we should be studying more about the Shina. So that's what Rkook writes. And let me just I'll share with you the following. This is from um the last source on the sheet in translation from a book called the kavatim. He wrote notebooks. We have eight notebooks of Rkook where he had where he wrote down a lot of his thoughts and he writes the following. This is in translation. The heir of the land of Israel is not suited to make one wise only in the lesser wisdom of pilim and lower homalies. Other words, when you come to the heir of it, we're not just doing the basic stuff any longer. Okay, that's for living outside the land of Israel. Matters such as these are below the high level of the land of light which is full of the choicest things of the living God and of Israel. And he quotes the following garra an amazing garra which is in Babitzia. Rava fasted a great deal to forget the Babylonian Talmud that it should not hinder before he left Babylon. Before he left Babylonia, he fasted in order to forget everything that he learned in Bavl as he was about to enter Art Israel because he knew that coming to Art Israel, it's going to be a new kind of learning. The perception is going to be much deeper. We learned from this that it Talmudic study is not the purpose and final goal wisdom of the land of Israel and is not the great light of the superior goodness found in the Torah of the land of Israel. Torah of the Erit Israel. So here Ruk says something which is also novel maybe a little bit radical and that is that now that we're back in the land of Israel it's time now to open up the cabala. How do we do that? The agada in the gamarra a lot of the agata is really the the the the foundational sources of what we would call cababalistic or mystical teachings. Okay with that introduction I want to now look at three agadote. I want to look at three well they're not all stories. The word agada again agada is anything in the Talmud that's not theic part of the Talmud is not the analysis. So we're going to see actually three different examples of it. I want to try to uh present three different kinds of agada and to see what Rkook says on each of those agot and to appreciate this idea again. Now we just spoke about it in a more theoretical sense. Now let's see it. Let's see what Rafuk is referring to the importance of agada and what we see in the agada. Okay. The first source is an esoteric gamarra. I would say is a more mystical gamarra because it's a gamarra that speaks about what happens nightly in shmayam in heaven. So already we're talking about a topic that's not a not a grounded topic. We're talking about something that is above something that is mystical. Okay. The Gamarra, by the way, this is Dav Gimmel in Bros. Now, just to appreciate, Agada. How long did it take for the Gamarra to move into Agada? The Gamarra starts on what page? Page Bet doesn't start with page olive. So, we're one page in and we're already into agada. So, I just want to I want to point that out. So, the agada is very very important. Now, the where does the gimmar begin? The ve the very beginning of brahos begins with a discussion of creatma of when we say the schma that's the very first mishna and then the gumar goes on to talk about the night the nighttime schma when it should be recited how long you have for the recitation of the nighttime schma and with that the gumar comes into the following discussion you have what's called and I'll I'll read just a line or two from the gamarra but you have the gumar in front of you this is gargl you have what's called mishmarot. Misharot. Misharot means that in the night time throughout the night time there are three misharot. Mishmarot means watches or that it's guarded three time three mishmarro throughout the night. What are those misharot? Rashi explains the mishmarro is when the angels sing to hashem throughout the night. And there are three different groups of angels that sing throughout the night. They are called again these are called the misharot. The angels in heaven. This is what's happen by the way when you're sleeping all this is going on. So when you're sleeping in heaven you have the angels you have the first group of angel that angels that come in they sing then then a next group and then the next group and that's what carries us through the night. Okay that's that's step number one. Again how do we get into this discussion? Because the Gamarra is talking about the nighttime and how long in the night throughout the night can you say the schma? And then the Gamarra says well what is God doing at that time? We now know what the angels are doing. But what is God doing during that time? He's ah So that's a gamarra. That's that's another gamarra. That's during the day. He does that while he's awake. This is what happens at night. So if you go four or five lines down that first I'll just read this line to you. Mishmar Mishar. That's in the fir again the first uh the first paragraph. We're page two. We're two four six lines down. Val mishmar mishmar. And on each one of these mishar each of these watches of the angels, Hashem is sitting and he's roaring like a lion. Hashem is roaring. Okay, so this is what the Gumar says. Angels are singing. God is roaring. That's what's happening throughout the night. Question. What does all this? What does all this mean? Okay, this is this is the Gamarra speaking. This is the first agata in Sha. This is the first agata that we find in the Gumarra. And now we have one more piece. One more piece. And this is really fascinating. The Gamarra says, "And you can here on this earth, you can know when each Mishar is based on three things that happen below." And there's a sign here on this on this earth for each mishmarish during the first mishmar there is a dunkey that is bring during that first mishmar if you listen closely if you put your ear out your window what are you going to hear dunkey's bring what happens during that second mishmar of the night during that second section of the night when again above the angels are singing to You have dogs that are barking. Have you ever heard dogs bark in the middle of the night? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So now you know why. So they are barking. This is the sign that you've now reached the second mishar of the night. And the third that the baby is nursing from the mother. The mother now has woken up is nursing her baby. The isam is and the wife is speaking to the husband. The wife doesn't want to be up alone with the baby. Wakes up her husband says, "Talk to me a little bit while I'm nursing nursing the baby. Let me have some company." So that is that's the gamarra. That's it. That's the gamarra. That's the first gad that's found in brahos. Now the question is what does this mean? How do we interpret this? And RV cook says the following. I have a few lines from RV cook. We'll we'll we'll read those lines in just a moment. But let me just tell you what RV cook says. Rufuk says, "What is this cry? What is this roar of God throughout the night? The roar of God is his cry that the Jewish people are in Galut. That's God's cry that the Jewish people are exiled from the land of Israel that we do not have the beta mikdash. Now, what are these items? These things that we see here on this earth that that are a sign of these mishmarot of these different times throughout the night. The donkey. What is a donkey? Says RVuk that is a kamur. What is kamore? We know in our throughout our literature it's found and we can trace it to the Torah itself is which means that we are too embedded in or let's just talk about materialism and that the Jewish people the reason that they are in galut and the reason they have not yet merited the redemption is because we are too entrenched in a materialistic life. So that is lesson number one. By the way, just to as a source for that, where where does RV cook? And by the way, when Rafuk gives these explanations, it's not just I don't know like like a nice, you know, a nice vort. We're talking about somebody that knows all of Torah, that knows all of Zohar, that knows everything in the palm of his hand. And he knows when these terms are being used that these are hints to ideas. So it's very, again, it's not just any perish. We're talking about a man Rafuk that knows everything. That knows everything. That knows all of Torah. That knows all of Medish, that knows all of Zohar, that has it all in the palm of his hand. And when he reads this, now by the where does he have this idea of that is so just in the Torah itself, in the Torah itself, the t first time that we have a so we have the story of Abraham. He's going to do the and he says the following as he's about to leave that group of people that are with him. He says, We just have the here you stay here with the now what does the Torah have to tell us stay here with the so many point out that that relates to that you're not ready for this experience of I'm going there together we're going to experience this revelation something that's very unique you stay with theamore again in this sense one explanation but you see already that there may be a hint in the Torah that a kind of materialism something that's less spiritual so that's already in the Torah so that's says the lesson or what's being taught here being hinted to galut when you talk about galut and the Jewish people far from the land of Israel that they are entrenched in embedded inut and we need to if we want the gula if we want the redemption we need to you know we need to find a way to be more spiritually connected that's one second idea we have dogs that are barking. So what's the dogs that are barking? Rafuk says that reflects reflects inner conflict. That reflects those that we're barking at one another. Jews barking at one another. Absolutely. Okay. So Ruk says that needs that needs to be changed. And that's what God is crying over. That's the roar of Hashem in heaven. And why there is still a galut because we're still barking at one another because we're not the respect is not the compassion is not there. So that's Rkook says that's the dogs barking. And now the third which is really a fascinating interpretation that Rufuk gives and that is the nursing mother. And what is the idea of the nursing mother? Okay, I think I know we can think for ourselves. By the way, the agata is when we learn it, it's it's about thinking for ourselves as well. The gam wants us to to think what could this what does this mean? So this is the way that RF cook and I think this is really the other two I think are more standard. This is more novel what Ruf cook is going to say about the nursing mother. The nursing mother reflects the following. He says that the nursing mother the child that's nursing the mother the child does that in a automatic way. He says almost well let's let's use the following word. It's superficial. In other words the child receives the milk receives the nourishment in a very simple way. Right? It just latches on to the mother and receives the milk. Rafuk says when it comes to our Torah learning, that's our milk. That's our nourishment, the nourishment of the Jewish people. The milk, our nourishment. He says that we've been studying Torah in a simple way. We have not studied Torah with the depths, with the secrets of the Torah, the prophetic ideas of the Torah that's necessary for redemption. If all we're talking about is just the very basic ideas that that's very beautiful that we've done that, but redemption, what's required for redemption is something even even deeper, more profound. It has to be a profound Torah. And here it gets back to what we were just talking about a few moments ago. It has to be a Torah that also is going to reveal depths, secrets of the Torah, what God is to talk about what God is about, right? What is the meaning of God? What does it mean? We spoke about last week. Well, what does that mean when we say that God is one? Does it simply mean that God is one or we talking about a oneness? Are we talking about deeper ideas? Those deeper ideas are needed are necessary to bring the Jewish people back to the land of Israel and for guula. And it's interesting what's you know Kabala somebody mentioned earlier where did this great interest of Cababala all of a sudden where did it come from? Many people say it was Madonna right? Madonna was the remember Madonna the singer she was the first she went to the Cababala center she started talking about Cababala and then everybody wanted to know like what is this cabala I don't know maybe Hashem's center but it seems that at this time this interest that we have and you see it everywhere and you pointed out also everybody's studying cabala but Rafuk says there's something very very positive about that because we do need a Torah we need a Torah that is a deep Torah that is a very profound Torah and that's the kind of Torah that's going to inspire of the Jewish people. That's going to bring the Jewish people. We have to talk about Kaduca. We have to talk about the the depths of Kaduca. Maybe that's what's going to bring people back to the land of Israel when they recognize Kaduca. That it's not just the, you know, the standard mitzvah that you have to learn and you have to dab and you have to keep kosher, right? To think about deeper ideas and maybe those ideas are what's going to bring the Jewish people back. So that that's from Cook's interpretation. Again, here we have a Gamarra and a Gada. You could easily skip over it, read it. You know, donkeys praying and dogs barking. Okay, next. But here to take a moment and to think about the meaning of this. And now this becomes a very very important a profound teaching. Well, what is it that we need to rectify? And here the Gamarra is beginning. This is page one, page two in the Gamarra. And it's talking about let's let's figure out as a people what we need to do to bring Gula, what we need to do to bring the Jewish back, Jewish people back to the land of Israel. Let me just read I'll just read to you just the the few lines in Rifkook. This is from the anaya. And here he really just addressing that third point of the the nursing mother that this gur is is speaking about those that study the very of the Torah that people are studying Torah that they want to know what they need to do. Right? You go to a class. By the way, we need to know we need to do that as well. We need to know and shabas and yant and yes we need to know all those but there also is an area of Torah that he believes is necessary to inspire the nation and he says that's really just the foundation that's really just a preparation for for knowing God for relationship with God for a deep relationship with God are we talking about that in our schools in our high schools how to develop a close relationship with God you know it's interesting I mentioned Rabbi David Aaron just a moment ago. They they brought him into many schools in America. Many schools in America are struggling with seems to be the major one of the major issues. They come to school, they're actually they're good in class, but you just can't, you know, to get them to dav and everybody's talking. Everybody's, you know, looking this way and that way. So, they've invited him to schools to talk about. So, he always says that the first thing that we need to talk about is not we need to talk about God. We need to talk about Hashem and to understand more about Hashem and how to develop a relationship then you're going to want to dive into Hashem. Okay. So this is what Rufuk is speaking about as well that we need to talk about Hashem that we need to and these deeper ideas. So he writes that that child has not reached the higher level. That's what the gamarra is speaking about is really just a rudimentary a very f fundamental way of receiving nourishment zohar he says that the zohar calls them ephraim it's almost childlike the way that we've been studying tora that's what says something along those lines that we have not reached this wholeness that's why hashem is crying hashem is crying because we have not reached the wholeness the fullness of our potential and in three areas, right? Area number one is the um is our relationship with uh with well well actually area number one is the the donkey and then the dogs barking in our relationships with one another and in our Torah learning. Okay, that is that's lesson number one from Rafuk. Let's go to another idea. A yes, please. One quick question, please. What about the talking to their husband? Is that question? Yeah. Yeah. No, that's a very good that's a very very good question. Very good question. Um I don't the question is the other part because it's the it's the mother nursing and talking to her husband. I have to look back at the piece from Cook if he addresses that. But you are correct. That is like a separate that's a separate piece there and the meaning of that. So we can um we can think about that as well. The uh the meaning of that part of the agata. Okay. Next piece. We'll do two other pieces and uh these are a little bit I would say a little bit simpler a little bit more straightforward. Where are you? Okay, good. So we are on the bottom of page two. This is a gamar in braid and you have the following. Here's a here's a but it's al that wants to give. So here's like a second example of a gad. It's a gad in the sense that it's a but it's al with a lesson. The gumar itself is going to speak about the lesson. And what does it mean here? Here we go. This is the the bottom of the page. It's in bold. So the is you are not supposed to greet another person before you begin deting in the morning. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. There's some question exactly how that plays out and different opinions. Some say specifically not to use the word shalom because shalom is a name of Hashem or to let's I think the does say to go out of your way to greet somebody before you've ded. So that's problematic. So again the language is shalom when you greet somebody with shalom before you it's as if you have built a bama now so one we need to understand what what the problem is per se and what is the idea of building a of all things I mean you also have that's the here's now the agata part of it so to speak how do you interpret that aspect of the bama so by the way what's the simple the simplest way of sort of like the phat of this gamarra. Why? Why is it that one should not greet somebody else before davening the morning? What would you say? Respect. Respect for Hashem. Yes. Correct. In other words, you begin with greeting Hashem. In other words, before you start greeting anybody else, right? Before you start knocking on your neighbors and saying hi, say hi to Hashem first. Other words, the first step is to greet Hashem. You shouldn't be doing anything else before you greet Hashem. So that's okay. That's the that's the basic idea. of the basic pashant. So this is what Rkook says. We'll read let's read just uh two three lines from the opening part and he says something which is very profound a person that greets a friend before they greet Hashem they don't recognize she is so h shalom that the very essence of peace and relationship with others raid hakarat data Hashem that it begins with recognizing God. Recognizing other individuals and the worth of of other individuals really begins with the idea that you see in the other individual the divine aspect, the divine spark of Hashem. Shalom of And this is the idea of why there is shalom, why is there peace? How do we have relationships with others? And not just in a m way, not just that it's circumstantial, something that can easily fade away. That that is the very essence. That's the very core of what it means to see somebody and to greet somebody. Okay, here we go. What is Rufuk saying? RVuk says when we greet somebody else, what is at the essence? What's at the core of greeting somebody? Now, you could greet somebody and Ruf kind of lays this out in the piece. you can greet somebody because that's just a nice thing to do or sort of like the appropriate way sort of in a community that to work with one another and to be good neighbors with one another that we're going to greet one another. But he says that's lacking. There's a lot lacking there. What is the sort of this the Jewish way and the spiritual way the religious way of greeting another person? To greet another person is to recognize the godliness, the spark of God, the nama that is found in another person. So don't greet somebody else before you greet God. Okay, you have sort of the basic thehat level. You should be greeting God first. But the way the Rafuk understands that see God first. In other words, that is the foundation of your relationship with another individual is the godliness that's found in that other other person. Rabbi Schlommo Carlbach would say if we would see the godliness and is shama in another person we would never raise our voice speaking to somebody we would never get we would never lose you know lose our cool get angry if when we see somebody else we would see their nama and actually this is the Tanya and interesting that Rkook says this because he was very much a student of kabad this is one of the teachings it's actually perk lame not that I know the Tanya but I know that that chapter I've studied You could remember le and there the balata the founder ofus he says that we need to see each other as namote less body right we we're seeing each other right now in the room as bodies try to like less see less of the body less of what you're wearing less of what you look and to see the nishama in the other person to see the goodness to see the potential to see the divine spark in the other individual and that's cook says that's the way that he interprets his kamarra that first see Hashem. In other words, don't greet somebody without seeing Hashem in that person as well. And it's one of the big lessons today in schools and yeshiva and we're working on this. In other words, to be less judgmental and to be more compassionate and a student that's having a hard time in the old days it was go see the principal and the principal could handle it, go find another school. And that was common, right? That was common. There wasn't a lot of patience, right, for that. And today there's a different I think there's a different model and a different there's a sensitivity and that is let's see the goodness in that let's see the potential in that person and that's what Ruf cook is speaking about here as well which is a beautiful idea and by the way and what is the bama what does he said it's like building a bama so what is a bama a bama is where you individually there was a time that you were allowed to build your own bama but that means that's your own service right that's something that's more that's that's selfish but what is the way that we serve hashem no longer with a bama I mean today we don't but in bama that was we no longer allow the bama we moved to beta mikdash no longer did we allow personal bammote you couldn't make your own little altar your own pillar to bring it means coming together around together around beta mikdash and what's coming together around beta mikdash a recognition of hashem that we're all centered we're all focused on hashem and we're all part of hashem and that's what ruf cook says we need to learn to see one another as the to see namote in one another to see the goodness in one another to see the potential in one another and that's the way that he interprets and Rafuk was a was a master in his life of doing just that always seeing the best in others always highlighting the best in others so that's I think that's just a beautiful lesson and again to take an agata that you could read very quickly making a ba not saying and and Rafuk highlights the the beautiful this beautiful interpretation Okay, last our last agita that we'll do uh that we'll do together and this also I think is such a beautiful important lesson and very much is uh highlights one of the beautiful aspects of Rufk this is an agadada that everybody here knows everybody here knows it you'll see it in a moment because it's part of our davening which is really interesting that we've taken a section from the garra we don't have I would say we don't have too many examples of that where we take a passage in the garra and we bring it into our daily doning. Now what is that? So it's at the very end. I'm not sure if everybody says this here. You have to make it all the way to the end of davening but it's the very end of ding. Actually it's not outside of it's not generally done depending on the the here in ashkanas farm them say it as well. It's the final gamarra that's found in braos. It's the very last gamar in braos by the way. So that's the seum. It's the way that you conclude Brahos, but it's also concludes garamos and it also concludes Nazir and also concludes. So, by the way, I don't I don't think there's another example of this of four different gamaras that that's the same ending. That's number one and a gamarra that we brought into our dating. So, if you talk about the importance of this gamarra, you can make a case that this is one of the most important gamaras that there is. one repeated four times to conclude four trackct dates and that's brought into our into our David. So here we go. What does it say? Bring more peace to the world and all your children shall be taught of the Lord and great shall be the peace of your children. Don't read children builders. That is the last. The last talks about peace and it talks about builders of peace. And Rafuk has the following beautiful comment about the rabbis. Rabbis bring great peace to the world and learning brings great peace to the world. And here let's just take a moment to read a couple lines in there are those this is the very last inosim there are those that make the mistake they think shalom that if we want to make peace in the world it will not be built we can only build peace if everybody agrees if there's one unified if there's one unit that Everyone agrees to the same opinion, the same the same way of life. So that's what people think that we all need to be in agreement. And when you see the rabbis and this is if you're reading the Gamar, you see this on every page and here we are the last page of where you've seen thousands of arguments every you know page after page after page. When you see them arguing about wisdom and about ideas and you see that through that there are so many different interpretations and different ways of of of arguing a point you would think that brings about even greater and that's the opposite of peace and here's the key line one more line that is not the truth. truth shalom. What is true peace? It's not possible to come to the world shalom. You have to have many aspects that create that peace, right? There are many many different ways of looking at something and to appreciate all the different sides. That's what it means peace. And he says the word shalom is like the word shalm. Shalm means whole, right? whole means that there are different parts. All the different parts there. That's what makes up peace. We don't all have to agree. We're not going to all agree. And it's actually not healthy for all of us to agree. All the different opinions, all the different walks of life, all the different backgrounds, all the different perspectives. We bring all of that together. And that's what it means to have a unified piece. In the Gumar, it talks about Bonayak. It talks about builders. And he says Rafuk says if you look at a building and actually took note of this this morning you can see it on every block here. So what does it mean to build a building? You have people that bring the concrete of the building. You have the plumbing of the building. You have the windows of the building. You have the people that are putting the floor downs in the building. Is everybody bringing the same thing to the building? Is there one like unit that just builds the building? It's all different people with all different skills with all different and that's what builds the great building. And he says that's true in amrael as well. That's the last gamarra and a gamarra that's repeated again and again. And a gamarra that we recite every morning. And what does that gamarra teach us? It teaches us the importance of the difference of opinion and respecting the different difference of opinions. And that difference of opinion is what's going to bring a great peace. And one last gamarra that Rkook uh comments on. And one of the terms that's used for the rabbis that are arguing with one another in the Gumar, you're probably not familiar with this, not that well known. What's called ballet tin, that's this is a gar in Braos. The different rabbis are called bal. They're the masters of tin. Now, everybody here knows what a tricim are. So what? You're right. The tim Yes, you're doing this. You don't have the button. I guess there's the electric ones. You can press a button. these days. Yeah, I also have the ones that you do that. Um, so what are why do they why is a rabbi a rabbi who's arguing why they call them the ba tim? So interesting. So look at rrook three lines from the bottom of that paragraph. This is from his work the is the beginning of the line. When we argue with one another, we're arguing, defending our position that we want to find a position, something that we can follow, something that we stand by. The other opinion also has is is wholesome. The other opinion also is has aspects that are correct. The other opinion is also coming from a holy place. that what does it mean to be to be holding up a what does it mean to to to hold up this trees? You're guarding your position. You're standing firm on your position. But what's but he says there's a difference. Sometimes we argue and we argue and we try to bring down the other person. We try to diminish the other person. And he says when it comes to the gamarra the gumar is highlighting that you are arguing but just from a place of a trice of being a ballet treason. I'm defending my position. I'm hearing your position. We can disagree with one another but I'm not here to try to diminish you or to diminish your position. And beautifully that's what Cook says. Revuk says that's why the gar calls rabbis ballet treason. And it's true for all of us as well when we have a disagreement. So it's not about showing that the other is wrong. You defend your defend in a honorable way in an appropriate way to defend your position and that's the way that we make peace with one another. The respect that we need to have. This is the last kamar and brahos repeated four times in shas and what we get up every morning to say in our shak to remind us that this is what it means to be a Jew, what it means to have a community and to have unity. And I'll just end with the following. I just bought this safe here the other day. This is the Rambam. It just came out for the very first time. Art scroll of course art scroll. They're always coming out with amazing sarum. Um it's the Rambam's commentary on Pure Kavote a translation. The Rambam has a commentary on Pavote just came out for the very first time literally just uh just a couple weeks ago and I opened it up and I found some something amazing. Now art scroll for the most part that comes out of the more right-wing community and like the you know sort of the Russia Shiva that are involved for the most part I would say are more what we would call on the right not necessarily supportive of the idea of of army service things of of that nature. So I opened up this volume and it says the following Elo Nishmas is the opening page as many have and in memory of the holy in honor of the holy soldiers of the land of Israel they've given their lives that they are protecting the Jews of Israel the land should not cover up their blood that hashem should see the blood the sacrifice of the soldiers of Israel and I thought to myself I I don't know if this if something like this 10, 20 years ago if they would have written something like this. And by the way, it doesn't say in honor of the it says theim the holy soldiers that artery that community is calling the soldiers of Israel holy soldiers. Now we know that but that has not really been accepted in their camp so much. So this I think we have to credit you know we have to credit art scroll and that community for that and maybe this is a step in in in this direction that Rkook believe he he believed that we're moving in that direction that as we come back to Eric Israel and the sensitivity to one another and a sense of aus and this is what shalom means shalom means like the ballet tree singing we don't necessarily agree with the other I'll protect all I'll hold my position you can hold your position But we have great respect for one another. It's very true in life, in marriage, with our children and home and and for Cla as well. So these are some of the lessons that Rafuk says we need to learn a we need to learn this area because there's so much wisdom. There's so much richness here in this area that is going to be a great inspiration for Cla Israel. All right, we'll stop here. Wish everyone a wonderful dayto have a wonderful yantiff and look forward to seeing you next week if not earlier. Okay. Yes.