Rav Yitzchak Breitowitz: How The 3 Levels of Fear of G-d Translates into Love of G-d

[Music] You see your [Music] tomorrow. Oh my Okay. Hi everybody. Uh good to see you and I hope Pesak was uh both enjoyable and inspirational at the same time. Uh today as always uh we pray for the victory of our soldiers and all the fronts of the war. Uh the lasting unity of the people of Israel and for all of those whose health has been affected by the war and for the safe return of all of the hostages. This was yet another pesak in which they were in a state of servitude, persecution and danger. And we hope that this pesak will at least be the beginning of a mitz uh for all of those who are still in that inner mitzim. Uh we also have an anonymous contribution for the and hostages and hashem's protection and for the gulma viau and an aliyah nama for a hindua basin mendal who uh you said was a holocaust pass yesterday. She passed yesterday and she she was a holocaust survivor. She was a survivor and her husband may rest in peace found in Mal. I see. I see. Okay. You know uh I'll tell you an interesting vort uh you know we we often say that we dedicate a shir it should be elo nishmat people who died in the shawah but a rabbi once said you know they don't need things to be dedicated for them they're guaranteed haba immediately you don't have to say let's do an extra thing now I don't I don't pasan that way per se I think every extra thing always helps there actually was such an idea that because of what they went through there's a straight path to olhaba without any type of minia without any type of of difficulty there. Okay. Um so what I want to talk a little bit about um is it's not something that's relevant today. It's really a little back it's looking backwards to pes and looking forward to roshesh. So we work kind of between pes and so I'm going to talk about something that shak both to pes and toes and that is the recitation of halal we know halal or a number of chapters and safer to him uh written by David Hamel and yet we find that khazal enacted the recitation of halal on special occasions. So technically if you were to ask is the recitation of halal le Torah commandment or a raban commandment it technically falls under a rabbitic enactment that these capitl these chapters of tahillim were dedicated for special uh occasions. Now we know uh well let's go over a quick list just to be sure we're all on the same page. Sometimes we say whole hollow. Sometimes we say what is called half hollow. Well, it's not really half hollow, but certain portions are omitted. And there are holidays in which we don't say hal at all. So, let's go over the three categories. Uh, what are the holidays in which we simply do not say hal? We don't say halal on Roshashana. We don't say halal at all on yum kipper and we don't say halal on porim. Now rashashana yam kipper uh the garra itself gives a fairly logical reason why we don't say halal although these are holidays and that's because uh rash shana and yam kipper are days of judgment when hashem decides who will live and who will die as a result there's a certain somberness to those days a certain seriousness to those days and therefore it says when when the books of who will live and who will die are open before God that is not the festive time to say hello so that's yam kipper what about purims we actually talked about this shortly before purim so the gar migilda gives no fewer than three reasons why we don't recite halal por because quite logically we ought to if we recite a hal chalet m kanaka to commemorate our victory over the Ivanim when Hmon could have exterminated all of the Jewish people, we ought to say halal over the miracles of Purim. So the Gar gives three reasons why we don't recite halal on Purim. Uh reason number one is the reading of the migilla is the halal of Purim. That you're saying halal through reading the miguela. Uh the second reason is that we don't say halal on miracles that happen outside of the land of Israel. And even though Pesak is a miracle that happened outside of the land of Israel, but that's before we got to Erit Israel. But once we get to and then exiled, we don't say halal on the miracles of and the third reason that the garra gives is we only say halal when as a result of the miracle we are no longer in hot water like we established independence. Masha came after han we're still underash and who knows if the next day he's going to get another ham. You're not out of hot water, which I don't want to talk about this week. Uh, you know, part of the controversy of halal is whether you connect it to some of these reasons. Obviously, it's not a miracle of and there's no migillah, but some actually invoke the third reason as a reason not saying hello because the establishment of the state of Israel did not take us out of a state of war. It created a state of war and as a result we're still in hot water as as we know even though we did have reonut we did have sovereignt so again I don't want to get into that issue uh obviously hallelu you know uh is a controversial issue to this very day with a braha without a braha don't say it at all say it after dvening and I can tell you from experience that uh when American rabbis interview for positions In synagogues, one of the questions they will be asked in the interview process is do you say what what is your opinion on halo on your mat and the rabbi who was sitting on the hot seat is trying to think what do they want me to say here like you know you look around and you know where's the orientation so uh I no longer uh interview uh for for positions but I do remember the terror of trying to figure out what they want. Of course, you might think, well, what do you mean? I mean, what's your position, right? Okay, that's that's Muser also. But the nature of interviewing processes is that sometimes people want to accommodate. Okay, so that explains the three holidays where we don't say hollow. Rashana, yum, kipper and pur. But what about the idea of half hollow? Now, when do we say half hal? Uh, so there are two occasions. One is roesh. we recite half and on all the days of Pesak after day one. So for the seven days of sukos and format whole hal for shuos whole hala kaneka 8 days whole hal. The only Yamtois Yamto for which we have a half hollow is the last six days or in galut the last seven days but the last six days of Pes. So with respect to Rosh kodesh the way it works is this. The Gomorrah actually says roesh on a Torah level is not a yumpt and since ro kesh on a Torah level is not a y there is no of hal is not a the raan were not maken that you must recite halal halal and ro kodesh has the status of a minhug that some communities accepted and eventually it spread and to show that it's mitam minhug and Not me. We differentiate it from the halal of the halal of is complete. The halal of Minog is partial. That is why there's a huge makus. You might not be aware of it. Do you recite a braha on the hal of kodes? There are actually a number of opinions that say that hal kesh is min. There is no braha. Others say only the says the braha and not the kah. Others say even if you make the braha as an individual, it's only in a minan. And others say the can make the braha even by himself. But this is a unique about the love of of course you make a even because that's the of the is the love of minhag. Now of course it's a minhag that has now become universal but in the time of the tal it was not yet universal. In in other words, if you would go back to the time of the tanoyim and even the amayim, there would actually have been communities that did not recite halal on roles. So the half hal of roesh can be relatively easily explained by the difference between the halal of and the halal of min. the halal of obligation versus the halal of Mina. What's a little more difficult and this kind of brings us down to the present moment is how do you explain the half hal of the other days of Pesak because after all Pesak is seven days sukkot is seven days plus for the seven days of sukos halal shalem and is also halal shalem. So why would so even though it's mo right we we hal the fact that it's moade that doesn't itself uh diminish halm for the seven days of sukos. So why are these seven days of pes different than the seven days of sukus. Now the garra actually gives an answer to this and for some reason this answer is not very wellnown. There's a the second answer I'm going to give you is very wellnown and I know you you know it but I'm going to give you an answer that the Gammorra itself gives which for some reason people uh don't know this reason and the Gmorrah says there's a difference between pesak and sukus in the structure of the musaf the additional offerings that are brought not the corbin pes I'm talking about the special offerings of the yumptiff on pesak A musf offering was brought every day. But it was the same offering every day. The famous two bulls, one ram, seven sheep. And that was brought every single day. If you remember just from your daing musf, every day you recited the same corban musf as opposed to sucos. It was a different configuration every single day. How is that relevant to halal? So this is what the Gmorrah says. It's a bit of a subtle idea. Since the mus of every day of Pes is the same conceptually we regard the seven days of Pes as a single a single Yam. And as a result, the recitation of the first halal on day one covered the entire yamt and the rest of the days is only minog similar to ro kesh because it is one long yamt and the of halal and yamt was fulfilled by the recitation of halal shalem on day one. Mash sucos since every single day has a different musaf offering and also has a different musaf offering. Every day is considered to be a separate. So it's not one of seven days. It's seven of one day each. And since a creates an obligation of halal, the halal shale obligation is regenerated every single day. So this is a technical distinction between sukos and pes based on the structure of the corban musaf for pes versus sukus. And this is in the garra. This is muskin. The garra itself asks directly why is pesak different than sucos and this is the answer that it gives. However, there's another reason that's much much better known and uh this is a reason that is brought down in the safer shibet. Shibbole hleet was compiled by one of the great medieval reishonim in Italy. uh and he brings it in the name of a medish and this is important because we actually don't have this medish and it is sometimes the case more than you might imagine that there are many midrashim that somehow got lost in the course of time and those that are not quoted in other books if they're lost they're lost we don't even know that they they existed but very very often we find new we find these lost midashim via quotations in secondary sources. So this is a lost midrash that is brought in the shibet who says the following. In reality there ought to be a whole halal. But since the seventh day of Pesak commemorates the splitting of the Red Sea and the death of many Egyptians and Khazal tell us that at the time of the coming together of the Dead Sea after the split the angels in heaven wanted to sing God's praises and God said to them my say the Egyptians are my creations too. And they're drowning. And of course, Hashem is killing them. Hashem is not turning the other cheek. They got to die. But this is not a time for joy and jubilation. So the shibet brings in the name of the medish. That is why on the seventh day of pes even though it's we only say a half because it commemorates the destruction of the Egyptians when Hashem said. Now again I want to be very careful to to differentiate between the medish that we do have and the shib le extrapolation to a medish we don't have the statement that hashem rebuked the angels and said do not sing my praises as the Egyptians are drowning that is both in the gammorrah and in the medrusha that you will find But the medish never uses it to explain the hallel point. That is what the shibali le is adding and he says that is from a medish as well. And as far as we know we have no medish that makes the connection. Okay. Be sure you understand this. The the the concept of that indeed is in our sources. the shib le extends it to hollow. Now this reason uh is a much better known reason than the reason the gammorra gives. But of course the taz one of the commentaries and theor raises the obvious question. If in reality pes should have a whole hollow but we cut it down to a half hollow because of creases yamsuf creams occurred on the seventh day of pes. So according to that you ought to say a full hal for six days and only on the seventh day do a half hal. Why do we stop saying a full halal starting from day two? So the taz answers a nice uh answer. He says we never want to make hamo more significant than y because remember the seventh day of yamt is day two to through day six is hamo. Now, if you're going to do a whole halal uh from day one through day six, you'll be doing a whole halo and then when the comes, you're going to go down to half halal. You're kind of degrading the visa. So, you kind of work backwards. If it is determined that on day seven, you're not going to say a whole halal, then you have to go backwards and take away the whole halal from day two uh through day six. This is the Tazis hosafa. This is the Taz's addition uh to the Sheibal Shibal Het who brings his idea in the name of the medish. So here is the obvious question. We do say a full halal on the first day of Pes and indeed the minog of many people. In fact, in Arit Israel, this is the Nafag is we even say hal at night in the Besset. That's kind of what is mainly done in Israel and among many Ashkanazim by and large do not say halal in Shaw, but everybody says halal at the seder. By the way, it's a little interesting. I don't want to get into too many technicalities. Uh, one of the things you'll notice about halal of the seder is we didn't say a braha on it. We didn't say hello. We have an end braha, but we we didn't say the braha. How come? So many commentaries actually say the reason you didn't say a bra is because you already made the and that goes on the how of the seder h that's interesting because that would imply that if you follow the min of not saying hallness you should make a braha of hal the seder. So ask your local Orthodox rabbi. Uh it's an interesting question. Uh there are those that indeed maintain that if I said hal with a bra that will cover my seder hal too. But if I didn't say halate I followed let's say the many I would have to say it at the seder. Again it's a bit bit of a question meaning to kind of not say not say abra at the seder. Some consider that to be tarte das two things that are contradicting each each other. Okay, be it as it may, but whether you say it in or don't say it in, you certainly say full halal at the seder and you certainly say full halal the next day at chakras. So here's the question. The first night of Pesak, many many many Egyptians died as well. Uh in fact probably more Egyptians died the night of Pesak through the plague of the firstborn than died at the Yamsuf. The Tyra itself says when it describes Makasaros it says a shame there was not a single house in which there was not a dead body. So here's the thing. If you're telling me if the shiba tells me we don't recite a full halal on the seventh day of pes because since that commemorates the death of so many Egyptians at the time of the red sea our joy should not be complete so we diminish it a little bit by a half hollow then how come on the first day of pesak I say a whole hollow in spite of the deaths of even more Egyptians am I on day one My attitude is if it's good for the Jews, I don't care what happens to the goyam kind of particularism. And all of a sudden on day seven, we become universalists. Right? There are like two philosophies in life. Do I kind of just look at what's good for the Jews or do I kind of look at what's good for the world, etc. So either way you look at it there seems to be a contradiction that day one we don't focus on any type of commiseration for mitz and on day seven we do and why is there that difference particularly since day one more Egyptians probably died than even at the splitting of the of the red sea. So the point that I want to develop is that the holiday of Pesak which we were just so to to complete represents kind of a learning process in which in the course of Pesak we kind of get redefined and elevated in different ways. And let's go back to a puk that's in the Torah that we read on the seventh day of pesak. And indeed it is it's recited every single day in our ding before we get to Yashir. It is actually in the Torah right before us. It says, "The Jewish people saw the great mighty hand that God did against the Egyptians and they had reverence for God Moshe and Moshe his servant." And then it goes to Oz Yoshir. By the way, uh this puss is quoted in the Hagada and it is the only time in the Hagada that Mosher Raenu's name is mentioned. It's a well-known idea that Mosher Rabenu's name is omitted from the Hagada even though he's the you would think he's the main star. And the reason is because on the night of Pesak we want to emphasize that God is our redeemer and we don't want to give any credit so to speak to human intermediaries even Mosha Rabenu. So Moshe is conspicuously absent from the Hagada but he sneaks in. He snuck in in that one verse. So if you want to kind of keep your kids quiet at the seder, this is maybe a tip for next year. Uh you can offer in addition to your afikomen prizes, whatever that would be. Anyone who can say where Mosher Rabenu's name is mentioned, you know, raise your hand or whatever it is, you can get an extra prize and that'll keep them hopefully optimistically focused on the narrative. By the way, by but but with respect to coming, I'll give you another hint. It's a little little bit of a spoil sport hint, but it's a brisker hint. Uh they say that Salvichek that uh one time it was time to eat the aikoma and the kids I mean his kids became the brisker of his kids became themselves but they were holding back the aikoma. I don't know what what prize they wanted but uh so and it was getting close to midnight. He's supposed to eat the afic before midnight. So Ravim just very calmly just took another piece of matzah and ate it. And he says aikman doesn't have to be the afikomen. There's a to eat matzah at the end of the seder. It can be any piece of matzah that you want. So, so if you feel that you're being taken advantage of at some point you might be able to invoke uh this brisker minog of just taking any matzah you want anymore of course anymore you want and use it for the uh for the a okay um all right but be it as it may uh the medish says the following the medish says look at the pusk as a result of the splitting of the red sea vu They feared God. They had so the med says until now they did not have only from Yamsu onward there was gave them. This is a medish ad until this point. They had no from now on. What's going on? They had just gone through a whole year. A year. The 10 plagues lasted a year with a lot of breaks in the middle. Each plague was a week and in church were three month three weeks and then there were breaks in the middle but it was a year from the plague of blood to the leaving of Egypt was a year. The Jewish people experienced amazing miracles over and over and over and over again. They saw God's unlimited control over the natural order of the universe to be able to change and deviate at will and that didn't give them hashem. What was special about kus yams that gave them hashem that they didn't have as a result of mitiman. So the basi offers the following interesting observation. If we look at the 10 plagues versus the Red Sea, we actually see an inversion. In the case of the 10 plagues, the miracle of the plague was always in the direction of retribution and punishment. The water was turned to blood. Frogs, lice, plague, the death of the firstborn. The Jewish people who were not afflicted by the plague, there was not a miracle for them. In other words, they were left to nature. Meaning, the waters of the Egyptians turned to blood and the Jewish people were left with the natural way. Meaning the miracle was in the punishment and the hatalah in the saving was tea with kus yamsuf it's interesting observation we'll see why it's important but just as an observation creas worked in the opposite way because what happened but what is the miracle of creases yams that the water splits to let the Jewish people go True. The Egyptians did not die miraculously. Hashem when the Jewish people crossed over stopped the miracle. The nature of water is to come together. The Egyptians drowned not through a miracle of God. The Egyptians drowned through the natural order. So it's interesting that the mahal the way the makos worked was very very different than the way creas yamsuf worked creas the makos the nace was the ones and the tea the nature was the hatsah the saving when it comes to creassams it's exactly the opposite the nace was the hatalah and the death was the tea. This is an observation the basy makes. Now why is that important? Because what are the respective lessons that one gets when the Jewish people go through 10 plagues and they see God's unlimited might but they see that might directed towards the punishment of evildoers. God will change nature to punish those who deserve to be punished. That inspires, of course, Yera. I better mend my ways. I better be good. I better be conscientious because I see what God does to evildoers eventually. So, the macos are a lesson in fearing God. But Cus Yamsov shows God's love for us. God is doing a miracle not to punish evildoers. God is doing a miracle to save his beloved people. Now there's a famous puss in Misha in Proverbs that I love a lot. I've I've mentioned it a lot so you've heard it before undoubtedly. And the puss says, upon him. As water reflects the face that you show it can lay for Adam, so too the heart of man reflects that which you show it. What does that puk mean? So the vil nagon explains imagine you have a reflecting pond of water. So whatever face I show the water is the face that I'm going to see. I smile at the water. I see a smiling face smiling back at me. My face. I frown at the water with anger. I will see an angry face. So Schlomik says the wisest of all people says just as water reflects the face you show the water the heart of a human being is going to reflect that which you show that human being. I show a person respect. I show a person love. I show a person that he or she matters. they're going to feel that way about me. I show a person anger. I show a person disdain. I show a person that I think he's worthless. He or she is worthless. They're going to feel that way about me as well. I don't want to get too political here, but in many many ways, the antagonisms that exist between religious and secular and even within groups of different types of religious Jews stem from the fact that each one looks at the other in a negative way. I look at you negatively, you look at me negatively, and then I'll look at you more negatively. And there's a certain spiral that's connected that will never be broken until somebody makes the decision to kind of change that perception. Again, I'm not I'm not talking about here about kamas. I'm not talking about Nazis. I'm not talking about those situations. I'm not suggesting that you know Hitler or whatever it is would you know be nice if only I I'm not I'm not going with those types of situations but at least visav my a fellow Jew certainly the idea is upon him now the balata adds a certain twist to this verse the same way that what I show a human being he'll feel back to me. If God shows you something, that's going to awaken the feeling in you. So when I feel the love that Hashem has for me, that will arouse the love in my heart for God because the balata applies the idea upon him, upon him, not only to the man man relationship but to the Godman relationship as well. That one of the ways how does one come to love Hashem? Part of coming to love Hashem, right? It says in keshma, right? We say it twice a day or some say three times a day. You shall love God. How do I love God? How do I come to love God? I come to love God by internalizing God's love for me. So now let's look at this. If we felt God's love more than the makos because the makos God did miracles to punish God did miracles to rescue. So the seventh day of PES we felt more strongly that even God's love for us. So based on upon him upon him we achieved a higher level of loving God. So the seventh day of Pesak we reach the epitome of loving God even more than we experienced at the exodus itself. So kasamsu by enab enabling us to feel the greater love of god enabled us to have a greater love of god from our part. Well, that's good. But you may say, "But that's not what the medra says." So, according to what we're saying is, it should have said, "Until now, they did not fully love God, and now they fully love God." But that's not what the med says. It says, "Until now they did not fully fear God, and now they fear God." According to this whole beautiful explanation, creas was not something that taught us fear. It's something that taught us love. So why does it emphasize a new level of fear? So here the moral says we have to analyze what we mean by fear is not even a good word here. I'm going to use the Hebrew word yera. Yera. What is yera? So we commonly understand that translated literally as fear of God. There are two types of yera and the rishim have terms for each of these going back to sajog even before the reishonim. The lowest level of ya is quite literally fear. Fear of punishment. I better behave because God will hold me accountable for my actions. That's called ha. Now that frankly on one level is described as a low level, an inferior level. On the other hand, if we truly had that level, we would never sin. So we shouldn't disparage it. But is a reality. And that's fear. That's quite literally fear. I'm scared. However, Sajjagon points out yera has another connotation and it's not fear but it's awe reverence. That's a different emotion. That's not I'm scared but I'm overwhelmed by the greatness and the holiness. The problem is Hebrew in the Hebrew language in of the Tyra the word yera encompasses both of those concepts. both onesh fear of punishment and roam awe and reverence. Now we even see this in human relationships. You know it used to be well actually there still still may be dictators like this North Korea that you know you you you behave a certain way in front of a dictator because the guy might kill you, right? So, if any of you are planning a trip to North Korea, be sure not to deface any hotel posters. Uh, or you know, you're not going to get out. Just tragically happened to uh was he Jewish? Otto, uh, the person, okay, whatever it is. But, but anyway, don't fool around if you're planning any trips to North Korea. That's onish. On the other hand, if you're in the presence, let's say, of Queen Elizabeth before she died or even King Charles, maybe less so, you know, there's also a certain feeling of era, but that's not fear of punishment. They're not going to, it's not like Henry VII, you Henry the not going to cut off your head, but you know, there's a certain respect respect. So, in fact, the Gumari even says that a Jew should make an effort when a king is passing through a town with pomp and circumstance. There's a mitzvah to kind of see it so that way you can then imagine on some infinitely higher level the greatness of God. It's a mental picture that helps you imagine it. So there's yata onesh there's yata roamut roamut is god's grander and then you reach a higher level a third level in which the roamut turns into love adoration. So, so far we have three levels right on aa but then the moral says there's a level above aa that is also called yera. There is a yera a third level of yera that's above aa and he says it's an ava that is so intense that you are afraid to do anything that will cause your beloved pain. Now again we could illustrate this with human relationships very simple human relationships. Let's imagine that you have to get up very very early to go on a trip, but your spouse is a light sleeper and you don't want to wake her up. Wake her up. So, from a male perspective, whatever it is, the woman to the man, the man to the woman, it's all the same. So, you tiptoe. You walk on eggshells not to wake the person up. You're frightened you're going to wake the person up. Now, what are you frightened of? You're not frightened that, you know, forgive me. I'm just going to use the wife because I'm speaking as as a man. You're not afraid she's going to take a frying pan and hit you over the head. Says, I better not wake her up because who knows what she'll do to me. And it's not even a question. I am so in awe of my spouse. How dare you know I wake her up. But it comes from a form of love. I care about somebody. it would cause a little pain or a little discomfort even if it's small that she would lose some sleep. So the love turns into a fear but not fear of punishment and it's not even reverence but it's a fear that I don't want to do anything to hurt the one that I love. So the moral says this is also called yera. The idea of yera fear the word fear has three distinct connotations in spiritual life. There is fear of punishment. There is awe and reverence which is the same. And then there is an intensification of love that turns into a fear that I don't do anything that will kabio cause hashem pain. So here is the point. When kazal says brought us to the level of they don't mean that we learned in mit but it means when we felt the strength of God's love for us because he did a miracle for us not to punish and that in turn made us feel love for Hashem based on may upon him upon him that love got transmuted into the comes out of love. In fact, that's the difference and roesh benching this this month or this shabas we're going to say the foreshore. So one of the things we ask Hashem is we ask for fear of heaven and fear of sin. So here's the thing includes and it's not fear of God. It's fear of sin. Meaning because of my love of Hashem, I am fearful of doing something wrong. I'm afraid of, you know, waking my wife up, right? That's the I don't want to do a misstep. In fact, the very word actually means missing the mark, missing the step, etc. So this is what creas explains. And in fact, this is very medyic because listen to this. When the puzz describes how after creasams they feared God, it uses the phrase viru hashem. Hashem is yud v. Now yud v is god's name of mercy, compassion and love. If you're talking about the emotion of fear, you ought to connect it to in fact it's interesting in thesh itself when Melik the king of the Philistines takes Sara right said the sister etc. He takes Sarah and Hashem comes to him in a dream at night and says you better give her back. the man is a na'vi and you're in big trouble if you don't give her back and he gives her back and when he says to Ara why didn't you tell me so Afraim said I knew there is no fear of God in this place so I whatever I tell you just kill me and you'll take her anyway so there what Arab is saying is you have no fear of God meaning you don't believe in God you don't believe God's going to punish you etc so that's elim so elimin fits very well but by it's yud but is compassion is love how is that connected with ya but like the marau it's beautiful because this is not yera in the sense of fear this This yera coming from an intensification of love precisely because I perceive God's love for me. My love for God is very strong and therefore I have the yera of not doing anything that's going to hurt the love. That's the hashem yat yud yud. So with this introduction I didn't forget the original question I raised. Remember the original question we were discussing if you if you still remember it uh was that the shibbo let brings that on the seventh day of pes I don't say a full hal because our joy must be diminished because the Egyptians suffered and then the taz adds therefore I have to go backwards and make kam moe the same question was I first day of pes So many Egyptians died and we say a whole right so why is day one different than day seven so here's the answer until creassy the primary framework of how we relate to God was a framework of yera onesh because we saw that god did miracles to punish the Egyptians we saw his greatness and his grander when you live in the framework of yera. Your primary concern is with yourself. I want to be sure that I'm safe, my family is safe, my nation is safe, my land is safe. I think about me. However me is defined. Me can be defined as the whole Jewish people. What happened to the Egyptians? I frankly don't care very much about because yera is a kind of relationship to God. I hate to use this Trumpian word uh a transactional thing. I better behave or else. And when your relationship to God is transactional in that sense, you don't really think about what happens to other people. But when your relationship to God grows into a relationship of love and we tried to show that creasy created that things are a little different because the nature of a loving relationship even among human beings is you try to see the world through the eyes and perspective of the other person. This is one of the great great challenges of marriage. As Kazal say men and women are two different nations. There actually is a a lush like that. Two different nations or the more famous modern book men are from Mars, women are from Venus. Whatever whatever it is, the point is that I as a husband have to try to see the world as my wife sees it and my wife should endeavor to see the world a little bit to see it. By definition, we're going to be very imperfect in that way because it's impossible for a buseram to totally see the world through somebody else's eyes. We only have our eyes. But as one grows in love, one tries, one endeavors. So as a result, here's the thing. If I love God, I want to see the world through God's eyes. And not only through my eyes, through my eyes. When I'm redeemed from Egypt and I see all the Egyptians die. So, it sounds like a good deal. Great. From God's eyes, it's a little different because from God's eyes and again I want to point out that God is not a pacifist. In fact indeed says explicitly Hashem is God is a man metaphorically God is a man of war. So God decided to punish the Egyptians to kill the Egyptians to destroy them. Okay? We're not talking about pacifism. We're not talking about turning the other cheek. But from God's eyes every time a human being needs to die, needs to die. It's a tragedy because things could have been different. Every person is created in the image of God. I mean, I hate to say it this way, but you know, Hitler too was created in the image of God. But people make choices and people engage in behaviors that destroy their godliness. From the perspective of God, it's a tragedy. I sometimes think about this as a bit of a thought experiment that you know in the states you have a lot of these high school shootings, these kids who just shoot up uh students and then they kill themselves. Uh and so obviously everybody mourns correctly. They mourn the the victims. They mourn uh they they commiserate with the parents. But you know, think about the parents of the mass murderer. And I don't mean like the suicide bombers here because they're the parents think it's a great mitzvah. God forbid that that's a mish. I'm talking about the typical American parent whose son is a mass murderer gets no nas from that and imagine the pain in their heart. Now the question is do they love their son? Can you love your child after they committed a horrendous horrendous unforgivable crime? I don't know but it seems just just from watching things that there is what the Balatana calls a simultaneous love and revulsion at the same time. A parent might say whether whether they're fantasizing or not that's a separate issue. They'll say that's not really who he is. you know, mental ill, whatever they say. But ultimately there's a tragedy here because the tragedy is things could have been different. If only, if only, if only, if only. And what are the onies? People can torture themselves about that the rest of their lives. Now again we can't analyze God in the same way but there is somewhat of a similar process since did create a world based on free will so people are given freedom to ruin themselves but from God's perspective every Russia that needs to be destroyed is in itself a tragedy. It's not just the tragedy of what he did to others. It's the tragedy of what he did to himself. Now again, when you're focusing on your relationship to God in terms of yera, you don't really care about those things. You care about what's good for you. And getting rid of the Egyptians is only a plus. But as you grow in love of God, you see the sadness, the infinite sadness that has when all human beings who were made in God's image destroyed their holiness to such a degree that they had to be destroyed. Now, in truth, the Gomorrah actually says this. You know, there there's a mitzvah in the Torah that when a person is executed by the Sanhedrin, the body is hung up on a tree so people can can see it and and be deterred from doing doing sins. But it's a very short time and you immediately take it down. And it mentions that uh you have to bury the person before sunset. And it says the man or the person that is hung on the tree is a curse to God. And explain it's as if God is saying this is the language of the the Mishna. My head aches when I see this. So this is the idea of why creasams we shift from the parochial worldview of what's good for us to broadening ourselves to be concerned for the destruction of the Egyptians not because of the Egyptians because of our love of God. We want to see the world through God's eyes. And for God, that was a tragedy. It's a tragedy as well. So that's kind of the the inner meaning of the transition, the learning experience, so to speak, the spiritual growth that occurs during PES. Now, we just want to point out that obviously we're in the period of the counting of the Omr. And we will talk uh more about the counting of the Omra because it'll actually be in the week's para in two or three weeks. So I'll I'll I'll address it in more detail then. But all of us know that the Omr there are two things going on during the Omr. On one hand, we're counting up to the day of the giving of the Torah and that's a happy thing. On the other hand, we're also commemorating the deaths of 24,000 students of Rabi Akiva and that's the source of the mourning customs. Not getting married, not listening to music, not getting haircuts. It's a very complex thing because it is both a happy time and a sad time at the same time. Both things are going on at once. Uh but it is said that Khazal tell us that the students of Rabi Aka died because they did not show proper honor and respect to each other. And therefore it is said especially during the period of the Omr we need to rectify that sin by showing proper honor and respect. And you know listen um we obviously have external enemies that try to destroy us. And uh when we say when we said at the seder shalom and many people sing it a beautiful it is not just one that has risen to destroy us but in every generation there are those who rise to destroy us. Of course, we think about those external enemies and those external threats. But the MS homalytically has a nice twist. When it says shalom, which we translate, it is not only one that tries to destroy us. He translates it this way. It is only the fact that we are not one that has risen to destroy us. You see the twist as what is our problem shalom? It's the fact that we're not one. That when there's unity togetherness of ami Israel, all sorts of divine blessings come into the world. Again, forgive me for repeating. Uh, but I I've said a number of times since um October 7 that, you know, if there was any silver lining in the tragic situation that we were placed into, it was that it did bring us together in ways that had not been seen for a number of years. You remember before October 7, people forget there was this whole controversy about judicial reform. And although it seems like a minor thing, it was it was quite literally tearing apart the country and people were talking about people were even talking about in some extreme cases armed revolt and businesses were pulling were threatening to pull out capital from Israel and people in Miluim were threatening not to report for duty. Hashem when it became necessary they did report but who knows if that emboldened kamas because people were saying we're not going to show up etc. So we really were affected by disunityity to a very extreme way and then came the Torah massacre and that made people realize that makes no difference. You wear a hat, a velvet keepa kipasuga or no kipa at all. We're one people. We got to come together. We got to work together. We got to be together. And many, many good things happen as a result. But you know, habits die very hard like an elastic band. You know, you stretch the elastic, but you know, you let go of it, it kind of comes back to where it was. And as the war does go on and on and on and on and on, so we eventually kind of revert to our old ways and some of the issues that were plaguing us before October 7 continue to arise again. And that's kind of a tragedy on top of a tragedy. And obviously uh the hostages and the deaths, the war is tragedy number one. But tragedy number two is you fail to grow from it. Meaning at least if we would grow in positive ways. Okay? So we grew from it. If we don't grow and we have the tragedy, the tragedy just gets compounded so much more worse. So these are things to think about in the period of the omare. These are things to think about in terms of ka yams and as I say the puk kamayanim panim is a very very useful pusk in looking at all of these things I'm not suggesting that there are not significant disagreements there there are issues I mean Jews love to argue and you know again there are reasons to argue about uh in the army whatever it is you can pick your you pick your issues a gazillion issues which I don't want to address but we do have to differentiate between attacking or arguing with a position and attacking a person. We can have much much makus but I can still see the humanity and the kaduca and the goodness of the other person. And I think based on him that itself would solve in a huge way the rifts that exist within our society. So wish good shabas and thank you. [Music] My [Music] birthday tomorrow [Music]