Rav Yitzchak Breitowitz: The Power of Prayer and the Kohen Gadol

You see your tomorrow [Music] Okay, hi everybody. I I'm sorry a little late today. As always, we are praying for the victory, excuse me, of our soldiers and all the friends of the war uh the lasting unity of Ami Israel and for all those whose health has been affected by the war and for the safe return of all the hostages. Uh Rafu Schlma for Yisha Leo Ben Ronit. I would also like to add uh another name Hadas Batfanina who's a uh young mother that has a very aggressive brain tumor and she's undergoing some major surgery tomorrow and she should also have Raf LMA aliyah nama Mosha David Benas Yoseph and Mendel Benavid uh and Yitzk uh I'm sorry Mendel Ben David Yitzk Jeremy Bernstein's late mother's yard site the 26th of Tamos and it is the 22nd yard site to Mr. Jack Gazels Auday Beny Olaf a Holocaust survivor uh by his sons Dr. Mitchell Gazels and Jeffrey Gzels of New York. Jeffrey is a friend of mine and he sent me a very very beautiful short video about his father. His father was a a printer in the uh one of the day schools in Queens. And um someone you know the principal, the assistant principal asked him, "Why do you spend all your time with all of these kids?" And he said that uh he was a child during the Holocaust and he thought there were no Jewish children who are even alive anymore and he dedicated his life to working with these children because this gave him the greatest comfort in the world that I'm Israel and finally aliat for Satra. So may all of the befor Israel and nama for all these people and all who need an aliyah. >> Uh this week we actually have um the largest paras in the Torah because we have a double header. We have matos and masai. So when they are together they're not always together. It is really the largest number of sugim. Um it's hard to choose a topic because there are many many topics in these parotes. But first I want to start with a general observation about the three weeks that we're in and then we'll move it over into the uh para itself. The three weeks which started from the 17th of Tamuz uh through the 9th of A. Uh these are three weeks in which we focus on the destruction of the Basa Mikdash and the tragedies of Gulos and we pray to Hashem to rebuild the Basa Mikdash and we also focus in our own lives what we can do to merit the building of the Basa Mikdash. But Draf Saddok has a very interesting observation in which he focuses on the respective hafturas of the three weeks just by looking at the first word more or less. The first ha Torah of the three weeks that we read last week uh is called dra yo uh the words of yero right at the beginning of the book of Jeremiah. This week's ha to Torah is shim also from yo shimu devar hashem here listen to the word of god and the ha tora of next week which is right before tishab the day before tishab is the um is the uh ha tora from yes called kazon yes vision. So look at the three functions that are being encapsulated in the haftaras. We have speech, we have hearing, we have vision. As if to say speak no evil, hear no evil, see no evil. There are three functions we have to correct. First and foremost, we have to correct our power of speech. Now again the goal of speech is not to be silent. Hashem gave us speech for a reason. You know they tell the story you know the wrote the whole safer on the laws of lash and har about what you're allowed to say what you're not allowed to say right. So people used to want to test the they wanted to kind of get him into conversations and see what he would do. Almost a surreptitious way of gotcha which was a phenomenon even with the and somebody went to the for shabas. He was sent on this mission to kind of infiltrate the uh and he reported back the following. And he said, "You know, I think the son-in-law was much more righteous than the because the was talking and telling stories and the was constantly conversing, but his son-in-law remained totally silent except for learning Torah or Daven." So I think that's a greater accomplishment. The son-in-law guards his speech wasn't guarding his speech. Then he realized that what the was doing is much much greater. The son-in-law simply didn't talk. So when you don't talk, you're not going to see anything wrong. The talked quite a lot, but in talking as much as he talked, it was always for constructive reasons to build people up to give them to convey a Torah message. And that's really the goal. All of these uh consciousness raising ideas of guard your tongue, control your speech, that's important. But the ultimate goal is not simply to keep quiet. The ultimate goal is to recognize that speech can destroy and speech can build up. This is the P in Mishim. Death and life is in the hands of the tongue. It doesn't just mean physically although indeed if you give away military secrets you know people can die etc. But death can be many different ways and life can be many different ways. You know a a kind word can build a person up can give them hope can give them courage and a harsh word can destroy them. And that's a form of death also. Death and life is in the hands of the tongue. And when we think of the power of speech, we're not just looking at the negatives. We're looking at the positive power of speech to uplift, to give, to give encouragement. So the first tough Torah is focusing, which was actually read last week, is focusing in the power of speech. This week's of Torah and the next one which I'm not going to talk about so much now because I'm going to talk about it later talk about the notion that you also should try to control what you hear because that influences you in terms of the news that you take in and the like. And of course the last one is perception. How do you perceive the world? You know in many many ways all of these laws of lash and har we think it's about controlling speech but on a deeper level it's about changing the way you perceive reality meaning instead of saying oh I have such a desire to talk about all the bad things in this guy but I'm going to bite my tongue you kind of change the way you look at people and at some point you have no interest in lush it's even a struggle. >> I mean, why do I want to degrade somebody? Why do I want to embarrass them? Why? I don't look at people in that negative way. So, what starts off as controlling your speech ultimately turns into redefining your perception of reality. And people say about words, uh, sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me. We were told this as children, but that's absolutely not true. If anything, the words can hurt more. >> The bones when you're young, especially can heal. >> The hurt from words >> can be so permanent. So permanent. I remember years and years ago when Richard Nixon had uh had left the way that was in disgrace and at some point he got rehabilitated a little bit. uh and he was talking about what formed his personality. The the interviewer was asking those types of questions and here is a man who had been president of the United States for two terms, vice president, president. Uh and he went through Watergate and and Vietnam war. He went through uh World War II as a soldier. He went through everything. But what was in his mind? He was talking about the taunts, playground taunts when he was in sixth grade. >> Yeah. and they still had an impact >> on him. Those things make a big big difference, right? So tell your kids they got to be careful who either make fun of because these guys might become presidents later or or whatever it is. You never know who you're messing messing with uh and and and and the like. So speech is a reality. Speech is powerful. God created the universe with the power of speech by yukim. God said, God said, God said and in many ways we are in the image of God. So just as God creates and destroys by speech, we create and destroy by speech by the power of words. Good words, bad words. So I want to point out that the power of speech emerges in a few different places in these parios. The para begins with a very detailed analysis of making vows. These are called nadarim. You make a net, you got to keep it. Now today when people say a net, they usually mean a pledge for charity. But that's actually not the net the Torah is talking about. The Torah is talking about a person who makes a vow to prohibit something on himself for whatever the reason. A person might say, "Apples are forbidden to me. Chocolate is forbidden to me." And it can take many different forms. It could mean all chocolate is forbidden to me. Or it could even just be, "Hey, any chocolate he gives me, I'm not going to eat." You can make the net in any type of form. You know, you could say chocolate covered raisins, whatever it is. But a nether is a person takes a vow and the Tory says you're not allowed to violate the vow. Now, if you think about this, this is extraordinary. If I make a net not to eat chocolate, the chocolate is just as prohibited to me as if it would be a piece of pork. So a neta represents an extraordinary power that is normally reserved to God alone. It's God alone who decides what is permissible, what is not permissible. And yet through the power of my speech, I can create the godlike function of making something as prohibited as a piece of pork. And not only can I do that to myself, I can do that to you because dal is I can make a nether prohibiting my property to you. I could say, for example, all of my possessions are forbidden to you, whether it's chocolates or fruit or all of my possessions. And if you violate my vow, you are sinning because I made my house forbidden to you. It's hard to grasp this exactly, but that's what a net is. The net is the power of human speech to create divine prohibitions right is a godly use of feast. Now we very much discourage the making of vows. As Schlomik says in the book of Cohelis, better that thou shalt not vow than to make vows that you're not going to keep. So generally speaking, we strongly discourage making vows. But there may be extraordinary situations uh where for example if a person uh is facing an illness or whatever a person might make a vow to do a certain thing but generally this is why in common Jewish speech people who make commitments will typically say nether I'm making this commitment without a vow because we don't want to god forbid make a vow that perhaps we will not keep a very very serious is a not to fulfill a vow or to violate a vow. Again, if your vow is the affirmative, I will give $1,000 to then you violate the vow by inaction. If you made a vow that for whatever reason chocolate is usher to you, you violate the vow by action. So, say you can violate a vow by doing something or you can violate a vow by not doing something. So net I think is a very interesting example of the kak of diar. But now let me give you another example which is not from the first of the paras but the second para paras masai and at the end of paras masai the tyra for the third time actually talks about the institution of miklat city of refuge. What is the city of refuge for? uh it is for accidental homicides that if one person kills another person with a lack of premeditation, a lack of intention. So the Torah says a very interesting thing. The goal had the closest relative to the deedent actually has the power to be a blood avenger. It's a very difficult question of how the Torah legitimates that type of blood avenging. But the Tyra gives us designated places in Erit Israel that are called cities of refuge or miklat. And if the um if the homicide perpetrator I won't call I will not call him a murderer can reach the miklat he is now in a zone of safety and if the goel hadam if the blood avenger were to kill him in the miklat the goaladam would be guilty of murder etc. Uh and the roseak however as long as he reigns in the miklot he is okay and even if he leaves the miklot but if he is within the if he is within a radius of 2,000 amos from the city he is protected if he takes one step beyond the 2,000 he now becomes vulnerable right this is the miklat there are actually a total of 48 Ar miklat. Uh there's a primary group of six. I'll discuss what I mean by primary and a subordinated group of 42. And it's very important to know that the 48 array miklat are exactly the same cities as the 48 cities given to the levie. Remember Shab Levy did not get a designated portion of Eric Israel but they were given 48 cities that are scattered in all of the tribes. The 48 cities is are the arikllet. In other words, the road who came to the miklat they shared that city with the levim who lived there. So the labre has a very interesting essay about this. He's discussing the uh he was discussing the role of a prison system like why are there prisons? Now there are different reasons for prisons. A prison can protect the public from dangerous people. A prison can be a basis of punishing people for their bad deeds. But the Rebi suggested that one of the roles of a humane prison system would be to rehabilitate and try to bring people to a place of chuba. In fact, one of the original words for a prison is penitentiary. Do >> you know the very word penitentiary comes from penitence which was supposed to give a person time to reflect and perhaps change their lives. In that sense, the prison system is largely a failure. Uh because what it often does is it could take minor criminals and make them real criminals. I mean, the the recidivism rate of people going back uh is like 85%. But there are some cases, some cases of people who literally turn their lives around. And the Rebi was talking about the idea that that should be the goal that don't give up on a human being. try to I mean again maybe not 100% but try to build people up try to make them productive try to make them better than they were when they entered and he pointed out that in the Torah there really is no prison system but the closest we have to a prison system is the miklat now the mlat is not really a prison because uh the roa cannot leave the miklat but it's a regular city I mean they have stores and um probably not movie theaters, but whatever whatever you would have in an Israeli city, so to speak, you had. So, an Miklat is not really a prison, but it is a confinement. And why did the Tyra indicate that the Miklat should be a city of Levim? Because the truth of the matter is the accidental homicide that goes to the Miklat, we're not talking about a pure accident. If it's a pure accident, mamish, an uncontrollable accident, the road sash doesn't have to go to the mlat. He's not responsible at all. So ear mlat is is not for intentional homicides, but it is for what we would call in legal terms manslaughter. A person is careless. A person uh didn't stop at a red light. A person threw a heavy rock outside of his window not knowing there were children punish uh who were playing there. In other words, it is for what is called negligence and callous disregard for life. So it is a sin. It's not a sin that warrants the death penalty, but it's a sin that warrants the ear miklat as an atonement. And where do you put people who don't have enough respect for life, who act carelessly, who don't have responsibility? You put them with the greatest and best of the Jewish people, the Levim, who are the teachers of Torah and the spiritual leaders. In other words, you don't put them only with bad people. You put them with good people in the hope that things would rub off, things would influence them. So the rebi was suggesting that there should be some way to create a prison system that would somehow expose people to good influences to beneficial influences to influences that could bring them to some level of chuva and eventual productivity of life. You know sometimes it's a real shame. Sometimes you see kids as young as 14 years old. They could be tried already as as adults and they're given life without parole. And you think about, well, what could be done for a 14-year-old? I I don't know. I mean, some might be so evil that maybe there's nothing you can do, but it would seem that in a lot of these cases, there's something that can be salvaged. Now, yes, I understand the 14-year-old killed somebody's, you know, four-year-old daughter. Brutal things. There is a very strong desire for revenge and vengeance. But as I say, is that is that truly the goal of a of a punishment system or should it be rehabilitation? The Tory kind of accommodates both of these ideas. It gives the goam the right of blood of vengeance, but at the same time it gives the ro the protection of the miklat. So the Rebi used Miklat as kind of a paradigm for what a prison system might look like in some situations. But there's a very unique peculiarity of the miklat. How long is the roak sentenced? Right? He's a roak inadvertently negligence, manslaughter. He is sentenced to go to the mikllet. How long does he stay? So, it's an indeterminate sentence. He stays until the death of the Cohen God. How long is that? Well, it's what it says. If the Cohen God dies the next day, >> he goes free. If the Coen Guttle dies 20 years later, he goes free after 20 years. If he dies before the Cohen gadole, he is buried in the air miklet. And when the Cohen God eventually dies, he's assumed to be buried in his family plot. Okay? So it could be a day and it could be decades and it could be never meaning he'll die in the air mikl. A very very strange type of sentence in which the sentence is totally indeterminate. It's unknown. The gumar has some fascinating shyus. The gumar says the following. Uh imagine this question. You know, a person could be a coane or even a co-enau and then discover he's ineligible to be a co-en. For example, uh if a Coen marries a divorced woman, which he's not allowed to do, the child who is born from that marriage, even though genealogically he's a Coane, he is called a kalal. He is a desecrated coain. He is not a Cohen. He's not a Mamzer. I mean, he's a regular Jew, but he's not a Cohen. So, the Gammorra discusses a very, very fascinating question. What if a roseak is sent to the year mikl and then a day later the cohen god discovers for the first time that his mother had been divorced before his father had married. So as a result he's a kal. So he's actually not a not only cannot can he not be co-enul he's not even a cohen. So how do you analyze that? According to one opinion, we treat it as if the Cohen Guttle died. Meaning yesterday he was a Cohen Gdole. Today we know that he's not a Cohen Gad. So the Cohen died. So the rose goes free. So even though the Cohen God is alive, but he's no longer a Cohen God. So that's called the Cohen has died. The roak goes free. There's another opinion that wait a second here. This is very different than a coane dying. When a Cohen dies, he was a Cohen guttle yesterday and he's not a Cohen guttle today. Here we have discovered there never was a Coen Guttle. >> Ah, the law there is much stricter. If the roseak is sentenced to Miklat at a time when there is no Coen guttle occupying the office, he never goes free. So according to one opinion, if a Cohen Duttle is discovered to be the son of a divorced woman, we treat it like a death and he goes free. According to the other opinion, we treat it like a retroactive invalidation of Kahuna, in which case there was no Cohen at the time of his sentence. That's the other way around. He stays there forever. Now the Mishna says in Makos an interesting thing. The Mishna says that mothers of Kohanim Gdoleim used to bring food treats to the inhabitants of the year Miklat care packages in order that they shouldn't pray that their children would die. Now I would have been a little more cynical. They shouldn't hire hitmen. Uh but the gar the mission does not say they would do that. Uh the Mishna says they shouldn't pray. Now the Gomorrah asks the following question. The implication is that the Coen Gall was kind of vulnerable meaning meaning if they needed to buy off the road that they shouldn't pray that the Cohen guttle would die. What is the implication that if they would pray oh God please let this go and God will die the prayer might be answered. So the Gmorrah says why should that be? If I pray I hate a certain person who's actually innocent of any sin and I pray that God should kill an innocent person. One would assume that prayer would not be answered. So why would the prayer against the Cohen guttle be efficacious? The Cohen Guttle didn't do anything wrong. This is the Gomorrah's question. So the Gomorrah's answer is not really true. The Cohen Gagal is in a vulnerable compromising position because as the spiritual leader of his generation He should have prayed that these homicides not occur. And if murders are taking place, the Cohen guttle is responsible because through his coak of he might have prevented them and therefore the abdication of his responsibility makes him vulnerable to the prayers of the rosim and that's why they had to be bribed because it starts with the Cohen Guttle being culpable because he should have attempted to stop these tragedies through the KO of prayer. Now this raises actually an interesting philosophical question about the limits of the power of prayer. You know, we can certainly pray, maybe it will be answered, maybe not, that we should be spared from na natural calamities. You know, may there not be a tsunami, may there be an earthquake. But it's harder to pray that we shouldn't be spared from man's inhumity to man because that is a function of human free will. And we have a famous in the Gmorrahayim. Everything is in the hands of heaven except the decision to fear God, to obey God. God determines, are you rich, are you poor, are you healthy, are you sick, are you short, are you tall? That's God. But God does not determine if you are righteous or evil. You determine that. And this is what is called free will. The Rambam addresses free will extensively in the laws of repentance. And the Rambam argues very logically that without free will there is no logical basis for reward or punishment. Why should God reward me if my goodness is automatic pilot? And why should I be held accountable if I'm pre-programmed like a computer predestined to be evil? Human accountability is predicated on moral autonomy, which is just a fancier way of saying free will. So you can't pray to God, please God, don't let this person be a Russia. That's their decision. That's not God's decision. So given the fact that the people who killed Bashake, it's not a true accident. It's not an act of God. It's an act of their negligence in not stopping at a red light or not looking out of their window. But God is not going to, you know, you can't say, "Please God, uh, stop that man from going through a red light." God's answer is that's his free will. I don't stop that. So, so the question is what is the Cohen Guttle supposed to be praying about to stop these events? But of course, the answer might be very preient. God is not going to make the careless driver careful because that's free will. But God can determine if there'll be children in the intersection. So there are plenty of people who go through red lights but Hashem there happens to be nobody in the intersection. So you see the difference you cannot pray directly please God let the careless drivers be careful. So God says, "I don't decide that." That's free will. But you can pray to God, "Please God, let people not be harmed. Protect people who would be harmed from the consequences of those actions." You see, so that's that's the subtlety where the Cohen guttle could have prayed. Now there is of course another answer to this which is very interesting. Do you remember this is a very famous gamorrah in Masraos about Borya the very wise wife of Rabbi Mayor Rabbi Mayor had enemies we don't know exactly what these enemies were doing and he wanted to pray to Hashem that they should die and Rev's prayer presumably would have been efficacious on some So Bora his wife told him that's not the right attitude. You should not pray that evildoers die. Pray that they do chuva and they're no longer evil. And Bruya proved it from a verse inim in perkal. This is this is ini that we recite every roles. May sins banish from the world and then there's not going to be evildoers anymore. Now the word for sinner is sinners isim bura does not say I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Brier points out the puzz does not say it does not say let sinners be destroyed. It says let sins be destroyed. So Bura says befish pray that they should do chuva. Now here too you can ask the same philosophical question. How can I pray that another person should repent and become righteous? God is not going to make that other person become righteous >> because whether a person is righteous or not is once again a function of their free will and this is a very practical question. A person has family that's not religious. You have a brother, you have a parent, you have a child goes off the der. So you want to den Hashem bring them back to you. And we do we commonly do dab in those things. Well, we pray please please bring them back to you. So I don't want to take away the the heartfelt prayer. But the question is a good philosophical question. How can you pray that somebody do chuva? Isn't that mam what the garra says? Everything is in the hands of heaven except for the decision to fear God. How can you do it? So the so the Marsha asks the question in the case of Burya. How could Burya say pray that Rashe do Chuba? So the actually says that that's the power of prayer. Prayer is so great that prayer can override the free will system that is foundational in the universe. Remarkable. The kaj says this is the power of prayer. Prayer can override even free will. And that's how he understands the coenut praying let the driver be safer. And that's how he understands burya pray that they do chuva. This is the power of prayer. You pray for your child to to keep the mitzvah. You pray for your parent. You pray for your brother. Tila breaks it. Now there's another answer to this which is a bit more rational but it's also a very good answer. Uh Rabul Yash says the following. of Yashv said, you know, if you look at people who, let's say, were not raised uh following the Torah, but they come to it in later life, teenagers or or even older, it's always connected to people they met or experiences that they had. I mean, I insume, I see this all the time. I mean, college kids come to ORS, but a lot of their classmates don't come to Osame. So, what exactly is the difference? Why do these guys come and the other guys don't come? Same background, more or less, same family. And part of it is, well, I met this rabbi or I had this experience. It's kind of although everything is from Hashem, but we would describe it almost as the luck of the draw. Some people encounter experiences that direct their life along a certain channel and other people for reasons I don't know don't have those experiences. So says Rab Yashf when Bura says pray that they do chuva he actually said you can't directly pray that somebody does chuva but you can pray that God put into their lives the experiences and the people >> that are likely to inspire them. Now it's going to be their decision and they could decide forget about it but at least give them the opportunity. So we have in effect I think two closely connected but distinct explanations for why you could pray that somebody does chuva. either the khaz who says explicitly that the power of prayer is so strong that it overrides the foundational principle of free will or we have rebu's explanation which is you can't pray directly that another person do chuva but you can pray that god gives them the experiences in life that are likely to inspire them and again this is actually a a great great mystery it's a great great mystery Why do some people get those experiences? >> They happen to meet the right person the right moment and the other guy took another bus 5 minutes early and missed it. Now some say by the way that's connected to prayer too because this kid's great great grandmother prayed for him lighting candles 100 years ago. You know some connected some earlier prayer that has that effect. All of it is connected to the power to the power of prayer. So I'll just uh end then I'll go on to another point but I want to end with again prayer is also the power of speech the power of deep the power of saying words to god sincerely of course and getting all of these blessings all of these benefits you know it's really you know um that we don't treat prayer as the privilege that it is we look at it maybe as a little bit of a burden same words all the time. In fact, we even use it as a porative comparison to other things. You know, in yeshiva when we talk about learning gamorrah in a superficial unthinking way. So the expression we use is ah he just dven up the gamorrah. In other words, davining prayer is used as a synonym for unthinking superficial going through the motions. So that's not just an insult about somebody's learning, that's an insult about somebody's tabing. The kuzari actually says that just as a person needs three meals a day, whatever you need three the the nama needs nutrition andos are the meals of the soul and he says it should be it should I mean I'm not in this mad myself. I'm not making any pretention, but it should be the most enjoyable part of the day. It should be a pleasure of connecting to God, talking to God, pouring out your heart. It should almost be a sadness that you finished a >> that you don't have that intimate connection that you that you had. Let me tell you an interesting story. Uh it's a it's a strange story, but I kaducan says a story. The Warren Kaducian has a story about a certain city that was inhabited by a fearful sevenheaded demon. Now whether these are literal or not, okay, but this I'll give you the story. And people were afraid to walk the street because this demon could attack them. Now the demon inhabited a a ruined abandoned building, but it would terrorize people. So the rabbi of the city said, "Well, I have a solution. I know a certain visiting eminent rabbi is going to visit uh on his fundraising, whatever it is. Uh nobody should offer him hospitality, so he'll be forced to sleep in this abandoned ruin, and I know he'll take care of the situation." So this great rabbi shows up, and everybody refuses to give him a place to sleep. He doesn't know about the demon. So, uh, less bereira, he sleeps in this abandoned building, and lo and behold, this seven-headed monster comes to destroy him, and he utters a prayer, and each prayer severs one of the one of the monster's heads. Seven prayers, monster dead. Next morning, the city has been liberated from the dragon. So this rabbi who did this miracle, he goes over to the rabbi of the city and said, "You know, I could have died in there. I mean, you're setting me up to be in an extremely dangerous situation." He says, "What gave you the right to endanger my life?" And the answer was, "I knew you'd get your way out of it. I knew your tilos would work. I had faith in you. I knew your would be effective. But the Marsha, the great commentary Marsha asks the following question. Even if we assume that the rabbi who who gave the instruction not to give was so sure that the felis would work, it still wasn't the right thing to do because the Gmorrah says in Tinus that when you benefit from miracles that is taken out of your maka meaning if you get God's blessings in a physical way you make money whatever that does not come out of your olaba because olaba is spiritual. This is physical. Physical does not diminish your spiritual reward. But if you're getting the supernatural miracles of God that partakes of a spiritual blessing, so that comes out of your aba. So even if they were bat that he would be answered but they're putting him in a situation where he's going to lose some of his olaba because my nissim things you get from miracles. Remember the Gumar says is by Khan Bendoa who was a very great miracle worker and they were he and his wife were very very poor and his wife complained once and he told his wife well listen I could I could get you a whole bunch of gold right now. I could bring gold out but then she he showed her that in Aabad they would be sitting on a throne that only had three legs. meaning, yeah, I'll get you the gold, but it'll come out of the throne of Maba. So, the Marsha's answer is the following. Listen to what the Marsha says. It's true that whatever you get from miracles comes out of your maba, but whatever you get from prayer is not called miracles. That's part of God's nature. It is the nature of the world. So therefore, he wouldn't lose anything through what he got through prayer. You know, it's reminiscent of a story which is almost certainly not true, but it's a it's a cute story. Uh they tell a story of the Grebi of Ram Morai, the Imra who escaped the Wars ghetto and eventually came to Israel. So that that is true of course he he died in Merit Israel um in 1948 actually. In fact, he's buried in Makihud. He's not buried in a cemetery. Uh I mean this is a tourist attraction that's very little known and that is in 1948 uh people who died during the war of independence they didn't have access to harimm and haramas wasn't invented yet so there were a few great people who were actually buried in downtown Jerusalem and among them right across the street from Yehuda is the kev of the gerbi who died in 1948 the you know there's a little little house and you can dab in there you can say tilm there right right next to makuda um so uh so this is all true but the story that's probably not true is it says before the gerbi came to Israel he arrived in England he arrived in London and he met with Winston Churchill again probably not true uh and uh they they had to have an interpreter because because he heard that the Grebby was a holy man and Churchill in the middle of the battle of Britain, Churchill was looking for whatever spiritual help he could get and through an interpreter because you know Yiddish English uh Churchill asked the Grebby what can we do to get God's mercy on our struggle against the Nazis. So uh the G rebby is said to have replied do you want to hear the miraculous way or the natural way? So Churchill said well I want to hear both. Give me the miraculous way first. The miraculous way is that your army and your navy and your air force are strong enough to beat the Nazis. That would be a miracle. Says so what's the natural way? He says, "Open up the book of Psalms and say to him, that's going to be the normal way you're going to win. To win with your military might, that would be the supernatural miracle." What de Marshall says that what comes through is not even considered to be mis okay. Again, obviously there are a lot of questions uh we're leaving open for now because obviously everyone knows that not every will be answered. Uh there are for the ill in which people do die etc. But once again uh the panov used to say every tila is answered but sometimes the answer is no. >> And this is not just a verbal game. There's a very big difference between God saying no and God just ignoring me. Every God listens. God connects. God wants to give you strength. God then makes decisions that we don't understand. But it's a decision. It is not being ignored. It's not that I don't matter. It's not that I don't count. And that should can give a person a lot of my prayers matter to Hashem. Then there are bonus. Some say as well that every prayer is stored if it's not used for the immediate purpose. It might save another. I mean it's a strange idea. I pray for this person. Okay. Hashem doesn't give me that. But this prayer may work for some other person I never met. It's stored up. It creates a certain kaduca in the world and a certain power of mercy that Hashem will make available at various occasions. And of course even the answer no is an answer. Person suffers a tragedy. He thinks God has abandoned him. God has forgotten about him. But if a person is able to get up the next morning, go back to work, rebuild, step by step by step by step. That's also God answering him, giving a person the strength to go on. That doesn't come out of nothing. That also comes from Hashem answering our prayers. Not in the ways we hoped, but it's still a reality. So in this connection I want to go backwards a little bit and go to the very beginning of the para. Now the very beginning of the para is very very interesting. It is a travel log. Right? The para is called Masai. Masai means the journeys and it gives you all of the stops that the Jewish people made over the 40 years in the desert till they got to the plains of Moab where Moshe died. So that's the uh right the list does not include crossing the Jordan because that didn't happen till Moshe died but it completes all of the journeys that they made in the lifetime of Moshe. These are the journeys. In fact, among many Ashkanazm there's actually a custom although initial I don't hear it as much that the balore when he reads the 42 it's 42 stops there's a certain festive trump that's used similar to the song of the red sea shayam the same uh type of festive trap I think it's mainly an ashkanazic custom and uh in the yes is yeshivas they don't always follow it but if you go to a yaki show or whatever it is they you know they'll certainly uh do this. Now, it's interesting that there's a total of 42 journeys. 42. Now, here is the interesting point. And by the way, it's interesting. If you study the journeys, you actually see, you know, we get the impression that the Jewish people were wandering around in the desert for 40 years. The truth is in some of those stops they stayed 20 years meaning they weren't always moving around all the time. Uh there were times that they stayed for very long times in the desert. Okay? So it wasn't like you know every day were wandering around with only a rest stop for lunch. But be it as it may there's a total of 42 stops. And the orim and other makubalim say that this is a very highly symbolic passage. It's describing the sojourns of the soul through all of the vicissitudes and difficulties of life until the soul comes to the promised land which is Erit Israel. Life itself is seen as a journey from Mitim to Erit Israel. Right? I'm born into a world in which I'm enslaved. I'm enslaved by my yerhara. I'm enslaved by theronote in my midote. I'm enslaved by egotism, selfishness. And all of life is a journey to get away from the mitzim. Get away from that inner slavery till you finally reach erit Israel which is kabalistically seen as ola maba. You've completed the game of life. I think there's a board game right game of life used to be. I don't anymore. But you've completed the game of life and you qualify for haba. Again in the Zoey there's a very deep idea that all of these places represent a symbolic. So based on this it is said that the 42 takot the 42 stops actually correspond to the miklat because a city of refuge as we talked about from the baba is a place where you reflect where you think where you regroup. So as we travel through the desert of life that is full of hazards spiritual and physical we need to create safe spaces in which we can contemplate and meditate and reflect and that's why it corresponds with the miklad. Now you may say well wait a second here maklad is not a good analogy ear mlad is only for murder or no homicide. uh we have different aairs but they're not necessarily homicide. Well, the short answer is that every time we sin there's a certain aspect of murder going on because God gave us a soul to serve him. Every time I don't use my soul to serve God, I've squandered that aspect of my life. Wasting time is a form of suicide. Not using our time in positive good ways. You you know we say killed time. Kill time is killing you right. I killed life aspects of my life. So I need the miklut. Also I'll mention another thing about mlat. Now um Ravaran Cutler the great great Russa when he came to the United States in the middle of World War II so he didn't really start his yeshiva uh he was really involved in trying to rescue students from Europe in different ways but when he eventually started his yeshiva he in Lakewood he spent very little time in Lakewood because he was on the road collecting money all the time we're talking about the 1950s and 60 early 60s And people were not so sensitive to yeshiva. They did they didn't think it was that worthwhile. Uh so either they didn't give him anything or they gave him a dollar or whatever it is. I mean uh he spent virtually the entire week collecting money. And one time he was in Miami collecting money with and he had one of his students with him and um in an elevator. uh you know he never broke down he never got depressed. He understood this was his mission but one experience broke him. He was in Miami and in the elevator um somebody walked in in a bikini who was not dressed and for someone like Ravaran who you know never exposed himself to any of those things it kind of broke him and he started weeping. He started crying a little bit, just crying. And the student said to Raarin, he says, "Rebi, I don't understand why God puts you through all these things. You're such a sadic, such a such a God tora. Why do you have to go through humiliation after humiliation after humiliation? Why doesn't Hashem give you a yeshiva? You stay in the yeshiva. You teach Torah, you learn Torah." Survivar said the following. The Tyra says when you kill somebody bashek, you have to go into exile. That's the term that's used for near mlat. Exile. That's the technical name of the sentence. So he says, "Every teacher of Torah is potentially an unintentional murderer. We didn't stick a knife in anybody's heart. But our words could destroy a person. It's not premeditated. We didn't do it on purpose. But accidentally, how many lives did we kill? Raaran said. So as a result a Roshiva has to go into exile either because of the victims that he killed in that way or as representative of his yeshiva on behalf of all the other teachers in the yeshiva who may have done that goes back to what I said at the beginning of the share. You can murder people in a lot of different ways than with a gun or a knife. So be it as it may, it's a beautiful allegory that life is envisioned as mitz tool and the 42 of the Jewish people are the 42 mikat that give us time to reflect, to contemplate, to learn, to davin to do mitzvah and it's through those miklat that we eventually get to the finish line of Israel. So now though I want to share with you a thought from the o of Israel the he points out that if you look at the first paragraph of schma is hashem those are six words they correspond to the miklat there are six miklat primary which I'll I'll I'll define now in a it. So is corresponds to the six primary mikl and then the para after the is 42 words and that corresponds to the 42 mikl. So the first para of schma not counting which is not in the Torah is 48 words. They are connected the ar mikl is connected the six ar mikl and vapa is connected the 42 mikl. Now I want to explain this I alluded to this before. What is this division between the six and the 42? I did mention all 48 are Levite cities. But what is the napkamina? What is the difference between the major six and the other 42? So the garra in makos does explain it. There is a difference. The six cities protect a road seak even if he is not aware he's in a near miklet. Meaning let's assume he w he's running away from the goaladam and he wanders into a city and he gets a hotel room. He doesn't even know where he is. He might be in Tel a Viv which is not in Miklat. Uh uh right. But the is if lisa he's in one of the six they protect him whether he knows that he's in there or not. Meaning if were to kill him would be guilty of murder. The other 42 are a more limited protect. Now I don't know how you prove this. How you prove whether we know that's a factual question. But the 42 only protect him if he has awareness. Not if he doesn't have awareness. Now if you remember in the paras Masai where we talked about the takanote the stopping points as or mikl we're only connecting them to the 42 not 48. And it makes a lot of sense because if you looked at the ar mikl as a place where you need to contemplate to meditate to think then you understand it's only going to work if you have awareness that this is what you're supposed to do. Now we come to schma. So we divide in the schma the shma is are the six and the are the 42. So the Israel represents the pinty pinty is the spark meaning even the Jew who's ignorant even the Jew who doesn't know anything even the Jew who does not consciously think they're serving God but in his nishama is emlazened Israel and God will show him mercy and that's why Israel is connected to The six are a mikla because he gets protection even without conscious knowledge because it represents the subconscious connection to God that every Jew has. Now thefta is already the imperative of learning to love God. That takes thoughts, that takes contemplation, that takes work. So that's why it's connected to the 42. Those are the array mikla that protect you only with consciousness and mindfulness. And that's not an automatic process. But there's a certain level of divine connection that goes beyond your awareness. It goes beyond your mindfulness. It goes beyond your external commitment. You are hardwired that way. Right? That's the pinta. That's the pint asus puts it. Uh and you know you can't escape that you're a Jew whether you like it or not whether you know it or not. That's the mitas of Israel. So as I say I also want to point out that some even say that the 42 stops represent the 42 day night portions of the three weeks. That's a bit of a stretch. The 3 weeks is 21 days. 21 days can be divided into days and nights. And they make the point that the three weeks as a whole are therefore the ar miklat that give us the ability to focus and concentrate in terms of our avoda. And this is a very very holy elevated time a time of contemplation, meditation, thoughts, abat is of course and may help us all to utilize this precious time and in that way may we be agents to bring the [Music] birthday [Music] party. Oh my