Rav Yitzchak Breitowitz: The Secret Essense Behind "Naaseh V'Nishmah"

Okay, everybody. Nice thank you for coming. And tonight's sheer as always is dedicated for the lasting unity of Am Yisrael which will lead to victory and for all of those whose health has been affected by terror. In addition, I'll be at neshama for Rabbi Polsin's father who was nifter on the 20th of Shvat a Nachum ben who recently passed away. Um there's a Mishnayos up and learning project. Uh the shloshim is Shushan Purim so people can still sign up for Mishnayos. Uh in addition, a dedication by Lynn and Larry Finson on the ilui nishmat of their mother, that's Lynn's mother Shulamit bat Chaim Mordechai zichrona livracha whose yahrzeit is the 22nd day of Shvat. Uh she was a dedicated student of Rabbi Reitowitz, a woman who never looked for kavod and had appreciation for all the gifts Hashem bestowed. Uh yes, I I did know um Lynn's mother. She's a very very fine righteous and modest humble person. Uh may her neshama have an aliyah on her fourth yahrzeit. A dedication by Mr. Bernie Samet, again a good friend, in memory of both his parents father Yaakov ben Rochel, yahrzeit on the 29th of Shvat his mother Chaya Sora bas Gittel on the 26th of Shvat and in addition, in memory and honor of his late wife Baila bas Shlata and unfortunately also for Rochel bas Rivka Tova, his sister's granddaughter who was nifter this past Friday, the 17th of Shvat. Again, may all of these neshamos have an aliyah in Gan Eden and may the divrei Torah be a source of merit both for those neshamos and for the families that are generous in their support of Torah. Uh we come to uh Parshas Mishpatim. Parshas Mishpatim uh for a yeshiva student is probably their favorite parsha. Uh not too many stories, although there are some stories there. It is filled to the brim with all sorts of halachos and indeed, it has been well said that if one were to study Parshas Mishpatim very thoroughly with Rashi just with Rashi's commentary, one would have a tremendous entree into the tractates of Bava Kamma and Bava Metzia. Not Bava Basra, Basra is not covered so much, but the concepts of damages whether you're obligated, the laws of theft uh the laws of bailment of shomrim, the different degrees of watching, very very relevant today and one of the lessons that it does communicate uh is that in some ways the associations of mitzvos, the way mitzvos are grouped together seems to not necessarily be logical uh cuz it'll say it'll talk about shomrim, then it'll talk about shatnez, then it'll talk about not having meat and milk do not right and they they're not really connected, but part of the lesson is that in Judaism, there is no dichotomy between the mitzvos between man and God and man and man. We sometimes make a very big mistake. We sometimes define a person as being frum, a person as being religious whether they daven, keep Shabbos, keep kosher but we don't necessarily consider, you know, whether he's honest in business to be a component. You know, people sometimes ask, "How come uh Orthodox Jews are not honest in business?" Now, there are two statements to make. Number one, uh that is absolutely an unfair uh generalization. There are plenty of religious Jews who are honest in business. Uh and the fact that there's a small group, the same way you wouldn't say, you know, "Why aren't Catholics honest in business?" if there's a dishonest Catholic then, you know, you shouldn't impugn Orthodox Jews by being dishonest in business. But there's another answer you can give and that is it is impossible for an Orthodox Jew to be dishonest in business because if they are dishonest in business, they're not an Orthodox Jew. So I don't care if he has a shtreimel or tzitzis out or wears Rabbeinu Tam's tefillin the same Torah that says you got to keep Shabbos is the Torah that says don't steal, don't cheat, be honest in business. Now this may be a flip answer, but it but I might say you know, there's no such thing as an Orthodox Jew. The same way you could say, "How come some Orthodox Jews don't keep Shabbos?" That's an obvious non sequitur because if you don't keep Shabbos, you know, you can't be defined as a halachically observant Jew. So we have to inculcate within our consciousness and the consciousness of of our children and our students that being dishonest in business is like not keeping Shabbos or not keeping kosher or not keeping taharas hamishpacha that is a fundamental aspect of Judaism. It's not a side thing. In fact, we are told that after 120 years each of us is going to be called to a final exam and Baruch Hashem, Hashem even gave us the questions ahead of time so we can prepare the answers. And the very first question we're going to be asked is nasasa venasata be'emuna did you conduct your business affairs with honesty and integrity? That is the very first question. The second question is did you establish regular times for the learning of Torah? The first question is how honest were you in your business? And here, the word emuna has a very interesting double entendre. Nasasa venasata, did you conduct your business with emuna? So emuna actually has two translations in this passage and both of them dovetail and become one. The first is emuna can mean honesty, integrity. And that's the standard translation. But emuna also means faith in God. Did you conduct your business having faith that Hashem is the source of your parnassa? Now if you think about this, the honesty and the faith in God come together because if I believe that my parnassa comes from Hakadosh Baruch Hu then by definition, I cannot come out ahead if I make my money by subverting his will. In other words, the idea that I can come out ahead only makes sense if I disassociate my parnassa from God so I can make it in different ways. And even though you'll tell me, "Well, listen, there are plenty of, you know, crime does pay. Plenty of people uh you know, make a lot of money by dishonest dealings." Okay, in the short run, but there's a long a long run and a short run and in the long run, things happen one way or the other in which it's going to be dissipated, it's going to be forfeited uh because it's not possible to make a parnassa in contravention of Hashem's will uh and the same thing is true by the way for making money by chillul Shabbos, but but I'm emphasizing the honesty, but it applies to any type of parnassa that is in violation of of Hakadosh Baruch Hu's will. So the two interpretations of emuna they come together. They actually make a make a single point. So one of the ways that this is communicated in the Torah is by the odd juxtaposition in Parshas Mishpatim of the bein adam lamakom and bein adam lachaveiro which thematically don't make doesn't make a lot of sense, but God is saying you got to treat them exactly the same way. And I think I'm I'm not sure if I mentioned it last week, forgive me if I'm repeating. I I don't think I did so. Um I'm going to say it. You know, there's a well-known idea in the Ten Commandments that the first five are bein adam lamakom and the second five are bein adam lachaveiro. And this largely holds true. Although there is one problem with the fifth commandment. The first commandment is I am the Lord your God, that's believe in Hashem. The second commandment is don't have any other gods, that's the negative. The third commandment is don't take Hashem's name in vain. The fourth commandment is keep the day of Shabbos uh remember the day of Shabbos to keep it holy. So so far so good, bein adam lamakom. The fifth commandment is kabed es avicha ve'es simcha honor your mother and your father, so that's already a little difficult because we would tend to associate honoring your parents as a bein adam lachaveiro, interpersonal. So why is it in the first column? So it ought to be a four and a six, maybe that that's one reason you want to keep it symmetrical. Uh but again, the commentaries explain that in many many ways honoring parents is a precursor to honoring God because I honor my parents because they gave me life and by honoring my parents who gave me life I will ultimately progress to honoring Hashem who is the source of the life. Right? So therefore, kibud av ve'em uh turns into the honoring of the ultimate father-mother and that is Hakadosh Baruch Hu. There's also a the deeper reason, there's a psychological reason And that is, it's really a message not just to children. Well, we look at kibbud av v'em as a message, of course, to children to of any age to honor their parents. But in fact, there's also a message to a parents. And that is, what's interesting is that the the image that a child that a person forms of an almighty is to a large degree influenced by how they related to their parents. Uh meaning that if I looked at my parents and I see people that are moody, unpredictable, arbitrary, capricious, remember, a little child is helpless, right? A little child is like, you know, the parents are like God, basically. In fact, parents sometimes miss that, right? Uh we I know those of you that have children, there's going to be a stage in which your child thinks you're God. You're all-powerful, you know, my father is the strongest guy, he could knock this person, you know, 10 blocks away, smartest person. Uh eventually, they lose that adoration. So, we miss it a little bit. Uh but in many, many ways, parents are a god-like figure in the lives of young children. Even though as they say, that may pass, but there is a stage. And therefore, the way they perceive Hashem is kind of the way they perceive their parents. If their parents are moody, unpredictable, non-responsive, they will tend to develop a relationship towards Hashem looking at Hashem the same way. If they see their parents as loving, as stable, as consistent, as constant, as reliable, you can trust them, they will have that feeling towards Hakadosh Baruch Hu as well. So, kibbud av v'em, one of the psychological reason why kibbud av v'em is put on the first side is because it is a stepping stone to how you relate to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Now, it may sound unfortunate or maybe not not even true that way. Are you telling me that the way I saw my parents when I was 3 years old is going to affect my perception of God when I'm 43 years old? Well, the bad news is, to some degree, yeah. Yeah. We may grow intellectually, but within even an adult is still the wounded child that was hurt, that felt rejection, that felt that somebody who should have been there for them wasn't there for them. And that's why kibbud av v'em on a deep level is not only a message to the child. It's also a message to the parents. Be the role model that your child will want to respect and admire. Live the life that makes you worthy of being honored and revered. So, there is a certain message to how parents have to live their lives as well. Now, okay, so that explains why kibbud av v'em is in column one. Column two are certainly interpersonal. Lo tirtzach, don't murder, lo tin'af, don't don't commit adultery, lo lo tis'a et shem Hashem Elokecha lashav, etc. Now, here's the here's an interesting observation of the Mabit. The Mabit was Rav Moshe ben Yosef Trani. He was the av bet din of Safed in the time of Rav Yosef Caro. Rav Yosef Caro was the rav and the Mabit was the av bet din. Uh they often did not get along because they had very, very serious machlokes in halacha. Among them was a machlokes about shmita. In fact, it's interesting that this machlokes is still relevant today. Do the laws of shmita apply to the produce of non-Jews? And uh this is obviously the big, big machlokes with the Rabbenu and the Hacham Magid, which I'm I'm I'm not going to talk about. I just want to mention that this goes back to a machlokes with Rav Yosef Caro and the Mabit. Okay, but be this as it may, the Mabit, in addition to being a one of the great poskim of the generation, also wrote a book on Jewish philosophy called the Beit Elohim. Uh and in the Beit Elohim, he makes an interesting observation. The first five dibros are bein adam la makom. The second five dibros are bein adam lechavero. We have a tradition that the amount of surface area that both sides took up was equal. Meaning, the first five took up the same amount of space as the second five. But the problem is, of course, that the first five have a lot more words than the second five. The second five are staccato. Lo tirtzach, lo tin'af. So, if you have one side with a lot of words and it takes up the same surface area as the other side with fewer words, that means that the engraving size, the engraving font, if that's what you would call it, for the first five is smaller than the engraving font of the second five. So, if that's the case, on Yom Kippur, we never saw the first luchos, they got smashed. But on Yom Kippur, when Moshe Rabbenu was coming down with the second luchos, and I'm a regular Jew, and I put on my glasses, I want to see what's written on those luchos, which commandments am I going to see first? I'm going to see the second five. I'll be able to make out the second five before I make out the first five. So, that shows you the importance of bein adam lechavero. This is the Mabit makes this observation that they were at literally, quite literally, a larger engraving than the than the bein adam than the bein adam la makom. Right? So, this is um parshas mishpatim again. Many, many, many interesting halachos. It's difficult to pick and choose, but but as I indicated, for anyone that is learning Gemara Bava Kamma, Bava Metzia, uh if you were to simply learn parshas mishpatim in a very thorough way, you would have a very excellent introduction. I know the problem in the in the yeshiva world, and this starts already when kids are in almost elementary school, is once they start learning Gemara, so Chumash is beneath their dignity. Chumash and Mishnah Chumash and Mishnah, that's for the that's for the little kids. Uh in truth, uh just learning Chumash and Rashi can be a tremendous way of organizing the information that will be presented in the Mishnah and the Gemara. So, one should not ignore even when one progresses to Gemara, obviously, one should continue to learn to learn Chumash. Okay. Um now, there is an interesting issue, though. In other words, all of these mishpatim I want to point out as well that these mishpatim were given to Bnei Yisrael the very same day as the 10 Commandments. In In other words, Moshe did not get them at Har Sinai. Moshe got them before he went up to Mount Sinai. Again, remember remember the progression. Either on the 6th of Sivan, which is Shavuos, or the 7th of Sivan, that's a machlokes in the Gemara, Moshe Rabbenu or God gives us the aseres hadibros. Now, we talked last week, how much of the aseres hadibros did we hear? Some rishonim actually say, and this is the pashtus of the verses, we heard all the 10 Commandments from God. And then, we were scared and we asked Moshe to be the intermediary, and Moshe would be the intermediary for the rest of the Torah. Rashi does not learn that way, based on the Gemara in Makkos. According to Rashi, we only heard the first two Commandments from God. I am the Lord your God, you shall not have any other gods. And then, we got afraid, and we heard the other eight from Moshe. And the Gemara in Makkos says this explicitly, because it says, Moshe gave us 611, and God gave us two. Be this as it may, we either heard 10 or we heard two. Right? That'll be a machlokes. But after that, all the other mitzvos were not given to us directly from Hashem. Moshe was given them, and Moshe communicated us to them. Now, that includes parshas mishpatim. See, again, sometimes, because it's a different parsha, we we disconnect it from the the earlier narrative. But in point of fact, this is one continuity. On the very day of matan Torah, Hashem communicated to Moshe all of these mishpatim. And that's before he ascended Mount Sinai for the 40 days and the 40 nights. Which means, mishpatim is unusually important because essentially, they are bundled together with the aseres hadibros. Albeit, we didn't hear it from God, we heard it via Moshe, but they are pre- I'm not going to say pre-matan Torah, because they're post-matan, but they're pre-aliyah leSinai. After the mishpatim, Moshe then goes up on Sinai for 40 days and 40 nights, then he comes down, breaks the luchos, the golden calf, etc. And then, uh eventually, he goes up the last time Rosh Chodesh Elul and comes down on Yom Kippur. Okay, so remember, you have to connect this that these mitzvahs are being given to us on the day of the Aseres Hadibros before Mosha enters the cloud and goes up to Mount Sinai. Now, after all the all these mishpatim are given, the Torah does return to a narrative structure. The Torah says that God tells Mosha, "Now that I gave you these mitzvahs, I want you to climb up on Sinai and I will give you the Torah the rest of the Torah." And uh there was a commandment that Mosha gave that the people should build a mizbeach. Build an altar. And they brought olos. Olos are burnt offerings, which are totally burnt on the altar. This is By the way, this is a mizbeach that's pre There's no Mishkan, right? There is no Mishkan. This is a pre-mizbeach pre-Mishkan mizbeach. Uh and on that, they brought olos, burnt offerings, and shlamim, peace offerings that they can actually eat. And Mosha took the blood of the offerings. And what does it say? He sprinkled some of the blood on the mizbeach and some of the blood on the people. This was a unique ceremony. And the people declared, "Okay." I'm sorry. And then it says, Mosha read the Sefer Habris. Mosha read the Book of the Covenant. And the people recited the famous statement, "Everything Hashem said, na'aseh venishma." "We will do and we will listen." Now, there's a huge huge machlokes between Rashi and the Ramban. How do we understand the chronological events at the end of Parshas Mishpatim. According to Rashi, and Rashi is clearly based on the Gemara in Maseches Shabbos, so really it's the rabbinic position in Maseches Shabbos. This is actually an example of ein mukdam um'uchar baTorah. What is that principle? The Torah does not always recount its events in chronological order. Things are sometimes out of order. According to the Gemara in Maseches Shabbos, the building of the mizbeach, the sprinkling of the blood, the reading of Sefer Habris, and the declaration, which I'll define, and the declaration na'aseh venishma, all occurred before the Aseres Hadibros. It occurred on the fifth of Sivan. And the Aseres Hadibros were given on the sixth of Sivan. So, na'aseh venishma Like, that's how we normally understand it, right? We always say the Jewish people said na'aseh venishma before the Torah was given. But you understand that it's actually written after the Torah was after the Ten Commandments were given, but that's going with Rashi in Maseches Shabbos. That this is an example of ein mukdam um'uchar baTorah. So, what Now, of course, a statement ein mukdam um'uchar baTorah is simply a statement that the Torah does not always follow chronological order, but it doesn't explain why that's the case. Meaning, Rashi does not really tell us, "Well, why would this be written after the Aseres Hadibros and the Mishpatim if in point of fact it is earlier than the Aseres Hadibros and the Mishpatim?" I don't have a a good answer for that. But just in terms of understanding Rashi, understands that last week we had the Aseres Hadibros, this week we have the Mishpatim, all of that is on the sixth of Sivan. But the narrative at the end of Parshas Mishpatim about building the altar, sprinkling the blood, Sefer Habris, which I'll define, and na'aseh venishma, all of that is to be moved before the Aseres Hadibros on the fifth of Sivan. Ein mukdam um'uchar baTorah. That is Rashi's view. So, now here is the big question. If indeed the building of the altar, the pre-Mishkan altar, and the sprinkling of the blood, half on the altar and half people. And I'm assuming that, you know, it's not that every single one of the 600,000 had some blood, but this was a general sprinkling to Am Yisrael. And the reading of Sefer Habris, a term that I still haven't defined, occurred before Matan Torah, what is the book that Mosha is reading to them? What is this Book of the Covenant that Mosha is reading? It's clearly not a Sefer Torah. First of all, we discussed last week there wasn't even a Sefer Torah until the end of Mosha Rabbeinu's life. So, what is the Sefer Habris that Mosha is reading? So, Rashi says the Sefer Habris, this was this was a busy day, is the Torah from Bereishis until that point. So, imagine you have Bereishis bara Elohim, the story of Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov, the story of Yetzi'as Mitzrayim, which they just experienced, the story of the Makos, and they're coming to Sinai, but before the Ten Commandments, meaning uh everything in the Torah up to and not including the Aseres Hadibros. In other words, the beginning part of the Torah, meaning On that day, how how did Mosha do all of this? It's hard to figure out. On the day of the fifth of Sivan, the fifth of Sivan, God dictated to Mosha the beginning of the Torah, all of Chumash Bereishis and the first half of Chumash Shemos. And that was the Sefer Habris, to which the Jewish people responded na'aseh venishma. But Rashi says there was something else in the Sefer Habris that actually did not find its way in the Sefer Torah, strangely enough. It's not in the Torah, and that is the commandments that they were given in the oasis of Marah. Remember, before we came to Mount Sinai, one of our stops was the oasis of Marah. And the Torah says very enigmatically, "Sham sam lo chok umishpat." There God gave us laws and judgments. Meaning, we got a certain number of mitzvahs pre-Sinai. At Marah, which are actually not written down in the Torah. The Torah doesn't write down what they were. Some say it includes Parah Adumah. Some say it included some aspects of Shabbos. And Mosha wrote that down in the Sefer Habris. So, according to Rashi, the Sefer Habris is the Torah as we have it from Bereishis bara Elohim until the fifth of Sivan, the building of the mizbeach, etc. Meaning, it included the end of Mishpatim. It didn't include the Aseres Hadibros in Yisrael cuz that was the sixth of Sivan, but it did include building the mizbeach and the like, uh plus the mitzvahs that were commanded at Marah. Okay, so when you go back and look at those psukim, keep in mind that Rashi moves the whole end of Parshas Mishpatim to the day before the Aseres Hadibros. And again, this is clearly based on Maseches Shabbos, where the Gemara says, "Bichamishi bana mizbeach." That Mosha built a mizbeach on the fifth of Sivan. Ramban does not like this. And we're going to see this a lot of times, a number of places in the Torah. Now, Ramban does not disagree that there is a rule of ein mukdam um'uchar baTorah. I mean, there are places where that's unavoidable, where the Torah clearly is not writing in chronological order. But the Ramban's general approach is, we try to use that principle as little as we can, because the Ramban says there's a strong presumption that you try to interpret the Torah in a chronological sequence. So, you're going to find a number of times. In fact, we're going to see it by the Mishkan in a few weeks, that where Rashi will once again say the Torah is not chronological, the Ramban is going to try to make it chronological. So, I'm not going to focus on that other example. I was I want to focus on this example. So, according to the Ramban, you simply read the psukim in order. On the sixth of Sivan, we got the Ten Commandments. And either after the first two or after the ten of them, we asked Mosha to be the intermediary. On that very day, all of the mishpatim were given. And after the mishpatim were given, still on the 6th of Sivan, after the 10 Commandments and the mishpatim, we built the mizbeach. Right? We built the mizbeach. Moshe sprinkled the blood. He read the sefer habrit. We said na'aseh v'nishma. According to this, na'aseh v'nishma is what we said after the 10 Commandments. So, according to the Ramban, what is the sefer habrit? So, very simple. According to the Ramban, the sefer habrit is not a whole sefer Torah or sefer Bereishit. It is the 10 Commandments and the mishpatim. The aseret hadibrot and the mishpatim were written down. They were read to us. And we said, na'aseh v'nishma. Does everyone understand so that the machloket Rashi and the Ramban will have repercussions? What is the sefer habrit? Which means, it's interesting though, cuz let me point out that the meaning of na'aseh v'nishma uh is a little complicated. Uh we find that the Jewish people had a great merit because they said na'aseh v'nishma. And the way this is understood is it's giving God a blank check. See, if you say nishma v'na'aseh, we will hear what you want us to do, and then we will do it. That implies a certain conditionality. Let's hear what you're offering before we agree to do it. But when you say na'aseh v'nishma, you're actually saying, even before I know what you want, I'm going to do it. Now, tell me. So, the whole gadlut of na'aseh v'nishma is very specifically in the sequencing of it. In other words, if I would have said nishma v'na'aseh, that would imply conditionality. In fact, that's exactly the story with the other nations, right? You're you're all familiar with the Gemara that says Hashem originally was offering the Torah to all the nations. Of course, the interesting question would be, let's imagine one nation other than the Jews would have accepted the Torah. What would have been in that Torah? I mean, the Torah has the stories of Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov. Exactly, what would the Torah have been had Yishmael accepted it? Okay, putting that question aside, uh what was the nation's response? Everyone responded, "Tell me what's in the Torah." The Jewish people's response was na'aseh v'nishma. So, I just want to point out though that that understanding of a blank check fits much better with Rashi than with the Ramban. Because according to Rashi, we didn't get the mitzvot yet. We just heard Bereishit. We heard the story of Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov. Yetziat Mitzrayim. You know, the laws of korban Pesach. But l'gabe most of the Torah, it was na'aseh. We don't know what it is. It's a pre-Matan Torah commitment. Like the Ramban, it's less of that type of commitment because we did get the 10 Commandments and we did get the mishpatim. Now, of course, there's still a lot more we didn't get. But all I'm pointing out is that according to the Ramban, the famous na'aseh v'nishma is a post-aseret hadibrot declaration rather than a pre-aseret hadibrot. In fact, like the Ramban, it's not only post-aseret hadibrot, it's post all of the mishpatim in parshat Mishpatim. Okay, so this is a huge huge machloket in terms of how one understands the sequencing of Matan Torah. Now, granted, at the end of the day, it's only a difference of a day. According to Rashi, the altar was built on the 5th of Sivan. According to the Ramban, it was built on the 6th of Sivan. So, it's only a day difference, but it's a major difference. Was it after the aseret hadibrot and mishpatim, or was it before? Okay, so we have two explanations regarding the enigmatic sefer habrit that Moshe Rabbenu reads to them. According to Rashi, it is literally from Bereishit until that point together with the mitzvot of Marah. According to Ramban, it is the aseret hadibrot and the mishpatim that Moshe was given by Hashem. Uh let me mention a third explanation of the Ibn Ezra. You know, at the end of Chumash Vayikra, in parshat Bechukotai, we have uh very very fearful, fearsome part of the Torah that's called the tochacha. The tochacha is the divine rebuke. And this refers to all of the awful curses that will befall the Jewish people. Actually, it starts off with brachot, the wonderful brachot that Kol Yisrael will get when they keep the Torah. And then it goes into the awful curses that will befall our nation when we don't keep the Torah. Remember that the tochacha does appear twice in different form. One is at the end of Vayikra, and the other is at the end of Devarim, the last year of Moshe Rabbenu's life. There's a famous thought of the Ramban, which maybe we'll talk about later, that the tochacha in Vayikra is a prophecy regarding the tragedies in the aftermath of the churban of the first Beit Hamikdash. The tochacha in Devarim is the aftermath of the second Beit Hamikdash. That's again a famous idea of Ramban. But we have the tochacha. Now, the tochacha is described at the end of Vayikra as a brit, part of the covenant that God made with the Jewish people. So, the Ibn Ezra says, the sefer habrit that Moshe is reading to the Jewish people is the tochacha. Now, this even though the tochacha does not appear in the Torah till the end of Vayikra, it was actually declared by Moshe uh again, either before Matan Torah or after. The Ibn Ezra doesn't address that issue. So, we have three shittot in sefer habrit. Uh either the Torah from Bereishit to that point and the mitzvot of Marah, or the aseret hadibrot and the mishpatim, or according to the Ramban, the curses, the blessings and the curses at the end of Chumash Vayikra. Even though they were not put in the Torah till the end of Vayikra, they in fact were the sefer habrit that Moshe Rabbenu read. Now, that's a very logical position. I mean, in in in in a way, the blessings and the curses would be a very logical thing to proclaim at Matan Torah. This is the covenant uh that that that that we enter into. Okay. Uh so, this is again an important machloket regarding the enigmatic sefer habrit that otherwise is very difficult to understand what it is. But now, I want to focus a little bit on the very famous words uh that the Jewish people are memorialized for, kol asher diber Hashem, whatever Hashem said, na'aseh, we will do, v'nishma, and we will learn. And as I indicated, this is generally a great praise for Am Yisrael because it represents the unconditional commitment to keep Hashem's will even if we don't either know it yet, or we don't understand it. See, the word nishma can mean, "Let's hear." It can also mean, "Let's understand." Uh Rav Ovadia Yosef says a very beautiful thought about the mitzvah of tefillin. Right? Jewish men are supposed to wear tefillin every day except for Shabbat and Yom Tov. And we have the tefillin of the arm, the tefillin of the yad. And we have tefillin of the rosh. Right? These are the phylacteries. Phylacteries is an example of a word that is better known in Hebrew than in translation. Right? If you ask somebody, "What are phylacteries?" They'll say, "Oh, phylacteries are tefillin." Right? So, it's a in a way, we know the we know what the word is from the trans we know the translation from the word instead of vice versa. Uh so, Rav Ovadia Yosef says very very logically that the tefillin on your arm, your arm is your strength, your ability to do things, your ma'aseh, uh represents your commitment to God through action. The rosh is your commitment to Hashem by understanding the Torah and learning the Torah. The reason why halachically you have to put on the tefillin of the hand, of the arm, before you put on the tefillin of the rosh, is every single morning we put on tefillin, we are re-accepting Hashem's Torah with the same words, na'aseh v'nishma. My commitment to action is so complete that even before I understand it, I commit myself to it. So, it's a mini na'aseh v'nishma kabbalat Torah when you put on the tefillin of the yad before you put on the tefillin of the rosh. Of course, tefillin shel yad also has uh number one, the the the hand is a source of strength. But number two, well, this is going to be a question, but but there is an inyan that the tefillin should be on the same side as your heart. Although, you'll see in a moment that's not totally true. And therefore, what you're doing with your tefillin is you're binding your physical strength, your emotions, and then your mind to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. The only thing is this idea that there's a threefold binding, action, emotion, intellect, only works if you're a righty and you put tefillin on your left hand. So, if you're a righty, you put tefillin on your left hand, so you're that is the same side as your heart. The problem is, if you're a lefty, however that's defined, you know, that that's a whole pill pull. Like some people can write with one hand and do other thing. All right, how you define it, that's another question. But if halachically you're defined as a lefty, you have to put your tefillin on your right hand. That's always going to be your weaker hand. If it's your weaker hand, then it's not connected to life, because I assume lefties have their heart on the same side as righties. I'm assuming, I don't I can't say that I know for sure. Uh and and the like. So, that's an interesting question. Meaning, it seems to be that the idea of the weaker hand is more important than k'neged halev. Because if k'neged halev would be the important thing, there wouldn't be a difference between righties and lefties. Elu mai? Yeah, when your left hand is your weaker hand, so you got both. You got your weaker hand and you got your heart. But, in the case of a in the case of a lefty, if you have to choose, should I go should I follow the weaker hand or should I follow the heart, we follow the weaker hand. So, the notion that is often said by many meforshim that there's a special chashivus of tefillin that it's k'neged the lev is not completely compatible with the halachic structure. So, you could just ask another question. So, why is the weaker hand so important? I understand why the lev might be important, but what is the point of I have to put tefillin on my weaker hand. So, probably probably the message is that a person has to realize that in spite of the fact that we have great abilities and great potentials, we kind of acknowledge without Hashem we're weak and ineffectual. Meaning, we put on the weaker hand to basically acknowledge our weakness and our and our vulnerability. But be as it may, tefillin is not even mentioned in this in parshas Yisro. The only reason I'm mentioning it is Rav Avigdor Yosef's idea that hanachas tefillin is a mirror of na'aseh v'nishma as we accept Hakadosh Baruch Hu's Torah. So, that is the greatness of na'aseh v'nishma, the notion of unconditional acceptance. The idea is that I don't say I keep the mitzvahs that I understand and I don't keep the mitzvahs I don't understand. Rather, I do I try to do everything. And then I try to understand. Now, it is interesting. You know, people say, "Well, is Judaism a religion of blind obedience?" As usual, it's a little more complicated. There are religions, quite a few religions, in which the ethic of blind obedience is so strong that you're not supposed to learn the reasons for things. You're not supposed to understand the reasons for things. Just do them. The Druzes, for example. Uh very nice people, Druzes are in the state of Israel, they're very very helpful. They're they're allowed to be in the army. They they do a lot of good things. Very moral people. Uh although what their religion is exactly is very complicated. It's not the Islam. It's it's kind of a separate thing. But if you if you know any Druzes, and I actually don't, so you may notice that the elders of the Druzes wear green turbans. And that's a mark of high status. You see somebody wearing a green turban, which you're not going to see a lot, that's like the Cohen Gadol. And only people with green turbans are allowed to read their scriptures. They have like a Bible of some sort. And the average Druze is not even allowed to see that Bible. So, the only way an average Druze knows what is in their Bible is because a guy with the green turban tells them. That's kind of blind obedience. Meaning, you're not supposed to understand anything, you're not supposed to know anything. You just do what we tell you. Now, Judaism in many ways is very much the opposite. Judaism is extremely democratic in the sense that we want every Jew to go to the Torah, to learn the Torah, to try to understand the Torah. The greatest mitzvah is called Talmud Torah. At the same time, you don't make your obedience conditional on your understanding. So, actually so na'aseh v'nishma is actually communicating two ideas at the same time. On one hand, I commit myself to action even before I understand it. On the other hand, I then endeavor to understand to the best of my ability. So, it's incorporating both of those ideas at the same time. You know, um the Catholic Church, maybe less today, but people tell me even today, but but certainly in the Middle Ages, they did not want lay people to learn how to read. That's why their literacy was so high, because they didn't want them to read the Bible. They wanted the Bible to be communicated only through what the priest says. That's why when the printing press was invented, when Gutenberg invented the printing press, the first Christian printers were printing Jewish books. They weren't printing books for non-Jews, because non-Jews largely didn't know how to read unless they were clergy. Right? So, if you wanted to make money, right, Daniel Bomberg and all these fellows, they wanted to make money with this new business, so market it to the Jews that have this universal literacy. And uh you know, to sell books to the non-Jewish world of the Middle Ages would be a losing proposition, because the average person just didn't know how to read. The only people who were literate were the were the clergy. Okay. So, that's na'aseh v'nishma. But here's the question I want to raise. If you look last week in parshas Yisro, there's a pasuk that's very very similar that we did say before the Ten Commandments, ki el asher diber Hashem na'aseh. And you almost want to add the word nishma, but it's not there. Everything that God said, we will do. The na'aseh v'nishma famous verse only appears in parshas Mishpatim. Like Rashi, that was also before the aseres hadibros. Like the Ramban, it was after the aseres hadibros. But the question is, why are there these two statements? One time the Jewish people said, "Whatever God says, we will do." And another time they say, "Whatever Hashem says, na'aseh, we will do, v'nishma, and we will learn or endeavor to understand." Right? Why is there that chilluk in lashon? So, there's a beautiful explanation from the Meshech Chochmah, Reb Meir Simcha. And he says the following. Let's look further at the pasuk in Yisro. In in the pasuk in Yisro that only says na'aseh, it starts off saying, vayanu kol ha'am yachdav. People answered in unison, "Everything Hashem said, na'aseh." In Mishpatim, the word yachdav is omitted. It just says vayanu ha'am, ki el asher diber Hashem na'aseh v'nishma. So, it now turns out there are two distinctions between the pasuk in Yisro and the pasuk in Mishpatim. In Yisro it says yachdav, but only na'aseh and not nishma. In Mishpatim, it doesn't say yachdav, but it says na'aseh v'nishma. Right? These two differences. Each one has something that's not in the other one. What's the significance? So, Reb Meir Simcha says the following. All of us know that the Torah has 613 mitzvahs and they're divided. There are 248 positive commandments, thou shalt do, and there are 365 negative commandments, thou shalt not do. And the Gemara correlates the positive commandments to your bones. You have 248 bones, ramach eivarim. And each positive commandment correlates to the spiritual vibrancy of a certain bone. We don't fully understand this. First of all, we don't really have a list of which mitzvah corresponds to which bone. Some have attempted to do that. And we also don't understand in what way is a bone adversely affected. It doesn't mean you'll get arthritis or something there. But it's a spiritual impairment. Or the other way around, if you do the positive commandment, you get a spiritual vibrancy. And with negatives, if you violate a negative, you have 365 sinews or ligaments, and that's going to affect a sinew or ligament, a muscle, or the like. In other words, the 613 mitzvahs are correlated to the human body in some type of spiritual relationship that we granted we don't fully understand. So, this gives rise to a real problem. There has never been a person in the history of the world, the greatest, Moshe Rabbeinu, who could ever have kept 613 mitzvahs. Today, we don't keep 613 mitzvahs. Some mitzvahs are only in Eretz Yisrael and not in chutz la'aretz. Many mitzvahs only apply when there's a Beit Hamikdash and not when there's not a Beit Hamikdash. Some mitzvahs are only for men and not for women. And some mitzvahs are only for women and not for men. Some mitzvahs are for Kohanim and not anyone else. Uh some are for Levi'im. Which means no person is capable of keeping 613 mitzvahs. Now, that alone would not be a problem because I would say, "Listen, I'm only obligated to keep the mitzvahs I'm able to keep. The mitzvahs I'm It's not intrinsically a problem." But it is a problem once you correlate it to the to the my body. If every single mitzvah is connected to either a bone or a sinew or ligament, then by definition, if I'm not doing that mitzvah, I am handicapped. I am defective. And that is already unfair. How could Hakadosh Baruch Hu create a system where by definition every single person is condemned to be defective? See, without that Gemara correlating the mitzvahs to the body, I wouldn't have a problem intrinsically. Some mitzvahs are for this these people. Some mitzvahs are for these people. But if you're correlating it to the body, that means by definition, we are handicapped. And that's unfair. No matter how righteous you are, you are crippled. All of us are crippled. And there's no way we can get out of it. There's no possible way. So, that's the problem. So, the Rishonim and Acharonim have grappled with this question, and they've given two answers. Answer number one is this is exactly why Torah learning is so important. Because even a mitzvah that I'm not able to fulfill, by learning about it, the spiritual light of that mitzvah can permeate my soul. That's why it is important, very important, to learn not only the mitzvahs that apply today, but learn the mitzvahs that don't apply today. Because that's my only opportunity. You know, the Chofetz Chaim wrote, in addition to Mishna Berurah and his laws, his books on lashon hara, he actually wrote many, many sefarim on kodshim, on korbanos. In fact, the modern, the most prestigious learning in Brisk and the big, big advanced kollelim is they spend a lot of effort on learning the laws of korbanos. And the Chofetz Chaim was criticized. Why are you spending so much time on korbanos? Why don't you write things that are noge'a, that are practical? As if the Chofetz Chaim didn't write a million practical books, too. And the Chofetz Chaim gave two reasons why he was focusing on korbanos. Reason number one is your belief in Mashiach, and that is, "Well, you're telling me korbanos are not practical. Well, if you believe that Beit Hamikdash can come back tomorrow, then it is practical." So, when you learn kodshim, you're affirming your belief in Mashiach. That was reason number one, which is not the reason I want to emphasize tonight. But reason number two, the Chofetz Chaim said, precisely because we're not able to fulfill these mitzvahs, we need the light of those mitzvahs to permeate our neshama. Otherwise, we are defective. Otherwise, we are crippled. Right? So, the dafka, the things that are not noge'a l'ma'aseh are that important. I'll give you an example. I'll give you a reductio ad absurdum example. Do you know that giving a get, a Jewish document of divorce, is one of the 613 mitzvahs in the Torah? It says, "If a man wants to divorce his wife, there is a mitzvah on him to give her a get." It's one of the mitzvahs. Now, that must mean if there are 248 positive mitzvahs, and every mitzvah is correlated to a bone, there must be a get bone in my body. There must be a bone that gets its spiritual nurturance from the giving of a divorce. Well, what is that supposed to be? So, a guy comes home, right? Loves his wife, and says, "You know, honey, I you know, I really, really care about you, but you know, I got this bone that can only get its tikkun by giving a get. So, I got to give you a get." All right. So, if he's not a kohein, he can give her a get then remarry her. If he is a kohein, then that's it, right? He's stuck. He can't remarry her. Now, anyone that would come with that type of lamdus, we would call them certifiably insane. The guy is crazy. But what's the answer? How does his get bone get its tikkun? Answer, you learn Maseches Gittin, Rabbi a tractate of the Gemara about the laws of gittin. So, the Talmud Torah of get will give you everything you need to know have not know, but have spiritually about get. So, that's answer number one. Talmud Torah allows you to vicariously keep all 613 commandments because even the commandments you're not able to physically keep, you can learn about. And a lot of things are that way. Uh metzora, there are laws of leprosy. There are mitzvahs that you do when you're a leper. Well, is one supposed to want to become a leper? I I mean, obviously not, either. So, how do I get the leprosy bone taken care of? I learn Maseches Negaim, a very hard masechta, indeed. And that that gives me my tikkun. Now, that is pathway number one. But there is a pathway number two to how I can keep the 613 mitzvahs, and that is through unity and ahavat Yisrael. How does that work? Because it all depends on how you define yourself. Right? For example, when I put on tefillin, I don't say, "Oh, my left arm wore tefillin today." That's not the way I talk. What I say is, "I wore tefillin today." Because my arm is connected to me and it's part of me. So, who is your me? Does your me end at the boundaries of your body? For most of us, that's the normal way we look at it. In other words, we normally perceive there's a me and there's a you. I'm here and you're there. But in a spiritual sense, when one has ahavat Yisrael to the highest level, you perceive your very me as connected to this entity. You bear the same relation to Klal Yisrael as your hand bears to you, or as that an atom uh of your skin bears to bears bears to you. So, even if I cannot do a given mitzvah, when I connect myself to the Klal Yisrael with bonds of love, and Klal Yisrael is a transcendental transcendental entity with a past, present, and future, and I unite myself to that cosmic entity, then the mitzvahs of every part of that entity become my mitzvahs. The mitzvahs of the past become my mitzvahs, even before I was born. The example would be, you know, your cells change all the time. Like 98% of your cells were not there 10 years ago. Cells are changing. So, does that mean, "Oh, these cells haven't done all of those mitzvahs, so you don't have the mitzvahs that you've done?" The answer is you do because you're still a continuity of the same person. So, when I connect myself to Am Yisrael with bonds of love, the mitzvahs of the past become my mitzvahs. The mitzvahs of the kohein become that of the Levi and the Yisrael. The mitzvahs of the man go to the women. The mitzvahs of the women go to the men. The mitzvahs of the Beit Hamikdash go to me even today. Because I'm no longer perceiving myself as an isolated individual. I see myself as part of a claw. So, these are the two roots. All right, the question was, how can a single individual keep the 613 mitzvahs? Answer, the pathway of Talmud Torah, and the second is the pathway of Ahavat Yisrael, and Nachlas. Says the Meshech Chochmah, when the Jewish people accepted the Torah, they were alluding to these two pathways. Let's look at Yisrael. Vayanu kol am yachdav. The word yachdav, together, is referring to a time and place when the Jewish people are unified together, united. When we are together and united, we can declare everything God commanded we can do. We can do. I can't do it all, and you can't do it all. But together, we do it all. We can say, kol asher diber Hashem na'aseh. Now, in Mishpatim, the word yachdav is omitted. So, that is a reference to a time when the Jewish people are not united, where there's sinat chinam, where there's polarization, where there is dissension, where there is machlokes. At that point, I stand as an individual, not as uh an organ within that larger body. So, I can't say I can do all the mitzvahs. I can't say everything Hashem said I can do. I can't do. So, I got to go to plan B. Na'aseh. I can do it venishma, through learning about it. Nishma is Talmud Torah. Right? So, when there's a yachdav, we are mekayem the Torah with doing. When there's not a yachdav, we are mekayem the Torah by learning those mitzvahs that we're not able to do. And the Meshech Chochmah is mazbir that the two expressions of Am Yisrael are picking up on those two modalities. Now, I just want to end with the idea that these seem to be two pathways. There's the pathway of Talmud Torah, and there is the pathway of Ahavat Yisrael. But in reality, these are two different pathways that ultimately converge and become one. Because Chazal teach us, talmidei chachamim marbim shalom ba'olam, that those who study Torah should increase peace in the world. So, we learn in a world of machlokes that should ultimately create a unity and a togetherness. Um if you notice in the world that that is not always the case, that the learning of Torah does not produce shalom, well, some something is wrong. Something something is wrong. Either the Torah is not being learned correctly or or whatever it would be. Because Chazal say, talmidei chachamim are marbim shalom ba'olam. Okay, that has to be the kivun. That has to be the direction that that that we go. So, therefore, in reality, the two pathways of Talmud Torah and Ahavat Yisrael ultimately converge and they become a single pathway. May we be zocheh to uh have both of those pathways and thereby bring the Geulah Sheleimah bimherah beyameinu. Thank you. Amen.