Rav Yitzchak Breitowitz: Yearning and Anticipating Return to Israel

[Music] okay hi everybody thank thank you for for coming uh tonight's share is dedicated uh for a number of things I pray for the victory of our soldiers in Gaza Lebanon and now Syria uh that's a whole interesting thing uh what the security implications is of um you know a group of secular rash being replaced by a group of fanatic Islamic rashim is is is a little unclear but it once again highlights the fact that God is running the world and anything anything can happen at any time so even though the immediate short term is a little difficult to know but Hashem is in charge and that itself is always going to be a source of a source of strength a source of optimism and hope uh for the lasting Unity of the people of Israel and for all whose Health has been affected by the war Ben Freda Alat for y k Ben elzer and again as we've had for a number of classes um rever FR and Naomi finlin are dedicating uh this sh and the next two sh total of I think five altogether uh to their parents Rabbi and Mrs Philip finlin again who were very very influential in my life growing up in Hartford Connecticut uh special dedication and sponsorship by Regina Levan the mother of Carol Ganer and that we appreciate that and a special dedication by Irene grman uh in honor of R Bartz again I very much appreciate uh that dedication Mrs grman is a very very fine woman with a wonderful a daughter here in yam who herself is a fantastic teacher uh rifa SEO I'll give a little plug for her English Bim that might be something that you may want to look at uh Renovations for the new Outreach Center are coming to a completion andem we plan to open for Kaneka it'll be conveniently located on AIM and special thanks to a few uh generous donors uh we were able to start the renovations and there are various ways to help to complete the work that will be on the Bon website and general contributions uh either for the building or just for Ian's activities can be made directly uh using the link below in the YouTube description box and on the website uh once again hak Torah is uh such a great greatus both for the people doing it individually and for K Isel and it is also connected to Kaneka we'll talk more about it as we get closer to khaka but the light of Kaneka is really the light of Torah as it says in the Book of Proverbs Mitzvah T every Mitzvah is like a candle and the T is like a light and uh those of you anyone that has parents or grandparents who came from Europe uh may may have been told that the old Min in Europe was khaka is when you gave uh special Kaneka G to your children's rebies and to the T toras and to the I'm not asking for anything but the T toras and the like because it was understood that Kana was a time that you want to support the light of Torah so as a result it's a very opportune time to participate in supporting as a Torah as a of of um I think that's it okay all righty again uh pous gracious really really difficult to give a share in one hour because a lot of stuff and of course uh what makes it doubly complicated or rich is the ramban's idea what happens to the Patriarchs is a sign of the future Destiny of Israel so every single aspect that goes on in especially is not just referring to abov but so to speak these are harbingers these are predictions these are explaining what will unfold throughout our entire history uh from the time of the AOS all the way until the coming of mashiach and the end of History so as a result there's kind of a double perspective that you're looking at you're looking at the particular events as they happens which that which themselves can be understood on so many different levels and then you kind of look at how does it play out in the just to give you one example from an earlier para uh we learned that yesel did Chua before he died that after Sora died both Cura Hagar became Cura which is incense and yesma also became a BAL cha and came back to AB ainu that itself was a very beautiful thing uh butal tell us that the fact that yes as a person did Chua is also a remes that at the end of days the B is the Arab world the Muslims will come back to our KES quite amazing in many ways of course we do see the opposite going on but we also see the other way as well uh with the Dubai you know the the Emirates and Etc the Abraham Accords even though maybe the motivation might be commercial it might be for money but you do see kind of a turning towards the B Israel uh and and and again it was very tragic that that did get killed but again that wasn't Dubai that was the terrorists of Iran that were doing their dirty work in Dubai trying to undermine uh the peace that was being was being achieved so uh you know the Chinese have a curse uh may you live in interesting times this was considered to be a curse because interesting can be very very difficult uh we are Z to be living in very very inter in times but it's precisely at this point when we recognize Hashem is in charge of everything you know when things run smoothly we sometimes can delude ourselves it's never true that we're in charge anyway but you know you can get the impression that your systems are in full control uh your health care your political systems your economic systems and you kind of figure you know I'm in charge of my life I'm in charge of my Society but then comes all of the different things that are going on or like uh Trump said uh very eloquently in France says he said it to Maan he says the world's a real mess you know and you know kind of more or less uh that is true uh but the good thing in that message is when we realize we're not in control then we have the next position a l there is no one that we can rely upon EX except KES and as the morale says it is precisely the the obliteration of our ego that will enable us to be receptive to the Divine Light when there is this ego the ego acts as a m the ego acts as a wall of blockage that prevents the Divine Light from permeating your essence because you're filled with your self you're filled with your arrogance you're filled with your sense of power as the Torah describes it co my strength has given me all that I've accomplished and when you realize that's not the case that's precisely when we're ready you become ready to experience the yeshu Hashem again on an individual level let me just refer you to the famous 12 steps of alcoholic and Alcoholics Anonymous right what is the first step I realize that I don't have control over things I have to turn my life over to God and in a sense we have to go through that on a national and international level and that that brings the so seen in this way this itself just very very basic level K tell us that when the rabbis RI had to go to Rome or had to negotiate with the Roman authorities for the uh am Israel he always studied Paras because parish is how Yakov negotiates with a foreign oppressor it happens to be his brother and of course asov is said to be the ancestor of Rome so he saw in yakov's negotiations with asov a precedent for how the Jewish people should negotiate with Rome and in particular uh they identified three things that Yakov did and we have to mirror or mimic those three steps first of all Yakov was prepared to send gifts make concessions appeal to as's know kindness generosity kind of build ASV up he sent him gifts matanot but then he was ready with a plan B that if the Matos don't work you got to be ready for mil you have to be ready to fight when that's necessary peace is your first step but then you have to go to m and then the third which is the most important of all is Yakov DAV Yakov prayed that without nothing is going to work right so there's doron D is gift giving there's uh mil and there is uh there is T now it's interesting that in some ways you can extrapolate that this is not only referring to how you deal with an enemy it also refers to how you deal with secular culture as a whole right we have a secular culture a culture that has its literature that has its music that has its entertainments that has its insights that has its wisdom how do I deal I'm a religious Jew I'm a committed Jew I serve God what is my to all of the secular things that are out there this is an issue that we have to face individually and of course if you're a parent you you obviously face it in how you raise your children so one might say that the three strategies have a parallel in how we deal with that secular World there are those who wage war against it unrelenting War anything that is not from our Torah anything that is not from our religion anything that is not within the walls of the beta medish is pule is strafe I want nothing to do with it that's mil others have the opposite intent gift giving I open it up I welcome it I take it in and the answer is each of those extremes is not correct the unrelenting mil against things that are secular might shut you off from legitimate sources of wisdom and insight as say if someone tells you is there wisdom among the nations of the world time in you have to believe them there are insights to be gathered from Western Civilization over over the years and just to wage mil is an incorrect response because you're forfeiting the conversely some people accept everything they want to have an open tense everything comes in what yov teaches us is that there are times you have to reject that's M and there are times that you have to accept and you pray to Hashem to be given the wisdom of what to accept and what to reject because that's very hard it's always easier in life to go with binary extremes it's always easier to say everything's trfe or it's easy to say everything's okay now if I had to make a choice I think total rejection is better than total acceptance so people who say no computers in my house or whatever it is I can respect it for sure but I would still not call it the optimal good I would call it you know maybe the lesser of two evils what Yakov ainu is teaching us in a more allegorical way is that it that life is not a binary choice of total rejection or total acceptance rather there is both things going on at the same time you accept certain things you reject certain things you create boundaries you create a kadua in your home but then you selectively incorporate different ele elements that may be en nobling and ultimately you pray to Hashem that you will have the wisdom to make those right choices the ability to discriminate between KES and holy and profane is an attribute of wisdom let's let's for example consider the arvit of Mo shabas after chabas is over so we have a paragraph in the amid of MV which is the havdalah it's not the havdalah in the wine but it's havdalah in the Aida itself and in which braa is that contained the braa asking Hashem for wisdom and knowledge even though it has nothing to do mean what does it have to do with wisdom and knowledge and the the gar explains without true wisdom you're not going to be able to discriminate you will tend to be an all or nothing person everything's bad everything's good in reality true wisdom requires discernment true wisdom requires the ability to make judgments that certain things are indeed beneficial en nobling elevating certain things are degrading this is especially relevant to Kaneka because Kaneka we know is the war against Greece the war against Yovan now we're going to come back to this a number of times now Yovan does represent the epitome of what you might call secular culture Beauty philosophy Elegance science and commonly we talk about the war of the macbes is not just a political war it is a war against the culture of Greece that elevated man to the highest level and did not really leave room for one God did not believe in one God in fact on one hand you could say well they were religious in their own way because they had many gods but not really the Greek religion was not a religion the Greek religion was a glorification of man because the Greek gods are simply like super heroes like super human being Superman Batman uh all of that without without the morality by the way I mean Superman Batman at least uh had codes of morality uh the Greek gods were very very decadent immoral uh creatures uh so we always talk about it as being a war against yovin but at the same time we learned from Yakov that in that war there's also things you need to incorporate as a positive so that's like one basic lesson uh inish now the other thing is that the PK says that Yakov is very afraid and distressed look at the twoos so what's the double language he is very afraid and very distressed so Rashi has a very fascinating comment Rashi says he's afraid who lest he be killed and he is distressed lest he kill this is quite interesting that yakob is not only afraid of losing Yakov is afraid of winning because Yakov understands that although Judaism and Yakov all of us even today obviously we're not pacifists someone's trying to kill you physically or spiritually you fight back you Vanquish the enemy but Yakov also recognizes that potentially there is a cost if we have to engage in murder and violence maybe murder is not the right word but killing even if it's absolutely justifiable there is always a fear that that desensitizes you to the pressure of life there's a cost to engaging in these activities a coarsening of sensibility maybe a destruction of compassion Yakov prays to God that he shouldn't be victimized by asf's destruction but he also prays that he shouldn't be desensitized by his successes and that itself is a uniquely Jewish idea I don't think the other armies if they pray at all they don't pray for those I mean they pray to have Victory but they don't pray GE I'm afraid I'm going to kill you know kill kill somebody so that I think is also a very interesting point and then finally this is kind of introduction to the the main thing I want to talk about uh Yakov says to God in his prayer his heartfelt prayer save me from my brother from asov once again there's a redundancy yakob only has one brother his brother is Asa why does she say save me from my brother save me from ASA so here the B says a very very famous ver which also connects to masim that yov besides the fear that jakov has that either he'll be killed or will have to kill there's another fear that Yakov has Yakov is afraid of the ASV who comes to destroy him but Yakov is also afraid of the ASA who potentially might come as a brother and a friend because the ASA who tries to destroy him is after his body but the ASA who comes as a friend may be after your soul and indeed by and large this has been the challenge of Western civilization in recent years uh well now we have a r of anti-Semitism even our physical security physical security is in danger but generally speaking if you take the United States right the issue was not one of physical survival it was LE we were given Freedom we were given opportunities we were given access to colleges and professions but what happens assimilation intermarriage the as of who comes as a brother might be much more dangerous than the as of who comes as an enemy because at least the as of that comes as an enemy you know you have to be different you know you have to separate when the as of comes as a brother as a friend your soul is in danger you know it's very very interesting at the time of shortly after the French Revolution so when Napoleon kind of went through Europe one of the things he gr he did was he granted emancipation to the je the Ghetto Walls were taken down Jews could go to university and the like and when Napoleon had a campaign against Russia which eventually he lost so there was a bigus among the GM thees in different parts of Europe should we pray for the victory of Napoleon or should we pray for the victory of the Zar many great rabbis said that the conditions of the Jews in zarus Russia were so awful poverty oppression anti-Semitism pgrs uh even the canonist in which Jewish children were forcibly taken into the Russian this is a tremendously distressing story kids were taken into the army at the age of eight and they had to serve for 30 years in a totally trafe environment many of them converted to Christianity but but a number of them remained faithful to Judaism under unbelievable conditions and when they finally got out of that the service at the age of 40 whatever it is those people who remained religious were not mentally balanced they they could not even live in regular communities there are books about this they created their own little towns because nobody understood what they went through and there were rabbis who would visit them to give them Comfort I mean that's how traumatic I mean talk about post-traumatic stress syndrome that's how traumatic this was so life for the Jew in Russia was a hell in every way Napoleon on the other hand was promising Freedom emancipation so some rabbis said let's pray for Napoleon but one great Rabbi who lived under zyus Russia was actually against that that was none other than the balatan RNE Alman the first kabad Rabbi he said Napoleon is more dangerous than thear thear Destro destroys our body but Napoleon will give us freedom that will destroy our soul and indeed it's very very true the reform movement all sorts of religious all sorts of movements rejecting Judaism came in the aftermath of emancipation precisely there by the way um the um the when the Communists 100 years later when they overthrew the Zar theab the babbis were in big trouble because they were counterrevolutionaries because they were supporters of the Zar 100 years earlier that was one of the excuses for putting the rebes into into prison and the like so that's the Bas Le's comment on L save me from the asov that is my enemy save me from the as of that is my uh that is my brother and then um again again I have a few small points I want to make and then I'll go into my main theme Yakov begins his prayer or not his prayer but his message to Asa says this is what you shall say to my brother ASV and he says IM I have lived with love on for these 20 years and now I'm coming back to AR Israel and he's announcing his return to ER Israel so that asov will be prepared by the way this's a whole discussion should Yakov have done anything there there are those that say Yakov shouldn't have even announced that he's coming back in a sense he's going to make ASA jealous I'm coming back with all of this wealth Etc yakob should have just kind of just gone back and not made an announcement of it I means there are there are that actually fault yov for even talking to asov at all at this point but be does it may he begins with the statement IM laan GTI I have dwelt with laan so Rashi points out that the word GTI have the same letters as tag I lived with Lan and I kept the 613 mitzvot this is based on the Rabin tradition that the Patriarchs kept the whole Torah before it was given they knew with rues what the Commandments were now the kha is the following if yakob is making the point that he kept the 613 mitzah while he was in love one's house that's demonstrably false because number one there are many Mitzvah that you can only fulfill in erel did Yakov keep shita did Yakov take off truma and Maser even if you're going to tell me he knew the whole Torah so he WS fill and he W SES he kept shabas let's even assume that but the mitv that depend on erel he couldn't have kept when he was not in erel moreover there's a famous ramban who said says that even the mitv that are not limited to ER Isel the a kept them only in ER Isel because that's the Palace of the king that explains the famous question how could Yakov marry raal and Leia their two sisters the Torah prohibits it says the ramban when the aot were not in ER to so they didn't have that law so what is yakov's claim I kept the 63 Mitzvah so there's a beautiful s that says that maybe you have to retranslate the word sharti sh Marti I kept the 613 in next week's para when we're going to read about yosef's dreams right yoseph has dreams that his brothers are going to bow down to him so the P says his brothers were jealous the VI his father Shamar Shamar kept a memory of this Rashi says Shar means y Yakov was sitting and waiting and yearning for when will this dream be fulfilled so the says you see that the verb Shar to guard does not necessarily mean observe keep although it's one of the meanings but it can also refer to keeping it as a memory in your heart because that's what it meant so very beautifully when yob says he does not mean I observed the 613 Mitzvah but every single second I was in I was yearning for when I will be able to return to erel to be able to keep the mitz in other words he's giving it The Identical meaning to and says this is how a Jew has to view living init that yeah sometimes you live in but every second you have to hope you have to yearn to be able to come back rev cook uh was actually stranded in for five years uh he left he was already in ER Israel he was the r of yafa he was not the r of or Palestine mandatory Palestine yet but cook went uh to Vienna for the founding of aish Israel event and then World War I broke out he was not able to return brm he was with his wife but he was not able to return for five years so he was in Switzerland for a while I think it was around a year a year and a half and then he became a in London to a it was not a Hebrew speaking congregation a yish speaking congregation know the European Jews were not Hebrew speakers in in those in those days so ref cook actually spent a big chunk five years in by the way he used to enjoy visiting the British Museum and he especially uh loved Rembrandt's painting rembrand has a number of paintings of rabbis and Rembrandt's style is you see light the faces often have light he says rembrand understood the light of Torah coming out of saintly people uh but whenever they wanted Ru cook to take a trip to the British Countryside which is very pretty I've seen it myself uh Ru cook said that when it comes to Countryside he only wants AR he didn't he didn't want to be connected even in a physical sense to the physical beauty of any other of any other country and every second for those five years Yos in fact uh in the contracts that he signed to be RV uh it was always stipulated that as soon as I am permitted to leave ER Israel I am allowed to quit I'm allowed to leave without any type of penalty and that's the idea ofz sh okay so yakob is very afraid and by the way the gar Bros asked theha why is Yakov afraid didn't god promise him I will return you B shalom uh to this land so thear BR says quite amazingly that Yakov was so modest and so humble that in spite of the Divine promise of the dream of the latter that we had last week Yakov is afraid that maybe his sins will make him Unworthy of divine protection now obviously that's not true but from yakov's perspective maybe the sin will cancel it so Yakov is frightened and yakob then hears that ASF is coming with an army of 400 people and he divides the camps Etc and he prepares a whole protocol to meet ASV but then comes one of the great mysterious scenes in the Torah the night before the great pivotal meeting with Asa Yakov has already crossed the river yabok right he's coming again uh he's coming from K right so he's coming Northeast from around Syria he's coming Northeast of er Israel so he's traveling in a southwesterly direction the river yabok is a small river that flows from the Jordan so if you can visualize the map he's coming uh Northeast of erisel he crosses the river yabok which puts him uh adjacent to the Jordan River but then he members he left something behind and he went back to retrieve something all by himself right the whole family had crossed the he goes back say what did he forget he forgot small Earth and wear jars he went back for and that's when he encountered is the mysterious man all by himself so the gamar and asks what is he going back he's he's crossing a river to retrieve little jars let it just uh whatever it is let it just stay so the gamar says a strange thing the gamar says sadik for the righteous their money is more precious than even their body in other words he'll put himself at risk to get I mean laav and I don't want to make it a trivial because there's a very large Point here but this is the famous Jack Benny joke uh Jack Benny had a reputation for being a stingy person although he was not actually he was not a stingy person and when he was on radio before there was television so this is a famous famous thing he's you know he's playing a person getting mugged in Central Park and the old line was your money or your life and there is like a 30 second pause which in radio is huge huge huge pause and then he says I'm thinking about it I'm thinking about it you know what do I want more so here say that that sadik cares more about the M than his own goof why is that what sense does that make and the morale is masar because with sadic there is no such thing as anything being Superfluous meaning it's not that a sadic is selfish the other way around but everything a sadic is given by God there must be a purpose if a sadic has two pens he has to figure out why did God give me two pens if all I need is one pen maybe to lent out whatever it would be so only a Russia or a person who's not aoic can basically say oh I have more than I need and therefore this is Superfluous exodic by definition uses everything and therefore Yakov goes back but there is a tradition and it's unfortunate that I don't think this tradition has a m in K so I can't show you a medish it's a tradition preserved among so I I can't I can't trace it earlier than that but they say the following what was so great about these small jars and by the way that's the same line as the kanaka miracle p sh right and they say the following when the world was destroyed by a mobble and the mble was finally over and Noah is wondering is it time to get out of the Ark so he sends first The Raven but then he sends the yaa and the yaa comes back with an olive leaf meaning trees are beginning to regenerate so they have a tradition that not only did she come back with a leaf but there were olives attached to the leaf and Noah pressed those olives to get olive oil into a p into a small Earth and wear jar because he wanted to preserve a reminder of hashem's kindness in regenera ating the world after its destruction this was the first new fruit of a destroyed world and that P was lovingly handed down to shame Ben Noah and then to a a and then Y and then Yakov and that was the P that Yakov had left behind and he went back to get that P because that was so beloved and it is said that more than a thousand years later that was the P that had the Seal of the Coen G from which the miracle of khaka took place the be it as it may Yakov is all by himself and all of a sudden he is attacked by an entity that is described as a man and they are fighting all night they're wrestling all night and sometimes Yakov is on top and sometimes Yakov is at the bottom and then finally in the morning Yakov is Victorious the break of dawn and this mysterious man says send me let me go for the dawn has come and Yakov says I will not let you go unless you give me a blessing and the man as he's describe says your name shall no longer be yob which is the heel your name shall be Israel you have triumphed with God and that was the blessing now the Torah doesn't say this but kazal have a very strong tradition that they say in a number of places that this was none other than the guardian angel of ASF the spiritual power of Asa that the night before Yakov meets the asov In the Flesh he fights with the asov of the spirit and in his vanquishing of that spiritual power of as of Hashem is giving him the assurance that eventually the physical ASA will not be able to destroy you and not only that but will even bless you but not without cost Yakov got his Blessing in the morning but yakov's thigh was dislocated and yakob was limping the stic nerve got dislocated and that is why the Jewish people do not eat that sciatic nerve in commemoration of yakov's struggle with the angel of ASF so the sa says that the obvious symbolic meaning of this is it's not just Yakov and ASV it's the Jewish people against the Nations that tried to destroy us and the imagery here is there will be a long night the Gus is described as a night and in that night there will be fighting there will be animosity there will be times in which we will be at the ascendancy and there'll be times we will be in a subordinate vulnerable position and one can lose hope but the message is there will be a long night but at the end of that night will come a light a day a morning a Dawn and when that Dawn comes you will be triumphant you will be victorious it won't be without cost when that mashiach comes we will be limping we have suffered tremendously we'll be limping we'll be lame but we'll be alive and the Very Nations that try to destroy you they will bless you they will acknowledge so just as I had said yes will there are even statements that at least parts of as of parts of as will do chuva as well come back in one way or the other and that's the Magnificent right so every time you don't eat a sirine steak because it contains G you're really remembering mashia G hope Triumph right that's the thing you think about this on a conscious level a reaffirmation of the idea of G that's the mysterious idea of all the stuff that happens to yov is really a message for us is a message that we have to think about uh every day we're going through this we might see it in our lives so I just want to mention very quickly two interesting observations of the first all he points out that why do we find a guardian angel of evil so to speak only trying to destroy Yakov why don't we find a comparable negative Force against ab and so says a very interesting thought the points out that P of course tells us that the world stands on three pillars Torah learning of Torah aod Divine service loving kindness and it's a well-known theme that each of the of US represents one of those pillars Abraham is the pillar of loving kindness y who was a Corban represents Divine service yakob who spent 14 years in the ISA of sham and a before he came to a lovan's house represents Li now the world stands on three pillars it doesn't only stand on Torah he has have Torah so on one level they're equal equally important on the other level Li T is the first among equals because through Li tah you will come to and divine service because you'll learn the Mitzvah but through and divine service you won't necessarily come to Tor and points out the following when the powers of evil try to destroy kadosa they are as it were strategic thinkers they will allow kadha to exist if they are confident there is no continuity and it's going to Peter out on its own accord so when it comes to a that's the powers of evil say ah let the Jews doed let them have benevolent societies let them do charity because eventually it's going to disintegrate and when it comes to let them have their synagogues let them have their prayers because once again it's not going to go to the Next Generation but when yov represents Torah the has to destroy that because Tyra creates intergenerational perpetuity and that the Kos of Tuma have to destroy the said a yish kite that's based on is a wonderful thing but eventually it disappears a yish kite even based onila you know predominantly is a wonderful thing but eventually it disappears it is only when there's Li in CL is that it goes to the Next Generation Now the truth of the matter is if you study the history of Judaism in the United States for example you you really see this pattern uh there were waves of immigration such as the German immigration of mainly assimilated Jews who became very wealthy a lot of the investment banking firms Layman Brothers Goldman Sachs were founded by German Jewish immigrants uh to the United States in like the 1840s even before the Civil War and they were not religious At All by and large but they created benevolent societies they created Jewish hospitals today at least in there's not much of a need for a Jewish hospital any hospital will help but in those days Jews couldn't go to some hospitals they created country clubs benevolent societies free loan societies they emphasized and what happened to most of their children they actually converted to Christianity not because they believed in Christianity but because they wanted to be socially acceptable the next wave and this was actually an antagonistic relationship were Jews from Poland and Russia in the aftermath of pgrs in Russia in the 1890s and these were largely poor people and the German Jews actually look down at these unlearned secularly and poor polish and Russian Jews and they built schs there weren't that manyas they built shs and synagogues and the like magnificent synagogues in some ways I remember growing up the old shs they don't build anymore with stained glass windows and beautiful beautiful beautiful now all of those shows in inner city areas are churches and you can still see the aceras engraved in Hebrew letters in the masonry of what is now a church and this was a recurring scandal in the United States because Hally it is forbidden to convert a show into a church on the other hand who else is in the market to buy a synagogue that's closing down so this the typical synagogue of the 30s 40s 50s 60s '70s had to resort to a whole bunch of very dubious hak strategies such as selling the sh to a middleman who would then sell it to a CH whatever they developed shtick which did not really have even H justification but that's what happened that's why in any inner city in the United States that had a sizable Jewish population you will see uh churches that used to be magnificent Magnificent shs the children of those devoted polish and Russian Jews once again largely became secular largely there were exceptions I don't I mean there were some very notable exceptions but by and large it's called The Lost Generation the Jews who grew up in America let's say between World War I and and World War II are kind of a Lost Generation a tiny tiny little fragment remained from even though their parents were from so to the extent there is a vibrant Orthodox community in America not as big as it should be but it's there is a vibrancy that comes from after World War II when there was a massive expanse in day schools in yesos in Kim F and Lich rarin Cutler the different gum had a real real commitment and's point is 100% it is only with the Advent of Torah learning that there's intergenerational continuity otherwise Judaism you just forget about it after a while when you come to a society of Freedom why stay with it so the going back to the that's why the says the kak of evil is only going to attack yakob it's not going to attack ab and is because the kak of evil will tolerate goodness if the nature of that goodness is temporary and ephemeral and is likely to pet out what Yakov represented would remain forever that's Point number one of the point number two of the is based on a zo The Zo said the angel of ASV wanted to destroy Torah and the angel of ASV was not able to do so Yakov emerged Victorious there will always be Torah in am is even if people are starving they're going to learn Torah but the angel of Asa had a partial Victory he didn't defeat Yakov but Yakov is limping yakov's thigh got dislocated the Zoar says if Yakov symbolically represents toorah the thigh which supports the body represents those who support the Tor who hold up the Torah so the angel of ASF had a victory that the support of Torah will always be precarious weak and vulnerable think about the fact of how much money is devoted to Mindless that's being a as a charitable description mindless entertainments billions and billions and billions of dollars and then think about what's available for Jewish Education for how teachers don't get paid uh classrooms can't be built to accommodate learning of Torah we're financially strapped in a world that has plenty of money in which Jews have plenty of money right the people who give to the United Nations which is truly iala or people who give to camela Jews who give to camela Harris's campaign a billion a billion whatever whatever it would be so what's going on this is the curse of Asa this was asa's Victory the support of Torah will be financially weak that says a remarkable statement any Yeshiva that does not have financial problems you must question the authenticity of its Mission because if it's a real Mak Torah it's going to suffer I always say when I you sometimes have to do a little fundraising for or that this proves what a great Yesa or is because we constantly have financial problems that we're struggling with right that's the proof and a smaller scale you know same issue he B has is such a wonderful worthy cause so a person might say so when I'm approached by MOS of Torah to give money I should say I'm not why should I give you money you're supposed to suffer supposed to be financially strapped uh the other way around I shouldn't make it easier for you well let me give you an example you know when anastesia was developed for a child birth in the 19th century there were a number of chrisan theologians all of whom were men that said women are not allowed to take anesthesia in sh birth because that would be a contradiction to the curse of K where God said in pain you shall give birth to a child right now what would we say as Jews why isn't that a good argument God said you will suffer the answer is a curse is not the same as a Mitzvah God did not say you are obligated to suffer God is saying I am creating a nature the nature of things is child birth will be painful it's not a Mitzvah it's a state that God created but we are given Rus to alleviate the pain and the suffering same thing here God didn't command you know most of Torah I command that you live in poverty Hashem said this will be the nature of your struggle we then have a Mitzvah to try to do the best job that we can right so that's the idea of supporting those are the two observations of the of the but the last point I I want to share with you is the two names of Yakov Yakov has two names see arra had a name change as well Aram and S originally it was Aram patriarch of Aram of Syria where he came from and Hashem added a he which is both a letter of God's name and it also means Aon you are a father a spiritual father to all the nations of the world teaching them about God and Sarai became a princess now those name changes replace the first name Lamer now of course you could say that the letters are still included every letter of ab is in Abraham but still uh we don't we cannot refer to him as AR he's Abraham Sarah the old names are gone new identity Y is the only patriarch who in fact didn't have a name change but with Yakov there is a name change but the new name Israel is in addition to Yakov Yakov is in fact even after the name change Yakov is often referred to as Yakov so the question becomes why in the case of Aram the new name totally cancels out the old name but with Yakov both names have their place Yakov and Israel we don't get rid of the Yakov when he gets is by the way it's a beautiful Mahal that um in some ways they say that Ra was the wife of Yakov and Leia was the wife of Israel that in terms of nishas Rael was connected to the Yakov person and was connected to the Israel person and that's why Leia is buried with Israel because that's the ultimate schas but it was Rael that was his Yakov partner in life that's actually I thought maybe we should elaborate on more but but I just want to say the following thought the name Yakov comes from heel aov and the Torah says he was called yakob because as ASA was coming out the old twin Yakov was holding on to his heel the heel is of course the part of your body that's in the dirt that's in the mud the hill Israel is the name of Triumph success Victory Yakov fights the angel right Yakov Serita he has excelled with God against all the negative forces re gal says the reason why the name Israel cannot replace yakob and you have to have both is it's precisely our struggles in the mud that give us the capacity of Triumph we wrestle we struggle we confront evil but here's the thing it's not just confronting the evil outside of ourselves but confronting the evil within ourselves some actually learn in a metaphorical way and this is an example of 70 faces in the Torah that the angel of asov that Yakov is struggling with is the mirror image of himself in the middle of the night all alone where you don't have defenses what's happening is you struggle to be an honest person because remember y y you have to understand something Yakov has engaged in a lot of sheer in this part of his life the bir the birth right from asov the Bros from as even with L and you know the story of Yakov has been used as a basis of anti-Semitic claims against the Jewish people for centuries and yet yakob is always identified in our tradition as the man of Truth the man of honesty and yakob is wrestling have I become corrupted have I become degraded have I been affected by this world in negative ways that's Yakov the world of struggle the World of Wrestling your own inner demons but it's precisely the honesty to fight those demons that gives you the capacity of Triumph and Excellence therefore the name Israel does not replace the name of Yakov it is out of the Yakov that you get the Israel the person who does not work on himself the person who is not willing to confront their own demons the person who sweeps all spiritual and emotional problems under a rug can never have the Triumph of Israel and you know kab is a beautiful saying I don't know uh well I mean obviously it's based on the Tanya but I don't think the exact wording is in the Tanya and that is in AEM being in the battle is in itself the victory meaning even when you lose even when you lose you're in there you're trying and that itself is a victory that I'm in that fight I want to grow I want to be better I'm willing to confront those aspects of my life that need to be rectified that's Yakov I'll get into the mud and by the process of getting dirty and getting into that mud I will reach the madrea of Israel and that's why both names are there so spiritual life is sometimes two steps forward one step back and sometimes it's one step forward and two steps back but you keep going you don't give up and at some point there'll be that long night and after that long night there will be a day and then you will no longer be the Yakov in the mud you will be the Israel who triumphs with with has so thank you for coming and uh happyday questions before anybody ask any question [Music] sh