The Dangers of Partisan Thinking — Parshas Pinchas

I don't like political jokes I've seen too many of them get elected we're gonna talk about politics today especially partisan politics you know it seems like today everything's so polarized everyone's so extreme everyone's opinions are the most extreme version of the possible position on the issue to the extent where it's even it becomes impossible for there to be any compromise or even any real intelligent discourse about issues because it's all about us and then it's about teams and it becomes almost as if it's not the issues that we're discussing but you know the letter R or the letter D as it were so we can always find guidance for everything in every time in every place in the Holy Theta so let's look in this week's papyrus PIMCO's and there's an episode that occurs with the daughters of Slough cut the nice Slough cut by the way you know the name of the Father of the Benoist Slough Cod it's not a trick question it's lovely and if you remember it's love cut this is germane to the discussion here but from a few weeks ago he was the some say Rebbe Akiva says he was the Mukesh Aten remember the wood gatherer that they found gathering wood on Shabbos after the the maragua after the spies someone went out and they gathered wood on Shabbos and they were executed for it that was that was the Slav cut at any rate so this week's parsha the Benes Slav cut there were five of them they come to Moshe with an issue we have just been introduced to the laws of NACA lice of inheritance that means divvying up the territories of the land of Israel according to tribes and it was done based on population and each tribe was given then land according to the the numbers of adult males the families of that tribe now because of that the family of Slough could was gonna miss out because he had already passed away and he only had daughters and the dividing of the land wasn't based on daughters so his bloodline would basically lose out and inheritance in the land okay let's look here so they come to the vanity Slough got the five daughters of slough hood they come to make sure they know and they say ah vino makes Bamidbar our father died in the desert the who law however say how ada honey Adam Elisha badass Kara but he was not in the assembly that banded together against the Lord in kratos assembly remember the rebellion of Cairo Decatur led he attracted as many followers and they all perished so there was a slough could I mentioning our father died but in case you think he might have bitten no he wasn't part of that rather Kiva a toy mace he died for his own sin it was he sinned but it wasn't that sin he didn't the difference in and like we said according to Akiva he was the micaceous ate some he was the wood gatherer but he wasn't part of Kyra von Emily how you like and he didn't leave any sons hence the predicament the legal dilemma that we're having right now the daughters of Slough cutter saying and that's why we're coming to you maisha and we're concerned Lama you gotta shame Aveeno me take mishpokhe they why should our fathers name be eliminated or diminished from among his family that's because he has no sons give us to new law no - no law no hos of us say ah hey Aveeno give us a portion in the land among our fathers brothers okay so that was their request and what happens my should obey no okay money should have been made shakable Taylor Messina Emily should have been who received the entire Toyota from her shell and yes there were mitzvahs that were given after seen I but now we're talking about the fortieth year this is right before entering the and make sure they know who has been given the entire data and it's now the 40th year in the wilderness Emma has asked a question in relationship what was he doing other than you know learning tighter with a shaman teaching it to the people maisha was a judge right I shall listen to two legal disputes so Myesha who is the quintessential Torah judge par excellence he hears this question and he says I got a call a friend I I'm gonna have to I need to use my lifeline I don't know the Yak grave measure s miss Parton lift nasha Moshe took their case to a sham the yemeni Malaysia lemon and then Hashem said to measure can a cane beneath love code Dave race they are correct they have a good argument give them the land that they are asking for okay so here's what we're trying to understand May should have a didn't know how to rule in this case he had to go and he didn't even try it's not like you know I've been deliberating on this for a while I've been thinking and I'm really I'm stymied I'm stumped you know stumped the rabbi you stumped the rabbi I'm gonna I'm gonna ask my teacher which places teachers as I shall know they asked him the question immediately I got to speak to our chef actually and and and then Hashem tells make sure they're ruling so we have to understand that why measure ran immediately to get clarity on the ruling from a show in order to understand that though we have to understand something else and that is manufactured unity so unity is a beautiful thing coming together bonding loyalty those are beautiful and then there's something called artificial loyalty or manufactured unity what's manufactured unity in Hebrew in the holy tongue a bribe is called shahad as in the verse lysee cachet HOD do not bribe Piaget had gathered Anika calm him because shake odd a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise you know there was once a judge who went deaf in his old age and they asked him why do you why did you go deaf he says well it was from taking bribes and they said well but the Torah says that taking bribes makes you go blind why did you go deaf he says because I heard a lot of promises I never saw the money at any rate shut it head makes a person go blind meaning blind from judgment obviously doesn't mean physically blind it means it blinds us it makes it impossible to make a wise ruling and why is that the Gemara explains the morning Zubaz that shahe there's a contraction of to who God that he is one that the briber and the Bribie become one in other words once you take that money you become subjective about that person you become one with that person and just like no one can be objective about themselves right all the Kotov ate salat smite a person is his own relative meaning a person whose inescapably biased about his own his own self or like we said Cole knee gay Adam Rhea puts me at my other moralia cuts my odds me a person can see meaning a coin can evaluate in the the the the afflictions of others meaning to evaluate it that's what the the context is hoots mats may except for his own and one of the interpretations of that Mishnah homiletically is a person can identify faults except for his own we're blind to our own faults okay and that's just because we are we are ourselves and we can't step away from ourselves we like we lack that up in objectivity so we were biased we're inescapably biased the problem with the bribe is once you take the bribe from the person it manufactures this affinity where now I can't be objective about the person who took the bribe from either he be like me in the sense that just like I can't be objective about myself now he can't be objective about the person I took a bribe from there's a story in the Gemara that illustrates this and it's actually also brought in the mission of Toyota of the Rambam we should mention also there's a CMA album coming up both for those who are learning three proximity and those who are learning one paddock and also consequently as well as for those who are learning the safer Mitsu's every day so this story is from the Gemara from sanhedrin and it's also brought in in in dorama that there was a certain Tonga it'll be Schmo but a BAC so the beach well owned a tract of land and he used to lease it out to a farmer and the way that the farmer would pay rent is he would give a certain portion of the fruits to rubbish Moyle and they had a schedule every Thursday the farmer would come into town he was a farmer so he didn't live in town he lived out in the farm area every Thursday he would come into town I'm sorry every Friday he would come into town and bring the fruits and this particular time he came in on a Thursday why did he come in on Thursday because what they did the rabbinical courts generally operate on Mondays and Thursdays so the guy shows up and he brings the basket of fruits which he owed as rent to rub you smile every phone says usually come on Friday why do you come in too early this week he says because I'm here for a court date I have a court appearance I'm here I'm on a litigant so I figured well I make two trips you know I'm coming to town anyway for the floor for Best Inn for the court I might as well bring you your your fruits as well so mission well says to him and now I cannot be one of the judges on your case whatever your case is gonna have to find other judges and he recused himself immediately and he found other judges for the case during the case no Bhishma was listening and he was following and he found himself oh he could have argued this oh he could have argued that and he's like rooting for him like cheering for him and hoping he wins and thinking to himself what his strongest arguments would be to win the case and as he see I mean he wasn't saying it out loud he was just on the side watching and thinking these things to himself and as he was thinking these things to himself he stopped he says Wow look how invested I am in this guy winning the case he says look the bribe quote-unquote bribed that he did he offered me belonged to me already okay it's my it's the payment of rent for let's do to me anyways and if I would have taken it I would only be taking what's mine and plus all it was that he was doing is bringing a day earlier which is totally intangible there's no tangible benefit to that and yet and and most of all I didn't even take it I didn't even accept it from him and you see how warped my thinking has become in his favor now imagine a person who actually takes a bribe and it's actually a real bribe how impossible it is for him to have any objectivity so that's - chew khat it becomes inescapably subjective and incapable of objectivity and and and and being free of bias when it comes to this person so once we create this feeling of sides we're on the same side we're on the same team that's it clear thinking goes right out the window and that's what happens with partisanship that's partisanship let's talk about politics today how is it possible that your guy is always right and the other guy is always wrong it's not possible if you're actually looking at things based on issues it's not possible that one party platform is a hundred percent right and the other party platform is a hundred percent wrong it's not possible that one pundit is always right he always nails it another pundit never gets it it's not but I want to tell you because it's not really about issues it's about sides so it's like you know if you're a Yankees fan let's say you go up to Fenway Park in Boston to watch the Yankees and the Red Sox the umpire makes a call against the Yankee's you will never see the New Yorkers who went up to to go see the game you would never see them say oh yeah but that's a fair call no no it's kill the UMP right because you made a call against my guys that's my team they're not looking at it like you know objective observers of the game of baseball no no it's about my team winning so called that's bad for my team is bad you can't you can't even escape that thinking and and that's what the partisan politics is and that's what makes you wanted no part of so here's what happened the daughters of slough hood they come to me and they present the case everything was going fine okay our father died he didn't have any sons but then they blew it they mentioned that our father was not part of Cox rebellion that's it and it was over and they should recused himself immediately it was 39 years later this is 39 years since chaotix breakaway and and and there was nothing practically that maysha stood to lose or gain at this point from anything that had to do with that old Mac Leykis which is already married and done the critical thing was over settled for decades and yet the mere mention of it the mere mention our father died but not he wasn't part of Kratos group that was it my said and now I can't be part of this I can't hear your case objectively you know you're coming in and you're saying oh by the way our father you know he wasn't part of that uprising against you and your brother you know that's called cronyism cronyism right oh there be still of course I talk dude oh okay take care of them make sure yeah yeah let's make sure Slough hoods daughter they take care of them good well she was not gonna have any part of that he wanted to answer the question according to absolute truth so even my should have a new who is truth maisha amis they say dos AMS maysha said that's it once you mentioned the partisan thing I'm out and he goes to ash em to get objective truth that's it the the the lesson is abundantly clear for us which is that sometimes our brains get pointed in a certain direction and it doesn't matter how smart you are in fact the smarter you are the worse it is because once your brain is pointed in a certain direction it's locked in the smarter you are then the further down that path you you go and the faster down that path you go and and being smart won't help you who was smarter than my shadow may know that doesn't help because once your your brain is pointed in a certain direction you can't get objectivity it's Google what we call it confirmation bias we just keep seeing more and more affirmation for the things that we that we already believe and therefore we become more entrenched and more self righteous and more indignant and more intolerant and and and it becomes more and more impossible for us to ever hear an issue on an objective merits and by the way I'm not just talking about partisanship although I think that's a very easy example for us all to observe today with the polarized political scene but also in personal relationships we just get stuck with an Austin then mentality whose side is winning okay and once there are sides oh he's on my side he's not on my side you're done you can't be objective that's shaken who taught that you're with me you're not with me it can't be that way but there's a solution there is a solution what's the solution how do we get objectivity our sages tell us a sailor carava mr. Luckman a Suffolk get yourself a teacher a mentor and depart from doubt and sometimes your mentor your guide call it your spiritual life coach they don't necessarily even have to be smarter than you or know things that you don't know all they have to really have is the one thing that you'll never have objectivity about yourself they are not you so they can guide you about you in a way that you can never do it you know I once heard from a sober alcoholic a guy had been sober for about twenty thirty years an old-timer and he says you know when people come here they have alcoholism but then eventually they stopped drinking something you don't have the alcohol anymore you take the alcohol out of the alcoholism you're still left with the ISM what's the ISM I sponsor myself I sponsor myself you supposed to have a sponsor you know say look it up you're supposed to have a mentor right somebody who's not you and to be objective about you but if you don't have that then you're just in that feedback loop you just in the echo chamber you keep reinforcing the confirmation bias and you never get out of biased thinking but if you have a sponsor meaning you have somebody else to check in with to keep you real because they're not you and they can be objective about you now you're free from that so Malaysia was able to go to a Shem each one of us according to our sages can go to a Torah teacher a guide a rabbi a teacher somebody you trust somebody who knows you and most importantly is not you and get guidance and be able to get some clear objective direction in life say look arrive very very very important tool even Misha if in Russia knew when he needed objectivity and all of us would do well to seek out that objectivity