The Greatest Miracle of All - Rav Aryeh Lebowitz

There was a uh there was a Jew by the name of Ra Khalan Herzman when he was a bach he had gone to Grudna because he wanted to learn by Rav Shiman. So he wanted to at least be able to talk in learning to be in the shadows of Rashimk and he took the long journey from wherever he was. I do not know where. And he finally made it to Grudna and he knocked on Rashimkab's door. And Rimishkab saw that he was wary from the journey that he was tired from his trip. And he said, "No, no, we're not going to talk in learning. First, we're going to get you something to eat. We're going to get you a little bit of rest. You're going to take care of yourself and then when you're uh when you have enough strength, when you have your kos, then we'll we'll talk in learning." And there are similar stories about the and other. And it's not surprising that there are such stories because that's proper der that someone comes from a long journey before you hack them in learning and before you engage them in what could be an intense conversation you want to make sure that their basic needs their basic physical needs are taken care of. In that context, it's a little bit surprising what the target says about Mosherenu when he greets. The says he brings him into the says the sonish that he brought him to the place to the house of learning which essentially means that Israel shows up and Mosha says there's a place I got to take you and he immediately schle him to the base medish. What kind of is that? Why is that the first location that Mosha Rabenu is going to bring Israel is Davka to the B medish? Second of all, you look at how Mosha Rabenu relates to his own children when he was to have that of having children. So he and his wife give them names. The first one is named Ger because he was a G in an in a strange lander and the other one was alazer of because who helped him and saved him from the parro. So first of all you know experiencing being saved from the parro is a worthwhile thing to celebrate. It's a worthwhile thing to commemorate to memorialize in the name of your child. That child will always walk around with the pride of knowing that he was named after a miracle that was performed uh through his father for the Jewish people. The other one is a little more curious. That child for the rest of his life is going to walk around thinking I am the one that represents the worst time in my father's life. I'm the one that represents being a stranger, being an outsider, being someone who does not belong and who was not welcome. And that seems like a little bit of a burden to uh to place on a child. In addition to that, it seems that it's a little bit out of order because what eritz nakria was he was he actually in? Meaning, if if you're born in America and you're raised in America and you went to yeshiva in America and your whole life was in America, you got married in America, you built a home in America, your your your home is America. No, that's where that's where you live. The only that Mosher Raenu was in was in Midan. That was after uh that was after Mitim. So it seems that it's a little bit out of order. Uh so has the following uh the following mahalik in answering these questions. He points out he is from from the pusk in parasa describes the aftermath of theel and there's a very very curious in the aftermath of the where hashem says hashem says I'm going to make miracles now the likes of which you have never seen. There are going to be miracles that far surpass anything that Clalis has ever seen. And what is he possibly referring to? This is after Esser Makos. This is after Cassamsuf. What miracles are going to happen after all of the greatest miracles that we celebrate and that we talk about in the night of the the Seder and that we uh that we read about in these these parios, these past few parios that we just read. What what are these what's this great miracle? Hashem promises it's going to be the greatest miracles ever. What exactly is the uh is the miracle that he's referring to and suggested based on what writes in the introduction to his sitter comments how amazing it is that is still around and that we're still vacant by Hashem that we're still connected to the rebon and his Torah. the Torah in its entirety, every nik, every o is fully intact. It's amun that the Torah is the Torah that was given to Mosha. We've managed to maintain it to perfection that we have the same Torah and not just that we have it that it's off in a uh in a museum somewhere that it's in a very wellprotected place like the Constitution or something like that. No, the Torah is something I guess similar to the constitution in a certain sense that thousands of people are studying every single day that that demands the attention of so many people young and old. And that says Ravakden is the greatest miracle in the world. The greatest miracle in the history of mankind is not it's not the makos. It's notigas. The greatest miracle in the history of mankind is the fact that there is a that still exists today and is still and is still connected to the Torah. says, "All of the miracles of Tanakh are dwarfed by this miracle of the continuation of the Jewish people in our connection to Toras Hashem." And that, Rashak says, is the miracle that Hashem promises after all of the miracles were over. He said, "The best is yet to come. There's going to be a greater miracle. It's just going to take a long time for you to see how it plays out over the course of history. And we've seen it time and time again. When we are connected to the Torah, we survive. When we are not connected to the Torah, we do not survive. Kimu is not a metaphor. It is a reality. I was just reading the biography of Khook once had to present in the Knesset about whatever hot button issue there was of the day. So the gdole m asked him to present because his last name is cook. He had a little more street cred. So uh sort of sumak went and he brought a map with him and he showed various communities that had yeshivas in communities that didn't have yeshivas in uh in different places and he showed that survives when there is Torah that is being learned. Clal does not survive. I think so one of them told me I think uh the name maybe Rosenwag that uh that even when there's a a new uh uh uh you know a new a new movement within Yiddishkite that tries to push the boundaries and that tries to stretch where uh where where what a Jew is allowed to believe and what a Jew is allowed to do. They no longer call themselves anything but Orthodox. They have different names for it. This kind of orthodox, that kind of orthodox, that kind. Because once you call yourself something that's not orthodox, you know that you're done. That uh it's it's a way of saying that we're a one generation religion that it's not going to last because we know. So, okay, will they last? Won't they? But we know that without a connection to it's we have no chance and everybody realizes that and based on that says when Israel joins the Jewish people, he does so because he heard about great miracles. He heard about Yamamsu. He heard about the great miracles that happened to the Jewish people. And Moshenu right away grabs him and says, "You think you heard about great miracles? I'm going to show you the greatest miracle that happens to the Jewish people." And right away he's bes he brings him to the B madish. And when Mosha names his children, he recognizes the importance of being a G. Even before he goes to to Midyan, even though he was a prince of Egypt, as the movie title has it, he was born in Mitzim. He was raised in Parro's house. He understood that he was a G. Why is he a G? Because the Jewish people are not natives to whatever country we are born in. We are natives to Torah Hashem. We are natives to the B madish. We are natives to this island that's uh around everything else that's around us. This is our native home. Moshe in fact was a g before he was saved from parro. He lived his entire life as a gitria because a Jew is a piece of hashem. We in our times face a unique challenge historically. Raasha Weiss once pointed out that it's never been as easy to be a as it is today. All thearim that we have available, all the online sharim and the apps and the great Torah teachers that it used to be that you know your local Reb was your Reb and if he was good, he was good and if he wasn't so good, he wasn't so good. Now you have access to the greatest Torah teachers in the world, the most clear, the most brilliant, the most everything. And you can you can access all of them. All of them. It's it's so so easy to access the Torah nowadays. Someone says to me, "Oh, I listen to you. How do you know all those marakos?" The answer is, "I don't know any of them. I have a mifa in front of me. I'm literally reading it out of the uh out of the massa. You just have all of this access to so much. There's so much Torah that we have access to. But it was never harder to want to become than it is nowadays. to actually become once you want it. It's never been easier. What's hard now is to want to become there are so many distractions, so many things that are appealing to us. So many things that distract us from our essential goal. And the avod is to realize that we are natives of this room. We are natives of the bish. We are natives of hashem. Everything else is init. Everything else is something that may have value, but sometimes that value is fleeting and certainly that value is not. You know, one of the things that I was moved by over this past week when the body of the last hostage was recovered and many many people were making the connection that it happened on the week that we read about that Mosherenu took these. You know the gurin sult dafud gimmel gives Mosher Abenu a lot of credit by painting a contrast and it says yeah Mosher Abenu was busy looking for the atmosphere they were busy with money and he was busy with mitzvos and it's an amazing compliment to Mosher Rabenu that that's what he focused on and what that what that compliment is is that everyone sees the value in gold in silver in things in stuff. Mosher Raenu saw eternal value. He was able to realize what is fleeting value and what is eternal value to be able to realize that a Jew has kadusha but he's a dead body but there's going to be a person understands a person understands that there's so much more that there's something that has that it could be you have a kef that people are going to be able to det and then one day there's going to be a this is a this is going to be uh you know the the basis of of kaduca and like it occurred to me that at the uh at at at the beginning of the war uh you know I I I I spoke to a father of a sniper in the IDF and this uh sniper had to go into buildings in Gaza and it happened to be they took over a certain high-end neighborhood in Gaza. So the snipers have to go to the highest place. So they went to like this penthouse apartment and they sort of took over the apartment uh when they were uh when they were there. And he said he opened the drawers in the apartment and there was jewelry and Rolex watches and all sorts of expensive things. And you know what? You know what? You know what happened to all that stuff? To all of that money, to all of those Rolexes. You know where they are? They they they they stayed there. No one was interested in them because they were able to see that's not the value. That's not what we're here for. We're here to retrieve every last Jewish hero because we appreciate what Kaduca is. That's what we came for and that's what we're leaving with. We're not leaving until we get it, but we're not going to be distracted by the narish kite. We're not going to be distracted by the by the gold and the silver. It's an amazing full circle of khali coming around to learn such a uh such a lesson. By us being here, by us dedicating ourselves to our lira in our base med, we are showing that we understand what isu what is of truly val what is of true value to us and where we belong. And by continuing to dedicate ourselves to it, we are in in enacting and enabling the greatest miracle in the history of mankind.