Reliving the Tragedy- Tisha B'Av 2020

this year as a function of Co has been a challenging year for all of us we were supposed to be in Atlanta Georgia at Beth Jacob the Sho of Rabbi Feldman Rabbi Lon Feldman Rabbi tendler Rabbi Fox Brunner but because of the situation where there's quarantine for 14 days the whole crew that would have gone down both in terms of filming preparing it working with that uh because of the quarantine we weren't able to do this and instead what we're doing is we're making this recording we're on the verge right now of the nine days it's going to be shown on above itself we want to thank each and every year there's an amazing couple by the name of Richard and Deborah parkoff and Richard and Deborah not only have supported us at the OU but have supported Jewish causes and our people throughout America and Israel and they've made this broadcast possible each and every year last year we had 39,000 discreet discreet viewers between myself rabie wiin ribs recording on five different continents and that was only possible as a function of the support both the emotional support and financial support of Richard and Deborah and as each and every year Richard and Deborah this is now our 11th year doing this they dedicate this in memory of Richard's parents Abraham Ben yit aain and rul I want to make sure I say the name properly ra bluma Bas yosua so Richard's parents blumas yua and Abraham benain the learning that we do the growth that we experience over the course of the next 11 hours 6 hours will be together and 5 hours together with Rabbi wein rib and that is that it should be a very powerful meaningful experience and that hopefully out of the destruction and Devastation we'll have an opportunity for rebuilding in the context just to frame Tish you know the rambam right and we'll speak about this when we get to a number of the kinos that you and I when we experience a veos so there's a time to cry there's a time to be depressed there's a time though to rebuild and to wean ourselves and take those experiences of hurt of pain of sorrow and turn those into experiences of gratitude use those as experiences where you and I when we look back at our parents at our spouse we take what they stood for and we see ourselves the rest of our lives continuing their legacy it's a very very different modality is we wean ourselves from the Aus and the rambam says it's you and I every one of us were born to die we're not going to live forever that's the nature of The Human Condition that's the nature of the way God created us and the rambam says that someone who gets excessive in their mourning meaning they can't get out of the malays they can't get out of the depression hes the R's not saying the person's a fooles means with the rambam saying in hilos is it's such a person is a person that is not dealing with reality and that their emotions have ultimately controlled their mind and their function and their ability to lead a life ofma but what happens on Tish of is something very different anti you and I we relive the tragedies each and every year antish every one of us is in Shiva that's right even those of you who have parents who've never lost a loved one every one of us is reliving the Shiva and if I could borrow the term from the gar Bros and me the dead is lying before us anti you know what's happening happening we're reliving the funerals we're reliving the tragedies in the Kos whether it's the words of RAB Alazar whether it's the words of yahu who give us the license to engage in kinos through AA at night and through the E nth Pim of YY the of Tish morning he's the first of the Mas ISU the kher the great in the case of ashkenazic Jews the Great ashkenazic panim from Germany and France during medieval periods and then the later Kos of Schwab the bub of a rebi of halam of schl halam who himself was a Survivor we use their words as we literally relive and re-experience the loss Tish and pesak night seder night have something very in common it's not a historical day it's not not at all a historical day it's a day where we relive and re-experience and that's what happens that's why every one of us is in Shiva and Sh that's why every one of us is attending those funerals and reliving the tragedies whether it's kitki whether it's the first crusade of 1096 that in May and June of 1096 tat new went through the German Rin land whether it is the experience and we're going to speak in a brief moment about the attack not just on Jews but on Judaism on the M all of that we relive and re-experience and in modern times the innocent Beautiful People many of them are relatives that were butchered and slaughtered at the hands of Palestinian Terror at the hands of Sunni Islam at the hands of Shia Islam from theah from Palestinian Islamic shihad we're reliving the tragedies now all all of that and we'll speak about that when we get to the 16th Ken all of that is observed on Tab the three weeks lead up theab from the time we start Shiva every Jew is in the period of yudes then starting R we all go into a modality of schim onsh itself we're at the funeral we're reliving and reexperiencing the death and we are in Shiva anti of and that happens to all of us okay that's the experience now where I want to start this year is on the 41st Kina and the 41st K and the reason I'm dealing with that at the beginning is because many years we never get to it because the time flies by and we don't get to it that was written by the famous RoR of Rottenberg the maharam of Rottenberg the last of the B toos the the mentor the leader of all of ashkenas and it was through him and his students that we live till this day now who was the Maham of Rutenberg in the aftermath of 1096 many German Jews who were not slaughtered in the First Crusade Jews living in the Rin land Jews living in southern Germany after what happened to their communities to their families many of the survivors fled and they reestablished themselves in northern France I'll use an analogy after the war after the Shah thearon the Holocaust what happened to European Jews they tried to go back to galitzia to parts of Poland to Lithuania and how many of them were murdered and killed they were the few that remained of European jewelry their whole towns their whole families were wiped out and they were killed and the most famous you're familiar with the famous pgum and Croco the famous pgum and kills k i lce in English it's pronounced Kelsey but I think in Polish it's kils after that they fled they couldn't live in Poland they couldn't live in Lithuania they couldn't live in Ukraine and they fled to the American Zone and from the DP camps where did they go they went to the United States if they could get in to Canada they went to Australia ultimately many of them because the British would not allow them into British Palestine after hakamas sadina after the establishment of the state of Israel these refugees and survivors could start there using that modern analogy that's what happened with German Jews and they settled throughout northern France and understand we're talking post 109 post 1096 in northern France you didn't have like today the modern country of France the South Lang do the French riera the area that we refer to as provance in luk that wasn't part of northern France it was a different country run by different feudal Lords but in northern France under the leadership of rashi's children and grandchildren his daughters and sons-in-law first but primarily his grandchildren the greatest of them his name was Yakov Yakov been mayor we call him rabenu they opened up schools and many of the German refugees Came live there studied in these schools in orans many of you familiar the town New Orleans what's New Orleans as opposed to Old Orleans yeah New Orleans was was settled by the French because it was named after oron in northern France D rashi's great-grandson the nephew of rabam rabak had a Yeshiva and D there were yeshivas of the students of rabu and rabenu in Evo many of the toas that we have on a typical M are the toas from EVO to many towns throughout northern France eventually in Paris there's a Yeshiva the leader of that Yeshiva is RAB Yak of so the maharam is one of the minor Jews still living in Germany but in Germany you don't have the opportunities you have in France so he travels as a very young man as a late adolescent he travels to Vienna and he studies by Rabin who's Rabin we know him as the or zarua the famous or zarua and then from Rabin he travels to Paris and he studies by Rabil of of was one of the good do hador one of the greats of the generation and he R mayor of Rottenberg is a 25-year-old man he was born in 1215 the vak the famous disputation he observes in 1240 and then the aftermath of the disputation he observes in Paris in 1242 and he is the one the witness that tells us that story he observes he Witnesses is what we will describe in 1242 in the plaz de gra now leaz the plaz de gra many of you are familiar with because you've all seen pictures and you all know where notra dam is in Paris just had the fire in notra Dam a year ago the plaz de gra is outside of that we'll come back to that I want to step back so we've got on the one hand the Maham of Rutenberg a student a very significant student of Rabil of at this great institution in France let's step back at Medieval Europe no matter who the feudal Lord was okay no matter who the feudal Lord was the real power was the Christian church it was the extension of the Vatican the Vatican in Rome who was the extension of the Vatican you have the Dominican Friars The Franciscan friars there are Dominican and Franciscan friars throughout Spain throughout France throughout Italy throughout Germany and understand we speak about medieval terminology there's no country of France there's no country of Germany there's no country of Spain today we have Nations at that time you had different feudal Lords running different parts of these areas different territories but it was the power and it was the influence of the friers and the monks that controlled everything so let's let's take a step back they were very threatened by people going to University because in the University who did you study you studied the works of Aristotle you studied the works of Plato in 128 32 years before our story there was a burning in France of the works of Aristotle they took them out outside the university and there was a public burning 1232 8 years before our story 8 years before the story of R and before the story of the maharam re mayor of rotenberg what happened in the southern part of France which again we said is not was not the same country as northern France in the areas of provance there was a passion for the rambam the rambam most of his works not his magnumopus not the mission Torah that was written in Hebrew that was written in Hebrew but everything else was written in judeo Arabic why because the rambam spoke to a population that spoke Arabic and thought in Arabic that's the language of the Jews like in America or in Canada the Jews speak and think in English the people in provant heard of those great mosha B mimon they heard of the rambam and they asked to have his Works translated they had the mishna Torah in Hebrew that they could understand so there were famous two famous span from the same family the ibone family shm ibone and Yehuda ibben tibone they translated The Works into Hebrew so the provin Jews could study his works his commentary on the mishna his morim the great philosophical work and there were great great desire and passion to learn the words of the rambam and in prance itself as well as Northern Spain and understand that Northern Spain is not that far from provance it's just the other side of the Pyrenees Mountains the Jews of Catalonia had this Fascination and this challenge of the words of the Ramba so his biggest so to speak and his biggest Mis now the rambam is no longer alive the rambam died I believe if I'm correct in 124 in the early 13th century but the rambam was able to do to a population now remember Islam at this time we're talking in the 12th century when the rambam was alive Islam is a in many parts of it is very sophisticated you had a barbaric Islam the amalah hoods the amalah hoods drove the Jews who had been living for hundreds of years in Spain they basically said we're going to kill you or you leave the country and that's what drove the rambam and his family and many many families out of andalo out of southern Spain but but the amalah Huds were one group of Muslims there were some very very sophisticated Muslims at that time it was really The Cutting Edge of intellectual thought yet aaro alfarabi and the rambam speaks about the great wisdom of aaro and alfarabi what's the point or we say aois in English what's the point the Jews were questioning how does Jewish philosophy relate remember they're thinking in categories that are platonic or I should say neoplatonic categories they're thinking in categories that are Neo Aristotelian categories so how does Judaism deal with this how does Judaism in in a world of rationality and kma deal with the interphase of science how does science fit into religion what predated the universe if God's not tangible how do we know that he exists how does God interact with the universe if he created the universe all of these kind of questions and many many more and the rambam articulated them but he articulated them in a language we say in Yiddish in a that someone who's coming from a neoplatonic or a Neo Aristotelian framework or frame of reference can relate to Jewish philosop philos ophy the r was not the first to do this you see this already in the you see this in Bak in's work who we'll speak about later when we get to the 19th K but this was very threatening for certain people because they're saying the rambam you know what you're doing you're you're taking a square peg and trying to make it fit into a round hole you're not coming from a Jewish perspective you're coming from a foreign perspective with foreign categories and foreign assumptions and they were very upset not with the most of the rambam not with most of his Mish Torah with what the rambam wrote in the guide to the perplexed in theim and what the ramb wrote in the beginning in t the beginning of the mishna Torah and there were major fights and by the way there were great that that felt the rambam was wrong and challenged the rambam you ever hear of the term the Y RAB mayor abulafia okay rabu Yona of garona right the greatest the great catalonian the author of The sharich chuva the Great mafish and the gamarra and peros they challenged AR rambam and they disagreed with his assumptions the problem is when it gets into the people who might want to make a tumml not not to the people who are looking at it from a conceptual philosophical theological point of view but the troublemakers the people sitting in the back row of shul the people who are out you know what I mean having a shot you know outside of the hallway during the half Torah they the ones who were tumbling and it got ugly and there were fights and there were passions you know they didn't have the WWE and they didn't have UFC in those days so they couldn't take out their aggressions in those directions they had to make mlus with each other and it was ugly and what did some of them do the anti-r bom Camp because you had the most staun Defenders and passionate followers of the rambam and provance and you had the most antagonistic and in I would say anti- Midian anti Midian camp in provance so what did they do they went to the Dominican friars and they said the ramom is anti-christian the ramam is anti- theology well all you have to do is look at the rambam and helim to see he treated Christianity as a VOD Zara he treated trinitarian worship as a VOD Zara wasn't unique in that but that's what they show showed them and they showed them other works of the rambam and other parts of the rambam what did the Dominican Friars do in 1232 they burnt the works of the rambam they destroyed it they burnt the rambam they you understand in 1232 there's no printing press you know how long it takes to write one page of mish Torah one page of the pish mishas and it's all burnt in the fools and the idiots I'm talking about this was the Catalyst for this was Jews this was Jews reaching out to the Dominican Friars what do you think happened you know what happened they weren't going to stop with the works of the ROM they went further and that's the backdrop eight years later you have a King Louis the 9th is the king of France and when I say France again I mean northern France Northeastern and Northwestern France and you have Pope Gregory V 9th as opposed to certain feudal Lords who viewed Pope Gregory V 9th and the church as being nothing more than sticking their claws into our business trying to interfere with the way we run our country taking our wealth that's how they viewed him not Lou the 9th he was a very religious Christian and he revered the pope and he revered his religion and Louis the 9th looking to ingratiate himself with the Pope Louis VI 9th was challenged by the Dominican Friars that they wanted to put what was done with the rambam they want to put the trial and we're going to explain why the tal the talud in the medish why the talud and the medish the tal they wanted to attack it and put it on trial so what do they do there's a terrible terrible person his name is Nichol Donan we don't know what his Hebrew name was Nicholas Donan was a Gish yid he was a Jewish apostate and unlike Pablo Christianity 23 24 years later in Spain Nicholas Donan was no idiot he was no amama aritz Nicholas Donan may not have been a great t k but he knew the data and he knew how to learn and what does Nicholas Donan do he says to the Dominican Friars who push Louis VI 9th who is backed by Pope Gregory VI 9th we need to put this horrific disgusting vile work the talud and the medish I.E the Tor shabal has to be put on trial why does he do that why does he do that background because the Torah Christians have access to now they don't have it in the original very few certain monks know Hebrew but they have the Latin The Vulgate what is the Vulgate it's a translation of the Greek of the septu what's a septu a translation of the Hebrew so they have the Tanakh but the Tanakh is a closed book as all of us know it's only the shorthand notes how do you know what the word toos means you can't even translate toos is toos artuse and oval how do I know it's black and square in four components as opposed to fil and choad which has one one cloth Mala how do I know that Mala is 39 categories of creative activity it's not work prear how am I supposed to know that that's a Citron an esrog it's not a lemon it's not a grapefruit that's all the Torah how do I know that is not high mori's code Tas means a substitute for when you lose that in Translation you have no clue and even if you knew took the literal Hebrew it wouldn't help you you need a tal pet everything is rooted the Theology of judism is the that the Kish is is God shorthand notes that he gave us to the T to Christianity was a closed book The Bible in their mind meaning the was not a closed book because they had the vgate but the tal was a totally closed book and that's why they never could get anywhere with all of the missionizing and all the attempts at conversion they got nowhere so instead of trying to win over the Jews they were going to attack that which threatened them now if it's a closed book to them the only one that can open it up to them is Nicholas Donan what does Nicholas Donan do what does he do he three or four basic attacks first and foremost he says that it's anti- the carpenter of Nazareth there are christological references in the tomwood that are not particularly flattering they speak about Jesus of Nazareth it was a student of RAB Yeshua Ben paraka number two there are tamic references why do we refer to as Mary Magdalene how did she get the name Magdalene Magdalene is from the word what she was Miriam her name was Miriam Madel say are she she was a beautician professionally she was a beautician she didn't just do men's women's hair she did men's hair and unfortunately you know there were records of impropriety with Roman soldiers there was a a type of hair called the blowes that she would do for the Roman soldiers and unfortunately she service them more than just making that hair this is very offensive to Christianity terribly offensive you're talking about our role model what else the Theology of the tal the Theology of what we call ethical monotheism rejects by definition trinitarian worship the Theology of ethical monotheism is a rational system of kma and it rejects many of the principles of Justin Martyr many of the principles of St Augustine so that was the third attack that he had it's heretical it's anti-christian not just in terms of how it portrays the carpenter of Nazareth or Mary Magdalene but how it portrays our theology what it stands for what it teaches in terms of how to relate to God how to relate to Providence how to relate to one's obligation in this earth and the fourth attack it's a stupid work it's a sick work why did he attack the medish and the Talma is stupid sick work very should be obvious to us once I explain it abstract ethereal ideas abstract philosophical IAL ideas are not necessarily easy to teach to everyone someone who's not rooted in what we call has and even someone who has basic philosophical Notions if you project child or primitive childhood or primitive infantile Notions onto God onto reality you got a corrupt religion so what did they do they took abstract the theal ideas and they tried to communicate them teaching them via the form of a mashal what's a mashal masal what is that it's a Concrete tangible analogy the agadas very often are in concrete tangible form so if you take them literally they don't make any sense if you look at a medish or an aad literally it looks foolish it looks stupid so he said what do you expect from these Jews why do these Jews reject Christianity why do they not accept Christianity cuz they believe in nonsense and rubbish yeah if you take this story literally you are a fool to quote RAV benam I use a simple analogy a simple example and this is not a complicated one you're all familiar in pares v it says you know describes ASA and then it uses the term Nowa is the singular sometimes a singular can be referred to the species whether it's sarda means frogs or crocodiles that's a debate amongst the Reon but whatever whatever it is whether it's frogs or crocodiles how do you go fromard to so the med says the following when the Egyptians would hit the frogs or hit the crocodiles then they they split into two and they' hit them again and split into two and it multiplied so what's the idea of the medish it's not that they hit it and then it split that defies the laws of physics we try to limit things that run contrary to God science the idea was this that instead of the Egyptians dealing with the cause of their problem their whole basis of worship that they worshiped the Nile that they worshiped a pharaoh the Primitive corrupt Notions and at how they treated other people the way they treated slaves the way they treated others the way they treated women the way that the primogeniture that that the ones who controlled the firstborn treated the others that whole system that was corrupt ethically and morally the whole system that was corrupt theologically and philosophically so instead of looking themselves in the mirror and being introspective what did they do what did they do they dealt with the symptom not the cause if you and I have a runny nose what are you going to do to smack your nose punch yourself in the nose the runny nose is not the cause of our problems it's a bacterial infection it's a viral infection so you deal with it through an ant antibiotic you you go to you you deal with the root cause not the symptom that medis is saying the Egyptians were insecure were incapable of looking themselves in the mirror and dealing with the cause so what they did was they attacked the symptom which is not going to change anything it's a idea it's a concept not a difficult concept but it's reflected in one sentence through this concrete analogy okay that's just a simple example we could go into to many many more but Nicholas Donan and the Dominican Friars didn't understand the whole methodology what we call the Der the D of the aat and they put it on trial who did they have amongst others as defending the talmud of the Russa the greatest Jew in that part of northern France and this vak this disputation was a foregone conclusion the prosecutor was Nicholas Donan the judge and the jury were the Dominican friars and King Louis I 9th the trial was over before it ever started but it was put on trial and the talmud and all the works of the Tor shabal were condemned to be burnt condemned to be destroyed so for the next 18 months after the trial they go through every town every village where Jews live they go through Jews homes and any manuscript they can find they collect in total 24 huge cartloads wagon loads of manuscripts were brought to the plaz de gra again we said that's outside where notredam is and they were burnt on the 20th of cvon in 1242 it was Paras and one of the eyewitnesses to the vak the disputation and to the burning one of the witnesses was this young budding tomed K who's now 27 years old R mayor of Rothenberg with the destruction and and just to be simp to be concrete about it think about how long it would take to prepare parchment to write one umud of the gamarra with Rashi in the balos was commentary think about how long it would take to produce such a thing do you understand there were towns that maybe had one mea nobody had a full shot do you know what the cost and the value of such a thing was yeshivas would have many meas but not all of them when you destroy it's not like today if today someone went into every Jewish Home and burnt all the Jewish books yes it would be a tragedy it absolutely would be a tragedy but you know what we would do we would rent out printing presses all over the world and we'd start Printing and Publishing new works and we would replenish the Jewish people with our sacred text you can't do that before the printing press you can't do that this was the death of French jewelry the Jews were not expelled in 1242 it's not the funeral French jewelry but when Jews can't teach their children when Jewish men and women can't study when Jews can't grow through our sacred text and you all know Tator ConEd kulum we are a religion of wisdom we're a religion of Education we're a religion of teaching when you can't do that that's the end so the the whole foundations of ashkan of the M of the Bal who had moved 150 years earlier into northern France it's over many of these French Jews go south they cross the Pines into Spain that's why till this day you'll meet many spartic Jews many Spanish Jews and their last name is sarfati how do you have a spartic Jew with the last name Frenchman Sarat means northern France sarfas how do you have it sarfati because these were Jews in the aftermath of 1242 who fled there most of those Jews of the French Jews they go back into the German Rin land they go back into other parts of Southern Germany that's where most of them go they repopulate and replenish the communities throughout Southern Germany okay that is who you're dealing with now that being the case that being the case the leader of them and there was a small minority a small minority that actually went into Italy they they traveled and they settled into Northern Italy areas today like the area of Milan you know they crossed over the pedmont they settled in those areas some of them went into the eastern part of Italy closer to the Adriatic as opposed to closer to the Mediterranean they settled in Lombardi they studied in in in those parts now Verona all the the parts of Northern Italy but most moved back into Germany who was their leader the maharam of ruttenberg the very eyewitness the very talmud of French jewelry becomes the leader of German jewelry and he rebuilds the m and he rebuilds his community many of you know his students three of the greatest of his students were rabenu aser the Mori the morai died a tragic death you know look at the Rama the whole basis of one of the primary basis of our practice is ashkanazi Jews are the opinions of the morai he his wife his children they were all murdered in the Rin FL massacres in 1906 he was killed he was the rabbi of nberg of nberg jewelry there's a famous commentary on the rambam that we have called Theon when you look at the mishna Torah you have the K Mish y you have the mishna the mishna but you have something called myON what's haos myON it was one of the maharam Rutenberg students who whenever the rambam said something he would say but the great ashkenazic Scholars whether it was Rashi whether it was the various bosos of shant SS in French or shant in in Hebrew you know the the re of dampier Rose tuum the great balet toos when they have a comment or something on some whether it was the Maham of Rutenberg his rebi he would he would Mark that and so we have this great ability to see the rambam in contrast to theas these were some of the students amongst many others that he produced you all know the story The maharam was abducted he was abducted and held for ransom by the feudal Lord he the Jewish Community raised a Fortune of money the Jewish community and he absolutely refused that they redeem him because you know what's going to happen you're going to start a trend it's like what Hamas does it's like what theala does they try to kidnap a Jew and then they and then they hijack the whole Jewish Nation you how many tens and tens of Jews have died because of the people we let go in the trade for gilad Shalit I'm not here to give an opinion as to whether it was correct or incorrect but the human life and the Carnage and the damage to Israel and to Jews across the world that have been caused because of the trade for gilad chalit and the maharam of renberg said that absolutely not you're not going to take your money and go back home and he lived the rest of his life incarceration they were so frustrated they didn't let him go they didn't liberate him but they allowed him to have visitors rabo aser writes I had this issue I had this problem and I came to my rebi to the the mayor of rottenburg in the migdal what is in the migdal in the Fortress where he was incarcerated in the Fortress where he was jailed what happened in that place he would discuss that issue and then it was written and we have it for posterity sake he dies in incarceration in 7 years after his death they wouldn't allow the body out one Jew there was a certain Jew who seven years after his incarceration said I'll pay for it it's not the community on one condition I'd like to be buried next to him many of us have been to worms to the cemetery just last week tragically the maharam of ruttenberg his grave was spray painted there was a German who came in there and defiled this Jewish cemetery one of the oldest Jewish cemeteries that we have in the world I believe it's the oldest Jewish cemetery no it's not the oldest Jewish cemetery in Europe but one of them so so we have his grave but he is the last of the balus he rebuilds German jewelry and one of his many legacies that we have is this Kina 41 the 41st K shua and you read it and you want to cry because of time what we're going to be doing is we're not going to be reading we're going to allow people to read it later in the day on their own but this is the attack against the T shabal and what happened in this Infamous incident has been repeated many times those of you who've been to Rome you know under the Pope in 1515 was the burning of the talet I mean we did a segue to her we were deciding where in Rome we wanted to visit and there on the segue tour is a fountain is a plaza and there is the spot where they demarcated where they took all the volumes of the talet and burnt it the same happened in Venice but the difference between the burning of the talet in Roman Venice at least there was a printing press at that time at least it didn't destroy Judaism because they could rebuild and recreate and republish look today is is it any different the vile filth that comes out of the mouth of lwis farahan the things that he says about Judaism you can see how jealous and how small this this sick man is okay there's never any substance to his arguments because he has no substance because he's incapable because he's not learned but he's threatened because he has this terrible gnawing feeling that this is the truth this is the word of God and this is the Bible and what I've done is nothing more than a perversion against it so he can't attack the Bible cuz that undermines him so he attacks the Jews you think it's any different coming out of the imams in Iran the Shia you think it's any different out of what comes out of the mouth of nasala out of how many of these Sunni imams in Israel itself that lead to murders of Jews they get everyone riled up they referred to us as pigs as swine they've referred to us as Devils as as as baby killers and then they try to corrupt the Bible and fit it into the Bible this hasn't stopped and you know how many rivers of Jewish blood throughout history have been a function of this when a community is uprooted you think we're just going to okay let's transplant ourselves to a different geographic location you know how many Jewish lives are ruined when you uproot a community think about what happened the Europeans who had to flee the pgrs okay with blood liables and all kinds of anti-emetic Filth coming out of zaris Russia those Jews that came from the Ukraine and other parts of what was that time zaris Russia they didn't just settle in America and now we'll move forward you know what's lost everything's lost there's no education there's no communal infrastructures it takes 30 40 50 years to rebuild that kind of an infrastructure you can't turn it on and turn it off like a switch that's a consequence of these things not to mention the hate and the murder that's a consequence of the stuff that's the 41st K and throughout our M that attack against the T shabal against the holy medish against Shas bavi has been always the object of their scorn and their wrath we're going to go back to the 16th K and I want to give a little background to the 16th Ken that deals with the initial initial tragedy and that's and I alluded to this in the introduction but let's talk about it now why do you and I observe Tish meaning why did the and it was a nth of I'm not talking about what the Babylonians did I'm talking about what what Titus did and we'll go into who was Titus Titus General Titus who was he we'll go into that but you understand he enters the holy of holies on the afternoon of the 9th of a they start to burn certain areas that can be burnt most you know those massive those massive Stones herodian Stones you're not going to burn them right in in most of the structure of the base of Mikes isn't something can be burnt but that which can be burnt they start they start torching it on the afternoon and the 9th most of the destruction is the next day is a 10th so let me ask you this there's an opinion in the talet says we should be fasting on the 10th of that was the day of the destruction why are we fasting on the ninth this K teaches us why and I'm going to in is an introduction to The Kin I'm going to say it in the name of the R Who without him our Tish wouldn't be a Tish he opened up the words of the kher he opened up to us the themes Tish the words of the Kal the words of the Rish what the r said in the 6 in in his introduction was this you and I mourn not because of the loss of real estate real estate okay we're very sad when when Real Estate is destroyed but that's not a tragedy that we all go into mourning for we mourn for the following reason when he took a woman of ill repute when Titus takes a prostitute goes into The KES kadash as this K refers to it and fornicates with a Zona in The KES kadash that means so to speak I'm using human terms God has abandoned his house that intense providential relationship that we had the perceived presence of God the intense providential relationship we had with the Reon God has it's called cook he has removed his intense providential relationship all tragedy stems from that moment whether it is Islamic Terror today whether it is the Shia regime in Taran today whether it's the Ukrainian KX of 1648 to 1653 whether it was Hitler the SS and the Lithuanian Ukrainian and polish Catholic helpers that they had throughout Europe whether it is what happened by Vincent Ferrer and the Dominican friars and the pums of 1391 that started in sevila and work their way North through Castile all the way into Catalonia all of that can only happen when you don't have the opposite of C Hasina when you when you when you don't have hasra Hasina the perceived presence of God in the world and that's why we mourn that's why and we'll talk about it later today when the survivors of the First Crusade the of Ash said we want to establish a a fast day and a day of mning for this I'm sorry you don't establish AO a designated time which is focused for that no You observe it on Tish what does Tish have to do with the 23rd of ER and rashes and the third ofan what is that have to do with May and June it didn't happen in Tish it happened in y and San no that's the whole point the whole point is all tragedy stems from what all tragedy stems from and that's why we relive it this day to shab and that's why what that's why it's the ninth of a is a tragedy it's not the destruction of a building it's the fact that the ribono would allow Titus to go into the holy of holies and do what he did that's the backdrop now is an introduction the Roman proconsuls and the Roman governors that oversaw Judea and understand in the Roman Empire the most important piece of real estate the most important piece of real estate you can have is Israel why Israel very simply it's the whole Lynch is to quote the Latin phrase via Maris it's the only way you can get from either Europe or Asia to Africa if you're doing business if you're traveling it's the only way you can get from Africa into Europe or into Asia Minor it is the Lynch pin of any great Empire that's why it was so important to the Babylonians that's why it was so important to the Persians that's why it was so important to the GRE the Greeks whether it was the Greco Egyptians or the Greco syrians and that's why was so important to the Romans the Jews by Nature were not looking to revolt but the Roman strangle hold the Roman oppression of the Jews not just economically it was terrible economically in terms of the taxation but the oppression of Our Lives the way they treated us it was untenable and the Jews in the end were forced by Roman oppression they had no choice to try to free themselves of that and a Revolt started the Romans had to import battalions upon battalions of soldiers from throughout the Empire bring them into Judea where does the war start where does it start gamla the Golan Heights many of you been there why is it called gamla it looks like a Camelback you know like you have in in in Phoenix Arizona the Camelback Mountain well gamla is very similar and the Jewish community that lived there they fortified they built a wall around it a retaining wall to protect themselves the Romans sieged gamla and the battle for gamla was in the year 66 66 of the Common Era now as the Romans would take these ladders and try to climb up you know the walls of G of the city the Jews would take boil hot oil and they'd pour hot oil over the the walls they scalded these Roman soldiers and they would fall to their death you know tens and tens of feet off of these ladders and the Romans tried and finally they brought in something these catapult machines what they would do is they would round into like a ball they would round dense dense Stone they carved it should say into a ball and boom boom they would catapult it and they were breaking down the Walls that's how they C broke through the walls of the city by the way yigal yadin the famous archaeological site there after the great miracle of the Six Day War you know you can go there till this day and see what we discovered the Implement that the Romans used to destroy the city now once the Romans are able to break through the siege in gamla they took no prisoners they slaughter everybody word gets out that no one survives gamla the Romans start moving south through the Galilee through the Galo many Galilean towns I'm using an American term put up the white flag not going to fight not going to mess with this uh-uh no way no how others on the other hand put up a flight most famous of them is yudat many of you it's in the lower Galilee you've been to mitz hosay General elazar Stern who's a member of Kessa he was the highest ranking Orthodox General in the IDF in his time he lives in in mitosi so there was no mitos in in the Roman times but there was yudat in one mountain over where you could see yudat very clearly from there is the town of Tori now torei today you when you go to Israel you have to go to Tori incredible archaeological site there you'll see there it's done with the University of Michigan in conjunction with many Israeli universities you can see everything that's where the Sanhedrin was rabi hudi was there for a time that is where you had great shoes great Scholars you also had houses of aod Zora you had marketplaces you can see from the Beautiful Homes beautiful Mosaic floors you can see the the other neighborhood that were not as built up how come we have such great great remains of torei cuz torei saw what I'm going to describe happened in yudat and they let the Romans come right in the Romans didn't destroy seori and that's why after theban after the destruction many Jews came and settled in seori because they never put up a fight and it was never destroyed what happened at yudat the leader of the Galilean revolt his name was Yos bin Mattis yahu aain you and I don't know him as ysf bin Mattis yahu how do we know him as Josephus flavus the famous Josephus so they had a suicide pacta because they knew what happened in gamla they knew what happened in gamla they didn't want to suffer once they break through once they break through what happened they see the they're going to lose they commit suicide I don't know how they committed suicide and by the way we don't support that it's not something that we support there was a mass suicide and the leader of the community Josephus lvus he hands over the community to the Romans and says listen you didn't have to suffer the loss of soldiers in the battle like you did in gamla and other places I've given it over to you and what happens they make him the official chronicler he's is the one that writes the war against the Jews our version of Josephus today is not 100% accurate I mean it's incredible and it's very worthwhile to get a sense of how life was like during the bay sheni a lot of it there's been interpolations the Christians who came much later than Josephus you know they they came and they interpolated earlier history into it but but most of Josephus you can get a good sense of what it is now they take over the Galilee by 68 they have already come to Jerusalem and vpa is the general who's leading the Roman war against the Jews and there's a Siege around yusal it's sieged already in 68 Nero the previous Caesar dies and the Roman senate has a debate as to who who they want to declare as the next Caesar Hail to the Caesar Hail to the Caesar who is going to be the next Caesar in Rome it's going to be who it's going to be it's going to be vaspian there are four candidates they voted on Vespasian let me make the following comment this pan doesn't know that where is he he's in Jerusalem Siege around the city while all this is happening there's a tragedy amongst the Jews you know it from the fifth peric of G peric hakin the story of kamsa barsa you know it from Josephus flavus that there is in Jewish fighting there's sin that's taking place you know the Romans are sieging our city it's like you know we have oh no it's like a sunny day we have no other problems no their focus is on attack attacking each other rather than dealing with Rome most of the Jews didn't want to fight for a very simple reason there's no winners in a fight so if we have to live as Roman vassals it's not a great life but it beats this and there were three wealthy Jews CA Ben saua was rea's father-in-law was one of them they funded they had huge silos and Grainer in yush of wheat so there was enough food to last Al long Siege of fuel stockpiles of wood huge amounts of fuel so the cold winter nights in Jerusalem we can stay warm we've got fuel for the ovens to bake the bread and on top of that they had oil they had storehouses of of oil olive oil to cook with Etc now that being the case all of that being the case the birion the Jewish zealots burn it destroy everything they burn and destroy everything they said you better to live I'm sorry better to die as a free Jew than live as a Roman vassel you got no choice that's very nice that someone else makes the choice for me is to how I'm going to live and die and r y Zak the great RAB y Zak one of the leaders of the generation from the school of Hillel he sees this is this is a collision course is going to destroy we got to save Judaism because at our own hands we've got our own people destroying us this is crazy so what does he do they fake a funeral and somehow they allowed coffins to come out of the city well they catch this funeral possession they catch this group of people taking a coffin and they open it up and they see the guy's not dead it's a fake it's a sham they say this is the pious great RAB y Zaki the Romans what do they know from y Zaki they take him to vpa when they take him to Vespa he says Hail to the Caesar V paati says I could have you killed for talking that way do you understand what that means if word gets back that I didn't kill someone who says Hail to the Caesar that's an act of insurrection apparently they were aware somehow they were aware that there would be a transition there are different people vying for power you know nature of hor is a vacuum is a political term not just a term in physics and that is so so he was very nervous when when he said that in front of a whole group of Roman officers and as this conversation's going on between ran and Ben zakai and vation the contingency arrives from Rome who knows how many weeks or months it had taken them to get there and they say vpa General vpa the Roman senate has voted you to be the next Caesar Hail to the Caesar so he turns toak how did you know are you an oracle are you a witch are you a soothsayer how did you know he says I'm not a prophet as Jews we've lost prophecy many generations ago I'm not a souser it's just basic wisdom we have the verse the attack against Jerusalem the attack against the Jewish people is Never by a fringe CU what we represent is always a threat to the powers of the world we saw this in our history with the Assyrians who controlled they were the dominant power on Earth we saw this in our history with the Babylonians we saw it with the Persians we saw it with the Greeks and it's clear to me that it's a matter of time till Jerusalem falls it's not going to happen at the hands of Madagascar a dear Paul you must be the great leader of of you must be the marome the great leader of Rome so what was the point the point was the following that viation was absolutely in awe of this wise Pious Rabbi he probably had not been used to speaking to people like this who could engage him who are not an awe of him but could educate him he says Rabbi I'll give you three wishes I'll Grant you three requests R Yan Ben zakai asked for three things give me you know where weav is it's on the west coast near the Mediterranean it was nothing at that time he wanted a little town that wouldn't be a threat to the Romans it's not like the big port cities of cesaria quari or we say in English cesaria but quari it was yav yafo was a big Port Town at that time it's not the big Port Towns it's a little nothing today there's an archaeological site and a Ben and Jerry's there you know it's still not a big town yav yav I want to have a think tank there we bring the scholars together we'll study we'll learn that didn't threaten General vation I'll give that to you can you give me gam now it's not clear that he told this patient who gamil was but remember gamel's father reban shim gamil who we'll talk about later was one of the 10 Martyrs he was the N was the head of the Sanhedrin he's not just the n and the head of the Sanhedrin he's the Sian of the Messianic lineage he's a descendant of DAV of the descendant of Hillel so he wants to save that lineage because that's essential to the Jewish people that's the leadership of the Jewish people so he asked for this young man he says I'll give you the young man he says we'll take him in with us in the school that we're studing in the Yeshiva that we're establishing and he asked for medical care for rabit sadok reab s was the maybe not the greatest scholar of the generation he was a great scholar but he was the pious of the generation he was the tadic of the generation and he was suffering terribly terrible intestinal ailments and he asked for the Romans you know for Roman doctors and for medication to help heal rabit sadok because he felt under the SC of rabit sadok the generation was dependent and his prayers and his piety and him being a role model and inspiration to the others none of these things meant anything to Vespa and he was happy to give him by giving him those three phenomena Judaism survived re y Ben zakai was able to save the M skip ahead to the deathbed we're no longer in the the the gamar and gon in the fifth parck of gon we're now inas reab B Zak is on his deathbed and he's crying the students are surrounding him and they're asking him L why are you crying he wasn't a crier we know he wasn't scared of dying that wasn't it they didn't they wanted to know why he was crying and he said to them he he he reinsure them it's not because I'm afraid to die we are all born to die it happens to all of us I'll tell you why I'm crying I don't know the path before me if I could use English terms they're not they're not our terms he doesn't know if he's going to heaven or he's going to hell meaning what what did he mean by that he doesn't know which of two paths he's destined to and he's scared to death he's scared more than death itself of what may be awaiting him eternally cuz look he didn't have time to prepare for this he didn't know such a request he didn't even know he was going to have a meeting you know a lot of times in life the most important decisions you make are thrust upon you you you don't you can't prepare and speak to wise men and have preparation for it he doesn't know you know there's a phrase tasta if you ask for too much you get nothing they say in investing Bulls make money bears make money and pigs get slaughtered right did El Pacino say in Scarface don't be a kazer and that was his perspective you going to ask for yusel this man has spent four years already including two and a half years sieging Jerusalem I'm going to ask for Jerusalem I'm going to get nothing and that's why he asked for what he asked for because he didn't want to be a kazer but re ke than others questioned him and challenged him and he's sitting there crying because maybe he is responsible for the death of hundreds of thousands of Jews forbin bayen cuz maybe had he asked maybe had he asked appropriately for the Bas of mikash maybe the spati would have lifted The Siege now I got to tell tell you I wasn't there and I don't have any more information than you or or anyone else I would have I would not have asked for yal I wouldn't have asked for the B mikash because tasta Kim gets slaughtered on the other hand maybe should have in the Carnage in the destruction and the tragedy they could have been saved by him getting a pledge from this Pati to lift The Siege and not destroy the city and we don't know it's like with many things in life you don't know if you did the right thing and that's the background to the 16th Kenna in the rabbi Sal the page say remember what the oppressor now who is the oppressor when VP goes back to Rome to take upon the position as the Caesar he's not going to let four years of his life go for not what does he do he's not going to let four years of his life go for not you know what he does he's going to take someone he trusts to finish the job and he appoints who Titus he appoints Titus to be the general who's Titus his son and he trusts his son will get the job done and Titus is more vicious than visti and he does finish the job and he finishes it in a terrible horrific way I'm not talking about the job he did I'm talking about the consequences to us the oppressor what he did inside he takes out his sword he enters in Latin it's called the sanctum sanctorum we call it the KES kadash just to give a quick backdrop you and I know on the on the Temple mount the only part of the whole harabas that actually is a building with a roof is the heal and then the heal when you enter that's not true there are other parts that are roofed over but the part that's a building is the is the heal 2third of the heal is known as The KES the sanctum or or The KES what's in The KES the manora what's in The KES the M the incense the golden altar MB right what what else is there the with the upon him then there's a par you have the par the curtain and on the other side of the curtain is The KES kadash is the sanctum sorum in the first Bas of mikdash you had the Aron KES the holy Ark until Yosh who will speak about later in the day until he hides that underneath the base of mkes you have the arodes the last years of of the first B of Mikes the latter years as well as the whole period of bayen the second B of Mikes it's empty there's an Evia the foundation stone and that's all there is there's nothing on the foundation stone because the AR kodesh is hidden in the various Caverns that schom built when he built the foundations of the underneath the mountain to support the the institution that's where it is our inheritance right the the B of is our what did he do he profaned it him he slashed the what did he do he putrified our Waters he's his sword and the swords of the Roman soldiers became intoxicated vishar from the blood of the Jews that were being slaughtered now by the way something that we have to take into account when you enter the old city many of you go through sh yafo some go through S some go through shash how long does it take you to walk to the coari if you're a good walker 12 minutes if you're not such a good walker 20 25 minutes if you get lost let's say you got lost would it take you 40 45 minutes how did it take the Roman soldiers who were in great shape how did it take them three weeks from the 17th of tamas it took till the afternoon of the 9th of a for Titus to enter the har the Temple mount for him to enter the Azara for him to enter The KES for him to enter The KES kadash how did it take him three whole weeks 22 days huh can you explain that to me simple every inch of that old city of yusel I don't mean old like it's old Thea of the every inch of the way the an yusim were battling the Roman soldiers you had rivers of blood Roman blood Jewish blood they were fighting for every square inch they were fighting for every square meter that's how it took them 3 weeks to travel such a short distance because there was war in combat at every point and when he gets there oh oh is he triumphant oh is he proud he out he lifts up his hand he outstretches his arm he says gavar look at the history the Egyptians were defeated they couldn't beat the Jews the Assyrians in the end the Babylonians the Persians the Greeks no no one could defeat the Jews me where do I come I come into the innermost the sanctum sanum The KES you know that his his neck back with arrogance with brazenness a our progenitors who who went not into the holy of holies in the Kesh n the two sons of Aon with their yearning and their desire to worship hasem to come close to God they brought in a Zara it was korus the incense that they were not commanded aot and they were consumed they died as a function of that but the contrast V you know the Roman Legions to keep the soldiers halfy there were troops of prostitutes that were with them that would accompany them to their battles to their War so he brings one of them he is not singed nothing happens to him we view that what the destruction of the B mikdash we view Titus and the Roman Legions we view them as what as God's agents they're not the ones who destroyed it they the fact that God allowed them to destroy it they were fulfilling his his agency it's Hashem who destroyed it with fire now by the way there's a paral there the fact that the Jewish people were not annihilated were not obliterated that the Jews survived and it was the temple that was annihilated and the mikash that was obliterated that's already part of the that's why Tish afternoon we go from this acute morning into a state of schim why is Tish if that's the moment when the they entered the basa mikdash if that's when the basa mikdash itself was defiled should that be the most acute period of morning why is Tish afternoon that's why you put Fillin on Tish afternoon that's that's why we don't sit on the low benches TSH afternoon why is that a less acute form of morning than tab the night before and the morning before because there's a bit of that's why we we only say at the is that we were not annihilated God he cast his anger the and not against us and that's why the 83rd Psalm I'm sorry the 74th Psalm Capal it's not K it's mism why is it a mism the gamar asks it's a tragic Psalm it's a mism more because we survived we shouldn't have but a building was destroyed and clu kot our Spirits our Spirits sunk when the 93 there 93 different clay shes ministering vessels that were used by the kohanim in the mikdash what happened they took them out and you know what happened those of you who've been to Rome the parade all of Rome shut down they were taken out actually out the Jaffa gate sh yafo and then from sh yafo there's a natural crevice there's a natural terrain that that today Highway one was built on that gets you to the Jaffa Port now today the Jaffa Port because of 2,000 years of suot fall you know the contrast between the weather on land and the weather that happened you know over the Mediterranean so a lot of that so it builds up and it's not a very deep Port but 2,000 years ago that was a deep port and you had all these Roman ships and what were they doing they were bringing back the Shu the captives of Jerusalem were being shipped back across the Mediterranean sold on the slave market as well The Spoils of Jerusalem and the greatest of The Spoils of Jerusalem were the clay shares the ministering vessels they shut down Rome for parade like you have in New York when the Yankees win the World Series they shut down Broadway the the city's closed and there's a ticker tape parade this was a ticker tape parade and we have the image of that parade where anyone where on the Arch of Titus now there's a whole debate when they are Marching the manora on the Arch of Titus they're marching that manora what was that manura was that the manura in the kodes we said there's three things in the kodes the golden the incense altar the manora and the the table the upon him for the showbread maybe seems from the rambam that the manura was not something with that's rounded you know it seems like it's you know in a diagonal spiked so it could have been you know in antiquities you didn't have electricity how did they illuminate the area especially people were there at night they had these large Manas not as the manura for the avoda but they had large Manas that illuminated it could be it was one of those Manas the state of Israel chose that manura that's on the Arch of Titus as its symbol is it the real manura or is it one of the manur that was in the base of mikash probably it's not the manura but the point is it was definitely from The Spoils of the basa Mikes and that manora see today you know in I happen to live in tneck New Jersey the gazan family has built didn't open as a function of Co but the American dream or they built the Mall of America in Minneapolis they built you know the Edmonton Mall these are attractions where people come from near and far and Shop in these places in Roman cities you had that in Rome it's known as the cinari it's not like the Shook and Mah Yehuda where everybody gets a little stall these were big stores I mean you had Gucci you know you had Chanel you know these were big big stores in these culinarium and in that cinari and each pillar you know separated the stores that's where they they kept this manura for years you know for years to show of the conquest of Jerusalem people think it's in the Vatican that's questionable that's that's speculation chanar was probably plundered at some point when Rome was plundered we really don't know it's all speculation but it was a big deal because that manur was the symbol of the conquest of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem and the conquest of the holy city of yusal the capital of the Jews and of all places where they going to put it in the cinari in the big mall which is the big attraction for all the people in downtown Rome and by the way and you those of youve been to the Jewish corter you know you see the cardo karium where they had that in Jerusalem such a shopping mall like that anyways and they took those and put them in a ship and ship them across the Mediterranean the next morning there were kohanim who were traveling that wanted to come to the mikdash and they come there you know not aware you know there was no there was no Fox News in those days no CNN in those days not even realizing they come and they see it's all gone they come to the compound of the mikdash and everything's missing if you and I take off our shoes as is the case on tiab what happens the the palm of your foot the soul of your foot it's very sensitive not the heel but the soul and you can feel every Pebble and every little this and every little that when you go to the base of mikas should take off your shoes it's a place of sensitivity you have to be emotionally sensitive spiritually sensitive physically sensitive because there's there's a connection between them the contrast of the Romans coming in with their boots marching and coming in trampling on the ground of the Bas of mikash as opposed to the Jews with the sensitivity when they came to that Holy place you know it's the image we have of the the SS of the Stormtroopers coming into a town whether it was in Poland or the Ukraine Lithuania it's the image we have and that's being described here by the khier of what coming in he dared spray his filth in the holy of holies the young people and that's very often when you're young you're idealistic but sometimes you're naive they assume we can withstand God's not going to let his house be destroyed we can withstand the the Romans the the use bikim they were attacked by 600,000 what a mikim they didn't have 600,000 Roman soldiers that it wasn't but the idea was it's as if so to speak 600,000 is always the term that we associate with the Mah Israel meaning the Jews were being attacked the Romans might have been the vehicle but God was was defeating the Jews but the zakim nasu see the older people knew this is not just a battle this is not just a stage they feared the worst that it's over we're through this is the destruction of yusim the Romans were fulfilling the will of the almighty and it's as if God were Bound in Chains It's describing the almighty is not defending the Jews the Almighty is not actively engaged in stopping the Romans it's as if he were Bound in Chains that's how we perceive it because he's not saying yes to our prayers he's not helping us we didn't realize as was said earlier by the kher it's not that God is bound in Chains the Romans are doing his bidding the only way the Jews can change is by destruction and starting over again that's how how far the corruption has gone that's how far the inter Jewish animosity has gone sh we thought that the the the B once they had been stopped that would be it we'll be in you will'll be in Israel forever no admon the red one came the admon meaning ASV Rome because Rome are as's descendants B they had surrounded the wall byon and now they had done terrible thing to the masses of Jews wrath has fallen think about our history when Yakov Vino was being oppressed and being B manipulated by he he manipulated him for his wife he manipulated him the first 14 years but the last 6 years in order to keep him he said okay I'll give you I'll pay you will get a part of the business aason means 10 * 10 100 times he ripped up the contract and Chang the deal and Chang the conditions on Yakov and every time God protected Yakov every time Hashem looked after him we the Ben the bov the Ben Israel we don't see that protection it's Heaven has abandoned its place on Earth on the Temple Mount they begin to come what Titus did was he took four different generals he took four different generals and he had them each responsible for the destruction of one side now here's the debate we don't understand the Kal is this referring to the four sides of the Temple Mount you know that Herod built the retaining walls we go to the the Western Wall right those the retaining walls of harabas he had four generals try to take them down or is it referring to the heal itself the part that I described as the building that only the kohanim can go into and it was the four sides of the he they were told to take down see that we're not sure what is it being referred to the he or the retaining walls of the Temple Mount alad three sides were destroyed were annihilated were devastated one remained one was AA right the western side we have a COI or according to the other explanation the western side of the he the one that was closest to the holy of holies that God enabled to stand and to be a Remnant for us it was the almighty standing behind our wall that wall to to to show that despite the destruction God was not going to totally abandon the Jewish people or totally abandon the Nala the place that would be our Eternal Heritage our place of our Eternal rendevu with God himself I'm sorry you in your range rage this is a phrase from the end of the fifth paric of now you and I know we know this from yes we know this the rambam's explanation God does not get mad God doesn't get happy sad Mad God doesn't have emotions the the tanak is using human terminology what does it mean when it says that God got Angry God became enraged with the Jewish people what it means is the the Mida the trait of Tolerance and patience waiting for the Jews to transform themselves waiting for the Jews to improve themselves it's over the waiting is over and now there's the employment of midin of objective Justice that's children that had no blemish what was done to them you know in the showah 1 and a half million children one and a half million Jewish children we can't fathom those kind of numbers in a war in an attack the children are always the the ones that suffer the most that are most vulnerable why do the Nations rage and you didn't turn you didn't accept their carbonos so these young people these young adolescents those who survived Jerusalem had a very different fate than those who you know who lived in seori or the places that didn't put up a fight they were taken in Chains and shackles and they were brought where where were they brought out the Jaffa gate they were taken in ships and they were shipped on the Roman slave market now just a little background we know basic economics if you want to determine the price of anything how do you determine the price let's say of an iPhone you look at the demand for an iPhone and you look at the supply of an Ione phone correct and where the demand curve meets the supply curve that point where they intersect that's the price let's say we double or triple or quadruple Apple makes twice or three times as many iPhones as they normally make de demand is the same what's that going to do to the price of an iPhone it's going to go way down because now there's a flood on the market of iPhones and this with the same demand it's going to lower the price that's what happened to the cost of a slave after the conquest of yusal those who were not killed and there were tens of thousands who died in that battle those who were not killed were not allowed to stay and live in Jerusalem they were taken and they were shipped and sold on the Roman slave market but The Adolescents the young men and young Jewish women they would be sold is sex slaves the women literally to serve you know as as is is sex slaves to these Roman Masters and the men is well for homosexual sex slaves to the Roman Masters and these young people had heard of other Jewish cities that had fought and what happened to people their age word got back because remember many of these cities fell in ' 66 and 67 this is the summer of 70 it's 3 years later so what do they do and this K is reflecting a medish and AAR in the fifth par of G in par Hashem they weighed and they discussed the following you and I know the only time we have an obligation to sacrifice our life Al Kem because is is a Torah as a system it's a Torah you should live through the Torah it's a living Torah not it's we we don't we we're not Islam we're not about the next World of course there's a next World we're about perfecting ourselves and transforming this world and making this world a healthier better place so under rare circumstances does a Jew give up their life that's the gamar and and and Sanhedrin thear very rare if someone says you kill another human being you die rather than kill than Comm commit murder who says my blood is rather than than her blood or than his blood aara the basic truth of this universe I'm not willing to deny I'm not willing to trample on the basic cause of our existence Gil oros Shad there are very very few cases does a person have a right not where they're obligated where the maer the license to lose one's life to give up one's life so to speak to commit suicide the license behind it is the is the obligation the is the m does a person ever have a can they give up their life not because they're obligated that's what these young men and young women were discussing amongst themselves can we jump into the Mediterranean and even though some of us might be good swimmers we're not going to survive in the Mediterranean for days there's no life rafts they knew they were going to die going to some will drown immediately some will drown in the course of hours can we give up our life rather than be violated sexually violated either through heterosexual or through homosexual activities and they weighed that is this considered suicide you understand suicide is homicide the P par no the gar Sedin that analyzes suicide there's two types of murder I can murder someone else that's called homicide or I can murder myself that's called suicide you're not allowed to commit murder can I do that can we do that do we have a license to avoid being violated we know from the gamar that Sha he had a license he had a Mater rather than being humiliated and being the mock and the you know the scorn and derision of the pelishtim like what they did to Shimon they would do to the the melik the leader of the Jewish people he fell on his sword and he was he was allowed to are they allowed to and that's what they dealt with first the women jumped over and then the men said if the women will be violated which at least is a mainstream natural way we are going to be violated in a very unnatural way all the more so we have the right to jump over and these young people who were the future of our nation young stars who would have become educated who would have built the Next Generation who would have been the continuity of our Miss they gave their lives they joined together they agreed that this we have a license to do this and rather than lead a life of of abuse and a life of suffering of psychological physical abuse they jumped into the sea as they were dying especially those who could float what did they do they said to H him they said God the the famous Capal the 44th Psalm Hashem we're giving up our lives rather than being defiled we're dying the depth as it consumed them as they were drowning they said God we are not giving up our faith in you we are not giving up our commitment to your standards we're not giving up our commitment to your values and please hashu no one can come to our grave to say Kadesh no one can come to our grave to say but at that time in history bring us back from the dead bring us back from the mitulo from the depths of the sea and what did the Heavenly voice call out please God why do you sleep through this you know why do you Slumber through this how do you allow us to suffer this way we're now going to go to the 11th Kina and that that is the story of yosiah we do this each and every year and the reason why we usually get I should say not if every year but most years is for the following reason what's the story of Yoshi he is the one man that could have prevented theban the one man what do we mean by that you know when we look at the study of the Holocaust of the shaah I'm talking about not just by Jews but by Humanity what are the two things that people will quote to you the Diary of Anne Frank in the history of humanity one of the top three most read books The Diary of Anne Frank and Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List now I have to tell you atto Fran who was a German Jew came with his family trying to save their themselves from the Nazis by settling in Holland and he would not could not have been aware did not realize that the Germans would conquer Holland they would conquer the Netherlands and his ability to escape Nazi Germany would end with the loss of his wife of his daughter but an Frank Anna Frank and Frank is not integral or crucial to us understanding the Holocaust but yet it has had more of an impact than almost anything else why Schindler's List it was a movie it's true that no one can make a movie like Steven Spielberg he is the director of not of our generation of the generations and he took a film crew and he took actors and actresses and they actually went to Poland and they went to Croco and they went to plha but it was a movie how did it have the impact it had because you and I can't 6 million we can't fathom the human mind can't appreciate a number like 6 thou 6 million I apologize can't can't relate to it and it becomes a number but you and I can relate to one person to an individual we can relate to her story his story her struggle what he overcame his tragedy that we can relate to in what RAB Alazar hak does and his basis for doing this was what yahu did with the fourth per of what the KH does and what the medieval ponim do is just that anti a number of the kinos are speaking about individuals because if you can empathize and feel the plight of one individual then you can extend that to two you can extend it to four maybe to 10 maybe to a town maybe to a nation what's yosh's story yosia was coming after over 62 years of terrible leadership his grandfather manasha was the leader of the Jews for 55 years and many of you know manasha was unfortunately from a point of view of ethics and morals a justice system from a point of view of paganism from a point of view of harsh crime Minasha was one of the worst leaders we ever had and the reason why is because he had such an influence and the first 33 years of his 55 years everything went downhill Jews stopped going to yush the whole influence of the kohanim of the Educators waned and even though manasha later in life he himself started to come back but he could not undo the the terrible terrible evil that happened in his first three in in three in three years I'm sorry three decades and three years of of the beginning of his leadership he's followed by his son Amon Amon leads for seven years so that's where I got 62 from 55 and 7even and then he has a child a young child by the name of yoshiyahu so I'll give you an example in America you have amongst religious Christians amongst religious Protestants people will name their child Josiah remember the famous film with Clint Eastwood The Outlaw Josie Wales where does Jos he come from Josiah which is the English for yoshiyahu that's who we're talking about and it's probably with the exception of the purum story it might be the greatest chuva movement we've ever had in our history he inherited a mess he inherited a world of rampant paganism he inherited a world where the the highways to Jus were in disarray so people couldn't even come to the temple he inherited a place place where Jewish Education was not being focused on was not a value or priority and he inherited a world where the court systems didn't really convey you know a a moral ethical system didn't facilitate or create that for the Jewish Nation now they discover his grandfather had eradicated all text at that time there's no such thing as a book at that time it's Scrolls right tanak they had eradicated all Torah volumes all Torah Scrolls but there's one that for some reason through the Hask through Providence there's one that survived there's one that actually made it and when they discover that they show it to him where is it open to it's open to Paras kiso the par we read two weeks before rashash Shana after before the to in kiso there's a description of the reenactment of the mount experience the reenactment of the Covenant that the new generation the generation that enters the land of Israel under yua bin so these are the people who were born free in the desert these are the people who were mentored by mosha but now he mosha dies under yoshua's leadership they come to Shem which is the crossroads of the viam Maris and around Shem are two MA two major mountains haral mount mount aval which as you know is a till this day is a military installation which which the radar on that mountain is is monitoring things as far east as Iraq and mount gim haral and Haring and they engage in a covenant blessed is the person that does the following cursed is a person that violates the following the last of the and isim is Asos the cursed is the person that what's not that does not fulfill or observe or maintain but yakim the he the causitive verb what's yakim does not cause to be maintained does not cause to be fulfilled who's that referring to that's the Mel the role of the king of the executive is to make sure that the will of the Sanhedrin is being employed is being observed is being carried out throughout the length and breadth of the the nation that's the role of the executive branch they're the implementers to make sure that the court systems are fair and just to make sure that there's a highway system that people can come to yusim to fulfill Alias aala three times a year to make sure that we have a system of kohanim who are educating doing adult educating education having schools educating our young so this is referring to the Mel in theim say young man this is you we're speaking to you do you know who you are you're aan of David H King David of scho of King Solomon ofah of King Hezekiah you're a San you're aan of Assa and yapat and look at what they did how they transformed these people how they enabled the nation to live to its potential and you could do all of that and this young young man he literally bucks 62 years of corruption 62 years of an unhealthy dysfunctional society and together with the kohanim he changes the nation incredible story what are some of the things that he does and by the way let me make this comment if you want to read about him and say for and he is the one he's the topic of the haorah of the second day of PES when they describe that there had there had never been a PES like the time of Yos now now that's a very shocking statement what do you mean there never been a PES observed like the time of yoshia what it's saying is this that when David H establishes yush Jerusalem when schlomo builds the base of mikdash so they're coming after Shmo so they're starting at an8 and they're building it to a nine or a 9 and a half so they had life was much greater in their time for the Jews than it was under yoshiyahu but you know m yosiah is he's starting at a one to go from a one to a five is much more challenging and much more significant than going from an 8 to a 9 or from a 9 to a 9 and a half and that's what yoshu did and he eradicated the public idols and he eradicated the the altars we're not going to have these private altars because that's the beginning of the slippery slope that leads to aod Zar that leads to idolatry he did all of this and let's describe some of what's happening so again the 11th Kina page 288 in the the rabbi Sal kinos byos it was y not just the KH he's the first first one that said the K where did he say this the fourth peric of that we'll come back to in in a few minutes a whale a lament that all of the leaders of the nation must was must say his loss it wasn't a private loss it was a national loss he was 8 years old when he started to seek out God when he started you know we call adolescent Rebellion or adolescent independence with him it started young he started to question and challenge the ways of his father the ways of his grandfather and he started to get exposed and reach out to the ways of his great descendants David and Solomon and andat but NE the descendants of who is that MIT is one of the descendants of the most powerful when they pass through encamped against him in all the great actions all the great Deeds that he had done did not come to his benefit we'll come back to and we'll explain all of thator amongst all the leaders of Israel who had stood up to be goder means to set up the fence meaning to make sure that the Jews could function that so to speak the holy flock W was was wouldn't go wild and wouldn't go free and wouldn't get lost amongst all of the great Shepherds and leaders of the Jews no one was like him l comeu no one had ever stood up like him mimos aigor from the time of aigor who's aigor of course aigor was the Hebrew name that his parents gave what we call mosha rabeno we name him mosha or an Arabic Musa why do we call him Moshe because out of our historical gratitude to who to his stepmother the woman that saved his life to the Egyptian royal princess to basar so out of our gratitude to her God Almighty and the Torah calls him Moshe and we call him Moses but his real name was not Moshe his real name was avigdor why is no one as great since the time of avigdor who did Moses start with a nation of illiterate Pagan slaves that's who Moshe started with a nation of illiterate pagan slaves and he built them up and he turned them into a nation of thoughtful educated decent moral human beings passionate Jews who had a real relationship with God with Humanity yoshiyahu was starting at a very low Point mimos VOR but tragically what clung to him the s of the mockers of the scorners of the generation because they were the ones that had the idols behind the door you know the police would come in so to speak the from police would come in and they would look the check the premises to make sure there were no Idols but what they didn't realize is as the door was opened for them the back of the door had the image and when you would close the door you know based upon the part of the paneling in the wood next to the door then you'd have the image you could never know that unless you were unless the door was closed and you were looking at a closed door but that's not what the the police came in or the kohanim came in from the front and we opened the door like this so that was one of the ways that they basically hid from yoshiyahu the idols that they were worshiping I'm going to skip down the Zion that's when they discovered the the Torah it was open to his beautiful complexion became darkened why because of the sin of those who rejected the theology who re rejected observant who rejected you know our value system who wanted something primitive and lenses and ultimately how does that affect yoshiyahu we'll see in as we go on to so this is getting into what happened with the Egyptians in Egypt which has become the great North African Empire the leader of Egypt the name we use is the Pharaoh parro but this particular parro was known as parro noo okay he is going to battle against ushar in the north so you have the great Mesopotamian Empire which takes up parts of turkey and Syria and Iraq this is before bubel this is Usher that's the great Mesopotamian Empire and you that's the northern Empire and you've got the southern Empire which is where the northeastern part of the African continent who's between these two great Empires little Israel yoshiyahu and it's very important to him to maintain neutrality CU what does paron ask him Paro asks him the right of passage the only way you can get as we said before from Africa to Mesopotamia is through Israel so they're going to come up they can't take Highway 60 which is you I as an individual could take that's like the the very that's the passage to the mountains that's how AR ainu came that's how Yakov ainu came when he came from Len when he came from Syria but if you're dealing with a whole Army masses of people masses of horses and chariots you can't make it through that little crevice you can only take the VMAs going up what up the Mediterranean Coast so you come from Egypt through the Gaza Strip through ashalon through ashod through Tel Aviv Natan and where do you cross into Mesopotamia at the megido junction megido why do many of the Evangelical Christians Many religious Christians they use this term Armageddon where does Armageddon come from the word Armageddon comes from the word megiddo because that was always where the battles were why were the battles there that was the junction that was where the crossroads where you'd go from coming east west to going south or or you know you're coming from the south you were going north that's where you go from going north you turn East today there's an archaeological site there at megiddo thousands of stanions of horses they've discovered all the way back to aav maybe even back further to schlom there what were they having Barns and barns stanions and stanions of horses cuz the horse was a tank the horse was the military Implement correct and what did they do with it what they did with it was they used it in battle well if there's going to be a battle it's going to be at Armageddon it's going to be at the megiddo junction and that's where they stored the horses it's what you and I would call where the great armories were where the great garrisons were okay that's where yoshiyahu is waiting for the Egyptians and that's where the battle is going to take place why is he going to fight the Egyptians the Egyptians are not going to war against yoshiyahu they're going to war against usua so why are the Jews getting involved he has no choice he feels because if he allows Egypt to pass through his Nation to pass through his country untouched that passivity is a decl declaration of war it's a declaration that he is an ally of Egypt and he's an enemy of ushu and he feels that Usher is much stronger and that he can't afford that and he says to the Pharaoh paron no not coming through not happening okay yahu yyu at this time is a young Prophet it's the beginning of his Nas during the time of yoshiyahu and Yow comes to him and he says no let them go let them Traverse what's Yoshi's logic Yosh yosh's logic is that we the Jews are on such a level such a madrea that we're we Merit what's the famous verse it comes right out of the that if the Jewish people function in line with our nature play the role in creating the society that we're supposed to create and being a role model engaging the other nations to create a moral ethical world to create philosophically theologically a healthy World a proper world then God will enable us to play our role the economy we won't be caught up with there won't be famine there won't be disease we can put all of our energies into what we're supposed to and not to be sidetracked that's assuming that we live a life in line with our nature that's the story of the to so it described Shalom and then after Shalom it says the sword shall not pass through your land well if you're going to have peace what do you saying that you know Rashi is bothered by that what's the additional phrase a sword won't pass through your land so Rashi says a Shalom even if what even armies passing through your land not to fight you not to combat you but just to get to where they're going because that's a very uncomfortable experience and allowing for such an experience also means that you're declaring sides in battle which is not your battle so he felt they that they were worthy of the sword shall not pass through your land why he eradicated the private altars he eradicated the idols Jews are coming back to yush they're learning there's education what he doesn't realize and that's what yahu is begging him and pleading with him is you know something people might change their actions but a human being is not putty they're not PLO that you can just mold them it's been six Decades of corruption six Decades of philosophical corruption it takes time takes time to educate and transform a new generation it might take two generations people don't turn on a dime that's just not the way people function we saw that with the Jews leaving Egypt we see that in our own lifetime look at the Jews who came out of the Iron Curtain after being exposed to seven decades of Communism seven decades ades of a of a of a world view it wasn't easy it's not like the Iranian Jews who came here as refugees and could function and build Jewish communities it's not like other groups not when they're rooted in in in socialism and in communism to undo that and to change a whole valon Shong a whole world view it doesn't happen overnight takes decades and that's why Yow said to please let them go we're not on the level you think we are not is not everything is so simplistic is what meets the eye so let's keep reading to speak our friends the Egyptians he sent a message listen get out of my way yoshiyahu I have nothing against you I'm not going to fight you or your people but don't get in my way or I'll do to you what my plan is to do to the Assyrians the masses of Jews thousands of Jews were lost in this battle as the Egyptians were on their way to Aram har as they were on their way into Syria into turkey where at the megiddo junction when they they stopped going north and they started going east why this terrible battle took place part of it took place in the land of EP he didn't listen to the Visionary meaning he didn't listen to The Prophet Jeremiah to retreat to retract and what is this caused by the me from the sin behind the closed door the vision of Jeremiah why is he called anot anot today that's the Jewish sub I'm sorry the Jerusalem suburb of french hill that was that's where many the kohanim lived it was in the area of mamin that was anot so the vision of the man from they mocked it they trampled on it tragically the Egyptians the they Advanced and they destroyed us the battle came he was not successful his prayers did not help him what happened and we'll talk about this in a second they took him the C they C captured him they set him up as a bullseye it's target practice and the Egyptian archers before he died they they started shooting arrows into his body you know his his eyes had already closed Arrow after Arrow boom boom boom they started puncturing continuing to puncture his body they trapped him they set him up as a bullseye 300 different arrows were piercing his body now is that literally or is that figuratively Swift ones after the Egyptians you know stopped shooting their arrows into his body they came to him as he was dying you know his eyes are closed he can he can't even talk all that's coming out of him is you know wind he's like it's like a whisper that's coming think about someone who's famished you know at the end of the day on on Tish after talking all day you know you can barely speak with a voice it's you know this is what's coming out so what happened he says the following R just the air from his lips is projecting out of his mouth what is the very last thing he says God was righteous I rebelled against his command meaning what he pushed J meow away you know why are you sticking your nose into politics where it doesn't belong Jeremiah was not interested in politics in no way shape or form was he interested in politics but he was coming as a Nai Hashem as the prophet of God saying God please please God is asking you not to do this and he refused to listen and he refused to listen he says you're not you don't represent God the very last thing he says before he dies is that I was wrong I had no right to Rebel or reject that what I was being told you know it's when you're a king and everyone fawns over you and everybody Praises you it's hard to hear no or it's hard to hear you're mistaken or you're wrong and that's the last thing he says before he does he acknowledges that what we call you can Rejoice is a famous city in Egypt what happened his golden apparently he radiated there was something special about him and it all became sullied and blackened and yahu did not beat his chest and say I told you so and they should have listened to me God forbid what did he do he came and he was the one that gave the hespe the eulogy at yosiah who's funeral What's the phrase unfortunately like aav who also was killed at megiddo he drank the same poison cup when was it as you know every seven years is a shmita year and after the shmita year even though not everyone would always come to jam they're supposed to but not everyone did forus for the alasel you know why because it's the harvest season people are very busy during those times correct they're visy very busy during those times and not everyone always comes then but that year because it's one out of seven years the first year it's the year after the seventh Year makeala everybody comes anim nashim V all they bring the children they all come to the Temple Mount and they build a huge platform they erect a huge platform and the melik gets up there and he reads the key part of saer the the theu the because the people are now going back it's after a year of sabatical many of them are going back to work and It prepares them but what the idea is at least the way the rambam describes it every generation every seven years what does the generation do they recommit themselves CU this is a reenactment of mammad Hari the king up there and the mountain is playing the role of the giving of the Torah and the principles and the values of the Torah and the nation enveloping it little kids it's past their bedtime why did the parents shle them they don't necessarily understand everything that's being said a little kid's not going to know all of what the king is saying but it's experience that kid will always remember that little kid from a fishing Village on on the kerit that little kid from a farm town in a Galilee that little kid from a little village down in the neiv they'll always remember coming that night being with the whole nation more people than they could ever imagine live on this Earth looking around Star Struck with all the Jews together learning together being together one people one nation committed to one Covenant that kid will always remember that scene you know my my great uncle Arthur Hyman was nifter this past week lived after he survived Wester Borg he came in he settled in West Hemstead Long Island was one of the families that started the sh with Rabbi fandel and Rabbi kovski and I remember we came to visit I was I think a six or seven my brother was four or maybe four or five at the time we had never been to New York City we came to stay with them and they took us into Rockefeller Center it was Kaneka and they lit the manora remember AB beam they put him up in a cherry picker he lit the monora I had I didn't know so many human beings were on this Earth we came from a small farm town we knew there were a lot of cattle there were a lot of chickens certain Farmers had Hogs you know that we knew about but we' never seen the biggest scene we'd ever seen is the July 4th parade maybe 150 people out there for a parade when we went into that scene in Manhattan with those massive buildings and all of those people people I didn't know there were that many people on earth I'd never seen so many people that's the image this kid has yosik was going to be the one teaching Torah you know he was going to be teaching the Tor never made it he was killed at war that summer instead of thema coming for hakel to learn from him to reenact the Covenant with him they all came together to mourn him and it says the following we know that the hesped that Jeremiah that Yow gave consisted of the olive base every letter the fourth peric of AA is from alive to T what's the idea being conveyed from Olive to tough the idea is this that the nature of the Devastation is so all encompassing you can't describe it you could go from A to Z from Olive to tough and you can't describe the loss of what this one man was because the movement that he started and the support that he had and him winning over even the cynics it was going to change the Jewish people it could have prevented mikash t it suspended the destruction of the temple for 22 years theban didn't take place for 22 years after the death of yoshiyahu one year for each of the crying in the introspection and the catharsis that the Jewish people went through for each line of that hpit MOS the tragedy of yoshiyahu his tragedy is what that with his loss what one person can do the impact that one person can have and by learning about his life we appreciate not just his loss but then the loss of all of the others because when you can relate to him you can start to relate to others but what one person could have been what one person could have accomplished and it was all lost and the Very cynics you know who who couldn't stand him would curse him behind his back in his lifetime after he was dead K after he was dead they could appreciate him only then could they start to appreciate him and who he was and what he was and what he had done for them but no one expected him to die he was in the prime of his life in the end yaho yakim takes over he was a terrible leader yaho yakim undid all of the good that that Yos had accomplished y yakim I mean there's a medish that says that he tattooed the ineffable name of God on his male on his male organ you know it's you know you don't have to be a Freudian to appreciate you know how he related to religion when he had the Prophet Jeremiah he incarcerated him he was afraid to kill him because he thought that might have too many reverberations but he he arrested him and put him in a in an underground prison and from there yahu dictated the first three chapters of a and he gave it to his student B who takes it to yakim and they start reading it he doesn't want to hear it you know what he does he takes the scroll Mill and he burns it he puts it in a fire and it's just a downhall it's just like a snow noall effect and ultimately the Jewish people are defeated destroyed by the Babylonians and we go into Exile and that's the tragedy of one person every human being is a safer Torah every human being is a world it's Anam Katan but some human beings who live up to their potential they literally can transform our world what one human being can do and that's that tragedy and along those lines we're now going to go to the 21st Kina the 21st Kina is a story of the 10 Martyrs theug malus you know twice a year we study the asug malus in a much more expanded version on Yumer we're talking about their loss and what their loss means to us and our responsibility to to live up to their to be their legacy to be their male makum their successors and to continue their mission and what they lived for what they died for so that's a m that's something we go through on yipper and we we we look at ourselves and we see ourselves as their successors so yum Ker a day of atonement it's a day of forgiveness it's a day of of chuva and transformation Tish the focus is very different we don't read a esar which is a text that we read on Yumer an we read AR The Cedars of Lebanon it's a day of mourning as we said every one of us is reliving these tragedies now you understand that the medish which is the basis of a esar didn't literally happen it's a fictitious medish because the first two of the 10 Martyrs the co re isma and the nussi that we referred to before re shim B gam they were killed at the time of The Siege of Jerusalem by thepa and Titus somewhere in the range of 68 to 70 the others were all killed as an act of defiance against the hadrianic decrees what's the context after theban you still had Jews living in Judea they were starting to rebuild they're starting to repopulate to reestablish a Jewish Community there but the Roman proconsuls became so oppressive the Roman governors just made it almost impossible for us to live as Jews there it was terrible what we were were going through just terrible and what they did was those Roman proc counsels and governors they they basically were forcing us where we had no choice but to revolt a new emperor hadrien andar yish hadrien becomes the new emperor and a contingency of Jews says listen we're you know it's not your interest it's not in the interest of the Roman Empire and hadrien actually backs off and he tells his proconsuls to stop with the oppression and to change and he makes Promises to the Jews but that backfires because those very Governor say listen we're you're living in Rome we have to live amongst these Jews we have to live in this climate who you you you with them or you with us you turning on your own people and he realizes he's going to lose his own people so he retracts everything he promised the Jews and in order to strengthen their power now which has been weakened he gives them even more power and it just becomes so bad it becomes unbearable and there's a Revolt it's called the Barba Revolt we'll speak about it in a few minutes but that Barba Revolt which is so successful at the beginning just to give you a context it took four major battalions which is 54,000 Roman soldiers four major B battalions to defeat the Jews in what we learned before the B mikos the destruction of Jerusalem it started in gamla in ' 66 it ends in Mada in 72 the Barba Revolt required nine Roman battalions they had to bring in the crack unit that was in Great Britain they had to ship them onto Main to the mainland continent they had to travel the European continent go all the way through what is today turkey till they got to Israel it was so much more difficult for them to defeat the Jews under Barba than it was 60 some years earlier because we're talking at the Revolt is in the 130s and keep in mind if you're a Jew living at this time what's your whole context the when the Babylonians destroyed the first Bas of mikdash you know it was 52 years before we had the right to return right that the Persians overthrew the Babylonians they assassinated Batar and they they took over the Civilized world we started returning after 52 years we rebuilt the base of Mikes after 70 the Bas of Mikes was only destroyed Jerusalem was only destroyed for 70 years so their whole historical frame of reference is not ours you and I have been in Exile we've been in refugees for 1950 years they're thinking it's 60 some years it's just it's going to happen in our lifetime it's going to happen in a decade well rebuild Jerusalem and they saw bar was the Messiah and he had the potential to be the Messiah he was a divic descendant if you look at the rim everything was going very well and then what happened success ego went to their head to his head and in the end the Romans defeated Bara but the aftermath of that defeat was a genocide Thea the introductory m to AA say that 800,000 Jews were killed in that genocide it was the worst genocide until the Holocaust how many Jews were on Earth at that time 1.7 1.8 million Jews it took it wiped out most Jews in Israel that's where the T Reb AA died you what thefor say the r and others say asaria the gamarra that describes that they died of asaria asaria means deia they didn't die of deia they were slaughtered those 24,000 who were the balamas were amongst the the hundreds of thousands that were killed by the Romans by the malus and in the aftermath of this Jewish apostates some of them were judeo-christians some of them were Alisha Ben ofuya Jewish apostates come to the Romans and they say to them you think you're going to stop these Jews why do you think God calls them why does God refer to them as a stiff neck people they're not just stiff neck to God they're stiff neck to everybody and they'll be stiff neck to you the only way it's going to work is you got to water down the religion if you water down the religion they'll assimilate look at American Jewelry so what did they do what does that do we're going to stop public Jewish Education no Jewish Education we're going to stop the SM what is SM it's the ordination it's the transmission of the Mas so you'll know who are the real Bonafide leaders who who's for real and who's not to to to turn to for guidance of the Next Generation a whole series of religious decrees that again were catalyzed by apostate Jews going to the Roman authorities these are called the hadrianic decrees the latter eight were killed were murdered by the Romans in defiance of the hadrianic decrees so why they put together with the kohen and why they put together with the nussi the head of the Sanhedrin Reb cuz what it's saying is during this period of time and it goes back to the gar in G the issue that was the Achilles heel of the Jewish nation was sin was inter Jewish animosity it says we wouldn't go one Jew didn't go above and beyond the letter of the law for his fellow Jew we were backstabbing each other we were fighting each other what is to borrow the term to borrow the medric of AA esar it's the Achilles heel historically of the Jewish people it goes back to the Bible the story of the sale of Joseph is all about intra Jewish brother versus brother Jew versus Jew the ramban says the reason that gets more press than any other incident in all of saer Braes is because this is a paradigm this is a paradigm that we have to be very aware of because this is going to be our challenge as a people functioning as a nation functioning as a people functioning as a family and tragically in the period of bayen in the Roman period we didn't do that we were worse why do they get punished not because they personally were guilty of this these were great Pious leaders these were great Scholars but they have to be bear the responsibility they they're the Educators they're the teachers of the generation and they bear the responsibility of the flaws of the generation that's the idea of AA esar and that's the link between the two the co and the Nasi and the others who many of them were never even born they didn't even live in the same time period yes rebi AA was alive he lived to be a very old man he was alive during the period of RAB K re have been bu might have been a little child but the others were not even born then weren't alive during that period but it's one time period why you I just said it's two time periods how can it be one time period because the flaw of those two generations was the same flaw it was the same flaw and that was sin and that's what unites their their Marty deaths now let's go into the details again in in the kin MAV it's page 4 4:15 AR these are the seedar of Lebanon you know we mourn the destruction of the base of mikdash right the seedar of Lebanon were the were the were the building of the mikdash but the real Cedars of Lebanon are the living base of mikash the living Torah that's the scholars that's the pious Scholars ad Torah the masters of the Torah bishar they were the ones that bore The Shield of mishna and gamar meaning what R cook describes why they called Bali tracing the scholars their goal is not to attack you it's not to attack the other to show I know more than you or you're wrong Bal tracing means a shield the idea is to protect the truth to you know if they feel that they have a correct opinion to defend it against the attacks to to to test it to make sure that it's really true mishna is the data of the talad the data of our theology what's gamar that's the analysis that's the application that's the the inductive reasoning that's the categorization it's the it's the application of the data okay GI they doesn't just mean that they were great they had great strength yes they had they had superhuman strength in the sense of their commitment their lack of sleep their their Devotion to their people but here means what what was their strength What's the phrase they were totally in control of their emotions they were totally in control of their instincts they labored in Purity they were sincere and they labored in Purity their blood was spilled like water like nagra Falls it was spilled the nura and we lost that gura he who are they Kos har the holy ones the ones who were executed by the Romans the 10 it's not like regular a where you have to rebuild your life I keep coming back every year and reliving their destruction their downfall I keep coming back every year and crying the tear ducks are like Niagara Falls coming out just even mention what happened to them G um I will cry out to a horrible cry the cry like it's described at morai when he heard the the genocide of his people the most precious of the Jewish people clayes the holy vessels they were our Crown to everything they did that was the most sincere it was driven and motivated by sincere motivations kadash the holy of holy but yet they were slaughtered they were butchered in such a horrific way Yad the first two the co Nasi neither of them wanted to see each other's death each one of them preferred to die first and there was a lottery who's going to be slaughtered by the Roman sword first shim the lottery ended up on r he extended his neck shim there's a med it's a in and you know raim he was like he was he was asking the co why is it that we're being slaughtered like this you know what did we do I understand we're responsible for the generation but in such a horrific vicious way what did we do he says let me ask you something the coin godle says to him everyone used to come to you they used to come to you for charity they used to come to you for help for guidance did it ever happen maybe you were taking a nap because you were exhausted or maybe you were elongated in a meeting and there was a widow out there or an orphan out there and they're sitting there forever waiting and thinking to themselves you know if only I was important he would have taken me but I'm sitting here for hours you didn't do that on purpose it happened you were focused on who you were with but whatever your assistance they they made this person feel so alone did anything like that ever have he says it very well could have yes something like could have happened like that he says look at the PK he says when the Widow and the orphan cries out to God it says that your wives will become widows your childrens will become orphans he says you didn't do it on purpose but if you caused pain anxiety depression hopelessness amongst a widow or an orphan there's a consequence to that God takes into account their pain their tears their sense of hopelessness and helplessness he says you comforted me say thank you for sharing that and his head was literally sliced off was decapitated the co G he cries he's mourning over re shim gal you have to understand he's a CO you know normally they're very very careful I think he was so overcome emotionally even though he was T MCE because they're in the same room but he picked up the decapitated head and he puts it on his lap he says this mind in this tongue that illuminated it was the pure manur illuminated Us in Torah he put his eyes to his eyes PE he put his mouth to his mouth declared this mouth that articulated that communicated ideas in such a beautiful way that educated us that inspired us that guided us like that such a horrific terrible death Co the daughter of the Roman proc counil she was infatuated he was ex he was gorgeous he was stunning as a man a handsome stunning man she says daddy peel off the skin off his face and we'll put it on a bust and I can stare at him and I can get aroused looking at his gorgeous face so how did they kill him initially before executing him they they literally had these sharp razors and they peel all the hair off of all the skin off of his face and set it up on a bust Koro it's a from we say you know what is what do they say get down that we may walk over you Russia haet the Wicked one who was was cutting off his skin when he came to this point in the forehead or he was going to be slaying peeling off the part of where the Fillin would ride sh only then did he cry out he withstood the pain but he cried out knowing he never ever can wear the name of God he can never wear those miniature the with that cry with that scream it's as if the world trembled may his Merit what he meant to us and what he meant to the world may it always remain for the generations call ADM was the voice that was heard from godar andar is not immediately afterwards it's the Next Generation 60 some years later the mid one 30 65 years later he VI Rea they brought Rea who was he he literally would pick up mountains and grind them that's a figurative phrase meaning what he was so insightful he was so analytical he had such a razor sharp mind that what he could do for us to teach us to understand to explain things as bisar masarin they had these iron Combs the iron Combs didn't just comb and cut out the flesh it cut into the bone in this he was an elderly man he was way over a 100 years at this point and every day they would take him out and with these iron Combs just literally take out chunks and chunks of his flesh cut through nerves cut through Senus through tenin till finally expired this of course was in cesaria the and they did it in the Roman Coliseum and they made the people watch this what was the last word on his out of his lips right what does it say afterwards even if God takes your life he was willing to defy the hadrianic decrees you know he was incarcerated and there was another Jew incarcerated not for a capital offense he says listen I understand why I'm here I got to make a living and if that means I got caught stealing something you know that's what it takes to live what are you here for why you couldn't have taught Torah in private you had to be a public educator you had to defy the hadrianic decrees what what what what are you nuts you're looking to be a martyr you're looking to commit Su excuse me you're looking to commit suicide why'd you do that huh why'd you do that I don't get it B says you don't understand and he gave him an analogy remember these are the the the masim that that the that the Dominican Friars attacked us for it's the story of a fox and a fish you understand the fox and the fish the fox says Hey fishy come on out here the traps the traps that the the the people set for you if you come out on dry land you won't get caught in the Trap the fish says you're the fox the one that they call the shrewdest the most subtle of the animals are you kidding me you know when I'm in the water I might get trapped I may get caught by the by the Fisherman's Net I may survive it's a suff come out on dry land I'm dead I'll dry up and wither away and die that's for sure and what's the nimal it's analogous the water to Torah if the Romans try to catch us teaching Tor some of us are going to die some of us may die but at least we have a chance to survive as a people if we shut down and stop teaching and we stop Jewish Education that's the end of Judaism it's the end of the Jewish people will wither up dry away look that's the story of the large majority of American Jewelry today and that's what reaba was saying and you know what happened the Romans assumed if we execute reab AA that'll put fear and trepidation into the hearts and minds of the people nobody will go into Jewish Education no one will do this anymore it backfired Rabbi AA became the flag bearer he became the the so to speak the call aka's death should not be for not don't let rebi AKA Die For Nothing let's continue his legacy and what happened his death ended up is the word I'm looking for um not not perate y to it caused what's the word in English perpet not perpetrate but to perate perpetuate that's the word I'm looking for it was a catalyst that perpetuated Jewish Education that's what it accomplished and and and his death was not for not and it started a revolution and it was a revolution that once the hadrianic decrees two generations later in the time of Marcus aurelus antoninus were revoked Judaism actually survived let's keep reading next was Ben Bava that's rabuda Ben Bava he would sit in Fast and sackcloth over the generation he was an incredible personid means he would always go above and beyond he felt that he's got to give SM because otherwise there'll be no Next Generation who will be the leaders of the Next Generation he took five young men rebi Mayer was the greatest of them rebi mayor is a young is is a late adolescent had gotten SM from Rabbi AKA but the fear was people wouldn't respect it because he was so young so this is a number of years later he's in his 20s so he gives them SM now this was the HR decree not only the Mas the person that gives not only the mus the one that receives SM but the town which the SM is given we will annihilate we will obliterate okay so he took them out into the Galilee not near any Town Into the Hill Country and he gave SM some apostate reached out to the Romans and the Romans found out about it and they started chasing and he tells the boys this is a gamar at the end of the first par of s hedrin he tells these great young men run run they don't want to leave their Mentor they don't want to leave rabi Yehuda Ben Bava he says the whole reason I did this was that their Judaism would survive it can only survive through you you're the leadership of the Next Generation I'm demanding that you leave and they escaped and he was executed by the Romans we have his grave till this day we go to visit his grave there there's an oal that has the gamorra that story but he died by ensuring the Next Generation who is the fifth Reb Kan Bon now you all know him that's the father-in-law of rebbi Mayor the father of brewera you know in in antiquities you didn't go into a city it's not like a modern city they came out all the the people who had stores and goods and outside the gate is where the courts were held that's where the produce was that's where the markets were that's where business was done the villagers from around the people from Far cities would come and that's where they would do business during the day so in the crowds and throngs of people he gathered themos and he taught them now you understand there are no books all you had were torak what did he do Yos thees he would sit and he would teach the safer for Torah IMO the Torah was with him they enveloped him they enveloped him they enveloped him in the saer Torah and then they lit the fires they lit the fires that that would cause a bonfire to him to burn him and the saer Torah together but they were sick and sadistic they wanted him to die a slow death so even though he's wrapped in the sa Torah and bundles of wood but on his chest they take these these Woolen sponges and they soak them in water so he should die a slow painful death Lio so that he shouldn't die quickly what did they do they literally they had these vicious wild dogs and they threw him to the dogs and they the dogs ate him up alive so the voice from Heaven went out there was nothing of the Torah that he didn't observe that he didn't what does the shamra mean doesn't mean that he didn't just keep and observe what it means was every Dimension and aspect of Tor whether it was practical or not practical he understood the system he could explain it in a way that you understood what what this Mitzvah was doing to transform you to perfect you to make you a better human being to make a society a better Society how it related how it perfected you in your relationship with God with others that's that's shm it's not just the the dos and don'ts it was understanding the whole method of every aspect of the system as is what does that mean not every great scholar was a great orator rebitz was the one who would say over the sheer for the great tanay he would take the ideas he himself was a great scholar wasn't on their level but he was a great scholar was one of their top students and he could communicate it to the masses in a way that educated that transformed and inspired the masses the description is when he was teaching if a bird would fly over would get burnt up it's it's a euphemistic phrase to tell you how passionate it was how excited people were how transformed people were what did they do they took his tongue and they cut it out before they killed him because they knew his tongue was the greatest weapon against Roman values and against Roman oppression because he was the great teacher and educator you know the story of rabi Akiva after his 24,000 students who were killed in the genocide post Barba anas or anas that means throughout the length and breadth of the of Israel you know what happened right what happened rid should have just rolled up and died of depression he was an old man but he started all over a new and he took these five young men rebi mayor RAB Shimon as in reab Shimon barai reab Yehuda as in Rab Yehuda barai reab Yosi Yosi Ben khala and RAB Alazar Ben shamua he took the these five young men and Judaism survived through these five men the Mion we have St mish's rebi mayor because everything that rebi AA had learned from rebi elezar who was from the bay shami and rebi yosua who was from the Bas Hillel the whole two schools were unified and synthesized in one M re AA and that we have through rebbi mayor the Tusan the medra that's Ruda the and that's shim shimai the basis of the Z is shimai what about rabar Ben shamua by the way the S is RAB Yosi the whole history of the MOSI what shua he was executed he was killed he was one of the martyrs when did it happen y it's Friday afternoon he was making what did he do it's a Min that we still observe today very old Min before making the BR of Kes we say right that whole paragraph from from par bra so he was saying that and they didn't even let him finish saying the Kish they took out the sword they didn't even allow him to complete it and his as he's saying they kill him like this the this is a p referring to David's wives not only these six but not only these eight that are mentioned here eight of the all 10 are mentioned in esarer here eight are mentioned but like these and like these don't think these were the only ones who were executed by the Romans in defiance of the hadrianic decrees H every type of horrific death you can imagine was employed there were crucifixions there were beheadings there were peeling the skin off the off the flesh there were burn alive you can you cannot imagine what they did and what's happened the Jewish people always equated with the lamb in Tanakh the lamb the the Lions have devoured the lamb the S they they consumed us in a holy place you know what happened the corbon is brought to the B where were we consumed teaching Torah educating the nation that becomes a holy place that becomes a temporary base of mikash that spot where we're teaching the knowledge of God and they were murdered doing thisum the best the most choices pieces of the corbon that that get the T truma that are waved before God taru they've been consumed and devoured by the lion and the wild animals please may it be good in God's eyes please that this should never ever continue we should never ever have this happening again unfortunately you know this was the story when the Germans would come into a given town they would take out the rabbi and murder him in front of the town's people that's what they would do they would take you know they would ask for the leadership of the community community and they would bring them into the synagogue and burn them alive in the synagogue but we plead with God that this should not happen anymore this of course is what happened in Sian rashes Sian in the third of Sian in worms and mines when the balamasa the great students and rabbis and teachers of the yeshivas of the students of rabeno gam and worms and mines is what happened to them am be koslo please strengthen those who are weakened at the knees know you can't stand when you're weakened at the knees you can't stand you don't have any foundation and with losing our Scholars losing our best losing our mentors we don't have that the portion of yov and please save us in our time of crisis please we ask that God should be our leader our Mentor we're a people without a leader when we when we're when we're at the hands of the zarus Russia we're when we're at the hands of the Germans when we're under the control of these oppressors we have no one please put an end to the period of mourning and by the Light the knowledge of God may we be able to rebuild ourselves and move forward next we're going to the 23rd k k and this is what I feel one of the the kinos that is probably speaks to our generation as much as any time in history it's a tragic story but the question that we all ask about this Ken is this is not on the surface is not the most tragic event that ever happened I mean it's the story of survivors the Son and Daughter of RAB ISM Coen gal who we just spoke about in the 21st Ken and what's their story they die of depression no one tortures them to death no one kills them they die of depression why are we sitting anticip yes it's tragic it's the loss of life it's the loss of a future they could have had families they could have built forward but why are we mourning them and that's the question we're going to have to answer after we read the Kenna so let's read it basically it's 439 in the my sin has caused the destruction of the B mik right I will build AIT placei because of our sins we have we've allowed its destruction we have facilitated or caused its destruction my tears I keep I can't get over this I just keep streaming down tears was crying away on this day on this day I will raise up my voice in moaning and crying each and every year we come back each and every year we go back into a veus and back into m a a very very heavy morning I I you can't comfort me on this there's there's no I I I resist stop trying it because I I refuse to be comforted this is worse than any other pain that I've suffered what is that it's my lament over aloh the Son and Daughter of the Koh to even speak about them even mention them Y A Fire Burns in my heart each and every year when we come back and relive this tragedy they were abducted listen the we said it's not likei the anyone who survived Jerusalem they were taken they were shipped out to Jaffa gate put into in the Jaffa Port put into ships and now they're sold on the Roman slave market okay and what happened the two buyers had turned out one lived across the street from each other they're bragging to each other what a deal did I get you because of course it was so cheap to buy slaves I'm sorry the first one says of course is the Bas of mik is also Jerusalem from the captives of Zion you know what I've got a young woman oh we're going to to put her in gorgeous clothing boy will she look good think about how the moon radiates the Sun's light it it just glows you know you have a dark night in that white glowing Moon oh she's so beautiful and she radiates the description of the beautiful children of EO of job and yima this is real this is not just something that we're reading about we're seeing it re who is his neighbor said to him you think you got a great deal you think you got something special you know what I have from the capitals of Jerusalem see on our farm we look at the Cow you want to know about the health of a cow look in her eyes you know oh look at these eyes this is something special you know the Sun at High Noon remember Gary Cooper the Sun at High Noon it just it's blinding it's so it radiates so well you you got you think like the moon at night I got like the Sun at so they say hey I got an idea bone isav game come let's breed them you know like you would do like with a horse or with a cow let's breed them and we'll split up the children so not only will we have slave labor and we'll have the we'll also make more money off of selling the kids their children they'll be like the stars of the heaven him to even have to listen to this you know this is how you talk about an animal you know this cow's got a bad back but she produces a lot of milk so we're going to get her a stud bull that has a good spine now this cow produces a lot of milk milk but not enough you know not enough milk fat the percentage of milk Fat's not enough so you know we're going to get her it's just just even listen to this and even the mention of this I want to rip my clothing ter Korea again there's certain things that are not Mina to go back to the rambam it's sick that these this is how they were treated this is not somebody who's born and who lives 80 90 years you know and they live a full life that this is what was made of them this is what was done to them this is not and this is something you can't get over as the two of them agreed to do this what would they'll do they this is like their their form of pornography they're going to put him in a room and they're going to be outside the room you know looking down at it you know and watching the getting their kicks but in that room they they had no idea that it was brother and sister that were put together they had no idea of that and what happened is each was in their own corner crying until the morning it didn't stop that this was their plight the son of RAB is he says how can a n a of Aaron of Aaron the coin there's about who he can marry who can he have be with in the sister she's she's wailing the descendant of Y the of Y produced the base the know the kohanim and also produced the B was the mother of Aon Miriam and Moshe how is it that this is what's going to be happening you know she would have married who she would have married one of the people that would have been on the Sanhedrin she would have married a great scholar she would have been a mentor to the women of the generation she would have been the sarne of her generation he might he probably most likely would have been the next cooh gal and now there they're they're like animals breeding tools this is the decree this is what God has said and this is what has become of his people that's a key line what Ash Orion plees meaning this is not an individual tragedy this is not just a family tragedy this is not even just a national tragedy this is a cosmic tragedy this is a cosmic tragedy cuz who they could have been who they would have been the impact they would have had on Humanity on the world this is a cosmic tragedy y every year I go back and mourn or Boke when the sun came up and they they recognized each other oh my God it's my brother it's my sister you they didn't know if each other was alive what had become of each other they embraced each other they came together until they died their last breath went out now I think what it's being conveyed with this line is they died of depression we all know many people they give up the desire to keep living they stop eating they stop exercising and they just just want to die and that their body ultimately shuts down they die of a malaise of a depression and that's what happened to each of themos over this in horror Mourns over this I will never ever forget this I will keep crying in my heart a fire of Blaze rages over the Son and Daughter of the co will I deliver such a powerful eulogy answer the question why why is this such a tragedy Is this different that is this different is this worse than the others no maybe they should have had the strength to keep living maybe they should have fought through it all and who knows maybe they would have had a better plight in five or 10 years that question fails to appreciate what it means to go through a tragedy and we're going to answer that question by talking about our world you know we know the stories of the survivors that came here with nothing that had lost most of their family and they started and they married and they had children and they rebuilt themselves and then they built the business and then they built our shs and they invested in our Yeshiva and and and we have monuments and plaques for them and their families at the Holocaust M museum in Washington at yadvashem and we can go to a Sho to a school to institutions and they're a they're just a paradigm they're a model a guide for us of what a human being can suffer and what how they can come back and how they can take the gift of life and rebuild their world and there are many many stories but no matter how many of those stories exist those are all the exceptions to the rule what happened to those who survived the group we call the seventh the eighth the ninth M million they're the ones who were ridden by guilt the rest of their life why me why did I deserve to survive this sibling this spouse was so much more righteous than me of all the people in our town why am I the Survivor and that Survivor guilt haunted them they lost any optimism about life they lost any desire to live to go forward because everything was taken away from them their parents their children their home and they breathed and they lived but they were dead they never survived 1945 physically they survived 1945 not emotionally not spiritually life was one malaise and one depression after another that was their life their marriage they would have never married the person they married in a million years these were Hitler sh they were left they were alone no one else in the world with them and they married somebody who culturally yes they were both Jews but from a different part of Europe different mentality different culturally they're just not meant for each other and then the dysfunction continues in the children that's who you're dealing with that's a tragedy that's their life what about these boys who in 1973 never said goodbye to their mother father there were Sirens going on and they were called out of the synagogue on Yom Kipper the holiest day of the year and what happens they run down to the sin and they're fighting the Egyptians and they're not weaponized they they're not prepared total surprise and they watch everyone around them slaughtered or they're part of Ariel chiron's group that literally saves the nation because they cut off the supply lines to the Egyptians and they go around the Egyptians but you know how many of them died doing that was an incredible military move but you know how many of them were slaughtered doing that and they come back scarred and they come back broken and they come back depressed that's what we're dealing with yes they become fathers yes they become husbands not functional fathers not functional husbands and they breathe and they eat but they the joy of Life the desire to build the optimism they had the idealism they had it's all gone was all lost in that war see boys who come back after having you know nervous breakdowns and they're their their shiv luos a pale skeleton of shadow of themselves you look here in America in United States of America how many boys and girls came back from Iraq and Afghanistan there was a 7-year period where we were having 22 suicides a week 63 attempted suicides 22 suicides a week did they come back from Iraq did they come back from Afghanistan physically do they ever survive that war no see for the 6 million we say kades for the 6 million we say for the 6 million we have memorials we have museums we have tributes what about those who lived who never had the chance to deal with the trauma who never had the chance to get the therapy who never had the chance to have a warm loving community help them rebuild instead they were called cowards because they had the everyone who sat with their righteous indignation had no clue had no understanding what they went through but they sat in judgment they were called soap bars they were called Sheep to the slaughter shame on you you didn't protect your own children shame on you you didn't protect your parents had the people who asked those questions have the people who condemned them been there they would have never asked such a question the question they would ask is how did you survive how were you able to have the strength to wake up and Live Another Day that's the question they should have asked them this is a tragedy and this is the story of the 23rd Kenna this is what we go through and what the 23rd Kenna says is we don't just mourn the kados we mourn the living kadosh we acknowledge we show gratitude to the living kadoshi whether it's those who surviv thearon the Holocaust whether it's these boys who came back from war whether it's the victims of Terror you ever meet some of the victims of Terror the trauma of what they went through what they survived and now they're a skeleton of who they were and all their optimism and all their idealism and all their youth has been taken away that's the story of the son and daughter of RAB isma K we're going to the 19th K we' mentioned before in the context of the ramim that there were three great philosophical works that that really addressed the the Jews who are living in Arabic world in in a Muslim world where was a very sophisticated Muslim world the very first one was aunos fos that's radon the second was renak the kovos the duties of the heart and the kovos he asks a fascinating question he says what's the what we would say in Latin theit what's the foundational principle of Jewish of the Jewish religion and everybody gives answers to that question what's the most important part of Yiddish kite is it that this is the the religion of logic and rationality it's it's a wisdom religion ofma K it's the system rooted in some want to say it's the religion that gave God is the creator of the universe the idea of keeping shabas shabas is the foundation stone of Judaism because it's a testimony to the fact that God is the creator others want to say it's the religion of Charity what what Judaism demands is looking after your fellow human being your fellow human being is not another it's not something which is gracious of you it's not not katas which is Charity to be bestow goodness on someone it's sedc it's not your money it's not your money part of what you acrew is your responsibility to take care of others all different answers and I don't want to go into any of them now because each deserves its own development he disagrees you know what he says he says the foundational principle of Yiddish kite isarov it's gratitude it's profound sense of gratitude whether it's to parents whether it's to teachers whether it's to an employer whether it's to God Almighty whether it's to a neighbor there the the definition of gratitude is not about saying thank you or being grateful it's something that shapes and defines who and what we are and he says a Jewish person by definition is a grateful human being and if if if if they don't if that doesn't Ooze from the pores of their skin they're missing the point of our religion okay now why why did we say that introduction because that is the theme of this Kina it was the lack of gratitude it's the ingratitude that the Jewish people had to God for everything that was done throughout our history it's the 19th Ken it takes the verses from per of Danel to you hasem was what you did for us was such an act of Sedaka throughout our history the signs and the Wonders that you gave to us that enabled us to become who we became but how humiliated see now we're we're expressing our a terrible humiliation at our lack of gratitude how we've we've uphor you we've rejected all the good that you gave us we spit back in your face you extricated us a nation from the midst of a Nation what was mitzraim referred to Egypt Egypt is a poor term because it mitzraim was the northern third of the African continent you're talking about the Nile River Basin you're talking about the Sudan Libya Egypt was a huge area and it was the most powerful area was the dominant nation of civilization it says that it was called the kurab barzel iron furnace no one ever escaped mitz but God extricated a whole nation from the midst of a Nation upon him how humiliated are we what did we do we started acting like the Egyptians whether it was sexual mores whether it's Financial propriety instead of showing gratitude we started aping and acting like who they were you know that phrase you can take the boy out of Brooklyn you can't take Brooklyn out of the boy we were extricated from Egypt unfortunately Egypt was not extricated from us God you yourself you you you through specific Providence redeemed us us upon him how humiliated are we the very very moment which was set up to for once in all liberate us from from mitzraim the yamu the great military Egypt wasn't just a great economy Egypt had the state-of-the-art military why do we make such an issue of the horse in The Chariot because Egypt the horse and Chariot changed all of military Warfare before Egypt's horse and Chariot you know how people fought bows and arrows Spears Shields knives swords what did you do you you you the Egyptians you just changed everything and you use that state-ofthe-art the the you know the ICBM the nuclear weapon you came after us with it and what did God do God for once and for all put an end to them destroyed their military so they would never hunt down the freed slaves they would never bring those slaves back into captivity back into slavery and the part of the miracle was they had metal you know on their armor they should have sunk you know metal sinks in water but they didn't sink part of the miracle was they they ended up washing up on the seashore so that we could see that just like we came out one end we would think they went out another they didn't come out another end they were killed no more the Egyptians will never ever haunt you it's over it's done what did we do at that very yamu we rebelled against God how humiliated are we you the witness people not the way that the Catholic Church calls us the witness people that we have to live to survive to to witness and to acknowledge the wrongs of our ways with the second coming here the witness is in the sense of chabas we testify to God's control over history to God's providential control to God as a Creator as a sustainer of the universe to God's system as a true system we become God's Witnesses upon him but what did we do I'm sorry Elohim what happened the only time in history where it wasn't just an individual it wasn't just a prophet men women children Jew and Gentile the a ofra came from Mesopotamia they came from Philistines they came from mitzraim they came from black Africa Kush there was an a of people that left Egypt with the Jewish people Jew and Gentile alike we converted to Judaism at that moment at Mount Si and we perceived the knowledge of God it wasn't us relying on mosha rabeno it's not because we trusted Moshe we perceive that body of knowledge he spoke directly to us and what happened 40 days later we go and we make a golden calf how how embarrassed how humiliated are we you provided the man the man is something that could taste like whatever you want wanted it to it didn't weigh you down we didn't have to go digging you know through the sand in the desert digging places to excrete because it was absorbed it wasn't the kind of food that that you ended up emitting out the back end it was something that was absorbed into the bloodstream through the digestive process you were never weighed down it was light it tasted like what you wanted it to taste but that's not the way we treated it it wasn't just the Mana it wasn't just a man but there was the traveling water we never lacked for water in a desert there was the an covod we never were burnt up by a hot sun the image you have you know of Clint Eastwood and The Good the Bad and the Ugly out in that desert you know where his whole skin dries up uh-uh we had Ana coved we could function there was enough shade that we could function that it it smoothed so to speak the terrain in front of us but what do we do we spit back in God's face we re Reed all of the gifts we called it we called it the light bread meaning what what kind of sick food is this that you can't even feel full you can't even excrete such food this is crazy we lacked nothing we lack nothing but at every step of the way we rebelled VAV kimar because of the gold you gave us we took it and used it for a calf the the the man that you gave us we rejected it we were we're going to enter the land of Israel and what do we do we Rebel with the marag you gave us I know we were only promised the East Bank of the Jordan River that's what we were promised I apologize the West Bank of the Jordan River from the Jordan to seea you gave us the whole East Bank of the Jordan River seone is the area that's Southern in in in central Jordan OG is the area of the Golan Heights in southern Syria and we didn't lose any soldiers in those battles and how humiliated are we we were so wealthy from those Wars from The Spoils of those Wars God asked the first city in Israel prop ER the first city on the West Bank of the Jordan it's like the truma it's like the BM it's like the kala it's the RIS that we're not going to take for ourselves that there's AUM on that and we didn't even set up a system to prevent aan and others from breaking into it from taking from the spoils from taking from booty which we didn't have the rights to and it's not because he was poor or we were poor shame on us the one place that we that hands were off and we couldn't keep our hands off you gave us throughout that 369e period of Sho of the what did you do we were never unified we didn't function as a unified Nation there was no central government every group did its own thing one its own way and what happened there we suffered at the hands of the midan midianites the midan sent this gon we suffered at the hands of the cananim because we didn't drive them out of Northern Israel and they came back to oppress us you gave us d'vorah we suffered at the hands of the pelishtim from All Along The Mediterranean Coast you gave us Shimon we suffered at the hands of Ammon you gave us you gave us to to confront Moab and the moabites you helped us every step of the every time we got ourselves in trouble every time we had problems you were there and you gave us a vehicle to save us but throughout that time what did we do theu upon him how humiliated are we because we had the the icon the aora of mik that was kept and not by the majority but was not eradicated out and was being utilized and worshiped throughout all of that shame on us you gave us Mish after that was destroyed by the you gave us nove after sh Destro that you gave us gon and then yush a first time and him a second time but through all of that this goes back to the point all of those were destroyed all of those were were were destroyed by our enemies and nevertheless we were not destroyed you enabled us to function as a living Dynamic people you enabled us to survive everything but our humiliation Time After Time we had the opportunity to rebuild ourselves repair ourselves and time after time we failed next again the that the the the was was on theik and we survived but upon him how humiliated are we we should finally get our act together as a nation as a people and finally return to you to come back you've waited for us you've given us the opportunities after the Shah after theban the educational that you've given us you've given us institutions like art scroll you've given us you've given us yeshivas you've given us institutions you've given us freedoms in Israel and the diaspora to rebuild ourselves and we still don't get it now this is the KH speaking you know there's a major debate who was RAB Al there's op an opinion in toos Anda that says that it was RAB alzar Ben hinar many including the RS feel that rabar kher lived much later was not a Tana who RAB Alazar kher he was a contemporary of the gim he lived in Israel we know he lived in isra because there are parts of Israel that only observed one day rash and we've got KH for yipper and for first day rashash there's no puim there's there's none of the puim that we say from the KH for second day rashash okay but there's a couple of sources here what we're going to read the next line in the 19th Kina and if you look at the the the K the covit that he wrote for the amida that is said you know that is that is said during shakas most of us don't say it there's an additional PE that's put into every one of the Bros in Theon for just like there is for puram and he talks about it there also but I want to read this line I'm sorry the 900 years after the happened in the year 70 it's been nine centuries so we're talking sometime in the the early 10th Century he is doesn't mean literally 900 years but in you know in close to 900 years that's when he wrote this in which we have not gotten our act together for us it's 1950 years 2020 is 1950 years since cor been by a sheny and you've waited for us and you've tolerated our our foil our foibles and our failings and we are waiting this is the beginning of the next Kina the 20th K which is also from Daniel please Hashem in Incline your ear please hear our our crying out please hear our our prayers what I'd like to go now is not to the 20th K hopefully we'll get to that later I'd like to go back to the 13th K okay the 13th Ken deals with the following issue how do you understand the word a and we've talked about this almost most years we cover this K because it's it's it's integral to Tish what does a mean what does it mean one possibility is it means why you're questioning God you and I know that the rest of the year the response to tragedy a Jew's response to tragedy is Von when aon's two boys were killed they made mistakes but their attempt to relate to God you know on their own terms by breaking boundaries it was a tragedy it was a real tragedy and Aon doesn't question God doesn't challenge God to to borrow a term from EO you know you and I we barely understand the physical Universe how many of us have an understanding of quantum mechanics of linear algebra and those that do Einstein said we're just starting to scrape the outer surfaces of how the universe works and that's from the greatest physicist in history we're going to sit and be the Arbiters and we're the ones who have knowledge of metaphysics come on our our limited frail intellect is human beings we have a finite intellect and they're bodies of knowledge we don't know both in physics and in metaphysics and instead of being arrogant to acknowledge that we don't know everything and we're not masters of everything we see that now with all of our knowledge of scientific research we have no idea how to deal with this little covid-19 and how it's turned the world upside down so that's the response the rest of the year we don't we'll say Lima for what is now that this tragedy has happened how will I lead the rest of my life what will my perspective be how can I make the world a better place as a consequence of what I've experienced that will ask what the RV says but never why that's every other day of the year 353 other days of the year here but and why do we say at night and why do we say know thean says the of was they would actually read in the morning as well but many and all the as we don't read in the morning we read the eth and Nim of of yahu what is that the r said Sal said it's a Mater it's a license for us to say kinos cuz what right do we as limited finite human beings have the right to question God we have no such right no such ability who gave us the license one day a year yahu that's why kinos have the first Kina is not the first k at night the first K is the first K is not what we start in the morning it's the ha that's the K that's the mat that's one approach others including one of the RV and rarin Cutler's great T Isel CH he said no what is it is a repetitive question it's I'm sorry it's a rhetorical question how could it be not even antish not just every other day of the year a a Jew has no right to sit and question of God has no such right what is a a is a rhetorical question how could it be how could this city that was teaming with people that was streaming with masses of people how can it be that's desolate could that be the third approach to is not that it's why not that it's how could it be but this K says a is is consists of two words AO yes theat is how could it be or why but it's AO where is the co what does the word CO mean Co is a term of Jewish Destiny the word po means here the word sham means there Co is a term of Jewish Destiny