Tisha B'av 2025/5785 - Rabbi Steven Weil

each and every year in memory of the it's actually for the York side of Michael's grandfather David Le and Zell David Bman and I want to thank our good friends Rabbi Bal want to thank Howard Grunb who who enable us to have the the webcast each and every year. The three people we're going to dedicate this to and we've done this in the past. One is a man by the name of Steve Neworth. Steve was incredible human being, incredible Jew, lived in Newell who tragically died, you know, very young of pancreatic cancer. Steve is Shalom Parrots and he really was the the drove the whole concept of all doth. Many of you use you have the app the all doth you have all Mishna all Torah that were spawned from all doth he's the one who who enabled us to be able to produce the rabbi salvich and to his his widow Natalie an incredible woman and to the the four boys we dedicate the learning as well the family that has sponsored this over the of the last two decades. Richard and Deborah Parkov and they lost a daughter two years ago. Samra Samra Papilski lived out in Long Island. Many of the the families from our shore are quite friendly with with her children who left her husband Michael, brother Adam and his family and and four orphans. And we do dedicate this in in memory of Sam. And then the final dedication is in memory of Rose Luben. Rosie Luben was a fascinating young woman. She grew up in Dunwoody, Georgia. Dun Woody is a suburb of Atlanta. And Rose went to school there to Dun Woody High. Very popular. I mean, you you talk about a combination. She was on the men's wrestling team and she was a cheerleader. incredibly popular through the JSU and through her family. She started observing Shabbat. So, she would walk like four or five miles to the wrestling meet on Chabas in high school. And she growing up told all of her friends the following. Look, we'll remain friends, but it's going to be at a long distance because my dream is to move to Israel. And she fulfilled that dream. She was a driven young woman. She became a lone soldier. Not like Dove Tahal, the spokesperson's office or Kishutz, you know, working with the the foreign governments. Uh-uh. She was a fighter. She was a great fighter. She she was a member of what's called the Misharagu, the barter police. They're the ones responsible for keeping Yusha safe, the Iratika, Yehuda and Shamron. And on October 7th on the Black Senator, she was a hero. She and her boyfriend, the reason I know so much about Rose is Rose and my daughter Atara were roommates. They were great friends and the two of them roommed together. They lived on the Gaza Strip in in Kibbutsad. So on October 7th, my daughter was on her base, her air force base. She was, you know, being from Slaritz, it was a time of holiday for Israelis. You know, they're going to take the kid from out of the country who doesn't have family is not going to be with their family for the holiday. So, she was on the base. Just to give you a context on her Air Force base that day, there only were 15% of staff. They were not expecting anything and they let people go to their families. Rosie head off. So she was with her boyfriend at Kibbutsad spending some custodad is maybe a kilometer and a half from the Gaza border. On the Gaza border and you've all heard these names isa kibbuti nakalos. Those communities never stood a chance. In the case of those communities, what's called the Kito Konoot, the security forces couldn't even get to where their guns were locked up and stored. So, one of the members of the security forces, the the Kito Konut from Karazza calls a member from Sad says, "Listen, we're overrun. They're going to come to you next." And Kibbutad at least they were able to get to their guns. So Rosie and her boyfriend, they were members of the Mishaharv and six or seven members of the security forces of Kibutad were able to get to their guns. It was Shabbat, it was Shabas, so the the gates were locked. They had an 11-hour gun battle because keep in mind the fact that they weren't overrun. Those who were coming down from the army, those who were coming down to help went to the it's triage like in an emergency room. who go to the most serious places. And they went to Beir, they went to Karazza, and these eight people, they literally had an 11-hour gun battle. Rosie is stationed at the gate. She is opening, you think about those large gates into the into the community. So, she is opening and closing the gate in the middle of this gun battle with Hamas. 220 of the 4,300 people that were at the Nova Music Festival were able to make it to SAD get into the community and they were saved. I mean, she was a hero. All five feet or 5 foot and a half, you know, not very tall, but a woman of of great, you know, great strength. Well, five weeks later in the Muslim quarter, she was attacked. Unfortunately, she was attacked uh by someone representing Kamas. Now, as the story goes, it's I'm not clear as to whether he had permission, didn't have permission, but one of the other soldiers of the Mishar Hagu, he was off getting a drink, coffee, whatever it may be. and he comes back and you know she had a flat jacket but this guy's trying to stab her to death and he shoots. He misses a terrorist and a bullet pierces her head. And we don't have the exact numbers but in this war somewhere between 25 and 35% of all of our soldiers who have been killed in this war have died of friendly fire. Be it a mortar shell, be it a tank shell, be it bullet from one of their fellows. And in you have to understand from our perspective, they were all killed by kamas. Their deaths, Rosy's deaths and the others are all a function of the attacks of kamas and pij. But that's one of the tragedies of this war. We happen to be friendly with Ros's parents. And you know her father David who's a man of incredible substance, incredible fortitude, you know, he says it's a nightmare and I'm just waiting to wake up from the nightmare and realize that my daughter's alive, but she's not alive. And it's not a nightmare. And it's the brutal reality of our generation. So along with Steve Newworth and Samra Papilski, we want to dedicate our learning to the memory of Rose Luben, an incredible young woman from an wonderful family in Atlanta. We have this year a number of very different, very new um components to the learning. We're going to start in about an hour from now, 45 minutes from now with three or four keynotes that I've looked at the past years. We haven't said for maybe five years. So we'll say those keynotes this year but by way of introduction we want to go into an area that the 41st kina deals with. Most of what we learn and most of what we mourn this day is each and every one of us is in Shiva. Each and every one of us is reexperiencing the tragedies, reexperiencing the atrocities like we do at the seder. When we transition from the analysis of ovi which is an analysis of what happened to our progenitors, we say we our text is lmo psychologically to see ourselves. The ram says laaros. We actually demonstrate it as if it's as if we were leaving Egypt. We relive the Exodus. We reexperience our liberation and emancipation. That's what we're doing right now on Tishabove. We're reliving the tragedies. We're reliving the deaths. We're reexperiencing the state of Aninus, which is that horrific stage between the death and the funeral. and of course the Shiva. So even if a person has all their parents and all their loved ones, we are now in Shiva. In our mourning that takes place today, we don't just mourn the tragedies, the horrific atrocities that befell our people. We also mourn the attack and there's a huge hashem component. There's a huge desecration of God's name in this the attack against Judaism. Something that all of us are experiencing it. It was happening out of some of the darkest places in Sunni Islam. It was happening out of some of the darkest places in Shia Islam. But that has now morphed into Western Europe. It has morphed into the United States, Canada, and Australia where not only is there are there attacks against Jews, but there is an attack against Judaism. This system that God gave us of perfected ethical monotheism, of a perfected moral lifestyle, perfected ethical lifestyle is now being attacked. And that is not something new in Jewish history. We're going to give three examples. The attack against Judaism in Barcelona in the 1260s. The vicious attack by Nicholas Donan against the Torah Sha Balpek, the heart and soul of our theology in the 1240s in Paris and the attack against the Torah Shaba Balpek that took place in Renaissance Italy in the 1550s. So let's start with Barcelona. When you have a situation where forund and I would say that's wrong for probably 170 years there are nine different crusades. What does Christianity what does the papacy have to show after nine crusades? Only one success. It was not a success in Israel because it was an abysmal failure. Whatever was conquered was lost. There are a few remaining fortresses. Many of you have been in Ako, the city of Ako, which is a mixed Jewish Arab city today in Israel. And you've seen this incredible uh crusader fortress. So there were Jews, actually there were Christians and the yeshiva of Pare existed in that crusader fortress. There's a crusader fortress in the Jordan Valley, but all of the Holy Land is under Islamic control. So, what does Christianity have to show? One success in Spanish, it's known as reconist in English, the Christian reconquest of Spain. Because initially when the Moish Muslims cross the Iberian Peninsula, they come from what we call today Morocco. They come from what we call today Algeria. They conquer Andelucia. Then from Andalucia, which is southern Spain, they move north into the areas of Seville called Madrid, Castile, that part of Spain. They go further north from Castile and the Islam controls all of Spain with the exception of Catalonia. Catalonia as you know is northeastern Spain. Today's Barcelona, Jirona, Tortosa that always remained Christian. In 1248, in 1248 is a watershed year where Christianity and the Christian forces conquer back Castile. They don't conquer Andalucia, which is southern Spain, but they conquer most of Spain. That's their one success. That 1248 for us as Jews, you and I would call that the watershed moment. That is the beginning of the end of Christian Spain of the Jewish Sephardic experience. We all know the funeral is 1492, but it starts in 1248. And one of the things that happens post 1248. Keep in mind in Christian Europe, no matter who you are as a political leader, you're under the control of the church. the money that you collect for taxes, chances are 30% of that is going to support the Vatican, to support the Dominican friars, the Franciscan friars, the the monks that represent Christianity in whatever country you live in. The Dominican monks were rapidly anti-Semitic, rapidly anti-Islamic and rapidly anti-semitic. and they were very very passionate. Now, King James of Aragon, he's the the ruler of Catalonia of northeastern Spain, who is a huge admirer of the Ramban, Rabbi Mosha Bakman, the leader of Sephardic jewelry, the greatest scholar. Professionally, he's a doctor. He's incredibly respected. the the the Christian aristocracy uses him as a physician. The king went to him with medical issues for him and his for the king and his family. But as a leader by far, he is the most overwhelming significant figure at that time of Spanish jewelry. He himself was a student of the famous yeshivas in France. He studied there under the Balitos. He's a master of that dialectical method that the tophos use and he brings it to Spain. He is the great revolutionary who brings that whole methodology to Spain. He himself is an incredible makadesh. A a a god-given mind that he used for the benefit of the Jewish people. He's a master of what you and I would refer to as cabala of esoteric knowledge. Unlike what happens later in history, he he says, "Listen, what I'm putting here in my commentary, if this is something you understand, find if not it's a waste of your time. Don't don't bother, you know, just it's for those unique individuals who studying it." And the majority of his commentary on the Kush is either the understanding the text of the Kish or the philosophy behind the Kush. Rabbi Salvichuk used to say, "If you wanted to teach someone Jewish philosophy, study the Kish with the Ramban's commentary." He produces the next generation of leadership of Spanish jewelry, the Rashba, right? Rabbi Schlommo Benader, the Ra, Rabbi Aoni of Barcelona. He's the great defender. He'll defend the Rambam against not because he always agreed with the Rambam but he'll defend the Rambam. He'll defend the riff against the attacks from the Bala Moore and he is the one that the Dominican friars want as a disputant in which they're going to show now this sounds ludicrous to us. They're going to show the truth and the veracity that the carpenter of Nazareth, the Jesus of Nazareth is the true Messiah. Where did they come up with this plan? From an apostate Jew. We say in Yiddish a Gishma deid by the name of we don't know what his Hebrew name was. They called him Frier Paul. Pablo Christristiani. That was his adopted Christian name. a frier Paul or Pablo Christian. Now keep in mind the Torah Shab is a closed book. Christianity has access to the Bible, the Tanakh, primarily through what's known as the Vulgate. It's a translation from the Greek Septuagant into Latin. The Greek Septuagant was a translation from the Tanakh, from the Hebrew Bible. But the Talmud, the medish, the Torish is an entirely closed book. The problem that the Christians have is that the Jews don't take them seriously for one reason. You don't understand the Bible. Explain this word. I'll give you an example. a word that we had that we're going to have in this week's para toafote. What are toafos? What is that? And they look at them. They can't. Is it something which is oval and chartreuse? What is it? It's black, it's square, and it has four components. What we call the til and chro. Without a toe, you can't know that. What does this word mean? preeadar. Is this a grapefruit? Is it an orange? Is it a lemon? How do you know it's a sitra? The word malik that you translate is work. Without the shabal, you don't have a lake to stand upon. You don't have a lake to stand upon. So now to come at the Jews with the Torah Shabbat, I'll give you an an example that relates to the Christians understanding of the work of Isaiah, Yeshaavi. It describes the change in leadership from a very poor a very negative king in Akaz whose leadership was not a great leadership to a child he's going to give birth to that will emerge to be one of the greatest Jewish leaders we ever had Hezekiah and it describes was born from an alma lammed mehe Hey, translate for me the word alma. It means a young woman. Miriam, when she looks after her baby brother Moses, is described as an alma. Miriam was probably 13 years old. She was a young adolescent at that time. When the Bible, the Tanakh got translated into the Septuagant, that word in Isaiah, in Yeshua, Alma in Greek has two meanings. Young woman, young woman, the Greek word also means a virgin. When the Septuagant gets translated into Latin, into the Vulgate, it gets translated as a virgin. It never ever describes a virgin birth in Isaiah. But what happened was the Dominican friars said this is the source for the virgin birth and this is the proof that the carpenter uh carpenter of Nazareth is the Messiah. So the Jews would show them and say it's a mistransation. Nowhere, no how, in no context is the word Alma ever translated as a virgin. Number one. Number two is it's referring to Hezekiah who lived during the bias reisham. We're talking 7800 years before the birth of the carpenter of Nazareth. That's number one. That's number two. Number three is Hezekiah died. We have it recording, you know, his death. Number four is Yahu. No one ever called him the Messiah. Messiah in the sense that every Jewish king who was anointed or inaugurated by Shem and Hamishka, the word Messiah or Messiah comes from the anointing oil. Yeah. But that was true of every king of of inappropriate kings, of appropriate kings. So the Torah Shabbal was always a closed book. What do you do now? We have someone who's going to show from the Torah Shabbal that the carpenter of Nazareth is the true Messiah. Now again, you and I, this sounds absurd because just the opposite comes out of the Medish. Just the opposite comes out of the Gamarra. But why was it not absurd to them? Because it was a closed book and they believed Pablo Christianity. So they forced the Jewish community of Barcelona to sit and go through these debates. They forced them. The Ramban wiped the floor with it. I mean, in the middle of the third disputation, the third round, the Dominican fire shut it down and stopped it. If you'd like to read the Ramban's notes of these disputations, you you can get it in the swarm stores in Hebrew Musk, it's called Kisveha Ramban, the various writings of the Ramban. In English, it's called the the writings of the Ramban. It was actually translated with footnotes by Rabbi Chavevel. Rabbi Chavevel's granddaughter is a member of our shul here at Keter Torah. Rabbi Rabbi Chavevel was a fascinating man. He was the rabbi at the time in Farakaway. Faracco was packed, was very popular from Memorial Day through Labor Day. If Rashana was early that year, maybe even through the holidays the rest of the year he could be a scholar and he was an incredible scholar. The other reason he's famous, how many of you have been to remember Grossinger's alum? He was the Grossinger's Rebby. He was the one who gave the hashkah on gross singingers. So he does a beautiful analysis. In English it was Shiloh publications which no longer exists. In Hebrew it was Msada Cook critical edition of the Ramban of the Ramban's great student Rabenu Bakia who Rabbi Bal for two years did his para Shiran Rabenuay is referred to but he didn't just do the Ramban he did the various writings. So you can get a translation from Rabbi Chavevel of these the Ramban's recorded version of this disputation. This took place in the spring late spring early summer and the Ramban shuis to the community in Barcelona. He reviewed the disputation. He goes through the disputation with them and he shows you know the various points. I'll give one simple example. Pablo Christiani brought up the fact that it says the Messiach was born on tishabove. This is a proof that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah. It proves that the Messiah has already come to this world because you the Jews say the Messiah has not come yet. So the Ramban goes to town. He says, "Number one, you when do you record his birth? You record it as the 25th of December. That's not Tishabove. Tishabove is either late July, early August." Number two. Okay. When was the destruction? When When when was tishab when was the destruction of the temple? The year 70 at the hands of Titus. That's not when you claim that he was born. In fact, you claim that he had died 40 years beforehand. So how can you use this as a proof to the veracity? And then he says, what did the rabbis mean in this medish? And all of you know that when you deal with a medish, it's an idea. It's taking a concept and it's taking an abstract ethereal concept and concretizing it into a tangible mashal into a tangible concrete story. So, so what was being done there? Through the catharsis, meaning through the being broken and having to look at ourselves in the mirror, having to address what brought about our destruction. That chuva, that reflection, that introspection, that catharsis is ultimately what brings about the Messiah. In other words, tishabove is not just quote unquote a consequence or a punishment, but tishabove forces the Jewish people to to reflect to introspect and through that chuva ultimately to transform and perfect ourselves. That's how the Ramban explains it. That's just one simple example. So, so what does he do? He had said to King James of Aragon, I don't want this. I don't want any part of this. King said, I have no choice. There's a an authority higher than me here, and that's the church. And they're insisting upon it. So the Ramban said to King James of Aragon, he made one condition. You have to give me the right of free speech. No handcuffs. You have to give me the right of free speech. What happened? The Dominican friars will never make that mistake again. Because the Ramban didn't just defend Judaism. He went on the attack on the offensive. And as you and I know, we know this from basketball, football, the best defense is a good offense. And that's what he did. And they'll never allow that again. So for instance these forced dis disputations in Tortosa in 1412 and 1413 it was a disaster because they didn't have free speech and because they were limited in how they could defend Judaism. But when the Ramban reviews this with the community in Barcelona, they viewed that they the Dominican friars as an affront, as an attack. And he's essentially he's banned from Spain. Yes. He's now expelled from Spain. The Ramban travels and he's not a young man. I would assume he was in his late 60s, early 70s. He travels from Barcelona, which today is a very short trip on LL in those days. You know, you're talking about traversing the Mediterranean. It's not a simple trip. He comes to Israel. Before he leaves, the king gives him a huge amount of money. He refuses to take it. He says, "I'm not giving it for you. Your people are going to need this in the future." And Ramban takes the gives it to the community. King James of Aragon says he says never has a person argued so valiantly so articulately so aruditely for a wrong cause that's what the king says about the Ramban he goes to Israel as an exile and Israel he describes when he gets to Jerusalem the most holy of all places is the most is the most destroyed and in ruins. He goes to shimm which is housing the cifra of the community of Jerusalem. There's no Jews in Jerusalem. You know why? Because the various battles and fights between the crusaders and the Muslims have destroyed Jerusalem. Many Jews were killed. Most of them fled. He goes to there's two major Jewish communities in in the late 1260s. and he pays to have a million of Jews. He funds them to have 10 families return to Jerusalem, re-establish a Jewish community in our holy city of Jerusalem. And they they establish a shul there. That shul that synagogue existed from the 1260s all the way to 1948 when it was destroyed by the Jordanians in Milash. 19 years later in the miracle of of the six- day war when the Jews come back under Matagur, the 55th brigade of paratroopers liberates the Iratika, the the ancient city of Jerusalem, the Jewish quarter. They can't even find it. It's all rubble because of what the Jordanians did. But they know the following. It was right across from what we call the Hurva, you know, the Hurva synagogue that the Rothschilds paid for. So the remains of the Hurva synagogue that was there. So they assumed, okay, this is the synagogue. We assume it was this spot. What did they do? They cleared out the rubble and they rebuilt the synagogue. They called B Knesset Ramban. So many of us have been there. It's a minion factory. There's like three or four different areas to Davenin. And they established one thing that was very fascinating. Whoever gets the um that's that's the way we're going to d meaning if you're a Jew from Aleppo and you have a certain if you're a Jew from Frankfurt of mine. Okay. So then they'll dive in Nus Frankfurt. If you're a Jew from Galitzia, they'll do the the Nusuk they did in in in Krakow, Poland or in Tarnov. If you're a Hungarian Jew, if you're a Marmarushian Jew, whatever it is, whatever your Nus is, that is what will be the minute. Meaning, this is a sh for Claw Israel. It's not an Ashkanazic shel. It's a Spartic shul. It's not a Persian sh. It's not a Yemenite sh. It's a claw Israel shul. And whoever gets the that's the that's the nusuk and that's the minhagen. And with the exception of those 19 years from 1948 to 1967 that rambanul has been alive and operational. He sent back what he he someone had shared it with him a beautiful beautiful letter and he asked his son to read it. We call it the egera ramban. We don't think it's something that he created. We think it's something that he saw that he felt was very meaningful and he sent it back to Spain to his son and he asked him to read it once. I'm not sure it's once a month or once a week. So we till this day arch made a whole book out of the Ramadan. The second disputation the second in Hebrew it's called a viku was in in in before I go into the second understand one thing the Dominican friars learned from the viku of Pablo Christiani and the Ramban and they never ever make the same mistake twice and their attack against Judaism would no longer be well let's figure out how to prove the veracity of Jesus of Nazareth from the Torabal. They didn't make that mistake. What they did was they just did an attack on Judaism in the future future disputations. And those disputations came out very differently than the disputation of the Ramban. Now let's go to Paris 1240. You have to understand this background before we start in 1240. Ashkenaz defined Judaism. Ashkenaz. Let's let's let's define Ashkanaz. The Jewish communities of the Ryan River bone klens mines worms and the Jewish communities of the mine river Frankfurt Frankfurt a mine wartsburg etc. that area of Germany, let's call it the western, the southern and the western part of Germany, that was Ashkanaz, that Ashkanazic community defined Judaism for the world because from the aftermath of the of the Barakba revolt, the genocide post Barakma and the Hadrianic decrees There was a massive migration of Jews out of northern Israel. That's where the Jews settled after the after that time period out of northern Israel. Over a 70-year period, a massive migration into Bavl and the Jewish communities of the Euphrates and of the Tigress River, that was world Jew. That was the majority of of Jews in the world. We all know the communities of Pompadisa, Narda, Sura, Makuza, Masa, Makasia. After Islam conquers Iraq, Babylonia from the Persians who conquered it from the Iraqis, from the Babylonians, many of the Jews move to Baghdad because Baghdad becomes the major city on the Euphrates. But that was the heart and soul of world Judaism. And as we've discussed before, there were these slow migrations out of Babylonia that were not a function of Islamic anti-semitism, were not a function of pugs. There was a significant migration over a couple hundred years where Jews moved into North Africa. From North Africa, they c they crossed the Iberian Peninsula into Andalucia into southern Spain. and they move, you know, with the Muslims throughout Spain. That's the Sphartic migration. A much smaller migration, we call it the Ashkanazic migration, starts with Jews moving into Bari and Otranto, those southern port cities of Italy, where you can do business to various ports in the Mediterranean, various ports on the Adriatic, the Aian. And what it does is you you bring goods into the European continent and then many Jews start migrating. Remember that there's no country. Italy doesn't exist till 1861, 1862, but I'm using our terms, Italy. They start migrating up the west coast of Italy into Tuskanyany. They cross from Tuskanyany the Piedmont Mountains and they start settling into two places. Sarfas. What's Sarat anybody? France. Now France is not our France of today. Sarat in those days was northeastern France. The area of Paris and its environs. The Champan region. What we call Normandy, northwestern France, that was forest land. That that that was not inhabited at that time. in the southern part of France. You know, those of you who go on vacation to the French Riviera, you go to Monaco, you go to Khan, or they call what they call can in France, um you go to Nice, you go to Taloo. That that French Riviera, that's not France. That's Long Duck. That's you know what else is it referred to? Provence. Long Duck and Provence are a different country. France Saras which is influenced and which has a huge connection to Ashkanaz to southwestern Germany is northeastern France. Just to understand the geography, the misora, the heart of Yiddishkite transfers slowly but surely from Bavl from the yeshivas of Surum and Pmpadisa which now are actually not in Sura, not in Pompadisa. They're no longer in Balad and Fallujah. They've moved to to Baghdad because that's where most of the action is, that's where most of the trade is. That's where the the big Jewish community is. It migrates from there into the German Rhineland into the city of mines on the Rine River. Who is the one that defines Judaism? Rabenu Geram and his students. He's called Rabenu Gerisham or Hagola. The one who enlightens the diaspora. and his students after he dies continue in mines. He has students that continue in worms. Their influence spreads to northern France. Their influence spreads throughout Germany. Again, it's not called Germany at this time. It's known as the Holy Roman Empire. It spreads into what we would call today's Austria. It spreads into what we would call today's Bohemia, Moravia. It spreads even into Spain and it spreads back to Babylonia. And those schools and those students that exist there, they are the heart and soul of Judaism because of the events of 1096. Everything changes. What happened in 1096? You have this famous French theologian, Christian theologian by the name of Godfrey of Bologon. He says, "How can we Christian Europeans, how in the world can we tolerate the fact that our holy land, the land of our Lord and Savior, is under the control of infidel Muslims?" And he says, the crusade. Let's move. Let's let's liberate that land. Let's take back that land. That should be Christian land. Because as you know, in the late 7th century, Islam spread into what we call today Israel. And they conquered Israel from the Byzantine Christians. And from that time on, Israel was under Islamic control. So he doesn't get a great response and he realizes who the heck is going to travel halfway across the world and risk their life. He changes the strategy does the following. Anyone who participates inqua first of all use a Yiddish term. We'll get a gag. they're going to get a penthouse in the world to come. Now, keep in mind in medieval Europe, if the average life expectancy was 32 years old, heaven and hell meant a lot to them. It's not like today, you know, where Alpagino had a kid at 82 years old. You know, with Viagra and Botox and plastic surgery, you can actually think that you're 30 years old when you're 90, right? It it didn't work that way in medieval Europe. when you when the average life expectancy is 32 years old, you know, it's all about the next world. And not only that, he said the following. He said that we are going to to the captives belong the spoils if I could use an English term meaning that you the crusader if you capture a woman you capture gold you capture this you capture silver you capture whatever asset that's a different proposition now they opened up the prisons can you imagine here you are rotting in a prison and now you have a chance to get rich and on top of that to get the highest level of the next world. All the people who are ADHD, you better believe they were excited about this. You had peasants in medieval Europe. There's no such thing as moving up and down the the the socioeconomic ladder. If you were born a peasant, you were going to die a peasant. Your kid was going to be born a peasant and die a peasant. This is an opportunity to become wealthy and there was a great movement of foot. The French Jews were very scared because they saw what was going on here and there were fast days. The German Jews of the German Rhineland end up raising money, sending money to the Jewish communities of Tsaras of northeastern France so that if they need to bribe the mayor, the Burgermeister to lock down the city when the crusaders are going through it, they at least have the funds to do that. It was very uncomfortable, but French jewelry survived the first crusade. There were not a lot of killings, not a lot of There was uncomfortable times. There was ransacking, but it wasn't terrible. What no one ever expected was what happened in the German rhinland. Unlike unlike France where it was under the control of the church, it was under the control of Godfrey of Bullon. So there were boundaries. The people's crusade was grassroots. It wasn't grasshops. It was grassroots. And when something is grassroots, I mean, think about what happened in LA with the Rodney King riots. Okay? These things have a life of their own. Think about the Arab Spring. There was a man, Count Amiko, E M I C H O. This is a guy who owed a fortune of money to the Jews because this was true in Christian Europe. You need the Jews were a necessity. They were your banking system because no Christian, no self-respecting Christian could lend money to a fellow Christian. So the Jews had incredible, you know, they were creditors of this man Count Miko. They were increditors of others. Well, if we murder our creditors, that takes a huge financial responsibility off of our chest. Imagine you owe somebody $2 million and now you're freed of that debt. And if you feel a little guilty about killing the Jew who you owe the money to, that's okay. There are thugs. And all in the name of of liberation and all in the name of liberating the holy sites and all in the name of the father, son, and the holy ghost, it's a mitzvah to kill the Jew. Now, keep in mind, in the eyes of many Christians, a Jew is a much worse infidel than a Muslim. They've never met a Muslim. They don't know what Muslims are. They've been taught that Jews have murdered their Lord and Savior, the worst crime in the history of the world. These Jews, they don't worship like us. These Jews were in debt to them. So, you can imagine what happened in May and June of 1096. It was a slaughter. It was a blood bath. All the great scholars who lived in Ashkanaz almost all of them were killed. Who's the survivor? Rashi. Because Rashi with his students lives back in France after 17 years studying in minds and worms. He went back and became the the leader of the Champan region. Was the rabbi of the community of Tua. But it wasn't just Tua. I mean, he was the the major influence in northern France. And what do you have? A migration. Think about after World War II. Think about the Jews. How many Jews could go back to Krakco where there was a pagrum, Kils, where there's a pagrum. Anywhere else? You all know the story of Yafa Elak, right? How how many Jews went back to Lithuania and survived? So where do all the survivors go? Like the survivors of the show come to the United States, come to Israel, come to Canada. The survivors of the first crusade in in the German rhinland, come and settle in France. France is now the heart of Ashkanaz. And what happens in France, there's this incredible revival of Yiddishkite because Rashi's grandchildren, Rashi is an older man at this time. He dies shortly after the first crusade. But his grandchildren, Rabenu Tam, Rabbi Yakov in Ramu, his brother, the Rashbam, Rabbi Shmu, Shul Benor, there his greatest student, Rabbenu Tom's greatest student is the Rabbi Yitzak, that's Rashi's greatgrandson, Rabenu Tom's nephew, who studies in Ramu and then opens up a school, a yeshiva in Dampier. And he's got these incredible students. They open up a school in Corben Perets. We'll talk about in a second. Rabbi Yil and Rabbi Yehuda who opened up yeshiva in Pari in Paris. A school is opened in Evo. A school is opened in Tuk in Ruan. Now, keep an eye. Where's Ron? As you're following the Sen River, right? Paris is to the east and you're following the Sen River to the west. The Christians in France are starting to expand into what we call Normandy. So now it's not just northeastern France, it's northwestern France. And as the Christians expand, the Jews follow them. Again, the Jews play the role because they have a whole network of other Jews. So they can bring in goods. the jewels play the role the banking system and with the expansion of into Normandy they'll be able to what to do business with what we call England so there's a whole expansion and it's a time of great flourishing for the Jewish people and the Jewish world Judaism is being recreated Judaism is being reestablished in France in the various yeshivas of the balitos. What's happening and it's something that evolves over time and Rabbi Dr. Kim Salvich writes about this. What's happening is the following that the anti-semitism the Christian anti-semitism of Europe is going from what he calls what's called a rational what's a rational anti-semitism. I hate a Jew because you reject the carpenter of Nazareth as the true Messiah. You reject our Lord and Savior. your people were guilty. Again, there's four accounts of the crucifixion in the Gospels and they all contradict each other. Two accounts, it's strictly the Romans. One account, it's the Romans, you know, with the Jewish support. One account in John, it's the Jews who are the primary drivers of the of the crucifixion. So, there's four accounts. One of them primarily blames the Jews. The other three do not. But that's the account that becomes famous in Christian Europe. And that you understand that's a religious rational anti-semitism. Doesn't make it right, but you can understand it. In the 13th century, in the late already the late 12th, but in the 13th century, now you're starting to see an evolution. We're going to call it an irrational, a sick anti-semitism. What do we mean by that? What does Dr. Salvichek mean by that? Jews are devils. Jews are cursed. Jews poison our source of life. Jews cast spells against us. Jews are not human. Jews are otherworldly. and all kinds of conspiracy theories about a Jew being a devil, a witch, Jewish curses. This kind of anti-semitism evolves and it's very ugly and it's not something you can even respond to because it's not rooted in rationality. A lot of what we're seeing today in the world about what the claims are of Israel, what the claims are against the IDF, what the claims are against the government of Israel. It has no basis in reality. It's like the Gaza I'm sorry, the Gaza Health Ministry, which is an arm of Hamas. They can say that 60,000 people were killed and and the BBC, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Guardian, they take it like it's Taurus Mosha. I mean, you've got an organization that has never once told the truth. You got you've got an organization that has a history of of lies, an organization whose charter that they stand by is the annihilation not just of Israelis, the annihilation of all Jews, but they take this as the truth. See, how do you respond to something like that? Because you're not dealing with facts and you're not dealing with logic. That's what they were that's what anti-semitism evolved into in the late 12th and the 13th century. And that's the backdrop of the world that you're dealing with this time. Though the Dominican friars do not have a con man in Pablo Christiani who probably converted to Christian to to become a Christian for wealth for for a government monopoly. Uh-uh. This time you've got a Jew who's fairly well educated, who's incredibly smart. His name, we don't know his Hebrew name. We know his Christian name, Nicholas Donan. And he makes the case that the reason the Jews are so obstinate, the reason the Jews have failed to accept the truth is because of the Talmud. He says, "I know I was a Jew. All your time is not spent learning the Bible. The Bible is learned through the Talmud and through the medish. It's learned through the toalpe which is correct because the tosha balpe is the essence of our theology. It's the essence of our system. The tanakh is god's shorthand notes or in the case of a nvi the shorthand notes of the nvi representing ideas that are rooted in the tabal. And he says we have to put the talmud on trial. We need to put the medish on trial. And who did they go after? Who's going to represent the Jews in this disputation? Now, before I get to that, keep in mind he can't do this without the influence and the power, as we've stated, of the Dominican friars. The Dominican friars have the backing of the pope himself. Pope Gregory the 9inth wants this to happen. And who does he turn to? King Louis the 9th of France of Taras. You and you and I know King Louis the 9inth. There's an American city named after him, St. Louis. How did he become a saint? How did they name a city after him? That's came later. How did he become a saint? Because he did the dirty work of the pope. He did the dirty work of the Dominican friars. He forced this disputation which as we will see brought about the end of French jewelry. for the second time in 150 years created a huge upheaval of Ashkanaz and of the the seat of the misora of world jewelry. What did he do? King Gregory sorry Pope Gregory went to King Louis the 9th and King Louis the 9th forced this disputation. Who were the disputants? Rabbi Yil of Parei, Rabbi Yil of Parei had one of the greatest yeshivas in the 1240s. How do I know that? How do we know that? The famous mayor of Rothenberg, the Maharam of Rothenberg, who first studied in Vienna under the Orzarua, then came to Paris. Why would a German Jew travel to Paris for the same reason that someone travels to Harvard or to Princeton? Let's say you live in Ashkosh, Wisconsin. You can't go to the University of Wisconsin. Hey, the Badgers have a pretty good football team, right? No, you're going to Boston, to Harvard, or to MIT. You're going to Princeton, New Jersey to study at Princeton. He comes to Paris. It's the greatest yeshiva there is. And he wasn't the only one. So Rabili, one of the great Baltos, when you have a gamarra in front of you, there's a certain piece of the garam that you don't use. It's in the top right hand corner. It l it you'll see footnotes on the garra and it'll send you if you want to know where the ram talks about this garra. It's the Rambam perk this and next to the Rambam it says the smog mitzvah this or the smog mitzvah that who's the smog safer mitzvah scadolos. It was one of the most significant works of medieval times that we don't learn today. We learn the commentaries. We learn the baltosos. We learned the Spartic commentaries, the Ramban, the Rashbah, the Ritva, we learn the Rambam. But the man's name was Rabbi Mosha of Kusi. He actually was a he was a lord. He was he was part of the French aristocracy. He was called the Sarikusi. Rabbi Mosha Kusi. He becomes one of the disputants. And there's a Rabbi Schmool of Fal. F A L A I S E. Rabbi Schm fal is one of the great scholars that we quote sometimes for the sometimes I I'll tell you where we we use him but but you and I don't say it on the four Shabbasim you know the four special chabases between leading up to Pesak many of the pim in the yots croots come from him and chabas hag there's a famous famous dispute. That's Rabbi Schmool. Okay, so these were the disputants and he had four attacks against the Talmud. Number one, it's against it's it's a personal attack against our Lord and Savior. And if the christoologgical references in the Talmud are referring to the Jesus of Nazareth of the Gospels, then that would be correct. The defense that Rabbi Yil of Parei said is just like there are many people with the name Shuel, there are many people with people with the name, you know, Ruv, there was more than one Yeshu. Yesu is probably short for Yahushua. The Yesu of the Talmud cannot be the carpenter of Nazareth. That was his defense and he said the following. Look at the story. He was a student of Rabi Yeshua ben paraka. Rabhu ben paraka lived 140 years 130 years. He lived during the period of the kashaim long before the birth of the carpenter of Nazareth. So this call it morally challenged ethically challenged student that was put in can't be the same Jesus. That was a defense he made and he shows that in a number of cases there's a um execution of a certain individual. Okay. He says it can't be the carpenter of Nazareth because we have a Gammoran Sanhedrin that says 40 years before the basikdash the Sanhedrin left the lishkas aazis. it left its place on the temple mount which at that point meant it could no longer adjudicate capital cases. So even if you accept the version of the Gospels of John that the Jews were responsible for the crucifixion, it couldn't have been it it just can't be that the Talmud is talking about that because at that point the Sanhedrin cannot be involved in the capital case. And he goes through a number of cases like this, a number of christoologgical references that by the way you and I do not have in our version of the Talmet because after this tragedy, after this disputation and the destruction of all Torah Shabbal, we self censored those gamaras out. The only reason we have them, if you look in a if you look on the side of a Talmud, it says that which is missing from our version of the Talmud. How do we even know that they existed? I mean, we know that it existed because of this disputation, but the way we know is there's one medieval manuscript that we have in the Munich state library. If you see a work called Dukes Sopran always they always quote this manuscript the Munchin the Munchin Gamara because it's in the Munich state library. You can actually go there you can see it. It's from the 1300s. And the other is many of the um seized stolen manuscripts of the Gomorrah that exist in the Vatican and in modern times after Vatican 2 after 1965 if you if you go to the Vatican I have a friend of of Ramy Seager he travels he's got a card he's entitled to do research in the Vatican so he'll go and he say I'd like to have your manuscripts of Messa Sanhedrin or Messota and they'll go to the archives A lot of it right now is being put on you know we used to call it microfilm or microf fish. Now it's being you know it's categorized electronically they were very slow in doing it but you know and he can go to some of these manuscripts that are in the Vatican and you can see these christoologgical references that we don't have that we have that we've self censored out for the last 700 years I'm sorry the last 800 years since this this event. The second attack was that the gamarra is rapidly anti-gentile. Not just anti-Christian, it hates anyone who's a non-Jew. Now, how many of you in the room right now are learning the dafomi? What was the proof that they brought these various gumas from the sea of odor? Give you an example. There's a Mishna that says you should not have your animal, you know, being stansioned amongst akum. The term is akum. You have to be careful and not go to unless it's in the public where everyone can see. You can't go for a private haircut to an akum because he could kill you because he may it's leaf naive. is going to violate beastiality, you know, engaging with your animal. You can't have a nurse an akum as as the nursemaid because she could put poison on her breast and kill your child or as a midwife because she'll kill the child. Those are Mishnaos and Bryos in Vodar. He said this work, the Talmud hates not just Christians, it hates anybody who's not a Jew. It's a bigoted work. It's a rapidly racist work. And what was the defense rabbi of that is referring to au it's referring to people who had no respect for a law, no respect for authority, people who who would engage sexually in the most, you know, primitive activities. people that were would had no respect for anyone other than themselves, particularly for Jew against Jewish minorities. It's not referring to a Christian. It's not referring to someone who's a God-fearing human being, who has respect for the law, who has a moral code. It's not referring to most Gentiles. It is referring to the people they were dealing with. And by the way that was not just a pmic of Rabbi of Par. How many of you have heard the name the not Yehuda? Rabbi Lando. He was the posador. He was the post the greatest pose in the 18th century for all of European jewelry. He was the rabbi of Prague. His Talmud Mufak his student parakalance. He had many great students including his son uh Rabbi Schmool Landau but but his greatest student was Rabbi Elezar Flecklas this we call him the chuva Mayava he's got his his chuva safer save his shasu maya in fact there's I don't know if any of you know sha sidlerfeller who works for sabes he does all the Jewish work for sabes He he was a student at Yeshiva University. He got he's getting a PhD in Hebrew University in Rabbi Alazar Flecklas. He became the next uh chief rabbi was the last chief rabbi of Prague. Um it was a time a very tumultuous time in terms of the Jewish community in terms of the relationship with the Hopsburg dynasty the Austroungarian Empire but he wrote a work Rabbi Elazar Fleckless. So we're talking now the late 1700s, early 1800s. It's called and he specifically goes through every one of these cases in the Talmud and he proves he he he develops what Rabi said what the Miri said the Meri lived after Rabi that these sections of the Mishna of the Gomorrah are not referring to a Christian a Muslim a lawabiding a person who is a god-fearing Gentile in no way shape or form and he proves it. But it didn't matter. You know why? Because the prosecutor was Nicholas Donan. Who was the judge? Who is the jury of this disputation in the in the uh I'm not sure how to pronounce it in French. Pale deis the the judicial palace which you can go to till this day. It's a beautiful building in Paris. not too far from the Louv. It's uh it's not too far from the sen. It's it's right there in the plaza grav. And two years later in the plaza grav will be the burning of all Jewish manuscripts of taralt throughout France. So that's where this disputation takes place. The third thing he says is the talmud produces weird people. The Jews are weird. They're different. They're not just bigoted because of the Talmud. They're also strange. They don't think straight. And that's why don't they don't accept the carpenter of Nazareth. Why? What does he bring as his proof? He quotes these various agatas. Now you and I know what's the idea of an agata. We all know it. It's taking an abstract esoteric knowledge which is difficult and it's concretizing it. It's putting it into a story, a mushall, an analogy that you can derive the principles from because it concretizes abstract ethereal knowledge. But if you take it literally, it makes no sense. It's not meant to be taken literally. Rabbi Arab Bena many feel this about the agita and that's the case Rabbi of Pare makes that the reason it looks absurd to you the reason it looks foolish to you is because you look at it through foolish absurd and literal eyes. Needless to say, the Talmet and all commentaries are condemned to destruction. They go throughout every village where Jews live, throughout every Jewish home, throughout every Jewish synagogue, and they confiscate every manuscript and 24 huge cart loads, you know, horsedrawn, huge wagons. I can tell you growing up on a farm, you know how large a hay wagon is? It holds many, many hundreds of bales of hay in it. So these massive, you know, w hay wagons, cartload wagons that be drawn by horses are brought to the plaza gravly they are burnt and destroyed. Jews are not expelled from France till 70 years later. But this is the death the death of French jewelry because you can't teach your children. You can't learn with a kabusa. You can't learn with your community if you're a rabbi or an educator. If there's no text, how are you going to just learn orally? You you can do certain things orally, but you need a text to study. And that text is gone. It's destroyed. This is the end of French jewelry. But but you understand it's not just the end of French jewelry. It's the heart. It's a seat of Ashkanas for the last 150 years. This is the community that rebuilt and reestablished everything that existed in the Ryan River in mines and worms. So French jewelry now migrates. Some go into Spain. That's why many of us know Sphartic Jews with their last name Sarati. That sounds to me like an oxymoron. How can you be a Sphartic Jew if your last name is Frenchman? The answer is that in the aftermath of 1242, many of them crossed the Pyrenees into Catalonia and they settled in Christian Spain. Some go to Italy. For instance, we as Ashkenazim when you look at the Rama, one of the primary sources he has for how we conduct ourselves is the Maharik Yseph Cologne, a great great Italian scholar. Lived in Mtoa and Lombardi and maybe Verona, you know, he lived throughout what we today call northeastern Italy. He was from a family, a French family that migrated after this. Most of those French Jews actually returned to Germany. In Germany, Ashkanaz once again until the bubanic plague until after the black death, Germany once again becomes the seat of of Ashkanas. In the student of Rabbi Yhil Perry that we mentioned, mayor of Rothenberg, he becomes the leader of world jewelry. He becomes the greatest Jew. Many of you are very familiar. In fact, you know the Agus family from from Anglewood. Um, in fact, Elitsur Agus is a son-in-law of Rea Feldman, you know, but Renan Agus at Goldman Sachs, their greatuncle, one of his great contributions was he translated all the Shalus of Chuvos of Rabbi Mayor of Rothenberg. He was the guttalor. He was the leader of Ashkanazak jewelry. He produces Rabenu Usher. He produces the morai was the those two are the foundation of Ashkanazi jewelry. He produces rabenu. If any of you study on the Rambam, you'll see there's Hagos Mimoney. What the Ashkenazim, how they differ, how they analyze things that the Rambam said. These are all students of the Maam of Rottenberg of Mayor of Rothenberg. You go to worms, you can go to his kev, you can go to where he's buried because I think all of you are familiar. He was the most important Ashkanazic Jew on earth. And what happened? Uh Rudolph, they abducted him. that kidnapped him. They held him for a ransom and he would not allow the the community ran raised a fortune of money to redeem him. He wouldn't allow them to pay it because he said all this is going to do is encourage further kidnappings. I mean, think about the the issues that we dealt with with Gal Galed Shalit. If this is what you're going to do for one person, do you understand how all you're going to do is facilitate kamas andbalah kidnapping more and more? This was part of the debate. He he quoted the the Mishna in the giddon aims mik. You don't you don't if there's a market you don't pay above and beyond that because it's a Jew. Otherwise, all you're going to do is bankrupt the Jewish community and constantly put them in a state of of being at the whims of of of kidnappers and high in Christian mafiosas. And he dies in incarceration. It's fascinating because when you you study Rabenu Usher, you see a lot of Raino's chupas. He says, "I I went to the migdal," meaning he was in the fortified castle of of Rudolph and literally they allowed him to have visitors. So they allowed him to have visitors, his talidum would come and they would ask him, you know, very significant issues, communal issues, and and he lived the last seven years of his life in incarceration. He's the one that authors and we'll say it later in the day. He's the one that authors the 41st kenna. But with this consequence of this disputation was the death of French jewelry. And then the third and the final. It's at a different time because in France if I could ask you how long did it let's assume you have a very good handwriting you have to take part paper and turn it into parchment you have to produce ink you have to have incredibly good handwriting how long is it going to take you to write one omlet one side of one page of the tablet If you are a good scribe and you have great handwriting, how many hours and hours and hours just to accurately get the gamarra on one side of one page and the rashi and the tsus? It'll take you forever. A community that had one whole massa, a community that had three or four makas, that was the that was the prize of the community. I mean, think about us. How long does it take to write a safer Torah? To work the parchment, to prepare the parchment, prepare the proper ink, make sure that it's going to dry in a way that it won't chip off, and then to write it properly. Takes close to a year to write a safer Torah. Gives you a sense of how long it takes to write just one meth of the Talmet. That is the consequence of the destruction of all the Torah Shabbal. Let's go to the the last example. To contextualize this, you and I think of Italy because right everybody goes to Italy. It's, you know, it's fun to go to Italy. Italians are fun people, right? You get the best shopping, you know, in the those who want Mitsus, the outlet mall outside of Milan, the outlet mall outside of Florence. It's not like an American outlet mall. It's the I mean, you're getting real ketone. You're getting bioni. You're getting Isizaya. They're not making kazarai for the outlet mall like you get in America. And the women, you can go to Gucci and Chanel and whatever stores they're shopping at. I I don't want to come across here like I'm the expert in in high-end uh values. Louis Vhutan, whatever it might be. Okay. And what else is about Italy? You got the Amalfi Coast, you go to Poetano and Capri, you go to Sicily, you get it's it's wonderful, right? You go to Florence, you go to the You got to Rome, you got the the Jewish ghetto. That's Italy today. that Italy doesn't even exist till 1862. Historically, what is what we call Italy? So, first you have the the Kingdom of Naples, Napolei, right? That's the southern part of Italy. Sicily is separate. Then you have in the middle of Italy, we'll call it the Papal States. Remember, the pope is not just a pope. He's a king. He's an emperor. He's the king of the papal states. And then in the north, you have multiple countries. Probably the most powerful of them is the kingdom of Venice. That's Padawa. That's Venice on the east side. On the Adriatic side, the Medaches control Florence, right? They have you've got Levoro where many of the Sphartic Jews will settle and do become incredibly successful business people there. You've got Fenza Florence and then between Florence and between Venice in the middle and north of these places you have a bunch of small little kingdoms. Ferrara, Mtoa, Milano, and then to the northnortheast, Trieste. Triest today is Italy. At that time, that was part of the Hopsburg dynasty. It was part of the Austrohungarian Empire. So you can't talk Italy and you can't talk Italian because where are we talking about? Are we talking about Lombardi? Are we talking about Ferrara? Are we talking about Verona? Are we talking about Mtoa? Are we talking about Fenza? Are we talking about Venice? Are we talk Venitzia? Are we talking about Roma? Are we talking about Napolei? Are we talking about Sicily? And it's it's not all Italy like it is today. So So please understand that context. Number one, one of the events that was great for Jews was what we'll call the Italian Renaissance. Now, the Renaissance was a desire and a thirst for knowledge and for culture. They were not anti-Christian. They were not anti- the Bible. Just the opposite. They wanted to study the Bible in its original language, Hebrew. They wanted to study the classics in its original language, Greek. They wanted to study Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, and Greek. They wanted to be exposed to knowledge, to art, to music, to science. Because they didn't like the heavy hand of the papacy, the heavy hand of the church that says, "No, no, we'll tell you how to think and what to think." Uh-uh. I'm a human being. God created me in his image. I want to explore. I want to learn. I want to be educated. I want to study in the original. And because of that, there was a very huge thirst to go back to the source to the Bible, the Tanakh, and to study it in its original. Jews did fairly well in Renaissance Italy. And there was a second component to the Renaissance that was shared a common denominator with what we'll call the Protestant Reformation. What was part of the driving force that led to Martin Luther's Protestant Reformation? The corruption of the the church. Most popes at that time had multiple children from multiple women. There were not sophisticated means of birth control. And you had very influential, powerful people from the pope on down. They had all kinds of girlfriends. Sometimes that they were willing girlfriends. Sometimes they were taken against their will. There was sexual corruption. There was financial corruption. None of these ruling authorities like the fact that they're paying 30% of all the taxes they collect to the papacy. For what? For a bunch of thieves? for a bunch of, you know, lustful, power hungry, manipulative rulers that use religion to to uh camouflage their their lustful lives, their power-hungry cravings. Uh-uh. And that led to the Protestant Reformation. What happened in the papacy? There was a response. It's known as the counterreformation where they brought in people. They allowed people to become the leadership from the pope on down who are much more serious about religion who did not engage in the kind of abuses that their predecessors had been condemned of engaging in. And they went in a very, very rough, harsh way. They attacked, they persecuted Protestants under their control because they were going to show that first of all, we're clean, we're legit, and that you're heretics. And that's where they go to work. Now, it doesn't stop with the Protestants. They go after the Jews. And this is where things turn for the worst for the Jews. And again, I'm using a modern term. It's not a correct term, but the Jews of Italy. When you have a counterreformation, watch out. We talked about the first two incidents. Pablo Christianity himself was a Gishmada, an apostate Jew. Nicholas Donan was a Gishmada, an apostate Jew. Well, it gets the same story we have here with the great inception in the 1400s of Gutenberg's portable type, mobile type. The printing press now changes the world. The printing press initially has two very significant sources um of this new technology called the book, right? It's not the scroll, it's not the codeex that's handmade and hand created. Now you have this concept of a of a manufactured book with the printing press. So very much like the onset of the the web, one of the initial major sources of of business for the printing press is pornography because it's a cheaper version of pornography. Until this time, you had to pay an artist, you know, to do paint a picture for you. Many of you have been to the museums throughout Europe, throughout Italy, France, the Netherlands, right? People would commission artists to paint nude women. Now it's much cheaper with with a printing press. The other major source of income were Jews. Now we can get access to the Talmud. The creation under Sino of the Mikros Gdolos. Not only do we have a kish, but we have a kish with all of the great commentaries, Rashi, the Ramban, the Ibanzra. We're going to publish, we're going to print the Rambam, the Mishna Torah. We're going to print the Talmud with Rashi and the Baltosphos and great commentaries in the back. So now you've got this whole situation where you can the Jews are spending their money to buy Jewish texts so that they can learn that their children can become more learned than they are. It's a huge source of income. All of you have heard the name of the Sonino family. There are a number of cousins that were involved in this. The most famous of them all was Geon Sonino. The man who actually put him out of business where Sonino actually had to leave for the Ottoman Empire to make a living was a a Christian a Phoeatic Christian by the name of Daniel Bombberg. And Bombberg hired a whole team of Jews. The quality of Bombberg's paper, the quality of of Bombberg's work was even better than Sonino and it came at a decent price. and he literally changed the Jewish world. One of the people as technology kept growing that made it more difficult for for Bombberg was a guy Justinini. Let me let me get I want to be able to pronounce it properly. Marco Justiniani. His name was Marco Justiniani. Okay. And he published a number of Jewish works, volumes of the Talmud, others. Another Italian printer. And keep in mind to have a license to print, you had to have permission from the church because that way they could control what gets published in terms of Jewish works. They don't want anything that's anti-Christian being published and they control they have sensors controlling the publishing. There was a man name a man by the name of Alvis Bragadini. What's the story with Braadini? He has a Jewish partner, one of the most greatest in all of Italy. His name is Rabbi Mayor Katen Alan Bogen. We know him as the Maam Padawa. Now, keep in mind the top yeshiva in all of Italy was in Padawa. You have the Marram myths there. Why the yeshiva is literally two blocks from the university. You studied in that yeshiva. You became a massive tamakum. And at the same time, Jews were allowed into medical school in the university in Padawa. You could become an architect in the University of Padawa. Other degrees. So you had Jews from all over Europe coming to Padawa to study. The now the leader of that community and Padawa is part of the Empire of Venice. The leader of that community, okay, is I'm going to apologize. This has nothing to do with Tisha Buff, but I got to tell you the story. There's a group of us that go every year to Europe. We go to Lujansk. It's the group is run by the Freriedman family. Many of you know Howard V. Freriedman is the chairman of the Lakewood and the former president of Apac and his brothers and there's a group of us that go and that year we were in Italy. So we went to Padawa Mosha Mutato's there the Mari mints the maram padawa etc the yeshiva to see the community the history the cemetery and that afternoon we are going to have an exclusive tour of the DOA palace do is like the duchy the duchy in English say the duke you know the the Duke of Venice many of you have been there in Venice and there's there's incredible museums games in Venice, but the most famous of them all is the Doja Palace. And we were going to have an exclusive guided tour. Well, these guys, they have to have It was Friday and they have to have their Diet Fanta because after all, they can't drink Diet Coke or Coke Zero. It's got too much caffeine in it. They can only drink Diet Sprite, but they like Diet Fanta better than Diet Sprite. So in that book, this poor bus driver, we have to drive all over Italy, all over Pawa till we could find Diet Fanta, you know, he's going from supermarket to supermarket and then we finally make it back to Venice. You know, the these these uh boats in Venice, you know what I mean? They're not cheap, but how can we, you know, in Europe, they don't necessarily serve a lot of ice. So, we had to go to the gam gam restaurant in Venice where we were going to have dinner that night and we had to put all of this diet fan in the refrigerator because we we god forbid it should be served, you know, room temperature, then it's not worth it. And and I like I'm saying to these guys, we're going to miss our exclusive tour of the DOA Palace. He said, what's more important? You know, Diet Fanta for Friday night, you know. So anyways, sure enough, we missed our our tour of the DOA Palace, you know. So we got there. The point is, as long as we could take a picture, you know, they could show their wives that they were at the Doja Palace, you know, etc. Okay, you know what's more important? Diet Fanta or the Doja Palace? Anyways, that was the last time I was in Padawa. Sorry. Now to go back to Tishab, he works for years on a Mishna Torah with the classic commentaries, the KF Mishna, the Leah Mishna and his commentary on the Mishna Torah and they set up a type set and they published this. Justini is able to take that basic type set and he's going to do it at a much cheaper cost because all the work has been done by Bragadini in the Maharam of Padawa and he'll undercut him. So Rebe mayor Katzanel Boen knows what the this is horrific. This is a violation. First of all, it's a saga. You're going to put me out of business. We put four years of investment into this. You know, it's a violation of intellectual property. There's basis on intellectual property. But he sends the Shayla to Krakow, Poland to the Rama. All of you know Ra Mosha is the godhor of all of Ashkinas. And the Rama in Simud, it's a 10th simmon of the Sha Chuvas Rama. He writes a chuva and he says the following. There's a kum an excommunication and anybody who buys Justin's Mishna Torah before every set of Braadini and Rabbi Mayor Ken Ellenburg the Marada's Mishna Torah is sold because this is an absolute violation. The is called we say in in in so to speak in the vernacular we call it and you can read sim it's this very case now Justiniani is in trouble because no Jew is going to violate this there's no two opinions on this and the Jews will spend more money and they'll buy Bragadini's Mishna Torah until every one of they printed is sold out. Now Justin, who's invested all this money in producing his volume of the Mishna Torah, it's sit going to be sitting there for at least four or five years till all of Braadini and the Marada's Mishna Toras are sold out. It turns out Justinani this puts him out of business in 1552. He actually shuts down his business because this this bankrupts him. what he thought he was going to undercut Bragadini. In the end, it put him out of business. But unfortunately, it didn't stop there. He goes to the Vatican and he starts a whole liel against the Rambam, against the Talmud, against the Torah Shabbal. this liel that Jinani starts and unfortunately this is where it really gets sick. There's three Jewish apostates who take up his cause. One man, his name was Kanano Defilono Felinino. He changed his name from Kanano Defelinino to Raphaela Aqualino. The second is Yoseph Morrow. The third is a man Jew by the name of Solomon Romano who when he went to Ishmati became a Christian. He becomes Victoriao Eliano. And they work with a man, please remember this name. We're going to come back to him in a couple of minutes. They work with a man by the name of Cardinal Karafa. And what do they do? They go to Pope Julius. Julius III is the pope. and they're able to get a papal bull. Papal bull means a decree, a gazer from the Vatican that the Torab, the Talmud Bavi, the Talmud Yushami and its commentaries are anti-Christian, are heretical and must be destroyed, must be burnt. This paper bull took place on August 12th, 1553. Now they go about the confiscation and burning in 1553 under Julius III. On September 9th, 1553 in honor of Russia Shana. September 9th, 1553 is Russashana. And if any of you have been there in in Italy, Campo diiori, the Campo Diori that which today is this beautiful waterfall, beautiful building that piaza in front of the Campo Diori, they burned on Russia all the volumes of the Talmud. The reason today when uh what was his name? the Valadammano Trust. What was his name? I'm forgetting his name. Jack. He was a British Jew. Lunzer. Jack Lunzer. When he died, he had one of the full sets of Bombberg's Talmud. You know how he got it? He had the he had the the Magna Carta. He traded the Magna Carta for the Bombberg shots. It was I think maybe one of two bombberg chasses that exist today full shots because everything was burnt in 1553 and it wasn't just in Rome but the influence of the church they had the burning of the Talmud and the commentaries in Bolognia in Mtoa in Ferrara in Venice October 21st they made a decree that all in the the empire of Venice that means PTO of Venice, all these areas in on the Adriatic side of of Italy, all these they're going to they're all going to be burnt within 10 days. They they they gathered this material and they burnt it. If you want to read about this in depth there's a safer was an Italian Jew by Yos his name was Yosephen. His safer is called achabah the valley of tears. Cardinal Karatha, the driving force with the three apostate Jews to bring about this papal bull. A year later, Pope Julius III dies. Who is chosen to be the next pope? Pope Paul IV. Cardinal Karafa. Cardinal Karafa. Now in May 23rd 1555 so the man hasn't been a pope for a year he comes out with a paper bull which is even worse than the previous papal bull the name of this paper bull kumis absurdum it is absolutely absurd for us as Christians to allow the Jews to conduct themselves the way they do let me let me read this is the majority of the translation the majority of the papable as it is completely absurd and improper that the Jews condemned by God to eternal servitude because of their guilt their guilt meaning for the murder of our Lord and Savior should on the pretext that they are accepted by Christian piety and that they are permitted to live in our midst They should be so ungrateful to Christians as to insult them for the Christian mercy and presume to superiority instead of a life of subjection that the Jews truly deserve. And because we have been informed that in Rome and elsewhere the Jewish insulence is such that the Jews presume to live amongst Christians in the same neighborhoods. Not only that, they live in the same neighborhoods as our churches without any distinction of dress. They even rent us homes in the more or they rent for themselves, I apologize, homes in the more elegant streets and the squares, the piazas of our cities, our villages and places in which they live. They buy and they possess real estate. They hire Christian maids. They hire Christian wet nurses and other servants and they commit other misdeeds to the shame and the contempt of the Christian name. And considering that the Roman church tolerates the Jews as evidence of the true Christian faith, meaning we don't murder them, we don't kill them. We allow them to live and we even give them the protection not protection against being beaten, being discriminated against, but protection against being killed. We do therefore order the following measures which are to be perpetually perpetually valid. What are the measures? Jews have to live in ghettos. Where do they set up these ghettos? by the river. Why by the river? Anyone? Why by the river? Because when the river overflows, which it always does every couple of years, whose houses get destroyed? The people on the river. It's not like today when you go to Rome where they've built it up. It's, you know, built up so it's protected from the river overflowing. Or when you go to Prague, you know, the Valtava River in Prague, it's it's it's built up and protected. There's an intercontinental hotel there. There are all kinds of beautiful shopping there. No, no, no. Historically, being by the river, every couple of years, your home is destroyed because what are you going to let the walls have have mildew and you're going to die from from mild do you you have to redo the whole home? What else? How many of you been to the Roman ghetto? You see the sign, right? What happens when you walk into the ghetto? You're you're you're you're confronted by that sign about the evil and the wayward of our ways and why we are condemned to eternal damnation into a life of suffering because of not accepting the true savior. You know what they were forced to do for over 300 years? There was always a quot of Jews every Sunday who had attend the church service and they would preach to them. They would preach to them, try to convert them as well. The Jews on Shabas morning had a listen to a cardinal or a priest coming and giving a sermon to the Jews about the the the loneliness of their ways. They were not allowed to do serious banking. They could only do loaning and pawn broking of of a limited amount of money like lower level loans. They could only trade in secondhand goods. You know, we have a term in Yiddish a schmata. They could only do trade in schmatas. This is all part of the papal bull of what used to be Cardinal Karafa, Pope John IV in 1555. This is why Italian jewelry never became a major force in the world because the Jews living in Poland had a much better life there. They had much more the the religious tolerance there, the ability to not have to be in ghettos, the ability to have economic freedom, the ability to to have Jewish text without it being burnt and destroyed. All of this, that's why Poland emerged as as the heart of Ashkanaz. It could have been Italy. But as a consequence of the Counterreformation, which was a response to the Protestant Reformation, the Jews suffered horrifically. And it wasn't just in the Papal States. As we quoted, it spread to Venice. It spread to northern Italy. It spread everywhere. Some of these ghettos, by the way, you know, where did Hitler get the idea of the the yellow the Star of David? Jews had to wear a star on their clothing. They had to be demarcated as a Jew. If a Jew was allowed to go out for business outside of the ghetto by nightfall, they had to be back in the ghetto. Had to be within the ghetto walls that were shut. It wasn't pretty. By the way, that just practically the word ghetto really what it means is it was it was a a refinery in in in Venice. There was an area where they had the refinery. That area is where the Jews were finally allowed to live. Mo most of the Jews had to live in Padawa. They could do business in Venice. Finally, the Venetian government allowed them to actually live in Venice, but they were they were forced into a ghetto. And all of this goes from 1555 all the way till the 1860s. So this is the third example of the war against Judaism, the war against the Torah Shabbala that we have faced. And what we're starting to see today, not from Christianity, but from Islam, is the war against Judaism. Not just the war against Jews. That that's been existent, you know, throughout the duration of our lifetime. They've been trying to annihilate Israel and annihilate Jews across the globe. But we're starting to see out of both the Sunna and the Shia a war against Judaism. And that is not something new. And that's something that we mourn on tish. The kil shame shamayim that that creates is horrific. And we gave three examples of that today. Catalonian Spain in the 1260s, what ended up being the death of French jewelry and the uprooting of the balm masora and the the Ashkanazic world from France in the 1240s and then what ended up being it wasn't the death of Italian jewelry, but it was basically the the freezing and the limitation and and and the prevention of of of a major world center for Jews in Italy. encounter reformation Italy in the 1550s. Now, let's go to some of the kinos. I'm going to start out with certain kinos that we have not done for five or six years. Let's turn to the 16th ka. This we've done a few years ago but but the reason is you can't talk about tishabove without the destruction of the basikdash. So even though we talked about the war of the Jew against the Jews, we need to talk about the the B mikdash. It's page 360 in the rabbi salvage at the mur page 226 I believe in the art scroll the 16th kenna. Please remember what the oppressor did inside. Now who is the oppressor? We're talking about Titus. Who's Titus and how does he become the oppressor? The revolt against Rome because of the oppression of these Roman proconsels. We call them Roman proconsels, Roman governors. You know what it's like? Imagine you're the ambassador. I'll give you an example. Charlie Kushner is now going to be the ambassador to France. that will probably be a three, fouryear term under the Trump administration. Maybe it'll be extended to a second term, but let's assume it's a three, four-year term. That's what being a Roman proconsel was. But it was very different because being a Roman governor, Roman proconsel, was a chance for you to earn a fortune of money, to make a fortune. What do I mean by that? You're going to tax the Jews. tax them in an insidious, horrific way, which will allow you to get rich. You'll live off of this the rest of your life. Why is this a good position? Because what's Judea? Judea is the lynch pin. It's the lynch between Europe, Asia, and Africa. Any international trade that's going to take place is going to take place, right? If you're trading from Africa into Asia or Europe or vice versa, it has to go through the via Maris, that's the Latin term, by way of the sea, you you understand there's there's three possible routes. You can do what Abraham did and what Yakovu did, but that's for a small caravan. Let's take what's today's highway 60. That's the natural crevice in the mountains. You could take the Jordan Valley, but you would never do that in the spring or summer. It's way too hot. Think about the heat down there in by the Dead Sea in the Jordan Valley. Or you'll take what most would do is the Mediterranean coast, right? You cut through the Jezrael Valley and then at Megiddo you turn down towards to go towards Africa towards Egypt. So you you traverse along the Mediterranean. You go through all what we'd call Natana, Tel Aviv, Ashcolon, Ashto, Gaza into Egypt. Rome sends the troops under um first under Nero, then Nero dies and they're not successful. They have to send further generals. VPatian is that successful general. There's a huge battle up on the Golan Heights called Gamla. Gamla, which what translate that word for me? Camel. Gamal. Ara Aramaic. Gamla. Because Aramaic was the word, the language that the Jews spoke in the Bay. Gamla was totally fortified. There were there were it was a walled city and every time the Romans would try to climb up with ladders up that wall, the Jews of Gamla would boil oil and they would put that scalding oil and kill the Roman soldiers. They'd fall to their death off of the uh ladders. In the end, the Romans used something called ballista cannonballs. You know, they had like the the the cannonballs and they would pierce through, break through the the walls, the fortified walls. And in the end, once those fortified walls were pierced through, they slaughtered everybody in GMA. Took no prisoners. Word gets out what they did when they finally conquered Gamla. It was a very difficult cost them a lot of lives cost them a lot of time a lot of money of the cities in the Galilee gave up didn't put up a fight and those Jews were not killed you know these cities became under Roman control becoming a Roman vassel some of the communities actually did fight the most famous of them is a city by the name of the Udfat how many of you have in today in the Galilee in the Ach Israel. How many of you have been to Mitzpe Hosaya the the the the camps would go there? They would live, you know, they have this little thing where you can live like the time of Arau. You dress like the time of Ara. You eat like Araino. You go on, you know. So So Mitsai is right there next to Yudfat. It's right next to Tipi. Many of you have been to Tipi. There's a famous archaeological dig. I don't know if it's still um done. It was a combination of Barilan and the University of Michigan. Anyway, so what happens is in Yudfat, the leader of the Galilean revolt, Yoseph bin Matisahu Hakohain in Latin, Josephus Flavius. When they finally when the Romans are finally breaking through the siege, there's a mass suicide. You know, we know of the mass suicide at Msada. This was a mass suicide. The community committed suicide. And Josephus, Yseph Matis AoE, he he says, "Look, I saved you many, many deaths and much suffering like what you experienced up in Gamla in the Golan Heights." And they actually, I don't know how he works it out, but they appoint him as the chronicler of this war, the historian or chronicler of this war. There's many reasons that we are ambivalent about Josephus Flavia's works, the war against the Jews. One of the reasons is because throughout history, what the version we have, there's been many interpolations long after Josephus death, you know, putting in material about Christianity, it's just not true. Jo, we know Josephus never wrote it. And we can show from the style of writing this wasn't Josephus. So that's one of the reasons it's not all accurate. The second is and and there's much to be gained from Josephus writings. you get get a real insights into what things were like in the time of the Bayeny is because Khazal were incredibly ambivalent about Josephus. I mean this was a guy first of all you know you don't encourage mass suicide that's against the hala you could make a deal a pact like the other communities did secondly look at what this guy did you know what I mean here he's the the leader of the Jews now he flips you know and to his own so so he's obviously going to skew things from his perspective so that it's not that he's a liar it's not that everything that he says is wrong or inappropriate there's just a sense of ambivalence you have to take with a huge grain of solved anything Joseita says because there's a personal bias. Anyways, next to Yudvat you have Tipi. Now you've all been to Tipi. There's a debate is that where the Mishna was edited or was it edited in Taria? But one thing we can tell you the Sanhedrin ex for a significant amount of time was in Cypori. How did that happen? How does the Sanhedrin be in Sipuri after the B mikdash? Because Sipori was never destroyed. Cipori put up the white flag. And that's why you see these gorgeous mosaics. You know, you know, think about if if we built a beautiful home. What would we have? A a beautiful wood floor. They would have a gorgeous mosaic. Think about the shulles, by the way. Think about the but of that the Romans used there. Think about the, you know, how many you ever been on Via Rodeo in Beverly Hills. You know, you have be you have Stefanici and the beautiful shops there. Well, they had the equivalent of Via Rodeo and Siporei. Beautiful shopping, you know, uh, streets. None of that was destroyed. We We've all uncovered it archaeologically. You know why? Because they gave up. They put up the white flag, so to speak. And therefore what they could live and that's what happened with most communities who put up a fight Jerusalem. So the siege of Jerusalem they get to Jerusalem in ' 68. And that siege is a three-year siege 68 through 70. Everyone knows the story. I'm getting to how where does Titus come into this? This war has been waged by Vespatian, the famous Roman general. Because again, is Judea the largest area in all of the Roman Empire? No. But is it one of the most important? Yes, because it's the lynchpin of all of international trade. So what happens is uh the famous story rabbi sees that the Jewish zealots are not interested in listening to hala. They're not interested in listening to reason. There there's this arrogant attitude. Better to die a free Jew than to live as a Roman vassel. And therefore they do what? They keep on fighting. They had enough wheat. They had enough fuel, wood fuel. They had enough oil to to last out a very long uh siege. The Gamarra says Kalba Ben Savua, that was Rabaka's father-in-law. Naktim Bengurion and all the wealthy Jews were willing to invest in just the basic necessities to keep the Jews alive through a siege. But these zealots, the Canion, the Birion, they burnt it all. So they fake his funeral and they get they sneak his coffin out which he's alive in out of the the city. The Romans see that it's a guy trying to escape the city and they bring him and it turns out it's this famous rabbi and they bring him to Vespatian and Rabake says hell to the Caesar. Vispatian says, "What did you say? Don't you ever say that again. I could I'll have you killed and I'll get killed if you talk that way. You don't call me Caesar when that's an affront to that's an affront to the other candidates because what happened? Nero had died. The Caesar Nero had died. There were four candidates that the Roman Senate was looking at. and for him to go around before he's appointed or who knows if he'll be appointed calling himself the Caesar of of of the Roman Empire and get killed. So what does he do? He gives it and then sure enough as this conversation's going on there's an emissary that comes from Rome. Hell to the Caesar. Hail to the Caesar. The Roman Senate has voted you of the four candidates has chosen you to be the next Caesar. So Vespatian turns to Rabak how did you how did you know that I was a Caesar he says I didn't he says but there's a principle that we have based upon the Tanakh the Bikashir will only fall at the hands of someone of significance someone of greatness and that's that's a principle we were given from not and therefore I assume that you're not just a Joemo you're not an anybody you're not even just a general but you will be the leader of Rome and of course Vespatian says I'll give you three requests what does Benzak ask for yava I mean today you know what yavn is there's a Ben & Jerry's there's archaeological sitite You know, cuz what happens if Americans come? You know, they're going to get dig for 20 minutes in the heat. They're going to get all tired. They're going to go eat a bed and cherries, have a milkshake, right? So, but Yav at that time, it was close enough to the Mediterranean that would have access to imports and exports, but it wasn't quesari. It wasn't an important city. And because of that, because of that they could set up a yeshiva, the Sanhedrin. They could reestablish the Sanhedrin there. That saved Judaism. That saved the Torah tly. The second thing he asked for was for medical care for Rabbit Saddok. He wanted Rabbit Saddok. he viewed as the most pious of the generation. And if Rabbit Saddok were alive, his tilos, his influence would impact and would be a would be an incredible schus for the generation would have a huge impact. And what was the third request he had to take care of the family Gaml and his family? Who was Guml? He wasn't just Guml. He was Robin Guml. He was the son of the rabbi Shiman Benil that we're going to read about in the 21st kenna who was murdered who was the nussi who was the leader the religious leader of the Jewish people. So he wanted that his son who eventually will replace yohan zakai as the nussi of the Sanhedrin in Yavna. Those were the three requests and that saved Judaism and that saved the Davidic line. This patient goes back to Rome, but he's not going to let this go for not. And who can he trust to finish the job he's spent the last, you know, three and a half, four years? I remember it started in ' 66. Who can he get to replace him? He gets his son, Titus, Titus. And Tetus does the job. And that's the story of our the 16th kaim. What did the oppressor do inside? Now keep in mind when did they break through the siege the 17th of Thomas Shiva Thomas. We've said this in the past. How long and I think everyone in this room has been to theatika. We've all been to the old city of Jerus the the the I'm sorry, not the old city. What's the proper translation? The the city of antiquities, the ancient city of of Jerusalem. How long does it take you to go from the Jaffa gate to the Kota? If you're spry, 12 minutes. If you're not spry, 20 minutes. If you take, you know, the the shook, it's 13 minutes. If you take the uh Armenian corner and St. John's road into the he into the Jewish quarter, then it takes you 20 minutes, 18 minutes. How did it take the Romans three weeks? Don't tell me they didn't have maps. Don't tell me they got lost because the city wasn't that big that you get lost. How did it take them three weeks from the 17th of Tamuz to get to the Temple Mount on the afternoon of Tishab of the 9th of A? What's the answer? The answer is that it was hand-to-hand combat. It was warfare going on every inch of that city. Jewish and Roman blood were creating rivers of blood in the battles for every inch of the city. And that's why it took three weeks. Once he gets there, he actually comes through the north through the antonial fortress which is to the north of the temple mount. That's how he gets in. So he enters the a place that only a cohen can go and only a cohen can go for the purposes of the avod for the sake of the avod. But he goes through the paroas into the holy of holies. It was a shock to our heritage. The rough said, you know, we don't have a source in Gmorra Medish for this. This is the khal. Apparently, the first thing he did was he defiled the showbread, the shulhan which was in the kesh. Then he slashes, he takes his sword and he cuts the paroas that separates the kodesh from the kesh kadoshim. Geladam. So the orphan nation he disgraces with the blood stained shield because what happened? The medish says providentially after cutting the parochas blood came out of the paroas. So imagine you know you you stab a human being you cut a human being and they bleed. That's what happens with the paroas. Kavara and he draws a circle around you know the area because why he in his egotistical mentality thinks so to speak that he's he's wounded he's killed God the god of the Jews but don't think it was just the paroas that was slashed many Jews were slaughtered in this mess paroas I'm This human being, this with his schemes elo, he extends his, you know, he lifts up the sword, you know, towards God, so to speak. there he says all those who tried to to stand up to god what does it mean stand up to god to go against his people going against the Jews is so to speak you know that's your way of going against the god of the Jews from the time of Egypt and on no one was successful but I am successful there's this this this arrogance that he had that's one way of explaining it the other way of expl explaining it is this is that they conquered Egypt, they conquered other parts of the Middle East and now they've conquered Israel. So is it referring to historically no one has done what I've done or is it referring to Vespatian and um Titus's, you know, so to speak, military uh successes or military reign. Now there's another way of explaining the words aruted initially. Who is that? with it with the neck upheld the arrogant neck you know up I'll I'll race run up against the god that's that's Titus speaking about himself the r said you could also explain it is despite Titus's uh success the Jewish people to defend the basdash the Jewish people to defend you with you know with with incredible fortitude I mean think about the way people ran down to the Gaza border on October 7th Most of those people who initially went down there, they were not on duty that day. They weren't part of a battalion. These were individual Jews that were going to go down, risk their lives. We're going to read a couple stories later in the morning. Sacrifice their life to do what? To defend the Jewish people and defend Israel. That's the way that's a possible reading. The RV says of this phrase, it's not referring to Titus. It's referring to the Jewish nation. But here's the contrast. Our progenitors, think about when entered to bring, you know, to bring an incense offering. They weren't commanded. They were killed. They were destroyed. And these are righteous. He slashes the parroets. He uses his vetting and he brings in a woman of illreute and he engages in fornication in the holy of holies and nothing happens to him. The servants of God meaning the various kohanim gdoleim throughout the the the second basikdash the suka meaning the the shelter of God. They they would bring the incense. They would come into the holy of holies. You could only go there one time a year. And what was the mat here? What was the license to enter the holy of holies for the cointo? The incense offering. That was the first thing that he came in was with the with the the coals and the incense. And he put he created the cloud ana cavode. What's the idea there? Why before any aod do is the first thing that he does is create the ana kavode the incense cloud. The reason is what it does is it's a statement what were the you had them at Hari you had them over the oh moed over the Mishkan because even though you're having direct communication from God God is communicating to you a human being has to understand ultimately our knowledge of God of the Almighty is clouded. That's the idea. The coen is going to the place of the greatest intense perceived presence of God. But he has to understand that any human knowledge of God by definition is clouded. It's veiled. We have a minhug that follows this principle of the anha cavode that follows this principle of the incense cloud of the the what the coing guttle would engage in his very first act the matier of you know what that mug is when we say the amida we cover our head not a kipa not a yamaka we put a veil a total So, so for some it's wearing a hat. You wear a hat for the amida. For others you put the talis over your head, right? Didn't put the talis overhead for because it's whatever modality you're in. Since he didn't have a talis over his head for you're not going to put it for is is is an act of an act of it's something that's done all the time all the different modalities that's so is whatever modality you are in if you're sitting you stay seated if you're standing you stay standing when it gets to amid that's different and the Rambam says it's h of it says listen to this language of the Rambam it's the way of the scholars and those who are aspiring scholars the students of the scholars to be inveiled when they when they say the amida when they pray what is that that's this idea so it says a vadim How can it be? Why is it that and then you see the khal theologically? We don't view it as Titus tus burning the base of mikdash. It's true Titus burnt the basa mdash. No, it's mim. It came from heaven. This was God. This is the famous point and this is maybe the most important point we have to make about tishab rahan felt you should fast on the 10th of a we don't follow even though normally like rabio we we observe the day of morning when on the ninth of a not on the 10th something Very strange. When does Tetus enter the the Basa Mikdash? We said the afternoon of the 9th. You notice that right now we're all in a ve. We're all in anos right now. Okay. After we finish the kinos or those who finish kinos early after katsos, it's a little less intense. the morning it goes like from Shiva to more of a schlloin modality. Wouldn't you think just the opposite? Wouldn't you think just the opposite should be more intense at the time of the destruction? What happened on Tishab? And one last question. We're not going to do it this year, but in the 25th kina. In the aftermath of the destruction of the Bal Hamasora in the communities of the German rhinland, which we spoke about earlier, what does it say? They thought about creating a special day of morning, a fast day, a day of morning. either a third of Sivan which would have been the destruction of mines maybe rashes which would have been the destruction of worms but they didn't do that and this is the language of the 25th ka you can't add another moade another designated day where you mourn the destruction of the Jewish people, not before, not after, but tishabove is the day. So, we're going to mourn the destruction of of Ashkanaz on Tishabove, even though it didn't happen on Tishabove. By the way, we are I'm going to be reading some material. We're mourning what happened on the black simra. Today's not simra, today's tishov. Today's not tish, it's a Why? In the point the RV made many times, Rabbi Salvich made this point. You and I are not mourning the destruction of a building. We're not mourning the destruction of a building. What we're mourning is I'm using the term of kazal hashina. What's hashina? the removal of the intense providential relationship that God has with us. What's the opposite of hash? The perceived intense the perceived intense relationship that we have with the Almighty by allowing Titus to enter this place. Think about it. None of entered leaf naive. They didn't enter the sanctum sancttorum. They went to where? To the incense altar. They were only in the cages and they were burnt with fire because it was a it was a false worship. It was a corrupt worship even with the best of intentions and sincerity. And this is what happened to them. And this man brings a woman of illreute. This man slashes the parochas. This man fornicates in the holy of holies. Are you kidding me? And nothing happens to him. And just the opposite, he's successful because he goes on from there to destroy the base of Mikdash. What are we mourning? Not the destruction of a real estate. We're mourning the fact that God, so to speak, I'm using human terms, obsented his home, withdrew that intense providential relationship. In the withdrawal of that intense providential relationship with amrael with claw Israel that is what allows for all destruction and tragedy that allows for kimonki and the Ukrainian kossak in 1648 through 1653 that's what allows for Iran to take those ballistic missiles. We've got 13,000 people in Israel right now who are homeless as a function of that. That's what allowed for Hamas to come and we'll talk about the kind of brutality to butcher and slaughter and terrorize our people, our innocent people. That's what allowed Germany and their Lithuanian, Ukrainian, Polish, Catholic, their French, their Dutch, their whole support system throughout Europe to annihilate the majority of of the European Jews of Ashkanazic jewelry. All that stems from the afternoon of the 9th of A in the year 70. All that is a consequence, an extension, a ramification of the fact that there's suina that so to speak God has has so to speak withdrawn that intense there's still a very serious providential relationship. It's called but not the not of the intensity of hash of what existed before that afternoon. And that's what we mourn because that is the cause of all tragedy. That's what tolerates and allows for all perpetration of evil, for all heinous activity against on Israel. That's what we mourn and that's what this ka is talking about. Binu tavanu. We literally our our our spirits sunk as they took out the ministering vessels. What did they do? Think about today highway one. That's a natural crevice that goes from Jerusalem all the way out to the Mediterranean. They they they went on they they took that route to the Jaffa port and they put them in ships and they shipped them across to Rome. Okay. Our skin has literally shrunk. You don't you don't think when something burns up because of the the heat when when they came to the mikdash all the 93 vessels that are necessary for the aod each and every day those 93 ministering vessels were all taken away and and shipped off to Romesh. Think about the of the BA mikdash. When you and I are there, whether you're a man or a woman, you have to take off your shoes because what do your shoes do? They they protect your feet. They insulate your feet from feeling from having any sensitivity from feeling anything. When you're barefoot, you're very sensitive to all the you're exposed to the the various areas there. Think about Mosher Rabenu's encounter with God. Remove your sandals, remove your feet, your shoes. What happens here? You know the image all of us have in our mind? Those boots of the SS, those combat boots. Well, the Romans come in with their combat boots. The na love, I'm sorry, sim the leadership. What happened? They panicked when the the prases meaning when the when the Roman defilers came in, you know what? I'll use I'll use an analogy. You go to some of these shs in Europe that were such holy places and you look at what happened to them. I have a two volume set at home. Pramak we shouldn't call it crystal. Cristallnak means oh the Jews you know the rich Jews lost their crystal broke on that night. No pagram. was a pagrum in which close to,300 shuls in Germany, in Austria, in the Sudatan land, in Bohemia, Moravia, they were destroyed and you look at what became of them and you know you you you see these pictures. anyone who had davened in these places, anyone who had learned in these places, anyone who had been there for communal activities. I mean, it's just it's horrific. There's certain things that just emotionally they break us and and that's this idea here. I just give you by way of example after Hitler broke the Molotov on ribbon pact where the Soviets would get the Baltic states, white Russia, Ukraine and the eastern most part of Poland. Germany would control Poland, the 85 90% of Poland. that existed from September 1st, 1939 when Germany entered Poland all the way till June 22nd when it's called Operation Barbar Roa when when um Hitler broke the pack and immediately afterwards they come in they come in after having conquered the Vermachu which is the German army conquers it. ing in the SS. There are four groups. Einat's group in A, Essat's group in B, Einats group in C, and Essat's group in D. These are SS murderers and you are familiar with the story where they go town by town, village by village. In the case of Lithuania, very often the Lithuanians did the murders themselves. Germans didn't even have to do the killing. In the Ukraine in White Russia, it was the Germans doing the killing. And they would force the Jews to big dig these pits, massive pits. Sometimes they would go to a ravine. That's what they did in Kiev. Babyar is a ravine, a natural ravine where between Rashan Kipper of 1941 33,400 Jews were murdered by the SS Ansites group Einets group in D. And they did this. And the last 20 years, the French Catholic priest, Father Patrick Dubois, has been going town by town, village by village, interviewing elderly people who were children at the time. And we used to think it was a million and a quarter Jews that were murdered from late June, early July 1941 through the called February of 1942. We think now it's about 1.8 million Jews that were killed. And he goes, you know, and he you ask basic questions. You should have this book. It's called In Broad Daylight by Father Patrick Dubois. And he asked the question, who rounded up the Jews? He asked the question, who were the killers? Were they locals? Were they the German Vermont? Was it the SS? Most of the time it was the SS. and he went into those mass graves and they collected the bullets. You you can tell by bullets, right? It's called Holocaust by bullet. You can tell who the murderers were based upon the bullets that they retrieved. Who covered up the Jews after these after they were gunned down like this? Who who covered up the the the pits, the the murder pits? What what happened to the spoils? Were the spoils rounded up in warehouses and sent to Germany? Did the people of the town take it? Did they loot it? Who who took over the Jewish homes? He asked basic simple factual questions. He does this. He did it for about 18 years starting about 20 22 years ago in Latvia. the main shel, you know, in the Jewish neighborhood. They rounded up the Jews and they burnt them alive in that shel like what happened, by the way, under Pope Paul IVth. You had these former converso Jews from Spain who settled in in what we call today Italy. One of the towns was Encona. So there were over a hundred of them. Some of them, you know, apologized, admitted their wayward ways. They actually were sent off to um to some colony, probably to Sardinia, somewhere like that to to uh live. And it was the ship were overtaken by the Ottomans, and they actually were liberated, and they could live the rest of their lives as Jews. But some of them would not recant. They wouldn't say, "Oh, we were weward." You know, they they were going to we're Jews, you know, and we're sorry that we we became convers. I I'm not sure how many. I think that was of the hundred. I think it was about 27 of them, something like that. I can get the exact number. But they were condemned to be burnt alive. And they were burnt to death. They were burnt in in Anona at the stake. So you had this in Latvia. One shul was not destroyed in all of Latafia. You know why? Because it was in the downtown district in the commercial district and it shared common walls with other buildings. So they couldn't destroy the shel. They would have destroyed other buildings. That sh there weren't many Latvian survivors. Mort Friedman's father was one of the few survivors of Ria. But the survivors came and under the communists they were allowed to have a synagogue. They were limited what they could do. But it's the most haunting place because it's the only synagogue in all of Ria that survives. And think about you know there you got shivi above the aresh. It says I will always have the you know the image or the knowledge the perceived presence of God in front of me. Meaning I'll live a life a godly life that god's in my presence. Or we also know what do you see sometimes you should know who do you stand in front of when you pray when you pray you're talking to God you know think about the the things that we have the appribations the the quotes above the aron kesh this aren kesh is the only one in the world like it where above the aon kesh it says barak ao nitanu Lashinhem, the source of all blessing, who did not feed us as prey to the the predators, prey to the the ravaging animals that they could rip us apart with their teeth. That's not what you would expect to see above an hour in Kesh. But these were the very few survivors. Just before we go back to the Kenna, you know, we mentioned what happened after they broke the pack in Lithuania. They murdered everyone with the exception of three places where they put them into ghettos. VNA, KNA, and Shaveo. Now in VNA they took the Jews out to a place called Panari Forest. Panari Forest I'll give you an example. Let's say people in Manhattan in the summer they'll go to the Hamptons. They'll go to Atlantic Beach. They'll go to Deal New Jersey. They'll go to Westport, Connecticut. That's what Panari was for people in Vilna. They happened to have in Panari when it was when it was because it was Lithuania was under Russian control from like 1773 till 1918 and then it was under control again um of the Soviets in 1939 after the uh Malo van ribbon trap pack. So what do you have there? You have like these underground pits, massive massive pits. When you're near Bayon Port in in Newark airport, do you ever see the those huge tanks that hold the petroleum that hold the gas, you know, along 95? The tankers come and they put the petroleum there. That's where they store it and then then the truck picks up the petroleum and goes to the gas stations throughout this throughout this area. So, they had underground pits in in Bayon in Newark. They have above ground pits. These were underground. And they took 90,000 people and they gunned them down there. Of the 90,000 people, 70,000 of them were Jews. The Jews of VNA, the Jews of the surrounding communities of VNA. They did the same thing with the Kovna ghetto. There's something called the ninth fort. That's where Elhan Vasan was killed in 1941. The seventh fort is where most of the Jews of Covenant and Kavna was an incredible today it's called Kas but there was a suburb of Kavna. Kavna is a Polish word uh suburb of Kavna by the name of Slobatka. There's no church in Slobatka only Schulles. That's where you had the two great yeshivas. The famous Musu Yeshiva uh Kessus B Israel named after Israel Salanter. That's the altar of Sabbatka. That's where Rabbi Aaron Kutner was a Talmud. That's where Rabbi Yets Hutner was a Talmud. Rav Rutderman was a Talmud there. So was um Ravakov Kamitki. Many of the those who survived that yeshiva and survived the war became the Gdole that rebuilt Judaism in America. And there was another great yeshiva there. Kessusb Yeets. What was that? Named after Rabbi Yukan inspector. Rabbi Yitkan inspector. That's Reits was a board member, right? Rabbi Isaac Elhan in theological seminary. He was the he was the pose kador uh for for Lithuanian jewelry before Raimos Ginski was inspector. He was the r of Kavna. He was actually respected by the Zarist officials. He was an incredible RV. He was he was a postador. We have a sh of chuvas. I think it called basak. So they named Yeshiva after Rabbi Yetskhan inspector like we did yeshiva university rabbi kohhan theological seminary is named after the the basitan inspector and they named the yeshiva the great student of salvichekovich right he was the rash yesa of that yeshiva kinesis basits now during world war I these yeshivas had to flee because of the war and then and they reestablish themselves afterwards and you have a branch of the famous Kinesis basis there a branch in Kevron and we know the story of the massacre in 1929 in Kevron of the Sabbatka yeshiva um it has a branch after that massacre in Yusha it's a famous yeshiva till this day one of the world's greatest yes yeshivas it's all from that school it's all from Slabatka Slabatka is a is a suburb of Kavna The chief rabbi at that time of Kavna was a great great we call him the Dvar of Ram Rabbi Abraham Dov Kahana Shapi Abraham Dober Kahana Shapi who is that that's the famous Rabbi Salvich received from the Kavnarv from the Dvar of Ram a major he was the rabbi in Kavna and they had the two yeshivas in Slabatka And when the Germans came in, like they did in every place, they would have the Jews set up a udarat. Udarat means a Jewish council, a council of elders. The RV, Rabbi Aram, the Dvar, Rabbi Aramana Shapiro, Rabbi Kana, he asked this doctor on an Elkus, Dr. Elkus to be the head of it. Dr. Elkus was an incredibly thoughtful doctor respected by the Christian community and the Jewish community and he was a man of very high uh ethical and moral fiber because he knew the RV died early in the ghetto. He died in 39. He he was he was elderly, you know, they were mal they were malnutritioned. He died there. But he thought Dr. Dr. Elkus would do a very fair job leading the council. Before Dr. Elkus is killed in the final action of the slaughter of thousands of Jews in Kovna of the Kavn ghetto, he wrote a letter that he hoped would get to his children. His two children in 38 had gone to London, one to study medicine, the other I'm not sure what his son to study medicine, his daughter studied something else. His son actually becomes the head of the department of neurossych neurosychology at John Hopkins University at the medical center. At the time he's in London. The daughter will con she's in u I believe she's in Birmingham and England and she her life will be spent between England and Israel she makes aliyah listen to this letter it's Dr. Alhan and his name is Dr. Elkus his last testament my beloved son and daughter I'm writing these lines my dear children in the veil of tears that term again achabaka in the veil of tears in the coagto where we have been for two years by the way that he dates the letter October 19th 1943 we have now heard that in a few days our fate is to be sealed the ghetto is to be crushed crushed and torn aunder. Whether we are all to perish or whether a few of us are to survive is in God's hands. We fear that only those capable of slave labor will live. The rest are sentenced to death. We are left a few out of many. Out of the 35,000 Jews of Kovna, approximately 17,000 remain. Out of a quarter of a million Jews in Lithuania, only 25,000 live, plus 5,000 who during the last two years were deported to hard labor in Latvia, stripped of all their belongings. Again, why Latvia? Because they killed off all the Jews already in the fall of 41 in Latvia. They needed slave labors. I have a great aunt. She's no longer alive. She was sent from Germany to be a slave laborer in Ria. She actually ended up becoming the that's how she survived. her husband died was was died in the war uh of malnutrition and starvation. She survived but for a large part of the war she was the cook of a man by the name of Edward Roushman. He was the commandant of Kaiservault of of the of the camp in and outside of Regalia. There was a um there was a movie it wasn't exactly historically accurate. It was called the Odessa file, the bad the bad person, the the evil person in in that movie, the commonant. That was Edward Roushman. So she was his personal cook. That's part of the reason she survived. I mean, you know, afterwards when the Russians were coming, they sent the women to Stutoff. Stutoff is a a camp in Poland on the not so far from Danzik. You know, it's not from so far from Gdansk. you know, the Russians. She went to another bunch of other camps. They were liberated by the Russians. I I I don't have to tell you what the Russians did to the these Jewish women were were were the the size of a toothpick. And the Russian soldiers, they all they raped them, you know, just, you know, that was their liberation. It's not the same thing as a liberation of American soldiers coming, you know, and and liberating a camp in Germany, to put it mildly. So that's what's left only 25,000 of a quarter of a million Jews left who during by by the way in the end maybe maybe if if that's a big number 5% of Lithuanian Jews survive think about it what what chance did you have of surviving from 1941 Lithuania was liberated probably in 44 the reason you couldn't survive in Lithuania The Lithuanians wouldn't let you live. They did the dirt. The LFA, the Lithuanian Free Army, did all the work, dirty work for the Germans. What chance did you have of survival? The rest were put to death in terrible ways by the followers of the greatest Hmon of all times and of all generations. Some of those dear and close to us, too, are no longer with us. your aunt Kana, your uncle Aric, they were killed with 1500 souls of the ghetto on October 4th, 1941. Uncle Tvi who was lying in the hospital suffering from a broken leg. He was saved by a miracle because all the patients, the doctors, the nurses, the relatives and visitors who happened to be there, they were burned to death in the hospital after the soldiers had blocked all the doors and all the windows of the hospital and set fire to it. But somehow this uncle see he he was he survived. your uncle Dove and his son, my nephew Shuel, they were taken out and killed with the rest of the Kalvaria community during the first months of the war. That is about two years ago. With the exception of us still surviving in Kovna and a few Jews in the Shaveal Ghetto, no single Jew survives. No single Jew is alive anymore in Lithuania. Due to outer forces and inner circumstance, only our own ghetto has managed to survive and live out its diaspora life. For the past two years, we've lived in slavery and hard labor, in a state of hunger and deprivation. Almost all of our clothing, belongings, and books were taken from us by the authorities. The last massacre when 10,000 victims were murdered at one time took place October 28th, 1941. Our total community had to go through quote unquote the selection by our rulers, the Nazis. The selection meant life or death. Anih, I am the man who with my own eyes saw those who were about to die. I was there early on the morning of October 29th in the camp that led to the slaughter at the 9th Fort. With my own ears, I heard the awe inspiring and terrible symphony. The weeping, the screaming of 10,000 people, old and young, a scream that tore at the heart of heaven. No ear had heard such cries through the ages and the generations. With many of our martyrs, I challenged my creator. And with them, from a heart torn in agony, I cried, "Who is like you in the universe, my lord?" In my effort to save people here and there, I was beaten by the German soldiers. Wounded and bleeding, I fainted and was carried in the arms of friends to a place outside the camp. There, a small group of about 30 or 40 survived. These were the witnesses to the fire. We are, it appears, one of the at one of the staging centers. Before our eyes, before the very windows of our houses, there have passed over the past two years many, many thousands of Jews. Some have come from southern Germany and Vienna. But like the the Jews of Kavanaaugh, they were taken with their belongings to the ninth fort which is a few kilometers from us. There they were killed with extreme cruelty. We learned later that they were misled. These German and vianese Jews were told they were coming to Kavna to settle in our ghetto. From the day of the ghetto's founding, I have stood at its head. Our community chose me and and the authorities conferred me as a chairman of the council of elders, the Udinarat, together with my friend, the advocate, the attorney Le Garfuncle, who is a former member of the Lithuanian Parliament, and a few other close and good people concerned and caring for the fate of the surviving few. Ju just parathetically in in 41 Dr. Elkus was told by the commandant, the SS commandant to choose 10,000 people. He wouldn't do it. He wouldn't be the one like I'll give you an example. Morai Ramovski who was the head of the Udenat in the lodge ghetto. He would take the elderly and the children. There's a famous maybe the most infamous speech in in all Jewish history when he gets up and he speaks to all the Jews in the lodge ghetto and he says give me your children. He says I'm not going to lie to you. We all know that we're not being settled resettled in the east that no one has ever heard of the people that have been deported from this ghetto and we all know what has become of them. And now I as the head of the udenrod have been told I think I forgot what the number was however many thousands that I have to have the thousands. My job is to keep those who can be kept alive. Those of you who can work work at a textile factory. Those of you who have the ability to be a resource and a value to the SS. maybe we have a chance to to to survive this war to to live out this war. And therefore I tell you, give me your children. And you can hear, you know, they describe the shrieks of of the the young mothers. He says, by me taking your children and you know what's going to happen to your children, I can at least save you and keep you alive. And some mothers wouldn't part with their children. They insisted on going with their children to their death. Dr. Elkus didn't play God. Dr. Elkus did not say, "It's my place to determine who's going to live and who's going to die." And he refused to do it. And the Germans were the ones who did it in Kovna. We are trying to steer our battered ship in furious seas when waves of gazeros of decrees and decisions threaten to drown it every day. Through my influence, I succeeded at times in easing the verdict and in scattering some of the dark clouds that hung over our heads. I bore my duties with head high and an upright countenance. Never did I ask for pity. Never did I doubt our rights. I argued our case with total confidence in the justice of our demands. In these hardest moments of our life, you, my dear ones, are always before us. You are present in our deepest thoughts and in our hearts. In the darkest nights, your mother would sit beside me and we would dream of your life and your future. Our innermost desire is to see you again, to embrace you, and to tell you once again how close we are to you. How our hearts beat as we remember you and see you before us. And is there any time, day or night, when your memory is not with us, as we stand here at the very gates of hell with a knife poised at our necks, only your images, dear ones, sustain us. And you, my children, how was your life these past five years? So hard and full of sorrow for the jewelry of Europe. I know that far away from this place, you have shared our anguish. And in agony, you have listened to every slight rumor coming from this kabaka, this veil of tears. and that deep down you have felt with us an unparalleled tragedy of our people. With regard to myself, I have little to report. Last year, I suffered an acute and severe attack of rheumatoid arthritis which kept me bedridden for nine months. However, even in the most difficult days of my illness, I carried on in my community and from my bedside participated actively in the work of my friends. Now I am better. It has it has been about six months since I ceased being regarded as sick. I'm not fully well either, but I continued to work ceaselessly and without respit rest or respit. About six months ago, we received a message from Uncle Hans transmitted to us by the way of the Red Cross. It said that you were all right. The little note written by a stranger took nine months to reach us. We have written and written to you by way of the Red Cross and private persons. Have any of our words reached you? We are desolate that during our stay here we could not contact you and tell you that we are still among the living. We know full well how heavily the doubt of our survival waves upon you and what strength and confidence you would draw from the news that we are alive. This would certainly give you courage and belief in work and life with a firm and clear goal. I deeply despair and the kind of apathy which tends to drive a person out of this world. I pray that this may not happen to you. I doubt my beloved children whether I will ever be able to see you again, to hug you and to press you to my heart. Before I leave this world and you, my dear ones, I wish to tell you once again how dear you are to us and how deeply our souls yearn for you. Joel, that's a son, my beloved. Be a faithful son to your people. Take care of your nation and do not worry about the Gentiles. During our long exile, they have not given us an eighth of an eighth of what we have given them. Immerse yourself in this question and return to it again and again. Try to settle in the land of Israel. Tie your destiny to the land of our future. Even if life there may be hard, it is a life full of content and meaning. Great and mighty is the power of faith and belief. Faith can move mountains. Do not look to the left or to the right as you pursue your path. If at times you see your people straying, do not let your heart do not let your heart lose courage, my son. It is not their fault. It is our bitter gullus, our bit our bitter exile which has made them so. Let truth be always before you and under your feet. Truth will guide you and show you the path of life. And you, my dear daughter, my dear daughter Sarah, read most carefully what I have just said to Joel. I trust your clear mind and your sound judgment. Do not live for the moment. Do not stray from your chosen path and pick flowers at the wayside. They soon will wilt. Lead a life full of beauty, a pure life full of content and meaning. For all your days walk together. Let no distance separate you. Let no serious event come between you. Remember both of you what a malik has done to us. Remember and never forget it all your days and pass this memory as a sacred testament to future generations. The Germans killed, slaughtered, and murdered us in complete equinimity. I was there with them. I saw them when they sent thousands of people, men, women, children, infants, to their death, while enjoying their breakfast. And while mocking our martyrs, I saw them coming back from their murderous missions, dirty, stained from head to foot with the blood of our dear ones. They sat at their table eating and drinking, listening to light music. They are professional executioners. The soil of Lithuania is soaked with our blood, killed at the hands of the Lithuanians themselves. Lithuanians with whom we have lived for hundreds of years and whom with all our strength we hope to achieve their own national independence. 7,000 of our brothers and sisters were killed by Lithuanians in terrible and barbarous ways during the last days of June of 41. They themselves and no others executed whole congregations following German orders. They searched with special pleasure sellers and wells, fields and forest for those in hiding. And they turned them over to the German authorities. Never having anything to do with them. They and their children are accursed forever. I'm writing this in an hour when many desperate souls, widows and orphans, threadbear and hungry are camping on my doorstep, imploring us for help. My strength is ebbing. There is a desert, a desert inside me. My soul is scorched. I am naked and empty. There are no words in my mouth. But you, my most dearly beloved, will know what I wanted to say to you at this hour. And now, for a moment, I close my eyes and see you both standing before me. I embrace and kiss you both. And I say to you again that until my last breath, I remain your loving father. Continuing in the kina on page 363, the young they assumed they would be able to defend themselves against the they were strong, you know, they were confident in their ability to defend themselves against Titus and the Roman forces. They assumed, so to speak, that that the angels would help them, that would help them. They didn't realize that wasn't the case. The elder Jews, they're much more wise when it came to that. And they understood full well. They understood full well that what? They were shocked. They were horrified. They knew that this was the end of Jerusalem. Assoc. How do you explain that last line? Assoc fulfilled his will. So you could say that it's Titus the Romans that he's going to have his will fulfilled. The other way of explaining it is what Titus was fulfilling the will of God. Titus could accomplish nothing. The Romans could accomplish nothing if God would not have allowed it. And that's why it says that what that the Almighty was bound in chains meaning God did not act. There was that single Kashina and he allowed so to speak the Romans free reign. very similar to what we saw on the black sasora and the Babylonians you know their success had ceased but now by the sheni the red one meaning as Rome and they've frightened the masses of Jews the the the pizza lakl varmoon was the hashkah that was when when Jacob under the tyranny of love and had incredible providential success the almighty was looking after him that hasn't been the case for us his descendants the bas yakov under the tyranny of of the wrath of Romekarmon God so to speak has abandoned he has abandoned the fortress like we described before There's been a what do you have? Titus had four of his generals. Each of them was supposed to take down one side of the Temple Mount. North, the south, the east, the westbo. But the general who was supposed to destroy the the western fortification, he didn't. Somehow God's there. God remained. He didn't allow that to be destroyed like the other three sides. God stood there behind that wall. Now the question is what is this referring to? Is it referring to what you what you and I call the cotel, the kosal hamari, the western retaining wall that Herod built? Or is it referring to the western wall of the heal? Remember on the temple mount the only part that is built you know that's a building is what we call the hea you have the ulam which is the entrance and then as you enter the heal you have what you have the kesh we talked about the kesh that's only khan can go you have the incense altar the golden altar you have the manura and you have the shulan that's the kesh then you have the parois on the other side of the paro is the holy of holies. So during the second temple you just had the foundation stone the evania in the first base of mikdash on on that evania what was sitting on that was the the arangotesh the holy ark. So the whatever the western wall is whether it's the western wall of the hea or the western wall of the of the harabayas what we call the cotel that was not destroyed god kata from from the quote from the end of a last night meaning you allowed this to happen children are not culpable for their sins. But nevertheless, they killed all these Jewish children. How can it be that the nations they roar in rage and God? You did not you didn't protect us. Fellow Spinos, those who were not killed, they were taken out the Jaffa gate, as we said, taken to the Jaffa port and they were put into these ships to be sold on the Roman slave market. Now, the fear is what? They're going to be sold as sex objects, as sex slaves. So, what happens? What is the conversation that takes place amongst these young these adolescents as they're being shipped to Rome on these boats? [Music] God, please bring us back to life. Meaning at the time of may we merit to live again as they are about to go into the depths of the Mediterranean. They made a decision that rather than lead a life where we have to be violated and abused like this, rather than have to lead a life of of sin and being the object of sin, we're going to die alashm. We're going to die not to have to lead that life. And they weighed whether they were allowed to do it because after all suicide is is homicides. It's it's killing yourself. Are you need a ma you need a license to do that. It's prohibited unless there's a m and they felt that they had a license under these circumstances. As they sank down to the bottom of the Mediterranean, they said, "God, we're not doing this to avoid pain. We're doing this to avoid sin and we're doing this in your name." It's the Psalm 44 which alludes to this that God will bring them back. is that in a time of in the revival of the dead they will once again be able to live a proper healthy Jewish life and so to speak the heavenly voice said to awaken this kind of thing has to awake all of us when this is what befalls you know young innocent people it has to arouse all of us I want to share with you. This is a from from a book by the name of testimonies without boundaries. Alone Penzel interviewed many who survived um many who survived October 7th. He also interviewed Zaka. You know what Zaka is? The group that that collected the dead bodies that collected the remains. He interviewed the men and women, the righteous men and women. By the way, Daniel Altman from Arshul, his sister, is one of those who is a reservist that does the Taharas. She obviously the Tara, the purification of the the bodies for burial of of women who are victims of terror or women soldiers who are killed. So he went to Shura, he interviewed Zaka, and this is a whole book. I just want to read two pages to you. This is an interview of one of the um members of Zaka what he discovered at Kibuti and we said nalos sorry Nero nakalos beeri karaza they these were overrun and they suffered they along with the those at the Nova music festival suffered huge huge destruction in desolation. So, first before we um talk about Yosi, there's a man by the name of of uh Natan. When I entered the first home in Kibbutz Bay, I found a man who had apparently prepared a holiday meal for him and his for himself and his family. Not only did the family not get to enjoy that meal, but I understood that while the terrorists unimaginably abused that family, they sat and they ate the meal in their place in front of them while the family bled to death. Nas Natan explained to me that this could be duced from the connection between the time of the murders and the scene because people don't eat a yumptiff meal at 6 6 a.m. or 6:30 in the morning. Obviously, that's why that it was a terrorist who had eaten this meal. What happened in Beir? We witnessed a family that was subjected to unimag unimaginable abuse. The terrorists sat and ate while they gouged out one of the father's eyes while his hands were handcuffed behind his back. The mother of that family also had her hands handcuffed behind her and they they sliced off her breasts. They simply cut them. So the father had an eye hanging out and the mother was bleeding from her breasts. All of this happens in front of their little children who are sitting in front of them. If you thought that that was enough for the terrorists, think again. Because the horrors did not end there. The terrorists cut off several fingers from the seven-year-old boy's hands right in front of his parents' eyes. They also quote unquote took care of the daughter. They cut off they severed her leg. Yasi, this is the member of Zaka, also said that the terrorists set up a table in the middle of the house in front of those four unfortunate souls who were bleeding to death, whose lives were ended most cruy and they started eating. And we can only imagine in our heads the sights and perhaps also the feelings of the father and mother of the family before they were murdered. Watching helplessly as their children were butchered in front of them. Try to imagine the helplessness that the father and mother experienced in those moments. Not only could they not do anything to prevent their children from experiencing what they experienced, but they also had to be there for them while they themselves were dealing with a gouged eye and a cut off breast. Many other disturbing and sadistic questions persist, haunting the mind relentlessly. Was the last sight of the father before his eye was taken out? The abuse of his wife and children? And what about those little children? Those children who did not hurt anyone. They witnessed the cruel abuse of their parents and then experienced it themselves. What were the family members last words to each other if there were even any? Now Alone says, "I returned to my question at the beginning of this testimony. A question whose answer I personally have already deciphered. Is there any limit to the evil of a malik? In this case, a malik is the Muslim Brotherhood. In this case, a malik are the Palestinians, the Palestinian Kamas and PI, the Palestinian population who came in after kamas left these places. And what was ever left, they raped, they murdered, they pillaged. Is there any limit to that evil? Turn please to page 26 uh toka 26 in the um Rabbi Salvich Masaurus Harav. It's on page 469. Sorry, 468 469 in the art scroll. It's page 280. This is obviously not meant to be taken literally, but it's a very important theological principle. We haven't done this kin since I think 2020. It's describing an image that didn't take place literally, but could have occurred after the Yermyahu. They won't allow him to go in shackles and chains to Bavl because they view him as a hero. The Babylonians, he's the man who predicted this. He's the man who told the Jews not to revolt, not to rebel against Bavl. And and and what happens? He's the man who was proven right. He says, "No, you know, my lot is a lot of my people. I'm with them in their distress, and I can't come in a golden chariot to bubble. I can only come in shackles and chains." Well, the Babylonians don't want him coming like that. In the end, Yer Myahu goes to Mitzim because there's many of the refugees flee down south to Mitim, which is a mistake and a dead end for the Jewish people who go there. But as he's going to he stops involv precious stones, how can you just lie there? How can you be silent? Your sons are in exile. Their homes, your children are in exile. Their homes are destroyed. That's the key line. He says, "Where is this in this parched desolate land?" So, let's say they violated the covenant. The Jews were wrong. The Jews sinned. But where is the benefit of the those who the covenant was made with? Meaning you Abraham. Now, by the way, just to I want to do the punchline first and we'll read through the kina. What was the mistake in this? Not that your meow didn't make a mistake. It's what the khalier is trying to teach us. There's a difference between and brisavos. What's the difference between the covenant versus the merit? Let's say for instance that I am terribly misbehaved. I'm going to sneeze in a second. Sorry. I'm terribly misbehaved. And you bring me in front of the judge. Judge knew my grandfather. My grandfather was a very righteous man. My grandfather actually put the judge through law school. Gave him his first job. Okay. So the judge has Rahmanus on me because of his feelings for my grandfather. Not because I deserve it. If anything, I'm a scoundrel. With a grandfather like my grandfather, how could I misbehave? How could I conduct myself this way? But there's this concept, right? There's this concept of the grandfather that doesn't go forever in 10 generations. The judge's great great great great great descendant is not going to have Rahmanus on on my great great great great descendant to quote the gar ceases but brisos what's a covenant a covenant is an eternal contract it's a permanent contract eternal contract that does never ends up so going to the OOS and saying you know like you know you should complain how can God do this to your descendants because the answer is going to be because we didn't act like Avam and Sor we didn't conduct ourselves like yet and Rifka we're suffering because we didn't lead a life in line we were blessed with them we were blessed with them as role models and look at how we conducted ourselves Okay. What's Brisavos? Brisavos says the following. The Jews will never be annihilated. Now, the Jews may have to suffer horrifically to shake them out of their out of their sense. What What's the term I'm looking for when you're complacent? Out of their state of complacency. Is malaise the word I'm looking for? to to to shake them out of their that state of complacency that they're going to have to do the Jews and that may suffer in a way that no one else suffers. But everyone else, it's true of every great empire on earth. It ends. It's annihilated. It ceases to exist. It's destroyed. You can only you can only find it in a history book. Cloud Israel, the Jews, because of the system of Hashkah, because of Hashkah, that covenant of specific providence, the Jews will suffer horrifically, but the Jews will never be lost. Individual Jews, yes, not the people, not the nation, not Cl Israel, not the so to speak, the corporate entity of AmIrael. in Brisavos always exists. Even though tama the garumar says there's no longeros there is brisabos goim they they cried out with lamentations over the destruction of their of their people of their descendants and they petitioned they pleaded God the one who lives the one who abodess above in heaven where is the covenant this is this is taken out of context where what about the covenant that was made with the progenitors the rishim God answers what can I tell you what can I tell you my children this is what happens when and he and they go he goes on now God goes on hey miru cavod the worst sin possible a vodara they traded tamura they traded God, the God, the living God, a God of reality, a God of truth for nonsense form. No, should I conceal my eyes from that? And should when they deny God, they deny God's system of morality. They they they deny God's system when when sin doesn't exist. I should just turn away and okay. So they've rejected they've been given everything on a silver platter. They reject it. I should turn away should refrain from that bris. I say so we say but wait a second but if they violated the bris where is the merit of the crus? And that's the whole point is no longer Abraham cries out and he petitions the the the God in the heavens, the God over the universe. Was it for not that I was went through the 10 trials and tribulations that I withtood to only live to only to see my descendants in their state of destruction? Where is the promise? Don't worry. Remember in the Brisbane, the covenant of Jewish history, he says, "Don't worry. Don't be afraid Abraham. Don't worry about it. Rahil Mi what's the he explains they they followed every ism under the sun right look today we have so many young Jews even after October 7th tragically they're so far removed from anything whatever the flavor of extreme wokeness is that's their religion that's their reality that's what they define as Is truth a value substance? It doesn't matter that it's going to get flipped out for something else six months later. That's it's a tragedy. Yatsu boros boros nishos. This is a play on the hauro from last week of yahu. What is a sister? Provides water. Water is a sustenance for life, right? It's it's the but they've yun for themselves. H e w e h e wn. and they've yearned for themselves sistns with cracks in it. Instead of it being a supportive life, it's nothing. It's it's worthless. It's meaningless. You talk about the 10 tribulations. I mean, they didn't just violate chess, they violated theos, which is the embodiment of all of Judaism, the foundations of all of Judaism. And you say to me, "Now comes." Isaac cries out. Was I slaughtered for not now? What happened? My descendants know I I was willing to sacrifice my life. I was willing to give up my life. And now in turn for that the great act of the aada the great statement of commitment to God. Look at what's happened. The real slaughter is happening by the thousands my descendants by the tens of thousands of my descendants are being slaughtered and eradicated. Ay where is the promise you made? I will establish my covenant with Isaac. Where is that? God answers. No, I'm sorry. I read the wrong line. What can I tell you, my children? It is a before me. And what is that gazer? He explains. I gave them a prophet on the level of Yeryahu for decades was pleading with them, but they rebelled against him. Vitimar Maria, the very temple mount that you consecrated by willing to sacrifice yourself on they have used that as an object of a vodora, an object of corruption. Nlesia liinia, you know, I'm I'm tired. I loathe just hearing what they're doing and and tolerating what they're doing. And let me ask you something. How can I God refrain myself from what they did on that very temple mount to Zakaria? We'll get to that. That's Zakaria of the Bayas Rish. He was the Nvi the Cohen Gabel. They murdered him. Anyom kipper that fell at an Chabas. That's the story of the 34th ka. H how you you say where is this crus? I'm sorry. They there's no longer bris when your descendants can do something that heinous on the very place that you consecrated. This is turning to the one who was raised through education. The tears are just flowing from from him. the young the nation because Yakov is the real is the father of the nation right some of Aram's descendants become Ishmael in the Arab worlds descendants become Asa of the Rome in the Christian world who's the one that fathers the nation it's a hraim the thousands and thousands of of of Jews who have been murdered is slaughtered. You say that they shed blood. They shed one very, very important, significant Jew's blood. But how does that translate into tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands? He doesn't go into an answer like he did with its. Now comes Moshe Roan, the trusted servant, trusted shepherd, the man who shepherd God's sheep, God's flock. He too is he's buried in Haroazman. The very nation that you asked me to treat like a like the nursing father. What's a nursing father? A nursing mother we know is when the baby wakes up, the baby's hungry, or the baby has a diaper. She nurses the baby, cleans the baby, and then the baby goes back to sleep. What happens when the baby doesn't go back to sleep? It's been nursed. It's been burped. It doesn't have a dirty diaper. Now, the the mother's done all she can do. Now, she gives it to the father. That's a canankerous bratty baby. Okay. But you asked me in paras. You asked me to bear these these people the way that the the nursing father so to speak. Again, men don't lactate. It's it's the bratty canankerous kid that has already received the lactation of the mother. already received, so to speak, the clean diaper and I bore them and I lived. I did what you said. You said take care of them. That's just go back to that line. How can it be that they're slaughtered below Zaman? What's below Zaman? I mean, there's just there's no there's no boundary to it. And where is the promise? You said this would never be an orphaned nation. And look at them. Again, no answer. Now it comes to the imos. All you hear her is crying. She's not articulating an argument. She's just crying. Miss, she's beating her chest just just in pain. and suffering over her children. Again, just crying. Remember, there's there's four who produced the shift. Leia, Rael, Zilpa, and Bilha. You see like the two hands lifted up, so to speak. God responds to them. I want you, oh precious ones. I want you, oh pure ones, return to the to return to the to I want to fulfill all of your petitions, all of your prayers, everything you've cried. And not only that, I am in exile with you. I am suffering with you. The perceived presence of God, it is there with the Jews in our state of exile. It's what saved us, what's kept us, what's maintained us throughout all the trials and tribulations of the galut. I went into Babylonia with you and I will I will bring you back. I will bring your children back from that ghost 27. The next one, page 479 in the the Msurus Harav page 284. Yeah, I think it's 284 in the art scroll. This is again an image conveyed. >> You have 282 me. So in arts world 282 in some of the art schools you know we've all seen this you have someone who was so pleasant looking be it a man or a woman and then they go through something horrific and you say my god what they've been through emotionally it's not the same person they look like a ghost they look like a demon. That's not the the handsome that's not the beautiful person that I knew that I had that I had encountered. Abimos Seaf when the measure had reached its stage the Yafakertz the woman who was as beautiful as Tza. I believe Tza was was the daughter I think of Eio if I'm correct. I could be wrong, but I think that's who was my God. The angels cried out loud. This is not the beautiful one. when Jeremy ben right he is incarcerated at the time of the when he comes out of the incarceration cell to see the destruction of what Jerusalem is and what the survivors look like what did he find a woman who at one time had been so beautiful but who's now so minuvelis who looks horrific who looks like a disaster pastor who looks like a a tornado has destroyed her. Elohim, I decree, I declare upon you in the name of God, in the name of humanity, what are you? Are you some kind of demon or are you actually a human being? You know, behind that hideous look, there seems to be a humanity hiding behind that. But but to look at you, it's like you're some creature from out of this world. I am no demon. I am no other world creature. There was a time that I was pleasant. There was a time that that that I was someone that was my countenance was accepted and and and was welcomed graciously by everyone. Who am I? I am the one of three. I am the one of 71. I am the 12. I am the 60 and I am the one. Who is the very first that started this revolution of which I am the continuity of? I am Abraham's descendant. I don't look like Abraham. I don't appear like Abraham, but deep down that's who I am and that's who I represent. What does it mean? I am the three. I am the continuity of everything that was given to us by each of the couples. [Music] And I am the continuity and the embodiment of the nation of Israel, the 12 tribes that created the tapestry of the Jewish nation and the Jewish people. V sorry Vishimbo. And who am I on an individual level? I'm the continu I'm the continuation of that nation made up of 600,000 600,000 that made up the fighting force that made up the the the group that would be responsible for for implanting the nation in Israel and I am the 71. The role of the Sanhedrin is to be the embodiment of AmIrael. What does that mean? The embodiment of Amy Israel. What it means is this that when there is an See, most mitzvah you and I think of devolve upon the individual. Who's the gavra? Who's the subject that observes the mitzvah? The individual Jew. The individual Jew hears the chauffeur. The individual Jew takes the Lula. The individual Jew eats the matzah. Sometimes the gavra, the subject is not the individual Jew. Who's obligated in establishing rashes the nation? Who's obligated in establishing the makomaar establishing what we'll call kaducious Israel? The equivalent of the mah israel and the midbar. But to that to happen in Israel, who's obligated in that? The nation. Whenever there's an obligation, it devolves upon the nation. For instance, who who deals with an earnas? Who defines it as anidas? The nation. So whenever there's an obligation upon the nation that who represents the nation, who is the living embodiment of the nation, the Sanhedrin, that's what it means. The 71 the 71 who've established for us the the Msorra who are responsible for transmitting the misora who are responsible for legislating and creating a hakic system that's the 71 that's so so he's I each and every Jew represents many phenomena they represent the vision of Abraham they represent the complete creation of the three others they represent the nation in terms of its component parts that the tribes they represent the nation in terms of its component parts the individuals they're an individual Jew they represent the nation that they have to be responsible for the misor the way the Sanhedrin is that's what she's saying she's saying I am all of that I have not forfeited or forsaken any component of of Judaism so he says What does it mean to taste? What does it mean to concentrate? Meaning come out of your malaise, come out of your depression, come out of your state of horror. Try because there was a time when you were so s you could return to who you were. You could return to the Sanhedrin. You could return to the 12 tribes. could return to the values of the AOS. Would it not be befitting for you to once again put a smile on your face to be in a state of sima to rejoice not to be called the war wayward daughter. So the Jewish people respond, this woman who embodies Ami Israel, how can I rejoice? How can I raise my voice? My children, they're under the control of the oppressors. My prophets, they've been smitten. Their blood is just just what the term I want to translate it's just flowing like a river galu kanar the leaders the ones that could bring back the nation the ones who have the the the leadership ability they're not available they're the first ones the Nazis killed when they came into a town in Poland they killed the rabbis okay the annihilation of Polish jewelry didn't in full force didn't begin till after von till till March of 42. But early on the the leadership the rabbitic leadership they were all killed. Malone mktashi the abode of my holy temple that's gone all the vessels everything has been taken from it. This is the point we were making. my beloved like in Shirim that intense relationship between God and the and the Jewish people God has he's abandoned me he's fled noishad the pleasant abode meaning we we had all these you know we had the rushal and the nation would come together three times a year we had the communities throughout we we're not going to get to the 10th kina today but it describes all the communities throughout the length and breadth of Israel of which the Misharos would come from, the Mammudos would come from. This whole system, it's all done. It's all been destroyed. It's all devoured. You know what this is like? And we've talked about this before. When you go to um when you go to Yadvashm, there's an area called the valley of the communities and it's a maze where the goal is where you just totally get lost in the maze. you just t