This is what destroys Judaism (it's not what you think)

what can help us survive and even more Thrive during Exile during the diaspora or even better yet and the Exile remedy the Exile and conversely what can actually fuel the Exile and God forbid give it more strength and power over us okay friends The Story begins we are exploring a very relevant passage of talwood because this is relevant to the time period we find ourselves on the Jewish calendar we're approaching the month of a we're approaching the 9th of a the day that the basam Mikes both temples had been destroyed and the talmud explores the story one of the stories that actually led to the destruction of the basam of the temple um the the way we see things the way humans see things right if you were to ask the average historian why was the temple destroyed right well because the Babylonians destroyed it or the second temple because the Romans destroyed it um and that's true right and you could Analyze That did they not like the Jews what was the reason for anti-Semitism what was the cause but when it comes to analyzing these things internally as Jewish people we always attribute these things to our own behavior there's a line that we recite in the Musa prayer because of our sins we've been exiled from our land well why is it our fault it was the Romans okay but the question is why did God allow this to happen in the first place we assume that we could have been a little bit better and something we did was off now that's a very important approach by the way approach when it comes to introspecting our own lives when it comes to somebody else's suffering we would never do that right you must be suffering because of this yeah we don't do that we empathize and we say God you have no right to do that that wasn't cool but when it comes to our own suffering especially collectively as a community we often ask ourselves well what led to this and the talmud says that what led to the destruction of the first temple by the Babylonians was the immorality of the Jewish people was their engagement in idolatry was their engagement in relational immorality right the Yater Hara the evil inclination was burning within them the T then says it's a different section of we're doing right now but the T then says well what about the second temple where they were for the most part more moral and less and not engage in idolatry and were doing Mitzvah and were're studying Torah they were pretty much on the mark So what led to the destruction of Temple number two by the Romans and the T says it's because it was baseless hatred baseless hatred unjustifiable hatred sometimes we dislike behavior that people have and sometimes we dislike people and we blame it on their behavior and the latter apparently is not conducive for Jewish Community nor a Jewish Home for God okay that's a to in a different track date in our track date we actually go into the story of what historically took place that led to the destruction take a look at the second to last paragraph on the link that we had sent it's tractate gets in um 55b it's the bottom of the page on the link that we have it's the second to last paragraph and we have a story do you guys see it where it says the gamor explains you guys have it second to last paragraph gettin 55b it should be on that link the gor explains that Jerusalem was destroyed on account of Kam and Bara two different people um it's unclear whether they were related with their similar last names the word bar in he in Aramaic means son of so some suggest some commentary suggest that Bara was the son of kamsa and some say they were just friends or or acquaintances this is as there was a certain man whose friend was named K and whose enemy was named baram he once made a large feast and said to his servant go and bring my friend kamza the servant went and mistakenly brought him his enemy barza right he got he he got the invitations confused he got the address wrong the names were too similar and Bara ended up at this party how do you think this host reacted his enemy shows up the man who was hosting the feast came and found barcom to sitting at the feast the host said to baram that man is the enemy of that man that is you are my enemy essentially he was saying you're my enemy what do you want here arise and leave baramas said to him since I've already come let me stay and I'll give you money for whatever I eat and drink just don't embarass Me by sending me out right misunderstanding miscommunication barhams are realized right he thought who who knows what baram was thinking maybe he thought that he wanted to make peace or who knows right he quickly realized what the situation was please don't throw me out of this party I I'll I'll pay for my meal and just just leave me alone and and we'll you we'll settle our fights afterwards we'll take this outside type of thing right okay I'm going to go to the top of 56a we continue what does the host say to him no you must leave baram said to him I'll give you money for half the feast just don't send me away the host said to him no you must leave baram then said to him I'll give you money for the entire Feast just let me stay again that's a lot of money because this was like the party of the century apparently a lot of dignitaries were there a lot of rabic personalities were there the host said to him no you must leave finally the host took barza by his hand stood him up and took him out arsa was humiliated after second paragraph right top of the page after having been cast out from the feast aramas said to himself well since the sages were sitting there and did not protest the actions of the host although they saw how he humiliated me right learned from it that they were content with what he did they didn't protest they must be okay with such Behavior I'll therefore go inform form against them to the King this is referring to the Roman Emperor right because Jerusalem at this point and Israel at large at this point was controlled by the Romans to some degree the the relationship with the Jews and the Romans were on the Rocks he went and he said to the emperor the Jews have rebelled against you the emperor said to him who says that this is the case baram said to him go and test them send them an offer offering to be brought in honor of the government and see whether they'll sacrifice it so he's telling the emperor send an offering send an animal to the temple you'll see if the Jews take your offering if they don't that means they don't like you they're rebelling against you now the truth is in Jewish law it's permissible to send uh for for non-jews to actually send donations to the temple and to send sacrifices Isaiah and his prophecies refer to the temple as right God says my house is a house of prayer for all nations however there was a bit of a shim sham over here that baram employed the emperor went and sent with him a choice three-year-old calf now what's the significance of a calf out of all animals we'll talk about that soon just circle that while baram was coming with the calf to the temple he made a blemish on the calf's upper lift and some say he made a blemish on its eyelids a place where according to us according to Jewish law it's considered to be a blemish and invalid sacrifice but according to them Gentiles rule for their offerings that it's not a blemish right so therefore when Bara brought the animal to the temple the priests would not sacrifice it on the altar since it was blemished but they would also could not explain the satisfactory to the authorities who didn't consider it a blemish right so baram did this little evil simple but evil trick he blemishes the animal and now they're stuck um right it's actually a real ethical or question you have political pressure to violate Hal should you or should you stick to your values um it's a real question because on the one hand there's what we call hasem desecrating God which is not a good thing on the other hand Judaism does prioritize the preservation of life it's a real question here right so now the tomw is going to get into the discussion that the sages had at this point the blemish not withstanding the sages brought to sacrifice the animal as an offering due to the imperative to M sorry thought to sacrifice the animal as an offering due to the imperative to maintain peace with the government so they said let's let's just offer it because otherwise they're going to kill us right you're allowed to violate Torah law to preserve life but then another Rabbi pipes up and says wait a minute right Rabbi Zakaria benas remember RAB zakar because we're going to talk about him soon said to them if the priests do that the people will say that the blemished animals may be sacrificed as offerings on the altar we're setting a precedent for the future an incorrect precedent for the future that's not a good idea right the maintaining peace is a good thing but if you're going to set a president for the rest of History that's a perversion of Jewish law the sages said if we don't sacrifice it then we must prevent Bara from reporting this to the emperor the sages thought to kill him so that he wouldn't go and speak against them again RAB zakara said to them well if you kill him people are going to say that one who makes blemish on a sacrificial animals to be killed again you're setting a precedent for future Generations that simply isn't true you don't get the death penalty for bringing the wrong sacrifice or or for blemishing the sacrifice so now they're stuck they're in this quandry what do they do but T says as a result they did nothing baram's slander was accepted by the authorities and consequently the war between the Jews and the Romans began this is what led ultimately to the destruction of the Temple the nth of right two Jews fighting essentially or the host of the party bar that's why the tal said it's a baseless hatred that had destroyed the temple but I want to read just the next paragraph because to me out of this whole story the next paragraph is something I find to be quite bizarre take a look at this next paragraph RAB Yan says the excessive humility of RAB zakaras right he was the rabbi that said well wait a minute the president issue D his excessive humility destroyed our Temple burned our Sanctuary exiled us from our land and I guess our question over here really two questions number one humility what humility I I would say his righteousness killed us his what what other word would you use his piousness perhaps excessive piousness right perhaps he was overdoing it a little bit you know there is a balance between there's certain times where it's not good to be too religious right and there is a concept of being excessively Pious or excessively righteous and that could be a problem at times but the tal refers to it as humility okay but there's a bigger question here and of all the people in this story do you really think RAR is the one to blame there's a lot of other people we could blame in this story we could blame the host of the party for throwing out bar comps and treat treating him so poorly we could treat we could blame Bara for taking Revenge that itself is a Biblical prohibition rather than settling his issues in a more peaceful way we could blame the rabbis who were at the party who were silent while barza was being humiliated and caved into the pressure of a wealthy benefactor out of all people zakar who is just trying to preserve Jewish values honestly why is he the guy being blamed you see what's going on here so I'd like to share with you two answers and I believe that the answers to these questions are going to shed light on what can help us survive and even more Thrive during Exile during the diaspora or even better yet end the Exile right remedy the Exile and conversely what can actually fuel the Exile and God forbid um give it more strength and power over us let's start with rashi's commentary I want to go back to y statement for a moment the excessive humility of Zas destroyed our Temple right he was the one who said well if you offer the sacrifice it's going to set a negative precedent for the future an incorrect precedent if you kill bars it's going to set a precedent for the future why are we using him to blame right so what does rash what does the Tam say the excessive humility now you know my hiccups with translations there's always multiple ways of trans ating words and when you use the English text you're forced to pick one when you stick with the original you're welcome to use as many as you need right um in Hebrew it's an it's a long word there comes from the word anava which actually does mean humility it's commonly translated as humility however Rashi in his commentary on the talmud says that it doesn't actually mean humility apparently the word anava which is often translated as humility according to Rashi and again Rashi was an expert in Hebrew grammar apparently anava literally means saut you know what savlanut means patience or tolerance you may remember a couple Torah portions ago um the Torah referred to Moshe as the most humble of people to have graced the Earth to have faced the Earth right his siblings were speaking negatively about him and mosha was just silent he was quiet he accepted it he didn't fight back and the Torah says mosha was the most humble of people to have ever graced the earth and the word anava the word humility what does Rashi there on the Torah say same thing saan he was patient he was tolerant so let's look back at the tal says the excessive tolerance of RAB zakara destroyed the temple we often think that what creates peace is tolerance and it's just not true tolerance destroys peace tolerance destroys communities because you know what tolerance means I don't like you but I'll tolerate you anyways that's not good right there's this whole talk about different religions and we all have to tolerate each other tolerance there's the Museum of Tolerance yeah you're no good but I got to tolerate you it's it's one it's like offensive it's not a good thing RAB zakara was tolerating our com's Behavior if we kill him it's going to set a negative PR precedence so he prioritized a future precedence which no longer exists because the temple had been destroyed a potential negative precedence over somebody who wanted to kill Jewish people now why is he to blame if you ask me again it's a good thing they didn't ask me right I'm just a I'm just the commentator here no I'm kidding but I would have thought that the rabbis at the party are really have the biggest hand here because you're a respected rabinal figure and what you do gives a stamp of of approval or what you don't do gives a stamp of approval but I might suggest that what zakar did which was tolerate baram's Behavior the sages at the party did the same exact thing they tolerated the host's behavior they were just as humble or tolerant they did the same exact thing they did the same exact thing history within the same not that long after who knows what the Gap was in this story right doesn't seem like it took over long took over that long of a period of time but things repeated itself the sages were tolerant of the host's poor behavior and now of zakaria's tolerant of baram's poor behavior and what destroys Jerusalem what destroys the infrastructure of Judaism the temple unfortunately is tolerating things that shouldn't be tolerated this is the perspective of Rashi other commentaries disagree with Rashi and his gramal assertion and believe that no humility and tolerance don't overlap they're actually two different things and the word is actually humility let's take it literally one of my favorite commentaries on the aada portions of talmud on the portions of talmud that are not strictly Hal but more insights and Stor is the Ben y by R ysim of Baghdad from the late 1800s he was the chief Rabbi of Baghdad he wrote A Commentary unpacking these ideas in the to and he points out something fascinating why are we blaming RAB zakara again right that's that's the big issue here we're blaming him out of all people rather than baram the host or the other rabbis and we're blaming his humility so he says something fascinating he says just imagine the situation over here they're at the altar the animal comes they're ready to sacrifice it Zas this Rabbi was a Cohen which means he was actually on premisis when this took place he sees the animal he's this incredible scholar right there's a little bit of background that we don't know about him apparently he was one of the top ranking Scholars that other rabbis didn't want to really agree with uh sorry disag agree with he was authoritative and he's looking at the animal and his his in his mind he's thinking I don't know this is alic acceptable and what do the other rabbis say I can't argue with him on the other hand was he speaking authoritatively not necessarily he was just questioning he was coming from a place of humility rather than assertion he was not being decisive in Jewish law what he should have done was decided we have to take the animal or we have to kill Bara he was questioning is that really acceptable under the guys he was focusing on a very specific issue and that was coming from a place of questioning from a place of humility rather than seeing himself as the authority to be able to make the decision that we're going to kill baram or that we're going to actually not accept that animal his humility destroyed Jerusalem as if almost like the danger of being silent you're similar to the rabbis by the way in the previous generation so not the previous generation in the previous part of the story who were at the party and were silent in the face of baram right at at that party these rabbis were silent they were humble what were they thinking possibly i' suppose they might have been thinking it's not my party it's not my place I don't make the calls here I'm just a guest it's not my role to call out the host I don't have that I'm not in that position who am I that level of humility is horrible because it destroys the infrastructure of Judaism it creates Exile I'll tell you a great story hold on I see a comment over here um what you prmit you promote exactly there we go well said I'll tell you a great story some of you are familiar with Rabbi Josh Gordon of blessed memory from Korg who popular teacher um many many years ago probably 40 years ago or so there was a rabbi in Southern California who was young he was in his 20s and he was putting together a banquet celebrating his kabad Center and his community Jewish community it was a fundraising event at this point his kabad Center was probably just a couple of years old and he's this young 25 26 year old Rabbi and he has this beautiful banquet and a band and he has a comedian and apparently the comedian did not understand the crowd did not understand that this is a Jewish community and this is a synagogue and he kind of misread his audience and was using a lot of off off-color language off-color jokes and it wasn't appropriate for a synagogue fundraising fundraiser and this young 25 26y Old Rabbi is just freaking out the the guy's just on stage and keeps going at it and he's just like Frozen like what do I do ab by Josh Gordon is at this event and again he's a guest it's not his synagogue it's not his anything he lives an hour a half away but Rabbi Josh Gordon is in the audience he again is also pretty young himself maybe late 20s at this point early 20s whatever he walks up on the stage grabs the microphone from the comedian and he says thank you very much let's give him a round of applause and the Comedian says I'm not done he says yes you are round of applause everybody Rabbi Gordon could have easily said have said this is not my event this is unfortunate it's ugly it's uh I feel bad for that rabbi was in that position who was going to have to deal damage control but not my problem and it's not my position and I'm uncomfortable doing anything cuz who am I Rabbi Gordon said no now is not the time to be humble there's a right and there's a wrong and we have to stand up for that right and wrong these rabbis did not stand up for what was right now there's various explanations some say that it was possible that they weren't aware of the situation given on the there's a lot of explanation about the commentaries but the similarly with zakar we have to be assertive and stand up for what's right and not question our Authority because that feeds into gullas that feeds into Exile that that that lack that that feeling of false humility that feeling of incompetence that feeling of what do we call it impostor syndrome there's a fascinating commentary literally on everything some commentaries comment on the Torah some on the T some there's this one commentary called the Shah which is an acronym for an acronym for by RAB was from the 1500s he was a calist and philosopher and he has one of these commentaries that are literally on everything he has myriads and myriads of writings literally on everything on the Torah on the tal it's like overwhelming amount of knowledge that he that he shares and I recently read an Insight from him I thought this was fascinating but talmud says a different section of the talmud says that any generation that did not see the construction of the temple it's as if it had been destroyed in that generation so on hopefully not this Tish maybe we'll see the B mkes but last Tish right we didn't see the rebuilding of the Bas Mikes it's as if we saw it being destroyed why what does that mean so the way the 15th or 16th century explains it any generation that still has those traits that led to the destruction of the temple it's as if you're seeing it being destroyed now you didn't rebuild it because we're still holding on to those traits those negative traits whether it be the hatred of baram and the host or whether it be the the impostor syndrome of we're holding on to these negative traits that itself is destroying the Bas of MDES that's causing gas that's causing Exile and I want to end off with a teaching that I read from the B founder of the movement he says something fascinating he says too much humility and it's just a loose translation but he says too much humility causes us to be distant from the service of God because we feel so lowly and we think so little of ourselves we question our impact do my Mitzvah really make a difference does my doing really make a difference do I really have an impact on God do I really have an impact on the world he says these types of thoughts damper our joy they put stress on us and they're antithetical toward the whole essence Spirit of Judaism which is our mission to bring God down in this world to do that we have to be assertive right too much humility destroys the temple destroys the sanctuary and could God forbid exil us from our land but conversely confidence confidence that's not coming from a place of arrogance but that's coming from God put me in these shoes I must have the ability to fill them gives us incredible powers to really change this world and make it a brighter better place okay that's my story and I'm sticking to it