Understanding Rashi: The Power of a Judge - Rabbi Yitzchak Botton

[Music] while studying kamesh the stories in the Torah so of course today we all recognize Rashi as one of the main commentaries that has been studied you know by more people over the history then even if you counted up many commentaries together they weren't equal how much Russia's been studied it's a so fundamental to learning himesh that there are hundreds and hundreds of commentaries on Rashi's commentary itself now what I'd like to do is to try to delve into some of Russia's comments and try to hopefully understand from them you know what is Russia's approach what is he coming to really try to do when when he comments on the second is he coming just to settle for us what the posture to chart a simple simple storyline is or is actually involved with more and is there more going on underneath the surface of Russia's comments so for this idea we will hopefully be taking many sukham over the course of this different lessons but for today the verse we're going to be using is found in parsha Etro it is a verse discussing Moshe judging the Jewish people I'll read the verse and translate and we'll get into Russia's comments so it reads like this via he mimo Harod Valley shade motion spotted harm via a mother I'm Alma chemin Ibaka a dollop Moshe was judging the people they were standing in front of him from the morning until the evening now the phrase which we're going to which will be the point of a question here is the last phrase that the people were standing in front of Moshe from morning to evening now Rashi is bothered by that statement in that it doesn't seem so practical to be taken in a literal sense how could it be that people were standing in front of Moshe from the morning till the evening and he was he worried he didn't do anything else that day so Russia's comment points on that question and it was like this on the phrase min Ibaka other other if Shalom arcane is it possible to say that the people were standing in front of Moshe from the morning to the night elack old Diane said and Internet la meto a Philly shot Malala berkutov kilo Asik bateau ha polio Oh Luna shoot up that cottage barber mozzarella so Rashi answers his question with a statement from the rabbis from huzzah what has I'll say on this phrase minna boca other active from the morning till the evening the rabbi's explain that really the expression of bulk air and other the morning and evening is really a trigger to bring us back to creation where the same expression is used Bakr an Arab to to relate to us a deeper message what is that deeper message now judgment when people are coming for a decision by a judge so the job of that judge he becomes partner with Hashem where as a matter of fact the judges are called Elohim it's one of God's names because God resides and dwells amongst the judges when they're judging properly now so a judge in fact is trying to correct and direct people in this world to fulfill its proper purpose and they become partners with Hashem in their judgment so Rashi says over here that the lesson that we're learning is that a judge that judges properly and his judgment is a truthful judgment of course like Moshe Robin whose judgments were correct and according to Hashem is words so even if he's doing it for only an hour or so he becomes a partner in creation and it's also considered as if he sat and learned Torah all day long now this is a beautiful idea and it helps us understand the importance of having a proper court system and judges that are knowledgeable properly but what I want to get into here is what why is Rashi going taking us in this direction why did why does it actually just tell us the simple story of what's going on because in my opinion there's a simpler answer to the question that Rashi has that would avoid this entire you know explanation of judges and becoming partners with Hashem and in fact Russia's grandson himself brings this this simple upshot let me explain what he says now what's the problem again over here the problem is that the Torah tells us that Montalban was basically judging the Jewish people all day long from mourning tonight and that seems unpractical unrealistic but the truth is if you think about it how many judges were helping moshe rabbeinu judge the entire jewish people with all the new laws they received how many people were helping him no one he was judging the entire nation by himself now when you think of it that way so that doesn't seem so far-fetched he was busy all day long dealing with everybody's cases and that's in fact exactly what the rash mom says why was moshe rabbeinu judge include all day long why was so many people coming up to him and standing in front of him you know from the warmth of the night because he was the only judge the only one that knew devar hashem he was the only one the unique person in his time and place that knew the word of a sham it wasn't until later that implemented a system of judges that after learning from motion were able to then judge on their own so the simple answer to Raj's question is is it possible that people were standing in front of him all day long you know asking him to judge them well simple answer is yes it is possible because when you're the only judge judging the entire nation that received a bunch of new laws then you're going to be quite busy and that's the answer of the rush bomb so what we want to appreciate now is is in understanding Russia's approach in explaining himesh why did he forego the parish of his grandson Rashi bomb and instead choose to give us the words of the sages which of course are teaching us a portent idea so for that let me mention to you there is another place in Russia bombs comments where he discusses a conversation he had himself with Rashi and there's also a place in the rash bombs commentaries on the Gemara where he talks about a conversation with his grandfather Rashi and the general idea that comes out from these conversations is that Rashbaum himself questioned Rashi on his commentary and said you know grandfather you did not follow the the chance sometimes you brought I did it or not the shot and the Russian answered him you're right it's true that sometimes I give ideas that are not the exact shot as far as perhaps the storyline is concerned but there's a deeper idea here than just the details of what happened the Torah is divine communication from our Shem to us and we have to understand beside the factual events and the details what was the person standing here that the person sit down first the details there's also the message that Hashem wants to tell us that wants to teach us the Torah is a book of instructions in the book of teachings and we have to understand that the essence and heart of the Torah is the lesson an idea that God wants to teach us in order to make us and help us be better people and to understand God's truth better so it's true that the simple simple storyline fits perfectly with their ashrams explanation that there are many people and therefore they were busy what they're getting judged but the tour did not have to use the phrase boca add olive for that idea if the rabbi's understood in a deeper sense and we call this Derrick Jewish they are expounding and bringing out deeper ideas and deeper meanings within the text because every letter and every word is precise so they understood that the phrase boca I thought it was a trigger because in this exact point God wants to teach us something more something deeper he wants to teach us the deeper and more important idea and the greatness behind a judge that judges ms when a human being like Marcia Robin was a human being with flesh and blood and a regular mind can transcend and reach a little where they perceive divine wisdom in the most perfect sense that their words and their decisions are exactly in tune with what Hashem wants and what I sham decides above in heaven that is unbelievable that is miraculous and the deeper lesson in this story of how Moshe judged the people from the and they stood in front of him from the morning of the night is to understand that through motion of a know and through leaders like Marshall Ave know all the judges that have to be executed all Torah law they become partners with Hashem in creation when you go to a judge when you go to a baked-in when you go to a Jewish Court you're not going to people you know of course they have to study properly and they have to be god-fearing and I have to pray for help from heaven but when it's done right you're going to Hashem you're getting a decision for my Shem not from just regular people and of course these are great great scholars and holy people and that's the lesson over here the people were was totally mush repayments of warning tonight because Moshe was a man of God he understood the direction I wanted us to go in this world and that's what we need to go understand that's why we have to go to our sages and I mean to know where sham wants us to go it's not only in simple legal matters that we need a judge and we need a teacher we need a guide even in personal matters in a life in personal the decision that we have to make we always want to always try to make sure that they are in line with and in the direction that a sham wants to leader [Music] you