Who Is Responsible for the Holocaust?

[Music] so [Music] good evening tonight's class is dedicated by his family in the loving memory of rab menachem prager in tribute to his 30th yard site on the twenty first day of thomas rab nakam prager of blessed memory was born in 1922 in the famous city of brisk in lithuania his father of yitzhak as well as his grandfather his great grandfather was the sheikh the ritual slaughterer of brisk and was very close to the legendary brisker of revelation salvatrike and at the suggestion of the briskerov sent his son nakam to study in lubavitch in the la bavitch uchiva which was located in the city of atvotsk a suburb of warsaw in poland it's interesting that because of the suggestion of the brisker of young nochem was actually saved his parents as most of his family were exterminated with the entire community of brisk by the germans in but he was learning in atwatsk so he escaped with many yeshiva students to vilna and from vilna he managed to make it to japan from japan to shanghai to shanghai in china he was one of the goyle shanghai and then after the war in 1946 settled in new york he became a hosted and very connected to the labacher rebbe and was a well-known activist and a big balcas and a very kind and caring person so tonight's class is dedicated by his family and his loving memory it's also dedicated by our dear friends david schattenstein and the loving memory of alter shula basra savitzhak and hindu swordlove and lahavdilbin in honor of their daughter yet altashullah known as aliyah schottenstein tonight we're going to explore a difficult issue the mystery of death based on a eulogy that was presented a few hundred years ago by the arizona rabbi isaac luria rabbit luria at the funeral of his master the ramakra by moshe cordovero today the 23rd day of thomas of gimultamos happens to be the yard site of one of the great kabbalists one of the greatest kabbalists and mystics and luminaries in jewish history known by his acronym as the ramak ramak stands for rabbenu moisha cordovero or moses cordovero his last name was cordovero and most historians assumed that the family came from the city cordova in spain and hence the last name cordovera rabbi marcia cordovero was born in the year which means 30 years after the expulsion of spanish jury in 1492 on the ninth day of when the entire community of japan of japan of spain of svard was expelled from spain so he was born 30 years later in and passed away on the third on the 23rd day of thomas of the hebrew year shin lamid at the age of 48 he is interred in the old cemetery of safas of the city of safad now a few words about the ramak rabbi maisha cordovero he lived in swas he married the sister of a very well-known kabbalist great mystic and sage rabbi alcabaz the ramak i'm going to call him the ramakra by maisha cordovero married the sister of slime alcoves and slime alcovets is the one who composed the famous poem of li cross calipa nakaba recited friday night universally in jewish communities the world over the ramak was a student of the legendary bass joseph rabbenu yosef caro the author of the commentary of the kasif mishna on the rambam on maimonides code of law and of course the author of the shulkhan arukh the code of jewish law ramak was one of his students the ramak was ordained by the famous rabiyakev bayrav and the ramak founded a yeshiva where they specifically taught kabbalah some of his students became the very well-known capitalists among them rabbi khayim vital who would later become the editor of the writings of the teachings of the arizo rabbi isa gloria he became the teacher of the racist rabbi elio devi dasha author the famous book on jewish ethics and mysticism gracious himself the famous the greatest capitalist in jewish history rabbi isaac gloria when he came to tsmas for a amount of time was a student of of the ramak of rabbi mercia cordovero now the magnum opus of the ramak is no question his monumental work known as pardes remonum the orchard of pomegranates what he accomplished in that work was something extraordinary and fabulous he created an encyclopedia in a very organized and systematic fashion of all the kabbalistic literature that was available till his day anybody who knows even a little bit about kabbalah knows that the literature of kabul is very complicated and very mystical and very abstract and very hard to organize in a systematic way and the ramak made a book called pardes remind him the orchard of pomegranates divided into 32 portals lamid-based shiarim each portal is dedicated to another subject discussed in kabbalah each portal has many chapters and in that portal he basically compiles all of the information available on that particular subject he organizes it he explains it he reconciles contradictions from different sources and hence the ramak was the first one to present a systematic doctrine of kabbalah in its entire scope available in all of the literature of kabbalah from sefi etsyra the famous book of formation of creation to the obviously the book of zohair the foundational book of kabbalah and all of the other kabbalistic texts the ramak also authored an extraordinary commentary on the zohar the most foundational book the most foundational kabbalistic work known as the zohar which means light the book of light the book of splendor the commentary is known as it's an extraordinary comment commentary of dozens and dozens of volumes and i have to tell you that until a few years ago was never published it was never printed just a few years ago the aryaka was finally published completely the entire commentary of the ramak on the zohar there are marcos wrote other other works he wrote a book on ethics called toy murderer the palm tree of devorah he explains the 13 attributes of mercy in an ethical and personal way he composed a very highly mystical book about his own mystical experiences called seifer gerishan he wrote a book about the necessity to learn kabbalah called ernerov another very profound book called a lima wrote a book called fila la maisha a book zifre schlamim and other works authored by the legendary rabbi meisha cordovero who passes away at the age of 48 in 1570 today on the 23rd day of thomas and he's buried in the city of tsvas at his funeral he was eulogized by a very young man a young man who came to tsvas not a long time before him and became a student of the ramak and his name was rabbi yitzhak luria rabbi isaac gloria who came to be known as dairiza after the ramak passes away diarizal for the next two years until his own death in 1572 on the fifth day of of shin lament base only two years later becomes the successor of the ramak but during those two short years revolutionizes the landscape of jewish mysticism in kabbalah the arizal transformed and metamorphosized kabbalah and his most important disciple and student rabbi khayim vital who was already a student of the ramak as i mentioned earlier but then went on to become a student of the arizona transcribed most of the works of thyrizal in writings which we have today and in these two short years diaries i'll change the face of kabbalah it's fascinating what the man taught in these two years and then he died at a very young age either at the age of 38 or 36 there are different opinions but he died two years later in as i said 1572 on the fifth day of of i was just a few days ago in the holy city of zvas and had the great privilege of visiting and praying both at the resting place of thyrizal and at the resting place of the ramak at the ramak's funeral the arizona who happens to be buried very close to him in the old cemetery of svask eulogized him and at his eulogy he said something very very special quoted a verse from deuteronomy from the parish parish of kisetse portion of kisetse and i want to quote you this verse you have it in your curriculum please open your curriculum to source number one right below the video there's a pdf document with a curriculum and take a look at the verse that diarizal quoted at the funeral of the ramak literally it means if somebody will have a sin that will warrant the verdict of death and he receives the death penalty you should hang him on a tree this is referring to as the sages explain to certain individuals who committed highness crain very serious crimes and received the death penalty and it was not easy to receive the death penalty in the jewish court in in in the days of yore it was very very very difficult to receive the death penalty but sometimes a person did receive it and in certain instances the torah instructs us to hang his corpse on a trivis elisa issa his corpse on a tree and the torah continues that even when you do that you're never allowed to keep the corpse overnight it must be buried the same day and practically speaking it was only hanging for very few minutes but it cannot be um it cannot be there overnight we know every single verse in pasak and the torah has many layers of interpretation so at the funeral of the ramak the arizona eulogizes him quotes this verse and presents a deeper homoletical interpretation to the verse this eulogy is quoted in um in the famous book known as yara is dvash by rabionis and the famous german rabbi of the 18th century it's also quoted by the hida rabbenu the famous italian sage of the 18th century rabbenu david azullahi in his book on parasha's ki said say in another book of his known as dwarya machadim it's quoted by the famous rabbi yeshaya horowitz the 17th and 18th century sage rabbi ishayah horowitz the shalom and in source number two we have the quote of the arizo's interpretation as it is quoted by rabionis in his book iris vash please open up source number two in the curriculum let's read together with the word hate in hebrew has two meanings it means a sin a transgression it also means a void a flaw something lacking hate me and something is lacking if there's a particular person and in this person's life there is missing a mishpat mother there is missing the justification for his death you look at a person who passed away and you ask one question why did this person have to die why did this person have to pass away that resale says there is missing there is lacking a mishpat a seeming justice seeming justification for this person's death there was no reason this person deserved to die no sins no blemishes no transgressions no violations but vahumas but the person did die zak diaries he did not do anything bad the lama yamas why should he die vitalisa asallates hang it on the tree put it up on the tree blame it on the tree it's because that legendary famous tree of knowledge when adam and eve eat from the tree god tells adam in boracious in the first portion of genesis the day you eat from this tree you're going to die as a result of the first human beings eating from that tree of knowledge which was forbidden to them death was introduced into the world uh may says there is no that's why he died so imagine that rizzo is standing at the funeral of the ramak and he's basically explaining that here we have a person like there are maestro cordovero that you wonder why did he have to die such a holy sacred righteous person and that reason says with salisa is blame it on the tree not because of him that's because of the tree now these are the words of reason let's try to analyze and dissect what is he saying there is a famous statement made in the talmud in gomorrah in two places and the second one i brought you in the sources please open up your curriculum to number three zak the gemara tonura bonon the rabbis taught me four people died because of the snake the elohein these are their names the father of king david and kiel of ben david king david had many children his second son born from his wife avigail his name was kilov and he was the fourth figure to die because of the snake says rashi continue in source number three because of the snake what does this mean as a result of the scheme and the advice of the serpent to eve to eat from the forbidden tree kelloyma this mean says rashford these four people were not worthy of death elisha of shalom harishan however a decree of death was issued forth on all of the descendants of the first human being of adam arushan but sausage because of the scheme of the serpent the serpent who embarrasses entices and persuades chava eve to eat from the tree and she gives from the fruit also to her husband to adam to eat as a result of the serpent death was introduced into the story of existence and these four people died only because of the snake their death has nothing to do with their shortcomings with their failure with their sins with their weaknesses it's all to be blamed on the snake our bomb now when we learn this gemara and then we hear about the eulogy that diarizal gave for the holy of holies there are macro marcia cordovera it seems like at first glance that arizal is merely adding a fifth person to the list of the gemara the gomorrah says there are four people who died because of the snake who binyamin the son of yakriv amram the father of moshe you share the father of david and kill of the son of dove it comes around makkan says there's one more who died because of the snake who rab maisha cordover obviously he's not mentioned in umura he died in 1570 sometime after the talmud was completed and composed but that reason was adding a fifth person one more person died because of the knuckles because of the snake however when we examine and study that resolves words more carefully we see that it's not exactly so because there is a subtle but significant distinction between the phraseology used in the talmud and the phrase phraseology employed by our holy master thyrizo in the gemara the talmud of you term that's used as may sub shall they died because of the snake thyrizal introduces another word vessel is al eights blame it on the tree now you might say the two are identical what did the snake do the snake enticed harvard to eat from the tree so what's the difference if you say they died because of the snake or they died because of the tree right it's ultimately because of the snake who enticed them to eat from the tree but the fact that thyrizo does not use the terminology of gemara in fact he ignores the terminology of gemara he didn't get up at the funeral and say our bomb is so bad people die because of the serpent then there's also the ramak and then bring a verse rather he developed a new possibility an original posse to explain the reason for the ramak's death and the passage uses the word ates it seems it's apparent that diaries all was saying something different or something else or something new because in torah words are meticulous and the choice of words are always very precise and when there is a choice of one word used over another word even though the two are connected to the same theme that requires from us to look deeper and to dissect it especially it's true when we're dealing with kabbalah because in kabbalah the kabbalah saw every word even syllables even letters as extremely meticulous especially the teachings of the ramacandariza so when it comes to studying the words of that resell it behooves us to gaze deeper and to understand why he changed it from the serpent to the tree 30 years ago shabbos parshas matoys happened to be the 23rd day of tamus the yard site the anniversary of passing of the ramak the lubavitcher ebba held a public fabregan a gathering at his shul at 770 eastern parkway in brooklyn this is shabbos mata is the 23rd day of thomas 1981 tough shamal and happened to dedicate an entire talk a long talk to explain the meaning behind the eulogy of thyrizal on the ramak i should mention this is also interesting very interesting that this secret this talk about the eulogy of the arizona was presented two days after the passing of rabb nakhon prager who i mentioned in the beginning of the class he passed away thursday on the 21st day of tamils and shabbos the 23rd day of tamos was this very interesting talk about the eulogy of the arizona ramak in that talk the laboratory ever suggested that dariesel was not just imposing the commentary of gemara on aposic but he was actually defining a new idea a new concept the distinction between the snake and the tree is very important the snake is what the gemara says four people died because of the snake thyrizo says blame it on the tree the distinction is a subtle one but an important one the snake is that creature who actively persuaded to betray god's will not to eat from the tree and we know that the serpent was punished for it which means apparently the serpent had some level of free choice of intelligence deposit says the serpent was clever was sly was shrewd was sophisticated and therefore the serpent was punished for what it did so it actively engaged in an act of betraying god enticing eve to betray god however we want to explain the motivations of the snake that's not for tonight's class go explain the motivation of a snake it's not for now that's the snake when you mention the tree the tree itself was not involved in sin the tree itself actually was a delicious tree it was a beautiful tree and it was planted and created and planted in the garden by you by god by hashem he's the one who created the tree he's the one who made the tree he's the one who planted the tree and he's the one who told adam you can eat from every tree in the garden but from this tree don't eat in fact according to our sages they derive from the verses that the tree was either a fig tree or an astric tree a citroen tree or a heater was wheat or another a fourth opinion is a geffen it was a vine it grew grapes a grape tree which actually three of these opinions are from the shiva's nest from the seven species with which the holy land was praised figs wheat and grapes the fourth opinion it was an astric tree it's called creates other a beautiful fruit the tree itself was not negative the tree itself was not evil the tree is called eight sadas it's a mixture of goodness and negativity it's called eight sadasa tree from what you get knowledge but the tree itself was planted there by god in the garden it was there before the sin and it created the possibility for adam and chava to eat from it and sin so who is responsible for the tree that's god's responsibility he's the one who planted the tree and he's the one who told adam don't eat from this tree which really means that hashem wanted he created the possibility he wanted there to be a possibility for adam to eat from the tree for adam to be enticed to eat from the tree if not he want to plant it if not he wouldn't create it if not he wouldn't even warn him not to eat it by warning him not to eat it there is already a relationship would adam even have noticed a tree there's a tree of garden of who knows how many trees and god says by the way that tree don't eat we know with children if you want them to read a book what do you tell them you say this book you're not going to read right or in school if you want them to read a particular chapter you say this chapter we have to skip the other chapters that you don't skip that they might not know but the chapter that you had to skip that everybody knows they say is in history one of the most successful things for a book is if it's banned if it's excommunicated then it becomes a famous book if somebody's excommunicated they often become a celebrity as long as you're not excommunicated you don't become a celebrity when we tell everybody how bad you are suddenly there's interest who's this guy by hashem saying this tree don't eat there was already a relationship created between adam and the tree here this tree you're not already eat and this is based on a fascinating and difficult to understand observation in the madrid the madrid stanchum and the portion of ayesha quotes that book and that verse in tehillim to hillam psalms chapter 25. look at the actions of god how awesome is his libel on people and the tank gives many examples and explains that you know we often blame different events on the people we blame adam for death and we blame moshe for not going into egypt because he hit iraq but the madrid says this is ultimately a libel that god imposes upon people but if he didn't allow it it would have never happened hashem wanted to create a possibility for these things to happen he wanted that adam should have the ability to eat from the tree even though he told them not to and other had free choice but who ultimately allowed there to be a tree and adam should eat it and the consequences should be death that comes from god and this is the difference between how the gemara the talmud talks about the four people who died and had arizona spoke about the death of the ramak the gemara is part of toyota which we call nigla which means the reveal the exoteric the exposed part of tyra so the gemara discusses why did these people die the association is the serpent they died because the serpent they didn't die because of their own sins they didn't die because of their own shortcomings because of their own dissonance from god because really the only thing that endures forever the only thing that has a true absolute existence in life is god and everything that's connected to god that's one with god also lives forever which is why the soul lives forever as a result from eating from the tree of knowledge a dissonance was created between a human being and god the ego was introduced a part of us that feels completely disconnected from god the body became detached from its source and it naturally it's subjected to mortality it's subjected to to death it's subjected to deterioration it doesn't have the power of eternity because only god endures forever so before they ate from the tree of knowledge when the human being was completely one with the divine there was no death because the divine doesn't die and the human being is an extension of the divine when they ate from the tree and now there is dissonance there's fragmentation between the source and the person so there's a concept of illness of deterioration and death but then there are four people who died not because of their own issues not because of their own child not because their own shortcomings not of because of their own ego or narcissism or detachment or dissonance they were great sadiq they died only by atyochis because of the serpent but the gemara identifies the culprit who's the culprit for their death the serpent because that's what happened the serpent is the one who actively persuaded khaba to eat from the tree kabbalah is called pinimya satyr the inside of torah kabbalah looks to trace back everything to its ultimate source its ultimate origin there's two terms in hebrew it's signias and panemias the external and the internal you sometimes look at a reality you could see it externally you sometimes look at a reality and you get to the core of it to the panemias to the source of it right i could look at a person and see your hit signias i could see your external layers you could look at yourself and see only your external layers and then you could go look at the panemias you could look at the deeper you could look at the neshama get the soul out of it target has two dimensions just like a person has a body and a soul tyra has a body and a soul as desire states and parasha's valois like a human being terror is like a living organism there's the body of terror the concrete substantial exhibited displayed pragmatic physical practical element of terror this is called niggler they revealed goofy rise the body of terror toro says what we call kabbalah pneumonia the essence of turn hence the difference between how the gemura talks about the death of a sadiq another reason talks about the death of assad the more of terror the body of terror identifies the external cause for their death as the serpent kabbalah goes back to the shirish it goes back to the root that goes back to the pneumonias to the inside and it says ultimately it's the tree and who planted the tree trees hashem ultimately the reason they died is this is what god wanted it's part of a divine mysterious transcendent plan that often defies the human imagination yes it came about through a serpent and it came about through eve and it came about through adam that's all true a lila yoga the plot is developed in a way that it happens through people and the people are blamed they have free choice and god told them not to do it but ultimately who allowed it to happen who created the backdrop who facilitated the dynamics the salisa islands blame it on the tree in life if you look at the stories of your life and experiences of your life can always blame certain people because this person did this and that person that did that this person was a snake and this snake was a person and it's true life's experiences play themselves out through people on a niggler level it's true on a revealed level that's true kabbalah diaries all comes to tell us this elisa acellates ultimately it happened because god allowed it to happen he wanted it to happen he wanted this possibility more accurate he wanted this possibility i want to tell you a story it's a it's not an easy story to retell it's a very very emotionally charged story and i want you to try to put yourself into i wanted to say to prison to the shoes of the people we're going to be discussing that's impossible i cannot put myself into their shoes and probably most of you or many of you cannot but at least to try to internalize it to try to relate to what they were going through it's a story about a fascinating rabbinic character whose name was rab michal baer weissmandel rebecca is a jew who's born in the city the de britsin in hungary becomes a great rabbi a great sage of biblio a bibliographer a researcher and academic teaches in the yeshiva of his father-in-law in the city of nitra in hungary and then like all of the jews of eastern europe and hungarian jury is confronted with the dark hellish reality of the second world war in the holocaust mandel threw himself into the avoidance allah the work of rescuing jews he was very involved in delaying the deportation of slovakian jury and then was involved in negotiations with adolf aichmann to spear the 900 000 jews of hungary from being deported to the death camp of auschwitz and birkenau recall bear weissmandels transcribes his experiences and his negotiations in his famous book minhametsar which was published after his passing here is not the place to get into the details but the germans were willing as remy colbert describes it two be bribed by money a huge amount of money at that time not to exterminate hungary injury around two million dollars rep mccall barry did not rest day and night day and night to try to get the money to no avail in his book he blames many jewish leaders for being passive for being apathetic for not believing for being involved in other things for having other agendas and the famous book perfidy by ben hecht accuses those leaders zionist leaders and other leaders for turning a blind eye to hundreds of thousands of jews who could have been saved from nazi germany now this story has been debated and debated and debated for many many years although recently many many historians have come to approve the version of the story of rab machol bear vice mandel because of documents that have been released and discovered but it's beyond the focus of cl the class at the end of vice mandel was deported with his family to auschwitz his entire family family was exterminated they were gassed in the gas chambers he himself hid a a sword of sort in in chala and bread and he jumped out of the train jumped out of the train and his life was saved this is a 1944 but all of his attempts to save hungarian jury were were futile he sent he sent messages to fdr franklin president roosevelt winston churchill the pope pope pius the 12th in rome he begged that the allies the first one to beg the allies to bomb the railway tracks going to auschwitz you have to remember in 1944 the germans excelled their mechanism was impeccable and flawless there was a point that twelve thousand jews were being gassed in a single day in auschwitz twelve thousand jews a day arab nicole bear got early reports from people who escaped auschwitz and he begged the allies he sent letters he sent messages he tried to alarm the jewish world the non-jewish world doing everything to bomb to save to rescue to pay at the end we know that hungarian jury went up in flames mccolber was saved but his soul never left the holocaust he never came back to himself he was a broken broken man after the war he was in a hospital for a very long time he was crushed whenever he would go back to that subject he could not contain himself he was tormented to his score i mean imagine the person who was in the thick of things and felt in front of his eyes the possibility to save so many jews so many kinder and it was it just didn't happen he arrived in the united states in 1946 and he went to visit a great master a great man an extraordinary leader the sixth laboratory ever rabbi yosevich who himself lost many of his family members including a daughter to the in the holocaust lost many of his own hasidim and disciples either in poland or in russia under stalin and was himself a very broken and ill man physically and he moved he escaped warsan arrived march 1940 to new york ultimately settled on 770 eastern parkway and lived there for ten years till his passing in nineteen fifty red machol bear came to visit the lobov chair ever about yesterday and he went into the and he sat there and he shared everything that occurred and everything that could have occurred and everything that did not occur he wept and wept and lobovichreba sat and listened attentively to every word to every syllable to every sigh he absorbed every tear of rabbi white vice mandel where mccalber finished his horrific tale the rebbe said to him this said rebecca bear soft kolsoff verates altzketon at the end of the day after everything is accounted for and everything is recalled and recounted and said and done who is really responsible for what happened who is the one who really allowed it to happen and the rabbis said they're abrester it was hashem it was god and with this the rabbi infused a soul a future into the fragile pure heart of machol berwicz mandel he never recovered to be sure whenever he would mention the holocaust whoever remembers that mccall bear and there are tapes recording of recordings of his he went right back there he could never get over it he never really returned completely but he rebuilt his yeshiva of nitra in new york and mount kisco upstate new york westchester county he built a beautiful night for yeshiva he was a broken man but he rebuilt his yeshiva was called the farm yeshiva was a yeshiva together with a farm he died a young man in his 50s at the age of 54 in 1957 kislov but the words of the laboratory gave him some perspective some comfort he remarried he remarried a second wife he had another family children five children the rabbit could say it to him whatever was saying is you're right you're right the apathy that occurred during the holocaust after everything that was written has still not been written has still not been transcribed the larger world that certainly but even among ourselves and it's perhaps even too tragic and too painful to describe i mean if you read ben hecht's book perfectly your blood boils for a few weeks very very hard to digest almost impossible to digest so the labavich rabbit said your machole bear i know this one that one that one that one and ultimately the germans the germans that nazi beast that nazi beasts who looked like cultured who were cultured scientific developed people and yet managed to engage in the most barbaric atrocities in the history of humanity with glee gassing one and a half million children while at night going to listen to the beautiful symphonies of mozart and beethoven and bach and wagner it's all true all of these are to blame and deserve to be punished but what he was telling rebecca berries was silly so isolates how do jews have the power to go on to continue believing in life to continue to grow and build and prosper and give their children love and ultimately choose life over death it's because the salisa is they believe that ultimately of course the snake is guilty the snake did it but this elisa is the reason the snake could do it is because god planted a tree and when the jews knew that their father in heaven was ultimately responsible it gave them the ability not to understand and not to always find consolation and not to make peace with the travesty but to sense that on some level there's a meaning there's a purpose there's a spark there's still hope there's a future it's part of a plan it allowed them to continue to live and not to despair and disintegrate and fall apart and because of their choices for thousands of years we are here today talking about it so the gemara talks about the external layer the arizal takes us to the source to the core and he says he's the one who created the challenge he's the one who made the nissanian he's the one who made the test that adam and java fell do something deeper when we say four died because of the snake what it really means is that as a result of the serpent a certain impurity was introduced into the world and even a person who on his own is very pure and sacred and holy and completely connected to the divine source but because they're living in the world they are affected in one form or another by the energy of the snake what we call in kabbalah the zuhama in the kabbalah in talmud the zuhama of the nakhash the spiritual uncleanliness the dirt you may be very very healthy you may have a healthy immune system but you're if you're an enviro if you're in an environment that has noxious fumes it will affect you living in this world is living in the world of the snake and because of that even these four people who were as pure as can be they were affected by the snake and because of that they had to die because a part of them was affected by the snake and that part has to die as we explained before anything that's not one with the divine is subjected to mortality and death so when the gemara says four people died because of the snake it means they didn't die because of their own dissonance but they died as a result of the dissonance they had within their system because of the snake when the arizona says the salisa is he's not just going back to an earlier stage he's actually saying the person didn't die because of any sin any corruption any dissonance the person died because of a tree that was planted by god the person died because this was god's will now it's interesting because if you look in gemara there you'll see another category take a look please at source number four six people were not ruled by the angel of death the elena of rome miriam abraham isaac and jacob moses aaron and miriam are six people that the angel of death did not dominate says the maharao the famous of prague the 16th century rabbi of shaka slovakia prague in his hiddushaya goddess they were on a higher level of the four who died because of the serpent the four who died because of the serpent were on a lower level than the six who were not dominated by the angel of death what's the difference so one of the explanations is one of the differences the four who died because of the snake died because of a dissonance the reality of death dominated them because a certain degeneration spiritual psychological dissonance between man and god was introduced as a result of the tree of knowledge but then there's a higher level the six people the salisa is the six people that were not subjected to the reality of the angel of death as rashi says they died because god kissed them it was part of their journey with the divine not nothing to do with their own blemish with their own evil and this quality will understand was revealed through the arizona when it came to their mark why because every person has two layers spoke before about the body and the soul right the torah has a body in the torah as a soul the human being has two layers a body and a soul and the soul itself has two layers there's the exhibited external part of the soul and the more internal part of the soul where can there be sin where can there be dissonance separation between the human being and god only in the external layers of the human personality in our conscious mind and our conscious heart it could be dissonance between man and god even in our subconscious mind and heart but then on the deepest level the pneumonia is an average in the core of a human soul in the core of a jewish soul there is no dissonance the quote the altar ever salman of lyadi in the second chapter of tanya the nephew needs to be slowly there's an aspect of the jewish consciousness which is part of the divine in which you're one with the divine like a child is one with the father and there is a level where the child was one with the father and mother but then you separate and you can betray your father and mother but then there's a level in which you are in the womb of your mother there's a level where the child is still part of the seed of the father you're completely one there's no dissonance we have that aspect of us and which is absolutely never of separation between man and god over there there can't be any sin over there there can't be any fragmentation over there there can't be any separation because it's mama's one and the fact is that even jewish law nicola recognizes this truth there's the famous verdict of my mind is the rambam and the laws of divorce chapter two the end of chapter two rambam garish and paraguays where he explains that according to jewish law there are instances let's say demands a person divorces his wife let's say he's doing certain things yet but he doesn't to kaif actually i'm right sonny you could beat him force him until he says i want and then he gives the divorce and it's a kosher divorce but a divorce can't be coerced he has to be wanting what does it help you force him till he says i want i twist you i twist your i twist your hand i say say i want that's not called i want says the rambam that because he's jewish in his depth he really wants the fact he says i don't want that's his external psyche talking there's a deeper level that doesn't want the rambam says this so when he says i want he's actually articulating a truth that's deep inside of him the coercion is revealing something that's very deep even though he consciously is denying it so jewish law recognizes this concept on this level of the soul there's no dissonance on this level of the soul there's no death because of the snake because on this level there's no separation which part of judaism began to talk about this aspect of the person kabbalah pinemius the depth of terror the soul of toyota began addressing in a very systematic and organized and structured and emphatic way the depth of the human being and the depth of the jew the epinemius anephesh the kami this is the teachings of kabbalah the teachings of hasidis which came to explain and elucidate and make the teachings of the kabbalah relevant and palpable to everybody so therefore the gemara says our bombay subatiya operating on a more external level where the nakhosh introduces dissonance and that causes death even if not for your own shortcomings but it's because of the serpent in the world we're at the funeral of the ramak who was the teacher the greatest teacher of kabbalah till his time he was eulogized by the greatest master of kabbalah theresa a new dimension was revealed vessel is is a part of a person in which there's no descendants in which there's no separation there's no corruption there's no flaw why did he die says there's a person and there's no justification for death not even the justification that he's living in a dirty world that he's living in a tarnished universe based on the serpent's influence even that doesn't exist why did the person die vessel is elates it's because of the tree that was planted by god it's part of a divine mysterious plan defying the human imagination it has nothing to do with the person's corruption it's part of a person's relationship with hashem the journey that god wants for every person in their due time and place and because every person has this aspect in them this truth of diarrhea relates to everybody even if not on a conscious level but on a certain unconscious or super conscious level so they tell the they tell the anecdote about three people who go into a uh cafe a catholic priest a protestant minister and a jewish rabbi and they're all drinking a latte in starbucks for 9 50. what are they going to talk about they talk about what they would like to hear people say at their funeral the catholic priest says i would like to hear somebody say at my funeral he was a true servant of god he served the lord his whole life and the protestant minister says i would like to hear somebody say at my funeral he was a real friend you can rely on him 27 24 hours a day seven days a week he was a true comrade rabbi what about you what would you like to hear somebody say at your funeral and the rabbi says i would like to hear somebody say at my funeral you know i think he's moving we are a people that loves life we are obsessed with life we hold life sacred and dear we believe in life and don't take this for granted because after what the jewish people have been through you would suggest that if there is any culture who could have made a culture that glorifies death it would have been the jews but they never did they always heeded the words of moses choose life believe in life rebuild life continue to live how did they do it because they took refuge in these words of thy resolve isa aclates they knew that despite the circumstances and as many tears as they shed there was some spark of goodness it was their father in heaven who loves them who ultimately allow this to happen and when you know that it's your father it's your mother who allowed this to happen you may not understand it you may still be very very hurting you may be in a lot a lot of pain and agony but you know that if you dig deeper if you dig deeper if you excavate the surface and you get to the core of reality you may be able to discover a spark of meaning and thus use it as a catalyst for yet deeper love and deeper life and deeper hope and it's what took jews through the long exile until the beautiful luminescent day when as the prophet puts it death will be swallowed forever and god will wipe away the tears from every face and the days of grief and mourning will be transformed into happiness and glee have a good night [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you