Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz: Did All of Israel Convert at Mt Sinai and What are it's Ramifications?

Okay, everybody. Thank you for coming and um tonight's share is a dedicated for an aliyah neshama of Shulamit bat Chaim Mordechai alav shalom. The first yahrzeit has passed on Monday night uh by Lynn and Larry Finson. Shulamit is the mother of Lynn. Again, I knew her very, very well. She devotedly uh would not only went to my share, but to many shiurim. She kind of learned Torah the whole day. And a very, very fine sweet woman and as I said, she should have her neshama should have an aliyah. Uh refuah shleimah for Baruch ben Frieda and Muna Chaya bat Shleima devorah. Uh Sora Chana bat Shayna is my wife. When I see the name, it sometimes takes me a second for it to click. Uh but baruch Hashem, again sponsored by Mark Weintraub. I'm very, very grateful and baruch Hashem uh my relatives is doing a very, very well. And uh from Eric Devinsky, please say a bracha in honor of Ilana and Simcha Devinsky's upcoming birthday on the 25th and 30th of Shvat. Again, happy birthday and uh they say on the day of your Hebrew birthday, you're able to give a you should instead of you know, instead of giving them a bracha, which I will do, but they should also give us a a bracha. And once again, uh we have an anonymous donor. Uh I want to thank Mr., Mrs. or Miss Anonymous uh for the achsoka's Torah. May be a zechus uh for the entire, entire mishpacha. Um Parshas Mishpatim is a very, very interesting parsha. In fact, Reb Kupperman, the head of Michlalah, zichrono livracha, the founder and the head, used to say that any person who learns Parshas Mishpatim with Rashi is by definition not an am ha'aretz. Meaning to say, if you want to know like what's the minimum to qualify me as somewhat of a learned Jew, learn Parshas Mishpatim with Rashi. Actually, it's a very good eitzah because a lot of Bava Kamma's in there, a lot of Bava Metzia's in there, and you know a tremendous amount of halacha. So, uh it's a little short on narrative, but there's some important narratives here as well. And the truth of the matter is I have to backtrack a little bit and talk about Matan Torah as a whole because the truth of the matter is many details of Matan Torah are given at the end of Parshas Mishpatim, and we have to reconstruct and reconnect them to what's going on in Parshas Yisro. First, a very interesting point that emerges from the Gemara in Yevamos. The Gemara in Yevamos actually says that Matan Torah was a conversion of the Jewish people. In a sense, the Jewish people became Jews. Although they're already Jews, but they became the Jewish nation with Kabbalas HaTorah. And therefore, all of the laws of conversion are derived from the what the Jewish people did at Matan Torah. What are the laws of conversion? If you're a man, there are three things a male has to do to convert to Judaism. There is circumcision, bris milah. There is immersion in a mikvah. And there is the acceptance of the commandments, that I accept to do God's commandments. Well, what did the Jews do? Before they left Egypt, they circumcised. Before they received the Torah, they immersed in water. But the Torah says they immersed with their clothing. Uh and na'aseh v'nishma, the statement we will keep the Torah, we will uh do even before we know what it is, the blank check. Because after all, when a person converts to Judaism, they actually don't know everything they're going to do, but they have an unconditional acceptance. So, all of the halachas of giyur are derived from Matan Torah, because Matan Torah itself is a geirus. So, as a little aside, I just want to share with you a fascinating chiddush of the Maharal of Prague. You know, the Maharal of Prague wrote many, many sefarim. The very first sefer that he wrote is Gur Aryeh. Now, Gur Aryeh is actually the Maharal's commentary on Rashi. But, k'darko, the Maharal will often digress into other things besides the technical explanation of Rashi, and he says many, many interesting yesodos. And the Maharal raises the following question. There is a peculiar law in hilchos geirus that many of you might already be familiar with, that when a person undergoes a conversion, they are treated like a newly created entity. As if they were created today. The old soul is gone, and a new soul comes in, the soul of a Jew. And this has halachic implications. For example, some of them might be bizarre. If a mother and a son both convert, under Torah law, they are newly created entities who are not related to each other. D'oraita, mid'rabbanan, there's mar'it ayin appearances like that. And also, by the way, the police would get would get involved, so don't don't try it. But, according to Torah law, a converted mother can marry her converted son. A converted father could marry their converted daughter. A brother and a sister could marry. So, the Maharal asks the kasha, l'chumra, that would mean if this all of the 600,000 Jew Jews, that's just the men and then you have the women. If all of them have the status of geirim, that would mean that the generation of those who are standing at Matan Torah would have no incest restrictions. In other words, the laws of the Torah, brother can't marry a sister, a father can't marry a daughter, a son cannot marry a mother, they wouldn't have applied to that generation. Because of the halachos of geirus and the Maharal says, "Lo matzinu." There's absolutely no indication in the Torah that these laws wouldn't have applied to that first generation. Why is that so? Isn't that a contradiction to "Ger shenisgayer kekatan shenolad dumi" that a ger is like a newborn entity? So the Maharal says a fascinating chiddush. The Maharal says, "It is true that Matan Torah was a conversion, but it's the only conversion where we don't say you're like newly created." And that's why the relationship exists. And he gives the following reason. "When do I say 'Ger shenisgayer kekatan shenolad dumi' that a ger is is like a newly created entity? That is only a geirus that is volitional. If I decide to sever my past, I decide to assume a new identity, that erases everything. But the geirus of Matan Torah was not wholly volitional. The geirus of Matan Torah was coerced. We're going to have to explain that, but the Gemara in Shabbos says that Hashem held the mountain over our heads and Hashem said, "If you accept the Torah, that's great. If you don't accept the Torah, I'm going to squish you with the mountain." So we said, "Yes." The kabbalas Torah, according to the Gemara in Shabbos, occurred by compulsion. Maharal explains a geirus through compulsion is not a severance of your past identity. Only a volitional geirus is a severance of your past identity. Now, the truth of the matter is, this is, as a mathematician would say, a set of only one item. I'm meaning to say, there is no such thing as a non-volitional conversion except in the case of Matan Torah. But since it was non-volitional, coerced, because of Kafa Aleiham Har Kegigis, Hashem held the mountain over us like a barrel, you don't say Gershon Neskayah Kekatan Shenelah Damah, you don't say that the relationship is severed. This is a a fascinating chiddush. But I want to explain the basic idea here. What do we mean or what does the Gemara mean when it says we were forced into Matan Torah? First of all, if you're forced into something, then why is it bechlal valid? Has no validity at all. Second of all, it seems to contradict the text itself. The text talks about how the Jewish people said in this parsha, "Everything God will command us." Na'aseh v'nishma. We will do and we will listen to. And there's a chiddush, the order is very significant because by saying we will do and then we'll hear what it is, they're making a commitment to a blank check. If they would have said nishma v'na'aseh, that would have implied conditionality. Let's hear what you're offering and then we'll do it. Na'aseh v'nishma is a very big deal. It basically says, "We are committing ourselves to the will of God." And now let's hear what it is. So, there are two questions, in other words, there are two questions on the statement of the Gemara that God forced us to accept the Torah. Question number one would be, then why would that even be valid? I mean, if I put a gun to your head and I say, "Sell me your house." or whatever it is, you know, it's it's not a There's not a sale. And second of all, the whole concept is contradicted by Na'aseh v'Nishma. So, the truth is, the Maharal elsewhere offers a very beautiful explanation. But I It doesn't I have to admit, it does not fit the Gemara totally, but but let me just share the Maharal's idea. The Maharal says that when God held the mountain over our heads, that was not before we said Na'aseh v'Nishma. That's after we said Na'aseh v'Nishma. Meaning, we accepted the Torah willingly. After we accepted Torah willingly, God holds the mountain over our heads. Now, you'll ask the obvious question, we already accepted it. Why does he have to hold the mountain over our heads? Because God wants us to realize how momentously important our decision was. The world was created only so the Jewish people would accept God's Torah. If there's not an acceptance of God's Torah, there is no tachlis for the universe. God might as well end the project now. But God can't tell us that ahead of time. If God were to have told us, "You better accept the Torah or the world will end." our acceptance would have been under duress. So, we accept the Torah volitionally. But after we accept Torah, it's almost as if Kavyakho, Hashem has a sigh of relief. Wow, it's lucky you made the right decision. Because if you wouldn't have made the right decision, the world would cease to exist. So, it's not that Hashem is saying, "I'm going to squish this particular group of people." Rather, Hashem is showing them graphically, the world That's not the world, the universe would stop existing. So, this is a different nuance. So, when we say the Torah was a product of compulsion, we don't quite mean we were forced into it. We were not forced into it, but rather it had to be something that was done, meaning it had to be done. But, the paradox is it had to be done voluntarily. It had to be done. If it wouldn't have been done, everything is gone. But, it's something that had to be done, but it had to be done voluntarily. Right, so this is the understanding of the compulsory aspect of Matan Torah. It's compulsion in in the way that, you know, gravity is a compulsion. It's the law of nature. It is the law, it is the divine structure of the universe. That there has to be a Kabbalas HaTorah. Without a Kabbalas HaTorah, there's no tachlis to anything. So, now I want to go backwards and explain how this elucidates the Maharal's earlier point. These points are not in the same place. And that is why the geirus of Matan Torah doesn't have the principle of geirus and the sky are connected to know that I mean it's a newborn entity. Because Garris severs you from your past when you're choosing to become a new person. I'm choosing to become a new person. That cuts me off from my past. But here it is the nature of the Jewish soul that the Jewish soul must do this. It is imprinted in the Jewish soul that we are going to accept God's Torah. So how can you say when we accept God's Torah, we're cutting ourselves off from our roots? It is our roots that make us do what we're doing. It's an affirmation of who we are rather than a repudiation of who we are. You see, it's not shy out to say, "Oh, when I convert to accept God's Torah, I'm cutting myself off from Avram, Yitzhak, and Yaakov." Well, no. The reason your neshama is open to the Torah is because your connection to Avram, Yitzhak, and Yaakov. Right? Therefore, it's not shy out to say, "And so so when the moral says compulsion, he doesn't mean we were forced we were forced. He means it's was something my neshama had to do." And because it had to do it then for cat, the decision I'm making is connected to who I am rather than rejecting who I am. But there is a I just want to point out that there is a big big in Kabbalah how even the voluntary conversion works. You know, we do say before conversion, I'm sorry, after conversion, the person has a Jewish soul. But but what is it? So some understand there is literally a new soul, meaning to say a person goes into the mikvah. The mikvah is analogized to a womb. That's a well-known theme that going into the mikvah is like being reborn. You're entering the medium of water, the amniotic fluid, and etc. And you emerge a new person. So, some understand the old soul dies and the new soul comes in. There is such an idea, and that's the direction I've been going, but I do want to point out that there actually is another way of understanding it that the ger had a Jewish soul from the very beginning. That it's not that there's a new soul that comes in, but rather by definition, cabalistically, there are sometimes Jewish souls that are in non-Jewish bodies. And indeed, this is a very common statement that many, many gerim do make that they always felt that they were Jewish. They always felt a connection to Judaism. And what's interesting is this is not based on environmental factors. It's not because, "Oh, my piano teacher was a nice old Jewish woman and I I I sometimes there's that. But the you're going to find this in in places in which there were no Jews at all. You know, somebody is from middle of Idaho, no Jews for 50 miles. And somehow in their heart, there is some stirring. It's very remarkable because there's there actually there's actually no rational explanation for why some gerim become Jewish. It's not because they had a teacher and it's not because they met somebody, although sometimes there is that. It's literally coming from the neshama. In fact, the famous case although some historians say it's not true, which I would hate to assume that because it's a well-known, accepted story, the Ger Tzedek miVilna, the righteous converts of Vilna. This was a man in the time of the Vilna Gaon. He became a student of the Vilna Gaon, Valentin Potocki. Count Potocki, his father, was the richest landowner in Poland. The richest landowner. He had 999 large estates. And people would ask him the obvious question, "Why don't you buy one more?" And make it a facet. He said, "No, no, no. If people say I have a thousand estates, they'll figure it's a round number, he only has 995. But if you if they say I have 999, they know the yoke. I have 999. So I didn't want people to think, uh, he only has 990." Very, very wealthy man. And, uh, his son, his This was the oldest son who would have gotten the bulk of the estate, decided as a young man that every time Shabbos came, he became very restless. He couldn't do anything. He would just pace back and forth. And it's some inner stirring to connect to Jews, even though he had didn't know any Jews. He eventually became a ger. He became very, very close to the Vilna Gaon. He was a disciple of the Vilna Gaon. Uh, in those days, converting to Judaism was a crime against the Catholic Church. It was a capital crime. But because of Count Potocki's connections, they would let him off the hook if he would even if he would keep Judaism in private, but wouldn't publicly identify himself as a Jew. He refused. And on the second day of Shavuos, he was burnt at the stake in Vilna. He was burnt at the stake. The Vilna Gaon visited him the night before his death. And the Vilna Gaon told him, "You know, we could do miracles, we could do cabalistic things and get you out of here." So he asked the Vilna Gaon a shaila, very interesting shaila, for those of you that want to send your kids to Hogwart, uh, Harry Potter. He says, "Am I much right because it says I have I'm much right to try to save my life. Am I to use supernatural means to save my life? And the Vilna Gaon said you're not the Torah does not obligate you to try to use miracles. The Torah obligates you that I got to tell you. To try to save yourself. Whatever would work naturally if you could bribe somebody or whatever. But you don't have to use miracles because miracles is not what God authorized us to use. So the Garrett of Vilna said if I don't have to use miracles I would rather die to sanctify God's name. And indeed he was burnt at the stake. His ashes were buried. Well, next to the place where the Vilna actually the Vilna Gaon is buried next to him but but it was arranged that the Vilna Gaon would be buried next to the Garrett of Vilna. And to this day I mean we know where the Vilna Gaon's cover is, we know where the Garrett's ashes ashes are. But again some historians I hate to say they deny the whole story. And they say whatever is in that burial site is whatever it is. And they say that it was just but but but there's no question this was a very very well known tradition in Vilna. And in fact whenever Yizkor was recited until the Holocaust they did a special for Abraham ben Abraham for Abraham ben Abraham who was the Garrett of Vilna. As he was being led to the to being burnt at the stake he actually composed a nigun to the words I strain you my type of came you happy is our lot. Because as he was giving his life to to Hashem and in the Vilna Yeshiva you can actually I don't happen to remember the nigun but on YouTube you can actually get it. This was mikubal in the Shiva Vilna nigan that they would sing. Uh Rav Chaim Volozhin was the Vilna Gaon's disciple. It was mikubal that this was from the Ger Tzedek of of of Vilna. It's interesting just know one other little little aspect of this. It's really a digression but it's it's worthwhile to to go over this. That uh the uh Tsar because the Tsar was ruling over uh Poland at the time, the Tsar did not allow uh ordered uh the the regional governors ordered that nobody be present at the execution. They didn't want to make him a martyr. They didn't want because there would be rioting and everything else. So they were very very strict that not a single person would be present when the Ger Tzedek is being burnt. It was be a private burning. But one person snuck in who was actually very very famous baal mussar uh the author of a great great mussar sefer Yesod v'Shoresh ha'Avodah by Rav L'chaim Ziskind of Horodna. Um I had just said a few days ago that there was no English translation of this but somebody showed me that ArtScroll is now in the process of translating it for the first time. Yesod v'Shoresh ha'Avodah. Tremendous sefer, powerful, emotional. Like everything is about uh you know, kavanas and in davening and and every brocha has its own unique kavana. So it says that he snuck in because he wanted to hear the brocha. You know when you die al kiddush Hashem there's a brocha that you recite. Rav Elchanan Wasserman taught it in the Holocaust before he died. Asher kidishanu b'mitzvotav v'tzivanu l'kadesh shmo b'rabim to sanctify God's name in the multitude. So Rav L'chaim Ziskind said he heard the Ger Tzedek make the bracha and he answered amen before he was able to slip away. So that's the Ger Tzedek. The only reason I'm bringing it in is that in the in the histories of the Ger Tzedek it talked about how he felt that he had a Jewish soul even before he connected to Judaism. That somehow on Shabbos, on Yom Kippur, there were all sorts of feelings that he didn't know what Yom Kippur was. But somehow there were feelings that So what I'm saying is in Kabbalah there is a big machlokes. Does a Ger get a Jewish soul? Or does a Ger even before the conversion have a Jewish soul? I would just say from a purely halachic standpoint the rule that you're like new newly born seems to suggest it's a new soul. That that seems to be the suggestion. I'm not sure how the other paradigm would would explain uh the idea that you're a newly created entity. But okay. the term Ger Shenitkayar. Which means Okay, he's already a Ger. I hear. Ger Shenitkayar. That's a that's a nice That's a nice deal. Okay. But now uh so that's the first point I wanted to share with you that Matan Torah was a mass conversion of the Jewish people. But the second point I want to share with you is that the sequence of Matan Torah is a little confusing. Because we have the Ten Commandments. And after the Ten Commandments we have an assortment of various laws including all of Parshas Mishpatim. And only at the end of Parshas Mishpatim does Moshe go up to Har Sinai and is there for 40 days and 40 nights. So I hope you understand that Parshas Mishpatim as well as the very end of parshas yisro is very different than the rest of the torah. Because the rest of the torah we get from moshe after he comes down from har sinai. Of course he'll go up and down a few times and we get it over 40 years, right? This is also an important point. We don't We don't get the mitzvahs right away. Moshe goes up to har sinai for 40 days and god teaches him all the mitzvahs. But when he comes down even with the second luchos he doesn't tell us all the mitzvahs. If you look at the torah we get mitzvahs over a 40 year period. People think of people make a very big mistake. People say, "Oh, we got the torah." First of all, on shavuos we obviously get the torah. What did we get on shavuos? We got the 10 commandments. Okay? And when was the safer torah written? Let's think about this. I mean parshas yisro is in the middle of the book of exodus. Right? Mishpatim. Now there's a whole bunch of stuff in the torah that happened after matan torah. The story of the spies, the story of korach many many things. So it's not possible to talk about the fact that the Jewish people got the torah. I mean what? They knew about korach before korach korach was given a script just like a director? Moshe said, "Okay, korach stand on the red line here and you're supposed to say these words because the torah says you're supposed to say this." And you know, the ground opens up but you know, the show must go on. Uh obviously things didn't happen until they happened. Okay, that's that's obvious. So, I just want to maybe maybe make a point that is obvious and I apologize if it's simple, but in my experience people are often confused. When we say Moshe got the Torah at Sinai, Torah does not mean the five books of Moses. It doesn't mean a safer Torah. Torah means 613 mitzvahs. Hashem told Moshe the 613 mitzvahs both times, both the first time and the second time as a hazara, together with the oral law, together with the interpretations of those mitzvahs. And Moshe did not communicate them to God until God authorized him, which was over a 40-year period. And in fact, that's actually the significance of the ubiquitous Vayedaber Hashem el Moshe lemor. But every time Moshe gives us commandments, says, "And the Lord spoke to Moshe saying." What is that saying business? The answer is very simple. Lemor means Hashem is telling Moshe, "That which I already told you at Sinai, I am now giving you the green light to communicate to Bnei Yisrael." Now, why that's so is something that would need its own study. Meaning to say, why did God want certain mitzvahs to be revealed at certain times? It's a fascinating question, but there's not a single answer. You're like, you have to look at each thing. Meaning, if you would take a snapshot, right? The Jewish people wound up because of the spies, they wound up wandering the desert for 40 years. So, if you would take a snapshot of the Jewish people in year 28, and take another snapshot of the Jewish people in year 35, they would be doing different things because different mitzvahs came into being different years in the desert experience. We did not get the mitzvahs at one time. Moshe got the mitzvahs at one time, and then Hashem gave him authorization over a long period of time how to reveal it. So, year 10 of the desert was different than year 15, and year 15 was different than year 30. And there were some mitzvahs we didn't get until the very end of Moshe's life. Okay? It's an important point. In fact, the Chazon Ish says a fascinating chiddush. This actually explains the four places in the Torah where Moshe didn't know the law. There are four places in the Torah where Moshe did not know the halacha. Uh one was when the people were impure, uh the first Pesach uh after they left Mitzrayim, right? The a year after they left Mitzrayim, and they couldn't bring the korban Pesach because they were impure. Moshe didn't know the law, he asked God, and God said, "Oh, if somebody's impure or far away, they can bring it a month later, Pesach Sheini." The second example, actually Pesach Sheini is is is uh the third example, but the earlier examples were the guy that gathered wood on Shabbos, and Moshe didn't know what the punishment was. So, he asked to ask God, and God says one who desecrates Shabbos gets the death penalty. And another case is the one who blasphemed God, cursed God. Moshe didn't know the punishment, asks Hashem, that's stoning. And the fourth is the daughters of Tzelafchad. This is already the 40th year of the desert, way ahead. Where uh Tzelafchad died, he had no sons. Uh it was not clear if a daughter inherits if there are no sons. Tzelafchad's brothers were claiming that they should get his share in the land of Israel. Moshe didn't know. And Moshe asks Hashem, and Hashem says daughters inherit if there are no sons. Four cases Moshe didn't know. The wood gatherer, going in order, the wood gatherer, the blasphemer, Pesach Sheini, daughters of Tzelafchad. Now the question is, but if we say Moshe kibbel Torah miSinai, Moshe was given all the mitzvos at Sinai. Moshe was given the mitzvos. So Moshe was told there's Pesach Sheini. Moshe was told a mechallel Shabbos gets stoning. Moshe was told that a blasphemer gets gets stoned. And Moshe was told that daughters inherit. Because Moshe got everything at Mount Sinai, the 40 days. So how come he doesn't know? So some midrashim say, all right, Moshe forgot, anger, whatever it is, that perhaps he forgot. But the Chazon Ish has a beautiful, brilliant analysis. Once we understand that Moshe getting the commandment is not the same as an authorization to communicate the commandment. Moshe knows the laws of Pesach Sheini. Moshe knows all of these things. But he wasn't yet told by "Vayedaber Hashem el Moshe lemor." So Moshe's dilemma is, what do I do? It's like inside information in securities, right? What do I do when I know something but I wasn't yet authorized to reveal it? Well, what I do is I ask God, "Is it time to reveal it?" And God said, "Yes." This is a brilliant a beautiful explanation because Mosha didn't forget anything. Mosha had a genuine dilemma as to what to do, okay? So, this is an important corrective a little bit. I mean, okay, well, I mean, I don't want to get into my own pet peeves and people say, "Oh, every line of the Gemara was given to Mo- I I you have to understand that the Jewish people got the Torah over 40 years." Now, when was the Torah written? So, basically, the way the Torah was written is it was written in a piecemeal fashion. Meaning, before the 10 Commandments, Mosha wrote the Torah. Al Pi Hashem, God dictated everything. That That's not the question. God dictated everything from Bereshit to Matan Torah. So, on the day we heard the 10 Commandments, we had the Torah up to that point. And after that, Mosha wrote it piecemeal over a 40-year period. So, after Korach, he wrote Korach. Al Pi Hashem. After Meraglim, he wrote Meraglim. So, there was no safer Torah. There was partial parshiyots that were written as they occurred. Now, the interesting question that I don't really know is did Bnei Yisrael have access to that written text? I'm not sure. Meaning to say, did they have access to the Torah as it was written or was that written Torah Mosha's property until it was finished. The Chumash seems to indicate that the Torah the Torah as it was being written was Moshe's private thing because it says on the on the day of his death he completed the Torah and he gave 13 Torahs the day of his death. And one was put into the Aron Kodesh. And each tribe got its own safe the implication was until that point they didn't have it. And then there's a machlokes who wrote the last eight verses that's a separate issue because the last eight verses talk about Moshe's death. So the point I'm making is we didn't get the mitzvot at one time and we certainly didn't get the Sefer Torah until the day that Moshe died. Reb Hirsch points out based on this an interesting anomaly that the oral law is actually older than the written law because for the 40 years in the midbar all of the Torah that we learned was the oral Torah. Even the written Torah was the oral Torah because it was not necessarily written down yet. So the Torah she baal peh is older than the Torah she b'ksav. Okay, there was no Sefer Torah in existence until the last day of Moshe's life. Based on this is interesting Tosafos in Menachos asks the question uh like this. Tosafos in Menachos asks the question, we have a tradition Moshe of course died on the 7th of Adar. He was also born on the 7th of Adar. Uh and our tradition is that Moshe died on Shabbos. The 7th of Adar was on Shabbos. And in fact we have a tradition that three great tzaddikim died Shabbos afternoon. Yosef Moshe and David Hamelech. That's why after the Amidah, after the repetition of the Amidah on Shabbos Mincha, we say tzidkos tzedek, which means we accept upon ourselves the righteousness of God's decree. And there are three verses that we accept tziduk hadin, the justice of God. And it says the three verses are k'neged the three tzadikim of Yosef, Mosha, Dovid. So, Tosafos asks a g'valdik kasha. How could we say that Mosha wrote 13 Torah scrolls on the day of his death? The day of his death was Shabbos. How could Mosha write on Shabbos? So, Tosafos answers, similar to that story I told you about the Gra, since writing three 13 Torah scrolls by definition would have to be a miracle. Melacha done through a miracle is not called chillul Shabbos. So, again, I'll say, if any of your kids are accepted to Hogwarts and you're worried about Shabbos, they can do magic. Well, it might be an issue to actually do magic generally, but there's no chillul Shabbos in magic tricks uh because it's sh'lo b'derech hateva. But I'm thinking to myself that actually it may not be such a miracle. Because if you understand that the Torah was written gradually over 40 years, so Mosha has these 13 incomplete scrolls. Then what he has to do on the last day is not that much actually. He just has to write like the last paragraph 13 times. That's not beyond possibility. In other words, Tosafos' kasha is a kasha only if you assume I'm sorry, Tosafos' answer, not the question. Tosafos' answer is an answer only if you assume that he literally had to write 13 Torah scrolls from Bereshit to the end. So, Tosafot says that's obviously supernatural, and that's going to be much on Shabbat. But, if you understand that the Torah is written many many times, so there's not that much left over at the very end. Okay, so um I'm not going to give you complete clarification of all this, but I did I did want to clarify this particular aspect cuz I actually find that many people are quite confused about how to reconcile Torah miSinai with the fact that the Torah is given sequentially over time, and how could it be that Moshe Rabbeinu didn't know things if he already got those things, and how could the Torah be given at Sinai if so many events happened after Sinai? And the answer is Moshe got the mitzvot. The narratives did not happen until they happened, and they were written in a piecemeal piecemeal way. Okay. So, now though, uh I want to uh point out the the following. With all of this, there is still something unique about Parshat Mishpatim. Because, yes, it's after the 10 Commandments, but Moshe gets these commandments before he goes up to Har Sinai. Which indicates there's something special. I mean, again, we we normally are not supposed to say some mitzvot are more important. But, there must be some significance that these mitzvot are so important that they're connected to the Aseret Hadibrot. Now, again, just as a matter of classification, they're midway between Aseret Hadibrot and the rest of the Torah. The Aseret Hadibrot are special because we heard Hashem giving us all those commandments. And even though the way Rashi understands it, we only heard two from God and then we were asked Moshe to be the intermediary, but the Rambam doesn't learn that way. The Rambam learns we heard all of the Aseres Hadibros. So, the Aseres Hadibros are unique according to many Rishonim because we heard them from God. The rest of the Torah we heard from Moshe Rabbeinu. But, the Mishpatim although we heard them from Moshe Rabbeinu, they were given to Moshe Rabbeinu before he went into the cloud. Which means we heard them that same day. Moshe had got it and he told us the same day. As opposed to the rest of the Torah which is only after the 40 days and we got it over 40 years. So, the Mishpatim is kind of intermediate between the Ten Commandments and the rest of the Torah. And I think I highlighted uh last week the idea that since so many of the Mishpatim, not all of them, are bein adam l'chaveiro, between man and man. The Torah is highlighting how important that aspect is. And it's interesting, it's it's pointed out that Mishpatim in some ways is a scary world. It's a frightening world. A lot of things happening, runaway oxen, you know, murder, theft, uh rape, a lot of things, you know, witchcraft, a lot of bad things. Like it's a world that's not ideal. It's a world in which these things shouldn't be happening. But, in reality, the Torah gives us the ability to navigate a world of divine concealment. That's a very, very important idea. The world as we have it is far from perfect. There are murders, there is rape, there's terrorism, there are accidents, there are tragedies. That is the nature of all the Maseh. Right, it's not messianic yet. We're not in a state of perfection. We've been expelled from the Garden of Eden. But the Torah gives us a light that penetrates through that darkness. Rav Tzadok says a very He makes this analogy in a very beautiful way, very vivid way. And again, this is going back a little to Yisrael, but but I I want to go back a little to that. When the Torah describes Matan Torah, so it talks about thunder and lightning and torches. And then we hear the 10 Commandments. And then it says It continues to describe the kolos and the thunder. But Rav Tzadok points out, there's a very subtle, almost imperceptible difference between what is described before the 10 Commandments and what is described after the 10 Commandments. Before the 10 Commandments, it talks about kolos. Kolos is thunder. Va uvrakim, and lightning flashes. Kolos, uvrakim. Very frightening. After the 10 Commandments, it says there's still smoke and fire. Kolos, valapidim. Lapidim are torches. It's almost like Israeli politics. You have Baraks, you have the Baraks, and you have the Lapids. Right? That's exactly the lashon here. Maybe it's prophetic in some in some way. You asked me about politics, I don't know. Uh so, before Matan Torah, the light was perceived as barak, lightning flashes. After Matan Torah, it's a lapid, a torch. What Tzadok wants to say the difference in visualization describes a spiritual metamorphosis that the Jews went through pre-Matan Torah and after Matan Torah. Even without a Torah a Jew, and really any sensitive person, maybe a Lubavitcher Jew has a desire to be close to God. You know, we have yetzer horas. We have taivas. We don't always live up to it. But everybody has moments in which they want to connect to something significant, something deep, something good, something holy. But without a Torah the holiness will be like lightning. Now, what is the nature of lightning? A brilliant flash of light followed by total darkness. Because without the Torah the only way you can achieve holiness is by disengagement with the physical world. Right? That's why, for example, let's take Catholicism. To be a holy person you have to be celibate. I'm not going to address the the issue of child abuse and the like, but ideally at least you're supposed to be celibate. You take a vow of poverty. What is the logic of that? Because holiness requires disengagement from the world. The world is evil. The world will drag you down. The world will destroy you. Holiness exists only to the extent you can distance yourself from the world. That's a pre-Matan Torah paradigm of holiness. Now, since by definition no matter how holy I want to be I sometimes have to eat. And I sometimes have to sleep. By definition, that is not a sustainable holiness. That's lightning, brilliant light followed by darkness. The Torah created a new dimension of holiness. A holiness that is not based on repudiating the world. It's not based on asceticism. It's not based on rejecting the physical and material, but understanding that even the physical and material, even the animalistic urges of the human personality, can be elevated, can be sanctified, can be dedicated to God. The Torah teaches, yes, I eat. Animals eat. I eat. But we eat with a bracha. And we eat by following the halachas of shechita, whatever it would be. We eat to have strength to do mitzvahs, to serve God. Yes, sexual reproduction, every every animal in the world does it. But we do it in the context of kedusha, a marriage uh to have a holy home. What you're doing is you're elevating. That's different than lightning. Lightning is brilliant light followed by total darkness. A torch flickers, but a torch has a constancy. If you had to now I remember years and years ago when we used to go to Tzfat, well not to Tzfat, but before they made better roads in Tzfat, so you had to go around the mountain over and over and over again. It it took like an hour just to get up a hill that now takes because I mean it takes like 10 minutes now. But these were hairpin turn turns, and I remember being on these Egged buses and especially at night, you're raining rainy night, there were no guardrails. Yes, yes, yes, you really had to park it. This is the old joke they tell about the Rosh Yeshiva and the Egged bus driver. They both died the same day and they go up to Shamayim. And now I there has to be a decision who goes to Gan Eden, etc. So, the Egged bus driver immediately goes to Gan Eden. And the Rosh Yeshiva, they got a test. They got to look at it a little bit. So, he says, "You know, listen, I've been learning Torah all my life. I mean, what what's the problem here?" So, they say, "I mean, why does the Egged guy go before me?" It's not real. So, the So, the malach said, "Well, how many tefillos did you cause people to say? I mean, you know, the Egged bus driver has the zechus of making so many so many prayers." So, think about the idea. At least the bus had headlights. Imagine if the bus had to navigate those turns by lightning flashes. You're given a second. With a torch, b'ezras Hashem, you could make it. Now, it's interesting, a torch is not as intense as a lightning flash, which is an interesting idea because it does mean when you live pure spirituality, you can have ecstasy. And then you're plunged into darkness. When you live in the real world, you're not always going to have that ecstasy, you know, taking your kids to carpool or whatever. Maybe I'm using an American example, but whatever it would be, real life doesn't always have the drama and the ecstasy of spirituality. But it gives you light and it gives you warmth. And therefore, Rav Tzadok says, pre-Matan Torah, our kedusha was based on lightning. Post-Matan Torah, it becomes a torch that can sustain us, give us warmth to use our eating and drinking for Hashem, our family structures. You know, I'm reading this I actually I actually recommend this book to everybody. You know, with Moshe Feinstein, of course, everyone knows Moshe Feinstein was the Godol Hador. But his oldest son was nifter by last year of Dovid Feinstein. And with Dovid Feinstein, at least among many people, was less known than his father. But he was an extraordinarily great person and ArtScroll put out a biography of Reb Dovid Feinstein and it's a remarkable, beautiful, beautiful book. I urge people to read it because yeah, he had all the characteristics of characteristics of your regular Godol. He knew Shas and everything else. I mean, that's a wonderful thing, but that wouldn't be unique in particular. But the thing that really gets me, almost every page, I either laugh or cry or both. Uh he was almost obsessed with with with not having covered with No, he used to eat there in the pizza place for breakfast. He lived in the Lower East Side his whole life and a simple man. In fact, uh somebody sent a message to him that a Rebbetzin sent a message that you're an Adam Godol. An Adam Godol should not eat in a pizza place with with a So, you're an Adam An Adam Godol shouldn't eat. So, he said He said to the Rebbetzin, he says, "I agree 100%. An Adam Godol should not eat in a pizza place and that is why your husband should never be here. But you know, I'm not an Adam Godol." So, things like that. But the thing that hit me a lot, and again, he was a real Talmid Chacham. He knew Shas, he knew Poskin. He was He was very great in Torah learning. But he had an enjoyment of life. You know, he had an enjoyment of it. He enjoyed seeing children play. He enjoyed a good piece of watermelon. He enjoyed a good piece of cinnamon cake. Now, this wasn't You have to understand, this was not the Baal Tover that needed to indulge. This was a spiritual attitude in which he saw in the world beauty and benevolence and the Hesed of Hashem. And he felt that every part of Hashem's Briah is something you should be grateful for. It's Again, it's a highly spiritual idea. It's not simply, you know, self-indulgence. He was not uh he was obviously not self-indulgent in any particular way. And that's the notion of of of um torches rather than lightning. Let me just end with one one final very interesting point from the Meshech Hochmah. Now, everybody knows that the famous thing that the Jewish people said when they accepted the Torah is Na'aseh v'Nishma. Whatever God says, we will do even before we know it. But interestingly enough, Na'aseh v'Nishma appears in this parsha. If you look at last week's parsha, uh when the Jewish people before the Ten Commandments, they say, "Kol asher diber Hashem na'aseh." I mean, you almost feel like correcting the ba'al korei. He says, "Kol asher diber Hashem na'aseh." So, you want to call v'nishma. No, no, no, the ba'al korei is right. In parshas Yisro, it only says nish it only says na'aseh. Only later, Na'aseh v'Nishma. So, what's going on? Why in one pasuk do the Jewish people simply say, "We will do." And in the other pasuk, "We will do and we will listen." So, the Meshech Hochmah says a real real brilliant teretz. You know, Chazal tell us that there are 613 mitzvos of the Torah. Actually, it's not so easy to get that count. The Rishonim go to great great lengths trying to figure it out, but this is our famous number, 613. And Chazal even give us another subdivision. 248 are the positive commandments, thou shalt do. And 365 are the negative commandments, thou shalt not do. Now, the Gemara in Makkot correlates the commandments to the human body. There are 248 bones in your body. Each mitzvah is gives life to a bone. And there are 365 sinews or ligaments in the body. Every time you transgress, there is damage. Now, this doesn't mean This is not physical. I mean, this is referring because the bones and the sinews are parts of the soul as well. And And there's a certain spiritual pigima. So, now, the Meshech Chochmah asks a very simple question. If God correlates the 248 and the 365 to parts of your body, that you kind of are crippled if you're missing some of these commandments. There has never been a human being on the face of the earth who can keep all 613 commandments. Some are only the Kohain. Some are for men and not for women. Some are for women and not for men. Many apply only when there's a Beit Hamikdash. Now, it's one thing to say if we were to simply say, "Well, whatever you can't do, you're patur." I mean, that's fine. But, that's not going to work when you're modeling it connected to my body. I still got these 248 and 365. What's giving me chiyus? What's giving me life? And think about this. You know, giving a get, a Jewish divorce, is one of the 248 positive commandments. That if a man wants to terminate a marriage, there's a mitzvah to give a get. Well, that must mean there's a get bone in my body. There's some bone whose life depends on giving a get. So, what am I supposed to do? I'm supposed I'm supposed to go to my wife and say, "You know, honey, it's been a great wonderful marriage, but you know, I need tikun. I have I have a get bone in my body. It cannot be rectified unless I give a get." Got to do it. Maybe this will be comfort for for people who went through a divorce. The you have the tikun. But obviously, we're not going to tell people, "Oh, get divorced to have the tikun." So, how do you stem? How do you compare the idea that my bones and my sinews correlate to mitzvahs when it's not possible for me to do it? That means I'm condemned to be a no matter what. So, there are two answers the swaram give. Answer number one is that even if you can't do a mitzvah, you can learn about a mitzvah. And the learning about the mitzvah gives you the light of that mitzvah. Just like Hazal say, he who learns about the carbon ola is as if they brought an ola. It applies to everything. So, when I learn maseches Gittin, I get the life to my get bone without having to give a get. In fact, the Chofetz Chaim points out that that's why there may be a special importance sometimes to learn those parts of Torah that are not practical. People sometimes say, "Well, why should I bother to learn about korbanos? Why should I bother to learn about leprosy? We don't keep any of that today." Now, it is true you should give priority to the things that are practical that I I I need to know what to do. But the Chofetz Chaim pointed out, there's a great great importance mystically and spiritually in learning those portions of the Torah that you are not able to do because that gives life to me. Now, that's answer number one to this question. Answer number two is unity and Israel. What does that have to do with it? Because when I put feeling on my left arm, I don't say my arm is doing a mitzvah. I'm doing a mitzvah. The arm is part of me. So, how do you look at yourself? If I look at myself as an autonomous person, there's many, many mitzvahs I'm not able to do. I'm a by definition. But if I look at myself as a cell or an atom in the collectivity of Israel, which is a transcendental entity with a past, present, and future, then it turns out any mitzvah done by anybody at any time is my mitzvah because I'm part of this club. So, when there's and Israel, each of us get the benefit of the mitzvahs of all of us, even if from the past. Just like the mitzvahs you did yesterday are your mitzvahs even though some of your cells have changed. Right? So, these are the two pathways. Tell me Torah. I was Israel. So, now the says ingeniously, this explains the two versions of and them. In Israel, it says the following. by you call um you have to have. People answered in unison. I will be there whatever I shall said not so. Says the comma. This pasuk is a remez to a time when the Jewish people are unified, yachdav. When they're unified and they're like ish echad u'veleiv echad, we can declare whatever Hashem said, we can do. I can't do it, you can't do it, she can't do it. But as a collectivity, we can do it. We can fulfill b'ma'aseh. But the second pasuk in Mishpatim is meramez to a time when the Jewish people are beset with sinat chinam, disunity, polarization, machlokes. That's why it does not say Vayanu kol ha'am yachdav. Yachdav is taken out. In such a case, I can't say everything God said we can do. I'm not able to do it, I'm not connected to you. So we got to go to plan B, na'aseh v'nishmah. Nishmah also means to learn. We can do it through Talmud Torah. So when there's a yachdav, we fulfill the Torah in action. When there's not a yachdav, we fulfill the Torah by learning. Beautiful, beautiful teretz. So it turns out we have these two pathways of how do I keep the whole Torah? Through unity or the pathway of Torah learning. Plan A, plan B. So you might assume that these are two different roads. But ultimately, they are two roads that converge into one road. Because chazal teach us, talmidei chachamim marbim shalom ba'olam, the learning of Torah is supposed to create peace in the world. By learning Torah, by teaching Torah, by sharing Torah. Ultimately, this will build love between Jews, friendship between Jews. So, yeah, when there's no yachdav, we have to get the Torah to give us the fulfillment. But, the Torah itself will bring us to the pathway of avodas Hashem. Now, people will ask the obvious question, that gee, uh is it true? I mean, we have we have to have a reality check here. Is it true that the learning of Torah brings peace into the world? Or does learning of Torah bring machlokes into the world? Well, it's a good kasha. We have to ask ourselves, that's a serious question. If the learning of Torah fosters I I don't mean machlokes in halacha, that that's that's part of the Jewish process, that's perfectly fine. But, I mean, animosity, fighting. If the learning of Torah is such that it brings hatred into the world, then it must be we're not really learning Torah. Because Chazal promised us it would bring shalom. And again, I I I just remember I read a quote from Rav David Feinstein. Again, I just I just love this book. I I read it like candy. I have it in my office. Somebody gave Somebody gave it to me as a gift. And I only read like three pages at a time. Uh but, every as I'm doing email, I just, you know, read three pages. I tell my wife a story from it every night. Just I just I just love every little story. And uh he just said, he said that uh when a person learns a blatt Gemara, that should make him a kinder person, a more compassionate person, a more caring person. And he said, if it doesn't do that, he better go back and hazard the Gamara again. He didn't He didn't learn a trap. And you well well well, that's it. That is truth. That That is MS MS MS. And if we live in a world where that doesn't happen, it's because we're not learning Torah right. And therefore the two pathways of Ahavas Yisrael and Ahavas Yisrael and and the Limudei Torah are ultimately two roads that are supposed to converge and become one. So may we Hashem may we be so happy to take these lessons and try to live our lives in accordance with them. Thanks so much. Have a good Shabbos.