Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz: Israel Struggles and Triumphs and the Cost of War

[Music] okay all right hi everybody thank you for coming again and uh tonight's share is dedicated Raa for all those whose Health has been affected by the war and of course a special prayer for the continued success in release of the hostages uh a number have been released but there are still many that are in captivity and of course uh even those who are released may be suffering uh trauma and we need to be concerned for them this is not an easy process uh for anybody and Al uh in memory of Ruan Ben yose by my friend in New York Kimi and Aon mayor Ben Pinas and man menel Ben Alazar Rael Bas yit by Y and shiffer fredman and then dedic also another dedication by Alan fine in memory of his grandfather's yor site Shu B aor hohen and in addition uh he is beginning uh Alan fine is beginning the fourth cycle of writing weekly D Torah and the par can try to get on his list he writes very very fine uh thoughts and in honor of every bright whose encouragement words of Torah have been an integral part of my learning thank you uh special thanks for all of those who have already donated to the citizens fill in funds uh IUN has sent 18 pairs of Fillin to the front lines amazing 10 more are on the way and CIS as you know uh we cannot make fast enough for the demand it's really an amazing amazing and Awakening of spirituality that that the are experiencing and finally we have the anonymous sponsorship uh that Hashem brings quickly and safely the return of all the hostages with complete Health to their homes and for the N of all of our soldiers so they may all return home with health and victory soon and we Merit Thea now amen the par of this week is Parov is returning to ER Israel after an absence of 20 years now actually it's much more than 20 years but the Torah documents that he worked seven years for Rael and he wound up with Leia then he worked another seven years for Rael he got Rael actually just a week later but he had to work seven years uh so that's 7 s and then another six years to build up his own fortune so he was in Lan's house for 20 years however Rashi gives us a very intricate calculation that I will not go through that there was another 14 years in which Yakov studied in the Yeshiva of Shame and a before he went to Lan's house so you have 14 years and 20 and now Yakov is finally returning to erit Israel and he thought that perhaps the anger of Asa has gone away after so many years but lo and behold he hears that ASF is coming after him with an army of 400 men ASF still wants to kill him there's an interesting makus among MIM and among MIM that maybe the initial mistake was yakov's because if you remember Yakov initiated contact with as Yakov said to ASV hey you know I'm coming and some suggest if Yakov would have kept a lower profile maybe ASA would not have gone after him so mlus some mid Russian quote a in Proverbs a in M that says uh to get involved in quarrels when you don't have to do so is like grabbing the ears of a dog right imagine a dog is sleeping and you want to pick up the dog by the ear so even a kind Labrador Retriever is likely to bite you at that point and therefore some say Yakov should have just forgotten about ASV others say it was not because of that but be as it may yakob is now afraid so the PK says when Yakov gets word that ASV is coming after him so the PK says vov Yakov is very afraid and he's very distressed why is there that kind of repetition afraid and distressed so Rashi brings a fascinating medish Rashi says he is afraid lest he be killed because even though God promised him that God would take care of him but as Rashi say as BR says sadim are always afraid that they' Sinn it's interesting it's only the sadic that the Russia is not afraid that sadic is afraid that he sins and he has forfeited Divine protection so yakob is afraid he will get killed but he's distressed because maybe he'll have to kill this is quite fascinating this IND take that a Jew is distressed not only over the loss of his life but the Jew is distressed over the need to take the lives of others now this is a pretty amazing thought to think about on one hand it's obviously the case that we are not pacifists someone tries to kill us someone tries to kill our people we fight back and we even kill them right someone who's coming to kill you or you kill them but we don't find joy in that we don't find Sim in that we don't celebrate that we do it because we have to do it and there are times that we have to do it and then we have to do it but the notion of celebrating is very very foreign to Judaism and even within the sa which is not necessarily a religious body this kind of ethic of not glorifying in the destruction of the enemy doing the job very conscientiously but not know celebrating glorifying is very deeply engraved in the idea that is why they send all of these warnings for people to get out of the way last time I checked Kamas did not send a warning on October 7th saying hey we're going to do a massacre in an hour please you know anyone who wants to leave should leave that is why Israel goes out of the way to avoid I mean contrary to what everybody know the international Community is condemning Israel over and over and over and over again there is no army in the world including the United States of America that so conscientiously tries to avoid civilian casualties as does the IDF I don't think I'm being an apologist I think this is absolutely accurate but what do you do what do you do realistically when Hamas situates itself in hospitals or in schools or in residential areas and they use human Shields not only our people as human Shields but their own people as human Shields you got to do what you have to do but you do it with sadness just as by C yam when the Egyptians are drowning and the angels want to praise and sing to God and God says my creatures are drowning it's not a time for Joy now note Hashem didn't say oh I'm not going to drown the Egyptians because they're my creatures they have to be destroyed they have to be dest but you don't celebrate it you don't celebrate it and that's what Rashi is alluding to know there's a that yob is afraid not only that he he might be killed he's afraid he may have to kill because for a Jew that is not a celebration what so is is is understood in this sense that we would have been happier had there been Chua meaning I'm not I'm not taking Glee in destruction I'm taking Glee that the evil that was perpetrated by these rash is no longer here and therefore they can no longer be a force for evil but it's a it's a second level Sim that the real Sim would have been had there been had there been a Chua had there been an opportunity for Shalom you know there is a quote of gold de mayor a famous quote an Infamous quote and I hasten to add that I do not accept I reject the first half of the quote so don't Lynch me as I say it but I think the second half has some genuine truth to it she once said that we can forgive the Arabs for killing our children that's the part that I disassociate myself from but we cannot forgive the Arabs for making us kill their children and there there is a truth to that because that's the and that is what Yakov a was expressing uh his fear of I don't want to be a murderer I don't want to kind of get involved in this uh this is not what a Jew wants to do a Jew does it because they have to do it not because they glorify it now then Yakov prayed to God and remember kazal say that before Yakov confronts asov Yakov has three strategies he prepares gifts which are overtures for peace he makes preparations for war if the peace fails and he prays to Hashem right these are the three basic Jewish strategies try to make peace be ready for war and of course turn to God for assistance and in any of your endeavors because without Hashem there will be no success at all so when yov prays he says please God save me from my brother from the hand of my brother save me from the hand of ASF so that too is a redundancy because after all yakob only has one brother why does he say save me from my brother save me from ASF so so there's a well-known explanation of the Bas of Ley that in the confrontation with ASV Yakov is afraid of two things that's besides the kill or be killed he's afraid of the ASV who comes to kill him but he's also afraid of the ASA that welcomes him as a brother because one is a danger to his body and the other is a danger to his soul in other words uh as we know one of the great great dangers to the Jewish people there are certainly toot where we suffer persecution the Holocaust Crusades plrs even now I mean the war the war in Gaza C although we're we're in our in our land and in our country but this is physical danger physical endangerment and Jeopardy by an enemy that wants to Slit our throats and decapitate our children that's the as of or in this case ishma but that's the as of that comes as a destructive force but then when you look at the situation of Jews in Western countries although anti-Semitism is resurging there too but classically the problem in in the United States was not people who want to kill Jews but rather it was inter marriage it was assimilation be my brother let's work together let's come together why do you keep your separate Jewish identity and that's the n that's the trial of the ASV who comes as your brother because the ASV who comes to kill me is attacking my body but not my soul the ASA Who says let's be friends that's a bigger danger in some ways that attacks the soul you know it's interesting that um in the 19th century uh when Napoleon was conquering Europe so uh as we know Napoleon's last major campaign was against Russia and Napoleon was defeated in Russia he was not able to conquer Russia so there was a mlus among the great cic leaders in Europe should we pray for Napoleon's Victory or should we pray for the victory of the Zar now life for the Jews in Russia during that time was absolutely awful uh they were confined to the pale of settlement which is a small area of land and uh and that the boundary of that uh land was were constantly changing so you could wake up any morning and say you have to move 50 km to the north uh by the next morning or whatever it would be there were the canonist the awful idea of children being forcibly conscripted for up to 30 years life was awful full of persecution Napoleon promise and he actually delivered emancipation Freedom right in the aftermath of the French Revolution there was a great movement towards emancipation and Jews would be allowed to go to universities and Jews would be allowed to enter professions and Jews to be allowed to own property so some rebies took the position let's pray for Napoleon because life under the Zar is so bitter that Napoleon will give us freedom the one exception was the alter rebi who lived in Russia the alter Reby said life under the Zars is truly awful but under nap holy and it's even going to be worse because desire destroys our body takes our property makes life miserable for us but our nishat are able to function on a high level Napoleon will give us freedom but once there's Freedom there will be ass similation indeed in the aftermath of the French Revolution we have the reform movement we have the rise of intermarriage many of the Notions of the disintegration of the ghetto which we normally say ohem that's a positive thing had many many negatives to it um again it's a little bit of a paradoxical notion uh Judaism sometimes flourishes better under oppression than freedom and as laichi put it it was easier to be a Jew in Siberia than Suburbia except in Siberia you couldn't forget who you were you weren't allowed to forget in in Suburbia every Jew is a Jew by choice and by the way this is directly relevant to Kaneka now it's true Kaneka involved military battles and Kaneka involved danger to life and Kaneka involved a military Victory but the Genesis of the military struggle was a spiritual one antios uh was not trying to kill Jews antiochos was not Hitler in fact in some crazy perverted way we could even describe Antiochus as a relatively enlightened ruler because he was willing to give Jews full civil and political rights on the condition that they give up their Judaism assimilate go with the plan uh adopt helist culture and you will be a member of our society so although Kaneka did involve a physical struggle it was absolutely a war of the spirit in like this is the famous comment of the Lush of Mora of the 16th century why is there a Mitzvah to have a meal on porm on porm there's a Mitzvah to make a festive meal there is no Mitzvah to make a festive meal on Kan I mean customarily we do it but there is no there is no obligation to make a meal on any day of Kaneka except chabas because it's chabas so the L says very simply porim represented a danger to our physical existence so when God redeems us from a physical threat we thank God in a physical Way by eating or drinking kanah did not pose a threat to our physical existence because if we would be willing to assimilate antias would have called off everything Kana was a threat to our spiritual existence so when God enables us to be victorious over that threat we celebrate in a spiritual way the lighting of candles that commemorates or brings to mind the light of the Nish the light of Torah in other words spiritual Redemption is commemorated in a spiritual way physical Redemption is commemorated in a physical way so in many many ways if you compare kanaka and porm these are the two faces of ASV porim is the ASV that comes to destroy me khah is the asce of that comes in the guise of my brother that through assimilation as it were although I understand that it transmuted into violence and battle but once again had the Jews assimilated and let me point out a majority of Jews did the mbes were a small minority within the Jewish people and they were regarded as Fanatics many many Jews disassociated themselves from the makim uh because they said hey you know let's go with the Greek culture that seems to be the better way to go that's the more successful route that is the route of a simulation so something to think about uh even inel where the problems of intermarriage are are much much less I I wouldn't call intermarriage a major problem I not it's not that it's not existence it exists here as well but it's not a major problem in the United States seven out of 10 depending on the part of the country but on the average seven out of 10 marriages of a person who is Jewish are inter marriages that means seven out of 10 if it's a marriage that has one Jew in it the other person is a non-jew and that is absolutely that is absolutely devastating obviously if the woman is non-jewish that ends the Jewish line lamry The Descendants are no longer Jewish and if the woman is Jewish so the kids are technically Jewish but most of the time they're going to be lost most of the time children of intermarried couples eventually either they or their children event eventually just get lost yeah there are B there are Exceptions there are many Bal Chua from intermarried homes and so there's always there's always a chance but just statistically eventually they simply vanish uh from the Jewish people so people don't like to talk this way it's not politically correct to use Holocaust terminology but some have pointed out that the number of Jews that have been lost by intermarriage is actually much greater than the number of Jews that have been lost in the Holocaust and therefore in effect things like intermarriage are a silent Holocaust I don't mean to give any type of moral equivalence God forbid I am not I am not comparing a Jew who intermares because of ignorance to a Nazi I I don't mean to personally attack anybody know people make mistakes they don't have the education they don't have the background so the point is not to condemn a person but just to understand that the loss es to the Jewish people have been as catastrophic if not more so than the Holocaust itself so if you include intermarriage assimilation and abortion for that matter as well which in the Jewish Community is a fairly High rate higher than the general population you're talking about so many nishat that have been severed from the Jewish people so jakob's fears are well taken uh and this was the AL rebman that you know maybe were better off with thear than we are with Napoleon uh because Napoleon will give us opportunities for assimilation that thear would never would never would never give us okay so that's the double thing save me from ASV save me from my brother but then the night before the great Encounter of asov In the Flesh Yakov has a mysterious encounter with a man he's initially Des described as a man and then later he morphs into an angel now either way whether it's man or Angel it doesn't give him a name at all Kaz however understand this to be the guardian angel of Asa but again that part of it is not in the narrative directly Angel and man do appear but not as and yet say It's s as that's somehow before Yakov can be empowered to fight the ASV of the flesh he needs to confront the ASF of the spirit and it mentions that this was a battle at night wrestling match and yakob is all by himself why is he all by himself what happened to his I mean he had a family and he had servants so the answer is the gamar explains a little bit of a backstory he had already crossed the river yabok and his family and himself were on the other side of this River but Yakov went back to retrieve small Earth and wear jars that he had forgotten so he's by himself everybody else is on the other side already he went back to retrieve what are called why would do that I mean if I if I left behind some insignificant Earth andwar jars why would I go back in the middle of the night to retrieve Earth and wear jars so the talud has a bit of an amazing comment it says sikim what does that mean righteous people care more about their money more about their property than they care about their own personal safety he is willing to jeopardize because even though yakob doesn't know an angel is going to attack him but it's dangerous you're going back by yourself at night you know you could be attacked by an animal you could be attacked by anybody but yakob was willing to put himself in personal Jeopardy in order to retrieve some property because sikim their property is more beloved to them than even their physical safety What on earth does that mean it thought it cares about his money it thought it cares about his property what what's the big deal the other way around we would normally associate a sadic as being very you know non-materialistic and not really caring about this stuff so the morale explains that exotic understands that every resource that God has given him was given to him for a reason now the reason might be to give it away the reason might be to give stuck not not that you keep it for your own personal gratification but there's a reason if I have two pens then a decid I should have two pens in case one runs out or whatever it is in other words for sad there is no such thing as something Superfluous everything has a use everything has a Tas everything has a purpose so I don't just waste things or throw things away I go back to retriev fact thefor say this is why when Yakov describes his wealth he says call I have everything when asov describes his wealth he says I have a lot now the maam offer two different interpretations of what is as saying some look at it in terms of greed I have a lot but I don't have enough I want more right kind of greed I have a lot but I want more others Give A Different Twist which I think is is a deeper more f fasinating idea I have more than I need because you see if you live for physical gratification at some point you may have more than you need uh person has 30 cars you know uh whatever it will be like Barber strand once said you can only eat one pastrami sandwich at a time you know I have more and more you know people have houses it's I was reading I read a very interesting article years ago about a school in uh Denver that trains high-end Butlers there's a higher title for It Whatever domestic managers home managers meaning if you want to work for a billionaire and you want to manage it's more than a butler you're kind of the manager of the homes there's a lot of skills you have to have and one of the ideas is that these billionaires like have have 10 houses that are fully stock you know in different places and he said that sometimes they don't even remember they have a house in Switzerland you know they don't even know they have some house that's filled with everything and you know you have to be the one that reminds them you know you have this Chateau you know in the Els or whatever it is so ASF says I have more than I need but for a everything has a function so again this is not a selfish idea that doesn't mean I have it to keep it maybe I have it to give fora or supportive Torah but everything has now so the gumar basically says that he was being a little compulsive in a good way that I have to re retrieve this job but there's a tradition and again it's a little perplexing to me because you would expect that this type of tradition would be recorded in an authoritative Source like the gor or the medish or the zo as far as I know it's not in the med of the zor but it was an oral tradition that was preserved among so I can't really vouch for it but it's brought down in Forum that the jars that yakob was looking for were very special jar that is connected later to the khaka story how so you may remember when uh Noah is trying to determine if the ground has dried off enough to be able to leave the ark he sends the different birds but the last bird that he sent was a Yona and the Yona came back with an olive branch uh in its beak and that showed Noah that trees were growing and that was a sign that it's a you're able to get off so these sarm say that on the Olive Branch there actually were some olives and Noah took those olives and he squeezed the oil into a jar AS kind of a remembrance of Hashem regenerating the world in his Mercy after its destruction and he kept that oil in that jar as a permanent momento not to burn it not to use it not to consum consum it but to keep the oil as a reminder of the and that jar of oil was passed down to shame Noah and eventually from shame it went down to Abraham and then Y and Yakov and when he says he went back for the Pim he went back for the jars that's a reference to the jar of oil that he got that was no jar and some say that somehow that very jar because the word which is the plural for is is the same word that we use to describe Thea oil that the oil of Kana was the oil that Yakov went back for it was the oil of Noah that he got from the Yona that brought back the alth that's an amazing thing but once again as I say I can't I'm not aware I am not aware of any kind of authoritative rinic Source but this is a thought that is recorded in a number ofas connecting thean of yov with the of the on okay so after that yakob goes back and yakob is attacked by a man by an Angel and they are wrestling all night and sometimes yakob is on top and winning sometimes the man is on top and then comes the break of dawn and yakob is in a Victorious place and the angel says let me go because it is morning and Yakov says I will not let you go unless you bless me and the angel said your name shall no longer be yov which is the heel your name shall be Israel you have triumphed you have been Victorious over God and from that point onwards Yakov essentially has two names he didn't lose the name Yakov in fact Yakov is mentioned more than Israel but Yakov is the name of subservience and tribulation the heel that's in the dirt Israel is the name of Triumph but yakov's victory was not without cost Yakov is limping because the angel smote him on the thigh dislocating the sciatic nerve and to commemorate that we do not eat the Gan we do not eat the sciatic nerve that's why you can't get a good surine steak because the way it works um at least in America is that the Gan is a huge nerve that has many many branches that is located in the hind quarters the back half of the animal and there is of course a method methodology to remove the ganha that's called nikor but it takes a lot of time and it's a skill that U most kosher butchers do not have and therefore the custom among ashes was that we don't eat the hind quarter cuts at all because of the Gan and therefore the kosher slaughter houses in the US sell the entire hind quarter to non-jew and that's why things like sherline steak are not available Main in the United States now in countries where the supply of meat is less like AR they actually do practice nikor and that's why uh you can actually get cuts of meat in Israel that you can't get in America although the meat as a ho is inferior that's SE that's a separate issue but the particular Cuts you can actually get here that you could not get uh in aerica F minan I think f minan is I think a cut of meat that um is from behind quarters that was is not generally available in the United States because of GID GID now what is all of this about what is this mysterious Encounter With An Angel so the gives a very powerful message God is communicating to Yakov something not only about the encounter with asov the next day but with the encounter of it with Asa throughout Jewish history and he's telling yov there will be a long night of Gus the Jewish people will not will not have an easy way in this world there will be long night and in that night there will be struggle and sometimes the Jewish people will be on the ascendency and other times they will be oppressed but the promise is that eventually after that long night there will be a day and when that day comes there will be Redemption it will not be without cost when that day comes you'll be limping when mhia finally comes we will have suffered plenty because of mashiah we will be limping whether it was The Crusades the pams the Holocaust the different Wars that Israel has been engaged in and is engaged in the anti-Semitism in the world we're going to be limping mashia is not going to come when we're going to be in the greatest of Health we'll be limping but that day will come and when that day comes even the enemies that wanted to destroy you are going to give you a blessing are going to acknowledge are going to turn to the Jewish people and say you're good you're right you stood for kadus you stood for God you stood for Morality we've seen the beginnings of this in the abrahamic Accords in which I'm kind of a biget of I've mentioned already a number of times partial beginnings and I understand well the ABC Accords or the Abraham Accords are really motivated out of Economics not necessarily spiritual transformation who knows there's probably a little bit of a mixture in everything uh the Kamas War has thrown that off the tracks right now but God willing it'll come back there as well but be it as it may the is painting a very moving picture there will be a night and in that night there will be persecutions and there will be difficulties but there will be a day and just as the famous saying that the night is darkest right before the day so too before that day before that Dawn the darkness will be intense but you will emerge and you will emerge triumphant Israel he who has been Victorious with God and your enemies will bless you so every time you don't eat get we don't think about that there's a powerful idea that I'm expressing my belief in GAA in Yeshua that as dark as life is there's going to be a light after the darkness and by the way this this is primarily conveyed as a national message to am Israel but if you extrapolate it a little bit it's also a message for individuals who are struggling with their own Darkness people have elements of darkness in their lives their depression their despair their Sadness the estrangement of husband and wife or parents and children mental illness um not being able to make a living not being able to kind of put your life together and a person often feels very hopeless helpless and hopeless and despondent but in some ways this vision is a vision not only to Claus real but it's also a vision to an individual person that out of Darkness will come light that out of the struggles that we go through will come something very beautiful and we shouldn't give up we can't give up as long as you have hope there's hope when you give up then indeed that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy there is no hope when you're hopeless so this may explain another interesting anomaly that people ask two of our aot had name changes it's why didn't have a name change that's an interesting question which I'm not going to address but let's compare Abraham and Yakov so Abraham's original name was aam and God added a hey making it aam yakov's original name was yakob and the angel gave him a new name Israel now there is a very big difference though when Abraham's name was changed the old name was totally dropped we we are not allowed to refer to Abraham ainu as AB the old name is canell when it comes to Yakov we use both names Yakov is a name that we use the ter uses it a lot and Israel in fact a person might be you can give your son a name yakob Israel it's a relatively common combination so why is it that the Sho Hashem of Abraham preempts the old name and the Sho Hashem of Yakov both names are maintained so some want to say has a bit of an arus that Yakov canotes the notion of struggle the heel like your heels are in the mud and Yakov gets the name after wrestling in the night now who is he wrestling with so he's wrestling with the angel of ASF but let's take it in a bit more of a metaphorical even maybe even an imaginative way the tal hasus what did this angel look like according to one opinion the angel was an axe murderer he looked like a a real bad guy according to the other opinion the angel looked like AAL with a white beard so someone to suggest that the angel that Yakov is wrestling with is none other than himself he is wrestling with what you might call his inner demons because after all Yakov did engage in behavior that on some level was unsavory the fraud that he took the the Bros the um Birthright story in which he took advantage of hunger and before Yakov is able to confront this Ace of enemy Yakov needs to examine his motives he needs to examine his Purity in effect he sees in himself these two faces the T and the axe murderer and this is a lonely struggle this is the struggle of the middle of the night in which you think about your life you think about your actions you reflect you introspect you do cha so when the when the gamar says that the angel either look like an ax murder or or a it's not two different opinions it's actually saying there was both things going on and the angel is none other than the mirror image of yakob in that sense that within yakob there's an element of as of just says within ASA there's an element of yakob they are twins after all as different as they are so it's and that's a lonely struggle that's why it's described as the middle of the night it's described as by yourself because with other people people will tell you oh you're fine you're great you're exodic what are you worried about what are you agonizing about but a righteous person goes through this and through the of honestly confronting even the flaws within yourself no coverups no denial that is your Key to Greatness and Triumph so you see the reason why yakov's name doesn't get taken away when he has the name of Israel is because the ability to Triumph under the name Israel is connected to the struggle of the name Yakov without that struggle without that you will not achieve spiritual greatness you're living a life of hypocrisy you're living a life of fake you're living a life where people are calling you AIC where you really haven't examined everything you've gone through and therefore the Yakov is not just the name that gets superseded the Yakov is the necessary prerequisite to the element of Israel again it's a powerful idea to be honest not to fool the cut used to say when the Torah says M do not distance I'm I'm sorry distance yourself from lies he says the most important part of that commandment is don't be a liar to yourself okay and we often lie to ourselves because we we don't want to go in certain directions and Yakov had that strength to confront the reality and work it out in various ways but now I just want to focus on another point about this encounter from the and that is the raises an another interesting question why do we find that the only one of the aot who is attacked by an Angel who wants to destroy him is Yakov of we don't find such an encounter in Abraham's life and we don't find such an encounter in y's life although you know we don't find fighting with said the following tells us the world stands on three pillars this is a very famous the study of Torah divine service by prayer and coros and acts of loving kindness right a very well-known idea that the world stands on three pillars the tell us that each of the aot who are the founders of the Jewish people exemplify the Divine connection to one of those pillars Abram who lived the life of loving kindness represents the idea of he he perceived God through G I had mentioned last week that the chicken and egg problem did he perceive God's because he was an is or did he become a because he perceived God as benevolent but be as it may AB is the who was willing to die as a coron to God is the epitome of aod and Yakov who spent 14 years in the Yesa of Shane a represents the epitome of Torah so in a way it's a little problematical because in P the order is Torah of which is really going backwards one might have expected to follow but be as it may the three inos correspond to Theos that's a very wellknown that's a very wellknown idea now all three of them are important there's no question If a person says the only thing that's important is to learn Torah he's making a big mistake you need three but of those three Torah has a greater importance than the other two and the reason gives is based on thear K the Kad says T through Torah you will get the knowledge and the incentive to do mitz meaning to say when I learn Torah I will will be gravitated towards keeping chabas and kajas on the other hand if I'm simply keeping Mitzvah that's not going to give me an understanding of Torah so Torah in a sense is what you might call first among equals there's a Latin expression for that term which I don't remember but the first among equals it's a translation from a a Latin expression so says the angel of asov is symbolic of a Yater hor that tries to take Jews away away from Hashem theara is a strategic thinker meaning to say theara Lets Jews do mitzvot as long as it's pretty sure there's not going to be continuity so with respect to AB the the the says let the Jews do I don't care because without Torah will eventually not last and their descendants will leave yish so the angel does not fight against abam let the Jews do fine with me let the Jews build beautiful synagogues it's fine because there's not going to be continuity once however there is Torah Torah learning creates what you might call intergenerational continuity eternity perpetual uation that is what the eight Sahara will not allow in Truth uh again I'm I'm more familiar with the history of Jud of Jews in the United States so I'm going to use America uh I think a similar thing may have happened in other countries this is exactly the pattern of Jewish immigration to the United States now the first immigrant LGE large scale I mean I mean there were Jews from Colonial times and before but the first major immigration from Europe of Jews to the United States was in the mid 19th century 1860s 1870s and they were mainly German Jews who were affluent who were well-educated uh and largely assimilated either largely reform or even converts to Christianity and uh these are some famous names Goldman Sachs a lot of the Jewish Investment Banking houses were established by that German population the main thing they did was to create fraternal organizations societies so benevolent societies they created Jewish hospitals there are still Jewish hospitals today but you know they don't necessarily have a great reason for existence because General hospitals are more or less just as good but there was a time that Jews did not always have access to Medical Care init so there was a concept of Mount Si you know generally speaking Jewish Hospital they created country clubs which I'm not sure if I would call ited organizations but in some way it's kind of a place where Jews can hang around burial societies which of course are always necessary so that first generation were primarily osake in fessed they were not religious in any way and what happened to them was that their children or grandchildren kind of disappeared from the Jewish scene I'm not saying everybody but but a large number did the second major immigration came in the aftermath of the Russian prgrams in the 1880s and 90s uh in which you had many many Jews from Poland and Russia coming now this was a group that uh well number one there was a lot of animosity a lot of friction between the affluent German Jews and the Polish and Russian Jews who were largely poor they were pedlers and junk dealers and uh Lower East Side Etc and the German juice again I am generalizing but they actually were embarrassed by what we called I Yen meaning East the Jews from the East and many felt they had much more in common with educated goam than they had with these kind of poor uneducated Jews now that population uh to a large extent was Orthodox they were observants but they were not Torah learned they didn't they weren't a able to establish isot they established some Tom Tores some some but they did establish different schs and once again aod right so the first immigration was the second immigration was aod many many shs some of which are magnificent others were but once again that was called largely a Lost Generation because uh what happened was there weren't day schools there weren't Yos uh there was not Torah education the Next Generation saw their parents struggling to keep chabas and they said why should I suffer this is a free country right the dangers of assimilation and the stories of I mean you read story after story after Story in Yiddish literature that's been translated into English about the religious parents that have these sons who totally assimilated they changed their names they may have intermarried and what a heartbreak it was for the Zade who came to America with a long beard to see what was happening to their children there were even great raban who came to America whose children and grandchildren totally left the third major immigration was after World War II and uh that was very very different already because that already involved the creation of day schools the creation of Yesa the creation of Kim uh and Jewish Education became a major priority and of course obviously most of the in America are not Orthodox so I'm not saying there was some magical change of everything but the real strength of the Orthodox Community grew only after the establishment of Jewish Education so the is 100% correct when there is Jewish Education there is continuity a Judaism that's not based on Jewish Education May last for a while but eventually it gets rejected and it gets replaced and that is why the says the angel of asov only attacked Yakov the angel of asov or the kak of RA did not attack Abraham and Y because that kak was willing to let ABR and Y do their thing because it wasn't going to last now makes another point the angel of asov was ultimately unsuccessful because Torah will always exist among Jewish people no matter what the persecution there will be Jews that will learn Torah but the angel of ASF had a partial Victory yob is limping what is the significance of the dislocation of the thigh so the brings the Z that says just as the thigh supports the body the thigh represents the support of Torah the angel of asov couldn't destroy Yakov but the angel of ASV created a situation where the support of Torah will always be precarious and vulnerable and that's why yot and day schools struggle that was asf's partial Victory remarked any that does not have financial problems one must question how authentic its mission majority of youas uh do fall do qualify uh for this uh and it's an amazing thing because if you look at the amount of money in the world that is available for every type of entertainment every type of diversion uh billions and billions maybe trillions of dollars when it comes to Torah when it comes to everybody struggling everybody's struggling why is that so that's the partial victory of the angel of Asa the thigh is going to be dislocated so now you may ask a question so someone comes to you for a Torah cause and asks you for money so you might say hey I'm not supposed to give you money you're supposed to Suffer Well the same argument was made by Christian theologians when anesthesia was introduced to help women in child birth some Christian theologians argued hey it was the curse of Eve you shall give birth with suffering what gives you the right to alleviate it so these Christian theologians all of whom were men said women in sh birth have no right to Anesthesia they have to suffer the maximum amount of pain now we don't say that right so what do we say to that but didn't God say you shall give birth and suffering the answer is there's a difference between a curse and a Mitzvah God did not command I command you to suffer God just said this is the nature I'm creating I'm creating a te where child birth has suffering but like anything else we are permitted to alleviate pain and distress hasem is just telling us this is the tea tea is not a Mitzvah it's just the reality of things and we are given R to try to improve our reality same thing here God did not say thou shalt not support of course he didn't say that he said the opposite God is saying I'm just warning you that by virtue of this encounter the economic Foundation of Torah is going to be weak and that creates a greater obligation on your part on our part to try to alleviate by the way I want to point out a final point that the notion of support of Torah is not only a reference to economic support although that's the term I've been using it also refers to emotional support the no that we are obligated to convey to our children to people who are learning Torah that it's a good thing again I'm not getting involved right now with issues of how do you balance it with military service and the like you know those are difficult issues that one can debate and one to discuss I'm not even talking about how do you balance it with secular education on parosa you know those are issues and those are important issues uh that we can discuss and you know we have discussed at various times but I'm simply talking about the Naked Bear idea that Torah learning is something that is important it's not enough to write a check kind of throw a check and you know give it to a beggar there has to be a notion that this is a thing this is a worthwhile Endeavor that's also support of Torah support of Torah is on in the emotional realm and not just the economic realm be this it may um I guess arila is as as the dedication said that we are still in the long darkness of the galot and uh things seem very very dark at various times but may we be Z to see the light to see that Breaking Dawn where even the enemies that try to destroy us will acknowledge the greatness of the Jewish people and they too will give us a blessing so thank you very [Music] much [Music] it