Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz - The Kingdom of Heaven on Earth

[Music] okay everybody hope you're doing well and departure this week is of course party well luck and we'll connect it to the October as well now if Torah is from the prophet Micah Micah and in fact interesting I believe that I have to verify this is the only hub Torah from Micah that we have in the entire cycle that's a very very beautiful of Torah and this is a very very famous well-known sukham though they're actually worth while to even memorize in either Hebrew or even in English what is going on here is this we are now in the fortieth year of the Israelites wandering this is the last year it is quite amazing how much that's how fast the tourists skips over the years of wandering you know in the case of the spies that occurred in the second year and like nothing we are told virtually nothing about what happened in those the next thirty eight and a half years and all of a sudden we're in year forty and you're 40 a whole bunch of things happened the whole old generation has died out and Miriam dies and our own dies and of course Moshe is going to die die as well and there's a new census of the new generation but in the fortieth year we are poised to enter the land of Israel but we want we need a shortcut worked imagine let's we're on the east side of the Jordan and in order to cross over onto the west side we have to pass through some territory and the Israelites asked for permission etc and one of the nations from whom they asked permission is the nation of MOA the Moabites and we are told that bollock the king of the Moabites is very fearful of the Jewish people and as a result he hires a sorcerer unlike C from the king of the Amaury who attacked the Jewish people via war ball luck seems to be on some level a little more sophisticated he understands that the Jewish people need to be defeated by some type of spiritual source so he gets an unusual man bill who is known as a mass of the curse that he's able to invoke curses and somehow those curses are effective whomever bilham blesses is blessed whoever bilam curses is cursed and we know the basic story that the bilham three times tried to curse the Jewish people and every time the almighty turns it into a a bronze now I want to start off with a very very simple question and that is the king of Noah Baumbach is afraid of the B'nai Israel another question is why we know from the book of Deuteronomy which is no sure of a news review of these events in fact that's interesting sometimes in their review you actually get details that did not appear in the narrative itself that Hashem commanded Moshe Rabbeinu that the Jewish people are not allowed to wage war against the Moabites they are not permitted to take any of the territory of the Mogul because Moab is a descendant of Lodz remember after Saddam was destroyed Lodz daughters had incest with loads and the older daughter got pregnant and she named her child Moe of which literally means from my father and the other daughter the next night also got him drunk and had a child that she named a moan from my people and these are the nations of our Mon and mala although they were generated in incest they are connected to Avraham in fact we know that Russ is the Moabite so much she actually comes from that whole that whole process and because of this Hashem has given the territory of the Moabites to the Moabites until the coming of the Messiah when it will be given to the Jewish people so the question becomes given the fact that the Jewish people were commanded not to harass not to conquer not to take any land belonging to MOA why is bollock afraid of the Jewish people and he has to hire bilam to curse them what is he afraid of now you might give a simple answer okay God gave the command who says baba is aware of that command that might be but look simply doesn't know the whole story but presumably an emotion would have told it so there's a very very fascinating explanation from the Shamus coil one of the great specific masters that Bullock is not afraid that the Jewish people would take won't take his land he knows they're not going to do that Bullock is afraid of the Jewish people coming to Eric Israel and his goal is to prevent them from coming to the Land of Israel what's wrong with that what's wrong if they go to the Land of Israel so he explains if you look at the way Hashem interacts with B'nai Israel in the desert compared to the way it's going to be in Eretz Israel you see a fundamental difference and this idea came up I think several times over the past few months in the book of my mid born in the mid Bor Hashem presence is very miraculous and very obvious you have the man coming down from heaven you have a traveling well you have clouds of glory God's presence is open obvious the Jewish people don't need to get involved in the everyday problems of making a living and building a society their inner spiritual cocoon where all they need to do is to concentrate on a photo session now granted even then we had many many problems and deserts but at least in terms of an ideal it was an ideal spiritual environment where the hand of God and the presence of God can be seen and felt in a very perceptible way once we come to erage Israel things are going to be very very different of course God is going to be with his people but we're not going to have a traveling source of water we're gonna have to dig wells we're not gonna have money we're gonna have to plant and harvest and and make bread we're gonna have to build cities we're gonna have don't you have an army where there will be casualties we will need lawyers doctors accountants etc all of the accoutrements of regular society and the whole goal would be to create holiness even in the middle of our struggle with materialism and the myriad details of life so here is what is in box thinking bollock is perfectly happy to have a nation that is devoted to the holiness and service of God if that nation has no relevance for the particular societies that bollock is created meaning if religion has nothing to do with everyday life that's fine let them have their religion let them have their worship of God it's not a reproach and it's not a chastisement of us because we are real people living in the real world and we have to do what we're doing but once the Jewish people come to the Land of Israel and they establish at least in theory a society of godliness and holiness and obedience to the Torah and morality in the middle of creating the physical demands of a society that becomes a tremendous reproach to the yumoto Lama because do you want to all them can no longer say well we live the way we live because we have to struggle with the real problems of life and we can't afford the illusions of religion and therefore develop wanted what you might call a true dichotomy in which there is religion and in which there is life there is rootless there is spirituality and there is gosh me oats which is materialism and never the twain shall meet keep them as two separate worlds we're happy to let religion be an otherworldly force that has no relevance to daily life but under no circumstances do we want religion to become part of daily life and that is why bill um I'm sorry Baba is not afraid of his lands being taken he is afraid of the Jewish people coming to the Land of Israel and establishing an ideal Society this is a very very important lesson that you know Theodor Herzl once remarked in this book of the Jewish state when when he was asked about the role of religion in the in a projected State of Israel so he is said to have remarks I don't think it's in his book but he said to have remarked we will confine the rabbi's to the synagogue as we will confine the army to its barracks and of course neither part of that statement has turned out to be true to our great sadness the Army has not been able to be confined to its barracks it's out there on missions putting their lives at risk every day and for good or for bad and it's a mixed bag the written either have the rabbis been confined to the synagogue again whether rabbis should be involved in politics is an interesting controversial and even from a religious standpoint it is a far from obvious proposition but putting aside the actual role of rabbis in politics or religious parties the idea that a Jewish society should be infused with the moral values of the Torah is indisputable because we do believe that Torah is not simply holiness is not simply removing yourself from the world but holiness consists of engagement in the world based on the values of our code in fact some people don't even like the word religion Judaism is life it is how you live your life it is not how you practice your religion so seen him this way there's a beautiful thoughts from the great Hasidic master rhapsodic of Lublin who who makes a a small observation regarding what the Jewish people saw at the mountain Torah and he says that small thing that they saw really is a major major understanding of holiness you know before the Ten Commandments were given the Torah says all the people saw thunder and lightning kolo Ibrahim and it mentions they saw they even saw the Thunder that's interesting in and of itself but it emphasizes thunder and lightning kolo Ubu Hakeem then we hear the Ten Commandments or at least the first two Commandments and right afterwards it says and they saw the colos full lap Edom kalokhe once again is thunder the voices loppy dim our torches so notice the small difference here before Matt Santoro they saw Barack lightning flashes aftermath on Torah instead of Barack it became repeat of course in Israeli politics we've suffered both from the barber and elapids mostly even multi-generational where there's a in Barack or our and Barack or tell me what Peter you're above it right you have different different groups here but what does the Torah mean what is the significance of the distinction between Barack Kim and loppy Dibble sir of southwark says the following the difference in the visualization represents a new understanding of holiness prior to monitory and aftermath even prior to Matt Santos's every neshama every soul certainly of Jews and non-jews as well strives to have a connection with God our neshama come from God we are made in the image of God and everything wants to reconnect to its source so we strive and we look for meaning and purpose and connection with something cosmic and beyond ourselves but in the absence of Torah holiness can only be achieved to the degree you can disengage from the body there is the soul and there is the body and the body has its needs whether it's eating drinking sleeping sexual intercourse laziness hedonism and in a world without Torah the striving for holiness will always be in opposition to the body the body will be dragging you down and the more that you are involved in the material world so less holiness you can have with God there's a certain schizophrenia a dichotomy a fractured type of existence that is why for example at least the Christian idea of holiness very much focused on renunciation whether it was celeb estate or poverty because this world was seen as evil debasing and corrupt and holiness is achieved only by disengagement with the world at the highest level Paul the main the main inventor of Christianity essentially once said that the only reason God permitted marriage was as a concession to the evil inclination of man better to marry than to burn meaning ideally one would not marry even when we're not do that Sohrab Southwark says when you live a holiness that is based on a dichotomy between body and spirits that is similar to lightning because what is lightning lightning is a brilliant flash of light that then plunges you into total darkness it comes it goes it comes and it goes because by definition at some point the body is going to pull you down you have to eat you have to sleep you have to relieve yourself whatever it is and if that is in opposition to holiness you're constantly going from the light into the darkness and it's not a sustainable level and that was holiness before the ten commandments before the total once the Jewish people got the Torah there was a metamorphosis in the idea of holiness that holiness does not have to consist of renunciation separation rather you can take even the physical animalistic aspects of the human personality and you can dedicate them and elevate them you can eat which an animal also does but when you eat and drink and you make Bracco's to the Almighty and you honor the Shabbos and the Optive and you meet in order to have strength to be able to do mitzvahs the eating is no longer an animalistic function of just giving yourself calories but it becomes although that's a sham marital intimacy not only for the great mitzvah of having children which is the very first myths of the Torah but even as an expression of love and connection becomes a holy act by the way that actually is a very important point Rambam Maimonides makes the point that the marital relationship of husband and wife is not only a means for propagation as important as procreation is and of course it is the mitzvah of be fruitful and multiply even in a child of marriage even in a marriage where the parties are incapable of having children there is a great holy in the expression of connection and love that they have so we do regard marital intimacy as something that is intrinsically elevated and not just a means to an end so it turns out there for up southern rights prima antara our holiness was like lightning either totally on or totally off after my Torah it becomes a flickering torch now a torch flickers but it stays it doesn't go out it stays it gives you a constant life because the Torah taught us that even the physical and the material can be sanctified and elevated and we don't have to live a schizophrenic life and in many many ways the fullest realization of that idea is a narrative show because you see if you looked at Judaism as simply simply a spiritual religion a religion of prayer meditation then in the sense if wouldn't read wouldn't really be that important where you are geographically you can meditate and you can pray outside of Israel as well the concept of Eric Israel is Hashem wanted us to create a society with all of the institutions of societies army-navy you know hospitals etc to show that we can create the physical structure of a society that would be animated by the spiritual truths of the totem it's an interesting point because in some ways that would mean that those that are not engaged in the processes of the state are not truly fulfilling the ultimate mission of whatever just read us about in other words ever just round is not just the place where you learn and diamond which of course it is it is the place where you create an army with values and would you create a legal system with Torah girls not of course obviously we haven't done that yet the part of why we haven't done that yet is in fact there are not necessarily enough religious people that are committed to that enterprise you know it's interesting the very first chief rabbi of the State of Israel of Cook of course died before there was a State of Israel but the first as I said the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi was Arab the instructor and mr. critic was an enormous ly great Thomas Holcomb he never went to UC but he basically was self educated but nor direct but he was a great great great Talmud forum but he also was a great legal scholar he had a law degree and he was a scholar of a number of different legal systems so he actually wrote a book this was he wrote a two-volume work which was projected to be four volumes I don't think he finished the other two volumes it's called the main institutions of Jewish law and you can get it and it's fascinating if you are people are interested in in law per se what he does is he takes all of the halacha from the Gemara the boggling you shall be the Rambam the Shilton are at the Tour de Chaillot statue goes and he restated in modern legal terminology so a lawyer could pick it up and understand how Jewish law would apply in modern times I don't mean the laws of Shabbos and Contras those are ritualistic but I'm talking about the Jewish law of contracts the Jewish love partnerships the Jewish law of property right every modern society has a law of property a law of contracts a law of torts now a person can learn the Marla bubbakappa about option boring people but they wouldn't know how would this apply to an automobile accident I wouldn't apply to an explosion in the factory so he writes it like a legal modern legal treatise that a lawyer would understand how Jewish law applies and in fact one of his projects was when he became chief rabbi he assembled many many Talmudic scholars and he asked them to manuals but how every single institution in a modern state could follow holistic principles how would you have a holic Police Department fire departments army hospitals and he wanted hwacha guidelines for all of these areas and this in truth to this very day this is a relatively undeveloped branch of Halawa because for most of our history we were stateless and when we had a state that was known the ancient world so none of the issues that we face today so as a result most of halacha developed individualistically meaning how do i as an individual keep Shabbos keep kosher and life the notion of how you create a governmental structure that incorporates Howick values is a very undeveloped part of halakhah there is not a lot on it obviously we believe as we believe about everything that all of the principles for that Enterprise are found in but how you extract them it's a very very difficult process so if Hertzog actually wanted to develop a comprehensive approach another person who did this was Rabbi Eliezer waldenberg that's--it's Eliezer the chisel user is a 25 volume set of modern responsa and that's been reprinted many times but he wrote another book that was not reprinted for 40 years and this other book was a three volume cipher called tailcoat Medina the halacha that will apply to the institutions of a Jewish state and for various reasons that work remained in obscurity for many many many years they recently republished it of course it stated because it goes back to the 40s early and the 50s but still is it represents a very rare attempt to try to show how a logic values can infuse a modern state again we're not talking about fianza teeth we are not talking about religious coercion we're simply talking about what is such a chef wants establish state the Shem wants us to create a society how do we create a society even if it's only a theoretical exercise too much theatre comes but how do you create a modern society that is faithful faithful to the Torah but is able to do everything that a modern state needs to do and this the shameless Jamal says to go back to public this is what Bala was adamant Jewish well listen once you have a son Hedren then the Sanhedrin will enforce even a religious law so for Mikado Shabbos if there are two witnesses there will be capital punishment theoretically but that really depends on what she of coming and that's a whole different thing because then the world comes to a different level of perception of reality in other words given the nature of the world we're living in given the head stare upon him the concealment of the divine given the lack of prophecy given the negative influences in society I think I and I'm pretty sure most religious shoes we would not want a religious coercive state even if we could get it most religious Jews as committed as they are do not want to be televised they don't want because they basically say we are not on the spiritual level where we can demand that people do certain things that is connected to prophecy and the revelation of God's presence so when there's a base to make this when there's mushiya we will go back to even that but right now that's not the goal but that doesn't preclude creating a state based on Jewish values I mean this is the central dilemma no Israel likes to describe itself as a Jewish Democratic state Jewish - democratic states which is it is it a Jewish state or a democratic state and the answer is yes meaning there is a fundamental contradiction in the very nature of the identity in fact one Israeli politician one sore arms that the most important thing in the Jewish - Democratic is the - the - is really the most important part of the nature of the state and I think we're grappling with this we're grappling with this because I think even most other than post scientists left us which is we got a problem in the State of Israel even the most secular Israelis don't want the state to have a Jewish character and that Jewish character should be rooted in some notion of the values of the tone I mean ben-gurion thought that way it's not enough granted there were many parts of the tar that ben-gurion just wanted to ignore but there were other parts that he thought should definitely be incorporated in the state so I don't have any answer to this question but all I can say is that burlock intuited that the creation of a Jewish state would be an integration of the physical and the spiritual and that is what he did not want he was happy to let religion be a force that is irrelevant to daily life but don't make it relevant because then that becomes a chastisement that becomes a toccata on all of us now it's interesting in the haftorah republic which is from the Prophet - the connection to the parsha is simply that God through His Prophet is reminding the Jewish people of all of the great things that he did to them and they should be grateful and they should be appreciative and it mentions do you not remember that Bullock hired bill them to curse you and God saved you from that and God turned all of bilham's curses to a bra so it's kind of mentioned simply as a great example of Hashem kindnesses but metaphorically there's something a little bit deeper here the concept God turned the curses into a blessing although contextually it is connected to a particular biblical story bill long wanted to curse and God change the words into a blessing but in a more metaphorical sense it is actually a key to life itself God takes the curses of life the adversities the challenges the pain the suffering and they can be the very instruments of your blessing and your salvation it's a very very deep idea here and that is that we do live in a world where there is a lot of suffering why the righteous suffer was the question that Moshe Rabbeinu asked God God said I'm not telling you the whole book of Job is devoted to the issue of why a righteous man suffers and if you go through the book and you want to know so what's the answer the upshot of the 42 peckem of the safer is we still don't have an answer a chef Josie of the wonders of the universe and the fact that this universe is a complicated thing because even a verse someone you murali where God says to job if you could do a better job I'll put you in charge you think you could do better but one of the themes that emerges is that in the trials and tribulations of life there is a hidden redemptive light that can make you stronger and better and deeper than you otherwise would be so it's not just Hashem will show you the lights at the end of the tunnel but in the middle of the tunnel there is like no the ZOA as a very unusual phrase the ZOA talks about backlight we've seen it the cardoon ISA does Aramaic for the backlight now what is a black/white that's kind of impossible we can't really have black like black is the absence of light but the ZOA is hinting to this idea that sometimes in the greatest darkness there is tremendous light again if I can refer you to a source which is not a Jewish religious source per se but Britain by a Jewish man dr. Victor Frankel's beautiful book man's search for meaning and Viktor Frankl was a psychiatrist who was in the concentration camps he was not a practicing Jew at least for most of his life because he did not have a Jewish education he knew nothing about very he came from an assimilated family he knew very little about Judaism but he was what you might call a spiritual intuitive and I was the depths of his own soul he came to truths which are actually the truths of Judaism as well so when we talk about the pintle again the spark of the Jew this is a very outstanding example and in his work man's search for meaning he points out that it's often our confrontation with adversity that can be the catalyst to bring out qualities within us that we otherwise wouldn't have the analogy is that the most stinking fertilizer can be the stimulus for the most productive growth as disgusting as it might be that's how you get the growth and he pointed out that he saw this in the concentration camps that there were people he knew before World War Two before the war or were not particularly special but those people some of them were willing to risk their lives to bring food or medicine to people in need and they became righteous not in spite of their environment but because of their environment and this I would suggest is at least a deeper metaphorical meaning that God takes the curse and turns it into a blessing that actually seems to be a curse can in fact be a blessing depending on how you respond respond to it you know Simon Wiesenthal yeah famous Nazi hunter who again was not a religious gym he used to tell the story and he told the story himself about his encounter with Rabbi Eliezer silver Ivo Lisa silver was a European rabbi who came to America in the 1920s and he was very very colorful if he ever saw pictures are really silver he was very close to Senator Robert Taft and those of you American and a little older I may remember that Robert Taft was the minority the majority leader for a while but was not a majority leader of the Senate the sermon with the President and Chief Justice William Howard Taft and Robert F was a very very powerful politician from Ohio and Rabbi Sol Burton lived in Cincinnati was very close to Senator Taft and as a result of my silver was given access after the war to the displaced persons camps to be able to take care of the Jewish refugees and he wore he was given a u.s. army Colonels uniform and that gave him access in all of the places so the story goes that robbery silver was he had a beard he didn't speak English she had a beard he okay get injured spoke English with the accent and some MP stops him because you know hey you know first of all the army and I suppose does appear you're supposed to know English he said so he stopped them is impersonating an officer you know what are you serious Oprah started sputtering away call this is in Germany call senator Taft my friend my best friend senator tap so the soldiers yeah sure senator template guy you know I know the president I know the Queen of England you know some guy with the beard impersonating a US Army officer is saying senator Taft you know but finally he convinced somebody to call senator town the transatlantic phone call in those days it took like a half an hour to make a connection it wasn't so easy to make this transatlantic phone call they finally get taps office and Taff just said if you have rabbi silver in your custody let him go immediately because if you keep him for a half an hour he's gonna run your base just get rid of him let him go where he wants to come sir every silver was a man of great great energy in spite of language limitations he got things done and she really was one of the prime movers in reconstituting the life of the Jewish refugee population in the displaced persons camps and getting them visas and getting them places to live etc giving them encouragement fact there are stories that he would sometimes go into non Jewish orphanages in Germany and poets and he would say he wants to he wants to reclaim the Jewish children that parent said put there under the pretense they were Gentiles and of course the orphanages would often deny it they would say we have no Jewish children so he did like a Pied Piper type of trick he would shout out my Israel ephemeral okay no shame Assad and all of these little kids who remember nema putting them to bed with the shmatte they came forward and that's how he was able to identify all of the little Jewish children that were in the orphanages for one two or even three three years in some in some cases so that's kind of a general background about rabbi silver but let me tell you Wiesenthal story recent ah was in a concentration camp during the war and after the war he wasn't made displaced persons camp in Germany reveille sober visits the camp he organizes a prayer service for all the people Wiesenthal doesn't participate he refuses to tab it rabbi silver goes over the Wiesenthal that says why don't you come job in chakras will give you a Tallis that Spillman sitter coming down with with us so we since all said after what I experienced I don't Darwin anymore I don't pray to Hashem I don't believe in John so Remmy sober thought it was because of what he saw the Nazis do he says no it's not because of what the Nazis did it's because of what I saw a Jew do I stop leaving a gun I was in a concentration camp and I saw Jew that was very divided con scenic Jew and I noticed he smuggled a sinner into the concentration camp at great risk to his life that if the Nazis caught him if the guards caught him he would be killed on the spot and I admired that but then I began to notice he was renting out the sitter in five minute increments in exchange for people's bread rations you know you could have to sit here for five minutes give me your bread for the day and I thought to myself any religion that can take bread out of the mouths of starving men women and even children is an immoral religion I don't want to have anything to do with that if that's what a religious person can do so have a sobers Tolton and Wiesenthal told this story the rest of his life you are a foolish person you're looking at the man who's renting the sitter and taking away the bread why don't you look at the people who are willing to give up their bread for the city don't you see their goodness and their devotion their faith aren't you inspired by people that even though they've lost everything continue to believe and are willing to sacrifice don't you want to be a part of those people and recent though who to his dying day never became religious so to speak but Wiesenthal said ever since that conversation I realized that side by side with the greatest darkness can be the greatest night that side-by-side would did not see in humanity and when I say not see because I don't just mean German I include poles Ukraine so Gary is Ukrainian whether I include the whole group side by side with the greatest evils of man and including the evil perpetrated by this religious ship you can see selflessness and nobility and light and goodness therefore he said it's a paradox but sometimes you're not gonna see the light except in the darkness it's through the darkness that you see the light no and that I think again is perhaps a deeper meaning that you unlock in this particular this particular plastic okay one other story then I'll come back to the hospital right the question burger rabbit not the one that's not but that therefore the pre the previous fence where it was a great great psychic and in World War two he lost his wife and eleven children he lost a huge huge family he did marry after the war and has other children but he lost a whole family in the war and he used to tell this following story he would tell the story that he was in bergen-belsen and it was the first night of Hanukkah and obviously you were not allowed to light Hanukkah candles but people would very very quietly two o'clock in the morning they would take strings from their pajama uniforms and people had saved rancid margarine to be a little bit of an oil and they would put a string in the margarine they would crowd around in silence and light a little flame so in bergen-belsen things was 1944 towards the end of the war Bergen Belsen the poison burner up II was gonna like the first candle of Konica that way and there were hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people to morning gathered for the lighting of Hanukkah and the Rebbe made the first Brotherhood a very low voice well had leaked national Konica he commanded us to light the candles of Chanukah people said Oh mein then he said the second blessing Shani said Marko say no he did miracles for our forefathers and they said Oh May but the first night of Hanukkah there's a third blessing that you were sight Thank You Hashem saffiano thank you a sham for letting us be alive to see this day never questioned forever hesitated he didn't make that third brother at first and he looked around as if he was looking for something and then he finally made the Chevy on him and lit the candle so there was a man in Bergen Belsen who was not because he did not believe in anything and he said to the close number Rebbe listen I don't believe in any of this stuff so I don't do it you believe I respect it you believe it do what you want but I have a question on you I understand how you made the first blessing God commanded you to like Hanukkah candles okay you believe that's God through the rabbi's commanded you the second blessing God did miracles for our forefathers okay you believe that happened that happens but let me ask you ready how can you stand before your God and say thank you God for letting me be alive to see this day you lost your wife and 11 children do you know how many people go to sleep praying they don't wake up the next morning can you honestly tell me you are grateful to be alive in this concentration camp how can you say the other so the cleansing of remedy could have called him a pre-chorus and walked away but he said no i tell you no i'm not gonna dismiss your question that is why I wasn't sure how I could make the brother how can they make a ship Headroom I know the halacha says I have to make it but I also know you don't lie to the revulsion how could I say a brotha when in fact I didn't have any great desire to be alive now but then I turned around and I saw the hundreds and hundreds of Jews who kept their faith in Hashem and then I realized what a privilege it was for me to see the greatness of the human spirit of the Jewish spirit even in that adversity and for that I could be grateful to God to give gave me the opportunity to see the greatness of his people and that's why I made sure the other me-time clear out how great you think I mentioned before that you know in the early years of the State of Israel how does the Holocaust commemoration is strangely a bit of a controversial subject in Israel you know the youma zcorum is the day of the fall of the Warsaw Ghetto in ISA and there was a particular reason why the Warsaw Ghetto was chosen as the commemorative event of the Holocaust in Israel because the early founders of the stage looked down a little bit at what you might call the passivity of Jews being led like the slaughter because the division of the new Jew or the new Israeli was one who was courageous who fought who did not simply go to their faith so the war together was the outstanding example of actually standing up and fighting against the Nazis although it was a hope cause and there actually was a certain shame as as hard as it is to say there was in the early years of the state a certain shame that's what what was regarded as the passivity of most of the Jewish people but you have to understand that there are many many ways of being a hero and sometimes passivity in the face of having no choice but still making the decision to die with dignity and with faith there's a tremendous spiritual heroism rabbi Destler the great Smith Amelio writes he was and he was in England during the during the war but his family his parents and his family got wiped out in telling Kalamazoo the town in Lithuanian German German border and Kellum were Bollywood sir they were people who were very very disciplined in never getting upset accepting everything in life with equanimity and calmness and as they were being led to their deaths as the Nazis were going to gun them down and kill him they were there was one or two survivors who described they were absolutely common they were praying they were learning they were comforting and the Nazis didn't expect that the Nazis wanted people to scream and to begin to cry and what was so strange is that the Nazis themselves were discombobulated they were confused they didn't know that they thought this wasn't even human these are like somehow angels from the sky odds could take on that the guards were saying you know they said to their superior officers you know maybe we'll just leave this group alone you know just in other words even they they saw some godliness they saw some godly force that scared them and they actually said not out of compassion but out of fear they basically said you know maybe we should leave these people about fortunately there they concurred that the yetzer Hara so to speak and they and they did what they they did but it just shows you that real holiness comes through even though the greatest Russia sometimes recognizes this holiness just like you know the old vampire traditions you know the Christian symbolism you know you show the excelent whatever it is so the house they may have tell us you have a similar thing real kedusha scares away even the demons okay so that's a one point I wanted to make about the connection to build up the curses of life can be turned into the blessings of life now there's another verse here that is a very very very famous verse he did look like Adam this is the last buttock he did look hard on my toe God has told you man not just you are dummies everybody what is good ma Hashem derangement huh and what is it that I shall seeks from you only three things key him a social response to do justice the opposite to love kindness that's nail lacquers ma look at her and to walk humbly very very famous verse to walk calmly with your gun I think this is inscribed on some government government building in the United States the National Archives I'm not sure so do you buy that webpage oh okay that's gonna be it okay okay so the gomorian motto says an interesting thing like Mari and Marco says god of course gave us 613 commandments but as the generations God spiritually weaker and weaker and weaker they needed to be able to reduce all of those Commandments to a smaller number of principles so they could wrap their head around it so Moshe gave us 613 Davi got it down to 11 Marcus goes to a whole different list but towards the end and this is not going to be the end of it'll go further than three metre I got it down to three and me those three principles are do justice love kindness and walk with Hashem with humility and modesty now we're gonna go I'll go a little further you shall y'all got it down to two and the cabaco got it down to one you can't really go below what but let's just focus on these three for a moment first of all you'll notice an interesting thing with respect to justice it does not say love justice it says do justice love kindness this itself is a very interesting dichotomy because justice means that sometimes both as a society as an and as an individual we have to be harsh on rejecting you know we punish criminals sometimes we have to execute criminals we go to war we kill terrorists at least to stop them from doing what they're doing eyeball the harka huh someone comes to kill you kill them first no question about it we are not pacifists we must do what is just for the preservation of our lives and our families but it's making a point you don't love doing that you do it but you don't love it just as when the Egyptians were drowning in the Red Sea and the Angels wanted to glorify God God said this is not the time to be happy my creatures are drowning in the sea now God didn't say turn the other cheek and I'll keep the Egyptians allotting no they have to die but they have to die you do what you have to do but you don't rejoice you may remember this infamous a picture of a terrorist probably maybe 12 13 years ago long time ago in which he had killed some Jewish people and he dipped his hands in their blood and he was dancing around wildly with the blood dripping from his fingers a joy a sip unless an Israeli soldier was was seriously mentally ill I guess that could happen it's inconceivable that this could ever be the response of a Jewish soldier Jewish soldiers killed when they have to kill in point of fact I think one of the things we need to be proud of although it may be a security concern is the IDF is more protective of the lives of civilians than any army in the world we need to say they will expose them instead of doing aerial attacks which could increase the collateral damage to mountain combatants they go house to house to house to house to house and you're dealing with an enemy which uses women and children as aggressors and all of the notifications that they send me think it can help me and tell their enemies ahead of time you know just get out of here because you know we're gonna do some stuff so the morality of not taking joy in taking life is a very very strong morality that's rooted in the Torah so you do justice because it has to be done but the only thing you love doing is kindness so it's a very very important point here you're our social mission but I've asked us it at Snell with us this is the famous word simians and this is an important reminder it's an obvious points that have been made many many times but I'll make it again certainly not my finish you know if you ask the average person what Snead's means well so to me it refers to how long a woman's dress has to be and this dress is Sania so that dress is not Sania's and it's totally an external idea focusing only on clothing basically but that's totally incorrect because first of all this verb Senora Sneha is not only for women anyway it applies to men advised everybody men and women and although the lengths of clothing is is an aspect of this body of law but this concept is not so much an external standard of behavior it's an internal idea that I walk and I live my life with humility with the sense of privacy I don't advertise my relationship with God I don't wear my religion on my sleeve it is kept in my heart and I'm not here to show off or impress other people but to be a humble servant of God and there's a humble servant of God in an ideal sense again this is something that I aspire to do it I'm not to say I'm there I'm certainly about there but as a humble servant of God one does not care if they get the credit or not don't get the credit man the joy is that God's will is being done in the world and that is the idea of Sania's now let me take the Gemara a little further before we end so mija gave us three principles isaiah yo yo three was too much for people to keep in keep in mind yo y'all reduced it to toe shimmer Oh miss Potts keep justice beyond suits and calm and do charity now it's interesting these are four had a blackboard here at whiteboard let's compare the three of Mesa with the two of yo yo the first of the show y'all was a so swish but doing justice me Alicia y'all changed it to shimmer ooh miss but guard justice both of them have but in the first man but the difference is so Assos is a positive action do justice shimmer o is guard yourself against injustice so the interpretation might be as the generations get spiritually inferior we perhaps become less capable of actually doing justice in the world but at least we should avoid hurting people so you see I was saying hey if you're not able to do justice live your life so you don't hurt people it's similarly the hillo the Torah says you should love your neighbor as you love yourself Hillel phrased into the negative what is hateful and embarrassing for you don't do to another meaning if you're not able to truly love somebody at least don't do bad things to them now the next one is Mila said I've addressed loving-kindness Yeshayahu said giving charity now they're related but there's a big difference first of all chesed and sadaqa are not the same Cosette is kindness sadaqa is charity and the Gemara says one of the differences is that stuck up is what you do with your money yes it is what you do with your time and your efforts so stuck I write the check that said I'm in the soup kitchen making the meals visiting the sick so once again it's miss cotton my daughter's the generations get inferior ideally we should have a love and an enthusiasm to show kindness but what if I don't have a love I really don't really love helping people that much and I have a certain selfish streak so you show you always says well listen if you're not going to be in the soup kitchen at least write the check meaning it's kind of a ariza meaning okay you're not a boss I said at least get stuck that's a fallback position okay so that's how you explain the first two when I heard the first two of Isaiah matchup and differ a little bit with the first two of me but what's interesting is the third one of me fun to walk humbly with God is omitted in Isaiah's list it's not even mentioned how would that reflect the the going down of the generations do you read us at Doris so here there's a point that I think you might suggest but that is optimally service of God is a very very private thing it shouldn't be ostentatious it shouldn't be obvious you're not playing to the crowd but there are times in which is important for you to show that you're doing missus when you live in an environment where people are very very far from the Torah you sometimes have to be a positive role model and set aside your natural reticence and modesty because that is the only way you will be a force for good and therefore by omission yo-yo is suggesting there are times in which you're not supposed to be so so Noah you have to go out and do your mitzvahs you know I heard a story once from someone that I know it's a very very bizarre story this was a person I think he's not alive anymore uh he was he was an observant Jew but he certainly you know didn't learn Torah he was kind of course in many ways he had a good heart but he once told me that his father was a great great great Thomas fund a great great scholar of Torah but his father was so humble that he never learned Torah in front of his own family he only waited till everybody was asleep then he learned Torah when the kids were up he put everything away because he didn't want to show off in front of the children now you see why that's a little bit of a problem because if a parent says because I want to be so humble and modest I don't want my children to know that I dive in with qivana I don't want my children to know that I learned tolerance I don't want my children to bail I give succor because everything should be private how are your children going to be influenced which means in effect maybe this is the wrong way of putting it parents have to be a little show-off fee with their kids so the kids will see that this is what you're supposed to be doing in your life Mitzvah it's over and to some degree that even applies to the outside world you know in America I don't they do an Israel so much although I see Israeli institutions go to America to do it when you have the annual banquet and they always have a guest of honor I don't think I haven't seen that here per se but I know that whether it's Shaarei Tzedek or the beer you see where they just go to America and do it have their banquet and have their guest of honor so very often the guest of honor sometimes is just a rich person but but sometimes you know it's a person of great distinction or a very religious person a very pious person and often I was around believe a show for 25 years so when we had this problem even in our small banquet where you pick an outstanding family in the show to be the guest of honor and typically if they truly are outstanding they don't want it the people who want it's usually people don't deserve it but the people who don't want it are the people who deserve it and they say you know we don't want to be recognized we don't want to be publicized we don't want to show off we want to serve Hashem with sheis so the standard rabbinical answer which generations of rabbis have used countless times is we're not honoring you for you we're honoring you so you could be an inspiration two other people who will see what you're doing and then they will have a good example which means that even people who are naturally and properly modest and reticent sometimes have to set aside the modesty to be an inspiration and the Caesar brothers and that might be why Yaya who eliminated a snail let us not because Sania's is not important of course it's important but because there are times as generations get weaker now if you lived in a generation where like everybody's from then yeah you should be absolutely private people don't need to know what you're doing but we don't live in that generation therefore you have to be a little bit more open about the Torah and the mitzvahs that you were doing so wish you all a good weekend businesses Gemma the fast on Sunday should be a good fast and may it lead to the building of the of the base of mikdash and the ghoulish Lima which should be Barreiro p.m. oh I'm sorry yeah yeah then the final prophet got it down to 1 and that is Habakkuk the Navi and Habakkuk Swann was Sadek be Emunah so yeah yeah the Tzadik lives by his emunah his faith in us that ultimately when you have that faith in a college portal that will bring you to everything else so emunah is the foundation of everything [Music]