Rav Yitzchak Breitowitz: Be A Student of Abraham with a Good Eye Humble Spirit and Moderate Appetite

You see your tomorrow [Music] Hi everybody. Shalom. How are you? And um it's getting uh harder and harder to get around this city, you know, where I am. Um they discontinued like five light rail stops for 14 weeks. So I think we're only it's only been four weeks, another 10 weeks of it. And now I see immigr uh a little messed up. So, you know, it reminds me a little bit of, you know, uh, parents often say they're doing things for their children. Uh, so the Kutzkarbi said he'd like to meet the last child in history like all of this is being done for, like, you know, I do it for my kids, my kids do it for their kids, but there's some kid at the end. So, I'm wondering, you know, all of this great construction that, you know, I guess maybe Mashiach that it'll be uh, but according to the Rambam, I'm not sure. The Rambam says even when Mashiah comes, the world will still be normal. So that means we're still going to have construction. Even when Mashiach comes, maybe it'll be even worse because there'll be more and more yidden here. So it'll even be more crowded. But anyway, um I don't want to complain. And uh as always we are praying for the victory of all fronts of the war, the lasting unity of ami Israel and prayers for all those whose health has been affected by the war and of course the safe return of all the hostages. I'm sure all of you know that Netanyo is uh or was at least was I don't know where he is this moment but there was was in Washington and they talk about um a ceasefire with return of hostages and you know who knows what will be and Witchoff is going to Qatar to kind of put a little pressure on them. Apparently Qatar could end uh this in a in a moment because they fund and whatever Hamas funding gets now that Iran is kind of out of the way uh it's Qatar. So all the human political machinations can go this way or that way or that way. But as the Mishna says, uh we can only rely on on God to sort it out because uh the hostages should be home very very very soon. Rafu Schlma Aram Mendel Ben Sud should have Israel an anonymous contribution again for the and the hostages and Hashem's protection uh for all of Israel and for the Gulma. And finally, Yuna has so far raised over 80% of the money it needs to purchase 15 more sets of fillin for our courageous kayolim who have requested them. Uh thank you to those who have already donated and you can contribute via the website and indicate in a memo that the donation is for the army to fill in funds. It is a marvelous marvelous thing uh that in response to the great great tragedies of October 7 so many have wanted to connect to God particularly through the mitzvah of situs and fillin uh fillin is a lot more expensive than situs. So as a result uh you know we we obviously need financial assistance to purchase all of the fillin that are being requested and if we don't meet the demand well unfortunately Hashem's going to have a big on why we didn't provide fillin for those who requested it. Um okay. Uh so uh there are a few things. Uh we are in paras Balok and also on Sunday we have the uh inauguration so to speak of the morning period for the basa mikdash beginning the three weeks with the 17th of of tamos. So I'm going to kind of talk about both of those ideas uh in the in the shar kind of mix them up a little bit. But let's start first with the para. We are now in the 40th year. People don't realize paraas last week's para transitioned from year two to year 40 because in year 40 is the death of the death of Miriam and the story of Bah. The Jewish people are right on the border of Erit Israel. But uh once again uh they want to pass through Moabitete territory. Moav is east of the Jordan, but it's uh kind of around the southern part of the Dead Sea. So the Jewish people wanted to go through Moabitete land to make a an entry into Aritzel instead of having to go all the way around and entering around Eureka, you know, east of of Eureka. And as you know, the Moabites did not let them uh enter. And we were commanded not to conquer Moabitete territory because Moab is a descendant of Lot. And just as God made promises to Ara, God made promises to Lot in the merit of Ara that their land would be in viol. Okay. So now we read that in this 40th year the king of Moab whose name is Balok is very very fearful of the Jewish people and he says they will lap us up. They will swallow us the way an ox consumes the grass of the field. We're frightened of them. This is a nation in which God did many many miracles for them. So as a result, Balok develops a strategy of hiring a professional cursor, a professional sorcerer whose name is Bum. And uh he hires Bum to curse the Jewish people. And initially Bum says, "I don't want to do it unless God gives me permission." He's holding out. And uh whatever it is, after a number of times, God says, "Go, but don't curse. Say only what I tell you to say." And the overall story, there's a lot of depth in the story, is that three times Bum tries to curse the Jewish people. And every time Bum tries to curse the Jewish people, Hashem turns his words, what would have been his words of curse into his words of blessing. Now, there are so many questions about this story. Of course, I didn't even mention Bum's donkey, the tonky donkey. It's also uh an issue uh according to the Rambam and the Morinim that was kind of a dream that Bum had. But Khazal take it as quite quite literal. But be it as it may, let's start off with a a basic question. What is Balok afraid of? God commanded the Jewish people, do not wage war with Moab. And if the Moabites don't let you go through their land, then you got to go around it. Now, this already happened. We already requested Moab to get through the land. And when they said no, God said, "Als Moab, do not wage war with Moab." So, if that's the case, why is Balok so scared that Balok wants to hire Bum to curse Ben Israel? So there's a beautiful thought from the shame mish uh the son of the abdar the son of the sak but a great in his own right where the shame explains balok is not afraid of what the Jewish people will do to his nation. He knows that his nation is safe but he's afraid of what will happen when the Jewish people come to Erit Israel. In other words, his goal is not self-defense. His goal is to prevent the Jewish people from coming to the land of Israel. He's happy to let them stay in the desert, but not to enter the land of Israel. Why is that? Why is he so concerned about that? Because, and I think this theme has been stated a number of times, Hashem's relationship to the Jewish people in the Midbar is very different than the relationship that's going to be once we arrive in Erit Israel. The midbar is a type of spiritual cocoon. It's an it's almost an artificial environment. In the midbar, we get our mun from heaven, our bread from heaven, which could taste like whatever you wanted it to taste like. Uh we have our water supply that travels with us. We have clouds of glory that protects us. The presence of God is obvious, open, clear, unmistakable in spite of the fact that we still committed all those aeras. But nevertheless, it's a very open relationship and we don't have the challenges or distractions of material life. People don't have to go to the office. They don't have to do carpull. They're free. They're panoi. That's why it's so hard to understand how could they commit the ais they committed. But as Re Victor Miller writes over and over again, that was truly the greatest generation. The generation that saw the greatest revelation of divinity ever. So that's the hermetically sealed environment of the desert. Once we come to the land of Israel, our relationship to God is going to radically change. Of course, our our victory, our our success is from Hashem, but a lot more of human effort is going to be required. We're not going to get the minimum. We're going to have to plow and plant and harvest and thresh. We're not going to have a traveling supply of water. We're going to have to dig wells and hope for the rain. We're not going to have clouds of glory. We'll need armies. We'll need the IDF and the like. Now, here is the thing. As long as the Jews are living a holy life in the desert, that's not necessarily a reproach to the immorality and corruption of the umoam because they could say, "Yeah, the Jews serve God because they don't have the problems of real life, but we got a country to run. We have a society to run. We can't afford all of the rrooknas, all of the spirituality, and all of the kaduca." So they're not a they're not a role model for the world because the conditions of their life are so radically different. So let them stay in the desert. Let them be an example of a holy nation that's monastic that are separated from the world and let them do what they do because that has nothing to do with us. But once they come to Eric Israel, at least in an ideal way, of course, we didn't always live up to that ideal and we create a society based on kaduca. We have cities and farms and businesses and armies that are trying to follow the Torah. Again, we there are many many times we haven't realize that picture, but at least in theory, at that point, that is a reproach to all the umos. You see, it is possible to live an ordinary life with all of the problems of society based on holiness and obedience to God. And therefore the sheamish argues that it was bullock's intention let the Jews stay in the desert because then they become irrelevant to the real affairs of the world rather than them coming to Eric Israel where they then become a tr potentially at least a true or a light to the nations in terms of how do you live in society. You know the truth of the matter is this has been a challenge for the state of Israel from the very very beginning. You know the the first Rafar rashi of uh the state of Israel was not Rufk died before the state of Israel but it was Rav Herzog the grandfather and actually namesake of the present president Isaac Herzog Yitsak Herzog was the grandfather Harav Yeetsak Herzog a great great Herzog was an extraordinarily brilliant person he does not go to he never went to yeshiva uh uh he learned with his father and then he's an Didact he kind of learned himself but he was a great master of not only kola toraula but also of law he was also a very great legal mind and in fact in one of his books very fascinating he wrote a book comparing the main it's called the main institutions of Jewish law he actually compares the legal systems of England which is what he's more familiar with with halaka and he draws the comparisons contrast based on rishim as the main institutions only part of which was published. It was supposed to be a four volume work. Uh I believe that to date only two volumes have been published. But one of Raf Herzog's dreams was he wanted to create a system of how hala can operate in the confines of a modern state. Because in truth, although everything is in the Torah, this is a very underdeveloped aspect of hala. You know, halaka to this very day deals very comprehensively with all sorts of questions that individuals have. You know, how do I keep shabas? How do I keep kosher? What do I do? Even, you know, even in the army situation. But when you're talking about systems, how do you run or can you run an army kahala? How do you run a water company? How do you run electricity police? Now granted, uh because of freedom of religion, many of these participants are not going to be frugit, right? That's not the issue. But theoretically, it would be nice to have in place the guidelines for how all of these things could be accomplished. And that's a very very difficult project. Rertz created a committee. He wasn't he wasn't going to do the whole thing himself. Uh in which uh different people you handle police, you handle fire, you handle uh security systems, uh electric companies, water companies, all of those different things, creating a hahic mechanism for how the Torah could be applied to the complexities of modern society. Um the project was never completely finished and of course the problem is of course that uh in either event the 50s are not the uh 2025. I mean uh even the work that was done is does not necessarily address the modern issues but Rabel Yazar Valdenberg who was a great great POS he died just a few years ago uh well into his 90s so he is known for his multi volume Shaya Suchuva Sitelzar which was always in print but it's a little less known that back in the 1950s he authored underfertzak's guidance he authored a three volume work called Hilot Medina the kind of the laws of running a state in which he try he tried to address a lot of these issues of course was back in the 50s and Medina was out of print for many many years whatever it would be because um obviously it it's a little bit controversial I mean number one if you write Medina you're obviously endorsing the idea of a state of a Jewish state, right? So that already was controversial in some segments of the Karedi world. And number two, uh obviously uh the rulings will tend to be on the lenient side simply because of the necessities of the situation and that was a little controversial. So for many many years I had heard of Medina because Ra Voldenberg will often refer to it in the title which is more mainstream but the safer was not available. But lo and behold, around 10 years ago, uh they finally did reprint it. And in fact, you can get it for free on the wonderful website, Hebrewbooks.org, that I spend most of my day on. Not most of my day, but a lot of my day on. In Hebrew or? No, it's in Hebrew. It's Hebrew. It's never been translated. Uh and it's a fascinating work because it has a very ambitious agenda. But again, as I say, it doesn't really end the matter simply because the 1950s is not 2025 and the technologies are different and we kind of need a renewal. So the point I'm making is to go back to the shame. This is what Balok was afraid of. Balak was afraid that the Jewish people would develop a way to show how morality and goodness and Torah are not just ethereal spiritual pursuits of the synagogue or the beta medish or the desert, but they are mechanisms by which real life can be lived in real time. And that would be a reproach to the immorality of the um and that is what she says balak was very afraid to now the shamish this insight although I don't think he uses it to answer the question answers another question that commentaries ask the asked the question the says if balok is afraid of b is why does he hire bum to curse B Israel he should hire Bum to bless him that his armies will be successful he should have focused on the bra for his side rather than the so the's answer is this is the way of they care much more about hurting the other than even helping themselves a Russia doesn't think in terms of braha a Russia thinks of curse. Again, uh in the case of Hitler, that was very very apparent. Uh Hitler jeopardized any possibility of Nazi success against the allies because we got to get rid of the Jews. Even if that means, you know, we're taking away resources from fighting uh fighting the Allied powers, fighting Russia or or whatever whatever it would be. The most important thing is the kala, not the not the braha. of course uh with our our cousins the Benet Ismael uh we see this on a daily basis u what what could have been done in Gaza again I don't want to get too political but what the Palestinian people could have created in Gaza based on what they were given by Israel in Gaza you know the gardens and the orchard the green houses all thing they could have made it like uh you know they could have made it like Olabah uh on some level and it could have been uh as they say the Riviera of of the Middle East. Instead, it became a hellhole. Yeah. A lot of the descriptions of the anti-Israel descriptions of Gaza happen to be true. You know how awful it is. Yeah. But the reason it is awful is not uh Israel. It's it's what they what they made of it. Once again, it was more important to hurt and destroy Jews than it was to try to create a better way of life. And that's exactly Bum's thinking. Let's or Bulock's thinking. Let's curse the Jews. Forget about blessing us. That's answer. But the truth is according to the shame is you actually have maybe even a more elegant answer. And that is Balak doesn't need a bra because Balok is not afraid of the Jewish people attacking him. Bolock's agenda is that the Jewish people should not be mats to create a religious society in the land of Israel. So if that's the case, he needs the curse. He doesn't need the blessing. He needs the curse. According to the Sheamish, the whole question does not uh does not even uh does not even begin. Okay. Now the thing about Bum Bum is a very very strange character. Rashi brings a mimer kazal that says that God had given the Jewish people the greatest of all prophets Mosha Rabenu and the umam might have had a claim that if you would have given us a person as great as Mosher Rabenu we would be righteous too. So God gave them a prophet who is Bum and they still didn't change their ways. Now that's not responsive to the question. I mean the the claim is if you would have given us someone like Mosher Raen we would be righteous. So Hashem responds I gave you Bum. What do you want? Well yeah you gave us Bum. Bum is not Moshe. Bum is an evil guy. So you still haven't addressed the Tina that we might have or that the might have. The answer has to be that both Moshe and Bum similar to what we talked about with Korak, but it's an extension of this may have started off the same way. It's not that God gave us the righteous person and God gave them an evil person. God gave to both supremely gifted prophets who had a very deep connection with God. If Bum became evil, it was precisely because of the power that he was given. Imagine Bum was given a power that frankly from our perspective just sounds magical. We don't know how it works. He had the power of blessing. He had the power of curse. He would declare that somebody should be destroyed. They would be destroyed. What does that do to a person? Person begins to think they have this infinite power. So the greatness of Mosher Rabain was that although God gave him those powers and those abilities, he remained humble and subservient to the Almighty. And bum became consumed with a sense of his greatness, a sense of his power, a sense of his kawak. So the olam cannot say if you would have given us a moher rabenu, we would have been better. He says I gave you somebody who could have become Mosher Rabenu. And listen, Moshe could have become Bum. It was all a function of human choice. That's not God's doing. That's how the human being responds. to the situation they're they're in. So we have to recognize that Bam on some level was an extraordinarily great prophet. A prophet who Khazal say was considered to be equal in prophecy and vision and even miraculous powers to Mosher Rabenu himself. And yet Bum made choices. Bum became changed by the powers that he was given. Became changed to the worst. Now the Gammorian Brahos says a very fascinating thing. What was the source of Bum's unusual power to curse? What was his source? So this is a gammoran brahos. The garanian brahos says there's a certain fraction of a second every day when god has tremendous fury in the world. And if you can put in your curse at the moment of that fury, it's like Hashem makes uh the atomic bomb button available for a fraction of a second. If you can push it that second, you got it. Bum knew this is in Aramaic. It's called Edan. Edidan is the same as zaman. Edan risk. That just means a zaman of anger and quote the puss and that we say in ding every day mirga god's uh anger is rega moment and how long is a moment so the gor says commemor the amount of time it says to say the word reggga is is a reggga. So it's not a second, it's not a minute, it's reggga. I don't have a stopwatch, but whatever reggga is is the amount of time. And bum knew hash and that's why his curse was always effective. Now the Gomorrah tells us that the great Rebi mayor had enemies and he wanted to curse those enemies and he wanted to pronounce his curse during that time of Eden Ritzka and there was a tradition that how do you know when the Eden Ritska is? So it's mentions of course it's such a short time. It's when the red comb of the rooster turns white for a fraction of a second like white with fright. Right? That's the reg. So it says R. Mayor tied a rooster to his bed post and he sat down to stare at the rooster to try to see when the color changed. Now the truth is I really don't get this because blinking blinking already I think you'd miss the opportunity but maybe he thought he would be lucky and he would see it at a time when he wasn't blinking and what happened was he fell asleep and then he recognized this is not the right derk to go and of course remember this this fits very well with another story about it might be the same enemies where Rabbi wanted to curse his enemies that they should I and his very wise wife Bora told him that's not correct because said sins should be destroyed and then you don't have rashim. Don't pray for the destruction of the Russia. Pray for the destruction of the evil so that the Russia does chuva. That's what one should do. So it ties in. You see both both stories. I mean they're they're they're recorded as two different stories that are separated by a lot of pages but it seems to be almost the same story. He first wanted to curse them with Ritzka. He was not mat in that and then he was just going to curse them generally and Buria his wife told him that that's not the right way to do it. Okay. Now to insp very very good question and that is given the fact that this is only a fraction of a second. What curse could Bam say that would be within his window? The window is so small. You tell me bum is successful in cursing because he he put in his curse in the time of anger but the time of anger is a fraction of a second. What can you say? So Tossos gives two answers. One answer is as long as you start your curse in the window, it's like you enter a store, right? Uh bank a bank that way the bank closes at one. But if you manage uh to get into the uh the play the lobby, you're in the bank uh before one. So they'll they'll handle with you, right? But nobody new can come in. So it's the same thing. As long as you got your curse, you began your curse when the window was open, God will take it. By the way, some actually draw conclusion from this. Very, you know, we know that for mitzvos like and there are zanim you got to do it by a certain time. So for example, the recitation of schma must be said within the first quarter of the day. So in a 12-h hour day, that means before the expiration of three hours in a 12-h hour day. These are or or three hours, meaning 1/4 of the daylight hours. The amida must be said before the middle of the day, before katos. after katos if you missed katos and you didn't dive in chakras you didn't dive in the amid of chakras you can't do it anymore uh if you weren't totally negligent you can dive in two mas as a makeup but you cannot dive in chakras and of course keep in mind min cannot be ded until a half an hour after katsos so therefore the period between and min is no man's land you can't dive in chakras you cannot dive in min now What is the if I started dvening let's say the amida uh 2 minutes before katos am I allowed to finish it or what if I started keshma before the expiration so someone want to make a kr since we know that god is much more generous on good things than he's punishing on negative things so if even for a curse god says as long as you begin it in the right time you can finish it for good things like so this was a justification of some that as long as they began schma in the proper time they could finish it after the proper time as long as they began the amida in the proper time they could finish it but of course even if you accept that answer that only works if you started before the I mean if you're starting it after the time expired you're going to have to come up with another answer uh for that. Okay, that that'll be a talk for for another time. So that's answer number one that Tossos gives. But answer number two that Tossos gives is Bum was able to devise a curse that would work even in that small window. Remember the small window is the amount of time it takes to say the word reggga. Reggga is a twocllable word. So Bum came up with a twocllable curse. And that two syllable curse is the word calm. Kalem with a with a calm. Kalem means destroy them. Kalem has the same number of syllables as regga. So he could have gotten it in. And therefore, although Bum's brahas are much longer, but when Bum would curse other nations or whatever it would be, he would use the calm formula and tap into that time of anger and be able to to destroy. Okay, so uh these are the two answers of Tossos. One is as long as Bum began his curse, he could finish it. Uh the other is he had a two-cllable curse that he was able to coordinate exactly with the Edon Ritzka the time of anger. Now there is aam sofur that elaborates a little bit on this idea of tomos and I'm going to elaborate a little bit on theam surf. going to be adding some stuff to theam cipher and that is puravos describes a contrast between the tomidam the disciples of abramavina those who follow the ways of abraabu might even be non-Jews in other words people who follow the ways of abraabu versus those who follow the ways of bum And it mentions the three characteristics of the students of Abraino and again as I say this could even be non-Jews is ion tova. A good eye. A good eye is not referring to a 2020 vision. And a good eye really means a generosity of spirit. Like the Yiddish word for meaning when good things happen to people instead of being jealous or angry envious you get a pleasure in other people's joy. That's what an ayen tova means. Ayentova means I get pleasure in the good things that happen to people. That's a beautiful mida actually and in fact Simka writes it is harder to get pleasure in somebody's joy than to commiscerate in their sorrow. Now commiscerating in sorrow is also a very powerful beautiful mida that is called no say be esav meaning I feel your pain I bear your pain with you that's a wonderful mida that is an absolutely wonderful mida to have empathy and feel the pain and suffering that somebody's going through but simra says as beautiful as bearing the yoke of someone's pain is rejoicing in their simka is is even harder because there's always a tinge of jealousy or why not me now I remember my son who now is uh almost 40 but when he was in second grade so uh they had a you know they have like like schools have they have a shabas uh was a co-ed school forgive me but with coet school they have a shabas party and a shabas aan a shabas ima and everything else. And at the end they award they give some award to the best student of the week. So I remember my son came home one Friday and he was so happy. He was so excited because he said mayor mayor his best friend was mayor still his best friend. Mayor got the best uh you know best of the week award or something. So I was thinking as a cynical I didn't say I wouldn't say it. I said what are you so happy about? It wasn't you. But then I, you know, then I I said, you know, what a what a beautiful me that quite literally I saw that he was just as happy, just as excited that his friend got it as it would be for himself. That's not an easy me because jealousy even of people that you love a lot, people that you care about, you know, they say um with dieting this is a problem. Let's say you have a bunch of overweight friends and you know and they get together and they enjoy each other's company and one really really decides they want to you know lose weight and they're disciplined and they really work at it and you know they're very successful. um you know their friends in subtle ways might try to sabotage the success a little bit by saying oh you look so emaciated you know have some cake you know what do you want you know and it's it's complicated I I don't mean to accuse any it's a complicated dynamic in which we sometimes suffer a little bit when people are achieving some successes in certain aspects that we haven't achieved all right I don't want to be but that's kind of the general soy tova is the opposite me of that ayen tova is when you get pleasure in the successes of others the second me of raino is uh ruaka is really modesty humility humbleness a lowly spirit Again, God forbid, not self-loathing or depression, but you're humble. In in a way, it's kind of connected. That's how you can have an ayen tova. You're humble. And the third mida is nephesh, which means a lowly soul, but that's interpreted as um you're not meaning you're not u overly hedonistic for pleasures. You know, you're happy with a simple life. So the three midas are ay and tova generosity of spirits humility and kind of a simplicity in terms of what you want out of life. You don't have so many demands. Bum is exactly the opposite in every single one. The attributes of the toidum of bum is ra an evil eye. Someone successful I kind of resent it. arrogance hubris and a hedonist. Right? As Rashi points out, when Bum initially refused to go, he was hinting at what really might appeal to him. He says, "Even if you give me a house full of gold and silver, I'm not going to go." But he's kind of dropping a hint. you know gold and the silver you know may may maybe you can make some type of imprint uh there so in many many ways theamifer says bum like korak is a similar thought but coming from a different place is what we might call a tragic figure under aris title's definition of tragedy That's why we call it Greek tragedy. It comes from Aristotle. Tragedy is not if a house simply falls on somebody. That's a very sad event. Tragedy is not what happens from the outside. Tragedy is when a great person or a potentially great person is destroyed because of a flaw that is within him. That's tragic. That awakens very powerful emotions in an observer or a listener or a reader because you see a person who is so gifted, so potentially great, so many talents and they get destroyed from within. Unfortunately, you know, even in the Torah community, we've seen examples. I don't want to mention any names at all but people who were very gifted either in teaching or in writing people who were influenced who were influences for good but they got destroyed because of demons flaws sins whatever you want to call it within in terms of sexual abuse or pedophilia whatever it might be but it's tragic it's see I get in trouble for this sometimes s obviously it's tragic for the victims and and the victims have the greatest claim on our compassion. I mean that's that's so obvious that it doesn't have to be said but I have to say it otherwise I will be accused of not saying it. But the point I want to make here is that there's a tragedy not only in terms of the victims. There's a tragedy in terms of the perpetrator because the perpetrator was not some crazy wild animal. The perpetrator was someone with talent, with abilities, with potential and that was all destroyed because of those very bad, very evil decisions. So there's tragedies on both sides of this. So in that sense, Bum was a tragic figure because he was a prophet as great as Moshe in terms of insight, in terms of power of blessing, power of curse. And yet Bum was consumed by the inner demons of ayen rah jealousy ruak gavoa arrogance nepheshava hedonism by the way this corresponds piras calls these very three midos by a different name in another mishna this is kina there's a famous mishna that says jealousy, lust and seeking honor take a person out of the world. Now if you think about this these are directly direct synonyms although different lash direct synonyms of the three negative midos of bum. So iron ra corresponds to jealousy rua arrogance corresponds to kavotes which is hedonism corresponds to ta. So why the Mishna employs different of course there are different rabbis who are speaking why different rabbis employ different vocabularies is actually an interesting question for in-depth study but in simplest meaning these are synonymous terms so the three attributes of bum in a negative sense correspond to kina so now the cyer says the following. If Bum wants to curse the Jewish people, maybe the greatest or curse anybody, maybe the greatest curse he could give is may you be like me because Bum is tortured. How does a person feel? See, Bum was smart enough not to be oblivious of his situation. Meaning, sometimes, you know, a person is so unself-aware that he may have all of these negative attributes, but he, you know, he doesn't even look at them as negative, doesn't realize. Bum was cursed by virtue of his prophetic insight that Bum knew exactly the tragedy of his very existence. Bum was aware of his abilities, was aware of his talents and used those talents in sometimes destructive ways. But he was also aware of the tragedy within him, the train wreck within him. So the biggest curse he could give, the worst curse he would say is, "May you be like me. May your gifts be sabotaged by flaws." So here's what Cypress says. Again, I'm adding quite a lot to it, but his bottom line is destroy them can actually be an abbreviation of three words. Colloyot kidneys, lamemed is le and me is moak mind. That's a curse. Now why is that a curse? We know that uh kidneys in ways that may not match with medical science necessarily but were understood in the ancient world as a source of passion particularly sexual passion. So kidneys refers to powerful lusts. Leave is generally emotions including resentments. Moak brain is the intellectual and moral sensibility that a person has. Kalem is when your mind is subordinate to your passions and your emotions. You use your mind to further your basic baser instincts and that is inner destruction that is kale. Think about the world today. You know, if you think about, let's say, uh the whole area of um mass entertainment, the guys who make uh movies. Now, these are smart people. I mean, the special effects, the scripts, the even the financial aspects, these are brilliant, brilliant minds in many, many ways. A lot of them are Jewish, but whatever. And yet, they're using their minds to play on emotions and baser instincts and the like. The mind gets hijacked to service the passions and that is inner destruction. So Bum's curse is be like me. Now the opposite, let's take the words. The opposite of kalem is mel. Mel stands for moak the mind le the emotions and the is theot the passions. Meaning what is a melik? A melik is when your emotions and passions are guided and directed and led by your intellectual and moral capacities. That is the meaning of a king. Right? A king is not someone who rules over other people. A true king is a person who rules over himself. Perkyo says Gibbore who is a true heroes he conquers he subjugates the and the source of that is a puk in Mish that says he who rules over his spirit is greater than he who conquers a city. Theo Springs brings a parable about a victorious general who came back after a big war and there was like a a parade welcoming him back, right? They would uh just like they have ticker tape parades when MacArthur came back whatever it is but they had in the ancient world uh there was a triumphal entry of the general and as the general was basking in all of the accolades a wise man whispered to him welcome back from the small war and now you have to face the great war the small war was the war you waged against the enemy. The big war is the war you have to wage within yourself. That's much tougher. In fact, um I think Rabi Steinel once said this was many many years ago. I think it was he was actually a very young man. This may go back to the early 60s, but I saw the statement somewhere that he said that maybe the reason people are so interested in exploring outer space is because inner space is too scary. I'd rather not look into my inner space. Right? Theali is easier to look at than the kalimi. Uh and that's kind kind of what it is. Tom Cipher says when God changed Bum's curses into blessings, the word melik appears so often in Bum's curses because quite literally Bum wanted to say calm and God reversed it. He blessed them with melik. Now I do want to clarify one little thing because uh there might be a misunderstanding here. So on one hand we said what is a melik? A melac is where the moch, the intellect and the morality rule over the passions and the emotions. Now that could be misunderstood a little bit. That could be misunderstood as that um Judaism does not look at emotions and feelings as important. uh we want you to be an automaton and do what is right in and and totally disregard your feelings and emotions. That's not exactly what it means. For example, the Balatana writes many many times in Tanya without using the strasha of khale. He doesn't he doesn't make this but he says sh alhalev the writes this explicitly the mind has the capacity to control the heart which is exactly the cipher's word about melik what does it mean though the mind rules over the heart in a super there's a superficial meaning and there's a deeper meaning. There is a superficial meaning which is also true and that is even if my emotions want to do something bad my mind has the power to override it. Okay. And that that is true but that's on a lower level. That's a lower and more superficial level in which you're using your mind to restrain the expression of your emotions. And sometimes that is necessary. You know, you want to murder somebody. Well, your mind has to control you and say don't do it. But the Balatana is saying there's a much deeper meaning and that is the emotions themselves become transformed by deep thinking and meditation. the Balatana believed and that's why by the way was is called I mean the name of was the actual term of the alterbi himself the balatana the first founder of this he was never in lab so it wasn't called the babab became their place later uh but he called it because kabad is And he believed that uh the mind has the ability to transform your emotions into emotions of love and joy and reverence of Hashem. Meaning we tend to look at emotions as free agents. They're just kind of there. He says no, your emotions can also be redirected. So the go the point is not to squish and contain your emotions although in the short term that might be necessary. The point ultimately is to transform your emotions and laavil modern psychology actually talks quite a lot about this. uh modern psychology uh a lot of modalities of therapy are about re-educating your emotional responses to things instead of controlling them which can work in the short term but ultimately it often doesn't work because eventually like a pressure cooker you explode. you kind of redefine reframe your situations. So your emotional responses are going to be different. Okay. So that is kind of the uh the lessons that we get from the story of Balak. again um when I say over the you know I feel so much compassion for Korak because we said somewhat of a similar thought with Korak and now with Bum because the idea of greatness that has that tragic flaw is truly I mean Aristotle was right that that that truly is a tragedy because there was so much potential there was so much good so much could have been accomplished and Yet a person gets destroyed not by the outside enemy. A person gets destroyed by the demons within. And we have to find ways of using the moak meaning our mental and and u and moral faculties to try to redefine those emotions so they could be channeled in very very good and positive ways. Um so we are finished but just just to give me a few minutes so I'm not going to say a whole share obviously on Shiva Batamas but I want to just point out some interesting maybe side things but uh that people often often don't realize uh the Mishna tells us the Mishna Makist tells us that the fast day of the 17th of Tamas was ordained because of five different tragedies that happened on the 17th of Thomas. Five tragedies happened on the 9th of A and five tragedies happened on the 17th of Thomas. Uh I just want to enumerate the five tragedies and point out some observations about them. Tragedy number one is that the 17th of Thomas was the 40th day from Shivuos when Moshe came down from Hari with the luos the first tablets. And what did he what what was he confronted with? He was confronted with the Jewish people or some of them worshiping the golden calf. And on the 17th of Tamas, the lucis, the first tablets were shattered. That was a great great tragedy. God wanted to destroy the Jewish people. Moshe prayed and by yam kipper we got the second blue house. But Shiva Zerbatamas was the tragedy of losing the Torah and there was no guarantee at the time we would get it back. That's tragedy number one. Tragedy number two is that the 17th of Tamuz was the day that the Romans, this is the second temple already who were besieging Jerusalem were able to break through the wall and of course the temple was destroyed three weeks later on the 9th of A. So that's called and the Gmoran Tinus actually points out that in the first BA mikdash the Babylonians broke through the wall on the 9th of Tamuz. So why do I do the 17th? So one answer is that uh we go with the latest tragedy and why don't I do both because it would have been too difficult to fast on the 9th and on the 17th. Okay. So huh is connected to the second temple. Now the third tragedy is hatid. The carbon tid is the daily offering that is brought every single day shabas kipper every day of the year in the morning and in the late afternoon. And the tamid was discontinued on the 17th of tamlas. Now, this is a point I want to focus on a little bit because it really is not clear exactly what that means. Most people understand it to mean and for many years that's how I understood it that it basically means that three weeks after the Romans broke broke in three you know for the next three weeks even though the temple was still standing they were not really able to bring the carbon tid anymore which means in other words the botella tammed is referring to what happened in the last three weeks before the destruction of the temple That's it's connected. And yet and yet Rashi in the book of Dil explaining Daniel's visions actually says that they stopped bringing the Tamid more than 3 years before the destruction of the temple. Which means at least according to Rashi the Shiva Sorbatamos of Bautid is not referring to the Shivas or Batamas when the siege was broken but during the siege we couldn't get animals or whatever it is and we stopped bringing the TT. Now now I don't think Rashi means necessarily that they never brought the Tid for the last 3 years. It just meant it was no longer daily. In other words, doesn't mean the tamid ceased. It could mean it was no longer tamid. Meaning the last three years it was sporadic. So I'm bringing this out just as a point of information that a lot of people don't know this. Meaning a lot of people assume bella tid is the permanent sessation of the tamid in the last 3 weeks before tishab when according to rashi it refers to something that happened three years earlier and it doesn't mean total cessation but it meant it was no longer on a daily basis. Okay. The fourth tragedy uh is Saraf Apostamus Esatyra. Apostamus is somebody that's part of the mystery. Who on earth is he? He burnt a safer Torah on the 17th of Thomas. Argo became a fast. Now this fourth one is a little difficult to understand. First of all, who was Apostamus and when did he do it? First temple, second temple, time of Antio. But second of all, burning a safer Torah is a tra is is a tragedy. But many cifrey Torah have been burnt. To make a Tinus because Apostamus burnt a Torah. Well, in the Holocaust, how many, you know, God forbid, how many Toras were burnt? So why would this be unique enough that this would be part of why you have a fast? So some say the following. I'll give you two very fascinating explanations. Some say that when it says he burnt the Torah, it was a very, very special Torah. It was the Torah written by Ezra. Uh we didn't have the Torah of Moshe anymore that was hidden with the ark. But Ezra, who was like Moshe in wrote a Torah, and that was the official text that was used and he burnt the safer Torah of Ezra, which would be a very significant thing. But I'll tell you a shot that a a Hungarian RV came up with 50 years ago. Very creative. This was a Hungarian Rav who was also a historian. Not just a Rev, but he was into ancient history. He identified Apostamus as Pompei. Now here you need to know a little history. Uh the temple was not destroyed until the year 70 of the common era. But the Romans had conquered the land of Israel many years before 63 BCE. So 63 + 70 is whatever number of years that is. Uh uh and Pompei did it. Pompei was the Roman general who without authorization from Rome on his own just decided to enter. Of course, he entered on invitation because at that point you had two Hasmonian brothers who were arguing over the kingship and one brother invited Pompei to help him. Not a good sign because Pompei then used it as an excuse to simply take over. So, Austamus doesn't sound like Pompei, but he says it's close enough to Pompei that somehow no names get corrupted. And when it says he burnt the Torah, listen to this very creative interpretation. The first decree that Pompei issued was that the law of the land shall be Roman law rather than Torah law. So in a symbolic way, it's very symbolic. He burnt the Torah is not referring to a Torah scroll being burnt. It's referring to a symbolic burning of the Torah by having secular law replace the law of the Torah. And that became indeed an element of tragedy. And it is earlier meaning this is actually earlier than huh hu and are closer to the ba mikdash austra is earlier. It goes back to 63 BCE. And the final tra again this is a kdish. This is I'm not there's not a clear source for this but uh this historian this RV tried to construct this and the final thing that happened on the 17th of Thomas was an idol an idol was erected in the B mikdash. Now when where how do we know this? Some say it actually connects to manasha in Tanakh. It says manasha put in other words it's not referring to the destruction of the temple. It goes back to the king manasha because the problem is the the the the most famous event we have during Roman occupation of an idol putting put on the temple was an attempt to do so which was not carried out. Caligula who was a pretty bad guy also a crazy guy so maybe that's a mitigating circumstance he quite in fact what did he do the story goes he made his horse uh assistant emperor or vice vice emperor or something whatever he was a mishuga but u mishuginist can be dangerous when they're the Roman emperor so Caligula demanded that the Jews erect a statue of him in the bas mikdash This was a demand and he was going to, you know, murder Jews if they didn't carry out his demand. And Josephus records that the Jews refused to give in. They stood by their guns. They were prepared to fight the Roman troops over this principle. And for various reasons the procurator the governor of Judea somehow convinced Caligula to kind of this is not the right time or place for this. So it's a little to say is referring to something the Romans did because the only event that we know of the Romans doing that was an attempt and the attempt was not carried out. The words implies that it actually happened. So because of this many maforam say it is not referring to the Romans. It's not referring to the period of the destruction of the temple. It goes back to the biblical period in the safer malim in which it is recorded. Indeed it is recorded that there were Jewish kings. So there's not an enemy here. Jewish kings who put up idols in the bas. The point I'm making is that you take a list like this and it's very unclear uh just to but contrast it uh the the five events of tishab which I don't want to talk about now we're running late are actually very very clear there's a precise identification you know corbin by sheniagim fall of betaram being plowed over those are very very clearly identified events it It is interesting that the five events of the 17th of Thomas um at least three of them uh well two of them basically and even the third right so three of the five are a little ambiguous. The only two that are clear are and those two are clear. the other three it is actually not very clear what they're referring to. So that actually is I don't know I thought that's very interesting that when you try to match up the Mishna to the actual historical events be as it may uh the Navi Zakaria tells us that all of these fast days including the 9th of A shall become not only not fast days but when the gula comes there will be days of rejoicing and simka. So the braha is even still happen that uh my bra is that you should not have to fast on the 17th of Thomas not because of health reasons uh but because we should be za to the gulma if we we still have to fast may it be a meaningful inspirational titus that does bring us closer to the ultimate gula. Thank you. birthday [Music] party. Oh my