Rav Yitzchak Breitowitz: Deep Dive into the Cities of Refuge

You see your tomorrow. >> Okay. Hi everybody. Thank you for coming. Uh as always, we're praying for the protection of Ami Israel, the lasting unity of people of Israel, which will lead to victory and for all of those whose health has been affected by terror. An anonymous contribution was made for the Hashem's protection for Gulma very soon. Um Schlma is Mosha Ben Rael and Arad Benosana. May they have a refresh lay for the 23rd yard site this Sunday of Mr. Jackals Yehud Beny Alam a Holocaust survivor by his sons Dr. Mitchell Gassal and Jeffrey Gassal of New York. Again, a good friend of of myself. Uh for Rabbitzk, Mayor Umar Ka Rao Goldblat, whose family recently devoted an entire art scroll shot and scene edition of the Talmud to the Bonab Bates Bates Madrash. Thank you so much for the beautiful, beautiful gift which Basra Hashem will be used by many, many people. And in honor of Bernie Sammit's grandsons Bris today his name is El Kai Maz to him and his son Thrillley and his wife Adena only and finally a special dedication thanking Roy Bradwoods for your commitment in support of Ibonet Jewish family forever and the traditional family as the foundation of Judaism by Gary Schiff. Thank you Gary. Okay. So, uh we had the 17th of Tamas. We are in the middle of the period of three weeks. We are approaching a nine days culminating in tishab. And I want to talk a little bit about this period of time in the Jewish year and then indirectly we'll get into some things in the para as well. I first want to start off with um three different reflections that Ravok has about the three weeks. These are in different places but you put them together he has three interesting correlations. Uh the first correlation he makes is that tells us the three negative character traits that take a person out of this world and cause him to lose are which is jealousy which is lust for the sensual and material and is the desire for honor, glory, ego gratification. So all of the ais that people do are ultimately traceable to these three fundamental defects of character. basically says the reason why we have three weeks to commemorate uh these mikdash is we have to work on the three mid of vav. Now he also says that kinata vavote also correlates to the three primary aos the worst aos which at least caused the destruction of the first basik. You know that the first B mikdash was destroyed because of a desile sexual immorality and murder. Right? Those were the called the gimmel kamur. Those are the three aos for which a person must give his life rather than transgress. And says if you trace them back ultimately they stem from these character flaws. So he says kina the extreme jealousy that one has against another person can ultimately result in murder. In fact indeed a lot of murders outside of warfare and terrorism are jealousy based. You have something I want etc. I'll kill you. So therefore the shish of is a ka in which you have envy towards what another person has in the world. You want to take it away from him. Tya can obviously be be the shyish of Giloy arayas. Now a zara is a little tricky. He says a zora is rooted in kavite. What is thehat? Because what kavite is is I try to make myself a why is something called a zor a foreign strange worship? Because any aid which is not fixated on serving God is called a zora. Aida Zara is an aida some type of commitment some type some type of devotion some type of service where you have some ideal in the world that is greater than it might be a political ideology it might be some spiritual ideology it might be the worship of money all of that is a so ultimately is connected to kavite because when you live a life in which you're obsessed with kav you become your You are worshiping yourself. You're involved in your own self agrment. Soak's point is that the roots of are connected to the gimmel that is. So that's the first aura that the tlas of the three weeks is to work on and try to be care to whatever degree we can the negative midos of which are the shyish they are the root of everything even the and innumerable innumerable gradations before you get to that extreme. Uh the second point of soduk makes is that the haftus of the three weeks are very very interesting. Uh just looking at the first word the the there are three haists that we're going to read before tishabove two of them are from safer yo perk olive and peric bay and the shabas before tishabove is shabas kazon which is benamote that is the first perk of the now if you just look at the first words it's very very interesting um the first ta that we read last week is your mahu debor the words of your mahu the secondra that we're going to read this week is listen to the word of god and the third haftra is going to be vision so look at what we have the old saying you know see no evil hear no evil say no evil meaning you need we have to rectify three dimensions of ourselves we have to rectify the kayak of dor speech. We have to rectify what we listen to because what we listen to affects us. I don't just mean lash although that's true as well but all sorts of things that we listen to affect us in many ways. And we have to train ourselves to look where we have to look. Again I don't I don't just mean the narrow halos for men in particular of Shiraim guarding your eyes. That is an important thing. But generally speaking, we have to train ourselves to see what is good and noble and try to avoid that which degrades you and pulls you down. In fact, the MS is the tell us that when you take a sin like lash for example, so most of us look at lash as a sin of speech, you know, you're not using your speech in a good way, although that indeed is the case. But the truth of the matter is the shyish of lashhara is not so much speech. It is a problem of perception. Because like this, if I look at people and I always see the negatives, I always see the pagam. But I control myself not to say it, that is a madrega. But like a pressure cooker, you're ultimately going to explode. The ultimate goal of zahirus in lashenhara is not so much to control your speech but to change your perception. So when you look at somebody you're just not focused on their deficiencies, their defects, their problems. Right? This is the nature of people. Some people are drawn to focus as we spoke last week to theronos of others. So then mashhara becomes such a difficult thing. I'm filled with all sorts of impressions. This person is deficient in this way, this way, this way, this way. But the emp is ultimately says uh don't look so closely. In fact, I let me tell you a word from two weeks ago from the who wrote the safer oave of Israel because he was an o so he's often called the oave of Israel. So he made a point. This is not in the safer by the way. It's an orally transmitted teaching. He made a point that every para in the Torah, every para there's a remesance of aasra. So somebody just asked him at random, well where in paras is there a rem to a to a. I'm not sure what the kash is. I think there are a lot of herus, but he but this is the this is the story. So he said ah very very poss is va and the lid is and the kuf is so buck is rasha. So the person said well you know va is a v and is a v or a bid is okay is a and this is a k. So how can you say that this is rash for your so the said huh that's the point when you have is you don't look so closely at everything you're not you know you're always looking for a problem right so you don't look for a problem uh so that's kind of the idea and that's why it culminates with kazine you start off trying to rectify what you hear and what you say in the but it culminates in what you see how you perceive reality that's a very important thing. So that's the second of the third of is very very interesting. We know that redeemed the Jewish people. This is why we have four cups of wine with four of four terms of redemption. Vote I will take you out. I will save you. I will redeem you. I will take you unto me as a nation. There are four lashes of ka and that is why we have the four cups of wine at the pesak seder and there actually is a fifth lashon and I will bring you to the land uh which is really the the ultimate final redemption. So you have four lashes of gula and a fifth cup and indeed there are some shitas and rishim that do talk about at least having a fifth cup. uh it's not mandatory but some moral for example writes and it's really from earlier gynim that kais kamishi was an Indian so here's what says the shivas or batamos the three weeks and tishab so these are five markers shivas or batamos then the three weeks then tishab are actually the four linness of gula with hvesi moving in the opposite direction meaning The lashness of gula are bringing us closer and closer and closer and closer. But the three week shivas is a reversal of the first lesson of ga. The three weeks are the other three lashes and and tishabove is that instead of bringing us to Erit Israel, Tishabove is the gulus and of soduk seiz all of this is like imagine a movie or you know whatever a video which you then play in reverse. All of the forward motions actually get get reversed and that's why it's structured. If the redemption is in a fivestage progression, the is in this five stages moving backwards. But as we're going to see, moving backwards is part of the redemption itself. The analogy would be if you have a circle and you're moving away from a certain point on the circle, right? You started off at a certain point and you're moving away. every step you're taking further and further from that point, you actually become closer on the other side. Right? So, you're moving, moving, moving, moving, moving, but you're actually closer on the other side. And we're going to see this. We'll talk about more length in a few minutes that the process of rehook, the process of distancing from God is actually something that brings us closer to God. So therefore says it's not just a a contradiction meaning it's not just it's a reversal of the process of gul but it is a of redemption that comes through there is a way that we become redeemed by the distancing we have from God. Shakespeare said absence makes the heart grow foundonder and that's exactly true. Of course there's a whole rumor in the academic world whether Shakespeare might have been a Jew in an English morano whatever it is and this is one of the riots they bring that Shakespeare is basically saying that the golos brings us closer to our kadesh and that's really what it is because it gives us yearning it makes us realize what we don't have and therefore it is indeed the four shyness of gula and vesi but it's played out by moving in the opposite direction Right. These are some of the huras that Raf Soduk says about the three weeks. Now it's interesting uh going back to Rafok's second Torah that the three weeks are connected looking at the being Msiah I'm sorry being Makore Dbor is the first one then Shia hearing and then the Indian of the power of speech is very very pronounced in this particular para this para of course is a double a double para uh so it's very long so there's a lot to talk about but I'm going start at least with the beginning of the of the para the idea of there's a verse in Mish a famous in Mish that says life and death are in the hands of the tongue and quite literally we know this uh what is the saying in the navy loose lips sink ships it's an old an old saying that obviously uh different things that you say can cause your death cause the deaths of others. But you also have to understand that the statement life and death is in the hands of the tongue does not just mean physical life. It's referring on a much higher level that the words that you use can make a person's life good or it could destroy a person. You can destroy a person by careless words, words of cruelty, words of derision, words of debasement. And then you can build a person up. And the kayak of Dbor is so enormous and so special that you can make a life or you can break a life. And this happens unfortunately virtually every day. The words that a spouse, a husband says to a wife or a wife says to a husband. The words of parents to children, children to parents. The words of rebies or teachers in school. How people can be destroyed or built up. Words have a tremendous kawak as well. And that's why uh the is not to be quiet. One might say, "Oh, if words are so destructive, maybe I just won't talk. A person might say that but the answer is no. Words are not just negative. Words create positivity. They create sweetness. They create they build people up. For you to simply not use that kayak of speech is really very destructive. You're not taking the gift that Hashem gave you. You know they tell the story of a man who when the wrote his safer on lash. So there was a lot of skepticism. There were a lot of even gazol and different rabbis who said listen uh whoever this author is he's writing an impossible standard that he surely cannot live by. So they used to send spies doesn't doesn't sound quite right to me but they used to send spies to kind of spend time with the and try to trick him into lash and uh they were not successful uh but the person one of the person who was sent as a spy spent shabas with and he then reported to his uh the one who sent him uh he said well I don't understand why people make such a deal about the was sitting And the was smoozing and talking all day on Shabas with this board and that voice and that story and that story. The son-in-law that's a real saddic son-in-law did not say a single word other than to so if we're talking about the son-in-law is the one that is the model of Salash. But then he realized an amazing thing. Yes. son-in-law was a great great sadic who out of fear of lush and har didn't use his kayak but the madre was much greater he was using the and only using it in a good way in a positive way that's a much harder raid but that is our raid our raid is to recognize the healing power of soothing words uh you know I I a certain experiment experiment was reported. Again, I I hesitate to say now I'm going to get email that says the experiment was discredited, etc., etc., etc. So I'm saying at the outset I'm not sure if this is true or not true but it it was reported and there were those who maintained it was true but for all of you who like to send me mail I'm aware that uh there is some question whether it's scientifically accurate but it basically talked about examining water molecules of water under electron microscopes. These are microscopes that can literally see things down to the level of electrons. Amazing. Super super powerful microscopes. And it determined that when people talk, the very molecules of water respond to the nature of the speech. When it is kind, soft words, the molecules arrange themselves in placid, relaxed, calm formations. And when the words are angry and harsh, the molecules get agitated. There is a certain environment that is created. So where do we see the power of Dbor? The power of speech in these parios. Well, let's look at the very beginning of the para. The very beginning of the first of the two parios paras matis talks about a very interesting institution called making the darim or making oaths making shuos. You can make a shva you can make a narr. What is the difference between a nether and a shva? So really the gammorra in nadar we actually have two track dates on this. We have a track date about not not the holiday but the uh making an oath and we haveim which is about making vows. So the English translation is a net is a vow a shua is an oath but that doesn't really tell you what the difference is. So the garra inim explains that it's ultimately a matter of nomenclature which is not so important for our purposes and that is a shua uh is based on you make a shua I make a shua by god's name that I will I will not eat chocolate that's called even before brisk kind of stole this terminology that's called isrogra the person makes an is on himself I will not eat Chocolate ne is connected to the object. Chocolate either this chocolate or all chocolate is forbidden to me. That's called okay but for our purposes uh the difference inva is not so important because the one thing the Torah says is whether you make a net or a shva you have to keep it you have to obey it. And then there's a procedure that a husband can enul the vows of his daughter single daughter and a I'm sorry husband can can enol the vows of his wife a father can enol the vows of his daughter and in addition there's a procedure of going to a bin as we do in rashana and get anulment of the vowsim that's called and the anulment of husband or father is called two different practices and Again there are a lot of details uh how old uh is the daughter can only be a father can only mater or mayfair the daughter of his daughter until she is 12 and a half not 12 12 and a half uh etc. And both the husband and the father can only do it on the day that they heard the net. So that means if they hear it one minute before sunset they only have one minute. If they heard it right after sunset, they have 24 hours. Different different. Yeah, the are interesting, but for our purposes, I just want to take out one thing. If a person makes a net or a shva that they're not going to eat apples, that apple becomes as bad as a piece of pork. Eating an apple, which is totally kosher. When you made a or not to eat the apple, you are over on do not desecrate your words and a positive commandment. Everything that comes out of your mouth you have to obey. Now this is extraordinary because essentially what God has delegated to a human being is through the power of your speech you can create new prohibitions. That's a very godlike function because normally we say that if something is kosher or trafe that's a spiritual reality right it damages your soul etc. So what gives me the power to create new spiritual realities? What gives me the power to declare that this apple is going to be mazik is going to damage my hashem gave me that power. Isn't that exemplary of the fact that debor is so powerful that it creates new spiritual realities? That's a very important lesson that you derive from ne and shva the kak of the dbor to create functions that are normally reserved only to god himself the ability to create new laws new prohibitions. So that's one example of the kayak. There's another example of the kayak which actually comes from the second of the two par which is the last para in the book of midbar masai. And there the Torah describes in great detail the idea of the ear mikl. What is the miklot? The city of refuge and that is if somebody kills inadvertently not on purpose but by accident but there was some n carelessness. It was a totally unavoidable accident. You don't go to the midbud. But if you were negligent, you didn't look both ways. You were throwing something out of your house that hit somebody. So there's a provision where you are given protection to go to designated cities, a total of six main cities and 42 subsidiary cities. We'll talk about the difference shortly. And that protects you from the Goel Hadam, the blood avenger, who is allowed to kill you. But you know, if you step outside of that city, now technically the cities have a 2,000 AMA radius around them that you're still a protected area. But if you step outside of that 2,000 AMA radius, the Goel Hadam has permission to kill you without going to court. The goam can kill can kill you. So the purpose of the year miklot is to give you protection from the gohadam and to also be an atonement. So even if you're rich and you can hire your private security guards. Let's say a person would say I don't want to go to the mikl I want to stay home and I'll hire security guards or I'll get my own gun you know and fight the gadam off. You don't have that choice. So so really miklad have two distinct functions. They have a function of protection and they also have a function of atonement. You see if it if it would only be protection theoretically I would have the right to say I don't need that protection. I'll do my own protection. But if it's an atonement you have to go. This is your onesh. The onesh for even unintentional homicide is miklat if you were negligent. By the way, Labavi uh points out that the closest we have to prison in the Tyra to jail in the Tyra is Mikla. Jail is not a normal punishment. Now, it's not really jail. You're in a city, but you're not allowed to leave that city until the Cohen Guttle dies. Uh but it is the closest we have to a confined environment. So, the Rebi pointed out a typical prison today is an extremely negative influence for a person. An 18-year-old goes to prison because he stole a car. So who is he surrounded with? He's surrounded with criminals who may be a lot worse than him. And what happens? He learns from them. He becomes like them. And that is why what is called the recidivism rate. Meaning once you were in prison, how likely is it that you're going to come back? Is extremely high. It's like 85% of people in prison the first time are going to come back again and again and again and again. Sometimes you see I you see these 95 year old guys who have been in prison for 65 years. There are such things they get released at 95. You think they want to go? They don't want to go. They beg. They beg. You know, let me just stay here. What is a 95 year old guy who hasn't been outside for 60 years supposed to do with his life? Okay. It's almost like a jennam on top of the the gehenn. Okay. So the Rebi pointed out that the prison system takes a person who committed one thing and puts them in a totally corrupt and denigrating environment. Now by an Miklut you have to know all of the AR mikluts were not just people who killed Bash. They are Levite cities. They are the cities that were given to Levim. The Levim are the teachers of Torah of Kali Israel. So what is the Torah teaching me by Mikl that if you were callous and you were indifferent and you didn't care enough about your actions. So as a result you killed somebody because you weren't looking both ways. You need to learn the value of life. You need to learn to care about people more. So where do we put you? We don't put you with a bunch of bums. We put you in a holy environment, an environment of Torah, an environment of mitzvah. And that's what the air mikllet is. So the rebi was suggesting that the prison system needs to somehow be connected with educational programs with positive influences with role models one way or the other. And in that way it can be a an avenue of rehabilitation and not just um not just throwing people with the dregs of society and going to make them worse and worse. So that's the air mikl. Now how long does a person stay in the air miklat? So it's a very strange sentence. Uh a person stays in the miklat until the cohain god doll dies. Now that is an indeterminate sentence. If you go to the year mikllet and the cohen guttle dies one day later you are free. If he dies 50 years later you were there for 50 years. And if you died before the Cohen guttle, you are buried in the air mikla and the body is not moved until the coen guttle dies later. A very strange sentence. You remain until the death of the coen because the death of the coen guttle is the atonement. So the garra says, the Mishna says rather that as a result the mothers of the cohen guttles used to bring care packages of food to the rosim in the air mikl in order that the rokim should not pray to hashem that the cohen guttle dies because if I'm in the mikllet and I'm not able to to move I have to stay there so I would like the coen guttle to die. So I'll pray to hashem that the coen guttle would die. So as a result, the mothers would bribe them with food packages. So the rose is not going to pray. How can I pray? This sweet old lady brought me chocolate chip cookies. I'm not going to pray that her son uh should should die. So the garra then asked the kasha, it's mashma that if they would pray the prayer might be effective because otherwise why do they have to be bribed? Why should the prayer be effective? The coing god all didn't do anything wrong. If you pray that a righteous person should die, why would your prayer even be effective? This is the Gomorrah's question. So the Gammorra's answer is the Coen Guttle is not an innocent person. The Coen Guttle as spiritual leader of the generation had a responsibility to pray that these tragedies would not occur under his watch. And if he didn't pray sufficiently, he is now vulnerable to the prayers of the road that God should punish him because the Cohen guttle had an aayot. The Cohen guttle had a responsibility to pray that these tragedies shouldn't happen. Now let's think about this for a moment. These tragedies, the deaths of people that occasion going to the Mikwat, these are not acts of God like tsunamis, like volcanoes in which you could pray, "Please, Hashem, don't bring the tsunami." This comes from human carelessness. People go through a red light. They don't look both ways. They throw junk out of their roof. What is the Cohen guttle supposed to pray? I pray to Hashem that people should be more careful. I pray to Hashem that people should look both ways. I pray to Hashem that people shouldn't go over the speed limit. There's a problem with that. Everything is in the hands of heaven except the decision to fear God. You can't pray to God that somebody shouldn't desecrate Shabas. You can't pray to God that somebody should be a more careful driver because that is up to their choices. So what is the Cohen Guttle expected to pray for since the these tragedies happen because of human free will? So some learn based on the taka that the power of prayer is so great that prayer can even override somebody else's free will. The says I can pray that somebody do chuva. I can pray that that hashem should cause somebody to be righteous. How can I pray that somebody should be righteous? Isn't that up to them? The answer is yes. But the is so strong that it can override that. This is amazing. And this is not so pett. I'm going to give you some sources that move in the opposite direction. But the says beish you can pray to override free will in the world. And that's what the cole could have done. Now the is there is a marsh in Brahos that actually says the opposite. uh even though he he doesn't answer the question that he asked and that is this is the famous Gumorrah about Rabi Mayor and his wife Burya who's a very learned woman that there were certain evildoers that Rabi Mayor wanted to pray that Hashem should kill them and Burya his wife said it says into sins should vanish from the world not sinners so instead of praying praying that they should die, you should pray that they do chuva, which is exactly what the said you can do. The marsh asks the kasha, the marsh asks the kasha, how can you pray that somebody does chuva? Whether they do chuva is up to them. Everything is in the hands of heaven except your mind. Now the mushi doesn't answer the question. So but but nevertheless you see that the Marsha actually says felah cannot interfere with free will but the actually says yes. Now Rebel Yoshif when he learned this sya kind of gave an interesting middle approach which makes a lot of sense. He said when I pray that somebody should do chuva I'm not praying that God should make them do chuva. That's up to them. Totally up to them. But I am praying that he should put into their lives different types of experiences and people that can inspire you because that's true. In every every life there are certain people that we meet there are certain experiences that we have that make that can make and do make a tremendous impression on us. In fact, I know I mean working with college students and the like, you know, why did this guy become from and this guy didn't become from why did this guy come to Erit Israel and not this guy. So, everybody has a story. Well, I happened to meet I was in a store and I happened to meet this rabbi or this rabbitson and the other guy didn't. Now, why that's so is a mystery only Hashem knows. Why one guy had the encounter and the other guy didn't have the encounter. Some say it's because the great grandmother of the guy that had the encounter thought about her great-grandchild when she was lighting Shabbaz candles 150 years ago. I mean the power of prayer there. But Revelash says even if you can't dab that somebody does chuva that's up to them but you can dab that God will give them the experiences that'll be them to do chuva. Be it as it may this is what you see from the Coen guttle. The coen guttle is expected to pray that people change their behaviors either like the kazinish in a direct way hashem should make them better drivers or in an indirect way send them the experiences that'll give them a greater sense of by the way there's another way of looking at it maybe the cohen guttle could pray the following uh even if he can't pray that the drivers be safer he could pray there shouldn't be any kids on the road when he's going over the speed limit. That that's a different way. Meaning you're not praying leg the perpetrator. You're praying that the victim shouldn't be around when he's driving. That would be actually a simpler answer uh than even than even uh rebel yash. Be it as it may, these are two examples where we see the power of prayer, the kayak of and here I want to share with you another uh of of a different Marsha. The Gomorrah gives a story uh and however you understand the story it mentions that a certain town was terrorized by a sevenheaded monster demon. Okay, literally not literally we don't know but it was very very dangerous demon and people were scared to leave their house. So uh one of the Amarayam said when Rabibi who was a great saddic comes to town nobody should offer him hospitality so he'll be forced the monster occupied an abandoned building when it was off the street. So nobody should offer Rabbe hospitality so he'll be forced to sleep in that ruin and when he'll encounter the monster he'll know how to get rid of it. So Rabibi shows up to town. Nobody gives him any hospitality. So he has to dwell in this abandoned building and this monster comes and uh Rabibi uttered certain tilos and every cut off a head of the monster till the monster was totally killed and the town was redeemed from the monster. So Rabibi the next day was very upset. Rabibi went to the person and said you know I could have died there. You put me in a dangerous situation. I could have been killed. So the person said, I trusted you. I knew you were so righteous nothing would happen to you. And that's what thear says. I'm so inkus that I knew nothing would happen to you. Okay. But Mar a different even if because of Rabib's great righteousness, nothing would happen to him. Lisa, he killed this demon by a miracle. And there is a rule that when you benefit from miracles that comes out of your olhaba meaning when hashem saves you in a normal way that's physical that doesn't affect your aba but supernatural miracles that is otherworldly that takes away from so even if I know is going to be zok it's still not fair to put him through this because you're diminishing his haba that's the marsh kasha so here is what The Marsha says, the Marsha says that this is not called benefiting from a miracle because since it came through prayer, anything that comes through prayer is not considered a miracle. It is considered to be nature is the nature of the world that prayer has this immense power and therefore he doesn't lose his maba because the n came through. This is very reminiscent of another and this story I know is apocryphal. story is actually I'll tell you ahead of time not true. So please don't write me that it's not true. Uh but it is a great story and my my shittita is I tell stories even if they're false if if they make a good point because it does make a good point. Uh the apocryphal story is that after the gerbbe got smuggled out of the um out of the wars ghetto so uh he was brought to London. Now that's the part already which may not be true. He was brought to London temporarily till he came to Erit Israel and uh Winston Churchill was informed that a holy rabbi of the Jews is in London. He wanted to meet the Grebbi for a braha or whatever whatever it was. So the story goes the Grebby meets Winston Churchill and Churchill says this is actually during the bombing of the the Nazi bombing of London and uh he asked the rebby how do we how do we merit victory here? How do we get out of this dark dark situation? So the Rebi said, "Do you want the miraculous way or the natural way?" So he said, "Uh, first give me the miraculous way and then we'll talk about the natural way." Says, "The miraculous way is you get your army and your navy together and you fight the Nazis. That would be a miracle because they're more powerful than you and you don't really have any way to win, but that would be the miracle." Says, "What's the natural way? Take out the book of Psalms and pray to Hashem. That's going to be the normal way of of victory and that's mish what the marshall says. Um I also want to say one more thing about miklat before I go to my final point. So I'm moving back and forth between miklat and the power of speech and all of these things because miklat itself illustrates the power of speech in terms of the prayer of the ken guttle. But to go back a little bit about miklat and the power of death and life in the hands of the tongue. Um all of you of course um heard of the great Raaran Cutler. Raaran Cutler was a great Russia at a very young age at the age of 22 already in Europe. He was a great Russa and he came to America during World War II and uh for the whole duration of the war he was totally occupied in trying to save people from the Holocaust. He really did not get involved in even starting Yoshiva till after the war was over. But then he started a yeshiva first in white plains New York for a very brief time then eventually to Lakewood and that of course became BMG the famous base medavoa in Revron's lifetime it was relatively small uh and it was very hard to get into it wasn't so easy to get into now liquid is kind of uh either liquid or mere makus are the two largest yeshivos yes in the world but in the early years cutler did not live in Lakewood. Ravaran lived in Borough Park and he only came to Lakewood for Shabas. And it's a little strange. Raarin gave his sheir on Shabas. >> Now Raaran's sheir was extraordinarily complicated. Very very complicated. He also spoke very fast because his mind was extremely fast and his speech was not so so clear. So you have a triple whammy an extraordinarily complicated shear speaks very fast does not articulate uh words with very great clarity and it's on chabas people cannot write people cannot record etc and the shar was also a long sh like two three hours so that's why the people who went to lakewood in those days were very very big mitsuyanim but during the week uh he was largely in bora park but not really in borak because he spent a lot of his time collect collecting money. He went to many, many cities in the United States to collect money. And in those days, we're talking about the very late 40s and the 1950s, people did not really see the even Orthodox people did not always see the importance of learning and yeshivas. So they would give him a dollar. They would give him, you know, very very little. And he would go from place to place to place to place, hours and hours and hours and hours collecting money. And he always did it besafos. He did it in a pleasant way because he understood that this was a great mitzvah of building Torah. But he was once in Miami and he's with a Talmet who's helping him collect money and um a woman is in a hotel and a woman comes into the elevator uh not dressed not dressed so wearing a bathing suit and that broke Ravaran. Ravar who was able to be soel all of the insults and the like he started crying he started crying I mean not not to embarrass her he wasn't embarrassed to himself he started crying that why did hashem you see how you see how sadic thinks the hours that he spent doing all this that didn't bother him he said that's the way this hashem but when he's forced to confront this type of prius that broke him he started crying and the tomet started crying as well not because of the prius The Thomas cried because he saw Raarin in such s and he finally said to him, "Rabbi, I don't understand you. You're such a you're such a god. You're such a sadic. Why does Hashem make you go through these humiliations, go through this embarrassment? You could be learning, you could be teaching, you could be writing swarm and instead you're spending the whole day going through house to house to house in Miami and in Chicago and Los Angeles getting a little bit here and a little bit there with the insults and the bizos and people giving you speeches how America doesn't need yeshivos that belong to Europe. I mean that was part of what Dravarin was getting as well. And this is what Davaran said. Listen to this. Raaran said that you know when you go to an Miklat because you killed somebody that's called gull in fact the language of kazal the whole peric in the second peric of makos that deals with ar mikl is called alohan the following people go into exile that's the person who kills bashik so the punishment for unintentional negligent homicide is exile So Raarin said every Rebi who teaches Tyra in some ways may be an unintentional murderer. Unintentional because the Rebi didn't intend to murder anybody. But perhaps there was a harsh word. Perhaps there was an insult. Perhaps there was a humiliation. Perhaps there was just an omission of lack of caring. And that breaks a person. that can destroy a person in some ways that is called murdering a person. So the reason why rash yeshiva have to go into exile they wander from place to place to place is because a rashisha will often be a roak bishogate who needs to go into gullis and since the rashiva is the representative of the whole yeshiva so the rashiva's gullus is even for every individual rebi so even if the roshiva didn't do it but if some individual rebi did it so the rashisha becomes A shal that's a remarkable statement. Every teacher is potentially a murderer. Not be amazed, not be amazed. No, they're not malicious. We're not malicious. But by carelessness, by not thinking, by not looking at how the words could pick somebody up, build them up instead of destroying them. And this is both by commission and omission. meaning to say the harsh words that we do say or even if we didn't do that the kind words that we didn't say that's also considered this is what said now the the final thing I wanted to to share with you is this the second para is a listing of the 42 stops that the Jewish people made 42 stops from the That's that actually that actually counts the point of departure from Ramsees. From Ramses to Arvosmo are 42. Arvos Mo, the plains of Moab is east of the uh yard and that's where we're and after Moshe dies, we're going to cross the yard at the point that is called Arvos Mov. So there are 42 stops in that journey. So Mitsim to Erit Israel stops in Cabala there's a very deep association that the journey from Egypt to where it's Israel is a metaphor or a mush for the journey of the soul till it reaches the promised land which is the land of life which is maba and it's a long journey. It's a journey through deserts, through dangers, through snakes, through scorpions. And in terms of how it applies to us, life is filled with challenges, dangers, things that can drag us down in terms of our morality, in terms of so we're going through a desert. until we reach eret Israel which in terms of our spiritual life is ultimately holah it's the journey it is the sojourn of the soul right the soul now here is the interesting idea 42 let's go back to miklad for a moment how many are mikllet are there so in truth there's a total of 48 are a miklat. All 48 of them are Levite cities, but the 48 are divided into two groups. There is six which are we'll call them the six main cities. By the way, is one of those cities and then there's 42 secondary cities. What is the difference between the six primary cities and the 42 secondaries? I mean they're all miklat. So what what exactly is the difference? So the garra in makos says the following. The garra in makos says the six primary cities protect you even if you didn't know you were in any let's imagine a person kind of wanders around the middle of the night and he doesn't even know where he is but he wanders into an air mlot. He's he's guilty of killing, right? He's running away from the Goan, but he doesn't know where the Miklat is. So, he's just wandering and he seeks refuge in a city, not even knowing it's in your mikl, but it happens to be in your mikl. And the goalam goes after him and kills him. Assuming all of this can be proven, I'm not sure how it would be proven, but even if it could be proven, even if the goalam can prove this guy didn't know he was in a near mikvah, the person is stillly protected and the goal will be tried as a murderer. Those are the six cities. Mashen if he wanders inadvertently into the other 42. So if he knows he's in an air again I don't know how this is going to be proven but if he knows he's in an air mikl then he is protected and if the goladam is not allowed to kill him and if he kills him he will be tried as a murderer. But if the goal ladam could show this guy didn't know where he was then in such a situation the city does not protect him and the galadam has the right to kill him. So you see the difference. The six primary cities provide protection even without knowledge. The 42 secondary cities only provide protection with knowledge and forethought. So here is what we say. protects you from people who want to murder you, people who want to destroy you. So in the sojourn that we have from birth which is right we leave the womb to olabah remember the journey of the Jews from mitim to Israel is a parallel to the journey of the soul from birth to death to the 42 stops correspond to the 42 two secondary or mikla that the way we navigate through the desert of our lives is that God gives us places of refuge where we can focus concentrate meaning different experiences a schol yeshiva based a Jewish home these are like mikla that's why the metaphor uses the number 42 because that does correspond to the ar mikl And we view the makcomos of holiness in our lives as cities of refuge that will protect us from the destructive forces of the world. Whether it's a yeshiva, whether it's a colo, whether it's a bkesset or whether it's a seminary, whether it's a Jewish home, which is actually the highest level of basikt. That's why it correlates to 42. The 42 stops correlate to the 42 or mikl. But why do we? And that's how you navigate the desert. Life is a cruel, dangerous desert with or miklot in the middle to protect you from spiritually destructive forces. Now, why do we use 42 rather than 48? Why why am I only using in this metaphor the 42 cities? The answer is if you want to be protected by the spirituality in your life, it can't be through inadvertence and just going through the motions. You need thought, you need intentionality. You need to consciously think, I want to be protected by my Torah, by my mitzvah, by my kaduca, by my bias, by my yeshiva. The other six are not going to help you. The notion of automatic protection. Oh, I'm hanging around yeshiva. I'm automatically going to be okay. Not true. The goadams can still get you. The murderous snakes can still attack you. You have to have kavana. You have to have intentionality. And that is why the 42 stops parallel the 42 are a miklut and they represent symbolically that the kaduca in my life is like an ear mikl but it's like the ear ml of the 42 not of the six that they require a conscious intentionality. So here the aparov again this is uh the second time I'm mentioning the tonight uh offers a very beautiful analogy to keshma. He points out that one of the great great protections uh to my spirituality is literally the recitation of Schma, the unity of God. And he points out that in looking at the first paragraph are six words and they correspond to the six primary is not part of although we say it it's not part of it's Moshe got it from the angels in heaven. So in the Torah right after is so va until the end of that paragraph happens to be 42 words. So he says you got the six and you got the 42. But why are they separated? Why do you first have the six and then the 42? Why don't you just have one paragraph of 48? So he says like this. He says via which talks about loving God and the like. In order to do that you have to have conscious conscious intention. I want to love God. So therefore the second paragraph is referring to the notion of a bala a person inem who consciously strives to serve God and that gives him protection in this world. uh just going through life by accident without thinking without intention is not going to protect you. But the first six words of Schma refer to what we call the pinty the indestructible essence within every Jew that no matter how far he is from God there is in his core something that he's not even aware of not even aware of that can ultimately bring him to a higher level. So therefore we differentiate uh on one hand the normal shmeir that god gives us depends on our intention but there is a certain aspect of the Jew that can never be destroyed and that's hashu again if I could just end with with one misa with raarin you know during the war as I mentioned during world war ii raarin was not ice in building yeshiva he was ice in saving including people. He worked day and night to try to get people out of Europe, get them papers, get them visas, uh bribe bribe officials if necessary. And Ravarin had no hesitation that he would do this even on Shabas. He took many many train I don't know about many but there were a number of times he took trains on Shabas to go to Washington to meet with government officials. Now Ravarin didn't know English. So the person he would he went with was a very very well-known American layman who was very beloved to Revarin. This is Irving Bunham. Irving Bunham uh yeah was one of the great great ascanim in America. In fact his son Amos wrote a beautiful biography of of his father that's worthwhile to read. And Irving Bunam in truth was also as he wrote a beautiful uh three volumes on Perkyos ethics from Sinai. needs to to look at that but he was Ravarin's muraman he was Ravarin's interpreter in fact Irving Buddham tells an interesting story one time on tishab they were going to Washington and tishab and raarin said to Irving bunam you're going to be talking to government officials it's a matter of puh for Israel you have to be at your best he said to bonham have some cake eat something because you're not going to be at your best if you're hungry so bunam said, "No, Rebe, I'm okay. I I I I can talk. I don't need to eat." Okay. So, they went, they did their talked. Then, they're coming back at the at the back to New York in the afternoon. And Buunam is totally exhausted with this. So, Bunam says, "You know, Rebei, if the offer uh still stands, I could really use something now." Surv says each you know just like he says he says when you had to do you know you know I'm not gonna may have even been meaning that wasn't even that but he says you know I'll give you all the coolest in the world in order to do your once the is over who cares it's a fast day no no breaks for you there uh but the story goes that um they were meeting with the secretary of the treasury who was Henry Morganthow Henry Morganthow uh I believe he even married a non-Jewish woman, but he was from a German, highly assimilated German family, you know, reformed, you know, totally assimilated, no connection to orthodoxy. Um, and as you know, if you know your American Jewish history, a lot of these assimilated German families often look down at the Polish and Russian Jews as, you know, not being fancy enough or there was a lot of tension. Uh but be it as it may, uh Bunam presents the case for uh different things that the Treasury Department do releasing money to because again there were big problems. See, okay, it's a complicated situation, but part of it was that there were Nazis that would take bribes and release Jews in exchange for bribes. But those bribes were against American law because it was giving aid to the enemy. So in order to be able to make the transfers, you needed government permission. and Morgan Zar didn't want to break the rules, etc. And he said, "Can't do it. Uh, I would get in trouble, etc." So, Bunim was telling Ravarin he doesn't want to do it. So, Ravarin says, "Tell Morganthou, tell Morgan thou," he says in Yiddish, "that it seems that he cares more about his job than his people and he's only thinking about keeping his hush of a position." So Bunham did not want to say that to Morgan because he felt it would make Morgan upset. So he said something like uh you see the rabbi is very upset here. Perhaps we can reconsider. And Raarin knew even though he didn't know English he knew that Bunam didn't say what he said. So he pulls Bunam's coat and he says tell him exactly what I said what I said. So didn't want to say it, but he says to Morgan though he says well the rabbi says that you care more about your job than you care about your people. And Buunam told the story that Morgan thou took off his glasses and he put his head on his hands, leaned to the to the desk and for a whole minute then he lifted up his head, put on his glasses and says, "Tell the rabbi that not only do I care about my people, not only would I give up my job if it would make a difference, I would die to save the Jews from this Holocaust." And indeed they created a war refugee board. This was towards the end of the war so it it didn't save that many people and had it been done earlier it could have been much better. But there was there was towards the endah of a number of Hungarian Jews in particular and this is through Morgan thou intervention to legitimate and give waiverss to what this did. So this is the pinty and the balatana writes this He says the ballet says that sometimes a Jew who is so far from Yiddish so far from Yiddish will give his life for the Jewish people and even for God even for God because there is something in them that may be so covered up and so deep that they're not even aware of but ultimately it will come out in extreme circumstances. The pintion and the says that is six words the mikl the place of refuge where the tormented soul that's being affected by the desert and by the snakes gets its refuge and that can even be a person who's not aware of it that is collet that protects even without even without kabana so this is also the is ultimately of abas is how do You love a Jew who is so far from Torah and mitzvos, who is so far from what we recognize as the right way of life. Can such a person be lovable? Can I love such a person? The answer is yes. Not that it's always going to be easy, but the answer is yes. Because even in such a Jew, there is an uncorruptible essence. And as the Balatana says, you can hate the evil that people do, but at the same time, you love the good that is within them. And indeed, there is that good. So, as we approach a and tishab, may we be z to grow and see the good in every every Jew that we encounter. You see your body