Rav Yitzchak Breitowitz: REBORN into a NEW LIFE by Obliterating our Egotism

You see your tomorrow [Music] Okay. Well, thank you. Thank you for for coming. And uh first uh as always, we pray for the victory of the in all the fronts of the war, excuse me, the lasting unity of AmIrael and all those whose health has been affected by the war and of course for the safe return of the remaining hostages. Rafua Schlma Abram Mendel Ben Sorah Hudel Aliatn Shama in memory of Irina Kazanovich Esther Basnakman on her first yard site. Uh this is the mother of Nina Bernstein in memory of Rafaim Schirtz who I actually knew. He was the longtime Rav in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Very of a person, very fine person. Elazar bin Mosha on his seventh yard site and Ba Thomas by Sarakori. and in memory of Rifka Matel Fega Bataravi Yoshua Sender Yitz Khvi Daphnner Prince's maternal grandmother and in memory of Binyamin Israel bin Schlommo Halevi and his fourth yard site Yot Thomas the son of Carol and Ronald Ger again it's hard to believe that's been four years but we still remember Binyamin fondly uh finally an anonymous contribution was made for the of all of uh hostages to return safe once again. Hashem's protection of all of Kali Israel for the gulma and finally dedication by Aaron Goldin a braha for spiritual and material success health and all good brahot for um Israel. You know uh we had a an unusual beginning to this year. I was mammish up to the entrance and all of a sudden there was something going on and I I didn't even think that it was anything because how could it be anything? Every all this is over already. And yet it was yet another missile. Bar Hashem successfully intercepted. But part of what's going on here is Hashem says never take anything for granted. You know, we sometimes think, oh, I needed God's protection a week ago and those other days, but now Barack Hashem, I can go back to normal. I don't have to think about, you know, I'll pull out the prayers when I need to pray, but thank God, life is normal. Uh, now this may either drive you crazy or maybe give you reassurance, but the short answer is life is never normal. Every single second, we need Hashem's mercy. And when life is peaceful and nothing is happening, that's also because Hashem is protecting us. It's not like a default setting where it just happens. And every once in a while lets something through just to alert us that we still have to be connected to Hashem in mitzvos and all of the good ways that we connect to akadeshu. So in a sense this was a little bit of a message from aeshbu via the rishim the houthis down in Yemen that don't take things for granted. Don't take life for granted. Don't take security for granted. Know that we always need Hashem's. And remember, look at what we say in Davening three times a day. If you ding three times a day in we thank God for the miracles that he does for us every single day. Every single day is a miracle. It may not look like the Red Sea, but if we can get through a day and we're safe and our children are safe, our loved ones are in a good place, it was a miracle of Hashem that it happened. And one has to feel that way literally every single time. So that's I think is kind of the message that this very unexpected attack at least from our perspective um made us made make us realize. Okay. So now we go to the uh to the para and of course uh this para has many many things in fact it's interesting this para covers a span of 38 years interestingly enough because by the uh the week before korak hashem decreed that the van Israel would wander in the desert for 40 years that's counting from mitim and since the sin of the spies was a year and a half into it there's another 38 and a half years of wandering that is going to take place. Paratukas begins together with Korak shortly after the sin of the Moraglin. But by the end of the para, we're already in the 40th year. Meaning it skips over quite a lot of time because when Moshu Rabenu hits the rock, which is at the end of the para, that's already in year 40 of the desert, right? So para skukat is a major transition because essentially it covers 38 and a2 years but once again in terms of events not too much is recorded about those 38 1/2 years. It's mostly undocumented time right so it kind of skips from uh year year two of the desert to year 40 in the desert. But the para begins with a very very famous mitzvah because this is considered to be famous by reason of its enigmatic nature and that is the mitzvah of the red hepher the pyra aduma. And what is the red hepher? You find a cow that is red. Now for many years when I was a kid I always thought you were looking for a fire engine red which is pretty hard to find. I said well I said well that's fine. That's why paradum is so rare. Where are you going to find a fire engine red? But let me assure you that the Torah does not mean by red the color of a fire engine. Rather, the the red is actually a fairly common color for cows. It is simply the reddish brown that many cows have. And the rarity of paradum is not because the color is so unique, but because it has to be one virtually 100% red. Kazal allow based on their interpretation up to one non- red hair like one black hair one white hair if there's already two the par aduma gets disqualified so you can imagine how difficult it is to examine it somebody has to sit down and the cow may not be so cooperative and kind of you know inch by inch by inch or millimeter by millimeter by millimeter and that's the parad as you may know uh there are various groups particularly within the Christian church that are trying to raise paradumas and of course in consultation with rabbis and uh there are many many hakas the halos of paraduma are extremely complicated number one they have to have the color number two it has to be below a certain age once it's more than two years old uh it's no good uh number three if any work was done with it if it ever pulled to plow or whatever it is. No good. And that could include even a very minor thing such as if while I'm milking the the the cow I throw my jacket let's say over the top of the cow's body that may possum you see because that's considered to be doing work with it. So the requirements are very very meticulous. But what why? Well, before we get to the why, what does paraduma do? So, it's a purification ritual. Uh, and it's a purification ritual only for a very specific type of impurity. And that is the impurity that one contracts by coming in contact with a dead body. The Torah says, in fact, in this para, it says that if I come in contact with a dead body, and by contact I mean three different ways. There are three different methods of contact with a dead body. One is to physically touch a dead body. That's called maga. Not to be confused with Donald Trump's uh maga, but it's the same really the same pronunciation virtually. Uh the second is if I move a dead body, even though he didn't touch it. So for example if the body is in a bag a body bag and I move the body bag either by pulling or even on a wagon uh I become tame ritually impure uh and that's called masa carrying or moving. And the third is uh actually the most difficult to avoid and that's I'm under a common roof. If there's a dead body in this room and I'm in the room, even if I didn't touch the body, even if I didn't move the body, I am tame because I am under the same roof. That is called the tuma of oh, being under the same tent. And an Oel could be anything. An O could be a roof. An Oel could be the branches of a tree that are overhanging. Right? That's why you'll find outside of cemeteries in Israel if there's a tree that overhangs a grave and uh the street it'll say kohanim are not allowed to walk or drive under that extension because they're sharing a common roof. This is even a problem with uh with airplanes uh that uh fly over graves or or airplanes that carry that carry dead bodies because you're sharing a common roof of the airplane with him. Now what does the Torah say? If a person contracts impurity tuma by one of these three methods they are tame for seven days. Now what does it mean to just again just to put this in perspective what does it mean to be tame? What's the big deal if I'm tame? So the truth of the matter is in many many areas of Jewish life being tame makes no difference. I go to shaw I go to yeshiva I dabin I do mitzvot being tame does not exclude me in any way. Kohanim have a prohibition against becoming tame. That's true if you're a co. If you're not a culling, you can be tom. It's not a particular problem. But the laws of tuma do have one particular application and that is a person that's to is not allowed to go to the basa mikdash or the mishkan and is not allowed to eat corbanos the meat of corbanos or to eat if you're going to eat shuma. So the truth of the matter is the laws of being tame are primarily connected and we we'll explain why this is so are primarily connected to the basa mikdash meaning you could be tame as much as you want if you're not connected to the basa mikdash and you're not a co who has a special prohibition against so once I'm t I remain tame forever and ever and ever unless I engage in purification rituals that can take me out of the state of tame and bring me into the state of Tor for tumat for the tuma that you contract by virtue of of the contact with the dead there are two different purification rituals you have to go through and you're not toar unless you go through both of these rituals ritual number one is you must be sprinkled with a mixture of water, spring water and the ashes of the paraduma sprinkled. All you need is one drop that hits you and you do that on day three and on day seven. So let let's take an example where a person became tame on Sunday right I touched a dead body or I went into a cemetery on Sunday. So Sunday is day one. Day three of my tuma is Tuesday. So on Tuesday I got to get sprinkled with the paraduma water. That's day three. Now day four is Wednesday. Day five is Thursday. Day six is uh Friday. Day seven is shabas. It happens to be a problem here because rebbitically you don't do paradum on chabas but in you do. So I'll just keep it simple with the Torah. So on Shabas I get sprinkled the second time. So I was sprinkled on day three and I was sprinkled on day seven. Then after my second sprinkling I then go to the mikvah. And when nightfall uh comes meaning after Shabbas I now become to. Okay. So to summarize, there's really three steps in the purification process. Step one is to be sprinkled on day three and day seven. Step two is to go to the mikvah on day seven. Step three is automatic. The setting of the sun or technically the emergence of the stars makes you toar. When those three things have taken place, I leave the state of tuma and I enter the state of and now I can go to the basa mikdash. I can eat corbanos. I can do everything. Now today we do not have the ritual of paradum. Today we have mikvah but we don't have the ritual of paraduma. So that actually means anyone that's ever been in a cemetery even if the last time was you know 50 years ago we are still in a state of tumat met and I don't want to get into the controversy but this is the primary issue of why many uh authorities do not allow people to go on the harat. Now it's a little complicated because the outer part of the harabayat is technically not the temple grounds but certainly there are going to be parts of the harabayat that have the status of the beta mikdash and uh since I'm because I don't have paradum I wouldn't be allowed to enter any area that has the status of the beta mikt right so until we have paraduma there's no way I could become now there is a certain catch 22 here because in order to prepare the paradum, you have to have people that are to. Now, that's a real problem. You see, in the olden days, the way it worked was when it was time to prepare a new paradum, there were still some ashes left over from the old paraduma. So, what would happen would be the people who needed to prepare the new paradum would be purified from any tuma and then they could prepare a new paradum. But today, think about this. Let's imagine, you know, the Christians are right, right? That they they have a real paradum and it's totally kosher and they're so excited because that means Mashiach is coming. Well, you got a real problem. Yeah, I have a paradum, but there's nobody that's pure who's able to prepare the paradum. You see the problem? So, there's nothing we can do with it. You see? So how so how are you going to resolve that? How you going to resolve that problem? Meaning how can we ever have a paradum if everybody is considered to be in a state of impurity if they ever were in a cemetery any time in their lives unless you find somebody who like never became tame which is unlikely. The answer is going to be that before Mashiach comes is going to come down and one of the good stuff he's going to bring is he's going to bring some old ashes from the last and he'll be able to purify a few people. You don't need a lot of people. Purify a few people. So you have your 10 or 20 people that have to be purified. they can then make a new pora aduma which will then purify the millions of Jews that have to be purified. Right? So which means essentially we are disabled from the ritual of paradum until elioani comes and brings ashes of the old paradum. In other words, the remaining residual ashes that we believe has stored up. Okay. Now parad is described by the very first words of the para zukra. This is the the English really wouldn't help you very much. It says this is the law of the Torah. But Rashi points out the word or is a very specialized term for law. It refers to laws for which there is no intelligible reason that we can give. Meaning we normally divide the Torah into and mishim are the laws of the Torah that are mysterious and inexplicable. They are not subject to rational analysis. Mishim are those laws that are readily understandable. So for example, laws that say don't kill, don't steal, don't commit adultery, they are called mishim para aduma however is called a because we really can't explain why red, why a cow, why ashes, uh why does that purify you from the dead? And remember uh just just to be sure you understand this, the ritual of paradum does not have to be performed in the temple. I mean tech in fact the Mishna there's a whole mus of Mishna about paradum it's called mas parah uh very very interesting intricate Mishna there is no gammorra on it because it's in the sixth order of the Mishna that generally has no gammorra uh but it mentions in the time of the basa mikdash the ashes were distributed to different regional purification centers throughout Israel. So a delivery would go to Tvat. A delivery might go to Bereva. So you didn't need to come to Jerusalem to get purified. Uh you could be purified anywhere. Cohen would mix the ashes with spring water and give you haz called sprinkling uh and the like. But it's called the because it's inexplicable. But the problem is okay it's inexplicable maybe but there are so many other laws that are inexplicable what is so enigmatic about paradum so here is the thing that's enigmatic what makes para aduma the par excalance is not simply the issue of we don't really know why this thing works but it's because of a paradox or contradiction that is built into the law. Meaning the the nature of paradum is in the paradox and self-contradiction that it embodies and this is encapsulated in the famous phrase. It purifies those who are impure. And those who are pure actually become contaminated by their contact with the ashes of the paraduma. What does that mean practically? That means the following. Let's assume I'm a cohen and you're tame and you're coming to be sprinkled with a mixture of the ashes and the water of the paradum. And all you need is a drop. You know, it's not like mikvah. All you need is you know that little sprinkling. Okay. So you become you know if you do it on day three and day seven and you go to the miklah this will make you pure. But I the co who transported those ashes I become tame as a result of my contact with the ashes of paradum. That's a real hoke. How can the same thing be a vehicle of purity and be a vehicle of impurity? It says kazal say that understood every single mitzvah of the Torah but once he got to paradma he saw it was a mystery and he said I see now that even what I thought I understood I didn't really understand. Now before I go further, I just want to just clarify another common misunderstanding. If it's true that everybody who handles the pure people who handle the paradum tuma uh ashes become tame, don't you have a problem that it's going to be impossible for all of Clusel to ever be in a state of purity? Because what happens? You're impure. I sprinkle you. You're pure. I'm impure. So I then get sprinkled by another guy to make me pure. But then he becomes impure. Right? So whoever the last guy is, however you define it, is going to be tame. Because if the only way he becomes to is by being sprinkled with the address of paradum, the guy that did that is going to be tame. Yeah. So the reason why that's not true is for the following consideration. The tumor of contact with paraduma is not the tumor of contact with a dead body. It's a new tumor called tuma by contact with paraduma. Tuma by contact of paraduma only requires immersion in a mikvah. It does not require somebody else to sprinkle me with the ashes of paradum. So the last guy who right the last guy who purified the next to the last guy might become tame but all he needs to do is jump into the mikvah and then he's going to become to in other words remember there are many types of tuma. If you touch dead animals you're tummy. If you if a man has a seinal emission, he's tummy. Uh a woman who is a nida in addition to the prohibition with uh husband and wife, she is ritually tummy. She can't go to the B mikdash. A woman after childbirth is tummy. But none of those tumas require paradum. Paraduma is mikvah is a necessary ritual for every single tumor. Every single category of tuma requires ultimately immersion in a mikvah for purification. But the utilization of the ashes of paraduma is a very specialized ritual. It is limited only to the tuma of mace. And therefore any tuma that's not a tuma of mace including the tuma of handling para aduma ashes does not require para aduma. Ergo, you're not going to have the problem of infinite regression. Yeah. Yeah. Question. If someone does a Tahara do a Tahara, I mean, I remember doing it for years. No one ever told me I had to go to the mik. No. No. So, let me explain something. As a matter of fact, you do have to go to the mik later. But, but but the thing is only if you wanted to go to the base of mikdash. Meaning, if you're asking me did you become tame, the answer is yeah, you did. Okay, ber. But all of us are tame because if we've been to a funeral or whatever, whatever it would be. By the way, just again, I don't want to get too technical in maybe I'm being too technical already. I just want to raise a thing. You you'll remember, this is a little bit of a brain teaser. You'll remember that I mentioned there are three ways you become tame by contact with a dead body. One is by touching the corpse, one is by moving the corpse, and the other is by being under the same roof with the corpse. Now I also said a number of times that anyone that's ever been in a cemetery is tame. Now let's examine that. Why do I become tame if I go into a cemetery? Now if there's a tree that overhangs me in the grave, I get that I'll become tame because I'm under a common roof. But if assuming there's no tree or building overhanging me, so what's the problem? In fact, why can't the coen even go into a cemetery? I mean, what's the problem? He didn't touch the corpse. He didn't move the corpse. And he's not under a common roof. So, what makes a person hakly tame when they're in a cemetery? So rabbitically for a co not you're not allowed to be within four amos of a mace because lest he comes too close. But here is why you become tame. You become tame because if you stretch your hand even or your any part of your body over the grave you yourself become the roof. Meaning the notion that if you're under the same roof as a dead body doesn't only mean a roof above me but I myself can become the tent that connects me with the dead body. Why you become tame? But theoretically if you didn't even do that you actually wouldn't become tame. So theoretically it is possible to enter a cemetery and not become tame. But most of the time we assume that you uh walked over something or you put your head over something and that will be enough to to make you uh to make you tummy. Okay. Now this is the ritual of paraduma. Now one side point when the tyra begins its discussion of paradum it says the following. This is the of the Torah. Now the question is why do you call it the of the Torah? Just say this is the of the par why do you universalize it as if there's some universal teaching here? Why is it called? So I want to give you two answers to there. There are a lot of answers. I'll give you two answers. Answer number one is from the great uh goshvitz the the great revered Roshiva of Mir and he says the reason why this is called the of the Torah is because the way you deal with shows what your attitude is towards the whole Torah. Because here's the thing. If I keep those parts of the Torah that are rational, that are sensible, that just fit with logic and reason, we don't really know. Am I truly serving God or am I simply kind of walking with God as a fellow traveler because I happen to agree with God's judgments. So, how does a person know if they truly serve God or they're simply following their personal agenda? It is by how they keep the mitzvah that don't make sense. And therefore, your attitude towards the is really your attitude towards the Torah as a whole. We extrapolate from the way you keep the things that don't fit the SA that you're truly an avid Hashem. And pointed out that human beings love to be autonomous. We love our freedom. We love our autonomy. So we're perfectly happy to obey God when what God commands us fits my autonomy. But when my autonomy is restricted by things that don't make sense, we have a natural rebelliousness. And he points out that no human being and maybe especially Jews who are explicitly described as stiff necked people, right? We have this quality of being stubborn. In many ways, it served us very very well. Very very well. On the other hand, being stubborn has its disadvantages. points out that every time we're supposed to do something that we don't want to do or that we feel someone is forcing us to do, there's a natural rebelliousness that rises. See this all the time. Let's say the husband, I'm not being autobiographical here. Husband is going to take out the garbage know to do his wife a favor in the morning. And as he's taking out the garbage, there's a voice from the other room that says, "Honey, please take out the garbage." There will be in the heart of many husbands, not me, but many husbands a little sense. I don't like to be told what to do. I was going to do it anyway, but when I do it myself, I'm a sadic. I do it because I have to do it. I don't like that so much. I don't like to be a fact. Uh there's there's a statement in the Gmorrah that's connected to this. And the statement in the Gmorrah is that he who does a mitzvah because they're commanded to do it gets more reward than a person who does a mitzvah they're not commanded to do. An example would be a man who sits in a suka gets more reward for that mitzvah than a woman who sits in a suka because women don't have to sit in the suka. So even though they get a mitzvah if they do but their reward is less because they're not commanded the man who is commanded gets greater reward. In fact the marshall says that this is the source of why we make a party when a child becomes bar mitzvah or bat mitzvah. And the reason is because until now they were doing mitzvot when they were not commanded and now they're commanded. So that's a greater thing. Now the question is this. Doesn't logic indicate the other way around? Meaning if I just do what I'm supposed to do, so why should God give me such extra credit? But if I go beyond what I have to do, I should get like time and a half for overtime. In other words, logically, if I do mitzvah I don't even have to do, but I do it. That should be deserving of more reward. Why does the Garra say the other way around? The answer because once you have to do it theor fights you on it meaning uh before you have to do it oh I love doing mitzvah once you have to do it there's something inside of you that rebels this might be one of the reasons why sometimes children after their bar mitzvah may have a little bit of a spiritual decline because it's really really great putting on fillin as a 12-year-old world as a 13-year-old when I got to do it every day, you know, not so exciting necessarily on that on that level. So, it says that's the meaning of it's the shows whether you're in Hashem. Do you do things because God commands it, not because it makes sense to you, not because you enjoy it, not because it's logical and the like. You didn't sing it. Is that what I believe? Well, that's what that's what says. He says that did not do until he was commanded because you only have one chance to do it. He wanted to do it. That's that's says okay. Now the second answer I want to give you is based on the grow the grow does not give this as an answer to this question but I'm using it as an answer to this question. The Vil Mone in Mish says an amazing thought. Everybody knows the famous teaching that Torah is compared to water. And why is Torah compared to water? Well, a lot of reasons. You know, water is necessary for life. Torah is necessary for life. Water cleanses and purifies. Uh Torah cleanses and purifies you spiritually. Uh water goes from high ground to low ground. So Torah leaves the arrogant and it goes to the humble. Right? All these are very familiar ideas of why Torah is compared to water. But the vil nagon says an absolutely amazing idea. It's so amazing that when I sometimes say this people from Lakewood or whatever say they don't believe the villagon could have said this but but he does and that is the following. Water has a capacity to facilitate growth in both a positive and negative way. If I pour water on soil. So if there's wheat seeds on the ground or beautiful flowers, the water will cause beautiful flowers or wheat to sprout up. If I p if I pour the water on poisonous weeds, it'll cause the weeds to sprout up. Water is indifferent to whether it's good or bad. Whatever is there, it will facilitate its growth. Says the vil nag. Torah is exactly that way. If a person has good midat, a person has compassion, kindness, gentility, the Torah will build on that, make it stronger. Now that's not aish I know that we would understand. But the real is the next thing. If a person has arrogance and selfishness, not only will the Torah not improve him, the Torah might make him worse. The Torah is like water. Whatever is in you gets accentuated, gets exaggerated, gets facilitated. Torah is like water. And that's why the van made the argument before Rabi Salanter that all study of Torah must be accompanied with consciously working to improve our character. Because if we don't improve our character, God forbid, the Torah could even make us worse. Now, the truth is, you do see this. If a person is arrogant, conceited, then it's entirely often going to be the case that the study of Torah where he excels could be another avenue of arrogance and ga. Now, as I say, I I don't when I'm in a group with with Lakewood people, I don't say this anymore because uh they always attack me when I mention it. But it is the vil none. And and the one thing about the vil nagon that you cannot say is that he didn't consider the learning of Torah important, right? Obviously, you can't say that. The vil nagon was a person who for much of his life learned 22 hours of Torah a day. He only slept 2 hours in a 24-hour period and those two hours were split into four portions not exceeding 30 minutes. So he was no slouch as they say. Uh he was a person who would count his bit Torah per year in terms of minutes. And of course what was his B? His B wasn't B to Torah anyway. It was whatever he answered to Shil or whatever it would be. But the vagong would say for example I this year he's doing chuva this year there were five minutes I didn't use in the proper study of Torah. So the vagan maybe more than virtually any guttle considered every second of Torah learning an absolute treasure and obligation. And yet the vag said without the Torah could actually make you worse. And the truth is this is actually a meaning in the this could actually be the meaning of a passage in the Gmorrah itself where the Gmorrah says if you merit the Torah is an elixir of life. If you don't merit the Torah can become a poison. And based on this vil nagon we understand what that means. It can poison you in that way. So now based on that vil nagon I want to suggest that this might be an answer why the paradum is described as a of the Torah because the paradox of the Torah I'm sorry the paradox of the paradum is it's a vehicle both of purity and impurity. And maybe Satra says the Torah is the same way. The Torah can bring purity to those who have midos and the Torah can bring impurity to those who don't. And therefore, the paradox of the paradum is the paradox within the Torah itself. Right? So the vil nagon does not give this as an answer but I'm using what the vagon says in mish as a answer to this question. Okay. So on one hand the paradum is described as the paradox par excalance. Um it says that even schloik the wisest of all people could not penetrate it. There actually is a medish, an enigmatic medish that says Korak understood the parajum. Okay, which is one of the reasons why he felt he was worthy of leadership because he got it. But even Mosher Rabeno may not have fully understood the paraja. Nevertheless, in spite of the fact that it is said to be enigmatic and beyond our ability, our later farm have attempted to find some understanding on some level. Not complete but partial understanding and they said the following. Let's go back once again [Applause] to why you need paradum. You need paradum because of your contact with a dead body. And the consequence of being tame is primarily not having access to the basikt and not being able to eat corbanos or sanctified things. That's why today it's not of great relevance other than going on the harabayat. Why does contact with a dead body distance me from the B mikdash? Like why what is the correlation there? So this explains the following. Originally Adam and Kava were supposed to live forever. They were created in the image of God and part of that is immortality. Just as God is forever, they would have been forever. Death came into the world because of the of the rebellion against God's one command that brought death into the world. And when Hashem said, "The day that you eat from this fruit, you shall die." And people asked the question, "Well, wait a second. They didn't die the day they ate from the fruit. Adam lived for 930 years." But the simple understanding the way the Rambam says it many mafor when it says the day that you eat from the true fruit you will die it doesn't mean you will die but it means death will be introduced as part of your matrix meaning in a sense a person starts to die the day they're born. What do they say about life? Nobody gets out of here alive, you know. It's kind of it that's what it is, you know. Uh so when it says the day that you eat from the fruit you will die, it means death becomes part of your fabric. Why is that? So so what was the of the suruk explains that the of the is is really comes from arrogance. The Nash told Kava and she told this to Adam that the day you will eat from this tree you will become like God understanding the nature of good and evil. Now whatever that means and that's a very complicated and difficult passage. The eight sadas was marketed as a god pill. take this pill and you will be God. So it wasn't the smell and it wasn't the taste and it wasn't the color. It was the arrogance of the human being assuming that they can be God. This kind of overlaps with what we talked about last week. In many many ways we are godly. We are in the image of God. We have creativity. We have autonomy. We have the ability to control and direct the forces of nature. There is much within our personalities that is powerful and awesome. But at the same time, as we mentioned last week, that could lead to arrogance and corruption. And the of the eight sadas was the attempt of the human being. The attempt to become God. And because of that, God put death into the world because immortality, I'm sorry, mortality is the ultimate reminder that as great as we are, there is an unbridgegable chasm, an unbridgegable gap between the creator and the created and that is mortality. So death came into the world not only as a punishment but death came into the world as a reminder that man is not God. You are not God. You can build bombs. You can uh create all sorts of things. You are not God because we will die. So mortality in a sense is the rectification of what led the led astray. You can be like God. As a result, the same way that when we ate from the atas, we were expelled from the garden of Eden because we no longer merited that connection to God. Every time we come in contact with death which so to speak reconnects us to that original sin we get expelled from the intimacy of the garden of Eden and when you don't have an actual garden of Eden that intimacy is the basikt meaning every contact with death is a reexperiencing of the of the and as we reexperience the of the we have to reexperience the expulsion from Ghana and therefore we're b we're banned we're barred from the basikt which is the ganeden the ba mikdash is the earthly ganeden that still existed on Earth. So now let's look at purification rituals. Now this is not going to explain why a cow and why uh why a red cow, but it does explain the notion of ashes. that part of my purification from death, my liberation from death, my ability to reaccess the garden of Eden by going to the basikdash is by being sprinkled with ashes. Why is that so? Ashes is a sign of humility. When Abrau prays for Saddam and Abrau declares his worthlessness, Arau's terminology is an Auror. I am dust. I am ashes. Ashes. Again going back to I mentioned last week Raf Solvatri dichotomy between majestic man which is recognizes the greatness of the human being and redemptive man that recognizes his subservience and his weakness and his dependence on God. And you have to merge those two pictures. When I come in contact with death, I'm reexperiencing the sin of arrogance that caused the expulsion from Ghana. But when I connect to ashes, I become liberated from death because the ashes give me humility. Again, do you know the story? There's a a Greek myth, but but it's it's really a kaval that we identify it as a Greek myth because it's actually a medri of khaz. Uh but people know it as a Greek myth. The phoenix bird. The phoenix was a legendary bird that when you burn it into ashes, it arises from the ashes. And people talk about the phoenix, but the truth of the matter is kazal have a medish that makes the identical point. This is called the nets bird. And the nets bird rises from the ashes. And metaphorically that's a very powerful image. It's kind of by destroying ourselves we are reborn into new life. What do I mean by destroying ourselves? I don't mean by suicide, God forbid, but I mean when we can obliterate our egotism, our arrogance, when we come to recognize that everything is from Hashem par maybe counterintuitively that does not make us weak and impotent. The other way around it gives us strength. It gives us courage. It give us gives us empowerment. It liberates us on some spiritual level from what death signifies. And therefore the purification of the para aduma. Again this is this does not explain why a cow and why red because but it does explain the concept of aphir. If death comes into the world because of arrogance and ego and that requires expulsion from Ghana, I become liberated from death by connecting myself to the ashes and being reborn. And by the way, that also explains to some degree the purification ritual of mikvah that you also need. It's a well-known theme that mikvah is a return to the womb. It's like just like a baby in the mother's uterus is encompassed by by some type of water, some type of fluid. So when you go to the mikvah, you become a baby in a womblike environment in which you become reborn as a new person. That's connected to the notion of obliteration of the old. So you acquire a new identity. It liberates you from death. Okay. So this is the mystical kak of the apher of paradum. So with this we can take it one step further to explain the paradox of paraduma. On one hand, we just said that ego, hubris, arrogance, ga destroys a person. It expels a person. It causes a person to be removed from the basikdash, from garden of Eden. It brings death into the world. So on one hand ashes, modesty, obliteration of ego is a beautiful, beautiful thing. And on the other hand, it can also be very, very destructive. There is what you might call good ashes and there is what you might call bad ashes. There is what you would call good humility and there is what you call destructive humility. The good humility is the humility of knowing that everything I am comes from Hashem. But I cherish and appreciate my abilities, my cohos, and I use them in good and constructive ways. And through my connection to God, I become emboldened. I become empowered. I become energized. And then I can face the world and deal with problems. Whether it's my personal problems, the communal problems, national problems, I can do it because I'm connected to aesha. When it's my ego and I think I'm in charge, I'm going to make a lot of mistakes. That's the good ashes. The bad ashes is when it turns into the attitude, I'm a nobody. I'm a nothing. I'm impotent. Because that may sound from on some level that may sound religious. Oh, what a humble person he is. In reality, it's a copout. Because if a person truly thinks they don't matter, then a person might well very well wonder what does it make a difference if I dive in or don't dive and keep sh I am a nobody. It makes no difference. You think God cares one way or the other. It's an evasion of responsibility where a person constant response to life is can't do anything. So humility can take a left turn or go south whatever directional metaphor you want to use and turn into a counterproductive negative force in a person's life. You have to be very careful. So this is the paradox. The ashes of the paradum can bring purity to the world or they can bring impurity to the world depending on which way the humility goes. Right? The Ms Shashar points out that although humility is a beautiful beautiful characteristic that's the characteristic that Moira was praised for but when taken in the wrong way it can become very sinful. Right. A person has to recognize their greatness. Ravim of Mir Rabim Lovitz was one of the great great great Bali Musra. He was the Mashk of the great Mir Yeshiva in Europe uh before the Holocaust. He died in the 30s. He died before Hitler. Um he used to say that the person who does not recognize his faults is a is a foolish person. If I think I'm perfect and I don't recognize my deficiencies, I'm just wrong. I'm just foolish. But a person who does not recognize their greatness is a tragic person because they will never be aware of the tools that God has given them to accomplish their mission. and they will never accomplish their mission. And they tell a similar story with the Rev Destler uh Rev. Duster actually there's a whole there's a whole biography of Rev Dustler and if you ever want to read about a very interesting life uh you may want to look at this uh we know Rabb Dustler from his Mikamel but but he had an amazing life u one person could do as many he was going between England and Israel and what he did in England was absolutely amazing and then when he came to Israel he did here was very amazing but they say at the Levia of the Kazenish the Khazenish died. I think it was 55, maybe 54, but I I'm not sure, 54 or 55. And uh obviously it was a very devastating loss for for Israel. And at the Levia of the Khaz in Benak, there was a Bakar, a yeshiva Bakr who was sobbing, weeping, crying over the loss of the Khaz. and Rev Destler who lived in Baybra. Revlr was the Mashk of Panovich Panovich at the time. Rav Desler went over to the boy at the Laya and he said to the boy, "Why are you crying over the Rav the Gon and the Sadic, the great rabbi who's buried there pointing to the grave?" He then pointed to the boy, "You ought to cry over the rav the goon and the sadic that's buried in you because the rav and the goon and the sadic who's buried in the ground became the rav and the goon and the sadic that he was supposed to become." But how many people carry within themselves greatness that never gets realized? Now again I I I want to be careful here. I don't want to create you know unrealistic expectations uh that you may put on your children. You know got to be the kajunish. When I say greatness I'm not necessarily referring to becoming you know the greatest of the greatest the leader of the generation. No, it is true that not everybody is intended to be the leader of the generation. It's reminiscent, if I could use a secular joke, of a famous uh joke that Bengurian told Harry Truman uh shortly after the founding of the state of Israel. Truman was boasting that um you know I am the president of over close to 200 million citizens. So Bengurian says, "Well, I'm the prime minister over two million prime ministers." He says, "That's even," he says, "that's even harder." So everybody in Israel is prime minister Rosham Shalah. Okay, that that's one thing. I don't mean to suggest that that's the pressure we should put on our children because it just isn't true. But it does mean within every person there's a tremendous beauty, a tremendous potential and we need to foster it. We need to foster, we need to help our children, help ourselves unlock it and realize it. And therefore, when you emphasize humility in the wrong kun, it can actually become destructive. And that's a little bit of an explanation of the of the paradox. Let me just end with one final thought about the paradox and this is a totally different thought. This is from a very famous the upper from upper Polandar and the upper is known as the oave is because his safer ones is called oave Israel but of course that's because in virtually every vort he tries to bring out the notion of aas Israel. So he has a good explanation. Oh, I'll tell you there is a medish that says if you want to understand para aduma think about aas. So the question is what connection does paraduma have with aas is so the explains it in a really ingenious way. He said, you know, in the time of the mikdash, for a coin to become ritually impure even for one day was kind of a major inconvenience. He couldn't work in the base of mikdash that day. He couldn't eat corbanos that day. If he came home and his wife made a lunch from Truma food, he wouldn't be able to eat it. So becoming tame for a co in the time of the temple was a major major inconvenience. Now here we have a Jew who comes to the Cohen and says, "I'm Tame. Can you purify me?" And the Cohen handles the ashes and becomes Tame. So what is the Coen really doing? The Coane is sacrificing his convenience to help another Jew. So the afterv says this idea that it purifies the impure but it contaminates the pure is not in the nature of a paradox. But it's actually a reason. The reason why the ashes bring purity is because of the willingness of the cohane to become impure. Purity comes into the world when we're willing to inconvenience ourselves to help others because it's the is why it brings purity into the world. And that's again something to think about that uh when we help others when we're willing to inconvenience ourselves to help a person whether it's in a physical way a financial way or just giving them a smile or kind word or a nice face. We are bringing purity into the world. The world is in a different different place. And the says that that too is one of the messages of the paradum. So again I wish you all a wonderful week. May this one missile that went that came down with intercepted. May that be enough of a reminder that we should keep our minds and our hearts attuned to and hopefully we should not need any other reminders of that fact. And uh we've been za as I say it's it's a very mixed bag. I mentioned it last week but it's the same same message. On one hand we are still in a difficult mat. I mean the katu there are katuim who are still languishing and unfortunately you know we might tend to forget that a little bit with all the euphoria of the good stuff that's happened. And we need our kayim who are still fighting and dying and doing some very dangerous things. But at the same time, we've been za to see great great miracles of hashem's love and hashem's compassion. So as a result, as I said last week, together with our shiralosim, which are the taleim that you recite in times of suffering and adversity, we also should recite thanksgiving, miseroda, a song of thanksgiving. Because simultaneously with the turus that we're facing, we have to give Hashem much much much thanksgiving. May we be za that the things that we are grateful for should greatly greatly overshadow the things that we need protection from. So take care. [Music] Your body [Music] is