Rav Yitzchak Breitowitz: Splitting of The Sea - From Fear to Love

You [music] see your [music] tomorrow. [singing] [music] [music and singing] [singing] Okay. Hi everybody. Thank you. Thank you for coming. Um, just to mention why the reason I'm coming late next week is once a year for the past two or three years. >> All of the so-called baluvias or aurora chappelle's malommo they have a get together. They meet in one location with their students and there's kind of an evening of of learning. So, uh, next week happens to be that occasion and or is the place where they're meeting. Sometimes it's Ace, sometimes it's uh other places, but I have to, you know, again, if I had a choice, I would rather be here. Uh but but whatever it is, I have to be there. But hopefully if things are on schedule, I'll be able to be here by uh by 9:00. Also, it's probably not relevant to anybody, but if you noticed, I am wearing different glasses. It's because my glasses frame broke, but the reason I mention it is that I have like a hundred pairs of glasses. Some are for reading and some are for distance. Uh so either way I I these are these are reading so I don't really see you that well but okay but I see you enough that I'm able [laughter] to I'm able to teach. So I apologize if you ask me a question I'm not not looking in your direction you know but uh part of it [snorts] is uh I my vision is not great uh great right now. Okay. Uh we have our our dedications uh praying for the lasting unity of the people of Israel which will lead to victory and for all those whose self has been affected by terror. Especially thanks to Hashem and all the security forces for the return of the last hostage Ran Gili Rafu Mala Basrika Miriam by Brandy and Jeffrey Gales again a very good friend both of myself and of Iban and finally an aliyah nishama well not finally one more thing but aliat nishama for kasio batlommo arch dinsk's mother's mother whose yard site is on the 8th of Shat and uh Tajakit's father's yard site Harava Moshean whose yard site is uh when >> now >> oh tonight tonight is the night so again the D Torah should be okay uh we are reading of course partak is really the uh conclusion of the Exodus. We left Mitzim in Parchespo, the 15th of Nissan, the first day of Pesak. And on the seventh day of Pesak, the last day of Pesak is when there was the splitting of the Red Sea and the Shiratayam, the song of the sea that we say in Davening every single day. Uh and in many many ways, Kasyamsu is considered to be the gamar, the conclusion of the Exodus of of Egypt. Uh and that's why indeed the ka satra and the seventh day of pes uh in addition to this being the para of the week but on seventh day of pes [clears throat] the ka satra is bashalak through the end of kas yams and the shyam now the truth of the matter is since we're naturally thinking about mitz so when we think about the para we gravitate towards kasams but the truth is there's quite a lot of other stuff in the para as well there's the para samun the man that falls. Uh there is the war of Malik against us which is the very end of the para. Uh there is the mitzvos that we were given before matan torah in the oasis of mara god gave us certain mitzvos even before hareni. So there's quite a lot uh in parasal over and above uh creass creass yams. Oh, by the way, it's a little late already, but you know that the Tuesday, you know, Tuesday, yi, which we're no longer in Tuesday, um is a special day. It's a very masleick day because it is the only day of the week where the words kto, it is good, appears twice, right? It's a masle dick day, a day of very good fortune. And it is brought down that reciting the para of man is considered to be a sigula for a braha for parnasa. So they say that when you recite the para of man on the Tuesday of paras you're kind of lining up your sigulos the para of man is god giving you parnasa and Tuesday is kito so it's brought down in a lot of different places and uh it's become very more prevalent in in these times when everyone is looking for sigulos uh to recite the para of man actually to do it mikra to read the twice and do the Tarum on the Tuesday of Parasal. I'm late. Too late. [laughter] I mean, obviously it's not too late. The gates of are open. But but this particular sigula has expired. It's not going to be available. Although I do remember reading that uh somebody wrote the best sigula to get a for pinosa is to get a job. Uh that's a pretty good that is a pretty good school. But the truth is I would say that's the second best. The best is and the next thing you do is get a job. But is really the thing that will give you the the source of all the brahas. Uh but be it as it may, one of the things that man reminds us of is that our parnasa comes from God. You know, the Jewish people had the good fortune that they obviously knew it came from God because it was just falling from the sky and they had nothing to do with it. We live in a greater level of concealment in the world because we work and we get educated and it looks like there's a direct cause and effect between our work and our parnasa. But in reality all of the swarm tell us that man is the way even regular parnasa works. Yeah we have to do hishadlas. Yeah we have to get a job. Yeah we need whatever education we need to qualify for a job. But ultimately the parnasa comes only from and without that none of our efforts are ever going to be availing one way or the other. That's why is a very funny type of animal because since it's not a direct cause and effect it's not that your effort causes something. Your effort is a condition for Hashem to give you a braha. That's why it'll often be the case that your efforts could be in a totally unrelated area and the pnos comes our roashiva founding ro of whose first yard site is coming up in a few weeks. Uh and uh truth is we're really suffering. I mean, we're suffering because we miss him, but we're also suffering because he was a legendary fundraiser, an absolutely amazing fundraiser with great great devotion. I mean, he was in well into his 80s. He was going to the United States in Canada twice a month for for a few days at a time. Just those unbelievable Miraffes. Uh but he used to say that a lot of times he would be pursuing certain leads and fundraising and he would get nothing at all. he would get nothing at all and then he would get a call out of the blue where somebody gave him enough money to meet his budget for the month. So he says his initial thought was why did I waste all my time with that [laughter] guy when my pasa came from this guy but in truth as he himself said that's an erroneous hushman because in order to get it from that guy you got to put in effort now the effort doesn't have to be with that guy the effort could be with somebody totally unrelated but if you wouldn't have put in that so-called wasted effort you wouldn't have gotten the braha from that side and that is because his the way we would waste far and put it is not a cause and effect type of thing. It is simply a condition for the pipelines of braha to be opened. So you got to do a certain amount of effort but that effort might be totally unrelated to the source of where the pnasa comes and that's what mun is right m you know um people say I mean not the people will say in the medish I wasn't going to talk about man but since you know pasa I'll talk about man a tiny bit uh that you know where your man fell depended on how righteous you are if you were a sadic you found your man right near your tent if you were not at Saddic, you would simply have to wander around and wander around till you eventually found something. [clears throat] So the question is this. The question is, well, let's say I'm not at Saddic, but my neighbor is at Saddic. So why don't I just take his? I mean, I get out of my tent, I see his mud, I'll take it. The answer is you didn't see it. Meaning mun was so miraculous that if you were not righteous enough to have your man near you, you did not see the man that was available for everybody else. That that that's what it was. I know that a rashiva once said he he once gave a schmoo he was not in favor of guys going out to eat that much. He said a bentra you know I'm not expressing an opinion. I'm just telling you my a bentra should you know be content with the uh simple or even inferior food of yeshiva. You shouldn't be looking for luxuries. So he compared it to the man that sadikim eat the food that's right next to them right next to your tent. You're not such a sad you go around looking for for things. He said that's I'm looking for this restaurant and that restaurant and that restaurant. He says you see by the man that the saddic just take. Of course all the money is the same. So it's not a ray really but the saddic eats from what is right uh what is right next to him. So be as it may you'll remember next year Tuesday of parasal is a school to read the paras para sal okay but now I do want to get back and talk about which is the gumar of of mitz and to be mock this I want to talk a little bit about the mitzvah of hollow we know that there is a mitzvah of hollow uh and this is a drab the tur does not require you to say halo. Indeed, the Torah could not require you to say halo because hollow was not written at the time of matan tora. In fact, this is a whole kasha the balos who was one of the very first people who wrote a list of the 613 mitzvah of the Torah and the Rambam wrote his safer hamitzvos as primarily a critique of the balus. Right? The Rambam will often argue. So one of the points is that the Balhilus actually counts the recitation of Hal as one of the 613 mitzvos and the Rambam says obviously not. Hal was not around at that time it was written by Dina Malik and moreover anyway there's no source in the Torah that you have to say hal is a mitzvah. So we we we pus it's it's a rabbitic mitzvah but we do recite uh a full hall when there's a to do so. So for the seven days of sukos plus is halal shale for shuos is halal shal for kanaka [clears throat] is halal shale. So two of the scholus and including and shuos complete halal but pes has an interesting discontinuity. We recite a full halal only on the first day of pes including the seder night and init many have the min in sh right. So the first day at both at night and in the day we recite a halal shalem but the rest of the time we only recite a half hollow. Now you need to understand something about half hollow. Whenever you recite half hal that actually means that the den is you don't you don't have to recite hollow at all and it only became a minute. For example kesh ro kesh is also half hollow. [clears throat] The Gmorian tinus is Mazbear. That's because you're not to say, but communities adopted it as a custom. So in order to differentiate the halal of Rashut, the hal of Min from the hal of they only did a partial hal. Meaning there is no such thing really as a to recite half. If I mean it's become a because minhagen become but technically halfal equals min and that is why there are and I believe brisk even this way that the hal of they don't recite a brah maybe but sour not different opinions because it's only a it's not a which also means the hal of the other days of pes is not now the gammorra in asks a Good kasha. It asks the kasha how come for the eight days of sukes we have a hal shalet but for pesak we only recite a full halal the first day. What's the difference? So the gmorrah gives an interesting answer. Uh this answer is even though it's in the gmorrah this answer is less familiar than the second answer which I know people have heard of. But the first answer the Gmorra [clears throat] gives is that on sukus every single day of sukus and the corban musaf is different. The carbon is a different carbon that indicates that we look at every day of sukus as if it's a distinct holiday. So if every day is a distinct a holiday, we recite a halal shim for the distinct holiday by PES. By contrast, every day of PES, the identical corban musaf, not the carbon pes, the musaf offering is the same. That indicates that pesak conceptually is not viewed as seven different holidays. It's viewed as one holiday. Ma if I said hall the first day that covers this one holiday and the half hollow is okay. So, so again the Gomorrah says sukus because of the the differentiation of the musafim each day needs its own hollow pak not now there is another answer which is much better known but the mccor of that other answer is not so simple where you find it and that is uh the shibal leet shiballe is a rishon from Italy meant you know it's it's an important work and the shibet brings from a medish harinu. Now medish harinu is actually a lost medish. We actually don't have it but in the time of the shibal le he did have it. So we only know this from the shibal and other who quote the shibal and he says the reason we don't say hal on the other days of pesak is because on the seventh day of pesak [snorts] the Egyptians drowned in the yams and the garra tells us the malashares wanted to sing praises to god as the Egyptians were drowning. And said to them, "The Egyptians are also my creatures. They're drowning in the sea. Vietram and you are singing songs of joy." Yeah, they have to drown. Hashem is not saying, "I'm not going to drown them." They have to drown. But you don't you don't rejoice in it. And therefore the seventh day of pes we don't say a complete how even though it's a yam. Now the taz asks right away. Well the shibet's reason only explains why you don't say a full halal on the seventh day of pes. But that should mean that for the first six days I should say a full hal. Right. Mishlarian explains that I only say one hollow because the musf is the same. But if you're going with the le that only explains the last day of pes it doesn't explain the other days. So the taz says an interesting answer. We got to do reverse engineering in the following way. We never want to have greater prestige than yam. So if the seventh day of PES which is you're not going to say a full because of my then you go backwards you're not going to do it either because if you were to say a full halal until the last day and then the last day you don't say a full halal you would be giving a bigger kashas a greater importance to mo right because after the first day is kamo than you good to Yamiff itself. Right? So, so it turns out we do have two distinct reasons and again you you'll see how this is connected to Korea. We have two distinct reasons why we don't say a full halal after the first day of PES. Reason number one is the Gammorian that since the musaf of all of the days is the same musf. It is one big yamt and therefore the first hal covers the yumpt. Reason number two is we're not going to say a full hal on the seventh day of pes because that's when the Egyptians drowned and therefore we're not going to say it either. Uh the truth is there there might be a difference here, an interesting difference. [clears throat] Let's say I neglected to say halal the first day of Pesak. Do I say a full hal on the second or third day of PES? So like the Gmorrah you would because the Gmorrah says the reason why you don't say a full hollow is because you were yay on the first day and it covered the objective. That would imply that if you weren't say the first day, you'd have to do a full hal [snorts] uh the ne the first opportunity you have. It is arguable that because of my once you're past the first day, you would only say a half hal even then. Again, it's exactly how we actually do you say a full hal if you miss the first day. Just like if you didn't say on the first day of Yam, you say it this the second day. Okay. Now there's an obvious question. Now for some reason as I say the shib le has become very popular. I mean if you ask most people like why don't we say a full hal on the seventh day of pes. So most will say because of my creatures have drowned in the sea. Even though as I say that is really a secondary reason that is not the reason the gammorra itself gives. Now I also want to clarify something. You might be wondering [snorts] why am I saying that this reason is from the shib le in the name of the mid shinu. Is it not an explicit garra? The Gomorrah in McGillah says in the name of Rabioan the Malashar wanted to sing Hashem's praises as the Egyptians were drowning and who said my creatures are drowning in the sea and how can you say Shira that's a Gorrah that's not just from a medish so here you have to be very careful the Gomorrah does give that story but the Gomorrah never uses that story to explain hollow. It's only the shibal leah takes that story which we know from the Gmorrah [snorts] and uses it as the hollow explanation. So you have to be careful. Sometime people will just say oh the garra says we don't say a full halal because of my uh my creatures are drowning that is not emisi is recorded in the gumar but never as a reason for hal that linkage is only given by the shibal leet in the name of the the medish harino okay so now the question becomes the following we don't if I say like the shiba we don't say a full hal because we want to commiscerate with the suffering of the Egyptians so to speak which is quite a remarkable idea. It's it's very interesting. It's I I remember I think two years ago I got into a fight with somebody who walked out or I walked out whatever it is that it wasn't the most pleasant interaction. Uh so I hope I'm safe. >> Uh uh but it is very relevant in terms of the struggles that Israel goes through as well. uh and that is we are certainly not pacifists 100% we're not pacifists we believe that sometimes you have to kill uh this is the well-known rule someone is coming to kill you or kill other Jews they're a rode we're obligated to kill them we don't we do not say turn the other cheek just as God did not turn the other cheek God it was God that was killing the Egyptians Even as God says, "Don't sing me a song of joy." But our attitude even towards the enemy is a complicated attitude. On one hand, we do what we have to do. But we don't rejoice in it. When human life has to be taken, even when it has to be taken, there is always a sadness because it reflects the sadness of God. Every human being, even non-Jews, are created in the image of Hashem, whatever that means exactly. And therefore, every human being who chooses the path of evil, it is not only a tragedy for the victims, which of course it is, it's even a tragedy for the evildoer because there was a potential that could have been real. So we do what we have to do but we don't dance around about I mean obviously we celebrate hostages are released we celebrate we celebrate when in fact that's why they say by purim a famous famous word by purim we fought our enemies and we killed them on the 13th of but we don't make our purim on the 13th of we make our purim on the 14th of what's the message we don't celebrate killing our enemies. We celebrate having peace in the world or shalom for clo Israel. We don't celebrate the day of the great military victory. We celebrate the shalom that came in the aftermath of that victory. That's why Porm is on the 14th. Otherwise, Porm could have been on the on the 13th, the great day of victory where we killed 75,000. The Miguel says 75,000 enemies. So it's a little ambiguous meaning or at least complicated. It's not that oh we love all humanity and therefore let's have compassion. [snorts] If we have to kill them, we have to kill them. But we're sad that we have to kill them. You know, Gold Mayor once said, and again, she's not a she's not uh someone I regard as a uh a source of things. Uh but she said and some people will hate this so forgive me. That's why I want to say ahead of time. It's her quote. It's not my quote. Her quote, blame her. She said uh we can forgive the Arabs for killing our children. We cannot forgive the Arabs for making us kill their children. Now the first part of the statement actually invites a lot of outrage on the part of people. How dare she say we can forgive the Arabs for killing our children. No, we can't. But to me, the the the wisdom of the remark is the second part of the sentence, not the first part. The first part I would disagree with, but the second part does contain some wisdom. That is, it is a tragedy that we have to be in the business of killing. [clears throat] It's necessary. Sometimes we have no choices. But is a tragedy. We don't develop a culture of glorification. over destruction of life and that is the important lesson that's the extraordinary lesson of my so here's the problem so the shal tells us in the name of the medish that we don't recite a full hal because we want our simka to be muted since so many Egyptians died well here's the problem what happened on the first day of pes Pes the first night of Pes probably more Egyptians died. This was the plague of the firstborn. This was Makas and Makasarus. The Torah describes a bias a shame. There was not a single house in which somebody didn't die through various permutations of who is a firstborn. So what are you going to say? Well, okay. A lot of Egyptians died, but but I don't care because it's good for the Jews. Okay. So why don't you have the same logic? >> Yeah. >> On the seventh P meaning you can have two mindsets in life. You can be as long as it's good for the Jews, I don't care about the rest of the world. You're a particularist. Okay? Or you can be a universalist. I commiserate with the suffering of humanity. But it's hard to be both. So you're telling me on the first day of Pesak I recite a halal shale because who cares about the Egyptians? Good for the Jews. On the seventh day of Pes I become a universalist in which to some degree I commiscerate with the suffering of humanity. What's the basis of that? I mean if I'm concerned with the suffering of humanity then even on the first day I shouldn't say hello. So the em says the emma says that there's a beautiful terrace for uh from for this a little bit of a technical terret but it's very ingenious from Briskheim Salvik and Rhee Salvik actually wants to reconcile the Gammorra's reason for not saying a full hollow with the le's reason for not saying the full hello and points out the following in this typical brisker fashion There are two din meaning there are two separate factors that create the obligation of halal. There is a halal that comes from the holiness of a yumto and there's a halal that comes from the miracles of redemption. Now let me let me show you how sometimes you have one factor and not the other factor. of Kaneka. The Hal of Kaneka is not because of a Yam because halal is not a Kanek is not a Yv. So what is the of Kaneka? Thanking Hashem for the victories that we had over Yavan and being able to rededicate the B mikdash. So halal is the hal of Kaneka is because of the miracles of redemption. Now on the other side of it take the hal of sukus or shvu there there was no miracle that saved our lives on sukus but because the this is a yamt the yumpt obligates the hal there is the halam yam and there is the halah. Now when we come to Pes [snorts] we have two different reasons why the of will be generated. Pes is both a time of redemption. So you have the hal because of redemption and it's a hollow because of y. So the garra and the shib are addressing each separate aspect of the problem. The Gomorrah is addressing since the seven days of Pesak including Kamo and Arumto why don't we recite hollow because of Yumto for seven days. [snorts] Now on that you can't answer we're commiscerating with the death of Egyptians because that has nothing to do with what happened to the Egyptians. It's simply a Yamt. So the Gmorra's answer is uh all you have is the first day because the days are not a separate YT as opposed to sukus but le is asking the question that even if as a yumpt all you have is hollow of the first day but on the seventh day there was a special miracle of so why don't you have the hollow of the miracle answer for that miracle I don't want to make a hal. So that's why you need both and and according to the taz is kasha is not a kasha right the taz that's ask the kasha according to the why don't you say a full halal for the six the other five days of pes answer what would be the basis mo nothing happened the only basis for and mo is yumto that's taken care of by the garra it's only the seventh day which had this unique salvation and that you need the reason of my so according to therefore to ask the kasha how could I say hello the first day of pes if so many Egyptians died the answer is I'm doing it because of yamt not because of uh because of the salvation okay but putting that aside though if you simply consider the basic question on the seventh day of pesak Egyptians died on the first day of pes more Egyptians Right? So why do I do a full hollow on day one and a half hollow on day seven? So to understand this a little bit, let's go back to the p in the tora that we actually recite every day in ding and it's right before the vari. The Jewish people saw the great hand of hashem that God did against the Egyptians. They revered Hashem and they had faith. They had amuna in Hashem Moshe Abdo and in Moshe his servant. And then we go into Oashir. By the way, this puss is quoted in the Hagada and it is the only time that Mosher Raenu's name is mentioned in the gutter. So if your kids are falling asleep and you want to keep them up, say you can add to the Afikomen prize. [snorts] Anyone that tells me when we hit Mosher Rabenu's name, it's only one place. Interestingly enough in the Rambam Sagada he's not even gorest that section of the so in the Rambam Sagada there is no mention of Mashureno even though Raben Rambam testifies that his father said that part even though it's not in the official had so the medish says they believed in God and they feared God so the medish comments from creas Yamsuf onward they had fear of God. They did not have fear of God until that point. That's what the Pik says. They see righteous until now. What's the They just saw a year of makos, 10 makos. They saw so many miracles. So the basi says the following idea. Casamsu was a very very different miracle than the 10 plagues. In all of the 10 plagues, the miracle of the plague was in the direction of punishment to the Egyptians. Their water turned to blood. Their land was overrun by frogs, boils, whatever it would be. Locust, hail, wild animals, plague, plague of the firstborn. Every single miracle was designed to punish. The Jewish people were saved from the miracles of punishment. But but there was no miracle to save them. They were left to the laws of nature. The Egyptian water turned to blood. The Jewish water remained water. Hashem didn't change tea to bless Clai Israel. [clears throat] Hashem changed tea to punish the Egyptians. Creams is exactly the opposite. Hashem causes the sea to split so that cloud Israel can cross the sea. And then when the Egyptians enter the sea, Hashem removes his miracle. And when he removes the miracle, the nature of water is naturally come together. Now yes there are midrashim that the way the Egyptians died was miraculous but that each one kind of got a death that corresponded to what they did to their slaves. Okay, that is a medish. But the simple fact of the Egyptians death, did the Egyptians die through a miracle? The answer is no. The Jewish people cross the through a miracle and when the miracle stopped, the water came back. you happen to be if you're Egyptian you're in the wrong place at that particular moment in time you get drowned so do you see the correlation to basy's point basy's point is that the trajectory of kasamsuf is the opposite direction of the eser makis the eser makis the miracle was the punishment and the tea was the hat salah the saving By creas the miracle was the hat and the tea the nature was the onish. Okay, that is a difference. Why is that important? Okay, it's a difference. Why is it an important difference? Because here's the thing. When a Jew leaves Mitraim and saw with his own eyes the 10 plagues, he would have an overwhelming sense of fear and trepidation that the great almighty God will change the nature of the world to punish evildoers and to exact justice. So the emotional feeling I get after the tenacos is God will do miracles to bring justice to the world and punish evildoers. So that gives me era, right? I'm afraid of God. I better behave. I better behave so that what God did to the Egyptians, God's not going to do to me. But it didn't create the deepest level of love of God. Creasy was not a miracle of punishment. Creassyams was a miracle of love. A miracle of love where God changed nature not to punish the Egyptians. God changed nature to show his love for Ami Israel. Now there's a famous puk inimayanim I quote this puk all the time so forgive me if if you heard me say it many times but it's a very important as water reflects the face that you show the water the heart of a human being reflects back to a human being the same way water reflects back the face that you show it says the vagon this is pashhat if I look into a reflecting pool of water what I will see reflected back to me is the face that I show the water I smile at the water I get back a smiling face. I I I uh scowl at the water. I get back a scowling face. Whatever you show the water is what the water shows you. So Schlama Melik says as water reflects the face that you show it. The heart of one human being reflects back the face that you show it. I show a human being love, respect, care, concern, they will feel that for me. I show someone disdain, demonization, delegitimation, they're going to feel that way for me. They're going to reflect back exactly what I show them. Indeed, we see this in Erit Israel every day. Part of why I mean there are many complicated issues in our society, but one of the reasons why religious secular makus never gets resolved. Never gets resolved. You know, maybe it gets pushed off. The best we can do is we kick the can till uh next week or next month. is that each side looks at the other in the worst possible light. So the religious look at the secular asmra all sorts of pjorative terms and the secular looks at many religious Jews as parasites freeloaders and the like. And as long as this vicious cycle or circle keeps on going, you're a go, you're an AIO, you're a malik, you're a parasite, you're a freeloader, you don't care about this country, then it's just going to get worse and worse and worse and worse because each side is going to reflect back that which the other side reflects towards them. [snorts] If on the other hand you look at another person and you see their value right you can look at a kayali you a non non-religious you could see that they're devoted they're risking their lives they're protecting the country or you look at police or you look at bus drivers as people that are enabling an infrastructure that allows a society to exist including religious societies then I will tell you based on the may the non-religious even the anti-religious would look at religious Jews in a different way as well now people ask the question well why do we have to start [snorts] I mean why do why are you telling me I got to look positively at them and then they'll look positively at me let them look positively at me and then I'll look positively at them. Right? Why do I have to start? You know, this is the classic conundrum of marriage counseling, right? Couples not getting along. So, the answer is you have to show more love and affection. Well, well, let the other one show it first. The short answer is, you know, somebody has to be the adult in the room. And someone who learns Torah, does mitzvos, embodies the the values of Judaism, has a responsibility to behave in a good men way even if it's not immediately reciprocated. And then we have Schlommo Melik's promise that it eventually will be reciprocated. It will be reciprocated. They tell the story again. I wouldn't try this at home. These are dangerous stories. And again and by the way I'm limiting Melik to Yidden. I'm not saying go you know go to Raala and you know try this okay I'm not saying that either but they say that once and based in once puskined against a butcher he pused that uh the butcher was selling tra meat and as a result uh the butcher lost a big pinosa. I mean, I'm sure was sad about this, but but he had to ask him what he ask him. So, the butcher asked if he could meet Rafaim at a certain area in the forest. Now, why wasn't suspicious? I don't know. But the Tom were suspicious and uh at at a at a relatively close distance, they were watching to be sure that this guy does not hurt or even kill. So they're going there and to the horror of the tidam the butcher pulls out a meat cleaver and the butcher says you ruined my parata. I'm not going to let you survive. This is supposed to be a shar shabas guy apparently. He said he was going to killer and closed his eyes and thought and thought and thought and at some point the butcher threw down the meat cleaver went on his knees started sobbing and begged forgiveness for what he what he thought he was going to do. So the Tom thought right this was in the era the the era of early this was a miracle miracle the rebi is a rebi so said it's not a miracle I just knew my life was in danger and I remembered the puss in Mish and I endeavored to think good thoughts about this person he's under pressure he has a big family how is he going to make a living and that was my I awakened rahim in my heart and the puss says that he's going to feel that way towards me as well as I say don't try it at home because you have to understand these things are not a game in other words you have to genuinely feel the feelings it's not a pretend thing but if you genuinely feel the feelings somehow the other party understands them the other party understands So here is the point I want to make. The ballet makes this point generally. If the idea is that what I feel from another person causes me to have the same feelings then when I feel Hashem's love I will love Hashem. You love Hashem to the degree you feel Hashem loves you. After the macos, we didn't necessarily feel in a total way that God loved us because the makos were a miracle of punishment. Hashem did a miracle not to punish. Hashem did a miracle to show love. If that's the case, when we feel Hashem's love based on may upon him upon him, that awakens the love for Hashem in our heart. So we can conclude based on this that mitam gave us a year of hashem gave us a hashem to the highest level. Why did it give us a hashem? Because we felt hashem's love and kamay upon him upon him. When you feel hashem's love your heart feels love of hashem. Now you may ask a question. So what did we get by creases? What is the spiritual level we got by creasams? We got the completely complete level of aas and that we didn't have with the maros. But you'll ask me but that's not an answer. The puss says that creasy yams gave us viruem and the medra says until yams we didn't have yra kas yams gave us yera but according to the explanation we're giving creas yams didn't give us yera creasams gave us aa yera we had with the makas so to explain this part the bi does not fully explained this part but I want to go back to someone earlier than the basi the moral and the moral says you know when we divide a hashem into hashem and aasm right that's a classic division love of god fear of god now fear of god yas hashem is actually divided into two levels the lower level of Hashem is literally fear. That's fear of punishment, right? That basically means I better behave because otherwise there's some punishment in this world or the next world. That is a low level but how we would have it. If we would have it, we would never do a so we shouldn't denigrate it. But it is the lowest level of ya because that is simply fear of punishment. It's a motivator. I never told the story. I got my my highest grade in law school out of Ursa ones. What happens uh is now in law school they only give you exams at the end of the semester. So theoretically if you don't go to class, you know there there are no penalties. So I decided one year to take off all of the classes from Russashana till after sukus. Unbeknownst to me, this particular professor was giving assignments that were due during those days. And when I came back uh to uh to Boston, there were like 20 letters different days from the professor. This assignment isn't here. This assignment isn't here. Anyway, the last letter, the 20th letter said, if I don't hear from you within two days, I'm going to institute expulsion proceedings. So I want to tell you that that course was my highest grade in law school and I will tell you it is 100%. Because of the motivation of fear I was scared. So that's on [clears throat] but there's a higher level of yera which is not captured by the word fear. It is awe. It is reverence. Yera is not just oh god's going to hurt me if I don't do mitzvot. Rather I am overwhelmed by the greatness of God, the majesty of God, the in the infinity of God. And these are two different things. This is very very different. One is called yata onesh and one is called yas haramos the awe of god's greatness. So those are the two levels of ya. Then we go to love. And the love see this is a common theme says love comes out of fear. Now if you understand fear is your own that almost doesn't make sense. You don't tend to feel love towards someone that you're scared of butus and love are actually very very close. You're in awe. You have reverence for God's perfection, God's beauty, God's infinity. That's not a big jump from there to love, right? A person will often love that which is he in awe of. Okay. So, so far in the hierarchy we have onesh is the lowest going from lower to higher. But then the moral says there's a level of that that is even above Hava and this is called fear of sin. Fear of sin the moral says is not and it's notus but rather your love is so intense that you're scared to do anything that will bring pain to the one that you love. You see it's not fear of God. It's fear of doing something that displeases God. And that's an intensification of love. I mean, you know, we we even have I mean, at some level, we have this in in regular life. Let's imagine that um you have to get up very early and your spouse is a light sleeper. So, we say you're scared you're going to wake her or him up. You're scared. You're walking on eggshells. Now, what do we mean you're scared? Are you afraid if you wake them up, they'll hit you with the frying pan? Sometimes that can happen. You're about to ownish. Are you scared because you're so in awe of their utter perfection? Well, no. Maybe maybe we should be that way, but most of us are not have that. You're scared because you care about somebody. You don't want to do anything that's going to cause them pain. So the moral says is really the highest form of love. So there's onesha. So going back to the BI when it says they acquired by Yamsu it doesn't mean that we got with the makos but when we felt the fullness of Hashem's love that awakened the fullness of love to Hashem within us and that resulted in the level of and that's why it's soya because look at the says Hashem. Now, Hashem is God's mid of if the refers to fear of punishment or fear of death, it should have said answer no. This is a that came from seeing the love of Hashem. Okay. So, with this hakama, let's go back. I didn't forget. Let's go back to the original question and that is according to the shalet that says that we don't say a full halal on the last days of pesak because we are commiserating with the suffering of the Egyptians who died then how come on the first day we kind of don't care about what happened to the Egyptians and we say a full ha The answer is this is the difference between a yeraf focused mentality and an ava focused mentality. There actually is a transition that takes place when you live in the world of yera and you obey God because you know there are negative consequences. Then essentially you only care about yourself, your family, your people. meaning I better behave so what happened to them shouldn't happen to me at that point I don't really care if the Egyptians are suffering or notem I'm in God's good graces but when you progress from a year relationship to aa relationship part of loving somebody is you try to see the world through their eyes and Not just through your parochial perspective. This is what marriage is about. This is this is the big challenge of marriage. Men and women as a general rule see the world in very different ways. Very different ways. There's a lection in the I don't remember it's in the Gumar or or in Rashi. He says men and women are two different nations. Two different nations. Right? You got to have a peace treaty between the two nations. But the one thing that is true is that when you love somebody, you care about somebody, you try to also see the world through their eyes. So that means when you love God and Yamsaf is the experience that awakened that love of God, you want to see the world through a kadeshu's perspective. Now obviously in a full sense that is impossible for sure but to whatever degree we can and from Hashem's perspective every human being is precious. Every human being is a child of Hashem. Every human being was made in Hashem's image. If there are that have to be destroyed does what needs to be done. Of course. Of course. And I have to make that point over and over again. But you know, it's still like a parent killing a child. I mean, imagine I mean Loenu, this should never ever ever ever be. But you know, imagine a person has a child. Child is murderous on a murderous rampage. The parent might have to take a gun and kill that child. May have to be done. It has sometimes been done. How does a parent feel? How does a parent of It was interesting question. You know, we have these mass murderers. We have these shooters, right? And again, you know, it's kind of almost bad taste to think about the parents of the murderers when you have victims. I I get it. But I can't help it. Sometimes I think what do the parents of these kids think? I mean, they remember this [snorts] monster as a baby. They remember cute occasions. So there are tragedies here and Hashem is aware of these tragedies. Hashem is aware of the potential that did exist that somehow got destroyed and somehow got perverted himself had to destroy. It had to destroy it. doesn't mean there's no sense. So when I live in the world of yera, I am primarily focused on the consequences that apply to me or my family or my nation. Even when I live in the world of Ava, I strive to see the world through eyes and then I feel Hashem's sadness for the loss of life. So the a of the shibet comes into play only after we experience creasams because then we reached a different a different level. As I say I I think again it's controversial. I I think these messages have relevance even to the political situation that that we're in. Again we have to be careful. We have to be careful because as kazal say anyone that has rahim and the cruel will eventually have cruelty to those who deserve rahim and that that's very very true. One has to be very careful that compassion not be exaggerated or misplaced lest people will suffer because of it. But at the same time the compassion has to be there. It doesn't just disappear. There is something there because that's how Hashem feels. I mean remember the book of Yonah right? Look at the end of the book of Yona. You know Yonah Hanavi we read it on Yum Kipper. He's given the mission to tell Ninveet hey you guys don't get your act together. You're going to be destroyed in 40 days. And Yona didn't want to go because he knows God is always forgiving. He doesn't want to look like a fool, whatever it is. And he goes and he gives them a message and Yinbe goes through repentance even though even though it didn't last but at least in the short term. And Hashem cancels the decree. And Yona is very annoyed. I came in as a prophet. I gave him a message and now I look like a fool. What's going on? And remember Yona is resting in the heat and Hashem causes a plant to grow and then the plant dies and Yona complains, "I lost this plant that was helping me." And Hashem said, "You care so much about this plant that came in one day and and died in one day. And you think, I don't care about Ninveet, a city of thousands and thousands of people. I just don't care about them. That that's kind of the message. Now, Ninve obviously was evil. Hashem said, "I want to destroy the whole city." And yet he tells Yona, "I care about them. And if you become close to God by loving God, you will try to incorporate that same type of emotion. So, thank you for coming. Maybe I'll see some of you on Sunday. >> Yeah. 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