Can Holy People and Places Become Corrupt? - Parsha Eikev - By Rabbi YY Jacobson

[Music] good evening and welcome to all tonight we will explore together a very strange episode which is recorded in the Midrash as you know the Midrash is a compilation of the oral traditions commentary on the Torah on the Bible now here is a Meldrick on the portion of a curve which focuses on a verse in Deuteronomy the portion of a curve please open your curriculums there's a PDF right below the video source number one the Torah says vehicle he shall love you Bay Rafa clay shall bless you here better he shall multiply you obey reprieve it naca he shall bless the fruit of the you of the of your womb and then a few words later the Torah continues la yeaa baja a carver a carro OBM taaha there will not be found among you a barren man or a barren woman who was infertile nor in your animals this is the great blessings that Moses pours upon the Jewish people if they will follow the Covenant they will be blessed in all of these ways now the Midrash it seems was disturbed by the redundancy of the verse ones the Torah already blessed you obey reprieve it nasaw that the fruit of your womb shall be blessed that apparently means that you shall reproduce and in a healthy way why then the redundancy Lavaca Vaccaro of MTAC so there should be no man or male no man or woman who is barren nor among the animals this is apparently what prompts the Madras to seek a deeper interpretation in this final blessing what is the interpretation source number to Madras raba portion of a curve parsha gimel Pisgah for section 3 Americanism rabbi unison explained law yeeah Baha occur vicara min Hakuba you shall not have among you a barren man or woman barren from achiever from a response from adequate answers it's not referring here only to biological fertility to the ability for the ability of reproducing of procreation rather it is referring here to another type of barrenness sometimes you're barren you're incapable of producing an adequate answer in response to those who condemn you who criticize you who try to prove you wrong and you have no answer the blessing here is you should not be barren minute Ruvo from a response what prompted rabbi unison to come up with such an explanation for this the Midrash tells a story and quite an elaborate story an interesting story and a difficult story and it's this story I want to analyze tonight with you but of course to appreciate this story we need some historical context a historical introduction one of the great ancient empires was the Empire of Ashur in Hebrew or Assyria Assyria was located in northern Iraq above the Tigris River reached up north into Turkey and the nearby area and it was known as the Empire of Assyria which at one time was extremely powerful it was a world empire as far as we know Assyria was the first Empire to introduce a new strategy into controlling civilizations and cultures namely it introduced the concept of refugees the Assyrian Empire would conquer a country a city estate and would often relocate the native citizens to other cities or countries that way they all felt as refugees and would not have the the willingness and the confidence that often comes when you're connected to your own organic land to revolt to betray against the Empire this strategy did not skip over the Jewish people either and here we come to what was one of the most important and dramatic events in Jewish history it occurs approximately in the year 722 before the Common Era it's described in the Tanakh in the Hebrew Bible in the book of Malakand Bayes the seventeenth chapter of the second book of Kings take a look source number three in your curriculum and the PDF right below the video via o mela Asher Bajal Haaretz via al Shimon vietze are allow shallow sh-shannon the Assyrian King ascends over the land he ascends over Samaria and besieges it for three years business up she is Lucia Ellicott Maharashtra same rain by yoga less astrologer ah during the ninth year of the reign of Hosea the king of Israel and let me say him for a moment as you know after the death of King Solomon the Jewish people split into two groups with two kings one king was the son of Solomon whose name was recover and he reigned over two tribes you hood and Benjamin Judah and Benjamin in the southern part of the land in the holy city of Jerusalem another king was year Raavan who reigned in the northern part of Israel known as mouth who cease royal the Kingdom of Israel versus the kingdom of Yoda and since then there was a split there were two kingdoms in Israel there was a split this northern King reigned over ten tribes a serosa stratum and the southern king from the house of David reigned over to Trump's hey che ax was a king of Israel in the northern part of the land in the ninth year of his kingdom la Cotte Malafaia a streamer and the king of Assyria conquered some reconquer the samaria by Yaga less astrologer ER and he took the Jewish people and he exiled them to Assyria by oh you should raise some backlash but covering our guys and vari Madai he settled them in a place called Kailash covered the river of gozen and the cities of mother till today the exact geographical locations of these places are still debated but as most scholars agree it's approximately in the area of Syria and Iraq and its neighboring countries but that's not the only thing he did now that the ten tribes of Israel have been exiled or I should say the majority of the ten tribes and as you know we still don't know what happened to them within a few years they assimilated completely until today there's the debates weird did they end up what happened to these ten tribes but that Syrian King exiled them and relocated them to new places now the terrain where they lived was empty so what did he do look further in the same chapter of the Tanakh chapter 17 of the second book of Kings by Yahweh Mela ashram above voluma kuso may have Omega Moses mother vibe was for volume by Yosh of Bari Shimer and taxes blazed role by Yu Shu Aslam roan by Asheville bara now that Syrian King goes to bubble Babylonia which is present-day Iraq and a place called Kusa an IVA and Hamas and swear by him and he takes the residence there and brings them to the Land of Israel and settles them in the cities of sham roan of Samaria in lieu of the Jewish people by he b'stilla shift on some layer OSI sham now in the beginning of their living there the Bible tells us the new Sumerians the new Samaritans who are now living there that not forgot via shallow Hashem by Messiah is by EU her gamba Lions were sent there and Lions began killing the new population they were frightened they were overwhelmed they attributed to the fact that they were serving the idols of their native lands and they did not conform to the new religion of Israel in the Land of Israel and ultimately this population would convert to Judaism although as the Tanakh says they would still continue worshiping their own gods but they also now worship the Jewish God so to speak and converted to the Jewish beam that produces people that Syrian King sent them a Jewish scholar to teach them about Judaism to teach them the Jewish faith the traditions and the religions and these people who came from bubble and kusa who says the Second City which is which is seen by many scholars as being as a place in southern Iraq than a southern Iraq are now living in Samaria as Samaritans in the Land of Israel now they made the center of their religion and of their life Mount Gerizim Mount grism is of course one of the famous and most tallest mountains in the Land of Israel it's right above the city of Shem or in Arabic no one as Nablus and right above the city of Shem is Mount grism it's well known as the mountain which God commands Moses when the Jewish people will enter into the land of Israel they had to approach the two mountains Mount grism and nearby is the second mountain Mount evil and the Jewish people gathered at these mountains and six of the tribes went up to Mount grism six went up to Mount evil and there they offer the famous blessings and curses for those who will live a moral and ethical life to be blessed and curse those who will betray the allottee and ethics of judaism as described later in the book of Deuteronomy her grism mount grism was the place the center of the life of the new Samaritans also known as the Kusum who came from the city of kusa in southern Iraq brought by their Syrian King and settled in sham Ron and Mount Gerizim is their new center this sham Ronan the Samaritans as they call themselves grew to become a very large number at one point there are more of 1 million of them today they still live there today there are 650 of them who remain they have fought the Jewish people very very hard after the first exile you see the 10 tribes were exiled around 130 years before the destruction of the first temple and the Exile of the last two tribes Judah and Benjamin to Babylonia through Nevada Nets are the king of Babylonia but after 70 years Cyrus the Persian king who defeated Babylonia Persian defeated Babylonia let the Jews come back and resettle their ancient homeland and rebuild a second temple now it was the Samaritans living in the Sham Rhone who fought this attempt to rebuild a temple very very heavily later when the Greeks would defeat Persia and take over the Land of Israel and ultimately the Syrian Greeks were try to dominate the religion of Israel and Hellenized the Jews the Samaritans the Sham rona more the Kusum would side with the Syrian Greeks against the Jews which is the reason that yoke and on Horkan was one of the famous kings of cosmonium or in greek his name is john her OCONUS destroyed their temple the beit hamikdash that they built on mount grism they did not embrace the Temple in Jerusalem they built our own temple and their own altars on Mount Gerizim they still believe that our mound grism are many holy locations they believe Isaac was brought to the sacrifice by Abraham and Mount Gerizim and many other things they have locations that they visit till today they make pilgrimages to different parts of Mount grism on Passover on Shoeless on suka spacex rules and su cos so their whole religion is evolved around mount grism they have a Kohen Gadol a high priest who who leads the religion until this very day although as i said it's a very small number today Jochen and Horkan has destroyed their temple but archaeological excavations began in 1982 and mount grism were many of the old relics and the ancient structures and temples temple and altars of Mount Gerizim have been excavated in the five hundreds the Byzantine Empire massacred most of them and they remained a small number which fluctuated back and forth as I said today there are only a few hundred left they live on the bottom of Mount Gerizim and some of them also live in the city of Kowloon in Israel this is the introduction that's necessary to understand the story of the Madras which we now begin to explore as I said these people are known in Jewish literature as Kusum why they came from the city of kusa or from the country of kusa the region of kusa in southern Iraq and they were brought to Samaria by the Assyrian King now before we get to the story there's one more important detail I want to emphasize how did the Jews see the Kusum from a Jewish perspective how did they view them that they view them as Jews or did they view them and not as Jews so this has always been a debate our sages often call them and I guess with a bit of cynicism garea rious the converts of the Lions the Lions converted them to Judaism representing the idea that their conversion was not authentic it was not motivated by a genuine desire to join the Jewish people it was motivated by fear of the plague of the Lions which attacked them when they moved into the land of Israel and hence their conversion was insincere and not authentic and therefore should not be embraced to over the generations this has been a major question in the Jewish mindset are the Kusum to be considered as full-fledged ruse or not so for example take a look at source number for Jerusalem Talmud tractate skull and brings an argument between your ABI and Rabbi Shimon minimally acoustica not read every Rebbe a is like a non Jew Rebbe says has the halacha status of an Andrew Zimmerman Gamliel a mere Kuchiki is flawless holdover rabbi Shimon the son of government says a coup C is like a Jew concerning everything so there were times that the Jews looked at the Kusum as complete Jews who converted to Judaism and lived a Jewish life and yet that changed at a later point and the Talmud instructed huland discusses the fact that one may not eat from an animal that was slaughtered by them why take a look at source number five full enough of them and I'll lift my timer up knocking by it's a crime and not with the son of Yitzhak said why is there the logic what was the idea to prohibit the meat that slaughtered by them to Messina matzo laboratories and show you over denoiser they found on the peak of Mount grism the image of a dove which they worshiped as an idol and hence they realized that they were in SH wrenched in idolatry in source number six bring up source number six rambha Maimonides summarizes the status of the Kusum very nicely let's see what the Rambam has to say source number six period shall Mishnah is this is Maimonides commentary to the mission attracted brough as the end of chapter eight he says this vikarna viola hum i'm accustomed let me explain to you who were these Kusum now Maimonides who lived in the thirteenth century in the in the twelfth century he was born in spain he moved to morocco Fez and Morocco then moved to Israel the Land of Israel and then moved and eat to Egypt where he passed away he wrote a commentary to the mission in Arabic this is a translation into the holy tongue into Hebrew so the Rambam says let's explain to you what are the Kosovo who Sharma Chavous and hey rhythmic kusa voice even borrow a Sumerian hey dilemma customers as my you rain vasilich am arrived this is the nation that Sun Harris this is the name of that Syrian King relocated from Kusa and settled them in the lands of Samaria and the tourists says the Tanakh says they feared God and they served their gods Elessar houla have my young man but as time passed Absalom do a cetera pressure kept Sciuto until they study Torah and they interpreted the Torah literally omits reshef zicoba I'm a dr. Kimball Mexican bard might the mitzvahs that they did except they used to be very meticulous about and they would hold on to it very tightly as the Talmud brings an opinion elsewhere the de mitzvahs that they did you could trust them more than you could trust the ordinary Jews they were very strict about those mitzvahs that they embraced via musicom shame a minim had asked me action in vain removed him of a desire they were accepted to be loyal citizens of the Jewish people believing in the Jewish faith and not worshiping idols at shikaku hakama harima matzah mccottry Messiah Greeson then the sages inquired and investigate and have found that they sanctified the Mount of agrees emotion across episode over matzah limbus a hard Mussina vinuda he moved every desire when they researched further for the cause they found there was an image of a dove on the mountain and they were deemed as idol worshipers for us I read number Milo's going tomorrow Mahadev RAM and then they degraded them and began to see them as Gentiles for how much attempts of omission in manana yakusan Shamari shame alumina agree Amira anything you will found in the Mishnah is literature which shows that they were superior to other Gentiles although inferior to the Jewish people could go in Amram son below like the sages same is Amna Mimico see you could make am assuming you could do grace after meals with the Kushi Baku CI maverick aku C blesses after the meal was all awesome and similar things calls a kind of Shabbat Kuwahara this is before they investigated and found that they were Ida idolatrous offal mission but Kuwahara muramatsu commercial manu heard him grew him in a e ID but once they found out what was really happening then they're considered inferior even to the Gentiles Dazs ice you should know this latest iris Lanzer allah allah subhan mantras are efficacy so that i don't my mind that he says have to repeat this principle every time you'll see the word qu c so during the time they're living with the jewish people through our stages and changes in the attitude of the rabbis and the sages to this nation to this people called Kusum or living as Samaritans in Samaria now we come to the story of the Midrash that I introduced in the beginning where rabbi unison explains that when the Torah says you should not have a barren man or a woman it's referring to you should not be barren from a response from the ability to be able to respond adequately to those who condemn you to those who shun you and to those who try to prove you as dead wrong bring up source number seven let's see the story the Midrash says to explain the view of rabbi unison my Suburbia innocent shyamala hates only Poulin shall Kusum there's a story about our by unison he was traveling near a city populated by the Kusum now you all know by now who the Kusum are right the custom are those people who sang care of their Syrian King relocated from southern Iraq from kusa to Samaria the area around Mount Gerizim shomron today you have Shem as I said right under Mount grism and mountain near Mount evil as well for here a civil Hammurabi Edison was riding on a donkey waha bomb emo and his animal rider was with him the one who was riding the actual donkey was leading the donkey he's called a bomb the one leading the bahama the one leading the animal miss Leveaux lamb coochie a hot one Kushi accompanied them escorted them he give you a tell high reason the donkey arrived with the people with Rafa unison with the leader of the animal to mount Greeson mount grism in Samaria above the city of sham I was a few years ago visiting Israel so I went special attack Mount Gerizim although it's dangerous today on the bottom of Mount grism which there's a settlement the Jewish settlement called higher bracha the mountain of blessing because mountain Greeson was the mountain of blessing versus mount ava which is the mountain of curse on the bottom there's a very fresh mikvah which comes from a very fresh wall spring where I had the privilege to take a dip and eat fresh fruits that grow around that mikvah near the settlement of har bracha nearby there's a settlement called Itamar and and other settlements nearby recent years have had many victims in the in the ongoing tension in that area so they come to mount grism Omar it's fascinating because you go to these places you know you touch their earth and there's so much history literally thousands of years of history so I went to Mount grism and you could you could sense in the earth the depth and the layers and layers of history so now we come to another story of mountain gorillas and right there at Mount Gerizim Omar I say couselor be honest and this Kushi tells of unison raba mouthing the Hadean to record - what is the reason that this mountain is sacred on malaria be honest and La Mohawk on - Robeson tells the crew see why is it holy who said it's holy you guys decided it's holy because the customs sanctified they worship the Mount grism that's where they built their temple not Jerusalem it was Mount grism that's where they worship they believed that all the holy things happened there's the holiest site for them in the Land of Israel so Rebbe Arneson says who says it's holy on my way I see Haku see what everybody's it why is it holy who made it holy I'm away I see I could see the Kushi responds to him should I look of a mayor marble it was not struck by the waters of the flood when the flood during the times of Noah came and flooded the earth the Mount of grism was not flooded on my layer by unison tells the Kusum in Iowa what's the source for this on my lay that Kushi tells our behind us and like a sieve isn't it a clear verse in the Bible in the book of Haskell The Book of Ezekiel chapter 22 verse 24 the verse says been Adam God says son of man mr law speak to her speak to the Land of Israel to the country of Israel Eretz low-mid Tahara hey is this a land which is not pure like ooshima biomes um there was no rain on this land on the day of wrath this is a pure land this is what Ezekiel testifies there was no flood like goosh mobygames um eric's language sorry is this a land which is not pure certainly not this is a pure land so when it rained during the flood this land was speared on my layer be honest in unison tells the Kusum Cain of so how you Laila Cottage Berto Helene will ania flawless Lashon will a losses TAVR God should have told Noah to go up to Mount grism why did he have to tell him to build a mark if on Mount Gerizim there was no flood so you should have said North to mount grism why did he have to make him build an ark maile the Kushi answered lay us a canal alanis I say he did it only to test Noah's faith but really there was no Florida mannerism shall Sakura be honest on her Venus and remained quiet he didn't have an answer the Kushi apparently struck alhambra he proved from a verse in Ezekiel there was no flood in the Land of Israel and yet Noah still made an ark and therefore Mount grism is sacred Oh male abomb the rider of the animal who was leading rabbi innocence donkey tells his Reber 10 lira Schuessler Moldova record master give me permission to tell this Kushi one thing on Marlo rabbi unison says Mr telleth Emily I say I bomb the rider of the animal tells the Kushi eina our rosetta hashamayim tell me his mound grism not under the heavens Oh Molly I say aku see the clue see tells the rider of the animal samaya obviously what is it outside of the domain of the heavens every mountain is under the heavens how gonna be a mountain that under the heavens certainly it's under there I'm a layer above the brighter of the animal tells the crew see in that's true now chief I'm sorry omal a thousand ain't safe doesn't it say in the portion of Noah when it describes the flood Hamish s-sorry I'm on my log of room I am by Yasu Cole how hurry Maguire masataka scholar sir my the waters of the flood reached such a height that they reached 15 amis above the mountains and they covered even all of the tall mountains under all of the heavens no you just gave yourself away he said Mount Gerizim was under the heavens the Torah clearly testifies that every mount under the heavens was covered with water me a drop we are double unison Meena Kumari caviar bar millet immediately there a barrier behind us and went off the donkey and he became the rider of the donkey and four million almost four miles that he lead the donkey and upon it was riding the rider of the donkey who responded to the coup see the korolev opposite as an Arab unison said on his animal ride at his verse in Isaiah chapter 54 you Shayan and Dalit Maharashtra in Takuma takla mishpokhe party every tongue which will stand up against you you will find wrong you will be able to know how to defend yourself against the tongue that tries to condemn you hiyee now Reb - and says will understand the blessing of the portion of acres la hierba sucker Vaccaro OB bam taka you shall not have a barren man among you nor a barren woman among you not even among your animals sort of Uranus and explained what does it mean you should never be barren you should never be short from having the ability of producing an answer an adequate response you obey him tomorrow bibim Tasha bah bahah Minshall ha even the Bahaman of yours even the writers of your animals even those Jews who are simply animal riders they're not the great scholars and intellectuals and learned people there the animal riders they too will not be lacking the ability to be able to answer to be able to respond even bambietta the Bahaman will be able to respond this is the story in the Midrash now let's ask ourself the question what was going on here what was the nature of the argument Reb unison is riding with his donkey rider they come to mound grism the Kushi is there with them he wants to know why it's holy rebus and says who says it's holy so he says because there was no flood there now I should mention there is another Meldrick elsewhere which recounts the story this is a Madras Noah this madness is an ache of the another magician Noah the story is recounted there as well with a little different namely the Kushi Astra be honest and where you going he said he's going to pray at Jerusalem he said why pray at Jerusalem with his a ruined house why not pray at Mount Greeson and then they had this exchange but regardless the point is the same why did the Kushi want to prove that there was no flood there what did he gain from discovering that there was no flood there and the bureau nursin wanted to say that there is a flood there what was the nature of the argument if there was no flood there or there was a flood there how does it prove the point let me explain the question the first that he brought from your Hesco from Ezekiel was that in the whole land there was no flood so the whole land is holy Ezekiel doesn't say on Mount Greece and there was no flood Ezekiel says in the whole land if you remember the verse Eretz loin meat Tahari my gooosh Bobby I'm Sam Arabs limit re the whole land is pure they didn't have the flood so how does the Kushi get from this verse to prove that Mount grism didn't have the flood and therefore it's holy verses every other place there was no flood in the land it's a whole deal and there was no flood at Mount Gerizim it's part of the Holy Land and somehow this proves this point it confers special holiness on mountain tourism more than the rest of the land why and herb unasyn stubbornly says no there was no flood until he silence and the rider of his animal has to prove that there was a flood but here very interesting ideas emerging and it deals with the very nature of holiness you see we have to understand that throughout history there was a major dispute ation between the authentic Jews have always lived in the land and the Kusum who came from another country and were relocated there by their Syrian King the custom would always claim that they were the authentic Jews till today and that's why when the Jews wanted to rebuild the Second Temple in Jerusalem the Kusum used very aggressive measures to try to stop them they hunted down the Jews they persecuted them because they felt that the Jews were alien conquerors who came from Babylonia and were occupying land that did not belong to them that's why the Jews used to call them custom to emphasize that they came from kusa not from Israel from the land of kusa they themselves did not call themselves custom they called themselves some Ronin why some random sham Ronin is the name of some Rome Sumeria part of the land also comes from Lord show mer preserve that they are the ones who are preserving the Jewish tradition they are from the original Jews in fact they believed they used to claim that they're from the tribe of Joseph they are from the children of Ephraim and Manasseh and this is the territory that they had their original descendents of the Jewish people so although this wasn't a very old historical truth that they were relocated by their Syrian King but very after a few generations they were propagating this fantasy that they were here for ever the moment the jews entered into the land they were here and now when the jews come back save us seeing when the dudes come back during the beginning of the Second Temple to rebuild the second temple there's a major fight the book of Ezra and kemiya discusses this fight at length what they are saying is the Persian Empire is a colonial empire who took the Jews who are living in Babylonia in Iraq and are planting them in foreign territory and soil trying to displace the native citizens of the land who are the coos it will always live there they are the real citizens and the Jews are the occupiers the aliens who are coming and trying to take over and conquer illegally the land from its true authentic masters there's Jim Rohn in the samaritans sounds familiar and this tension goes on throughout the entire Second Temple era because the ten tribes were exiled one hundred and thirty years hundred and thirty three years before the destruction of the first temple 70 years later the Jews come back now throughout the Second Temple era for four hundred and twenty years this tension continues going on this sham Ronen see in the Jews who live during the Second Temple the descendants of the occupiers of the alien settlers who came in infiltrated and occupied their land the Jews conversely look at the shem ronin and they sees them as Kusum they were people who seized the land of the Jews while the Jews were punished and exiled from their land through God as the Tanakh describes that the ten tribes and the Empire of the ten tribes were morally degenerated and corrupt in horrific ways and hence they were exiled and as this was happening the land was seized by the Kusum this it maybe is what is at the core of the argument what the Kushi says is there was no flood in the Holy Land you know why Israel is not vulnerable to corruption it's too sacred it's holy therefore no flood can destroy the land or can destroy the inhabitants of the land because this is the land of sacredness it's corrupted it's it's not corruptible and therefore certainly if the flood couldn't reach the Holy Land no nation could be exiled from this land the land is holy and as a result of this holiness the inhabitants of the land are holy the flood couldn't reach it that nobody could have been excellence of mahler you can't believe therefore you can't believe the Jews that they used to live there and they were exiled certainly they were never there there's some wrote him on the other hand were always there rabbi unison at the end is silent he's aware of the fact that there is even a pen opinion among our sages that there was no flood in the Land of Israel but he sees it from a different angle so what the Kushi is trying to prove from the lack of the flood of the Land of Israel is that this is ours and Mount grism is our mountain now we understand his logic the fact that Israel did not have a flood shows it's not vulnerable to corruption nobody could have been exiled from here this explains why they worshiped the image of a dove why a dove why Petzl Celina I spoke before a source number we had it in source number five from the gomorian Gulen pestilentia could read you could look at it they worship the image of a dove wired of you remember the story of the Dove with is the Dove emerge in the Bible Noah sent the Dove to go check if the world if the earth is habitable of people they could come out of the ark and the Dove came out it plucked on Ally's eyes had plucked the olive the leaf of an olive tree and it brought it back to the Ark of Noah we did the Dove exactly get the leaf of an olive tree if there was such a flood the trees must have been destroyed like well the people were destroyed we did it defined a fresh leaf of an olive tree where if it was just a floating leaf in the water somewhere probably will have been destroyed but even if there was the air it would improve that the water receded where did it not find this this is an old question everybody asks it one of the opinions in the Madras is that there was no flood in the Land of Israel and the Dove went there and the trees weren't destroyed then the Dove took a Aleph a leaf from an olive tree there it's an opinion in the Madras there are other opinions they worship now the image of the Dove which is the symbol of the lack of the flood which for them symbolizes the fact that Israel is not corruptible now to prove that this may be their philosophy we have another verse in the Bible which actually explicitly says that this was the Jewish perspective before the destruction of the first temple and the Exile of the other two tribes take a look source number 8 here me Oh Jeremiah chapter 7 says you're Mia Zion says this listen to his words Prophet Jeremiah was the Prophet during the destruction of the first temple in the hands of the Babylonian what does he say koyama regime Seleucus allocation also said god haiti who there hates him a mile away enhance your ways and your schemes vishakan ask amber McComas SI will dwell with you in this place alt if those who love him will give us a call a myrrh do not rely and put their hope in the lie saying hey how I am hey seller Sam hey Celeste ma ma here you have the chamber of God the chamber of God the chamber of God and it cannot be destroyed how can the house of God can the epicenter of holiness in the world be vulnerable to be consumed in Avadh net source flames Jeremiah says don't listen to these false words came hate if tative OS dark a shimmer small elation if you will enhance your ways and schemes in us a path some wish but many shall bury a you if you live with justice between one man and his fellow man Gaius my Monalisa chiku you won't rob a convert an orphan or a widow damn naki I'll tissue Bamako Mazda you won't spill innocent blood in this place after alec imitate him lease sale a collar all of them you won't follow alien God's to your detriment Vichy hunt II wish I can t ask in Bamako Massa poritosh Anna sathi lava Solomon I love our dalam then I will dwell with you in this land that I have given to your father's for eternity from eternity to eternity here we have the two perspectives the Kushi is saying we can't believe the Jews that they were exiled there was no flood here it's not vulnerable to destruction what is it a behind us in trying to say that's not the case but he's silenced because the Kushi proves indeed that there was no flood comes the bomb comes the rider of the animal and he proves from the verse that there was a flood in the Holy Land what is the argument here it's not just an argument if you could say that Jews were exiled and therefore they came back that's on one level but there's an argument here about the nature of holiness the great blessing that's being given here la hierba haka Vaccaro viva ham town you should not be barren from a response you should be able to respond to the cozy and even the writers of your animals should be able to respond it is expressed in this story even the rider of the animal who is connected very much with the physical land with the physicality of the land he's a rider of an animal in the land understands the nature of holiness very different than the koozie understands the koozie understands holiness as a privilege it's a static reality this is a holy place nothing can happen nobody can do anything to undermine it to destroy it the Jewish perspective on holiness is very different holiness is not just a privilege it's also a responsibility holiness cannot cover up on the corruption of human beings who live in a holy place on the contrary the holiness of a particular place demands higher ethical and moral standards from the people who walk in the pathways of holiness and the people who live in a region of holiness holiness can't cover up immorality promiscuity corruption and say hey kailash am hate so much that makes a lesser maimie this is divine this is holy on the contrary if it's holy it's more sensitive and if it's more sense that if the people who live there have to be more sensitive and they have to live in a deeper more holy more sacred way don't look at holiness as an absolute thing that doesn't change it's a dynamic holiness is a reality that we have to be sensitive to and our own corruption can take us out of that place of holiness and even the bomb or maybe precisely the bomb the rider of the animal connected to the earth of the land to the physicality of the land in a very real way understood this as the nature of holiness now it's interesting if you take a look at source number 9 as I mentioned in Gomorrah and Swaffham there's an argument between a Bureau and Irish luggage rabbi Shimon says there was no flood in the Holy Land who lucky says there was a flood in other words Rubio cannon agrees with this Kushi who says there was no flood in the Holy Land so that's number nine you could take a look at it so source number 10 pay service in svaha Feud gimel asks the question open up source number 10 twice versus how can you be I shouldn't say there was no flood we see from this mattress that this was the KUSI's opinion and theis was gives two answers let me say the first answer is what hyster says even if there was no flood in the Holy Land but the water is still traveled there and since the water is still traveled there therefore Mount Gerizim was still covered the Kushi wanted I believe that even water did not travel there no heat no water it was completely a corruptible if you're in this senator Simmons opinion is no the flood itself may have not been there but the waters have traveled there and covered mountain reason because the corruption of people wherever they live even in the holiest land does not get tolerated because it's a holy place on the contrary holiness merely means that I that we have to refine ourselves more and make ourselves worthy for the holiness not a privilege only but a responsibility I'll conclude with a story there was once a Jew in the 1960s who visited Israel and he took pictures you know every tourists the main thing is to take pictures sometimes even more important than the visit itself as you know there was no picture how you gonna tell people you were there how you gonna know you were there so he took pictures and pictures the whole journey took pictures as he left the land either his film got exposed Musa do the old the old cameras the old negatives before digital or Blackberry pictures either the film got exposed or he lost his film he lost all of his pictures and he was devastated see he wrote a letter to the lubavitcher rebbe asking why it happened to him and I saw the letter it's printed there ever wrote to him I'm not thinking the answer verbatim was the constant there ever said to him maybe that one of the lessons for him is this he went to the Holy Land he left the land if he would have had his pictures he would have felt ah I have been to the land look at all these pictures that I have to prove that I was here and here and there and I took a picture with this person and at this site and a disgrace and at this location and at this distraction I was here but you may have actually not been there you may have physically been there but you may have not absorbed to the holiness of the land the intense spirituality the godliness of the land now you have no pictures so this will challenge you to be able to make sure that you really have the land with you not just you have a picture of it but that the holiness of it became part of you have a wonderful evening [Music]