Parshat Vayakhel: Questions and Answers - Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz

[Music] yeah yeah it is a good question because on one hand you know we always talk about Sato a go theta angle and how this is such a stain on the entire Jewish nation and we still bear the consequences of the Phaedo a go to this very day now she quotes across all that every punishment that Amish girl gets for any sin is still connected a little bit to the fade a go but then you read the foolish and you say you know this wasn't something where everybody was worshipping this golden calf I mean there were three thousand people that were killed now three thousand people out of six hundred thousand men from 20 up and a population probably around three million people this does not seem to be a very very great number so it says it was also my guess on the negative and the code doesn't say it could be a lot more dying although the census seems to be because of the census before not that soon as the numbers are equal might be there might be the area a lot of the area of ref that might be a possibility because the area of rubber not included in the sequence does he respond to the sequence it would have been a question yet he does not he doesn't he does not in fact I'm not aware of rish own him that I mean I don't know all they were shown him but I'm not aware of reshoring of it that's the question the question is raised by many acronym with different answers yeah that would be a superficial reason although that may be true also well you're you are 100% correct I'm gonna answer your question - I didn't forget about your question but there are many many symbols but but one of the symbols of Britta Mila I would I would I'll give you one that I think is a very nice message and that is the Covenant we make with God is by exposing that which is already within us meaning the Covenant is not by changing yourself but opening yourself up because what is a brick you cut and you expose and what that is doing is that every Jew in their soul already loves God and already has reverence for God and the soul is holy and our job is not to become a different person our job is to expose that which is within us that's one idea and another idea about the sexual organ in particular is said by the safer happy know that we think that the sexual organ is something that we share very much in common with animals and to some degree we think it's not subject to voluntary control but God is teaching us that through the Torah and the commandments even the animalistic parts of our existence can be elevated and sanctified in other words let's compare it for example to Catholicism right the or Christian a lot of Christianity says that in order to be holy you have to be celibate because Christianity kind of says oh yeah I understand their variations but let's say the Catholic doctrine in theory says that you can't be in both worlds you can't do animalistic things putting aside with the priests actually do okay that's another issue but you cannot do animalistic things and be a holy person now in Judaism you know celibacy is actually considered to be a sin a person is obligated to get married and try have children so what is Judy and Judaism telling us we don't consider the physical evil we consider the physical capable of being elevated and sanctified so them safer Athena says get to Mila on the sexual organ is highlighting the idea that even the physical animal urges can be elevated made holy right so that's kind of Li the deeper meaning now in terms of your question again first we'll grab a matzah lemon it's correct maybe more people did die that we don't know the numbers but the second thing is that Jews have a very heavy burden we are responsible not only for the actual sins we commit but for the sins that we endorse that we didn't protest that we simply let people do it it was tolerable cuz i wiii become co-conspirators as i'll say if you're able to protest now I don't mean throw rocks I'm not talking about that but but you know good if you're a you know that's a different thing that creates coalition but if you're able to stand up in protest evil and you simply remain silence it's no real excuse to Hashem I didn't do it I didn't murder the guy I just watched you know I just watched in a roof a murder Shimon not my fault I mean let's go back to my Charbonneau Mosher Boehner sees two jews fighting well first he sees the egyptian hitting the jew he intervenes moshe romania sees two Jews fighting Moshe intervenes I mean what's the lesson there it's not enough to simply stand back and say I'm not involved so the Phaedo ego is another example of that it's a it's a very difficult burden it's an a crisis but that's the idea of all of the Jewish people are raving Zelizer we are responsible for each other well the role of our burn is obviously problematical because we know that our own took the jewelry and and threw it into the fire and they go came out listen all the before em say I see the flemish itself seems to say it pretty clearly then ayran had a strategy of buying time Iren was hoping motion to come back and therefore he figured because like this he figured if he would protest they would kill him now it's not that aaron was afraid of dying arm is not afraid of dying but aaron was afraid of the divine retribution that a Shem would bring on the jewish people if iran would be killed they already killed four which is iran's nephew and there's a verse that says if you kill a Cohen Antonov II Corps was another yarn as a Cohen there is no forgiveness so again I want to point out it's not that Aaron was with you know a coward in terms of his own safety but Aaron literally felt that all of Chloe's law would be endangered had he had he had even killed [Music] well why do you assume they didn't have it I mean wouldn't don't be normal I mean there were times there were times in Jewish history where there literally were no torez there's like only one Torah they found but but they're a clown I think our assumption was that people were aware of the Torah they just decided not to keep it that's what's in the vm are coming the name were saying when the Nervii says keep the Torah that presupposes there's a Torah that people know afraid that they wouldn't know about it then the number would be giving a meaningless meaningless message right so I think no it doesn't the fact that it doesn't mention it simply indicates that it was a common common enough thing now there were times there were time for example in the reign of Menasha he was a you know very very evil King although because I'll say he may have done shuva Menasha so much virtually eradicated yiddish gates from Erik Israel that kimantha is no safer Torah they had found one Torah scroll in the base of McNish that's one linked but that was a very unusual that was Minaj's reign was not typical of even the other retirement [Music] [Applause]