People of the Book - Nodah B'Yehudah

good evening ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the next installment of the bookon synagogue's wonderful program called people of the book each week we take you through different personalities within our Rich tradition uh transformational leaders and personalities who contributed to Torah study to our sacred Torah texts and to so much more this evening we have the privilege of learning together about the great nuda rcal land the Yuda here's my copy is a staple in any re home and any B Med his Chas the name Yuda is part of the tapestry of response to literature when trying to decide any fundamental question in Jewish law we would be lost without the great no without the great no so tonight we'll learn a little bit more about who he was the life he led and his legacy that he leaves us not only his literary Legacy the legacy of the Torah that he leaves us but but also a legacy of leadership well beyond but let's go back to the very beginning let's start again from his beginning from his start from his childhood where does it begin the lives from 1713 to 79 1793 he's born in opta Poland and there's a map a little hard to see if it's small for you but we see his hometown where he's born he's the son of rabuda seal and Reb note his father's name is Yehuda hence the title of his book no Yehuda we'll see later in his own words why he chose to name his magnumopus his respon to literature in in the name of his father his grandfather was rabie elzar the r of dubno he was an only child which is fascinating the beuda who was an extraordinary Tam a great leader of the 18th century and whose Legacy continues till today was in fact an only child his family was wealthy was distinguished he did not grow up in poverty he did not grow up lacking he learned with rebuts like Isaac of ludmir and he was 12 years old and after that he was autodidactic he taught himself not for now but so many of the personalities of people of the book who we have seen were in fact autodidactic they taught themselves they didn't go to Yeshiva they weren't part of a system it's not to suggest that we shouldn't have our yeshivas or that we should not register our children or ourselves have regret for having attended it's not part of the definition of emerging a that you had to have learned or taught yourself however it is a fascinating theme or thread that runs through this phenomen of teaching and learning by oneself and not getting lost or distracted as part of a greater system when he turns 14 years old went to learn in bro where he stayed for four years at 18 years old he decides to pursue a wife after all the Mish says at 18 one should get married many matches were suggested you can imagine this only child was already emerging to be very uh uh very precocious very brilliant he came from an illustrious family very wealthy very comfortable um and many of the suggestions included large diaries that would have allowed him time to continue sit and to learn full-time 1732 marries liba the daughter ofak ofno a wealthy and charitable so you see he didn't marry her for her wealth she didn't marry him for his wealth they each came from comfortable means but her father was a and in fact fulfills the dictate of our great rabbis who say a person should try to marry a b one should search for the daughter of a the daughter of a righteous person parenthetically I recently saw writes that not everybody marries the daughter of a great Rabbi a Great Sage a great scholar so are they lacking are they somehow deficient in some way so writes is a category the daughter of a means someone who's raised by the father and mother in a certain way in a certain style and therefore there's certain assumptions about her own priorities her values and her lifestyle so our rabbis tell us marry a or the category of someone who falls takes it literally he marries liba the daughter ofno wealthy and shable after his wedding he goes to the father-in-law girl wants to live near her family and in fact they were taking care enabling him to continue to learn so after the after their wedding they go to dubno to be able to study there fulltime they were married for close to 60 years which today is extraordinary and any time is extraordinary I recently uh called someone to wish on their 71st wedding anniversary Kan Yu 60 years is a long time in any generation but particularly back then in the 18th century to be married for 60 years which means that each party had longevity and that together the couple had happiness and Longevity is nothing short of extraordinary in its own right understood that his Torah accomplishments were only due to her support and in fact in his introduction to his not this magnumopus of his response to literature he writes qu my wife has helped me a great deal she was willing to tolerate my frequent absence from the house as I devoted myself to learning Torah he credits his breakthrough he credits his Fame he credits his scholarship and contribution to her she was a partner she was encouraging she was supportive and she tolerated his being absent from the home regularly because that's what it took for him to become who he who he was after only a short time in's father-in-law decided to move back to bro and asked his daughter and sonin-law to come and a girl follows her parents not always but in this circumstance she did and she moved with her parents back to bro they agreed and after returning to the city he had studied him for four years as a young man now in 1734 he's only 20 years old and just put that in perspective think about who you were and what you were doing at 20 years old think about the 20 year olds you know today and just consider that Lando at 20 years old was appointed the a Basden the chief judge the Chief Justice of the Bro rical Court of the Brazen the bason of this great City 20 years old he served in that position for 11 years and during that time you rendered very important and significant H decisions that made him well known to be the a bason means that you're here in complicated cases you're adjudicating disputes but it also means you're answering difficult questions and Penning responsa so even this young man who began at only 20 and serves in this role till till uh 31 years old he earned a rep reputation far and wide for how brilliant for how wise for how insightful and for his and for his great scholarship 1745 and the ban denounced a man for violating Torah values the man was well connected with the Russian government who in turn forced to leave bro you know the says that you're not allowed to be fearful and kazal rabis saned learns from that that a person is not allowed to be fearful that a person should not shy away from hearing or adjudicating dispute a rabbi a scholar a judge should not refuse a demure from sitting on a basin because they're worried about their well-being their safety the almighty wants us to be in that position to pursue Justice to protect it umed justice is not only sing to be protected in fact it it flees from us so much so that we are encouraged and instructed that we have to run after it so this man was connected with the Russian government who turned ones when Landa was undeterred by his connection and by his threats um he was forced to leave they left immediately together with his in-laws Carriage rode until it came to a town that turned out to be dubno and they stayed there for only a few months before an envelope arrived and the envelope came from the city of yampo now what is the city they needed a chief Rabbi and they heard this individual who served as the basen at only 20 years old who had earned a great reputation who left in fact not with his tail between his legs he didn't leave in in shame he didn't leave because he was run out of town he left in fact in a way which was really admirable he left because he was so scrupulous he left because he was undeterred to pursue Justice even if a very powerful person was not going to be on the uh on the favorable ruling they agreed and recruited him to be their chief rabba he agreed he rose to be the rabinal leader I've B the head of the town's Yeshiva where many students flock to study with him now I can tell you as somebody who does their best to be a rabbi today that one position is difficult enough one rabic position is hard to balance it's hard to manage but when you consider for a moment that Reeses Lando served as the r the a the head of the Yeshiva can only imagine the responsibilities can only imagine the time constraints can only imagine the burden can only imagine the fundraising he remained in that position for another 10 years and then another envelope arrived the's life can be summarized the different stages of his life and the places he lived by the arrival of these envelopes imagine if there were email then how many places he would have moved now where does this other envelope arrive from well let's take a step back and talk about the N Yehuda lives in the 18th century in the 1700s but it comes on the heels of the Jewish people being very rocked rocked by the controversy of shabti who is shab shab 1626 to 1676 it takes place after Niki slaughtered over a 100,000 Jews the terrible kitki um uh persecutions that killed a 100,000 Jews we're not talking about some small figures talking about devastating numbers and after theik slaughtered so many Jews this Turkish Rabbi and cabalist emerged and In 1664 shab which was not his name was proclaimed by Nathan of Gaza as the long awaited Messiah as is often the case with false Messiahs and we could do a whole series tracing and tracking the false Messiah throughout Jewish history but as as is often the case um it's after the in the aftermath it's in the shadow of a crisis of a catastrophe of of a total uh annihilation of the Jewish people that the people are desperate they're desperate for a messenger a harbinger of Hope of optimism of Faith they are ripe for the possibility of being taken by a false Messiah it happened many times before shab and happened after and the case of shab was no different afteri slaughtered over 100,000 Jews then chap emerges on the scene and a disciple Nathan of Gaza declared him to be the long awaited Messiah 1666 at age 40 he's forced by the ottoman Sultan mmed IV to convert to Islam and with that you can imagine is the end all these people had followed him people were confused people wanted to believe they jumped on the bandwagon until he was forced to convert and the one who was supposed to be the Jewish Messiah himself converted to Islam obviously that was the end of the illusion of his serving in that role but it spurned a series of other false Messiahs again a reflection of the deep desperation of the people who were simply waiting and hopeful wanting something we can't even begin to compare what we're going through with this pandemic to thei revolts that slaughtered 100,000 Jews to the Inquisition the Crusades the Holocaust and the like but we need to know that the same feelings that many have today of hopelessness and despondency same depression the same isolation same feeling that this is uh the new normal and it'll never get better everyone's just waiting for a message of positivity oh there's a vaccine hope oh there's a possibility we've learned something more about the virus wait there might be a light at the end of the tunnel we can relate again in our own small way because of what globally we are all universally going through but the Jewish people went through this regularly when they experienced catastrophe and crisis and afterwards they were so desperate for some message and the message wasn't always or wasn't often authentic and it came across in a false way it introduced suspicion for centuries that great rabbis were really saans that some great rabbis and this is of course a topic that Professor schne Lyman has lectured on extensively JJ shakar who has a dissertation ROV emden has lecture on extensively um but the whole suspicion that even great rabbis whose names were so familiar with were saans were followers of shab that they two were swept up in the movement was an enormous suspicion 1725 a group of rabbis in Prague announced that followers of shab shab was long dead we're already into the next Century but still continuing to feel his influence that followers of shab should be excommunicated the rabbis were led by the head of praga rit in 1751 wrote a Kamya an amulet an amulet is worn around the neck is supposed to have medicinal and healing uh capacity soit great cabalists and Mystics and Scholars had certain traditions of how to write such a Kam such an amulet for sick people and himself in 1751 wrote such an amulet for a sick woman who was wored about dying in child birth there's a sample of the amulet on the right if you're listening online later there's a PowerPoint you can find it in the YouTube video The Great rakov announced the suspicion that RIT himself was a follower of shab and embedded references to the false messiah in that amulet and here we have this Collision of two the greatest rabbis of the time rakov emden rakov Emin there not a page of mish that urn that doesn't quote the decisions of Rak is a of the German World at the time and since then and here we have this Collision of the two rakov the Contemporary RIT is accusing him of embedding into that amulet messages about CH that he is in fact a Sati and a follower of shab a huge controversy erupts and rabbis from all over the world weigh in including such great luminaries as the P Yeshua of Yeshua FAL and others again we've examined uh in the courses at BRS and there are phenomenal Scholars and scholarship on these topics but it's fascinating that not only is there collision between but that it's able to draw in some of the greatest sages and leaders of the time so many wrote to one of those great sages who at that time had already earned a reputation had served as AB rashash a he earned a reputation as a great tamic scholar and leader so in 1754 r Yuda who gets drawn into this controversy and drawn into this conflict pin a letter called igom means a letter of peace and his goal his mission is to try to reconcile these two great rabbis shouldn't be together at War yakob em in every day he had a he had a printing press in his basement and it's been said about him I think JJ Shaker says about him how this controversy would have been different and that historical period would have been different if rakov then every time he wrote something he had to bring it to a publisher and he had to convince them that it was worth publishing that it would in fact sell he didn't he had the equivalent today of a copy machine of a mass printer in his basement and with every thought he was able to print it and things could have been or would have been different if not so Rando weighs in in this controversy and he writes the following quote let us gain understanding from the elders and learn from the wise the sages of the T declared that the book of K should be part of tanak both its beginning and its end teach the fear of Heaven similarly this Torah genius Ritz is also full of fear of Heaven from his beginning to his end from his youth until today he has toiled to learn Torah without cease he has acquired the Torah and taught it to others and as our sages say sin cannot come about through a holy person hisus his saintliness is humility his Good Deeds are well known he's helped many people abandon their evil ways who else in our generation speaks out against evil as strongly as he indeed he concludes the reason the amulet should be put away has to be made clear so that no one misunderstands it it should be clear to everyone that is not is not suspected of having any bad intent and that he is perfectly blameless so the weighs in he tries to bring together and reconcile these two sides he says put the amulet away get rid of the Kamya let it not be the subject of controversy or suspicion let no one accuse it even falsely of having satian references but on the other hand how could anyone accuse the great just like our rabbis debated the book of cois which so easily be misunderstood and misconstrued ultimately it begins with and ends with a message of fear of heaven and therefore earns a place in the Canon so to who he's righteous in his fear of heaven and therefore he earns a place in the cannon of Jewish history of Torah scholarship of great and it should be without without question um okay continuing Prague Jews had lived in Prague since the very beginning of the city in the 1300s again there was more to talk about I just wanted to share the the the huda's contribution to that conversation to that controversy the next period is is is related to associated with the city of Prague Jews had lived in Prague since the very beginning of the city the 1300s they were confined to a ghetto which expanded with the Jewish population and the center of the ghetto was the Alton a great and beautiful building that's a picture of it on the right the old new that's the combination of its names Alta means old new obviously new Alta the old new was originally built in 1270 and it was restored Renovations were made and the residents of Prague included great Scholars Prague was in it was a great City position of Chief Rabbi of Prague was among the most coveted among the most prestigious in Europe it had to be filled by somebody who was worthy had previously been held by the and by the lman heler these were individuals not only for their great works but known for who they were their great leadership so this position as the as the chief Rabbi of Prague Prague as I said was an in 1740 Charles I 6 died and his daughter Maria Tesa became Empress of Hungary and Bohemia in 1744 four years later a Pious Catholic gave an order expelling Jews from Prague a year later she expanded the decree to expel Jews not only from Prague but from all of the broader area Bohemia and Aria and the second decree was never carried out but the expulsion from Prague was enacted so Jews who had such a long and illustrious history with Prague Prague a city that was so synonymous with Jewish people and Jewish leadership became uden and became free of Jews as Jews were expelled 1748 after tremendous bargaining and negotiations just a short time later Jews were allowed back to their homes in Prague in exchange for an extraordinary High tax you know whatever problems we have have whether you live in Israel America if you're living in a democracy which is welcoming Jews to live equal lives equal rights the challenges can't be minimized or understated but how blessed we are to live in such blessed times when you think back to Prague 18th century not that long ago and so many other cases of expulsions and Jews were allowed to go back to their own homes not because there was some sense of regret or remorse not because of some sense of justice not because of some cancel culture Jews were allowed to go back to their homes because they they agreed to pay an extraordinary High tax if the Jews would contribute to the economy by paying an unfair High tax then they were allowed to come home so once they came back to Prague it was time to select the new Chief Rabbi and who was there other thanes Land one person objected saying he supported rakov Emon by demanding that R put the amulet away and another person said the exact opposite what are you talking about he supported Rak of by putting the amulet away he's aor by testifying so boldly about his righteousness he sided with and testified to his innocence when in fact maybe was right maybe in fact was a satian and as they debated which side he had taken they came to realize that in fact igaram was a brilliant attempt to not take either side they realized what too many leaders failed to realize that their goal is not always to take a side sometimes it's try to bring peace and to bring Harmony it's to be effective not always to be right had not tried to take a side or endorse either side he had simply tried to restore a sense of peace and Harmony and they came to understand that they decided they were worthy to extend an invitation toel to leave yampo this was the new envelope that had arrived that we alluded to and with that he went from yampo and became the chief Rabbi of Prague and upon accepting it he was welcomed to Prague and the way that he was welcomed was with Pomp and Circumstance live music a band dancing a big celebration a big suda the streets were filled with people who so excited and eager to rush into a new era of Rabin leadership and scholarship celebrating likely not only the arrival of the N Yuda but their own return to a city they had been expelled from and to restore it to its roots of greatness of Jewish greatness with a Jewish great leader one of R's first priorities in Prague was to strengthen the Yeshiva there he spent only half a day functioning as a rabbi as a RV and he dedicated the other half to learning and teaching in the Yeshiva each day Hali he was able to find that balance and he served both as rashash Shiva he had a shear and the r of the community of the city he continued teaching when others took off the Yesa met during and on fast days and on Fridays in this way maybe it's a precursor to the zberman Yesa which is the only day that it is off I think it's Tish I think they even have yes on Yumer afternoon and here this yes of prag the Yuda never took off the nuda continued to teach even on days that others considered or called between the periods of learning he never took off he begins many of his letters by stating he doesn't have much time and he references because he's very busy in the Yesa he was very dedicated to his students prominent among them we know Danzig who is a great great grandfather of Rabbi Mas thean lived 1748 to 1820 he was a businessman who ultimately princ this wonderful work as well was a student was a of the Yuda so was the M Mario who wrote many notable in among them and the who lives 1754 to 1826 these are among his prominent students in one letter he writes theud I received your letter and I recalled your studies in the yes and yo and now I'm happy to hear that you've become a rabbi in a community he was dedicated to his students he stayed in touch to his students he corresponded with his students in another letter of his we have he writes to tell the truth I've been very surprised that you haven't written since leaving me nevertheless I asked about you and I heard that you are succeeding in your learning I'm always delighted to hear that my students have grown and succeeded that is my delight both in this world and the world to come sometimes people don't appreciate just today I got a phone call from somebody who consulted me several months ago about a difficult question in his family life and uh called me today to follow up and tell me that there was very good news as a followup and I said thank you a lot of times Rabon rabbis rash Yeshiva Rim moras teachers we invest ourselves in others and we're there in difficult times we don't always know what happens in the end what the outcome is so you see this goes back this is not a new phenomena gando himself says to his students I was so dedicated to you and you graduated and left the Yeshiva I hadn't heard from you so eager to know how you're doing and what's doing 1763 after the seven-year War Jews were financially decimated in order not P pressure on people the created communal takos and this is one of the things that he's famous for uh don't try this at home today but the created these communal takas number one he limited the amount of money people could spend on celebrations they should not be too ostentatious they shouldn't put people in debt it shouldn't create a sense of competitiveness or shame for the people who can't number two only 10 men can be invited to a bar mitzvah meal besides the boy his father the caterer and out of town guests I assume the mother too in addition there can only be 10 men invited so you'd have a minion but it shouldn't get too big too broad it shouldn't be again too too large no musicians are B at the meal if a person pays less than a certain amount of communal taxes he may serve only beef duck or chicken but not two of those dishes so this is a detailed detailed Tak can you imagine Raam they've tried it Tak weddings Tak Simas hasn't qu on but imagine that level of detail of what you can serve on the menu if you are receiving scholarship from school or you're receiving du's adjustment to sh or you're not uh able to pay your fair share in these other institutions then there was a Tak that you were also Limited in the type of SIM you could make no more than four musicians at a wedding the banquet no more than 15 couples no walking around with expensive clothing no more small private man in people's houses instead of coming to sh I like that last takana not during pandemic times when it's much more complicated but he was Community Driven there should be a sense of community and even if there are other localized M they should be coordinated through Community not private m in people's homes back to our friend Maria Teresa despite her varent anti symatic measures reesco wrote a prayer for her recovery from smallpox she was struck with small pox in 1767 he delivered a public eulogy in fact when she died uh 1780 13 years later where he extols her virtues and contributions did he really admire her or was this Shalom was this in order of diplomacy with local authorities he praised her political skills as a ruler and he acknowledged her as a warrior and uh described her piety and aesthetic lifestyle and philanthropy he really laid it on thick about about her um again we have the eulogy that he gave um I'm sure he meant it would never lie but I'm sure it was also strategic and that was a sad story a sad element of his life a terrible fire broke out in the small ghetto and's home was burned and you can imagine in those days you didn't sit with a keyboard and a computer an internet connection you didn't upload it to the cloud and have it backed up in several different ways it was handwritten and his writings which he had labored over toiled over his writings many of them were lost in that fire in his home in Prague and he took it as a sign that it was time to publish so in 1777 his respon was published on all four sections of including 850 resp respon 850 letters detailed complicated uh referencing really comprehensive he explains in the introduction that he called it no beuda which is an expression that comes from and what does means known no welln beuda because he writes quote the only reason I'm famous is due to the Merit of my father Yehuda who was a great man when we began I told you pay attention to his father's name and he points out with great humility and with modesty that the reputation he has is not earned from himself but rather with humility he says it comes from his father his response to these Chas know to be they spread quickly and broadly he began receiving letters of rebuttal and agreement further questions and he has a correspondence around them he corresponds with people in the Bohemian lands in Poland Germany Italy when you are established as a great when people admire and see you as an authority and they either seek your backing or they disagree with you because they disagree with your conclusion he's able to have this correspondence he addresses his response in a very personal way identifying and mentioning his correspondence often sometimes you have some post in their tras where barely reference uh by name the people who've written to them or any circumstance uh in which they're living and you know nothing about their times their contemporary times the is different he mentions his respondents by name and identifies them he when he asked why he answered ignorant people he says quote it is my custom to answer whoever writes to me even the smallest of the small and that too is another expression of his humility that that whatever the question it reminds me of mosha Feinstein zal had a woman in the Lower Side in his neighborhood he used to call him every Friday and ask him what time Li benching what time is candle lighting for chabas and he didn't say get a calendar lady ask somebody else what are you asking me there was no question that was too small and that is a very very important point for everybody not just for rabbis who answer questions but to help people learn and realize that there's no question that is too small 1783 he published the first volume of a slap so we talked about his nuda which he began to publish after that fire and maybe it's his magnumopus he's most welln by that name we refer to him we call him not we call him theud but he has other very important works as well 1783 the is an Acron it's a commentary in the and it's based on the sh he used to give Thea remember he wasn't just a wasn't just a POS but he was a not just an he was a rash and the sh he publishes the on the volumes of Tad in subsequent years he published further volumes and after he was too ill his son published more and his other include the 1827 published POS humously sermons and homes do if you look on the side of the addition you have the comments the gloss on the from the known as the dooa while he was a great traditionalist he was not opposed to certain change changes and reforms on the one he's part of the traditionalist community and he defended the M of our people but on the other hand he was open in response to the rule that all children were required to receive a secular education he helped found a government supervised Jewish Elementary School in Prague in 1782 he didn't outright oppose it categorically but he rather said Jews should be in charge in control of it and help found this government supervised School 1788 when Joseph II became the first European ruler to enlist Jews he supported conscription he spoke to the first group before they set off so you see again that even while he was a traditionalist in many respects in many regards he also was open-minded in others and even if he didn't believe necessarily in conscription or in secular education he was a very Visionary leader who understood that better for for him to be in charge better for the Jewish people to have our destiny in our own hands than to leave it to others which could bring oppression and persecution what was the relationship between theud and the B was born 13 years before so he's an earlier contemporary and began a movement that we know swept across Europe we've spoken in the past great rivalries aboutus versus misus B versus the gro you can find it online like many other great rabbis including the villain the gone opposed kasas and here is a paradox here is an enormous irony which is difficult in many ways to understand Lando was opposed to kidus there were others who weren't proos um but they weren't opposed they Were Somehow neutral or tried to remain neutral among them maybe but was opposed toid and yet admired him why for his greatness described as quote a New Soul the of the B said he had no equal in deciding and had never made a mistake in his decisions B himself is aor but he describes the as the last word in years later son writes quote were still alive I would climb under his table to serve at his feet because his intentions were for all for the sake of Heaven he was an extraordinarily holy and Pious man so despite his own opposition toas didn't oppose him they embraced him they admired him they revered him and they followed him now he issued many rulings disputing practices again Theus of today Rando would be proud of he would be part of be part of he' be proud of and he would have no problem with but the early which had some practices and Customs he viewed at as needing to push back for example two Chas he has a Chu where the had introduced a new practice if we had the time I'd learn these tras with you inside they're fascinating introduced a new practice which was to say the formula before doing a Mitzvah they found that people were doing Mitzvah mindlessly they were simply performing them uh mul they were doing it by rote so how do you get somebody to Center themselves to focus to do it mindfully not mindlessly by having a meditation to recite something before you do the ACT It Centers you it focuses you shuts out distractions and now you're ready to do the Mitzvah so they introduced this beforeand cabalistic Mystic the ability to unite worlds change the cosmos through this mitzah to be focused and do it till today in wres he is opposed to it it's a beautiful Chua why he says the idea is lovely the idea is important however we already have a formula we already have something that we say in order to make us Mindful and in order to focus before we do a Mitzvah what is that thing it's called a we make a Mitzvah we say a on doing the Mitzvah then he has another chuva began the practice of uh going to visit one's rebi for Yan even maybe leaving one's family showing preference or precedence to be with rebi over even one's family where he's opposed to this practice why because he says really this's a mitvah from the Torah Jews around the world were supposed to ascend toim and to convene together on the sh the three festive holidays of course that is no longer binding it's no longer in effect we do it in a commemorative fashion but the actual of Al of coming to without a functioning BOS is not enforced it's not practice in that he says if you're going to not go you're not going to go greet and visit Theon but you're gonna continue and maintain going to visit and greet youbi what does that say about Hashem what does that say about priorities and therefore he was opposed to that practice and others he was very upset and censured Moses mendon's translation of Kish into German he feared would lead to the study of high German and it would lead to assimilation and again he was very pre and prophetic in that the musum in turn because theand opposed Moses Mendelson and opposed the Enlightenment and opposed this progress what they thought was progress the musculin in turn uh censored his writings and rejected his View and reciprocated right on him now he introduces us to a concept what's that picture on the upper left is a man hunting beuda and again I'd love to study this with you if we could um has Chua about hunting in tanaa Simon yud and he introduces a category there it's fascinating Chua not just because of his conclusion it's a fascinating Chua because of a concept he really introduces what we call Met sometimes we have Hal which is the strict ruling the strict law and we have metah we have what is the spirit of the law what is something that isn't intangible you can't point to a specific uh source and yet in a um in a more Transcendent kind of way the Met is something that shouldn't be done and he develops this in the concept of hunting speaks to the issue of values which are independent of Law and he writes quote I am most surprised at the very question he was asked about hunting can Jews go hunting Hally and he writes a whole Chua and he addresses the issues of you're not allowed to make an animal suffer and you're not allowed to waste things is it a waste to kill animal for no purpose are you making the animal suffer for no purpose can you justify hunting for sport and for fun for recreation to hunt because you need leather to hunt for um the parts is one thing but for recreation for entertainment he he concludes that technically speaking Hally it's permissible however here he invokes the metah concept the idea of value Beyond just the law and he writes quote I'm most surprised at the very question for the only Hunters we the Torah are nimr and asov this is not the way of children of and yov how can a Jew actively kill an animal while motivated by no need other than enjoying himself in a hunting so essentially he writes technically it's okay I can't find a reason to object to oppose however beyond the technical law is the value the Met is the spirit of the law why would a Jew want to hunt it would exhibit cruelty for no reason that's what's entertaining to kill to take a life of another living entity a creation of the almighty the only Hunters we find in the Torah are people who are evil who are associated with wickedness Nim and ASV and yov are not Hunters they're Shepherds so how could a Jew want to engage in such activity he has other very famous responsa that he's well known by is Tru about autopsies when are you allowed to do an autopsy if you would learn something in order to be able to save a life but he discusses the concept of is are you doing the autopsy because maybe you'll learn something that can maybe Save a Life in the future well the maybe saving a life in the future that is not a that sick person is not right before us right now so how do you define saving a life saving a life that's not even yet at risk or can you only does it only supersede other Concepts and values if you're saving a life that is currently at risk what about delaying burial when is it permissible to delay burial when it will bring greater honor to the deceased he has a Chu about uh offering an oath in a secular Court when a person is asked to swear to affirm choose today we say he should say they want to affirm they don't want to swear there's a famous story of the get of cleaves which was a whole uh a whole episode of somebody who was at times sane and at times insane the giving of the get and a controversy surrounding the validity of that get shaving onid is famous for his opinion about modern eggs is one of the sh of it's one of the sh that we learn certain mitzvas in the Torah require and demand consuming amount of food the size of an egg so has the size of eggs changed has that standard and measurement changea asserts that yes the eggs today are different size than they were earlier and then he has a chuva fascinating chuva it's fasc ch Simon L and he discusses the following fasc in case I remember in sheir this is what made people's ears perk up there was uh people then um in that time right we're talking the 18th century and earlier there wasn't Yeshiva dormitories you didn't stay in the dorm you didn't eat in the cafeteria people had what was called tag you stayed at the home of a host and if you were lucky they fed you and invited you to participate in their meal so he has a truth about the following case there's a young man from out of town he's attending the Yeshiva and he's living at the home of the rash Shiva and as it turns out while the rashash is in Yeshiva giving Shear this young B this young student is having an inappropriate relationship with the rabbitson with the rashash shiva's wife what is the consequence must he tell the rashash Shiva what will that mean for the rashash shiva's ability to stay with his wife what should be how should they react what are the Halas about and and who do you tell and how do you tell and what do we know it's a fascinating Chua now what about his family what about his offspring his daughter fra married rabad a Tor giant he has a son Yakov who lived 1745 to 1822 was a scholar Merchant in bro bro he has a son sh 1750 to 1834 the Bas of Prague has a son is who was a Hebrew printer and influential in in prague's HCA and he had three more daughters in fact in the introduction to at least my volume of the no Yuda he has not only the introduction of the author of which is only one page which is theak but he has theak the son of the author which is many many pages long signed by so so that son became the I guess heir to the Torah of the nuda he becomes the ab of Prague writes this long introduction to his NOA he also had three more daughters now his wife of 60 years liba dies in 1790 she had raised their children and supported him in all of his learning and communal leadership as we saw he in his own writing credits her with his scholarship with his breakthrough with his accomplishments was broken by her loss despite being a brilliant public speaker he sat silently at her funeral he couldn't bring himself he was at a loss for words this great orator this great brilliant man this genius this author this this rashash this R when his wife 60 years six decades his life life partner the love of his life from a young age 18 years old when she left this world he couldn't find the words two weeks after his death he called everyone to the Bas medish only then after two weeks was he able to eulogize and with a broken Spirit he said quote because I wasn't worthy I did not pass away and serve as an atonement for the sins of the generation but she my saintly wife dies died as an atonement for the sins of the generation and for my sins as well and now I grieve for This calamity that has struck me in my old age I feel that what has happened to me is as great as the destruction of the B I do not even have the strength to cry for my tragedy you can hear in his own words how broken he is three years later when he's 80 years old became sick for two days lay in bed unable to speak but his lips continuously were uttering the Vio and offering the daving the prayers of the end of life 17th of er 1793 Landa passes away he's buried on like B om all of Prague the great City that he was the chief Rabbi of went into mourning he had been their leader he was 11 years here and 10 years here but his real his real status was Prague the chief Rabbi of Prague rashash Shiva basen for 38 years almost four decades he left a will asking that he not be eulogized with the title sad or we've seen several times his humility and how he saw himself and so in his will he asked do not refer to him in the eulogies as aad or he asked only a simple gravestone be placed over his grave and that it not be engraved with praise that is the life that is the legacy of the N Yehuda that his upbringing his wife his children The Works that was his professional career and the trajectory the different places it took you saw what his priorities and values were by the takos that he enacted that there shouldn't be ostentatiousness people shouldn't show off uh public um um celebrations have to be done with humility and with modesty um adapting with the government when it came to secular education or conscription he is a communal leader he's an enormous Tam he's an enormous POS and uh here are some suggestions for further reading if you like uh articles from which I took this I took this subject I hope you enjoyed the Life and Legacy of the nuda and I hope you're enjoying our people of the book we hear names nuda SL we've heard these names D all describing the same person but how much do we know about him we should know them that's the background of why we started this this uh people of the book program because we hear these names we throw them around we reference we quote we even share the we should know about their Life and Legacy thank you so much for joining tonight stay happy stay healthy stay holy if you'd like to continue learning with us tomorrow morning at 8:15 we'll be having our 10 minutes of meeting here on the YouTube channel at 8:45 living with amuna and tomorrow night uh we're going behind the Bea with r y gold until then everyone have a wonderful evening and thank you for joining