Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz - Love Your Neighbor as Yourself - Matos 5778

They have greatness, they have free will. And when you recognize that a piece of God, so to speak, is in every human soul, that itself will inspire you to love them as you love God. So, Ben Azzai kind of says, you come to Ahavas Yisrael by the philosophic contemplation regarding the greatness of man. Rabbi Akiva, however, feels that's a little defective, because if you have to come to Ahavas Yisrael by contemplating how great people are, you will often encounter people that don't necessarily impress you as being so great. And you may have different feelings about them and the like. So, as a result, Rabbi Akiva uh looks at it in this way, that you come to Ahavas Yisrael not by philosophic contemplation, but by acts of benevolence. The Malbim points out, "Ve'ahavta l're'acha is not a commandment of feeling love, because if it were the commandment of feeling love, it would have said ve'ahavta es re'acha, just as it says ve'ahavta es Hashem Elokecha. Rather, ve'ahavta l're'acha, the prefix l' uh means you shall do and perform acts of benevolence and goodness towards your friend of the same nature that you would like to have them done to you. So, therefore, the the difference is that Ben Azzai says, you come to Ahavas Yisrael by philosophic contemplation. And Rabbi Akiva says, you come to Ahavas Yisrael by virtuous action. And indeed, this is a well-known idea in Judaism. Uh the Sefer HaChinuch says in many places, Adam nifal k'fi pe'ulotav. A person is influenced according to their actions. We tend to define actions as being products of emotion, but really, it's it can also be the opposite. The actions can educate the emotions and the intellect. And therefore, virtuous action can produce virtuous personalities, even if intrinsically the personality would not have been that virtuous. Uh this is a common recommendation in marriage counseling. A person says, "I don't feel strong feelings towards my spouse." Uh whether it's the husband or the wife. So, sometimes the recommendation will be, "Act as if. Make believe as if. And then you'll find that indeed, there will be transformations coming from the action." So, in this sense, Rabbi Akiva is a pragmatist. And Ben Azzai is looking at it at a a more ethereal, abstract level. So, all of that is fine, but then what's interesting is that in the Ein Yaakov, the Ein Yaakov is an anthology of aggadata of Shas that was compiled in around the 1500s. So, in that some of the Ein Yaakov, the author, Rabbi Yaakov ibn Chaviv, brings a third opinion in this midrash, which is not in our midrash. So, it's interesting, he had access to a midrash that we don't have. And the third opinion is a bit of an enigma. The third opinion says, "Okay, Rabbi Akiva says, ve'ahavta l're'acha kamocha, that's the most important thing. Ben Azzai says, man in the image of God, that's the most important thing." The third opinion says, "You know what the most important thing is? This was the pasuk that we read in last week's parsha, when it talks about the daily korban tamid, the daily lamb in the morning and in the afternoon. So, it says, es sakkeves echas ta'aseh baboker, you shall bring one lamb in the morning, ve'es hakkeves hashsheni ta'aseh bein ha'arbaim, and you bring the second lamb in the afternoon. That is the most important pasuk in the Torah." Now, that's a little hard to understand. Granted, there's a mitzvah to bring the korban tamid, but what exactly is the paramount importance of es hakkeves echas ta'aseh baboker, ve'es hakkeves hashsheni ta'aseh bein ha'arbaim? What is unique and important about that pasuk in particular? So, the baalei mussar say the following, that the idea of korban tamid represents the notion of consistency. You know, we we like to be inspired, and of course, it's entirely proper that religious experience should be inspiring. Uh we should be filled with the love of God and reverence of God. But there are going to be times in life in which the inspiration isn't there. And a servant of God realizes that I have to do my job whether or not I feel inspiration at any given time. And therefore, the lesson of the korban tamid is consistency, doing it day after day after day after day, no matter what. And that is a great spiritual level, because what that is saying is, my relationship to God does not depend exclusively on whether I'm inspired, whether I'm excited, but rather, I recognize that life is not all In fact, even uh outside of the the realm of religion, uh maturity alone means that we recognize that life is not an unending series of thrills uh going constantly, but there are going to be ups and downs, there are going to be many moments uh which are not dramatic, many moments of drudgery, many moments in which we don't necessarily have a great high. But the eved Hashem understands that we do what we have to do, even if it doesn't feed into our inspiration at any given moment in time. And that is what is exemplified by the korban tamid, that you do it every single day. No matter what the mood is, no matter how you feel. Like somebody, a yeshiva bachur, went to the Chofetz Chaim and said to the Chofetz Chaim, "I have a big problem. I am uh I am not inspired when I learn Torah." So, the Chofetz Chaim said, "Well, I guess you have to learn Torah without inspiration for a while. For a while." Again, this is not a permanent state, it should not be a permanent state, but you need to understand that uh sometimes things are not going to be a thrill a minute in in life, and uh you do what you do. That is the meaning of being an eved, an eved Hashem. You know, in the early years of Chassidus, in the time of the Vilna Gaon, so the Chassidic movement emphasized this inner inner state of spirituality. And that was a beautiful, beautiful thing. It is a beautiful thing. According to the Zohar, that Ahavas Hashem and Yiras Hashem are the two wings that bring your mitzvos to shamayim. They're like the wings that elevate your mitzvos. But the Vilna Gaon was afraid that by emphasizing the inner state of spirituality, people might become very impatient with halachic detail. Because after all, halachic detail sometimes appears to be uh a contradiction to spirituality. For example, let's say some a self-same Krias Shema of the morning is 8:10. And I'm still tired at 8:10. But if I could daven at 9:30 or 10:00 or 11:00, I would have such an inspiring daven. And all of these things, all of the different halachic rules, you know, you can't rip toilet paper on Shabbos. There is Often, you'll find people who are very, very spiritual, and they want to be connected to God, they cannot see the relevance necessarily in all of the details of halachic observance. So, as a result, again, this is always a pendulum. If Chassidus was emphasizing the inner spiritual state, then Nefesh HaChaim, Rav Chaim Volozhiner, and the Vilna Gaon, they emphasized the imperative of doing the mitzvos. Exactly. Actually, you need both. This is not a question of one view being right and one view being wrong, but rather, what happens throughout the history of ideas in Judaism is that when one idea is emphasized to the exclusion of the other, so we need the other idea to come back in, like a dialectic, and then it needs to be corrected like a pendulum to kind of get you in the in the middle. So, Rav Chaim Volozhiner gives an example of what you might call the antinomian tendency of spirituality. That's a fancy phrase, that just means that often, spiritual natures are not content with legalistic regulation. They feel that legalisms are a contradiction to the broader ideas of spirituality. So, he gives an example. Let's say it's time to make a Pesach seder, and you have been cleaning for Pesach, so you're very, very exhausted. So, you might think, "Well, listen, I'll go to sleep early uh the first night of Pesach, and I'll make a wonderful seder the next day. It'll be inspiring, it'll be wonderful, we'll sing the songs, and it'll be a much more meaningful experience than if I simply fall asleep at the seder and don't really concentrate on what's going on." Well, it may very well be true that it might be a personally more rewarding experience, but you're not doing the will of God. Now, I once mentioned this story uh to a group of of non-religious people, uh non-observing people again, they were religious in many many ways, but they were not keeping the mitzvot. That's why it's important to differentiate between religion and observance. And the woman actually a woman actually said, "Oh yeah, that's what we did. You know, we couldn't get the family together for Pesach, so we made the seder the week after Pesach, and it was absolutely wonderful." So, you know, life imitates art and even more absurd than the art itself. But you understand that this is the idea that you have to be an eved Hashem. And that's the notion of consistency of simply doing what you have to do whether it speaks to you at that particular moment or not. And again, and the hope is that eventually you do see meaning and purpose and of avat Hashem and yirat Hashem. So, in this connection therefore I want to just connect it to something earlier in the Torah. You know, we have in the Beit Hamikdash and in the Mishkan we have Kohanim and we have Leviim. And the Kohanim are the ones who brought the korbanos. And the Leviim were the ones who sang both the vocal music and instrumental music. Even on Shabbat, right? They would actually play instruments on a Shabbat and the like. And the Mishnah in Chulin makes a very interesting observation, but it doesn't explain it. It mentions that certain things disqualify a Cohen and they do not disqualify a Levi. And certain things disqualify a Levi and they do not disqualify a Cohen. A Cohen is disqualified with a physical blemish. If a Cohen has a broken leg, a Cohen cannot do the service until the leg heals. Right? So, a Cohen is disqualified in mum. It's called a mum. A Levi is not disqualified. Even if a Levi has a broken leg, he can sing and play. So, mum is only a psul for a Cohen and not a Levi. On the other side of it, Leviim have a mandatory retirement age. Leviim, as I get older it becomes more and more of a younger retirement age. Leviim have to retire by age 50. Age 50. Meaning they cannot continue to do their their their singing in the Beit Hamikdash from the age of 50 onwards. A Cohen on the other hand, as long as he doesn't have a mum, he could there's no there's no mandatory retirement. He could work at 80, 90, right? Etc. So, this is derived from the psukim because the psukim talk about mum with respect to Cohen. And they talk about years with respect to Levi. But what is the reason for this? What is the svara? What is the analytical construct why there should be this difference? So, the third Rebbe of Chabad, the Tzemach Tzedek, says the following interesting point. He says that Kohanim and Leviim represent two different ways of serving God. The Cohen is the person who represents consistency. You know, if you study the way the service has to be done in the Beit Hamikdash, there is no room for creativity. There is no room for improvisation. There is no room for individuality. You got to do it the same way every single day. If there is even the smallest deviation from the way it is supposed to be done, all of the korbanos are psul. They are no good. I'll give you an example. Let's say a Cohen, in honor of bringing a korban, would like to wear a special necktie or a scarf. And the Cohen just puts on a scarf. That's all he puts on. Well, you know, if a Cohen does the avodah with more than the prescribed bigdei kehunah, that is called a merubah beged, and there is excess clothing, the whole avodah is psul. So, the Cohen represents the notion of consistency, stability, attention to detail, doing things right, not changing based on your moods in a given way. The Levi inhabits a different world. The Levi inhabits the world of shira v'zimra, music and song. Now, music and song is a spontaneous thing. The Levi, in fact, even though later they became standardized, but initially the Leviim would would would make up their own poetry and their own music. And therefore it is the world of emotion. It is the world of feeling. It is the world of passion. It is the world of individuality and creativity. Each person brings the uniqueness of his personality to the avodah session. So says the Tzemach Tzedek, if the Cohen represents habituation and constancy, then there's no reason why age would be a problem because if anything, the longer you do something, the more habituated you are. So, the Cohen has no problem with age. If he's done it for 20 years, that's better than 10 years. 30 years, 40 years, 50 years. So, the only thing that could stop a Cohen is the physical problems of the body. You know, it's until the body gives out, he keeps on going. So, that's why the Cohen is not psul with years, but he's psul with mum because when the body cannot function, then of course he's not able to do his job. In the world of the Levi, it's the opposite. Since the world of the Levi lives in the world of emotion and the world of feeling, in a sense he can transcend even the physical limitations of the body. Now, powerful emotions can sometimes literally give you a strength that you didn't think you had. Sometimes negative emotions, like a mother lifting up a car because it fell on her the car is on her her child, etc. Powerful emotions, adrenaline, whatever it would be, triggers powers that are beyond the norm. So, as a result therefore, a Levi does not get disqualified by physical blemishes because the world of emotion and feeling and passion can transcend physical blemishes. But what the Levi is prone to is burnout because it's very difficult to sustain intense emotionality for a prolonged period of time. You can only do it for a certain amount of time, and therefore the Levi gets retired at a certain age when the Cohen does not. So, to recap, the Tzemach Tzedek says the Cohen is the world of rules, stability, precision, consistency. The Levi is the world of emotion, feeling, improvisation, and creativity. Now, we know that our job in life is to build a sanctuary for God in our heart and in our soul. You know, our job of building a temple does not mean that we blow up the mosques on the Temple Mount and we construct a physical temple. According to the Rambam, that job is only the job of Mashiach. And according to Rashi, Rashi says even more than that, the third temple comes down from the heavens. It is not our job to physically build a temple right now. There actually is a view in the Talmud Yerushalmi that that that we are supposed to do that. That's what the Temple Mount people follow, but the halakha we don't find that. We don't to follow that. But our job is to make our heart and soul a repository for the divine. What does the pasuk say? The pasuk says by the Mishkan, v'asu li mikdash, make for me a temple, v'ishachti v'socham, so I will dwell in them. It's not in the building. It's in us. So, when we build a temple for God in our heart and in our soul, just as the temple itself, the Beit Hamikdash, has to have Kohanim and Leviim, in our own Beit Hamikdash, we have to combine within our own personalities the attribute of the Cohen and the attribute of the Levi because each one has a mala, has a great positive feature, and each one has a negative feature. And therefore you need both of them together. The Cohen represents the epitome of the faithful servant of God who is consistent, who is predictable, who is stable, who does not allow himself to to be to depend on his moods in any given day. And that's a wonderful thing. But the Cohen sometimes could become dry and unemotional and not connected to God. You see, there's a problem here that when a person is so fixated on all of the details of the halakhic system, they can see all of the trees and even the branches on the trees, but they don't get a sense of the overall forest. And therefore you need to bring in the Levi who works on that relationship to God with fear of God, reverence of God, love of God, emotion, passion, not just to be an automaton that is focusing on the rules. On the other hand, if all you have is the lady, what you might have is you might have free-wheeling spirituality, new-age spirituality, in which whatever makes you feel good is going to be legitimate, like making the seder a week after Pesach, or whatever it is. So, Nadav and Avihu. Yeah, that's right. Nadav and Avihu is a very good example. But, that's kind of a spirituality that didn't want to be contained by boundaries. And therefore, the notion is we have to be in our own Beit Hamikdash, the Beit Hamikdash of our hearts, and our soul. We have to be both the kohen who follows the rules and the levi that brings passion and individuality and emotion to the service of God. So, really, this is the grand synthesis of Hasidic thought and non-Hasidic thought. Meaning to say, the non-Hasidic world tends to emphasize punctilious observance of halakha. And the Hasidic world traditionally emphasized the emotions of ahavat Hashem and yirat Hashem. And therefore, the Misnagdic world was the world of the kohen, and the Hasidic world was the world of the levi. But, your Beit Hamikdash is not complete unless you have both kohanim and levi'im. Now, that's an interesting point, you know, because now it's interesting that 30, 40 years ago, in non-Hasidic yeshivas, you would not have found Hasidic sefarim being studied. And today, it's very, very different. Today, if you walk into Mir, walk into any any uh mainstream non-Hasidic yeshiva, you will see that Hasidic Hasidic sefarim are very widely studied, whether it's the Tanya, whether it's the Sfas Emes, whether it's Rav Tzadok, whether it's the Nesivos Shalom, because people are very, very hungry. They're very thirsty to have some emotional contact content in their Yiddishkeit. And they feel that just emphasizing the halakhas, as important as it is, uh is dry, and it does not give them a passion or a feeling. So, there's a great gravitation. In fact, in the United States, actually here, too, in Israel, in the dati leumi community, there's a whole phenomenon called neo-Hasidim. Now, neo-Hasidim is a very interesting phenomenon. This involves people who are not Hasidim at all. They don't dress like Hasidim. They're not Hasidim at all. But, uh they want to adopt a lot of Hasidic customs. Uh Again, so some some are critical of it because sometimes it's just pure emotion as opposed to the learning and the studying of it, right? So, there's a whole debate in the I think Mishpacha magazine had a debate about neo-Hasidism and different different opinions about about that. But, I think it does come out of the idea of the emptiness that people feel when their concept of their feelings are not being addressed in their Yiddishkeit. And it just becomes a very, very dry thing. And this is where why the world of the levi has to be brought into the world of the of the of the kohen. And so, that was one point I I wanted to bring out. And again, connected to last week's parsha by the notion of tamid, which is the avodah of the kohen. It's a keves echad ta'aseh baboker ubeis hakeves hashaini ta'aseh bein ha'arbaim. Uh there's another point I wanted to bring out, really which deals with another point of last week's parsha. Again, the reason I'm going backwards, number one, I wasn't here, but number two, uh parshas Pinchas in particular is very relevant uh for this time of year. And that is, Pinchas, of course, commits the ultimate act of zealousness for God. And although this was an act of violence, he is given a brakha of peace. God says, "Uh I am giving you the covenant of peace." How do you get a brakha of peace from an act of violence, even if it was justifiable? And uh let's go back to another question. Pinchas is described as Pinchas the son of Elazar, who is the son of Aaron. So, the simple meaning of the pasuk is Pinchas' father is Elazar, and Elazar's son is Aaron. That's the simple literal translation of the pasuk. But, the Kesav Sofer, the son of the Chasam Sofer, offers a different explanation of the pasuk. And he says, it doesn't mean Pinchas' father was Elazar, and Elazar's father was Aaron, but rather, Pinchas had two fathers. His biological father was Elazar, Pinchas ben Elazar, and his spiritual father was his grandfather Aaron. Pinchas is the son of Elazar, and Pinchas is the son of Aaron. What are we told here? We're told that Aaron's dominant characteristic was ohev shalom verodef shalom, a lover of peace, a pursuer of peace. The Torah is made The Torah is testifying here that although Pinchas did an act of violence, an act of murder, his motivation was not anger. His motivation was not hate. His motivation was out of his love for the Jewish people who were dying left and right. 24,000 people died until Pinchas took that step. And the Torah is saying, the only person that can be a legitimate kanai, a legitimate zealot, is a person whose motivation is one of love and not one of denigration. You know, we get a certain joy in exposing the shortcomings of others. Now, even if we don't go like Pinchas and kill somebody, but often people like to be zealous. People like to point out this person's not bikores, this person is doing something wrong, etc. Uh so, somebody writes a book, and they say, "Page 541, in footnote 78, there is a line in that footnote that contradicts one of the letters of Rav Shach." And got you. I got you. You're an apikores. You're a kofer. And we love kind of zooming in on the different flaws and inadequacies we can find in other people. Uh because in many ways, if I could find chesronos in other people, that relieves me of the responsibility of focusing on myself. It's always easier to blame the absence of Mashiach on you, on what the other person is doing. And this works, by the way, at all levels, because the old saying goes, "Those who are less religious than I, those who are to the left of me religiously, are heretics. And those who are more religious than me, to the right of me, are fanatics. It is only where I happen to be that's the right place." So, the Torah is being made that if you want to be a zealous person for the glory of God, you can't do it because you want to denigrate and uncover people's uh flaws, your motivation has to be for love. Rav Chaim Soloveitchik, great Rav Chaim Brisker, once said that the difference between a true kanai and a false kanai is like the relationship of a person who bought a cat in order to get rid of mice in their home. Both the cat and the person who bought the cat hope, if there are mice, the cat will get them. But, the difference is, the uh the one who bought the cat would much prefer there be no mice to catch. The cat would be sorely disappointed. So, the concept would be that if you're looking to find people people's weak spots, that is something that's not not proper. I once heard from Avi Weiss, Rabbi Avi Weiss is a very famous modern American Orthodox American rabbi. He was a very, very big activist, social activist for Soviet Jewry in the 1970s and then later. And in recent years, he's involved in controversies regarding ordination of women. And as again, I'm not I'm not endorsing everything that he that he does. that if you want to be a successful activist for social justice, you have to hate what you're doing and not love it. Because if you love the publicity, if you love the attention, then you're no longer acting for the sake of God. You have to hate the attention. You have to hate the publicity. You have to not enjoy this, but you are doing it because there is a need to do it, and you're not doing it out of self-advertising. You know, one thing I notice when when I see Well, can I have have I don't want to uh denigrate a particular group, but sometimes when you see these little kids demonstrating against the army or whatever they're doing. They're having a great time. They're having a great time. They're laughing and they're playing, etc. As they spit or throw eggs or throw rocks or whatever it is. Well, uh if they're throwing rocks, which is not right anyway, they ought to be crying that they have that they feel they have to do this. This is not something that you rejoice because rejoicing is what the German word schadenfreude where you get pleasure in uncovering the chesronos and the deficiencies in in others. So, in this connection, let me share with you a beautiful word from Reb Cook, who of course exemplified Ahavat Yisrael. We know that Shemoneh Esrei, the Amidah, was originally 18 blessings. That's why it's called Shemoneh Esrei. But eventually a 19th blessing was added. And this was after the Churban Bayit HaMikdash, after the Bar Kokhba revolt, when the Sanhedrin was in Yavneh, it left Yerushalayim. So, Rabban Gamliel of Yavneh, the Nasi, said, "We need a brachah against the minim." Minim are the sectarians. It's not clear these early Christians. There It's not clear exactly who the target was. Uh but we need a brachah against them. Who can write such a brachah against these people? And they looked around for a suitable author. And the author they finally identified was a man called Shmuel HaKatan. Shmuel HaKatan means Shmuel the humble. Shmuel the humble. And Shmuel HaKatan was a great great tzaddik, although we we know very relatively little about him. He was a great tzaddik. Uh the Gemara gives us a story that one time the chachamim were sitting in a room at a meeting, and a voice from heaven, a bas kol, came and said, "There is one among you who is worthy of having the Shechinah rest on him like Moshe Rabbeinu." And everybody turned to Shmuel HaKatan and looked at him because they knew he would be that. So, Reb Cook says, however, and then Shmuel HaKatan is given the authorship, is credited with the authorship of the 19th blessing of Shemoneh Esrei, v'lamalshinim al tehi tikvah. For the informers and the missionaries, there should be no hope. Right? He is the author of the Birkat HaMinim, v'lamalshinim al tehi tikvah. So, Reb Cook says, "What was Rabban Gamliel's problem? Who could be metaken Birkat HaMinim? The same people who wrote the the other brachah could write that. Why Why is there a need for a special type of author who could write Birkat HaMinim?" So, Reb Cook said, "Because Birkat HaMinim is very unique in the Amidah. Every brachah in the Amidah asks Hashem for a blessing. Give us refuah. Give us geulah. Give us parnasah. Uh rebuild Yerushalayim. Restore the Malchut Beit David. You're asking Hashem for brachah. The only brachah in the Amidah that asked God to punish and destroy is this brachah. Which Reb Cook says, "When you ask Hashem to destroy evil, your motive cannot be hate or anger, even of the evil itself. Your motive has to be a greater love for God and Am Yisrael. So, Rabban Gamliel's quandary is this. Given the fact that we've suffered so much from Roman persecutions and from missionary activity and from informers, who is capable of writing a brachah that would not be tainted by hatred, by animosity, by anger? It's just natural if somebody were to write a brachah asking God to destroy Nazi Germany. How could it be that they wouldn't be tainted with hatred? So, that's why Rabban Gamliel had a dilemma. Who is the person that could write such a such a tefillah? So, he picked Shmuel HaKatan. Now, why did he pick Shmuel HaKatan? So, Reb Cook says, "We know relatively few things that Shmuel HaKatan said, but one of the things he said is in Pirkei Avot. And it says in Pirkei Avot, Shmuel HaKatan hayah omer. Shmuel HaKatan used to say. Now, the formulation used to say means it's not just a one-time statement. It was something he repeated over and over and over again. And what's strange about the Shmuel HaKatan hayah omer is that this this isn't even his own words. This is a pasuk in Proverbs, a pasuk in Mishlei. But he used to repeat it all the time. And that pasuk in Mishlei says, binfol oyevcha al tismach. When your enemy experiences downfall, do not rejoice. Do not gloat. If you remember, that was the pasuk that the Midrash uses why the angels were told not to sing to Hashem when the Egyptians were drowning in the Red Sea. Ma'aseh yadai tove'im yamah, these are also my creatures that are drowning. So, Rabban Gamliel says, "Only the person who internalized binfol oyevcha al tismach is able to write the brachah asking God to destroy and punish the heretics and the informers because he is not acting out of hate. He is acting out of love, a greater love for Am Yisrael. And uh now, that what that happens is, now however, though, he wrote it, and apparently we can ride on his kavana, meaning if he composed the prayer with pure kavana, then even if we, when we pray, are tainted with our own animosities, we can kind of be salvaged through the prayer that that he wrote and the kavanot that he put into the into the prayer. Now, this is not such an obvious idea. I mean, there are those that will quote a verse in Tehillim 139, kol l'me'atez, that says, "Behold, God, those who hate you, I hate." Which implies there is a concept of hating resha'im. But Reb Cook doesn't understand it that way. Reb Cook basically says, "I hate the evil that they do, but I don't relish their destruction. I don't take pleasure in their destruction. Sometimes it's a necessary evil." And indeed, this is one of the uh points that uh we should be very proud of the IDF. Uh that is what's called tohar haneshek, right? The purity of arms, uh in which uh there is never a concept of gloating and rejoicing even in the deaths of the enemies that try to destroy you. On one hand, we are not pacifists. Al bo ha'areg ha'rishta, somebody's coming to kill you, hashkem v'harog lo, you go and you kill them, right? We don't say don't do it. Even God, when God told the angels don't sing, God didn't say, "I'm not going to drown the Egyptians." He did. But you do what you have to do, but you don't rejoice in that. Because there is something sad when human life has to be taken. There is something tragic. It is not just a tragedy in the sense that a life was taken. It's a tragedy that a person could have been righteous. He could have done teshuvah. He could have made his life into something. And when a person destroys the godly image within them, that is a source of great sadness for the Ribbono shel Olam. It's like you're having a child that that became a mass murderer or whatever it would be. How does a parent feel? Well, Hashem feels that pain in an infinite way. So, when you find yourself too eager to find a joy in the downfall of the even the enemies of the Jewish people, that would suggest, Reb Cook says, an improper motivation in your prayer. And God says, "A prayer must be motivated by love and cannot be motivated for for hate, even of the evil evildoers." And that is why Shmuel HaKatan was the author of the brachah, v'lamalshinim al al tehi tikvah. So, again, it's something something to think about. Because we live in a very very polarized society in Eretz Yisrael, and I'm not referring to Israeli-Palestinian issues, Hamas issues. I'm referring to Jew to Jew, Jew to Jew issues, of all of the different groupings that we have. You know, they say that um uh Eskimos, this may this may not be true, have 300 different terms for different types of snow because they see all sorts of gradations in color and consistency that most of us don't pay attention to because we don't have to know it. Well, uh in Eretz Yisrael, we have 300 uh different shades of religiosity that in the United States wouldn't even be noticed, right? In the United States, we basically have, you know, three flavors, uh you know, vanilla, chocolate, strawberry. we have conservative, reform, orthodox, you know, etc. Here, within orthodoxy, you have so many subdivisions. And the subdivisions are so strongly maintained in terms of where you live and what schools your children go to and who are going to be their friends and who are they going to interact with when they grow up? And there's a tremendous, tremendous stratification in the society that each one looks at the other side as something that is no good. It's no good, right? We use terms like Amalek and and other other types of terms. And Rav Kook writes that this this is not going to bring us to the Geulah. Because if the Korban Beis Hamikdash happened because of sinas chinam, because of hatred and polarization, it will only be ended, the Geulah will only come when we can overcome that sinas chinam. Uh, they they tell a story. I I wish I remembered all the details. Um, it's based on a Christian joke, but they made it into a Jewish joke. Uh, about a person that was standing on the Gesher Have Meitarim, right? You know, the bridge near the bus station. And he was about to jump, about to commit suicide. So, a person walks by and says, "Wait, wait, wait. Don't don't jump. Don't jump. Are you Jewish?" He says, "Yes, I'm Jewish." Baruch Hashem, "I'm Jewish, too. That's great. Are you a Chassid or a Misnaged?" He said, "I'm a Misnaged." "Great, me, too." And they kept on going to the "Are you a Brisker or you a Musernik?" You know, it it it it went through 20 divisions. And 19 out of the 20, they were exactly the same. And then, there was like a last question. "Are you the Brisker that is connected with this branch of Brisk or the Brisker that is connected with that branch of Brisk?" So, the person said, "I'm a Brisker connected to that branch of Brisk." So, the person said, "Ah, go ahead and jump." Meaning, they were connected on 20 points and one little point was so significant that it was already nothing nothing worthwhile to even to even save. And I mentioned before another pasuk in Mishlei. I read one pasuk in Mishlei we mentioned, "Binfol oyivecha al tismach." Do not rejoice in the downfall of your enemy. There's another pasuk, "K'mayim panim el panim, kein lev ish el adam l'adam." Now, that means what? As water reflects the face that you show the water, so, too, the heart of a human being reflects that which is shown to that human being. And the Vilna Gaon explains, "If I look at a reflecting pool of water, whatever face I show the water is the face I'm going to see in the water. If I smile at the water, I will see a smiling face. If I frown at the water, I will see a frowning face. Water reflects back that which you show it. So, too, the heart of a human being reflects back that which you show that person. I show a person respect, I show a person love, I show a person acknowledgement, validation, they will feel that way about me, as well. I show them denigration, I show them bittul, that they don't matter, I portray them as misguided or even evil, then they are likely to feel the same way about me. So, part of why we make such little progress in bridging the gap among Jews here is because the style of argumentation is to always demonize the other side. Again, maybe I'm still too American here, but you know, they say the typical way an American would normally approach something is if somebody told me something that I disagree with, I would try to identify something I agree with. I say, "Well, I see your point, but there's something in addition to that you want to consider." Because what you're doing is you're acknowledging a legitimacy in what they're saying. And then, you use that as a basis of introducing a new way of looking at it from your side of it. Here, there's never a concept of I see your point. It's just like, "You're wrong and you're stupid." You know, there is no other point. And if there is no other point, then you're going to think the same way about me. There is no other other point. And that is why the polarization just keeps on getting worse and worse and worse and worse. It's a spiral that cannot does not end because each side does not look at the other with any tzaddik zeh chus at all. New issues about the again, I'm not being I'm not being overly specific tonight, but all of the different issues regarding the army and whether yeshiva boys are or are not being in the army, you know, this is a debate and you know, there are different to be made here. But what is horrendous is how each side is demonizing. On one hand, people look at chayalim who are shomer mitzvot even and spit at them and insult them. And what what is that what what what is that coming from? And on the other side, the the army may look at those who don't want to serve as shirking their duty without recognizing the role of Torah learning and the fact that uh in most countries, including the United States, when there was a draft, there there was an exemption for theological students. I remember myself that I had my my draft card. Huh? 4D was it? My 4D card. Of course, that was the height of yeshivas in America. That that had the greatest the greatest enrollments in in all the yeshivas in the US was during the Vietnam uh Vietnam War. The point is that these are difficult issues and there are different ways of looking at it. Uh, but each one has to acknowledge the good intentions of the other side and that each side has some legitimate points. It's not simply a matter that somebody is totally right or totally wrong. There are aspects of emes in all of these different positions. And we have to weigh them and deal with them and acknowledge them. And then, as Hamelech says, "K'mayim panim el panim," when we are open to see the goodness in the other, that will reflect back to us that they will see the goodness in in us as as well. Uh, one thing one memory I have is a few years ago, uh, when the issue of drafting yeshiva students was first brought to the fore, so, there was a massive demonstration around the bus station. I think it was like 800,000 people, they said, in which they were protesting this. And you know, to their credit, they said there was not that was not violent. They were just saying Tehillim and the like, you know, so it did not have the excesses that came later. But I always thought, you know, what would have been if at the end of that demonstration, they would have said a prayer for the chayalim? Meaning, they would have said, "We need full-time learning. This is our position." Okay, this is their position. But we recognize the chayalim that are risking their lives for the medina. We recognize that and we respect it and we admire it and we're grateful for it. That doesn't mean we're compromising our our position, if that was their whatever their position is. Well, I actually believe if 800,000 people who are against the draft would have nonetheless prayed for the chayalim, I think Mashiach would have come then and there. I think it would have come because that represents the idea that we are on the same team. We have different positions on different things, but we are all part of a common endeavor. We are doing what we can for the Jewish people. There are those who learn Torah, those who fight in the army, and then like Esther, there are those who do both at the same time. This is not something in which there's antagonism, but rather society needs different people doing different things. And the learning of Torah is extremely important and having an army is extremely important. And each side has to recognize. So, a simple thing like a tefillah for chayalim. In fact, I'll tell you the truth, you know, I don't want to be overly critical. As I say, um you know, a tefillah l'shlom Hamedina, right? Right, there's the famous prayer. All right, so so, most chareidi uh minyanim, both in here and in America, do not say the tefillah l'shlom Hamedina. For various reasons, who knows? It might be they don't like the language, which is a controversial term, reishit tzmichat geulateinu, it is the beginning of redemption, that connects it to Mashiach, messianism. But even if one does not say a tefillah l'shlom Hamedina, why not say a tefillah for the chayalei Tzva Hagana l'Yisrael? What is your objection against praying for soldiers who really risk their lives, right? Uh, Why not? Why can't we do that? What Why does the stance have to be that we don't give an inch, we don't acknowledge anything? I don't mean you In other words, the Haredi world they does not acknowledge anything good in the other side. Why should it be that way? Why can't it be a situation where we see the good and we appreciate it? And then we have to argue for, you know, our our derech avot at the shamayim uh as well. Right? And as I say, if people would feel validated, they would they would validate the positions of others. Am I part of upon him? I appreciated your arguments very much, but perhaps it's not even my point, but if people learn Torah and Milchemet Milchemet Mitzvah, how could they how could they not see the importance of of uh an army in Israel? We're so We're so surrounded by enemies. Of course. So, why why How is it that people who learn Torah and and in from what I understand, it's an obligation to to to serve in the army? How could they not be integrated? you're actually you're actually 100% correct. Um uh the wars of Israel uh all the wars that Israel has fought are Milchemet Mitzvah. They are not optional wars, they are Mitzvah wars because they are the wars of defense against enemies that would want to destroy us or obliterate us. And it does say that Milchemet Mitzvah everybody goes to everybody does go to war and there would be no exemptions from Milchemet Mitzvah. Uh and you're right, that ought to be uh ought to be recognized. Uh but I just want to point out that technically when it says everybody goes, that is only when there's a genuine military need, meaning theoretically if there would be a genuine conscription need, everybody would go. But but l'maaseh l'maaseh there is not an actual conscription need. This is a kind of a debate, meaning the issue of of of uh drafting Yeshiva students is connected to political issues, uh shivyon netol, you know, sharing the sharing the burden. Uh it still goes back even a little bit to Ben-Gurion's idea that the army was a great homogenization experience where people would share a common culture. So, for so for many Haredim, they feel that this would would would undermine what they were trying to do. Uh all I'm saying is if God forbid there would be a real state of national emergency where every able-bodied person had to be conscripted conscripted, you're 100% correct. Yeshiva boys would certainly have to go to the army because that would be a Milchemet would they? Mitzvah. Now, would they? So, I don't know what if they would or not because what happens is the bad feeling is so great and the civil disobedience business has at this point they stop thinking. They just they're on automatic pilot just to uh reject anything that comes from the from from the government. And you know, again, I I think it's very very unfortunate. You know, in many many ways people don't realize uh one of the mistakes that the generals make is they fight old battles, right? The generals are fighting a battle. And in the early years of the state, there were there were some things that the state did uh to the religious populations that uh you know, were were bad. I mean, there was the old Yishuv, there were various uh taking kids from the Holocaust and putting them in the non-religious kibbutzim, etc. And a lot of the bad feeling and a lot of the resentment and a lot of the hate even comes back to things that were done in the '40s and the early '50s. Uh but the problem is, you know, it's a different world. It's a different world now. It's a different uh government now. Uh I don't think you could describe the government of Israel as an anti-religious government. I think it's a government that tries to work with all the different groups in Eretz Israel. And uh you know, to kind of view them through the perspective of what they what things were like in the '40s and '50s in the post-Holocaust era is really unfair. It's like the general fighting uh you know, the the last century's battle. It's no longer the battle that that we have today. So, these are just some general reflections, but again, be'ezrat Hashem, I hope Hashem will inspire us to build bridges between Jews with Am Yisrael and in that way be mekarrev the Geulah Sheleimah uh bimheira v'yameinu. Amen.