Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz: Zealousness and Conflict Resolution

[Music] everybody have a good weekend esra session as we enter the period of the third week of three weeks we hope that they should become times of joy and redemption just as the Navi said all of these fast days will be will be days of simcha when the mikdash is rebuilt in Moshiach pumps so this week's parsha of course is a story of Pintrest and the story of Pintas is a direct continuation of bollock bollock the king of moab hired this fellow bilham to curse the Jewish people and bilham's curses were ineffective they turned into blessings so bilham developed a plan B that if he can't curse the Jewish people he will seek to destroy them by causing them to sin now the original draws a very very intriguing connection between plan a and Plan B he says the following the gomorian Bracco's tells us that this we talked about this last week that the secret of bilham's success at cursing is there is a fraction of a second every day in which divine wrath fills the world and if you utter your curse in that little window of divine wrath the curse will be effective you push the right button but that button disappears very quickly bilham's great skill was he knew exactly when the button was available well how did God circumvent that it seems to be a law of divine nature that that's the way it works so the arre Saul says God cancelled to the anger that day the button was not there in fact he even has an amazing interpretation when the pustak says bye yeehaw our fellow Kim God was angry keyhole a who because he is going bilham is going going with luck the I reason I'll interprets it this way it doesn't say viajar elokim it says ye thought a fellow Kim so if you translate it literally it means the anger of God was angry keyhole a because the anger had to go away meaning God moved the anger from its customary status in the world so the anger was angry keyhole a coup because it had to leave that's how theories all interprets it now what is the function what is the purpose of this moment the split-second of divine wrath God is not destroying the world generally why is it here so this farm say that is the sheriff of the inhibitions that people have not to cross certain lines in other words people have sometimes the fear of God even if the HR is very strong most people are going to be inhibited and the source of that inhibition is the residual feeling than a shaman has of that moment of Aimie pocket and the era and that suffuses us with a sense of me dots again the attribute of Justice the attribute of punishment the attribute of retribution of accountability so here is the brilliance of Bill and bilham was truly brilliant in a diabolical way if bilham sees that his curses are ineffective he Intuit's that this is not a day of divine wrath but if it's not a day of divine wrath the normal inhibitors on immoral behavior are not operative consequently the Jewish people are more vulnerable to the type of sin that they normally would not engage in so bill them immediate let's formulate a plan B I can't curse them because it's not a time of wrath but if it's not a time of wrath they don't have the inhibition on their immoral yetzer hara so now i will try to entice them with sin with the daughters of Moab and with the idolatry of mouth or so Plan B basically says if I can't curse them I will cause them to fail by committing the sins of idolatry and sexual immorality and Plan B unfortunately was a lot more successful from bilham's perspective than plan a thousands and thousands of Jews were dying they were dropping 24,000 people died and then we have the story of the Nazi of shamone very prominent person who is publicly fornicating with the Midianite woman and he goes over to Moshe brazenly and says permitted or not permitted and Moshe says forbidden so he responds and who allowed you to be with youths rows with daughter it was also a Midianite woman now of course that's kind of a ridiculous comparison we assume that support inverted but Moshe was frankly slow flabbergasted well our assumption is that motion did not violate a total or that that's our assumption he did I mean but our assumption is that there was a a gay or etc even though Lucien Hara that Miriam had spoken about Moshe was merely that he was celibate not he was not attacking the fact that he was married to a non-jewish woman that was never a point of criticism so we then have pin fuss and takes the law in his own hands Pinterest is a vigilante and Pinterest kills both the man Zimri and the woman the Midianite woman cosby and in this act of violence he brings a Redemption around the jew and the Jewish people that's a mug a father plague that had already killed twenty four thousand people immediately stopped and in consequence pin cross has given a great blessing now the particular just to be sure everyone's on the same page again you may know this to forgive me for saying that you already know what Pinterest did falls within the following unusual halakhah framework generally speaking when people commit any offense they have to be tried by a court or Beit din and have to be witnesses and they have to be warnings and there's no such concept unless in the case of preventing murder there's no such concept of simply taking the law into my own hands and killing but this is what is called a helical emotion machine I it was a particular law that was given in the part of the oral law that if a Jewish man is publicly and I underline publicly not in a hotel room but publicly in front of people fornicating with a non-jewish woman a Canali a zealous person I will have to define that term is permitted to kill both the man and the woman but only when they are actively engaged in the sexual union once they had stopped at that point a can I can no longer act a little bit similar to an old law that existed in Texas many years ago I think it's been repealed in which if a man caught his wife with another person in flagrante delicto was the technical term in the middle of intercourse he was actually permitted to kill them both and would not be prosecuted for for murder but once the man and the woman separated he would not be permitted to act well this is the halacha of karna Pogan bo a Qunari can do this now let me point out how very narrow and specific this is number one it only applies to a Jewish man and a non-jewish woman it does not apply to a non-jewish man and a Jewish woman although that is prohibited but the hectare of the canary does not apply so it has to be Jewish man with non-jewish woman number one it has to be public which is comparatively rare number two number three it has to be while the act is going on and number four which is the least defined requirement the person must be a legitimate cannae then we'll talk about what that means exactly meaning this is not a law for everybody this is a law only for the person who could be characterized as a criminal and I will elaborate on what exactly that might mean obviously that's the least defined of all of these conditions what is fascinating is that this was an act of violence even if it was justified let's assume it was hollow quickly justified within the parameters of the Halal emotion bc9 nevertheless pendulous is given not only a blessing but he has given a blessing of peace whatever that means exactly but apparently he was given the capacity to bring peace between people as our own did of' Shalom a lover of peace of pursuer of peace and he's able to bring peace between God and the Jewish people again it's it's it's a it's an important paradox to note that it's not simply that Pintrest was blessed and his actions were approved but they were believed was blessed with the specific blessing that seems to be the antithesis and the opposite of the action that he dated that itself is going to be notable we'll come back to that so let's dig one same thing yes yes that is a good question it does say that Pintrest went into the tent and stuck them so does that not contradict to the requirement that it be a public act so apparently you're correct apparently we would have to redefine the notion of a public act as that when he takes this woman and says I'm going into the tent to be with her even if the actual penetration so to speak is not in the eyesight of people that would be considered to be a public act the announcement and then the going in to carry out that announcement so let's start off with the hijos question the lineage question when dad gives Pintrest the blessing of peace Pinterest is described as Pintrest the son of Eleazar the son of Aaron he took my raft away from B'nai Israel and I did not destroy B'nai Israel therefore he shall be given a covenant of peace so rash he already raises the question because I raised it earlier that why is Pintrest gleizes descent given all the way there was grandfather normally we just say pendulous and senator Lazar what is the purpose of saying Pintrest the son of Eleazar the son of Aaron so Rashi brings the following Meldrick that when PIN has killed the head of the tribe tribe of Shem in a very hush of person the Shabbat a murmur vazha know so - what him insulted him and the shorten said who does this guy think he is his own grandfather meaning just like Moshe married a daughter of you throw Eleazar married a daughter of Israel and Pintrest was the son of a Midianite woman himself so his mother's father had himself been my dollar and a pagan who does he think he is that he is executing judgments against people who are not living up to the proper standards his own lineage is tainted so the Torah says ok let's not look at Pintrest on his mother's side let's look at pin class on his father's side and he comes from Aaron that's what Rashi says now that statement seems to be a non sequitur because every human being that we know of generally unless you're a clone or something comes from a father and a mother and if they have some type of arguments although it's hard to know what their argument is that pin cross is tainted because on his mother's side he comes from Israel you're not really getting rid of that taints by saying ok let's not look at his mother let's look at his father don't say no I want to look at his mother right so exactly what is the what are they saying number one and number two if they do have some claim that because the father of his mother was your own and there is a problem then you're not getting rid of that problem by saying let's not look at that side of it let's look at that side of it so the whole matrix is a difficult Madras also I want to bring in this right post mentioned break before the shear that although rashia only mentions the Israel connection right grouchy mentions that pincus's grandfather was gyro the mother of his father there was her married a daughter of Heathrow so yes Roe was a la source I'm sorry yes Roe was pin fusses grandfather in fact there is another Gomorrah that mentions that Pintrest is also a descendant of Yosef and the question is exactly how can you be all of those things at once epiphysis father was our own who is a calling of shaven lady penis uh his grandfather yes yes pincus's mother we say was a daughter of yester Oh so how do you get yo safe into his family line and all so the short answer is the Gemara actually explains that you have to tweak this a little bit that Eleazar did not actually marry I'm sorry yes Roger did not actually marry a daughter of your throne Eleazar married a descendant of your own could it could have been a great grandchild a great grandchild etc and in that line of descent there were people of Yosef that had intermarried in those intervening you are correct if you understand Rashi very very literally that pin class because his mother was a direct daughter of Israel you're gonna have your problem but if you understand it was a one who was descended from Israel then there could have been marriages from chaffetz Yosef there but be it as it may I want to share with you an interesting thought of the kiss AB sofort except so fair was the son of the kasam so fair and I think in many ways this comment was an autobiographical reflection of his own father and he says the following may be the key to why it says been a loves or been our own it doesn't mean Pincus was the son of Eleazar and Eleazar was the son of Iram which is the way we translate it rather it means Pinterest had two fathers Pinterest was the biological son of Eleazar and he was the spiritual son of Iram Pintas been Eleazar been our own he has two fathers physically he's a mother's son and I Ron's grandson spiritually he's directly from IRA what is the significance of this let's go back a little bit you know Alexander Pope once remarked about hypocrisy now people say hypocrisy is so bad I don't want to be a hypocrite he says the placards he has something positive about it it's the tributes that vice pays to virtue exactly it's a famous aphorism because if I am compelled to be a hypocrite I don't want to do certain things publicly that are not considered proper at least I'm acknowledging that there's a certain standard I ought to be living according to even if I'm not so it's a tribute it's a silent tribute that device is paying to a certain standard of virtue so we often say in Torah and mitzvot hypocrisy I mean again one tries not to live that way but Lamesa if you do the right thing even for the wrong reasons it counts for something that's called shallow the Sh'ma what does the Gomorrah say one should learn Torah one should do mitzvahs even if you're doing it for ulterior motives even if you're doing it for glory even if you're doing it for ego gratification it's not the highest madruga of course but whether because I'll say me talk shallowly Sh'ma you do with the right thing for the wrong reasons you start off not for the sake of God but eventually the mitzvahs have a momentum they have a power they have a light they have a hash paw and that will bring you to a good place so when people say I don't want to keep Shabbos because I don't really feel I'm up there yet then would be a hypocrisy for me we say it's okay to be a hypocrite in fact the Moabites women themselves exemplify this in an amazing way you know the Torah says further on that we are not allowed to marry Moabite people even if they convert to Judaism because they were so selfish they did not give us fruit and water when we went through their lands and they hired bill unto curses now if you remember the story of Russ you will recall that the halacha is this only applies to male Moabite converts it does not apply to female Moabite Congress and that's why roots was permitted to marry into the Jewish people and the Gemara explains why are women different because the men should have offered us food and water so they can be condemned for their sin genus but the women women are not supposed to go out and offer food and water to a forming army it's not snoots it's not modest and therefore we can't penalize the women for becoming too new out now here's the issue what is their motive and not offering food and water anything connected to snoots of course not because when it comes to the fornication of Babur they're perfectly happy to be engaged in these sins so they're not bringing out food and water was not a function of modesty at all it was a function of selfishness and callousness if that's the case they ought to be condemned just like the men are condemned so why does the Torah give the women a free pass if their motive was just as bad as the men the answer is because even though their motive was bad but they did the right thing in other words if it is morally proper for women not to go out to that invading army they did the right action for the wrong purpose and the Torah says but you did the right action we're not gonna penalize you not shanking the men the men should have gone out the men did the wrong action objectively so in a sense the holistic status of women Moabites was more lenient precisely because of the hypocrisy in what they did so generally speaking therefore if somebody asks me should they keep mid even if they don't have the feeling even if they don't have the motivation even if they're not doing it for the sake of God even if they're doing it not to be embarrassed among other people is it still worth while the answer is yes but there's one exception there's one particular mitzvah where if you're not doing it for the sake of God don't do it at all and that is to be a zealot a zealot is a person who stands up for God's glory and he's willing to even risk his own life and take the lives of others if necessary but if you want to be a zealot you can't do it because you love to do it you have to hate to do it I remember many of you may know very well-known rabbi he's really retired somewhat retired now rabbi avi Weiss controversial guy he was the rabbi in the Riverdale the founder of the open Orthodox you see become rhetoric and that's a whole talk for another another time but avi Weiss was really one of the first real activist rabbis you know when the window it was agitation to get the Jews out of the former Soviet Union he would demonstrate in front of the Soviet embassy he would get arrested he would get beaten he would get dragged away he was a big proponent of civil rights social activism his heart is really a very very warm heart he cares a lot about people and about needy people primarily Jewish causes and the end alike and he always got his picture in the newspaper in New York Times they always took pictures of dragging him away so he once made a statement which I thought was a very good statement I can't vouch whether it actually is true in this case I don't know I don't want to opine but he said if you really want to be a true activist you have to hate what you're doing you cannot love what you're doing because if you love what you're doing you're too connected to the publicity to the glamour to having your picture in the newspaper to being on the six o'clock news and then you're no longer focused on the work that has to be done that's often very undramatic you have to be a person who basically says I would rather be in the base of Madrid studying Torah but I'm doing what I have to do because it needs to be done and it is a sacrifice for me to do it but I'm doing it for the glory of God and for my love for the Jewish people that is a kosher activist I'm just not a means to achieve a certain goal but the activism becomes a goal I'd like to be in the papers at that point it becomes illegitimate at that point it becomes traif at that point it becomes ego gratification and self advertisement so if you want to be an activist you want to be a zealot not Pincus of course is the extreme of zealousness that involves killing somebody but we could extrapolate and all sorts of other ways you want to be a demonstrator on behalf of Shabbos or you want to demonstrate for some religious cause whatever whatever that cause might be if you're doing so to get attention if you're doing sort of put down other people if you're doing so for the publicity then don't do it you have to do it for the sake of God and because of love for the Jewish people and that is what the Torah is saying when Pinterest said to father's Pintrest was genealogically biologically the son of Eleazar but spiritually i ron was his father now who is our own our own is the prototype Pirkei avos says of the ohev column and the road f shalom the lover of peace the pursuer of peace oh hey that's a brios one who loved it doesn't mean love people brios means he loves all of God's creatures that includes everybody that includes animals oh yeah when we carve on the Torah and through his love he brought people to Torah Aaron was a person of love of reconciliation of peace by the Torah describing Pintrest as been our own which the Kasab Sofer says does not mean the grandson of our own but the spiritual son of Aaron the Torah is made that pits us by nature and inclination was not an activist he was not a violent person he was not a person who rejoiced in on hovering no pun intended the soft underbelly of wrongdoers he acted not because it was his nature to act he acted in spite of his nature for the love of a miss RAL and that God should show mercy under Jewish people that are dying so that is what the Torah is telling us hypocrisy has no place when it comes to being a zealot a zealot must be acting out of love of God and love of Israel and not to condemn and not to put people down now they say in the name of Rick I'm salivating the greater of crime solve a check a very wonderful muscle how do you tell if a person is a true canary or what is the definition of a true zealot and the legitimate zealot let's imagine that a woman a housewife as a house that's infected with mice and she wants to get a cat to kill the mice so in most places in the world you'd have to buy a cat here just going to the street pulling a cat now the housewife and the cats have a common agenda that if there are mice you want the cat to get the mice but there's a big difference between their attitudes the housewife would be much happier if there were no mice at all the cat would be sorely disappointed but crime says a true canary looks at the world and sees problems sees immorality sees the desecration of God's name sees the mitzvos not being kept see so many Jews who are far from the Torah and in his heart or her heart there is pain there is suffering suffering for God suffering for the Jewish people suffering and care for the Jews who are not keeping the commandments that you want to help bring them back and if you conclude reluctantly that sometimes you have to demonstrate sometimes you have to do something you do so with reluctance you do so as a last resort that's the housewife who never has to kill them I sometimes if they're infecting if they're infesting if they're infecting if they're whatever it is they're spreading disease but if you're a Qunari who enjoys exposing the shortcomings of others who's looking for the heretic of the month who will go through somebody's 600 page book to identify the footnote on page 555 that says something that's a little against the standard Yeshiva sure conventional wisdom and you have aha I knew he was an epic Horace you're no longer a person who is concerned for the glory of God you're getting a perverse joy in exposing the shortcomings of others you want to be the cat that pounces on the mouse that is not Cano's anymore that is not canals you know I sometimes have I maybe it's an overreaction in my part but you know obviously we live in a society where many many people take on the mantle of zealots blocking traffic blocked in trains whatever it would be and they have a cause they have a cousin again I'm not going to address the merits but you know the issue of is she was students the draft you know these are these are you know issues that have to be discussed and have to be ironed out but I sometimes see people at these demonstrations and whether it's even for Shabbos whatever it might be might be protesting in gay March my beer first broke testing women at the wall it might be protesting the drafting of ehue students whatever the cause is and it has like a semi festive air they're having a good time laughing joking when they're not being beaten by the police but you know it's kind of it's fun that's better you have a younger kid sometimes I'm sometimes you have these like sixth graders pre-buy minutes four kids they're just having a real good time throwing stones or whatever it would be now even if we assume and I and I and I actually deny that there is any legitimacy that there might be legitimate times in which you have to protest in a very strong and powerful way but you do so with sadness you don't so you don't do so with happiness what you're happy that there are Jews that are mahalo Shabbos that you can throw stones that you are happy that there are people who are inferior to you and your spirituality so you look you can look down upon them that's not Cano's that's the cat looking for the mice so the Kasab so for his points is a very meaningful point that Pincus was a been our own and he did what he did against his nature as every wife said he did it because he hated to do it not because he loves to do it if you love doing it then you're not the person for the job get somebody else you get somebody who hates to do it and as a result acts out of love and concern and not out of the shutting fried the joy of exposing the failings feelings of another now the reason why I think there's a certain element of of autobiography here is because some so for himself of Moshe so fair was the leading militant Orthodox rabbi of the 18th and 19th century to combat the reform movement in a very very powerful way the reform movement was developing in Germany and in Hungary and because some sulphur was really really very very militant to ensure that the reform modes of worship would not be accepted among Jews and their rabbis would not be given legitimacy and he was seen by those of a more liberal bent even within orthodoxy as somewhat of a fanatic fact interesting life reverie salsa lonchar said almost a hundred years later that he disagreed with the Psalms of the sophist approach of dealing reform entirely he thought that if the Orthodox would have more communication with the reform perhaps there could have been a beneficial influence but the do some chauffeur basically was we are cutting ourselves off from them we will have nothing to do with them again I'm not going to debate the some sofas approach versus revi sauce Elantras approach but I think the Kasab sofa is telling us at least indirectly don't think my father was a hater don't think my father got joy in cutting people off don't think he was rejoicing in exposing other people's shortcomings he acted out of love he acted out of concern and he cried for those Jews who were not connected to the Torah in various ways so I've always felt there was a strong autobiographical current in the Kasab so FERS discussion of pin Haas that perhaps he had a mental image in his own mind of his great father was no longer alive when the Casal Chopra wrote this these are some this Essam Sofer so that's one thing to think of and let me share with you I thought of the great rough cook you know shamone Ezra the prayer that we recite three times a day is called a shamone s ray the eighteen blessings and that of course is a misnomer because a weekday Amida has 19 blessings not 18 blessings but the Gemara explains originally there were 18 blessings from the men of the great assembly the unshaken s asadullah but after the destruction of the base a mikdash when the Sanhedrin was in a place called yagna robbing Gamliel the head of the Sanhedrin felt we needed an extra blessing against the heretics the missionaries the Informer's there's still a lot of discussion exactly who is this directed against and rubbing Emil said who can write a bracha against the missionaries remember this is during the years of early Christianity which was operating within Judaism at the time so they were dangerous force even much more so than today we have Messianic Jews today but there many of the Christians were actually going to the synagogues and and alike who will write a brothel against the mean him against the sectarians and they looked and they look and they finally identified a rabbi who was known as Schmo l hackaton Shem well the humble and he is the author of Flamel sheen in alta he Tikvah which was these it is not the 19th in the order but it was the 19th the last proper that was that it Dishman in history this is the Gemara in brockless that explains that originally it was 18 and shamora cut down in Jaffna after the destruction of the temple added the 19th blessing sort of cook in this commentary in the sitter asks a very simple question what is the big deal rubbing amel seems to be saying gee we need to find an author for this blessing what is so difficult to compose the same way the other blessings were composed composed this one what is so unique about this blessing that there's difficulty in finding an author and what qualified more like our son to be that author sure of cook says a wonderful thought Ravi cook says from Al Shean in al Tahiti claw is unique in the whole Amida because the whole I'm either we're always asking God for blessings give us pine nuts give us real flower give us go give us the good things that we need we don't ask for God to punish other people we don't ask forgot to destroy other people we ask Hashem to give us broccoli in life both individually and collectively from ul and even the world the only broccoli Amida that openly calls for punishment and retribution is this brother against the informers and the missionaries and the apostates so here is Robin Camille's dilemma so to speak Rehberg Emile's dilemma is when you ask God to punish you can't be motivated out of anger and hate because even if your anger and hate is directed towards a legitimate target God does not respond to those emotions your motive has to be that if these are enemies that are destroying our nation I ask God out of compassion for our misra to get rid of the enemies you have to be motivated out of love for Omni Israel and love of God not out of hatred and anger again ruff cooks position it was little controversial that even hatred and anger directed against the wicked is not the proper stance in prayer to God and even when you pray that God should destroy the wicked it has to be in the context to protect the Jewish people from a cancer that could destroy it so ultimately your motive has to be rooted in love and not in hate so when I'm gonna Leo says who can write this brother rebel Graham Leo means we live in difficult times the Romans are persecuting us there are Christians that are deceiving us there are missionaries there are Jews that are Informer's to the enemy who could possibly write a bracha against them and not have an agenda of eight an anger it's like a prayer against the Nazis who could write a prayer against the Nazis in World War two and not incorporate in that prayer a some feeling of animus so level Gumley Ojeda dilemma I don't have a suitable author but the author that he chose was shmulik cutter now who is more like cuttin jammu Ellicott then we actually know very little about the one thing we do know is that he was extremely great in fact once he was sitting with the Sanhedrin and a voice from heaven came out and said there is one person in this room who is that who is as deserving of the divine presence resting on him as Moshe Rabbeinu and the whole room looked at shmulik rotten because they knew that he was the one that the Bosco was talking about so we know he was it was an exceptional person compared to motion but he literally has no teachings that are recorded in the Talmud except for one in perky of us and the teaching in Pirkei avos isn't even his own words it's a parcel in Proverbs that he used to quote shamil Hockett on how your O'Mara and again this is a puzzle this is not his own words but apparently it was like his mission statement his motto he quoted it all the time and that is the famous verse being a fall or Yvetta altissimo when your enemy is destroyed do not rejoice of cook says that is why Rabban Gamliel chose Shmuel hackathon to write the bracha blue machine in altiheat o'clock because xual akhaten internalized the idea that i don't rejoice in the downfall of the other I rejoice in the peace that we have I rejoice in the Yeshua that I'm Israel has and if that means I had to get rid of things I got rid of them the destructive many of you remember the famous or infamous you know many people do considered infamous but there's a kernel of truth in it go to mayor's statement Mayor statements that she can forgive the Arabs for killing our children that's the part that people very much hate rightfully so but we cannot forgive the Arabs for making us kill their children so I would say this let's let's cut off the first half of the sentence that's that's hurtful and and maybe offensive but the second half reflects does reflect something we are not pacifists we are absolutely not that we do not believe in turning the other cheek it's not just modern Israel this is Halak Judaism does not believe in turning the other cheek eyeball the Hargett huh somebody is trying to kill you you kill them first and that's what we do that's the halacha absolutely but we don't do so with joy we do it because we have to do it we do it what do we have to do it but there is no joy I got the person you know you may have seen pictures years ago of terrorists who had murdered Jewish family and they dipped their hands and blood there was in the New York Times they dipped their hands in the blood of the people they murdered and they were dancing around like in a frenzy and the photo captured the drops of blood you could see the graph look for coming off their handling it's inconceivable unless a Jewish person was seriously mentally ill it with it would be inconceivable then a Jewish soldier or any Jew would do that even if you have to kill the terrorist I mean even had once if I want to reopen old wounds even Baruch Goldstein who was not drawn to kill many many people in a way that that was not proper but you know barkoff he was a person who had ministered to Arabs and I taking care of them and he did not have a sense of joy he again rightly or wrongly let's assume it was not correct but but he acted out of a sense of duty not out of a sense of some pleasure that he's doing some great great joyous act in destroying others for coasting had he survived would certainly not have been dancing in the blood of the victims of his act so Kano's in pentoses case was extreme but I think it has lessons for how we approach any process of denigrating other people that's number one it's a last resort and number two our motives have to be loved it cannot be anger it cannot be a desire to expose people shortcoming and that explains the paradox of why Pincus who committed the act of violence was given the bracha of peace because pinnacles motives were ultimately peace and reconciliation and God is testifying that that was his motive as a been our own oh if Shalom Baroda Shalom otherwise peace would not have been the appropriate Brooklyn but I do want to point out the following interesting idea I don't know if any of you ever heard of sisal urge to sell a Bock we all know only reason I happen to know her name is that her husband was the longtime president of Harvard University right so Sicily is a philosopher and she writes in a few areas but one of her areas was exploring truth and lying she wrote a very well-regarded book on lying you know is it ever morally justified to lie and she makes a point and she's not the first one I mention in fact because I'll make the point but but she but but part of her long-term thesis is that even when an action is morally justifiable even when it is the proper thing to do that does not immunize you from a taint in the soul another example was that there are times in which it's necessary to lie but the lying itself is a taint and then you know it's a childís bolete childish childish belief to think that because I made the right decision there are going to be no negative consequences if I jump into a burning building and rescue a baby I did a noble wonderful good thing but there's a quite strong possibility that I'm still going to suffer second or third degree burns and I can't make the argument but I did such a wonderful thing once in a while God does miracles or the fellow Varys tragically rabbi who was carried out to sea and drowned very tragically he saved a child's life and yet he was caught in the undertow and he died so dr. Bock makes the argument that when you lie there was always a Pugin there is always kind of a defect in you then even when you you made the morally correct decision you are tainted now in truth in truth this is a statement that we find in many many Supreme looser that also although there are many hotel rooms to live for peace and to avoid conflict and the light but once you try to minimize that because there is a certain detriment and a certain baggage we see for example King David is another example not for lying Durban hemella was not permitted to build the base on McNish because he was a man of war a man of violence now the problem is every war that double hemella fought was a mitzvah war God commanded him he was carrying out the the directors of Hashem so why should that be against him nevertheless you engage in violence it taints you and we actually see a similar process with pin Haas the Gemara tells us that pin clasp they lived a very long time and eventually he morphed and he became Elio Hanavi now whether that means you can always argue what that means whether that means he literally lived hundreds and hundreds of years became a Leo another who in fact never died as well or whether it means there's a commonality of their neshama snot that they I know there's when as I'll say a is B that doesn't always mean physically they were the same person now lol another he's a very interesting prophet Elio and avi was also a zealot in fact after the famous miracle at Mount Carmel when he called upon a fire from heaven to consume his offering and all of the prophets of the BAU cried out and nothing happens and the Jewish people finally realized the futility of idolatry and they bowed down and they declared Hashem o elokim God is the true God wonderful mass chuhwa but that children lasted exactly one day the next day ah cough totally oh don't think you're out of the woods I'm gonna kill you and no yo at this point was broken because he had given it his best shot he had done a supernatural miracle and its effect was so ephemeral so short-lived so he goes into the desert and he basically says to God why don't you just forget about these people they're fickle they're not committed they simply move with the latest fan get rid of them well what that happened is is one of the most beautiful and dramatic scenes there was a storm and an earthquake and God was not in the earthquake and there was a fire and God was not in the fire and then there was a quiet small voice and a Shem spoke to Ellie Oh out of the quiet voice and essentially when Hashem told Ellie oh is you are fired go anoint your successor and the before Shem basically say that because a Lyon no longer saw the Jewish people as good and redeemable he could no longer be their leader when a leader loses faith in the people he is supposed to lead he's going to be replaced and God is telling aliawan avi you don't reach people by fire by thunder by lightning by earthquakes you reach people by the quiet voice of reason and persuasion and if you have lost faith in your nation I'm gonna get somebody else to do the job exactly Kamara even says or the medic even says that Oh Leo and avi who we believe is still alive and goes on various missions comes to every breath every circumcision and every Pesach Seder now this is actually a punishment because I'll say because he declares Stosh em they don't keep your covenants he meant it in a more general sense so Hashem says oh they don't keep my covenant is that what you think you're gonna go to every single breath and see how most Jews even Jews who are very far from the they keep his Mila and Pesach Seder so secularly Ali Allah's punishment to have to see that the Jewish people are faith although I hope he gets joy joy out of that experience as well so here is the suggestion I want to share with you there are many costs just as Professor Bach wrote even when Cano's is justifiable and even when is undertaken for the sake of heaven it leaves a trace in the soul and there are just outright Darwin mlah the violence by lying leaves that trace and the trace that Cano sleeves is a sense of negativity and cynicism in which you look at the world and your attuned to see the bad in people you become a professional observer of flaws and that can carry over in which you see flaws even in good people and in leaders and in rabbis and tell me they are coming you know Mark Twain you know Mark Twain was a captain of a steamboat on the Mississippi River that's why his name was Samuel Clemens Mark Twain was one of the things they would announce as they were going through the river and Mark Twain has really what a beautiful writer I'm very connected to Mark Twain because he spent his adult years in Hartford Connecticut where I'm from so although he's a southerner but his adult life was in the northeast New England and Mark Twain writes about a person looks at the Mississippi River and you see this beautiful body of water with the sunlight but he says once you're a pilot on the river he says you never appreciate its beauty again because as you're navigating the river you're aware that that beautiful shadow may show a rock or you know some not an iceberg where there's some type of impediment or a branch and everything is a danger he even gave the examples a little on smith's but i ll say it's renata he gave the example of a ballet dancer you see a dancer and a ballerina a ballet dancer and on one level you see grace you see movement fluidity but let's imagine you're an orthopedic surgeon so you're watching the stretch and you think oh that ligament is stretching I can see a twist I can see the muscle fibers there so Mark Twain says when you're trained and expected to notice all of the negativities which a doctor has to know a doctor has to see all of the damage that's going on that can sometimes blind us to the beauties we don't see the beauties of the dancer we don't see the beauties of the river that is one of the moral costs of being a canoe in which you're always negative and that translated into Elio is negativity that ultimately meant he could no longer be the leader of Chloe's RAL so there is a certain meter of obliviousness that is helpful now obviously a person has to pay attention you know what needs to be corrected in life but sometimes not so close not so except understands that most people most of the time are trying to be good are trying to do the right thing sometimes they fail sometimes we fail however whoever the either we and there they are but to look at things to my to closely you look closely you'll always find something wrong whether it's in a marriage whether it's with respect to your children your students your coworkers there's always negative things that I could find but the problem is when you cultivate the negative way of looking at the world even when it is justifiable there is a certain taint to the neshamah that can really really inhibit you much much later in the other endeavors that you do and therefore there is a bee's line there is a connection between Pintrest and Eliyahu Elio of course is extremely great he's going to announce the coming of the Messiah but we can't deny that this particular story he was removed from his office because she could no longer see the goods in arm Israel and therefore he could not be a leader with a negative perspective and the final remnants I want to share with you is that when a sham promises Pintrest the covenant of peace he need a name inna Nino saying lo s Bree C Shalom if you look in a safer Torah you will see that the love in Shalom is katoa meaning it's cut it's like split into two car Torah but the cool and maybe there's a remnants there that the piece that you get through violence even if God blesses you with peace is going to be an incomplete piece it's not going to be show them these I think it not because the the rubbish Quechua meaning [Music] no I didn't say in his life I just said that's the lesson of the of the Quechua is that even with the blessing of Shalom it will not be a complete peace if it came through mill Hana came through hatred and and the like so these are these are things to think about you know we were entering the three weeks Sunday is the fast of Shiva Thurber Thomas it inaugurates the three week period where we think a lot about not having the base--emitter and all of us know the gomorrah's teaching that the second base amic - was destroyed by the Romans and the spiritual sin that omnis RAL had was the Sinatra not hatred and polarization and the Gemara itself says the first based on Mick - that was destroyed because of avodah Zarah Gilley Araya she who stole him the worst of eras the whole Gullit was only seventy years and then we had the second temple the second Mick - which was seen as freedom we are still in Dulles to this very day even though we have the privilege personally of being in Erica's realm but technically we're in gulleson till we have the base of Mick touch until we have mushy ox urine godless everywhere I went has to know you're in godless even even here that's why we fast on Tish above still in 1967 some people were proposing to abolish the fast of the ninth of us but they were just wrong we don't have the base that make that you don't have much yeah we don't have peace in the world we live under the threat of terrorism and nuclear war all the time right so the Google was not yet here although we hope it is approaching so what do we do to rebuild the base of it - we don't rebuild the base of Mick Dodge by bombing the Temple Mount we have to wait for mushiya to do that but we build the base on Mick - by trying to eradicate within our own lives those factors that caused the destruction of the temple and if the factor that caused the Corbin a mukesh what's in Athena our acre avodah to rebuild the Mesa make them has to be to grow in our office Israel our love and our concern to abolish the bridges that abolish the barriers between different groups of Jews to try to build bridges and to see the value and contribution of all of the different segments of society to the country that we have to the world that we have so I've said now again obviously everyone knows that presently there is a major political debate about the military service and ueshiba students and Kure them and like and I'm not here at all to talk about the merits of that debate there are arguments on different sides and this is something that needs to be discussed it is a major major issue on one side there is equality of burdens Shiva and that's on the other side there's the importance of thorough study and how do you balance all of those different factors an important discussion but one thing that is lacking in the discussion isn't that attitudinal aspect of each side appreciating the importance of what the other side is doing if the array the world of the religious world whatever you want to call it my MA is a karate although they because the religious world includes people who are in Hester and the light but if the religion if the Haredi world were to appreciate what the army does for AMI Israel and for our country instead of denigrating the institution if there would be a sense of Kakaako then I think people on the other side of the debate would see what Torah learning does for the Medina and the like this is a pus akin Mishler I probably probably of chording this Paschal hundred times already but I'll say 141 times slum monolith rights Kamiya upon him upon him came late autumn the autumn water reflects the face that you show it and the human heart reflects what you show it I look at a pool of water if I smile at that pool I see a smiling face if I frown at that pool I see a frowning face the heart of a human being reflects that which it is shown I show a person respect appreciation love and care they will feel towards me appreciation respect love and care I show them denigration D legitimation de mano demonization they will look at me the same way now you can always raise the argument well who should start look the other side start whoever the other let them like me and I'll like them why do I have to start liking them okay answer somebody has to be the grown-up in the room I mean this comes up in marriage counseling all the time somebody says you know the counselor says show your spouse more affection so the person says well he or she showed me more affection then I'll show them more affection okay everybody is waiting for the other person to start something it never gets started so those people who keep the tour and follow the Torah have the responsibility for starting a process and starting the process is to acknowledge with gratitude the contribution of everyone who has built up the State of Israel whether it's army whether it's police whether it's fire whether it's government whether it's the garbage collectors they all do everything we need it they help us they contribute to the society we live in and if there would be huh correct a toe of appreciation gratitude even to people who are not shown their mitzvahs and call the home and for those who are also shown murmured so even if it's not a neighbor our particular way then I think we would have much more respect and love for with respect to whatever it is that we would be trying to advocate come I am upon him help on him and now in the Middle East the whole style of argumentation is the opposite instead of kind of acknowledging the legitimacy of the other side anyone that doesn't dispose my position is an idiot at best and is a Russia a devil and our mullick at worst well that's why nothing ever gets resolved really because from I am open upon him it's an unending spiral of legitimating the person that disagrees with you and I think maybe I'm being a naive American here I don't know but I'm basing it on melis initially he lived here too that's what my mother says that the secrets to resolving conflict is chameleon upon him upon him to see the other side and indeed that is why etymologically shalom peace and Shalem coldest bar connected because when you see the totality of the story you see the other sides to the argument you will come to show them because you can acknowledge the different truths that exist in multiple narratives and when people feel that their piece of truth is being listened to then they will be more open to hear your piece of truth again I'm referring right now to Jew versus Jew I'm not referring to Jew versus Arab or there may be there may be a different type of discussion I mean you may be okay the other one I want to get into that because of the contrary but certainly with Jew versus Jew I think it's very very definitely going to be the case so as we enter the three weeks may all of us try to resolve to be these types of people and in that way we can make our own contribution towards the Binion based on mukesh may it be been a revealing [Music]