Rav Yitzchak Breitowitz: Shavuot - The Torah is NOT in Heaven

[Music] You see your tomorrow [Music] Okay. So, uh thank you. Thank you for waiting. I know that uh in college they have what's called the 15minute rule. If the professor doesn't show up in 15 minutes, uh you're allowed to leave. So, I appreciate uh your your extra indulgence. And uh tonight she as always is praying for the victory of the kayim and all the fronts of the war lasting unity of Israel and uh all of those whose health has been affected by the war and the safe return of all of the hostages. Again as everyone knows a new new front has been reopened in Gaza. And uh so once again uh whenever we think it's over unfortunately uh the enemy is still there and we need and we should certainly pray for the andim and all of the families that are suffering on the occasion of the 19th site of Mrs. Janette Gazels uh Ni Worshapska Shandel Bashaya Mendel who as a young girl saved many many lives in Krakco during the Shawah smuggling children younger than she in and out of the ghetto. Um I know uh sponsored by your sons Mitchell and Jeffrey ghettos of New York. I I know uh Jeffrey fairly well through uh Bentora and uh may he and his brother's dedication of the cheer be Leil Shama of obviously a very very righteous and saintly woman uh who risked her life uh to save Jewish children and finally Yonz beginning a new campaign to purchase more sets of fillin due to the major call up of the reserves once again there's been an uptick in requests for fillin At present uh we have requests for 10 pairs and the requests keep coming. One can contribute via the website and uh indicate and a memo that the donation is for the army to fill in fund. The donation link information can be found on the website and in the description box below. again. Um, in all of these dark clouds, there are silver linings. And part of the silver lining is the, uh, the return of Jews who are going through difficult tribulations to Akadesh, to Ami Israel, to the Torah. And in that way, uh, this will bring a braha not only to the military campaign itself, but to the Jewish people as a whole. And uh if God puts these opportunities in our lap, uh we do have a responsibility to to respond to them. Uh I'm sure as all of you know, we do have a Jewish holiday coming up uh Sunday night and Monday, uh the holiday of of Shivuos. And we've been talking for more than one week about the counting of the omare and how it how it u prepares you for a holiday of Shivuos. But I want to share with you a very very fascinating excuse me question about the holiday of Shibuos. Uh if you ask anybody who knows anything about Judaism, what happened on Shivuos? So the answer that would be given is we got the Torah and Shu. So first of all, that itself needs definition. We obviously didn't get the whole Torah on the Torah was revealed over 40 years, but we heard the ten commandments on Shv, right? God spoke to the entire community of Ami Israel. Uh Maklo, did we only hear the first two and then we were afraid and Moshe gave us the rest or according to some opinions, we heard all 10 of them. Uh but be it as it may therefore uh when we say matan Torah we don't necessarily mean the whole Torah but we mean the mass revelation at Sinai when God communicated the mitzvos of the sadros right so so that's what shuos is the day that we got the saras well I'm going to prove to you that the ten commandments were not given on shvos and if you ask me what happened on Shivos. My answer is absolutely nothing happened on Shabu, which is pretty amazing. What are we celebrating on Shivos? We're celebrating nothing at all. We are celebrating nothing. Now, how how do I dare make such uh an unusual, illogical, irrational proposition? So listen to the question. This is a very very famous question of the Main Abraham. The way our calendar works, we count 49 days from the second day of Pes until and we celebrate the holiday of Shabulos on day 50, which happens to be the sixth of Steven, but it's day 50 of the Omr. I mean, there is no day 50 of the Omar, but it would be day 50 of the Omar. So, here's the mug of Ram's Kasha. According to the Gomorrah in Mas Shabas, the Jewish people left Mitzim on a Thursday. This is the tradition. That means the Thursday was the first day of Pesak. So the counting of the omare that year must have started on a Friday. If Friday is day one of the omare, the completion of seven weeks, which is 49 days, would end on a Thursday. The 50th day of the omare is therefore Friday. And yet we have another tradition. The Torah was given on shabas. So the ten commandments were not given on day 50 of the omare. The ten commandments were given on day 51. We are celebrating matan tora a day earlier than it actually occurred. You understand the proof? Because if we left mitim on a Thursday, that means the counting of the omr began on Friday. That means day 49 would be Thursday. Friday is day 50. Torah was given on Shabas day 51. Now in at least they actually get it right with the second day of the second day of Shabbos is the actual day that we got the Torah. But of course uh init we don't have a second day of Shabbos. We only have Shabos. It's a one day holiday. And the one day holiday the Torah told us to celebrate is the wrong day. This is a famous famous question of the mug of that uh we celebrate matan Torah on day 50 when in fact the Torah was given on day 51. So says the Minam a very very interesting answer the Gmoran Shabas says that Moshe and we'll try to explain this Gomorrah that there are three cases where God said one thing and Moshe changed the divine command on his own initiative and Hashem agreed after the fact I'll go with your change. The three instances are matan Torah itself because if you look when God told the people to prepare themselves and sanctify themselves, Hashem's language was sanctify today and tomorrow and I will come to you on the third day. Moshe said sanctify yourselves for three days and then God would come. God said two days and I'll give you the Torah on the third day. Moshe said sanctify yourself for three days. So the mugram and God agreed with it and God gave the Torah after three days. So says the mugram, this is how we might understand the holiday of that God said on Wednesday, sanctify yourself Wednesday, Thursday, and I'll give the Torah on Friday. Moshe said, sanctify yourselves Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and I'll give the Torah shabas. Now granted that God agreed to Moshe's addition. And I'll I'll discuss how that's possible. But we celebrate Shvulos not on the day that God actually gave the Torah, but on the day he would have given the Torah had his original plan been followed. So indeed, if God's original plan would have been followed that we would separate Wednesday, Thursday, and get the Torah on Friday, that would have been the 50th day of the Omr. So the Minan Abraham says the holiday of Shivuos is not based on the actual Matan Torah date, but it's based on the date that would have been the Matan Torah date had Moshe Rabenu not added an extra day of his own. Because God said, "Sanctify yourselves Wednesday, Thursday. I'll give the Torah the third day, which would be Friday." Moshe said, "Sanctify yourselves for three days. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, I'll give you the Torah on Shabas. So you see, so still I'm going to explain the mug of Ram. That's what my share is going to be about. But you see that the mug of Ram is telling you a remarkable proposition. Don't tell your kids. It's going to blow their mind and disillusion them. Uh but you know, uh according to the Mugan's explanation, Hashem did not give the ten commandments on Shivuos. Hashem gave the ten commandments the day after Shvuos but Shivuos was the day that God would have given the ten commandments had Moshe not added an extra day of preparation on his own. Now just to complete it I just want to mention the two other instances where Moshe added something midato and that is uh the idea that we know that Moshe uh was from from Matan Torah onwards Moshe was celibate. Moshe separated from his wife and Hashem never told him to be celibate. And in fact, when Miriam later in the Torah uh speaks lash about Moshe, she speaks uh something negative about Moshe with Aaron. This is the very point she brings up. She says, you know, you and I, Miriam and Aaron, we're prophets and we have not separated from our spouses. Why did Moshe separate from his spouse? But Moshe was celibate. And it's very very interesting that this is the one thing that we're not supposed to emulate. Meaning even though a person might say similar to different Christian churches that celibacy is like the highest spiritual level, we actually believe that's not the case. And generally speaking, there's a mitzvah to get married. But Moshe was unique. Moshe had a unique relationship with God in which he had to be on call 24/7 and he decided he needed to be separate for marital life but God never told him that. But after the fact God said for you this is the right decision. And the third thing that Moshe did on his own was he broke the tablets. 40 days later he comes down on the 17th of Tamos and he sees the Jewish people worshiping the golden calf. So what does Mosher Rabenu do? He breaks he smashes the tablets. Now of course there are midrashim that he actually didn't smash the tablets rather the letters flew away and then the weight which didn't have the Torah in it was too heavy but the simple meaning of the verse is he smashed the tablets. Hashem didn't tell them to do it but Hashem says that was the right decision. So what are the three cases where Moshe seemingly made a change on his own? He added a day to the preparations of matan tora. He imposed on himself and his wife cacy even though hashem never required it. And the third was his smashing of the lucos as a result of theel even though hashem did not tell him to do it but in all three cases hashem validated. But coming back to Shuos, what is the mug of Ram's idea? We celebrate Shivuos on the day that God planned to give the Torah which would have been the 50th day of the Omr and not on the actual day that God gave the Torah which is day 51. This is the M of Ramsesh. A very very interesting m by the way is a commentary on the so the m of is primarily a book of he doesn't go into biblical explanations that much but this is one of the rare instances where he offers a very very interesting innovative biblical interpretation based on the calculation of the Jews leaving Egypt on Thursday and the Torah being given on shabas. So the question that uh we want to explore a little bit uh is why should the hypothetical be more significant than the actual? Meaning why would I celebrate the holiday of Matan Torah on the day that God would have given the Torah instead of the day that Hashem actually gave the Torah? Shouldn't the actual be more important than the hypothetical? I mean, you're telling me we celebrate Shu Shu on day 50 because that is when Hashem would have given the Torah. That's fine. But what is the day he gave the Torah day 51? So, we ought to celebrate it the 7th of S. We ought to celebrate it day 51 rather than day 50. Why would the hypothetical uh trump the actual? So to understand this fully, let's go over a very very well-known story in the Gumar. I'm sure it's a story that that you've learned and and heard before. And this is the great story of Tanor Shalaknoi. Tan Shaoi literally means the snake like oven. Uh this refers to an earthnware oven that was cut into horizontal strips like hula hoops. if those of you remember what a hula hoop is. But um in other words, imagine this was an oven that was a portable oven and you want to carry it from place to place. So instead of having to carry a big heavy oven, it was cut into horizontal hula hoops and the hoops would be uh transferred from place to place. And then when you wanted to reconstruct the oven, you would just put dry mud or you put mud between the hoops. And when the mud would dry, you had a an oven. And then when it was time to move on, you would just get rid of the mud and you would carry the hoops. This is called a snake- like oven. Why snake? Because the hoops resembled a coiled snake. If you ever looked at a coil snake, it's kind of in a circle kind of in a hoop. So the makus, there's a mahlo. It's it's a pretty narrow makus. That is uh does a snake like oven is it susceptible to ritual impurity if it comes in contact with dead bodies or dead animals? Now what's the shila? Okay, I'll tell you the sh that's not so it's not so necessary for the story but I want to add this extra dimension. Normally uh only something that's a vessel contracts tumor. So a cup is macabel tuma and the like. If I simply smash something and all I have are broken bits, uh that does not become tame. Tame requires that it be a vessel. So the mus here is when you have these hula hoops and they're not really a vessel, do I treat this like a smashed oven which would not be susceptible to ritual impurity or since this is simply the way it is assembled and disassembled. It is not a broken thing. This is simply the way you transport it and it would be susceptible to tuma. This is very important because if something is susceptible to tuma then it becomes tame. So any food that is cooked in it is going to become tame as well. And if it's truma or the like the cohen wouldn't be allowed to eat truma that became t. So it's a mlocus. There was a makus among the rabbis whether the tanneri is mabel tuma or is not mabel tuma. Most of the sages took the position that it was tame. It is mad tuma because it is not a broken oven. It is simply the way it was transferred. But one rabbi disagreed. A very famous rabbi Rabbi Alzar. Rabbi Alzar maintains it is to it is not susceptible to tum. And theim argued and he brought all the proofs of logic on his side and theim didn't accept it. they still said it is coming. So he couldn't convince the majority, he could not convince the sages of his position. So since he was not able to convince the sages of his position, he tried a second route, plan B. Plan B was to overwhelm them with his righteousness by showing that he was capable of miracles and they should listen to him. So he proceeded to engage in three miracles. He said, "If the halas like me let the carob tree uproot itself and fly away and the carob tree uprooted itself and flew away." Pretty good. Theim said, "We don't listen to trees." Then he said, "If the is like me, let the river change its course and go in the opposite direction. And the river went in the opposite direction. And the said, as you might guess, we don't listen to rivers. And then he said, if th is like me, let the walls of the beta midrash collapse inward. And the walls began to collapse. And Revosua, who was arguing with Rabbi Alazar, ordered the walls not to do that. Don't you dare move. And the walls didn't know what to do. Should they obey Rabbi Eleazar and keep on going down? Should they obey Rabbi Yeshua and straighten up? As a result, the walls remained in their leaning tower of Pisa shape. And that's they're explaining that's why this medish has these crooked walls. So once again, the said we don't listen to trees and we don't listen to rivers and we don't listen to walls even though these are miracles. These are miracles of God. So finally railzar said okay if th is like me let there be a heavenly voice from hashem that's called a baso that is like me and a voice came from aeshb saying rabi alzar is right said we don't listen to god either We don't listen to uh uh trees. We don't listen to rivers. We don't listen to walls. We don't listen to God. Because God, you yourself said in your Torah, "Lo, he the Torah is not in heaven." You, Hashem, told us how we are to decide how it matters. You gave us a process and you talk about nobody's above the law. Hashem is not above the law. You said that the Torah is not to be decided by heavenly voices. And actually, this is true. A prophet cannot change a mitzvah. Even if a prophet does miracles and everything else, that's not part of the process. The process is reasoning, analogy, precedent, not heavenly voices. So they actually said, "Hashem, stay out of it. It's none of your business." Now, this sounds the height of this sounds like a very dangerous thing to say. And one of the Amarim met alohani many years later aloha is always in heaven goes back and forth and he asked Elohani what was Hashem's reaction when he says the is like rebelzar and they say stay out of it God it's not your business what was Hashem's reaction did he try to like did he want to like destroy them with lightning so Elio said, "We don't understand the physical description, but Hashem laughed and Hashem said, "My children have been victorious over me. I'm going to stay out of this." Now again we'll try to explain this garra but this is a very very powerful gmorrah that even Hashem is bound by the internal process in which he said in the Torah the Torah is not decided by heavenly voices and it's decided by majority vote of the Sanhedrin and if they decided it it becomes right even when it's wrong it becomes right by the way the then goes on the story had some tragic endings a little Rebel Elear still refused to give in and he was excommunicated. He was declared in that actually means you couldn't learn from him. He wouldn't be allowed to teach. You weren't you you couldn't even stand within four cubits of him. He was excommunicated. Now keep in mind he was the god. It's like the greatest rabbi of the generation being excommunicated. So they chose his Talmid, Rabbi Aaka, to give Rabbi Alzar the news. Rabbi Alzar was old and sick and he was in bed. And Rabaka comes to the bedroom and he stands a distance away from Rebel Eleazar. And Rabbi Eleazar looks up and says,"What is wrong, my son? Why don't you come near to me? And Rebea had to give him the news. He says, "It appears," he did it in a very polite way, but it was very clear what he was saying. It appears that your colleagues have separated themselves from you. He didn't want to use the word you're excommunicated. And it's a very poignant scene. Rabbi Elezar broke down weeping, crying. He said he is like a Torah scroll that's totally wrapped up. There is so much Torah in him and now it's all locked up. Can't be given. And the rest of his life there was a great deal of sadness. What was interesting is that the head of the Sanhedrin who excommunicated him was his brother-in-law Raban Gumlio. Rabbi Elzar's wife was Raban Gamiel's sister. And the Gomorrah says, Rabbi Elazzar's wife never let her husband say in the morning prayer. She always interrupted him. Why is that? Is the part of the prayer after the Amida where you pour out your private anguish to God. And Rabbi Alzar's wife was afraid that if he would pour out his anguish to God, there would be a repercussion on her brother for causing him this pain. But one time it says she thought it was Rosh Kodesh. You don't say taken. So she wasn't watching her husband, but it was not Rokesh. And she comes into the room and she sees him saying, she said to him, "You have killed my brother today." And indeed immediately thereafter, she got word that Rabin Gaml had died. Now for sure the Gmorra does not mean Rabbi Alzar prayed that Rabin Guml should die. It's simply expressing anguish and pain and Hashem will avenge that anguish and pain. The political issue of excommunication is a very interesting issue and that simply was one of authority and that is if you have a system and great people are uh flouting the system. They're they're not obeying the system sometimes extreme action has to be taken simply because otherwise you'd have a lawless society and the like. So one could talk about the political dynamics here. Uh now let me digress for a moment and just share with you um a separate peripheral thought of the vil nagon but it's a useful adjunct. Before the basal before the heavenly voice razer tried to prove uh his rectitude by three miracles. The first was the carob tree. The second was the changing of the river and the third was the walls of the bamedish. So here's what the vilon says. The vilon says in order for a person to be a true there are three primary character elements that a person must have. Uh element number one is he must be a person who is happy with very little. He doesn't need a lot of material goods. He doesn't live for hedonism. He is what is called mistapecat. He is happy with very little. A simple life. That's quality number one. Quality number two is humility. A person is humble. If a person is filled with arrogance and gya, he's filled with his own egotism, he will not understand Hashem's Torah. Hashem's Torah requires humility. And quality number three is diligence. You got to put in the hours. Meaning you can be humble and simple in your life but if you don't put in the necessary hours like they say it is the um everybody was talking about the was so unique because he learned Torah totally for the sake of God with no ulterior motive. He learned lashma lashma lashma and that's so rare. So the brisk who was very sharp said you know it's true that the learned Torah but don't think the only difference to you and the is you learn and he learns but he learns lishma the difference is he learns and you don't meaning to say it's not like the was saying you know you know I learn Torah and he learns Torah what's the difference he does so with uh you know much higher level that's true but the point is even in terms of basic Of course there's no comparison says so don't say he learns the he learns we don't learn so you need diligence I mean the vil nagon himself who says this thought was a genius the vil nagon was absolutely a natural genius and yet the vil nagon learned for much of his life 22 hours a day he only slept two hours a night and he did it in four increments of 30 minutes each so think about what a combination That is you know such a diligence even without natural genius would produce a great great and natural genius even without diligence could also produce a very learned person. You combine the genius and the hours you get something truly unbelievable as the vil nagon who was. So again what are the three qualities? The three qualities are simplicity of lifestyle pu humility. So says the vil nagon when rabbi couldn't convince the based on logic his plan B is he wants to convince them by saying I have the qualities of character that aim needs to have and God will testify as to those qualities. So listen to me because I have the requisite qualities and the villagon shows each miracle corresponds to one of these qualities. Quality number one is to be happy with very little. That represents the carob tree, right? Those of you who remember perhaps from your childhood the tubishvat bxer, that dried carob. Uh carob, dried carob is the simplest of all foods, not very appetizing. And it represents the notion of a person who is not seeking the comforts of the world, but lives a very very simple lifestyle. The carob tree can verify that I am a person without these desires. Now the second sign is humility. And here remember that kazal themselves say why is the Torah compared to water? Because just now a lot of reasons water purifies Torah purifies water is necessary for life. Torah is necessary for life. But one of the reasons why Torah is compared to water is just as water goes from high ground to low ground, the Torah leaves the arrogant and goes to the humble. So the water changing its course is a divine testimony that he's humble. Now wait a second here. This may be a little bit of a nonsequittor. I'm telling you, listen to me because I am so humble. I am so modest. I am so unassuming. And to prove to you how humble and how unassuming I am, I'm going to order this water to change the course. So don't you see how humble I am? It seems a little bit the opposite. To try to do a miracle to show many people how humble you are seems to actually be a form of boasting or a form of arrogance. But in truth, that's not really the case. It could be the case for a lot of people. But if you genuinely understand that everything that was given to you is by God and all of your talents are from Hashem and you're not acting out of personal arrogance. You're acting because you need to communicate what the is then essentially it's like saying I call on God as my witness that I'm not acting out of arrogance. I'm not acting out of pride. I'm acting out of my desire for truth. So it's not inconsistent when there's something at stake to actually call upon God to affirm that your motives are pure and untainted. Okay. So the carob tree represents his tape. The river changing its course water represents humility. And finally, the walls of the Beta Medish represents diligence and hazmat as if to say the walls of the beta medish can testify. I was the first to come in the morning and the last to leave at night. The walls can testify. So essentially the vagon says very nicely that the three miracles of rabelzer are connected to the three qualities of the tomah. But that's kind of a digression because after the three miracles, we come to the most difficult part of the story in which a heavenly voice declares the is like and the said to God stay out of it. None of your business. So let's start to try to understand what that even means. When we sit and we learn Torah, we learn the we're trying to figure out what the is even today. Theoretically, we're trying to ask ourselves what does God want us to do? What is Hashem's will in this case? Now since Hashem does not directly speak to us normally, so we have to use logic, we use text, we use precedent, we use analogy, right? We distinguish and we analogize. But all of that are simply mechanisms to try to ascertain what the will of God is. So if God directly tells you what his will is, how can that be irrelevant? That's the very thing you're trying to figure out. I mean, let me give you a a homely example. Let's imagine that kids are deciding what they want to get their father for a birthday present, right? So, the kids are sitting sitting around the table. One says, "Oh, Aba would like a tie. Aba would like cufflings. Aba would like a safer. Aba would like you. He wants an iPhone." Whatever it would be. Right. Right. So they're talking and each one has I'll I'll tell you why Aba wants the safer because so and so or no Aba wants to tie because so and so and Aba walks by and he overhears the conversation and dad says I really it's so nice of you that you're thinking about a gift. What I really would like is so and so. So they say dad please stay out of this. Uh this has nothing to do with you. We are deciding what you want for a gift. What you tell us you want is not relevant on that question. That makes no sense at all. The whole discussion is about what Abba wants. So how could it be that what Abba says he wants is not relevant. Now is all about what is the will of God. So yeah, we got to use you know all the learning processes because we don't have a direct message. But if we're given a direct message, how is it possible to say Torah is not in heaven, you have no say in what your will is. We will determine what you want. What you want is not relevant on what you want. That's, you know, kind of a nonsequitary. So the run raen one of the great rishonim offers a very very interesting explanation of loash shamayami and he brings in first another well-known gmorrah that the garra discusses when there is a mlo let's say between basil and b shama and they're going in opposite directions and one says kosher one says trafe one says obligated one says not obligated one says says pure, one says impure. And yes, we always follow Basil, but objectively in a heavenly sense, which one is right? So the Talmud actually says they're both right. Alu vu elim these and those are the words of the Almighty God. They are both right. It's reminiscent of a story where a litigant goes to Ira to adjudicate a dispute and the litigant gives his case and the rabbi says, "You're certainly right." And then the other person gives their side of the case. The rabbi says, "Oh, you're certainly right." And the rabbit says, "How can they both be right?" And he says, "You're right, too. Everybody's right." How how could two opposite things be right? One says kosher, one says trafe. And you're asking me which is right. They're both right. Well, is it kosher or is it trafe? So the run explains and this is a bit of a dangerous idea because it can be misapplied that he differentiates between what he calls truth and what he calls mathematical truth in mathematics. Although this is actually not true in advanced mathematics, but let's say in basic arithmetic. There is only one right answer to a question. 1 + 1 equals 2. If you say four, you're not entitled to your opinion. What do they say? You're you might be entitled to an opinion, but you're not entitled to your facts. Okay. So there I can clearly say one answer is right, one answer is wrong. doesn't work that way in created what is called a process of decisionmaku when he gave Mosha the mitzvos gave Mosha some basic interpretations but then left it to the sages in every generation to apply those principles to new cases that come up in life for example let me give you a modern example or a relatively modern example let's take let's take electricity so electricity was not harnessed for use until whatever it is the middle of the 19th century and the the question immediately became whether electricity is permitted on Shabbat is it fire or not and people draw analogies to fire and know some permits some today the consensus is it's forbidden when I'm trying to decide not me but let's say in the 19th century when a postake was trying to figure out if electricity is permitted on chabas or not permitted on chabas and they have to go throughmudic analogies and everything else. Are they really trying to figure out what did God tell Moshe about electricity? And obviously we don't know directly. So we're using analogy. In other words, is the question what did God say? Duran says not necessarily. So if you ask me, what did God tell Moshe about electricity? The answer basically might be God didn't say anything about electricity. God gave Moshe principles and from those principles sages tried to derive how they would be applied to everchanging technologies. Meaning people make a big mistake when they think the oral law means God gave Moshe a direct ruling on every single question. Most questions God did not give a direct ruling. God gave principles out of which hal is derived. And this is why if those principles are applied by the right people and I know it's a bit of a loaded question who are the right people then even if their conclusions are divergent even if their conclusions are contradictory God blesses all of those conclusions with the imperature of truth because they derive from the process of adjudic ation. You see, if we understood that Hashem gave a specific ruling on every specific case and we're just trying to discover what that ruling was, then somebody is right and somebody's wrong. But if you understand that God gave principles and process and then left it to am Israel to flesh it out, then God gives full credit for process even if the answers happen to be different with each other. This is what hah truth is. Indeed, even in graduate school, sometimes in mathematics, sometimes a person might work out a very complex equation that may take many pages and at the end they made some computational error that they're off by something. Uh, a professor will often give them full credit for the process. You've shown me that you've mastered the process. Yeah, the fact that you messed up equivalent to a second grader not adding you know uh the last 3 plus two. Okay, but you understand the process. Now again this is a bit of a dangerous notion because this might suggest relativity of but the actually says inic truth there can be there can be pluris pluralism of emis as long as it deres from the integrity of the process itself and even if the answer they get is not hashem's own answer he will bless bless it as true. So this is what the says is loay. Hashem surely has an answer to every question. But Hashem didn't always give us or Moshe the answer to every question. Hashem wanted us to figure it out. And when we figure it out by following Hashem's rules, it becomes true. even if it's the wrong answer. So, Lo Shamayami may say the answer is objectively wrong, but it becomes the will of God through the principles that the Torah is established by the majority of the it becomes true even when in a sense it was not true, it becomes true. Now, you may ask a very simple question. What is the sense of that? Meaning to say, why would Hashem leave the determination of truth, operational earthly truth to human endeavor? And why would Hashem validate a wrong answer because they followed process instead of correcting it to the right answer? like why would I show it seems like a very messy way to create a legal system? And the answer is very deep. The answer is this is a sign of God's love for the Jewish people. Let's imagine that you have a 4-year-old child and the child's birthday is coming up and you want to make a birthday cake for your daughter or son. Now the easiest thing you might do is you might go to a bakery and just buy a birthday cake. The second easiest is when your child is asleep or in gone, you make the cake yourself. Relatively easy. But a much deeper way of connecting to the child is you make the cake with the child themselves. Now, making a chocolate cake with a four-year-old is going to be a much messier process than making the cake yourself and surely much more messier than buying the cake in a bakery, right? The sugar is going to get poured on the floor and the chocolate is going to smudge the walls and there'll be eggshell in the in the batter. So, you could do a much better job by yourself. Why get the kid involved? But you see, if the goal is to simply make the most perfect cake I could make, yeah, do it without the kid. But if the goal is to create a relationship, a connection, then you want the child involved because that way they become cocreators. Hashem could have given us a Tyra in which every single rule would be spelled out although it would be a much bigger Torah than it is. And think about the structure of Gomorrah for a moment. Right? One thing I can say about Gamra and I hope this is not taken as irreverent is Gomorrah Talmud is a very messy book. It's messy because it's full of debates. It's full of questions. It's full of inconclusiveness. It's full of ambiguities. It's full of not giving you final answers. In fact, when people come to learn Gamarra at first, they really don't understand it because it's not telling you. It's giving you possibilities. It's giving you debates precisely because Hashem did not give us definitive rules for all situations. We take Hashem's foundational principles and we apply them and we debate them. But Hashem could have given the Torah like a course which would be much bigger in which a a precise rule is for everything that would eliminate tal that would eliminate kumar that would eliminate ambiguity that would eliminate. Why did Hashem give the Torah in such a messy way that is so heavily dependent on human input and human imperfection and that is open to mlo and disagreement? Answer. Hashem wanted to have us help him in making the cake. He could have given us the cake and it would have been perfect. But Hashem says, "I want to make the cake with you with your mistakes, your fallibility, uh, all the ambiguities and confusions that you have and I want you to know that I love your cake better than my cake." Meaning meaning if you follow the process, that's very important. I don't mean just making up rules. If if if a pose follows the process and the postsec is someone who is qualified again I know that I'm not answering some big questions here. Hashem says even if you get it wrong it becomes right. I love your cake more than my cake. So matan Torah is not just God handing down edicts. Matan Torah is a partnership of love in which Israel acting through the of the Torah are God's partners in taking Hashem's principles and applying them to the everchanging realities of life. The Torah is eternal and God's principles are unchanging, but life changes all the time. So what is the hakic process about? It's about how to apply eternal truths to everchanging realities, right? surrogate motherhood, genetic engineering, cloning, microwaves, electricity, nuclear war, right? New things. Well, what did Hashem tell Moshe? The answer is I'm according to the run, Hashem didn't tell Moshe anything about it, but Hashem gave Moshe the raw material out of which these questions could be addressed. So even when there's a mlo of two opposite opinions, both are given the blessing of truth because Hashem says, "You make the cake according to my rules. I will accept that." Okay, this is and this is why heavenly voices don't count because heavenly voices may tell us an objective heavenly truth, but on earth wants the operational truth that comes from human endeavor. And this explains an interesting mushel, an interesting parable that the Gomorrah gives. Uh it says in Mish and we actually say this puss every time we bring put back the Torah to the I have given you a good purchase. So the Gmoran Braho says the mida of Hashem is not like the mida of Basar Vam. When a Basar Vam has to part with a very precious heirloom, he has to sell it. So the seller is very unhappy. The buyer is happy, the seller is unhappy. But when God gave us the Torah and he parted with it, he's happy as well. Now the question is the analogy is not quite the same. When a seller sells an heirloom, he parts with it. He no longer owns it. God gave us the Torah. God commanded us to keep to God didn't part with it. Answer. God did part with it. God relinquished some of his control through the principles of loay. And therefore it's as if Hashem gave up an heirloom that belonged to him. Okay. So now it turns out that the word matan Torah, giving of the Torah on some level actually means giving away the Torah. Hashem says, "I want you to make the cake with me." So if we understand that the significance of matan Torah is Hashem making us his partners in the creation of Torah even if objectively we're incorrect but blesses our efforts of the I mean when is the first time that we find that God relinquished his will in deference to the interpretation of a human being. It was on Friday the 6th of Son, the 50th day of the omare. It was Hashem's plan to give the Torah on that day. And Hashem didn't give the Torah because Mosher Rabenu interpreted God as requiring an extra day. And even though Mosher Rabenu's interpretation was incorrect, Hashem went with it. You see the here matan did occur on the 50th day of the but it didn't occur by what God did. It occurred by what God didn't do. Hashem's deference to the interpretive mistake of Mosher Raenu by not giving the Torah on the day that Hashem intended to give the Torah is in itself the greatest matan Torah that one could imagine. And this is why the mugan says to go back to the very beginning that we celebrate Shivuos not on the day that Hashem gave the ten commandments but on the day that God deferred to Moshe Rabenu's interpretation by delaying matan Torah by a day. So makan Torah was omission rather than commission. Amazing. Now it still blows your mind because it still means the ten commandments were not given on on that day. Okay. But the matan tora occurred by the fact that they weren't given on that day. That is matanorah. So this is a remarkable idea that Hashem wanted the truths of the Torah to emerge by a confluence by a combination of divine revelation and human endeavor. You know people make a big mistake uh when they look at the oral law as hashem you know I I mean I mean I see this nar all the time because with uh people who are new to Judaism they often present a model of the oral law that uh every single word in the Talmud was given to Moshe at Sinai and it was handed down for many many generations until it was in danger of being forgotten and then it was written down. That is the common narrative that's given. Okay. It's one of my pet peeves is people who believe that are very well-meaning and you know and and they're acting out of sincere religious conviction. But this is an absolute absurdity. If you open a page of Gomorrah and you have a bay talking to Rava, I mean are they repeating a script that was handed down to them? Was a bay told? Uh, here is something that's come down from Mosher Abenu. You're supposed to say these words. First of all, there was no script because it was oral. So, who even told them? Well, you see like these TV reporters, he's wearing this microphone in his ear like told what to say. Isn't it obvious if Abaya says something and Rabba asks Aasha, there's no like revelation happening there. What Abaya and Rava are doing is the exact same thing that we're doing. Of course, they're on an infinitely higher level than us. That that's not the question. But they're using their brains. They're using their minds and they're debating things. So the same thing we do today is what they did then. So when we say the oral law comes from God, instead of looking at it as the oral law is the word of God, the law is the will of God. Meaning God gave principles and process. But the actual development of that process is a human process which becomes Hashem's will because that is the system that Hashem set up and I gave you the cake analogy to illustrate why wanted the system that way. Now obviously the ability to create is not something that you know each and every one of us has. I mean this is given to the gdole the greatest people of every generation but at least on some level each and every one of us gets involved in this process as well. You know sometimes a person is learning and a person has a certain insight and they want to share their insight. So somebody will say what's the source for them? Well, it's good to have sources, but you know, sometimes you can just say, "Well, the source is me." What's what what's so what's so bad about that? Uh is is it Akalu's desire that we don't use our minds, we don't bring our personalities to try to understand the Torah? every nishama, right? There's a famous teaching that there are 600,000 letters in the Torah and there are 600,000 root root souls in Kali Israel and every soul is rooted to a letter of the Torah. And each of us has our own connection. Each of us has our own insight. Now, of course, we have to be humble. Of course, we have to recognize that there's so much we don't know, obviously. And of course, we have to be willing to accept the teasing of those greater. But that doesn't mean there's no room for your individuality and your interpretation and your understanding provided you're not contradicting. In fact, it's well known. I mean many say that many commentaries will actually offer interpretations of verses that are connected Gammorra and they say as long as we're not contradicting there is rash to explain sukim in different in different ways. So this also is the idea that we become creators of Torah with God. Now again, I understand this is dangerous because people will use it as excuses for reform and changing and obviously we're not talking about that. We're talking about a commitment to the framework of and the like. But within that framework, there is room for creativity and we should strive to bring ourselves to the Torah and to try to determine how the message speaks to us. And Hashem cherishes the cake that we bake. As imperfect as it is, obviously if Hashem would handle the whole cake, it would be a lot better. No question about it. Hashem says, "I want you to be involved." And that's a message to all of us. So again, I want to wish everybody a wonderful, wonderful. May we have a one person, one soul. And uh by accepting Hashem's Torah, may it be a merit for Ami Israel to bring us closer to shalom and the ultimate [Music] You see your body [Music]