The Knicks. Israel. The Jewish Future. What Will it Take to Triumph? by Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz

Heat. Heat. My birthday is the week of harsh shalah, the week that the Moragi and the spies were sent to look at the land of Israel and it um behooves us takes a moment and reflect on everything that's happening in this week which is a very very consequential week for the Jewish people for the land of Israel as many things that we have counted on or been familiar with for many decades has begun to disintegrate in front of our eyes and I'll and that is echoed and reflected in this week's para in which the hopes and dreams of the Jewish people to enter the land of Israel at least quickly were delayed And what lessons can we draw from this week's para and the uh to reflect upon a week that is I would call it one of the most uh conflicted or contested weeks the Jewish community is facing and not the least of which um I'm going to mention a a couple but there is a very interesting thing that's going on this Shabbat in New York City and around the world that I think we have to also take into note when we think about a weekly parish year and that is that for the first time in over three close to three decades. the most Jewishly identified uh franchise sports team in New York history founded uh at an era where Jews dominated this sport uh dominated the team and ended up coaching the team and help also guiding it to its greatest glory. I'm referring to the basketball team New York Knicks who have entered the finals which will be played on this Shabbat and has spurred a lot of controversy in the Torah community of New York and I'll explain why. So it's definitely a week of incredible machet and controversy but at the same time it's a time of incredible opportunity and lessons learned. So let me begin. We know that uh in looking at some of the current issues the the recurrent theme is a breakdown of orders or a change of plans or a delay of plans. Let's take for example, one of the things that we always would count on when when we were back in New York was the Israel Day pre parade and the love that would be showered upon Israel and Jewish people on that Sunday sometimes in May or June and march proudly with Israeli flag and we'd be joined at that time by all the gentile leaders, political leaders, the mayor and the city councilmen and various celebrities. Uh it was something we grew up with. It was something that worth the you know se you know 70 years the 70 years you know from the time the state of founded before 1950 certainly through uh 20 uh 2020 and now past that you know we we've expected that to be a constant this year however was not was a breakdown order that the mayor Mandani who's closely affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood who is closely affiliated Amas, his wife and he are very virulent haters and critics of Israel and abuse to attend as a public slap in the face of the Jewish community in New York City and which is the largest in the diaspora has never suffered before and it was very public. It was very um how shall I say a lot of repugnance and certainly uh could be viewed as an act of anti-Israel anti-semitic hatred. So that was a breakdown in something that we always thought would be a positive. Second of all, the New York Times has crossed a boundary in its incessant um hatefilled rhetoric about Israel, which have been non-stop for as long as I can remember in every situation regarding Israel. Israel's way portrayed villainous um callous murderous uh on the wrong side of of good but something again some a ceiling shattered the recent story that was published by a fellow named Crystal classic Christian anti-semitism that accused Israel of a horrible horrible blood lielist crime of training dogs to sexually abuse Arab prisoners. Now, this is even by scientific or animal behavior standards impossible. It is the most preposterous lie that we have heard to say that Israel is genocidal and so on and so forth. That's unfortunately and sadly part of the disintegration of the media and its credibility. But here the New York Times took it to such an extent and they defended the story which is even worse of so it was a premeditated hit. Now obviously we know that it was meant to divert attention from the actual horrific sexual torment crimes, murders, rape, uh devastatingly callous, uh baking babies in ovens in front of their parents, which is the the lowest human behavior that perhaps we've seen uh akin to the Nazis, certainly not since the Nazi war. And now they want to turn the turn the tables and say accuse us of something equally depraved or maybe not equally depraved because it only involve abuse and not murder, bloodshed, rape, mutilation and and of course uh capturing hostages. It was as if the New York Times consciously knew that this preposterous story, which is a most bold-faced lie you could ever imagine, would be great way to divert attention away from the crimes of us and instead turn the tables on each. Now, this is something that I do believe that something crashed here. This is a crash and burn. the the last or shall I say uh fig leaf of decency, honesty and truth. You know, a lie can only prosper if there's some truth attached to it unless you repeat it so much that the lie becomes the truth. And this is what has become. That's another disintegration. Third, talking still about the United States, the ICE protests in New York, New Jersey. This has been another bold-faced attempt to turn the tables and say that those governmental u authorities who are to remove illegal and often criminal elements if not many many criminal elements from this country who entered here illegally and are causing crimes have committed crimes since their entry has become some sort of fake war in which people are paid to demonstrate and create violence. again to turn the tables and to say that this thing which is really positive. I mean the beginning of the Trump administration many many people were deported and put in the most uh vicious terrorist prisons in South America because these were the terrorists uh from a from a known international gang of thieves headed by Maduro who was taken from Venezuela who came to Venezuela. Paul's thrones entered the country and we're wreaking havoc all across this country and that was reversed up. Turn the tables. Okay. And there's a couple of other things that are of note. In London, the one largest kosher um supermarket which supplies food to thousands of observant Jews in London and who knows beyond London. Uh burnt down. Was it arson? Can you walk in the streets of London? People being attacked outside of Shu just living their normal life that they've expected to live the last 70 years since the Holocaust and even during the Holocaust in England. No one dared no one dared to imagine acts of arson burning Jewish ambulances. Perhaps now we don't know. They say it's electrical fire. you know, raises a question, but it's it's it should it it should put a deep concern uh you know, a discomfort into our minds and heart. Okay. Beyond that, in the in here in Israel, another breakdown of societal order, which again is is uh extremely disturbing. I'm not here to give you bad news. I'm just here to tell you that things are are are are disintegrating and and but that's not a bad thing. Let's explain why. It's not a bad thing because when things disintegrate, we can reformulate them in a much better way. And I'll explain why. I just mentioned yes boys are being taken off the streets and put into jail, military jail if they are not registered to serve in the army. The Knesset is voting to disintegrate itself and going on. There are UFOs that are being reported in the news with alien alien life. These are thresholds of of truth or fact or fiction. What is truth? What is not truth? What is good? What is bad? Can evil proliferate and present itself as good? Will this struggle between the Trump administration and Iran, the the uh the falsest regime in the world? They've done because maybe they're more truthful about what they want. They do shant to America. Other people just think to America. Okay. So, Hashem wants our attention. Is a para of disintegration, but it's not all formal. It's with good reason and setting foundations for a more hopeful future. So, let's let's dive in and see what we can. First of all, first premise. These last couple weeks, I've shared with you an extraordinary truth which really should be um riveted in our thinking. Rivet in our thinking. and and that is that we have crossed in this year 5786 into a zone of time which is like another era toward the redemption of Jewish people. I'll just repeat very very quickly. said numerous times that according to both Nebistic and Pmutic sources the 97A elsewhere midrashim zohar our world is designed on the pathway of shabas which is why this shabas especially in New York becomes very very important because this shabas the Jews of New York or orthodox Jews observant Jews, all Jews are going to have to make a decision what they're going to do on Shabbat. Are they going to watch the New York Knicks or follow the game somehow? Although it's going to be played on Chavez, I think it's going to be uh how does it work out? It's like um you know, you're going to have to wait many many hours after Shabas to find even the results. Okay. and will it and and the reports coming out of New York, I heard, you know, like so many kids are so excited about this and parents and adults are so excited about this because they identify with this Jewish team and there's been there's a lot of themes that that make it feel very Jewish. First of all, this team has been on the losing side of world history for so long. Just like our long gal, they've had a long galoot. you know, it's been 27 years since they even had an opportunity to win a championship. And before that, you know, and that was even like a sort of a bogus halfyear. It was a it was it was a a year that was kind of flucish and they weren't, you know, wasn't even a full season, the whole thing. But then the real last championship teams were guided by Red Holtzman. If you go to Cedars, New York, you will find Red Holtzman way. Red Holston is a brilliant Jewish coach who won 613 games exactly the number of mitzvah and that banner hangs in Madison Square Garden. 613 and you know it's referring to the Jewish coach Red Holtzman who is the greatest coach of all time for the Knicks and he won 613 games and 1973 which was of course the last most dramatic year in Israeli history with the 73 war I believe right is um since this past year with the actual Iran attacks and the war with Iran. I mean, you have to say this was the, you know, the biggest war. We were in bomb shelters. We were not that there hasn't been from Gaza, but it's been this protracted war. It has come to a peak in this year in in literally in the last 12 months. That's probably the most biggest crisis um and yet the biggest opportunity that Israel has faced since 1973 or as time the Knicks won the championship. So, there are echoes here. Jews are the onor. The hero of the Knicks team is short. He's about six foot two if you think so, but very determined young man. Um, and named Brunson. And his opponent from Texas is about 7 foot4. That's that's like, you know, David and Goliath kind of image there. All right. Will the Jewish team from New York led by the little guy, the underdog, defeat this massive Goliath of a person um whom they call an alien. And maybe it's not for that to announce that aliens are coming from outer space because they're playing against them. He looks like an alien anyway, just to be humorous. But there's a real decision that New York twos have to make and that is will I disrupt my shave to pay some attention to this game even you know I'm gonna what are they going to do leave on a radio and huddle around huddle around it? Are they going to like I you're going to ask the cops to give you the scores you're going to walk past the bar and you know look through the window or are you going to be you know in short doing? Are you going to be able to concentrate on your domining? and you're able to, you know, sing your shabas mirror or where your heart really is, where your excitement, where your pulsing excitement is is about this game. And I'm sorry, but chabas to many, especially young people, even homes in New York, can't say the same thing about Chabas. One of the things about Chabas in America, and I'm sure nurses will too, many people grew up even in observing homes, and certainly those who not, is they're on the phone. They're on their phones. They're texting. They're looking. They're they're scrolling and they're not to scrolling. Okay? It's not to post scrolling. It's scrolling, but it's not to scroll. And it raises a question, you know, raises a question. It poses a question. And I I heard from um one one uh reporter in New York that parents are concerned, you know, where's the values? What do I do? And you know, my kid's going to be sitting on with his nails dug into the shabas table just waiting to spring for any information like a and that's the reality and and we have to contend with that reality and there's a there's a silver lining there that I want to share. So with all this um all this going on, okay, let's look at a time in which a transition had to be made. Okay, and there was challenge, change, disappointment, perhaps disintegration for sure, but then it set a foundation for a course for a heroic future. So as I've said 5786 according to our our cabalistic exper is 214 years from the year 6000 which according to the pattern of creation would mean the entrance of the world shabas the universal shabas not the universal basketball championship. Okay, not the same. Although people might think that that might be equally exciting or maybe more exciting, maybe a lot more exciting. But Shabas is coming. Now 214 to 210 years away as we've been sharing is the time point in which according to the leash the great we understand based on sources in the zor itself going back to the days of the Mishna that said this is a period in which new life will begin. In other words, we'll call the period the upcoming the the dead will rise. And again, it doesn't mean necessarily that on in a physical sense, it's over a 210 or 214 year period. You don't know when actually people will uh return or loved ones and in what form they will return and what form the world will be in. We have to just sit tight. But we are we are being informed. We're being that information being shared with us. It's being presented to us. I'm presenting it to you. Then it means it's started. A new spirit, a new life is being uh put into play. And as I explained, is a is a process that although it looks sad because there's a loss of life, a separation from body and soul, but it's actually a good thing because what it does is allows the body to disintegrate and be ready to be reformed in a better stronger way to hold a better stronger soul filled with more light and power that will again lift that vessel wear vessel which is the human body up to the to to highest heights to to to what people were like in the days of Gan where people were uh spiritual beings close to angelics like Mosher Rabenu like Adam Harisha that's the journey that we're going on it's an incredible journey and and the body and the soul will be all the better caught we have to understand that before there's integration or reintegration there is a form of disintegration and you know the the analogy people give is that in the in the the psalm that we read before benching um you know about uh how zorim you're you're crying when you plant the seeds why are you crying when you plant seeds before tell us because you're seeing a disintegration here's edible food and you're putting in the ground it's it's like burying burying life, which is what a loss really is. But then when it sprouts from the ground and brings you even more, wealth, nutrition, prosperity, and you come and collect it, arena, you sorrow. At that point, we're going to reap the gains with joy. So it's a temporary sorrow, but a massive joy on the way. Okay. So that's how we should really look at the concept of concept of the as renewal. Okay. So now let's take a look at a classic classic case of massive disintegration. Massive story of of the spies. But I want to go back to uh beginning of that problem. Jewish people marched on the 20th of ER on the second year towards the land of Israel having recovered from the sin of uh the mortal sin of of the piggo the golden calf rebuilt the Mishkan receive the second set of lupos new chance a brand new chance a clean slate and all they needed to do was follow the clouds of glory and Mosherenu into the promised land and that wasn't going to take a long month it was going to be which is why I believe it would the journey began on the 20th of the month a 10day length journey meaning on the 11th day you enter which is exactly what it says the beginning of the book of it says all the problems that the Jews encountered in that generation that left mit that ended up not making it out and but their children did in glorious fashion the breakdown of that generation of redemption um started when they were 11 days from Hari all the way deep in the Sinai desert to entering the land of Israel in all of its glory probably near Hariz and then onwards to much like the latter of Jacob stretched from us up to Shem and you know that would have been the story and how long it would have taken actually. So, so we find a window into that when Mosher Abenu having on that first day seen the Jewish people travel three days worth of territory in one day. Now, if that means that if let's say Israel is 11-day journey, that means on the fourth day you're in. Correct? So, it's three days and on day four you enter the land. said Mosher Rabbenu famously to his father-in-law. He said, you know, we're going to be coming towards the land of Israel. This is in Omar. We are on our way, right? So, please come with us. us. Come with us. Even though you're not born Jewish, you've converted to Judaism. Join us. Don't leave us. You gave us a lot of good ideas. I'll read this. You've created a peaceful um influence on us. You've been to us like eyes. And we speak about a mishap. He gave us the system of a thou captains of thousands, captains of hundreds, captains of 50s, captains of tens, chaot law and order. In other words, Israel was a brilliant leader, manager, governmental supervisor. And he told Mosherenu, "You can't have chaos here. You need order from top to bottom. And every 10 Jews is going to have a captain that will settle down whatever issues they have, whatever strife might rise between them. He g and and he said, "Moshe, we we we're very grateful to you. You you you knew you had a wisdom about how things have to go down." Now, it is true that Mosher Abenu had the company of 70 elders going back from the days of Mitan. But those elders would suddenly be consumed by a fire on this very first, I would call it day of infamy, 20th of Eon in the second year. While at the same time in magnificent glory, they marched with the with Hashem and Moshe leading them tribe by tribe, camp by camp with the Aron leading uh in in the center. The procession was absolutely magnificent, supernatural. Uh the the clouds cleared the path to make a a wonderful comfortable. It was like a a met, you know, a giant airplane or a giant train, you know, that just went through smoothly through the desert. And at the same time at the same time in that first day they traveled the distance of three stations one day and then the people complained. Mosha says and then they complain. What were they complaining about? Right. They were looking to get out of it. They were marching towards Israel, but they said, "We're not quite ready for this great elevation. You want us to march. We know we're kind of still have a lot of mitim in us. It's easy to take the Jew out of, but it's a little harder to take the out of the Jew. So what are you rushing us? Because what happened was what happened was as I'll explain we have been struggling with this journey for three days. But the reality was it wasn't three days. It just appeared to be three days. um on the mile marker. But the reality was Hashem was rushing them to take them immediately. I wanted them to come in immediately into Israel. And what happens on that at that exact moment? The Torah tells us hears these complaints and he's angry. uh we could say and a fire broke out and people died much like those explosive drones that come in from Hezbollah from who knows where hit a group of people and they're gone in an instant in the fiery death. Terrible terrible horrific horrific problem. That's another one of the great issues. Can we defend the Can we defend our populations from these from these terrorists? No matter how much we fight them, how much territory we take, no matter how many bombs we throw at them, no matter how many of the terrorists we kill, they just keep coming. There doesn't seem to be any end. They're fighting to the death and experiencing a lot of death. Doesn't seem to bother them very much. So, Rapo, he says, "I moved you this distance so quickly and you're having a problem with that because I wanted you to enter the enter the land of Israel right away." In other words, it would have been four days. And what happened? What happened? The Shabbam, this fire consumed the Golan. That was what the 70 elders of Egypt. And not only that, the people went on to complain as follows. This last They cried out to Hashem. What do they want? They said, "We're kind of still used to Egypt indulging our physical pleasures. We're not on such a high spiritual level like you think we are." And they cried, "We want to eat meat. We don't want to eat man. M is miracle food. M is angel food. You're trying to make us angels. We don't want to be angels. We want to be plain old human beings. We want to use the facilities. We want food that we eat to come out. We're not eating vitamin vitamin juice that just gets absorbed into our bodies to keep us alive. That's no fun. We want a big juicy steak. What's wrong with that? And not only that, we remember the fish. There was herring, there was salmon, you know, all kinds of good fish, smoked fish. Asher Noal, I I have to make a comment here. I just have to make a comment. There's a very famous Jewish magazine. I'm not here to be critical. I'm just making observation that for the shoo edition, they took out a full page ad of a of a blint. In other words, a giant blint which took up the entire magazine page and on the bottom you know where to get it for sure. I said how do you dedicate an entire page of a magazine thousands and thousands of dollars you know much to a blint. I mean isn't that a little bit exaggerating? I kind of understand they take out full page ads for jewelry. Everybody loves diamonds. They get fine but you need them for getting married. You need them for anniversaries. Whatever it might be, you know, it's a mitzvah, but a mitzvah was also a mitzvah. But a whole a whole page, but we remember what we ate and we got it for free. How did they get it for free? That's another story. Their oppressors threw them a scrap and they think they're big shots, but it doesn't really mean that. Rashi says we can just do anything we want. Meaning, we don't have any moral obligation. We can satisfy our desire desires in any which way we want. Physically, emotionally, spiritually, sexually, anyway. They cried. They cried because there was a loss. They were losing something about their physical experience that they indulged in. Now, I'm not here to compare, you know, but there is a certain excitement in in in those earthly pleasures. Yeah. You can dedicate a whole page of the magazine to a belief. You take the most famous blints that ever was made. You know, tens of thousands of family people walk that blint. I don't know who ate it. Was it eaten even? Maybe it was thrown out. I don't know. But it's famous blint at this point the blint is like and there's a certain excitement like the New York Knicks is there's electricity there. There's a fish. It was a fiery like the fire the fire that consumed them. It was the same fire that consumed the leaders, but it was a fire of excitement and pleasure that didn't seem to match, you know, the lost experiences of that. How do you deal with that? How do you reconcile that? What I want to what I want to say is we have to understand a little bit about these 70 leaders and the 70 that replaced them. And then we'll have we'll have a little bit of a fluke. Who are these 70 leaders that once confronted with the fiery passion blind blint mania? They they disappeared. Why? Who are they? So these 70 elders were the ones that Moshe presented himself to with our own telling them there's going to be redemption in Egypt. They were the leaders. They held the Torah that was given the the the the the secrets of the Torah and of of Shem's essence and will that was started with Adam and given to Noah and given to Shem and given to Aramitsuk and held by the by the Jewish people in their slavery. There was they were the repository of everything good, holy and tora to and they were the ones who said I know we have a signal there's going to be an end to this madness and we'll be able to go back there to Israel and resume the work of the on even greater scale with greater resources with greater power with great military might and not we'll be able to clear the land in a way that Aram only began to do and Jacob began to experience I'll leave them a little bit. So Moshe came to them and said let's go to parro and demand our freedom one by one they slipped away and when he gets to parro of the 70 plus him and our own none left not even one. What was that all about? He said because they their role as they understood it was to preserve Torah and the hope of the Jewish people. Okay, the we can live here. We have it. We have the knowledge. We have the wisdom. We have the tradition. We have the secrets of Hashem and the universe. But now we've got to put it into blindes and Harry. How do you do that? So I famously there's a story that I like to tell about Rivera Wine one of my mentors who gave me some considerably good advice over my years as a rabbi. He told a course about being ra you know rabbitic training teaching. So he said he recounts a story that he was a RV in in Miami Beach and he was called to a bris in Burough and his congregant pulled him over and said, "Rabbi, just know this is this is not Miami. What do I mean?" He says, "You're going to get be invited to speak, but they won't listen to one word that you say. There's going to be just talking. But don't worry, just say your duvar Torah over the crowd and it's fine. But just I'm just telling this rabbi so you shouldn't be insulted. Okay. Well, he gets there and he and uh sure enough, the crowd is quite quite, you know, boisterous and he's getting up to speak and he's straining his voice trying to go over the over the noise till one guy stands up in the middle and kind of screams out, "Where are the pickles?" And he says, "And that point just tanked." He says like I can't do this again. I remember the fish and I remember the I remember the pickles. At that point he that's how he explained what Mosherenu blamed Hashem and Hashem said to him I'm going to give you a brand new 70 elders I get it. Here's your Here's Hashem. Here's my resignation letter as the solo remaining leaders of the Jewish people. Those original 70 elders are gone. They didn't even show up when I was with parro. They're gone now completely. I I'm at a loss. And Hashem says, "Don't worry. I'm going to give you a brand new set of 70 elders." And who were those brand new set of 70 elders? That came as a response to the question, where's the pickles? you know in the midbar enthusiast of the pickles. So just like barrel wine described himself, Mosherenu kind of sat down and said tom where am I going to get busar for all these people? How can I translate these lofty spiritual incredibly holy and filled with divine light and energy the eaters of the mind angel's bread literally. And I'm going to translate that into steaks and barbecues. Pass the grill sauce. What am I going to do? Hashem, I don't know how to do that. He's I'm a I'm, you know, he was already on a different level. He already was faced with shining at this point. Shining like an angel. She says, "Don't worry. I'm going to give you a way to connect to the regular pleasures and excitements of life. And what we're going to do, Mosher Benu, is we're going to actually do what I always wanted to begin with. I didn't create the world to live with a bunch of angels. I created to live with men, men and women, vasaram. And it's true that in their first iteration they're going to we'll see what they can do to incorporate the their nishas and have the nishamas guide their lives as best possible and then there'll be another chance and eventually they'll get it all right. But Israel is the physical place. Yeah. Basar is going to be the physical reality. When the tribes want to come to Israel, they're going to be complaining about their cattle. It's unbelievable. It's unbelievable. They're just where's the beef? There used to be a commercial 100 years ago. The old lady looked at a hamburger, opened it up, and found this tiny little little circle of meat and she said, "Where's the beef?" You know, and that became a for decades that became a uh a slang saying, you know, "Where's the where's the tacos?" So So these 70 elders understood what where's the beast means? They understood what it means a nickname. They understood what it means to be excited about this about you know just the small pleasures of life which Erisel has in space. The be the beauty of Erit Israel the fruits of Eric Israel the the the clear air the you mean you're living in a place that's elevated. It's not the subway you know it's not the subway to Madison Square Garden. It's a lot different. It's a lot more elevated. There's elevator trains in New York, but there's elevation in there as well. But it doesn't forget behind the Gosh. The Gosh has to come along, too. And that's the struggle. How do you put it all together? We haven't quite figured it out. The Israel itself is is fractured along these lines. Do we put the emphasis on the land and the security and the building and the finances and science and intelligence or do we just want to be in a in a spiritual embrace with Hashem that every word of Torah brings his divine light and energy down through my soul in ways that are incredibly pleasurable which is what it's supposed to be. How do you bring those two things together? How can you have one without losing the other? and shar 5050s don't work. So how does this all work out? So I'm going to help you by getting you started. There are 70D leaders that what they did was they were the liazison. They represented the Jewish people against their Egyptian task. And when they were called in and said where's the quota of the bricks? And when parro stopped giving straw and the bricks weren't produced to the level that ridiculous requirements that they were asked to do, they were the ones who were beaten and smitten. And they protected the Jewish people in the hands of their oppressors. And they got down with them and the lime pits and babies were being born and baked into the into the uh into the bricks themselves and comforted them and gave them the strength to live another day. And they gave them the hope of the future. They might have started telling them, you know, but there's going to come a time where we're going to come out of here. We're going to be working our own lands and we're going to be proud Jews and somehow they sustain them until the redemption. These 70 elders. Now, how did those 70 elders who came now onto the scene on that very first day of traveling the very first day where problems immediately arose where the whole enterprise of entering Israel seemed down maybe that's why Moshe clung to Israel and said don't leave I need help I need help I need a lot of help and Israel what happened before asked, "What happened to Israel's system? I mean, why wasn't that good enough? Why do we need these new 70 elders when we had this massive system in place?" The Ramban asked this question and civ the illustrious of of the vagan discusses this question in in his perish and and they say the following. Their message is that uh there there's one thing to have chim they can maintain law they will keep the peace they're jeandarms right there's going to be law and order that's what understood law and order but how do you speak to the souls of the Jewish people to revive them from their not from their conflicts but from their suffering in their emotional suffering pain loss fears emotional wounds trauma that Israel didn't have an answer knew how to keep law and order you know like the Iranians zip they know how to keep order you know you step out of line or blow your brains out doesn't matter okay not saying that that was what the Sarasos are meant to too. But on our level, on our greatness great level, it was to maintain the peace. To maintain peace is fine. But what about inner peace? What about purpose? What about meaning? What about excitement? What about life itself? What about the fire of life? Can't be. When people are traumatized, when people are suffering, when people have problems which generally fall into three categories as we know, bunny is either have problems with your family, marriage, children, okay, relationships or that's that's dying, health problems, a various incredible horrific terrible disease issues or even threats to life like war. Though dunkers, missiles and zonings, feed your family, maintain economic solveny. The dollar has shrunk to 280 2.8 checkos. Do you know what that means? Used to be a dollar was worth four checks. Okay? So if you made 10,000 check, you made $10,000 a month, which is you had 40,000 checks. That's a nice very nice living. Now 28,000 sharp holes. That's already upper that middle class, upper middle class. You just went down from affluent to borderline. It's a struggle. You're trying to translate skills that you learned in America, degrees in America, mindset from America, language from America, and plant it here and be able to compete with Israelis in the open marketplace. Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? No, but it's done. It's being done with great courageousness, ingenuity, but it's difficult process. I just registered my son to take um he took an advanced course in uh in being in personal training and he has to take a first aid course with that first. Yeah. First aid course and you know, so why you know all in Hebrew? Yeah, but we can give it to you in English. Great. That helps. You know what I mean? Those little things create a bridge where people who didn't grow up with Hebrew as a first language can integrate. But those three major major problems. Who is going to help us with them? Those are the seven elders. Those are the shims that were down in the pits with people facing their tragedies acknowledging not just leaders who are trying to create large schematics. You know big institutions the big institutions have to have a heart. The big institutions have to be able to deal with the kids that are dropping out. The big in institutions have to be able to deal with those who are learning disabled who are not playing. the big institutions of society, jewels and schools and government. We need to reach out to those who are somehow stumbling, falling through the cracks, need to be lifted up. That's that's the set that's that set of and they understand the passion and the need for passion and purpose. Okay, that's what that the new leadership is. So as we see for example in Israel the attorney general legislating that anybody who makes a donation to a yeshiva which has kids who are not registering for the army uh will lose tax exemption. Can you imagine? So then what value do you put on Torah? What passion do you have for Torah? In 1959, Chief Chief Rabbi Herzog, whose grandson, his grandson is the president of Israel today, wrote an impassion letter to Bengurian saying, you know what, the army has its purpose and yeshiva has its purpose and they all benefit. We all benefit from it together. We must maintain our soul if we're going to much as we need to maintain our physical body and our presence. We need to obtain the soul, the purpose of the Jewish people and Hashem's eyes and our connection to Hashem. We got to work it out and victorious. Now, he was smart. I mean, maybe he wasn't, but it it happened. And there was an impassion please. Someone wrote to today's herad saying, "Snap it." On the streets of Big Shemish, there were there were fire, but not the kind of fire that we want breaking into police stations because setting fire to the grounds around the police stations just few blocks, you know, few kilometers from here because a kidic boy was taken to military jail over the crime of not showing up for military service in an army where his beliefs, his systems, his culture, his way of life are let's put it this way a challenge to many people and and you know we all know that in if if there is a rut zone of course it can be done of course there are solutions of course if there were good will quietly and and and there's many many many developments that are going on higher education for the cler world. Um technological education for the cler world, integration into army units um that may be able to provide some measure of what their lifestyle requires. These are all doable things, but it's it's the it's the desire to fight, the desire to be right, desire not to see the value of the other side. This is the disintegrating strategy and I want to just go I know we're going long but I want to just conclude with an important lesson. Okay, we don't know whether Pov 100% went home or not. Some say he did, some say he didn't. The overwhelming proof from Chopton is that there were the Canaan who were the sons of Poten Moshe who were around uh Har Ye Yehuda. Okay. And and and uh Yael whose whose husband was uh Hakei was the one who created the greatest military victory for the Jewish people through Hashem's will by putting a tent tent pole into the skull of our vicious enemy son. And So there was there was you know Israel came Israel was a person of passion he was very excited about what happened to the Jewish people is the one who came out and said he's the first person who ever said and what happened on miracles for the Jewish people there's passion there there's fandom there's victory he saw victory over a mullik got excited just like all the yidden in New York and elsewhere in the world here all over will be so excited if the Knicks win a championship in this unusual year. Yeah, but there are other victories that were also maybe to learn from that passion and apply some of that passion and say, you know something, shouldn't Hashem be a little bit jealous of your the full page the full page blinds ad and a ticket to Madison Square Garden? There's an organization that's promoting keeping Chabas and they give out prizes to people in New York who decide to keep Shabas. Well, one of the biggest prizes they're giving away is tickets to the game. Tickets to the basketball game. You know how many people are signing up to keep Shabas because they want a ticket to the basketball game. Now, there's some that's progress. That's what I would call progress. And maybe the point of the blint is that, you know, if I don't serve you that kind of food, I'm not going to get you turned on to come to shore. I'm not going to get you to turned on to come to this year. And maybe the camaraderie and the fun is a component that cannot be neglected today because that's where we're holding and there's a silver lining to that. So final word is there was another very fiery figure like Mosha named Elan. The Moraglin the spies were captains of 50. They were Israel people. They were just supposed to be clerics. The two great leaders, Yeshua, okay, and Khaled went and the other 10 guys were just supposed to sign off about check check the checks, but they rebelled. But these were captains of 50s according to Fuzzah. They were people who were supposed to just keep order and simp and be simple and be humble. But they still they they they tried to usurp the moment for themselves. They said we can't do this. We can keep order in this type of environment. This is a a place of giants. You know, we know how to keep the peace among the people. How are we going to keep the peace in such a electric challenging dangerous but exciting world? And the answer is what Khalif said, "No, we can al we can do better. We can we can rise up from where we are. We can wake up. We can have a sim of sorts revitalize our energies." This is the era of that where the juices start to come along where it's not mindless devotions that are just you know checking the box. So I d I d I d this I kept chas but the passion is happening on west of the fourth street you know soi in his final chapter of life this is where we uh had a very important inter interface with captains of 50s there was the great king and I say great with uh quotes akav who unfortunately has no portion of the world to come, but was the greatest Jewish uh warrior king of all time, one of the longest reigning kings of Israel, won every battle, and he and his wife brought their wickedness against Hashem, which was beyond profound, loved the Jewish people and made them happy. his wicked wife who killed the ravim of of Balhim of of Hashem and instituted the Bal used to dance at the weddings which is why the only part of her body that wasn't eventually eaten by dogs was pants as she used to dance they did have a passion for Jewish people they knew how to get people united they knew excited about defending Israel and when he died immediately immediately there were problems uh and Moab start started to attack. Couldn't stop Moab anymore. Under Aka, they were afraid. But under the next king, Akazia, they weren't afraid. And Aaza was so traumatized, he got sick in bed. And listen to what he does. sends messages by go to Gaza where they have the king which is another name for the ink in the land of the Philistines go ask him the future because they tell the future and alabi was told this and he says go tell this king Israel, you're going to look for electricity and excitement in these unholy places and then you don't think that there's a a god in Israel who can answer you answer that question for you. Here's the answer. You're not getting out from your deathbed. This is your death. And because of outrage against Eli Yawanabi, he sent three times captains of 50s to arrest him and bring him to his death to restore order. Restore order. So the first group, El Yahawu said, "Oh, I'm I'm I'm your king. You want me to come and present myself for execution in front of this king? Um, how about this?" Uh, they all burn to a crisp. Next group of 50, the king says, "Come now." They all burnt to a crisp. The third guy said, "Listen, hell yeah. Let's talk. I I know you can burn me in one second with the fiery passion of your spiritual fire. But guess what? I don't want to die. I'm in a bind over here. The king told me to get you. So what do you say at that point? A malik comes from Shamim and says, "Elawah, listen. Go and tell him to his face that he made a mistake by seeking out his spiritual guidance in Gaza." Think about October 7. October 7, kids to no fault of their own went on Sus the day that supposed to celebrate our spiritual our some crazy excitement and joy. All right, if you need a little vodka, take it. You need a big blimp, take it. But dance with the to get excited about your strike. They couldn't find that. They they put up a big Buddha and they dance to Eastern whatever trans music and they cost them their lives in the most recent fashion. Maybe the message was there. And again, it's not their fault. No one showed them how to find that excitement in this place. They had to find it somewhere because they're hungry. They're hungry for it. The nation of the second seven, the elders knew how to unite just like Akav knew how to get the people, feel included, loved, motivated, whether it was through through learning Torah or through anything else, which apparently was the way that they did. And so the lesson is that we don't need to turn to these unholy sources to rekindle our fires. But we may need to to learn from that passion. Whatever the kids went there for was about passion, connection, otherworldly fun. Maybe it was through drugs, maybe it was through other ways, music, etc. But that passion is an ingredient that is the key to the level of that is the come from the holy place. All right? And that's what we need to figure out how to do in our own lives to ignite the lights and fire of our passion for yrike but include all those and all those aspects of ourselves. Yeah, I like that idea. So, you're going to give out Shabas observance tickets to those who want to follow the game. Yeah, but that game is Tuesday. Come come for Shabas and have a blast with us and then you can go and play the game on Tuesday and see if you can't meet that challenge of keeping Shabas um and and more importantly learning that if this is what turns you on, then we need to find that light, that switch, that within ourselves. and what what would it take to do that? Okay, that's our open question. All right, so I wish everybody uh a true understanding that although the Jewish people were were not in that generation ready to do this, but the transformation was happening. It took a little while and those same two leaders that led the spies who weren't ready were the two spies that would lead them eventually to the conquest of Ureo and and the triumphant entry of Palest. We should see that we should see major breakthroughs at this incredible period of time. We read these stories and our and learn these lessons from Hazalah that um that a bright future awaits and all this will be reconciled and and there'll be a for us not only in foothark but and a survival but also more importantly here in Israel that will spread its light throughout the land. Have a wonderful Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat.