The Peace Prize: A Jewish Perspective - Parshat Balak - Rabbi Kaplan on The Weekly Torah Portion

Aron is a rode oh oave shalom and a rodeave shalom rode shalom means the plain meaning is that he pursues peace right peace at all costs right that's a mistake that is a common that's the liberal leftist woke uh joke uh that that that peace at all costs because sometimes sometimes uh uh a peace is not available and sometimes you can't uh what do you call it if you're being attacked by hoodies. Uh so sometimes you got to blow up their port. Uh that that sometimes is the best best form of communication. You know, we're not going to tolerate this. You're not going to just send bomb us. You got to bomb us away. We're going to just turn the other cheek as they say. That's nonsense. Number one. Number two, if a person sees sinners or evildoers doing something. So that's also rode shalom. Rode shalom means that Aron we think that Aron is just a pacifist and is everything you know with just flying a white flag. Aron Rode Shaw the commentary say when he had to even Aron a sweet gentle Arono when he had to he would rode what's a rodeave in hala a rode is a pursuer somebody's pursuing somebody he would pursue the sinners he would rode shalom that means to break up the shalom among the sinners that's also called rode shalom so you got to know when to turn it on and when to turn it off so what happens more turn back my wrath from the Jewish people by taking my vengeance among them where he goes and he kills those two people and I'm sure what did say afterwards I'm sure what did he say to Zimry get the point? So maybe not the uh at the end of the day takes the law into his own. He kills them. Therefore, I didn't destroy the Jewish people. Now the the greatness of Pinas is that he you notice he said Aron Pinas the son of Alazar the son of Aaron. Why is retracing him to Aaron? Why is Pinas being traced to Aron? Because Aaron is the ultimate pacifist. See, you wouldn't expect Pitkas to go and be the guy who's going to do this, the guy who comes from a family of an Aron Aquin. The answer is no. No, no. He is a descendant of Aron Coin because Aron himself would have done this if it was necessary. It's not that Aron would said, "Oh, that's terrible." You know, you should really just talk about it, discuss it, have some sort of meeting, have a conference, right? You know, people say, "Why didn't Pas have to be so violent? Why couldn't you just talk to Zimry after Davening the next morning and say, "Really, you shouldn't be do that. Don't do that anymore." No. Why do you have to well you have to go and kill people? The answer is yes. Sometimes it is. You know the med says that to kill a Russia is like bringing a kakorba. It's like bringing an offering. It's like bringing an offering. A peace offering. In this case it was a piece offering but it's a peace offering. Okay. So pinas. Yeah. Now the the the idea here is the idea here is that that look at the next. Now I want to ask you a question. In World War II when the uh Inola Inola Gray was that the name of the plane? The Inola Inola Gray was the plane that was flaw that that dropped the first atom bomb was called >> Fatboy. >> Fatboy, right on Hiroshima? What would your reaction be if the pilot was then given a Nobel Peace Prize? What do you reaction? He's given a Nobel Peace Prize. He just killed a 100,000 people and he's given a Nobel Peace Prize. >> Nowadays, it's possible. >> Nowadays, it's possible. And I want to tell you something. He would have deserved one. Why? Because I put an end to the killing in the war. They're attacking you. They're attacking you. They're not getting the message. They're not being cooperative. So, we're going to put an end to it, right? That's it. Now, how many people have spared lives been spared because you took it and you dropped the bomb? Most people would say, well, I'll give him a purple heart or what do you call it? A medal of bravery, a medal of a medal of honor. So, what does Pinas do? Pinas goes commits the single most graphic dis graphically described act of violence in the Torah. And then what does Hashem say? Shalom. I give him my covenant of peace. He gets the Nobel Peace Prize. Pas gets the gets the peace prize. Does that make any sense? Does that it goes runs contrary to everything to everything we understand. The answer is sorry the answer is by the way uh vigilanteism there's a difference between vigilanteism and standing up and killing let's say you see Ruvane is chasing Shimon to kill him what's the are you allowed to kill Ruvane to prevent him from killing Shimon >> yes not allowed to not allowed to you have to if Ruvane is pursuing Shimon unjustifiably then you and you're able you have an obligation to get involved and save Shimon even at the cost of Ruvane's life. That's not vigilanteism. That's called that's something anybody would have to do. If you would ask Basden, "What should I do?" They say, "Go kill the guy." Vigilanteism is when you're killing a guy to prevent him from doing an aa. He's not a life. He's not threatening anybody. He's doing his own aa. And the ara over here was that he's living with a non-Jewish woman. There the Torah says that you've got an obligation. There the Torah says only if you're what do you call it? If you're burning with passion for God's honor, which I told you yesterday has to be 100%. Then you're so what does Pinas get brie What's a covenant of peace? Why does he get a covenant of peace of all the prizes he should get? And again, if he if if if if you give a guy the Nobel Peace Prize for bombing Hiroshima, people would say, well, why are you giving a Nobel? Listen, Barack Obama got a Nobel Peace Prize before he did anything. And Yaser Aarat was given a Nobel pre peace prize, right? You know, what do you call Yaseraf? I should say, you know, he was given a Nobel. So, the p their their standards mean nothing to us, obviously. But the Torah's approach is one second. Did you do the right thing or you did the wrong thing? If you killed the pursuer, you deserve a prize for killing the pursuer. And you killed What did you do here? You stopped the plague from the Jewish people by killing these people. There you get the peace prize. You stopped an entire world war. Sorry. You stopped an entire war by dropping a bomb. You deserve a prize. So he got they didn't give him the Nobel Peace Prize. It's only my It's only my idea. Nobody asked me. Well, only because I wasn't alive. Had I been alive, they would have asked me. But I wasn't alive. But if they would have asked me, I would have said, "Yeah, give the guy a Nobel Peace Prize." Do you know that the pilot was named uh with Char uh Cripets or something something like that? I forgot. I forgot his name. I asked him, "Didn't your conscience bother you?" That never bothered me. They never bothered me. They had to be done. What bother? What's the difference? The difference dropped. But if it kill one person, kill 100,000 people. What's the difference? If you have no conscience for killing one person, you'll have no If you have conscience, you should have conscience for one person also. Even the Israeli pilots who bomb in in Gaza, they said they listen, you know, these people are trying to kill my family. What what what no conscience over here. You'd be you'd be wrong for not doing what you're doing if they're trying to kill your family. Of course, you have to defend your family for people who are wrong for trying to kill them. So over here, over here he says he gets a peace prize. Now why is that? So let's take it at a plain meaning and then we'll take it at a deeper meaning. Yeah. What' you say? The ends justify the means. >> The ends justify the means. No, we never say that. We never say the ends justify the means. And the ends don't justify the means. The means have to be kosher, too. But they were kosher means over here. To the contrary, no. No, we never say the ends justify the means. I can't break shabas. I can't break shabas because I want to go somewhere to help a little old lady cross the street. >> Right. The means justify the ends. The mean well the means and the ends have to be justified in you can't break shabas. I can't drive my car down the block to help a little old lady cross the street but I the ends were good. Yeah but the means were no good. You can't the means have to be the means have to be kosher also in you can't the the ends don't justify the means. Ends don't justify the means. Here he gets a peace right. Now why is he getting what is this promise of peace? So the f basic level is that you know if you go and you kill somebody what have you always got to worry about >> cops. >> What's that? >> Consequences. >> The cops. Which consequences? >> My death sentence regard. >> Huh? There's no death sentence here. That he knew he was allowed to do it from a hik point of view. What do you got to worry about? >> Conscience. >> Conscience. He's got no conscience. >> Relatives. >> Yeah. What about what about what do you call what about Zimre's relatives? What about his brothers coming after? you better go into a government witness protection program. One of, you know, they've got these guys that turn state witness, they, you know, state witness and they put them in a government. They got to protect these guys. Guy goes and he testifies against the mafia guys. You know, they give him a whole new identity and they move him out to Omaha, Nebraska or Santa Fe, New Mexico or something. They get this guy out of here. And not only that, the federal he's got federal agents who protect him. And these federal agents have said they can't stand these guys. They can't because these guys are low lives. Also remember if you turn states evidence that means he was a criminal too. So this guy's a criminal. They he ratted out on ratted out his his other fellow criminals. And now these federal agents got to go protect this guy in the witness protection program. The guys have said we can't stand these guys. These guys are low life. So we have no rep. We have no choice. This is our job. Now Pitas is nervous. What about Zimre's relative? Not only that, what tribe does Zimry come from? >> Shim. >> Shim. What do we know about Shiman's history? What happened when Shiman's sister was violated? butchered a whole >> they they they they destroyed a whole city. That was they were bar mitzvah at the time. That was Shiman and Ley. They were bar only baritza. That was their baritza drussia. How's that for a bar mitzvah speeches you know I meanites that was that was their baritzah that was their baritzvah gift. There was the performance at their bar mitzvah. That's why so you know listen you're talking about shave and shim over here. These people don't take kindly. So first thing is pin is you got nothing to worry. They're not going to take revenge. Number one, they're not going to take revenge. Number two, let's take it a little deeper. The original sin of the das, what was it called? Theadas tree. >> The tree of life, of knowledge, which was what? To ver. The tree of life was tovadas tovra. That's what it says. The tree of knowledge, knowing good and evil. Now from the time that Otto Marishian ate from that tree prompted by his wife but from the time that they ate from that tree from that fruit which was not what >> what wasn't that fruit >> it was kosher. The fruit of fruit is kosher. It was not what >> it wasn't an apple. >> It wasn't allowed and it wasn't an apple. Right. You're right. It wasn't allowed. It wasn't an apple. There's an opinion that it was a fig. There's another opinion it was a grape. There's another opinion that was a wheat. There's another opinion that was an SRO. There four opinions. Three in the Gomorra, one in the Medish. But whatever it is, whatever it is, it wasn't an apple. The apple came from the King James Bible. That's where that nonsense started. And then Hollywood got a hold of it and said then it's history. But the the the at the end of the day at the end of the day to two things happened. Number one, death came to the world. There was no death before that. And number two, there is nothing that is perfectly good that doesn't have a little bad in it. If you buy a new car, a perfect new car, a nice electric electric car, but there's still the hassle, you know, what do you call it? Now they're having trouble with the with with the charging stations. Uh if you if you want, you got a beautiful got a great job that pays you way more than you deserve, which I told you that's the definition of a great job. Pays you way more than you deserve. Just, you know, one guy in the office is always a pain. But so it's never going to be perfect. No situation is perfect. No situation is ever going to be perfect. That's adas to ver all tove has going to have some rah in it and all rah has a little bit of tove in it. There's no completely 100% situation in either direction. Now the Jewish people had reached a level of what we would call schlamos. Schlamus means perfection. What created the flaw in the Jewish people? What created the flaw? This Balpaor business. These Midionite girls, the Moabitete girls and the Balpa or this broke it broke the the the Schlamos of the Jewish people. Who restored it? >> Penas. So since he restored schlamos perfection or as perfect as people could be therefore he himself is no longer under the influence of the atadas to if you're no longer under the influence of the tree that means what happens no death there's no death what do we know about he gets a covenant of peace never dies who do we find out he is later >> alvias is alvi and it's interesting because in the you never find a it never says in the anywhere that it doesn't it records the death of most of the big people when they died when they lived when they died it never tells us about the death of pinas anywhere in the doesn't say that pas died anywhere it doesn't say pas and he according to our tradition pinas becomes a leoi and a leoni shows up where >> at every briso is malah leo is is is the is the Malikris. What was Pinas fighting for? The kadusha over here the kadusha of the bris which is what a Jewish man was defiling. And therefore Pinas is a Leo and he's Malakabris. Pinas is is is a Leoi. So Brit gets a brieal he gets a covenant of peace. Pinas never dies. Okay. Now the um >> he that happened is not clear. When that happens at what point? It's a good question. At some point some point Pinas becomes a Leo that it's not clear if it when that happens. >> Yeah. Go ahead. >> Heard that it said that he comes to >> There is another reason why he comes. That's that's true. There there's another reason he comes to because he once he once said something about the Jew negative about the Jewish people uh not not fulfilling the mitzvah of Bris but Pinas and Elio there's no coincidence that he is also the one who's fighting for the bris over here. Okay. So Alio. So pitas gets us what's called a covenant of shalom. Covenant of shalom means and it means that he's going to be shalom. He's going to be whole and he's going to live. He lives forever. The the Gomorrah mentions there are nine people there actually two opinions. Nine people or 11 people who actually what the way the Gomorrah puts it is they entered Ganeden alive that they never died as we understand death. Yeah. >> Uh the question is what happened with Lazar? Why he didn't didn't strike? Why didn't uh uh Elazer Why didn't he take Why didn't he do it? >> Why should you answer? Because of the conflict of >> Why didn't Pitas's father Elizer Why didn't Why didn't Elazar do it? That's a good question. That's a good question. Um I don't have an answer. I don't know. I don't know why Elar why Elazar didn't do it. But it says if you look at uh um if you look at what do you call it? I I may have an answer for you. I may have an answer for I think I do have an answer as a matter of fact because it says go back to that second post. Yeah, this this this actually will answer the question says that it had what does mean? So the the plain meaning is that he he he took my my vengeance among them among the Jewish people. But these I think it was a says it had to be a Jew, an ordinary Jew. Bisam means somebody from among the ordinary Jews. It couldn't be a prominent Jew which also was at this point. Lozer is a coin is the coin god. It has to be because our own has died already. It has to be an ordinary Jew who's going to stand up for this to to to that's what the sauce. It could be that that's why Lozer didn't do it or he didn't think of it. Why was specifically Pinhazu thought of it exactly how it goes about >> the son of the coin. He's the son of the coin go, but he's not concerned. He has no prominent position. There's no official position. It has to be somebody in the Jewish people. An ordinary person as opposed to somebody of prominence because somebody prominence that's expected of him. We need somebody who it's not expected who takes the step forward and he's willing to do it. That's what the Okay. Now take a look at the word hivas kamasi. Before we look at hivas kamasi, turn back for a second. Turn back a second to Paras Truma. Um, sorry. Paras uh paras um kisa kissus not truma. I'll tell you what pages. >> What page? >> 487. >> Thank you. >> Okay. On page 487. 484. >> 484. Just keep your finger on the place here. So you'll notice on page 484 it says like this. This is where the command for the Jewish people to give the half shekele coin. They're making a donation to the bas. Okay. And so it says like this um third line third line on page 484 towards the end of the line is what everybody must donate. a half shekele coin. Everybody's going to have to make a donation. 484 third line. 484 third line. Everybody's going to have to give a a half shekele coin. Now, uh if you notice the word sodaka, the letter saddic saddic saddaka is from the same the same root, right? Saddic is sudaka. Sedaka means righteousness. And sadic is a righteous person. If you look in the middle of the word makis, look at the word makis. Four lines down. Four lines down. Makis, the half shekele coin. What's the middle letter? >> What are the two letters on the outside of the tadic? The closest letters on what on the right side is a left side is a yud. That means brings life closer. Look at the two outside letters. A me on the one side and a tough on the other side. What do you got? Mace. brings life closer and it pushes death far away. Stucka brings life closer, pushes death far away. That's what sadic is surrounded by kai and mace is pushed far away. Now the reason that is there's a the gumar says you know kipper and yam kipper people give you gifta there's a statement it says stuckats stuck saves from death. Why is stuck save from death? Stuck is one of the greatest merits. person who's got a life-threatening situation, one of the first things the person should do is give ducka. Why? Why does the duck save from death? There are two basic ideas. One is that imagine a poor man and this poor man is literally starving to death and he needs 10 cents to buy a roll, to buy a piece of bread. He needs 10 cents. He's got nine cents and you give him a penny now. He can buy the piece of bread. With your penny makes him able to buy, he eats this piece of bread and then because of that piece of bread he's able to stay alive and then the next day he finds a job and after that he becomes a multi-millionaire and then he gives you a big big big big thank you but no money. Okay. So this guy, you didn't expect that, did you? You expected a big check, right? So So this guy stayed alive. You kept him alive by giving him sodaka. Therefore pays you back in in in in kind. You kept him alive. Therefore keeps you alive. Number one. Number two. Where do most people get money from? How do you ever get a hold of money? >> You work. >> You work. When you work, what are you doing? You're using up part of your life >> because it's your time. So when you're giving away money, in fact, what are you actually giving away? You're giving away part of your life. So m seducka saves from death because you gave up part of your life and therefore mida you get life. That's why the letters I heard there's once a what do you call there was a uh a colo guy. Now yeah I don't know if you guys know how colo guys live. I know colo guys who measure out, you know how you get these uh you get these uh uh uh little these these things of the what do you call it the sour cream that you eat? Lebanon and these things that they serve in the little plastic cups that you buy. There are cola guys who count each one of them. They're they're living on such a tight budget that they're living and they're they're counting out everything. There are col guys who count out how many pieces of chicken they're serving for Chabas. I know people like that. So, there's this one guy, he has his family and he has one chicken for the entire family for Shabas and it's all you get like a wing or a drum, you know, you're not. And it's counted out. And one Thursday night, he gets a knock on the door. And some lady's at the door. She says, "Please, I want a piece of chicken." So, the guy says to her, "Look, you know, I have a family. I I only have one chicken. If I can't give you a piece, one of the kids isn't going to get their chicken for shabas." or he said, "I want a piece of chicken and they've already got it in the refrigerator. The chicken's cut up and waiting to be cooked the next day." And he says, "I can't give you say so. She keeps begging for a piece of chicken." So he says, "Sir, all right, you know what? I'll do without my chicken the shabas." So he goes over to the refrigerator, he opens up the refrigerator. His three-year-old son had crawled into the refrigerator and had closed it on and was already turning blue in the refrigerator because he went in there to get the to get the the chicken to give her to give her the piece of chicken. So his son's life was saved. That's stuck at when a person when a person is what do you call it? And by the way, you see other places where it says that honoring parents. What is the reward for honoring parents? >> Long life. >> Long life. Longevity. Do you know that there was a guy in 911 whose mother told him his mother told him that he should leave. When the first tower got hit, his mother called him up in the second tower. She said, "I want you to get out of there." She said, "Don't worry, M is a oneoff. the first tower we'll be fine and he didn't listen to his mother and he died and the difference between listening between life and death would have been if he would have obeyed his mother that's that's honoring parents so you don't know how things work out in life but we only know that the Torah says it's not a joke the Torah says the Torah says this is this is what happens so soil now turn back to the ranch go back to Pinas look what Pinas He turned back my wrath. Look at that word wrath, gentlemen. Look at the two middle letters of wrath. Mace. Look at the two outside letters. And Pinas turned back the wrath. He turned it inside out. He separated the mace and turn brought life closer. So So that's what the vagon says. That's what's alluded to over here. Okay. Now, >> no coincidence. No coincidence. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Another one of the coincidences in Torah. Now, here comes the big question. If you take a look at uh uh now stay with this gentlemen. There's a big question here. Vishim is Hamuk. The name of the Jewish man who was smitten. Asherhookah Esame who was smitten with the Midionite woman. Zimri Ben Solu. His name is Zimri of Lashimani, a prince. He was a prince of the one of the heads of the tribes of Shimonoteur. The name of the Midionite woman is Kosby Roumos of She. She's a Midionite princess. Now, I got two big questions here. Question number one is, you'll notice a double terminology by the man. It says, "Same is Hamuka who was smitten. Asherhuka Esameyanis who was smitten with the Medidianis. He was smitten. It could have just said the name of the Jewish man who was smitten with the median. Why did it say the name of the Jewish man who was smitten? Who was smitten with the median? Here the double terminology. Number one, why? And by her, it only says Hamuka, the woman who got smitten. So that's question number one. Why does it double terminology by the man and by her? There's only one. What did he say? >> Maybe there's more of an aa on the guy. >> Oh, very good. Did you hear what he said? >> Maybe there's more of an aa on the guy. That begs another question. Did she do an aa at all? A Jewish man's not allowed to live with a non-Jewish woman. No prohibition for a non-Jewish woman to live with a non-Jewish man. What' she do wrong? Why she got to die? >> She was like flashing herself. >> So what? So what? There's no snee by them. >> She was like what? What? What? What? What? Why does she got to die? Why does he got what? He got to die. Why does she got to die? >> She's like reminder to the family of the shame. Like you said with the animals >> 100% exactly what the commentaries say. Number one, she was trying to incite him to sin as an inciter. She desire deserves to die. She wasn't doing it for she was doing it purposely to get him to sin. So that's already she deserves to die. But the commentaries actually say the the same thing when you kill an animal by bestiality. Why does the animal deserve to die? Because he was the cause of the sin. He was the cause of the sin. So he's got to be taken out. And number two is there shouldn't be shame for the family. So she has to die because she's the cause of sin over here. Even if she's sinless, she's she's the cause of sin. She has to die. Number one. Number two. Number three. Number four, I don't know. Number. But why the double terminology? So Etan said because his his a is bigger. So the you were just there yesterday. Did he go? How was it? >> Amazing. >> Hot. >> Yes. >> That's what I thought. Amazingly hot. Yeah. Let me have the tissue, please. the uh the or says the first is muk means he's already smitten from the world to come. He's already smitten from the world to come because of his aa. That's the first one. Asheranis is talking about the physical act of killing him with the midionite woman. But he is already his nishama is already cut off. She doesn't have a nishama to cut off. So by here it only says once but he's got the Jewish nishm his Jewish nishm is cut off because of what he's doing. So mukahookah that's question number one. Now question number two is a bigger this is a bigger question and I want you to tell me the question. I want you to tell me the question starting from Israel Hamuka tells us his name. What's the question? It's a very big basic question here. It's not it's not deep but it's very very basic but it's very very prominent. What is the obvious question here? >> He's a he's an he's a Jewish man. What's the obvious question here? >> Why do we need to specify that she was the daughter of the king? >> That tells that's going to be part of the answer. That's going to be part of the answer. What's the question? Look back. Look back. Look back. Turn back a page. What did Pinas do? What did Pinhas do? What does it say? Pinas goes take a look when the action when the actual event took place. What does it say? >> Take a look. They were weeping. And take a look at uh eight lines from the bottom of the page. On page 874, eight lines from the bottom. a Jewish man came along and he brings close the Medidionite woman. And then what does it say in two lines down? What didn't it do? And what does it do over here? What's the difference between here and there? These two pages, what's the difference? Big question, gentlemen. Come on, you guys can get it. Obvious question. >> What's the obvious question? You have a motion. >> Correct. It didn't Why are they only identified over here almost as an afterthought? >> It didn't mention the word over. All it said was a Jewish man, a Jewish woman in a what? It didn't say who they are. >> He had a chance for Yeshua and not bring shame to his name. >> Chance for Chuva. I mean, yeah. So, tell me his name in his Chance for Juvo. Oh, you mean it doesn't want to shame his name? >> Yeah. >> Yeah. He didn't have no chance for Juv. Once he killed him, he certainly didn't have he could have told us who it was. And only as an afterthought, all of a sudden at the end of the story, oh, by the way, it was Zimry, the head of the tribe, and it was Cosby, the daughter of a Mo of a Midionite king. The answer is the answer. Anybody got an idea? That's the question. Question is, why are you only identifying them now? What's the answer? for the sisters for >> no you're guessing you're what do you say motion >> to let us know he didn't kill just anybody he killed the very >> and therefore what >> it's very difficult for someone >> number one it's very difficult number one it's very difficult to get to get involved like whoa you know I don't know why I'm going to get involved you know there was a there in in in Italy there was a trial for 300 mafia guys there's a judge in Italy who sentenced put 300 a A few years ago, he put 300 mafia guys in prison. You know, I listen, I I don't know. If I was a judge, you know, I would have gone out and played golf that day. I definitely would not be the judge sitting to try put away 300 300 mafia guys. And once I do that, I would definitely find somewhere to go. I think I hear New Zealand is great for for for for judge protection programs, you know. I would find I go to the go to the what do you call it? I would go to the Amazon rainforest. Anything is better than having the relatives of 300 mafia guys coming after you. So, but he did it. He had the guts to do it. Sometimes it takes a lot of guts. Got to have a lot of guts. I says, "Hey, listen. There's a Midionite princess and this guy's from the tribe of Shimon." None of that was a concern for him. He wasn't concerned with who their people. He was a Jewish man and a non-Jewish woman doing it. That's what going through his mind. Number one. Number two, there's a second reason why you might want to do it. And this there's a reason why you might not not want to do it, but there's another reason why you might yes want to do it, which is what? >> Jealousy. >> No. Sometimes, you know, I could be a hero. I killed the Jewish man. I killed a prominent guy. Not only that, you could either become famous and sometimes people do it to become infamous. How come you know names? You know, how come you know uh what do you call it? Uh what what do you call it? Uh Oswald. Lee Harvey Oswald. How come you know his name? Because he killed a prominent person. So now we know his name. Infamous, but we know his name. How come you know James Earl Ray? Because he killed a famous person. These are all what's his name? Hinckley. What was they Hinckley? All these all these guys who killed people or shot at people. Sometimes people do it because they if I'm not going to become famous, I want to become infamous, but I want people to know about me. None of that was a concern for Pinas. When he did it, all he saw was a Jewish man and a non-Jewish woman. Then the Torah tells us and as an afterthought, do you know who these people were? Do you know what the difficulty factor was here? Do you know how they like in the Olympics they hold up a when they do a dive right from the platform that they all there there's like the the degree of difficulty there certain dives have different degrees of difficulty. There's a degree of difficulty over here for different reasons. there's a degree of difficulty in all of which would affect whether or not Pinas is allowed to do it. Is he a murderer or is he doing the right thing? If Pinas has any thought whatsoever for personal personal honor, then he would be allowed to do it. Then he's just a murderer. Then he's not a kano pogimbo because kano pogimbo has to be with perfect motivation. And therefore the Torah is telling you all he saw was a Jewish man, a Jewish woman and a non-Jewish woman. That's all he saw. They happen to be very prominent people. Okay, that's an afterthought. He would have done it to anybody at any time. Therefore, the Torah only names them after the fact. Okay. Now, the Torah then says like this, I want to tell you important uh insight into human nature. I want you to how does the arts translate it? >> Harass. >> Harass the Midionites. Moa, you're going to go to Midian and you're going to fight the Midionites. Now, here is not telling you the actual war. The actual war is going to come later. Right now is telling you what's going to be the Torah is telling Moshe, you are going to do this. And one of the things you're going to do is you're going to harass. The art school translate is harass. It's a literal translation. But there are different opinions what Sor means. What does it mean? Sor is a midyanim. and you're going to go and you're going to fight the Midyanim because of this whole incident of Balaor. Okay. Now, what does harass mean? So there was a concept like this when the Jewish people would fight when they would go to war. So there was a tactic that they used where when they surrounded a city, they would only surround it on three sides, not four sides. When you surround a city on four sides, it doesn't allow anybody to escape. That means even when Jews fought wars, they fought a war with compassion. I mean, we see this today where the Israeli army is held as different standards than uh than most other armies. You know, what's the name? Putin Putin shoots missiles at children's hospitals and nobody says boo. you know the the United the United Nations Security Council suddenly suddenly isn't aware of the of the news where where in Israel you know if they kill a terrorist who needed dying so all of a sudden there's a there's a major wedding oi you know oi you know oi so so so the the Jews always fight wars differently so even when they went to war they left one flank open which gave the inhabitants the option of escape now Here the Torah says when you fight the Midionites you're going to Sorurus Midioname when you go to war against her you're going to be closing in on all sides. Now that's the plain meaning over here but I want to take this somewhere else. When you close somebody on four sides when you surround them on four sides it sometimes works against you. As an invading army it's sometimes worth leaving one flank open. Why? >> Because they will fight for their life. Then when you're when you surround on four sides, you're going to fight like crazy. They're going to fight. They're anyway, they're going to die. So they'll take his back. So sometimes it is strategically sound to I mean when you surround on four sides, you're certainly delivering a message that you know, hey guys, you know, get in get your last meals because you know we're surrounding you. On the other hand, it may work against you to a certain extent because you're not giving them the option. This is an extremely important rule in interpersonal relationships. When you're dealing with people, particularly with Yiddish kite, parents raising kids, don't surround them on four sides. Don't choke them because the kids eventually going to fight back. Don't surround them. Don't don't choke them off on four sides. You got to leave people a little bit of an opening. If you ever have a discussion with a friend, sometimes you have people who are asking, "What are you doing in yeshiva?" And well, I think that this and they get you all their opinions about how we come from guerrillas and other and other such intellectual uh what do you call and and anybody you're arguing with never don't bury them because what's going to happen is even if you're right all he's going to do is he's going to walk away feeling that was a very unpleasant experience with a religious person. Let a person say face. Keep let him have the last like well when I meant that I don't believe in God. I meant I do believe in God but they you know even though he's contradicting himself outright but let him say face because then he'll walk away if you you'll maybe lose the battle you win the war. The other way you win the battle you lose the war because the guy says that was a very unpleasant experience. I certainly don't want to have anything to do with religion because these religious people are so they made me feel bad. And therefore you and it's a it works with everything. It works with in Yiddish, especially when you're raising children. Sometimes parents are a little too heavy with the kids. Somebody just asked me recently, "What if my nine-year-old doesn't like benching, he doesn't like to bench? What should I do as a parent?" So people, you got to bench, you got to, you know, you know, life isn't, you know, nine years old, he's a little pitil. I had my own kid. My own kid was my wife came to me. She said to me, "Uh, Pony's upset. He doesn't want a bench." I said, "Why don't you want a bench?" "Because I want another brown. Mommy won't give me another brownie. I said, "Don't bench. I don't care if you bench. Don't bench. You're not doing me a favor. It's between you and Hashem." I walked out of the room. Guess what? >> He benched. Not doing. And I have my other kid who didn't like He didn't like I don't like benching it. You like benching? Oh, my favorite benching. That's bench. Everybody listen. Who bench? I just ate. I can't bench. I just ate. I'm full. Benching always comes in at a at an inconvenient time. Especially Friday night after a meal. You're like this. After Friday night, after the meal, I got a bench. Okay. Wash bench. Great. Safe and abuse. You know, you know. Okay. So, I told my kids when my kid was little, you know, I said, say the first paragraph. Sometimes the kids take the bench. It's like I did that on purpose. Next thing you know, next thing you know, he's done. He's done before he started. Don't don't go. Say the first paragraph finished. Really? Really? Yeah. Just say the first pair go and that's it. But if you're going to close it off on four sides, all you do, you choke them off. It leaves a bad taste. Don't do that. That's what the third that's what sur So here it happens to be that you're going to fight the median because you wipe wipe them out. You're going to surround them on four sides. But in general in life, in general in life, don't have to, you know, not every leave people room to breathe. And especially in Yiddish with raising children, make sure you leave room. What were you going to ask? >> You make sure make sure you leave people room to breathe. That's one of the one of the mistakes people make for good purpose. We want our kids to be better than us. So we don't want them to repeat our mistakes. So we want our kids to be perfect on everything else. But sometimes there's something called trying too hard and you're putting on a little too much little too much pressure. Little too much pressure. Take it easy. Take it easy. We go we go easy on ourselves. We go pretty we're pretty good to ourselves. We could be we could go easy on our kids. All right, gentlemen. Tomorrow I may or may not be here depending on how I'm feeling because tomorrow is the fast day.