Who is the "Erev Rav"? - Ari Abramowitz: The Land of Israel Fellowship

and so he sat with his family eating Herring and crackers on my balcony on my M peset after uh synagogue service and where where we read about the AR of RAV and the golden calf and that's when I asked them the question I told him you know I said my whole life I've loved every every single Jew it doesn't matter if they came to uproot our Vineyards or destroy our farm no matter what I always love them but now I have these doubts in my heart what about the a of RAV that's seeking to destroy our land and our nation am I supposed to love them and he looked back at me it seemed like the question took him ab and he looked back at me with piercing these piercing crystal blue eyes and he declared it felt like a prophetic Clarity he declared yes yes he said no matter what we love every single Jew with our entire Hearts as if he was prepared for this question which he probably never received in his life he quoted the esteemed eliahu Ben schlomo zman known as the vagon who taught that the AR of RAV is no longer individual physical people that you can point a finger at the air of RAV he said is a set of attributes that were within them the a of RAV today is the values the mixed multitude brought within themselves from Egypt their idolatry and their faithlessness and their arrogance and their baseless hatred and their and their Hedonism and our battle with the a of RAV today he went on to say is our battle with those attributes within ourselves our battle with the a of RAV is is to courageously look into our own hearts and Destroy any trace of the a of RAV that lurks within us and when we do that he said then the a of RAV will be defeated when we do that the AR of RAV will disappear because it's dangerous he was explaining it's dangerous to point at individual people at the and say they're the a of R because because yes we will have an angry accusatory finger pointed at them but even more so we won't see the other four fingers pointed back at ourselves you know that's saying it's dangerous and it's counterproductive to look back at all the great sins and the Great Falls of the Jewish people throughout history and blame them on the a R right because not only do we deprive ourselves of these precious valuable lessons that we've learned from these sinful mistakes because all of a sudden it's not us it's the AR of R but we end up shering the very responsibility that we know that we must take upon ourselves to be worthy of the very Redemption that we're blaming them for sabotaging so what's the ultimate truth here honestly I don't know I don't know but but but when this holy Rabbi looked into my eyes and shared that teaching I looked right back at him and I said kaliti I've accepted your teaching and I have and it just brings me back to the words from Deuteronomy chapter 29 that came to mind the secret things belong to the Lord Our God but those things which are revealed to us and to our children forever that we may do the words of his Torah the secret thing it's not up to us to know this person's the a of RAV and that person's the a of RAV I don't think I don't think maybe it is maybe we can identify and there's certain things I don't know I'm not going to pretend like I have the Ultimate answers but in my mind and in my heart there was a certain piece that I came to that for me right now that's the answer I have my answer and it feels true because ultimately this Redemption isn't outside of us it's within us it's an inside game and that feels like the true answer for me and the right answer for me at least for now