Transcript
Okay, good morning everyone. We have the privilege of studying פרשת כי תצא Parshas Ki Seitzei together, one of the richest פרשיות parshios in the whole תורה Torah. And I define wealth or richness here by the number of מצוות mitzvos. In fact, פרשת כי תצא Parshas Ki Seitzei has the most מצוות mitzvos of any פרשה parsha in the תורה Torah. Anyone know how many? How many? I thought you'd never ask, Gigi. There are 74 מצוות mitzvos in פרשת כי תצא Parshas Ki Seitzei. So in many ways, פרשת כי תצא Parshas Ki Seitzei is really a microcosm of the whole תורה Torah, because the essence of תורה Torah, תורה Torah is הוראה horah, it's instruction, it's a guidance, it's a manual for life and for living. And so פרשת כי תצא Parshas Ki Seitzei is about how to mold and craft ourselves into vessels, vehicles to fulfill the divine will, to fulfill the will of השם Hashem, to live our life in a mission in terms of repairing, perfecting his world. There's a very beautiful מדרש Medrash towards the beginning, bless you, of our פרשה parsha that says, אמר רבי פנחס בן חמא, לכל מקום שתלך, המצוות מלוות אותך Amar Rabi Pinchas ben Chama, l'chol makom she'teilech, ha'mitzvos m'lavos oscha. Every place you will go, whatever you are doing, the מצוות mitzvos will accompany you, the מצוות mitzvos will be your companion. מניין Minayin, how do you know that? שנאמר כי תבנה בית חדש She'ne'emar ki sivneh bayis chadash, if you're doing construction, you're building a new home, עשית לך דלתות ומצוות מלוות אותך asisa l'cha delos u'mitzvos m'lavos oscha. You're making a door, the מצוות mitzvos come with you. It says וכתבתם על מזוזות ביתך u'chsavtam al mezuzos beisecha, because you got to put a מזוזה mezuzah on that doorway. לבשת כלים חדשים ומצוות מלוות אותך lavash ta'chelem chadashim u'mitzvos m'lavos oscha, you're going shopping, you're buying new clothing, it says לא תלבש שעטנז lo silbash shaatnez. You got to be careful the ingredients of the clothing you're buying. It can't have a mixture of wool and linen.הלכת לגלח, מצוות מלוות אותך, לא תקיפו פאת ראשכם Halachta l'galeach, mitzvos m'lavos oscha, lo sakifu pe'as roshechem. You're going to get a haircut, don't think that you're doing some mundane activity. There's a מצוה mitzvah. You got to tell the barber, if you're a man, you got to tell the barber, you can't use a shaver around the area of the פאות peyos. אם היו לך שדה Im hayu l'cha sadeh, you have a field and you're going to plow, מצוות מלוות אותך mitzvos m'lavos oscha, שנאמר לא תזרע כרמך כלאים she'ne'emar lo sizra karmecha kilayim. You're not allowed to plant כלאים kilayim, a hybrid of different of different grafted species. Thank you. I may have mentioned I I asked הרב אשר וייס Rav Asher Weiss a שאלה shaila recently, he wrote me a whole תשובה tshuva which appears I think in our new volume of יד רם Yad Ram coming out this week. Someone had purchased a tree that was made of multiple different citrus fruit. It was grafted together a hybrid of oranges and grapefruits and lemons and tangerines and many, many species of grapefruit fruit into one tree. And when you purchase such a tree, you can then plant it in your own backyard and it will grow and you can benefit from all those citrus fruit in one tree. They wanted to know is it a שאלה shaila of כלאים kilayim? Do you have כלאים kilayim within one, within one type of citrus as one type of fruit or is it only integrating different types of fruit? He wrote a whole תשובה tshuva. So you're going to plant in your field and you have to know, is it כלאים kilayim? אמר הקדוש ברוך הוא Amar Hakadosh Baruch Hu, you'll read the יד רם Yad Ram, it's coming out, second volume. אמר הקדוש ברוך הוא Amar Hakadosh Baruch Hu, אפילו לא עוסק בדבר אלא מהלך בדרך afilu lo eisa oso b'davar ela mahalech b'derech, even if you're not doing anything, you're not getting a haircut, you're not plowing your field, you're not buying new clothing, nevertheless the מצוות mitzvos are always with you. שנאמר כי יקרא קן ציפור לפניך בדרך She'ne'emar ki yikarei kan tzipor l'fanecha b'derech. You're walking on the way and you happen upon a nest with a mother bird, even there. So it's such a beautiful imagery of this מדרש Medrash. Unlike other religions where religious activity is relegated to a sacred space, to the religious center, to the religious house of worship, in יהדות Yahadus, our magnificent תורה Torah tells us מצוות mitzvos are מלווה m'laveh, wherever we go and whatever we're doing, the מצוות mitzvos are a platform for a life of mindfulness, of consciousness, of conscientiousness, a life of invitation and opportunity to connect to the רבונו של עולם Ribbono Shel Olam. You're going for a haircut? Everyone else is watching whatever is on the TV or reading whatever the magazine. It's a mundane activity. Is there anything more mundane than getting your haircut, taking a haircut if you're from New York? Is there anything more mundane? And yet, if you're a ייד Yid, if you care about מצוות mitzvos, and you're instructing the barber what to do, it's a holy activity. Planting, plowing, getting a haircut, shopping. It's not such a holy activity. My daughter's here. I have to. That is a profane activity. Someone else's credit card, maybe it's a holy activity. But if you're shopping and you're buying clothing and you're having it checked to make sure it doesn't have שעטנז shaatnez and you're making sure it's it's it's conforms with the rules of modesty, it's such a beautiful מדרש Medrash that our magnificent פרשה parsha replete with 74 מצוות mitzvos, that the מצוות mitzvos are each an invitation and opportunity to remember there's השם Hashem. Each is an opportunity to remember to live a mindful, meaningful life. That we don't just engage in accumulating and amassing more and more and more, but rather every activity throughout the day, nothing is mundane or profane. Everything is charged with the opportunity for it to be a beautiful מצוה mitzvah. And the מדרש Medrash and other מצוה mitzvah, another מדרש Medrash rather says similarly that this is what it means when we say חיים כולכם היום chaim kulchem hayom. The מדרש Medrash says so beautifully, לא הניח דבר בעולם שלא נתן בו מצוות לישראל lo hiniach davar b'olam shelo nasan bo mitzvos l'Yisrael. השם Hashem didn't leave anything in the world for which there's not an opportunity to do a מצוה mitzvah. And what's a מצוה mitzvah? Mitzvah's not some random reward and punishment system. It's not like you get to earn points or raffle tickets through some random activity. השם Hashem through these activities is saying, you can engage the world blindly, mindlessly. You can engage the world superficially as that as if that's all there is, or you can engage the world with פנימיות pnimius, with depth, seeing the deeper meaning, connecting with the symbolism, transcending and transforming ourselves, living at another plane altogether. You could take a haircut or you could be doing a מצוה mitzvah. You could be plowing a field, you could be connecting with השם Hashem. You could be shopping for the latest style, fad or clothing or you could be avoiding שעטנז shaatnez. Each of these activities. So לא הניח דבר בעולם lo hiniach davar b'olam, there's no area of life and of the world שלא נתן בו מצוה לישראל shelo nasan bo mitzvah l'Yisrael, where השם Hashem did not give a מצוה mitzvah. That's what the פסוק pasuk says למען תשכילו l'maan taskilu, not in our פרשה parsha, but it says למען תשכילו l'maan taskilu. תשכילו Taskilu means not to become a משכיל maskil. What does it mean משכיל maskil? The תרגום Targum says למען תשכילו, למען תצליחו l'maan taskilu, l'maan tatzlichu. How do you lead a successful life? By being plugged into everything you're doing. Don't take anything for granted, don't do anything superficially, don't see anything as mundane. Live life in high definition, high spiritual definition. You could live life in black and white, or you could live life in high spiritual definition by seeing the מצוה mitzvah opportunity, the לא הניח דבר בעולם שלא נתן בו מצוה לישראל lo hiniach davar b'olam shelo nasan bo mitzvah l'Yisrael. Everything. I said before, from the way we wake up and the way we tie our shoes. The שולחן ערוך Shulchan Aruch tells us the proper procedure, the order to put on your shoes and to tie your shoes. We've been watching a lot of wedding vimeos in my house, I don't know if you know what that is. Everyone who gets married now is like a celebrity. They make a three-minute like video like you'd think they're the royal wedding. They're able to produce like a movie quality wedding. And it includes the beginning, the חתן chasan putting on his shoes and tying them and the cufflinks and the watch and the כלה kallah with the thing. Beautiful, you cry, the music amazing. But but like 80% of the, I'm watching these videos and my daughter will tell you I'm going crazy, they're putting on their shoes wrong. This is like the ABCs. How can you get married, you don't even know how to put your shoes on? I don't mean the tying the shoes part, I don't know how to make the bow. I mean there's a הלכה halacha. Your right shoe, your left shoe, do you tie your left shoe then your right shoe? Why? Why? Who cares? Is there more a mundane activity in the world, on planet Earth, than how you put on your shoes? Who cares? If you think it's a result-oriented activity, all you want is the result. You need to be wearing shoes. מכין מצעדי גבר A machim matzadei gaver. You need to be wearing shoes so you can traverse the world and be independent. If it's result-oriented, who cares what order you put on? But if it's למען תשכילו למען תצליחו l'maan taskilu l'maan tatzlichu, if you want to lead a mindful life, if you want to not just do the result, the superficial, but you want to connect to the פנימיות pnimius, then you understand what is the significance of the right, what's the significance of the left? Why is it different for when you put it on versus when you tie it? What is the symbolism of tying? All of a sudden, the process of putting your shoes on in the morning is not just a mundane activity to get you off to start your day, it was a religious activity how you put your shoes on. How you put your shoes on. You got to get it right because הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu is taking the wedding vimeo for all of us every morning when we put our shoes on. He's watching the vimeo every morning. Did we get it right when we put our shoes on? So therefore, the מדרש Medrash concludes, this is the מדרש רבה Medrash Rabbah in פרשת בשלח Parshas Beshalach. Here the מדרש Medrash concludes, כל זמן שאתם מדבקים במצוות ואתם דבקים בהשם אלוקיכם, חיים כולכם היום kol zman she'atem m'd'bakim b'mitzvos v'atem m'd'veikim b'Hashem Elokeichem, chaim kulchem hayom. You want to be really alive today? חיים כולכם היום Chaim kulchem hayom, you want life to be yours today? You want to be alive? What is the formula? כל זמן שאתם מדבקים במצוות, אתם הדבקים בהשם אלוקיכם Kol zman she'atem m'd'bakim b'mitzvos. Atem had'veikim b'Hashem Elokeichem. Cling to השם Hashem. How you get a haircut, how you plant the field, how you shop at the mall, how you tie your shoes. Cling to השם Hashem, welcome him into each and every activity, and then חיים כולכם היום chaim kulchem hayom, then you'll finally and maybe firstly be truly alive. So that's just an overview. כי תצא Ki Seitzei is 74 מצוות mitzvos, the most in the תורה Torah. It's 74 invitations out of 613 that we have every day. השם Hashem says, hi, I'm here, I'm texting you. I'm making a bid for connection. Remember me? How you put on your make a ברכה bracha, come out of the bathroom, go shopping, get a haircut, and so on. They're each opportunities to connect with השם Hashem.So the פרשה parsha begins, we'll do our overview of the פרשה parsha. Lately we haven't been doing so great at getting back to analyzing the specific פסוקים psukim, but we'll do our best. Overview of this rich פרשה parsha. There's so much. It's so exciting. It's hard to decide what to talk about and what to leave out. כי תצא למלחמה על אויביך ונתנו השם אלוקיך בידך ושבית שביו Ki seitzei l'milchama al oyvecha v'n'sano Hashem Elokecha b'yadecha v'shavisa shivyo. The תורה Torah of our פרשה parsha begins by describing not a utopian world, not the world as a perfect place, but לא דברה תורה אלא כלשון בני אדם, תורה לבני אדם lo dibra Torah ela k'loshon bnei adam, Torah l'bnei adam. The תורה Torah is directed to humanity, frail, faulty, shortcoming, struggling, weak people. The תורה Torah was not written for angels. The תורה Torah was written for us. That's why, I don't want to go backwards, but I'll say from בראשית Bereishis, our heroes all have major shortcomings. They all have major shortcomings. They're not simple people. What makes them heroes is not that they're perfect, because then they would be unattainable and inaccessible. They'd be terrible role models. What makes them accessible role models is they were imperfect. The תורה Torah is filled with a guide book for how to live as perfect a life as you can when you are struggling with being imperfect. So כי תצא למלחמה ki seitzei l'milchama, here you have the Jewish army goes out to war, על אויביך al oyvecha, on your enemy, and השם Hashem gives you a captive, ושבית שביו v'shavisa shivyo. So what do you do? אשת יפת תאר Aishes yefas to'ar. Ooh, there's a beautiful woman. And you're attracted to this beauty. So what's the הלכה halacha? You got to peel back the layers of the superficial beauty. She has to, you can have her. תורה לא דברה תורה Torah lo dibra Torah. The תורה Torah is speaking to soldiers. And soldiers, we know historically, soldiers at war are not the more most morally centered in the area of promiscuity. And the תורה Torah understands that. And the תורה Torah makes an accommodation for that. But the תורה Torah says before you indulge in that, here's what you got to do. You have to shave her head, and you have to take off the garments of her captivity, and her nails, and she has to sit and cry over her parents for several for a period of time. And only then you can take her as your wife. So the תורה Torah puts in all these parameters that stack the deck against you, making it unlikely that you're actually going to follow through. On Sunday I gave a שיעור shiur on the סלונים רבי Slonimer Rebbe, you could listen online, and the נתיבות שלום Nesivos Shalom talks about, all the חסידות Chassidus sees this, the אור החיים Ohr Hachaim in many places here describes, כי תצא למלחמה על אויביך ki seitzei l'milchama al oyvecha, in a time where we're living in which it doesn't apply to us collectively. In Israel, of course, it does. Our heroes in the IDF, it applies to. But let's say we're here in America where we're not in the army, so which war are we fighting? Who's אויביך oyvecha? Who is our enemy? I spoke about this last week, the same words appear in פרשת שופטים Parshas Shoftim, כי תצא על אויביך ki seitzei al oyvecha. Our enemy is our יצר הרע yetzer hara. It's our alter ego. It's that voice of self-sabotage. The voice telling us to hold back from being the best version of ourselves. And כי תצא למלחמה ki seitzei l'milchama, we battle, we go to war. I don't want to repeat the whole שיעור shiur, you could listen to it online. But the סלונים רבי Slonimer Rebbe talks about the methodology we need to use to defeat that alter ego, that voice of self-sabotage inside us. How do we do it? ושבית שביו V'shavisa shivyo. We take it captive. We capture the יצר הרע yetzer hara. We take it captive, and then what do we do? That יצר הרע yetzer hara is very superficial. It makes us believe it's beautiful on the outside. Oh, it's beautiful to eat that chocolate cake. You won't clog your arteries and make your blood pressure go up and give you diabetes and kill you. On the outside it's beautiful, but you got to shave her head. You got to peel back those clothing, you have to sit and cry, you have to see the פנים pnim, the inside of it to understand. And then we redeem the captivity, we bring out the core, the kernel of good that is within it. Again, the סלונים רבי Slonimer Rebbe develops that at length. הרב סולובייצ'יק Rav Soloveitchik has a little bit of a similar perspective here in the רב חומש Rav Chumash he says, the תורה Torah warns us that after we go to war and are victorious in battle, we may see something that appeals to us, symbolized by our יפת by the יפת תאר yefas to'ar. Sometimes the יפת תאר yefas to'ar, the beauty of יפת Yefes is worthy of emulation. The same time, there may also be corruption of יפת תאר yefas to'ar. Beneath her attractive exterior lurks moral perversion. תורה Torah tells us if you're only interested in her appearance, in her long hair and fingernails, those same fingernails will be used to scratch you. She must first shave her long hair and remove those fingernails. As the רמב\"ן Ramban explains, beneath the attractive exterior of the יפת תאר yefas to'ar lies vulgarity and immorality. She may ultimately offer something useful in terms of culture or wisdom, but you must first reject her immorality. One must distinguish between the unclean and the clean. Very beautiful imagery, again, the symbolism of this יפת תאר yefas to'ar. יפת Yefes, Greek culture that that worshiped the body, the form. So on the one hand, it gives art, it gives beauty and the form, and exercise and the Olympics and so on. But if you see that as an ends to itself, right? If if you worship that, then in its core, it's vulgar, it's perverse, it's immoral, it's corrupt. And we see exactly what it's led to, a society that is obsessed with the superficial and with the exterior, with beauty and with the aesthetic, at its core becomes morally corrupt. But if you peel back that layer, those layers of יפת תאר yefas to'ar, you could reveal the beauty inside. The רב Rav continues, the תורה Torah never restricted us from absorbing the positive aspect of other cultures. When יעקב Yaakov and his sons left כנען Canaan to go to Egypt, they left an agrarian society and were confronted with an advanced technical civilization. The Egyptians had great architects and artisans from whom בני ישראל B'nei Yisrael learned the skills to build the משכן Mishkan. Jews have never been forbidden to learn mathematics, medicine, science from the non-Jewish world. The רמב\"ם Rambam writes that truth is acceptable, should be sought after no matter from whom it comes. Knowledge can be attained even from the secular world. But when it comes to matters of sanctity of קדושה kedusha, Jews must be ever vigilant. There is no shortage of vulgarity, egotism or impurity in that world. When learning from the non-Jewish world, the Jew must draw from the good while at the same time rejecting its corruption. The אשת יפת תאר eishes yefas to'ar is a metaphor for the attractiveness of the wisdom of the secular world. Take its beauty, take extract from it what's appropriate, but peel back the layers to reveal what's inside to make sure that we're not engaging in its in its vulgarity. Okay, so that's the story of the אשת יפת תאר eishes yefas to'ar. Torah then goes on and talks about next, the בכור bechor who has the right to פי שניים pi shnayim, the elder son has a right to a double portion. We today not only don't we do this, we are discouraged by many of our great rabbis. It's an unusual thing that we're discouraged from following the תורה Torah prescription for something. We have the תורה Torah itself provided what one might call a legal loophole to avoid having to follow its formula. But in today's day and age, once society was once set up that the בכור bechor, the firstborn son, was presumed to to attain to have to take over the position of his father, to protect the family, provide for the family, and to be the patriarch of the family, it made sense that the תורה Torah gave him the resources to take over that position. But in a society now where siblings see themselves as equally independent, then it would only alienate and aggravate and divide children to apply the תורה Torah principle. So not only do we not do it, but we're discouraged from following the תורה Torah prescription for giving פי שניים pi shnayim, and we have ways to avoid it. For example, you have הלכות halachos of of נחלה nachala that daughters don't inherit, only sons. Is this misogynistic? Is it biased? Does it feed a narrative that the תורה Torah is some horrifically discriminating entity? חס ושלום Chas v'shalom. God forbid. It's the same reason. It was presumed that the brothers would be taking care of their sisters. The brothers were the ones working the field, the brothers were the one breaking their back, and they had a הלכתי halachic responsibility to care for their sisters. So the תורה Torah gives them the estate to position them to be able to care for their sisters. When the sisters will get married, they'll be provided for by their husbands. Society was once set up in that way. Today, when it's not necessarily set up in that way, of course we can adjust our wills to be able to honor providing for all of the siblings equally. You have to do it הלכתית halachically. We have an incredible mechanism to do it. It's one paragraph that has to be added at the end of a will. And it basically says the following. The father, before he dies, he can do it retroactively, a moment before he dies, leaves an enormous debt to his daughters to be paid from his estate that goes to his sons. But the debt is forgiven if they agree to follow the terms of the will that include the daughter. So again, there's a retroactive debt the father takes on to the daughter for $25 million, assuming he's leaving an estate less than that, then he agrees to forgive that debt on condition that the sons agree to follow the equal distribution of the of the inheritance. It's very, very important to have a הלכתי halachic will. There's a lot of emphasis on a הלכתי halachic living will, which tells us about the rules for how we die and of life situations, but it's also important to biblical law to have a proper הלכתי halachic will to be able to lead leave things the way we want. בן סורר ומורה Ben sorer u'moreh is the next section. We've spent a lot. Our rabbis extracting the story of the בן סורר ומורה ben sorer u'moreh, a story that never happened. עיר הנידחת Ir nidachas never happened, בן סורר ומורה ben sorer u'moreh never happened. There are several sections of the תורה Torah which our rabbis have a tradition, they never happened. לא היה ולא נברא Lo haya v'lo nivra, never happened. Ay, why do we have it? להגדיל תורה ולהאדירה L'hagdil Torah v'l'adira. In order to study תורה Torah, to extract principles even though in practice it never happened in this way. So from the story of בן סורר ומורה ben sorer u'moreh, we extract many principles about parenting, about rebellious children, about the responsibility of parents who contribute to having produced that rebellious child. The הלכה halacha, לא תלין נבלתו על העץ lo salin nivlaso al ha'eitz, you can't leave somebody overnight hanging on a tree. A corpse has to be buried. We have this today, הלכתית halachically, with refrigeration, does that change? If you give greater honor by delaying a funeral, can you delay the funeral and so on. We have the הלכתי halachic concern for another person's property. If you see somebody's animals collapsing under their load, you can't look the other way. You've got to get involved and you've got to help. The הלכה halacha of you have to, הקם תקים עמו Hakem takem imo. לא יהיה כלי גבר על אשה Lo yihyeh kli gever al isha. The the הלכתי halachic, I'll put it this way, the הלכתי halachic emphasis on maintaining the boundaries and distinctions that השם Hashem set up in this world. So just like species of produce and of garments and people, different genders of people need to honor the gender differences. It applies in the plant world, in the animal world, and in the human world. We have to honor our boundaries and differences in order to have the equilibrium of the world the way that השם Hashem, the way that השם Hashem set it up. We have כי יקרא קן ציפור ki yikarei kan tzipor. What's the הלכה halacha if you come across a nest and a bird? Is this a הלכתי halachic obligation to send away the mother bird? Is it only if you want the eggs do you send away the mother bird? What is the nature of it? The גמרא Gemara says that don't anyone who says that the reason we're doing it is to be sensitive to the mother, we silence such a person. Do we silence them because that's not the reason? Or do we silence them because we're not supposed to talk about reasons? This is the source of the whole discussion of טעמי המצוות ta'amei hamitzvos. Do we learn, do we talk about the reasons for the מצוות mitzvos? There's a big danger in doing that. We have a הלכתי halachic obligation when you build a new house, כי תבנה בית חדש ki sivneh bayis chadash. We talked about this in the פרשה שיעור parsha shiur in the past, you could listen online. A person who builds a new house has an obligation to build a fence, build a balcony, on the staircase, put a pool fence around your pool. It's also a הלכתי halachic obligation, you can't bring a rabid dog or a wild animal. You can't have danger in your property. We are responsible, we are accountable. We discussed it at length in the past, I think we did a whole פרשה שיעור parsha shiur specifically on the מצוה mitzvah of מעקה maakeh, of having a barrier around the roof. But here in the new רב חומש Rav Chumash, I'll just read to you what he says because I think it's very insightful. In the הלכה halacha, the principle of the vulnerability of man plays an important role. We have many laws pertaining to safety. Our code is replete with them. These laws are rooted in the notion of human exposure to the so-called accident. Not only the body is vulnerable, but the human spirit too is vulnerably exposed. The whole concept of construct a fence around the law is rooted in the notion of the vulnerability of spiritual man. The spirit, the human intellect, the human fantasy are exposed to all kinds of pressures and influences. That is why a fence is necessary. Man is vulnerable, both as a physical being and as a spiritual personality. The vulnerability of man is more than just a tragic truth, it's an ethical הלכתי halachic postulate. The awareness of vulnerability of being exposed engenders many ethical virtues, among which the most important is humility. Man must practice humility. Pride and vanity are both degrading and corrupting. Humility is the highest ethical virtue. The רמב\"ם Rambam even suspended the rule of the golden mean vis-a-vis humility, writing one must be of exceedingly humble and lowly spirit. So the רב Rav is seeing the obligation to put a fence around our property, if our property represents our arrogance, our ego, our success, putting a fence means having a boundary, living life with a healthy dose of humility. Human pride and arrogance disappear the moment man becomes aware of his vulnerability. Right? That's the symbolism. Why do you put up a fence? Because you could fall off the roof. A person is needs to be aware of their vulnerability. That if they come close to the edge of the cliff, it's dangerous. So you need a fence. You need a fence to make sure you don't fall off the roof, the balcony, the edge of the cliff, the staircase. So the fence is the תורה Torah response or the תורה Torah wanting us to maintain an awareness of our vulnerability. Vulnerability is healthy says the רב Rav. Why is vulnerability healthy? Because it breeds humility. And humility is this cornerstone of our existence and our relationship with השם Hashem. The awareness of vulnerability is cathartic, it's cleansing. It's an awareness that ennobles man and has a redemptive impact upon him. Humility is the expression of this awareness. So when we build the מעקה maakeh, we're building that fence to be watchful, to be vigilant, it's reinforcing our sense of vulnerability. Vulnerability is healthy because it brings a healthy sense of humility. Beautiful symbolic, again, coming back to the מדרש medrash we began with. Everyone else is just building a balcony. Should it be metal, should it be wood? What's the height, what's the space? The railing is beauty ornate, ostentatious, what should it be made of? That's what everyone else is focused on. What are we focused on? Oh, railing, vulnerability, humility, מעקה maakeh, it's a מצוה mitzvah. These are invitations. We don't live a mundane life. Every moment, every decision, everywhere we go, the תורה Torah, the מצוות mitzvos are מלווה m'lavah, they come with us and they give us a prescription and an invitation to ennoble, to live a noble life. We have the מצוה mitzvah of ציצית tzitzis, the prohibition of שעטנז shaatnez. You got to get things checked for שעטנז shaatnez. You can't defame a married woman by falsely accusing her of infidelity. If it was true, what's the the consequence? Adultery, the different marriages, this is the part we're going to come back to. Whom we are forbidden from marrying, who cannot enter our DNA and why we don't want them within our DNA, which is also an important question. What is it about their lifestyle that eliminated them from being part of our our DNA? We have the story after that of כי תצא מחנה על אויביך ונשמרת מכל דבר רע ki seitzei machaneh al oyvecha v'nishmarta mikol davar ra. When you're at war, you might think, well human life is so vulnerable, so frail. Who really cares? So many soldiers in the Israeli army, they smoke, or their moral boundaries are struggling because when when it's, you know, every day you could die, so what's it really worth? So the תורה Torah goes out of its way to say והיה מחנך קדוש v'haya machanecha kadosh that we have to preserve an attitude of sanctity in our camp even when you're at war. And תורה Torah tells us exactly how and this is the תורה Torah source by the way, והיה מחנך קדוש v'haya machanecha kadosh is the תורה Torah source for the laws of doing holy activities around unholy dress, odor, activity. So for example, there's a whole discussion, I think we've talked about it in the past in the פרשה parsha as well, about our attitude, how has indoor plumbing changed והיה מחנך קדוש v'haya machanecha kadosh? In the old days there were outhouses and people needed to eliminate where they could. You're not allowed to דאווען daven near that, you can't make a ברכה bracha near that. Well, is how was how was the indoor plumbing and the fact that we flush away and preserve a certain level of cleanliness, can one make a ברכה bracha in a bathroom? Can you wash your hands in the bathroom? Do you have to wash your hands outside of the bathroom? There are הלכתי halachic literature about how indoor plumbing and the fact that our bathrooms are infinitely more clean than any outhouse or that הלכה halacha anticipated, how does that change הלכה halacha? It's something very fascinating. But here too the רב Rav has a homiletical interpretation, a symbolic interpretation of what this מצוה mitzvah means of of the כי השם אלוקיך מתהלך בקרב מחנך ki Hashem Elokecha mis'halech b'kerev machanecha. Your camp has to be holy. Why does your camp have to be holy? השם Hashem's in שול shul, leave me alone. When I go to שול shul I'll behave. When I go to שול shul I'll dress my best. When I go to שול shul I'll put my best foot forward. When I go to שול shul I'll present myself as holy. But when I'm home, when I'm in my מחנה machaneh, when I'm in my camp, let me dress how I want, let me speak how I want, let me watch what I want. תורה Torah says no. השם אלוקיך מתהלך בקרב מחנך Hashem Elokecha mis'halech b'kerev machanecha. השם Hashem's walking around your house. השם Hashem's walking around your camp. Says the רב Rav, Judaism explains the concept of holiness from the perspective of the secret of contraction. Holiness is the descent of divinity into the midst of our concrete world. It is the contraction of infinity within a finitude bound of laws, bound by laws, measures and standards. The appearance of transcendence within empirical reality. The task of man is to bring down the divine presence to the lower world to his vale of tears. The perfection of creation is expressed in the actualization of the ideal הלכה halacha in the real world. In הלכתי halachic man, the רב Rav writes, that's where that excerpt come from, comes from. But the רב Rav writes, we're trying to give השם Hashem דירה בתחתונים dira b'tachtonim. We דוקא dafka don't say God is relegated to the heavens, to the upper worlds. He's down here. This is where we reveal him. This is where we engage him. This is where we find השם Hashem. He is walking around בקרב מחנך b'kerev machanecha. In the way that we keep our camp, in the mentality, in the mindfulness, in the mode with which we live, we are inviting him to dwell with us. He is contracting from a place of infinity. He's practicing צמצום tzimtzum to coexist, to live within our midst. And that's exactly our mission to be able to bring him down. We have the תורה Torah prohibition against interest. כלי יקר Kli Yakar has a fantastic interpretation. I reserve the right to come back to this another year, we'll study it more in depth, but I just happened to see it this year. כלי יקר Kli Yakar says, why is there a תורה Torah prohibition against charging interest? There's nothing unethical about charging interest. There's a time value to money. If I lend you a thousand dollars, I don't have access to use it for the year. My thousand dollars could have earned whatever percentage. I lost that money. There was a time value to the money I lost. So the fact that I asked you to make up the money I lost by letting you have liquidity and use it during the year, there's nothing unethical about that. I know it's not unethical. How do I know it's not unethical to lend with interest? Because you can do it to a non-Jew. So it can't be unethical. So first of all, if it's not if it's ethical, then why can't I do it to a Jew? So the reason is because, you know, if a stranger says, 'Look, I need a thousand dollars, I can't pay certain bills. I'm happy to pay you back 5% because that's what you make in the bank.' הלוואי Halva, I'll give you 5%. So you're allowed to charge that interest, you've done nothing unethical. Why? You would have made 5% in the bank. You're out the 5% if you give it to him. If he's willing to pay the 5%, there's nothing wrong taking it. But that's if a stranger comes to you. What if your brother comes to you and says, 'I can't pay my bills, would you lend me a thousand dollars?' 'Well, if you'll sign here and you pay me back at 5%...' You're a jerk. What kind of person does that? It's your brother. So the תורה Torah says when it comes to a non-Jew, a non-family member, you're allowed to make interest. There's nothing immoral about it. You could be the bank. But when it comes to a Jew, every Jew is your brother. Don't lend with interest. It's not nice. It's just not nice. So that's why there's a Torah prohibition of interest. But the כלי יקר Kli Yakar adds another dimension. The כלי יקר Kli Yakar says, why can't you charge interest? Because if you're charging interest, it means that you don't have faith in השם Hashem. This is what he writes, I'll read it to you in the English. The reason for the prohibition is because it causes people to cast away their trust in השם Hashem. With all other businesses, one raises his eyes to השם Hashem because he's not certain whether he'll earn money or he'll lose it. But when you lend money with interest, your income is set, it's certain. You're not afraid you might lose the money that you lent, because you took collateral. Therefore, lending the money with interest thwarts one's בטחון bitachon. The borrower also transgresses because he causes the lender to lose his בטחון bitachon.It's known that those who lend money with ריבית ribbis are generally stingy people, far from giving צדקה tzedakah, and that's because they lack בטחון bitachon. So the כלי יקר Kli Yakar says, if you're normally you do business, and you don't know how it's going to come out. So you דאווען daven, you שוקל shockel, you say פטום הקטורת pitum haktoret from a קלף klaf, you're doing all kinds of סגולות segulos because who knows if you're going to be successful in business. So the fact that the uncertainty of your business, the uncertainty of the stock market, the volatility of life, only promotes greater אמונה emuna. Who knows how many people you're going to move that week, or the construction you're going to do? Who knows if you're going to make money? So therefore it promotes a greater sense of the presence of השם Hashem. But when you do a business activity that has a guarantee, you've taken collateral and you're guaranteed a certain interest, say thanks השם Hashem, I'm good, I got this one covered. I don't need you. I structured this deal. I'm good to go השם Hashem. Never mind, I don't need you. I'll see you in a month, I'm taking a vacation from you. The כלי יקר Kli Yakar says that's why there's a Torah prohibition against ריבית ribbis, to not put us in a position where we think we don't need השם Hashem. To not put us in a position where we're going to lack that sense of בטחון bitachon. Fantastic.Good. We have the worker's right to eat, the the employer has certain obligations towards the employee. Employee has obligations towards the employer, and the employer has obligations to the employee. Yeah, Rabbi Fox. The taking money from a non-Jew as opposed to a Jew. Yeah. Really we cannot be accused of discrimination because of that. And the reason is because non-Jews can take interest from us, do take interest. Right. Whereas one Jew is not supposed to take interest. Exactly. It's mutual. Not showing discrimination. Right. We're not, Jews are not just taking interest from non-Jews. Right, reciprocally Jews are not doing it from one another. Besides, what would Shakespeare write about if we weren't in the position of lending with interest? So, we played a great role in society by doing that. It actually preserved us, it kept us around in many host nations who wanted to eliminate us. The economy was dependent on the Jews and until they determined it wasn't, we don't need them anymore, and then their economy failed and they took away the expulsion and invited us back. So thank God we were decent bankers. The Torah continues, divorce and remarriage, kidnapping, צרעת tzaraas, timely paying of workers. All kinds of הלכה halachic questions about the timely paying of workers. I'll give you a great שאלה shaila. A great שאלה shaila that appears in הלכה halachic literature. Can you pay a babysitter? A babe, let's say you have a babysitter, she comes, comes up in הלכה halacha. Today, you could do it online, there's apps, you could transfer money with a blink of an eye. But when my kids were younger, when we didn't have older ones to babysit the younger ones, you'd have a babysitter, sometimes you didn't have cash. But you don't want to send the drop off the babysitter without paying them, you felt terrible. So what would you give her, usually a her or a him? A check. The problem is you can't cash the check at night. So have you violated the prohibition of not paying the worker on time? Because maybe they have the check, but you can't cash the check at night, the bank is closed. Is that a violation of paying a worker on time? There's הלכה halachic literature's discussion about it. Some say but more in Israel than here, you can endorse the check and use it like cash, so it has a value. Since you can endorse the check and transfer it, I don't even know if that's legal, but many people do it. So does that make it as if it's liquid, so you've paid the person on time, or no? It's fascinating הלכה halachic literature about about this law, but a person has to be very careful with this law to pay people on time, pay workers on time. Being careful with the gift, the widow and the orphan, gifts to the poor. מלקות Malkus, lashes. There's a lot of Torah about this. גברא רבה Gavra rabba. יבום yibum, the מצוה mitzvah of יבום yibum, חליצה chalitza. Honest weights and measures. Having honest weights and measures. Torah uses a term here. כי תועבת ה' אלוקיך כל עושה אלה Ki toavas Hashem Elokecha kol oseh eileh. We refer to certain activities as תועבה toeva. It's an abomination. And it is. Torah calls it an abomination. But we forget, it's inconvenient to remember that the Torah also calls dishonest business practices a תועבה toeva. It's an abomination to cut corners, bend the rules, cheat on your taxes, report things as business expenses when they're not. That is as much of an abomination as anything else that we view as behavior which is morally corrupt. And then our פרשה parsha ends with a familiar passage. We know it not usually from this time of year, although we should from the end of פרשת כי תצא Parshas Ki Seitzei, but we know it from שבת פרשת זכור Shabbos Parshas Zachor. זכור Zachor. שבת Shabbos before פורים Purim, when we have the biblical commandment to read this section, which by the way, if for whatever reason you weren't in שול shul פרשת זכור Parshas Zachor, you could be יוצא yotzei that annual מצוה mitzvah, except in a leap year, because it's 13 months, so you won't hear it in time, the חתם סופר Chasam Sofer points out. But you could be יוצא yotzei this מצוה mitzvah by listening in שול shul this week to פרשת זכור Parshas Zachor. זכור את אשר עשה לך עמלק בדרך בצאתכם ממצרים Zachor es asher asah lecha Amalek, baderech betzeischem miMitzrayim. Remember what עמלק Amalek did to us when we were on the way. I think we've discussed this also at length and there's a lot to talk about here. You could listen online previously. I'll just share a couple extra נקודות nekudos this year. I saw a beautiful insight, Rav Melech Biderman brings down from a ספר sefer called the תפארת שמואל Tiferes Shmuel. It says תמחה את זכר עמלק timche es zecher Amalek, we have to erase the memory of עמלק Amalek. From where? מתחת השמים Mitachas hashamayim. From under the heavens. Just say erase the memory of עמלק Amalek. We don't live on top of the heavens. So you don't have to tell me where to erase it. I know where to erase it, we're down here, we're not up there. Why does it say מתחת השמים mitachas hashamayim? So the ספר תפארת שמואל sefer Tiferes Shmuel says this gets to the core of who עמלק Amalek was and what they were trying to accomplish. Who is עמלק Amalek? אשר קרך בדרך Asher karcha baderech. Rashi quotes here קרך karcha can mean several translations. One is אשר קרך asher karcha means when we walked away from הר סיני Har Sinai we were on fire. We were on fire. Amazing, inspired, we were on fire. What did עמלק Amalek come, and what did they do? They poured water on our fire. They extinguished our fire. They took away our joy, our fire, and they poured water on our fire. They extinguished it. אשר קרך Asher karcha. קור Kor, cold. They poured cold water. Another interpretation of קרך karcha is לשון מקרה lashon mikreh. What does the word מקרה mikreh mean? It means happenstance, chance. The core of the philosophy of עמלק Amalek is exact opposite of what פרשת כי תצא Parshas Ki Seitzei is all about. We said nothing is mundane or profane or random or chance. There are 74 מצוות mitzvos in our פרשה parsha. How you tie your shoes, how you get a haircut, how you shop at the mall, what you eat, and how you grow your food, how you have your animals treat one another, it's all part of השם's Hashem's prescription. There's depth to everything. Comes along עמלק Amalek and says, there's depth to nothing. Everything is superficial. Everything is random, everything is chance. It's the ultimate of what we in our generation experience as cynicism. That's cynicism, there's nothing that's really meaningful. There's nothing that's real. Eh. Eh. To mock, to scorn, to laugh at, to be cynical about. That's the philosophy of עמלק Amalek, אשר קרך בדרך asher karcha baderech, it's מקרה mikreh. You think השם Hashem took you out for this reason, he gave you that, you're going to live this charged life? Let me pour cold water on your fire by telling you it was just a coincidence. Let me pour cold water on your fire by telling you there's no God, he could care less about you, he doesn't care what you do, he's not trying to help you. Life is just random, nothing happens for a reason, and then you'll be worm food. That's life. That's עמלק Amalek. It's what Rav Hutner calls כח החילול koach hachillul versus כח החילו koach hachillul. I've written about this several times. Rav Hutner says that עמלק's Amalek's philosophy is כח החילול koach hachillul, they're מחלל mechalel, they profane everything. We see everything as holy, as sacred, as amazing. Einstein said there's two ways to live life, that either everything's a miracle or nothing's a miracle. That's כח החילו koach hachillul and כח החילול koach hachillul. עמלק Amalek lives life and says nothing's a miracle. It's all chance, random, it's nothing, it's absolute cynicism. We live life with כח החילו koach hachillul, the sense of awe. These are the ימים נוראים yamim noraim, the days of awe, we are filled with a sense of awe. We see the greatness, the beauty, the depth, the opportunity, the connection to השם Hashem within everything. The כח החילו koach hachillul within everything. I wrote about last week or two weeks ago, the trip to Montana and the connection with nature that a person who makes a הפסק hefsek, you see מה נאה אילן זה ma na'eh ilan zeh. A person is learning on the way and they say מה נאה אילן זה ma na'eh ilan zeh, what a beautiful tree, so מעלה עליו הכתוב כאילו מתחייב בנפשו maaleh alav hakatuv k'ilu mischayev b'nafsho, says the משנה mishna in אבות Avos. And we quoted the commentaries who say no, it's when you make a הפסק hefsek. If you look at the beauty of the world and you see that as separate from the experience of Torah. Rav Hutner would say the כח החילו koach hachillul is you walk around you say, wow, that's amazing. It was after the article, I saw it only a couple days ago, in a ספר sefer by Rav Wolbe writes the same thing. When Rav Wolbe talks about our responsibilities as parents, raising children, he says, how do we instill a sense of awe in children? Not by being sarcastic and cynical about everything. So someone says, wow what a beautiful painting, eh, I've seen better. What a great musician, eh, I've got better songs on my iPod. Oh, what a magnificent architecture, eh, I've seen. If if our children sense from us that we have awe of nothing, nothing is worthy of awe, they won't have awe of השם Hashem. But if our children see from us that we can't pass a flower without saying, look at this flower. Do you see השם Hashem in this flower? Look at this moment, look at this view, look at this experience, look at the seeming coincidence, השם Hashem is in everything. Says Rav Wolbe, that's how we instill within our children a sense of living life with awe, and when you live life with awe, ultimately you'll see השם Hashem is worthy of our awe. That's what it means ימים נוראים yamim noraim. So therefore, says the תפארת שמואל Tiferes Shmuel, what's the פשט pshat? How do we destroy עמלק Amalek? תמחה את זכר עמלק Timche es zecher Amalek where? מתחת השמים mitachas hashamayim. Erase עמלק's Amalek's heretical claims that everything happens under the heavens here on earth. It's all chance, it's all random, it's all nothing. What we're destroying, תמחה timche, what we're erasing is the philosophy of מתחת השמים mitachas hashamayim. It's not that you're erasing עמלק Amalek from under the heaven. What we're erasing is a philosophy of under the heaven. We're erasing the attitude of מתחת השמים mitachas hashamayim. That what you see is what you get, this life is all there is, there's no meaning, there's no order, there's no purpose to it. That's what we're erasing. תמחה Timche, erase the philosophy of מתחת השמים mitachas hashamayim. Erase the philosophy and attitude of all that we have is what we can see here on earth. And I saw in the ספר אמרי חיים sefer Imrei Chaim, the Vizhnitzer Rebbe, the אמרי חיים Imrei Chaim. So he says, חז\"ל אמרו Chazal omru, כל המתגאה חכמתו מסתלקת ממנו kol hamisgaeh chachmaso mistalekes mimenu. The גמרא Gemara in פסחים Pesachim says, whoever is arrogant, their wisdom is taken away from them. Arrogance, we lose our wisdom. So עמלק Amalek is גמטריא רם gematria ram. רם Ram. עמלק Amalek is the same numerical value as arrogant, inflated, haughty. תמחה את זכר הגאוה ממך שלא תתגאה, אז לא תשכח למודך ותתקיים חכמתך Timche es zecher ha'gaavah mimecha, shelo tisgaeh, az lo sishkach limudcha v'siskaiem chachmascha. So says the Vizhnitzer Rebbe, the אמרי חיים Imrei Chaim, that the מצוה mitzvah of תמחה את זכר עמלק timche es zecher Amalek is erase that arrogance. You come back to the Rav about the vulnerability, the מעקה maakeh, the fence. The feeling of vulnerability we're supposed to have. עמלק Amalek doesn't feel vulnerable. They feel impenetrable. They feel immortal. עמלק Amalek says there's no God, I'm in control of my own destiny, I don't need God. It's the arrogance that prevents awe. People who don't have awe of anything, the cynic who says, eh, about everything, at their core is incredibly arrogant. They're a בעל גאוה baal gaavah. Nothing is worthy of awe because they're so great. That's the philosophy of עמלק Amalek. So the גמטריא gematria of עמלק Amalek is רם ram. And תמחה את זכר עמלק timche es zecher Amalek, the מצוה mitzvah to eradicate עמלק Amalek is to eradicate an attitude, a philosophy of מתחת השמים mitachas hashamayim, that what you see is what you get, to eradicate the haughtiness and the arrogance that blocks us from seeing השם Hashem here in this world. Okay, let's go through our פסוקים psukim. פרק כ\"ג פסוק ד' Perek chaf gimmel pasuk daled. Chapter 23, verse 4. Chapter 23, verse 4. It's in the Artscroll חומש Chumash on page 1054, 1,054. Sure. After the words קרך בדרך karcha baderech, they they give very definite reasons why עמלק Amalek, but it doesn't look like a coincidence. They they happened to find you on the way and they knew that you were weak and that you were vulnerable and they they attacked you. They knew that they could win. It doesn't look like such a coincidence. It looks like a very well-planned, but but the concept being that that they're a nice people who take advantage of the weak. Correct. So it depends whether you're reading it on the literal level or on the deeper level. On the literal level, this is a military campaign, they strategically knew when to attack us. They didn't fight our strong army, they came in a really, in violation of international law, so to say. They attacked the women and children from the rear, and they did that strategically. And that's evil, that's pure evil. The Rav's other philosophy, the Rav writes in his חומש Chumash I'm not reading it to you, is that עמלק Amalek is not a generic nation. עמלק Amalek is a philosophy. And as far as the Rav was concerned, even הלכתית halachically, Hitler was עמלק Amalek, and and now חמאס Chamas is עמלק Amalek. Those who are morally corrupt and depraved and who seek the annihilation of the Jewish people, do so because they're morally bankrupt. That's on the on the פשט pshat level. The deeper level is that there's a spiritual battle going on. Because who, do I today have a have an obligation to destroy עמלק Amalek? How am I supposed to identify who is עמלק Amalek? Do I have to literally, I have a מצוה mitzvah to go take a gun and kill עמלק Amalek? We struggle. 2018, we struggle to how how could we accept that מצוה mitzvah? That's a fanatical מצוה mitzvah. Do we really believe that? We should, because it is a מצוה mitzvah, one that's not incumbent upon us today. But the spiritual part of it is very incumbent upon us, and that's that's this notion of מקרה mikreh, מתחת השמים mitachas hashamayim versus מעל השמים mei'al hashamayim, בשמים ממעל bashamayim mima'al. Okay, let's go back and look at these פסוקים psukim. פרק כ\"ג פסוק ד' Perek chaf gimmel pasuk daled, page 1054. And here the Torah tells us the following. לא יבוא עמוני ומואבי בקהל ה' Lo yavo Amoni u'Moavi b'kahal Hashem. Someone from the tribe of מואב Moav or עמון Amon may not enter the Jewish people. גם דור עשירי לא יבוא להם בקהל ה' עד עולם Gam dor asiri lo yavo lahem b'kahal Hashem ad olam. Even to the tenth generation, this prohibition doesn't expire. Even until the tenth generation, they cannot join the Jewish people. על דבר אשר Al dvar asher, why? What they do wrong? What did עמון Amon and מואב Moav do wrong? Why can they not join the Jewish people? Rashi says לא יבוא עמוני lo yavo Amoni, לא ישא ישראלית lo yisa Yisraelis. They cannot marry, their male can't marry our females. Their females can marry our males. Ultimately it's עמוני ולא עמונית, מואבי ולא מואבית Amoni v'lo Amonis, Moavi v'lo Moavis. So specifically talking about their male cannot marry our females. So why? What did they do so wrong? So the Torah tells us, you don't have to guess. The Torah says I'll give you the reason. מואב Moav, we should all know. Before we keep reading, what did מואב Moav do? Who came from מואב Moav? And commissioned somebody... בלעם Bilam... בלק Balak is the king of מואב Moav and he hires בלעם Bilam, and first to curse us, that didn't succeed. And later to solicit us to violate our moral core. And that did succeed, which is a lot of lessons in that. So I understand מואב Moav heinously, egregiously attacked us, so we don't really want to intermarry with them. What did עמון Amon ever do against us? What did עמון Amon do? So listen to what the פרשה parsha says, it's amazing. על דבר אשר לא קדמו אתכם בלחם ובמים בדרך בצאתכם ממצרים Al dvar asher lo kidmu eschem b'lechem u'v'mayim baderech b'tzeischem miMitzrayim. You know what they did? They were inhospitable. We said, hey can we cut through your backyard? It's a shortcut to שול shul. Won't take away from you, won't look in your window. Do you mind? Hey, we'll pay for it, but you have some bread and water, some provisions? ואשר שכר עליך את בלעם בן בעור מפתור ארם נהרים לקללך V'asher sachar alecha es Bilam ben Beor miPsor Aram Naharayim l'kalaleka. So the second half of the פסוק pasuk, that מואב Moav hired בלעם Bilam, I get. But for the first half of the פסוק pasuk, you were inhospitable? For your lack of hospitality, I don't want that mixing into my DNA. Not only can you not get married, you can never get married. ולא אבה ה' אלוקיך לשמע אל בלעם, ויהפך ה' אלוקיך לך את הקללה לברכה V'lo avah Hashem Elokecha lishmoa el Bilam, v'yahafoch Hashem Elokecha lecha es haklalah l'vracha. And God transformed the curse to a ברכה bracha. כי אהבך ה' אלוקיך Ki ahevcha Hashem Elokecha. Why did God do that? כי אהבך ה' אלוקיך Ki ahevcha Hashem Elokecha. If you ever wonder, does Judaism believe this or did the Christians steal it from us? What do the words literally mean? כי אהבך ה' אלוקיך Ki ahevcha Hashem Elokecha. השם Hashem loves you. He's not going to let someone curse you. What parent stands around and lets someone else curse them? השם Hashem loves us. Don't ever doubt it, not for one moment. Is השם Hashem also our king? Yes. But in a few weeks we're going to start saying אבינו מלכנו Avinu Malkeinu. We relate to Him both מאהבה ומיראה mei'ahava u'mei'yirah, from love and from awe. He's both our king and our father. But which one comes first? He's אבינו Avinu before he's מלכנו Malkeinu. כי אהבך ה' אלוקיך Ki ahevcha Hashem Elokecha. The ריבונו של עולם Ribono shel Olam loves you, don't ever doubt it. He's not going to let someone curse you. לא תדרוש שלומם וטובתם כל ימיך לעולם Lo sidrosh shlomam v'tovasam kol yamecha l'olam. Don't seek their peace or their welfare. Don't care about עמון Amon and מואב Moav. כל ימיך לעולם Kol yamecha l'olam for your whole existence. For your whole existence. That's the whole section. עמון Amon and מואב Moav, don't marry him, not only for three generations, for ten. Who are we prohibited to marry for three generations? The מצרים Mitzrim, the Egyptians. Why? They killed millions of our people. They turned our children into bricks. 210 years of persecution, oppression, slavery, pogroms, Holocaust, genocide. Eh, give them three generations and you can marry him. But עמון Amon, they didn't let you cut through their backyard. You can never marry them. It's not amazing, the contrast? What the מצרים Mitzrim did was so much more heinous. And yet, three generations, it's out of their system, you could marry their kid. But עמון Amon and מואב Moav, not only ten generations, כל ימיך לעולם kol yamecha l'olam, forever, you've got to stay away. So let's look at this section a little bit. Let's look at this section a little bit. אשר לא קדמו Asher lo kidmu. The בעל הטורים Baal Haturim says בגמטריא הזכרים b'gematria hazecharim. You know, there's a whole, if you go through ספר שמואל Sefer Shmuel and you want to understand the episode of when שמואל Shmuel comes to ישי Yishai and says I have a נבואה nevua that one of your boys is going to be the next king. And ישי Yishai has many boys and he take him through all the boys and one by one שמואל Shmuel says, no, no, no, not this one, not that one, not the other one. And ישי Yishai says, those are my boys. He said, don't you have one more? He's not eligible. What was going on there? So חז\"ל Chazal fill in the gap. From whom does דוד המלך David Hamelech descend? From רות Rus. Where does רות Rus descend? From מואב Moav. So they were interpreting the פסוק pasuk at the time to mean that you're not allowed to let someone from מואב Moav marry in. And therefore there's a פסול psul, there's a פגם pegam, there is a blemish in דוד's David's lineage, and therefore he's ineligible to be the king. And בית דין Beis Din, חז\"ל Chazal came and clarified, no, מואבי ולא מואבית, עמוני ולא עמונית Moavi v'lo Moavis, Amoni v'lo Amonis. דוד David, רות Rus was eligible and therefore דוד David is eligible, and therefore he's revealed to be the king. This is probably from a different wife. They didn't come, they didn't come from רות Rus, they had a different lineage with ישי Yishai. ישי Yishai had different wives. So they came from a different lineage. So that's why they thought he was excluded, and in the end he was there. So that's why the בעל הטורים Baal Haturim says אשר לא קדמו asher lo kidmu in גמטריא gematria is הזכרים hazecharim, the men. Why is that in fact the הלכה halacha? That you're allowed to marry a מואבית Moavis? If you meet a מואבית Moavite woman, and she has a good שידוך shidduch resume, you could marry her. If you meet an עמונית Amonis woman and her resume impresses you, you can marry her. But no matter how impressive the מואבי Moavi or עמוני Amoni resume, they're out for generations and generations. Why the distinction? The Torah itself told us it has to do with what? Character. It has to do with the provisions. It has to do with what was provided. So what do we see? Who was the one who was supposed to come out and provide those provisions? Who should have given the bread and the water? The men. So Rav Schechter, in his ספר sefer, Rav Schechter on the פרשה parsha points out. When the Torah prohibits marriage to an עמוני Amoni or מואבי Moavi, it reveals to us the reason. There's a תנאיתי Tannaitic dispute between רבי שמעון Rebbi Shimon and רבי יהודה Rebbi Yehuda regarding דרשינן טעמא דקרא darshinan taama d'kra. Do we expound on the reason for פסוקים psukim, for מצוות mitzvos? Ascertaining the reason for the מצוה mitzvah does constitute an important aspect of Torah study. It lets us glean the moral, ethical, or religious principle the Torah is trying to teach us. But the תנאים Tannaim argue regarding whether the reason for a מצוה mitzvah can regulate the application of the מצוה mitzvah. Does it only apply when we see the reason and it doesn't apply if we don't have the reason, or not? That's the מחלוקת machlokes. So for example, there's a מחלוקת machlokes whether the restriction of taking the garment of a widow as security for her debt applies to a wealthy woman. The reason, says רבי שמעון Rebbi Shimon, is that the creditor would have to return the garment to her each day, so it would give her a bad reputation among her neighbors. According to רבי שמעון Rebbi Shimon, one would be able to exact security from a wealthy widow to whom he need not return the garment. We generally פסק'ן pasken, לא דרשינן טעמא דקרא lo darshinan taama d'kra. The rationale of the מצוה mitzvah does not define the limit of its הלכה halacha. However, when the Torah gives the reason, when the Torah itself provides the reason, explicitly, even רבי יהודה Rebbi Yehuda agrees דרשינן טעמא דקרא darshinan taama d'kra, that we can apply the reason. This is how the rabbis in the days of דוד המלך David Hamelech knew to expound the פסוק pasuk above to limit the עמוני Amoni and מואבי Moavi to men. עמוני ולא עמונית, מואבי ולא מואבית Amoni v'lo Amonis, Moavi v'lo Moavis. Why? Because it was customary for men and not women to greet travelers with bread and water. Therefore the women of עמון Amon and מואב Moav could not be blamed for being negligent. They were not inhospitable. It was never expected of them and therefore they're still eligible to marry in. It's most noteworthy that the Torah's vision of the private role of women paved the way for the admission of רות המואביה Rus ha'Moavia into כלל ישראל Klal Yisrael. This, of course, led to the establishment of מלכות בית דוד malchus beis David, which ultimately led to the come, will lead to the coming of מלך המשיח Melech Hamashiach himself. Rav Schechter in this essay develops the notion that the whole way דוד המלך David Hamelech is born is that he descends from רות Rus. What made רות Rus eligible to join our people? Because she was excluded from the prohibition. What made her excluded from the prohibition? Because there was never an expectation of women, because there was a sense that they would be more in a position of modesty. They were never as playing an external public role as having the expectation that they would be negotiating or practicing the diplomacy to be providing these provisions. So it's the modesty that is expected of women, which in the merit enabled רות Rus to marry into the people, which itself is the progenitor of מלך המשיח Melech Hamashiach. And Rav Schechter develops this notion of innate צניעות tznius and following in השם's Hashem's footsteps. God is a קל מסתתר Kel mistater and we too should follow in those footsteps. Fine. Back to our פרשה parsha. So the רמב\"ן Ramban here says exactly what I was telling you. That if you contrast the law with the מצרים Mitzri and the law of the עמון Amon and מואב Moav, you see the power of a lack of hospitality. It's an unbelievable, I think it's an unbelievable thing. It's an unbelievable thing that the מצרים Mitzri with all that they did, with the persecution, the attempted genocide, three generations they're back. But עמוני Amoni and מואבי Moavi can't come in. מואב Moav, I understand, the systematic attempt also to bring us down. But why עמון Amon? Because they didn't give us provisions. They were inhospitable, they were ungracious. The רמב\"ן Ramban here offers this insight. He says, עמון Amon are to be treated as harshly as מואב Moav because their crime is as severe, maybe even more. They were utterly ungrateful, unappreciative, and thankless. You see the people of עמון Amon and of מואב Moav, why were they particularly ungrateful? What did they have to be, I keep saying they were ungrateful. They were inhospitable. What were they ungrateful for, עמון Amon and מואב Moav? The רמב\"ן Ramban points out here. What should they have been grateful for? We're running out of time so I'm not reading it inside. What should they have been more grateful for? What enabled the existence of עמון Amon and מואב Moav? Anyone remember the story? Of when the nations of עמון Amon and מואב Moav are born? Yeah. Exactly. When their ancestor לוט Lot and his daughters were taken captive, it was our ancestor אברהם Avraham who didn't say, look, doesn't apply to me, I'm safe, I'm secure, I could walk away. He risked his life to liberate them. And when they were destined to die during the destruction of סדום Sodom, it was our great זדה zeideh אברהם Avraham who argued for their release, who advocated for their safety. And so as the Jewish people, now this nation who are born out of slavery and only recently emancipated are journeying through the desert and they come to these people whose only existence relies on the goodness of our great זדה zeideh to to not reciprocate? When we said, do you have anything to eat or anything to drink? We'll pay for it. Can you let us cut through your land? The ingratitude they displayed was so egregious that the Torah says we can't afford to absorb it into our character. So important is the attribute of הכרת הטוב hakaras hatov, to identify the good others have done for us and to repay that good, so important that a nation that doesn't get it, can't intermarry, can't join. We can't absorb their corrupt character into our DNA. Isn't that incredible? The מדרש Midrash goes even further. The רמב\"ן Ramban says, what's amazing is, the people of עמון Amon and מואב Moav could say, we're not the ingrates because you didn't do that for us. You did that way back when. You never did anything for me, why do I have to pay you back? The רמב\"ן Ramban says you see from here that when someone did something amazing even for your ancestor, you should feel indebted for generations to come. Because you are the beneficiary of what was done for your ancestor, the sense of gratitude has to continue for generations. That sense of an attitude of feeling a thank you. And so these nations who didn't feel that gratitude, who didn't live with that sense of gratitude, we can't afford to take them into our people. Oy. The כלי יקר Kli Yakar, and the אור החיים Ohr Hachaim, and the רמב\"ן Ramban, and there's so much more I want to say. We'll start with it בעזרת השם b'ezras Hashem. I'll make a note. It's exactly where we'll start from next year. Wishing everyone a
