Transcript
Good morning boker tov it should be a good morning for Klal Yisrael may we hear בשורות טובות ישועות ונחמות we should hear good news sweeping victory our hostages should be brought home the army should be able to retire and please God we should hear only only good things. I want to thank our generous and amud series sponsors for the year our dear friends whom we are so grateful Avi and Bella Morgan in memory of Bella’s mother Dr. Ellen Chanzar and in memory of Rabbi Dr. Brian Galbut. Also this morning's shiur is sponsored in honor of a refuah sheleimah sheleimah for Alexander ben Rosa she should have a complete and a speedy refuah sheleimah. You have flyers on your chairs to remind you this Motzei Shabbos we are welcoming back and once again hosting Dr. Erica Brown an amazing woman an amazing speaker Vice Provost of Values and Leadership at Yeshiva University holding each other up in crisis she's a wonderful speaker that is this Motzei Shabbos at 8:30 PM. Also reminder if you can to turn your cell phones to silent. Thank you for the reminder Shkoach. Okay a couple of emuna emails and then we'll dive back into the piece that we have been learning and hopefully finish it up from the great Rosh Yeshiva רב ישראל מאיר דרוק שליט"א but a few a few emails first that continue to remind us of how to put our emuna into practice. The beauty the value of the emails the reason I read them is that our emuna is not theoretical it's not academic we don't study about it but we are reading and sharing examples of people who needed to employ and deploy it and that gives us the courage and strength when we are in a situation that we can also dig deep that we can also work out our emuna muscle that we can also see through the prism of emuna and interpret what is happening in our lives in that way. Which is really our parsha I'll speak about it on Shabbos I don't want to spoil it now but that's Yosef HaTzadik that's this week's parsha. When you live your life with emuna you are able to reframe everything in your life. When you don't have emuna then you can't reframe and you feel you don't have the courage and you don't have the ability to... call it out... someone from Alaska someone from Alaska just walked in. Is it snowing? Not quite snowing. Okay I'm not making fun and if you can't... it's my wife and she finds it endearing it's all fine it's all good right? I have to ask mechila. That's what happens if you come in late that's what happens you get in trouble you... that's what happens and you make a grand entrance. Where was I? Oh Yosef HaTzadik. I'm going to get emails I'm mean to my wife... she finds it endearing and loving endearing endearing and loving. I'm not I'm not mean. Both both yeah please be mocheil me. Yosef HaTzadik if you live life with emuna whatever is happening in your world and in your life there is the capacity to frame and reframe it to adjust and pivot. If you don't and you feel like a victim of everything happening in life then it's very hard to get through any given day. We'll talk about that more on Shabbos. That's why we read these emails. So here is an email. Thank you Rabbi Goldberg blah blah blah that really gives me the emuna boost to last the whole week. I used to listen to the shiur online but since the war started I decided to attend in person. I didn't read this one last week right? No. Listen to this one. This is an amazing story. I used to listen to the shiur online but since the war started I decided to attend in person so that I could join in the Tehillim at the end of shiur and what a reminder stay after we're going to recite and complete all of Sefer Tehillim just stay for a few minutes we can divide Tehillim several times complete all of Sefer Tehillim who knows if your booklet your Tehillim your staying and you contributing could be the Tehillim that puts something over the top. And if you don't believe that listen to this email listen to this story. I used to listen to the shiur online but since the war started I decided to attend in person so that I can join in the Tehillim at the end of shiur. I'd like to share part of the reason Tehillim is so important to me. When I was going through chemo my daughter up north told me she would say the whole sefer every day for me as a zchus. It was an a huge accomplishment since she has dyslexia and it took her five hours daily. She always called after she finished the sefer to tell me that she finished. One evening during this period our family in Florida was eating together and I realized the piece of chicken I tried to swallow was stuck in my throat. I couldn't speak and I motioned to my family that I was in trouble. My son started panicking Mommy's in trouble Mommy's choking. My husband got the kids and tried to pat my back but the chicken was stuck in my throat. This was before we had Hatzalah locally. As I was trying to cough it up and not succeeding I thought what a way to leave this world not because of cancer not al kiddush Hashem not the massive stuff I went through in my life a piece of chicken. As I was thinking all this something my husband did finally worked and the obstruction released and I coughed it up baruch Hashem and just then just then I got a call from my daughter... daughter in New York, she had just completed several Tehillim for me. I thanked her and told her that Tehillim, told her that Tehillim saved my life. Since then I try to say a lot more Tehillim because I saw firsthand how powerful it is. As an aside, at my next visit to the clinic I told the oncologist my story, he apologized and said he forgot to tell me that chemo sometimes causes muscle spasms in the throat, you have to be careful when you chew. Thank you for the shiurim blah blah blah blah blah. Wow, the power of Tehillim just in that moment, her daughter reaching for the Tehillim just as she needed it, while she was coughing, absolutely incredible. So if that doesn't motivate and inspire you to stay for Tehillim, I don't know what will, but our Tehillim is incredibly powerful. Next email. Rabbi Goldberg, I listen to your shiurim, I get so much out of them, blah blah blah. I love listening to the emuna, I'm a strong believer everything happens for a reason. I have bought only one lottery ticket for each game for years and I true believe that things happen the way Hashem wants it to. If you're waiting to say she won the lottery and she's giving it all to BRS, that did not happen. I live in a certain community in New York, New York area, and I'm now in Israel with a friend for a week. Ever since the war started, I knew I needed to come here and here I am. My friend and I arrived last week with a volunteer plan that we knew would be fluid. I have so many stories to tell, but one in particular stands out for the emuna shiur. First, though, on Monday we went to Bnei Netzarim, a yishuv half a mile from Egypt, eight miles from Gaza. It's one of the, one of the yishuvey Chalutza. We went for two days to help with farming. It was crazy. I was sitting on the sand picking cherry tomatoes while listening to the emuna shiur and listening to booms and airplanes. We were assuming it was the IDF doing all their work. Anyway, today we went to a shiva visit for a fallen soldier and then we made our way to Hadassah Hospital to visit wounded soldiers who are in rehab. Our contact told us there was one particular wounded soldier who has been in the hospital a while and had four kids. The kids had nothing to do when they arrived to visit and our contact asked if we could bring age-appropriate things for him to give to his children when they came. So we bought games and books and we went to the hospital. We were met by a soldier who was our contact there. She told us we were not allowed to go in and meet the soldiers because they were tired and visits were hard for them. She said she would give the toys to the soldier for us. We then said the soldier was expecting us according to our contact. She said she would call upstairs and see and then she said the soldier was sleeping. We walked with her to an area and gave her the toys. We were, of course, disappointed, but I channeled my emuna brain and said, we were really there to help the soldiers, if it was too much for them, so be it, it wasn't really about us. I decided I wanted a picture of the rehab hospital sign. Right after I took the picture, we stood for a few minutes to regroup and figure out our next step. I then noticed a few guys with instruments walking into the hospital. I approached them and asked if they were singing for the soldiers. They said not the soldiers, but someone who was a victim of a bombing in Yerushalayim. I asked if we could join them and they said we could. We went into the patient's room and it turns out that one of the musicians was the victim's son. As the band was setting up, we introduced ourselves, we said we came from Teaneck to visit. I asked if there was anything he wanted us to go home and tell others. First he said Baruch HaShem he survived, since the friend he was sitting with at the time did not. And second, he said five minutes before the attack, he was learning that someone was complaining of a pain to his leg, but then he was reminded that he was lucky he didn't have a pain in his eye. The victim suffered a leg injury. His roommate is a wounded soldier. The music started. Turns out the patient is Avigdor Spanier, not sure if spelled correctly, he's a rabbi. The music was incredible. The rabbi had such joy in his face and sang along. There was a patient in a wheelchair in the hallway listening to the music. I asked the singers if he could join us and he said yes, so much joy and emuna in the room. Our soldier contact from earlier walked into the room and was a little surprised to see us upstairs. She handed us back our bag of toys and asked if we wanted to give the soldier we were supposed to meet the gifts. We said sure, she introduced us to the soldier that was listening to the music, we said to come and listen with us. We couldn't believe this is who we were supposed to meet, and we weren't allowed to, and then that was the person they invited into the room to come hear the music with them. We left the room, we gave him the toys directly ourselves. We had such amazing experiences, we're going home tonight, I have to process it all. Sorry this is so long, I just needed to share since I felt this was a real emuna moment. We were disappointed not to see the soldiers, musicians came at the exact moment we needed them to so we can go upstairs, the music and emuna was so much more than we thought we could get. We were moved beyond words. Another incredible, incredible story. Beautiful, beautiful emuna stories, please keep the emails coming. I don't know about anybody else, but they give me tremendous chizuk and inspiration. Sorry, just having the AC raised in here because I don't want anyone to get pneumonia and I'm not sure why the AC's on. Back to Rav Druck, Rabbi Yisroel Meir Druck, we've been learning this piece, this sicha that Rav Druck gave on Rosh Chodesh Kislev, we're now the eighth day of Teves, and Rav Druck was speaking about the power of those who are not physically on the front lines, the soldiers who deliver... deserve our greatest support and love and admiration and help and honor are on the front lines risking their lives. In fact, tonight on Behind the Bima we interview our dear friend Nir Rubin, who you may remember was a guest in our community several years ago through an amazing program called Peace of Mind. He and his unit came after fighting in Lebanon and losing soldiers then, they came here with their therapists. Peace of Mind is an incredible program in which with therapists they come for two weeks to work on PTSD, to work through things that Israelis generally like to deny they have to work through, and it was a new movement to get people to work through. We developed an incredibly close connection with that unit, with Nir in particular. While we were in Israel a couple weeks ago, Nir came to the base we made a barbecue. He's an incredible musician. He sang and he played. We spoke about it last week on Behind the Bima and put the little clip of him singing the Mi Shebeirach for Tzahal and he left us that night from singing and dancing and he went into Gaza and his commander was shot and killed and died in his arms and on Behind the Bima tonight he talks about what that was and kissing him and saying goodbye. That how powerful that was. And then he talks about Hashem and emuna and fighting and why we are unstoppable and why they will win this war. These people are unbelievable. They're angels. Angels. Angels. This past Shabbos, Donna Kohn, her husband Avyad killed on October 7th defending not his yishuv but the neighboring one of Pri Gan, left six orphans, six children, they were here for Shabbos as well and she's just beyond words. Her emuna, her faith, her connection to Hashem, of course her grief and her sadness, but these people they are the hotspot that we connect through. When we struggle, when we suffer, when we're unsure if there's a Hashem, we connect through their hotspot. These people, they are extraordinary. So soldiers like Nir, his unit, his friends, hundreds of thousand on the front line, they are, they are the central part of winning this war. But we've been learning that we are all reservists, we're all called up, we're all contributing our part and that when we daven that's the place where the miracle happens. The ברכה שעשה נס לאבותינו במקום הזה was said on the rock that Moshe orchestrated the tefilla. That was the battlefield from which the battle was won. And Noach was responsible, thank you, Noach was responsible, they're called we last learned the Mei Noach, the floods of Noach, because Noach could have and should have davened for his generation. Ah, it wouldn't have helped. Ah, it wouldn't have helped. Avraham Avinu saw that when you have less than ten it doesn't help. He didn't ask, he didn't bother for less than ten. Noach had less than ten, that's why he didn't bother, it wouldn't have helped. And the last thing we left off with was Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz. Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz taught that a Jew cries out because they're in pain. Even if their cry won't necessarily bring about a different result, their cry won't transform the response, nevertheless when you're in pain you scream ouch. And if you didn't scream ouch, if you didn't scream ouch, then what does that mean? You're not in pain. And if what's happening, if every day you wake up, in the middle of the night you wake up and you long to hear a headline, no new soldiers, no new count, no new casualties, but we haven't had such a headline. I don't know that there's a day non-ceasefire and even during the supposed ceasefire was a terror attack in Yerushalayim. We haven't had such a day. How are we not yelling ouch? How are we not in pain each and every day? If you can go through your day, if you're not tied to those news, if you're not checking, if life is ordinary and as usual, I think there's work to do. There's work to do. So Noach was responsible, they're called the Mei Noach, and we are accountable if we don't stay for the Tehillim and say Tehillim and contribute what we can, learning and davening and merit and zchusim and achdus and ahava and shalom and reius and love and financial support and all the different ways that we're called upon to make a difference, then it correlates and corresponds with us the difference that we could have made. We're in the second to last paragraph on the first side. אם כן כאשר כלל ישראל נמצאים בצרה, when the Jewish people are in a moment of crisis, a moment of difficulty, a challenging time, עלינו להיות חלק מן המערכה, we have to be a part of this process, לזעוק ולהתפלל ולקרוא רחמי שמים, to cry out and to daven and to storm the gates of heaven, to tear up the heavenly decree, ואין לנו לעשות חשבונות שמים, and don't worry, let God do His work. Don't make a cheshbon for why I shouldn't and don't bother and it doesn't matter and it won't add and it won't help and this is good, it's bad. Let Hashem do His part. He doesn't need your help. He's Hashem. He's Hashem. אלא לעשות את חובתנו ולהשתתף עם הציבור בצרה. Our job is to be part of the community who are in pain, to be counted of those people who can't go on with life as usual and life as ordinary. V'hama'aracha ha'amitit hi... *Kol kol Yaakov* and our job at this time is for the voice, voice of *Yaakov*, to be louder and stronger than ever, *kefi shedarshu Chazal*, as our rabbis say. The *Medrash* teaches: בזמן שקולו של יעקב מצוי בבתי כנסיות אין הידיים ידי עשו. אין הידיים ידי עשו. This past *Shabbat* we had, in addition to Donna, in addition to our dear friend *Yedidya Haroush*, just extraordinary heroes. They would tell you they're ordinary and they are ordinary. They're not influenced, they're not influencers, they're not famous, they don't have a huge following online. But when you interact and engage and you hear their stories, there's nothing ordinary about them, nothing ordinary about them. For those of you who were here, those of you who heard, you know exactly what I'm talking about. But we also as part of this past weekend had Brett Stephens, the great columnist, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist. Anyway, I see the speech he gave on *Shabbat* was a dry run of the column that he published today in the New York Times, essentially the same ideas. But he had previously published about the October 8th Jew. And he talked about how after October 7th, the October 8th Jew has to be forever different. Not no longer swooning over the institutions of prestige that we once held in high regard but who abandoned us, betrayed us, stabbed us in the back like the three *machasheyfos* who run those three Ivy League institutions who can't even call genocide against Jews wrong and other institutions like it. I asked him then and I feel the same about his column now, the October 8th Jew, one of the things he omitted, and it was brilliant and beautiful and insightful and wonderful and we're grateful he was here and he has a lot of very important things to say. Again, he's been here before and again he stood in my office and gazed at the, I have a picture and I have a *ksav yad* in my office, a handwritten letter, not to me, he passed away long before I was born, Rabbi *Chaim Ozer Grodzinski*. Brett Stephens' great-grandfather is a nephew of *Chaim Ozer*. He's *meshpacha* of *Chaim Ozer*. So the brains clearly passed down genetically in the family. But what's missing from his column and from that talk, again I'm not blaming him, his background is different than ours, our *Torah* orientation is that the October 8th Jew has to be more committed than ever to the *kol kol Yaakov*. The October 8th Jew can't be a casual Jew anymore. There were and are so many casual Jews who are casual about their Judaism. Maybe even checking all the correct boxes: *Shabbat*, *Kosher*, Jewish day school, membership in a *shul*, an Orthodox *shul*, observant *shul*. Check, check, check, check, check. But casual about a relationship with *Hashem*, feeling His presence, talking to Him, hearing Him talk to us, walking around with pride, pride in being a Jew, walking around with a commitment to be a practicing Jew. The Judaism informs and Judaism inspires everything that we do and how we see the world and who we are and how we engage everything. October 8th, October 8th has to be the end of casual Judaism. October 8th has to be the end, October 7th should represent the death of a casual Judaism and October 8th, among the what he called for, a commitment to strengthen the institutions that are aligned with our values, that welcome us and that will protect us, but the October 8th Jew also has to be a proud Jew and the October 8th Jew has to be a practicing Jew and the October 8th Jew has to find their *kol kol Yaakov*, has to find their voice, the voice of *Yaakov*. Because *Chazal* tell us very simply, I wrote about this this past week, if I had a hundred million dollars, if I had a million dollars, if I had a hundred dollars to try to impact antisemitism, I would not spend it on ads on TV, I would not spend it on lobbying members of Congress, I would not spend it on trying to get rid of presidents of Ivy League institutions, all of which are important and other people are doing and I'm grateful for. But I would spend it on how we can inspire a greater *kol kol Yaakov*. How can we have more Jews practice more Judaism more proudly? Let's send a *Magen David* to every Jew who will wear one around their neck, a *Mezuzah* to anyone who will hang it on their door, particularly on a college campus, candles to anyone who will light them, *Tzitzis* to anyone who will wear them. Let's inspire and welcome and invite Jews to lean into their Judaism. We are living in an incredible moment. This is all I think about. Had a wonderful conversation with someone who's become a good friend, the Chief Rabbi of South Africa, Warren Goldstein, who's a really extraordinary person. This is on his mind and we were talking about it the other day. There are Judaism when until now aligned, their Judaism was defined, the whole Judaism was social justice. And the institutions of social justice that was their expression and manifestation of their Judaism failed them, betrayed them, abandoned them. It's MeToo unless you're a Jew. It was Black Lives Matter but Jewish lives don't matter. And such institutions of wokeness and progressiveness. And there is an entire world who need to fill in something else, there's a vacuum, there's an absence, there's an abscess, there's a hole. What will Judaism look like? But I'm not only speaking about the other. It's true about all of us. It's true about all of us. As antisemitism has spiked and is rising, there are those who want to kill us for being Jewish. Shouldn't we consider more what it means to be a Jew? Why is it important to continue this Jewish story, this Jewish legacy, this Jewish journey? Why does Judaism matter? Why is it worth fighting for? Why is it worth living for? Why is it worth what these soldiers do? Why is it worth dying for? Yedidya was at my home on Motzei Shabbat talking to a few of us and he described, he described Yedidya, Yedidya who was the leader of Chalutza of Shlomit, who put the community on his shoulders on October 7th and stayed with them as they were relocated first to Gush Etzion, now to Kramim, and then went with his unit to go fight and has been in and out of Gaza, in and out of Gaza. And he described, I didn't know this, when you go into Gaza, when you go into war, I guess there's somewhere on the border that you pass through that they check your dog tags around your neck and apparently there's also some ID in your boots. And he said in that moment, your life flashes before your eyes. They check your dog tags in case there's nothing else left of you to identify you with other than your dog tags. And he described in that moment, in that moment is the you confront the reality that you might be going in, but you might not be coming out. And you think about your parents and your siblings, and if you're married, your wife and your children. You think about your life and where you've been. And you can't afford to think about any of those things once you're in. If you're in, you can't be thinking about anything other than your mission and what you have to do. But he described very vividly for a moment while they're checking your dog tag, for a moment your life flashes before your eyes. So too many, too many right now are living with that reality of what does it mean to live as a Jew and what does it mean to be willing to die and to give it all up to be a Jew. And we need to, for those who need to fill in their Judaism with something new, and all of us who can elevate and enrich and inspire and upgrade our Judaism, have to go from a casual attitude about emuna and bitachon and dveikus, a casual attitude about our davening, a casual attitude to Torah learning, a casual attitude towards observance, a casual attitude towards Jewish pride, a casual attitude towards Jewish outreach. We live in maybe the most densely Jewish populated area outside of the land of Israel in the world. You understand that more than 50% of the people in Palm Beach, in South Palm Beach County, in Boca and Delray are Jewish. There are, there are 200,000 Jews in South Palm Beach County. We have to lean in and we have to work harder for that kol kol Yaakov, for that kol kol Yaakov, because Chazal tell us, בזמן שקולו של יעקב מצוי, when we have more Jewish pride and Jewish practice, when Jews are present in the shuls, אין הידיים ידי עשו, then the lethal, dangerous, threatening hands of Esav cannot win. Ve'im lav, but when we're silent, when we're muted, when we're casual, when we're embarrassed, when we're ashamed, when we're shy, when we're hiding, then hayadayim yedei Esav, then those antisemites. So the real answer to antisemitism is of course lobbying and of course it's confronting and of course it's legislation. Yes, those are all critical components. But you know, and I won't call anyone out by name right now, the alphabet soup of Jewish institutions, I won't mention by name, millions, tens, hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent in organizations whose sole existence is to confront antisemitism and the result is antisemitism at an all-time high, antisemitism as the greatest hate crimes in America. So maybe it's time to rethink. Maybe it's time to do something different. Maybe it's time to shake it up. Maybe it's time to invest in other answers to antisemitism and I would, I would argue to you that hakol kol Yaakov. Counterintuitively, that yes it's about confronting antisemites, but it's also about confronting ourselves. It's almost easier to confront the antisemite, to call out, to be critical, to post on social media, to write to our friends, can you believe, did you see, we can't tolerate, this is no good, this is unconscionable, I'm outraged, that's easier. It's easier to confront the other. But maybe we also need to confront ourselves. Is our kol kol Yaakov? How is our Jewish pride, how is our Jewish practice? How is our Jewish outreach? Where are we? Are we casual? Are we amateurs? Or are we ready to go pro in our Judaism? We spoke about that on Shabbos Shuva a few years ago, an incredible book that we worked off of and showed the Torah sources or origins of it, an amazing book called The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. The War of Art. Not the Art of War, but the War of Art. It's a little book, you'll finish it in one reading. Steven Pressfield is a Yid. And in fact, we developed in that Shabbos Shuva drasha the War of Art, he talks about resistance. And all throughout the book when he talks about resistance, it struck me this is the most eloquent description I ever heard of the yeitzer hara. And when I later looked, he actually wrote an essay online, Steven Pressfield saying that resistance is what's called the yeitzer hara. He's not a practicing Jew but he's a Yid. I gotta get him on behind the bimah because his books are amazing. He wrote a great book about the Six-Day War and reconquering Yerushalayim. He wrote a book that became a famous movie. I forgot what it's called. I didn't read the book or watch the movie. I don't remember. But anyway, read the book, the War of Art. He calls it resistance. And in that book he talks about that when do you have your breakthrough, when can you overcome resistance? This is a man who was homeless and slept in his car and couldn't get published until he was in his maybe 40s, maybe late 30s, I don't remember. And he spoke about the resistance, the resistance, the resistance that was holding him back and how do you break through to achieve and accomplish your dreams, your aspirations, your vision, your hopes? How do you break through and overcome that resistance? And he speaks about and he develops in this little book, again you'll finish it in one reading, the answer is you have to go from being an amateur to a professional. From an avocation to a vocation. And he talks about what that means and how you do it and the mechanics of it. And what we developed and all I thought about when I read it was that's Yiddishkeit. Are we amateur? Is Yiddishkeit like a habit, a hobby on the side? Is it a hobby on the side? Really I'm a country club Jew, really I'm a fashionista, really I'm a professional, really I'm a business person, really I'm a this, I'm a that. I do a little Yiddishkeit on the side. I go to shul on the weekends, I send my kids to Jewish school, I observe the holidays, on the side it complements my life. I'm an amateur. I have a hobby, it's a hobby Yiddishkeit. Or is Yiddishkeit not a, is it our vocation? Is it our passion? Are we ready to turn pro? You overcome and you break through resistance when you're ready to become professional. Or do you want to stay an amateur throughout life? So kol kol Yaakov. Are we ready to go professional or are we just casual amateurs? Are we ready? That's where I'd put the money, that's where I'd invest it, that's where I'd hang billboards to invite all of us. I don't want to point fingers, it's the unaffiliated. It's all of us. All of us need to hold up that mirror and look at ourselves and confront ourselves and find our voice, our kol kol Yaakov, our voice of Yiddishkeit. Part of being an October 8th Jew has to mean the end of a casual Yiddishkeit. You see it all over Israel, this incredible spiritual awakening, this awakening of people who had never engaged and never encountered and were never interested who are now open. And I don't want to romanticize or overdramatize, it's not that the entire country now is keeping Shabbos and it's not. But a lot of people who previously not only were disinterested, they were actually opposed to are now open. And what do we need to be open to? Even within our observant lives, are there aspects of observance that we were cynical about, that we had resistance to, that we're ready to finally take seriously? We're ready to take seriously. והניצחון הוא האבן שיושב עליו משה ובית המדרש עצמו ואולי נדגיש זאת באופן פשוט וברור שאנו אלו שנמצאים בזמן מלחמה ובזמן מלחמה אסור להיות חלילה ברפיון אלא על כולנו להתגייס למערכה And Rav Druck is describing this particularly about coming to shul, going to shiurim, coming to the beis medrash, learning and davening and saying Tehillim. But he's saying none of us, none of us have the right to say unless just like with the real army, if somebody is eligible for the physical army, I shouldn't say the real army because the spiritual army is also the real army, but if somebody is eligible for the physical army but let's say they go for their what's it called evaluation, assessment, their physical, there's another word, and let's say they're disqualified. There's a physical disability, a mental or emotional disability, so they're exempt. Someone is exempt if being in the army will be hurtful or harmful to them. They're exempt. And I would argue the same thing is true here. And I want to say this with sensitivity because I've received emails from people who have their own mental struggles that if they would indeed engage the pain of what's going on right now they would become debilitated. They mentally, physically don't have the capacity to feel that sadness. If they would engage in a way that would feel that... sadness they would be so debilitated it would be harmful and almost irreparable to them. So just like the physical army there are exemptions, I would say this also spiritually associating, identifying, connecting, feeling in empathy for what's going on also there are exemptions and I want to say that clearly and with sensitivity. But if one does not fit into the exemption, which most do not, then we're all in this army says Rav Druck. Nobody has the luxury of saying I'm not in the army. We are all called up and we're all called upon and we are all reservists and we're all in. Lehis-chazek be-Torah u-ve-Tefillah you hear from Nir Rubin tonight if you listen. Nir Rubin fought in Lebanon and lost friends. He was done, he's out. He's got a wife and beautiful kids and lives on a yishuv and plays incredible music all over Israel. He's done, he put in his time. He lost people. He gave a piece of his soul. But that doesn't work, that exemption doesn't qualify. He was called up and he still has to go in. Chavi and I last night were at the Hatzalah gala and they honored there a retired general whose son was killed on October seventh and in the middle of shiva got up, put on his uniform, aborted and abandoned the shiva to go fight because it was a milchemes mitzvah and he had a contribution to make, a commander, a leader. He put on a uniform in the middle of shiva for his son who died in this war to go fight, to go fight. And the room you can imagine stood and applauded and honored him. These are unimaginable. He didn't do that because he would be in Miami at a gala and get recognition and honor. He didn't do that because someone would write a book about him. He didn't do that so people would notice. He did that because it was desperate times call for desperate measures. He did it because he felt he didn't have a choice and that's the feeling that we have to have about leaning into our Yiddishkeit, our Kol kol Yaakov. Whatever it is, however it expresses itself and it's different for each and every one of us. For some it'll be davening, in others it's learning Torah, in others it's digging deeper to give more tzedakah, in others it's making peace with someone and others it's experiencing more unity and having more space and tolerance and love for Jews who are different than you. It's time to finally let go of those preconceived notions and tension and hatred for the Jew who wears or looks or observes or does different. It's time for you to walk over to them in shul, in the community, in the supermarket and just give them a hug. And they're gonna say what in the world is going on here? Just give them a hug and they say what just happened and just say, you know, I used to think X, Y, or Z about people who look like you, dress like you, I just want to give you a hug because I love you. Brother, sister, only do it if it's the same gender, it's appropriate. Don't go Rabbi Goldberg told me I have to give you a hug, you're gonna find a Chassid in Meah Shearim, you're gonna give him a big hug. Unless he's Neturei Karta, then you can give him a hug too. But don't, don't do that either, I'm joking, don't do that either. But whatever it means for each and every one of us, how can our kol be a kol kol Yaakov? How can our kol be a greater kol Yaakov? How are we going to express a greater voice of our Yiddishkeit? More Jewish pride, more Jewish practice, more Jewish passion, more Jewish any other word you could think of with a P. Kulanu lehisga'es lama'arachah, we are all recruited into this battlefield. כפי שדרשו חז"ל הפסוק הקול קול יעקב והידיים ידי עשו גם על תורה וגם על תפילה. Turn the side. ובאמת שיש לתמוה בדרשת חז"ל. But there's really a question asks Rav Druck on this drashah of Chazal. כל זמן שהקול קול יעקב אין הידיים ידי עשו. Anytime the voice is not the voice of Yaakov, then the hands, אין הידיים ידי עשו. Sorry, anytime the voice is the voice of Yaakov then the hands will not be the hands of Eisav. לכאורה אין זה כמשמעות לשון הפסוק שהרי הפסוק אומר שני דברים הקול קול יעקב והידיים ידי עשו. How did Chazal extrapolate that? How did Chazal learn that? From where did Chazal derive that? The verse, the pasuk seems to say exactly the opposite. Let me remind you of the story because we are now long past it in the parsha, we're up to Vayigash. What happened? Yitzchak is poised to give his son Eisav a berachah. How come Yitzchak doesn't get it, while Rivkah does? That's a topic for another time. But Yitzchak doesn't get it and he favors Eisav and he believes Eisav is the only one who has what it takes. I'll give you a little hint. You know what the answer is? The war of Tash-pah-dad, what you're watching right now. Because Yitzchak knows as the son of Avraham and feels responsible to be the progenitor of the future of a Jewish people and he says who's gonna have what it takes after an October seventh to have the singular focus and commitment against international pressure and the United Nations and even our great friend the United States to do what it takes to go fight and battle and eliminate Hamas and then when you're done with that Hezbollah. Eisav is a shtickel off the derech. I wish he came to shul more. I wish he davened a little bit more. I wish he would learn with me when I ask him to learn. I wish he wore his yarmulke in public. But you know what? My hunter warrior battle son muscular brute Eisav, he's the only one who's going to continue this legacy. And Rivka says, boy are you underestimating our Yaakov. You have no idea. Why? Because he's pale and meek and sits in the beis medrash all day? Boy are you underestimating our Yaakov. And Yitzchak, there's only one way that you're going to realize how much you're underestimating him. And you know how that is? I'm going to orchestrate with him to fool you. And when Yaakov is able to dress up and come before Yitzchak and fool his father and scheme and go Mossad. We're talking we're talking Shin Bet, Mossad, right? Mossad stories are unbelievable. My friend Daniel Katzman gave me a great book about the Mossad. It's the thickest thing if you need a paperweight or a doorstop or you want to actually read it. I think it's called Mossad. I don't remember what it's called. It's an amazing book. Don't read it on Friday night because you won't be able to put it down, you won't sleep. It is just incredible stories of the Mossad's accomplishments and achievements. So what Yaakov does to get the bracha from Yitzchak is like an original Mossad story. Put on a disguise, dress up, learn the accent, the language, the furry hand, go in and walk out with the bracha. Take it away from the enemy, in this case Eisav. And who rises to the occasion and is able to accomplish it and pulls it off and gets it done? None other than the meek, weak yeshiva bachur who his father dismissed him as an incapable and unable. Yaakov pulls it off. Yaakov pulls it off. You can imagine the pillow talk that night. Rivka says, nu Yitzchak, nu, what do you think about Yaakov? He took that bracha from you, you had no idea. Huh? Huh? What do you think? You still think Yaakov can't do it? And I'll tell you, you know who's pulling it off in this war? When we were in Israel two weeks ago, we met with a minister who shared with us, he said the war is not the time to talk about this. He said so I can't talk about it publicly. You don't distinguish between soldiers, all soldiers are the same, we can't talk about it. But as of two weeks ago, he said, 41% of the soldiers who've been killed in combat are the religious soldiers. Because religious soldiers are disproportionately represented in combat units. You don't know that. Google it, you'll see the statistics. The religious soldiers, the Hesder soldiers, the soldiers, meek, weak, pale soldiers who divide their army time between being in the beis medrash for a few years and then going to fight. They're the combat soldiers. They're the most passionate, they're the most driven, they're the most focused on what that cause is. And they're the ones tragically who are falling the most. Again, you'll hear Nir Ruben tonight talk about after his commander died in his arms, how do you go back to continue to fight? And he talks about when you know your why, then you never ask how. When you know your why, you're not bothered by how. And these religious soldiers, they know their why. They know their why of what they're fighting for. They know their why. So Yaakov pulled that off, pulled that off. And when he pulls it off, Yitzchak says, something's something's off here. Why? הקול קול יעקב והידיים ידי עשו. Even with Yaakov, there's a little glitch, he almost didn't pull it off. Why? Because Yitzchak notices, hmm, the voice, something's wrong. The voice sounds like my Yaakov, but the furry hairy hands and the food and the conversation, that's Eisav. So that's how that pasuk is originally communicated. Hakol kol Yaakov, the voice is the voice of Yaakov, but there's an anomaly, yedei yedei Eisav. So asks Rav Druck, how do we go from the pasuk saying the voice is the voice of Yaakov but the hands are the hands of Eisav to when the voice is the voice of Yaakov then the hands can't be the hands of Eisav? Where did Chazal derive that from? That's not what the pasuk says. אם הקול קול יעקב אזי אין הידיים ידי עשו. מאין הקול קול יעקב אזי הידיים ידי עשו? כיצד דרשו חז"ל מן הפסוק דרשה שהיא לא כמשמעות לשון הכתוב? How could our rabbis derive and extrapolate a conclusion that flies in the face and contradicts exactly what the verses are saying? Vehabi'ur bezeh, shall we leave it here? Oh, solve the mystery then. Okay, Elaine wants us to solve the mystery. Vehabi'ur bezeh, שהרי כאשר אמר יצחק פסוק זה, at least we'll start the answer. When Yitzchak said this pasuk, הקול קול יעקב והידיים ידי עשו, amar zos betmi'ah. He said it as a question. He said it as a question. הקול קול יעקב והידיים ידי עשו? Question mark. שלא ייתכן שגם הקול קול יעקב וגם הידיים ידי עשו. The reason he asked it as a question was: it's incompatible. It's inconceivable. It's incongruous. It's impossible. It can't be. It's not compatible. You can't simultaneously have the voice of the voice of Yaakov and yet the hands be the hands of Esav. וכיוון שאמר זאת בתמיהה אם כן מכאן דרשו חז"ל so Hakol kol Yaakov or hayadayim yedei Esav, אין שני הדברים הולכים יחד. It wasn't that Yitzchak was noting an observation: oh, interesting. The voice of Yaakov, but the hands of Esav. No, he wasn't sharing an observation. He was asking a question. Hakol kol Yaakov, hayadayim yedei Esav? Can't be! Incompatible! They don't go together. Doesn't work. So Chazal understood it doesn't work. They don't go together. Which means if we can live with a Hakol kol Yaakov, then we will avoid hayadayim yedei Esav. If we express and manifest and proclaim our Hakol kol Yaakov, our Yiddishkeit, if we go from amateur to pro, from avocation to vocation, from casual to serious, from dispassionate to passionate, then yadayim yedei Esav, then the anti-Semites can't touch us. They will be in fear of us when they see Jews who stick together with unity, when they see Jews who practice proudly, when they see Jews who aren't ashamed and not defensive and unapologetic, then they think twice. That's what I wrote about two weeks ago: Hamas underestimated us, and so did we. That was the lesson that we learned from the generals that we met with on our trip. Hamas saw a country that was being described as on the brink of civil war, secular against religious, right against left, left against right, and they said: attack now, go, go. You know why? They're gonna fall apart. They're gonna blame one another. They're gonna point fingers at one another and they won't be able to come together to fight and respond to us. And boy did they underestimate. And then they underestimated a second time because they said all we need is a ceasefire of a few days and then these wounded people are so wounded they're going to say, you know, this quiet's not so bad, let's just make a permanent ceasefire. They didn't understand. You didn't see one, I didn't see one headline, one opposition, one demonstration, one rally, one group who when they went back to fighting said, no, no, no, in Israel—I'm not talking about whatever outside of Israel—in Israel you didn't find the most left-wing politician, nobody in Israel said, you know, we have peace, it's quiet, let's leave it that way. Ferocious, fierce, ready to go back. Hamas consistently underestimated us and we underestimated us of what it means and how we could come together with unity, with passion, with pride, with commitment, with Jewish practice. There was a video Yocheved shared just yesterday. If you're not on her status, if you want to be connected and inspired by what's going on in Judaism, get on her WhatsApp group and watch her status. She publishes a lot of very, very beautiful and inspiring things. And it was a plugah, it was a unit in the army about to go into Gaza singing Ani Ma'amin. There wasn't like a soldier on the side—like you go to an NCSY Shabbatone, I don't know about today, when I used to go, Simchat Torah at the shul, I'm trying to pull people in, singing, there's always that guy in the—he's too cool, he doesn't connect, he doesn't want to sing, he doesn't want to daven, doesn't do it for me. There's no soldiers on the side: I'm too cool, this isn't for me, I'm not religious, I don't believe in God, I don't want to be in the video. These videos, there's no, but it doesn't exist. It doesn't exist. They're אני מאמין באמונה שלמה. It's unbelievable. Hakol kol Yaakov. Hamas underestimated the Hakol kol Yaakov. But I'm worried and you're worried: is it going to last? Can we keep it? Can we grow it? Can we add to it? Can we bottle it? Can we secure it? And the answer is in us. The answer is in us. הקול קול יעקב אין הידיים ידי עשו. And that's where we'll finish. We'll continue with this piece im yirtzeh Hashem next week. Rav Druck. Hakol kol Yaakov. But that's the question each of us have to answer: what are we doing to find our Hakol kol Yaakov? Where's our Hakol kol Yaakov? Bret Stephens' outline of an October 8th Jew is brilliant and fantastic. We're not contradicting it, but it needs an addendum. The addendum to the October 8th Jew is the Jew finds their Hakol kol Yaakov. Please stay for Tehillim. Motzei Shabbos, don't forget Dr. Erica Brown tonight, Behind the Bima. Im yirtzeh Hashem we should hear besoros tovos.
