Transcript
Okay, good morning, בוקר טוב boker tov, welcome back to Parsha Perspectives. For today, as always, we're very grateful to our generous Parsha series sponsors, Becky and Avi Katz, in memory of Becky's father, ליל נשמת דוד בן מנחם מנש l'il nishmas David ben Menachem Manush, David Grossman. Just update, next week we are not meeting for Parsha Shiur. ברוך השם Baruch Hashem it's our annual fly-in to New York. We go to meet רבנים, רבעס, ועסקנים Rabbonim, Rebbes, and Askanim, community leaders. Very excited to go with our חבר'ה chevra, with our group, and to bring back the inspiration, but it means we'll be on the road and therefore no Parsha Shiur. We resume in two weeks from today. Join the Parsha WhatsApp group for bonus material and updates on the schedule and everything you need to know, you can find it on WhatsApp, rabbiefremgoldberg.org/whatsapp. Page 672 in the Artscroll Stone חומש Chumash. ויאמר השם אל משה אמור אל הכהנים בני אהרן Vayomer Hashem el Moshe emor el hakohanim bnei Aharon. Hashem speaks to Moshe and he tells him, אמור אל הכהנים emor el hakohanim, speak to the כהנים kohanim. These כהנים kohanim are the בני אהרן bnei Aharon, the children of Aaron, ואמרת אליהם v'amarta aleihem and tell them לנפש לא יטמא בעמיו l'nefesh lo yitama b'amav. Be careful, do not contaminate yourself, do not make contact with a dead person, do not become impure. כי אם לשארו הקרוב אליו לאמו ולאביו ולבנו ולבתו ולאחיו Ki im lish'eiro hakorov eilav l'imo u'l'aviv v'livno u'lvito u'l'achiv. Except for a relative, the immediate seven relatives for whom one mourns, namely the mother, the father, the son, the daughter, and the brother. That is who a כהן kohein is allowed to become impure. The funeral they are allowed to attend, otherwise they are prohibited. ולאחותו הבתולה הקרובה אליו אשר לא היתה לאיש לה יטמא U'l'achoso habesulah hakrovah eilav asher lo haysa l'ish lah yitama, and a sister who is not married or doesn't have any children, such a sister, one could contaminate as well. לא יטמא בעל בעמיו להחלו Lo yitama ba'al b'amav l'heichalo. A husband among his people shall not contaminate himself to one who desecrated him.So what is the connection between the beginning of this Parsha and the end of last week's Parsha? Last week's Parsha, we ended קדושים Kedoshim with with the laws of of עריות arayos, with the laws of prohibited relationships and now we begin with כהנים kohanim. What's the connection? Rabbi Soloveitchik in his חומש Chumash deals with it. Says the Rav, while פרשת קדושים Parshas Kedoshim concludes with prohibited sexual relations, פרשת אמור Parshas Emor begins with a discussion of the laws of the כהנים kohanim, whom a כהן kohein is permitted to marry, the blemishes that disqualify a כהן kohein from serving, the laws of impurity which pertains specifically to the כהן kohein. What is the basis of this transition from פרשת קדושים Parshas Kedoshim to פרשת אמור Parshas Emor? Many of the prohibitions of forbidden relationships of עריות arayos were not imposed exclusively on the Jewish people. Even non-Jews, in many of these same areas, even non-Jews are prohibited in many of the same areas by the Noachide laws. At the same at the time of the flood, the earth rebelled against all of mankind as a result of the abrogation of these laws. In other words, the prohibition of עריות arayos is not unique or distinct to the Jewish people. Non-Jews also have boundaries, there are also guidelines, what's appropriate, inappropriate, whom they can have marriage, what relationships should be. Sexual immorality has a metaphysical consequence that other sins lack. The acts themselves defile the land. If acts of impurity are committed and the land is polluted, there's only one remedy: to purify and purge the land. That's why the מבול mabul, the flood came, because people didn't respect boundaries. In fact, it was מידה כנגד מידה midah k'neged midah, it was measure for measure. If people didn't respect and honor boundaries, they didn't respect their friend's wife, they didn't respect gender boundaries, they didn't respect appropriate institutions, definitions, and boundaries, then השם Hashem so to say said, if you want to live in a boundaryless world, let me show you what the world looks like without a boundary, where the water will flood the land, where there are no health and healthy and safe boundaries protecting what's within. If you want to blur boundaries, if you want to get rid of boundaries, I'll show you what a world looks like without boundaries and the flood was the appropriate and correct response, the מידה כנגד מידה midah k'neged midah, for a boundaryless world. And therefore, these laws are not unique or distinct specific to the Jewish people, they apply to non-Jews as well. The Torah begins in בראשית Bereishis with the consequences of violating the universal principles of morality. Hashem explains to the Jewish people that their predecessors were rejected from the land for transgressing these laws. However, the Jewish people were given many more restrictions in this domain. The additional prohibitions imposed on כלל ישראל Klal Yisrael were instituted to reflect the unique sanctity that they possessed. His nation must contain a higher standard than required of mankind as a whole. The details of this heightened standard are enumerated in אחרי מות Acharei Mos, and the punishment are listed in קדושים Kedoshim. Now in אמור Emor, Hashem imparts another message, that even within כלל ישראל Klal Yisrael, there's a group whose restrictions in this regard are more stringent. There are prohibitions that apply to all Jews and those which affect only one sector of the Jewish community. A divorcée, חלוצה chalutzah or זונה zonah are allowed to marry a ישראל Yisrael, yet are prohibited to a כהן kohein. The reason the כהנים kohanim experience so many restrictions in this area, because they have a unique responsibility. They offer up the קרבנות karbanos, the food offerings, they have an added dimension of קדושה kedusha of holiness that results from the performance of the sacrificial service. Why does this added dimension express itself specifically through more עריות arayos prohibitions? In other words, the end of last week's Parsha אחרי מות Acharei Mos and then קדושים Kedoshim, we're all about these boundaries, definitions, relationships, intimacy, morality in these areas. Now the כהנים kohanim have an additional layer of responsibility, more heightened laws of עריות arayos. And wonders Rabbi Soloveitchik, why specifically in this area? Why is the כהן kohein not given added responsibilities in other areas? For example, why is he not required to pray five times a day instead of three? Why doesn't he have more restrictions in the laws of כשרות kashrus instead of just our regular ones? Why not identify other areas where the כהן kohein has more that they have to observe? Writes the Rav, sexual morality is not based solely on the sanctity of Israel, but on human dignity. Human existence depends on these prohibitions. Homosexuality, adultery, violations of other עריות arayos eradicate the barrier that sets man apart from animal. And the very fiber of human existence becomes destroyed. Non-Jews are thus responsible to keep the basic laws of עריות arayos, as well as other restrictions detailed in the seven Noachide laws. In the generation of the flood, the violators desecrated their divine image. Loss of human dignity is tantamount to self-destruction. If we lose our boundaries and definitions, if we if we profane these institutions, we use our very divine image, we lose our human dignity, and it's tantamount to self-destruction. If certain prohibitions are essential for all of humanity, many more are needed to maintain the קדושה של בני ישראל kedusha of Bnei Yisrael. And yet more are necessary to maintain the singular holiness of the כהנים kohanim. The transition from קדושים Kedoshim to אמור Emor tracks the increasing restrictions associated with increased קדושה kedusha. So אחרי מות, קדושים, אמור Acharei Mos, Kedoshim, Emor, we're talking globally, the restrictions and the boundaries that apply to all of humanity, to the Jewish people, then to the כהנים kohanim. The holier one is or the holier one is charged with being, then the greater mindfulness, consciousness, the greater restrictions one has to practice, one has to keep in these very areas. Rabbi Sacks, rather, in the new חומש chumash that I still don't think is out yet, but that we have a early version of, he also addresses this area. And Rabbi Sacks deal said, writes the following. פרשת אמור Parshas Emor deals with two kinds of holiness, of people and of time. The first half of that more is dealing with the כהנים kohanim, the added laws that apply to them. And then we move over, the second half deals with קדושת הזמן kedushas hazman, time, the מועדים moadim, שבת Shabbos, and all the holidays on our Jewish calendar. Says פרק כ\"א Perek Kaf Aleph relates to the holy people, priests and above them the high priest, the כהן גדול kohein gadol. Their close contact with the sanctuary means they must live with certain restrictions and contact with the dead, whom they may marry. Then פרק כ\"ב Perek Kaf Beis recaps similar laws related to ordinary ישראלים Yisraelim when they seek to enter the מקדש Mikdash, as well as defects in animals that bar them from being offered. Then פרק כ\"ג Perek Kaf Gimmel is about holy time, the festivals. כ\"ד Kaf Daled about the מנורה menorah lit daily and the showbread renewed weekly, and ends with a story, one of only two narratives in all of the book of ויקרא Vayikra, about the fate of a man who blasphemes in the course of a fight, which we'll get to, maybe, hopefully, please God. It is this narrative that draws to a close the long משכן Mishkan cycle before we take up the narrative where we left off in שמות Shemos about הר סיני Har Sinai. So that's his introduction to the Parsha and describes, again, that our פרשה אמור Parsha Emor deals with different kinds of holiness of people, כהנים kohanim and then ישראלים Yisraelim and מקדש Mikdash, and then holiness of time, which is the מועדים moadim, the holidays, and what they mean for us. So we begin with the holiness of the כהנים kohanim and he he writes, לנפש לא יטמא l'nefesh lo yitama, no one of you shall render himself impure. A priest may not touch or be under the same roof as a dead body. This whole notion of impurity, we're very unfamiliar, very uncomfortable. If you learn these laws, if you're making your way now through the דף daf, and you're learning all about טומאת מקדש וקדשיו tumas Mikdash v'kodashav, you can't be טמא tamei when you enter, you can't have contact with טמא tamei food, an אב הטומאה, ראשון לטומאה, שני לטומאה av hatumah, rishon l'tumah, sheini l'tumah, they are complicated, detailed, minutia, nuanced laws, who's a primary source of impurity and it can transfer to a secondary, to a a third source, and at what can transfer to whom, and what, and what level, and for how long, and exposure, and contamination, and contagion, very, very, very complicated. But it's not familiar to us because unfortunately, tragically, we don't live with the בית המקדש Beis Hamikdash, and we don't live in with that heightened level of awareness and of purity. The one area where it still is practiced is the כהנים kohanim. A כהן kohein is not allowed to be contaminated. So כהנים kohanim can't go to a cemetery, כהנים kohanim can't go into a hospital if it has a morgue, כהנים kohanim can't serve on the חברה קדישא Chevra Kadisha and do a טהרה tahara, כהנים kohanim can't be under the same roof. Lenny's Pizza is in a strip mall where it's under the same building as a Jewish funeral home. And there's a whole שיילה shailah of how you view is the pizza store detached? It's under the same strip mall, it's under the same building, therefore, can a כהן kohein not enter? Lenny's Pizza has a deal if a כהן kohein pulls up, they'll bring the pizza out to your car so you don't have to come in. I don't know what are the ethics of saying you're a כהן kohein so they bring it out to the car and you don't have to go in. We are ממלכת כהנים mamleches kohanim. So you can you call and say I'm a member of the ממלכת כהנים mamleches kohanim. I'm going to pull in front, please bring the pizza out. It's a good שיילה shailah. It's a good question. So the כהנים kohanim are still warned, that's the beginning of our Parsha. אמור אל הכהנים emor el hakohanim, speak to the כהנים kohanim. Which כהנים kohanim? It applies to גדולים gedolim, those over the age of בר מצוה bar mitzvah and אמור ואמרת emor v'amarta, we'll see it applies to קטנים ketanim, minors as well. Even a baby child כהן kohein male cannot contaminate, defile, cannot go to a cemetery or a funeral. Even a little baby, even maybe a pregnant woman. Believe it or not, there is halachic literature, we've spoken about this in the past, there is halachic literature, must a pregnant woman married to a כהן kohein undergo a sonogram, a big gender reveal to identify what she's carrying to know whether she can go into a hospital or not. Now she's going to have to go into a hospital at the end of nine months, because she has to deliver the baby, that's the safest place to deliver a baby. So, believe it or not, there's halachic literature about that. A wife of a כהן kohein who may be carrying a little baby boy כהן kohein, fetus, can she deliver in a hospital that has a morgue that may have Jewish corpses in it. Halachic literature about all this. And do we trust the sonogram? Is that halachically valid to identify the gender or a blood test, DNA test, what do we use to gain full confidence that we know the gender that then requires the pregnant woman. So a woman who knows she's carrying a boy would not be allowed to enter a cemetery, להזהיר גדולים על הקטנים l'hazhir gedolim al haketanim. It could apply even not only to a minor who is in this world, but even to a minor who is in her uterus. It could apply. To whom does it not apply? Daughters of כהנים kohanim, wives of כהנים kohanim does not apply to women. The prohibition to become contaminated or defiled, to become impure, only applies to men, not to women, and we'll come back to that in a moment as well, but back to Rabbi Sacks for a moment. Because as I was saying, this notion of טומאה tumah is unfamiliar, we don't relate to it, so we think of it as archaic, as arcane, as outdated. Where does it come from? Why is it? They can't be near a corpse. A woman, once a month when she does not realize the potential to become pregnant and instead experiences her period, she becomes so to say, טמאה temeiah, she's impure, she has to go to mikvah. What is this? Where does it come from? So Rabbi Sacks writes, the כהן kohein must remain aloof from close contact with the dead with the exception of a close relative. The law for the high priest is stricter still. He may not allow himself to become ceremonially unclean even for a close relative. To understand these laws and other purity regulations, we first have to return to the concept of holy. Hashem is beyond space and time. Yet, he created space and time as well as physical entities that occupy space and time. Hashem is therefore concealed, he's נעלם ne'elam, in our physical world עולם olam. Yet, if God were completely and permanently hidden from the world, it would be as if he were absent. From a human perspective, there would be no difference between an unknowable God and a non-existent God. Therefore, God established the holy as the point at which the eternal enters time and the infinite enters space. So Hashem is not entirely concealed, he does reveal himself to us, we can access him how? Through the holy. The holy is the intersection, it is the place where the eternal enters time, in the holiness of time, holiday, Shabbos, and the infinite enters space, בית המקדש Beis Hamikdash, the shul, and the like. God's eternity stands in the sharpest possible contrast to our mortality. All that lives will one day die. All that is physical will one day erode and cease to be. Hence, the extreme delicacy and danger of the משכן Mishkan or מקדש Mikdash, the point at which that which is beyond time and space enters time and space. Just as the highly sensitive experiment has to be conducted without the slightest contamination, so the holy space has to be kept free of conditions that bespeak human mortality. So if God is infinite and omnipotent, God is eternal and forever, and the only way we access him is through holiness in time and space, we in contrast to God, in great contradistinction, are mere mortal, we are finite, so we can't have the slightest contamination in the place, in the point at which that which is beyond time and space enters time and space. And where is that? In the מקדש Mikdash, in the holy בית המקדש Beis Hamikdash, or the משכן Mishkan. טומאה Tumah should therefore not be thought of as defilement, as if there were something wrong or sinful. טומאה Tumah is about mortality. Death bespeaks mortality, but so too does birth. A skin disease like צרעת tzaraas makes us vis- vividly aware of the body. There's nothing wrong about any of these things, but they focus our attention on the physical, the mortal, the fragility of life. It is notable that a priest, even a high priest, may perform the rites of a מת מצוה meis mitzvah, one who has no one else to attend his funeral. Here, the basic requirement of human dignity overrides the priestly imperative of purity. So by Sachs defines טומאה tumah not as barbaric, archaic, outdated. טומאה Tumah is the beautiful description of the loss of potential. It is mortality. Death creates טומאה tumah because it's the opposite of eternity, of infinite, of immortality of God. So if God's holiness, we access it, the barrier or obstacle to it is the opposite of it, which is death. And that's why טומאה tumah and מקדש Mikdash can't go together. A טמא tamei, an impure person, can't enter the מקדש Mikdash and so on and so forth. Okay. So that is the introduction. That is the introduction. Now we mentioned it only applies to it only applies to men, not to women, to boys, not to girls. Where do we learn that from? See רש\"י Rashi. See רש\"י Rashi. בני אהרן Bnei Aharon. Writes רש\"י Rashi, ולא בנות אהרן v'lo bnos Aharon. בני Bnei, the sons and not the not the daughters, the sons of Aaron, not the daughters. So sons connotes only male progeny to the exclusion of, it's a מיעוט miut, we exclude and we learn women are not warned. So the daughters and the wives of כהנים kohanim can go to the cemetery, can go to the hospital, not a problem. But later in our Parsha, the Torah is going to tell us, שור או שה אותו ואת בנו לא תשחטו ביום אחד shor o seh oso v'es bno lo sishchatu b'yom echad. One of the laws in our Parsha is an ox or a sheep, you're not allowed to slaughter it and its offspring on the same day. You can't kill the mother and the child on the same day. Why not? Why not? It's cruel. It's unkind. Is that the reason? Do we learn the reasons? But you're not allowed to slaughter them on the same day. Rashi there writes, it is forbidden to slaughter the mother and its son or daughter on the same day. שור או שה אותו Shor o seh oso, it, ואת בנו v'es bno and its, what is the word בנו bno? But there Rashi expands the word בנו bno to mean son or daughter. You can't kill the ox or sheep and its son or daughter. So ask the מהר\"ל Maharal in his גור אריה Gur Aryeh, what happened? Why over here do we learn בני אהרן ולא בנות אהרן bnei Aharon v'lo bnos Aharon, the sons of Aaron, not the daughters. So who has to guard, safeguard against contamination? Only the men, the boys, not the women, the daughters. And yet, later, אותו ואת בנו oso v'es bno, בנו bno means son or daughter. It's inconsistent, it's incongruous. Why aren't we consistent? Asks the מהר\"ל Maharal, that is the question of the מהר\"ל Maharal. So the מהר\"ל Maharal explains that only regarding people is there a meaningful difference between a son and a daughter, each with his specific spiritual inheritance. A male and a female calf are seen equally as progeny of their parents and nothing more. When it comes to an animal, they're not highly differentiated. So when it comes to an animal, children are children, and boy and girl, son and daughter, it's the same. When they the Torah refers to an animal as a son, it simply means offspring, but it includes all genders. But when it uses the term son with humans, it comes to exclude daughters because it is specific, it is specific in that in that case. That is what the מהר\"ל Maharal, that is what the מהר\"ל Maharal says. Rav Shlomo Alter, the Gerer Rosh Yeshiva שליט\"א shlita, expands on this מהר\"ל Maharal. He says a father bequeaths important qualities to his daughter different than a son. So with animals, we just have progeny, children, they're just lumped together. With human beings they're differentiated because a parent has a different role, different responsibility, transmits a different message or legacy to a son and to a daughter. The Gemara in סנהדרין דף ק Sanhedrin daf kuf cites a curious statement. בס להוריה מטמונת שוא, מפתחה לא ישן בלילה Bas l'aveha matmones shav, mipachdasa lo yishan balaila. A daughter to her father is a gift of futility. Out of fear for her, he will not sleep at night. He will not sleep at night. חז\"ל Chazal do not mean to dishearten fathers of daughters. חז\"ל Chazal mean the great responsibility of חינוך chinuch that a man has for a daughter. And what's the חינוך chinuch? The ט\"ז Taz writes the main advantage of a בת תלמיד חכם bas talmid chacham is she observes her father learning, becomes accustomed to his life of Torah, she gains that wisdom, she sees it firsthand, it's what she expects and what she wants to build in her own home. He transmits that יראת שמים yiras shamayim, that awareness, that awe, that fear of שמים shamayim to her. And so, it's incongruous, it's inconsistent how we translate בן ולא בת ben v'lo bas when it comes to humans, not animals, and that's because there is a difference. When it comes to animals, we lump it together. When it comes to humans, it is separated and differentiated. But I want to draw your attention to an earlier רש\"י Rashi. רש\"י Rashi writes, אמור אל הכהנים emor el hakohanim, look at the pasuk again. ויאמר השם אל משה אמור אל הכהנים Vayomer Hashem el Moshe emor el hakohanim, speak to the כהנים kohanim, ואמרת אליהם v'amarta aleihem and tell them. That word אמור emor is repeated, it's redundant. We don't need it twice. אמור ואמרת Emor v'amarta, speak to them and say to them. Well, if you're speaking to them, you said to them. If you say to them, then you're speaking to them. Why do I need it to say it twice? So רש\"י Rashi quotes חז\"ל Chazal in the Gemara in יבמות Yevamos, להזהיר גדולים על הקטנים l'hazhir gedolim al haketanim. That the adults have a responsibility here to shine a light, to illuminate, to inspire the children with this message, with this idea, with this value. אמור ואמרת להזהיר Emor v'amarta l'hazhir, like the לשון זוהר lashon Zohar, like we'll hear on this week, רבי שמעון בר יוחאי, the זוהר Zohar. זוהר Zohar means this great source of light to illuminate, to shine a spotlight. להזהיר גדולים על הקטנים L'hazhir gedolim al haketanim. But the question begs itself, where do you see that from the word ואמרת v'amarta? Rashi and our Rabbis deduced from the word ואמרת v'amarta, it could have just said אמור emor, it doesn't just say אמור emor, it says אמור ואמרת emor v'amarta, you see from the word ואמרת v'amarta that להזהיר גדולים על הקטנים l'hazhir gedolim al haketanim, adults should model, inspire, shine a spotlight, transmit to the children. Where do you see that from the word ואמרת v'amarta? Said Rav Moshe Feinstein, writes Rav Moshe Feinstein in his דרש משה Drash Moshe, כדי לחנך את הבנים והבנות, לא די שיאמרו להם שכך צריך לעשות kedei l'chanech es habanim v'habanos, lo dai sheyomru lahem shekach tzarich la'asos. If you want to motivate and inspire a next generation, it is not enough to say, this is what you have to do. שכן אם לא יראו בעיניהם שזה חשוב וחביב להוריהם, אדרבה, ישמעו שיש להם נסיונות גדולות בקיום המצוות Shekein im lo yir'u b'eineihem shezeh chashuv v'chaviv l'horeihem, adaba, yishme'u sheyesh lahem nisyonos gedolos b'kiyim hamitzvos, the חשיבות של שבת יום טוב chashivus shel Shabbos Yom Tov, רק לאמר שצריך לקיים מצוות זה הם יעשו, מחנך כזה לא יתחנכו הבנים rak lomar shetzarich l'kayem mitzvos zeh heim ya'asu, m'chanech kazeh lo yischanchu habanim. If a parent only instructs a child, do and don't, this is the expectation, these are the rules, these are the laws, but the parent says, you know, it's hard for me, I don't necessarily keep it, I struggle, it's a burden, I resent it, I don't enjoy it. If a parent is only, or a teacher, if educators are just giving do's and don'ts, if you're giving dry laws, if you're communicating with fear, then the child's not going to learn, the child's not going to be inspired, the child's not going to be motivated. יאמרו לעצמם אנחנו לא גיבורים כהוריהם אין לנו יכולת לכפות את יצרינו Yomru l'atzmam anachnu lo giborim k'horeihem ein lanu yecholes lichpos es yitzreinu. You know what, the last generation, my parents, my grandparents, they just did whatever was right, they did whatever they were told, whether it meant something to them or not. But I'm not interested, I don't want to. It doesn't do anything for me, I'm not moved and motivated. רק כשישמעו מהאב שאומר שאין לו שום נסיון בקיום התורה והמצוות Rak k'sheyishme'u meha'av she'omer she'ein lo shum nisayon b'kiyim haTorah v'hamitzvos, היות שזה כל כך יקר וחביב אצלו, שכן הם חיינו ואורך ימינו, רק אז יתחנכו heyos shezeh kol kach yakar v'chaviv eitzlo, shekein heim chayeinu v'orech yameinu, rak az yischanchu. Only when you see that a mother, a father, that a Rebbe or a Morah is not just saying words, only when one witnesses and observes that they're not just communicating do's and don'ts, laws and rules, but this is their life and their lifestyle, this is their life source, this is their joy and their fulfillment and their satisfaction, this is their meaning, this is their purpose, this is their mission. Then the children will say, I want a piece of that too. We spoke about that, we speak about it every year before פסח Pesach. The child who grows up in a home and hears, Pesach, the prices, the cleaning, it's miserable, פארביסן farbissen, I'm resentful, I'm exhausted, I'm tired. But it's not only Pesach. The child who hears the cost of kosher meat, of kosher food, you can't believe it and it's outrageous and I'm not interested and I don't want to pay it. So the child says, well, I'll just not keep kosher. A child who hears the parents say, it's Shabbos, can't believe what I can't watch and where I can't go and what I have to do, and I'm miserable. The child says today's day and age where the world is their oyster and they can do and invited any opportunity they want says, okay. I hate having to go to the דף daf, can't believe how long the rabbi speaks. I wish there were no דרשה drasha. I find a מנין minyan where there's no דבר תורה dvar Torah. Okay, then I guess I won't learn either because if learning is such a burden and learning is so miserable, then I don't want it either. Says Rav Moshe, you know why you have אמור ואמרת emor v'amarta? Because there are two things that need to be communicated. אמור Emor means, here are the rules. ואמרת V'amarta is, and we love them and we live them and we're passionate about them and they inspire and they motivate and they are the source of our very life. אמור emor, ואמרת v'amarta. להזהיר גדולים על הקטנים L'hazhir gedolim al haketanim, where do you see that in the word ואמרת v'amarta? says Rav Moshe, because you need two אמירות amiros, אמור ואמרת emor v'amarta. First, here are the laws of Shabbos. Here's how you separate the good jelly beans from the bad jelly beans, here's how you make a cup of tea on Shabbos, here's how you heat food, it has to be dry, not liquid, previously cooked. Here's how you spoon some challent on Friday night and you can still put it back in the crock pot for Here are all the rules, here are all the regulations. Ready? Here are all the rules. Now, I'm also going to give you the sights and the sounds and the flavors and the love and the living and the lifestyle of Shabbos. Oh, Shabbos. אמור Emor are the rules. ואמרת V'amarta is the joy, is I look forward. Shabbos is the מקור ברכה mekor habracha. We live for Shabbos, the געשמאק של שבת geshmak of Shabbos. We can't wait for Shabbos to start and we never want Shabbos to end. And we live for Shabbos. That's the ואמרת v'amarta. אמור emor, here's your siddur. There's a siddur party. Here's how you say שמע Shma, here's how you say שמונה עשרה Shmoneh Esrei. Here's where you're not allowed to talk, here's where you stand, here's where you sit, here's where you bow on your arm. Here are the אמור emor, these are the rules. ואמרת v'amarta, I want you to see me daven. I don't take out my phone, I don't talk, I don't come late, I don't leave early. You see me with my eyes closed, you see me talking to Hashem like he is my best friend. You see me expressing gratitude, asking what I need. אמור Emor are the rules. ואמרת V'amarta is you watch and you see I'm communicating through my actions that this is my life, this is what I live for, this is my meaning and purpose, this is my mission. אמור ואמרת Emor v'amarta. אמור ואמרת Emor v'amarta, it has to be made up of, it has to be made up of both parts, otherwise, the child won't learn. And that's how you see. Where, again, what was Rav Moshe answering? Where is להזהיר גדולים על הקטנים l'hazhir gedolim al haketanim in the word ואמרת v'amarta? The answer is because two things need to be communicated. אמור ואמרת emor v'amarta, the rules and our attitude, our approach, our joy of them. Rabbi Soloveitchik writes in his הספד hesped for the Tolna Rebbe, and he talks about his own mother and he distinguishes between מוסר אביך ותורת אמך musar avicha v'Toras imecha. He says his father, from whom he learned everything. The רב Rav didn't learn in a ישיבה yeshiva, he didn't go to חיידר cheider. His father pulled him out when the חיידר cheider in חסלביץ Chaslavitch, all he was learning was תניא Tanya and not משניות וגמרא Mishnayos and Gemara. His father pulled him out and taught him at home. His father taught him everything, everything. And he writes elsewhere in Halakhic Man and elsewhere about the מסכתות masechtos he poured over that he learned with his father. But he writes, he said, my father taught me the laws, the rules, the regulations. But without my mother, he writes, I would be a dry, soulless being. She taught me, my father taught me the laws of Shabbos, my mother taught me the holiness of Shabbos, the experience of Shabbos, to be immersed in Shabbos, the smells, the flavors, the feeling of Shabbos. And he writes so descriptive, so beautifully. That's the מוסר אביך musar avicha and the תורת אמך Toras imecha. That's the אמור emor and ואמרת v'amarta. There's rules and regulations, and then there are flavors and aromas and feelings that come that come from it. And those are the two parts, the two parts of it. כ\"א פסוק ו Kaf-Aleph, pasuk vov, skipping down, קדושים יהיו לאלוקיהם ולא יחללו שם אלוקיהם כי את אישי השם לחם אלוקיהם הם מקריבים והיו קודש Kedoshim yihyu l'Eloheihem v'lo yechalelu shem Eloheihem ki es ishei Hashem lechem Eloheihem heim makrivim v'hayu kodesh. Pasuk says, they shall be holy to their God, they shall be not consecrated, not desecrate, fire offering of Hashem, the food for their God, they offer, they must remain holy. Uh, that's not what I wanted to focus on. לאביו ולאמו l'aviv u'l'imo is what I wanted to focus on. לאביו ולאמו l'aviv u'l'imo is in the next pasuk. Sorry, pasuk beis. כי אם לשארו הקרוב אליו לאביו ולאמו Ki im lish'eiro hakorov eilav l'aviv u'l'imo. The תפארת שמשון Tiferes Shimshon from Rav Shimshon from Ostropoli or the תפארת שלמה Tiferes Shlomo from Radomsk says the following. The הלכה halacha is, as we just saw, a כהן kohein is not allowed to attend any funeral except for the immediate relatives, לאביו ולאמו l'aviv u'l'imo. However, the כהן גדול kohein gadol is not allowed to become טמא tamei to even his parents. The כהן גדול kohein gadol can't be can't become טמא tamei even to his parents. In contradistinction to the כהן kohein. The כהן kohein can become טמא tamei, can go to the funeral of his immediate family, but the כהן גדול kohein gadol cannot. It's pasuk yud-aleph, I had the wrong pasuk. על כל נפשות מת לא יבא, לאביו ולאמו לא יטמא Al kol nafshos meis lo yavo, l'aviv u'l'imo lo yitama. The כהן גדול kohein gadol, the high priest, can't even become impure to his own mother and father, he can't attend their funeral. He can stand six feet away, they put the loudspeaker on the outside, but he can't attend their burial. He can't be in the cemetery, he can't attend their funeral. And wonders Rav Shmuel Berenbaum, what's going on? מכיון שהלכות התורה הם דרכי דרכי נועם, חמלה Mei'achar she'ilchos haTorah heim darkei darchei noam, chemlah, ונתיבותיה שלום u'netivoseha shalom. Our Torah is all about pleasantness. כמה סוגיות בש\"ס Kama sugyos b'Shas. So much of our Halacha is informed by the notion of pleasantness, of being reasonable, being normal. And here this seems very extreme and radical, that the Kohen Gadol can't attend the funeral of his own parents. And what happened to the value of כיבוד אב ואם kibbud av v'eim? One of the Ten Commandments, a very high value in the Torah, honoring a mother and father, to give a proper eulogy, to escort them to their burial, to participate in their חסד של אמת chesed shel emes, the final burial. What happened? What's going on? מאורע זה שכהן גדול אין יכול ליטמא לקרוביו, לאביו ולאמו, לאספדם וללוותם? היתכן שיצוה השם מהמקדש לצאת שנראה כמו שפוגם בכבוד אביו ואמו Ha'yitachen she'yitzaveh Hashem mei'hamikdash latzeis she'nireh k'mo she'pogem b'chvod aviv v'imo? They look so righteous and religious, they won't leave the בית מדרש beis medrash. What does that look like? Kohen Gadol so holy, he won't leave the confines of the בית המקדש Beis Hamikdash, even to attend the funeral of his own parents. What happened to מכבדו בחייו ומכבדו במותו mechabdo b'chayav u'mechabdo b'moso? The obligation of kibbud av v'eim applies in the life of one's parents and after their passing. עוד צריכינן, הכהן גדול שהולך לעבוד עבודה בקדש הקדשים ביום הכיפורים, אם יש לפניו מת מצוה, מחוייב ליטמא לו Od tzrichinan, ha'kohen gadol she'holeich la'avod avodah b'kodesh hakodoshim b'Yom haKippurim, im yesh l'fanav meis mitzvah, mechuyav l'tamei lo. The Kohen Gadol on Yom Kippur, on his way to the Holy of Holies, in order to go enter once a year to perform the עבודה avodah of Yom Kippur, if he finds a corpse lying on the side of the road, unidentified, no one to bury it, to that corpse he defiles himself. That burial he does. To the stranger, the stranger on the side of the road, that he can defile himself. But his own mother and father, his אמא ואבא ima v'abba, his טאטע און מאמע tatteh un mammeh, that he can't? Where's the כיבוד אב ואם kibbud av v'eim? What's going on here? Writes Rav Shmuel Berenbaum, יש לומר, דכיבוד אב ואם אכן גדול הוא, אבל מה שהיה זוכה הוא להיות הכהן הגדול, בן שנתעלה לקדושת כהונה גדולה yesh lomar, d'kibbud av v'eim ochen gadol hu, aval mah she'hayah zocheh hu l'hiyos ha'kohen ha'gadol, ben she'nisaleh l'kdushas kehuna gedola. We have to reorient ourselves. We have to have a different perspective. We said there's a conflict here. Honoring his parents dictates he has to go to their funeral. And yet Hashem says his level of holiness and sanctity, his unique role as the high priest, singular among the whole nation, demands he can't defile, he can't contaminate, he can't leave his work in the בית המקדש Beis Hamikdash. What's going on? There's a conflict. Says Rav Shmuel Berenbaum, there's no conflict. The biggest כיבוד אב ואם kibbud av v'eim is to show your parents they raised a Kohen Gadol. To honor parents that they merited to have a son who's the Kohen Gadol, singular in the nation and among the people who is seeking and who's charged with preserving and protecting such a holiness that even for them he's not going to the cemetery, cemetery. שזכה להיות היחיד בכלל ישראל, אשר יוצק עליו שמן המשחה, ומלא את ידו ללבוש את הבגדים, קדושתו גדולה כל כך, שאינו יכול לצאת ממקום המקדש אפילו לטמא לאביו ולאמו, וזהו הכבוד האחרון הגדול שיוצא בעבורם She'zachah l'hiyos ha'yachid b'klal Yisrael, asher yutzak alav shemen ha'mishchah, u'milah es yado lilbosh es ha'begadim, kdushaso gedolah kol kach, she'eino yachol latzeis mi'makom ha'mikdash afilu l'tamei l'aviv u'l'imo, v'zehu ha'kavod ha'achron ha'gadol she'yotzei ba'avuram. So he tells his parents. He says the greatest honor I can show you is that you raised a son who has this distinct and unique and singular role that I can't go to your funeral. שזכו לבן כזה שאינו יכול ללוותם מחמת קדושתו הגדולה She'zachu l'ven kazeh she'eino yachol l'lovosam machmas kdushaso ha'gedolah. The holiness that you raised me and charged me with, the level that you put me on the path towards, the role that I serve, I can't come. I can't attend. And that's not dishonoring you, that's the highest and the ultimate way I could honor, I could honor you. כמו כן מי שיש לו בן שדרכו לשבת עם אביו בכל שבת בבית הכנסת ולישב בצידו K'mo kein, mi she'yesh lo ben she'darko lasheves im aviv b'chol Shabbos b'veis haknesses v'leyashev b'tzido. You have a father whose son sits next to him every Shabbos and shul. And now the son is old enough, it's time to go off to yeshiva, and he's going to stay in the yeshiva for Shabbos and not sit next to his father in shul. So the father says, where's your kibbud av v'eim? How could you not come home for Shabbos to be able to sit next to me? So the son says the greatest kibbud av v'eim I could show you is to stay in yeshiva and continue to grow and to learn. Of course I come home and visit. Of course I communicate and stay in touch. But the bigger kibbud av v'eim is to become the person that you told me I could be. The biggest kibbud av v'eim is to fulfill that dream, that picture that you painted of who I could be, that's the bigger kibbud av v'eim. I think it's a powerful insight, a real partial perspective for today, because sometimes we put, so to say, our own needs or wants ahead of that for our children. But if we reorient and we have a different perspective and we remind ourselves, what are our dreams and ambitions? What are our wishes and wants? What are our hopes for our children? And even if it means in this moment I have to sacrifice somewhat, that is in fact their way of showing honor to me. Just like this Kohen Gadol who's not compromising honoring parents by not attending their funeral, he is demonstrating honor by being the greatest, most prominent, most elevated, holiest son that he can, that he can be. And we have to think that for ourselves as well, how we define, how we define what we want or are looking for in that moment, what we're willing to let them do because we're putting the priority of their becoming their best self ahead of ahead of ourselves. Baruch Hashem I've been zocheh, I have three married children, and I believe that eventually, unless one is going into a whole life of chinuch v'rabbanus, people have to work, and they have to have a plan, absolutely 100%. But I also see the enormous value personally, this is not for now to elaborate on, but if there is the possibility, if a person is blessed to be in a position to help their children spend a few years learning right after they're married to forge the marriage and continue to grow themselves and be on the right path and trajectory to launch their lives, it is not an entitlement and it shouldn't be an expectation. But if a person can enable that luxury, either, I went to Gruss Kollel where the yeshiva itself enables it or parents can, grandparents, whatever the system or people work to be able to do it, they can do it. So one of my children was in year three of the two-year plan. And I was confiding in a dear friend and I said, you know, a little bit what happens, year three of the two-year plan, how long? And he said to me, he said, isn't your biggest dream? He said to me, didn't you daven? Didn't you daven that you would have sons, sons-in-law who would sit and learn and take advantage of that time, they would have a plan and they take responsibility for your daughter and their children and then in life, take care. It's not forever, but that they would, if given the opportunity, use that time diligently. They would learn, they would learn and take advantage of it fully. Didn't you daven for such sons-in-law? And now you're complaining that they want to keep it going? And he totally turned me around and reoriented, not forever and for as long as it's feasible, reasonable, possible, and with responsibility and eye towards a future and a plan of what comes next. But it's really this vort. It's really this vort, that as parents, how do we define the kibbud av v'eim we're asking of them? Is it about what's good for us in that moment? Or can we zoom out that lens of what's our ultimate dream and aspiration and hope, you know, for that child? So their bigger kibbud av v'eim is continuing on that path. With exception, I'm generally on the team of the children who are asking to stay Shana Bet. And I go to visit Israel and Yeshivas and I see them and they say, you know, I'm fighting with my, I'm arguing with my parents, I'm negotiating, trying to come back year two. So I say, you want my help, I'm happy to call your parents. Again, with exceptions, sometimes they shouldn't, they don't belong, going back. But often parents say, well, they need to come back, they gotta start college, they gotta start life, they gotta start this, they got You have all of life to live life. But that child who wants to spend immersed, if they're doing it sincerely and fully and and they're taking advantage and not wasting or squandering that time, the biggest kibbud av v'eim is to become the person that your parent dreamt for you to be. And what a different perspective and how this Kohen Gadol is defining kibbud av v'eim to not go to the parents' funeral is the kibbud av v'eim of the parent because it means that they're the Kohen Gadol. They're the singular person in that place and in that role. Again, this could be a slippery slope and it could be, you know, one could misuse and misapply it. But the principle of it, I think is powerful and very interesting. Perek Kaf Aleph Pasuk Yud Zayin. The Torah here tells us when it comes to these Kohanim, איש מזרעך לדורותם אשר יהיה בו מום, לא יקרב להקריב לחם אלקיו ish mi'zaracha l'dorosam asher yihiyeh vo mum, lo yikrav l'hakriv lechem Elokav. If a Kohen has a mum, they are disqualified, they are ineligible from participating in this role of the Kohanim and they do not serve. And this is very troubling to us. Because we live in a time, we've made enormous progress, in a very positive way, that people who have a mum, people who have what we used to be called a blemish, we'll call it a physical disability or limitation, a physical what's the word I'm looking for? disfigurement, It's a disability means in their ability, but also in their body being not disfigured. Help me out here. What's the word I'm looking for? Imperfect? Yeah, something with the body is disfigured or a blemish, a mum, something that stands out that draws an attention. So the Torah says they're disqualified. We would say the opposite. Encourage them, involve them, create a whole program so that you could be inclusive, inclusivity. Here the Torah is excluding anyone who has a mum, they're excluded. לא יקרב להקריב Lo yikrav l'hakriv. Here we have all these programs of inclusivity, the Torah is excluding. So what's going on? What's going on with this notion of mum? So Rabbi Sacks writes, some forms of physical difference render a priest unfit for service. We might assume this implies that someone who has such a disability is considered less than perfect and thus debarred from high religious office, but the Rambam in his Moreh Nevuchim gives a quite different explanation. It was, he says, a concession to ill-informed sentiment. People wrongly judge an individual by his physical appearance rather than by his true form. Hashem looks to the heart, but people judge by external appearances. Thus the Torah excludes Kohanim with certain disabilities and physical differences to avoid public disrespect. Rambam himself makes it clear the Kohen with a physical disability is pleasing before Hashem. The legislation surrounding the Temple involves the concession to human prejudice. The Rambam's understanding of this set of laws emphasizes what human beings lack in empathy. Yet his idea may be taken in a slightly different direction by applying it to what we learned about tumah. We saw that what unites the various types of ritual impurity is they focus our attention on the physical. Therefore, they're incompatible with the holy space of the Mishkan, which is dedicated to the presence of the non-physical, the eternal infinite that never dies or decays. This well illustrated at the beginning of the book of Iyov. Iyov loses everything, his flock, his herds, his children, yet his faith remains intact. Satan then proposes subjecting Iyov to an even greater trial, covering his body with sores. The logic of this seems absurd. How can a skin disease be a greater trial of faith than losing children? It isn't. But what the book is saying is that when your body is afflicted, it can be hard, even impossible to focus on spirituality. This has nothing to do with the ultimate truth and everything to do with the human mind. You cannot give your mind to meditating on truth when you're hungry or thirsty or homeless or sick. And a skin disease or bodily abnormality in one person tends to prompt in others the thought, this could happen to me. They reminded us of the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to. This is the logic, if logic is the right word, of tumah. It has nothing to do with rationality and everything to do with emotion. That which distracts from eternity and infinity by making us forcibly aware of our own mortality, of the fact that we're physical beings in a physical world, that is what we distance from the operation of holy precincts. Something similar may be said of the appearance of bodily abnormalities in the Tabernacle. So Rabbi Sacks says the reason there could be no tumah connected to Mikdash, Mikdash is about immortality. Tumah is contact with mortality. Mum is a reminder, it draws attention to the body. The Mikdash is all about the spirit and the soul. So it's not God forbid because the person with the disability or the disfigurement is less than, is inferior, it's because they're going to draw a negative attention, a person's going to focus on their body, what is incomplete about it, and that's the opposite of where the focus should be in the Mikdash. Needless to say, however, our attitudes to those with disabilities have changed significantly. The principle of integration, for instance, played a part in a 16th century teshuvah of Rav Aaron Slonik. This is the Masa'os Binyamin. He had been asked whether a blind man may be called to the reading of the Torah. After citing the authorities who rule affirmatively on the question, it's a good question, right? Can a blind man get an aliyah? Why is that a good question? What is the person getting the aliyah supposed to do? Follow the Torah reading inside. In fact, if you learn the Gemara Megillah, really, it used to be everyone who got an aliyah read their own aliyah. What happened? It was embarrassing. Most people are not a baal korei. They didn't know how to read. So over time, we designated a designated baal korei and we just called up the people to get the aliyah, but they're meant to read along inside with the baal korei. So how could a blind man get an aliyah, he can't read inside the Torah? So the Masa'os Binyamin quotes several poskim who came to the conclusion it was permissible, but he himself adds at the end, quote, we must allow the blind to be called to the Torah to utter the brachos in order to include them in the acceptance of Hashem's dominion and to give them spiritual satisfaction. Inclusion of those with disabilities within the faith community was for him a significant halachic factor. If we treat others disrespectfully, we diminish their humanity and thereby our own. This too is part of the halachic heritage. So the Torah here says that the baal mum doesn't serve, but not because we're excluding. We believe in inclusivity as a halachic value. It's a concession to the reality. And the reality is that people stink. Rabbi Sacks says it much more eloquently, but I'll tell it to you the way it is. People are terrible and they stink. And if a person is disfigured, will come up on the bimah and duchen and people will see, they won't be listening to the bracha, they won't be focused on the neshama, it will remind them of the body and the Beis Hamikdash is a place of souls, not of bodies, of immortality, not mortality, of eternity, not of being mere mortals. And therefore the baal mum didn't serve. Perek Kaf Beis Pasuk Lamed Beis. We move over to safeguarding the kedusha of trumah, and blemished animals and desecrating or making a Kiddush Hashem. ולא תחללו את שם קדשי ונקדשתי בתוך בני ישראל V'lo sechallel es shem kodshi v'nikdashti b'soch bnei Yisrael. אני ה' מקדשכם Ani Hashem mekadeshchem. Don't desecrate God's name, sanctify God's name among the Jewish people. I am God who sanctifies you. I am God who sanctifies you. There's a whole discussion, we don't have time for now, but Otzar La Torah, my friend Rabbi Zicherman has a long essay on, unfortunately, a question which has come up again in our time, and that is the question of, if one is about to give their life al Kiddush Hashem, do they make a bracha? We make a bracha every morning, mikadesh es shmo ba'rabbim. Is there a bracha for the mitzvah of dying al Kiddush Hashem? Rav Oshry, the rav of the Kovno Ghetto has a teshuvah in his Teshuvos Mi'ma'amakim, from the depths. Also in the Holocaust, he was asked in the Kovno Ghetto. Those teshuvos Mi'ma'amakim, we learned them in the Erev Shabbos Kollel a few weeks ago, the question of a young man, a boy, who was learning in the makeshift yeshiva in the Kovno Ghetto, climbing over corpses, walking around dead bodies, lost his whole family, somehow still wanted to learn, he turns to the rav of the Kovno Ghetto, Rav Oshry and he says, I cannot imagine dying never having the experience of wearing tefillin, and yet statistically it is unlikely, almost impossible I'll live to my Bar Mitzvah. Can I put on tefillin even though I'm not Bar Mitzvah? That was his question. Can you imagine? That's the question of a young boy who's lost everything and who's living through the Gehinnom in this world. Similarly, someone asked the rav of the Kovno Ghetto, I'm going to go to the gas chamber, we're going to get deported, this is not going to end well, and when it does, do we make a bracha for dying al Kiddush Hashem? And he has a whole essay, a whole teshuvah, do you make a bracha for giving your life al Kiddush Hashem? Otzar Plus a Torah has a long essay on that and other aspects of Kiddush Hashem. And tragically, tragically, tragically, we daven that not only Idan Alexander, that should open the gates for the rest of the hostages to come home, but too many have lost their lives, among them holy Kedoshim of soldiers. And the question has returned yet again, as it's been asked so many times over these 2,000 years, does one make a bracha for this mitzvah? V'nikdashti b'soch Bnei Yisrael, a mitzvah of Kiddush Hashem. Now we think of the mitzvah of Kiddush Hashem to die for Kiddush Hashem. But you know what's an even bigger mitzvah? To live al Kiddush Hashem. It is hard to give one's life, to die al Kiddush Hashem. In some ways, arguably, for some it can be harder to live al Kiddush Hashem. The different conflicts or positions that people are put in to have to live al Kiddush Hashem. Rabbeinu Bachya writes, in terms of this mitzvah of living al Kiddush Hashem, says Rabbeinu Bachya, on this mitzvah, חילול השם חמור מעבודה זרה, מצינו שויתר הקדוש ברוך הוא על עבודה זרה ולא ויתר על חילול השם. Chillul Hashem chamur mei'avodah zarah, matzinu she'vitar HaKadosh Baruch Hu al avodah zarah v'lo vitar al chillul Hashem. Hashem can forgive us even when we cheat on Him, even for acts of infidelity towards Him. Even when we worship another God, God can forgive us. He can overlook it. But chillul Hashem, no. As the Navi Yechezkel says, ועתה בית ישראל לא תחלו עוד את שם קדשי v'attah beis Yisrael lo sechallelu od es shem kodshi. ועל עון זה שאין כח ביום הכיפורים לכפר, לא תשובה לתלות, לא יסורים למרק. V'al avon zeh she'ein ko'ach b'Yom haKippurim l'chaper, lo teshuvah litlos, lo yissurim l'mareik. Yom Kippur doesn't earn forgiveness, our own death doesn't earn forgiveness, nothing can erase and eradicate the impact if you make a chillul Hashem. כל התורה ומצוות מרכז והולך למצינו תקנה לעון חילול השם kol haTorah u'mitzvos merakez v'holeich l'matzinu takanah l'avon chillul Hashem. There's only one answer, one antidote, writes Rabbeinu Bachya. For a person makes a chillul Hashem, what does that mean? If you leave a negative impression, if you didn't say thank you to the checkout person at Publix or CVS, if you didn't leave a proper tip, if you were rude and loud and obnoxious and left a mess in the back of the Uber, if your word is not your bond in business, if the people with whom you do business think you have no integrity, no honesty, if God forbid you land in a headline in the newspaper for cheating in business or being dishonest, if a person makes a chillul Hashem, that Hashem says I have no tolerance, I have no patience and there is no path towards forgiveness. That is irredeemable. That is unrepairable. It is beyond unacceptable and intolerable. Says one thing you can do, Rabbeinu Bachya. מצינו תקנה לעון חילול השם, כשיקדש את השם כנגד מה שחילל Matzinu takanah l'avon chillul Hashem, k'she'yakdesh es Hashem k'neged mah she'chilel. You have to overcompensate. You have to go in the opposite direction. You have to become Mr. Mrs. Kiddush Hashem. If you made a chillul Hashem, the word chalal means a vacuum, a hole, an abscess, an opening. If you created a space in this world where you now knocked God out, for those people, for that HOA, for that committee, for that business, for that Uber driver, you just created a space where there is no God because you, the representative of God, acted ungodly, so now you erased or eradicated God from that space. That's a chillul, a chalal, a chillul Hashem. The only antidote, the only answer, the only thing you can do to improve it is fill that space now with Kiddush Hashem. You better become this incredible engine, this driver, you better become this incredible catalyst of Kiddush Hashem. And by the way, v'nikdashti, where? בתוך בני ישראל B'soch Bnei Yisrael. We tend to mistakenly think that these two options of desecrating God's name or sanctifying it are where? When you're out in the world, at work, with the non-Jews, with the gentiles, when you're going on a school trip to the museum. No, that's not how the Torah formulates it. You know what the Torah says? The primary arena where you will either live a Kiddush Hashem or chillul Hashem is בתוך בני ישראל b'soch Bnei Yisrael. Among your fellow Yidden, your fellow Jews. Affiliated and unaffiliated, observant and non-observant. There's a holy Jew who I love, a friend, a neighbor of mine, who regularly struggles with his relationship of Judaism because of too many Jews he knows. And every time he has a negative experience with the Jew, an observant Jew, and the more observant they are, leaving a bad taste in his mouth for Judaism, the more he struggles with his observance. So I'm constantly telling him, don't judge Judaism by the Jews. Don't judge Judaism by the Jews. I said this last week in the Amuna Shiur. If you caught your trainer at the gym in the corner eating a donut, you wouldn't say, I'm not going to the gym anymore. This whole thing is a joke. You'd say my trainer is also human, maybe he's hypocritical, maybe I need a new trainer, but why would I punish myself and not go to the gym just because I caught my trainer eating a donut in the corner of the gym? So because there are Jews who are not living a proper Judaism, doesn't mean you should give up Judaism. Don't judge Judaism by the Jews. But the bottom line is, so many are, they're watching carefully and closely and they're deciding their attitude, their relationship towards their Yiddishkeit, based on who we are. And the more religious we are, the more responsibility we have. In our business conduct, socially, in the supermarket, the way we run our HOA and HOA meetings, everything we do, honesty and integrity and above board. I had another friend in the community who would ask, does it pass? He loved to call it the Sun Sentinel test. I don't even hear, does it still exist, the Sun Sentinel? Never even hear about it. There's a newspaper in Florida, the Sun Sentinel. It's the local Florida newspaper, the Sun Sentinel. And he would say, Rabbi, I know what you're doing, what the shul is doing, you could explain it, you have an answer for it, you can make sense of it. But what it passed the Sun Sentinel test? If the non-Jewish newspaper made it a story on the headline, what would the world think? Does it pass the Sun Sentinel test? Not could you explain it, could you justify it, could you rationalize it? Would it pass the newspaper test? Yes or no? If it wouldn't, don't do it. Don't do it. V'nikdashti b'soch Bnei Yisrael. So says Rabbeinu Bachya, if a person God forbid makes a chillul Hashem, you didn't hold the door, you didn't leave a tip, you left a mess, you were loud and obnoxious, your honest, you didn't follow through, your word wasn't your bond, you didn't run things above board, you didn't pass the Sun Sentinel test. What's the only way to repair? He says the Sefer HaChinuch quotes the Panim Meiros who says notice, ולא תחללו את שם קדשי ונקדשתי בתוך בני ישראל v'lo sechallel es shem kodshi v'nikdashti b'soch bnei Yisrael. The Kiddush Hashem you have to make is בתוך בני ישראל b'soch bnei Yisrael. You have to get all the Jewish people. It's not enough if you made a chillul Hashem to personally, individually try to overcompensate by making a Kiddush Hashem. What else do you have to do? You have to inspire your fellow Jew. You have to create a big movement called Kiddush Hashem. A big movement. Hashtag, bumper stickers, social media posts, create a big movement where everyone is focused on a Kiddush Hashem, share a picture, share a story, share a moment, inspire others, get everyone to make a Kiddush Hashem. Whenever I fly, domestically or internationally, on a non-Jewish or a Jewish airline, unfortunately, sadly, tragically, because still we have too many of our fellow Jews who on the airplane is a big platform for not following rules. You ever hear the joke which is not funny of the airplane that landed at the end of December? The pilot comes on and he says, for all those still seated, Merry Christmas. For all those standing in the aisles, Happy Hanukkah. It's not a funny joke before they get to the gate. So every time I I try to be overly friendly to every flight attendant, overly friendly, helping people, can I help you put that up? There's always a fight about someone who took too much space, the overhead, because Jews always have seven bags in addition to their check on, they also have food in case the plane is grounded for four days, they have enough food to feed the whole plane, they got to make space for that too. And it's always tuna fish or herring, so the whole plane stinks. So you got to make a big Kiddush Hashem. You're not entitled to go on a plane and put on a baseball cap and pretend you don't know anyone and duck your head and keep it down low. You can't do that. You got to overcompensate for the smell herring. You've got to overcome the tuna fish bagel. You've got to overcompensate for whoever's going to take up too much of their seat, too much of the overspace, or stand up too soon, or sit down too You've got to overcompensate. Overly friendly, overly kind, overly thoughtful, overly courteous, overly obedient of the rules, because that's the only antidote, says Rabbeinu Bachya. For all the chillul Hashem that there is or being created, we have to create Kiddush Hashem. And it has to be a movement. It has to be a mission. We have to be able to be charged and excited and committed and all of us really making it happen. Okay, what else do we have time for? Let's see. ששת ימים. Perek Kaf Gimmel Pasuk Gimmel. And now we move from holiness in people to holiness in time. Perek Kaf Gimmel Pasuk Gimmel. Page 682. The Moadim of Hashem. What does the word moed mean? We translate it as holiday, but it doesn't mean holiday. What does it mean? It means a rendezvous point. A moed. Tisha B'Av is called a moed. Because a moed doesn't mean a holiday, not in the sense of a happy holiday. Tisha B'Av is the saddest day. What is a moed? A moed means an appointed time, a rendezvous point, a point of connection. So אלה הם מועדי, מועדי השם eileh hem mo'adai, mo'adei Hashem, these are the moadim of Hashem. אשר תקראו אותם מקראי קדש, אלה הם אלה הם מועדי asher tikre'u osam mikra'ei kodesh, eileh hem, eileh hem mo'adai. These are the points, the rendezvous points. We're about to list all the Jewish holidays. My friend and mentor, Rabbi Simcha Friedman, allav hashalom, used to love to say, what's the next Jewish holiday? This is a bad week to do it because we just had Pesach Sheini yesterday and Lag Ba'omer Thursday. But aside from Lag Ba'omer, what's the next Jewish holiday? Shabbos. Most would say Shavuos, but it's wrong. Because the Torah introduces these are the Jewish holidays and which is the first Jewish holiday it lists? Shabbos. We're zocheh, we have a Shabbos, we have a holiday every week. It's called Shabbos. You don't have to wait for Shavuos and Succos and Pesach, Chanukah and Purim and Tu B'shvat and Tu B'Av. You have a holiday every week. It's called Shabbos. It's the next Jewish holiday on any week. It's often the next Jewish holiday. And here the Torah formulates it as ששת ימים תעשה מלאכה וביום השביעי שבת שבתון מקרא קדש כל מלאכה לא תעשו שבת היא לה' בכל מושבתיכם sheshes yamim tei'aseh melachah, u'vayom ha'shvi'i Shabbos Shabbason mikra kodesh, kol melachah lo sa'asu, Shabbos hi la'Hashem b'chol moshvoseichem. Don't do your work. It's a Shabbos for Hashem in all of your dwelling places. Why does the Torah first say do six days of work and then on the seventh day Shabbos Shabbason, it is this holy Sabbath, a day of holiness for God, don't do work. Why not do the opposite? Say the seventh day is Shabbos, Shabbos. a, Shabbos, geshmak, gevaldig, amor v'amarta, not just the dos and don'ts, not just the 39 categories of creative labor, but the beauty, the geshmak, the love, the passion. If Shabbos is what's so special, Shabbos is mekor bracha, Shabbos is the payday, start with Shabbos and afterwards say after Shabbos, six days of work. Why does the Torah preface it with sheshes yamim ta'aseh melachah? Says Rav Druk shlita in his Lav haZeh. בדרך כלל יש לדעת כי למדנו מכאן יסוד גדול בענייני חינוך, כאשר באים להגדיר ילד ובפרט הרבה פעמים צריך לעשות כן, בכל מקום אין לומר לו מיד, אסור לעשות כך ואסור כך B'derech klal, yesh lada'as ki lamadnu mikan yesod gadol b'inyanei chinuch, ka'asher ba'im l'hagdir yeled u'bifrat harbei pe'amim tzarich la'asos kein, b'chol makom ein lomar lo miyad, asur la'asos kach v'asur kach. כאשר הילד שומע רק מה שאסור, יקשה עליו ביותר לקבל זאת ka'asher ha'yeled shomei'a rak mah she'asur, yak'sheh alav b'yoser l'kabel zos. When you have to educate a child, train a child, don't start with what's forbidden. אלא יש לתת תחילה לומר מה שמותר לו לעשות Ella, yesh latet techilah lomar mah she'mutar lo la'asos. This is wrong, you can't do this, you can't do this, that's out of bounds, that's off limits. No, no, no and no. Child says what? I didn't sign up for this. I'm not interested in this. Why? But if you start with, this you could do, and this is beautiful and this is gevaldig and this is geshmak and this is great. And now what will enhance all those great things you can do is abstain, refrain, let's avoid those. תוך כדי הדברים להכניס גם את הסייגים והלאווים Toch k'dei ha'dvarim l'hachnis gam es ha'syagim v'halavim. So before you create the boundaries of what's outside the boundary, first start with everything that's in. inside the boundary. First start with everything you could do and everything that's great and everything that's גבֿלדיק gevaldik. לפיכך פתח התורה ואמרה ששת ימים תעשה מלאכה Lefichach pasach haTorah v'amra sheishes yamim ta'aseh melacha. First to a child's child, for six days, you could go on your Nintendo. For six days, you can play on your game. For six days, you can get in the car. For six days, you can go where you want. For six days, the world is open to you. במשך כל ימות השבוע מותר לעשות הכל B'meshech kol yemos hashavua mutar la'asos hakol, you could write, you can erase, and you can plant, and you can plow, and you can bake, and you can cook, and for six days you could do what you want. With other boundaries, but when it comes to these מלאכות melachos, רק ביום השביעי rak b'yom hashvi'i, שבת שבתון לקדוש כל מלאכה לא תעשו Shabbos Shabbason l'kadosh kol melacha lo sa'asu. So first we start with what you can do, and then we tell you what you can't.What's the first מצוה mitzvah in the Torah? Most assume it's פרו ורבו pru u'rvu. It's the obligation go multiply, have many children. Some say it's you can't eat from the עץ הדעת eitz hada'as, that's the first מצוה mitzvah. But it's not. What is the first מצוה mitzvah? I don't mean the first מצוה mitzvah, the first proper מצוה mitzvah of תרי״ג taryag is correct החודש הזה לכם hachodesh hazeh lachem, ראש חודש Rosh Chodesh. What's the first instruction that God gives?Many mistakenly think the first instruction he gives is פרו ורבו pru u'rvu, multiply. Wrong. Some think the first instruction he gives is עץ הדעת eitz hada'as, you can't eat from the עץ הדעת eitz hada'as. Wrong. What's the first instruction he gives? From the whole garden, eat. Go enjoy. Just that עץ הדעת eitz hada'as you can't touch. First thing he says is, this is all for you. From the whole garden, go and eat. He doesn't quote this Rav Druk, but that's essentially what he's saying. השם Hashem doesn't start with, let's begin with something you can't do. He starts and he begins with, here's what you can do. You want to light a fire under a child? You want to get them excited? You want to inspire? You want to draw them in? Don't start with the don'ts. Don't start with the can't. Don't start with the boundaries. Don't start with the off limits. Start with, here's what we can do. Here's what's great. Here's what's going to work. And now what enhances that is to have boundaries around it and therefore what you can't do. So first we begin with six days you work, and then the seventh day, the payday, what makes the six days of work even more meaningful is, תכלית של מעשה בראשית tachlis shel maaseh bereishis is the beauty, the holiness, the הײליגע שבת heilige Shabbos.The other understanding of this is six days work, Rav Moshe has a different answer. He says, you know why it starts with six days of work and then the seventh day of שבת Shabbos? Why doesn't it say, the seventh day of שבת Shabbos, and if you can also make the first day, second day, third day, fourth day, fifth day, sixth day also like שבת Shabbos, don't work those days either? Why isn't the תורה Torah tell us that? If you like שבת Shabbos, if you like rest one day, well the more so you should love rest the other six days also, right? Wrong. Because in Judaism, in תורה Torah, work is not a concession, work is a value. ששת ימים תעשה מלאכה Sheishes yamim ta'aseh melacha. This is related to my כולל kollel comment. Learn, grow, take that time, and then ששת ימים תעשה מלאכתך sheishes yamim ta'aseh melachtecha. For six days, work is a value. Conquer the world, contribute to the world, participate in the world, improve the world, repair the world, make the world operate with whatever profession you will choose. But work is not a concession we have to, I wish we didn't, try to get out of it. Work is a value. And here the תורה Torah articulates and communicates that value, ששת ימים תעשה מלאכתך sheishes yamim ta'aseh melachtecha, six days, add to the world through work. And then the seventh day you get שבת Shabbos. Then the seventh day is שבת Shabbos. That's another explanation of why we started with six days. Have a holy ל״ג בעומר Lag BaOmer. We have a ל״ג בעומר Lag BaOmer program here on Thursday night. We should hear you בשורות טובות besoros tovos. It should be a day of ישועות ונחמות yeshuos v'nechamos. Please remain for ספר תהילים sefer Tehillim. If everyone takes a booklet, we could finish it all in just a few minutes.
