Transcript
Good morning, everyone. I want to thank our sponsors this morning. Our Parsha shiur this morning is sponsored by Harriet, I guess only known by Harriet, in memory of her beloved parents, חיה חנה הינדא Chaya Chana Hinda and צבי אריה Tzvi Aryeh, whose נשמות nishamos should have an עליה aliyah.Okay. Great to be back together after a couple weeks off and to pick up with פרשת משפטים Parshas Mishpatim. We'll do our usual overview of the parsha, then we'll delve into a specific section. Class will be a little bit abbreviated this morning because I have to run out to an event. But we'll see how far as we get.Mishpatim begins, not with Mishpatim. The parsha should actually not be known as פרשת משפטים Parshas Mishpatim. What should it be known as? פרשת Parshas ואלה המשפטים V'eileh hamishpatim. The ו vav at the beginning of our פרשה parsha is very significant. ואלה המשפטים אשר תשים לפניהם V'eileh hamishpatim asher tasim lifneihem. And these are the laws that Moshe is to place before the Jewish people. Why is that ו vav significant? It's known as a ו החיבור vav hachibur. It is a uniting, a linking ו vav. What is it linking? Our parsha with last week's parsha. The opening Rashi, כל מקום שנאמר אלה פסל את הראשונים Kol makom shene'emar eileh pasal es harishonim. If you begin a sentence by saying אלה eileh, these, so what you're saying is these supplant, these replace those. What I'm telling you now supersedes what I told you yesterday. Whatever is the most recent is the most, has the most authority. Like in learning, you say הלכה כבתראי halacha k'basrai, the latter opinion who was familiar and aware of all the earlier ones is more authoritative. But says Rashi, here it doesn't say אלה המשפטים eileh hamishpatim, these, in an effort to replace the earlier ones. What does it say? ואלה V'eileh. מוסיף על הראשונים Mosif al harishonim. The ו vav, the ו החיבור vav hachibur that's uniting, that's connecting to what comes earlier is telling us that what I'm about to tell you now is not at the expense of, it's not replacing what I told you earlier, I'm adding to what I told you earlier. What did, what are we adding? Says Rashi, מה הראשונים מסיני אף אלו מסיני Mah harishonim mi'Sinai af eilu mi'Sinai. Just as the first, what were the first? What's it talking about the first? The עשרת הדברות Aseres Hadibros. Just as the Ten Commandments, the Decalogue, God spoke directly, it came directly from the Almighty, so too everything this parsha that is filled with a litany of mitzvos, they too come from Sinai. Ah, you didn't hear them all. The next 633, you got to take God, you got to take Moshe's word for it. Only you heard 10, and even out of the 10, you didn't hear them all from Hashem, only the first two. But still, just as those were from Sinai, they were a moment of great revelation, there's no doubt that they come from the Hashem. So too, everything in our parsha comes from Hashem. And then Rashi tells us secondly, another למה נסמכה פרשת דינין לפרשת מזבח, לומר לך שתשים סנהדרין אצל המקדש Lama nismicha parshas dinin l'parshas mizbeach, lomar l'cha shetasim Sanhedrin eitzel hamikdash. Fine. This to me is one of the most important Rashis in the whole Torah. And why is it one of the most important Rashis in the whole Torah? Because what it's telling us is the following, that the devil, in this case, not the devil, I guess the angel, is in the details. Parshas Yisro has the seminal event, the greatest moment of revelation that changed the course of history and that fulfilled the very purpose and meaning of this world. The תורה הקדושה Torah ha'kedosha, the sacred Torah, the blueprint for creation that God gave us, access and insight to his diary. And Har Sinai was all about the שלושת ימי הגבלה shloshes yemei hagbalah, the three behaviors we did in order to anticipate and to get ready and to prepare, to elevate ourselves and to transcend that which brings us down. And then we stood at Sinai, that moment of great revelation. וכל העם רואים את הקולות V'chol ha'am roim es hakolos. We saw the sounds. That's last week's parsha. We saw the sounds. There's a name when a person's senses get confused. Synesthesia, I think it's called. There's a diagnosis when one's senses are confused. Is that what happened to the Jewish people at Har Sinai? So we've learned in the past, no, it's even more than that. The אבן עזרא Ibn Ezra says, you know, it's like a hologram, the words were displayed in the air. If you think Disney today is impressive, להבדיל l'havdil, it had nothing on Har Sinai. Har Sinai, the words that Hashem was saying in a hologram were displayed in the air. וכל העם רואים את הקולות V'chol ha'am roim es hakolos. But even more than that, וכל העם רואים את הקולות v'chol ha'am roim es hakolos means that when we heard the words, we could picture them being lived. It was so vivid, the portrayal of a value system was so rich and so meaningful that we could picture it for ourselves, our children, our grandchildren. We saw what it means to live a Torah observant Jewish life. Har Sinai was the pinnacle of spirituality. However you define that word spirituality. So what would you think would come next? What comes after Har Sinai? Spirituality, thunder and lightning, the light and sound show, seeing the vivid portrayal, this magnificent transcendent, transformative experience. The Jewish people were united in an unprecedented way. Ever since then, we've been trying to claw back to that sense of unity. כי איש אחד בלב אחד K'ish echad b'lev echad. And what would come next? I'll tell you what I would never think would come next. Civil law, tort law, criminal law, the laws of damages, the laws of lending, the laws of borrowing, the laws of servitude, the laws of… I would not think that you'd open up this dry and this law book, civil, criminal, tort law. ואלה המשפטים V'eileh hamishpatim. This is the essence of Judaism. That spirituality is not, spirituality also is in meditation, in music, in art, in an incredible, magnificent view, in science. Spirituality comes in all kinds of forms, it touches people in all kinds of ways. But the ultimate spirituality is living a הלכתית halachic life. Spirituality is found in the mundane, in ethical, moral, honest life of integrity, in interpersonal relationships, paying our workers on time, offering a loan to the needy, somebody is crumbling under the weight of their burden, helping them stand up, their animals stand up. All these laws, these aren't, come on, leave me alone. I'm trying to engage in spirituality. I'm trying to meditate. What are you making me focus on that? That is the expression of spirituality. And like I say to me, that ו vav, ואלה המשפטים V'eileh hamishpatim, the realization, the fulfillment of the blueprint for life is of course in all these other ways in which we can feel spiritually moved, but never at the expense of, never in lieu of the details, the minutia of the הלכה halacha, the guidelines that that regulate an honest and a meaningful life of integrity, interpersonally, is what פרשת משפטים Parshas Mishpatim is. So, in some ways Mishpatim is really anti-climactic after Yisro. The ו vav is telling us, no, it's not. It is exactly the continuation. Just as those came from Har Sinai, מה הראשונים מסיני mah harishonim mi'Sinai, just as you heard standing at the base of the mountain with light and sound and you were transformed. And the מדרש Midrash tells us every illness was healed. The person with a cataract could see and the person with the hearing aid could hear without it, and the person with a limp could walk without a walker. On Har Sinai, the environment, the condition was so perfect that it healed instantaneously all in attendance. It was the ultimate where the נשמה neshama was on fire and the גוף guf, the body was not held back. The body was not compromised. So just מה הראשונים מסיני mah harishonim mi'Sinai, just like that experience really captures what Sinai is about, so to אף אלו מסיני af eilu mi'Sinai. Don't think when you get to the details of Mishpatim, eh, these are annoying, these are a distraction, these are dry, these are man-made, these are insignificant. No, this is the very expression guiding how we live our lives in the world. So, flying through these very quickly, we have the law of a person who was sold into slavery in order to pay back a debt, the עבד עברי eved ivri. And if they want to stay, what they have to do, they pierce the ear. Why they pierce the ear? We've discussed this in the past as well. I'll leave it for you as a question this year. Why do we pierce the ear of the person who after six years wants to remain with their master? Why? Because מה אוזן זו mah ozen zu, this ear, ששמעה על הר סיני לא תגנוב she'shama al Har Sinai lo tignov, that heard at Har Sinai, don't steal. He went ahead and stole. Or alternatively, this ear that heard, עבדי הם avadai hem, that we are to be servants to God, ולא עבדים לעבדים v'lo avadim la'avadim, and not servants to God's servants, and yet they elect to stay and remain a servant to God's servants. So let me ask you a very simple question. If that's the reason why it's in the ear, because the very ear that heard at Har Sinai, that's why we pierce the ear, not the eyebrow, not the nose, not the cheek, not wherever else people are piercing these days, the tongue. So why the ear? So let me ask you a very simple question. When did the person violate both of those principles? Either they stole or they agreed to serve man? When did that happen? Only now after six years when they want to stay? That happened six years ago, when they first stole, when they were found guilty and the way that they wanted to make retribution was to sell themself into slavery. So why don't they pierce their ear at the beginning of the process? Why do we only pierce their ear six years in when they choose to stay? Given the reasons that are provided, those reasons are more compelling earlier on. So why do we wait? I'll let you think about that question. The Parsha then goes on and tells us the הלכות halachos of killing of a slave, what happens with bodily injury, עין תחת עין שן תחת שן יד תחת יד רגל תחת רגל ayin tachas ayin, shein tachas shein, yad tachas yad, regel tachas regel. עין תחת עין Ayin tachas ayin. So the, the Torah here is telling us what happens if you hurt somebody else, that you don't actually remove that limb, you pay them. The רמב\"ם Rambam has a very interesting language when the Rambam codifies this הלכה halacha, the רמב\"ם Rambam says, I read you the language of the רמב\"ם Rambam. He gives a testimony. The Rambam says, The רמב\"ם Rambam writes, our fathers witnessed and ruled that an eye for an eye means money. What do you mean our rabbis witnessed and ruled? Not to take an eye for an eye literally, but it means you compensate the value of the loss of that eye. Why does the רמב\"ם Rambam say they witnessed and ruled? So Rav Soloveitchik says the added word witness lends a specific interpretation, a specific veracity. For most of the pesukim in the Torah, one is allowed to pose, posit various interpretations, some more in consonance with the simple text and others less so. But in this case, if one interprets an eye for an eye literally, you are מגלה פנים בתורה שלא כהלכה megaleh panim baTorah shelo k'halacha. You're revealing perspectives in Torah which contradict הלכה halacha. So there are certain verses in the Torah that after many generations have been uniformly interpreted in a specific way and there's no other interpretation possible. So even though when it comes to the most pesukim, we have four levels of interpretation, פרד\"ס pardes, פשט, רמז, דרש, סוד pshat, remez, drash, sod, but when it comes to this פסוק pasuk, what the רמב\"ם Rambam is codifying by saying our fathers witnessed and ruled is that the words may say eye for eye, when you translate עין תחת עין ayin tachas ayin, you don't translate it as eye for eye. But what it literally means is the value of an eye for the value of an eye. Some pesukim don't lend themselves to interpretation. Our מסורה mesorah tells us that there's only one way. He gives a second example, the רב Rav. We all universally take the same ד' מינים daled minim on סוכות Sukkos. A לולב lulav, הדסים hadassim, ערבות aravos, and which citrus fruit do we take? An אתרוג esrog. Of course, we take the esrog, because the pasuk says to take an esrog, right? Wrong. Nowhere in the Torah does it use the word esrog, says to take an esrog. What does it say? פרי עץ הדר Pri eitz hadar. Take a beautiful citrus fruit. How many species of citrus fruit are there? I don't have a faintest clue, but I'm sure many. More than one. Lemon, orange, grapefruit, and many, many, many others. The רמב\"ם Rambam writes, the fact that Jews universally in all times and in all places all take the same fruit is testimony to the power of the תורה שבעל פה Torah Sheb'al Peh, to the truth of the תורה שבעל פה Torah Sheb'al Peh, to the authenticity of the transmission of the תורה שבעל פה Torah Sheb'al Peh. So the רב Rav says that's a second example. Pasuk says פרי עץ הדר pri eitz hadar. How do you translate the words פרי עץ הדר pri eitz hadar? Translate it for me in one word. אתרוג Esrog. That's the translation of the words פרי עץ הדר pri eitz hadar. Certain verses don't lend themselves to interpretation, but through the generations our rabbis transmitted what are the interpretations we're supposed to have. What happens if an animal gores another animal? Here we have the אבות נזיקין avos nezikan, a pit, you have an open pit, somebody falls in, animal damaging property. Then we have laws of שומרים shomrim, the four kinds of שומרים shomrim. If you borrow, if you are paid to watch, if you watch for free, or if you rent. The four categories, and the liability that you have is proportional to what you put into that guardianship, to what you had to do. We have then the laws of the helpless and abandoned. כל אלמנה ויתום לא תענון Kol almana v'yasom lo s'anun. I mentioned every year the חזקוני Chizkuni points out, all of the mitzvos in our parsha are בלשון יחיד b'lashon yachid, are given in the singular, with the exception of this. Don't aggravate a widow or orphan. And God says, if you do, I'm going to make your wife a widow and your children orphans, so that they'll understand. That's how harsh, pretty strong language for God. But God is communicating how harshly he will treat us if we are insensitive to those who are vulnerable. And this pasuk is not written in the singular, says the Chizkuni, it's written in the plural. Why? Unlike all the other mitzvos in our parsha. To tell us that a community is judged by how they treat the vulnerable. And that even if you are not the one who specifically aggravates the vulnerable, if you didn't intercede and step up, if you didn't protest, then you are accountable. Tonight in our Moments that Mattered, incredible course that we've been doing this year. Tonight we'll be talking about the history of the Soviet Jewry movement, which is really fascinating. It really deserves five years, not one night for an hour, to cover it in depth. But it's really interesting because according to many historians, the groundswell which really began grassroots of the Soviet Jewry movement came from a sense of guilt, slash anger, slash a feeling of impotence from American Jewry's inability to intercede during the Holocaust. And that they weren't going to do that again. And this provided the platform and opportunity to make a תיקון tikkun, to whatever degree a tikkun could be made, a repair, to have a second chance and to do it differently. Or maybe not to do it differently, to do it more effectively and to not be satisfied until a difference was made. And it was not agreed. How many people in this room went to Soviet Jewry protests? How many were December 6th, 1987 in Washington? Right? An enormous amount. Now, it wasn't agreed by everybody. It was not agreed by everybody that demonstrations were the right way to go. That's what we're going to talk about tonight. The ליובאוויטשער רבי Lubavitcher Rebbe, רבי טייץ Rabbi Teitz and others were opposed, many were for. The who's who of the Jewish leadership of today in terms of the people we think of of activism and so on, all got their start as students or young people during the Soviet Jewry movement. Anyway, I don't want to give away the whole class. We'll talk about it tonight. It is really a fascinating subject and a lot to learn from even, even to today. But people watched a population, our brothers and sisters under the Iron Curtain, and said, we're not going to sit idly by while they suffer. That's כל אלמנה ויתום לא תענון Kol almana v'yasom lo s'anun. The חזקוני Chizkuni says, it's not enough. Now, we weren't the Soviets, we weren't the ones who are who are persecuting them, but the חזקוני Chizkuni says it's not enough to not persecute, if you fail to intercede, you too are liable. And that's why it's written in the plural, לשון רבים lashon rabim, and the entire community is judged in that fashion. We have the laws of lending money. We have the laws of how we treat leadership, not to curse them out. The laws of אחרי רבים להטות acharei rabim l'hatos, how we come to conclusions, we follow the majority, the judicial process, שמיטה shmitta, and the parsha then has the שלש רגלים shalosh regalim, and then we get to the end of the parsha, which is what we're going to study together right now, of נעשה ונשמע naaseh v'nishma. Okay. So let's go. We're on פרק כ\"ד פסוק א Perek Kaf-Daled Pasuk Aleph. Chapter 24, verse one, page 440 in the Artscroll Stone Chumash. Okay. ואל משה אמר עלה אל השם אתה ואהרן נדב ואביהוא ושבעים מזקני ישראל והשתחויתם מרחוק V'el Moshe amar aleh el Hashem atah v'Aharon Nadav v'Avihu v'shivim mi'ziknei Yisrael v'hishtachavisem mei'rachok. Moshe is told to go up to Hashem, Aaron, Nadav and Avihu, the זקנים zikneim, and that they should bow down from a distance. Everyone else was obligated to stop from a distance. וניגש משה לבדו אל השם והם לא יגשו V'nigash Moshe l'vado el Hashem v'hem lo yigashu. Only Moshe had a license. Only Moshe was invited to continue forward, but the others could not approach the bench. והעם לא יעלו עמו V'ha'am lo ya'alu imo, and the nation. So you have the nation in the distance, you have Aaron, Nadav, and Avihu and the 70 זקני ישראל ziknei Yisrael a little bit closer, but going all the way is Moshe. ויבוא משה ויספר לעם את כל דברי השם ואת כל המשפטים ויען כל העם קול אחד ויאמרו כל הדברים אשר דיבר השם נעשה Vayavo Moshe vayisaper la'am es kol divrei Hashem v'es kol hamishpatim vaya'an kol ha'am kol echad vayomru kol hadevarim asher diber Hashem na'aseh. Moshe approaches, he tells the people all that God had said and the laws, the people answer with one voice and they say, we're in. נעשה Na'aseh. We will do. ויכתוב משה את כל דברי השם וישכם בבוקר Vayichtov Moshe es kol divrei Hashem vayashkem baboker. Moshe wrote all the word of God. He woke up in the morning. ויבן מזבח תחת ההר ושתים עשרה מצבה לשנים עשר שבטי ישראל Vayiven mizbeach tachas hahar ushteim esrei matzeiva lishneim asar shivtei Yisrael. And he built a מזבח mizbeach at the foot of the mountain and there were 12 מצבה matzeiva, pillars corresponding with the 12 tribes. וישלח את נערי בני ישראל ויעלו עולות Vayishlach es na'arei Bnei Yisrael vaya'alu olos. He then sent the young people. Who are the young people? Bnos Yisrael, Bnei Akiva, Bnos, Agudah, whatever group it was, all the groups, all the above. And he then sent, who are the young people? We'll get to this. And they offered עולות olos. ויזבחו זבחים שלמים להשם פרים Vayizbechu zvachim shlamim l'Hashem parim. ויקח משה חצי הדם וישם באגנות. So what happened? They bring this, they bring this sacrifice. And Moshe now gathers the blood. That's normal. Sacrifices require four stages in the process. And it includes gathering blood is one of them. But what happens next is really unusual. And thank God did not happen often. ויקח משה חצי הדם וישם באגנות וחצי הדם זרק על המזבח Vayikach Moshe chatzi hadam vayasem ba'aganos v'chatzi hadam zarak al hamizbeach. Moshe took half the blood, he put it in basins, and half the blood he put on the altar. ויקח ספר הברית ויקרא באזני העם Vayikach sefer habris vayikra b'oznei ha'am. And then he took the book of the covenant. What's in this book of the covenant? What book? Hertz? Artscroll? Koren? He took the book and he read it in the ears of the people, ויאמרו כל אשר דיבר השם vayomru kol asher diber Hashem. And now they respond again. And this time, they don't just say נעשה na'aseh. Now they respond to it and say, נעשה ונשמע na'aseh v'nishma. Everyone assumes this phrase is in last week's parsha. That נעשה ונשמע na'aseh v'nishma was at matan Torah. But na'aseh v'nishma is not last week's parsha, it's this week's parsha. ויקח משה את הדם Vayikach Moshe es hadam, he took the blood. And what does he do with the other half of the blood? ויזרק על העם Vayizrok al ha'am. He throws it on the people. ויאמר הנה דם הברית אשר כרת השם עמכם על כל הדברים האלה Vayomer hinei dam habris asher karas Hashem imachem al kol hadevarim ha'eileh. This consecrates the covenant with God sealed with you concerning all these matters. ויעל משה ואהרן נדב ואביהוא ושבעים מזקני ישראל Vaya'al Moshe v'Aharon Nadav v'Avihu v'shivim m'ziknei Yisrael. Moshe rejoins them and they go up. ויראו את אלקי ישראל Vayir'u es Elokei Yisrael. And they see an image of God. Right? So this is still part of, we'll have to see momentarily chronologically where this fits in. They see some image of God. And what do they see in this image of God? ותחת רגליו כמעשה לבנת הספיר וכעצם השמים לטהר V'sachas raglav k'maaseh livnas hasapir u'ch'etzem hashamayim latohar. Under his feet, they saw like brickwork of a of a precious stone, and it was like the essence of heaven, that's how pure לטהר latohar. ואל אצילי בני ישראל לא שלח ידו V'el atzilei Bnei Yisrael lo shalach yado. Against the great men of the Jewish people, God did not stretch out his hand. ויחזו את האלקים Vayechazu es ha'Elokim. They saw God. ויאכלו וישתו Vayochlu vayishtu. And what did they do? What do Jews do? They ate and they drank. They had a moment of great divine revelation. They saw God. They felt spirituality. You had a good Rosh Hashanah davening, go home and have lunch. ויאכלו וישתו Vayochlu vayishtu. You finished a מסכתא masechta of Gemara, you learned well. What do you do? Barbecue. You make a סיום siyum. Some Chinese food. ויאכלו וישתו Vayochlu vayishtu. Of course, that this is the מדרש makor for, and I'm saying this only half jokingly, but the מקור makor for the fact that we concretize a spiritual experience by, by eating, by eating. Okay. What's going on in this section? Of course, the first question that begs itself about this section is, when did this happen? When is this whole approaching the mountain? Moshe goes further, the other stay behind. Moshe gets something from God, he comes back, gives it to the people, they answer נעשה ונשמע na'aseh v'nishma. Then Aaron, Nadav, Avihu, the זקנים zikneim see this incredible image. When was all this happening? When did it all happen? So Rashi tells us, פרשה זו נאמרה קודם עשרת הדברות בד' בסיון נאמר לו עלה Parsha zu ne'emra kodem aseres hadibros b'daled b'Sivan ne'emar lo aleh. אין מוקדם ומאוחר בתורה Ein mukdam u'meuchar baTorah. This is the classic debate. Is the Torah written chronologically? Is the Torah written thematically? Is it in order? Rashi says the Torah is written in order. So when does this happen? I'm sorry, it's written out of order. It's written thematically. So when did this event actually occur? Before Har Sinai. God calls him, there's experience, and so on. That's the opinion of Rashi. The Ramban disagrees. The Ramban disagrees. He quotes Rashi, and all the meforshim disagree. If you look at the Or Hachaim, he summarizes it. I'm just going quickly because we don't have that much time. The אור החיים Or Hachaim says, משמעות הכתובים היא כי פרשה זו במקומה נאמרה אחר מתן תורה Mashma'us haksuvim hi ki parsha zu b'mekoma ne'emra achar matan Torah. If you're just looking at the text, where does this section appear? After the giving of the Torah. ואין להרחיב בדברים להוכיח ולעיד את הדבר, וכן ראיתי להרב אברהם ן' עזרא, הרשב\"א והרמב\"ן, יחדו היו תמים בדעת זו V'ein l'harchiv b'dvarim l'hochiach v'l'id es hadavar, v'chein ra'isi l'Rav Avraham Ibn Ezra, haRashba v'haRamban, yachdav hayu tmimim b'da'as zu. Everyone was complete in this opinion. The Ibn Ezra, the Rashba, the Ramban, the Or Hachaim, he says it appears here because it happened here. It happened after Har Sinai, that they concretized, they memorialized the covenant that was just entered into through this episode of the sprinkling of the blood, through the recommitment and affirmation of נעשה ונשמע na'aseh v'nishma, this image, this vision, and then they drank all of this happens as the Or Hachaim, after Har Sinai, not before. But Rashi insists that all of this was before Har Sinai. In the Rav points out, the Gemara in Kritus suggests that the laws of Jewish conversion are derived from this narrative. So the laws that we have of conversion of קבלת המצוות kabbalas ha'mitzvos, מילה milah, טבילה tvila, that you have to have a bris, that you have to go into the mikvah, that you have to accept the Torah, come from this section. Moshe converted the Jewish people at Sinai, even though they were children of Avram, they all required conversion, because whenever new mitzvos are introduced, the higher level of sanctity of the Jew who accepted them obligates a new conversion. So we shared about this before too, there's a terrible misconception, which is that Abraham was Jewish. The משנה למלך Mishneh l'Melech in his Parshas Drachim writes, Abraham is the first עברי Ivri. He's the father of our people. Certainly we derive our value of ethical monotheism, of kindness. Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov, but by definition, they couldn't be Jewish. Because what does it mean to be Jewish? קדושת ישראל Kedushas Yisrael, the sanctity of a Jew stems from what? Being obligated in mitzvos. So before Matan Torah, before Har Sinai, you couldn't be a Jew. You could be a Hebrew, but you couldn't be a Jew. Being a Jew is only after Har Sinai. So we, the nation of Hebrews, became a nation of Jews. And how did we become that nation? How did that transition, transformation happen? Through, how it always happens, which is conversion. We converted. Lest anyone, I mean the Torah goes out of its way many, many, many times to say that one is not allowed to mistreat or have prejudice to a convert, God forbid, but lest anyone still be inclined to have prejudice to a convert, know that you're a convert. Right? If you're going to accurately when the shul membership application says is there any conversion in your family, really every single member should be checking off yes. When? My ancestors at Har Sinai. They converted. So, not to throw Matthew and Chani into a tailspin. I don't mean that literally, but really we are all converts. We all converted at Har Sinai. And every subsequent time more mitzvos were added, a new conversion needs to take place because the קדושת ישראל kedushas Yisrael was expanded. The sanctity of what it means to be Jewish was enlarged. So the Rav writes, therefore, as the entire Torah was accepted at Har Sinai, they had to undergo conversion. The Ramban indicates that the Jews had undergone an earlier conversion in Egypt, the circumcision and immersion happened there, because they had just received the obligation of bringing the קרבן פסח Korban Pesach. You can't bring the Korban Pesach if you're an ערל arel, you needed a bris, and you needed to be Jewish, but because the remainder of Torah was revealed here at Sinai, a second conversion was needed. And this explanation dovetails with Rashi's chronology of the events. He argues that the narrative here took place in the fourth of Sivan when the Torah was given on the sixth. Therefore, the Israelites had undergone the requisite conversion prior. According to the Ramban, it took place after revelation, so it was a conversion that happened as a result of having the greater obligation. So he, the Rav Soloveitchik says, the debate between Rashi and the Ramban, did this section happen before or after Matan Torah is really a debate, the new conversion, did that come in anticipation of being obligated in more mitzvos, or did it come as a result, the consequence of having a greater obligation in, in more mitzvos. Now, the truth is, not only did all of our ancestors convert, even if you're born Jewish, there's conversion in your family because we all converted at Har Sinai. But there's a very beautiful tradition, and it's actually in today's daf. Those who learned the daf yomi, in the second perek of Avodah Zarah, it talks about, the Gemara makes a somewhat of a disparaging distinction between a Jew and a non-Jew in terms of moral proclivity or immoral proclivity, licentiousness and promiscuity, which says human beings have an innate sense of, of, of licentiousness, and therefore untrustworthy. I, what about Jews? So the Gemara says, no, Jews stood at Har Sinai, when we received the Torah, it cleansed us of the זוהמא zuhama, it erased from us the impact that the נחש nachash had left on חוה Chava. When the snake, who had his eyes on Chava, got Chava to eat from the עץ הדעת eitz hadaas, the snake imbued within humankind this magnetic pull towards often corrupt or immoral behavior. I, why does the Jew therefore not have the assumption of guilt? Because when we stood at Har Sinai, it cleansed us of it. It cleansed us of it. Comes along Tosafos on the bottom line of today's daf and says, so what about the גר ger? What about the convert? Does the convert have a inclination towards immorality or towards morality? Is the convert continuing to be infected and affected by the נחש nachash, or is the convert like the Jew that Torah was able to purify? So Tosafos says an incredible comment. Tosafos says, the convert also was at Har Sinai. The convert physically wasn't there, genetically wasn't there, but the lashon of Tosafos is the מזל mazal of the convert was there. And that is the source of our tradition that a convert who converts in 2018, תשע\"ח Taf Shin Ayin Ches, was at Har Sinai too. That's why the Torah says don't remind them they're a convert, don't discriminate against them because they're a convert. First of all, we're all converts, but second of all, they were at Har Sinai just like you were. And I forgot where I just saw this recently, but this is supported to in the Talmudic statement. The Gemara says, גר שנתגייר כקטן שנולד דמי Ger shenisgayer k'katan shenolad dami. That when a non-Jew converts, it's as if they're born anew. So much so that halachically, technically, they can marry the sister. They have no familial connection to their family because they're born anew to the extent that they're not related even to the people genetically they're connected with. So I forgot where I saw this, but it said, points out the following. It does not say, גוי שנתגייר goy shenisgayer, a non-Jew who converts, what does it say? גר שנתגייר Ger shenisgayer. Why? Because like our Tosafos. because that גר ger was already destined to convert since הר סיני Har Sinai. גר Ger, the would-be convert שנתגייר shenisgayer, who finally converted. Meaning even when that non-Jew was born, they didn't know that their lot, their fate was to convert and join the Jewish people. But really since before they're born, since הר סיני Har Sinai, their soul, their מזל mazal was at הר סיני Har Sinai. They were destined to come and join the Jewish people. I know very tragically, sometimes in שידוכים shidduchim there are families who discriminate, who don't want. It's it's a great זכות zechus to have your progeny marry a גר ger, somebody who's chosen to join our people, who equally was at הר סיני Har Sinai when we all come from גרים geirim. God forbid is not something that should be discriminated against, but something that should be, something that should be pursued. Okay, continuing.משה Moshe took this book. What book did he take? And he read it in their ears. What book did he take exactly? ויבא משה ויספר לעם Vayavo Moshe vayisaper l'am. רש\"י Rashi says בו ביום הזה bo bayom hazeh. כל דברי ה' kol divrei Hashem, מצוות פרישה והגבלה mitzvos prisha v'hagbala. Again, רש\"י Rashi is of the opinion that the section is appearing before the giving of the Torah. So now he's reading into the text what we already knew about what happens before the giving of the Torah, namely that men had and why women had to separate from one another in anticipation, in purifying themselves. ואת כל המשפטים V'es kol hamishpatim. What are the משפטים mishpatim that משה Moshe told them? Says רש\"י Rashi, שבע מצוות שנצטוו בני נח sheva mitzvos shenitztavu Bnei Noach. משה Moshe told them the seven נח Noachide laws. ושבת וכיבוד אב ואם ופרה אדומה v'Shabbos, v'kibbud av v'eim, u'parah adumah. And they had received other laws at מרה Mara. ודינים שניתנו להם במרה V'dinim shenitnu lahem b'Mara, these additional laws. ויכתוב משה Vayichtov Moshe and משה Moshe wrote. I'm on פסוק ד pasuk daled now. What did משה Moshe write? ויכתוב משה Vayichtov Moshe. What did he write? רש\"י Rashi says מבראשית ועד מתן תורה m'breishis v'ad Matan Torah. So everything that had happened already, God dictated to משה Moshe how he wanted it recorded, and ספר בראשית Sefer Breishis was done, and שמות וירא בא בשלח יתרו Shmos, Vayeira, Bo, b'Shalach, Yisro were done. And so משה Moshe recorded them the way we have them in the Torah now. He already took God, dic- dictation from God on those sections. And and that's what was in the book. מבראשית עד מתן תורה וכתב מצוות שנצטוו במרה M'breishis ad Matan Torah v'kasav mitzvos shenitztavu b'Mara. And then he threw in also the other מצוות mitzvos that we got at מרה Mara, namely שבת כיבוד אב ואם Shabbos, kibbud av v'eim and פרה אדומה parah adumah. And he read this to the people. And how did they answer? נעשה Naaseh. They listened with one voice, they answered with one voice. What does it mean ויען כל העם vayaan kol ha'am? What should it say? Not ויען vayaan, but should say ויענו כל העם vayannu kol ha'am, in the plural. So the אבן עזרא Ibn Ezra points out, this is a continuation of the theme that we know. ויחן שם נגד ההר Vayichan sham neged hahar. What does רש\"י Rashi say there? כאיש אחד בלב אחד K'ish echad b'lev echad. Why doesn't it say ויחנו vayachanu, in the plural? Because they were so united, they were as one, they were one entity. So just like ויחן שם ישראל vayichan sham Yisrael, the אבן עזרא Ibn Ezra says ויען כל העם vayaan kol ha'am, not ויענו vayannu, כאילו הוא איש אחד k'ilu hu ish echad. This is one entity, one unified people. That's who we were. In fact, that's why what does משה Moshe do? Then he writes, he wakes up in the morning, he makes a מזבח mizbeach and he puts 12 pillars. Why 12 pillars? The רשב\"ם Rashbam writes, להודיע שכולם נתרצו בקיום הברית l'hodiya shekulam nistratzu b'kiyum habris. That everyone present wanted this. They were united not only in their interpersonal devotion to one another, they were united by a shared sense of mission, a shared sense of faith, and a shared sense of destiny. All of the above. רב סולובייצ'יק Rav Soloveitchik writes about the fact that משה Moshe read this in their ear. Very powerful image. When we delve into the pasuk, we stumble upon a new fundamental idea in relation to the written law. The central activity for the conversion of the congregation of Israel involved reading aloud. The hearing of the people that they heard, ויקרא באזני העם vayikra b'oznei ha'am, ונשמע v'nishma, emphasizes hearing as opposed to study that takes hold in the heart and in the mind. Right here the pasuk specifically emphasized, not studying or learning happens in your heart or your mind. Here it says משה Moshe should read it where? באזני העם B'oznei ha'am, in your ear. Based on this concept, we can assert that the public reading of the Torah represents a מצוה mitzvah independent of understanding. There is a fulfillment of reading aloud even though the reader or the listener does not understand what is being read. What is the point of a reading that lacks understanding? Through the mere reading of תורה שבכתב Torah shebichsav the soul is uplifted. The sanctification of the individual and his spiritual elevation does not require learning. Even a superficial reading can perform this function. The fact that after this reading, the reader is not any wiser does not negate its value. So the Rav says, and he elaborated this much more in one of the יארצייט דרשות yahrzeit drashas, but the Rav says that this notion that משה Moshe took the ספר הברית sefer habris and ויקרא באזני העם vayikra b'oznei ha'am, he read it to the people. Our experience of קריאת התורה kriyas HaTorah when we listen to the Torah being read, רב סולובייצ'יק Rav Soloveitchik developed the notion that it is a recreation of הר סיני Har Sinai. Where do we read the Torah from? The במה bima. And what do you notice about the במה bima? It's, it's elevated. By the way, in contrast to where the שליח ציבור shliach tzibbur דאווענט davens. It's not ideally laid out in the שול shul, at least right now. But really the שליח ציבור shliach tzibbur is supposed to דאווענען daven from the front of the room, not the middle of the room. And the שליח ציבור shliach tzibbur is supposed to דאווענען daven from lower. Based on what? The פסוק pasuk that says, ממעמקים קראתיך ה' mimamakim krasicha Hashem. I call out to you God from where? From the depths. If you go to the רמ\"א שול Rama shul, the שול shul of רב משה איסרליש Rav Moshe Isserles in Krakow, and our June trip to Poland this past June, we saw it, where the שליח ציבור shliach tzibbur stands in the רמ\"א שול Rama shul in Krakow is a step down. is a foot below. Why? Because the שליח ציבור shliach tzibbur is יורד לפני התיבה yored lifnei hateiva. The לשון lashon in חז\"ל Chazal, whenever the שליח ציבור shliach tzibbur, it doesn't say he ascends the עמוד amud. It actually says he descends the עמוד amud. You descend to the עמוד amud. ממעמקים קראתיך Mimamakim krasicha. You go down. So the שליח ציבור shliach tzibbur leads the תפילה tefilla why? Because the one leading the ציבור tzibbur is supposed to come from a place of feeling incomplete, broken, desperate, dependent, and bring all that sentiment in their appealing to the רבונו של עולם Ribono shel Olam from the depths of their heart. How do you achieve the depths of your heart? By feeling that you're in the depths of the ground. That's true for the שליח ציבור shliach tzibbur, but when the Torah is read, where is the Torah read from? Not ממעמקים Mimamakim, not from down. Torah is written, read from, up. That's when you ascend the במה bima. The במה bima is elevated. So רב סולובייצ'יק Rav Soloveitchik said, why? Because קריאת התורה kriyas HaTorah is a reenactment of מתן תורה Matan Torah. And he develops this much more. The גבאי gabai standing on either side, the בעל קורא baal korei, and the reader all correspond with the people that we just read who accompanied משה Moshe. He lays out the whole drama that when we hear the Torah, we are to experience as if we're standing at הר סיני Har Sinai anew. Every Shabbos, a full פרשה parsha, and then of course the תקנה takana was made. We can't go three days without water, we can't go three days without Torah. Monday, Thursday, Shabbos, God forbid you go three days without going back to הר סיני Har Sinai. A Jew needs to go back to הר סיני Har Sinai at least every three days. If you if you have a longer break than three days from הר סיני Har Sinai, you're severed from the הר סיני Har Sinai experience for more than three days, you're finished. You'll dry up. You'll dry out, your battery will die. A Jew has to go back, and that's was. So ויקח ספר הברית ויקרא באזני העם Vayikach sefer habris vayikra b'oznei ha'am, read in the ears of the Jewish people, not a reading that necessarily has comprehension, not a learning, but rather the experience of הר סיני Har Sinai. Right? That's what he said. What's the point of listening to something you don't understand? And the answer is, it's an experience. What what language is the opera in? Italian. And then people here go to the opera? Do you speak Italian? Why do you go to the opera if you don't understand the Italian? The experience. I don't, I've never been to the opera. I'm good. But why would you go to the opera if you don't understand the Italian? There's something about the experience. You feel, you're present for an experience. And that, להבדיל l'havdil, is what the Rav interprets ויקרא באזני העם vayikra b'oznei ha'am. Even if it's not in your head or your heart, you didn't comprehend, but the experience of going back to הר סיני Har Sinai is transformative. Have you ever sat in the presence of an incredible lecturer, a brilliant scholar, a גדול guddol, an אדם גדול odam godol, תלמיד חכם talmid chacham, you didn't really understand or you didn't understand 90%, but you got goosebumps anyway. And you walked away transformed by being in their presence and by hearing the depths, the breadth of what they were saying. That's ויקרא באזני העם vayikra b'oznei ha'am. קריאת התורה kriyas haTorah for us is the reenactment of of הר סיני Har Sinai.Okay, really one more point I want to make.Who are these נערי בני ישראל naarei Bnei Yisrael by the way? רש\"י Rashi says they were the בכורות bechoros, the firstborn. Why were the firstborn given a position of distinction? What did not yet happen? With the חטא העגל cheit ha'eigel, the firstborn lost their place of distinction. And who got it instead? The לויים Levi'im, the כהנים Kohanim, the tribe of לוי Levi. But this was beforehand. So the בכור bechor is still in the position of distinction. And that's why the נערים naarei, וישלח את נערי בני ישראל ויעלו עולות vayishlach es naarei Bnei Yisrael vaya'alu olos. Who are bringing the sacrifices? Not the לויים Levi'im yet, the בכור bechor. רב שלמה זלמן אויערבאך Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach has an amazing חידוש chidush. He says, I don't want to scare you, תענית בכורות taanis bechoros, but פסח Pesach's coming up. So we know ערב פסח Erev Pesach firstborn fast. Why do the firstborn fast on ערב פסח Erev Pesach? So many think it's because the firstborn were spared with the 10th מכה makkah. רב שלמה זלמן Rav Shlomo Zalman says if that's the case, then women should also fast, because they too were spared in the 10th מכה makkah, that can't be the reason. And we don't fast for the fact that we were spared all the other מכות makkos. Why specifically would they fast for that? He gives an entirely different reason, a huge חידוש chidush. He says ערב פסח Erev Pesach, what happened on ערב פסח Erev Pesach in the בית המקדש Beis Hamikdash? It was the busiest day of the year. חבורות Chaburos and חבורות chaburos and חבורות chaburos of people, families and families and groups and groups were not packing to go to their hotel, they were bringing their קרבן korban in the בית המקדש Beis Hamikdash. It's a miracle that they all got it in on ערב פסח Erev Pesach after חצות chatzos in a timely fashion, so on and so forth. So the לויים Levi'im were working overtime on ערב פסח Erev Pesach. Which day of the year of all days would those who should have had that position feel guilty, feel bad, feel they need to do תשובה teshuva? ערב פסח Erev Pesach. Says רב שלמה זלמן אויערבאך Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, תענית בכורות Taanis Bechoros is not the result of מכת בכורות Makkas Bechoros. It's because it's on ערב פסח Erev Pesach that the בכור bechor says, that should have been me. I should have had center stage bringing the קרבנות korbonos, the קרבן פסח korban Pesach. I should have been interacting with every Jew from around the world coming to ירושלים Yerushalayim. And I, my ancestor made a mistake with חטא העגל Cheit HaEigel and it was taken from me and given to the לויים Levi'im. And that's why the בכור bechor fasts on ערב פסח Erev Pesach, says רב שלמה זלמן Rav Shlomo Zalman. So why is, why are the בכור bechor called a נער naar? We use the term נער naar in a disparaging way. נאַרישקייט Narishkeit. Stop being a נער naar. Why are the בכור bechor, why are the firstborn called a נער naar? The רמב\"ן Ramban has a reason, and I don't have time to tell it to you. But you should look at the רמב\"ן Ramban. I'll tell you, look at the רמב\"ן Ramban. And for those who came to the afternoon כולל kollel yesterday or who listened online, it connects to what we spoke about yesterday. מפני שיבה תקום והדרת פני זקן Mipnei seiva takum v'hadarta pnei zaken. We're obligated to give כבוד kavod to an older person. And we פסק'ן posken even a זקן אשמאי zaken ashamai, even an older person who lacks חכמה chachma. Just an old person who happens to not know anything, but the longevity of their life is worthy of honor. Why? Because we assume that longevity comes with wisdom. There's a life wisdom that you get just from being alive. So anyway, the רמב\"ן Ramban, that which we said yesterday, the רמב\"ן Ramban connects it, that why the בכור bechor is called a נער naar, is called young, because their place of distinction has nothing to do with knowledge. It is only to do with their birth order. So when you have a place of distinction only because of your birth order and not because of knowledge or because of having lived a long life, you're a נער naar. You're young in your knowledge, you're undeveloped in your knowledge. The רמב\"ן Ramban, I guess I just told it to you. The רמב\"ן Ramban says it very beautifully. Okay, the blood is taken and it's sprinkled all over us. The people say נעשה ונשמע naaseh v'nishma. I was going to tell you an incredible insight of the נתיבות שלום Nesivos Shalom of the סלונים'ער רבי Slonimer Rebbe, but I don't have time. But I want to tell you one more thing that the Rav says. The Rav developed a very famous idea of the difference between fate and destiny. ייעוד וגורל Yeud v'goral. So the Rav writes here on this פסוק pasuk, דם הברית אשר כרת ה' עמכם על כל הדברים האלה Dam habris asher karas Hashem imachem al kol hadevarim ha'eileh. We have this blood, half of it went on the מזבח mizbeach, half of it was sprinkled on the people. They memorialized, they concretized the covenant. Says רב סולובייצ'יק Rav Soloveitchik, the Torah relates that God made two covenants with the Jewish people. This is so, so important. The first covenant he made was in Egypt. ולקחתי אתכם לי לעם והייתי לכם לאלהים V'lakachti eschem li l'am v'hayisi lachem l'Elokim. The second covenant was here at הר סיני Har Sinai. The covenant in Egypt was the covenant of fate, while the covenant at סיני Sinai was a covenant of destiny. What is the nature of a covenant of fate? Fate in the life of a people, as in the life of an individual, signifies an existence of compulsion. A strange necessity binds the particulars into one whole. Against his will, the individual is subjected and subjugated to the national fate-laden reality. He cannot evade this reality and become assimilated into some other different reality. The environment spits out the Jew who flees from the presence of the Lord. He is bestirred from his slumber in the same manner as the prophet יונה Yona. This sense of a fate-laden existence and necessity gives rise to the historical loneliness of the Jew. Jewish loneliness is a part of the framework of the covenant of fate that was made in Egypt. Even if a person achieves the pinnacle of social or political success, he will still not be able to free himself from the cloying chains of isolation. What is the nature of the covenant of destiny? Destiny in the life of a people is in the life of an individual, signifies a deliberate and conscious existence that the people has chosen out of its own free will and in which it finds the full realization of its historical being. Let me tell it to you outside. God made two covenants. There are two בריתות brissos that he made with us. One was in Egypt and the second one now is at הר סיני Har Sinai. There's ברית מצרים Bris Mitzrayim and there's ברית סיני Bris Sinai. What's the difference between the two? ברית מצרים Bris Mitzrayim is, I don't want to say irreligious, God forbid, but ברית מצרים Bris Mitzrayim has to do with our nationalistic identity. The fact that we are a people bound with a history and bound with a fate. We have a fate called the Inquisition and a fate called the Crusades and a fate called the Holocaust and a fate called the founding of the state of Israel. We have a shared fate that binds us. Whether we wear the same kind of yarmulke, whether we observe Shabbos or don't observe Shabbos, whether we vote for the same party, there's a ברית מצרים Bris Mitzrayim. God took us out of Egypt and formed us into a nation, a bond of a family, of a unit who shares the same history and shares the same faith. Faith, like the word fatalistic, is something that we don't control. But we also are a people of destiny. And we have the ברית סיני Bris Sinai. Destiny is our religious identity. Destiny is how we transform and repair the world. Destiny is how we take תורה Torah and מצוות mitzvos and הלכה halacha, and we take a life striving of קדושה kedusha, how we take יראת שמים yiras shamayim, how we're ממליך ה' mamlich Hashem, how we're מרבה כבוד שמים marbeh kvod shamayim, how we make a קידוש ה' kiddush Hashem. Destiny is the way with which we interact with the world. And that results from the ברית סיני Bris Sinai. And this is a very, very important distinction because you know, we share both covenants with all Jews in the sense that we're bound by same both covenants. But sometimes there are Jews who don't share the covenant of destiny with us the way we understand it. We, the Torah observant community, have an understanding and interpretation, a tradition, a מסורה mesora of the covenant of destiny, of ברית סיני Bris Sinai, bound by הלכה halacha, bound by the authenticity of the Torah being divine. And there, I won't say some Jews, but I'll tell you the overwhelming majority of Jews don't share that ברית סיני Bris Sinai the way we understand it. So do we dismiss them, disregard them? Do we have nothing to do with them? Do we have no connection with them? We still have a ברית מצרים Bris Mitzrayim. We still have a shared faith. We're still part of one people. And our connection does not depend or rely only on the ברית סיני Bris Sinai. There's also a sense of a ברית מצרים Bris Mitzrayim. These two covenants are are both critically important. They both have different structure to them. My brother has several essays on גוש עציון Gush Etzion, הר עציון Har Etzion has a website called the Virtual בית מדרש Beis Medrash. And my brother has a series of a curriculum of classes on this issue. ברית סיני Bris Sinai and ברית מצרים Bris Mitzrayim. It's supposed to be put out in a book. It's happening, Mommy, they going to a book? I'll have to call him to find out. But he has a collection of essays that I highly, highly recommend them, not just because of my brother, but they're excellent. Really on this very topic developed by רב סולובייצ'יק Rav Soloveitchik from our פרשה parsha, ברית מצרים Bris Mitzrayim, ברית סיני Bris Sinai. We're bound by both of them, but even when we lack a feeling of connection of one, we always have that feeling with the other. I'm sorry I had to stop short today, but אם ירצה ה' im yirtzeh Hashem.
