Transcript
Normally we start the פרשה שיעור parsha shiur by saying בוקר טוב boker tov, good morning, but this week we start by saying ערב טוב erev tov and good evening. I want to thank you for coming in person, as we've spent the last several days, I think most people lacking productivity. If they could measure the dip in productivity in anticipation of a hurricane, in addition to all the time that's spent, but it's hard to focus and accomplish anything. So the fact that we're using our time to study Torah in this month of אלול Elul is a wonderful thing, and ultimately, or most importantly, we thank השם Hashem that at this moment it seems that we've been spared the brunt of the storm, and we're very, very deeply and profoundly grateful to him. We דאווען daven to the people of the Bahamas who have been devastated, and we דאווען daven for the people who remain in the path of this hurricane, that everyone should be spared and safe and secure.I want to thank the sponsors of the פרשה parsha class series for the whole year, Becky and Avi Katz, in memory of Becky's father, David Grossman, לעילוי נשמת דוד בן מנחם מנש l'ilui nishmas David ben Menachem Manesh, whose נשמה neshama should have an עליה aliyah.This week we will read פרשת שופטים parshas Shoftim. And Moshe is continuing his monologue, and through it he's shaping and molding the Jewish people as we'll enter the land. And he's trying to build an ideal, an ideal of a Jewish people living the rules of our sacred Torah within our homeland. Those three things in combination were designed for us to be a microcosm for the world to see and to learn and to be able to emulate. And so part of that is our פרשה, פרשת שופטים parsha, parshas Shoftim. שופטים ושוטרים תתן לך בכל שעריך, אשר השם אלקיך נותן לך לשבטיך, ושפטו את העם משפט צדק Shoftim v'shotrim titein lecha b'chol she'arecha, asher Hashem Elokecha nosein lecha lishvatecha, v'shaftu es ha'am mishpat tzedek. We're about to get into, the פרשה parsha is going to transition into entering the land of Israel. But before we talk about entering the land of Israel, first we establish some of the rules and the expectations of a system of justice. And רב שכטר Rav Shechter points out in the relatively recent ספר sefer of רב שכטר Rav Shechter on פרשה parsha, he emphasizes that the connection between entering the land and setting up a judicial system within the land and the emphasis on צדק צדק תרדוף tzedek tzedek tirdof, the notion of justice and righteousness, is because the fulfillment of that ideal of being a people who are living in a way for the world to see and to emulate, includes our leadership representing the ideals of justice and of righteousness. We are to be in the words of ישעיהו הנביא Yeshayahu haNavi, it's not some people think this belongs to other denominations, but it's the words of ישעיהו הנביא Yeshayahu haNavi, אור לגוים or l'goyim, a light unto nations. When others look at us, they should say, there are a people who place a focus, who's central to our life and lifestyle is a focus on justice and a focus on righteousness. And so the Jewish people in Israel were under a microscope. And in Israel, even more than anywhere else, the Jewish people are expected to live a level of justice and of righteousness.And one can look at what's taking place in Israel. Israel, which has placed the president in jail, Israel which has placed the prime minister in jail, Israel which has a chief rabbi in jail. You could either tear קריעה kriah and say how terrible, and it is terrible, that the highest levels of leadership should be so corrupt. On the other hand, how extraordinary and remarkable that Israel holds accountable its highest level of leaders, that nobody, excuse me, nobody is beyond reproach, nobody is above the law. And that's what the beginning of our פרשה parsha is emphasizing and is teaching us. שופטים ושוטרים תתן לך בכל שעריך Shoftim v'shotrim titein lecha b'chol she'arecha, we have to have judges and we have to have police people at all of our gates. Of course, famously, homiletically, this is always interpreted to mean, we read it דווקא davka during the month of אלול Elul, all the gates means our eyes, our ears, our mouth, the gates to our soul. שופטים ושוטרים Shoftim v'shotrim, we have to be judicious in what images and what ideas we imbibe, we absorb within ourselves, what we expose ourselves and our families to. We need to set שופטים ושוטרים בכל שעריך shoftim v'shotrim b'chol she'arecha, in all of our gates. Because לא תטה משפט לא תכיר פנים ולא תקח שוחד lo sateh mishpat, lo sakir panim, v'lo sikach shochad. We're enjoined not to pervert justice or to show favoritism. Of course, never to accept a bribe because שוחד יעוור עיני חכמים ויסלף דברי צדיקים shochad y'aver einei chachamim v'yisalef divrei tzadikim. Bribery blinds the eyes of the wise and it perverts justice. We gave a whole class earlier this year, I think on שבועות Shavuos, about פרוטקציה protektzia and bribery following the scandal that happened in universities this year, that tragically the same phenomenon happens within our Torah institutions. If you make a check out with enough zeros, you can get people in who otherwise weren't supposed to gain entry. If you dedicate the right space, then you can have access that you otherwise shouldn't have. And we went through several, many, many תשובות t'shuvos, רב זילברשטיין Rav Zilberstein and others on the principle of פרוטקציה protektzia. If you write the biggest check, if you know the right person, you can get your grandmother into the assisted living facility. Is it appropriate to jump the list? If you know the right person, you can get, God forbid, but one sibling, your cousin, a kidney, and skip the list. What are the ethics of using פרוטקציה protektzia? Is פרוטקציה protektzia not in itself a form of bribery? And bribery is something which is so forbidden that it's not only forbidden because it perverts justice, as the Torah tells us, it perverts justice, then of course bribery is forbidden not because of bribery, but because you've perverted justice. So the גמרא Gemorah concludes, even when you haven't perverted justice, it's still forbidden. So let's say you try to bribe the admissions committee and they still reject your child, and they just keep the money. They haven't perverted judgment or justice by accepting the bribe, but it's still something which is forbidden. We have a language, דן דין אמת לאמיתו dan din emes l'amito. גמרא Gemorah in the beginning of סנהדרין Sanhedrin says that a judge is responsible, the mandate of a judge is to arrive at the truth in the truth. What is the truth of the truth? It means that a pure truth, an unadulterated truth, a truth which is not corrupt by outside influence of any sort, even if it doesn't change your ultimate decision, it can't help but change your decision. Maybe you actually rejected the kid because he comes from such a family which was willing to bribe you. So your ethics are such that you're willing to keep the bribe, because you're not the one applying to get in, but you reject the, maybe you reject the student, the applicant, because they try to bribe you. It says something about them. So in some way or another, it has an influence and because of that, שוחד shochad is something which is forbidden.פסוק כ, צדק צדק תרדוף למען תחיה וירשת את הארץ Pasuk chaf, tzedek tzedek tirdof l'maan tichyeh v'yarashta es ha'aretz. We have to pursue justice. וירשת את הארץ אשר השם אלקיך נותן לך V'yarashta es ha'aretz asher Hashem Elokecha nosein lach, that's what רב שכטר Rav Shechter was talking about. Here we have a connection between pursuing justice so that we live and we inherit the land. What does inheriting the land have to do with a judicial, a just judicial system? And the answer is we only merit the land, we only deserve to have a land, we should only be in a position of influence to the rest of the world if we're willing to use that position in a righteous way that people see the way that we are, the way that we are living. The ספר בהיר Sefer Bahir, the רמב\"ן Ramban quotes the ספר בהיר Sefer Bahir, who interprets this פסוק pasuk that if you judge yourself, למען תחיה l'maan tichyeh, so that you live, means we're required to judge ourselves, introspection. שופטים ושוטרים תתן לך בכל שעריך Shoftim v'shotrim titein lecha b'chol she'arecha. People like to live mindless lives, with no sense of of uh, retrospection, no sense of of introspection, no sense of self-reflection. People just want to live mindless lives where we're not accountable and there are no consequences and we do whatever we want and whatever gives us pleasure. So the Torah here is telling us not only in the formal sense of a community and a people, but even on the individual level of שופטים ושוטרים תתן לך בכל שעריך shoftim v'shotrim titein lecha b'chol she'arecha, למען תחיה l'maan tichyeh, to really be alive is to have a mindfulness where we're constantly evaluating and reflecting on our lives. We're constantly trying to improve ourselves and be the very best people that we can. Let's examine for a moment this expression, צדק צדק תרדוף tzedek tzedek tirdof. In last year's פרשה parsha class, we examined that expression. We saw the נצי\"ב's Nitziv's interpretation, we saw the מדרש Midrashic interpretation, we saw very, very beautiful ideas, which I'm not going to repeat. I want to include some new ones, and namely begin with the רב Rav. רב סולובייצ'יק Rav Soloveitchik said, why the repetition, why the redundancy? צדק צדק תרדוף Tzedek tzedek tirdof. Last year we saw the מדרש Midrash, צדק בצדק תרדוף tzedek b'tzedek tirdof. Don't just have the ends of righteousness, you need a righteous means to achieve a righteous ends. Sometimes people fight for a cause, and the cause is a righteous cause, but they cut corners and they are dishonest, and they're manipulative, and they're corrupt in the pursuit of that noble ends. Not only must our ends be noble, but צדק בצדק תרדוף tzedek b'tzedek tirdof. The means to achieve the noble ends, the means itself needs to be noble as well. But the רב Rav gives a different interpretation. According to the רמב\"ן Ramban, writes the רב Rav, the repetition of the word צדק tzedek suggests there are two modes of justice. How could that be? Isn't justice by definition mean an absolute truth? What is just? What is correct? What is right? What is righteous? The first form of צדק tzedek is represented by the natural law. In קבלה Kabbalah, this is known as מלכות malchus, God's revelation through the law of nature, his primordial will represented by the laws of chemistry, physics, and biology. As we are witnessing, and please God, we will be spared the brunt of, these immutable laws are non-negotiable. The laws of science are non-negotiable. You can't have a conversation with gravity. You can't have a conversation with a hurricane. The laws of physics, biology, chemistry, these are the God's revelation through nature, and that's a form of צדק tzedek, which is השם's Hashem's righteousness in the way he constructed the world and in the way he programmed the world, and the world, the way he set that world in motion with his immutable laws. That's one level of an absolute truth of a צדק tzedek, which is an absolute righteousness. But the form of צדק tzedek, this form of צדק tzedek is imperfect, because the מדרש Midrash recounts an exchange of opinions among various angels. The angels had a debate whether man should have been created. How do we know God consulted with the angel? Because the Torah way back in ספר בראשית Sefer Bereishis, when השם Hashem is creating the world, he turns to the angels and he says, נעשה אדם בצלמנו na'aseh adam b'tzalmeinu. Let's make man, נעשה na'aseh with a נון nun. Let us in the plural make man. רש\"י Rashi then is already bothered. What do you mean let us make man? Does השם Hashem have partners? Does השם Hashem need help? Does השם Hashem require support? What do you mean נעשה na'aseh, let us? And רש\"י Rashi tells us that השם Hashem did something extraordinary. In order to express humility, he consulted with the angels, כביכול k'viyachol, as if consulted with the angels to say, what do you think? Should we make man? Good idea? Bad idea? How should we make man? What do you think? He took an enormous risk when he did it, and רש\"י Rashi tells us, because he opened the door for heretics. And in fact, כפרה k'firah, today we have Bible critics and we have heretics who read the Torah and say, look at the language, נעשה אדם בצלמנו na'aseh adam b'tzalmeinu, clearly there's more than one God, because God says in the plural, let us make man. But that was a risk השם Hashem was willing to take in order to exhibit and in order to model the humility of not arrogantly acting like we have all the answers and we do everything on our own, but even the highest authority, which is a theme of our פרשה parsha, and מירצה השם im yirtzeh Hashem we'll get to, we're usually not up against a hard stop. With מנחה Mincha, we're up against a hard stop when you give the פרשה parsha class in this slot. So hopefully we'll get to it. But one of the themes of our פרשה parsha is the notion of authority, it's the notion of power, the potential for power to corrupt, and how we try to fight that. What's the antidote to the fact that power so often corrupts? So השם Hashem is trying to model the antidote is a humility. You say נעשה אדם בצלמנו na'aseh adam b'tzalmeinu. Something interesting, I once read an article, Harvard Business Review about Abraham Lincoln's most famous speech. What was his most famous speech? The Gettysburg Address. Now when we hear the words Gettysburg Address, we usually assume that must have been like a שבת שובה דרשה Shabbos Shuva drasha. That was a good hour 20, hour and a half, who knows how long it was, a state of the union, that must have been some געזונטע דרשה gezunte drasha that Abraham Lincoln gave, the הייליגע heilige Gettysburg Address. The הייליגע heilige Gettysburg Address was literally a few minutes long. You're looking at me like I should learn from that. I understand, I got it. The message, message, he didn't have source sheets. He did not give out source sheets with the Gettysburg Address. He also didn't have a sponsor probably for it. So it was only a few minutes long, very powerful message, a uh, oratory message. Okay, heard, probably not to be followed, but heard. But Abraham Lincoln did something else in that speech, and this was the insight of the Harvard Business Review article. What Abraham Lincoln did which was different from his predecessors, and I would say very different from his successors, if we look around today, Abraham Lincoln was one of the only presidents who in the Gettysburg Address instead of saying, I, I, I, said, we, we, we. He painted a vision for a nation, and he didn't talk about I, and I, and I think, and I've worked hard, and I have, and I put in place, and I will, he said, we, and we, and we, and we. And you know, when you say we, this was the conclusion of the article which was trying to extrapolate and to learn a lesson of public speaking is, when you say I, the audience is disconnected. When you say we, you've now engaged, you've invited the audience in to be a partner, to have a stake in whatever it is, the vision that you're painted. So כביכול הקדוש ברוך הוא k'viyachol Hakadosh Baruch Hu says to the audience, he doesn't say I will now make man, he says נעשה na'aseh, we, let us make man. Let us make man. And when he did, he turned to the angels, and he consulted with them. And the מדרש בבראשית רבה Midrash in Bereishis Rabba tells us of the exchange of the opinions. What happened? The angel representing loving kindness, I'll read you the מדרש Midrash. אמר רבי סימון בשעה שבא הקדוש ברוך הוא לבראות את אדם הראשון, נעשו מלאכי השרת כתים כתים וחבורות חבורות. Omar Rabbi Shimon, b'sha'ah sheba Hakadosh Baruch Hu livro es Adam HaRishon, na'asu malachei ha'shares kitim kitim v'chaburos chaburos. When הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu came to create man, נעשו מלאכי השרת כתים כתים na'asu malachei ha'shares kitim kitim. The angels divided into groups. They divided into parties, וחבורות חבורות v'chaburos chaburos. מהם אומרים אל יברא ומהם אומרים יברא Meihem omrim al yibra u'meihem omrim yibra. So some said don't create him. It's a mistake. He's fallible, and he's gonna make mistakes, and he's going to not represent you well. So why are you going to create him? It's not going to end well, don't create man. And others said, create man. What were they arguing about? This is the פסוק בתהלים pasuk in Tehillim. חסד ואמת נפגשו צדק ושלום נשקו Chesed v'emes nifgashu, tzedek v'shalom nashaku. The פסוק בתהלים pasuk in Tehillim פה peh hei says, love and truth met, justice and peace kissed. חסד אומר יברא, שהוא גומל חסדים Chesed omer yibra, shehu goimeil chasadim. Thank you. חסד Chesed said, create man, because man is an engine of חסד chesed. They're going to be a חברה קדישא chevra kadisha and make meals for the bereaved and meals for the new mothers. They're going to hang shutters and they're going to lend generators and they're going to give out flashlights. They're a machine for חסד chesed, and therefore you must create man. אמת אומר אל יברא, שכולו שקרים Emes omer al yibra, shekulo shkarim. אמת Emes stood up and said to הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu don't create man. Have you seen man? Have you looked at social media? What a bunch of exaggerators, liars, fakers, frauds, phonies. Don't make man. Nothing they say is true, every story they tell is exaggerated. They're constantly trying to be some, look like something they're not. צדק אומר יברא, שהוא עושה צדקות Tzedek omer yibra, shehu oseh tzdakos. צדק Tzedek stands up and says, he writes a check to צדקה tzdaka. Look how many organizations are supported. Look how many organizations were founded by your people. Create man. שלום אומר אל יברא, דכולו קטטה Shalom omer al yibra, d'kulo ketata. שלום Shalom, peace stood up and said no, no, no. Have you looked at a people? If you create them, all they'll do is fight. All they're going to do is have tension and conflict. Don't create them. מה עשה הקדוש ברוך הוא? Mah asah Hakadosh Baruch Hu? So now you're הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and what's the score? Two against two. What are the teams here? You've got חסד chesed and אמת emes, צדק tzedek and שלום shalom. חסד Chesed is saying create. אמת Emes is saying don't create. צדק Tzedek is saying create, and שלום shalom is saying don't create. What does הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu do? It's a two on two. How do you decide? מה עשה הקדוש ברוך הוא, נטל אמת והשליכו לארץ. Mah asah Hakadosh Baruch Hu, natal emes v'hishlicho la'aretz. הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu took אמת emes, the concept of truth, and he threw it to the ground. פסוק בדניאל Pasuk in Daniel, as Daniel says, ותשלך אמת ארצה v'tashlech emes artza. אמרו לפני הקדוש ברוך הוא, רבונו של עולם, מה אתה מבזה תכסיס אלטיכסיא שלך? Amru l'fnei Hakadosh Baruch Hu, Ribbono shel olam, mah atah m'vazeh tachsis altyachsia shelcha? תעלה אמת מן הארץ. Taleh emes min ha'aretz. הדא הוא דכתיב אמת מארץ תצמח. Hada hu d'chtiv emes me'eretz titzmach. Let truth rise from the earth, as the פסוק pasuk says, truth will grow from the ground. So what is going on in this מדרש Midrash? הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu is, he is uh, asking the advice of the angels, should he make man? And you have this battle two against two, and because he's undecided, two on two is an even number, so in order to make the odds in favor of one, הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu takes אמת emes and throws it to the ground. What in the world is going on? So רב סולובייצ'יק Rav Soloveitchik suggested the following: Conciliation between litigants derives from a desire to maintain peace, despite the fact that the litigants' positions are mutually exclusive. There's an aspect of שקר sheker, falsehood, on the part of one who compromises for the sake of peace. Yet if man exclusively exemplified the attribute of אמת emes, people would be in constant conflict. Absolute peace and absolute truth cannot coexist in this world, because insistence on absolute truth precludes peaceful coexistence. Truth often gets in the way of peace. In order to have real peace, in a family, in a business, among partners, in a community, among friends, in order to really have a genuine peace, not a fake peace or a false peace, but a real peace, in order to have a real peace, you can't have a real adherence to the truth. Someone's compromising. Someone's giving in. Someone's looking the other way. Someone is being flexible. So the two can't coexist at the same time. So השם Hashem resolved the dispute by separating אמת emes from שלום shalom. To guarantee harmony in this world, we must accept the principle of compromise as opposed to absolute אמת emes. So רב סולובייצ'יק Rav Soloveitchik is suggesting based on this מדרש Midrash, that's the פשט pshat in צדק צדק תרדוף tzedek tzedek tirdof. We have two types of צדק tzedek. We have an absolute truth, a justice which is absolute truth. What does it say in the law books? What is most righteous? What is most true? And then we have a צדק tzedek which is פשרה psherah, which is compromise. In fact, our בתי דין battei din today, if people have a monetary dispute and they bring it before a בית דין beis din to adjudicate, the בית דין beis din is empowered to do, the בית דין beis din actually turns to the litigants and asks, do you want a בית דין beis din of דין din or do you want a בית דין beis din of פשרה psherah? Do you want the בית דין beis din to adjudicate based on truth, hard, strict, rigid rules of truth, or should the בית דין beis din approach it with the rules of פשרה psherah, with an eye on compromise? And what רב סולובייצ'יק Rav Soloveitchik is suggesting is that by definition when you compromise, you are distorting the truth, because one is right and one is wrong. And when you try to achieve and arrive at a compromise, you know what a compromise is? I too often find myself mediating business situations, often marriage or divorce situations, and I always describe at the beginning of a mediation session that the definition of a compromise is something neither party is happy about, but both parties can live with. Neither is going to walk away happy. If the expectation is you're going to walk away happy, then don't bother walking in. Both parties will be unhappy, but both parties can live with, because neither feels they're really getting what's just, what's right, what's true. By definition, a compromise does not include absolute truth. And we have those two forms. And you can wonder, how can we ever endorse a בית דין beis din of פשרה psherah? If a בית דין beis din of compromise, if when the בית דין beis din endorses compromise, now when we say compromise, by the way, it doesn't mean, you say you owe us a hundred, I say you owe us zero, so we say 50 and we call it even. Compromise doesn't mean that we just always go halfway down the middle and that's the compromise. We have what's called פשרה קרוב לדין psherah karov l'din. We try to find a compromise, but that close to honoring what is most just, what is most true. But still it includes a little bit of a compromise, because often the way you can arrive at a conclusion that neither party is happy with but both can live with is when each feels it got at least a small victory. So you need to give at least a small victory in order to arrive at a compromise that the two parties can live with. And in order to arrive at that small victory, someone is going to feel that absolute truth was not served. That's the concept of a פשרה psherah. That's the second form of צדק tzedek. So says the רב Rav, צדק צדק תרדוף tzedek tzedek tirdof, there's two types of צדק tzedek. There's the ultimate צדק tzedek, the highest truth, and then there's a צדק tzedek, there's the righteousness of פשרה psherah, that sometimes pursuing the compromise is what's righteous. I'll tell you an amazing קוצקער Kotsker. The הייליגע קוצקער heilige Kotsker says, what does it mean הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu took אמת emes and he threw it to the ground? He could have thrown שלום shalom to the ground, because remember, it was צדק tzedek and חסד chesed against אמת emes and שלום shalom. So why didn't he throw אמת emes to the ground? Why didn't he throw שלום shalom to the ground? Why didn't God get rid of peace? Why did he get rid of truth? So the simple understanding is because שלום shalom is the highest value. אין כלי מחזיק ברכה Ein kli machzik bracha. We don't have a vessel that can hold ברכה bracha, the greatest blessing that there is is peace and harmony. השם Hashem is willing to even allow his own name to be erased for the sake of preserving peace and harmony in the case of an אישה סוטה isha sotah. So therefore he got rid of אמת emes. אמת Emes he's willing to compromise on. But that's not a simple answer. True, he's willing to compromise his own name for שלום shalom, but what is his name? חותמו של הקדוש ברוך הוא Chotmo shel Hakadosh Baruch Hu, when השם Hashem assigns his name, what does he write? אמת Emes. His name is אמת emes. הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu is truth. So he is truth, and when he throws truth to the ground, isn't he forfeiting, isn't he compromising his very essence, who he is? He is truth. So why didn't he throw שלום shalom to the ground? Better to have friction and conflict, but at least stand for truth. Why did he throw אמת emes to the ground instead of שלום shalom? So the קוצקער Kotsker said, an אמת emes that insists that there not be שלום shalom is not אמת emes. That's why he threw it to the ground. Because when אמת emes said, don't create them, they're שקרנים shakranim, they're liars. And when אמת emes tries to advocate for destruction, when אמת emes tries to advocate for marginalizing or judging or dismissing, when אמת emes tries to say about the Jewish people they're a bunch of liars, he threw it to the ground because that's not real אמת emes. It wasn't that he threw אמת emes to the ground, then we'd have our קשיא kashia, אמת emes is his signature. It's that he threw it to the ground because he concluded it wasn't real אמת emes. So this is רב סולובייצ'יק's Rav Soloveitchik's beautiful interpretation of צדק צדק תרדוף tzedek tzedek tirdof, that צדק tzedek means, one צדק tzedek is the highest level, the absolute truth, and the other צדק tzedek is the צדק tzedek of פשרה psherah. ר' יעקב קמנצקי Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky in אמת ליעקב Emes L'Yaakov also deals with this question of this מדרש Midrash and how to understand it and why he threw אמת emes. And he writes the following: ולפיכך נראה לבאר דברי המדרש באופן פשוט, דהאמת הפשוטה אומרה שאדם הוא מלא שקרים, דכשם שפרצופיהם אינם שווים, כך אין דעותיהם שוות U'lefichach nir'eh l'va'er divrei ha'Midrash b'ofen pashut, d'ha'emes ha'pshuta omrah she'adam hu malei shkarim, d'keshem she'partzufeihem einam shavim, kach ein de'oseihem shavos. אמת Emes said that man is filled with lies. And how is man filled with lies? Because אמת emes approached the world and understood that you can't have two opinions and they could both be true. There has to be an absolute truth, an objective truth. So one has to be right and one is wrong. One likes chocolate ice cream, the other likes vanilla ice cream. Someone's right, someone's got to be wrong. אמת Emes demands that there's a right and there's a wrong. It's binary. There are choices that we make. That's the הוה אמינא havamena of the מדרש Midrash says ר' יעקב Rabbi Yaakov. ואם כן בהכרח הוא מלא שקרים, שהרי אין דעה אמיתית אלא אחת, ונמצא דשאר הדעות הם דעות כוזבות. וגם השלום אומרה דאדם הוא כולו קטטה, דכיון שבני דעות מחולקות, על כרחך יש כאן שלום השלום. V'im kein b'hechrach hu malei shkarim, sheharei ein de'ah amitis ela achas, v'nimtza d'sha'ar ha'de'os hein de'os kozvos. V'gam ha'shalom omrah d'adam hu kulo ketata, d'keivan she'bnei de'os mechulakos, al korchacha yeish kan shilum ha'shalom. So הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu, so שלום shalom was arguing, we have two different opinions, they're arguing, אשכנז, ספרד, יונג, אלט, רפובליקן, דמוקרט, Ashkenaz, Sefard, young, old, Republican, Democrat, we have so many different opinions. גאונות, מיסים, הפלה, gun laws, taxes, abortion, we have so many different opinions. ינקיז, רד סוקס, Yankees, Red Sox, that's אמת emes, that's not. We have so many different opinions. So שלום shalom said, how can we have peace when you have so many different opinions? Let them all rally behind one opinion, and then we'll have שלום shalom. אמת Emes similarly said there's got to be one absolute and one objective truth. How can you have so many opinions? So מה עשה הקדוש ברוך הוא mah asah Hakadosh Baruch Hu, what did he do? בשעה שהשליך את אמת ארצה, כלומר, חידש הקדוש ברוך הוא חידוש גדול בענין אמת, שהאמת הינה יחסית ולא החלטית, ותהיה אמת ארצית. B'sha'ah shehishlich es emes artza, klomar, chidesh Hakadosh Baruch Hu chidush gadol b'inyan emes, sheha'emes heina yachasis v'lo hechlitis, v'tihyeh emes artzis. And that's what it means, אמת מארץ emes artza, שמכאן ואילך יוכל האדם להיות אמיתי לפי מדרגתו והשגתו shemikan v'eilach yuchal ha'adam l'hiyos amiti l'fi madregaso v'hasagaso. אמת מארץ תצמח Emes me'eretz titzmach. It means that אמת emes doesn't exist in the heavens where there's an absolute truth, it's מארץ תצמח me'eretz titzmach. It comes up from the ground, it blossoms from the earth, where we have a multiplicity of opinions. That just like people don't look alike, and just like our DNA is not alike, similarly our personalities, our perspectives, our opinions are are equal but not necessarily uniform or alike. So the הוה אמינא havamena, the reason אמת emes and שלום shalom protested is because they assumed there can and only be only one absolute truth. And that's what הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu threw אמת emes to the ground to say, no, it's not an אמת emes that descends from heaven, an absolute truth, an authoritative truth, it's an אמת emes that blossoms and grows from the earth. It's an אמת emes that sprouts with different species and manifests itself in different ways with different people, and then you can have שלום shalom when you realize that there is something called subjective truth, not absolute truth. And we have, we've given entire שיעורים shiurim on this, but it's what we call אלו ואלו דברי אלקים חיים eilu v'eilu divrei Elokim chayim. You could have בית שמאי Beis Shammai and בית הלל Beis Hillel and they're both right. One says brain death is death, one says not בית שמאי Beis Shammai and בית הלל Beis Hillel, you could have modern פוסקים poskim. One says brain death is death, and it's time to bury the person, you're violating ביזוי המת bizui ha'meis by keeping them alive, harvest the organs. And the other says brain death is life, and if you remove a machine, you're murdering them. So who's right? I always give this example of אלו ואלו eilu v'eilu because it is the greatest stakes, the highest stakes. It's either murder or it's ביזוי המת bizui ha'meis or you're, you could either be saving a life and you're neglecting it through harvesting organs, or you're murdering someone alive by removing a machine. So what's at stake is the highest, is the greatest, and yet, who's right? Yes, both. אלו ואלו דברי אלקים חיים Eilu v'eilu divrei Elokim chayim. So in אמת emes that descends from שמים Shamayim, they can't both be right. But in אמת מארץ תצמח emes me'eretz titzmach, the different kind of אמת emes says ר' יעקב Rabbi Yaakov, that you can have שלום shalom, you can have peace between them when they recognize each of their right, each of them being legitimate, each of them being a legitimate opinion. So all of this is in צדק צדק תרדוף tzedek tzedek tirdof, the two types of צדק tzedek. Okay, let's continue. The פרשה parsha continues on אשרה Asherah, compares a dishonest judge to an idolatrous tree. It tells us about a blemished sacrifice, the death penalty for somebody who worships idols. We have the the prohibition of the rebellious elder. כי יפלא ממך דבר למשפט בין דם לדם Ki yipalei mimcha davar l'mishpat bein dam l'dam, the famous וילנא גאון Vilna Gaon about the different areas of הלכה halacha, יורה דעה Yoreh Deah, אבן העזר Even HaEzer, חושן משפט Choshen Mishpat, all included in that פסוק pasuk, and how you have to go to the judge in your day in order to come to a conclusion. So the פסוק pasuk here says, ושמרת לעשות ככל אשר יורוך v'shamarta la'asos k'chol asher yorucha, observe according to the way they instruct you. You have to follow the way that they instruct you. This is the Torah source for the notion of יורוך, ככל אשר יורוך yorucha, k'chol asher yorucha, the way they instruct you, לא תסור lo sasur, don't neglect or deviate from the way חז\"ל Chazal tell us what to do right or left. This is the idea of a מסורה mesorah, that we have בעלי מסורה balei mesorah, that we have an authentic chain that transmits the will of השם Hashem from generation to generation, that it's not not everyone has equal right to draw conclusions about הלכה halacha or about Torah, but a person has to be qualified, they have to be a link in that chain. רב סולובייצ'יק Rav Soloveitchik writes, the authority to legislate was not given to the prophets, but to the sages, the בעלי המסורה balei ha'mesorah. A prophet can legislate only when he's part of the fellowship of חכמי המסורה chachmei ha'mesorah, of whom the Torah writes, you shall not divert, לא תסור מן הדבר אשר יגידו לך ימין ושמאל lo sasur min ha'davar asher yagidu lecha yamin u'smol. Were there be a prophet outside of the חכמי המסורה chachmei ha'mesorah, he would not be able to legislate with regard to even one יוטא yota. This is expressed clearly by the רמב\"ם Rambam. מצוות מדברי קבלה Mitzvos midivrei kabbalah, commandments of received tradition, were ordained by those חכמי המסורה chachmei ha'mesorah who were at the same time prophets. But מצוות מדברי סופרים mitzvos midivrei sofrim, commandments ordained by the sages were introduced by the חכמי המסורה chachmei ha'mesorah who did not belong to the community of prophets. So the רב Rav continues here, I just brought you outside, he says something amazing. This לא תסור lo sasur, which is the Torah source for the obligation to listen to the rabbis. Why? We have a whole area of Jewish law called מצוות מדרבנן mitzvos miderabbanan. סמיכות חבר Smichas Chaver, we're learning all about בישול עכו\"ם bishul akum and פת עכו\"ם pas akum. Why do I have to listen to the rabbis' rules about בישול עכו\"ם bishul akum and פת עכו\"ם pas akum? Who gave them authority? Why do I have to keep חנוכה Chanukah or observe פורים Purim? Why do I have to observe the laws of מוקצה muktza? So much of what is familiar to us as vibrant Jewish life today is very different than the way our ancestors lived who only followed biblical law. In post-Talmudic times, the fact that we דאווען daven, אנשי כנסת הגדולה Anshei Knesses HaGedolah gave us a שמונה עשרה Shemoneh Esrei we have to say three times a day, the מטבע של תפילה matbe'ah shel tefillah, so much of what we take for granted as as uh rigorous religious life really is from the rabbis. Who gave them the authority? Who gave them the authority? The answer is the Torah here, לא תסור מן הדבר אשר יגידו לך ימין ושמאל lo sasur min ha'davar asher yagidu lecha yamin u'smol. Last year in the פרשה parsha class we talked about this, the famous רמב\"ן, רמב\"ם Ramban, Rambam discussion, if following the rabbis is really a biblical law, then every מצווה דרבנן mitzvah d'rabbanan should be a מצווה דאורייתא mitzvah d'oraisa. So why do we say ספק דאורייתא לחומרא sofek d'oraisa l'chumra when you have doubt in a biblical law you're strict, and when you have doubt on a rabbinic law you could be lenient, isn't every rabbinic law really a biblical law? We spoke about that, we spoke about that last year. But for this year, what I want to emphasize is something fantastic. I have an obligation of תלמוד תורה Talmud Torah. We're going to talk about it in a moment with the king. We have a מצווה mitzvah, we have an obligation of תלמוד תורה Talmud Torah, of studying Torah. So let's say I open a חומש Chumash, clearly I'm fulfilling the מצווה ודברת בם, ללמד את בניכם, ושננתם לבניך mitzvah v'dibarta bam, l'lamed es bneichem, v'shinantam l'vanecha, I'm fulfilling the מצווה mitzvah of תלמוד תורה Talmud Torah, of learning Torah, and I open Torah and I study Torah. You can argue when I open מסכת שבת Maseches Shabbos and I'm learning the ל\"ט מלאכות lamed-tes melachos, I'm learning about prohibitions that are explicit in the Torah, not all 39 explicit. explicit only one is explicit, but the category of 39 is explicit in the Torah, and I'm learning how to not violate Torah law. That's a קיום kiyem of fulfillment of תלמוד תורה Talmud Torah. But when I open מסכת מגילה Meseches Megillah and I'm studying the story of Purim, shouldn't that be ביטול תורה bittel Torah? I'm learning about a rabbinic holiday. When I'm learning the laws of בישול עכו\"ם bishul akum, Sunday mornings, we have a phenomenal large group sitting and poring over the שולחן ערוך Shulchan Aruch in הילכות כלים Hilchos Kelim learning the minutiæ of בישול עכו\"ם bishul akum. Wouldn't it be a better use of our time to learn about, not בישול עכו\"ם bishul akum, let's learn about בשר בחלב basar bechalav. Meat and milk is a biblical law. בישול עכו\"ם Bishul akum is a rabbinic law. Isn't it a violation, isn't it ביטול תורה bittel Torah, aren't we wasting our time? Wouldn't we achieve more learning?And the answer is no. Reb Saloveitchik emphasized, one who studies the laws of מוקצה muktzeh or מגילה Megillah fulfills the obligation of תלמוד תורה Talmud Torah just as well as one who studies the laws of קרבנות korbanos. There's no advantage to biblical law as opposed to דברי סופרים divrei sofrim with regard to their status as a חפצא של תורה cheftza shel Torah. In fact, this is the basis of the mitzvah לא תסור lo sasur, on which all the rabbinic legislation is founded. The הלכות halachos innovated by the rabbis combine to form one entity with the הלכות halachos that are recorded in the Torah itself. And therefore the ruling of בית דין beis din regarding rabbinic legislation takes effect on a Torah level. In other words, once the Torah authorizes the rabbis to legislate law, it raises the level of their legislation to be Torah law so that when we study it, we're studying Torah law. It's something incredible. It's something extraordinary.So these are the בעלי המסורה baalei ha'mesorah who in every generation are empowered, who bear the awesome responsibility to analyze and investigate the issues of that generation and to arrive at what the law is. We're going to talk about, and consider snippets momentarily, we're up to דור לדור ישבח מעשיך dor l'dor yishabach ma'asecha. We're up to the fourth sentence of אשרה Ashrei, דור לדור dor l'dor. Here we say generation to generation, as opposed to עמלק Amalek, we say that עמלק Amalek wants to attack דור דור dor dor. There's no למד lamed. What's the difference between דור לדור dor l'dor and דור דור dor dor is entirely the difference between the philosophy of עמלק Amalek and our philosophy. Stay tuned for Citer Snippets in a moment for the rest of that.Let's move over to the king. The parsha then tells us the obligation, כי תבוא אל הארץ אשר ה' אלקיך נותן לך Ki savo el ha'aretz asher Hashem Elokecha nosein lach. When you get to the land that Hashem gives you, וירשתה וישבת בה vi'rishta vi'yishavta bah, you're going to inherit it and inhabit it. ואמרת V'amarta and you're going to say אשימה עלי מלך ככל הגוים אשר סביבתי asima alai melech k'chol hagoyim asher s'vivosai. And this is very prescient. It really predicts exactly what's going to happen in ספר שמואל Sefer Shmuel. When the people, הקדוש ברוך הוא HaKadosh Baruch Hu doesn't come and say it's time for a king, the people initiate and say they're interested in a king. And Hashem through שמואל Shmuel reacts very harshly, which when you learn ספר שמואל Sefer Shmuel, you're bothered by why the harsh response or reaction to the Jewish people's asking for a king, שום תשים עליך מלך som tasim alecha melech. Isn't it exactly what God here ordains as a מצוה mitzvah? Didn't they just pursue what itself is a מצוה mitzvah? It all has to do with the timing. Learn it when you get to ספר שמואל Sefer Shmuel. So here the Torah says שום תשים עליך מלך som tasim alecha melech, we have to place a king over ourselves. The ספרי Sifrei famously says מלך ולא מלכה melech v'lo malka, positions of authority are reserved for men, not for women. Maybe not politically correct, but it represents the truth of Torah. And this is quoted להלכה l'halacha by Rav Moshe Feinstein and by Rabbi Saloveitchik. Rabbi Saloveitchik was more opposed to female presidents of shuls than Rav Moshe and others because Rabbi Saloveitchik had a very, had a very literal understanding of this ספרי Sifrei הלכתית halachically, that שום תשים עליך מלך ולא מלכה som tasim alecha melech v'lo malka, that positions of שררה srarah, positions of authority, not because a woman's not smart enough or qualified enough. She's more than a man for all of those things. But it means that that position often means having to do things which we don't want a woman to have to compromise her feminine quality to have to do those things. So there's a division of roles, מלך ולא מלכה melech v'lo malka, and that informs questions of can women serve as shul presidents and the like, a הלכתית halachic topic way beyond the scope of our time today. But here the Torah makes a fantastic, fantastic comment. It says שום תשים עליך מלך אשר יבחר ה' אלקיך בו מקרב אחיך som tasim alecha melech asher yivchar Hashem Elokecha bo mikerev achecha, Hashem's gonna appoint who that king is. And if I ask you what's the king's job description, so maybe ceremonial, symbolic, in England today that's all it is. A real king leads people and legislates law. A real king leads people out to war. He's the commander in chief. He declares war, he leads in battle. A real king bears the responsibility for foreign policy, taxes, maintaining order, capital punishment, pardoning offenses. In fact you make a ברכה bracha. There's a ברכה bracha that the rabbis wrote when you meet a king, you make a ברכה bracha. And there's a question today, when you meet the president, do you say this ברכה bracha? There's a big literature, we've given a shiur on this. Do you make a ברכה bracha when you meet the president today? So according to many פוסקים poskim, what authority does the king have that demands a ברכה bracha? What is the power that one is, is making contact with that would make a ברכה bracha? Life and death. The fact that the king can call for someone's head is life and death. So maybe when you meet the president, the president can't put someone to death, but the president could take someone off death row. So maybe that is enough of an authority to make the ברכה bracha. Most poskim say today you make the ברכה bracha without שם ומלכות shem u'malchus, without using Hashem's name. So the king has all these powers, that we understand, that we, that we would guess. Indeed the Rambam acknowledges the king has to concern himself with national security and with national interests. אין ממליכין מלך תחלה אלא לעשות משפט ומלחמות Ain mamlichin melech techila ela la'asos mishpat u'milchamos. The ultimate goal, the central goal of a king is משפט mishpat, is to maintain the law and order, a law and order king, and מלחמות milchamos, to lead out in battle, to protect and secure the people who he represents. But the Rambam then lists another responsibility of the king, which is shocking. We would never think it's a responsibility of our leaders and it doesn't seem to be a behavior of our leaders today. In the third פרק of הלכות מלכים perek of Hilchos Melachim, the Rambam writes the following. יעסוק בתורה וצרכי ישראל ביום ובלילה שנאמר והיתה עמו וקרא בו כל ימי חייו Ya'asok ba'Torah u'tzarchei Yisrael ba'yom u'va'laila she'ne'emar v'hay'sa imo v'kara vo kol yemei chayav. The Torah here told us that a king has to have two ספרי תורה sifrei Torah. One he keeps in himself and one he carries and takes out with him. Why does the king need to have these two ספרי תורה sifrei Torah? What purpose do the two ספרי תורה sifrei Torah serve? So the Rambam says, because he needs to be occupied with Torah study and the needs of the people day and night. A king in order to be a legitimate king needs to be engaged in Torah study in the morning and in the evening. The king has to study Torah diligently. So yes, the nation rests on the king's shoulders. And yes, he has more to do than there are hours in the day, but among his core responsibilities that he cannot neglect is studying Torah. And that's why the Rambam writes, the king has to have a sefer Torah that he carries with him always. Why? Not just ceremonially or symbolically, but because the king has to have access to be able to study Torah. That's an essential part of his job description. It's an amazing, amazing thing. It's an amazing thing. Our early, the founding presidents of this country maintained libraries. I was on a tour of the Library of Congress a few years ago, and I forgot which early president it was, who his library was on display at the Library of Congress, and his library had a whole section of Hebrew, of מדרש Medrash and תנ\"ך Tanach, of Hebrew, of Latin, of Greek. Talk about well-read and scholarly and an intellectual. And I'm not going to contrast it to anything current or past or future. But our expectations of our leaders are so different to what they were. So no matter which party he's from, a president today would be highly criticized. Imagine you review the schedule of a leader today and he said, yeah, I like to spend a good part of the day reading, study and study. We'd say study before you get into office and study when you retire from office. When you're in office, you've got a job to do. Our taxes are paying your job. But the Rambam says Torah study is part of the core job of the king, which tells us something amazing. Torah study is our anchor in this world, talk about a hurricane of shifting wings, winds. The Torah study grounds us, it humbles us, it calibrates our compass. It guides the king through the difficult decisions, gives the king the courage and the moral convictions to do what is right. So according to the Rambam, not only is the king not exempt from Torah study during his years of service, he is obligated even more so, that he has to have this sefer Torah with him all the time. This notion, the centrality of Torah study, to inform our lives, to inspire our lives, to guide our lives, to preserve our moral compass and to create our moral consciousness and to help us be reflective and introspective, as we talked about, that if you don't have Torah, you're not alive and you're not breathing, also expresses itself towards the end of the parsha. Because here we have the laws of ערי מקלט arei miklat, the cities of refuge. A person who kills by accident, who murdered by accident, flees to one of the ערי מקלט arei miklat. And the pasuk says, ונס אל אחת הערים האלה וחי V'nas el achas ha'arim ha'ele vachai. וחי Vachai to live, understood simply, means we protect them, we sustain his life. The vengeful family wants to take him out, he runs to one of the safe, one of the home bases, one of the ערי מקלט arei miklat, and he's safe there. But the גמרא in מכות on דף יוד עמוד א' Gemara in Makkos on daf yud amud aleph tells us that we do more than just give him refuge. That when this person who killed by accident runs to one of the עיר מקלט ir miklat, ערי מקלט arei miklat, וחי vachai means we have to sustain him with life's basic necessities. So if you'd ask me, what does that mean? I'd say it means high-speed internet, DirecTV, a shmorg of tri-colored gefilte fish. I need to single malt scotch, find Cuban cigars. Everybody's going to define what וחי vachai means, that in this עיר מקלט ir miklat where he's finding refuge, we have to sustain him. So everyone would define it differently, but listen to how the Rambam, in the beginning of the seventh chapter of הלכות רוצח Hilchos Rotzeach, listen to what the Rambam writes, וחי vachai. You know what וחי vachai means? תלמיד שגלה לעיר מקלט מגלין רבו עמו Talmid she'gala l'ir miklat maglin rabo imo. שנאמר וחי עשו לו כדי שיחיה וחיי בעלי חכמה ומבקשיה בלא תלמוד תורה כמיתה חשובים הם She'ne'emar vachai. Asu lo kedei she'yichyeh, v'chayei baalei chachma u'mevaksheha b'lo Talmud Torah k'misa chashuvim hem. You know what it means to keep them alive, to sustain them? Not high-speed internet, and it doesn't mean a barbecue with access to delicious steaks. וחי Vachai means spiritually. We're not alive if we don't have access to Torah. So if a person killed by accident and had to go find refuge in an עיר מקלט ir miklat, תלמיד שגלה לעיר מקלט מגלין רבו עמו Talmid she'gala l'ir miklat maglin rabo imo. First of all, none of you ever kill by accident, please. I like my family, I want to stay home. But the talmid runs to the עיר מקלט ir miklat and the rebbe goes with him. The rebbe goes to the עיר מקלט ir miklat, the חברותא chavrusa goes to the עיר מקלט ir miklat. Why? Because deprived, denied a חברותא chavrusa, denied a rebbe, a person will surely die. So critical, so instrumental is תלמוד תורה Talmud Torah, is access to Torah, that וחי vachai, it's part of the very definition of what it means to be alive. And without Torah, without access to Torah, one is literally, one is literally not alive. It's what we need, it's the air that we breathe. כי הם חיינו ואורך ימינו Ki hem chayeinu v'orech yameinu. We don't think of it in that way, but one of the one of the things our parsha is communicating, the king has to be humbled and remember because they run that risk and that danger that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, the king has to remember, has a sefer Torah always. Torah grounds us, Torah is our anchor, Torah is our compass, Torah empowers, Torah enriches, Torah informs, Torah inspires. One day without Torah is like a day without oxygen. I don't remember where I heard it. I think it was on our fly-in, our Bais Medrash fly-in last year. But he described, you know, real people who love Torah, they can't go to sleep at night if they haven't studied at least something of Torah that day. So you'll say, but you come in 11, 12, 1 o'clock in the morning from a hard day of work, or from travel, or from fighting a hurricane, you're exhausted, you haven't studied. You're really going to study in that moment? How's that even possible? You want to collapse from fatigue and exhaustion. You know, what if you didn't eat the whole day? You were traveling, you didn't have access to kosher food, you didn't eat an entire day and you finally came home at 1:00 in the morning. Would you not hit the fridge on the way to your bed? Would you not make it through the pantry on the way till you fall asleep? Because you say, look, it's true, I'm tired. You know what I'm even more deprived of than sleep? My hunger. I need to eat something even. Why go to sleep, you have enough backup, you'll make it till the morning. But no, we all eat something before we go to sleep because our appetite is so great, we can't imagine our appetite for food is greater than our fatigue that we eat before we go to sleep. The same should be true with Torah. If we haven't studied Torah that day, we shouldn't be able to go to sleep without studying some Torah. The king had to carry the Torah and וחי vachai, the one who ran to the עיר מקלט ir miklat, we appointed someone to study Torah with him because that's what it means to be alive. The parsha describes, כתב לו את משנה התורה הזאת kasav lo es mishneh haTorah ha'zos, that the king had two Torahs. And Rashi writes, שתי ספרי תורות אחת שהיא מונחת בבית גנזיו ואחת שנכנסת ויוצאת עמו shtei sifrei Toros, achas shehi munachas b'veis ginzav v'achas she'nichneses v'yotzes imo. One that gets hidden and protected in his palace, and one that goes out with him. So on this, you knew that we weren't going to get through even an evening era of hurricane parsha class without an אמרי חיים Imrei Chaim, without a Vizhnitzer. So the Vizhnitzer says, what does it mean? He writes two Torahs, one that stays at home in the palace and one that goes out. רמז לכל איש ישראל כל ישראל בני מלכים הם Remez l'chol ish Yisrael, kol Yisrael bnei melachim hem. We're supposed to all see ourselves as king. We are the children of king, we're princes and princesses, we are royalty, שנוהג על פי התורה הן בביתו בבית גנזיו היינו גם בחדרי חדרים והן כשהוא יוצא החוצה למשא ומתן שהתורה נכנסת ויוצאת עמו שהיה משאו ומתנו באמונה she'nohag al pi haTorah, hein b'veiso b'veis ginzav, hainu gam b'chadrei chadarim, v'hein k'shehu yotzei hachutza l'masa u'matan, she'haTorah nichneses v'yotzes imo, she'yihiyeh maso u'matano b'emunah. Says the Vizhnitzer, the image of the king having two Torahs, the Torah at home and the Torah that he takes with him, we are all royalty. We like king, we are a ממלכת כהנים mamleches kohanim, we are a ממלכות mamleches, we are a nation of of kings. The Gabai in contrast to the world, we are the kings of the world. We are supposed to be carrying ourselves like royalty and modeling royalty to the world, which means that religion is not relegated to the home. בבית גנזיו B'veis ginzav, we have two Torahs. We have the Torah that informs and inspires our home and the Torah that comes with us to the gym, to the supermarket, to work and to everywhere we go. That's where the mission really begins. We heard a speaker last year at AIPAC who described, he was a non-Jew and he described his church, the most inspiring sign he's ever seen at his church is on the way out of the church there's a sign that says, this is where the mission begins, on the way out of the church. And the truth is a Jew should feel the same way. This is our עיר מקלט ir miklat. We come to shul, it's our situation room, it's our עיר מקלט ir miklat, we pour out our hearts to Hashem in תפילה tefillah, but it's on our way out that our mission begins. We have the one sefer Torah בבית גנזיו b'veis ginzav in our home, in our shul, in our בית מדרש beis medrash, and we have the second sefer Torah like the king that we carry with us, that informs, that inspires, that we take with us wherever we go. Religion is not relegated or isolated to a religious environment, but religion informs our, molds our very character and it defines who we are wherever we are and at and at all times. One last word, ולא יסור לבבו v'lo yasur levavo. So the pasuk describes about the king, ולא יסור לבבו v'lo yasur levavo, his heart must not turn away. The Rambam, we've been quoting a lot of the Rambam. So the Rambam, the Rambam, the writes, the purpose of the king is to unite the nation. He writes in ספר המצוות Sefer HaMitzvos, to gather our entire nation and lead us as one. The Rambam writes, לא יסור לבבו lo yasur levavo, his heart must not turn away because his heart is the heart of the entire congregation. הלכות מלכים פרק גימל הלכה ו Hilchos Melachim, perek gimmel, halacha vov. So that's why הקהל hakhel, when we join together after שמיטה shmitta on סוכות Sukkos, and the Torah is read from, who is the one who reads it? It's not the נביא navi and it's not the כהן kohen, it's the מלך melech, it's the king, because the king's heart should be the heart of the whole people. How? Because when a person is a uniting and unifying force, then his heart represents the heart of the whole people. And therefore the Rambam is telling us, the pasuk is telling us that the core job of a leader, in this case the king, but it's true for anyone in a position of leadership, elected, or voted upon, or self-appointed, anyone in a position of leadership, the leader within a home, a mother or a father, the leader in a community, the leader of a school, the leader of a people or a nation, the job of leadership is to unify, is to unite, is to bring people together, not to divide, not to place wedges, but to rally people around an ideal, around a vision, around a better future. That is the very person, purpose. ולא יסור לבבו V'lo yasur levavo, that the person's heart, the compassion and that drive to create a sense of unity should be at the core of what the leader, what the king is trying to achieve. I'm sorry we have to abbreviate our parsha class, these unusual circumstances. We continue to דאווענען daven for the people of the Bahamas, all those who are in the path of hurricane Dorian. We're very grateful to the רבונו של עולם Ribono Shel Olam for hopefully sparing us, and I wish all of us safety and security.
