Transcript
classes, like legitimate, not rabbis, googled a few articles, now I act like I know anything about AI kind of classes. That's me. But he gave legit as one of the engineers of artificial intelligence. It was incredible. And one of the great advances of technology in cars is eliminating blind spots. I know I don't look like it, but when I first drove, and you didn't have cameras coming out of every part of the car, so it was a big problem. I remember taking driving lessons, you were supposed to check your mirror and tilt your head. Anyone remember that? Check your mirror and tilt your head. You didn't rely on the on the rearview mirror when you backed out of the spot, turn all the way around. Don't trust the rearview mirror. Why? Because the rearview mirror and the side mirrors have blind spots. There were blind spots. And if you ever drove in those days and put on your blinker, you were a good boy or girl, you were a 10 and two, put on your blinker, looked in the mirror, you start to turn, someone honks you and there was a car right next to you, and you almost got in an accident. Why? Because that car was where? It was in your blind spot. Today, you have a whole dashboard with like nine cameras on it. You're looking at every image, every angle, every everything. You can't even concentrate on the road because you're looking at the show all around the car. There's so many cameras. It's amazing. It's brilliant. It's beautiful. But in our personal lives, many of us are still walking around with blind spots. People don't understand. It's a blind spot. You think you should take that job, move to that place, set up that schedule, continue to have that relationship, do this thing, go in that place, but you have a blind spot. You don't realize that what's driving that conclusion, that judgment, it's totally clouded. You've convinced yourself not only that you see clearly, you've distorted the whole vision, that you're a thousand percent confident. So you need to מרבה עצה מרבה תבונה marbe eitza marbe tvuna. What do you need to do? You have to have cameras. And what are the cameras? You have to have good people with good advice. דעת תורה Daas Torah, אמונת חכמים emunas chachamim, wise people that you turn to, מרבה עצה מרבה תבונה marbe eitza marbe tvuna, the more advice that we seek, and the more the more wisdom that we get.So then we get to צדק צדק תרדוף Tzedek Tzedek tirdof. Now פסוק כ' pasuk chaf. Righteousness, righteousness shall you pursue. צדק צדק תרדוף Tzedek Tzedek tirdof. Interesting on this word, צדק צדק תרדוף Tzedek Tzedek tirdof. The שפת אמת Sfas Emes quotes, a שפת אמת Sfas Emes on our parsha quotes that you don't find in the Torah the idea of distancing, הרחקה harchaka. You find, we put a fence around things. We find that we should put a fence around things, but we don't find that you should distance, except when it comes to two things. One, anyone know? Stay far away, distance yourself from it. Back in פרשת משפטים Parshas Mishpatim, מדבר שקר תרחק midvar sheker tirchak. Stay far away from lies and falsehood. And the שפת אמת Sfas Emes says, where do we else do we see it? צדק צדק תרדוף Tzedek Tzedek tirdof. צדק צדק Tzedek Tzedek. It doesn't say act justly. It says righteousness, righteousness, תרדוף tirdof. To be רודף rodeif means to pursue, to run after. Why do you have to run after righteousness, justice? When you have to run after something, what does it tell you about it? If it's sitting still, do you have to run after it? You have to run to it. You don't have to run after it. If you have to run after something, it's because it's fleeting, it's running away. הוא היפך של שקר שצריכים להרחיקו. כמו כן אמת צריכים לרדוף אחריו. Hu hefech shesheker she'tzrichim l'harchiko. K'mo chein emes tzrichim lirdof acharav. You have to run after truth. You have to stay far, far, far away from lies and distortions and falsehoods, and you have to run after and pursue צדק Tzedek. Why? הטעם לזה כי העולם הזה הוא עלמא דשקרא. Ha'taam l'zeh ki ha'olam hazeh hu alma d'shikra. We're living in a world of lies. מועיל שיחיק אדם את עצמו תמיד מהשקר, הרי ממילא נדבק בו השקר מעולם הזה. Mo'il sheyarchik adom es atzmo tamid mei'hasheker, harei mimeila nidbak bo hasheker me'olam hazeh. This whole world is filled with lies and we're feeling it. We're feeling it so acutely right now. The world's distorted, unfair, unjust depiction of Israel, of negotiations, of the way that this war is being is being fought. It's it's an עלמא דשקרא alma d'shikra. It's a world that's filled with lies. ולכן צריך הוא תמיד לרדוף אחר האמת, כי קשה מאד להשיגו בעולם הזה. V'lachein tzarich hu tamid lirdof achar ha'emes, ki kasheh me'od l'hasigo b'olam hazeh. In this world, there's almost nothing that's true. Even ourselves, without pointing the finger around us, it's so hard to know what's objectively true and what we're biased about. We don't know our own blind spots. ויודעינו מזה קס\"ו השפת אמת, השפת אמת adds further: אי אפשר להשיגו בשלימות בעולם הזה, רק צריכים תמיד לרדוף אחריו. E'efshar l'hasigo bishleimus b'olam hazeh rak tzrichim tamid lirdof acharav. You have to continue to pursue and you won't find it and get there until the world to come. And that's why the world to come is called the עולם האמת Olam HaEmes. It is the world of absolute truth, we'll see the truth. We'll see everything objectively for what it is, without the distortions, without the bias, without the lies. But this world, while we're here in this world, it is a world of of lies. The Torah says, Rav Hirsch, when he quotes this שפת אמת Sfas Emes, Rav Avinashur, שליט\"א shlita, a few years ago, he says, לא תיקח שוחד. שוחד, חז\"ל tells in גמרא כתובות ק\"ה Gemara Kesubos Kuf Hei, what is שוחד shochad? שהוא חד she'hu chad. שוחד Shochad. The word שוחד shochad means bribery. Why is the Hebrew word for bribery שוחד shochad? Because it comprises the etymology of the word שוחד shochad is שהוא חד she'hu chad. You and the one who gave you the bribe become one. So until then, I'm me, you are you. I am a judge. I am judging you. But the moment you give me a bribe, you've created this connection between us. You've linked us, and now we've become one. שוחד שהוא חד Shochad she'hu chad. So Rashi tells us, ונעשה מקבל הממון ונותנו לאיש אחד ויש להם לב אחד. V'naaseh m'kabel hamamon v'nosno l'ish echad v'yesh lahem lev echad. We have one heart. אם כן הרי האדם עצמו הוא מורכב מגוף ונשמה. Im kein harei ha'adam atzmo hu murkav mi'guf u'neshama. Says Rav Hirsch, a human being who's made up of a body and a soul, במציאות הוא מקבל שוחד מחלק הגוף, שהוא יהיה אחד עם הגוף. b'metzius hu mekabel shochad mei'chelek ha'guf, she'hu yihyeh echad im ha'guf. What happens? The soul and the body, we really are distinct and separate and apart. The body is animal. The body is finite, mere mortal, and limited, fragile, and vulnerable. And the soul is a חלק אלוקה ממעל ממש chelek Eloka mima'al mamash. The soul is a piece of God literally. Now the soul and the body, they're roommates. They're closer than that. They live together. They really should be separate and apart, but what happens? שוחד שהוא חד shochad she'hu chad, the body has this way of bribing the soul. For me, it's every morning when the alarm clock goes off. And the body says, no, no, no, the later מנין minyan, it's a little slower, you'll have more כוונה kavana, sleep in. No, no, no, the learning you'll make up better, you'll be more alert. It's okay. You were up late doing righteous activities and you didn't get enough sleep. The body has this incredible power to bribe the soul. How does it do it? The same way שוחד shochad always works. שהוא חד she'hu chad, by distorting the truth. And that's why the only way that our soul, our our soul will be supreme over our body, instead of our body controlling our soul, the only way, how? Is if we are vigilant. מדבר שקר תרחק midvar sheker tirchak, stay far away from lies and צדק צדק תרדוף tzedek tzedek tirdof. A person, it's not enough to be committed in principle to truth, person has to be willing to run after it, person has to pursue it, a person has to chase it.פרק י\"ז פסוק ט\"ז Perek Yud Zayin Pasuk Tet Zayin. Moving along. The next segment of our parsha, death penalty for an idol worshiper, for an idolater. We have the laws, כי יפול מן החומה על המשפט ki yipol min hachomah al hamishpat. We've talked about this in the past. You have the rebellious elder. And then we get to the section of the king. כי תבא אל הארץ אשר ה' אלקיך נותן לך. Ki savo el ha'aretz asher Hashem Elokecha nosein lach. When we enter the land, we have three mitzvos when we come into the land of Israel. We have to eliminate Amalek, and we have to set up a king, and then we build the temple, we build the Beis HaMikdash. Why do we have a king? Is the fact that Judaism has a monarchy, a king, is that a concession, because we want to be like the other nations of the world, or is that God's vision that we should operate, the governing structure of a Jewish people is a king? Because here it seems to be a mitzvah in our parsha, and later, later in Sefer Shmuel when the people want to establish a king, God seems critical of them for wanting it, just for being like everybody else. But in any case, we have a monarchy, we have a king. But our king has different rules. Our king has two Torahs, one in the palace and one that goes with him. Our king is not about fame and fortune and power, and consolidating power. Our king is about repairing and improving the world in God's image, and conquering in a way that advances God's blueprint for this world. Our king is a different king. שום תשים עליך מלך אשר יבחר ה' אלקיך בו מקרב אחיך תשים עליך מלך Som tasim alecha melech, asher yivchar Hashem Elokecha bo, mikerev achecha tasim alecha melech and so on. And the verse says, פרק י\"ז, פסוק ט\"ז Perek Yud Zayin Pasuk Tet Zayin, in verse number 16, רק לא ירבה לו סוסים ולא ישיב את העם מצרימה למען הרבות סוס וה' אמר לכם לא תסיפון לשוב בדרך הזה עוד Rak lo yarbeh lo susim, v'lo yashiv es ha'am Mitzraima l'maan harbos sus, v'Hashem amar lachem lo sosifun lashuv baderech hazeh od. The king can't have too many horses, so that he will not return the people to Egypt in order to increase horses, for Hashem has said to you, no longer return on this road again. The king can't have too many horses. Or put in today's language, the king can't have too many cars, too many private jets, too many yachts. A king who has all this wealth, this treasure, and is tempted to display it and show off about it, the Torah says there's a limit, there's a limit. And what was the fear, what was the danger? Because where, where did they make those jets? Where did they make them mold those cars, manufacture those cars? In Egypt. The king is going to want to go back to Egypt in order to get the latest jet, in order to get the biggest yacht. But we're not supposed to go back to Egypt. Egypt's a place that we left. We were redeemed from, we don't return to. On these words, he can't have too many horses. What else does the Torah tell us? Not only לא ירבה סוסים lo yarbeh susim, the next pasuk, ולא ירבה לו נשים ולא יסור לבבו v'lo yarbeh lo nashim, v'lo yasur l'vavo. Of course, not equating the two, but he can't have too many horses and he can't have too many wives, and his heart must not turn away. וכסף וזהב לא ירבה לו מאד V'kesef v'zahav lo yarbeh lo me'od. לא ירבה לו מאד lo yarbeh lo me'od. His heart shall not turn away. He can't have too many wives. Why can't he have too many wives? I'll let you answer that for yourself. But of Rav Soloveitchik, Rav Soloveitchik, on these words says the following, the Torah enjoins the Israelite kings from having too many wives, so they would not sway the king from wholeheartedly serving Hashem. Because it's not a, God forbid, negative thing about women or wives. It's having to do with the king's capacity for attention. Having wives comes with responsibility and obligation to give attention, to meet needs, to be subject to influence. And if a person had too many, what would be left to serve Hashem? So for example, and I don't want to digress too much. But the Torah says polygamy from a Torah perspective is permissible. Having more than one wife is one wife is permissible. Happens to be a thousand years ago, Rashi's teacher Rabbeinu Gershom enacted that we no longer have more than one wife, and we put into excommunication someone who does. He was a leader of Ashkenazic Jewry. Sephardic Jewry from Spain, Portugal, the Spanish countries, did not sign on to that enactment. And therefore, as recently as less than 100 years ago, there still were Sephardic men who had more than one wife. The Rambam, Maimonides, who's Sephardic, says even about this law, you're allowed to have more than one wife, however, only if you can treat each wife, honor each wife, provide for each wife as if she's the only one. So the moment you dilute your resources, your time, your attention, your capacity for love, you're not allowed to be married to more than one, because you're only allowed to marry more than one if you can provide all the attention, the love, the affection, the resources that they deserve. So the prohibition here of the king having more wives is because he has to focus on God. Continues of Soloveitchik, according to the Medrash, Shlomo HaMelech, King Solomon maintained that this rationale did not apply to him. His belief in God was ironclad, could never be weakened no matter how many women he wed. The Medrash relates that at the moment Shlomo decided to violate the command, the letter י yud from the word ירבה yarbeh complained that Shlomo had ignored the mitzvah. What does the Medrash attribute the complaint to the letter י yud? What does that mean? And Shlomo, of course, fell prey, and he was led to a poor path. Why? Because he thought it didn't apply to him. Shlomo rationalized, because you see the way שוחד shochad, our judgment gets clouded. He wanted more wives. So he argued and rationalized, that's a good rule, it's a good law, for someone else. But me, I'm okay. Remember when they passed the law about texting while driving in Florida, so they did research in order to bolster passing that law, and they found the following: the overwhelming majority of Floridians felt it's dangerous to text while driving. And the overwhelming majority of drivers in Florida felt, but they could do it in a safe way. That was the conclusion. Everyone agreed it's incredibly dangerous to text while driving, and everybody thought, except they can do it in a way that's not dangerous. They could do it in a way that's safe. Shlomo thought it's a good rule for others, but me, I'm good to go. And because he thought he was good to go and was bribed by that desire, that drive, came to a terrible conclusion. And the Medrash says, when he came to that terrible conclusion, the letter י yud of the word ירבה yarbeh complained. What's the Medrash talking about? Says Rav Soloveitchik, the Hebrew letter י yud is the prefix that indicates future tense of a verb. Although Shlomo was correct that in his present state, he would be unaffected, he did not recognize that in the future the situation could change. When he became older and weaker, we learned that his wives indeed swayed Shlomo's heart, and that altars to false gods were built in his palace by these wives. The י yud demonstrated that even Shlomo, the wisest man who ever lived, could fall prey to what he was certain he could avoid. Why is it the letter י yud? י yud is future tense. So we think in the right now, strong, resolute, I'm good to go. It's okay for me. But you have to live life with the letter י yud, the future tense. You have to anticipate. You have to see what's to come and understand that it's a very slippery slope and if you start here, what it's going to lead to. Shlomo didn't do that, refused to do that, and because of that, ended up having that negative outcome. And the letter י yud was right in complaining, the letter י yud is what brought that, is what about that negative outcome.פרק י\"ט, פסוק י\"ח. The next pasuk. He can't have too many wives to turn astray his heart. וכסף וזהב לא ירבה לו מאד v'kesef v'zahav lo yarbeh lo me'od, and he can't have too much gold, and can't have too much silver. The Maggid Yosef, Rav Yosef Sarotkin, beautiful ideas on the parsha. So it says the following: פרק י\"ט פסוק י\"ח Perek Yud Tes Pasuk Yud Ches. It says, והיה כשבתו על כסא ממלכתו v'hayah k'shivto al kisei mamlachto, it shall be that when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, וכתב לו את משנה התורה הזאת על ספר מלפני הכהנים הלויים v'kasav lo es mishneh haTorah hazos al sefer milifnei ha'kohanim ha'Leviim, that he should write for himself two copies of the Torah in a book from before the Kohanim the Levites. It's very interesting about our, I remember I once wrote about this or spoke about it. I should write about it. If you go back, we once took a group to Washington to lobby. We had some time, so we took a tour, we had a guided tour of the Library of Congress. It was fascinating. And if you see the private libraries of some of the founding fathers and early presidents of this country, they were incredible scholars. They read in Latin, in Hebrew, let alone in English. The diversity of their library, the languages, their curiosity. Again, they didn't have Twitter, so they weren't distracted by technology and the like, but their scholarship was remarkable, was extraordinary. And you talk about modern day leaders, not talking about anyone in particular, some whom barely seem literate. Let alone, I wonder what the last book they can name that they read is. And Judaism, the king had to walk around with two books. It was the same book, you have to have two copies, and it was the book with the capital B. It was the Torah. A copy that sat in the palace and a copy that a copy that accompanied him out. Because no matter how powerful he grew to be, no matter how much fame and fortune he had, he had to remember to be rooted and anchored and humbled by the Torah, its guidelines, its teachings, and ultimately to surrender to Torah. Torah is all what it's about. One copy of the Torah he could inherit from his ancestors, and the other copy of the Torah he had to author or commission himself. So you just think about that contrast. Our leader, by definition, our leaders have to be learning. If you have a rabbi who's not learning, you need to look for a new rabbi. If the rabbi says I'm so busy and I'm running and I'm going, you say, Rabbi, what are you studying? Do you participate? Do you come to a kollel, boker, afternoon kollel? Are you in the Beis Midrash? You have a chavrusa? Are you learning? Our leaders need to be learning. If you're not learning and growing, you're going backwards, and you can't be a good leader. And leadership is very time consuming, but if the leadership is at the expense of learning, that's not a leader that you want. We want our leaders to be to be reading, to be growing, to be learning. But Rav Sarotkin notes here the dikduk. The pasuk should have said, והיה בשבתו על כסא ממלכתו v'hayah b'shivto al kisei mamlachto, it will be when, when he takes the throne, his seat. What do you mean כשבתו k'shivto? כשבתו k'shivto? So he says the following: כל מלך כשעולה על כסא המלכות זוכר תמיד את העם ונושא נאם ומתחייב לעשות הכל למען עם ישראל. Kol melech k'she'oleh al kisei hamalchus zoicher tamid es ha'am v'nosei ne'um u'mis'chayev la'asos hakol l'maan am Yisrael. Every leader when they ascend to leadership and they give their acceptance speech, certainly while they're running for office, when they're elected, and when they give their acceptance at the inauguration, what do they do? They promise and they pledge, I'm here to serve you. It will always be all about you. I'll go to the ends of the earth for you. That's my motivation. That's why I'm in it. That's what it's all about. I'm here for you. Until, all of a sudden, they start acting for the people and they act for themselves. How long can they extend their power? How long can they grow their power? How far can they reach their power? So what happened, the thought, the pure intent when they first, their civic duty when they first began, disappears often and dissipates, not always, but often very, very quickly. So that's what the Torah says about the king. When the king ascends to the monarchy, the king says, I want to serve the people. They're not my servants and subjects, I'm here to serve them, I'm here to serve Hashem. And then what happens? All those horses, all those women's, all that luxury, all that wealth, all those private jets, and the king all of a sudden forgets what it was about. So we remind the king, והיה כשבתו v'hayah k'shivto. כשבתו k'shivto, not בשבתו b'shivto. The king has to always have the posture and the perspective. The leader has to always have the attitude that they brought on the day that they were inaugurated. כשבתו K'shivto, not בשבתו b'shivto. When you took that seat, when you ascended to the throne, as you ascended to the throne, is the attitude that you have to always have, gratitude, being humbled, being about the people. כשבתו K'shivto, not בשבתו b'shivto. That explains the the change of grammar, says Rav Sarotkin.The Torah tells us תמים תהיה עם ה' אלקיך tamim tihiyeh im Hashem Elokecha. פרק י\"ח פסוק י\"ג Perek Yud Ches Pasuk Yud Gimmel. Chapter 18 verse 13. Skipping around here a little bit. תמים תהיה עם ה' אלקיך Tamim tihiyeh im Hashem Elokecha. A person has to be תמים tamim. What does the word תמים tamim mean? Be be righteous, be whole. Simply put, don't follow horoscopes and superstition and silliness and נערשקייט narishkeit. All there is is Hashem, he is in charge, he is in control. He is the one we surrender. He is the one that we submit to. If Rachel Pollan Goldberg could talk about Hashem, even on the day of burying her son, after 11 months of demonstrating a mother's love like we've never seen, advocacy to the ends of the earth, תמים תהיה עם ה' אלקיך Tamim tihiyeh im Hashem Elokecha, that no matter what the outcome and no matter what happens, to surrender and realize that this somehow is the will of Hashem. Rashi says, התהלך עמו בתמימות ותצפה לו hithalech imo b'tmimus v'tzapeh lo. It means walk with him, with God. Don't ascribe it to superstition and silliness and chance and randomness and happenstance and coincidence. All of those are forms of idolatry. To be תמים tamim with Hashem is to know, לא תחקור אחר העתידות, lo tachkor acharei ha'asidos. Don't, don't use horoscopes and silly things about the future, psychics. אלא כל מה שיבוא עליך קבל בתמימות, ואז תהיה עמו ולחלקו. Ela kol mah sheyavo alecha kabel b'tmimus, v'az tihiyeh imo u'lchelko. Whatever happens, receive with תמימות tmimus, ואז תהיה עמו ולחלקו az tihiyeh imo u'lchelko. תמים תהיה עם ה' אלקיך Tamim tihiyeh im Hashem Elokecha. That's what it means. The חיד\"א Chida in his sefer נחל קדומים Nachal Kedumim brings from Rabbeinu Ephraim, תמים תהיה tamim tihiyeh in גמטריא gematria is תשרי Tishrei. כי בימים ההם צריכים לשוב בתשובה שלמה לתקן מעשינו. Ki b'yamim ha'hem tzrichim lishuv b'tshuva shleima l'sakein ma'aseinu. It's in the month leading up to Tishrei, Rosh Hashanah, and the month of Tishrei. It's the same gematria, is תמים תהיה tamim tihiyeh. That is the month where we practice תמימות tmimus. Rosh Hashanah, 10 days of repentance, Yom Kippur, Sukkos, we go and sit in a shade in the elements of the Sukkah, that's when we're תמים tamim. The אור החיים Or HaChaim, כי אדם צריך להיזהר להיות איש אמת, שפיו ולבו שווים, מיוחד דיבורו. ולא יהיה אחד בפה ואחד בלב, ויחשוב בלבו היפך ממה שאומר בפיו, חס ושלום. Ki adam tzarich l'hizaher lihyos ish emes, she'pihu v'libo shavim, mechud diburo. V'lo yihyeh echad b'peh v'echad b'lev, v'yachshov b'libo hefech mi'mah she'omer b'fiv, chas v'shalom. תמים תהיה Tamim tihiyeh. It's talking not only about our awareness and intention and our relationship with Hashem, but תמים תהיה tamim tihiyeh means be a תמים tamim. What does a תמים tamim mean? That your outsides and your insides have to match, that your word is your bond, that you're not duplicitous, you're not hypocritical, you don't say one thing and do something else. תמים תהיה Tamim tihiyeh. Be reliable, be dependable, let your word be your bond, follow through on what you say. And if you live that way, תמים תהיה tamim tihiyeh, then you're עם ה' אלקיך im Hashem Elokecha, you're with God. But no matter how long you shuckle in your שמונה עשרה shmoneh esrei, the longer how righteous you are in your religion, but then you're not consistent when it comes to people, you're duplicitous, then you're not עם ה' אלקיך im Hashem Elokecha. How are you עם ה' אלקיך im Hashem Elokecha? How are you walking with God? If you're תמים tamim, to be a תמים tamim, have integrity and honesty in business and life, to be a תמים tamim, תמים תהיה tamim tihiyeh, when you're a תמים tamim, then you are עם ה' אלקיך im Hashem Elokecha, then you are, in fact, with God.פרק כ פסוק ז' says, פרק כ פסוק י\"ח פסוק י\"א, racing the clock. פרק כ פסוק י\"א. Those who are exempt from war, who's exempt from war? What should we do? Okay, we'll do something else. We'll end with this. פרק כ\"א פסוק א'. The last section of our parsha tells the story, I was thinking a lot about it today. Because we saw, we saw Rachel Pollan Goldberg apologize to her son that she couldn't bring him home. We saw President Herzog apologize, he couldn't bring him home. We saw Bibi in his press conference apologize for not bringing him home. We didn't see anyone in the American administration apologize for not bringing home an American, but we saw a lot apologize, a lot apologize. What is the responsibility of leadership when somebody's murdered, when somebody's killed? Even if they couldn't directly necessarily have avoided it, what's their responsibility to atone for it nonetheless? There are no coincidences and that's exactly the end of our parsha. כי ימצא חלל באדמה אשר ה' אלקיך נותן לך לרשתה Ki yimatzei chalal ba'adamah asher Hashem Elokecha nosein lach l'rishta. A corpse is found on land that God gave us. It's in a field and we have no idea who the murderer is. And the elders and the judges they go out, we're talking about the most prominent judges of the high court, the Supreme Court, they go out, and they draw all the attention, all the cameras follow them. So now we're hoping to find the murderer because we brought the whole media and the whole world and all the attention. They go out, they go out, and Rashi says, a from the Sanhedrin Gedolah, the entire high court from Yerushalayim, travel to wherever the body is found. If the deceased is found in a field outside the city, the first step in identifying where he was last or with whom he most likely had contact. The Sanhedrin, these high court, the justices are charged with the task of measuring to determine what is the city that's closest to the crime. They have this enormous ruler and they measure, and they try to find the city closest to the crime. And then an eglah, a calf, in its first year that has not worked, has not blemished, is taken to the valley and is executed there. The leaders of the city and the kohanim are present, and a declaration ensues. So the Torah tells the following: וענו ואמרו, ידינו לא שפכו את הדם הזה ועינינו לא ראו v'anu v'amru, yadeinu lo shafchu es hadam hazeh v'eineinu lo ra'u. They say, these hands, our hands, we didn't spill this blood, and our eyes didn't see who did it. כפר לעמך ישראל אשר פדית ה', ואל תתן דם נקי בקרב עמך ישראל Kaper l'amcha Yisrael asher padisa Hashem, v'al titein dam naki b'kerev amcha Yisrael. God, forgive us, atone for us, forgive the Jewish people. ונכפר להם הדם. V'nikaper lahem hadam. And let the blood of this calf that's being sacrificed in the valley, its neck is being snapped, let it atone for this sin, that someone died on our watch, even if we can't directly take responsibility. In contrast to most societies, in which the police and detectives and law enforcement supervise the crime scene, here it's not law enforcement. There's no yellow tape put up. It's זקני העיר ziknei ha'ir. It's the elders and the leaders of the city who manage and administer the crime scene. Why are they brought all the way from Yerushalayim? So the Rambam in Moreh Nevuchim suggests that the episode of the עגלה ערופה eglah arufah is pragmatic. All that publicity, all that attention, hopefully we can find the murderer. The Ramban, the Ramban Nachmanides says, no, עגלה ערופה eglah arufah is a חוק chok. Is a חוק chok. Not coincidentally, the Ramban points out, it has many parallels to the quintessential חוק chok, the paradigmatic חוק chok. What is the model of all חוק chok? A חוק chok is a law that doesn't have a rational reason. What is the ultimate paradigmatic חוק chok, a law in the Torah that's beyond defies comprehension? The archetypal חוק chok is the פרה אדומה parah adumah, the red heifer. Both the עגלה ערופה eglah arufah and the פרה אדומה parah adumah can't have blemishes, neither of them could have been worked. For the Ramban, the ceremony is like a קרבן karban, it's like a sacrifice, and it's achieving atonement, much like the פרה אדומה parah adumah. So the Rambam says, it's a pragmatic, it's an exercise, bring attention, we'll find out who the murderer is. The Ramban says, no, it's כפרה kaparah, it's atonement, like a קרבן karban, a sacrifice, just like the פרה אדומה parah adumah. The Ibn Ezra is more specific. The עגלה ערופה eglah arufah is a procedure designed to achieve atonement, not just for the murderer, but for the townspeople who metaphysically allowed a murder to happen in their vicinity. Because if a tragedy unfolds in a community, it is a cause for introspection to examine, what did we do wrong? Why did this happen on our watch? What could we have done differently? And even though we're not responsible for the specific, how does accidental murder happen? How is it you weren't mindful? How did it come to be that even accidental murder could happen? Because a person didn't love their fellow Jew. If we love every Jew, whether they're the same or different, if we love even the Jews that we don't like. We don't have to like, but you have to love. We find the capacity to love. I say that about family members. You don't have to like every member of your family, but you have to love them. Love is a verb, like is an adjective. You don't have to like them, but you have to love them. You have to take a bullet for them, you have to be there for them, you have to support them, you have to take care of them, you have to be loyal to them. You have to love them, even the ones that you don't like. We're Jewish people are one whole family, and there's those that we don't like. And even those that we don't like, we have to love. And if we would love every Jew, we would live a life that nobody could get killed by accident. When we talk about getting killed by accident, we're talking about actual murder and death, but we're also talking about the people. You know who's killed by accident today? Those who are lonely and isolated, those who are neglected, those who feel invisible and inconsequential in this world. We're killing them by accident. Those who have mental health illness, mental health struggles, those who don't fit neatly into the package of our expectations, we're killing them by accident. How could it be that we could come to kill by accident? Because כי איש שונא לרעהו ki ish sone l'rei'ehu. Because if we don't learn and condition ourselves to love everybody, then we come the opposite to ultimately to to kill. Running out of time. Which one should we do? מי האיש mi ha'ish. פרק כ' פסוק ז' Perek Chaf Pasuk Zayin. specific murder. We didn't do the crime, we didn't see the crime. But if it happened on our watch, but it happened in our vicinity, if it happened closest to our city, then we're responsible. The Mishna in Sotah wonders, וכי על דעתינו עלה שהזקני בית דין שופכי דמים הם v'chi al da'ateinu ala she'ziknei beis din shofchei damim heim? Why did these elders, these righteous justices, they have to declare we didn't murder? What, we thought that they murdered? We were about to accuse them of murdering? What does it mean? אלא שלא בא לידינו ופטרנוהו בלא מזון, ולא ראינוהו והנחנוהו בלא לויה Ela she'lo ba l'yadeinu u'ptarnuhu b'lo mazon, v'lo re'inuhu v'hinechnuhu b'lo l'vaya.Says the Gemara in Sotah, the Mishna in Sotah, what the זקנים zekanim and what these justices say is, \"We didn't murder him.\" Rather, when he came to visit, we sent him off with food and we escorted him. We didn't send them, the murdered person did not come within our presence and we sent them off without food, nor did we see him and send him off without accompanying him out. The Gemara draws from here the importance, the centrality, that when you have a guest, you have to escort the guest out of your home. You don't sit on the couch. You don't still sit at the dining room table, loosening your belt at the end of your six-hour בוקר שבת Boker Shabbos meal, \"See yourself out.\" \"זיי געזונט Zai gezunt,\" \"It was fun.\" לוויה Levaya. לוויה Levaya, you have to walk, you have to escort the person out. Rabbi Klein, זכרונו לברכה zichrono l'vracha, those who remember Rabbi Klein. At the end of his life when his wife passed away, he ate at our house each שבת Shabbos. I would walk him home. Then he would insist on walking me out. Then I was nervous he was going to fall, so I'd walk him back to the front door. Then he'd walk me out. And every Friday night it was a fight. \"We're good. Stay. Put. Where you are.\" Because you have to walk a person out. And we derive that from here, because these elders state that they're not guilty or liable because they never saw the person and failed to walk them out. What does not walking him out and giving food, why does that need atonement? Why does that need כפרה kapparah?So I'd like to suggest to you in closing this fine evening, thank you for coming to the פרשה Parsha Perspectives at night, and thank you to those who drove far, I understand to be here. I'd like to suggest that while they make the statement to provide for their innocence, it does the opposite. It actually confirms their guilt. How could it be that you have a city, you have a community, someone was there and a guest, and you say, \"We don't know who they are. We didn't host them. We didn't walk them out. We didn't send them with provisions\"? How could it be you didn't say hello? How could it be no one asked, \"Do you need a meal?\" How could it be you didn't say, \"Can we help you with any hospitality?\" There's a culpability as leaders for creating an environment which is not warm and welcoming and friendly. When they say we never saw them, they're saying is he was invisible to us. And for that, there needs to be a collective כפרה kapparah. It can't be there are people who move in and no one says hello. It can't be there's a visitor, a guest who comes by, and for a week he דאווענס davens in a שול shul and nobody said, \"Are you visiting?\" I know and I have all the excuses under the sun. We've got eight שחרית shacharis's every every weekday morning. You could live in the same city as someone for five years and never have overlapped with them in the same שול shul, the same מנין minyan. So you're afraid to go over to someone and say, \"Hi, are you visiting?\" And they say, \"I've lived here longer than you, young man.\" So therefore we hesitate, we don't do it. I know I have all the same excuses as everyone else. And yet, it's a liability to not create an environment that it's possible that there was a guest and you didn't say hello. The מהר\"ל Maharal says, \"Why is someone who's not escorted who travels alone vulnerable and in danger?\" Because when a person feels isolated and abandoned and alone, when a person feels unimportant, then they don't have the self-worth, the self-esteem to protect themselves. Someone who lives and is sent out, someone who operates in this world and feels alone, they are vulnerable and they are in danger. And we know that and we see that in our time. The mental illness and mental health struggles of people who feel abandoned and alone in our time, they can't operate and navigate a world and it's our fault. And though our hands didn't spill their blood, כפרנו kaperna, we still need a כפרה kapparah for doing such a thing.When יוסף Yosef sends wagons to his father יעקב Yaakov, it revives his spirits. Why? You remember? יוסף Yosef sends his brothers down in wagons and יעקב Yaakov remembers, \"Now I believe יוסף Yosef's alive.\" Why? What was the last thing they were studying? עגלה Eglah wagon, עגלה ערופה eglah arufah, the laws, these laws. Why is יעקב Yaakov so come alive? Why is his spirit restored? Not only because he remembers יוסף Yosef's alive and that's what we were learning, but it was demonstrating that יוסף Yosef takes responsibility for his brothers. He cares about his brothers. He cares about the people around him. And that's what the lesson of עגלה ערופה eglah arufah is really all about. And that's what those apologies that we heard today. Could they have done things differently, things differently to bring back those hostages? Maybe, maybe not, it's politically charged, it's complicated. I think we have to all admit it's complex. I don't know. And yet collectively, we all have to offer that apology. Because if we're not worthy of השם Hashem having done miracles to bring them back, כפרנו kaperna, it's on all of us. And please God, we should prove worthy so that we have בשורות טובות besoros tovos in this new month of אלול Elul. A good חודש chodesh. השם Hashem should give בשורות טובות, ישועות ונחמות besoros tovos, yeshuos v'nechamos.
