King David, Innocent or Guilty?

good morning ladies and gentlemen nice to see you here on a very interesting subject subject that doesn't often get much coverage in the main circles of jewish study and thought definitely not a popular subject amongst jewish schools in yeshivat and most likely not even part of a rabbi's shabbat sermon but one that is very important i believe to all of us as jews today because the subject involved is extremely timely particularly with relation to the land of eretz israel the land of israel so i was in color in melbourne about 12 15 years ago and i'm not sure why an individual was pointed in my direction he was doing a mock court case he was part of the jnf in australia and they were doing a mock court case of king david and apparently the case was going to be held in proximity to shavuot which is the yard site anniversary the passing of king david and it was very provocative the headlines the headline of the court case was king david to be charged for murder and adultery and apparently they had the prosecution covered from their end and they just needed me for the defense they needed anybody that they thought would be willing to defend king david and for whatever reason they pointed in my direction they gave me a few days notice and i had to uh consider whether or not i would do this so i consulted with uh the rabbi and the call and i said should i even be getting involved in something like this where clearly there is a sentiment to try and downplay the hero position or the i guess the fact that many religious jews look to all of our heroes of the bible as being untouchable and many tried to always downplay that it's called a tall poppy syndrome in australia where they always try and knock those who are seen as perfect i said should i even get involved in this and the rabbi said absolutely because if you in any way could explain and give a clear argument to who david hamelik to who king david actually was this would be beneficial for all those in attendance but however in preparing for that i came across one of the more difficult contrasts and paradoxes that we have in the torah in the entire tanakh really it was actually rav cook who said that when there was a question of whether or not we should study the tanakh in schools because at first glance you look at most of the stories from joshua and on you see stories of violence of of killing of interesting relationships and a lot of stories that really don't seem to be befitting a holy book such as the torah very questionable those who like you know violence and sexual things that's obviously exciting for them but for the students studying torah for the first time it could be somewhat something that we'd be a bit turned away by and so rav cook says that actually by studying the passages of the tanakh in particular the battles of david malek the battles of yeshua actually enhances our spiritual courage as well the question how would a study of tactical warfare of warriors how would that enhance our spiritual strength and courage and so it sort of came to bear when you see it really mostly epitomized in david malek's life the contrast of was he the sweet yeshiva student the one who was a gentle shepherd a lover of torah the one who composed the beautiful psalms of atahilum or was he the harsh very violent often killing laying down the law going out to battle as we know his famous story of killing goliath but even beyond that so many times where he really had no hesitation in coming across as somebody who did the aggressive job when it needed to be done so to understand a little bit about david's life and how it relates back to us we have to look back a little bit of his history david grew up in an unfortunate circumstance almost the cinderella child where even his father thought that he wasn't a legitimate child you see all of the other children yishai david's father had several children before he had david and they were all dark hair dark eyes dark complexion they all had the same look you know the middle eastern look that was the jewish look at the time perhaps and then all of a sudden david is born and he's got red hair different kind of look more ruddy in his complexion and it didn't look any he didn't look anything like his brother's right away there's suspicion and the gemara goes into this a little bit as to why ishai would even suspect his wife of possibly having an extra marital affair in order and then having this illegitimate child but that was the suspicion he looked different he acted differently a little bit and so they sort of put him to the side they said okay david you're not going to have the same role as the rest of the children you're going to just take care of the sheep the other children of yeshi were all noblemen heads of king shoal who was the jewish king the first king at the time head of his army and david was just kept alone in the back to mind his own business as a matter of fact david actually refers to himself in tehillim as evan maasuhabonim the stone that was the castaway stone ended up coming back to be the cornerstone of the entire building but initially it was an outcast initially he was seen as as a matter of fact even when shmoel the prophet comes by on a divine mission to anoint david as the next king shmoel doesn't know which son of yeshua it is he just knows that it's the son of ishay and so he comes and he asks yeshua bring me your children and i will see who should be the next king who'll be anointed so he brings everybody except for david he leaves david in the back and schmuel looks at the first one the oldest one nothing happens the next one nothing happens and he finishes looking through the suns and nothing happens to show that there is a sign from god that any of these are the anointed mashiach hashem the anointed one that will be the future king so shmuel says are you sure this is all you have do you have any more maybe any other kids hiding in the back and you said it's like no no that's it that's it eventually after being pressed yeshi says well yeah he's a bit shy about it he says yeah i have i have it and it's actually interesting that when schmoyle notices david the navi uses the same words almost as this is unusual he looks different he has a different complexion to the others and he's also a little uncertain whether or not this is someone who is of this great lineage that will be the future king and hashem tells schmuel a famous line in the navy he says don't judge by your eyes judge by your heart hashem says you cannot look an individual by how they appear but rather what your heart tells you about this individual and so eventually he pours the oil from the horn and the oil literally comes out by itself it bubbles and begins to do its thing showing clearly in a very miraculous way that david was indeed the anointed one but hashem putting him in this environment where he suspected of being a child who's an outcast that had an interesting effect on david because this environment of being despised and alone he was able to develop a very close relationship with god in that in that i guess solace that he has the the place where he finds himself very often without any distraction he can start to compose his psalms and he begins to develop this unique relationship with hashem additionally if you can survive being put down in such a manner you can survive to come out i guess with your confidence intact as david clearly showed he did but at the same time it also produces a great humility in david and that's something that is seldom seen amongst the kings of israel or kings any king for that matter that they would have the kind of humility that david had and the fact that he would always look not at himself first what's best for the people what's best for the kingdom what's best for the tribes not what's best for me and that was developed during his years of caring for his sheep and showing compassion and being alone being able to develop those two very important attributes that are very challenging for a king to have so it's interesting from that side of david we see a very soft a very gentle almost a timid individual who doesn't really care for putting his name in lights the humility that he shows which i'll spotlight a couple of instances in tanakh assuming that you know some of the basic stories of how david went up against the giant goliath when goliath was coming up to attack the jewish people the entire jewish nation was was petrified avner who was the general of shoal who was known to be a mighty man he was known to have legs so strong that three or four people couldn't push him over he was afraid to fight golias but david comes up and we'll talk about his beautiful trust in hashem as well later on but right now he's standing there and he says to shoal i'll do it and showel says okay but you don't have any armor on you you're not protecting yourself he says i'm okay shoal says no please take my armor he gives the king's armor to david to wear and while dovid is putting it on it was a miracle really that happened because david was much smaller than shaw it says that king shall was at least a foot taller than every other jew at the time and yet when he gave him his armor somehow miraculously it fit david perfectly david looks up and he notices for the first time really and we're gonna this ends up developing into a lot worse case of jealousy but he notices for the first time a hint of jealousy in the eyes of shoal king shaw looks at him and says you fit perfectly into my armor i'm the biggest of everybody and how does this fit you somehow that's quite strange and david notices that instantly because he's very acutely aware of other people's feelings because he's sensitive himself and he says no no i don't want to wear this and he takes it off and he says it's not for me he does whatever he can to not take the glory to not take the position not have all the lights shining on him and then later in the story when he's running away when he's a ready king he's running away from his own son who rebelled against him afshalam rebels against his kingdom and that was a tragic story in and of itself but he's running away and he's having a hard time of it and all of a sudden an individual from the tribe of binyamin shimi bengara comes along and starts to throw stones at him and what the navi describes as claus nimret says he was there were curses that he was throwing at him dishing his way that had never been given before especially not to a king and right away joaov and some of his other generals and advisers and officers there said well should we take his head off now or later i mean this is unacceptable he's talking to a king in such a fashion that's completely treasonous and david says no i deserve this what he's saying i have sinned and i am completely willing to bear all of these curses and all these criticisms that this individual is telling me look not at the individual but look at the words which he says and they are the truth and therefore don't do anything to him this is part of a punishment that i deserve from god no other king in history would have that kind of humility in a position where he's already vulnerable already in a position where he's struggling to maintain his kingdom and all of a sudden this individual comes along and does that spares him not only does he spare him but takes it as an individual process as part of his growth and connection to god and then we see later on when he does recognize that he's made a mistake with batsheva and the prophet nathan the prophet nassar navi comes and tells him what he's done is is wrong instead of being high headed and high and mighty about it he turns to the prophet and he says i have sinned terribly and i must repent i must fix my sin there are very few kings very few people actually in any position of leadership that when they're told they've done something wrong immediately regret what they've done not just for political purposes not just for the cameras but in genuine heartfelt repentance that they're looking for and as a matter of fact the gemara says that after he had done what he'd done with batsheva and uria he would literally not be able to sleep at night they would have to change his pillows thirteen times every night because they were soaked with tears it says that libby khalil bakirbi he describes himself that my heart was completely emptied within me but every little bit of sin that i may have had he tried to expel from his heart and some say that david was the first person in history to really teach us what individual teshuva is all about we had grouped to shiva with yom kippur and the atonement for the jewish people after the sin of the golden calf but never had an individual shown us what it's like to truly repent for something that they had done wrong as david and that you can see throughout the psalms and that's one of the beautiful things about david is that we have the supplements of the tihillim of the psalms in addition to the books of small allah from small base which describe his life which really gives us more context as to how david reacted to every situation he accepts responsibility so we see tremendous humility that david amalek displayed before he was king after he was king most likely based on the fact that he had that type of upbringing as well as that his unbreakable faith and belief and trust in hashem like probably no other king had in the history of the jewish people here was a man goliath nine and a half feet tall frightening the jewish people to the point that they couldn't handle it for 40 days he was running up the mountain scaring the living daylights out of all the jews the generals of shoal did not know what to do they couldn't do anything in response and here comes a young boy who his brothers were telling him you're crazy what are you doing go back home to the sheep you shouldn't be here as a matter of fact he was only there because he was bringing some food to his brothers he was just dispatching being the messenger to bring some bread because they'd been in war for a while and he says no i cannot bear to listen to a man cursing god talking this way about the holy people of israel and the holy one blessed be here i cannot tolerate that and so he decides to employ his means of taking five smooth stones and his slingshot he says i come with the name of hashem alone he knows he can't do it completely without weapons you need trust in god but at the same time you do need some vessels in the real world as well you also have to uh give yourself a chance to have the miracle find its vessel but he comes with the five stones and it had a reason behind it first three stones were in merit of abraham isaac and jacob and then he had one stone that was for hafni and pinchas two stones for the descendants of aaron the descent the children of aeli who were killed by this giant and killed in a terrible war that the jewish people lost these were the future one of them was going to be kind god all they were future they were kohanim they were serving as ko and him serving god in the mishkan and they were killed and he says i come to you with the name of hashem the lord of hosts on this day hashem will deliver you into my hand and all of israel will know that there is a god and so he comes with this pure and unbreakable faith later on there's another interesting story as well he has to run away because shoal was chasing him and shall became later in his reign very jealous of david and uh almost almost uh to a point where he had gone insane about it i mean killing the kohanim in the city of nov was part of the chase of david and david has to flee and run away from eretz israel where does he go he actually goes to the philistines believe it or not he goes to find refuge in the philistines he does very well he puts on a good show that he is now being chased by king shall and he wants to join the philistines the philistines say well we're happy to have you but we need to know for a fact that you are indeed loyal and so he proves his loyalty to akish the king of gus even though many of the other soldiers they're a bit wary but david even while he's there pretending to be i mean we're talking about the ellie cohen of this day i mean he was able to to work into the highest ranks of the philistine army while every now and again he would manage to break away with his men who were approximately 200 strong and who were these people by the way that were with david not all of them were great people see there's always those that have to run away from the government for whatever reason or another and they saw oh here's a great opportunity david's got a little thing going one guy is being chased for tax evasion other guy for fraud but they all managed to have a reason why they joined david in his escape from uh from the royal eye of shul and so here he was now with these men and he was able to accomplish something extraordinary when no one else realized he would go out with his men and kill from the amalekites from some of the other tribes that were enemies of the jews the entire villages of these enemies what he had to do was he had to kill every single member of these tribes without one possible survivor because had there been a survivors they would have gone back to akhis the king of gus and told him that david's just killing these these people he's not really part of the philistine army he's still working for the jews so he had to completely destroy everybody now one point when they were off doing their thing the amalekites one of the tribes came back and went to the camp of david where there were only the women and children there only the women and children had remained behind while they went to battle when david and his men come back they see there is no one left in the camp they see that the women and children had been taken now this was a moment of truth for david he's on the run from shoal he already is out of where he's supposed to be he's already suffering beyond his expectations if ever could have thought why he's going through this he didn't know but now he's faced with a moment of truth even his 200 men now begin to turn on him and say david this is all your fault you brought us here you told us we'd be safe we always knew this would be a dangerous endeavor but you took it on your responsibility and now where are our women where are our children what have you done to us and it said in small aleph that they were moments away from stoning david now david had also two wives at this time achinomination and he had also lost them as well and he could have gone into a despair himself and said oh he developed what has happened to me and my wife and my wives and i we have nothing left but he turns the moment around with one of his greatest speeches that he gave he's ever given and he starts to inspire those who are there and he says don't you understand my friends it's not about us it's about hashem and if he wants us to be victorious we will be this is just a test let's strengthen ourselves let's strengthen our belief in hashem let's go out and try and be victorious in finding our wives and children and hopefully nothing will happen to them and he inspires them to the point that they change from wanting to stone him to saying let's go and do it he inspired them with dvarim hayotsim minhalev nichnas melalev words that came from his heart was were able to enter the hearts of his men you cannot do that if you don't truly believe and have trust in hashem yourself you cannot do that to inspire others it comes across as hollow comes across as empty words trying to just pay tribute to god but david really meant it and so they heard it and absorbed it that way and they went and they chased after malachi tribe they got up to them they had not touched any of the women and children other than take them prisoner they killed every last one of them and they were all reunited with their wives and with their children without one casualty in that story so when he was faced with a tremendous challenge in that case his faith was so strong not only was he able to survive it himself but he was able to strengthen his soldiers as well now interestingly these this combination of his humility and his trust in hashem bred something else beautiful when he became king and that was the fact that he was always looking to put the jewish people first his main focus was unity of the jewish people it began again from his youth being a shepherd of his flock was something very interesting because we know that great leaders of israel were first very often shepherds moshe rabbano first had to show almost like his apprenticeship if you can take care of sheep then you can take care of people as well and it was when moshe chased the sheep up to the mountain and that's where he saw the burning bush his revelation of finding god was only after he had showed first that he cared about the little sheep that was wandering off and not only that he showed that he wasn't upset at the sheep rather he said sheep where are you going you're looking for strange waters you don't need to i'll take care of you that attribute was especially necessary for a leader of all jews not just the great jews but even the jews that wander off looking for other waters now david had the same idea as well desire to keep his flock intact that when there was a bear that one time came to attack he fought it off with his bare hands the gentle shepherd the one who was quietly composing psalms when it needed to be done he stood up in an act of defense for his sheep and so we start to see a little bit of the character of david yes truly humble someone who had absolute trust in god but because his desire was first and foremost for the jewish people for the good of the jewish nation just like for the good of his sheep there were times when he found himself having to stand up take a stand and fight the very physical and aggressive fight maybe even that was against his nature but it needed to be done again we're comparing david and moshe for a moment so we see another fascinating comparison moshe did not go into the land of israel even though that was his dream it was his dream this week's parasha he dovens to hashem he prays to god 500 plus times please can i go in and hashem says no you did what you had to do you laid the path you paved the way it's not for you now almost tragic in as much as this was his only goal in life this was his dream he did everything that hashem wanted him to do but whatever reason he had sacrificed that right and he was no longer going to the land of israel david hameleth from the moment he becomes king his one goal is to go to yerushalayim and establish and build the bay samigdas the place in which hashem said he had chosen but had yet to be established in the first 400 years of the jews being in israel that's his first move you know how they say when you become president the next morning i'm going to sign into bill the following act and then that's my first move to repeal this to do that whatever it may be that's the hub deal that's going to be my first act as president david's first act as king was not to build himself a fancy palace was not to pick out the colors and the the drapes in his in his new home that he'd have finally been on the road for seven years he'd been on the run finally now he could establish a beautiful palatial home for himself that was not what he did his first move was to go to yerushalayim even though it meant fighting the yubusim and saying this is the capital he took over matsura sian and he said i name this place sio there's actually a name that was already there matsura and a small fortress just outside of your shalam which now is the area of migdal david which is now the area of the tower the the place of david which when you walk through jaffa gate you can see it there on the right side he said that is where i'll begin my capital city ir david and he named it sian which comes from the word mitsuyan excellent he said that's where god's blessings will come from and then he said but that's not enough i've got to bring the holy ark back here the holy the orange with the lookers with the tablets were sitting in somebody's house because they didn't know what to do with it the philistines took it away they started getting all sorts of plagues because they didn't treat it properly raiders are the lost ark style and then when they sent it back on a wagon to the jews saying you can have this thing we don't want it anymore they went to uh it went to bait shine i believe and uh there the jews also started to get sick hemorrhoids and things and it was quite uh disconcerting that they sent it over to somebody's house just to hold it just till we know what to do with this very very holy item and david says let's take that to your shalom as well and we'll have the holy of holies there too that was his first goal to establish the home in yerushalayim the base and what happens was he able to build it just like moshe bainu hashem did not allow him to complete his dream why because he had fought too many wars he had battled he had had he had blood on his hands and somebody that was going to build the base amigdas needed to be completely pure in his hands you know the example that i once heard was you're dressed up ready for a wedding in a fancy suit and black tie and tuxedo and you're on your way to this fancy gala affair and all of a sudden you see somebody drowning in the swamp and so you jump in to save them and you go in you save the individual but you get all muddied in the process and then you go up to the wedding and they say sorry we can't let you in look at you how you dressed it's completely inappropriate please leave would you regret saving the individual because they don't let you into the wedding of course not and that was david ahmad's life as well he knew that by fighting the wars to save the nation to sacrifice his own desire of building the base amigdas but doing so in order to create unity amongst the jewish people to create secure borders for the land of israel this was the sacrifice that he had to make and therefore he also had his dream elude him because of his approach of putting the jewish nation first and it was indeed proven again when he becomes king right away and it wasn't so easy even after shoal was killed by the politician by the philistines did david become king no avner the general of shoal says i'm going to make ishboshas the king he's the son of sheol i'm going to put him in place of king and david who's you know watching the politics unfold from chevron he's watching it uh as it's as it's unfolding there in gilboa area he says all right if ishboshas is the king i'm not going to compete let him be the king british bosses didn't want to be king he was put there by proxy avner just wanted a a position that he could still exert influence and so somebody came along and killed ishbitius and came running to david saying hey i killed your nemesis you can be king now you're free to be the leader of israel david says wait a second you killed the son of the king shall you killed an innocent man who was of royal blood how dare you and it was a complete turnaround from what this fellow these two uh these two fellows expected and they were sentenced to death as well for their act not only that there was one remaining child descendant of shaol was murphy by the lame son of jonathan who yonatan and david is for another time but they were very very close friends through difficult times and david says i will take care of mephibosis i will continue to care for him irregardless of the fact that i am now king and shall's kingdom no longer exists but he was from a family of those who were appointed king over israel how could i not show respect for him how could i not honor the covenant with my close friend jonathan and he has murphy bosh has come to every single meal in the palace when he is king miphibosh's incidentally was a very learned man as well and would often uh sometimes stump david in matters of torah it says david would sometimes blush when he was uh put on the spot by mephibosheth but david had a very wise son his name was kilov who happened to be one of the smartest people alive at the time as a matter of fact he's one of the people the gamora says never sinned in his life and he would stand up for his father and take murphy basis to the cleaners in learning as well so it all balanced itself out but it was a very interesting and unique environment of torah study and people who believed in god but first and foremost david wanted to show that it wasn't about his own agenda his own kingdom anything possible to unite the jewish people and as a matter of fact it was when later in his reign when shiva ben bikri from the tribe of benjamin decides to make a little bit of a revolt he says no i want to show you even though i am from yehuda david says i want to include binyamin i want to include all the other tribes just as much in the decisions and the nobility of what's going on here in the land he put the jewish people first and that's why we say david malachi israel why him over all other kings do we say he should live forever because his principle and ideology of putting the jewish people first uniting the jewish people as one nation with one home in yerushalayim with clear and defined borders of eretz his troll he wasn't looking to take over the world he just says what is ours is ours what's not ours cake is unto hate you can stay there amen other nations but don't you dare step foot into our land he established the clear borders and boundaries of eretz israel because of that we say that's the type of king that we wish to inspire us and have a perpetual legacy for us forever because it reminds us that no matter what we go through it's always about unifying the jewish people and not god forbid standing there and saying i have a dream i have a goal i need to build a base of mig dodge i need to do this due to that while at the same time not taking care of bringing people together and so therefore from david we see a man who never did it for himself the contrast of those two characteristics the humility the softness of david the sensitivity of david balancing out with also the david who did not stand for any behavior against the jewish people did not tolerate anything that opposed torah to pose god we see that at times even a soft sensitive individual has to stand up and make a difference very often we say it's not me it's not me it's not who i am i'm just a quiet person i sit there i watch you know if you ask me i'll sell tell you my opinion but i'm not gonna stand up and make noise i'm not going to ruffle any feathers but from david we see that if you truly despise evil then good cannot stand idly by as sensitive as soft-spoken as timid as humble as he was and if you look at his tehillim you see the sensitivity pouring out of the words how beautifully he wrote things that could only come from a gentle heart but yet at the same time because he was the epitome of what was right and good he could not turn the other cheek to evil and when something was not right he made a stand he let it be known that this is unacceptable it's interesting because very often as jews we struggle with this and when we talk about what is david's secret i think this is the crux of it this individual who murdered somebody in cold blood everyone was watching everybody saw it it was obvious that he was the killer which made it all the more surprising when the top defense attorney in the country decided to take the case why would he risk his 56-00 run of getting his clients acquitted on such an obvious case where this fellow was guilty but they decided to see how he would play it anyway come into the courtroom and the case against him is is you know unstoppable they couldn't they couldn't no way argue that he didn't kill this individual but then the defense attorney gets up and he says okay ladies and gentlemen your honor in exactly 10 seconds the real murderer is going to walk through those large oak doors in the back of the courtroom the real murderer is going to come in there's suddenly a big murmur amongst the crowd what do you mean the real the real murderer is sitting right over there everyone looks to the door because it's what's going to happen 10 seconds go by 15 seconds go by 20 seconds go by now the murmur starts to become a loud buzz and nobody walks in the door the judge bangs his gavel and he says what kind of a trick is this what are you pulling this stunt what's happening here and so the defense attorney gets up and says your honor my point has been made the fact that everybody turned around and looked at the door when i said that somebody else other than my client is going to walk in shows reasonable doubt that everybody thought that there might be someone else if it was for sure my client why would they even turn and look at the door the fact that they fell for that the fact that they still thought that there might be somebody else coming in is that not reasonable doubt that's all you need you don't have to have complete doubt you have that reasonable doubt there's a good argument the jury goes in to deliberate they come out and uh the ruling is guilty afterwards when he was interviewed one of the jurors was asked what about the argument of the defense attorney about the reasonable doubt of everybody looking at the door he said yeah it was good it was good however there was a member of the jury that wasn't looking at the door he was looking at the defendant and the defendant never turned around to look at the door himself because he knew there's no one else coming in he knew it was him the moral of this story is there are sometimes as jews that we very often look at the door we say our enemies are not so bad we say there's always an out let's see maybe there's another reason maybe there's another explanation maybe it's not so simple maybe it's more complicated we look for an out for our enemies even for goodness sake on pesach when we suffered for 210 years the persecution of the egyptians in which they drowned the babies in a mass genocide we still pour out a little bit of our wine because we feel bad we feel compassionate for them we say that they had to suffer is unfortunate but then there are times and that's why rav cook says by understanding the wars of tanach you will strengthen your spiritual courage as well because there are times when we are not allowed to take our eyes off the defendant there are no other tricks there are no other games there are no other excuses we need to remember that unfortunately hashem has placed evil in the world that is opposed to that which is holy and that which is good and david amer taught us no matter how sensitive we are no matter how compassionate we are no matter how much we love peace and tranquility and would rather be sitting with the sheep in the backyard having a good time we have to remember that if we are truly good then we will despise evil and we will not tolerate evil to exist and prosper and therefore he established a very clear and definitive boundary when it came to arabs israel there will be no civil strife amongst the tribes there will be no enemy of israel crossing over the borders into the land of israel in any way shape or form we will not tolerate in any way even one jewish death that will have befallen that individual from an enemy such as the philistines etc it will not be tolerated that's only because he loved what was good and what was right and what was from hashem so much therefore he could not turn the other cheek and think maybe i could look to the door and see if there's a way i could find an out for these people maybe they're not so bad and so on and so what's his secret that the only period in history of absolute peace 40 years of mashiach-like peace that the jewish people experienced was after king david's reign during the times of his son solomon only because solomon's father had that path had that plan in which he carefully balanced a love and sensitivity to every single jew and putting them at the forefront of what his kingdom was all about meant sometimes having to lay down the law and may it be that we all love hashem and the jewish people in this way that we don't simply say oy when we hear something that's going on that's tragic within our community within our families and then continue going about mowing the lawn and doing our knitting but we actually stand up and say i have to do something about this my love causes me to go out of my natural character out of my natural behavior and like david miller display a strength that could only be from a love behind it that's why david melech is schalke that's why we hope and pray that we will have a descendant of david we will have somebody who comes from david's lineage that will be able to reinstate and re-establish again this kind of kingdom this kind of kingship for the entire jewish people may it be speedily in our days i believe your question was how you could explain that david's actions of putting uria on the front lines was not actually a murderous act and there's quite a few interesting explanations given the fact is that there are certain parts as with many times in the torah that you have to look at the entire context and uh saw that through divine through divine inspiration that there was going to be the next king of israel and the future ancestor of mashiach was going to come from a union of him and batsheva he knew that that was going to happen but he didn't know how he was going to get to that point so his mistake was that he took matters into his own hands now if you follow the story of tanach urea actually says some very disrespectful things to david before he sends him out to war to which david technically could have had a good argument of having him held for treason however david only had taken people to uh the death penalty through first consulting with the sanhedrin he never acted alone even when he goes to bring the orange jewish shallam and he go every time he does something he first consults with the sanhedrin or even at certain times he consults with the 30 000 rabbis who lived in that day by the way we say rabbis then it's not a loose term like today we talk about thirty thousand that received smikha from the original smither from yoshua that received smikha from moshe rabbenu of i put my hands on your head because you now have a transmission of all the messora all of the torah knowledge both written and oral in your mind and in your grasp in your knowledge and so he consulted with these people very often but here in this particular case with uria he didn't and therefore that was more of the crime that nassan was screaming but nasa never accuses him of murder not son of all the chastising that he gives him never says you're guilty of murder he says you went about it the wrong way and so he puts uria on the front line almost as a self-imposed punishment for the way he spoke to him of course possibly motivated somewhat by knowing that uh he would follow up with having but shiva and that and then there's no question that nassen the prophet tells him that this was not the right approach to be taken but not exactly guilty of murder because of the fact that there was legitimate cause for uria to be punished in some way or another and as well as the fact that there was the coast of get chrysler ishta that before you went to war in david's army you had to write a bill of divorce to your wife not knowing if you would come back or not so technically according to some of the more finer points of jewish law there is certainly to say that it was not adultery and was not murder however at the end of the day and gomorrah really points this out and says with all of the possible justifications that david had he still from the story displayed one of the most human ideas that's so important and that is we are not perfect we can sometimes be vulnerable to a temptation to a desire as noble as it may be as possibly well motivated as it may be there's still a question of possibly becoming a victim to that and it's how we respond that shows how true we are and how honest we are look the fact is hashem gives us him kipper every year he doesn't say okay i'll give you yom kippur once every 10 years because you know you should be pretty good i mean so maybe after 10 years he can make a mistake no he gives us yum kipper every single year knowing that we sin knowing that we do something wrong as a matter of fact people always question why do we start banging our chest and talking about i sinned with this i sin with that well the book of life is open in front of us and we have a question whether we're going to live or die and we start hanging out our dirty laundry we start saying oh i spoke gossip i did this i did that just keep your mouth shut say i've done some things that are bad but that's not about that now it's about how i'm going to be good why do we have to spill the beans the answer is because hashem wants to see that we recognize that we've done something wrong we are human and there's no fault in that we're not perfect but are we true to ourselves enough are we genuine enough that we can be honest and say i have done something wrong even if we can't admit it to others we can at least admit it to ourselves and to hashem and say i've made a mistake and truly repent for that truly atone for that and ask for forgiveness so david malek really taught us what that kind of attitude shift what that kind of egolessness is to be able to not have that pride even as king of an entire nation where so many had the pride often with less to stand on than david he taught us no matter what position we are we still are not mistake free we still are prone to possibly making an error and therefore recognizing that is huge in god's eyes the question was if there is a connection between the balchemtov because of the yard sight that they shared i have to admit i'm not particularly familiar in all of the souls and reincarnation teachings of the arizal so i'm not sure if there's anything to be said in that regard however one thing that you can clearly see and that is the idea of shavuos the idea of the torah is very often thought of as an intellectual pursuit come to shivers i need to study what it is to be a jew academically it's about understanding the commandments understanding the words the hidden teachings the mystical teachings and making that something that i can grasp in my knowledge however there's something that's often missed when it comes to shivers and that is the fact that the jewish people probably for the only time in history was standing one people with one heart unified listening to the word of god i don't believe that there was ever such a time in history i mean they obviously tried during the hakkel years the gatherings on sukkos and so forth to have the men women and children all gathered together as one but it mentions that and that's one of the reasons why in dayenu we say even if we got to mount sinai we didn't get the torah dayenu it would be enough how could you say that would you come to sinai for if not to get to torah if we could have just experienced that unity that one heart that one soul of the jewish people coming together that would suffice because unfortunately that's something that we don't get very often so while that's not very often spoken about i guess it's alluded to by the fact and it's connected too strongly in the fact that baal shem tov who had first and foremost a love for every single jew regardless of their level of observance torah knowledge wherever they may be said you are a soul you are a part of god's children you are loved it doesn't matter if you know how to learn if you don't know how to learn you cannot be viewed at simply by the opportunities that you've had in childhood of learning and study and so forth he loved every single jew and no matter what level they were just like david who had a focus and a goal of caring about every individual jew in his kingdom regardless of which tribe they were regardless of who they were regardless of where they stood from he protected them and ensured that they were safe as well so i believe that the subtle message of shivers is that we often say the torah is just about knowledge but unfortunately as we've seen many times and i believe now there's something going on with the mashups it's not always just about the knowing of torah it's not just about the understanding of the nuances of god's word it's how are we bringing it down into reality into practice into the real world and belsham and david showed us that the number one thing is standing at the mountain as one people and only through that can we receive god's revelation so there might be more to it and there probably is more to it but i believe that they shared that commonality of putting that first the love of the jewish people ahead of even saying well you know more you know less and how much torah knowledge there is as a matter of fact it was david himself who after being on the run for seven years made a mistake he made a mistake trying to bring the oran back to yerushalayim remember he hadn't learned all that much torah while he was on the run he would just you know say it's almost like those great jews many who survived the holocaust and while they were running during those years they were just repeating in their minds and off by heart whatever they knew from tehillim or their studies and that's how david was he was just going over in his head as a matter of fact he even describes in psalm 119 he said torah is like a song to me and hashem a little displeased maybe at that analogy because tara is a little bit more than just a song it's something you have to really delve into but to dove it it was a song because it was something that he would so freely express from the depths of his heart and the depths of his soul even without having the depth of knowledge of every nuance in the torah and so he makes a mistake when it comes to bringing the iron back in a wagon instead of having the levites carry it on their shoulders as was commanded to them in the desert to moses but it was still always a focus of course torah is number one but doing what's best for the jewish people was always something that uh he was most adamant on on keeping question was that if uh if david representing a theme as many of our patriarchs and jewish jewish heroes and leaders did his theme was ms and truth and that way he fixed the mistake of adam with the sin of the tree the etzer does now there is an interesting madrish that says that adam was supposed to live for a thousand years and he very kindly donated 70 years of his life to a king that he foresaw was a great king that was going to die in childbirth and not actually live but he had a potential to be a great king of israel and so he donated the 70 years and those of you thinking if i lived for a thousand i would also donate 70 years well that could be until you turn 929 and then you start to question your decision but at this point we see that there is a there is a connection between david and adam harishan and there's no question that part of that connection is like you said the idea of ms that david was able to sort of fix the mistake of of adam and while there are many different kabbalistic explanations to exactly how that remedy happened there's no question that uh david through showing an absolute truth and following to the t the word of hashem because we see that many times later in history the kings are told why aren't you acting like my trusted servant david why aren't you following what i want like david so however much you think david may have heard in one way or another not in hashem's book in hashem's eyes david followed to the t what hashem wanted him to do and thereby by following the path of truth even if at times the path of truth is not so popular the path of truth doesn't have as many fans politically but that was able to remedy and fix and atone in the last 70 years of i guess the cycle of adam's life that which adam had unfortunately stumbled upon during his uh his sin and that interestingly then sort of almost becomes the sin that had to happen not to go into the whole subject of adam and chad's sin but if you look at how many times throughout history there was a an individual who would remedy a mistake that happened particularly a mistake that great we sort of see how the world would not have had the benefits and the pluses and the beautiful gifts like had it not happened had that sin not happened and very often we look at it and say why are we teaching that to the children the very first thing the sin of adam the sin of they open the book and what do they read about parents say don't do this and they do it anyway is that the message you want to teach your kids but it's almost that yes that needs to be taught which is that the sin that happened and almost had to happen so that all of the future descendants would have an opportunity to remedy that and come back to the point in which ottoman started which obviously was the garden of eden how we come back from being down is more of a question of how we stay when we're up yeah the question is really the way we started the class and uh it is it is such a stark contrast the fact that david had such a gentle soul versus the way he was just able to go in and brutally murder an entire village and obviously for the sake of heaven obviously for the right reasons but nonetheless the ability to be able to do that and i think this is one of the difficulties that we come to terms with today as well we very often project our own compassions and our own feelings of sensitivity on others on everybody else i think one of the hardest things in israel today is to be a border patrol officer or guard you have to watch as and it's happened that an ambulance with a woman who's looks like she's giving birth to a baby is coming through from the west bank to go to a hospital in israel and that these soldiers have to literally defer their feelings of compassion and sensitivity which is so natural for them because that's how they've been raised and that's how they've understood that when a woman is giving birth to a child what could be something that we need to show more compassion to but they have to stop and literally put that aside and unfortunately because history has shown that there have been times when the enemies of the jews have disguised themselves as a woman giving birth to come into israel strapped with bombs and explosives to commit a horrible terrorist attack and so therefore i think one of the hardest things for us is to put our feelings of compassion and sensitivity to the side and say i suspend that for this moment i must suspend it for this moment because we're talking about a different set of circumstances now and david was able to do that david was able to do that because of the fact that he loved the jewish people so much now if you go back in those days it's hard to imagine that yeshua for example was the greatest torah scholar of his day yet if you look at the book of yeshua all he did was fight wars all he did was go out to battle you look throughout history even shmoel hanavi the one who was so close to god and as a prophet of power excellence one of the greatest prophets in history when he came and saw that ag the king of amalek was still alive he took his sword and cut him into a dozen pieces i mean we can't really wrap our heads and comprehend even mushroom himself led the jews to battles against sikhon and og and other in other nations even towards the end of his stint in the desert great jewish scholars spiritual giants part of the job that they were expected to do part of what they had to employ was to defeat and win wars in a very physical manner thank goodness today we don't have to experience that in america as much but there is no question that in israel that balance is coming to play again as well is there something to be said for those who are spiritual in their focus to also be able to go to war is it expected of them this is the debate that's been going on for quite a few decades now is it a contradiction or is it something that really is part and parcel of the jewish responsibility and there is no question if you look at tanakh and i believe this is rav cook's statement if you look at tanakh there is no question that it's part and parcel of jewish responsibility because a true lover of good a true lover of peace will not allow the enemies to have any kind of stronghold and you must fight in a physical way and as much as parents say well we think our child would would not be able to live that kind of life but rather just the life of torah studying yeshiva but unfortunately it's been part of the fabric of jewish history forever that it's part and parcel of how we need to act as jewish people defending our country physically as well as keeping it strong spiritually now would you question even a thought in your mind if you saw god forbid a child in danger on the street would you question even though you'd never think that you have the ability to run across the street and put your life in danger risk your life maybe use some superhuman strength that you never knew you had to save this child of course you wouldn't even think about it and therefore that same ideology that same idea of when my wife child family is standing behind me how could i not stand up and take a stand and defend them physically with all my might and know that ultimately which david knew even though he was a weak shepherd that his strength would come from hashem that would be a way in which he would ultimately cause one of the greatest kiddush hashem which was the killing of goliath which was a tremendous kid of hashem he showed the jewish people that it's not about strength it's not about muscles it's not about training it's about trust and faith in hashem you do your thing and he'll follow through with the rest click subscribe to see more exclusive content for the most sought after jewish speakers teachers and thinkers

Channel: Jewish Learning Institute

Views: 147,304

Rating: 4.6886544 out of 5

Keywords: jli, Jewish Learning Institute

Id: mON9Lt7WR0o

Length: 61min 40sec (3700 seconds)

Published: Wed May 05 2021