Q&A: Jewish Soldiers, Sinai Revelation, Secular to Religious Lifestyle - HaRav Yitzchak Breitowitz

bring up bring up why is it to bring up why not give to us yeah well I think it's connected to the idea that you know just as when you go to erel it's called alah and this is based on the gamorra the garah says ER Isel is higher than every other land now that doesn't mean it's geographically higher Mount Everest is higher than erel but obviously the reference that erel is Gava we callot is primarily a spiritual idea and we always refer to spiritual blessing as Aliah you're raised so too a health is very very similar when a person is in good health as the rambam writes it is easier to serve Hashem your mind is clearer so when Hashem gives us a Rua that's called Hal he's raising we being uplifted and the like you know it's interesting just as a little aside you know the rambam of course as everybody knows was a famous doctor in addition to being the great uh Rabbi the great posek the great philosopher that he was and the rambam writes about health a very interesting thing he says that it's important to be healthy but if a person makes Health the purpose of his life he is no worse than a glut who moves in the other direction one person is addicted to food and the other person is addicted to exercise you now people think oh if you're addicted to exercise you know you're virtuous he said the rambam says no the rambam says being addicted to exercise and physical health is no more of a kosher addiction than being addicted to the all the other bad stuff he says health is not important because it is an end in and of itself health is important because it enables me to serve Hashem and do Mitzvah so it is very important but it's important as a means it's not important as an end and therefore the word Aliyah connotes that we ask Hashem to give me a Rua that will also lift me up that I should use my health for positive spiritual reasons yeah that toply we follow what says about what we know today uh if I I heard you read now you said why don't we follow the rambam's or why should she asked me why should we okay so uh well well okay you're you're making an assumption in the question that might not be right uh the rambam in Hil in the M Torah devotes around two chapters to medical advice the rambam gives advice regarding diets regarding exercise uh the types of foods you should eat the types of foods you don't eat and the Ram knew this stuff because uh in addition uh to everything he was a doctor so the interesting question is are we should we follow the medical advice that's in the mishna Torah so let me make a very interesting observation there's actually quite a lot of medical advice in the gamorra itself which the rambam does not follow so the issue is if the rambam does not follow the medical advice in the gorah then why should we follow the medical advice in the rambam apparently the rambam's position was that when the sages talk when the talk about matters of Health they are not speaking as Bal MRA they are not speaking from the perspective of God giving them something at sin Etc they are speaking as learned scientists of the world meaning it's based on the scientific knowledge of the world and even though in Tyra the generations go down we understand that scientific knowledge can change and our medical understandings can be different and may be superior not always to that of the past so in that sense the notion that you know the medical information in the Gora or the medical information in the ramban is somehow a for the most part is absolutely not true and when it in other words there is a you got to safeguard your health that is a but the particular way that you Safeguard your health is not a halakic question it is a factual question that will be determined by medicine and science that's the simple understanding of things however I do want to say that in spite of the fact that the rambam's medical advice is not a that you have to follow because it's just based on his understanding of medicine going back to the 12th century going back to the 1100s in point of fact modern science has confirmed a lot of what the rambam has said uh the rambam number one was one of the first who talked about the vital importance of nutrition and the idea of prevention of illness not just curing sickness and the importance of exercise so those foundational ideas in preserving your health the rambam articulated and even his diet there is a diet book out there I don't remember what it's called but it's like the rambam's diet or something it's it's kind of adapting the rambam's diet to you know modern food or whatever so it's a little bit of a tricky question if you're asking me how logically do I have to follow the rambam's medical advice the answer is no however that doesn't mean there may not be a great deal of wisdom in it and therefore one should look into it you know so it is a wonderful thing when we can look in our Torah sources and even get this practical information as to how we uh take care of ourselves by the way I got to tell you one story just appro of nothing but just reminds me of a story that dakov kineski uh was a person who was very very mock bit on his health in the sense that you know he only ate that that which was healthy you know in other words everything was directed uh not just for tyer and not just for pleasure or enjoyment everything was directed towards what would be beneficial to keep him healthy to be an evid Hashem so once uh he was put on a diet because when you're older your metabolism slows up a little bit so he was put on a diet and what happened was he was rapidly losing weight too quickly it was not good so he went to the doctor and the doctor was very concerned Why have you lost so much weight what's going on and rakov says I don't know I follow your diet exactly exactly to the Spoonful so the doctor started laughing oh that's the problem you see I know everybody cheats on a diet so I give a caloric diet that is only 50% of what you're supposed to eat because I figure whatever diet I give people are going to double it so if I give somebody a 3,000 calorie diet they're going to eat 6,000 so I figured what you need to eat every day and I gave you a diet for half of that figuring you were going to double it like everybody else but he didn't know rakov when the doctor tells rakov this is what you eat rakov only eats what the doctor said he should eat so as a result rakov was losing too much weight and the doctor had to double the prescription to correspond with r yakov's caloric needs this is a this is actually a very high madrea we don't necessarily think about this as aod sashem but it actually is that a person makes all of these decisions based on what will maximize the he of my body in order in order to serve Hashem to DAV to learn to have clear mind like nothing else enters into my decision making process other than what will facilitate my AEM that is a a very very high Madre yeah um for example are items that are in of itself not like inally holy themselves when you use them specifically only for Holy uh Acts or Mitzvah do they hold uh any level of kadha and could I use that for something like to drink out of for example yeah yeah so let me just mention Hally there are two categories of what you might call Mitzvah objects there are what are called tvah things that are used for mitzvos an example would be a chaur an example would be a lulav and an esrog an example would be uh uh well let's go with those two examples right now cus situs would be an example now there's a second category Which is higher than Tash Mitzvah they are called Tash kadus that have actual sanctity because they're connected to God's name an example would be a sa for Torah AES a sitter tan which have paros that have the shame of hasem now once you're finished with it you are allowed to throw it away so theoretically you could actually throw a Lula and an estrog into the garbage and the only provisor is you should put it in plastic so it shouldn't be mixed in with the actual garbage but you can throw it away same thing with C Talis uh you could throw it away in that particular way t k likein and like sa for Torah and like and cannot be thrown into the garbage they have to be put in a special place ganesa Sheamus Sheamus is just sheos names of God and the like so um at a minimum a washing cup is not Tash Kad doesn't have the Shem on it would be at most T Mitzvah and therefore there's nothing wrong with throwing it away but that doesn't yet answer your question and that is even T Mitzvah that you can throw away when you're finished you're not allowed to use them for other purposes so you're not allowed for example to use uh Talus to wipe up a spill there is a Shila for example you know very often people use their tus to clean their glasses you know and the Min is were is not so ped why that's mucher because you're using it for a non Mitzvah but some would argue some would argue to just answer that that the only thing that's tou Mitzvah are thees not the talus the Tyra says on a four cornered garments there's a Mitzvah to put SES on it so I can't use the sites to clean my glasses which nobody would do anyway but the talus is like an article of clothing I mean it's like I have a shirt that has four corners I got to have situs so that would be the Hatcher for that uh so you're asking about a washing Cup and the like would I be allowed to use it uh for other uh for other purposes so generally speaking we would allow that simply because it's understood usually that these types of utensils are not exclusively set aside for that use it's not like a Talis it's not like a Talis bag or whatever but there would be a mum to be not to use it for other things now to drink from a washing cup though may have a slightly different problem and that is the water when you wash your hands in the morning uh it's a d push it everyone I hope everyone knows this you're absolutely not allowed to drink the water from washing your hands that water is spiritually impure it has what's called a Ru like a bad spirit so you certainly cannot drink that water that's for sure you shouldn't even give it to your animal like a dog or a cat so the so you got to be extra careful that uh when you drink uh from a washing cup it's totally you know totally dry before you put your water in it because otherwise for sh you could be drinking from the washing water which is absolutely not allowed not allowed to do but other than that we would be M yeah hasem asked the Nations they want to see the Torah they said what's inside what exactly did he show them see as so yeah yeah excellent question the question was that according toal in before Hashem gave the Torah to the Jewish people Hashem went around to all the nations of the world on some level he offered them the Torah and they all asked give us an example of what's in the Torah and Hashem gave different examples on the Nations different each Nation said I can't accept it uh one nation said oh don't steal well we live on stealing can't do that don't kill nah can't do that Etc so the question was this this is before Matan Torah so we say show us the Torah well a lot of the Torah right more than half of the Torah are events that occurred after Matan Torah in fact I could ask your a question in in a slightly different context and that is you know Moshe got the Torah at har what does that mean Kim that all happened after mat Tor so obviously the word Torah is used in different ways some times it means the five books of Moses the Torah other times it just means the Commandments or we say we learn Torah right uh when we say I learned Torah well you didn't learn so much Torah today you learned a lot of gamorra today you know you know I mean how literal do you want to be so Torah can refer to all sacred knowledge so basically when they say show us the Torah it does not mean the stories it does not mean the narratives it means the Commandments that you're going to give because after all if I'm thinking about whether I want to accept the Torah what I want to know is not the stories at that point I want to know the Commandments What am I signing up for so that simply means so God revealed to them selected Commandments he didn't show them like a safer to uh now an interesting question is this though every n now Hashem knew the end of the story that they wouldn't accept it but theoretically Hashem offered them the Torah that means they could have accepted it so let's imagine some Nation would have accepted the Torah so what would their Torah have said I mean the Torah gives the story of Abram Y and yov I'm a nation that's not them like I'm reading somebody else's life what exactly would have happened now this is a a counterfactual hypothetical but what would have happened had some other Nation said yes what is the Torah they would have gotten would they have gotten our Torah or would the Torah have taken a different form but how could the Torah take a different form I mean this is uh you know God's will the Torah existed 2000 years before creation of the earth so one possibility I'm not sure I mean Hashem would have to work it out is an interesting based on an interesting thought of the vagon you know the vagon says that the did exist before the creation of the world the tah was the blueprint of the world but the tah in its primeval pre-creation form was not broken up in the words and sentences that we have it it was an unbroken sequence of letters just like they do in the Bible Code stuff and only when events happened does it then get divided up into words so theoretically every nation's story could have been devised by breaking up letters and words in certain ways meaning I'm not sure if it's infinite but but the word the the words of the Torah could have many many different forms depending on the nation to whom the Torah was given so it would have been a different Torah now we believe it would have had the same Commandments but the narratives would have been a different narrative would have been the story of asov the story of Ismael what what whatever it would be now Lisa these are fascinating theoretical questions but bem they were not real questions because Hashem happened to know the end of the story that nobody else was going to accept it but he had to create the theoretical possibility that other nations would accept it I mean he offered it to them and theoretically they had Free Will and they could have accepted it so it's a very interesting thing uh to consider uh in that in that way yeah so we know that the we learning being are being so like right now the war and all this stuff would that mean that just like our learning is kind of being sh or is it that no we need our learning but we also need physical fighting and soldiers and if it's true that we would need soldiers um why is that the Torah world doesn't give as much least in my opinion k to um fighting the physical War yeah yes so uh the question that's asked is again a question that many people are thinking about and perturbed about that is it's axiomatic to a believer in Hashem that Li Torah brings Merit to CLA Isel this is fundamental and that the Jewish nation is protected uh through learning of Torah and really Mitzvah in general but Torah above even Mitzvah in general so the question becomes what is the claim exactly is the claim that Li works by itself and in theory don't need an army just learn and you'll be protected or is it Li T along with thead of a military and the like so once again it's very difficult to say that it was aes's plan that all you have to do is learn and your enemies are not going to attack you uh because the proof of that is that in the Kish itself when mosenu uh waged war against mijan there had to be an army waged war against amalik right amalik attacked us we didn't simply say let's all sit down and learn some gumar now and that will get rid of amalik that's not what the says the says there had to be an army there had to be an army right every King now we had some bad kings but I'm talking about the righteous Kings all the righteous Kings in tanak had armies the so a it's apparent that generally speaking CLA Isel needs soldiers in order to because like everything else uh the comes from the learning of Torah but you have to have hisas just like parasa your parasa comes from God not from you but you got to do some effort in order to get God's we so I I think it's it's a d pet that a good army is part of aradas uh the question then becomes if indeed CLA Isel needs an army so why uh does some of the toor world not express enough appreciation uh to the soldiers so so again I I I don't want to disparage anybody I I really don't want to but but the MS is um if you're asking me we have to have the great of this is by The Six Day War and earlier constantly talked about the idea that we have to appreciate people that are mfish that are put their lives in danger uh for the benefit of the Jewish people we have to express great great great and I'll tell you there's a side benefit to that which is very very good and that is the more we express our to the people who aren't learning who do things for CLA Israel the more they will appreciate the learning that people do SCH gave a very important very important and I I mention this like all the time maybe every week almost and that is Kam upon Him upon him like water reflects the face that you show water right I look into the water if I smile at it I get back a smiling face if I frown at it I get a frowning face so too the heart of man reflects back that's what you show it I look at Aon or I look at a soldier many soldiers are religious but I look at a soldier and I say ah no good they're going to look at me and say no good I look and I say I appreciate what you're doing I'm grateful for what you're doing I want to thank you for what you're doing he'll look at what I'm doing and see this as part of the military effort so I think it's important that a b sitting learning there's nothing as important as Torah learning but you should regard yourself as part of the army so to speak the army of Hashem but you're part of trying to help CL Israel we're all on the same page it's not that it's their problem and I'm doing my thing rather this is the Sor that all of us are going through and each of us has our role and my role our role might be to learn other people's role is to fight other people's role is to cook you know I mean not everybody in the Army is is putting their lives in danger either I mean there are many many roles that a modern Army needs and some of the roles that a modern Army needs in Israel at least are people who are learning Torah so it's a different mindset instead of kind of separating yourself from what's going on you're part of it and this is your this is your contribution and I think if you'd have that sense of respect for the other people who are contributing in different ways they would be more open to what you're doing now I will tell you this there is political religious reason why you don't hear this very often and that is there is a again I try I try to be honest too maybe I'm too honest uh there is a fear a fear in the Yeshiva World that if we romanticize the army we kind of emphasize the heroism of the army that's going to encourage people to leave the Bas medish and go into the army so people are almost afraid to glorify the too much again from my perspective from you don't need me of the highest order is there but there really is a fear that we don't want to over romanticize it so as a result we sometimes have maybe the negative tendency of having to bash that other side of it in order to make it less attractive and compelling for this side of it and I think that's a real that's a real factor in fact I'll tell you an actual discussion I had with a mother and the mother was very very confused the mother had she had a lot of children but she was talking about two boys one boy was a Masid who learns y Vala and the other boy was never a big learner so he went into the army so for all of those years the mother basically said well my older son is the pride of the family the younger son is troubled but he's doing okay now she said after October 7th she finds herself in kind of a a mental reversal she's saying my son in the Army risks his life you know he's sleeping on mud uh you know uh he's you know sleeps one hour a night or whatever it is my other son who learns but he has a bed to come to he has three meals a day and she's really really worried because she's so like proud of the army thing that she's kind of diminishing the kivas that she feels towards the learning so I can tell you that a lot of rashash Shas are afraid of those types of reactions because God forbid it could undermine so as a result I think maybe we do go to the extreme sometimes of not showing the appreciation that we would should show Absolutely should show simply because of this fear and this fear is a real one it's interesting it used to be okay maybe I shouldn't say it this way the kids who went to the Army okay they were like the second rate kids these were the kids who were were not the outstanding on now it's kind of the opposite they're now the outstanding ones the the Lesser ones are staying in the base Meers and that's a a dangerous and destructive attitude that's what's going on yeah in the question of% he's going to get he's going to get his reward get he's going to get isur in this world and he's going to get his his reward all more so in the next world I want to know why why is it that that the person with 99% of Arrow 1% misos how can he be pay back in this world he has one full Mis he can take that to the bank yeah yeah this is a very excellent question it actually has bothered me for around 50 years and let me just restate it for the camera uh there's a wellknown idea that kazal say kazal say this in different places that the reason why sometimes Rim get such a nice easy life in this world and sadim suffer so much in this world right this is the famous question of sadic baralo why does the righteous person have a bad life or a hard life and Russ and the Russia has a good now this is a very difficult question and there are many different approaches but one idea that K say is well listen even the worst person has some good deeds that they've done you know the Nazis would feed a cat you know whatever it would be so they deserve reward but Hashem does not want to give them habah so he pays them off in so that there's no Haba that they're going to get for their Mitzvah by sadik the other way around even the greatest sadic usually has some sins and some of those sins would uh would require gam which is much worse than punishment in this world and therefore Hashem gives the sadic the suffering in so the AAS are paid off and therefore the sadic go straight to right that's a well-known idea that uh the sadic suffers in this world and the Russia prospers in this world so the Russia gets his reward here and the S gets his reward there U and the suffers here so the question becomes this is the question the question becomes uh the inequality of the reward system theoretically you know I mean let me give you an example painting a house let's imagine that um you want to hire a painter to paint your house and the cost for painting a house I'll make up a number is $1,000 now if I were to say let's assume you have two people a Russia paints my house or it svic paints my house if I were to say oh you're a Russia I'm only going to give you $100 or you're at sadic you'll get the full thousand wait a minute they both painted the house they both did the same job so it would appear that God should give equal pay for equal Deeds right that this is your question so if that's so if the Russia did a Mitzvah he is entitled to the reward of that mitzvah of that Mitzvah yeah he'll go to gam for you know forever but he's entitled to one Mitzvah and since all of the pleasure of this world is not equal to even one second how can God deny him the SAR for his Mitzvah by giving it him in cheaper currency that's like you know giving the Russia who painted the house as good as the sad giving him only half price that's not fair and if AOS have a cost of how can the S get off easy by right so so you're correct this is a very very good question about equality of treatment so apparently there might be two approaches to this it is a very excellent question and a very perplexing question it's something that I'll be honest with you it it really confuses me as well I mean this idea I learned at a very young age I me I remember hearing this in in fifth grade so I've always heard this and I don't know if I've always not understood it but at least I get older it becomes harder and harder to really understand so one approach apparently is the following when God gives you reward for a Mitzvah it's not just like every Mitzvah is a separate thing with its separate reward God evaluates the Mitzvah based on the total pattern of the life and the commitment that you've made so it's not like painting a house you know house painting is a discrete action if it's the house is properly painted you get $1,000 so for me to say oh you're a Russia you get less that makes no sense you did the same job but if mitzvos are based on the totality of of creating your overall relationship with God then it could very well be that a Mitzvah done by a Russia does not have the same value as a Mitzvah that is done by a sadic and therefore the Russia gets half price namely that's right so that might be so which means you're not looking at Mitzvah as separate issues but the value of mitzvos are connected to the pattern of relationship that's being connected that's one idea uh a second idea is God pays you in the currency it's like let's imagine you do a job and uh the owner of the house says would you like to be paid in dollars shekels Yen or euros and you choose your currencies even though it might be one currency is worth less than the other so the idea is a Russia has no feel for the Russia lives for so God says you chose your currency you chose your currency that's what I'll give you you see so as a result therefore you know you might be a stupid fool you're a fool for choosing that cheap currency but you've lived your life based on that on that choice so that might be another another approach you make your choice you choose your me medium of payment in fact this FM actually said that Foria would be gim we' be worse than geham uh because what's going to happen you go to everybody I mean I mean I'm not really describing it physically I can't buta everybody sitting learning thinking about Hashem this is what I want I don't want to go here I want to go to the casinos I want to go to uh all those different things would be very excruciating for a person that is a a Russia so Hashem gives him what he wants he likes those things right now having said that in spite of everything the m is the r actually says that most do get for their mitv after they go through geh for their AAS right so although what you're saying is a true but it's not Universal idea the ram says most even if they have many many more AOS than mitz after they do get so that the Avenue is open even for a Russia yeah how should we understand the stat in M that says you should not desp someone who he staring you should not what again desp someone who stole because he was starving yes yes yes yeah this is a PK in Mishay uh that basically says uh do not despise a thief do not look down at a thief because he stole because he because he was hungry or his family was was starving so obviously unless it's p you know you're not allowed to steal because you know your family needs bread or whatever it is however the idea that schl is pointing out is that not all AOS are created equal two people do a sin and it's an AA for both of them but one person acted out of indifference out of callousness and the other person acted because they were going through great great difficulties now a human Court cannot always differentiate a human Court cannot focus on motive cannot necessarily focus on what's going on inside your life so objectively the judge May punish both equally but aesu is different a looks into our heart he looks into our struggles and schlom is telling us therefore that even if a thief is punished because of his theft if he acted because his family was starving we should not hate him we should not look down it and we should not disparage him because he was going through an unusual pressure so this is not legitimating the theft this is not legitimating the theft but this is saying look at the person with with compassion I think I may have mentioned before for story um many many years ago in the 1980s so I used to be involved um I was a know young married person I was involved with ncsy which is a youth group mainly for public school kids uh there's n in Israel too but they're mainly in the United States and Canada coed all sorts of different different issues there so uh and they do remarkable work I mean people have become from Benet Torah no Torah an amazing thing I once attended a y kala for around 300 public school kids who came to New Jersey to learn all day just among their group with teachers for three days it was the most amazing thing you know I've ever seen three days of mish of public school kids who had never learned before how much they loved their Torah how much they love their learning it's a tremendous muser you know for us to to see that so Mo shabas at these ncsy shabbatones which are you know coed shabbaton um you know they're very dramatic uh it's you're in total darkness you know and people get up and they tell their stories and you know it can bring you to tears and crying so I remember a girl got up I think she was 14 years old and uh she said that not only does she come from a non-religious family she comes from a family that is absolutely opposed to her keeping shabas so what does she have to do every Friday night she waits till her parents go to sleep at 11:00 she goes to the bathroom 11 o' at night Friday night she pulls out shabus candles from her hid hidden hidden place she lights the shabus candles in the bathroom she then blows them out and turns on the fan and then makes Kish or something in the bathroom then goes to sleep and she has to hide her cup and her shabas Candles now you could give if you were giving a test in you know I want to test you on H kabas tell me how many AAS were committed here you know how much how much lighting the candles and blowing it out making BR in the bathroom you know a million ofas right you know right and yet and yet how does Hashem look at it I can't say I can't I'm I'm not Hashem spokesman I can't say but on some level maybe AES looks at her sacrifices looks at her desire and maybe on some level on some level that chabas may count more than the person who keeps everything but it's easy and comfortable and there are no challenges and no struggle so that's really what the PK is saying saying that that God looks at the struggles you know they say AA from the ARA there was a man I think I think he was actually inat a man in spat who was an he was not very learned but he learned in the Torah about the the showbread that you put every chabas and it's eaten by the Goan a shabas you know next shabus and he was so inspired about giving bread to God so he figured every chabas he would put 12 Kalos before chabas in the Ares and that would be his upon him well every Friday afternoon he put 12 in the Ares the shamish who came to clean up before chabas found 12 loaves of bread in the arodes he just took it home I br I have 12 somebody's giving 12 kalas every week so when the man saw later the kalas are gone he said has taken my so he was doing it every week he gave him every week he was putting 12 Kal in thees Friday afternoon and every Friday night the shamish took it home or before shabas and the L so one day the rav of the show came to the show early and he sees this guy putting in 12 in the Ares he says what are you doing are you crazy what are you what are you putting bread in the arish so the man was so excited he says every Friday afternoon I give him to and I know that it's taken because the next morning when they open the ark it isn't there so the re again said are you cra C the r knew right away what happen it's obvious that the shamish takes it you leave food there he'll take it says what do you think you think what you're doing is worth anything so the man was crestfallen that night the RV had a dream and the dream was give your will to your family give your last will and testament to your family because you're going to die on Sunday because from the day that the Bas Mikes was destroyed there was no one that gave such pleasure to AES as this man and you took away the that this man was giving to me the AR used to tell this m now what's the point here did the man was the man fulfilling any type of H I mean at most maybe if the shamish was poor maybe ster indirectly but was this upon him was this a carb to I mean nothing nothing nothing so what's so great about what's so great about it is not what he did what's so great about it was his heart was his devotion that is what brought toes and the the AR used to say is because he interrupted that so again that's really what schom is talking about indirectly do not despise the person who sometimes does things that are not right but he does it out of a motive of wanting to help his family it's a different type of type of para AAS are not all the same there are different qualities of Mitzvah and different qualities of AAS so you can't judge two people who are M shabas both of them are wrong both of them are sins but the sins can be very very different levels depending on the circumstances yeah there Mitzvah not to murder not to steal and many other things that you shouldn't do so if I'm just sitting in bed or watching TV am not fulfilling the M spot yeah yeah so uh you know uh we should think about this we're tremendous tremendous sadik I slept through the night didn't kill anybody didn't rape anybody didn't steal anything didn't e tra fact I think they say this there there was a Jewish Mafia I think maybe was my Lansky I'm not sure a Jewish mafia guy and he died I think it was early I think it was Arnold rosstein this goes back a long long time so the rabbi had to give a eulogy and you know what good thing are you gonna say about this guy this guy was a murderer he murdered people he stole you know so I think the rabbi came up with the following one block from here this was in New York City is the Fifth Avenue Cathedral the largest Catholic Church in New York City Arnold rosin lived within five blocks of that Cathedral and in 50 years he never went in what is right so you can have all sorts of zos in different in different ways so the emesis there is a gamorra that says that if you sit and you don't do in a you get the SAR as if you did a Mitzvah there is such an idea that if the fact that I didn't kill I'll get however however is that that only applies to the AOS for which you have a strong Yater Hara so Lara would be an example you know I want to say bad things about people I have a Yahara I control myself so God will give me reward as if I did a Mitzvah but if it's a type of AA which I have no struggle I mean most of us at least I don't want to ask any questions but most of us don't have a particular urge to murder somebody I I hope um if you have that problem we have Sam fineberg our counselor in our be sure to make an appointment uh the thing is you understand the idea meaning I'm not going to get reward for not doing an AA for which I have no Yater horror to do that AA even kous is such an example you know if I really really really really really have this passion for cheeseburgers and I'm tempted to eat a cheeseburger then yeah I don't eat a cheeseburger I'll get reward if I don't care about it I'm not which actually means if you think about this it's an interesting Dynamic about a BAL Chua because when you first start the chuva process there may be many many AOS to which you might be attracted you might have a strong desire to use your phone on shabas you have a strong desire to go on the internet whatever it would be a strong desire to eat trfe in your favorite restaurant and God's going to reward you for conquering your Yates orara but do you have a diminishing returns problem here because as you get more habituated in the religious life you'll still have struggles lanara other things but there'll be other areas in your life life there are not going to be struggles you know you're not going to have this desire or at least many cases you won't to go to this non-culture restaurant or whatever it is so the interesting question is do you lose by being becoming more firm meaning to say when I was struggling with the cheeseburger and sometimes I failed I got rewarded for the times I didn't fail but when I'm not struggling anymore I don't get rewarded for it h that's a little strange that the more religious I get the less I get rewarded for the Mitzvah that I do but indeed rev dler has a famous Point rev dler talks about the N the ful of is where you're actively struggling that's what God rewards you for some things are above me I'm not yet there other things are be behind me I I'm not struggling with that you don't get rewarded for what's behind you and you don't get punished necessarily for what your God knows you're not spiritually ready for but there's always an area where you could go either way and that's rev desler writes a very famous teaching of rev desler that is where your reward and Punishment comes so that would be my answer that if you are Act AC L struggling you will get rewarded for your AAS for the you avoid you will not get if it's not a struggle now the I will tell you that um even though this is very logical and this is maral says there is one R in the gamor that I think is f from the maral and that is the gamorra says that Hashem so much loves us that he gives us mitzvos that we wouldn't do any blood for example most people would be disgusted eating blood you know most people so why did Hashem give us a commandment not to eat blood if people are disgusted don't eat insects you know who well again some people do but but think who wants to eat an insect the answer is so God wants you to wants to give you a reward for not doing the things that you wouldn't do anyway so isn't that for isn't that the opposite of morale the Mor's argument is you're not going to get rewarded for the things that you're not going to do anyway but thear Mak seems to say that that's why Hashem Asser thinks that you wouldn't want to do anyway as a way of giving your reward for refraining so it's a bit of a think about that but but I think the general approach is the way the morel says it yeah um I think U rightwing they are much less tolerant of nuance and what came to mind and even though he was still trying to se SE Torah and think that he was UN was UN because he to separate the shell from from the Kel so I just like thinking you like how does that I guess relate to us because many things in life you know aren yeah so again the these are very very excellent questions the question basically is a Nuance distinguishing sometimes from even bad people there are insights that one can gain uh sometimes even from good people there are things you need to avoid Etc and the example that that you gave just repeating for the camera the example that you gave is the great Rabbi mayor one of the greatest of the Tano and his rebi he was a tal of RAB AA but his other rebi was Alisha Ben abuya the infamous Alisha Ben abuya who was amazingly learned but became a heretic and an aorus one who denied Hashem or denied reward and Punishment denied the truth of the Torah thear has many stories about Alisha B Aya that he once saw a child who was told by his father to go climb a tree and chase away the bird and take the eggs and the child fell off the tree and died and Alisha binuya said wait a second here there are two Commandments where the Torah says you get long life one is honoring your father and mother and the other is sh sending away the the mother here you have a kid that's doing both of those Commandments and he dies how can the Torah be true so without going into all the story there's also other stories too that he was into Greek philosophy and even at his bris his father put him in learning because he saw the great covo that was given so the whole motivation was tra it's a very complicated psychological story but the bottom line is RAB mayor continued to learn Torah from Alisha B aoya fact the gar gives us stories it's just such an amazing picture Alisha imagine this Alisha B Aya is riding a horse and eating a trafe sandwich on yum Kipper that fell out on chabas like all of the AAS are together riding a horse eating TR eating onum Kipper Etc and R mayor is running after him asking him shus how do you learn this how do you learn this and at some point Alisha told mayor you're not allowed to keep on walking because yum Kipper like chabas has a you're only allowed to go 2000 Amos from the end of a city we've already gone 2,000 by the way I find that remarkable because most of the atheists the Sam harrises of the world Richard Dawkins they want to be MV atheism has become part of the kirv movement in which Outreach I want to make you an atheist isn't it something that Alicia B Aya didn't want Rabbi mayor to follow him he said you can't go past this point so when have mayor I'm again I'm just giving some background when R May was asked how can you learn from an aporus A cofair what are you doing so mayor gave a mush the gumar reports it in two ways interesting one is he's called a we don't even call him by name a the other one we don't mention him by name although I'll tell you a in a moment how can you learn from A and R says he is like a pomegranate that has an inedible rind and edible seeds I throw away the kipa and I eat the fruit or the other mushel and intering try to think why there to micham is kind of the opposite it's like a fruit with a pit like a peach pit I eat the fruit other words it's interesting in one one mush the outside is bad and the inside is good in The Other M the outside is good and the inside is bad it's interesting why two Michel are used but what is rebbi Mayor saying to use your language Nuance differentiation I can take the good and I can throw away the Bad and the good is still good now Lisa this is a conflict that we often face you know every uh not every but many universities have uh Jewish studies departments and sometimes a bentor who goes to University says oh I'm going to take the Jewish studies courses because I know that stuff already it's going to be easy it's going to be a gut level course I remember in John's Hopkins uh the course was called uh Major Works of Jewish literature something like in the fall semester we will cover the Bible and the talmud right you cover the whole wow finish chass in one semester that's that's pretty good uh even if it's just gar and Rashi right so how much T you know did they do their whole T Bible and tment right so a lot of times the Yeshiva guy will figure will figure oh I'll take these Jewish studies courses but you know the Jewish studies courses most of the time most of the time are usually the absolute worst thing to take because you know I take math I take psychology I take even biology you know not every not every line is aicar carsus I take Jewish studies I hear about uh the multiple authorship of the Torah I mean whatever it is how the rabbis you know made believe things were from God for social and economic conditions so really Jewish studies courses overwhelmingly on the University level are being taught by the Alisha Ben AAS of the world who are not half as learned as Alisha Ben Aya not a tenth as learned as Alisha B Aya so sometimes the person defends himself by saying well okay I'll be like rubby mayor I'll take out the throw away the bad stuff and I'll take in the good stuff and the answer that's typically given is that what rabi mayor was able to do is obviously not something that we're always able to do you got to be very very very careful meaning in principle good and bad can be separated that is very very true but we have to honestly assess what our madrea is and often we get pulled along often we get dragged down often we lose our fervor we lose our passion we get exposed to different ideas that are against everything that we leared in the Torah world and one has to measure that so although b as you probably can guess I I I am normally attracted to the notion of exploring all of different things but I can respect and I can acknowledge the argument that sometimes you have to draw fences because if you don't draw fences and you open yourself up to all types of bad and wrong ideas they will influence you in one way or the other and that's very very destructive so the answer is you're correct the K World by in large by and large many there exceptions are relatively uh not nuanced they kind of have All or Nothing approach they reject things that are not within a relatively narrow parameter of belief and I could be critical of that and I can say why don't you allow yourself to be open to more things but their argument is I don't want to contaminate my family I don't want to introduce things that are potentially poisonous and that is an argument that I can respect so I'm not telling you how to live because I I think ultimately there is going to be a balance between insularity and openness but it is a real conflict don't just assume I can can be open to everything and it's not going to affect me the nature of life is we do get affected uh and therefore we have to be careful as to what do we admit into our families and what do we what do we admit into our Consciousness some honesty or open we well you know [Music] um I I am I am too open I think but let me just mention you know many of you well actually nobody here probably knew him but the founding rashash along with riller he should be well was R Mendel Weinbach very great man and his picture is in the office of mend we so I came to in 2010 I've been here a while and uh when I was teaching something in orola about hashkafic movements we were talking about Zionism this and that so somebody reported me somebody reported me as that that I was espousing you know ideas that are not consistent with the Yeshiva philosophy so Rach called me in as he called me into the woodshed uh say you know you know you're say you're saying this and this and okay you're saying this and this and that how can you say this and that so I said but it's true it's true I'm explaining the complexities of something what is wrong with that there's nothing I'm saying that's not true so have weach told me something and to this day I'm still mulling it over and see how you feel he say I know it's true and life is a lot more complicated than the way we have to present it but sometimes complicating things are not always good for people because people particularly when they start they need a path they need a Clarity so if every question maybe this is an indictment of the whole Q&A or if every question is well maybe it's like this and maybe it's like that or maybe it's like that and you know I'll plead guilty to that sometimes but he says a person walks away they don't have a clear answer soach said to me again I'm not saying I agree actually but said to me sometimes it's better to be simple even if you're leaving out Nuance than to make things too nuanced where people don't have a clear Direction very very fascinating so he did not he told me specifically that everything I was saying was EMS he did not say what I was saying was not true but he said you got to make a whether it's the type of thing that you present you know to people who now again you're the center right so you guys have been around already you know you're already established B Yesa so you know you can hear everything but at least for people at the different stages maybe not everybody is ready ready for everything I don't know something to think about something for you to think about in terms of uh how do you teach Torah what do you say what do you present what do you leave out in fact um what did I hear about a great rashash Shiva wasn't about these sfic problems but it was in literally in his he spends more time thinking about what he's not going to say then what he's going to say because in even in aaria right there's like all sorts of side complications that you can bring in that to the you know are so fascinating but it might just confuse everybody you know so you have to give a you know I have what is important what is peripheral and kind of make that decision so that's also true in hashkafa to some degree yeah people often say is that is that true yeah so this is Mayon that means Theon the washing of your hands before you bench is is an obligation well let me just point out this is not just people say this is the language of the after writes the words that's a direct quote ofar let me give you a little background though there are actually two different reasons why we wash Mayon after benching reason number one is it was connected to a certain type of salt or condiment that was called Mel sedis like from the sedom area and it was said that the Mel sedis if you uh rubbed it on your face or near your eyes could God forbid affect your vision or whatever it is so as a health measure why your hands to get rid of the M sis now on that some say that they didn't know what it was exactly I mean it's not regular dead sea salt they said since we don't seem to have this me that's going to make you blind the reason for is no longer here and therefore some posum actually say you don't have to because it's it's only because of meus so if I hold the reason for isus is not so he wouldn't have to wash but there's another reason for and the has a that um you honor that since you're about to bench and praise hasem it's appropriate that for the of you're hands be clean and like that opinion would be a so although there is a basis not to because of the that say that but we by the way not just in shabas it's an interesting thing there are people who only wash on shabas is there any logic to that if you take the position is because of you never have to do it even on shabas if you take the position it's a because of you'd have to do it even during the week so what taka is the s for those who only do it on chabas and again it's not correct I'm not saying that that's correct but those who do it on the answer would be that there actually is an inion that on chabas you try to be more careful in the Mitzvah even if it's a Mitzvah that's not limited to chabas that a daily Mitzvah when done on chabas should be done in a more conscientious manner uh same thing with a hat uh there are people I know the center has rules about hats so I I don't want to step in any rules but uh there are B Yesa who will not necessarily wear a hat for a weekday Min but they'll wear a hat for a shabas m now the obligation or lack of obligation of wearing a hat is not connected to chabas you know if you hold a hat is the laou for prayer it's even during the week and if you hold a hat is not a Lou for prayer again I'm not addressing that issue then even on chabas night so what's the s I wear a black hat on chabas the answer is that even if I'm supposed to wear a hat during the week There's an inion to be in I don't keep so much during the week I'll give you a fascinating example of this you you know everyone knows what deay is deay is grain in Isel that you bought from an who was not always careful to take off Myer so even though most amarim did take off but some didn't and therefore there was a Tak of that grain that you or grain or any produce that you buy from an you got to take off Myer so it's and even if the Mr tells you I took it off we don't believe him we don't believe him but there is a Mand that says if he tells you on chabas that he took it off you do believe him because on chabas the yit is not going to lie because the reverence of chabas is is upon him that's pretty amazing now the issue of telling a lie is not limited to shabas I mean it's no more user to lie on chabas than it is during the week and yet on chabas the amarit wouldn't lie so on shabas there is anion of being more careful in you anyway now but there are reim that say it's uh not oblig obligatory today uh interesting issue is and women I don't know you didn't ask that but you know you'll see in many homes even the very very homes that even if the men are to do the women don't do once again there seems to be something a little bit illogical about that uh certainly when there was melus women had to do if anything they were handling the melus more than the men and if you hold even when there's no because of if the woman is going to bench it should be a for her too so what's the basis of saying it's a for me and it's not a for my wife so the women should do it women should do it but apparently the the postum many postum say that since there is a if it's a so women took on a of not doing it because their on the other opinion but again it's very difficult what what but why why did they take on the minute of not doing it something to think about um I don't again I don't want to direct you when you get married what to do but indeed it would seemingly be better if a woman did do yeah the goal is to have Torah to see the world through the Torah lens so how can we work on building T I'm sorry I didn't hear the Hebrew you said a Hebrew what was the phrase you said t d Tor oh Das Torah yeah yeah yeah how do you see the world through D Torah um you know I can't give you a simple answer for that number one uh the more Torah you learn so your mind gets changed your perceptions gets changed you see the world in a different way but it's not just the Tor you learn a very very important factor is the connection that you make with living with your if you could be to be connected to G in some way although it's not so accessible for for most of us so this is an area where you kind of need living role models and the more you connect you hear how a GLE approaches or approaches is different topics you kind of get educated you see things in different ways and that's how you approach what's called D Tor a Torah way of looking at things that doesn't mean you're a cookie cutter that doesn't mean you just imitate blindly ultimately a good should train you to think for yourself and be independent rakov kinesi was very critical he call of what he called the ification of the world you know the of the rebi answers everything but he says among the LFA uh the rebi didn't answer everything I mean you had to think for yourself but from your Rees you absorve a methodology a way of looking at things but you then develop your own independent capacity so uh you need living role models for that this is the meaning of the famous statement of the in the gamorra god shim serving a can even be greater than learning from a I sit and I learn so I'm learning I'm learning get whatever it is beautiful but when I'm I take him shopping I go on a bus with him then all sorts of topics about contemporary life come up and I can learn all sorts of things that maybe I wouldn't learn in the regular in the regular garare so you try to create those experiences um it's not always so easy um sometimes it's it's very hard to have a connection with the rebi and it actually is not as easy as um maybe because we have more and more people learning in Yesa the truth is it's increasing not as much as it should but it's increasing a lot you know the number of ream are not increasing so sometimes it's very hard it's a very different if you only have five tomm versus you have 50 tomm or like rasheli who has 500 I don't know how many people in this sh in M 500 Tom meter it's a little hard to get close to a rebi when he has 500 Tom meum although rasher tries by the way rasher actually does try uh but you try to the degree that you can make that CER that's going to be very important okay yeah yeah WRA up the bread throw away separately basis for this should yeah the rule about wrapping the breads uh is actually a rule there areas in the goras in the gamar of not treating bread in a disrespectful manner because bread is the staff of Life bread was considered at least that's why it's Hami P all the other foods and B again today we actually don't fully understand that because we don't look at bread it's interesting how how kind of our perception changed a little bit but in most Societies in most of History uh and certainly in Jewish societies bread was you know the esod of of everything and therefore you have to treat it with a certain amount of cite and therefore you don't throw it into the garbage uh unless you wrap it up or you put it out where animals could easily uh get it and once again that has nothing to do with chabas maybe on chabas we we tend to have more bread left over but this is absolutely a that applies during the week as well you don't throw bread around um you don't trample it uh and you don't throw it directly into the garbage you wrap you're supposed to wrap it up uh that's cover covered for pass okay uh one more and or yeah I'm sorry having trouble hearing idea called ffb trauma ffb trauma yeah there's something called that yeah ffb trauma experience burning and with like ding that the way I was explain to was for on the wrong way or they and now they don't want to they don't like Ding and they don't like learning um I was wondering as as Bacha how do we identify with our kids how they grow up yeah yeah I I I I didn't hear I've never heard the term directly called ffb trauma but certainly I understand the concept uh the concept is but of course baluba can have the same trauma after he becomes baluba and that is sometimes your connection to Judaism may be very traumatic uh there may be a teacher or a family that is Harsh that is rejecting that makes you feel inadequate that makes you feel worthless and it leaves such a Negative taste in your mouth about the learning and about the ding and about the sh and about the Mitzvah that all you want to do is get away with it and that could be ffb from from birth for sure those are called you know off the Der kids or whatever or that could be a BAL Chua as well who then encounters that same problem so it's not me to an ffb but I think the point that's being made is that this would explain in part not every case why even kids who were raised religious are going to are sometimes not so many but they leave the fold they reject meaning they don't necessarily leave the fold because of philosophical issues it's not that oh I'm convinced you know the Torah wasn't given by God they leave because of this emotional trauma that it's just too painful um just just the other week not the before PES I addressed um a a girl school a a little Seminary very small Seminary that was totally comprised of essentially traumatized teenage girls from from homes and you know I know exact I mean I know exactly what you're describing because that was the population in which you kind of have to rebuild them from within they've been so shattered and so alienated that any reference to Torah like is like shocking to them and disturbing to them and the like so your question then becomes okay I'm a balua but it's interesting my kids are going to be from from birth right that's interesting your kids will see the world very differently than you uh you'll remember all sorts of things and uh you will not let them do all the things that you remember uh from your prior life interesting issue uh and uh the question becomes I guess you're asking me what can I do so that my kids will not suffer that F FB trauma the answer has to be shower them with love don't try how do I prevent my kids from being traumatized the answer is don't traumatize them meaning and and and there is a problem here because sometimes a Bala May himself become or herself may become very rigid because you're so afraid of slipping back that you become extraordinarily strict and that's not always going to be good for your kids so you need to have a gentle appr approach you need to be open you need to love them you need to let them talk and let them Express things and they know that they can talk to you about all of these different things and you're not going to say oh it's loing hard around in the school you can't talk to me a kid needs to talk to you about what a teacher is doing I don't mean I don't mean abuse I mean even I mean I don't mean no sexual abuse but even the fact that the teacher is a insulting him or whatever you have to listen to what the child is saying and if a child has a good relationship with their parents I think that will go an amazingly long distance to preventing that trauma that you're talking about yeah us the yeah yeah this is a very very famous question that and ask and that is we actually believe the main reward for mitzvos is not in this world at all it's Ina and the main punishment for sin is not going to be in this world necessarily it'll be in geh for a while and yet the Tyra doesn't even mention where does the Tyra talk about habah the answer is I mean there are dras and the like but there's nothing exp there is no explicit mention OFA at all the T talks about this world you do mitzvos you get benefit in this world you do AOS you get punishments in this world NOA and the question becomes you know why does the Tyra not mention Haba so there are many many answers I could refer you if you look at the klear at the beginning of bosi the famous Parish of the klear he gives no fewer than seven different reasons to this question but one basic simp simple answer is just a simple answer isah is something we don't really understand it is totally spiritual and Hashem wants to incentivize us to do Mitzvah and avoid AAS so he has to give us something that we understand we understand what it means to get sick we understand what it means to be poor we understand what it means to be persecuted so God says you do have AOS those things are going to happen but we don't know what gam is and we don't know what is so for hasem to Simply say oh you'll get all of my boss okay I don't know what that is right so basically Hashem is using the reward and Punishment system as motivation so although the ultimate reward isah but uh what hasem puts in the Torah are the things that are direct motivators for most people which would be now there's another question you might ask that it's not true I do mitos I get all of these benefits I do have AOS I get all of these punishments that's not true great sadikin as we talked about earlier suffer great R Prosper so what do you do with the to so the Em Say the ramban gives us a very important youde the ramban says the is not directed to individuals the is directed to the Jewish Nation as a whole and what the says is if the Jewish Nation as a whole keeps the Torah they will be blessed if the Jewish Nation as a whole abandons the Torah they will be cursed but I as an individual even if I keep the Torah I may get my word only inah and even if I violate the Torah I may get my punishment in all in in other words the ran says the is not making any claims regarding individual people it is only making a claim am Isel as a whole okay okay be well and take care thank you for listening to this awesome production to find out more and to partner in our mission please visit o.edu

Channel: DIVINE WISDOM: Live a Better Life

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Keywords: Torah, religion, Judaism, rabbi yitzchak breitowitz, yitzchak breitowitz, Hidabroot, orh somayach, JLI, Antisemitism, jewish learning institute, Halacha, Q&A: Jewish Soldiers, Sinai Revelation, Secular to Religious Lifestyle, Jewish Living, Judaism Questions, Religion Questions, Jewish Philosophy, divine wisdom live a better life, Ask the rabbi, Jewish customs, Jewish philosophy, Kabbalah & Mysticism, jews, kabbalah, Q&A, Jewish law, halacha, jewish, god, rabbi

Id: tlZMJQwc1qc

Length: 82min 22sec (4942 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 03 2024