KMTT - the Torah Podcast
KMTT - Erev Shabbat Parshat Devarim
KMTT - Erev Shabbat Parshat Devarim, by Rav Ezra Bick
This is KMTT, and this is Ezra Beck, and today is Friday, Yom Shushi. Gimmel Minachim Aav, Erev Shabbat Kodesh, Parshat Varyim. And this is also Shabbat Khazan, we're in the nine days, the days preceding Tishaba Aav. And today, as opposed to our usual Erev Shabbat program, I would like to talk a little bit about Mikdash and Khoban, the temple and destruction, and our relationship to what we once had and to what is missing. My text is a Gmara in Sanhedrin Datsadi Vav Madalif, 96a in Pankhrelak, which discusses the glory that relates an incident from the early life of the Muhanetsa. The Muhanetsa was the king of Bafal, who destroyed the Baitamikdash. This Gmara was discussing an incident that took place way before he was king. He's merely a functionary clerk in the court of a previous king of Bafal. King's name is Baladhan. At this time, Bafal is an insignificant kingdom, the important empire. In the Middle East is Ashul, Asivia. As we know, the king of Ashul, Sanhrelak, Khankud, Yudah, placed Yurushalayim on the siege, almost destroyed Yurushalayim. The Gmara presents Samhrel as being an opponent of God, and Torah, and Yurushalayim, and Mihdash, at least as equal to the Muhanetsa, if not even greater, in terms of his aspiration, in terms of what he stands for. Although he's unsuccessful, then the great miracle takes place, and his army is destroyed. In any event, we're not talking about Ashul, we're talking about the small kingdom of Bafal, which has a king whose name is Melodhach Baladhan, Ben Baladhan. Prasuk says, "In Yishayyel, the phlamitered, by Ita Hisharach, Melodhach Baladhan, Ben Baladhan, Ben Baladhan, Melach Balbel's story." This small kingdom, the king sent letters. He basically forged an alliance. He sent a friendly letter to Hiskyel, the king of Yudah. When the period where Hiskyel was king of Yudah, Hiskyel was a righteous, a great and righteous king, the prophet is Yishayyel. And as you remember, I actually discussed this in Yishul on Wednesday this week. Yishayyel was born ill. Yishayyel was told him he was going to die. And ultimately, he prays to God, and he receives an extension on his life, and he gets better. Why did Melodhach Baladhan, Ben Baladhan, by Ita he, at that time, send letters to Yishayyel? So the grammar explains, "Mishum, Kihala, Hishkyel, Hishkyel would have been sick." "Wai Yachazak, be dikah pere." So, Melodhach Baladhan sent him letters as well as a gift. Why? "Lidrasham of Theta Shevaya Bharats," to inquire because of the sign, the miracle, that a tech place, what miracle a tech place. "Dyana Rabbi Ochanan, O Toiyam, Shemait Bo'achaz, Stay Sha'alta'ya. "The Hishalah Kishkyel be Itbakh, Adrinu Kuchab, Rehodahanah, Esoshay Nere." The grammar of Yachalan has a story that when Ochanan, the king Ochanan, died, the day was shortened. It was only a two-hour day, and ten hours were missing. Those ten hours were returned to the earth when Hishkyel recovered from his illness. What does this mean? It was not our point today. Apparently, Ochanan was described as being not a good king. He had disobeyed God. So, his reign, the day he died, inaugurated, left a certain whole, a certain lacking in the world, or in God's world, that was symbolized by the shortened day. But Kishkyel, especially now that he recovered from his illness, would continue to rule. So, this represented a shining. It represented a re-inaugural of the proper state of affairs between God and the Jewish people. And this is symbolized by the return of the ten hours. But the ten hours returning involves an astronomical miracle of unusual, great proportions. The day all of a sudden is much longer than it should have been. And this is not limited to the people living in YHuda. But the whole world is aware of this. Nipha Baladhan was aware of it, and he wanted to understand it. And therefore he wrote to Kishkyel. What happened? Amal Lahim, Baladhan said to his advisors, "Mayai, what's going on? Why is the sun hovering in the sky for so long?" Amal Lahim, Baladhan said, "I am not going to do it. I am not going to do it. I am not going to do it. I am not going to do it. I am not going to do it. I am not going to do it. I am not going to do it. I am not going to do it. I am not going to do it. I am not going to do it. I am not going to do it. I am not going to do it. I am not going to do it. I am not going to do it. I am not going to do it. I am not going to do it. I am not going to do it. I am not going to do it. I am not going to do it. I am not going to do it. Shlama, there is a man like this, those Kṛṣkios, obviously a very, very important and great individual, that the world would stop to celebrate or to commemorate his recovery. I have no connection with him. I have never even said hello to him. Kṛṣṇu le ślama, write, write him a letter of shalom, write him a greeting. What should you write? Write the following. This is the text of the letter. This is a formal court letter sent from the kingdom of Baverte, the kingdom of Yudā. Peace onto the king Kṛṣkios. Peace to the city Kṛṣkios and peace to the great God, meaning the great God of Kṛṣkios. Okay, now we get to the good part. In the vukhānetsā, this man who we know later on is the king, the emperor, who will destroy the Beitamītāsh. In the vukhānetsā, saff e the baladān have, he was a clerk. He was a soffera scribe, our king baladān. He shite a lo have, he wasn't there, he was away, it was his day off. Then he wasn't in court that time. So somebody else felt the letter. When he came, he said to them, he said to the people, in the letter he was the main scribe, they were on his assistance. He said to them, what did you write? Tell me the text that you wrote. So they said to him, this is what we wrote, what we just quoted before. Peace on to Kṛṣkioskiyau, peace on to the city of Yushalayim, peace to the great God. He said to them, vukhānetsā, saff e the scribes of baladān. Kṛṣṭu lei el laka rāba, the kṛṣṭivu, the kṛṣṭivu lei, the bāsāf. You call him the great God. Remember, we're dealing with idolaters, with patrons. There are many, many gods. The expression. El laka rāba means the God who is greater than all the other gods. So to us, the whole concept is ridiculous. We would not think of praise in God by saying that he's the God who is greater than other gods. But to a pagan, that's true praise. There are many, many gods, but the God of you there, the God of this not particularly significant kingdom, on the coast of the Mediterranean, he is El laka rāba. He's the God of all gods. So you've called him the great God, but you wrote him at the end. You gave him the last shalom. First, you said shalom to Kṛṣṭiv, then you said shalom to the city of Jerusalem, and then you said, you said shalom to the great God. Amal, El laka, he said to them, "Hakī kṛṣṭu, this is the way you should write it." You should be reversely or a shalom, the laka rāba, shalom, the kṛṣṭu, you shalom, shalom, the māqa, the kṛṣṭiv. So you told him to reversely or put kṛṣṭiv at the end, first God, then you shalom, then kṛṣṭiv. You ask as an aside, why does you shalom come before kṛṣṭiv. I think it's clear that that's papa protocol, although I don't know what they have. I don't even know why they were doing it the first time. The "you shalom" is the kingdom of David and all his descendants. It's the dynasty, kṛṣṭu is only the individual. So first God, then you shalom, and then kṛṣṭyaṁ. Amal, so they said to him, kṛṣṭyaṭu īlāvi pāvanka. They said to him, "Look, it's your idea." Then you should be the shalom. You should be the person to take care of it. This is a famous expression used today in rabbinic circles. If you have a good idea, we tell you to fulfill it. We tell you to want to carry it out. The problem was that the letter had already been sent. "Vāt vāt bātrai kṛṛṣṭ," he started running after the shalom. The person was carrying the letter to get him back to fix it. "Ata gavrya ukme," "gavrya," the angel. The archangel gave you came and stopped the bukhannetsal from running. "Amala bhi okhannan." This is our crucial line now. īlma lai bāgavrya vāgā vrya vṛṣṭyaṭu ṛṣṭya ṛṣṭya ṛṣṭya ṛṣṭya ṛṣṭya ṛṣṭya ṛṣṭya. Had not gavrya else stopped the bukhannetsal after the four steps that he had taken in the right direction, then there would never have been any future, no hope, for the Jews. In other words, that because of this action of the mukhannetsal, that he stood up for the honor of God, to put him at the beginning of the sentence, and had even run. He had taken four steps in order to correct that situation and to increase the honor of God. That apparently is why he was granted, as you will, the reward of being able to destroy the Beethamikdash. If he had done more, if he had taken more than four steps, he would not have destroyed the Beethamikdash, he would have destroyed the whole Jewish people. Gavrya stopped him so that he shouldn't have too much merit, because the bukhannetsal's plan eventually will be to conquer the world and destroy God, destroy the place of God in the world, and his praise and efforts for the honor of God now is what gives him his strength. He will succeed because of what he has done, but he will succeed even more, too much more, had he done any more than if Gavrya had stopped him. I think there are two questions we can ask about this midrash. First of all, why did Khazal make it up? In other words, the bukhannetsal is a vicious murderer, a destroyer. He was personally sadistic. He treated the children of Kṛṣkiyāo, the Ahmed Vashim, which really elaborate on this. He wasn't just your average, run of the milvasha. He is a major, major, major, anti-God, anti-the Jewish people. Why did they, in fact, chose the bukhannetsal to illustrate the proper way in which to praise God and to praise God's name when writing a letter to Kṛṣkiyāo? Secondly, what in the world is the connection between... Okay, he did a good thing, and destroying the Beethamiktash? If the bukhannetsal had, in his youth, shown a proper appreciation for the glory of God and the honor of God, so can't you give him some other reward? Perhaps you can let him build the Beethamiktash? What is the connection between destroying the Miktash, which obviously is a catalyst, this regard for God's glory, and the honor of God? That's what gave him the power to do the opposite of what he's doing now. The whole story is paradoxical and difficult to understand. To understand this, we have to really understand the relationship between the bukhannetsal and the other person in this story, Kṛṣkiyāo. Basically, this story, this Midrash is telling us that the seeds of the structure of the Beethamiktash, at least as concerned in the bukhannetsal's ability to do so, go back to the reign of Kṛṣkiyāo. Many, many years before the bukhannetsal ascended the throne above El, and many years before anyone even thought there would be such a thing as the destruction of the Beethamiktash. The parek in Yeshāyāo, that this is based on its pareklamitat. In fact, is the first prophecy of the destruction of the Beethamiktash in Tanaq in Yeshāyāo. So, it makes sense that we should find here a seed. But Kṛṣāo, in fact, I think, trace it back even further. Yeshāyāo parekat. The ninth parek of Yeshāyāo is a parek that talks about the gula, not about Kṛṣkiyāo. It has one of the most important sukīm about the māshīr. Kīyālejulād landu benditan landu vatihamisāl shikmówai krashimópele yar etskilgibor rāvi atsang shalom. There will be a child born. And he will carry, will carry, the future on his shoulders. His name will be Pele yar etskilgibor rāvi atsang shalom. The following pāsūrk reads the māshālom in kṛṣālom in Kṛṣa. He says, "The vid ām lām lāchtō lāchīnō tāo lāchīnō tāo lāchīnō tāo lām mṛṣpātu bṛṣ tākāmī atāvi ato-lam. Kīnāt has shems rākot tā aseśō. He describes the dvīric missi aṇa kingdom. Endless peace on the throne of the vid. Me atāvi ato-lam forever. Mṛṣpātu ṣtākāmī atāvi ato-lam. Righteousness and justice forever. The first word of that pāsūrk lim māshālim māshālim māshālim māshālim māshālim māshālim māshālim māshālim māshālim māshālim māshāmī is written with a final man and not a regular man. A final man is a closed man. It's a circle. It's a square. As opposed to a regular man which is open. The Gamaa asks, "Why was this man, the only man in the middle of a word that's written in the final form? Why is there a closed sealed man?" And the Gamaa says, "Because Kṛṣkiyāhu's future was sealed. Why was Kṛṣkiyāu's future sealed? God had a plan to make Kṛṣkiyāu the māshīr. And Sāṅkhairav, his great opponent in Ashur, would be Gog and Magog. But justice said, "How can you do that?" Kṛṣkiyāu, when he was saved from Sāṅkhairav and Sāṅkhairav's army, melted away overnight at the wars of Jerusalem, he did not sing Sāṅkhairav, he did not sing a song of praise to God. David Amelah, who wrote all these songs in septereal, he wasn't the māshīr. How can you make Kṛṣkiyāu who saw this great miracle and didn't say, "Sāṅkhairav, how can he be māshīr?" Now, was Kṛṣkiyāu insensitive, but did he not think that God had saved him? Does Kṛṣkiyāu lack faith? Kṛṣkiyāu was a scribe of Hazal as the most righteous of kings. Kṛṣkiyāu spread Torah, medāndvaad bersheva. A king who, when he died, they placed the septereal on his coffin and said, "Kṛṣkiyāim za māshaka tuba za." They equated him with the septereal. He fulfilled what's written in the septereal. Kṛṣkiyāu shiya shiyaa rāba describes Kṛṣkiyāu's ansel as to why he didn't say shiyaa. He didn't sing a song in response to the miracle of Sāṅkhairav. Kṛṣkiyāu said, "Why should I do that? What am I going to tell you about?" Everybody knows that God is great. After all, they visually perceived the stopping of the sun at the time of Gidon, and they had perceived the splitting of the sea when the Jews left Egypt. Everyone knows that God is great. What can I possibly add? What does this mean about Kṛṣkiyāu? Kṛṣkiyāu was indeed righteous, and it's sadhic, and it's a wonderful person, and a wonderful king. Kṛṣkiyāu lacked the meaning of shiyaa, of song, of poetry. Kṛṣkiyāu was willing to write a book or make a speech if he could tell the people something new that they didn't know. Give them some information. Do you know that God is great? They say, "We all know God is great. We've seen all these miracles in the past." If you don't have a kṛṣ, if you don't have something new to say, then Kṛṣkiyāu said, "There's nothing for me to say." Shira isn't based on a kṛṣkiyāu when you say, "To heal him," or you say, "Hallelujah, nāhāg." There's nothing new there. It says, "Hodalashamki tōkiyāu no khastām." But it's praise God for his grace and wonder is forever. It's absolutely new. It's not a new factor we didn't know. Shira expresses the significance of this second. It could be that a minute ago we said the same thing, but that was significance of that minute. When Giddon sechaa, when you're sure, when you're sure to stop the sun in the sky, people said shira. You can say the same words now, but it won't be the same word. It's not the same shira. Because the shiraa, poetry, song, expresses the unique character of this particular second in history. Being Mashiach, being Gogumagog, G-Ula, they all depend on recognizing God's unique presence in this particular second. Above the routine of creation, the world is good. God made a wonderful world. It doesn't need redemption. It does need redemption because the steady state of affairs is God's will, but there's also the development where each second connects to the previous second, leaving up to the kingdom of God, Biyata Mashiach, Gogumagog, G-Ula, etc. Cusquiao says, "I don't tell you every day." He missed the point of what had happened that one second earlier, when the angel had gone through the camp of Ashur and destroyed hundreds of thousands of soldiers. At that very moment that Cusquiao goes back to his daily routine of prayer and study, there's a minor scribe in the kingdom of Babel who stirs himself to make sure that the Baladans' reaction to a particular miracle should be exactly appropriate. It should not be approximately right, but the grass significance of this moment, there'd been a miracle that had taken place. The sun had stretched out the day for ten extra hours. The Baladans realized that this is an occasion to praise God. What do you say? You don't say anything English. You say, "Shalom la Elocharaba." Peace on to the great God, but it has to be done right. He stirs himself and begins to run. He takes four steps in the right direction in order to prevent the moment from being not merely overlooked, but even slided that this moment should get its absolutely proper reaction. It's the exact opposite of Cusquiao. Cusquiao can let the moment go by and not give it any special significance. He doesn't need to give it special significance because he's exotic, and he does every day the same thing. He learns, he davens, he doesn't, it's not. No day is different than any other. The Bukhanetsa is a Russia. Most of his days he spends probably doing evil, but at a given moment, he, indeed, grasp that this moment requires an perfect reaction to its unique significance. The glory of God, in this Gomara shalom la Elocharaba, is proclaimed not by the steadfast wars of Yushalayim, or the mitzvout of its king, but by the Sufair, the Sufra, of the king of Baba. And at that moment, the prophecy of the eternal kingdom of God, and the peace of David's kingdom is closed, it's sealed, it's limited, it's restricted. And then, not that there's a say around now, to destroy the Beethamikdash, but when the sins of the generations begin to increase, the prophecy of Yishayah, when Paraktat, cannot overcome the, the, the, the approaching holdman. What is the mikdash? What is the, the temple that we do not have? Khazam make a point of saying that in the temple, there were constant miracles. It was a place where the laws of nature didn't apply. The fire burnt on the mikdash, on the altar, excuse me, on the, on the mismir. And the rain and snow never went out. The light of the menorah lit up all the streets of Yushalayim. There were no street lamps in Yushalayim because the Beethamikdash lit up all the Yushalayim. It's such a treasure, there are many men out there. The mikdash was a place which was not steady state nature. It was the unique. It represents, it represents not daily natural law, but constant revelation. The direct presence of God, nivuah, prophecy, revelation. Every second there was the presence of God at that particular second. If we cannot grasp the unique revelation of a moment, then the mikdash loses its faces of existence. Now the world can exist without a mikdash. It's a fact. For two thousand years, the world has existed without a mikdash. Long enough that we've forgotten what it is that we're missing. But natural law exists. And there's religious existence without a mikdash. Faith among our relates to God as a constant, as a sema said, but they should. The God of nature of creation. We relinquished the vukhanetsa the perception of the unique, the hand of God. The Jewish people can survive, as the grammar says. Alba amocha halacha, God is found. And we find him in the four cubits of halacha, of daily truth, of daily obedience to God's will. How can the vukhanetsa could see the unique significance of a second and kuskyau could not? Because the ability is not dependent on whether you're good or bad. One can be very, very good precisely because one perceives the constant truth of God's will and fulfills it. One learns Torah because that's the Torah which existed two thousand years before the world was even created. And God's will when you follow the Mitzvala the Torah. The vukhanetsa, I wouldn't say despite being evil. I wouldn't say because being evil. The vukhanetsa who is evil, but he has the quality of living historical destiny. In his case, feeling the pressure of history, he will attempt to conquer the entire world and reorganize it. He will attempt to create a new kingdom which because the mikdash is in his way, he will destroy the mikdash. As an aside, I'm reminded of an amazing book which I highly recommend. It's a little bit out of fashion today. A book by Franz Verfel. It's written over 70 years ago called "Harken on to the Voice." It's a retelling of the life of Yumiyau Hanavi. I read it once, even in the 90s. I think I've read it on tish above once. The book is an astonishing book of getting into Yumiyau's life and the eventual destruction of the Beethamikdash which is described in the book. One of the things that Franz Verfel describes there is he tries to describe the personality of the vukhanetsa. When the vukhanetsa wanted, the vukhanetsa was an evil ideologue. Organizing the whole world around one axis and the mikdash and Yumiyau is not around it. That's why since he couldn't build the mikdash, he's going to destroy it and put up the near describes how he built this amazingly huge idol, the bikat dura, a golden idol and said that all the people in the world should bow down to it. He's a kind of man of see, so to speak. More than that, he's a man of humanists. He wants all humanity to be organized around one thing, which in his case will be himself. That's with Kurskyau's missing. Yumiyau has a picture of historical destiny, which eventually will lead him to become one of the great evil figures of the world, but at one point in his life, the basic ability to grasp the moment led him to the clear, the uniqueness and the glory of God's intervention in history. Durymārāsa says that, "Cold dawn, every generation which mikdash has not rebuilt is a generation which mikdash has been destroyed." In other words, don't imagine that we live in a state where there is no mikdash, there's no such state. There is a state like that, but that's the wrong way to look at it. From the point of view of mikdash, you can't have a state where there is no mikdash. You have a state where the mikdash is being destroyed. Something is happening. The dynamism, either it's built or it's destroyed. Something has to be happening. And Yumiyau says that, "If we haven't been Zocha to have the mikdash been rebuilt, then we are suffering through its destruction." And the question is, have we who are basically students of Amelah Kṛṣkiyāw? We live in the world of Torah and it's felt, dawgadamocha ha'lākha. Have we, the disciples of King Kṛṣkiyāw, responded to the acts of God in the last 40-50 years, as merely a routine continuation of history? Has the return to Eretisrael, the establishment of the state of Israel, the wars, the Six-Day War, the return to Ushalayim, everything that's happened in the last 25 years. Do we all to see that as certain history exists, a steady state, or a weak cable of indeed rising to acknowledge the words and actions, the miraculous presence of God in our lives and our history in every moment? And that question, as to whether we will follow in Kṛṣkiyāw's footsteps or arise above and say, "Shira," as the vidamelah would have, on the answer to that question depends the ultimate outcome of the events that we are witnessing. And with that, I conclude today's broadcast as well as the entire summer semester of KMTT. We're going to be going on vacation now for the next month. Kṛṣkiyāw is traditionally the multiplication in Ushivalt, and it's also the multiplication of KMTT. I know you're that on vacation, these are some of you. But what can I do? We are. We'll be back in Kṛṣkiyālu, with a new set of shirīm, a new year, a new semester. I'm hoping you'll all be there. I'm hoping you'll be other people to join us. It was becoming a fast-growing community of people learning daily, learning together, and learning and learning daily. I want to remind you all, those of you who already have subscribed to KMTT, to also subscribe to the mailing list. In the course of the next month, I'm going to be looking into several possible technological improvements, and we have a mailing list. There's a button on the left-hand corner of the website where you can subscribe very easily. One click subscribe. It's not a high-value mailing list. One is only two or three weeks at the most. But it's for announcements, which sometimes are important to know if we change the schedule, or if something is missing. In the next month, I hope to be important announcements to improve and enhance the KMTT experience. So it's important. It's definitely worthwhile to please be subscribed to the mailing list in your email. So if you're not subscribed, if you haven't subscribed yet, I know there are more people listening every day than I've subscribed to the mailing list. I've checked the numbers. So if you haven't subscribed, go to the website www.kimitcyon.org. That's www.kimitcyon.org. You'll see on the left-hand side, top left-hand side of the website. There's a button to click in order to join the mailing list, the email mailing list. Tomorrow is Shabbat Chazan. The last Shabbat before Tisha B'av, we read Chazan you Shayao. We're getting in deeply into the mood of the nine days of Shabbat Shabbat Chaz. I'd like to leave you with the Mamar of Chazal. The Gamar says that the Mashiach is born and is born and will be born on Tisha B'av. Another Gamar says the Mashiach is sitting now, the gates of Rome. I don't think the Gamar is simply trying to say kind of poetic irony. There's a certain aesthetic involved in the Gulab beginning on the day of the destruction. I think Gamar is saying much more deeply. In fact, Ul does advise out of destruction. That's the author we talked about today. It's not a state which simply replaces Hoban, redemption replaces destruction. But everything is history, everything is development. And from the darkness, not just despite the darkness, but from within the darkness, comes the light, the spark of redemption. As I said, it's not a state, it's not a state, it's a state, it's a state, it's a state, it's a state. The fast days that commemorate destruction will be in the future not merely eliminated, but will become days of sassanda Simcha. Here in Aristotle we're suffering now, so a very difficult time. This is not a minor skirmish in the northern border. One third of the population of Israel is under the threat of bombardment. Yesterday there were 150 rocket attacks on northern Israel. If you try to imagine what it would be like to have 150 rocket attacks on the state of New York or on London or Sydney, there were 150 rocket attacks on the state of Israel. People are being injured, soldiers were killed yesterday in very difficult fighting. It's a time, a whole day, when we would prefer not to be engaged in such things. We know it's a time that if there is a reason for God to be angry at us, then we will pay the price in this month. But from within that darkness we also know that the gula will gleam. The first sparks of the gula will come out from the period of Av. We hope and we pray, and I hope that all Amisau, all Jews and all places are united now in prayer. Before Melech Israel, the gala, he should redeem his people, remember his people, and save his people. We turn his king, two of these ways up, Karen, Malchut, Malchutto, Malchutavidavdav. The Horn of redemption, the Horn of the David Kingdom. And we should all quickly merit to see the beginning of the gula, Shlima. And once again, you will listen to KMTT. This is Azubic. In Gushit Seon, in Eretz Israel, wishing you a Shabbat Shalom, Shabbat Shanda Kama, the Haltov. We'll be back in one month's time beginning of Halta Shalom, which you'll remember before the Shana, before the Shana. Then we'll have a semester in the winter. See, KMTT is being a permanent part of Tamut Torah, of Kolani Seon. The Bhakata Torah meets Heon. In the Hama, the gula, Kravat, the Shabbat Shalom, Kaltov, and we'll be hearing from each other again in the near future. [BLANK_AUDIO]